Before you can promote your company’s products or services, you should make sure that you have a reliable website. People should be able to easily access it so they can view your offer, and get to know more about it. Even if you make a personal website for yourself, it helps to know which website building platform is best. No matter your situation, website builders are always available for you to use. However, not all of them have the same structure. The following are some of the best website builders you can use today to get your message across.
1) Wix
Having over 100 million users, Wix is one of the most popular website builders available. There are over 500 ready-to-use templates no matter which industry you are in. You can modify these templates for mobile use, and there are 100 different fonts to choose from. You can also upload your custom fonts.
If you run a small business, Wix can be a fantastic online store builder. While it isn’t technically advanced, Wix includes an e-commerce store platform that can be easily set up. It contains features comparable to that of Shopify and BigCommerce. Wix is also user-friendly, you can customize the look and feel of your website as many times as you want, without having any coding knowledge.
The Artificial Design Intelligence tool offered by Wix is useful to help your website to be created smartly. This tool can learn about your business and use that information to create a site that suits your specific needs. Ultimately, Wix is very affordable; you can spend as low as $14 per month on a combo plan or $23 per month on a Business Basic plan.
Pros:
- Wix can be fully customized to suit your needs.
- You have an abundance of design features to choose from.
- You don’t need previous experience or knowledge in website coding.
Cons:
- You have no access to Wix’s online store with the cheaper domain plans.
- Unless you buy the VIP plan, you have no access to Wix’s email marketing features.
- Wix does not support PayPal or similar electronic payment methods.
2) Web.com
It should be easy to set up a website. Web.com’s platform lets you follow easy steps to get your website set up. Web.com takes care of the marketing right from the start, they have specially trained Pay-Per-Click agents that will help you with Google advertising. This service allows you to pick specific keywords so your site will show up in ads at the top of SERPs.
Web.com cares about your online credibility, which is why they offer pro-business directory services. Information about your business is kept accurate across multiple business directories. After your information is verified by an SEO expert via keyword research, your business directories are monitored daily. As a result, customers can leave accurate feedback about your company after accessing your site.
You can choose to have either on-page or off-page SEO services, which can help increase traffic to your existing website. It also lets you obtain a higher rank against competitors, establish your business identity, and improve your backlink profile.
Web.com also offers security options for your website such as SSL certificates and custom cyber security plans. All SSL certificates have a warranty and the Cyber Security Solution costs only $4.99 per month.
Pros:
- You can set up your website in a few easy steps.
- Marketing is already taken care of by Web.com.
- Mobile-friendly design within its website templates.
Cons:
- Reportedly freezes up sometimes.
- Package prices for plans are very expensive after the first month.
- Lacks depth of options compared to Wix.
3) Site123
Site123 is one of the few website builders that allows you to sign up at no cost to test out its features. Its free plan consists of a subdomain, 500 GB of data storage, and 1 GB of bandwidth. If you already have a domain, you can connect it to Site123 with the help of the premium plan, which costs $12.80 per month.
There are over 200 design templates to choose from when you review Site123’s options. It only takes three simple steps to create a website on Site123’s platform. First, you select your website type; second, you upload your desired content; third, once you finish uploading you can publish your site. After your site is published, you can use different SEO tools that will handle your meta titles and descriptions so that they remain organized.
Starting at around $22 per month, you can purchase helpful e-commerce plans that can help your business grow. For businesses; Advanced, Professional, and Gold plans all have email accounts, and these plans allow you to buy additional email accounts separately. Having unlimited bandwidth and add-ons, the drag and drop interface of Site123 makes it easy for you to get comfortable using its features.
Pros:
- Site123 contains built-in SEO tools and marketing features.
- The drag and drop interface is easy to use.
- Professional website chat support is available 24/7.
Cons:
- Once you publish your website, you can’t change templates.
- Design options in Site123 lack depth compared to other website builders.
- Site123 won’t allow HTML code to be inserted into your site, which can restrict your site’s functionalities through code snippets.
4) WordPress
One of the most easily recognized website builders that has existed since 2003, WordPress hosts over 75 million websites. WordPress gives you two options; you can choose a web host and create a site on WordPress.org, or you can use the WordPress.com website builder to create a site.
WordPress offers a free plan that gives you a website, 3 GB of storage, and unlimited customer support. If you decide to upgrade to one of their five paid plans, more advanced features, plugins, and priority support will become available to you. Personal and Premium plans cost only $4 to $8 per month, while Business and E-Commerce plans cost $25 to $45 per month.
Jetpack’s essential features are all built into the WordPress platform. These features include basic SEO tools, social sharing, and expansive site analytics. The all-in-one Jetpack plugin is very useful as it has unlimited functionality in SEO, analytics, security, and marketing.
WordPress is remarkably user-friendly in its website design features. You don’t need any coding experience to realize the full potential of these features. WordPress has a comprehensive dashboard that is easy to navigate and includes all the tools and creative freedom you need to design a fully functional site.
