Along with popular options like Hostgator and Dreamhost, GoDaddy is one of the largest and most popular hosting providers in the world. Offering all main types of hosting, the ability to register a domain name, and a website builder to help launch your website fast, GoDaddy might seem like the perfect option to choose. However, it is not that simple in the world of web hosting.
The largest and most popular does not necessarily mean the best. And you may soon find yourself in need of a better option that will include more features and meet the requirements of your business more precisely.
In this comprehensive guide to GoDaddy alternatives, we have gathered six hosting providers that can offer better services for a more reasonable price.
Keep reading to learn more about this GoDaddy competition, and see which alternative would be best for you.
Experience fully managed WordPress
Power your site with the industry's most optimized WordPress hosting
The 6 Best GoDaddy Alternatives
The six hosting companies described in this article create a GoDaddy competition, each providing unique hosting plans designed to meet the diverse needs of business owners. You will learn what each has to offer, and who it can benefit most.
1. Nexcess
Nexcess is a powerful web hosting platform optimized for WordPress and ecommerce and is one of the greatest GoDaddy alternatives. By combining the possibilities of open source software with cloud architecture and award-winning technical support, Nexcess has managed to open a whole new page in the history of managed hosting.
Nexcess is perfect for small to medium sized websites built on WordPress, WooCommerce, Drupal, or Magento that need high-performance hosting with scalable infrastructure and a lightning-fast content delivery network.
Types Of Hosting Offered
Nexcess focuses on cloud and high-availability hosting for all popular content management systems for business owners who do not wish to spend hours configuring and maintaining the server infrastructure or suffer from the limitations of shared hosting.
- Fully-managed cloud hosting for WordPress and ecommerce. Nexcess cloud hosting plans offer all the benefits of serverless architecture, offering a powerful platform optimized for WordPress and ecommerce.
- Dedicated hosting. Dedicated hosting for Magento allows you to leverage the flexibility of dedicated infrastructure to better meet the requirements of your high-traffic online store.
- High-availability enterprise hosting. Nexcess application-optimized enterprise hosting powers mission-critical websites by offering server clusters fully optimized for the needs of your business.
Best for Managed Hosting
Nexcess is the absolute best option when it comes to fully-managed hosting solutions. Cloud hosting plans offered by Nexcess can meet the requirements of the majority of WordPress and ecommerce websites by providing high performance and scalability combined with the best tools for website management. All its benefits make it better than GoDaddy if you are looking for managed cloud hosting.
Automatic backups and updates and robust security solutions are just a few of the features that Nexcess offers. Support is one of the most important aspects for Nexcess. A team of strong system administrators and WordPress and ecommerce experts is always there for you should you need any assistance.
Advantages vs. GoDaddy
- More platforms supported. Nexcess hosting is not only suitable for WordPress and WooCommerce, but provides cloud hosting plans for Magento, Drupal, and a number of other content management systems.
- Better performance and security. Nexcess provides a range of features that help achieve unrivaled performance. A minimum of 10 PHP workers are included in all hosting plans, which is significantly more than GoDaddy offers on shared and managed WordPress hosting plans.
- Better support. Being focused on WordPress and ecommerce allows Nexcess to have a team of experts behind each hosted website.
- Powerful ecommerce store builder. StoreBuilder by Nexcess allows you to design a unique storefront and launch an online store powered by WooCommerce in a matter of minutes with secure payments and no hidden fees.
Nexcess Pros and Cons
Nexcess Pros:
- Good domain registration rates
- Free SSL certificates
- 30 days of free daily backups
- Nexcess Edge CDN powered by Cloudflare included
- Fully-managed cloud hosting for multiple CMSs
- Increased performance and security achieved by a number of unique solutions
- PCI compliant hosting
- Great website builder
- One management portal for all tasks
Nexcess Cons:
- No VPS or dedicated hosting for smaller websites
- Limited infrastructure customization options and no root access on cloud plans
Wondering how we compare?
Learn how Nexcess delivers more value than any other host
2. Bluehost
Bluehost is another hosting provider from the list of GoDaddy alternatives that offers domain registration and services and a number of hosting plans. Affordable solutions that include all basic features needed for a quick start make it one of the best options for beginners to web hosting looking to launch a website fast and easily.
Types Of Hosting Offered
Similar to other sites like GoDaddy, Bluehost offers four main types of hosting:
- Shared hosting
- Managed WordPress hosting
- Managed WooCommerce hosting
- VPS and dedicated hosting
Best for New Sites
Bluehost is perfect for new websites that do not, at least yet, require a lot of server resources allocated, and whose owners are looking for more affordable GoDaddy alternatives. Shared and WordPress hosting plans start at as low as $3 monthly if prepaid for one year, with a free domain name for 12 months and SSL included.
