GoDaddy Website Builder Review

The GoDaddy Website Builder offers a good amount of features. But is the price worth it? And it is easy to learn? All this and more in this review.

Building your website can be a challenge, even with website builders. Some options may be cheap but have limited features. Others aren't friendly for beginners.

Fortunately, the GoDaddy Website Builder offers a user-friendly interface with a range of features.

You get them at reasonable prices, too. Keep scrolling for the ins and outs of the platform and see if it's worth it.

There's also a step-by-step guide later on to help you get started.

What is GoDaddy?

GoDaddy is an all-in-one services provider for businesses around the world. Among other things, it is a domain registar, a hosting provider, and a website builder.

This means you can essentially do everything in one platform when it comes to starting your own website.

Who is GoDaddy Website Builder Best For?

The GoDaddy Website Builder is best for small to medium-sized businesses. These businesses may find the design templates easy to work with. Plus, the prices can be more affordable compared to hiring a professional to create the website for you.

That said, it might not be the best option for large enterprises. As a large business, you may have specific needs or functionalities in your website. So, best to go with professional services.

You can check out the pros and cons of the website builder below.

Pros and Cons of GoDaddy

Pros:

• Free plan and free trials
  
• Affordable starting price
  
• 24/7 support in any plan
  
• Point-of-sale integration
  
• Packed with marketing features
  
• Easily register your domains

Cons:

• Limited flexibility when designing your site
  
• Cheaper plans not suitable for e-Commerce
  
• Free professional email is only a limited trial

Does GoDaddy sound enticing to you? Here's how you can work with the website builder.

How to Use GoDaddy (Step-by-step)

GoDaddy's website builder is called Websites + Marketing, and it comes with AI features that will help you create your website in a couple of minutes.

That said, it can realistically take a lot more than that when it comes to refining your site before it goes live. Keep reading for how to get started.

• 1. Initial setup

  On the GoDaddy Website Builder, select Start for Free. Create an account or log-in through Facebook, Google, or Email.

  The AI will ask you questions about your business (business name, industry, and features you need), which you'll need to answer to move forward. Then, the AI will create an initial website design for you.

• 2. Customize your website

  After the initial design is created, you can customize the website according to your liking. You can add your brand colors, switch fonts, move sections around, etc.

  If you're not fond of the AI's suggested theme, you can switch it up as well. There are various section layouts to choose from, so you won't need to figure out a design yourself.

  Additionally, you can upload your images or select from the available stock images. GoDaddy also provides its GoDaddy Studio where you can edit your photos.

• 3. Set up your business information

  You can set up your business information through the website builder or the dashboard. You can write your About section for visitors to learn more about your business. Then, add your contact info, logo, and other photos.

  You can also list your services and offer appointment booking.

• 4. Set up your online store (if any)

  If you're an e-commerce business, you can setup your online store through the dashboard. On the Commerce tab, you can add your products, categories, and product photos.

  This is also where you'll be able to manage your store and view your business stats. You can use GoDaddy Payments to accept payments or choose a different payment processor.

• 5. Publish your website

  Satisfied with your changes? You can preview what your website will look like on desktops and mobile phones. Just hit the preview button at the top of the website editor interface.

  Then if you're ready, you can click publish.

• 6. Explore GoDaddy's marketing features

  The GoDaddy Website Builder offers a ton of marketing features.

  You can connect different social media platforms to your website like Facebook, Instagram, and Yelp. You can create and manage posts, and review engagements for them.

  You can also access SEO features, set up email marketing, and create blogs that promote your events and promos.

  You can even set up a live chat on your website, so you can connect with your customers right when they need you.

  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO tools can help improve your website's rankings to search results of search engines. This means more exposure for your website and more potential bookings or sales.

How much does it cost to build a website on GoDaddy?

GoDaddy offers a free plan, which means there's no time limit in accessing the free features. On the other hand, the starting price for paid plans cost $10.99/mo to $20.99/mo.^[2]

Here are the details:

Not quite sure which plan to choose?

• Choose Basic if:
  You're a small to medium-sized business who only need a website to showcase your company. You can build a page where clients can find your contact and office locations.

• Choose Premium if:
  You're a service business that's looking to get bookings and accept payments. You'll get access to email marketing tools which can help you keep in touch with your clients and increase customer loyalty.

