GoDaddy vs. HostGator vs. Media Temple vs. BlueHost
Posted on February 3, 2010 at 5:16 am
Looking for a good place to host your website or blog? There are a variety of different things that you should consider before choosing a web host. The thing about web hosting is, once you pick a host and get your website setup, it can be very difficult to switch hosts in the future.
Thus, picking a web host that will work great for you initially is key. Chances are, you have probably heard of the following hosting companies. Here is how they stack up as far as bang for buck, reliability, and overall deal.
GoDaddy
Godaddy is one of the most popular web hosting companies, most likely due to heavy commercial advertising. Overall, Godaddy is a good webhosting company that offers just about any feature one could ask for in a web host.
Godaddy offers a do it yourself solution for just about any adjustment that you need to make with your domains and hosting. For example, with Godaddy, you can switch the primary domain on your hosting account yourself, by using the change of primary domain wizard.
Some smaller hosting companies do not officially offer a do it yourself solution for things like this. It can be done, but usually requires a call to customer support to have them do it. Godaddy does however, have one major con. They are always trying to market something to you.
It’s not uncommon to get 2-3 emails a day from Godaddy that are marketing some product to you or trying to make you upgrade to something more expensive. Also, Godaddy does offer a surplus of more features than traditional web hosts. However, they also charge you for the majority of them.
Godaddy’s rates tend to fluctuate a lot, but they do offer a lot of promos which you should take advantage of. The right promo code will get you a domain for 7 bucks and 20% off of your hosting.
HostGator
Hostgator is a very simple web host to use. They also have some of the best customer support in the business. When you purchase a domain through Hostgator, you are actually using Registry Rocket services to acquire the domain.
From there, Hostgator registers the domain name to your hosting account. This can be seen as a slight disadvantage. If you want to make domain changes on your account, you have to know how to adjust DNS servers yourself, and do it through Registry Rocket.
However, if you don’t want to bother with making changes like this, just send Hostgator an email and they will do it for you, no charge. Hostgator has good uptime, and they don’t bug you with marketing offers.
Hostgator rates for hosting and domain purchasing are mid range in price for a web host. But, they do accept promo codes, which can save you a couple bucks here and there.
Media Temple (MT)
Media Temple is the chosen host by a variety of different labels including: Adobe, Diesel, JQuery, Starbucks, etc… They market themselves as a premium web host. MT’s UI software is unique, similar to Godaddy.
They don’t use cPanel like the majority of generic hosts. Media Temple’s hosting plans are really only suitable for sites that get a lot of traffic. Their prices are considered very high. The lowest Media Temple hosting plan starts at $20 a month, and prices only go up from there.
They do a decent job at not bugging you with marketing plots, and the letters that they do send you are often times useful. Media Temple support is decent.
Blue Host
Blue Host is known for having some of the best hosting rates. Hosting plans start at $6.95 a month and most of the time you can get hosting for under $5 with a good promo code.
As far as reliability, Blue Host has had some trouble in the past, as many users have reported that their sites have gone down. However, Blue Host has gotten several positive reviews as well.
Similar to Hostgator, Blue Host uses the cPanel interface. Blue Host tends to stay on top of hosting trends and add features when necessary and demand is there. Support for Blue Host is generally good.
Conclusion
In conclusion, here is my opinion on the final ranking of the four web hosting companies:
1. Hostgator
2. Godaddy
3. Blue Host
4. Media Temple
Don’t agree? Tell us why you think the order should be different. Or tell us your favorite web hosting company and why it’s better than the four I mentioned here. Enjoy!
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In my view Hostgator is the best web hosting company…live support features 24/7 is highlight of hostgator…so I like it very much!
Hi!
Although I may not agree with the order of your final ranking, we’re still happy to be included in your list.
Scott DeSmet
(mt) Media Temple Inc.
In the past 3 years, the websites I have with Bluehost only had 1.5 hours of downtime.
I also have to say that they have been incredibly accommodating with requests to install versions other than their standard one, of mysql and php so that certain software could be run.
I would recommend BlueHost to anyone that asked.
The only other company on your list I have had experience with is GoDaddy – and I had loads of issues with them including a 3 week period where my php would not run against a mysql db because of something they changed on configuration on their end.
