GoDaddy vs. 1and1

You may be forgiven for treating GoDaddy vs. 1and1 like your typical intercontinental Derby or bowl, but the rivalry goes deeper than that. Both web hosts are well known in their respective regions. GoDaddy, an American hosting provider, is the most popular in America. 1and1 is a German company that provides all the hosting needs of Europe. Both are also popular web hosts planetary-wide.

Both web hosts offer shared hosting, as well as other enterprise hosting services: VPS and dedicated servers.

GoDaddy and 1and1 are also known as the only two 1$ per month hosts. Since they offer so many similar services, it may be hard for a potential user to figure out which to go for. That’s where we come in. We take a closer look at both web hosts, highlight their strengths, and dig out their weaknesses. We can promise that when you are done reading this, you’ll have enough knowledge to make a decision confidently.

1and1 vs. GoDaddy Overview

While the two companies come from different regions, they are both founded by visionaries. Their consistent delivery of top-notch services has won numerous awards for them.

1&1 IONOS, along with Mail.com was previously owned by United Internet. Still, it was recently acquired in 2018 by IONOS, which also merged with Profitbricks, an enterprise cloud solution, with a new focus on European markets. Hence the name 1&1 IONOS.

GoDaddy, although established by Bob Parsons who still controls a majority of the shares, is owned by a private investment company. GoDaddy has a few subsidiaries of its in Media Temple and Host Europe Group.

Popularity Comparison

We could go on and on about how GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS host millions of websites, have thousands of staff members and data centers, as well as several million domains under maintenance but the fact that you and 9 out of 10 people that will be reading this know all these, speaks a lot about their popularity. Although GoDaddy sits atop the American web hosting industry, 1&1 IONOS is the top dog (as top as they get) in Europe. But worldwide? GoDaddy is 1st, 1&1 IONOS is 4th. There’s your response.

Now, let’s leave this petty popularity contest and begin our benchmarking for you to pick the right web hosting solution.

Performance

There are two vital metrics that a web host must pass before it qualifies to even be in consideration for the Laurel of the best host, and they are uptime and speed.

Uptime

As the most important metric, we often take our time to run a meticulous uptime test during 2019. We set up demo websites for both web hosts and tested from the same location over 12 months. Nevertheless, the results were impressive.

We recorded an average uptime of 99.988% for GoDaddy, while 1&1 IONOS had an average uptime of 99.987%. If we are not too nitpicky about this, they are pretty much a match in uptime and you are safe with either of them. In line with GoDaddy’s statement that their server has to reset when a new person joins, the uptime at the beginning (for the first few months) was not a perfect hundred, but it improved. 1&1 IONOS, as opposed to GoDaddy, started quite well and both web hosts maintained a consistent uptime throughout. None of them dropping below 99.98%.

Uptime guarantee policy

GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS share a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If your site fails as a result of the web hosts performing below 99.9%, you will receive a credit of a percentage of that month’s hosting price (5% of the fee per 0.1% downtime). We don’t think any customer will be asking either GoDaddy or 1&1 IONOS for a refund since our tests have shown that on average they have uptime above 99.9%.

Speed

Using our test websites we checked the speed of the web hosting services offered by both GoDaddy and 1&1. We decided to focus our efforts on three key areas in order for the results to be as decisive as possible, those areas are response time (TTFB), page load speed and load impact test.

Response Time (TTFB)

We tested both web hosts at different periods for three months, for redundancy, and we got the results above. GoDaddy has a response time slightly above 500ms while 1&1 IONOS consistently performed below 300ms. GoDaddy has an average response time, but series hosted on 1&1 IONOS respond superfast, and that is the kind of cruise we like.

A clear winner here is 1&1 IONOS and please note that this lower response time can lead to a faster first contentful paint (FCP) which can up your SEO game (if you are into that).

Page Load speed

We tested both web hosts from Los Angeles, and we got the following average page speed loads:

• Godaddy – 586 ms
• 1&1 IONOS – 497 ms

1&1 IONOS has a slight advantage over GoDaddy of around 90ms faster load for the full page load speed.

Both web hosts may not have a speed on a level of SiteGround or A2 Hosting, but they are far from slow web hosts like Squarespace and Wix.

Load Impact Test

When you want someone to crack, you exert pressure. We want to establish that web hosts are like that too, and the same way people detest those who snitch under pressure is the same way we dislike web hosts that crash at the slightest increase in traffic.

