10 Top GoDaddy Alternatives for Web Hosting and Domain Registration

Even though GoDaddy is a household name these days, the company was originally known as Jomax Technologies when it was founded back in 1997. Jomax Technologies was rebranded several years later and was initially supposed to be renamed to BigDaddy. That domain name was already taken, however, so the people in charge decided to rebrand the company as GoDaddy instead. A bit ironic that one of today’s biggest registrars wasn’t able to acquire the domain name it wanted for its own website.

Short history lesson aside, nowadays GoDaddy is known not just as a domain registrar but also as a web hosting provider. In fact, in recent times the company has been focusing more and more on hosting while also starting to offer a variety of other services on the side.

But, as anybody who has ever worked with GoDaddy can tell you, some of these services are more reliable than others. Hosting, in particular, isn’t exactly the company’s strong suit at the moment, which is why you may want to look into a few GoDaddy alternatives just so you can get a good idea of what else is out there.

With so many hosting companies competing for your attention, it can be difficult to figure out the best provider for your needs. Luckily, you don’t have to test every single option for yourself because we have already done part of the work for you by preparing a list of top GoDaddy alternatives.

The Best GoDaddy Alternatives for Web Hosting

While we’re primarily interested in alternatives to GoDaddy’s hosting services, we will also touch upon a couple of good alternatives for domain registrations a bit later on. For now, though, let’s take a look at the hosting alternatives. Here are our picks at a glance:

• Bluehost – The best all-around alternative to GoDaddy, especially for beginners
• DreamHost – Very affordable shared hosting plans and quality customer service
• SiteGround – Great option for those worried about security and performance
• HostGator – Long-time rival of GoDaddy that usually offers much better uptime
• WP Engine – Premium GoDaddy alternative for fans of managed WordPress hosting
• InMotion Hosting – Very diverse range of products and plenty of great features
• A2 Hosting – Excellent reseller hosting and an unbeatable money-back guarantee
• Hostinger – Incredibly cheap hosting plans that don’t disappoint in terms of quality either

1. Bluehost

We think it’s only fitting to have Bluehost at the number one spot on our list of GoDaddy alternatives since the two companies have been bitter rivals for ages. Similar to GoDaddy, Bluehost is an all-in-one provider that offers hosting, domain registrations, website builder, and various other services. Bluehost is known as being one of the cheapest hosting providers around, with prices that are significantly lower compared to those of GoDaddy.

To be fair, GoDaddy does offer better prices and more customization options for virtual private servers. But as far as the other types of services are concerned, they are pretty difficult to recommend, primarily due to their high prices. The shared hosting, in particular, can be considered quite expensive at $6.99 per month. Meanwhile, Bluehost only charges $3.95 per month for similar hosting packages.

The King of WordPress

Bluehost has put a lot of effort into ensuring that its hosting plans appeal to WordPress users. Not only are its shared hosting packages optimized for the CMS, but the company offers an additional series of plans designed for those who prefer high-performance managed WordPress hosting. Bluehost’s WP Pro plans start at $19.95 per month, so they’re a bit more expensive compared to the standard variety, however, they do come with quite a few benefits.

WP Pro gives users access to a very helpful all-in-one marketing center that comes with analytics, SEO tools, social media integration, and more. There are also quite a few premium themes included along with WordPress staging environments, unlimited SSD storage, support for unlimited domains, automatic updates, daily scheduled backups, and more. GoDaddy has its own WordPress-centric services but the company can’t hold a candle to Bluehost in this department.

Grow Your Business

Although Bluehost is famous for being one of the best GoDaddy alternatives for beginners, the company is equally adept at helping established and growing businesses of all sizes. If you’re looking to set up a small online shop, for example, you’ll be able to find WooCommerce-based hosting plans at Bluehost that include everything you need to start a successful online business. These plans come bundled with a customizable storefront theme, marketing credits, various shopping carts, and more.

