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Best for affordability
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Very affordable plans, both during the introductory period and on renewal
Excellent server speed and reliability
Managed WordPress hosting plans include guided setup through the WordPress Cockpit and its AI site builder
Best for small business tools
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Reliable site performance and loading times
Managed WordPress plans come with WordPress pre-installed
IONOS is a better web host than GoDaddy, as it’s easier to navigate and provides a more robust set of features at more affordable prices. GoDaddy offers a variety of web hosting plans and website creation tools, but its hosting packages are expensive, and the dashboard is unusually difficult to navigate.
We tested IONOS and GoDaddy and compared their features to help you choose the best hosting service for your site’s needs.
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Our Pick |
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| Star rating | ||
| Starting price | Starts at $3.20/mo | Starts at $5.99/mo |
| Money-back guarantee | Yes, 30 days | Yes, 30 days |
| Uptime guarantee | 99.99% | 99.9% |
| Monthly visits | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Number of websites | 1 – unlimited | 1 - 25 |
| Storage | 10 GB - unlimited | 25 GB – 75 GB |
| Free SSL certificate | On all plans | Only for the first year on the base plan |
| Free domain for a year | On all plans | On all plans |
| Learn more | Get IONOS | Get GoDaddy |
IONOS offers low introductory rates and excellent renewal pricing. Every IONOS plan includes a robust suite of security protocols to keep your site safe, unlimited monthly visitors, and at least 10 GB of storage. The higher-tier shared hosting plans provide unlimited storage, allowing your site to grow exponentially without forcing you to switch to a more complicated hosting type.
IONOS also offers affordable WordPress hosting, a guided installation process, and an AI WordPress website builder. These plans also feature a WordPress Cockpit with a checklist and links to help you complete basic website creation tasks. You can’t get unlimited storage on IONOS’s WordPress hosting, but the 75 GB on the highest-tier plan is plenty for most websites.
IONOS’s main drawback is the lack of a support ticket system for customer service. However, the live chat and phone support are easily accessible. Similarly, IONOS lacks a CDN and LiteSpeed-enhanced servers, which can improve speeds, but its site speeds are plenty fast without them.
GoDaddy is a mediocre web host that subjects you to constant upsells. You’ll encounter them during checkout, when you log in, and when you go to your user dashboard. We also had significant difficulty finding the tools we needed to create our WordPress site.
GoDaddy’s plans are overpriced. The lowest-tier plan has an unusually high introductory rate of $5.99/mo, and it doesn’t include standard security features such as a firewall and DDoS protection. The Web Hosting Economy plan also lacks permanent SSL certification — you’ll get it free with your domain for the first year, and then be required to buy it as an add-on.
GoDaddy does have a few positives. Our test site experienced excellent uptime, and we enjoyed fast, helpful responses when contacting customer service via live chat. GoDaddy also offers marketing services and other business services to help small companies get started.
IONOS offers better core features than GoDaddy, especially on the higher-tier shared hosting plans.
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Our Pick |
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| Number of contributors | 1 | 1 |
| Websites per account | 1 - unlimited | 1 - 200 |
| Storage available | 10 GB - unlimited | 10 GB – 400 GB |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Monthly visits | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Staging environment | ||
| Migration assistance | Available as a separate, paid service | Available as a separate, paid service |
| One inbox with 2 GB of storage | Free trial with one inbox | |
| Control panel | Proprietary solution on all plans | cPanel on all plans |
| Website builder | Only on website builder plans | Must be purchased separately |
| Hosting types available | Shared, WordPress, website builder, VPS, dedicated | Shared, WordPress, WooCommerce, VPS |
| Learn more | Get IONOS | Get GoDaddy |
GoDaddy’s lowest-tier plan has a slight edge thanks to its 25 GB of storage on its Web Hosting Economy plan, which is more than double what IONOS offers on its comparable plan. However, this flips at higher-tier plans, with IONOS’s Plus plan offering unlimited storage — with similar long-term pricing compared to GoDaddy’s lowest-cost plan.
