GoDaddy is one of the largest organisms in the internet ecosystem – they’re a behemoth in the web services market. They offer a nearly endless list of services including domain, website and email hosting, and a growing list of broader marketing services, such as SEO and even logo creation. But are they all they’re cracked up to be? In this article, I’ll explore the main reasons we do not use GoDaddy services, focusing on their primary two services: domain and website hosting.
But first, here’s a primer on domains and website hosting. Already an expert? SKIP THE PRIMER.
Understanding Domains, Domain Hosting and Web Hosting
When navigating the online world, it’s crucial to understand the basic components that make up your internet presence. Two key elements are your domain hosting and your website hosting. They might sound similar, but they play very different roles in getting your website up and running.
What is a Domain?
Think of a domain like your home’s street address. It’s a unique identifier that allows people to find you on the internet. For example, www.yourbusinessname.com is a domain name. It’s what your customers type into their browser’s address bar to visit your website. Just like you can’t have a physical address without registering it, you can’t have a website address without a domain.
Domain Registrars AKA Domain Hosting
Domain hosting, often just called domain registration, is the process of buying your unique web address (i.e. your domain e.g. exampleDomain.com). When you register a domain name, it’s yours to use for a period (usually a year or more), and you have to renew it periodically. The company you register your domain with is your domain host, or more technically, your domain registrar. They ensure that when someone types your domain into their browser, it points them to the right server on the internet where your content is hosted.
Web Hosting
Web hosting, on the other hand, is like the land where you build your house. This service provides the necessary space and resources on a server to store all your website’s files and data. When someone enters your domain name, the domain host points them to your web host, and the web host serves your website’s content to the visitor’s browser.
Web hosting comes in various forms, from shared hosting, where your site lives on a server with other websites, to dedicated hosting, where you have a server all to yourself. The type of hosting you need depends on your budget, the size of your website, and its specific needs.
Why They’re Important
Both domain and web hosting are essential to having a functioning website. The domain gets people to your door, and the hosting ensures your website is up and ready to greet them. Without a domain, people can’t find you. Without hosting, there’s nothing to find.
Choosing the right providers for these services is crucial for the success of your online presence. While many companies, like GoDaddy, offer both services, it’s important to evaluate each on its merits and how well they meet your specific needs.
In the next sections, we’ll delve into the specifics of GoDaddy’s offerings in these areas and discuss why we believe there are better options available for our clients.
A GoDaddy Review: Bigger Isn’t Always Better
GoDaddy’s stature as a giant in the web services industry comes with its own set of complications, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity and the overall user experience.
Cybersecurity: The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall
Size matters in the cyber world, but not always in the way you’d expect. Larger companies, like GoDaddy, attract more attention from hackers and malicious actors due to their extensive user base. This makes them more susceptible to attacks, which could have both direct and indirect effects on your website’s security. When a giant like GoDaddy faces security breaches, the impact can be widespread, affecting numerous websites hosted on their platform.
Specific Incidents: The GoDaddy Rap Sheet
GoDaddy has experienced multiple security breaches in recent years, impacting their reputation and raising questions about their cybersecurity measures. Notable incidents include:
- 2020 Breach: Compromise of hosting login credentials for approximately 28,000 hosting customers and some GoDaddy personnel.
- 2021 Breach: Unauthorized access to a provisioning system in Managed WordPress, affecting close to 1.2 million users across multiple GoDaddy brands, including exposure of email addresses, customer numbers, admin passwords for WordPress websites, passwords for SFTP gateways, and SSL keys.
- 2022 Attack: Installation of malware on cPanel hosting servers, leading to random customer websites being redirected to malicious sites.
These incidents demonstrate vulnerabilities in GoDaddy’s hosting environments, raising concerns about their ability to safeguard user data and the integrity of their hosted websites.
User Experience and Performance Issues
Digging deeper into GoDaddy’s offerings, we find several user experience challenges. Their basic web hosting plans, still clinging to outdated technologies, don’t match the modern web’s demands, especially for WordPress users. Performance-wise, the inconsistency and lackluster speeds in their WordPress hosting plans are concerning, especially when your website’s loading time is a critical factor for keeping visitors engaged.