• Choose Commerce if:
  You're an online store looking to sell unlimited products. You can also sell on other marketplaces and automatically sync your inventory across platforms.

All plans come with hundreds of templates so you can easily switch designs if you prefer.

You'll also get a free trial for a professional email (one that matches your domain). Plus, you can use GoDaddy Payments regardless of your plan.

GoDaddy Website Builder Features

GoDaddy offers a ton of features from designing your website, to creating an online store, promoting your business on social media, email marketing, and more.

These are all available during the 7-day free trial—which is available for any plan. That said, you'll lose access to premium features after 7 days.

Here are the features you'll get in more detail:

• Website Features

  Your website will come with a free SSL certificate which shows visitors that your website is trustworthy and secure. You can also connect your own domain with a paid plan.

  Additionally, your website will be mobile-friendly, so visitors can view your site on any device properly. Plus, you'll get the essential tools to create and design your website.

  These essentials let you:
  

  • Choose from 100s of designer-made templates
    
  • Access fast and reliable hosting
    
  • Use GoDaddy Studio to edit your photos
    
  • Select stock photos from the gallery or upload your own
    
  • Easily move sections on top of each other
    
  • Create members-only pages if you offer subscriptions
    
  • Set up booking services for online consultations, 1-on-1 training, webinars, etc.

  That said, the interface isn't as intuitive compared to other website builders.

  The sidebar on the editor makes it easy to make some changes. But it may take some time to figure out where certain fuctionalities are located.

  It's also not a drag-and-drop editor where you can simply select elements (i.e., buttons, texts) from the sidebar and place them anywhere on the web page.

• Online Store Features

  GoDaddy lets you create an online store, plus sell in-person and on other marketplaces like Instagram, Etsy, Facebook, Amazon, and Google.

  Some other things you can do include:
  

  • Sell physical and digital products
    
  • Set up in-person pickup if you have a physical store
    
  • Offer discount codes to your customers
    
  • Potentially improve sales through abandoned cart recovery
    
  • Set tax and shipping rates
    
  • Feature customer reviews

  You can accept major credit and debit card payments through GoDaddy Payments. But you can also use other payment processors. Additionally, you can accept payments from PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, or Google Pay.

  GoDaddy Payments Processing Rates
  If you decide to use GoDaddy Payments as your payment processor, here are the rates to take note of:^[4]

  • Tap to Pay on Mobile: 2.5% + 0¢ per transaction
    
  • Pay links: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction
    
  • In-person POS transactions: 2.5% + 0¢ per transaction
    
  • Keyed-in payments: 3.5% + 0¢ per transaction

• Marketing Features

  Creating your website is only the beginning. Luckily, GoDaddy also offers marketing tools to make sure your site reaches the right audience.

  Here's what you can do:
  

  • Start an email marketing campaign
    
  • Connect your company to Google My Business
    
  • Create your social media posts with GoDaddy Studio
    
  • Display customer reviews from Yelp, Google, or Facebook
    
  • Personally message your customers through the Conversations dashboard

  SEO features will also help you improve your website's ranking on search engines like Google.

• Reporting Features

  It's hard to make decisions without data. So, GoDaddy provides web analytics that can inform you of all the important numbers.

  You can track:
  

  • Your ranking on Google search
    
  • Orders from your online store
    
  • Facebook insights and online comments
    
  • Customers who went back to purchase items left in the cart
    
  • Email campaigns

  GoDaddy also provides suggestions for your action plans based on your data and industry.

• Blogging Features

  GoDaddy isn't the best website builder for blogs. That's arguably WordPress. But that doesn't mean GoDaddy has nothing to offer.

  With GoDaddy, you can:
  

  • Edit blog images through the GoDaddy Studio
    
  • Customize the layout of your blogs
    
  • Set categories depending on your content
    
  • Update your readers with new content through email

  Having said this, GoDaddy doesn't offer the most comprehensive features for blogging. So be sure to check out other website builders instead if blogs are your main content.

Not really interested in paying for premium features? Here are the basic features that will remain after the free trial:

• Access to templates
  
• SSL certificate
  
• Website, marketing, and sales reporting
  
• Chatbox and inbox
  
• Product listings (without online payment processing)
  
• One-time appointment booking
  
• Email and text reminders
  
• GoDaddy Studio and video creation
  
• Management of business listings
  
• Post to social media pages
  
• Marketing planner to schedule your posts and events
  
• 100 email sends per month + sign-up form
  
• 24/7 customer support

Knowing all these features, it begs the question...

