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What is GoDaddy Used For?

David Utke •  Updated: March 24, 2025 •  Internet Business

GoDaddy is an international domain registry and web host that offers domain name registration, web hosting, a website builder, ecommerce and email hosting. They also launched their “airo” service which is an AI powered, automated website builder.

I used GoDaddy to register my first few domain names like “superawesomedating.com.” They offer a wide range of services and product verticals and I’m going to break down all the different services they offer to cover what people use GoDaddy for.

Let’s get to it. 👇

Domain name tools and registration

GoDaddy is fairly expensive for domain name registration compared to other alternatives. If all you’re looking to do is get a domain name, then I would use Namecheap.

They make up for their higher price point by offering a wider range of marketplace options to buy and sell domains, get your domain name appraised and buy valuable domains at auction.

Specifically they offer:

The standout domain feature at GoDaddy is their auction and appraise feature. It’s very easy to buy an in-demand domain name from an auction as well as auction off any valuable domain names you may have ownership over.

Domain name tools

On top of being a domain registry and a domain registrar, they also offer helpful domain name tools you should be aware of:

Shared web hosting

Next up is web hosting from GoDaddy.

They offer affordable shared hosting, dedicated WordPress hosting and a VPS offer. They currently don’t have a server product in their offering.

It’s a bit confusing with GoDaddy because their shared hosting and WordPress hosting are very similar. Here is a breakdown of their web hosting tiers.

1) Web Hosting Economy

The cheapest, basic entry level hosting package they offer. Cheap and simple, with everything you need to start.

This package is good for launching new websites, personal blogs, or small business sites with low traffic.

2) Managed WordPress Basic

*Not to be confused with their WordPress hosting mind you, that’s a different hosting offer (confusing right?)

Their cheapest managed WordPress offering, for some reason it’s a tier under the “web host” package and not part of the WordPress hosting offer.

This is best for anyone building a WordPress site (blogs, portfolios) who wants a hassle-free, tech free experience as it’s tailored for WordPress, so setup and maintenance are super easy.

3) Web Hosting Deluxe

Their proper, standard hosting package where you can have multiple websites and install different scripts and CMS options, not just WordPress.

Building multiple websites with decent traffic levels. You can also install software other than WordPress as well.

4) Web Hosting Ultimate

Exactly the same as hosting deluxe, just with more resources. This is the top shared hosting tier as it maxes out on sites, storage, and performance before stepping up to VPS.

Best for larger businesses, agencies, or power users with many websites.

VPS hosting

GoDaddy offers self-managed VPS plans for hands-on users (like developers) and fully managed VPS plans for those who want GoDaddy to handle the techy stuff.

Even though I’m technical, I would still go with a managed VPS over managing it myself. Let’s break down their self-managed plans first.

GoDaddy’s Self-Managed VPS Plans ✅

GoDaddy offers four self-managed VPS tiers, each with increasing resources to match your needs. Here’s a quick look at the plans, their costs (with a 3-year term), and what you get:

All plans come with global data centers (for faster load times), unmetered bandwidth (handle as much traffic as you need – within reason), and the option to choose your operating system (Linux or Windows).

A VPS is a perfect “next level” once you outgrow the shared hosting plans GoDaddy provides and you need better speed and a significant increase in resources.

GoDaddy’s Self-Managed VPS Plans: Pricing and Features

Now for the self-managed VPS tiers. Their are four of them, each with increasing resources to match your needs obviously.

Here’s a breakdown of the plans, their costs (with a 3-year term), and what you get:

A managed VPS is a learning experience if you’ve never done it before. Honestly I would strongly recommend a managed VPS as you want to be more focused on growing an monetizing your audience instead of getting bogged down learning how to use WHM for VPS.

Managed WordPress hosting

Ah, WordPress hosting. Usually a gimmick if I’m to be totally honest. The managed WordPress hosting offer is for the site owner who is running one high traffic website and wants the web host to take care of all the technical details.

Managed WooCommerce

GoDaddy offers “managed WooCommerce” hosting plans are designed to make e-commerce simple and efficient. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that adds ecommerce functionality.

These plans come with everything you need to sell products, manage inventory, and market your business—all while GoDaddy handles the technical heavy lifting.

GoDaddy offers three Managed WooCommerce tiers:

The Essentials plan is perfect for new stores, with features like digital product sales, memberships, and basic marketing tools to get you started.

Flex steps it up for growing businesses, adding unlimited products, marketplace integrations (like Amazon and eBay), and advanced marketing with abandoned cart emails.

Expand is the top tier, ideal for larger stores, with premium features like product add-ons, bulk discounts, and priority support to scale your business.

All plans include fast performance (daily backups, CDN), security (malware scans), and tools to manage sales and marketing from one dashboard. You also get features like abandoned cart recovery, integration with marketplaces, discounted shipping rates and bulk discounts help boost conversions.

