Byline: HostingDive Team
Disclosure: HostingDive may earn a commission if you buy SiteGround through the link on this page, at no extra cost to you. GoDaddy is linked directly below with no affiliate relationship -- HostingDive earns nothing from GoDaddy signups.
GoDaddy's entry-level Web Hosting Economy plan costs $5.99/month on a required 3-year term (list price $11.99/month, shown struck through as a 50% savings claim). SiteGround's entry-level StartUp plan costs $2.99/month to start but renews at $17.99/month -- nearly three times GoDaddy's advertised rate. The difference between these two hosts is not really about which one is "better." It is about which pricing structure and feature set fits how long you plan to keep the site running and what you need it to do once traffic grows.
Quick Verdict
| GoDaddy (Web Hosting Economy) | SiteGround (StartUp / GrowBig / GoGeek) | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $5.99/mo (3-yr term) | $2.99/mo (StartUp, promo) |
| Renewal price | Not stated on GoDaddy's pricing page | $17.99/mo (StartUp) / $29.99/mo (GrowBig) / $44.99/mo (GoGeek) |
| Sites on entry plan | 1 | 1 (StartUp, unlimited traffic) |
| Storage | 25GB NVMe | 10GB (StartUp) / 50GB (GrowBig) / 100GB (GoGeek) |
| Staging environment | Not part of this plan | Not on StartUp; included on GrowBig and GoGeek |
| Rail on this page | Plain link, no commission | Affiliate link, commission may apply |
| Best for | A single low-maintenance site on a fixed multi-year budget | Buyers who want a staging environment and are willing to pay SiteGround's renewal rate for it |
GoDaddy: Full Spec Breakdown
GoDaddy's entry plan is called Web Hosting Economy. The advertised price is $5.99/month, tied to a 3-year prepaid term, positioned against a struck-through list price of $11.99/month (a "SAVE 50%" claim). GoDaddy's captured pricing page does not state an explicit renewal rate anywhere -- that is a real gap in what GoDaddy discloses, not an oversight in this comparison. If a specific "renews at" number matters to your decision, GoDaddy's own page does not give you one to plan around.
Economy includes 1 website, 25GB of NVMe storage, and unmetered bandwidth. It comes with a free domain for the first year, a free SSL certificate valid for the first year, free business email, cPanel for site management, and automatic daily backups. GoDaddy backs the plan with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Two things Economy does not include, per the captured page: there is no free migration tool bundled with this plan (GoDaddy does offer a WordPress migration tool, but it lives on a separate, higher plan -- don't assume Economy inherits it). It's also worth noting SSL and domain are "free" only for year one; expect those to convert to paid renewals alongside whatever the hosting itself renews at.
The GoDaddy link on this page is a plain vendor link with no tracking and no commission attached. There is no live affiliate relationship between HostingDive and GoDaddy right now, and nothing in this comparison should be read as implying one.
SiteGround: Full Spec Breakdown
SiteGround ships three tiers, and the biggest mistake in comparing SiteGround to anything is treating "SiteGround" as a single price point. It isn't. Each tier has its own promo price, its own renewal price, and its own feature set.
StartUp costs $2.99/month as a promotional rate, renewing at $17.99/month. It covers 1 website with unlimited traffic and 10GB of Premium Google Cloud storage. StartUp includes free site migrations. It does not include a staging environment -- staging is not stated anywhere on this tier's capture, so don't expect it if you buy StartUp.
GrowBig costs $4.99/month promotional, renewing at $29.99/month. It steps storage up to 50GB and adds a staging environment, which is the functional reason to move up from StartUp if you build sites that need a test environment before pushing changes live.
GoGeek costs $7.99/month promotional, renewing at $44.99/month -- this is SiteGround's actual top renewal figure on its highest standard tier, not $39.99 as some older comparison pages have stated. GoGeek bumps storage to 100GB and adds Git integration on top of staging, which matters if you're deploying from a repository rather than uploading files manually.
Whichever tier you pick, the promo-to-renewal jump is the number to plan around: StartUp goes from $2.99 to $17.99 (6x), GrowBig from $4.99 to $29.99 (6x), GoGeek from $7.99 to $44.99 (5.6x). SiteGround does not hide this from you, but the sticker price on the pricing page is never what you'll pay after year one.
Head-to-Head: Pricing (Intro and Renewal)
| Plan | Intro price | Renewal price | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoDaddy Web Hosting Economy | $5.99/mo (3-yr term) | Not stated on GoDaddy's page | Unknown |
| SiteGround StartUp | $2.99/mo | $17.99/mo | ~6x |
| SiteGround GrowBig | $4.99/mo | $29.99/mo | ~6x |
| SiteGround GoGeek | $7.99/mo | $44.99/mo | ~5.6x |
GoDaddy's structure front-loads the commitment: you lock in $5.99/month for three straight years, and the tradeoff is you don't know what year four costs until you get there. SiteGround's structure is the opposite -- a low first-term promo followed by a renewal that's disclosed up front, so at least you can do the math before you sign up. Neither structure is inherently cheaper; it depends on whether you renew SiteGround at full price or move on before the renewal hits.
