I secretly test hosts every month for speed, reliability, and support. Here’s a comparison between GoDaddy and Site5 with real proof of their performance.
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GoDaddy Hosting Plan
GoDaddy claims to have fast, secure, and reliable hosting. They were created in 1999 and now host over a million websites. They have data centers throughout the US, primarily in Arizona.
I have purchased a hosting plan on GoDaddy and set up a typical web site. I use that example website to run these tests. Learn more about how I test.
Here is the plan information I chose:
| Plan Name | Deluxe Linux Hosting with cPanel |
|---|---|
| Cost | $8.99/month |
| Disk Space | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.9% |
| Money Back Guarantee | 45 days |
| Notes | Site was ready within minutes after I purchased. |
Site5 Hosting Plan
Site5 claims to be the "pros" when it comes to web hosting. They pride themselves on a custom control panel, 24/7 support, and data center locations all over the world. They've been around since 1999.
I have purchased a hosting plan on Site5 and set up a typical web site. I use that example website to run these tests. Learn more about how I test.
Here is the plan information I chose:
| Plan Name | HostPro |
|---|---|
| Cost | $10.95/month |
| Disk Space | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited |
| Uptime Guarantee | 99.9% |
| Money Back Guarantee | 45 days |
| Notes | Site was ready within minutes after I purchased, although DNS didn't work for about 30 minutes (even after it had propagated). |
Page Speed Test Results
This test measures the total time it takes to load a standard web page. Lower is better. Learn more about the Page Speed Test.
GoDaddy performs above average in the Speed Test, with an average result of 2.8 seconds. It's best result was 0.31 s but it has been as bad as 37.97 s. GoDaddy most recent result on Jan 4 was 2.00 s. GoDaddy consistently has very fast page load speeds. I'm attributing this to the fact that they have a stellar Hosting Optimization team, headed by Dave Koopman. He actually reached out to me after seeing this site to not only give me kudos for doing this, but offer additional testing resources (which at the moment I am not using). Regardless, he's pretty passionate about their hosting performance and their stats prove it.
Site5 performs above average in the Speed Test, with an average result of 3.05 seconds. It's best result was 0.00 s but it has been as bad as 46.29 s. Site5 most recent result on Jan 4 was 0.00 s. For the most part, Site5 has decent response times. They could make things load faster if they compressed resources and set caching headers, but at least connections are efficient.
Let’s see how GoDaddy and Site5 compare in detail for their page speed stats:
Uptime Test Results
This test is performed by measuring the % uptime of a host. Higher is better. Learn more about the Uptime Test.
GoDaddy performs stellar in the Uptime Test, with an average result of 99.96 percent. It's best result was 100.000 % but it has been as bad as 94.722 %. GoDaddy most recent result on Mar 16 was 100.000 %. GoDaddy has shown rocky uptimes when you first start hosting with them, however after a month things become pretty stable. Their tech team reached out to me to explain that they think it only happens when new customers get added to the server and apache needs to restart - and after the server is full it does not need to reload as often. The stats I've collected seem to support this theory, and they claim they're working on a solution.
Site5 performs miserably in the Uptime Test, with an average result of 88.81 percent. It's best result was 100.000 % but it has been as bad as 0.000 %. Site5 most recent result on Mar 16 was 0.000 %. Honestly, I expected Site5 to have better reliability. They've had a couple instances where my site was down for multiple hours, and that has ruined their overall average. But day-to-day they still have minor outages that annoy me.
Let’s see how GoDaddy and Site5 compare in detail for their uptime stats:
Support Response Test Results
This test measures how quickly the host’s support team responds to your request. Lower is better. Learn more about the Support Response Test.
GoDaddy performs incredibly in the Support Response Time Test, with an average result of 0.12 hours. It's best result was 0.10 h but it has been as bad as 0.30 h. GoDaddy most recent result on Mar 22 was 0.10 h. GoDaddy is the only host that doesn't offer email support. At first I thought this horrendous - I waiting on hold on the phone. But from the times I've called, they're usually pretty quick to get to me. I'm okay with their customer service.
Site5 performs incredibly in the Support Response Time Test, with an average result of 0.28 hours. It's best result was 0.10 h but it has been as bad as 0.80 h. Site5 most recent result on Mar 22 was 0.30 h. Site5 has always responded to my support tickets in under an hour. That's pretty awesome. They're also one of the only hosts that emails you ahead of time about planned outages, and I appreciate being informed.
Let’s see how GoDaddy and Site5 compare in detail for their uptime stats: