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Out With The Old, In With The New… Goodbye Godaddy

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January 4th, 2010 by Jesse
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I don’t consider myself a domainer but I do have a few hundred domains registered, most of which I have plans to personally develop but a few of them do fall into the “held for resale should the right offer present itself” category. In my time registering domains I switched around registrars a lot initially, eventually settling in at Godaddy where I have the bulk of my domains registered presently. This was fine initially but a few things started to rub me the wrong way the more I used their site. I don’t have patience for slow loading sites and the Godaddy domain manager always, every time I use it, has me sitting there waiting… and waiting… and waiting some more for it to display my short list of names or to get to the page where I can update my name servers or other domain related items that should be quickly and easily accessible. There should be no reason why I have to log in, find a link and click it to open a new browser tab to get to my domains and then wait 30 seconds for the page to load, no reason at all.

I also am not new to the concept of the up-sell, but to be quite honest the buying process at Godaddy irritates me like very few other things in life, sure I know the routine to zip through it and get to the checkout screen ignoring all the crap in between but the whole process just irks me every time I am forced to do it, not to mention that there is just something about Bob Parsons that I find highly annoying.

I am also not a fan of continual change, when I get used to something I like it to stay how it is unless there is a specific need to revise something for better function or usability. Godaddy has been changing things about their site lately that are completely trivial and add nothing to the value of my time there nor improve on the overall “user experience” for their site, when I log in I want to know where the stupid link is for what I am looking for without having to hunt for it.

So, who have I decided to use from here on out you may ask… Well, I am going to use name.com for all my domains, even tho they have no affiliate program (i hope they take a hint) and I have nothing to gain by making this post other than the fact that I like to endorse products, services or sites that I find useful, enjoyable to use and that simply do what they are supposed to do. When I buy a domain at name.com it’s simple, their search interface is very easy to use and the added features like the google keyword search integration are awesome, especially for those new to registering domain names. Once a name is picked out the purchase is simple, click on your cart, select your payment method and pay, that’s it. Navigating the account area is easy, updating information like name servers and contact information takes a few seconds and it all just makes sense. I have been very happy with the clean simple yet effective user interface they offer.


  • I just thought that GoDaddy was slow all round! I now use www.namecheap.com for domain registrations. I don't know if they have an affiliate program, I actually haven't checked.

    They're reasonably priced and fairly easy to use. They also have some good competitions. This weekend they had a superbowl sunday thing on twitter where they posted questions each hour and they gave out a domain name to 3 people each hour, plus some bigger prize as the grand winner...
  • Thanks for the post and I totally agree with you. I have over 50 domains under my account and first of all, their organization on Domain manager is very complicated. Extremely difficult checkout process, all their promotions keep jumping into your way and push you to say, `just get the heck out of my way and let me buy the freaking domain`.

    There are things that I admire about Godaddy though. One of them is their phone support. Whenever I had an issue with a domain registration, transfer, sub-domain etc. I could get a person on the phone in less then 10 minutes and get the expert opinion on my situation. Another one is their coupon process. I purchase domains as bulk so I enjoy getting $25 discount on new domain purchase and renewals totaling over $100.

    As far as name.com, do you find their price competitive? When you go upto 100 domains, the renewals becomes costly and that was the main reason I stayed with Godaddy for last 7 years but if name.com is better with GUI and everything, I'm jumping into that vagon.

    Thanks
  • Thanks for the comment, I have been completely satisfied with the interface
    at name.com so far but they are a bit heavier on the wallet than Godaddy, I
    have decided it is worth it to me to not have to fuddle around tho. I of
    course am hopeful that they come out with some coupons or incentives in the
    future.
  • While you still have to go through some of the upsell nonsense if you are renewing a name, there is no need to endure it on a new registration... just use Express Buy. Doing that skips all that stuff, you just have to change it to 1 year if you don't want the default 2 year registration. And you CAN save your credit cards on file, I did that sometime last year and it makes everything much smoother.

    With that said, the recent changes to the interface annoyed me a bit, just let me view ALL my domains quickly and easily. And I wish the NS fields remembered past entries (fix that in 1 minute flat GD) and it was a bit easier to update contact info with profiles or something, but all and all, with a coupon the prices are right and it works well for me. As for it taking 30 seconds to load, I got to wonder if there is something wrong with your browser... I've never had more than a moments wait with Firefox, even with 60+ tabs open.
  • Hi John,

    Thanks for stopping by. You do make a valid point about the Express Buy but
    thats not the default, I will say that I was happy with Godaddy for quite a
    while until I found something that worked better for me. As for the speed
    issues I referred to, it's more apparent in the domain manager when trying
    to sort names by expiration date etc, perhaps that has to do with the number
    of domains I have there but I am by no means anywhere near the top of the
    "who has the most names" list. I know it is not a browser or PC issue :-)

    Bottom line, if it works for you and you are happy don't change a thing, I
    wasn't happy so I changed.
  • nathanbrauer
    I was in the same boat and did the same thing to get out of it!
    GoDaddy's interface is just terrible. The ironic thing is that they realize that it's bad: that's why they keep changing it! But every time they change it, it either gets worse or does no better. One of either two things is happening: (1) They hire crappy developers and designers or (2) they hire great people who know what they're doing but they impose their own "ideas" on the developers/designers instead of letting their newly hired developers/designers do what they're trained to do (This narrative describes this problem perfectly: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell )
  • LOL, thanks for that comic... I definitely got a chuckle from that one. Good
    insight on whats more than likely going on over at Godaddy as well, thanks
    for the comment.
  • nathanbrauer
    No problem :)
    I also got sick and tired of being locked out of my account when I mistyped my password once or twice. It seemed that every time I went to log into my account, I was locked out and needed to call them to reset my password.

    Also, Name.com can save your CC, billing, and registration info so you can checkout with just one click. Actually, because they have that, I've probably spent at least $50 more than I would have if I had to go through GoDaddy's brutal checkout.
  • Ditto here, name.com obviously has a better understanding of buyers
    psychology (or just got lucky) making it that easy to complete a purchase
    has definitely led me to buy more from them than if they had some slow site
    with all that upsell funnel crap going on.
  • I have to say I totally agree, the GoDaddy website sucks badly.
    The only reason I still use them is because I rarely have to modify my web names and I don't buy too much.

    I cannot understand how they can leave the site like that though, if one of my sites has even a hint of performance problems I go in and take a look!
  • Hey Chris,

    I'm the same way, any trouble and I obsess over it endlessly until its fixed lol.. I think they are too concerned with bobs videos with his fake constant smile and making the site flashy/pretty. A company that does what they do should have a website that is a showcase of proper design and performance, not one that is a complete mess like it is.. just my 2 cents :-)
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