Godaddy, the largest domain name registrar on the web is the largest web host as well. Independent analysts put their market share as approx. 25 million web sites which is around 35% of US market. This could include parked domains as well, but in any case they are the largest host by a big margin.
As a company, Godaddy revolutionized the market by offering extremely competitive rates for domain registration and web hosting. Even today, their rates are much below the market average. Their strength is their volume and excellent infrastructure which helps them make sense of the low prices.
Godaddy Network and
Datacenter Review
Godaddy host their servers on their own world class data centers located in U.S. and Europe. These data centers are connected to multiple upstream providers for redundancy. Data centers are fully monitored with 24x7 security staff, monitoring staff, fire protection and so on.
In short, the network and equipments are top class. As I write this, Godaddy is ranked at # 31 for all major hosts in the world, monitored by Netcraft, for uptime and connection speed.
They also have enterprise level back up and restore technologies, that can take full and incremental backups and offer off site retention, which is actually an extra paid service for VPS and Dedicated servers.
Godaddy Server
management
Godaddy dedicated and VPS plans are self managed, which means that the maintenance and monitoring of the server is the responsibility of the customer. The responsibility of the host is limited to top level issues like server rebooting, OS reinstall, hardware and networking issues etc.
Self managed servers are ideal for web masters who are technically competenet and may not require outside help in managing the server. There is obvious cost savings in self management, but it is not the right solution for those who do not have the time or resources for the server management. For such users, Godaddy offer assisted service plan which takes care of most of the monitoring and management issues and prove access to hourly billed custom support services. But with charges of around $150 per month, assisted service plan takes away the advantage of low cost hosting.
In our opinion, Godaddy is best suited for those who are looking for a cheap self managed dedicated server / VPS. Web masters looking for cheap grid hosting can give it a try, if they are willing to take bit of a risk in exchange for a scalable platform that can take traffic spikes.
Godaddy Customer
Support Review
Godaddy offer 24 / 7 support, on toll free lines as well as ticket system. Support ticket get replied in an average 3-4 hrs, which is not bad. There could be up to 5-20 minutes hold time on phone support which varies depending on the time you make the call.
While Godaddy support is very professional and easy to reach, they lack the personal touch which some of the smaller hosts offer. The support is pretty rigid when it comes to what they are supposed to do on the server and might send you a copy of FAQ / server contract in case you ask for something that is not covered in your hosting plan.
Godaddy Pricing
As already mentioned, all Godaddy hosting products are competitively priced. VPS starts from $29.00 and Dedicated servers start from $79.00. Of course you can find cheaper prices, but considering only the well known large hosts, these are among the cheapest. There are discounts for longer contracts and add on features are cheap as well. Recently, they have started grid hosting as well – which is still in beta - and the rates starts from $4.95/month. This is among the cheapest price for grid hosting, with most competitors charging a minimum of $20.00 for similar packages.
Godaddy Offers
Godaddy offer a number of discount coupons / promo codes, from time to time. The one that works in most cases is “CJCSAVE10” which gives 10% discount for all purchases. More updated Godaddy Coupons, may be found here..
Recommendation
Godaddy hosting is for experienced web masters who want to have a stable system, reliable brand name and can manage the server without much help. Prices are very much reasonable and there is not much to worry if you know what you are doing.
Their assisted plans are expensive and probably not worth the money. If you are looking for a fully managed server with great support, there are better hosts to choose from.
Categories
Godaddy Network and
Datacenter Review 
Godaddy Server
management
Godaddy Customer
Support Review 
Godaddy Offers
Recommendation
