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Bluehost vs GoDaddy Hosting (Honest Comparison)

Are you looking for an honest web hosting comparison of Bluehost vs GoDaddy?

These are two of the most popular affordable hosting companies on the market. However, for beginners, it’s often not clear which one is better for their website.

In this guide, we will compare Bluehost vs GoDaddy with their pros and cons so that you can make the right decision.

Bluehost vs GoDaddy Hosting (Honest Comparison)

Comparison of Bluehost vs GoDaddy

Bluehost and GoDaddy are two of the most affordable hosting companies for people looking for a low-price hosting option to control their website costs. 

Both are very popular. GoDaddy has a large market share and hosts over 40 million websites, while Bluehost is an official WordPress.org recommended hosting provider.

But which is the best platform for your new WordPress website?

In this comparison, we will take a closer look into the pros and cons of Bluehost vs GoDaddy in detail. However, if you don’t want to go through the full comparison, here is a quick summary:

BluehostGoDaddy
Pricing$2.75$2.99
Hosting TypeSharedManaged
Free DomainYesYes
Free SSLYesYes
SupportLive Chat / Email / PhoneLive Chat / Phone
Visit BluehostVisit GoDaddy

That being said, let’s compare each one of them and see how they stack up.

Bluehost Comparison

Bluehost is one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress host. They offer WordPress-optimized hosting plans with faster servers and reliable performance.

Bluehost website

Their shared hosting prices are lower priced when compared to other hosting companies. This makes them a good choice for beginners and small businesses on a limited budget.

Pros of Bluehost

Bluehost offers great value at a low cost, but what are some of their pros and cons? Let’s start with some of the benefits of using Bluehost as your hosting service:

  • Lower Costs – Bluehost’s entry-level plan allows you to get started with your website for a lower price, which is great value for new small businesses, bloggers, portfolios, and other types of websites.
  • Ease of Use – Bluehost has one of the most beginner-friendly hosting control panels that makes it super easy to install WordPress (one click) and manage your website.
  • Free Domain – They offer a free domain name, which saves you additional money on your start-up costs.
  • Free CDN + Free SSL – Bluehost offers a free CDN to speed up your website, and all plans come with a free SSL certificate to improve website security.
  • Website Speed – In our tests, we found that Bluehost performs well, with no performance optimization done on our test sites. You can also add WordPress caching plugins to unlock further speed improvements.
  • Staging Sites + Dev Tools – Bluehost plans come with staging site setup, automatic WordPress updates, the ability to change PHP versions, SFTP access, and more.

Cons of Bluehost

Obviously, there are some downsides to using Bluehost as well. Here are some of the disadvantages that you may want to know:

  • Higher Domain Renewal Price – Their free domain renewal price is higher than average. This does not have an immediate impact on most businesses, but it is something you may need to keep in mind.
  • Upselling Addons – You will see a lot of upselling during signup. Most beginners usually don’t need these products right away, so you can skip them.

Bluehost Review

Bluehost has a 5-star rating on WPBeginner based on over 300 user reviews and the high value they offer at low prices. We also ran our own performance and stress tests on their servers, which you can read all about in our detailed Bluehost review.

The best thing about Bluehost is that you get a free domain with all plans, unlimited bandwidth and SSD storage on their Plus plan, and great overall value for what you pay.

Plus, their eCommerce hosting plan for WooCommerce comes with over $1000+ in premium WooCommerce and WordPress extensions, which is a huge cost saving for online store owners.

GoDaddy Comparison

GoDaddy is a famous web hosting company and the world’s biggest domain registrar. They offer a huge variety of hosting plans for individuals and businesses of every size.

GoDaddy hosting

GoDaddy has a large market share in the website hosting space, and many popular websites use them. However, they are not always the best option when you are building a website, creating a blog, or starting a new business.

Pros of GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a popular low-cost hosting provider, but what are some of their pros and cons? Let’s start with some of the benefits of using GoDaddy as your hosting service:

  • WordPress-Optimized Hosting – GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting plans are run on servers optimized for WordPress for faster and more secure hosting.
  • Managed Hosting – GoDaddy handles some basic administrative tasks for you, such as installing WordPress, automated daily backups, WordPress core updates, and server-level caching. Bluehost shared hosting plans also include some of these tasks.
  • Free Domain – They offer a free domain name, which helps you save money on your start-up costs.
  • Free CDN + Free SSL – GoDaddy plans come with the Cloudflare CDN to speed up your website, and all plans come with a free SSL certificate to improve website security.
  • Affordable – GoDaddy has very reasonable prices for all the features they offer.
  • 24/7 Support – No matter when you need help, GoDaddy support is available any time of day or night.
  • Monthly Billing Option – For those who prefer to pay month to month, there is a monthly billing option. However, you get a bigger discount if you pay for at least a year in advance.

Cons of Bluehost

Are there any downsides to using GoDaddy? Here are some of the disadvantages that you may want to know:

  • Addons – GoDaddy offers a huge variety of services. During the checkout process, many of these tools and features will be offered to you as addons. These are completely optional, but some users may find all the upsell offers to be too aggressive.
  • Controversial Ads – GoDaddy has come under fire several times over the years due to its controversial advertising. While this does not affect their hosting services, some users have moved away from GoDaddy in protest against their ads.
  • No Email Support – While still offering 24/7 support by live chat and phone, GoDaddy has discontinued email support.

GoDaddy Review

GoDaddy has a 5-star rating on WPBeginner, but this is based on 16 reviews compared to over 300 for Bluehost. You will find detailed information about their hosting in our GoDaddy review.

Like Bluehost, GoDaddy’s plans offer excellent value. You get one year of free domain registration, a free SSL certificate, SSD storage, and unlimited bandwidth with all plans. Plus, their hosting plans are managed, saving you some ongoing maintenance work.

However, GoDaddy’s overall onboarding experience is not as beginner friendly. And while they offer 24/7 support via live chat and phone, they no longer offer email support.

Bluehost vs GoDaddy – Which Is Better?

Now that we have compared different features of Bluehost vs GoDaddy, you may still be wondering which one of these hosting providers is better.

If you are looking for the most affordable hosting, then the best choice is Bluehost. They offer better pricing for small businesses. They also have better support, and their My Sites dashboard and overall onboarding experience is a lot more beginner-friendly.

But maybe you would prefer the convenience of managed hosting, where the routine maintenance work such as updates, backups, and more is done for you.

In that case, GoDaddy offers basic managed hosting plans at a very affordable rate. In fact, they are much cheaper than Bluehost’s managed hosting. However, GoDaddy’s managed hosting plans offer fewer features when compared with the best managed hosting providers.

Although it will cost you more, we recommend WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting. They are the best for scaling your website, and they can even offer custom cloud hosting using Amazon’s infrastructure and more.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Bluehost vs GoDaddy

Having helped thousands of users choose the best web host for their needs, we have answered quite a few questions. Here are some of the answers to the most frequently asked questions about Bluehost vs GoDaddy.

Which is better for beginners, Bluehost or GoDaddy?

Bluehost is the most beginner-friendly WordPress hosting company on the market. They automatically install WordPress for you when you sign up. They also have an easy-to-use control panel that allows you to manage your hosting account by yourself.

There is plenty of help available with detailed guides, video tutorials, and articles. You also have 24/7 access to their expert support via live chat and phone.

GoDaddy is also a good option for beginners, but their hosting can be more complex to use.

Does Bluehost or GoDaddy have the greater market share?

Over 4 million websites are hosted on Bluehost. Out of the top 1 million websites based on traffic, just 0.37% use Bluehost.

GoDaddy has a much bigger market share, hosting over 40 million websites. And when we look at the top 1 million websites based on traffic, 2.06% host their sites with GoDaddy.

Where are Bluehost and GoDaddy servers located?

Bluehost operates their own in-house data center located in Utah, US. It is a massive 50,000 square feet facility that serves as its primary data center.

GoDaddy has nine server facilities around the world, located in North America, Europe, and Asia. These facilities house over 37,000 servers in total.

Can I use subdomains for my site?

Yes, you can use subdomains on either Bluehost or GoDaddy.

Are there other hosting providers that you haven’t covered in this comparison?

Yes, there are literally thousands of web hosting companies on the market, including SiteGround, WP Engine, Hostinger, HostGator, DreamHost, GreenGeeks, Kinsta, A2 Hosting, and more.

We only compared Bluehost vs GoDaddy in this article because they are the most popular affordable WordPress hosting companies.

Do you have any special discounts for Bluehost or GoDaddy?

Yes, because WPBeginner is the largest WordPress resource site, our users can get special discounts on popular hosting providers as well as other WordPress plugins. You can see all 100+ WordPress deals here.

You can use our Bluehost coupon to get over 60% off + a free domain.

Our GoDaddy coupon gets you 70% off on web hosting.

We hope this comparison of Bluehost vs GoDaddy helped you decide which hosting platform is better for your new website. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best domain registrar or our expert picks of the best monthly web hosting plans.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Bluehost vs GoDaddy Hosting (Honest Comparison) first appeared on WPBeginner.

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How to Set Up WP Mail SMTP with Any Host (Ultimate Guide)

Do you want to set up WP Mail SMTP on your WordPress site?

WP Mail SMTP is the best WordPress SMTP plugin that allows you to easily send WordPress emails using a secure mail transfer protocol (SMTP). It makes sure your emails go to the inboxes of your users and not to the spam folder.

In this article, we will show you how to easily set up WP Mail SMTP with any host or third-party SMTP service.

Setting up WP Mail SMTP with any WordPress host

This is a lengthy article, so we have added a table of contents. If you know what you are looking for, then you can click the link to jump to that section:

What Is WP Mail SMTP, and Why Do You Need It to Send WordPress Emails?

WP Mail SMTP is the best WordPress SMTP plugin on the market. It allows you to send all your WordPress emails using an SMTP server.

Once you set up your WordPress site, you may notice that you are not getting any emails from WordPress. These include WordPress notification emails and emails from your WordPress contact form plugin.

The reason you are not getting emails is usually that WordPress uses the PHP mail() function to send them.

Most WordPress hosting companies do not configure this function properly, and some simply disable it to prevent abuse.

The easiest fix for this issue is to use SMTP to send WordPress emails.

SMTP stands for ‘secure mail transfer protocol’, and it is pretty much the standard way to send emails. It requires you to log in to a mail server to send emails. This prevents the abuse of the hosting server and improves email deliverability, which means that you and your users will receive all WordPress emails.

Hosting SMTP Server vs. Third-Party SMTP Server – Which One Should You Use?

Most WordPress hosting companies offer free business email addresses that you can use with your own domain name.

We recommend setting up a separate email address for your WordPress website. It can be anything like support@example.com or info@example.com.

However, your WordPress hosting provider does not specialize in sending emails. Their SMTP servers are basic and have strict limits on the number of emails you can send.

If you run a small business website or a blog, then you will probably be fine with your hosting provider’s SMTP servers.

On the other hand, if you run an online store or a membership website, then emails become mission-critical for your business. You want to make sure that your customers get important email notifications delivered to their inboxes.

This is where you need a third-party SMTP service provider. These companies specialize in securely sending large numbers of emails without triggering spam filters.

We recommend using SendLayer, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), or SMTP.com for most online businesses. They are reasonably priced and can scale as your business grows.

For more information, you can see our article on the top SMTP service providers.

Once you have chosen an email delivery method, the next step is to connect your WordPress website to your mail server.

This is where the WP Mail SMTP plugin comes in. It allows you to send WordPress emails via SMTP by entering your SMTP credentials.

WP Mail SMTP is the most popular SMTP solution for WordPress, currently used by over 3 million websites. It’s maintained by the same team as WPForms.

There is also a free WP Mail SMTP lite version that is fully functional and can be used with any WordPress hosting company or third-party SMTP service provider.

The premium version of the WP Mail SMTP plugin supports all the top SMTP service providers and works with any WordPress hosting company that offers email accounts.

It also comes with powerful features like email logs, email controls, priority support, and a white glove setup.

Installing and Setting Up WP Mail SMTP

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Mail SMTP plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will see the setup wizard. You can skip it as we will show you how to set up WP Mail SMTP manually.

WP Mail SMTP Launch Wizard

Just click on ‘Go back to the Dashboard’.

Next, you need to visit the WP Mail SMTP » Settings page to configure the plugin settings.

WP Mail SMTP Settings

You need to enter your SMTP settings to use WP Mail SMTP. The first part of the settings will be similar regardless of your hosting company. It includes the following fields:

  • From Email – This email address will be used to send all WordPress emails.
  • From Name – This name will be used to send emails. We recommend using your website’s title.
  • Return Path – Check this box to receive delivery notifications or bounced messages.
  • Mailer – You need to select ‘Other SMTP’ here as you will be sending emails using your host’s SMTP server

Note: If you want to use third-party mailers, follow this guide to send WordPress emails via Gmail SMTP. We also have a similar guide for the Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) SMTP setup.

WP Mail SMTP return path and mailer settings

If you want to continue using your host, you need to select ‘Other SMTP’ and enter the SMTP server settings provided by the hosting company.

  • SMTP Host – The SMTP host address provided by your hosting company.
  • Encryption – The encryption method used by your mail server to send emails. Usually, it is TLS.
  • SMTP Port – The port used by the outgoing mail server.
  • Auto TLS – This setting should be set to On.
  • Authentication – Needs to be On.
  • SMTP Username – Usually the email address you are using to send emails.
  • SMTP Password – The password for the email account you are using to send emails. We don’t recommend saving SMTP passwords here. Instead, you need to store your password in the wp-config.php file.
Other SMTP

These settings are required to connect with any SMTP server. However, their values may differ from one WordPress hosting company to another.

