5 Best GoDaddy Alternatives for Web Hosting
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If you’re in the market for a new provider, there are plenty of GoDaddy alternatives – our research marked Bluehost as the top GoDaddy alternative as it didn’t just match GoDaddy’s features but exceeded them!
GoDaddy is known for its large domain registrar, and its website builder is pretty neat, too. But when it comes to GoDaddy’s hosting plans, they’re, well… a little meh.
GoDaddy’s hosting features are great, but it falls down on uptime, value for money, and that it offers different prices for Windows and Linux. We’ve spent countless hours testing web hosting providers – and the results are in.
Bluehost is our #1 pick for GoDaddy alternatives because it impresses across every important category, from pricing to customer support. Bluehost offers great prices and feature-rich options. But it’s not the only option; here are the top five GoDaddy alternatives:
What Are The Best GoDaddy Alternatives?
- Bluehost – Best overall hosting provider.
- HostGator – Best for shared hosting.
- InMotion – Best for photography websites.
- DreamHost – Best for blog hosting.
- A2 Hosting – Best for cloud hosting.
So, if GoDaddy doesn’t appeal to you, sit back and read on as we review the best GoDaddy alternatives for web hosting.
GoDaddy Alternatives: Side by Side Comparison
Our top five GoDaddy alternatives have some fantastic features that far surpass GoDaddy’s capabilities. GoDaddy Hosting itself got an overall score of 4 out of 5 — so check out the overall ratings in this comparison table!
| BEST IN TEST  |  |  |  |  |
| Bluehost | HostGator | InMotion | DreamHost | A2 Hosting |
| Overall rating 4.8 | Overall rating 4.7 | Overall rating 4.5 | Overall rating 4.4 | Overall rating 4.1 |
| Starting from $2.95 | Starting from $2.75 | Starting from $3.29 | Starting from $2.59 | Starting from $2.99 |
| Uptime 99.98% | Uptime 99.99% | Uptime 99.98% | Uptime 100% | Uptime 99.95% |
| Money-back guarantee 30 days | Money-back guarantee 45 days | Money-back guarantee 90 days | Money-back guarantee 30 days | Money-back guarantee 30 days |
| Free backups | Free backups | Free backups | Free backups | Free backups |
| Free domain | Free domain | Free domain | Free domain | Free domain |
| Bandwidth Unmetered | Bandwidth Unmetered | Bandwidth Unlimited | Bandwidth Unmetered | Bandwidth Unmetered |
| RAM 2GB – 16GB | RAM 700MB – 128GB | RAM 4GB – 64GB | RAM 1GB – 16GB | RAM 4GB – 16GB |
Our research covered every type of hosting, from shared and dedicated to VPS and WordPress. In this guide, though, we’ll mainly focus on what each provider is best at – after all, there’s no point in picking a provider with great shared hosting when you need a dedicated plan!
We test every hosting provider on our list in these categories, among others, and put them through their paces:
- Pricing – money back guarantee, price range, number of plans, value, billing cycle, and more.
- Performance – bandwidth, server response time, storage space, RAM, cores, threads, and more.
- Features – security, migration, backups, domains, green hosting, control panel, and more.
- Help and support – phone, live chat, knowledge base, email, and other support options available.
- Market analysis – popularity, search volume, competitor reviews, and more.
With our in-depth testing methodology, we compare all these features to give you an honest review of the best hosting providers, so you can make the best decision for your online endeavors.
Further Information
- Best Web Hosting Providers – See our comprehensive list of the best hosting services on the market today.
- Hosting Comparison Chart – For a side-by-side look at the top hosting providers, use our detailed comparison chart.
- GoDaddy Review – Maybe you’re unsure how GoDaddy fares against the rest, check out our review to learn all about it.
GoDaddy Alternatives: Types of Hosting
If you want a quick sneak peak at which GoDaddy alternative hosting provider is best for which type of hosting, we offer you this short and sweet table.
| Types of Hosting | Best Provider |
|---|---|
| Shared Hosting | HostGator |
| VPS Hosting | Bluehost |
| Dedicated Hosting | Bluehost |
| WordPress Hosting | Bluehost |
| Cloud Hosting | A2 Hosting |
| Blog Hosting | DreamHost & HostGator |
| Ecommerce Hosting | Bluehost |
| Photography Hosting | InMotion |
Now let’s take a closer look at the top ranked hosting providers: what are they best for? What types of hosting do they offer? And, most importantly, are they right for you?
