Replacement for DNSstuff …
For years I have used the services provided by DNSstuff do checkups on various domains to see if they actually exist and if they are configured properly. This was actually a good way to determine if email stuck for a specific domain was because there are just a temporary issue or if it was because the domain was not really configured as a mail domain.
For years they were a simple site, free, with advertising on the page, but very usable. Several years ago, they went commercial, with a $36 a year subscription for basically accessing the same services that were free. I don’t mind paying for a useful tool even though I always thought it was weird that they continued to have advertising on their Paid subscriber pages…
Now, with my account coming up for renewal, I see they now want to charge 100%+ more than before for basically the same service. Now they say that they have dropped the on page advertising and as a result needed to increase their feeds.
I think they need to rethink their business model. I fail to see how their costs have risen to the point where they need to increase their rates by more than 100%. They state that they are doing further development, but really, the only thing I am really intersted in is the basic DNSreport which has changed little over the years and certainly for me does not warrant a 100% increase in fees….
So, after a little looking I found a replacement for the key tool that I use… http://www.intodns.com. IntoDNS provides a similar tool to the DNSStuff DNSReport, close enough for me but at what used to be the price DNSStuff used to charge… FREE.
I got a kick out of IntoDNS’s blog posting that talked about “fees” where they said…
IntoDNS will continue to remain free as long as we can afford to host it (and as a hosting & web development company I don’t see how we won’t afford that in the following hundred years
).
As for the other tools that DNSstuff provides, most of which I rarely use.. similar tools can be obtained via other services which are all currently free, like:
http://www.iptools.com/
http://whatsmyip.org/
I mind paying for good services, but I’d like to know that I’m getting something for my money… So, instead of feeding the DNSstuff unexplained run way costs, I will instead make arrangements to make donations to the other tools listed above instead.
I wish DNSstuff well in their endeavors, but if you have to negotiate with your existing clients to keep them, you must be doing something wrong.
1 comment
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Give http://www.viewdns.info a go. It has most of the basic tools from dnsstuff with new tools being added regularly.