This GoDaddy review covers everything you need to know about GoDaddy hosting plans, GoDaddy hosting features and GoDaddy coupon codes.
Finding the right hosting service is a truly vital part of the web development process. You require an efficient and reliable hosting service that helps your website and business grow. However, the requirements vary widely from business to business, depending on what you wish to use your website for. Thus, it is important to do proper research and find the right web hosting provider that serves you well.
To make that process easier, I’ve focused on one of the world’s most famous hosting providers in this review – GoDaddy.
Even if you’re unfamiliar with what exactly GoDaddy does, you must undoubtedly have heard of this company somewhere or the other. After all, ads for GoDaddy have been running across television screens for years, particularly during massive televised events such as the Super Bowl. It is the world’s leading domain registrar specializing in web hosting.
According to BuiltWith, nearly one in every 20 websites is hosted on GoDaddy.
Today, GoDaddy is a hosting giant with about 20 million customers worldwide, more than 9,000 employees, and over 80 million domains managed. It offers a long list of products that covers nearly everything one requires to get a website up and to run on a limited budget, at least for the first year.
Many users agree that GoDaddy satisfies most of their website requirements, especially in the case of beginners.
GoDaddy is one of the best options for people who wish to start a website and need some hosting. This review will cover all the details of GoDaddy’s features, plans and packages, along with its pros and cons.
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Who should consider using GoDaddy?
GoDaddy is an excellent choice for beginner website owners who require a convenient and affordable start for their websites with ample storage. It also does a great job with around-the-clock website security monitoring. If you need to get a website set up quickly and without much hassle, then GoDaddy could be just what you’re looking for.
Although its hosting and WordPress plans are fairly affordable, you can get lower prices from some other web hosting providers. Thus, it’s better to remember that GoDaddy is merely one of several options when it comes to web hosting providers. It does have its disadvantages, but also has benefits that might be just right for your specific needs. After all, everyone has their own expectations and requirements when it comes to websites and hosting.
Let’s now take a close look at both the pros and cons of GoDaddy.
What are the advantages of using GoDaddy?
Like every other web hosting provider out there, GoDaddy has its own strengths and weaknesses. The key, like always, is to find the right provider whose positives outweigh the negatives for you. Let’s begin by looking at the positives of GoDaddy.
1. One-click install apps
GoDaddy conveniently offers one-click installation for various apps, including WordPress. It is an excellent feature for beginners who are building a website for the first time but still want to try out web designing on their own. It is also a great option for users who wish to get a website up and running as fast as possible and aren’t enthusiastic about spending time meddling with app setup.
2. Ease of use
GoDaddy is a great option for people who are new to the world of websites. The builder that comes with it does all the cumbersome work for you and lets you comfortably choose from a wide range of templates and decide what you want your website to look like.
The only disadvantage of this aspect of GoDaddy is that you have a relatively limited scope for creativity compared to other providers. Nevertheless, GoDaddy’s ease of use is especially useful for beginners who don’t have the time or motivation to create something extravagant.
3. Highly responsive customer service
In the modern era of automation, it can be quite difficult to actually get someone on the phone to help you. It can be extremely frustrating to keep interacting endlessly with a recorded voice; many people tend to hang up in frustration and their problem remains unsolved.
Fortunately, GoDaddy excels in this regard. Although it does use bots, it also offers 24/7 telephone support and webchat support. When you call in, you will almost certainly get to a real person within 20-30 minutes. Many users have, in fact, claimed that it generally takes them less than two minutes to talk to a real person on the phone. Doesn’t it sound amazing?
GoDaddy’s webchat support is just as efficient as well. The reps might be busy initially, but one of them will certainly help you out if you wait patiently for a bit.
4. Useful video guides
If you have a question or are facing an issue, and don’t feel like approaching GoDaddy’s support for help, then you can check out its video guides instead. GoDaddy’s website features an extensive How-To section that is very different from other hosting providers.
You will find long playlists of video guides to take you through things such as marketing basics, setting up your email, planning your online presence, and more.
It is a truly rich resource that will prove helpful for more than just solving the immediate issues that you are facing. It is a great place for you to learn how to take your website to whole new levels of excellence.
5. Fast load time
We all know how important load time is for a website; your site will suffer a lot if it doesn’t load fast enough. After all, we’re in the ever-advancing digital age and nobody likes to wait endlessly for a website to load.
Fortunately, GoDaddy has an excellent load time of 171.1ms on average. It is remarkably fast and will keep your website up and running efficiently.
6. Numerous data centers
The more data centers a hosting provider has, the faster their speeds are likely to be. GoDaddy has data centers in three different continents – Asia, Europe, and the US. Thus, it has remarkably fast load speeds that cover most of the world.
Admittedly, there are some places situated distantly from those data centers that receive a slightly lower speed. However, GoDaddy has been planning to open a new data center in India that should help rectify the situation to a great degree.
