Why I hate GoDaddy

Yes, they’ve been at it again with my clients. GoDaddy. I’m really REALLY beginning to despise them. If I haven’t said it enough, I will say it again…

All hosting plans are not created equal!

Here are some things that GoDaddy has done to me and clients of mine, in the not so distant past:

They’ve scared clients into renewing services they don’t need like “Certified Domains” and “Protected Registration” – I still don’t see the value in paying MORE money for your domain to be “GoDaddy Certified” – and when a client of mine sincerely wanted to transfer her domain name and cancel her “Protected Registration” she was forced to fax very sensitive documents to GoDaddy – her Driver’s License, her business license or certificate of assumed name, tax ID number, etc. All of which are never a requirement for domain name registration, and frankly, an invasion of her privacy. “Protected Registration” is only to “protect GoDaddy” in my opinion.
They charge for EVERYTHING – Want 5 email address? Sure! But you’ll have to pay $30 or more for 2 years for that. Want to renew your domain name? Sure! Just pay us! Everything is “piece-meal” and has a charge. Why should you have to pay for these things when there are hosting providers that give you all of these things FOR FREE with your hosting account?
Good luck getting ANY refunds! – So, you’ve paid for 2, maybe 3 years of domain name registration FEES with GoDaddy, and you find out – “Oh! Tigertech.net gives me my domain name FREE with hosting.” You can TRY to transfer your hosting, and if it isn’t in “Protected”-land with them, they might allow the transfer, but I have yet to see any of my clients receive any of their money back.
Poor Customer Service, and BAD Hosting Practices – From a webmaster’s standpoint, GoDaddy makes things incredibly difficult. I once reinstalled a new client’s site TWICE for them because of errors that kept popping up with permalink settings, only to find out that my client’s htaccess files were only updated ONCE per HOUR. I found this out from doing a web search to find that many folks had the same issue – and GoDaddy was the culprit. I’ve had clients’ GoDaddy admin screens all look different, and couldn’t navigate them easily at all. Even one of the techs at Tigertech had to “dig” to find the right screens on one client’s GoDaddy domain management page – JUST TO CHANGE DNS or Transfer a Domain Name. Plus, the only way I’ve gotten any kind of support from GoDaddy is with a direct phone call, and never less than 30 minutes of my time (meaning my client’s money). Setting up and configuring a mySQL database requires about twice the time as Tigertech.net, and THEN I have to log in to PHPMyAdmin JUST TO FIND OUT WHAT SERVER NAME TO USE to point to the database. Lots of extra steps, and lots of time wasters. (Apologies if this is too techy-jargon for some of you – just some things I do daily that they just get wrong).

So, why do I LOVE tigertech.net and why do I want to make it my mission in life to have all of my clients moved to their hosting plans?

Here are reasons to switch to Tigertech.net

FREE domain name registration with your hosting account
FREE renewals of your domain name with your hosting account
50 email boxes and 250 forwarding addresses FREE with the basic hosting account
UNLIMITED bandwidth with ALL of their hosting accounts
10 MySQL databases FREE (that’s TEN!) with the basic hosting account
If you’ve paid them for a year, but want to leave in the middle of that year THEY WILL REFUND YOUR UNUSED MONEY!
The EASIEST and most THOROUGH support documentation you could imagine! Want to set up your email account on your iPhone, just go to http://support.tigertech.net/iphone – enter your email address, and the document gives you step by step instructions, pictures, and YOUR email address information filled in.
BUILT IN FREE WEB STATISTICS with all hosting plans

And in my opinion, THE BEST support you can get with a hosting company. Send them an email with any question, and I dare you to stump them! They have even created custom mail routing for one of my clients who needed a customized email solution using forwarding and an external exchange server. THEY’VE NEVER LET ME DOWN, and that’s why I NEVER BILL FOR TIME in working with them.

So please! PLEASE! NO Daddy! Transfer your domains to Tigertech.net. I’ll help any of my clients do this FOR FREE!

