GoDaddy vs. HostPapa (2024)

Ryan Frankel

By: Ryan Frankel

Ryan Frankel

Ryan began developing websites in the late '90s and has personally tested just about every web host and cloud platform worth trying on the market today. With a masters degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Florida, he leverages his extensive knowledge of hardware, software, and their engineering relationship to inform HostingAdvice readers of the technical implications of their hosting choices. Ryan's subject matter expertise includes, but is not limited to, WordPress, cloud infrastructure management, product UI/UX design, and popular web development languages such as JavaScript and PHP.

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Editor: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

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Alexandra Anderson Ryan Frankel Hosting Expert
“We tested GoDaddy & HostPapa — The winner is GoDaddy!”

GoDaddy and HostPapa are parental figures in the hosting industry — which isn’t just a nod to the companies’ names. These providers have been around for a long time and have a lot to show for it. Each web host offers budget-friendly, feature-rich plans for new website owners. Read on to find out our top pick.

Overall Rating
4.7/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit GoDaddy »
Overall Rating
4.7/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit HostPapa »

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Overall Hosting Comparison

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

GoDaddy is exceptionally well-known in the hosting space, typically serving as site owners' introduction to the world of web hosting.

The company makes it incredibly easy and affordable for folks to choose a domain name, sign up for hosting, and start building their online business or personal web property. While known for its domain, email, and shared hosting services, GoDaddy offers options for virtual and dedicated servers as well.

Pre-built templates come with the hosting company's basic WordPress offering, or upgrade to managed WordPress services for top support or help with your online store.

The company makes the migration process as seamless as possible, so you shouldn't shy away from scaling your site as your business needs grow; GoDaddy is a hosting home that will grow alongside you.

The user control options are pretty popular in the hosting space: your choice between the easy-to-use cPanel or Plesk control panels, plus root (administrative) access for more tech-savvy customers.

If you're particularly interested in webmail, GoDaddy offers an intuitive interface for keeping up with the unlimited email accounts you have available to you as a customer. Each email account comes with 256-bit encryption and enhanced privacy protection.

Customer support has been a focus of the GoDaddy team of late. Today, the team has an award-winning collection of experts on staff, readily available to handle customer phone calls and messages 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Luxury services like WordPress Premium Support and Website Security also add support ticketing functionality. While GoDaddy is on hand to talk you through any issues, the team is also keeping an eye on your server (as well as other clients sharing your server).

The hosting provider's around-the-clock security monitoring enables GoDaddy to guarantee uptime rates of 99.9% or better. This uptime rate is by no means outstanding in the industry, but for most end users, it's all that's required.

The bottom line is this: GoDaddy is a go-to domain web host for millions of users worldwide for a reason. The company maintains an ever-expanding network of users by offering blazing-fast load times, award-winning security and support, and a free domain registration when you sign up for a year-long plan.

It's a great hosting deal, particularly for first-timers and small business owners, at a really great price point.

  • Industry-leading load times
  • Award-winning support and security
  • World's #1 Domain Name Registrar
  • Choice of cPanel or Plesk included
  • 99.9% uptime guaranteed
  • Get started on GoDaddy now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
25 GB - 100 GB
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Best Overall Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

One of the earliest hosting companies to power its datacenters with renewable energy, HostPapa is an established provider that furnishes customers with plans backed by award-winning customer service and covered with a bevy of features.

Currently hosting more than 500,000 websites, HostPapa is the epitome of a high-value, low-cost provider.

We went straight to the source to find out what sets HostPapa apart from other hosting companies and sat down with CEO Jamie Opalchuck, who said HostPapa is "a little bit different than the average beast" in the hosting industry.

The privately-owned company considers itself less of a straight-up hosting provider and more of a one-stop shop for small businesses looking to grow their brand and online presence.

Whether through CRM tools, automatic backups, or unlimited storage, we found that HostPapa excels at giving its customers a seamless, easy experience.

Each user gets a dedicated account manager and a single bill, no matter how many services are added. That account manager will recommend products, such as email platforms, based on your needs — even if it means suggesting Google Apps or Microsoft Office 365 instead of HostPapa's proprietary platform.

"We want to act as consultants and help our customers reach new heights," Jamie said. "It's a different take on the hosting industry."

With locations in 18 countries and support in four languages (English, French, German, and Spanish), customer support is a major component of HostPapa's modus operandi. Representatives are available to assist users around the clock, including for one-on-one video chats.

