GoDaddy Hosting Prices: Is It Still a Good Deal in 2024?

When our expert reviewers gave GoDaddy a test drive, its performance was underwhelming. And now that I’ve looked at each GoDaddy hosting plan and what it has to offer, I can confidently say that in most cases, you’ll get better value elsewhere (if you’re curious, you can jump straight to my recommendations).

There are lots of hosting options on the GoDaddy menu, ranging from Web Hosting to WordPress Hosting to VPS Hosting. Some plans can be expensive, and some lack the performance or free features you get with other web hosts. For example, Hostinger’s ultra-cheap shared hosting plans come with managed WordPress features at a fraction of GoDaddy’s cost.

While most GoDaddy plans aren’t worth your time, there are a few diamonds in the rough. See which plans you should avoid and which ones you’ll want to consider.

GoDaddy Features & Pricing Overview

Good Bang for Your Buck, But Watch Out for Hidden Renewal Costs

GoDaddy offers a variety of hosting types to fit a variety of needs. It has more than 50 plans, ranging from economy plans for basic websites (shared Web Hosting) to highly customizable plans that offer dedicated resources and maximum performance (Dedicated Server Hosting).

GoDaddy offers discounts on plans that are 12 months or longer, with deeper discounts on longer-term plans. Although these discounts can seem attractive, keep in mind that GoDaddy’s renewal rates are pretty high. You can pay anywhere from 25% to 40% more per month after your initial sign-up term is up, and GoDaddy will try to upsell you every step of the way.

If you’re not too happy about getting unexpected charges, you might want to consider signing up with a host that doesn’t have any steep renewal fees. Although they’re rare, they do exist. For example, InterServer has a price-lock guarantee for its shared hosting plan, so the fee that you sign up with is the fee you’ll pay for the rest of your time with the host.

If you sign up for a plan that’s at least 12 months, GoDaddy will throw in some free features. This includes a domain name, email, and SSL certificates on some plans. But you may also see automatic renewal charges on features that are only free for a limited time, like email or SSL certificate.

GoDaddy accepts most major credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, and wire transfers. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee on payment terms that are longer than 12 months and a 48-hour money-back guarantee on terms that are less than a year.

Web Hosting (Shared Hosting)

Web Hosting is GoDaddy’s most economical offering and ideal for basic blogs, websites, and landing pages. These plans come with cPanel management, and features include unmetered bandwidth, 24/7 network security, a one-click installer for over 150 apps and content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress and Joomla, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Shared hosting means you’re sharing servers and resources with others, which keeps prices low but could result in slower load speeds and more security issues than going with a VPS or dedicated server. In fact, if you’re on an unlimited plan but host over 400 sites, GoDaddy cautions that you may experience diminished performance.

GoDaddy also keeps Web Hosting prices low by using older technology, like Apache servers and HDD storage, and not including many features. It’s really a shame because it highlights the value of competitors like Hostinger and GreenGeeks, which offer superior LiteSpeed Web Server technology for all their packages, including their entry-level plans.

Economy

The Economy plan offers Standard Performance with one CPU core, 512MB of RAM, and 100GB of HDD storage. Bandwidth is unmetered but shared, which means that the “unmetered” part will depend on just how much bandwidth your site is actually using. If it causes performance disruptions, your resources may be restricted or you could be asked to upgrade your plan.

If you sign up for one year or more, you’ll also get a free domain name (as long as you select a term that’s equal to your plan term) and two free Microsoft 365 mailboxes for one year. But you don’t get a free SSL certificate, and backups cost extra.

The Economy plan is competitively priced when compared to the hosts I’ve included in my recommended GoDaddy alternatives, but you really get the bare minimum and the essential add-on features don’t make it worth it in the long run.

This plan is suitable for a low-traffic website or small database, but you’ll probably need more resources once your website gets a decent amount of traffic.

