Item: GoDaddy
Rating: 4.5

Whoishostingthis.com’s Editor Rating?
What Users Say About GoDaddy?
What Are the Pros and Cons of GoDaddy?
GoDaddy’s Editorial Review
Who Should Choose GoDaddy?
Plans and Pricing
Features
Performance and Uptime
Security
Support
Recent Improvements
Compare GoDaddy Alternatives
Frequently Asked Questions About GoDaddy
What Is GoDaddy the Company?
How I Rated GoDaddy

Bottom line: GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain registration company and offers exceptional web hosting. I also found GoDaddy’s website builder to be an excellent choice for small businesses without technical expertise looking to get a store running online with minimal expenses.The disjointed nature of the site takes some getting used to, but the interfaces are quite robust. While creating fully customized sites beyond the limited templates is difficult, the GoDaddy website builder offers enough usability for any company to run its first online business and sell products — it may fall short in terms of scalability, features, and customization. The marketing tools, particularly email marketing services, will help many companies proactively sell their products.Who should choose GoDaddy? GoDaddy is a solid hosting provider for small businesses, e-commerce sites, personal websites (including bloggers), entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants a no-hassle hosting solution and lacks technical expertise.

Whoishostingthis.com’s Editor Rating^?

Overall: (4.5)

While GoDaddy certainly has some downsides (pricing being the biggest), this company offers excellent services that will more than meet most people's needs. If you don’t mind spending a little extra, GoDaddy is a worthwhile company to consider.

Plans And Pricing: (4.0)
Features: (4.5)
Performance And Uptime: (4.0)
Security: (5.0)
Support: (5.0)
Improvements: (5.0)

See how we rate web hosting providers.

What Users Say About GoDaddy^?

A well-known player in the web hosting business, GoDaddy is a decent option for those needing web hosting and a domain for their website. Its hosting prices align with other companies in the space but not among the cheapest. GoDaddy provides helpful video guides and 24/7 phone and live chat support.

GoDaddy standout features
Performance	Fast and responsive
Average load time	Approximately 1.81 seconds
Average response time	Approximately 60 ms
Free domain	Yes. One free domain for the first year
1-click WordPress	Yes, included with all hosting packages
Support	24/7 support via phone, email, or live chat

What Are the Pros and Cons of GoDaddy?

There is a reason that GoDaddy is one of the biggest companies in the hosting industry. This company has a stable reputation and a lot of things going for it. Check out some of the biggest advantages of using GoDaddy for your hosting.

What we like about GoDaddy

Household name: GoDaddy, one of the most recognized web companies in the world, has a solid overall reputation.
Customer service: GoDaddy Online Store users get the same level of customer support GoDaddy extends for all its offerings. You get 24/7 support through live chat, phone, and social media. If you don’t want to wait for answers, you can opt for self-service options. It has an active community, extensive blogs, tutorials, and a help center ready to offer solutions to most questions.
Diverse hosting options: Whether you need entry-level shared hosting, a dedicated server, or something in between, you will find it at GoDaddy.
Easy-to-use interface: From their front page to the back-end control panel, GoDaddy does a great job at making it easy to navigate to what you need.
Good system resources: While not the cheapest, GoDaddy’s hosting options offer generous system resources to ensure your site will run properly.
Free domain name: It is no surprise that GoDaddy offers a free domain name with your hosting since it is the world’s largest domain name registration company.
Reliable hosting: GoDaddy has done an impressive job at improving its hosting solutions over the years, and today, it offers fast and reliable solutions for any type of website.
Good marketing tools: GoDaddy allows you to do all your marketing from one Dashboard. You can send emails and post customer reviews directly from your store. The SEO Toolkit comes with a paid plan that includes keyword suggestions and results page rank tracking. I especially like its integration with Instagram and Yelp, allowing you to manage marketing campaigns from the Dashboard.
In-store purchasing: GoDaddy enables you to use its application to handle purchases in person.
Mobile site management: Not only are all of the themes responsive, but I like that there are easy-to-use mobile apps for managing the site on the go.
Multiple sales channels: You can connect your website to various platforms, including Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, Facebook, and Instagram. It also integrates with Google, allowing you to promote your products using the Smart Shopping Campaign. I especially like that it syncs inventory and orders automatically on the GoDaddy dashboard. That makes it easy to expand your market and manage your channels in one place.

