What is GoDaddy?
With over 18 million customers, GoDaddy is one of the world’s most famous websites. It’s not hard to see why.
The company is known for its attention-grabbing advertising campaigns and the use of celebrity voice actors and Super Bowl commercials to attract attention.
In addition to its popularity as a well-known web host, GoDaddy is the world’s largest domain registrar, with over 77 million domain names registered.
But where did GoDaddy start and how did they come up with this name?
The company was founded by Bob Parsons, who started his business in 1997 when he retired as Jomax Technologies. Two years later, there was a discussion about the name they thought people would have a hard time remembering.
One of the candidates is “Big Daddy”, popular but already registered.
Bob Parsons then suggested “Go Daddy”. It was available, so I bought the domain and the company he became Go Daddy Software, Inc.
The company has since changed its style to “GoDaddy.” This is the way it is known today.
The company is still focused on its core service of website services for small independent businesses, making it a popular hosting company for bloggers.
Service and Experience
GoDaddy offers the services and products you need to create, launch, and run a successful blog — but what’s the experience as a customer like?
In this section we cover the reliability of their service, customer support, and security.
Reliability
Every blogger wants a reliable web host and that’s exactly what you get with GoDaddy.
The company aims to achieve his 99.99% uptime. This means, realistically, that the blog will never be down more than his one day a year.
In practice, this can be hampered by technical issues, so his current uptime is close to 99.94%, which is still an impressive figure.
Security
The key to a web host’s success is how well they protect their blog and its content from potential digital and physical disruptions.
GoDaddy offers a variety of security options for everyone with spam detection included as standard with shared hosting plans.
Perform malware scanning, security monitoring, and protection against DDoS attacks.
Daily backups are created so you can be sure your content is safe if you ever need to revert to an earlier version.
GoDaddy has a primary data center in Phoenix, Arizona, and other facilities around the world. These facilities are secure, have 24-hour technical staff, and are equipped with uninterruptible power supplies.
This means that data cannot be lost suddenly and is safe from attacks.
You can also invest in other security add-ons such as SSL and SiteLock if you prefer.
Customer Support
GoDaddy’s customer service is generally highly rated.
As with most good hosting companies, support is available 24/7 through various channels including forums, live chat, email, phone, and social media.
You can choose the method that works best for you and you can expect a quick response, usually through your hosting account.
GoDaddy offers a money-back guarantee if for any reason you are not satisfied with the service.
Affordability
With so much competition in the web hosting market, GoDaddy’s prices are great news for buyers.
Companies want to attract and retain customers, so you’ll often find attractive introductory offers.
GoDaddy is no different.
Their lowest tier “Economy plan” is available from $2.49 per month (lowest cost based on a 36 month contract) and offers enough space and functionality for a new blog, which makes it an affordable choice for bloggers.
The introductory offers apply across all tiers, so you can expect a discount of up to 68 percent in your first term of service.
The downside of this is that it’s more expensive when you renew — more on that in the Cons section below.
Our Verdict
With a number of positives including Office 365 email integration and unlimited storage, GoDaddy is a great option for bloggers who want to create and grow a successful blog.