GoDaddy Hosting Cost 2024: Are GoDaddy Plans Good Value?

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godaddy logo
Cheapest Shared Plan
$6.99 Economy
Overall rating

4 out of 5 stars

When it comes to getting online, there are few bigger names than GoDaddy. The largest domain provider in the world, GoDaddy is also a one-stop shop for building, hosting, and marketing your website.

GoDaddy’s most basic shared hosting plan starts at $6.99/month, while more advanced dedicated hosting plans can reach up to $469.99/month!

But GoDaddy is a hard provider to pin down. Coming in at very middle-of-the-road in our rankings, its pricing is rather erratic, scoring well for pricing in some areas like photography or VPS hosting, but poorly in shared and dedicated.

GoDaddy offers a whopping 33 hosting plans, grouped across five different types of hosting. This can understandably make it hard to choose which one you need. That’s where we come in!

Not sure what type of GoDaddy hosting you’re after? Here’s a quick list of the five different types and their cheapest starting prices for a 12-month subscription:

GoDaddy Pricing Quick Summary

  1. Shared hosting from $6.99/month
  2. WordPress hosting from $11.99/month
  3. Web Hosting Plus from $21.99/month
  4. VPS hosting from $5.99/month
  5. Dedicated hosting from $159.99/month

For this article, we’ll be looking exclusively at the cost of GoDaddy’s hosting plans. Are they affordable? How do they compare to competitors? And ultimately, are they worth the money?

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GoDaddy Hosting Plans

All hosting providers offer discounted prices for new customers. You will then renew the contract at a higher, original price.

GoDaddy, for instance, has its cheapest shared plan marked at $4.99 per month for a 36-month contract month. Once those months are over, you’ll pay the regular price of $7.99 per month unless you cancel your renewal. The 12-month plan begins at $6.99 per month, $2 more. You can choose which option you prefer at check-out.

Most hosting providers will automatically show you the 36-month prices. When distributed to a monthly equivalent price, it looks the cheapest, even though you will be paying for longer.

The prices discussed in this article are monthly prices for a 12-month contract because we believe this is the simplest plan to understand. You aren’t signing yourself up for a super long contract but you still get the benefit of a reduced price. To us, it’s the best representative price for that particular hosting provider.

We’ll always do our best to make it clear exactly how much you can expect to pay at each stage of hosting. 

As we examine each hosting plan, we’ll show you how GoDaddy compares to our other top-rated hosts, HostGator and InMotion. Later, we’ll discuss any extra charges to look out for with your plan.

Let’s get into it! With so many plans, it can be hard to see what exactly you need from a hosting plan. Here at Website Builder Expert we boil it down like this:

Shared Hosting – Best for those with small websites or blogs who just want hosting that does the job.

Managed WordPress – For WordPress users who are starting out and what a bit more support.

Web Hosting Plus – You get the power of VPS hosting combined with a simple panel for beginners.

VPS – For those who want a bit more power for bigger sites or eccomerce.

Dedicated – The most power available. For really big sites expecting thousands of visitors.

Let’s see how these five very different variations fare up against each other:

Pricing Plan Cheapest Plan: Discount Price Cheapest Plan: Regular Price Subscription Length Discount Savings Per Month
Shared $6.99 $9.99 12 months 30%
WordPress $11.99 $12.99 12 months 7%
Web Hosting Plus $21.99 $34.99 12 months 37%
VPS $11.99 $14.99 12 months 20%
Dedicated $159.99 $179.99 12 months 11%
Speedy Server Response Time

4.4

out of 5
Ease Of Use

4.1 out of 5 stars

Value For Money

4.1 out of 5 stars

Design Flexibility

4.1 out of 5 stars

Features

3.1 out of 5 stars

Help and Support

4.3 out of 5 stars

Customer Score

4.6 out of 5 stars

You should now have a fairly decent idea of what type of hosting you need. As we previously mentioned, in our research GoDaddy does well for some plans in price and not so well in others.

For some hosting types, GoDaddy is one of the best-scoring hosts for pricing – it scores 4 out of 5 for photography and 3.8 out of 5 for VPS, making it our second-best scoring hosting provider in those categories!

