Question about transferring domain to WordPress.com

  • Unknown's avatar
    johnnyvictorious · Member ·

    I’m planning on moving my .com domain to WordPress and upgrading from the Free plan to the Premium plan, I understand that my A, AAAA and CNAME records will be changed to accommodate my WordPress site on my naked and www subdomain, but I need to create a another CNAME for the subdomain status that will point to statuspage.betteruptime.com which will connect and display my monitoring/status page hosted by Better Stack, so the question is will this subdomain interfere with my WordPress site if I add a new CNAME entry?

  • Unknown's avatar
    saginpj · Member ·

    Hi there,

    I’m really glad to hear that you’re planning to transfer your domain to WordPress.com and upgrade to the Premium hosting plan — that’s a great step forward!

    You also mentioned wanting to connect a subdomain to Better Stack, and I can confirm that won’t be an issue. Once your domain is transferred, you’ll be able to connect a subdomain (like status.yourdomain.com) by adding a CNAME record pointing to statuspage.betteruptime.com. This won’t interfere with your main site on WordPress.com at all.

    Here’s a handy guide that walks you through connecting a subdomain to an external service: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/connect-a-subdomain-to-an-external-site/

    Here’s how you can move ahead:

    1. Upgrade to the Premium plan from your site dashboard → Upgrade → Plans.
    2. Point your domain’s name servers to WordPress.com by updating them to:

      ns1.wordpress.com
      ns2.wordpress.com
      ns3.wordpress.com

    You can follow this guide to connect your domain: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/connect-existing-domain/

    Also, just so you know — if you’re purchasing an annual hosting plan, you’ll be able to transfer your .com domain to WordPress.com for free.

    Once your domain is fully connected, you can begin the transfer process by following this guide: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/incoming-domain-transfer/

    And from there, you’ll also be ready to connect your subdomain to Better Stack.

    If you have any questions as you go, feel free to share them here — we’re here to help.

  • Unknown's avatar
    johnnyvictorious · Member ·

    Hi saginpj, once more quick question since the transfer is free do I still have to pay for an additional year to my registration? in addition to the fees for the WordPress subscription? Its been my experience that even if the transfer is free the registrar still charges a fee for an additional one year domain registration to compensate (Somewhat) for the loss of the years that came from the previous registrar.

    And by the way I’m seriously considering doing the maximum 10 year registration stint for the .com since Verisign is planning on increasing the wholesale fee for that TLD 7 percent over the next five years. Also, is the 18¢ ICANN fee (Soon to be bumped to 20¢) included in your fees including adding additional years to the domain or is this in additional to the registration/renewal fee?

    Thanks.

  • Unknown's avatar
    johnnyvictorious · Member ·

    Clarification… that should be Verisign is increasing the wholesale price for .com 7 percent each year over the next five years. Sorry I realize once you post you can’t edit or delete your post.

  • Unknown's avatar
    saginpj · Member ·

    I really appreciate you sharing the details, @johnnyvictorious.

    Regarding the domain transfer — once you purchase an annual hosting plan and move your .com domain to WordPress.com, the transfer is free. Plus, you’ll get an additional year of domain registration at no extra cost. That means you won’t need to pay for the transfer or renewal in the first year. From the second year onward, you’ll just pay the regular domain renewal fee.

    If you’d like to register your domain for up to 10 years in advance, you can absolutely do that on WordPress.com — you’ll just need to renew it multiple times manually. Once your domain is transferred, head to your Purchases page → https://wordpress.com/me/purchases/ → click your domain → and select Renew Now. Repeat this step until you’ve reached 10 years.

    As for the ICANN fee, yes — it’s included in our domain pricing, so there are no additional charges. You can find full domain pricing details here: https://wordpress.com/support/domains/domain-pricing-and-available-tlds/

    Regarding hosting, we currently offer plans for up to 3 years, with greater discounts the longer you go. If you’d like to lock in hosting for more than 3 years, you can purchase a 3-year plan and then renew it early from your Purchases page → click your hosting plan → and select Renew.

    You can explore our hosting plans here: https://wordpress.com/pricing/

    Let me know if anything’s unclear or if you’d like to walk through any of the steps together!

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