On June 15, 2023 Google unexpectedly announced they sold Google Domains to Squarespace. Not only did this come as a shock to the online provider community, but it comes as especially bad news for nonprofits.
Must-Have Details
- Any domain names you or your organization have registered at Google will be transferred to Squarespace.
- The timeline has not been defined but information from Google indicates it will be as soon as Q3 2023 to Q1 2024.
- Squarespace is not a dedicated domain registrar. The registration service is tied to maintaining a paid Squarespace account. Former Google Domain users may find themselves on the end of a high-pressure campaign to migrate e-commerce and/or website functionality to their platform.
- It is unknown if you will be able to provide admin level access to DNS records so IT, web, ticketing, and CRM providers can access as needed.
The decision hits nonprofits hard because domain registration has been seamlessly integrated with Google for Nonprofits, a wonderfully free/heavily subsidized collection of cloud computing, productivity, and collaboration tools.
Options
You have two solid choices:
- Let Google migrate your domain name(s) to Square and take your chances.
- Migrate your domain names to another provider before Google initiates the migration process.
As a ticketing CRM and web provider, I have been recommending option #2 to all of our clients. To help determine which domain name registrar to use, you should consider the following:
- Do you need to provide DNS record access to third party providers, such as an IT specialist?
- If you are a nonprofit, do your bylaws require the organization to retain direct owner control over domain names?
If you answer “Yes” to either question, you should create your own account at a new provider and migrate the domains directly.
Next Steps
If you decide to migrate to a new provider, there’s only one option I recommend: Hover.com. I have used their services for nearly two decades and my business manages over 200 domain name registrations for clients.
Hover has very competitive domain registration pricing, can provide assistance with the migration, and maintains one of the fastest and most reliable server environments. This means your websites load faster and have less downtime. They also offer excellent live chat-based support.
In the spirit of transparency, I do not receive any affiliate or other compensation from Hover. I simply believe they are an excellent provider with a long history of providing secure and stable service.They only focus on domain registration so you won’t get smacked with constant upsells and you can provide third party admin level access to DNS management.
There are certainly other providers to consider, such as GoDaddy, Cloudflare, or Namecheap. My experience with those is mixed with Cloudflare as the only option that matches Hover with speed and reliability. But the one downside to Cloudflare is you need to maintain a paid Cloudflare account to use domain registration.