Let’s see how to set up the WP Mail SMTP plugin with different hosting companies.

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the biggest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

We recommend Bluehost to all users who are starting a WordPress blog or making a small business website.

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP to the Bluehost SMTP server:

  • SMTP Host – mail.example.com
  • Encryption – TLS
  • SMTP Port – 587
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

Bluehost SMTP

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on SiteGround

SiteGround is another popular WordPress hosting company. They offer excellent shared, managed, and WooCommerce hosting services.

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP with SiteGround servers:

  • SMTP Host – mail.example.com
  • Encryption – TLS
  • SMTP Port – 587
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password
SiteGround SMTP

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on HostGator

HostGator is another popular WordPress hosting company. WPBeginner is hosted with HostGator, and we have been using them for over a decade.

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP with HostGator servers:

  • SMTP Host – full.servername.com
  • Encryption – SSL
  • SMTP Port – 465
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password
HostGator SMTP settings for WordPress

You will notice that instead of using your domain as the SMTP Host, it uses the server name. You can find the server name in your cPanel hosting dashboard.

Simply log in to your cPanel, and you will see the full server name in the right column towards the bottom.

HostGator server hostname

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on DreamHost

DreamHost is a popular WordPress hosting company. They have been around since 1997 (way before WordPress, Google, or Facebook) and offer shared WordPress hosting, managed, and VPS hosting plans.

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP with DreamHost servers:

  • SMTP Host – full.servername.com
  • Encryption – SSL
  • SMTP Port – 465
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password
DreamHost SMTP

You will notice that Dreamhost doesn’t use your domain name as the mail server. Instead, they use different servers to manage emails, and you will need to find out which one is used by your hosting account.

You can do this by logging in to your DreamHost hosting panel and then going to the Support » Data Centers page. From here, you need to scroll down to the Mail service section.

DreamHost Mail Service

You will find the name of the email cluster under the Details column next to your domain name.

Next, you need to visit DreamHost’s email configuration page and scroll down to the ‘Where to find your mail hostname (cluster) name’ section.

Here, you can match your email cluster with the names in the table and copy the outgoing server address next to it.

SMTP server DreamHost

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on InMotion Hosting

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP with InMotion Hosting servers:

  • SMTP Host – server##.inmotionhosting.com
  • Encryption – SSL
  • SMTP Port – 465
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password
InMotion Hosting SMTP settings for WordPress

In the SMTP host field, you need to replace ## with your server number.

You can find this by logging in to your cPanel dashboard and then clicking on the ‘Account Technical Details’ icon.

Finding your InMotion Hosting server number

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on GoDaddy

GoDaddy is the world’s most popular domain name registrar, managing more than 76 million domain names for over 17.5 million customers. They also offer different hosting plans (For details, see our article on the difference between a domain name and web hosting).

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP with GoDaddy shared hosting plans:

  • SMTP Host – mail.example.com
  • Encryption – TLS
  • SMTP Port – 587
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password
GoDaddy SMTP settings for WP Mail SMTP

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on iPage

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP with iPage hosting servers:

  • SMTP Host – smtp.ipage.com
  • Encryption – TLS
  • SMTP Port – 587
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password
iPage SMTP settings for WP Mail SMTP

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on GreenGeeks

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP with GreenGeeks:

  • SMTP Host – mail.example.com
  • Encryption – SSL
  • SMTP Port – 465
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password
GreenGeeks SMTP settings for WP Mail SMTP

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP on JustHost

Here are the SMTP settings you will be using to connect WP Mail SMTP with JustHost:

  • SMTP Host – mail.example.com
  • Encryption – SSL
  • SMTP Port – 465
  • SMTP Username – Your email address (e.g. wordpress@example.com)
  • SMTP Password – Your email account password
JustHost SMTP settings for WP Mail SMTP

Setting Up WP Mail SMTP With Third-Party Email Services

Some managed WordPress hosting companies do not offer email services as part of their hosting plans. So, you will need to use a third-party SMTP service provider to send emails.

WP Mail SMTP supports multiple popular mailing services, including SendLayer, Gmail/Google Apps for Work, Microsoft Outlook and Office 360, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), SMTP.com, and more.

Simply click on the mailer service, and the plugin will show you the information required to use that mailer.

Mailers in WP Mail SMTP

For details, you can see our tutorial on how to use a free SMTP server to send WordPress emails.

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up WP Mail SMTP with any host. You may also want to see our guide on why you should never use WordPress to send your newsletter emails and our expert picks for the best newsletter plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Set Up WP Mail SMTP with Any Host (Ultimate Guide) first appeared on WPBeginner.

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GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress – Which One is Better?

Are you trying to decide between the GoDaddy website builder vs WordPress?

WordPress powers over 43% of all websites, but GoDaddy is also a popular choice. You can use either of these tools to create your website or online store.

In this article, we will compare GoDaddy website builder vs WordPress with their pros and cons, so you can decide which one is the right choice for your next project.

GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress

We will be looking at the GoDaddy website builder vs WordPress from a few different angles, and you can use the links below to jump to a specific area.

GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress: Overview

GoDaddy Website Builder is an all-in-one solution that includes web hosting. You can easily create a site using the GoDaddy editor and then click ‘Publish’ to make your site live.

The GoDaddy website builder

However, this ease of use does come at a price. Since your website lives on the GoDaddy servers, you need to follow all of their rules, restrictions, and terms of service. You’re also limited by the features and resources that GoDaddy provides.

If you want to change platforms at any point, then it’s quite difficult to move your website from GoDaddy website builder to WordPress. This can be a big problem when you need more advanced features or flexibility as your business grows.

That being said, if you want to create a simple website fast, then GoDaddy website builder is an all-in-one solution that lets you create a site in minutes.

By contrast, WordPress is a free software that you can install on your own web hosting account.

The WordPress website builder

Note: In this guide, we’re comparing GoDaddy with self-hosted WordPress.org sites, not WordPress.com blogs. For more information, please see our guide on what’s the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

If you opt for WordPress, then you can choose the hosting plan and provider that has the most to offer your particular project. If your needs change, then most of the best WordPress hosting providers make it easy to upgrade your plan or even move WordPress to a new host.

As the world’s most popular content management system, there are all kinds of hosting packages that you can use for a WordPress project. With that in mind, you should have no problems finding a provider that fits your needs and budget.

If you want a flexible and customizable website builder, then WordPress is a great choice.

GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress: Ease of Use

Most people who want to create a website aren’t developers, so ease of use is a big factor when choosing a website builder.

WordPress is used by more than 43% of all websites. That’s millions of people at different skill levels. Unsurprisingly, WordPress is fairly easy to use and beginner-friendly.

There is a slight learning curve as you’ll need to familiarize yourself with new concepts like themes, plugins, and the differences between posts and pages.

The good news is that there’s lots of support out there, including plenty of free resources. For example, the WPBeginner Engage Facebook group has over 88,000 members and is the largest and fastest-growing WordPress group for non-techies and beginners on Facebook.

The WordPress Engage Facebook group

WPBeginner Engage is the perfect place to post questions and get advice from the WordPress community.

Every plugin and theme on the official WordPress repository also has its own support forum, so you can often get help directly from the developer. For more information, please see our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it.

The official WordPress plugin and theme repository

Adding content to WordPress is fairly easy, thanks to an intuitive and beginner-friendly visual editor called the block editor.

You can simply add blocks to your pages and posts to create beautiful layouts without ever writing any code.

The WordPress post editor

If you don’t like the default WordPress editor, then there are plenty of drag-and-drop page builders that you can use instead. These page builders are available as plugins, and most of them have free versions so you can try them out and see which one you like best.

Most of these page builders come with ready-made templates that you can use on your site, or you can start from scratch and create a completely unique design.

The SeedProd page builder plugin

While WordPress has a slight learning curve, the GoDaddy website builder is designed with ease of use firmly in mind. There is also a free trial, so you can try it out and see whether it’s right for you.

After creating an account, GoDaddy will guide you through the process of building a website.

Choosing a category for your GoDaddy website

After entering some information about the type of website you want to create, GoDaddy will go ahead and generate a site for you.

To customize any part of your site, simply give it a click. GoDaddy will then show all the settings for that section.

The GoDaddy website builder

If you want to completely change how your site looks, then just click on the ‘Theme’ tab.

Here, you can choose a new theme, change your site’s color scheme, switch to a different font, and more. In this way, you can easily make major changes to your website’s design.

Choosing a new GoDaddy theme

To add more pages to your site, just click on the ‘+’ icon.

You can then type in a title for the page and click on the ‘Create Page’ button.

Adding more pages to a GoDaddy website using the GoDaddy builder

Simply repeat these steps to add more pages to your site.

You can publish a site during the free trial, but GoDaddy will add ‘godaddysites.com’ to your site’s URL.

For that reason, we recommend purchasing a GoDaddy plan and then connecting your site to a custom domain before clicking ‘Publish.’ For more information, please see our guide on how to register a domain name.

Publishing a GoDaddy website

As you can see, GoDaddy lets you create a simple website in minutes. However, you are limited to the tools, themes, and settings that GoDaddy provides. This can feel restrictive, especially if you already have a clear website design in mind.

Winner: WordPress is the winner here because it offers you the ease of use along with advanced features that helps you grow your business.

GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress: Maintaining Your Site

As an all-in-one solution, GoDaddy handles a lot of website maintenance for you. You don’t need to worry about installing updates or even installing the tools that you’ll use to build your GoDaddy website.

This is perfect for busy business owners who don’t have the time for day-to-day site maintenance. Or for beginners who are unsure how to properly maintain a website.

However, since everything is handled automatically, you can’t customize how your website is maintained. This might be a problem for website owners who prefer a hands-on approach.

If you choose WordPress, then you may be responsible for performing some, or all these website maintenance tasks, depending on your hosting provider.

The good news is that most popular WordPress hosting companies make these tasks easy. A lot of companies offer 1-click installations for WordPress, or you can follow our beginner’s guide on how to properly install WordPress.

Some hosting providers will install new versions of WordPress automatically, while others offer one-click updates. Another option is to enable automatic updates in WordPress for major versions so new releases get installed automatically.

How to enable automatic updates in WordPress

As you can see, with a bit of planning there are ways to maintain your WordPress website without putting in a lot of time and effort. You also have the option to use a managed WordPress hosting provider like WPEngine who will take care of the day-to-day maintenance for you.

Winner: Tie – as both WordPress and GoDaddy website builder are fairly easy to maintain.

GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress: eCommerce Features

If you accept bookings or sell services, then visitors can book a one-time appointment through your GoDaddy website no matter what plan you’re on. However, if you want to collect payments, then you’ll need to buy GoDaddy’s eCommerce plan, which is $18.69 per month.

After upgrading to the eCommerce plan, you can accept payments using credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

You can also publish product listings and create an online store.

The GoDaddy website builder offers flexible shipping options and lets you add banners to your site, which is perfect for promoting your sales and special offers.

You’ll also get access to hundreds of professionally-designed website templates.

A GoDaddy website builder template

With its ready-made designs and straightforward eCommerce features, the GoDaddy website builder is a good choice if you want to launch a store quickly, or only want to sell a small number of products.

By default, WordPress doesn’t have any eCommerce features, but it does have several advanced eCommerce plugins. This includes WooCommerce, which powers more than 40% of all online stores and is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms for WordPress.

The WooCommerce eCommerce plugin

Using WooCommerce, you can quickly and easily create an online store and sell any kind of product, including physical products, membership plans, and affiliate products.

By itself, WooCommerce is already a powerful eCommerce platform, but you can add even more features by installing the best WooCommerce plugins. There are also loads of WooCommerce themes so you can create a store that perfectly reflects your brand.

A WooCommerce theme

If you want to sell digital downloads such as ebooks or online courses, then Easy Digital Downloads lets you sell any kind of digital product and then collect payments using Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal.

For more information, see our beginner’s guide on how to sell digital downloads.

The Easy Digital Downloads WordPress plugin

After building your online store, you can use WordPress plugins, extensions, and services to promote your store and get more sales. For example, you might create smart coupons, use page builder plugins to design a sales page that converts, and use WordPress popups to get the customer’s attention.

The huge range of eCommerce plugins, addons, and themes gives WordPress a big advantage over GoDaddy if you’re looking to create an online store.

Winner: WordPress easily wins in this category because it offers more robust eCommerce features with payment options that works worldwide.

GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress: SEO

If you want to get traffic to your website, then it’s important to choose an SEO-friendly website builder.

GoDaddy has built-in SEO tools that can help you identify keywords that people are using to find websites just like yours. You just need to answer a few simple questions and GoDaddy will suggest some keywords that could get more visitors to your site.

The GoDaddy SEO tools

After choosing your keywords, GoDaddy will help you add them to different areas of your site.

This includes adding the keyword to your page title and editing the website description.

GoDaddy website builder vs WordPress

The GoDaddy dashboard also shows some suggestions on how to improve your website’s search engine optimization.

Simply click on any of these options and GoDaddy will show you how to make the changes.

GoDaddy's search engine optimization tools

These SEO tools are fairly simple, but they’re easy to use. Even if you’re completely new to SEO, GoDaddy shows you exactly how to make some important optimizations.

By comparison, WordPress’ built-in SEO tools are more advanced and powerful.

You can create custom permalinks, organize your content based on categories, add tags to your blog posts, add image alt text, and more simply by using the built-in settings.

WordPress' built-in SEO tools

Besides that, there are lots of WordPress SEO plugins that can help you fine-tune every part of your site.

For example, you can use a complete WordPress SEO plugin like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) and optimize your site without hiring an expert.

