GoDaddy Website Builder Review – What Makes This One So Popular?
GoDaddy is one of the best known website builders out there, not in the least because they have engaged in an aggressive international television advertisement campaign. They are, as well, the world’s largest domain registrar, managing over 60 million website addresses. They also have 13 million customers who pay for their service. But does that mean they are really good?
What I Liked about GoDaddy
- They have excellent, very professional, templates that you can access through their highly intuitive, user friendly interface. This means that you get to see what you need. Everything is done through drag and drop, so you can make things look exactly the way you want to. With more than 300 templates to choose from, filled with content already, you can literally get started straightaway.
- Their customer support is truly stellar. They can be reached 24/7, 365 days per year, via live chat, telephone, and email support. Usually, they are able to answer within 5 to 10 minutes, or you can submit a non-urgent ticket and receive a reply in around 10 to 15 hours.
- They offer a restore function that allows you to create backup points, something that is quite unique in the world of website builders. You can have as many copies of your site as you want, and you can return to an older copy at any stage. This means that you can really play around with your website without worrying about losing everything.
What I Didn’t Like about GoDaddy
- While GoDaddy has a huge number of themes, you have to stick to the one that you have This is why it is extremely important that you use the previews and really think about whether or not a template is going to work for you, because you can’t change your mind. This is a big downside and something that a few other website builders also have.
- GoDaddy is designed to help people build websites, not ecommerce sites. As a result, their ecommerce functionality is not as good as it is with other site builders. However, they are addressing this, and more and more features are being added to improve on the ecommerce options.
- The mobile display is surprisingly basic. Your site is automatically converted, but the conversion is very basic. The theme may look fantastic on your desktop, it won’t look as good on a mobile device, in other words. In fact, some of your content may even be hidden. You can, however, switch the things that you don’t want on your mobile site off, thereby ensuring that the rest do get seen. So there is some flexibility, but it is quite subpar compared to what others can do.
Features of GoDaddy
GoDaddy has a number of interesting features that make it stand out from the crowd, including:
- You can try it for one month, free of risk.
- They have beautiful, professional looking themes.
- You can accept PayPal and credit card payments.
- You can link it to a Facebook store.
- There are review functionalities so you can build your online reputation.
- The store is smartphone ready.
- The customer support is one of the best around, and has even won awards.
- If you do want to sell things, there is no limit as to how much you can sell.
- It comes with unlimited bandwidth and free hosting.
- You can set your own shipping rates.
- You can create coupon codes.
- Any product you sell can come with as much as 10 images.
- You can include a secure checkout to protect your customers’ information.
- It now comes with a shopping cart for those who want to engage in ecommerce.
GoDaddy Templates
You have access to more than 300 templates when you sign up to GoDaddy. Each of these has been designed with specific niches and industries in mind. They include recreation, restaurants, real estate, weddings, family, design portfolios, charities, entertainment, music, health and beauty, education, law, finance, business, and more. This means that there is no way you won’t be able to find a template to suit your needs.
The templates already have content included in them as part of the design theme. This means it is really easy for you to see what goes where. All you have to do is enter your own content in the places that the template indicates. One of the great things about this is that it will save you a whole lot of time
GoDaddy does not have the biggest choice of templates on the market, but they do offer some of the best. Each template has been professionally designed, so you will know that you get something that will really represent you very well. However, once you have chosen your template or theme, you can’t change it to a different one anymore. If you do, then your content will be lost. This is why you should take the time to test as many templates as you can before you make your final decision and really start to enter your own content.
Another issue that GoDaddy has is that you can’t access the CSS or HTML code. You may think that this is not an issue, as you are an expert in your niche and not in coding, but quite a few people find that they learn about coding and use it to tweak little details to make their sites more unique. Essentially, whatever template you choose, there is a good chance that someone else has used the exact same one, and there is simply no way to differentiate your overall look from theirs.
While the GoDaddy templates have some significant drawbacks, it must be said that, overall, they are really good. The themes look absolutely amazing and they are super easy to use. Everything is simply drag and drop, so you literally don’t have to have any experience in website design in order to create something that looks good. It is pretty much done for you, and all you have to add is your own content.