The Cost of Convenience
Lastly, let’s talk about the cost – both monetary and in terms of convenience. GoDaddy’s pricing strategy, filled with upsells and high renewal rates, can lead to unexpectedly inflated bills. Moreover, their tactic of bundling services, while convenient at first glance, often results in customers paying for things they don’t need or missing out on essential services they do need.
NoDaddy: Performance Issue Specifics
In terms of performance, GoDaddy’s services have shown inconsistency and lag behind some of their competitors. Key performance metrics include:
1. Time to First Byte (TTFB): GoDaddy’s TTFB was among the slower services in a comparative test, indicating less powerful server response times.
2. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): GoDaddy’s LCP scores, an important metric for overall website performance, were also slower compared to other providers.
3. Load Test (50 Simultaneous Users): While GoDaddy performed solidly in this test, the overall inconsistency in performance metrics suggests potential issues in handling high-traffic scenarios effectively.
4. Uptime: GoDaddy’s uptime, while close to 100%, was not as reliable as some of their competitors, indicating potential availability issues for hosted websites.
These findings suggest that while GoDaddy might offer reasonable performance in some areas, there are notable inconsistencies and areas where they are outperformed by other hosting services.
Our Stance: Do Not Use GoDaddy
At 2oddballs, we advocate for specific alternatives to GoDaddy. Our commitment is to always recommend solutions that are not only technically cutting-edge but also transparent, cost-effective, and secure. The domain, web and email hosting services we recommend have been thoroughly vetted, and we have used them for our own needs since 2017. Although it is certainly more efficient and secure for us to have all our clients under the same roof, we do not get any kind of kickbacks or payments for endorsing the service providers we recommend. We’re simply offering our clients the benefits of our experience and expertise on the subjects of domain and web hosting.
Our Recommendations:
Below are the service providers we have vetted and used for nearly a decade. We trust these folks with our own website and domain, and we’ve included a few reasons why you should strongly consider them for your web project.
Domain Hosting: Why We Use Namecheap
- Trustworthy and Experienced: Namecheap has established a reputation among web developers for trustworthiness and reliability. The company is a leading ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar, with over 2 million customers and over 16 million domains worldwide
- Affordable and Hassle-Free: Known for its reasonable pricing, Namecheap ensures a hassle-free registration process, making it suitable for businesses seeking quality and affordability.
- Customer-Centric Services: With excellent customer service and fast asset transfers, Namecheap focuses on customer satisfaction.
2oddballs Web Hosting: Why Choose us?
- Direct Administrative Access: By contracting directly with a server management company, we are able top use our own WHM (Web Host Manager) interface, which provides us high-level access to all the necessary administrative tools. We cut out some of the middle men, ensuring efficient and effective management of our client sites.
- Customized Solutions: Our hosting services are tailored to meet the unique requirements of each client, offering personalized and adaptable solutions and access.
- Security and Performance: We prioritize security and performance, ensuring your website, email and domain are secure and operating at optimal speed.
- Direct, Dedicated Support: Our team offers dedicated support, ensuring any issues are promptly addressed and resolved.
While GoDaddy might be a familiar name, their recent track record in cybersecurity and performance issues suggest that bigger is not always better. Our approach is to recommend hosting solutions that are not only robust and reliable but also transparent and consistent in performance – boosting your peace of mind and ensuring a strong foundation for your digital presence.
“Do I Have to Remember All This Stuff!?”
We know all this is a lot to take in. We want you to have all the information, so you can make an informed decision. However, most of our clients come to use looking for web experts to “just handle it”. So, that’s what we do. We worry about the technical scope, so you can focus on what you want – and need – to be doing in your business. Whether you’re a tech savvy entrepreneur who loves to dig into the details or a tech-averse CEO who prefers to delegate, we’ve got you covered. Give us a call at 417-986-ODD2 or shoot us a message at info@2oddballs.com.