The AIOSEO advanced SEO WordPress plugin

Using AIOSEO you can add title tags, meta descriptions, focus keywords, and get page analysis recommendations that you can use to optimize your posts. You can even manage and track redirects using the plugin.

For more information, please see our ultimate guide on how to set up All in One SEO.

Even if you don’t use an SEO plugin, WordPress has some advanced tools to help improve your website’s ranking. With that being said, WordPress is the clear winner if you want to create a high-ranking website.

Winner: WordPress easily wins this category because it’s known as the most SEO friendly website builder in the market.

GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress: Pricing

GoDadddy offers four pricing plans starting from $10.99 per month and going all the way up to $18.69 per month.

GoDaddy's pricing plans

All of their plans come with an SSL certificate, 24/7 support, and the option to connect a custom domain. However, GoDaddy’s Basic plan doesn’t have any eCommerce features or SEO tools.

The Basic plan also limits the number of marketing emails you can send, which may make it difficult to grow your website.

With that in mind, you’ll typically want to opt for GoDaddy’s Standard ($11.54) or higher plan. If you want to sell products or services then you’ll need to go one step further and invest in their special eCommerce plan, which is priced at $18.69 per month.

If you do choose the GoDaddy website builder then we recommend carefully checking what’s included in each plan to make sure it has everything you need.

On the other hand, WordPress is a free and open-source platform. However, you will need to buy a domain name and a web hosting provider.

Prices can vary, which makes it difficult to work out exactly how much it really costs to build a WordPress website. Thankfully, there are special offers and deals that can help you create a WordPress website for less.

Note: WPBeginner users can get a Bluehost Coupon to save up to 73% off website hosting plans. That means you can get Bluehost web hosting for just $2.75 per month rather than $9.99 per month for your first year.

You also get a free domain name and a free SSL certificate.

You can also use any other WordPress hosting provider like Hostinger, Dreamhost, or SiteGround and all are more affordable than GoDaddy.

To keep your costs under control you can also use free themes and WordPress plugins.

While the cost of creating a WordPress website can vary, there are plenty of hosting providers, themes, plugins, and other addons available so you should be able to create a website no matter what your budget is.

Winner: WordPress is definitely more affordable and gives you far more value than GoDaddy website builder.

Conclusion: GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress – Which One Is Better?

Based on our research and user reviews, WordPress is by far the best choice when compared to GoDaddy website builder because it’s more affordable, has a large plugin ecosystem, and offers you the flexibility to grow your business.

If you want to create a website quickly and don’t need lots of flexibility, then you can choose a beginner-friendly tool like GoDaddy. Their builder has everything you need to create a website, including hosting.

However, if you want complete control over your website then you need a customizable and flexible platform like WordPress. In particular, if you’re creating an online store or want to sell courses, then WordPress has some of the most powerful eCommerce tools available.

We hope this GoDaddy Website Builder vs WordPress comparison helped you understand the pros and cons of each so you can make the right decision for your website. To learn more about WordPress, we recommend reading our guide on the most important reasons to use WordPress and see the type of websites you can create with WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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How To Buy a Domain Name Anonymously (3 Easy Ways)

Do you want to buy a domain main anonymously for your business?

When you purchase a domain, your personal information is listed in the WHOIS database which is publicly available. Because of that, anyone can search and see who owns the domain.

In this article, we’ll show you how to buy a domain name anonymously.

How to buy a domain name anonymously

Why Buy a Domain Name Anonymously?

When you create a WordPress website, you’ll need a domain name. It is your site’s address that people will type in their browsers to visit your website.

However, when you buy a domain name, your personal information is saved in a public WHOIS database. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, requires every domain registrar to maintain a WHOIS database.

Using this database, anyone can find out who actually owns a domain name. This includes your name, email address, physical address, server name, DNS, and other information.

WHOIS database

Buying a domain anonymously allows you to protect your private data and use proxy information in the WHOIS database instead. Plus, you can prevent malicious or accidental domain transfers from happening.

Additionally, getting the domain anonymously enhances your site’s online security. It prevents hackers from stealing your domain or misusing it for monetary benefit.

That said, let’s look at how you can buy a domain name anonymously. We’ll show you 3 ways to hide your information in the WHOIS database using domain registrars and a web hosting company.

You can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:

Method 1: Buy Domain Name Anonymously Using Domain.com

Domain.com is one of the most popular domain name registrars. You can easily find a domain for your website, as it offers more than 300 website name extensions.

With Domain.com, you get access to multiple tools for domain management. For example, you get bulk registration, easy transfers, DNS management, an email account, and more.

To buy a domain name anonymously, you’ll first need to visit the Domain.com website and enter a name in the search bar. After that, simply click the ‘Search’ button.

The Domain.com website with search bar

The domain registrar will now see if the domain you’re looking for is available and show a list of options with different website extensions.

If your domain is available, then Domain.com will add the ‘Domain Privacy + Protection’ addon by default. However, this is a paid addon and will cost you an additional $8.99 per year along with the cost of the domain name.

You will see it in your shopping cart, and the ‘Add Domain Privacy + Protection to each domain for $8.99 per year’ option will also be enabled.

Add domain privacy and protection feature

Domain.com offers WPBeignner readers 25% off on domains and addons like Privacy + Protection.

All you have to do is use the Domain.com coupon code at checkout.

Method 2: Buy Domain Name Anonymously Using Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and the official WordPress hosting partner. When you sign up for their hosting service, you can register a domain for free.

Bluehost lets you add the ‘Domain Privacy Protection’ addon to your package during the signup process. This way, your private information won’t be publically available, as it will be replaced with generic Bluehost contact details in the WHOIS database.

Bluehost offers an exclusive discount for WPBeginner users. Using the Bluehost coupon code, you can get website hosting, a free domain name, and a free SSL certificate for just $2.75 per month.

To get started, you need to visit the Bluehost website and click the ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Bluehost website

Next, you will need to select a pricing plan.

Simply click the ‘Select’ button for any plan you’d like to use.

Bluehost pricing plans

After that, Bluehost will ask you to set up a domain. You can either create a new domain or connect an existing domain name.

Since we’re buying a new domain, simply enter a name under the ‘Create a new domain’ section and click the ‘Next’ button. You can also choose the domain extension you’d like to use.

Enter your domain name

Bluehost will now check if the domain name you entered is available. If it is, then you’ll see the account information and payment page.

Next, you can add your personal details to create an account. From here, simply scroll down to the ‘Package Extras’ section and make sure that the ‘Domain Privacy + Protection’ addon is selected.

Ensure that domain privacy is added

The ‘Domain Privacy + Protection’ costs $11.88 per year at Bluehost. With that option selected, you can go ahead and enter your payment details to purchase website hosting and domain name anonymously.

Method 3: Buy Domain Name Anonymously Using GoDaddy

Another way you can get your hands on a domain name anonymously is by using GoDaddy. It is one of the oldest and most popular domain registrars in the market.

To start, you can visit the GoDaddy website and search for a domain name.

Search for domain name in GoDaddy

Next, GoDaddy will check and see if your domain name is available. It will also show different domain extensions you can purchase along with the .com extension.

After that, simply click the ‘Continue to Cart’ button.

Continue to cart

On the next screen, you can select different addons for your domain name. This includes protecting your domain and keeping your information anonymous.

Simply select the ‘Full Domain Protection’ option, which is $9.99 per year, and click the ‘Continue to Cart’ button.

Select full domain protection

After that, GoDaddy will show you a summary of your cart. You can check if everything is correct.

Next, go ahead and click the ‘I’m Ready to Pay’ button to proceed to the payment process and finalize your purchase.

View cart summary

Additionally, GoDaddy differs from other registrars because you can buy a domain name that’s already taken by using their domain broker service.

If the domain name you’re looking for is owned by someone else, then GoDaddy will work as a broker and try to work out a deal with the domain owner.

Since GoDaddy acts as the middleman and handles all the steps, your identity is never revealed to the actual owner.

Simply visit the GoDaddy Domain Broker Service webpage and enter the domain name in the search bar.

Domain broker service

Next, you can hire GoDaddy as your domain broker, so they can negotiate a deal to purchase your domain name.

Doing so and using GoDaddy as a broker will cost you $69.99 per domain plus a 20% commission on the final price of the domain.

Hire a broker

We hope this article helped you learn how to buy a domain name anonymously. You can also see our guide on how to improve your WordPress SEO ranking, and the best email marketing services for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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2022’s CMS Market Share Report – Latest Trends and Usage Stats

Are you looking for the latest CMS market share trends and usage stats?

These statistics can help you better understand the CMS market so you can choose the best CMS for your needs. Or you might even learn something new about your favorite content management system.

In this CMS market share report, we’ve collected the latest trends and usage stats for all the biggest content management systems.

2022's CMS market share report - latest trends and usage stats

CMS Popularity and Market Share Report 2022

We’ve divided this CMS market share report into several different categories. Simply use the table of contents below to jump straight to the statistics or content management system you’re most interested in.

CMS Usage Statistics

CMS usage statistics
  • In 2011, around 76% of all websites were hand-coded. By 2022, this figure had fallen to around 33%.
  • Today, over 78 million websites use a content management system. That’s around 58% of all websites.
  • When we look at the top 1 million websites based on traffic, almost 900,000 use a CMS. That’s nearly 90%.
  • However, experts warn that content management systems may be less popular in the business space. This is due to the higher costs of setting up a CMS for business use and a lack of CMS knowledge among small-to-medium enterprises.

The best content management systems make it easy to manage your content and create web pages, usually without having to write any code.

While it is possible to build a website without a CMS, you would need to learn a few different programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and PHP. You might even need to hire expert developers or web design specialists.

Without a CMS, you would need to write code every time you wanted to update your site. You might also have to deal with common errors if you make a mistake in the code.

With that being said, it’s not surprising that so many websites already use a CMS. In the future, we expect to see the number of hand-coded sites continue to fall, as more and more people realize the benefits of a good CMS.

CMS Market Share

CMS usage stats and market share
  • Throughout 2021, North America held a dominant share of the global CMS market, with Europe holding the second largest share.
  • Experts predict that North America’s share will continue to grow throughout the 2022-2028 time period.
  • When compared to other regions, it is estimated that Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa will contribute the least to the global market throughout 2022-2028.
  • According to experts, the government, life science, medical and health, retail, consumer goods, and defense sectors all contribute “significantly” to the size of the CMS market.
  • In 2021, enterprise web content management dominated the CMS sector, although the healthcare sector did acquire a “significant” share of the CMS market.
  • Experts predict that the Asia Pacific region will see the highest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) throughout 2022-2028. CAGR is the average rate that an investment grows or shrinks over a period of time.
  • According to experts, the CMS market in the Asia Pacific region is currently experiencing growth due to more small and medium-sized businesses adopting content management systems.

North America may continue to dominate the CMS market, but experts predict that the Asia Pacific region will get the highest return on investment out of all the regions.

This suggests the Asia Pacific market will play a much larger role in the CMS space, moving forward.

Content Management System Market Value

The CMS market value
  • The global CMS market was valued at approximately $35,903 million in 2018.
  • By 2021, the global CMS market was worth around $17.5 billion.
  • The CMS sector is predicted to hit $25.5 billion by 2028.
  • Experts predict that the CMS market will have a compound annual growth rate of roughly 6.5% between 2022 and 2028.

No matter whether you’re starting a blog, running a global eCommerce business, or making a small business website, the right CMS can help you succeed.

With 58% of all websites now using a CMS, it’s easy to see why this is a billion-dollar industry that shows no signs of slowing down.

WordPress Market Share

WordPress is the most popular CMS
  • WordPress has the biggest CMS market share.
  • Out of all the websites that use a known CMS, 45% of those sites use WordPress.
  • In 2022, WordPress has a 64.2% share of the global CMS market.
  • It is estimated there are 34,896,678 live WordPress websites.
  • There are over three million, five hundred thousand WordPress blogs and websites in the US alone.
  • When we look at the top 1 million sites based on traffic, 28.7% of those sites use WordPress open-source software.
  • 29.65% of the top 100 thousand websites use WordPress, and 29.41% of the top 10 thousand sites run on WordPress.
  • The WordPress CMS market share has grown from 55.3%-64.2% between 2011 and 2022, which is an 8.9% increase.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, and that seems unlikely to change anytime soon.

The figures show that the number of hand-coded websites has decreased every year since 2011. At the same time, the number of WordPress websites has increased every single year. This suggests that WordPress is a popular choice among first-time CMS users.

This makes sense, as WordPress is one of the most user-friendly content management systems. WordPress is also one of the most flexible and customizable CMS platforms, and you can even download it for free from WordPress.org.

No matter whether you want to start a personal blog, an online store, or a multilingual website, you’ll have no problems finding the perfect WordPress theme and plugins. You can think of plugins as modules or apps that extend the core CMS.

WordPress is also optimized for search engines and gives you easy access to specialist SEO tools such as AIOSEO. All of this explains why WordPress has such a big user base.

Since WordPress is an open-source CMS, you can use it with a huge range of different WordPress hosting providers. Again, this makes WordPress a flexible CMS that appeals to lots of different people and businesses.

However, although WordPress has a far bigger market share than any other CMS, the content management system space is huge.

Even a 1% market share still translates to millions of websites. With that in mind, many of the content management systems in this report are still big players on the CMS market, even if they can’t compete with the sheer number of WordPress websites.

