HostGator Vs GoDaddy (January 2015) – Which is the Best?

Monday, January 5, 2015

Updated: 1 January 2015
Hosting is the heart of any website/blog. When entering into the blogging business, the most suggested place to register your domain is GoDaddy. No doubt, it is the one of the best when it comes to domain registrations.
They even provide web hosting plans. People who register domain name with GoDaddy choose to buy web hosting from GoDaddy as they find it convenient to set up their website.
On the other hand, HostGator is another name suggested when it comes to the best web hosting. HostGator is another hosting service provider. Touted to be one of the best, its plans are also very good, offering the most for every budget.
People have asked me to review Hostgator Vs GoDaddyBluehost Vs Hostgator and DreamHost vs HostGator.
Today we’ll be having a comparison of the two hosting companies: HostGator Vs GoDaddy.

HostGator vs GoDaddy Performance

HostGator sites are hosted in Dual Xeon servers at Dallas. top-of-the-line Dual Xeon in their data centers at Dallas. The data centers are well equipped and connects to 10 backbone providers. Also, HostGator invest millions of dollars every year in new technologies for better performance. They have about 12,000 servers under management at Houston, Texas in the US. GoDaddy also gives 99.9% up-time for your websites too. Their servers run on Core i7 processors.
We talked about the hardware of their servers. Now we’ll see how it performs, using three tests:

1) HostGator Vs GoDaddy – Speed Test

Speed is an important factor to consider before choosing a web host. So I’ve used Pingdom speed testing tool to run speed tests on both HostGator.com and GoDaddy.com.
HostGator loaded in under a second which is absolutely amazing. GoDaddy took around 1.79 seconds to load.
HostGator Vs GoDaddy speed test
Godaddy Speed Test
Winner: HostGator

2) GoDaddy Vs HostGator – Response Time

We also tested the performance of blogs hosted on HostGator and GoDaddy over a period of 30 days.
HostGator’s response time was better than that of GoDaddy. Clearly, HostGator beats GoDaddy with better response time.
GREEN – HostGator & Blue – GoDaddy
HostGator VS GoDaddy Performance Test
HostGator VS GoDaddy Performance Test
Winner: HostGator

3) GoDaddy Vs HostGator – Benchmark

The next test we performed between the two hosts is GtMetrix benchmark test. You can clearly see HostGator has better response time and page speed score. HostGator loaded in just 1.68 seconds, whereas, GoDaddy took 4.69 seconds to load. That’s over 3 second higher than HostGator.
HostGator Vs GoDaddy Performance Benchmark
Winner: HostGator
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HostGator vs GoDaddy: The UI

HostGator uses cPanel, the most used control panel. You don’t need the help of a geek to use it. It provides everything you need. It is important to have a user friendly interface and these one-click script installers are a boon to all newbies who do not have much experience with these platforms.
GoDaddy, on the other hand uses its own custom control panel. It does provide script installers just like the conventional cPanel’s feature. But the interface is quite different than the conventional cPanel. There are many complaints regarding the non-easiness of use for the most first timers.
Winner: HostGator- Easy to use cPanel user interface
Visit GoDaddyVisit HostGator

Customer Support and Reliability

Customer support is one of the most important aspects in the life of a consumer. Better the customer support, better the reliability. HostGator is readily available for all its customers, should they have any grievances.
They have a good ticketing system. You can also tell them about any complaints you have, via email. You can even call them up. The customer support is also good. All your problems get answered quickly; be it via the ticketing system, or the email system.
When it comes to GoDaddy, it’s a general user experience that the services are pretty slow. There are long waiting times, when you call them up; you have to deal with strong accents of customer executives, which could be a problem for non-native English speakers. They have long waiting times if you need redressal for your problems via email or the ticketing system.
Winner: HostGatorGood customer support, good reliability
Visit GoDaddyVisit HostGator

Features Comparison- Plans and Pricing

HostGator has three web hosting plans, namely the hatchling plan, the baby plan and the business plan. The hatchling plan being the most basic one, offers to host only one domain, while the rest can host unlimited domains. All feature unlimited bandwidth and disk space which is boon for every webmaster. All plans offer unlimited emails. The business plan, in addition to all the above features gives a toll free number as well. HostGator provides anytime money back feature for the first 45 days.
HostGator review web hosting plans
On the other hand, when it comes to GoDaddy, they have three plans; namely, economy, deluxe and the ultimate plans. All these plans provide unlimited bandwidth. The economy plan can host one domain while the other two can host unlimited.
The economy plan provides a 100GB limited diskspace, whereas the other two provide unlimited diskspace. GoDaddy offers you 100 and 500 emails in the economy and the deluxe plans respectively; whereas, only the ultimate plan provides unlimited email addresses for your domain.
GoDaddy Web Hosting Plans
GoDaddy Web Hosting Plans
Winner: GoDaddy - Unlimited plans start at $4.49/month.
Check Latest GoDaddy PriceCheck Latest HostGator Price

My Recommendation

I’ve compared key features of both HostGator and GoDaddy and as you see, HostGator is the clear winner. GoDaddy might be offering web hosting services at cheaper rates, but the total customer satisfaction for GoDaddy is not up-to the mark as compared to HostGator.
GoDaddy might be one of the best when it comes to domain name registration but it’s not a good choice for hosting. Here’s a list of reasons why HostGator wins over GoDaddy:
  • Better UI, use of cPanel. cPanel is absent in GoDaddy
  • Complaint free web hosting performance
  • Good customer support and reliability: HostGator is always available should you have any grievances
  • Lower number of cancellation of hosting accounts on HostGator than on GoDaddy.
If you are still not convinced with HostGator being the best in comparison with GoDaddy, I want to let you know that this site is hosted on HostGator server and I’ve not experienced any outages till date.
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