The third speed test consists of sending 10 virtual users at a time to both web hosts. We kept increasing the traffic until we got to 100. The result of both GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS’s performance has been charted below:

[Insert a chart showing 1&1 IONOS having a consistent speed with only a single spike and GoDaddy spiking at 50, 70, and 80 users]

Both web hosts are decent under pressure but one holds up more than the other.

As you can see from the chart, 1&1 IONOS started well but the speed suddenly reduced at 60 users. It soon picked up and stabilized even at maximum traffic.

GoDaddy also started quite well, but we noticed a plummet at 50, and again at 70 and 80 users. This is not so bad for a web host, but if you have a small site on which you run social media campaigns and expect concurrent users on it, you should probably go for 1&1 IONOS.

Data centers and server locations

Both web hosts have data centers and servers built with industry-leading hardware all across the world. We did notice that both web hosts have a concentration of data centers in the US. 1&1 IONOS also has data centers outside the US though, seeing as its an european company. The locations of data centers that we could uncover are presented in the chart below.

[Insert a chart showing the locations of the datacenters of both web hosts here.]

Luckily, upon sign up, both web hosts allow you to choose from their numerous data centers. So, don’t worry if your site users are not around you. You can also change your data centers later, another advantage for those that do not yet know the primary locations of their clients.

1&1 IONOS wins this chapter with both response time and site load speed, but GoDaddy is, by no means a slowpoke, 1&1 IONOS is just faster.

Security

We hate to see good things, built with sweat and blood, destroyed. The same way we hate to see your successful website struck with malware or fall into the hands of hackers. Yes, this will mostly be prevented through your actions, but a lot has to do with the web host you use.

GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS provide security for your hosting, of course, but so does hundreds of other web hosts. What makes them different is the extra steps they take to guide you, and whether or not most of their defensive features come for free.

Both web hosts give SSL certificates on their business packages (8$ package on 1&1 IONOS and 12$ on GoDaddy). You have to pay for the feature if you are on the lower-tier plan.

Each provider is offering anti-DDoS protection that prevents attacks on servers and stops malicious third-party users from attacking servers. The higher-tier 1&1 IONOS plans also get SiteLock, a tool that scans for malware and subsequently gets rid of them. Both web hosts also have steps in place to protect you against brute force attacks.

Backup and Restore

Both web hosts create automatic backups but only one allows you to restore for free. 1&1 IONOS creates your site backup every 6 days and you can restore it for free anytime. With GoDaddy, you have to pay for the restoration of your site backup. Backup on request costs extra with both web hosts. If you are the type that takes a risk and likes to backup before your best out of risk, then both web hosts are not particularly cost-effective. Although the 1&1 IONOS 6 days backup can still serve you well, we’ve seen web hosts that do better.

1&1 IONOS wins this round too: both web hosts have your run-of-the-mill security measures. 1&1 IONOS only takes the edge in backup and restore.

Ease of use

When it comes to ease of use, we like to talk about usability more than control, because of one important reason: it has to be convenient for everyone. And convenience does not only lie in a web host being easy to use for a beginner. You want to make life easy for beginners but you don’t want to alienate developers, that’s the essence of usability. It starts with the signing up process.

Set up

The sign-up process and the subsequent set up of your website represents a speedy process for both web hosts. They have also made payment easy with the plethora of options that they have.

Control Panel and Dashboard

When it comes to the choice of a control panel, cPanel is still the industry standard.

GoDaddy plays a safe game by adopting cPanel back in 2014. They tried to have their in-house panel, but going with the crowd was just easier. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it, right? Maybe, but 1&1 IONOS uses a proprietary control panel but it’s kind of annoying to use.

[Insert GoDaddy’s cPanel interface here]

That’s the custom cPanel that GoDaddy uses, and as you noticed, it’s graphically based. It makes use of icons just like cPanel, but with a few modifications. Newbies do not have to click directories to lead them to a new panel of hidden options and features. Everything is right there in front of you.

[Insert IONO’s proprietary control panel interface here]

With the simplistic look of 1&1 IONOS’s own control panel, things look simple at first and we were excited. But when you actually need to use it, it gets tricky. Sure, it isn’t crowded and it’s text-based instead of icons. But not everything is displayed on the screen. You need to block on options to take you to extra features. So there are hidden features and this could be a bit daunting for beginners or people who are used to cPanel.

Site Builder

1&1 IONOS also has at least 2 site builders. GoDaddy’s website builder is a part of its 3in1 GoCentral platform.

