Updated: October 10 , 2018
Going with the first company you see isn’t always a wise choice, which is why you should research a variety of web hosting companies to see which one can provide you with better service for what you want and need for your specific website.
This HostGator vs GoDaddy review will assist you in selecting between these two web hosting companies so that you choose the best one for your needs.
After using both the HostGator and the GoDaddy for a few months, we compared the two web hosting across eight categories on a 100-point scale. Based on our test, HostGator is now the one to beat in web hosting industry. Here’s why.
Also Read: Bluehost Vs HostGator review
Also read Why I feel SiteGround is superior hosting than HostGator, Godaddy and Bluehost ?
Performance(20 Points)
HostGator and GoDaddy both promise a high uptime of 99.99% each month.
HostGator uses Linux x86 CentOS 6 64-bit operating systems, while its servers run on Dual Xeon E5520 2.26 GHz Quad Core processors.
GoDaddy provides customers the choice of choosing between Linux and Windows OS before signing up. And their servers run on Intel Core i7 processors.
Recently, there have been many outages regarding the uptime of GoDaddy, which has caused many customers to become outraged and drop their service. I personally feel that they are still an excellent domain registrar, but don’t provide great quality when it comes to web hosting services.
Also Read: Dual Xeon vs. Core i7 review.
1. HostGator Vs GoDaddy – Uptime Report (15 Points)
My team kept track of uptimes for both HostGator and GoDaddy for the last seven months using real time uptime tracking powered by Host-tracker
The result was a 99.99% uptime for HostGator and a below average uptime of <98% for GoDaddy.
Uptime of Sites Hosted on HostGator
Uptime of Sites Hosted on GoDaddy
To have a more precise understanding of HostGator’s uptime, we started tracking uptime of our personal blog hosted under HostGator and Godaddy
Here are the results…
HostGator performed exceptionally well, and scored an uptime of 99.99% or greater throughout the entire period of our testing, whereas Godaddy disappointed us with a downtime of more than 1 hour.
HostGator Uptime Report
GoDaddy Uptime Report (May- June 2014)
Winner: HostGator – Both of my uptime tests show that HostGator scores consistent uptime of 99.99% throughout our testing period of one year.
2. HostGator Vs GoDaddy – Server Response time(15 Points)
We tested load time and server response time of websites hosted on HostGator and GoDaddy using Load Impact App.
Here are some of the steps taken to ensure that all tests were as fair as possible.
- Each site has a WordPress 4 installation running on it, and features the same theme, the same number of images, page size, content and requests.
- All the plugins and catching systems were disabled
- The test was conducted several times and the best results are displayed here.
- The host servers we tested are located in Chicago, IL, and Provo, UT, while the servers we used were located in Dallas, TX, and Ashburn, VA, respectively.
The Green Line indicates the number of visitors and blue line represent the adjacent response time as the traffic increase. The traffic was steadily increased from 1 to 50 visitors and the response time was noted.
Response time of sites hosted on HostGator
Click here to have a look at the source and full test result from Load Impact for HostGator
HostGator’s server performance seems to be solid, healthy and consistent. Only problem is that we don’t want to see a graph with lots of ups and down, flat lines are great for a hosting company. HostGator returned one the fastest response time of 400ms during this test.
Although, they were able to maintain this response time only until 75 concurrent visitors, which is not bad considering this webisite was hosted on a shared hosting server.
Response time of sites hosted on GoDaddy
Click here to have a look at the source and full test result from Load Impact for GoDaddy
GoDaddy started at an average server response time of 1.2s, but once the traffic passed 46 concurrent visitors, it started slowing down heavily and eventually the website stopped responding.
The server become completely unresponsive and the rejection list was very high. Moreover, the final result has high number of failed attempt. GoDaddy fared well for lower traffic and completely fell apart once the traffic hit 46 mark.
Winner: HostGator – HostGator website loaded with an average response time of 400 ms compared to GoDaddy which have an average over 1200ms.
3. HostGator vs Bluehost – Website Speed test(15 Points)
We conducted two test for understanding the speed of both these web hosting.
First test …
This tests use the concept of TTFB or Time to First Byte, it refers to how quickly the host’s server sends the first byte of data when responding to a request send by the browser of your visitor . This will determine the quality and speed of hosting servers.
Here are the result..
Second test …
We performed a speed test from New York, Amsterdam and Melbourne to study their website speed from different continents.
For a better understanding, I have selected couple of website Hosted under HostGator and GoDaddy for testing their speed.
Note:-Both web pages are exactly same, i.e. they have same page size, design, request and images.
3.1 Speed of sites hosted on HostGator
HostGator showed great performace in Europe and USA, loaded a bit slower in Australia.
| Testing Location | Test 1 | Test 2 | Test 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 1.0 | 0.85 | 0.7 |
| Amsterdam | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Melbourne | 2.2 | 1.71 | 2.0 |
3.2 Speed of sites hosted on GoDaddy
Godaddy load time is 2* higher than HostGator from all the tested locations.
| Testing Location | Test 1 | Test 2 | Test 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.0 |
| Amsterdam | 2.7 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Melbourne | 6.3 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
Winner: HostGator – Its very clear from these tests that HostGator servers are very fast and reliable.
