GoDaddy vs. Squarespace

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
GoDaddy
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
GoDaddy Web Hosting provides users with storage, email addresses, and unlimited bandwith.
$9.99
per month
Squarespace
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Squarespace is a CMS platform that allows users to create a DIY blog, eCommerce store, and/or portfolio (visual art or music). Some Squarespace website and shop templates are industry or use case-specific, such as menu builders for restaurant sites.
$12
per month
Pricing
GoDaddySquarespace
Editions & Modules
Basic
as low as $6.99
per month with an annual term
Basic
as low as $10.49
per month with an annual term
Premium
as low as $13.49
per month with an annual term
Commerce
as low as $14.99
per month with an annual term
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GoDaddySquarespace
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscounts available for annual subscription.Personal: $12/month (paid annually) $16/month (paid monthly) Business: $18/month (paid annually) $26/month (paid monthly) Basic Commerce: $26/month (paid annually) $35/month (paid monthly) Advanced Commerce: $40/month (paid annually) $54/month (paid monthly)
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GoDaddySquarespace
Considered Both Products
GoDaddy
Chose GoDaddy
We had used a few different platforms in the past, including Wix and Squarespace. These alternative platforms offered much more robust design elements that were more customizable and attractive, by far. These platforms weren't as cost-effective for our organization and didn't …
Chose GoDaddy
I mostly went with GoDaddy because they had a regional presence and it offered regional pricing. Also, I had used their support and they really impressed me. I was just beginning website set up and it was important to me to make sure that if things weren't working properly that …
Chose GoDaddy
I didn't compare to too many competitors. Wix did offer to do their own purchasing, but GoDaddy's pricing was way better.
Squarespace
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace is the best option relative to other web hosting and design platforms we initially reviewed. It was a bit more expensive than some of the free models we looked at but those sites often came with hidden fees if we wanted to customize anything and Squarespace has …
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace was the best option we found for user-friendliness, quality, and affordability.
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace had a very professional profile. They advertise on our local NPR station so I felt their values were similar in a way Their templates at-a-glance seemed user-friendly. Their marketing states that customer service is 24/7 with under an hour response time. All of this …
Chose Squarespace
The ease of use was a massive plus in Squarespace's side. I have limited knowledge of HTML and web development. Squarespace won simply because of its user-friendliness and the low barrier to entry when it comes to creating a good looking website. Every alternative that I looked …
Chose Squarespace
Squarespace is superior in its design and cost. Other solutions do not offer templates and customization at the same level and quality as Squarespace. The cost and ability to perform updates myself is of tremendous value. The other services we used and considered became very …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
GoDaddySquarespace
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
GoDaddy
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.5
59 Ratings
6% above category average
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.559 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
GoDaddy
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.3
51 Ratings
8% above category average
API00 Ratings8.044 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings8.733 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
GoDaddy
-
Ratings
Squarespace
7.8
88 Ratings
3% above category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings9.076 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings8.069 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings8.387 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings7.188 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings7.185 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings6.784 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings9.076 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings7.569 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
GoDaddy
-
Ratings
Squarespace
8.2
78 Ratings
11% above category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings8.966 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings7.171 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings8.044 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.058 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings8.958 Ratings
Best Alternatives
GoDaddySquarespace
Small Businesses
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Divi
Divi
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
10Web
10Web
Score 8.3 out of 10
Image Relay
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Bitrix24
Bitrix24
Score 8.1 out of 10
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
GoDaddySquarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(54 ratings)
8.3
(88 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
5.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(8 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
GoDaddySquarespace
Likelihood to Recommend
GoDaddy
Good for transferring over an existing site. Truth be told, I haven't used it for building a brand new site-- I know that this is a fairly common thing but I just never needed it. For what I've used it for, it has worked well. For a small business with anyone with a little bit of technical skill, it's surprisingly good.
Read full review
Squarespace
I have a gorgeous website that I made myself, thanks to Squarespace. I'm able to integrate marketing emails, SEO, analytics, online carts, pretty much instantly. If you want to get started fast, it's really great. I think if you want to customize square space and you're having trouble, it would be most helpful to hire a square space designer. That's what I would have done in retrospect.
