Writer: Laura Bernheim
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Cristian Lopez
Let’s dive into a GoDaddy VPS review. So many rookie web hosting consumers turn to GoDaddy for their first domain name and shared hosting account. How does the company hold up at higher levels of hosting?
Since 1997, the web hosting and domain name giant has racked up 17 million customers around the world and oversees more than 71 million domains. The mass-market appeal gave GoDaddy a bland reputation, but the last several years have seen leadership changes, revamped infrastructure, and powerful, comprehensive services that cover the full web hosting spectrum.
Running the world’s largest cloud platform dedicated to small, independent ventures, GoDaddy offers fast, secure, and scalable VPS plans for those early customers who are looking to take the next step in hosting. We ran the virtual private servers through the gauntlet to rate GoDaddy’s services, performance, and support compared with other veterans of VPS hosting.
GoDaddy VPS Hosting Review: 4.2 Overall Rating
Knowing when your business or websites are ready to take the leap into a VPS hosting plan can be tricky. Symptoms of outgrowing shared hosting include needing more storage space, specialized security, or dedicated computing resources, among other signs. Although the GoDaddy name might not be the first hosting provider to come to mind, the company’s VPS plans offer the same security, speed, support, and value the brand embodies in shared hosting.
A beacon of flexibility, GoDaddy offers four VPS options for both Windows and Linux plans, in addition to three levels of managed services. Our biggest complaint is that site owners are responsible for migrating their information and files to the VPS, but we appreciate that GoDaddy will provision the virtual server in minutes and take care of patching, security, monitoring, backups, and more.
Users get root access or can manage their server from the free cPanel installation. In addition to ample processing power and unmetered bandwidth, GoDaddy includes one year of a free SSL certificate and provision-free upgrades as you scale through the VPS plans:
GoDaddy.com
Monthly Starting Price $8.99
- 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.
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. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 minutes | 40 GB SSD - 200 GB SSD | 1 - 4 cores | 2 - 16 GB |
How Do GoDaddy’s Virtual Servers Compare?
Despite being more known for affordable shared hosting and domain registrations, GoDaddy offers strong VPS services and options to customers. Having tested all the hosting plans we can get our hands on, we have no problem recommending the company to entry-level VPS consumers.
Infrastructure improvements and stellar support teams show GoDaddy on the rise, but business-oriented sites might want to invest in a more specialized hosting provider to achieve higher uptime, faster performance, and more luxurious managed services. When shopping for a VPS provider, be sure to consider our top-rated VPS host:
Kamatera.com
Monthly Starting Price $4.00
- Cloud VPS that's more flexible and affordable
- Load balancer, firewall, and managed services
- Premium Intel CPUs with 300% more power
- Choose between monthly or hourly billing
- Sign up today for a 30-day FREE trial
- Get started on Kamatera now.
Backed by cutting-edge cloud computing technology, Kamatera adds instant and limitless scalability to the VPS hosting marketplace. Each cloud or virtual server is equipped with blazing-fast SSD storage and Intel Xeon Platinum CPUs. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes | 20 GB SSD - 4 TB SSD | 1 - 32 cores | 1 GB - 128 GB |
Hostinger.com
Monthly Starting Price $4.49
- NVMe SSD storage and malware scanner
- Automatic weekly backups and an AI assistant
- FREE dedicated IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
- Custom control panel for reboots and OS installs
- 1-click operating system template
- HostingAdvice readers enjoy more than 50% off
- Get started on Hostinger now.
Hostinger's laser focus on providing affordable hosting solutions shines brightest with the company's VPS packages. The company provides four different virtual server plans, including one that costs less than $5. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 minutes | 50 GB NVMe - 400 GB NVMe | 1 - 8 cores | 4 GB - 32 GB |
LiquidWeb.com
Monthly Starting Price $5.00
- High-speed hosting that's faster than AWS, Rackspace, and Digital Ocean
- FREE backups, CDN, and DDoS protection
- Up to 7TB of bandwidth with all-SSD storage
- Choice between cPanel, Plesk, or InterWorx
- Real-time monitoring and 100% uptime guarantee
- Get started on Liquid Web now.
It's no secret by now that Liquid Web is known for best-in-class technology and reliability that exceeds expectations. The company's cloud VPS environments embody that reputation to its fullest — including managed WordPress and WooCommerce products. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 minutes | 30 GB SSD - 440 GB SSD | 1 - 6 cores | 1 GB - 16 GB |
IONOS.com
Monthly Starting Price $2.00
- Affordable VPS hosting with no hidden fees
- Try it FREE via 30-day money-back guarantee
- Full root access and API
- 10GB to 640GB SSD, Linux or Windows
- No throttling or traffic restrictions, ever
- Get started on IONOS now.
