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Choosing the Best Website Builder
Having a simple, well-built website for your personal or small business is a must in today’s digital environment.
Even a brick and mortar business needs a web presence to run successfully.
A website can open the doors to new markets and give you an edge in your industry for very little time and cost. Plus you’ll no longer have to depend exclusively on an Instagram profile, Facebook page or Twitter account.
Can I build a website myself?
Yes, and you absolutely should! We’ve come a long way since the early 2000s when it was nearly impossible for the average business owner to create their own website. That monumental task required either trawling through books of code and spending hours upon hours learning how to create a site worth visiting yourself or spending the high price for someone else to do it for you. Fortunately, today you can make a website for your business with far less effort and hassle.
Website design software has evolved to the point where just about anyone can build a website that is attractive, user friendly, and drives traffic. Website builders are the perfect solutions for small businesses that need an online presence without having to hire agencies or developers. With only a small amount of computer competencies, such as the ability to use Microsoft Word, Facebook, and Powerpoint, you’ll be able to use website building tools without any problems.
How do website builders work?
Whether you are a beginner or experienced designer, website builders make it remarkably easy to create an entire website in very little time using a drag-and-drop editor. In addition, many web hosting solutions now prove their own website builder solutions. Without any coding knowledge whatsoever, simply build your website by dragging elements and dropping them into your preferred location then simply updating the content yourself. Basically, you’ll want to start with:
- Choosing a design template that suits your business and industry. A website template is a pre-made web page that can be customized with images, videos, and other style elements to create a complete website.
- Choose elements and content. You can edit elements by clicking on them to replace the text and images with your own content. Simply drag and drop the elements to new locations on the page to rearrange them.
- Enhance your site with widgets and additional elements. These widgets and elements can be contact forms, blogs, social media buttons (Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet, Pinterest Pin), or a shopping cart to sell products and services.
After you are happy with the way your website looks and functions, all you have to do is click on the “Publish” button and voila! Your site is ready to be viewed by anyone online.
However, since there are so many website builders on the market, how do you know which one is right for you? We’ll help you decide which website builder is best for you by going over the features, pros, and cons of some of the most popular options.
Squarespace Review
Since it was founded in 2003, millions of websites have been created using the Squarespace platform. Over the years they have positioned themselves as THE website builder for blogs, portfolios, and online stores, but their easy-to-use tools are also ideal for any size business looking to build an online presence.
Features
Squarespace’s editing interface includes a built-in help box that helps navigate you through the entire process. Some useful tools include the ability to edit in full-screen mode, add logos, and make use of their Style Editor to switch between templates. Product pages can be easily added to start selling physical goods or downloadable products and services immediately.
Pros
- Over 100 sophisticated themes for tablets and phones
- Highly customizable and appealing templates
- A support team that provides exact step by step processes
Cons
- No autosave or sitewide undo/history feature
- Difficult to create a large website with a deep menu, multi language, etc.
- Their pages score low on Google’s Page Speed Tool
Squarespace Pricing
Squarespace Recommendation
Although Squarespace’s pages upload slowly and they aren’t the ideal page builder for big, complicated websites, they have shown to be a reliable website builder. If you’re looking to create a stylish website with an excellent 24/7 support team to walk you through the process, they can be the ideal website builder for your small business. Use code GIMME10 upon signing up and receive 10% off your order!
How to Build a Website using Squarespace (VIDEO)
Wix Review
Wix is focused on user experience. If you’re an experienced coder, you’ll be able to fully customize your site to your needs, and if you’re a beginner, their drag-and-drop editor is very smooth and easy to use. Because of the simplicity and functionality of their site, over 180 million users in more than 80 countries have chosen to use Wix.
Features
With over 500 professionally designed templates mapped by industry, Wix covers pretty much every type of business and their needs. They also allow you to design templates from scratch with blank templates if you have a specified niche that readymade templates can’t offer.
Pros
- Simple to use editor for beginners
- Secured website with an SSL certificate
- Step-by-step walkthrough videos
Cons
- Costs more to scale up your site with more third-party apps
- Limited payment options (no PayPal or electronic wallets)
- Can’t change templates after the site is published
Wix Pricing
Wix Recommendation
Although Wix websites are known for having bad search engine optimization (SEO), you can connect your Wix website to Google Search Console to improve your search rankings. Besides that, Wix is a great option for getting your small business online with a website that looks beautiful and professional.
