Transferring domain registration from GoDaddy to Google Domains NZ and saving money

My first foray into the world of blogging was via Google’s Blogger blogging platform all the way back in 2007! I was up and running online with a .blogspot.com domain name which served me well for a couple of years or so. Lessons were learnt along the way which included learning a bit of HTML, CSS, SEO, getting traffic and so on.

The journey eventual got to a point where (with Blogger), I couldn’t really get the right look and feel and functionality. After doing some research and weighing out the pros and cons of various content management systems, I settled on WordPress. This meant amongst other things, registering a domain name.

That said, I went with GoDaddy to register my first domain name. At the time, they were running an offer of US$8.67 for the first year. When the time came to renew the domain, the price had gone up to US$16.99 for a year and ever since, it has been slowly creeping up. Once upon a time, discounts codes for renewals were available and could be used to bring down the cost by a decent amount. But that is no longer the case.

To add to that, a couple of my domain names have privacy protection which used to come at a cost with GoDaddy and that just about doubled the cost of renewal. A large portion of registrars now offer free privacy protection so GoDaddy had to follow suit in order to stay in the game. But, they added another product, Full Domain Privacy & Protection (which comes at a cost), a product that I am not convinced is worth the while (and cost).

Moving on from that, Google Domains has been up and running for a while now (the start of 2015) and was only available in a handful of countries at launch. A handful more have been added over the years and it finally became available in New Zealand earlier this year in February 2021.

The NZ launch came at the perfect time as three of my domains were up for renewal soon after at the following cost:

• 1 x .COM Domain Renewal 1 Year $26.99
• 1 x .NET Domain Renewal 1 Year $26.99
• 1 x .COM Domain Renewal 1 Year $26.99 with Full Domain Privacy and Protection – Renewal 1 Year $12.54 Subtotal (NZD) $39.53
• Subtotal to renew all three domains with GoDaddy = $93.51

With Google Domains, the cost came to $23 per .COM and .NET domain for one year for a subtotal of $69.00. This resulted in a saving of $24.51. Yes, for some, it may not seem like much, but, it is hard-earned money that I get to keep. It is essentially a LOYALTY TAX that I am no longer paying. Loyalty tax is something I will get into in a later post.

Why Google Domains

Yes, there are other cheaper domain registrars that I could have gone with but I went with Google for a number of reasons. These include but aren’t limited to:

• Under my Google account (one less password to remember and two-factor authentication for added security)
• Built-in integration and verification with other Google services such as Search Console and Workspace
• Free privacy protection
• Email and domain forwarding
• 24/7 support
• and more

I still have two more domains to transfer from GoDaddy where if they stayed with the current registrar, the cost would be:

• 1 x .COM Domain Renewal 1 Year $26.99
• 1 x .COM Domain Renewal 1 Year $26.99 with Full Domain Privacy and Protection – Renewal 1 Year $12.54 Subtotal (NZD) $39.53
• Subtotal to renew domains with GoDaddy = $66.52

Transferring these remaining domains will save me $20.52.

All in all, transferring all of my domains away from GoDaddy to Google Domains means that I don’t have to give away $45.03 for nothing. The money saved will be diverted towards other purposes be it paying down debt or investing.

If you have domain names, it might pay to look at your domain registrations costs and ask yourself;

• are you getting your moneys worth?
• are you paying for extras that you don’t need to be paying for (or could get free elsewhere)?
• is there a better and more cost effective option out there

Note: This is not to say that you should 100% stay away from GoDaddy for domain registration. As mentioned above, they often offer good deals to new customers. If for example, you want to test something out online, you are bootstrapping and need a domain they may be an option. Sign up for a year and if after a year, your venture is still going, simply transfer the domain just before it expires. If this is you, get going with up to 70% off a domain (for the first year) with GoDaddy.