Transferring a domain to Porkbun is one of the simplest money-saving moves in domaining. A .com transfer costs $11.08 — the same as Porkbun's renewal price — and it adds a free year to your registration, so you never lose time you have already paid for. The whole process takes about 15 minutes of your time, plus a few days for the transfer itself to complete.

This guide walks through every step, the three checks to run before you start, what it costs, and how to keep your website and email online throughout.

Before You Start: 3 Checks That Prevent a Failed Transfer

Most failed transfers fail on one of these three points. Check them first and the rest is smooth.

1. The 60-day rule

Your domain must have been registered with its current registrar for at least 60 days. You also cannot transfer within 60 days of a previous transfer or a change of registrant. If you are inside that window, wait it out — the registry will reject the transfer automatically.

2. Access to the admin email

During the transfer, approval emails can go to the registrant or admin email address on the domain. Make sure you can open that inbox. If WHOIS privacy is hiding the address, either use the privacy forwarding address your registrar provides or temporarily turn privacy off until the transfer completes.

3. Your website's DNS

If your website or email uses your current registrar's nameservers, some registrars switch your DNS off the moment the domain leaves them — taking your site and email down with it. Porkbun checks where your DNS lives when you submit a transfer: if it is at risk, it holds the transfer, helps you copy your records over and point your nameservers at Porkbun, and only submits to the registry once you say go. If you already use third-party nameservers (such as Cloudflare), you can skip that step entirely.

How to Transfer a Domain to Porkbun: 7 Steps

Step 1: Unlock the domain at your current registrar

Log in to your current registrar, open the domain's settings and turn off the domain lock — it may be called "transfer lock", "domain lock" or "security lock". A locked domain cannot transfer at all, and this is the single most common reason transfers stall.

Step 2: Get your authorisation (EPP) code

In the same settings area, request the transfer authorisation code — also called the auth code, EPP code or transfer code. Your registrar is required to give you this code. It usually arrives by email within minutes, though some registrars take a few hours. Keep it somewhere safe; you will paste it into Porkbun in Step 5.

Step 3: Confirm the admin email works

Send yourself a test email to the admin address on the domain, or at least confirm you can log in to that inbox. If an approval email arrives during the transfer and you miss it, the transfer waits — it does not fail, but it does not move either.

Step 4: Create or sign in to your Porkbun account

If you do not have one yet, create a free Porkbun account. Turn on two-factor authentication while you are there — it protects the account that will soon hold your domain.

Step 5: Start the transfer at Porkbun

Go to porkbun.com/transfer, enter your domain name and paste in the authorisation code from Step 2. Porkbun will check the domain's status and show you the transfer price before you pay anything.

Step 6: Pay the transfer fee

For a .com the transfer costs $11.08, and that price includes one extra year added to your registration. So if your domain currently expires in March 2027, after the transfer it expires in March 2028 — you pay for the year you gain, not for the move itself. A few country-code domains (such as .uk, .de and .au) do not include the extra year, but .com, .net and .org all do.

Step 7: Approve the confirmation email and wait

Approve any confirmation email that arrives, then wait. Most .com transfers complete within 5 days, often faster. Your domain keeps working throughout — the transfer changes the registrar, not the DNS — as long as Step 3's DNS check was handled. Once it completes, Porkbun emails you and the domain appears in your Porkbun dashboard with its new expiry date.

How Much Does It Cost?

The transfer itself is priced like a renewal at Porkbun, and the year it adds means the money is not a fee for moving — it is a renewal you were going to pay anyway. The saving shows up every year after that:

  • GoDaddy .com renewal: $22.99 per year
  • Porkbun .com renewal: $11.08 per year
  • Saving every year: $11.91 per domain

With three domains, that is $35.73 saved every year, for the same .com, the same DNS and free WHOIS privacy included. See the full comparison on our renewal price comparison page, or work out your own total with the renewal calculator.

Will My Website or Email Go Down?

Usually no — but only if you handle the DNS question in Step 3. Two situations are safe: your DNS already lives with a third party (for example Cloudflare), or Porkbun's transfer check confirms your records are copied before it submits. The risky case is a site and email running entirely on the old registrar's nameservers with no copy of the records anywhere else. If that is you, let Porkbun hold the transfer and copy the records first. Never start a transfer the week a big launch or a payment deadline depends on your email.

Common Problems (and the Fix)

  • "Domain is locked": the transfer lock is still on at the old registrar. Turn it off and wait up to an hour for the status to update, then resubmit.
  • "Invalid authorisation code": codes are case-sensitive and some expire. Request a fresh code from the old registrar and paste it exactly — do not retype it from memory.
  • "Transfer rejected — 60-day lock": the domain was registered or transferred less than 60 days ago. There is no workaround; wait for the window to pass.
  • No confirmation email arrived: check the admin inbox from Step 3, including spam. If WHOIS privacy is masking the address, use the privacy forwarding address or disable privacy temporarily.
  • Website went down mid-transfer: your DNS lived on the old registrar. Point your nameservers to Porkbun (or your third-party DNS) and re-add the records from your old registrar's DNS panel if you still have access.

Transfer Checklist

  • ☐ Domain is more than 60 days old at the current registrar
  • ☐ Domain lock turned OFF
  • ☐ Authorisation (EPP) code requested and saved
  • ☐ Admin email inbox accessible
  • ☐ DNS location checked — records copied or third-party nameservers in use
  • ☐ Transfer started at porkbun.com/transfer and $11.08 paid
  • ☐ Confirmation email approved
  • ☐ New expiry date confirmed in the Porkbun dashboard (one year later)
  • ☐ Free WHOIS privacy turned on in Porkbun

The Bottom Line

If you are paying more than $11 a year to renew a .com, transferring to Porkbun is a 15-minute job that pays you back every single year. Run the three checks, follow the seven steps, and let the DNS safeguard do its job — and your domain will arrive at Porkbun cheaper, with a free year attached. If you are still deciding whether to move at all, read transfer vs renew: which saves more and our full Porkbun review first, and compare every registrar's renewal price in one place on our comparison page.

Prices in this guide were checked on 24 October 2026 from Porkbun's published pricing and our central price list. Porkbun's transfer price for a .com is $11.08 including one year's renewal. For the step-by-step transfer flow, see Porkbun's official transfer page.