GoDaddy hosting review September 2024: Features, pricing, integrations and more 

However, popularity and base features aside, how would a well-known hosting provider like GoDaddy work as a hosting option for a small business like yours? In our GoDaddy review, we’re going to take a look at its distinct plans (there are four of them), its plan features, prices, and which plan might be the best for small business users. We’re also going to take a look at some of the security features that GoDaddy puts into place to protect its customers.

GoDaddy Hosting

Introductory price:	Starting at $5.99 per month (for three years)
Renewal price for same plan:	$9.99 per month
Discounted rates for longer terms?	Yes

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• Domain is included
• Easy-to-use interface
• Free SSL certificates
• Reliable 24/7 support

Cons

• High renewal rate
• Discount requires lengthy term commitment
• Site transfers cost extra

Who is GoDaddy hosting good for?

When specifically looking at the standard performance shared hosting plans, GoDaddy is best for small business users looking to craft a web presence with a few relatively basic sites. With shared plans, your site is hosted on a server that will also be hosting other sites, so server resources are split evenly. As a result, this could mean slower loading times, depending on a variety of factors. With a smaller business, this isn’t always a dealbreaker, so if you need a simple host that provides your users with a stable experience, then GoDaddy is a strong option. GoDaddy is also reliable from an uptime point of view. With a guaranteed (by the provider) uptime of 99.9%, you can assume that the provider is delivering service continuity. At this percentage, you’ll experience less than two minutes of server downtime per day and less than nine hours of overall downtime per year.

Who shouldn’t use GoDaddy?

For businesses that are penny-pinching, GoDaddy might not be the best option. While it’s inexpensive for the first few years, it’s critical to understand that GoDaddy becomes somewhat cost-prohibitive as time goes on. For example, secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates are only free for a year with the base plan. After the year, businesses are charged $99.99 per year for what is often provided as an au freegratis offering from many hosting providers. The $5.99 monthly cost also ends after the first three years. This price is only available as a bulk payment of $215.64 and increases to $459.63 for the next renewal cycle. Combined with the yearly cost of the SSL certificates, this makes GoDaddy fairly expensive for smaller businesses without deep pockets. With this cost, you’d think the service would have guaranteed strong performance, but this is just with the shared hosting plans; with virtual private server (VPS) hosting from GoDaddy, you could expect to pay thousands more per renewal cycle.

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GoDaddy hosting pricing & plan overview

GoDaddy hosting has Standard performance plans for shared hosting. The base plan is designed for only one website, and the free SSL certificate offer only lasts a year. As a result, the second-tier offering becomes a better value since SSL certificates are unlimited for the 10 websites offered in this plan level. 

Best GoDaddy hosting plan for small businesses: Web Hosting Ultimate

While the Web Hosting Economy plan for GoDaddy comes in at a cheaper overall monthly rate of $5.99 for the first three years, the Web Hosting Ultimate plan, which is the third tier, is a bit more small business-friendly. Set at $12.99 for those first three years, this plan is designed for up to 25 websites and 250 databases. This is a much more reasonable number than Economy’s single website and 10 databases. This plan also includes 75GB of NVMe storage, which triples the space allocated in the first tier.

Still, one of the more attractive features of the Ultimate plan is the free SSL certificates for your sites. With the Web Hosting Economy tier, you get a free SSL for the first year only. Afterward, you’re paying $99.99 per year. This equates to a much larger overall rate after the first year because SSL certificates every following year raise the monthly rate by more than eight dollars. Even when the three-year deal expires, this still makes the Ultimate plan a more cost-effective option than the Economy tier of service.

Other services GoDaddy hosting offers 

In addition to the standard shared hosting offering, GoDaddy offers additional services that will be very useful to small businesses:

• Plus plans: In addition to the shared hosting plans, GoDaddy has high-performance plus plans. These are dedicated hosting plans that don’t share server resources.
• Free domains: Every tier of GoDaddy offers a free domain, which amounts to a $11.99 per year value. 
• Free SSL certificates: GoDaddy offers free SSL certificates. SSL certificates create secure encrypted connections between the server and the user’s web browser. 
• Free email: Using Microsoft 365, GoDaddy provides free email at all plan tiers. This email will include your domain, presented similarly to yourname@yourdomain.com. 
• SEO tool: With most hosting plans, an SEO tool is included to improve performance using keywords, the target audience, and the page’s products and services. 
• Free WordPress migration: GoDaddy uses ManageWP to migrate WordPress pages. This is a plugin-based system that precludes the need for FTP or database access. 
• Automatic backups: GoDaddy backs up information daily automatically. You’ll be able to recover all backed-up information from the previous day.

