Domain Registrar Comparison: Google Domains vs GoDaddy

Websites are arguably the modern-day storefront. From individual brands to businesses, anyone with a great idea can have their site put up online. As long as you've got your conceptual stuff down, the only thing left for you to do is to register that domain name.

The thing is, a lot of people forget that domains are not as simple as designing one and waiting for it to go online. It needs IP addresses to tell your domain visitor where to go and a domain name to make it easier to find your site, which can both be achieved through a competent domain registrar.

In this domain registrar review, we'll be comparing two of the most popular domain name registrars in the business.

Choosing the Best Domain Registrar

These days, having an online presence in one way or another is pretty much a necessity for businesses and brands. While smaller businesses might be able to survive off of social media accounts, at the end of the day, buying a domain name for a website is still the best option and solidifies your brand.

But not all registrars operate the same way, nor with the same efficiency and security. With that said, domain registrars Google Domains and GoDaddy have both excelled in the industry as two of the most reliable domain registrars available.

Google Domains vs GoDaddy

Google Domains is a relatively young player in the industry. Launched in 2015 as a beta version, the service remains to be in some form of testing. Despite this, Google has been dabbling in the world of domain names and domain name registrars since 2004.

GoDaddy, on the other hand, boasts of its two-decade experience in the industry. Of course, you can expect the price per year to reflect that but otherwise, you should be able to get what you pay for. Services are similar to Google but have a few of their own unique ones as well, most notably Auctions.

Additionally, for Google, web hosting services are not really part of their catalog. They instead make use of partnerships with a variety of website builders and web hosts that allow the buyer to get started.

Conversely, GoDaddy will make things a little easier with their service GoCentral. GoCentral is their easy-to-use website builder that can help users set up a domain in a few hours.

Obviously, we can't leave things at that. We'll help you choose what domain registrar to go with and cover a few of their more important differences.

Privacy Protection

Domain privacy is one of the details that businesses online should keep in mind. After all, with all the information your website is privy to, you'll want to make sure that all forms of sensitive information are kept private.

The thing is, a lot of information is readily available to the public thanks to the WHOIS information on your website. This includes your name, phone number, and email address. This is in no way the fault of the service in charge of web hosting.

Google enforces a reliable privacy protection scheme once you register a domain name with a free SSL certificate among other things. Basically, WHOIS privacy should be easily attainable as Google offers that as a free privacy option.

On the other hand, GoDaddy sees your privacy and protection as additional services. After you buy a domain name, business owners will have to subscribe to their privacy service which is charged annually.

DNS Servers

The DNS is the Domain Name System. Think of it as the YellowPages of the web with the IP address as the home address. Considering the fact that the domain registrar is in charge of this process, you will want to ensure that they can reliably take care of all things related to DNS with your domain.

Google offers a variety of options on their domain management panel and customer service pages for users who are concerned about DNS matters. Some options are:

  • DNSSEC - DNS Security for domains
  • Cloud DNS (Free) - DNS on the Cloud with added scalability for domain traffic and improved DNS resolution
  • DNS Export - Easily transfer DNS records for uploading in other DNS servers

On the other hand, GoDaddy uses its established network to publish your DNS details on multiple DNS servers to ensure maximum domain searchability. They assure this service with a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which gives the end-user quick access during a domain search.

Authentication

Authentication is another concern that has been plaguing many online businesses. Of course, you should be able to expect the best domain name registrar to be able to provide some level of assurance. After all, domain registration should work for both the end-user and the service.

On Google's side of the plate, you can expect 2 main options for site authentication on your new domain. Of course, while the most popular option is the two-step authentication, Google offers as far as three-steps. This is meant to give the end-user added peace of mind.

For GoDaddy, these things are part and parcel after you register a domain. With that, the industry standard for authentication is well respected with these two domain registrars.

Email Forwarding

One of the main reasons people use domains for their brand is to better reach their customers, right? With that said, you should make sure that there is some sort of contact available through your domain.

Google's experience in email hosting lends itself to their domain name registrar service. After domain registration, domain buyers can expect around 100 email aliases that are forwarded to a personal or third-party account to be made available to the domain owner.

As for GoDaddy, the pattern is respected in that this service comes at a cost. With a certain fee per year, domain buyers can get subscriptions to professional email accounts with 5 gigabytes worth of storage.

Additional Resources

When it comes to choosing the best domain registrar, things should be taken seriously. Take some time to read more about domain registrars through these links.

PCMag

PCMag is pretty much an all-around online magazine that covers a variety of tech-related topics. You can read more about the basics of domain names, web hosting, and a host of other topics on their website.

The best domain registrars excel at the industry standards. If you want to learn more about putting up your own website, domain registration, domain renewal, and a host of other website-related topics, visit Page Kits today!

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