Domain Renewal Management Best Practices

I've lost a domain before. Not to a competitor. Not to a trademark dispute. Just forgot to renew it. Woke up one morning, tried to visit my site, and some parking page was sitting there instead.

Took me three weeks and €500 to get it back. That was my wake-up call.

Here's everything I've learned since then about keeping your domains from slipping away.

Why Domains Lapse

It's almost never malicious. Usually it's one of these:

Credit card expired. You set up auto-renewal two years ago. Card expired. Registrar tried to charge it, failed, sent you an email that went to spam.

Email changed. The email on file is one you don't check anymore. Or worse, a former employee's address.

Too many registrars. When your domains are scattered across four different accounts, it's easy to lose track of one.

Assumed someone else was handling it. In teams, everyone thinks someone else is watching the renewals.

Every single one of these is preventable.

The Basics: Get Your House in Order

Before any fancy tools or automation, do this:

1. Inventory Everything

Make a list of every domain you own. Check:

• Old registrar accounts you might have forgotten
• Company credit card statements for annual charges
• Email archives for registration confirmations

You'd be surprised what you find. I discovered three domains I'd completely forgotten about when I did this exercise.

2. Consolidate Contact Info

Every domain should have:

• A current, monitored email address
• A phone number someone actually answers
• A valid physical address

If you're a business, use a team email like domains@company.com, not someone's personal address.

3. Check Auto-Renewal Settings

Go through each registrar and verify auto-renewal is ON for domains you want to keep. Then verify the payment method is current.

I do this quarterly. Takes 10 minutes, saves a lot of heartache.

Set Up a Reminder System

Don't rely on registrar emails alone. They send too many promotional messages, and important stuff gets buried.

Calendar Reminders

At minimum, set calendar reminders for:

• 60 days before expiration (decision time: keep or let go?)
• 30 days before (should be renewed by now)
• 14 days before (panic mode if not renewed)

For critical domains, I add a fourth reminder at 90 days.

Spreadsheet Tracking

Old school but works. Columns I use:

• Domain name
• Registrar
• Expiration date
• Auto-renew status
• Annual cost
• Primary use (production site, email, redirect, parked)

Sort by expiration date. Review monthly.

Dedicated Tools

Spreadsheets work until you have 20+ domains. Then you want something that:

• Pulls expiration dates automatically
• Sends alerts on your schedule
• Shows everything in one dashboard regardless of registrar

This is exactly why I built Domained. But whatever tool you use, the key is having one view of everything.

Automation That Actually Works

Here's my setup for never missing a renewal:

Slack/Telegram Alerts

I get notifications in Slack because that's where I already am all day. Email gets buried. Slack gets attention.

Set up alerts for:

• 30 days before expiration
• 7 days before expiration
• When auto-renewal fails

Auto-Renewal with Monitoring

Auto-renewal is great, but verify it worked. I've had registrars fail silently because:

• Card was declined (CVV check failed, fraud protection triggered)
• Domain was locked for transfer
• Some technical glitch on their end

So even with auto-renewal on, I still monitor to confirm the renewal actually happened.

Payment Method Redundancy

For critical domains, I have:

• Primary card on file
• Backup payment method configured
• PayPal as tertiary option (where available)

Overkill for a side project. Essential for a domain that runs your business.

The Grace Period Trap

When a domain expires, it doesn't immediately disappear. There's usually:

1. Grace period (1-45 days): Can renew at normal price
2. Redemption period (30 days): Can recover, but costs €80-200+
3. Pending delete (5 days): About to be released
4. Public availability: Anyone can grab it

The trap: people see the grace period and think they have time. But registrars vary wildly. Some give 45 days. Some give 0-5 days. GoDaddy, for example, starts charging redemption fees almost immediately.

Never count on the grace period. Renew before expiration.

Delegation Without Losing Control

If you have a team:

Use Role-Based Access

Most registrars let you add users with limited permissions. Set it up so:

• One or two people can renew
• Others can view but not modify
• Payment info is restricted to admins

Document Everything

Write down:

• Which registrar accounts exist
• Who has access
• What the renewal process is
• Emergency contact if something goes wrong

Keep this somewhere accessible. I use a shared Notion doc.

Never Single Points of Failure

At least two people should:

• Have access to the registrar accounts
• Know where the payment info is stored
• Receive renewal alerts

If your domain person quits or gets hit by a bus, someone else needs to be able to step in.

When Domains Do Lapse

If you catch it quickly:

1. Check if still in grace period - renew immediately at normal price
2. Contact registrar support - they can sometimes expedite
3. Don't panic-buy from resellers - they often buy expired domains and flip them

If it's been longer:

1. Check redemption availability - expensive but often possible
2. Negotiate if someone grabbed it - sometimes they'll sell for reasonable price
3. Consider legal options - only for trademark cases, expensive and slow

If it's a critical business domain, call the registrar. Phone support gets faster action than tickets.

The Minimum Viable System

Don't have time for all this? Here's the bare minimum:

1. List all your domains in one place
2. Verify auto-renewal is on for all of them
3. Set one calendar reminder 30 days before each expiration
4. Check that your payment methods are current (do this now)
5. Use a monitored email address for all domain accounts

That's maybe an hour of work and will prevent 90% of accidental lapses.

What I Do Now

After losing that domain years ago, here's my current setup:

• All domains tracked in Domained (obviously)
• Slack notifications at 60, 30, and 7 days
• Auto-renewal on for everything
• Quarterly review of payment methods
• Backup admin has full access

Haven't lost a domain since.

The goal isn't perfection. It's building enough redundancy that one failure doesn't cost you a domain. Because getting it back is always harder and more expensive than just renewing on time.