.it domains: validity and expiration statuses

The purpose of this article is a recap of the most important statuses (according to our experience) of the .it domain, many of these (not all) also valid for .edu.it domains.

By "state" we mean the operational condition of the domain: the operations that have been carried out and those in progress. Each state corresponds to permitted operations, for example: renewal, recovery, modification of registrant and others denied (due to the state) such as the transfer from one Registrar to another.

.it domains have an annual duration starting from the registration date or from the date of the last modification, for example the change of Registrar.

Let's start with the first fundamental rule: who can register a .it domain?

Registration of a .it domain is permitted only to individuals who have citizenship, residence or headquarters in the countries of the European Economic Area, in the Vatican State, in the Republic of San Marino and in the Swiss Confederation.

Now we can move on to analyzing the most common states of a valid domain:

Ok: the domain is registered and active. It is possible to carry out any operation such as renewal, transfer and modification of the registrant. The validity period of a domain name is one year from registration or last transfer. Once the expiry date is reached, the domain name is placed in "autoRenewPeriod" which identifies the 15 days following the expiration.

Pending Transfer: this status identifies that the transfer from one Registrar to another is in progress, the duration is a maximum of 1 day.

Ok / Autorenew Period (grace period): post-expiration state which can last a maximum of 15 days. In our case, the domain can be renewed without additional costs by the tenth day at 8 in the morning. Domains in this state can be transferred to another Registrar.

At this point it is necessary to make a distinction between renewed and non-renewed domains:

domain renewed within the expiration of the active service: the status is ok / autorenew period for 15 days following the expiration. The expiration date of the domain in the public whois is therefore updated by the registry after 15 days from the expire date. The expiration date will be postponed by one year.

domain not renewed within the expiration of the active service: it is possible to renew the product without additional costs within 10 days of the expiration. In this case the status visible in the whois will be autorenew period for 10 days and subsequently pending delete / redemption period.

States for which the Registrar (for example) requests a deletion operation on behalf of the Registrant:

Pending Delete / Redemption Period state: state following Ok / autorenew Period, the only operation allowed is the recovery of the domain by the current registrar (for example host.it) within 30 days (8 am) from the date of passage into this state. Recovering the domain from this state has an investment of €10 + VAT in addition to the renewal of the service and any data restoration (if associated with hosting).

Pending Delete / Pending Delete status: upon expiry of the pending Delete / redemption Period the domain name passes into the pending Delete/pending Delete status and is then definitively canceled according to the Drop Time mechanism. Domains that are in the pending Delete/pending Delete state cannot be subjected to any operation.

We talked about .it domains and the various states but what happens to the hosting (associated with the .it domain, for example) after its natural expiry? All hosting products are suspended starting from 8 am on the day of expiration. I remind you that the renewal order does not block or prolong the validity of the active service and failure to send the accounting or credit card payment by the actual expiry date causes the suspension of the services provided: web, email, database.

The active service can be renewed at no additional cost (excluding .eu domains) for the next 9 days from the expiry date. The service remains "frozen" and will be reactivated once payment has been received, the date of receipt of the payment or credit card payment will be considered valid.

On the tenth day at 8 am, the hosting product will be permanently canceled and an additional payment will be required to recover the domain and restore data: webmail, database from the backups in our possession.

You can request backup verification by contacting us at This email address is protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (from the email chosen as the login user in host.it), the retention of backups of our servers is a maximum of 3 months (subject to availability verification on our part) and the cost of the restore is €40+VAT for files and databases and €60+VAT for files, databases and email boxes in addition to the renewal of the hosting and domain.

As always, I remind you that our assistance can be reached 7 days a week from Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm and Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 8am to 5pm via email (This email address is protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), toll-free number 800 943 944, online chat and social networks @hostdotit (Twitter) and host.it (Facebook)

In the next article I will talk to you about Drop Time, a mechanism absent for .edu.it domains, stay tuned!