I moved away from GoDaddy a couple of years ago. Now I have a few expiring domains left on there.<p>Last week I got a notice they were going to charge me for a renewal, which I did not want. So I called the support guy. Twenty or so minutes later, he sent me to a link to fill out a form where all would be taken care of.<p>Except it wasn't. Just like my previous few encounters with GoDaddy, when I went to the link I learned some obscure detail about my contract with them prevented me from getting what I wanted -- yet allowed them to charge me in full. I'm not going to go into details. It's a perfectly reasonable request on their part. The problem is they have created this monster of add-on services and items, all with little footnotes and gotchas. And it's all geared to extract more money from me.<p>Last time I had a domain going to expire that I wanted to keep, I went to transfer it over to my new domain guys. The domain was expiring in a month, but I had to complete a GoDaddy form online to make it happen (sound familiar?). The only way to complete the form online was to check a checkbox. The checkbox said that once I checked it I couldn't transfer the domain for another 90 days. Fuckers got me again.<p>I could tell you a few more like that. It's always some finely-detailed bullshit that ends up with you paying them more. Last week they got me for around 180 bucks.<p>So now I plan on using the domain I couldn't cancel. I go to the DNS settings. Looks like the new DNS manager is overly complicated and impossibly to use easily. The "adventure" continues.<p>I swear I hate those bastards. I consider myself a nice enough person, and I have been disappointed by online services in the past -- no big deal. Some online companies "get it" and some not-so-much. But GoDaddy has crossed a line with me somewhere. I'm not sure if it's the used-car-salesmen experience I get checking out or the policies that exist seemingly to endlessly screw me over in various and sundry ways, but it's just a really, really, really bad service in my opinion.<p>Did I mention I didn't like it so much?
I agree with GoDaddy being horrible, but this really isn't just their fault. Certificate revocation does exactly what it says. It's a technical term that everyone using SSL should know and understand the implications of. Their offer of creating a new certificate for you for $15 actually sounds pretty decent.<p>And, you don't have backups of all your data and domains? While running your sites on a shared host? This really sounds like something that was bound to happen to you. Be glad you got it fixed and I hope you learned your lesson.
I swore off GoDaddy years ago when I was setting up a website for a friend. It took an entire night to FTP up about 100k worth of files to his account. His website was extremely slow as well, so it wasn't just me.<p>We're talking about a website that got maybe dozens of hits per day.<p>He was a <i>paying customer!!!!</i> I've never had such a bad host, even from free ones.<p>Also, I absentmindedly signed myself up for their WHOIS privacy protection. Holy crap was that a mistake! I can't cancel it because it's actually offered by another company Domains By Proxy, but they won't let me log in because the account was magically setup using some bogus credentials and information which they got from the ether or something. So I can't even migrate that account away without sending them a driver's license, and THAT's assuming they have my correct name on file (which is a real possibility that they don't, since nothing else seems accurate). GoDaddy is no help, I have to call DomainsByProxy (which is GoDaddy, btw). DomainsByProxy is no help either, unless I send them a scan of my driver's license.<p>It pisses me off so much I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it. It's cheaper just to keep paying. Yuck.
No one should use GoDaddy, ever; there are many other registrars in their price range that don't share their onerous practices with regards to transfer, takedown, security and privacy and which have much better customer service.
Be incompetent, blame others, profit.
Host your site on a shared hosting, with another 1000 users, blame godaddy when it goes down.
Don't understand ssl, blame godaddy when you make mistakes.<p>GoDaddy are freaking excellent! for domains that is. All other services are crap, and if you bothered to actually check your facts, read some reviews, you would know that.
<i>It turns out GoDaddy only issues the certificate to the domain attached to the hosting (which is somewhat of a stupid association, really, because it shouldn’t matter what domain you use as long as you’re accessing your content via a correct route).</i><p>If hosting with GoDaddy was the first mistake, this assumption was the second. The whole point of an SSL certificate is to say that the server you are talking to is a server that is authorized to speak on behalf of domain xyz and, as such, they are generally tied to one or more domains.
<i>No one</i> should ever use GoDaddy for any reason. I thought that was geek 101 by now.<p>Also, incidentally, you never host a startup on shared hosting. If a day or two of downtime is a big deal than you gotta go VPS at a minimum.
