GoDaddy vs Squarespace Comparison – Which Offers Better Website Builder?

In this GoDaddy vs Squarespace comparison, I’ll compare these two website builders in terms of design, features, pricing, and much more – and help you decide which is a better option.

Every business needs a website. And a website builder is the best way to have a beautiful and functional website.

For people and businesses looking for a website builder, there are many options to choose from – between them, GoDaddy website builder and Squarespace offer exciting features. They’re both great website builders with loads of happy users worldwide.

But which one is better for your business? Which builder should you use to reach your desired goals?

 

GoDaddy vs Squarespace Website Builder

They’re both inexpensive to use. While neither builder offers a free plan, the basic and mid-level packages from both providers are very well-priced. But if you’re looking for a large eCommerce platform, you’ll find that GoDaddy is more affordable.

Of course, the lower price has to come from something. And while GoDaddy now boasts an impressive range of templates, Squarespace wins here, offering a long list of flawless templates that are perfect for image-focused sites.

 

 

As for the ease of use and business features – both builders strike a good balance and include a solid lineup of features without making things too clunky. Online stores and SEO optimization are all included straight out of the box. What’s different is the process of setting everything up and using it – which builder is better boils down entirely to personal preference.

 

 

Squarespace and GoDaddy deserve recognition for their impressive feature lists. If performance and SEO are your primary concerns, GoDaddy has a slight lead. Otherwise, Squarespace has a lot going on for it regarding beautiful design and business features.

Be sure to also check Squarespace vs Weebly, Squarespace vs WordPress, Squarespace vs Shopify, Squarespace vs BigCommerce, Wix vs Squarespace, GoDaddy vs WordPress Website Builder, and GoDaddy vs Weebly.

 

Ease Of Use

Squarespace and GoDaddy are easy to use and require no coding experience to make a functional and beautiful website. However, getting started and setting up a website are very different.

 

GoDaddy

When you first sign up for GoDaddy, you’ll be redirected to a design portal and asked to enter your industry and website title. Next, GoDaddy will automatically generate a suitable template.

On the following page, you can choose to either customize the template or select an entirely new template for your website.

During this stage of the set-up process, I had access to the ‘Add Section’ tab on the side of the page. There, I could add sections such as blogs, menus, price lists, stores, and more. It’s a great way to customize your site before publishing it, and there is a solid list of creative options to choose from.

 

 

Once you’re done customizing the design and its components, it only takes a matter of seconds for GoDaddy to publish your site. You’ll then have access to the full backend editing portal.

Here you can change fonts, images, page types, and various other features. I found this backend portal to be pretty intuitive – it only takes a couple of minutes to get used to the core tools and functions.

 

 

Now – let’s talk about website editing. Many builders claim to offer “drag-and-drop” functionality – meaning that you can choose an element, then drag and drop (hence the name!) it to your desired spot on the site, and that’s where it stays.

GoDaddy does not offer that. Instead, it claims to offer a ‘Click and Drag Reorder’ tool. This isn’t a traditional drag-and-drop tool, and you can only move large chunks of content. I didn’t feel like there was much flexibility included in the click-and-drag tool – you’ll find that it feels extremely rigid.

 

 

While some customization options are built into the platform, GoDaddy’s lack of design freedom needs to be mentioned.

 

Squarespace

On Squarespace, you’ll have two options: let Squarespace help you out and offer a template based on your needs, or just look at the templates and pick the one you like most.

Whatever answer you’ll choose, in the end, you’ll have your desired theme propped up and ready to go.

After this initial setup process, you’re ready to begin editing. All your critical controls are located on the left-hand side dashboard.

Here, you’ll be able to add new pages, upload products, view metrics, control your SEO, add contact forms, and more. Scrolling through this menu allows you to access every component of the platform.

 

 

As with GoDaddy, you don’t have access to a complete drag-and-drop tool, so you need to rely on the design of your template. This being said, it’s easy to delete or add blocks within your site, and you can change your template if you feel you could benefit from a different layout.

 

 

I found it easy to add contact forms, booking portals, and many other helpful page types. In this case, Squarespace gets a significant point.

 

WINNER: GoDaddy’s set-up process is quick and easy, but Squarespace’s overall ease of use is better. Squarespace may take a bit longer in terms of getting used to it, but this is because it offers more in-house features. And while neither GoDaddy nor Squarespace have a drag-and-drop editor, they offer respectable alternatives – but personally, I like Squarespace’s solution just a little bit more.

 

Design & Templates

GoDaddy and Squarespace have large libraries of templates. While GoDaddy offers simple designs perfect for basic websites, Squarespace goes a step beyond that and offers templates that are more beautiful than pretty much anything available on the market.

