Choosing a Web Hosting Service to host your website is not as simple as it looks like. Clicking on the ‘PayNow’ button is not the whole process. You need to consider many factors while choosing the best hosting like Service Packages Offered, Ease-of-use, Help & Support, Site Creation Tools, Server Access, Control Panel, etc.
You may find many Hosting Providers on the internet; however HostGator and GoDaddy are the most familiar ones among all.
HostGator Vs GoDaddy Web Hosting Service
HostGator being the world’s top shared, reseller and dedicated web hosting service provider caters its services to nearly 7,000,000 domains that even include many fortune companies worldwide. It has been rapidly growing in United States. On the other hand, GoDaddy is mostly known as a domain registrar than a hosting provider, but it provides comprehensive web hosting services too.
In this article, you will find the comparison between HostGator and GoDaddy, on the following factors
- Hosting Packages
- Ease of Use
- Uptime Performance
- Site Creation Tools
- Server Access
- Control Panel
- IonCube Loader
- Using Other Automated Scripts
- Help & Support
Hosting Packages
HostGator offers unlimited bandwidth and disk space on all the plans named Hatchling Plan, Baby Plan and Business Plan. Though there is a limitation of hosting single domain in one account for hatchling plan, there is no such limitation in the other two plans. When you choose business plan, you will also get your own toll free number, free dedicated IP address, and a private SSL. With HostGator, you will get unlimited FTP accounts and email accounts with all the plans. The unlimited Business Plan of HostGator costs you $10.36 per month. You can choose the plan according to your need by visiting its official website
GoDaddy provides unlimited bandwidth on all the plans that include Economy, Deluxe and Ultimate Plans. But storage space is limited to 10GB for Economy Plan and 150GB for Deluxe Plan. Also, while choosing Economy Plan, you need to purchase it for 3 months together. Deluxe Plan comes for $6.99 per month. If you are looking for unlimited storage with GoDaddy, you need to go for Ultimate Plan that costs whopping $14.99. Though this plan seems to have enough of appealing features, it may not be proper fit for a starters.
Ease of Use
HostGator does not believe in making features unwontedly complicated. You will not find any problem while figuring out the basic features of HostGator. All its features and services are easy-to-understand and easy-to-use. HostGator ensures that all its users are comfortable with each section of its services and understand them well so that they can find it as a hassle-free experience. However, if you have any queries while using the features, you can go through the help documentation or contact the customer service to get immediate trouble-shooting support.
Though GoDaddy seems to be offering easy-to-use services, you need to have little patience at times. You may face long waiting times for the requests made on your accounts – setting up databases, installing application and so on. This may cause lag while uploading new or fresh content to your websites.
Uptime Performance
HostGator offers the best uptime among all the web hosting services including GoDaddy. Though GoDaddy states to give 99.9% uptime, many users claim that it does not provide good uptime. HostGator has been providing the best uptime with an industry standard of 99.9% for over a period of three years. You can view HostGator Uptime Performance here. HostGator also offers 45 days risk free trial with no contract.
Site Creation Tools
HostGator surely excels in this area of Site Creation Tools. It provides you with free website building tools that include SiteStudio and SiteBuilder. SideBuilder is the easiest among all the site builders in the industry. 
HostGator also supports many programming languages including Python and PHP5, with which even a person with basic coding knowledge can surely work. It also supports other programming languages like SSI, Perl, Ruby on Rails, CGI, and Fast CGI. You can also install any number of forums, blogs, guest books and other design portions to your website. HostGator also provides you 4,500 free website templates. If yours is an e-commerce website, this hosting service provider supports shopping cart services like PayPal, CubeCart, ShopSite, osCommerce, and ZenCart. Click here to learn more about features and services offered by HostGator
Though GoDaddy supports almost all the languages that are supported by HostGator, it does not offer any free website building tools. It supports only osCommerce and ZenCart for e-commerce websites.
Server Access
You are allowed to create unlimited MySQL databases with phpMyAdmin access, and unlimited FTPs with all HostGator Plans. In addition, when you purchase business plan, to ensure protection HostGator provides anonymous FTP for uploading processes. This supports password-protected directories for the files on its servers so that no unauthorized person can access the sites, and also you can find web-based file manager that assists you keep everything organized.
On the other hand, GoDaddy has limitations on number of FTP accounts and MySQL databases. Though you get unlimited MySQL with Ultimate Plan, it is limited to 10GB for Economy and 25GB for Deluxe Plan. All the plans are limited to have 50 FTP users.
Control Panel
HostGator offers the latest cPanel Control Panel. With this, you can create instant forums, blogs, portals, formmails and so on. It includes good choice 
of web statistics that include Webalizer, AQStats, Raw Log Manager, and Referrer. This control panel includes Web Based File Manager, Hotlink Protection, Redirect URL and IP Deny Manager. It also offers password protected directories and custom error pages. You can try cPanel Demo here.
When coming to GoDaddy, it offers a custom control panel with some tools to help users to build and manage basic sites. Still, it is not as user friendly as cPanel Control Panel is.
IonCube Loader
If you’ve been using hosting services for a long time, you must be aware of IonCube loader. It helps in decrypting encoded PHP scripts. This is a very important tool for most of the companies and website users, as it prevents their software from being copied or hacked by someone. While HostGator supports this, GoDaddy does not.
Using Other Automated Scripts
There may be some occasions when you need to run an automated script that is different from the default one of your web hosting service provider. HostGator does not create any trouble when you do such changes. But if you do the same while using GoDaddy, your account will be banned and you need to start again from the scratch. GoDaddy is also big pain when you have any copyright or legal issues.
Help & Support
HostGator provides a wide range resources and customer service options when coming to Help and Support. It offers FAQs Section, Support Portal, 500+ Video Tutorials, and 680+ Help Articles. HostGator also offers 24/7/365 premium customer support via phone, live chat, and ticket system (email). You can expect an immediate response through any of these sources. It makes a good balance between the effective contact options and the help documentation section.
GoDaddy too have help documentation and support forums. Though it also has customer support via phone and email, you may experience long waiting times for the response.
Conclusion
There is nothing to think on the comparison. HostGator definitely scores better in all the parameters. Though GoDaddy is very good for domain registration, you may not find it suitable for your web hosting needs. For that you need a web hosting specialist like HostGator. Get Started with HostGator today to experience the best hosting service to your website.
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