GoDaddy Review: Should You Go For It?

GoDaddy logo
Dan Barraclough author headshot photo

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Is GoDaddy the right website builder for your business? Read our review to find out…


GoDaddy logo

Pros

  • Quick and easy to set up your GoDaddy site
  • Get a free domain name when you sign up
  • Affordable price plans

Cons

  • Doesn't offer much creative freedom when customizing templates
  • You can't sell digital-based products

GoDaddy has a stellar reputation for helping businesses host and build websites. Year after year, they smash industry records and win new customers.

Naturally, you’d expect great things from GoCentral, GoDaddy’s browser-based website building software. And, by and large, it doesn’t disappoint. GoCentral is an excellent, easy-to-use product. We built a site with it in less time than it took to write this GoDaddy review. I’ll show you just how easy this was. I’ll also explain why GoDaddy’s website builder won’t be to everyone’s tastes.

GoDaddy Website Builder Features and Benefits

GoCentral has all kinds of things going for it that make it one of the best quick-start website builders around. Here are a few of our favourites:

✔ Sleek templates

There are thousands of sleek website templates for different industries. Whether you run a construction company, a jewellery store or a restaurant, you'll find templates to match.

Superb SEO 

GoDaddy has an expert SEO team who really know their stuff. Don’t believe us? Kick things off with a free phone consultation with one of their staff, and we bet you’ll be impressed. Site audits, competitor research, analytics; you name it, they do it. Not only do you need a website for your business, you need customers to find it more easily, and that's how GoDaddy's SEO tools can help.

✔ Excellent ecommerce features

It's easy to add ecommerce features to your site. You just select the ones you need and GoDaddy guides you through setup. The popular open source ecommerce software, Magento, is also available as a 1-click install.

✔ Strong web security

GoDaddy's web security is one of the best in the business, so you don't have to pay extra for third party guarantors. Sitewide SSL encryption and certification is included with your business subscription.

✔ Embed Google Maps and more

You can embed widgets from Google Maps, Youtube, Soundcloud, and more. With these options, you can improve your customers' on-site experience.

✔ Impressive email marketing

You can segment customer email addresses to help you target different customers with different emails, and send newsletters using GoDaddy's email software (available at an extra cost).

Godaddy templates
GoDaddy offers a range of sleek templates across various industries

PlanCostWhat you’ll get
Personal$5.99/month

Mobile responsive themes

SSL security

24/7 support

Fast page loading

Blog feature

Business$9.99/month

Includes all Personal features, and:

Unlimited websites

Unlimited bandwidth

SSL security

SEO support

PayPal button

Business Plus$14.99/mo

Includes all Business features, and:

Email marketing

Social media integration

Online appointment scheduling

Online Store$29.99/mo

Includes all Business Plus features, and:

Built-in shopping cart

Accept PayPal, Apple Pay

Configure products, shipping, taxes

It's always important to understand how much it costs to build a website for your business. GoDaddy’s Personal Plan is for small websites with low traffic. The Business tier is best for entrepreneurs and small businesses – the unlimited bandwidth is great, but you should be aware that they tier pricing by the number of visitors to your site. So, you can go wild building the best website ever, but make sure you budget for increased hosting costs as more people discover it.

Business Plus is best if you’re trying to build an email or social media following through your site. Gyms, restaurants and businesses that rely on customer bookings will benefit the most from the online appointment scheduling that comes with this plan.

If online retail is your jam (and, given the importance of e-commerce UX), GoDaddy’s Online Store justifies the extra spend. In our experience, offering more on-site payment methods keeps customers from clicking away to your nearest competitor.

All these plans come with a 30-day free trial, which we tested for this GoDaddy review. It makes sense to try before you buy, and in GoDaddy’s case, you’re able to put their website builder through its paces before you commit to anything.

A Word on WordPress…

WordPress is the open source software that runs almost a third of all websites. Any web hosting provider worth its salt supports it.

GoDaddy lets you build WordPress websites, but that involves a separate set of WordPress hosting plans which we won’t be reviewing here. This is a GoDaddy review, which means we’re only reviewing GoDaddy’s own website builder. GoCentral specializes in quick website creation for non-specialists. WordPress is more customizable, but it takes longer to set up a website. We just thought you should know that GoDaddy offers dedicated WordPress support if you need it.


What is GoDaddy's Customer Support Like?

As the largest hosting company in the world, GoDaddy has the scale and resources to serve customers in ways that few can. The result?

  • 4,700 customer support reps
  • 24/7 phone support in 30 languages.
  • Online chat support
  • 99.9% server uptime (the amount of time that your website is live)

In particular, 24/7 phone support is a rarity in the world of web hosting. When we called their US support line for this review, we spoke with a knowledgeable and friendly customer service agent. Their chat help reps also gave me helpful, speedy responses to my questions.

In general, we found speaking with GoDaddy’s staff more useful than surfing GoDaddy’s website for answers.

GoDaddy chatbot support
GoDaddy's chatbot helps you reach customer support agents more quickly

Bluehost vs GoDaddy

GoDaddy and Bluehost are close competitors for your bandwidth. But, when it comes to website builders, they really don’t compare. GoDaddy has the edge. That’s because GoDaddy offers their own website builder, while Bluehost doesn’t.

But, that doesn’t have to stop you from powering your dream website with Bluehost. It just means that you’ll need to use another company’s website builder to create it. For example, you can design your site in Weebly’s website builder, and use Bluehost’s servers to run it. Bluehost also works closely with WordPress to offer the best WordPress hosting rates of any top web hosting company. One-click installs of Page Builder and countless other WordPress add-ons make it simple to set up a site with Bluehost.

But, for simplicity and speed of use, GoDaddy is in a league of its own. The learning curve with WordPress Bluehost is steeper, so unless you’ve used it before, it’s trickier to create a site from scratch.


Expert Verdict

GoDaddy is like the landlord you wish you had. Their shared website hosting space is cheap to rent, and they give you free reign to do what you like with it.

That could mean migrating your existing WordPress site to their servers, or starting a new site from scratch with GoCentral and a GoDaddy domain name. Whatever the case, GoDaddy has you covered. Their website creation suite is the best in its class for small business users. If you’re still in doubt about how easy it is to build and publish a site, sign up for a free trial.

Sure, it won’t appeal to web developers who spend all day looking at 0s and 1s; but it was never supposed to. GoDaddy keeps its software code-free for a reason, and thousands of businesses are much the better for it.

There’s no one size fits all solution to website creation, for the simple reason that every business has different needs. You often have to hunt for the best web hosting and design packages.

If you’re building a website and want an idea of the costs involved, your best bet is to get bespoke quotes.

Fill out our short webform and we’ll connect you with top web design companies.

Written by:

Dan’s a Senior Writer at Expert Market, specialising in digital marketing, web design, and photocopiers, amongst other topics.

Reviewed by:
Robyn Summers-Emler, Grow Online Editor, Profile Picture
Robyn Summers-Emler Digital Growth Editor

Robyn started working on Expert Market in 2021 as a specialist in business websites and digital marketing. As the Grow Online Editor, she ideates, commissions and optimizes content on Expert Market that helps businesses thrive in online spaces and maximize their ecommerce potential. Covering everything from choosing a website builder to scaling a social media marketing strategy – Robyn uses her expertise to help startups, SMBs, and larger businesses realize digital growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.