Hostgator vs Go Daddy

For the love of all that is chopped and channeled, stay away from GoDaddy! They are good for buying domain names and making TV ads, that's it. Host Gator is good, BlueHost and HostMonster are better.

Just my professional opinion.
 
DO THE TON has been on both services from time to time. Hostgator was good. GoDaddy was easy as I had the domain registered there so it was nothing to add a hosting service and click-click the forum software was installed.

But that was 6 years ago when we were teeny. Now I run on a Linode VPS where I get to install and maintain Linux, Apache etc. etc. all by my lonesome. They have great support as well, but for a basic website free or cheap hosting is perfect.
 
I register my domains through godaddy. i used to host with them, and had nothing but problems. I'm now hosted by dreamhost and love it.
 
I've used Hostgator for over 6 years for personal sites. I loathe every second I have to spend on GoDaddy's website.

You really can't go wrong with HG.
 
I'm clearly not in to this stuff...

Do I need to buy a domain name, then pay seperate for the hosting service?

Names are paid per year for x number of years and web page support is per month, right?

I'm still looking at both right now.
 
Yep - you can register the domain name with GoDaddy. Always look for discount codes on GoDaddy - you'll save 30% at least.

Then you can set up a hosting service with HostGator. You just change the 'Name Servers' on your domain at GoDaddy to the HostGator name servers and that's that. www.yourdomain.com will be routed to HostGator by the world wide network of name servers (I think there are 7 of them or something - they map domains to name servers which then route to your IP address).

Changing hosting providers is as simple as moving your website data (moving DO THE TON is an INCREDIBLY difficult thing to do and I've done it twice but a simple website is nothing) and then changing the name servers on your Domain at GoDaddy again. Few minutes and you're moved.
 
I think he might be looking for not just webhosting but a "build-my-site" package? I could be wrong.

I just moved from wordpress but they offer good sites if you don't want e-commerce. No idea who has good e-commerce though...if I knew I would be with them.....
 
Well now I feel I've made a poor choice with ye olde' Go Daddy. I've always used it, it is a pain in the ass to navigate but I've always had good luck with it. It does get a bit overwhelming with the 40,000 different services they offer though.
 
I use godaddy for my wife's team's site. It is hard to navigate but that just keeps me from working on it when I'm drunk.


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Garage Rat said:
I'm clearly not in to this stuff...

Do I need to buy a domain name, then pay seperate for the hosting service?

Names are paid per year for x number of years and web page support is per month, right?

I'm still looking at both right now.
Click to expand...

You should be able to sign up for a hosting account on hostgator and register the domain at the same time.. I register my domains through a separate service (not GoDaddy) because I get them dirt cheap. With hostgator for a new setup you'll pay $15 for the new domain per year and then any monthly hosting fees. Currently they will have a coupon code when you sign up of SPRING... gives you 20% off.. change that to 25GATORSAVINGS to get 25% off.

I'd recommend doing it all in one place just so you don't have to do any additional steps to get it going.

Once your account is setup, you can install a number of different software solutions with the Fantastico app that's included in your hosting control panel. This includes forum software, eCommerce software, wordpress, etc... Wordpress is a nice solution as they have TONS of free themes. Also great plugins.. including eCommerce plugins. You can do pretty much everything from Wordpress. If you need any custom work done theme-wise, you can let me know and I can help you out. This is what I do for a living. I'm a developer / designer, but also do web server administration and hosting management.

One thing I'll point out in regards to GoDaddy, and why I don't use their services for ANYTHING....

They are a huge target. They are generally accepted as the devil by many, and are attacked all the time by people. Some of these attacks are very successful. Usually DDoS attacks that render their DNS servers useless, which translates to your website not working. We use GoDaddy a lot at work (against my recommendation) and I've seen our services go down three times in the last 18 months due to these attacks.

So that coupled with their "hard to navigate" site that makes you accidentally buy a bunch of crap you don't want, is why I avoid their services when possible.

Like I said, this is what I do for a living, so please PM me if you need any help at all getting your site setup.
 
I do web development for a living.. I would very highly recommend against hosting with godaddy, I use them so buy domain names, but stay away from their hosting.

I have personally used hostgator.com and have been very happy with them. hostmonster.com was pretty good too.

they both have a free site builder included.

also hostmonster.com offers a free domain name
 
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