David Castello: GoDaddy promised new, uncapped domain appraisal system

For years, GoDaddy’s public appraisal tool (GoValue) has effectively treated $25,000 dollars as the top of the market, showing no historical sale above that number and never valuing any domain beyond that ceiling.

In practice, this squeezes everything; from solid five-figure names to true six- and seven-figure assets into the same artificially low price zone, quietly training the public to believe that no domain is worth more than a paltry $25k!

The GoValue number was also force-fed to DAN.com (RIP) users without an ON/OFF switch, until public outcry ensued.

In a recent article, veteran domain investor David Castello of the Castello Brothers fame, illustrates the problem using Islanders.com as an example, appraised by GoDaddy at about $20,500 and “supported” by comps like Rangers.com and Cowboys.com shown as $25,000 sales, even though independent reports put those deals around $375,000 and $370,000 respectively.

Recent pure domain sales such as Rocket.com at $14 million, Icon.com at $12 million, and Gold.com at $8.5 million never appear in GoDaddy’s value narrative! And yet, GoDaddy’s brand power means the public believes its numbers over everyone else’s.

The turning point is GoDaddy’s launch of DomainNames.com, an ultra premium domain marketplace where listings must appraise at $100,000 dollars or more.

Great news: During NamesCon 2025, David Castello spoke with multiple GoDaddy staff members who acknowledged the problem, and shortly after, James Iles told him they’re revamping the domain appraisal system.

If that happens, David Castello predicts that GoDaddy’s new valuation engine will “open the floodgates” to unprecedented revenue by unlocking far greater demand, prices, and deal flow across the entire domain market—hopefully during our lifetime!

Read this well-written article by David Castello.

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