What fell flat

Expensive: GoDaddy’s prices are quite a bit higher than most other hosting providers, especially on entry-level hosting packages.
Security: While GoDaddy keeps its servers safe, it is unclear what measures are specifically taken to protect your site’s data.
Refund guarantee: GoDaddy only offers a 48-hour money-back guarantee if you sign up for a month-to-month hosting package. If you opt for an annual payment option, you will have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Upselling: If you have ever used GoDaddy for domain name registration, you likely remember the checkout process where you are offered many different upgrade options. It is not much different with web hosting. GoDaddy tries to upsell you with various things that you likely don’t need.
Limited customization: GoDaddy makes it easy to build a website, but it doesn’t let you customize much of anything on the page. You can add and move sections of a page, reorder and add pages, and limit what you can put on them. But GoDaddy does not provide access to the source code, so custom code is not in the cards either. GoDaddy will disappoint if you want to get creative with your site. Additionally, once you build your site on GoDaddy, there is no way to transfer it as-is to another hosting service.
No third-party app integration: Website builders typically come with third-party app stores to supplement whatever features they lack in-house. GoDaddy doesn’t have one; the only third-party app integrations are for online appointments, namely Zoom and Cronofy. GoDaddy provides basic features to run an online store but leaves little room if you’re looking to improve your site’s functionality.
Limited SEO features: While GoDaddy’s SEO Toolkit comes with paid plans, it’s pretty basic. You can only edit the title and meta description. Since there’s no way to add a third-party SEO app, you can’t improve your site’s searchability. In my opinion, that is a significant drawback for small online stores fighting for search engine attention.

GoDaddy’s Editorial Review

There is a reason that GoDaddy is one of the biggest companies in the hosting industry. The company has a stable reputation and a lot of things going for it. While GoDaddy certainly has some downsides (pricing being the biggest), it offers excellent services that will more than meet most people’s needs.

Also, GoDaddy is excellent for e-commerce beginners looking to dip their toes in the space and small businesses with a few products to sell. The marketing and support features create a one-stop platform for all sellers. However, it is most suitable for small businesses needing a simple, no-frills online store without much customization — its lack of flexibility may result in a cookie-cutter site that may look much like most of the competition. While there are some great tools for selling products, particularly its email marketing tools, it tends not to stand up against various competitors.

If you don’t mind spending a little extra, GoDaddy is a worthwhile company to consider.

Plans and Pricing

(4.0)

Economy–$6.99 per month
- Good for: Basic websites
Deluxe–$11.99 per month
- Good for: Multi-site businesses
Ultimate–$14.99 per month
- Good for: Sites that need increased processing power
Maximum–$21.99 per month
- Good for: Sites that need maximum processing power and speed

All of GoDaddy’s basic web hosting plans offer unmetered bandwidth, daily backups, one-click WordPress installation, and a free SSL certificate and domain name for a year.

GoDaddy’s ecommerce pricing plans are fairly straightforward, but to get any real value, you need to choose the “Commerce” plan or better. The prices there become a little less competitive, but they come with quite a few useful services.

Free
- Good for: Getting started
Basic–$9.99 per month
- Good for: Online stores with appointment setting
Premium–$14.99 per month
- Good for: Enhanced online marketing
Commerce–$20.99 per month
- Good for: Small to medium online stores
Commerce Plus–$29.99 per month
- Good for: Online stores with unlimited products

Features

(4.5)

GoDaddy certainly isn’t the cheapest hosting company around, but you do get some good features that will help ensure your site runs properly. The specific features and options depend on what hosting package you purchase, but they all come with what you need to build a successful website.

Easy-to-use website-building tools

GoDaddy offers some of the best website-building tools in the industry. I’ve found these tools are effective and simple to use, so you can make a site regardless of your experience level.

Whether you are looking to build a website on the WordPress platform or want something more customized, it is all possible thanks to GoDaddy’s website builder tools included with the hosting packages.

Store Design

GoDaddy has put in every effort to make its website builder the go-to platform for SMB online stores, making it as intuitive as possible. There is practically no learning curve.

You can have a working site within a few minutes of signing up for a free or paid plan. While experience in website creation is a plus, even the greenest solopreneur can get one up and running by answering a few questions. I tried creating one, and it took two minutes to develop a mockup.

GoDaddy uses its ADI to tap into a pretty comprehensive content library to populate a website on pre-built templates. It chooses the appropriate theme for your industry that you can change at any time. GoDaddy offers more than 300 free themes, so you can take your pick from a wide pool.

The right-hand sidebar contains the tools for changing a site’s appearance and structure. You put in the nitty-gritty details by adding your logo, modifying the theme’s color and font, and rearranging the sections. There is also the option to edit the text and images and even add videos.

Source: GoDaddy.com

If you find yourself lost anyway, the platform is quick to jump in with suggestions and helpful hints. It didn’t take very long to explore all the options open to users. After trying a few different themes, I felt that while they were not the best-looking ones, they were clean and responsive. I especially liked the color profile slider tool because it showed me different options.

Overall, I found the design options quite limited, which is not necessarily bad. For example, the owner of a hardware supply store can have a nice-looking online site up and running in minutes. Having too many options, in my opinion, can sometimes throw a wrench in the works. In that aspect, GoDaddy helps you avoid analysis paralysis.

