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

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4.8

out of 5

3.8

out of 5

Looking for a platform to build your online store? Chances are you’ve heard of Shopify and GoDaddy – but what’s the difference between them?

Of the two, we think that Shopify is the best choice, and our research gave it an overall score of 4.6 out of 5. It has the scalability to handle both small and large stores, and has all of the features you could need to thrive online.

That’s not to say GoDaddy is bad. If you need an online store quickly and with little fuss, GoDaddy is your friend.

For a quick glance at how the two platforms compare, take a look at our graphics below…

Best for ecommerce

4.8

out of 5
Top Choice
Ease of Use

4 out of 5 stars

Value For Money

3.6 out of 5 stars

Design Flexibility

4.4 out of 5 stars

Sales Features

4.7 out of 5 stars

Help and Support

3.9 out of 5 stars

Customer Score

4.4 out of 5 stars

Fastest builder

3.8

out of 5
Ease of Use

4.1 out of 5 stars

Value For Money

3.4 out of 5 stars

Design Flexibility

3 out of 5 stars

Features

3.3 out of 5 stars

Help and Support

3.8 out of 5 stars

Customer Score

4.3 out of 5 stars

Shopify is better for users who want lots of inventory control, and are looking to build a complex online store.

Shopify is our top choice for anyone aiming high, and who wants a large online store capable of handling complex inventories and lots of customers. If you want a ton of great features, such as empty-cart retrieval, plus a comprehensive app store, Shopify is the best option. When it comes to small stores, Shopify excels. And, if you ever choose to expand, you won’t need to change builders!

Try Shopify Today!

GoDaddy is better for users who want to create an ecommerce store quickly, and don’t mind ending up with a simpler platform.

GoDaddy is our top choice for users who want a stress-free experience, and just want to get an online store up and running as quickly as possible. If you haven’t got the time to set up hundreds of features, or list all of the inventory, GoDaddy helps you create a store in a flash. It may not be the most complicated ecommerce provider out there, but it’s the easiest to use, making it perfect for people on the go.

Try GoDaddy Today!

Shopify vs GoDaddy: Quick Comparison

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

Category Shopify GoDaddy
Ease of Use
Winner: GoDaddy
Drag-and-drop design and visual cues make it pretty easy to build your store ADI generates a professional-looking website within a few minutes – it couldn’t be easier
Design
Winner: Shopify
Over 60 mobile responsive themes with sales-focused features, created by independent designers GoDaddy’s ADI creates around 19 variants of each industry’s theme, but you don’t have much flexibility as a user
Ecommerce Tools & Features
Winner: Shopify
Has a superb range of sales tools and features, with lots of shipping options Covers the basics, but could offer more – particularly with its limited shipping solutions
Help & Support
Winner: Shopify
Shopify provides excellent support around the clock with 24/7 phone and live chat support, among other channels like social media, email, and a forum Offers 24/7 live chat and phone support, but not much else
Payment Options & Transaction Fees
It's a tie!
Supports a wide range of payment gateways, including digital wallet options and cryptocurrency, with zero transaction fees on Shopify Payments Doesn’t support as many gateways, but is simpler to use
Pricing
It's a tie!
Offers the most plans and the best eccomerce features, but is the more expensive option. Great for large businesses Has less features and only two ecommerce plans, but is cheaper. Great for small business or users on a budget
Are You Ready? Visit Shopify Visit GoDaddy

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…

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Further Information

Shopify vs GoDaddy: Pros and Cons

Shopify Pros and Cons

Shopify Pros Shopify Cons
Multi-channel selling Limited trial period
Superb inventory system Enforces transaction fees on alternative payment gateways

Shopify is the best dedicated ecommerce platform on the market – it has an intuitive inventory system, and the platform lets you sell across numerous channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. However, the trial period Shopify offers is relatively short compared to its competitors, and you’ll have to pay transaction fees if you don’t use Shopify Payments as your payment gateway.

shopify logo small website builder

Does Shopify Sound Right For You?

Explore Shopify yourself to get an idea of its strengths and weaknesses. We’ll wait!

GoDaddy Pros and Cons

GoDaddy Pros GoDaddy Cons
Fastest and easiest way to build an ecommerce store Some feature lack quality
Supports more industries than its competitors Does not accept as wide of a range of payment options

GoDaddy uses ADI to create online stores in the blink of an eye – it’s a quick and easy solution. It also supports a huge range of industries, making it an accessible option for almost any ecommerce ambitions. On the downside, some of GoDaddy’s features lack depth and quality, meaning it can’t match the sheer variety of Shopify.

godaddy logo

Does GoDaddy Sound Like the Best Choice For You?

GoDaddy isn’t as powerful as Shopify, but that doesn’t mean it’s not right for you. Take your time to explore its website before continuing!

Further Information

Ease of Use: Which Seems More Seamless?

GoDaddy logo
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.
Visit GoDaddy

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.

godaddy logo

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!

