If you are looking for one of the top sites in web hosting and ended up having a top 10 list, you will surely notice these 2 web hosting companies among that list.
Tthese 2 companies have been here for a long time and they are looked upon by many website builders as 2 of the biggest and most respected website hosting companies in the world.
In this in-depth review, we will be looking at several factors that will give you a generally clear idea on which is better among these 2 and also will let you determine at the end of it, which one to go for as your next destination when it comes to hosting your website or several websites.
Granted, we don’t think that there will be a lot of stuff going on in comparison between them, there would be no big difference like when you drive a Sports car in comparison to a Family car but there should be a slight difference which will matter to most web administrators, needless to say, if you are running your casual blog, then don’t be afraid, they will both run it unless if you would attach a forum and would like it to run smoothly then you should continue reading.
Godaddy Vs Bluehost: What’s important to look out for here?
Moreover, to do this comparison, we will need to look at several factors like:
- History & Reputation
- Ease of use & Interface
- Tools & Themes Availability
- Uptime / Downtime
- Speed & Performance
- Customer Support Quality
- Pricing & Value-Added Features
So let’s start!
GoDaddy History & Reputation Vs Bluehost:
Starting with GoDaddy, it’s a company that was founded in 1997 (imagine, that’s before the Dot-Com Bubble).
According to Wikipedia, it has more than 20,000 customers and 7,000 employees worldwide, that alone should count it as a very reliable company when it comes to Webhosting and domain registering services.
Ordinarily, Bluehost isn’t far away as well.
It was founded in 2003 (that’s way long ago, it’s sort of impressive to see a company still operating within the internet space for approx. 20years).
Being part of EIG and it’s one of the top 20 largest web hosts, collectively hosting well over 2 million domains.
Needless to say, these 2 companies hold their own in the web hosting market and they have their reliable reputation when it comes to domain registrar and related activities unless if there is a bitter rival who would tell you otherwise, they stood the test of time and just kept on expanding.
Bluehost GoDaddy: Ease of use
When it comes to ease of use we often look at the website interface and how easy it is to get to its desired sections without complications and alternative phrases that confuse the normal user.
Bluehost shows you a single button with a small amount attached of $2ish (this is for 36 months subscription, obviously the lower the period the higher the amount, but that’s applied only on the packages other than the basic one).
While this interface is minimalist, it sort of lets you on your own and doesn’t show you how to go around the website if you need any help, unlike GoDaddy’s, you will be offered multiple calls to action buttons and even the customer care number is there just beside the Start For Free button.
On the other hand, the GoDaddy site will offer you several services stacked beside each other so if you are looking for a domain only then you might end up with a full hosting package at the end of your session.
The website builder on GoDaddy should be one of the easiest to use on the internet, I managed to build a simple website with its payment methods completely integrated within the 10mins mark, for real, and it was my sort of my first website from scratch.
Also when you click the Websites & Stores tab on the GoDaddy website, you will be able to see a tab where it shows (Let our experts build your site).
I know some people that would like to choose that, just fill in some queries and instruct them on how you want your website to look and they will supply you with several done works to choose from, isn’t that good?
Build a simple website within the 10mins mark using GoDaddy’s website builder
On Bluehost, things are different, they won’t allow you to install WordPress directly like install and open like a phone app, you will need to go around and install software like Softilicious so you can be able to install WordPress from within that software.
Nevertheless, it’s fairly easy to use, it is not as straightforward as installing the software directly as the other Webhosting sites do, but with a 3 steps operation you should be able to start your new website.
Upon scrolling down the Bluehost website, you will be able to see some of the beautiful templates that will tempt you to try the service, and guess what! The domain search bar is located on the bottom of the page, so don’t be tensed, they do offer domains too :)
I feel when you cram a little bit of everything on one page, it gets to confuse the prospect who is looking for a single service or a specific service.
In the end, it’s a matter of choosing what appeals to you and what should be easier according to how verse you are with building websites, however, it’s good to know that you will have more than an option towards that when you visit either websites.
>> Visit Bluehost here <<
Bluehost Themes & Tools Vs Godaddy
Nowadays, all you need to do is install WordPress and start exploring an endless library of themes and plugins, though if you would like to try the inbuilt website builders for both websites, they are no short of themes and templates.
Though I find the Bluehost more modern themes and slightly brighter design templates more appealing to the general audience especially for the younger generation, whilst keeping the professional look of the website intact.
Regarding tools, there are more on Bluehost for the general masses and nowadays requirements by the standard protocols like Free SSL certificates with every package bought attached to any website hosting package no matter which one you chose.
On top of that, there is the $150 google ads credit (valid for US new buyers), which will give you some sort of leverage to start your journey with your new website at the highest level of traffic possible using adverts (target maximum keywords at the lowest rates for a prolonged period and you shall receive a steady traffic flow).