1&1 IONOS has MySites website builder. The turnkey site builder allows you to design stunning sites. You do not require coding skills or Photoshop skills. Using drag and drop tools, you can add modules, add pictures, widgets, videos etc. It allows for changes with the text as well as color and font. It’s all in the design. The website created with the MySites is also responsive. After creation, it automatically fits into any device, including mobile. Considering that the strength of MySites lies in its creation of e-commerce websites, the fact that it is mobile responsive is a delight. You can scan product barcodes, add stocks and remove all on your mobile.

The GoDaddy Website builder that comes with GoCentral is also a joy to use. No coding or editing skills required. Using a WYSIWYG, get your design exactly how you inserted it. GoCentral is nothing but beginners friendly. When we look at its dashboard and site builder, it makes total sense that GoDaddy is referred to as the entry-level web host for any beginners.

Both GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS, also support a lot of popular CMS like Drupal and Joomla, Magento, etc. They can be installed in one click, sweet.

1&1 IONOS, in their bid to support e-commerce users, has been proactive in assisting users that want to set up a virtual market by creating a perfectly tailored e-commerce site builder, boldly named E-commerce website builder. Yep, being subtlety is not their strong suit, and why should it be? If you’ve got an ace in this crowded web building industry, flaunt it.

The builder is very similar to the first website builder that we spoke about earlier, and the only difference is that it comes with features peculiar to E-commerce website building like adding of shopping carts, gift cards, and high-performance tracking tools. Most of which GoCentral brings to the table for GoDaddy too. You can also add social media and e-commerce or business widgets from the store.

Overall, for website building, GoDaddy is more comfortable due to its simple interface and website creation. Automatic WordPress installation with 1&1 IONOS is not available through a single click. We cannot be playing peekaboo with WordPress when GoDaddy has a single click installation feature for it.

You’ve seen their designs and templates, but which is more flexible? Which gives you more control? GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS are decent as regards ease of use overall. But only GoDaddy paid maximum attention to making the life of beginners a whole lot easier.

Customization and Design

Both web hosts build easily customizable websites. With 1&1 IONOS, users utilize their award-winning drag-and-drop interface to customize websites. You can also add social media and e-commerce widgets. The interface is not a free service though, and it comes at $4.99 per month.

GoDaddy, on the other hand, is known for its drag-and-drop interface, as well as its WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) platform. The GoCentral site builder creates secure URLs and renderable HTML.

With either of them, you can change font and color scheme, personalize texts and typefaces as well as insert pictures and videos. But overall, there is a restriction in customization (unlike website builders-only solutions like Wix and Squarespace) and both web hosts make use of pre-population of templates.

Your text and visual-based website editor, as well as the SEO optimization (questionnaire-based), are optimized for convenience. You do not need coding knowledge or prior experience with visual and graphical software like Picasa or Photoshop. Both web hosts have an easy-to-see toolbar.

App Integrations and support

1&1 IONOS supports apps that help you integrate photo galleries, online scheduling, customer reviews, social media widgets, and maps. Its E-commerce builder easily integrates Amazon, eBay, and Google as well as tons of payment schemes and shipping processes. So little plan, so many features!

Marketplace and one-click installations

The sheer 1&1 IONOS Marketplace feature gives users access to a marketplace where they can buy WordPress themes, professional services, and even purchase new add-ons if they so wish. With GoDaddy, you have access to the MOJO marketplace. Through the marketplace, you can get apps, themes, and plugins installed.

With 1and1’s MySites, you can incorporate Webapps like Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps for route planning.

Marketing, Google Analytics, and SEO rankings

Whatever CMS you want to use SEO with, 1&1 IONOS has video tutorials to show you a step-by-step guide to setting up the SEO of your website. With GoDaddy, well, let’s say your site doesn’t suffer from a lack of marketing. They have an SEO wizard and questionnaire to solve your SEO problems. But your pocket suffers from upsells.

GoDaddy essentially creates SEO problems for you (something that other web hosts don’t have to do) and then offer to sell you the remedy. Not to mention that GoDaddy’s Personal plan is missing SEO features.

1&1 IONOS also has rankingCoach which helps you track your SEO ranking and consequently enables you to improve it. And what’s better? 1&1 IONOS SEO supports many languages with multilingual tools and supports. That’s right, if your customer searches for your product using the German language, you still show on Google.

