Introduction

SiteGround has been around since 2004 but only recently started its ascent to the top of the web hosting industry. Independently owned, the fledgling company started as an idea between university students, in a dorm in Bulgaria. Today, SiteGround hosts more than two million websites across the world and employs a staff of 400+ people.

GoDaddy is a household name, too, though you may know them more for their glitzy Super Bowl ads than for their web hosting services. GoDaddy started as a domain registrar, which has since burgeoned into a complementary line of other products and services. Today, GoDaddy clients can find everything from website storage to email to SSL security in one place.

The goal of this article is to provide you with the insight and knowledge you need to make the best decision possible. The choice of a provider is a crucial one and should not be taken lightly. It is worth mentioning in advance that this is one of the more uneven comparisons we have done.

Siteground and GoDaddy both offer a range of attractive benefits to fit your website needs. We have composited these factors into four categories, including pricing, support, performance/speed, and ease of use.

SiteGround vs GoDaddy: Pricing

SiteGround offers three different plans, though we are going to focus mostly on StartUp, its simplest model. StartUp costs $3.95 per month, though, there is a one-time startup fee that runs at $14.95. The plan includes a single website and 10 gigabytes for 10,000 visits a month.

StartUp also has a wealth of “essential features” that include free SSL, HTTPS, SiteBuilder, daily backups, and unmetered traffic. These benefits expand into the second and third tiers, called GrowUp and GoGeek, respectively. While each plan has additional features, the most significant upgrade is the option to get unlimited websites and more storage space on the site.

GoDaddy is well-known for the $1.00 per month economy plan. This competitive package comes with a site, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain, and 100 gigabytes of storage capacity. The affordable option also includes a year of Microsoft Office 365 Business email, free.

Like SiteGround, GoDaddy’s higher tiers increase in price and load up on features. For instance, their Deluxe and Ultimate plans offer unlimited websites, as well as unmetered bandwidth and storage. Each model also includes one-click installs for 125+ applications, 24/7 security monitoring, and 1 gigabyte of database storage.

SiteGround vs GoDaddy: Support

If anything goes awry with your site, you should be confident that the technical support staff can correct the issue quickly and effectively. SiteGround is one of the best hosts in the business, partly thanks to its around-the-clock experts. When you get in touch with the SiteGround team, you expect fast and friendly support every time.

Reviewers are typically positive about their experience with SiteGround customer support and note the team’s ability to solve complex issues.

As for GoDaddy, customers cite a generally negative experience when dealing with customer support.

SiteGround vs GoDaddy: Speed

Performance and speed can make or break a website. Fortunately for SiteGround, they excel in both fields. Their average load time comes in at around 700ms, as well as a monumental 20% to 500% speed increase for WordPress-based sites. It also helps that they have data centers around the world, which is great if you’re searching for a web hosting for Australia, a Singapore website host, or a UK website hosting provider.

Users can also enjoy steady uptime to the tune of 99.99% (while GoDaddy is one-hundredth less). Some people may raise concerns about SiteGround’s basic plans, considering that the performance may suffer if the site broaches the 10-gigabyte threshold. Few websites hit that benchmark, though.

Even though GoDaddy is known as one of the cheapest web hosts, they pack a real punch in the speed department. Over the past two years, they have averaged page speeds around 500ms. This rate is among the best times on the market.

SiteGround vs GoDaddy: Ease of Use

Let’s start with what makes these two companies similar. Both use cPanel, which has become the standard practice for control panels. They both offer feature-rich content with strong performance metrics.

SiteGround is made to simplify the life of the web designer, whether they are making their first website or their fiftieth. Thanks to integrations with Weebly, WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, you can build a website by dragging and dropping the features you want. The intuitive layout and design are also backed via robust security features to limit AI-bots.

There is also substantial value, even in the cheapest GoDaddy plans. Users can install popular applications, content management systems, and developer tools like cPanel, MySQL, CloudLinux, and several versions of PHP. Their website builder also includes drag-and-drop ability for maximum ease of use.

Conclusion – SiteGround Wins

If you want the cheapest possible web hosting service, then you should probably go with GoDaddy. You could make the case that GoDaddy is the better choice for site builder features and control panels. For every other reason, however, you should go to SiteGround.

SiteGround is an elite hosting provider and is worth serious consideration when it comes to carving out a professional website. Their higher levels of support, performance, and overall value make them a definite winner. Time and again with our reviews, they are our highest-rated choice— we can’t recommend SiteGround highly enough.