OK kids, here's what you need to know. There are three levels of your relationship with Godaddy:<p>Level 1: You're in balls deep. You register your domains with GoDaddy, use their DNS servers and host your shit on their servers. You also get your SSL certs from them. That's what the OP was doing.<p>Level 2: You're in up to the balls, but that's where it stops. You register with them, host your DNS with them but your website lives on another providers servers and you get your SSL elsewhere.<p>Level 3: You wearing a condom and don't give them their own key or underwear drawer. In other words, you register your domain with GoDaddy but you host the DNS somewhere else like DNSMadeEasy which costs, but is reliable. You also host your site somewhere else like Linode for example. And your SSL cert is something that costs more but is reliable. I have an EV cert from Verisign which costs but you get better conversions.<p>Level 3 is the only place you want to be. Pay them the bare minimum, immediately delegate the DNS hosting to a reliable rock solid provider that doesn't black-list DNS servers and use that provider to point your A record to whatever web host you're using. You get cheap domains and the only time you have to wade through GD's cluster fuck interface is when you change DNS providers or want to register another domain.<p>My primary domain did over 27 million DNS requests last month via DNS Made Easy with a 12 hour TTL and it's been registered with godaddy for over 4 years now with no problems at all.
Does this really even need to be said here? A single visit to GoDaddy and their insane upselling strategies should be enough to disuade anyone that they are in it for anything but ripping you off.<p>namecheap.com has been quite pleasant so far. I used joker.com for years before that without complaint as well. Plenty of reasonable options out there.
I could have predicted this thread would turn into a PTSD support group for GoDaddy survivors.<p>I have my horrible stories too (all from freelancing days); suffice to say I learned a couple of things:<p><pre><code> * Cheap hosting almost never is.
* GoDaddys support is designed to minimize their costs, not yours.
* if their support cannot help you with a problem they will try to upsell you on a plan they claim *will* fix the problem.
</code></pre>
Dealing with them on a handful of occasions ranks among the most painful experiences I've had in 15 years of building stuff on the web.
Has anyone here used Nearly Free Speech (www.nearlyfreespeech.net)? I have finally started to make my migration away from GoDaddy (I have been planning this for years), and NFS seems pretty good.<p>I can't seem to find any horror stories about them... but I rarely see them brought up in discussions about registrars. Am I missing something?
Paul Graham says "I use EasyDNS. They're expensive, but reliable and never do anything evil."<p>Source: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=150565" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=150565</a><p>Note that that comment was posted over three years ago. Does anybody have any more recent experience with them?
I can't believe people are still bitching about GoDaddy shared hosting. I feel like a quote from Richard Pryor is in store: "Boy, it's 1975 you betta get your shit together!"<p>My point is that if you were smart enough to use GoDaddy shared hosting then you probably weren't smart enough at the time to have a VPS. Take what you have learned from GoDaddy and learn some more stuff and then sign up for a VPS or build a server. GoDaddy can be a good start for those just jumping into webdev and hosting, but after you have the equivalent of a yellow belt, its time to move on.
GoDaddy is the worst company ever. Earlier this year I finally took the step to transfer all of my domains to a different company, and I haven't looked back. Instead of transitioning slowly over time, I just decided to pay the money and transfer everything - it felt a lot better to just be free of them. Imagine a company so awful your customers are willing to pay extra to not be a customer!<p>One painful part of the transfer experience is that their "DomainsByProxy" service is entirely separate, even though it is sold alongside their domains as an add-on. My problem was that I had originally signed up with it years and years ago, and they do not keep your email or password in sync with your GoDaddy account. So I couldn't "release" the domains from DBP to be transferred without going through this crazy process of sending in forms and a copy of my drivers license to reset the account info. It was awful.
