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Hey all. I currently have a domain that was registered through a provider (GoDaddy), but is not being used. I am signing up with a different hosting provider, and was unsure if I should transfer the domain to the new hosting provider. The new provider stated that I do not need to transfer the actual domain to them, it can remain at GoDaddy, I just need to change the name servers to point to the new provider. So, my question is, are there any advantages/disadvantages with leaving a domain with one provider and changing the name servers to point to the new provider? Are there any performance or reliability metrics that will be affected? Any additional DNS lookups or whatnot? Thanks.

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closed as off topic by Gareth, Simon Sheehan, Wuffers, Nifle, Sathya♦ Oct 28 '11 at 11:29

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4 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

There's one massive advantage - your web host can't lock you out of your domain name if you don't pay your bill. This is an especially big deal if you're contesting an outrageously huge bandwidth bill, refusing to pay your bill due to poor service, etc.

No additional DNS lookups or anything will occur. The only downside is having to manage the two accounts separately - billing, IP changes, etc.

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In addition to that, some content hosting providers will try to sneak into the fine print that domain names become their property when registered through them or transfered to them (this used to be a lot worse, but still happens), so that if you ever try to leave them, they hold ownership of your domain name and you can't take it with you (at least without a long, drawn out fight). – BBlake Jan 6 '10 at 20:00
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up vote 3 down vote

There shouldn't be any performance hit as the name servers do there stuff before the request hits the actual servers. So requests will be directed straight to your new providers servers and not redirected via GoDaddy. At least that's how I understand how these things work - I'm willing to be corrected if I'm wrong.

You might have some administrative problems down the line with renewals etc. if someone expects the site to be hosted at the same place it's registered, but as your new provider is happy with the status quo it sounds like they have procedures in place to cope with this situation and know what they are doing.

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+1 for you too Chris. I wish I could select both as the answer. Thanks for the help. – user4984 Jan 6 '10 at 19:39
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up vote 1 down vote

I've done exactly this for a site I host (which didn't really go anywhere). If you don't mind not having integrated billing/changes/etc. then there's nothing wrong with this setup.

Fwiw: Godaddy for domain name, Dreamhost for hosting.

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up vote 0 down vote

There is a theoretical performance hit if using different providers means that the TLD of the nameserver and the TLD of the domain name itself is different (eg. you have a .co.uk domain name and a .com namesever). However this performance hit is very small.

Benefits of using different providers not mentioned so far may include price, privacy, functionality, number of nameservers and ease of management.

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Good thing they're the same then. haha – user4984 Jan 6 '10 at 23:14
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