Help for authors timid about technology
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 six reasons why you should move away from GoDaddy, too.
#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.
#2 GoDaddy is Expensive
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 $10.69 per year.
Price Breakdown:
- GoDaddy $10.69 per year
- Namecheap.com $9.69 per year
- Name.com $8.99 pear year
They then try to up-sell you on worthless services like WhoIs “protection.”
#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 takes an act of Congress to just 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.
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, recently 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.
#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 the animals?
Thinking authors can do better than GoDaddy.
The Good News
You are not stuck with GoDaddy.
I help authors move away from GoDaddy every week. Namecheap even offers a discount to GoDaddy users who transfer their domains away. Just use the coupon code Switch2NC and you will get a year added to your domain for only $6.99.
There are also a lot of better hosting providers. We here at AuthorTechTips recommend:
- Media Temple (Best speed)
- Host Gator (Best value)
We recommend that your domain be registered with a different company than where you have your hosting. Your website is safer when you don’t have all your eggs in one basket and the companies who are the best at domains (like Namecheap) are often not the same companies who are best at hosting (Media Temple and Host Gator).
Disclosure: While I have signed up for the Host Gator and Namecheap affiliate programs none of the links in this post are affiliate links. I want you to believe me when I say GoDaddy is not the best choice.
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I just started a site yesterday and I knew it was to be slow. It is. Veeeery slow. I already found that there are near 2900 sites hosted in the same server. Crazy.
I don't care right now because it is going to take a few months until the site gets some traffic but I'll run away soon. I wanted to go with Media Temple but they don't accept PayPal for monthly payments, you have to pay a full year in advance and that's something I'm not going to do until I have some first hand experience. Extrange. So I decided to use the hosting plan I had with GoDaddy and that had little use. No worth the money for a real site.
And yes, as a GoDaddy customer for the past couple of years, I have to agree with all your points. Well, except for #6, I just don't know what was that about.
Regards.
I agreed with the post, and am always appalled at GoDaddy's frat-boy approach to advertising.
If a company needs sex to make their product sell, it's probably because it's a bad product.
Godaddy domains…..best service at affordable cost
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I have moved most of my sites from godaddy, but still have a couple left. Two of them are on servers with 4500 other sites!!! That is a joke and an insult. Both run wordpress, so both are dog slow. Needless to say I will be cuttting all ties with godaddy very soon.
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I know. Now, I need to find someone to help me move my sites to a new hosting account. I actually haven't encountered any problems..yet. I've heard horror stories though.
Godaddy slow as hell
I like the hot ads tho, sexy woman make my day!
if you think godaddy is slow why not sign op with one of their parternship companies
you can easily be a reseller of godaddy prodct yourself. Half the hosting sites listed as godaddys competition are their affiliated reseller lmao. Personally i have experienced an array of various hosting services, and pretty much you get what you pay for regardless of provider. AND godaddy is cheapest by far with best product in my opinion. Some hosting providers do offer short lived sales on dedicated servers though but they do not beat prices at gd in the long run.
AFter all i have to conclude that all hosting providers suck, because in the big picture they are all slow as hell including the dedicated servers that are overpriced or impractical at thousands of dollars for quality server that could handle 10+k requests. So, the best option is to get fiberoptic business line and run own server with preferred distro/config and full control
If you ever let your domain lapse, GD will helpfully auction it off…guess who gets to keep the proceeds!
I wish I read this before I decided GoDaddy was cheaper than Bluehost, which is one that I have used before. I just assumed that they used Cpanel, which GoDaddy does not. I paid yesterday, and I am trying to cancel my service today. Then, I will go this Host Gator.
I would never buy hosting from them, although I've heard that they are making an effort to do better in customer service these days. I think there are plenty of better options though. I personally use Dreamhost and I have been very happy with them. Prices are reasonable for hosting and multiple domain name registration, and I have gotten very quick responses on technical questions.
The only thing I might venture to get from godaddy is a SSL certificate because I think they have pretty good authority and you can snag one for pretty cheap especially if you use a promo code from one of the coupon sites out there. Renewal is considerably more expensive though :-/
There are so many better options than GoDaddy. At this point they are simply riding on brand recognition. I only have a few more sites to transfer away from them..
My recent post Record Breaking Electricity Usage in Texas
Who did you go with when you switched from GD? Thanks
I visited your website and it looks very good!
How hard is it to switch hosting etc from GoDaddy to someone else? I can’t afford to pay someone two switch me over but I’m not sure if I can do it myself and I don’t want to mess my site up. I also really hate how they send me emails several times per week to let me know my hosting expires this month. Um, no it doesn’t. It auto renews every single month, that is what I PAY for. There is no way to stop getting those emails. Frustrating. I’ve been with them for years and it’s all I know.
Blessings,
Mel
Please feel free to stop by: Trailing After God
I’m afraid I fell into the same trap. I can afford to switch though I shouldn’t have to but I think I’m locked in for 2 months before the name can be transferred to another host…is that correct?
Mark, that is correct. Generally you have to wait 60 days before you can transfer the domain.
Thanks for the post. I didn’t know! Enjoyed your workshop yesterday in Fredericksburg. We did not touch on this topic then. Blessings!