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Purchasing a domain

This guide walks through buying a new domain from the CloudPress dashboard: searching for availability, adding a domain to your cart, entering registrant contact details, and paying. You can buy a domain on its own, or add one while you're setting up a new WordPress site at checkout.

Before you start

  • An active (non-trial) CloudPress account. You don't need a card saved up front — billing details and payment are entered during checkout. If you're a member who can't manage billing for the workspace, the cart charges the workspace's billing account instead of asking you for a card.
  • Domain registration must be enabled for your account. If it isn't, the New Domain button is hidden on the Domains page and opening the search page redirects you back to Domains with the message Domain registration is currently unavailable.

Steps

  1. Open the domain search. In the left sidebar, choose Domains, then click New Domain. This opens the Get a new domain page.

  2. Search for a name. Type the name you want into the search box (placeholder example.com) and click Search.

    • If you type a full domain such as myidea.com, CloudPress checks that exact name.
    • If you type just a word such as myidea, CloudPress checks the name across several extensions and lists each result.

    Availability is checked live, so results reflect the registry in real time. No domain is reserved yet at this stage.

  3. Read the results. An exact name comes back as a single result card headed Available, Taken, Owned or Unavailable, with the relevant price beside it where there is one. A bare word comes back as a Search results table with Domain, Status and Action columns, where the status is a badge:

    Status What it means
    Available Free to register — you can add it to your cart.
    Taken Already registered by someone else. If a transfer price is shown, you can transfer it in instead.
    Owned You already own this domain on this account. Click Manage to open it.
    Maintenance The registrar is in a maintenance window. The Action column reads Temporarily unavailable — try again later.

    Below the results, an Other suggestions table lists related names that are available, each with its price and an Add to cart button.

    A domain marked Free with WordPress hosting is included at no cost when you also buy a hosting plan in the same order. A domain shown as Premium can't be bought self-service: in the results table it reads Premium — contact support, and on a single-result card it says "This is a premium domain. Please contact support to continue." with a Contact support button.

    Some extensions aren't sold on your plan

    An extension can exist but not be orderable on your account's plan. When that's the case, the result has no price or Add to cart button. Contact support if you need an extension enabled for your account.

  4. Add the domain to your cart. Click Add to cart next to an available result (the button changes to Added to cart). For a taken domain you're transferring in, click Transfer this domain on a single-result card, or Transfer in the results table. A Your cart panel appears listing each item's price, a running Subtotal, and an item count.

  5. Continue to cart. Click Continue to cart to move to checkout. (You can keep searching and add more domains first — they all collect in the same cart.)

  6. Enter registrant contact details. Checkout walks you through a short wizard:

    • Contact source — if you've registered domains before, choose Use existing contact or Create new contact. (You won't see this step on your first registration.)
    • Contact details — fill in the registrant: first and last name, organization (optional unless the extension requires it), email, phone, country, street address, postal code, city, and state. Some extensions require extra fields (for example a legal form for .nl), which appear here automatically. The admin, billing, and tech roles default to Same as registrant, which keeps them identical to the registrant contact. To set a role separately, choose Use existing contact or Create new contact for it.
    • Primary domain — only when the cart also holds a WordPress site and more than one domain: pick which domain the site should answer on.
    • Review — confirm the contact summary, then click Continue to Payment.

    Some extensions require contact verification

    For certain extensions, a verification email is sent to the registrant address. Registration completes once the contact is verified.

  7. Pay. The payment page is a short wizard: Billing details first (already filled in and collapsed if we hold them — use Change to edit), then Payment method. Confirm both, then click the button in the order summary, which reads Pay followed by the amount due. Registration begins after payment is confirmed.

After payment, your order finalizes (usually under a minute). Some extensions register instantly; others register asynchronously and finish shortly after — the domain appears under Domains when it's ready, and you'll get a confirmation email.1

The same flow is available through the API. Check availability and pricing, then create the order through the off-session cart/billing flow. For example, an availability check:

curl -X POST "https://my.cloudpress.com/api/domain_registrations/check" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CLOUDPRESS_TOKEN" -H "X-Auth-Account: $ACCOUNT_ID" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain": "example.com"}'

The response reports domain, available, premium, owned_by_account, reason, and the orderable price / transfer_price (each { amount_cents, currency }, or null).

See Domain registration for registration, contacts, and the async registrar process, and Domains for listing and attaching domains. Order writes need a user-scoped API key — OAuth access tokens can't create orders, and a system account-bearer key is rejected with user_required.

Buying a domain while creating a site

You don't have to buy a domain separately. When you create a new WordPress site, the same domain search appears during site checkout, so you can register (or transfer) a domain and provision the site in one order. If the extension qualifies, the domain can be Free with WordPress hosting.

Auto-renewal, transfer lock and WHOIS privacy

On successful registration, CloudPress sets up an auto-renewal subscription so the domain doesn't lapse, and applies a transfer lock where the extension supports one. WHOIS privacy is switched on automatically only when the extension supports it and your plan carries it at no charge; otherwise you turn it on yourself. You can change all three later from the domain's own pages — auto-renew and WHOIS privacy on Settings, the transfer lock on Lock & Transfer Code.

Next steps

  1. Registration timing depends on the extension's registry. Many complete instantly; some process in the background and finish a short time after payment. ↩