2 September 2008 @ 8:38Hosting: ICDSoft vs. GoDaddy

I’m going to share some thoughts, and comparisons between two different web hosts that I have experience with — GoDaddy and ICDSoft. Both have their pro’s and con’s, and depending on your needs, one may be better for you than the other.

ICDSoft
First, there is ICDSoft which has a nice set of features in a just a couple different packages. Their basic package is the 1000MB Universal, and it will cost you $6/month (12-month contract) plus $5 for the domain registration if you don’t already have a registered domain. The 1000MB Universal plan includes the following notable features:

  • 1GB online storage
  • 20GB bandwidth per month
  • 15 Free Subdomains
  • 10 MySQL Databases
  • 5 Parked Domains
  • 15 FTP Sub Accounts
  • Unlimited Number of E-mail Accounts
  • SMTP, POP3, IMAP Servers
  • Linux-based servers
  • Online Control Panel
  • PERL, PHP5, PHP4, Python, Ruby and TCL
  • $5 Domain Registration
  • Spam Protection
  • 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee
  • 24/7 Tech Support

ICDSoft’s 10,000MB Business plan which costs $10/month (12-month contract) offers the following upgrades to the Universal plan:

  • 10GB online storage
  • 200GB bandwidth per month
  • 150 Free Subdomains
  • 100 MySQL Databases
  • 50 Parked Domains
  • 150 FTP Sub Accounts

Once you choose your basic hosting plan ICDSoft offers incremental storage and bandwidth upgrades for nominal fees. The following services can be upgraded separately as needed: subdomains, ftp accounts, mailing lists, databases, additional traffic, and parked domains.

GoDaddy
Now, when it comes to GoDaddy, things get a little more complicated. The price of domain registration differs depending on which top-level domain you choose, and what, if any, sales are currently being offered, but on average, the price of domain registration is about $13 (min $2 to max $25).

GoDaddy’s Economy hosting package includes the following notable features for $4.08/month (12/month contract):

  • 10GB online storage
  • 300GB bandwidth per month
  • 100 email accounts
  • 10 MySQL Databases

GoDaddy’s Deluxe hosting package includes the following notable features for $6.64/month (12/month contract):

  • 150GB online storage
  • 1,500GB bandwidth per month
  • 500 email accounts
  • 25 MySQL Databases

GoDaddy’s Premium hosting package includes the following notable features for $14.24/month (12/month contract):

  • 300GB online storage
  • 3,000GB bandwidth per month
  • 1,000 email accounts
  • 50 MySQL Databases

As you can see, the feature sets offered by ICDSoft and GoDaddy are quite different. GoDaddy offers some impressive storage and bandwidth options, but a less impressive offering for email accounts and MySQL databases. GoDaddy also gives credits go for PPC advertising as well as touting free Google Webmaster Tools (which, of course, are free to anyone with any host and should not be advertised as a feature).

ICDSoft Pro’s
Extremely quick setup — from receipt of payment to ability to login and start hosting webpages, as little as 2 minutes.
Quick 24/7 support — received an answer to my inquiry in less than 5 minutes.
Extremely reliable — I haven’t experience any downtime, and when moving to a new server, downtime was minimal.
Convenient control center for hosting and email
Fast web serving

ICDSoft Con’s
Very few hosting options
Minimum of 12 months of hosting
Domain choices limited to .com, .net, .org, .us, .biz, .info

GoDaddy Pro’s
Wide variety of hosting options
Monthly hosting available
Plethora of top-level domain choices
Tools for lesser experienced users
Offers free hosting with domain purchase (but at the expense of ads)

GoDaddy Con’s
Not geared towards power users
Slower setup — from receipt of payment to ability to login and start hosting webpages, 2-3 hours.
Changes to .htaccess file and some other settings do not take effect for hours. This sort of thing should be immediate.
The GoDaddy website is a bit difficult to navigate.

Conclusion

My preference between the two hosts highlighted above is ICDSoft. I prefer ICDSoft’s “no-frills” approach to web hosting. They offer few features, but the features that are offered are very well supported. Like I said before, depending on your needs, you may find that GoDaddy suits you better than ICDSoft.

Visit each of their sites to decide for yourself.
GoDaddy.com
ICDSoft.com

NOTE: The above prices are current as of September 2, 2008, but may change without notice.

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Comments:

  1. Tom Jones | 02 Sep 2008 @ 21:52 #

    how long did you have hosting service with ICDsoft?
    I do not have any experience with them.

  2. Jon | 02 Sep 2008 @ 22:19 #

    I have 3 years of experience with ICDSoft with several different sites.

  3. Hussein | 08 Sep 2008 @ 4:51 #

    I’m with ICDSOFT and they are very awesome.

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