09 Aug Say NoDaddy to GoDaddy!
If a stranger asks you to call them daddy and they aren’t your father, you should back away immediately.
Same goes for GoDaddy, the domain registration and web hosting company that has met with its fair share of controversy over the years. While their low-price packages may seem tempting to small businesses getting online for the first time, there are quite a few reasons to take your business elsewhere.
Here are just 5 of the reasons you should never host with GoDaddy.
- Flighty business pursuits
To outcompete Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others,
GoDaddy execs decided to launch their own cloud-based services in March of 2016 in hopes of capturing business from current customers that may have sought cloud space elsewhere. But just over a year later, the company announced it would halt their cloud services altogether by December 31, 2017 and encouraged users to switch to some of their other offerings, such as GoDaddy’s Virtual Private Server (VPS) plans.
It seemed they didn’t learn their lesson, as this isn’t the first time they’ve attempted and failed to offer cloud services. Back in 2012, GoDaddy shutdown similar services citing a mismatch with the needs of small businesses.
Wouldn’t it be nice that when you signed up for a service, you could expect reliable access?
- Illusion of security
Among many other services, GoDaddy offers
SSL certificates, which have become an increasingly important factor in search engine results page rankings (SERP). Unfortunately, earlier this year, the company revoked nearly 9,000 SSL certificates due to their own carelessness. Routine code changes resulted in the
introduction of a bug into their verification system, leaving many sites vulnerable to malware attacks and fraudulent activity.
- Shady business practices
GoDaddy has faced recurrent accusations of domain name front running (DNFR), or the practice of buying domain names they deem valuable and selling them at higher prices. The practice is troublesome as domain registrars may be using a potential customer’s search data to grab the domain name then resell it to the searcher at an overinflated price.
- Terrible customer experiences
Customers have had such negative experiences that a website called
NoDaddy was created back in 2007 to expose the hosting giant’s shady tactics. What did GoDaddy do? They bought the site and subsequently shut it down.
Bad reviews don’t go away so easily, however. Despite a high rating on the Better Business Bureau website, GoDaddy has only a handful of
positive reviews (four to be exact) and almost 200 negative reviews. Complaints include fraudulent charges, disrespectful and unhelpful customer service reps, and unwanted solicitations using unprotected customer information, just to name a few.
- Questionable advertising tactics
Remember the GoDaddy girls? They were the company’s sleazy advertising attempt to pander to the baser side of human nature. The campaign was nothing more than a series of flashy ads representing a company with little substance and a complete disregard for consumer intelligence.
Though the company seems to have cleaned up their act with a quirky
2017 ad that includes a shout out to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), past campaigns may suggest they are simply pandering to grab attention.
GoDaddy may say they are dedicated to uplifting small and independent companies, but their actions contradict their words. We think their stated principles “hustle, adapt, listen” and “repeat” say it all – an ever-evolving swindle.
If you’re a small business owner looking to bring your services to the internet or update your current website, please
contact Social Spice Media. We offer a complete website development package that includes responsive design, SSL certification, and reputable web hosting.
