HostGator vs GoDaddy (2021 Comparison) Who’s the Best Hosting Provider?

When choosing between HostGator and GoDaddy for your website hosting provider, you might have few questions and comparisons who is better choice for you. When it comes to picking the best WordPress hosting we will compare customer service, pricing, security, uptime, speed and reliability, user friendly, money back guarantee if you not 100% happy and migration option if you decide later to switch to other hosting provider. Once we will compare HostGator vs GoDaddy we will find out who is the better choice for you.

Updated: January 02, 2021

HostGator vs GoDaddy Comparison of Hosting Features and Service in 2021

HostGator is one of the oldest hosting companies around with over 8 millions domains and 850+ employees to provide you superior around-the-clock support. Founded in a dorm room at Florida Atlantic University by Brent Oxley, HostGator has grown into a leading provider of Shared, Reseller, VPS, and Dedicated web hosting. HostGator is headquartered in Houston and Austin, Texas, with several international offices throughout the globe. With 1-click WordPress install, 99.99% uptime, 24/7 support, live chat, free domain name and free SSL. HostGator is considered by many as one of the best hosting for business and freelancing agency. HostGator coupon offers Dessign readers an exclusive up to 60% off coupon code Dessign60 to save on any hosting plans. We also have a HostGator review  with detail information.

GoDaddy was founded in 1997 in Baltimore, Maryland by entrepreneur Bob Parsons. Parsons sold his financial software services company Parsons Technology to Intuit for $65 million in 1994. He came out of his retirement in 1997 to launch Jomax Technologies which became GoDaddy Group Inc. GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and incorporated in Delaware. As of March 2019, GoDaddy has approximately 18.5 million customers and over 9,000 employees worldwide.

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HostGator vs GoDaddy Ratings and Real Clients Reviews

HostGator Rating and Review

HostGator gets mixed reviews on Trustpilot, you will see many 1star reviews from angry customers and 5 star reviews from super happy customers. We believe that in 2020 most hosting companies have amazing customer support and will try to fix any issues in timely manners. You will always get angry customers who take it to the online to complain but overall HostGator is a great hosting company with long history and amazing customer service for the price.

TrustRadius HostGator Reviews 3.5 out of 5 Score

GoDaddy Rating and Review

Customer service is excellent

Customer service is excellent. Very helpful and queries are solved easily and quickly. I run all my business domains, websites and emails through GoDaddy. Highly recommended and daniel9563 was particularly helpful in resolving a delegate access issue, thanks!

TrustPilot GoDaddy Reviews 4 out of 5 stars review

HostGator vs GoDaddy Uptime and Speed

HostGator Performance – Desktop & Mobile – Uptime at 99.99% and Load Speed at around 417ms Review

HostGator GTmetrix Page Speed Performance

We tested one of our websites hosted on HostGator with GTmetrix to see how fast it opens and what is the PageSpeed Score. So how fast does a HostGator website load? Our website loaded in 1.8 s with PageSpeed Score of A.

• PageSpeed Score Performance – A (96%)
• YSlow Score – B (86%)
• Fully Loaded Time – 1.8 seconds
• Total Page Size – 290KB
• Requests – 9
• Minify CSS – A (96%)
• Avoid bad requests – A (100)
• Leverage browser caching – B (88%)
• Optimize the order of styles and scripts – A (92%)
• Defer parsing of JavaScript – A (93%)
• Specify a cache validator – A (98%)
• Minify HTML – A (99%)
• Minify JavaScript – A (98%)

HostGator Website Speed Test 25 Locations Average 2.5 sec

We also tested Page Load Speed from 25 Locations around the world to see how fast it opens in different locations. The Page Load Results are by Website Speed Test it shows that the average first-time visit is around 2.8 sec and the average repeat visit is around 2.1 sec which is very fast around 2 sec.

• Minneapolis – First Visit 6.2 sec – Repeat Visit 417 ms
• New York – First Visit 3.8 sec – Repeat Visit 624 ms
• London – First Visit 4.6 sec – Repeat Visit 631 ms
• San Francisco – First Visit 802 ms – Repeat Visit 415 ms
• Miami – First Visit 1.0 sec – Repeat Visit 427 ms
• Hong Kong – First Visit 2.8 sec – Repeat Visit 1.5 sec
• Montreal – First Visit 885 ms – Repeat Visit 435 ms
• Frankfurt – First Visit 1.9 sec – Repeat Visit 638 ms

Google PageSpeed Insights Mobile Performance 90 Score

Last page speed we did was from Google PageSpeed Insights where our Bluehost website score on a mobile device with a score of 98 % with an average of 1.8 s performance which is very fast in a top performance in green score 90-100 our site score top rank at 98.

• First Contentful Paint – 1.5 s
• First Meaningful Paint – 1.5 s
• Speed Index – 4.9 s
• First CPU Idle – 1.5 s
• Time to Interactive – 1.6 s
• Max Potential First Input Delay 60 ms

GoDaddy Performance – Desktop & Mobile – Uptime at 99.99% and Load Speed at around 417ms Review

GoDaddy GTmetrix Page Speed Performance

We tested one of our websites hosted on HostGator with GTmetrix to see how fast it opens and what is the PageSpeed Score. So how fast does a HostGator website load? Our website loaded in 1.8 s with PageSpeed Score of A.

