Managing a business is more than just selling some products or services. It can take a whole lot of balance, trial and error, and the right tools at the right time. This is doubly true in the age of digital marketing and media.
Whether you are a small startup, working from home, or a large corporation, you are going to need a strong digital presence to succeed.
A website is the portal that many prospective clients are going to use to find, inquire about, research, and purchase your products. That is why having a great website cannot be overlooked when trying to grow your business.
But, where exactly do you host your website? That is what web hosting services are designed for.
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In the world of finding the best WordPress hosting, two companies stand neck and neck for their quality, services and offerings: GoDaddy and Bluehost.
We will go over what each service has to offer, and what you can expect as an end user. So, let’s dive into the web hosting features and benefits of Bluehost vs. GoDaddy.
Bluehost vs. GoDaddy
Both Bluehost and GoDaddy are extremely popular web hosting services. They both manage hundreds of thousands of websites, provide excellent user experiences, and have a lot of skin in the ‘game’.
The best way to tell which is right for you is to simply do a comparison and see how they stack up against each other. So, let’s go over some of the key details that really matter most when choosing a web hosting service.
User Experience
The most important aspect of a web hosting service is almost always going to be the ultimate user experience. After all, you are going to be using these services to manage your website and business online. So, which one offers the better feel and user interface?
Both Bluehost and GoDaddy use something known as cPanel. It is the industry standard control panel that allows you to monitor and control your website from the back end. However, both are overlaid with custom skins to present very different user experiences.
GoDaddy has a very extensive control panel that offers all the bells and whistles you need and could ever want. However, it can be a bit overwhelming as the layout is not very beginner friendly.
Once you get the hang of it, GoDaddy offers a very pleasing experience, but it will take some getting used to. Plan for a learning curve.
By contrast, Bluehost web hosting has one of the simplest control panel interfaces around. Everything is clearly marked and explained in great detail.
There is quite a bit of hand holding which makes navigation easier for beginners. This is a huge plus if you aren’t extremely tech savvy. However, one major drawback of Bluehost is that it has a tendency to try and upsell users on premium packages quite often.
Best User Experience
Bluehost is an easier and smoother user experience.
Uptime & Speed
When it comes to web hosting, speed and uptime are pretty crucial. These are the benchmarks many buyers should make note of when evaluating different web hosting services.
This is because you always want your website to be fast, responsive, and fully operational. Any outages or ‘downtime’ is negative for business. In the case of Bluehost vs. GoDaddy both offer excellent speeds and uptime percentages.
GoDaddy web hosting manages about 800,000+ websites every single day. This puts a significant strain on server power and requires a lot of resources.
Despite this GoDaddy manages to have industry leading speeds with a 99.97% uptime percentage. That’s pretty impressive! However, some users do occasionally complain about outages a bit more than you might like.
Bluehost web hosting manages about 200,000+ websites daily, and as such has far less load to carry than GoDaddy. This leads to uptime percentages of about 99.99%, and industry leading speeds as well. Users are typically very happy with their uptime and speed with Bluehost.
As far as speed is concerned, both are exceptionally fast. Storage is held on uber quick SSD hard drives and can be accessed at a rapid pace.
However, GoDaddy edges out BlueHost just slightly in terms of head-to-head. GoDaddy has an average website load time of about 2.5 seconds, whereas Bluehost is about 3.5 seconds.
Best Uptime And Speed
Very close to a draw, but the edge ever so slightly goes to GoDaddy.
Features And Services
Both Bluehost and GoDaddy offer different services and levels to their memberships that you can choose from. However, their base memberships are slightly different in several regards.
Both services offer free domains for one year with your membership. This means that the purchase of your domain and cost of hosting it is included in your membership as standard. This should be the norm for any web hosting service, and is good that it is included here.
In terms of disk space allowed, there is a bit of a difference here. GoDaddy offers 100gb cloud storage disk space, where Bluehost has a limit of 50gb for their base membership. This can be upgraded, but will cost extra.
Both services offer unlimited data storage plans, but GoDaddy has far more options as far as their packages are concerned.
On the flip side, Bluehost offers free backups for your data at all times. This is not a free offering for GoDaddy and in fact you will have to pay for backups whenever you need them--or else upgrade your membership.
Another feature to be on the watch for is SSL certificates. This is the secure browsing package you need for that necessary HTTPS tag on your website. If you want to rank on Google, you need an HTTPS URL.
With Bluehost a secure SSL certificate is included as standard. With GoDaddy you will need to upgrade to one of their two highest tier memberships to get this.
Best Features And Services
BlueHost web hosting comes with some services as standard that we consider necessary, as such it is the winner here.
Scalability Options
For small business owners, both services are excellent in their own right. When it comes to Bluehost vs. GoDaddy, you can’t go wrong if you are running a smaller scale operation. But, what happens if you want to scale and grow? Well, there you are going to have to do some thinking.
Both Bluehost and GoDaddy offer options such as shared hosting, WordPress hosting, Virtual Private Servers, etc. However, with Bluehost you will find that these features are about where the road ends. GoDaddy is just a bigger company, and thus can offer a slight bit more.
With GoDaddy you can get reseller plans, business hosting plans, and more. They also offer a larger variance of packages that allow you to scale upwards at a more controlled pace than Bluehost. In short, you are going to find your long term options are a bit better with GoDaddy.
This of course only becomes an issue if you find yourself rapidly growing as a business, and are in need of quick expansion. In terms of small business operations you are in good hands no matter what.
Best Scalability Options
GoDaddy web hosting has more scalability and will be a better bet for larger businesses or fast growing enterprises.
Customer Support
When using any service, you are going to want to understand your options and potential experiences with customer support. While you hope that nothing ever goes wrong, it’s always best to be prepared.
Both GoDaddy and Bluehost offer 24/7 customer support for all of their members. Both also offer local numbers to call so that you can get in touch with help in your area whenever you need it.
However, one thing to note is that Bluehost has less resources for these things than GoDaddy does. However, in recent weeks, Bluehost has upped their game and are adding more support features.
GoDaddy has full live support chat features, community forums for troubleshooting, and a very knowledgeable customer support staff. This makes quite a bit of difference if you ever need the help in the event of an issue.
Best Customer Support
This is a tie. You will find great support on both platforms.
Who to Choose?
So, after all of that, you are likely still wondering who exactly you should be choosing for your web hosting services. Well, in truth, both are great options. However, they will offer different experiences based on your needs. In short:
Bluehost
GoDaddy
The Choice Is Yours
Hosting a website is easier now than it ever has been. Business owners can have their operation up and running in just a few clicks, and can experience great speeds and uptimes to boot.
Choosing the right web hosting service will always depend on your needs, budget, current situation, and personal values.
In the end both Bluehost and GoDaddy are excellent options to choose from, and lead the industry for a reason.
