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GoDaddy

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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.

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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

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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.

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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. 

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4.1

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109 Reviews

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52%

4 grade

22%

3 grade

15%

2 grade

4%

1 grade

7%

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Kari Bulin Belleville, NJ

The biggest problem I've found with GoDaddy is that their servers crash all the time due to too many websites being on them at once. Then, it's a hassle to get the website back up after it crashes. To some people, the price point makes it worth it, but for me, that is not something I enjoy.

10 years ago

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Steve

All the balloons, whistles and dancing bears when you register a new product for one year. I don't want to scare the children, but just wait until next year when you need to renew your domain. You have been warned!

11 years ago

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Craig Orem, UT

GoDaddy.com is just alright. I have used multiple website builders and they are the worst one I have used. Their templates aren't great and the price is fairly high. Not a terrible option but I would recommend another option before choosing GoDaddy.com.

7 years ago

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Brennan Orem, UT

Not a good product put simply. I tried to use GoDaddy for a previous website. It was hard to use and the templates weren't great. I have since used another website builder which has shown me just how bad GoDaddy was. I wouldn't use again.

7 years ago