Why I quit using HostGator and GoDaddy

Problem: HostGator

I'll be honest, I don't remember my very first hosting service other than it had to do with something "orange." Or maybe that was my second hosting site? I know it was "shared hosting" kind of service.

Either way, I would eventually stumble towards HostGator and I hate to say it, I have fell for the corporate trap.

If it wasn't for a YouTube channel called Emit.Reviews, I would of kept paying for this expensive and not-so-useful hosting services.

For starters I was paying monthly instead of annual which is a massive mistake on my part. Then second, I would finally start to see how much the price increase over time. I think I've used this service for more than 8 plus years!

Over the last 18 months I've used HostGator, I would see the cost be around 12 dollars, to 15, and finally 18 dollars. And again, that's monthly. You can do the math and realize that it's really not worth it for me who just wants to keep a webcomic website live for awhile.

And that's something I want to stress, it's a very small website. It make no sense why I am paying for something that is usually for professionals awhile a hobby person like me is on the hosting service.

Every time I rewatch that video, I am shocked on how much a hosting service managed to dominate the reviews sites and the content creators on YouTube. The more money they put towards these sites/users, the more customers they'll get.

Solution: Neocities

I gotta say, I'm impressed with Neocities. It's rather odd for me to "join" the indie web when my webcomic website is more than a decade old but I don't know if it matters any more.

What matters is that I could of kept using Neocities free of charge but I didn't. I felt that they deserve my money since they (I think it's managed by one guy actually) really give a darn about what internet should be. A place to express ourselves and not be controlled by corporate.

I did use Neocities for free for around three months and after that, I started paying for the "supporter." I went from 18 dollars to 5 dollars, big savings for sure.

Anyway ... the real challenge is getting my webcomics on Neocities. Obviously the web host doesn't use PHP, so I'll have to find other ways to display my webcomics.

Thankfully, the solution was Rarebit. It is powered by JavaScript rather than PHP which does lead to a problem I'll talk about later. Setting it up was a real pain since I actually still don't know how to code. Very embarrassing, and it's still true now. There was a point where I could not understand why the archive section kept glitching, thankfully all I did was revert the damage and it's all working fine now.

It took a lot of trial and error but in the end, I love the way it looks. Pretty much 99 percent of audience will say that my webcomic website is "basic and barebones" but that's the way I like it. Believe it or not, during the early 2000s, webcomic websites used to be really bland and boring because the center, which is the content, is the most important.

Right before I started uploading new webcomics, I realize I still need a RSS feed for the website. Thankfully, I found a person who had already made one, so I'm pretty much complete. It was just the matter of me making new webcomics. It feels great to have that level of ownership, unlike having to upload my comics to a webcomic platform such as Webtoons and Tapas. It's my own website and my own content, they cannot change that.

After that, the problem is still there. It's powered by JavaScript. Awhile most users do not care about that, there are users who will disable it or use a very secure web browsers/plug-ins. It was a matter of time that I finally done something about it.

If you do visit my webcomic website with scripts disabled, you'll have a helpful red text telling you that you can visit another website that'll have my webcomics presented with PHP instead. Overkill? I think not.

Speaking of overkill, my website has an Easter egg at the very bottom. Once you click on it, you'll be taken to a special page that'll allow you to read my comics in either .webp or PHP + crusty .jpeg. If I really want to achieve "overkill," text only is the next step. I'll be the only person on the internet that will support users with slow internet connection, just like the good old dial-up days. But seriously there are users who would use up all of their "high-speed" mobile data and have to deal with slow 2G speeds.

Anyway, back to the user interface and other wonders of Neocities. The website is super fun to browse. You'll find too many users showcasing their love for whatever they are interested in. From cute websites that'll have Hello Kitty plastered all over the site to ... a website that has all kinds of spooky stuff such as skeletons dancing and a witch cooking some gross icky soup.

File layout is easy to navigate and also the editor to edit the code is nice.

I already talked about it on my previous blog post but I really love the fact that I can download the entire websites and back them up or transfer to another web host service. You can't do that on WordPress.

Now I do want to say that Nekoweb and Lepard.space are also seriously worth checking out as well.

Big thanks to this 32-bit cafe resources as well. It's super useful.

Problem: GoDaddy

Oh god. You want to talk about corporate trap? This is the definition of it.