A website builder and access to a number of WordPress plugins and themes allow you to go live in a matter of minutes. If you would like to create an ecommerce website, Bluehost offers a few options for hosting WooCommerce with secure payments and unlimited products.
Advantages vs. GoDaddy
- More affordable. While providing almost identical features GoDaddy offers, Bluehost hosting plans are much more affordable, which makes it better than GoDaddy for a quick launch.
- Better for beginners. High affordability is achieved by having just the most basic features included with introductory hosting plans. As your business grows, you may have to upgrade to VPS or dedicated hosting.
- Better performance. According to some speed tests conducted by independent users, Bluehost shows faster page load times than GoDaddy.
Bluehost Pros and Cons
Bluehost Pros:
- Free domain for 12 months
- Free SSL certificates
- Highly affordable hosting plans
- Website templates available
- WooCommerce hosting plans included
Bluehost Cons:
- Very limited functionality included by default
- High domain renewal price
- Limited options for other content management systems other than WordPress and WooCommerce
3. Hostinger
Similar to the other GoDaddy alternatives on the list, Hostinger offers a wide range of hosting plans and domain registration services at very competitive rates. It makes another great choice for beginners due to a rather extensive list of features available on shared and managed WordPress hosting plans. Domain registration pricing is one of the best you can find on the market, with price for .com domains starting at less than $10 for the first year.
Types Of Hosting Offered
Hostinger offers standard types of hosting for all types of websites, regardless of the content management system or framework they have been built on:
- Shared hosting
- Cloud hosting
- Managed WordPress hosting
- VPS and dedicated hosting
However, unlike the two GoDaddy alternatives described above, Hostinger does not offer any hosting for ecommerce, so you will have to choose VPS or dedicated hosting to have your online store running smoothly on the Hostinger’s server infrastructure.
Best for Shared Hosting
Hostinger is the best option for shared hosting due to its affordable price and the list of features included. Shared hosting with Hostinger can be a great choice for small businesses that do not expect much traffic and can allow some downtime. As there are very limited options for larger blogs and ecommerce websites that do not involve having the whole server rented, you might want to consider other GoDaddy alternatives if you need more hosting resources.
Advantages vs. GoDaddy
- More affordable. Hostinger is a much more affordable option, with shared plans starting at as low as $3 monthly.
- Beginner-friendly. With lower domain registration rates and all basic features included in shared hosting plans, Hostinger is 100% suitable for beginners.
- More hosting options. Hostinger offers more types of hosting, which includes cloud hosting. Cloud hosting provided by Hostinger is a great alternative to VPS and dedicated hosting that ensures better scalability and uptime.
Hostinger Pros and Cons
Hostinger Pros:
- Low domain registration rates
- Free SSL certificates
- Great shared hosting plans
- Website builder included
Hostinger Cons:
- Limited options for hosting ecommerce and larger websites
- No clear upgrade path
- No free backups included on shared hosting plans
4. A2 Hosting
A2 is one of the providers on the list of GoDaddy competition that keeps focus on website performance and uptime, promising uptime of as much as 99.9%. A2 hosting, however, is definitely not the most affordable solution. All or most hosting plans cost more than what GoDaddy offers, and domain registration rates start at almost $20, regardless of the chosen top-level domain.
Types Of Hosting Offered
Along with the standard types of hosting that other GoDaddy alternatives offer, A2 also provides email hosting, which allows you to separate domain hosting and email. You can also become a reseller with A2 white-labeled reseller hosting solutions.
- Shared hosting
- Managed WordPress hosting
- VPS and dedicated hosting
- Email hosting
Just like Hostinger, A2 does not offer any plans for ecommerce, except for VPS and dedicated hosting, which might not be what online store owners are looking for. VPS and dedicated hosting often requires you to configure the server infrastructure by yourself, or even hire a dedicated team for managing the production environment.
Best for Speed
A2 might be the best option if website performance is a top priority for you. High page load speed is achieved by what A2 calls Turbo Boost, which is described as a set of optimizations that deliver unrivaled performance. What exactly makes Turbo servers perform so well is not revealed, but A2 promises up to nine times more traffic with three times faster read/write operations compared to the hosting infrastructures where the solution is not implemented.
Advantages vs. GoDaddy
- Better performance. A2 provides a significant performance boost for all sites like GoDaddy hosts.
- More options for VPS and dedicated hosting. From all GoDaddy alternatives covered in this article, A2 might offer the most extensive list of VPS and dedicated hosting plans.
- Better managed WordPress hosting plans. A2 managed WordPress hosting plans are more expensive than what GoDaddy offers, but they include significantly more features and server resources allocated.
