21st Century Website Hosts: GoDaddy vs. BlueHost vs. HostGator
Your purchase of web space for your website should offer you more than just cloud storage. While your web host needs speedy servers and an easy, breezy upload method, other items also rank highly in importance.
You need a web host that offers much more than hosting. The organization should also offer domain registrations, a simple mechanism for handling domain transfers, web design templates, a web design service if you do not want to do it yourself, email, and intranet storage. While that may sound like a lot, your web host provides the most important aspect of your website – it serves it to the public.
You could have the snazziest design on earth with the zingiest search engine optimized copy but, if no one can see it, then your website becomes instantly useless. In today’s web, you also need storage space and a host that lets you integrate apps, link to plugins, and host your applets. Without this, you cannot offer a viable website.
Users expect form and function. You need more than a lovely design. You need it to offer chatbots, video, appointment setting apps, and fun interaction such as a photo editor that lets them brand selfies with your logo or tagline. So, from whom should you purchase your web hosting? Well, as we look at each of the options, you will probably come to realize there’s more to it than just mere space for a website. Starting with the three owners of the web host market, BlueHost, HostGator and GoDaddy, let’s consider the best option for your business.
GoDaddy vs BlueHost vs HostGator
The big three of web hosting consist of BlueHost, HostGator and GoDaddy. Let’s look at these three options and consider:
- Is BlueHost good or bad?
- You may also wondering Is GoDaddy good or bad?
- Is HostGator good or bad?
Determining the best two out of three proves pretty easy when you examine what BlueHost, HostGator and GoDaddy offer on a regular basis. This means you ignore occasional coupons and promo codes and pay close attention to what you will pay over the long haul.
Doing this you find out quickly that you can ignore BlueHost as an option. It offers no free blog migration, limits your free included domains to three, and charges regular price for every domain.
On the other hand, as you discover in our GoDaddy hosting review 2021, GoDaddy sells you your first year’s domain for a mere 99 cents. That is not a special. That is the regular first-year price. After that, you pay $6.28 per year.
The HostGator hosting review 2021 reveals that you pay $6.99 per year for your domains. There is no special price in the first year, but both companies offer domains cheaper than BlueHost.
Probably the biggest difference between HostGator and GoDaddy comes from how they each handle blog migration and domain pricing. Since we covered domain pricing already, let’s look at blog migration. Like BlueHost, GoDaddy does not offer free blog migration. This difference between HostGator and GoDaddy does not make or break either as the choice for 2021, but it is important to note since you may already have a blog. You can still import it using GoDaddy, just not for no cost.
Which Web hosting is best for you? HostGator vs GoDaddy
The venerable web hosts of GoDaddy and HostGator offer many useful services and items to enhance your webspace. Two of the most commonly used services – GoDaddy and HostGator – bear close resemblance in the services offered. Some may consider it a matter of personal preference but, since you will need a contract and website hosting requires a monthly expense, it makes good, common sense to compare HostGator vs GoDaddy before making a decision.
GoDaddy VPS vs HostGator VPS
You can purchase a virtual private server (VPS) that lets you run your own copy of an operating system (OS) and keep your business or personal private information just that – private. These virtual machines function just like a physical server would, so you can install software, but they cost much less than a physical server. You can purchase this VPS from GoDaddy or HostGator.
When comparing GoDaddy VPS vs HostGator VPS, the clear winner comes down to more than cost. Just like Val Kilmer’s character in “Top Gun,” a VPS has a need for speed. HostGator performs almost twice as fast as GoDaddy. Using PINGDOM to test the two web hosts, HostGator performed the same activity in 1.52 seconds that GoDaddy required 3.10 seconds to complete. HostGator consistently turns in a fast response time of 520ms, while its major competitor requires 1,000ms to complete the same actions. That means everything to your website load and your intranet load. The alligator wins this one, claws down.
Most Affordable: GoDaddy or HostGator
Affordability of both web hosts proves almost equal. Mere pennies separate GoDaddy and HostGator in cost at face value. Both companies offer discounts on multi-year contracts. You can whittle your price down to $2.99 per month for hosting with a three-year deal at GoDaddy. The same length of contract at HostGator nets you a cost of $4.05 per month. Since after the first year of domain registration, your costs only differ by 71 cents, unless you function on the strictest of budgets, you will spend about the same whether you choose GoDaddy or HostGator. The two choices measure up the same except that the alligator lets you have unlimited domains and a free primary domain migration and renewal.
Since both GoDaddy and HostGator provide unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage, it really comes down to speed and services. So, what about their customer service?
Customer Service: GoDaddy or HostGator
You need 24/7 service for your website, so your web host needs 24/7 support for problems. Some hosts only offer part-time customer service support, but both GoDaddy and HostGator offer 24/7 support.
