GoDaddy is a popular web hosting company, but it’s not the cheapest, and its plans don’t include the most value for the money. The best GoDaddy alternatives offer lower prices, higher uptime, and include niche features that cost extra with GoDaddy. To help you decide, we evaluated dozens of web hosting providers and narrowed them down to our top eight.
Here are the best GoDaddy alternatives and competitors for shared hosting based on the following use cases:
- Cheapest GoDaddy web hosting competitor: IONOS
- Best WordPress web hosting alternative: Bluehost
- Top web host for ultra-fast site loading: InMotion
- Great option for unlimited email: HostGator
- Best for unlimited website hosting: DreamHost
- Ideal for those wanting 100% managed services: KnownHost
- Top choice for those wanting daily backups included: Scala Hosting
- Best website builder and hosting combo: Hostinger
GoDaddy & Best Alternatives at a Glance
GoDaddy Alternatives | Starting Cost per Month* | Expert Score Out of 5 | Domain, SSL & Email | Site Builder Plans | Learn More |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | $2.99 | 3.6 | ✓ | ✓ | |
 | $1** | 4.6 | ✓ | ✓ | |
 | $2.95 | 4.5 | ✓ | ✓ | |
 | $3.59 | 4.5 | ✓ | ✕ | |
 | $3.95 | 4.4 | ✓ | ✓ | |
 | $2.95 | 4.3 | ✓ | ✓ | |
 | $6.71 | 4.1 | ✓ | ✕ | |
 | $2.95 | 4.0 | ✓ | ✕ | |
 | $2.99 | 3.8 | ✓ | ✓ |
*With annual billing
**Renews at higher rate after 6 months
Not sure how to compare GoDaddy competitors in order to find the best service for your small business? Read our article explaining what web hosting is and how to choose a provider.
IONOS: Cheapest GoDaddy Competitor for Web Hosting
Pros
- Cheap plans as low as $1 per month the first six months
- One domain included free the first year
- Free SSL certificates and email
- Free daily backups and recovery
- Domain privacy included
- Site Scan malware protection
- Multiple data centers (U.S. and Europe)
- 24/7 support
- 99.9% uptime
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- No month-to-month billing option
- Only one email account per plan—Hostinger includes 100 and Scala Hosting offers unlimited emails with all plans
- Cost of $1/month intro plan increases to $12 a month after the first year
- Server performance is similar between the two hosts.
- IONOS has cheaper introductory and renewal prices for a good range of web hosting services than GoDaddy.
- IONOS provides a free SSL certificate; GoDaddy’s cheapest plan only has a free certificate for the first year.
- IONOS has only one professional email account forever, GoDaddy includes two, but only for the first 12 months.
- GoDaddy doesn’t have any plans for unlimited websites, unlike IONOS.
- IONOS offers dedicated support and better customer service.
Essential | Starter | Plus | Ultimate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Intro Price per Month* | $4 | $6 | $1** | $10 |
Renews At* | $6 | $8 | $12 | $16 |
Websites | 1 | 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Domain | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Accounts | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Storage | 10GB | 100GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Unlimited Bandwidth | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Cloudflare CDN | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Processor & Memory | Basic CPU and memory | Basic CPU and memory | Enhanced CPU and memory | Maximum CPU and memory |
Free Domain for 1 Year | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free SSL Certificates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
*On an annual billing cycle
**Renews at $12 a month after six months
Across all service tiers, IONOS offers more than GoDaddy at a cheaper price. Consider the Plus plan, with an introductory rate of just $1, renewing at an affordable $12 per month for building a small business website. Not only is this plan cheaper than many GoDaddy plans, but it also includes the capability of hosting unlimited websites, a free domain, SSL certificates, and unlimited storage and bandwidth. GoDaddy does not offer a plan with unlimited websites.
Key Features
- Cheap introductory pricing: IONOS’ Plus plan starts at $1 per month for 12 months. In contrast, GoDaddy’s cheapest plan starts at $2.99 per month. No other GoDaddy competitor has prices as low as IONOS the first year.
