Website builders are a comprehensive solution for people who handle their own business and for some small enterprises to initiate a website building project without employing a team of developers. Nevertheless, determining the most suitable website builder can be complicated for novices. There are so numerous website builders up for grabs.
How to choose what's best for you? In this blog post, we’ll help you determine the most suitable website builder and select best builder for you by going through what you require and a particular product has to offer.
Before analyzing the most suitable website builders in the market, we encourage you to note down your needs. Your goals and what features you want on your website. For instance, you could note it down as Blog section, photo presentation, online shop, contact form, etc. If uncertain about what you need, check out some of your competitor's websites for reference.
Checklist For Selecting A Website Builder For Business
Website builders have a lot to give small business owners. As a matter of fact, they empower almost all the work that a usual developer would do. This brings in a newfound freedom to website management.
For example, if you want to create an online variant of your store so that clients can shop their favorite products right from the comfort of their home, you can do that with an eCommerce app, widgets or plugin that lets you sell your products with stunning photos, as well as access other obstacles in the way.
furthermore you can develop and improve your online store with extra features, enjoy extra option when it comes to design/templates, hosting, apps, and SEO management.
Here is our comprehensive checklist for selecting the best attainable website builder.
1.Type of website
Each website is different in the sense, how it is meant to be used, and the goal it serves
E-commerce sites — where the main goal of the website is to sell products and act as an online store for customers to come and buy what they require from the comfort of their house.
Personal blogs — are sites that are usually where people express their opinions about various topics from fashion and lifestyle to tech and science.
Brochure— is a website for companies to mark an online presence and provide people with information about their products/companies and contact information and to eventually drive customers to their product it acts as an online business card for potential customers.
Social media sites — the main goal of social media sites is to connect people and to make friends online, allow you to share your pictures and connect with people without an actual need to leave your house.
Portal — A portal website is a place which brings in information from a lot of different sources from the web, and in a way acts as a portal to the information you desire. A great example of a portal website is Google. Google offers multiple solutions from email to forums to search engine and news.
2.Design & Templates
Website builders are different and often incorporate drag and drop editors. Drag and drop editors make the process of construction, optimizing a website and managing simpler than working with a developer team. These tools also tend to be significantly cheaper.
When choosing a website builder, it is important to consider the total count and quality of its templates. There are also a collection of other highlights concerning design that you should be informed of: Assure that the designs are adaptive, meaning you can add/remove videos, images, gifs, etc. There should be a wide variety of appropriate templates. A good rule of thumb is to ensure that the templates are mobile responsive, as mobile traffic in recent times is on the rise.
3.Apps & Integrations
Website builders like Wix offer 250+ applications and integrations for small business websites. Each application serves a unique purpose.
As mentioned earlier in the article, you should be aware of the intent of your website and then come to a decision of the app integrations that might benefit you. For, if you want to be incorporate a shop on your website to sell your products then app integrations like PayPal or ones that help in a payment gateway might come in handy.
If you want to build a relationship focused website then website builders with CRM integrations might come in handy. These CRM apps support in managing, organising and contacting your leads.
There are similar app integrations available that help you from booking to email marketing. All you need to do is write down your needs and evaluate which website builders addition app integration offering is the most beneficial for you.
4.Hosting
Hosting can be tricky, it can contribute to your website by providing a really immersive experience to the user or be so mediocre that the user won’t be drawn to your site again. The website builder you select will more often than not come with a free or an economical hosting option, but we’d recommend you to choose from other hosting bundles which guarantees performance.
If possible, upgrade your hosting pack, doing so will grant you many extra features like automatic hosting renewals, greater bandwidth, automatic daily site backup, enhanced security and much more. The best feature is the additional bandwidth as that is one of the key factors that decide how fast your website is loaded.
5.Search engine optimization
SEO, is the method of enhancing your site for search engines ranking. Search portals like Google rank websites on a number of factors that include domain, trust, quality and quantity of your content, keywords, etc this list keeps on changing so it is always better to have additional help.
There are loads of other hidden ranking factors. The ones in the open are Meta descriptions, keyword density, structure, reliability, originality of content and a few more.
6.Antivirus support
You can program the AntiVirus app integration to implement an automatic daily scan of your files and database on your website. If the app detects any questionable codes it will send out an email notifying the same to a pre-configured email-id.
If your site has been hacked, the AntiVirus will notify you so that you can take prompt action. An AntiVirus system is really the way to go in todays time where online hacking and viruses have become so common, so it is better to safeguard your data from any possible future attack.
Here’s a list of some best tools to help you build your website.
Wix is a website building and publishing program which assists users in creating professional websites precisely as they desire, with a drag/drop website developer, custom made templates and much more. Wix offers users various ways to build their website, including Wix Code, Wix Artificial Design Intelligence and Wix Editor, basically a one-stop solution for a newbie to a professional.
The Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) empowers consumers to build a different site with an expert like text, video, image, gif presentation.
The Wix Editor gives users the freedom to design with advanced utility and easy drag and drop styled editor. Wix Code facilitates users to create a modernised site that a consumer of today’s time is satisfied with.