Squarespace offers its users access to over 90 unique templates. Various designs are available for company sites, eCommerce stores, blogs, and more.

Another cool feature I discovered at Squarespace is the ability to embed HD video into your template’s background. While Squarespace won’t host the video itself, you can upload HD videos to YouTube and then embed them into the design of your site.

If you want a video instead of a still image as your primary homepage backdrop, Squarespace makes it easy to set up.

GoDaddy has over 20 unique templates to choose from. While this isn’t nearly as many as Squarespace offers, there are plenty of decent options to choose from.

 

 

Like Squarespace, you can select a template based on a category or industry. While these templates are undoubtedly modern and professional, they don’t offer the same sleek appearance that you find at Squarespace.

Overall, it’s hard for GoDaddy’s website builder to match up to Squarespace’s templates. Squarespace absolutely dominates when it comes to sleek, graphic-heavy designs.

 

 

Whether you’re a blogger, online store owner, or photographer, Squarespace offers modern design options you can’t find anywhere else. GoDaddy, however, plays it simple – and for some, this might also be attractive.

 

WINNER: GoDaddy has some nice templates, but overall, Squarespace offers more templates that look better.

 

Business Features

GoDaddy focuses on making limited features as easy to master as possible, while Squarespace aims to offer as much as possible for everybody.

Let’s see how both platforms handle eCommerce, emails, email marketing, and SEO.

 

eCommerce

Starting an online store with Squarespace is very simple. Under the ‘Commerce’ tab on your dashboard, you’ll be able to access a full range of controls for your new eCommerce website. It’s easy to set up products, manage inventory, view current orders, send order-related emails, and more.

While most of its tools are entirely in-house, you can integrate with Stripe or PayPal if you want to accept payments via your website. You can also export order and inventory data from your control panel.

Subject to what plan you’ll choose, Squarespace is going to offer a fair amount of great features. Abandoned cart recovery to return some of the clients, gift cards, subscriptions, customer accounts, point of sale for selling in person, and so much more make this platform an all-in-one solution for most things eCommerce.

 

 

GoDaddy eCommerce, on the other hand, focuses purely on the basics. You know – selling goods and services for money.

Once you create an ‘Online Store’ section on your website, you can add products by simply clicking ‘Add Product’ on the area of your website that hosts the store. You’ll then be redirected to a portal where you can upload physical and digital products. It’s easy to set prices, customize tax regions, list names, and more.

 

 

I find the Squarespace eCommerce system slightly more robust and customizable, which justifies its somewhat higher price.

Still, both of these options offer extremely intuitive ways to get a store up and running in a matter of minutes.

 

SEO

Looking purely at the track record, website builders aren’t a good option for SEO. Many of the modern web builders that I’ve tested lack advanced in-depth tools, allowing for fine-tuning the website’s SEO – and they’re rightfully scoffed at by most professionals.

However, if you simply want your website to be seen online and look good when doing it, Squarespace and GoDaddy will do a very reputable job here.

From what I’ve found while exploring its platform, Squarespace clearly understands the importance of SEO.

You can find an ‘SEO Checklist’ on the company’s website that allows you to ensure each of your pages are optimized to perform well on Google and other search engines.

If you want to access the core SEO elements at Squarespace, you’ll need to head to the left-hand side of your dashboard and click on ‘Marketing.’ This part of your editing portal allows you to input tags, titles, and descriptions.

For those who want to explore how their sites perform with particular keywords, you can integrate Google Search Console with your Squarespace website to view your performance. This is an excellent analytics tool, and if used correctly, it will help you adjust your SEO efforts to increase traffic.

On the other hand, GoDaddy goes above and beyond to deliver an easy-to-digest SEO system. If you head to the ‘Marketing’ tab on your dashboard and select SEO, it will ask a series of questions to help you construct an SEO plan.

 

 

First, you’ll select whether you’re looking at local consumers or nationwide visitors. Next, you’ll enter the types of products you’re selling or advertising. The platform will then suggest keywords and site titles, and you’ll also be prompted to write site descriptions. This helps you automate the entire process of optimizing your site for Google and other search engines.

While Squarespace offers you plenty of opportunities to optimize your website for leading search engines, I think GoDaddy takes the cake for SEO features. Even a beginner can do the complete basics – and for most people, basic is all that is needed.

 

Business Email

You need an email address attached to your current domain name to communicate with your customers. Many leading web builders and web hosts now offer free business email accounts as part of your subscription costs, and Squarespace and GoDaddy are no exception.

Both builders offer one year of free business email support. After the first year, you’ll need to start paying for this part of the service. You should factor the future cost of business email into the overall cost of each platform.

GoDaddy partners with Office365 to provide you with your professional email accounts. You’ll be using Microsoft’s premium email service to access your business email platform.

