OVERALL RATINGS
Best for?
- Individuals
- Businesses
Price
Starting at $3.99 per month for manged wordpress hosting
Our Verdict
For GoDaddy’s hosting, skip basic shared plans – not worth it. Choose WordPress hosting for modern tech and decent performance, but it’s costly for top features.
Dive into the realm of GoDaddy, a renowned domain registrar now outperforming major hosting competitors in web hosting! Wondering if it’s the perfect fit for you? Look no further, as GoDaddy has you covered with a range of hosting options, from shared to dedicated.
While GoDaddy has gained attention, some users note additional costs for security and performance challenges for non-US visitors. Fret not! In this comprehensive review, discover quick website setup tips, performance enhancement strategies, and insights into GoDaddy’s features, support, and reputation.
But wait, there’s more – GoDaddy isn’t solely about domains. Users are in for a journey through their website builder evolution. The all-new Websites + Marketing, boasting a fresh look and a free plan, is causing a stir. Curious to learn more? Join us as we delve into the revamped GoDaddy website builder and uncover whether it’s the transformative change users have been anticipating!
GoDaddy Hosting Feature Images
GoDaddy Product Offer
GoDaddy takes the lead in the world of domain name registration, although it may not be the most budget-friendly option. Some skeptics argue that their web hosting services feel like an add-on to extract more from existing customers.
In this review guide our software testers tried GoDaddy basic Web Hosting plan and found it unimpressive. However, giving it a second shot with the WordPress plans proved to be a relief. GoDaddy’s basic shared hosting relies on Apache, considered older tech compared to NGINX and LiteSpeed, but the WordPress experience was notably better.
In the Web Hosting category, four plans with unmetered bandwidth are available. The Basic plan offers 100GB storage (HDD, not SSD), while the others provide unlimited space. Advanced plans support more databases and domains, with variations in processing power.
Being cPanel-powered, users get regular tools, and Installatron simplifies CMS installations. Moving to WordPress plans, there are four options, each with SSD storage. Starting at 30GB, these plans cater to various needs, with higher-tier plans optimized for unlimited monthly visitors (25,000 for the base plan).
Getting Started with GoDaddy
To begin your journey with GoDaddy, you have the option to either register a new domain or transfer an existing one. GoDaddy simplifies the process with a one-click installation for apps like WordPress, making website setup a breeze. The user-friendly nature of this feature stood out to us—it takes care of all the technicalities, swiftly setting up your WordPress page.
In terms of simplicity, GoDaddy holds its own against the likes of Hostinger. Both hosting platforms excel in user-friendliness, especially when establishing a WordPress site.
Additionally, GoDaddy offers a native control panel that’s easy to navigate, allowing you to manage hosting and perform administrative tasks effortlessly. It’s worth noting that while upgrading to the latest PHP version can enhance your website’s speed, GoDaddy may not yet support PHP 8.
GoDaddy Pricing
GoDaddy’s pricing may be steep, and it’s particularly frustrating that they don’t throw in basic features like free SSL certificates. This gives the impression that they’re more focused on making extra bucks. Even with WordPress hosting plans that include SSL certificates, you still have to shell out more for crucial website security features, unless you go for the Ultimate plan or higher.
In this segment, I’ll exclusively guide you through the pricing and features of GoDaddy’s website builder. Additionally, you’ll discover compelling reasons for selecting the optimal GoDaddy services.
| Plan | Features | Renewal |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Simple sites with godaddysites.com domain. Ad displayed on all pages. Some features are limited. | $0 |
| Basic | Use your domain, no GoDaddy ads. Advanced SEO is not included. Limited social media posts and email marketing. | $11.99 |
| Premium | Advanced SEO features. Limit of 500 email sends and 20 social media posts. | $21.99 |
| Commerce | 25,000 email sends, unlimited social media posts. Online appointments, payment acceptance, and recurring events. | $24.99 |
| Commerce Plus | E-commerce features: credit card payment processors, abandoned cart recovery. | $44.99 |
Note: Renewal prices are for yearly contracts; the first year is usually discounted. A free domain name is included for the first year.
Now, regarding payment, GoDaddy offers terms of 3, 12, 24, or 36 months, with a monthly option for WordPress hosting plans. However, the only payment method accepted is credit card. The three-year plan is notably pricey, especially compared to competitors like Hostinger or InterServer. Additional features also come with a hefty price tag.
If you decide to bail, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee for long-term plans, but if you opt for a term shorter than a year, you only have a 48-hour window to change your mind.
Watch out during checkout; GoDaddy tends to sneak in automatic upsells, especially on shared hosting plans. Forget to remove them, and they could end up costing more than the hosting itself. The “Free Office 365 Mail” service is only free for the first year, and it renews automatically, potentially setting you back a significant amount. Oddly enough, upsells aren’t pre-selected on WordPress hosting plans – at least, they weren’t when I signed up.
