Answers to common questions about the transition of your Google domain to Squarespace.
Note: If you received an email saying you need to take action for domain forwarding and/or email forwarding, follow these steps.
Squarespace has entered into an agreement to become the new home for Google Domains customers.
This guide answers some common questions about what to expect when your domain moves, and how you'll manage your domain moving forward.
What's happening?
On September 7, 2023 Squarespace acquired all domain registrations and their associated customer accounts from Google Domains. We then began migrating domains in batches from Google Domains to Squarespace. The migrations are now complete, and all domains have been moved to Squarespace.
Where do I manage my domain?
If you had a domain with Google Domains, you can now manage the domain with Squarespace.
If you already have a Squarespace account
If you already have a Squarespace account associated with the email address you use to log into your Google Domains account, log into your Squarespace account as you normally would. Your domains will appear in your domains dashboard.
If you don't have a Squarespace account
If you didn't have an account with us prior to the migration, we automatically created a Squarespace account with the email address associated with your Google Domains account. You should have received an email with the subject "[Your domain] is now available on your Squarespace Domains account" to the email address associated with your Google Domains account. To log in:
- Click Manage domains in your welcome email. If you lost the welcome email, you can navigate to squarespace.com/login
- Click Continue with Google.
If you encounter an authorization error when attempting to log in using your Google account:
- Click Manage domains in your welcome email, then click Can't log in.
- Click Send verification email. This sends an email with the subject "Verification email for Squarespace Domains" to the email address associated with your Google account. You'll need to verify your email before continuing the account setup process.
- Open the verification email and click Verify.
- Create a password for your new Squarespace account and click Continue.
If you encounter any error messages or experience any issues logging in, please contact us.
Who do I contact for support?
You can contact us for help with your domain.
Who's my domain host?
Now that your domain has moved, Squarespace is your new domain host, and you'll manage your domain and its settings in a Squarespace account.
Will the cost of my domain change?
Squarespace will honor all existing Google Domains customers’ renewal prices for at least 12 months following the acquisition.
How do I manage my domain?
Your Squarespace domains dashboard will give you access to all of your domain's settings, including its:
Will my domain experience downtime?
No. We're collaborating with Google to ensure a seamless transition of your domains. Your domain won't stop working during the move because we'll utilize the infrastructure behind the Google Domains product to maintain your domain's DNS records. If you're using custom nameservers with your domain, those settings will be retained as well.
Note: If your domain uses a verification record to point to a non-Squarespace website, we recommend confirming with your website host if you need to re-verify the domain. If you need to add a new verification record to your domain, failing to re-verify after your domain moves to Squarespace may break your domain's connection to your site.After your domain migrates, you can manage your domain's DNS records in Squarespace. To learn more about adding DNS records to your domain, visit Adding custom DNS records to your Squarespace-managed domain.
After the move
Do I need to buy additional subscriptions after my domain moves?
No, you don't need to buy a website subscription or any other services with Squarespace to use Squarespace Domains.
Squarespace Domains is an independent domain registrar separate from Squarespace, and you won't be required to use other services from Squarespace besides domain management.
How does billing work for Squarespace domains?
When your domain moved from Google to Squarespace, your billing information migrated along with it. Keep in mind:
- Domain subscriptions auto-renew annually. If you had multiple years left on your domain's registration with Google, your domain will renew on its original renewal date.
- You'll receive an email 15 days before the renewal date letting you know you'll soon be charged for your domain. If you don't want your domain to renew automatically, you can disable auto-renew.
To learn more about how billing works for Squarespace domains, visit Squarespace domains billing FAQ.
Will my domain keep all the time remaining on its registration?
Yes, when your domain transitioned from Google to Squarespace, it kept all the time remaining on its registration.
I had contributor email addresses associated with my domain in Google. Will these contributors still have access to my domain?
When your domain migrated, Google sent a notification email to:
- The email address associated with the Google Domains account where you managed the domain
- Any contributor email addresses associated with the domain
- The email addresses listed as the Admin, Tech, and Billing contacts on the domain
Squarespace considers the last person responsible for payment on the domain to be the owner of the domain. When your domain migrated, we gave the domain owner domain owner permissions, while contributors were given domain manager permissions. To learn more about these permissions, visit Managing domain permissions.