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13 Comments

Brett Engle December 22, 2009

I’ve used Dreamhost to host all my sites since 1997. I couldn’t recommend them more. Check them out if Tigertech ever goes the way of “Go Daddy” for you.
Benajmin December 22, 2009

Interesting article. My website is hosted on GoDaddy and I would have to agree that it does seem like they charge for everything. One of the things I have personally wanted to do was do some email forwarding, but that costs extra.

The thought of having to reconfigure everything on another hosting service makes me nervous. I took me a lot of time to get everything working on GoDaddy.
Becca Bynes April 29, 2010

It’s nice to come across this post sharing same sentiments as mine. My site hosted by godaddy was down for 2 days. This happened a week ago. And I’m sort of thinking of finding another host. I’ve read the review of InMotion and listened to some suggestions from my friends; I think this one is a good choice.
Chris May 21, 2010

I’ve never used GoDaddy for hosting. Only domain registration/renewal. So, I’ve never had run into any technical issues from them, but it is annoying having to click past all of the ads and crap for the hosting services they try so hard to sell when you just want to renew your domain registration.
Ken Thompson October 20, 2010

I agree about Go Daddy. I just ran into the “protected domain” situation today. It’s just another way to pry another $15 from you. The guy on the phone from Go Daddy actual told me it would be easier to just renew the protection because the paperwork is unwieldy. Thanks. Make it as difficult as possible.
scott October 20, 2010

Thanks for your comment, Ken!
It’s a nightmare to attempt to get out of this “protected domain” status and transfer your domain name to another registrant. The only way I know it to be successful is for a person to actually renew a domain after the protected domain for another year, take your lumps in paying GoDaddy for that, and then in 60 days transferring it out of GoDaddy.

Even while you are moving a domain name and sometime after, you receive about an email message a day from them attempting to scare you or sway you back to them.
Liz March 22, 2011

I just wanted to say I agree with you about GoDaddy. Every client I have had that has been using Godaddy always runs into some kind of problem! For example,

If you have a free hosting that comes with your domain, they won’t let you use their installation process for applications such as WordPress, which means you must install it manually. Then, if you want to import from another WordPress, you can’t even do that easily because you can’t install plugins unless they change your access on your files and folders, and you can’t change the permalinks unless you create your own web.config file, and even then it doesn’t work (for me at least)!
If you want to use a plugin on WordPress for Contact form 7, and possibly similar others, you won’t always get the e-mails! What is the point in even using it?

On top of that, you cannot Live chat with them — you must submit a ticket, that says they will likely respond in 7 hours, and then you get an e-mail stating it will be more like 24 hours…they can’t even get their stories straight! You can’t even call them toll-free to wait on hold forever. The only numbers I could find were long distance numbers, and since I don’t have a long distance plan, I guess I can’t get any help!

What kind of ridiculous host are they, and why do so many idiots use them? Just because they have “hot” girls on their commercials? Which speaking of their commercials, I don’t even think their “insinuations” are very appropriate, because one of them made me think that were insinuating something of “girl-on-girl” action, which I thought was very inappropriate. Then there’s just the fact that everyone thinks they are so great, I’m just glad I never tried them! But God I wish so many others would not use them. And then there’s their difficult to navigate “cpanel”, which almost every time I need to do something in there, I have to Google how to do it and where to find it!

I agree, just say “No to Godaddy”!
Jeff April 3, 2011

I couldnt agree with you more! there are way better options then godaddy!
Ren April 20, 2011

I’ll be buying my first domain this year. Definitely not going through GoDaddy now. I’d heard mixed reviews before after hearing your experiences… no dice.
Kobbe July 13, 2011

i HATE GoDaddy, getting a custom php mail form script going on their server is a nightmare, scripts that run on EasyCGI, Brinkster or MidPhase hosting plans. I decided to refuse to sell and setup a website, or work on a website if it resides on a GoDaddy hosting plan, it’s just not worth the headache.
Peter Drinnan September 13, 2011

If you are using GoDaddy, you are either a sucker for advertising or simply unlucky with your choice. Out of all the hosting companies out there, GoDaddy has to be about the worst. About 5 years ago, they were among the best. It seems this is how it goes with hosting companies – offer good service for a few years, build a reputation, then milk it by downgrading your services and plastering the admin interface with ads.