That said, some people might find the minimal design control of the GoDaddy website builder frustrating. So if your goal is to create a unique, mind-blowing site for your online store, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Adding Products

You can manually add physical or digital products for your users to purchase. The form allows you to add an image directly or to link to a remote image by entering a URL.

After you are prompted to enter the product name, you enter its price. Also, you may enter a sale price (this will show both prices, but the “price” will be crossed out, and the sale price will be displayed as the actual price). Strike-through pricing can be a powerful tool, often perceived as a great value.

You can create or choose product categories from this page and select the tax category, where you can identify if you need to collect sales tax on the item.

Adding physical products uses a different process from adding digital products:

You can upload one video and up to 10 images (not more than 10MB each) in JPG, JPEG, or PNG format.

For physical products, you can enter the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU), which will help identify the unit for inventory and database purposes, and the tax category.

For digital products:

You can have up to 10 files, each not exceeding 2GB. Anyone ordering a digital product gets a download link they can use up to three times.

You can add products you do not wish to display; for the item to appear in your store, just toggle the “Visible on my store” switch.

Below this, you can enter a detailed product description.

Importing products

One feature of GoDaddy’s website builder is the ability to import products from various sources.

Uploading products in bulk using a comma-separated values (CSV) file required downloading the GoDaddy template and filling in items. You can enter as many products as you need to save a good deal of time, which can be extremely useful for stores with a large product line.

The bulk upload function limits you to 1,500 physical products, only uploaded 100 items at a time and only one image per product. While you can add more images manually, there is no export option.

You can manually add photos to your products. But if you do this in a bulk fashion and have the images stored on a remote server, you can easily upload them as part of the CSV file.

You can use a CSV or import your inventory directly from the following places:

Square
Personal database
Amazon
eBay
Etsy
Google Shopping
Walmart

It was not immediately evident how to import from each of these providers. I did not attempt to attach any existing stores, so your results may vary.

Abandoned cart recovery

Abandoned cart recovery is a helpful service available to all GoDaddy Commerce and Commerce Plus customers. As is common in retail, people may begin placing items in a shopping cart with the intent of buying something but leave without making a purchase. The user returns to the site at some point to find that they have nothing in their cart. Abandoned carts can result in the loss of sales for many businesses.

GoDaddy sets up the abandoned cart email notifications by default. You can configure the settings to enable or disable email notifications and also specify how long after to send the email. You cannot change the preset message, though, which is another example of the customization limit imposed by GoDaddy.

Whether you send notifications or not, GoDaddy will provide you with a list of abandoned carts and their history for review. That can help you identify issues and gives you a chance to address them. For instance, if you notice most people leaving after seeing the shipping fee, consider offering discounted or free shipping.

It is generally bad practice to annoy customers with too many notifications, so there are some useful built-in rules for when notifications are sent out. For instance, customers who have recently made a purchase (within the past five days) will not be automatically sent any reminders. Customers can also opt out of these notifications.

SEO

The SEO kit is part of all Website+Marketing plans, including the free version. Here the main goal is to optimize the homepage by inserting relevant on-page keywords or phrases.

GoDaddy provides a “Get Found on Google” feature. The feature includes an automatic wizard which helps you create the best keywords and phrases to improve your site’s search rankings.

The company walks you through a process to identify the correct ways to ensure your site can be found, including localization and products or terms you want users to find. Coming up with keywords is automated.

It helps you identify keywords that are best for optimizing not only your rankings but also your sales. You are prompted to enter your most popular product or service and zero in on any particularly unique products or services that can help you target niche customers.

Next, it generates a list of keywords:

After that, it inserts these words directly into your site content and helps you construct ideal page titles that will appear when people search for your content.

It helps you construct a detailed description of your site’s appearance in Google’s search results. GoDaddy’s SEO tool walks you through constructing headers and content that specifically mention the terms and keywords you have provided.

The tool helps you construct:

Page titles
Page descriptions
Good SEO-optimized headings
Keywords in the text

Granted, this may not necessarily guarantee that your site will appear and is only the beginning of the SEO process. But it at least gives you a chance to get your feet wet and test out different methods of increasing your Google search position.

Most of the SEO tools can be handled manually. One drawback is that GoDaddy’s website builder cannot use the types of plug-ins one could get with a larger content management system (CMS) such as WordPress and the related WooCommerce package.

Payment processing

GoDaddy has a built-in simple-to-use payment processing system called GoDaddy Payments. It can be quickly set up with verification that only takes a few minutes.

GoDaddy Payments is a built-in payment processing platform to accept payments online, over the phone, or in person. It also accepts Apple Pay and makes it easy for you to add GoDaddy Point of Sale.

