To really see the Google Domains vs. GoDaddy battle head-on, it helps to compare key features side by side.
As you can see, Google Domains is cheaper than GoDaddy in the long term. Both providers offer free domain name privacy—though Google Domains has the edge here with additional RDAP privacy features.
Both offer 100 subdomains, which is great if you need unique URLs for different customers or areas of your business. They also both have robust support options available any time you need help.
Domain Name Privacy
Both Google Domains and GoDaddy have pretty standard privacy features. When these features are turned on, your personal contact info will be removed from the WHOIS database. Instead, it will be replaced with generic info from your registrar.
Google Domains and GoDaddy let you turn privacy protection on and off as desired. Some domain extensions can’t have privacy protection—but Google Domains or GoDaddy don’t have control over this.
Business Email
Google Domains offers 100 free email aliases for your domain. These won’t be email addresses with their own mailboxes, but rather, proxy addresses that forward mail to another mailbox of your choice. If you do want your own business email addresses with a dedicated mailbox, it’ll cost you $7.20 per user per month.
GoDaddy doesn’t include any email forwarding options. Instead, you’ll need to buy email as an add-on. It partners with Microsoft 365, and plans start at $1.99 per user per month for the first year ($5.99 per user per month after that).
Domain Extensions
Google Domains has over 300 top-level domain extensions, while GoDaddy has over 500. Clearly, GoDaddy is better if you’re looking for a more obscure extension. But for most businesses, it doesn’t make sense to choose something too complicated. The standard .com accounts for around 48% of all websites, so it’s what consumers will expect.
Even with a more obscure domain extension, such as .studio, Google Domains still wins out on pricing. These domains start at $20 per year versus $39.99 per year on GoDaddy.
Customer Support
Both services offer many ways to get in touch, but we’d have to say Google Domains wins here. We tried to use the GoDaddy live chat with a representative, but our estimated wait time was 57 minutes. After switching to the texting option, we noticed the chat interface was the same, so it seems like the only benefit would be the option to get support on the go without waiting at your computer.
Meanwhile, with Google Domains, we connected with a chat agent in under a minute. They quickly directed us to the resources we needed to connect a domain to a web host. It seems like this is the better pick if you think you’ll need help setting up and maintaining your domain.