Suffice it to say, if this comparison was determined by SEO alone, 1&1 IONOS would get some good points in before GoDaddy even realized it’s in the ring. Unlike 1&1 IONOS (which has its mountain of upsells elsewhere, e.g. security), the fact that GoDaddy has to rely on upsells to grant you SEO optimization is, to say the least, somewhat unsavory.

Site Migration, Domains, and Privacy

GoDaddy charges you a whiplash $99 to migrate from another web host to theirs. The alternative is moving it yourself. Do you know what we like to see in a web host? Shock inducing migration costs. That’s how you get people to sign up.

Both web hosts give you a free domain, GoDaddy offers it on an annual plan and provides free WHOIS privacy for it.

The domain included in the 1&1 IONOS package remains free for the life of the contract. There is no price increase upon renewal. The free domain only includes the .com, .biz, .org, .me, .online, .net, .us, .ca, and .info extensions. GoDaddy offers a .com domain with their standard package for $11.99 in the 1st year and $17.99 in the 2nd.

GoDaddy balances control and convenience:  To put it into perspective, setting up a website with GoDaddy’s GoCentral website builder is like signing up for a Facebook or Twitter account. Simple, fast, but limited. We’ll take that over IONO’s frustrating interface.

Customer Support and Reliability

The web hosting industry is like the Wild West. Good and reliable support is hard to find. Let’s see what GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS have to offer.

GoDaddy has the following options for support: Email, help desk, phone / toll-free, forum, live chat, and they are all available 24/7. 1&1 IONOS also has email, help desk Phone / Toll-Free, live chat, and forum, all available 24/7.

First Contact

GoDaddy has 8,000 employees working round-the-clock to satisfy millions of customers. As is the case with every huge web host, we know it will be hard for them to meet the needs of all users effectively, but GoDaddy tries nonetheless. GoDaddy’s WordPress paid plans come with 24/7 support via email, live chat, and VideoPress, and a decent shared hosting support. Live chat is usually the fastest support option, so naturally, it’s what most people would attempt to use. That’s precisely why we tried it out.

It took a while and a few tries (about 4 trials, a total of 40 minutes hold time), but we were able to get through to GoDaddy’s support. We like to know if the guy on the other end was a human and not a bot. So we proceeded to ask technical questions, solutions to problems we didn’t have (but you could have) and the guy that attended to us was very knowledgeable.

We’ve also tried chat support from 1&1 IONOS and were impressed with the response time. We got a reply in under 2 minutes on average. Unfortunately, though, we were not ok with the expertise (or the lack of it thereof) of the 1&1 IONOS reps. We tried asking difficult questions and we were transferred to another agent once the query got too technical. It was like they had a higher up brain box named Albert that should only be disturbed when and only when it is absolutely necessary. The experience was more or less the same as the phone channel too. Although to be fair, though the email response took time (under 24 hours), all of our questions are usually addressed. We guess 1&1 IONOS hasn’t quite breached the intercontinental barrier yet.

Knowledgebase

Both GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS have lots of articles and tutorials that answer the most basic questions. GoDaddy has a sleek advantage through their forums and the popular GoDaddy Garage platform.

1&1 IONOS, to round it up, has something different for small businesses, especially startups. They decided to build a startup guide that is essentially a library of articles on how to start a limited liability company and how to create a work schedule using excel. Asides from the initial difficulty of navigating the user interface, 1&1 IONOS actually provides a lot of help for new users.

The customer support of GoDaddy is pretty much the same of what 1&1 IONOS can deliver. There is still a reassuring comfort knowing that it’s a big company that has not neglected the internet toddler. Be it because of the expansive library or the well-rounded army of support or the fact that it has the curiously named but capable GoDaddy garage. GoDaddy does not slack too much, and for a juggernaut web host, that makes all the difference.

Support is a tie: Do we believe GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS are decent? Yes. Do we think one is better than the other? No, not really.

Plans and Pricing

Both GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS, as powerhouses, offer plans for all the types of hosting we can think of; GoDaddy offers shared hosting, VPS, cloud, domains, website builder, web design and emails. 1&1 IONOS provides shared hosting, VPS, cloud, domains, website builder, and dedicated hosting.

Shared Hosting Plans

1&1 IONOS has 3 shared hosting plans, compared to GoDaddy’s 4 plans. 1&1 IONOS has Business, Pro, and Expert. Meanwhile, GoDaddy has Economy, Deluxe, Ultimate, and Maximum plans.

Tier 1 plans

GoDaddy’s Basic plan is the Economy and it comes with 24/7 support infrastructure, one website, 100GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited emails, and one free domain (with the annual plan). The introductory price is $5.99 which is a promotional offer and the renewal price is $8.99.