Read full review
Pros
GoDaddy
  • Registering a domain - I've found their site to be the easiest to navigate
  • Website builder - their website builder is user friendly
  • Email hosting - easy to set up and use, wether in an email app or online email.
  • Wordpress hosting - I have multiple wordpress sites I use under one account
  • Their customer service is always very helpful and easy to contact.
Read full review
Squarespace
  • Stupid simple to use. I know very creative people who cannot code and this is probably the easiest ever platform for them!
  • Pretty website templates and great functionality with showing off portfolios.
  • They've already figured out what are the problems that non-coding people have when creating websites and they've figured out a simple solution for all of it.
Read full review
Cons
GoDaddy
  • Support agents are woefully undertrained, even in knowledge of their own products.
  • Support agents will always try to upsell you, even when you're dealing with an urgent, high-impact issue.
  • There's no guarantee of uptime, and there will often be gaps in service as part of normal procedures.
Read full review
Squarespace
  • As a wine company it would really love it if Squarespace had an easy plugin for wine club subscriptions.
  • Squarespace would be awesome if it could automatically take your photos that you upload on the site and optimize them for the web and for the website.
  • I do wish we could have more than two contributors for the basic website costs.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
GoDaddy
We can't really choose anyone else and the cost/effort of moving all of the hosted data would be extremely large, and we just have to stick to them, and hope they improve service
Read full review
Squarespace
Unless our website requires significantly more functionality in the future, I can't see us terminating our contract
Read full review
Usability
GoDaddy
Some integration could be much cleaner and smoother. Seems it used to be easier. Plus, they took away the catch all email feature.
Read full review
Squarespace
It's simple to use for someone who is really good with computers as well as those who are not. I've been using my personal squarespace for years and have also helped clients build a starting page which they are later able to manage theirselves.
Read full review
Support Rating
GoDaddy
I think a lot of companies can learn from GoDaddy's support team. I have found:
  • Chat or phone support is almost always available.
  • Their agents are friendly and helpful.
  • Their agents seem to care and be knowledgeable about a wide range of issues.
  • I rarely have to escalate my problem to get the support that I need.
  • If they can't help me, then they can tell me why something is happening and direct me to resources that can fix my problem.
Read full review
Squarespace
Help is available directly from the back end and uses full sentence searching to find answers to questions others may have asked before. With a ton of articles and support questions documents, it is very likely that your question has been answered. If not each page has the ability to open a direct email to support. Each case has a number and can be followed. Responses are often quick and have links and directions clearly stated
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Alternatives Considered
GoDaddy
We use Wix currently for our online store. It is nice and easy to use, but they don't offer the email domains as well (the last time we checked). They have pretty decent customization of the web page, but still limited. We're going to try it with GoDaddy, since we have other services from them already. It just doesn't make sense to pay two different companies for something we can do with one.
Read full review
Squarespace
Overall, as a designer, it makes perfect sense for small to large businesses to use a site such as SquareSpace. Costs are relatively reasonable with the ability to go in and do custom code.
The issue is certain aspects of it, depending on the plan, you can't do. So, if you want to do API to the site, you need to use the top-tier program to do so. Even at custom code, you won't have access to the API section.
As well, like all templates and themes, everybody is using the same style too.
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Return on Investment
GoDaddy
  • GoDaddy reduces our ROI by costing me in non-billable hours. I don't charge clients for sitting on the phone with tech support to power cycle the server or fix the php.ini file, so my $/hr takes a hit.
  • Their nickel&dime strategy requires I have an additional conversation with clients about their max recurring fees. Small as they are, I need approval for upping their bill. GoDaddy is only the cheap option if you don't value security, stability, or performance.
Read full review
Squarespace
  • The key positive impact on my overall business objectives is how simple Squarespace sites are to implement new information. Whenever our services change, we can quickly update pages or even change how the website flows, in a very short window of time. This allows me to get back to more urgent work sooner.
  • Our Squarespace site for Club Swim Show helped present our web series to potential partners; Club Swim Show went on to partner with a popular swimming magazine and reach a larger audience through that magazine's hosting thanks to the professional design of our original website.
  • Squarespace does not bring in customers to my storefront, which is fine for me, since I sell things infrequently and it is not my main business, but might work against someone who is expecting a Shopify or Etsy level connection with buyer markets.
Read full review
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