Considering all the hype you see about GoDaddy and its often edgy commercials it is no wonder they are the largest domain name registrar in the world. The question is are they really the best choice when registering a new domain name?

For almost 5.5 million people world wide you would probably hear a strong case in favor of GoDaddy as the numbers are hard to ignore. GoDaddy currently manages almost 30 million domain names and that amount is growing by leaps and bounds everyday. The additional products and services that they offer their customers is hard to deny as well, but I cannot help but be frustrated with them.

GoDaddy is so heavy on the up selling end of their checkout system that simply getting through it takes the better part of a few minutes. With cheap prices comes a price. Slow drawn out checkouts. Personally I do not care for their current system as it is obtrusive in my opinion and takes way to long.

Sure GoDaddy offers their customers the lowest average domain prices on the Internet, but does that really make them the best? I would have to say no. There are other registrars that offer less intensive checkouts with pricing that is similar or a tad bit higher. These same registrars also offer easier to use domain control systems as well and much better customer service. No GoDaddy should not be dinged for their customer service on a whole since the shear number of clients and daily e-mails makes it impossible to please everyone, but if you are trying to get an issue taken care of quickly then GoDaddy is not always your best choice.

Other domain name providers offer services that compare to GoDaddy’s, but the issue most will have is that they simply do not offer the broad spectrum that GoDaddy does. I for one use Dynadot and have done so for many years now. Sure they are purely a domain registrar, but their service is focused on the domain name business entirely and their service is outstanding. Another great domain name registrar is NameCheap. They offer their customers a more broad array of products at a low cost and good customer service. I personally would rather pay a bit more for my domain and be able to know I can quickly and easily manage any issues I have.

Do not get me wrong GoDaddy does offer many features to domainers that are quite nice. However, they need to address some issues that are cropping up in their system beyond the need for a quick checkout system. Load times for the domain management control panels are becoming a huge issue. Another issue is the ability for domain owners to easily cancel a transfer to someone. The ease for which a domain push can be canceled makes the chances for fraud all that much higher.

How can that be you ask? Well lets say I purchase a domain from you for xxx amount of dollars. After you receive your money you start the transfer and decide that you do not want to give me the domain nor refund me the money. You would simply cancel the transfer in your domain control panel and the push is halted. Sure we could look at this on the flip side and say the opposite could be true if the person buying was trying to commit fraud, but most fraud happens from the seller end. It is a double edged sword that needs to be looked at to find a better solution to this current issue. The best way around any problem such as this would be to use an escrow service such as Moniker to help ensure against fraud and to manage the transfer of the domain.

The question you should ask yourself in determining what registrar to use is whether they will meet your needs. If you do not mind the long checkouts and slow loading domain management system of GoDaddy and its resellers then I would say you should look at them. The choice you make has to be determined by your needs and patience.