Godaddy vs WP Engine: Which One Should You Choose for Your WordPress Hosting?
Over the years, we’ve grown accustomed to using a few key words to describe a good website: *responsive* – the design and functionality of a website must work seamlessly on all devices; *optimised* – the code behind the website must be clean and easy to follow; and *seo* – search engine optimisation, or the practice of getting traffic from search engines to your site.)
But what if I told you there was a company that could provide those three things – responsive, optimised, and seo – in one solution? What would you say?
Welcome to the world of WordPress. As a content management system (CMS), WordPress has established itself as the blogging platform of choice. What is a blogging platform? Essentially, a blogging platform is a website that provides you with the tools to create and maintain a blog. WordPress is a robust, open source platform with a large community, which means it can be used to host a variety of websites and more importantly, blogs.
WordPress was first released in 2005 and quickly grew in popularity thanks to its established usability and features. Since then, it has become the de facto standard for bloggers across the world. If you have a blog or website that you could benefit from the functionality of WordPress, then I’d advise you to consider migrating to the platform.
But choosing a WordPress host isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are many aspects to consider, such as cost, feature set, performance, and security, and we won’t be able to cover them all in this article. That’s why I’ve compiled a list of factors that could affect your decision-making process.
Features
With most other CMSs, such as Joomla, Drupal, and Magneto, you have to pay for additional features and functionality. With WordPress, you get a fully-featured platform with free updates for the lifetime of the product. Not only that, but you also get free storage, free domain registration, and a whole lot more. WordPress truly is a complete and utter package.
Some of the things that you’ll find on WordPress are automated blogging tools, such as Jetpack, which can take the drudgery out of blogging for you; a child-friendly control panel, which makes it much easier for parents to use the platform; and built-in SEO functionality, which makes it much easier (and more fun) to optimise your site for search engines.
WordPress also provides you with several options for monetising your content. You can put ads on your site using a third-party plugin; you can use a content distribution network to earn money from affiliate sales; or you can opt to sell and display ads within your content (in other words, content advertising). Which method you choose depends on your objectives and preferred monetisation strategy.
Cost
One of the biggest considerations when choosing a WordPress host is cost. The cost of a custom-built, VPS (virtual private server) will vary, but you can expect to pay £10 to £20 per month, plus additional charges for bandwidth and storage. Keep in mind that you’ll need a dedicated IP (internet protocol) to run your website. If you’re worried about cost, you could opt for the free version of WordPress or one of the many other CMSs out there, which might be cheaper, but lack some features that you’re used to and depend on.
Performance
Another important factor to consider when choosing a WordPress host is performance. Just because your CMS of choice is free, blazing fast, and easy to use doesn’t mean that the server it’s running on will perform at the same level. In fact, some WordPress hosts can be a bit slow, especially if you have a lot of traffic. This issue can be somewhat mitigated by using a caching plugin, but it’s still important to check the speed of your website, especially if you’re looking for fast responses from visitors.
Security
Another critical factor to consider when choosing a WordPress host is security. Running a website that stores any kind of personal or business information is always a major concern, as no online business can afford to be lax in their cybersecurity measures. Fortunately for you, WordPress is a well-known platform for blogs and news websites, which means a lot of security plugins exist for it. These plugins scan your content for viruses, malware, and spam before it is published, as well as looking for any unauthorized changes that might have been made to your site. If you’re looking for a safe and secure way to host your content, then WordPress is the clear choice.
Support
Last but not least, let’s talk about support. As I mentioned before, running a website that stores any kind of personal or business information is always a major concern, especially if you’re looking for a quick and reliable form of support. Luckily for you, WordPress is a completely open source platform, which means there’s always someone around to help if you run into trouble. You can find lots of resources online (including the WordPress Community website), as well as on Twitter and Facebook.
On top of that, you can always get in touch with the developers directly. If you have a specific issue that you can’t find an answer for on Google or Twitter, then you can ask the developers for help; they’ll be more than happy to help you out.
In short, if you’re looking for a reliable, stable, and feature-rich option for your WordPress hosting, then I’d advise you to go with Godaddy (unless you’ve already got a hosting account with them, in which case, feel free to sign up for a free trial!).