Considering new hosting or changing host and want to know the difference between Cloudways GoDaddy? This in depth article will explain in detail the differences that led me to recently change host.
GoDaddy:
I have been a GoDaddy customer and fan for over twenty years. Throughout that time, I have bought and owned several domains through the registrar and have never been dissatisfied with their products or services. I can definitely stand behind their product and customer service. They offer a wide range of products including domains, email, and hosting plans which include managed WordPress hosting solutions.
GoDaddy boasts millions of customers and for good reason. It is routinely reviewed as a top ten web host and has been for years. Unfortunately due to up and coming competition from some very fast web hosts such as Cloudways and SiteGround, GoDaddy is facing some fierce challengers in the hosting world. Speed being the number one issue that divides some hosts from the others. That being said, here are some things that I like about GoDaddy!
Things I Like About GoDaddy:
- Customer Service:
GoDaddy’s customer service has never let me down. I had an issue recently when attempting to back up one of my WordPress Blogs. I quickly contacted their live support chat and they resolved the issue in a very timely manner. - Domains & Hosting in one convenient location:
One of the nicest things about GoDaddy is the fact that you have your domains and hosting under the same umbrella. This makes things nice and simple when it comes to setting things up such as DNS and Hosting. - Ease of use:
GoDaddy makes it very easy to build your first website with their easy to use Website Builder. It features pre-designed website templates that are ready to go! Simply choose a template that fits your needs and plugin your own images and text. It is also scalable for someone with more demanding business needs. - Managed WordPress Hosting:
With GoDaddy’s managed hosting plans it is super simple to purchase hosting and set up your first WordPress blog. I recently used this all in one solution to start my latest two blogs. - Value:
GoDaddy offers a lot of bang for your buck with some very affordable hosting options. Domains start at $12.17 and hosting packages start as low as $9.99 a month. For a total of $22.16 total, you can buy your first domain and host your very first website.
Things I Don’t Like About GoDaddy:
- Plugin restrictions:
GoDaddy implements their own caching system for quicker hosting. Unfortunately this means you can’t install some of the well known WordPress caching plugins on your blog. These include: WP Fastest Cache and W3 Total Cache, two of the top caching plugins available on the platform. - Pricey email:
GoDaddy use to include a free email account with their hosting packages. Now you have to pay a minimum of $5.99 for “Email Essentials” which includes 10 GB of email storage. It does include Microsoft 365 which is a nice added benefit. - Speed:
While GoDaddy isn’t necessarily slow, they aren’t the quickest web host either. Speed is a huge factor when considering web hosts and can mean the difference between high ranking web pages and low ranking web pages. Search engines like Google, will rank a faster loading website higher than a slow loading website. Ideally, you want to aim for a loading time that is under the two second mark for optimum SEO performance!
All in all GoDaddy is a well established host with several positive features! That being said, speed is a major factor and they fall short in this category.
Cloudways:
Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that enables you to focus on writing blog articles without worrying about some of the common pitfalls associated with some web hosting providers. It is known as one of the fastest hosting providers around and is in the running as one of the top web hosts on the internet. Some clear benefits make Cloudways stand out in a sea of competition.
Things I Like About Cloudways:
- Ability to choose location of server:
This is one of the coolest things about Cloudways and something that separates them from the competition. When setting up your first server, you can choose the location from their list of data centers. I am in the U.S. so I chose New York for my server. This can improve loading times for my U.S. visitors which is a huge plus! - Easy Migration:
Their WordPress Migrator Plugin makes it very easy to transfer your existing blog over to their platform. I used it to transfer both of my WordPress Blogs and it was very simple. You simply install the plugin, enter your Cloudways info and click to migrate! - Free three day trial:
Cloudways offers a free three day trial that will allow you to go through the process of setting up your first application on your first server. You get to test drive the hosting and see the results yourself. - Need a hand?:
The help center is a click away and features a quick responding live chat agent that will help you with any issues. I used live chat to get information on migrating my two blogs as well as information on pricing. They were very helpful and on the ball! - Simple setup:
Cloudways makes it very easy to set up your WordPress blog with managed WordPress Hosting similar to GoDaddy. You can choose your setup for WordPress. I chose the clean version with no optimization since I was migrating two sites. They have nice clean tutorials that will guide you through each process making it easy and quick! - Speed:
Let’s face it, most bloggers and website owners are looking for quick loading times. As Neil Patel states in his article “How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line,” 47% of consumers have the expectation that a web page will load in two seconds or less. A delay of only one second can reduce conversions by 7% on an ecommerce website or cost a website two and a half million a year if they are making one hundred thousand a day.
Things I don’t like about Cloudways:
- No domain registration:
Unlike GoDaddy, Cloudways doesn’t offer an all in one domain and hosting package. It is nice to have the convenience of having your domain and hosting with one company. You will have to register your domain name with another company and then direct the name servers to Cloudways. However, in the scheme of things, this is not a deal breaker.
Which Hosting Is Faster Cloudways GoDaddy?
