Never Fear, Hosting Hero is Here!
I’ve always sort of fancied myself as a super hero, kinda like Batman or WonderFish. But until recently, I’ve been missing a very important component of my super hero identity….I had no arch nemesis. Well, I have one now!
It seems that GoDaddy has stepped forward to play this very important role in my super hero identity. Yes, GoDaddy…the mega domain wholesaler and, uh um, web hosting provider. So, now it is time for me to put on the leotard suit and puff my chest out while I do battle with GoDaddy.com. Okay, here’s my story and a message. (Prepare yourself, even the abridged version of the story is long.)
My Story:
A little over a month ago I decided to move one of my blogs off of my GoDaddy shared hosting account due to problems with installing WordPress on GoDaddy servers (there are a multitude of websites that have the detailed instructions) and some data problems that I could not trace the cause of. I backed up my WordPress data and attempted to install with the new host.
Unfortunately, the data backup was incomplete for some reason. When I went back to my database on the GoDaddy server, the database had been renamed. GoDaddy tech support admitted to having problems with WordPress hosting during the past 48 hours, but claimed that the database name change was not possibly created by anyone but me. BTW, the name was changed to something like “AAsad4q24Asdf0-45″. Not a name I would have readily thought of. To read more about this adventure, visit “6 Unheralded Benefits of Blogging” at UTurnAhead.com.
Well, I finally settled in with my new hosting provider, BlueHost.com and even started a couple more blogs. I let my GoDaddy hosting account just sit until last week. Then I decided to give GoDaddy a second chance. I set up a WordPress website for our local disc golf club and for my employer. All was fine for a few days.
But today I was adding a post on the disc golf site and had a problem with uploading a photo. I figured it has to be a WordPress problem (although it worked yesterday), so I reinstalled WordPress. Still didn’t work. On a whim, I decided to see if I could upload photos in my other GoDaddy hosted site…still didn’t work. Finally, I tested the photo uploads on all my BlueHost sites and had no problem at all.
So, is it a GoDaddy problem or something else? To be fair, I really don’t know. The evidence is that the problem occurs on both GoDaddy sites but not on the three BlueHost sites. I began searching for a solution to my problem and started finding a plethora (you like that word?) of blog posts and articles of GoDaddy problems. Here is a sampling…
WordPress and GoDaddy:
- Trippin – “GoDaddy is Killing Me Here“
- DarcyNorman – “Thinking of Ditching GoDaddy“
- Ramblings of a Bored Geek – “GoDaddy 500 Internal Server Error“
- Venetsian – “GoDaddy Web Hosting Causes WordPress Search Engine Privacy Issues“
- Off Topic – “Hosting on GoDaddy“
- Charles Online Review Element – “Problem with Trailing Slash for WordPress in GoDaddy“
- Online Dating Guide & Blog – “Using WP-Cache on GoDaddy (500 Error)“
- Tim Sisk – “WordPress and GoDaddy.com“
- Late Night PC Service – “Mod_Rewrite on GoDaddy with WordPress“
- Romantica.name – “WP-Cache and GoDaddy Hosting“
- Uberdose 2.0 – “Some Thoughts on WordPress Hosting“
- Inside Google – “Great, Now GoDaddy is Screwing Me!“
- StyloMilo.com – “Dumped GoDaddy Host and Migrated to BlueHost“
General GoDaddy Concerns:
- ShoeMoney – “GoDaddy Frustrations Have Hit Me First Hand“
- Building My Empire – “Things About GoDaddy.com“
- The Consumerist – “GoDaddy’s Customer Service Suffers Wardrobe Malfunction“
- 8008135 – “Is GoDaddy Blackmailing Me?” (This is a must read.)
- ZDNet – “GoDaddy Hosting Customers Victim to Massive Hack“
- c|net News – “GoDaddy Pulls Security Site After MySpace Complaints“
- Bad Behavior / Bad Behaviour – “GoDaddy Sucks“
- Forever Geek – “GoDaddy Sucks” (Another original title)
- Miranda Writes (Blog) – “GoDaddy Sucks” (Hmm, same copywriter?)
- RabidGadfly - “GoDaddy Still Sucks” (Still? Really?)
- Blue Mushrooms – “GoDaddy Sucks More than I Thought” (The expanded version)
- Ken Hada – “Archive for the ‘GoDaddy VPS Problems’ Category“
- Ramblings of a Web Guy – “GoDaddy Support is Awful“
- Smaxor’s Musings – “Why GoDaddy Sucks Ballz?“
- Chrono Tron – “[More] GoDaddy Woes…“
- ThreadWatch.org – “Godaddy Grabs a Valuable Domain Name from Their Customer Because of Invalid Email and Profits From It” AND “GoDaddy Holding Customer Sites to Ransom?“
- Jim Boykin’s Blog – “GoDaddy Jobs Problem“
- Wired News – GoDaddy Defends SecLists Takedown
- San Francisco Bay Guardian – “The Self-Appointed Censors at GoDaddy“
- NoDaddy.com – “My Story“
- Geek Daily – “GoDaddy Surpressing Search Engine Indexing“
- Colin McNamara – “Why GoDaddy Linux Virtual Dedicated Hosting Sucks & How to Fix It“
- Johnon.com – “GoDaddy Has a Problem“
- Oregon Herald – “GoDaddy.com/TDNam.com: Are They Careless or Just Stupid?
- DNForum – “GoDaddy Charged Us $29 for Trademark Violation!“
- Geeks With Blogs – “The Woes of Plesk Control Panel for Shared Web Hosting“
And what’s with GoDaddy tech support always needing to put me on hold for another three or four minutes while the rep “Checks on something?” Does he have a burrito in the microwave or just wanting me to rack up more minutes on my phone bill. That’s right, there is no toll-free tech support at GoDaddy.
