When it comes to domains, GoDaddy isn’t just a registrar—it is the registrar. And while many people are aware of its cult status here, only a few know that it’s also an equally amazing hosting provider. Considering how important choosing the right hosting service is to build a solid website, we decided to break down GoDaddy‘s feature set and compare it with its rivals to help you make the right choice.
Compare GoDaddy to The Best Web Hosting Services
GoDaddy started back in 1997 when founder Bob Parsons decided to found a company. He wanted the name “Big Daddy,” but found the domain was taken, so opted for GoDaddy instead. What really sealed the fate of this company as one of the top in the domain industry was its contract with the National Science Foundation, which solidified GoDaddy as the only domain registrar until 1998, when the creation of ICANN allowed for competition. By 2004, GoDaddy was the largest domain registrar and has been ever since.
GoDaddy is well known for its domain registrar services, but we are here to talk about GoDaddy for web hosting. Though it isn’t the most well-known web hosting provider out there, it is still a name that people know and trust, and for that reason, we deem it something worth us reviewing, and worth you considering for your website.
If you are looking to get a website set up quickly and fairly painlessly, GoDaddy may be the answer for you. While its hosting and WordPress plans are affordable, there are other web hosting providers that offer lower prices.
GoDaddy is fine, but people buying web hosting can afford to be choosy. We put in the time to research, test, and analyze all major web hosting providers to find the best ones in the industry. Here’s what we found:
- Hostinger – Best web hosting for most users
- SiteGround – Best for keeping uptime above 99.99%
- HostGator – Best for scaling your small business easily
- DreamHost – Best pay-as-you-go web hosting
- Bluehost – Best drag-and-drop page builder for beginners
- InMotion Hosting – Best price for hosting two websites on one plan
- Nexcess – Best for experienced WordPress users
- A2 Hosting – Most dependable web hosting for European and Asian audiences
Though GoDaddy did not make our list of best web hosting providers, it does have some benefits that may be just right for your specific needs. Because one thing is true when it comes to websites and hosting: everyone has their own wants and needs.
To learn more about the web hosting providers that we recommend, see all of our top picks here.
GoDaddy: The Good and The Bad
Because we don’t live in a perfect world, some cons come with the pros. And that is the case with GoDaddy as well as any other web hosting provider. The key is finding the right provider whose pros outweigh the cons for you.
To determine if GoDaddy is the one for you, here are the things we love about it, and the things you should be wary of.
The Good
One-Click Install Apps: If you don’t want to waste time installing a bunch of apps on your website, you don’t have to with GoDaddy. They offer one-click installation for a number of different apps, including WordPress. This is ideal for those who are new to building websites but are still wanting to try web design on their own. It is also great for those who are ready to get a site up and running as quickly as possible and don’t have the time or desire to spend time fussing with app setup.
Easy to Use: GoDaddy is a great hosting provider for those who are fresh to the world of websites. The builder available via GoDaddy does all the hard work for you and allows you to simply pick what you want your website to look like by choosing from a variety of templates.
The only downside of the ease of use is that you don’t have as much room for creativity as you may with other providers. However, if you are new to website building and don’t want to put a lot of time and energy into creating something elaborate, GoDaddy’s ease of use will be particularly advantageous to you.
Amazingly Responsive Customer Service: Getting someone on the phone to help you in this day and age is not as easy as it once was. It feels as if everything is automated and you’re constantly run through bots until you lose patience and eventually hang up. That is not the case with GoDaddy. Though they certainly do use bots, they do also have telephone support and webchat support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And when you do call in, it doesn’t take 20-30 minutes to get to a real person. In fact, users have reported that it typically takes less than 2 minutes to talk to a real person on the phone. Now that feels unheard of.
The same thing happens when you decide you’d rather hop on the chat instead. You may find that the reps are busy initially, but wait just a few minutes and you’ll get someone helping you out.
Strong Video Guides: If there’s a question or an issue that you’re having and you don’t want to turn to GoDaddy’s support for help, try their video guides instead. The How-To section on GoDaddy’s website is unlike any other hosting provider’s. They have playlists of video guides to help you through things such as how to plan your online presence, how to set up your email, marketing basics, and much more. This extensive resource will come in handy for more than just troubleshooting issues you may be having. This is a place for you to take your website and the concept behind it to new levels.
Quick Load Time: Load time is a very important piece of the website puzzle, and your site won’t do well if it won’t load fast. Because newsflash: no one wants to sit around waiting for a website to load. This is 2022 and we want things to happen now (well, as close to now as possible). Thankfully, GoDaddy’s load time is an average of 171.1 ms, which means they are super fast.
Multiple Data Centers: The more data centers a hosting provider has, the faster their speeds can be. GoDaddy has three data centers–Europe, U.S., and Asia, and thus has fast load speeds that cover most of the world. However, there are places further away from those data centers that do cause the speed to drop a bit, but GoDaddy is planning to open another data center in India which may help to cut out the low outlier numbers.
Freebies: Whoever said there’s no such thing as a free lunch didn’t use GoDaddy’s hosting service. When you purchase a shared web hosting plan, you get some great free features including a domain, an Office 365 email, webmail, over 125 applications, and more.
The biggest one is the domain, however. Since GoDaddy is known for its domain registration, it is smart of them to give a free domain to someone purchasing their hosting. Domain names can otherwise cost anywhere from $5 to $5,000 per year, so a free one is always nice. However, do note that the domain is free just for the first year. Following that, you will be charged the regular annual price.
The Bad
Limited Basic Plan: GoDaddy’s Basic plan is just that–basic. It doesn’t offer anything that will wow you or include much in the way of special features and bonuses. It is a good starting place to potentially scale your website, but in the beginning, it doesn’t offer anything that competitors don’t. And it doesn’t come at as low of a price as many other basic web hosting plans offered by others such as Hostinger.
