The GoDaddy vs. BlueHost Showdown: How To Choose A Quality Web Hosting Provider
With the abundance of web hosting providers out there I’m often asked what web hosting provider one should use when starting out with a website.
Of course there are tons of free providers out there. You can check out Blogger, WordPress.com, heck even Posterous will give you a blog looking website where you can update it through email. That’s all fun and dandy if you building a website for your Aunt’s gardening hobby, but for a serious website or for a business you’re going to have to shell out for a good hosting provider.
So how do you evaluate a good hosting provider from the other? Whats the difference between GoDaddy, HostGator, BlueHost and all the other bazillion providers out there, and why should you care?
If you’re like me, when I was looking for a web hosting provider it didnt really matter who I went with, as long as they were cheap. Does it really matter who you upload your files to display your work and business to the world? As it turns out it actually matters. A lot. Not all web hosting providers are created equal.
What separates the wheat from the chaff? Two Things. Value-added services, and cPanel. That’s really all you need to look for and here’s why. And while we’re at it let’s compare two big kahuna’s in the hosting world: GoDaddy and BlueHost. Quick disclaimer: I use both services and have posted an affiliate link. As always, I only promote products that I know and have used.
GoDaddy
When I started looking at web hosting providers for EightyTwo.org in 2004 I immediately knew I wanted a provider with cPanel. I worked at a web hosting company that used cPanel for all of its clients. I was blown away by how awesome and easy to use cPanel was. I initially choose Sibername because they were cheap, Canadian and had cPanel. 2 years later I got a real job, the website died and I disappeared into the 9-5 working world until 2010. Fast-forward to summer of 2009 I was again for a webhosting provider for a new project. I first went back to Sibername but left not long after because I thought they were expensive given the abundance of cheap providers out there. I went with GoDaddy because they were the only one that I knew about it (good job GoDaddy marketing team). It turns out it was a big mistake.
Who really needs all this crap? Enough already.
So whats my take on GoDaddy?
- From day one I was bombarded with email advertisements, up-sells, and promotions to buy more stuff from them. Not to mention a year after I signed up I still have yet to find a simple direct way to get to my Control Panel. The link is buried somewhere after the login page amongst all the up-sell links and redundant account alert boxes. It takes me no less than 5 clicks just to get where I can update my website.
- The entire front and back-end of GoDaddy is built for style and meant to for you to spend more money with them. They just seem spammy to me. Just look at the above picture.
- The back-end completely lacks the intuitive and feature-rich functionality of cPanel. Instead they opted to use some GUI heavy propriety custom-built navigation system that just ends up running sluggish.
- I’ve heard scary draconian things about their practices with retaining domain names you purchase through them. My advice: stay away.
- Webstats. Want to track statistics about your website? Don’t count on GoDaddy to do it. Their don’t even show unique visitors. Why bother?
- Little value added services. Want an extra email box? Pay more. You get 26 tools to play around with vs. 86 tools with BlueHost.
Why BlueHost Rocks
I discovered BlueHost on the recommendation of several bloggers who swear by it, and it turns out they were right. Here’s Why.
- cPanel. Is this day and age of the web administration how do you not have something as clean as intuitive as cPanel? Well BlueHost takes it a step further by customizing their famous blue interface with an abundance of free services. Just take a look at the image above. Its simple, clean, easy. Maybe I’m just some geek Apple fanboy, but theres something awesome about something that minimalist.
- Services and tools – 17 services, all ready to be integrated and installed, and all in one place. Some are paid and some are free. The paid ones at least give you at least $30 bucks in credit so you can try them out, like Google Adwords. I count no less than 84 different tools to manage your website. There are 9 tools for tracking your webstats alone, whereas GoDaddy can’t even tell you how many visitors your site gets daily. No brainer.
- Customer service. Call em up anytime. I called once on the weekend with an inquiry and was immediately patched through to a really helpful Technician.
- Cost. $6.95 per month is low enough for most budgets, and you get great bang for your buck.
