Go Daddy, and never come back !!!
By Ryan on Thursday 23 March 2006, 13:07 - Permalink
Last symbolic stage in the transformation of godaddy.com. The largest registrar in the world, and one of the leading webhosts, transfers its entire domain repertoir to the Windows' platform. Without being anti-Microsoft (I am the only person at Gandi that uses that OS), I remember the time when godaddy.com was among the business models for those like myself made domain names and their associated services, their profession for about 6 years.
They began with a small team,a high quality support team which was also competent and friendly, agressive rates and intelligent marketing based on trust and a unique product. But moreover, they strongly communicated the fact that their development occurred internally, and because of this, they shared the ideals of those of the open source community, who looked at them with doye eyes.
Today, we now see what they have become.
Due to its success, and the industry heavyweight that the company has become today, they have lost this "aura" that they once had, began to operate in a way that runs contrary to their status, lost their competitive advantage (I assure you, they have found others, including nude ladies on television commercials). They are no longer David against Golliah: they have become Golliah.
It is therefore "normal" that they have decided to start working hand-in-hand with the largest company in this sector, and have a partnership of which we have surely not yet heard the end of.
As for me, I say, "more power to them", and with regards to us: it will be even easier for us to stand out from the competition in this market.
All that remains for us is to insure that we are able to grow, without loosing our core values. I take this matter quite to heart 
The press release ...
Comments
Glad to hear that you're sticking to your core values! I've been happy with service from gandi.net and don't plan on changing service any time soon!
have used gandi.net for several years, thanks for the good service.
I hope you have plans for privacy protection, it pains me to move from Gandi but it has become a feature I value highly enough to move for.
Its pretty simple .. if GANDI can compete on price you will retain your customer base. At present for a .com GODADDY charge $8.95 even less if dicounted, GANDI $12!! I bought my first domain name with GANDI and dozens of others since BUT what do I get for the additional $3+ from GANDI? The satisfaction that you have retained you core values? Where is the continual improvement in service, features, functionality? Im sad to say lift your game or lose my business.
Chris : please take a look at the new services and products included with any domain sold as of next week, and we'll talk again :D
Anyway, we don't want to compete with Godaddy, we are not doing the same work. It's like comparing a tailor made suit with one bought in a store : they look like the same, but it's on the long run you realize why it was more expensive ...
I think that Gandi has to make its prices a bit more competitive, either by price lowering, or adding enhancements that would over-ride price issues. That GD has moved from *nix to Win based servers does not mean anything, what is meaningful is their price and service advantage. I am (will be) renewing with Gandi for the 3rd year, but I have been thinking whether to do it or not.. So, I hope that you show us some added advantages, most important to me is the privacy issue. (I don't want my address and identity floating around the net.. other services mask this information, and this is the least that Gandi can do.)
btw: please elaborate about the store vs tailor made suite.. What is sooo special about Gandi offering ??
I've been using Gandi for many years and host nearly 20 domains with it. I came primarily for privacy reasons as explicitly stated in the Gandi contract ("you are the owner of the domain name" whereas with Godaddy it appears you pay them to own your domain name for you) but also enjoyed Gandi's competitive prices and appreciate the lack of advertising on their website.
Godaddy charges $1.95 for "privacy" though data is not additionally protected by EU privacy restrictions and I'm not clear what loopholes exist in this service (and I note that with three or more domain registrations, this fee is waived).
Since 12 EU is over 15 US, Gandi is nearly twice as expensive as Godaddy, so I could be saving over $100 a year (a very good dinner with my wife) by going with the latter. The advantages I mention above will keep me at Gandi, but it's getting to be a tougher sell, not only with colleagues that I try to get to switch to Gandi, but also with my wife!
My request is for Gandi to lower their base rate to at least 10 EU - and maybe 8 EU for 10 or more registrations. While this is still more expensive that Godaddy, the integrity of Gandi more than makes up the difference.
BTW - I like the new site!
I echo the sentiments of Chris and others above re. the pricing of Gandi. It has been a good run, my listing our domains with Gandi. But with the change in euro value vs. the US dollar, I can no longer justify using Gandi. Sorry 'bout that.
I see nothing that I cannot get from others and for less. And I have to justify my decisions to others. Just because I personally don't like Windows/Microsoft and would rather use open source (like Gandi), it becomes a bottom-line issue. Sorry 'bout that.
The best to you and your "thousands of staff"....hope you can get back your grove so we can return.
hello- i was wondering what your website is for? its a beautiful site simple & earthy.
Hello Marisa,
This is the blog for the French domain name registrar gandi.net, where you can register and manage domain names for e-mail, websites, blog, and other online goodies. If you are curious as to what this is all about, you can have a quick look at the following page: http://www.gandi.net/faq/tutorial/6...
Thank you for your compliment!