If you’re one of the many disgusted with GoDaddy for “actively applauding” the Stop Online Piracy (SOPA) act then here’s how you can stand up and – pretty easily — transfer your domains off of them.

For background – I had 11 domains pointing to two different hosting providers and forwarding to a few different URLs. Some were paid out through as far as 2017. I was really worried about losing things I’d already paid for (I didn’t) and having this be a huge hassle (it really wasn’t and it was all transferred in under 30 minutes).

After being recommended to Hover, I first checked their twitter to find this:

and then their website, which says “Transfer your domain to Hover for only $10. Includes 1 year registration.”

[Update: I hear they now have a coupon code “SOPA” that gives you 10% off]

When you click the link, you’re given a 1-800 # which, when you call, is answered up by a human being who will then walk you through transferring your domains (or you can do it yourself – but I appreciated the help!)

A few things to know when you transfer your domain to a new registrar:

1. The domain still remains registered for as long as you’ve already paid (you don’t lose that).

2. The name server records you already have set up (e.g., to point to your hoster) stay the same (you don’t lose that and shouldn’t experience any downtime from the transfer).

3. If you have GoDaddy.com providing services for you – such as forwarding, hosting or email, then you will need to re-set these up at your new registrar and you can have some downtime, depending on how you do it.

• If you transfer your domain first and then set up the services with the new registrar after, you will experience some downtime (from a few minutes up to a day) as the name server changes (from GoDaddy.com to your new registrar) propagate over the Internet. For me, it seemed to propagate in < 1 hour, but your mileage may vary. If this is an issue, I’d talk to the new registrar and see if they can set things up before the transfer so you don’t have any downtime.  Again, this is ONLY for the domains which GoDaddy is providing services for – not for domains you have hosted elsewhere.
• Remember to check your domain’s settings on GoDaddy before you initiate the transfer to make sure you have the information you need because these settings are all wiped as soon as the transfer goes through.

4. To do the transfer, you need to first unlock your domain on GoDaddy and then have GoDaddy email you the Authorization Code. You’ll need this code to transfer to your new registrar.

I can’t speak to other registrars, but in the case of Hover, the $10/domain I paid not only transferred the domain but also extended my existing registration by 1 year. So, yes, I had to pay $110 ($10 * 11 domains) and that sucked because I’m pretty broke right now – but it’s money I most likely would have been spending anyway in the future to renew the registrations and SOPA sucks, so it’s worth a few nights of ramen.

Hover has a tutorial on how to do all of this – I didn’t use it, I just called them and they walked me through it, but if you want to do it yourself, you can see the tutorial here: http://help.hover.com/tutorials/hover/manual/927/7788-godaddy-complete-tutorial/

I know I sound like an advertisement for Hover – I honestly have no knowledge of them beyond what I just shared. But I will say that even within the first 30 minutes of working with them, it’s immediately obvious just how much better they are than GoDaddy, and from talking to others the general consensus is that pretty much everyone is way better than GoDaddy.

So, fuck SOPA and transfer your domains right now to stand up for the free flow of information on the Internet.