I'll cut to the chase and tell you that I greatly favor iPower over GoDaddy. Although I have become upset with GoDaddy, I still feel that my emotions are not in the way and that what I'm about to tell you is unbiased. But before we begin, here are iPower's & GoDaddy's sites so you can do the comparison while you read: iPower's Website and GoDaddy's Website. Okay, here is the basic shake down on the two top dogs of web hosting.

THE HELP. If you simply glance at GoDaddy's and iPower's websites you will notice something right away if you look for it. On iPower's site you see an 800 number for FREE help with sales and technical help. You can call as many times as you need. Additionally, you can chat live with an iPower representative anytime.

Now, take a look at GoDaddy's site. You won't find an 800 number for tech or sales support. You will pay for the entire duration of your call--even the time you wait in line! On top of that, GoDaddy doesn't even offer live chat; only email which is not instantaneous like iPower. I don't know about you, but when I want help I don't want to wait for an email I want it immediately!

I've called iPower many many times. I would hate to think what this would cost me for long distance. I won't even bother talking about other hosts that charge you each time you call.

THE VALUE. iPower's hosting packages offer a lot more than GoDaddy's hosting packages. iPower gives you 3 TIMES the storage and bandwidth of Godaddy for a few extra bucks (bold strong letters added for emphasis).

More bandwidth, more storage, more free advertising credit, more of everything you need. Yeah, the sticker price can be $20 to $30 cheaper if you go with a low-end hosting package from GoDaddy, but don't let a few dollars blind you. Consider how far your money goes with iPower compared to GoDaddy.

Additionally, you get $5 more Google advertising credit and you get $50 in Yahoo! credit instead of MSN credit. Yahoo! gets a ton more traffic than MSN. Then, consider the value of iPower's help. I'll give up $15 any day for free, convenient help.

Yahoo! Web Hosting

Yahoo! as the best web host aside from iPower. I say this because of the help and simplicity of the service. Yahoo! has the best quickest help in the business. You never have to wait a minute to talk with their operators; and this service is even better than iPower.

Now, Yahoo! is not as good as iPower because the storage, transfer, email addresses, and other extras they provide is much less than iPower and Yahoo!'s plans are TWICE the price of iPower's hosting plans. That is how much I value good help, I rank Yahoo! second despite the fact they take you to the cleaners with their prices.

I had a situation a while ago where I had to sort out a client's mess. This client has shared hosting and email with Yahoo! and we needed to make a modification in the servers so the domain name would point to a new dedicated server. I could not modify the name servers to point to an IP address, and I needed Yahoo! to do this for me.

Instead of having to spend money to call across the United States, I could call Yahoo! toll free and talk with them (and get put on hold) for over an hour. My client needed his dedicated server up immediately and we could not wait for emails.

Because Yahoo! is a huge company (which means they are very stable) and the Yahoo! help's ability to fix my problems I give Yahoo! the number two position, despite their high prices.

Bluehost

Blue host is like a small version of iPower. They offer nearly as much transfer and bandwidth as iPower and they have a really great price. However, there is only one size hosting package, leaving the customer without many options.

Additionally, Bluehost doesn't have any Google or Yahoo! advertising credit! That is a real bummer. :) But, they do have some great search engine software and tools; so their hosting package isn't a total loss.

All in all, Bluehost's size is significant factor and a major reason I rank them below Yahoo! web hosting.

So what does it take to rank number four? Well, number four is an amalgamation of all other web hosts that are better than GoDaddy.

So what does it take to beat GoDaddy?

Well, a toll free help hot-line is one thing; a comparable amount of bandwidth and storage to iPower; and a 30 day money back guarantee. That is really it.

Small Aside...

I recently had to transfer a domain name to GoDaddy because the person who bought their shared hosting plan had their domain at another web host. But it was too late to get them to go to iPower, so I had to transfer the domain to GoDaddy. Because I used a another credit card to transfer the domain WHILE LOGGED INTO THE GODADDY HOSTING ACCOUNT the system didn't recognize me as the owner of both the transfered domain name and shared hosting account.

Thus I had a shared hosting account without a domain name. I bought it via a different credit card, and although I was logged into the system as the person who bought the shard hosting account, GoDaddy was not able to put the transfered domain as the shared hosting account domain.

So, I didn't want to spend any money--since I am a cheapskate--and I emailed GoDaddy. The person responded the next day and said that I should send in a snap shot to help better communicate to them what needed to be done. So, I thought a picture is worth a thousand words and sent one in.

Even after my explicit instructions and the screen shot GoDaddy's help simply reiterated my problem back to me. They said I couldn't switch my domain name since the system doesn't recognize the person who bought the account as the owner--even though I bought the domain name while logged in as that person on their system. How frustrating.

This is the kind of nonsense and time wasting that makes me dislike GoDaddy and just shake my head when people tell me they bought something with GoDaddy. Ah, the power of advertising.

I currently do some work for a small web development firm. This company has been using a small web host ever since the company's conception. The price offered by the small host was quite low, and the primary reason the web design business went with the small web host. Since they started, they do all their hosting through this small time host.

Although the price offered by the small web host was cheap, the small host has screwed up so much that the problems caused by this small web host have in reality cost the small web design business far more than it saved them.

Problems included hackers hacking into every file on of the web design company's websites. The result was hours and hours of painstaking work to correct what the small web host would not correct. Just another reason why you should never trust your good name to a small web host.

If that were not enough, frequently the small web host's email client does not work. I have attempted to log in and was refused for hours--sometimes days. To say this is frustrating is an understatement. It makes me look bad and it makes the small web design company look bad.

These are just a few of the problems you should be ready for if you go with smaller web hosts.

Ready to get started? If so, know that when you get a hosting package at iPower you'll get a free domain name as well. This is pretty typical of most big web hosts, but still it saves you an extra $7 to $12 depending on where you register your domain.

Check out iPower's hosting plans