Did my domain lock after it moved to Squarespace?
No, your domain doesn't have a 60 day domain lock. You can transfer the domain to another provider at any time.
Do my other Google services still work?
Yes, your existing Google services, like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Ads shouldn't have experienced an interruption to service.
Note: We automatically added a CNAME record to your domain’s DNS settings when your domain migrated from Google to Squarespace. It contains a unique code in front of the URL .googlehosted.com. This record connects all of your Google services associated with your domain. Deleting the record could interfere with your domain’s connection to Google services.
Did my domain forwarding or email forwarding rules remain intact when my domain moved?
Squarespace offers free domain and email forwarding for all Squarespace-managed domains. Your domain and email forwards will continue to work after your domain moves to Squarespace if:
- Your domain uses Google's default nameservers and you're using Google's built-in domain forwarding or email forwarding services.
- Your domain uses custom nameservers and you're using third-party (non-Google) domain or email forwarding services.
Your domain and email forwards will break 14 days after your domain moves to Squarespace if:
- Your domain uses custom nameservers and you're using Google's built-in domain forwarding or email forwarding services.
Update your DNS records to continue forwarding your domain or email
If your domain or email forwards are at risk, you'll receive an email from us when your domain migrates letting you know that you need to take action. After you follow the steps below, the domain or email forwarding rules you initially set up through Google will continue working.
The domain forwarding rules you initially created through Google will migrate along with your domain. For those rules to continue working, you'll need to add some DNS records to your domain to point your domain to Squarespace.
- Open your domains dashboard.
- Click your domain name.
- Click Website, then scroll down to the Domain forwarding section.
- You'll see an Action required banner stating you must update your DNS records at your DNS provider for domain forwarding to work.
- Click Review instructions to view the CNAME and A records you'll be adding to your domain.
- In a new tab, log into the account you have with your nameserver provider.
- Find where to manage your domain's DNS settings. Depending on your provider, the settings for managing your domain's DNS records may be called DNS, Advanced DNS Records, Manage Domains, or something similar.
- Remove any existing A or AAAA records that have @ as their host name.
- Add the DNS records you viewed in Step 5. You'll need to add a CNAME record for each subdomain on which you've set up a forwarding rule, along with one A record. If you need help adding DNS records, reach out to your nameserver provider using our suggested language, below.
- It can take anywhere between 24 and 72 hours for the records to update. When your records are fully updated, the Action required banner will disappear.
The email forwarding rules you initially created through Google will migrate along with your domain. For those rules to work, you'll need to add some DNS records to your domain, wait 24 hours, then remove and edit some DNS records.
- Open your domains dashboard.
- Click your domain name.
- Click Email, then scroll down to the Email forwarding section.
- You'll see an Action required banner stating you must update your DNS records at your DNS provider for email forwarding to work.
- Click Review instructions to view the two MX and two TXT records you'll need to add to your domain. These records are specific to this domain. If you have other domains, you'll need to go through these steps for those domains separately.
- In a new tab, log into the account you have with your nameserver provider.
- Find where to manage your domain's DNS settings. Depending on your provider, the settings for managing your domain's DNS records may be called DNS, Advanced DNS Records, Manage Domains, or something similar.
- Add the DNS records you viewed in Step 5. If you need help adding DNS records, reach out to your nameserver provider using our suggested language, below.
- Check to see if your domain has any Google-specific MX records. These records will have MX under Record type, and will point to something like aspmx1.mx.google.com. If your domain doesn't have any Google-specific MX records, you can stop here. Your domain forwarding rules are set up.
- If your domain does have Google-specific MX records, wait 24 hours, then move on to complete steps 11-13.
- Log back into the account you have with your nameserver provider and return to where you manage your domain's DNS records.
- Delete your Google-specific MX records.