7. Free goodies
Don’t we all love to get our hands on a few freebies with every new purchase? GoDaddy knows that and offers quite a few free items with its hosting service. After purchasing a shared hosting plan, you will gain access to some cool free features such as an Office 365 email, a domain, webmail, and more than 125 applications.
The free domain is the biggest attraction over here; since GoDaddy is well-known for its domain registration, it is a smart move to provide a free domain to people who purchase their hosting. Otherwise, domain names could cost you anywhere from $5 to $50,000 per year. Keep in mind, though, that the domain is only free for the first year. You will have to pay the regular annual fees subsequently.
What are the cons of using GoDaddy?
Now that we’ve understood the advantages of subscribing to GoDaddy, let us take a look at the negatives of this hosting service.
1. Simplistic basic plan
GoDaddy’s basic plan is unfortunately a bit too limited in terms of features. If you’re expecting any spectacular bonuses or special features, then you’re going to end up disappointed. Although it is a good place to start growing your website, it doesn’t initially offer anything that its rivals don’t. Moreover, you can avail of basic hosting plans from other companies such as Hostinger at a much lower price.
2. Too many upsells
Although GoDaddy’s hosting plans do come with some freebies, it is way too overloaded with upsells. You will have to pay for most of the features that become available when you use GoDaddy for your hosting. When you initiate the checkout process for the same, it will try to upsell you on all kinds of products. Occasionally, it even adds some items automatically to your cart!
No matter how cool those additions are, it is obviously unacceptable to add them to your cart without your consent. A lot of people may actually fail to notice these additional items until after they’re already done with their purchase.
3. High renewal rates
Admittedly, you will face this problem with nearly all hosting providers out there. However, GoDaddy is definitely one of the worst in this regard when you consider their introductory prices to the subsequent ones. After your initial year is over, the renewal prices can start getting quite costly for what you get in return.
4. Charges for add-ons
Most other hosting providers offer free add-ons, such as SSL certification, as part of their plans. Unfortunately, GoDaddy doesn’t always include such add-ons depending on the plan you choose. You may have to pay up to get access to those features.
GoDaddy pricing and plans
Like all other web-hosting providers, GoDaddy offers a number of plans that are suited to different users’ needs. Obviously, the lower-tiered plans are available at lower prices and are a good place to get started, but limit what you can do with your hosting.
For the sake of convenience, GoDaddy’s product offerings fall under three main categories. Let us take a closer look at each of them.
GoDaddy Name & Protect
This category features some handy domain tools as shown below:
- Domain name generator
- Domain name transfers
- Domain name search and WHOIS tools
- SSL certification
- Website backup tools
- Protection against malware and website attacks
GoDaddy, being the largest repository of domain names, is just what anyone starting a website needs because it is certain to have the domain name you’re looking for. If you want a domain name that’s already been taken, you can go for the domain brokerage services or come up with a new website name using the domain name generator.
As a reputable hosting provider, GoDaddy also offers website backup tools, SSL certification, and standard protection against cyber-attacks. Apart from this, it also offers various website building and growth tools which we’ll discuss below.
GoDaddy Build & Grow
GoDaddy’s product offerings under this category include:
- Website builder
- Online store builder for e-commerce websites
- A wide range of hosting options
- Email and Microsoft 365 tools
- Second mobile phone number
- GoDaddy marketing services
- Digital marketing suite
Of these, the most important feature is GoDaddy’s massive array of hosting options. Let us take a detailed look at each of them in turn.
GoDaddy shared hosting
Shared hosting is a pretty good option for smaller businesses or personal websites with just one or two pages. Since shared hosting plans place your website on a server with other sites (hence the term “shared”), they tend to be relatively cheaper. However, it also means that it’s one of the less powerful levels of hosting. As long as you’re not bothered by that, you could consider going with shared hosting.
GoDaddy offers the following shared hosting plans:
- Economy – As the name suggests, this is a plan suited to beginners who are just getting started with building websites. It starts at $5.99 per month when billed annually and gives you access to a website, a free email account for the first year, 100GB of disk space, 25 subdomains, and much more.
- Deluxe – This is a plan for beginners who require more than one website. It starts at $7.99 per month and includes everything from the Economy plan but provides unlimited websites, disk space, and sub-domains.
- Ultimate – You should go with this plan if your website gets a lot of traffic. It offers everything that the Deluxe plan does, along with a free SSL certificate and additional power to handle the extra website traffic. The pricing begins at $12.99 per month.
- Maximum – It is a great plan for users who need their website to support high-quality images and videos. Even if you just want your site to be something more than basic, you can go with the Maximum plan.
WordPress hosting
WordPress is the ideal choice for users who are new to websites. It makes hosting and website building a much easier and seamless process. You can use WordPress even if you are unfamiliar with coding, although you can learn it if you want to customize your website further.
GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting plans include:
- Basic – Starting at a price of $6.99 per month, the basic plan is an ideal plan for a smaller website that is just getting started. It gives you access to 30GB of storage space and allows up to 25,000 visitors per month.
