Wix vs GoDaddy Website Builder for a small business

On This Page

1. First: GoDaddy now sells two builders
2. What each costs, year one and year two
3. Features for a service business
4. Side by side
5. Which suits you?
6. Before you buy either
7. My view
8. Questions I get asked

Most Wix vs GoDaddy comparisons are written for Americans, and many describe a GoDaddy builder that GoDaddy no longer leads with. For an Australian small business, the things that decide it are different: what each costs in year two (GoDaddy's first year is a discount), whether GST is in the price (Wix's is, GoDaddy's isn't), whether you can take payments here, what the booking tools allow, and how you get out later. I build websites for small businesses, so I compete with both; I've tried to be fair, and several facts below favour GoDaddy. Everything comes from each company's Australian pages, GoDaddy's cart and their terms, read on 12 October 2026. Prices change, so check before you buy.

First: GoDaddy now sells two builders

"GoDaddy Website Builder" means two different products. GoDaddy's main Australian builder page sells the new Airo AI Builder: you describe your site in a chat and AI writes it as code, which you can edit. The classic builder, Websites + Marketing, is a template and section editor with built-in email marketing and booking, still on sale on its own plan page. Most reviews you'll find describe the classic product. Below, "GoDaddy classic" is Websites + Marketing and "Airo" is the new one.

What each costs, year one and year two

Wix's Australian plans are Light, Core, Business and Business Elite, at A$21, A$42, A$55 and A$199 a month billed yearly, and each card says "Price includes GST". The price is the same in year two unless Wix changes it.

GoDaddy shows renewal prices only in its cart. Here's what the cart showed for a 12-month plan, before GST:

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

GoDaddy's terms say introductory pricing is "valid for the initial purchase term only", and renewals are charged at its "then current rates". Also note the plan page showed lower monthly figures for Premium and Commerce than the cart charged, so trust the cart. And "All prices exclude applicable taxes and fees": add GST if you're not registered for it.

Put your own numbers in. The default is a business that isn't registered for GST, needs bookings, already owns its .com.au, and wants one mailbox at Google Workspace's price.

On those defaults, GoDaddy classic Premium is about A$293 cheaper in year one and about A$103 dearer every year after, so it stays ahead on a two- or three-year total and falls behind in year four. Airo Professional costs more than Wix Core every year.

Two more price points. Neither builder's free domain covers .com.au, so if you need one, buy it separately or connect the one you have. And refunds: Wix gives 14 days on a new plan. GoDaddy classic annual plans are refundable for 7 days. Airo annual plans are refundable for 30 days, but only if you haven't used any AI credits, so the refund window effectively closes as soon as you start building with AI.

Features for a service business

Online booking

Both have it built in: Wix on Core and up, GoDaddy on classic Premium and Commerce, and Airo on Professional and up. Wix's booking staff are limited by plan (5, 10 or 100 people who can log in) and it includes a monthly allowance of text reminders by plan. GoDaddy classic allows up to 20 staff, and its help says appointments "currently supports a total of 80 appointments and 5 different categories", with past appointments counting towards the total. That wording is ambiguous, so if you take a lot of bookings, ask GoDaddy what it means before you choose. If your booking runs through practice software such as Cliniko or HotDoc, the builder's own booking tool matters less; GoDaddy classic lets you add custom HTML, and Cliniko publishes a guide for embedding its booking page on Wix.

Taking payments in Australia

Neither builder's own payment service works here. Wix Payments isn't offered in Australia, and GoDaddy's own help says GoDaddy Payments "is only available to businesses based in the U.S. and Canada", even though its Australian builder page says you can take payments with it. On both, you'll use Stripe, PayPal or Square.

SEO

Wix documents editable page titles, descriptions and page addresses, canonical tags, an editable robots.txt, structured data and a redirect manager. GoDaddy classic has an SEO wizard that optimises "up to 5 pages" and page titles and descriptions, but I couldn't find any help article on changing page addresses or setting up redirects, and one independent review says page addresses are generated automatically. That matters if you're moving from an old site with pages that rank. Airo says it adds titles, meta descriptions and structured data automatically, and since you can edit the code, more is possible. More on Wix in is Wix good for SEO?.

Speed

About the same. In Google's real-user data for sites visited from Australia, 85.9% of Wix sites and 84.6% of GoDaddy builder sites passed Core Web Vitals on mobile. GoDaddy's Australian sample is small, and both are well ahead of the average WordPress site.

Design

Wix's editor gives you more freedom to place things, but you can't switch to a different template once you've built a site. GoDaddy classic is more structured, and you can switch themes without losing your content. Airo has no editor at all: you change the site by asking.

Email marketing

GoDaddy classic Premium includes 25,000 email sends a month. Wix's free email marketing allowance is 200 a month, with paid packages above that.

Support

GoDaddy publishes a Sydney phone number, (02) 8042 8920, listed as open 24/7, plus text and chat. Wix has no phone number; you can request a callback any time, and live chat runs overnight Sydney time.

Leaving

Neither Wix nor GoDaddy classic exports your site; if you leave, you rebuild. Airo lets you download your site's code as a zip file, though whether it runs elsewhere without GoDaddy's services depends on what you built. GoDaddy's backups for the classic builder exclude blogs, products, appointments and images. Neither offers Australian data hosting on the pages I read. More in leaving Wix.

Side by side

Scroll the table sideways to see every column.

Which suits you?

Before you buy either

• Check GoDaddy's renewal price in the cart, not the plan page.
• Add 10% to GoDaddy's prices if you're not registered for GST.
• Keep your .com.au where it is and connect it.
• Set a reminder a month before renewal; Wix can charge up to three weeks early.
• Pick your payment provider first: Stripe, Square or PayPal.
• If you try Airo, remember that building with AI ends the refund window.
• If you're a health business, AI-written copy still has to meet Ahpra's advertising guidelines; neither builder checks.

My view

For a small service business that needs bookings, the choice mostly comes down to how long you'll keep the site and how much SEO control you want. GoDaddy classic is cheaper for the first few years and has a phone number in Sydney. Wix costs less over the long run and gives you more control over your pages and redirects. Airo is interesting, but costs more than either at renewal. Whichever you choose, it's a DIY site: you're the designer, the copywriter and the person who keeps it up to date.

Questions I get asked

Which website builder is better, Wix or GoDaddy?

Wix has more SEO control and costs less over the long run. GoDaddy's classic builder is cheaper in the first few years and has phone support in Sydney. For bookings, both work.

Is GoDaddy's website builder cheaper than Wix?

In year one, yes. GoDaddy's renewal prices are much higher than its first-year prices, and they exclude GST, so over four years or more Wix Core usually costs less.

Is GoDaddy's AI website builder any good?

Airo writes your site as code from a description, and you can download that code. It costs more than Wix and GoDaddy's classic builder at renewal, and its refund window closes once you use AI credits.

Can I take payments with GoDaddy in Australia?

Yes, through Stripe, PayPal or Square. GoDaddy Payments itself is only available in the US and Canada.

Do Wix and GoDaddy include a free .com.au domain?

No. Both free-domain offers exclude .com.au. Buy it separately or connect the one you already own.