- You added two new MX records to your domain in Step 5 of this process that point to mxa.mailgun.org and mxb.mailgun.org. Change the value in the Priority fields of these two records to 10.
- If your provider doesn't allow you to change the priority of existing records, remove the two new records, then re-add them with the same host, type, and data values, but with a priority of 10.
It can take anywhere between 24 and 72 hours for DNS records to update after you add or change them. When your records update, the Action required banner will disappear from your Email panel, and your email forwarding rules will be fully set up.
Request help from your nameserver provider
For help editing DNS records on a domain that uses custom nameservers, we recommend contacting your nameserver provider. They're more familiar with how their service works and can look into your domain setup directly.
For help adding new records, take a screenshot of the required records you reviewed in Step 5 in the sections above, and ask your nameserver provider for help directly with a message like this:
I'd like to add the following records to the DNS settings of my domain, [enter your domain here]. Can you help me with this process? Here are the records I need to add: [Insert screenshot here]
For help removing and updating records, ask your nameserver provider for help with a message like this:
I'd like to delete some records and edit some records in the DNS setting of my domain, [enter your domain here]. Can you help me with this process? I need to delete all of the Google-specific MX records, and then I'll need to edit the Priority of the two Mailgun MX records to 10.
How do I update the owner of my domain?
How you change the owner of your domain depends on if your domain shares its billing and permission settings with a Squarespace website.
If your domain doesn't share billing and permission settings with a Squarespace website
There isn't a way to update the owner for a domain that isn't attached to a Squarespace website. To change the owner of your parked domain, or domain that's pointed to a non-Squarespace site, create a free trial site, move the domain to the new site, then transfer ownership of the domain and the site to your desired new owner:
- Create a new trial site.
- Add payment information to your new trial site. You don't have to upgrade the site when the free trial expires. You can manage your domain through your domains dashboard indefinitely even after the trial expires.
- Move your domain to the new trial site. If your domain points to a non-Squarespace site, moving your domain to a trial site won't break its connection to the website it's pointing to.
- Invite the future owner as a contributor to the site.
- Open the Permissions & Ownership panel.
- Click the current site owner's name under Owner.
- Click Transfer ownership.
- In the pop-up message, verify your account by logging in, then select the new owner from the drop-down menu.
- Click Continue, then click Confirm.
- Have the new owner update the domain contact information to their information.
Keep in mind, this process doesn't change the domain contact information, so you or the new owner will have to update that manually.
If your domain shares billing and permission settings with a Squarespace website
If you're the owner of your Squarespace site and domain, you can transfer ownership of the site and domain to another contributor on your site. To learn more about adding a contributor and changing the owner of your site and domain, visit Changing site ownership.
Supported features
Does Squarespace support dynamic DNS (DDNS)?
No, Squarespace doesn't support dynamic DNS. After your domain migrates, any active DDNS records will remain as A or AAAA records pointing to the last IP addresses provided prior to migration, but they'll no longer update automatically.
Does Squarespace support ACME TLS/SSL certificates?
No, Squarespace doesn't support ACME TLS/SSL certificates. Active SSL certificates will continue to work until they expire, but new certificates won't be issued following your domain’s migration.
Account management
Does having a Squarespace domain mean I have a Squarespace website?
No, having a domain with Squarespace doesn't mean you have a Squarespace website. You can continue using any website provider of your choice, though you're always welcome to start a website with Squarespace or move your existing site to Squarespace.
Where do I manage my Squarespace account?
After your domain moves to Squarespace, you can manage your Squarespace account from your account dashboard.
You can take basic account actions in your dashboard including:
- Changing your account email or password
- Enabling two-factor authentication
- Updating notifications to manage your email preferences
To learn more about managing your Squarespace account, visit Managing your Squarespace account. To learn more about your account dashboard, visit Your account dashboard.
More help
To learn more about Squarespace domains, the purchase agreement, or the migration process, explore these other resources:
- About the Squarespace purchase of Google Domains registration
- Squarespace Domains FAQ
- Squarespace domains overview
To learn about what we currently offer with Squarespace Domains, browse through our domains guides.