- Free automated backups: IONOS provides free automatic backups for all of its plans, even on its cheapest offering. This is similar to what Scala Hosting provides but for a fraction of the price.
- Ten-plus servers located worldwide: IONOS has 10-plus data centers across Europe and North America, providing faster loading speeds to visitors from the two locations. In comparison, most GoDaddy competitors have just two or three data centers.
IONOS and GoDaddy both promise a 99.99% uptime guarantee, but IONOS edges GoDaddy on server reliability. IONOS posted a 99.99% uptime in March 2023, compared to a 99.97% uptime from GoDaddy in the same month. (Source: Pingdom)
However, IONOS’ servers are not quite as fast as GoDaddy’s, clocking a somewhat slower 604 ms ping time than GoDaddy’s 299 ms time. IONOS outperformed GoDaddy on uptime, but GoDaddy beats IONOS on speed.
A view of the IONOS control panel (Source: IONOS)
Other features also make IONOS a standout. Every day, IONOS automated backups make a backup of your site on all plans. If you develop a site problem, you can work with support to restore your site to its previous state, all free of charge. In fact, IONOS’ customer support is one of the top reasons to choose them for your web hosting provider. Phone, chat, and email support are available 24/7 on all plans.
While IONOS’ lowest tier offers the same 10GB of storage that GoDaddy’s introductory level provides, it’s still on the low end of storage offerings. To get more storage space in a base tier, check out Hostinger and InMotion.
Similarly, IONOS includes just one professional email account with each hosting plan, which sounds paltry compared to unlimited accounts included free with DreamHost and Scala Hosting. However, IONOS also offers additional email accounts for $1 per month with a domain, reducing the cost of getting business email accounts compared to other providers that only include one or don’t include any.
IONOS also offers an all-in-one drag-and-drop site builder and hosting solution starting at $1 per month. And if that’s not enough, all IONOS customers get access to a dedicated success consultant they can turn to for help, on top of 24/7 live support. With their 30-day money-back guarantee, you can test drive IONOS and see if it’s for you.
Bluehost: Best GoDaddy Alternative for WordPress Web Hosting
Pros
- Free Cloudflare CDN for fast site loading worldwide
- Drag-and-drop WordPress website builder included
- Higher tiers include Yoast SEO preconfigured
- Unlimited websites and email accounts
- Free domain and SSL certificates
- 24/7 support via phone or chat
Cons
- Automated daily backups only come in the highest-plan tier
- While starting cost is comparable to GoDaddy, it’s more than with IONOS
- IONOS $1/month plan includes unlimited storage vs 10GB in Bluehost’s base tier
- GoDaddy edges Bluehost on server uptime and speed.
- Bluehost’s ecommerce plan is cheaper than GoDaddy’s introductory plan and includes unlimited websites.
- Bluehost plans include more storage than GoDaddy plans.
- Bluehost plans all include some email service, whereas GoDaddy plans charge after the first year.
Basic | Choice Plus | Online Store | |
|---|---|---|---|
Intro Price per Month (Billed Annually) | $2.95 | $5.45 | $9.95 |
Renews At | $9.99 | $19.99 | $24.95 |
Storage | 10GB | 40GB | 100GB |
Unlimited Bandwidth | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free Domain & SSL Certificate | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Daily Backups | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Domain Privacy | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Addresses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Malware Scanning | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Yoast SEO Free | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Ecommerce | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
If you plan to build a WordPress site, look no further than Bluehost. All Bluehost plans come with a WordPress website builder. The drag-and-drop interface is intuitive, and combined with a selection of premium themes, it makes easy work of building a beautiful WordPress website in a fraction of the time.
Key Features
- WordPress website builder: All Bluehost plans include a drag-and-drop WordPress website builder, so you can build a WordPress site with little to no coding required.
- Free domain and SSL certificate: All levels of service include a free domain and SSL certificate for the first year.
- Content distribution network: All plans feature a CDN to speed page loading worldwide.