For more information, please see our ultimate guide on how to create a WordPress website.

eCommerce CMS Platforms Market Share

The WooCommerce eCommerce WordPress plugin
  • When you look at the top 1 million eCommerce sites, 2.67% of them use WooCommerce, a popular WordPress plugin.
  • 3.84% of the top 100 thousand websites use WooCommerce, and 3.82% of the top 10 thousand sites use WooCommerce.
  • Out of the top 1 million eCommerce sites, Shopify is the second most widely used CMS at 2.05%.
  • Meanwhile, 0.85% of those sites use Magento, and 0.49% use OpenCart.

It may not be a standalone CMS, but the statistics show that a significant number of online stores use WordPress and WooCommerce to create a CMS with eCommerce functionality. For this reason, we’re including WooCommerce in our CMS market share report.

According to the data, eCommerce sites that get the most traffic are more likely to use WooCommerce, although Shopify is a close second favorite among the top online stores.

Shopify is a fully hosted platform so you don’t need to worry about performance, which could explain why Shopify is used by 2.05% of high-traffic eCommerce sites.

Similarly, there is no shortage of managed WordPress hosting providers who can fine-tune your WooCommerce store and make sure it provides the best possible customer experience.

If you choose WordPress and WooCommerce as your eCommerce CMS, then you’ll also have access to lots of WooCommerce plugins that can extend and optimize the platform.

Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, you can also follow our ultimate guide on how to boost WordPress speed and performance.

With their managed hosting and high performance, both Shopify and WooCommerce have a lot to offer online store owners and entrepreneurs. For a more detailed look at these two platforms, please see our Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison.

Wix Market Share

Wix is the CMS with the second biggest market share
  • Out of all the websites that use a known CMS, around 10% of those sites use Wix. This makes Wix one of the most popular content management systems.
  • Wix is used by around 7 million websites.
  • In the United States, 991,860 websites use Wix.
  • Despite holding a 10% share of the global CMS market, Wix only powers 0.56% of the top 1 million websites.
  • 0.69% of the top 100 thousand websites use Wix, and 0.98% of the top 10 thousand sites use Wix.

When we compare Wix’s market share to its closest competitor, we get interesting results.

Out of the top 1 million sites, 28.7% of those websites use WordPress but only 0.56% use Wix. This suggests that Wix appeals to small sites and businesses that get less traffic, rather than high-traffic websites.

By comparison, high-traffic websites are much more likely to use WordPress.

For a more detailed comparison, please see our complete guide to Wix vs. WordPress – which one is better?

Squarespace Market Share

The Squarespace CMS
  • Looking at the websites with a known CMS, around 3.71% of those sites use the Squarespace CMS.
  • Around 2,896,221 live websites use Squarespace.
  • 0.69% of the top 1 million sites use Squarespace.
  • 1.36% of the top 100 thousand websites use Squarespace, while 3.16% of the top 10 thousand sites use this popular hosted platform.
  • Squarespace’s CMS market share has grown from 0.2%-3.0% between 2011 and 2022, which is a 2.8% increase in 10 years.

Similar to Wix, Squarespace is much more popular among sites that have less traffic, compared to sites that get lots of visitors.

This makes sense, as Squarespace is best known for its ready-made templates and ease of use, which makes it a great platform for first-time website owners and smaller businesses.

Squarespace also has some limits that may be less appealing to larger businesses. For example, Squarespace only has a few integrations with third-party services. This can be a problem for big companies that want to use lots of different software and services with their content management system.

All of this may explain why we see larger organizations opt for flexible platforms such as WordPress, while smaller sites tend to choose hosted platforms like Squarespace or Wix.

For more information on this topic, you can see our guide on Square vs. WordPress – which one is better?

GoDaddy Market Share

The GoDaddy website builder
  • 2.24% of all websites with a known CMS, use the GoDaddy website builder.
  • It is estimated that 1,750,645 live websites are GoDaddy sites.
  • When we look at the top 1 million sites, 0.02% of those sites use GoDaddy.
  • 0.02% of the top 100 thousand websites use GoDaddy, while 0.03% of the top 10 thousand sites are built with GoDaddy.

Our market share stats show that very few high-traffic websites use GoDaddy, which reflects the audience that GoDaddy seems to be targeting.

GoDaddy’s website builder is a simple and easy tool that lets you create a professional looking website without any special design or development skills. It comes with ready-made blocks and layouts, which are perfect for anyone who is looking to create a website, fast.

However, GoDaddy is not as feature rich or flexible as some of the other content management systems and builders on our list. This could explain why it’s only used by 0.02% of the top 1 million websites.

If you’re looking to move away from GoDaddy, then you can see our expert pick of the best GoDaddy alternatives.

Joomla CMS Market Share

The Joomla CMS
  • 1.72% of all websites with a known CMS, use Joomla.
  • It is estimated that 1,325,993 live websites use Joomla.
  • When we look at the top 1 million sites based on traffic, 1.34% of those sites use the Joomla CMS.
  • 2.04% of the top 100 thousand websites run on Joomla, while 1.89% of the top 10 thousand sites rely on Joomla as their CMS.
  • Joomla’s CMS market share has reduced from 10.9% to 2.5% between 2011-2022. That’s a 8.4% decrease in 10 years.

Joomla still has a significant user base, but the growing popularity of user-friendly platforms such as WordPress and Shopify have affected its market share.

Many shared hosting providers offer one-click install packages for Joomla. However, the Joomla control panel isn’t as straightforward as other systems, with lots of different menus and settings that you can use to customize your site. This means that Joomla has a steep learning curve.

By default, Joomla also doesn’t allow users to install extensions and templates from the control panel, which can make it difficult for first-time users to find helpful addons.

This is a powerful platform with a loyal fanbase, but with so many user-friendly alternatives we may see Joomla’s market share continue to decline.

To learn more, please see our guide to WordPress vs. Joomla Vs. Drupal.

Weebly Market Share

The Weebly content management system
  • 1.28% of all websites that use a known CMS use Weebly.
  • It is estimated that 991,368 live websites run on Weebly.
  • When we look at the top 1 million sites based on traffic, 0.09% of those sites use the Weebly CMS.
  • 0.17% of the top 100 thousand websites are built using Weebly, while 0.31% of the top 10 thousand sites use Weebly.

Weebly is a fully hosted platform that has everything beginners need to build a website, including ready-made templates. a built-in contact form, professionally-designed sliders, and photo galleries.

It’s an easy-to-use platform, which explains why Weebly has a user base of over 991,000 websites.

However, as a fully hosted platform you’re locked into the functionality that Weebly provides. You can’t hire a developer or designer to add new features to a Weebly website, which might be why so few high-traffic websites use Weebly.

For more details, please see our guide on WordPress vs. Weebly – which is better?

Drupal CMS Market Share

The Drupal CMS
  • 0.71% of all websites whose CMS is known, use Drupal.
  • It is estimated that 555,754 live websites use Drupal.
  • When we look at the top 1 million sites based on traffic, 2.93% of those sites are built using Drupal.
  • 6.82% of the top 100 thousand websites use Drupal, compared to 10.46% of the top 10 thousand sites.
  • Drupal’s CMS market share has reduced from 6.1%-1.8% between 2011 and 2022. That’s a 4.3% decrease in 10 years.

The CMS statistics show that Drupal has a smaller overall market share compared to other content management systems on our list. Despite this, Drupal is used by a much larger percentage of high-traffic sites.

By comparison, Wix has a much larger overall market share (10%) but is used by a much lower percentage of the top 1 million websites (0.56%).

Drupal may not be the most popular CMS platform, but it’s a powerful software with lots of support resources. It also has a reputation as a very secure CMS.

While smaller websites, first-time site owners, and bloggers are choosing user-friendly platforms, the figures show that Drupal still has a loyal following among high-traffic websites.

For more information, please see our guide on WordPress vs. Joomla Vs. Drupal – which one is better?

Shopify Market Share

The Shopify hosted eCommerce platform
  • Shopify has a 6.2% share of the CMS market.
  • Impressively, Shopify’s market share has risen from just 3.4% in 2020 to 6.6% in 2022. That’s an increase of 3.2% in just two years.
  • It is estimated that 3,834,405 live websites use Shopify.
  • Shopify is used by 2.05% of the top 1 million eCommerce websites.
  • 2.62% of the top 100 thousand websites use Shopify, while 3.99% of the top 10 thousand sites are Shopify websites.
  • During the fourth quarter of 2020, Shopify reported earnings of $977.7 million, which was a 94% increase compared to the same period in 2019.
  • In 2020, Shopify reported a 53% year-over-year increase in subscription revenue.

Shopify had a sudden spike in popularity between 2020-2022, which saw its market share rise by 3.4% in just two years.

Many experts say this is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With physical shops closed around the world, many businesses needed an easy way to sell their products online during this time.

As an all-in-one fully hosted eCommerce platform, Shopify is a user-friendly choice for anyone who wants to launch an online store, fast. Shopify comes with full inventory management, unlimited products, powerful analytics, marketing tools, and lots of designs, all in one product.

However, Shopify forces you to use its Shopify Payment platform. If you prefer to use your own payment processing solution, then Shopify charges an extra 2% transaction fee which is very high compared to other eCommerce solutions.

With that in mind, we may see Shopify’s growth slow as store owners start to look for more affordable Shopify alternatives. For example, you might move from Shopify to WooCommerce.

CMS Predictions for 2022 and Beyond

CMS predications and trends
  • Experts predict that artificial intelligence and machine learning will be big trends in the CMS space.
  • In particular, they see an increasing demand for image recognition, voice recognition and transcription, natural language understanding and natural language processing in content management systems.
  • Studies predict that personalized technologies will be another must-have feature among CMS users.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning promise to make all kinds of tasks easier and more efficient.

The world of content management systems is no exception, and it will be interesting to see how these platforms use advanced technologies in the future.

Sources: BuiltWith Trends, W3Techs, Zion Market Research, Facts and Factors, Statistica, Shopify, BuiltWith Knowledge Base.

We hope this CMS market share report helped you learn all about the latest trends and usage stats. You may also want to see our research on top marketing statistics as well as latest web design trends and stats.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Ultimate Web Hosting Statistics and Market Share Report (2022)

Are you looking for the latest web hosting statistics and market share information?

Web hosting is one of the key parts of every successful website. By understanding the hosting market and all of the major players, you can choose the best provider for your WordPress website.

In this article, we’ve gathered tons of web hosting statistics and market share information.

Ultimate web hosting statistics and market share report

Ultimate List of Web Hosting Statistics

We’ve divided this list of web hosting statistics into several different categories. You can use the links below to jump to the section you’re most interested in.

Global Web Hosting Services Market Size in 2022

Global web hosting market size statistics
  • The global web hosting market is projected to grow to $267.10 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate of 18%.
  • In 2020, the global market was valued at $75 billion.
  • Web hosting is expected to generate $79.25 billion in revenue in 2022.
  • By 2027, it’s predicted that the web hosting space will generate $144.40 billion.
  • According to experts, the growing number of small and medium businesses is the biggest factor driving the industry’s growth.
  • Market share differs dramatically depending on location. While Amazon rules the US market with a 3.9% share, in Germany the most popular web hosting provider is 1and1 (18.29%), while in Italy Aruba has an impressive 30.71% market share. Similarly, the most popular cloud hosting provider in the United States is Amazon (31%) but the Google Cloud platform has the biggest share of India’s cloud computing market (39%).

No matter whether you run an online store, a nonprofit organization, or an affiliate marketing business, every organization needs a website. That means a big demand for web hosting.

In fact, at the start of 2022, there were around 1.8 billion live websites and over 5.1 billion internet users.

When you consider the stats, we can see that web hosting is a billion-dollar industry that’s only going to grow in the future.

Global Web Hosting Market Share in 2022

A global web hosting network
  • In 2020, the North American web hosting industry was valued at $34.32 billion.
  • Experts predict that the United States will have the largest market share right up until 2026, with Europe forecast to have the second biggest market share.
  • In 2022, analysts predict the United States will generate the largest web hosting revenue ($5,832 million). In second place is the UK, which is predicted to generate $5,832 million, followed by Japan ($5,666 million), China ($4,930 million), and Germany ($4,435 million).
  • Asia Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR throughout 2021-2028, with the market in the Asia Pacific expected to reach $2.5 billion by 2026.
  • Experts also predict that the Middle East and Africa will show steady growth in the web hosting space due to an increasing focus on digitization.
  • China is forecast to reach an estimated market size of $16.9 billion in the year 2026, with a CAGR of 15.6% for the period 2021-2026.

The Asia Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly throughout 2021-2026. Experts say this is due to the growing popularity of online platforms and improved connectivity in the region.

Governments have also invested lots of money in small and medium enterprises, startups, and side businesses, which is fueling the growth in web hosting. For example, in 2019 the Chinese government announced a special investment of $894 million for small and medium enterprises, and in 2020 it invested $140 million into developing more startups.

With that being said, we expect to see the number of websites continue to grow. By investing so much money into startups and small businesses, governments in the Asia Pacific region are creating a huge demand for web hosting in these areas.

Domain Registration Statistics

Balloons showing different domain extensions
  • A domain name typically costs $10–$15 per year, although the most expensive publicly reported sale was carinsurance.com, which sold for $49.7 million.
  • GoDaddy has over 78 million registered domains, which gives them a 12.77% share of all registered domains. That makes GoDaddy the world’s most popular domain registrar.
  • Namecheap is GoDaddy’s closest competitor with over 17 million registered domains. This gives it a 2.87% share of all registered domain names and makes Namecheap the second most popular domain registrar.
  • 37.20% of domains are top-level domains (TLDs).

Choosing the best domain name for your website is crucial, and many sites even use a domain name generator to pick the perfect domain, fast.

Once you’ve chosen a domain, the next step is to properly register that domain name.

The good news is that many of the top web hosting providers are also domain name registrars, so you can often get a domain and hosting from the same provider.

