Domain name or website: what to cancel and when it stops

Your domain name and your website are two separate services, each with its own subscription and its own end date. Cancel only your hosting plan and you keep your domain name: the registration carries on. Cancel only your domain name and your hosting plan carries on. You cancel each subscription separately in the customer portal under Financial > Subscriptions; deleting or disabling a website in Plesk does not cancel anything.

Below you can see what belongs to what, what to cancel in each situation, what keeps running and when each part stops. How cancelling works in the portal, including the one-month notice period, is explained in cancel a subscription through the customer portal.

Domain name, website and email: what is the difference?

Think of a shop. Your domain name is the address on the front: the name people use to find you, such as yourdomain.com, and the part after the @ in your email address. Your hosting plan is the building: the space on our server where your website, databases and mailboxes live. Move out of the building and the address stays yours until you give it up. Give up the address and you are still renting the building.

Your domain and your hosting do not have to be with the same company. Your name can be registered elsewhere while your website runs with us, as in point a domain registered elsewhere to LJPc hosting, and the other way round. How name, server and DNS work together is explained in what is web hosting.

Every part has its own subscription

Under Financial > Subscriptions every part is listed on its own line, with its own end date. Type your domain name into the search bar above the list to see every subscription that belongs to that name. Usually that is:

• The registration of your domain name. This always runs per year.
• The hosting plan for your website and email, monthly or yearly.
• Extras for the same name, such as DNS hosting, a forwarding plan or the premium spam filter. These are separate subscriptions too.

Because a domain name runs per year and a hosting plan often per month, the end dates can differ, even when you cancel everything on the same day. The window shows the exact end date of each subscription before you confirm, and after cancelling you receive a confirmation email per subscription with that date.

If you have a value pack, that is a separate subscription as well. Cancel the value pack and your domain names and hosting plans keep running. Cancel all your domain names and the value pack keeps running until you cancel it yourself.

Can't find a subscription in the list? It may be on someone else's account, for example your web designer or your previous agency. Ask them to cancel it. On a sub-account you only see subscriptions with the View subscriptions permission, and you can cancel them with the Cancel subscriptions permission. More on that in sub-accounts in the customer portal.

Deleting or disabling in Plesk does not cancel anything

Plesk is where you manage the contents of your hosting: files, databases, mailboxes and DNS. Your subscriptions and invoices are handled in the customer portal. So nothing you do in Plesk changes your subscriptions:

• Disabling or deleting does not stop a subscription. Switch off a website in Plesk, or delete it, and the subscription keeps running, and so do the invoices.
• Deleting is immediate. Delete a site in Plesk and its files, databases and mailboxes are removed from the server straight away, together with the DNS records Plesk kept for that name. If your domain uses our nameservers, your website and email on that name stop working from that moment. So make a backup of your website first.
• The registration is separate from Plesk. A domain you delete in Plesk stays registered until you cancel its subscription in the portal or transfer the name.

Done with a hosting plan? Cancel it in the portal. There is no need to delete anything in Plesk: your website and email keep working until the end date, so you have time to move everything.

With a reseller plan

A reseller plan hosts many sites under one subscription. When one of your clients leaves, you delete their site in Plesk yourself. That frees up space in your plan, and your reseller plan carries on as before. The client's domain name is a separate subscription, though: cancel it in the portal, or give your client the transfer code if the name is moving to another provider. More on managing client sites in reseller hosting: manage all your client websites.

What should you cancel? Situation by situation

How to close a mailbox without losing email is explained in close a mailbox or switch providers without losing your email.

Stopping everything: step by step

1. Save what you want to keep. Make a backup of your website and download it. Save your email as described in close a mailbox or switch providers.
2. Keeping the name with another provider? Get the transfer code and transfer the domain before the end date, following get your EPP code and transfer your domain. You then don't need to cancel the registration.
3. Find everything that belongs to the name. In the portal, go to Financial > Subscriptions and type your domain name into the search bar.
4. Cancel each subscription. Click Cancel next to each one and check the end date in the window. Cancel a domain name less than a month before its renewal date and it runs for one more year. How the notice period works out is explained in cancel a subscription.
5. Check the confirmation. You receive an email with the end date for each subscription, and the list shows the subscription as Cancelled.

Until the end date everything works as usual. Make sure your backup and your email are safely in your hands before that date.

Your website stops, your domain name stays

Cancel only the hosting plan. Your domain name stays yours and renews every year until you cancel it. Your website and email keep working with us until the end date of the plan; after that, your domain no longer points to a website or mailbox with us. So decide before the end date where your name should point:

• Your website and email move to another provider. Set them up there first, then set that provider's nameservers on your domain, as described in change your nameservers. Your new provider then handles the DNS, while the domain stays registered with us.
• You keep the name without a website. There is nothing you need to do. Once there is no website and no DNS left for your domain with us, the domain's page in the portal shows the Add DNS hosting button. With it you manage the name's DNS records yourself in the portal, for example when you start a website elsewhere later on.
• You want the name to forward to another website. Create a support ticket before the end date and we will arrange the forwarding with you, for example with the forwarding plan. The ways to forward a domain are explained in how to redirect a domain to another website.

Domain registered elsewhere, website with us? Then cancel only the hosting plan with us. Point the DNS records at the other company to your new website and mail server as soon as those are ready, and cancel the domain there if you no longer need it.

Your domain name stops, your website stays

Cancel only the domain name and your hosting plan keeps running, and you keep paying for it. From the end date we no longer renew the domain name. While the registration is still active, your website and email on that name keep working. Once it expires, your website is no longer reachable on that name and email to addresses on that name no longer arrives. After a period that differs per extension, someone else can register the name.

Want to keep your website going on a different name? Follow this order:

1. Register the new domain name, as described in how to register a domain and link it to your hosting.
2. Create a support ticket with the old and the new name. We will then map out with you how your site and email addresses move to the new name.
3. Tell visitors and contacts your new address, and update your email address in your email app and your signature.
4. Cancel the old name only once everything works on the new one. As long as you keep the old name, it can forward visitors to your new address. How to set that up, and how long to keep the old name, is explained in how to redirect a domain to another website.

What to take with you when you leave

Leaving us, or handing your website over to a new web designer? Make sure you have these three things before the end date:

• The transfer code of your domain name, if the name is moving to another provider. You find it in the portal on your domain's page; see get your EPP code.
• A backup of your website: your files and your database, which you create and download in Plesk. With it, a new host or web designer can set your site up again. The steps are in back up your website.
• Your email, copied to your new mailbox or exported to a file, as in close a mailbox or switch providers.

Your website's own logins, such as your WordPress accounts, are stored in the database, so they come along with the backup. You open Plesk with one click from the portal, as described in open Plesk from the customer portal.

Changed your mind?

As long as the end date has not passed, you can switch a cancelled subscription back on in the portal with Reactivate. The subscription then carries on as before. How that works is explained in cancel a subscription through the customer portal. Not sure what to cancel? Create a support ticket with your domain name and we will work it out with you.