Ravindra BagaleCourses & study guides

Chapter 9: Domain Names, DNS and Subdomains

9.5 Buying a domain on GoDaddy

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The GoDaddy website changes its look from time to time, so the button names below may vary slightly. The flow stays the same.

  1. Go to godaddy.com and sign in (or create an account and verify your email/mobile).
  2. Search for the name you want, e.g. yourname-cloud. Compare TLDs such as .com, .in, .dev and .online.
  3. Add the domain to the cart. Carefully review the add-ons: email plans, website builders, SSL certificates and hosting are not needed for EC2 hosting (we'll use free Let's Encrypt certificates). Remove what you don't need.
  4. Check the registration period and the renewal price, which is often higher than the first-term offer. Enable domain privacy if offered, to hide your personal contact details from public WHOIS.
  5. Pay and complete the purchase. GoDaddy may send an email to verify the registrant contact. Click it, or the domain can be suspended.
  6. Open My Products (or Domain Portfolio). Your new domain is listed there with its default GoDaddy name servers.

Practising without spending?

You can learn most of this chapter with the hosts file trick from section 8.7. For real practice, cheap TLDs (such as .online, .site or .xyz) are often available at low first-term prices. Just turn off auto-renew if you don't want to keep them.