Bluehost vs GoDaddy: We Reviewed & Tested Both (2023)

Do you want to know which service is better – Bluehost or GoDaddy?

Bluehost has established itself as a reliable long-term hosting and domain registrar. GoDaddy is wildly popular among beginners on account of their cheap signup rates.

But is GoDaddy actually the cheapest option or would you get a better deal with Bluehost?

In this review, we’ll do a head-to-head comparison of Bluehost vs GoDaddy. We’ll check out their domain and hosting services, pros & cons, and pricing to give you a complete picture.

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

• Bluehost vs. GoDaddy – Overview
• Features
• Domain Registration
• Web Hosting Plans
• Pros & Cons
• Support & Documentation
• Pricing Plans
• Verdict: Which is Better?

Let’s get started.

Bluehost vs. GoDaddy – Overview

Bluehost

BlueHost is one of the most trusted names in web hosting. It has been around since 1996 and has grown to be a leader in this industry by offering affordable prices with excellent customer service.

The company has more than 25 years of experience in providing services for small businesses, as well as large enterprises that need more advanced hosting options.

Over the years, they’ve expanded to offer a portfolio of website services including domain registration, website builder, and online marketing tools.

Compared to GoDaddy, Bluehost chooses a less aggressive approach in their marketing strategy.

GoDaddy

Godaddy is another popular choice among beginners and small business owners alike because they offer affordable prices with excellent customer support.

Aside from domain registration and web hosting, they offer a range of helpful tools like a website builder, professional email accounts, and a digital marketing suite.

The company was founded in 1994 by David Bohnett who wanted to create an easy-to-use platform where anyone could build websites without having any technical knowledge at all!

GoDaddy is infamous for their insanely lower starter rates which renew at much higher prices. They are also notoriously known for pushing products that you simply don’t need when starting out and this has left a bitter taste among some of their users.

Bluehost vs. GoDaddy – Features

Bluehost

Bluehost is a feature-rich, user-friendly, and reliable platform. Here are the features that we love about Bluehost:

• Affordable hosting plans with 30-day money-back guarantee
• Industry-leading hardware with uptime guarantee
• Dedicated plans for WordPress & WooCommerce
• Free domain name registration
• Free CDN (for better speed) + SSL (for better security)
• 1-click WordPress install
• AI-driven website templates and a website builder with drag and drop functionality
• Unlimited disk space
• 24×7 chat and phone support

If you want to build a website that’s set up for success, you’re in good hands when you sign up with Bluehost.

GoDaddy

With GoDaddy, the #1 standout feature is that they offer the cheapest starting rates on their domain registration and web hosting plans. Like Bluehost, they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Aside from that, here’s where GoDaddy stands apart:

• WordPress plans with optimized hosting
• 99.9% uptime
• User-friendly backend
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Monthly billing option
• 24×7 live support
• 24×7 security monitoring and DDoS protection

GoDaddy now lets you create and launch a basic website for free. No credit card is required. But unless you sign up for a premium plan, your domain will read “mysite.godaddysites.com”.

With their WordPress plans, you won’t have to worry about technical aspects as your site will run on WordPress-optimized servers. Added to that, you’ll get automatic updates to your website.

Bluehost vs. GoDaddy – Domain Registration

If you want to create a website, you’ll need to buy a domain name that will serve as your website’s address. For instance, our domain name is Nameboy.com. If you aren’t sure what a domain is, learn more here: What is a Domain and How Does it Work? (Ultimate Guide in Plain English).

Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the top domain registrars in the world. You simply need to search for the domain name you want and register it right away.

If you’re signing up for a web hosting plan, you’ll get the option to select and register a domain name for free.

Having a hard time coming up with a domain name for your website? Try our Domain Name Generator. You simply have to enter a keyword and its AI technology will create a list of great name suggestions for you.

Bluehost supports all popular TLDs (top-level domain extensions) including .com, .net, .org, .tech, .blog, .me, and much more. You can also register ccTLDs (country codes) like .uk, .us, and .ca.

Aside from that, here are the highlights of Bluehost’s domain registration service:

• Easy domain management: Easy-to-use control panel to manage all your domains from one place.
• Domain lock: Prevent unauthorized domain name transfers.
• Auto-renewal: Set your domain to renew automatically so you never lose the domain name.
• Domain forwarding: Set up an automatic redirection send domain visitors to the right domain name and extension.
• Domain Privacy: Protect your personal information from being displayed publicly in the WHOIS database.
• Expert support: Connect with experts through phone or chat support anytime.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is currently the largest domain registrar with 84+ million domain names under their management.

