How to Transfer a Domain from WordPress.com to Static.app

To transfer a domain from WordPress.com to Static.app, switch off the domain's transfer lock and choose Get authorization code. WordPress.com emails the code to the address in the domain's contact details. Start the transfer at Static.app with that code, then confirm it from the email WordPress.com sends you: confirmed, it often finishes the same day, and otherwise it takes five to seven days. The one thing to do first is make your DNS and contact changes, because WordPress.com locks them during the transfer.

Before you start

• Check the dates. A domain cannot move within 60 days of being registered or transferred. During that time it shows clientTransferProhibited. You can still change its name servers to point it at another website.
• Make your changes now. Name servers, DNS records and contact details are locked while the transfer runs. Once the new registrar has accepted the code, you cannot change anything on the domain, not even DNS records, unless you cancel the transfer, make the change and start again.
• Check the contact email. WordPress.com sends the code to the email in the domain's contact details, which may not be the email you sign in with. If nobody reads that inbox, update the contact details first.
• Save your DNS records. If the domain uses WordPress.com's name servers, its DNS records live in your WordPress.com account. WordPress.com does not say whether they keep answering once the domain has left, so plan as if they will not, and write down every record, especially the MX and TXT records your email depends on.
• Move your Professional Email first. WordPress.com says that if you transfer the domain away, Professional Email addresses on it stop working. Export your mail and tell your contacts if your address is changing. WordPress.com does not say what happens to email forwarding, so plan as if it stops too.
• Do not cancel or delete the domain. Cancelling or deleting it during the transfer ends your ownership straight away and the transfer fails. WordPress.com removes the domain from your account by itself once the transfer succeeds.

Step 1: Unlock the domain at WordPress.com

1. Open the Domains section of your Hosting Dashboard.
2. Click the domain to open its overview page.
3. Under Actions, click Transfer.
4. Under Transfer to another registrar, click the Transfer lock on toggle so it reads Transfer lock off.

No Transfer option? Then you are not the domain's owner. Only the owner can transfer it, usually the person who bought it, not another admin of the website.

Step 2: Get the authorization code

Click Get authorization code. A banner confirms the code has been sent. It goes by email to the address in the domain's contact details, and can take up to 15 minutes to arrive. A few country endings are slower: .com.br and .net.br codes come within 72 hours, and .nl codes usually within a week.

Starting the transfer also switches off privacy protection, so the domain can move. Most WordPress.com domains have GDPR protection, so the owner details stay hidden anyway.

Step 3: Start the transfer at Static.app

Sign in to Static.app, open Domains, and choose Transfer Domain. The form has three parts:

1. Which domain are you moving? Type the whole name, such as yourbusiness.com. Static.app checks at once whether it can move, what the transfer costs, and which company holds it now.
2. Authorization code: paste the code from WordPress.com. Copy it exactly, with no space before or after.
3. Owner contact: the registry records these details against the domain, so use an email address you read.

Tick the terms box and choose Continue to Payment. A transfer is charged like a registration and adds a year to the domain (two years on a .ai name, which is sold two years at a time). The transfer is sent to the registry once the payment goes through.

Static.app keeps the domain on the nameservers it uses today, so the transfer changes who you pay for the name and nothing else. Your website and email keep working, as long as the DNS behind those nameservers keeps answering.

Not every ending can move here yet. Country endings such as .uk, .de and .eu are not supported, and the form tells you as soon as you type the name.

Step 4: Confirm the transfer at WordPress.com

Shortly after Static.app sends the request, WordPress.com emails the registrant's address with a link to confirm or cancel the transfer.

1. Open the email from WordPress.com.
2. Follow the link and confirm the outgoing transfer.

Confirmed, the transfer goes through sooner than five days, and often the same day. If you do nothing, most endings take five days.

Step 5: Finish setting up the domain at Static.app

When the domain shows as Active in your Domains list, it is registered with Static.app. If the transfer does not go through, the domain stays where it was, the payment is refunded, and the domain page says why and offers Try the Transfer Again. The usual causes are a lock that is still on, a wrong or expired code, or a domain that changed hands in the last 60 days.

What is left depends on where your DNS lives:

• Your DNS is with a company you are keeping, such as Cloudflare or your hosting company: nothing changes. To open a Static.app website on the domain, add its records there, or move DNS here as below.
• Your DNS was at WordPress.com: move it to Static.app the moment the domain shows Active, since that DNS may stop answering once the domain has left. The steps are in the next point.
• You want Static.app to run the DNS: open the domain, choose Edit beside Nameservers, then Reset to Default and Update Nameservers. Static.app writes the records for any website connected to the domain. Add everything else, such as your email records, in Manage DNS or Email & Forwarding right away, using the copy you made before the transfer.

To open one of your websites on the domain, choose Assign beside Website on the domain page and pick the website. With the DNS here, the records and the SSL certificate are set up for you. A paid plan is needed to publish a website on your own domain.

Moving a domain from another company? See every transfer guide.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a transfer from WordPress.com take?

Often the same day if you confirm it from the email, and five to seven days if you do not. Allow up to 15 minutes for the code itself, or longer for .com.br, .net.br and .nl.

Do I lose the time I already paid WordPress.com for?

No. For .com and the other common endings, the time left on the domain comes with it and the transfer adds a year on top. WordPress.com's transfer page mentions no fee for moving out. Its refund rules cover cancelling a domain, not transferring it: a registration or renewal can be refunded within 96 hours, and a domain that came free with a plan stays yours, with its cost kept back if you later refund the plan.

Will my website or email stop working?

Professional Email will, so move it first. Your website does not stop because of the transfer itself, since Static.app keeps your name servers as they are. The risk is DNS that lived at WordPress.com. If it stops answering after the move, your website stops with it until the records are set up again, which is why the list you wrote down matters.

WordPress.com declined the transfer. Why?

On some domains, mostly older registrations, privacy protection is not switched off by itself, and the transfer can be declined while it is still on. Open the domain's Contact details & privacy settings, turn privacy protection off, and start the transfer again at Static.app.