Comparison · Updated October 8, 2026 · Lukáš Březina
Looking for a GoDaddy Website Builder alternative?
GoDaddy's cheapest website plan costs $119.88 for the first year, then renews at $14.99 a month — and the free .com renews at $22.99 a year. That's about $203 a year from year two, and you still build the site yourself. WebSmoothly is $59 a year, domain and hosting included, built for you, same price every year.
Rather not build it yourself?
Describe your business and get a finished site back. Free to look at, $59 a year if you keep it.
GoDaddy prices checked October 8, 2026, in US dollars, for a 12-month term. GoDaddy's Website Builder plans are now sold as "Airo AI Builder". Paying month to month costs $19.99 (Starter) or $49.99 (Professional). Details in "How we checked" below.
Why does my GoDaddy website cost more after the first year?
Because the price on the plans page is a first-year price. GoDaddy says so itself — "get an extra discount on your first year" — and its cart shows the $9.99 Starter rate as "save 33%". From the second year the Starter plan renews at $14.99 a month, and Professional goes from $24.99 to $36.99 a month.
The domain works the same way. A paid plan comes with a free domain for the first year. After that, GoDaddy lists .com renewal at $22.99 a year. For comparison, registries charge about $10.50 a year per .com wholesale, and Cloudflare, which sells domains at cost, charges about that.
Then there are the extras. While we put the Starter plan in the cart, GoDaddy offered AI credit packs (from $24.99 for 250 credits) and Microsoft 365 email at $1.99 a month for the first year, $8.99 a month after. None of these are scams — they're normal add-ons. But they add up, and the number you signed up for isn't the number you'll pay in year two.
What GoDaddy really costs over two years
- Year one, Starter: $119.88, domain included.
- Year two, Starter: $179.88 for the plan + $22.99 for the .com = $202.87.
- Two years total: about $323, before any email or credit packs.
- If you need online bookings, that's the Professional plan: $299.88 in year one, then $443.88 + $22.99 = $466.87 a year.
WebSmoothly over the same two years: $118. The domain, hosting and 30 edits a year are inside the $59, and the price stays $59 when you renew. If you use up the 30 edits, 30 more cost $9.99. For the wider picture, see what a small business website costs in 2026.
Stay with GoDaddy if…
- You want to change things yourself, right now. GoDaddy gives you an editor and AI that builds pages as you type. Fixing a typo at 11 p.m. takes ten seconds. With us you describe the change and check a preview first.
- Your email and domain already live there. If your team uses Microsoft 365 email through GoDaddy, keeping everything in one account is worth something. Moving email is a chore — though you don't have to: you can keep the domain and email at GoDaddy and only point the website at us.
- You want their store. The Professional plan has a product catalog, online payments, shipping rates and sales tax built in. We don't build stores at all.
- You want booking built into the site. GoDaddy Professional has appointment booking inside. We link or embed a booking tool you pick, which is fine for most, but it's a separate tool.
- You want to grow into more. More pages, a blog, more sites, simple web apps. GoDaddy's plans go up to 50 sites. We build one strong page per business.
Choose WebSmoothly if…
- You want it done, not a tool to do it with. You describe your business in plain English — links to your Instagram, Facebook or Google Maps listing help, so does a photo of your flyer. A first working version is ready in about ten minutes.
- One good page is enough. Who you are, services, prices, photos, hours, map, contact form. That's what most cafés, salons and contractors actually need.
- You want the same bill every year. $59, domain and hosting in. No first-year discount that runs out.
- You'd rather ask than click. One edit is one request in plain words — in the WebSmoothly portal, or straight from ChatGPT or Claude. You see it in a preview, then publish.
Where we're weaker
Two things, plainly. Small visual tweaks are slower than dragging them yourself — "a bit more space there" can take a second try. We build one strong page, not a store or a growing multi-page site. If either is a dealbreaker, GoDaddy is the better fit today.
How switching from GoDaddy works
- Describe your business. Copy the text from your current GoDaddy site if you like it, and add your social links or photos.
- A first working version is ready in about ten minutes. Looking at it is free.
- Polish it. Count on about two hours of back-and-forth to get the wording, photos and domain right.
- Pay when you're happy: $44 a year on the domain you already have, or $59 with a new .com we register in your name. The site goes live within a couple of hours.
- Only then cancel the GoDaddy website plan. Keep the domain at GoDaddy — the email on it keeps working; only the website now comes from us.
If online booking matters, here's how to add booking to your website.
Questions people ask
- Is the GoDaddy Website Builder free?
- There's a free plan with 50 AI credits a month for trying ideas out. To publish a site on your own domain you need a paid plan, which starts at $9.99 a month billed yearly for the first year.
- How much is a .com at GoDaddy after the first year?
- GoDaddy listed .com renewal at $22.99 a year when we checked in October 2026. Its $0.01 first-year .com offer requires buying three years.
- Can I keep my GoDaddy domain and use WebSmoothly?
- Yes. Keep the domain registered at GoDaddy and change two settings there, which we show you step by step; your email on it keeps working. With your own domain it's $44 a year instead of $59, since you already pay for the domain.
- Is there something cheaper than GoDaddy that I don't have to build?
- WebSmoothly is $59 a year with the .com, hosting and 30 edits included, and we build the site from your description. A freelancer is the other done-for-you route, usually $1,500 or more up front.
- What if I want to leave WebSmoothly later?
- The domain is registered in your name, and we send you the full source code of your website.
How we checked
On October 8, 2026 we read GoDaddy's Website Builder page for the plan prices (yearly and monthly), put the Starter plan in the cart to see the first-year discount and the add-ons offered, and read GoDaddy's .com and business email pages for the domain and Microsoft 365 prices. GoDaddy doesn't print the renewal rate on the plans page; the $14.99 and $36.99 figures come from All About Cookies' GoDaddy Airo review (updated August 2026) and match the 33% first-year discount GoDaddy's cart shows. The wholesale .com figure is Verisign's $10.26 fee plus ICANN's $0.20, as reported by Domain Name Wire. Prices change and differ by country — check GoDaddy's checkout before deciding. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@websmoothly.com and we'll fix the page.
GoDaddy is a fine tool if you want to build. If you just want the site, see what yours would look like first — it takes about ten minutes and looking costs nothing. Also comparing others? Here's our Wix and Squarespace comparison and what a website without monthly fees really costs.
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