Transfers and pushes relate to the change of ownership when a domain is sold or another type of account change occurs. A transfer is an account change to a different registrar. So if a domain was moved from NameCheap to GoDaddy that would be a transfer. The transfer can occur when a domain is sold or when an owner wants to consolidate their domains at a favoured registrar. A push is a transfer of ownership with the domain staying at the same registrar. An example of a push would be a domain seller initiating a push from his GoDaddy account to the buyer’s GoDaddy account.
Pushes are generally free. If you are registering a domain for resale you should make sure the registrar offers a free push. All of the domains for sale on this site are with registrar’s that offer a free push of the domain.
A domain transfer will cost an addition year’s registration fee which includes a renewal of the domain for an additional year. This fee is paid to the gaining registrar. A transfer can occur when a domain is sold or it can occur prior to renewal when the owner decides to consolidate names at their main registrar.
I have accounts at something 20 registrars. The reason is for most of these accounts is that I’m buying a domain in the secondary market. After purchase a push is free and quicker to complete than a transfer. In addition there is a rule that a domain cannot be transferred if the current owner has held the domain for less than 60 days. So sometimes the only way to do an ownership change is through a push of the domain.
Procedures for transfers and pushes vary between registrars. None of its rocket science. But unless both the buyer and seller follow the required steps it won’t work. Links for some of the transactions I do most often are listed below:
