Looking for a GoDaddy alternative? You are not alone!
In this article, we’ll not only cover alternatives to GoDaddy, but we’ll also explain why you should consider other choices and why. In addition to the alternatives, we’ll discuss the advantages each option offers. No matter which alternative you pick, you’ll be making a good decision.
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What Is GoDaddy?
When nontechnical people want to launch a website, oftentimes GoDaddy is the first name that comes to mind.
GoDaddy used to be mainly a domain registrar. Now, GoDaddy offers a beginner-friendly website builder. Its builder uses artificial design intelligence (ADI) that makes website design easier and faster than ever before. It uses the information you enter to create a customized site in a matter of minutes. In addition to being a domain registrar and website builder, it also offers various other servious; which are typically needed to have a successful site. GoDaddy offers web hosting, SSL certificates, e-mail marketing and more.
Why Look for GoDaddy Alternatives?
People tend to use GoDaddy to buy a domain and register it. While they’re going through the registration process it’s highly likely to buy into its tempting bundle deals for hosting.
Without hosting, your domain is simply just that — a domain. In other words, your domain is parked by GoDaddy or redirected to its landing pages. It’s when you connect to a hosting provider that your website will display with your domain.
Even though GoDaddy is known for its large domain registrar, when it comes to GoDaddy’s hosting plans, they’re kinda ‘eh.’ The registrar giant tends to fall short in uptime, money value and technical support.
As we cover the GoDaddy alternatives, here are some key things to keep in mind:
Budget: Despite GoDaddy being an affordable choice, there are cheaper options.
Customer support: If you like having expert advice available 24/7, other providers can better accommodate you.
Performance: GoDaddy talks a big game when it comes to excellent loading times. However, they tend to fall short in uptime while other options don’t.
High-end choices: If you need more than basic hosting, GoDaddy may not be sufficient (especially for the price).
WordPress features: While GoDaddy has a range of WordPress plans, you may want to consider other services, especially if you’re using WordPress.
The fact that you’re scoping out your options means you want to make sure you’re working with the best. This is great! Finding a good hosting provider, though not as serious, is like finding the best car insurance. You should want to make sure you’re getting the best coverage.
So without further ado, here are our top GoDaddy alternatives.
Top 2 GoDaddy Hosting and Domain Registration Alternatives
Cheap hosting providers such as GoDaddy often get a lot of criticism. It’s understandable that many people want to go with a trusted provider, especially when they’re well known. Nonetheless, it’s clear that GoDaddy isn’t the right choice for everyone.
Despite its reputation, it’s actually far from being the lowest-cost web host available. This is even more apparent when it comes to its domain renewal. GoDaddy charges you a lot less for the first year. Even though it sounds like a great deal, it ends up costing you way more than other domain registrars.
Here are our top two alternatives for both hosting and domain registration.
1. Best Overall: Bluehost
Bluehost is our #1 pick for GoDaddy alternatives.
Bluehost is not only easy to use but it also has great uptime while offering a great value for money. With just under two hours of downtime per year, its uptime is 99.98%. In addition, if you’re working with a WordPress website, Bluehost can’t be beaten. Furthermore, Bluehost offers domain registration.
Basic WordPress hosting plans range from $2.95 to $5.95 per month, but if your site needs to grow, you ought to upgrade to a WordPress Pro hosting plan, which costs between $19.95 per month and $49.95 per month.
Key features:
- Offers free domain name for the first year and SSL
- Second most popular WordPress hosting of the year
- Reliable and dependable WordPress expert support
- 30-day money-back guarantee
2. Best GoDaddy Domain Registrar Alternative: Namecheap
Reining in as our other top GoDaddy alternative is Namecheap.
This alternative lands in our top two because of its accommodating features and affordable pricing. This may be your first time hearing about the domain registrar company. However, Namecheap is one of the most popular domain registrars on the internet.
Registering with Namecheap gives you access to some key features at no cost. For instance, you get a 1-year access to 1 free SSL certificate that is only payable after 1 year. Additionally, Namecheap offers WHOIS Privacy protection with all their domain names.
Unlike GoDaddy, Namecheap offers renewals at the same price as when you buy your domain. Namecheap has cheap registration charges. Namecheap charges $7.98 annually to register a .com domain name and $10.98 to register for a .net. GoDaddy, on the other hand, charges registrations at $14.99 annually.
Key features:
- Domain transfers free of charge
- Free WHOIS privacy protection
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Great value for money
3 GoDaddy Best Overall Alternatives
Now that we’ve covered our top two alternatives, let’s look at three overall great alternatives. The one that fits you best will likely depend on what kind of services you need. Nonetheless, they all offer somewhat similar features.
3. Best GoDaddy Reliability Alternative: SiteGround
With SiteGround, you can rest easy knowing you’re in good hands. From 99.98% uptime to solid expert support, SiteGround is a great reliable alternative to GoDaddy.
SiteGround puts a lot of work into continuously improving its hosting. In fact, it recently launched a custom hosting dashboard. Additionally, it’s moving to Google Cloud infrastructure for all of its hosting plans. As for its pricing and performance, SiteGround offers a great deal for your dollar. Its prices range in tiers from $3.95 per month to $11.95 per month.
For performance, features and user experience, we believe SiteGround surpasses GoDaddy.
Key features:
- Better performance
- Superior customer support
- Unlimited email accounts
- Free SSL certificates
4. Best GoDaddy Uptime Alternative: HostGator
When it comes to offering decent hosting, expert support, unrivaled uptime and great features, HostGator rules the roost.
While GoDaddy is typically preferred by businesses, HostGator becomes a great competitor — it is also great for large personal sites and big businesses. Its dedicated hosting comes with unmetered bandwidth. Additionally, you can choose to host your site on Windows or Linux servers in one of two U.S.-based locations.
There is a small catch when it comes to working with HostGator. Their prices aren’t cheap in comparison. Nonetheless, its pricing ultimately ends up being worth the value with its top range of services.
Prices start as low as $2.75 per month for shared plans up to $39.95 per month on VPS. If you have greater needs, you can speak to them directly about creating a customized solution.
Key features:
- 99.99% uptime
- Cheap shared hosting plans
- Customized firewalls against DDoS attacks
- Perfect for small businesses and beginners
5. Best GoDaddy Cloud Hosting Alternative: A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is always there to get you from A to B without a fuss. This is because it offers 24/7/365 support. It has a highly trained Guru Crew who specializes in one-on-one customer support. Its support can be accessed in many ways such as live chat, phone and email help.
Additionally, A2 Hosting offers a variety of shared and managed hosting options. It’s one of the fastest providers on the market! They have rapid loading speeds as well as performance-enhancing services.
Furthermore, A2 Hosting prices start from $2.99 per month for shared hosting. As for its unmanaged VPS hosting, it’s $4.99 per month. If you prefer managed VPS hosting (reseller hosting), it’s on sale for $18.99 per month. While A2 is not the cheapest hosting provider around, they do provide anytime money-back guarantees.
Key features:
- Free SSL certificates and CDN
- Free site migration
- Unlimited transfers
- SSD storage for faster speeds
Shop Around for Alternatives
There’s a lot to choose from other than the typical go-to of GoDaddy. After selecting your domain, you still need web hosting and other features to make sure your site is running smoothly — and securely. Figure out what you want and need before closing in on your selection.
We recommend looking into Bluehost. Its free domain and SSL are big draws. Bluehost also has better uptime. The continuous crashing of GoDaddy with its WordPress integration can impede your bottom line. If you want to steer clear of those time-consuming and costly factors, Bluehost is the more reliable option.
