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I saw a couple of comments saying to not use godaddy - why is that? I am a godaddy customer and have not been dissatisfied so far (excluding this data breach).

I saw a couple of comments saying to not use godaddy - why is that? I am a godaddy customer and have not been dissatisfied so far (excluding this data breach). I also see namecheap being recommended a lot. Are they the go-to for domain name registration?

Kye 5y ago
At one point GoDaddy used a lot of dark patterns in their checkout and cancellation flows. Amazon's worst is relatively tame. I don't know if they cleaned up their act, but that's likely the source. Cloudflare offers domain registration now (not just transfers), and it's at cost, so I don't see a reason to not use it unless you need to set your own nameservers. That's a paid add-on with Cloudflare's registrar service.
phaedryx 5y ago
Here's a list of reasons to avoid GoDaddy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoDaddy#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoDaddy#Controversies Also, I left because I thought their upsells and harassment were annoying.
- ryanlol 5y ago
  Most of these don’t really look too bad for godaddy, the first thing on your list paints them in a very positive light.
  - dspillett 5y ago
    I wouldn't say most, but some do not look bad for them. Some do look very bad for them IMO though, and some of those are why I've not used them for many years (some of them happened after I moved my things elsewhere). The point of that list is to enumerate significant controversies involving GoDaddy, not just those where they look particularly bad.
cpach 5y ago
GoDaddy has been in the news over the past twenty years for questionable business practices. I prefer Dynadot (US company). I’ve also heard good things about Gandi (French company). You can also transfer (but not register) domains to Cloudflare.
- jgrahamc 5y ago
  You can register domains with Cloudflare also: https://blog.cloudflare.com/registrar-for-everyone/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/registrar-for-everyone/
  - rstupek 5y ago
    Do you know if/when cloud flare will offer registration/ renewal through an api?
- ryanlol 5y ago
  Gandi will suspend your domains for no reason and hold them hostage until you provide photographic ID proof, stay away.
  - mikro2nd 5y ago
    Really? I've been dealing with Gandi for something like 20 years and have never before now heard of anything like this, nor experienced it. Some evidence, please.
    - denton-scratch 5y ago
      I also rate Gandi. I'm also surprised to hear of shenanigans. But the GP's story is about identity verification; I don't see that as a particularly egregious "shenanigan".
      - ohyeshedid 5y ago
        Can't speak to that specific complaint, but Gandi has had other issues in the past.[0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22001822 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22001822
freedomben 5y ago
I bought domains through them many years ago and transferring them out was an absolute and utter (intentional on GoDaddy's part) nightmare. Even today, I have one domain that I inherited that has been nearly impossible to transfer out, even after talking to support personnel. They keep blaming the receiving registrar even though all the evidence points to GoDaddy's system). I don't know if it's malice or incompetence, but it's kind of hard to tell the difference at this point and give then very real malice in their past, I'm disinclined to give them too much benefit of the doubt. Lastly I can't prove it, but about 10 years ago or so I'm pretty sure they bought a domain name that I had been searching using their search tool but was on the fence about buying. When I finally did decide to buy it, it had been registered but was "available" to buy through GoDaddy at a nice markup. I saw online (at the time) several other anecdotes of the same thing. For those wondering what I use now: hover.com has been great to me for many years. I do have an increasing number on Cloudflare as well.
tristor 5y ago
I used to work with a lot of former GoDaddy employees, based on what I was told they treat their employees horribly internally and are very much focused on nickle and diming their customers as much as possible without any desire to provide more than the bare minimum of service to prevent them from being sued for breach of contract. They are not a company I would ever do business with on the basis of that alone.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
riekus 5y ago
GoDaddy has a done a lot of shady shit in the past at least. I got a couple of own incidents with them. One where I paid the fee for domain brokerage/negotiation with the owner where they took the money and never responded again.

Kye 5y ago

At one point GoDaddy used a lot of dark patterns in their checkout and cancellation flows. Amazon's worst is relatively tame. I don't know if they cleaned up their act, but that's likely the source. Cloudflare offers domain registration now (not just transfers), and it's at cost, so I don't see a reason to not use it unless you need to set your own nameservers. That's a paid add-on with Cloudflare's registrar service.

phaedryx 5y ago

Here's a list of reasons to avoid GoDaddy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoDaddy#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoDaddy#Controversies Also, I left because I thought their upsells and harassment were annoying.

ryanlol 5y ago
Most of these don’t really look too bad for godaddy, the first thing on your list paints them in a very positive light.
- dspillett 5y ago
  I wouldn't say most, but some do not look bad for them. Some do look very bad for them IMO though, and some of those are why I've not used them for many years (some of them happened after I moved my things elsewhere). The point of that list is to enumerate significant controversies involving GoDaddy, not just those where they look particularly bad.

cpach 5y ago

GoDaddy has been in the news over the past twenty years for questionable business practices. I prefer Dynadot (US company). I’ve also heard good things about Gandi (French company). You can also transfer (but not register) domains to Cloudflare.

jgrahamc 5y ago
You can register domains with Cloudflare also: https://blog.cloudflare.com/registrar-for-everyone/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/registrar-for-everyone/
- rstupek 5y ago
  Do you know if/when cloud flare will offer registration/ renewal through an api?
ryanlol 5y ago
Gandi will suspend your domains for no reason and hold them hostage until you provide photographic ID proof, stay away.
- mikro2nd 5y ago
  Really? I've been dealing with Gandi for something like 20 years and have never before now heard of anything like this, nor experienced it. Some evidence, please.
  - denton-scratch 5y ago
    I also rate Gandi. I'm also surprised to hear of shenanigans. But the GP's story is about identity verification; I don't see that as a particularly egregious "shenanigan".
    - ohyeshedid 5y ago
      Can't speak to that specific complaint, but Gandi has had other issues in the past.[0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22001822 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22001822

freedomben 5y ago

I bought domains through them many years ago and transferring them out was an absolute and utter (intentional on GoDaddy's part) nightmare. Even today, I have one domain that I inherited that has been nearly impossible to transfer out, even after talking to support personnel. They keep blaming the receiving registrar even though all the evidence points to GoDaddy's system). I don't know if it's malice or incompetence, but it's kind of hard to tell the difference at this point and give then very real malice in their past, I'm disinclined to give them too much benefit of the doubt. Lastly I can't prove it, but about 10 years ago or so I'm pretty sure they bought a domain name that I had been searching using their search tool but was on the fence about buying. When I finally did decide to buy it, it had been registered but was "available" to buy through GoDaddy at a nice markup. I saw online (at the time) several other anecdotes of the same thing. For those wondering what I use now: hover.com has been great to me for many years. I do have an increasing number on Cloudflare as well.

tristor 5y ago

I used to work with a lot of former GoDaddy employees, based on what I was told they treat their employees horribly internally and are very much focused on nickle and diming their customers as much as possible without any desire to provide more than the bare minimum of service to prevent them from being sued for breach of contract. They are not a company I would ever do business with on the basis of that alone.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

riekus 5y ago

GoDaddy has a done a lot of shady shit in the past at least. I got a couple of own incidents with them. One where I paid the fee for domain brokerage/negotiation with the owner where they took the money and never responded again.