Inside this Article
1. Plans and Pricing
GoDaddy Offers Value for Money, Name.com Delivers a Beginner-Friendly All-in-One Solution
Being primarily a domain registrar, Name.com offers several domains (especially TLDs) at slightly lower rates than GoDaddy. But it offers limited hosting plans with monthly prices that are slightly higher than GoDaddy’s. While Name.com’s yearly terms’ pricing may appear more attractive, the features and resources you get are far better with GoDaddy. GoDaddy Hosting Web Hosting
Plan NameStorageBandwidthFree SSLNumber of SitesPrice
More detailsA free domain name is included with some hosting plans from GoDaddy Hosting
2. Features
A Tough Battle That GoDaddy Wins
When you compare GoDaddy and Name.com for hosting plans, you’ll get an extensive variety of shared and WordPress hosting, email hosting, reseller hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers from GoDaddy. In contrast, Name.com offers just three beginner-friendly hosting plans. Name.com hosting plans offer a free domain with the annual term, free Encryption Everywhere SSL certificate, 400+ pre-installed scripts, and automatic backups. With GoDaddy’s Linux shared hosting, you’ll get a free domain with the annual plan, 1-click installer for 125+ free applications, automatic backups, conditional free SSL certificate (with the highest plan), and free Office 365 email (for the first year). GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting plans come with a CDN, a drag-and-drop page editor, and website backup protection with 1-click restore. Check out this head-to-head feature comparison table:GoDaddy | Name.com | |
Hosting Types | Shared hosting (Linux and Windows), WordPress hosting, email hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers | Shared hosting |
Free Domain | ✓ | ✓ |
Free SSL Certificate | ✓(only with the highest plan) | ✓ |
Disk Space | 30GB-unlimited | 10GB-unlimited |
Bandwidth | Unmetered | 100GB-unlimited |
Automatic Backups | ✓ | ✓ |
Control Panel | cPanel | cPanel |
Free CDN | ✓(with WordPress hosting) | × |
Free Site Migration | ✓ | × |
Money-Back Guarantee | ✓ | ✓ |
3. Performance
GoDaddy Wins with 99.9%+ Uptime, Load-Balanced servers, and CDN
Name.com refuses to disclose its server location. This makes it difficult to know your website loading speed for your customers’ location. Though it was a bit difficult to find, I was able to get GoDaddy’s datacenter locations in Europe, the US, and Asia. With GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting plans, you’ll get load-balanced servers and a CDN for enhanced performance and security.
Though both companies offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, Name.com performed poorly in our speed tests. To know what went wrong, check our expert Name.com review.
GoDaddy did well in our performance tests though by consistently maintaining 99.9%+ uptime over the past 12 months. You can get more details in our expert GoDaddy review.
4. Security
GoDaddy’s Multiple Security Features Make It the Winner
You’ll get comprehensive security with GoDaddy. From free and managed SSL certificates, daily malware scans, Cage FS, and data backups to paid website security plans (with brand reputation monitoring, advanced DDoS mitigation, Google blacklist monitoring and removal, etc.), you’ll get them all and more from GoDaddy. Aside from spam protection, Name.com doesn’t provide many security options beyond free and paid SSL certificates from leading providers like Comodo and RapidSSL, as well as paid SiteLock plans. With its multiple security features, GoDaddy is this round’s winner.5. Support
GoDaddy’s Support Is Erratic, Name.com’s Is Questionable
You can reach GoDaddy’s 24/7 customer support via live chat and phone. However, this could often be unpredictable as was the case with our expert reviewer. However, GoDaddy does well with its self-help options, thanks to its community forums and extensive knowledge base with articles and video tutorials. You can reach Name.com’s customer support through 24/7 email, live chat (8 am to 6 pm, Mountain Time weekdays and 10 am to 5 pm, MT weekends), phone (10 am to 5 pm, MT weekdays), and social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter). If you live outside the North American time zone, our reviewer has observed that you might encounter slower support. Reviews of Name.com hosting on different platforms have also mentioned similar problems. Nevertheless, Name.com offers a comprehensive knowledgebase containing tutorials, how-to articles, and help documents, which can be quite helpful. With its slightly better support, GoDaddy outshines Name.com in this round.GoDaddy Is the Clear Winner
Thanks to its wider range of plans with better features and security coupled with consistent and reliable uptime, GoDaddy is the clear winner in this competition. However, Name.com could still be a better choice, especially if you’re a beginner looking to host a single-page portfolio site or a simple website where the loading speed doesn’t matter much. Before you arrive at a final decision, I would like to tell you that neither of these hosts made it to our top 10 list. To find the ones that did, take a look at our list of the best web hosting services.Comparison Table
GoDaddy
Name.com
Plans and Pricing
Competitively priced starting plans
Competitively priced plans though they cost slightly more than GoDaddy’s
Key Features
Free domain with annual term, conditional free SSL, 1-click installer for 125+ free applications, and automatic backups; CDN, drop-and-drag page editor, and website backup protection with 1-click restore for WordPress plans
Free domain with annual term, free Encryption Everywhere SSL certificate, 400+ pre-installed scripts, and automatic backups
Performance
99.9% uptime guarantee though it consistently outperforms
99.9% uptime guarantee
Security
Free and managed SSL certificates, daily malware scans, Cage FS, data backups, and paid website security plans
Spam protection, free and paid SSL certificates, and paid SiteLock plans
Support
24/7 live chat and phone support; extensive knowledgebase and community forums for self-support
24/7 email plus live chat and phone support; knowledgebase for self-support with tutorials, how-to articles, and help documents