Business success today depends on having a website. It can be difficult to decide which website builder is the easiest to use, or where to begin. These days, it’s easier than ever to build a basic website without any design or coding skills. One of the most popular choices is GoDaddy. Is GoDaddy a good website builder? I will review GoDaddy’s website builder and determine whether it is a suitable choice for building a business site.
- What Is GoDaddy?
- Pros & Cons
- How Does The GoDaddy Website Builder Work?
- Can GoDaddy Create Awesome Looking Websites?
- Who Is GoDaddy Designed For?
- Pricing
- Is GoDaddy Worth It?
- Final Words
What is GoDaddy?
GoDaddy is a well-known domain registrar and web hosting company. Founded 25 years ago, it’s one of the biggest companies that sell domain names, along with providing web hosting services.
If you’re familiar with GoDaddy, you may have seen some of their tv ads. Also, they’ve partnered with some celebrities who help promote their services. That’s helped them build brand awareness and grow substantially as a domain/web hosting company.
Today, GoDaddy serves more than 20 million customers, and they currently have over 9000 employees.
For the remainder of this review, I will focus on their website builder (and their online store component). I’ll go over some of their top features, whether they can help you build a great website, and determine whether it’s the best choice for your business.
If you’re in a hurry, here is a brief video on getting set up with a GoDaddy website. Also, I’ve listed some pros and cons to consider for the GoDaddy website builder.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free plan available
- Simple to use with the ADI editor
- Content reformats by switching themes
- Great marketing tools to grow an online presence
Cons
- Designs are not that unique- they end up looking generic
- Some of the block elements (with the editor) are restricted
- Prices tend to be higher after signing up for your first year
- Not the best for creatives
How does the GoDaddy website builder work?
The website builder is designed for anyone to use (from beginner to a more advanced level). It uses something called artificial design intelligence to create websites much faster.
In simple terms, any information that you enter will help create a customized website. It makes it faster and easier to get a website up and running.
Here are some of the top features to consider with building a website on GoDaddy.
Drag and drop editor
The editor is simple to use, whether that’s through clicking, dragging, or dropping elements on a page or post. You can reorder sections or adjust parts of a page layout you’re working on.
Although the editor is easy to try out, it does come with some limitations. For example, not being able to use certain blocks as you would desire in writing a post.
Professional design templates
The website builder comes with a variety of templates to choose from. These templates or themes can be uniquely customized, with a lot of options to choose from.
GoDaddy has more than 100 themes to try out. The customizer allows you to view a website in 20 different styles (without losing any of your content).
Web hosting
As part of the website builder package, hosting is included with a custom domain through GoDaddy. Their hosting services are what they’re famously known for, which makes them a great choice for building your own website.
With their hosting plan, your website will regularly backup. Or, you have the option to back up your website manually.
When considering a website builder, web hosting is something to take a close look at. GoDaddy emphasizes the importance of having web hosting for your website.
When working on a menu, it allows you to add a drop-down menu, or create several pages to add to your website. With their navigation menu option, it’s simple to add pages as needed.
Very mobile-friendly
Each theme by GoDaddy is built to be mobile-friendly. So it’s usable on any type of device (desktop, tablet, or phone). These days, it is essential for customers to use mobile devices. As more people use their phones to look up information, having a mobile-friendly website will make a big difference.
Other features
If you want to look into marketing resources for your website, GoDaddy provides SEO guides to help along the way. They offer a helpful SEO tool when getting your website started.
Other things to include for marketing are the following:
- Sync your website with Facebook: You can integrate your website to your Facebook page (if you have one). This option will allow more accessibility for your visitors to see your website.
- Connect to Twitter & Instagram accounts
- Google My Business: You can claim your business via Google so that it’s easier for people to find your business through search results
- Email marketing
- Reviews widget: This feature allows customer reviews to be published on popular websites, including Google and Facebook. Customer reviews for your business can be beneficial in building trust with other potential customers.
Along with the website builder component, GoDaddy also offers commerce options if you’re building an online store. This section is quite extensive on the eCommerce side, so I will discuss the commerce part in a future post.
Can GoDaddy create awesome-looking websites?
GoDaddy may be the right choice if you don’t want to go through the hassles of website design. Without spending a lot of time, you can easily create a website in a short period of time.
The ADI editor is easy to build a website, especially having a lot of customization options; however, the ADI editor comes with its limits. For instance, it allows you to customize the basic features, including fonts, texts, and themes.
Also, the designs they have are not that unique- so they end up looking generic. Though it has some downsides, GoDaddy is still a great choice for those building a business website.
Who is GoDaddy designed for?
GoDaddy is best suited for small businesses wanting a bigger online presence. Also, it’s good for independent sellers looking to sell more of their products online.
For many business owners, the ADI editor can be a useful time-saver in building a customized website. It’s nice that they have great marketing features to help increase awareness of your business online (i.e. social media).
If you consider yourself to be creative, GoDaddy may not be the best choice in that matter. As mentioned earlier, there are limits to the theme designs and the editor itself. So you may be better off looking at another option for building a website.
Pricing
GoDaddy has a few plans to try out for building a website. They do provide a free plan for users to start out with. If you don’t mind getting the basics, a free plan can help you get a feel for whether it’s the right choice or not.
