GoDaddy Review 2023: Expert Rated 4.5/5

What Are the Pros and Cons of GoDaddy?

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

Easy-to-use website-building tools

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

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

Ability to use GoDaddy Payments for both online and offline sales

GoDaddy Payments is an innovative solution that this company makes available to all its customers. It will allow you to set up POS devices (credit card terminals, for example) in your physical store and take online payments on your website. This way, no matter where you make a sale, it comes through one easy-to-use platform. This will also help streamline your accounting since everything will be in one place.

Daily backup available

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

Use of GoDaddy’s e-commerce tools

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

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

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

Free one-year domain name registration

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

Email through Microsoft 365

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

Daily malware scan

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

Ability to hire an expert

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

Uptime and reliability

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

Why would GoDaddy block testing?

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

Site response times

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

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

Daily malware scans

All hosting packages come with a free daily malware scan. This automated feature will see if your site has been infected with any type of malware. If there is a problem, it will notify you so you can either take care of it yourself or work with GoDaddy’s support team.

Backing up data

If you run into a problem with your site, GoDaddy offers daily backup service with its hosting packages. You can restore your site in just minutes without worrying about a thing. Many hosting companies charge for this type of service.

You can get in touch with GoDaddy customer and technical support anytime you want, 24/7/year-round. I’ve always experienced friendly and helpful support from GoDaddy. You can get in touch with them via email, live chat, or phone at any time based on your preference.

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

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

Compare GoDaddy Alternatives

There is a lot to love about GoDaddy, but this company is not for everyone. Looking at alternatives is an ideal way to learn which one will provide you with the best possible hosting experience.

Check out some of the top GoDaddy competitors and see if one will work better for your web hosting needs.

How I Rated GoDaddy

I test web hosts based on the following factors:

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

Learn more about our review methodology.