GoDaddy's UI is terrible.

I use Dreamhost for all my domain registrations and most DNS. Great admin interface compared to the competition, still very cheap, domain transfer codes plainly visible, no unlocking or calling or any of that. You just transfer it away. They are the most honest of the bunch and you can move each part of your service off them as you outgrow it.

Easiest to setup a domain for Google Apps too, just click a button.

I used Dreamhost once, after I ended my hosting to move to a VPS, they locked me out of my administration panel completely. I still had my domain with them, but no access to it, and the website actually told me that I needed to open a hosting plan to get access. I had to go through their support process to get access (or really, to transfer out, there was no way I was staying after that).

I immediately transferred to Moniker - they're great, they let you configure absolutely everything. I think what I learned was to stay away from companies that do both domains and hosting. If they just do domains, they understand that you are always going to be sending your traffic elsewhere.

Great point, thanks. I have a hosting account there because I don't want to manage a VPS for my (static) blog and the other low traffic site I host. I didn't even realize you can't only use them for domains, that's a huge gotcha.

What's cheaper than GoDaddy? All my .com and .net domains end up costing me $7.49. I'd love to know...

Cheap until you get roped into an auto-renewing thing with 3x the price you first paid. Why support a company like that? It's so slimy. Your cheap domains are effectively subsidized by GoDaddy preying on others.

Did you know the majority of car insurance firms (in the UK at least) will ramp up renewal prices by a few % each year? I did sales for one such company a few summers ago, and we were told this was intentional - and if someone calls in, and complains, we just offer them to new sign-up price.

I use GoDaddy because I manually renew all my domains at the same price as I signed up for. I agree their UX is awful, and they're not the most "good" company in the world... but it serves me for what I want out of a domain provider!

Renewal price hiking is a common practice... you just need to be a smart shopper if you want to save money!

We have a bank in the Netherlands that did the same with savings accounts and interest rates for them. The rates started high to draw people in and then lowered, till they had over 100 different savings accounts.

I've never paid more than $8 per domain registration OR RENEWAL at Godaddy. There is always a usable coupon at retailmenot.

I'd really like to switch, but one of these alternatives are going to need to really compete on price.

GoDaddy might be cheaper but they have a history of fucking people. I prefer Gandi.

They will nickle and dime you on things like email, certs and questionable "verification" upsales.

If you're not hosting with them, then you're doing it right.

Every so often I have to do some minor maintenance work on a GoDaddy account, I can't stand their interface.

I may have said it elsewhere, but I'm a big fan of DirectNIC even though they are double GoDaddy's price. There interfaces are really clean, and any time I've transferred or sold a domain it has been an absolute breeze. And back in the day, when all the major registrars were shutting down their web-based WHOIS tools (NetSol et al), DirectNIC always kept their WHOIS tool open which always bought them a lot of good will in my book. (I wasn't aware of command line tools like 'whois' and 'nslookup' yet...)

The guy that owns them has said/done some things that annoy me, too. That plus cheaper, less-hassle registrars were enough for me to avoid it.

He sold it a week ago.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230458400457642...

If I'm reading that article correctly, GoDaddy is more than $1 billion in debt?

I don't think you're reading it correctly. When it says part of the deal price is debt, that means the purchaser is using debt to finance the acquisition (taking loans or issuing bonds). It's nothing to do with GoDaddy's balance sheet.