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GoDaddy vs Squarespace: Which Website Builder Is Better for a Small Business in 2026?

By Ryan Goering, CEO, BaaDigi · Last updated November 2026 · 33 sources checked

GoDaddy vs Squarespace comes down to price against polish. Choose GoDaddy if you want the lowest entry price: Starter is $9.99 a month billed yearly, against $29 for Squarespace Core, but GoDaddy’s plan page prints no renewal price[1][2]. Choose Squarespace if you want a 0% online-store fee on Core and a stated renewal rule, and accept that its robots.txt is locked and booking costs extra[2][3][4][5]. On ownership, GoDaddy’s current builder lets you download your code on a paid plan; Squarespace exports only a WordPress-format file without your design or most page types[6][7][8]. In October 2026, 81.9% of GoDaddy sites passed Core Web Vitals on mobile against 71.0% for Squarespace, but GoDaddy’s sample is small[9][10]. A third option skips the builder: a custom-coded site you own and edit with your own AI, which BaaDigi offers (our own offer) from $97 a month plus a $300 setup[11]. Biggest warning: compare year-two prices, not sign-up prices.

BaaDigi builds websites, mostly on Next.js, so we compete with every platform on this page. Every figure below is from the platform’s own pages or public datasets, so you can check it.

How do GoDaddy and Squarespace compare side by side?

People search both "GoDaddy vs Squarespace" and "Squarespace vs GoDaddy"; the facts are the same either way. These are two of the platforms we researched, not every builder on the market. "GoDaddy" here means GoDaddy Website Builder, which in 2026 became the Airo AI Builder for new buyers, a prompt-driven builder that meters use in AI credits[1]. GoDaddy said in October 2026 that Airo replaced Websites + Marketing as its flagship website product, so older customers may still be on that earlier builder, which works differently[12]. GoDaddy prices below come from an archived capture of its plan page dated November 6, 2026, because the live page blocks our fetcher[1]. Squarespace prices were read November 12, 2026. US list prices, before tax.

GoDaddy vs Squarespace vs a custom site you edit with your own AI. Core Web Vitals = share of sites passing all three, mobile / desktop, HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals Technology Report, October 2026
GoDaddy Website BuilderSquarespaceCustom site you edit with your own AI (our own offer)
First-year cost, billed yearlyStarter $9.99 a month ($119.88 a year, our arithmetic) or Professional $24.99 ($299.88)[1]Basic $19 a month ($228); Core $29 ($348) (our arithmetic)[2]$1,464: $97 × 12 plus the $300 setup[11]
RenewalNot printed on the plan page; its price cards say only "Billed annually"[1]. The Airo builder’s own app page labels plan prices "For the first 1-year term" and fills the auto-renew amount in by script, so read it on the checkout screen[13]Price changes apply at your next renewal[3]. Annual Core rose from $23 to $29 in July 2026[14]$1,164 a year[11]
Monthly billingStarter $19.99; Professional $49.99, from the capture’s monthly toggle; confirm at checkout[1]Core $39[2]Month to month, no contract, no exit fee[11]
DomainA free custom domain on paid plans, first year only; it renews at current prices[1]One free domain for year one on annual plans; free domains renew at $20 a year[2][15]Not included; you keep your own domain with your own registrar[11]
Transaction feesPayment features are listed on paid plans (link or QR-code payments on Starter; online payments and deposits from Professional); the plan page publishes no fee percentage[1]Core: 0% online-store fee; card rates from 2.9% + $0.30. Basic: 2% store fee[2]E-commerce is quoted separately; no price published[11]
Can you export or own the site?Current builder: code download as a ZIP, paid plan only. Older builder: GoDaddy’s agreement says the website belongs to GoDaddy[6][7][16]Partly: a WordPress-format file without design settings, custom CSS or most page types[8]Yes: you own the domain, code, content and lead data, and the code is transferred if you leave[11]
SEO controlsAutomatic sitemap and robots.txt, automatic structured data and llms.txt; no per-page 301 tool in GoDaddy’s US help[17][18][19][20]Per-page title and description; 301s in URL Mappings (about 2,500 lines); robots.txt not editable; custom JSON-LD only with code injection on Core and up[21][22][4][23][24]Settings live in code you own; BaaDigi claims no ranking results[11]
AI-crawler controlsNo AI-bot toggle in the help pages we read; GoDaddy says every site gets an automatic robots.txt, and no help article documents editing it[17]Open by default; one checkbox blocks a fixed list of 26 AI bots; llms.txt editor on version 7.1 sites, off by default[25][26]Not stated in the plan description
Core Web Vitals pass rate (mobile / desktop)81.9% / 77.1%, from a small sample[9]71.0% / 74.1%[10]Not measured for this plan
Who edits, and howYou, by prompting the AI builder; Starter gets 150 AI credits a month and Professional 300, which do not roll over[1][27]You, in the Squarespace editor; AI credits by plan (Core: 20 a month)[2]You, with Claude Code or Codex on your own paid Claude or ChatGPT subscription; you approve each change before it publishes[11]

