I've used GoDaddy since I started, have had nothing but good experiences. The part I like most is they randomly call you and check in just to see how everything is going with their services.
Namecheap is better. Godaddy is good too but they are fooling their customers and charging extra fees. They dont even give free who.is protection etc. Personally i prefer bigrock.com
Godaddy has some hefty fees, auction domains account $9.99 just to buy domains on auctions, beware of Godaddy.com hidden fees for everything. Namecheap.com is just perfect, domains at great rates, great if you're looking for aged domains ( buy now ) listings straight from buyers. Whois.com offers free email and other great domain hosting services as well.
I hate godaddy hosting... but love their auctions. Namecheap, I've tried and I niether like it or hate it. Just okay..
Yet one more absolutely similar topic. It seems nobody even bothers scrolling down the topic list, they just start new thread at once - "namecheap or Godaddy?" Aren't you tired yet? Similar topics every 5 rows on the list... oh my God... As for the question itself - Godaddy beats the competition with great hosting offers, internal sitebuilder and SSL protection. Their auctions are actually useless, IMHO. However, their renewal policy is somewhat frustrating, they try to upsell almost everything, their customer portal is rather a mess, their support is by far not the best possible. Their emailing system is rather aggressive, as they sometimes send tons of unnecessary emails with useless offers. This can be really frustrating. After all, they are the largest registrar worldwide, more likely due to a fat payroll to Google than due to real supremacy of their service. TBH, their CEO is not the best man in the world. He slaps saleswomen asses and shoots elephants on screen - and he is proud of it... what a douchebag. Namecheap looks much more reliale. Their customer support system is much more convenient and user-friendly. They do not upsell and offfer decent discounts, nice email service and Onepager website builder. After a recent redesign their website looks much better, yet still has some flaws and room for improvement. However, their support area and knowledgebase are much more clear as compared to Godaddy. To tell the truth, choosing between these two is like choosing between two halves of a bun when making a burger. Why bother? Why not benefit from their competition? I mean, register a name during promo with one, transfer it to the other in 60 days (during promo, gaining a year of registration more), then transfer back (and get another year), then trasnfer again, etc. etc. Skilled domainers get names for 9 years this way paying about $15-20, which is impossible using a single company but is easily done as described above. Then the name is sold for at least $400 (much more usually). Why choosing one of the pair, if using these companies a pair benefits you much more?