In the online world of $35-per-year domain registrations and Web hosting that runs anywhere from eight to 40 dollars a month, GoDaddy.com is making a name for itself (albeit an unusual one), by offering low-end pricing and high-end features.
Bob Parsons, the company’s president and founder, saw opportunity in the over-priced domain registry market. “I started my company back in 1997 and, if you wanted to register a domain, it was going to cost you $35 a year,” says Parsons. “Net Solutions still charges $34.99 a year. I knew we could do it for less and without sacrificing features and support.”
Today, GoDaddy.com holds 5.5 million names under registration, and according to Parsons, it registers 20-25 percent of all new domain names or approximately one new domain every ten seconds. “There’s been a huge move to the Web,” says Parsons, “and it’s been fueled mainly by small businesses. The public absolutely expects a company to have a Web site.”
GoDaddy’s domain registration prices vary depending on which top-level domain (TLD) you choose — for example .us, .com or .ws. Expect to pay somewhere between $4.95 and $9.99 per year.
A Host of Services
In addition to domain registration, GoDaddy.com offers a multitude of Internet services including these:
Web Site Hosting:
The company provides what Parsons calls “best-of-breed” technology — routers, servers and firewalls — along with 24×7 tech support and a 99.9 percent up time guarantee. Here are some of the specs for various hosting options.
- Economy: $3.95/month; 50 MB disk space; one GB transfer; one e-mail account
- Deluxe: $9.95/month; one GB disk space; 15GB transfer; 50 e-mail accounts
- Business: $19.95/month; 2GB disk space; 30GB transfer; 100 e-mail accounts
Web Site Development Tools: GoDaddy’s Website Tonight software tools let you build your own five-, 10- or 20-page Web site. Features include more than 100 templates, photo images, an event calendar and on-screen editing with spell check. Pricing includes the cost of hosting and one free e-mail account.
- Five Pages: $3.95 per month
- 10 Pages: $6.95 per month
- 20 Pages: $9.95 per month
If you want a larger site or an e-commerce site, GoDaddy offers Website Complete 5.0 for $14.95. The company also charges a one-time licensing fee of $35. Features include over 400 templates, photo images, keyword search, an on-line e-commerce shopping cart and a bunch more stuff we don’t have room to list.
SSL Certificates: There’s no better way to show your customers that they can expect a safe and secure shopping experience at your site than to use 128-bit encryption. GoDaddy offers secure certificates for $49.95 per year. How does that price compare to companies such as Verisign and Entrust? Verisign sells its 128-bit, one-year certificates for $895. Entrust charges $149.
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It’s tough to beat GoDaddy.com for its low pricing on domain registration, Web hosting and SSL secure certificates. |
E-mail and Web Mail: Three program levels let you choose the e-mail option that fits your needs. GoDaddy.com’s e-mail system provides virus and spam protection and processes over 10 million e-mails a day. Each POP3 account comes with free Web mail so you can check your e-mail from anywhere you have Internet access.
- Economy: one mail box; five MB storage; e-mail forwarding for 50 names per mailbox
- Deluxe: five mailboxes; 50MB storage; e-mail forwarding for 50 names per mailbox
- Business: 50 mailboxes; 250MB storage; e-mail forwarding for 50 names per mailbox
Lauren Simonds is the managing editor at SmallBusinessComputing.com.
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