GoDaddy Hosting Review: Is This Popular Web Host Worth It?
Elizabeth Kraus has more than a decade of first-hand experience building and growing a boutique digital marketing agency and double that in small and mid-size business marketing management. She provides expert answers to marketing questions related to branding, content marketing, web development, email, social media, and SEO.
This article is part of a larger series on Small Business Websites.
Who GoDaddy Hosting Is Best For
GoDaddy is known for its domain registration services, but it is now also recognized as one of the top web hosting service providers. It offers affordable plans for website hosting, WordPress hosting, virtual private servers (VPS hosting), and dedicated servers for business website hosting.
The wide range of GoDaddy products and services is recommended for businesses looking to get started with beginner-friendly services at reasonable rates. Users with growing needs should also consider GoDaddy hosting services, as it allows you to easily upgrade your plans with its one-click setup.
Specifically, GoDaddy Hosting is best for:
- Building a site quickly with no coding and web design experience: Hosting plans include essentials like domain and storage, as well as options for all skill levels. If you have no coding background, you can use its highly-rated website builder (starting from free) or take advantage of its WordPress hosting plans to build your site quickly using one of WordPress’ customizable templates.
- Hosting blogs, portfolios, and online stores: GoDaddy Hosting is one of the few hosting options that features a drag-and-drop website builder that supports online selling and bookings in its lowest-tier plans, making it a great option for those early in their career who want to showcase work for sale or invite follow-up appointments.
- Domain registration: GoDaddy offers a wide range of domain extensions, such as .com, .net, .design, .work, .pro, and .me. This service is perfect for those who want a unique or easy-to-remember domain name for their business website. It is among our top picks for the best domain registrars, providing hard-to-find domain names and discounts for bulk purchases.
Who GoDaddy Hosting Isn’t Best For
Though GoDaddy offers an attractive range of products and tiers, it still may not make the cut for you. There are companies in the market that provide cheaper rates or better inclusions. It is helpful to compare with other providers to ensure that GoDaddy is the best option for you.
- Businesses in need of cheap web hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth: GoDaddy hosting has affordable introductory prices, but it isn’t the cheapest in the market. Those looking for a low-cost hosting alternative should check out HostGator, which is also one of the . Apart from its impressive inclusions like unlimited bandwidth and storage with plan introductory pricing at $2.75 per month, it also offers a free WordPress website transfer service.
- Those looking for affordable, no-commitment web hosting plans: For one of the most affordable no-commitment web hosting services, look into DreamHost. In addition for being among the best web hosting companies for small businesses, it offers monthly plans at $1.99 for the first month that renew at $7.99 per month, including domain registration and privacy, 24/7 customer support, and a free SSL certificate. Starter hosting plans even include WordPress preinstalled and access to their new WordPress Website Builder.
- Organizations handling sensitive information through their websites: All GoDaddy plans include general security features, but alternatives in the market provide more protection at lower monthly initial fees. Businesses that handle sensitive data through their websites may check out IONOS. It offers secure hosting plans with low introductory prices, starting at $1 per month. These include built-in anti-spam and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection, daily backups, site scans, and an SSL certificate.
GoDaddy Hosting Overview
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Simple and user-friendly interface | Renewal rates are somewhat high compared to other alternatives |
| One-click WordPress installation | No free SSL certificate in entry-level plans |
| Free domain and Microsoft 365 email for one year included | Limited storage on its lowest plan |
| Unmetered bandwidth for all plans | |
| 99.9% service uptime guarantee | |
| Intuitive drag-and-drop website builder with built-in booking tools | |
| 24/7 support available via phone and chat | |
GoDaddy Hosting Pricing
GoDaddy Hosting offers various products that enable users to publish sites easily. Its shared hosting plans start at $5.99 per month on the initial term (36-month contract). Lengths of contract available include 1, 3, 12, 24, or 36 months, with the lowest pricing requiring the longest commitment.
This rate isn’t the lowest in the market, but it is justified by the value of its package, including storage that starts at 100GB, unmetered bandwidth, and 25 subdomains. With that said, GoDaddy also offers introductory promotions, which at the time of this publication include GoDaddy hosting starting at $1 per month for 12 months or WordPress hosting starting at $2.99 per month for 12 months (requires a 12-month commitment).
Web Hosting Plans | Economy | Deluxe | Ultimate | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Best For | Basic sites | Unlimited storage and unlimited number of sites | High-traffic sites | Sites that need increased processing and speed |
36-month Term Pricing per Month* | $5.99 | $7.99 | $12.99 | $19.99 |
Renewal Pricing per Month | $8.99 | $11.99 | $16.99 | $24.99 |
Numbers of Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Number of Subdomains | 25 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Site Storage | 100GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Unlimited bandwidth | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Webmail | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
1-year Domain Registration** | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
SSL Certificate | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
Premium DNS | ✕ | ✕ | ✔ | ✔ |
*Introductory pricing must be paid in full at the beginning of the billing cycle. Regular rates apply upon renewal.
**The free one-year domain registration is only applicable for annual subscriptions and above.
For more information, select a GoDaddy hosting plan from the drop-down menu below:
Economy
GoDaddy’s shared hosting entry-level plan has a monthly introductory price of $5.99 on a 36-month term—higher than competitors like Bluehost and DreamHost. However, its package comes with 100GB of storage, double the mentioned companies’ base offerings.
Users subscribed to 12- to 36-month plans are entitled to a free domain registration for one year, which is an industry standard. Additionally, you can get a free Microsoft 365 email account for your first year.
