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Serious Issues with GoDaddy’s WordPress Hosting

There are 2 primary issues that we have encountered with GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting platform. The first is GoDaddy’s inability to allow any WordPress versions other than the latest. The second issue is GoDaddy’s inability to offer access to PHP logs.

These 2 issues are significant and have contributed to why we designed our hosting platform in the way that we did. We are active developers and have extensive experience working on client WordPress sites. We understand the pain points and the different features that make the development process easier. If you want to try out our hosting platform, contact us.

Issue 1: WordPress Version Inflexibility

I recently had an issue with a client where I needed to downgrade the latest WordPress version because the theme author hadn’t updated the theme to be compatible with WordPress version 5.0.  I thought I would be able to set a specific WordPress version with GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress hosting, at worst manually change the database and manually change the WordPress core files.  However, you cannot set WordPress to a specific version with Godaddy. I understand the security issues related to maintaining an old version of WordPress but this is temporarily downgrading to WordPress version 4.9.8 from WordPress version 5.0 until a developer comes out with an updated version of a theme/plugin. 

This a significant issue with GoDaddy’s hosting.

While most plugin and theme authors will release their updated versions prior to a major release, some plugin and theme authors may take a bit longer to update their themes and plugins to be compatible with the latest WordPress versions. Those situations provide a very serious argument against using GoDaddy’s Managed WordPress hosting.  

WPLauncher’s WordPress hosting on the other hand, allows customers to opt out of automatic WordPress core updates. This gives users control over what WordPress version they would like to run.

Below is a conversation that I had with a Godaddy representative through their chat feature:

You at 13:28, Dec 11: Is there a way to create a staging site at a certain wordpress version?

GoDaddy Rep at 13:29, Dec 11: No, managed wordpress hosting is setup to automatically update and does not allow reverting back to a previous version. If it is something that you will need , you may need to consider a cPanel hosting which has the option to disable automatic update.

You at 13:30, Dec 11: Ok so switching hosting is the only way apart from manually updating hte database adn wordpress core files?

GoDaddy Rep at 13:33, Dec 11: Yes, it will still automatically update even if you restore to a previous backup.

As you can see, for their WordPress hosting service, manually updating the database and the WordPress core files won’t allow you to use a WordPress version of your choosing. Instead, you are stuck with the latest stable version of WordPress that GoDaddy decides to run with. 

Issue 2: Lack of Access to PHP Logs

In addition, GoDaddy doesn’t allow you to access your PHP logs. They say that you can install a plugin that allows you to look at the PHP logs. This is severely limiting. For example, if you update a plugin that causes your site to crash, there is no way to check out the PHP logs in your WordPress dashboard because you can no longer access your WordPress dashboard. This is a massive annoyance because you have to constantly restore your website from a backup if any updated plugins or themes cause breaking changes.

On the other hand, WPLauncher’s hosting platform provides access to PHP logs because we understand the importance of being able to diagnose issues quickly, without having to restore constantly. Contact us if you would like to host your WordPress site on our platform.

Hopefully, GoDaddy updates their WordPress hosting functionality in the future, but in the meantime, we suggest steering clear of their WordPress hosting service.

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