1&1 IONOS’s Business Plan costs $1 per month for the first month (you pay original price $8/month upon renewal). It comes with unlimited websites hosted, databases, storage, 50 email accounts, and a free domain.

There isn’t much difference in price, but 1&1 IONOS has the $1 advantage, practically dashing out its plans at the smallest cost. They both offer roughly the same specs, but GoDaddy offers unlimited emails compared to 1&1 IONOS’s 50 emails. We do think it is just a marketing tactic though, how many emails does a single website user really need? Also, we have learned (the hard way) not to trust the unlimited buzzword.

Tier 2 plans

GoDaddy’s medium-range plan is the Deluxe plan. It comes with all the features of the Economy plan and has the added advantage of unlimited websites, storage, and subdomains. It costs $7.99 (however, you have to pay $11.99 to renew).

For a single dollar (for the first 6 months) you get 1&1 IONOS’s Pro Plan ($10/mo renewal). It is good for larger web projects (up to 5 websites) with a free domain and 250GB of storage and SiteLock protection.

Once again, we are skeptical of the term unlimited, a recurring trick word in this comparison. But if they are to be believed, then 1&1 IONOS’s plan is limited compared to GoDaddy’s tier 2 plan.

Tier 3 plans

GoDaddy’s Ultimate plan which can be purchased at $5.99 (The renewal fee is $16.99). It has all the features of the deluxe plan, and in addition, has double the processing power, a free SSL certificate (for a single term) and unlimited databases. So, GoDaddy does offer a free SSL certificate but only on higher-tier plans.

1&1 IONOS’s next plan is the expert plan, and, as the name implies, it is for experts that costs $1 per month for the first 6 months. (fee $14/mo on renewal). Allows 50 websites, has a full security package and 500GB of storage.  It comes with 500 databases and 500 emails.

For the first time, there is a substantial difference in renewal prices, as 1&1 IONOS’s renewal prices take a dive on GoDaddy’s $17.

Tier 4 plans

GoDaddy’s highest Shared hosting plan is the Maximum Plan and it costs $12.99 for an initial purchase and $24.99 upon renewal. It comes with the Ultimate plan features and ×2 the processing power and memory, ×2 maximum site traffic and a free SSL certificate for the full term. 1&1 IONOS has no tier 4 plan.

1&1 IONOS beats GoDaddy at its own game: offering the lowest promotional prices. It provides all of its shared hosting plans at a discounted $1 per month. Although all its plans have caps, we are glad they are honest with it. Unlike GoDaddy (and most other web hosts) that slams “unlimited everything” on all their plans like a trademark, but in reality, it’s what they consider reasonable usage.

Managed WordPress Hosting Plans

GoDaddy, like in the shared hosting aspect, also has four managed WordPress hosting plans. All GoDaddy managed WordPress hosting plans come with:

• Access to thousands of free themes and plugins.
• Automatic WordPress Core software and security updates.
• Free domain with an annual plan.
• Free daily backups & 1-click restore.
• Free 24/7 Support.
• Premium WordPress Hosting Platform.
• 150+ interactive WordPress walkthroughs and training videos.
• One-click migration tool.
• WordPress search engine optimization (SEO) plugin.
• Stage-before-you-show-environment built-in.
• Malware removal.
• Thousands of pre-screened plugins.
• Free (1) Microsoft Office 365 Email 1st year free (optional).
• 99.9% uptime promise and money-back guarantee.

Basic Managed WordPress Hosting Plans

GoDaddy’s basic plan, which is appropriately named the Basic Plan, comes with one website, 10 GB SSD worth of space, and maximum traffic of 25,000 visitors per month. The cost of the initial price is $4.99 with a discount price (if 12 mo.) coupon $0.99 /mo. The price for Basic Plan renewal, though, is $9.99 per month. You also get SFTP access and Free domain with an annual plan.

Medium Range Managed WordPress Plan

GoDaddy’s medium-range WordPress hosting plan is the Deluxe plan which comes at an initial cost of $7.99, and $4.49 /month discount/coupon code price. (renewal is $14.99). It allows one website, a maximum of 100k visitors per month, 15GB SSD space, support of free daily backups, malware scans, built-in sign-up forms, and a free domain. With Deluxe, you also get:

• SSH / SFTP access.
• Free Domain with an annual plan.
• One-click staging site.
• Search engine optimization plugin.

