GoDaddy website builder review An easy-to-use website builder with good support for beginners - but is GoDaddy the right website builder for your small business? Find out everything you need to know here. Written by Ross Darragh Updated on 24 January 2023 Our research When reviewing website builders, our expert team of writers and independent researchers focuses in on the most important factors for small business owners. We look at the range of templates and designs available to choose from; how easy it is to get started building your site and customising it; the help and support options available; the range of available plugins, apps and extensions; the ability to customise a mobile design, and above all, the value for money – including any hidden pricing, ongoing fees, and initial setup costs. Written and reviewed by: Ross Darragh Writer Robyn Summers-Emler Digital Growth Editor Our independent reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers. GoDaddy is one of the world’s most popular website builders and features in our list of the best website builders for small businesses in the UK. It sits in third place on our list, achieving an overall star rating of 4.4 out of 5.GoDaddy is known for making it easy for small business owners with little or no website building experience to start growing their business online. We also ranked GoDaddy as the best website builder for simplicity out of all the products we tested – meaning it can help you get a website up and running quickly and easily, even if you have no prior experience using a web builder. 4.4 out of 5 Website Features 3.4 Design flexibility 4.0 Value for money 4.5 Help and support 3.8 Customer score 4.6 Ease of use 4.1 Start for Free Whereas most website builders focus on giving users absolute freedom to create whatever type of website they desire, GoDaddy understands that for a website to be successful online, it needs to be fully optimised to ensure you’re driving as much business as possible.This is why it scored strongly in our design functionality category, achieving 4.3 out of 5, in third place only to Wix and Squarespace.To help our readers make the most informed decision about the best web builders for small businesses, our expert researchers put GoDaddy to the test. Using in depth testing and user feedback, we’ve reviewed GoDaddy on:Features Design flexibility Value for moneyHelp and supportCustomer scoresEase of useAnalysing these factors, we’ve put together an honest review of GoDaddy and highlighted its pros and cons, so you can make an informed decision about whether it is the right web builder for you. This GoDaddy website builder review will cover: GoDaddy pros & cons GoDaddy web builder pricing Website features Design flexibility Help and support Value for money Customer score Ease of use How did we evaluate GoDaddy web builder for small businesses? GoDaddy web builder review: the verdict FAQs GoDaddy Pros & Cons Pros Simple sign up process. Ability to set up a website in minutes GoDaddy Studio specialist package for early stage businesses - streamlines and supports with processes like logo making and brand templates Powerful SEO tools Competitively priced AI powered GoDaddy Insight helps you to build your online presence and boost business with in depth data reporting Cons High website restoration cost if you want to relaunch your site after it becomes dormant Limited customisable template options hampers your ability to create unique and innovative website designs Average levels of customer support. Live chat leaves a lot to be desired Very limited website features compared to competitors like Wix and SquareSpace GoDaddy web builder overview GoDaddy Web Builder 4.4 An easy-to-use website builder with good support for beginners Start for Free Full review of GoDaddy Free plan Yes Price from £6.99 Great value for money Excellent SEO support Quick and easy to create a website Summary GoDaddy is known for making it easy for small business owners with little or no website building experience to start growing their business online. Whereas most website builders focus on giving users absolute freedom to create whatever type of website they desire, GoDaddy gets that for a website to be successful online, it needs to be optimised to ensure you're driving as much business as possible. Prices range from £6.99-£12.99 per month for a website. Show moreless As you read GoDaddy’s pros and cons, it’s worth thinking about what your goals are, where your expertise lies, and how much time you realistically have to devote to building your own website.Understandably, complete design freedom is what many first-time users think they want in a website builder, which can mean GoDaddy gets unfairly under-rated compared to Wix, our top web builder.But in terms of what matters for small businesses (not spending weeks trying to get your head around code; getting found on Google and driving more conversions), it’s a great website builder for beginners.It is also incredibly affordable, with its basic plan costing just £4.99 per month. There’s no wonder we’ve scored it so highly in terms of value for money (4.5 out of 5), particularly when comparing it to plans from Shopify – its basic plan costs a hefty £19 per month.Microbusinesses, or those in very early-stage development, can also benefit from the new GoDaddy studio package. This suite of creative tools enables entrepreneurs to easily elevate their brands online and create engaging branded content across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. You can also use the software for email marketing and a business’ own website.Design and tech gurus may be frustratedNow onto the eighth generation of its web