Back in the 1990s, the first websites created were written manually in HTML. Over time, the technology developed and software was created for designing web pages. Taking the technology forward, Website builders came into existence.
They are designed and optimized to help build a website without any technical skills needed. The website builders just require customers to sign up with the Hosting company. The companies then direct the customers towards their plans, process, requirements, and everything. These help in creating personal web pages as well as e-commerce websites
Online businesses become easily manageable through the use of the website builder. Several different Website building companies are at work today. Squarespace and GoDaddy are two of the most popular names among them. Even though they have many similar services to offer, still they have quite different targets and objectives.
There is a healthy competition between the two of them.
Squarespace vs GoDaddy
The main difference between Squarespace and Go Daddy is that Squarespace is usually for inexperienced customers in Web development. GoDaddy may require some understanding of Web development to start with.
Comparison Table Between Squarespace and GoDaddy
| Parameter of Comparison | Squarespace | GoDaddy |
| Hosting plans | Squarespace has two plans; Website and Business. | GoDaddy has Shared, WordPress, VPS and Dedicated Plans. |
| Pricing | There is a substantial difference between the price of the cheapest plan and the most costly one. | There is not a big difference in the prices of basic plans and the expensive ones. |
| Domain | It offers a free domain with all annual hosting plans but the registration is pricier. | It offers a free domain with some of the plans only but is less costly. |
| Website builder | The Website builder is easy to use and surpasses GoDaddy in designs and customisation. | It has a decent Website builder but that cannot match up to Squarespace designs. |
| Databases | It does not offer any MySQL databases. | Whereas, it offers at least 1GB of MySQL databases with every plan. |
| Partnership | It has a partnership with Google. | While it has a partnership with Microsoft. |
| Backups | It does not provide an option of manual backups. | It provides the manual backup option. |
| Speed | It has a loading speed of 627 milliseconds. | Whereas, it has a loading speed of 517 milliseconds. |
| Uptime | It has maintained an average uptime of 99.95 per cent. | It has an average uptime of 99.97 per cent although it guarantees it to be 99.99 per cent. |
| Customer Support | It offers 24/7 email and live chat support. | While it offers 24/7 phone and live chat support. |
What is Squarespace?
Squarespace Inc. is a Private Company based in New York City, United States. It works for providing services for Website building and hosting in order to create and customize webpages.
It was first founded as a blog-hosting service by Anthony Casalena, back in 2004. It kept on introducing and modifying its features and software from time to time and finally has come up to be a successful Web building Company today.
Ease of use is a significant thing to keep in mind for Web development. Squarespace guarantees the customers an easy to use interface. It is a section-based drag-and-drop website builder that allows section-by-section customisation. It is considered to be one of the best in the market in terms of designs.
One of its greatest strengths is that even someone who has no experience of web development can work with it.
While it is quite flexible, it’s definitely not the fastest builder available. Also, the editor is a little more on the manual side. The simplest of things are to be done manually in Squarespace.
Recently, Squarespace has come up with some minor changes in its SEO approach. This makes it even easier now. This is the reason why people prefer it over others a lot of times. Squarespace has been an all-in-one solution in the field of Website building and hosting.
What is GoDaddy?
Go Daddy Inc. is a Public Web hosting and building Company headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and incorporated in Delaware. It was first founded as Jomax Technologies in 1997.
Over time, it has expanded itself to workk as a Company for Domain Registrar, Web hosting, SSL Certificates and small businesses as well. Currently, it has over 7,000 employees and more than 20 million customers all over the world.
Affordability and in-depth controls are the main reasons that make GoDaddy so appealing. Although GoDaddy has a decent Website builder that is a bit limited as compared to the other companies; it excels at providing a faster building and loading time.
Furthermore, GoDaddy provides certain things at an additional cost, whereas, Squarespace includes those in the plans. Also, GoDaddy sometimes delivers a little less than advertised.
Scott Wagner, a leading provider of cloud-based software and services that mainly help establish small businesses; has recently joined GoDaddy. A set of performance metrics will be designed by him for the business. This definitely spikes up the customers’ expectations.
Main Differences Between Squarespace and GoDaddy
- Squarespace does not offer the WordPress, VPS and Dedicated Plans, while GoDaddy does.
- The pricing of plans of GoDaddy is cheaper as compared to Squarespace.
- Squarespace has a better Website builder than GoDaddy.
- GoDaddy has a partnership with Microsoft, whereas, Squarespace has a partnership with Google.
- In terms of loading time and uptime, GoDaddy performs slightly better than Squarespace.
Conclusion
Looking at the services they offer, it is very clear that Squarespace and Go Daddy are for different audiences. Apparently, Squarespace mainly targets the inexperienced bunch, while Go Daddy aims for big companies or businesses.
Both of these web builders have carved their places in the current market. Squarespace provides what it promises. It’s a complete and straightforward package and this particular thing might be appealing to many people. GoDaddy, on the other hand, is a real-time saviour for the techno-geeks.
All in all, it depends on the purpose and the requirement of the customer. Both Squarespace and GoDaddy are extremely brilliant in their own ways, so choosing the one that best suits the purpose of the business will do the job.
References
- https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_vis=1&q=squarespace&hl=en&as_sdt=1,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3D9SCp2TO9CRkJ
- https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51620