Across the whole web, 53.0% of sites passed all three Core Web Vitals on mobile and 61.1% on desktop in October 2026[28]. A platform average says nothing about one specific site; test yours in Google PageSpeed Insights.

Which costs less, GoDaddy or Squarespace?

GoDaddy costs less in year one, and we cannot tell you whether it costs less in year two. The table is our arithmetic from list prices as read, excluding tax, email, apps and any price change.

First-year cost, yearly billing (our arithmetic from the cited list prices)
GoDaddySquarespace
Entry planStarter: $119.88[1]Basic: $228[2]
Plan with payments and booking listedProfessional: $299.88[1]Core: $348, with booking through a separate Acuity subscription[2][5]
Domain, year oneFree on paid plans[1]Free on annual plans[2]
  • Not equal plans: GoDaddy’s November 6 capture lists only link and QR-code payments on Starter, with online payments, deposits and appointment bookings starting at Professional[1]. Squarespace Basic carries a 2% store fee and no code injection[2].
  • Renewal is the gap. Squarespace says price changes apply at your next renewal and free domains renew at $20 a year[3][15]. GoDaddy’s plan page prints no renewal rate and says the free domain "renews at current prices"[1]. The Airo app labels its plan prices as first-term prices and does not print the renewal amount in its page text[13].
  • Booking: Squarespace booking is Acuity Scheduling, a separate subscription billed on top of the site plan[5]. GoDaddy lists appointment bookings on Professional[1].
  • Monthly billing costs more on both: GoDaddy Starter is $19.99 a month against $9.99 yearly, and Squarespace Core is $39 against $29[1][2].

Promotions are not prices. On November 12, 2026 the Squarespace pricing page carried promotional discount text (the raw page we read offered 20% off a new website plan’s first payment with a checkout code, and its terms say the discount does not apply to recurring payments). The page’s own price data still lists Core at $348 a year, so plan on the list prices above[2].

Get the year-two price in writing before you prepay a year on either one. A three-year total for GoDaddy would need a renewal price GoDaddy’s plan page does not publish, so we do not give one. BaaDigi’s $97 plan also does not include domain registration, so a fair comparison adds your own domain cost to the custom-site column[11].

Which is better for SEO, GoDaddy or Squarespace?

Both automate the basics and neither gives you the full set of controls. GoDaddy’s current builder lets you edit generated code; Squarespace locks robots.txt. No page we read says either ranks better, and our own study cannot show that a platform helps or hurts rankings.

  • robots.txt: Squarespace says "All Squarespace sites use the same robots.txt file and Squarespace users can’t access or edit the file"[4]. GoDaddy says every published Airo site gets an automatic robots.txt and sitemap; we found no help article that documents editing the file[17].
  • Structured data: Squarespace adds Local business, Blog post and other schema automatically, you cannot edit or remove it, and your own JSON-LD needs code injection on Core or higher[23][24]. GoDaddy says each page includes structured data and an llms.txt file[19].
  • Titles and descriptions: Squarespace lets you set them per page[21]. GoDaddy’s June 2026 update added a prompt, "Optimize my site for SEO", that helps update page titles and descriptions[29].
  • Redirects: Squarespace’s URL Mappings field holds about 2,500 lines[22]. GoDaddy’s US help documents no page-by-page redirect tool, only forwarding a whole domain[20]. That matters if you move an old site with ranking pages.
  • Search visibility: a GoDaddy site left on its default airoapp.ai address is excluded from search results; GoDaddy says search engines only index it once it is connected to a custom domain[19].