Deluxe

For just a few more dollars per month, you can upgrade from the Economy plan to the Deluxe plan and host an unlimited number of sites with an unlimited amount of storage. You also get 25 mySQL databases compared to 10 mySQL databases with the Economy plan, plus an additional Microsoft 365 mailbox for a year.

But the performance remains Standard – one CPU and 512MB of RAM – and you still don’t get a free SSL certificate. Plus, that unlimited storage is still old school HDD, not the newer, better SSD storage you get with a WordPress Hosting plan.

Ultimate

If you have several websites that get a high amount of traffic, the Ultimate plan offers the best value of the lot. Like the Deluxe plan, you can have an unlimited number of sites with unlimited storage, but you’ll get increased processing power in the form of two CPUs and 1GB of RAM.

You also get an unlimited number of databases, five mailboxes, premium DNS for better site performance, and a free SSL certificate (finally). The free SSL certificate is worth more than the price increase from the Deluxe plan to the Ultimate plan, but it’s only free for one year – and if you host multiple websites, you’ll have to buy additional certificates.

Maximum

When it comes to performance, the Maximum plan leaves the other shared hosting plans in the dust. In addition to two CPUs, it has 2GB of memory, which means far faster speeds than what you’d get on the Economy or Deluxe plans.

You get all the same unlimited resources you get with the Ultimate plan, as well as free premium DNS. But instead of getting one free SSL certificate for one year, GoDaddy hands these out like candy. You’ll get free SSL certificates for all your websites through AutoSSL, and for as long as your account is active.

(It should be noted that this SSL service isn’t particularly unique to high-tier plans. For instance, InterServer automatically offers AutoSSL for all plans, including its $2.50/month Standard Web Hosting plan.)

Is GoDaddy’s Web Hosting Right for You?

GoDaddy’s Web Hosting plans are worth your coin if you have a basic website and only need bare-bones hosting. Not only are these plans shared, but older HDD storage technology and Apache web servers means you could experience slow loading speeds, and that’s something your visitors won’t like.

Even on the Maximum plan, it’s hard to justify GoDaddy’s price when compared to its competitors. If you’re looking for more but want to pay less, consider A2 Hosting’s speed optimized plans, which offer unlimited NVMe SSD storage and backup protection.

To be honest, I’d recommend skipping these plans and jumping right to a GoDaddy WordPress Hosting plan. However, if you don’t want WordPress for your CMS and are looking for better shared web hosting for a lower price, consider Hostinger.

WordPress Hosting

If you’re going to pay for shared hosting, GoDaddy’s WordPress plans are the best it has to offer. You get semi-managed hosting with free features, better performance, and more security, so while prices are higher than other GoDaddy shared hosting plans, you get a lot more for your money.

Of course, you have to want to use WordPress as your CMS, but it’s the most popular CMS in the world for a reason, and GoDaddy has optimized these plans specifically for it.

A few things that separate WordPress Hosting from other GoDaddy shared hosting plans are the benefits you’ll get: SSD storage (not HDD), daily backups, and a free SSL certificate for the life of your plan when you sign up for a year or more. Plans also come with automatic daily malware scans (and removal for Ultimate and Ecommerce plans).

WordPress Hosting plans are semi-managed, meaning you can ask GoDaddy for help, but most daily management is up to you (or one of GoDaddy’s automated processes).

One drawback to these plans is that you can only host one WordPress site. If you like what WordPress Hosting offers but have more than one site, you’ll have to upgrade to a WordPress Pro plan. I know I sound like a broken record, but it’s worth mentioning again: you can get cheaper managed WordPress plans that can support multiple sites elsewhere.

Basic

GoDaddy’s entry-level WordPress offering is its Basic plan, which you can get for as low as $8.99/month. In addition to a free domain name, SSL certificate, and one year of free email if you sign up for an annual or longer plan, Basic gives you 30GB of SSD storage and up to 25,000 visits per month.