Loaded With Upsells: While there are some freebies included in the hosting plans, where GoDaddy gets you is with the upsells. A lot of features are available when you use GoDaddy for your hosting, but most of them come at a price.
You may find yourself overwhelmed by the checkout process that attempts to upsell you on all sorts of products and sometimes will automatically add some things to your cart. While they may be great additions, we don’t love that they are added to your cart without your permission. Many people may not even notice those additional charges until after they’ve already made their purchase.
High Renewal Rates: While this is true with almost all hosting providers, GoDaddy seems to be one of the worst when you compare their introductory prices to the prices following that first year.
GoDaddy Pricing and Options
GoDaddy, like other web hosting providers, offers several different plans that each fit different needs. And, as to be expected, the lower-tiered plans limit what you can do with your hosting, but also come at a low price and serve as a great place to get started.
GoDaddy Shared Hosting
GoDaddy’s shared plans are ideal for small websites and new sites that are just starting out. They’re a great value because you’re sharing server resources with other websites—hence the name “shared.”
This means that it’s not quite as powerful as other hosting tiers. But it’s a cost-effective option for personal sites, low-traffic blogs, and even business sites with only a few pages.
Here’s a closer look at GoDaddy’s shared hosting packages:
Economy. Beginners that are just getting started building websites should lean towards the economy plan. It supports a single site and includes a free SSL, free email, and 25 GB of storage. Starting at just $5.99 per month with a three-year contract, it’s an amazing value for new websites.
Deluxe. The Deluxe package is made for beginners that need a hosting solution for multiple websites. It comes with everything included in the Economy plan but supports up to ten websites and has double the storage capacity—all for just $2 more per month.
Ultimate. Starting at $12.99 per month, the Ultimate plan is designed for high-traffic sites. You’ll benefit from increased processing power, support for up to 25 sites, 75 GB of storage, and 50 databases.
Maximum. The Maximum plan is the highest tier at GoDaddy’s shared level. Starting at $19.99 per month, this plan is made for sites that need to support high-quality photos and videos. With support for up to 50 sites, 100 GB of storage, and 100 databases, there’s plenty of room for growth.
WordPress Hosting
For those who are new to websites, WordPress may be your best friend. It will make hosting and building your website much easier and a much smoother process. You don’t need to learn any coding to use WordPress, although you can if you want to further customize your site.
Basic. For a small site that’s just getting started, the Basic plan is all you need. This tier includes two Microsoft 365 mailboxes for free for the first year, a free SSL certificate for as long as you use GoDaddy for your hosting plan, and 20 GB of storage. The starting price for this is $8.99/month.
Deluxe. Is the Basic plan too basic? Try the Deluxe plan that gives you help boosting your SEO, 40 GB of storage, three Microsoft 365 mailboxes for free for the first year, and everything in the Basic tier. This package starts at $11.99/month.
Ultimate. If you don’t want the number of visitors to your site to be limited, the Ultimate plan will give you that — unlimited visitors. It will also give you 60 GB of storage, five free Microsoft 365 mailboxes for the first year, and everything in the Deluxe tier for $18.99/month.
Ecommerce. For someone who is looking to sell on their website, the Ecommerce plan is great. It gives you the features from the Ultimate plan, but with ecommerce bonuses, like an unlimited number of product listings and calculation of real-time shipping rates. Additionally, it has 80 GB of storage. This plan is $20.99/month.
If you want multiple WordPress websites, the GoDaddy Pro tier is worth exploring.
Business Hosting
Launch. For the basics on multiple websites, GoDaddy’s Launch package is a great place to start. This gives you all sorts of features to help get your business started and is priced at $19.99/month.
Enhance. If you expect your website to be high-traffic, then Enhance is what you want. This plan gives you more storage and RAM and starts at $34.99/month.
Grow. For those who want ecommerce to be a part of their website, the Grow plan may be just right. It supports ecommerce sites such as Magento and starts at $44.99/month.
Expand. If photography will be a major part of your website or other resources, then Expand is worth considering. It offers 150 GB of storage, 8 GB RAM, and 4 CPUs, along with much more. The price starts at $59.99/month.
VPS Hosting
A VPS-hosted website will see much quicker speeds and performance thanks to the fact that there are servers allocated specifically for your website, and your website only. Thus, if you are looking for a fast website that generally runs better, VPS hosting may be for you.
The higher up you go in each VPS hosting plan, the more memory and storage space you get. The 4 vCPU plan is twice as powerful and twice as fast as the 3 vCPU plan.
Dedicated Server
Though this type of hosting comes at the highest price, it also comes with the most power and the most control. If you are a small website or are new to building a site, you do not need to spend this kind of money on hosting. If you are a bigger website that needs the control and flexibility of your server, this is for you.
Dedicated server hosting is perfect for those who have traffic volumes that will surpass the VPS plan limitations.
The different dedicated hosting plans each offer more storage and RAM than the previous ones, with DS-256 maxing out the RAM at 256 GB. This plan is meant for businesses that are at an enterprise level and will cost $399.99/month.
Expanding Your Knowledge: GoDaddy
Comparing The Best Web Hosting Services
GoDaddy is just one of many hosting services. It did not make it on our list of best web hosting services, which features eight other providers we found excelled in certain areas.
It’s likely GoDaddy’s hosting plans will work for you—but it’s also possible others may work better. Considering the service doesn’t offer as many features as other hosting providers do, it may not give you the same level of satisfaction and value you could otherwise get elsewhere on our list of best web hosting services.
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