GoDaddy Logo

GoDaddy

star star star star star_border

Author: Jenna Vasquez

LAST UPDATED: February 23rd, 2022

Former USMC veteran Bob Parsons founded GoDaddy in 1997. Specializing in domain registry and reselling, GoDaddy also offers multiple services, including managed hosting, website building, email integration, and other web-driven services. With more than 60 million domains under management, GoDaddy currently has more than 14 million customers around the world.

GoDaddy is known for its excellent customer service and has a large variety of domains available for purchase. Each domain type comes with its own yearly price, but bullk pricing is also available. The company provides security features with its domains and has a mobile app to help users manage their online presence.

Go Directly to GoDaddy Reviews

thumb_up

The Good

  • Price
  • Other TLD prices
  • Number of TLDs available
  • Bulk price
  • Security features
  • Mobile app
  • Customer support
  • ICANN accreditation

Price

If you want to purchase a .com domain with Go Daddy, it will cost $11.99/year. The one thing notorious about GoDaddy's prices is that the first year's price is very low and balloons up to a higher price the following year, locking customers in to the higher price. (Currently that higher price averages at $14.99-$15.99/year). All domains come with the following:

  • Simple domain set up - no technical skills required
  • Easy domain forwarding to any existing website
  • Up to 100 subdomains to customize your site
  • 100 professional email aliases

Compared to other domain name companies, both of GoDaddy's prices are in line with most domain registrars in the industry.

Other TLD Prices

For additional Top-Level Domains, such as .org, .net, .co, .info, etc., GoDaddy charges an average of $11.99/year. Different extensions have different perks included. For example a .net TLD costs $14.99/year and includes free domain parking, automatic domain parking, total DNS control, change of registration option and status alerts. 

Other domains that are available include .shop, .io, .health, .world, and more at varying prices.

Number of TLDs Available

According to one of GoDaddy's Live representatives, when asked how many Top-Level Domains (TLDs) they offer, the answer was "A LOT". Upon further research, it appears GoDaddy offers hundreds of domains. Some companies only offer around 100 different TLDs and a few offer over 500, making GoDaddy on par with the average domain registration company.

GoDaddy also offers personal domains that can be used for a variety of reasons. Personal domains can be used as a resume or portfolio website as well as point users to social networking pages. A personal domain is also useful in creating a professional email address from that domain name.

Bulk Price

Customers purchasing a large number of domain names are offered the option of signing up for GoDaddy's Domain Discount Club. The Domain Discount Club discounts the price you pay for bulk domains, but it also includes revenue-generating extras like CashParking Premium and a GoDaddy Auctions membership. GoDaddy's discount program offers a percentage ranging from 16% to 40% off particular domain names. The discount percentage depends on the extensions, # of domains, and # of years on the domain. GoDaddy does not have responsive links to the discount pricing page information, so it is not available. Some domain companies offer a discount pyramid, where you get 10% off for 100 domains and so forth.

Security Features

GoDaddy offers customers security features for their domains. They can get WHOIS privacy, which hides their personal information on the public WHOIS database, which is $7.99/year for each domain and $14.99/year for additional privacy and Business protection. Business protection includes protected registration to prevent accidental domain expiration or malicious transfer, certified domain seal to show visitors your domain is valid and a Business Registration Card to show viewers in the WHOIS directory. GoDaddy's $7.99/year fee is less than the industry average of $9.99/year.

Mobile App

GoDaddy is one of the very few companies who offer an app for mobile customers with Apple or Android devices. The app is free and has a 4+ iOS rating and a 4.1 Android rating. The GoDaddy app offers:

  • Ability to check email, find great domains and manage your online presence from anywhere.
  • Register and manage domains with DNS control, forwarding, nameserver management, and renewal.
  • Send and receive Go Daddy email in our Mobile Workspace mail client.
  • Manage Dedicated and Virtual Dedicated Servers, Email accounts, Online Store order, Hosting essentials, account settings, and Online Files.
  • Search, browse, track, bid, make an offer, and purchase domains in the GoDaddy Auctions Domain Name Aftermarket.
  • Renew your products, and receive notifications about upcoming expirations.
  • Learn more about tools: Hosting, Web Builder, SSL Certificates, Email, Shopping Cart, Servers, and more
  • Save time with our remember account features and express checkout.
  • Look-up WHOIS domain registration information

Customer Support

Go Daddy is known for its 24/7 customer support and is arguably the best in the industry. Throughout their website, "Help" options appear everywhere on the website, from the header to the footers of all website pages. They have a Live Chat window (which pops up excessively on every page while you're visiting their site-which can get annoying). However, their Live Chat is really live in contrast to some domain companies have "live chats" that function as email support tickets. There is also a GoDaddy Help page, where common questions are asked and answered by GoDaddy representatives in the comment section. Unlike many domain registrars, GoDaddy does not have email support. They pride themselves on being a "live" support provider.