Bluehost also offers a variety of professional marketing services designed for users who are looking to take a small company to the next level. In addition to helping you with website migrations, search engine optimization, and advertising campaigns, Bluehost can also design and manage your website for you. This service can get a bit pricey depending on your specific needs but is well worth it if you’re looking to redesign and improve your website, as Bluehost will take care of virtually everything for you, including some of the content if necessary.

Popular for All the Right Reasons

If you’re looking to sign up with a company that has a proven track record don’t hesitate to check out Bluehost today.

2. DreamHost

DreamHost began operating more than two decades ago, roughly around the same time as GoDaddy. But while GoDaddy expanded into multiple areas over the years, DreamHost chose to focus most of its efforts on web hosting. As a result, DreamHost managed to surpass its long-time competitor in this particular department and can rightly be considered one of the best GoDaddy alternatives available on the market today.

DreamHost decided to put a lot of emphasis on user-friendliness from day one and continues to lean on that very same idea even now. This makes the service especially ideal for users who have little to no experience with web hosting. Just like Bluehost and SiteGround, DreamHost is officially endorsed by WordPress so if you want to build a new site using the CMS you’re definitely in the right place.

Affordable Web Hosting

A lot of companies claim to offer affordable hosting but in the case of DreamHost it’s actually true. How cheap are we talking about? As little as $2.59 per month if you go with a basic shared hosting plan. Cloud hosting packages start at only $4.50 per month while a virtual private server will only set you back $10 per month. Managed WordPress hosting and dedicated servers are a bit pricey, as is to be expected from these types of services, but overall everything is pretty cheap here.

But what truly makes DreamHost one of the most affordable GoDaddy options is the fact that is supports monthly billing and has low renewal costs. Even better, you get a lot of nice tools and features included with each hosting package. Free domain name for the first year, automated website migrations, SSD storage, free SSL certificate, daily backups, and a custom control panel are just some of the highlights. There’s even a 97-day money-back guarantee to top it all off.

Some of the Best Customer Service Out There

Bad customer service can be a major deal-breaker for a lot of people and it’s easy to see why. Support agents are meant to be the last line of defense in situations when something goes wrong and you don’t know how to fix the problem yourself. Few things are as frustrating as agents who are clueless or take too long to reply. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about any of that at DreamHost because the company has some of the best customer service out there.

DreamHost agents are extremely friendly, to the point where you’re feeling like your talking to an old buddy whenever you get a message or email from them. In addition, they usually go to great lengths to help you with any problem you may have and they’re always very detailed with their replies. The only thing that drags things down a notch is the lack of phone support. However, as we mentioned in our DreamHost review, the ticket system and live chat are great and existing customers can always request a callback if they have an issue that can only be resolved via phone.

Independently Owned Company

Tired of working with hosting providers owned by big corporations, we recommend trying out DreamHost, an independently run company that doesn’t answer to anyone, except its customers.

3. SiteGround

SiteGround is another popular GoDaddy alternative you should consider if you’re looking for a high-performance, yet still user-friendly hosting solution. Their customer support is always top-notch to the point where it can give even GoDaddy’s massive team of tech agents a run for its money. One of the other thing that immediately stands out about SiteGround is its good location coverage, with the company boasting six data centers spread across four continents.

As far as the pricing is concerned, SiteGround isn’t necessarily one of the cheapest options out there, however, you do get what you pay for. The company’s $6.99/mo basic shared hosting plan is a little more expensive when compared to GoDaddy’s equivalent package. But, SiteGround is one of the few companies that support monthly billing so at least you can pay in small increments, as opposed to paying a large sum upfront in order to gain a discount over time.

Stellar Performance

If you don’t mind spending a couple of extra bucks if that means having better performance, you won’t be disappointed by what SiteGround has to offer. The company always ranks high in performance tests and routinely surpasses most of its competitors when it comes to uptime and loading speeds. And that’s when looking at shared web hosting. If we’re talking cloud hosting, the results are even more impressive and easily blow companies like GoDaddy out of the water.

