Any GoDaddy web hosting review you read is likely to spotlight at least three standout features: the free hosting plan, the website builder and GoDaddy’s 24/7 support. The free plan is an excellent way to test-drive GoDaddy’s website builder and other features before you commit.
You’ll find mixed reviews about its support team’s response time and the quality of support, but there’s also a robust knowledge base, which makes it easy for you to find an answer on your own. The 24/7 support is standard for some of the best web hosting companies, but not all include phone and live chat. GoDaddy offers support through those avenues, plus email.
Despite the few cons we listed, GoDaddy remains one of the most popular choices for individuals and small businesses around the world. It also made the cut in our top 10 picks for best web hosting services.
GoDaddy’s Plans and Pricing
GoDaddy stands out from the competition with its free web hosting plan. Keep in mind that this plan is literally free forever and not just a trial. However, the free plan is severely limited. For example, you have to use a subdomain on GoDaddy’s domain (yoursite.godaddysites.com). Still, it gives you an opportunity to try out GoDaddy’s website builder and see the templates you can use.
One of the most frustrating things about GoDaddy is its pricing. It seems fair on the surface, but once you sign up for a paid plan you’ll see that GoDaddy is far from transparent with its pricing practices. Here are the plan tiers, introductory costs for various terms and the renewal rates for shared hosting.
You may notice that your only options in your cart are three-, 12-, 24- and 36-month options, but you can choose a hidden one-month plan after you press the continue button. You have to choose one month from the dropdown menu on that next page. If you aren’t looking for it, you could miss it, which seems super-tricky of GoDaddy.
Keep in mind that you’re missing out on some features that other web hosts include as standard, even with the lowest-priced plans for shared hosting. There’s no secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate or malware scans for the Economy or Deluxe plans. GoDaddy includes an SSL for top-tier plans, but security is still an added charge (that nearly doubles your total cost on the lowest plan).
GoDaddy also offers VPS hosting, which ranges from $4.99 to $99.99 per month, depending on term length and discount. Dedicated hosting is also available, which costs $129.99 to $419.99, also depending on term length and discount.
24/7 Support With GoDaddy
GoDaddy’s 24/7 support doesn’t apply to every country or avenue of support. But for many countries, including the U.S. and UK you can get phone support 24/7. And for most, live chat is available 24/7, but hours may be limited for some countries.
Wait times for phone or live chat are typically quick, but we’ve experienced up to an hour-long hold for a representative. GoDaddy web hosting reviews from customers are mixed.
It seems the majority of negative reviews have to do with renewal rates, refunds and customers not knowing just how steep the renewal rates are. Positive reviews highlight how hard many customer service representatives work to help the customer fix an issue or get a refund.
GoDaddy’s Website Builder
Using GoDaddy’s site builder is easy for anyone to use. Choose one of more than 175 free templates, and then fill in with your own images, text and business logo. The editor is intuitive, with point-and-click navigation from the right-side menu.
If you want to get hosting with the GoDaddy site editor, you’ll have slightly different pricing and features. The regular cost is $9.99 to $14.99 for standard hosting and site building, and $16.99 to $29.99 for an online store. These plans come with an SSL, search engine optimization (SEO) tools and some marketing features.
