What do you guys use instead of GoDaddy? Just interested to see what others prefer out there. I was gonna do a domain transfer to GoDaddy, but after reading this I won't be considering them.
I've been using namecheap for years. Never had any problems with them. They are reasonably priced and fast to respond. The only thing I don't like is their slightly confusing interface. Hiring an UX engineer and giving him free reign wouldn't hurt them :)
There are multiple threads on HN already answering your question, you can find them via the search function. (This comment is not meant to cry "double post", just as a pointer for your to look for more information on GoDaddy alternatives).
I've been using Gandi for years now and I really like them. But since I've never never had a problem, I really can't comment on their customer service.
I second Gandi - I transferred to them from Dotster for many reasons and the service is excellent - not to mention the free SSL certificates with your domain purchase, which has come in handy a few times.
I transferred from GoDaddy to name.com about a year ago by recommendation of a friend. It's nice to not be bombarded with GD babes and just enter my account to do what I need to do.
I wish I hadn't switched to name.com. If you use their DNS servers they automatically add a wildcard record pointing to a parking page. There is no way of turning that off besides defining your own bogus wildcard record.
I keep getting emails about expiring domains and auto-renewals. I maintain a separate spread-sheet to keep track of these.
For some reason it not only annoys me but it always make my blood pressure shoot up. To turn these alerts off you have to disable auto-renew for the domain. This check box is not easy to find. They hide the auto-renew check box column very cleverly.
Now I get emails about expiring other services... I still haven't figured how to turn these off.
I guess since I've been using them so long I'm in the same boat, I know exactly where to go. You can even go straight to your domain manager by visiting dcc.godaddy.com -- quick and easy.
Straightforward hosting too. I use them simply for 301'ing requests to my root domain to my dub-dub-dub site, that being hosted on Amazon S3. The pay as you go approach to that makes it very cost effective.
After you buy a domain from anywhere set your nameservers to point to cloudflare. They also have a reverse proxy/caching service that is useful. They have a video on their webpage that explains some of what they do.
I use dnsimple (http://dnsimple.com). It's not one of the cheaper ones (US$3/month for DNS hosting up to ten domains, US$14/registration), but it has a nice UI, JSON REST API and support that doesn't suck.
My first website was a combo package from them, which included a domain name.
When I had my own server and tried to transfer the domain there was no way for me to get them to release the domain name.
If I cancel my hosting account, then I would have to wait until the domain expires and becomes available again, so that I can then re-register it with another registrar, was their reply.
No matter what I tried I couldn't get them to let me transfer the domain name away from them or even update the nameservers to make it point to the new server.
Things surely have changed by now but because of their policy I lost a well established domain name, so that I haven't touched their services ever since.
Not just no, HELL no. Enom is almost worse than godaddy in some ways, especially when it comes to transfers. They will hold you down for the maximum amount of time they can before actually processing a transfer. I've had to deal with their support more than once because of a XFR being stuck in their process somewhere.
They're also a huge reseller. I'd rather deal with a tier 1 provider instead of one 2 or 3 links down the chain.
Comments
What do you guys use instead of GoDaddy? Just interested to see what others prefer out there. I was gonna do a domain transfer to GoDaddy, but after reading this I won't be considering them.
Namecheap. Their own coupon site is at http://www.namecheapcoupons.com/
+1
I've been using namecheap for years. Never had any problems with them. They are reasonably priced and fast to respond. The only thing I don't like is their slightly confusing interface. Hiring an UX engineer and giving him free reign wouldn't hurt them :)
There are multiple threads on HN already answering your question, you can find them via the search function. (This comment is not meant to cry "double post", just as a pointer for your to look for more information on GoDaddy alternatives).
I've been using Gandi for years now and I really like them. But since I've never never had a problem, I really can't comment on their customer service.
I second Gandi - I transferred to them from Dotster for many reasons and the service is excellent - not to mention the free SSL certificates with your domain purchase, which has come in handy a few times.
namecheap.com. Clean interface compared to to godaddy's horrible nightmare of upsell ads and 1990s level UI/UX.
I transferred from GoDaddy to name.com about a year ago by recommendation of a friend. It's nice to not be bombarded with GD babes and just enter my account to do what I need to do.
I wish I hadn't switched to name.com. If you use their DNS servers they automatically add a wildcard record pointing to a parking page. There is no way of turning that off besides defining your own bogus wildcard record.
I agree with this. And sorry for the rant.
I keep getting emails about expiring domains and auto-renewals. I maintain a separate spread-sheet to keep track of these.
For some reason it not only annoys me but it always make my blood pressure shoot up. To turn these alerts off you have to disable auto-renew for the domain. This check box is not easy to find. They hide the auto-renew check box column very cleverly.
Now I get emails about expiring other services... I still haven't figured how to turn these off.
I use godaddy to just do what I want, and really like the ui. Maybe I just know where to click but I'm not bombarded by anything.
I guess since I've been using them so long I'm in the same boat, I know exactly where to go. You can even go straight to your domain manager by visiting dcc.godaddy.com -- quick and easy.
https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/
Pay for what you use from people with do right by their customers.
Straightforward hosting too. I use them simply for 301'ing requests to my root domain to my dub-dub-dub site, that being hosted on Amazon S3. The pay as you go approach to that makes it very cost effective.
use them to hold your registration, then set your DNS up with cloudflare.com
That's what we've been doing.
Could you explain (how to) a bit more on this?
After you buy a domain from anywhere set your nameservers to point to cloudflare. They also have a reverse proxy/caching service that is useful. They have a video on their webpage that explains some of what they do.
I use dnsimple (http://dnsimple.com). It's not one of the cheaper ones (US$3/month for DNS hosting up to ten domains, US$14/registration), but it has a nice UI, JSON REST API and support that doesn't suck.
I've used 1and1.com for years and they are almost always cheaper than godaddy.
Watch out: 1and1 might not be quite as bad as godaddy in some of their policies, but they are very close. Avoid if at all possible.
Care to explain in more detail? (I moved from GoDaddy to 1&1 a few months back)
My first website was a combo package from them, which included a domain name.
When I had my own server and tried to transfer the domain there was no way for me to get them to release the domain name. If I cancel my hosting account, then I would have to wait until the domain expires and becomes available again, so that I can then re-register it with another registrar, was their reply. No matter what I tried I couldn't get them to let me transfer the domain name away from them or even update the nameservers to make it point to the new server.
Things surely have changed by now but because of their policy I lost a well established domain name, so that I haven't touched their services ever since.
Nametoolkit.com, because it's ours.
enom.com
Not just no, HELL no. Enom is almost worse than godaddy in some ways, especially when it comes to transfers. They will hold you down for the maximum amount of time they can before actually processing a transfer. I've had to deal with their support more than once because of a XFR being stuck in their process somewhere.
They're also a huge reseller. I'd rather deal with a tier 1 provider instead of one 2 or 3 links down the chain.