Interestingly, GoDaddy is both the most popular web hosting provider and the most popular domain registrar, which suggests a lot of people choose to use the same company. Since it’s such a popular choice, we expect to see more web hosting companies also offering domain registration in the future.

If you haven’t purchased a domain name yet, then please see our expert pick of the best domain registrars.

Shared Hosting Stats (Including Average Cost of Web Hosting)

Shared web hosting
  • Shared hosting plans typically cost between $2.51-$4.63 per month.
  • On average, an entry-level shared hosting plan will cost $2.5 –$3.72 per month.
  • Typically, you can expect to pay between $4.63–$6.52 per month for mid-tiered shared web hosting.
  • Experts predict that the shared hosting market will grow at 15% CAGR and reach $72.2 billion by 2026.
  • 75% of the websites on a shared hosting plan use GoDaddy.

Shared hosting is where multiple websites share a server. By hosting several sites on the same server, web hosting companies can reduce their costs and offer hosting at a lower price, as the stats show.

To help you decide whether shared hosting is right for you, we’ve published this guide on the real truth about the best shared web hosting services.

VPS Hosting Stats (Including Hosting Costs Per Month)

A VPS Virtual Private Server
  • You can typically expect to pay between $13.41-$21.89 per month for VPS hosting.
  • Entry-level VPS hosting costs $13.41–$15.57 per month.
  • For mid-range VPS hosting, the average cost is $21.89–$25.17. However, when publishing these figures researchers pointed out that the range is skewed by a small number of premium service providers.
  • 21% of the websites on a VPS hosting plan use GoDaddy.

Similar to shared hosting, VPS hosting runs multiple sites on the same server. However, VPS uses powerful virtualization technology to create a digital barrier between each site. This gives customers guaranteed access to a percentage of the server’s resources. They also have greater control over how their server is set up.

As we can see from the web hosting statistics, extra flexibility, security, and improved performance come at a cost. On average, even entry-level VPS plans are noticeably more expensive than shared hosting.

To help you choose the right VPS hosting plan for your budget, we’ve created a guide to the best VPS hosting.

Dedicated Hosting Stats (Including Web Hosting Market Size)

A web hosting server
  • In 2021, dedicated hosting had 25.5% of the global web hosting services market.
  • Dedicated hosting is predicted to grow at 11.1% CAGR throughout 2021-2026.
  • GoDaddy is the most popular dedicated hosting provider. When we look at all the sites that are known to use dedicated hosting, 35% of those websites use GoDaddy.

Dedicated hosting is where a single customer has private access to an entire server. Dedicated hosting plans are mainly used by big websites that get lots of visitors and need a high level of performance and security.

Dedicated plans are expensive, but they’re not the only way to create a top-notch website.

For example, if you’re using WordPress then there are lots of ways to boost WordPress speed and performance. Plus, you can use security plugins to help protect your site.

Web server software code
  • Nginx is used by 34.2% of all websites whose web server is known, making it the most popular server technology. Alipay, TikTok, and Zoom all use Nginx.
  • 31.2% of all the websites with a known web server use Apache. Some big names that use Apache hosting services include eBay, Spotify, Dropbox, and Salesforce.
  • 21.6% of all websites with a known web server rely on Cloudflare Server. This includes some big names such as Zoom, Indeed, Etsy, Discord, and Fiverr.

The web hosting stats show that over 50% of all websites use open-source server software.

Open source gives you the freedom to use, change, extend, and redistribute software without having to pay anything. Immediately, open source helps you run a website for less and creates a sense of community and collaboration that benefits everyone who uses the software. With that being said, it’s not surprising that it’s one of the major hosting trends.

As well as open-source server software, almost half of the web (43%) uses the WordPress open-source content management system. It’s clear that in 2022, the world wide web runs on open source.

For more details about open source and WordPress, you can check out our guides on why WordPress is free and how much it really costs to build a WordPress website.

AWS Web Hosting Market Share

The AWS Amazon website
  • Over 57 million websites use Amazon as their hosting provider.
  • 6.2% of all websites use Amazon as their host, which gives Amazon Web Services (AWS) the biggest share of the web hosting industry.
  • Some of Amazon’s most well-known customers are Reddit, Netflix, TikTok, Twitch, Zoom, and eBay, plus Amazon themselves.
  • Out of the top 1 million websites, 22.23% use Amazon as their provider.
  • 41.08% of the top 100K websites use AWS, plus 53.76% of the top 10k websites.

Amazon has the largest market share and is also clearly a favorite among high-traffic sites.

This popularity could be down to Amazon’s reputation, as they’re known to provide robust and scalable hosting to some of the biggest companies in the world.

In fact, Netflix alone uses over 100,000 Amazon server instances to deliver high-resolution videos to their customers.

GoDaddy Hosting Market Share

The GoDaddy web hosting website
  • Despite the name, the GoDaddy Group owns several web hosting providers including Host Europe and Media Template. When we look at the entire GoDaddy Group, 3.9% of all websites use one of the company’s hosting providers.
  • GoDaddy is the Group’s most popular brand. Out of all the sites that use the GoDaddy Group, 78.5% choose GoDaddy as their web host.
  • Over 41 million websites use GoDaddy’s data centers.
  • When we look at the top 1 million websites based on traffic, 2.27% use GoDaddy as their hosting provider.
  • 1.76% of the top 100K websites use GoDaddy, plus 1.78% of the top 10k websites.

GoDaddy may have a mixed reputation, but it still has a big market share and hosts over 41 million websites.

This may be because of how much GoDaddy spends on marketing, as they invested over $100 million during the second quarter of 2022 alone.

However, it’s always smart to consider all your options. With that being said, you may want to see our expert pick of the best GoDaddy alternatives.

Namecheap Pricing and Web Hosting Statistics

The Namecheap web hosting provider
  • Over 5 million websites use Namecheap as their host, which is 1.0% of all websites.
  • Out of the top 1 million websites, 0.75% use Namecheap as their hosting provider.

Namecheap is best known as a domain registrar, but they’re also a popular hosting provider since their plans are very affordable.

For example, Namecheap’s shared hosting plans start at $2.18 per month, which is low when compared to the shared hosting average of $2.51-$4.63.

As we’ve previously seen, Namecheap is also the second most popular domain registrar. For website owners who want to buy their domain and hosting from the same company, this makes Namecheap an attractive choice.

Hostinger Web Hosting Market Share

The Hostinger web hosting website
  • Over 1 million websites use Hostinger as their provider, which is 1.3% of all websites.
  • Out of the top 1 million websites, 0.5% use Hostinger as their hosting provider.

Hostinger may not have a huge share of the high-traffic market, but they have a significant slice of the wider web hosting market.

This is likely because they offer affordable, all-in-one hosting packages complete with 24/7 live chat support, managed automatic updates, a free CDN service, and free site migration. They also have a 1-click installer that makes it easy to install WordPress plus other popular software.

For a detailed look at Hostinger’s strong points and weak points, you can check out our expert Hostinger review.

WP Engine Group (Managed WordPress Usage Statistics)

The WP Engine website
  • 2.2% of all websites use one of WP Engine Group’s brands as their hosting provider.
  • 81.5% of all sites that use WP Engine Group, choose WPEngine as their provider.
  • Flywheel is used by 18.5% of all websites that use the WP Engine Group.
  • Some of WP Engine Group’s biggest customers include Indeed, Udemy, SoundCloud, and Mozilla.

WP Engine is one of the world’s leading managed WordPress hosting providers, used by 2.2% of all websites.

A managed hosting plan is perfect for busy website owners who want to avoid time-consuming admin tasks.

With its advanced security features, protection against DDoS attacks, and built-in CDN in partnership with MaxCDN, WP Engine is powerful enough to support larger businesses such as Mozilla and SoundCloud.

For more information, please see our expert review of WP Engine.

HostGator Web Hosting Statistics

The HostGator homepage
  • HostGator is part of the Newfold Digital Group, which was formerly known as the Endurance International Group. HostGator is the company’s most popular web hosting provider. In fact, HostGator is used by 30.8% of all websites that use a Newfold Digital Group brand.
  • HostGator is used by 1.4% of all websites.
  • Over 960,000 sites rely on Hostinger as their hosting provider.

With 1-click WordPress installation, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and 24/7 support, it’s easy to see why HostGator is used by 1.4% of all websites.

They also offer shared hosting, Virtual Private Server hosting, dedicated hosting servers, and managed WordPress hosting plans, so website owners can choose the plan that works the best for them.

To see whether HostGator is right for you, check out our expert review of HostGator.

Bluehost Pricing and Web Hosting Statistics

The Bluehost special offer for WPBeginner readers
  • Bluehost is also part of the Newfold Digital Group and is the company’s second most popular hosting provider. Bluehost is used by 27.4% of all websites that use a Newfold Digital Group brand.
  • Over 2 million websites are hosted on Bluehost, which is 1.2% of all websites.
  • Out of the top 1 million websites based on traffic, just 0.39% use Bluehost.

Bluehost is an affordable hosting provider, especially when compared to the average prices we’ve seen earlier.

WPBeginner readers can get a 60% off discount with Bluehost. You can purchase a shared plan for just $2.75 per month, which is at the lower end of the $2.51-$4.63 average. Plus, it comes with a free domain name!

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

These affordable prices may explain why Bluehost is used by 2 million websites. As well as offering low prices, Bluehost is one of the few hosts officially recommended by WordPress.

To learn more about Bluehost, you can see an in-depth Bluehost review from our experts.

Shopify Hosting Stats

Shopify website
  • Almost 4 million websites use Shopify as their hosted solution.
  • In 2020, Shopify’s market share was just 1.8%, but by 2022 it was 4.4%. That’s an increase of 2.6% in just 2 years.

Shopify is a popular website builder, similar to Wix and Squarespace. Shopify has seen rapid growth from a 0.4% share of the web hosting market in 2016 to 4.4% in 2022. This is likely due to the rising popularity of online shopping, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With physical shops closed around the world, many businesses needed to create an online store, fast. As a fully hosted eCommerce platform, Shopify saw good conversion rates and lots of new customers during the pandemic.

However, Shopify does force you to use its Shopify Payment platform. If you want to use a different payment processing solution, then you’ll need to pay an extra 2% transaction fee which is very high compared to other eCommerce platforms.

With that in mind, we may see Shopify’s growth slow as store owners start to look for more affordable Shopify alternatives. For example, we’re starting to see more people move from Shopify to WooCommerce.

Squarespace Web Hosting Stats

The Squarespace CMS
  • Over 4 million websites use Squarespace as their hosting solution, which means 2% of all websites use Squarespace.
  • When we look at the 1 million sites based on traffic, 0.69% of them use Squarespace.
  • 1.36% of the top 100k websites use Squarespace, plus 3.16% of the top 10k sites.

Similar to Shopify, Squarespace’s market share has grown very quickly. In 2016, Squarespace had just 0.3% of the market, but by 2022 it had 2.0%.

Despite this, today only a small percentage of the top 1 million sites use Squarespace. This could be because Squarespace forces customers to use its built-in drag and drop builder which can be restrictive.

Bigger organizations are more likely to choose a flexible hosting plan and open-source CMS such as WordPress, rather than a hosted solution and restrictive web builder.

For more information, you can see our guide on Square vs. WordPress – which one is better?

Sources:

Internet Live Stats, Internet World Stats, GoDaddy, Global Industry Analysts, Fortune Business Insights, W3Techs, Statista, BuiltWith, Domain Name Stat, AWS.

We hope this ultimate web hosting statistics and market share report will help you find the best hosting provider for your website. You may also want to see our research on the latest blogging statistics as well as new marketing trends and stats.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Ultimate Web Hosting Statistics and Market Share Report (2022) first appeared on WPBeginner.

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GoDaddy Responds to Mullenweg’s Accusations: “We All Have the Same Goal”

In a recent Twitter storm, Matt Mullenweg characterized GoDaddy as “a parasitic company,” that is “an existential threat to WordPress’ future.” In a series of tweets that were subsequently deleted, Mullenweg contended that GoDaddy is lacking support for WordPress and WooCommerce, relative to how much the company is benefiting from the projects. He also said the company’s investment in proprietary website and store products is at odds with how much it gives back to WordPress.org.

This sparked a heated discussion across Twitter, the Advanced WordPress Facebook group, blog comments, and Post Status Slack. The most outspoken people were those who felt Mullenweg was arbitrarily disparaging one company’s contributions while commending another. There was also a significant group of people who vehemently agreed with his assessment.

“I think parasitic is the right word to apply to GoDaddy,” Boulder WordPress Meetup organizer Angela Bowman tweeted. “Taking something that is free and leveraging it for maximum profits by undercutting the very thing you are selling out of existence. Capitalism at its best, most ruthless, and short sighted.”

Bowman distilled it into a more succinct example:

GD: Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

MM: Well, we need to feed and house the cow. Provide medication when needed. Or the cow dies.

GD: How long before it dies? How much $$$ can we make until it does?

I contacted GoDaddy to find out how many people the company sponsors and how much they spend on sponsoring events.

“Our company contributes to open-source in a variety of ways, including through dedicated employee roles, specific projects on which these employees work, and many employees who have a passion for the WordPress community and give back whenever possible,” GoDaddy Director of Public Relations Nick Fuller said.

The company declined to comment on specifics but pointed to its Five for the Future pledge page, which shows that GoDaddy sponsors 34 contributors for a total of 217 hours per week across 15 teams. With 9,000 employees, this amounts to a relatively small number of hours compared to other hosting and product companies, like Automattic (4098 hrs/week) and Yoast (250 hrs/week).