High Range Managed WordPress Hosting Plans

Like Shared Hosting Plans, GoDaddy has two high-level plans and they are the Ultimate and Pro 5+ Plans. The Ultimate plan can be purchased for $9.99 ($19.99) per month and offers 2 websites, 30GB of SSD storage, a free SSL certificate for the first year, a maximum of 400k visitors, and all the features of the extra Deluxe plan. But you also get:

• SSH / SFTP access
• Search engine optimized for 2 sites.
• SSL certificate for one year.
• Malware scan and removal.

GoDaddy’s highest plan is the Pro 5+ or the Developer plan and it offers 5-50 websites, support of up to 800k monthly visitors, a free SSL certificate per site, 50-200GB of storage and all the other features of the Ultimate plan before it. It costs $27.99 (same as renewal). You also get the pro version of the Features in the ultimate plan.

Website Builder Plan

On a month to month basis, 1&1 IONOS charges $5/month, while GoDaddy charges $20/month, but at a reduced rate of $15/month, If you would sign up for 12 months at a time.

Unlike GoDaddy which only offers its free domain for the first year, 1&1 IONOS is giving an unconditionally free domain for life. Both web hosts give free SSL, but only 1&1 IONOS offers free Wildcard SSL. GoDaddy offers you 5 free email accounts for the first year but 1&1 IONOS offers it for life.

E-commerce Hosting

1&1 IONOS has two types of pricing plans: e-commerce and non-e-commerce.

The e-commerce or “Online plan” has been discussed above, but the three e-commerce plans range from $15-$45/month as seen below:

• Online Store: $15/month. It allows you to stock up to 5,000 products.
• Online Store Advanced: $25/month. It allows you to stock up to 10,000 products.
• Online Store Expert: $45/month. It allows you to stock up to 1,000,000 products.

With each e-commerce plan, the limitation of your integration reduces. E.g with the Online Store plan, you are stuck with Facebook. The Online Store Advanced plan lets you integrate Instagram, and with the Online Store Expert plan, you get the main buffet: Amazon and eBay.

They all come with a free domain and email accounts, social media and business widgets, and a multilingual translator tool. Let’s not mince words; 1&1 IONOS’s e-commerce pricing is a delight.

Cloud Hosting

1&1 IONOS’s plans are as follows:

Please keep in mind that prices per hour can result in a maximum amount per month you can pay for each server and all the CPU’s are Intel® Xeon® Processors.

VPS Hosting

GoDaddy has Virtual Private Servers plans which offer ultra-fast SSDs and flexibility with HTTP/2, Ubuntu, IPv6, Nginx, Node.js and more. Lightning-fast servers with root access, blazing-fast networking powered by open APIs through OpenStack. GoDaddy offers 4 Linux and Windows-based server plans: Launch, Enhance, Grow and Expand plans. The company also offers monthly data transfer and unlimited domains. For both web hosts, prices shoot upon renewal.

We will analyze GoDaddy’s VPS plans below side-by-side with a picture of 1&1 IONOS’s plans.

With GoDaddy’s VPS, you can select between 2 different operating systems and, subsequently a preferred OS too. Your choices, should you choose to pick one, are: Linux, CentOS or Windows Server.

Tiers 1 plan

GoDaddy’s equivalent, the Launch VPS plan (For $30.99 a month), comes with 1 CPU core (virtually allocated CPU), 2GB RAM, 40GB storage, unlimited bandwidth. Presently, the plan can be purchased at a discounted price of $13.26 per year, and for $40.99, you can upgrade your storage capacity to 60GB.

Tiers 2 plans

GoDaddy’s Enhanced VPS plan is priced at $20.27 per month and comes with 2 virtually allocated CPU cores, 4GB ram, and 90GB storage unlimited bandwidth. Like the launch plan, the discounted price also applies during renewal.

Tiers 3 plans

GoDaddy’s Grow VPS plan costs $35.87 without discounts, but $23.8 with discounts. The plan comes with 3 virtual CPU cores, 6GB of RAM, and 150GB storage. For $60.99 per month, you can expand your storage to 120GB worth of storage with unlimited bandwidth.

Tiers 4 plans

At a discounted price of $31.2, GoDaddy’s Expand VPS plan offers four virtual CPU cores, 8GB of ram, and 200GB storage. To qualify to pay the discounted amount, you must be paying for an annual plan or multiple years in advance. For $140.99 per month, you can use 240GB worth of RAM with unlimited bandwidth.

