Confused between Domain.com or GoDaddy? I was too! Hence I tested both the providers and compared their features, including performance, speed, support, pricing, and more.

Results?

There’s a clear winner, for sure, and that’s GoDaddy. But for a deeper understanding of each web host’s special features, check out the below Domain.com vs GoDaddy comparison yourself so you’d better be able to pick the provider that’s best for you.

Overall Comparison: Domain.com vs GoDaddy

Winner: GoDaddy

In the Domain.com vs GoDaddy comparison that I conducted, I’ve found GoDaddy to be generally better than Domain.com mainly because of its security features, low pricing and a wide network of servers.

Read on for a detailed comparison of both the providers!

About Domain.com and GoDaddy

	Founded in 1998, Domain.com is one of the largest web hosting and domain registration companies which powers around 1.2 million websites all over the world. Mainly, they provide web hosting to individuals, entrepreneurs and small or medium sized businesses. The company also offers Email, SSL certificates, online marketing and web design services.
	Founded in 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona, GoDaddy is a domain registrar and web hosting company with more than 21 million customers around the globe. They provide various web hosting plans alongside a plethora of other services, including SEO, SSL, website builder, digital marketing, as well as a content and photo creator.

Round 1: Hosting Features – Key Hosting Features and Services

Key Domain.com Features

The web host offers unlimited SSD storage alongside the option of scalable bandwidth with all its web hosting plans, including the most basic plan.

Although they don’t offer a daily automatic backup service, Domain.com provides its clients with a backup and restore tool through which you can conduct a site backup on your own.

Moreover, you’d get 1-click WordPress installs, Free SSL certificate, a Free domain for the first year, and 99.99% uptime guarantee with high-performance unlimited storage.

However, website migration is not free and it would cost you $150 per site if you want their team to migrate your website over to Domain.com’s servers.

Key GoDaddy Features

GoDaddy also offers a Free SSL certificate and Free domain for the first year with all its web hosting plans. The bandwidth offered with all plans is unmetered whereas the NVMe SSD storage starts from 25 GB with GoDaddy’s most basic hosting plan.

The company offers free daily backups and you can restore your website files whenever needed. In addition to this, you get Free WordPress, Joomla and Drupal 1-click installation, as well as 125+ free applications. You can also try out their website builder for free initially.

But, unfortunately, website migration is not free in case you want to transfer your website from a different web hosting company to GoDaddy. However, if you wish to do it yourself, GoDaddy Guides would help you out along the process!

And the winner is … GoDaddy

Obviously, GoDaddy it is! Since they’re offering NVMe SSD disk space, 125+ free applications, and you can try out their website builder for free!

Round 2: Prices and Plans

Domain.com Pricing Plans

Domain.com has three web hosting plans for their clients, namely Basic, Deluxe and Ultra. All of their web hosting plans come with unlimited storage.

Their Basic plan is priced at $3.75 / month and it’s their most popular plan for clients who have a single website and one domain name.

The Deluxe plan is for $6.75 / month and comes with 25 MySQL databases. You can easily manage multiple websites with this plan.

Lastly, the highest plan is Ultra for $13.75 / month that comes with unlimited MySQL databases, unlimited FTP logins, unlimited storage and scalable bandwidth which makes it perfect for high traffic websites.

GoDaddy Pricing Plans

GoDaddy offers four different hosting plans, including Economy, Deluxe, Ultimate and Maximum.

Their 25 GB Economy plan is the most basic one, and, as the name suggests, is highly economical being priced at $2.89 / month.

The Deluxe plan is for $4.01 / month and comes with 50 GB storage. Ultimate offers 75 GB storage which is perfect for hosting multiple sites for only $5.79 / month.

Lastly, their Maximum plan is for $10.24 / month and I’d recommend this to anyone who’s looking for maximized processing power for all of their sites.

And the winner is … Domain.com

This might surprise you, but for me, Domain.com is the winner here.

Although GoDaddy’s pricing is quite competitive (actually cheaper than Domain.com), none of Domain.com competitors are offering the amazing unlimited storage feature for a plan priced at only $3.75 / month, not even GoDaddy!

Round 3: Website Performance (Uptime and Speed)

The performance of any website is determined by the speed and uptime of the server on which it’s hosted. Uptime is the percentage of time for which a server functions continually, keeping the websites online and accessible. Whereas your server speed is responsible for the loading speed of your website.

Domain.com Uptime and Speed

After testing the loading speed of a website hosted on Domain.com’s, the results that turned up were not as good as I had expected. The complete load speed came out to be 15.8 seconds on PageSpeed Insights, whereas it was 4.7 seconds on GT Metrix.

I’ve attached the screenshots of both the test results here:

GT Metrix test:

PageSpeed Insights:

GoDaddy Uptime and Speed

I tested a website hosted on GoDaddy to determine both its GT Metrix and PageSpeed Insights. The complete page load speed of the website was 6.2 seconds when tested in PageSpeed Insights, whereas the same website’s load speed on GT Metrix turned out to be 4.1 seconds.

I’ve also attached the screenshots of both the tests here:

GT Metrix test:

PageSpeed Insights:

And the winner … GoDaddy

Personally, I’ve always found GoDaddy’s hosting to be faster than GoDaddy alternatives, and the test results say the same.

