If you’ve decided to start a website, you may be more than a little confused over all the different web hosting companies and all the plans that are out there. This one-on- one comparison between GoDaddy and Arvixe is here to help you sort through the clutter and find a web hosting company that is right for you.
GoDaddy is a large company with nearly 13 million customers. Arvixe may not be as well-known as some other hosting companies, but it is fast growing – in size and reputation. Both GoDaddy and Arvixe provide shared hosting, managed WordPress, VPS, and dedicated server plans. Both GoDaddy and Arvixe offer Linux and Windows options for their plans.
GoDaddy has won numerous “best of” awards, including being named a Fortune 100 “Best Company to Work for” in 2012. GoDaddy has also gained recognition for its controversial ad campaigns. Arvixe has won many awards – including PCMag’s “Editor’s Choice” in 2015, and is one of Inc. 500’s “fastest growing companies in America.”
GoDaddy began in 1997 as Jomax Technologies and was rebranded as Go Daddy in 1999. In 2006, the brand changed to GoDaddy (the two names joined). A private investment group owns GoDaddy, however, the founder, Bob Parsons, remains the largest individual shareholder. Arvixe was bought by Endurance International Group (EIG) in 2014. EIG owns many web hosting companies, and though the EIG sites have some similarities, they operate under their own names.
Uptime and Reliability
Uptime. When servers aren’t up, you lose viewers and customers. Uptime guarantees don’t mean your site will always be up, but it is an indication of the importance the web host gives to uptime. GoDaddy guarantees an uptime of at least 99.9%. If the site falls .1% or more from 99.9% in one month, you are credited 5% of that month’s hosting fee. Arvixe has the same 99.9% guarantee, with a free month’s refund if it falls below that percentage.
Performance. GoDaddy uses Core i7 processors in its shared plans, and Xeons in its VPS and dedicated plans. Arvixe uses the latest Xeons, and stores customer data on 15K raid ten drives. Arvixe’s databases and email servers are on SSD storage.
A test on a GoDaddy site yielded a load time of 2.91s, faster than 56% of the sites tested with Pingdom. A comparable Arvixe site had a load time of 1.05s%, faster than 89% of the sites tested.
Reliability. GoDaddy has a data center it owns in Phoenix, Arizona, and leases two other Arizona centers at Mesa and Scottsdale. GoDaddy has other data centers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Ashburn, Virginia. International needs are met with a European center in Amsterdam and an Asian center located in Singapore. The data centers are powered and cooled with redundancy and diesel backups.
Arvixe meets global demands with data centers in Dallas, Texas, Amsterdam, and Hong Kong. The data centers are fully redundant and are monitored onsite for security and reliability.
Opinion on GoDaddy and Arvixe Performance
Arvixe has a better uptime guarantee, and much faster load and response times in the tests.
Compare Key Features
Note: “Unlimited” and “unmetered” are marketing terms often used by web hosting companies. Contrary to what you may believe, it does not mean “all you can use.” Instead, it refers to what the hosting company “deems reasonable usage.”
Domain Registration. While both hosts are domain registrars, GoDaddy is the world’s largest registrar with over 60 million domains under management. GoDaddy offers one year of free domain registration for the initial term when the term is 12 months or longer. Arvixe offers a free domain for as long as you have a plan with them, and it offers a free transfer if you already have a domain.
Website Builder. GoDaddy has the drag-and- drop interface with its Website Builder, starting at a promo price of $1 per month. Arvixe provides RvSiteBuilder, which features a WSYWIG editor and over 600 web templates.
Databases. Depending on the plan chosen, GoDaddy offers from 10 to unlimited MySQL databases. Arvixe offers unlimited MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.
Email Accounts. GoDaddy offers 100 to 1,000 accounts with 100 MB to 1 GB of storage, depending on your plan. Arvixe provides unlimited email accounts and email forwarding on all its plans.