1. Bluehost – Best Overall Hosting Provider
Bluehost is easy to use, has great uptime, and offers great value for money. Bluehost’s our research winner for half of the types of hosting, it simply can’t be beat if you’re working with a WordPress website. In fact, it’s the top recommended hosting provider by WordPress.
2. HostGator – Best for Shared Hosting
HostGator offers the very best shared plans, for a relatively good price! But the main reason HostGator’s shared plan shines is it’s 4.8 out of 5 score for help and support, making it the most beginner friendly option too!
HostGator’s 99.99% uptime is another bonus, with a wide range of features and super scalable plans are also major benefits of this provider.
3. InMotion – Best for Photography Hosting
InMotion makes fast work of loading up images, which is why it got such a great score for photography hosting. It also has some robust security and backup options that also help when you’re sharing your photography online.
4. DreamHost – Best for Blog Hosting
If you want a cheap way to create a great blog, then DreamHost has you covered. Offering a whopping 97 day money-back guarantee, it charges ahead for value for money for blog creators.
5. A2 Hosting– Best for Cloud Hosting
With 24/7 support 365 days of the year, A2 Hosting is a great cloud hosting GoDaddy alternative. For those that have scalability in mind, the cloud offers easy access to website growth.
#1: Bluehost
Best Overall Hosting Provider
Bluehost
Best Overall Hosting Provider
- Really secure
- 99.98% uptime
- Free SSL
Paid Plans: $2.95 - $119.99 / month
Pros
-
Unmetered bandwidth - Fantastic help and support
- 30 day money-back guarantee
Unmetered bandwidth Cons
- Not the best site speed
- No free backups on shared plans
Not the best site speed 
It’s currently estimated that over 40% of active websites on the internet are built using WordPress. If you’re one of the world’s 1.98 billion websites on the internet, then Bluehost could be the provider for you since it came top in our WordPress hosting rankings!
You can get the most features for the cheapest prices with many of the Bluehost plans. With one-click installs, free SSL (for the first year), 99.98% uptime, and great help and support options. You can also get unmetered bandwidth, and a free domain for the first year.
Bluehost is easy to use, has great uptime, and offers great value for money. Bluehost’s uptime is so good it means you’ll have just under two hours of downtime per year. On top of that, it simply can’t be beat if you’re working with a WordPress website. In fact, it has a WordPress score of 4.6 out of 5, soaring ahead of the competition. The next best WordPress host being InMotion with a WordPress score of 4.4 out of 5.
Bluehost also came out top for VPS, ecommerce, and dedicated hosting, with a particularly impressive score of 4.9 out of 5 for its dedicated hosting packages. It’s no surprise Bluehost averaged out as the best overall hosting provider in our research!
Basic WordPress hosting plans range from $2.95 – $13.95 per month, if you pay for a yearly plan. For shared plans the cheapest option is also $2.95 per month for the year. The cheapest VPS plans are $23.99 and dedicated is $99.99 per month for the year.
Further Information
- Bluehost Review – Everything you need to know about this top provider.
- Bluehost Pricing Review – Is it really worth investing in a Bluehost plan?
- Bluehost vs GoDaddy – See how Bluehost competes directly against GoDaddy.
- Best PHP Hosting Providers – See why Bluehost ranks number one for PHP hosting, too.
#2: HostGator
Best for Shared Hosting
HostGator
Best for Shared Hosting
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 99.99% uptime
- 700MB – 128GB RAM
Paid Plans: $3.95 - $159.99 / month
Pros
- Best help and support
- Offers Windows & Linux plans
- 45 day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Poor server response time
- Doesn't have ecommerce hosting plans
HostGator rules the roost when it comes to shared hosting — getting the best shared hosting score of 4.7 out of 5 compared to runner-up Bluehost’s 4.5 out of 5. HostGator offers the best help and support on its shared plans, and has a great uptime of 99.99%.
So, if you’re looking for an alternative to GoDaddy for shared hosting, HostGator is your best choice. It also came top in our small business hosting rankings, so we recommend it for small to medium businesses looking to get online with scalable shared plans – every shared plan comes with a free domain for your first year, which is a nice bonus.
Its dedicated hosting comes with unmetered bandwidth, up to 1TB of disk space, and 16 CPU threads. You can even choose to host your site on Windows or Linux servers in one of two US based locations (Utah and Texas).
