It’s common to see people who are entering the website building space for the first time comparing providers, like GoDaddy vs Wix. These are clearly two of the world’s best website builder platforms, but a lot of people don’t realise that they are very different.
GoDaddy is quite a basic platform that aims to support rapid site creation, which makes it a great option for beginners looking to get online fast. Wix is slightly more complex, offering a high level of design flexibility that makes it a great option for those looking for advanced customisation tools.
Here, we’ll go into the finer aspects of both platforms, outlining their pros, cons, and why you should or shouldn’t be using them.
- GoDaddy: top for beginners, with excellent support
GoDaddy boasts top-notch customer service, a beginner-friendly editor, and very competitive prices. The user-friendly website builder provides 24/7 phone and live chat support, alongside a great collection of self-help resources, and a range of reasonably-priced plans for different levels of website creation. - Wix: best for flexibility and customisation
Wix offers advanced tools, the largest template library available, an exceptional editor with high levels of customisation, and comprehensive support. Its full website builder is included with the free package; upgrades provide an ad-free experience plus a raft of extra features; and there's also a 14-day money-back guarantee
What we compared
In order to gain a clear idea of the ways GoDaddy and Wix perform when lined up next to each other, we compared the two platforms in a number of different categories.
GoDaddy vs Wix: User interface and setup
GoDaddy has a simple and intuitive user interface. To set up a new website, you will need to create an account, answer a few simple questions, and select from the designs provided by the AI assistant. The editor enables you to customise various aspects of your site, but it’s very basic.
For example, you will be constrained by the overall layout of your theme. You can add and remove sections, but these can’t be personalised on any notable level. Text and color options are quite limited, and you will have trouble if you want to fine-tune your design.
On the other hand, Wix offers two editors. Like GoDaddy, Wix ADI uses artificial design intelligence to provide a personalised template. Wix ADI is also quite basic, and it’s designed for beginner-friendly site editing. It has limited design flexibility, and you will be somewhat confined by the layout of the section-based templates.
The Wix Editor is much more powerful. It boasts a pixel-perfect drag-and-drop interface, enabling you to place elements exactly where you want them. This can be a little overwhelming due to the huge number of tools available, and it will certainly take some time to get used to.
GoDaddy vs Wix: Pricing
GoDaddy and Wix both offer a free-forever version that enables you to create a basic site without spending anything. However, both of these are ad-supported, and you will be stuck with a branded subdomain and a notable lack of business or ecommerce tools.
GoDaddy's pricing plans
GoDaddy’s premium plans start at £7.99 a month. There are four subscription options available, including a high-end ecommerce plan for online store creation. Discounts are available for the first year, and you will pay more with month-to-month payments than an annual term.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | GoDaddy |
|---|---|
| Free version? | Yes |
| Starts at | £7.99 a month (Basic) |
| Small business plan | £11.99 a month (Standard) |
| Professional plan | £16.99 a month (Premium) |
| Enterprise plan | N/A |
| Ecommerce plan | £19.99 a month (Ecommerce) |
Wix's pricing plans
Wix offers four professional website plans, which range from £4 to £21 a month, along with three business and ecommerce plans starting at £15 a month. It’s slightly more expensive than GoDaddy, and there’s no introductory discount. As with GoDaddy, the exact amount you pay will depend on your subscription term.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Wix |
|---|---|
| Free version? | Yes |
| Starts at | £4 a month (Connect Domain) |
| Small business plan | £21 a month (VIP) |
| Professional plan | £15 to £27 a month (Business Basic, Unlimited, VIP) |
| Enterprise plan | On request |
| Ecommerce plan | £15 to £27 a month (Business Basic, Unlimited, VIP) |
*All prices in the table are the monthly equivalent of an annual subscription
GoDaddy vs Wix: Ecommerce
GoDaddy and Wix both have decent ecommerce tools, enabling you to create a simple online store to sell both physical and digital products. Note, though, that neither offer the level of service that dedicated ecommerce platforms such as Shopify do.
With GoDaddy, you will be able to add unlimited products to your store. However, product layouts are rigid, and customisation is difficult. GoDaddy’s store does enable you to sync with various third-party marketplaces, such as Amazon and eBay, enabling streamlined inventory and order management.
This is something that Wix and many other basic ecommerce platforms don’t include without add-ons or extensions.
Wix, on the other hand, stands out as better for those who want to sell subscriptions or digital products due to its built-in subscription management tools. The product layouts are much more flexible, and you will benefit from a cleverly-designed management panel.
Both builders enable you to sell via social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, and both include advanced tools such as abandoned cart recovery and automatic tax calculation.
GoDaddy vs Wix: Add-ons
Wix is the clear leader here, with numerous add-ons available through the Wix App Market. Here, you will find options for everything from advanced social media marketing to dropshipping and collaboration. Many products are free, but others require a subscription or a one-off license purchase.
In addition, many of Wix’s apps are available with its free plan. There are industry-specific options, such as the Wix Restaurants Orders app, which is designed specifically for restaurants that want to allow online ordering. Other apps, such as Wix Bookings or Wix Forum, are much more generic and can be used by websites of all shapes and sizes.
GoDaddy doesn’t have any sort of app store or app market. There are no add-ons available to extend the functionality of your site, which means that you will be stuck with the platform’s native functionality.
GoDaddy vs Wix: Blogging tools
Wix and GoDaddy both offer decent blogging tools, although Wix’s clearly stand out as superior.
