Choosing the website host for your WordPress website might seem like a tedious, administrative task, but it can have a massive impact on your website’s performance. Two of the top website hosts on the market today are WP Engine and GoDaddy.
Forge Apollo’s Philadelphia-based website developers have worked with multiple sites hosted on WP Engine and GoDaddy. Here’s our comparison of the two–in terms you don’t have to be a developer to understand.
WP Engine vs GoDaddy
Before we compare, let’s discuss what it is we’re comparing.
WP Engine is a WordPress-specific managed hosting service. Because it was built for the WordPress content management system (CMS), they’ve tailored their features to meet the platform’s needs.
GoDaddy started as a domain name registrar but has since expanded to include website hosting, among other services. While GoDaddy offers hosting for websites on many platforms, they do offer hosting plans specifically for WordPress sites. That is what we’ll be comparing today.
Plan Types & Pricing
Both platforms offer tiered plan options with pricing that increases along with the plan tier.
GoDaddy’s lower-tier plans offer limited features, so users need higher-tier plans or add-on subscriptions to achieve some of the basic functionality WP Engine offers.
WP Engine offers the majority of features on all of their plans, with higher tiers offering increased storage thresholds, number of sites, etc.
WP Engine’s pricing is higher than GoDaddy’s. However, the value of features for the price is much higher as well.
Security
In the age of malware, hacking, and spam, extra attention on website security is critical.
Although GoDaddy does offer some security features, in our experience, they are not as strong as WP Engine’s.
WP Engine includes infrastructure and features that offer your site critical protection. For example, they offer automatic WordPress and PHP updates, threat detection and blocking, and a free SSL certificate on every plan.
Website Speed & Performance
Website speed has a significant impact on your website’s performance. For example, conversions drop over 4% for each additional second a page takes to load.
WP Engine and GoDaddy both have some industry-standard website speed features available. However, WP Engine goes the extra mile with features such as EverCache®, which can increase site speeds significantly more than GoDaddy.
Part of this is because WP Engine’s servers are dedicated to a smaller set of services, whereas GoDaddy spreads its resources across more than WordPress hosting.
Our development team has had a lot of experience with slow website speeds when hosting on GoDaddy. Despite the development techniques we use for fast loading, the hosting itself on GoDaddy bogs those sites down.
Reliability and Uptime
In addition to loading speed, keeping your site up without crashing is also essential.
When comparing GoDaddy vs WP Engine, both are reasonably reliable, with guarantees of more than 99.9% uptime, or customers may get a discount. In our experience, WP Engine has a slight edge here.
Support Response Time
If you have an issue with your site, you will want it resolved ASAP so it doesn’t affect your business. This is where support comes in.
Both WP Engine and GoDaddy offer 24/7 phone support. WP Engine offers 24/7 chat support as well, but GoDaddy’s chat is only available Monday through Friday.
In our experience, GoDaddy takes longer to respond to and resolve issues than WP Engine. Plus, WP Engine’s self-service support center is more extensive than GoDaddy’s knowledge base.
Verdict: WP Engine Wins
Across the hundreds of sites Forge Apollo’s web developers have worked on, those hosted on WP Engine have been the best. WP Engine’s security, speed, and development features make it the best option for most businesses on WordPress.
Contact Forge Apollo for a High-Performance Website
When looking for a website designer in Philadelphia, look no further than Forge Apollo. With us, you don’t have to worry about how to choose a website host because we’ll always give you advice based on our experience and industry best practices. We’re here to create a website to establish your business online and help you reach your goals. Contact us today to get the conversation started.