I cant stand GoDaddy's hosting product. Their interface is awful, they're constantly upselling you, and changes via their Control Panel never happen instantly.<p>I have a lot of clients who came to me using GoDaddy and continue to use GoDaddy. So I interact with GoDaddy in some form every day.<p>But GoDaddy really shines in one area: their support. They're professional, they don't treat me or my clients like idiots, they don't bullshit me, and they're always quick to resolve issues.<p>(Personally, I prefer name.com and prgmr.com)
I know two non-techie people (one a friend, one an acquaintance) who've used GoDaddy and gotten confused by all of the upsells and promos. My friend ended up purchasing a few extra services by accident and had a hard time trying to cancel them. The acquaintance was much less cognizant and ended up paying hundreds a month unknowingly.<p>I've also used them too, because a cofounder had registered our domain name with them. In Aug 2010, I noticed that GoDaddy had been charging us for an extra service we never purchased. I know this because none of us had logged into the GoDaddy account in a while. Fortunately, I'm really anal with accounting records and noticed the discrepancy in our bill.<p>After several emails and attempts to get this charge removed, I tweeted this issue with @GoDaddy included in it. THAT got an immediate response. Eventually, the charges were removed and we got a refund.<p>Moral of the story: Don't recommend GoDaddy to your non-techie friends, and consider avoiding it yourself. But if you must use them and have a problem, tweet about it to get a quick resolution.
One of the reasons godaddy is successful is that they are the registrar of referral for people (web designers, programmers, ISP's) that have customers that need domain registration or renewal. When an end user has a domain they need or one up for renewal godaddy is the registrar that is suggested to them by their "tech guy".<p>This is similar to how Microsoft gained power in a way. They were supported by a huge network of people that made money off of Microsoft. Additionally traditional tech guys want to appear smart and love (even if they don't make any commission) telling people they can get their domain registered cheaply at godaddy. "Wow I'm overpaying" says the customer.<p>What many people don't realize is that all registrars pay exactly the same price for a domain. Any registrar charging less than a certain amount (say below or near cost) is making it up elsewhere. In the case of godaddy it is by selling you things that you don't need that have no value.<p>One and only one example of this is "privacy protection". This is like a FUD from Microsoft.<p>Many godaddy domains have privacy protection that have no need for privacy and in fact privacy, because they are an operating business, with a business address, is the opposite of what they should be using. While having privacy is of benefit in some cases (to criticize your employer as
only one example) it is almost always safer to have a real address in the whois records if you can do that.<p>This of course isn't limited to godaddy. Register.com is the
registrar for Fred Wilson's avc.com. Avc.com has privacy protection even though Fred has a business address that he could use and has a public email address.<p>Domain Name: avc.com
Created on..............: 2008-07-18
Expires on..............: 2019-04-30<p>Registrant:
Domain Discreet
ATTN: avc.com
Rua Dr. Brito Camara, n 20, 1
Funchal, Madeira 9000-039
PT
See also a previous post, "Alternatives to GoDaddy" at <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2753471" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2753471</a>
This article is spot on. I can't fathom why anyone would put themselves through Godaddy, especially a startup. I feel like you're asking for trouble though if you use Godaddy's <i>hosting</i>, which has a reputation for being absolutely horrible.
Is it really a problem if I simply use them as a registrar? I have many domains there but that's all I use them for is to simply register my domain. I have liked them for that because they are cheap (if you avoid all the up-sells which is easy enough) and their prices have stayed fairly consistent over the last several years.<p>I moved to them from Yahoo. Yahoo always allowed you to register a domain for a cheap price of 9.00 but then the renewals were 34.95...a bit of bait and switch if you ask me. Anyhow, I've been happy with simply using GoDaddy as a registrar but after reading this thread I'm wondering if I should switch??
Which is amazing considering how much GoDaddy is used for YC companies:
<a href="http://jpf.github.com/domain-profiler/ycombinator.html?2011" rel="nofollow">http://jpf.github.com/domain-profiler/ycombinator.html?2011</a>
I am stunned that anyone would ever use them in the first place. After going through domain registration with them, and being appalled at the amount of up-sale, I decided they aren't the company I would want to trust with anything.<p>I have been using dreamhost for years, and they make registration management painfully simple (and honest).<p>Also GoDaddy had an issue years back where they were apparently scooping up domains that people didn't finish checkout with and then selling them at a higher price.
I have used GoDaddy for their DNS services and have been very happy with their customer service. No issues so far after ~2 years. I may research other DNS though, comments of how easily they shut people down makes me nervous.<p>Note to Pinolio: I may have missed it, but I did not find a link to your service on your blog.
