So you’re finally making plans to build your website.
There’s just one problem.
With the ton of web hosting providers out there, which one is the best for you and your brand?
GoDaddy is one of the top web hosting providers in the industry, and they’ve been around for decades. But do they live up to their rep?
Are their web hosting services a match for what you need?
Relax, we’re here to help you out!
We’ve done the legwork so you don’t have to.
Our GoDaddy Review for 2023 will tell you all you need to know about their best products and features, what we like about them and what we think they can improve on.
Let's check out what GoDaddy has to offer!
Table of Contents
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GoDaddy at a Glance
Alternative Web Hosting
GoDaddy Pros and Cons
Before we dive deep into GoDaddy’s products and features, let’s take a quick look at its pros and cons first.
GoDaddy Pros
We found GoDaddy to be a superb host for beginners and professionals alike. They’ve got a wide range of catalog and services packed with features at an excellent price point.
GoDaddy can build you a fully functional website even when you’re strapped for cash or when you lack the technical know-how to start one.
Affordable basic package
GoDaddy’s Economy web hosting package starts at $2.99/month for a 36-month term. That gets you 100 GB in website storage, free Microsoft 365 email, and a free domain. It’s almost everything you need to kickstart one website.
Easy website building
Even a child can probably build a website with GoDaddy. You get several customizable themes to choose from, plus a drag-and-drop feature if you want to add more elements.
It’s like professionally playing around with your website design and without coding required.
GoDaddy also gives you over 125 one-click install apps. Integrate the most popular content management systems (CMS) to your site -- WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, and more.
Full range of services
GoDaddy’s catalog of services is impressive. They have everything you need, from web hosting options and domain name registration to professional emails with Microsoft 365.
That’s everything you need to grow your professional brand in one place.
And if your business goes well and your site grows, upgrading your hosting plan is a breeze with GoDaddy. It only takes a few clicks and customer support calls.
Perfect for eCommerce websites
You can build all sorts of websites with GoDaddy’s hosting offers, but they specialize in hosting eCommerce sites.
They’ve got services on online bookkeeping where you can sync your seller accounts in Amazon, Etsy, Paypal, and eBay to track your sales.
GoDaddy has a WordPress WooCommerce online site you can set up in minutes. And if WordPress is not your thing, their Business Hosting that’s backed with powerful servers for traffic-heavy eCommerce sites.
Everything is a breeze for merchants. All you need to do is choose a GoDaddy hosting service, and they’ll do the rest of the work for you.
GoDaddy Cons
From afar, GoDaddy looks shiny with all the good stuff. But scratch deeper than the surface and you’ll discover a few of its disadvantages too.
Pricey renewal rates
GoDaddy’s initial price rates are low, but once your first term ends, you’re in for a surprise.
Renewal rates almost triple. If the Economy web hosting starts at $2.99/month, it jumps to $8.99/month without the discount.
Add-ons come with hefty price tags
Lower-tier web hosting packages don’t get free SSL certificates and automated backup.
These two features are staples in web hosting packages, and a lot of other providers include them for free, at least for the first year.
But GoDaddy wants you to shell out a little bit more cash to give your website basic security.
Slow migration services
GoDaddy’s WordPress website migration is free but for websites apart from that, it will cost you $99.99.
Migrating with the help of GoDaddy Guides experts will also take 7 to 10 days to complete the service. That’s expensive and too slow!
Reliability and Performance
GoDaddy promises a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
That’s a standard for all web hosting services since they can’t exactly pledge a 100% uptime guarantee. That’s impossible.
But does GoDaddy’s promise hold?
We hate to break it to you, but GoDaddy isn’t exactly the best web host provider when it comes to speed. (We’d have to give that award to A2 Hosting and their Turbo Servers).
Based on Pingdom’s statistics for the past 10 months, GoDaddy scored an average uptime of 99.88% and an average response time of 553.8ms.
Image via Pingdom
You want your web host providers to fall somewhere between 99.95% to 99.99% in uptime because these numbers compound.
For GoDaddy, a 99.88% uptime means 52.5 minutes of downtime per month, making for 10.5 hours of downtime in a year.
