GoDaddy Review

Choosing the right web hosting service for your business or personal website is not an easy decision especially when there are various options available in the market. With more than a thousand website hosting services, one of the most preferred alternatives is GoDaddy. GoDaddy is most known for it’s domain registration services, bit it’s recently offered some top tier web hosting services.

Godaddy Web Hosting

Starting at $4.99/mo

GoDaddy has been known as a domain registrar for a long time now, and we're reviewing GoDaddy in terms of web hosting of which they've performed very well. GoDaddy's performance and ratings speak for themself.

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In this GoDaddy review, you will find a detailed analysis of many advantages and also some disadvantages of GoDaddy, aiming to help you to make the best decision about your web hosting and domain preferences. You can also find valuable information about their technical features, performance, customer support, and detailed information about pricing strategy. Also, comparisons with the other web hosting domains in many aspects will be part of the review. 

Detailed GoDaddy Review 2020

General Information and Hosting Overview of GoDaddy

Started Business: 1997 

Speed: 508 ms (Last 12 months, updated October 2020)

Uptime: 99.96% (Last 12 months, updated October 2020)

Support: 24/7 live chat, Phone, WhatsApp 

Apps: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and 150+ Other Apps with a One-Click Install

Features: Unmetered Bandwidth, 100 GB Storage, Free 1st Year for Office 365 Email and Domain Name

Hosting Plans: Shared, WordPress, Cloud, Reseller, VPS, and Dedicated Servers

Site Transfer: Not free ($99.99 per site)

Pricing: Starting at $4.33/mo  (renews at $8.99/mo) 

Full Refund Period: 30 Days

Free Extras: Premium DNS Management Tool (Only for Ultimate Plan), Double Processing Power and Memory (Only for Ultimate Plan), DudaMobile automatically your site to mobile (Except Economy Plan), SSL Certificate  Only for Ultimate Plan) 

GoDaddy Products

GoDaddy has various products and many available plans which provide you to find the best solution for your business or personal website needs. Its products include Domains, Hosting Services (Web hosting, reseller hosting), Server (VPS web hosting, Dedicated server hosting), WordPress Hosting Solutions (WordPress Hosting, WordPress E-commerce Hosting, Pro Sites, Word Press Themes), WordPress (Expert Services, Designers and Developers), Websites, Web Security, Online Marketing, Email and Office, Phone Numbers, Partner Programs, and GoDaddy Mobile App. 

Domains

GoDaddy is one of the biggest domain name registrars globally. You can get the best possible domain extension  among various domain extensions it offers  as .com, .net, .org, .today., etc. 

If you decide to get .com domain, it will cost you $12.17 in the first year and second year billed at $18.17. As you see the prices is not the cheapest compared to other domain name registrars but you the factors as the variety of domain extensions, service and customer support opportunities could affect customers to choose a more expensive domain registrar than others. 

Web Hosting Services

GoDaddy is a perfect choice both for your business and personal web hosting purposes. It has many different hosting options as shared web hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, WordPress hosting, cloud web hosting, reseller web hosting, and E-mail hosting. We will go deeper in our analysis to find out the features, plans, and pricing strategy of these products. 

Shared Web Hosting

If you want to spend less money on web hosting, shared web hosting is the best choice for you simply because it is a cheaper web hosting option compared to others. Shared web hosting is a type of web hosting where a single physical server hosts multiple sites. It means you will share your website server with other websites too. Each user gets a section of a server in which they can host their website files. Shared servers can host from a few hundred to several thousands of different users depending on the available hard drive space, RAM, and processing speed. Each customer using the shared hosting platform’s server has access to features like databases, monthly traffic, disk space, email accounts, FTP accounts, and other add-ons offered by the host. 

If you want to create a small website or blog that doesn’t require advanced configurations or high bandwidth, shared web hosting will provide the best solution for your needs. Indeed, shared hosting is not sufficient for the web sites with high traffic, and high volume.

Shared web hosting has many advantages. First of all, it is cheaper as mentioned earlier. It is also flexible and easy to self manage. You can host multiple domains at the same time by using shared web hosting. It is professionally managed. The last one is that it can host dynamic web sites too.  But if you decide to buy shared hosting think again to consider uptime guarantees, speed, traffic, resources, limited customization, support, disc space, control panels and one-click install applications before your final decision. 

