'Google Domains' Starts Migrating to Squarespace

"We're migrating domains in batches..." announced web-hosting company Squarespace earlier this month.

"Squarespace has entered into an agreement to become the new home for Google Domains customers. When your domain transitions from Google to Squarespace, you'll become a Squarespace customer and manage your domain through an account with us."

Slashdot reader shortyadamk shares an email sent today to a Google Domains customer: "Today your domain, xyz.com, migrated from Google Domains to Squarespace Domains.

"Your WHOIS contact details and billing information (if applicable) were migrated to Squarespace. Your DNS configuration remains unchanged.

"Your migrated domain will continue to work with Google Services such as Google Search Console. To support this, your account now has a domain verification record — one corresponding to each Google account that currently has access to the domain."

Not happy with the move

[Tony Isaac]

Google Domains has been a bright spot in Google's product offerings. A flat $12 a year for (most) domains. It didn't constantly try to upsell you to pricier plans, it just let you go about the business of managing your domains.

I don't know how SquareSpace will do, but I'm guessing it's going to be more expensive. We shall see.

Re:

[whatdoibelieve]

It already is, renewal prices are $15 a year. Still competitive, but not nearly as good. Overall, the service seems very manageable. Who knows what other changes are coming down the road...

Re:Not happy with the move

[dgatwood]

It already is, renewal prices are $15 a year. Still competitive, but not nearly as good. Overall, the service seems very manageable. Who knows what other changes are coming down the road...

I'd hardly call $15 competitive. After the demise of Google Domains was announced, I started looking around, and discovered that Cloudflare offers domain registrations at cost (i.e. you pay the TLD registry price plus the ICANN fee). Zero markup. Unless you're getting some sort of bulk discount or credit towards hosting from some other provider, you're not likely to beat that.

For example:

• .com: $9.77
• .org: $7.50
• .net: $11.84

Even the most expensive of those is still less than the Google Domains price used to be. YMMV, obviously.

Re:

[TwistedGreen]

I use Cloudflare Registrar as well. There's no markup but the catch is that you have to use your domain on Cloudflare's DNS servers, which I do anyways.

Re:

[belg4mit]

I've found porkbun [bourbun.com] to be a pretty straight forward registrar.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a link?

Re:

[belg4mit]

Some sort of auto-correct error I guess. Try this: https://porkbun.com/ [porkbun.com]

Re:

[sodul]

After the announcement I switched to cloudflare for $9.77/Y for a .com and $11.84 for a .net.

It wanted to front them by default with some proxy cache, but I just configured it as DNS only and everything is fine.

Re:

[iggymanz]

I'd rather use registrar outside the USA where they still believe in the rule of law; even within past week USA took more steps to jackboot statehood

buy-out

[Anonymous Coward]

Squarespace announced it was being bought out by a private equity firm less than a week ago. Even in normal times that's bad news for a company, but these days with sky-high interest rates? Product development will be cut, layoffs aplenty will happen, the product will get worse and customers will get milked. It's how it works all the time. There's a massive debtload that needs servicing and they need to be in shape to refinance the debt every few years. The goal is to eventually offload the company to a buy

Re: Not happy with the move

[dpille]

I don't know how SquareSpace will do

Well, they won't support dynamic DNS according to the first announcement email, so in my mind, they'll do decidedly worse than Google for a higher cost.

Thirty Days Later

[The Cat]

Google announces it is acquiring Squarespace. All the employees that worked weeks of overtime to facilitate the domain migration project will be the first to be brutally fired... ...a week before Christmas, naturally.

Re:

[lichenbank]

Dude/Dudess, that was funny. My domains were with Google Domains. Thanks.

Had to do a double take

[oldgraybeard]

Squarepants = Squarespace, Even my dyslexia is off.

Glad I'm not the only one

[_merlin]

I read Squarepants initially, too.

Domains

[ledow]

I pulled all my domains as soon as I heard, months ago.

I put them in Mythic Beasts, because at least they are techy enough to just grant automatic API access, full DNS editing, proper UK/EU WHOIS anonymity (Google Domains never could!), and they actually seem to give a damn.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Kind of ironic that you post that as AC, ain't it?

Re:

[ledow]

The days of "ringing up" the guy at Facebook to get him to fix his BGP announcements are decades long gone.

And, no, European privacy means that I don't have to identify myself except to law enforcement (and that requires a good reason). For instance my brother has literally zero forms of official photographic identification (doesn't drive, no passport, no such thing as an ID card in the UK).

There's no way someone who runs a small personal website should be giving out their home address and telephone number

Google is having financial problems

[marcxm]

Well, it seems Google is having some financial problems, as they are looking for new ways to cut things they can no longer afford to sustain. Interresting.