The Economy plan is best for users wanting to build a single website. If you’re planning to build your first online store, this plan is also good for you. It includes Poynt—GoDaddy’s plugin for WooCommerce—that lets you accept payments from customers who use major debit and credit cards.
Deluxe
If you need to build more than one site, try GoDaddy Hosting’s Deluxe plan. It has an introductory rate of $7.99 per month on a 36-month contract. It allows users to host an unlimited number of websites with unlimited storage and set up unlimited subdomains in addition to everything included in the Economy plan.
Ultimate
If your website has high traffic, go for GoDaddy Hosting’s Ultimate plan. It features an increased processing power compared to Deluxe’s and Economy’s standard performance. Its introductory rates for a 36-month term costs $12.99 per month.
Ultimate also provides an SSL certificate for one year for users subscribed to any of its 12- to 36-month plans. Also included is the addition of a second central processing unit (CPU) to speed up site process and load times, 1GB of memory, and premium domain name service (DNS) management for increased security and redundancy.
Maximum
If you have data-heavy sites like large databases of products, multimedia, or portfolios, the Maximum GoDaddy Hosting plan is for you. It has everything the Ultimate plan offers, but with higher memory (2GB) and free unlimited SSL certificates for all registered websites in the account. Initial pricing for a 36-month term costs $19.99 per month, which is fair given the inclusions and performance it provides.
GoDaddy Hosting Features & Key Insights
Whether you’re a blogger who wants to set up your site quickly or a small business owner looking to open an online store, there is a GoDaddy hosting package for you. Additionally, you can purchase add-ons for security and other purposes when necessary.
Below, let’s go over some of the essential inclusions its shared hosting plans come with:
Storage & Bandwidth
The base Economy plan comes with limited storage of 100GB, which is enough for a basic business website with a handful of landing pages. Those who need to develop websites with heavy graphics should choose the higher tiers with unlimited storage. All shared hosting plans feature unmetered bandwidth, helping your website load faster, and the two highest tiers enhance this with additional processing power.
Reliability
GoDaddy’s web hosting reliability is well-established, with fast page loads and excellent visitor experience through its over 37,000 services worldwide. They have nine data centers, including a GoDaddy-owned, Arizona-based data center and co-located data center facilities in Arizona, California, Illinois, Virginia, the Netherlands, and Singapore.
GoDaddy also offers a 99.9% service uptime guarantee, and users are eligible for a discount on the monthly fee during downtime. Other features that are readily available in its plans include 24/7 network security, which comes with DDoS protection.
Additionally, GoDaddy Hosting provides website security products at an added cost. You can get unlimited site cleanups, scheduled or on-demand backups, speed boost with CDN, firewall, and malware scanning.
Introductory pricing for its website security package ranges from $5.34 to $19.99 per month (on a two-year term), while website backup products start at $2.99 per month. Meanwhile, you may also subscribe to paid SSL management plans for introductory fees that range from $149.99 to $399.99 per year.
These are great paid additions to keep your websites secure. However, other companies offer many of these features in their web hosting plans at lower prices, like IONOS.
Features & Inclusions
GoDaddy has carefully packaged its products and tiers, ensuring it has all the essentials users need in putting up a website. All plans come with:
- A free domain for one year
- One-click WordPress installation
- cPanel access
- Webmail
- Microsoft 365 integration
- Direct database access
- Fraud, virus, and spam protection
GoDaddy has an intuitive website builder with its own set of plans that costs from $0 to $24.99 per month when billed annually.
Apart from its shared hosting services, you may also check out its website builder plans. Its two tiers are packed with payment, appointment scheduling, and marketing features. This website builder allows any user to quickly set up a site or online store, even without a web design and development background.
Think it may take a lot to build a site? It’s not as hard as you think. Learn how to build a GoDaddy Website in five steps.
Customer Support
Quickly find answers to your questions with GoDaddy’s intuitive help center.
When choosing a hosting provider, ensure that you have the right resources whenever you face an issue. GoDaddy Hosting addresses this need by providing 24/7 phone and chat support to help resolve your problems in real time. GoDaddy’s help center features useful guides and articles that discuss its services, products, and account management.
What Users Say in GoDaddy Hosting Reviews
Most GoDaddy Hosting reviews agree that it’s an excellent choice for beginners and users who don’t have prior website building experience. At the time of writing, it earned the following unbiased ratings from popular and credible user review websites:
- Trustpilot: 4.0 out of 5 stars based on 20,340 reviews
- G2: 4.2 out of 5 stars based on 86 reviews
- TrustRadius: 7.4 out of 10 stars based on 140 reviews
A majority of users like the platform’s ease of use, reliability, and excellent customer support. Although some less favorable GoDaddy Hosting reviews indicated users were disappointed that features like an SSL certificate need to be purchased as an add-on and aren’t included in its plans.
Bottom Line
If you want to get started quickly and are looking to build up and improve your site as your need grows, then GoDaddy Hosting is for you. It’s an affordable solution with valuable inclusions and beginner-friendly services perfect for anyone who wants to put their site up online quickly. Aside from its robust web hosting products, its own website builder makes it super-easy to build a website with no web design or coding experience.
You Might Also Like…
- Not sure where to start? Read our guide on how to create a business website.
- Interested in GoDaddy’s own website builder? Check out our GoDaddy websites review.
- Want to expand your list of website hosting options? Read our list of the best GoDaddy Hosting alternatives.