On the flip side though, GoDaddy is more expensive than other providers in the shared, dedicated, and blog hosting categories. For example, compare Bluehost’s cheapest shared hosting plan beginning at $2.95/month to GoDaddy’s $6.99/month.

However, that doesn’t mean that GoDaddy is completely useless! GoDaddy is well-known for having a ton of extra features to keep its users happy, such as a free Microsoft Office Email suite subscription.

Now that we’ve explained the basics, let’s get into the nitty-gritty and take a deep dive into all the hosting on offer, starting with shared hosting!

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is best for small, personal sites, or business sites with only a couple of pages. You get what you pay for in the world of web hosting, and GoDaddy’s shared hosting is no exception. It’s not very cheap when compared to other providers, but you do get some more features.

Economy Deluxe Ultimate Maximum
Starting Price $6.99/month $11.99/month $14.99/month $21.99/month
Renewal Price $9.99/month $13.99/month $17.99/month $24.99/month
Free domain? ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
Websites 1 10 25 50
Storage 25GB 50GB 75GB 100GB
Memory 512MB 1GB 1.5GB 2GB

GoDaddy’s shared pricing plans range from $6.99/month to $21.99/month, billed annually. Each plan builds on the previous set of features, working up to the most powerful ‘Maximum’ plan, which has four times the processing power and memory of the Deluxe and Economy plans. It claims to support ‘multiple complex sites with high-res photos and videos’, but we’d still recommend a VPS for such sites.

GoDaddy's four shared hosting plans and their prices
GoDaddy's shared hosting plans offer longer contracts - you can see the 3-year pricing here!

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WordPress Hosting

As you may have guessed, WordPress hosting is hosting that’s specially designed for WordPress sites. WordPress sites will work fine with any type of hosting on this list, but WordPress-specific hosting comes with some added benefits, such as auto-installed updates.  

Basic Deluxe Ultimate
Starting Price $11.99/month $15.99/month $17.99/month
Renewal Price $12.99/month $16.99/month $22.99/month
Free domain? ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
Websites 1 1 1
Storage 10GB 20GB 30GB
Free Microsoft 365 mailboxes (first year) Up to 5 Up to 5 Up to 5

All of GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting plans include:

  • A free domain (when you sign up for a year’s plan or more)
  • Free daily backups with one-click restore
  • Built-in signup forms for capturing client data

Better still, the more you spend, the more perks you get. The Ultimate plan gets you access to WooComerce allowing you to run and manage an online store with unlimited products and appointment scheduling. There’s also a separate package of WooCommerce-specific plans starting at $19.99 per month. 

GoDaddy has three main WordPress hosting plans. Here you can see the 3-year subscription prices.

Find out more:

  • Best WordPress hosts – WordPress powers 30% of the internet. Who should you choose to power your WordPress site?

Web Hosting Plus

Web Hosting Plus is GoDaddy’s secret weapon – the power of VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting but without the tricky setup. If you’re outgrowing your shared hosting plan, this is a great next step. You get all the benefits of a dedicated server, without the need for an IT person to manage it for you. Great for beginners.

Launch Enhance Grow Expand
Starting Price $21.99/month $39.99/month $54.99/month $74.99/month
Renewal Price $34.99/month $54.99/month $79.99/month $109.99/month
Free domain? ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
Websites and Databases 50 100 150 200
Storage 100GB 200GB 300GB 400GB
RAM 4GB 8GB 16GB 32GB
CPUs 2 4 8 16
Free Microsoft 365 mailboxes 5 5 5 5

All GoDaddy’s hosting plus plans come with unmetered traffic, over 50 websites and databases, and a standard SSL certificate included. The more you’re willing to spend, the more storage, RAM (memory), and CPUs (power) you’ll be able to tap into. GoDaddy’s web hosting plus can cover everything from multiple basic sites (Launch plan) to multiple photography or resource-heavy sites (Expand plan). Photography-heavy sites can incite some high costs, but luckily GoDaddy has some of the best pricing around, earning a 4 out of 5 in our research.