WordPress Hosting. Both GoDaddy and Arvixe offer managed WordPress plans. A managed WordPress plan has the hosting company making backups and updates on your site, allowing you to focus on the important thing – your site’s content.
GoDaddyGoDaddy has four WordPress plans. Basic, which is limited to one site, 25,000 visitors per month, and 10 GB of SSD storage; Deluxe, with one site, 100,000 visitors, and 15 GB storage; Ultimate, with two sites, 400,000 visitors, and 30 GB SSD storage; and Developer, with up to 5 sites, 800,000 visitors, and 50 GB of SSD storage. All come with a free domain when ordering an annual term. The Ultimate plan includes free SiteLock.
ArvixeArvixe offers two shared WordPress plans – Personal Class and Personal Class Pro. If your site grows, their hosting scales over shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Cloud servers, depending on your needs. They have unlimited space and bandwidth, and 24/7 chat and phone support for their WordPress hosting.
eCommerce Solution. GoDaddy and Arvixe both offer free shopping carts, such as Magneto, ZenCart, PrestaShop, and others, through the control panel. Arvixe supports a great deal of free and commercial e-commerce options, many with 24/7 support and automatic installation.
Backups. GoDaddy has a site backup and restore plan for a monthly fee with its shared plans, and free daily backups on WordPress, VPS, and dedicated plans. Arvixe takes daily snapshot backups of its servers. Arvixe does recommend customers make their own backups and store them off-site (which is good advice regardless of any plan).
Hosting Security. GoDaddy does scans and proactively acts against DDoS threats, and it provides what it calls “CageFS.” CageFS allows you to set up user privileges to limit access to content. GoDaddy provides SpamAssasin, as well as BoxTrapper, for email filtering. Arvixe scans and proactively acts against DDoS threats, as well as having brute force protection. Arvixe provides SpamAssassin and Spamhaus filtering.
GoDaddy provides free shared SSL for its plans, with the top tiers getting Private SSL free. Arvixe used to provide shared SSL for its Linux shared plans, however, as of late 2015, shared SSLs are no longer available for Linux or Windows PersonalClass shared plans. Private SSLs may be purchased. Arvixe BusinessClass plans have free SSL as long as you have a plan with Arvixe.
GoDaddy and Arvixe both offer Windows or Linux servers.
Control Panel. Arvixe uses the industry standard cPanel. GoDaddy uses cPanel, but it has done some customization, which may make it unfamiliar to regular cPanel users.
Extras. Besides hosting plans, GoDaddy also offers SEO, online marketing, and design services for additional fees. Both GoDaddy and Arvixe have reseller plans and affiliate programs. Arvixe provides $100 ad credit to Bing/Yahoo and $100 in Google AdWords.
Opinion on GoDaddy and Arvixe Key Features
The two hosting companies have many things in common – both use cPanel, both have Linux and Windows servers, and both have good security options. GoDaddy is considered the industry’s leader in domain registration, but Arvixe’s unlimited bandwidth, databases, and email feature for its plans gives it an edge.
Hosting Plans & Pricing
Note: Pricing for web hosting companies is a moving target. To remain competitive, special promotions are given throughout the year. The pricing here is what was being offered at the time of this comparison. You should note that promo prices are generally only good for the first term of service, so signing up for a longer term means higher savings. Usually, signing up for longer terms, regardless of ongoing promotions, means there will most likely be a price break.
GoDaddy. GoDaddy offers three Linux shared plans, and three Windows shared plans – with the two options having similar features. Economy allows one site, unlimited bandwidth, and 100 GB of storage, for $3.99. Deluxe, at $4.99 per month, and Ultimate, at $7.99 per month, offer unlimited websites, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited storage. All the plans come with a free year of domain registration on an annual plan. Email accounts are limited to 100, 500, and 1000, respectively. The Ultimate plan adds a free SSL certificate for one year.
