US web hosting big GoDaddy was based again in 1997 by entrepreneur Bob Parsons. He initially got here out of retirement to launch Jomax Technologies however the firm’s title was later modified to GoDaddy. The title change took place throughout an organization brainstorming session when one worker prompt the title Big Daddy. However, it was Parsons himself who got here up with GoDaddy’s now iconic title and he determined to maintain it as a result of it was straightforward to recollect and made folks smile.
Today the corporate has over 43 million domains underneath its administration and over 14 million prospects worldwide.
So let’s take a better have a look at GoDaddy’s plans, pricing, options and help to see if this net host is an efficient match to your web site.
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Pricing
Like most net hosts, GoDaddy provides a number of totally different sorts of internet hosting plans together with enterprise internet hosting, reseller internet hosting, WordPress internet hosting and extra. However, on this overview we’ll be taking a look at its shared internet hosting plans as they’re extra more likely to attraction to a wider vary of customers.
The firm’s baseline ‘Economy’ plan begins at £5.99 per thirty days and supplies primary sources for starter websites. These embody one web site, 100 GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth and 24/7 help. If you select to join an annual plan, you’ll additionally get a free area.
GoDaddy’s ‘Deluxe’ plan for £7.99 per thirty days offers you all the options of the Economy plan plus limitless web sites, storage and subdomains.
Next up we’ve got the ‘Ultimate’ plan that features every part from the Deluxe plan in addition to two instances sooner processing energy and reminiscence, a free SSL certificates, free premium DNS and limitless databases.
Finally we’ve got GoDaddy’s ‘Maximum’ plan that features every part from the Ultimate plan plus two instances extra energy and reminiscence, two instances most website visitors and a free SSL certificates for the complete time period.
Signing up
After you pick a internet hosting package deal, GoDaddy offers you the selection of 4 time period lengths: one or three months, then 12, 24 and even 36 months. If you do find yourself buying a long run contract, you’ll successfully decrease the month-to-month value of your plan, though not by very a lot.
On the signup web page, you’re additionally introduced with a starter listing of add-ons starting from website backup and restore to automated every day malware scans. If your plan does embody any free trial merchandise, they’ll be pre-chosen for you at checkout however it’s also possible to take away them out of your cart in the event you don’t suppose you’ll use them.
After fee is full, the corporate walks you thru the remainder of its setup course of. Here you’ll be able to enter a brand new area title or use one you have already got in addition to select the info heart the place your website can be hosted from. You’ll additionally create a cPanel login at this level. If you might be uncertain about any of those choices, don’t fear as these settings could be modified later.
Creating a website
With GoDaddy’s common Linux internet hosting you’ll be able to handle your website via an ordinary cPanel-primarily based frontend. This method might not be probably the most newbie-pleasant however the time you spend studying cPanel received’t be wasted as many different net hosts additionally use it for website administration.
Unlike another net hosts that bundle a web site builder with their plans, sadly GoDaddy’s core internet hosting accounts don’t and also you’ll have to pay a further $6 per thirty days to make use of its web site builder. The firm’s preview websites are a bit on the easy facet however they’re nonetheless fairly skilled. If it is advisable to construct a website rapidly and with out an excessive amount of fuss, GoDaddy’s web site builder may justify the fee.
However, you need to use cPanel and Installatron to put in a running a blog platform like WordPress, content material administration or quite a few different standard net apps. We tried putting in WordPress and had been introduced with a protracted listing of technical choices. This can actually be complicated for first-time customers however we advocate ignoring the choices you don’t perceive and hitting set up. This provides you with entry to your WordPress console in just some seconds.
Making your first web site with GoDaddy isn’t the best factor to do however upon getting, you’ll have entry to a great deal of extra settings and choices to customise your website until it’s precisely the best way you need it.
Performance
We like to check out the help choices readily available first when reviewing an online host’s efficiency as a result of even probably the most skilled customers will run into hassle every so often. Thankfully GoDaddy provides three ranges of help: a searchable knowledgebase, a buyer discussion board and an official 24/7 cellphone help quantity.
The knowledgebase begins with some very restricted FAQs however from there you’ll be able to seek for extra articles that can assist you with any points chances are you’ll be experiencing. There are loads of useful technical articles obtainable however you will want to provide you with related search key phrases to seek out them first.
GoDaddy’s buyer discussion board may also be a helpful useful resource for purchasers on the lookout for help. Unlike its knowledgebase although, these questions are written and answered by prospects as an alternative of the corporate’s personal employees. This signifies that it could take a number of solutions to discover a resolution to your drawback, in the event you discover one in any respect.
We additionally gave GoDaddy’s help cellphone quantity a strive as properly. Navigating the cellphone numbers wasn’t probably the most intuitive (enter buyer ID, enter cellphone PIN, select the kind of service you want, select the query space) however we had been ultimately informed our predicted wait time could be 11 minutes. 14 minutes later and we spoke to a useful help agent that was in a position to reply our questions and clarify every part else we wanted to know.
Finally we used Bitcatcha’s Speed Checker to check out the efficiency of our website. We obtained a speedy B ranking (the place A is nice and E is unhealthy) and the WebPageTest averaged simply 0.4 seconds for its ‘first byte’. There isn’t any assure you’ll get the identical outcomes as we did as a result of there are too many variables at play however total we had been happy with the efficiency from our primary GoDaddy internet hosting account.
Verdict and Conclusion
GoDaddy grew to become a internet hosting big within the US by offering a variety of plans and options that swimsuit each first-time and skilled customers. However, we wish to see the corporate bundle a web site builder with its plans as an alternative of charging prospects additional for entry to 1.
