Can I Keep My Domain Name When I Leave WordPress?

Yes, you keep your domain name when you leave WordPress. Your domain name is yours, not WordPress’s, not your hosting company’s. It is registered to you and lives at a domain registrar. You can point it at any website, anywhere, at any time.

What is the difference between a domain and hosting?

This is the confusion that causes the worry.

Your domain name is your address. It is the URL people type to find you. You registered it, you pay a small annual fee to keep it, and it is yours as long as you renew it.

Your hosting is where your website files live. It is the server that holds your WordPress installation, your theme, your plugins, and your content. Your hosting company rents you space on that server.

They are two different things, often from two different companies. You can change your hosting company without touching your domain. You can change your domain registrar without touching your hosting. They are independent.

Leaving WordPress means leaving your hosting. Your domain goes nowhere.

What if my domain is registered through my hosting company?

Many business owners register their domain and set up hosting with the same company. GoDaddy, Bluehost, and others sell both services together. This feels like one thing, but it is still two separate products on their end.

If your domain is registered through your hosting company, you have two options:

1. Transfer the domain registration to a separate registrar like Google Domains, Namecheap, or Cloudflare. This is a one-time process that takes a few days and costs nothing beyond the normal annual registration fee.
2. Keep the domain registered there and just update the DNS settings to point at the new host. You can change where your domain points without moving where it is registered.

Either way, you stay the owner. Your domain stays yours.

How does pointing a domain at a new site work?

Inside your domain registrar’s control panel, there are settings called DNS records. These are instructions that tell the internet where to send traffic for your domain.

The key record for website traffic is the A record or CNAME. It says: when someone types my address, send them to this server.

To move your website, you update that record to point at the new server. The change typically takes a few minutes to a few hours to spread across the internet. During that window, visitors may see the old site or the new site depending on which DNS server they hit. Most providers stage the new site in advance so it is ready the moment DNS flips.

Your domain registrar stays the same. Your domain name stays the same. Only the destination changes.

What about my email?

Changing DNS for your website does not affect your email. Email and website traffic use different DNS records. Moving your website does not touch your email.

What to expect if you decide to move

Basalt handles the DNS update as part of the conversion. You do not need to log into your domain registrar unless you want to. The process is: your site is converted, you review and approve it, and then the domain is pointed at the new site. The old site stays live until DNS has fully updated so there is no gap.

If your domain is registered through your current hosting company and you would like it moved to a neutral registrar before switching, that can be done first. It is your domain. You are in control.

For the full picture of what happens during a move, the step-by-step guide is here.

Find out what is wrong in 60 seconds

Or skip all this. Enter your web address and we will tell you exactly what is wrong with your site. Free, 60 seconds, no account needed.