Home Compare vs GoDaddy

HostingSimple vs GoDaddy.

Not the cheapest. Better than the upsells.

GoDaddy sells the cheap sticker, then spends the rest of the year selling you SSL, Managed WordPress, email security, and 'site protection'. We're a flat $15/mo with everything bundled in. No dashboard pressure, ever — and here's what the $3/mo difference actually buys.

The honest version

When GoDaddy is genuinely
the right pick.

We want you on the right host — even if that's not us. This is when we'd tell you to stay.

In GoDaddy's
favour

GoDaddy makes sense if your domain is already with them and you want one bill for one provider. Their support is uneven but functional. For everything beyond a single small site with a registered domain, we'd struggle to defend them — but we'll be honest: switching for switching's sake when nothing's broken isn't worth your time.

What the price difference buys

Yes, we cost a little more.
Here's exactly what's included for it.

+$3.01/mo more than GoDaddy at renewal. About $0.1 a day. Here's what gets bundled into our $15 that GoDaddy either gates to a higher tier, sells as an add-on, or simply doesn't offer.

On GoDaddy
EconomyEntry tier · 1 site
$ 11.99 / mo at renewal
  • Zero dashboard upsells
  • Soft visit caps, no throttling
  • Same price every renewal
  • Free engineer-led migrations
  • Managed WordPress is the plan
  • Daily backups and malware scans
Year-one intro: $5.99/mo · hikes at month 13
On HostingSimple
WP Starter1 site · comfortable to ~50k visits/mo
$ 15 / mo, every renewal
  • Zero dashboard upsells One bill, one product. No 'recommended' SSL / security / email add-ons inside your control panel.
  • Soft visit caps, no throttling We do not cap-and-throttle. Go past the plan's visits and traffic still goes through — we have a conversation about the right tier instead of slowing your site down.
  • Same price every renewal $15 year one, $15 year five. GoDaddy doubles at month 13 — Economy goes $5.99 → $11.99.
  • Free engineer-led migrations We move your site in 24h, no charge. GoDaddy bills $99 for 'Quick Connect'.
  • Managed WordPress is the plan GoDaddy's Managed WordPress is a separate $9.99 product bolted on top of hosting. Here it is the plan you already bought — nothing extra to add, and no second bill.
  • Daily backups and malware scans Daily off-site backups with 30-day retention and malware scanning included on every plan, rather than sold back to you from the dashboard.
The math: +$3.01/mo · ~$0.1/day for the column on the right.
Prices in USD. GoDaddy renewal pricing from their public pricing pages, May 2026. Honest math · not a sales calc
Three real workloads

Same workload, both hosts.
What it costs, what runs.

Three common workloads, run through the same calculator. Numbers are 3-year sticker cost — no estimates, no hand-waving.

Solo founder
1 site · 20k visits/mo
GoDaddy
$360 / 3y
Economy
HostingSimple
$540 / 3y
WP Starter
GoDaddy Economy renews at $11.99, we're $15 — about $3/mo more. That delta buys free human migrations, off-site backups you can restore yourself, no upsell pressure, and no separate Managed WP add-on. If GoDaddy is genuinely working for you, stay; if the dashboard friction is real, that's the reason to move.
WooCommerce store
1 store · 80k visits/mo
GoDaddy
$360 / 3y
Economy
HostingSimple
$540 / 3y
WP Starter
WooCommerce at 80k visits puts you on GoDaddy Deluxe at $18.99 renewal. We're $30 on WP Pro — $11 more — but Redis and staging are included, and you aren't getting upsold to Managed WP on top. The gap closes the first time GoDaddy throttles a flash sale.
Growing agency
15 client sites · 300k combined
GoDaddy
$780 / 3y
Ultimate
HostingSimple
$5,364 / 3y
Agency Starter
At 15 sites GoDaddy maxes out the consumer dashboard — no white-label, no SSO, no team seats. Our Agency Starter at $149 includes the white-label portal and a named engineer; SSO arrives at Agency Pro. This is also where the math flips: GoDaddy Ultimate is $25.99 per site, we're $9.93 at 15 sites and $5.96 once you fill the plan.
When to stay put

Don't switch from GoDaddy
if any of these are true.

We'd rather lose a sale than recommend a bad move. If one of these describes you, save your migration energy for a better moment.

Reason 01 · Stay

Your domains + Microsoft 365 + hosting are all GoDaddy-tied.

Untangling this is multi-week work. Do it in the right order: email first (move to Microsoft 365 direct or Google), then domains, then hosting.

Reason 02 · Stay

You bought a 3-year prepay during a Black Friday sale.

GoDaddy's mid-term cancellation refunds are unfavourable. Wait it out.

Reason 03 · Stay

You have a Managed WordPress plan you actually like.

GoDaddy's Managed WP product is genuinely usable. If it's working for you, the dollars don't drive a switch.

Six things that actually differ

The specific differences,
not the marketing.

Six rows. Concrete values. If something looks stale, tell us — we update within 24h.

Feature
GoDaddy
HostingSimple
Renewal hike
+100 to +200%
Same price, every renewal
Dashboard upsell pressure
Heavy, persistent
None — one bill, one product
Free migrations
$99 'Quick Connect' service
Unlimited, human, free
WordPress-specific tooling
Managed WP is separate, extra cost
Built-in on every plan
Instance isolation
Shared, with throttling
Your own instance from WP Studio up
Cancellation refund
Prorated, with fees
30 days no-conditions
Last verified: 2026-07-21 · Source: godaddy.com public pricing
Migrating from GoDaddy

Pre-migration questions,
answered by an engineer.

Real questions we get during pre-sales calls — answered the way we'd answer them on chat.

My domain is registered with GoDaddy — can I keep it there?

Yes. Point nameservers to us, or transfer the registration (we don't charge for the first year of registration transfer). Keeping the domain at GoDaddy and hosting with us works fine.

What about my GoDaddy email / Microsoft 365 setup?

Microsoft 365 is sold through GoDaddy but lives in Microsoft's infrastructure. You can move billing to Microsoft direct any time — we'll help update MX/Autodiscover records.

I'm on GoDaddy's Managed WordPress — how does that map?

Their Managed WP gives you their version of staging + automatic updates. Our equivalent is on every plan, included. Migration follows the standard process; if you're on heavy GoDaddy-specific plugins, we'll flag those.

Will my SEO tank during the move?

No. We preserve URL structure, set up appropriate redirects if anything moves, and we time the DNS cutover for low-traffic windows. Search Console will show normal crawl behaviour within 24h.

Move off GoDaddy. We do the heavy lifting.

Send us your GoDaddy credentials. A human engineer migrates your site within 24 hours, with zero downtime. Free, every time.