For starters, GoDaddy’s blog manager enables you to write and publish posts, but that’s about it. You can add images and feature images, add categories, and schedule publishing. Layouts are pre-coded, though, and you will be effectively limited to your theme’s built-in blog design. You can’t even add tags to your blog posts for easier navigation.
Wix’s blog manager is much more advanced. You will have access to many more formatting and customisation options, and you will be able to personalise your entire design in the Wix Editor. There are tools for search engine optimisation (SEO), adding tags, and even for translating your posts into different languages. You can even monetise your content by adding paywalls for exclusive pieces.
Both platforms support email subscriptions, comments, and social media sharing. Wix also has built-in blog analytics, and it even enables you to connect a WordPress blog or another Wix blog or so you can import posts.
GoDaddy vs Wix: Media management
As expected, Wix and GoDaddy both enable you to upload and add images and videos to your website.
GoDaddy’s media management tools are a little basic, but you can do most things you will need to. You can upload photos and videos from your computer, connect your Instagram or Facebook account, or browse a large stock photo library. There’s also the option to import videos from YouTube and Vimeo, along with a native image editing tool.
Wix’s media management tools go a step further. As with GoDaddy, you will be able to upload from your computer or choose from a stock media library. You can connect to Facebook and Instagram here as well, along with Google Photos and Google Drive. On top of this, Wix has its own photo studio and video creator that you can use to customise your media.
Overall, Wix is the clear winner here as well.
GoDaddy vs Wix: SEO
GoDaddy has very limited SEO tools. The base plans enable you to add basic meta titles and meta descriptions to your site’s pages. High-end subscriptions come with access to additional SEO tools, but there’s really nothing too special here.
Along with this, GoDaddy websites tend to be quite slow and poor-performing, which certainly isn’t great for SEO. However, Wix websites suffer from a similar fate, which means that there’s little to separate the two on that front.
Where Wix does excel is with its built-in SEO tools. For starters, the Wix SEO Wizard is designed to help you develop a clear SEO plan, outlining recommended actions to boost your search engine rankings.
Sitewide and page-specific SEO settings can be specified. There are various URL management tools and an XML sitemap, and you can even access and edit your Robots.txt file to instruct search engine crawler bots on the best way to index your site. Again, Wix’s more advanced SEO tools make it a clear winner in this category.
GoDaddy vs Wix: The verdict
GoDaddy and Wix both bring plenty to the table. GoDaddy is much more basic, and it’s much better suited to those who want to get a simple site online in a short amount of time. On the other hand, Wix is great for those who are looking for a little more design flexibility and more powerful tools.
Both platforms come with similar pricing, although GoDaddy does just sneak ahead here. Wix’s editor is much more powerful than GoDaddy’s, but it’s also a little more complicated to use.
Wix clearly offers more integrated tools and features, including excellent SEO, media management, and blogging tools. GoDaddy falls behind in all of these categories, although it does offer decent ecommerce features, particularly for those who want to connect their social media stores to their website. Wix is great for selling recurring subscriptions, and extra functionality can be added via the Wix App Market.
Both platforms are certainly worth considering, so we’d recommend testing them out before committing to either option.
GoDaddy vs Wix: key features compared
| Header Cell - Column 0 | GoDaddy | Wix |
|---|---|---|
| UI and setup | Streamlined setup, basic editor | Streamlined setup, powerful editor |
| Pricing | From £7.99 a month | From £11 a month |
| Ecommerce | Good for social media selling | Good for subscriptions |
| Add-ons | None | Excellent selection throughWix App Market |
| Blogging tools | Average | Excellent |
| Media management | Good | Excellent |
| SEO | Poor | Good |
What our reviewers said
GoDaddy
“It’s an excellent choice for beginners and those with little website-building experience. The editor is extremely simple and, although it offers limited design flexibility, enables users to create an entire site in just a few hours.”
- Score: 4/5
Wix
“Wix is perfect for creatives, small businesses, and beginners alike. It uses a drag-and-drop interface, so you don’t need any coding skills, and with Wix ADI, getting a site up and running is child’s play. Templates come with dummy text and images in place, and all you need to do is replace them with your own personalisation.”
- Score: 4.5/5
Alternatives to GoDaddy and Wix
HostGator is a popular alternative, particularly for those looking for a balance of power and low prices. Like Wix, it offers drag-and-drop design flexibility, but it’s significantly cheaper. It’s much more powerful than GoDaddy, but it’s still easy to use, and it’s backed by the power of one of the world’s leading web hosting providers.
Another popular option is Squarespace, which is known for its professionally designed templates and built-in business tools. It is a little complicated to get started with when compared to GoDaddy and Wix, but its integrated marketing tools and other native features make it stand out as unique. These include the ability to add external collaborators, a wide range of third-party integrations, and built-in business analytics.
If you want to build an ecommerce store, Shopify could be your best option. It’s known as the world’s leading online store builder, and it offers some of the best beginner-friendly store management tools we’ve seen. GoDaddy and Wix do enable stores, but their tools are much more basic.
Further reading on website builders and web hosting
It's worth checking out our guide to creating a small business website; explore the top tools needed; and discover the foundations of a successful small business site. Once you've found the best website builder, and are looking for cheaper hosting, look into the best cheap web hosting for your next project, or even the best free web hosting if you're on a tight budget. If you're searching for hosting for a small business website, take a look at the best web hosting for small business.
