

GoDaddy isn't as pretty as you thought - fbea
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/godaddy-isnt-pretty-you-thought

======
tptacek
Did any of you think you were going to get real tech support for a GoDaddy
shared hosting account? Well, uh, now you know.

~~~
sausagefeet
Seriously, as soon as he said he was hosting his code there I thought "Well we
found the problem, end of post".

------
sofuture
The only thing worse than this is imagining a world in which el-cheapo shared
hosts _did try to fix your webapps_.

------
klochner
The title is flat wrong, my opinion of GoDaddy actually improved from reading
his rant.

What I don't understand is how someone with a modicum of technical skill could
expect anything from a GoDaddy shared hosting account.

------
Metapony
I know two people who work for GoDaddy. In their training for Tech Support
they stress the upsell. This is why the web page control panel for their
shared hosting is so horrible from a usability perspective. So that people
will become confused, have to call in and then GoDaddy has an opportunity to
upsell them. This is why I always advise "anyone but GoDaddy", even though my
friends could get commision from my referral.

~~~
kongqiu
Seconded. GoDaddy might be ok for domains or SSL, but that's about it.

------
rradu
Not just GoDaddy--I've had similar experiences with half a dozen other shared
hosting companies.

GoDaddy is one of the few that actually has free phone support, which is a lot
nicer than an automated email and a response 48 hours later.

~~~
lukeschlather
With both HostGator and ASmallOrange I've generally found an automated email
and a reply within 6 hours.

Actually, with ASO I usually have a reply from a human being within 15 minutes
to an hour, and I don't think I've seen any counterexamples.

------
middus

        So here's the bottom line, guys.  GoDaddy has some of the worst support in the business. [...]
    

So here's the bottom line, guy. You get what you pay for.

~~~
kenjackson
_So here's the bottom line, guy. You get what you pay for._

And the same ppl who tell you that will then say that you shouldn't use the MS
stack, and only use free tools :-)

~~~
burgerbrain
Free (as in beer) software isn't actually free, it's just that _you_ don't
have to be the one paying for it. Check out the percentage of the kernel
written by paid kernel hackers sometime.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Well, not with money, anyway.

------
swalberg
I got the same runaround with their VPS service. I started seeing really high
disk latency - on the order of tens of seconds to create a file. I emailed
them, along with the results of a script that measured how long it took to
create a new file over time.

First they told me that they checked and everything was OK, maybe I should
contact someone who knows about systems administration. Then they said the
performance I was seeing was within their acceptable standards.

I asked them for their standards, they said they didn't have any published
standards.

Thank goodness I found Linode.

~~~
cperciva
_I started seeing really high disk latency - on the order of tens of seconds
to create a file._

That's not _disk_ latency. That's _filesystem_ latency.

It's entirely possible that the disk latency was high, but you really should
have measured it directly to rule out filesystem problems.

~~~
swalberg
I would have loved to do more in depth measurement, but I couldn't get to any
disk stats under /proc. Even iostat was crippled.

I'm also not sure the distinction was that important in that case. With their
VPS implementation there were no knobs I could turn. The root cause of the
problem had to be on their side of the fence. "Measure with a micrometer. Mark
with chalk. Cut with axe"

~~~
cperciva
Well, one common issue is filesystems slowing down if data structures (e.g.
directories) get big. Creating a single file doesn't take a constant number of
disk operations.

------
antidaily
Every time you host a website on GoDaddy or NetworkSolutions, God kills a
kitten.

------
astrodust
Is the TL;DR of this "Boo hoo my super cheap shared hosting stopped working
and they didn't give me platinum level support"?

iWeb has the same sort of super-cheap hosting, but they fix your stuff on a
"best case" basis. I don't blame them. Spend a few hours on a customer problem
and you're losing a ton of cash when it's a $3/mo. plan.

~~~
ceejayoz
If I pay for it, it should at least function. If you can't keep it functional
at a certain price point, don't offer that price point.

~~~
ergo98
Clearly it _just works_ for a lot of people. I really tire of the "if it
doesn't work for me it shouldn't work for anyone" attitude.

These sorts of complaints are ridiculous. It's one thing to host some little
family site on GoDaddy shared hosting, but for anything real...come on. You
get what you pay for.

~~~
kenjackson
_Clearly it just works for a lot of people_

Why do you say that? Do you have data? It seems just as likely that it doesn't
work for a lot of people, but they can survive on the churn from new customers
(and subscriptions) -- or convincing people to provide a poorer service.

~~~
sausagefeet
It's a reasonable inference that it was working for enough people. Either that
or this guy is the only person on GoDaddy Shared, or everybody who uses it is
too dumb to know working from not working. Either way the moral seems to be:
Not enough people complained to warrant a real investigation.

~~~
kenjackson
Who is supposed to investigate? The way a lot of these companies work, like
DirecTV, is that they know what the practice is, but as an individual you have
little power to stop them.

It doesn't have to work for anyone for this to be succesful for GoDaddy. They
just have to be able to collect on enough people, with decent churn for new
blood.