  • Award-winning PapaSquad Support available 24/7/365
  • One-on-one video training sessions with HostPapa expert
  • FREE drag-and-drop website builder
  • Unlimited storage and bandwidth
  • SiteLock, CloudFlare, Google Apps, and Office 365
  • Get started on HostPapa now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Cheap Hosting Comparison

Cheap Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

#10 out of 10 in Cheap Hosting reviews

A major pull factor for GoDaddy's hosting services is certainly the cost. It's hard to beat web hosting for just a few dollars per month, especially when the company includes a free domain name, control panel, impressively fast load times, and unlimited websites with most plans.

The company makes it not only affordable but super easy to get started on a shared hosting plan — for first-timers, bloggers, business owners, and others.

You can choose a GoDaddy hosting plan based on your exact needs, with a range of options for disk space, email, processing power, and other resources.

If your site grows to need scalable and/or dedicated resources, the company's team makes that transition easy — but with most plans coming with unlimited storage and unmetered bandwidth, you should have plenty of room.

Virtual and dedicated servers can be provisioned in minutes, with root and cPanel access, and no re-provisioning is required for upgrades.

All GoDaddy plans are equipped with the user control of cPanel (or Plesk, if you prefer). From cPanel, you can easily install and set up popular web applications for blogging and/or ecommerce.

A big name in the budget web hosting space, GoDaddy is consistently improving the performance of its servers, website, and services to offer a great customer experience.

With cPanel control and 1-click installations for standard web apps, you can get your website up and running quickly. The company's 24/7 security monitoring and DDoS protection allow you the comfort in knowing the professionals are making sure your site is online, loading quickly, and hacker-free.

We do wish the web hosting provider would include a free SSL certificate with each shared plan, however. All in all, the web hosting service comes with incredible power and peace of mind, at such a low price point, making GoDaddy quite a value deal.

  • Manage your domain and hosting under one roof
  • Choice of cPanel or Plesk control panels
  • Up to unlimited bandwidth and storage
  • Microsoft 365 inboxes included FREE for first year
  • Get 51% OFF by signing up today
  • Get started on GoDaddy now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
25 GB - 100 GB
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Cheap Rating

★★★★ 4.4/5.0

Where HostPapa shines is with shared hosting, which offers affordable and feature-rich plans geared toward helping both website and small business owners grow their online presence.

HostPapa wants to be more than just a web host, according to CEO Jamie Opalchuck, who told us that the company aims to be a 1-stop shop for small businesses looking for a seamless and simple experience to help them grow.

"We're looking for a person that we can bring in for $4 a month and help him become more and more successful," he said. "Our goal is to find that person that just doesn't have the IT support they need. They can call us, and we'll actually answer the phone."

Once we signed up and got our hands dirty with HostPapa's services, we found they are poised to achieve that and more. A ton of features make marketing, ecommerce, and email a breeze.

Beyond Google Apps or Microsoft Office 365, HostPapa also offers two in-house email plans with a user-friendly interface and modest functionality. HostPapa's email storage limits pale in comparison to the Gmail or Outlook offerings, but the price — less than half of Google and Microsoft — makes HostPapa a great alternative.

"Our plan might be more economical, but it's not necessarily for everyone," Jamie said of HostPapa's email packages. "We want to act as consultants and help our customers reach new heights."

In addition to unlimited bandwidth and CloudFlare's content delivery network, Business Pro plan customers can also boost speed and performance with Rocket Fast Premium Servers — double the RAM, double the hard drives, and up to three times faster.

HostPapa's 99.9% uptime guarantee isn't spectacular but should be plenty sufficient for most users.

Need extra help getting started? HostPapa is the only hosting provider that offers one-on-one sessions with one of their support experts. The 30-minute conference, done via phone or video chat, is included in HostPapa's Business or Business Pro plans.

  • FREE drag-and-drop HostPapa website builder
  • Host unlimited WordPress sites on one account
  • 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat
  • FREE domain registration and email accounts
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee and unlimited bandwidth
  • Get started on HostPapa now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Dedicated Hosting Comparison

Dedicated Rating

★★★★★ 4.6/5.0

GoDaddy dedicated server hosting plans feature managed support options, on-demand resources, and the intuitive user control of cPanel and Plesk.

The company offers plans for Linux and Windows users, with a variety of options for operating systems, RAM, processing power, disk space, and hardware choices. As a bare-metal solution, GoDaddy dedicated hosting gives customers 100% control over their server in a single-tenant environment.