HostGator offers one option for customer service that GoDaddy does not. HostGator uses Twitter to offer support. Both GoDaddy and HostGator offer online chat, email, and phone support options. They hosts receive high ratings for their customer support. Both GoDaddy and HostGator rate a 4.5 our 5 or better based upon the actual reviews of customers.
Best for Small Business: GoDaddy or HostGator
So, which service offers the best web hosting service for small businesses?
Claws down, HostGator offers the best web hosting service for small businesses. That comes from the fact that their speed beats out the big Daddy of web domains almost two to one. Speed matters in web hosting.
It matters in day-to-day business, too. When you contract for a VPS, you need speed. The server hosts your apps. Your employees use your apps to do their work. It makes good, common sense to choose the company that provides speed, so your employees can get more work done on the workday. A fast server means a fast app load. With a two to one speed differential, you are talking about accomplishing work twice as fast using the gator.
Is HostGator better than GoDaddy?
You ask outright, “Is HostGator better than GoDaddy?” Well, yes. HostGator provides essentially the same costs, but twice the performance. Chomp, chomp. It also offers little items like free blog migration that balance out that 99 cents domain registration the first year.
When you compile all the differences and similarities, the HostGator hosting review 2021 clearly wins over the GoDaddy hosting review 2021. As the GoDaddy biggest competitor, HostGator does its job focusing on what it can to maximize its superiority. It does this in every area.
Let’s say that instead of importing an existing blog, you want to start a blog. You decide on WordPress as a platform. It offers scalability and numerous plugins. Its content management platform offers significant power, and you know you can easily plan content and manage comments using it.
You decide you would like to use your hosting from the beginning, rather than using the free option on WordPress itself. You know that you can use the WP massive selection of themes either way so you look for the ideal host for your blog. Should you use GoDaddy or HostGator?
GoDaddy vs HostGator for WordPress
When considering GoDaddy vs HostGator for WordPress, look at the cost of hosting plus the load speed. Since you need to install WP, you should consider the VPS, but it is not necessary.
Both GoDaddy and HostGator provide multiple hosting plans. HostGator offers four for businesses, while GoDaddy offers three. You can choose a basic plan up to a deluxe offering at either location. Space and speed differentiate both. It depends on how much you need to host to begin the blog. Since both offer multiple plans, you can scale up with either. That makes it easy to grow your blog and your online business.
Ah. Your online business. Do you want to sell from your blog? Both offer e-commerce options. You should go with the Business plan from HostGator since it comes with your SSL certificate included. You need that to offer secure transactions, a requisite for accepting credit cards on your website. In addition, you need a merchant account to obtain a credit card processor. There’s a lot to creating an e-commerce site, and the alligator makes it easy.
See Also: Best SSLs for 2021
Which one better for e-commerce?
HostGator provides a point and click option for setting up your shopping cart, and multiple options you can choose in its control panel, the dashboard from which you handle all of your files and features. You choose one shopping cart from the “E-Commerce” menu. Softaculous Apps Installer offers you three choices:
- Magento,
- PrestaShop,
- Zencart.
You click on the one you want; HostGator leads you step-by-step through the setup process. You need to obtain your payment gateway, another term for credit card processor, and your merchant account before you set up the shopping cart because you link both to your cart to finish the process.
GoDaddy also offers e-commerce options but does not make it as straightforward. In this aspect, GoDaddy loses the contest of GoDaddy vs HostGator WordPress Hosting.
Even searching the GoDaddy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for help makes it complicated. GoDaddy focuses on the templates for the store rather than the backbone of the store. You have to hunt for the directions to integrate a shopping cart and the options you can use. Its FAQs focus more on the marketing of their site as a host. You get little in the way of direction, so if you have to do it yourself, go with the alligator. While HostGator leads you through the very complex process of setting up a full-scale e-commerce shop, GoDaddy leaves you floundering.
So, is HostGator a good web host? Is GoDaddy a good web host?
To answer the questions “Is GoDaddy a good web host?” and “Is HostGator a good web host?,“ yes for both, but HostGator does it better.
GoDaddy started out as a domain registrar and excelled at that. It still does. GoDaddy had to grow its services to compete with the web hosts that became domain registrars. By doing that, it now offers many services competitors do, but in its bid to offer the cheapest costs, it sacrificed speed and usability.
Why is GoDaddy so cheap?
Let’s address the question, “Why is GoDaddy so cheap?” Quite simply, it does such a brisk business it can undercut the prices of its competitors. GoDaddy sells more domains than other registrars. It can make everything else more affordable.
