Get your own domain
Buy a domain for your family at signup — registered in your name, with all the technical setup done for you.
Every Family Chat server comes with a free address like happy-otter.safechat.family. If you’d like something more personal — chat addresses like @mum:smith.family — you can buy a domain right at signup and we do all the setup for you.
How it works
During signup, choose Get your family its own domain, search for a name, and pick one from the list. .family endings are our favourite for, well, families — but plenty of others are available. The price is shown before you decide: a first-year registration fee at checkout, then a yearly renewal billed to the same card.
After payment we:
- Register the domain in your name. You are the legal owner (the registrant), not us. WHOIS privacy is enabled wherever the registry supports it.
- Set up all the technical plumbing. DNS, the Matrix well-known records, HTTPS — no setup steps on your side.
- Start your chat server with addresses on your new domain from day one.
The whole thing usually takes a few minutes. You can watch progress on the panel’s Domain page.
One thing you must do
Registration rules (ICANN) require the registry to verify your email address. You’ll get a verification email about your new domain — click the link in it. If it’s ignored for about 15 days, the registry suspends the domain and chat on it stops working.
What it costs
Domain prices vary by ending (.family, .com, .online, …) and are shown at signup before you commit. The renewal price is shown too, and renewals are billed automatically once a year — 30 days before the domain would expire, so there’s time to sort out a failed payment. You can see the renewal date and price any time on the Domain page.
If a renewal payment can’t be collected, your chat keeps working until the domain’s expiry date and we email you well beforehand. If the domain does expire, it’s released — and someone else could register it.
It’s really yours
The domain belongs to you, not to Family Chat:
- Transfer it away any time. The Domain page has an Email me the transfer code button; give that code to any registrar to move the domain. (After a transfer we can no longer manage its DNS or renewals for you.)
- Cancelling Family Chat doesn’t cancel your domain. The yearly domain renewal is a separate subscription and keeps running unless you cancel it too — your domain doesn’t quietly lapse because you stopped using the chat service.
If registration fails
Occasionally a domain gets registered by someone else in the moments between your search and your payment. If that happens we refund the registration fee automatically, start your server on a free safechat.family address so nothing is delayed, and email you — you can pick a different domain from the panel any time.
Questions
Anything unclear, email [email protected] ">[email protected] — happy to help.