Unlimited bandwidth is always nice, as is the ability to choose between high-capacity HDDs and high-speed SSDs for storage. Site owners can also choose to host their server in datacenters in U.S. or Europe.

With the optional fully managed services, GoDaddy support is not only available around the clock to help you troubleshoot issues with your server but the team is keeping an eye on your server status.

The company offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee and premier DDoS protection, anti-hacking services, and other security add-ons. Each server comes with a free year of SSL certificate protection, and GoDaddy fully managed hosting customers benefit from the assurance that the experts will facilitate security patches and bug fixes regularly and on time.

Each dedicated hosting plan comes with Panopta monitoring for your server, application, and network services. Users can easily view uptime and system-level metrics like CPU, RAM, storage, or set up alerts and notifications.

With resource configurations customized to meet your needs, GoDaddy offers dedicated server hosting that you can grow your business with.

The GoDaddy tech support team is available 24/7, guarding your site against malware, hackers, unexpected downtime, and DDoS threats. Meanwhile, the company's support agents are handling any requests that come through the phone lines or chat portal.

With on-demand resources and industry-leading page load speeds, GoDaddy is a dedicated host worthy of your consideration.

  • Dedicated resources provisioned in minutes
  • Maximum performance and data protection with RAID-1 disk mirroring
  • Admin control via root access, cPanel, or Plesk
  • Choose from semi- or fully-managed services
  • Get 11% off of your first term
  • Get started on GoDaddy now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
500 GB SSD - 1 TB HDD (RAID-1)
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Dedicated Rating

N/A

HostPapa does not currently offer this type of hosting. We would not recommend choosing this host for this hosting category.

VPS Hosting Comparison

VPS Rating

★★★★ 4.2/5.0

If you're looking to grow and scale your website, GoDaddy has you covered. Developers and web enthusiasts will be pleased to hear that GoDaddy offers root access, making it easy to install PHP modules, applications, stacks, and various customizations to fine-tune your virtual server for peak performance via the command line or remote desktop.

Plans also include a variety of control panels, led by cPanel and Plesk, so you can easily manage your hosting service with an intuitive graphical interface.

The surprisingly powerful virtual servers can have up to 32GB RAM and 400GB of SSD storage that boasts three times faster page loads. In addition to unlimited bandwidth and KVM virtualization, GoDaddy boasts global datacenters on four continents and tons of modern operating systems.

Choose from platforms like CentOS, Ubuntu, and Windows Server. Meanwhile, the GoDaddy team will monitor your server 24/7 to alert and ward off traffic with malicious intent. Customers will have to patch their operating system as needed, but GoDaddy provides around-the-clock hardware monitoring with failover solutions and snapshots to minimize downtime.

Panopta monitoring is also included with all semi- or fully managed VPS accounts, giving you a window into network and application services via easily configurable alerts and notifications.

The GoDaddy name may not immediately bring VPS hosting to mind. Nonetheless, GoDaddy's virtual server offerings include the security, support, worry-free fully managed services, and value combination that embodies the GoDaddy reputation in the hosting space.

For those who may not quite be ready to make the jump to a VPS plan, the hosting company's Business Hosting packages combine the best of both worlds: the amped-up power of a virtual private server with the ease and simplicity of shared hosting.

  • Designed to handle traffic with Linux or Windows
  • Admin access via root access, cPanel, and Plesk
  • High-speed SSDs and 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • Unlimited bandwidth and lots of processing power
  • Fully or semi-managed servers with optional control panel
  • Get started on GoDaddy now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
40 GB SSD - 200 GB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer

VPS Rating

★★★★★ 4.7/5.0

If you've outgrown shared hosting and are ready to take on new challenges and customers, consider expanding with HostPapa's high-performance VPS hosting.

The company's Linux plans simultaneously give users high levels of both control and flexibility. The affordable, fully managed solution is easy to scale as your site or application grows.

We found HostPapa's 2GB RAM and 60GB of SSD storage to be a touch shy of competitors, but users can quickly scale resources to upward of 32GB RAM and 1TB of storage.

HostPapa makes up for the slightly limited specifications with fully managed services, however.

"Managed" can mean anything to hosts, but HostPapa definitely puts its technicians to work for you. Included in those services are automation, performance and firewall troubleshooting, email and backup configuration, software upgrades and migration, and security audits.

