Last Update | January 2022
Monthly Update - January 2022
| Hosting Plans | Web Hosting; WordPress Hosting; VPS Hosting; Dedicated Hosting |
| Top Features | Easy-to-use control panel; 1-click install of over 150 free apps; 24/7 network security; Resources on-demand; Global data centers.1-click domain name setup. |
| Customer Support | Live Chat; Phone Support |
During January, GoDaddy:
- Announced Roger Chen as its new Chief Operating Officer.
- Announced that it will publish its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 earnings on the 10th of February, 2022.
- Announced that it will hold a Virtual Investor Day on the 11th of February, 2022.
- Launched a new service to easily sell unused domain names.
- Starboard now owns 6.5% stake in GoDaddy and it plans on strengthening GoDaddy’s profitability.
If you’re just getting into web hosting, and want to set up your website quickly and efficiently your options are quite varied. A lot of hosting providers out there will set your WordPress-based website in seconds, and give you access to cPanel so you can do whatever you want with them. However, a lot of newcomers do not really know how to use WordPress yet, and as such might be looking for a different kind of solution.
GoDaddy can potentially be the solution you are looking for. It offers 24/7 customer support, both Windows and Linux-based hosting servers, email that is integrated into Microsoft Applications, and they do indeed offer WordPress managed hosting. However, where they differ, assuming you select that option, is in their own website builder. This website builder allows you to create a website that looks great, runs fast, and feels fluid with ease, through a drag and drop type of builder that should be easy to understand by just about anyone.
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This means that just by clicking and dragging, you could potentially create the most beautiful website out there, without any prior programming knowledge, as it is not a requirement at all here. You even have the ability to create an online store, manage appointments, while also being able to manage your social media and email marketing needs all from a single location.
When it comes to SSL certificates, GoDaddy doesn’t really offer a free SSL certificate on the standard shared hosting plan, even though it is highly likely that they can do so. It does offer Free SSL Certificates on the WordPress plans however, even the cheapest variation of it does this. This is the case for the lifetime of the hosting plan itself, not a single annual plan like other hosting providers do. It would have been better if they offered, for example, Let’s Encrypt certificates for free across all of their hosting plans, even on the shared hosting plan, but still, something is better than nothing.
Do not let that offer discourage you from getting the Web Hosting plan, if that is all you essentially need, as it also has some goodies. In fact, you are getting a year’s subscription to Microsoft 365 for free, which is typically priced at $60. When it comes to the Free Office 365 mail through, keep in mind that it will only be free for a year, after which you will have to renew it.
Additionally, another optional paid service is the Website Backup automation service. Here, for only £1.99 per month, your data will be automatically backed up on a daily basis, and you can even restore it with a single click. Note that the backup service is free when you pick a WordPress hosting plan, yet another free thing you get alongside SSL Certificates when you pick it over the Shared Hosting Plan.
Then there’s GoDaddy’s InSight, which is a data-crunching smart tech that offers advice that is specifically tailored to your business.
To test all of this out, and see how well all of this works, I decided to make an account. I was surprised when I learned that you have a 1-month free trial. They also told me that if I enjoy it and want to continue updating and use my website after that, I’ll have to purchase a plan, but for the time being, I’ll just test out all of the features and functions I’m getting by default.
Let’s dive in.
Getting Started With GoDaddy
Before we set things up, you need to know what you can actually get yourself into.
First, you have Shared Web Hosting.
Next, you have Business Hosting.
Of course, you might want to use WordPress, so you also have WordPress Hosting.
Then you have eCommerce hosting
You can even get VPS Hosting if you need it.
You also have Dedicated Server Hosting.
That’s quite a lot, so let’s get started.
Getting started with GoDaddy can be actually surprisingly simple.
On the homepage, you can click on start for free to begin the entire process. You aren’t really required to even enter a credit card.
Now, by default, you’ll be greeted by the sign in screen, however, you need to click on the “Create an Account” button on the top.
Now here you need to enter your email, username, password and decide if you want to receive personalized offers, updates and information from GoDaddy. Finally, click on Create Account.
Next, you’ll need to select a few categories so they can recommend you custom themes.
Remember, you can write your own categories if you don’t see them in the recommendations.
Next, set the name of your website. Don’t worry, this can be changed later on.
After that is completed, you’ll be greeted by the website builder, and this is where the fun begins. That’s all there is to create an account, now it's time to set things up.
But before we dive into that, let’s take a look at the home screen and see exactly what makes it tick.
Setting Things Up at GoDaddy
Since most people signing up for GoDaddy are newcomers, I’ll try to explain it as much as possible.
On the top bar, under your website, you have “edit website”, “my photos”, “my business” and “create social post”.
As you go down the list, you have tips on how to get started, as well as stats as to how your business is performing.
