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I bought my domain name 1 year ago from Godaddy for as cheap as $10. A year after I received a reminder email from them asking to renew my domain. After following renewal instructions I ended up with a cost of $25. The checkout page contains 2 items though, which both look the same to me, would it be safe to remove one? Screenshot:

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    Did your domain expire? What is the TLD? Are you sure this is just the domain or domain + hosting? There is a fee round about that if your domain has already expired and the renewal falls outside the grace period. depending on the TLD, the price would almost always go up (particularly with GoDaddy), but that cost almost certainly includes something else.
    – Meezaan-ud-Din
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 12:19
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    Did you buy it with some discount or deal? They will typically charge the real price after a year. If not, it can be the that the renewal price you see is for more than one year.
    – marcanuy
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 12:46
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    Make sure that email really came from godaddy. There is a scam email that does this very thing you wrote about. In fact, if you could post the contents of the email in your question, that would be helpful.
    – John Conde ♦
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 13:18
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    I echo what John says. Be sure that you really are facing a $69 renewal. This is not a normal fee for GoDaddy. It is somewhere around $15 and $10 more with privacy. It is possible that the TLD requires a higher fee. You have not given us enough information to know. Can you post an anonymized version of the e-mail? That will allow us to evaluate what you are seeing. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 16:00
  • I'm betting they're charging you for the anonymous whoisGuard fees which are about $10. That should be optional. If they're forcing it, you need to find another registrar.
    – Rob
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:21

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It's quite typical of GoDaddy to have a low introductory offer for the first year. But the "renewal" costs are hard to find. This is, unfortunately, quite common practise, but not necessarily "standard". It relies on the fact that most users probably don't change the registrar. But this domain might have been heavily discounted in the first year. Personally, I avoid registrars/hosts that are not upfront with their costs and prefer registrars have the same registration/renewal costs.

if so, is there anyway I can change my registrar while keeping the same domain name for cheaper rates?

Yes, you can change registrar at "any time". Providing you're not too close to renewal and they've already taken payment! It can also take several days to transfer the domain - but that doesn't necessarily mean any down time.

There might also be restrictions on transferring a domain too soon after registration. eg. in the first 3 months.

Also, some registrars might charge an additional "admin" fee for transferring away. Need to check their T&Cs. Again, I would avoid any registrar that imposes additional fees like this, most do not. (I don't think GoDaddy does.)

And, as mentioned in comments, be wary of any scam emails (that have plucked your details from the WhoIs database) trying to get you to "renew" with them, rather than your real registrar.

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  • Thanks for answering, please see my edited question... I was actually mistaken, the $69 included the ssl certificate service which was suggested out of nowhere and included in the total before proceeding to checkout
    – ALTN
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:27
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    My answer still stands. GoDaddy's renewal fees are nearly always higher than the initial registration. The "Private Domain Registration" was perhaps included for free in the first year (a common sales promotion) - that does say "Renewal", so presumably you did have that in the first year?
    – MrWhite
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:34
  • Yes, I recall having purchased it for privacy (see my comment to @Rob's answer). It doesn't seem like I have the option to opt out, am-I forced to repurchase the privacy service?
    – ALTN
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:38
  • The privacy service renewal should not be mandatory.
    – MrWhite
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:49
  • Yes, I managed to turn off privacy, marked as solved! sorry for misleading question.
    – ALTN
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 20:37
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So it was WhoisGuard fees for $10. This gives you anonymity for "whois" so no one can see your registration information online. You don't have to accept that. What will happen is, when someone does a "whois yourwebsite.com", it will show GoDaddy contact information instead of your personal or company information.

If you didn't ask for whoisGuard or SSL, and GoDaddy tacked that on automatically, I will add that to my list of 9634 reasons I won't use GoDaddy for anything.

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  • I recall having opted for the anonymity service "WhoisGuard" in the past, but not ssl which yes was suggested out of no where, I did not ask for the service. I'm assuming "WhoisGuard" would be the second item "Private Domain Registration Renewal", doesn't seem like I have the option to remove it though, am-I forced to re-purchase it?
    – ALTN
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:34
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    I don't know what GoDaddy's term means exactly but you should not, in any way, be required to purchase it.
    – Rob
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:37
  • Will have to contact them I guess.
    – ALTN
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 19:39
  • My registrar has free anonymous whois. GoDaddy are price gougers. And don't get me started on their pretend dedicated servers.
    – Steve
    Commented Jan 9, 2017 at 20:56

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