Pros:
- WordPress has user-friendly website design features from start to finish.
- Includes many different plugins to use.
- There are many appealing themes to choose from, regardless of the plan you choose.
Cons:
- WordPress constantly updates its plugins, which can make it complicated to know which plugins are still compatible and whether they conflict with each other.
- It can be potentially overwhelming to manage themes, plugins, and site health and security since you have a lot of options.
- The WordPress website builder lacks many drag and drop functionalities.
5) Squarespace
High-quality sites that have great presentations are what people look for as a small business, and for personal use, it helps to have an attractive appeal to your website. Squarespace understands this point and they offer over 100 design templates. They also pay great attention to detail when it comes to fonts, color schemes, and images.
Using the back-end design of Squarespace is made simple as its admin section is built to easily navigate, even if you have never used Squarespace before. If you are familiar with blogging platforms like WordPress and Blogger, then you can easily figure out how to use Squarespace. Unlike WordPress though, you don’t have to worry about adding plugins, widgets, or apps on Squarespace.
Squarespace takes a bundled approach in their offers and offers a free 14-day trial. Backups and redundancy are automatic when creating a site, and with hosting always being optimized, your template and site will be compatible. Your site, hosting, security, and redundancies are all included in the monthly subscription cost. Squarespace also encourages customization via photography. Most of their templates rely on photography where you can switch out stock photos with your own.
Pros:
- Squarespace allows you to customize default templates any way you wish.
- This website builder has a curated selection of templates that are ready to go.
- It has great built-in analytics and award-winning designs.
Cons:
- It can be complicated to get a grip on Squarespace’s user interface.
- There are some SEO limitations, such as double indexing and blog headlines becoming meta titles.
- You will get no support for third-party extensions, apps, or plugins with Squarespace.
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Comparing the Top 5 Website Builders
Now that we have identified the five best website builders available, it is time to compare them with each other.. Breaking it down into separate categories, you can see the similarities and differences between all five.
Ease of Use
It is extremely easy to create a website with Wix, which promotes a fun and creative environment. Its functioning isn’t downgraded at any point and caters to all creators, both novices and experts alike. Wix provides drag and drop functions to make the creation process flow seamlessly, but if you don’t like this kind of functioning, you can always try the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence.
In comparison, the learning curve with Squarespace is higher than that of Wix, but it doesn’t take long to get used to its layout and user interface. Site123 has a clean interface and is easy to customize. Site123 also has mobile-responsive templates, so you won’t need to struggle with changing your site for mobile platforms.
WordPress suffers from a lacking presence in drag and drop functions. The amount of options you get in features does not make up for struggling with ease of use in WordPress. However, storing key information about your company’s marketing is made easy with Web.com as you can easily tailor the creation of your site around this marketing information. Setting up your site on Web.com takes up no time at all.
Design Flexibility
Template options, design flexibility, and creative control all matter in website development. Wix has over 500 design templates that are ready to use. Site123 has over 200 templates, WordPress has approximately 174 templates, Web.com has over 150 templates, and Squarespace has over 100 templates.
A large range of quality designs can be had with Wix, and none of these templates restrict you to particularly special domains. These templates look professional and offer plenty of whitespaces.
Web.com offers pre-designed content blocks so you won’t have to waste time designing your own. The design layouts of Web.com are fully customizable, which means you change elements such as images, fonts, and styling.
Site123 has a mobile-friendly design flexibility that sticks to its three-step approach to building a site. If you want to create an online store, Site123 gives you the creative freedom you need to make your store stand out. Site123 has an image bank that has hundreds of high-quality pictures that you can use, without any restrictions.
WordPress has a user-friendly website design that allows you to go as far as its features will take you. In other words, if you are heavily reliant on plugins to make your site function, then the design flexibility you get will be a reflection of the plugins you use.
Squarespace does provide more flexibility compared to Wix if you need to switch out your template. All templates on Squarespace are fully responsive and are mobile- and tablet-friendly right from the start. If you switch out your template, Squarespace ensures you won’t lose any content.
Features
This category covers all the features website builders have, including tools for e-commerce, marketing, and blogging. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features are also covered in this category.
Wix:
When it comes to e-commerce tools, Wix offers many built-in options. Unlimited bandwidth, 50 GB of storage, no commission fee, no ads, and Google Analytics to track performance are just some features you can set. The Wix App Market is the most powerful resource in this website builder. It allows you to install third-party tools, and as long as you are willing to pay more money, you can access advanced options in the App Market. You can send out appealing newsletters with Wix’s marketing tools. This can also assist you in tracking your site’s success rate and managing your social media marketing. Wix has an amazing SEO guide that can teach you the ins and outs of SEO and how to manage it.
Web.com
Increasing your search ranking matters to Web.com, they have a phone service where you can speak with their experts to learn more about SEO management. Web.com tailors SEO services for your business needs. Which include improving the visibility and exposure of your site, updating an existing site, and building trust and online authority. Both on-page and off-page SEO support is offered by Web.com. This support allows you to rank against competitors with rich keywords. Also to set up business directories that get your business listed on more popular directories. The most intriguing thing about Web.com is that they allow you to build a WordPress site through their platform.
