Weebly vs GoDaddy: Is There A Need For Speed?
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In this article, we’ll help you compare website builders by digging up all the key facts, figures, and features about GoDaddy and Weebly so you can make an informed decision.
GoDaddy is the fastest way to build a website, using its ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) to create a site in just a few minutes. Simply answer a few questions, and you’ll have a website that’s ready to publish.
It also got an overall score of 4.4/5, placing it in the top three best website builders in all the ones we’ve tested in our research process.
Weebly is a great platform for those on a tight budget, as it scored a 5/5 for value for money and has a host of useful tools and features. Best of all, it even comes with a free plan!
Weebly is better for you if you want to build a site on a budget.
If you want a website builder with an array of features, you can create a website absolutely free (with a Weebly domain and ads). Weebly excels in its value for money, and like a kid in an app store, you can add features to your website easily.
GoDaddy is better for you if you need a website fast.
If you’re not super creative but you want a visually stunning website that represents your brand well and is easy to use, GoDaddy is a match for you. It has really nice templates that are more modern than Weebly’s, and helps you market your website on the world wide web.
Weebly vs GoDaddy: Quick Comparison
Are you in a bit of a hurry? Understandable if you’re putting together a website on top of everything else – we’ve put this quick side-by-side comparison table to help you quickly see whether Weebly or GoDaddy is the right option for you.
Category | Weebly | GoDaddy | Winner |
---|---|---|---|
Ease of Use | A clearly laid out editing page makes it easy to build any kind of website | GoDaddy’s ADI feature creates a site for you in minutes, taking away all the hassle | GoDaddy |
Design | Provides over 50 templates, which can be customized easily. But they’re a little outdated | A little restrictive in terms of creative control, due to the ADI function - but the templates are more modern, crisp, and can be made by answering some questions | GoDaddy |
Features | Lots of useful blogging and social media features. It also provides a huge app center – to add additional tools to your website | Has no app market, and slightly less features than Weebly. It does have some great marketing and additional tools | Weebly |
SEO | Has all the basic features you need to rank higher on Google, including lots of SEO apps | Offers a good standard of SEO help, allowing you to rank higher on Google, but the lack of apps means Weebly takes the crown | Weebly |
Help and Support | Provides email, live chat, a help center, and phone support – but only at designated times | Offers 24/7 phone support, GoDaddy's help center is lacking a little compared to Weebly’s. But the other support available wins | GoDaddy |
Pricing | The free plan makes Weebly excellent value for money, and for the features you get Weebly came out number one out of every builder we tested | GoDaddy also has a free plan and the priced plans are reasonable. It also offers a free trial, and as GoDaddy keeps improving its features – it might overtake Weebly one day | Weebly |
Keep reading to discover more details on exactly why we picked GoDaddy as the better builder, why although Weebly has the majority score wins that GoDaddy takes the cake.
Weebly vs GoDaddy: Pros and Cons
Weebly Pros | Weebly Cons |
---|---|
Well-designed themes Very user-friendly | Limited template customization Blog features could be better |
Weebly shines in its value for money, as it comes with some pretty good features on the free plan like a free SSL certificate, SEO tools, and chat and email support. It also has a great app store that will add valuable tools to your website to make running your business easier.
Weebly has some simple templates that are fairly easy to navigate, but they’re quite outdated when you compare them to Wix or Squarespace’s templates. Also, its block-type editing makes customization a little challenging.
GoDaddy Pros | GoDaddy Cons |
---|---|
Fastest to build Switch themes anytime | Features lack depth Not much creative freedom |
GoDaddy’s features lack some depth, restricting what you can actually do with your site. On that note, it doesn’t provide much creative freedom overall.
But, with its ADI, GoDaddy offers the quickest way to get online. After just a couple of clicks, hey presto: a brand new website! That makes GoDaddy ideal for those who feel they lack creative flair and want a platform to do the legwork for them – and quickly.
You can also switch themes at any point, which GoDaddy will reformat for you – saving you time and hassle.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here – let’s delve into everything our research told us about these two great website builders.
