Why I Moved Mine (And My Client’s Sites) Off GoDaddy – and why SiteGround is Awesome

Firstly – this is not a diss at GoDaddy – which is a great hosting company in many ways. However I wanted to talk about why I moved mine (and my client’s sites off GoDaddy) recently and give a bit more of an insight to you if you are considering GoDaddy (and have seen the ads on the telly with that guy in the kitchen or out on the street).

So let’s get straight into it.

Server Locations

Even though GoDaddy prominently advertises on television in Australia you should be aware that they don’t actually have servers physically situated in Australia.

The closest set of servers that GoDaddy owns is in Singapore – this is the same as SiteGround – my new hosting provider – however it’s important for people to understand this.

GoDaddy is extremely good at branding – and it is good that you can call them on an Australian number – but don’t make the mistake that if you go with GoDaddy that your server will be located in Australia.

WordPress Hosting

GoDaddy does have a WordPress hosting option – which I have tried – all though I had difficulties with it and ended up just using the standard hosting and installing WordPress on it.

Even though GoDaddy has a WordPress option it should be noted how their business is organised. Their target market seems to be mom and pop retailers and a big push they have for new website owners is to get sites built with GoDaddy’s site builder (a product they created).

If you are someone sold on using WordPress (which as a WordPress developer with absolutely no bias I think is awesome) – then looking at GoDaddy as a host for WordPress is not the best option.

In fact in a public poll of the best WordPress host on Facebook was held and SiteGround came at #1 while GoDaddy was down at #6.

I should note this is not necessarily a dig at GoDaddy but rather the fact that GoDaddy just isn’t built for WordPress hosting – it is not their core business and this might be good for some who are not as tech savvy.

Server Response Time

This is really the thing that broke the camel’s back. Before I was going to write this I thought it may be a wee bit unfair – because I was on GoDaddy’s Deluxe Plan which is about $12-$14p/m billed monthly – and SiteGround’s servers were more (slightly more expensive) at about $24p/m. Pricing is complicated because the cost goes down to being the same as GoDaddy with discounts – but you do have to pay for 12 months up front.

So when comparing the server response times I decided to compare it with a client’s who is on a more expensive GoDaddy hosting package. And the result – just like with all my other sites is the same.

Simply put – GoDaddy’s server response time is extremely frustrating.

While my sites now get a .2 second response time – my other client’s site is still at 1.2 seconds for mobile and 1.8 seconds for desktop. You have to keep in mind this is not the time it takes to load the site – but rather just to hear back from GoDaddy’s servers so that information can start to be passed!

Since I knew how important it was to have fast loading sites for Google search results (not to mention user experience) – I made the decision to migrate everything away from GoDaddy.

Phone Support

What I will give GoDaddy credit for is their fantastic phone support. Unlike Crazy Domains – whom I had been a customer with – who outsourced their call centers to India and who caused me untold amounts of frustration (long hold times and people who just didn’t know anything) GoDaddy tech support are located in America – in house – and are very skilled up.

This is why this is not meant to be a diss on GoDaddy – the mom and pop stores who want to make something themselves will find GoDaddy’s experienced phone support invaluable.

However I found I didn’t need to contact GoDaddy support in most instances after I had figured everything out – and SiteGround still has phone support (it’s just located in the US).

Customer Experience (and Search) Comes First

Despite GoDaddy’s great customer service support customer experience and search rankings come first. If clients can’t find you – and are waiting too long for your site to load nothing else matters.

And this is why now all my sites respond in .2 seconds – and that 1.6 second difference from GoDaddy is a big deal. Just remember to look at these things when choosing a host – server response time is the big one at the end of the day when all is said and done however it’s something that most people do not consider when purchasing hosts.

All my clients receive FAST hosting as part of working with me – so you won’t have to worry about it – fill out the form below if you’re feeling your site is giving users a bad user experience (and is not being found on Google by your clients) and I’ll call you to discuss.

Adios Amigos!


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