How to Transfer a Domain to Hostinger (2026): Step-by-Step, ~15 Minutes

What a domain transfer actually is (and isn't)

Transferring a domain to Hostinger means moving the registration — the billing, renewal, and DNS management — from your current registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google-Squarespace, wherever) to Hostinger. Your website and email don't move anywhere. We've done this move ourselves with domains coming from GoDaddy and Namecheap into the same Hostinger account that runs our production sites, and the honest summary is: it's easy, but the order of operations matters. Do the checklist below first and the transfer is boring. Skip it and you can end up with broken email or a stalled transfer you can't diagnose.

Before you start: the 6-point checklist

Run through these before touching anything at Hostinger. Five minutes here prevents 90% of transfer problems.

1. Check the 60-day rule. ICANN — the body that governs domain registrations — prohibits transfers within 60 days of the initial registration and within 60 days of a previous registrar transfer. Many registrars additionally lock the domain for 60 days after you change the registrant's name or email. If you're inside any of these windows, stop here and set a calendar reminder; no registrar can override this.
2. Make sure the domain isn't expired (or about to be). Transferring a domain that expires mid-transfer is the messiest edge case in this process. If expiry is less than two weeks away, renew at your current registrar first, then transfer.
3. Save your DNS records — all of them. Screenshot or export every A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, and TXT record from your current DNS panel. If your DNS is hosted at the registrar you're leaving, those records may not survive the move, and this backup is how you rebuild them in minutes instead of hours of guessing.
4. Unlock the domain. Every registrar ships domains with a transfer lock on (it's good anti-hijack protection). You'll turn it off in the steps below.
5. Verify your admin email works. Transfer approval emails go to the registrant/admin contact on the domain. If that's an old address you can't read, fix it first — but note that at many registrars, changing the registrant email triggers that 60-day lock. Check your registrar's policy before editing.
6. Check WHOIS privacy. Most modern registrars let you transfer with privacy enabled. A few still require disabling it so the gaining registrar can see the real contact info. If your transfer stalls at verification, this is a common cause — toggle privacy off, retry, and re-enable it at Hostinger afterwards (it's free there).

Step-by-step: transferring your domain to Hostinger

Here's the full walkthrough. Steps 1-6 happen at your current registrar, 7-9 at Hostinger, and step 10 after the transfer completes.

Step 1: Confirm eligibility

Older than 60 days since registration or last transfer, not expired, not inside a registrant-change lock. Covered above — we're listing it as step 1 because it's the first thing Hostinger's transfer checker will reject you on.

Step 2: Back up your DNS records

Open your current DNS zone and capture everything. Pay special attention to MX records (email), and TXT records for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC — these are the ones people forget, and they're why "the transfer broke my email" posts exist.

Step 3: Unlock the domain

At GoDaddy: My Products → click the domain → Domain Settings → under "Additional Settings", turn Domain Lock off.
At Namecheap: Domain List → Manage → Sharing & Transfer tab → toggle Registrar Lock off.
Other registrars bury it under names like "Transfer Lock" or "clientTransferProhibited" — it's always in domain settings somewhere.

Step 4: Get your EPP/auth code

The EPP code (also called auth code or transfer key) is a short password proving you control the domain.
At GoDaddy: Domain Settings → scroll to "Transfer domain away from GoDaddy" → GoDaddy emails the code to the admin address.
At Namecheap: Sharing & Transfer tab → "Auth Code" → request it, and it arrives by email within a few minutes.
Treat the code like a password, and use it soon — some registrars expire codes after a set period or regenerate them if you re-request.

Step 5: Disable DNSSEC (if enabled)

If your domain uses DNSSEC, the old cryptographic records will break validation once the transfer completes, and some registries reject the transfer outright. Turn DNSSEC off at your current registrar, transfer, then re-enable it at Hostinger. If you've never heard of DNSSEC, it's almost certainly off — skip ahead.

Step 6: Double-check WHOIS privacy and admin email

One last look: admin email is readable, privacy is either supported for transfers by your registrar or temporarily off. Now you're done at the old registrar.

Step 7: Start the transfer at Hostinger

Log in to Hostinger (create an account if you don't have one — no hosting purchase required), then go to Domains → Transfer domain in hPanel, or use Hostinger's domain transfer page. Enter your domain name and Hostinger checks eligibility — it'll tell you immediately if the domain is locked, too new, or has DNSSEC issues.

Step 8: Enter the EPP code and pay

Paste the auth code exactly as you received it — codes are case-sensitive and stray spaces from copy-paste are the #1 cause of "invalid code" errors. Then pay the transfer fee. As of July 2026, a .com transfer at Hostinger runs about $10.19 plus a $0.20 ICANN fee — essentially the cost of a one-year renewal. That's not a fee on top of nothing: ICANN requires transfers of gTLDs to include a one-year extension, so a domain expiring March 2027 will expire March 2028 after the move. Free WHOIS privacy is included. Other extensions vary, so check the exact quote for your TLD.

Step 9: Approve and wait (or skip the wait)

After payment, watch the admin email for a confirmation message and approve it if one arrives. Then the waiting: your old registrar has a release window, and if nobody acts, the transfer auto-completes in 5-7 days. Here's the trick most guides skip — many registrars, including GoDaddy and Namecheap, have an "approve/accept transfer" option in their transfer-out settings. Click it and the domain releases in minutes to hours instead of days. Your site stays online the whole time either way.

