GoDaddy vs Shopify: which is right for selling online?

Shopify is a store platform first and publishes its plans in full. GoDaddy sells domains, hosting and website plans together, but its pages blocked our checks this month, so its prices are not on this page.

Selling online: GoDaddy or Shopify

If selling products is the main point of the site, Shopify is the safer pick. Its pricing page lists Basic at $19, Grow at $49 and Advanced at $299 a month on yearly billing, or $25, $65 and $399 paid monthly, with Plus starting at $2,300 a month. New stores get three days free and then pay $1 a month for three months. The plans scale by staff accounts, inventory locations and checkout features rather than by how many pages you have.

GoDaddy makes more sense when the shop is a side part of a business website and your domain and email already live in a GoDaddy account. We tried to read GoDaddy's website builder and pricing pages on October 19, 2026 and every request was refused, so we cannot quote its plan prices or store features. Check godaddy.com, or the plans offered inside your GoDaddy account, before comparing costs.

For a service business that needs a site with a few products or bookable offers, We.Inc builds the site from a description and its Store panel connects your own Stripe account. AI building starts at $20 a month.

GoDaddy and Shopify for a small online shop

	GoDaddy	Shopify	We.Inc
Plan prices	Not confirmed: GoDaddy's pages blocked our checks on October 19, 2026	Basic $19, Grow $49, Advanced $299 a month yearly; $25, $65, $399 monthly	Starter $20 a month; Pro $49; Max $99
Trial	Check godaddy.com	Three free days, then three months at $1 each	Free plan with three template sites, no AI
Staff accounts	Not confirmed	Grow up to 5, Advanced up to 15, Plus unlimited	Collaborators on projects
Inventory locations	Not confirmed	10 on Basic to Advanced, 200 on Plus	Not among the listed Store panel features
Payments	Not confirmed	Shopify checkout; check its page for payment fees	Your own Stripe account; money goes straight to you
In-person sales	Not confirmed	Point of sale; POS Pro add-on $89 a month	Not among the listed Store panel features

Shopify prices as of October 2026 in US dollars from shopify.com/pricing (in sources); GoDaddy prices could not be read and are left out rather than estimated.

Pros and cons

GoDaddy

Best for: Businesses whose domain, email and site are already at GoDaddy and who sell a small number of items

Price: Not confirmed: GoDaddy's pricing pages blocked our checks on October 19, 2026. See godaddy.com for current prices

Pros: One account for domain, email and website if you already use GoDaddy; Can suit a site where the shop is secondary to the business pages

Cons: We could not confirm current plan prices, renewal terms or store limits; Store features need checking against Shopify's before you commit to a large catalogue

Shopify

Best for: Product brands that expect to grow orders, staff, locations and sales channels

Price: Basic $19, Grow $49, Advanced $299 a month billed yearly ($25, $65, $399 month to month); Plus from $2,300 a month (October 2026)

Pros: Prices, staff limits and inventory locations are all published; Sells online, in person and on social and marketplace channels from one admin; Shopify App Store is the largest commerce add-on catalogue

Cons: Monthly billing costs noticeably more than yearly ($25 versus $19 on Basic); Point of sale for physical shops adds $89 a month for POS Pro

We.Inc

Best for: Service businesses comparing store platforms who mostly need a good site with a handful of products

Price: Free plan: up to 3 template sites on a we.inc address, no AI. AI building from $20/mo (Starter, 250 credits). Pro $49/mo, Max $99/mo.

Pros: Sell products with variants or as digital downloads, with shipping rates, discount codes and an order list in the Store panel; Payments run through your own Stripe account

Cons: Its store tools are simpler than Shopify's; AI building is not available on the free plan

What Shopify's tiers actually change

The jump from Basic to Grow is mostly about people: Grow allows up to five staff accounts and raises the sales credits Shopify advertises from up to $3,500 to up to $5,000. Advanced adds up to fifteen staff accounts, live third-party shipping rates and store settings by region. Plus, from $2,300 a month, brings unlimited staff, scheduled launches and discounts, B2B catalogues, a fully customisable checkout and priority phone support.

Every plan includes the Shopify checkout, themes, Sidekick (its built-in AI assistant) and multichannel selling. If you also sell in a physical shop, the POS Pro add-on is $89 a month on top of your plan.

Why we cannot price GoDaddy this month

We quote vendors only from their own pages on the day we update. On October 19, 2026, godaddy.com returned access-denied errors for its website builder page and its help articles, both to a normal browser session and to a page reader. Our September page also could not confirm GoDaddy's prices for the same reason. Rather than guess, we have left GoDaddy's figures blank and suggest you compare the prices shown in your own GoDaddy account against Shopify's published list.

Choose Shopify when

Products are the business. You expect more than a few dozen items, several people handling orders, stock in more than one place, or sales through social channels and marketplaces. Shopify publishes every limit, which makes it easier to plan a year ahead, and its app store covers most gaps.

Choose GoDaddy when

The website exists mainly to describe a service, the shop is a small extra, and keeping everything in the account where your domain already renews is worth more than a deeper store. Confirm the plan's store limits and payment terms with GoDaddy first, since we could not.

Switching from GoDaddy to Shopify, or to We.Inc

Before you move, export what you can from GoDaddy: product names, prices, descriptions and images, plus any customer and order records you are allowed to keep. We could not read GoDaddy's export documentation this month, so ask its support which formats are available for your plan. Shopify's help center showed a bot check to our reader, so we have not described its import steps; follow Shopify's current guide when you get there.

Your domain can stay registered at GoDaddy either way; you change its DNS records to point at the new platform. Keep the same page addresses where you can, so links and search listings for your products keep working.

If the shop is small and the site matters more, We.Inc can rebuild your current site from its URL as a starting point. Ask the AI to keep the old paths such as /shop and /about, since We.Inc does not document a redirect manager, then connect the domain with one CNAME record from Starter and add products in the Store panel.

Start from a template

Sources

Shopify: Pricing (2026-10-19)
We.Inc: Pricing (2026-10-19)

Frequently asked questions

Is Shopify more expensive than GoDaddy?

We cannot say for certain this month, because GoDaddy's pricing pages refused our checks on October 19, 2026. Shopify's published prices start at $19 a month on yearly billing, or $25 month to month, after a three-day trial and three months at $1. Compare that with the plan prices shown in your GoDaddy account.

Can I keep my GoDaddy domain with Shopify?

Yes, as a general rule a domain registered anywhere can point at another platform by changing its DNS records, and your registration stays with GoDaddy. Follow Shopify's own guide for connecting a third-party domain when you set it up, since the exact records come from Shopify.

What does Shopify Plus cost?

Shopify's pricing page says Plus starts at $2,300 a month. It adds unlimited staff accounts, scheduled launches and discounts, unlimited B2B catalogues, a fully customisable checkout, up to 200 inventory locations and priority 24/7 phone support. It is aimed at large or complex stores.

Is We.Inc a replacement for Shopify?

For a large catalogue, no: We.Inc's store tools are simpler than a dedicated ecommerce platform. For a service business selling a few products or digital downloads, its Store panel handles variants, shipping rates, discount codes and orders, and payments go to your own Stripe account.

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How we research, test and update this page: our editorial policy. We.Inc is our own product.