Prices, Plans and Features (5 Points)
HostGator and GoDaddy are very much alike when it comes to their plans and prices. HostGator has three plans: Hatchling, Baby and Business.
GoDaddy features similar plans to HostGator, naming them: Economy, Deluxe and Unlimited. The Economy plan features a single domain and 100GB disk space; the other two plans come with unlimited disk space and domains.
The graph below shows the prices, and features of both company’s plans:
| Features | Godaddy Economy | Deluxe | HostGator Hatchling | HostGator Baby |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disk Space | 100 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email Accounts | 100 | 500 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Domains Allowed | 1 | Unlimited | 1 | Unlimited |
| Free Domain | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Control Panel | cPanel or Plesk | cPanel or Plesk | cPanel | cPanel |
| For 1 Month | No monthly Plans | No monthly Plans | $0.01 coupon:HGHOSTING99 | $0.01 coupon:HGHOSTING99 |
| 12 month Plan | Best Price:- $12 for one year | $6.45/mo | $2.59/mo. (Click on signup for this price) | $3.33 |
| 2 Year Term | $3.55 | $6.45 | $4.12 | $6.25 |
| 3 Year Term | $3.55 | $6.45 | $3.33 (Best Price*) coupon HGHOSTING30 | $5.15 |
| Sign Up Now! | Sign Up Now! | Sign Up Now! | Sign Up Now! |
Winner: Tie. It’s worth noting that both these hosting companies renew at the same rate; the only difference is their initial prices.
Lets Check Latest HostGator Plans Lets Check Latest GoDaddy Plans
HostGator vs. GoDaddy: Control Panel( 10 Points)
HostGator uses cPanel as its control panel. And for those who aren’t familiar with cPanel, it is the most commonly used control panel due to its simplicity and easy-to-use features. GoDaddy provides users with the option of choosing their own control panel. Customers can opt between cPanel and Plesk.
Behind cPanel, Plesk is the second most popular control panel and can run on both Linux and Windows OS, which can be a greater benefit depending on what your site runs on.
Winner:-Tie
Customer Support (10 Points)
HostGator provides 24/7/365 e-mail, live chat and ticketing systems to contact their customer service support team of specialists.
Any time we had a concern and contacted them, they were very quick to respond and always took our problems very seriously.
Their ticketing system is very fast and respond within an hour of contacting them. Moreover, their live chat boast a wait time of just 1-2 minute.
GoDaddy provides toll free call in product support. Their one major downfall when it comes to customer service is their lack of a E-mail and ticketing system.
Ticketing system is common with other top web hosting companies, and it’s something that GoDaddy should utilize themselves, especially since their call in support have a long waiting time.
Moreover, their Live chat feature is not working most of the time, and is limited to only few countries and for selected hours.
Winner: HostGator – GoDaddy’s live chat absence and Email support is a major setback for them.
My conclusions – HostGator Vs Godaddy Review
HostGator Vs GoDaddy – Final Scorecard
| Web Hosting FACE-OFF | HostGator | GoDaddy |
|---|---|---|
| Uptime (10) | ||
| Response time(15) | ||
| Website Speed (15) | ||
| Performance (20) | ||
| Support (10) | ||
| UA- Interface (10) | ||
| Money Back Guarantee (10) | ||
| Prices(5) | ||
| Total Points | 90 | 50 |
Here is my conclusion for this HostGator vs. GoDaddy review…
I’ve found no major differences in regards to their plans, prices or features. However, there are noticeable differences in their customer support, performance and reliability.
HostGator has high uptime and an excellent response time. GoDaddy’s biggest drawback is not offering customers a live chat feature or E-mail support.
So, based on this HostGator vs GoDaddy review, it can be concluded that HostGator is superior to GoDaddy when it comes to their unmatched capability in the field of client support, performance and reliability. HostGator has 9 wins compared to 5 wins from GoDaddy.
Below is a quick review as to why HostGator is my preferred choice:
- Quality hosting at an affordable price.
- 45-Day money back guarantee with no hidden clause.
- 24/7 fast and an informative live chat and ticketing system.
- Our testing shows that HostGator ensures constant uptime of 99.99% guaranteed throughout the entire year of our testing.
- Faster than all of previously tested web hosting companies tested at Inline Hosting.
- Benefits from providing users with the most commonly used control panel in the industry, which is cPanel.
- Offers high-security protection features for your database.
GoDaddy vs HostGator twitter reviews and reactions
We have gathered some interesting reviews and reaction from real twitter users of these web hosting companies.
HostGator’s twitter user reviews and reaction..
GoDaddy’s twitter user reviews and reactions…
HostGator coupon codes
For Hostgator: Use coupon code HGHOSTING30 to get up to 60% discount on any of their hosting packages. ( coupon will expire soon.)
Use coupon code HGHOSTING99 to get HostGator hosting plan for as low as $0.01 or $9.94 discount on any of packages.
