Web.com, now Network Solutions, vs GoDaddy for websites

The week between Christmas and New Year is when a lot of owners finally look hard at their website. The phones are quiet, next year’s budget is on the kitchen table, and the site that was fine in January now feels tired. For many small businesses, the first two names that come to mind are the companies that already hold their domain: Web.com and GoDaddy.

If yours was with Web.com, look for it under a different name now. In June the Web.com brand was folded into Network Solutions, its sister company under the same owner, Newfold Digital, and Web.com accounts moved across, in most cases with the same login. The services carried over, so this comparison treats them as one company and uses both names.

Both sell far more than domains. Each offers a do-it-yourself website builder, a service that builds the site for you, business email, and a menu of marketing services on top. The overlap is large enough that owners assume they are the same thing with different logos. They are not quite, and the difference matters when you decide how much of the work you want to do yourself.

What owners are really choosing between

Most owners weighing these two are not choosing a web host. They are choosing how involved they want to be. Three questions settle most of it:

• Will you edit the site yourself, or do you want someone else to build and maintain it?
• Do you need marketing beyond the site, such as search, listings or ads, from the same company?
• What happens if you leave? Where the domain sits, whether the site can move with you, and who holds your data.

Web.com, now Network Solutions: built around doing it for you

Web.com served small businesses for many years, and Network Solutions, which now looks after its customers, keeps the same lean toward done-for-you service. It offers a DIY builder, now running on the technology Web.com built, for owners who want one, but much of its pitch is aimed at owners who would rather describe their business to a designer and have the site built for them. Around the website it sells hosting, domains and business email, plus marketing services such as search optimization and online advertising management. The exact menu changes from time to time, so ask for the current one, especially if your plan was bought under the Web.com name.

The appeal is a single company to call. An owner who does not want to learn a builder can hand over photos and service details and receive a working site, then add marketing from the same provider. For owners who value that simplicity, it removes a lot of friction.

GoDaddy: built around doing it yourself, fast

GoDaddy is best known as a domain registrar, and many small businesses bought their first domain there. It has grown into a broad small business platform: hosting, a website builder with marketing tools built in, online store features, business email, and payment tools. It also sells professional design services for owners who want the site built for them.

Its strength is speed and breadth for the owner who is comfortable doing things alone. You can register a domain, set up email and publish a simple site in an afternoon, and like most builders it has been adding AI help for drafting content during setup. The builder is deliberately simple, which keeps it approachable and limits how far a design can go.

How they compare

	Web.com, now Network Solutions	GoDaddy
Best known for	Websites and marketing built for you	Domains, then a wide small business toolkit
Suits	Owners who want to hand the work over	Owners who want to set things up themselves, quickly
How the site gets built	DIY builder, or a designer builds it	DIY builder, or a paid design service
Marketing on offer	Managed search and advertising services	Built-in email and social tools, plus paid services
Moving the site later	Ask whether the site itself can be exported	Ask the same; the domain can move, while a builder site generally stays on its builder
Ownership	Confirm the domain is registered in your name	Confirm the same, and who controls the account logins
Get in writing	Exactly what each marketing plan delivers each month	Exactly what the design service includes and what costs extra

Pros and cons

Web.com, now Network Solutions

Pros:

• Done-for-you design for owners who do not want to touch a builder.
• Website, domain, email and marketing from one provider.
• Managed marketing services for owners who want them handled.
• A long history with small business customers.

Cons:

• Marketing plans vary, so ask for the current list and the monthly deliverables before you buy.
• A site built on a proprietary platform may not move with you.
• Check whether reports show calls and bookings or only site activity.
• Read bundled plans line by line so you know what each part does for you.

GoDaddy

Pros:

• Fast setup for a domain, email and a simple site.
• A huge range of small business tools in one account.
• Built-in marketing tools for owners who like to do things themselves.
• AI drafting help during setup; ask which features your plan includes.

Cons:

• The builder trades design freedom for simplicity.
• The DIY path puts upkeep on you.
• A wide menu of add-ons, so review what the account includes at each renewal.
• Like any builder site, it is tied to the platform it was built on.

Which business suits which

A new business that needs a domain, email and a basic site before opening day. GoDaddy’s DIY route gets you online quickly, and you can decide on marketing later.

An owner who wants a site built without learning software. The done-for-you design service Web.com sold, now offered by Network Solutions, is built for this, and GoDaddy’s design service is worth quoting too. Compare what each includes in writing.

A contractor or clinic that needs the site to produce calls and bookings. Look past the builder question. Ask either company how their reporting shows booked work, and whether the site connects to the tools you use to answer leads.

A business with an old site on one of these platforms. Before you add services, check who owns the domain and the account logins. If the site was on Web.com, that account now lives at Network Solutions, so start there. That single step prevents most of the problems we see when owners switch providers.

A different kind of option

Some owners reach the end of this comparison and realize they do not want a platform at all. They want a site that brings in work, and someone accountable for making it do so. That is what Beyaoshy does.

We build websites that the business owns: the domain, the site, the analytics and the leads belong to you from day one, and the accounts sit in your name rather than ours. The site is built with the rest of your marketing, not beside it. The same team handles your Google Business Profile, local SEO, reviews, ads and the CRM that catches the leads, so the site is judged by calls and bookings rather than page views.

We have been working with local businesses since 2015, and we build only the pages that earn their place, because a small business site should earn its keep quickly. Agencies also sell our website and search work under their own name to their clients.

If the new year is when your site gets fixed, our websites page shows how we build for calls and bookings, and the local SEO page covers how the site and your listing work together. Owners can see the full picture on our page for business owners.