Hostinger vs GoDaddy Comparison: Which Is Best in 2026?

All things considered, Hostinger is a better option than GoDaddy for shared hosting and managed WordPress hosting. To make that determination, I closely examined five key factors: features, performance (based on regular in-house testing), customer support, prices, and ease of use.

If you’re interested in the fine details, stick with me for a few minutes. I will break everything down for you below. No fluff. No sales pitch. Just the facts you need to make a smart choice for your website today.

Hostinger vs. GoDaddy: At a Glance

⚙️ Features you get from Hostinger and GoDaddy

Hostinger and GoDaddy each have their own little bonuses to consider based on the type of website you plan on making.

However, many features vary based on the type of hosting you sign up for. Both Hostinger and GoDaddy sell shared, VPS, and other types of hosting. Yet, as mentioned before, we’ll only be looking at the features from the shared hosting plans and the managed WordPress hosting plans.

Hostinger features

Hostinger ties quite a few features together in what it presents as its three main web hosting plans. The interesting aspect of those plans is that only the first two fall under the umbrella of traditional shared hosting, while the third is actually Hostinger’s entry-level cloud plan. On top of that, all three also have managed WordPress features, thus they also serve as Hostinger’s managed WordPress plans. I explain this Venn Diagram approach in more detail in a separate analysis of Hostinger’s pricing.

Here is what you can expect to get:

• A minimum of 3 websites (and up to 100 on the highest Cloud Startup plan).
• Between 2-10 free email inboxes for one year (depending on plan).
• Free domain with all plans for one year.
• A free SSL certificate for all plans.
• Backups for all plans (ranging from weekly to daily).
• LiteSpeed server/caching.
• WordPress acceleration.
• WordPress multisite.
• AI website builder (+ more advanced AI tools from tier two).
• Nameservers protected by Cloudflare.
• DNS management options.
• 100+ payment methods and 0% transaction fees for ecommerce websites.
• Create from 10 to 300 databases.
• Create from 100 to 300 subdomains.
• FTP accounts.
• 150 website templates.
• SSH and WP-CLI access.
• DDoS protection.
• GitHub integration.

GoDaddy features

In all honesty, GoDaddy does lack some features compared to Hostinger. While all the essential stuff is there, you just get a lot less functionality overall.

Some feature highlights from their web hosting plans include:

• From 25 GB to 75 GB NVMe storage.
• cPanel control panel.
• Free domain for the first year.
• Free email for the first year.
• Free SSL certificate for the first year.
• 30-day, money-back guarantee.
• Site security package for the first month.

It seems that most of GoDaddy’s features are just free trials – either for the first year or even just for a month.

Their managed WordPress hosting plans are a bit more attractive – though they all support only a single website per plan. Here’s what you get:

• Latest version of PHP with Zend extended long-term support (LTS).
• Free domain for the first year.
• Pre-installed WordPress with automatic core software updates.
• From 10 GB to 30 GB NVMe storage.
• Free SSL Certificate.
• AI creation tool.
• CoBlocks WordPress block extension plugin.
• Daily backups.
• GoDaddy Airo™ Site Optimizer.
• Web Application Firewall.
• Automated malware scans and removal.
• DDoS protection.

Then, on the two higher tier plans, you also get:

• Staging sites.
• SEO optimizer.
• CDN
• TrustedSite badge

Again, Hostinger does a better job with the essentials.

🏎️ Performance tests

Hosting is more important for performance than any theme, plugin, or caching tool. That’s why it’s essential to figure out whether or not your hosting plan is giving you the performance your site needs.

Page speed

We’ve been doing a lot in the realm of performance testing when it comes to different hosting providers. You can see more of our work in this post for example, but the general idea behind our testing is this:

• We buy actual hosting setups with each company that we want to test.
• We then set up template websites on these hosts.
• We fill the sites with demo data, graphics, etc.
• We then test the load times and uptimes of those sites.
• We repeat the tests each month to build a long-term log.

