What is GoDaddy?
With more than 78 million domains under management, we have more experience than anyone. We’ll make sure you find the right domain and that it’s got a secure home online. More people trust us than any other domain provider. Since the right domain name can set you up for future success, you don’t want to mess around. Go with the world’s largest registrar. Every time you enter a name in our domain search box, our powerful engine searches the web’s largest pool of names. There’s no better place to find the right domain name for your business.
Descriptions
GoDaddy is a web host, domain registrar and website building platform. You can get a domain name, a web hosting plan and a website builder—everything you need to start a small business website or online store. GoDaddy offers shared, virtual private server (VPS) and dedicated hosting services.
In this GoDaddy hosting review, we cover what it excels at and who it’s best for. We break down the pros, cons and cost of hosting your site with GoDaddy, one of the most popular web hosts available.
GoDaddy Products and Features
Image via GoDaddy
GoDaddy has a vast catalog of web service products. Anything you need, you’ll find it here.
They are mostly known for their domain registrar, but their web hosting services provide value for money too. Here’s a walk-through of their features:
Web Hosting
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GoDaddy’s most economical hosting plan is for those on a tight budget.
Web or shared hosting keeps things affordable while giving you the full functions of a website.
Choose between four shared hosting plans: Economy, Deluxe, Ultimate, and Maximum.
These come with easy-to-use cPanel or website control, over 125 one-click install apps, one-click domain name set-up, and resources on demand.
But GoDaddy’s Economy shared hosting plan is limited. You get limited storage and websites and, for the first two packages, you don’t get free SSL certificates.
WordPress Hosting
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GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting is optimized for speed and ease of use.
Creating your site is as easy as choosing a pre-made, customizable theme. It even comes packed with SEO optimization and built-in security to give you a headstart.
All of the WordPress hosting packages have SSL certificates, a free domain, and a free business email.
VPS Hosting
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Want more power and freedom? GoDaddy’s VPS hosting has got your back.
Customize your website up to root level, plus get comfy with unlimited traffic thanks to their high-performance servers.
VPS hosting is best for developers and designers or individuals who want to gain complete control over their website.
Business Hosting
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GoDaddy is a popular web hosting provider for those thinking of putting up an eCommerce site.
Business hosting can get you where you want to be. It comes packed with powerful servers to make sure your website loads within 3 seconds, and you get that sale.
It also has over 150 free one-click install apps like Magento and Drupal to make your eCommerce look even more professional.
Dedicated Servers
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GoDaddy’s dedicated hosting is for those who want 100% control over their site plus the technical know-how to operate it.
You get dedicated resources to back your site up and make it the best and fastest out there. Plus, each plan has layers of security and protection against hackers and DDoS attacks.
It’s also quite expensive.
Only get dedicated hosting if you get super high traffic, you need it to support intensive workload, or you’ve got the money for it.
Other features
Based on that quick overview of GoDaddy hosting plans, you should have an idea of which might suit you best. But GoDaddy’s catalog goes beyond that.
Let’s look at what else the company can offer.
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Professional email
Make your brand look even more professional to earn your potential customer’s trust. Get a business email that perfectly matches your website.
GoDaddy’s basic Email Essentials starts at $1.99/user per month, but you don’t have to settle for that. We found that upgrading to GoDaddy’s professional email with Microsoft 365 is the best way to go.
For $8.99/month, you get a professional email that matches your website, up to 1 TB of online storage, plus all Microsoft 365 apps on multiple devices.
Domain name
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Like we’ve mentioned earlier, GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain registrar.
Just how large? To date, they’ve managed more than 82 million domains!
They’ve also got an enormous selection of creative domain extensions too.
You can get the usual .com and .net but you could also go for .health, .wedding, and even .coffee. Now that will be a unique IP address for your business.
GoDaddy’s domain extensions start at $0.99/year, and it could go as high as $42.99. But if you purchase a web hosting plan, you could get yours for free in the first year.
Security
GoDaddy’s security comes with a price tag. It’s disappointing how the lower-tier plans don’t come with SSL certificates or strong security features.
To get a more solid security system in place, you’ll need to shell out a bit more cash.