And you can’t afford that.
What if you’re in the middle of a huge sale and your website crashes? Even a one-minute crash could cost you serious dollars.
GoDaddy has also experienced four days of downtime for the past half-year. Although these are few and only lasted less than 15 minutes, they could significantly impact your results.
Image via Updown
Your customers will click to a competitor’s site if yours is slow, crashes, or won’t load. When that happens, you lose income and a bit of your reputation.
Plus, you’re killing your SEO ranking if your website is slow. Google hates slow websites!
For all GoDaddy’s assurance of high-performance servers, their actual performance could do a lot better.
GoDaddy Products and Features
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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.
Image via GoDaddy
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
Image via GoDaddy
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%
Image via GoDaddy
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.
How GoDaddy Pricing Works
Does GoDaddy provide value for your hard-earned money?
Their prices are competitive since they’ve got one of the most affordable starting web hosting packages in the market.
GoDaddy’s web hosting starts at $2.99/month, but you have to pay for the entire term up front. If you choose the 36-month term, you’ll be charged the whole $107.64 at checkout.
Image via GoDaddy
You’ll get the best deal if you choose the most extended term but you also get options for 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 60, and 120 months.
The sweet spot is the 36-month term, but you can go ahead and choose longer terms if you’re up for the commitment.
You also have to watch out for GoDaddy’s price renewals. They’re almost triple the initial rate.
It’s not unusual for a web hosting provider to have their fees skyrocket but just so you’re prepared, make sure you’re looking at the full rates when you sign up.
GoDaddy also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you don’t have to sweat it if their products just aren’t for you.
Customer Support
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A strong customer support service is the backbone of any company. GoDaddy Guides is one of the best features of this company.
The team of experts is only one phone call, email, or live chat away.
Are you confused about your website? Encounter a snag in the road? Or maybe you just can’t make something work no matter how many times you’ve tried troubleshooting.
That’s frustrating!
But once you call a GoDaddy Guide, they will walk you through your dilemma and iron out your website in a jiffy.
But hey, you don’t have to believe our word for it.
What Reviews Say
GoDaddy has an impressive 4.1 stars out of 5 rating on TrustPilot based on 18.5 thousand reviews.
Previous customers who rated them excellent share that GoDaddy is the perfect web host provider for beginners and professionals.
Image via TrustPilot
They’ve also been praised for stellar customer service and quick response. The GoDaddy Guides have been more than helpful in solving technical difficulties.
Image via TrustPilot
Other web hosting providers get criticized for their poor customer support, but it’s great to see GoDaddy live up to its promise.
The bad reviews center mostly on pricey GoDaddy services and renewal rates.
GoDaddy Review 2023
FAQ
Who should use GoDaddy services?
GoDaddy suits anyone who wants to build their website. It could be a personal blog, a school project, a company site, or even a professional eCommerce website. Their comprehensive web solutions catalog has products for your every need.
What’s the best web host alternative for GoDaddy?
It’s a bummer GoDaddy wasn’t a great fit for you, but there are plenty of other web hosting providers in the sea.
You can check out Bluehost, an overall best web hosting provider perfect for any type of website. There’s also A2 Hosting if you’re concentrating on boosting your speed and HostGator if you need to make easy-build sites.
Is GoDaddy better than Bluehost?
Bluehost and GoDaddy are some of the best web providers in the industry. They both have great features and services with competitive prices, but they outperform the other when it comes to few things.
When it comes to uptime, Bluehost is more consistent than GoDaddy. Bluehost is a great overall web host provider, and while GoDaddy is too, their strength is in eCommerce hosting and domain registration. (Read our GoDaddy and Bluehost comparison here!)
GoDaddy Review 2023 Final Thoughts
GoDaddy remains to be one of the best and most trusted web hosting providers out there.
They’ve proved they can provide stellar service, whether it’s getting a domain name, a professional email, or a hosting platform.
While it’s true that GoDaddy could do better on some fronts such as uptime, speed, and even rates, they also have their strong suits like easy website building and security.
Whether you’re a noob trying to put together your first website, or a professional who’s migrating from a lousy host, GoDaddy has got your back.