Bluehost advertising boasts a 75% faster load time compared to other hosting providers. However, this doesn’t tell the whole story. Bluehost lags behind GoDaddy on ping times, with a 623 ms response time. (Source: Pingdom) At the same time, Bluehost’s uptime leaves a little bit to be desired, with an uptime in March of 99.95%. It still meets the uptime guarantee of 99.9%, though.
Bluehost includes premium WordPress templates. (Source: Bluehost)
Where Bluehost excels is in the included features. All Bluehost accounts come with unlimited business email. Plus, a no-code WordPress website builder is included for free, and (should you build a WordPress site) WordPress installation and core updates are managed for you. GoDaddy doesn’t offer a WordPress page builder and only includes two email accounts for the first year.
Bluehost includes automatic installation of Yoast SEO Free in its upper tiers, and this can save you time and effort. It also provides basic search engine optimization (SEO) tools to help your site perform better on Google and Bing. All of this value-add makes Bluehost a great option for building brand presence online with a website and more.
See how Bluehost stacks up against other website builders for SEO performance, or get started today for $2.95 a month.
InMotion: Best Alternative to GoDaddy for Fast Loading Sites
Pros
- Real uptime of 99.98%
- Unlimited storage, bandwidth, and emails are available
- Free SSL and domain
- Site builder included on all plans (BoldGrid, like DreamHost)
- Security suite, including automatic backups on all plans
- 90-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Expensive prices—for a cheap hosting solution, go with IONOS
- Servers are U.S.-based; for international audiences, try Hostinger, with servers located all over the world
- InMotion’s prices are more expensive.
- Build unlimited websites on InMotion’s cheapest plan, whereas GoDaddy allows just one.
- Unlimited email addresses, even on the cheapest plan (GoDaddy includes two to five free email addresses).
- GoDaddy doesn’t have unlimited storage on any plan; upper tiers of InMotion plans come with unlimited storage.
- InMotion has faster page loading speeds and more reliable servers.
- Both hosts use cPanel.
Core | Launch | Power | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Intro Price per Month* | $2.99 | $6.99 | $6.99 | $14.99 |
Renews At | $9.49 | $13.99 | $17.99 | $24.99 |
Contract | 12, 24, or 36 months | 12, 24, or 36 months | 12, 24, or 36 months | 1, 12, 24, or 36 months |
Websites | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Email Accounts | 10 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Storage | 100GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Unlimited Bandwidth | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
UltraStack Speed & Performance | 2x | 6x | 12x | 20x |
Free Domain | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free SSL Certificate | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Hacker & Malware Protection | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Built-in Marketing Tools | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Ecommerce | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
*On a 12-month billing cycle
InMotion is an ultra-reliable, fast web hosting provider with a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which it has met or exceeded every month since December 2022. (Source: Pingdom) Coupled with ping times in the 300 ms range, this makes InMotion the most reliable and fastest web hosting provider we reviewed.
Key Features
- Solid “cheap” plan: The cheapest plan, regularly priced at $9.99 per month, has unmetered bandwidth, 100GB of storage, and 10 email addresses, all with the ability to host two websites.
- Fast speeds and reliable servers: InMotion guarantees a 99.99% average server uptime plus ultra-fast page loading speeds that can be boosted by upgrading your plan.
- Great money-back guarantee: InMotion gives a 90-day money-back guarantee—more generous than most GoDaddy alternatives for web hosting, as the industry standard is 30 days. DreamHost offers a similar guarantee (97 days), but only for credit card payments. This means that you can fully test InMotion without commitment.
InMotion is also known for its fast page loading, and every shared hosting plan comes with UltraStack—a proprietary website performance optimizer that boosts page speeds. The UltraStack optimizer sets InMotion apart from other web hosting providers and differentiates each of InMotion’s plans. On the cheapest plan, you get up to 2x website speeds. On the most expensive, you get up to 20x.