Claim 60% Discount or 76$ OFF on shared hostingGet GoDaddy hosting for as low as $12/year with one year free domain registration
Disclosure: This site is run by a group of like-minded webmasters, whose mission it is to provide the public with honest web hosting reviews to ensure they meet our expert criteria. We do receive compensation for all the products that we review, which in turn helps us finance our work and provide users with honest reviews. All the products mentioned on our site are tested and evaluated before any reviews are written.
I have a WordPress website the website running on godaddy web hosting. But I need to switch my hosting company and want to buy Hostgator WordPress web hosting. But I don’t know how to transfer my website to Hostgator hosting. So please tell me the processor which I want to do.
Thanks for Sharing this. But can you please tell me which is best Hosting website to buy a hosting plan.
Any hosting that is now EIG-owned…you can simply Google WHY you never want to host with them…because they are like the Comcast in the hosting world.
I am using Host Gator now instead of Go Daddy because for years I wouldn’t get emails that were sent to me and sometimes even returned to the sender. When I asked Go Daddy why people were having emails returned and to fix the problem, they could literally do nothing about it and had no answers. I’ve probably lost tens of thousands of dollars over the years because of emails that never made it through. Simply using Host Gator to try something different in hopes of not having same problems anymore.
Hi Joshua. I’m having the same problem with GoDaddy. Do you resolve the email problem with HostGator?
Kindly never buy go daddy hosting. They are just like big frauds and treat people so badly that u can’t imagine. I just bought go daddy hosting and they advertised wrongly too. At the end they billed you lot.
My main concern is that I couldn’t even imagine that they will not provide me any access to customer support. Telephone number is from UK now imagine how much difficult is to call from Pakistan to UK. No chat option, no email support address. And they just emailed that we need to verify your account and when u will sign up a form will prompt up and u just fill and provide the documents. When I tried to login no form but just they blocked me. I replied back several times to the same email I received but every time automated same reply. Just imagine nobody there bothers to read emails. I have never seen even a single website including PayPal which dont allow you to login to your account when they need to verify your account.
At last I dialed a super expensive call and when I shouted the representative gave me an email I told them that kindly tell me how I can upload documents when there is no form. The matter was serious and they just replied automated same email. Nobody reads your emails.
Now I am just a new customer my nerves are fully stressed and I don’t know any way to contact them. I can’t ask for refund, I can’t upload documents because I have no way they reply my emails. Also they are asking me to upload my card. And the hosting quality is that I cannot even upload the yoast seo plugin. Rest of hosting quality I don’t know as they entangled me in non issues.
My advice is that no matter how good the product or service is but if customer service doesn’t exist never ever go for that product or service. Always prefer good quality customer service even if the stuff is mediocre.
Yes Some years back i was a customer of Host gator and really superb hosting superb customer support. I still remember them, but this time due to affordability matter i fell in the trap of go daddy. I hate go daddy.
Namecheap remians the best for me..easy payment method
Godaddy, stay away from them. They will charge your card without authorization and will not refund you. Their service is mediocre. When you buy mail hosting facility from them you will get a lot of spam because their mail server will not protect you. They will charge you a exorbitant fee for a calender facility that you do not need. Godaddy will rip you off if you host with them. They do not need customers so do not bother they are not worth a click. Their refund policy is only a mirage you will not find any means to get the refund. Contact their HQ and they will politely tell you to get lost. They are lazy and incompetent.
As per my personal experience, Godaddy support is ***. I am using them for last 3 years and have had many issues what their customer support executive and even their team leader couldn’t solve. Then mostly I had to search for my solutions. Many a time I have felt we customers know better than their expert support. The most con thing is you have to buy email package separately and high renewal price. Rest okay.
Hostgator, once I have tried but opted out.
Bluehost seems expensive every time I have logged into their site. One of my friend is using them for years but he also has little complain about their customer support.
Someday from a known, I came to know about susantaonline. And found their renewal price are lower than above which helped me a lot in my last 3 years work with them. while booking my domain with them for the first go, I have found all my entries was scanned by antivirus software, I felt secured.
Hello,
I wouldn’t recommand Godaddy because I have a lot of problems with shared hosting.
I don’t own an hostgator account so I can’t give any opinion about their services.
And @Prince, a 3 seconds load times is a lot !!
But a least your website is loading, mine hosted in godaddy is not 80% of the time…
HostGator was recommended to me by a few people. I know Glen from ViperChill is a big fan of their services however I don’t think they are the most easy to use, nor the most cost-effective. I’d probably prefer to use my domain’s hosting service as it is easier to streamline. In saying this however there is nothing wrong with the service, it does what it’s meant to do and the support is good.
I was looking for best reviews on the net and I have read that HostGator was just very good advertised, otherwise “this” host and “that” host were way better, as support and pricing, and wiping you down there, etc. Than I just tried HostGator. I found it the best offer I would have ever imagined, so I made the deal instantly. My host is and will be HostGator. The support is 5 stars, they’re very good and quick. I don’t think one need anything better than that.
If i had to go with my experience, HostGator have been great to deal with when it comes to domain registration and hosting. I’ve had a really good experience for a number of month which is why I continue to renew my service as well as introduce their services to more of my clients.
I’m particularly impressed with their online chat when I need support, even late on weekends! Keep up the great work!