You can accept all major credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Also you can accept contactless payments with providers such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. GoDaddy does not lock you into a long-term contract, so if at any time you wish to use a different payment processor, you can easily switch with no extra out-of-pocket expenses.

Source: GoDaddy.com

Like most payment processors, GoDaddy will take a percentage of each sale, but the rates are competitive. You are charged a basic rate of 2.3% plus 30 cents for online payments for each transaction. In-person sales are even better; the rate stays the same, but there is no 30-cent charge. Manual transactions are charged a flat rate of 3.3% per transaction.

Once processed, payments are automatically deposited into your bank account on the next business day. You are provided a simple interface for managing all payments and orders from a central location and an easy-to-use Dashboard.

A drawback to GoDaddy Payments is that it is currently not set up to accept international payments. This can be a big deal for companies in another country.

Several other popular online e-commerce payment processors:

Square
Stripe
PayPal

You can even configure your account to accept offline payments. This can work well for in-person stores, where people pay directly with cash, check, or debit.

Mobile support

Like most website platforms, GoDaddy Website Builder’s templates are fully responsive, performing equally well on the web and mobile devices. When you are developing your site, you will always be able to see how it looks on a phone.

Beyond this, GoDaddy has mobile apps for developing and managing your site for iOS and Android.

You can create projects from scratch, work with templates, add/edit images, including text graphics and shapes, and use many other features. Accessing your projects is possible across multiple platforms with Project Sync.

With the mobile app, you can do the following:

Build, edit, and update your online store
Upload new products (physical only)
Manage inventory
Manage orders
View, manage, and accept payments (requires GoDaddy Payments)
Sell anywhere using the GoDaddy card reader POS or by creating a QR code
Post on social media
Get sales alerts
View reports
Access site metrics
Communicate with customers

But there are some drawbacks to mobile apps. You cannot, for instance, add videos directly from this environment. This is frustrating if you are using your phone to create the videos in the first place — you will need to transfer these files to your computer before adding them. Also, you cannot run your email marketing campaigns directly from your mobile app; you must use the web interface.

Inventory management

You can manage your products by using the Inventory & Options tab for each product. It’s also possible to track inventory, specify the available quantities, set a low inventory alert, and allow back orders. Product options will enable you to offer varieties and how your customers can choose. Add-ons are freebies or services you can provide with each product.

As with most features of GoDaddy Online Store, inventory management is essential. There is no option for dropshipping, but it syncs automatically across sales channels, which is an excellent feature for a small online store.

One particularly helpful feature on the site is the inventory tracking function. You can track directly how many items you have in stock and identify if a particular item only has a certain number of copies available by marking it as a “limited” edition.

Source: GoDaddy.com

If there are variations for how to customize the product, you can specify size, color, material, or whatever custom option you want to provide. These can be presented as buttons, items from a drop-down, or a color swatch that you choose from a built-in color palette.

You also can provide add-ons to your product, which your customers can include with the purchase.

Unfortunately, GoDaddy does not appear to have inventory management from multiple locations, unlike competitor Shopify.

Email marketing

I felt GoDaddy stands out with its focus on marketing. The company understands that to run a successful business, you need to be able to reach your customers and help promote these items. Included with all of GoDaddy’s plans is an email marketing platform (the number you may send out depends on the level of plan you select).

GoDaddy’s marketing platform provides a wide selection of templates that you can use for sending out professional-looking email marketing campaigns. Also, you can create your own from scratch.

You can add content such as your logo and any text and even embed videos into your emails. GoDaddy will walk you through the process of constructing professional marketing emails, including making sure you have a good subject line, text, call-to-action buttons, images, and any video links.

Source: GoDaddy.com

You can start with a preset email layout or build your own. Add your content, choose your recipients, then decide when to send it. You will get a preview of your email on desktop and mobile before you send it out.

You can choose to track clicks, which is enabled by default. GoDaddy also allows you to segment your email list for more personalization.

GoDaddy’s email marketing feature is simple and easy if you use the templates. Building your own takes more effort and creativity, and it still does not give you much design control.

It does lack the advanced options provided by dedicated email marketing platforms like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and Constant Contact. Additionally, you have limited design control over your email layout. But it gets the job done, and all from one Dashboard.

Reporting and analytics

The GoDaddy Online Store Reports section provides basic information. You get sales trends and payment reports; the latter is only available if you have a GoDaddy Payments account. You can choose to get sales reports by day or hour and by online and in-person sales.

Sales reports:

Sales by period
Sales by SKU

These enable you to view information about your sales directly on the platform or download them as a CSV file.

GoDaddy payment reports:

Transactions
Payouts
POS orders
Taxes
Tips
Discounts
Fees

All can be filtered within a specified date range.

