What’s the right web hosting plan for me and my clients?

With the number of web hosting options available at GoDaddy, it can be overwhelming to pick the right one. Each type of hosting has its benefits and best use cases and your clients are looking for your advice on which to choose.

Make sure you set your clients up for success.

Fortunately, you can rarely make a wrong decision when choosing a hosting plan here at GoDaddy. Let's take a look at the different offerings as well as some use cases. If you'd like to skip ahead to learn more about a specific hosting plan, click one of the links below.

• Managed WordPress 
• Linux Hosting with CPanel 
• Windows Hosting with Plesk 
• Business Hosting 
• Virtual Private Server
• Dedicated Server 

Related: Digital marketing tools for the busy web developer

1. Managed WordPress

Starting with Managed WordPress, this is a streamlined, optimized hosting platform for building and managing WordPress sites. The entire hosting environment is built around making your client's WordPress sites run faster and more securely. Managed WordPress offers hosting for 1 website up to 50.

This means you can focus more on designing your client's site and less on managing those administrative tasks.

"Managed" for WordPress means that we handle basic hosting administrative tasks, such as installing WordPress, automated daily backups, WordPress core updates, and server-level caching.

Target clients and websites for Managed WordPress

This hosting plan can only host WordPress sites, so if you are designing the website in another application like Joomla or Drupal, you'll want to review some of the other options.

Clients that need something simple to manage after you're done developing their website are a perfect fit for Managed WordPress. This hosting is focused around making their WordPress site run great, so there's less to learn and maintain.

Also, if you're designing an eCommerce site for your client, our eCommerce tier comes with over $1,000 of WooCommerce.com premium extensions to add even more value to their website.

Included with Managed WordPress plans

• 21 GoDaddy Pro premium features free
• ECommerce tier includes over $1,000 of WooCommerce.com plugins free with the plan
• Built-in SSL with the Ultimate and eCommerce tier
• Malware scan and removal with Ultimate and eCommerce tier
• Automatic website migration
• Built-in caching and global content delivery network to make your client's site's fast and perform well during traffic spikes
• Staging site to test site changes, PHP, theme updates, and plugin changes before pushing them live.
• SSH access with WP-CLI and GIT
• Professionally designed templates are included to help jumpstart your design process.
• SFTP, file manager, and phpMyAdmin access
• Access over 10,000 royalty-free images to legally source high-quality images.
• 24/7 security monitoring and DDoS protection

2. Linux Hosting with cPanel

CPanel hosting runs on a Linux server, which is great because it supports just about everything you need or want in your website from WordPress blogs to online stores and more. You don't need to know Linux to use Linux Hosting, and all the features you'll need to manage the website are in the industry-standard cPanel dashboard.

Target clients and websites for cPanel

I like to think of cPanel as the Swiss Army Knife of hosting. It handles almost any type of website or needs your client might have. There are more set up and options to manage the hosting account, so it's best if your clients are already familiar with the control panel or are willing to learn something new.

With this hosting, you or the client will be responsible for managing backups, updates to plugins, and your website's security. If you are managing the client's site with one of your care plans, we recommend using GoDaddy Pro to make these tasks easy and some automated.

Included with Linux Hosting with cPanel plans

• 1-click install of 125+ free applications. (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.)
• 24/7 security monitoring and DDoS protection
• 1-click purchase of additional resources (CPU, RAM, I/O, etc.
• 1 GB database storage (MySQL Linux)
• Flexible, easy-to-use control panel
• CloudLinux - Keep your site online with truly balanced CPU, RAM and Disk IO limits
• Cage FS - Protect your content 24/7 with this virtualized file system.
• Free SSL on Ultimate and Maximum plans
• 1-year free O365 email

3. Windows Hosting with Plesk

A common misconception with Windows Hosting is the notion that you must use it if you are running a Windows machine. I ended up purchasing Linux Hosting when I first got into designing websites because I had a Mac. The type of server you're on is not impacted by what computer you're using.

You must use Windows Hosting if you need or want to use MSSQL databases, ASP.NET, or .NET Core on your website. These all require Windows OS running on your server. Although, Windows Hosting also supports just about everything most people need or want in their websites such as WordPress and MySQL.

Target clients and websites for Windows Hosting with Plesk

It's mentioned above, but if you're developing a website using MSSQL databases, ASP.NET, or .NET Core, you'll want to stick with Windows. Content management systems such as DotNetNuke will require you to run your website on a Windows Hosting environment.