GoDaddy web hosting plus features
Web Hosting Plus has a lot of features to look after you if you're a beginner if want to upgrade.
GoDaddy logo

Ready For GoDaddy?

GoDaddy offers a massive range of hosting across five separate categories. It’s almost guaranteed it’ll have a plan for whatever you’re looking for! Check them out today!

VPS Hosting

Just as hosting plus is a happy medium between shared and VPS hosting, VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting is one step closer to a dedicated server – but with a reduced price tag. With a VPS hosting plan, you have a ‘virtual server’ that acts like a dedicated server, but within a shared space – kind of like having an apartment in a shared block of apartments, rather than a detached house.

1vCPU/2GB RAM 2vCPU/4GB RAM 4vCPU/8GB RAM 4vCPU/16GB RAM
Starting Price $11.99/month $23.99/month $47.99/month $59.99/month
Renewal Price $11.99/month $23.99/month $47.99/month $59.99/month
Storage 40GB 100GB 200GB 200GB
RAM 2GB 4GB 8GB 16GB
CPUs 1 2 4 4

In terms of plans, GoDaddy’s VPS plans look very similar to its Web Hosting Plus ones. The only real difference is a jump in storage  – up to 400 GB on the 4vCPU plan. 

A major difference between the two is that GoDaddy offers VPS both managed and unmanaged. ‘Managed’ VPS is more expensive, but the difference being that GoDaddy actually takes care of a lot of the setup for you.

The fully managed VPS will set you back $101.99/month for a 12-month contract, so we recommend Web Hosting Plus if you’re a beginner.

These VPS plans are best suited to ecommerce sites, or resource-heavy apps. They’re also a good option if you have multiple sites on the go, as the isolated environment means one site won’t impact on the loading times of another.

The price differences between unmanaged VPS and managed (three-year plan).

Find out more:

  • Want to know who’s the best of the best for VPS? Check out our Best VPS Provider list

Dedicated Server Hosting

A dedicated server – this means you’ve made it! Welcome to your fully detached internet abode, your online slice of real estate heaven.

Who needs a dedicated server? Any website with a lot of content that’s expecting a lot of traffic. Website Builder Expert is hosted on a dedicated server, for example.

DS-32 DS-64 DS-128 DS-256
Starting Price $159.99/month $199.99/month $339.99/month $469.99/month
Renewal Price $179.99/month $229.99/month $379.99/month $519.99/month
Storage 2 x 500GB 2 x 500GB 2 x 1TB 2 x 1TB
RAM 32GB 64GB 128GB 256GB
Global data centeres 2 2 2 2

With prices starting at $159.99/month, GoDaddy’s dedicated hosting plans are – as you’d expect – a considerable jump in price from its VPS hosting plans. The storage and RAM increase steadily across the four plans, with the DS-256 plan offering the most of each for $469.99/month.

Godaddy dedicated features and prices based on term length
Here is the price breakdown for a dedicated server.

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GoDaddy Pricing vs Competitor Pricing

So we’ve covered GoDaddy’s plans, and what you get for your money. But the big question is: how do GoDaddy’s prices stack up against its biggest competitors?

Promotional Price Comparison

Swipe right to see more
0 out of 0

GoDaddy

Bluehost

HostGator

InMotion

Overall rating
4.0
Overall rating
4.8
Overall rating
4.7
Overall rating
4.5
Starting from

$6.99

Starting from

$2.95

Starting from

$4.95

Starting from

$3.49

Starting from

$8.99

Starting from

$24.95

Starting from

$7.95

Starting from

$4.49

Starting from - VPS

$5.99

Starting from - VPS

$24.99

Starting from - VPS

$23.95

Starting from - VPS

$14.99

Starting from - Dedicated

$149.99

Starting from - Dedicated

$99.97

Starting from - Dedicated

$109.97

Starting from - Dedicated

$89.99

Money-back guarantee

48 hours to 30 days

Money-back guarantee

30 days

Money-back guarantee

45 days

Money-back guarantee

90 days

Visit GoDaddy Visit Bluehost Visit HostGator Visit InMotion

As you can see, GoDaddy sits somewhere in the middle when it comes to the promotional prices of its plans. Its shared and dedicated plans are on the more expensive side and it finds itself pipped to the post by Bluehost. But its VPS is head and shoulders above the rest. 

