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Best for podcasters and YouTubers
- Impressive editing SEO, marketing, and ecommerce tools
- More customizable than other ecommerce builders like Shopify
- The AI web builder is intuitive but very glitchy
Best for Entrepreneurs and Ecommerce Businesses
- Easy to use drag-and-drop platform like Wix
- Offers ecommerce tools for sales, payment, and fulfillment
- Not designed for businesses that want to scale
Our testing found that GoDaddy was less expensive but offered fewer features and functionality. Still, it’s a good way to supplement your presence on platforms, especially for bloggers, YouTubers, and other content creators.
Squarespace is better for individuals and small businesses. It has more multi-use functionality, especially for individuals wanting to make money through their website via affiliate marketing or email lists. But it also offers robust ecommerce tools and features for online businesses.
Overall, we think Squarespace is the better web builder. Learn more about our experience testing GoDaddy and Squarespace so you can decide which fits your needs, as well as our recommended web builder alternatives.
Which web builder is the better value?
Which web builder has the best core features?
Which web builder is best for ecommerce and marketing?
Which web builder has the better support?
FAQs
GoDaddy vs. Squarespace: Which is better?
GoDaddy vs. Squarespace review at a glance
GoDaddy doesn’t have proprietary analytic functionality built in, so you have to use Google Analytics. Some people might find this annoying and want to skip the integration. GoDaddy could be a good choice for a podcast or a YouTube channel support page because the show's platform analytics are likely more valuable.
Squarespace includes diverse tools to meet the needs of various websites, but it really shines when you utilize visual media on the platform. This makes it a practical choice for businesses like consulting, affiliate marketing, lifestyle brands, and more that want to incorporate quality content with an online sales platform.
- GoDaddy: Best for podcasters and YouTubers
- Squarespace: Best for entrepreneurs and ecommerce businesses
GoDaddy vs. Squarespace
Best Overall | ||
Star rating | ||
Price | $9.99/mo-$20.99/mo | $25.00-$139.00/mo |
Free trial | Yes — 7 days | Yes — 14 days |
Money-back guarantee | Yes — up to 30 days | |
Number of collaborators | Up to 20 | Up to unlimited |
Storage space | Yes — Unlimited | Yes — Up to unlimited |
Custom domain | Yes, for all plans | Yes (only for annual subscriptions) |
Site analytics | ||
Ecommerce tools | Yes (varies by plan) | |
AI tools | Yes | |
Learn more | Get GoDaddy | Get Squarespace |
How we test web builders
We use our proprietary grading rubric in all of our testing, which considers ease-of-use, design, price, compatibility, and features (among other metrics).
Our testing process is designed to ensure that the product isn't too confusing, delivers on its claims, and offers you a lot for a reasonable price. We sign up for each option ourselves, just like you would. Our ratings reflect the real-world performance of the product, which allows us to give our best advice on whether or not it's worthwhile.
To learn more about how we test, check out our full testing methodology here.
GoDaddy pros and cons
GoDaddy helps you build a website with AI tools that require little input from you to get started. When we tested GoDaddy, its AI prompted us to answer three simple questions to build our website but then kicked us several error messages, making us restart multiple times. We eventually had to restart our system, but when we did, it built us a professional and aesthetically pleasing website.
Once our website was built, it was easy to edit and customize it as we wanted. We loved that we could change the template, color design, and many other things until we had the site we wanted. GoDaddy also presented us with action items in our main dashboard that encouraged us to finish our site and make it ready to be published.
Overall, we had a mixed experience with GoDaddy, but we still ended up with a beautiful and functional website.
- Intuitive AI generation
- Impressive editing, SEO, marketing, and ecommerce tools
- More customizable than other ecommerce builders like Shopify
- The AI web builder is glitchy
- You have to pay more for the best ecommerce tools
Squarespace pros and cons
Similar to its competitors, Squarespace offered AI assistance in building our website. It was fast and had us ready to edit our new ecommerce website in a matter of minutes. One surprising thing was that once we set our template with Squarespace, we couldn’t change it. We could, however, manually edit the site and change around the design.