Again, GoDaddy is the winner with an average page load speed of 7.2 seconds, whereas Domain.com lags behind with an average speed of 12.6 seconds.

Round 4: Customer Support – Who Has the Best Support System?

Domain.com Customer Support

When I tested out their response time through the Live Chat option, it turned out to be actually better than I expected.

The responses were instant, accurate, and really helpful. Their team answers any questions that you may have quite patiently and stays active in the chat until you’re fully satisfied.

In my case, I wanted to ask them whether they provided free website migration or not. Here’s how the chat went:

Plus, there’s a download option too if you wish to keep the conversation saved, which is very helpful for someone like me who faces difficulty remembering things.

GoDaddy Customer Support

Similar to GoDaddy competitors, their support is also fast, although they don’t provide as quick replies as Domain.com.

Plus, a few of their guides don’t have the best grip over the English language, but you can still understand what they’re saying.

Here’s how my experience went:

In addition to this, what I really loved about GoDaddy’s support is their How-To video guides that are quite helpful. Plus, the GoDaddy Community feature is amazing since it allows you to get actual advice and tips from other GoDaddy users.

And the winner is … GoDaddy

GoDaddy is the pro!

Although Domain.com’s response time is better, GoDaddy takes the lead owing to their video guides and the GoDaddy Community feature.

Round 5: Ease of Use – Which Platform is Easier to Use?

Domain.com Ease of Use

Domain.com offers a user-friendly control panel of their own. It’s easy-to-navigate and you can easily view your registered domains and hosting plans separately from the dashboard.

Here’s what the dashboard looks like once you log in:

Even if you don’t have much technical knowledge, managing your hosting plans and domains is quite easy with the Domain.com control panel.

They offer various helpful tools as well, such as a backup tool that allows you to create backups of your website.

GoDaddy Ease of Use

The industry standard cPanel is provided by GoDaddy with their web hosting plans. If you already have experience of using web hosting services from other providers, you may have some idea of how the cPanel is operated and navigated. Overall, it’s quite easy to use and manage.

Apart from this, GoDaddy has their own admin panel as well, with a really simplified dashboard and easy management tools.

And the winner is … GoDaddy

GoDaddy or Domain.com?

My vote is for GoDaddy again!

Because they provide the popular cPanel management system, and also because their own admin panel is amazingly clean and easy to navigate. Once you’re in there, you’re sure to never feel lost.

Round 6: Security – Which Platform is More Secure?

Domain.com Security

The security features offered by Domain.com include a Free SSL certificate with all their hosting plans, as well as DDoS protection, Firewall, Malware scans, and a backup and restore tool.

In addition to this, they have a feature called Sitelock Prevent that can provide complete relief from threats of all kinds on your website.

The only drawback that I found in their security features was that there are no daily automatic backups. But, still, you can always create a backup by using their backup tool.

GoDaddy Security

GoDaddy also provides a Free SSL, plus you can buy various types of SSL certificates from them as well. Additionally, they offer daily automatic backups, email privacy and protection, firewall, and malware scanning.

They also have various website security plans that you can purchase and get a bundle of security services such as fraud, virus and spam protection, SSL, site cleanup, CDN, etc.

Plus, they’d monitor your website 24/7 to protect your website against malware and any kind of harmful attacks.

And the winner is … GoDaddy

When it comes to security features and you have to either choose Domain.com or GoDaddy, I’d recommend GoDaddy again because, honestly, their website security plans are ideal for websites that require advanced security.

Round 7: Server Locations

Your website’s speed is directly impacted by the location of your web server. Which means, if a server is located far away, the data transfer process can slow down and your website’s loading speed may get affected.

Domain.com Server Locations

Domain.com has two server locations, one in Boston, USA and the other one in Waltham, USA. However, if you’re their new customer looking for a basic hosting plan, your website would most likely be stored on a server in Boston.

GoDaddy Server Locations

GoDaddy has servers located around the globe, including Europe, Asia, and the USA. Their main datacenter is in Phoenix, Arizona, whereas servers are also located in Scottsdale, Mesa, Los Angeles, Chicago, Ashburn, Virginia, Amsterdam and Singapore.

And the winner is … GoDaddy

Well, the answer is quite apparent, and again it’s GoDaddy taking the lead with 9 different server locations, in comparison to Domain.com’s 2 server locations.

Domain.com vs GoDaddy: Final Recommendations

When to Choose Domain.com?

Generally, I’d recommend Domain.com to individuals, entrepreneurs and small or medium businesses. Here are some of Domain.com’s features that I really liked:

• Exemplary customer support with an almost instant response time
• Competitive pricing for plans with great features
• Easy-to-use control panel
• Provides Sitelock prevent which is a great website security feature
• 30-day money back guarantee
• Unlimited storage with even the most basic hosting plan

Why Go for GoDaddy?

The pricing is low as compared to Domain.com, plus you’d get to enjoy the following features:

• Numerous server locations, which means faster website speed
• 30-day money back guarantee
• Complete website security with their website security plans
• Highly-competitive pricing
• Website builder if you’ve yet to create your website