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GoDaddy vs Bluehost - web hosting review

Review summary: This side-by-side feature comparison between Godaddy and Bluehost shows why at this point in time, Bluehost is the winner. It is also noted that when comparing Bluehost VS Siteground again Bluehost is the winner of the contest. This clearly means that in a Bluehost VS SiteGround VS Godaddy contest, Bluehost is the obvious choice. This does not mean that it is the best overall choice of the top 10 best web hosting providers globally, although it ranks quite high. Continue reading to see our rational for this critical review and verdict: 

 

 

GoDaddy vs Bluehost web hosting: Let’s compare 

It has been a long journey and tedious battle for many web developers, customers, and entry-level website creators, finding the best web hosting service. With this in mind, we can consider the many obstacles and hurdles two of the most popular and prominent web hosting companies have endured since its founding. GoDaddy and Bluehost have managed to captivate and assist millions of websites and web users around the world.

VS

GoDaddy review rating:
3.2/5
Bluehost review rating:
4.9/5

We suggest exploring the top 10 hosting providers ranked globally before making your choice:

Although trying to decide which is better and which web hosting platform offers more than the other can become a challenge – that’s why we took it upon ourselves to finally see what sets GoDaddy and Bluehost apart from each other. We’ll be thoroughly investigating each web hosting platform to answer three main questions:

     1.   Why should I consider these two as the top contenders?

     2.   What makes their offering so attractive to all their current users?

     3.   How much am I paying and what will I be getting?

If we take these questions into consideration, it becomes clear that we’ll be covering a lot of information to reach a final verdict.

1.Why should I consider these two as the top contenders?

 

GoDaddy

The web hosting company comes with an array of tools and functions, one being its most popular asset to have an onboard ‘drag and drop’ website builder. In some cases, many web developers will be needed to help with the building and setup of a new website, but once you’ve signed up with GoDaddy, you can automatically make use of their website builder. The GoDaddy standards are also ranked really high when it comes to uptime, plug-ins, and additional hosting tools, but more on that later.

 

Bluehost

WordPress which powers around 1/3 of the internet has recommended Bluehost as one of its top three web-hosting providers, alongside DreamHost and SiteGround. This can say a lot about the web hosting service provider, as it offers 1-click installations for WordPress sites, having excellent uptime, and offering users a selection of five different hosting plans – Bluehost is definitely more supportive of technical aspects when it comes to web hosting.

2.What makes their offering so attractive to all their current users?

 

GoDaddy

Although the company has endured some backlash over its ridiculous advertising, it doesn’t mean they can still offer some of the best web hosting services to date. Although the company manages to cater to millions of users, its pricing and ease of use on their website builder have persuaded many into working with them.

 

Bluehost

When we think of Bluehost, we automatically think of WordPress. The simple integration with WordPress and the ease of setup and use really have given Bluehost a lead in this area. Not only that, but Bluehost offers some incredibly attractive pricing for shared, VPS, dedicated, and WordPress hosting.

3.How much am I paying and what will I be getting?

 

GoDaddy

The price will be depended on what your needs are, but without disregarding your needs for a great hosting company, the price is an important factor, nonetheless. Having a GoDaddy web hosting plan will cost you anything from $4/month to around $10/month. Just be sure to check what your monthly price will be after renewal, as GoDaddy is notorious to increase your monthly fees by up to 45% after renewal.

 

Bluehost

Bluehost has a straightforward pricing structure, the longer you sign up for, the cheaper it gets. They offer a 36 month sign up plan, with the shortest being 12 months. Another factor that might influence the price is what type of hosting plan you’re looking for. Expect to pay anything between $2.95/month and up to $79.99/month.

Ranking key aspects: GoDaddy vs Bluehost

 

We now know what we’ll be looking out for, but let’s have a look at some of the key factors that can influence any newcomer:

 

       *  Features

       *  Ease of use

       *  Value for money

       *  Customer service

Features

 

Although both these web hosting platforms offer an array of important features, there are some better than others. GoDaddy offers users a chance to make use of its website building tools, more so, site loading time are some of the fastest compared against WPEngine, FlyWheel, and SiteGround. It’s not the fastest on the market, but the easy app installations definitely make up for it.

Bluehost makes WordPress migration undeniably easy, offering free migration services to Bluehost and WordPress. Additionally, because Bluehost is so tied up with WordPress, most of its customer service calls and queries are automatically transferred and dealt with by WordPress experts. It’s shared, VPS and dedicated hosting service are among the best on the market, with its cloud hosting only now becoming more popular.

Ease of Use

 

Depending on your web needs, GoDaddy’s drag and drop features makes this web hosting platform extremely easy to use, especially for newcomers. Also, GoDaddy eliminates all the complex features of website building and hosting to give a more streamlined approach. With Bluehost, it’s quite similar, but in regard to disk space, Bluehost only offers 100GB, compared to the unlimited disk space offered by GoDaddy. If you’re more tech-savvy than regular users, Bluehost has loads of free website scripts – these include social networking scripts, mailing lists, Joomla, Drupal, and Tikiwiki to name a few. 