They have four plans to choose from, and all of them include the following: SSL, on-the-go editing, mobile-friendly features, and 24/7 support. If you want to sign up for an annual plan, you could possibly save more than through a monthly option.
| Basic | Standard | Premium | Commerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| -$6.99/month- Renews at $11.99/month This plan is best for getting started with a website. Also, you can take advantage of the marketing and payment features that come with the plan. | -$13.99/month- Renews at $21.99/month This plan is best for growing your business faster, including more marketing tools. | -$14.99/month- Renews at $24.99/month The plan is best for making online payments along with boosting your marketing efforts. | -$29.99/month- Renews at $44.99/month The plan is best for selling anywhere (whether in-person or online). It’s great for building out a full-scale online store and reaching out to more customers. |
In some cases, you can start a paid plan on a free 7-day trial. For example, I was able to use the premium version for the first seven days when I started using the website builder.
So if you start out with a free plan, you may get the opportunity to use the premium version on a free trial. That’s another bonus to see if GoDaddy may be the best choice for a website builder.
Is GoDaddy worth it?
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
GoDaddy is a well-known company that’s provided more than domains and web hosting. It’s simple to use in designing a website, and it has a lot of themes to choose from.
As mentioned earlier, some of the themes are a little outdated. So it may look a bit generic when users go visit your website.
Although the prices are affordable for building a website, they do go up if you continue using GoDaddy after your first year. An annual plan may be a good choice, but it will increase by sticking to the plan. So that’s another thing to consider when looking at how much it costs overall.
My thoughts
When I navigated through the website builder, it was a good experience. But as I mentioned earlier, I’m not the biggest fan of the ADI editor. With the restrictions that come with it, I prefer to do more while creating content.
Also, I’m not a fan when it comes to price increases. My preference is to have a price set each year (or be grandfathered into a locked price when I first signed up).
Getting a full package on web hosting and customized domains is a great deal. But overall, I was not completely blown away using the builder myself. So I would look at other choices when it comes to website builders.
Final Words
GoDaddy may be the right choice if you run a small business, or you want something simple. If you don’t mind working around some limits, the basics of the website builder may work at the moment.
If web hosting is a big deal for you, that’s a plus when looking at a website builder. Getting the best hosting will help to keep your website secure.
If you’re interested in trying out GoDaddy today, get started with a free plan. If you want to try out their premium version, you can get a free 7-day trial.
If there are extra features that may benefit your business, the premium plan can help with building a better presence online. Whatever your business needs are, GoDaddy remains a top choice for website builders today.
Your Turn: What do you think of GoDaddy?
I would like to get your thoughts on GoDaddy. Do you think GoDaddy provides value to having a website builder?
Which of the features did you find most helpful: The editor, the marketing tools, or something else? What don’t you like about the website builder? How can it be better for anyone to start a website?
Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. I look forward to reading your responses, and I’ll gladly respond promptly.
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Eric is a content writer and the site owner of notimekillers.com. He takes great pride in helping people manage their time and grow their businesses. Eric is a firm believer in time freedom, as he believes in taking ownership of time. “Time is your most important asset. It can be your best friend or worst enemy. How you use your time can shape the future you desire to have.” In his leisure time, Eric loves to write and read whenever possible. He enjoys going for long walks outdoors while doing in-home workout videos every week. You can follow Eric on LinkedIn.
GoDaddy has been around for so many years, that it is often the first company that people think of when wanting to buy a domain name, and also now building a website. Being able to use a drag-and-drop tool when creating a website, makes it much easier and quicker to build your website, without needing any coding knowledge or design skills.
Being able to use a free trial, is always great to see if a product works the way you were expecting it to perform. So it is good to see that GoDaddy does have a 7-day free trial, that one can even combine with a paid plan.
I do agree that it would be better if you could be grandfathered into a plan, rather than having to pay increased prices each year.
How would GoDaddy compare to other popular website builders like HostGator, BlueHost and SiteRubix? Thank you.
Hi,
Being well-known for it’s domain services, GoDaddy has come a long way to earn a good reputation. I think they’ll continue to be around for some time.
They have convenient features, such as the drag and drop tool for editing. They certainly have tools that are easy to use, especially for beginners and those who’ve used the services.
Regarding your question. that’s something I’ll look into. I haven’t looked into those builders, so I may do separate reviews on each of them. Or, I’ll do a comparison review between two-three of them.
But that’s worth looking into it. I’m glad you asked that question, so more to come.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts- I greatly appreciate it.
Thanks, Eric, for your review on GoDaddy. I know of someone who uses GoDaddy, and I am familiar with BlueHost.
Having a drag and drop builder would definitely make it easier on a newbie just starting out. Once you understand what you are doing, it is beneficial to add your own creative touches.
No one likes to see prices go up, so it is nice to have a plan where you do not need to be concerned about price increases. There is much competition out there.
What is your choice for building a website in the online world?
Hi Carolyn,
GoDaddy has a convenient drag and drop builder for building websites. It helps those who are beginners, and may need something simple to start out with.
I wholeheartly agree that you can go further with creativity. Once you understand the basics, have that curious mind and be open to learning more concepts.
Regarding your question, I have two choices for building a website:
-The first one is WordPress. I think that’s the best platform for building blogs, or if you’re someone who’s more concentric. In other words, WordPress is great for building a lot of articles for a niche site.
-The second one is Square Online. I think that’s the best for any business wanting an online presence. At the moment, I believe it’s great for building an ecommerce store.
Other than that, I like those two options. I hope that helps.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts- I greatly appreciate what you had to say.