Every single builder goes through our thorough research process. We investigate important areas such as:
- Ease of use
- Design flexibility
- Value for money
- Feature quality
- Help and support
- Customer satisfaction
This helps us rate and compare the builders fairly, focusing on important factors that users have told us matter most.
We also get everyday users to test the builders out and give their feedback, which we then analyze. This helps us:
- Understand exactly how easy (or difficult) beginners find the builder
- Uncover any issues within the builder
- Judge customer satisfaction
We also talk to other experts in business, marketing, and much more to get extra tips and information directly to you. We’ve applied this process to over 50 website builders so far – all so we can bring you the most accurate results and recommendations!
Still got questions? Read our report on How We Conduct Our Website Builder Research for a more detailed explanation.
More Information
- Check out our Website Builder Comparison Chart
- And our Business Website Builder Comparison Chart
- Or, if you would prefer a longer discussion, head to our article on the Top Website Builders
Ease of Use
The Winner
GoDaddy wins for ease of use
Website builders are there to help people get online more easily. Of course, some are easier to use than others, so we tested both Weebly and GoDaddy to find out which is the most user-friendly.
Weebly uses drag-and-drop for its template customization. Weebly also gives you access to thousands of apps, which can be installed with one click. This makes it really easy to personalize your website – but as we mentioned can feel a little clunky.
For ease of use Weebly scores a 3.4/5 compared to GoDaddy’s 4.1/5 because GoDaddy creates the website for you and comes with a great range of tools. Since Weebly merged with the payment processing website Square it’s been a little slow on its updates and has become less user-friendly than GoDaddy overall.
One of the people we tested found Weebly a little challenging to navigate:
Advice from the Users
It just didn’t feel intuitive or pleasant to work with and I got really frustrated with it.
Using its ADI, GoDaddy can create a website in a matter of minutes, which users can then customize to their liking. The whole editing process usually takes less than an hour, so it’s a really quick, painless experience.
![GoDaddy ADI questions GoDaddy ADI questions with 5 categorys](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/02090706/GoDaddy-ADI-questions-1.png)
During our user testing, one user was impressed with the speed and ease of GoDaddy:
Advice from the Users
It’s very easy to put together a site using the interface that it provides.
More Information
- Like the sound of ADI? Check out the Best AI Platforms here.
![godaddy logo](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/31064742/godaddy-new-logo-100x100-1.png?width=165&height=165&fit=crop)
Design Flexibility
The Winner
GoDaddy wins design flexibility!
We’ve discussed how easy each builder is to use, which leads on nicely to our next comparison – just how flexible is each platform with its design tools? In other words, which platform gives you the most creative control?
Weebly provides over 50 templates, covering categories including business, portfolios, and online stores. Weebly also provides over 360 apps – making designing and building a website a bit easier.
A small issue with its templates is that you can’t search for a specific industry theme – instead, you’ll need to scroll through each category to find the perfect one. You won’t be able to preview what each template looks like on a mobile or tablet, either. Also, in our testing, we found that Weebly’s mobile responsive themes had poor formatting and that’s a big SEO issue with more people browsing via mobile.
![weebly themes weebly themes](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/14021113/weebly-themes.png)
In our research, GoDaddy blew Weebly out of the water with its designs. While Weebly came in with a disappointing 2.5/5, GoDaddy’s professional designs and easy-to-edit templates merited a much more impressive 4.3/5 design score.
GoDaddy uses ADI to help design your website. It asks a few questions about what type of website you need – a portfolio, business etc – and then gives you a website that’s ready to go. GoDaddy’s themes are also far more mobile responsive than that of Weebly’s.
After this, you can edit the theme and update text boxes, but that’s about it. Overall, GoDaddy and its ADI are for people looking to get online quickly, rather than design lovers – it’s not quite as design conscious as Wix or Squarespace, for example.
