How to Choose Between Godaddy and WordPress Hosting – A Quick Comparison
Looking for a free domain name and hosting for your website or blog? You’ve probably heard of GoDaddy, the largest domain name registrar in the world. And if you’re looking for a free web host, you might have heard of WordPress. Both are respectable companies with good reputations and lots of features, but which one should you pick for your needs? Let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of each.
GoDaddy
If you’re looking for a versatile, feature-laden web hosting service with a good reputation and many advantages, GoDaddy is the company you need to look into. It offers a one-click install for WordPress, the most popular content management system in the world, and it also offers Fantastico, which lets you to install an unlimited number of applications, including blogging tools like WordPress or BuddyPress. You’ll also find all the usual suspects like email, FTP, and shared hosting that you’d find with any other hosting provider. What’s not to like?
One of GoDaddy’s biggest selling points is the large number of third-party applications and tools that they offer. OneWebTech, for example, makes it easy to set up a fully optimized blog or website in no time at all. And then there’s Hover, which helps you to create beautiful online stores without any previous design skills.
On the downside, you need to enter the company’s proprietary dashboard to manage your account, so you’re not exactly interacting with a customer service agent whenever you need to. Also, they don’t offer any reseller plans, so the price is pretty much what you’d pay for regular shared hosting.
WordPress
WordPress is a free and open-source content management system that’s packed full of features. It was created to be simple to use yet powerful enough for the average professional. Since WordPress is mostly ad-free, it doesn’t charge you for the use of its services, but rather takes a cut when other companies display ads on their sites. This is great for people looking for a free solution, as you’re not going to be bombarded with annoying ads when you use WordPress. If you’re looking for a solution with a good reputation, WordPress is the clear choice. It’s also super easy to set up a WordPress website and start blogging immediately. There’s no complex requirements other than the need for a working web server, a free domain name, and access to PHP, which you’d expect from any standard web host.
One of the biggest selling points of WordPress is how easy it is to find help when you need it. If you’re new to the platform, you’ll find tons of online tutorials that can help you to get started, and even the most complex of tasks can be resolved with one phone call to the WordPress support team. And what’s more, the team is available 24/7 via phone, email, or live chat, so if you have a pressing issue, you can get it resolved immediately.
The Advantage Of A Free Host
Anyone who’s been in the online marketing field for any length of time knows that online marketing is a crowded space. There are lots of companies competing for your attention, and trying to attract new business clients is difficult. When you have a WordPress account, you can put yourself in touch with a potential audience that’s already searching for the products and services you offer, and you can use online marketing to grow your business, regardless of whether you sell clothes, jewelry, or tech accessories. What’s more, free hosting is almost always a plus in the competitive online world.
Whether or not you decide to go with GoDaddy for your domain name and hosting needs, the advantages of a free solution are too good to pass up. The main thing to keep in mind is that you should only use free hosting for temporary needs. In the long term, you’re better off paying for a premium account and getting all the advantages that come with it.
Limitations Of A Free Host
While the advantages of a free host are numerous, there are also some significant limitations that you need to be aware of. First off, free hosts are generally pretty limited in the resources they offer, so if you plan to do any significant amount of programming, you might encounter frustrating time limits. For example, Bluehost, one of the most popular free hosts, allows you to create only up to three sites with a free account. So if you want to launch a major blog or website, you’ll have to move to a premium plan.
Another significant limitation of free hosts is that they don’t offer the same level of customer service that you’d receive from a large hosting company. Most free hosts are owned by publicly-traded companies that are legally required to provide high standards of service, so while you’re free to ask questions when you need help, your overall experience will be somewhat limited. In some cases, you may not even get a response, as there may be a time limit on how much customer service they can provide.
Which One Is Better For You?
Both GoDaddy and WordPress are reputable companies with lots to offer. And on the surface, they appear to be a match made in heaven, as they both offer features-packed solutions for bloggers and content creators. With so much in common, it would seem natural that you’d use both of them, but that’s not necessarily the case. For some, the limitations of one or the other may be significant enough to rule them out as a hosting option.
Let’s consider the basics with each, starting with GoDaddy. What would you expect from a company called GoDaddy? Aside from the obvious, you’d probably expect security, speed, and reliability. And though GoDaddy does have a good reputation in these areas, we need to point out that shared hosting isn’t intended for high-traffic sites, so it’s not exactly the best choice for websites that need to gain popularity. If you’re looking for a solution that can handle high traffic, consider the extra features that a premium account offers.
How Does WordPress Fit The Niche?
If you’re looking for a free solution that can handle the heavy lifting for your blog or website, you might want to consider WordPress. If you’re new to the platform, it can be a little overwhelming trying to set it up manually, so let’s look at how to do it easily. First off, you’ll need a free domain name. If you already have a domain name that you want to use, you can skip ahead to step two.
To start, you simply need to visit the WordPress website and click on the Get Started button. You’ll then be taken to the registration form where you can enter your desired information. Make sure to include a secure password, as this is how you’ll be accessing your WordPress site. You’ll also need to specify the email address of a contact person. This will be the address that we notify you of any updates to your WordPress site.
Setting Up WordPress As An Admin
WordPress is pretty self-explanatory when you first visit the website. Simply click on the Get Started button, and you’ll be brought to the WordPress dashboard, where you can manage all the settings for your site. The great thing about this is that you don’t need to have any previous experience to get started. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to get the most out of WordPress.
From the dashboard, you can click on the Settings icon (it looks like a gear icon) to access the Settings panel. Here you can find all the options for WordPress, including the ability to change the dashboard layout, the header, and the footer. To make things slightly easier, there’s also the Customizer, which allows you to edit the contents of your website without needing to access the main Settings panel. This is great if you want to make some small changes to the look of your site but don’t want to delve into the Settings panel. You can download the Customizer for Mac OS X here and for Windows here.
What About Domain Privacy?
If you decide to purchase a domain name from GoDaddy, you’ll need to make sure to check the box that requests privacy. When you do this, the company will register your domain but will not disclose your personal information to third-parties. The privacy policy for GoDaddy’s domain registration services states:
“We will not sell or rent your personal information to third parties. We may aggregate your domain registration data with other data we have collected for statistical purposes, but we will not identify you personally in any way. We may disclose your personal information to law enforcement or other security officials as required by law.”