The automatically installed Sucuri plugin scans for malware on a daily basis to keep your site secure, and you can enable 90-day backups that can be downloaded in one click.

Even though it offers more features than Web Hosting plans, Basic has the fewest bells and whistles of all GoDaddy’s WordPress plans. If you need more resources or want more features included, one of the higher-priced WordPress plans might be a better option.

Deluxe

The WordPress Deluxe plan has the same foundation as the Basic plan but you’ll get more resources and features – up to 75GB of storage, 100,000 site visits per month, an SEO optimizer (Yoast), and a staging site, so you can test any updates or changes to your website before publishing it.

This plan is just a few dollars more per month than the Basic plan if you sign up for an annual term. These prices are more than you’ll pay for A2 Hosting to get a similar WordPress hosting product, but Hostinger’s WordPress Starter plan is much cheaper, and it includes 100GB of SSD storage, unlimited bandwidth, and speed-boosting LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress.

Ultimate

There’s a trend when it comes to GoDaddy’s shared hosting plans: the Ultimate plans are the best value. With the WordPress Ultimate plan, you get unlimited storage, unlimited visitors, all the features of the Deluxe and Basic plans (such as an SEO optimizer, a staging site, and one-click restores), as well as malware removal and hack repair.

This is my favorite GoDaddy hosting plan of them all.

What you get for your $18.99 a month with WordPress Ultimate is well worth the price jump from Deluxe. And if you don’t need added features and extensions for an online store, there’s no reason to pay up for the premier Ecommerce plan.

Ecommerce

GoDaddy’s premier, single-site WordPress Hosting offering is its Ecommerce plan. This plan is tailored for – you guessed it – online stores. You’ll get everything included with the Ultimate plan, plus appointment scheduling and access to top WooCommerce extensions, including real-time shipping rates, bookings, pre-orders, and more.

If you only have one online store, the GoDaddy Ecommerce plan is a solid option, and it’s competitively priced when compared to other services with similar offerings. However, other hosts offer far better introductory discounts.

Is GoDaddy’s WordPress Hosting Right for You?

If you’re looking for shared hosting for a single website and plan to use WordPress as your CMS, GoDaddy’s WordPress Hosting plans are a good choice. They offer a solid set of features – even on the Basic plan – including free SSL certificates on annual plans.

And as my colleague found out during his in-depth GoDaddy review, WordPress plans perform a lot better than Web Hosting plans.

With a lot of unlimited resources, the Ultimate plan offers the best value for your money, especially if you plan to grow your website. If you’re just starting out, though, I’d suggest shopping around (or taking a look at my recommended alternatives).

Business Hosting

GoDaddy’s Business Hosting gives you the power and dedicated resources of a VPS with the ease of managed, shared hosting. Business Hosting is ideal if you don’t want to do the technical stuff, but you need added performance for high-traffic or e-commerce sites.

All GoDaddy Business Hosting plans give you unmetered bandwidth and access to over 150 apps to create corporate websites, landing pages, and lead generation sites. You can also install CMS platforms for client management.

If you choose a length of at least 12 months, you’ll get free SSL certificates for all your sites and one free email account for the first year. These plans are all identical aside from the number of websites and resources provided.

Business Hosting has the longest plan options available of any GoDaddy plan, with terms of 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 60, or 120 months available.

Launch

GoDaddy’s Launch plan is designed for businesses with multiple basic sites. Launch offers 100GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, and two virtually allocated CPUs, with up to 50 hosted websites and databases.

You’ll also get five free Microsoft 365 mailboxes for the first year, with 10GB of dedicated storage for emails, calendars, and contacts. If you decide to activate your mailboxes, they will automatically renew once your free year is up, so you’ll have to make sure to turn renewals off if you don’t plan to continue with this service.

You’ll save at least 30% off the regular monthly price if you sign up to a plan that’s 24 months or longer.