The Winner: BlueHost (by a landslide). Sometimes less is more. They are far less showy, less known and less in your face. They make up for that with a solid back-end, robust hosting customization, and solid customer service.
Ok so why am I telling you all of this? To keep you in the know and to arm you with the proper information you need when it comes to choosing a webhost provider. If you found this review helpful and are looking to purchase web hosting, please do so by clicking here to sign up BlueHost website. It helps me out and it keeps more great articles like this in the funnel. You can also click on the small banner below.
I was afraid that you were going to recommend GoDaddy, but I’m glad you didn’t. One major problem that some internet marketers have had with them is that one unsubstantiated complaint causes GoDaddy to shut your site and domain name down and it’s almost impossible to get the problem resolved. It’s so bad there’s even a site about it – NoDaddy.com. Some major and ethical internet marketers have had their businesses shut down that way. I tell people to use GoDaddy for hobby sites only, but your comments about the constant spam make even that questionable.
Two hosts i’ve used and recommend are pair.com and OLM.net. Pair is more expensive, but bulletproof and very professional. OLM is just good and priced comparably with Blue Host. Note – pair supports joomla and drupal, but not WordPress for some strange reason.
Thanks for your comment Wes. You’re absolutely right about GoDaddys popularity waning. Its about time they learned a lesson in customer service.
nice listing……………
nice posting.
I can totally relate about getting cheap hosting as this was the first factor (probably the only factor) that I thought of when I started purchasing my site.
Right now, I have a total of 7 websites and I’m planning to migrate all of them into one account as I bought separate accounts for each one. My hosting provider screwed up one of my sites and I’m effin’ pissed off because of the problem.
I’m actually torn between hostgator and bluehost right now on which one’s better.
Ed recently posted..My Bungy Jumping Experience at the Macau Tower
I’ve heard mixed opinions of hostgator but personally I find them a lot like Godaddy, a little over-the-top and showy for my tastes. Bluehost might be a darling of the blogging world and I can see why. Simplicity and no fluff, thats what I love.
Thanks for your insight. How about for the domain name, do you buy the domain in godaddy?
Ed recently posted..after a 13-day vacation
I have bought domain names at godaddy. They are a bout 2-3 dollars cheaper (with promo codes, which can be found if you just google around) while the domains with Bluehost are $10. Quite frankly I prefer having all my domains with one registrar so I pay a bit more to host with Bluehost.
i was just wondering.. why do people buy domains from godaddy and then go to bluehost for hosting? other than the fact that hosting is much better with bluehost(my own opinion), why not just buy all and use the domains from bluehost without ever having to use godaddy?
Godaddy sells its domains for 5-8 dollars compared with $10 flat with BH. You’d need to get a discount code with godaddy but at little googling will get you them quick. I personally prefer to keep most my domains where I host them, but i’ll admit i am a sucker for cheap domain sales =)
Everyone likes bluehost and hosts with them, so I’m wondering how they are managing all sites with their server/processor. Because with most of the web hosting they warn about processor usage even in unlimited account. BlueHost Really Rocks…..!
Faris Pallackal recently posted..Never give up on anything
Loved your post..the only problem is that my husband is just getting his website going so he already paid go daddy for everything:( I wish I had seen your info beforehand. Go daddy has been terrible to navigate and shuts down in the middle of working on a page losing eveything just finished so we have to keep starting over! Any advice on how to switch over after our one year is up and still keep the same domain?
Hi Tara,
Switching hosting providers is simple! You are never tied to any hosting provider. All hosting providers allow you to switch the nameservers (ie. the underlying host of your domain – godaddy, bluehost, etc). So when you get a new webhost provider, it takes less than 24 hours to point your domain to your new host!
Before going with one of the big guys, make sure you are happy with their support. We get a lot of customers from them saying it took to long to answer a support ticket. A 24 hour answer policy isn’t so cool when your site is down.
A good number of the providers have comparable control panels.
Also check out their policies on holding your domains hostage. GoDaddy is notorious for holding your domain for whatever reason and not giving it back until you pay them money. Search for it , you will find many examples.
Moniker.com is a good registrar to use.