GoDaddy
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The world’s biggest domain name registrar with over 30 million domain names registered. Known for its edgy Super Bowl commercials. Also runs an expired domain name marketplace, domain parking service, and is the largest shared web hosting provider.
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Reviews (49)
Jeff
November 11th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
GoDaddy is big for a reason — low prices and aggressive marketing. The domain registrar has improved its interface somewhat recently, but it’s still very easy and might be overwhelming for visitors.
The prices at GoDaddy seem to fluctuate a lot, but overall are much cheaper than some competitors.
Also has 24×7 customer service, but you have to dial long distance.
Jamie Zoch
November 12th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Jeff stated it well above!
Godaddy.com hold the most domain name by any registrar X’s 3!
Customer service is great.
The Up sell process really sucks and gets old fast.
They have many “tech” issues with loging in as the page times out etc.
Overall, godaddy offers very attractive pricing and lots of Coupons. TDNAM the auction service is great as well.
Paul
November 12th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Big and cheap, but the crazy interface can be a nightmare for transfers (if the transferee makes a mistake). One took me about 3 weeks to resolve. Seems to be a favorite of eBay sellers - I move all purchases to Moniker ASAP.
DotSauce Magazine
November 12th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
My registrar of choice. I have been using GoDaddy almost daily for years. Their pricing and customer support is unmatched.
After awhile you become immune to the upsell and simply click “continue to cart.” It’s not that hard.
Domain management is user friendly and has some great features like organized folders, search and sort, and most importantly GoDaddy is easiest registrar to transfer ownership of a domain name.
Jason
November 12th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
GoDaddy is cheap and effective. For a first time buyer the upsells and nonsense can be overwhelming but you quickly learn to ignore what you don’t need. I have had several positive experiences with Customer Support. I also love the domain push feature that makes things easy on both buying and seller. The interface is not the greatest but is workable once you spend some time figuring everything out.
Boomer
November 12th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Inexpensive, great tools and great customer service! Always a positive experience when using GoDaddy. Plus their commercials are great!
Dimester
November 12th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I have used them since they first started. I have no complaints.
Transfering sold names is easy.
Help is just a phone call away.
I have had 2000+ transactions with no problems.
Melissa
November 12th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Go Daddy is GREAT! I’ve always had a positive customer service experience & the domain control center is easy to navigate.
Not to mention they constantly have deals on domains…and who can beat the Super Bowl commercials!
Ross
November 13th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Godaddy is a ho-hum registrar. Their interface is cluttered and not very well thought out and it often times out. They don’t seem to be very friendly towards domainers and their court case stances have shown so.
Stephen Douglas (Successclick.com)
November 13th, 2008 at 4:27 am
Since I advised with success the “bypass” checkbox for domainers to remove the upsell pages during registration, I give GoDaddy kudos on that. However, they’re still trying and most likely succeeding to wring, literally squeeze every last dollar out of you when you’re only trying to register a domain.
They copied the Bulkregister “Magic Folder” ideas Eric Rice and I put forth back in 2005, but that’s okay. They have good management tools, but since they’re charging me over $9 to renew my domains, even though I’m a reseller (god I gave up on that waste of cash), I still think GoDaddy is the top whore registrar in our industry.
Why? Because Bob doesn’t give a crap about domain industry success other than what affects his bottom line. When was the last time you saw Bob attend a domain conference without bodyguards?
Since they’re at the top of the heap, you have to see that their marketing is king. However, being at the top doesn’t mean you’re the best. At one point, Enron was considered the killer energy company.
Ultimately, still, the king of the noobie customer registrar is GoDaddy. I continue to transfer my domains out as soon as I buy them from those who actually think Godaddy is a “domainers’ registrar”.
Bottom line: If you’re a domainer, you’re not using Godaddy as your main registrar. You might be using their refcomm services tho!!
David McAllister
November 13th, 2008 at 5:12 am
I disagree totally with what GoDaddy did with the Gambling Sites and the State of Kentucky in October. If Kentucky wins this case, I will be forced to move about 2000 of my domains to an overseas registrar.
Other than that issue, GoDaddy has been extremely helpful with all of my domain problems. GoDaddy has provided a great service. I have an account manager that takes care of my account, so I don’t have to go through normal customer service channels. I just my account manager an email with the problem and he takes care of it ASAP.