Step 10: Verify DNS after completion

When the domain appears in your Hostinger account, open its DNS zone and compare against the backup from step 2. Restore anything missing — especially MX and TXT records. Then re-enable WHOIS privacy and DNSSEC if you use it, send yourself a test email, and load your site. If everything matches, you're done, and future renewals happen in hPanel.

Wait — do you even need to transfer?

Honest section, because this trips up a lot of beginners: if your only goal is to host your website on Hostinger, you don't need to transfer your domain at all. You can leave the registration at GoDaddy/Namecheap/wherever and simply change the nameservers to Hostinger's (ns1.dns-parking.com and ns2.dns-parking.com, shown in hPanel). That takes five minutes, costs nothing, has no 60-day rule, and your site runs on Hostinger immediately.

Transfer the registration when: you want one dashboard and one bill for domain + hosting, your current registrar's renewal pricing is painful (a .com renewal at Hostinger is about $20/yr as of July 2026 — compare yours), or you're consolidating a pile of domains. Just point nameservers when: you're inside the 60-day window, your domain renewal deal elsewhere is actually good, or you want to test Hostinger's hosting before committing the domain too. There's no performance difference between the two — DNS is DNS.

Troubleshooting: when the transfer goes sideways

"Invalid auth code." Nine times out of ten it's a copy-paste issue — trailing whitespace or a truncated code. Re-copy carefully. If it still fails, request a fresh code from the old registrar (old codes can expire or get regenerated) and retry.

Transfer rejected for the 60-day lock. Nothing to fix — you're inside ICANN's window from registration, a prior transfer, or a registrant-info change. Wait it out and point nameservers at Hostinger in the meantime so your hosting isn't blocked.

Transfer stuck at "pending." First, check the admin email (and spam) for an unanswered approval message. Second, log in to the old registrar and look for an "approve transfer" option. Third, confirm the domain is actually unlocked — some registrars re-lock after security events. If it's been over 7 days with all of that clean, contact Hostinger support with the domain name; they can see the registry-side status.

Domain expired before/during transfer. This is the messy one. An expired domain often can't transfer until it's renewed, and renewing during the redemption period can cost $80-100+ in registry fees. If expiry is close, renew at the current registrar first, then transfer — the transfer's included year still stacks on top.

DNSSEC errors after completion. If your site suddenly won't resolve for some users post-transfer, stale DNSSEC records are the likely culprit. Remove the old DS records (or re-set DNSSEC fresh at Hostinger) and resolution recovers as caches expire.

FAQ: Hostinger domain transfers

How much does it cost to transfer a domain to Hostinger?

As of July 2026, a .com transfer costs about $10.19 plus a $0.20 ICANN fee — roughly one year's renewal. The fee isn't wasted: it adds a full year to your existing expiry date, and free WHOIS privacy is included. Other extensions vary, so check Hostinger's quote for your exact TLD.

How long does a domain transfer to Hostinger take?

Your active work is about 15 minutes. The registry side typically takes 5-7 days because the old registrar has a release window — but if your old registrar offers an "approve transfer" button (GoDaddy and Namecheap both do), clicking it completes the move in minutes to hours.

Will my website go down during the transfer?

No — a transfer moves the registration, not DNS resolution. Your existing nameservers keep answering throughout. The only real risk is registrar-hosted DNS getting wiped after the move, which is exactly why we back up every record before starting and verify them after.

Will my email stop working?

Not if your MX records survive. Third-party email (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) is unaffected mid-transfer. Email hosted at the registrar you're leaving is the danger case — their mail service may end when the domain does. Save MX and TXT (SPF/DKIM) records before transferring and re-create them at Hostinger immediately after.

Do I lose the time left on my current registration?

No. For .com, .net, .org and other standard gTLDs, the transfer year stacks on top of your existing expiry date. A domain due to expire March 2027 expires March 2028 after transferring. Some country-code TLDs differ, but mainstream extensions lose nothing.

Can I transfer a domain I just registered?

Not yet — ICANN locks domains for 60 days after registration and after any previous transfer, and many registrars add a 60-day lock after registrant-info changes. No registrar can override it. Point your nameservers at Hostinger in the meantime if you need the hosting now.

Do I need Hostinger hosting to transfer my domain to Hostinger?

No. Hostinger's registrar service works standalone — transfer the domain in and point DNS at any host you like. If you do host with Hostinger, keeping both in one hPanel account simplifies DNS, SSL, and renewals, which is the main reason to consolidate.

Should I transfer, or just change nameservers?

If you only want your site on Hostinger hosting, change nameservers — free, instant, no 60-day rule. Transfer the registration when you want billing and DNS consolidated at Hostinger or your current registrar's renewal pricing is worse. See the section above for the full breakdown.

Bottom line

A Hostinger domain transfer is about 15 minutes of real work wrapped in a few days of registry waiting: back up DNS, unlock, grab the EPP code, start the transfer in hPanel, pay roughly a year's renewal (which extends your expiry — nothing lost), and approve the release at your old registrar to skip the 5-7 day wait. Respect the 60-day rule, keep a copy of your DNS records, and the whole thing is uneventful — which is exactly what you want from anything touching your domain. And if all you actually need is Hostinger hosting, remember the honest shortcut: changing nameservers is free and takes five minutes. If you're weighing Hostinger itself, our Hostinger vs GoDaddy comparison and best WordPress hosting guide cover how it performs on real production sites.