Many developers using GoDaddy's shared hosting face deployment friction when relying on manual FTP transfers. The solution lies in leveraging Git's powerful version control capabilities through SSH access - a feature now commonly available even on shared hosting plans.

Before proceeding, ensure you have:

1. SSH access enabled on your GoDaddy account

2. Git installed on both local machine and server

3. Basic terminal/SSH familiarity

1. Server-Side Setup

Connect via SSH to your GoDaddy hosting:

ssh username@yourdomain.com
cd ~/your_project_directory
git init --bare project.git

2. Create Post-Receive Hook

This ensures automatic deployment after push:

cd ~/project.git/hooks
touch post-receive
chmod +x post-receive
nano post-receive

Add this script:

#!/bin/sh
GIT_WORK_TREE=/home/username/public_html git checkout -f

3. Local Repository Configuration

Add the remote repository:

git remote add godaddy ssh://username@yourdomain.com/home/username/project.git

4. Deployment Workflow

Now deploy with a simple push:

git push godaddy main

Permission Denied Errors

Ensure correct permissions on your public_html directory:

chmod -R 755 /home/username/public_html
chown -R username:username /home/username/public_html

SSH Connection Problems

Verify your SSH access works before attempting Git operations. Try establishing a basic SSH session first.

For more complex workflows, consider:

• Setting up multiple branches for staging/production
• Adding pre-receive hooks for deployment validation
• Implementing CI/CD pipelines with webhooks

Shared hosting environments may have limitations:

- Large repositories might timeout during push

- Concurrent access during deployment may cause temporary issues

- Consider shallow clones if working with large codebases

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Before proceeding, ensure your GoDaddy shared hosting meets these requirements:

• SSH access enabled (request via GoDaddy dashboard if unavailable)
• Basic terminal familiarity
• Local Git repository initialized
• Shell access confirmed via ssh yourusername@yourdomain.com

Connect to your GoDaddy server via SSH and execute:

mkdir -p ~/git/yourproject.git
cd ~/git/yourproject.git
git init --bare

This creates a bare repository that will receive your pushes. The conventional .git suffix helps identify repository directories.

On your development machine, add the remote:

git remote add godaddy ssh://username@yourdomain.com/home/username/git/yourproject.git

Verify the remote with:

git remote -v

This automates deployment when pushing. Create ~/git/yourproject.git/hooks/post-receive with:

#!/bin/sh
GIT_WORK_TREE=/home/username/public_html git checkout -f

Make it executable:

chmod +x hooks/post-receive

Adjust /home/username/public_html to match your actual web root path.

For more complex scenarios, consider these hook variations:

PHP-specific deployment:

#!/bin/sh
DEPLOY_PATH=/home/username/public_html
GIT_WORK_TREE=$DEPLOY_PATH git checkout -f
cd $DEPLOY_PATH
composer install --no-dev

Node.js deployment:

#!/bin/sh
DEPLOY_PATH=/home/username/public_html
GIT_WORK_TREE=$DEPLOY_PATH git checkout -f
cd $DEPLOY_PATH
npm install --production
pm2 restart your_app

• Permission denied: Ensure your web root is writable (chmod -R 755 public_html)
• SSH connection refused: Verify GoDaddy hasn't changed your SSH port
• Hook not executing: Check line endings (use dos2unix if edited on Windows)

For production environments:

• Set GIT_WORK_TREE outside web root when possible
• Implement .htaccess restrictions for .git directories
• Consider using deploy keys instead of account credentials

Large repositories may benefit from:

git config --global pack.windowMemory "100m"
git config --global pack.packSizeLimit "100m"
git config --global pack.threads "1"

These settings prevent memory issues on shared hosting environments.