Building a website is not for the faint of heart. It's a tough call even for the best among us, which is why you need a superb tool that makes the process as easy as A, B, C. Enter website builders and you stand a chance, even if you know zilch about coding, content management systems (CMS) and the hosting circus.
In today's quick comparison post, we pit Wix against GoDaddy. And while it might seem like an unfair battle considering the latter is a huge web hosting company, both offer great website builders so you can create professional websites without pulling your hair out. Still, we ask; Wix Vs GoDaddy, which platform offers the better deal?
Read the following Wix Vs GoDaddy head-to-head comparison where we review important features such as performance, pricing, pros, and cons, to help you decide before you sign up with one of these website building and hosting companies.
Wix Vs GoDaddy: What Exactly Are They?
What is Wix?
Wix is a software company based in Israel that primarily offers cloud-based web development services. They help you to create HTML5 websites with a state-of-the-art drag-and-drop page builder. They have many other offices across the globe including the USA, Brazil, Canada, and Germany, among other locations.
Their platform allows you to create professional websites and e-commerce stores ideal for selling all types of products, digital or physical. Sadly, their websites aren't fully responsive meaning you will create a mobile version of your site. Fret none, however, since it's easy. Wix offers you over 500 pre-made templates that you can customize easily to suit your needs. On top of that, you have a logo maker at your disposal to help with website branding.
Additionally, Wix offers you other features to track and promote your website. You can shine in Google thanks to a couple of SEO tools, advertise on Facebook, launch email marketing campaigns, manage your leads, or even hire a marketing pro, among other things. You also get a robust video creator that you can use to create engaging social posts to drive more traffic to your site.
You can start with a free website on their sub-domain, but to get the most value out of their service, you need to purchase a custom domain e.g. websitehostingrating.com. You'll also need a premium plan to use e-commerce capabilities and take your website live.
What is GoDaddy?
GoDaddy is a well-known website hosting company headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, and incorporated in Deleware. At the time of writing, they have over 18 million customers across the globe, meaning it's a popular choice for beginners looking to create an online presence.
They practically sell web hosting services and domain names at dirt cheap prices. Once you sign up, you needn't go elsewhere to buy a domain name and create a website. They offer you all the features you need to create all manner of websites, including websites built upon the popular WordPress CMS. Needless to say, Wix doesn't offer such functionality.
On top of that (and the real reason they're in our Wix Vs GoDaddy comparison post), the GoDaddy website builder is just perfect if you don't know a thing about WordPress or the technical side of building a website. Theirs is a beautiful platform that allows you to hit the ground running, with countless templates (just not as many as Wix), and a whole set of great features.
Features you say? Yes, of course, amigo. You get a whole suite of them spanning from e-commerce functionality, analytics (oh yeah, Wix has this too), marketing tools such as SEO, social media advertising, Google Local Listings, email marketing, customer management, appointments and so much more.
You can create and publish a live website with their free trial, but their sub-domain is an eyesore. You know, something like this: https://194b1e8c-77d4-4743-95a7-0766abce5ee0.godaddysites.com/, wouldn't be a great choice if you're creating a business website. Heck, not even a personal blog. You can, however, purchase a custom domain and rock your world.
That out of the way, what can we learn from comparing GoDaddy and Wix? Keep reading for more details.
If this was purely a popularity contest in terms of which website builder is searched for more on Google, Wix, or GoDaddy, then GoDaddy would be the winner.
But which company is getting the most searches on Google is, of course, far from everything when finding a good website builder.
