Nameservers · GoDaddy
Point your domain at GoDaddy nameservers
Changing nameservers hands your entire DNS zone to one company in a single move — website, email, subdomains and verification records together. It is two fields and a save button, and everything that makes it safe happens beforehand.
This page covers GoDaddy as the destination: which nameservers to use, what has to be in place first, and how to tell when it has actually taken effect.
Checked against GoDaddy's documentation on August 9, 2026.
What is different about GoDaddy
The process is standardised. These are the parts that are not — the things that are true of GoDaddy and not of everyone else.
The nameservers are specific to your domain
GoDaddy assigns a pair per domain rather than publishing one global set. A pair copied from an article belongs to someone else and will not serve your zone — and the failure looks like a propagation problem rather than a typo, which is what makes it expensive to diagnose. Read yours from your own account.
The zone can be ready before you switch
You can populate and verify the zone at GoDaddy first, so this change activates something known rather than something you are improvising. That turns the highest-risk step in a migration into a routine one.
GoDaddy at a glance
- Nameservers
- Assigned per domain — read the pair from your own account
- Propagation
- up to 48 hours, most within an hour
- Zone editor
- Domain Portfolio → select the domain → DNS
- Records before delegation
- Allowed
Step-by-step
- 1At GoDaddy
Get GoDaddy's nameservers
Read the pair from your own account. This is the one value in the whole migration that must not be copied from anywhere else.
- Shown on the domain or site connection screen
- Copy both entries exactly as displayed
- 2At GoDaddy
Populate the zone first
Build the zone at GoDaddy and check it before switching. After the change this is the only source of truth.
- A record pointing at the correct server
- www resolving, by CNAME or its own A record
- MX records with correct priorities
- SPF, DKIM, DMARC and any verification TXT records
- 3At your current provider
Change the nameservers at your registrar
The registrar controls the delegation, wherever the domain happens to be registered and regardless of who provides the hosting. Replace the whole set rather than one of the pair.
- Find the nameserver setting in your registrar's domain settings
- Replace every entry, not just the first
- Allow up to 48 hours, most within an hour
- 4On your computer
Watch propagation instead of guessing
Check what public resolvers actually return. Expect a mixed picture for a while — some resolvers on the old answer, some on the new — which is normal rather than a fault.
Check the delegationdig NS example.com +short dig @8.8.8.8 example.com A +short dig +trace example.com - 5At GoDaddy
Re-issue SSL once it resolves here
Certificate issuance validates by checking the domain points at the requesting server, so it can only succeed after propagation. Expect warnings until then.
- Confirm the site still forces HTTPS afterwards
- Check no stale CAA record is blocking issuance
Best practice
The habits that make this go smoothly, independent of which providers are involved.
- Build the whole zone at GoDaddy and read it back before changing the delegation
- Take the nameserver pair from your own GoDaddy account, never from a tutorial
- Lower record TTLs a day ahead so corrections propagate quickly
- Verify with dig against a public resolver rather than your browser, and allow up to 48 hours, most within an hour
- Send a test email in both directions after the switch
- Leave the old zone untouched for a fortnight so rollback stays instant
What goes wrong
The failures that actually happen when GoDaddy is the destination.
Changing nameservers moves email too, whether you meant it to or not
Can cause downtimePeople change nameservers to move a website and are surprised when mail stops. The nameservers determine the whole zone, MX records included. If email is staying where it is, its MX records still need to exist in the new zone.
Never copy a nameserver pair from a tutorial
Can cause downtimeGoDaddy assigns these per domain. Using someone else's pair produces a domain that resolves to nothing, and the symptom looks exactly like slow propagation.
You cannot shorten nameserver propagation
Can cause delaysLowering your record TTLs genuinely speeds up record changes, but not this. The delegation TTL is set by the TLD registry — typically 48 hours for .com — and is not yours to adjust.
Both zones answer during propagation
Can cause downtimeFor a day or two some visitors reach the old server and some the new one. If both accept orders or form submissions you end up with data split across two databases. For anything transactional, put the old side into maintenance mode at cutover.
Where are you coming from?
Most of this job depends on the destination. These are the bits that depend on where you are coming from.
If your registrar and host are the same company
Pointing at GoDaddy does not cancel anything there, but watch the reverse: closing that account later removes its DNS service too, and takes the old zone with it — including the copy you were relying on as a rollback.
If your DNS is currently at Cloudflare
Pointing nameservers at GoDaddy means losing the proxy, the CDN and any page rules with it. Usually better: leave the nameservers at Cloudflare and change the A record.
If you only want the website to move
Then you probably do not need this page. Point the A record at GoDaddy and leave the nameservers alone — email, subdomains and verifications never move, so they cannot break.
Know exactly where you are moving from?
Common questions
What are GoDaddy's nameservers?
There is no single answer — GoDaddy assigns them per domain and shows the correct pair in your account. Read it there rather than copying a value from a tutorial.
How long does it take?
GoDaddy documents up to 48 hours, most within an hour. The delegation TTL is controlled by the TLD registry rather than by you, so this is the one part of DNS you cannot speed up.
Will this move my email?
Yes — that is the part people are surprised by. Nameservers determine the whole zone, MX records included. If email is staying where it is, its MX records still need to exist in the new zone before you switch.
How do I undo it?
Set the nameservers back to the previous pair. The old zone is untouched and correct the moment it takes effect, though you wait out propagation a second time — which is the real cost of getting this wrong.
Reference documentation
Provider interfaces change. When these steps and the official documentation disagree, the documentation wins.
The same job at other providers
Point your domain at Bluehost nameservers
There is one standard pair
Point your domain at SiteGround nameservers
There is one standard pair
Point your domain at Hostinger nameservers
The nameservers are specific to your domain
Point your domain at Cloudflare nameservers
The nameservers are specific to your domain
Want this done for you?
I move sites onto GoDaddy regularly — files, database, DNS and the registrar — with the old provider kept as a rollback until it has settled.