Enhance

Enhance is ideal for medium- to high-traffic websites, which include sites built on robust CMSs like WordPress and Joomla. It’s the plan you want if you need more resources than Launch but don’t have a comprehensive e-commerce site.

If you opt for this plan, Enhance gets you 200GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and four CPUs. You’ll be able to host 100 websites and databases, but the free Microsoft 365 mailboxes remain at five.

The regular price for the Enhance plan is $49.99 per month, which is cheaper than the regular price for a comparable service from FastComet or A2 Hosting, although these competitors generally offer more features.

Grow

If you have an advanced e-commerce site, like Magento, Grow might be the GoDaddy Business Hosting choice for you. It’s much faster than Enhance, with 16GB of RAM and 8 CPUs. You’ll also get 300GB of storage for up to 150 websites and domains.

The regular price is $69.99 for the Enhance plan, but if you need this level of performance, it might be worth a look. It’s currently one of the lowest regular prices on the market for a plan with these specs – although at this price point, these Business plans still lack a lot of value-added features.

Expand

GoDaddy’s most advanced Business hosting option is its Expand plan. This plan is geared toward sites that need extra resources to accommodate media that sucks up resources, like photography and videos. If you’re a large advertising/media agency or have a lot of high-definition images and videos to host, you’ll want to consider the stability and performance that Expand can offer.

Expand provides you with 400GB of storage, 32GB of RAM, and 16 CPUs, and hosted websites and databases are up to 200. Although it’s the most expensive plan here, free Microsoft mailboxes for a year are still limited to five.

Unlike the Grow plan, which gives you comparable resources at a cheaper price than most competitors, you’ll get more for your money with FastComet plans that provide similar resources to Expand.

Is GoDaddy’s Business Hosting Right for You?

If you like the simplicity that comes with GoDaddy’s shared hosting plans but want the power and dedicated resources of VPS hosting without the aggravation of doing the technical stuff yourself, GoDaddy Business Hosting is right for you.

Based on resources alone, GoDaddy’s Business Hosting prices are quite competitive, but you’ll be able to get cheaper prices with Hostinger, better support with GreenGeeks, and more features with A2 Hosting. Certainly, paying almost $100 per month for the Expand plan should give you more than five free mailboxes for one year.

When compared to existing competitor plans, the Grow plan is one of my favorite GoDaddy plans because it’s worth its price. But if you’re looking for dedicated VPS resources that you can customize, I’d recommend checking out Kamatera.

VPS Hosting (Self-Managed)

GoDaddy’s standard VPS Hosting plans are self-managed, which not all competitors offer. With self-managed VPS, you get full control of your server with root access. This means you can configure your server to meet your needs, which is why these plans are best suited for developers or someone with experience.

With self-managed VPS Hosting, you’ll get dedicated resources, basic 24/7 network monitoring with advanced DDoS protection, a free SSL certificate for the first year, and a dedicated IP. You also get a 99.9% uptime guarantee, with server uptime and performance monitoring, as well as automated and on-demand backups.

There are four Standard RAM plans to pick from, with an additional four High RAM plans. Unlike some hosts that let you select a plan and then adjust individual resources as needed, you’ll need to change plans with GoDaddy in order to increase or decrease resources. The longest term offered for these plans is 36 months, and the same discount applies for most plans if you renew for another 3-year term.

If you’d rather focus on your sites and let GoDaddy handle the technical stuff, including database management, LAMP stack support, and security patching, there are fully-managed VPS Hosting plans that are significantly more expensive than the self-managed plans.

Standard RAM – 1 vCPU

GoDaddy’s entry-level 1 vCPU plan is pretty bare-bones. You’ll have a choice of Linux operating system (CentOS or Ubuntu), but you won’t be able to add a control panel, so experience with server administration is a must.

In addition to the 1 vCPU core and 1GB of RAM, you get 20GB of SSD storage. If you want more than just basic security, you can add Standard website security, although its monthly cost is more than what you’ll pay monthly for this plan. If you opt for this add-on, you’ll get a web application firewall, malware scans and remediation, and integrated SSL certificates.