During recent performance tests we conducted as part of our SiteGround review, we found that a simple WordPress website powered by SiteGround usually loads in as little as 645 ms. Meanwhile, the server response times tend to hover between 40 and 300 ms depending on where you are in the world while the uptime sits at a very solid 99.9%. A lot of other hosting providers promise s similar uptime guarantee, including GoDaddy, but we found that SiteGround is one of the only companies that can realistically deliver on that promise.

Security Done Right

SiteGround goes above and beyond to ensure that its services not only perform well but are also highly secure. To that end, the company put together a number of teams that specialize in various important areas like 24/7 system administration, web security threats, and development of custom security solutions. SiteGround’s security experts have developed in-house a lot of powerful tools over the years, many of which can be used by customers for free.

One of the most important proprietary security tools is an advanced firewall system that protects websites from exploits and software vulnerabilities. Even more impressive is the fact that the WAF continuously evolves to adapt to new emerging threats. In addition to the firewall, websites powered by SiteGround are also protected by an AI-based system that blocks malicious traffic and brute-force attempts. To top it all off, SiteGround also uses a monitoring system that performs server checks every 0.5 seconds and attempts to automatically fix any issues it encounters.

Professional Hosting for Successful Businesses

Sign up with SiteGround today to take advantage of professional and fairly priced high-performance hosting.

4. HostGator

HostGator can easily serve as a great GoDaddy alternative for both web hosting and domain registrations. However, we’re going to primarily recommend it for hosting as we have a couple of better alternatives for domain registrations that we’re going to cover a bit later on.

So what makes HostGator such a good replacement for GoDaddy? There are a number of reasons but the one that you’re most likely to notice right away is the price. Shared hosting plans here are priced between $2.75 and $5.95 per month while GoDaddy charges anywhere between $5.99 and $19.99 per month for equivalent packages. That’s quite a big difference. But despite being cheaper, HostGator also tends to include more resources and features in its packages.

Excellent Uptime

If you read our HostGator review you know that we don’t shy away from pointing out that the company is far from perfect. Indeed, there are quite a few things you can criticize HostGator for, but there’s one area where the provider truly shines – server uptime. While not perfect, HostGator managed a very impressive 99.98% uptime during our testing period, which is far beyond many of its competitors. In short, the provider’s 99.9% uptime guarantee should definitely be taken seriously.

Speaking of performance, HostGator isn’t doing too badly in other areas either, especially when you take a look at server response times. Page loading speeds could be a bit better but, at the end of the day, the same thing can be said about GoDaddy as well. The two companies are overall pretty evenly matched in terms of performance but HostGator tends to be more reliable from our experience.

In-House Website Builder

Building a website is easier than ever before thanks to WordPress, Wix, Squarespace and many others but there’s always room on the market for even more similar platforms. A couple of years ago, HostGator decided to create its own website builder aptly named Gator. The drag-and-drop builder was designed with simplicity in mind and is a good alternative to GoDaddy’s own website builder.

HostGator gives you access to a generic website builder simply by buying one of its hosting plans, but the Gator builder is a bit different and needs to be purchased separately. The company followed the systems used by Wix and Weebly where you subscribe to the builder and get the hosting for free, as opposed to the other way around. Gator plans start off at $3.84 per month and come with everything you need to set up a new website, including domain name, SSL certificate, analytics, plenty of templates, and more. For a few bucks extra, you also get built-in eCommerce functionality.

Jack-of-all-Trades

Visit HostGator today to find out which type of hosting works best for you and your website.

5. WP Engine

WP Engine is the ideal service for anyone looking for a GoDaddy alternative that offers premium WordPress hosting. Unlike all the other companies on this list, WP Engine focuses exclusively on managed WordPress hosting. Consequently, WP Engine is often touted as being the one of the best providers when it comes to handling this particular type of hosting.

GoDaddy doesn’t offer managed WordPress plans while the unmanaged ones are more or less identical to its standard shared hosting packages. You’ll notice this pattern at a lot of other hosting providers, including some of the ones found on this list. WP Engine does things a bit differently. You won’t find affordable unmanaged plans here but what you will find is much better quality, performance and even customer support.

