Before you cancel service with Squarespace, review any custom domains connected to your site. Since your domains claim important real estate on the web, you might want to keep them even when you're taking your site offline.
This guide outlines the options you have based on how you registered your domain.
Squarespace Domains
If you purchased a domain through Squarespace or registered a free one, it won't automatically expire if you cancel service. All Squarespace Domains will still be yours and will continue to auto-renew on their renewal date.
Review your options before you cancel service to retain ownership or cancel your domain.
Note: If you registered a free Squarespace Domain before March 5, 2015, skip to the Legacy Squarespace Domains section.
Keep your domain with Squarespace
If you’re unsure how you'll continue to use your domain, you can keep it active after cancelling your site. As long as your domain subscription is active, it will stay linked to your cancelled site. You can keep it with that site, or forward or point it to another site. The domain will continue to renew until you disable auto-renew.
Move your domain between Squarespace sites
To use your domain with a different Squarespace site, you can move it from your Domains panel before cancelling.
Tip: Ensure that you’re moving your domain from the correct site by searching for the domain in your site selection grid.
Transfer your domain to a new provider
If you're leaving Squarespace for a different provider, transfer your domain to your new provider before cancelling so you can use it with a new site.
Cancel your domain
If you no longer need your domain, you can disable auto-renew before or after cancelling service. Your domain will expire at the end of its current billing cycle.
Note: There are no refunds for disabling a domain’s renewal. To learn more about refunds, visit Refund policies.
Note: In accordance with ICANN requirements, it's not possible to remove a Squarespace Domain from a site until the domain expires. To stop the domain from directing to an expired site before then, you can remove its DNS records.
Legacy Squarespace Domains
If you registered a free domain prior to March 5, 2015, your domain will continue to renew for free every year that it’s attached to an active site on an annual billing plan. We call domains registered during this offer "legacy domains."
When you cancel a site with a legacy domain, you’ll choose to either let your domain expire or convert it to a paid domain during the cancellation process. If you choose a paid domain, you’ll be charged $20 on the renewal date and the domain will stay linked to the cancelled site.
Note: If you renew your domain for $20, you'll forfeit the free custom domain offer, and Squarespace can't convert it back to a free domain.
If you don’t want to keep your legacy domain linked to the cancelled site, you can move it to a different Squarespace site or transfer it to a new provider.
Third-party domains
If you connected a domain you purchased elsewhere (like GoDaddy or 1&1), disconnect it from your Squarespace site before cancelling.
You’ll then need to update the domain's DNS records depending on how you'll continue to use it. Contact your domain provider for more help with these settings.
Note: If you still have a third-party domain attached to a site you’ve removed from your account, contact us so we can help unlink it.
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