InMotion’s easily navigated cPanel (Source: InMotion)
With regular pricing starting at $9.95 per month, InMotion is the most expensive GoDaddy alternative for web hosting on our list. InMotion’s Core plan comes with the ability to host two websites, 100GB of storage, and unlimited bandwidth. Higher tiers all include unlimited storage, bandwidth, websites, and email accounts, plus a free domain name and a free SSL certificate.
InMotion also provides BoldGrid, a WordPress page builder that uses modular content blocks to help build a no-code WordPress website. The inclusion of BoldGrid makes InMotion a worthy competitor to some of the other providers on this list, as it makes it easier to build a WordPress website.
Additionally, InMotion includes a suite of marketing tools to help you sell your products or services. These include free advertising credits and a customer management tool so you can keep track of who you’ve reached out to. All of its features are supported via phone and live chat, 24/7/365.
For ultra-fast, ultra-reliable web hosting, turn to InMotion. With a 99.99% uptime guarantee and UltraStack speed and performance, your site will run faster and better than on pretty much any other hosting provider.
HostGator: Best GoDaddy Alternative With Unlimited Email
Pros
- Affordable prices
- Unlimited email addresses
- Automated daily backups
- 24/7 customer service
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- All plans include Gator, HostGator’s website builder
Cons
- Not upfront about exact renewal prices
- Cloudflare CDN is only in the highest tier
- Built-in SEO only on the highest tier
- Storage caps on Hatchling and Baby plans may mean a more expensive monthly service
- Server performance is better on HostGator vs GoDaddy.
- HostGator offers unlimited emails on all plans, while GoDaddy only offers unlimited emails on its two biggest plans.
- HostGator has cheaper intro pricing; renewal prices are pretty similar between the two.
- Both use cPanel.
- HostGator offers unlimited websites on two of its plans; GoDaddy doesn’t offer this on any plan.
Hatchling | Baby | Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
Intro Price per Month* | $2.75 | $3.50 | $5.25 |
Renews At* | $8.95 | $11.95 | $16.95 |
Contract | 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 or 36 months | 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 or 36 months | 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 or 36 months |
Websites | 1 | 5 | Unlimited |
Email Accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Storage | 10GB | 40GB | Unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Cloudflare CDN | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Free SSL Certificate | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free Domain for 1 Year** | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Built-in SEO Tools | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
*On a 12-month billing cycle
**Only available on the 12-, 24-, and 36-month plans
HostGator is another popular web host with some pretty nifty features. For one, it’s the only hosting service on our list with unlimited email addresses on its cheapest plan. This, plus its low prices, makes it the best GoDaddy alternative for businesses that need many email accounts (like those with multiple employees).
Key Features
- Extremely reliable servers: HostGator averages a 99.99% uptime—fulfilling their uptime guarantee and becoming more reliable than GoDaddy’s 99.97% average in the process.
- Unlimited features: On its cheapest plan, HostGator comes with unlimited emails and unlimited bandwidth—unheard of, considering plans start at $2.75 a month.
- Built-in SEO tools: HostGator throws in a bunch of built-in SEO tools on its highest-tier shared hosting plan. This feature analyzes your website and gives you monthly reports on how to optimize it further. It also analyzes competitors, so you know how to get ahead of the competition.
HostGator’s cPanel (Source: HostGator)
Aside from unlimited email accounts, on the cheapest plan you also get automated daily backups, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain name for one year, and free SSL. All this comes with a low $8.95 renewal price. Note that you only get one website on this tier; for unlimited sites, upgrade to the Business tier.
One area where HostGator lags behind GoDaddy is its website builder, Gator, which is included in all shared hosting plans. Whereas GoDaddy’s website builder comes with a free version and is one of the best all-in-one site builders around, Gator lacks even a free trial. It also has a subpar blogging tool with no scheduling and email marketing features. In contrast, GoDaddy’s plans all have decent blogging and marketing capabilities.
Of course, more than features, the most crucial thing in a web host is reliability. We’re glad to report that HostGator hits it out of the park here as well. HostGator has 99.99% real uptime and fast servers. For even faster page loading speeds, no matter where your audience is, purchase the highest-tier plan with Cloudflare CDN.