HostGator’s prices aren’t the cheapest in comparison to its competitors, but you are paying for a top-of-the-range service.
HostGator’s unlimited bandwidth on all plans, #1 help and support in seven categories, and really great site speed are what make HostGator stand out from the pack.
Does HostGator take a big bite out of your wallet? Relatively so, but you’re paying for one of the very best providers. Shared hosting starts from $3.95 per month (on the yearly plan), VPS ranges from $23.95 – $59.95 per month when you pay the year, while the cheapest dedicated plans are $109.98 per month.
Further Information
- HostGator Review – Our in-depth look at HostGator.
- HostGator Pricing – How much does it cost to host with HostGator?
- HostGator vs GoDaddy – See how HostGator stacks up against GoDaddy in all the key areas.
- HostGator vs Bluehost – Sink your teeth into HostGator’s clash with Bluehost.
#3: InMotion
Best for Photography Websites
InMotion
Best for Photography Hosting
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 99.97% uptime
- 4GB – 64GB RAM
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $3.49 - $539.99 / month
Pros
- Great security features
- Free expert migration
- 90 day money-back guarantee
Cons
- More expensive
- Poor site speed and uptime
InMotion will be a great option for those who have an image centric website, like photography or videography portfolios. InMotion offers a huge 90 day money-back guarantee on VPS plans, that allows users to truly determine if the service is right for them.
InMotion got the second best Feature score of 3.8 out of 5 in the photography category, because of its robust security and adaptable backups. It also scored well for Performance, getting a 3.5 out of 5 in photography, meaning that your images will always be clearly visible.
It offers unlimited disk space and free SSL on the basic plan, and multi-layer security on its dedicated hosting plan. Where InMotion falls a bit short is in value for money, as prices aren’t quite as good as competitors.
InMotion’s shared hosting starts from $3.49 per month when you pay a years contract, WordPress hosting ranges between $4.49 and $16.99 per month (yearly), while dedicated hosting costs between $139.99 – $539.99 per month (yearly). A huge leap for their dedicated plans compared to other hosts.
Further Information
- InMotion Review – Our in-depth look at InMotion.
- InMotion vs Bluehost – See how these two top providers compare.
- Best VPS Hosting Services – If you’re after a great VPS host, why not see what else is out there?
#4: DreamHost
Best for Blog Hosting
DreamHost
Best for Blog Hosting
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 100% uptime!
- Free domain
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $2.95 - $379 / month
Pros
- Cheapest shared plans
- 1GB – 16GB RAM
- 30 day money-back guarantee
Cons
- No phone support
- Expensive dedicated plans
With DreamHost, you’ll be sure your blog is in safe hands. Coming in joint first place with HostGator for the best blogging features, DreamHost offers the best price for it too – we awarded it the best pricing score of 4.5 out of 5! This makes it the best GoDaddy alternative for bloggers on a tight budget, combining useful features with great value to help your money go further.
DreamHost uses its own control panel dashboard, offers solid support, and has a whopping 97 day money-back guarantee. DreamHost also has really good site speed, so you can rest easy knowing visitors won’t be met with waiting for your site to load.
Also if you’re looking to create an ecommerce website, DreamHost is a fantastic option for sellers. It comes in second after Bluehost for its ecommerce features, exceeding in website security. DreamHost also has an incredible 100% uptime guarantee, so say goodbye to website downtime!
Prices start from $2.95 per month for shared hosting, when you pay the yearly fee. Then if you choose to go for the VPS plan it starts at $13.75 per month (yearly plan). And the cheapest dedicated plan is $149 per month on the yearly plan.
Further Information
- DreamHost Review – Take a closer look at this provider.
- DreamHost Pricing – How much does it cost to host with DreamHost?
- DreamHost vs Bluehost – Want to see these two providers battle it out?
#5: A2 Hosting
Best for Cloud Hosting
A2 Hosting
Best for Cloud Hosting
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 99.95% uptime!
- No free domain
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $6.59 - $529.99 / month
Pros
- Free backups
- 4GB – 16GB RAM
- 30 day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Very high prices
- Poor site speed and uptime
A2 Hosting is a good GoDaddy alternative for those who want to try cloud hosting. Hosting in the cloud means that instead of a physical server hosting your website it’s a network. Meaning you’ll likely get more room for scalability and more easily access files and tools.
