It’s no secret that Godaddy has been getting more complaints in the past few years regarding the quality of their services in addition to their expensive prices when it comes to charging for all their products, and that includes: Domain names, Emails, Privacy domains, SSL certificates, etc…

Compared to its competitors, they offer affordable prices. Luckily, Bluehost does that, and they offer some of these services for free.

In this tutorial, we will see how to transfer domain from Godaddy to Bluehost.

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Part 1: How to Transfer Domain from GoDaddy to Bluehost

Before you start on your domain transfer, you must meet the following requirements so you can be able to proceed with the transfer:

  • The remaining time in your domain name’s expiration date must be more than 15 days.
  • The first registration date of your domain name is more than 60 days ago.
  • You can transfer your domain only if it has one of these extensions: com, net, org, info, co, us, and biz.

Part 2: Transfer your domain from Godaddy

Step 1. Get hosting with Bluehost

The first thing you will need, in case you haven’t done it already, is to buy your own hosting from Bluehost.

You can get it at a 67% discount for $2.95/month. The regular price is $3.95/month, but using our Promo link will offer you our dear blog readers an exclusive discount for $2.95/month.

 

Here are a few reasons why we recommend Bluehost as a good hosting provider:

If you would like to know more about what it has to offer, here is our review on Bluehost.

TIP: BlueHost offers 1 WordPress site migration service for Free, you can find out more about it in this article.

Step 2. Open domain settings

Inside your Products page, choose among the list, the domain name you wish to transfer and click on “Manage”

godaddy manage domain name

Step 3. Check your Whois contact information

Next, you need to check if your contact information is correct. This is vital because based on the given credentials, this will ensure that you receive the authorization code to the specified email address and keep your domain under the name you specified.

So make sure everything is right.

godaddy contact information whois

Step 4. Disable Privacy domain protection

Now, you need to disable your privacy protection for your domain name.

Assuming you already purchased privacy protection for your domain, in that case, you will have to click on “Remove Privacy” which you can find right under your contact information.

remove privacy domain godaddy

Step 5. Change Name servers

During this transfer process, if you want to minimize the downtime as much as possible. We recommend you to change your Godaddy name servers to point to Bluehost.

You can do that by entering the following name servers, in your domain DNS settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll find a section where you can change your name servers like it is shown in the picture below:

change nameservers godaddy to bluehost

NOTE: Do not do this unless you already have moved your website files and database in Bluehost. Once the transfer process is initiated, you cannot change the name servers during that time.

Step 6. Unlock domain name

After that, it’s time to unlock your domain name. You can simply do this by switching your locking status from ON to OFF.

Please note that for this change to take effect, it takes between 2 to 5 minutes.

unlock domain name godaddy

Step 7. Get your authorization code EPP

Now, that our domain is unlocked. You are ready to get your authorization code.

Before you do this, double check one last time if you have the right email address specified in your contact information.

This is where Godaddy will send you the authorization code for the transfer.

Press “Get authorization code”, and you will shortly receive an email containing your EPP authorization code.

get authorization code godaddy

NOTE: Sometimes depending on the account type, the option “Get authorization code” might not be visible. If that’s the case, you can just proceed by clicking on “Transfer domain away from Godaddy”.

 

After you click on the link, you’ll be taken to another page, proceed afterward to the next page, and your authorization code will be sent to your email, and you’ll also have the option to view your authorization code from that same page.

godaddy authorization code

 

The email should look something like this:

godaddy authorization code email

Bulk domain transfer (optional)

Another way to do this, if you wish to unlock multiple domains at once and get all their authorization codes in a spreadsheet, go to “My products” and click on “Manage All”.

manage domain name godaddy

 

You’ll see next a table grid containing all your domains, check the ones you wish to unlock, then press “Export” as it is shown in the image below:

export domains authorization codes bulk transfer godaddy

Next, you will get a popup where you can select the authorization code checkbox, so they can be included within the spreadsheet.

 

godaddy bulk domain export csv

After that it’s done, you will shortly receive an email containing your CSV file with a list of your selected domain names and their authorization codes.

Part 3: Transfer your domain to Bluehost

Great job on completing the steps with Godaddy! Let’s move on to the Bluehost transfer steps.

Step 1. Get started with Bluehost domain transfer

Now with Bluehost. Start by connecting to your account. Click on “Domains”

Depending on where you were initially, you might get a different page layout for your domain manager. But overall, they are both fine.

Here are two images showing you where you can access the transfer page on both versions of the domains page:

bluehost cpanel transfer domainbluehost transfer domain name

Step 2. Add your domain name

Enter the domain name you wish to transfer

bluehost domain transfer

Step 3. Add your authorization code

After entering the domain name, you’ll be asked for your EPP authorization code. Add the code you received in your email from Godaddy.

bluehost authorization code transfer domain

NOTE: The authorization code is the safety measure that protects your domain name, and ensures that nobody would steal or buy your domain while it’s unlocked.

Step 4. Transfer Settings

In the contact information section, you can choose the credentials that will display as the contact information for your domain.

bluehost transfer settings domain name

NOTE 1: We highly recommend that you get a privacy domain protection to protect your personal data related to your domain from being viewed in Whois by the public.

NOTE 2: If you have specified as your residency a country that is a member of the European Union (EU), in that case, the privacy domain protection will be given to you by default for free.

Step 5. Domain name transfer Payment

Now to the last step of our domain transfer process.

At the checkout page, make sure to select at least 1 year as quantity for your domain.

bluehost domain transfer payment

Step 6. Check the progress

Usually, the transfer takes between 5-7 days. Meanwhile, you can check your progress by going to Domain Manager then on Transfer EPP under the details, you can see the current status of your domain transfer

bluehost domain transfer epp status

Lastly, once your transfer is complete, you should receive an email from Godaddy notifying you about the success of the domain transfer.

Conclusion

Well done on completing the job. Now you realize that it’s not as hard it seemed the first time.

If you run into any troubles during this process, let us know in the comments so we can help you get through it.

Also, we would like to add, you should also consider moving your emails as well. There is no point to keep paying Godaddy for that service when you can have the same service with unlimited email accounts for free with Bluehost.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How long does it takes to transfer the domain name?
It usually takes between 24-48 hours to complete the transfer. If you unlock your domain without changing the nameservers then the transfer might take up to 7 days.

Is Bluehost better than GoDaddy?
Yes, Bluehost is much better overall in terms of performance, pricing, speed, and offered features.

How much does Bluehost cost?
You can check Bluehost pricing plan here.

Does this process work if you are using WordPress.org through Bluehost?
Yes, it works.

If I transfer my domain to Bluehost, Can I keep my emails at GoDaddy?
Yes, you can, if you want to. You can maintain your MX records pointing to GoDaddy or any other hosting provider (you can do that from Bluehost cPanel), and the Host records should be pointing to Bluehost IP address.

Are the Nameservers the same across all Bluehost types of web hosting?
Yes, they are the same in dedicated hosting and cloud hosting. ns1.bluehost.com / ns2.bluehost.com

What is the best way to migrate my website?
You can use the All-in-one WP migration plugin, if your website total size is in Gigabytes then you might want to consider transferring your files using SSH.