Default Registration Period to 5 Years — GoDaddy Increases
Be careful as you click through checkout on GoDaddy.
If you’re used to quickly clicking through the GoDaddy checkout process to register domains, be warned: the default registration period has changed to 5 years. The graphic below shows the default when I tried to register the domain RegisteringDomainsForMultipleYears.com.
Most domainers by now stop at this step to change the default from two years to one, and it’s likely that you’ll catch the change when it comes time to pull out your credit card and you see the $49.95 charge per domain (the price for 5 years).
Don’t blame GoDaddy for making this change, as it makes sense for the firm to boost revenue. Frankly, any modest business registering a domain ought to go ahead and register it for 5 years. $49.95 is a modest start up expense. Domainers, on the other hand, usually register domains for one year at a time to manage cashflow.
Incidentally, GoDaddy is still offering .com domain names for $9.99 plus the 20 cent ICANN fee. Following VeriSign increased its prices in October GoDaddy increased its official rate to $10.69 plus the fee, but has sense had the domains “on sale” for $9.99. I suspect that $10 is a heavy marketing barrier. By charging $10.19 and pulling out the 20 cent fee, domains stay below the psychological barrier.
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