Lastly, you get access to “GoDaddy Smart Terminal Point of Sale” which lets you sell in-person and online seamlessly.

Website builder (structured, template based)

GoDaddy is a good choice for installing WordPress and/or using WooCommerce on a shared host. But what if a website builder experience is more your speed?

Well GoDaddy offers both a website builder for small business as well as an online store builder. All plans below come with a 7-day trial so there is no risk:

Basic Plan ($9.99/month)

Perfect for 10-50 page websites, service based businesses, a personal website and so forth. Basically sites that don’t require advanced marketing or e-commerce features.

Premium Plan ($9.99/month)

The Premium plan builds on the Basic tier, adding in tools to help you grow and monetize your audience with marketing capabilities.

Commerce Plan ($9.99/month)

Again! Very confusing that they offer a commerce plan as the top tier for their website builder apart from the online store offer. Why do they do this? I have no idea. It’s the same thing as the online store.

Templates

GoDaddy offers a wide range of starter templates that you can easily optimize and customize. From health and fitness websites to community and non-profit, to real estate or travel; there is something design that is a perfect starting point for you.

Each template comes with a set structure of pre-made pages (home, about, contact), dummy text, placeholder images, and a color style.

They’re built to be responsive, meaning they automatically adjust to look good on phones, tablets, or desktops. On top of that they can all be customized to your liking.

The only downside is that they are templates, so if you’re not able get a truly unique custom design.

Online store (all plans have ecommerce features)

The online store builder comes in three tiers: Basic, premium and commerce.

It’s similar to the website builder but more focused on including ecommerce features on all plans. GoDaddy payments is integrated into all tiers which make accepting payments very easy.

On the backend you have shipping label integrations with Ship Engine, but the actual product fulfillment is on you to take care of.

Basic Tier

Ideal for beginners and small businesses starting out (freelancers, local consultants, artists, hobbyists) needing a simple online store.

It’s also great for small scale operations with minimal needs, focusing on a basic website for showcasing services or products.

Premium Tier

This is for growing small to medium-sized businesses (e.g., salons, tutors, local service providers) expanding their customer engagement.

Get access to service-based businesses requiring appointment scheduling and online payments at this tier.

Commerce Tier

Made for established e-commerce businesses (e.g., online retailers of clothing, electronics) with large inventories and multi-channel sales. It’s the same plan as the “commerce” tier under their website builder offer.

If you’re a businesses needing automation to manage high-volume sales across platforms like Amazon or eBay this is your plan as you need scalable operations for a large customer base that requires extensive marketing tools which GoDaddy provides at this level.

GoDaddy Airo

Airo is their “top of the funnel” tool that allows you to search for a domain name and then the AI builds a website, logo and content on your behalf.

It isn’t exactly a standalone part of their traditional website builder, but rather an AI-enhanced layer that integrates with and complements GoDaddy’s broader suite of tools, including their website building capabilities and product offerings

How Airo works

All you need to do is input basic information about your website idea and the Airo generates a variety of creative assets. This includes a customizable “Coming Soon” page or perhaps a full website with sa logo and design elements done for you.

Airo can also provides marketing tools such as email campaign templates, social media post suggestions with a content calendar, and AI-generated ads for platforms like Google, Instagram, or Facebook.

Finally, Airo can create product descriptions from uploaded photos and, through a partnership with Zen Business, offers free LLC registration for U.S. customers (though state filing fees may apply).

To get started is with Airo is very easy:

Email hosting

Yep, GoDaddy offers professional email hosting with your own custom domain address on top of everything else, starting at $1.99 a month into rate and renews at $7.99 a month after the introduction rate.

They integrate their email hosting with Microsoft 360, so it you’re a user of Mircosoft 360 then you’ll love GoDaddy. If however you’re only looking for basic email hosting the GoDaddy is bit excessive. Namecheap is a better alternative.

All plans include security, filtering over 300 million spam emails daily, and options like Microsoft 365 integration with 1TB storage. You also get email archiving and email backup.

Setup requires a GoDaddy account and domain, with flexible plans for small to large businesses. It syncs across devices, supports IMAP/POP3, and provides 24/7 support, though some users note occasional technical hiccups. Ideal for affordable, branded email solutions.

Last, GoDaddy does provide a service to migrate your email over to Microsoft 360 and one of their paid plan.

Hire an expert

To wrap this up, you can also “hire an expert” through GoDaddy for web design services, SEO and general digital marketing help. You’re not exactly hiring a single person, but rather paying for expert help from GoDaddy’s in-house specialists for specific tasks.

You can outsource pretty much anything to GoDaddy’s expert team. From content creation, website design, social media publishing, brand management, logo creation, ecommerce setup and more.

Final words

GoDaddy offers plethora of different services, so hopefully by now you know and understand what GoDaddy is used for. Primarily as a web host, website builder and a domain name registrar.

If you have any questions or I got something wrong, let me know.

Have a great day,

-David

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