Arvixe. Arvixe offers four shared plans – two in PersonalClass and two in BusinessClass. You have the option of choosing the U.S., Europe, or Asian data centers at checkout. Both Personal and Business offer unlimited space, bandwidth, emails, and databases. PersonalClass ($4 per month) and BusinessClass ($22 per month) differ from the Pro versions, PersonalClassPro ($7 per month) and BusinessClassPro ($35 per month), in that the Pro tiers have unlimited sites allowed, while the non-Pro tiers only allow six. The difference between PersonalClass and BusinessClass is that BusinessClass has fewer users on the server – basically it is shared hosting with VPS features. The ASP option runs a few dollars more for each plan and tier. Arvixe shared plans provide for unlimited MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. Also, BusinessClass plans have a free SSL certificate for as long as the site is hosted with Arvixe.
Both offers managed WordPress hosting. GoDaddy offers four plans. Sites allowed a range from 1 website on the lowest tier to 5 on the highest. GoDaddy limits visitor numbers per month based on your plan, and the amount of SSD storage varies by plan. GoDaddy prices are $3.99, $4.49, $7.99, and $13.99 per month. Arvixe offers a PersonalClass WordPress plan for $4 per month, and a PersonalClassPro plan for $7 per month. Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and an unlimited number of databases come with the two plans. The PersonalClassPro plan allows an unlimited number of websites. Arvixe WordPress plans are easily scaled, though pricing goes up for WordPress on VSP or dedicated servers.
GoDaddy offers more VPS plans, with five plans for Linux and five for Windows – the Windows plans cost around $10 per month more. The GoDaddy plans offer unlimited bandwidth and 40 GB to 250 GB of storage (depending on the tier). Arvixe offers two plans each in Linux and ASP (Windows). Arvixe is about $30 or so higher priced. However, GoDaddy limits the number of sites to 3. Arvixe is unlimited bandwidth, and an unlimited number of sites allowed – plus a free SSL certificate for as long as you have the plan. GoDaddy offers 5 dedicated plans for Linux and 5 for Windows. GoDaddy’s Windows plans run around $30 more than its Linux plans. GoDaddy’s plans have unlimited bandwidth. Arvixe’s provides six single processor plans, with comparable featured plans being slightly higher than GoDaddy’s. Arvixe also offers two impressive multi-processor dedicated plans – though at a price of over $350 per month.
GoDaddy offers different marketing credits depending on your location. Arvixe provides free marketing with $100 credit for Bing/Yahoo and $100 for Google AdWords. Both sell domain names. GoDaddy provides one free year of registration for new sign ups, while Arvixe provides free domain registration as long as you keep your plan.
GoDaddy and Arvixe offer money-back guarantees. GoDaddy offers the standard 30-day guarantee for annual and above terms. For monthly plans, GoDaddy’s full refund is limited to 48 hours and is pro-rated after that. Arvixe offers a longer 60-day guarantee. If you have the free domain registration on Arvixe or GoDaddy, they will withhold the domain registration fee from the refund, and you will keep the domain name.
Opinion on Hosting Plans Pricing
For shared hosting, Arvixe has the edge with its “unlimited” features, with pricing similar to, or lower, than GoDaddy. Arvixe has the edge in VPS with its “unlimited” features there as well. GoDaddy’s dedicated plans are lower priced, though if you are in need of a serious server (at a significantly higher price), Arvixe is, again, your choice of these two.
Ease of Use
Control Panel. Both GoDaddy and Arvixe use cPanel, though GoDaddy modifies the interface somewhat. cPanel’s user-friendly graphical interface is the industry standard, and it has most of the features needed to administer your website through easily identified icons. GoDaddy provides the industry standard Plex with its Windows plans, Arvixe uses WebSitePanel.
One-click Installer. GoDaddy provides one-click app installation to hundreds of apps through its control panel. Arvixe provides one-click app installation to hundreds of apps through Softaculous. Both have a one-click installation of WordPress.