DreamHost: Best GoDaddy Competitor for Unlimited Websites
Pros
- Cheapest first-year plan for unlimited websites
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free automated backups
- Free domain and SSL certificates
- BoldGrid site builder for WordPress included
- Monthly billing option
- 97-day money-back guarantee if you pay by credit card
- 24/7 support
- Generous 50GB of site storage on the cheapest plan
Cons
- Only two data centers—both are located in the USA
- Custom control panel instead of a full cPanel
- Free website migration only applies to WordPress websites—try Hostinger for any website
- No free email on its cheapest plan, unlike Namecheap
- DreamHost offers unlimited websites on its Shared Unlimited plan, while GoDaddy has no unlimited websites plan.
- DreamHost’s plans are cheaper than GoDaddy’s.
- DreamHost has 50GB of site storage on its cheapest plan, whereas GoDaddy has 100GB.
- DreamHost’s custom control panel is easier to use and more intuitive than GoDaddy’s cPanel.
- Plans include a built-in drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress, which GoDaddy lacks.
- DreamHost’s base plan only offers email accounts as an add-on; GoDaddy includes two (but only for the first year).
- DreamHost has unlimited storage on its second-tier plan; no GoDaddy plan includes unlimited storage.
Shared Starter | Shared Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|
Intro Price per Month* | $2.95 | $2.95 |
Renews At* | $6.99 | $12.99 |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited |
Email Accounts | $1.67 per month each | Unlimited |
Site Storage | 50GB | Unlimited |
Unlimited Bandwidth | ✓ | ✓ |
Cloudflare CDN | ✓ | ✓ |
Free Domain for 1 Year | ✓ | ✓ |
Free SSL Certificate | ✓ | ✓ |
Daily Backups | ✓ | ✓ |
*Cost with 12-month billing; longer-term contracts provide more savings or pay a higher rate on a month-to-month cycle
If you need to host more than a couple of websites, DreamHost is the hosting provider you should consider. Their Shared Unlimited plan includes unlimited websites starting at $2.95 a month for the first year, with renewal at an affordable $12.99. That includes unlimited storage and bandwidth as well. GoDaddy does not offer a comparable plan.
Key Features
- WordPress site builder: All DreamHost plans, including its low-cost starter plans, include a drag-and-drop WordPress site builder and WordPress installation and support. This means beginners can easily get started on WordPress without the learning curve.
- Affordable pricing: DreamHost only has two shared hosting plans. At regular rates, they cost $6.99 and $12.99 per month, respectively. On its cheapest plan, DreamHost comes with a free domain name, free SSL, and 50GB of storage.
- Reliable servers: DreamHost guarantees 100% uptime, and it delivers on its promises. If you’re looking for a host that keeps your website up and running 24/7, then DreamHost is the way to go.
DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee, which is a number it hits most months, according to Pingdom. However, DreamHost only offers two data servers located in the U.S. If your primary audience is in North America, this won’t pose a problem, as users report that DreamHost’s page loading speeds aren’t impacted. But with a global ping time of 1,367 ms, its servers aren’t as nimble as GoDaddy’s. If speed is a concern, consider IONOS or Bluehost.
DreamHost uses BoldGrid, a drag-and-drop builder for WordPress. (Source: DreamHost)
DreamHost plans also include BoldGrid, which is a drag-and-drop WordPress website builder. This makes DreamHost a great option for businesses that want to get started on WordPress. Plus, DreamHost offers an industry-leading 97-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it relatively risk-free.
KnownHost: Best Managed Web Hosting Alternative to GoDaddy
Pros
- Managed WordPress plans start at just $5.98 a month
- Email included on all accounts
- Unlimited bandwidth on all accounts
- Free SSL certificates on all accounts
- Advertised 99.99% uptime
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Plans are more expensive than similar offerings
- Storage limits are somewhat paltry
- Caps visitors per month
- KnownHost’s managed WordPress plans start at $5.98 compared to $8.99 from GoDaddy.