Again, massive thanks to Emit.Reviews on exposing the awful traps. The big thing I fell for is ... it's embarrassing--the security add-ons. Yeah, I'm paying extra for something I actually don't need. I believe I even paid extra for WHOIS Privacy add-on ... ouch.

The problem doesn't even stop there. If you ever experience the awfulness that is the dashboard then you are in for a surprise. For starters it's slow, it's hard to believe how old this company is and they think this is acceptable. Also, it's difficult to navigate. I remember watching a video of a webdev wanting to revisit the dashboard and oh boy, he had a hard time finding the DNS section for the domain.

Solution: Porkbun

Once I've received an e-mail from GoDaddy that one of my domains is about to expire, I figured it was time to jump ship--uhh-I-mean transfer. Yeah, transfer.

Usually you cannot transfer domains that are near expiration, which is evil by the way. But thankfully, it's an old domain that I don't care about. The reason is because it's longer (number of letters) and not useful anymore.

When I was seeking for another domain registrar website it was either Namecheap or Porkbun.

I had to go with Porkbun because of two reasons. Reason one is how fast the website loads. It's almost late web 1.0 to early web 2.0 vibes I'm getting from the website. I did not expect a big company to still retain the importance of instant and fast loading site. Reason two, it's very clear on what they will provide you in terms of payments plus benefits and would even add in disclaimers that most companies don't even care about addressing.

Once all of my domains I cared about transferred, I let the old domains I didn't care about expire in GoDaddy. Now I have zero domains at GoDaddy, thank goodness. I don't want to ever go back to that awful site ever again.

By the way, as time passes on I would buy a few more domains from Porkbun. And what is very useful is that I would get e-mails from Porkbun whenever there will be a price increase for certain TLDs. So they are suggesting to save money by paying additional years now or just suffer later on. It's a useful warning honestly.

Extra: Marketing wins sadly

Rewatching Emit.Reviews really showcase on how the fact that these web host services can dominate the search results by paying these writers on many websites and also content creators on YouTube.

Emit.Reviews view count on his videos speak for itself. Usually you have a tendency to see high view count on YouTube as "trustable" but not that isn't the case. It's just a matter of going through the nonsense of identifying if the content creators are being sponsored or not plus any awful nonsense such as use of AI.

Now-a-days I'm seeking content that has less than 10k views and the content is being made with zero use of AI. My favorite type of videos are the kind that has awful production values that you'd experience on early YouTube years. Here is an example, I wanted to add a guestbook in one of my websites so I watch this video of a lady showcasing how's it done.

I don't want to go way off-topic but it sadden me when the search results are dominated by content creators that are all about money, AI, and number of visitors. Seriously? Most "indie" folks like us don't care about that. Which is why it's hard to find tutorials that isn't trying to sell you something.

Extra: Slight caution on HelioHost

Because I need a host that can at least use PHP, I had to seek for another web host. HelioHost was the answer for me.

Awhile everything is very affordable over there, I still happened to stumble across a simple problem ... I couldn't see my website. The reason why? My own ISP. Odd, okay, uhhh ... it's fixed at least. I don't know why my ISP thinks a brand new subdomain is malicious, but I just disable the security feature on my router.

Another serious concern for me, is uptime. There are times I want to see if my website is still up. And it's random too. One day I would attempt to load up the website and ... 504 error. Yeah, thankfully it's not an urgent type of website, it's more of a backup kind of website. Still, if you are all about wanting to make serious and professional websites then I would skip HelioHost.

Big question for anyone reading this

Honestly, it's clear that I am in the small/hobby realm where I have no interest getting massive amount of users to reading my website. I'm not trying to sell anything either. I do have a donate section in my webcomic website if that counts.

Big question: What is your target audience? If you want to setup an online shop or you want huge amount of users visiting your website, then the solutions I've provide in this blog will not cut it. Maybe watch Emit.Reviews and see what he recommended. Mind you he hasn't uploaded anything new on 2026 and onwards so prepare for out dated information.

And if I ever wanted to make a serious website, I still would avoid WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, and other website builders. They are designed to keep you in their ecosystem. If you used them and you don't like them, then you can't transfer, you'll have to start from scratch again. It's better to go with static website.

An old video from Chris Titus Tech still hits it hard on why.

But if you want to go small and indie, you finally have a lot of choices now. It's about time we finally have a more accessible and easy to make websites.

Making websites should be fun and it should stay that way.