GoDaddy is well-known for offering cheap domain names, alongside providing a wide array of web hosting services, but is it spreading itself too thin? Google Domains is run by the king of search engines, but does that make it a good fit for domain registration? What happens if you want more than just a domain name?
I compared these two giants on features, pricing, performance, and more. To cut a long story short, GoDaddy may be the better of the two overall, but neither are particularly great options. There are much better alternatives available for both domain registration and web hosting.
For example, Hostinger offers cheap and easy-to-manage domain name registration that can be automatically connected with its top-quality shared hosting plans. Check out Hostinger’s latest deals here, or keep reading to learn more about GoDaddy and Google Domains.
GoDaddy Has Great Initial Pricing But Raises Your Domain Fee
GoDaddy offers initially low prices on domain names. Many popular domain name extensions, such as .com, benefit from a huge discount for your first year. However, you can only take advantage of this deal if you purchase a 2-year plan or longer.
Once your first few years are up, you’ll lose this discount – and GoDaddy will renew your domain name for a significantly higher price.
Google Domains doesn’t offer any form of discount on your first few years, but prices are still reasonable. A major advantage of Google Domains is that you’ll pay the same price to renew as you did to register.
So, in short: GoDaddy is cheaper in the short term, whereas Google Domains offers better value in the long term. However, it’s worth noting that Hostinger offers a free domain name for the first year with its affordable Premium Shared Hosting plan.
Google Forwards Your Emails – GoDaddy Offers Email Services
One advantage of having your own domain is setting up a professional email address. Both Google Domains and GoDaddy allow you to give off a professional email presence, but how they work is starkly different.
With your Google Domains domain, you can create up to 100 email aliases that will forward to an email address of your choosing. By contrast, GoDaddy provides a truly professional email setup, but for a fee.
GoDaddy offers three email plans, with their smallest plan offering 5 GB of email storage along with the ability to sync email, calendars, and contacts across all your devices. For those who want a separate email plan rather than using Gmail or their personal email, this is a solid alternative but does incur a monthly fee.
GoDaddy Offers Website Hosting – Google Domains Gives Referrals
Google Domains offers a simple control panel allowing you to manage your domain and related services. You can control your DNS, website nameservers, email settings, and other general settings from one location. However, Google Domains doesn’t offer website hosting. They’re partnered with several website builders you can use to create your website, but that requires that you manually configure your hosting and Google Domains. There is Google Sites, but this is only really suitable for very basic websites – and configuring your domain to work with Google Sites is more complicated than it should be!
For those new to website building and domain management, GoDaddy makes things easier. During the signup process, you can opt-in for a free trial to GoDaddy’s site builder. Then, if you choose, you can sign up for a plan and use GoDaddy as your hosting provider.
If you do so, your domain is automatically added to and configured for your hosting plan – no technical tasks are required on your part.
One option with Google Domains is to use your domain name in conjunction with a website builder like Wix. In addition to a free plan (which you can’t use with a domain name of your own), Wix has plans starting at as little as $16.00, and it’s extremely beginner-friendly.
While Wix’s support team can’t actually point your Google Domains domain name to your Wix site for you, you can get help from the knowledgebase. Although most annual Wix plans include a free domain, purchasing your own domain is often cheaper than getting your domain name from Wix – plus you can pay monthly (great if you’re on a tight budget!).
If you prefer not to use a website builder, then you could sign up for one of GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting plans. If you pay for a year or more up front, you get a domain name free for the initial term of your hosting. The domain name will be automatically connected and configured for you.
However, GoDaddy’s WordPress plans are relatively expensive – if you’re looking for WordPress plans, you can easily get a better deal elsewhere. Check out our top-rated hosts for WordPress to learn more.
Google Domains Offers a Wider Variety of Support than GoDaddy
Google Domains outshines GoDaddy in the support arena. If you need help with an issue, you have multiple options for support. First, there are extensive help articles that cover most questions about Google Domains. And if you need additional help, you can contact a support agent 24/7 by live chat or email. You can even request to have a technician call you back.
GoDaddy also offers you multiple support options, but they’re not all 24/7. You can search their help documentation for answers, contact them via live chat, or you can give them a call. They have support lines in over 50 countries, and most with 24/7 support. Their live chat is available only on weekdays from 5am to 6pm U.S. Pacific Time.
Google Domains Is Great for Domain Name Registration – GoDaddy Is Better for Beginners
The decision of whether to go with Google Domains or GoDaddy boils down to your general needs and experience levels. Here’s a quick head-to-head comparison:
| Google Domains | GoDaddy | |
| Pricing | Reasonable pricing and no price hikes at renewal | Cheap .com domains, but significant price hike at renewal |
| 100 email aliases that point to your personal or third-party email | Paid email plans with a professional email address and 5 GB or more of storage | |
| Website Hosting | Does not offer website hosting; offers you partner services, or you can use Wix | Provides a range of hosting services, with a free trial for GoDaddy Website Builder at registration |
| Support | 24/7 live chat, email, or callback | 24/7 phone support, and live chat on weekdays from 5am to 6pm PT |
GoDaddy may be a better option if you’re looking for the easiest setup for your domain name and hosting plan, as it is automatically configured for GoDaddy’s web hosting services. There’s a free trial available for the site builder if you’d like to see if this option will work for you.
That said, Google Domains will save you the most money on your domain in the long-term, but as it does not offer web hosting, you will need to manually configure your domain for a third-party host.
However, Hostinger offers the best of both worlds: the best-performing budget web hosting we’ve ever tested, available with free domain registration for a year.
FAQ
Is Google Domains any good?Google Domains is great on a technical level. The free privacy features, steady pricing, and 24/7 support make Google Domains an ideal registrar for anyone who’s running a business. It’s also great for techy people in general, and provides features that the expert user will find handy. If you do decide to go with Google Domains and need hosting, check out our review of Hostinger, which is one of the best cheap hosts around.Are GoDaddy domains good?GoDaddy has been around for a long time and has proven to be a reliable source of domain names. While it does offer very cheap initial prices and an easy-to-use platform, it lacks value in the long run. Hostinger offers lower prices for domain names in the long-term, which can be automatically connected with its high-performance hosting. In fact, some plans include a free domain for the first year for even greater savings.Is Wix or GoDaddy better?GoDaddy’s main competitor in terms of website builders is Wix, which provides its own domain registration service. GoDaddy’s own site builder doesn’t quite live up to Wix, which offers several times more templates, hundreds of click-to-add apps, and better SEO tools. Additionally, a domain name with Wix will cost you less if you plan to use it for 2 or more years. For these reasons, I’d recommend Wix if you wish to use a site builder.Which is cheaper: Google Domains or GoDaddy?That depends on a variety of factors. While domain prices are semi-standardized, domains with popular keywords and letter combinations can be very pricey, to begin with. That said, there is one thing to take careful note of: GoDaddy generally provides cheaper initial prices, but that price can go up by a lot after the first year (or your chosen renewal period). With Google Domains, things are a bit more standardized, and what you see is what you get. While GoDaddy might be better for quickly trying out a new website idea; Google Domains could be better in the long run. Either way, you can get your domain (and possibly your hosting) a bit cheaper by visiting our coupons page.
