Domain Life Cycles & Registration Terms

Every domain name has a registration term, expiry date and deletion date. The specific cycle that applies to a specific domain name would depend on the policies of the specific registry for that domain name.

Domain Life Cycle for gTLDs

Domain Life Cycle

The stages in the above image are explained below.

  • Available: every domain starts from the status of being available. This means the domain name can be registered on a first-come-first-served basis for a minimum of 1 year.
  • 5-day Add Grace Period: during this period, most generic domains can be deleted for a small fee. Other terms and conditions usually apply.
  • Registered: the domain is registered for a term of between 1 and 10 years. Other states may apply to the domain name even when it is registered. For example, the domain may be in serverhold status, stopping it from working, while it is registered.
  • Expired: the domain would go into the Expired status when the domain registrant fails to renew it before the Expiry Date.
  • Auto-Renew Grace Period: during this Expired period, the domain registrant can renew the domain at the regular renewal fee without any complications. The domain should work within a few hours to 48 hours after renewal. This is subject to DNS propagation.
  • Redemption Grace Period: this status is a post-Expiry period that is also known as Pending Delete Restorable. During this period, the domain name can be restored, for a much higher fee that is typically much higher than the renewal fee. This is known as the Redemption Fee and may be separate from the renewal fee.
  • Pending Delete: this is usually a period of 5 days after the Redemption Grace Period. Nothing can be done about the domain in this state.
  • Released: the domain has now gone back to the original state of being available for re-registration by anyone.

Reminder: It is a good idea to always renew your domain name(s) long before they expire. Web4Africa sends multiple notices via email starting from 60 days before the domain expires.

.NG Expired Domain Policy

  • Domains are automatically suspended 30 days after they expire
  • Domains are automatically deleted 60 days after they expire
  • .NG Domains have a 28 days redemption period

Minimum Registration Term

Every domain name must be registered for a minimum of 1 year. Domains are not registered through Web4Africa for less than a year. This is in accordance with the industry standard.

Maximum Registration Term

This varies per domain extension. For all Generic Top-Level Domains like .com, .net, .org, .africa, it is 10 years.

For .ng extensions, it is 5 years. For .co.za, it is 1 year.

Domains cannot be renewed beyond the maximum term possible.

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