HostGator vs GoDaddy – A Complete Comparison Review

HostGator and GoDaddy are two big names when it comes to web hosting.

Both providers have a large presence on the net, supporting millions of sites worldwide.

However, both options tend to offer similar products and features. 

Well, to help you decide on one, I’ve put HostGator vs GoDaddy in a head-to-head comparison review. Hopefully, this will give you a bit of insight into the differences between what they have to offer.

Let’s get into it.

HostGator vs GoDaddy - A Side by Side Comparison

I’ve compared both hosts based on the factors below:

• Uptime and performance

• Ease of use

• Migration services

• Features

• Security

• Pricing

• Customer Support

Let’s take an in-depth look at these. 

Uptime and Performance

Both web hosts provide reliable hosting solutions with high uptime scores.

Both HostGator and GoDaddy have an average uptime of 99.89% (August 2023) and 99.98% (August 2023), respectively. This pretty much means you can expect only a few downtimes each year. 

When it comes to performance, both hosts are acceptable - not the fastest, but certainly not the slowest. This might come from a lack of CDN and the use of HDD storage space. 

No worries, though. They still load pretty decently, with HostGator’s average speed at 614 ms (August 2023) and GoDaddy’s at 299 ms (August 2023).

Ease of Use

Both HostGator and GoDaddy are intuitive and beginner-friendly.

Both support one-click software installs that will allow you to seamlessly add functionality to your site. Both providers support over 100 different plug-ins.

You’ll also get access to the traditional cPanel. This cPanel allows you to easily access and manage your site, with security controls, email management, and site analytics all available in one place.

Site building is pretty easy, too, with the downloadable WP builder or with each provider’s custom inbuilt site builders. These come with a whole bunch of different themes to choose from.

Lastly, both HostGator and GoDaddy offer WordPress-optimized hosting plans to ensure that you won’t have to deal with any unoptimized plug-ins or bugs.

Migration Services

HostGator provides FREE site migration even in their cheapest plan. You’ll be happy to know this if you’re transferring your site to a different host. 

On the other hand, GoDaddy doesn’t provide any free site migrations on its basic shared hosting plan. They offer this as a paid service with a price that will vary based on the site size and technicalities involved in migrating your website.

But with them, you do get access to a WordPress migration plug-in with their Managed WordPress plan. This plug-in makes it easy for you to migrate your own site. 

Features

HostGator offers unmetered bandwidth and storage space in its cheapest plan. 

GoDaddy, on the other hand, while providing unmetered bandwidth, only provides 100GB of storage space. Of course, that’s still A LOT!

Meanwhile, both providers offer FREE email accounts support, too. This is useful if you’re looking to communicate with your site visitors or clients.

They also offer you a free domain name that can save you around $10 to $15 for the first year.

What’s more, you get the security of a money-back guarantee. HostGator offers it for 45 days after subscription and GoDaddy 30 days. With this, you’ll have ample time to experience their service before deciding to commit.

Security

When it comes to security, both HostGator and GoDaddy include a variety of different features to keep you, your site, and your users safe.

Both providers include SSL that’ll encrypt your users’ sensitive information, making it virtually impossible for a hacker to gain access. 

Unfortunately, GoDaddy doesn’t offer free SSL, which is a bummer since most providers do, including HostGator. 

As for other security features, both provide DDoS protection. This is a standard feature that’ll prevent hackers from flooding your site with bots in an attempt to take it down.

Both providers also implement site scanning to detect any malware to safeguard your content and user’s safety.

To make up for the paid SSL, GoDaddy offers free daily backups. This saves the latest version of your site, which is very helpful if you ever suffer data loss.

HostGator also offers backups but only on a weekly basis and for an additional price - their free daily backups are only available on their higher-end plans.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, HostGator offers cheaper plans ranging from $2.75 to $5.25 a month compared to GoDaddy’s $5.99-$19.99.

GoDaddy’s WordPress Hosting plans range from $4.99 to $15.99 a month compared to HostGator’s $5.95 to $9.95.

GoDaddy also offers WooCommerce Hosting at $15.99 a month while HostGator offers reseller hosting at around $20 a month.

VPS solutions are offered by both providers with GoDaddy providing cheaper VPS packages from $4.99 to $69.99 as compared to HostGator’s $19.95 to $39.95.

Dedicated hosting is cheaper with HostGator from $89.98 to $139.99 compared to GoDaddy’s $130 to $420.

Customer Support

When it comes to customer support, both HostGator and GoDaddy provide 24/7 phone and live chat, allowing you to get the answers you need at all times.

However, when it comes to speed and reliability, HostGator performs better overall because  GoDaddy seems to have inconsistent response times that can leave you hanging from time to time.

The good thing is that they both have knowledge hubs filled with useful guides and articles to help you with basic troubleshooting and general information without having to wait on customer support.

Conclusion

Winners board:

All in all, both HostGator and GoDaddy have pretty similar basic Shared Hosting plans. 

So the choice between the two will depend on the site you’re looking to create.