Web hosting is mandatory, if you want to do any kind of business online. Heck, it’s even necessary if your actual product or service isn’t digital. If you don’t have a presence online that’s both engaging and productive, then in this new century, you’re not going to be taken seriously. Of course, there are a lot of host and registrar services out there, with their appeals and their detracting points, but the two biggest contenders are Hostgator and GoDaddy. GoDaddy, of course, has made quite the reputation for themselves with their rather unique commercials, where Hostgator has silently crept their way into the public conscience simply through their subdued affiliate marketing via their customers. It’s time for the battle you’ve been waiting for, pitting GoDaddy vs Hostgator. Who’s the host with the most?
Round One: Hosting Plans and Accounts – Ready, Fight!
Right out of their corners, swinging like warriors, both sites offer an equal amount of hosting plans, those being three. So, if it’s all about plan diversity, then it’s a tie right after the bell.
But, it’s not all about that, is it? Amenities count with a purchase such as this, and GoDaddy comes out swinging first with a free domain with any subscription, which Hostgator only does during special deals and offers. But, Hostgator makes up for this pretty quickly with their unlimited domains per account for both their baby and business plans. GoDaddy, however, only offers unlimited domains for deluxe and ultimate plans.
Despite the easier time of putting unlimited domains on a Hostgator account, I have to say round one goes to GoDaddy for their free domain – domains are expensive!
Round Two: Subscription Models and Pricing – Ready, Fight!
It all boils down to the almighty dollar, and these two pull no punches when it comes to that. All three of Hostgator’s plans lock in at an even $7.96 for a one year subscription, monthly price. GoDaddy, however, undercuts Hostgator on all three, with their smallest plan being $2.99, their medium plan being $4.49 and their highest plan costing $7.49.
Round two goes to GoDaddy who, while their price increases as you need to grow, is cheaper than Hostgator even with their most expensive plan.
Round 3: Resources – Ready, Fight!
Hostgator’s been punched out for two rounds, but they’re not giving up without a fight. Countering GoDaddy’s cheaper price and free domains, they come back with a vengeance, offering unlimited disk space for all accounts, where GoDaddy only offers it on their deluxe and ultimate plans.
GoDaddy retaliates by offering phone, email, forum and knowledgebase support where Hostgator has only phone, email and chat. But it’s not enough as Hostgator pushes back with a 45-day money back guarantee dwarfing GoDaddy’s paltry 30-day guarantee!
Round goes to HostGator for unlimited space and a massively larger refund policy.
So far our match of GoDaddy vs Hostgator has been a real slugfest with two rounds to GoDaddy and one to Hostgator. One match remains, who will win?
Round 4: Technology – Ready, Fight!
Back out of their corners, they both come swinging, with bonuses from Hostgator being $100 of Google AdWords credit, where GoDaddy’s block with a paltry free mobile site converter (something available all over the web) just can’t stop the impact.
Our contenders are throwing punches with available technology now, being evenly matched with PHP, CGI/Perl, Ruby on Rails, SSI, MySQL, PostgreSQL and cron tasks from both. But what’s that? GoDaddy throws a surprise uppercut offering ASP.Net and Microsoft SQL, which Hostgator does not. Hostgator tries one last ditch swing by offering cPanel in stead of GoDaddy’s proprietary control panel. It shakes GoDaddy, but they just won’t go down. And the bell has rung!
While cPanel is a big boost to Hostgator’s punching power, and the Google Adwords credit is a significantly more powerful bonus incentive, the wider support of standard web technologies gives this round to GoDaddy.
And there we have it, ladies and gentlemen – the all out, no holds barred match of GoDaddy vs Hostgator ends with GoDaddy being the heavy weight champion. Hostgator has their strengths, but in an all around match, they just can’t hold their own against big daddy GoDaddy.