I really hope Kentucky loses in their attempt at domain hijacking. I would rather keep my domains at GoDaddy than have to move them to a lesser company.
Steve Luvender
November 13th, 2008 at 7:57 am
GoDaddy is the world’s largest registrar for a reason. While the interface is a little “bulky” at times, I’ve never experienced a single problem and their Support staff has always been helpful. It’s easy to transfer or push names, which is a plus.
Couch Potato
November 13th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I see a lot of complaints about GoDaddy’s website in various forums and blogs, about it being cluttered or making too many offers. But the bottomline is they are the number one registrar for a reason. Someone there knows how to market. BTW, you can easily get around all of the options if you want to. At any rate, I have moved all my names to GoDaddy, originally for price, but now because of their great customer service and I really like their domain management tools.
Peetah
November 13th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Low Prices, strict security, reliable service… reasons why GoDaddy is my registrar of chouce..
Jacob
November 13th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I really dislike GoDaddy. Their interface is the worst I’ve ever come across. Nothing can ever be straightforward, everything has to involve 10 different pages and 10 different upsells. Price is good, but that’s all I can say. Whenever I purchase a domain from someone that has to be pushed there, I move it away as soon as I possibly can.
Gamaniel Rosas
November 14th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
GoDaddy is our preferred registrar; best prices, security and wonderful hosting services.
Ron Mexico
November 14th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Upsells aren’t the most fun but I’ve had no issues with managing my account and the pricing remains pretty competitive.
Chris Nielsen
November 17th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Being the beggest does not always mean you are the best, and the is certainly the case with Godaddy. Don’t get me wrong, they are not evil like Network Solutions, but while they do many things well, they really suck at others. The thing that causes different opinions is because things that bother some people don’t bother others, and some people have experiences that are quite differnt from others.
What’s wrong with Godaddy? You want to buy a domain name, and they try to sell you all this other stuff. Much of it you don’t need and some of it is of poor qualiy, in my opnion. Newbies aren’t going to have a clue, and as someone observed that they are popular with ebayers, well I think that says a lot right there. Ebay and AOL (lol).
I don’t like the constant upselling, I don’t like the 60 hold on transfering of your domain after changing the registrant information that they say is ICANN’s rule but other registrars don’t enforce and that you can get around by calling support.
I don’t like that after 2+ years and 500+ domains, that I finally got an account rep assigned to me because I have been dropping or trasfering all domains that are nearing renewal. I don’t like most of the prices because it seems to me they jack them up so they can run specials and give you 50 coupon codes each month to try to get the price down (Tip: Try a number of different codes when you check out to see which one gives you the biggest discount. Sometimes you can be surprised which one will work the best!).
The UI is bulky and slow in my opinion, but they do let you put your domains into categories and filter and sort them that way. You can also easily export your list with the info you need to transfer them out…!
They do have some innovative things that I mostly like. TDNAM is a useful marketplace that includes domains that have “expired” but are still not dropped. There are options for you to get these domains and the cost is generally resonable, but you have to pay a renewal fee in addition to the purchase price.
The other thing that I have had a good experience with is their customer support. Unless I have a really wacky problem I can generally get it resolved quickly with the first level of support. If they had a toll-free number I would say their support is perfect. But they have to have really good support for all those users that don’t know DNS from SEO.
Balaji
November 21st, 2008 at 2:39 am
Go daddy…perfect marketing strategy with sexy models listed on their homepage. Their system is really worse to handle and most of the cases, our navigation over their domain management system is confused.
Most important, once you get a domain with them, then forget about it. You cannot transfer it from them and if you forget or leave it from renewal, then sure, your domain will be taken off by them and will be on sale for $?,???
Samantha
November 24th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Go Daddy has great customer service!!! I appreciate the fact that they take the time to walk me through anything involving my Web site and are available 24/7.
Rob Sequin
November 24th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Funny that some people above say that godaddy’s user interface is the worst ever. To me, that is their best feature. Seriously, no registrar comes close to bulk changes, management, viewing, sorting etc.
Their email service is terrible. I always got bad answers so you have to call to get the right answer.
People find registrars with features that fit their needs. I have over 3000 domains and most of them are at wild west domains.