Compared to the other economy hosts listed on WordPress.org’s recommended hosting page, GoDaddy’s contributions are much smaller relative to its size:

  • Bluehost (750 employees) sponsors 6 contributors for a total of 102 hours per week across 4 teams.
  • SiteGround (500 employees) sponsors 12 contributors for a total of 58 hours per week across 7 teams.
  • DreamHost (200 employees) sponsors 3 contributors for a total of 30 hours per week across 4 teams.

While GoDaddy’s contributions may be smaller in terms of work hours, the company allocates hundreds of thousands of dollars for sponsoring WordCamps and related events. After another successful WordCamp Europe in the books, many attendees agreed that the value of these events cannot be overstated. Without corporate sponsors, WordCamps would not happen on the scale that they currently do.

“Beyond contributions to open-source projects, GoDaddy is extremely active at various WordPress events,” Fuller said. “In 2022, our plan is to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on WordCamp and other related events such as WordSesh and WordFest. Many of our employees will be active participants in these community events.”

When asked to comment on the accusations of being a “parasitic company” and “an existential threat to WordPress’ future,” Fuller would not address the complaints directly.

“We all have the same goal, to make WordPress better each and every day,” he said. “Our team is passionate about making WordPress better, both for the community and for our customers, and we greatly appreciate the support expressed by many in the WordPress community in recent days.”

Matt Mullenweg took to Post Status Slack today to clarify some of the opinions he voiced on Twitter yesterday. He hinted at strategies behind the scenes that even employees may not know about.

“Keep in mind that people might not be aware of actions happening in other parts of the company, for example the pressure from their new activist investors,” Mullenweg said. “As an example: I 100% believe the good intentions of the Google folks who were working on AMP, and of course we learned later it was part of a larger strategy they were unaware of that, after being disclosed in litigation discovery, appears malicious.”

Mullenweg also referenced the free-rider problem, a type of market failure where those who benefit from public goods do not pay or under-pay, which leads to over-consumption. This is similar to the Tragedy of Commons situation he mentioned in the past as a fate that WordPress is tying to avoid with its Five for the Future program.

“Failed open source projects usually succumb to the free rider trap — the parasites kill the host, which ultimately hurts the parasites as well but they can’t think beyond short-term,” Mullenweg said. “Successful open source projects escape the free rider problem, as WordPress has so far, largely because of awareness of it and people voting where to invest their talent and their dollars in organizations that contribute to the shared resource in a way that keeps it sustainable.”

If looking solely at the definition of Five for the Future contributions, GoDaddy may constitute a free rider. They are not conforming to what the project has requested from companies in order to keep WordPress sustainable for generations to come. However, highlighting GoDaddy in this fashion may not be the best way to extract more contributions or inspire others to be part of this initiative. WordPress needs to find a better means of dealing with what it deems to be under-performing contributors, because many well-meaning individuals can get trampled underneath the heavy tread of social sanctioning.

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Matt Mullenweg Identifies GoDaddy as a “Parasitic Company” and an “Existential Threat to WordPress’ Future”

On Thursday Matt Mullenweg responded to an inquiry on Twitter from Jeff Matson, a Pagely employee, about whether Automattic’s Newspack platform had all open open source components or some proprietary elements. In his response, he formally identified GoDaddy as “an existential threat to WordPress’ future.”

The response raised more than a few eyebrows on Twitter as it seemed unrelated to the topic of discussion, which was Amazon’s expansion of its proprietary digital publishing technology.

The conversation following this statement grew more heated and escalated, as GoDaddy employees felt this statement disparaged their contributions and careers dedicated to WordPress.

Mullenweg elaborated on why he sees GoDaddy as an existential threat in a series of tweets that have now been deleted but were preserved in screenshots below. He urged GoDaddy employees to examine how many people are contributing to WordPress and WooCommerce, two open source projects from which the company makes what he estimates to be hundreds of millions of dollars, versus the company’s investment in proprietary website and store products. “How much did GoDaddy put back into .org vs spend on cPanel licenses?” he asked.

In response to a tweet from WordPress digital producer Allie Nimmons, Mullenweg said that although GoDaddy employs some great people, they are “unfortunately overshadowed by massive corporate actions made many levels above them.”

“Those who care about the future of WordPress should spend their dollars with less parasitic companies,” Mullenweg said.

He commended Bluehost for its support of WordPress and its ecosystem since 2003.

Citing GoDaddy’s market dominance, revenue estimates, and 25% of its commerce customers using GoDaddy Payments, the concern seemed more strongly aimed at preserving WooCommerce and the its ability to benefit the rest of the ecosystem.

Some speculated that GoDaddy is more likely an existential threat to WooCommerce and WordPress.com than it is to the WordPress project.

“What I’m worried about is the future of WordPress if GoDaddy succeeds and suffocates the rest of the ecosystem,” Mullenweg said.

In a strange turn of events that would have been unimaginable years ago, many in the WordPress community took to Twitter to defend GoDaddy, even though the company has historically been criticized for its poor performance and predatory sales practices. GoDaddy has been working to improve its tarnished reputation by sponsoring open source contributors and events. Representatives from GoDaddy have not yet responded to a request for comment.

“People have contributed some really great work to the WordPress ecosystem over the years while employed by Godaddy,” Mullenweg told the Tavern. “I wish the company great success and many happy returns.”

Although the tweets were ultimately deleted, fragmenting the resulting conversation, it is clear that Mullenweg perceives GoDaddy as lacking support for the WordPress project and WooCommerce, relative to how much the hosting company is benefiting in revenue. He also sees GoDaddy’s support for proprietary solutions at grave odds with its purported support for WordPress.

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Quick Guide to Migrate GoDaddy DNS to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

Why Migrate DNS 

Most of the hosting solutions are reliable and cost-effective, which helps businesses and individuals to host sites quickly with little to no manual intervention. These services are simple to use and require just basic technical knowledge. However, if you already have a cloud account and host the web services on multiple computes with/without a public load balancer, then it makes sense to migrate the DNS to your cloud account. It is also helpful if you want to control every aspect of hosting, for example using custom web content software, custom security policies, changing DNS records to your custom public IPs,  budget predictions based on the compute resources, traffic, etc.

Now, we detail the steps of how to migrate the DNS domain name from GoDaddy (a popular web hosting provider) to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). 

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GoDaddy Data Breach Exposes 1.2 Million Active and Inactive Managed WordPress Hosting Accounts

In a disclosure to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that was published today, GoDaddy announced a data security breach impacting its WordPress managed hosting customers. The company discovered unauthorized third-party access to its hosting environment on November 17, 2021, through an exploited vulnerability.

GoDaddy’s initial investigations show the attacker gained access using a compromised password beginning on September 6, 2021. Nearly every sensitive data point associated with hosting a WordPress website was compromised, including customer email addresses, admin passwords, sFTP and database credentials, and SSL private keys. GoDaddy published the following summary of data the attacker had access to for more than two months:

  • Up to 1.2 million active and inactive Managed WordPress customers had their email address and customer number exposed. The exposure of email addresses presents risk of phishing attacks.
  • The original WordPress Admin password that was set at the time of provisioning was exposed. If those credentials were still in use, we reset those passwords.
  • For active customers, sFTP and database usernames and passwords were exposed. We reset both passwords.
  • For a subset of active customers, the SSL private key was exposed. We are in the process of issuing and installing new certificates for those customers.

GoDaddy has more than 20 million customers but only the managed WordPress hosting accounts were affected by this breach. Looking further into the incident, Wordfence claims that GoDaddy was storing sFTP credentials as plaintext, although GoDaddy has not officially confirmed it:

GoDaddy stored sFTP passwords in such a way that the plaintext versions of the passwords could be retrieved, rather than storing salted hashes of these passwords, or providing public key authentication, which are both industry best practices.

We confirmed this by accessing the user interface for GoDaddy Managed Hosting and were able to view our own password…When using public-key authentication or salted hashes, it is not possible to view your own password like this because the hosting provider simply does not have it.

GoDaddy’s stock tumbled after the SEC disclosure got picked up by major news organizations, finishing down 5.25%. The company emailed its customers to notify them that their accounts may have been compromised during the two months when the attacker had unauthorized access.

The incident has damaged customers’ trust and puts developers and agencies in an uncomfortable position if they are required to notify their customers about the breach. Impacted site owners will need to watch for malware, suspicious activity, and potential phishing attacks.

Godaddy says it has already taken steps to further secure its provisioning system and is continuing its investigation with the help of an IT forensics firm and law enforcement.

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GoDaddy Pro To Host Second EXPAND 2021 Event on September 24 in India

GoDaddy Pro will kick off EXPAND 2021 – India on September 24, the second event of its kind this year. It is a one-day virtual conference that will feature sessions from industry leaders and experts in the field.

Nikhil Arora, the Vice President and Managing Director for GoDaddy India, will present the keynote address. In total, there will be nine sessions that will run between 15 and 45 minutes throughout the day. The goal is to provide guidance and resources for those starting and growing digital businesses.

GoDaddy Pro launched its first event, EXPAND 2021 – U.S., in late April. Over 5,000 people registered for the two-day virtual conference. However, tens of thousands more have viewed individual sessions since then. Each session is available for free viewing via the GoDaddy Pro YouTube channel, and new videos will be added for future events.

When Adam Warner, the Global Field Marketing Sr. Manager at GoDaddy, spoke of the event earlier this year, he described it as a project he had wanted to do since 2018. For him, it was a way of giving back to the community and helping the next generation along.

“I’m pleased with how our EXPAND conference series is growing and the feedback we’ve received from attendees so far,” he said. “The overarching goal of EXPAND is to showcase the solutions that our Pros are providing for their clients, and to do so in a way that both inspires and educates others to follow their passion for building the web and their own businesses.”

The first event did not go off without any bumps in the road. The team learned from it and will tweak things to improve the conference.

“One important lesson we learned from our first EXPAND event was to clearly define chat moderation roles and increase the amount of pre-written platform navigation directions and tips for our Guides to share with attendees in the general and session chats areas,” said Warner. “When our event started, we were walking over ourselves a bit. The chat conversations move so fast, we ended up duplicating a few replies, coming from multiple people.”

The EXPAND 2021 – India conference will be different than the inaugural event held earlier this year. Instead of focusing on a more general or U.S. audience, GoDaddy Pro is leaning into its regional teams and members.

“All the speakers are from India, as well as the Pros whose stories will be featured,” said Warner. “We have dedicated GoDaddy and GoDaddy Pro teams in India, and they’ve played a lead role in defining the best approach for the Indian audience. The biggest challenge with putting this event together so far has been the differences in time zones for our multiple teams. We’ve tried to accommodate everyone’s schedules as much as possible.”

The GoDaddy Pro team is already planning EXPAND 2022 events. Warner said those interested to be on the lookout over the next couple of months for more news.

“To date, our EXPAND conferences run parallel with our location-specific launches of the GoDaddy Pro brand,” he said. “As GoDaddy Pro continues to grow, and when the world gets back to in-person events globally, we would love to accommodate attendees in multiple physical locations.”

One glaring issue for the India event is the lack of gender diversity within its speaker group. Only one woman is leading a session. I asked Warner why there was such an imbalance.

“The number of women in the technology sector in India has been a matter of concern for small and large businesses alike,” said Warner. “GoDaddy is an inviting place to work and an industry leader for women in technology. We are actively working to create platforms and ecosystems to encourage more women to join the fray. We are delighted to have Kriti Aggarwal, Founder of Anaha Services, join us at this year’s EXPAND Event in India and are focused on all future EXPAND Conferences recognizing diverse groups of leaders in their sectors.”

The team is holding two Meetups each week. Yesterday was an all-female panel of GoDaddy and GoDaddy Pro team members in prep for their sponsorship of FemTechConf, held between September 24 and 25.

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How to Find Out Who Actually Owns a Domain Name? (3 Ways)

Do you want to find out who actually owns a domain name?

Looking up who owns a domain can help you find the owner’s contact information, so you can purchase the domain name.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can find out who actually owns a domain name, step by step.

How to find out who actually owns a domain name (3 ways)

Why Find Out Who Owns a Domain Name?

Finding out who owns a domain name can tell you valuable information about the domain name owner.

Usually, this information will include an email address and other contact information, so you can get in touch to purchase the domain name.

It also shows you useful domain name information, like the last time it was registered, how many owners the domain has had, and more.

If you find that multiple people have owned a specific domain name, then this increases chances of the domain being used for spam.

When you’re creating a WordPress website, one of the biggest decisions you’ll make is choosing the perfect business name and matching domain.

If you’ve found a great domain, but it’s already registered, then you’ll want to reach out to the owner to see if they’re willing to sell it to you.

There are multiple ways you can find out who owns a domain name. We’ll show you the 3 easiest ways to quickly find out the owner of a domain name.

Method 1: Search for a Domain With Domain.com WHOIS Lookup Tool

Domain.com is one of the most popular domain name registrars. It lets you register all top-level domain name extensions (TLDs) and dozens of top country code top-level domains (ccTLDs).

They offers nearly every feature you’d expect from a top domain name registrar, including private registration, domain name management, email accounts, easy transfers, and even web hosting.

One very useful tool they offer is the WHOIS lookup tool. This will search the public WHOIS database for any available domain name information.

To use this tool, navigate to the Domain.com WHOIS lookup and enter the domain name.

Domain.com WHOIS lookup

Then, the tool will display the available WHOIS results.

It will show you information like the domain name registrar, who owns the domain, when it was registered, and any available contact information.

Registrant email contact

If the email address is available, then it will appear in the ‘Registrant Email’ field.

You can also try to get in touch with the domain name owner via the domain name registrar, more on this below.

