Print Friendly, PDF & Email

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
  • Namecheap.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 Namecheap 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.

Tweetables

#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.

We help authors move away from GoDaddy all the time. 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 a discount.

There are also a lot of better hosting providers. We recommend that you host with us

But to host on our server, we need to build your author website.

If that is not an option we also recommend:

We recommend you register your domain with a 3rd party company and not your web host. 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 (ZippyKid and Host Gator).

Liked it? Take a second to support Thomas Umstattd Jr. on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!

Want more help?

Get a weekly email with tips on building a platform, selling more books, and changing the world with writing worth talking about. 

You have Successfully Subscribed!