Design Flexibility: Can You Get Creative?

Shopify logo 2
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.
Visit Shopify

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.

shopify theme selection with previews and a category list to the right
Shopify's themes are created by independent designers, ranging from free to $350. Click the image to browse Shopify's themes.

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.

GoDaddy editor for a wedding photography theme
GoDaddy creates your website within minutes, and you'll be impressed by the results.
shopify logo small website builder

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?

Further Information

Ecommerce Tools and Features: Which Has The Bigger Toolbox?

Shopify logo 2
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.
Visit Shopify

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.

Shopify cart features with descriptions underneath each
Shopify has an immense range of sales tools and features to help grow your business quickly and easily. Click the image to explore Shopify's features.

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.

shopify logo small website builder

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.

Help and Support: Which Offers The Bigger Helping Hand?

Shopify logo 2
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.
Visit Shopify

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.

shopify logo small website builder

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.

Payment Options and Fees: How Much Does it Cost to Sell?

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.

GoDaddy help page for accepting online payments
GoDaddy lets you accept payments from PayPal, Stripe and all major credit cards. For help, they provide guides on how to integrate.

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. 

Pricing: Which Is Better Value?

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.

Shopify's three price plans with prices and small summary and the Basic plan highlighted in green
Shopify has three main price plans, which all represent good value for money. Click the image to view Shopify's price plans.
shopify logo small website builder

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.

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.

godaddy logo

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!

Shopify vs GoDaddy: Conclusion

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.

shopify logo small website builder

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.

Shopify vs GoDaddy: FAQs

To connect your GoDaddy domain, click on the ‘connect existing domain’ button on the Shopify admin page, then enter the domain you want to use. Click ‘connect automatically’, and you’ll then be asked to sign into your GoDaddy account. Sign in, and your domain will connect to Shopify. 
Shopify offers Secure Sockets Layer protection for all websites when you connect your domain. This certificate encrypts the data passed between your customers and your store, making your website safe from hackers. Having SSL will also help to improve your ranking on search engines.
It depends what you’re looking for. GoDaddy is ideal for users looking to get an online store up and running quickly and easily, and who aren’t too fussed about having lots of inventory control. In comparison, BigCommerce is for large, fast-growing ecommerce stores, offering powerful built-in tools.

GoDaddy offers a 30-day free trial period, one of the longest of any platform on the market. Shopify offers just a 3-day free trial, but you can get your first three months for $1 per month on the Basic plan, which allows you to test its impressive range of features without spending too much.

Shopify has one of the best app markets of any ecommerce platform. Within the marketplace, you can easily search and install plugins for almost any area of ecommerce, helping to bolster your online store. In contrast, GoDaddy doesn’t have an app market at all.
GoDaddy is a website builder with ecommerce capabilities, while Shopify is primarily an ecommerce-focused platform. GoDaddy has more of an emphasis on ease of use and customization, as it can be used as a platform to build many types of websites, not just online stores. Shopify, on the other hand, is built with online selling in mind and has a range of great features designed for users to do exactly that.
GoDaddy has a cheaper starting price of $16.99/month for its ecommerce plans, while Shopify starts at $23.99/month, but Shopify is better value due to its greater ecommerce features.
GoDaddy is known for its domain registrar which would make it an obvious choice, but it actually all depends on son who you’re building your website with. If you just need a domain, GoDaddy is probably your best bet but if you want to build a website with Shopify, then you should buy a domain with them as well to reduce hassle.
Written by:

Being a Writer for Website Builder Expert isn’t just typing words on a laptop. Each day, I’m finding new and innovative ways to help you get online in a mode you feel comfortable with. And it’s a task I do with enthusiasm and gusto. Not only do I have experience building with all the providers we talk about - creating websites such as this Strikingly demo - but we also have our wonderful, constantly updated research fielded by our researchers, so you can be reassured that what we say is an honest reflection of our professional opinions.

I’ve written articles and featured guest posts for apps like UXPin on web design in the modern age, as well as answered over 100 user comments on the site and delved into the world of choosing a domain name and adding Bitcoin payments to your site in my own pitched articles. All of this is to say that when I want to get you online - I mean it!

Outside the office, I have attended the eCommerce Expo and built up a ton of industry knowledge through talks, workshops, and guided learning sessions with noted experts.

The internet is made for everyone, so come online and let us help you get there.

Researched by:
natasha_willett
Natasha Willett Lead Researcher

I love to understand human behavior and the cognitive biases that drive us to do what we do. For over nine years I have worked as a mixed method researcher – research using a mix of numerical data and personal experiences – across a range of sectors, from insurance and policy development to finally arriving at Website Builder Expert five years ago. Fascinated by consumer decision-making, I meticulously built our leading ranking methodology to explore where providers like Wix sit within a competitive industry and what value they truly bring to our audience.

As a member of the Market Research Society, I’m an advocate for high ethical, commercial, and methodological best practices. All of this combines to give you the most ethical recommendations based on real data.

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