Website Builder Comparison Chart: Best 2026 Options

Following over 300 hours of data collection and hands-on testing of the 12 best website builders, Wix is our top choice for both beginners and tech-savvy veterans. The builder offers powerful AI features, an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, and even a vibe coding tool.

I’ve narrowed our tested 12 down to the top five builders to help you find the right fit for your site, outlining all of the key features and considerations in this website builder comparison chart.

 Key Takeaways 🔍
 
 Wix is the most versatile builder with over 2,000 templates to suit almost every industry
Squarespace is the best choice for services and bookings based businesses and is the easiest to use
Hostinger is the most affordable choice (from $2.99/mo) with a wide range of AI features
Shopify has the best sales features and extremely scalable plans, from $29 to $299 per month (billed annually)
GoDaddy is a beginner-friendly choice for personal or informational sites


 

 How We Test Website Builders
 
 12 website builders tested
6 core focuses, including pricing and features
207 unique areas of investigation
300+ hours spent testing and researching platforms
Independent and unbiased recommendations, written by experts with experience


 

The 5 Best Website Builders Comparison Chart

		Overall rating	Best for	Today's best price
BEST IN TEST
Wix	Squarespace	Hostinger	Shopify	GoDaddy
4.8	4.5	4.2	4.2	4.1
Best overall website builder	Easiest website builder	Cheapest starting prices	Top sales features	Quickest setup experience
~~$17~~ $15.30 with code “TAKE10”	~~$19~~ $17.10 with code “WBE10”	~~$11.99~~ $2.99/month	~~$29~~ $1/mo for 3 months	$9.99
Free plan	14-day free trial	14-day free trial	3-day free trial	Free plan
14 days	14 days	30 days	30 days (for annual contracts), all requests reviewed	30 days
Best features out of any builder on the market Drag-and-drop editor for total creative control Personalized SEO checklist	Intuitive and easy-to-use editor Excellent booking tools to offer services online Stylish design options helping sites shine	Incredibly affordable plans, especially for selling Fastest website load speeds out of all builders tested Impressive suite of AI tools	Best sales features, like unlimited products & 100+ payment options App market with 8,000+ apps Mobile-responsive online store designs	Build a website in less than a minute Excellent marketing suite for promoting your business Affordable plans for websites and online stores
Can’t switch template after publishing your site Dashboard can be overwhelming due to large number of features Editor speeds can be slow at times	No centralized SEO dashboard Smart grid in editor can limit you creatively No autosave feature when designing	Limited scalability and customization options No app market and lack of built-in features Renewal prices increase after introductory deal	Limited customization options with section-based editor Additional costs to consider, such as apps Only 24 free templates available	Limited and uninspiring design options Features are too simple for complex businesses No app market to add extra functionality with
Phone (24/7), live chat, social media, help center, SEO Learning Hub, Wix Learn, community forum	Email (24/7), live chat, social media, help center, community forum, hire a Squarespace expert, podcasts	Email (24/7), live chat (24/7), social media, knowledge base, Hostinger Academy, tutorials	Phone (Shopify Plus users only), email, live chat (24/7), social media, help center, community forum, AI chatbot	Phone (24/7), live chat (24/7), social media, knowledge center, community forum, tutorials, podcasts
2,000+	190+	300+	1,000+	200+
Free for 1 year	Free for 1 year	Free for 1 year	No	Free for 1 year
AI website builder Business Launcher Wix Aria AI theme assistant AI portfolio creator AI image creator & editor + more	Blueprint AI AI site descriptions AI text generator AI product descriptions AI business name generator + more	AI website builder Hostinger Reach AI image generator AI assistant AI SEO tools + more	AI website theme creator Shopify Magic Shopify Sidekick AI support + more	GoDaddy Airo GoDaddy Studio AI product descriptions AI logo maker AI social calendar + more
Custom SEO checklist, Semrush integration, AI support, Google Business Profile, analytics, SEO Learning Hub	AIO Scanner, SEO Scanner, AI Site Scanner, SEO panel, search preview, Google Search Console integration	Fastest loading times, AI SEO assistant, SEO page settings	Shopify Sidekick, Shopify Magic, personalized title tags, Semrush integration, third-party apps	GoDaddy Airo, SEO Wizard, Google Business Profile, social media tools, SEO expert consultation
Facebook Instagram X/Twitter LinkedIn YouTube TikTok Pinterest	Facebook Instagram X/Twitter LinkedIn TikTok Pinterest	Facebook Instagram X/Twitter LinkedIn	Facebook Instagram X/Twitter TikTok LinkedIn Pinterest Reddit	Facebook Instagram X/Twitter YouTube LinkedIn TikTok Pinterest
AI marketing agent, weekly newsletters, email shout-outs, social post creator, abandoned cart recovery	Weekly newsletters, email shout outs, social post creator, abandoned cart recovery	Weekly newsletters, automatic email shout-outs	Weekly newsletters, email shout-outs, full social media integrations, email campaigns through third-party apps	Weekly newsletters, email shout-outs, social post creator
$10/mo (+ free plan)	$5/mo	AI-powered email marketing, $1.99/mo	$1/per mo (+ free plan)	$1.99/mo
Businesses promoting their online presence	Creatives, portfolios and service-based businesses	Freelancers and budget-conscious users	Online stores	Tech novices and side hustlers
See our Wix Review	See our Squarespace Review	See our Hostinger Review	See our Shopify Review	See our GoDaddy Review

