GoDaddy has spent years getting their name out into the marketplace as the host for small business. For the last few years, GoDaddy has been under almost constant fire. There have been backlashes for overtly sexual advertising and reports of unethical practices plaguing the company with bad publicity.
Still hosting millions of websites, if you’re currently hosting with Go Daddy consider moving your site. If you’re considering them as your host, here are five reasons to look elsewhere.
1. Questionable Advertising Practices – There’s been a ton controversy surrounding the company’s overly sexual and raunchy advertising. For several years GoDaddy has been a major advertiser during the Super Bowl. Those ads have been surrounded in controversy for their sexual nature. This year, they changed advertising tactics and moved away from sex, only to spark even greater controversy!
Hours after releasing its upcoming Super Bowl ad on the Today show, a spot depicting a puppy being sold online, it pulled the plug after viewer backlash. The ad shows Buddy the puppy falling off of a truck then trying to find his way home. He endures many hardships and when he gets home his owners are relieved because they already sold him on a website they built with… Go Daddy.
2. Reports of Unethical Business Practices – The company was caught buying domain names customers had searched on their site then inflating their value. When users returned to purchase the domains they made a larger profit on the transaction. In 2011 then-CEO Bob Parsons killed a wild elephant in Zimbabwe, which critics saw as another sign of their willingness to engage in unethical practices.
3. Supported The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – Many critics of SOPA feel that the act was an infringement on free speech and innovation. The law allowed for the blocking of entire domains due to infringing content posted on a single blog or website. Many viewed the company’s support as an indicator that they were not willing to support freedom of speech and customer’s activity online. After a boycott, the company reversed their opinion.
4. Several Major Service Outages – A major outage in Sept. of 2012 was caused by internal glitches to the company’s router tables taking down almost all of their hosted websites along with most of their email service and several domains registered through GoDaddy.
5. The Company Has Not Been Profitable since 2009 And Lost 531 Million Dollars Between 2012 – 2014 – A recent filing with the SEC for a 100 million dollar IPO shows a glimpse of company’s finances and it doesn’t look good. They have not made a profit since 2009 and between 2012 and the 2014 filing date lost 531 million dollars.
Do your due diligence! If you’re currently hosting with Go Daddy consider making a move to Togglebox. If you’re considering hosting with them, look around. There are plenty of great deals online with other more qualified providers who offer top quality reliable service and support.