GoDaddy Web Hosting-Review

If you have a business—or plan on starting a business—you'll need a Web presence so that potential customers can find your services online. To do that, you'll need to invest in a Web hosting company like GoDaddy (starting at $6.99 per month, or $3.99 per month with an annual commitment) that'll provide the foundation for your website. GoDaddy is good for personal service, but it really excels at business hosting, thanks to its many business-friendly tools, including Linux and Windows servers, virtual private servers (VPS), dedicated hosting, flexible website-creation tools, WordPress hosting/management, and surprisingly helpful customer service representatives who can be reached around the clock. GoDaddy's all-around package lacks the depth found in Arvixe $4.00 at Arvixe - Shared and Dreamhost$8.95 at DreamHost - Shared, the Editors' Choice award winners for novice and advanced Web hosting services, respectively. Still, GoDaddy is more than capable of satisfying business and consumer needs. Setting up a basic Linux-based GoDaddy site, complete with website-building software and an e-commerce store cost me $33.86, which isn't too pricey.

Shared Web Hosting Packages

GoDaddy, like 1&1$4.99 at 1&1 - Shared and Arvixe, charges a monthly fee for its hosting services, but it reduces the price if you commit to a multi-month or annual package. Unfortunately, GoDaddy requires you to sign up for its pricier Deluxe or Ultimate plans (starting at $8.99 and $14.99, respectively) for the option to pay for Web hosting on a month-to-month basis (the basic Economy requires you to sign up for a minimum of three months). This may not have much (if any) impact on businesses, but a cash-strapped blogger may not appreciate GoDaddy's lack of a single month option in its Economy package. In that regard, Arvixe (starting at $7 per month) is a better option.
The Economy basic shared hosting package includes a free domain name (in the form of yoursite.com) that you can keep as long as you use GoDaddy, 100GB of storage, the ability to host one website, unlimited bandwidth, 100 email addresses, and 200 apps. The Deluxe plan (starting at $8.99 per month, or $4.49 per month with an annual commitment) builds upon the Economy package by adding unlimited storage, unlimited website hosting, and 500 email addresses. The Ultimate package (starting at $14.99 per month, or $7.49 per month with an annual commitment) adds a premium DNS management tool, 1,000 email addresses, and a one-year SSL Certificate.

VPS and Dedicated Server Plans

GoDaddy's VPS plans (starting at $29.99 per month for 1GB of RAM, 40GB of storage, and 1TB of bandwidth) offer more server power than shared hosting, and they are recommended for websites that have a significant amount of visitors. The VPS offerings scale as high as $139 per month for 8GB of RAM, 240GB of storage, and 8TB of bandwidth.
GoDaddy's dedicated servers come in many configurations. The plans start at a relatively low $129 per month, and you can outfit the servers with up to 32GB of RAM, 1.5TB of storage, and 20TB of data transfers per month. The 32GB RAM total is 16GB more than what HostGator $3.96 at HostGator - Shared—the Editors' Choice for dedicated servers—offers, but GoDaddy loses points because email isn't included in the plan; email is a separate purchase.
GoDaddy has a 45-day money-back guarantee, but Arvixe one-ups it with an impressive 60-day money-back guarantee. Read GoDaddy's terms of service for full details.

Setting Up a GoDaddy Hosted Site

GoDaddy's flexible Website Builder is an excellent site-building tool. I found it incredibly easy to add forms, social media links, Google Maps, slideshows, and other items to my site (superfuntechgo.com) by dragging them around the template. GoDaddy's Website Builder produced a far more attractive site than the competition.

Unfortunately, GoDaddy's Website Builder isn't free; you must shell out an extra $1 per month to use the tool. Granted, that's not a lot of money, but it's extra cash out of your pocket. 1&1 and Arvixe include their site tools for free.
GoDaddy has dozens of apps in its Installatron library that can be used to improve your website, including Homefinder, PayPal, and Yelp. GoDaddy also offers WordPress-centric hosting starting at $1 per month. Signing up for it has its advantages; GoDaddy has thousands of themes and plug-ins, nightly backups, and automatic WordPress software updates.