HostGator vs GoDaddy
HostGator and GoDaddy compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. HostGator scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
HostGatorWins overall
Newfold's Texas-born cPanel host: four shared tiers on a 36-month term with a free domain, Cloudflare CDN and staging
The largest registrar's cPanel hosting: three plans on a three-year term with a free domain and daily backups
HostGator wins 3 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.4 vs 7.2).
How do the scores compare?
HostGator leads on 3 sub-scores, GoDaddy on 0. Higher is better.
Which one is faster and more reliable?
Which one costs less?
On renewal, HostGator is cheaper ($10.99/mo vs $11.99/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
What does each include?
| HostGator | GoDaddy | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | First year on every plan; $22.99 is deducted from a refund if you cancel within the year | First year on every plan, marked with an asterisk whose disclaimer the page keeps collapsed |
| Free SSL | Let's Encrypt, auto-renewed | One year on Economy; unlimited certificates for all sites on Deluxe and Ultimate, auto-renewed through AutoSSL |
| Backups | Weekly courtesy backups, restorable with one click; the terms call them a courtesy, so keep your own | Automatic daily backups, with recovery of the whole account from the previous day |
| Free migration | A free site migration tool is listed on the plan cards; the comparison table on the same page says paid migration is available | No |
| Free CDN | Cloudflare with Argo routing on every plan | The page lists CDN and firewall among the included essentials without naming the provider |
| Caching | Static content caching and object caching on every plan; the feature list names an NGINX caching layer | No |
| Staging | WordPress staging site on every plan | No |
| SSH and languages | SSH, WP-CLI, cron, PHP 8.2, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, unlimited MySQL and SFTP users | Not stated |
| Resource limits | No | 250,000 inodes and 100 GB per account in the hosting agreement; no CPU or RAM figures on the plan page |
| Data center choice | No | No |
| Uptime guarantee | The plan page says 99 percent; the terms we read contain no uptime clause or credit schedule | 99.9% per month in the hosting agreement, with a credit of 5% of the monthly fee on request, usable for future purchases |
| Security | Malware scanning, AI-powered detection and removal from Baby up, web application firewall, DDoS protection, DDoS scrub center | DDoS protection and network monitoring on every plan; a site security suite is included on the cards |
| Unlimited POP3 and IMAP mailboxes with SpamAssassin; Pro Email is a paid product after a free trial | Free email is listed on every plan without a mailbox count | |
| Phone support | Baby, Business and Pro; Hatchling is chat only | 24/7 chat, phone and email through GoDaddy Guides |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| Node.js and languages | Not stated | Node.js on every plan; the dashboard exposes CPU, memory, entry processes and I/O controls |