Value for money

 

GoDaddy has a plan-based pricing structure, offering Economy, Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate plan ranging from $4.00/month to roughly $12/month before renewal. Unfortunately, GoDaddy prices increase by 45% after your first year, which can become very pricey over time. For Shared hosting on Bluehost, expect to pay between $3.49/month and $23.99/month. VPS hosting and dedicated hosting can range from $19.99/month up to $209.99/month, respectively. Depending on your needs and budget, the price might vary, not ignoring how long you will sign up for.

Customer Service

 

When a problem arises, you need someone to fix it, especially if it’s your website. With GoDaddy, they offer 24/7 customer support via online forums and calls. Although its ranking is a bit lower compared to Bluehost, with previous customers complaining of poor on-the-phone assistance, you’d be better off with Bluehost. The company has received mixed reviews for its customer service, especially for a company that wants you to pay for a dedicated online support function. Both these contenders are a bit in the grey when it comes to excellent customer service.

Plan Comparison: GoDaddy vs Bluehost

 

To have a final verdict, we’ll compare each web host’s best plan to see which one gives you more leniency, flexibility, value for money, multiple features, ease of use, and above this, an all inclusive plan that can be used by both novice and veteran.

GoDaddy Maximum Plan

 

If you have a complex, multi-page website that receives high-traffic volumes, then this is a good option for you. The Ultimate Plan gives you unlimited websites, unmetered storage, and includes unmetered bandwidth. Additionally, with this plan, you’ll receive a free domain, if you sign up annually, 2x processing power and memory. Although GoDaddy offers 1-click installation for over 125 applications and 1-click purchases of additional resources, its app market is somewhat limited.

 

GoDaddy does market their 24/7 customer service as “award-winning”, you’ll enjoy its 24/7 security monitoring and DDoS protection for your website. With 99.97% up-time, and a host of different servers to choose from, you definitely have the best features at the tip of your fingers. It’s safe to say that the easy-to-use and feature-rich cPanel makes GoDaddy a well-rounded choice, and its ‘drag and drop’ website building tool really has its perks. Because GoDaddy offers this plan on all their server option, including shared, VPS, dedicated, and Cloud – you can expect to pay anything from $19.99/month before renewal on a shared server up to $179.99/month before renewal on a dedicated server.

Bluehost Pro and Premium Plans

 

Comparing both the Pro (shared hosting) and Premium (dedicated hosting) against that of GoDaddy you might see a slight increase in price, but we Bluehost might cater to a whole different customer base. Not only this, the web host offers a variety of six different plans, so depending on your needs, you have to make sure you pick one that suits you best.

 

For larger websites, that want optimum performance, you will enjoy 1TB storage, 16GB RAM, 15 TB bandwidth, and 5 IP different IP addresses. More so, Bluehost gives you the option to have multi-server management and database management meaning you will be able to easily organize and edit any of your databases. Included in these plans, you will have OpenStack advanced speed processing, a free SSL certificate and with the shared hosting option, you can have unlimited websites, domain privacy, and have CodeGuard included for free.

 

What does make Bluehost different from GoDaddy is that it offers free backups, root access, and you save more than 43% monthly by choosing their premium dedicated hosting plan compared to other market competitors. Whatever your needs may be for your website, especially such a massive one, you will find it easy to make use of Bluehost web hosting. Prices for the Pro Plan (shared) starts at $13.95/month and increases to $23.99/month after renewal. The Premium Plan (dedicated) is more expensive, coming in at $119.99/month and renews for $209.99/month. A little pricier than GoDaddy, but you’ll notice the difference a couple of extra dollars can make.

The Verdict

Depending on your needs, and whatever you may be using your website for, we recommend Bluehost, whether it’s for blogging, audiobook libraries, eCommerce stores, and everything and anything in between. Bluehost migration to WordPress is seamless and hassle-free, they offer great plans that suit the needs of small-budget customers, to big companies.

 

GoDaddy has some great built-in features, and we love its ‘drag and drop’ web building tool, but you can become somewhat restricted by its offering and plans, especially the high price increase once you renew your plan. Both offer what you are looking for in a great web hosting provider, but some can offer you better service and assistance with backend problems – giving you solutions upfront and without any hassles.

 

Finally, we should point out that the harsh upselling of Godaddy when it comes to the most basic of security needs, is what makes Bluehost an obvious choice. What Bluehost provides as “standard” in terms of security, Godaddy will easily double or tripple your premium, depending on who the “support” person is that handles the upsell. If Godaddy can change it’s company culture and take security more seriously without premium charges, they’d do better at customer retention.

Suggested review: See HostGator VS Godaddy VS Bluehost