Why you should NEVER use GoDaddy for Microsoft 365

GoDaddy might seem like an excellent option when you’ve just bought your domain and are ready to get a website going, but let me show just a few reasons why purchasing Microsoft 365 through GoDaddy is a bad idea.

Often when you set up your business the first thing to do is search for a domain name that matches your business name choice, naturally, you may come across GoDaddy as they are one of the most recognised providers, they often during checkout offer additional services and one is Microsoft 365.

So why is that a problem?

In January 2014 Microsoft announced a partnership between them and GoDaddy. The aim was to help small businesses and if all you ever needed was a single email address that would be okay, however, businesses often wish to scale and this would prove an issue.

Early in a business when a budget is tighter it can look like a great deal, especially if you compare GoDaddy’s price per user and the Microsoft website. Looking at them it seems the package is lower with GoDaddy but actually, you’re not getting the same product and there are several differences that would cause major issues down the road.

Below are just a few reasons why you shouldn’t get a Microsoft 365 account through GoDaddy.

GoDaddy accounts are designed for individuals/sole traders or small businesses with less than 10 employees. You get the basics you need but you have to administer the account through a GoDaddy UI (User Interface) and that presents a security issue as all the advanced features would be missing and you will not be able to integrate with third-party apps such as HubSpot CRM and can cause issues with Calendar apps that allow a Microsoft 365 connection.

If your company grows above 10 employees it could become a problem with GoDaddy, it is possible to use the service but you would need to contact their sales team for a quote and we’ve heard horror stories of GoDaddy cancelling services before users had a chance to migrate their data.

So if you never intend to grow GoDaddy is fine to use. However, why would you severely restrict yourself?

GoDaddy billing can get very complicated if you get a domain, web and Microsoft 365 through the service and then add on email archiving and security it can only get worse.

GoDaddy may invoice you separately for everything, also they often offer one price as an introductory offer and later they increase it and you may only notice it when you get your next recurring bill.

GoDaddy’s Microsoft 365 hides within a GoDaddy UI and it can cause issues with single sign-on (SSO) and token authentication services that connect with Microsoft 365.

We’ve had new clients that were getting a never-ending login loop, with constant redirects with every time they attempt to log in.

You get a severely limited admin interface by going through the GoDaddy UI, most of the extra features are missing or completely unavailable via GoDaddy for Microsoft 365.

If you attempt to get help from Microsoft with any issues they will direct you back to GoDaddy, unfortunately, GoDaddy staff often have limited knowledge and are unable to solve or understand the issue if it gets tricky.

If you are a GoDaddy Microsoft customer and are regretting your decision or you are expanding and realise you’ve outgrown GoDaddy then we can help.

Hamilton Group specialise in Microsoft 365 Migrations and can help split you from GoDaddy in no time.

However, if you feel like attempting the process yourself let me explain your options.

The majority of IT companies will likely create a new Microsoft tenant and then migrate all their users with a mail migration and this may be the best option. But if your budget is tighter and you don’t want to pay as much to an IT company then you may want to carry out de-federation.

Simply put you can start over with a fresh new Microsoft 365 tenant or add an admin user and disconnect GoDaddy from your Microsoft 365 account and give yourself access. Hamilton Group has performed over 1200 migrations for users and we do recommend starting afresh.

However, it is always in our best interest to give the user a choice.

your first option would be to perform a mail migration, we recommend speaking with your IT company, Hamilton Group would be happy to help you with this process.

There are lots of ways to migrate your email such as creating a PST file and dragging emails in, creating new email accounts and dragging mail manually, but to ensure your data is accurately transferred, relying on your IT provider could be the best solution.

Option two is to perform what is known as a de-federation and this simply means a process to disconnect GoDaddy from your Microsoft 365 accounts and gain back access to your tenant.

Some of the benefits of de-federating your account from GoDaddy are:

• De-federating your account rather than migrating will save on costs.
• Never having to call GoDaddy for support or make amendments that should be available to you but are restricted.
• You don’t have to remove and recreate accounts.
• No downtime and no risk of loss if done correctly.
• Gain access to the regular Microsoft 365 Admin Portal.

What about the negatives of a Microsoft 365 de-federation?

