Shopify vs GoDaddy: Which Should You Use to Sell Online?

Want a quick rundown of the two competitors? Check out this table and see for yourself how well they do in our categories…

Do you wish someone would just tell you exactly which platform is best for you instead of reading this whole comparison? Well, the good news is, we have a quick and easy quiz for you! Simply answer a few questions to get a personalized recommendation…

The Winner

GoDaddy is easier to use than Shopify

GoDaddy uses ADI to create your online store in a matter of minutes, and it represents the quickest and easiest way to get your ecommerce store up and running. While Shopify offers an intuitive drag-and-drop design, it can’t match GoDaddy’s overall ease of use.

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Running a business is hard. With so many invoices, client pitches, and other tasks to juggle, building an online store shouldn’t feel like another challenge to add to the pile.

Shopify wouldn’t be so popular if it was hard to use, right? The truth is that Shopify is easy to use – signing up for the free trial takes a few clicks, the drag-and-drop design makes customizing your store feel seamless, and it has plenty of visual cues to help you from start to finish. But it can’t match GoDaddy.

When it comes to ease of use, GoDaddy takes the crown with a score of 4.1 out of 5 in our research, in comparison to Shopify which only scores 3.5 out of 5. GoDaddy’s ADI can design a whole ecommerce store in just a few minutes – all you have to do is answer a few questions about your business and industry, then you’re offered a website that’s ready to publish.

However, it must be said that with the use of ADI, GoDaddy restricts your creative freedom. If you’re looking to embody your brand’s vision within your online store, then Shopify gives you the tools to do so.

Do You Want to Save Time and Effort?

GoDaddy’s ADI builder makes creating an online store super quick and easy, as it does most of the work for you!

Yes! I Want to Visit GoDaddy

The Winner

Shopify has better design flexibility

Shopify offers more creative freedom than GoDaddy – it has over 90 templates to choose from, all of which come with sales-focused features, such as product zoom and shopping cart icons. GoDaddy’s ADI generates your website on its own, which doesn’t leave much room for design flexibility.

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Shopify has over 90 themes to choose from, all of which are created by independent designers. Costing between $200 and $350, the paid themes are relatively expensive, but there are also nine free options if you’re strapped for cash.

In terms of functionality, Shopify’s themes incorporate a product zoom feature, which provides visitors with a more exciting purchasing journey. They also contain a shopping cart icon in the top right corner – to put it simply, Shopify’s templates have all been designed with the user in mind.

GoDaddy’s ADI has the ability to create over 1,500 different types of industry-specific websites. For each industry that it caters for, there are approximately 19 theme variations, but keep in mind that you don’t have much creative freedom at all once your site is generated.

We have to admit that GoDaddy’s templates are rather simple. While this does let your products do the talking, you might want to look elsewhere for flashy website templates – we’d recommend Squarespace as your first port of call.

Last but not least, both platforms provide mobile responsive themes. This means your online store will reshuffle to fit on any sized screen, keeping your store looking fresh on all devices.

Do You Want a Beautiful Storefront?

Shopify gives you more creative control than GoDaddy, and we were impressed by its feature-rich templates. Will they wow you too?

Yes! I Want to See Shopify's Designs

The Winner

Shopify has the best ecommerce tools and features

Shopify has some of the best ecommerce tools on the market, coming second in our research with a score of 4.5 out of 5. It therefore wins this round quite easily. GoDaddy has lots of decent ecommerce attributes, particularly with its easy-to-use abandoned cart recovery feature, but it can’t match Shopify in terms of inventory control, tracking tools, and shipping options.

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You’ve built your online store, so now you need to get down to the really important part – selling! 

Shopify is a powerful force in the world of ecommerce. It should come as no surprise that it performs well in this section – it has all of the ecommerce features you need to sell, ship, and return products without fuss.

With Shopify, you can have an unlimited amount of products in your store, along with multiple product variants (like color and size). It also has a built-in abandoned cart recovery feature, which encourages customers to finalize a purchase if they’ve left your website before paying. This is important seeing as 71% of US shoppers abandon their carts at checkout.

Refunds are part and parcel of running an ecommerce store, and Shopify has made the shipping process a breeze. It has synced up with several leading shipping providers, including USPS, DHL Express, UPS, and Canada Post, and you can print labels if you’re based in the US, allowing you to add a touch of personality to your post.

There’s also Shopify’s recent acquisition of logistics startup Deliverr which promises to reduce the hassle for merchants to get their inventories from “port to porch”, making Shopify an ideal one-stop shop for all ecommerce needs.

With ecommerce features, GoDaddy’s performance is average. You can only add up to 5,000 products to your GoDaddy online store, unless you upgrade to the Commerce Plus plan, and you can’t track customer engagement, or your VAT spending. In terms of shipping, you can only sync your store with UPS, Shippo, and DHL.

What we do love about GoDaddy is the automatic abandoned cart recovery reminder – quite a mouthful. This is a handy feature, because you can send automated emails to remind customers to checkout, at the flick of a button.

Do You Want a Powerful Store?

Shopify is unbeaten when it comes to sales tools, making it a really scalable option for stores of all sizes.

Yes! I Want to Explore Shopify's Features

The Winner

Shopify has the best help and support

Shopify’s helping hand is slightly larger than GoDaddy’s, scoring 3.8 out of 5 in our research for help and support. While both platforms offer social media responses, 24/7 phone support, and 24/7 live chat, Shopify goes the extra mile with email help, and specialized support on its higher price plans.