Once you purchase a domain through a company, you typically want to host it there, too. That means you buy other services from the same company, hosting among them. When you extend your cloud presence with a VPS, you probably contract with the same firm. Most people choose the simplicity of management over multiple contracts with multiple companies. Using the same provider for everything also guarantees integration. You can know that your theme will work on the web hosting platform, and you can easily set up subdomains and link them to specific pages on your VPS or in your web hosting package.
The ease of integration and its quick addition of services after becoming a domain registrar leader explains how it cornered the market. Once GoDaddy landed the customers, keep costs low made sense to hold its market position. As anyone in business knows, you can lower your price when you sell a lot of product. GoDaddy does this to continue to attract customers. HostGator charges a few cents more per month but focuses on speed of service and customer satisfaction.
GoDaddy Plan Comparison
Firstly, you get four choices at GoDaddy, so let’s look at a quick GoDaddy plan comparison. Secondly, you can use GoDaddy from locations throughout the world, but we’ll consider the GoDaddy hosting plan USA websites would use.
You could start with the GoDaddy Economy plan for $8.99 per month. It includes a free domain and email address when you agree to at least a 12-month subscription. You can host one website and 10 databases with 100 GB of storage available and unmetered traffic. This choice provides WordPress hosting options and setup plus available themes.
Move up to the Deluxe plan when you need to add to the flexibility of your web presence. It adds unlimited sites and storage and 25 databases to the Economy plan for $11.99 per month.
When your website takes off, you need to host a high-traffic web presence. Choose the Ultimate plan. You get twice the CPU power and a free SSL certificate for the first year of service. It also includes all the services of the Economy and Deluxe plans. This option costs $16.99 per month.
The Maximum is the GoDaddy hosting plan USA businesses can grow into as they need to scale. It offers twice the CPU power and four times the memory plus a free SSL certificate as long as the customer remains with the host. It also includes all the features of the lower scale plans. Its regular price is $24.99 per month, although you can catch sales to nab a discount when you first sign up.
The variety of plans let you start your business on a tight budget and grow your presence as you grow your business. The basic plan makes sense for someone who needs to build their first website. Most people who already have an online presence should start with the Deluxe, so they can have multiple websites.
HostGator Plan Comparison
Comparing HostGator’s hosting plans takes a little less time. While they offer three web hosting plans, the company also offers three options for WordPress. You can also access three cloud options and six virtual server options divided into two distinct levels of service.
In order to compare apples to apples, we will only consider its web hosting plans. Each plan provides free migration of your existing blog or website, an easy-to-use Control Panel, unmetered bandwidth, one-click installations, unlimited FTP users, 24/7/365 server monitoring, unlimited MySQL databases, 99.9 percent guaranteed uptime and 24/7/365 support.
Start out with Host Gator’s Hatchling Plan if you just want to get started online for an affordable investment. You get one domain, unlimited email addresses, and hosting for one website. Its regular price costs $4.95 per month.
Move up to the Baby Plan when you need to host unlimited domains and email addresses, plus a plethora of websites. You pay $6.97 per month.
The HostGator Business Plan includes all the features of the Baby Gator plus private SSL service, a dedicated IP, free VoIP phone service, and Word Press hosting. You pay $9.95 per month.
GoDaddy Similar Companies
Of course, other competitors exist. HostGator and GoDaddy similar companies include BlueHost, Ionos formerly known as 1and1.com, and Squarespace top the list.
Many smaller companies, especially hosting resellers exist. You may think you found a cheap deal but beware. Small hosts you have never heard of do not have the hosting power of the major companies. Buy from mom-and-pop restaurants and bookstores but when you purchase web hosting, buy from a major player.
Ionos, like Go Daddy, beats the competition on domain costs. You get very few features for the money though. Moreover, you pay for hosting separately. You also pay to use their web design app and templates. You get one email with your domain, although you can create catchalls that direct to your web email space. It does offer an understandable cPanel and helpful FAQs, but the customer service takes more than 24 hours to respond.
SquareSpace touts itself as the point and click design home, but users have problems when they change from one template to another, much like using the early blog host Blogger. It has added services in piecemeal fashion through the years but lacks cohesiveness. You pay quite a bit for a clunky interface that proves tough to integrate with shopping carts.
See Also: Best Dedicated Servers in 2021
GoDaddy vs HostGator Wrap Up
We answered the questions, “if HostGator good or bad?” and “Is GoDaddy good or bad?” We looked at GoDaddy vs HostGator WordPress hosting. In addition, we also considered each company’s main competitors. We found HostGator the clear winner after comparing it to GoDaddy and BlueHost, according to services for business, affordability, customer service, support hours, speed of page loads and VPS access, cost of domain registration and renewal.
When you need a web host, you really need a host of web services. Hosting a website in 2021 and beyond requires a domain name, significant server space, responsive design templates, and easy to use e-commerce. HostGator provides all of this for a tiny, affordable price.