I’m truly satisfied with HostGator service and support.
Currently my site is hosted on Hostgator and I’m totally satisfied with it. Previously it was hosted on Dreamhost and I was getting down times there
I did try HostGator for couple of days, but unfortunately, I could not run my custom-made php software on their server. The customer support was very impressive and all above, they refunded my money on my request after that without any problem.
Hi Aseem,
May we know at which web host your high traffic website has been hosted on? As your name server resolves to softlayer, this site has been directly hosted @ softlayer or through any reseller.
I use HostMonster (from what you wrote, they sound a lot like HostGator). I’ve been quite pleased with them and have not been aware of any server downtime.
The price and number of features you get is great. I’ve not yet had to contact customer support, and I haven’t gotten any solicitations from them. They do use cPanel as well.
This is a very subjective review: no numbers, no tests, no statistics. Just a personal opinion.
I just moved to Media Temple and so far I love these guys. Truly reliable service and they take traffic without issues. If you get a promo-code the plans can be affordable.
One thing i noticed about them: they seem expensive because they do not oversell or hide stuff. With other services you get one basic plan which is cheap and, when you get traffic to your site, need to make upgrades, etc you end up paying more for the same thing Media Temple offers out of the box.
Ciprian,
Welcome to (mt)!
This is a terrible review. I have researched about web hosting companies and for the most part I learned very little from your review. The most I learned are general terms that people throw out any time and any day already.
It’s a okay overview for getting to know the hosts but there is hardly any comparisons between the hosts, no data to support claims and the ending ranking is just an overall ranking seems more based on an opinion blurted out rather than a well thought out ranking.
More data or some ratings in different categories would be great for a review.
And I feel you should not include Media Temple in the grouping comparison as you even mentioned already they are geared more towards larger traffic websites, while the other three are for starting up websites and such.
You are correct that “once you pick a host and get your website set up, it can be very difficult to switch hosts in the future.” So I’m baffled as to how you arrive at the advice that “picking a web host that will work great for you initially is key.” I completely disagree with this.
In fact, the opposite is true, which is what makes choosing a host so difficult. My personal advice is to carefully consider where you’re going and what your future needs are likely to be, and be very sure that whoever you choose will be willing and able to grow or change with you. Know up front what these changes will cost (as in Ciprian’s example regarding Media Temple).
Make a list of what factors are most important to you (cost, uptime, support hours, quality of support, how flexible the user interface is, etc, etc) and do your own research on your candidates’ reputations and policies before committing to a hosting company.
Shame you missed out on one of the other big providers: Dreamhost. They may oversell but their support is pretty good.
Important would have been how much PHP memory they allow you to use for Wordpress. I know of so many providers that only give 32 MB
It would be nice if you provided some worthwhile information on performance. The information you did provide was essentially a summary of information you could find on the provider’s websites.
I’m really surprised by GoDaddy’s rating. Their control panel has gotta be the most unintuitive thing I’ve ever seen and still to this day after buying a domain name from them 3 years ago I still get emails, calls and direct mail. Bluehost has been good for me. Support and reliability could be better but what company’s couldn’t?
Kendrick, (mt) Media Temple is good for websites, both big and small. We’re built to scale!
I host my company’s website with MediaTemple and a bunch of sites I’ve built on the side with BlueHost.
In my experience and opinion…
MediaTemple
– 3x the price at $20/month
– Major (20+ minutes) daytime outage every few months
– No chat support
– Consistently long waits for phpne support
– Proprietary control panel
– 1-click installers for a laughable THREE apps
BlueHost
– $7/month
– I can’t recall a single outage in my years with ‘em
– 24×7 chat support is fast and helpful
– Familiarity of cPanel, with great domain controls
– 1-click installers for 68 apps in 24 categories
I’d gladly pay MORE than MT’s $20 a month for a far superior hosting service. Fortunately BH just charges $7. On the heels of today’s 40 minute MT outage I’m so there.
@Kendrick
Lol. How is this terrible. The goal of it was to be a simple overview of features between 4 web hosts. Not detailed data about every web host out there. Not once through the review did I bash any company. Not once throughout the review do you see even one affiliate link. Somewhat opinionated, but at least, unbiased.