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A good level of customer support keeps your online store running, the cash flowing, and the customers happy – it’s an important part of growing a successful ecommerce empire. But which platform helps the most?

Once again, Shopify pulls out all the stops. It provides 24/7 phone and live chat support, as well as email and social media help. On top of that, there’s a forum to help you with any issues you might have. Overall, you’re never left feeling clueless when using Shopify.

GoDaddy is also very helpful, scoring 3.3 out of 5 in our help and support testing — only slightly behind Shopify. Providing 24/7 phone and live chat support, and online tutorials, it’s one of the most supportive platforms on the market today. It even has a dedicated Twitter support account. However, it loses points by not providing any email support or tech tickets.

Do You Value a Helping Hand?

We all get a little stuck sometimes, and Shopify has awesome support in place to help you out in times of trouble.

Yes! I Want to Visit Shopify Now

The Winner

It's a draw! Shopify and GoDaddy both have great payment options

It’s a draw! Shopify accepts over 14 different payment gateways, including digital wallet payments, cryptocurrency, and more. But, while GoDaddy supports slightly fewer gateways, it boasts some of the lowest transaction fees in comparison to its competitors. Shopify’s fees are higher unless you subscribe to Shopify Payments for zero transaction fees.

By accepting more payment methods, you can sell to a wider audience and earn more money. As you can see, it’s important that your chosen platform has plenty of payment options, plus low transaction fees.

Shopify is very liberal with its payment options. It accepts a wide range of gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, ApplePay, and even cryptocurrency or cash on delivery. 

When it comes to transaction fees, however, Shopify is less inclusive. You’re required to pay transaction fees on all payment gateways, unless you use the platform’s own gateway, Shopify Payments. This means you only pay the usual credit card rates charged by the credit company when using Shopify Payments.

This is another area where GoDaddy does okay in. It accepts the three main payment options – PayPal, Stripe, and Apple Pay – as well as supporting Square in Canada, Australia, and the UK. However, GoDaddy redeems itself with some of the lowest transaction fees imposed on any payment gateway, ranging from 2.3% to 3.3% per transaction. 

The Winner

It's a draw! Shopify and GoDaddy's pricings are equally good value

Shopify offers more variety and features with its three plans, starting from $29/month, making it our choice for those wanting to start a larger store. GoDaddy on the other hand begins at a cheaper $16.99 a month but comes equipped with fewer ecommerce features. Additionally, it only has two ecommerce plans. We recommend it for those who are wanting a smaller store or are on a budget and don’t mind not having the full robust features.

When building an ecommerce store, it’s important to think about the running costs of the platform. Do Shopify’s price plans stay within your budget? Or will GoDaddy suit your needs better? Let’s find out.

Shopify has three main price plans, and we’ve listed the monthly fees below:

• Basic: $29/month
• Shopify: $79/month
• Advance Shopify: $299/month

Overall, Shopify represents fairly good value for money, offering some of the best ecommerce tools and customer support on the market. It’s worth noting that there’s also a tailored plan option called Shopify Plus, which is only available via quote. Check out the table below, which details what you get on each price plan.

Did One Of Shopify's Plans Catch Your Eye?

Shopify’s plans may not be the cheapest, but they do pack a ton of features into powering your store, offering good value.

Yes! I Want to See Shopify's Plans

GoDaddy is a lot more simple in the pricing department than Shopify. It has two ecommerce plans:

• Commerce: $16.99/month
• Commerce Plus: $29.99/month

While these plans are considerably more affordable than Shopify’s, there aren’t enough sales specific features – such as mass product importation, or analytics features – to it make as cost-effective as Shopify. That being said, GoDaddy does offer an impressive 30-day free trial, so you can try it out for yourself first before you make a decision.

Do You Want to Keep Pricing Simple?

GoDaddy has two ecommerce plans, and although they’re not as scalable as Shopify’s, they’re more budget-friendly!

Yes! I Want to See GoDaddy's Plans

We recommend Shopify as our number one choice. It simply packs too much punch for GoDaddy in the ecommerce department, particularly with its top-quality features, customer support, and range of accepted payment gateways. GoDaddy is a very good ecommerce builder, but it doesn’t quite match Shopify in the key areas. With an overall score of 4.6 out of 5 against GoDaddy’s 3.8, we have to follow our own data and crown Shopify as the winner of this battle.

Shopify is one of the best platforms on the market for a reason. It’s best for online store ambitions of any size, offering the tools you need to build an ecommerce empire.

GoDaddy, on the other hand, is a better option for users who want to get an online store built quickly, and who don’t need so many complex sales tools. Essentially, if you don’t have the time to spend hours designing an online store, then GoDaddy is a good fit.

That being said, we’d recommend Shopify for almost any online store. It balances simplicity with complexity in all the right areas – it’s easy to build a Shopify store, and you have access to some of the most powerful sales tools on the market. 

Also, with a 3-day free trial on all plans, that extends into paying $1 per month for the first three month on the Basic plan, and regular prices starting from $29 per month, it’s a profitable, budget-friendly platform.

Are You Ready to Try Shopify?

You can try Shopify free for 14 days – it’s a powerful, easy to use platform for building your online store.

I'm Ready! I Want to Try Shopify