GoDaddy: The Rival on Both Sides of the InvoiceWide moat

VeriSign (VRSN) — moat facet

VeriSign's largest customer is also a competing registry operator, and it sends about a third of VeriSign's revenue anyway.

GoDaddy is VeriSign's biggest customer, its largest distribution channel and a competing registry operator, and it is all three simultaneously.

The rival on both sides of the invoiceDomains under managementOver 91 millionShare of VeriSign revenue~31%Also operatesGoDaddy RegistryRegistry access VeriSign must grantNon-discriminatory, by contractIt would rather sell its own suffixes, and sends VeriSign a third of its revenue anyway.
The healthiest rivalry in the set: the competitor pays, and cannot stop.

The scale is not in dispute: GoDaddy manages over 91 million domain names, including tens of millions of .com registrations, making it the largest registrar in the world by a wide margin.1 Every one of those .com names sends VeriSign $10.26 a year. VeriSign's 10-K discloses a largest customer at approximately 31% of revenues without naming it.2

At the same time, GoDaddy Registry operates its own portfolio of top-level domains, and VeriSign lists GoDaddy among its registry competitors.3 So GoDaddy both sells .com to the public and sells alternatives to .com to the same public, on the same checkout page, with a materially better margin on the alternative — it keeps the entire fee on its own suffix and a fraction of it on VeriSign's.

Two things stop this being a serious problem. The first is that the customer usually wants the .com specifically, and a registrar that steers too hard toward its house brand loses the sale rather than converting it. The second is regulatory: VeriSign is required to give ICANN-accredited registrars non-discriminatory access to its systems, which works in both directions — it stops VeriSign favouring anyone, and it means no registrar can be locked out or locked in.

This is the healthiest rivalry in the set, and it is rated accordingly. VeriSign's competitor pays it a third of its revenue and cannot stop.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

GoDaddy has been simultaneously VeriSign's biggest customer and a competing registry for years, and the balance has not moved: approximately 31% of revenues in 2025 against 32% in 2024 and 2023. Non-discriminatory registrar access keeps the relationship structurally fixed in both directions.

The number that tests this moat
Third-party estimate
Domains under management at the largest registrar
Over 91 million

GoDaddy is simultaneously VeriSign's largest customer, the largest registrar in the world, and a competing registry operator that would rather sell its own suffixes. It sends VeriSign about a third of its revenue anyway, because the customer wants the .com specifically. Non-discriminatory registrar access, required by the .com agreement, keeps the relationship structurally fixed in both directions.

How it's calculated: Third-party industry tallies of domains under management; GoDaddy does not report a comparable figure on the same basis and VeriSign does not name its largest customer.
Source: Largest domain registrars, 2026 ↗
References
  1. Third-party estimateGoDaddy is the largest domain registrar in the world, managing over 91 million domain names globally.
    Industry tally of the largest domain registrars, 2026 — GoDaddy is the largest domain registrar in the world, managing over 91 million domain names globally, well ahead of Namecheap and GMO Internet Group. — 2026 · publ. 2026-01-01 · source ↗
  2. ReportedVeriSign's largest customer accounted for approximately 31% of revenues in 2025 and approximately 32% in 2024 and 2023, and is not named.
    VeriSign, Inc., Form 10-K FY2025 — Item 8, consolidated financial statements and notes. Net income $825.7M (2024 $785.7M, 2023 $817.6M); diluted EPS $8.81 ($8.00, $7.90) on 93.8 million diluted shares (98.2, 103.5); income before income taxes $1,068.5M; income tax expense $242.8M. Balance sheet at 31 December 2025: cash and cash equivalents $307.9M, marketable securities $272.6M, property and equipment net $213.7M, goodwill $52.5M, deferred tax assets $233.2M, deposits to acquire intangible assets $145.2M, total assets $1,325.9M; accounts payable and accrued liabilities $298.0M, deferred revenues $1,035.1M current and $349.4M long-term, long-term senior notes $1,788.2M, total current liabilities $1,333.1M — a total stockholders' deficit with an accumulated deficit above $11.3 billion. Net cash provided by operating activities $1,091.1M; the deferred revenues balance increased $80.2M in 2025 ($58.1M in 2024, $27.0M in 2023) and $934.7M of revenue recognised in 2025 had been in the opening deferred balance. Major customers note: the largest customer accounted for approximately 31% of revenues in 2025 and approximately 32% in 2024 and 2023, and the Company does not believe the loss of this customer would have a material adverse effect because end-users would transfer to its other existing customers. Dividends of $0.77 per share were declared in each of the three quarters from the second quarter of 2025, totalling $2.31 per share and $215.2M, accounted for as a reduction of additional paid-in capital; a dividend of $0.81 per share was declared on 3 February 2026. — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-05 · source ↗
  3. ReportedGoDaddy is listed among VeriSign's registry competitors, and the .com Registry Agreement requires VeriSign to provide ICANN-accredited registrars with non-discriminatory access to its systems.
    VeriSign, Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025 (SEC, CIK 1014473) — Item 1, Business. VeriSign operates the .com and .net registries under registry agreements with ICANN, and .com additionally under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce (most recently amended by Amendment 35 on 26 October 2018, automatically renewed on the same terms on 30 November 2024 for a successive six-year term, renewing again on 30 November 2030 unless the DOC gives notice). The .com Registry Agreement runs a six-year term that must be renewed or extended by 30 November 2030 and contains a presumptive right of renewal, with ICANN able to terminate or refuse in certain prescribed circumstances; it permits an increase to the Maximum Price of up to 7% over the previous year in each of the final four years of each six-year period, the current period having begun on 26 October 2024. The .net Registry Agreement was renewed on 29 June 2023, runs to 1 July 2029 and permits increases of up to 10% each year. VeriSign remits $0.2575 to ICANN quarterly for each annual .com registration and $0.25 for each .name registration. It also operates .cc under an agreement with the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, operates .name and internationalised gTLDs, provides back-end services for .edu, performs the Root Zone Maintainer function for ICANN and operates two of the thirteen global internet root servers. Retail pricing is established by registrars; VeriSign must provide ICANN-accredited registrars with non-discriminatory access, faces marketing and bundling limits, must submit new Registry Services for ICANN review, and is subject to vertical-integration restrictions that apply solely to .com — obligations it states do not apply to ccTLDs and other gTLDs and may create a competitive disadvantage. Named registry competitors include CentralNic, China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), DENIC eG, GoDaddy, Google, Identity Digital, Nominet, Public Interest Registry, Radix and .xyz. Employee headcount 928 (256 cost of revenues, 240 research and development, 432 selling, general and administrative). — FY2025 · publ. 2026-02-05 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026