Building your website is a big deal – you need to choose the right platform and hosting solutions to manage it effectively and make it accessible to everyone. However, finding the right services to create a website is not that easy.
Before making any financial decision, there are many things you need to consider and go through. If you’re trying to choose between GoDaddy and WordPress, it can be difficult to choose the better option. That’s why we worked hard for you and compared these two platforms to help you choose.
WordPress and GoDaddy are some of the most well-known names in the website business and many people around the world use their services.
Key Differences Between GoDaddy and WordPress
GoDaddy is an all-in-one web hosting platform with an easy-to-use editor that allows you to create simple websites that don’t require much maintenance. WordPress is a free tool that you can set up on your hosting account. It offers customizability, flexibility, and hundreds of plugins to help you build an online presence.
Godaddy WordPress Affordable plans have a free version.Open source CMS.Limited customization options.Offers customizability and flexibility. 100+ mobile design templates. Thousands of plugins and themes.Very easy to use. Some actions require advanced knowledge. Comes with a domain name and hosting.Users need to purchase hosting and domain separately.
Ease of use
Most people who want to build websites don’t have development skills or want to spend thousands of dollars on developers to build their websites. That’s why ease of use is crucial when choosing a website builder.
Godaddy
On the other hand, GoDaddy is so simplified that anyone can create a website with it. Some instructions and wizards will help you use the platform, which is already quite straightforward – no design or programming skills are required, just basic computer knowledge.
Creating a website is as easy as answering a few questions and the AI editor will create a rough draft based on your answers. You can refine this design and add templates in a simple drag-and-drop system.
WordPress
Over 40% of websites use WordPress today, and one of the reasons for this is its ease of use. However, as you learn more about WordPress, you will quickly realize that the learning curve is steep. Luckily, the WordPress community is large and helpful.
You can always find the answers you are looking for online. It is great for beginners, but also for more experienced webmasters. Creating a website with WordPress is more complex, but that doesn’t mean it’s complicated.
Pricing Plans
Let’s take a look at the pricing plans of these two options.
Godaddy
GoDaddy offers four pricing plans for its website builder:
basic
The Basic plan includes SSL security, a mobile-friendly website, a custom domain, and guidance and analytics. The only real limitation with this plan is that you only get one SM listing platform, up to five social media posts and replies per month, and only 100 email marketing sends per month.
standard
The Standard plan includes all the features of the Basic plan, as well as SEO tools and higher limits for social media posts, posts, and email marketing sends.
premium
The Premium plan includes unlimited social media posts and interactions, as well as up to 25,000 email sends per month. It also has useful online appointment scheduling tools to help you better organize your business.
E-commerce
The eCommerce plan includes everything included in the Premium plan plus some specialized eCommerce tools like shipping options, discount and promotion management, a product list editor, and more.
Each plan offers different features and services, so you must consider your needs when choosing a plan. Here is a list of all the features:
Each plan comes with a custom domain, uninterrupted support, and an SSL certificate. Keep in mind that the Basic plan is very limiting as there are no SEO or eCommerce tools available.
WordPress
WordPress is an open source platform, meaning it is completely free. However, you don’t get hosting or a domain name – you have to purchase these separately. The prices for these services can vary based on many factors, making it impossible to accurately estimate the cost of creating a WordPress website.
Luckily, WordPress has partnerships with several hosting providers, like our recommended Bluehost, who can help you get hosting at a great price, including a free domain name and SSL certificate.
Setting up a simple website on WordPress is cheaper, but you won’t do everything with a single click and will have to do the manual work on your own.
Flexibility and design features
Designing your website and customizing its look and functionality is crucial. Here’s what these platforms offer.
Godaddy
GoDaddy offers over 25 different themes, far fewer than WordPress. The website builder allows you to customize each page. The editor has a section-based system, meaning you can choose layouts for different parts of the page and combine them.
Each layout can be customized in terms of typography, colors, and content, but you can’t simply place every element where you want. In other words, there is no complete control over the design process.
WordPress
With WordPress you have primary control over the design of your website with the theme you use. There are thousands of WordPress themes you can use, and each of them has multiple variations. Additionally, you can customize each theme manually without any coding.
Some helpful plugins like Page Builder allow you to create visual edits using a drag-and-drop editor. Other plugins allow you to edit individual visual elements, add effects, customize buttons, and more.
E-commerce support
Many websites want to sell products or services online, so you need to consider features that enable e-commerce.
Godaddy
If you plan to sell products/services or accept bookings, visitors can book appointments through the GoDaddy websites regardless of plan. However, the eCommerce plan allows you to collect payments on your website. It supports credit card payments via Google Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal.
This plan also allows you to create a full online store and create product listings. This website builder gives you multiple delivery options and allows you to create banners that are perfect for promoting special offers and sales. GoDaddy is a great eCommerce option because it has some excellent features out of the box.
WordPress
There are no standard eCommerce features in WordPress, but you can add many eCommerce plugins including WooCommerceone of the most popular plugins for this purpose.
With this plugin you can set up an online store and sell affiliate products, membership plans and physical products in no time. Many more eCommerce plugins for WordPress can be used for any online sale.
SEO skills
Every website wants to have as much traffic as possible, so SEO is important when choosing a website builder.
Godaddy
GoDaddy has pre-built SEO tools to identify keywords people use when searching for similar websites. This process is easy because GoDaddy asks you several questions to determine the most suitable keywords for your website.
After you set your keywords, GoDaddy will help you add them to different places on your website. The dashboard also offers some valuable suggestions on how to improve your SEO. These tools are easy to use and you can use them even if you are new to SEO. You can add alt text for images, tag blog posts, organize content categories, create permalinks, etc.
WordPress
With WordPress you get more autonomy in your SEO and can make the smallest adjustments. You can use various tools to analyze your pages, find the right keywords, add meta descriptions, add links, and improve your overall SEO.
Even without the plugins, WordPress has some advanced SEO tools, but sometimes you need to do a little coding to make the necessary changes.
Publishing features
Running a website means publishing new content, adding pages, and introducing new products. Here’s how these two compare.
Godaddy
GoDaddy is primarily designed for business sites and informational sites. In other words, it’s great because it doesn’t require frequent website maintenance once launched. This is not the best option if you want to publish content daily. With GoDaddy you can create blank pages and add images, videos, text blocks, timers, etc.
You can also use pre-built templates for “traditional” sections such as about pages, list pages, contact pages, galleries or storefronts. Even though there are no extraordinary publishing features, the process is straightforward.
You can use a dedicated blogging dashboard in the menu to publish posts, but overall WordPress is a far better option for blogging.
WordPress
WordPress started as a blogging platform and evolved into a full-fledged CMS. It has many features for adding pages and posts. You can publish any dynamic or static content and update it as needed.
There are many templates for videos, links, photos and audio content. These templates can be used for posts and static pages. Additionally, you can use dozens of publishing tools to schedule, automate, edit, or customize posts.
Diploma
Based on the reviews, research and experience, we recommend WordPress as a better option. It offers more tools, customization, flexibility and autonomy and costs less. However, if you are a beginner and have no experience with websites or blogs, you should consider GoDaddy.
GoDaddy is the better option if you want to quickly create a simple website without having to worry about things like SEO, hosting, domain names, and other elements.