For a deeper look at one platform, see our Squarespace SEO guide in the related links below.

Which is faster, GoDaddy or Squarespace?

In October 2026, 81.9% of GoDaddy Website Builder sites passed all three Core Web Vitals on mobile and 77.1% on desktop, against 71.0% and 74.1% for Squarespace. The whole-web figures were 53.0% and 61.1%[9][10][28]. Both pass more often than the web average, and GoDaddy passes more often than Squarespace on both devices.

GoDaddy’s figure rests on only 1,431 mobile and 468 desktop sites in October 2026, down from 21,114 and 6,054 in July 2026 in the same report, so the October figure is not comparable with earlier months and small swings mean little[9]. These are platform averages, not a promise for your site; Squarespace itself says custom code can slow a site[30].

Can you leave GoDaddy or Squarespace later?

  • GoDaddy, current builder: you can download the project as a ZIP of code on a paid plan, and the free plan cannot download[6][7]. Ask GoDaddy what happens to booking and form data; the download article covers files and code only[6].
  • GoDaddy, older builder: the Website Services Agreement says the websites created with it belong to GoDaddy, you hold a licence, and cancelling ends it[16]. Leaving means rebuilding.
  • Squarespace: the only export is a WordPress-format file. It includes layout pages, one blog page, text and image blocks; it leaves out design and style settings, custom CSS, and store, portfolio and other page types[8]. A domain can be transferred out with an authorization code[31]. Service stops at the end of the billing cycle, and your domain stays billed until you cancel it too[32].

Before you leave either one, copy blog posts by hand, save original photos, and list every page address so each gets a 301 redirect on the new site.

How many AI-recommended businesses use GoDaddy or Squarespace?

In BaaDigi’s study of 511 local contractor websites named by ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews, 2.9% ran on GoDaddy Website Builder (95% confidence interval 1.8–4.8%) and 2.7% on Squarespace (1.6–4.5%)[33].

Correlation only. This is a contractor sample, not all small businesses, and the study cannot show that a platform helps or hurts a business’s chance of being recommended by AI.

Which should you pick: GoDaddy, Squarespace or something else?

  • GoDaddy is likely a fit if you want the lowest entry price and a prompt-driven builder, you are comfortable asking for the year-two price in writing, and you may want to download your code later[1][6]. Accept that no AI-bot setting or redirect tool is documented in the help pages we read[20][17].
  • Squarespace is likely a fit if you sell products and want a 0% store fee on Core, or you want a stated renewal rule[2][3]. Accept that robots.txt is locked, automatic schema cannot be edited, and booking costs extra[4][23][5].
  • A custom site you edit with your own AI is likely a fit if you want to own the code and data, can pay $1,464 in year one and $1,164 a year after (plus your own domain), and are comfortable making changes through Claude Code or Codex on your own paid subscription. E-commerce, membership sites and large migrations are quoted separately[11].

