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GoDaddy Sucks

Posted by Jesse Friedman | Posted in Technology | Posted on May 28, 2009

I have had a long and terrible relationship with GoDaddy. Until today I have never felt the need to address their misdeeds. However after a recent discovery of how GoDaddy handles 301 redirects I felt it was important to share.

A recently new client came to Neal Advertising asking for us to build them an event page. They had two url’s a .org and a .com which were purchased through GoDaddy. We determined the .com would be the main url and the .org would be permanetly redirected to the .com.

I created the redirect through Godaddy and assumed all was well. Below is a screenshot of the GoDaddy site where you setup the 301 redirect.

GoDaddy 301 Redirect Screenshot

As you can see from the screenshot it appears that setting up a 301 Redirect with GoDaddy is rather simple. However if you over look the default Masking settings as I did you can get a rather poor result.

In the below screenshot you can see that the Masking section is automatically enabled.

GoDaddy Masking Functionality

These defaulted settings are completely misleading. Instead of creating an actual 301 Redirect it actually creates an index file that uses a frameset to pull in the desired site. Below is a third screenshot showing the html code containing the frameset.

GoDaddy 301 Redirect Masking HTML

If you are unfortunate enough to have to work with GoDaddy make sure you disable the Masking functionality before you setup a 301 Redirect.

Hopefully this has been a helpful tip.  I have experienced a long history of poor service and inferior products with GoDaddy.  Feel free to share your experiences Good or Bad below:

  • GoDaddy Sucks!! I couldn't agree more!!
    I'm only buying my domains with them (and this also not as use to..) , NOTHING else. EVER!
  • Joy Johnson
    I have over 200 domains registered with GoDaddy and I dislike them too. I just can't find a replacement. My hosting service is willing to register but I don't like having my sites and hosting under control of the same outfit because it makes it much harder to move sites if something does go wrong. Any suggestions for a GoDaddy replacement?
  • i have several websites hosted at Godaddy and i am pretty much satisfied with this domain name registrar. it is also very easy to get coupon codes for Godaddy.
  • admin
    @Corey

    Thanks for the advice but this was a case where we took over where the client left off. In most cases I purchase domains from a different registry company and point nameservers to my server and manage everything from there, as well.
  • admin
    @tuscaloosa I'm not sure it would benefit anyone. GoDaddy replied to me via twitter, stating "It's not a default setting". However I have seen no evidence of that.
  • That is unbeLIEVEable! Why on earth would "masking" be the default setting? Does that benefit Godaddy in some way?
  • Corey
    Good read... however I would just point out one major flaw in your plan here. You are using GoDaddy for something more than just buying a domain. GoDaddy is useful to grab domains cheap... but your next action should be to reset the Nameservers to where the site will be hosted and do your domain redirects and setup there.

    I would agree that 98% of the tools, add-ons and services of GoDaddy are useless and unnecessary. However, I have used them to purchase domains in the past, and for that function they work just fine for me.
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