Here are the most recent results of the tests – as measured last month:

The other thing to keep in mind is that although this is a decent indicator of load times for smaller websites, your page load times can also be drastically affected by the type of hosting you have, your site content, and any optimization tools you use.

Uptime

Uptime in the context of web hosting refers to the duration for which a website or web server is operational and accessible to users. For example, a hosting provider that guarantees 99.9% uptime aims to have the server operational and serving content 99.9% of the time.

Uptime is crucial because it directly impacts user experience. High uptime ensures that visitors can consistently access a site, which maintains trust and prevents potential revenue loss. It also mitigates negative impacts on search engine rankings. Therefore, web hosting services with high uptime guarantees are generally preferred to ensure reliable and continuous access to online content.

Just like with the page loading times, we also check the uptime of both GoDaddy and Hostinger (and other hosting companies) every month and update the results for our readers.

Here are the most recent results, showing the average uptime over the last three months:

📞 Who has better customer support?

Hosting customer support is a mixed bag since most of the larger companies tell you that you’ll receive 24/7 support. That could mean 24/7 email support and an automated or outsourced phone line.

Therefore, we’re interested in what the customer support actually looks like from each brand and if the online resources are helpful as well.

Hostinger customer support

Hostinger offers 24/7 customer support via live chat or email. However, Hostinger does not currently offer any phone support – and they do confirm this in their official docs.

One important thing to note is that when you use Hostinger’s chat support, it initially has you interact with an AI chatbot. If the AI chatbot can’t solve your problem, you can then request a human to help you. While that might feel like a turn off for some people, from personal experience, the AI chatbot is actually quite good and certainly better than other AI chatbots I’ve interacted with elsewhere.

As for online resources, Hostinger has a database filled with tutorials (including videos), along with a knowledge base and blog.

GoDaddy customer support

GoDaddy has an advantage over Hostinger in the customer support game since it has a 24/7 phone line for customers to call. You can also opt for the online chatbox.

Online resources include a detailed help section, tutorials (including videos), a community forum, and a blog.

💰 How does Hostinger vs GoDaddy pricing compare?

Both GoDaddy and Hostinger provide introductory promotional rates, which are priced below the standard market rate. Hostinger usually lets you lock in this lower rate for up to four years. GoDaddy’s promotional period varies. On shared web hosting plans, it’s typically three years, but on managed WordPress plans, there are now long-term contracts that go all the way up to a full decade.

Hostinger pricing

As mentioned earlier, Hostinger’s shared web hosting plans are also its managed WordPress hosting plans (learn more about this here).

If you do decide to go with Hostinger, you’re in luck: we’ve arranged a discount for our readers. It’s not an enormous discount, but it is a bit less than you’d normally pay if you went straight to Hostinger.com. You can go through this link to claim the better rate.

Here are the details you need to know:

• “Premium” – from $1.79/mo. for 3 websites, 20 GB of SSD storage, up to 25,000 monthly visits, WordPress acceleration, a free SSL certificate, a free domain in your first year. Renews at $10.99/mo.
• “Business” – from $2.69/mo. for 50 websites, 50 GB of NVMe storage, up to 100,000 monthly visits, everything in the previous plan plus a free CDN, a WordPress staging tool, object cache for WordPress, advanced AI tools, daily and on-demand backups, and more allocated resources. Renews at $16.99/mo.
• “Cloud Startup” – from $6.99/mo. for 100 websites, 100 GB of NVMe storage, up to 200,000 monthly visits, everything in the previous plans, plus a dedicated IP address, and an even higher resource allocation than the Business plan. Renews at $25.99/mo.

The prices above reflect the reduced Themeisle rate.

Click to see additional pricing information 🖱️

GoDaddy pricing

Unlike Hostinger, GoDaddy has a separate set of shared web hosting plans, which are different from their managed WordPress plans. All of the plans have introductory and long-term commitment pricing.