The Power of Open-Source

A lot of hosting providers take advantage of open-source software and technology to power their services, but very few are as adept at doing so as WP Engine. The company integrates with over 30 open-source technologies, including the likes of Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, HubSpot, and more. These technologies allow WP Engine to harness the power of the cloud while also giving them access to data centers owned by juggernauts like Google and Amazon.

GoDaddy has nine data centers spread across the globe, which is pretty impressive compared to a lot of other hosting providers. However, WP Engine lets you pick between no less than 20 data centers thanks to its partnership with some of the aforementioned companies. WP Engine also offers more locations to choose from, ranging from North America and Europe all the way to Asia and Australia.

Unique Features and Add-Ons

Prices at WP Engine start at $25 per month or $30 per month with an annual plan. The service isn’t exactly cheap but you do get your money’s worth. Every hosting plan includes access to the Genesis Framework package, which usually costs $59.95 by itself if you were to purchase it separately. That’s already great value but you also get over 35 professional StudioPress themes to go with it, along with productivity tools, staging environments, automated SSL certificates, global CDN, site migrations, and more.

WP Engine’s basic hosting package offers more than enough tools and features to help you build and manage a professional WordPress website. But if that’s not enough, you could always grab a couple of add-ons. We’re generally not the biggest fans of paid add-ons but the ones offered by WP Engine are quite useful. A few examples include a smart plugin manager, additional site building tools, website security suite, and performance booster.

The Smart Solution for WordPress Enthusiasts

Visit WP Engine today to see for yourselves why the company is the most popular provider of managed WordPress hosting.

6. InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting is a perfect example of a jack-of-all-trades hosting provider. This GoDaddy alternative is extremely versatile, offering shared hosting, virtual private servers, cloud hosting, dedicated servers, and more. In addition to the standard types of hosting you might expect, the company also sells more specialized server solutions for business owners, agencies, resellers, and even freelancers.

InMotion’s prices have fluctuated many times over the years, but as of this writing, the company’s services are extremely cheap. A basic shared hosting plan will only set you back around $2.50 per month while a VPS goes for $18 per month or even cheaper if you’re opting for an unmanaged variant. The company also has its own site builder called BoldGrid that you can subscribe to separately for $5 per month.

No Shortage of Features

Despite its relatively low prices, InMotion’s packages are remarkably rich in features. Every single plan comes with SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, professional emails, daily backups, free SSL certificate, malware protection, access to over than 400 applications, and more. The previously mentioned BoldGrid website builder is included for free as well. The builder alone costs more than the basic shared hosting plan so getting it for free as part of the package is undoubtedly a great deal.

In addition to all of that, InMotion Hosting also supports a lot of technologies and scripting languages that are particularly valuable to developers. A few examples include PostgreSQL, MySQL, Ruby, PHP, and Python. To top it all off, the company also promises free website transfers with zero downtime. But keep in mind that only certain websites are eligible for a free transfer while others require a small fee.

Custom Solutions for Complex Hosting Needs

If you’re looking for a provider that offers a lot of variety you won’t be disappointed by what InMotion Hosting has to offer. While most companies gives you a handful of hosting packages to choose from, here you have more than enough options. You have a few dozen server solutions at your disposal if you include private cloud and self-managed VPS packages but the real stars of the show in our opinion are the dedicated servers.

InMotion offers a large selection of dedicated servers, both managed and unmanaged, while also giving customers the opportunity to fully customize their server. And we’re not just talking about configuring system resources, though that option is obviously included as well. But in addition to that, you can also choose the data center, network connection, firewall, power supply, and a couple of other options. If you want to customize your server even more, you can always reach out to InMotion and they’ll be more than happy to help you build the server of your dreams.

Professional WordPress Website in Just 2 Days

For a one-time fee of $99 the company will build you a professional looking website and deliver it in just 2 days. Visit InMotion Hosting to find out more.

Check out our InMotion Hosting review for additional information about the company and its various services.

7. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is one of the best GoDaddy alternatives on the market for users who are on a budget. Shared hosting plans at A2 start at only $3 per month, which is only about half of what GoDaddy charges. Plus, the company also supports monthly billing so there’s no need to worry about having to make a large upfront investment. As always, going with monthly billing will cost you more over time but the advantage is that you can pay in small increments.

The other major aspect that makes A2 a very affordable hosting solution is its famous ‘anytime money-back guarantee’. Thanks to this generous and unique refund policy, users can benefit from risk-free hosting for the whole duration of their contract. There is a very specific time window when you can cancel your contract and receive a full refund but you can expect to get a prorated refund regardless of when you choose to cancel it.

Amazing Value for Virtual Private Servers

When we mentioned that A2 is an affordable hosting solution we weren’t just talking about shared hosting plans. In fact, you’ll get the best bang for your buck by purchasing a VPS instead. The company offers three types of virtual private servers, the cheapest of which will only set you back $5 per month. The server resources are fairly limited but it’s hard to complain about that considering the extremely low price tag.

The $5/mo VPS and its upgrade options are unmanaged and aimed primarily at experienced developers. If you’re looking for a more user-friendly alternative, you can find managed virtual private servers starting at $25 per month. That may sound a bit expensive but for that price you’re getting a server with 75GB of SSD storage, 4GB of RAM, quad-core CPU, root access, and a free site transfer to boot. Overall, that’s very good value for the money in our opinion.

Become the Host

One of the other things A2 is famous for is its reseller hosting plans. This type of hosting isn’t meant for regular users, but rather for those who find themselves needing to take on the role of middleman and offer hosting services to clients or employees. Setting up your own hosting business from scratch is no easy feat but you can get the next best thing when you buy a reseller hosting package from A2.

Reseller hosting plans range in price between $13.19 and $40.91 per month. Quite affordable all things considered. In exchange, you get a good chunk of resources that you can distribute to the people you’re hosting as you see fit along with a number of features that will help you manage things easier. A few examples include cPanel/WHM, Blesta, and an unlimited number of SSL certificates.

Lightning-Fast Servers

Sign up with A2 Hosting today to test Turbo performance for yourself, along with a wide range of other amazing technologies developed in-house.

Check out our A2 Hosting review if you want to learn more about the company.

8. Hostinger

Hostinger is a fantastic GoDaddy alternatives for users on a budget. Some of the other companies mentioned earlier on this list are pretty cheap in their own right but Hostinger really takes the cake when it comes to affordability. Shared plans here start at just $0.99 per month, provided you don’t mind long-term commitments. But you don’t have to jump in head first because the company has a 30-day money-back guarantee refund policy, which allows you to test the service for next to nothing.

In addition to shared hosting, the provider also offers cloud hosting, dedicated servers, virtual private servers, domain registrations, and a few other services. The VPS packages are particularly interesting because Hostinger is one of the few companies that supports both Linux and Windows-based servers. Hostinger mixes things up by also offering quality Minecraft hosting at very reasonable prices.

Great Support for Online Stores

Building an online store can be quite difficult if you don’t have any experience with eCommerce. Hostinger is well aware of that, which is why it greatly simplified the process. Signing up with one of the company’s eCommerce plans will give you all the tools needed to set up your own online business quickly and painlessly. Not just that but you can also find a lot of documentation on Hostinger’s website that will guide you through the entire process.

At $8.99 per month, Hostinger’s eCommerce plans may seem significantly more expensive than its shared hosting plans, however, the price is quite fair compared to what other companies are offering. In exchange, you get a drag-and-drop builder complete with plenty of professional templates, the ability to integrate with social media platforms or big marketplaces like Amazon, inventory management, tax calculator, the ability to accept online payments, and more. Even better, Hostinger is also 100$ commission free.

Surprisingly Good Performance and Support

We tend to associate cheap products with bad quality but the two don’t always have to go hand-in-hand. Despite Hostinger’s absurdly low prices, the service quality and performance are both very good. Hostinger has 7 data centers spread across four continents and has customizable server-level caching solutions. It also integrates with Cloudflare and most of the company’s hosting plans come with SSD storage for an extra boost of speed.

