Transferring domains to Purple Cloud
This guide explains how to transfer a domain name that you have registered with another registration agent to Purple Cloud. If you have any questions or encounter any problems when trying to transfer a domain, please contact us for advice.
If you are transferring a domain for use with our email or web hosting services, you can if you prefer just change the name servers for your domain. This will transfer the hosting of the domain to us, but not the management - so you will continue to renew the domain's registration through your existing registration agent. You will be told the name servers to transfer your domain to once your hosting has been set up. Alternatively you can find the name servers in My Purple Cloud - click on your domain name under "My Email" or "My Web Hosting".
.uk domains
- Order your domain transfer from our online ordering system (there is no charge). If required, you can order email and hosting services for the domain at the same time.
- Ask the existing registration agent to change the tag for the domain to PURPLECLOUD.
- We will send you a confirmation email once the domain has successfully transferred and been added to your account.
All .uk service providers have a tag (sometimes referred to as an IPS tag). You can transfer your .uk domain between service providers by changing the tag for your domain. Our tag is PURPLECLOUD.
Whoever currently manages your domain will be able to change the tag for you - often you can request this via an online control panel. Some registration agents may make a charge to release your domain.
For more information on how tags work, how to change them and what to do if your current service provider refuses to help you, please see this page on the Nominet website (Nominet is the registry for .uk and oversees all .uk domain registrations):
gTLD domains (.com/.org/.net/.biz/.info)
- Ask your current domain registration agent to release the transfer lock on your domain - you may be able to do this via a web based control panel.
- Order your domain transfer from our online ordering system. If required, you can order email and hosting services for the domain at the same time. The transfer will cost £11.74, but this includes a one year extension of your domain's registration. This will be refunded if the transfer fails.
- We will initiate the transfer of your domain. The registrant or administrative contact (at least one of which will normally be you) will need to authorise the transfer by responding to requests sent by email.
- We will send you a confirmation email once the domain has successfully transferred and been added to your account.
A crucial part of the transfer process involves sending one or more authorisation requests to the domain name's registrant and administrative contacts via email. You can check that these contact details are correct by doing a WHOIS search for your domain. If you need to update the contact details then you should do this (through your existing registration agent) before attempting the transfer.
For .org, .info and .biz domains, you will also need to provide a transfer key (also called an EPP/authorisation key) - this is essentially a password authorising the transfer. Your current domain registration agent should be able to provide this.
It can take several days for gTLD transfers to complete, especially if there is a delay in responding to the authorisation requests. We will email you once the domain has successfully transferred or if there is a problem with the transfer.
The following conditions also apply:
- The domain being transferred must have been registered at least 60 days ago.
- If a domain is transferred less than 45 days after having been renewed, the domain will not qualify for the 1 year registration extension (but the same transfer fee will apply).
- Some service providers may make a charge to release your domain in addition to our transfer fee.