Bluehost vs GoDaddy (2020 Face-Off!)

Reviews Startups & Tech

TLDR: When comparing Bluehost vs GoDaddy, most experts believe Bluehost is a far better option. I strongly agree.

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If you’re looking for a cheap, reliable web host Bluehost and GoDaddy are two of the most popular choices.

To help you choose, I analyzed 30 expert reviews and conducted my own comparison of the two hosting services.

Bluehost vs GoDaddy: What 30 Experts Say

To save you spending hours reading reviews, I rounded up the top 30 Bluehost vs GoDaddy reviews from Google.

Here’s what the Top 10 reviewers think:

#WebsiteWinner
1ShivarWeb.comToss-Up
2MakeAWebsiteHub.comBluehost
3Digital.comGoDaddy
4HostingAdvice.comBluehost
5Hosting.reviewBluehost
6HostingPill.comToss-Up
7WebHostingCat.comBluehost
8HostAdvice.comBluehost
9WebsiteBuilderExpert.comToss-Up
10FitSmallBusiness.comBluehost

In total, out of the top 30 reviews of Bluehost vs GoDaddy, 21 recommend Bluehost, 5 recommend GoDaddy, and 5 are toss-ups.

While experts tended to conclude that GoDaddy was marginally cheaper (you might save $1 per month), Bluehost had far better customer service, reliability, and ease of use.

Clearly, most experts prefer Bluehost. If that’s enough for you and you’re ready to sign up, click here for Bluehost’s current promo rates.

If you want do dive into the nitty gritty, keep reading!

Speed & Performance – Winner: Bluehost

Bluehost and GoDaddy both promise excellent server speed. But do they deliver?

I set up test sites on both hosts and checked server response times from both the East Coast and West Coast to compare Bluehost vs GoDaddy in terms of speed.

On average, Bluehost responded in 13 milliseconds from the East Coast and 11 milliseconds from the West Coast, while GoDaddy took an average of 27 milliseconds from the East Coast and 54 milliseconds from the West Coast.

While both of these response times are fast, Bluehost’s response time was clearly much faster. Winner: Bluehost.

Customer Support – Winner: Bluehost

I’ve used both Bluehost and GoDaddy in the past, so I already had some experience with their customer service, but I wanted to give a fair comparison so I put both Bluehost and GoDaddy through the ringer here.

Availability: Bluehost is available 24/7/365 via both phone and chat. GoDaddy’s hosting support is available 24/7 by phone, but chat support is limited and often so busy they won’t even let you wait in line.

Bluehost vs GoDaddy - GoDaddy's chat support was often so busy they wouldn't let you wait in line for it.
GoDaddy’s chat support was often so busy they wouldn’t even let you wait in line for it. I took this screenshot at 12:35 p.m. EST on a Tuesday.

Wait Times: I waited for chat support at 21 random times over 7 days. On average, I waited less than 1 minute for Bluehost and over 17 minutes for GoDaddy.

Helpfulness: To gauge helpfulness, I deliberately misconfigured my DNS and asked both Bluehost and GoDaddy support professionals to help resolve the issue. Bluehost support reps were able to identify and fix the issue 100% of the time in an average of just under 5 minutes. While most GoDaddy reps could identify and fix the issue, 1 rep failed entirely and the reps who did succeed took an average of 13 minutes to do so, often needing to transfer me to another rep or ask somebody else for help.

Winner: Bluehost by a huge margin!

Reliability & Uptime – Winner: Bluehost

If you’re paying for hosting, you clearly want it to be reliable.

I tested both Bluehost and GoDaddy to see if they delivered on their guarantee of 99.9% uptime.

After monitoring for 30 days, Bluehost was up for 99.99% of the time, while GoDaddy was up for 99.97% of the time.

That might seem like a trivial difference, but it means that over the course of 1 month, my GoDaddy website was down for almost 13 hours, while my Bluehost website was down for less than 5.

Bluehost’s outages also tended to be shorter and much later at night.

Winner: Bluehost

Ease of Use – Winner: Bluehost

In my opinion, ease of use is where Bluehost truly shines.

GoDaddy’s admin panel felt like a constant barrage of pop-ups, menu trees, and circular references to help pages. Moreover, GoDaddy constantly tries to upsell you on more expensive services:

GoDaddy constantly tries to upsell you with offers, “deals”, and pop-ups.

In contrast, , Bluehost felt clean and easy to use. Bluehost offers 1-click installations for hundreds of popular tools like WordPress.

Bluehost vs GoDaddy - Bluehost's cPanel lets you install WordPress with 1 click.
Bluehost’s cPanel lets you install WordPress with 1 click.

Winner: Bluehost clearly has the edge here.

Pricing – Winner: Toss-Up

Both GoDaddy and Bluehost offer a range of hosting plans, and both often run promotions.

Here are Bluehost’s current deals:

GoDaddy vs Bluehost - Bluehost's deals as of publication.
Bluehost’s deals as of the time of publication.

And here are GoDaddy’s latest deals:

GoDaddy vs Bluehost - GoDaddy's deals as of publication.
GoDaddy’s deals as of the time of publication.

These prices are close enough that I’m going to call this a toss-up, though clearly at the low-end Bluehost is a bit cheaper.

Winner: Toss-Up; both Bluehost and GoDaddy offer good prices.

Money Back Guarantee – Winner: Bluehost

If you’re still not sure which hosting solution is right for you after the Bluehost vs GoDaddy comparison, it may be helpful to kick the tires a bit.

Bluehost offers a no-questions-asked 30-Day Hosting Money-back Guarantee. If you’re not totally satisfied, simply cancel and get your money back.

In contrast, GoDaddy has complex refund policy, and users report that GoDaddy customer service is often resistant to granting refunds.

Winner: Bluehost

Conclusion: Bluehost vs GoDaddy

After a comprehensive comparison of Bluehost vs GoDaddy, the winner is clear.

Most experts recommend Bluehost, and based on my research I agree.

If you’re ready to take the plunge and sign up, get the best promotional rate by clicking here.