building software, GoDaddy is basic on the surface (for entry-level users), but every bit of fine tuning made on this new edition has been well thought out behind the scenes (in collaboration with those in the know at Google and other firms).That’s why (unlike many website builder reviews out there), we are valuing search engine optimisation (SEO) and site performance over how easy it is to take full control over your site’s design.One of the main reasons why users may leave website builders isn’t to try a competitor, but because their pages aren’t delivering the traffic and conversions they need to survive.So we think it’s important to rate website builders on how well they help you grow your business online. After all, there’s no point in having the prettiest of web pages if it isn’t properly optimised and not enough potential customers get to see it.This is why overall GoDaddy scores a reputable 4.4 out of 5, in joint third place with its competitor Shopify.What really drags the web builder down is that it lacks real clout in the website features department and its help and support has a lot to be desired, scoring just 3.8 out of 5 compared to the likes of Squarespace, the king of the help category with a perfect scoring of 5 out of 5. Ben Law, Head of UK and Ireland, GoDaddy, said: “In an increasingly digital world, it’s crucial for microbusiness owners to have eye-catching and compelling branded content that helps them stand out against competitors.“GoDaddy Studio caters to that need by simplifying the process of creating content, and providing all the necessary tools and templates in one place. [It] helps entrepreneurs realise the creative vision for their brand and connect more effectively with customers.” GoDaddy web builder pricing Swipe right to see more 0 out of 0 backward forward Basic Standard Premium GoDaddy Ecommerce Price £6.99 per month Price £8.99 per month Price £11.99 per month Price £12.99 per month GoDaddy has an incredibly decent range of pricing options, and being one of the world’s most popular website builders means it’s able to offer some of the lowest average prices (even beating Wix).You can pay as little as £6.99 a month for a professional personal website if you’re just keen to leave your footprint online. Or more established businesses can boost their profiles and potentially send their sales rocketing by opening their very own online store for £12.99 a month.There is no wonder then why we’ve ranked GoDaddy so highly in our value for money category, scoring 4.5 out of 5 and beating the likes of Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify when it comes to the cost-effectiveness of its pricing plans.GoDaddy’s price plans are fairly hard to beat, especially considering how much GoDaddy will do to help your business grow (including kitting you out with SEO, an online booking system, and all the ingredients you need to run an online store) with its GoDaddy Ecommerce plan – setting you back just £12.99 per month.Compare this to similar plans offered by Squarespace, in which you’ll be paying at least £23 per month for a similar plan with selling functionality.GoDaddy currently offers an entirely free plan, to check out the benefits visit our review of the best free website builders for small businesses.You can also try its paid plans for 30 days at zero cost, to see if GoDaddy is the right web builder for your business. Website features – 3.3 out of 5Unfortunately, this is one of GoDaddy’s weakest areas when it comes to our research-led evaluation of the web builder. For starters, there are zero app or widget integrations, unlike Wix, which has over 300.You’ll also find that its lack of storage space can be a real hindrance, particularly if you want to build a complex website with plenty of photo, video and file uploads. You’ll quickly run out of space, which can be incredibly frustrating.It does however score highly in other areas of this category. Including, not surprisingly, its domain features. The web builder offers you a free custom domain with the majority of its plans and seeing as it is also a hosting platform, you can rest assured that you’ll be in safe hands.It also released its new design app, the GoDaddy studio. The studio app is a free content creation tool that can be used both as a mobile app or on your desktop.The app’s advanced image editor allows you to quickly and effortlessly create professional looking content – such as promotions, business announcements, logos, and ads – across multiple platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.Its ADI feature is both a blessing and a curse. For those small businesses that want to get a website up in a matter of minutes, it is great for doing so. However for those that want more flexibility with what can elements can be added to the site, you are at a loss and the genericness of every GoDaddy website can be a real pain point.This is comparable to web builders like Wix, which offer its users the option to either use ADI to set up a website, or set up one entirely on their own using its editor. Design flexibility – 4.3 out of 5One of GoDaddy’s biggest improvements since our last round of testing back in 2021 is its design functionality. Due to a vast improvement in its templates and customisation, the web builder has seen a 14% increase in its scoring and is only 0.4 points behind first place Squarespace – which is pretty impressive considering the beauty of Squarespace’s templates.The ADI system makes creating your website fast and easy, and there are over 100 templates to choose from to provide you with the foundations of your site. This can be seen as a positive in many ways, depending on how simple you want your site