How to Transfer a Domain to SabyDomain

If you already own a name elsewhere, you can transfer a domain to SabyDomain to bring it into the same dashboard you use for everything else — and pay in Tanzanian Shillings with mobile money. A transfer moves where your domain is managed and billed, usually adds a year to its registration, and keeps your website and email working throughout if you prepare properly. This guide walks through the whole process in plain language.

Before you start: a quick checklist

A few conditions must be met before any domain can move between registrars. Check these first to avoid a rejected transfer and a frustrating wait:

• The domain is at least 60 days old and wasn't transferred in the last 60 days
• It isn't expired or within the very last days before expiry
• You can access the account at your current registrar
• You have access to the domain's admin email address

Step 1: unlock the domain

Registrars apply a 'transfer lock' to protect against unauthorised moves. Log in to your current registrar and switch this lock off for the domain you want to move. It's usually a single toggle in the domain's settings, sometimes labelled 'registrar lock' or 'transfer protection'. Nothing happens to your website when you unlock — it simply makes the domain eligible to move.

Step 2: get your EPP (authorisation) code

The EPP code, also called an auth code or transfer key, is a password that proves you're allowed to move the domain. Find it in your current registrar's control panel, or request it and they'll email it to you. Copy it exactly — these codes are case-sensitive and a single wrong character will cause the transfer to fail.

Step 3: start the transfer and pay

On SabyDomain, begin a transfer, enter your domain and the EPP code, and pay in TZS with M-Pesa, Tigo Pesa or Airtel Money. The transfer fee typically includes an extra year added to your registration, so you're not losing the time you already paid for — it carries over. Once payment succeeds, the transfer request is submitted to the registries.

Step 4: approve and wait

You'll usually receive an email at the domain's admin address asking you to approve the transfer. Confirm it to speed things up. Transfers can take anywhere from a few hours to several days to complete, depending on the extension and your old registrar. Crucially, your existing DNS records come along, so your site and email keep working — just avoid making big DNS changes mid-transfer.

Why bring your domains together

If you own several domains scattered across different registrars, managing them is a chore — separate logins, separate renewal dates, separate invoices, and an easy way to lose track and let one lapse. Transferring them into a single dashboard fixes all of that. You see every domain in one place, renew them together, pay the same simple way with mobile money, and get consistent reminders. For a growing business, that tidiness is worth the small effort of transferring, and it makes a forgotten renewal far less likely.

After the transfer completes

Once the transfer finishes, the domain behaves exactly like one registered here from the start. It appears in your dashboard with its new expiry date, and you can edit DNS, set up email, switch nameservers and renew it whenever you like. It's a good moment to double-check your records are intact and your contact email is correct, so future reminders reach you. New to managing records once it arrives? Our beginner's DNS guide explains everything you'll see in the dashboard, step by step, so nothing feels unfamiliar.