GoDaddy App Market
GoDaddy has a number of apps open that enable you to better connect with audiences. It is very easy to add social media spots to your GoDaddy site, as well as Google Maps, YouTube, Yelp, and PayPal. PayPal and Yelp are only available to those with a Business or Business Plus plan, however. Installing the apps is incredibly easy:
- Login to your account.
- Visit the Products list, choose ‘Website Builder’ and then click on ‘Manage’. If you have multiple accounts, you must choose the one you intend to add the apps to.
- Click on ‘Edit Site’.
- Choose the app that you want to add to your GoDaddy website. This can be done either by choosing the specific app (for things like Yelp, PayPal and Email Marketing), or by entering the URL (for instance for YouTube video or other such media).
- Simply save your changes and publish your newly updated site.
GoDaddy eCommerce
GoDaddy did not originally set out to be an ecommerce website builder. However, you cannot be the greatest by standing still, so it is no surprise that some changes were made. Today, two options exist for those who want to create an ecommerce site. Unfortunately, however, these options are not available for those who have signed up to the Personal, Business, or Business Plus plan. Rather, GoDaddy is able to create online stores for their clients, which is done for a payment of $1,499. For this, they build and design the site itself.
The Online Store builder is a pretty cool feature, and actually well worth the money. It also comes with a 30 day free trial and if you then decide to sign up for it, you have to pay $29 per month, in addition to a hosting fee. But you do get pretty good value for money, as it also includes secure checkouts, coupon codes and stores that are completely smartphone ready, as well as a variety of other cool features.
GoDaddy Pricing
GoDaddy is quite unusual compared to other website builders, mostly because there is no free plan. There is also no free trial option. They do, however, offer a 45-day money back guarantee, so if you’re not happy, you get anything you have paid returned to you. Their monthly plans also come with a refund policy. This means that you can actually use GoDaddy without the risk of losing out, particularly if you opt for the online store builder.
One other thing that sets GoDaddy apart is that, in terms of their regular plans, they are downright cheap. The options available to you are:
- The Personal Plan at just $5.99 per month.
- The Business Plan at just $9.99 per month.
- The Business Plus Plan at just $14.99 per month.
Furthermore, GoDaddy has frequent special offers, which means that you can sometimes get these plans for between $1 and $7.49 per month.
The Business Plus plan is particularly interesting, because it is a whole lot cheaper than those offered by other website builder sites. This is probably because you don’t get the ecommerce functionalities with it.
As part of your plan, you also get a free domain name. If you were to have to pay for that yourself, it would cost you around $12 per year.
You also have to think about the instant support you receive from GoDaddy, which is really invaluable. As soon as you sign up, you can get access to their support team, which includes email, live chat, and telephone support. Unlike other website builders, GoDaddy provides this level of support to all their customers, regardless of the plan you choose. And the support team members are incredibly good at what they do.
GoDaddy Support
As previously stated, the support offered by GoDaddy is truly stellar and well above anything you would find anywhere else. If you use the phone, you should be able to speak to someone within just minutes. Live chat is equally instantaneous. And if your query isn’t urgent, you can email them and they will still get back to you within around half a day. GoDaddy’s support is available 24/7, 365 days per year.
They also have some pretty cool tutorial resources that you can access through the Support Portal. This is a huge library full of hints, tips, and guides and almost any question you may have will be answered from there. There is a useful search bar so that you can easily find the things that you need rather than having to sift through page upon page of information. When you do find what you are looking for, the information is presented in such a way that it is easy to understand. Plus, you can add comments or additional questions if you feel some of the information is missing (or if you want to tell them that you found it particularly good).
Although the support desk is available to you 24/7, you may want to look through the portal first. It is more than likely that your question will be answered there. If you do speak to them over the telephone or through live chat, then a GoDaddy representative will literally be able to walk you through everything step by step.
The one downside to the GoDaddy support options is that there isn’t a community forum. This is a shame, because it is often beneficial to speak to real users who understand the things you are dealing with. That being said, their support team is so good, and so ready to help you, that you probably don’t need a community forum anyway.
The Final Verdict
If your goal is to build a website that looks professional in every sense of the way but one that doesn’t require a degree in computer technology to create, then GoDaddy is probably right for you. It is not the best option out there for those interested in building an online store, although functionality is being added, and there are some rumors in the pipeline that things may soon change. However, if what you want is something that is easy to use, looks great, and is highly intuitive, then you really can’t go wrong with GoDaddy.