As far as features go, you get root access, free backups, up to 16GB of RAM, and unmetered bandwidth. You’ve also got the option of using Windows or Linux servers.
With fairly good support 365 days of the year, A2 Hosting is always there to get you from A to B without a fuss. The highly trained ‘Guru Crew’ specializes in one-on-one customer support, while you also have access to live chat, phone, and email help.
A2 Hosting prices start from $6.99 per month (yearly) for shared hosting, which is relatively high. Then $42.99 per month (yearly) for VPS hosting. Its dedicated plans reach $529.99 per month for the year, with pricey renewal plans too.
It’s not the cheapest hosting provider around, but it does provide a 30 day money-back guarantee on all plans.
Further Information
- A2 Hosting Review – Learn more about this supportive provider.
- Best Web Hosting Services For Small Business – Gain a better understanding of who you should be looking at to host your business website.
- Best Cheap Web Hosting Services – After a bargain? Find out who gives you the most bang for your buck.
Are There Any Other GoDaddy Alternatives?
There are hundreds of hosting providers out there, and we’ve researched many more than just the five above. Some providers are great standalone platforms, and have unique strengths to offer that may be exactly what you’re looking for. But they didn’t make the top five because they scored less than GoDaddy in our overall rankings – although they might end up being your perfect fit:
iPage is great for cheap hosting plans, but these do come at the expense of loading speeds.
HostPapa and WPEngine may also be worth your consideration. The problem we found with these two was that Hostpapa’s renewal costs didn’t come cheap, while WPEngine is only suitable for WordPress sites – something Bluehost does better.
Further Information
- iPage Review – Get the lowdown on iPage with our main review.
- Hostpapa Review – Are the renewal costs all that bad? We reveal all in our review.
- WPEngine Review – If Bluehost just isn’t right for you, WPEngine is a serious candidate.
GoDaddy Alternatives for Web Hosting: Summary
GoDaddy is by no means a terrible hosting service. If you’ve purchased your domain and even built your website on GoDaddy, you may find it easier to keep all your bills in one place. But depending on what type of hosting you need, there are better options out there. Here’s a quick recap…
The Best GoDaddy Hosting Alternatives Are:
- Bluehost – Best overall hosting provider.
- HostGator – Best for shared hosting.
- InMotion – Best for photography websites.
- DreamHost – Best for blog hosting.
- A2 Hosting – Best for cloud hosting.
Basically, Bluehost covers all the bases, while HostGator and InMotion excel at shared hosting and photography hosting respectively. DreamHost and A2 Hosting are both excellent when it comes to cheap blog hosting and if you’d rather host in the cloud.
Overall we’d say Bluehost covers all the different bases. Plus with Bluehost you also have a 30 day money-back guarantee so you can try Bluehost risk free!
GoDaddy Alternatives for Web Hosting: FAQs
Absolutely. Just because you’ve bought a domain name from GoDaddy, and/or created your site using its website builder, doesn’t mean you’re tied to using its hosting service too. There are plenty of other hosting providers out there that all specialize in different types of hosting.
Generally, most websites out there will be comfortable on a shared or VPS hosting plan. VPS hosting especially can handle thousands of weekly site visitors, and gives you more control over things like security and resource limits. WordPress hosting is the obvious choice if you’ve built your website using WordPress.
No hosting providers offer free plans, but you can use a free website builder, such as Wix. This way, you’re not paying a thing for the design, domain, or hosting. A word of warning though – you’ll have Wix advertising on your site, and a Wix sub-domain too.
Wix is the best all-around website builder. It’s easy to use, has excellent customer support and it gives you more creative control than GoDaddy. If you want sublime templates and the market’s most powerful design tools, Squarespace is a better option than GoDaddy.
It depends on your skill level and how much creative freedom you want. Self-hosted website builders like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace don’t require any coding and they sort the hosting and security for you. Hosted software like WooCommerce and Magento require strong coding knowledge, but you have unlimited customization.
Most hosting providers offer a free domain name when you sign up for one of their hosting plans. The best hosting providers to offer this include Bluehost, 1&1 IONOS, and HostGator. Aside from GoDaddy, some popular domain name registrars include Domain.com, Namecheap, and BuyDomains.
Website Builder Expert aims to provide you with honest data. That’s why we conduct our own research and obtain direct, personal insight.
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