GoDaddy Website Builder Review 2021Is It the Best Website Builder?
Every business needs a good website, but hiring a professional web developer isn’t cheap. Fortunately, there are other options for building a website that don’t cost an arm and a leg. With the right website building service, you can create an attractive, professional, fully-functional site for your business. There are so many website builders to choose from — but some are better than others.
In this GoDaddy review, we will cover the pros and cons of the GoDaddy website builder services. We will also review the pricing, features, and customer reviews to help you get a clear picture of what you can expect from its website builder.
We ranked GoDaddy as #1 in our review of the Best Website Builders!
PROS
- The website builder is easy to use, even if you are not too tech-savvy. You can drag and drop different elements to create a website you will be proud to show customers.
- You have useful customization options, such as adding a way for customers to pay you through the website and a way for customers to schedule appointments.
- There are options for integrating your various online marketing channels, like social media and email marketing.
- Everything is mobile compatible, including the site you create and even the website editor you use to build the site.
CONS
- You don’t have access to an app store, which can limit the way you increase the functionality of your site.
- The options you have for search engine optimization (SEO) — particularly with the lower-tiered plans — are unimpressive. Some things GoDaddy does for your SEO may even harm your search rankings (like generating new URLs every time you change a page).
GoDaddy offers five different tiers, Free, Basic, Standard, Premium, and Ecommerce, all of which include the website editor. None of these plans include a custom domain, but you do get 24/7 support and hosting for your site. Let’s take a look at each of the plans and see what you get with each. Keep in mind that the pricing for each of these plans is based on one-time annual payments.
Free = $0/mo.
The free version allows you to use GoDaddy’s website builder to craft a site — but it is unlikely to be the package most business owners will want to use. An ad is featured at the top of every page of your site and your domain is also stuck at godaddysites.com.
When to Use: The free package is a useful way to get your feet wet with the website building tool. However, it’s not practical for business needs because you can’t use advanced features — like SEO — and you’ll have an ad banner on every page.
Basic = $9.99/mo.
The Basic package includes everything in the free package and adds some more useful features, including one social media platform, five social media posts and responses, and 100 email marketing sends. With this package and the higher packages, you can use your own domain.
When to Use: If you want a basic website that looks professional, this package might be right for you. None of the pages will have a banner ad on them, and you get some opportunities to post on social media and use email marketing.
Standard = $14.99/mo.
The Standard package includes everything in the Basic package and some of the more advanced SEO features, along with three social media platforms, 20 social posts, and 500 email marketing sends.
When to Use: The Standard package is the tier where you start being able to market with your website. If you want to take advantage of online marketing, this is the package that will begin allowing you to do so — although you are likely to need more than 20 social media posts if you want to do it right.
Premium = $19.99/mo.
GoDaddy says that this is the package for growing businesses. It includes everything in the lower packages but significantly increases your marketing options. You get unlimited social media platforms, unlimited social posts, and 25,000 email marketing sends. You also get access to tools for customers to schedule appointments and make payments to you through the website.
When to Use: This package is the right choice for any entrepreneur who wants to get the most out of having a business website. It allows you to fully utilize social media and email marketing — and it lets you start booking appointments and taking payments online.
Ecommerce = $24.99/mo.
The Ecommerce tier includes everything from the lower tiers and adds extra options for selling products online. It lets you create product listings and accept various forms of payment. It also gives you abandoned cart recovery.
When to Use: You should use the Ecommerce package if you are planning on operating an online store. This is the only package that gives you the features you need for your ecommerce business.
Recommended: Build your business website with GoDaddy.
GoDaddy has decent reviews, particularly when you consider just how big the company is. It offers website hosting and website building services across the globe. Many of the reviews highlight how easy the service was to use. When it comes to bad reviews, the focus is often poor customer service.
Let’s look at the company’s reviews from a few different sites:
Customer reviews as of 2/16/21
- Trustpilot: 4.1/5, 17,185 reviews
- Whoishostingthis: 3/5, 602 reviews
- Sitejabber: 3.5/5, 392 reviews
When looking at the reviews, it is important to note that the review sites are collecting reviews for all of GoDaddy’s services, including web hosting and website building. When you can search for specific reviews — as you can with Trustpilot — the reviews are generally positive.
GoDaddy offers respectable website building services from a well-known company. However, there are plenty of other website builders to choose from. To make sure you are getting what you want and need as a business, it’s a good idea to compare services before making a decision.
Here we will compare GoDaddy to Weebly, another big name in website building.
Pricing: GoDaddy is more expensive when it comes to lower tiers, but Weebly becomes more expensive when you get into the upper tiers. Weebly’s top tier is more expensive than GoDaddy’s, but it does include more sophisticated features for ecommerce businesses.
Features: It’s hard to compare each company’s tiers side by side because they focus on different things. Weebly introduces ecommerce features in its first paid tier, while GoDaddy doesn’t provide them until its top Ecommerce tier. The more expensive Weebly tiers at the top do give you more ecommerce features, so the price may be worth it depending on your business.
Customer Support: Both companies offer 24/7 customer support so you don’t have to wait to ask a question. However, from the reviews, it looks like both companies also struggle to solve customer problems quickly. GoDaddy might have a slight edge here since there are fewer customer service complaints in the reviews than there are for Weebly.
Number of Users: GoDaddy is a big company — as of 2019, it had approximately 20 million users. Weebly has even more, with a reported 40 million users. Both companies are huge, which may help explain why it can take time to get your customer support issues resolved.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Easy Is It to Get Set Up?
It’s very easy to get set up with GoDaddy. Just sign up for an account and follow the tutorials to drag and drop your website components.
Is There a Free Version?
Yes, but the free version of GoDaddy is not the version you will want to use for your business. It adds a banner ad to the top of all of your site pages. No SEO or ecommerce tools are included, either. However, you can use the free version to see if you like the service before you start paying for it.
What Extra Features or Perks Are Included?
GoDaddy offers 24/7 customer support and mobile-friendly tools and components are included with every package — even the free one.
Should You Use GoDaddy?
GoDaddy is an excellent option for entrepreneurs looking to build a quality business website. The website builder is easy to use, and GoDaddy has established themselves as a company you can trust. Build your business website with GoDaddy today!
To explore some alternatives, you can check out our review of the best website builders.