I have been with dozens of registrars since I have been playing the drops before snapnames (remember drop wizard, namewinner and the drops at different times of day?) Most registrars can’t compare to godaddy, at least for the features that I need.
Bob
November 25th, 2008 at 4:11 am
I’ve never had a good experience with GoDaddy. I dislike everything about them, their user interface, and their upsell the crap out of everything and try to trick you in to buying stuff you don’t want.
Budda Magoo
November 25th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I originally moved all of my business and personal domains after having to deal with the likes of Dotster and their high prices. After about 7 years of using them, I moved a few domains around and tried a few others. After about 6 months of that, I moved everything back to Godaddy simply because I trust them. No they’re not perfect. They bombard you with advertising at every click and recently their site seems to be getting slower than what I remembered from before. It’s just that for someone who collects domains purposed other that running ad sites, it’s nice to know that you can call them up on the weekend and actually get someone on the other end of the line. Try that with Moniker or Dynadot and you’re in for a disappointment. Also, Godaddy isn’t likely to go under like Registerfly did.
Max Torkoff
November 27th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I moved all my domains to Godaddy
James
November 28th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Go Daddy has great customer service. Best prices, security and excellent hosting services.
James
December 1st, 2008 at 11:16 am
I moved all my names away from GoDaddy
Deepak Sakhrani
December 1st, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I ordered several .ASIA domains with Go daddy during land rush period. They failed to register any of my domains. They had a clear policy of full refund during land rush. It’s almost a year and I am still fighting with them for a refund. After repeated requests they issued only partial refund several months later. One after another new support tickets are generated and their billing team does not even give a reason for partial refund. Till now over 275$ are stuck with them and they are not ready to refund. THUMBS DOWN TO GO DADDY.
William Hook
December 6th, 2008 at 8:46 am
The only reason I use GoDaddy is that one of my domains I had transferred to me is registered there - otherwise, I do NOT like GoDaddy one bit.
Their price is good, especially when you use coupon codes (hint: watch Diggnation to get them), but their website is a mess, their account management tools are a mess, and overall, I really dislike them.
Martin
December 6th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Interface is way too spammy (do you want to add ___________ to your order etc) and the account interface times out many times when you log in. Additionally their support team only replies using canned responses which doesn’t help if your question is not answered. It’s a go for the price, but everything else is just a mess.
Ahmed
December 11th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Way too much spam on this site. can’t stand it.
Disappointed
December 20th, 2008 at 10:05 am
I have been with godaddy for several years now, and as each year passes, their service gets worse and worse. I’m finally going to transfer away from them. Their domain manager interface is difficult to use and many times its just unresponsive. Support is slow to non-existent.
Here is the biggest problem. I’ve had 3 or 4 domains expire that were set to auto renew. No notice and only when I was digging around later to find what happened was I told I could re-instate for 90 bucks. These were domains that had auto renew set up and working previously, but some how support blamed it on me. I’m not a domain reseller, I only have a handful of domains I use so this was extremely disappointing. I just lost one last month, so now its time to move on.
I also hate their upselling, but could have lived with it otherwise.
Jean Guillon
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:34 am
Very satisified. Access is a little slow from Europe but support is excellent.
John Bauer
January 14th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I find GD best serves my purpose for buying and storing domain names, their bulk tools are impressive, as is their special pricing.
As for their hosting, it’s one of the worst packages you can get, there are many better hosting providers out there.
stub
January 16th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
I agree with Rob. I think their management tools are the best in the industry. Very comprehensive. It’s the main reason I keep my 3,500 domains there. It’s easy to group and manage them in every which way.
Support is great if you have an Account Manager. Almost instantaneous replies when they are at work. If you have hundreds or more domains there, you should ask for one.
I also subscribe to their Domain Discount Club. You get the cheap prices without all the hassle associated with coupons. Of course, it’s worth it for me, with so many domains.
If you are looking for an expired domain, there are hundreds of thousands to choose from at their GoDaddy Auction site, previously called TDNAM. ranging from $5 + reg fee, and up.
You should read their ToS carefully. They strictly enforce them when notified of an infringement. This isn’t normally a problem. I’ve had to cough-up 1 $20 fee in over 10,000 domain years.
Their 60 Day hold on changing the Registrant Info can be waived. You just have to ask.
