If you want to stop using ArtSites, this article explains how to close your website and what happens to it, your content and your domain name.
How to close your website
There is nothing in your admin for closing a website. Contact us and say you want to close it. We confirm the date it ends.
If you pay monthly through PayPal, cancelling the subscription in your PayPal account also counts as notice. Telling us as well helps us close your account promptly.
Letting a website go unpaid is not the same as closing it. That gives you a suspended website, which stays set aside for you to renew. If you are leaving, tell us.
What happens to your website
Your website stays online until the end of the period you have paid for, and we do not bill you again. After that it is no longer published, and your access to the admin ends.
We then archive your website. We keep archived websites, and if you return we should be able to bring yours back. We do not guarantee to keep an archive forever, so keep your own copies of your artwork and text.
What happens to your domain name
Your domain name is a separate matter from your website. We may not be able to get it back once it is released, even if we can restore your website.
When your membership ends, we stop renewing the domain names we manage for you. A name that is not renewed is released, and once it is released anyone can register it. People who buy up lapsed names often take ones that had visitors. They may fill the address with ads or unrelated content, or ask a high price to sell it back to you.
If you may want the name again, or you do not want someone else using it, keep it. Ask us to help you move it to another registrar before your membership ends. We urge you to let us manage your domain name while you are with us, because a name that lapses by accident, or one changed without us knowing, causes the most trouble. For more, see Your Domain Name.
If you have email at your domain name
Closing your website also stops the email addresses at your domain name. Move anything you want to keep out of those mailboxes before the date we confirm.