WordPress Hosting: Why not GoDaddy?

This topic, website hosting dilemma, comes up with every client I’ve ever worked with.

Now available: Managed WordPress Hosting and What to Expect an updated view of WordPress hosting and the pitfalls of GoDaddy Managed WordPress Hosting.

And the discussion usually starts with GoDaddy. Let’s be honest, the prices are appealing and their probably the better known service provider.

It is a frustrating conversation that I have at least once a month, and it goes something like this; I tell the client why not to host with GoDaddy, they question my reasoning, do a Google search, then decide I am right.

I know they say their hosting is WordPress friendly and they even have a product titled “WordPress Blog Hosting”, but that’s not completely accurate.

Saying they’re “WordPress Friendly” is like saying your pit bull is friendly while you’re using every ounce of strength you have trying to keep it from attacking me!!

Will it work, sure. Will the average Joe website owner notice the issues, probably not.

But search engines might not rank you as well because your load times are so slow.

And your visitors, when they try to visit your site and see, “Error establishing a database connection” or “500 internal error, contact the webmaster for assistance”, they’ll notice.

This doesn’t just apply to WordPress Websites. Any website hosted at GoDaddy is likely to experience these and other issues.

Let me explain why there are so many issues.

If you’re paying less than $15 a month for GoDaddy hosting, you’re on what’s called “shared hosting”.

That’s where they take one server and split it into hundreds and maybe even thousands of sections allocating portions of the servers resources to each user.

Then as people sign up for the hosting service they are assigned to one of these sections depending on the hosting plan they purchase.

That means, there can literally be hundreds or thousands of websites on the same server as your website.

If just a handful of those sites has an unusual amount of traffic, all the other websites on that server will be affected because all the sites share the same resources.

And the worst part, if just one of those sites is hacked, all the other sites are at risk.

And in my experience, when this happens, GoDaddy has never excepted responsibility and you’re left to deal with it on your own!

That old saying, I’m sure you’ve heard before, “you get what you pay for”, defiantly applies to GoDaddy hosting.

I will add that over the past several months GoDaddy has made some significant changes, starting with the CEO, and while some claim they are a whole new company, I’m not ready to start recommending them.

If not GoDaddy than who?

I’ve used more than 15 web hosting companies over the past 6 years and of those companies, there is only one that I fell delivers excellent service and solutions and I mention one other for those on a restricted budget.

The first solution is my #1 recommendations and is a WordPress only solution, the another is a direct competitor of GoDaddy, offering cheap solutions with better support and a little better product.

1. WP Engine
2. Bluehost

WP Engine

NOTE: This is WordPress only hosting. You must have a WordPress website to host at WP Engine.

This is currently where I host all of my own websites and where I recommend all of my clients host.

This is probably the best hosting solution I’ve used and it seems to continually get better. And I have to mention the support! The support staff is incredible and they don’t limit their support to their products, they help with every aspect of your website.

My top four reasons for using WP Engine:

• Security
• Easy to manage
• Incredible support
• Well developed solution

With WP Engine I can rest easy knowing my websites are well taken care off.

Check out WP Engine => Click Here!

Bluehost

Realizing that not everyone has the budget for a service like WP Engine, I needed a cheaper alternative.

I tried Bluehost personally and managed a few client sites that were hosted there. And I was impressed.

• Easy to manage
• Decent support
• Fewer issues (then competitors)

Although Bluehost is a shared hosting environment like GoDaddy, I’ve never experienced the same number of issues I have with GoDaddy.

If you’re going to use Bluehost’s shared hosting, don’t expect it to be a permanent solution. I suspect most will out grow their solution.

Check out Bluehost => Click Here!

I’m not out to put GoDaddy out of business (not that I have that kind of power), I’m only interested in helping the unawares make better decisions. And hopefully I can prevent some from making decisions that they will later regret.

Who is your favorite hosting provider? Use the comments to share your recommendations.