GoDaddy is so bad. My heart sinks whenever a client asks me to login and change some setting for them. They've managed to turn the entire process of every function on their site into a purist up-selling unusable monstrosity that confuses customers to such a degree they feel they need to pay more and more money.<p>If you want a good Domain host try <a href="http://www.webwiz.co.uk" rel="nofollow">http://www.webwiz.co.uk</a>, the guy who runs it is very good and prompt at support, domains are a fair price and the interface is super easy to use. I have no affiliation to WebWiz but since moving all my domains over there it's been a lot easier.
I used GoDaddy when I first started, years ago, but quickly moved away from them. Been with Dreamhost for years now and it's been very good. Adding SSL can't be simpler, they even streamline the process, allowing you to buy the cert directly in the panel (or import your own from a third party), assign a static IP, and everything works inside an hour. Anyways, just wanted to share my experience.
Seems like everyone agrees that GoDaddy is terrible. What's strange to me is the interface has always sucked and gets worse as they've grown. You'd think with the revenues they see, they could get some good designers to make it much more usable.<p>I like Enom myself. The API works really well, prices are good, and the UI is clean and usable. I've been much happier since moving all of my domains over.
Are any of the big registrars trustworthy? I'm trying to consolidate all of my domains on Namecheap right now. I transferred one domain from Dyndns and they did the transfer within a few hours (nice!). Then I went to transfer another from Network Solutions and four days later I am still waiting. Do they think I'll change my mind if they refuse to release the domain for a week?
All the complaints here about GoDaddy have nothing to do with the one reason to use them, paying the <i>least</i> for a domain with free DNS. If you pay them anything else then you have just nullified this advantage as they can make back the few dollars you saved on the domain by charging you more for things like hosting and SSL (free at startcom).
I hated using GoDaddy when doing development work for clients...I would never choose to use it for myself just based on my previous experience with them. I prefer self hosting on a fresh Ubuntu Server install on highspeed residential cable from a server I built myself..there's something satisfying about learning about all aspects of web development
My first rule is use a registrar to register domains. Never host your site or DNS at the registrar.
My second rule is do not host your DNS where you host your site.
It makes it easier to switch providers without downtime.
With these rules, I use GoDaddy to register domains and never had any problems. For DNS, DNS Made Easy is cheap and reliable.
You can buy one service from GoDaddy and they'll give you a second service free for a year, then auto-renew that second unnecessary service. You can't cancel easily via e-mail and you can't cancel over the telephone. You have to log in and face an endless amount of confusion and upselling.<p>* This was for Domain Auto-Registration which includes GoDaddy Auctions.
I couldn't agree more. I've seen firsthand people using Go Daddy to check out a possible domain only to have Go Daddy squatting on it the next day. He was able to get a few of them back, but it such a hassle.<p>This was a couple of years ago; I can't imagine how much worse things are now.
GoDaddy has the best customer service if you pick up the phone and give them a call. They're not like Google - they have a phone number listed and people are always available to pick up the phone - 24/7 if I'm not mistaken.
Since this seems to be "my most/least favorite name service company" I recommend DynDNS. They're expensive, but they work very well in my experience. You can set very short TTLs, which obviates the need for static IPs.
As of this post, it appears to be working.<p>And I have to say, it's impressive. Those are some good-looking bookmarks. That's probably the oddest maintenance I'd ever think to write, but in this case, it's true!
Why is this news?! I can't count the number of times this has come up on HN, let alone reddit, let alone random prominent blogs, let alone from other big names that have had problems with GoDaddy suspending service, locking them out of their control panels and/or siding with law enforcement and acting before asking. Stop using GoDaddy. It's trivial to find other registrars, and not hard to find better ones.<p>(Examples of better registrars: Gandi, name.com)<p>Honestly, not a reassuring way to advertise your new company. There first intro blob admits that they knew this was a risk. "Yeah, we knew people have problems with this, but we were lazy and didn't bother taking the 30 minutes to transfer our domains elsewhere."
When I was doing web stuff back in 2003 the common opinion on webmaster forums was that one should never ever use GoDaddy. (There were cases of stolen domains, etc.)<p>Maybe they changed now - maybe not. But I'm not going to find it out.
> It’s a good thing I don’t drink, because the blur of Saturday and Sunday spent on the phone could have really been dealt with better with a couple of stiff drinks to ease the pain.<p>What.