When it comes to establishing an online presence, one of the crucial decisions is selecting a reliable web hosting service provider. With numerous options available, GoDaddy and Hostwinds have emerged as two prominent contenders in the web hosting industry. These providers offer a comprehensive range of hosting solutions, catering to the needs of individuals, businesses, and organizations.
GoDaddy has been a household name in the domain registration and web hosting arena for many years. The company boasts a vast customer base and a global presence. Known for its extensive marketing efforts and recognizable brand, GoDaddy offers a wide array of hosting plans and additional services.
Hostwinds, on the other hand, has rapidly gained recognition as a reliable hosting provider. While not as widely recognized as GoDaddy, Hostwinds focuses on delivering high-quality hosting solutions with a strong emphasis on customer satisfaction. Their services are particularly appreciated by those seeking personalized support and flexible hosting options.
In this comprehensive review, we will delve into the various aspects of GoDaddy and Hostwinds to help you make an informed decision when choosing a web hosting provider. We will compare their pricing structures, features and technologies, performance and reliability, customer support, and overall user experience. By the end of this evaluation, you will have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each provider, enabling you to select the one that best aligns with your specific requirements.
Let's dive into the world of GoDaddy and Hostwinds as we explore their offerings, distinguishing features, and the factors that set them apart from each other.
Features
| Hostwinds | GoDaddy | |
| Hosting Types | Shared, reseller, White Label hosting, managed VPS (Linux and Windows), unmanaged VPS (Linux and Windows), cloud, dedicated servers | Shared (Linux and Windows), reseller, WordPress hosting (managed and unmanaged), VPS, dedicated servers |
| Free Domain | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free SSL Certificate | ✔ | With certain plans |
| Disk Space | 30 GB – Unlimited | 20 GB – Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | 1 TB – Unmetered | Unlimited |
| Automatic Backups | ✔ | ✔ |
| Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel, Plesk |
| Email Accounts | Unlimited | 1 Free |
| Free CDN | ✔ | Only with WordPress hosting |
| Free Site Migration | ✔ | Only with the fully managed WordPress hosting plans |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30-days | 30 days |
Based on this comparison, Hostwinds offers several advantages over GoDaddy in terms of resource allocations and features. Hostwinds provides unlimited SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited email accounts, whereas GoDaddy offers a limited amount of storage (ranging from 100 GB to unlimited HDD storage) and does not specify the number of email accounts. Hostwinds also includes a free CDN, daily backups, a website builder, and a free SSL certificate with all their plans, while GoDaddy only offers a free SSL certificate with higher-tier plans and does not include a CDN or a website builder.
Additionally, Hostwinds' Business plans come with extra features such as LiteSpeed Web Server, optimized MySQL, and unlimited FTP accounts, which are not specified in GoDaddy's plans.
Overall, if resource allocations and additional features are important to you, Hostwinds may be a better choice compared to GoDaddy. However, it's essential to consider other factors like customer support, pricing, and specific requirements before making a decision.
Plans and Pricing
Hostwinds is Cheaper Than GoDaddy
Hostwinds and GoDaddy offer many of the same hosting solutions, including; shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated servers. Hostwinds also has White Label and cloud hosting, whereas GoDaddy offers managed and unmanaged WordPress hosting.
Hostwinds has three personal (Budget) and three Business shared hosting plans (Linux only). GoDaddy has four shared hosting plans for Linux and three for Windows.
| Hostwinds Web Hosting | ||||
| Plan Name | Storage | Bandwidth | Number of Sites | Price |
| Basic | unlimited | unlimited | 1 |
$ 5.24/mo |
| Advanced | unlimited | unlimited | 4 | $ 6.74/mo |
| Ultimate | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited | $ 8.24/mo |
| GoDaddy Hosting Web Hosting | ||||
| Plan Name | Storage | Bandwidth | Number of Sites | Price |
| Economy – Linux and Windows | 100GB | unlimited | 1 |
$ 6.00/mo |
| Deluxe – Linux and Windows | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited | $ 8.04/mo |
| Ultimate – Linux and Windows | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited | $ 13.06/mo |
| Maximum | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited | $ 20.10/mo |
With Hostwinds, you can subscribe monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, biennially, or triennially. With GoDaddy, you can choose monthly, annual, biennial, or triennial subscriptions. The longer the subscription term, the more cost-effective it is with both hosts.
You’ll find that Hostwinds’ packages (even the Business plans) renew at a lower price than GoDaddy’s Linux-based shared hosting plans. Hostwinds also have better discounts than GoDaddy.
Hostwinds provides a free domain, free website migration, and a 48-hour, 14-day, or 30-day money-back guarantee depending on the subscription period.
On the other hand, GoDaddy only offers a free domain and free website migration with WordPress hosting. You get a 48-hour money-back guarantee with monthly subscriptions and 30 days with annual billing.
The winner? Hostwinds. Even though GoDaddy has affordable shared hosting packages, Hostwinds provides a cheaper renewal rate and more attractive discounts.
Performance
When comparing the loading speeds of Hostwinds and GoDaddy, it becomes evident that Hostwinds has a slight advantage. Hostwinds offers three server locations, including two in the U.S.A. and one in the Netherlands. On the other hand, GoDaddy only provides two server locations – the U.S.A. and India. While Hostwinds has more locations, GoDaddy's server locations are more dispersed.