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Other GoDaddy Costs to Think About

When it comes to keeping your site online, the cost of hosting is really only half the story.

That’s where GoDaddy really comes into its own. Its hosting plans might not really excel in any one area, but the ability to tack extra virus protection, backups, and other security onto your plan can make it a really appealing option. It’s much easier – not to mention better value – to keep these things all under one virtual roof:

1. Windows

Price: Anywhere from an extra $5 – $60

An important aspect to consider with GoDaddy is that not all of its plans are compatible with Windows, and you may need to pay extra fees.  It’s reported that 1.4 billion people use a Windows device, so denying many users hosting or giving them extra fees because of it can be annoying.

Some plans like the VPS 1vCPU are only available on Linux, so ake sure you check thoroughly before comitting.

2. Website Security Packages

Price: $5.59/month – $23.99/month

With prices starting at just $5.59/month, GoDaddy’s security packages are a no-brainer. With the cheapest ‘Essential’ plan, you get a 12-hour response time to any issues, unlimited malware removal, and Google blacklist monitoring and removal. The pricier the plan, the more extras you’ll have included.

The best response time with a GoDaddy web security package is six hours. Bump yourself to the top of the list with ‘Express Malware Removal’, which guarantees you’ll speak to a security expert within 30 minutes of an issue being identified. At $299.99/year, it’s a pricey add-on – but for bigger businesses, it’s worth every cent.  

3. Website Backup Packages

Price: $2.99/month – $12.99/month

Smart people back up their websites – but the smartest people get someone else to do it for them.

Both the ‘Essential’ and ‘Ultimate’ backup plans include automatic daily backups, easy one-click restore, and expert 24/7 customer support, among other benefits. The only difference between the two plans is the amount of storage available; 5GB with the Essential plan, and 100GB with the Ultimate plan.

GoDaddy Hosting Cost: Conclusion

So now that we’ve walked you through the cost of GoDaddy’s various hosting plans, and seen how it stacks up against competitors, what’s the final verdict?

GoDaddy isn’t necessarily the provider you come to for the cheapest price. While its pricing is fairly competitive, especially when you look past the initial promotional prices, it’s rarely the cheapest provider available.

How Much Does GoDaddy Cost: Recap

  1. Shared hosting – from $6.99/month – $21.99/month
  2. WordPress hosting – from $11.99/month – $17.99/month
  3. Web Hosting Plus – from $21.99/month – $74.99/month
  4. VPS hosting – from $11.99/month – $59.99/month
  5. Dedicated hosting – from $159.99/month – $469.99

Within the five hosting categories that GoDaddy offers, plan prices clearly have a lot of range. The features and services included in each plan are also different and span a wide variety of needs.

So, who should consider hosting through GoDaddy?

GoDaddy’s selling point over other providers is the range of extra features and packages you can get alongside your hosting plan to keep your website healthy and protected. It’s easy, and it’s convenient – and ultimately, that’s worth paying a few extra dollars here and there.

GoDaddy logo

Has GoDaddy Caught Your Attention?

GoDaddy has an impressive range of extras for a hosting provider, meaning you don’t need to worry about not having certain features. Try it today and see for yourself!

FAQs

It depends! If you’re just after a simple shared hosting plan, you can pay $6.99/month. If you’re after a dedicated hosting plan, you’re looking at between $159.99/month and $469.99/month.
You can pay for your GoDaddy hosting monthly or annually. In fact, you can pay up to three years in advance! Bear in mind that the longer you commit, the more you’ll save.
Yep, it’s super easy. If you have your existing website files already, then simply upload them through the Hosting Control center or via an FTP client. If you don’t have these files yet, just request them from your current hosting provider. GoDaddy’s 24/7 support team is on hand to help at any point.
Written by:
I started writing about the wonderful world of the web more than three years ago, and haven’t looked back since. Put simply, there’s never been a more exciting time to get online. Having tested all of the best website builders and ecommerce platforms on the market, myself and the other writers at Website Builder Expert are in a great position to help you do just that. Why wait to get started?

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