GoDaddy Website Builder Review: Is It the Right Site Builder for You?

The free-forever plan includes a GoDaddy subdomain URL and free SSL security. It even includes limited ability to accept payments (via links) or take donations through PayPal. GoDaddy’s site builder includes one-time appointment bookings in the Free version, which is why it also made our list of the best free website builders.

The appointment booking tools are fairly advanced; for example, a client can choose between providers and services (e.g., a senior stylist and a hair color service). While you won’t be able to take appointment payments online, it’s still a great option for startups and small, service-based businesses on a budget, like a salon or spa.

The GoDaddy website builder also includes chatbots, again, even starting at the free level. Chatbots can be used to create engagement with site visitors, gather and relay basic information to you about a prospect’s inquiry or a customer’s service request, and help to generate conversions like web form completions.

All plans include the ability to connect and post to your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, including scheduling posts in advance. Likewise, you can connect to and manage your Google Business Profile and Yelp business listings from the dashboard’s marketing tools.

Free plan users also get access to the GoDaddy Studio. While some templates and features are reserved for paid plan subscribers, the Studio enables users to create logos, social media graphics, and even order business cards right from the dashboard. In addition, new tools for creating and editing videos have been added.

The Basic plan is one of the most well-rounded “cheap” plans across the board. For $9.99 a month the first year (renews at $11.99), your site is ad-free and you can connect your own domain, You also get unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, and a free professional email account for one year. You even get the ability to send 100 email newsletters.

The site builder is also a good option for nonprofits and charities, as this plan allows donations via PayPal and ticket sales for events. Since basic plan features include unlimited storage and bandwidth, it’s also a good choice for content-heavy sites, such as digital portfolios and online image galleries.

The Premium plan is GoDaddy’s highest non-commerce plan, and at $14.99 per month (the first year, renews at $21.99), it’s still affordable for what you get. You still don’t get ecommerce, but it does allow recurring bookings, appointment payments, and text and email appointment reminders. It also provides increased marketing capabilities like being able to send 25,000 email sends per month. You can also create and manage social media boost posts and ads.

However, for about the same price, you can get ecommerce capabilities on most other site builders. You can build a small business website with Weebly, for example, with more robust ecommerce features and plugins (GoDaddy doesn’t have an app marketplace) for $12 per month. Nevertheless, GoDaddy’s Premium site builder package is a good choice for larger service-based businesses that need an easy way to get online and take bookings.

GoDaddy’s only ecommerce plan is priced at $16.99 (renewing at $24.99 a month after the first year). This is similar to ecommerce plans from other leading site builders. However, with the first year’s pricing so steeply discounted, it’s a viable plan for businesses wanting to sell online. GoDaddy also allows integrations with leading ecommerce platforms and marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and Facebook.

It does come with limitations, like no advanced ecommerce analytics, which site builders like Weebly include with ecommerce plans. For advanced ecommerce features, GoDaddy isn’t your best option. But its ease of use makes it an acceptable option for beginners looking to set up a store quickly.

GoDaddy recently did away with its Standard plan and added a second ecommerce plan, Commerce Plus. First year pricing for this plan comes in each month at $29.99 (with annual billing) and renews at $44.99. The main way it differentiates from the Commerce plan is in removing limits.

For example, the number of products increases from 5,000 to unlimited, marketplace and social sales go from 50 to 1,000 orders per month, and the number of email sends increases to 100,000. Two notable features that only come with this tier are automated sales tax calculation and auto-populated tax forms.

In our opinion, Wix’s first ecommerce tier ($27 per month) is far more full-featured, even though it doesn’t come with native email marketing tools, as is Weebly’s. For similar features on IONOS, you’ll pay less than $35 a month max and have the built-in email marketing tools to boot. This plan simply doesn’t offer enough unique value to justify the high cost after the first year.

One of GoDaddy’s biggest shortcomings is in template selection and design customization. It doesn’t give you the option to choose your own template. Its themes look fairly similar and lack the visual diversity a site builder like Squarespace offers. While you can’t choose from a vast library of templates, you can update the layout of your website within the options provided without losing any content, which is nice.

You can’t select a template, but you can make layout changes within your template at any time.

Full design freedom is also lacking—you can’t edit the site to your heart’s content like with Wix. The GoDaddy website builder doesn’t have a true drag-and-drop editor, and you are limited to premade content blocks (and limited options for editing).

That’s not to say that GoDaddy’s designs are outdated. Compared to Weebly, GoDaddy’s templates are more modern, although not as modern as those of Squarespace, Webnode, or even Wix. You may become frustrated if you are wanting to create a custom-looking site with GoDaddy’s website builder.

Aside from the site builder’s ease of use, it’s known for its sophisticated online booking system. This feature is available on every single one of its plans, although recurring appointments and online payments require at least the Premium plan. Still, not many site builders have an advanced booking system in base paid plans, let alone in a free website builder.

Easily set up your services through GoDaddy’s integrated appointment system

With the online booking system, you can list multiple services, dates, times, service providers, arrange payments, and gather customer information. You can even sell tickets for group events (300 people max)—a feature that even the lowest-tier plan can access.

Not every business provides live chat 24/7/365 to engage site visitors, resolve issues, and deliver helpful information. However, GoDaddy includes two chatbots beginning with the Free plan. By default, they are always on, but you also have the option to configure hours. This way, if you do have live chat during business hours, you can set the chatbots to come on when you aren’t available.

The “Hello” bot can engage site visitors, ask questions, and collect information so that you can follow up with inquiries. The order chatbot detects order-related conversations and responds with information and status updates.

We already mentioned that all paid plans come with the ability to send marketing emails, starting with 100 sends in the Basic plan and increasing to 25,000 sends in the two upper-tier plans. Other key marketing tools included are the ability to create and manage your Google Business Profile and Yelp Business listings and post to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Connect your social media profiles and post to them from the GoDaddy interface

In addition, with upper-tier plans, you can also boost social media posts and create and manage social advertisements. Commerce plan subscribers can even post products from their stores to Facebook and Instagram to promote sales.

GoDaddy’s site builder also made our list of the best website builders for SEO. It has three data centers located around the world to ensure fast site loading, includes basic SEO features (even in the Free version), and has an SEO Wizard to analyze your website and offer tips for better search optimization.

While selling online with an ecommerce store requires a subscription to the highest GoDaddy site builder package, that doesn’t mean you can’t collect payments with lower-tier plans. Beginning with the Basic plan, you can send Pay Links to request and collect payments.

You can also turn your smartphone or laptop into a virtual cash register and accept credit card payments. All plans also include a sales dashboard where you can view all transactions in a single place.

Accept credit card payments via laptop or smartphone with GoDaddy’s virtual terminal

Ecommerce capabilities are only available on the highest-tier plan. For $24.99 per month, you get an easily managed store, no commission fees, features like abandoned cart recovery, and marketplace and dropshipping integrations.

Easily add and manage products in your GoDaddy store

This price and the features that you get put GoDaddy ahead in some aspects. Wix, for example, only has unlimited dropshipping on its most expensive business plan ($59 per month).

Likewise, Squarespace’s cheapest commerce plan ($27 per month) doesn’t have abandoned cart emails. Still, none of these alternatives come near to the ecommerce features you get with Weebly, which offers ecommerce starting in a free website builder that stacks in value with each paid plan tier.

However, when paired with its design capabilities and lack of ecommerce analytics, GoDaddy’s ecommerce may be too basic for some online stores. Unless you really want the ease of use that GoDaddy provides, you’re better off going with a dedicated ecommerce site builder on a platform like Shopify instead.