A2 Pros and Cons
A2 Pros:
- Good shared hosting plans
- Improved performance
- Free SSL certificates
- Free backups
- Website builder included
A2 Cons:
- High domain registration rates
- More expensive than most GoDaddy alternatives
- Limited options for hosting ecommerce
5. Namecheap
As the name of the company suggests, Namecheap is focused on providing affordable domain registration services and hosting solutions. Namecheap is another great option on the list of GoDaddy alternatives for beginners to web hosting looking for a quick start. A free domain name is included in all hosting solutions, even the cheapest shared plans, with renewal rates for the most popular .com and .net top-level domains at less than $10.
Types Of Hosting Offered
Namecheap offers all common types of web hosting, allowing you to choose the plan that best suits your needs. WordPress hosting is offered under the Easy WP brand, which you have probably heard of. Not everyone knows that Easy WP is not a separate hosting provider, but a fully-managed WordPress hosting solution created by Namecheap.
- Shared hosting.
- Managed WordPress hosting.
- VPS and dedicated hosting.
Best for Multiple Websites
Namecheap is definitely better than GoDaddy when it comes to choosing an affordable hosting solution for multiple websites. Unlike shared hosting plans offered by GoDaddy and other companies, even the cheapest shared solution offered by Namecheap allows you to host three websites instead of just one.
If you would like to launch multiple small blogs that are yet to grow and attract their audience, shared or WordPress hosting by Namecheap is the absolute best choice. One of the shared plans also offers unlimited disk space, which is very rare, with the strict limits imposed by most hosting providers.
Advantages vs. GoDaddy
- More affordable. Namecheap is much more affordable than GoDaddy and most GoDaddy alternatives, with shared hosting starting at less than $2/mo with the yearly subscription option.
- Much more features included. From shared to VPS and dedicated hosting, Namecheap includes much more features with each hosting plan, so there are no hidden costs.
- Better options for hosting WordPress. Easy WP by Namecheap uses cloud architecture, which ensures better performance and uptime for your WordPress website.
Namecheap Pros and Cons
Namecheap Pros:
- Best shared hosting plans for multiple websites
- Free SSL certificates
- Free backups
- CDN included
- Website builder included
Namecheap Cons:
- Limited options for hosting ecommerce and larger websites
- Just one website allowed on WordPress hosting plans
6. SiteGround
SiteGround is one of GoDaddy alternatives focused on providing great cloud hosting for small to medium-sized businesses. Providing managed cloud hosting for all types of websites, SiteGround is one of the best GoDaddy alternatives if you would like to escape from having to share server resources with numerous other websites. Having shifted to the cloud, SiteGround can offer improved performance and security for your website for a very affordable price.
You can get great prices for managed cloud hosting by choosing a yearly subscription. However, domain registration rates are not really attractive, with almost $20 for .com and .net domain names.
Types Of Hosting Offered
SiteGround has chosen serverless architecture, moving away from VPS and dedicated hosting. What is interesting is that SiteGround does not separate shared and managed WordPress hosting, providing plans for running multiple websites with the ability to install WordPress.
- Managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting
- Managed hosting for all types of websites
- Cloud hosting
Best for Security
SiteGround hosting keeps their focus on website security, providing a number of measures to help get your website protected from main vulnerabilities and keep hackers away. One of the features you can get is a powerful built-in web application firewall that filters out most malicious requests before they can hit your website and wreak havoc.
Advantages vs. GoDaddy
- Better hosting for a lower price. SiteGround managed cloud hosting is even cheaper than shared hosting offered by GoDaddy, so you can get a much better deal while saving on hosting costs.
- Cloud hosting available. Cloud hosting has been gradually replacing VPS and even dedicated hosting for business owners that keep scalability and uptime high on their priority list.
- Better uptime and website performance. SiteGround keeps your website fast and secure, offering the page load time GoDaddy can not keep up with most of the time, according to numerous reviews and customer feedback.
SiteGround Pros and Cons
SiteGround Pros:
- Affordable cloud hosting for WordPress and WooCommerce
- Free SSL certificates
- Website builder included
- CDN included
- Free daily backups
- Improved malware and spam protection
SiteGround Cons:
- No VPS or dedicated hosting
- High domain registration rates
- Limited upgrade options
Comparing GoDaddy Competitors
Although GoDaddy might be the first name in the web hosting industry that you can hear as you start researching the options for launching a business online, there are multiple sites like GoDaddy worth checking out. Many GoDaddy alternatives offer many more features included in their hosting plans — and most are even cheaper than what GoDaddy has to offer.
Choosing a web hosting provider in the modern, saturated market is extremely challenging. Nexcess can save you hours on researching hosting plans and comparing your options. That’s because everything you need to launch and grow a successful website is already included in Nexcess managed hosting.
Whether you are running a large ecommerce website or a small WordPress blog, Nexcess is ready to accommodate your needs by offering a wide range of hosting plans for all popular content management systems. Leverage unrivaled performance and security and award-winning technical support with the best managed hosting in the industry.
Check out our plans to find out what makes Nexcess stand out from the GoDaddy competition today.