ICANN Accreditation

Yes

Visit Site

thumb_down

The Bad

  • ICANN fees
  • Cross selling
  • Simple domain transfer policies

ICANN Fees

GoDaddy's mandatory ICANN fee of 18 cents is indicated on their website. While most domain name providers include this fee in their advertised cost, GoDaddy tells customers this through a small print notice at the bottom of their home pages. Although the fee is only 18 cents, it does change the advertised price and puts off some customers. Some domain registrar companies add on ICANN fees at the check out and those companies that have these fees scored lower than those that didn't. Other companies fail to mention whether or not they had those fees included.

Cross Selling

GoDaddy is infamous for its upsells during the checkout process. They offer 5 upsells, 4 of which are the full contents of one of the checkout pages as you scroll down for the button to click to the next page. GoDaddy has improved from years ago when they assaulted customers with aggressive, annoying upsell pop-ups throughout the checkout process. Compared to the majority of domain registration companies, GoDaddy annoys users with their aggressive upselling techniques, making consumers go through several additional screens of sales pitches in order to buy a domain name.

Simple Domain Transfer Policies

Customers wanting to transfer their domains to another registrar will find that the term "how to transfer a domain away from Go Daddy" comes up on Google's first page. They offer a detailed information page with step by step instructions. The process, GoDaddy says, takes 10 days to complete. This is longer than the average 5-7 day timeframe most companies promise customers. Additionally, GoDaddy customers are not eligible to transfer a domain for a 60-day period after the following events:

  • Registering or transferring a domain name
  • Updating the registrant contact's organization
  • Updating the registrant contact's first or last name and an organization is not listed

Customers also cannot transfer a domain for a 10-day period after changing their domain from one GoDaddy account to another using their Account Change Process. GoDaddy generously answers questions posed in the comment section on the external transfer instruction page on their website. The overall conclusion is that GoDaddy may be "creating delays" with long wait periods to avoid losing business.

gavel

The Bottom Line

GoDaddy is famous for its low introductory prices for domain names and excellent 24/7 customer support. Customers should be aware the price they sign up for will increase at the end of the first year. (The higher prices are still manageable at the locked-in rate of $14.99-$15.99/year). They're also one of the very few companies who offer an app for mobile customers with Apple and Android devices. GoDaddy is ICANN accredited. While the company is infamous for a large number of upsells during checkout, the amount of different domains available and competitive first year pricing make GoDaddy a worth a look when searching through domain registrars. 

Was this content helpful?
thumb_up Yes thumb_down No

Star Rating

info

4.1

star star star star star_border

109 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

52%

4 grade

22%

3 grade

15%

2 grade

4%

1 grade

7%

Sentiment Criteria

Value

star star star star star_half

Quality

star star star star star_border

Service

star star star star star_border

Trustworthiness

star star star star star_half
cancel
info
star star_border star_border star_border star_border

Tom Chicago, IL

At renewal Godaddy is trying to charge me €15.99 in Euros while I am in the United States! The amount should be $14.99 but they not only increased it by $1 or €1 vbut also are trying to rip me off by charging in €uros or British Pounds! And this is with a Promo Code! Plus, they also charge me extra for Taxes and Fees that they did not charge before! What a way to treat a long time customer. They want to make sure I will transfer my domains to another registrar! Also, as soon as I added my domain names into the renewal cart Godaddy moved the renewal date for all of my domains 19 days back which means now I will be paying for one year but receive not 365 days but only 346 days of their service! Godaddy were trying to rip me off for many years now, but lately their game has become more like a fraud or a scam rather than a domain registrar. This is not the way to treat a customer of almost 2 decades! Read FORBES article about crooked deals and ripoffs of Godaddy.

