I never had a problem with either of them but I think a lot of people would complain about how much they upsell.
Do a little search for "godaddy slow" and read lots of complaints about slow loading due to overloaded servers. Then you can read a whole lot about HG taking 3 - 4 days to reply to support tickets. (I did host on GD for about 18 months before I had to leave due to slow loading but never was a customer of HG.) Also keep in mind that the hosting industry is intensely competitive. If a rival host can siphon off some customers from a bigger firm, it will certainly try to do so.
I am not really sure why people dislike them so much. I have used both in the past and currently. I have never had a problem with either. If a problem did come up, I would just CALL them. I have seen other threads where people say that their live support and/or email support is lacking. I dont see how hard it is to pick up a phone and call them directly. My phone calls have been answered in a reasonable time frame, answered my questions, and solved my issue.
Same as above ive had good experience from both of them and with ipage another hosting that everyone hates. It all starts with that one guy and people follow making it seem like they are awful. So many people are so greedy now a days... "you pay for whatcha get" they want so much for a $1 a month. But for a $1 a month hosting or $1 for a domain with godaddy(even though they put a limit on their coupons) you really shouldnt be complaining in the first half.... as long as they did help you out and they showed you that they tried.
I personally use Godaddy managed WordPress hosting for my blog from past 1 years and never had any problem with them. I support is excellent.
Be careful with thise top 10 websitehosting review sites. They are junk, the owners make the list by how much they can make from each affiliate hosting. Domt believe me, just google best top web hostings and i bet the lists on most of those websites are different l.
Pretty much everyone uses them, you have to expect they would receive some bad reviews. It's common knowledge that GD's hosting is terrible. I've never had an issue with their domain registration services, though, which is their core business.
The issues usually stem from being on a sharing hosting. Once you switch to a dedicated server life gets a whole lot better.
DigitalOcean's VPS's are considered cheap, but they're solid. Depends on the provider, like with everything else.
I have used GoDaddy for domains as long as I can remember, not exclusively but one I do use. Their domain services are good, although since they went public earlier this year there have been a lot of pricing changes and policy changes that many people are not liking. Their discount code usage policy is one big one that people are hating. I've used their hosting and it's ok, with the exception that they give you very little resources in their shared hosting plans compared to others in the same price/performance range. As for HostGator, they used to be good, then they got bought out by EIG. Now they have the same support as the rest of their hosing company brads (iPage, Fatcow, etc.) and they are all nice and friendly on the phone, but they aren't the same on ticket support. They also tried on multiple occasions to extort me into buying unwanted services and went as far as to hold some of my sites and data hostage. I filed a complaint with the BBB, but that didn't mean anything, especially since they get so many that they really don't care. Since HostGator is part of EIG and uses the same support and other business practices and people, expect to worst and hope for the best if you choose them. Many people have no problems, I just don't want to gamble and deal with them again!
Bluehost is owned by the same company as HostGator, iPage, FatCow, etc. and has been since 2010 so it's basically the same thing. I will say that out of all of the EIG companies, Bluehost seems to have the better reputation. Not sure why that is though. Maybe EIG gives certain brands/labels/companies of theirs better support/etc. because of price differences. Kind of a "Premium" version of their service.
They are still mostly separately managed. My host was purchased by EIG in 2012 as part of the HG purchase. Nothing has changed really. They are still as good today as they were before. Plus, we are not in the Utah data center which was a source of a lot of complaints when HG moved there back in 2013 or whatever. I thought it was originally the Bluehost data center in Provo that they moved HG customers to. Also, my host does not make you wait 3 or 4 days for a reply from support like HG does. So there are differences there, too. They may have the same parent holding company, but there are real differences between the various EIG brands. And that includes the affiliate programs.
Really its the luck of the draw when you call into support. Sometimes you will have guys that really know what they are doing. Then others you will get guys right out of hostgator training class which is limited info for them. Another deal is they are fast to pass blame. If they are not sure right off the top of their head they will say its a coding issue and contact your developer to get issue fixed. If you are the developer and you know its not the coding then it becomes a pain.
here is my outlook from the last TEN YEARS of using both of them: The positives: They are "get what you pay for services" meaning - make sure you read what the resources are you are buying and you will be fine. They have great price points - I have used servers at SINGLHOP for $$$$ and I can get the same resources and power from a Godaddy managed plan., The negatives You must be patient with the customer service but in the end you will be taken care of AKA slow customer service BUT no always to be fair
One would think...until they have a VPS on the same server as another VPS that is a resource hog. Most hosting companies over load their VPS servers. Back in the day I had a social networking web site on a VPS that would be sent offline all the time due to someone elses account.