~~~
sausagefeet
What are you talking about? Clearly it has to 'work' in the sense that when
you upload your code and go to look at it you get a result back for the
initial people. This guys app did not work at all. Are you saying GoDaddy has
a product they sell that doesn't work even in the slightest? If this one guy
noticed something broke it is not unreasonable to think that if it is across
the entire product that more people would complain and it would escalate. It
may not be true but it's not unreasonable. But this discussion is almost full
retard.

~~~
kenjackson
Clearly you don't know WTF you're talking about. But lets end this full
_retard_ discussion. Done.

------
drawkbox
Using godaddy for shared hosting is bad, their dns/domain hosting and
dedicated hosting is good. Basically shared hosting is bad just about
everywhere, especially with .NET because it is so tied to the OS.

Crappy shared hosting is a big reason that PHP is still as big as it is as you
need a specialized provider or server control when you want to run python,
ruby, .net, java.

Just buy a dedicated server or slices next time that are either virtual or
dedicated servers that you can configure yourself.

------
runjake
After a recent HN thread discussion on HN, I migrated all of my DNS names
registered on GoDaddy to Name.com.

GoDaddy's commercials are moronic, and that was the principal reason. Their
horrible domain management web console also played a big part.

I question the intelligence of anyone who's used their web interface, who's
then decided to host servers with GoDaddy.

Avoiding even one incident like this is worth whatever extra I'd pay with a
decent hoster.

~~~
jasonlotito
I've been using DomainSite.com for a decade (at least) now. I don't know when
Name.com bought them, or what happened there, or if they were always Name.com.
Either way, I just always go back. The UI is simple, it's fast, doesn't get in
your way. It just works.

------
winternett
I feel the same way about Network Solutions, they deliberately delete my PHP
Conifg files and host me on servers without enough memory. Whenever I call
tech support, they just say that they're relocating my files but "cant tell me
when it will be done". I can't even get a basic install of Drupal to work
reliably on their Unix hosting accounts because the servers time out after one
hit, and its not because of my skills. My google analytics figures are
horrible because the hosting is down 45% of the time. Its also amazing how
horrible their admin account interfaces are with booby traps to try to get you
to "opt in" to services as well. And mysteriously, the "Auto Renew" option
selected itself just this year when I've always had it off since I started the
account years ago. It charged my credit card, not even worth trying to get
that undone... The concept of Ethics is lost on the web hosting industry.
_sigh_

~~~
elithrar
Sometimes it's worth either paying someone for the convenience (ie. paying a
decent provider) or doing it yourself.

55% uptime is horrible, but I'd suggest that instead of complaining you either
shell out some more & move away (Drupal doesn't require anything special) or
set up a VPS with a decent provider like Slicehost or Linode and go from
there.

I don't mean to preach, but I read so many 'hosting horror stories' where the
end-user just doesn't seem to want to do anything about it.

------
jason_slack
GoDaddy has an "Office of The President" and this is where I have gotten
results in the past when I had shared and dedicated servers there. When the
front-line tech were really giving me the run-a-round and Managers were not
listening I simply call that office. They have people there that take the
information and start making phone calls to Managers to figure it out and get
you back to where you need to be. I hated having to call there but when you
are paying $175/month and your site has been down 2 weeks you start to get a
little pissed off.

~~~
SoftwareMaven
If I'm paying $175/month and their front-line support can't be bothered to
help me, I'll take my business elsewhere. No second chances.

------
AaronWormus
I don't do any hosting with godaddy, and I would NEVER recommend their hosting
services for anything other than the MOST basic of site.

Having said that, for domains and DNS, nobody does it better. If I ever have
any problems with the services I purchase from them I can very easily get a
tech on the phone.

------
hkuo
Godaddy hosts websites? I kid, but it's so clearly not their core business.
Their advertisements have one single message: register your domain at GoDaddy.
And they do that great. Now that you have your domain name, go find a business
whose core business is hosting! Wow.

~~~
fleitz
The domain reg is a 'loss' leader for the shared hosting packages. The whole
business model is based on the idea that all 95% of people need to do is get
Registration + DNS + POP3 + host some static HTML. The pricing is inline with
that. GoDaddy keeps the 95% of people who can be served on that model. The
other 5% should know well enough that they won't be served well by that.

------
kprobst
I use GD's DNS and domain management. I would _never_ consider hosting a site
with them.

------
JacobIrwin
Bad support is one huge issue for sure. Consumerist says they do not outsource
tech support. Maybe they should.

Has anyone else noticed how much is going on within the frames? They've
privatized almost every aspect of building a website. A single dropdown has
enough links to comprise an entire site.

I can imagine this has implications on their support centers in that they can
never train one agent to throughly understand the complexities of a single
issue. Instead, they must teach them a little about everything.

------
16s
You can get a VPS really cheap these days. Less than 200 bucks a year. I
highly recommend it. It costs more than shared hosting, but the complete
control makes up for it. I've been using Linode since Oct and have been very
happy.

For cheap shared hosting, I've had great luck with nearlyfreespeech.net.

~~~
ez77
_Less than 200 bucks a year._

Indeed, less than 30 bucks a year [1], with unmetered bandwidth (if slow). I
thought it _had_ to be a scam, but I tried it out of curiosity... and it
works!

[1] For example, <http://rubyringtech.com/vps-solutions/linux-vps/>

~~~
eli
I'd hate to put that "unmetered" thing to the test with a suddenly popular
website.

------
dadro
The value of ones time comes to play here. If you are spending hours to
resolve an issue with a $5/mo account it just isn't worth it. He should have
just cut bait and gone elsewhere the second the marginal savings in hosting
was expended. I believe the technical term is "Penny wise, pound foolish".

------
jumby
boo hoo and 2 second google search:

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/475318/how-do-i-get-
httph...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/475318/how-do-i-get-httphandlers-
to-work-on-godaddy)

------
MikeMakesIt
Why would you host your website with a company whose core competancy is DNS?
It's like getting your car serviced at a carwash.

------
catshirt
of several experiences with godaddy, there are none i can classify as
"pleasant"

------
drivebyacct2
It's 2011, I am in shock that I'm still reading articles like this.

