Anyone who has shopped for web hosting has almost certainly heard of GoDaddy and Ionos. Those two hosting companies are the two most popular hosting companies in the world.
What makes GoDaddy and Ionos so popular? They both have several hosting options that are competitively priced, have solid support, and that perform well. It doesn’t hurt that they are both well-financed, which provides them with huge marketing budgets that they’ve used to get their names out to the audience of people looking to host websites.
But we’re more interested in determining which is the best web hosting provider for you to use.
I’m going to compare GoDaddy versus Ionos side by side to help you make a decision about which, if either of the two, is a good option for your next hosting purchase.
GoDaddy is based in the United States, specifically in Phoenix, Arizona. The company started operation in 1997.
GoDaddy is a publicly traded company, traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GDDY.
GoDaddy’s main source of income is domain registration, which is what GoDaddy was best known for during the early 2000’s. GoDaddy now offers many different web hosting solutions, with web hosting being its second leading source of revenue, not far behind domain registrations.
Ionos is headquartered in Montabaur, Germany. It was formerly known as 1&1 IONOS and 1&1 Internet before re-branding to Ionos in 2021.
Ionos was founded in 1988 and served customers in Europe initially. In 2003, the company (known as United Internet at the time) entered the web hosting market in the United States, and set up a US headquarters office in Pennsylvania.
When shopping for a web hosting provider, it’s important to know something about the companies whose services you’re considering purchasing. Below you’ll find pertinent company information about GoDaddy and Ionos so that you can get a sense for who they are and how their operations are set up.
| GoDaddy | Ionos | |
| Headquarters | Phoenix, Arizona | Montabaur, Germany and Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania |
| Company Size | 6,600 Employees | 2,000 Employees |
| Number of Data Centers | 9 | 10 |
| Location of Data Centers | Phoenix, Arizona Scottsdale, Arizona Mesa, Arizona Los Angeles, California Chicago, Illinois Ashburn, Virginia Amsterdam, Netherlands Singapore | Las Vegas, Nevada Piscataway, New Jersey London, United Kingdom Frankfurt, Germany Berlin, Germany Logroño, Spain |
| Customer Base | 21 Million | 8.8 Million |
GoDaddy and Ionos both provide similar domain and hosting services, including the ones that are common across most of the popular web hosting companies, including:
In the table below, I will compare offerings from GoDaddy and Ionos to give you a better feel of how their respective products compare in price and features, so that you can make an informed decision in choosing between the two domain registration and hosting options.
One important thing to consider when comparing pricing for domain registration and hosting is that most web hosts, including GoDaddy and Ionos, have promotional price offerings to get you committed to using them. Those promotional teasers don’t represent very well what you’re going to pay long term for the service, as they will go up (usually significantly) after the introductory period. Be sure when you’re comparing GoDaddy versus Ionos (or any two web hosts for that matter) that you understand what the normal pricing is for the products you’re purchasing, so that you don’t get fooled by teaser pricing, which almost all domain registration and web hosting companies use to attract new customers.
Reviewing the comparison chart below for GoDaddy and Ionos products and pricing should help you understand the pricing structure of both web hosting companies so that you can make a good decision.
| GoDaddy | Ionos | |
| Registering and Managing Domains | ||
| Domain Registration | .com: $19.99/year .org: $29.99/year .net: $21.99/year .io: $62.99/year .info: $28.99/year | .com: $15/year .org: $20/year .net: $20/year .io: $60/year .info: $25/year |
| Domain Protection – Advanced security to keep your domain from being stolen | $9.99/year | $15/year |
| Domain Privacy – Keeping your domain contact information hidden from the public | Free | Free |
With regard to domain registration, domain protection, and domain privacy, Ionos is generally cheaper than GoDaddy.
GoDaddy has four different basic shared hosting plans. Each of their plans have a limit on the number of websites that can be published and on the amount of storage and number of databases that can be used with the plans. Also, the performance capabilities of the server (CPU and memory) are improved for the higher cost plans.
| Shared Hosting Plan GoDaddy shared hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth, daily backups, and a free 1-click WordPress installation | Monthly Cost |
| Economy: 1 website, 25 GB storage, 10 databases, standard performance | $8.99/month |
| Deluxe: 10 websites, 50GB storage, 25 databases, standard performance | $11.99/month |
| Ultimate: 25 websites, 75 GB storage, 50 databases, increased performance | $16.99/month |
| Maximum: 50 websites, 100GB storage, 100 databases maximum performance | $19.99/month |
GoDaddy has eight different VPS hosting plans available, and sections them based upon how much memory (RAM) they are allotted as well as whether they are self-managed (meaning you are responsible for configuring and maintaining the server) or fully managed (meaning GoDaddy maintains the server)
Here are the various GoDaddy VPS hosting plans available for self managed VPS hosting.
GoDaddy Self Managed VPS Hosting Plans
GoDaddy self managed VPS accounts start at $4.99/month with a 3-year plan commitment for a single CPU core, 1 GB of RAM, and 20GB of storage, and 2 IP addresses.
You can choose from any of the eight self managed GoDaddy VPS accounts based upon how much processing power, memory, and disk space, with their 8 CPU, high-RAM plan going for $99.99/month with a 3-year hosting commitment.