Here’s what to expect:

Shared web hosting plans

• Web Hosting Economy – from $5.99/mo. for one website, 25 GB of NVMe storage, and a free SSL certificate + free domain name in your first year. Renews at $11.99/mo.
• Web Hosting Deluxe – from $7.99/mo. for ten websites, 50 GB of NVMe storage, a free ongoing SSL certificate, and a free domain in your first year. Renews at $16.99/mo.
• Web Hosting Ultimate – from $12.99/mo. for 25 websites, 75 GB of NVMe storage, a free ongoing SSL certificate, and a free domain in your first year. Renews at $21.99/mo.

Click to see additional pricing information 🖱️

Managed WordPress hosting plans

As for the managed WordPress hosting plans, they all support a single website per plan and come with WordPress pre-installed. All of them also include a free ongoing SSL certificate, a free domain in your first year, a site optimizer, automatic malware scanning and removal, DDoS protection, daily backups, and an AI creation tool.

The rest of the details are as follows:

• Managed WordPress Basic – from $5.99/mo. for 10 GB of NVMe storage. Renews at $14.99/mo.
• Managed WordPress Deluxe – from $8.99/mo. for 20 GB of NVMe storage, plus a staging site, a free CDN, an SEO Optimizer, and a TrustedSite badge. Renews at $19.99/mo.
• Managed WordPress Ultimate – from $14.99/mo. for 30 GB of NVMe storage, everything in the previous plan, plus a plugin manager, WooCommerce, and priority support. Renews at $26.99/mo.

Click to see additional pricing information 🖱️

Note: The prices in the screenshot reflect one-year plans. To receive the lower rate mentioned in the bullet points, you must commit to a contract of at least three years.

GoDaddy offers more overall plans than Hostinger, with a cleaner separation between its web hosting and managed WordPress hosting plans. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, but it does result in a wider array of options available to customers.

Hostinger has fewer plans, but wins in the cost savings department, as their plans are significantly cheaper. For example, the entry-level plan with GoDaddy is more than triple the price of Hostinger (when you use our coupon code; without it, it’s triple).

This is not only evident in the introductory rates, but also the renewal rates.

🙋 Which is easier to use?

User experience for a web host depends on its online dashboard.

Hostinger offers a custom feature-packed backend with direct access to hosting elements, domain names, and SSLs.

Despite the blatant name borrowing from cPanel, Hostinger’s hPanel doesn’t quite have the power and flexibility of its more famous counterpart. Having said that, it’s arguably easier to navigate for beginners and covers most of what you need to manage a site.

GoDaddy used to have one of my least favorite dashboards. It was cluttered, filled with upsells, and difficult to understand where everything was located.

So much has changed over the years, seeing as how the GoDaddy dashboard has a modern design with whitespace and a consolidated menu to guide you to the absolute essentials. You also get access to cPanel, which is a big advantage for users who prefer using the industry-leading hosting panel manager.

Overall, neither of these hosts is significantly easier to use than the other. Nowadays, most hosting companies – including GoDaddy and Hostinger – have designed their user dashboards and processes to be beginner-friendly. That’s because the majority of new business comes from the beginner market segment ¹.

In practical terms, it means that the learning curve for both hosts is relatively short, and neither one has an advantage when it comes to performing administrative tasks.

cPanel users notwithstanding, I still give Hostinger a slight edge purely because the hPanel has more features than GoDaddy’s native control panel.

Hostinger vs GoDaddy: Which one to choose?

Just as I said at the very beginning of the post, my vote is for Hostinger. They provide a more complete package, with more features for less money, and with a better reputation among users.

Even though Hostinger and GoDaddy are considered by many to be the no. 1 and no. 2 most popular hosts on the market, there’s a big gap between what actual customers rate their services. This is supported by our own survey from WPShout:

• Hostinger was rated 8.11/10 in the survey
• GoDaddy was rated 6.51/10

I just can’t ignore that gap – especially since it comes from real users who have been with their hosts for a while.

If you have any questions about this Hostinger vs GoDaddy review, let us know in the comments!

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