
There
was a time when I had almost 40 domains with GoDaddy. I started using
them ten years ago, back when GoDaddy was a new website with dungeon low
prices.
Now I don’t own a single domain with GoDaddy.
Here are seven reasons why you should move away from GoDaddy:
#1 GoDaddy Has Terrible Support
I
had one client who had constant trouble with her email because GoDaddy
support constantly gave her wrong advice. She would have a small problem
with her email and would call GoDaddy. By the end of the call her email
would be totally broken.
Finally, she hired me to conference in
with the GoDaddy representative and interrupt each time the GoDaddy rep
would give her bad information. I had to interrupt a lot.
Update:
GoDaddy has made some improvements in the last few years in the support
arena. They offer better support than they used to. I don’t think this
reason alone is reason to move away from them. But it is not the only
reason to avoid GoDaddy.
#2 GoDaddy is Overpriced
GoDaddy lures customers in with prices that
look low.
GoDaddy
makes it look like .com domains cost $1.99 per year when in reality
domains cost $10 for the first year and $15 for every year after that.
Price Comparison:
- GoDaddy ($24.94/year)
- $14.99/year for Domain Renewal
- $2.95/year for Email Forwarding
- $7.00/year for WhoIs Protection
- Na*********.com ($13.57/year)
- $10.69/year Domain Renewal
- $0.00/year Email Forwarding
- $2.88/year for WhoIs Protection
GoDaddy also charges you extra for things Na********
throws in for free, like landing page customization. Now these prices go
on sale from time to time so your millage may vary. The key is to focus
on the
renewal price. Sale prices typically only apply to the first year.
#3 GoDaddy is Hard to Use
I cringe any time I hear a novice say they bought a domain on GoDaddy.
GoDaddy
spends so much time trying to up-sell customers that it is hard to buy
what you came to buy. If you don’t know what you are doing, you may find
yourself paying for all sorts of things you don’t need. These added
services can make your domain harder to use.
You have to be fairly savvy to use GoDaddy and not get ripped off.
#4 GoDaddy Hosting is Slow
iThemes, a major WordPress theme development company, blasted GoDaddy for overselling hosting space.
GoDaddy puts thousands of websites on a single server. All those
websites compete for server processing time and bandwidth. This causes
the sites to run slow, especially if any of them are popular. The
GoDaddy speed issues are exacerbated by the fact that Google now
penalizes slow sites on its search results.
Not only is the hosting slow but making server changes is slow as well.
If
you change the wrong thing you may not know anything is broken for
thirty minutes and it may take another thirty minutes to “unchange”
whatever it is you broke.
#5 GoDaddy Gives Too Little Control
Not
only is GoDaddy slow but their server back end is difficult to use and
limited. Instead of giving users an industry standard admin interface
(like cPanel or Plesk), they give users a proprietary admin interface
that is more interested in selling you more GoDaddy products than in
giving you the tools you need.
This makes it harder (i.e. more expensive) to do simple things on GoDaddy.
#6 GoDaddy Uses Smut to Sell
Some
people are more concerned about the moral degradation of our country
than others. Many people feel the country is moving in the wrong
direction. Let me just say that GoDaddy is no force for good in our
culture. GoDaddy notoriously has the most offensive Super Bowl ads every
year. Each year they submit ads that are deemed too inappropriate even
for TV.
They then feature these “too hot for TV” ads on their homepage.
Even
the ads that do get approved objectify woman’s bodies and degrade women
into objects of lust for the purpose of making money. This is
inappropriate, uncalled for, and not something conscientious people
should support with their money. If we allow companies to manipulate our
sexual desires to make a profit, how can we say we are any better than
animals?
Authors can do better than GoDaddy.
#7 GoDaddy Backed SOPA & PIPA
GoDaddy backed one of the most destructive laws ever to threaten the internet. It was only after 50,000 GoDaddy users left in protest that they changed course.
While
I applaud GoDaddy for finally coming out against SOPA, the fact is that
we can’t trust them to protect the internet. It also shows us that if
enough people transfer away from GoDaddy due to the offensive ads, that
they might change course on that as well.
The Good News
You are not stuck with GoDaddy.
There are also a lot of better hosting providers.