How to Transfer Domains from Godaddy to Namecheap

I recently moved all of my domains from GoDaddy over to Namecheap.

Here are the main reasons:

1) I kept getting random automatic charges from GoDaddy that were never explained. The amounts were always different, and I never received an invoice, receipt, or explanation of the charges.

2) Namecheap is less expensive. I always put privacy on my domains so I do not get spam or other unsolicited forms of contact. GoDaddy charges $10 per year per domain for this service. On Namecheap.com, it is FREE. For me, that’s close to $1000 of savings per year.

So here is exactly how to transfer your domain(s) from GoDaddy to Namecheap:

1) In your GoDaddy account, make sure you have turned off PRIVACY for all the domains you want to transfer. NOTE: It won’t work if you don’t do this. The transfer process will take a few hours and shouldn’t be enough time to compromise your privacy.

2) Also in your GoDaddy account, make sure each domain you want to transfer is “UNLOCKED”.

3) Go to NAMECHEAP.COM, choose “Transfer Domains” and complete the checkout process there.

4) In your GoDaddy account, under “Authorization Code,” choose “Send by Email” for each domain you want to transfer

5) In a few minutes you will receive an email from GoDaddy with an “EPP Code”. Copy that code and go to your Namecheap account, and go to “Transfers in Progress”. Click on the domain name and paste in the EPP Code you got from the email associated with that domain.

6) Wait for an “Approval Email”. In my experience this usually takes about half an hour.

7) When you receive the Approval Email, click on the link towards the bottom of the email to indicate that you approve the transfer.

Click “I Agree” on the page that comes up.

9) Go back to your account at GoDaddy and go to Domain > Pending Transfers. It make take a few minutes to show up, but pretty soon you will see the domain listed in this Pending Transfers area. When you do, check the domain and click on the “Accept/Decline” button, then press “Accept”.

Done! Nothing else to do. In the next few minutes your domain will switch over to Namecheap with no downtime. Your nameservers and other information will automatically be carried over.

You might want to go into your Namecheap account in an hour or so and make sure the WhoIs privacy has been enabled on each domain. If you find that it hasn’t, you can add it yourself or contact their live support and they will do it for you promptly.