Shopify vs 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 cannot match GoDaddy.

When it comes to ease of use, GoDaddy takes the crown. Its 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.

Shopify has over 60 themes to choose from, all of which are created by independent designers. Costing between $100 and $180, the paid themes are relatively expensive, but there are also 9 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 – 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.

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

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

With ecommerce features, GoDaddy does just about ok. You can only add up to 5,000 products to your GoDaddy online store, and you cannot 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.

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 and 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 just about ok. It accepts the three main payment options – PayPal, Stripe, and Square – as well as supporting Apple Pay via Stripe. However, GoDaddy redeems itself with zero transaction fees imposed on any payment gateway. Like Shopify Payments, the only fee you will pay is the usual credit card charge, which is usually around 2.2% of each sale.

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. Providing phone support 24/7, live chat help, 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 24/7 live chat, or any tech tickets.

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:

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

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

GoDaddy is a lot more simple in the pricing department than Shopify. It has one ecommerce plan, costing $24.99 per month. While this price plan makes it easy to manage your budget, there aren’t enough sales specific features – such as mass product importation, or analytics features – to it make as good value for money as Shopify.

We’ve compared two of the biggest names in the online store universe, analysing each platform’s attributes in all the key areas needed for selling products online. But which ecommerce builder came out on top?

Before we reveal our winner, let’s quickly recap what we’ve covered…

You can see from our table that Shopify wins today’s battle. It simply packs too much of 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.

Shopify is the best platform 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 is best 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 option.

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 14-day free trial and prices starting from $29 per month, it’s a profitable,  budget-friendly platform.