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WordPress versus GoDaddy is a cage match new to the ticket, but GoDaddy’s ads featuring popular actor Walton Goggins have people buzzing about the new GoDaddy AI website builder. GoDaddy promises almost no-effort professional websites in its latest marketing push, but can it really live up to the hype or compete with WordPress? GoDaddy’s website builder looks easy on the surface, but when you compare customization capabilities, hosting flexibility, SEO tools and long-term use cases, WordPress.org still has some punches to throw that put GoDaddy on the ropes.
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WordPress.org vs. GoDaddy Website Builder: At a Glance
Key Features: WordPress vs. GoDaddy
GoDaddy’s website builder is just that—a website builder—while WordPress.org is a full content management system (CMS) that allows you to build a website, integrate numerous third-party software packages and manage your content publishing. Both will get you online, but they serve different use cases.
Website Builder
WordPress doesn’t include a drag-and-drop website builder; instead, it relies primarily on templates that are ready to populate with your information. Still, it is powerful enough that it is one of our best cheap website builder platform picks. However, there are many third-party themes available, including over 13,000 free themes linked directly from WordPress. Likewise, there are numerous paid and free plug-in website builders that expand WordPress’s builder functionality. These builders vary from beginner-friendly to professional designer-ready. Notable builder options include Elementor, Divvy, Bricks and SiteJet.
GoDaddy includes a visual website builder powered by AI, but some of the AI features may require an additional GoDaddy Airo subscription. While not integrated with outside packages like WordPress, GoDaddy’s builder does include blogs, simple e-commerce (although nowhere near as complex as functions available from the best e-commerce platforms) and most other functions that simple websites require. However, as an all-in-one, later scalability is limited.
While I’m not a fan of the extra steps involved in setting up a website builder with WordPress, the sheer number of choices and the deep functionality capabilities give it an edge over GoDaddy.
While I’ve worked with many [WordPress] page builders, Bricks Builder is my current favorite. It’s lightweight, performance-focused and gives developers granular control without the heavy footprint that some other builders leave behind.
— Jared Tangir, founder and SEO director at digital agency Elevated Audience
Winner: WordPress
Customization Options
Customization in WordPress is primarily based on plug-ins, like most functionality. However, there is a galaxy’s worth of free and paid plug-ins that allow you to customize your site to do anything from creating an online store to building a full third-party marketplace. There are over 13,000 free templates available directly in the WordPress interface and more from third-party websites. WordPress also allows you to create templates from scratch.
GoDaddy’s website builder is AI-powered and takes much of the customization work away from users. Users can still adjust images and layouts, but there are far more constraints and limitations than with WordPress.
The near-limitless customization possibilities and external integrations give WordPress an easy win over GoDaddy for customization.
You will never be painted into a corner with WordPress. With access to thousands of plug-ins and themes, and full code-level control, WordPress offers virtually limitless customization for both design and functionality.
— Cameron Prockiw, founder at coding agency Nerder
Winner: WordPress
SEO
Again, while WordPress has some basic SEO controls for content, it heavily relies on plug-ins for most of its functionality. SEO plug-ins like Yoast are popular, and while some SEO plug-ins can add considerable cost, the control possibilities are detailed for on-page and technical SEO through the plug-in system.
GoDaddy, as an all-in-one system, is far more limited in SEO settings than WordPress. Plus, as is common with GoDaddy, there are extra fees for most of the SEO tools it offers.
WordPress’s expandable capabilities give it an edge over GoDaddy for SEO.
WordPress started as a blogging platform, which is actually brilliant for SEO. The whole system is built around content publishing—clean URLs, proper heading structures, semantic HTML—everything search engines crave. Throw in Yoast SEO or All in One SEO (both fantastic plug-ins), and suddenly, small businesses have SEO tools that rival what big companies pay thousands for.
— Serhii Pylypenko, team lead and full-stack PHP developer at dedicated development teams provider Mobilunity
Winner: WordPress
Hosting
WordPress does not include hosting (WordPress.com is a separate company that sells hosting for WordPress.org). However, it works with almost every website host out there and can be used with multiple hosting types, such as shared hosting, VPS, cloud and dedicated hosting. Most of the best free website hosting providers also work with WordPress. That means you won’t be limited as your business grows, and if a host fails to perform, you can migrate to another host, such as one of the best VPS hosting providers, easily.
GoDaddy includes hosting with its website builder, which is common. Most of the best website builders are package deals with the builder and hosting inseparable from each other. While that is convenient and easier for beginners, it means being stuck with shared hosting. You cannot switch to another type of GoDaddy hosting plan. Also, if you and GoDaddy ever have a falling out, you will need to rebuild your website on another platform in order to change hosting providers.
WordPress’s freedom of choice gives it an edge over GoDaddy for hosting.
I always recommend hosting on a managed cloud server [that specializes] in WordPress as they offer the greatest reliability, security and scalability. In fact, you can scale your server up at any time, and there are also autoscaling options which will adjust your server resources automatically, keeping your site performing well even when it goes viral.