![GoDaddy Website Builder GoDaddy ADI](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/02090735/GoDaddy-Website-Builder.png)
More Information
- Why not see how Weebly compares to Wix?
- If you like design, see how GoDaddy performs against Squarespace.
![godaddy logo](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/31064742/godaddy-new-logo-100x100-1.png?width=165&height=165&fit=crop)
Features and Tools
The Winner
Weebly wins for features and tools
A good website builder needs to offer more than just a smooth design experience – it should also provide a bunch of handy features, apps, and tools to streamline your website or online store. So, why does Weebly have the bigger and better toolbox?
Ecommerce
In our testing, Weebly came out as the best value for money for building an online store. Its clear interface via Square Online’s ecommerce editor makes it easy to start selling online, but it lacks big data tools like managing stock inventory. Overall, it’s for a small business that wants an easy and enjoyable user journey.
Thanks to its ADI, GoDaddy is the quickest way of building an online store. Although you can now sell digital products, most of its ecommerce features still lack the quality and depth found on other platforms.
I’m able to use Square Online to login and fulfill orders, but the Shippo integration allows me to print labels and pay for all my shipping in one place. Then, I simply drop off my packages at the Post Office. It makes my shipping workflow easy and straightforward – again, reducing busy work.
More Information
- Check out our Website Builder Comparison Chart
- And our Business Website Builder Comparison Chart
- Or, if you would prefer a longer discussion, head to our article on the Top Website Builders
![godaddy-blog-feature godaddy blog feature](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/godaddy-blog-feature.png)
Marketing
GoDaddy has a really cool marketing suite that helps build your brand. You can engage with your website visitors via email or social media, easily creating posts to share. GoDaddy has made huge improvements to its marketing and has even implemented SEO tools to help more people see your content.
Weebly provides a service named “Weebly Promote”, which helps you create effective email campaigns. It supports you with copy and templates, and can also schedule the emails you send.
Overall for the marketing category, GoDaddy promotes brand building better and helps your website reach more people.
More Information
- Learn more about Weebly’s Pro & Start Plan features with our article.
- Love a good contest? Try our Wix vs GoDaddy article.
Social Media Integration
GoDaddy wins here, too. While both let you embed social buttons, GoDaddy takes things further by allowing you to add social media feeds directly to your website. This means your visitors can see what you’re tweeting, posting, and sharing at all times. It also has a social post creator so you can create your social posts directly from GoDaddy. The socials GoDaddy supports are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
App markets
Let’s put it this way: Weebly has the most apps of any builder, while GoDaddy doesn’t even have an app market. So, it’s pretty clear who the ‘appiest website builder is, but we’ll quickly go over some reasons why.
On Weebly, you can choose from thousands of third party apps, which can all be installed with one click. Some are free, while others come at a small cost. Apps are available covering all the key areas, including marketing, ecommerce, social media, and loads more to help improve your site’s performance.
![Weebly App Center Wix vs Weebly vs Squarespace weebly app center featuring a search bar to browse](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Weebly-App-Center.png)
![weebly_logotype](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/weebly_logotype_100x100.png?width=165&height=165&fit=crop)
More Information
- Learn more about Weebly’s Pro & Start Plan features with our article.
- Love a good contest? Try our Wix vs GoDaddy article.
SEO
The Winner
Weebly just about wins SEO
If you’re wondering what SEO is exactly, it’s the system that helps your website rank higher on search engines like Google. Essentially, it helps people find your site more easily.
Improving your website’s SEO can be done in a number of ways. For example, both Weebly and GoDaddy allow you to:
- Update meta titles and descriptions (the text you see on Google searches)
- Edit URLs (the text found after your website domain)
- Add alt text to images (the text describing an image to help Google identify it)
All of these functions will help search engines index (find and categorize) your website. Both platforms offer great SEO tools, but Weebly has the app center to help you out even more. It also provides really helpful SEO best practice prompts, plus guides on keywords and coding.
More Information
- Like to know more? Discover the 3 Best Website Builders for SEO.