However, you can also get click rates from email marketing and abandoned cart history, but you need to look for those in other parts of the Dashboard. For site performance analytics, you will need to connect your account with Google Analytics.

For other site analytics, GoDaddy provides easy integration with Google Analytics and provides simple instructions for adding it to your site.

Shipping options

With GoDaddy, you can add various shipping methods. Basic Shipping Methods will give you the option of setting up:

Free shipping
Flat rate per order
Weight-based shipping

When someone buys from your store, it automatically calculates the shipping cost based on your specifications. You can offer free shipping, a carrier-specific rate, or a flat fee for the product. There is also an option to print shipping labels by setting up an account with ShipEngine.

Alternatively, to get more accurate shipping rates, you can set up Carrier-Based Shipping, which gives you the option of choosing:

U.S. Postal Service
UPS

To choose the latter, you must already have a UPS Access Key — you will need to set this up separately. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be an option for choosing any other different carriers, such as FedEx or DHL.

Daily backup available

Even entry-level hosting packages at GoDaddy provide daily backup options so you can be confident that your data is always kept safe. This is often a premium service at other hosting companies, so it is nice that GoDaddy recognizes the importance of backing up your site’s data.

Use of GoDaddy’s e-commerce tools

GoDaddy has a lot of different tools made specifically for e-commerce websites. The GoDaddy Payments feature is just the beginning. You will have access to these tools to build your e-commerce business successfully.

Some of the e-commerce; e-focused tools I was most impressed with:

Online pay links: GoDaddy makes it easy to create links that you can use so customers can more easily pay for your products or services.
E-commerce hosting: You will have several hosting options specifically set up for e-commerce sites to give you the best performance possible.
Online store tools: Once you set up your e-commerce site, you can use these tools to run sales, display prices, and much more.
Low payment fees: When using GoDaddy’s payment options, your transaction fees online will be 2.3% + $.30, which is lower than most other payment gateways out there. GoDaddy does not require contracts. It also does not have any setup fees or other hidden costs.

Source: GoDaddy.com

Free one-year domain name registration

It is not surprising that you will get a free domain name for a year when you purchase hosting at GoDaddy, but it is certainly a nice feature. This will help you to save some money when getting your website started. GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain name registration company, so you can be confident that you’re registering with pros.

Email through Microsoft 365

Rather than hosting domain-specific email addresses through its own servers, GoDaddy has partnered with Microsoft for this feature. Microsoft 365 is a cloud service with helpful features, including email management. You can create and access your site’s email addresses quickly and easily. I have been using the Microsoft 365 platform for years and absolutely love it, so I’m confident that you will appreciate how easy it will be to manage your email this way.

Daily malware scan

Malware is a big threat to online businesses, and GoDaddy takes that seriously. All of the hosting services from GoDaddy come with a daily malware scan that looks at all your files and folders to ensure nothing has been infected. This will protect your site and all the visitors to your site, which is extremely important.

Ability to hire an expert

An impressive feature that you will not find at most hosting companies is GoDaddy’s “Hire-an-Expert” option. It has a team of developers, marketing professionals, website designers, and others that you can hire if you need assistance with anything. This is an ideal feature for those who want to make a wonderful website but may not want to handle all aspects of managing it. While this feature is not free, it does give you reasonably-priced access to experts on an as-needed basis.

Performance and Uptime

(4.0)

GoDaddy offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and it has a strong overall reputation for performance and uptime. That said, it appears to block direct testing of its website, making it difficult to gather information. The testing results below are from websites hosted by GoDaddy but created by unrelated companies.

Uptime and reliability

GoDaddy offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and consistently meets or exceeds those levels. Unfortunately, it seems that GoDaddy has blocked external site monitoring tools for the last several years, which makes it very difficult to get up-to-date information. As you can see from the image below, it had great uptime and reliability for years before blocking this information.

Source: Hrank.com

Why would GoDaddy block testing?

While it is unfortunate that GoDaddy blocks the ability of people to perform certain types of tests against their site, it is not an indication of a problem. GoDaddy is one of the largest and most recognizable companies in the industry. Extremely popular companies like this often take steps to prevent ping tests and other similar things because the number of tests that people run against them can cause problems.

Site response times

GoDaddy’s servers are very responsive, ensuring your site will load up quickly for all your visitors. I ran tests on a GoDaddy-hosted website and it got an “A” ranking with good overall response times.

Source: GTMETRIX.com

On the site load tests that I performed, the site was fully loaded in an average of 1.81 seconds, which is well within the acceptable range. It is not the fastest hosting provider, but as long as a site loads in under two seconds, it will not cause problems or frustration with visitors.

Source: pingdom.com

Security

(5.0)

GoDaddy takes site security very seriously and offers many important features and functionality to ensure your site is always protected. GoDaddy includes an SSL certificate for all its plans, indicating it to users by the “HTTPS” in the store URL. SSL is an encryption protocol that keeps your internet communications safe and secure.