For an all-star player in the game of web hosting flexibility, look no further than the low-cost options from IONOS. The company's vServers are a powerful VPS option that includes dedicated resources and unlimited traffic. Go to full review »
| Setup Time | Disk Space | CPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 minutes | 10 GB NVMe - 640 GB NVMe | 1 - 12 cores | 1 GB - 24 GB |
GoDaddy Features: 4.0 Rating
In addition to speedy provisioning, GoDaddy lets you get straight to work configuring your environment by offering six operating system options. Management through cPanel will appeal to first-time VPS customers making the jump from shared hosting, but we appreciate that GoDaddy also offers administrative root access for installing components, such as PHP, proxy servers, and other modules, with ease.
Site owners can manage their VPSes themselves if they dare, but GoDaddy includes some managed services as a default. The company’s team will handle patching, security monitoring, and backups as part of the semi-managed service, with migrations and premier support available to fully managed customers.
Another perk to signing up for one of the managed plans is that GoDaddy, in partnership with SiteLock, will take care of speed and security. A content delivery network will come pre-installed, as well as malware removal tools and a web application firewall.
GoDaddy Pricing: 4.9 Rating
A worthwhile investment at any level of hosting, GoDaddy has long been known for offering a great deal on performant and secure services. Plans start at an affordable $8.99 per month, making GoDaddy slightly cheaper than our other top-rated VPS hosts. The company has the added distinction of offering four Windows-based VPS plans; while the hosting packages tend to be more expensive than their Linux-based counterparts, GoDaddy remains a few dollars cheaper each month than competitors.
GoDaddy is an affordable VPS hosting provider that doesn’t scrimp on services or performance.
As your site outgrows the base VPS packages, customers can quickly upgrade your plan without having to re-provision your VPS. In the milliseconds-matter world of web hosting, we love that successful site owners can quickly scale their computing resources to meet traffic demands without having to wait for a server to come online.
GoDaddy VPS Performance: 4.2 Rating
GoDaddy provides unmetered bandwidth, meaning your site will hold up relatively well to an unexpected flood of visitors. During periods of average traffic flow, your VPS will serve your data on par or even faster than many other hosting providers. GoDaddy technicians will notify you if high bandwidth rates present a risk to your server’s stability, performance, or uptime. You will either be asked to upgrade your hosting plan or see your resources throttled, but we appreciate that GoDaddy doesn’t charge for overages.
On the page load front, GoDaddy servers are equipped with modern Intel processors and access to a content delivery network. CDNs are a distributed network of servers deployed in multiple datacenters across the world that delivers information based on the geographic location of your visitor — the closer your content is to your customer, the faster they can see the information.
GoDaddy operates nine datacenters and has made a major push to upgrade and expand its infrastructure, growing from roughly 37,000 servers in 2014 to 55,000 servers in 2016 — nearly 1,000 new servers added every month.
GoDaddy VPS Reliability: 4.6 Rating
When you have 1,000 or so engineers taking care of your infrastructure, reliability seems like all but a foregone conclusion. With website uptime and availability among the most important aspects of running a successful eCommerce store, blog, or professional portfolio, GoDaddy performs admirably well.
The company promises a relative average 99.9% service uptime guarantee, but recent investments and upgrades to the GoDaddy stack give us confidence that mark will be met. For most users, 99.9% uptime is enough, especially considering GoDaddy’s affordability.
For such a massive host, GoDaddy provides excellent customer service through phone, chat, email, and Twitter.
About two-thirds of GoDaddy’s staff of 6,000 full-time employees work at customer service centers, which are ready to help users around the clock. Customers can contact GoDaddy via phone, chat, Twitter, email, and a ticketing system, and the hosting provider maintains an extensive online help center and user forums.
While managed and fully managed VPS customers enjoy pre-installed security tools, GoDaddy’s backup options leave a lot to be desired. The company takes snapshots every 10 days and will only help you restore a backup for a fee. Managed and fully managed VPS customers can take and restore snapshots as they choose.
Our Experts’ GoDaddy VPS Reviews Suggest Considering Your Options
As you gain experience and comfort with running websites, look to spread your wings beyond GoDaddy’s beginner-friendly nest. The company’s work to overhaul its reputation and infrastructure has worked an impressive degree, but the features and price points don’t always match up with GoDaddy competitors.
That being said, GoDaddy is a great option for those looking for simplicity and consistency as they make the move from shared hosting. Given the web host’s domain registration and marketing tools, GoDaddy is a one-stop-shop for site owners and small businesses.
GoDaddy is no longer a bargain-basement web hosting service and domain registrar for beginners; developers, entrepreneurs, hobbyists, and enterprise organizations can all find hosting happiness with shared, VPS, or dedicated servers. See how GoDaddy compares with other top hosts by checking out our host-vs-host battles.
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