Standard RAM – 2 vCPU

The self-managed Standard RAM 2 vCPU plan comes with 2 vCPU cores, 4GB of RAM, and 100GB of SSD storage. Starting with this plan, you can choose between a Linux (AlphaLinux 8, CentOS 7, Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 10) or Windows (Windows Server 2019/2022) OS.

In addition to the Standard security add-on, you can also add a cPanel/WHM or Plesk control panel to your plan for an extra fee per month. Both cPanel/WHM and Plesk come preinstalled with Apache web server, MySQL, and PHP.

Standard RAM – 4 vCPU

With 4 CPUs, 8GB of RAM, and 200GB of storage, the Standard RAM 4 vCPU plan doubles the resources you get with the 2 vCPU plan. While its lowest starting price of $39.99 is also double the cost of the 2 vCPU plan, it still provides solid value when stacked up against other VPS plans with 8GB of RAM: the 4 vCPU plan gives you more CPU cores and storage than A2 Hosting’s counterpart, and more storage than Hostinger’s offering.

Aside from the resources, everything else about the 4 vCPU plan is the same as the 2 vCPU plan. You can still use either Linux or Windows for your OS, and you can add a control panel and more security for a monthly fee.

Standard RAM – 8 vCPU

The 8 vCPU self-managed VPS plan doubles everything from the 4 vCPU plan – except the price. For $69.99/month (on a 3-year plan), you’ll get 8 vCPU cores, 16GB of RAM, and 400GB of SSD storage.

And when it comes to resources, you’ll get more for your money with GoDaddy than you will with A2 Hosting’s closest self-managed equivalent – although GoDaddy’s security and control panel add-ons ultimately tip the scales.

Is GoDaddy’s Self-Managed VPS Hosting Right for You?

If you’re a developer or have experience configuring and managing your own server, GoDaddy’s self-managed VPS plans offer competitive prices based on the resources you get – but you’ll have to pay extra for a lot of things, including security, website migrations, backups, and server optimizations, and more.

If you’re thinking about investing in one of GoDaddy’s unmanaged VPS plans, consider the trade-offs. For example, the Standard RAM 2 vCPU plan’s lowest price is $19.99 a month, which is more than A2 Hosting’s self-managed 2 vCPU plan, which gives you more storage (250GB) but less RAM (2GB). Also keep in mind that A2 Hosting’s plans come with strong security features and caching optimizations that you’ll have to buy with GoDaddy.

Recommended GoDaddy Alternatives

While a few good GoDaddy hosting plans offer value for their price, our top-rated alternatives surpass others that may not provide the same level of value. If you are seeking the best web hosting plan that aligns with your needs and budget but cannot find it with GoDaddy, we recommend considering these premium hosting providers.

Hostinger

Starting at  $2.99/month for shared hosting, Hostinger has the cheapest prices in town. But unlike many low-priced web hosts that give you a subpar experience, Hostinger uses LiteSpeed Web Server technology for top speeds, a user-friendly proprietary control panel to get around, and packs plans with free features like CDN integration and weekly backups.

Hostinger is a good alternative to GoDaddy if you’re on a budget but don’t want to compromise on performance. It’s also a better choice than GoDaddy for most shared hosting and VPS plans. However, it doesn’t offer Dedicated Server Hosting or Reseller Hosting.

FastComet

FastComet has a number of user-friendly features, including a great management panel with smart cPanel integration, top-notch support, and a free CDN – although with data centers all over the globe, including hard-to-reach locations like India, Singapore, Japan, and Australia, you may not need it.

The data center locations alone make FastComet a good alternative to GoDaddy if your target audience is in Asia or Oceania. But it also offers more value on several Business, fully-managed VPS, and fully-managed Dedicated Server hosting plans.