IONOS’s systems are also easier to use. The IONOS dashboard is highly intuitive, and its proprietary alternative to cPanel provides a beginner-friendly server management experience.
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GoDaddy, meanwhile, makes basic tasks — like setting up a WordPress site and connecting it to a domain — more complicated than they need to be.
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Another feature worth calling out is IONOS’s permanent email hosting. This lets you create a custom email address (like yourname@yoursite.com). A custom email address is essential if you want to appear professional. Most web hosts offer some level of email hosting, but GoDaddy offers a free trial for only one month.
IONOS provides more reliable server performance and site speed than GoDaddy.
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Our Pick |
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| Uptime guarantee | 99.99% | 99.9% |
| Tested uptime | 100% | 100% |
| Average performance score | 99.6 | 98.5 |
| Average FCP | 0.46 s | 0.8 s |
| Average LCP | 0.53 s | 0.85 s |
| Stress test | Pass | Pass |
| HTTP failures | None | None |
| Learn more | Get IONOS | Get GoDaddy |
IONOS offers an above-average 99.99% uptime guarantee, meaning server issues won’t cause your site to experience more than 2 minutes of downtime per week. GoDaddy offers only the industry-standard 99.9% uptime guarantee, allowing for up to 10 minutes of weekly downtime. While GoDaddy did match IONOS’s 100% uptime during our tests, its lower uptime guarantee gives it more room to disappoint you.
GoDaddy’s speed tests were similarly concerning. While it was well within our recommended maximum of 3 seconds, it failed to match IONOS’s high-speed loading times. Our GoDaddy site also timed out repeatedly during speed tests in Dallas, suggesting that GoDaddy may not provide reliable service across all locations.
IONOS is a much better value web host than GoDaddy, offering more on plans with lower introductory rates and renewal prices.
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Our Pick |
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| Price range | $1.00-$5.33/mo | $5.99-$12.99/mo |
| Best value plan | Plus for $1.00/mo | Hosting for WordPress Basic for $5.99/mo |
| Money-back guarantee | Yes, 30 days | Yes, 30 days |
| Free domain for a year | On all plans | On all plans |
| Free CDN | Only on WordPress hosting | |
| Free SSL | On all plans | Only for the first year on lowest-tier plan; available permanently on higher-tier plans |
| Learn more | Get IONOS | Get GoDaddy |
IONOS offers four shared hosting plans, all protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee. We’ve found that IONOS offers the best cheap web hosting plans for website owners on a budget.
IONOS also has high-quality WordPress hosting plans with additional site-building tools for beginners, starting at $5/mo.
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GoDaddy offers four shared hosting plans, all backed by its 30-day money-back guarantee. We’ve found that GoDaddy is a good web host for beginners, but it doesn’t offer the best long-term value.
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IONOS provides significantly better security than GoDaddy and is, in fact, one of the most secure web hosting services we’ve tested.
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Our Pick |
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| Malware scanning | Only on some plans | |
| Firewall protection | Only on some plans | |
| DDoS protection | Only on some plans | |
| Backup frequency | Daily | Daily |
| Learn more | Get IONOS | Get GoDaddy |
Every IONOS plan includes basic firewall protection, as well as more advanced security measures such as DDoS protection and malware scanning. Backups are conducted daily so you can quickly restore your site if something does go wrong.
GoDaddy, meanwhile, offers a site security trial only on most of its shared hosting plans. This gives you a firewall, malware scanner, and DDoS protection for 1 month, after which you must purchase a separate subscription. You’ll have to buy Hosting for WordPress Basic — or another WordPress hosting plan — to get these features permanently bundled into your core hosting package.
GoDaddy does provide daily backups on its lowest-tier plan, but this doesn’t make up for the lack of other security features.
While both companies provide decent support, reviews suggest that IONOS offers more reliable service.