Detailed specifications of GoDaddy’s VPS hosting plans

Clauses: GoDaddy’s Windows plans cost around $10 extra per month. The GoDaddy plans promise unlimited bandwidth and a range of 40GB to 250GB of storage, depending on your plan.

Comparing their basic VPS plans, this is what GoDaddy has to offer against 1&1 IONOS:

Dedicated Server Hosting

Just like their VPS plan, both 1&1 IONOS and GoDaddy offer Windows and Linux operating system options, and they have different tiers of plans to meet the requirements of customers.

GoDaddy offers five dedicated Windows plans which are about $30 more expensive than its features equivalent Linux plans. GoDaddy’s dedicated hosting plans all have unlimited bandwidth, boasting of dedicated hosting plans which grant root access and provide fast web servers for users. Still, then again, it’s a dedicated server, we expect nothing less.

Meanwhile, with 1&1 IONOS, no set up is charged, billing is per minute, and there seems to be no cap. You also get a bonus of $100 credit in your first month.

Level 1

GoDaddy’s DS-32 plan runs on the Intel Xeon-D 2123IT processor:

This plan will set you back a whopping $78 per month. This is a discounted price of 23% off, and you can only qualify for the discount if you pay for an annual plan or pay for years in advance. The plan comes with  2 x 4 TB HDD Storage (RAID-1), 4C/8T, 3.0 GHz Turbo, 32 GB DDR4 RAM.

1&1 IONOS has 5 plans that can compete in this category. Both SSD and HDD.

L-16 HDD at $0.0972 /hour  = max. $70/month.

Intel® Xeon® E3-1230 v6; 4 cores x 3.5 GHz, 3.9 GHz Turbo Boost, 16 GB DDR4 ECC, 1,000 GB (2 x 1,000 GB SATA), and Software RAID 1 with a free lifetime domain. You also get:

Dedicated IPs: 1

Control Panel: KVM

Server location options: United States, Germany, Spain.

L-16 SSD at $0.1111 /hour  = max. $80/month.

Intel® Xeon® E3-1230 v6; 4 cores x 3.5 GHz, 3.9 GHz Turbo Boost, 16 GB DDR4 ECC, 480 GB (2 x 480 GB SSD), and Software RAID 1

L-32 HDD at $0.1111 /hour  = max. $80/month.

Intel® Xeon® E3-1230 v6; 4 cores x 3.5 GHz, 3.9 GHz Turbo Boost, 32 GB DDR4 ECC, 1,000 GB (2 x 1,000 GB SATA), and Software RAID 1.

L-32 SSD at $0.1250 /hour  = max. $90/month.

Intel® Xeon® E3-1230 v6; 4 cores x 3.5 GHz, 3.9 GHz Turbo Boost, 32 GB DDR4 ECC, 480 GB (2 x 480 GB SSD), and Software RAID 1

XL-32 HDD at $0.1389 /hour  = max. $100/month.

Intel® Xeon® E3-1270 v6; 4 cores x 3.8 GHz, 4.2 GHz Turbo Boost, 32 GB DDR4 ECC, 2,000 GB (2 x 2,000 GB SATA), and Hardware RAID 1.

Level 2

GoDaddy’s DS-64 plan runs on the Intel Xeon-E 2136 processor:

With 22% off on plans purchased for more than a year, the plan is priced at $169.99 per month. It comes with 64 GB DDR4 RAM, 2 x 4 TB HDD Storage (RAID-1) and 6C/12T, 4.5 GHz Turbo.

1&1 IONOS has 2 SSD and 1 HDD plans in this category:

XL-32 SSD at $0.1667 /hour  = max. $120/month.

Intel® Xeon® E3-1270 v6; 4 cores x 3.8 GHz, 4.2 GHz Turbo Boost, 32 GB DDR4 ECC, 800 GB (2 x 800 GB SSD), and Hardware RAID 1

XL-64 HDD at $0.1806 /hour  = max. $130/month.

Intel® Xeon® E3-1270 v6; 4 cores x 3.8 GHz, 4.2 GHz Turbo Boost, 64 GB

DDR4 ECC, 2,000 GB (2 x 2,000 GB SATA), and Hardware RAID 1.

XL-64 SSD at $0.2083 /hour  = max. $150/month.

Intel® Xeon® E3-1270 v6; 4 cores x 3.8 GHz, 4.2 GHz Turbo Boost, 64 GB DDR4 ECC, 800 GB (2 x 800 GB SSD), and Hardware RAID 1.

