Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever • Hacker News Board

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#91

Post by akmiller » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:19 PM UTC

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.

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??

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#92

Post by jeremydavid » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:20 PM UTC

kijin wrote: post #81

jeremydavid wrote: post #54

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. 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?

I've been using NFS.N for over three years now. I have a number of small sites and domains with them. The sites cost pennies a month, the feature set is staggering, and the domain registration process makes Gandi and Namecheap look clunky in comparison. They're also painstakingly honest. They recently corrected a billing error of $56 over three years over their entire client base. [1] My only complaint with them is t…

Cheers for that! Thank you for reinforcing my decision. I may just move the rest of my domains over there this week.

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#93

Post by joehewitt » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:23 PM UTC

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?

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#94

Post by athst » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:25 PM UTC

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!

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.

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#95

Post by jbhelms » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:25 PM UTC

stonemetal wrote: post #83

jbhelms wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DNS wasn't really the problem here, it was the hosting and setting up a ssl cert. I use GoDaddy for my DNS stuff and have never had any problem with them for that. Most of the horror stories come from people hosting with them.

They also provide registration and SSL.

Actually, after posting this I found an article that said that GoDaddy is selectively denying DNS requests, so they are now being crappy with DNS as well. I guess I need to move to a new registrar and DNS host.

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#96

Post by larrik » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:32 PM UTC

libraryatnight wrote: post #40

larrik wrote: post #7

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. We're talking about a website that got maybe dozens of hits per day. He was a paying customer!!!! I've never had such a bad host, even from free ones. Also, I absentmindedly signed myself up for their WHOIS…

Domains by Proxy emails you credentials when you sign up. People don't pay attention to this delete or never look at the emails, then get pissed when they can't login. Their hosting blows, but I've never had a problem with registrations.

That's what they told me too, but I have every (non-spam) email I've ever gotten going back to 1998, including the emails when I bought these accounts, and there is nothing from DomainsByProxy at all in there.

It's possible these emails got sucked up by the spam filter and are therefore lost to history. However, looking at how it works, and after talking with "both" companies, I'm inclined to feel and believe that they were intentionally deceptive.

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#97

Post by larrik » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:33 PM UTC

buddydvd wrote: post #64

larrik wrote: post #7

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. We're talking about a website that got maybe dozens of hits per day. He was a paying customer!!!! I've never had such a bad host, even from free ones. Also, I absentmindedly signed myself up for their WHOIS…

I noticed transferring a domain to different Godaddy account immediately cancels that domain's privacy-protection service. You can probably try that first before transferring your domain out of Godaddy.

I will definitely look into that one.

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#98

Post by hkuo » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:38 PM UTC

jinushaun wrote: post #63

Just had GoDaddy conveniently renew three expiring domain names for me for TWO years. These were domain names I didn't want any more. Thanks.

I had this happen to me as well. I gave them a call and they redacted it and refunded me the money. I consider it pretty suspicious activity, considering every email I got from them was telling me it would expire. But just give them a call and they'll set it straight.

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#99

Post by drivebyacct2 » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:39 PM UTC

pornel wrote: post #18

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #5

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. (Examples…

> Why is this news?! I can't count the number of times this has come up And yet GoDaddy is still in business and doing great.

So? That's not a reason to use it or a reason that they're any less scummy than they are. They have flashy commercial and people use them to save 50cents on a $7 purchase. Quite frankly, it's pathetic that people give them their business.

Oh, and if anyone uses GoDaddy for hosting, just leave your username after the beep so I can permanently ignore you.

Re: Startups should not use GoDaddy. Ever

#100

Post by spottiness » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 5:41 PM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #41

I moved away from GoDaddy a couple of years ago. Now I have a few expiring domains left on there. 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. Except it wasn't. Just like my previous few encounters with GoDaddy, when I went to the link I learn…

Yours is a widespread feeling. The following is a blackspot to GoDaddy, from December last year, that tells a similar impression: http://www.spottiness.com/spots/PDJ5K3WR