"We're doubling down on support," CEO Jamie Opalchuk said. "We're doubling down on a lot of things that make the client experience better."

Pair that with HostPapa's award-winning support teams, who are available 24/7/365 via telephone, email, and chat, and you've got a solid managed VPS hosting plan ready to help you move on from shared hosting.

  • FREE wholesale domain reseller account
  • Unlimited domains, websites, and email hosting
  • Enhanced SSD storage and Intel Xeon processors
  • FREE cPanel/WHMCS license, and Softaculous installs
  • Instantly provision up to 32GB of RAM
  • Get started on HostPapa now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
60 GB SSD - 1 TB SSD
Domain Name
New or Transfer

WordPress Hosting Comparison

WordPress Rating

★★★★ 4.4/5.0

#8 out of 8 in WordPress Hosting reviews

As champions of low-cost, high-impact hosting, GoDaddy understandably offers a slew of services geared for all levels of WordPress users.

Starting with the company's basic shared hosting services, which start at $8.99 per month, each GoDaddy customer who signs up for an annual plan receive a free domain name and the power to control their site via the cPanel or Plesk control panels.

From either of these interfaces, you can quickly install and set up the WordPress environment in one click at no additional cost. GoDaddy's improved cPanel is configured with CageFS to protect your content and uses CloudLinux to keep your site's resources truly balanced.

While you're busy adding content, photos, or products to your WordPress site, GoDaddy ensures that your web pages are loading quickly.

More serious WordPress users may prefer to step up to the web host's suite of optimized WordPress hosting plans, which feature an automatically installed SSL certificate, backups, and daily malware scans.

Users can create and launch unlimited websites with most of these packages, and you can choose to automatically upgrade your plan as you need extra resources.

Even higher up, GoDaddy Pro Managed WordPress Hosting starts site owners with a delightful onboarding experience and one-click migration tool to make it easier than ever to get started.

Once you configure your free CDN and built-in caching, you can take advantage of daily backups, automatic core updates, pre-built sites, and a staging environment to ensure your WordPress website is picture perfect.

  • 1-click WordPress installs via cPanel or Plesk
  • FREE domain from the world's #1 registrar
  • Experience 24/7 expert support
  • Award-winning security monitoring
  • FREE year of Office 365 business email services
  • Get started on GoDaddy now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
10 GB SSD - 30 GB SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

WordPress Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

Nearly all hosts these days include easy installations and support for WordPress, the world's leading content management system. While HostPapa is no different, we discovered the company's ultra-attentive support team can help new users navigate the sometimes challenging platform.

Available through Softaculous, we found the WordPress installation to be incredibly simple — find the WordPress logo in your control panel and follow the prompts to set up your site with the appropriate title and tagline.

Paired with all the apps and features HostPapa offers for marketing, ecommerce, and email, WordPress hosting opens the door to millions of plugins that should take care of all your needs.

Also, you can give WordPress an extra boost by taking advantage of HostPapa's partnerships: CloudFlare's content delivery network for speed, SiteLock protection for security, and Let's Encrypt SSL certificates for additional safety and ecommerce capabilities.

"Our play is what we can supply a small business owner to help in any kind of way with their web properties," CEO Jamie Opalchuk said when we sat down with him. "Keep it simple; that's our place."

If you run into trouble, PapaSquad support is only a phone call, email, or chat message away. Technicians are available 24/7/365 to help, as are HostPapa's video tutorials, downloadable manuals, and knowledgebase.

"We're doubling down on support," Jamie said. "We're doubling down on a lot of things that make the client experience better."

WordPress can be challenging at times, and HostPapa is the only hosting company that provides 30-minute sessions through video or phone with one of the company's support experts. Those sessions are included in Business or Business Pro plans but are available to other customers for a fee.

  • Auto-installed WordPress with caching and FREE CDN
  • FREE SSL certificate and HTTP/2 support
  • Jetpack pre-installed for speed and security boosts
  • Server firewall, monitoring, and intrusion detection
  • Unlimited MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin
  • Get started on HostPapa now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)

Site Builder Hosting Comparison

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.8/5.0

GoDaddy uses a custom website builder and easy access to dozens of content management systems to offer a user-friendly site-building solution to customers.

Most of GoDaddy's hosting plans include these options at no additional cost. Plus, if you sign up for an annual hosting plan, this world-leading domain name registrar will include a GoDaddy domain for free.

The company's Websites + Marketing plans combine the GoDaddy website builder with built-in marketing tools to seamlessly integrate your website, social media, and online reviews to attract the most visitors.

