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Whether your business is a traditional brick-and-mortar or online or you’re a creative who wants to showcase your work, it is imperative in today’s world to have an online presence. A website is the cornerstone of that online presence.
With website building software, it is easier than ever to create a quick website from scratch—no coding required. While there are a number of companies out there to choose from, GoDaddy and Squarespace rise to the top as far as popularity, ease of use and affordability are concerned.
Featured Partners
1
Wix
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
E-commerce in entry-level plan
No
2
BlueHost
Starting price
$2.95 USD ($4.05 CAD) per month
Storage and bandwidth
Unmetered bandwidth, and SSD storage starts at 10GB
Extras and inclusions
Free domain name and SSL for a year, free CDN
3
Squarespace
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
Standout Features
Free domain and SSL certificate, no transaction fees, award-winning templates
GoDaddy vs. Squarespace: At a Glance
Squarespace is an all-in-one beginner website builder. It combines a reliable website builder stocked full of sleek templates with an easily customizable e-commerce store and a digital marketing centre. GoDaddy was founded in 1997. While it is arguably the world’s most well-known domain registrar and web hosting company, it also offers website building, an e-commerce plan and marketing features.
GoDaddy and Squarespace both offer customizable, drag-and-drop templates, easy-to-use website building features aimed toward newbie website builders, security features and simple search engine optimization (SEO) features. While GoDaddy offers cheaper plans, both are affordable even for small businesses. They do differ in creative flexibility, pricing and functionality. Deciding on the right platform for your business or brand will come down to what you want your site to do and which types of options you are looking for.
GoDaddy
Starting price
$11.99 CAD
per month
E-commerce plans
Yes
Free version available
Yes
Starting price
$11.99 CAD
per month
E-commerce plans
Yes
Free version available
Yes
If you have watched the Super Bowl in the last ten years, then you have probably seen an ad for GoDaddy. It is the world’s largest web host and domain registrar, boasting 20 million customers worldwide. GoDaddy’s website builder is one of its main features. It is one of the few website builders that uses artificial design intelligence (ADI), allowing customers to create a website in a matter of minutes.
After answering a handful of questions, the ADI software will create a website template based on the answers you provide. Users can then add content, tweak the design and publish the website. Although it is the fastest way to design a website, the downside of ADI is that it limits the user’s creative control.
GoDaddy offers a generous promotional price on each plan when you sign up for a full year, but on the flip side, this means that your renewal price will be much higher the next time around. If your goal is to set up an online store, you’ll need to spring for one of the Commerce plans. After the promotional period ends, these options cost at least $15.99 CAD per month.
- Inexpensive
- User-friendly
- Works with artificial design intelligence
- Limited design features
- Creative restrictions
- Basic and Premium plans do not include online store
Squarespace
Starting price
$21 CAD
per month
E-commerce plans
Yes
Free version available
No
Starting price
$21 CAD
per month
E-commerce plans
Yes
Free version available
No
Squarespace is an all-in-one website builder with a monthly subscription that includes templates, site management, plug-ins, e-commerce plans, marketing features and support. All Squarespace plans include fully managed cloud hosting, which ensures your website remains available at all times and saves you from having to pay a separate hosting service fee.
Squarespace is best known for its vast number of stunning templates and designs. Templates pair effortlessly with mobile platforms so websites look just as appealing on any device. Users should know that there is a trade-off between design and time. Users can design and tweak Squarespace’s templates to ensure their websites stand out from the crowd, however, that slows down the length of time it takes before a website goes live.
You can choose between paying monthly or annually when signing up for a Squarespace plan. Monthly subscriptions start at $30 CAD per month, but you receive a discount if you pay for an entire year upfront.
- Sleek, modern templates
- Mobile-friendly layouts
- Free 14-day trial
- Does not offer phone support
- Does not offer free plan
- Plans are more expensive
How GoDaddy and Squarespace Stack Up
While the two companies offer many of the same features, Squarespace is more expensive than GoDaddy on each of its four plans. Both platforms bundle web hosting with their website builders, so there is no additional fee for that.
GoDaddy and Squarespace are almost identical in terms of SEO support. Both allow for the editing of meta titles and descriptions, customizable URLs, adding image alt text and keyword support. Squarespace, however, generates a site map of website pages automatically to help search engines find and index the website pages and improve SEO.
Squarespace wins on the template front; its template designs are easily some of the best on the market. The company offers numerous high-quality, modern templates for users to choose from. Each template translates seamlessly to a mobile device. The drag-and-drop features help newbie users customize their websites with a small learning curve. These templates are especially useful for creatives looking to showcase their artwork or photography, or online stores wanting a clean way to present their products.
GoDaddy offers an artificial design intelligence (ADI) system, allowing the user to create a website in minutes by simply answering a few questions. GoDaddy then delivers a prebuilt website based on those answers. This helps users get their website live in as little time as possible, but the ease with which users can set up their website means they sacrifice on the creative design side. GoDaddy’s templates tend to look bland compared to Squarespace’s templates.
GoDaddy provides superior customer support thanks to the availability of live chat and phone support 24/7. Squarespace does not offer phone support and limits its live chat to a 12-hour window Monday through Friday.
Featured Partners
1
Wix
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
E-commerce in entry-level plan
No
2
BlueHost
Starting price
$2.95 USD ($4.05 CAD) per month
Storage and bandwidth
Unmetered bandwidth, and SSD storage starts at 10GB
Extras and inclusions
Free domain name and SSL for a year, free CDN
3
Squarespace
Starting price
$16 USD ($21.88 CAD) per month
Drag-and-drop editor
Yes
Standout Features
Free domain and SSL certificate, no transaction fees, award-winning templates
Bottom Line
Between these two options, GoDaddy is the faster and cheaper way to build a website. It is a great choice for small businesses that want to get online quickly and cheaply and do not mind sacrificing some creativity for speed.
Because of its aesthetically pleasing templates, Squarespace lends itself to the creative field where high-quality photography can enhance the work of artists, bloggers and certain online stores. Squarespace is a great option for those who want to invest time and money in creating a memorable online presence.
Canadian specific editing and research (including pricing) conducted by Anna Rey.
Related: Webflow Vs. Squarespace