While SSL is typical for most e-commerce platforms, GoDaddy offers SSL and Code Signing certificates that meet WebTrust for Certification Authorities Principles and Criteria. GoDaddy also complies strictly with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

Secure websites

Your website with GoDaddy comes with several secure features:

Multi-factor authentication (MFA): You can ensure your passwords to your site are secure, using two-step authentication.
Daily malware scan: All hosting packages come with a free daily malware scan. This automated feature will see if your site has been infected with any type of malware. If there is a problem, it will notify you so you can either take care of it yourself or work with GoDaddy’s support team.
Automated backups: If you run into a problem with your site, GoDaddy offers daily backup service with its hosting packages. You can restore your site in just minutes without worrying about a thing. Many hosting companies charge for this type of service. If anything happens to your site, you can back up all of your important data, images, and more so you may restore your site quickly.
SSL certificate: This provides your customers with the comfort of knowing that your site is what you say it is, and their personal information is protected when they visit your site.
Firewall: You can set up a secure firewall to prevent your site from being hacked.
Monitoring: This feature lets you know if there are any current attacks happening on your site, and can help you fix issues if your site is down.
Updating your CMS: The CMS managing your site can be regularly updated to ensure that it has the latest patches to protect your site from hacks.
Secure payments: GoDaddy’s payment systems fully comply with government regulations that ensure credit card transactions remain secure and customers’ personal information does not fall into the wrong hands.

If you sign up for GoDaddy Payments or other payment processors with fraud detection, you have reasonably good protection from hackers. The level is what you would reasonably expect from most e-commerce platforms. That said, exporting your data as a backup can’t hurt.

Note: You will be using GoDaddy’s shared servers, so there’s always some risk of your site going down, but if you follow the above procedures, you should be relatively safe. It’s important to do backups regularly.

Support

(5.0)

GoDaddy has made customer support a priority since the beginning, which continues today. One of the main goals of this company is to help the average person create websites, so providing expert support is an absolute must.

You can get in touch with GoDaddy customer and technical support anytime you want, 24/7/year-round. I’ve always experienced friendly and helpful support from GoDaddy. However, while there are multiple channels of support — theoretically available 24/7— finding an actual person was somewhat difficult. The chatbots seemed to go in circles for technical questions and finding the support documentation required separate Google searches.

While there are many hosting companies that offer reliable customer support, GoDaddy stands out with its self-help and educational products. It has created hundreds of videos and tutorials that will help you to learn everything necessary about running a website.

This includes not just the technical side of how to create and host a site but also tips about marketing, SEO, e-commerce, and much more. If you want your site to be a success, I highly recommend taking the time to browse through the informational videos.

You can get in touch with them via live chat, text, or phone at any time based on your preference.

Chat: Finding support was somewhat difficult. Clicking on “Help Center” in the application created a chat window, but I could only interact with a bot. Simple searches for “documentation” were not recognized by the bot. Only after backing out of the Website Builder did I find the actual “Help Center,” which was not organized in any particular structure. To find articles, it was necessary to ask the right questions in the correct syntax.
Text: An easy-to-use QR code is on the website under Contact Us to send a text message. I tested it by sending a brief message to see if I would get an actual person. A bot responded immediately, saying the company would get back to me soon. It took about 25 minutes for a text back, and there seemed to be a lag between questions and responses.
Phone: Support by phone was somewhat better, though there was a bit of a wait to get to a person.
Community: GoDaddy appears to have a community, but it makes you jump through several hoops just to register to see posts. This was somewhat of a drawback at first, as normally, I’d like to be able to anonymously browse the site. But I did find that after clicking exit on the wizard, I could access the community pages, and it appears to be somewhat active. At the time of checking, the most recent question was three hours old, and there was already a reply. Most questions did have replies, so it appears that this can be a helpful resource for people looking to gain information on their own.
Help Center: When all else fails, search for answers to your questions in the GoDaddy Guides through numerous articles, how-to guides, and video tutorials.

GoDaddy claims to provide many ways of getting support, including chat or phone, but I found the chat option left much to be desired.

