You build it on GoDaddy. Our experts build it for you.
Both get you a website. The difference is who spends the evenings on it and what you have to sort out yourself. Here is how the two compare, without us putting words in their mouth.
What GoDaddy is good at
GoDaddy is a domain company first, and a big one. If you have already bought a domain from them, their builder is sitting right there in the same account, which is the easiest possible next step and the reason a lot of small businesses end up on it.
The builder is simple on purpose. You answer a few questions, it puts a site together, and then it is yours to finish and keep up to date.
GoDaddy is the better choice if
You bought your domain from them and you want something online today that you will look after yourself.
Who does each job
A website is not finished when the template is picked. These are the jobs between that and a site that brings you work, and who does them.
| The job | GoDaddy | My Webby |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing how it looks | You pick a template and lay it out | Two designs come back for your business and you choose |
| Writing the words | You write them | Your expert writes them, you check them |
| Photos | You find and fit them | Send yours over, or your expert sources them |
| A page for each job you want | You build each one | Tell your expert the jobs, they build the pages |
| Getting it ready for Google | You, or an app you add | Done at build, on every page |
| Your domain and hosting | Bought and renewed separately | In the price |
| Business email on your domain | Bought separately | In the price |
| Changing it in six months | You log in and do it | Message your expert, usually done the same day |
| When something breaks | A help centre and a ticket | Your expert, who knows your site |
Every row on the right is a job you would otherwise be doing yourself. See what one of our experts would build you before you decide.
See your new website nowWhat it costs
Most people take Starter Plus at £99.99 a month, including VAT. That gets you the website built for you, your domain, the hosting, business email, online booking and changes when you need them. Plans start at £59.99 if all you want is the website, and there is no build fee either way.
We have not put a figure on what GoDaddy charges. Their plans change, they vary by tier, and the only price worth comparing is the one on their site today. Add up the plan, the domain, the email and anything else billed separately, then decide what your own evenings are worth.
Starter Plus
£99.99
a month, inc VAT
or £1,079.88 for the year, which saves you 10%. Plans start at £59.99, from £53.99 paid yearly.
What you actually do on GoDaddy
GoDaddy is built for a fast start. You answer a handful of questions, it puts a starting point together, and inside ten minutes there is something at your address. For getting a business visible this afternoon, that is hard to beat.
What arrives after those ten minutes is a starting point, not a finished site. The sections are there, full of placeholder wording and stock images, and turning that into your website means going through every one of them. Write the headings. Replace the text. Swap the pictures. Add a page for each kind of work you want more of.
Then the same second pass as any builder. Check every page on a phone. Fill in the titles Google reads. Point the contact form at the right inbox. Sort the redirect from whatever was there before. None of it is hard. All of it is evenings.
Quick to start, and what is left after
The ten minute site is real and it is worth being clear about what it gets you. It gets you a presence. An address that works, a phone number, a rough description of what you do. For some businesses that is enough, and they should take it.
What it does not get you is a site that brings in work. The gap between the two is a page for each job you want, written around the words people search for, with photos of work you have actually done and a form that asks what you would ask on the phone.
That gap is where the evenings go, and it is the same gap on every builder. GoDaddy just closes the first ten minutes faster than the rest, which makes the remainder easier to put off.
The domain, the email and the bill
This is where GoDaddy is different from the others, because it is a domain company first. The domain, the website and the mailboxes are separate products sitting in the same account, each with its own renewal.
We are not going to tell you what any of that costs, because their pricing changes and varies by plan and we would only get it wrong. What we would say is open the account and look at what renews, when, and at what rate, so you are comparing the whole bill and not the headline on one line of it.
On our side there is one monthly price and one invoice. The website, the domain, the hosting, the security certificate and business email on your own domain are all in it. Nothing renews separately and nothing turns up as a surprise a year later.
You do not have to decide from a table
Answer a few questions and two designs for your own business come back in about five minutes. Free to look at, and no card.
Business email matters more than people think
An address at your own domain does a quiet job. Someone deciding between two quotes reads both emails, and one came from a name at a business and the other from a name at a free mailbox. It is a small thing that sits under every message you send for the next ten years.
Every one of our plans includes it. Starter has one mailbox, Starter Plus has three, and your expert sets them up and gets them working on your phone rather than sending you a settings page. If you already have email on your domain somewhere else, we work around it instead of breaking it.
Getting found on Google
This we can speak on from our own trade. Being found comes down to what people type into the search box, and what they type is the job and the place. Not electrical services. Electrician Norwich, or fuse board replacement, or EV charger installer near me.
One page covering everything you do matches none of those properly. What matches them is a page for each job, written around the words people use, with your town in it. That is a decision made when the site is built and it is far easier then than later.
Then the invisible parts. A title and description on every page, a sitemap, the right code behind the scenes, pages that load fast on a phone. On a builder these are settings you go and find. With us they are done at build, on every page, and looked at again whenever the site changes.
Six months in
Most websites are fine on the day they go live. The difference shows six months later, when your hours change, you take on a new kind of work, a photo needs swapping or a price is out of date.
On a builder that is yours to do. Log back in, remember how the editor works, make the change, check it on a phone, publish. More often it does not happen, and the site quietly goes out of date.
With us you message your expert and they do it, usually the same day. Same person every time. On Starter Plus and Growth a set number of changes are included each month, and anything bigger is quoted before it starts.
See what an expert would build you
It takes five minutes and costs nothing. Hold the designs up against a template and judge for yourself.
If you are staying on GoDaddy, do these three things
If you have a GoDaddy site up already, these three things are worth doing before anything else, and none of them takes a weekend.
Go through every page and replace the wording that came with it, including the bits below the fold nobody scrolls to while they are building. Placeholder copy survives for years, and a visitor who spots it reads it as nobody minding the shop. Read each page out loud. If you would not say it to someone in a van, rewrite it.
Add a page for each kind of work you want more of. The starting point GoDaddy builds usually gives you one services page, and one page matches one kind of search. Five pages give you five ways to be found.
Open your account and write down what renews and when. The domain, the site and the mailboxes are separate products, and knowing the dates puts you in charge of them. While you are in there, get email working on your own domain if it is not already.
Which one is right for you
If you bought your domain from GoDaddy, you want something online today, and you are happy looking after it yourself, use their builder. It is in the account you already have and it will do the job.
If you want the finished thing without the evenings, that is us. You see two designs for your own business in about five minutes and an expert has the site live in days, with the domain, the hosting and your email all in the same monthly price.
Your domain stays yours either way. Keep it with GoDaddy and point it at the new site, or move it across. Whichever suits you.
My Webby and GoDaddy, asked and answered
I bought my domain from GoDaddy. Can I keep it?
Yes. Point it at your new site and leave it registered with GoDaddy, or move it to us, whichever you prefer. Your expert sorts that with you before the site goes live, and either way it stays your domain.
Is My Webby cheaper than GoDaddy?
We do not quote what GoDaddy charges, because their plans change and vary by tier. Our price is on this page and it includes the build, the domain, the hosting and your business email. Compare that against a GoDaddy plan plus the hours you would spend building it.
Do I still need GoDaddy for email?
No. Business email on your own domain is included on every plan, so you can have yourname@yourbusiness.co.uk without a second bill. Your expert sets the mailboxes up and gets them working on your phone.
Their builder made me a site in minutes. Why would I wait?
You do not wait long. You see two designs for your business in about five minutes, and your expert has the finished site live in days. The difference is the days in between, when someone who does this for a living writes it, fills it and checks it.
Let Webby take it off your hands
Answer a few questions and Webby designs it in front of you. No card required to look, and nothing to pay until your site goes live.