GoDaddy’s Fully Managed VPS
GoDaddy differs from Ionos when it comes to VPS hosting in that it offers a fully managed VPS plan. Ionos VPS plans are self managed.
GoDaddy VPS Operating Systems
Different hosting needs often require specific operating systems. GoDaddy’s self managed VPS plans can be set up with:
GoDaddy’s fully managed VPS plan doesn’t have the Ubuntu operating system available. CentOS and Windows Server are the only options for the fully managed VPS plan.
GoDaddy’s fully managed VPS plan costs $104.99/month, which is much more than most of their self managed plans. However, a fully managed VPS saves you the overhead of having to take on web administration tasks that often end up being time consuming and can be expensive.
GoDaddy has eight different options for self managed dedicated server hosting. They also have eight dedicated server plans that are fully managed.
SSD Dedicated Hosting
GoDaddy’s dedicated hosting plans include 4 SSD-based servers that start at $179.99 per month for a server with 32 GB of RAM and 2 x 500GB SSD storage.
On the high side of GoDaddy’s SSD dedicated hosting, you’ll pay $519.99 for a high-powered 2 TB storage server with 256 GB of RAM.
HDD Dedicated Hosting
GoDaddy HDD dedicated hosting plans range from $169.99/month on the low side to $499.99/month on the high side.
GoDaddy has eight different fully managed dedicated servers, 4 that use SSD storage and 4 that use HDD storage.
GoDaddy’s SSD fully managed dedicated servers range in price from $249.98/month to $529.98/month.
GoDaddy’s HDD fully managed dedicated servers range in price from $239.98/month to $509.98/month.
Ionos has three different shared hosting plans. Except for the lowest tier plan (Essential), Ionos’s shared plans don’t limit how much storage can be used nor how many databases are available. Instead they have a limit on the overall number of files that can be used. Similar to GoDaddy, Ionos plans have increases on server performance (CPU and memory) for higher tier plans.
| Shared Hosting Plan Ionos shared hosting plans come with unlimited bandwidth and daily backups | Monthly Cost |
| Essential: 1 website, 10GB storage,10 databases, standard performance | $6/month |
| Business: unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited databases, enhanced performance | $10/month |
| Expert: unlimited websites, unlimited storage, unlimited databases maximum performance | $16/month |
Ionos has 13 different VPS hosting plans available that allow you to choose different tiers of CPU, memory, and disk space resources allotted to your virtual web server. You can choose between standard hard disk drives (HDD) and solid state drives (SDD) for your storage.
Unlike GoDaddy, Ionos’ VPS hosting plans are all self managed. If you want to get a fully managed hosting solution from Ionos, you’ll need to get one of their dedicated server options, described below
Ionos VPS Hosting Plans
Below are some screen shots of Ionos’ VPS hosting plans. These are helpful in comparing between various plans available from Ionos as well as looking at the comparable GoDaddy VPS plans.
Ionos has eight different dedicated hosting hosting options, including four dedicated hosting plans that solid state drive (SSD) for storage and four plans that use hard disk drives (HDD) for storage. SSD plans start at $65/month and go up to $160/month. $50 setup fees apply to their three highest tier plans.
Ionos HDD dedicated server plans are slightly less expensive, starting at $47/month for the lowest tier plan and up to $140/month for their highest tier plan.
Details of the Ionos dedicated server plans can be found below.
The nature of web hosting means that customer support is an important aspect of choosing a web host. There are lots of things that can go wrong with what a business is publishing online, including problems that can occur with the web server itself or with a website or app running on the server. Having competent support available to correct problems or help you to correct problems as they arise can be more valuable than the amount you’re spending on a hosting plan.
GoDaddy and Ionos both have customer support teams that are highly rated. Both of them have both support that is always available: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Phone Support
They both publish their support line phone numbers online. GoDaddy’s support line can be reached at 1-480-366-3550. Ionos’ support team can be reached by phone at 1-484-254-5555.
GoDaddy also provides support via text messaging through a public phone number that receives texts: 1-833-956-8500.
Online Support
GoDaddy and Ionos also both provide online support through chat as well as through creating a support ticket online. GoDaddy’s chat support is easier to reach and more intuitive.
Looking at a summary of customer feedback in bulk is a good way to understand how GoDaddy and Ionos compare in terms of customer support experience. The information below comes from TrustPilot’s aggregation of thousands of customer reviews and ratings for both GoDaddy and Ionos.
Trust Pilot Rating: 4.3/5
Number of Reviews: 16,000
GoDaddy is substantially larger than Ionos, with nearly three times a customer base. This gives GoDaddy more resources to work with, including marketing and name recognition. However, Ionos products are generally less expensive, while still performing on par with GoDaddy.
GoDaddy’s support appears to be slightly more accessible.
In choosing between GoDaddy and Ionos for domain registration, web hosting, or other products they offer, it’s a good idea to evaluate your specific requirements, then compare the plans offered by both of these hosting companies to see which is going to give you the best value. Don’t be fooled by promotion offers, especially if you’re looking for a hosting partner that you will use for years to come. Committing to a web host usually turns into a long-term relationship with them, and it can be hard to back out of one host to move to another depending upon the complexity of the website or application that you’re hosting with them.
Good luck with your next hosting purchase.
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