Recent Improvements

(5.0)

GoDaddy has done a lot to improve its hosting services over the years and continues to work hard to maintain its competitive advantage. You can read GoDaddy’s newsroom page to see all of the updates, but the following are a few that really jumped out at me:

Payments solution: GoDaddy launched an innovative payments solution that connects offline payment terminals with online sites to make commerce easier for millions of customers.
GoDaddy invoicing and payments: It has included new ways for website owners to send invoices and payments to customers, an excellent addition for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Google partnership: GoDaddy collaborated with Google to provide tools and information that can help website owners to boost their online sales.
WooCommerce extensions: GoDaddy released many new and innovative extensions for WooCommerce websites to improve the overall experience.
Flash player disabled: The old system, Website Builder 6, was built largely around Adobe’s Flash Player, which is now no longer supported. Disabling Flash Player required redesigning the entire back end using HTML5. The new site will now consistently work, and you won’t have to fear the lack of support since it uses an internet standard language.
New security boosts: GoDaddy’s Websites + Marketing has now incorporated MFA and is fully compliant with PCI-DSS rules provided by the government, so you and your shoppers can enjoy confidence in using the site safely.
Central dashboard: Not only can you manage your site from a central location with the new Dashboard, but GoDaddy provides the ability to manage all social media contacts, emails, products, and appointments from one place. With the Dashboard, you can edit and preview your website, create social media posts, and keep track of your customers. It also provides tons of suggestions for how to improve your site.
Added TikTok, Twitch, and Discord to social media buttons: GoDaddy added social media buttons to these social media platforms in October 2021. You can configure your social media buttons on your Edit Site > Settings > Social Media Links. Add a Social section by hovering over the area where you want to add it.
Added a Hire an Expert link: GoDaddy added a Hire an Expert link to provide paid marketing support. The service benefits store owners looking to hire professional designers to create their online stores, marketers to help advertise, or SEO experts to help optimize your site. Make a reservation or call the number for a chat.
Added a Quote section: Quotes can be eye-catching and memorable when used right. GoDaddy added a quote section in September 2021 for testimonials or inspirational lines. If you want to add a dash of motivation, you can add a Quote section under General, choose and edit the layout, upload the image, and type the quote.
Added a Podcast section: Podcasts are the go-to content for people on the go and possibly the new mass medium for content consumption. GoDaddy allowed store owners to add podcast episodes to their online store in September 2021. If you can create engaging episodes, this is an excellent way to get people’s attention. You can add a Podcast section under Audio & Video in the Edit Website.

What is interesting about GoDaddy’s improvements is that they cover many things and are not just focused on web hosting or domain name registration. This company is taking a holistic approach to its long-term strategy, which should serve its customers well.

Compare GoDaddy Alternatives

There is a lot to love about GoDaddy, but this company is not for everyone.

GoDaddy is a solid choice as a hosting provider. For ecommerce, GoDaddy’s Website Builder does a fairly good job of meeting the competition and filling a niche not necessarily available with some of the more powerful competitors. While you won’t find all of the features available in Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, it is a simple alternative for those with basic site needs and limited technical knowledge.

Looking at alternatives is an ideal way to learn which one will provide you with the best possible hosting experience. See how GoDaddy stacks up against leading competitors.

Web host	Starting price	Hosting packages	Basic plan features
GoDaddy Overall rating (4.5)	$5.99 per month	Shared VPS Dedicated	1 website 100GB storage Unlimited bandwidth Daily backups Free one-year domain name registration
SiteGround Overall rating (4.7) Read our full SiteGround review. Consider SiteGround if: you want to keep your costs low without sacrificing quality.	$2.99 per month	Shared WordPress WooCommerce Cloud Reseller	1 website 10GB storage Unlimited bandwidth Free email
DreamHost Overall rating (4.6) Read our full DreamHost review. Consider DreamHost if: You want to keep prices low and security high.	$2.95 per month	Shared WordPress WooCommerce VPS Cloud Dedicated	1 website SSD storage Unlimited traffic Free one-year domain name registration
GreenGeeks Overall rating (4.3) Read our full GreenGeeks review. Consider GreenGeeks if: You want to minimize your website’s carbon footprint.	$2.95 per month	Shared WordPress VPS Reseller	1 website 50 GB storage Unlimited bandwidth Free nightly backups
InMotion Hosting Overall rating (4.0) Read our full InMotion Hosting review. Consider InMotion Hosting if: You need high-quality hosting at an affordable price.	$3.49 per month	Shared WordPress VPS Dedicated Reseller	2 websites 100 GB SSD storage Unlimited bandwidth 10 free email addresses

Frequently Asked Questions About GoDaddy

Who owns GoDaddy?

GoDaddy is a publicly traded company.

What kind of support does GoDaddy offer?

GoDaddy has an exceptional team of support technicians ready to assist with anything that you need. This starts with a 24/7 live support team that can be reached via phone, email, or live chat. GoDaddy has also created a large self-help section and educational videos that will answer most questions. Besides English, GoDaddy’s customer service is provided in many languages.

Where are the GoDaddy servers located?

In Arizona, GoDaddy owns its primary data center in Phoenix and operates several leased facilities in Scottsdale and Mesa. It also has facilities in Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Ashburn, Virginia; Amsterdam, and Singapore. GoDaddy has confirmed that it will be migrating a significant amount of its web hosting to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure with servers distributed around the world using the AWS systems.

