GoDaddy
Pros
- Affordable Price
- Good Speed
- 24/7 Live Chat Support
Cons
- No Cloud Hosting
- Customer Support Has Sometimes Raised Complaints
So, your company needs to have a presence on the web. Every company does. No doubt, there have been many difficult decisions that you have had to make to help your company grow. Now, another decision lays before you. Which is the best web hosting service for your business? Could it be GoDaddy
Among the most popular web hosting services that there are is GoDaddy.
They are well known for their sales of domain names (You know the commercials!) and they have a good reputation for hosting both personal and commercial websites. Yet, just because something is great for one person, doesn’t necessarily mean it is the perfect fit for you.
Your friend may have had their best vacation ever off the coast of Australia. That doesn’t mean it’s your perfect vacation destination. Maybe you are more of a Times Square in New York city kind of person.
My point is this, before making a commitment to one of your web hosting options, let’s analyze GoDaddy and see if it’s right for you. It may very well be that an option like GoDaddy is a choice that you will like as much as a great vacation. Or it might not be.
Either way, discussing some of GoDaddy’s features and pros and cons will definitely help you figure out if it’s a good fit for your website.
Best GoDaddy’s Features
There are several good things about GoDaddy’s web hosting services. Let’s start with some of the principal features that GoDaddy offers including its amazing speed and uptime, easy web developer, and impressive security.
Great Speed and Uptime
Among the best features that GoDaddy has to offer are its speed and uptime.
Your website needs to have a quick loading time, and this isn’t simply to boost one’s ego. Research has shown that in our fast-paced world, speed strongly determines whether a user enjoys their experience or not.
Many users will dismiss a slow website faster than the website can change pages. Even the SEO WordPress rankings that your site receives can be affected, either positively or negatively, because of your load time.
Conversion rates can also be affected, again, either for the good or the bad, all depending on your website speed.
This topic is especially important because although there are things you can do to make your site faster, if your web host is slow, then you’re stuck! This is not the case with GoDaddy.
The good news is that with GoDaddy, you do not need to worry about this important matter. In recent tests done by us and several independent sites, GoDaddy had a very fast average load time.
Moreover, their uptime also ranks very high. In other tests performed, GoDaddy has shown to have as little as 13 minutes of downtime per month. That’s less time than the average viewer spends watching commercials during an average hour of network television.
GoDaddy Simple Website Developer
Another powerful feature GoDaddy offers is the ease with which you can create your website. For some, the idea of developing code for their website is an interesting and fun pastime.
For others, constructing a website is a chore they want to accomplish as quickly as possible so they can move on to other aspects of their business.
GoDaddy has an easy, drag and
Of course, if you would like to add to your site, GoDaddy has one-click installation options with more than 120 popular applications available on the Internet. They include Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Joomla, Drupal, and
GoDaddy also has easy-to-use tools. MySQL, cPanel, Python, CloudLinux, and a variety of PHP versions.
Whether you are a highly skilled webmaster, or someone that still prefers a typewriter, GoDaddy has options that will help you accomplish what you need, in a way that you feel comfortable.
However, if your main concern is to find a good website builder, I suggest you have a look at other options on the market. You can check our list of the best website builder software.
Website Security
Another very important strength is that GoDaddy makes use of and provides its own Website Security product.
This feature includes;
- automatic malware scanning
- continuous security monitoring
- Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- Content Delivery Network (CDN)
The Website Security aggressively deters malware and other malicious traffic from harming your site. Additionally, GoDaddy protects against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and Zero Day attacks.
Perhaps you are planning to sell products on your website. If that is the case, most businesses with that goal view an SSL certificate as an essential item. It will protect the data communication between a customer and your servers.
For this reason, GoDaddy makes available for purchase Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates (beginning at $69.99 per year). This is the software which is represented by the green padlock on your web browser when you visit financial institution websites.
Without this extra layer of security on your website, many discerning shoppers will not feel comfortable making a purchase.