The GoDaddy hosting platform and customer support 

The hosting platform on GoDaddy is designed with website beginners in mind, so setup is quick and easy. Much of the process of getting set up only requires one-click installations. Navigation on the website also utilizes an intuitive cPanel-based dashboard that most find simple to use. 

When it comes to customer service, there are several channel options, including, chat, phone, and its comprehensive knowledge base, which are available 24/7. The knowledge base includes guides and videos to help streamline the process and answer any questions that may arise. Unfortunately, there is no email option for customer support.

Is GoDaddy hosting secure?

Yes, GoDaddy hosting is secure and all plans come with basic security features to protect against spam, fraud, and viruses. SSL certificates are also included at all tiers; however, the base plan only offers the certificate for a year. After that, there is an additional fee to keep it. If you want to add more security features, like privacy protection, application firewalls, and malware scanners, these incur an additional cost. Paying additional for these plans adds up quickly, with renewal costs ranging from $300 to more than $700.  

GoDaddy hosting user reviews

Overall, the reviews from users are pretty high, with a 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot. Most users cite the quick customer service that they received along with representatives tactfully handling their concerns. Many also enjoy the knowledge base that makes it easy for users to solve any issues that might arise. The negative comments from users often mention the price, especially how the renewal rate is much higher than the introductory price. Also, there are a lot of add-ons that could increase the annual price. For example, on the base plan, the SSL certificate is only free for the first year.

Compare GoDaddy hosting alternatives

GoDaddy Hosting: Web Hosting Deluxe	HostGator: Baby Plan	MochaHost: Business
Starting price per month	Starting price per month	Starting price per month
$7.99 per month	$3.50 per month	$4.18 per month
Free trial available?	Free trial available?	Free trial available?
No	No	No
Storage (in GB)	Storage (in GB)	Storage (in GB)
50GB	20GB	50GB
Unlimited bandwidth?	Unlimited bandwidth?	Unlimited bandwidth?
Yes	Yes	Yes
Learn more	Learn more
View offer at GoDaddy	View offer at HostGator

GoDaddy hosting vs. HostGator

Both hosting providers offer decent shared storage options, but GoDaddy uses NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) storage while HostGator offers traditional SSD storage. While both are solid-state, NVMe drives tend to be faster and run more efficiently than traditional SSDs. Additionally, at most plan tiers, GoDaddy provides more storage space for sites. Both providers deliver unlimited bandwidth, but HostGator does have usage limitations that must not exceed 25% of system resources. 

GoDaddy hosting vs. MochaHost

When comparing GoDaddy’s Deluxe and MochaHost’s Business plans, there are a few key differences. First, MochaHost’s plan is available for unlimited websites whereas GoDaddy doesn’t have an unlimited website plan. Additionally, both have NVMe SSDs, but when comparing these two plans specifically, MochaHost has double the storage, and most other plans continue this trend. GoDaddy does come out ahead on backups. MochaHost has weekly backups while GoDaddy backs up data daily. 

Is GoDaddy hosting right for you?

GoDaddy is a great option for small businesses looking to get into shared hosting. With a very attractive three-year deal that saves companies up to 42%, it’s easy to see why the host is very attractive to newer businesses. Installing content management system (CMS) solutions, such as WordPress, is also very easy and can usually be done in a single click. GoDaddy is also one of the few hosting providers with unlimited bandwidth, so if your site takes off, you’re not getting penalized for high performance. 

Still, the shared plans aren’t for everyone. If you need more dedicated hosting, the provider offers this as well for a higher subscription rate. These run on VPSs with both virtual processors and memory. It’s also critical to understand that GoDaddy’s shared hosting plans are only very inexpensive for the first three years. Afterward, prices definitely are much higher with renewal rates starting at $459.63 for an additional term. If you’re looking to try out the service, consider its 30-day money-back guarantee.

Frequently asked questions