Godaddy has been around for a very long time (since 1997 to be exact) and in that time, they have become one of the largest domain and hosting service providers in the world. Although their service was of a higher quality in the early 2000’s, things have changed. A significant number of people have begun complaining that Godaddy was no longer good (in terms of speed, pricing, scalability, support, flexibility, etc). Because of this fact, more and more people are looking for Godaddy alternatives that offer better services at more affordable pricing.
Fortunately for us, there are many fantastic choices that some would say are objectively better than Godaddy in every single way. Whether you’re a new blogger who just wants a basic website up or a business owner with tens of thousands of daily visits, you’ll probably be better off using a different provider for your hosting and/or domain needs. Let’s take a look at the best Godaddy alternatives out right now.
Best Alternatives To Godaddy Hosting
1. SiteGround (Claim Your Discount)
Siteground is one of the most commonly recommended hosting providers that people like to mention when looking to stray away from something like Godaddy. Having been around since 2004, they have grown to provide many of the same services as Godaddy but with faster servers and even better pricing. Some of their products include: shared hosting, cloud hosting, Wordpress hosting, and Woocommerce hosting. These four categories cover essentially every kind of website you could build, and the beauty of Siteground is that it is extremely flexible. Newbies can learn how to use their platform very quickly because of their intuitive design, but it is also used by countless webmasters and businesses handling tens of millions of monthly users.
Siteground (unlike Godaddy) also offers great support. Customer support is one of the most important things to look at when making a decision on which hosting provider you choose to go with, because at one point or another you will likely rely on it for some assistance. From top to bottom, Siteground really does seem to have it all and that is precisely why we choose to recommend them as our #1 alternative to Godaddy for the time being. The only real knock that people have had against it was limited storage, but that is something to complain about with virtually all hosting solutions. These are some of the benefits of using Siteground:
- Super fast servers: All SiteGround servers are highly optimized for speed. They use Google Cloud platform for all new customers which is one of the fastest platforms on the market.
- Top Notch Customer Support: Their customer support is amazing to say the least. They offer 24/7 phone support, live chat, and ticket based support.
- Free CDN and SSL They offer instant setup of Cloudflare’s free CDN and free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt.
- Multiple Server Locations They have data centers in three continents. You can choose the location you prefer during signup.
2. BlueHost (Claim Your Discount)
BlueHost is a fantastic hosting provider that has been around for nearly two decades now, and they’re showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In terms of having the overall package, one could make a great argument that it is the best Godaddy alternative. Performance, reliability, uptime, pricing - it fairs well in every category you could mention. They also offer some nice perks such as a free domain and SSL when signing up to their hosting packages using this link. Although slightly pricier than some other alternatives, it’s definitely worth the price. Bluehost also fairs well as it pertains to their customer support - easily some of the best hosting customer service on the market right now. Here are some of the perks of using Bluehost:
First, let’s take a look at the advantages that make Bluehost one of the best choices.
- Pricing: Their hosting plans are well within the reach of most users, particularly those who are just starting out.
- Reliability: They power a large number of websites with minimum downtime.
- No hidden charges: There are no hidden fees when signing up for your account.
- Free domain: You get a free domain name for the first year when you sign up.
- Free CDN + SSL: For each website, you get a free SSL certificate and free Cloudflare CDN to block malware and improve security.
- Money Back Guarantee: They offer a 30 day money back guarantee on all plans.
3. Hostgator (Claim Your Discount)
We feel a bit dirty even mentioning Hostgator because in many ways, it fits in the same category as Godaddy (meaning, it’s a giant hosting provider that puts profits over customer satisfaction). With that being said, there are some positives to using Hostgator; the biggest one being pricing and ease of use. For a total newbie with only a few dollars to invest, Hostgator is fine as a hosting provider (not great, just fine). It does well with low traffic websites that don’t need a ton of features, and that is why so many bloggers have started to use it in recent years (especially those outside of North America).
If you’re someone that’s on a budget or you’re just looking to start a basic website for a low initial cost, then you might want to check out Hostgator as a decent alternative. In general it’s quite reliable and if you’re familiar with Cpanel, then you’ll seamlessly be able to use this host. If you’re more tech-savvy and aren’t a beginner (perhaps you need to use cloud hosting) then we probably wouldn’t recommend Hostgator as our first choice. Hostgator is better than Godaddy in terms of support, ease of use, and overall customer experience. Here are some of the benefits of using it:
- Install WordPress with 1-Click Installer
- Free SSL Certificate
- Easy to use control panel cPanel dashboard to manage hosting services
- Free email accounts
- 24/7 customer support
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
4. Cloudways
Cloudways is a name that a lot of people haven’t heard about because it is not exactly the easiest to use for the average webmaster. Cloudways is definitely not a hosting provider that a newbie just starting out would want to use. They also do not offer any domain name services so if that’s what you’re after, Cloudways cannot help you. Cloudways excels as a cloud hosting provider; they offer an all-in-one solution for managed cloud droplets. If you’ve ever heard of services like Vultr, AWS, or Digital Ocean, you are already familiar with what cloud hosting is.
This is a great hosting provider to use if you expect to have a sizable amount of traffic coming into your web property and if you prioritize speed. Cloudways is surprisingly affordable and not at all overpriced for what they offer their consumers. For those that know what they’re doing, it is a far superior alternative to Godaddy.