Squarespace does a great job of highlighting visual elements, which is why we think it’s good for websites that meld thoughtful content with ecommerce. If you’re new to web building, Squarespace offers lots of helpful tips and suggestions, such as color palette ideas, that can help you visualize your brand.
Overall, we think Squarespace is a top-of-the-line web builder with a strong balance between assistance and creative license.
- Professionally designed templates
- All-in-one hosting, security, and ecommerce platform
- Detailed and easy-to-follow help center
- Limited customization options
- Higher costs as business scales
Which web builder is the better value?
For small businesses and lighter ecommerce, GoDaddy is a less expensive option with useful integrations.
Best Value |
||
Price range | $9.99/mo-$20.99/mo | $25.00-$139.00/mo |
Best value plan | Premium for $14.99/mo (1-year term) | Core for $36.00/mo |
Free trial | Yes — 7 days | Yes — 14 days |
Money-back guarantee | Yes — Up to 30 days | |
Learn more | Get GoDaddy | Get Squarespace |
GoDaddy plans
GoDaddy offers several categories, but if you’re looking to build a website, the options below are where you’ll start. While elements like proprietary analytics tools are missing, the overall core features are still available on the platform. You’ll be able to get started without having to enter a payment method, which means no remembering to cancel if you don’t like it.
Basic:
- Connect a custom domain
- Content and design tools
- Secure SSL
- Unified inbox and website chat
Premium:
Everything in Basic plus
- Unlimited social media platforms
- Book recurring appointments
- Unlimited social posts & responses/mo
- 25,000 email marketing sends/mo
Commerce:
Everything in Premium plus
- Product listings
- Flexible payments
- Flexible shipping options
- Discount and promotional features
Squarespace plans
Squarespace has more features than GoDaddy but also scales up to a higher price point. AI tools come standard with every plan, so you don’t need to worry about being good at web building to get started. Squarespace can also be trialed without having to enter payment information.
Basic
- Variety of templates
- Free custom domain
- AI tools
- 2 contributors
- Payment and ecommerce capabilities
Core:
Everything in Basic plus
- Unlimited contributors
- CSS & Javascript capabilities
- Google Workspace email
- Better payment and ecommerce capabilities
- Shipping and tax services
- Analytics
- Small transaction fees
Plus:
Everything in Core plus
- API integrations
- Smaller transaction fees
Advanced:
Everything in Plus plus
- Even smaller transaction fees
Which web builder has the best core features?
Squarespace offers more core features than GoDaddy and includes unlimited contributors.
Best Features | ||
Number of contributors | Up to 20 | Up to unlimited |
Custom domain | Yes, for all plans | |
Free domain | ||
Site analytics | ||
Storage space | Yes — Unlimited | Yes — Up to unlimited |
AI tools | ||
SEO tools | ||
Professional email | Yes, free Google Workspace for the first year | |
Learn more | Get GoDaddy | Get Squarespace |
If you plan on growing your business, you’ll want other specialists to help you optimize your website. Including contributors keeps your site safer and allows you to grant or restrict access without having to change the site permissions constantly. Squarespace offers unlimited contributors, which is useful if you want to scale your site up.
GoDaddy has a lot of core features that are useful, so don’t discount the platform. We just think that Squarespace does it better and offers more to users. Both platforms are viable, but Squarespace has more options and flexibility.
Which web builder is best for ecommerce and marketing?
Squarespace has fewer limitations on ecommerce, marketing, and customer experience, making it the better choice for ecommerce and marketing.
Our Pick | ||
Customer accounts | ||
Customer subscription plans | ||
Customer loyalty programs | ||
Product reviews | ||
Newsletter list | Yes — via Microsoft 365 | |
Physical point of sale options | ||
Physical product support | Dropshipping support through WordPress and GoDaddy’s proprietary builder | Third-party extension integrations |
Sales and discounts | ||
Gift cards | ||
Extras | AI tools, third-party integrations, third-party payment integration, action items to get you started | AI tools, customizable templates, SEO checklist, widget library |
Learn more | Get GoDaddy | Get Squarespace |
GoDaddy’s ecommerce tools, particularly regarding customer relations, were less robust than Squarespace’s. Not only does Squarespace give you more options for customer profiles, but it also includes proprietary avenues for newsletters and other email marketing opportunities.
