When you sign up for hosting with HostGator, if you have an existing domain, you will need to configure your domain name to work with your new hosting account by setting the name servers at your registrar. You can also optionally transfer your domain to HostGator so that both your domain name and web hosting are managed in the same place.
Since domain name registration is considered a separate service than web hosting, it is not required to register or transfer your domain to HostGator or LaunchPad to use our hosting services.
Your options include:
Option 1: Changing Your Name Servers at Existing Registrar
You can leave the domain registered where it is now, and change the name servers to point to HostGator. This would make it so that HostGator servers manage your DNS and you can make DNS changes directly in your hosting control panel. Since you are using our name servers, when you add domains, subdomains or make other domain-related changes, it automatically updates your DNS records to reflect the change.
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Option 2: Transferring Your Domain to HostGator
Another option is transferring your domain to HostGator, and use HostGator name servers to manage your DNS. This would make it so that your can manage your domain through HostGator, so that your domain and hosting is in one place.
We will transfer one (1) domain name for FREE per newly purchased account. The one (1) free domain transfer is for your primary domain only (the domain you typed during sign-up) and must be a .com, .net, or .org. Request your FREE domain name transfer here.
You can also register and transfer additional domain registrations to HostGator.
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Option 3: Use Other Name Servers / DNS
While not recommended for most customers, it is also possible to use name servers somewhere else, and just set the individual DNS records (A records, CNAME, MX, etc.) there. This is true whether the domain is registered with HostGator or another registrar. Since you are not using HostGator's name servers, when you make domain-related changes in your hosting control panel, the DNS does not automatically get updated. You would have to manually change the DNS records on your name servers to match whatever you set up in the hosting control panel.
Customers that use this option usually have complex DNS settings already established elsewhere, and only want to change or add the records related to hosting on their existing name servers, rather than recreating their existing DNS settings on HostGator name servers.
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