There are also expedited processing options. The ones I saw last year weren't terribly expensive.
Edit: Fastest is 3 days, if you have emergency that qualifies. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fas...
> "Currently, the process requires filling out a renewal application called DS-82, providing a passport-sized photo, and calculating fees, plus tossing the current passport and potentially other identification papers in the mail. “It’s scary to mail in your [old] passport, marriage certificate, and other documents and hope you’ll get them back,” Rathner says."
You need to print the forms, staple a proper photo to them, and mail all your crap via USPS. The only thing you can do online is print the form (you can fill in the data first, but that's not the hard part).
When I hear "you can already do everything online" I think click submit and be done. You can't currently do that. It's barely a step above picking up the forms at USPS (where you have to go anyway).
In the right sidebar:
Passport Forms
DS-82: Renewal Application
Fill Out Online
It has you fill out the forms electronically, but all that does is put the text into the field which you then have to print, staple your photo to, and mail.
You can't submit anything online.
Not having to mail in your current passport is huge though. I hate being without a passport for the 2-3 months it currently takes, even if I have no travel planned (and what if I did?).
I don't know for sure what it was before that, since the last time I renewed was 10 years before that.
But being without a passport for even 2 weeks makes me nervous. It's a security blanket to know I have it to make last-minute international travel possible if necessary.
An online renewal where you don't have to send your old passport in and can keep it until your new arrives is a huge thing. (Granted, your old passport will probably become invalid at some point before you receive your new passport, but after it's actually been created. Still the time without a valid passport will be minimal).
I was actually amazed how efficient the system for passports was. I mailed in my old passport and a new photo, and in less than a week I had a brand new passport arrive in the mail. The process was actually pleasantly painless for me.