This is greatly on account of their insanely low domain registration rates. GoDaddy lets you buy .com domains for as low as $0.01 for the first year.

The catch here is that the renewal prices are high.

The .com domains renew at around $18.99 per year. And to get the 1 cent offer, you need to register the domain for at least 2 years. So you’ll need to commit to paying $19 for the first 2 years.

Also, GoDaddy is cheap because you’ll get only the domain name. They charge you extra for other services you might need like domain name privacy and SSL.

With other domain registrars, they may charge you a bit more for the domain, but they include most of these services in that charge. This means you’ll get free domain privacy protection and SSL included.

Once you get your domain and hosting plan, you’ll want to start building your website. GoDaddy offers a free website builder to help you get started.

Web Hosting Plans

Bluehost

Under their web hosting wing, Bluehost offers 5 types of hosting plans that you’ll be interested in:

• Shared Hosting
• WordPress Hosting
• eCommerce Hosting
• Dedicated Hosting
• VPS Hosting

Let’s break down each plan in detail so you can see which one matches your need perfectly.

1. Shared Hosting: Bluehost’s shared hosting plan is the best if you’re on a budget.

You’ll get a reliable server along with everything you need to run a regular website. In terms of storage, CPU resources, custom themes, and other features, Bluehost exceeds expectations. Depending on your plan, you’ll get between 10GB and 100GB SSD storage.

To manage everything related to your site and server, you’ll get a dashboard that’s incredibly easy to use, even if you’re new to website building. And if you need a business email, it’s easy to set up these inboxes with Microsoft Office 365.

Pricing: Plans start at $9.99 per month. With our exclusive Bluehost deal, you can grab this plan for just $2.75 per month.

2. WordPress Hosting: If you plan on building your site with WordPress, this plan is designed especially for you.

Your hosting resources will be optimized to enhance your WordPress website performance and speed. Plus, Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you. All you have to do is log in and start customizing your site.

Pricing: WordPress Hosting Plans start at $2.75 per month.

3. eCommerce Hosting: Want to run your very own online store? With this plan, WordPress + the WooCommerce plugin will be preinstalled for you.

Once you’re signed up, you’ll be able to create unlimited product listings and customer product reviews. It’s also easy to add a payment gateway, create orders manually, and add discount codes to boost sales.

To grow your site the right way, you’ll get access to web traffic analytics.

Pricing: Bluehost WooCommerce Plans start at $9.95 per month.

4. Dedicated Hosting: This plan is designed for larger websites that have higher traffic or stringent security requirements.

Bluehost’s dedicated hosting plans will give you access to your own private server with larger storage spaces, upgraded performance and speed, and improved security features.

Plus, Bluehost gives you an improved cPanel to manage your domains, websites, emails, resources, and more from a central location.

If you’re growing fast and need to expand, you can make a request to enhance your server. These requests are usually completed within 24-72 hours.

Pricing: Bluehost Dedicated Plans start at $79.99 per month.

5. VPS Hosting: VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server) is still a shared server but your section is completely split from the rest.

You’ll get better security and uptime. This is because it doesn’t matter what others are doing on the same server, your resource limits will never be affected.

With Bluehost’s VPS plan, you get guaranteed RAM, CPU, and other resources that you can use the way you want.

Pricing: Plans start at $19.99 per month, renews at $29.99 per month.

That’s a wrap on the Bluehost web hosting plans. Up next, let’s see how GoDaddy compares.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy offers a list of different kinds of hosting plans. We’ll focus on the ones that we think you’ll want to know more about:

• Cheap Shared Hosting
• WordPress Hosting
• Dedicated Hosting
• Business Hosting

1. Cheap Shared Hosting: Staying true to its name, this is really a very cheap plan making it favorite among beginners.

On this shared hosting plan, you’ll get unmetered bandwidth and 30GB storage which is more than enough to run a regular website. You can easily install WordPress and get started with your site.

If you subscribe to the higher GoDaddy hosting plans – Deluxe and Ultimate plans – then you’ll also get unlimited storage and increased processing power.

Pricing: GoDaddy’s starter plans range between $1.30 per month to $5.99 per month. This can greatly depend on your geographic location.

2. WordPress Hosting: This plan is designed to optimize speed and performance of WordPress sites.

It also caters to the unique security needs of WordPress. You’ll find it easy to set up, launch, and manage a WordPress site.

Pricing: The pricing for WordPress hosting plans ranges from $8.99 to $18.99 per month. There’s also an eCommerce plan designed to make running an online store easier and this starts at $20.99 per month.