As far as the customer support is concerned, it’s better than most people would expect. This is a truly global company that has offices in many locations around the world and offer support in dozens of different languages. This is quite a departure from most other hosting providers, including GoDaddy, which focus primarily on English speakers and tend to neglect many of their international customers. That’s not the case here and tech agents are available 24/7 to boot.

Your Very Own Virtual Private Server For Cheap

Visit Hostinger to get a cheap VPS and make sure to take advantage of some of the other great offers while you’re there.

The Best GoDaddy Alternatives for Domain Registration

If you already decided where you’re going to buy your web hosting from, you might as well take it one step further and also look into a couple of GoDaddy alternatives for domain registration. These are our personal recommendations:

• Namecheap – Very cheap domain registrations coupled with decent web hosting plans
• Domain.com – Supports a very wide variety of extensions and has great security features

1. Namecheap

As is to be expected from a company that has the word ‘cheap’ in its title, Namecheap offers affordable domain registrations and web hosting plans. The hosting prices are almost as low as those found as Hostinger, namely $1.24/mo for a basic shared plan. Just like GoDaddy, Namecheap includes a free domain name with every package but here you’re potentially getting a much better deal since the hosting itself is significantly cheaper.

The caveat to Namecheap’s offer is that only domains that have certain extensions can be registered for free. Unfortunately, extensions like .com and a couple of others are not eligible but you can register them at a discount if you have a hosting plan, so that’s still a pretty good deal. If you want to register a .com domain separately, on the other hand, it will only cost you $8.88 for the first term and $12.98/yr upon renewal. By comparison, GoDaddy charges $12.17 for registrations and $18.17 for renewals. In addition, GoDaddy also requires you to pay for two years in advance for .com domains.

Bulk Domain Search

Namecheap offers a large variety of services that make it easier to search, buy, sell, and transfer domain names. The Bulk Domain Search Feature is one of the most interesting ones and it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The tool that lets you search for domains in bulk has several filtering options, allows you to set the price range, domain niche, extension type and more.

Another useful service provided by Namecheap is a marketplace where you can not only buy but also sell domains. There are a lot of other places where you can sell the domains you no longer need, but most of them charge hefty commissions. Namecheap’s commission rate is a flat 10%, which is quite reasonable all things considered.

Premium DNS for Less than $5 a Year

Improve the security of your domain with affordable premium DNS available only at Namecheap.

2. Domain.com

Domain.com is a company that specializes in, you guessed it, domain name registrations. Web hosting along with an array of other services are available as well should you decide to take advantage of everything Domain.com has to offer. Some of the services don’t offer quite as much value compared to what you would be getting at GoDaddy, but you can definitely expect to find better deals for domains.

Buying a .com domain here will only set you back $9.99 per year while a .net one goes for $12.99 per year. There are also quite a few special deals that you can take advantage of in order to buy a new domain for just a couple of bucks. Domains with extensions like .live, .stream, .digital will cost you less than $3 per year and there are a couple of others that go for even less.

Premium Security Features

Most websites can get away with having just a free SSL certificate, but if you want your business to be taken seriously you’ll want to consider getting a premium certificate instead. It may sound like doing so could cost you a lot of money but that’s not actually the case. You can get a premium SSL certificate from Domain.com for just $3 per month or $9 per month if you need a Wildcard SSL certificate that can be used to protect multiple subdomains.

If you want to add an extra layer of protection on top of SSL, you may also want to consider getting SiteLock. SiteLock is a very popular cybersecurity suite that helps protect your website from malware, hackers, and spam. Prices start at only $3.99 per month but can reach as high as $24.99 for the ultimate version of the suite. Domain privacy + protection is available as well but you don’t need to worry about paying for this one because it’s completely free.

Hassle-Free Domain Transfers

Take advantage of the automated system found at Domain.com to transfer domains and websites quickly and without any hassles.