Maximum keywords, lowest cpc, prolonged period = steady traffic
The most significant tools and features are these mentioned above, the others are just more or less the same on each service, they are just phrased differently.
Would go with Bluehost on this one!
>>Visit Bluehost <<
Uptime / Downtime
An important factor when it comes to a website’s availability and service reliability is Uptime and Downtime meters.
I had a personal instance with a certain Webhosting company and my newly built website, I got reports from some users that the website is down or offline several times within the week so I started monitoring it (I had no idea about these crucial meters so I did everything manually), I viewed the website several times within the day, to my surprise, it was showing that it’s offline and sometimes it worked as it should, this was within the same-day testing which was unusual.
WHEN YOUR WEBSITE IS OFFLINE OR YOU CAN’T GET ACCESS TO IT, THAT’S CALLED >> DOWNTIME
Long story short, I moved on from there and in the process, I knew about Uptime/Downtime meters, which made me do these comparison tests on 2 websites one hosted on Bluehost and one was hosted on GoDaddy, the test that I will show you here.
But first, what’s the importance of having these gauging meters?
Nowadays there is great competition between many websites that list topics similar to yours, so your website must keep running or be online at all times for people to browse it all times because of different browsing hours.
Imagine that you just published a great piece of content or you have a product to sell but your website is offline periodically, this hurts your sales and traffic flow, and it will keep on decreasing if people find it a frustrating experience to browse your website.
So here are some tests done within a whole year for 2 websites, one was hosted on BlueHost and the Other on GoDaddy.
Needless to say, you can see how Bluehost prevails (check the load time) when it comes to uptime, slightly more than GoDaddy, nevertheless, there isn’t a wide gap between them and GoDaddy still commands a respectable uptime, however, if you would like the most reliability for your site then go with Bluehost.
For downtime, there is a policy that numerous hosting services follow which its rules vary from a hosting service to another.
SLA (Service Level Agreement), in layman’s terms it’s a mechanism or a promise from the service that they will keep their uptime to the promised range on their website (SLA page), and if there is any significant downtime they shall refund or reimburse you depending on the downtime time period or any other factors.
For example, Hostgator might give you a full month as reimbursement in case there was a significant downtime that makes the uptime gets lower than the promised level on their SLA page.
The same goes for GoDaddy though they will refund you depending on the period the server was down only, there will be no complete refund or some gifts like months of free service.
Bluehost however follows none of that, and if you see that there is a shortage in their service, you will need to ask them on individual cases, which will require a lot of recording and monitoring (as mentioned above, their uptime is impressive so you won’t often endure those downtimes).
It’s not the best method to ignore such policy while everybody else is having it in different way, but at the same time, it shows how a service is so confident of their performance to an extent that they aren’t showing the need to put such policy into effect.
Clearly: Bluehost runs the show again here.
>>Visit Bluehost<<
Bluehost speed & Performance Vs GoDaddy
What if you have a nice website with a bunch of content, a beautiful theme, and on the spot, ready customer care support, and other features but the website is so slow?!
I don’t think that you the owner would enjoy browsing it let alone any other visitor.
This is one of the measures to check if a Webhosting service polishes their machines usually (not literally) and keeps them as ticking as a marching army squad or they just leave them rusty and dusty.
If you have heard of bounce rates, the speed of you website is one of the biggest factors in increasing or decreasing bouncing rates for visitors as nowadays almost everybody doesn’t have the patience as before when we had understandably slow connections.
As a rule of thumb, a bounce rate in the range of 26 to 40 percent is excellent. 41 to 55 percent is roughly average. 56 to 70 percent is higher than average
Nowadays people won’t wait for a website to load more than 3 minutes and just bounce into the next website which is quicker to load.
You don’t want your website to be this slow to make them do that isn’t it?
So here is a test to make GoDaddy on its toes against Bluehost when it comes to website loading speeds.
The test determines loading speeds from various locations around the USA and it shall give a clear indication to which service should be the quicker in terms of loading speeds.
And the results speak for themselves, check below
Bluehost is getting its own up again against GoDaddy with the average of its load time is about the best of GoDaddy’s attempts.
Having said that, it doesn’t mean that by any means (no pun intended) that GoDaddy is slow as hell.
It’s really impressive to say the truth but to put them into perspective against one of their meanest competitors, they lose ground here to it.
So a clear winner for Speed is Bluehost!
>>Visit Bluehost here<<
GoDaddy Customer Care Vs Bluehost
It’s a common concept to ask about the nature of neighbors before moving to their neighborhood.
Therefore whenever you are jumping ship to a certain service you should be also asking about how their staff is reacting when they are confronted with a minor bug that needs to be checked out or if there is an issue within the website or the service you paid for that needs to be fixed.
