GoDaddy is one of the top web hosts and site builders I recommend to many beginners and small business owners for many reasons. For one, it’s free to start (for the website builder) and one of the easiest platforms overall. But I won’t lie: GoDaddy isn’t perfect and has some notable drawbacks as a web host. In this GoDaddy hosting review, we’ll do a deep dive into its capabilities, benefits, and biggest drawbacks as a web hosting service.
GoDaddy Web Hosting Overview
Pros
- GoDaddy is one of the most user-friendly web hosting platforms around—a good choice for beginners.
- All GoDaddy’s hosting plans include free WordPress migration, a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate, a custom domain, and an email account.
- GoDaddy has data centers in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, enabling your site to load fast anywhere in the world.
- Its web hosting plans have sizable storage starting at 25GB (most others are lower), so it can support a large site.
Cons
- GoDaddy’s web hosting is limited to two options: shared servers and a virtual private server (VPS), having discontinued its dedicated hosting services in 2024.
- Security isn’t as advanced as others like KnownHost and IONOS—GoDaddy doesn’t automatically include malware or hacking protection.
- It’s a little more expensive than the others. For example, its starter plan costs $6.99/month, while IONOS’ is $1/month.
- None of GoDaddy’s shared web hosting plans support unlimited websites.
- User-friendly cPanel (control panel) with one-click website installs (including WordPress)
- 99.9% guaranteed uptime
- Data centers in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific
- VPS or shared hosting services
- Daily website backups and distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection
- Free email, custom domain, and SSL certificate
- Web Hosting Economy plan from $5.99/month for one website. Renews at $459.63.
- Web Hosting Deluxe plan from $7.99/month for 10 websites. Renews at $503.64.
- Web Hosting Ultimate plan from $12.99/month for 25 websites. Renews at $647.64.
- Web Hosting Maximum plan from $17.99/month for 50 websites. Renews at $899.64.
All of GoDaddy’s plans are on three-year contracts. Unfortunately, GoDaddy does not provide month-to-month or annual web hosting contracts.
When to Use GoDaddy as Your Web Host
GoDaddy is one of the most popular web hosting services, but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best for your business. One major drawback is its pricing: It doesn’t offer any month-to-month plans, which can be inconvenient as you’ll be locked into a three-year contract. On the technical side, its security, while adequate, isn’t the best in the industry.
On the other hand, GoDaddy is also one of the most user-friendly platforms, so it’s a good starting point for any beginner—even for building your business website. Below are some of the best use cases for when and when not to choose GoDaddy as your website host.
When to Use GoDaddy | When to Use an Alternative |
|---|---|
|
|
Best GoDaddy Alternatives
Now that we’ve fleshed out some of GoDaddy’s biggest points and drawbacks, it’s also worth looking at some other options for your website. Our GoDaddy hosting review found that some of GoDaddy’s biggest missing points are in its pricing, security, and certain features like a CDN or dedicated hosting. So, if these are major deal-breakers for you, check out some of the best GoDaddy alternatives.
 |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Best For | A cost-effective solution with plans from $1/month for unlimited websites | Security with a free SSL certificate, DDoS, hacking, and malware protection, and automatic backups | A content delivery network, with the Business and Cloud Startup plans automatically including a CDN | A 99.99% uptime guarantee with a dedicated server |
Starting Monthly Pricing | $1/month (billed annually) | $1.99/month | $2.49/month (two-year contract) | $3.47/month |
Learn More |
GoDaddy Web Hosting Features
General Features Rating: 5/5
Niche Features Rating: 3.5/5
As a web host, GoDaddy ticks all the essentials. It has data centers across the globe, allowing people to visit your website from anywhere. It guarantees a 99.9% uptime and has around-the-clock security and adequate cloud storage. Plus, it has one of the simplest interfaces to navigate, which is ideal if you’re a beginner.
However, it has one major difference from other web hosting providers. As mentioned, in 2024, GoDaddy started discontinuing its dedicated servers. Instead, it’ll migrate all its hosted websites into a VPS, a virtual server instead of a physical one. This means if you choose GoDaddy as your web host, you can only choose between a shared server or a VPS—not a dedicated server.
Some of GoDaddy’s other major features as a web host are its user-friendly dashboard for accessing your cPanel, its global data centers, unlimited bandwidth, and its free email.
GoDaddy’s web hosting dashboard gives users a clean, easy-to-use interface.
Another key feature where GoDaddy excels is its easy-to-navigate dashboard. Once you subscribe to a web hosting plan, you can access your web hosting dashboard, view and manage your settings and site analytics, and access your cPanel.
Our Thoughts: User-friendliness is one of GoDaddy’s biggest selling points as a website host. Its easy-to-use dashboard is one of the reasons it’s popular with many beginners and small business owners—and that holds true today. It’s also the biggest reason we recommend it most to first-timers with web hosting.
