Connecting vs. transferring domains in Squarespace

I always see so much confusion and the wrong language being used when designers talk or ask questions about domains. A lot of designers will talk about “transferring” a client’s domain, where really they should be talking about “connecting” a clients domain.

So what’s the difference?

CONNECTING A DOMAIN

Is connecting the domain from it's third party provider (GoDaddy, Bluehost etc) to the Squarespace website.

Note: If the clients domain is hosted on Squarespace then there is only the option to connect.

TRANSFERRING A DOMAIN

Is transferring the domain from being hosted on it's third party provider (GoDaddy, Bluehost etc) to be hosted on Squarespace & connecting it to the Squarespace site.

Squarespace will try to trip you up when you go to do the domain by saying "transferring" is the preferred method and that's because they will make money from that! There is rarely a reason to transfer a domain to be hosted on Squarespace unless the client asks to change their domain host provider to Squarespace.

So most likely all you need to do is connect!