Even better, you can get started for free! To unlock the full publishing power, though, plans start around $10 per month.

You can save money by signing up for a shared hosting account, which will point you toward easy-to-use content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. You'll still get a lot of options for customizations and one-click installations but not quite the same drag-and-drop simplicity you'll find on most site builders.

Regardless of which you choose, the GoDaddy team is working around the clock to ensure your site will remain online and performing speedily while you worry about making your website beautiful and professional-looking.

The company's award-winning security team keeps an eye out for downtime, hackers, and other security threats.

The end result is their uptime guarantee of 99.9%, which does the job for most users.

The bottom line is that you can get started with multiple GoDaddy's website builder options for a dollar or less per month and choose from hundreds of theme options to start designing the site of your dreams.

  • Get started for FREE, no credit-card required
  • Easy-to-use interface with tons of customization
  • GoDaddy InSight™ provides tailored action plans
  • 99.9% uptime with an award-winning support team
  • Built-in marketing tools and expertise
  • Get started on GoDaddy now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
New or Transfer

Website Builder Rating

★★★★★ 4.5/5.0

Despite a few limitations that might not matter to rookie site owners, HostPapa offers an easy-to-use web builder with a surprising number of features.

Coding experience or not, designing a website can be a long, confusing process. Hiring someone to do it for you can be expensive, stressful, and still doesn't guarantee you'll end up with something you like.

CEO Jamie Opalchuk told us how HostPapa's site builder lets you avoid all the hassle and get a beautiful, professional website by yourself in a matter of minutes.

Build and manage your site on your own, whether you're starting from scratch, getting a fresh look, or looking for a better tool.

We dug into the drag-and-drop editor, which is intuitive for the earliest of beginners — just click on the text you want to edit or area where you'd like to upload an image. For the more advanced users, you can customize your site even more by taking a swing at the HTML or CSS code.

When we started our site, HostPapa showcased more than a dozen responsive template options. Once we made our selection, we could see more than 100 other choices. Not many site builders allow you to change templates once you've started adding content, so we appreciate the flexibility that HostPapa allows.

HostPapa's builder really shines, however, in the number of widgets you can add to your site. Easily add text, images, maps, videos, and social media widgets right from the start, or upgrade to include one-click publishing to Facebook or an ecommerce store.

You can build forms with HostPapa's own tool or through Wufoo, just like you can add email marketing features through a Constant Contact integration.

"Our play is what we can supply a small business owner to help in any kind of way with their web properties," Jamie said. "We want to provide a seamless, easy experience."

Once your site is set up, you can preview how it will look on both desktops and mobile devices. You can always update on the go, from any web browser.

The site builder is included for FREE with HostPapa's shared hosting plans, or you can buy builder-specific plans to add even more features.

If all else fails, HostPapa offers Do It For Me managed web design services. The company will write your copy, design your site, and optimize it for search engines and mobile devices. Contact HostPapa when you need to update your site, and they'll take care of you.

  • Drag-and-drop interface — no technical experience required
  • Hundreds of mobile-friendly, responsive templates
  • 1-click website publishing and Facebook integration
  • Preview mode for desktop and mobile
  • Upgraded ecommerce tools available
  • Get started on HostPapa now.
Money Back Guarantee
30 days
Disk Space
Unlimited
Domain Name
FREE (1 year)
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GoDaddy vs. HostPapa - Our Conclusion

Alexandra Anderson Ryan Frankel Hosting Expert
“We tested GoDaddy & HostPapa — The winner is GoDaddy!”

Ultimately, the web host you choose will depend on your experience level and what type of website you’re hosting. But for first-time site owners, you can’t go wrong with either choice. GoDaddy is often a top pick for its cheap shared hosting plans, whereas HostPapa provides unmatched customer service and excellent WordPress hosting. Either way, you’re in good hands with these providers.

Overall Rating
4.7/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit GoDaddy »
Overall Rating
4.7/5.0 ★★★★★
Visit HostPapa »

About The Author

Ryan Frankel has been a professional in the tech industry for more than 20 years and has been developing websites for more than 25. With a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Florida, he has a fundamental understanding of hardware systems and the software that runs them. Ryan now sits as the CTO of Digital Brands Inc. and manages all of the server infrastructure of their websites, as well as their development team. In addition, Ryan has a passion for guitars, good coffee, and puppies.
Alexandra Anderson