1and1 Vs GoDaddy: Dedicated Server Comparison

This is already the fourth round of our comparison study between GoDaddy and 1and1 and now we’re having a look into each web hosting company’s dedicated server plans.

Dedicated hosting is type of Internet hosting where the customer leases an entire physical server not shared with anyone. Dedicated servers delivers way more performance than shared hosting, virtual dedicated servers or co-location.

Dedicated servers come in two flavors: managed and unmanaged. A managed dedicated server is taken care of by the web hosting company’s staff whereas an unmanaged server is being administered by the customer.

GoDaddy and 1and1 have various dedicated server packages so let’s start with the Linux ones.

GoDaddy vs 1and – Linux Dedicated Server Comparison

Performance

The difference I’ve noted is that GoDaddy’s servers are running on Intel processors while 1and1 are mainly using AMD. I don’t really care about using one more than the other, I’ve had good experiences with Intel and AMD.

If you’re going to host a website which needs to process lots of data, you might want to avoid leasing a Celeron-based server. Celeron processors are just not made for this kind of task but will do the job just fine with simple content websites even with lots of traffic.

Unless money is an issue, I’d go with a Dual Core CPU like GoDaddy’s Premium Plan or 1and1’s Business II Plan.

As far as memory (RAM) goes, I think that both web hosts offer plenty of memory considering these are Linux servers.

Operating System

With GoDaddy’s dedicated servers, you either get CentOS 4 or 5 or Red Hat Fedora Core 7. Personnally CentOS 5 is my favorite since it offers the reliability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 while its being maintained by the open source community and remains free. Finding CentOS help is really easy.

1and1 has a lot more operating systems to offer than GoDaddy: CentOS 5, Fedora Core 6, Fedora Core 8, openSUSE 10.2 and 10.3, Debian 4.0 and Ubuntu 6.06. Most of these operating systems are available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Control Panel

I think that GoDaddy should simply drop their Simple Control Panel. I mean if I’m going to spend enough money to get a dedicated server then I expect to get a well known control panel, not a custom one.

Other than that, Plesk is a very good choice although my favorite one is cPanel / WHM. It is more mature that Plesk and is really suited well to Linux operating systems as far as system updates goes.

Either way, you just can’t go wrong with Plesk or cPanel.

Features

Generous as usual, 1and1 has plenty of features. One feature that got my attention is the 1&1 Recovery Tool. This security feature allows you to access a Rescue Image via the network which is loaded into the server’s memory and can be accessed through the Internet. When your server has been repaired, change the boot mode of the network interface card and boot your server in regular mode.

Resetting your 1and1 server is also very quick. Within a few clicks, you can reboot your server from the control panel.

In case you encounter network problems, 1and1 also provides a serial console access. This way you can access your server just as if you were sitting in front of it.

Other 1and1 features include the Premium Software Suite which includes Adobe Elements 5.0, Adobe GoLive CS2, Ulead GIF Animator, Hello Engines 6, Ranking Toolbox 6.0 and WISE FTP 5. You also get over $400 worth of PPC marketing vouchers for Google Adwords, Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing.

With GoDaddy’s plans, you get less free stuff but nonetheless you get a free SSL certificate (which is necessary if you want to have a secure transactional website) and $125 worth of PPC marketing credits for Google Adwords and Microsoft adCenter.

Pricing

GoDaddy’s Economy Plan is a really great deal at only $71.20 month (12 months plan). If it wasn’t for their Simple Control, I’d say this would be a great budget server. If you’re considering the Economy Plan, just make sure the control panel suits your needs.

If you’re going for an high-end server, I think that GoDaddy’s Premium Plan is a bit expensive although I like the fact that it comes with cPanel. Other than that, 1and1’s Business I plan is a better deal considering you get more resources for less.

Conclusion

All things considered, I would either go with GoDaddy’s Deluxe Plan or 1and1’s Business I plan. If I were to go with 1and1, I’d buy more IP addresses though because one is rarely enough, specially if you’re going to host your own DNS which in this case you’ll need at least two IP addresses to start with.

External Links

• GoDaddy Dedicated Servers
• 1and1 Dedicated Servers