Personally, I give them 5 Stars all round.
Troy
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:34 pm
I am with GoDaddy.com as well. They have always been easy to work with in the past for me although I as of yet have still not gotten my own account rep.
I am never left on hold for more than a couple of minutes and the employees are professional and knowledgeable.
The most obnoxious thing about Godaddy is there habit of habitually inflating the price of domain names. Right now .org is $14.99… Uhhhh yeah right.
When their prices go up like that I just saunter over to Name.com
JohnJ
February 27th, 2009 at 1:53 am
I cannot think of any worse ! If I didnt have any choice other than GoDaddy, I would give up the whole internet then. I have a dozen of domains with a reseller of them and so has a friend of mine with GoDaddy and we are moving them the soonest. There are many other registrers who offer so much better prices including Private registration unlike GoDaddy’s, let alone their so much better service. So dont be fooled with their so-called low price. Security-wsie, I am not sure but I dont believe they are any better, unless security means YOU can never access your own account !!! Customer Service is delayed and useless from my own experience. Their interface and control panel is a real NIGHTMARE. If you are not lucky (for some reason) to have fast enough internet then NEVER go near them unless you want to spend hours waiting to do something that takes few minutes max.
I never wrote any review online before, but now I am fed up with GoDaddy and their resellers that I think it is my duty to caution others.
The bottom line is NEVER GoDaddy !!!
JohnJ
February 27th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Sorry, this another post of mine is just to do the stars rating thing that Im missed in my first review. My sincere apologies ! you can read that this is my first onine review ever.
Below is my same review above.
I cannot think of any worse ! If I didnt have any choice other than GoDaddy, I would give up the whole internet then. I have a dozen of domains with a reseller of them and so has a friend of mine with GoDaddy and we are moving them the soonest. There are many other registrers who offer so much better prices including Private registration unlike GoDaddy’s, let alone their so much better service. So dont be fooled with their so-called low price. Security-wsie, I am not sure but I dont believe they are any better, unless security means YOU can never access your own account !!! Customer Service is delayed and useless from my own experience. Their interface and control panel is a real NIGHTMARE. If you are not lucky (for some reason) to have fast enough internet then NEVER go near them unless you want to spend hours waiting to do something that takes few minutes max.
I never wrote any review online before, but now I am fed up with GoDaddy and their resellers that I think it is my duty to caution others.
The bottom line is NEVER GoDaddy !!!
Maria
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Everyone used GoDaddy at some point, right?
I hope never to have to again. GoDaddy consistently do things that are shady and are then celebrated for “doing the right thing” when their behavior is uncovered. How about just not doing the shady things to begin with?
Fyre Vortex
March 24th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
(I hope I rated fairly, but that is just my opinion. I also agree to what @Maria said.)
Their price is great, but I hate their security, how their “privacy services” cost a lot (Maybe even more than the domain?) and that even though I bought it, it is, protected, but I have no idea how to turn it off, in case I want to transfer it away.
Customer Service is bad. They never help to resolve my problems, and the domains didn’t even work in my area. Yes, I have set the CNAME records and all that, but it was probably because of some other reasons.
Account management tools are acceptable, but it’s not outstanding.
Adduc
March 24th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I’ve used GoDaddy as my primary domain registrar for a year now, and have had little issue. Sure, they charge more for privacy for the domain records, but there are those out there who’d prefer the cheaper domain name without the privacy. Haven’t had any bouts with Customer Service, but Name Server changes and other account management tools seem to take effect quickly. Tools interface is a little too clunky for my tastes, but they provide free DNS and it works.
Joe
April 23rd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I’ve used godaddy for years and have been fairly happy with them. Most of the domains I buy are with them. The transfer process is easy. I also like the live support. Came in handi when i had to get a domain out of redemption after registerfly failed to renew it. I’ve started using Registerdonkey.com. They are a godaddy reseller but have better prices then godaddy. The interface and support is the same.
Cal
May 6th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
User Interface isn’t the easiest tool to navigate.
ItsSri
May 25th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Best user interface and domain management tools.
Most secure and smooth domain transfers.
Upsell! just click on “continue to checkout”.
TDNAM! pickup great names for $5 at closeouts.
Great Personal Email - 1GB with every domain.
