Computer Realm

Go Daddy is one of the most popular web hosting services available. Its apparent that this hosting company has brought about mixed feelings among users, many have moved to different hosts due to various server errors and unjustified reasons for domain cancellation or suspension. There are also the other dedicated users, who host their twenty odd domains with them and stand by Go Daddy and recommend them wherever web hosting is the topic. Here’s my review of Go Daddy.

Main Pros

• Price

You’ll have to admit, Go Daddy is one of the cheapest hosts out there with their cheapest plan for as low as under $4 a month and domain registration for $1.99 with 10 GB web space, 300 GB bandwidth, 500 email accounts and more you do get your money’s worth. Also the considerable amount of coupon codes they offer helps bring the price a little bit lower than the already economical price. Here is a forum thread with a list of working coupon codes for Go Daddy.

• Popularity

It is also undoubtedly one of the most popular domain hosts, a lot of users have been successfully using Go Daddy over the years whether it’s a corporate firm or a personal blog, Go Daddy is extensively used over the Internet.

• Go Daddy Hosting Connection

This is also one of the main pros, the ‘hosting connection’ features one click of a bunch of useful online applications including forum software, blogging software, content management software, image galleries, wikis and a lot more.

Main Cons

• Adverse Publicity

As much as it is popular which means it is a good host it has gained quite a bit of negative reputation as well. Increasing ‘scare’ stories and inefficiencies which has haunted quite a few users has led to quite a few negative blog posts by angry users. This has also led to sites like No Daddy and also GoDaddySucks (which doesn’t seem to exist anymore, it re-directs to the Go Daddy home page which is ironic, I think).

As much as there has been negative publicity directed at Go Daddy I am yet to experience these flaws with Go Daddy, they’ve been quite ok with me.

• Crippled plans

As much as their plans are cheap, their plans are ‘crippled’ with only the most basic features included with plans and with many other features subject to payments. While it is quite apparent that the basic package is cheap because of the ‘crippled’ features I think it’s still valid to say they are cheap because you don’t really need most of these features (like the ‘certified’ domain seal for instance), but it’s always nice to have a complete package in case you need it at some point without having to reach for your credit card again. (They give 10 MB mail boxes with the package which is hardly enough with public mail providers giving unmetered mail storage and high capacities. You can read this post on how to handle your corporate mail with Gmail.)

The other stuff

• Services and Support (5/5)

I think their customer service is quite good too; I’ve contacted them quite a bit and always receive lengthy step by step instructions on how to solve my query in less than 10 hours usually. There online support is pretty much complete too with most problems you may face already comprehensively described.

• Control Panel (4/5)

They have been quite under quite a bit of upgrades lately when it comes to their user CP, in terms of the appearance, placement and navigation. It’s quite user-friendly with drop down menus to most features based on its category. It’s upload client is quite good too but as it is FTP compatible I guess it’s easier to use an FTP client instead.

• Mail (3.5/5)

Mail still needs a bit of brushing up. I don’t really like their choice of colors, and the appearance on the whole is not very convincing. Replying a mail is a bit inconvenient with the window opening in a new tab, and the mailbox given with the standard plan could have been more than 10 MB, so with the imperfect situations I faced I decided to handle my mail with Gmail.

• Reliability (5/5)

They are quite reliable I am yet to discover an occasion where my sites might have been down. For now the server is fast and quite efficient.

• Security and Backup (3/5)

They take backups of your files often but you cannot just restore backups like some of the other hosts allow you to. You can restore a backup incase your file was deleted by contacting them and paying a ‘small fee’ as they call it. Domain protection is provided as well.

• Transferring Domains

Transferring domains is quite a smooth process as well with the transfer taking place in around five days, I have transferred two of my domains and on both occasions it went ok, their online help provides info explaining the whole process and virtually walks you through it.

• Overall (4/5)

On the overall based my experience what they have to offer they are doing quite good as a hosting company with cheap prices, lots of features and they are reliable as well which is all you need.

Visit GoDaddy Home Page

Popularity: 23% [?]

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