to be.It isn’t as overwhelming as Wix’s 800-plus template selection but is certainly limiting if you want full creative freedom over your website. The simple templates provided can be on the plainer side, so if you want a creative masterpiece of a website that will dazzle visitors, you might want to look elsewhere to web builders like Squarespace.Still though, your content automatically fits any new format you select, both on desktop and mobile/laptop devices. And you’ll benefit from a great selection of stock photos available in its image galleries – so you can make your site look professional, even if it isn’t the most eye-catching. Help and support – 3.8 out of 5GoDaddy doesn’t score badly in this section, and this is largely due to the fact it offers a 24/7 phone support line to deal with any issues its users may have. This is a great support feature that isn’t offered by other providers such as Jimdo.If you can’t get through on the phone, you also have access to help via its live chat feature, which is available Mon-Fri, 5am-6pm.Unfortunately, however there is no priority service for the businesses on its higher paid plans, unlike Wix which allows customers to jump queues as part of its VIP package.Also if you’ve been stuck on the phone for a while and really need support most of us will typically head towards a knowledge or help centre in the hope that this will help solve our problems.You can do the same with GoDaddy, but its knowledge centre leaves a lot to be desired, and will only answer basic, broad questions. If you are looking for answers to anything more specific or niche, you’ll be back on the phone waiting to speak to someone directly.Or you can use Wix or Squarespace as your web builder, both of which offer a comprehensive knowledge centre. Value for money – 4.5 out of 5Our research team awarded GoDaddy its highest score in the value for money category. And it’s no wonder, considering that the web builder’s most basic plan is an incredibly affordable £4.99 per month.Not only is its basic plan one of the most cheapest out there (beating the likes of Wix and Squarespace) it also offers a free 30-day trial with every plan. This gives you plenty of time to try out a plan’s features and rest assured that it is the right option for you and your business.Other competitors like Wix, in contrast, offer just 14 days to trial out its premium plans – is this enough time to really get to know the plan and all it has to offer?With its basic plan, you have access to 24/7 support, a custom domain connection (something you don’t get with Wix’s basic plan) AND there is also the ability to book online appointments.All of that functionality for a fiver a month, is not bad eh?Its ecommerce plan is also relatively cheap compared to similar plans offered by other web builders. But as we are reviewing GoDaddy as a web builder, we won’t go into much detail on this.Instead, why not check out our best ecommerce platforms for small businesses article for more info. Customer score – 4.3 out of 5GoDaddy scores a respectable 4.3 out of 5 in terms of the score its customers have given the web builder. Although it doesn’t sit at the top of the pedestal in this category, it certainly isn’t far off.What GoDaddy users love about the platform is how quick and simple it is to get a website set up in just minutes. This is due to GoDaddy’s ADI functionality, and its solid number of templates that don’t overwhelm its users with intricate designs and sheer volume like Wix.Its user-friendly design is also a big positive, as selected elements simply drop into place without you having to awkwardly try and fit things on the page (drag-and-drop interfaces aren’t all they are cracked up to be).Customers are also impressed with the support available, at least when it comes to the 24/7 support line – especially for those on the £4.99 plan. Incredible value for money that is not offered on any of its competitor’s basic plans. It is no wonder why users are happy with GoDaddy as their web builder. “I think this kind of website works well for a coffee shop or small independent business. It has all the necessary pages that you could want, but it’s not so jam-packed that it’ll overwhelm you. Ideal if you don’t have a really firm, non-negotiable stance on how you want your site to look, but instead want something quick, clean, and professional.” Ease of use – 4.1 out of 5A high customer score typically goes hand in hand with high ease of use score and that’s no different for GoDaddy. Our researchers scored the web builder 4.1 out of 5, placing it among our top three website builders in this category.GoDaddy’s ADI editor plays a pivotal role in this positive score. All its users need to do is answer a few simple questions about what kind of website they want to set up, and they are well on their way to operating a fully fledged website.It is not in any way complicated. Unlike competitor Webbly, which doesn’t offer a quick and easy website set up through ADI – so you’ll have to spend time getting everything in the right position.The same can be said for Squarespace – despite its beautiful template designs, they don’t half slow down your website. Which is something that GoDaddy’s simple, but professional templates don’t cause to happen.It’s also reassuring that you won’t need to know any code to get a website up and running with GoDaddy, even if you want to add additional features and elements.Trust us, coding is not easy… but if it is for you, why not check out our Wix vs WordPress review to see how opensource, coded technology fares against closed source software. How did we evaluate GoDaddy web builder for small businesses? Swipe right to see more 0 out of 0 backward