Service: did you ever get any customer service telling you the exact line of code you need to update to get your site repaired? GoDaddy support does!
GoDaddy Go!
J Swami
August 1st, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I regard GoDaddy as an unethical company and will no longer do business with them, at any price.
Try this scenario:
You register two domain names. They come with one year of free “whois” privacy protection. Great.
Your names come up for renewal. You go to GoDaddy’s website and go through the quick and easy renewal procedure, renewing both names for two years each.
When you finish, you realize you haven’t opted out of renewing the privacy protection. (You expected to see a screen where you could do it, but all of a sudden you’ve reached the end of the process–including payment–and that screen has never appeared.)
You at once call customer service, tell them what happened, and let them know you don’t need or want the privacy protection (it doubles the cost of your renewal). You politely ask to have the order for it cancelled.
They tell you “No can do.” The privacy, you see, is “managed by a different company” and if you didn’t want to renew it you’d have to contact that other company *before* renewing your domain name. So next year, if you don’t want to renew the protection, that’s what you should do.
Reviewing GoDaddy’s domain-renewal screens, you realize they’ve been explicitly designed to avoid giving you the chance to opt out of renewing the privacy protection.
You also find out that “the other company” is owned by the same gentleman who owns GoDaddy.
You go through several cordial back-and-forths with GoDaddy’s customer service people. Each time, they tell you “No can do. Our policy is. . . You’d have to. . . The other company. . . ” Each time, you say, “Fine. Please put me in touch with your superior.”
At about five levels up, you get the guy who concedes that “on a one-time basis” they’ll be happy to cancel your privacy renewal and refund what you paid for it.
Well, at least that’s a happy ending.
Moral: If you enjoy dealing with a company that systematically tries to cheat its customers, by all means do business with GoDaddy.
Sam Caldwell
February 8th, 2010 at 11:21 am
The first measure of vendor quality not determined by performance during the good times but by the vendor’s response to the bad times. In the small number of times where someone at Godaddy fell flat on their face, the company has always recovered gracefully and made things right.
The second measure of vendor quality is that feeling of knowing a client may some day directly engage a vendor you have personally recommended for them. In most cases, this feeling is the same feeling I get on April 15th. But with Godaddy, I have always felt that the client will be treated fairly and appropriately.
Finally, the third measure of vendor quality is innovation. I am familiar with the canned c-panel and its functionality. But Godaddy has done a better job building a management console that allows me to protect clients by assigning developers as account executives rather than giving them direct access to the account. This allows me to outsource development from a client’s console without giving over the keys to the kingdom.
Jim
February 10th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
You get what you pay for. MySQL grinds to halt on shared servers. Even when a website takes 90 seconds to come up across various browsers and locations, their customer service will tell you “It comes up just fine for me”. They will say anything but not commit to anything to get you off the phone.
Rob
February 15th, 2010 at 9:59 am
hmmmmmmmnnn. they promote themselves as angels but are very devilish. hypocrites. eg: standard tactics, TM domains. i thought there was one good, honest, ethical registrar but no. price is better than most but gone up much steeper than netsols wholesale price - not happy about that. i started to transfer out some of my domains. u/i is slow but ok. hosting is garbage. so too is all the upselling. i am disappointed. godaddy, you became too greedy and blew it - many of the comments reflect that. hey bob, why don’t you do a blog on the worst decisions you made with godaddy? (we’ve already heard soooo much about the best ones).
theron
February 21st, 2010 at 1:01 am
this company sucks, stole my site by asking me to send a copy of my drivers license. I refused, they locked up my domain. never again
Tom
February 27th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
In my experience, GoDaddy phone and email support have been good. In addition, the user community for GoDaddy is so large that you can often Google a question and find an answer. Pricing is good if you buy in bulk or if you’re willing to wade through myriad promotional offers. For me the biggest downside of managing GoDaddy domains is the interface. It’s slow, confusing, and poorly designed. Constant upsell gets in the way of simple tasks. GoDaddy clearly has the resources and expertise to implement a usable interface. I understand the reasons for maximizing profit but it’s still surprising to see a successful company neglect usability. GoDaddy isn’t a bad place to register your domains, and I’m not in a big rush to transfer my domains out, but the negatives have convinced me to consider other registrars for future registrations.
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