Essential Wix primary features incorporate easy drag and drop, mobile-friendly website optimization, customized web domain names, and one-pager websites, as well as beautiful blogs, social buttons and online stores. Users can handle site map with templates, image editor, and high-resolution stock image gallery, a video editor, and much more.
Wix also supports a wide range of tools which include site analytics, SEO tool, a personalized mailbox, and communication and monetary tools.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
Elegant, straightforward, easy to use templates.
A Very user-friendly interface.
Drag and drop utility makes it great for all skill levels.You can purchase your domain directly through Wix.
Cons
You can't you external apps and are restricted to use apps only from their app market.
The editing tools can be frustrating to work with as many options are preset.
Pricing
Free Trial: Available (No Credit Card required)
Connect Domain: €4.50/month
Combo: €8.50/month
Unlimited: €12.50/month
eCommerce: €16.50/month
VIP: €24.50/month
Site123 is a website building tool that utilises pre-designed styles and plans to help the consumer set up an online presence with minimal effort, upload quality SEO website, fully modified to all sorts of devices and screen resolutions.
SITE123 strikes the right balance for both beginners and experts. Beginners will like tailoring the appearance and character of the site with just a few clicks.
While the more competent users will welcome some of the interactive controls, enabling them to tailor their web pages and design further than just a color picker.
SITE123 has few hundred of distinct templates to choose from. The themes cross from essential, portfolio sites for shutterbugs, to local eateries, and full-fledged online stores.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
This website editor is extremely easy to use.
Provides free stock images.
Added benefit of basic SEO options.
Easy mobile website integration.
Cons
The customisation options are limited, when compared to other website builders in the market.
No pre-made templates for educational web.
The Free plan is pretty much useless.
Pricing
Free Plan:$0.00/mo
Starter Plan: $8/mo
Business Plus Plan: $16/mo
Squarespace is a multipurpose software to build a wonderful online occupancy. You can look like an expert web developer right from the beginning with award-winning templates for your web page, store or portfolio. Tailor the design to meet your unique style and business needs.
Get a better SEO ranking. Get insights about your website traffic, what is the most viewed content on your webpage, and how they’re associating with your content or merchandises with deep Analytics tools.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
Affordable and useful integrations with PayPal, MailChimp and many more.
Provides free stock images.
Added benefit of basic SEO options.
No plugins necessary because most features are built right in. .
Cons
The E-commerce website platform has very minimal features.
SEO features are just not as strong as are available with the competition.
The Free plan is pretty much useless.
Pricing
Free Trial: Available (No Credit Card required)
Websites:
Personal: $12/month (billed annually) or $16/month (billed monthly).
Business: $18/month (billed annually) or $26/month (billed monthly).
Online Stores:
Commerce Basic: $26/month (billed annually) or $30/month (billed monthly).
Commerce Advanced: $40/month (billed annually) or $46/month (billed monthly).
WordPress is a website building and publishing program with tools for artistic designing, traffic analysis, media storage and upload, and more. With WordPress, you can get a blog or webpage, or one as well as the other, inaugurated in very little time, using only an email address. Consumers get their own WordPress.com address, 3 GB of data storage, and an assortment of pre-designed templates to choose, and adaptable designs for the blog.
During initial set up, you can add a personalised domain and handle the design, arrangement, and content from inside the platform. Written content can be easily added and your work is automatically saved every few seconds to avoid loss of data. The drag and drop styled editor helps the addition of images or videos into posts and pages.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
Easy to use and setup.
Includes a built-in social sharing to spread the word of new posts or content.
In-depth statistics and visual analytics to gain insight on incoming traffic.
SEO tool, to help bring in new visitors.
Cons
The free cloud-based version is limited.
The selections of themes and integrations can be very overpowering especially to a rookie.
Pricing
Free Plan: (3GB storage), as well as paid plans:
Personal plan: €4/month (billed yearly) with 6 GB of storage and a custom domain name.
Premium plan: €8/month (billed yearly) with 13 GB of storage, a custom domain name, and monetization options.
Business plan: €25/month (billed yearly) with unlimited storage space, a custom domain name, and a range of additional features including plugins, Wordpress branding removal, and more.
Shopify is a cloud-based, a multi-channel program intended for small to medium-sized companies. Retailers can use the program to set up, design, and manage their stores across various sales channels, which comprises of the web, mobile compatibility, social media, online store and much more.
The tool also presents retailers with a robust support office. The Shopify platform was tailor-made for authenticity and scale, using enterprise-level tech made available to companies of all capacities. Shopify at present powers 800,000+ clients in roughly 149+ countries.
Shopify is a business program that empowers anyone to efficiently market their products online. Shopify offers a great online storefront, a payment gateway for all your transactions, and much more.
Shopify’s Ecommerce solutions, provides users with a consolidated program to run their business with efficiency. Users can fully tailor their webshop, add/ remove sales and discounts in seconds, handle countless commodities and inventory, meet orders in one step, record sales and growth trends, and more.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
It's an all in one solution- managing software, installing updates,keeping backups are all done automatically.
