GoDaddy Website Cost: UK Prices, Renewals and Limits

A GoDaddy website in the UK typically costs £10 to £30 a month once the intro offer ends, plus a domain and usually email. The figure on the advert is almost never the figure you pay in year two. Below I break down builder plans, add-ons, design fees and what you actually own.

What you are actually buying

GoDaddy sells three different websites, and they do not cost the same. I see people mix them up, then compare the wrong figure.

• Website Builder (sometimes called Websites + Marketing): an all-in-one monthly product. You edit a template in the browser and they host it. This is what most people mean.
• Web hosting, often with WordPress: you or a designer build a site on software you can move later. That is a separate product with its own plans.
• A design service: GoDaddy or a marketplace freelancer builds it for you. You pay a project fee, then you still pay the monthly platform.

If you only compare the headline £0.99 a month, you are pricing the advert, not the site you will live with.

GoDaddy Website Builder prices in the UK

Offers change, so use these as the bands I see at UK checkout, not a quote. Intro rates usually last 12 months. Renewal is the real price.

That is about £120 to £180 a year for a simple brochure site after the offer, and £240 to £360 a year for a shop plan, before domain, email, VAT and card fees.

At checkout I always look for two things: whether VAT is included (20% often appears at the end) and the renewal price in the small print. If you cannot see the renewal figure, do not pay.

First year versus every year after

Here is a five-page brochure site with one mailbox and a .co.uk domain.

Over two years the cheap plan is about £240 to £425 all-in. A commerce plan with two mailboxes is easily over £600, before the evenings you spend in the editor. Year one is a teaser. Year two is the bill that sticks.

How to calculate your own bill

1. Ignore the big monthly number on the advert.
2. Find the renewal price for that exact plan, billed monthly and billed annually. Annual is a bit cheaper but you are committed for the year.
3. Add the domain at the full renewal rate, not the first-year 99p.
4. Add email. A business needs a mailbox on its own domain. A personal Gmail address on the contact page looks unfinished and you do not control it.
5. If you sell, add card fees of around 1.4% to 2.9% plus a pence charge per payment. Some plans add a platform fee as well.
6. Add VAT if it is missing from the advertised figure.
7. Multiply the ongoing total by 24 months. Use that number when you compare any other option.

Add-ons that change the number

The builder plan is the floor, not the bill.

• Email. One Microsoft 365 mailbox is commonly £4 to £6 a month. Three mailboxes add £150 to £200 a year.
• Extra domains and redirects. Fine if you need them, but each renews.
• Booking and marketing tools. Many sit on higher tiers or paid add-ons. Work that needs real booking often outgrows the cheap plan.
• Storage and pages. Basic plans cap uploads and how far the site can grow.
• SEO upsells. A paid listing toggle is not a substitute for useful pages and a clean structure.
• Shop limits. Product caps, shipping rules and cart tools often need the dearer commerce tier.

None of these are tricks. They are how a low advert becomes a normal small-business bill.

Paying GoDaddy to build it for you

If you do not want to use the editor, GoDaddy sells design help. Template packages they build for you are often a few hundred pounds in the UK. Custom work through their expert marketplace commonly sits between £500 and £2,500 for a small brochure site, more for a shop.

That fee sits on top of the monthly plan. You are paying someone to set up a rented platform, not buying files you can zip up and host elsewhere. If a third-party designer does the work, ask in writing who owns the files and what you can export.

What you own if you stop paying

On Website Builder you rent the tool, the template and the hosting as one bundle. Stop paying and the site goes offline. You can usually download images and copy text. You cannot generally export a working site onto another host. Moving means a rebuild.

WordPress hosting is different. Files and the database can be copied to another host. You may need new licences for premium themes or plugins, but you are not starting from nothing.

Domains are separate. You can transfer a .co.uk or .com away, subject to GoDaddy's rules and a 60-day lock after registration or a previous transfer. Budget a few days and the new registrar's fee, which is usually about the same as a year's domain.

When the cheap plan is enough

It can be the right tool if you need a few pages live this week, you accept a template, and you are willing to rebuild if you leave.

It is a poor fit if you need booking that matches how you work, awkward shipping, real SEO control, or a site you keep when you change supplier. Ten evenings in the editor at a modest rate wipes out the intro discount. You can rank for a tight local phrase if the content is good. Paying GoDaddy more will not fix a slow template.

Other ways to pay for a small business site

DIY builders such as GoDaddy, Wix and Squarespace share the same model: cheap intro, higher renewal, lock-in.

A one-off build with a UK designer typically starts around £800 to £1,500 for a small brochure site and can reach £3,000 or more with booking or ecommerce. You pay more up front. You should finish with files and hosting you control, if the contract says so. Ask whose name is on the hosting and domain, and how you get a copy of the site.

Pay-monthly plans suit you when there is no lump sum: a setup fee, then a monthly amount that includes hosting, updates and ongoing management. I offer both a one-off build and a pay-monthly plan of that type. Current figures are on arlowebstudio.com, as they depend on scope.

A usable UK business site with email and a domain rarely costs less than a couple of hundred pounds a year. Pick the trade-off: platform rent, a larger invoice and ownership, or a setup fee plus managed monthly.

Frequently asked questions

How much is a GoDaddy website per month after the offer ends?

Basic builder plans commonly renew around £10 to £15 a month. Commerce plans often renew around £20 to £30 a month. Domain, email and VAT sit on top of that, so the advertised intro rate is not a useful budget figure.

Does the cheap GoDaddy plan include a domain and email?

A domain is often free or pennies in year one, then about £10 to £18 a year. Email is usually extra. One Microsoft 365 mailbox is typically £4 to £6 a month. SSL is usually included on current builder plans, but check the checkout, not the advert.

If I cancel, do I keep the website?

Not on Website Builder. The site goes offline when you stop paying. You can usually take copies of text and images, but you will need to rebuild elsewhere. WordPress hosting is more portable because you can copy the files and database to another host.

Is GoDaddy cheaper than hiring a designer?

Month to month, yes, especially in year one. Over two or three years, plus your time, plus a rebuild if you outgrow the builder, the gap shrinks. A designer costs more up front and should leave you with something you control, provided that is in the contract.

Can I use GoDaddy only for the domain and host the site somewhere else?

Yes. Register or transfer the domain, point the DNS at another host, and you are not tied to their builder. That is often the cleanest way to use them if you already have, or plan to have, a site that is not built in their editor.

How much does a GoDaddy online shop cost in practice?

Budget £240 to £360 a year for the commerce plan after the intro rate, plus card fees of around 1.4% to 2.9% and a pence charge per payment. Useful shop tools often sit on the dearer tier, so the cheap plan is rarely enough if you actually sell.