What do I need to renew for my WordPress website?

For a self-hosted WordPress website, the two usual renewals are the domain registration and web hosting. Paid themes or plugins, and separate services for booking, forms, email delivery or other functions, may renew independently. WordPress itself is not one all-in-one annual bill.

If your site is on WordPress.com, start in that account: its plans, domains and other purchases are managed as WordPress.com purchases. If you use WordPress software on another host, build a separate list of providers. This distinction matters because a WordPress.com plan and a self-hosted WordPress website are different billing arrangements.

The safest answer is a renewal register: one owner-side record showing each dependency, provider, account owner, renewal date, current evidence and next action.

Check these renewal groups

WordPress.org says a WordPress site needs a web server. It also notes that WordPress-specific hosting may include backups, updates or developer tools. The word "may" matters: those are plan-dependent features, not universal hosting inclusions (WordPress hosting documentation).

Your own register may contain fewer or more rows. Add only services that your site actually uses; do not turn this table into a shopping list.

Build a renewal register, not a price list

A price list tells you how much someone paid once. A renewal register tells you what the website depends on, who can act and whether the information is still current.

Use these fields for every recurring item:

• dependency or product;
• provider;
• account, registrant or licence owner;
• administrator and renewal-notice contact;
• website function that depends on it;
• purchase date and term;
• expiry or next renewal date;
• auto-renew on, off or unknown;
• billing owner;
• included in another service, separately billed or unknown;
• current amount, currency and the date of the invoice or terms page;
• known consequence of expiry, with a current provider source;
• transfer or replacement path;
• named person responsible for the next action.

Do not put card details, passwords or recovery codes in this document. Keep secrets in the business password manager. The register should contain enough information to find the right account and evidence without becoming a second credential store.

For the "current amount" field, use a dated invoice or account screen for the actual service. Do not copy an introductory price into later years or treat somebody else's website budget as your renewal quote.

Check the domain first

ICANN says domain registrations are typically for one to ten years. To keep using the domain and associated services such as a website or email, the registration must be renewed before it expires. Renewal options and fees vary by registrar, and current contact and payment information matter (ICANN domain renewal FAQ).

Record the registrar rather than the website host you assume manages the domain. They may be the same company, but they do different jobs. Confirm who receives notices, who controls the account and whether the billing route belongs to a current, authorized person.

Email can also use the domain. That does not mean renewing the domain renews the mailbox service; it means an expired domain can affect services that depend on that domain. Keep the domain, DNS and email providers as separate rows when they are separate services.

Domain acceptance check

Mark this row verified only when an authorized business representative can identify the registrar, registration term or expiry, current notice contact and responsible renewal owner. A calendar reminder without account access is incomplete evidence.

Verify what the hosting plan actually includes

Record the exact host and plan, then use the provider's current account page or terms to check the renewal date and included work. A managed plan might include backups or updates. Another plan may supply only server resources. Do not turn a general description of "WordPress hosting" into an assumption about your account.

Keep the service renewal separate from the maintenance responsibility. Paying the host does not by itself prove that someone is checking backups, updating extensions, testing forms or handling an incident. Name the owner of each job, even when one provider performs several of them.

Also record the exit path. If the current provider relationship ends, who can supply the site files and database, and how will a replacement provider receive them? WPShip's website handover checklist covers access, backups, licences and acceptance checks in more detail.

Hosting acceptance check

The row is useful when it identifies the live site's actual provider and plan, the business or contracted manager who controls it, the renewal date, the support route and the documented way to recover or move the agreed site assets. "Our developer handles it" is a responsibility statement, not complete evidence.

Treat every paid extension as seller-specific

One plugin seller's renewal policy does not establish the rule for every WordPress theme or plugin.

For example, WooCommerce says its own WooCommerce.com subscriptions auto-renew by default. If one expires, the extension remains installed but no longer receives updates or support. WooCommerce also warns that the renewal price may differ from the original purchase (WooCommerce subscription guidance). That is evidence about WooCommerce.com subscriptions only.

For each paid extension on your site, inspect that seller's current terms. Record what the licence covers, who owns it, whether it is connected to this site and what stops or changes after expiry. Do not assume that an installed extension will remain safe, compatible or supported.

If a developer supplied an extension through a studio account, ask whether it can be transferred and what must happen afterward. WooCommerce's own transfer process, for example, moves ownership and future billing after acceptance but does not automatically reconnect the site; the new owner must reconnect it for updates and support (WooCommerce transfer guidance). Other sellers may use different rules.

Extension acceptance check

Record the exact product and seller, the account or licence owner, the connected site, the next renewal or expiry, and a dated link to the applicable terms. If any of those fields is unknown, keep the row open instead of inventing a standard "plugin renewal" rule.

Include connected services that can break the customer journey

A WordPress dashboard will not necessarily show every external service on which the website depends. Review the real customer journey and add the connected providers you find.

For a service business, this can include a form-delivery service, appointment system, payment provider, map or review feed, email sender, consent tool or image licence. Inclusion here does not mean all these tools are required. The question is narrower: which current service would stop, change or lose support if this particular account expired?

For every connected service, name the website function, the account owner and a safe test. A visible form is not proof that an enquiry reached the intended receiver; keep form delivery and renewal status as related but distinct checks.

Use a dated evidence check

Open each provider account without changing settings and retain a dated invoice, renewal screen or terms link. Mark the row as verified on that date. If information is unavailable, write unknown and assign someone to resolve it.

A useful quarterly check is:

1. Filter the register for renewals in the next 90 days.
2. Confirm the account owner and renewal-notice contact still work with the business.
3. Confirm the billing route without copying payment credentials into the register.
4. Check the provider's current expiry and transfer terms.
5. Decide to renew, replace, transfer or retire the dependency.
6. Record the decision, evidence date and person responsible for the next check.

Auto-renew reduces one kind of missed deadline, but it does not prove that the payment method, notice address, plan or product is still right. Treat it as a field to verify, not a substitute for ownership.

A hypothetical first-year renewal register

Imagine a small physiotherapy practice with a self-hosted WordPress site. Its domain is registered in the business owner's account, hosting is in a studio-managed account, and a booking plugin is licensed to the former developer. This is a hypothetical example, not a WPShip customer story.

The two open rows do not prove the website is broken or unsafe. They identify missing evidence before a renewal or provider change forces the decision. Once the evidence is available, the owner can make a bounded choice: renew, replace, transfer or retire.

Make renewals part of the build scope

Ask these questions before accepting a website proposal:

• Which recurring third-party products will the website depend on?
• Which items are included in the build, and for how long?
• Which accounts will the business control?
• Who receives each renewal notice?
• What is the handover or replacement path?
• Which maintenance work is separate from the renewal itself?

Use WPShip's website quote guide to compare build scope without treating a headline price as the whole cost. Then attach the renewal register to the handover record so the answer survives beyond launch.

If you are planning a WordPress build, ask WPShip to confirm your project scope and bring the accounts you already own, the functions the site must support and any renewal responsibilities you want clarified. Before work begins, confirm the scope, exclusions and price for your specific project. This project conversation is not a promise that hosting, maintenance or every third-party renewal is included.

The answer to "what do I need to renew?" belongs in a current list of dependencies, owners, dates, evidence and next actions for your specific site. There is no universal number.

Sources

• WordPress.org: Hosting WordPress
• WordPress.com: Manage purchases, renewals and cancellations
• ICANN: Domain name renewals and expiration
• WooCommerce: Auto-renewal, cancellation and refunds
• WooCommerce: Transfer a subscription