Site123
Site123 caters to SEO and have guides that teach you how to add meta descriptions. If you are just getting used to Google Analytics and are new to marketing, Site123 also has guides that can help. Site123 is flexible when it comes to adopting previously created websites. If you want your site to maintain its SEO performance, Site123’s redirect feature will come in handy. Site123 also gives you support in backups and restoration as their website builder will prevent you from losing crucial pieces of data. Through their SEO Adviser tool, you can freely manage SEO on Site123 while running site audits.
WordPress
One-click payments paid subscriptions and a fully customizable online store are all offered by WordPress. If you have a PayPal account then WordPress offers a Pay with PayPal button that allows you to take payments from any page. Right from the start, WordPress gives you help in managing SEO with guides that instruct you on how to build a site with SEO techniques. WordPress provides in-depth statistics that you can view to learn more about your site visitors, and it has a fast and intuitive site editor that automatically saves your work. WordPress has mobile and desktop apps available for multiple systems including Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Squarespace
If product merchandising is what your company specializes in, then Squarespace’s initial option is mainly designed for this function. Unlimited bandwidth, cart recovery, and email marketing are some of the e-commerce features Squarespace offers. When it comes to marketing, Squarespace helps you run email campaigns with customizable newsletters, integration with social media platforms, and built-in analytics. Squarespace provides help in SEO by cleaning up URLs to enable easier indexing, cleaning HTML markups, and automatically generating a proper sitemap.
Customer Support
Wix Support
There are diversified channels for customer support with Wix. They provide step-by-step guides, forums, and informative blogs and articles that can help you solve any website development problems. If you are a business looking to make progress in your industry, the Wix Help Center gives you all the information you need about Editor X, a website creation platform that was launched in February 2020. You can also use Wix’s easy ticketing system. It allows you to transform customer requests into a priority list that can be managed and tracked.
Web.com Support
Web.com has an extensive help and support section that addresses a wide range of topics. Checking the status of domain transfers, email mailboxes, and getting started with an SSL certificate are some of the many topics Web.com can address. You can log in to your Account Manager to submit a support ticket when contacting Web.com’s staff. There is also a Chat Now button you can click to immediately engage with the staff. If you prefer phone conversations, you can also call in.
Site123 Support
Site123 treats its customers with respect and helps guide them through any potential website developmenta issues. They also have a YouTube channel that is filled with useful tutorial videos. Site123 gives you an extended list of topics that they are ready to address, ranging from the website editor and homepage to SEO, plugins, and custom code. They also have a live chat option where you can have conversations with their support staff about any issues you may be having.
WordPress Support
WordPress offers a support section that is easy to navigate, and it is treated like a search engine so that if you need to ask anything specific about website development, WordPress will give you answers. From starting a website to customizing and connecting it, WordPress gives you the support you need with the help of their readily available staff. They also have a forum where you can ask website development questions.
Squarespace Support
There is a customer support policy in place that the Squarespace staff will reply to your messages within one hour. That is a reflection of their commitment to customers. Step-by-step guides, video workshops, webinars, live chats, and informative blogs and articles make up Squarespace’s support section. If you need additional help in website development, you can hire a Squarespace Expert to either help polish an existing website or create a brand new one.
The Importance of Website Builders
The act of developing a website is key for your daily needs as a business person. If you want your business to thrive, get your message out to your target audience, and make your brand visible. Website builders give you the help you need in reaching your company’s goals. On a personal level, you can have the satisfaction of customizing a web domain all on your own. Website builders promote more effective communication with users who visit your site, improve your reach to your target audiences, and can help confirm your reliability as a company.
Having a responsive website design will give you access to a wide range of users that use multiple devices, like smartphones or tablets. Once your site generates traffic, it is key to maintain a professional presentation, that serves as an online testimony of your business. Skills, credentials, experience, and expertise are some of the many important details that can be kept in a single place because of website development. As a result, you gain the trust and confidence of visitors and get opportunities to produce leads.
Conclusion
No matter which website builder you choose, you can know you will get the best quality tools that the internet can offer. Much of what goes into creating a website comes down to personal preference and what makes the most sense to your company. Even if you create a private personal website, you should still have the basic features of a website builder to make your site function properly. Having the freedom to express your creativity and present your business in the way you want online can help your company succeed in the long run.
For more information on WordPress as a website builder, please contact us here or through the form below.
About
Joshua Lyons Marketing, LLC was established in 2015. Since that time we have provided digital marketing services to business and professionals. We help our clients increase their online exposure as a means to increase sales and revenue. Our core services include search engine optimization (SEO), website development and content creation. We also provide other online marketing services, such as email marketing, marketing consultations and various types of advertising. Our team is based in the Milton, Pace and Pensacola, Florida area. However, we work with clients throughout the United States. Read More