Frequently asked questions

Is GoDaddy or Squarespace better?
Neither wins on every point. GoDaddy has the lower entry price (Starter at $9.99 a month billed yearly, from an archived November 6, 2026 capture) but no published renewal price. Squarespace Core is $29 a month billed yearly with a 0% online-store fee. GoDaddy had the higher mobile Core Web Vitals pass rate in October 2026, 81.9% against 71.0%, from a small sample.
Is GoDaddy cheaper than Squarespace?
In year one, yes: GoDaddy Starter is $119.88 against $228 for Squarespace Basic, and GoDaddy Professional is $299.88 against $348 for Squarespace Core, billed yearly, with different features on each. For year two we cannot say, because GoDaddy’s plan page does not publish a renewal price.
Which is better for SEO, GoDaddy or Squarespace?
Neither documents full control. Squarespace locks robots.txt and needs code injection for your own schema, but covers titles, descriptions and URL redirects. GoDaddy’s current builder adds a sitemap, robots.txt, structured data and llms.txt automatically and offers a prompt-based SEO pass, but its US help documents no per-page redirect tool. We found no source showing either ranks better.
Can I take my website with me if I leave GoDaddy or Squarespace?
On GoDaddy’s current builder you can download the code as a ZIP on a paid plan. On its older builder, GoDaddy’s agreement says the website belongs to GoDaddy. Squarespace exports only a WordPress-format file without your design or most page types. Either way, plan on rebuilding pages and setting up 301 redirects.
Is there a third option besides GoDaddy and Squarespace?
Yes: a custom-coded site you own and edit with your own AI. BaaDigi offers this as AI Website Management at $97 a month plus a $300 one-time setup, month to month, with the code transferred if you leave. It is our own offer, it does not include domain registration, and it does not include done-for-you edits.

Related reading

Sources

Every source was opened and read on the date shown. Vendor prices change; check the vendor's page before buying. How we research: methodology.

  1. GoDaddy Website Builder plan page (archived capture of November 6, 2026; the live page blocked our fetcher) — checked 2026-11-12
  2. Squarespace pricing page — checked 2026-11-12
  3. Squarespace help: billing, renewals and price changes — checked 2026-11-12
  4. Squarespace help: understanding Google SEO emails and console errors — checked 2026-11-12
  5. Squarespace help: Acuity Scheduling pricing, billing and invoices — checked 2026-11-12
  6. GoDaddy help: download my Airo AI Builder files and code — checked 2026-11-12
  7. GoDaddy skills guide: launch your web app and site with Airo AI Builder (code download needs a paid plan) — checked 2026-11-12
  8. Squarespace help: Exporting your site — checked 2026-11-12
  9. HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals Technology Report API: GoDaddy Website Builder (October 2026) — checked 2026-11-12
  10. HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals Technology Report API: Squarespace (October 2026) — checked 2026-11-12
  11. BaaDigi: AI Website Management pricing and scope — checked 2026-11-12
  12. Yahoo Finance: GoDaddy Q3 2026 earnings (October 29, 2026) — checked 2026-11-12
  13. GoDaddy Airo AI Builder app page (raw page text read 2026-11-12: plan prices labeled "For the first 1-year term. Auto-renews at …"; the amount is filled in by script) — checked 2026-11-12
  14. PetaPixel, "Squarespace is increasing prices by up to 26%" (July 17, 2026) — checked 2026-11-12
  15. Squarespace help: free domain terms and renewal — checked 2026-11-12
  16. GoDaddy Website Services Agreement (last revised November 6, 2026) — checked 2026-11-12
  17. GoDaddy Airo product update, May 2026 (robots.txt, sitemap, server rendering) — checked 2026-11-12
  18. GoDaddy Airo: get your website found on Google — checked 2026-11-12
  19. GoDaddy help: forward my GoDaddy domain — checked 2026-11-12
  20. Squarespace help: editing page titles — checked 2026-11-12
  21. Squarespace help: URL mappings — checked 2026-11-12
  22. Squarespace help: how Squarespace optimizes your site for search results — checked 2026-11-12
  23. Squarespace help: using code injection — checked 2026-11-12
  24. Squarespace help: request that AI models exclude your site — checked 2026-11-12
  25. Squarespace help: create an llms.txt file — checked 2026-11-12
  26. GoDaddy Airo: make your AI credits go further (free plan, credits) — checked 2026-11-12
  27. HTTP Archive Core Web Vitals Technology Report API: all websites (October 2026) — checked 2026-11-12
  28. GoDaddy Airo product update, June 2026 (prompt-based SEO and AEO) — checked 2026-11-12
  29. Squarespace help: my site is loading slowly — checked 2026-11-12
  30. Squarespace help: transferring a domain away — checked 2026-11-12
  31. Squarespace help: canceling a subscription — checked 2026-11-12
  32. BaaDigi study: website platforms of 511 AI-recommended contractors (September 2026) — checked 2026-09-21

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