While they throw in a free domain with the 1-year plan, be wary of the renewal cost, which GoDaddy claims is over $30 a year. That figure doesn’t align with reality. Namecheap, for example, offers the same domain for less than $10 a year, with a privacy shield included. Strangely, you might even get it cheaper from GoDaddy itself by purchasing the domain separately.
GoDaddy Pros and Cons
- Free Domain Registration: GoDaddy provides the benefit of a free domain registration for the first year term when you choose any of their hosting plans.
- Free SSL Certificates: GoDaddy ensures the security of your website with free SSL certificates for your first year.
- 24/7 Support: GoDaddy offers round-the-clock support whenever you need assistance.
- Numerous Upsells: GoDaddy's multiple upselling prompts, especially during the checkout process shows that their services are pricey.
- No Free Site Transfer: Unfortunately, GoDaddy does not provide a complimentary service for transferring your existing site. This might be inconvenient if you're looking to migrate your website from another hosting provider.
- High Renewal Rates: GoDaddy's initial prices may be attractive, it's important to note that renewal rates can be relatively high.
What Set GoDaddy Apart From the Competition
Not all web hosting providers offer the extensive range of services that GoDaddy provides. The website builder is user-friendly, and suitable for individuals of all skill levels. Select from over 175 free templates and customize them with your own images, text, and business logo. The editor is intuitive, allowing for easy navigation with point-and-click functionality from the right-side menu.
If you opt for hosting with the GoDaddy site editor, you’ll encounter slightly different pricing and features. The standard cost ranges from $9.99 to $19.99 for standard hosting and site-building, while an online store package is priced at $24.99. These plans include essential features like SSL, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, and certain marketing features.
A significant advantage of choosing GoDaddy as your web host is the complimentary domain name registration. While many competitors offer the first year of domain registration for free, GoDaddy takes it a step further. You can enjoy free domain registration for your entire initial term, whether that’s one year or three years.
What You Should Consider Before Switching To GoDaddy
While GoDaddy has its merits, it also comes with drawbacks. Firstly, it doesn’t stand out as the most competitively priced web hosting service, both in terms of introductory rates and renewal rates. The starting plan is priced at $5.99 per month and includes 25GB of storage. However, a significant downside is the substantial upfront commitment; GoDaddy requires an upfront payment of $215.64, equivalent to 36 monthly payments of $5.99.
Furthermore, GoDaddy’s hosting plans offer free Microsoft 365 business email, valued at $69.99 per year—but only for the initial year. In contrast, many leading web hosting plans provide ongoing free business email hosting. While a complimentary year of Microsoft 365 may be valuable to some, in comparison, having free business email for as long as you are a customer is a more enduring value proposition.
GoDaddy Feature Ratings
EASE OF USE
The website builder from GoDaddy provides a pleasant and straightforward editing experience. It adheres to the standard format of other website builders, featuring a central dashboard for site management and editable page sections directly within the visual editor. A notable advantage is the ability to edit your site even on a mobile device. Overall, there are no grievances, though the addition of an ‘undo’ function would be convenient.
THEME TEMPLATES AND DESIGN
The themes may not be groundbreaking, but they maintain a clean and mobile-responsive design. GoDaddy will recommend several themes based on the type of website you’re creating, whether it’s for a store, restaurant, blog, etc.
Since it’s not a drag-and-drop builder, you won’t have absolute freedom over your layouts. However, unlike the earlier version, you now have a diverse range of options for presenting content, such as columns and images next to text. This flexibility enables you to craft a design that likely closely aligns with your vision.
WIDGETS
Natively, you have some really useful features such as an appointment scheduler, website popup, messenger (a kind of live chat), and the ability to embed media. You can also add integrations to a handful of external tools (including SoundCloud, GoFundMe, Yelp, and OpenTable). Unfortunately, it still lacks an app store, which you might find limiting for your website.
DOMAIN NAMES
You can utilize your personalized domain for your website with a paid plan. This involves acquiring the domain directly from GoDaddy or connecting an existing one through transfer.
LANGUAGE
The dashboard and editor are accessible in both English and various other languages. However, there is no provision for constructing a multilingual website. If your preference is for an editor geared towards multilingual capabilities, Site123 is a commendable choice.
ADVERTISMENT
A banner advertisement is visible at the top of every page, and it can be eliminated with a paid subscription.
NAVIGATION DEPTH
Essentially, there’s only one level available, but you have the option to include a menu to showcase additional navigation links in a centralized location. This enhances the overall navigation appearance. However, our recommendation is primarily for smaller websites with fewer than 20 pages when considering GoDaddy.
