I recently got an email from Bluehost reminding me that it’s almost time for my domain to auto-renew, and I started to wonder if the price I’m paying is reasonable or not since I let it auto-renew each year without thinking. Then I discovered another domain registrar, Porkbun, that offers incredible low-cost services as well as free Domain Privacy Protection. In this blog, I will be showing you how you can transfer your domain name from Bluehost to a registrar called Porkbun.
Why Porkbun over Bluehost?
Simply put, Porkbun offers the best price and incredible service coverage, making it difficult to think of any reasons not to switch. See below for the price comparison.
| Price | Porkbun | Bluehost |
|---|---|---|
| Domain renewal (.com) | 9.73 USD/year | 19.99 USD/year |
| Domain Privacy Protection | Free | 15.00 USD/year |
Additional advantages of Porkbun include, but are not limited to:
- QWhat is domain privacy protection?
- A
It is a security feature provided by a domain registrar to conceal your personal data linked to the registration of your domain. Your registered personal information, including your name, address, email address, and phone number, is accessible to the public if this protection is not activated.
Domain privacy (often called Whois privacy) is a service offered by a number of domain name registrars. A user buys privacy from the company, who in turn replaces the user’s information in the WHOIS with the information of a forwarding service (for email and sometimes postal mail, it is done by a proxy server).
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_privacy
Prerequisite – ICANN’s Transfer Policy
It’s important to know that in some situations, such as those specified in ICANN’s transfer policy, your transfer may be denied due to:
- Your domain is less than 60 days from the initial registration
- You have been with your current registrar for less than 60 days
How to transfer – summary
Once you know your domain can be transferred, we can get started. In short, we will be doing the followings:
1. Bluehost portal
- Login to the Bluehost portal, and disable auto payment renewal of your domain
- Unlock your domain & turn off domain privacy protection
- Obtain an authorization code
Then, move to Porkbun website and continue the transfer process.
2. Porkbun
- Go to Porkbun website and make a Porkbun account
- Submit your domain name and auth code, and add a transfer to the cart
- Confirm the price and continue to billing, and complete the payment
- Wait for the process to complete
That is it! The transfer will be completed within 5 business days but if you wish to expedite the transfer, you can do so at the side of the Bluehost portal by approving the transfer (see below for detail). In my case, the transfer was done in a few minutes.
Now, let’s look at how exactly the transfer will look with images.
How to transfer – detailed
- Step1Disable auto payment renewal of your domain
Login to the Bluehost portal.
On your left side panel, click Domains > My Domains > Manage > Renewal > Choose manual renew from auto-renew > Continue and save the payment option.
When the setting is in effect, it will display as “Manual,” as in the example above.
- Step2Unlock your domain & turn off domain privacy protection
Under My Domains, go to Manage > Security > Turn off transfer lock & domain privacy (if you have domain privacy enabled)
- Step3Obtain an authorization code
At the same security setting page, scroll down and find Transfer Authorization / EPP Code > Send Code
Check your inbox for the authorization code. The code will be delivered to the email address you provided. Keep this code for it to be used during the transfer process.
- Step1Make a Porkbun account
Go to Porkbun website, click sign in and continue to create a new account.
- Step2Submit your domain name and auth code
- Step3Continue to billing and complete the payment
Confirm the content and proceed to payment.
The price above is the annual domain renewal fee for .com. Check here for all the domain name prices.
- Step4Wait for the process to complete
Once payment is processed, you will be able to check the transfer status under the Transfer tab. Ideally, you will be seeing a status as “pending transfer from losing registrar”. The status will eventually change to “transfer complete” once completed.
Pending transfer from losing registrar (001) – Click to View 
Transfer complete – Click to View Depending on your condition, you may see the status differently from above. Find out here what each status message signifies.
Example of another status message: “unable to query whois”
Unable to query whois – Click to View You may see this message if you just disabled domain privacy protection on Bluehost; however, this should be cleared in a few minutes. Just reload the browser and wait for the status to be changed.
- Confirmation emails from Bluehost
Bluehost will also send you emails to confirm the modifications and notify you of them. No additional action is required from your end, as stated in the email, and Bluehost completes the transfer request (it may take a few days). However, if you want to expedite the process, click the link in the email from Bluehost (the process is explained in the following as well).
Emails from Bluehost – Click to View - Successful transfer of domain name registrar
You can confirm your domain is managed by Porkbun by logging in to Porkbun account and clicking Account > Domain Management.
Successful transfer – Click to View
How to speed up the transfer process
In case you want to expedite the transfer process, you can do so by following the below steps:
- Step1Log in to your Bluehost control panel
Log in to your Bluehost control panel here.
- Step2Approve the transfer
Under the transfer EPP tab, click “approve the transfer” to proceed to speed up the transfer process. Once you approve, click the main tab to confirm the successful approval.
Transfer EPP to expedite the transfer – Click to View
Final thought
It’s simple to get a domain name registered, thus you might not have looked back and continued using the original registrar. If you are pleased with your domain registrar, everything is good. However, if you are not or just wonder about better options, you can always seek an alternative that may be able to provide you with better features and services at a lower cost.
Porkbun’s fair price is very transparent, and users can have their domain registered with domain privacy protection at no additional cost. Porkbun may be a young company, but they offer wonderful customer service and make life easier for you!
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