GoDaddy Office 365 Review: What Is It and How to Set It Up?

Since Microsoft and GoDaddy’s partnership in 2014, the latter started selling Office 365 through its platform. You can purchase such a subscription (multi-year) straight from GoDaddy at a lower price.

At first sight, it might appear like you’ve struck gold, but the reality is somewhat different. Let’s rewind for a bit.

Office 365, now called Microsoft 365, is a cloud-based service brought to you by Microsoft. This service lets you access Office apps such as Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Access.

GoDaddy Microsoft 365 does not exist

So that you know, GoDaddy never dropped the Office 365 name. So, to avoid any confusion in this article, we’ll refer to Office 365 as GoDaddy’s version and Microsoft 365 will be Microsoft’s version.

There are also some other subtle differences. For instance, Microsoft 365 includes Windows 10 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite, whereas Office 365 only bundles Office-specific tools.

GoDaddy Office 365 vs Microsoft Office 365

We’ve already established that there are many differences between the two products we’re discussing. The name is the most obvious one, and Microsoft 365 also bundles additional software and options.

What does GoDaddy Office 365 include:

• 5 licenses for the desktop versions of the office applications
• An Office 365 email address based on your custom domain
• GoDaddy sign-in portal for Office 365
• Simplified (fewer) administrative options
• Custom control panel
• 1 TB cloud storage space
• Initial promotional price, after which it’s $14.99/mo.

What does Microsoft 365 include:

• All Office 365 benefits
• Windows 10
• Enterprise Mobility + Security
• All administrative options
• Original control panel
• 1-year custom domain for free
• 1 TB cloud storage space
• Office apps on phones and tablets
• $14.99/user/month for monthly plans or $12.5/user/month for annual commitment

How to set up Office 365 on GoDaddy

1. Go to the GoDaddy portal
2. Purchase an Office 365 subscription
3. Sign in to your GoDaddy account
4. Access the Email & Office dashboard
5. Choose the domain you want to associate your email with
6. Create the email address you want (choose a username and a name)
7. Define a password and type it into the designated box
8. Type your previous email address in the Send account info to field
9. Hit the Create button
10. Once you’ve created the Office 365 Email, go to the GoDaddy Office 365 sign-in portal
11. Log into your account using the credentials specified above (email + password)

GoDaddy Office 365 pros and cons

If you choose to go with GoDaddy Office 365, you’ll benefit from features such as:

• One-click setup (regardless of the plan you choose)
• Select your domain, register it, and receive email address suggestion
• Custom admin panel simplifies the full suite of Microsoft productivity tools
• Purchasing a multi-year plan costs less than Microsoft’s version

However, reportedly things aren’t so great in reality, as many users reported experiencing various integration-related issues. Namely:

• Signing in through the GoDaddy Office 365 UI, it triggers various token authentication errors (SSO)
• Sometimes, certain apps, such as Outlook, and Bing require you to log in over and over again
• Poor tech support that suggests contacting Microsoft for more technical issues
• Inability to upgrade Windows 10 from the control panel (no option)
• Confusing password reset procedure (attempting to reset the password takes you to the GoDaddy portal)
• The custom admin panel lacks a lot of options, which makes it (paradoxically) harder to use
• Fewer Office 365 options than Microsoft’s version

Thus, if you’ve already purchased an Office 365 subscription from GoDaddy, the only logical action would be to migrate to Microsoft 365. However, this is a tedious process, and you will require aid from GoDaddy’s customer support.

GoDaddy Office 365 seems to be more for less

The bottom line is, even though GoDaddy Office 365 might be cheaper, it’s mainly because it’s a lighter version of the original product. It offers lesser functions and custom administration options and is reportedly still more complicated.

If you purchase a multi-year Office 365 subscription from GoDaddy, you might figure it’s cheaper than buying a Microsoft 365 subscription directly from Microsoft. However, in the long run, you might realize that GoDaddy charges you more for less.