Search engine optimization (SEO) can make or break your site. It refers to how search engines like Google rank you on the results page after someone conducts a search. Who ends up on the second page of Google? If you aren’t listed at the top, you’re probably not getting customers through random searches. Squarespace offers an SEO checklist to help you get going, while GoDaddy’s SEO capabilities are less robust.
As a business owner, you need a cookie policy to disclose what you do with user data. You also need privacy policies, a refund policy, and others. With TermsFeed, you can quickly create legal provisions for GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, and more.
Which web builder has the better support?
Even though GoDaddy has a phone number, we found Squarespace’s online guides so helpful that we never had to contact support.
Our Pick | ||
24/7 customer support | ||
Customer support options | Chat, phone (1 480-366-3546) | Live chat, email, forums, online guides |
Learn more | Get GoDaddy | Get Squarespace |
Nothing is as frustrating as being in the middle of a job and having to stop for help. GoDaddy offers chat and a phone number, but when we tested both, we found that Squarespace’s online guides solved all our problems. Squarespace also has chat, email, and forums, but we never needed them. Self-help proficiency for the win.
FAQs
What is the downside of Squarespace?
Squarespace doesn’t offer as much dropshipping, print-on-demand, shipping, and other large-scale business offerings as some competitors like Shopify.
What are the disadvantages of GoDaddy?
GoDaddy isn’t as robust in its ecommerce tools as we’d like. We also had glitches and issues with the web builder that we didn’t have with competitors.
Is GoDaddy as good as Squarespace?
In our experience, we think Squarespace is better because the platform offers more design, marketing, and business tools, making it ideal for small to mid-sized businesses.
Is it better to transfer a domain from GoDaddy to Squarespace?
If you start building your ecommerce website on GoDaddy and realize the capabilities are too limited for your needs, you should consider transferring it to Squarespace. With Squarespace, you’ll have more ecommerce, marketing, and SEO resources and the ability to scale your business with unlimited contributors.
GoDaddy vs. Squarespace: Which is better?
Overall, Squarespace is the better option for creating your website.
Our Pick | ||
Value | ||
Core features | ||
Ecommerce features | ||
Compatibility & customer support | ||
Learn more | Get GoDaddy | Get Squarespace |
GoDaddy is the less expensive option but also gives you less to work with. We had glitching issues with GoDaddy’s web builder that we didn’t see with Squarespace, and GoDaddy didn’t include as many features as Squarespace did for ecommerce and marketing.
Squarespace will give you a more comprehensive understanding of your customers with elaborate profiles. You won’t have as many distribution integrations with Squarespace, but the built-in analytics makes it easier to monitor your metrics. It’s definitely one of the best web builders available.
If you want to start small or are in a profession like podcasting or content creation, GoDaddy might be the perfect, low-cost option to supplement your channel. You can sell merch, include PDFs or other enhancement materials for your audience, or just have a place for people to go.
Top alternatives
GoDaddy might let you start smaller, but if you aren’t sure it’s the right choice for you, consider using Wix. You can start for free and maintain your free site until you’re comfortable enough to publish.
Squarespace is better than GoDaddy for ecommerce and marketing, but you may think Shopify is the better option if you want to build a large brand. For people who want to sell in person, the Square Online website integrates perfectly with the POS systems offered by Square.
Star rating | ||||
Best for | Best for small to mid-sized businesses | Best for beginners | Best for Square POS businesses | Best for scaling |
Price range | $25.00-$139.00/mo | Free-$159/mo | Free or $79.00/mo (billed annually) | $29/mo-$2,300/mo |
Learn more | Read Our Squarespace Review | Read Our Wix Review | Read Our Square Online Review | Read Our Shopify Review |