I was running both of my WordPress blogs on GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting and unfortunately they lacked in the speed department. I implemented and tested several plugins to enhance loading times. Like I mentioned earlier in the article, GoDaddy restricts certain cache plugins on their server. I tested Litespeed Cache and WPOptimize but still wasn’t getting the necessary speed to satisfy my itch for loading times that were less than a second.
I was finally able to to make a dent in the speed department with Cloudflare’s WordPress Plugin which uses their CDN or “Content Delivery Network. In order to use this plugin you need to sign up for a free Cloudflare account which manages your caching using a network of servers. This gives you a major advantage delivering your content closer to your website visitors locations.
While Cloudflare definitely made a noticeable difference, it still wasn’t enough to bring my loading times down to below the three plus seconds it was taking according to GT Metrix. I did more research and after comparing some different hosting platforms, decided to give Cloudways a try.
Quick Note:
Keep your WordPress Plugins to a minimum! Too many plugins can bog down your blog. Deactivate or uninstall any unused plugins for optimum performance. You don’t want any unneeded clutter taking up space in your WordPress install.
Cloudways GoDaddy Speed Comparison:
I finally decided that I had to make a change and signed up for Cloudway’s free trial! You can make some improvements to quicken things on your WordPress blog but if your hosting company’s servers are slow or overloaded with too many customers, there isn’t much you can do. This is why I had to make the switch.
The results were shocking!
Here is a side by side comparison for both of my blogs after making the switch to Cloudways.
Red Fox Blog GT Metrix Score With GoDaddy Hosting:
As you can see, the score with GoDaddy’s hosting was less than stellar coming in at 78% overall performance and a LCP or “Largest Content Element” of 1.9 seconds. The structure was fairly good coming in at 87%. This was a decent score compared to earlier scores which were in the lower range before installing Cloudflare’s WordPress Plugin. The LCP was always over a second.
Red Fox Blog GT Metrix Score With Cloudways Hosting:
This performance report was generated on the same day as the GoDaddy report on Friday, January 8th and as you can see the results were shocking. Simply switching hosting providers from GoDaddy to Cloudways improved overall performance by 22% with a perfect score of 100%. The structure improved as well by 4%.
The LCP was extremely impressive as well coming in at 0.6 seconds to the first Largest Content Element. This was 1.3 seconds faster than the previous LCP with GoDaddy.
Shepherds’ Bone GT Metrix Score With GoDaddy Hosting:
Shepherds’ Bone is a bigger WordPress Blog with much more content and more plugins than Red Fox Blog. This, coupled with the slow servers, lead to an extremely poor performance score of 52%. This included running Cloudflare’s Plugin on their Content Delivery Network which sped things up a little.
The structure was decent at 81% and the Largest Content Element was 3 seconds which was very poor. This would simply not cut it when it came to the search engines and keeping my audience happy. All the improvements in the world couldn’t make up for the slow lagging servers.
Once again, the score was truly stunning. Shepherds’ Bone came in at 95% which was a major 43% increase. It was three times faster with the Largest Content Element coming in at 0.8 seconds! The structure only improved by 7% but still came in at a solid 88%.
It was clear that most of the slow loading times on my WordPress Blog were due to the hosting and not other elements. The CLS or “Cumulative Layout Shift” was the only score in the red zone with a 0.52. I haven’t tackled that at the moment but will take it on in another article coming soon!
The Winner Between Cloudways GoDaddy:
Cloudways Managed Cloud Hosting Platform was the clear winner by a long shot! It wasn’t even close. The difference was undeniable and I am completely happy that I changed hosting companies. The quickness of Cloudways hosting was amazing. Check out Shepherds’ Bone to get an idea of the quickness!
How Much Does Cloudways Cost?
Cloudways isn’t the cheapest hosting company out there but you get what you pay for and in this instance, you are paying for speed! This makes it worth it if you are serious about blogging and plan on making an income from your blogs.
Cloudways offers two separate ways to pay for your hosting giving you a lot of flexability when it comes to pricing structure.
Hourly Plans:
Hourly plans consist of a “pay as you go” model where you only pay for the data and resources that you use hosting your blogs or websites. This is great if you are starting out a small blog that isn’t getting very much traffic. Cloudways is easily scalable and you can always upgrade your plan at any time.
Their hourly plans start at $0.0139 an hour and go up from there depending on how many GB of Ram you require.
Monthly Plans:
They also offer the standard monthly plans similar to other hosting companies. I chose the basic entry level plan for my two blogs and plan on scaling from there.
Their monthly plans start at $10 a month and go up from there. Their most popular plan is $42 a month and features 4GB of Ram. If you are starting your first blog I would recommend the former.
Cloudways GoDaddy In Closing:
To sum things up, I highly recommend Cloudways Hosting compared to GoDaddy due to the shear fact that load times are so much quicker. That being said, I still like GoDaddy and respect their company. I will always use them for purchasing new domains. They are both amazing companies that deserve a lot of credit.
Please leave a comment and let us know what you think!
Do you have experiences with Cloudways GoDaddy? Tell us what you like or don’t like about the hosts. Stay tuned for more exciting SEO and WordPress articles weekly!