MOBILE APP
GoDaddy application is flexible, allowing you to edit your site and handle bookings, store orders, and social media. For those with a GoDaddy store, it transforms into a POS reader, enabling you to accept payments through your device. Unfortunately, the app is exclusively accessible in the US and Canada. Nevertheless, you can still edit your site using the mobile-friendly editor at websites.godaddy.com.
SEACRH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
Regrettably, the SEO capabilities on GoDaddy’s free and most affordable plan are restricted to page titles and descriptions. Even with an upgrade, the optimization features remain quite elementary. Notably, you can’t customize SEO settings for blog posts, and it’s perplexing that page URLs cannot be modified—they are autogenerated and alter whenever the page title changes. This is unfavorable for SEO. Although the tool enables the direct viewing of Google search metrics, the touted “SEO wizard” is predominantly beneficial for beginners.
BLOG
The blog has certainly seen enhancements from the previous version, incorporating new elements like categories, social sharing, email subscription, and commenting facilitated by an integrated Disqus feature. Nevertheless, content is confined to text, images, and video, and there’s an absence of an HTML editor.
E-COMMERCE
VISITOR STATISTICS
Insights feature provides statistics like pageviews and a comparison score with similar sites. Integration with Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Pinterest Meta Tag is available. Additionally, you can use the HTML element to add another tool.
CONTACT FORM
The contact form feature is quite advanced, allowing you to add fields, showcase an opt-in button, and even incorporate a ‘Message us on Whatsapp button.’ You have the option to present it in various layouts, including one with a map.
PASSWORD PROTECTION & MEMBER AREAS
You can secure pages with a password and invite members to access them by setting up their own login. Additionally, there’s an option to conceal pages from the navigation.
ADD HTML CODE
Incorporating HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into pages is achievable through the dedicated HTML-Element feature.
NEWSLETTER TOOLS
GoDaddy provides an integrated newsletter solution for uncomplicated email campaigns. Users gain access to standard statistics, including opens, clicks, bounces, and more.
STORAGE SPACE
There are no limits on web space or bandwidth, and users can create up to 999 pages.
BACKUP AND RESTORE
With the Site History feature, users have the flexibility to create and restore backups at their convenience. It’s important to note that restoring to an earlier version won’t impact blog articles and store items.
SUPPORT
In their initial steps, users can benefit from a knowledge base that includes how-to videos and guides. Although 24/7 support is accessible, occasional delays have been observed. Other support resources encompass phone support, a Community forum, and a blog.
OVERALL RATINGS
GoDaddy is a user-friendly platform with integrated sales and marketing tools, suitable for beginners. Despite limited design control and SEO options, it offers seamless functionality for less complex website needs.
GoDaddy’s Performance
In scrutinizing GoDaddy’s hosting prowess, the divergence between its standard shared and WordPress hosting plans becomes evident.
The former lags with a sluggish 2.94s page load, though boasting a commendable 99.974% uptime.
Conversely, WordPress hosting touts faster speeds at 1.78s on average, but erratic loading times and a concerning 99.159% uptime cast shadows on its reliability.
The 99.9% uptime guarantee, coupled with a modest 5% credit for downtime and exceptions, complicates the overall evaluation of GoDaddy’s hosting performance.
GoDaddy Speed Test
GoDaddy’s standard shared hosting performance in terms of page load speed was subpar. With an average complete page load time of 2.94 seconds, well above the recommended 2-second threshold, and a global average of 4.160 seconds, the loading times were less than optimal.
The fastest recorded speed of 2.2 seconds, as per a GoDaddy agent’s acknowledgment, didn’t inspire confidence.
| Page Load Time in Seconds | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreenGeeks | 1.56 | 1.29 | 1.21 |
| A2 Hosting | 2.01 | 1.30 | 1.25 |
| GoDaddy | 1.94 | 1.44 | 1.28 |
| Cloudways | 1.73 | 1.46 | 1.30 |
| SiteGround | 1.54 | 1.56 | 1.35 |
| Hostinger | 1.61 | 1.63 | 1.35 |
| WP Engine | 1.65 | 1.66 | 1.37 |
| Namecheap | 1.60 | 1.69 | 1.40 |
| Dreamhost | 1.84 | 1.75 | 1.63 |
| Kinsta | 1.77 | 1.82 | 1.70 |
| Bluehost | 2.87 | 2.07 | 1.89 |
| IONOS | 1.95 | 2.32 | 2.20 |
| InMotion | 2.75 | 2.58 | 2.35 |
| iPage | 2.76 | 2.60 | 2.58 |
| HostGator | 2.78 | 2.72 | 2.70 |
Moving to the WordPress hosting plan, the results were more inconsistent. While the average complete page load time improved to a somewhat acceptable 1.78 seconds, the variability was notable, with speeds ranging from 1.1 seconds to a concerning 3.2 seconds.
