domain name registars and site renewals?
I'm starting a website and I'm planning to purchase the domain off GoDaddy.
It asks me how long I want to purchase the site for. I can pick 1 year, 2 year and 5 year etc.
At this point in time, I'm not sure how successful the site will be - it may be that it's not successful at all and I may abandon it. I'm thinking of just picking 1-2 years.
However, if it is successful, what's stopping GoDaddy from charging whatever they want for the renewal? Are there any rules governing how much they can charge to renew my site? Is it possible that once I've purchased with GoDaddy to renew my site with another registar?
I'm not actually too sure what GoDaddy does to be honest. Do they own all the non-registered sites on the Internet?
2 Answers
Renewal by definition is the same price or the normal price if the first was at a discount. Read the terms of services and contract !
In an even that you don't like their renewal's price you can have your domain transferred to another registrar.
For SEO the longer is the better, so I'd advise 5 years.
Nobody own non registered domains, of course.
Protip: never let your web host be the registrar
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why not let your registrar do the hosting? – Stickman 10 years ago
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Flexibility. Over the course of 5 years, yourdomain.com may start out with a shared host, then move to a vps or dedicated box. IMHO, it is easier to make these provider changes when the registrar is only supporting registar services, and not trying to incorporate all services. YRMV. – Jim Galley 10 years ago
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Also, based on personal experience, GoDaddy is not a good host to go with. They are fine as just a registrar though. – Ekoostik Martin 10 years ago
In short for what GoDaddy (& others registrars) does: No one owns a domain name. Nor the registered, nor the not registered. All the domain names are only "rented". GoDaddy is in charge of the technical part and administration (registration, administration, payments & co.)
Concerning the choice of the duration:
- you can always extend the period - even very year, that doesn't matter. Just pay attention that you do it on time (otherwise everybody will have the possibility to rent "your" domain)
- the price of new domain names is so low, that I don't see any reason to not purchasing for 5 years (at least if you have a serious project in your mind).
- you can "transfer" your domain from one registrar to another one at any time! That's really not a problem. But why would you do that? A part a difference of perhaps $5/year or more user friendly administration, I don't see the reason of that. Unless you have the webhosting at the same registrar. In webhosting, there can be huge differences. For domain name only there will be just minimal differences