8 years ago

star star_border star_border star_border star_border

Amy Celeste Kennedy Gilmer, TX

I have been using godaddy for over two years as I signed up originally for a promo package advertising a special rate which was honored. I then one year later was shocked when I was charged a huge increase (through apparent auto billing that I was unaware of - and I probe didn't read the fine print so that I will accept blame for as well) Where I got duped was signing up for a few more sites when I saw a commercial on tv for getting a "free human" with the purchase of website. I never got that "free human" to assist me but more like a different saleman every time I called in to get helpline promised. Every problem I had they came back with a (paid)solution (meaning I would have to pay for my problem to be solves) Their transparency (due to COMPLETE LACK OF TRANSPARENCY!) would receive a score of 0 from me. Their web builder is basically the same as everyone elses . Now I have 5-6 sites (correction: WEB ADDRESSES that I grossly mistaken for websites ) that I have paid for and only one that actually has a website builder and its one I don't even need the builder for as I pay another company $100 a month for their website(which is needed as I am a car dealer and they manage my inventory uploads from my dealer management software) so i basically have a website builder thru godaddy on the one site I actually forward to another service as its my company's legal name .com and comes up on google search or I would've eliminated it as I don't even use that long name on advertisements due to length ) and 5 mire web addresses that I bought thinking they would be actual sites but they aren't anything besides addresses with no hosting or site builder and the only way i can get help is to pay for it- my "free human" (aka pay per use to me) is apparently signed to so many people that they are never available and so I get redirected to a sales dept. I guess possibly i am responsible for not researching what was in front and guilty for l=believing a salesman trying to make a sale and saying whatever necessary to obtain said sale. Salesman have bad reputations for this exact reason. Being the owner of a dealership I have had many years experience in sales and companies like Godaddy are an embarrassment to the profession of (HONEST) sales. Lesson learned. Also, the pries they quote are mostly yet they debit my credit card annually... why not be honest and tell me that the rate you are quoting is multiplied by 12? Unhappy customer looking for web hosting and website building for a non technical person trying to create site for credit repair company, auto loans and affiliate services. Thats how I actually ended up here on this site.

10 years ago

star star_border star_border star_border star_border

Never Daddy Orlando, FL

Don't say no one ever told you so. I never leave reviews, but they suck. CS Bad. Products Bad. Always trying to cross-sell. I'm done with them. Oh yeah, was their web builder so crappy they had to bring in another company? Just sayin do your homework before dealing with Godaddy. Maybe less of those masochistic ads and possibly they can keep their high prices down. If you really wanna look at that stuff, there is free porn; this is the internet anyway.

9 years ago

star star_border star_border star_border star_border

J Mack Tampa, FL

They have screwed up my account multiple times causing me to lose domain names and other products like email after repeatedly asking them to keep all the products in my account on auto-renew. Very unfriendly customer service. Supervisors very rude on both occasions i had to speak with them about this. It' is bad when the customer has to be the diplomatic one. I am switching from GoDaddy asap.

10 years ago

star star_border star_border star_border star_border

Eliza Anne Jones Provo, UT

While GoDaddy used to be my favorite website builder, it has become very outdated. The software is difficult to use and looks old fashioned. There are not any modern looking templates to update my website, so I have to do things manually and it takes forever. Adding pictures to my website is also a pain and takes way longer than it should. GoDaddy's customer service is great, however, I wish they would update their software and templates to be up with the times.

7 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star_border star_border star_border star_border

wanda Saint George, UT

GoDaddy was a waste of time and money with a support team who knows nothing. it takes forever for my page to load, when i had questions i would call and be on hold for more than an hour. When you finally speak with someone they don't know how to fix the problem or answer your question, instead they try to sell you something. totally taste of time and money.

8 years ago

check_circle

Review Source

star star_border star_border star_border star_border

Hunter Kasprzyk Gilbert, AZ

Go daddy looks very good at the beginning for setting up a website because they have packages that are really cheap for the first month or year of your website but once that period is over the price skyrockets and you are pressured into paying high fees because you dont want your website to get shut down.

8 years ago

star star_border star_border star_border star_border

eunj ,

Terrible costumer service and policy. Upset to say that my money wasn't worth the output.

6 years ago