On the very bottom, you also get tips as to how to grow.
These include:
- Connecting to Twitter
- Connecting to Instagram
- Using Nextdoor
- Connecting through using QR Codes
- Adding a blog to your website
- Updating your website
Now, you also have the marketing tab.
Here you’ll see tips such as posting on Facebook and Instagram, creating and scheduling email campaigns and creating your first blog post.
When you click on My Photos, you’ll be greeted by this screen.
Here you can add files, such as images, videos and documents.
The My Business Listing menu gives you the ability to keep your business info consistent as well as up to date.
The create a social post tab lets you be very creative.
You can always skip a template, where you’ll get this basic menu for the social post.
However, if you want to be creative, click on one of the template selections where you can fully customize them.
Here, you can change the image, text, graphics, shapes, color, background, and canvas size.
When it comes to building your website yourself, what I specifically love about it is the fact that you always have a desktop as well as a mobile view of how it all looks like.
It has this MacBook type of design with its Safari browser tab window, and it looks slick.
When you click on Edit Site, you’ll see quite a lot of options.
In green, you’ll find these plus signs with the add section button.
Here, you have:
- Recommended
- COVID-19 Response
- Content
- Introduction
- Photo Gallery
- About
- Menu / Price List
- Appointments & Services
- Online Store
- Calendar
- Video
- Livestream
- Audio
- Gift Card
- PayPal Button
- Files
- PDF Viewer
- HTML
- Logos & Badges
- Subscribe
- Social
- Social Feed
- Contact Us
- Reservations
- Featured Categories
- Privacy Policy
- Reviews
Aside from adding all of these tiles, if you notice on the right side, you have a few other options for the tiles that are added.
The up and down arrows essentially move that tile or block over or under specific content that is interconnected with it.
The “Layout” tab allows you to change the theme.
This includes the main theme itself, as well as color, fonts and buttons.
The last tab allows you to duplicate a section, move a section or delete a section.
Now, this allows you to customize just about anything, and you can really get lost for hours getting everything just right, or just the way you want it to be.
Last but not least you have the stings tab, which will essentially show the status of your domain, as well as the site profile.
In the site profile tab, you have:
Basic Information
Social Media Links
Favicon
Search Engine Optimization
Keep in mind that they have their own built-in SEO tool.
Site History
Here, you can create a backup.
Then you have the analytics and tracking tab, where you have access to:
Cookie Banner
Google Analytics
Facebook Pixel
Facebook Meta Tag
Pinterest Meta Tag
Google AdSense
Level of Support at GoDaddy
When it comes to the level of support that you will find at GoDaddy, you have 24/7 live chat support, as well as phone support.
Click on Contact Us, and find the “Chat Now” button to start communication with the company.
Now, they will ask for your name.
If you are a customer, you can get your customer ID number ready, this is located on the top right corner of the screen if you are logged in.
Let’s click on tech support to see what are the most common types of issues and requests.
Let me pretend I'm new, and that I want to just change my domain name to thatblogguy.com.
Here’s how that went.
Now, think of this test from the perspective of an extreme newcomer, I just want to see how friendly they are.
I was essentially informed that if I purchase an annual plan, I get a free domain name, which came in handy. The support staff overall was friendly and knowledgeable, and I did indeed get the information I was seeking quickly and efficiently.
I’m sure that you can ask them and get assistance with just about anything, and even if you miss the category initially, you will likely be transferred to the correct department anyway.
Security and Backups
GoDaddy provides specialized paid services, including SSL Certificate, Managed SSL Service, Website Security, and Website Backup.
More precisely, three different plans provide for DV, OV, and EV SSL certificates with unlimited 24/7 award-winning customer support. The plans come with a secure site Trustmark, strong SHA-2 and 2048-bit encryption, unlimited servers, and reissues.
You can choose to protect one website, multiple websites, or all domains with an SSL. They are valid for one year and come with 30-day, risk-free, money-back guarantee.
The Managed SSL Service allows for one DV SSL certificate, automated installation, and ongoing maintenance. It’s compatible with WordPress and Web Hosting on GoDaddy hosting platforms. You can choose to secure one website, five websites, or one website and up to 10 subdomains, all of which are available for up to five years.
When it comes to Website Security, you can go for a Standard, Advanced, or Premium comprehensive and simplified security solution. With this feature, you can get a Firewall with an SSL, DDoS protection, and Content Delivery Network (CDN) speed boost, Malware scanning, Unlimited site cleanups, Prioritized cleanup and repair, and up to 200 GB of secure backup.
As mentioned before, GoDaddy Hosting comes with paid backups. All Website Backup plans come with automatic daily backups, scheduled or on-demand backups, and easy one-click restores. You can also benefit from built-in daily malware scanning, continuous security monitoring, secure cloud storage, file, folder, or entire database backups, downloads to local storage, and expert 24/7 customer support.