GoDaddy has a fine range of Linux- or Windows-based shared web servers. They offer different plans and pricing for the unique needs of the users. The first one is the Economy (basic) shared web hosting plan which includes 100 GB of storage, the ability to host one website, unlimited monthly data transfers, and a free year of Office 365 Starter Email. The second one is the Deluxe shared web hosting plan which includes all the basics that the economy package has, plus unlimited storage and domains. Third,  Ultimate and  Maximum web hosting plans which include double processing power and one-year Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate. These two plans are recommended for high traffic sites.   

The price of the service is between $4.33/mo and $8.99 when you renew to $19.99/mo and  $24.99/mo when you renew. GoDaddy has discounts on these plans starting from 20% up to 51% and also offers some discounts for the long term plans. You can see the details of the plans and pricing in the table below. 

GoDaddy’s Shared Web Hosting

Hosting Plans & Pricing

GoDaddy also has various special plans and pricing for Business Websites as Launch plans (for multiple basic sites), Enhance plans(for high traffic WordPress, Joomla and other sites), Grow plans (for advanced e-commerce sites like Magento), and Expand plans (for photography or resource-heavy sites). The prices of these plans start at $19.99/mo and $24.99/mo when you renew up to $59.99/mo and $99.99/mo when you renew. These plans also have discounts starting from 30% up to 40% and some discounts for the long term plans are offered.  GoDaddy’s other options for shared web hosting includes Reseller Hosting. If you choose to get Reseller Hosting you can choose from reseller hosting plans and pricing which include Enhance plans, Grow plans, Expand plans, and Established plan. Their prices are at $39.99/mo and $39.99/mo when you renew up to $89.99/mo and $89.99/mo when you renew. 

VPS (Virtual Private Server) Web Hosting

If you think that shared web hosting is not suitable for your needs, the first alternative web hosting type you can consider is VPS hosting. In VPS hosting, you can have space in a shared server but with much more isolation from other users than a shared web hosting.

VPS hosting is a hosting plan that allows for resources like RAM and CPU to be dedicated to your account. By using VPS hosting, you can access your own personal server with your own allocated number of resources and pre-installed operating system of your choice.  You will have a dedicated amount of disc space and bandwidth. By using the GoDaddy VPS plan you can configure your server to your preferences with administrative access. 

GoDaddy’s VPS plans include Linux or Windows-based servers, unlimited domains, and monthly data transfers. It has various plans with different choices in terms of RAM (1 GB to 32 GB) and storage (20 GB to 400 GB), and has a free SSL for one year. VPS plans also has Office 365 Starter Email like shared web hosting. 

GoDaddy is the winner of VPS Hosting Editor’s Choice Award because of its wider range of VPS plans. If you want a web hosting which is more powerful than a shared web hosting and cheaper than dedicated web hosting GoDaddy’s various VPS hosting plans will be good solution for you. GoDaddy basically has two options for VPS hosting. The first and cheaper one is Self Managed VPS Hosting plans with standard RAM or high RAM. The second one is Fully Managed VPS hosting which includes 24/7 expert help

Setting up and maintaining your server, high-performance servers, unlimited accounts, and easy admin. However, it is much more expensive than Self Manager VPS Hosting plans. 

GoDaddy’s prices of the VPS plans are starting at $4.99 a month up to $189.99 a month depending on the features you prefer to add. You can see the details of the plans and pricing in the table below. 

The discounts are available starting at 4% to %20%. 

Self Managed Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting plans and prices

WordPress Optimized Shared Hosting Service

Since every configuration is set up to be optimized for WordPress, by using WordPress hosting your website can load faster than shared hosting. GoDaddy has a WordPress optimized shared hosting service.

You can take a look at the pans and pricing

By choosing GoDaddy, you can find higher WordPress performance, WordPress pre-installed, and a selection of themes available. The prices for having WordPress hosting starting at $6.99/mo and $9.99 when you renew up to $15.99/mo and $24.99 when you renew. 

WordPress Hosting Plans

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated web hosting means a physical server is dedicated to a single user. The user has complete control over server. Therefore, they are the most expensive ones compared to other hosting plans. 