Choosing the Europe server for the WordPress test site showed promise with impressive loading speeds, but the disparity, such as taking over 4 seconds to load in Los Angeles, raised questions about the overall reliability.
It’s evident that GoDaddy’s page load speeds leave room for improvement, particularly when compared to industry standards.
GoDaddy Uptime
In terms of uptime, GoDaddy’s standard shared hosting performed reasonably well, boasting an impressive 99.974% over four months. However, it’s important to note that there were periodic drops in availability, lasting around 3-4 minutes each time, occurring weekly or bi-weekly.
This frequency of interruptions raises concerns, especially when compared to other hosting providers with fewer instances of downtime.
| Uptime Chart | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SiteGround | 99.97 | 100 | 100 |
| WP Engine | 99.99 | 99.99 | 100 |
| Namecheap | 99.99 | 100 | 100 |
| Kinsta | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| InMotion | 99.73 | 99.95 | 100 |
| A2 Hosting | 99.99 | 99.98 | 99.99 |
| Cloudways | 100 | 100 | 99.99 |
| HostGator | 99.91 | 99.99 | 99.98 |
| GreenGeeks | 99.98 | 99.98 | 99.97 |
| GoDaddy | 99.90 | 99.96 | 99.95 |
| Hostinger | 99.48 | 99.92 | 99.95 |
| Bluehost | 99.96 | 99.99 | 99.95 |
| iPage | 98.45 | 99.85 | 99.95 |
| Dreamhost | 99.99 | 99.96 | 99.83 |
| IONOS | 99.91 | 99.93 | 99.71 |
On the WordPress hosting side, the situation took a turn for the worse. Despite an initial promising start, the test website experienced a staggering forty periods of downtime over almost two weeks, with most lasting 1-2 minutes, but one stretching to a substantial 43 minutes.
While GoDaddy offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, the compensation for any downtime is a modest 5% credit of your monthly fee, usable only for additional services from GoDaddy. Moreover, the guarantee comes with several exceptions, limiting its reliability in real-world scenarios.
GoDaddy Customer Support
GoDaddy’s 24/7 support availability varies by country and support channel. For countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, phone support is accessible around the clock, while live chat is generally 24/7, with potential limitations for certain regions.
Although wait times are typically brief, we encountered instances of up to an hour-long hold for a representative. Initiating contact involves completing a secure form with a PIN and customer number, and with two-factor authentication (2FA), providing a code to an agent, which raises security concerns.
Obtaining a refund took approximately 40 minutes, involving several steps, yet the process was ultimately smooth, and facilitated by a helpful and friendly agent. A notable aspect of GoDaddy’s customer service is the option for assistance via SMS, allowing users to send text messages to a support phone number at any time of day or night.
My Verdict on GoDaddy: Do I Recommend It?
GoDaddy emerges as a reliable and budget-conscious web hosting solution, offering a robust foundation for website creation with its 99.9% uptime guarantee and user-friendly features. While caution is advised with basic shared hosting plans, the WordPress options, though pricier, shine in comparison to competitors like Hostinger. For those with a more flexible budget, the premium choice of Liquid Web stands out.
The latest update to GoDaddy’s website builder marks a positive shift, showcasing a modernized interface and improved functionality. With features like website comparison metrics and password-protected member pages, it becomes an appealing option for small businesses. However, there is room for growth, particularly in-app diversity and SEO capabilities.
Despite its strengths as an all-in-one solution, GoDaddy may not fully satisfy users seeking extensive control over design, SEO, and integrations. Potential concerns about ongoing support and the risk of obsolescence due to periodic relaunches linger. To determine if GoDaddy aligns with your project needs, explore its offerings and weigh the balance between affordability and feature richness. finally, GoDaddy presents a compelling option for users seeking a user-friendly, all-encompassing web hosting solution, provided its current capabilities meet your specific requirements.
GoDaddy Alternatives
GoDaddy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is GoDaddy good for online stores?
The effectiveness depends on your needs. While GoDaddy’s website builder can create a basic e-commerce site, it may not be the optimal choice for more complex stores. The performance issues with basic shared hosting packages could result in poor server performance, potentially driving customers away. Exploring alternative e-commerce site builders or consulting our list of superior web hosting services is advised for better options.
How much does GoDaddy cost?
The entry-level plan starts at around $5.99 per month during signup, but the cost increases by approximately 50% upon renewal. While it is a reasonably priced option, there are more affordable services with superior hosting quality. It’s recommended to explore Hostinger’s economical plans before making a final decision.
Why is GoDaddy so cheap?
Contrary to the perception of being a budget-friendly choice, GoDaddy’s prices are average at best, with many superior hosts charging less than half of GoDaddy’s lowest plan cost per month. For better alternatives and current deals, it’s advisable to check our regularly updated web hosting coupon page.
