What To Expect When Buying Cheap Domains From Places Like Godaddy

Myself, I've purchased a number of domains by watching for one of my domain 'hopefuls' to open up then look for sales. But there are some things about buying cheap domains that someone new probably wouldn't know or think about.

It sounds easy to buy a cheap domain from one source then buy the hosting from another then easily merge the two. And it is, if you have time and are not in a hurry to get your site up quickly. Of course, if GoDaddy sells you a cheap domain they would really, really like it if you also purchased their hosting, so there will be a few hurdles between you, your new domain and your cheap hosting partner you may have your eyes on.

So just expect a delay, a waiting period to move/transfer your new domain name. If you've purchased say 3-4 years this may not be an issue or if you haven't finished building your site and content yet. But if you are new and only bought a one year domain - just know that some of your 'time' will be eaten up in 'cyber space'.

 

I don't think that's quite true. I have always bought "cheap" domains from Godaddy and since my early days I've been hosting my sites somewhere else. Godaddy has never made it any hard to point my domains to my host. All I've ever needed to do is point the nameservers to the right domain and that's all. The usual waiting time for the DNS to propagate the new nameservers is from 24 to 72 hours but that's the same for any domain registrar.

I've only had to transfer a domain from Godaddy to another registrar and that wasn't trouble either. All I have to do is pay the transfer fee (which wasn't expensive either).

 

Try namecheap. Much better support and prices

 

Namecheap and Godaddy both have similar prices. The only substantial difference I see between both is that Namecheap always includes private registration when buying a domain name and Godaddy offers it as an ad-on. Godaddy prices tend to be a little higher when getting both domain and private registration but it's fairly easy to find discount coupons for Godaddy so I have always paid less than what I would pay with Namecheap.

 

I have used both and can tell you 1st hand, namecheap is far better(subjective of-course). As a UK customer, namecheap don't charge EU VAT whereas godaddy charges. When renewal comes around, godaddy's prices jump through the roof! If you are very unlucky and your domain goes into the grace period, godaddy will charge you as much as 50£ to renew it!
One thing godaddy has going for it is phone support apart from that NOTHING!

 

Maybe it is because I have never had to deal with support with neither one. As for the renewal I have always been able to renew using a coupon so I've always saved a few bucks there too.

I know your opinion about namecheap being better is subjective, as is mine about Godaddy being a good registrar, but to tell you the truth yours is not the first opinion against Godaddy I've read so subjective or not maybe they aren't as good as I think.

 

I actually bought my domain name and hosting at hostgator. I think it's still fairly cheap and I love it that with hostgator I have a 24/24 support, which for me, makes up for paying a little bit more. I also took a look at godaddy and namecheap, but since I wanted to get hosting with hostigator I decided to get my domain name there too just to keep it simple, also the other sides seemed decent as well.

 

Godaddy only has phone customer support. Other than that is not that great. But it's one of the biggest and most used websites.

 

Part of the reason some domains are so cheap these days is because all the good names under that TLD have already been taken. What's left has little value, so the domain registrars had no choice but to offer these remnants at cutthroat prices. You'll typically find any new remaining dotcoms selling for 99 cent, but if you look at some of the newly released TLD's such as ".cheap" or ".insure", these all start out at around $35 - $60 each, and some cost a few hundred if they are deemed "premium" domains.

While I am not a fan of GoDaddy's hosting, I've found them to be pretty dependable for domain registrations. I would be more inclined to go with someone such as them, than some fly by night place which could close shop at any time and cause headaches with ownership of your domains with them. Also, in situations such as Private Registration, they are technically the owner of the domain when you do that, and I wouldn't want to be dealing with some shady company who starts playing hardball if my domain becomes popular, and wants to charge me extra fees to regain ownership of it.

That said, I would still encourage you to shop around if you are purchasing any expensive domain names, because GoDaddy does not always have the most competitive prices. I learned that a month ago when I tried to purchase a $400 premium domain from them and discovered the same domain was for sale elsewhere, for only $250. It was one of the new TLD's and flagged as a "premium" domain. But apparently GoDaddy and other registrars have different methodologies in how they determine these initial values.