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Comment by danso | Hacker News Reader

GoDaddy is definitely cheaper than Dreamhost...but I prefer the latter...because by the time I've figured out how to do something simple in GoDaddy, I've wasted much more money (converting my hourly-rate-to-dollars) than if I had just done the setup in Dreamhost...

Of course, that setup-cost would go down if I used GD all the time. However, my brief experience with them is that they nickel and dime you for a lot of things...is this still the case? For example, private-registration (obscuring your WHOIS by having it be under something like "Dreamhost Services") cost $9.99 a year...DH offers domains for $9.99 and private-registration is the default.

Also, I hate feeling like I'm logging onto an adult site when I'm just trying to configure DNS. I know sex sells but GD is just shameless.

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Money isn't really an issue for me as we're talking a couple dollars of difference. Ignoring Godaddy's politics, I would still not use them because their web interface is not only terrible its also user hostile. Its all upsells and ads.

I'd put up with this crap for a free service, but when you're a commodity then you better add some non-negative value to your service.

Jesus, how did GD get so big anyway? Are horny geeks this gullible?

I don't think it's the geeks who drove this. Godaddy's big ad purchases make it as synonymous with name-registration as Microsoft Word is to word-processing -- among those who don't deal with web setup on a regular basis.

My roommate, who after 10 years of using a Mac still doesn't know what a right-click is, has registered all of her domains through Godaddy (and guess who has to help maintain them...)

Ugh, sounds like my experience with my parents . . . but my Dad has started using right click! :)

(GoDaddy employee) There's a huge internal push right now to significantly simplify the website.

For example, there was an email was used to send out with new accounts that had tons of ads and coupons. No one clicked on it. We're working on a new simple one with one button and small 20% off coupon at the bottom. Conversions went from 0% to 28%.

Nice. You guys should check out Name.com as a good example of UI/UX design for a domain site. It's one of the most soothing on the Internet. Sometimes I log in when I don't even have anything to do there, just to enjoy the UX.

Maybe it's just me, but having a bunch of strangers staring at me on the landing page was a pretty poor user experience.

>Also, I hate feeling like I'm logging onto an adult site when I'm just trying to configure DNS. I know sex sells but GD is just shameless.

This has annoyed the hell out of me too for a long time. I have no problem if, say, Victoria's Secret tries to sell me their product with a sex-sells strategy, but internet domains? You gotta be frakkin kiddin me.

You'll be glad to know that our marketing is shifting away from that, though I think it'll be an awkward transition. The newest ad is about how Frank's Pizza is sexy because he can now take online orders thanks to GoDaddy. It's a little weird.

I'm with you.

I use multiple registrars -- Dreamhost for most things, Namecheap for anything DH doesn't support and Ghandi for the remaining ones (mainly .es).

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