forward BEST ALL ROUND BEST FOR ONLINE STORES Wix Shopify Squarespace GoDaddy Site123 WordPress.com Hostinger BEST FOR Best all-round website builder for small businesses BEST FOR Best for dedicated sales features when selling online BEST FOR Design flexibility & businesses looking to scale BEST FOR Ease of use and simplicity BEST FOR Help and support BEST FOR Blogging tools BEST FOR Cheap builder Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.8 Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.0 Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.6 Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.4 Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 3.7 Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 3.6 Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 3.6 Price £7.50-£119 per month£6.75-£107.10 with code “TAKE10” Price £5-£259 per month, billed annually£1 for first month Price £12-£35 per month, billed annuallyUse code “SU10” to receive a 10% discount on all Squarespace plans Price £6.99-£12.99 per month, billed annually (first term discounts available) Price $0 – 12.80 per month (about £10.22) Price £3-£20 per month, billed annually Price £2.59-£8.99 per monthUp to 81% discounted with code “STARTUPS” Free trial Free trial Free trial Free trial Free trial Free trial Free trial As you can see, GoDaddy is our third best all-round web builder, matching alongside ecommerce goliaths Shopify with a scoring of 4.4 out of 5 thanks to a 13% improvement in its design flexibility since last year’s research, and its incredible value for money.The research that powers this review analysed GoDaddy according to six key factors for small business web builders: website features, design flexibility, help and support, value for money, customer score, and ease of use.Using this framework, we’ve taken an in-depth look at the top seven small business web builders on the market (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Weebly, Hostinger, Jimdo, and 1&1 Ionnos).To see how each measures up, check out our guide to the best web builders for small businesses. GoDaddy web builder review: the verdictAs we’ve mentioned throughout this review, GoDaddy is an easy-to-use website builder with top-notch support and which offers excellent value for money. This is why it scores strongly and rightfully achieves its position as the third best web builder for small businesses – with an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5.If you’d like to take your business online in a minimal amount of time but have no experience building websites (and even less time to learn), we think GoDaddy is a great option.It’s one of the cheapest website builders; you can be up and running in minutes and the templates are all designed to give your business the best chance of success online.Plus, with a generous 24/7 helpline available on even the cheapest plan, help is at hand if ever you need it.However if you are looking for ultimate creative freedom, and a website that is full of additional features, you might be better considering other options with better design functionality overall, like Wix or Squarespace.What next? We’d recommend you visit GoDaddy to find out more about its plans, features and pricing and find out what it can do for your business – or maybe even get a site up and running in a matter of hours! FAQs What are the disadvantages of GoDaddy? GoDaddy is one of the simpler web builders, so if you are looking to create an artistic masterpiece of a website, with all the extra bells and whistles, it won't meet those standards. Its knowledge centre also has a lot to be desired, so you'll more than likely have to be waiting on the end of a phone to get the answers to any complex queries. Apart from that, it is a relatively strong web builder, although has nothing on the amount of features offered by Wix. Does GoDaddy charge a monthly fee? You can set up a website on GoDaddy's free plan with no additional cost - although functionality is limited and you won't be able to sell any products or services on your website. But even when GoDaddy does charge a monthly fee for its premium plans, you won't be spending much - with its basic plan costing just £4.99 per month. Is GoDaddy worth the money? For the amount you are spending compared to other providers, we would say yes. Particularly if you are running a small, independent business that doesn't need a complex website with lots of additional features. An important factor for most businesses is cost, and so GoDaddy is certainly a great choice. If however you are looking for a complex web builder with slick designs or an abundance of in-app features - you might want to spend a little more with another web builder like Squarespace. Startups.co.uk is reader-supported. If you make a purchase through the links on our site, we may earn a commission from the retailers of the products we have reviewed. This helps Startups.co.uk to provide free reviews for our readers. It has no additional cost to you, and never affects the editorial independence of our reviews. Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Written by: Ross Darragh Writer Ross has been writing for Startups since 2021, specialising in telephone systems, digital marketing, payroll, and sustainable business. He also runs the successful entrepreneur section of the website. Having graduated with a Masters in Journalism, Ross went on to write for Condé Nast Traveller and the NME, before moving in to the world of business journalism. Ross has been involved in startups from a young age, and has a keen eye for exciting, innovative new businesses. Follow him on his Twitter - @startupsross for helpful business tips.