• PageSpeed Score Performance – C (74%)
• YSlow Score – B (87%)
• Fully Loaded Time – 11.2 seconds
• Total Page Size – 1.16MB
• Requests – 150
• Minify CSS – A (96%)
• Avoid bad requests – A (100)
• Leverage browser caching – B (88%)
• Optimize the order of styles and scripts – A (92%)
• Defer parsing of JavaScript – A (93%)
• Specify a cache validator – A (98%)
• Minify HTML – A (99%)
• Minify JavaScript – A (98%)

HostGator vs GoDaddy Hosting Plans and Pricing

HostGator Hosting Plans, Features and Pricing

Share Web Hosting

Hatchling Plan – $2.75/mo , Baby Plan – $3.95/mo, Business Plan – $5.95/mo

HostGator share web hosting provides a vast array of tools to take your idea or business online today. From site building tools and templates, to our one-click application installer, you’ll find everything you need to launch your new website. With our QuickInstall tool, available on all Web Hosting plans, you can create any type of website: blog, forum, CMS, wiki, photo gallery, E-commerce store, and so much more! Since HostGator runs on Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, thousands of existing applications and software are compatible.

HostGator Free Domain Name: Yes

Technical Specifications – Share Web Hosting

GoDaddy Hosting Plans, Features and Pricing

Built on our state-of-the-art hosting, WordPress Hosting from GoDaddy is the perfect solution for anyone who wants the power and simplicity of WordPress without the hassle of constant updates and technical adjustments. More than just a simple install, WordPress is seamlessly integrated to your hosting so the moment you log in, you’re able to build, edit and manage your site. We’ve also modified our servers specifically for WordPress, giving you a level of speed and security you can’t get from a standard web hosting plan.

Basic: $6.99/month, Deluxe: $9.99/month, Ultimate: $12.99/month, Ecommerce: $15.99/month

1 website
30 GB storage 
Ideal for up to 25K monthly visitors 
Free business email – 1^st year 
Website backup protection with 1-click restore 
Free domain ($34.99/yr value) 
Automatic daily malware scans 

GoDaddy Free Domain Name: Yes

99.9% uptime promise and money-back guarantee CDN Boost for faster load times of up to 50%Free business email — 1 ^st year Automatic WordPress core software and security updates Access to thousands of free themes and pluginsFor beginners: Pre-built sites and drag & drop page editor SFTP access (Deluxe, Ultimate, and Ecommerce plans) Free 24/7 supportOne-click migration toolLatest version of PHP 7 Temporary domain name 

HostGator vs GoDaddy Money Back Guarantee

HostGator 45-Day Money Back Guaranteed Refund

HostGator has one of the best refund policy of 45 days vs a regular 30 days from other hosting companies. To get the 45-day money-back guarantee for your shared, reseller, or VPS hosting, please cancel your account within the first 45 days of purchase. We cannot refund you until the cancellation request is complete.

GoDaddy 30-Days Refund Policy

Products purchased from GoDaddy.com, LLC may be refunded only if cancelled within the refund period specified below in this policy. Some products have different policies or requirements for a refund associated with them, including some products that are not eligible for a refund under any circumstance. Please see below for refund terms applicable to such products.

Annual Plans+ – Within 30 days of the date of the transaction.

Monthly Plans*+ – Within 48 hours of the date of the transaction.

HostGator vs HostGator Ease of use and User-Friendly Dashboard

HostGator Inside a Customer Dashboard Admin

Since you need to signup for HostGator to get a view of their dashboard we took a screenshots how it looks inside so you can see what you will have once you signup with HostGator hosting.

HostGator Dashboard will have on the left sidebar: Dashboard, Hosting, Marketplace, Domains, Billing, Support

Below you will have under Manage: SSL Management, CodeGuard Backups, SiteLock Security, Office 365 and Weebly Builder
Under Control Panel: Email Accounts, Webmail, Databases, File Manager, Install WordPress
Under Quick Links: Manage Domains, Transfer Domains, Add a Hosting Package, Billing History, Make a Payment, Manage Credit Cards, Request migration, and Contact Support

HostGator Control Panel Overview

HostGator Request migration Overview

HostGator FTP Dashboard Overview

GoDaddy 2020 New User Interface Dashboard

GoDaddy WordPress 1-click install – Yes
Website Transfer – Yes

More than just a simple install, WordPress is seamlessly integrated to your hosting so the moment you log in, you’re able to build, edit and manage your site. We’ve also modified our servers specifically for WordPress, giving you a level of speed and security you can’t get from a standard web hosting plan.

And of course, our award-winning support is available 24×7 to help with an questions you may have. In short, there’s no easier way to build and manage a fast, secure, reliable WordPress website or blog.