What are the best alternatives to GoDaddy?

GoDaddy is a capable hosting company that has been around for a long time. But depending on your specific needs it may not be the perfect option. If you don’t want to use GoDaddy, consider one of these excellent alternatives: Bluehost, HostGator, Web.com, Shopify, SiteGround, and DreamHost.

Can you automatically install WordPress with GoDaddy?

Absolutely. If you choose GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress hosting options, it will be installed (along with some plug-ins and themes) by default. If you choose a different type of hosting, you can install one-click WordPress.

Does unlimited hosting mean what I think it means?

Yes and no. Shared plans do come with unlimited storage, but you are limited to 250,000 files/folders (and each email counts as a file). Furthermore, there are certain “soft” caps on other resources — if your usage exceeds these caps, GoDaddy may throttle the resources available to your website and, in extreme cases, may even prevent your use of the resources, leading to site downtime.

What are GoDaddy’s nameservers?

If your domain name is registered someplace else (for example with Namecheap) then you need to update the domain’s nameservers. You will find the correct NS values in your control panel. For example, GoDaddy’s default DNS nameservers look like: ns01.domaincontrol.com and ns02.domaincontrol.com. Their premium DNS nameservers look like: pdns01.domaincontrol.com and pdns02.domaincontrol.com. Again find the right information by logging into your web hosting cPanel.

What if I decide to cancel my hosting package with GoDaddy?

GoDaddy offers a money-back guarantee however it is related to the length of your web hosting plan. So do read the fine print. However, you do qualify for 45-day money-return guarantee if you have selected their annual plan.

Which GoDaddy plan is best for WordPress sites?

The best plan for self-hosted WordPress users depends on the total number of sites hosted. Although the Developer plan is the most expensive one, it’s meant for people who own 5 websites and have up to 800,000 monthly visitors. On the other hand, the Ultimate plan can handle one or two WordPress sites, and 400,000 monthly visitors. It also includes malware protection.

GoDaddy also offers managed WordPress options, which includes bonuses like WordPress installed by default, staging areas, and dedicated phone support lines (no live chat, though).

What features does the GoDaddy’s website builder offer?

First of all, you’ll find many free templates to start customizing your website with. You’ll also find a nice library of 8,700 free photos. Another feature you can add to your website is a shopping cart. If you’re really short on time, GoDaddy’s Website Builder offers you pre-built websites with pre-written words and pictures. It just takes a mere 5 minutes to perform a tweak and you’re good to go.

How many products can you have on GoDaddy?

You can add up to 5,000 digital and physical products with the Commerce plan and an unlimited number with Commerce Plus.

How do GoDaddy payments work?

GoDaddy Payments works as a payment processor allowing online stores to accept credit and debit cards. It also allows you to receive online payments through social media, email, or text using Online Pay Links. GoDaddy Payments uses technology and teams acquired from Poynt in December 2020.

What Is GoDaddy the Company?

GoDaddy is perhaps the most recognizable name in the website industry. The largest domain name registrar in the world, this company is among the largest web hosting providers as well. With more than 84 million domain names and 21 million separate customers, there is no doubt that this company is popular and trusted.

Today, GoDaddy boasts more than 9,000 employees working hard to support customers worldwide. This company has a solid overall reputation for quality services, including hosting, domain name registration, web consultation, and more.

If you want to run a website, GoDaddy has various services and solutions to help you meet your goals. You can learn more about this company by looking at some of its official platforms below:

14455 N. Hayden Rd., Scottsdale, AZ 85260
1-480-366-3550
Official website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube

How I Rated GoDaddy

I test web hosts based on the following factors:

Plan value: What plans are available, and do they offer a good value?
Ease of use: Is the dashboard easy to navigate?
Support: How fast can you get help when needed, and is support genuinely helpful?
Features: What features does the host offer, and how do they compare to similar competitors?
Security: Does the host offer SSL certificates, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack protection, backup services, and scans for viruses and malware?
Speed and uptime: Does the provider offer a fast, stable environment for your website? How does it perform in tests, and what kind of servers does the hosting company use?
Recent improvements: What has the host done lately to update its technology and services?

Learn more about our review methodology.

GoDaddy Review 2024

Table of Contents

Whoishostingthis.com’s Editor Rating?

What Users Say About GoDaddy?

What Are the Pros and Cons of GoDaddy?

GoDaddy’s Editorial Review

Who Should Choose GoDaddy?

Plans and Pricing

Features

Performance and Uptime

Security

Support

Recent Improvements

Compare GoDaddy Alternatives

Frequently Asked Questions About GoDaddy

What Is GoDaddy the Company?

How I Rated GoDaddy

GoDaddy

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