Keep Your Domain and Email When You Leave Squarespace
Short answer: Cancelling your Squarespace website doesn’t cancel your domain or your Google Workspace email. Both stay active and keep billing.1 Before you change anything, copy all your current domain settings. Then either keep your domain with Squarespace and point it at your new site, or transfer it to another company. Either way, keep your email settings exactly as they are.
First: copy your current settings
Your domain’s settings (called DNS records) tell the internet where your website is and where your email goes. Squarespace recommends recording them before any transfer, because most companies can’t carry them over for you.2
- Open your domain’s DNS settings in Squarespace.
- Copy every record into a document or take screenshots.
- Mark the email records. They’re usually called MX (where email is delivered), SPF and DKIM (which prove your email is really from you), and sometimes DMARC.
Option 1: Keep your domain with Squarespace
You can cancel your website and keep the domain registered with Squarespace. You’ll still be able to manage its DNS settings.1 To point it at your new site, change only the website records to what your new host gives you. Leave the email records alone.
Good for: owners who want the fewest moving parts.
Option 2: Transfer your domain to another company
Moving the domain somewhere else puts everything in one place, often with your new host.
Before you start:
- Check the 60-day lock. A domain can’t be transferred within 60 days of being bought or transferred in, or soon after its owner details change.2
- Turn off DNSSEC if it’s on.2
- Know that free domains lose their deal. A free domain offer from Squarespace doesn’t come with you.2
The steps:2
- Turn off the domain lock in Squarespace.
- Request the transfer code. Squarespace emails it to the domain’s owner within 24 hours.
- Start the transfer at the new company and enter the code.
- Wait. Transfers can take up to 15 days.
Important: while a transfer is in progress, you can’t change the domain’s DNS settings.2 Get your new site connected and your email checked before you start, or after it finishes.
After the transfer: recreate your email records at the new company right away. Squarespace’s own instructions say to adjust your MX records with the new provider after transferring, to prevent an interruption to your email.2
If you pay for Google Workspace through Squarespace
Your inbox isn’t tied to your Squarespace website. Cancelling the website leaves your email running and billed through Squarespace.1
If you want to stop paying Google through Squarespace, cancel Google Workspace in Squarespace’s billing settings. Squarespace transfers the account to Google, and you get a 7-day grace period to set up billing with Google directly. Your emails stay in your inbox.3 Don’t just turn off auto-renew instead. If you do, your email is suspended when the billing period ends.3
The other subscriptions that keep going
Squarespace treats every subscription as separate. When you cancel your website:1
- Your domain stays active and keeps renewing.
- Google Workspace stays active and billed.
- Email Campaigns stays active, but automated emails stop sending when the site goes offline. Export your lists.
- Acuity Scheduling keeps running, and clients can still book.
- Digital Products pauses when the site is cancelled. Cancel it separately if you don’t need it.1
- Any other services need cancelling one by one.
Check your Squarespace billing page and decide about each one.
The safe order
- Copy all your DNS records.
- Build and check the new site on a private preview.
- Point your domain’s website records at the new site. Leave email records untouched.
- Send a test email to and from your address.
- Test the live site and its redirects. See The Redirect Checklist.
- If you’re transferring the domain, do it now, then recreate the email records at the new company.
- Send another test email.
- Cancel the Squarespace website after a few weeks, once everything checks out. Decide about each other subscription.
Questions owners ask
Will I lose my domain if I cancel Squarespace? No. Cancelling the website leaves the domain active.1 It keeps renewing until you transfer it or turn off auto-renew.
Will my email stop working? Not if you leave the email records exactly as they are, and recreate them right away after any transfer.2
How long does a domain transfer take? Up to 15 days.2
Why can’t I transfer my domain? Usually a lock: the 60-day lock after buying or transferring the domain, or a lock after changing its owner details.2
Can you handle this for me? Yes. Every move we do keeps your email working through the switch, and we check it before and after launch. Start with the free site check below.