Domain name registrar contact

Note: if you’re going to register a new domain name through Domain.com, then make sure to use our Domain.com coupon code to get 25% off your purchase.

Method 2: Search for a Domain With Network Solutions WHOIS & Domain Lookup

Network Solutions is one of the biggest domain name registrars in the world, with over 7 million domains registered with them. You can register a wide variety of top domain name extensions with this service.

They also offer nearly everything you need to launch your WordPress small business website, including web hosting, security tools, SEO services, and more.

To find out who owns a domain name, you can use the WHOIS lookup and domain lookup tool.

Simply enter the domain you want to look up and click ‘Search’.

Network Solutions WHOIS lookup

After that, the tool will display any available domain registration information.

Network Solutions will only display detailed WHOIS information if that domain is registered with their service.

However, Network Solutions also has a unique addon service that will negotiate purchasing the domain name anonymously.

If you decide to use this service, then simply click the ‘Backorder’ button, put down a deposit, and their team will get to work.

Network Solutions backorder domain

This can be a great way to purchase a domain name from an owner without doing all the work yourself.

Note: if you’re going to register a new domain name, then make sure to use our Network Solutions coupon code for 25% off your domain purchase.

Method 3: Search for a Domain With GoDaddy WHOIS Domain Lookup

GoDaddy is one of the longest running and largest domain name registrars in the world, managing over 77 million domain names. They offer competitive pricing and a great selection of domain name extensions to choose from.

To look up who owns a domain name, you’ll use the GoDaddy WHOIS Database tool. It works similarly to the tools above.

Simply enter the domain name into the WHOIS database lookup, and the tool will find the relevant domain name information.

GoDaddy WHOIS lookup

You might notice the results are similar to the previous tools.

However, it can be helpful to try the domain name search with multiple tools. If the domain is hosted at a specific registrar, then you can get more accurate information.

What To Do if the Domain Registration Information is Hidden?

Many domain name registrars today offer domain name privacy, which keeps a domain name owner’s information hidden from WHOIS searches.

This service, along with recent the GDPR law, can make it difficult to find out who owns a domain.

If you’ve used the tools above to search for a domain and weren’t able to find out who owns it, then you can contact the domain registrar to see if they can forward your request.

The domain owner’s information will often be hidden, but the domain name registrar will be visible.

Contact domain name registrar

In this case, simply email the registrar and let them know you’re interested in buying the domain or want to notify them about a spam domain.

Your final option is to simply email the domain name owner through their website contact form if their website is currently online.

There’s a lot of other information you can find about websites online. For example, you can find the WordPress theme a site is using, and find out who is hosting a certain website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to find out who actually owns a domain name. You may also want to see our expert picks of the best WordPress hosting and our list of the must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Find Out Who Actually Owns a Domain Name? (3 Ways) appeared first on WPBeginner.

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GoDaddy Pro Will Kick off 2-Day Expand Event on April 27

GoDaddy Pro is launching its first virtual Expand event on April 27. The free-to-attend conference will focus on web professionals and will last until April 28.

In February, GoDaddy re-launched GoDaddy Pro as a formal sub-brand of the company. The “Pro” branding was not a new outing. However, it was a fresh take on an old idea. As part of this launch, they introduced a re-engineered interface named the Hub. The experience was geared toward website designers and developers, providing them with a central location to manage their client projects. More than simply a new set of tools, the company created a dedicated branding experience for GoDaddy Pro.

“We are committed to, passionate about, and truly in awe of web designers and developers,” said Adam Warner, the Global Field Marketing Sr. Manager at GoDaddy. “It has been a pleasure supporting this audience, but it’s now our mission to up the ante and deepen our commitment. Our goal with GoDaddy Pro is to empower web pros with a unified tool that helps them create outsize efficiency for their operation, deliver incredible results for their clients, grow their skills and operation, and connect and inspire by fostering community.”

The Expand 2021 event is a continuation of that goal. The target audience is described as “web designers and developers who identify as eager side hustlers or website freelancers.” The conference’s sessions are meant to provide instructions, resources, and connections to help developers grow their businesses.

The event will begin with an opening keynote from GoDaddy’s Aman Bhutani, the CEO; Tara Wellington, the Senior Director of Product Management; and Warner. It will feature eight sessions, split evenly between each day. The event’s schedule will fit into a small window between 10 am and 12:30 pm Pacific Time on both days.

By some conference standards, even virtual ones, this may seem like a small event. However, the tighter focus could be a welcome one for people suffering from online event fatigue. Each session is scheduled to last around 30 minutes.

The sessions will focus on a wide span of topics like client management, eCommerce, creating a project starter stack, website security, and scaling a freelance business with care plans.

The History Behind GoDaddy Pro Expand

Spearheading the first Expand conference, Warner avoided talking about target audiences, performance indicators, or budgetary concerns in an internal memo sent throughout GoDaddy. The effort is about creating a series of GoDaddy Pro Expand events globally in the coming months and years that help the community.

The idea for a conference had been in the making since 2018. Warner described the purpose of GoDaddy Pro, Expand 2021, and meetups as empowering and inspiring the next generation of web designers and developers to deliver for their clients and create self-sustaining freelance businesses.

Expand 2021 is, in some way, my Opus for giving back to the community that raised me and giving the new generation a head start in following their own passions. It’s the culmination of my years exploring and creating on the internet. My first time on the internet was in 1993. I was in my third year of college, working at Hungry Howie’s Pizza in small-town Michigan. A co-worker had some of us to her house, and her boyfriend logged us on to a Bulletin Board System (BBS). We chatted in a dull, orange text late into the night to people around the world.

I was amazed then, and that sense of wonder and possibility stayed with me as I started to learn HTML and build simple websites a few years later. Then came my discovery of WordPress in early 2005 and the incredible global community of users willing to lift each other up for collective success.

It was at that moment, I knew I had to find a way to make websites and WordPress my career.

Now, 28 years later, Warner is taking the next step in organizing his first event from scratch along with over 40 others. He wanted to build a conference that was devoid of “talking heads touting theoretical advice.” Instead, to offer an experience with actionable knowledge that web professionals can use immediately.

“The real purpose of Expand 2021 is to ‘pay it forward’ by advising and inspiring the next generation of web designers and developers, enabling them to take the next steps in their paths,” said Warner.

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GoDaddy Launches the Hub, a New Site, Project, and Client Management Experience for Web Professionals

Decorative image representing The Hub by GoDaddy Pro that displays the home screen.

On Monday, GoDaddy officially launched the Hub by GoDaddy Pro, a dashboard that brings together all of its products, pro-specific tools, and solutions. The experience is geared toward website developers and designers, creating a central location to manage their client work.

GoDaddy Pro is not a new service by GoDaddy. The hosting company launched its initial beta in 2015. However, GoDaddy Pro is now offering a fresh experience powered by the Hub. According to Adam Warner, the Global Field Marketing Sr. Manager at GoDaddy, the Hub is being built in collaboration with real-world web designers and developers from their Customer Advisory Board.

The Hub is at hub.godaddy.com. Existing GoDaddy Pro users can opt-in to the new Hub experience. However, they may continue using the legacy experience at pro.godaddy.com. They can also jump between both as needed. Eventually, the Hub will completely replace the legacy experience.

The Hub home screen from GoDaddy Pro.
The Hub home screen.

“You can manage all your client projects, sites, and GoDaddy products from within the Hub,” said Warner. “Your clients’ WordPress sites don’t have to be hosted at GoDaddy. The Hub works with all web hosts. You can run one-click WordPress updates, security checks, backups, and other bulk site maintenance work within the Hub. We’ve seen users save an average of three hours per month, per site.”

The Hub allows web developers to access their clients’ GoDaddy products without needing to pass around credentials. Developers can also send a pre-loaded shopping cart or purchase products on their clients’ behalf.

“This makes it easier, and faster, to get a new project up and running,” said Warner. “You don’t have to worry about your client buying the wrong hosting plan or domain. Project management is integrated into the Hub, so you can keep track of client communications and ensure you’re delivering projects on time.”

Part of this journey began when GoDaddy acquired ManageWP and brought its team over in 2016. The acquisition was anything but popular at the time.

“We built the first version of our GoDaddy Pro site management tools on top of ManageWP Orion,” said Warner. “We added new GoDaddy-specific features, like allowing clients to grant delegated access to manage their GoDaddy products. We also included some premium addons for free on GoDaddy-hosted websites. Just like with ManageWP, sites managed in the Hub can be hosted anywhere, not just at GoDaddy.”

The Hub has an interface that feels more Average Joe than tech savant. I half expected to see call-to-action buttons littering the screen, funneling users to every conceivable GoDaddy product, but none were found. Expectations from the GoDaddy of 10 years ago still linger and die hard. However, the company continues to move beyond its old reputation with its free tools and more recent willingness to give back to the open-source community, including its contribution to Five for the Future.

Site security check with the Hub by GoDaddy Pro.
Running a site security check.

“My goal in joining GoDaddy in 2018 was, and still is, to continue my participation in the WordPress and wider web designer and developer (WD&D) communities in order to listen and return feedback internally on how we can best support freelancers in starting, growing, and streamlining their businesses,” said Warner. “GoDaddy Pro (the legacy tool) already existed when I joined GoDaddy, and my mission was to spread the word and offer suggested enhancements based on real-world conversations with freelancers and their specific needs.”

Creating clients, projects, and sites from within the interface is simple. Performance and security checks went well for the one site I have connected. The tests seemed to be spot on in comparison to other tools I have used.

Performance check output by the Hub from GoDaddy Pro.
Site performance check.

GoDaddy Pro membership is free. However, the Hub will have premium site maintenance tools in the future. Automated security checks, performance checks, backups, and uptime monitoring are currently free. There is no timetable on when they will be behind a paywall. Some of the premium features will have a downgraded free option when the switch is flipped.

“While some adjacent programs (e.g. GoDaddy Reseller program, Pro subscription) may have associated costs or fees, GoDaddy Pro’s integrated project management, site management, and client management tools are free,” said Warner.

The commitment to offering the management tools for free is undoubtedly a good thing. Thus far, I like what I am seeing with the new Hub experience.

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GoDaddy Acquires SkyVerge, Creator of Over 60 WooCommerce Add-Ons

On September 14, GoDaddy announced it had acquired SkyVerge, a major WooCommerce-focused development company, for an undisclosed amount. At the moment, GoDaddy is playing it close to the vest in terms of its future plans. It has not publicly announced anything beyond a continued commitment to current customers.

The initial announcement makes note that SkyVerge’s free plugins on WordPress.org have been downloaded more than 3.1 million times. However, the company’s nine plugins in the directory currently have over 155,000 active installs. Nevertheless, SkyVerge’s real value is in its team and its impressive array of free and commercial add-on plugins available directly from its site.

WooCommerce is a cash cow for companies with the right products and marketing at the moment. GoDaddy seems to be going all-in on the back of WordPress’s most popular eCommerce solution. It launched a managed WooCommerce hosting plan in October 2019. The hosting company has now added over 60 WooCommerce extensions to its inventory in one swoop.

“As more small businesses and entrepreneurs go online, having a highly performant eCommerce experience is becoming more important than ever,” said Rich Tabor, Senior Product Manager of WordPress Experience at GoDaddy. “Late last year we launched a Managed WooCommerce offering, bundling many WooCommerce extensions in the Managed WordPress environment.”

SkyVerge has quietly become a massively successful WordPress and WooCommerce business. It was bringing in $350,000 per month at the end of 2019. There was no response on how well the business has performed thus far in 2020.

The entire SkyVerge team came along for the transition to GoDaddy. “We’re just beginning to deliver more capabilities and an even better setup and ongoing usage experience for our customers,” said Tabor. “The SkyVerge team will lead and accelerate those plans. They are an incredibly talented and innovative team that lives and breathes WooCommerce. Joining forces with them advances GoDaddy’s WordPress strategy and enhances our ability to deliver intuitive eCommerce experiences that help everyday entrepreneurs sell online.”

With so many extensions in place, the big question for average users is whether those extensions will become a part of GoDaddy’s eCommerce hosting bundle. Tabor either did not or could not let slip any plans in the works. “We’re just beginning to determine how to best deliver SkyVerge’s wonderful products to GoDaddy customers. SkyVerge brings a lot of great software. It’s reasonable to expect we’ll be delivering that to our customers who are selling online.”

It is doubtful that GoDaddy went into this acquisition without at least some short-term plans or visions for how its managed hosting service would use these extensions. For now, we will have to wait and see.

It seems that the immediate plan will be to maintain business as usual. Tabor said GoDaddy had no changes to announce related to SkyVerge’s products and website. “We are committed to continuing support of SkyVerge’s customers and investing in the SkyVerge software,” he said.

SkyVerge also created Jilt, which is an email marketing platform for eCommerce sites. The platform currently supports WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Shopify, and Shopify Plus. Tabor did not directly respond to what the future looked like for Jilt’s non-WooCommerce customers nor did he give any indication of whether there were plans to expand Jilt to other eCommerce systems.

He did say that GoDaddy would continue to invest in its priority eCommerce platforms, which are WooCommerce and GoDaddy Websites + Marketing.

Max Rice, co-founder of SkyVerge, did leave some indication of Jilt’s future in his announcement post. “We made a commitment to be there for your business with software you can depend on, and we’re sticking to it,” he said. “We’ll continue to support our existing WooCommerce plugins and Jilt. While we’ll be building something new at GoDaddy, everything we’ve already built is a big part of that.”

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GoDaddy’s ‘Go’ WordPress Theme Offers a Page-Building Experience via the Block Editor

Screenshot of the Go WordPress theme.