One of the main advantages of dedicated web hosting is that users can optimize servers for their own unique needs including performance and security. Dedicated web hosting provides high uptime rates, fast page loading times and high performance especially for websites with high traffic. If you have a new,  personal or small business website you may not need to have a dedicated hosting plan. However, if you have shared, VPS, or cloud server and it is not sufficient for your traffic you can consider getting dedicated web hosting.  If you have more than 100,000 visitors per month you can consider getting dedicated web hosting too.

GoDaddy has a wide range of dedicated hosting plans. It also offers three different management levels as unmanaged, managed and fully managed. You will benefit from site and database migrations, premier-level support, three dedicated IPs, automated app installs and updates, control panel, patching, backups, and proactive monitoring, if you get  one of the managed options. In the unmanaged plans you can not find same variety of features and services but you will completely control your server settings. GoDaddy’s dedicated web hosting prices are starting at $129.99 a month up to $504,99 a month with discounts changing between 14% – 20%. 

Dedicated Server Hosting Plans and Pricing

Fully Dedicated Server Hosting Plans and Pricing

E-mail Hosting Plans 

GoDaddy offers e-mail hosting plans for its user so that they can have professional looking e-mail addresses. This service has a starting price at $5.99 per user for a month for 10GB of email storage. 

Websites

You can also benefit from GoDaddy’s website builder to build your website. But users criticize it about some features are not enough e.g. the blog. GoDaddy‘s free website builder is called GoCentral. It’s a responsive-design tool so you will have a good-looking and functional mobile website alongside the desktop website you build.

Security Features

GoDaddy has its own Website Security product which includes automatic malware scanning, continuous security monitoring, Web Application Firewall (WAF), and Content Delivery Network (CDN). It means Website Security proactively blocks malware and malicious traffic from reaching your site. It also safeguards against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and Zero Day attacks.

You can also purchase Secure Sockets Layer certificates which secures the data exchange between a customer and your servers. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of GoDaddy

Advantages of GoDaddy

• Even though some website hosting services can offer average uptimes as high as 99.995% GoDaddy delivers satisfactory uptime on their shared hosting plans  (12-month average uptime is 99.96%). It is not the best choice but satisfactory for their shared hosting plans. 
• GoDaddy has a satisfactory Page Load time at 508 ms. 
• It is easy to use especially for beginners. 
• It also has high speed.  
• It has windows – and Linux- based servers
• It has huge storage. 
• The traffic of your web site won’t be limited because of its bandwidth. 
• Excellent 24/7 customer support 
• Email integrated into Microsoft Apps. 
• Managed WordPress hosting
• Over 150 + One-Click Install Apps. 

DisAdvantages of GoDaddy 

• Expensive Prices 
• Renewal rates are much higher
• No cloud hosting 
• Skimpy default email plans
• You can not hava a backup unless you paid extra for it. 
• No SSL (You have to pay for a certificate) 
• GoDaddy doesn’t have some advanced features like staging areas or Git repositories. 
• No migration services for your web site from other hosts. 

GoDaddy Performance Tests

The results of the available GoDaddy performance tests ar

GoDaddy‘s performance and uptime aren’t the best out of all the web hosting services currently available. With an uptime of 99.93% this year and 99.97% the last.

Alternatives to GoDaddy

•  DreamHost and A2 Hosting offer the best price to quality ratio
• Best support hosts SiteGround, DreamHost and InMotion
• Top Performing providers are DreamHost and SiteGround in terms of uptime and speed.
•  SiteGround is better with a lot of WordPress features 

If you have a high budget to spend for your personal or business website especially if you are a beginner with less technical knowledge, or you want different options for your unique needs you can GoDaddy is highly recommended for you. You can also benefit from GoDaddy’s free trial for 30 days.  

* Plan and prices tables source is GoDaddy (December 2020)

GoDaddy Review Verdict

Overall GoDaddy is good in various areas and categories. First off, they’re a great domain name registar as well as provide some good plans, however, they’re at a steep price for most. Whilst testing their performance, we found it to be quite good compared to other web hosting services.

Summary

Reviewer

James Kramer

Review Date

2020-12-26

Reviewed Item

GoDaddy

Author Rating

4

Product Name

GoDaddy Web Hosting

Price

$ 4.99

Product Availability

Available in Stock