Network Solutions is one of the oldest names in domains, and a lot of businesses have been there since the days when it was the only registrar. That history is exactly why leaving feels risky: the domain, the hosting, the email, and fifteen years of auto-renewals are all tangled together in one account. The way through is the same as with any host. Move the site first, then cancel. But Network Solutions has a few particulars that make the sequence and the timing matter more than usual.

Everything below about their process links to Network Solutions' own help and policy pages and is accurate as of September 2026.

Two things to know before you start

Cancellation is not self-service. Network Solutions' cancellation help page says to contact their support team by phone or chat to cancel services. There is no cancel button. That means you need to plan for a support conversation, keep a record of it, and confirm in writing that the cancellation went through.

The refund window is short. Their published terms allow no refunds after three calendar days on a new purchase, no refunds on yearly auto-renewals after 30 days from the renewal date, and no refunds at all on monthly terms. Everything renews automatically at the then-current rate unless canceled first. So the single most valuable thing you can do today, before any migration work, is open the Renewal Center and note when each product renews and whether auto-renew is on.

Step 1: Inventory the account

List every active product with its renewal date. Typically:

  • Hosting. The site itself. Note whether it is standard hosting with FTP and a database, WordPress hosting, or their website builder. This decides whether the site can be moved or has to be rebuilt.
  • Domains. Often several, registered years apart. Each renews separately. Note which ones the business actually uses.
  • Email. If mail runs through Network Solutions, it is a separate product from hosting and needs its own plan, usually a move to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
  • Add-ons. Private registration, SSL, security, and marketing packages, each billing on its own.

Step 2: Take a complete copy of the site

On standard hosting, download the full web root over FTP or SFTP and export the database. On WordPress hosting, take a full-site backup that packages files and database together. Store it somewhere that is not Network Solutions.

If the site was built in their website builder, understand up front that proprietary builders do not export to a format another host can run. The text and images can be saved, but the site itself will be rebuilt. For most businesses that have been there a long time, that is not the loss it sounds like.

Step 3: Stand the site up on the new host first

This is what makes the move invisible to visitors. The copy goes onto the new server under a temporary address and gets fully tested there: every page, every form, the shop if there is one, the contact email. Network Solutions keeps serving the live site the whole time. A day or two before the switch, lower the DNS time-to-live on the domain records so the eventual change propagates in minutes, and make sure the new host has an SSL certificate ready for the domain.

Step 4: Point the domain at the new host

Change DNS, keep the domain where it is. The quickest and least risky path. In the account manager, update the A record for the domain (and the CNAME for www) to the new server. With a short TTL, traffic moves within minutes. The domain and its renewal stay at Network Solutions for now.

Transfer the domain away. Worth doing eventually, given renewal pricing, but do it after the site is stable on the new host. In the account manager, turn off the transfer lock for the domain, turn off private registration if it is on, and request the authorization code, which is sent to the registrant email on file. Then start the transfer at the new registrar. Two rules apply everywhere: a domain cannot transfer within 60 days of registration, a prior transfer, or a change of registrant contact, and the transfer takes up to about a week. Make sure the registrant email on the domain is one you can still read, because that is where the approval goes.

Do not let any domain expire while this is in progress. An expired domain takes the website and the email down at the same time.

Step 5: Cancel the hosting, on the phone, on the record

Once the site has been live on the new host for a few days, call or chat with Network Solutions support and cancel the hosting product. The number and chat link are on their cancellation page. A few practical points:

  • Be specific about which product you are canceling. Say hosting, and say the domains stay, if that is the plan. You do not want the domains canceled by accident.
  • Ask whether the hosting ends immediately or at the end of the paid term, and whether any prorated refund applies. If you were auto-renewed on a yearly term within the last 30 days, ask for that refund explicitly.
  • Ask for a confirmation number or email, and keep it.
  • Afterward, check the Renewal Center to confirm the product is gone and that auto-renew is off on anything you are letting lapse.

Then turn off each add-on from the Step 1 list the same way.

Step 6: The week after

Confirm forms deliver, email flows, the SSL padlock shows on the new host, old URLs redirect where they should, and Google Search Console reports the new server cleanly. Keep the backup from Step 2 for a month.

Why the renewal math matters here

Network Solutions is now part of Newfold Digital, the same parent company as Bluehost, HostGator, and a long list of other hosting brands, and its pricing model leans on introductory rates that step up on renewal. Their own domain pricing page shows the gap between first-year and renewal pricing. If you have been a customer for years, you are paying renewal prices on everything, which is usually the real reason people find this article. We wrote about the consolidation itself in The Illusion of Choice.

What this looks like when we do it

RT7 Media is a Northern Virginia web studio, and moving long-standing sites off Network Solutions is a job we know well. When a site comes onto one of our managed plans, the migration is part of onboarding: we take the copy, stage it on our servers in Ashburn, test it with you, switch DNS at a time you choose, and handle the domain and email details along the way. We will also sit through the cancellation call with you if you want a second set of ears. The site is never down. Afterward it lives on servers we own and manage, backed up offsite nightly, monitored, and kept updated, and support is a person who already knows your site.

WordPress Essential is $600 a year, about $55 a month, and a static site is $300. Add up what Network Solutions is charging you at renewal rates for hosting, domains, private registration, SSL, and email before deciding that is expensive.

Common questions

Can I cancel Network Solutions online?

Not as of this writing. Their help page directs cancellations to phone or chat support. Turning off auto-renew in the Renewal Center is self-service and is the first thing to do.

Will canceling hosting affect my domain?

No, as long as you cancel only the hosting product. Domains renew and bill separately. Be explicit on the call about what stays.

Can I get a refund?

Only within the windows in their terms: three days on a new purchase, 30 days on a yearly auto-renewal, and none on monthly terms. Outside those, turn off auto-renew and let the term run out.

My site is in the Network Solutions website builder. Can it move?

The content can. The site itself cannot be exported to another host and gets rebuilt. Budget for that, and treat it as the upgrade it usually turns out to be.

Leaving GoDaddy instead? That guide is here.

Tell us about your site and we will plan the move →

Network Solutions is a trademark of Network Solutions, LLC. RT7 Media is not affiliated with or endorsed by Network Solutions or Newfold Digital. Policies cited above are accurate as of September 2026 and link to Network Solutions' own pages for the current version.