GoDaddy has over 18 million customers worldwide and manages over 77 million domains, according to its website. Does that mean that GoDaddy is the kind of expert company you want managing your WordPress (WP) website or does it mean that you’ll be lost among the crowd?

With GoDaddy’s managed hosting plans specifically designed for WordPress, you won’t have to worry about certain things like updates or where to find a premium theme for your first few months online. Though, as you’ll learn below, GoDaddy does charge extra for a few features that you’ll want, like full backups.

This review will help you decide whether GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting is what you really need, if you should go for GoDaddy’s standard hosting plans instead, or if you may want to look elsewhere. If you need a comprehensive summary of what you do and do not get, that’s what this GoDaddy blog hosting review was made to give you.

GoDaddy WordPress Hosting Review Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

GoDaddy for WordPress vs Regular Hosting: Is a Managed Plan Worth It?

The difference between WordPress hosting offered by GoDaddy and their basic plan is that with WordPress hosting, your WP installation is managed by GoDaddy, so you won’t have to worry about keeping up with updates on your own. It also comes with an incredibly easy to use WP installation wizard and a handful of free plug-ins and premium themes.

However, it’s also possible, and likely, that you’ll be using non-GoDaddy produced themes and plug-ins, especially if you decide to turn your WordPress website into a business. So, is the managed plan worth it?

If you’re new to WordPress and your highest priority is getting one site up and running as quickly as possible, then this is an option to consider. If, for example, you own a small business that needs to have a web presence, this is also an option you can use.

However, if you plan to grow more than one website and still want to stick with GoDaddy, you may be better off going with the Deluxe hosting option under their shared hosting plans. It’s the same level of service, the same 1-click to build content management system (CMS), but with unlimited storage and domains, and it only costs $1 more per month.

What Do You Get with GoDaddy’s WordPress Plans?

GoDaddy’s plans come with competitive pricing and technical specs for any type of WordPress hosting plan. They also come with a few freebies offered by GoDaddy alone.

Pricing, Storage, and Bandwidth

With GoDaddy’s WordPress Hosting plans, you get to choose from one of four tiers. The first tier offers full management of a single domain and WordPress installation, 10GB of SSD storage and 25k visitors on a month-to-month plan.

If you happen to choose an annual plan, you’ll save a bit of money for the first year (up to 40%) and get a free domain. This plan, when paid monthly, costs $5.99.

The highest tier offers five to 50 managed WordPress websites, 50 to 200GB of SSD storage, 800k monthly visitors across all domains, one free domain with an annual plan, much-needed SSL certificates, as well as a host of developer features. This plan costs at least $34.99 when paid month-to-month.

If you do use one of GoDaddy’s premium themes rather than buying your own, you could save as many as $54 dollars per year (the price of a comparable, professionally-developed premium theme).

Is SSD Storage Important?

One thing that may be overlooked is that GoDaddy offers Solid State Drive (SSD) storage for managed WordPress hosting. If you aren’t sure what the benefits of an SSD are compared to a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), then you should watch the video below.

In short, SSDs could help speed up your website and give you a little bit of an edge when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). That’s especially true the more traffic you have and the higher the number of pages you are hosting on a given server.

Premium Themes and Other Bonuses

GoDaddy offers a number of premium themes, some with a popular drag-and-drop builder that allows you to customize your theme without even looking at a single line of code. These themes may also come pre-loaded with themed images, stock photos, and fill-in-the-blank content to create an easy, industry-specific business website.

1-Click Install and Pre-Loaded Plug-ins

Just like most other popular hosting companies, GoDaddy offers single click installs of WordPress on its WordPress hosting plans (and on its standard hosting plans.) However, with a managed WordPress hosting plan, GoDaddy’s installation wizard also installs specific themes and plug-ins that you have selected.

As this is done all at once, it helps keep things up to date, maximize compatibility, and save you time. This is one unique offering of GoDaddy’s managed WordPress plans.

Is GoDaddy Good for Hosting in General?

GoDaddy hosting is one of the most popular hosting plans in North America, if not the world. As stated above, they have over 18 million customers.

Their service is fast and reliable, just like their hosting plans. Sure, there are some new companies out there that offer a few improvements over some of what GoDaddy offers, but this is still a reliable company that has the resources and pull to stay that way for decades to come.

Where Can I Get This Hosting Plan Specifically for WordPress?

On GoDaddy.com you’ll see a multitude of options at the top of the site. All you have to do is click on the “WordPress” link and you’ll be directed to a page showcasing all available managed WordPress plans.

From there, you just select the plan you want and go from there. Or, if you have questions, you should ask GoDaddy’s customer service agents using the “Contact Us” drop-down menu at the top of the page.

Ask anything you feel you need to before you commit to a plan. And, if you ever do feel like backing out, GoDaddy offers a decent 30-day money-back guarantee.

GoDaddy WordPress Hosting Review: The Pros and Cons

Below are the top five pros and top three cons to choosing GoDaddy WordPress Hosting for your business or personal website.

Pros:

• Solid, Guaranteed Hosting Service – GoDaddy’s hosting service is guaranteed to have uptime of at least 99.9%.
• WordPress Installations Managed By Experts – Never worry about missing or delaying a WordPress update. Everything is taken care of for you.
• Themes and Plug-ins Installed During Primary WP Installation – Want to save even more time? GoDaddy installs a number of themes and plug-ins that you have a hand in selecting during the initial installation of the WordPress CMS for your domain.
• Free, Premium Themes Developed by GoDaddy – If you want something well made and secure that you can set up quickly, then GoDaddy’s premium themes may be just what you need.
• Automatic Backups – Basic backups of your WordPress site are made on your behalf every single day.

Cons:

• Limited Everything – Compared to the other GoDaddy WP hosting options, their managed WP plans are unnecessarily limited and charge you for things that few other top hosting companies do.
• “Premium” Themes You May End Up Never Using – GoDaddy’s premium themes are just fine, not spectacular. They aren’t endorsed by any big names like other premium, paid themes. However, they are more secure than most free options.
• No “Premium”, Free Plug-ins – On their WordPress hosting page, they try to make it sound a bit like you’re going to get some sort of deal on the plug-ins you can use, or that they’ll be easier to install. However, they only offer the same standard, free plug-ins as anyone else and they are installed the same way.

If you’re looking at these pros and cons, you may realize that there is very little difference between what GoDaddy offers for non-managed and managed WordPress installs. And you could be thinking that this means that there is no point in going for a WP specific plan.

However, do remember that installing WordPress updates does take time. If all you want is a single, small website with reliable service, then a managed install will save you a little bit of time every month. That may be worth a couple of extra dollars.

In Conclusion: If You Want a Managed WordPress Plan, GoDaddy Is Worth a Look

GoDaddy has been around for over two decades. They know the hosting industry, where it’s going, and how to make sure that their customers have a solid experience now and going into the future.

With their managed WordPress plans, you make the most of their experience while freeing yourself up to make the most of your website while GoDaddy’s technicians handle the day-to-day backups and updates.

Not only that but GoDaddy offers a number of options that make it the perfect choice for anyone who is “non-technical” or just needs to get a WordPress website up right now rather than weeks or months down the road. For that, it’s worth the price.