GoDaddy Website Builder or a Web Designer?

Plenty of owners register a domain with GoDaddy and are offered its website builder at checkout. It's a reasonable option. Here's what it costs, the work it hands back to you, what you get from paying a designer instead, and how to tell which suits your business.

From $399, no GST added
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Why this question comes up

GoDaddy sells domain names and a website builder from the same account, so the builder is usually offered the moment you register an address. That makes it the obvious first step for a lot of owners: you already have the address, the builder is a click away, and you can start for free.

The alternative is paying someone to design and build the site for you. That might be a freelancer, a team like ours, or an agency. The decision isn't really about GoDaddy at all. It's whether you build the site yourself on a hosted platform, or hand the job to a person and pay for their time instead of spending your own.

What the GoDaddy builder gives you

GoDaddy's own Australian guide to hosting costs, published in April 2026, sets out the main points. You can start building for free. It gives Website Builder prices from $15.95 a month with hosting included, and the Ecommerce plan for selling online at $26.95 a month. For its online store, GoDaddy says you can build a small-to-medium shop for free and pay once you start taking orders.

As with other hosted builders, you choose a template, add your text, images and business details, and publish. business.gov.au describes this kind of service as a subscription that bundles hosting, templates and optional extras, with the provider expected to keep the site secure. Check GoDaddy's current Australian plan page before you commit, because introductory prices and renewal prices are often different, and the price you pay in the second year is the one that lasts.

For an owner who wants something online today and is comfortable with a drag-and-drop editor, that's a lot of capability for a low monthly cost.

The jobs a builder leaves with you

The subscription price covers the software. The website itself is still your project. Before a builder site is ready to show customers, someone has to:

Decide which pages you need and what goes on each, in what order.
Write or gather the text for every page, including headings that tell a visitor what you do and where.
Choose, crop and resize photos so they look sharp without slowing the page on a phone.
Set up the enquiry form, test that messages arrive, and check they don't land in spam.
Fill in page titles and descriptions for search results.
Check every page on a phone, where most local customers will see it, and fix whatever wraps or overlaps.
Connect the domain and set up business email.
Keep it current: hours, prices, services, photos and reviews.

None of those is difficult on its own, and plenty of owners enjoy doing them. Together they usually add up to several evenings for the first version, then a steady trickle of small jobs. The honest question is whether that time is better spent on the site or on the business.

What you're paying a web designer for

A designer takes most of that list off you. With us, it works like this. You send your own words and photos; we don't write copy or take photos, but we arrange what you send into pages that read well and lead a visitor towards calling or sending an enquiry. We design and hand-code each site, with no page builder or WordPress theme underneath. We build the forms, the tap-to-call buttons and any service-area pages, test it on phones, register the domain in your name and set up your business email.

The other thing you're paying for is judgement: someone who has seen what works for businesses like yours and will tell you when a page is trying to do too much. That's harder to put a price on, and it's also where designers differ most, so look at their past work before you hire anyone.

What you give up is direct control. Our sites have no editor, so changes go to us by email or phone. Text and image changes on your existing pages are included in our $30 monthly hosting, and new pages or features are quoted before we start.

The money, laid out

Designer prices vary a great deal. GoDaddy's own April 2026 guide says a professionally designed brochure website starts at around $3,000, and a small-to-medium online store at around $6,000. Our packages are fixed and sit below that:

GoDaddy builder costs from GoDaddy's 2026 guide, and our prices
What you need	GoDaddy Website Builder	WebCraft Studio
A simple business site	Free to start; paid plans from $15.95 a month	$399 for one page, $899 for up to 3, $1,499 for up to 8, paid once
An online store	Ecommerce plan $26.95 a month	$799 for up to 25 products, or $1,999 unlimited, paid once
Hosting	Included in the plan	$30 a month after launch, no contract
Changes after launch	You make them in the editor	Text and image changes on existing pages included in hosting
Who builds it	You	We do, from your words and photos
When you pay	Each month or year, in advance	Once you've approved the finished draft; no deposit

Over three years, a builder plan at $15.95 a month comes to about $574, while our one-page site plus hosting comes to $1,479. The builder is cheaper in cash, and if your time is free that settles it. Our prices have no GST added, and a domain costs about $20 a year either way.