GoDaddy’s Weaknesses
Of course, there is always a flip side. Let’s now look at some of the negative aspects of GoDaddy such as its occasionally slow customer support, lack of cloud hosting, and difficult refund policy.
Mixed Customer Support Reviews
An area where GoDaddy receives mixed reviews is with their customer support. Obviously, when you need help, and especially when it comes to your business, you want help quickly.
On the one hand, GoDaddy has 24/7 telephone support and a live web chat support 365 days a year. Sounds great.
However, some users have reported waiting longer than they were told they would have to wait by GoDaddy. At times, not even being able to receive help for hours. Ouch!! This could be difficult if you are desperate for immediate assistance.
On the other hand, when the reviewers did receive help from customer support, the staff was competent, friendly, and effective. Clearly, this is a mixed bag.
GoDaddy Has No Cloud Hosting Available
GoDaddy does not provide cloud hosting services.
To some, cloud hosting is a valuable resource and that makes sense. The idea of cloud hosting is that since your website is not relying on only one server, but rather a number of servers that work together, the chances of any downtimes in the instance of a server malfunction are greatly reduced.
Of course, GoDaddy has a record of not having trouble in this area, yet if this is a concern to you, unfortunately, GoDaddy does not provide this service.
Challenging Refund Policy
GoDaddy’s refund policy could be problematic. Ideally, you won’t want a refund. H
Usually, web hosts provide a refund policy that allows you to recover your funds if you cancel your service within the first 30 days. From a superficial look, GoDaddy does the same. Yet, you must take notice that it is only the annual plans that can receive a refund during the first month after purchasing.
When you purchase a “Monthly Plan” on GoDaddy (which is a plan of three, six, or nine months), you must request a refund within 48 hours. Yep, you have just 2 days to determine all that you need to know about whether GoDaddy is who you want to be your long-term web hosting partner, or not. Not much time to decide.
GoDaddy Plans and Costs
The following are GoDaddy’s website hosting plans. Typically, there is discounted pricing offered for the first year and the amount of the discount varies almost daily.
- Economy Plan: One website for $7.99 per month. At the time of this article, the first year is on sale for $5.99 per month and the renewal rate is $7.99 per month. Included are 100 GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, and free business email for the first year. It also includes a free domain name for the first year if you pay for the 1-year annual plan.
- Deluxe Plan: An unlimited number of websites for $10.99 each month. Currently, GoDaddy has a sale amount for the first year is $7.99 per month and the renewal fee is $10.99 per month. This plan includes all the features of the Economy plan above, as well as unlimited storage and subdomains.
- Ultimate Plan: This is considered the best value by GoDaddy. It includes the features of the Deluxe plan and twice the processing power and memory, a free SSL certificate for the first year, premium DNS, and unlimited databases. All of this for $16.99 per month. The sale price is listed at $12.99 for the first year with the renewal cost being $16.99 per month.
- Maximum Plan: All of the GoDaddy features from the Ultimate plan are included. Further, you receive double the power and memory, double the “maximum site traffic” and a free SSL certificate the entire term of your purchase. This comes at a cost of $24.99 per month. The sale price is $19.99 per month for the first year with a renewal cost of $24.99 per month.
Is GoDaddy the Right Web Host for You?
GoDaddy certainly has much to be proud of with its web hosting abilities. With their solid uptime and steady, vigorous, and enduring page loading speeds, they do not have to fear their competitors in these areas.
Further, they have several options that are friendly for both businesses and consumers, and that harmonize effectively with the most popular web apps you might choose.
Yes, GoDaddy can be confident. And they are. Which possibly could turn out to be a source of frustration for you. Remember their challenging refund policy and that getting help from their customer support isn’t always as quick as you might like.
Perhaps it’s because GoDaddy doesn’t think you’ll need a refund or customer support because they are that good, and maybe you won’t with a product as strong as theirs. But if you do, you might be disappointed.
There is no doubt that GoDaddy is a strong, solid choice as a web hosting service. But, is it strong and solid in the areas where you need it to be? We hope our GoDaddy review has helped you to decide if GoDaddy is right for you.