Help and Support
The Winner
GoDaddy wins for help and support
As with all things tech, you’re bound to encounter certain issues that need resolving quickly. With this in mind, we looked at the levels of help and support provided by each builder.
When it comes to customer help, it’s a close one. Weebly provides email, phone, and live chat support – but only from 6 AM – 6 PM (PT). Also, Weebly only provides phone support when you’re on the more expensive payment plans.
On the other hand, GoDaddy provides 24/7 phone support, a live chat option, but no email support.
Also both offer a help center or places online to seek the answers to common questions. Weebly has a slightly more in-depth help center, with a wider range of resources than GoDaddy – for those who want to quickly look up any issues.
But all GoDaddy plans offer support and they even help with social media, and you don’t need to reach out to the support team for restoring your site as they have this feature installed.
Pricing and Value for Money
The Winner
Weebly offers better value for money than GoDaddy
Website builders have changed the game in many ways. One of these is the money – you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a web designer anymore.
If you’re a fan of frugality, you’ll love Weebly – the website builder with the highest value for money score of any other builder we’ve tested. It has some of the most affordable price plans on the market, and offers a free plan to boot. Its premium plans range from just $6 per month to $26 per month when paid annually (see the image below for more detail).
The free plan lets you build a beautiful website at no cost (obviously), but it does come with a “.weebly” subdomain. This doesn’t look very professional, and also means your website will be covered with Weebly ads. For just a few dollars a month, it’s definitely worth upgrading.
![Weebly Pricing Weebly Pricing](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/02090747/Weebly-Pricing-2.png)
![weebly_logotype](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/weebly_logotype_100x100.png?width=165&height=165&fit=crop)
GoDaddy is also really cheap. There are four paid plans to choose from, you can go for the free plan and then the paid plans start from just $6.99 per month, up to $29.99 per month.
Each plan lets you customize with the same tools, and GoDaddy now provides a free SSL certificate on every plan! If you’ll be needing SEO help and unlimited social media posts then you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
![godaddy logo](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/31064742/godaddy-new-logo-100x100-1.png?width=165&height=165&fit=crop)
More Information
- Read more about Weebly’s price plans here.
Weebly vs GoDaddy: Summary
We’ve pitched Weebly and GoDaddy against each other in all the key areas for building a website. Using our expert knowledge and results from our user testing, we really got under the skin of each platform to find out what makes them tick.
Let’s quickly recap where each website builder excels…
For value for money and a great app store you should consider Weebly as your website builder or ecommerce builder. If you’re looking for a marketing platform that helps you shape your brand image at lightning speeds then GoDaddy is the platform for you.
You should now have a good idea which platform is best suited for which type of user – and which is the right fit for you.
Who takes the crown, though? After a closely fought contest, we’ve given it to GoDaddy. It deserves the throne because of its impressive range of features, excellent design capabilities, and great help and support along the way.
Weebly is a good option, but overall, if you want a more modern and functional website we’d say: go with GoDaddy.
![godaddy logo](https://images.websitebuilderexpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/31064742/godaddy-new-logo-100x100-1.png?width=165&height=165&fit=crop)
FAQs
Their ecommerce tools are more advanced than those GoDaddy offers and are perfect for accommodating a small store. While they are both sufficient, we wouldn’t necessarily recommend these two for those who are serious about selling online.
Instead, Wix is our top choice for selling online.
But, when comparing it to our top 11 website builders we tested, Weebly came out as number 5 out of 11. So, overall it’s not the best – but it’s still a good website builder.
GoDaddy doesn’t offer app integrations, but you can still change the language of your site if you head to your homepage and select the country or language you’d like to use.
- Go into the settings and to My Products
- Then change the address
- Find the domain and click the DNS button
- Click the pencil by A and change the IP address
- Lastly look to see if you have an AAAA record, if so, delete it
However, if your business continues to expand, there’s a strong chance you’ll outgrow both Weebly and GoDaddy. The limited template customization can become frustrating and neither of them has the features necessary to support a large online store.
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