GoDaddy launched its Go WordPress theme last week. It has been publicly available through its GitHub repository for several months, but the theme review team finally approved and set it live in the theme directory. Thus far, the theme has garnered 7,000 active installs and is likely to hit the popular list, given GoDaddy’s history of releasing popular themes. It also provides translations in 27 languages out of the box.

Go is simple. After working with the theme through GoDaddy’s managed hosting onboarding process in October last year, I was admittedly a little disappointed this time around. The onboarding process made things almost too easy. I had a predesigned site without thinking about it. After installing and activating Go in my test environment, I couldn’t help but feel like it would take 100 times more work to recreate the magic I once basked in. I knew the power of the theme because I had been presented an ideal set of options that were preconfigured for me in the past. Without the configuration, the theme seemed a little less impressive.

That’s the beauty of great marketing and onboarding. GoDaddy had already reeled me in.

While the Go theme is simple, it is also powerful. A lot of that power is in its block styles. Instead of focusing on theme-specific features, the team behind the project poured their work into creating an experience that allows theme users to piece their sites together with the block editor. The theme is ideal for users who want to utilize the block editor as a page builder.

The theme has a handful of customizer options that provide additional flexibility, but the main selling point is that it gets out of the way and lets the user do the designing. I suspect we will see many similar themes in the next year as theme authors come to grips with building themes in a block world. A large part of the market will want themes that are essentially open canvases for site owners to manipulate the output of their site via blocks.

Go is also designed to work with WooCommerce, which is a large part of the company’s eCommerce hosting service. This integration should make it a nice option for small business owners.

CoBlocks Companion Recommended

Screenshot of the Features block from the CoBlocks plugin designed in the Go theme.
Features block from the CoBlocks plugin.

The magic of Go is not in the theme itself. It’s in GoDaddy’s companion plugin CoBlocks, which the company acquired last year in a deal with ThemeBeans. The plugin has soared from a mere 3,000 active installs to over 100,000 since.

CoBlocks offers everything from accordions to maps, from logos to pricing tables, and a lot more in between. It covers a lot of ground that the core WordPress editor blocks do not cover.

The Go theme is designed to go hand-in-hand with CoBlocks (can we get GoDaddy to just go ahead and rename the plugin to GoBlocks?). The theme is meant to offer a page-building experience. Because GoDaddy owns both products, it makes sense they would offer one of the nicer integrations between the plugin and a theme.

Not Ideal for Blogging

Screenshot of a blog post with loads of whitespace between paragraphs and other blocks.
A lot of whitespace between text and other blocks in posts.

The theme makes generous use of whitespace, but its overuse can often break the reading flow for blog posts. The flow from paragraph to paragraph is fine. However, the moment you drop an image, gallery, pull-quote, or one of many other blocks into the content, the theme adds an extra 140 pixels of whitespace above and below the block. It completely throws off the vertical rhythm of the post.

Go also displays the full posts on the blog posts page instead of excerpts. There are few things I dislike more when it comes to blogs. Providing an option for users to choose between a full and summary view would be ideal.

The theme does not claim to be well-suited to blogging. None of the demos for the theme show off a blog. If you’re looking for a theme to handle blogging with media mixed in the content, you will find better offerings elsewhere, such as the Blocksy theme

Limited Yet Useful Theme Options

Screenshot of the Go theme's customizer options.
Design style and color scheme options in the customizer.

The theme adds five sections to the customizer:

  • Site Design
  • Header
  • Footer
  • Social
  • Site Settings

Within each section, Go provides a few basic options, most of which are related to colors and layout. The most useful options reside under the “Site Design” section. The theme presents a design style option that changes the theme’s fonts and colors. Currently, there are five design styles: traditional, modern, trendy, welcoming, and playful. Once a design style is selected, users can choose from four color schemes for that style. The design of this system is brilliant. It gives users choices without forcing them to become designers and handpick the perfect hex code for each color.

Users who prefer to manage individual colors are not left out. The theme also provides options for overriding any of the colors from the chosen color scheme.

I was disappointed that Go opted for creating individual options for various social networks instead of using a navigation menu. Using WordPress’ built-in nav menu system for social links has become the de facto standard in the last several years, which allows users to carry their social links from one theme to the next. Unfortunately, users are required to retype all of their links with this theme.

The theme keeps does not go overboard with options but provides enough customizability to make the theme unique to the user.

How Does the Code Stack Up?

The theme offers a solid and well-documented codebase. There is not much PHP or JavaScript code, so there are few areas where it can go wrong. The theme’s strength is in its CSS.

The theme templates were primarily HTML with PHP sprinkled in. For DIY users who like to hack away at theme templates, you should not find any surprises.

Final Thoughts

Users who want to customize every page of their site will likely enjoy this theme. It is well-suited for small business owners and others with small sites. It could work well for artists and others with portfolios as well.

It does not fit with my personal taste because it does not cater to my blogging style, which is my primary interest in themes. However, I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone who wants a ton of control over their site’s inner page design.

The following is a list of the available demos. There is a lot that can be done in combination with the CoBlocks plugin, which you will want to use in combination with Go.

Demos with the CoBlocks plugin:

Demos with the CoBlocks and WooCommerce plugins:

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GoDaddy Launches eCommerce Hosting Plan in Partnership with WooCommerce

GoDaddy launched an eCommerce tier for their managed hosting plans on October 22. The new tier launched in partnership with WooCommerce and offers over $1,500 of commercial extensions and themes for setting up an online shop.

The eCommerce plan utilizes GoDaddy’s onboarding process available with all managed hosting plans. The system automatically sets up the user’s online shop based on answers provided during onboarding. This process eases the burden of setting up a fully-functional eCommerce website for users who are new to working with WordPress and WooCommerce.

GoDaddy also sets up and maintains a free SSL certificate, a necessity for handling secure payments, as long as the site continues using their managed hosting. This service is available with some of their other managed hosting plans but not the lower tiers.

It makes sense that GoDaddy would try to carve out a slice of the WooCommerce pie now that the plugin is powering 30% online shops around the world.

Neither GoDaddy nor Automattic, the parent company of WooCommerce, has released the details of what the partnership entails. Aaron Campbell, GoDaddy’s head of WordPress Ecosystem and Community, confirmed the two companies did have an official partnership.

The available list of bundled WooCommerce extensions includes the following, but it is unclear what other extensions are available (official extensions number in the hundreds). Campbell said that some extensions are still rolling out on the platform.

  • Advanced Notifications
  • WooCommerce Brands
  • Checkout Field Editor
  • WooCommerce Deposits
  • Follow-Ups
  • WooCommerce Points and Rewards
  • WooCommerce Pre-Orders
  • Product Add-Ons
  • Product Vendors
  • Min/Max Quantities
  • Product CSV Import Suite
  • Memberships
  • Bulk Stock Management
  • Subscriptions
  • WooCommerce Bookings
  • UPS & USPS Shipping Methods

There are a few popular add-on plugins in the mix, but many store owners could need to purchase additional extensions to build their ideal online shop. Setup costs could be steeper than some customers anticipate. Official WooCommerce extensions can range between free and $299 per year.

The plan also makes several premium Storefront child themes available to customers. Like extensions, there is currently no public list of which themes are included with hosting.

The new eCommerce tier runs on the same managed hosting system as other plans, which all allow site owners to run WooCommerce.

“From an ease-of-setup standpoint, eCommerce site owners will definitely benefit from the simplified onboarding process that helps them through setting up their store,” said Campbell. (Read our review of GoDaddy’s onboarding process.)

Aside from potential help from the onboarding process, the value-add for going with the eCommerce hosting tier is directly tied to the bundled WooCommerce extensions and themes. Without an official list available, it is hard to speculate whether the upgrade from the next lowest tier, Ultimate, is worth it. The Ultimate plan runs $5 cheaper each month ($60/year). It is virtually the same plan minus the WooCommerce extensions. Plus, you can run a second website on Ultimate.

Shelling out the extra dollars for the eCommerce tier comes down to personal choice. Whether GoDaddy is offering an extension or theme that would cost more than the $60 in savings each year should play heavily into that decision. A single commercial extension or theme will likely exceed that cost.

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Inside Look at GoDaddy’s Onboarding Process for Managed WordPress Hosting

The Tavern was provided access to test GoDaddy’s onboarding process, which is a part of its managed WordPress hosting service. The company has revamped its system since we covered it in 2016. The web host has had time to garner feedback since then and build an easy-to-use, headache-free way to launch WordPress sites.

GoDaddy has been making waves in the WordPress community over the past few years and is quickly becoming one of the most dominant businesses in the ecosystem. Several of the company’s free WordPress themes consistently rank in the theme directory’s popular list. Most of them are child themes of their popular Primer theme, which boasts 40,000+ active installs when not counting child theme installs. The real count should be north of 200,000.

GoDaddy provided access to its Pro 5+ tier, which is its highest level of managed WordPress hosting. They have three lower tiers, each at different price points and with fewer features. Regular pricing for the tiers range between $9.99 and $34.99 per month. All levels include automatic backups, security scans, caching, and a slew of other features that are not always easy to figure out for new users.

Aaron Campbell , GoDaddy’s head of WordPress Ecosystem & Community, said that their hosting service is growing quickly. “We were among the largest WordPress hosts when we launched our Managed WordPress Hosting in 2014,” he said. “Within 2 years our offering became the largest Managed WordPress platform in the world and remains so to this day.”

GoDaddy launched its basic onboarding process later in 2014. They iterated on that version through 2018. “When Gutenberg went into core in WordPress 5.0 we saw an opportunity to redefine the WordPress onboarding and imagine what a ‘Gutenberg native’ experience would look like,” said Campbell. “Meaning, do what Gutenberg uniquely enables us to do over what was possible before–things that couldn’t be done by making existing themes Gutenberg ‘compatible’ we had to build from the ground up.”

Based on my experience with the product, I would have no qualms about recommending it to new or even more experienced users. Even those with no experience running WordPress can create a new site without trouble in far less time than it’d take to go through the normal, more complex process.

How the Onboarding Process Works

One of the hardest things to know prior to signing up for a service and handing over your credit card number is how the service works. For this reason, I snagged a few screenshots and will do a quick walk-through of the process.

Once you are ready to build your new website, the service provides a “Set up” link that sends you to GoDaddy’s onboarding screen. There are three paths to choose from. The first and most prominent is to view the available templates, which is the path that new users would choose. You can also manually set up WordPress or migrate an existing site.

Starting screen for GoDaddy's managed WordPress hosting.

When selecting to view templates, the service presents over 50 options to choose from. The templates are further grouped by category based on the type of site a user might want to create. I chose the “Beckah J.” option because it worked for my idea of creating a life-wellness site.

Each of the templates are created from GoDaddy’s new Go WordPress theme, which is currently available via GitHub and awaiting review for placement in the official WordPress theme directory.

Theme selection for GoDaddy's managed WordPress hosting.

After selecting a template, the process moves to a preview screen, which has buttons to switch between desktop, tablet, and mobile views. From that point, you can choose to use the template or go back and select another.

This was the first point of the process that felt like it needed polishing. The preview frame was too small to get a feel for what the site would look like on desktop or tablet. This is a fixable problem. There’s plenty of screen real estate GoDaddy could use to make the preview nicer.

Theme preview for GoDaddy's managed WordPress hosting.

The next screen allows users to enter information about what type of site they want to run. Depending on which of the following checkboxes are ticked, GoDaddy will set up the site differently.

  • Provide information
  • Write blog posts
  • Display my portfolio
  • Sell physical goods to my customers
  • Sell digital goods to my customers to download
User questions for GoDaddy's managed WordPress hosting.

After completing the final form, GoDaddy begins creating the site. The host sets up the site with one or more of several plugins based on the choices made in the previous form.

The site installation process was slower than I had expected. We live in a fast-paced world where users expect things to happen nearly instantly. I admit I was antsy while waiting for the process to complete, in part because everything else happened so quickly. I wondered if I had time to grab a sandwich. In reality, it was much faster than manually setting up a WordPress install, but the setup did take a few minutes of waiting. My experience may have been an anomaly too. Sometimes these things take time.

Site setup process for GoDaddy's managed WordPress hosting.

A Website Ready to Go

Out of the box, my newly-created site had five custom pages ready based on my choices during the onboarding process.

  • Blog
  • Get in Touch
  • Home
  • My Account
  • My Cart

It was nice to see WooCommerce ready and a contact form set up with my email (handled by the CoBlocks plugin). I would rather have seen contact, account, and cart page slugs for their respective pages, but that’s a personal preference.

The site came with seven plugins installed, five of which were activated.

  • Akismet (deactivated)
  • CoBlocks
  • Gravity Forms (deactivated)
  • Sucuri Security
  • WooCommerce
  • WP101 Video Tutorials
  • Yoast SEO

CoBlocks along with theme integration for the block editor is what made the process of working with the website a breeze. GoDaddy acquired the CoBlocks plugin in April. At the time, the plugin had 30,000+ active installs. It has since grown to 80,000+ in the few months since GoDaddy has taken over.

The Onboarding Process Provides a Nice User Experience

I’ve been critical of GoDaddy over the years. I am a customer of one of their other hosting products that launched years ago. That particular site is stuck on PHP 5.6, which has given me the feeling that the company is not focused on its older projects. However, Campbell said they are in the process of moving users on legacy hosting products to a newer platform.

I’ve been cautiously optimistic about the work GoDaddy has been doing within the WordPress community. They’ve more than shown their commitment to the WordPress platform over the past few years.

Despite a couple of minor hiccups, the onboarding process the hosting giant has built is one of the best experiences I have ever had launching a WordPress site. Even as an old pro, I’d consider using it for future projects, particularly when setting up sites for less tech-savvy family and friends.