- Deluxe – If you’re finding the basic plan inadequate, then you could check out GoDaddy’s Deluxe WordPress hosting plan. Starting at $9.99 per month, it allows you up to 100,000 visitors per month and even helps boost your SEO.
- Ultimate – The Ultimate plan is for users who don’t want any limit on the number of visitors to their website. It also provides unlimited storage space and other features for $12.99 per month.
- E-commerce – If you’re planning to sell your website, then you should consider going for the E-commerce plan. It comes with the unlimited features of the Ultimate plan along with an e-commerce bonus. It is priced at $15.99 per month.
Business hosting
GoDaddy offers the following plans for business hosting:
- Launch – This is a good package to start for the basics on multiple websites. It gives you access to various useful features to help you get your business started. As of now, it is priced at $19.99 per month.
- Enhance – If you own a potentially high-traffic website, then the Enhance plan is the way to go. It gives you access to additional RAM and storage space and starts at $34.99 per month
- Grow – This is a great plan for users who want to incorporate e-commerce into their website. Starting at $44.99 per month, it supports e-commerce websites such as Magento.
- Expand – You should go for the Expand plan if photography will form a significant part of your website or other resources. It provides 8GB of RAM, 150GB of storage space, four CPUs, and much more. Its price begins at $59.99 per month.
VPS hosting
When you own a VPS-hosted website, you will have access to servers that are allocated specifically for your website alone. Needless to say, it will give you much faster speeds and better performance. If you wish to have a fast website that runs much better than average, then you should certainly consider going for VPS hosting.
As you go up the tiers in GoDaddy’s VPS hosting plans, you will get access to more and more storage space and memory. These plans are:
- 1 vCPU – Available for Linux only. It gives you access to one CPU core, 1GB of RAM, and 20GB of SSD storage space. The pricing starts at $4.99 per month.
- 2 vCPU – It gives you access to two CPU cores, 4GB of RAM, and 100GB of SSD storage space. The pricing starts at $19.99 per month.
- 3 vCPU – It gives you access to four CPU cores, 8GB of RAM, and 200GB of SSD storage space. The pricing starts at $39.99 per month.
- 4 vCPU – It gives you access to eight CPU cores, 16GB of RAM, and 400GB of SSD storage space. Also, it is twice as fast and powerful as the 3 vCPU plan. The pricing starts at $69.99 per month.
Dedicated server
This is the hosting that packs the greatest power and highest level of control that GoDaddy has to offer. Understandably, it is available at the highest price as a result. It’s not really worth your money if you are a beginner or own a small website. However, it is the ideal choice if you own a larger website that requires the flexibility and control of your server. I also highly recommend it to users who have large traffic volumes that will surpass the limitations of the VPS plan.
GoDaddy’s dedicated server plans are:
- DS-32 – It features Intel Xeon-D, 4C/8T – 3.0 GHz Turbo, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and 2 × 4 HDD storage (RAID-1). The pricing starts at $129.99 per month.
- DS-64 – It features Intel Xeon-E, 6C/12T – 4.5 GHz Turbo, 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and 2 × 4 HDD storage (RAID-1). The pricing starts at $169.99 per month.
- DS-128 – It features AMD EPYC™, 16C/32T – 2.9 GHz Turbo, 129GB of DDR4 RAM, and 2 × 8 HDD storage (RAID-1). The pricing starts at $299.99 per month.
- DS-256 – It features AMD EPYC™, 16C/32T – 2.9 GHz Turbo, 256GB of DDR4 RAM, and 2 × 8 HDD storage (RAID-1). The pricing starts at $399.99 per month.
You can clearly see that each of these dedicated hosting plans offers more RAM and storage space than the previous ones. The DS-256, which offers a maximum of 256GB of RAM, is a great plan for large enterprise-level businesses.
Windows hosting
If you are a fan of Windows, then this is another great option for you that starts at just $5.99 per month and offers a free domain, 100GB of storage space, and a free Office365 email for your first year. People who have been using Windows products already can easily integrate this plan into what has been working already.
Reseller hosting
GoDaddy has something for resellers looking for reliable hosting resale options as well. Starting at merely $39.99 per month, it allows you to build your own hosting business using its servers. If you happen to be in a special position where you require additional hosting options, you can give them a call to make a deal with its sales team.
GoDaddy Pro
The GoDaddy Pro dashboard has been designed for resellers and developers who need to manage their clients’ projects. It is a state-of-the-art hub where you can easily manage all your content, tools, discounts, and support. You can get in touch with GoDaddy support over there as well.
This dashboard isn’t a particularly useful tool for beginners, but nevertheless, it is a free option if you wish to sign up for it. At the very least, you can use it to contact the support team more effectively.
Conclusion
GoDaddy is one of the most affordable and efficient hosting providers for beginners. It offers pretty much everything you need and saves you the hassle of shopping around or getting third-party features to integrate with your website. However, you must remember that it doesn’t offer as many features at the same level of value that other hosting providers do. I hope this review helps you understand the pros and cons of GoDaddy and make an informed decision regarding your purchase.