GoDaddy vs. HostGator

I have purchased domains through a few different sites over the years and the ones I purchased from other companies, I always had issues with. The ones I have purchased through GoDaddy were no problem at all. They have easy help pages that helps you set up step-by-step no matter where you will use your domain. I now only purchase them from GoDaddy. They also have coupon codes where you can sometimes get them for 99 cents, especially if you are a new user.

Incentivized

HostGator is cheap and will host your website and the users of your email. However, we did run into some issues over the years. They sold us SiteLock, which is supposed to be an extra layer of security. We had it for a while, when our site was hacked. When I called HostGator they said that the SiteLock plan we had wasn't the right one to protect you, so they tried to upsell me on more SiteLock. This was very frustrating, as our site was down due to hacking and we were seen as a sales opportunity instead of clients who needed help. It turned out during this time that the basic backup that was included with HostGator was not going to work to get us back up. The problem is that it backs up once per week, and overwrites whatever was there before. So, it had backed up after the hack. After that we decided to get their premium backup plan. HostGator is good if you only need the most basic of services, unless you are willing to pay for the add-ons, and you might not even be aware of the add-ons until there's a problem.

Incentivized

• Customer service is definitely number one here. The fact that they are open for calls 24/7 and have a great support team is a really nice thing to have when you aren't fully versed in all things domains/cpanel/email etc. They also usually answer quickly.
• Ease of use throughout the website. It's made for the non web savvy individual, clear and instructive for proper usage.
• I think they know their target market well and it's nice to see that their website shows just that.

Incentivized

• HostGator is a very reputable company. So you know that your website is in good hands.
• They have one of the most affordable cPanel cloud hosting services that you can find.
• The speed of HostGator's hosting is pretty fast. And little to no downtime.

Incentivized

• Support agents are woefully undertrained, even in knowledge of their own products.
• Support agents will always try to upsell you, even when you're dealing with an urgent, high-impact issue.
• There's no guarantee of uptime, and there will often be gaps in service as part of normal procedures.

Incentivized

• Tech support is responsive and helpful, but not without a special pin code. Since we need tech support infrequently when I do, I can never find that pin. It would be nice to have a quick client verification system.
• Publishing updated pages are quick but could be faster by eliminating a couple of extraneous click.

Incentivized

GoDaddy is the number one player in town. They have the most competitive and best pricing on everything from domain name registration to hosting packages that are very affordable. But of course due to inflation and everything going up in price today GoDaddy has raised their rates but nothing ever comes back down.

Incentivized

Because we have in house technical support to compensate the lack of quality HostGator tech support, and because the price continues to be affordable the business is likely to continue using HostGator. They provide what the business needs and we have in house support to maintain it.

Some integration could be much cleaner and smoother. Seems it used to be easier. Plus, they took away the catch all email feature.

Incentivized

They are also available. They never have any outages or anything that I've yet to experience.

Incentivized

Like I said before they are the BEST! nothing slows them down.

Incentivized

I think a lot of companies can learn from GoDaddy's support team. I have found:

• Chat or phone support is almost always available.
• Their agents are friendly and helpful.
• Their agents seem to care and be knowledgeable about a wide range of issues.
• I rarely have to escalate my problem to get the support that I need.
• If they can't help me, then they can tell me why something is happening and direct me to resources that can fix my problem.

Incentivized

While you will get support from HostGator, it seems to be a different level from 8-10 years ago. It may take 15-20 minutes to get someone on chat, and unless you follow up, I've found followup email support to take a couple of days. If you stick with it, though, you will get support, and I've never had a problem they couldn't help with.

Incentivized

GoDaddy is able to be integrated from these various platforms. I haven't used much of other services such as Host Gator, but GoDaddy's relative ease of use makes it a relatively simple platform for your small business needs. It does not quite plug and play, but it's not too far off, either.

Incentivized

This is for web design purposes. In versatility, not as good as WordPress, but pretty close to Squarespace and Wix. In ease of use, much easier than WordPress, about the same as Squarespace and Wix. In the choice of design templates, as good as all three. The current client chose HostGator after we poured through hosting, email, and web design comparisons. She wanted all these services through the least number of vendors, and the price was right.

Incentivized

Their customer service is easily reachable. Someone is always available to help you at any given time 24 hours a day. They are simply the best in the whole wide world. They have the best engineers and support team. Whatever I need they are there to help and assist along the way every time.

Incentivized

• Definitely a positive ROI because we are able to have a website to get information out there in addition to our social media pages. It brings everything together in one place. Companies with websites are way more credible than those without.
• We are planning on hosting our online store through GoDaddy, as well, which will also increase our ROI.

Incentivized

• Usage of resale options easily quadrupled the money I was spending on HostGator
• Trust in the host has to be earned, and HostGator has not retained that for me -- it will be a while before I feel confident in their uptime again
• Overall, HG has been a positive impact on my business as a web developer

Incentivized