GoDaddy is one of the most well-recognized names in the web hosting industry, servicing millions of customers worldwide.
They offer a variety of services ranging from website builders and professional email, to domain registration and web hosting.
- Normally $8.99/month
- 24/7/365 U.S. based support
- Free domain and 1 year of email
- Guaranteed 99.9% uptime
But despite their stellar marketing campaigns, are they all that’s cracked up to be? Luckily, we’ve done the work to find that out for you.
This review covers all of GoDaddy’s hosting plans, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of using GoDaddy for web hosting.
By the end of this guide, you’ll be able to make an informed decision on whether or not GoDaddy is the best web hosting provider for your website.
The Benefits of Using GoDaddy Web Hosting
Strong uptime rates
Uptime is always the first thing you should look for when you’re evaluating a web hosting provider. It refers to the time your website is up and running for visitors.
If your plan can’t deliver strong uptimes, then you better start looking elsewhere.
One of the reasons why GoDaddy has done so well over the years is because their uptimes definitely deliver. You can expect to see a 99.9% uptime rate on average throughout the year.
Sure, a couple of months might fall below average, but you’ll even mix in a few 100% uptime rates.
I recently saw a test that said the average monthly downtime rate for GoDaddy is about 13 minutes. That’s hardly enough to have a major impact on your website.
Fast loading speed
Typically, fast page loading speed isn’t associated with cheap web hosting plans. So it may come as a surprise to learn that GoDaddy has exceptional page loading times.
As you can see from the graph, GoDaddy has faster average loading times than a few recognizable names in the industry.
But with that said, this graphic was pulled directly from the GoDaddy website. So I’m sure they intentionally left off some competitors with faster times.
Are they the fastest web hosting provider on the market? No.
However, I’m confident that you’ll be satisfied with your website speed, regardless of the plan you choose. Obviously, choosing a higher-tiered plan will boost these times.
Easy app installations
As I explained earlier, GoDaddy also has its own website builder with drag-and-drop functionality.
For those of you who are looking for a bit more than this, then you can easily install more than 125 applications with just one click. This includes content management platforms like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.
You’ll also have access to developer tools like MySQL, cPanel, Python, and several versions of PHP.
In short, GoDaddy’s app installations meet the needs of a beginner blogger, tech-savvy webmaster, and everyone in between.
Price
GoDaddy’s entry-level pricing wasn’t quite low enough to make my list of the best cheap web hosting providers. However, their rates are definitely competitive.
With plans starting at just $5.99 per month, GoDaddy is very affordable. Even if you choose their highest-tier shared hosting plan, it’s less than $240 per year.
That’s pretty good, considering the strong uptime and fast page loading rates that we just discussed.
So for those of you who are price sensitive, GoDaddy is still a viable option.
Other Considerations
GoDaddy offers plenty of great features to customers. Their plans are a great option for lots of websites out there.
However, that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. You’ll want to take these potential drawbacks into consideration before you finalize anything.
Upsells and increased renewal rates
One of the reasons why GoDaddy has such affordable pricing is because they hit you with upsells along the way. That means different “extras” that you can add for additional fees.
So on the surface, the price isn’t exactly what it seems.
These are just a couple of examples showing features that you’ll have to pay extra for. But I’ll discuss this in greater detail shortly.
In order to lock in the lowest possible monthly rate, you must commit to a 36-month contract. Some of you may not be willing to commit to that length.
Once your plan renews, you can expect to pay higher rates than what you signed up for. Although this is very common in the web hosting industry.
In fact, GoDaddy’s price-spikes aren’t nearly as high as some other providers on the market. Plus, some of their plans (like the Pro 5+ WordPress plan and all VPS plans) renew at the same rate that you signed up for. So that’s a positive.
Basic features not included
To piggy-back off of our last point, GoDaddy has lots of upsells because some basic features aren’t included in their plans.
Most hosting providers will include a free SSL certificate, even in the basic plans. Other providers usually offer free backups and security with every plan as well, but GoDaddy does not.
Again, these can be purchased separately, or you can upgrade to a higher-priced plan, which is likely a better value for your money.
GoDaddy does not offer free site migrations either. This service tends to be hit or miss with other providers. But usually, it comes free with some plans. It’s also worth noting that the site migrations can take up to 10 days to complete. So not only are you paying, but you’re paying for a slow service.
Customer support
Customer support is a critical feature of website hosting. If you have a question or a problem, it’s nice to know that you can get in touch with someone.
GoDaddy advertises 24/7 support for its plans, but overall it’s pretty disappointing.
I’m not going to sit here and bash them. I just went on their site now to speak with a live chat agent and was connected almost immediately. So it’s not all bad.
With that said, review websites and customer forums are full of complaints related to GoDaddy’s support and customer service. Granted, people are more likely to complain after a bad experience, but the volume of complaints is still high.
Domain registration
It’s funny; GoDaddy is best known for its domain registration—not its web hosting services.
But I honestly would not recommend GoDaddy as your domain registrar. You might be tempted to bundle it with your hosting plan, but you can find better options elsewhere.
Check out my guide on the best domain registrars for more insight on this.
Compare GoDaddy Web Hosting Plans
Web hosting comes in all different shapes and sizes. GoDaddy offers a wide range of options to meet the needs of nearly any website.
There are plenty of hosting plans for you to choose from.
They have plans for basic sites, blogs, small businesses, agencies, and everything in between. Let’s take a detailed look at each of these plan options.
