Transferring a Domain from GoDaddy
After some consideration and research, I have decided to slowly start switching my registered domains from GoDaddy to Gandi.net. I won’t go into all the reasons why not to use GoDaddy, though their cluttered interface and constant up selling are reasons enough. For plenty of information about GoDaddy and other registrars, check out NoDaddy.
Gandi is a French company. Their website is in English and French and they register all kinds of domains, including the usual top-level domains as well as .us, .name, etc. Domains are $15/year plus VAT, transfers are $12/each plus VAT. I did not see a discount for multi-year registrations. They do offer a reseller service.
I chose Gandi because their user-friendly policies. For example, Section 1 of their Domain Name Registration agreement says “Section 1–You are the owner of the domain name.” Plus their prices are reasonable, they offer full DNS control and their interface is uncluttered and for the most part easy to use (some translations are a little odd, however).
I’ve now registered two new domains with and transfered two using Gandi and have been pleased with the results. One transfer failed at first, but I emailed support and they resolved the issue within 24 hours.
Transferring domains from one registrar to another can be a problematic process. But it doesn’t have to be.
Below is the procedure I followed to transfer my domains away from GoDaddy without troubles:
- Make sure each of the following is set to off:
- Privacy
- Business Registration
- Domain Ownership Protection
- Turn privacy/private registration off.
- Make sure whois info is correct. This includes the owner, admin and technical contact. It is critical that these email addresses be accurate and accessible. Both your new registrar and GoDaddy will need to send emails to this account.
- Unlock the domain from the GoDaddy control panel.
- Request an authorization code from GoDaddy. This code will be emailed to your admin/technical contact.
- Go to your new registrar and initiate the transfer process. You will need to provide the domain name to be transfer and the authorization code provided by GoDaddy.
- The new registrar will send you an email asking you to accept or deny the transfer request. Follow the directions in the email to accept the request.
- After a bit of time GoDaddy will send you an email saying they have received the transfer request. This email might say you do not need to do anything to accept the transfer. This is not the case, see step 9 below.
- Go to the GoDaddy control panel and click on “Pending Transfers.” Accept the transfer.
- Wait for the new registrar to complete the transfer.
Your nameserver information will be transfer from your existing host to your new host. Or, at least it was when I transfered to Gandi. I was able to complete the above process in one day for most of my domains.