GreenGeeks vs GoDaddy – Our Surprising Results 2024

While GoDaddy maintains its popularity by advertising and marketing, GreenGeeks invests in developing its infrastructure.

When I tested both hosts across multiple parameters, I found that GreenGeeks offers affordable premium hosting solutions with more features than GoDaddy.

Click here to see GreenGeeks’ latest deals1 or keep reading to find out what makes GreenGeeks the winner of this comparison.

1. Plans and Pricing

GoDaddy Has More WordPress Hosting Plans, but GreenGeeks is Better Value for Money

At first look, you’ll notice that GoDaddy has more WordPress plans (eight plans divided into Standard and Pro) than GreenGeeks with three managed WordPress packages. But more doesn’t mean better in this GreenGeeks vs GoDaddy comparison.

For example, you get the same resource allocations with GreenGeeks’ smallest WordPress plan (Lite) as you do with GoDaddy’s Ultimate package, which is six times more expensive. The resource allocations include one hosted website, unlimited storage, and essential freebies like free SSL and a free domain.

With GoDaddy, you get a 48-hour or 30-day money-back guarantee (depending on your subscription period), whereas GreenGeeks offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Migrating your website is free of charge with GreenGeeks, while GoDaddy only offers free site migration with its fully managed WordPress hosting packages (Pro).

It’s also worth mentioning that GreenGeeks charges the same prices for its shared and WordPress hosting packages. In contrast, GoDaddy’s WordPress plans are more expensive than its shared offerings.

In sum, GreenGeeks is much better value for money than GoDaddy, making it the winner of the pricing round.

2. Features

Both Offer Feature-Packed WordPress Hosting Plans, but GreenGeeks Has a Few Tricks Up Its Sleeves

Whether you choose GreenGeeks or GoDaddy, you’ll enjoy a boatload of WordPress hosting features. The question is, which one has better resource allocations and more value-added features? The answer is GreenGeeks.

GreenGeeks offers unlimited SSD storage with all its WordPress hosting plans, while GoDaddy doesn’t use SSD with WordPress hosting, and the disk space ranges between 30 GB and 200 GB.

You can host from 1 to unlimited WordPress sites with GreenGeeks, but only up to 50 websites with GoDaddy.

Both hosts provide daily backups and a free CDN, but GreenGeeks also offers a free SSL certificate with all plans. You’ll only get a free SSL certificate with the higher-value Standard plans and Pro packages from GoDaddy.

See the following side-by-side table to compare GreenGeeks and GoDaddy further:

Even though both hosts offer feature-loaded WordPress hosting packages, GreenGeeks has better resource allocations than GoDaddy. The winner here is GreenGeeks.

3. Performance

GreenGeeks Has Fewer Downtimes and Slightly Faster Loading Speeds

GreenGeeks has servers in the U.S.A., Canada, and the Netherlands, while GoDaddy has servers in the U.S.A. and India. In other words, GreenGeeks operates more server locations, but GoDaddy has a more spread-out network of servers.

While GreenGeeks uses SSD storage with all its hosting services, GoDaddy only uses SSD storage with some plans. SSD performs much faster than regular HDD storage to process your website’s data and improve its speed.

GreenGeeks also includes a CDN (Content Delivery Network) with all its services, while GoDaddy only includes it with its WordPress hosting plans. A CDN places your website on a global network of cloud servers, which boosts your website’s loading speeds from different locations around the world.

Both hosts promise a 99.9% uptime guarantee. GoDaddy’s users reported some downtimes, while GreenGeeks showed a perfect actual uptime.

When testing the page loading speeds of these two hosts, GreenGeeks showed impressive loading times in most locations except for in the U.S. On the other hand, GoDaddy showed slower speeds near Asia.

You can see the test results for GreenGeeks in this detailed review and compare it to the results of GoDaddy.

GreenGeeks outperformed GoDaddy by a skinny margin making it the winner of the performance round.

4. Security

Both Hosts Provide Limited Security Features

GreenGeeks and GoDaddy both secure servers with DDoS protection and 24/7 active server monitoring.

GreenGeeks applies container technology and account isolation software to protect each account on a server from unwanted external threats targeting others. GoDaddy implements this through CloudLinux OS.

Both hosts provide spam protection, malware scanning, and automatic app and security updates, together with daily backups of your website data.

It’s a tie. Both GreenGeeks and GoDaddy offer a limited range of security features, but enough to keep your website secure.

5. Support

GreenGeeks Has More Responsive Support Channels

While GreenGeeks and GoDaddy both have informative websites, GreenGeeks’ knowledgebase is better organized and easier to navigate.

The GreenGeeks customer support is available through live chat, phone, and email. There’s also a support ticket option, but only for technical issues. All channels are available 24/7 except for the phone support, which is open Mon-Sun: 9 am – 12 am EST.

I tested the live chat more than once with several questions each time. As promised, the response was instant, and the representative was very knowledgeable.

In contrast, you can contact GoDaddy’s customer support through live chat and phone. There are local phone numbers for more than 20 countries around the world.

Unfortunately, the live chat isn’t always available despite GoDaddy promoting a 24/7 availability. Even when live chat is available, it can sometimes take up to 50 minutes to get connected to a representative, and they aren’t always helpful when it comes to a technical query.

GreenGeeks emerges as the winner. Obtaining assistance from GreenGeeks proves to be notably easier compared to GoDaddy. GreenGeeks boasts a better-organized website and a customer support team that demonstrates higher responsiveness.

GreenGeeks Defeated GoDaddy in Almost Every Category

Although GoDaddy is more popular than GreenGeeks, it lagged in four out of five categories due to its limited resource allocations for WordPress hosting, slow support, and frequent downtimes.

It comes as no surprise that GreenGeeks is listed among the best web hosting services in the market today. Compared to GoDaddy, GreenGeeks offers hard-to-beat prices, feature-rich packages, more freebies than you need, better support, and better performance.

FAQ

Is GreenGeeks better than GoDaddy?

Yes, it is. While both GoDaddy and GreenGeeks are very good options for beginners, professionals, and small to medium-sized businesses, you get more resources and free extras with GreenGeeks at a cheaper rate. GreenGeeks also has faster page loading speeds and more responsive customer support.

GreenGeeks is featured in our expert list of the top 10 web hosting services.

Does GoDaddy use SSD?

GoDaddy only uses SSD with VPS and dedicated server packages. With GoDaddy for VPS, you get from 20 GB to 400 GB SSD storage. If you want more SSD hosting options, take a look at these best cheap and fast SSD hosting services.

Does GreenGeeks offer a free domain?

Yes. GreenGeeks offers a free domain name with its shared and application hosting (WordPress, WooCommerce, etc.) packages for the first year with annual subscriptions. Not sure which domain name is right for you? Don’t miss this ultimate guide to choosing a domain name.

Does GoDaddy offer VPS hosting?

Yes. GoDaddy offers a total of eight VPS hosting packages divided into Standard RAM and High RAM. The RAM across all packages ranges from 1 GB to 32 GB. GoDaddy isn’t quite right for you? Explore these cheap and reliable VPS hosting services.