Shopify Payments - provides integrated payment solutions, you can also use third party softwares to accept payments.
Hundreds of designs and templates to choose from, without coding one bit.
Easy Drag and Drop styled editor.
Easy Integration with wordpress, allows you to take benefits of both worlds.
Cons
Pricing is on the higher side.
Quite difficult to move website from Shopify to another service provider.
Limited customisation available on the check-out page.
Pricing
Free Trial: Available (No Credit Card required)
BASIC SHOPIFY: $29 per month
SHOPIFY: $79 per month
ADVANCED SHOPIFY: $299 per month
GoDaddy is an Internet domain registrar that helps in securing a domain for your website &a website hosting company which offers a wide range of solutions for website construction, domain name registration, WordPress site hosting, security, company email, etc.
GoDaddy’s domain tools incorporate domain name search, domain transfer, WHOIS database search, privacy protection, domain auction, domain value appraisal, domain backorders, and domain investing. A variety of domain extensions are up for grabs, from the traditional .com and .net to the more modern .io, .xyz, and .cloud extensions.
The GoCentral website builder enables consumers to build custom websites via a codeless U.I using modular components. Functions include appointment booking, blogging and eCommerce can be used with the help of GoDaddy’s GoCentral.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
The website builder is really easy to use.
Customer support is really great.
You can build your website, without writing in even a single line of code.
Easy Drag and Drop styled editor.
Cons
Limited Hosting features.
No Ecommerce tools.
Can't switch themes without loosing your content.
Pricing
One month free trial, no credit card required.
Personal: $5.99/month or $71.88/year.
Business: $9.99/month or $119.88/year.
Business Plus: $14.99/month or $179.88/year.
Online Store: $19.99/month or $239.88/year.
Build unconventional business experiences on the industry’s most versatile e-commerce solution. Consolidating the enterprise functionality of an open architecture and application ecosystem, and market-leading performance.
BigCommerce empowers companies to develop online sales efficiently. BigCommerce enables B2C and B2B e-commerce for 60,000+ labels, 2,000+ medium-sized companies, 30 Fortune 1000 corporations and market-leading brands.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
Easy to use and has some great functionality.
Ability to sync to 3rd parties applications.
Easy on the pocket.
An all-in-one SaaS e-commerce platform.
Cons
Email hosting is not well supported.
Not easy to edit templates with Stencil themes non developers.
Pricing
One month free trial, no credit card required.
Starting at $29.95
Plus: $79.95/month
Pro: $249.95/month
Enterprise: Contact BigCommerce for pricing information.
Weebly is a freemium web hosting, web layout and e-commerce software, designed for use by independent workers, new business, small businesses and not-for-profit organizations. Weebly provides a pull-and-drop editor and provides its users with straight and an elaborate control over their webpage without an actual understanding of coding or web design.
Weebly provides domains and all the apps/tools to make your website and 100+ optional templates to pick from. Weebly websites are completely tailorable with HTML/CSS code which enables users with more.
Weebly websites, blogs and online retail stores are designed to work across all platforms, including computers, tablets and mobile phones. Consumers can prepare, develop, publish and grow a site entirely with Weebly.
Developing a site with Weebly is quite simple with the drag-drop styled editor as you can choose the elements drag and drop them into position. The statistics are fair to the plan you buy.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
It is easy to use and configure
The drag and drop editor helps non developers to edit websites.
Also helps in SEO.
Cons
Drag-and-drop editing is limited.
Not the best tool for advance users, as you cant tweak settings due to the beginner friendly model of this tool.
Not good at backups, if your website goes down you have to wait for support from weebly for you to get you site back up.
Pricing
Free: $0/month
Starter: $4/month
Pro: $8/month
Business: $25/month
B12 makes custom webpages accessible to small companies. With B12's Do It Yourself (DIFY) method, B12 creates great quality webpages at a portion of the money & time of hiring a team of developers.
B12’s exclusive A.I. produces an unpolished design for your website in about a minute, then B12's expert web stylists consolidate your feedback to create & start your site within days. Post-launch they offer clients, monthly tips on ways to enhance your website, assuring that your website grows as your company grows.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
B12 has a wide range of items that you could put on your website.
Uses AI and website developers to create your perfect website.
Drag and drop style editor.
Cons
Templates provided are obsolete.
Customer service can be improved.
Less suitable for clients who want highly-customized design
Pricing
Free Trial: Available (No Credit Card required)
Get Online: $29/month
Get Integrated: $59/month
Get Found: $99/month
Get Found Pro: $249/month
Webflow is a visual website development platform for professionals, No coding is required to make your site using this platform. You can either design a webpage completely from the beginning or start from one of the pre-made templates.
Here's a list of Pros and Cons to Guide you better:
Pros
B12 has a wide range of items that you could put on your website.
Uses AI and website developers to create your perfect website.
Drag and drop style editor.
Cons
The eCommerce part of it still needs a little work done.
Some of the hosting options are, ambiguous and create confusion.
There are some Bugs in the websites.
Pricing
Free - (only for an individual)
Basic - $12/month.
CMS - $16/month.
Business - $36/month.
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