The Message:
So, is GoDaddy really an evil hosting and domain provider? Nah, probably not on the level of Jerry Springer and Dr. Phil. But I’m writing this post for a different reason. As an advisor to new bloggers, I owe it to you to share this information. The fact is, when you are choosing a host for your blog you need to ask: Do I want to risk the problems that are broadly reported at GoDaddy? Or will I simply take the low cost deal and hope I’m one of the thousands of satisfied GoDaddy customers? (Oh yeah, some of my best friends are GoDaddy fans.)
The bottom line is, shop around and know the potential problems. A great place to start is the BlogFlux Hosting Directory. They have customer reviews and comparisons for a multitude of hosting providers.
[PhotoCredit:FuzzCat]
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Comments
Interesting article. You can also see a top 10 hosting reviews at http://www.nr1top.com/tops if you are interested in getting hosting. I hope you will like the reviews and that they will help somebody in choosing there hosting.
I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about Godaddy. I didnt use their domain services as they were a bit over the top with their addon sales every where which I found annoying.
As for hosting blogs, my clients blogs on godaddy seem to have more than the average % of problems, I’m sure it must be the way have their servers set up for wordpress.
Have my own hosting now for clients and use 3 different hosts I’m very happy with.
downtownhost.com
scalahosting.com
hostdime.com
I’ve been with downtownhost the longest and find them pretty reliable.
Didnt go with bluehost as they didn.t have what I was looking for.
Compared to most providers here in the UK, I find godaddy and bluehost so cheap in comparison. I guess you get what you pay for in support though, but ‘touch wood’ , I’ve had no problems with Godaddy so far.
I am only here to say I signed up to be an affiliate for bluehost and before spending any time creating any promotions on them I signed up for their hosting just to see what my future leads were going to get.
Well… bluehost KILLED my hosting account within 24 hours accusing me to giving them inaccurate contact info.
They won’t reply to any emails now. (???)
Their affiliate manager sound like those fascists that john belushi almost ran over in “Blues Brothers”.
I don’t understand what’s happening with bluehost nor why they treated me like this, nor do I care. I am just here to warn anyone who might be thinking of joining them. These are proper cowboys, they’ll shoot first then they’ll ask “who is there”. I still don’t have a clue what their problem with me was and life’s too short to even bother. I just hope my paypal dispute will help get my $95 back. Oh and while I was in there, it isn’t true that you get adwords and yahoo credits! You only get them if you JOIN adwords and yahoo via bluehost’s AFFILIATE’s link!
I have been using 000 domains for years and still like the service. GoDaddy drives me crazy with all of the upsells.
I think godaddy’s services are really good. I have had experience with a lot of hosting services and lunarpages has to rank up there with the best for me. But hey, everybody is different, and some bonuses appeal more to some than they would do others.
Make sure you shop around that’s all I can say. There’s so many different web hosting companies out there, there really is a web host for every day of the week.
Hey there! I also had problems with Godaddy and with WebHostingBuzz! It’s to go crazy sometimes! At the moment I am using Hostgator and they have been good to me up until now! (Knock on wood)
GoDaddy’s web hosting program offers a lot of bonuses that are’nt really necessary for the average Joe webmaster. I mean 500GB of space, c’mon.
I agreed with your compliments on Bluehost. I’m kinda big fans with Bluehost as I already had 4 good years hosting with them. Meanwhile, all my business with GoDaddy is on domain name registration. Frankly, they’re pretty good and offer kinda good bargain – which makes me surprise to see that there’re so many of complaints on Godaddy hosting services.
Me too bought all my domains from GoDaddy but i do not host my webistes with them. It just happens I didn’t get the hosting from them not that they are not a quality one. In fact I am pretty cool with Lunarpages so have not yet try them out. Soon may be.
Hey there,
at the moment I use Go Daddy only for domain registrations, because they’re hosting leaves a lot to be desired for good quality. I was with them in the beginning, but they have a lot of support issues in my opinion.
At the moment I’m using Hostgator and they never given me any problems, they’re cheap and reliable!
I hope Bluehost goes well for you!
Thanks for making me aware the problems one can have with installing wordpress on Godaddy servers and so on. I will just host my blog elsewhere.
Hello Jim!
That’s a cool picture you have there! I’m really surprised that you used Go Daddy for so long without any problems! A few years ago my sister needed a website for business so I helped her out with that, I registered the domain with Go Daddy and ended up using their hosting as well. The domain registration with Go Daddy is great, but the hosting leaves a lot to desire for good quality. I switched to Hostgator and never had any problems, their support is really good, but having to think about it I almost never needed them because the service is almost flawless.
Great article and nice blog!
I have been using GoDaddy for domain registration. Fortunate enough I have not use them for hosting.
So far I’m fine with hostagtor, lunarpages and bluehost for wordpress installation. I guess the installation on Godaddy crashed with the server configuration? I don’t know..I am just making a wild guess.
It is really weird to deal with such monsters and I am planning to leave one of my hosts for similar reason. While browsing my account, I felt something wrong because I can see unknown domain name in my list of domains. I initiated a ticked and asked them who added that in my account as I am very concerned about my security. I got a negative reply and they told me that they even didn’t know about that. I think this is weird and we should move to appropriate hosts.
I don’t understand why people keep going to godaddy.
A quick google search tells you everything you need to know about them.
I get all of my domains from GoDaddy, they’re cheap (with discount codes) and it’s easy for me to register a new one as they already have all of my details (I’m lazy, can’t be bothered signing up for a new account elsewhere)…