Why should you consider getting extra website security anyway?
- A stronger protection against malware, hackers, and other security threats.
- Your customers know that their private information is safe.
- You can rank higher on search engines since Google favors websites with SSL certificates.
- Your site’s load time could be boosted by up to 50%
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GoDaddy’s Basic Website Security with SSL certificate starts at $57/year. It’s packed with features like malware scanning, protection against DDoS attacks, and better.
But all of that is just for one website. The price tags get heavier the more websites you need SSL certificates for.
Their security features might be award-winning, but we find that if you don’t have the budget for it, you’ll burn through your money in a short time.
GoDaddy’s Plans and Pricing
GoDaddy stands out from the competition with its free web hosting plan. Keep in mind that this plan is literally free forever and not just a trial. However, the free plan is severely limited. For example, you have to use a subdomain on GoDaddy’s domain (yoursite.godaddysites.com). Still, it gives you an opportunity to try out GoDaddy’s website builder and see the templates you can use.
One of the most frustrating things about GoDaddy is its pricing. It seems fair on the surface, but once you sign up for a paid plan you’ll see that GoDaddy is far from transparent with its pricing practices. Here are the plan tiers, introductory costs for various terms and the renewal rates for shared hosting.
| Economy | Deluxe | Ultimate | Maximum | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36-month Term | Intro: $5.99/ mo
Renew: $8.99/ mo |
Intro: $7.99/ mo
Renew: $11.99/ mo |
Intro: $12.99/ mo
Renew: $16.99/ mo |
Intro: $19.99/ mo
Renew: $24.99/ mo |
| 24-month Term | Intro: $6.49/ mo
Renew: $8.99/ mo |
Intro: $8.99/ mo
Renew: $11.99/ mo |
Intro: $13.99/ mo
Renew: $16.99/ mo |
Intro: $21.99/ mo
Renew: $24.99/ mo |
| 12-month Term | Intro: $6.99/ mo
Renew: $8.99/ mo |
Intro: $9.99/ mo
Renew: $11.99/ mo |
Intro: $14.99/ mo
Renew: $16.99/ mo |
Intro: $22.99/ mo
Renew: $24.99/ mo |
| 3-month Term | Intro: $10.99/ mo
Renew: $10.99/ mo |
Intro: $12.99/ mo
Renew: $12.99/ mo |
Intro: $19.99/ mo
Renew: $19.99/ mo |
Intro: $28.99/ mo
Renew: $28.99/ mo |
You may notice that your only options in your cart are three-, 12-, 24- and 36-month options, but you can choose a hidden one-month plan after you press the continue button. You have to choose one month from the dropdown menu on that next page. If you aren’t looking for it, you could miss it, which seems super-tricky of GoDaddy.
Keep in mind that you’re missing out on some features that other web hosts include as standard, even with the lowest-priced plans for shared hosting. There’s no secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate or malware scans for the Economy or Deluxe plans. GoDaddy includes an SSL for top-tier plans, but security is still an added charge (that nearly doubles your total cost on the lowest plan).
GoDaddy also offers VPS hosting, which ranges from $4.99 to $99.99 per month, depending on term length and discount. Dedicated hosting is also available, which costs $129.99 to $419.99, also depending on term length and discount.
Pros
- Easy-to-use site builder tool
- Free domain registration for first term
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- 24/7 support
- Free plan available
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
Cons
- No free site transfer
- Multiple upsells
- High renewal rates
- No free backups on lower priced plans
- No free SSL on lower priced plans
- Site monitoring security costs extra
24/7 Support With GoDaddy
GoDaddy’s 24/7 support doesn’t apply to every country or avenue of support. But for many countries, including the U.S. and UK you can get phone support 24/7. And for most, live chat is available 24/7, but hours may be limited for some countries.
Wait times for phone or live chat are typically quick, but we’ve experienced up to an hour-long hold for a representative. GoDaddy web hosting reviews from customers are mixed.
It seems the majority of negative reviews have to do with renewal rates, refunds and customers not knowing just how steep the renewal rates are. Positive reviews highlight how hard many customer service representatives work to help the customer fix an issue or get a refund.
