In the recent past, GoDaddy has been the center of controversy, and there were reasons for it. Firstly the company has faced a lot of criticism for showing sexual themed advertisements to endorse its services. Back in 2011, GoDaddy stood by SOPA and supported it, it was a major indication that they are against free speech and internet freedom of the customers. But before we get into the comparison of the web hosting services between HostGator and GoDaddy, lets clear the air about what hosting actually is.

What is Web Hosting?

Web Hosting is a service offered by some companies which allow customers to set up their website and have internet connection as well. The website is listed on the internet, and a particular space is allotted in the servers.  If a single business starts hosting their own website, it has to be done using the same process, but the costs will be much higher. A web hosting company provides service to multiple companies giving them faster internet connectivity by sharing the amount.

HostGator or GoDaddy – Which is better?

Before choosing a company, a thorough market research needs to be done to analyze the available options. The company to be chosen needs to provide superior services, which meets the needs of the website.

So in order to help the customers in picking up the right web hosting service, we have done a comparison between HostGator and GoDaddy, on the basis of various criteria such as performance, price etc.

• Performance: Both GoDaddy and HostGator deliver a superior 99.99% uptime every month. The operating system used by HostGator is Linux x86 CentOS, and its servers are powered by Dual Xeon E5520, which is a 2.26 GHz Quad Core processor. On the other hand, GoDaddy gives its clients the option of choosing either Windows or Linux, before completing the sign up process. GoDaddy’s servers use Core i7 processors by Intel. Recently, there has been an uproar about GoDaddy’s uptime, which compelled many clients to stop using their service altogether. According to experts, GoDaddy still gives superlative domain registering services but its hosting services are not that good.

          Verdict: HostGator offers high end performance and is faster than most hosting companies.

• The various Plans & Prices: There is not much difference between the price structures of these two hosting services. HostGator offers three different plans – Business Plan, Hatching Plan and Baby Plan. HostGator’s Baby plan gives unlimited domains, while HostGator hatching has limited allowance of only one domain. The names of the GoDaddy plans are GoDaddy Economy, GoDaddy Deluxe and GoDaddy Unlimited. The deluxe as well as the unlimited plans both feature unlimited domains and practically limitless Disk Space, whereas GoDaddy’s Economy plan provides one domain and a Disk Space of 100 GB.

          Verdict: HostGator offers superior hosting services in a very affordable rate.

• The Control Panel: Popular for its easy usage and simple features, cPanel is the control panel used by most people. Cpanel is used by HostGator as well. But GoDaddy again leaves the choice to the customer, as they can choose either cPanel or Plesk.

         Verdict:  HostGator edges past GoDaddy, as they use cPanel, which is far more beneficial to the customers.

• Uptime Report: After comparing HostGator & GoDaddy, results show that the former had an uptime of 99.99%, while that of the later was below 98%, which is below par.

         Verdict: With 99.99% uptime, HostGator is clearly the winner here.

• The Customer Assistance: HostGator has a very strong customer service team which provides round the clock assistance via email, chatting service and an efficient ticketing system. They look into customer matters very seriously and respond in a timely manner. Queries are answered in live chats within a minute. GoDaddy has a toll free number, which can be called for product related support. Due to the absence of various other support systems like ticketing, Email etc, GoDaddy lags behind in terms of support and assistance. The Live Chat element is also not fully functional at times and the operation is country specific.

       Verdict:  With the 24×7 live chat and superb ticketing system, HostGator wins the battle when it comes to customer support.

Conclusion

HostGator & its competitor GoDaddy both have similar services to offer, but HostGator is better than GoDaddy in terms of Customer support, exceptional uptime and reliable performance.