Squarespace uses Google’s G Suite platform for its business email partner. This means you’ll also have access to Google Docs, Google Sheets, and the other components of G Suite.

Regarding business email accounts, it’s hard to distinguish between these two platforms. The winner will come down to whether you prefer the Office 365 email system or the G Suite system.

 

Email Marketing

Whether you’re building an online store or promoting a brick-and-mortar business, you need to be able to send emails to interested customers. This is a feature that is severely lacking in some modern web building providers. Fortunately, Squarespace and GoDaddy offer excellent email marketing opportunities to their users.

GoDaddy makes it easy to build robust email marketing campaigns. If you head to ‘Email’ under the marketing tab in your dashboard, you’ll be prompted to choose a type of email campaign.

Next, you can use a drag-and-drop editor to design a visual email for your campaign. It’s easy to customize the email outline with your own graphics and text.

The number of marketing emails you can send subscribers will depend on the plan you purchase from GoDaddy. If you’re planning on building massive campaigns, you’ll clearly need to buy one of the more expensive plans.

Squarespace also offers a comprehensive email marketing platform. The primary benefit of using its email marketing system is that it provides email templates that are the same as your website’s template. If you value consistent branding, this is undoubtedly an excellent feature.

Squarespace’s email marketing does cost extra. Also, to access email automation, you’ll need to purchase the more expensive plans.

 

BUSINESS FEATURES WINNER: Squarespace offers more (and better) eCommerce features than GoDaddy. SEO and email marketing, however, is a mixed bag – and a lot is going to boil down to personal preference.

 

Pricing

GoDaddy’s price starts at $9.99/month to $16.99, while Squarespace is a bit more expensive, going from $16 to $49 a month.

GoDaddy’s pricing looks pretty reasonable when you compare it to industry standards.

This GoDaddy’ Basic’ plan includes free professional email for a year, all core editing tools, mobile optimization, and limited access to its email marketing platform.

If you really want to get the most out of GoDaddy, you need to subscribe to its ‘Premium’ or ‘Ecommerce’ plans. They offer unlimited social media posts, much larger marketing email allowances, and online payment acceptance.

The Ecommerce plan also offers shipping integration, product listings, inventory tracking, and more. You’ll definitely need this plan to build an online store.

Squarespace’s plans are somewhat similar, and you can purchase the ‘Personal’ plan for just $16 per month. With this entry-level plan, you’ll gain access to full editing features, a free domain, SEO controls, unlimited storage, and basic website metrics.

If you’re planning on building an online store, you’ll need to purchase either the Basic Commerce or Advanced Commerce plans. These allow you to sell online products without any commission fees. If you want to offer gift cards, subscriptions, or abandoned account recovery, you’ll need to upgrade to Advanced Commerce.

 

WINNER: Overall, GoDaddy offers slightly cheaper plans, but Squarespace provides a little bit more in theirs. That being said, both builders offer pretty good value for money.

 

Squarespace vs GoDaddy Verdict

Squarespace and GoDaddy are very solid platforms – but if I had to choose which platform to use personally, I would choose Squarespace.

Squarespace has better templates than GoDaddy, and its selection of eCommerce tools satisfies everyone from a beginner to a seasoned pro. Squarespace also has a superior editing experience to GoDaddy, allowing you to make a truly personalized website.

Not that GoDaddy doesn’t have its strengths, mind you. GoDaddy is still relatively new in the website builder game, and it already has solid SEO and email marketing tools, as well as remains relatively cheaper than a lot of the competition. And for people looking to make a straightforward website on a budget, this could be a very suitable option.

Choose Squarespace if you want a beautiful, functional website done quickly. It will be an excellent tool for you and your business for years to come. But if you’ll come to find Squarespace a bit hectic and overcrowded, then choose GoDaddy – it keeps things simple and smooth.

 

GoDaddy & Squarespace Alternatives

While Squarespace vs GoDaddy website builder comparison pitted these two popular platforms against each other, there are still plenty of other GoDaddy and Squarespace alternative options on the market.

 

Wix

With over 500 templates and a fancy ADI tool that generates a website for you, Wix tries to be the best of both worlds. It’s a pixel-perfect advanced website builder for people who know what they want. But it’s also a 2-minute website generator for people who know that they simply want a website.

If this comparison gave you more questions than answers, give Wix a shot – it may just be the real answer you are looking for.

 

Gator Website Builder

If you’re looking to save money and neither of these builders does it for you, consider Gator. For just a few dollars, you’ll gain access to a simple-to-use, intuitive, but still pretty darn beautiful website builder that is perfect for building small websites.

If you’re looking for something sweet and simple, go with the Gator.