5. 1&1 Hosting
This is a hosting provider that used to be better in the past, but it has unfortunately fallen off quite a bit. Although still better than Godaddy, it is not by much because they are really starting to lack in quality as it pertains to customer service. When looking at some of the other important factors such as uptime, pricing and ease of use, it is just solid. Nothing more, nothing less. It is a dependable hosting provider that hosts millions of websites but has seemingly peaked in the past. If you’re looking to move on from Godaddy then we certainly recommend taking a look at SiteGround and BlueHost before taking a look at the hosting by Ionos.
Why Are These The Best Godaddy Alternatives At The Moment?
These are currently the best alternative solutions to Godaddy hosting because they cover a lot of the glaring issues that Godaddy has. The biggest knock on Godaddy has been their shabby support, overpriced services, and unreliable shared hosting that can often be overloaded by other sites that are supported on the same server. If Godaddy was a cheaper service, then their lack of reliability wouldn’t be such a big issue and using them could be somewhat justified. That is not the case however, and their hosting is actually quite expensive (and seems to grow in price every single year).
Most people look for a few basic things to be done very well in their hosting provider. This includes speed, uptime, reliability, and transparency in regards to privacy. If you fail to cover all of these bases, then you don’t make the cut. The sites we’ve mentioned on our list here are considered to be the best alternatives of Godaddy because they cover all of these bases and do so well.
Why You Should Move On From Godaddy
If you are someone that is currently using Godaddy at the moment, then you should try your best to move on from them as quickly as possible. The best way to make change happen is to vote with your wallet; continuing to pay Godaddy despite the fact that they are just not worth the money is the wrong move. If you are unsatisfied with their server speeds, storage, or scalability, we do not recommend paying them more money for upgrades simply because the options we outlined in this article are superior. When taking a look at Siteground for example, you can get everything that Godaddy offers for a better price and of a generally higher quality. There is no reason to put up with Godaddy anymore.
Is GoDaddy A Bad Service Overall?
Whether or not something is good or bad is totally subjective and everyone has a different experience. Godaddy has had many complaints for a significant number of past customers, but that is not to say that there aren’t some people who are satisfied with its services. If you aren’t necessarily interested in saving money and don’t care about how fast your website is (perhaps you are only interested in having a website to look professional), then you could very well continue to use Godaddy and not have any reason to complain. If however you have determined that you’re sick of Godaddy’s business practices and would like to have more website potential for a fraction of the cost, then there really is no reason why you shouldn’t move on from them.
Does Godaddy Have Any Positive Attributes?
Now look - as insufferable as Godaddy may be to many of us, they are not all bad all of the time. When it comes to domain names for example, they are actually one of the best in the business. Godaddy domain auctions offer some of the best domains on the web (because people tend to use them for their massive reach). The downside is that their domain renewal fees are a little bit higher than you might find at other domain name registrars, and they still do not offer free WHOIS privacy in the same way that Namecheap does. It would not be a bad idea at all to have your domains with Godaddy while you host your websites elsewhere - in fact, this is what many people are doing.
So while Godaddy’s pricing and hosting services are quite horrendous, they do get some points for at least being a somewhat decent domain name registrar.
Why Customer Support Matters in The Hosting Space
Customer service is extremely important in any business and in any industry, but it is especially important in the web hosting industry. This is because in the web hosting industry, you’re almost guaranteed to need to speak to a customer service rep at one point or another. For 95% of people, at some point something will go wrong (server will crash, website will be misconfigured, pricing will change, etc). When the day comes that you need to rely on customer service, you do not want to be held on the phone for several hours with someone halfway around the world who doesn’t even end up understanding what you are saying or help to solve the problem. Godaddy has some of the weakest customer support out there of all the major hosting companies, which is saying a lot.
Godaddy’s Pricing
Many people have complained that Godaddy has a sneaky business model which is to reel you in with a cheap plan for the first year but renews at a significantly higher price. This is a very shady business practice which relies on customers being too lazy to switch hosts after already signing up for their hosting. One of the biggest reasons why people move on from Godaddy is actually because of this very reason.
What We Took Into Consideration When Compiling This List
There are quite a few things to look at before choosing a host, and if you’re a customer of Godaddy’s then you probably have learned that now. These are the things that we placed the most importance on.
1. Pricing Transparency
It was absolutely essential that the hosting companies we were going to recommend weren’t in the space boat as Godaddy as it pertains to pricing. One of the most upsetting things that Godaddy has done in years past has been their pricing which lures in newbies with a very cheap first-year price and follows with extremely overpriced renewal costs.
2. Service Quality
Let’s face it, service quality matters a lot. Great customer service and cheap prices are irrelevant if you can’t seem to have your site hosted in the way that you want. If the uptime is terrible and your websites are slow on a server, then you definitely aren’t using a high quality service and it’s time to move on. Providers like Siteground and Bluehost are notorious for having great quality hosting services which is why they top our list.
3. Customer Reviews
We read hundreds of customer reviews from real customers before deciding that these would be the best alternatives to Godaddy hosting. Public opinion matters more than anything in this industry, and a hosting provider just can’t be considered one of the best if they do not have overwhelmingly positive reviews. Fortunately, both Siteground and Bluehost (along with the others) have great reviews which shows that they are high quality.
Bottom Line: There Are Plenty of Alternatives To Godaddy That You Could Be Using
As we have already mentioned earlier, there is really no reason to be using Godaddy any longer. Their business model is outdated and many other hosting services offer the same things (or better) for a lowered cost. Again, there is nothing wrong with using Godaddy strictly for their domain services because they are indeed quite good, but as far as hosting is concerned - don’t bother. Siteground, BlueHost, and even Hostgator offer significantly better services according to many and there is no reason whatsoever to be using Godaddy over those options at this moment in time.
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