Shared hosting
This is popular for new, beginner sites. Since shared hosting is the most cost-effective way to host a website, it’s best for those of you who are either creating a site from scratch or have a smaller website.
Here’s an overview of the shared plan options.
Bottom line: The prices are great. A new website that won’t be expecting too much traffic can be hosted for just $5.99 per month.
However, I’d recommend the ultimate plan at minimum. This gives you the best bang for your buck in terms of resources, which will make it easier when your site grows and traffic scales.
All shared plans come with one-click free installation of more than 125 apps and 24/7 security monitoring.
You can always purchase additional resources like RAM and CPU with just one-click from your admin dashboard as well. Speaking of which, the control panel is easy for anyone to use, regardless of their experience with web hosting.
WordPress hosting
Since WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world, there’s a good chance that you might be currently using it or considering it for your website. If that’s the case, the WordPress hosting plans offered by GoDaddy should be on your radar.
To be clear, the WordPress plans are also shared web hosting. The only difference is that it comes with WordPress already installed.
GoDaddy also does nightly site backups and automatically updates you to the newest WordPress version if you choose one of these plans.
For these added benefits, you’ll pay slightly higher price-points compared to the traditional shared hosting plans.
- Basic — Starting at $6.99 per month (renews at $9.99)
- Deluxe — Starting at $9.99 per month (renews at $14.99)
- Ultimate — Starting at $12.99 per month (renews at $19.99)
- Pro 5+ — Starting at $29.99 per month (renews at the same rate)
The WordPress plans also come with pre-built site templates as well as drag-and-drop page editors. This is a nice feature to have if you’re creating a new website.
GoDaddy has a 99.9% uptime promise for all WordPress hosting plans as well.
These plans can accommodate up to 400,000 monthly visitors for just one site. Except for the Basic plan, they all come with a built-in SEO wizard. All plans include built-in signup forms too.
VPS hosting
GoDaddy offers both manged and self-managed VPS hosting plans. While the self-managed options come at a fraction of the rate, they are only recommended for advanced users.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the managed virtual private servers from GoDaddy.
Unlike some of the other plans we’ve seen, these discounted rates will continue when you renew your VPS plan.
With a virtual private server, you’ll get enhanced speed and performance due to allocated server resources specifically for your website.
GoDaddy offers up to 4 CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM, and 200 GB of storage. But in order to benefit from this, you’ll need to get their Expand package. The entry-level Launch VPS starts at 1 CPU core, 2 GB of RAM, and 40 GB of storage. As expected, the resources offered by the other plans fall in between.
GoDaddy VPS is best for those of you who have multiple websites or an ecommerce website. It’s also common practice for a GoDaddy VPS to be used as a test environment for both websites and apps.
You can also use a GoDaddy VPS as an email server or database server.
With all of this in mind, it’s worth mentioning that GoDaddy did not make my most recent list of the best virtual private servers (VPS hosting). While I don’t have a specific problem with their VPS services, I just think you can do better elsewhere.
Dedicated servers
Don’t be turned off by the fact that I didn’t rank this company so highly when it comes to virtual private servers. GoDaddy did make my list of the best dedicated hosting plans.
I like the GoDaddy dedicated servers because of the prices. For those of you who are looking for a low-cost dedicated hosting plan, GoDaddy is a top option to consider.
At first glance, these prices may not seem so appealing. But that’s only if you’re comparing them to shared hosting plans.
Overall, these are actually great rates compared to other dedicated servers on the market.
Dedicated hosting is not for everyone. If you’re a small website or building a new site from scratch, you’ll be just fine with a GoDaddy shared plan. The dedicated servers are best for bigger websites that need complete control and flexibility.
Your dedicated server comes with full root access and no resource restrictions.
GoDaddy offers self-managed, managed, and fully managed options for all dedicated servers.
You should only consider a GoDaddy dedicated server if your site is resource-intensive or has traffic volumes exceeding the limits of your VPS plan.
Reseller hosting
Reseller hosting is appealing for developers, designers, and agencies looking to earn some additional profits from their clients.
If you read my guide on the best reseller hosting plans, you’ll find GoDaddy on the list side-by-side with some of the other best hosting providers in the industry.
GoDaddy makes it easy for you to configure each hosting plan while providing tools for things like invoicing, payment options, and managing support tickets.
Pricing for the reseller plans:
- Enhanced — Starting at $39.99 per month
- Grow — Starting at $49.99 per month
- Expand — Starting at $64.99 per month
- Established — Starting at $89.99 per month
All GoDaddy reseller plans come with a free integrated WHMCS license for up to 250 accounts.
Furthermore, GoDaddy will let you sell additional products to your clients, such as other GoDaddy products as well as other third-party products. This is a nice way to provide an all-in-one solution to your clients while simultaneously increasing your margins.
Conclusion
Bottom line: We highly recommend GoDaddy as a web hosting and domain registration solution.
Boasting millions of customers worldwide, they provide solid solutions—though their marketing tactics might be suspect.
Here are the web hosting solutions they provide:
- Shared hosting
- WordPress hosting
- VPS hosting
- Reseller hosting
- Dedicated hosting
Personally, I’d say GoDaddy’s shared, dedicated, and reseller options are the best.
So if you’re looking for a web host, GoDaddy deserves to be on the list for all of the benefits that we listed in this review. Just make sure to be aware of any potential drawbacks before you make a final decision.
- Normally $8.99/month
- 24/7/365 U.S. based support
- Free domain and 1 year of email
- Guaranteed 99.9% uptime
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