This review is not at all just my opinion. I have had experience with these companies. However, I read several customer reviews from numerous sites before writing the overview. That’s why I mentioned stuff like “As far as reliability, Bluehost has had some trouble in the past.” Because I found several customer reviews stating that they have had some trouble with Blue Host.
I included Media Temple because it is a popular host. The only reason that MT is ranked lowest is because of their prices, nearly double, triple, and sometimes 4x more expensive than other hosting companies.
Oh my, the reviews for MT seem way outrageous.
I have been with MT for several years, use TWO of their grid servers, hosting over the years probably 20-30 different domains at a single time. I have not ONCE experienced an unexpected downtime (that was caused by MT). There have been maintenance times, those were announced with plenty of advanced time, and I was able to inform my clients of the window of time (usually in the wee hours of the morning). So, if there is a downtime of 40 minutes, I’d seriously take a look at something else, or figure out what you might be doing with your own internal systems.
I’ve NEVER heard of that kind of problem with MT. As far as the cost is concerned, it’s been the best overall cost that is upfront, nothing hidden, and easy to use system – with, might I add, stability in COMPANY. 20 bucks a month? Come on…you have 2-3 different clients and that pays for itself easily. I think the problem is that people are still TOO cheap and want McD’s prices with Caviar services.
I’m all too glad to recommend MT for everything and currently am working with a company for a project that requires streaming audio, PHP, MySql DBs, etc…and I don’t even think of anywhere else to go.
Yes! MT all the way.
Sorry Dean. Congrats on your experience but in EVERY single one of my downtime situations, MT has acknowledged that the problem was on their end (when I was finally able to get ahold of them after the fact…usually 30+ minute hold times for phone support during outages). They usually credit the month’s hosting, which needless to say doesn’t nearly make up for extensive downtime during he workday.
You’re right that the cost is trivial, by the way. I’d gladly pay a premium for superior hosting — I only bring up MT’s higher price because I get exponentially better support and uptime from Bluehost at 1/3 the price. That’s in large part a problem of expectation, I paid the premium with MT because I assumed they’d be better, but have been let down in that dept.
Greg, thanks for your comments. I was considering moving to MT, but knowing you’ve had to contact support for downtime issues makes me reconsider. This is the same issue I’m having with my current hosting company (I won’t mention the name, but they are not this list for obvious reasons). I pay just about the same BlueHost charges, so it may be time for a switch.
WinHost [winhost.com] has been the best experience I have had with any we hosting provider.
Thank you for both writing an engaging review and provoking an illuminating discussion.
As a small entrepreneur experimenting with various possibilities on websites and independent book publishing, this blog directly focuses on my current dilemma. Do I stick with Go Daddy? Switch to Blue Host for new sites?
While a larger amount of objective information would have more helpful than just personal stories, this exchange of ideas and experiences has encouraged me to explore Blue Host far more seriously. Thank you.
I have tried Host Monster, Hostgator, Blue Host and Media Temple. Although Hostgator has very friendly staff and provides best support to the customers, for reliability, Media Temple is the best.
I have a site at bluehost since 2 years ago. The uptime is terrible and very slow. So i plan to switch the site to hostgator. BUT~! hostgator also gives very slow performance and even slower than bluehost. Their services is bad as hell and my request for transfering keep waiting n lying to me.
Godaddy is for domain registration, i heard alot bad thing about their system performance, slow for foreign countries.
For media temple, i havent try it yet.
As for foreign country’s user:
If for Performance, my rating is:
1. Blue Host
2. Hostgator
3. Godaddy
If for Uptime, my rating is:
1. Godaddy
2. Hostgator
3. Blue Host
Having had experience with both Bluehost and Media Temple. Sites I have hosted with Bluehost have had good uptime but are consistently slow, much slower then anything I host with MT. Support from Bluehost is lacking as well, I have had to wait weeks to get answers to what should be relatively simple questions. Media Temple has always responded to any support requests, so far they have all just been questions not problems with my sites. Yes bluehost has a ton more applications that can be installed, but they are usually out of date and require updates once installed anyways. And really, if we are judging a hosting company by its ability to setup a website for us it seems a little lazy on the developers side if you ask me.