EnterraHost
A domain is registered for a fixed term and has to be renewed to stay yours. Renewing early costs nothing extra and removes the only real risk in domain ownership, which is the date passing without you noticing.
Where it is, and what state you are in
The Domains page has a Renewal column showing when each domain expires and how long is left. The same date appears as Expires on the domain's own page, alongside the registration date.
That column is the thing to actually read. Expiry dates cluster in a way that catches people out, because a batch of domains registered in the same week all come due in the same week, years later, when nobody is thinking about it.
Renewing on purpose
Renewal is ordered from the domain's row and raises an invoice like any other purchase. The new expiry date appears once the invoice is paid, so an unpaid renewal is not a renewal — the domain is exactly where it was.
Renewing early is allowed and useful. If a domain is due in three months and the expiry sits awkwardly against a budget cycle or a holiday, renewing now moves the date without penalty and takes it off the worry list.
Auto-renew is the part that actually protects you
Auto-renew means the domain renews itself before it expires and the invoice is raised without you having to remember. It is a column on the same page, reading On or Off, with the toggle beside it.
Turning it on is the single most valuable thing on this page. A lapsed domain is recoverable usually, but not always, and never cheaply — which is the next section.
Two things worth knowing about how it behaves. Auto-renew depends on the payment method on file working, so a card that has expired silently turns it into a wish rather than a guarantee. And a renewal invoice still has to be paid. Auto-renew raises it, it does not settle it.
What happens after the expiry date
This is the part people assume they know, and the assumption usually involves more time than there is.
A domain that expires is not immediately gone. Most registries allow a short grace period in which renewing is the ordinary price, which is the window everybody has heard about. What is heard less often is what follows it: a redemption period in which the domain can still be restored, at a substantially higher cost, and then deletion.
The details vary by extension, the length of each stage is not something to plan around, and a domain that reaches deletion may be taken by somebody else within minutes. Treat the grace period as an emergency exit rather than a schedule, and treat the expiry date itself as the real deadline.
If it has already lapsed
Renew it the same day you notice, from the toolbox if the domain is still listed. Where the ordinary renewal no longer applies, the domain enters the recovery path, the restore is ordered through support rather than from the list, and the cost is materially higher than a renewal would have been.
If the domain carries your mail or your website, tell anyone affected rather than waiting for them to work it out. A lapsed domain takes both down at once, and it looks identical to a server problem from the outside.