• If your organisation intends to use SharePoint in the future it would retain the .onmicrsoft domain
  and you are unable to change this for SharePoint sites in the future.
• Requires some knowledge of using Powershell and scripting capability or the trust in yourself to perform the action.
• If not followed correctly you could lock yourself out of your account or find the accounts are inadvertently deleted after you cancel GoDaddy.
• Requires users to reset passwords

So now you know some of the benefits and possible negatives if you still want to go ahead, here is a high-level list of some of the things you will need to do:

1. Create or ensure there is a tenant admin on the GoDaddy Portal that is not the default created by GoDaddy.
2. Remove the GoDaddy Federation from Microsoft 365.
3. Reset all user passwords.
4. Add your CSP Provider.
5. Assign the appropriate licenses.
6. Remove Godaddy’s delegated admin rights.
7. Cancel future subscriptions with GoDaddy.

Note: Only follow this step if you do not already have access to the admin account.

When you setup a Microsoft 365 account with GoDaddy only the initial user is setup as an admin user, but this account only has access to a redirected GoDaddy portal, even when accessing the Admin section of office.com.

So we can get around this please login to https://portal.azure.com with the user that you setup when creating your GoDaddy account and click on the three lines on the top left:

Now select Active Directory and from the left pane select Users:

Search for the user that looks to admin @ .onmicrosoft.com and select reset password.

Then load an incognito Browser window and login to office.com and sign in with that username and temporary password.

Create a new password that is secure and memorable to you, now follow the rest of the steps below.

With the Microsoft Windows Operating System, open Powershell as an administrator (right-click and select run as administrator)

Enter the following commands:

Write-Host "Checking for MSOnline module..."

$Module = Get-Module -Name "MSOnline" -ListAvailable

if ($Module -eq $null) {
    
        Write-Host "MSOnline module not found, installing MSOnline"
        Install-Module -name MSOnline
    
    }
Connect-Msolservice
#Enter the Admin credentials from "Become a tenant Admin in GoDaddy"
 
Get-MsolDomain
#See if the domain is “federated”

Set-MsolDomainAuthentication -DomainName "" -Authentication Managed

Once completed run Get-MsolDomain again to see if the domain is now showing as "managed".
Please make sure you repeat the process for all the domains on the Tenant, 
or it may not work correctly.

Resetting the password can either be done one at a time or manually if you create a CSV file. If you choose the manual route then go to office.com and use the account we sorted in the first step.

When you have logged in click the admin button from the left pane and then go to Users and select the user and the reset button.

If you want to use Powershell follow the script below:

##########Connect to MsOnline##########

Write-Host -Prompt "Connecting to MSOnline"

$credential = Get-Credential

Install-module Msonline
Import-Module MsOnline
Connect-MsolService -Credential $credential


############# Define CSV path of Users and Group ##################

$UserPath = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter File Path For CSV list of users"


#####Create CSV template with headers of Userprincipalname and Password#######


Import-Csv -Path $UserPath |%{Set-MsolUserPassword -userPrincipalName 
$_.UserPrincipalName –NewPassword $_.Password -ForceChangePassword $True}

You’ve confirmed that the tenant is now degenerated and you can now add your CSP provider. Login to your CSP and generate the link that they use for the relationship, if you do not have a CSP provider then talk to us.

When clicking the CSP link you login with the global administrator account you established above and accept the relationship, once completed if you refresh the page (F5) you will see the new relationship appear.

Add your licenses, if your plan is to keep the same just mirror the current licenses that are there (this may seem like you are doubling but don’t worry the licenses from GoDaddy will be removed later).

Remember that earlier we mentioned GoDaddy and Microsoft licensing is different, if you are adding a license make sure you add the correct one and if you are unsure call us 01423 438953.

Check licenses are present by going Billing>Your Products and if the new licenses are present you can now safely remove GoDaddy.

Now you are ready to remove GoDaddy, we need to go to https://office.com select Admin from the left pane if you are not already still logged in.

Go to Users>Active Users and remove any GoDaddy admin account (there should now only be one that you reset or used earlier).

Remove the GoDaddy delegated admin option, go to Admin > Settings > Partner relationships and if GoDaddy is listed select Remove Roles.

Then head to GoDaddy and cancel the renewal or call them to ensure it is cancelled.

If you do not call them then the subscription will end at the end of the current term.

As Microsoft Experts we can take on the migration task for you. Whether we create a new tenant or rely on one created by GoDaddy simply give us a call at 01423 438953, email us @ hello@hgmssp.com or fill out the form below.