All GoDaddy’s web hosting plans also come with a WordPress migration tool if you already have a WordPress website and want to move it to GoDaddy. You’ll find it under your product page, where you’ll simply input your WordPress site’s domain, username, and password to start your migration.
Our Thoughts: This also gives GoDaddy extra points. WordPress is the industry leader in content management systems (CMS), so being able to host one on GoDaddy is a bonus. However, not all migrations will be entirely successful (although this is true with most migrations). GoDaddy also has managed WordPress migration services, where a team will handle the migration for you at an additional cost.
GoDaddy also promotes a 99.9% uptime guarantee and data centers in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. A 99.9% guarantee is just about the industry standard, although it’s worth noting that the KnownHost guarantee is 99.99%.
Our Thoughts: As mentioned, 99.9% is about as good a guarantee you can get for your website’s uptime, but where GoDaddy really shines is in its multiple server locations that pretty much have you covered across the globe. It’s your biggest assurance that no matter where your customers are, they can access your site.
GoDaddy’s storage starts at a respectable 25GB on the first plan, while the highest plan allows up to 100GB. Meanwhile, it offers unlimited bandwidth on all plans, so you can have as much media on your website as you like.
Our Thoughts: GoDaddy’s storage places it somewhere in the middle compared with its competitors. For example, KnownHost’s storage starts at just 5GB on the first plan but offers unlimited storage on its highest plans.
Meanwhile, Hostinger’s first hosting plan offers 100GB of storage. Overall, GoDaddy may not have the highest storage capacity, but it’s a good enough starting point for most small business websites.
Hosting with GoDaddy also provides your site with some security in the form of a free SSL certificate, the basic layer of protection for websites, automatic daily backups, and DDoS protection. It also offers advanced website security as an add-on, which includes firewall protection, a CDN, malware and uptime monitoring, and annual site repairs.
Our Thoughts: Security is one of GoDaddy’s weaker points as a website host. While it provides the basic layers of security (e.g., an SSL certificate and backups), its add-ons are already included in the basic plans of other website hosts. For example, InMotion Hosting offers hack and malware protection in all its plans.
GoDaddy’s email hosting plans also come with both email (via Microsoft 365) and a free custom domain. This means when you host your website on GoDaddy, you can also create a matching email address with the same domain to send and receive business emails.
Our Thoughts: The free email and custom domain in your web hosting are just two of GoDaddy’s many hallmarks as an all-around marketing toolbox.
If you’ve used the GoDaddy website builder before, you’ll know it has several built-in marketing tools like social media and email marketing studios. An email address with a domain matching your website is valuable for maintaining your business’s online brand presence.
GoDaddy Web Hosting Performance
What GoDaddy says on its website is one thing; how it holds up in the real world is another. So, as part of this GoDaddy review, I tested a sample GoDaddy website with the help of Uptime.com, a website performance checker, to check its overall quality. I tested GoDaddy on three points: website speed, global uptime, and overall domain health.
Website Speed
Website speed is simply how long it takes for your website to load. The faster your website loads, the better because studies show that most visitors will abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
On that side, GoDaddy holds up well enough. On all points, the sample GoDaddy website took less than two seconds to load. The observed load, the website’s loading speed detected by the browser, came in at 1.24 seconds. One minor concern was the speed index, which is how long it takes until your website’s content is visible to visitors. This took 1.9 seconds to load, which isn’t bad but could be better.
Our GoDaddy website’s speed test generated mostly positive results, with loading speeds generally coming under two seconds.
Global Uptime
One of GoDaddy’s major points as a web hosting service is its global data centers that promise your site’s accessibility anywhere in the world. We also put that to the test by checking if the site was up in multiple locations. It brought back mostly positive results. Not only was it up and running in locations like New York, Amsterdam, Singapore, Frankfurt, and Tokyo, but it also loaded at average speeds of less than one second.
Our global uptime test determined that our sample site was up and running in multiple locations worldwide. In the “Total Time” column, you’ll find its total loading speed (in milliseconds).
Domain Health
Finally, I also ran a comprehensive health check on the sample GoDaddy website, which checks its domain name system (DNS), web server, blacklist, and malware security for any issues. (It also checks the mail server, but that wasn’t applicable to our sample site.)
While the site passed the DNS and web server checks, it detected possible phishing malware, which is a major security red flag, especially if you handle private information.
Customer service is an area GoDaddy prides itself on, and it’s not without reason. It boasts 24/7 support via live chat and email in multiple languages and has one of the biggest customer support teams among web hosting providers.
Many GoDaddy hosting reviews (which you’ll find below) also highlight positive experiences with its customer service representatives, saying they correctly anticipated questions and provided solutions to their problems.
However, some clients also had the opposite experience with GoDaddy’s support team, saying they took time to respond to questions and weren’t helpful with their issues. Unfortunately, GoDaddy doesn’t provide phone support, so there’s no way of speaking to an agent live—you can only contact them via live chat and an email ticketing system. There’s also a help center on its website that you can access anytime.