It's a really close call but GoDaddy is the better website builder tool for creating your blog or online shop. Find out more about the difference between GoDaddy and Wix in the below comparison table:
GoDaddy vs Wix Comparison
| Ninja Column 13 | Ninja Column 33 | |
|---|---|---|
GoDaddy | Wix | |
| About: | GoDaddy has been in the media recently, especially in TV ads and print media. It provides domain names as well as web hosting that is user-friendly along with reasonably priced plans and impressive uptimes. | Wix.com is a leading cloud-based development platform with millions of users worldwide. Wix is known to users in the market as an incredible site builder with over 70 categories of templates, amazing flexibility and immense ease of use. This is suited to almost any site. |
| Founded in: | 1997 | 2006 |
| BBB Rating: | A+ | A+ |
| Address: | 14455 N. Hayden Rd. #219 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 | Nemal Tel Aviv St 40, Israel |
| Phone Number: | (480) 505-8877 | (800) 600-0949 |
| Email Address: | Not Listed | [email protected] |
| Types of Support: | Phone, Live Support, Chat, Ticket, Training | Phone, Live Support, Chat, Ticket |
| Data Center / Server Location: | Phoenix, Arizona | Europe and the United States |
| Monthly Price: | From $4.99 per month | From $4.92 per month |
| Unlimited Data Transfer: | Yes (Except on Economy Plan) | No (Premium Plans Only) |
| Unlimited Data Storage: | Yes (Except on Economy Plan) | No |
| Unlimited Emails: | Yes (Except on Economy Plan) | No |
| Host Multiple Domains: | Yes (Except on Economy Plan) | N/A |
| Hosting Controlpanel / Interface: | cPanel | Wix Interface |
| Server Uptime Guarantee: | 99.90% | 99.90% |
| Money-Back Guarantee: | 30 Days | 14 Days |
| Dedicated Hosting Available: | Yes | No |
| Bonuses & Extras: | Premium DNS Management Tool (Ultimate Plan only). Double Processing Power and Memory (Ultimate Plan only). DudaMobile automatically converts your site to mobile (all plans except Economy). SSL Certificate (Ultimate Plan only). Website Accelerator (Ultimate Plan only). SSL Certificate (Ultimate Plan only). Malware Scanner (Ultimate Plan only). | Lots of free templates to choose from. |
| The Good: | Great Uptime: You would expect a company like GoDaddy to have one of the best uptimes in the industry just giving the fact that they are so huge. But I have yet to hear a complaint about GoDaddy uptime. Uptime is one of those things you expect a web hosting company to deliver on and GoDaddy does that with style. Linux and Windows Hosting: GoDaddy is one of the rare few hosting providers who give you the option to go for Windows rather than the industry-standard Linux operating system. If you've got ASP.NET websites, this is the place for you. Great Tech Support: Time and time again, web hosting companies get complaints about their customer service. Whether it is a lack of knowledge or huge wait times, but GoDaddy have pulled a rabbit out of their hat with this magic. They have the absolute best customer service. User Friendly: Most of GoDaddy is built around the idea of the newer end customers. All of their tools are newbie friendly. Personally I love theircPanel which should be an industry standard at this point. Everything I need is right at my fingertips and I have absolutely no complaints about their UX. | Easy to Use Drag & Drop Interface - Wix uses a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) system that gives you full control and a real-time preview of your website. Professional Looking Designs - Wix lets you choose from over 510 amazingly stylish and fully customizable HTML5-based templates, as well as a handful of Flash-based templates. Intuitive Help Features - Wix makes it a point to guide you with their official support channels, as well as directly related support articles that you can find by clicking the help/support buttons visible almost everywhere. |
| The Bad: | Not a Great Value: Unless you catch GoDaddy on a great promotional deal, you're going to be a little upset at the prices you are paying. You just don't get the same level of performance with GoDaddy lower end service packages. But if you catch them in a promotion, winner winner chicken dinner. Online Store Lacks Features: For me, at this day and age, e-Commerce additions should be a no brainer. You should get all the bells and whistles because the web hosting company usually takes a chunk of your money anyways. For GoDaddy, they miss the boat with missing features and errors just attacking your store at every angle. For more options, consider these GoDaddy alternatives. | Visible Ads on the Free Version Wix includes advertisement logos on the side and at the bottom of your website's pages if you're using the Free Plan. Templates Can't Be Changed Easily Right now, there's no way to swap templates without losing all the customization work you've done on your website. |
| Summary: | Also available in this web-hosting service is great support along with 1-Click app installs and more. It is worth noting that it is easy to use domain name registration coupled with hosting. Users do not have to worry about their websites being mobile ready or choosing between Linux and Windows. Users can also access accounts on the Go Daddy mobile app with the websites themselves being tweaked to let users easily access account information. You can find GoDaddy alternatives here. | Wix (review) makes it convenient for users to design an aesthetically appealing and professional web presence. The Wix website builder has everything users require to design a completely personalized and high-quality free website which uses artificial design intelligence. It has an extremely easy interface for new users and comes with a massive selection of templates. |
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Which is better, GoDaddy or Wix?
Both are excellent website builders so it depends on your needs. GoDaddy has very competitive prices and is very beginner-friendly and is great for getting your site out there asap.
Wix, meanwhile, offers more design flexibility and customization options to better optimize and personalize your site.
Which is cheaper, GoDaddy or Wix?
GoDaddy has slightly more competitive premium plans then Wix as well as an excellent free plan. GoDaddy basic plans start from $9.99/month when billed annually.
Wix has an even better free plan which already includes a lot of features you'll need. Wix cheapest plans start from $10/month.
Do Wix and GoDaddy come with free plans?
Both Wix and GoDaddy come with excellent free plans to start building your site straight away. The Wix free plan is slightly more powerful and comes with more features to customize your site.
Which has better templates – GoDaddy or Wix?
Wix is known for its excellent template gallery with over 800+ sites to choose from and customize. GoDaddy also has a gallery of 100+ sites but unfortunately they are not as customizable as Wix.