moving domains from one registrar to another?

sneakyimp

I have a few domains registered through godaddy.com and they are coming due for renewal. Godaddy is charging me about $15/yr each. This seems really high. Is there any way to move these domains to another registrar? Does anyone have advice about a good, reliable, cheap registrar I could use?

NogDog

I don't know who's cheapest, but beware: the cheapest are usually the ones where they end up owning the domain name instead of you, so make sure you're not being tricked into giving up ownership of it before making any switch.

sneakyimp

Yeah I don't want to get the cheapest necessarily, I'm just a bit put off by the fact that
a) it cost half as much to renew last time
b) new registrations are about half as much

Just to be clear, I have these domains hosted on a dedicated server with all the tools I need. I don't need cpanel or anything like that. I ONLY need to make sure they stay registered and that they point to my server.

laserlight

Just to be clear, I have these domains hosted on a dedicated server with all the tools I need. I don't need cpanel or anything like that. I ONLY need to make sure they stay registered and that they point to my server.

Actually, I think that it is good practice to keep your domain name registrar/reseller and your web hosting provider distinct. That way, if you have a problem with one of the two, switching would be somewhat easier.

You can plow through the list of ICANN-Accredited Registrars until you find one that looks good enough for you and yet is cheap enough for you. Admittedly, I am not using such a registrar now as I switched over to a slightly cheaper reseller who offered me the use of their domain name servers at a time when I was trying out hosts that did not... only to settle on a host that offered me the same :o

Davidc316

15 dollars a year strikes me as being a fair price.

For all the hastle you get when you switch, my advice would be just to stick with them. I'm quite sure that there are indeed hosts who charge much less, but a lost of the "cheaper" host are willing to take a hit on domain fees just so that they can nail you on webhosting fees.

I totally recommend that you just stick with them... and if they make a make a few extra bucks from you then it's alright- right now the economy needs it and you can sleep comfortably knowing you've done your bit!

-David

laserlight

Davidc316 wrote:
I'm quite sure that there are indeed hosts who charge much less, but a lost of the "cheaper" host are willing to take a hit on domain fees just so that they can nail you on webhosting fees.

Generally, there is no need to switch web hosting provider when one switches domain name registrar/reseller.

nrg_alpha

sneakyimp;10889326 wrote:
I have a few domains registered through godaddy.com and they are coming due for renewal. Godaddy is charging me about $15/yr each. This seems really high.

You think $15 / Year is high? Try Network Solutions. Those guys charge $34.00 / year! (The first year might be cheaper (to entice you to go with them), but from there on out, it's over double GoDaddy's).

I would definitely stick with GoDaddy personally. As someone else mentioned, it's a fair price (especially compared to what some out there charge!). And also as others have said..I would be very weary of registrars that are too cheap!

bpat1434

I use godaddy as the registrar for all my domian names. I used to use Network Solutions for a domain when they were cheaper than GoDaddy. Renewal time came and I saw the price so I went back to GoDaddy with it. Can't beat 2 years of the domain for the price of one (pay for one year, get an extra year free with transfer).

I recently paid a little over $100 for 10 years of service with GoDaddy. Two good things come of this: (1) I don't have to worry about renewals for that domain for 10 years and (2) it brought the price down to $10 per year for the domain.

Think longitudinally and you'll have more wiggle room with price. Don't buy year to year, buy 2 or 3 year terms. If you don't like it, you can move it and most good registrars will honor the time you have left if you decide to move earlier than your renewal date.

schwim

About 30 of my domains are with GoDaddy, the rest with various other registrars and GoDaddy is around the lowest priced registrar I've ever come across(and I've come across a lot).

GoDaddy's customers' biggest gripe is their violation of ICANN policy, in regards to refusing domain transfers 60 days after purchase, renewal or contact info change.

The lesser of two evil's though. When I change nameserver info at GoDaddy, it gets changed. I moved 34 sites between two servers last month. All of GoDaddy NS changes went through, while about 25% of our other registrars' systems dropped the ball, causing the client sites to point to the old server, in spite of the requested change.

just some thoughts,
json

Elizabeth

I use dotster.com for my personal domain and other pet projects ... can't remember how cheap they are, but iirc they are quite competitive with godaddy and have been perfectly reliable thus far.

nrg_alpha

Elizabeth;10891548 wrote:
I use dotster.com for my personal domain and other pet projects ... can't remember how cheap they are, but iirc they are quite competitive with godaddy and have been perfectly reliable thus far.

Thanks for the heads up on that, Elizabeth. Good to know some comparable hosting solutions.

I use Godaddy's Economy plan for my site (simular to Dotster's Starter plan), and for price to features, I think Godaddy has a slight edge:

Godaddy------------------------------------Dotster
Economy Plan-------------------------------Starter Plan
1 year: $71.64------------------------------1 year: $71.40
10 Databases-------------------------------1 Database
300 GB Monthly transfer---------------------250 GB Monthly transfer
10 GB Space--------------------------------5 GB Space

But I know who I will switch to if I ever become unhappy with Godaddy 🙂

Again, thanks for the heads up!

Cheers,

NRG