A Few Reasons You May Want to Look Into GoDaddy Alternatives

GoDaddy’s popularity makes it easy to recommend in many situations, both for web hosting and domain registrations. However, the company is far from perfect and has been involved in quite a few controversies in the past that stained its reputation somewhat. The company made a lot of improvements to its services in recent times, however, some of them remain difficult to recommend. Here are some of the main drawbacks you can expect:

Higher Than Average Prices

The price is one of the main things to keep in mind whenever you’re thinking about buying a hosting package. The average price for a basic shared hosting plan these days is around $3-4 per month, so the fact that GoDaddy charges $5.99/mo can be considered a bit much.

Now, the price itself wouldn’t have been a major issue if you got a lot of good value in exchange but, unfortunately, GoDaddy’s plans are pretty mediocre. In fact, some might consider them downright underwhelming. The most disappointing thing about them is the lack of SSD storage. Also, the first two plans don’t come with a free SSL certificate and only include a limited amount of databases.

As mentioned earlier, domain names at GoDaddy aren’t exactly cheap either. The company does have a couple of good deals, including .co.uk domains starting at only $0.99, but there’s generally a caveat associated with these in that you’ll need to pay for at least two years in advance.

No Monthly Billing

Hosting providers that support monthly billing are generally considered more customer-friendly compared to those that don’t support it. GoDaddy does allow you sign up for a short-term contract that lasts three months, but that’s not quite the same thing. Especially when you consider that prices are almost double if you decide to go with the short-term option.

To put things into perspective, the $5.99/mo plan will end up costing you $10.99 per month if you opt for the short-term contract. That’s almost $33 for the entire period, which you’ll need to pay upfront. And remember that we’re only talking about the basic shared hosting plan, so you can see how not having monthly billing can get quite expensive.

Too Many Add-ons

If you’ve ever tried to purchase a hosting plan from an EIG-owned company you should already be familiar with a business strategy that GoDaddy seems to be fond of as well. Namely, taking out essential features from hosting plans only to sell them later as optional paid add-ons.

Like a lot of other providers, GoDaddy doesn’t make it clear upfront that it’s offering add-ons. Rather, you’ll get to find out for yourself during checkout. The first two shared hosting plans don’t come with a free SSL certificate and it would cost you a whopping $6.67 per month to add one to your package. The price doesn’t scale up or down depending on your contract length and only supports monthly billing. Because of that it will cost you an extra $80 to add an SSL to your site, which has to be paid upfront.

The other big offender is the add-on that unlocks automatic backups for your site. This add-on will only set you back $2.99/mo and you can pay for it on a month-by-month basis. And, to be fair, a lot of companies don’t include backups with their basic shared hosting plans either. The problem here is that GoDaddy doesn’t include them with any of its shared plans. Not even the most expensive one, which costs a hefty $19.99 per month with a long-term contract.

Underwhelming Website Builder

We usually recommend again using custom website builders developed by hosting providers as they tend to be pretty unreliable or lackluster. But we do realize that custom site builders can be a good alternative to content management systems like WordPress for users who don’t have a lot of experience when it comes to designing websites. Unfortunately, trying to design a site with GoDaddy’s builder will yield mediocre results at best.

The builder doesn’t offer a ton of customization options and the templates are, for the most part, aimed at small blogs or business sites that feature a very limited number of pages. If you’re planning to create something like a magazine-style website with lots of content we strongly recommend avoiding GoDaddy’s builder and using something like Wix or one of its alternatives instead.

Final Thoughts

GoDaddy is undoubtedly a good hosting provider and domain registrar but it’s not necessarily the best in either category. In an attempt to expand into as many areas as possible, the company spread itself thin and the quality of many of its services suffered as a result. The fact that its prices are above the market average doesn’t help it either and some of its unusual business practices add yet another reason for why you may want to consider the GoDaddy alternatives covered in this article.

If you feel like the companies featured in this article aren’t necessarily what you’re looking for, we recommend checking out MamboServer’s alternatives section for even more good options. Even better, you can also look into our reviews section for in-depth articles about all the most popular hosting providers on the market.