If you ever want to move

A site made in GoDaddy's builder lives on GoDaddy's platform. WPBeginner's May 2026 guide to moving off it says there's no export tool, so leaving means saving your text and images yourself, noting your page addresses so they can be redirected, and rebuilding the pages somewhere else. That's common among hosted builders, and it's manageable if you've kept your own copies of your words and photos.

Your domain is a separate thing from the site. It can stay where it's registered while the website moves, as long as you can log in to the account that holds it and it's registered to your business. Check that now rather than when you need it: an account set up years ago by a former staff member or a relative is a common snag.

A hand-coded site is a set of files. If you leave us, you take a full copy to any host, and the domain we registered stays in your name.

When the GoDaddy builder is the right call

You have more time than money right now, and you're comfortable writing and laying out pages yourself.
You want to change things often, such as weekly specials, events or new products, and do it from your phone.
You're testing a side business and want something live before you've decided whether it will last.
You need a basic online store quickly, with few products, and want to pay only once orders start.
You already have your domain and email with GoDaddy and like keeping everything in one account.

A builder site you made yourself, kept current and clear, is better than no site at all.

When a web designer is the better investment

Customers compare you with two or three others before they call, so the first impression on a phone matters.
You've started a builder site and it has sat half-finished for months.
You need things a template doesn't handle neatly, such as a quote form with several steps, a page for each suburb or region you cover, or an online booking and payment system built into the site. We quote booking and payment systems per job, or link the booking tool you already use.
You'd rather pay once, approve a finished draft, and send an email when something needs changing.
You don't have a logo yet. We'll help with one at no charge.

Questions to ask before choosing either

What will this cost in year two, not just month one?
Is the domain registered to your business, and can you log in to the account that holds it?
Who fixes it if the form stops sending, and how quickly?
If you leave, what do you take with you?
Are the prices quoted with or without GST?
For a designer: can you see sites they've built for businesses like yours, and do you pay before or after seeing the draft?

Our guide to choosing a web design company goes further on the designer side, and the hidden costs of a cheap website covers what to look for in any quote.

Our fixed prices, for comparison

Closest to a builder site

One page

$399

One page with your services, area, photos and an enquiry form, built for you and tested on phones.

Up to 3 pages

$899

A home page plus two more. Good for owners whose half-finished builder site has stalled.

Up to 8 pages

$1,499

Room for a page per service or suburb, which most templates make awkward to manage.

Payment. No deposit. We build your draft first, you ask for as many changes as you like, and you pay once you approve it. If you don't go ahead, you owe nothing.
GST. WebCraft Studio isn't registered for GST, so no GST is added.
Timing. Most sites are live within 5–10 days of us getting your words and photos; bigger sites (up to 8 pages) take 2–3 weeks.
Hosting. After launch, hosting is $30 a month: hosting, security monitoring, backups, email support and unlimited text and image changes on your existing pages. New pages or features are quoted first. No contract, cancel anytime.
Domain and email. We register your domain in your name (about $20 a year), connect it to your site and set up your business email.

See full pricing and what each package includes

GoDaddy builder or designer: common questions

Can you rebuild a GoDaddy builder site?

Yes. We start from the words and photos on your current site, priced by page count: $399, $899 or $1,499. Because the builder has no export, we rebuild the pages from scratch, and you can keep the domain where it is or have us look after it.

Does the domain have to move away from GoDaddy?

No. A domain can stay with its current registrar and simply point at the new site. We just need you to be able to log in to that account, or to give us access to change the settings.

Can a GoDaddy builder site rank on Google?

Yes. Search results depend mostly on your content, how relevant it is to what people search for, and things like reviews and your Google Business Profile, not on which tool built the page. Nobody can promise rankings, whichever way you build.

Is it worth paying a designer for a one-page site?

It can be, if your time is worth more than the difference. Our one-page site is $399, paid once you approve the draft, then $30 a month hosting. If you'd enjoy building it yourself and don't mind a few evenings, a builder is a fair choice.

What do you need from the business to start?

Your words for each page, your photos and your logo if you have one. We arrange them into the pages. Most sites are live within 5–10 days of us getting your words and photos; bigger sites of up to 8 pages take 2–3 weeks.

Get a fixed price instead of a blank template

Tell us what your business does and how many pages you need. We'll send a fixed quote, build the draft from your words and photos, and you pay once you're happy with it.