Is it worth building a website with GoDaddy?

The GoDaddy Website Builder can be worth it depending on your priorities. The website builder is beginner-friendly and the 7-day free trial can be enough to test it out.

But the interface is not the most intuitive. And it's not the most flexible. A drag-and-drop builder offered by competitors can be easier when it comes to customizations.

That said, it's hard to mess up your design with GoDaddy because of the pre-designed sections.

Additionally, GoDaddy's SEO features may fall short compared to other website builders. For example, with WordPress, you can edit meta descriptions in every post, optimize using plugins, edit headings on blog posts, etc. This isn't the case with GoDaddy.

That means GoDaddy may not be the best option for content businesses. But it can be a good option for online stores, for example, given that it has tons of marketing features.

Customer Reviews

Having worked with millions of business owners, you can count that GoDaddy has received lots of reviews already. That said, these reviews are a mix of positive and negative comments.

Keep in mind that GoDaddy doesn't only offer website building services. It's also a domain registrar and a hosting provider. So these ratings may reflect experiences with other services, not just with the website builder.

Here are some reviews that reflect GoDaddy's great customer service, nonetheless:

Additionally, here's one customer's experience regarding having problems with their website:

Consider the fact that there are over a thousand complaints in BBB as well, in spite of GoDaddy having an A+ rating. These complaints vary, with others talking about refund issues, website issues, and bad customer service experiences.

If you ever encounter issues of your own or have any questions, here's how you can contact GoDaddy.

Customer Service

GoDaddy's customer support is available 24/7. You can reach them through the following:^[5]

• Phone call: 1-480-366-3550 or 1-480-366-3549
  
• Text message: 1-480-908-8665

There are also other phone numbers available depending on where you are in the world.

GoDaddy Website Builder Alternatives

The GoDaddy Website Builder may not be the best or the cheapest. So if it doesn't quite fit your needs, you can check out other options.

	GoDaddy	Shopify	WordPress	Wix
Ease of Use Rating	3.5/5.0	3.0/5.0	3.5/5.0	4.0/5.0
Starting Price Per Year	$10.99/mo[6]	$29/mo[7]	$4/mo[8]	$17/mo[9]
Free Plan	✓	X	✓	✓
Free Trial	✓	✓	X	✓ (money-back guarantee)
E-commerce Features	✓	✓	✓	✓

Shopify for E-commerce Businesses
Shopify can be the best website builder for e-commerce businesses because of its product management features. It can help you ensure a great and seamless checkout experience for your customers.

Additionally, it offers omnichannel selling, so your inventory is synchronized across your online and in-person stores. You can list unlimited products, and have 10 to 200 inventory locations.

That said, Shopify is a little pricier compared to GoDaddy. This can make it most suitable for mid-sized businesses who are ready to scale and expand their business.

WordPress for Content Businesses
WordPress can be the best website builder for creating content. Whether it's a blog, video content, podcasts—WordPress can handle it.

It's used by many established businesses, including the Fortune 500 companies. But it's also great for small businesses, especially since you can get WordPress for free and only pay for hosting.

Plugins make WordPress the most flexible and customizable website builder. But this means your website can be easily breakable. You'll have to make sure every plugin you work with is compatible with the others.

Wix for Showcasing Your Brand
Wix is another good website builder, and it offers over 900 well-designed templates to choose from. Unlike GoDaddy, Wix offers a drag-and-drop editor, so the interface can be more intuitive to use.

Like Shopify, Wix is a little pricier than GoDaddy. But you can get a full suite of tools for building your online store and marketing.

Not really interested in selling? You can get the cheapest plan for $17/mo. It can be a good option to just showcase your business and the services you offer. Wix has plenty of design features to make your website stand out and become engaging.

Bottom Line

The GoDaddy Website Builder can help you create websites easily. Do it by yourself or with the help of AI.

The website builder's interface can be easy to work with if you're not into customizing your site from top to bottom. If you prefer to just use pre-designed templates, it's a good option and a quick way to get your site up and running.

That said, based on its features, it can be best used by small to medium-sized businesses looking to build an online store or a simple website. Content businesses should try to look elsewhere.

References