— Cameron Prockiw, founder at coding agency Nerder
Winner: WordPress
Ease of Use
WordPress falls on its face hard when it comes to ease of use. A fractured and outdated interface is a repeated complaint from users. It’s also the business end of the double-edged sword that is third-party tool reliance. The almost Lego-like nature of WordPress means a lot of moving parts to corral, and for more technical setup needs in hosting, choosing plug-ins and getting everything to work together. I’ve literally seen beginners rage-quit in tears when trying to DIY WordPress as their first website experience.
GoDaddy’s AI builder, part of its Airo AI tool suite, excels in this one area. Users don’t need to know much about hosting to sign up; they just tell the AI what they want and get a mostly ready-to-go website. Adjusting the results is fairly simple as well, partially due to the limits on what you can change.
Its streamlined nature and lack of technical knowledge requirements give GoDaddy a win in ease of use, although users needing more advanced features may find it limiting.
If you can click and drag, you’re golden. GoDaddy is beginner-friendly, no question. But if you want to tweak every pixel or add complex features, get ready for some frustration.
— Sun Yi, founder of digital agency Night Owls
Winner: GoDaddy
Customer Support
WordPress doesn’t provide traditional customer support. Instead, it relies on a huge global network of users and volunteers to provide peer support. Likewise, the volume of help documentation from third parties is legendary (although fractured, like a Jenga tower assaulted by golden retriever zoomies).
GoDaddy has customer support. It is advertised as reachable by live chat, text and phone. However, probably 90% of the time I reach out to support, it goes unanswered. The few times I do get to speak with someone, the answers are almost always unhelpful.
The unresponsive and often incorrect answers from GoDaddy support forfeit the customer support comparison to WordPress.
There is no ‘live chat’ or localized support for WordPress itself, because WordPress is still you building your own website from the ground up. However, most WordPress web hosts offer 24/7 support for technical issues. DIY builders are self-contained and have their own sets of rules, benefits and limitations, which is why they can offer real-time support for design-related issues. With WordPress, you’ll have to learn the basics of web design from the internet, take a class or ask your professional web designer to show you the ropes.
— Chad Lewine, founder of digital design and marketing firm ChadWorks
Winner: WordPress
Pricing and Value: WordPress vs. GoDaddy
WordPress.org is a free CMS package. There are no monthly fees or subscription plans. Any costs come from plug-ins, templates, domain names and hosting charges from third-party vendors. This complicates the setup a bit, but gives you freedom to control your costs and choose your preferred providers.
GoDaddy’s website builder is an all-inclusive package with GoDaddy hosting and carries monthly fees. The forever free plan is a limited functionality version, and the free trial is a trial of the paid plan features. In addition to monthly fees for the builder and hosting, domain name registration and costs are separate. While GoDaddy strongly pushes for you to use them as your domain registrar, you can choose to use a domain name registered elsewhere, such as from one of our picks for best domain registrars instead. GoDaddy also has multiple add-on features at additional costs that most users find they need.
GoDaddy’s reliance on surprise add-on fees and high monthly pricing compared to the hosting quality received gives the win for value to WordPress.
When using WordPress, it’s crucial to consider the long-term factors affecting cost and performance. Hosting options range from budget shared plans to high-performance managed or cloud solutions, and choosing the right one depends on your business’s growth plans. While the software itself is free, there are often costs for hosting, premium plug-ins, themes and ongoing support. Regular maintenance and proactive optimization are key; in most cases, they save more money over the site’s life span than they cost.
— Dominic Bonaker, founder and CEO at WordPress support agency LunarWP
Winner: WordPress
Who Is WordPress Best For?
Compared to GoDaddy website builder, WordPress is best for almost everyone because of the added flexibility, scalability, low-cost options and hosting choices. That said, there is a definite learning curve that can be a problem for some beginners.
WordPress has always been my go-to because of its flexibility, scalability and adaptability. No matter the industry or business size, WordPress can be tailored to meet a client’s specific needs. It’s powerful enough for large, complex builds but still nimble for smaller, fast-turnaround projects.
— Jared Tangir, founder and SEO director at digital agency Elevated Audience
Who Is GoDaddy Best For?
GoDaddy’s website builder really shines for absolute beginners with no time to learn WordPress, or for temporary websites that won’t be needed beyond the initial deeply discounted contract and free plan websites, where a custom domain name is not needed. However, bear in mind that costs can add up quickly.
[GoDaddy is] constantly trying to upsell you on other, non-necessary products, and if you don’t know anything, you’ll fall into their trap and sign up. Pretty soon, your GoDaddy bill is substantial.
— Scott Tobin, president of digital marketing agency Sector45
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can I use WordPress with GoDaddy?
Yes, you can use WordPress with GoDaddy hosting. GoDaddy has several WordPress shared hosting plans. However, GoDaddy’s website builder isn’t the same thing.