Another aspect that contributes to Hostwinds' superior loading speeds is the use of SSD storage across all its plans. In contrast, GoDaddy only utilizes SSD storage with specific plans. SSD storage significantly enhances data processing, resulting in faster website loading speeds and overall performance.
Furthermore, Hostwinds includes a free CDN with all its plans, whereas GoDaddy only offers this feature with its WordPress hosting plans. A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, places your website on a global network of cloud servers, thereby boosting loading speeds from various locations worldwide. This feature provided by Hostwinds further improves their loading speeds compared to GoDaddy.
In terms of uptime guarantees, Hostwinds promises a 99.9999% uptime guarantee, while GoDaddy offers a 99.9% guarantee. Both hosts have demonstrated minimal downtimes during testing, showcasing their reliability.
During performance tests, Hostwinds showcased impressive loading speeds from different locations, resulting in a perfect global score. On the other hand, GoDaddy also achieved the same global score, but it had one slightly slower location. Although this slower location did not bring down GoDaddy's overall global score significantly, it does indicate a minor difference between the two hosts.
Considering these factors, Hostwinds emerges as the clear winner in the performance round, with its better loading speeds, more server locations, utilization of SSD storage, and inclusion of a free CDN with all plans.
Security
GoDaddy Has More Free Security Features
Hostwinds’ security is not one of its strong points. Most of its security features come in an optional paid add-on called Windshield. The package includes DDoS protection, firewall setups, server hardening, and security audits.
On the other hand, GoDaddy includes all these features as standard with its plans.
Hostwinds offers CloudLinux OS as an optional system, while GoDaddy uses it with all its Linux-based shared hosting plans. CloudLinux OS isolates each account on the same server to protect it against threats targeting other accounts. It is also responsible for the fair allocation of server resources.
Hostwinds provides free automatic daily backups with all its plans, while GoDaddy only includes this with some.
GoDaddy provides more security features with its plans than Hostwinds, making it the winner in this round.
Support
Hostwinds Has More Support Channels and More Responsive Staff
Both Hostwinds and GoDaddy have comprehensive and organized knowledgebase sections with countless articles and tutorials.
With Hostwinds, you get 24/7 support via live chat, phone, email, and support ticket. Even though I instantly connected with the live chat, the representative wasn’t as helpful as I would have expected and provided some incorrect information.
GoDaddy, on the other hand, has only two support channels – live chat and phone. The phone support is available through multiple global call centers serving several regions around the world.
Even though both are supposed to be available 24/7, the live chat isn’t always online. Even when it is, I found it hard to get through to someone. It’s not the responsiveness I would expect from such a big company.
Hostwinds has a broader range of support channels that are more responsive than GoDaddy. Even though the support staff provided some incorrect information, it still beats GoDaddy’s low responsiveness.
Hostwinds Is the Champion
The Hostwinds plans are packed with generous resource allocations and cover all the essential features needed to kickstart your business. It also has fast loading speeds and a more responsive support team. GoDaddy is also good, but it has some limitations, slower performance, and is more expensive than Hostwinds.
Hostwinds managed to snatch a spot on our list of the best web hosting services.
|
Hostwinds
|
GoDaddy | |
| Plans and Pricing | Cheaper package renewal rates. Better discounts. 48-hour, 14-day, and 30-day money-back guarantee | More expensive. 48-hour and a 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Key Features | Free domain, free site migration, free SSL, unlimited SSD storage, free Weebly site builder | Free domain, free site migration (with certain plans), HDD storage with most plans, and free SSL (with higher-value plans) |
| Performance | More server locations, free CDN with all plans, 99.9999% uptime guarantee, minor downtimes, slightly faster loading speeds | Fewer server locations (more spread out), free CDN with specific plans, 99.9% uptime guarantee, minor downtimes, slightly slower loading speeds |
| Security | Windshield (optional paid add-on), CloudLinux OS (optional), free daily backups with all plans | DDoS protection, 24/7 server monitoring, strong firewalls, free daily backups with specific plans |
| Support | Comprehensive knowledgebase, 24/7 live chat, phone, email, and support ticket, high responsiveness, staff aren’t very knowledgable | Comprehensive knowledgebase, 24/7 live chat and phone, global call centers, low responsiveness and availability, staff are helpful |
Hostwinds vs GoDaddy: Summary
Hostwinds and GoDaddy are two popular and widely used web hosting service providers worldwide. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Hostwinds stands out with its excellent customer service, stable performance, and high level of flexibility in customizing hosting packages.
They offer a variety of hosting options, including shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting, allowing users to choose according to their needs. Hostwinds also aims to provide affordable pricing and additional features such as strong security and automated data backups.
On the other hand, GoDaddy is known as a large web hosting provider with extensive experience. They offer various services, including shared hosting, VPS, WordPress hosting, and domain services.
GoDaddy is also renowned for its user-friendly interface and convenient web management tools. They provide numerous tools and applications to support website building and online business management.
However, some users have experienced issues with speed and performance on GoDaddy, especially on shared hosting. Some also find GoDaddy's pricing policies unclear and subject to price increases after the initial period.
In conclusion, both Hostwinds and GoDaddy have their own strengths and weaknesses. Choosing the right web hosting service provider depends on individual needs and technical requirements.
Before making a decision, carefully consider and compare the features, performance, support, and pricing of both Hostwinds and GoDaddy to choose a suitable hosting provider.