HostGator vs. GoDaddy

HostGator vs. GoDaddy: Specs

Plans & Pricing

HostGator has three plans: Hatchling, Baby and Business. GoDaddy offers four plans: Economy, Deluxe, Ultimate, and Maximum. While the plans are similar, HostGator is cheaper, offering its basic plan at $2.75 per month as opposed to GoDaddy’s $6.99 a month (when paid for one year in advance).

It’s worth pointing out that HostGator’s best rates also need to be paid three years in advance, which will revert to the standard rate of $7.99 per month. However, that’s still cheaper than when GoDaddy’s Economy plan also reverts to its non-promotion rate of $9.99 per month.

Any way you slice it, HostGator is the better deal, both over the long and short term.

Winner: HostGator wins thanks to overall lower rates and similar features at equivalent plan levels.

Features

Both services have great competitive options which add value to any plan you choose. They’re similar enough that I can’t crown a winner in this category. However, I’ll still give a brief overview of what you can expect from each provider so you can see if one fits the bill better for your own needs.

GoDaddy’s standout features include a free domain name for one year, a free SSL certificate, free website transfer, and unlimited storage on most plans. It also features a fully featured website builder and easy-to-use payment systems for ecommerce sites. It also provides daily maintenance, such as backups and malware scans at all plan levels.

HostGator’s standout features include customizable templates, easy drag-and-drop technology, and an SSL certificate. It also offers a free domain to all users for their first year at unmetered bandwidth and unlimited disk space. Backups come in the form of a Cloudflare CDN integration which works great to keep your website data safe.

Winner: It’s a tie! While they are slightly different, both services offer a great host of features.

Performance and Uptime

In many ways this one was a foregone conclusion — HostGator has one of the best track records for long-term uptime in the business. While the service has seen some fluctuations over the years, HostGator’s long-term uptime is over 99.99%, which is exceptional. If you host your website on HostGator, you can be assured that your site will run consistently.

Meanwhile, it’s hard to get a read on GoDaddy — literally, as it appears to block direct testing of its website. GoDaddy has been blocking external site monitoring tools for the last several years, which makes it very difficult to get up-to-date information. However, GoDaddy’s servers are very responsive, ensuring your site loads quickly for all your visitors. I ran tests on a GoDaddy-hosted website, and it got an “A” ranking with good overall response times.

However, I will have to stick with HostGator on this one. I love the reliability and the transparency.

Winner: HostGator has some of the best long-term uptime scores in the business and takes the win easily.

Security

Both GoDaddy and HostGator take spam protection and security seriously. HostGator allows its users to block IP addresses, while GoDaddy highlights its virus, fraud, and spam protection on all plans. Both also provide malware scans of the websites hosted with them.

Where GoDaddy gets the edge over HostGator is in their daily backups. GoDaddy offers daily backup service with all of its hosting packages. You can restore your site in just minutes without worrying about a thing. Many hosting companies charge for this service, but it is included as part of every hosting package the GoDaddy offers.

Winner: GoDaddy goes the distance by offering daily backups with all hosting plans.

Support

HostGator’s customer support is superior, offering 24/7/365 live chat, email, and phone support, plus a rich knowledge base and active community forum.

It’s important to point out that both have community forums, and in-depth knowledge bases to help you with your FAQs. But, HostGator’s support network is preferable.

In the end, HostGator has the better customer support experience, with 24/7/365 support when you need it.

Winner: HostGator’s customer support experience is easier, especially with live chat support.

Recent Improvements

It’s clear that both HostGator and GoDaddy are great at implementing new features and keeping on top of customer feedback and fixing bugs. No matter which service you choose, you can count on each to be responsive to customer feedback and quickly fix any potential issues.However, I felt that GoDaddy had the upper hand here. Not only is the company maintaining its product, but it’s also going the extra mile to think outside the box. GoDaddy’s improvements aren’t 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 — A recent partnership with Google is a perfect example.

While you can’t go wrong with either, GoDaddy has the edge from my perspective.

Winner: GoDaddy wins this one, thanks to a focus on powerful partnerships and useful extensions to its services.

Final Thoughts

There is no doubt that HostGator and GoDaddy are both world-class web hosting services that offer similar plans, prices, and features. They both have excellent uptime and offer varying plans with different amounts of monthly data transfers, storage, and other features. Overall, HostGator is the better value of the two companies because of its more affordable pricing and all-inclusive hosting packages.

However, it’s important to note that GoDaddy operates no less than nine data centers: seven in the U.S., one in Amsterdam, and one in Singapore. The physical distance between visitors and servers matters, and GoDaddy is closer to international crowds. When signing up for the service, GoDaddy will let you choose your data center, making it a much better option for more people across the globe.

It’s an extremely close match, but one that I have to call on the side of HostGator. In the end, you can’t go wrong with either.

How We Evaluated HostGator vs. 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.