This is an exciting time. Whether you already have a website and just want to improve your web hosting. Or you are eager to build your first website.
It all begins with the right foundation. In this case, that is choosing the best web hosting for your website.
If you are building a business with your website, then you are most likely using (or plan to use) WordPress to power your blog or website.
So which WordPress hosting should you choose?
Today, we are comparing GoDaddy and WP Engine.
As we cover each web hosting company, you will learn more about what they offer. This could help you determine which is right for you…GoDaddy vs WP Engine.
GoDaddy was founded back in 1997 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ. It’s one of the oldest website hosts, has over 7,000 employees around the world and serves over 18 million customers.
Let’s begin our GoDaddy vs WP Engine discussion with everything you need to know about GoDaddy. This hosting company offers a variety of products and options.
It’s possible to secure any needed domain extension. For example, you’ll have no issues getting a:
Shared hosting plans are available for small- to medium-sized projects. This means you’ll share a server with other GoDaddy customers. Shared hosting is an economical choice when you don’t need top-performing servers or top website speeds.
Other hosting products include:
Every GoDaddy hosting plan comes with the capability to add your own professional email account. A website builder is available, although it’s more likely you’ll choose to build your site with WordPress or any other well-established site builder.
Any GoDaddy vs WP Engine comparison would be incomplete without detailing what GoDaddy offers inside their four shared web hosting plans:
Economy: This is an excellent choice if you only need one domain and less than 100 GB of storage. One disadvantage is that SSL certificates are unavailable.
Deluxe: This is the same as the Economy plan except that you can host unlimited domains instead of only one.
Ultimate: This tier adds unlimited storage space and email accounts. It also provides a free SSL certificate and unlimited databases. This plan is recommended if using WordPress.
Maximum: The same as Ultimate with an additional GB of memory.
GoDaddy offers additional plans under WordPress Hosting and Managed WordPress Hosting.
Pros include:
GoDaddy is simple to use. It comes with an intuitive interface that works well for beginners to more advanced users.
The interface makes it easy to:
The cPanel section itself is fairly straightforward. You’ll see statistics on the left side where you can view storage, file usage, etc. The main window reveals everything else you need, such as:
GoDaddy also rates high on speed and uptime performance. Windows servers are offered and the storage limit of 250,000 files is plenty for the majority of website creators. GoDaddy doesn’t limit traffic bandwidth.
Cons include:
While the pricing is competitive, it’s not the cheapest available. Purchasing add-ons such as SSL certificates or backups increases their pricing.
You can’t back your site up unless you pay for the add-on. SSL is important for your website to have, so it’s surprising that GoDaddy doesn’t offer it on all plans. They don’t offer site migration services to make it easy to transfer in from another host.
GoDaddy is an excellent selection when you don’t want limits put on how much traffic your site can generate and when you need generous storage options.
Bloggers, affiliate marketers, e-commerce sites, course creators, network marketers, membership sites and coaches will all do well using GoDaddy hosting.
These businesses need reliable uptime and speed features. GoDaddy has no problem delivering on these key site metrics.
The only time you might feel a little limited with GoDaddy is if you’re an advanced developer needing server-side caching or staging areas.
Most tests reveal that GoDaddy’s uptime averages 99.97 percent. This is an excellent percentage and relates to the possibility of a site being down for less than three days during the year.
You won’t find any host with a 100% uptime score. It’s impossible to attain simply because certain technical issues are inevitable. GoDaddy ranks right up there with all top hosts.
Customer support is always a concern with hosting because you need to get help fast if there’s ever an issue with your website. GoDaddy offers many ways to get the help you need.
The knowledge center is the best place to check first when you need answers. Your problem has most likely happened to others. A quick look at the knowledge center might provide an easy fix. You’ll find answers to issues such as:
You’ll find articles on any issue you need. Their forum is also useful because you can get help from other informative and helpful users.
Here are your options when you need specific help from a GoDaddy customer service rep:
Let’s now transition our GoDaddy vs WP Engine comparison over to WP Engine.
Relatively speaking, WP Engine is a newer website-hosting option. They were founded in 2010 and have earned a solid reputation ever since. Jason Cohen started the company when he saw the rise in WordPress’ popularity and the need for a specialized WordPress-hosting option.
The company has over 400 employees, is headquartered in Austin, TX and has become a consistent contributor to the core WordPress community.
Just as its name implies, WP Engine provides you managed plans that are optimized to work with WordPress specifically.
WP Engine’s managed hosting makes it easy to operate a secure, optimized and fast-loading website. Getting started is simple because they offer easy migration over from your previous hosting company.
Free SSL certificate features are available and they offer staging site support. They also provide plenty of diagnostic options and performance tracking.
Their support team is highly responsive. You’ll have 24/7 help whether you want to communicate via live chat, email or phone. You’ll discover that your portal gives you easy access to any of these support options.
Their customer service agents are known to be helpful, knowledgeable and quick to respond.
Just like GoDaddy, WP Engine also has an extensive knowledge center where you’ll discover a wide variety of tutorials and well-written help docs.
Performance is the most important feature a website host can offer. WP Engine provides you plenty of performance-enhancing features, such as:
WP Engine-hosted sites have been shown to have competitive speeds when tested on Load Impact and Pingdom.
Most WP Engine sites achieve a consistent speed time of 1.6 seconds. While these aren’t the fastest possible website times, they are quite competitive, below the important 2-second mark and will perform well for the majority of businesses.
Your WP Engine site should also perform well no matter how many visitors are on it. This means that page load times remain consistent across all visitors. You want a host that provides fast-loading pages for all visitors when there’s only 15 people on your site or when there are 30,000 people on your site at the same time. WP Engine ranks well in this area.
There are five varied plans to choose from with WP Engine. Each one differs quite a bit from the others in terms of the number of sites you can operate and the resources offered. This is typically a good way to lay out tiered plans because you should be able to find one that matches your needs well.
Startup: The WP Engine entry-level plan provides one website, 50GB of bandwidth, up to 25,000 monthly visits and 10GB of storage. It also comes with an SSL certificate.
Growth: You’ll gain access to ten sites and up to 100,000 visits per month. You can import your own SSL certificates and gain access to 24/7 phone support.
Scale: Very similar to the Growth tier except that you can generate up to 400,000 monthly visits and gain access to 30 domains.
Premium & Enterprise: WP Engine allows you to completely customize your plan with these two options. They allow you to move from shared hosting over to dedicated servers and provide other extra support and resource features.
Pros
Cons
Similar to GoDaddy, this is an excellent option if you’re a:
The bottom line with our GoDaddy vs WP Engine comparison is that you can’t go wrong with either choice.
They’ll both provide you adequate features, top speed and uptime performance and quality customer service.
If you are a casual blogger or plan to have one website, then you may feel more comfortable with GoDaddy.
If you are interested in creating multiple WordPress websites, you may find that WP Engine offers more of the features you desire.
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