3. Dedicated Hosting: If you need better control over your servers, GoDaddy’s Dedicated plans are the right option.

You’ll get powerful bare metal servers with root access. These dedicated server plans offer data center-level DDoS protection with SSL.

GoDaddy offers support for CentOS, Ubuntu, or Windows on these plans.

Pricing: Plans range from $129.99 per month to $399.99 per month.

4. Business Hosting: With dedicated servers, you’ll need a fair amount of expertise to manage them. But you may want the benefits of a dedicated server without the technical side of things.

GoDaddy’s Business Hosting plan is the perfect solution for that. You’ll get the high performance of a dedicated/VPS server and they’ll take care of managing these private servers.

You’ll be able to host unlimited websites with high speed, better performance, and tight security.

Pricing: Business hosting plans start at $19.99 per month.

With that, we’ve covered everything you need to know about GoDaddy vs Bluehost web hosting. Next, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of each platform.

Pros & Cons

No matter how good a service is, it’s unlikely that they are free from drawbacks. Bluehost and GoDaddy are both robust platforms but there are a few things we feel you should be aware of.

Below, we reveal the pros and cons of both Bluehost and GoDaddy so that you’re completely in the know about what you’re getting when you sign up with either of them.

Bluehost Pros

• Ease of Use: Bluehost makes it easy to sign up and get your domain and hosting plan in minutes. When you log into your hosting account, you’ll see a dashboard that looks fresh and organized. You can quickly access your websites, domains, email accounts, and marketing tools. S
• Custom cPanel: Under its Advanced tab, you’ll get access to a custom cPanel where you can manage your website’s files, database, SSL, installations, and more.
• 1-Click Installations: Bluehost offers 1-click install options for popular website builder tools like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Weebly, Prestashop, and many more. You can also access the Softaculous app installer inside your cPanel dashboard to quickly install various apps and tools on your site.
• Reasonable Starter and Renewal Rates: Bluehost has one of the lowest starting rates at just $2.75 per month for its web hosting plan. It comes with a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and free CDN. The CDN (content delivery network) helps improve page load times so that your website loads at lightning fast speeds. If you need website migration, it’s included in your plan. But what we really love about Bluehost’s pricing is that it’s transparent and free from hidden charges.
• Helpful Addons to Choose From: If you want additional services for your Bluehost website like SiteLock security, Codeguard Basic, or Bluehost SEO Tools, you can buy them at any time.
• Top-Notch Customer Support: Bluehost offers world-class support that’s available 24×7. You never have to worry about connecting with an agent to help you resolve any issues. You can access their team of experts via live chat support and phone support.
• Reliable Service: Bluehost uses industry-leading hardware so you can be sure that your website won’t face downtime. In the rare case that you do, you can connect with the support team and they’ll resolve any problems within minutes.
• Grow As You Need: You can get started with a basic plan and then upgrade as your website needs grow. All it takes is a few clicks to move from a basic plan to a high-tier plan (like Choice Plus plan and Pro plan).

Bluehost Cons

• No email-based support: If you prefer to email your queries, unfortunately, Bluehost decided to discontinue their email ticket support. They did this so that they could focus on providing instant support through phone and chat.
• Domain Privacy Protection: Bluehost doesn’t offer free domain privacy protection on its Basic plan. You’ll get the free protection only on the Choice Plus and Pro plans.
• No monthly billing: When you sign up with Bluehost, you have to commit to a 12-month and 36-month term. You get the best deal when you commit to the 36-month plan.

GoDaddy Pros

• Beginner’s Budget: When you’re just starting out or simply want to try building a website on your own, GoDaddy lets you do that with a very small investment. You can start a new website at really low costs with domains starting at only 99 cents for the first year. Keep in mind though that if you choose to keep your website running beyond this term, you’ll have to spend a lot more to renew your plan.
• Unlimited Websites: GoDaddy lets you build as many websites as you want on any hosting plan you choose (except for its cheapest Economy plan).
• Managed WordPress Hosting: If you plan on building your site on WordPress, this web hosting plan will make sure your website is optimized. You’ll also get site maintenance tools, daily backups, automatic daily malware scans, and more.
• 24x7Support: Customers love the GoDaddy staff as they’re super-friendly and ever-ready to help you with anything you need.
• Uptime: GoDaddy offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee.
• Centralized Management: GoDaddy has a user-friendly control panel and admin dashboard to manage your domains, hosting, and other services from one location.
• Monthly Billing Option: This is one spot where GoDaddy triumps over Bluehost. Their monthly billing option makes it affordable to pay a smaller rate upfront. However, you’ll need to make sure you renew your plan every month without fail or you can lose access to your website.