How to Build a Website using Wix (VIDEO)
Zyro Review
From a bakery to a regional lawyer, Zyro is great for getting lightweight businesses online without much time, effort, or planning. As a reasonably priced and easy to use website builder, they provide just the right number of tools to build attractive and functional pages.
Features
Averaging 125.8 ms based on tests from ten locations around the world, Zyro has proved that their servers perform quite well with their integration of the Content Distribution Network (CDC), Cloudflare. They also have a pool of ready-made templates that are easy to modify with basic features that keep your website looking clean.
Pros
- AI writer to help you create content
- Free images to utilize
- Low cost Basic Version
Cons
- Not much customization available
- Very few template options
- Customer support can be improved
Zyro Pricing
Zyro Recommendation
While Zyro is great for getting a small business some online presence with a website that looks great, their lack of sales features might be unattractive to some. However, if you’re looking to get a website up fast and easy for very little upfront cost, they might be the best option on the market.
How to Build a Website using Zyro (VIDEO)
Weebly Review
Weebly is a website and eCommerce service with powerful tools that make it easy to build a professional, mobile-optimized site. Since Weebly was acquired by payment company Square in May 2018, they also help with running a successful online store by simplifying shipping, taxes, and inventory management.
Features
What makes Weebly so easy to use is their drag and drop interface that’s designed to take elements and snap them into place. Weebly also comes with a free package, which provides a relatively large number of features as long as you’re okay with an advertisement in the footer and an improper domain name.
Pros
- Their online store is great for businesses
- Great looking themes that adapt to mobile devices
- Their support center provides helpful SEO guides
- Free plan available
Cons
- The limited design doesn’t offer total freedom to do as you please
- Websites in multiple languages aren’t SEO friendly
- Expensive to add a matching email to your domain
Weebly Pricing
Weebly Recommendation
Moving site elements around on Weebly isn’t as flexible as it is on Wix, but Weebly probably has the best website builder for small businesses. Over the years they have come close to perfecting all the basic tools you need to build a great business site, and on top of that, they have a great affordable Weebly Professional plan that comes with your own domain.
How to Build a Website using Weebly (VIDEO)
Shopify eCommerce Solutions Review
Shopify is a web application that allows you to create your own online store by providing you with a range of themes that can be customized. Like other website builders, you don’t need to know code or have any design skills to build your online store with Shopify. Shopify is known as the go-to solution for any new online store.
Features
Shopify offers a more affordable way to sell your products online with their basic plan starting at $9 per month, which allows you to sell an unlimited number of goods. However, the light plan only allows you to sell via your Facebook page and on an existing website. You’ll have to upgrade to their $29+ plans to have a full online store where you can choose templates, upload a catalog of products, and have access to third-party apps.
Pros
- Ease of use (nothing technical about it!)
- Easy to scale for small and big online stores
- Tons of add-on apps and experts to help you use them
Cons
- Their URL structure isn’t ideal for SEO
- They charge transaction fees
- Direct help from support can be difficult to receive
Shopify Pricing
Shopify Recommendation
Although you will probably have to budget for Shopify’s annual cost and transaction fees, there are many advantages and attractive features to like about their service. Shopify is very straightforward to use, they offer custom solutions if you need them, and their system can grow with your business, which could be worth the price if you’re planning to run a true online ecommerce business. Generally, most people that opt into their 14-day free trial end up sticking with their service.
How to Build a Website using Shopify (VIDEO)
Can I build a shopping website with WordPress or is it better to use Shopify?
Hi Liz,
It’s hard to say “better” but Shopify will likely be easier. There are a number of different approaches to eCommerce via WordPress, one of the most popular is Woo Commerce so you can look into that combination as well.
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a colleague who has been conducting a little homework on this. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I stumbled upon it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending the time to discuss this matter here on your blog.
Hey there would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re utilizing?
I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different browsers and I must say
this blog loads a lot faster then most. Can you recommend a good web
hosting provider at a fair price? Thank you, I appreciate it!
Personally, I use Bluehost but coupled with a number of other tools to help compress files and speed up the site – check out WP Rocket and any image compression plugin.