I’ve been a long standing customer of Godaddy since early 2012 and I’ve always looked up to them for their 99 cent domains and their outstanding customer service.

However, there were many things that didn’t sit right with me about this domain registrar but I’ve always chosen to keep them to myself and not let them bother me.

For the first time ever, I’ll be revealing what these things are, as well as providing you with 7 concrete reasons why I felt like it was time for me to move on to bigger and better things and lay our relationship to rest.

There are many of you who may be reading this post right now that may have questions like “are their discounts really worth it”?

Why do I need to pay extra for services that should come included with my purchase?

Continue reading as I’ll be answering these questions and much more within the following post.

I’ll also be showing you a much better alternative to Godaddy where you can get all these services included in your membership at NO extra cost for a mere fraction of what you would pay for them at Godaddy.

1) Upsells, Upsells, Upsells

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This type of marketing seems to be prevalent in the online world and Godaddy is no stranger when it comes to selling you a wide array of products and services that you don’t need.

When I joined back in 2012, this didn’t seem to be that big of a deal, but over the past few years, I’ve noticed that the number of upsells has drastically increased.

Whether it’s paying extra for an email address for a domain that you just bought (Which should be included anyway) or trying to trick you into registering your domain for multiple years, they always seem to have something up their sleeve that they claim you need to compliment your domain purchase.

While I do understand the whole concept of upsells and how this marketing tactic can help bring in more revenue for your business it’s imperative that you go about this the right way.

2) Not So User Friendly Interface

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When you’re first getting started online, you’re likely clueless about how to build a website and even less about how hosting servers work or what the heck is a C-panel?

When I first started out here 4 years ago, I had no idea what any of this meant and I found that this only added to my confusion.

Having to learn things like CSS, HTML, Nameservers, and other components that make a website operate can be pretty overwhelming in itself.

While I do have to admit that their most recent overhaul has slightly increased their user friendliness a tad bit, but they still have a long ways to go.

3) Paying Extra For Things That Should Be Included

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Don’t you just hate it when you find that perfect domain for only 99 cents only to be hit with multiple charges for features that should be included with your domain purchase?

This is another one of the huge pet peeves that I’ve had with this domain registrar over the years and one that really sticks out in my mind.

These are things like: 

• Domain Email- I never really did understand why you needed to pay extra for the email that comes with your domain name.

You bought the domain name so why should you have to pay extra to access the email address associated with your domain?

You shouldn’t and this is what I like to call using the customer as a financial tool and this is wrong on so many levels!!

• WhoIs Privacy Protection- This is another feature that is absolutely necessary if you don’t want your personal information floating around in cyberspace for anyone to access at any time for any reason.

Without activating this feature you’ll be subjecting yourself to many sales calls and various spam emails from people offering their SEO services and trying to sell you the latest traffic program available today.

Unfortunately, I learned the hard way and I declined this feature when I bought my first domain here and I ended up regretting that decision shortly afterward.

A Couple of hours later I was bombarded with sales calls and it seemed like everyone and their mother was trying to sell me the latest and greatest traffic package.

There is no reason why this feature shouldn’t be included in your domain purchase and charging extra for this is just wrong.

• Website Security (SSL)- When making the decision to start an online business, the security of your website should be at the top of your list of priorities.

This also happens to be a ranking factor and Google tends to give higher rankings to sites that have SSL activated and have the green lock in their address bar.

Also, if you happen to run an e-commerce site and people are buying things directly from your site, it’imperative that you have an encrypted connection.

By doing this you’ll be ensuring that your customer’s information is safe and won’t be distributed to other people.

Once again you’ll be charged a pretty hefty fee just to activate this feature and you’ll find the setup process to be quite overwhelming.

4) Their 99 Cent Domains Suck You In

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I’ve got to admit that their 99 cent domain promotion has sucked me in several times and I found myself buying countless domains that I really didn’t need.

For a while, I spent more time building my domain portfolio, than I did building my actual business.

Who wouldn’t like to own their own domain name for under a buck?

That’s a pretty sweet deal if you ask me!!

Do you want to know what’s not so sweet about this?

It’s the following year when it’s time to renew your domain for another year.

Instead of paying $12.99 when it’s time to renew, you’ll get an additional $2 fee tacked on to this for a grand total of $14.99 a year.

To some people, this may not seem like a lot, but why should you have to pay more for this the following year?

You know what I’m saying?

5) SEO Packages

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There’s no shortage of people trying to sell you on the latest and greatest SEO package and Godaddy is no stranger to this as well.

When first getting started online, I feel that it would be much more beneficial for you to learn SEO yourself, instead of paying someone else to do it for you.

What are you supposed to gain by relying on someone else to do the work for you?

I wish I would have taken my own advice when I first started, but unfortunately, I ended up making a very costly mistake by investing in this.

This ended up costing me several hundred bucks and since I was a newb, I had no idea what I was actually paying for.

6) I Was Sick Of Being All Over The Place

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When I first started years ago, I had several domains registered with Godaddy and had several of my sites hosted at Hostgator.

I had built my website at Wealthy Affiliate and found that my business was scattered across the web.

This alone was pretty overwhelming for me and this acted as a stumbling block when I first started out in the online world.

I paid multiple fees to several companies just to keep my business afloat and at times I had more money going out than I had coming in.

I knew there had to be a place that offered all these services under one roof for a fraction of what I was paying with Godaddy and I was bound and determined to find it.

7) I Found A Much Better Alternative

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Instead of having to pay multiple fees for services that should be included in your purchase, why not bundle these services together and pay 1 flat monthly fee?

This just makes more sense to me and in the long run, a whole lot more cost effective.

Wouldn’t you guys agree?

After years of searching, I stumbled upon a company called Wealthy Affiliate.

Now instead of paying multiple fees each month and dealing with the headache of managing my business from multiple companies, I can access all of these services under 1 roof.

I can search for a domain name, build my site, and get it hosted all in one place!!

Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!!

Not only that, but I also avoid paying extra for things that should already be included with my domain purchase.

Take A Look At The Chart Below For A Detailed Look At How Much $$$ You Could Save With WA Domains Compared To Godaddy!!

When it comes to building a business online, it’s vital that you do your due diligence and thoroughly research several different companies before making any drastic decisions or investing any of your hard earned money.

I think it’s pretty obvious that WA is clearly the better choice and just here recently, I’ve transferred many of my domains from Godaddy over to WA.

This alone has saved me several hundred bucks a year which I’m now able to invest in other parts of my business.

My Final Thoughts

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I still have several of my domains at Godaddy and I still occasionally search their database for a certain domain if I can’t find it elsewhere.

However, I’m trying to slowly move away from them and have my domains transferred as soon as I possibly can.

When making the decision to build a business online it’s of utmost importance that you have everything under 1 roof and pay 1 flat monthly or yearly fee to access these services.

This is something that Godaddy doesn’t offer and it’s pretty clear that they are more interested in selling you features that should come included with your purchase and less on actually helping you run your business.

If you would rather join an online business community that cares more about helping you build a business and less on selling you worthless products/ services that you don’t need then I would highly recommend that you check out Wealthy Affiliate.

This is where I learned everything I know about online business and my go-to place when I’m looking for that special domain name.

I hope this article has given you guys some insight into some of the issues I’ve had with Godaddy over the years and why I decided to end my 5-year relationship with them.

Do you have a personal experience with Godaddy that you would like to share with other people?

I would love to hear all about it and I’m sure other people would as well.

Leave them for me in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond back to you in a timely manner.

Until Next Time

~Scott~

Learn More About WA Domains Here