GoDaddy is one of the oldest running and most recognizable hosting companies in the industry. This US-based hosting giant operates both as a domain registrar and as a hosting company with hosting plans suitable both for personal and commercial purposes. GoDaddy even dabbles with online marketing, email hosting, website security, and website design, which makes it a veritable all-in-one hosting provider.
GoDaddy Overview
Founded in 1997, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain registrar, managing 71 million domain names and 17 million customers worldwide. The company also powers the world’s largest cloud platform designed for small, independent ventures.
GoDaddy provides both Windows and Linux-based hosting through various shared, VPS, dedicated, and managed WordPress hosting plans.
To make an informed decision about signing up with GoDaddy, read our review, detailing the available plans, their pricing, and the hosting features that make up GoDaddy’s hosting services.
GoDaddy Plans & Pricing
GoDaddy is certainly not short on hosting plans, its solid selection of hosting packages cover many types of hosting offering you plenty of options to scale your resources and keep up with the growing needs of your website.
GoDaddy Shared Hosting Packages
GoDaddy’s shared hosting plans are available with Linux or Windows server operating systems, thus, you can choose the OS that you need.
The entry-level Economy plan costs as low as $2.99/month, but only if you commit for 3 years. Monthly payment is not available with this plan, the minimum period that you can sign up for is 3 months, in which case the monthly rate for this plan comes out to $7.99. The plan is only suitable if you want to host a single website, and if 100 GB storage, unmetered bandwidth and a Free Microsoft Office 365 Business Email (1 year) sound great to you.
If you want to host multiple sites, GoDaddy recommends the Deluxe plan ($4.99/mo if you commit for 3 years or $10.99 month-to-month) or the Ultimate plan ($7.99 with 3-year plan or $16.99 with monthly plans) that can handle websites with a heavier traffic load. Both plans come with unmetered storage and bandwidth. The Ultimate plan throws in 2X processing power & memory (Linux with cPanel plans only), Premium DNS, and 1-year SSL certificate.
All yearly plans include a free domain as well.
GoDaddy Business Hosting
If you’re looking for faster plans than shared hosting and dedicated resources optimized for sites with higher traffic volumes or eCommerce sites, GoDaddy’s Business hosting plans may be right up your alley.
Here too, you must opt for 36-month plans to enjoy the lowest rates. All plans in this category come with unmetered bandwidth, free 1-year SSL certificate, free 1-year Office 365, up to 2 CPU cores, up to 4 GB memory, up to 240 GB storage, and Free 1-year SiteLock malware removal with the Enterprise plan.
Prices can go as low as $19.99/month for the Prime plan, $24.99/month for the Premium plan, and $34.99/month for the Enterprise plan, this only if you sign up for 3 years. If you decide on monthly billing expect a price jump of up to 37%.
GoDaddy WordPress Hosting
If you’re looking for managed hosting for your WordPress website, GoDaddy has 4 plans that are focused on WordPress setup and management.
Promotional prices start at $3.99/month for hosting 1 website (Basic plan) and go only as high as $13.99/month (Developer plan) for multiple site hosting (up to 5 sites). Each plan is designed to handle a certain visitor load (ranging from 25,000 monthly visits to 800,000 monthly visits). All WordPress hosting plans include SDD storage (up to 50 GB), while some plans also include SSH/SFTP access, one-click staging site, SEO plugin, 1 SSL certificate (1 year), malware scan and removal.
GoDaddy VPS Servers
GoDaddy’s virtual private servers also offer you the option to choose between Windows or Linux based hosting.
There are 4 hosting packages in this category as well, with cPanel plans costing as low as $16.99/month and upward to $31.99/month (promotional prices), while Windows plans cost as low as $26.99/month and go as high as $41.99/month (promotional rates).
All plans feature root access, unmetered bandwidth, up to 240 GB storage, up to 8 GB memory, 3 dedicated IPs, and free 1-year SSL certificate.
GoDaddy Dedicated Servers
Linux and Windows based hosting plans are both available in this category, with Windows plans being costlier than Linux based ones. Thus, Linux based dedicated server prices range between $69.99/month and $129.99/month (rates applicable for 24-month commitment periods), while Windows based promotional dedicated server prices range between $99.99/month and $159.99/month.
In terms of resources these plans feature up to 4 CPU cores, 32 GB memory, 2 TB storage, unmetered bandwidth, 3 dedicated IPs, and free 1-year SSL certificate.
GoDaddy Hosting Features
GoDaddy is a leading hosting provider with state-of-the-art software and hardware technologies, offering scalable hosting packages to meet a wide range of hosting needs. GoDaddy hosting comes with the following features:
- Choice of Windows and Linux based servers;
- Free domain name with yearly plans;
- Free 1-year SSL certificates;
- Free dedicated IP addresses;
- SiteLock malware removal and website security;
- CDN pre-installed on managed and fully managed plans;
- cPanel hosting;
- Root access;
- 99% uptime guarantee;
- One-click install of WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and other applications;
- 24/7 phone support;
- Resources on-demand.
Customer Support & Refund Policy at GoDaddy
GoDaddy’s phone support is available 24/7, while live chat is available only Monday through Friday between 5 am and 6 pm. The GoDaddy Community is also available to offer help and insight into issues that you may have with your hosting.
GoDaddy offers the industry-standard 30-day money back guarantee only with their annual plans. For monthly plans or plans less than the 1-year term, customers can ask for a refund only within 48 hours of the date of transaction.
GoDaddy Pros & Cons
GoDaddy is a well-established hosting provider that you can trust, whether you’re looking to host a website or purchase a domain name. Since no host is perfect, let’s see a pros and cons comparison of GoDaddy:
Pros
- Wide selection of scalable hosting plans
- Both Linux & Windows hosting
- Good product integrations and security
- Unmetered bandwidth
Cons
- Vendor lock-in (36-month and 24-month subscription requirement to benefit from lowest prices)
- No monthly payment option with some plans
- Live chat limited to workdays
GoDaddy Review Conclusion
GoDaddy is a huge corporation that has been around for two decades now, which means that their expertise and services are appealing to people. If you’re not a fan of long-term commitments and you’re looking for cheap hosting, GoDaddy may not be the hosting for you. If, however, you’re looking for a long-term hosting provider and affordable plans, GoDaddy is a trustworthy option to host your websites, domains and emails.