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Our Pick |
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| 24/7 customer support | ||
| Support options | Live chat, phone calls, online guides | Live chat, text message, phone calls, online guides |
| Trustpilot score | 4.7 | 4.5 |
| G2 rating | 4.3 | 3.9 |
| Capterra rating | N/A | N/A |
| Learn more | Get IONOS | Get GoDaddy |
Both IONOS and GoDaddy offer 24/7 live chat and phone support, plus online guides to help you solve a variety of problems on your own.
Trustpilot reviews seem consistently impressed with the support provided by both companies. G2 reviews are somewhat more critical, especially toward GoDaddy, with many claims that GoDaddy’s support fails to process refunds and that the company itself has misleading billing practices. While our own experience with GoDaddy’s support was pleasant, we can’t ignore the number of negative reviews it has received.
IONOS is one of the best web hosting services we’ve tested, thanks to its super-low pricing, solid security features, and excellent overall performance. We have no problem recommending IONOS for most businesses. But other top web hosting providers we think are worth considering include Hostinger, Bluehost, and DreamHost.
Hostinger provides intuitive website building tools, including guided WordPress site creation, starting at $1.95/mo.
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Robust user-friendly AI tools for quick web building
Cheaper than other all-in-one ecommerce web host & builders like Wix and Shopify
Passed tests for reliability and speed
Learn more in our Hostinger review
Bluehost offers guided WordPress installation, an AI site builder for WordPress, and the Wonderblock plugin to extend the functionality of the Gutenberg editor, with plans starting at $2.99/mo.
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Popular WordPress platform with good security features and affordable plans
High-quality tools for first-time WordPress users
Low renewal costs provide long-term affordability
Learn more in our Bluehost review
DreamHost offers a 100% uptime guarantee, streamlined account management tools, and an impressive guided WordPress setup process. DreamHost plans start at $2.89/mo.
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Easy one-click WordPress installation and AI web builder
Intuitive custom control panel with user-friendly analytics
Learn more in our DreamHost review
IONOS is significantly better than GoDaddy, winning in every category:
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Our Pick |
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| Value | ||
| Core features | ||
| Performance and reliability | ||
| Security | ||
| Support and reputation | ||
| Learn more | Get IONOS | Get GoDaddy |
IONOS provides better web hosting services and tools than GoDaddy. While IONOS won in every category, some of its wins — like for support and reputation — are small. But it offers a significant advantage in other areas, such as security. This makes IONOS better for most websites.
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Very affordable plans, both during the introductory period and on renewal
Excellent server speed and reliability
Managed WordPress hosting plans include guided setup through the WordPress Cockpit and its AI site builder
However, GoDaddy supplies marketing services and other small business tools that can help you conduct many of your business tasks in one place. I recommend using GoDaddy for hosting only if you want to integrate it with GoDaddy’s other business tools.
We use our proprietary grading rubric to evaluate web hosts based on performance, ease of use, features, support, and overall value. Our hands-on approach ensures our ratings reflect how each service actually performs in the real world, so you can choose a host with confidence.
Our process starts with signing up for each service and setting up a real website, just like you would. We run page speed, uptime, and stress tests to measure reliability and performance under load. We also explore the dashboard, test security tools, and contact support to see how responsive and helpful it is.
To learn more about how we test, check out our full testing methodology here.
Yes, IONOS is significantly cheaper than GoDaddy. IONOS offers unparalleled low introductory rates that are matched with reasonable renewal prices, which is rare. GoDaddy plans don’t include standard security features you’d expect because the platform aims to upsell even for the basics.
No, GoDaddy is not better than IONOS. IONOS provides better features — especially security features — for more affordable prices. IONOS also demonstrated better performance during our in-house testing.
Yes, you can easily transfer your domain from GoDaddy to IONOS. IONOS also offers a paid migration service if you need assistance.
IONOS lacks a support ticket system for customer service. IONOS also lacks a CDN and LiteSpeed-enhanced servers, features often used by other hosts to improve site speed.
Very affordable plans, both during the introductory period and on renewal
Excellent server speed and reliability
Managed WordPress hosting plans include guided setup through the WordPress Cockpit and its AI site builder
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