GoDaddy Cons

• High renewal rate: To be honest, it may take more than a year for your website to pick up to the point where you can monetize it and make it a worthwhile venture or side hustle. GoDaddy offers incredibly cheap rates to get started with your website. But what we don’t like is that they have shocking renewal rates which could discourage you from keeping your website alive.
• Paid addons: GoDaddy has plenty of addons you can buy and if you’re new to this, you’ll likely buy a bunch of stuff like add-on security. But the truth is you don’t need any of them when you’re starting out. We recommend that you uncheck all the optional addons before you buy your plan. You can always buy them later if you feel you need them.

Support & Documentation

We’ve interacted with both Bluehost and GoDaddy with issues about our web hosting plan, domain, and servers. Here’s our unbiased review:

Bluehost

Bluehost’s customer staff is easy to connect with. They’re available 24×7 via phone and live chat. In most cases, you’ll be able to resolve your query instantly through chat. If you need to get on call, it doesn’t take long to connect with an expert.

If you’ve built your site on WordPress, Bluehost has an in-house team of WordPress experts who can resolve any WordPress-related inquiries.

Next, Bluehost is well-documented. There’s a knowledge base that you can use to find answers on your own.

There are plenty of articles, tutorials, and guides that are clear and easy to understand. In our opinion, Bluehost has maintained very high industry standards making them one of the best web hosting services.

GoDaddy

Godaddy also excels at their customer support. You can connect with them via phone, live chat, and email 24×7.

The staff is friendly and helpful, and they go the extra mile especially if you’re a beginner and you don’t know what you’re doing with your GoDaddy website, domain, or hosting.

On their website, you’ll find a Help center with plenty of tutorials and videos to help you set up your website.

There are plenty of troubleshooting and setup guides that are well written with clear step by step instructions.

Now GoDaddy goes one step further and gives you community support.

You can join relevant forums and create a post asking for help. The forum moderators are quick to respond to new posts.

Pricing Plans

Bluehost

Bluehost is a premium hosting service. They offer premium quality in everything they do.

Their shared web hosting starts at $9.99 per month. But this can be expensive if you’re just starting out.

We only want the best for you, so we’ve worked out a great deal with Bluehost. This will let you get started on your website right away even on a small budget.

You can get a web hosting plan for as low as $2.75 per month. (That’s 70% off!) Your plan will include:

• Free 1-year domain registration
• Free SSL for better security
• Free CDN for speed optimization and better website performance

You need to choose from a 12-month or 36-month plan. The 36-month Bluehost plan give you the maximum savings.

And if you’re worried about making a big commitment, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee on all Bluehost pricing plans.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy’s pricing could vary depending on your location. Their web hosting plans generally start at $5.99 per month.

They offer a 30-day money back guarantee for annual plans. You can cancel your account within 30 days of signing up and get a full refund of all hosting fees.

If you purchase monthly GoDaddy plans, you need to cancel within the first 48 hours if you want a full refund.

That’s our full Bluehost vs GoDaddy comparison. Up next, we’ll give you our final verdict.

Verdict: Which is Better?

Bluehost – is the best web hosting company in the world.

When you want your site to be fast, easy to use, and backed by a top-notch support team, Bluehost is the way to go. It’s also one of the most affordable web hosting services on the market.

Bluehost offers a wide variety of hosting plans that provide amazing value for money. The Bluehost Basic plan starts at just $2.75 per month, which is less than half of what many other companies charge for their hosting packages!

When you add it all up, with GoDaddy, you’ll need to invest $19 for a 2-year domain registration + $5.99 per month for web hosting. With Bluehost, you’ll get web hosting + a free domain + free SSL + free CDN + 5 free email accounts for just $33 for an entire year.

So it’s a no brainer that while GoDaddy pitches itself as a cheap option, you’re actually getting a better deal with Bluehost.

Whether you’re a blogger, small business, online store, or large corporate, you’ll find suitable hosting options from Bluehost.

We hope this comparison of Bluehost vs GoDaddy helped you find the best web hosting provider for your needs.

You may also want to check out our reviews on SiteGround and HostGator.

If you’re ready to buy your domain and hosting plan and set up your site, we’ve handpicked these resources for you:

• How to Start a Small Business Website (Step by Step)
• Top 10 Website Builders (Comparison & Expert Review)
• 10 Best Email Marketing Software to Grow Your Business

These guides will help you set up and grow your WordPress site in the right way.