Depending on the general response from past customers you will be able to judge if it’s a service which you would like to be part of, sometimes it’s not that essential to have such info though for some people it’s a common ground to give them relief and feel welcomed and they see that there is shorter to lean on in case of any problems that might occur.
Accordingly and to my personal experience, if a service has a wide range of products but would still provide a chat portal to inquire about anything quickly then that would enable them to score the best customer service satisfaction rate.
If a service would provide you with another method like email and forget about you then that will surely be something various customers or clients would frown upon, unless if it’s a case like eBay where they reply to you as quick as possible within minutes to answer your inquiry.
When I mentioned “according to my personal experience” what I meant was that customer support rates might vary from a person to another, a person might report dissatisfaction about a certain host and another person might bring opposing review about the same host so to everybody his own on this topic, but speaking generally for a person who has been there building websites for some years, there have been some encounters that judge how some hosts respond, how quick and other factors.
For Bluehost, they have multiple ways to get to their support:
Ways to contact them include:
- Phone
- Chat
- Ticket
I believe these are all the commonly used methods around the internet to be able to get hold of somebody’s contact professionally.
The important thing is that they are available always 24/7.
I didn’t encounter any problem in getting hold of them though something worth mentioning is that there has been a decline in their rapidness to tackle a client’s inquiry and solve it.
I can give it the benefit of the doubt and say their wait time is becoming longer because of the increasing customer base and the way almost every company nowadays works from home due to the pandemic, so maybe one of the staff is doing something else home while you are waiting on the line for him to get back and answer your query.
Otherwise, again there was no problem in getting hold of them and as mentioned above the CHAT feature is the golden standard in getting in touch with any customer care support system.
Coming to GoDaddy, one thing you would notice is that they keep on flashing their customer care phone numbers on the home page, I didn’t know a lot about their support until I tried and called the international number and to my surprise, it was a rapid response!
They took my query and finished it in as quick as approx 3mins. I felt relieved by that but sometimes other clients would prefer to use other channels of communication.
Diversity is welcomed at the end though one thing to note is that Bluehost is advertising itself as a Hosting company with access to domains & GoDaddy is doing the same but vice-versa ie. showing itself as a domain registrar instead of a hosting company, hosting is a side dish for it and they provide you with enough support for that although many saw that they interact better when it comes to an inquiry regarding domains as opposed to hosting.
Bluehost gets a slight nod here on this subject although GoDaddy isn’t far behind with their flashy phone numbers.
>>Go To Bluehost from here <<
>>Go To GoDaddy from here<<
Bluehost Pricing & Other Features Vs GoDaddy
Nowadays between hosts and domain registrars, pricing isn’t as essential as before as almost all fees are imminent of each other.
The value-added features should be the ones to compare when it comes to deciding which service a person would go with, however, there might be some corners cutting here and there that might appeal to people other than the aforementioned points above regarding customer care, etc…
So for the sake of that let us start with GoDaddy:
Here is a bit confusing picture for most folks out there who would like to start building a website, for novice users, it’s a matter of choosing the right package, if you have a forum you would choose something like a VPS or a higher package than the basic one.
This page you won’t see it directly unless you go to the hosting page since the homepage is promoting the (Start For Free) link which leads you to an empty page with a couple of instructions on how to contact GoDaddy for assistance on building your first website (if it’s your first, you might need assistance).
It feels like you are being forced to go and click the Start For Free button since that hosting page is buried down at the bottom of the homepage.
If you are well versed about building websites and would like to start right on, then the $3.99 a month should be the cheapest available to initiate your journey (there is a $3.49 option just beside it but I haven’t understood the WordPress hosting option which a myriad of hosting sites promote).
Value-added features that are worth mentioning that you accompany GoDaddy deals include :
- Free Domain
- Free Microsoft 365 Email (I believe this is a professional email or the one that carries the name of your domain/business)
Not too shabby here, but let’s look at the other competitor, Bluehost!
The Basic plan starts @$2.75/m and it stretches from 12months up to 36months with the same unchanged pricing unless you decide to upgrade to the Plus plan which is @$4.95/m.
We know that email marketing is an essential ingredient nowadays to grow your business and database of clients but it won’t be at the no.1 priority for the general website owners as some would prefer to have a Free SSL instead of that.
Here are some noteworthy value-added features on Bluehost:
- Free SSL
- Free Domain
There is no free professional email but you would be able to set up one at Yandex or Zoho for free easily following some guides on the internet, then later on you can upgrade to marketing software later on.
Bluehost provided just enough value to make it the go-to hosting service for starters and web admins as well with these features.
It gets the nod on this one here too.
Finally, this was just a guide from an internet enthusiast towards finding your way about some of the leading website hosting services.
The final decision is still upon you to decide which one will work best for you depending on how you feel about any one of them.
Don’t hesitate to check out the services yourself here.
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