Website Hosting Comparison – Forbes Advisor Canada

Pricing

HostGator and GoDaddy offer similar plans and prices. HostGator has three plans: Hatchling, Baby and Business. GoDaddy offers four plans: Economy, Deluxe, Ultimate and Maximum. While the plans are similar, HostGator is cheaper, offering its basic plan at $3.75 USD ($5.16 CAD) per month as opposed to GoDaddy’s $6.49 CAD a month (when paid for one year in advance).

Storage & Security

HostGator’s basic plan allows for one website using 10 GBsolid-state drive (SSD) storage and unmetered bandwidth, a free email account and a free secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate. GoDaddy’s basic plan allows for hosting one website with 25 GB SSD storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain and one free Microsoft 365 email account for your first year.

Keep in mind that the features can change drastically based on the priced plans. GoDaddy does not offer a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate for its Economy or Deluxe plans. If you want this security feature without paying a third-party SSL provider, you will have to opt for the Ultimate plan at double the monthly cost.

Email

A professional email address that uses your business’s domain is an important part of your online presence. Not all web hosts come with support for email, but even HostGator’s entry-level hosting package includes email.

Website Builder

GoDaddy is extremely user-friendly, making it a great choice for beginners. You can choose from more than 175 website templates and use the intuitive editor to plug in your images, texts and logo. The free site builder has the ability to scale up to a virtual private server (VPS). VPS hosting offers higher bandwidth, which means faster load times and unlimited traffic. It also allows the admin more control over security meaning it is less vulnerable to hacking when compared with shared hosting.

If you want your website up and running in the shortest time frame possible, HostGator is for you. Most website builders prompt their customers to sift through hundreds of templates, then drag and drop all key information. HostGator, instead, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create a website based on a few basic consumer questions. Once the website is created, you can tweak what you do not like before launching the site

Customer Service

GoDaddy’s one major downfall comes in the customer service department. Instead of offering a ticketing service, it relies on toll-free call-in product support or live chat support. The live support is known to be inconsistent, with wait times reaching up to an hour.

HostGator, on the other hand, has 24/7/365 email, live chat and ticketing systems that provide customer service support specialists. The company has a great reputation for its quick customer service support.

Both services have a money-back guarantee so you can test out their services before you commit. HostGator and GoDaddy allow you a 30-day trial period.

Bottom Line

Generally, HostGator is seen as the better value of the two companies because of its more affordable plans, unparalleled uptime and fantastic customer service. GoDaddy, however, might be the better choice for small businesses looking to scale because of its virtual private server which allows for unlimited traffic.

At the end of the day, you will not go wrong with either service. Despite a few cons, both companies remain two of the top picks for millions of businesses and individuals across the world.

Canadian specific editing and research (including pricing) conducted by Anna Rey.