Specific Features of GoDaddy
While using the website itself, you have probably realized that it isn’t just any hosting provider, but promises both website and marketing.
The GoDaddy Websites + Marketing is this all-in-one solution intended to help the users empower any of their ideas.
It essentially tracks views, reviews, and overall revenue from your website. This is in the scope over the last 7 to 30 days, dependent on your preferences. These will in turn help you stay informed about the progress as well as the overall “health” of your website. It also provides you with useful tips and tricks as to how to grow your website, which is always nice.
Another notable thing about GoDaddy is their How-To section, where you have guides for different things, such as planning your online presence, domains, building your websites, and much more. What I found great about them is that they are all pre-recorded, and you can watch them whenever you want to, how many times you want to. This allows anyone, no matter their learning style or speed, to get a grasp of everything, and that is wonderful.
Another specific built-in feature that I love in the store.
You see, unlike other providers, GoDaddy doesn’t really rely on third parties for their eCommerce setup. Don’t get me wrong, you can always set up a WordPress website using GoDaddy and get WooCommerce on there if that is your preference, or set up a VPS and just install Magento for example, however, GoDaddy has their own built-in store as well.
From the very second, you visit it, you’ll be greeted by a video tutorial, showcasing exactly how you can quickly set up your store. The video is three minutes long and it will teach you just about everything you need to know, it’s that simple.
Here, you will have features such as adding a product, accepting credit cards, shipping delivery and pickup options, and storefront.
You can even enable cart recovery, which will send automatic emails to your customers to remind them to check out.
Adding a product is quite intuitive, and I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw it.
You can add an image, or video URL, select if the product type is physical or digital, add a name, price, sale price, tax category, visibility, SKU, and category.
You can then add the description info, inventory, and options, shipping, and search engines.
Another unique feature of GoDaddy is the appointments setup screen, where you can add a service, add business hours, custom reminders, and online payments.
Next, you even have the connections tab, which makes it a bit easier for you to learn about your audience and what they do online. You get access to lists, where you can track, manage and engage with multiple contacts at the same time, as well as take advantage of smart filters.
Performance Speed and Uptime
Throughout my testing, after publishing the website, I saw no downtime at all, however, keep in mind that they advertise 99% uptime, so that is to be expected.
The surprising fact about all of this was the fact that, even with all of those customization options selected, I saw a response time between 700 and 400 ms, with an average of 550.
Monthly Updates
During December, GoDaddy:
- Resolved an incident concerning performance issues on GoDaddy.com.
- Experienced performance issues with its domain services.
- The security breach that GoDaddy experienced spread to six other web hosts.
During November, GoDaddy:
- Joined Pagely to make improvements for WordPress
- Celebrated Facebook’s BuyBlack Fridays
- Reported its earnings for the third quarter of 2021
During October, GoDaddy:
- Experienced performance issues with its domains services
During September, GoDaddy:
- Launched two new point-of-sale (POS) devices, a countertop Smart Terminal and a mobile Card Reader
- Hosted the GoDaddyOpen2021 event
During August, GoDaddy:
- Its ‘My Account’ services were affected
- Launched a social media content planning tool for SMBs
During July, GoDaddy:
- Had a brief disruption in its hosting servers
- Launched a new service, List for Sale
- Expanded Google integration and Smart Shopping campaigns
- GoDaddy's Venture Forward Initiative partnered with UCLA Anderson Forecast
During June, GoDaddy:
- Venture Forward partnered up with Mastercard's City Possible program
- Introduced a new payment processing platform
During May, GoDaddy:
- Didn’t issue any new features or updates
- Didn’t report any server incidents
Summary
GoDaddy offers just about any type of hosting you or your business will ever need, and it does so at quite a competitive price point. Keep in mind that if you want to transfer a website, you’ll have to pay for each individual website if you are moving from a different hosting provider. Now, This is why I would only recommend GoDaddy for people who are just starting out. This is mainly due to the fact that it genuinely has some of the best, most fluent, and simple user interface I’ve seen to date and offers a lot of features from the very start, so you will not really have to mess around and manually need to install anything if you do not want to.
From SEO to Store functionality, everything is included. One of the most unique aspects of this hosting provider however is its website builder. It all works through this +/-, drag and drop, click on “Add” type of builder, where you can essentially reposition everything just the way you like it.
It’s smooth, works great, and most importantly of all, it allows you to build your website in minutes and make it look like it took months to develop, which is quite powerful and impressive.
With access to over 130 apps such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and so on, you should have no issues customizing it, even if you decide to opt-out of their native builder and tools.
The InSight feature is also nice to have, as it’s an easy way to review all of your analytics, but most importantly, it tells new users how to actually start growing their website and business.