While GoDaddy may have a bigger support team than other web hosting companies, the support you get will ultimately depend on the agent you connect with. Being able to connect via live chat 24/7 is a significant help, but you’ll need to be very clear about the issues you’re having to get the appropriate solution.
GoDaddy Web Hosting Reviews From Other Users
Part of our GoDaddy hosting review is looking at other users’ experiences with the platform. We looked at GoDaddy reviews across three review sites: G2, TrustRadius, and Trustpilot, where it garnered mostly positive scores.
- TrustRadius, 8.8 out of 10: Users say having GoDaddy as their website host makes it easy to manage as it acts as a one-stop shop. It also makes it easy to buy domains. However, some users reported slow servers and page loading times.
- Trustpilot, 4.6 out of 5: Many clients praise GoDaddy’s prompt customer service as a highlight. However, some clients also found the platform prone to glitching and were unable to successfully transfer their domains.
- G2, 4 out of 5: Several reviews also cite GoDaddy’s easy-to-use platform as a huge advantage, especially in managing several domains. Most negative reviews mention its high costs and the many things you have to pay extra for.
Overall, many reviews about GoDaddy agree on its simple-to-navigate web hosting dashboard and particularly praise its customer support. Meanwhile, GoDaddy’s negative points are its pricing and sometimes unreliable platform.
Pricing-wise, GoDaddy isn’t the cheapest. Plans start at $5.99 a month on a three-year term for hosting one website on its shared hosting plans, and there are no shorter contracts. Costs also increase for multiple websites (and higher storage capacities). However, all plans come with a free email address and a custom domain.
Its VPS hosting plans start at $8.99 a month on a three-year term, allowing you to host unlimited websites on the allotted storage space.
GoDaddy is one of the most well-established website hosts in the industry, having been around since 1997. But we can’t deny it also has some notable drawbacks, especially compared with some of its newer competitors. Its starting price point is slightly higher than that of others with similar offerings (i.e., hosting one website and getting a free domain), although it has considerable storage.
Another major drawback is it’s limited to shared hosting or a VPS, so it’s definitely not an option if you want a dedicated server. It also had a few security issues, which can be solved by upgrading to GoDaddy’s advanced security add-on—although that’s an extra cost.
These are all considerable drawbacks, so we can’t say GoDaddy is the best choice if security is a major concern and you need to host multiple websites.
However, I do recommend GoDaddy if you only have one website you want to upgrade with a custom domain and a matching email address to make it more professional; for example, if you already have a website you built on a free platform and want to make it official.
It’s also a good option if you’re a complete beginner in web hosting. GoDaddy’s user-friendly platform can help you get your website online without the need for any coding or technical skills.
How We Evaluated GoDaddy
Our GoDaddy review and scoring are based on five criteria: pricing, general features, niche features, support, and our expert score.
20% of Overall Score
This involves its annual and monthly plans, renewal costs, and whether it has a money-back guarantee.
30% of Overall Score
These encompass the most essential features of a web hosting service, including ample storage and bandwidth, a free domain, SSL certificate, content delivery network, business email, guaranteed uptime, and automated backups.
15% of Overall Score
These are the nonessential but still valuable features included in the website hosting process, like a cPanel, web design services, subdomains, and a WordPress website builder.
10% of Overall Score
Website hosting isn’t always a simple process if you haven’t done it before. That’s why we give extra points to services with good customer service (i.e., if they have around-the-clock support and are accessible via phone, live chat, and email, and if they have online help centers).
25% of Overall Score
We also consider our experience with GoDaddy’s platform and how it compares with other web hosting platforms in terms of features, security, test performance, and ease of use.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
GoDaddy has a 99.9% uptime guarantee and data centers across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Upon testing, the total speed it took for a GoDaddy-hosted website to load was less than two seconds, and it was accessible in several cities, including Tokyo, New York, and Frankfurt. However, security-wise, it’s not as reliable—our test also found some possible malware issues.
No website host can guarantee a 100% safe server. GoDaddy’s security measures include an SSL certificate, DDoS protection, and daily site backups, with firewall security, a CDN, and malware monitoring available as add-ons. However, our GoDaddy website test found some malware issues, so it’s not the most secure web host in the industry. Services like InMotion Hosting and KnownHost have stronger security measures.
Some of the biggest cons of using GoDaddy as a website host are that it doesn’t offer dedicated hosting (only shared hosting or a VPS) and it has a higher price point than other platforms providing the same service, like IONOS or InMotion Hosting. Another con is that GoDaddy’s security isn’t as strong as others. For example, it doesn’t offer a firewall or malware protection in the base plans—they’re only available as add-ons.
Bottom Line
So, is GoDaddy a good website host for your small business? Our GoDaddy web hosting review says yes for the most part. If you’re new to web hosting and just want a way to get a custom domain for your website and a free email address to go along with it, GoDaddy can do the job. But if you’re looking for something that places your site security first and foremost—and offers dedicated hosting—looking elsewhere might fare better.