HostGator vs GoDaddy Web Security

HostGator Security

Great Security Features: Codeguard Daily Automatic Backups with Website Time Machine and full security 24/7

HostGator completes weekly backups of all of our servers except Dedicated servers, per our backup policy. After the weekly backup is taken, we scan the files for any possible malicious file signatures. If any malicious files are located, these are then sent to a quarantine folder so that the files are not lost if legitimate, but are no longer visible online.

HostGator will send an email to the account owner with the details of what was found. The following is a copy of the email that is sent out if any malicious files are located:

During a scan of our servers, we identified malicious content in accounts under your control. We have quarantined the files listed below to prevent abuse. Please note that no services have been disabled, and no legitimate content has been affected by this action. However, it is possible that other malicious activity may have disrupted your services.

The most important things you can do to ensure the security of your account are to make sure your software (e.g. WordPress) is up-to-date, and that your passwords are strong. We strongly encourage you to change all of your account passwords and update all software as soon as possible to prevent any further compromises or abuse.

We understand that any risk to our network reputation is a risk to our customers’ reputation, and so we take third-party reports of network abuse seriously. In order to protect our shared reputation, we may disable account services in the event of a third-party report of network abuse until we are confident that the account has been properly cleaned and secured. This email is to inform you of the content found by our proactive scans and is not the result of a third-party abuse report. No services have been disabled as a result of this discovery.

GoDaddy Web Security Review

We offer complete protection and peace of mind.

Website Security powered by Sucuri — advanced protection made simple. There’s no software to install, daily security scans run automatically and if there’s ever an issue our automatic removal tools can’t fix, our security experts will repair it manually — no matter how long it takes and at no additional cost to you. So relax — we’ve got it completely covered.

In fact, it’s an equal-opportunity menace because most malware attacks are triggered by automation, so that means literally anyone is a target. And if you do get infected, and you don’t have an immediate response mechanism in place — like GoDaddy Website Security — it can do more than just disrupt your site. It’ll ruin your reputation, and that’ll chase prospective customers away.

Think of it this way: Securing your site is like locking the doors to your house at night. You don’t do it because you expect something bad to happen — you do it because it significantly reduces the risk of uninvited and unwelcome access.

How often will Website Security scan my site for malware?

Website Security scans your website every day. Depending on your plan, you can choose from a 30-minute, 12-hour or once-a-day security monitoring and scan frequency. If any malware is found, you’ll be notified immediately.

Does Website Security create backup files?

Website Security backs up any files that are modified during the cleanup process. These files are retained for a brief period of time. For regular backups of your website and databases, contact hosting support at 040-67607626 to discuss your options.

HostGator vs GoDaddy Customer Support

HostGator Support and Customer Service

HostGator has the most extensive support options such as Live chat, 24/7/365 Support toll free: 866-96GATOR. HostGator has Customer Portal, Support Portal, Video Tutorials, Network Status and Live Chat. Also one of the best features is Knowledge Based

GoDaddy Customer Service Details

We actually read our email, so send us a message at any of the addresses below. For support, go to support.godaddy.com, or chat with a friendly GoDaddy Guide at (480) 505-8877. Contact Us directly or chat. The GoDaddy Community forums are where our customers come together. You will learn & find help from others, share your knowledge, demonstrate your expertise, and have some fun.

HostGator vs GoDaddy Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons of HostGator

Pros of HostGator

Reliable and Strong Hosting: With 99.99% uptime and amazing customer support
45 Days Money Back Guarantee: HostGator offers 45 days money back guaranteed no question ask if you not 100% happy.
Great Security Features: Codeguard Daily Automatic Backups with Website Time Machine and full security 24/7
Free Website Migration: HostGator can transfer website files, databases, scripts, and one free domain registration transfer for free within 30 days.
Very User Friendly with great User Interface Dashboard: HostGator has one of the cleanest dashboard and cpanel we did quick review below so you can see how it looks and works.
Free SSL: Your hosting package includes a free SSL certificate that provides security for your website domains and subdomains

Cons of HostGator

Upselling: To get the best deal with HostGator you will have to sign up for 36 months, also a lot of extra features will be extra charge

GoDaddy Pros and Cons

Pros of Using GoDaddy

• Low Introductory Website or blog Hosting Price starting
• 99.99% Uptime which is very important as you never want your website to be down.
• Easy to use and setup, with the best User Interface Dashboard
• 30-day money-back guaranteed
• Good PageSpeed
• Free Domain Name and 1-Click WordPress Install

Cons of Using GoDaddy

• Higher renewal pricing
• No refund on the domain name, but you can transfer the domain to another hosting provider so no loss on your side.
• Up selling addons which you can just un-check at the checkout section
• Free SSL only at higher plan rates

Conclusion: Winner is HostGator

When comparing HostGator to GoDaddy based on customer service, pricing, security, uptime, speed and reliability, user friendly, money back guarantee. HostGator is much better overall and secure with outstanding customer support 24/7 and we highly recommend for your WordPress or WooCommerce website hosting

Checkout some of our other Hosting Comparisons to decide which WordPress hosting is best for you.