Head-to-Head: Storage and Staging
Storage isn't a fair one-line comparison here because the two hosts don't publish it the same way. GoDaddy's 25GB NVMe on Economy actually beats SiteGround's 10GB on StartUp at a comparable entry price point. But SiteGround's storage scales with the tier -- GrowBig's 50GB and GoGeek's 100GB both outpace GoDaddy Economy's flat 25GB, at the cost of a much higher renewal.
Staging is the more decisive gap. GoDaddy's Economy plan has no staging environment in this comparison's captured feature set. SiteGround's StartUp doesn't either -- confirmed NOT_FOUND on that tier's capture, so don't buy StartUp expecting it. But GrowBig and GoGeek both include staging, which lets you build and test changes on a copy of your site before pushing them live. If a staging workflow is a requirement (agencies managing client sites, anyone doing frequent theme or plugin updates), that requirement alone rules out GoDaddy Economy and SiteGround StartUp, and points you to SiteGround GrowBig at minimum.
Head-to-Head: Support, Backups, and Guarantees
GoDaddy backs Economy with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, automatic daily backups, and a 30-day money-back window. SiteGround's captured facts for this comparison don't include a directly comparable uptime-guarantee figure or backup-frequency figure to set next to GoDaddy's -- treat any SiteGround uptime or backup claim you see elsewhere as unverified for this comparison rather than assuming parity. What is confirmed is that SiteGround offers free site migrations on StartUp, which GoDaddy's Economy plan does not offer at all (migration tooling on GoDaddy is gated to a different, higher plan).
When to Choose GoDaddy
Choose GoDaddy's Web Hosting Economy plan if you run a single low-traffic site -- a portfolio, a local business brochure site, a personal blog -- and you're comfortable locking in a 3-year term for a flat $5.99/month rate. It also makes sense if you specifically want the free-email-plus-cPanel bundle without shopping for those separately, and if a 25GB storage ceiling is more than enough for your content. It's a weaker fit if you need a staging environment, if you might want to migrate the site to a different host later (no bundled migration tool on this plan), or if an undisclosed renewal rate three years out is a dealbreaker for your budgeting.
When to Choose SiteGround
Choose SiteGround's StartUp plan if you want free migration handling and unlimited traffic on a single site and can accept a renewal that's nearly 6x the promo rate. Step up to GrowBig if a staging environment is a real requirement, not a nice-to-have -- that's the single feature that separates StartUp from the two higher tiers. Choose GoGeek specifically if you need Git-based deployment on top of staging and can absorb a $44.99/month renewal. SiteGround is the stronger pick any time staging or Git integration is part of your workflow; it's a weaker pick if your only goal is the lowest possible flat monthly rate over a multi-year term, where GoDaddy's $5.99/month locked-in price is hard to beat on sticker price alone.
See the full review for GoDaddy and SiteGround on HostingDive -- with intro vs renewal pricing and support response time data.
See our related SiteGround vs Kinsta comparison for how SiteGround stacks up against managed WordPress hosting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does GoDaddy's Web Hosting Economy plan have a stated renewal price?
No. GoDaddy's captured pricing page shows the $5.99/month rate tied to a 3-year term and a struck-through $11.99/month list price, but it does not state what the plan renews at after that term ends. Don't assume a number that isn't published.
Which SiteGround plan should I compare against GoDaddy Economy?
StartUp is the closest match on price positioning ($2.99/month promo), but GoDaddy Economy's 25GB storage actually exceeds StartUp's 10GB. If storage matters more than promo price, GrowBig's 50GB is the closer functional match, though at a higher renewal ($29.99/month vs GoDaddy's undisclosed renewal).
Does SiteGround StartUp include a staging environment?
No. Staging is not stated as a StartUp feature in this comparison's captured facts. It's included starting at the GrowBig tier.
Does GoDaddy Economy include free site migration?
No. GoDaddy's Economy plan does not bundle a migration tool; that tool exists only on a separate, higher-tier GoDaddy plan.
Is the SiteGround link on this page an affiliate link?
Yes. HostingDive may earn a commission if you buy SiteGround through the link on this page. The GoDaddy link is not an affiliate link -- it goes directly to GoDaddy's site with no tracking and no commission.
What is SiteGround's actual GoGeek renewal price?
$44.99/month. Some other pages have understated this figure as $39.99; the certified figure for this comparison is $44.99/month.