GoDaddy vs. FatCow (2018)

GoDaddy is exceptionally well-known in the hosting space — deemed the World's #1 Domain Name Registrar. They make 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 their domain, email, and shared hosting services, GoDaddy offers options for virtual and dedicated servers as well. They make the upgrade process as seamless as possible, so you shouldn't shy away from scaling your site as your business needs grow.

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 their GoDaddy Workspace feature, an intuitive interface for keeping up with the unlimited email accounts you have available to you as a customer. All of this can be easily accessed and secured with your GoDaddy login info that you receive upon sign-up.

Customer support has been a focus of the GoDaddy team as they constantly work to improve. Today, they have an award-winning team of experts on staff, readily available to handle customer support tickets and emails 24 hours a day, seven days a week. While they're on hand to talk you through any issues, they're also keeping an eye on your server (as well as other clients sharing your server). Their security monitoring is round-the-clock and they 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. Their page load speeds (the time it takes for your webpages to load) are industry-leading, however.

The bottom line is this: GoDaddy is a go-to domain web host for millions of users world-wide for a reason. They maintain their ever-expanding network of users by offering blazing-fast load times, award-winning security and support, and a free domain name when you sign up for a year-long plan. It's a great hosting deal, particularly for first-timers and SMB owners, at a really great (low!) price point.