Level 3

GoDaddy’s DS-128 plan runs on AMD EPYC™ 7351P processor:

Users can save up to 16% when they purchase an annual or multi-year plan at $299.99. You are given 16C/32T cores and thread, 2.9 GHz Turbo speed, 128GB DDR4 RAM, and 2 x 8 TB HDD Storage (RAID-1).

1&1 IONOS has two plans that fall in this category:

XXL-96 HDD at $0.2500 /hour  = max. $180/month.

Intel® Xeon® Silver 4123; 8 cores x 3.0 GHz, 3.2 GHz Turbo Boost, 96 GB DDR4 ECC, 4,000 GB (2 x 4,000 GB SATA), and Hardware RAID 1.

3XL-192 HDD at $0.3333 /hour  = max. $240/month.

Intel® Xeon® Gold 6126; 12 cores x 2.6 GHz, 3.7 GHz Turbo Boost, 192 GB DDR4 ECC, 4,000 GB, (2 x 4,000 GB SATA), and Hardware RAID 1

Level 4

GoDaddy’s DS-256 plan runs on AMD EPYC 7351P processor:

This is their highest plan (as high as it gets), and can it be purchased at $399.99. You get 16C/32T cores and threads, 2.9 GHz Turbo speed, 256 GB DDR4 RAM, and 2 x 8 TB HDD Storage (RAID-1).

1&1 IONOS has the 4XL-192 HDD at $0.3889 /hour  = max. $280/month.

Intel® Xeon® Gold 6210U; 20 cores x 2.5 GHz, 3.9 GHz Turbo Boost, 192 GB, DDR4 ECC, 4,000 GB (2 x 4,000 GB SATA), and Hardware RAID 1.

Money-back Guarantee Policy

Both web hosts have the standard 30 days money-back guarantee.

Hidden Charges and Upsells

It’s safe to say that both web hosts participate in the trick introductory prices. 1&1 IONOS upsells you in security while GoDaddy has all its plans punctuated by upsells ditches.

Let us put it this way: 1&1 IONOS definitely has more advanced features in the plans but they are usually capped (e.g. 250gb SSD instead of 1TB HDD). GoDaddy, on the other hand, doesn’t have as many features, but the few they have are often robust and many are unlimited.

1&1 IONOS is cheaper: let it be known that GoDaddy has lost the pricing battle to 1&1 IONOS. While GoDaddy has more “unlimited” offers that could make it’s slightly expensive offers worth it, 1&1 IONOS has enough features to equalize.

Extras of GoDaddy and 1&1 IONOS

GoDaddy has the following icing on its cake:

• has affiliate programs;
• offers an integrated domain name and complete security;
• has Unlimited storage and bandwidth with all its premium plans;
• besides site building, GoDaddy also offers SEO, online marketing, and design services for additional fees;
• has a wider range of options in web hosting; WordPress, VPS and dedicated server web hosting options;

GoDaddy has the benefit of convenience and fast site creation speed by anyone with no prior knowledge of site creation.

Let’s see what extras 1&1 IONOS has to offer us:

• provides several cloud services;
• makes use of the HTTP/2 protocol;
• offers the services of two website builders;
• has a proprietary backend interface separate from cPanel or Plesk;
• has an online accounting program for invoices;
• assigns consultants to new users; these consultants are point men that users can turn to for questions, whenever the need arises;

GoDaddy vs. 1&1 IONOS Major Differences

Let’s look at the main differences between both of these Web-hosts.

• GoDaddy has cPanel, while 1&1 IONOS has a proprietary control panel;
• 1&1 IONOS sites respond faster than GoDaddy’s;
• 1&1 IONOS offers free site transfer, GoDaddy doesn’t;
• GoDaddy edges out 1&1 IONOS in uptime;
• GoDaddy has a beginner-friendly user interface than 1&1 IONOS;
• GoDaddy has four shared hosting plans, 1&1 IONOS has only three;

Conclusion

In terms of speed and uptime, 1&1 IONOS is ahead but not by a margin substantial enough to be used as a victory yardstick. Both web hosts have their strengths and shortcomings. They are both guilty of upsells, and they perform sub-par in areas where juggernaut web hosts like them should not drop the ball. But overall, they are above average web hosts (at least better than WordPress.com).

Both web hosts tie in most of our metrics, with either managing to snag only a few categories. The comparison comes down to usability, and that’s where GoDaddy shines. GoDaddy versus 1&1 IONOS? If only by a few steps, GoDaddy takes the crown.