Website Navigation. Both GoDaddy’s and Arvixe’s sites provide the information you need. GoDaddy offers more products in addition to hosting, so it’s slightly more confusing to navigate, and its pages involve a lot of scrolling. Arvixe’s is uncluttered and right to the point. Easy to read comparison charts on Arvixe clearly show you the differences in tiers.
Opinion on Ease of Use
This one could be considered a tie since they both use cPanel and both provide many apps with one-click installation. Arvixe might get a slight nod, due to its easier to navigate website.
Technical and Customer Support
GoDaddy would have to be considered no better than average, based on customer reviews. Arvixe is in the same situation. Since the EIG buyout, customer service ratings have suffered for Arvixe. PCMag had named Arvixe as an Editor’s Choice in 2015, but in early 2016, it downgraded its ratings due to poor customer support and long wait times.
GoDaddy and Arvixe both have email and live chat 24/7. GoDaddy’s phone is 24/7, while Arvixe’s phone support is limited to office hours. Both have an extensive knowledge base with tutorials. GoDaddy provides informative articles in addition to its blog in the “GoDaddy Garage.” Arvixe has an active blog.
Opinion on User Support
Arvixe might have gotten an edge here for customer service since GoDaddy’s is considered average, or slightly above. However, recently Arvixe’s uptime and customer service has lagged, and customer wait times are too long.
User Reviews
Note: Reviews are often bought – either outright, or as incentives in hosting credits. Even legitimate reviews are generally from the passionate customer, so most reviews have strong negative or strong positive leanings. However, if something continually comes up, positive or negative, it bears investigating.
Negative Reviews for GoDaddy and Arvixe
GoDaddy. Most negative reviews of GoDaddy deal with its poor customer support, the strict restrictions placed on some plans, and annoying downtime.
Arvixe. Most recent negative reviews of Arvixe deal with poor customer service and long wait times.
Positive Reviews for GoDaddy and Arvixe
GoDaddy. Positive reviews from customers of GoDaddy comment on its domain registration services, and its pricing.
Arvixe. Arvixe is rated highly by its customers for having so many features available at such a budget price. Windows customers write about being pleased to find hosting at an affordable price.
Opinion on User Reviews
Reviews tend to indicate that GoDaddy concentrates on being a domain registrar, and hosting is an afterthought. Though Arvixe gets some negative complaints now about customer service, it is still generally regarded highly by its customers.
Which hosting is best for you?
There are positive features and negative features concerning both of these hosting companies.
Reasons to choose Arvixe over GoDaddy:
- Free domain for as long as a plan is hosted
- More unlimited features in plans
- Longer money-back guarantee
Reasons to choose GoDaddy over Arvixe:
- Sells multiple web products in addition to hosting
- More tiers for more options in plans
- Free phone 24/7
GoDaddy might be best suited for beginners, since everything web-related, from domain name to SSL, marketing, and SEO services, and online bookkeeping, can be obtained from one site. Arvixe is an attractive option for those who want “unlimited everything” at budget prices. Small businesses will find the unlimited bandwidth and storage appealing. Businesses that require VPS or dedicated servers will find GoDaddy an attractive choice, as well – though those needing serious computing might want to look at Arvixe’s dual processor dedicated plans.
There are many other options to check out when looking for a web host. One that should be on your radar is InMotion Hosting, due to its excellent managed WordPress plans. It offers one of the best money-back guarantees in the industry – a 90-day money back guarantee, compared to the 30-day guarantee of GoDaddy, and 60-day one from Arvixe. If you don’t mind taking a small step up in pricing from budget hosting prices to get premium features and fast loading and response times, SiteGround is a hosting company you should consider.
Do you have any questions about GoDaddy or Arvixe? What have been your experiences with web hosting? Leave your comments and let us know.
Mark is a serial entrepreneur and editor of www.aawebmasters.com. He loves web design, online marketing, social media, and e-commerce. He enjoys working with a variety of web professionals on many projects.