If you are confused to decide whether you should go for GoDaddy or Hostgator, then you have landed at the right place. We have compared both web-hosting giants on several parameters to understand who could be the ideal choice for our readers.
In this battle between GoDaddy and Hostgator, Hostgator is the winner. Let’s understand how Hostgator is better than GoDaddy and in what terms.
GoDaddy vs Hostgator (A Quick Comparison)
| Features | Hostgator | GoDaddy |
| Free Backups | Yes | Yes |
| Disk Space | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Uptime | 99.99% | 99.97% |
| Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel |
| Cloud Hosting Service | Yes | No |
| Free Domain on Signup | No | Yes |
GoDaddy
Pricing
GoDaddy Hosting offers shared hosting plans starting from $2.99 to $12.99 a month for the more business plans.
Here is a list of pricing for GoDaddy hosting.
| Hosting Type | Price (Cheapest – Expensive) |
| Shared Hosting | $2.99 – $12.99 |
| WordPress Hosting | $4.99 – $24.99 |
| VPS Hosting | $19.99 $74.99 |
| Dedicated Hosting | $89.99 – $179.99 |
Customer Support
GoDaddy has a toll free phone support for product support so you can call and clear your doubts regarding plans and related features.
You can also raise a ticket to get a customer support agent to provide hands-on support if you are stuck in between.
GoDaddy also has an easy to navigate knowledge platform that you can use. The wide user base of GoDaddy means you get almost all of the problems discussed on the forums and finding them is also easy thanks to the on-page search bar.
Interface
GoDaddy has the standard cPanel for setting up and managing the back end of your website in an easy and organized way.
GoDaddy has domain management, web hosting, and website management all in one place for a seamless setup. So if you are just starting out, you have an advantage over Hostgator in terms of access to all features in one place.
User Benefits (Pros)
#1. Excellent uptime
GoDaddy has a very reliable uptime of 99.97% so you can be worry-free about your website having frequent downtimes. This amounts to a monthly downtime of around 13 minutes which is very decent in shared hosting.
#2. Page Loading Speed
GoDaddy has had terrible page loading speeds initially. But they have improved the speeds since the past two years and the current speed stands at 554 ms that is comparable to competitors at similar price points.
Page loading can greatly affect SEO and conversion rates, especially on mobile websites. So if you are setting up an e-commerce site, this will greatly help you improve customer experience.
#3. Reliable Customer Support
GoDaddy offers 24/7 customer support. The knowledge base on the GoDaddy page has options for all possible roadblocks that you might encounter. You can easily search for the problems and read up on what needs to be done.
You get live chat support in which you can select departments for your specific issue so that you will be connected with a support agent within a minute.
#4. Economic Plans
The new economy plan pricing is for only $1.00 a month if you opt for long term plans. With this plan, you are getting 100 GB for storage, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain name, and a business email for a year which is sufficient to start out without incurring additional costs.
Drawbacks (Cons)
#1. Deceptive marketing
Even if you can secure the low entry pricing, the renewal costs can go up to $8.99 per month. If you opt for short term plans like three months, you will need to pay up to $10.99 a month.
#2. Additional costs at checkout
GoDaddy adds many extra services at checkout which are not apparent while you are picking hosting plans. One such feature is for websites back up that cost you $2.99/month.
Other features like office 365, SSL certificates, and daily malware scans need to be bought at additional costs.
#3. Confusing Refund Policy
GoDaddy “terms & conditions” has confusing wordings related to availing moneyback on hosting plans.
If you are opting for monthly plans which are less than a one-year period, you only get 48 hours to request a refund which is not ideal to check out whether the plan works for you or not.
For annual plans in web hosting, you can opt for money back within a month. But the catch is, in terms and conditions its mentioned that
“If a Hosting Service has already been performed, then it is non-refundable (if not yet performed, eligible for a refund within 30 days of the date of the transaction).“
This means if you have set up a website with the hosting plan, technically they can refuse to issue a refund as you have already used the hosting plan.
Best for
If you are thinking of changing your hosting, then GoDaddy has excellent plans that offer additional features of email marketing that help you in scalability.
In other cases, if you require more features to build and scale your website right from the beginning, GoDaddy offers domain name registration which simplifies your setup and management process.
Hostgator
Pricing
Hostgator has a similar type of aggressive pricing as GoDaddy . You get basic plans starting from $2.75 for shared hosting.
However, HostGator has some hidden costs that are necessary but not included in the base price. You only get basic features like hacking protection and backups as freebies. For things like Gmail access and site maintenance tools, you need to pay extra.
But if you are just starting out, Hostgator has affordable basic rates that you can avail if you chose a long term plan.
Here are the pricing details for Hostgator:
| Hosting Type | Price (Cheapest – Expensive) |
| Shared Hosting | $2.75 – $5.95 |
| WordPress Hosting | $5.95 – $9.95 |
| VPS Hosting | $19.95 – $39.95 |
| Dedicated Hosting | $119.99 – $149.99 |
| Cloud Hosting | $4.95 – $9.95 |
Customer Support
For beginners, Hostgator has a knowledge center that covers all queries related to setting up your websites and explanation of issues faced in the form of FAQ.
Apart from this, you get a 24/7 phone and chat support to quickly resolve issues in hosting or any other technical difficulties.
If you can not call at the moment, you have an option to raise tickets to get hands-on support regarding the issue.
Interface
The cPanel interface of Hostgator is very intuitive and responsive. You get a FAQ section where all the basic details are explained.
User Benefits (Pros)
#1. Excellent Uptime
Hostgator has maintained the uptime of their hosting times at 99.99% from the last 24 months.
#2. Multiple Website Hosting
You can host subdomains and multiple domains simultaneously in a single account.
#3. Support
HostGator offers well trained and skilled professionals to guide you through any issues you are facing.
Drawbacks (Cons)
#1. No Free Domain
If you don’t have a domain prior to joining Hostgator, you won’t get a free domain registration from hosting.
#2. No Daily Backups
Hostgator offers weekly backups and malware scans which is not ideal as you need daily scans and backups to ensure you don’t lose data.
Best For
If you value excellent uptime, quality and timely support, you can opt for Hostgator. If you don’t have an issue with long term plans, Hostgator offers excellent initial prices that you can lock up to 3 years.
GoDaddy vs Hostgator – Conclusion
Comparing both, HostGator emerges as a clear winner thanks to its scalability options.
With Hostgator, you get the option of the cheapest and best cloud hosting that gives you excellent load times. With GoDaddy , you are limited by the initial upselling of basic features that adds up to a considerable amount which is a dealbreaker when compared with Hostgator. .