Included with Windows Hosting with Plesk plans

• All plans utilize Windows® Server 2012 R2
• Onyx Plesk
• 1-click install of free applications. (WordPress, Joomla, DNN, etc.)
• 24/7 security monitoring and DDoS protection
• 200MB MSSQL database storage
• 1GB MySQL database storage
• Flexible, easy-to-use control panel
• Free SSL on Ultimate plan
• 1-year free O365 email

4. Business Hosting

Business Hosting delivers the same power and performance as a Virtual Private Server without the pain of server administration. Business Hosting offers dedicated up to 4 CPU and 32 GB of RAM, the processing and memory resources that power fast sites.

In addition to multiple layers of server-level security, each of our plans includes a free SSL Certificate to keep your visitors' data safe.

Target clients and websites for Business Hosting

Business Hosting offers a lot of power and speed for your client's website. High traffic, eCommerce, data-intensive, and resource-intensive are great fits for this hosting.

The types of clients that end up on Business Hosting are usually already an established business with a growing online presence. This doesn't mean that new customers won't appreciate the speed and performance here, though. When it comes to your website, you'd rather have too much than not enough!

Although you have the power of a server, you don't have the same access you would on one. If you need root access, to open custom ports, or modify server-level changes, Business Hosting would not be a good fit.

Included in Business Hosting

• Integrated SSL on the primary domain
• Dedicated IP address
• Dedicated resources
• 1-click install of free applications. (WordPress, Joomla, DNN, etc.)
• Unlimited domains and databases
• 1-click purchase of additional resources (CPU, RAM, I/O, etc.)
• Flexible, easy-to-use control panel
• Free migration from GoDaddy shared cPanel.

5. Virtual Private Server (VPS)

Think of a VPS like owning a condo. You still have neighbors, but the condo is yours meaning you can remodel it however you'd like.

VPS hosting gives you high performance with an isolated environment where the CPU, RAM, and SSD storage is 100% dedicated and not shared with any other websites or apps. That, compared to shared hosting, results in higher performance and security along with more flexibility and control over the server.

VPS hosting also offers higher resources and bandwidth/traffic than shared hosting, which means faster load times and unlimited traffic. And with root access, there are no restrictions on the applications you install; you can access and edit the system files, settings, and server logins.

VPS Hosting offers both Linux (CentOS 7, Debian or Ubuntu) and Windows 2016. Our Managed plan comes with Plesk on Windows and WHM on Linux preinstalled.

Target clients and websites for VPS

VPS Hosting is an excellent fit if you are seeking full control over your hosting environment. You get full root access with SSH keys for total control as well as command line for flexibility and power. Plus, we offer a wide range of scalable performance options with flexible server configurations.

This hosting is also a great fit if your client wants any of the following:

• High traffic or heavy resource-heavy eCommerce websites
• Resource-heavy applications
• Multiple websites
• Their own email server
• Web or database server
• Test environments
• Full control of their environment

Alternatively, you can use the VPS to host multiple clients that can be contained within their own cPanel accounts you manage through WHM. Your clients will only have access to the cPanel account you provide. This is an excellent solution if you want full control of your web hosting environment and will be managing your client's website after development.

Included with VPS

• High-performance SSDs on OpenStack
• Unlimited hosting accounts
• Backups and recovery console
• Global data centers
• Root access
• Easy scalability
• Monitoring and alerts
• Network monitoring with advanced DDoS protection
• CentOS 7, Debian, or Ubuntu (Linux) or Windows 2016.
• Dedicated IP Address

6. Dedicated Servers

A dedicated server is like owning your own home. It's entirely yours to do as you like. There are very few things you can't do with this server offering.

When we lease you a dedicated server (and although we lease you the server, it's all yours to manage), the server is custom-configured to your application. E.g., website, web hosting, database, gaming, video streaming, and more. And it can be more than one – for even better performance capabilities.

Every Linux dedicated server hosting plan comes with Web Host Manager (WHM), which gives you complete control over creating and customizing your account, as well as managing all aspects of your server.

Windows Servers do not come with a control panel, but you can easily RDP into your server and manage it from the Windows environment.

Target clients and websites for Dedicated Servers

Dedicated servers are designed for elite web professionals and enterprise-level users. If your client runs an enterprise-level business, requires complete isolation, or needs more power than our VPS offering, a dedicated server will be the best solution.

Included with Dedicated Servers

• WHM with Linux plans
• Single-tenant infrastructure provides higher levels of security and control
• DDoS protection
• Dedicated IP address
• Root access
• Our highest performance offering

Recap

There are a lot of options when it comes to web hosting, each with their own use cases and preferences. Some of your clients may be better suited to Managed WordPress, while others would require a VPS. Use the table below as a quick reference to compare the different types of web hosting we offer when choosing the right hosting for your client.