- KnownHost’s managed WordPress plans include up to twice the storage of GoDaddy plans.
- KnownHost allows up to 5 WordPress websites on its plans, whereas GoDaddy plans are for a single site only.
Managed Entry WordPress | Managed Business WordPress | Managed Corporate WordPress | |
|---|---|---|---|
Cost per Month* | $5.98 | $9.98 | $19.98 |
Storage | 50GB | 100GB | 150GB |
Email Accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Websites | 1 | 1 | 5 |
Visits per Month | 100,000 | 200,000 | 500,000 |
Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
CPU Cores & Memory | 1 Core, 2GB | 2 Cores, 2GB | 4 Cores, 4GB |
*Based on a three-year commitment
KnownHost provides a managed WordPress account starting at just $5.98 a month—the cheapest managed WordPress option we reviewed. WordPress requires frequent updates for security and performance, and this can be cumbersome for some small businesses. That’s where managed WordPress hosting comes in. With a managed WordPress installation, critical updates are automatically installed, so you don’t have to worry about it.
Key Features
- Managed WordPress: Automatic core and security updates, security patches, and daily backups.
- Optimized servers: Dedicated processor and memory on servers to ensure fast page loads.
- Unlimited email accounts: All plans include unlimited email accounts.
- 24/7 support: Open an email ticket, call, or chat with support around the clock.
KnownHost’s knowledge base is comprehensive and supplements 24/7 support. (Source: KnownHost)
In addition to providing excellent managed WordPress installations, KnownHost is renowned for its customer support. A thorough knowledge base covers most questions, but when trouble arises, their helpful technical support is just a phone call, email, or web chat away. Coupled with advertised uptimes exceeding 99.99%, KnownHost is one of the most dependable web hosts available.
However, KnownHost-managed WordPress accounts do leave a bit to be desired. The service caps visitors to your website at between 100,000 and 500,000 monthly visits, depending on the plan you choose. Similarly, storage is also capped. Most notably, KnownHost does not offer unlimited storage and unlimited visitors managed on a WordPress plan. This could be a deal-breaker if you anticipate high-volume traffic on your WordPress site.
Still, if you’re looking for a dependable WordPress solution without the hassle of maintenance and upkeep, KnownHost could be your choice. It even made our list of best web hosts for small business. Get started today with KnownHost.
Scala Hosting: Best GoDaddy Competitor With Daily Backups
Pros
- Automated daily backups, unlimited on-demand backups
- One-click WordPress installation
- Free domain and SSL certificate on all plans
- No questions asked money-back guarantee
Cons
- No unlimited storage plan
- Priority support reserved for the highest tier of service
- Scala Hosting provides daily, automated backups of your site and data. GoDaddy does not provide automated backups on all plans.
- Scala Hosting provides unlimited email on all plans, while GoDaddy does not provide unlimited email on any of its plans.
- Scala Hosting starts at $2.95 per month and renews at $6.95 per month, which is roughly on par with GoDaddy’s regular rates.
Mini | Start | Advanced | |
|---|---|---|---|
Introductory Monthly Cost (Billed Annually) | $2.95 | $5.95 | $9.95 |
Renews At | $6.95 | $8.95 | $13.95 |
Free Domain & SSL | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Storage | 10GB | 50GB | 100GB |
Automatic Daily Backups | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
SShield Security | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
24/7 Support via Email & Chat | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Priority Support | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Scala Hosting provides customers with daily automatic backups and convenient, one-click restoration. If something goes wrong on your site, restoring to a previous working version is just a click away. Scala also offers on-demand backups as well for those times when you want a backup stored off-site or need to save a copy of your site after a major update.
Key Features
- One-click WordPress installation: If you’re using WordPress, install it with a single click from the control panel.
- Unlimited email addresses: Scala includes unlimited email addresses on all plans.
- 24/7/365 support: Contact support around the clock via chat or email.
- SShield Security: Security suite that blocks 99.99% of all cyberattacks against your site.
