Web hosting is a critical part of a website. However, not all webhosts are created equal. Too many people pick a webhost because of a pretty interface or because they recognize the brand name instead of determining whether or not a host can actually support their website’s capabilities. Even worse, many designers choose their reseller account based on these same flashy interfaces rather than the quality for their customers.

When it comes to Joomla, most webhosts can support Joomla. The actual requirements for Joomla are pretty minimal. However, just because a webhost supports Joomla does not mean that they support it well. In my experience, this doesn’t usually show up until someone wants to modify their Joomla site or add a custom component or otherwise do something special to their site.

In my experience, the more “flash” and pretty interfaces a webhost has, the less likely they are to have the technical capabilities. That is just an observation, but one that has been consistent.
There are two webhosts that I talk about quite a bit: GoDaddy and HostGator.

Why I don’t recommend GoDaddy for Joomla

It’s no secret that GoDaddy is a very popular web hosting company. They have flashy commercials, a slick website and rock-bottom prices. In a generalized sense, they are a good webhost. However, in terms of Joomla, they are the worst I’ve dealt with.

1. Slick interface – If all you do is change some email addresses, update your billing information and then leave it all to your webmaster, then you probably didn’t realize this: those interfaces make it harder for us to work. It takes too many “clicks” to get the information we need.
2. Lag time for account creation – Email, FTP, database – they all take anywhere from several minutes (an eternity on the web!) to 30 minutes.  A recent site that I was doing some work on took nearly 3 hours to get setup because everything was “pending setup”.
3. Non-standard setup – GoDaddy doesn’t do things like everything else. Their marketing department is probably really proud of that, but for those of us actually working on the sites, it’s a pain. Example: most webhosts have one username/password – to login to your control panel, FTP, email.  On GoDaddy? 3 or 4…
4. PreviewDNS – Joomla’s enemy. Yes, it’s cool – you can switch to GoDaddy and before you ever register or transfer your domain, you can “preview” you website. However, the way it works is that a piece of javascript is placed on your site which allows for the little popup informing you that you are previewing the site. That javascript conflicts with Joomla and prevents critical scripts for running, rendering a Joomla site’s admin panel nearly useless. The biggest issue I’ve encountered with it is regarding the popup windows in the Joomla admin. These are the ones that popup when you have to select an article for a menu item, or change parameters in various components. The PreviewDNS javascript conflicts with that modal window, preventing it from working.
5. Speed – Not looking at statistics or technical specs, but from the average user viewing a website, GoDaddy is slower. Sorry, it is.
6. Compatibility issues with JoomlaPack – JoomlaPack is the most widely used, most widely recommended backup software for Joomla. I use it regularly not only for backup, but also to move Joomla websites. However, because of GoDaddy’s technical settings, I consistently have issues when using it and more than once I have had to resort to standard copy & paste and database dumps, by far the most ineffective way to move or backup a Joomla site.

Why I Use HostGator

I have been hosting websites with HostGator for several years now and currently host DesignMonster.net as well as over a dozen other Joomla sites on my account, so I’m very familiar with how Joomla reacts to their setup.
HostGator utilizes one of the most popular web hosting software packages available, called Cpanel. Because it is so popular, it rarely conflicts with websites.

In my experience, I have never had a conflict with JoomlaPack or any modal or other popup windows. I’ve run many components, including the most popular and never had issues. On the rare occasion that I’ve had an issue or question, their support staff has always responded within several hours. (Last time I tried to email GoDaddy it was a 10 hour wait, so I had to call and be on hold for a tech).

In short, everything that GoDaddy does or doesn’t do, HostGator is the opposite. In terms of Joomla, they are a great option for a web hosting company. If you have a simple HTML website, go with GoDaddy, if you want. Otherwise, check out HostGator.com