A2 Hosting

When it comes to shared hosting, A2 Hosting boasts faster load times than most of the competition, including GoDaddy. And it’s one of the few web hosts that offers an anytime pro-rata refund, meaning you can take advantage of the low prices on long-term plans without feeling like you’re locked in for life.

Aside from a few select GoDaddy hosting plans like the Business Hosting Grow plan, A2 Hosting gives you more for your money than GoDaddy across the board.

GreenGeeks

If you’re looking for the best support for shared hosting, GreenGeeks has it. It’s also an environmentally-friendly host that invests in renewable energy. But what else does it give you? Low shared hosting prices, solid performance with LiteSpeed tech and MariaDB servers, and a great set of features that includes a free site migration, free CDN, and free SSL certificate.

GreenGeeks doesn’t offer Business Hosting or Dedicated Server Hosting, so GoDaddy has a leg up there. But if you want great service, GreenGeeks easily surpasses GoDaddy. And it provides more for your money than GoDaddy on some WordPress and fully-managed VPS plans, as well as all Reseller plans.

If You Go With GoDaddy, Choose Carefully

GoDaddy has a few hosting plans that are worth serious consideration, but there are a lot more you should simply avoid as they don’t provide the value you’ll get with other hosts.

So which plans are worth your hard earned money? GoDaddy’s WordPress Hosting plans all provide solid value, but at $12.99/month, the WordPress Ultimate Plan is the best thing on the entire GoDaddy menu, with its extensive resources and excellent performance.

If you have a high-traffic e-commerce site that needs dedicated resources, you can’t go wrong with GoDaddy’s Business Hosting Grow Plan. You’ll get 8 CPUs, 16GB of RAM, and unmetered traffic for $69.99/month, which is cheaper than most of the competition.

But when it comes to shared web hosting, I’d recommend steering clear of GoDaddy’s offerings. Hostinger offers cheaper plans with better performance, and you’ll also get managed WordPress features for free.

And if you’re comfortable with managing your own VPS, go with Kamatera. Not only does it beat GoDaddy in terms of performance, but you’ll also be able to customize your server down to the number of vCPU cores, memory, storage, OS, control panel, and more.

FAQ

How much does GoDaddy cost per month?

Monthly prices on GoDaddy plans depend on the type of hosting you choose and the plan you select. For basic websites, shared web hosting from GoDaddy can cost as little as $5.99/month for the low-tier plan, all the way up to $24.99/month for the Maximum plan. These plans are suitable if you’re new to website building, but be sure to take a look at our comprehensive guide to building your first website to see which hosts we recommend.

VPS and Dedicated Server hosting plans are the most expensive as they provide dedicated resources. If you’re looking for some great deals on all types of hosting, don’t forget to check out our coupons and deals page.

Is GoDaddy cheaper than Hostinger?

No. When you compare every GoDaddy hosting plan to its closest Hostinger counterpart, Hostinger always comes out cheaper. In particular, Hostinger’s shared hosting plans are not only cheaper, but also offer some essential features that GoDaddy lacks, including backups, CDN integration, and optimized servers.

Is GoDaddy a good value for money?

Some GoDaddy plans offer good value for money, but they’re few and far between. As a whole, its WordPress Hosting plans offer decent value, and the WordPress Ultimate plan is GoDaddy’s best offering when compared to the competition. Still, when it comes to overall value, GoDaddy didn’t crack our definitive list of best hosts – see who made our list of best web hosting services in 2024 and why.

Take a look at my GoDaddy alternatives to see which hosts offer the best value depending on what type of hosting you’re looking for.

Does GoDaddy cost more when you renew?

Your price at renewal depends on the type of GoDaddy hosting you choose, and the length of your plan. The price goes up with Web Hosting, WordPress Hosting, and Business Hosting. But as long as you renew your plan for the same term, you’ll pay the same price for most VPS Hosting plans. That’s not always the case, though – Kamatera offers a pay-as-you-go pricing structure so you won’t have to deal with renewal fees.