Scala Hosting offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, which is lower than the uptime guarantees offered by GoDaddy and other web hosting providers we reviewed. Many other hosts offer 99.99% uptime guarantees, and while that may not seem like a big deal, it’s the difference between guaranteeing no more than 45 minutes and just a few seconds of downtime. Scala doesn’t disclose what its actual downtime is.
Daily backups are just part of Scala Hosting’s security and support features. In addition to SShield Security, Scala also offers free daily security scans to ensure your site is safe from intruders. For even more security, you can upgrade from shared hosting to entry-level cloud storage with a dedicated IP address and virtual server for $14.95 a month.
Scala Hosting provides a safe, secure, and nimble web hosting solution for small businesses with an eye for security and backups. Learn more at Scala Hosting.
Hostinger: Best Site Builder & Hosting Combination vs GoDaddy
Pros
- State-of-the-art site builder included
- Plans from $2.99 per month
- Free SSL certificates on all plans
- Free weekly backups
- Seven global data centers for fast loading speeds everywhere
- Managed WordPress on all plans
- Free website migration
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Proprietary hPanel in lieu of cPanel touted as more user-friendly
Cons
- No plans with unlimited storage; try DreamHost instead
- No free domain on the cheapest plan, unlike most competitors
- No plans with unlimited websites or unlimited email accounts
- 99.94% real uptime—less than its uptime guarantee of 99.99%; for more reliable servers, try DreamHost
- Hostinger’s prices are more affordable.
- GoDaddy uses a cPanel, while Hostinger has a proprietary hPanel.
- Hostinger has more reliable servers, with 100% average uptime vs GoDaddy’s 99.94% so far in 2023 (Pingdom).
- Hostinger’s website builder is drag-and-drop, while GoDaddy’s is content-block based.
Single | Premium | Cloud Startup | |
|---|---|---|---|
Intro Price per Month* | $2.99 | $2.99 | $9.99 |
Renews At* | $5.99 | $8.99 | $24.99 |
Websites | 1 | 100 | 300 |
Email Accounts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Storage | 50GB | 100GB | 200GB |
Bandwidth | 100GB | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Free Domain | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free SSL | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Free Backups | Weekly | Weekly | Daily |
Cloudflare CDN | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Managed WordPress | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Dedicated IP | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
*On a 12-month billing cycle
Hostinger is unique in that you can build 100-plus websites in all plans, and these can be a mix of WordPress sites or sites built using Hostinger’s proprietary no-code website builder. This site builder features artificial intelligence (AI) design assistance, a true drag-and-drop interface, and plenty of functionality so you can build a website to fit your business needs.
In addition, Hostinger has been around for almost as long as GoDaddy has, yet Hostinger’s plans are cheap—renewal prices included. Though Hostinger is not the cheapest, if you’re comparing solely to GoDaddy, Hostinger wins.
Key Features
- Affordable plans: Hostinger is extremely affordable, not only with introductory prices, but with renewal prices as well. For the highest tier of Hostinger’s shared hosting plans, expect to pay less than $10 per month.
- Fast loading speeds: Hostinger consistently hits fast page loading speeds at an average of 312 ms. Upgrade to at least the second tier of shared hosting for Cloudflare CDN and take advantage of its seven different data centers worldwide for ultra-fast loading times, no matter where your audience is.
- Managed WordPress: All of Hostinger’s plans come with one-click WordPress installation, a WordPress site builder, managed automatic updates, and core plugins to set up a WordPress site easily and quickly.
Like GoDaddy, Hostinger promises an uptime of 99.99%. For the first quarter of 2023, Hostinger posted a 100% uptime, according to site metrics tracker Pingdom. At the same time, its loading times are quick thanks to its seven data centers located all over the world. This makes Hostinger an ideal choice for websites with international audiences.
Hostinger’s unique interface, called hPanel (Source: Hostinger)
Hostinger has its own proprietary interface called hPanel (vs the cPanel that is common among most GoDaddy alternatives for web hosting). Whether this is a plus or a minus really depends on you. If you’re used to the traditional cPanel, then hPanel might take a slight learning curve. We do have to say that it’s built to be user-friendly, and it’s not that difficult to get a hang of.
