Domain Renewal, Expiry and Recovery

A domain is a lease rather than a purchase, and letting it lapse takes your website and your email down together, so this article covers how renewal works at Kapsule, what the panel tells you, and what to do if one has already expired.

The short version: leave auto-renew on, keep a working payment method on file, and you will never think about this again. The rest of this article is for the cases where that is not true.

Auto-Renew

Auto-renew is set per domain.

Sign in to KPanel and click Domains in the left sidebar.
Click the domain.
Open the Settings tab.
Find the Renewal & Transfer card and the Auto-Renew switch.

When it is on, the card reads: "We renew this domain automatically before it expires. Price is locked at signup."

When it is off: "You must renew manually before expiry, or the domain will be released."

Renewal and Transfer card on the domain Settings tab

The current state also appears as a chip on the domain page header, as a tile on the Overview tab, and on every row of the domains list, so you can see at a glance which of your domains are covered.

Turn auto-renew on for every domain you would be upset to lose, including the ones you are not using. Defensive registrations, old brand names and misspellings of your main domain are exactly the ones people forget, and they are also the ones somebody else will register the moment they drop.

Your Renewal Price Is Locked

Kapsule does not use an introductory price and then raise it at renewal. The price you registered at is the price you renew at, and the expiry reminder email says so explicitly: "The price you registered at is the price you renew at. We never raise it on renewal."

Because of that, the domain page deliberately does not display a renewal price. The locked figure appears at checkout, where it is the amount you will actually be charged. See Billing and Invoices for how charges appear on your account.

Renewal Reminders

We email the account address as expiry approaches, starting roughly two months out and again as the date gets closer. The message tells you which state the domain is in:

Auto-renew on: "Auto-renew is on, so we will renew this domain automatically before it expires. No action needed, just make sure your payment method is current."
Auto-renew off: "Auto-renew is off for this domain. Renew it now to keep it: when a domain expires your website and email stop working, and after a grace period it can be lost."

Reminders go to your account email address. If that address is a mailbox on the domain that is about to expire, you will stop receiving mail at exactly the moment you most need the reminder. Use an address on a different domain for your Kapsule account, and check it is current under Settings.

Renewing Manually

You can renew at any time without waiting for expiry, which adds a year onto the existing expiry date rather than starting a new term.

Open the domain and go to the Settings tab.
Find the Add-ons card.
On the Renew Domain row, which shows the current expiry date, click Add to cart.
Complete checkout.

The renew option is available while the domain is Active, and also while it is Expired, which is what makes recovery possible during the registry's grace window.

Watching Expiry Dates in the Panel

The Domains list is built for this. At the top are four counters: total domains, expiring in the next 30 days, expired, and how many have auto-renew on. Below them the list can be filtered to All, Active, Expiring Soon or Expired, and sorted by expiry date.

Each row shows the expiry date with an urgency line beneath it. Domains inside 30 days are highlighted, domains inside a week more strongly, and anything past its date reads "Expired".

Make a habit of opening this page once a month. It takes ten seconds and it is the only place that shows every domain at once.

What Happens After Expiry

This is where the rules stop being ours and start being the registry's, and they differ by top-level domain.

When a domain passes its expiry date, it stops working. The website stops resolving and mail stops being delivered, usually within hours. It has not been given away, but it is no longer functioning.

Most registries then provide a period during which the original registrant can still renew, followed by a further period during which recovery is possible but is treated as a restoration rather than a renewal. After that the name is released and anybody can register it.

The length of each period, and whether a restoration fee applies, is set by the registry for your particular top-level domain, not by Kapsule. We cannot extend those windows and neither can any other registrar. If a domain has expired, open a support ticket the same day rather than the same week: options narrow quickly and irreversibly, and the difference between renewing and restoring is usually measured in days.

In the panel, an expired domain shows the Expired status, and a domain that has moved into the registry's recovery stage shows Redemption. Both are visible on the domains list and on the domain page header.

Preventing the Common Failures

A failed payment. Auto-renew still needs a working card. If a charge fails, the renewal does not happen. Keep your payment method current under Billing and read When a Payment Fails.

Reminders going to a dead address. Covered above. Use an account email on a domain you are not renewing.

Auto-renew switched off and forgotten. Check the auto-renew counter on the domains list. If it is lower than your total, find out which domains are not covered.

A domain registered somewhere else. Kapsule only renews domains registered through or transferred to Kapsule. A domain whose DNS you manage here but whose registration is elsewhere renews at that registrar, on their reminders, with their payment method. If you want it all in one place, see Transferring a Domain to Kapsule.

Renewal and Transfers

Two interactions catch people out:

Do not let a domain expire during a transfer. A transfer that is in flight when the domain expires usually fails, and you end up dealing with both problems at once. Renew before you start, or wait until the transfer completes.

A transfer normally adds a year. Transferring a domain into Kapsule adds one year to its existing expiry date rather than resetting it, so you do not lose the time you already paid for.

Troubleshooting

The expiry date on the panel does not match my old registrar's. After a transfer, the date shown reflects what the registry holds. Give a recently transferred domain a day to settle, then check again.

I renewed but the date has not changed. Renewals are processed at the registry and the panel updates when they confirm. If it has not moved after a day, open a support ticket with the domain name and your order number.

My .nz domain shows no expiry date on a public lookup. That is normal. The .nz registry does not publish expiry dates publicly. Your date in KPanel is the accurate one. See Looking Up Domain Registration Details and .nz Domain Rules.

The domain expired and the website is down but the domain still shows in my list. The registration lapsed; the record in KPanel remains until it is cleaned up. Renew if the registry still allows it, and check whether DNS has been withdrawn: an expired domain typically stops resolving before it stops being recoverable.

I do not want the domain any more. Turn auto-renew off and let it lapse. There is nothing to cancel and no notice period. Just make sure nothing you still care about, particularly email, is using it first.