For the low cost, we’re not surprised that Hostinger comes with pretty basic features. It has free SSL certificates on all plans and free backups, but that’s about it. To get a free domain name, you’ll have to upgrade to at least the second shared hosting tier. No plans come with unlimited storage, websites, or unlimited email addresses either—though 100 websites and email accounts are likely more than enough for most small businesses.
How We Evaluated Top GoDaddy Competitors
All the web hosting providers that made our list of the best GoDaddy alternatives have something unique to offer small businesses. We looked at each provider and the features they offer for the price. We also considered any extra services they provide that set them apart from the competition, how good their support is, and how customers reviewed them.
Here’s how we broke down our evaluation of the top GoDaddy competitors and web hosting alternatives:
25% of Overall Score
Cost and affordability are persuasive factors when committing to a web hosting service. Especially for small businesses on a limited budget, we understand that pricing is a major consideration. These top GoDaddy hosting alternatives were analyzed according to not only their introductory prices, but also their renewal fees, discounts (if any), trial periods, and money-back guarantees.
25% of Overall Score
Features like storage, bandwidth, uptimes, and speed are essential when choosing the best web hosting provider for your business. Your chosen hosting provider may be cheap, but their features must be useful—regardless of what you pay.
15% of Overall Score
Your business might require certain features that aren’t offered by all of the hosting providers mentioned above. Aside from general and basic features we believe should be present, it’s helpful to know which provider offers the specific services your business needs or wants.
20% of Overall Score
Aside from ease of use, having good support is crucial to customer satisfaction. We looked at each of these GoDaddy hosting competitors to see which have 24/7 support, and on which channels support can be accessed.
15% of Overall Score
Arguably the most important criteria, we used our own first-hand experience to determine which of these service providers is worth the price. We based our recommendations on overall value (the features you get for the amount you pay), how popular the hosts are with customers, and how easy we find these providers are to use.
Key Considerations When Choosing Web Hosting
Choosing a web hosting provider can be challenging because the product they offer seems so similar on the face of it. However, scratch the surface, and you begin to see differences that can color when you should choose one provider over another. Here are the key considerations you should take into account when making your choice:
- Price vs value: What does the provider offer, and for how much? Is it worth it?
- Renewal rate: Most providers offer an introductory price that goes up after the first year. How affordable is the renewal rate?
- Features: What is included in the monthly price? Does the provider offer what you need? If you need more storage, capacity, or want to move to dedicated resources, can the provider scale as your business website needs to grow?
- Reliability: When customers visit your website, is it up and running? To ensure that answer is “yes,” choose a reliable web host.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Google Domains is a domain registrar only. That means you can buy your domain name there, but you’ll still need to get hosting elsewhere. GoDaddy is both a registrar and a web hosting provider, which means you can buy your domain at GoDaddy and host it on their web servers. GoDaddy makes registering a domain and hosting it easier than Google Domains.
Unlike GoDaddy, Wix doesn’t offer website hosting outside its all-in-one site builder plans. For this, Wix is fast, reliable, and more advanced than GoDaddy. The Wix website builder tops our list of the best website builders for small business. For these reasons, we recommend Wix over GoDaddy for individuals looking for a website builder that is easy to use and packed with functionality.
GoDaddy made waves with its domain registrar ads in its early days, but there are many domain registrars around. For example, IONOS is the top registrar in Europe, and Hostinger offers a great option for multiple websites (including domain registration). For uptime, DreamHost offers the best guarantee, whereas InMotion offers some of the fastest speeds.
Bottom Line
GoDaddy has been around for a while, and it offers a product that is reliably fast and consistent. However, it’s neither the cheapest web hosting provider nor the best. By taking your time and looking at other options, you’ll find you can save money and time with another provider. For our money, IONOS offers the best all-around web hosting experience. With introductory rates starting at just $1 a month, it’s also among the cheapest.