How To Choose the Right Website Builder for Your Needs

Watch our video breakdown to help you select the right website builder:

Top 5 Website Builders Comparison: Features & Pricing

We reviewed the best website builders on the market to determine the top contenders:

Wix: Best All-in-One Builder

Wix is the best website builder overall, offering powerful features that are ideal for creating and managing your website. This includes a drag-and-drop editor, AI tools, email marketing, and dependable support options.

Still, if you’re only looking to create a basic website, a simpler option like GoDaddy will seem less overwhelming than Wix’s feature-packed editor. And since you can’t change your Wix template once your site is live, it won’t be suitable for users wanting to refresh their design often.

Squarespace: Best for Beginners

Squarespace was identified as the easiest website builder to use in our 50 user tests, thanks to its intuitive editor and Blueprint AI Builder. It also has a range of stunning templates and powerful bookings tools, making it a great solution for service-based businesses.

However, Squarespace’s grid guidelines can feel restrictive, so I recommend Wix if you’re looking for total freedom in the editor.

Hostinger: Best Budget Builder

Hostinger is the cheapest website builder tested, with entry-level plans starting at $2.99 per month (billed every 48-months). Its comprehensive set of AI and marketing tools make it a great option for busy businesses looking to save time and keep costs low.

One thing to note is that, unlike Wix, Hostinger doesn’t have an app market. This means Hostinger isn’t suitable for businesses wanting advanced functionality, especially considering its built-in features are basic.

Shopify: Best for Selling

Our testing found Shopify to be the best ecommerce website builder, with unlimited product uploads, multichannel selling, advanced shipping tools, and product management features designed for a large inventory. In conjunction with its scalable plans, these features make Shopify a great option for businesses looking to grow.

Despite its powerful tools, Shopify’s steep pricing (starting at $29 per month) isn’t great value for money. On top of this, its three-day free trial is the shortest of any builder on this list, which limits how much you can familiarize yourself with its interface before committing.

GoDaddy: Best Speedy Setup

GoDaddy has the fastest onboarding process, based on our testing process, allowing users to build a functional site in under 60 seconds. GoDaddy also stands out for its powerful AI marketing tools, such as the social post creator and content calendar to help you grow your presence on other channels.

However, GoDaddy’s templates are more basic than others on this list, and its section-based editor – similar to Shopify’s – restricts the level of overall customization.

How Much Do the Top 5 Website Builders Cost?

Use the table below to compare key pricing information for our top five website builders:

Website Builder	Free plan/trial	Starting price	Cheapest ecommerce plan	Introductory deals
Wix	Free plan	$17/month	$29/month	Free custom domain for 1 year
Squarespace	14-day free trial	$19/month	$19/month	Free custom domain for 1 year
Hostinger	14-day free trial	$2.99/month	$3.99/month	Free custom domain for 1 year
Shopify	3-day free trial	$29/month	$29/month	$1/month for 1st 3 months
GoDaddy	Free plan	$9.99/month	$20.99/month	Free custom domain for 1 year

Quote

Expert Researcher Opinion: Wix Analysis

I think Wix is the best website builder I’ve tried—it works for pretty much anyone! Whether you’re a designer putting together a portfolio, a small business owner, or someone who needs to take bookings, Wix has so many features to help you out. I love how easy it is to get started, especially with the AI chatbot—it’s like having a web designer guide you through the process, but without the cost! Once you’re on the dashboard, there are tons of useful tools to not only build your site but also manage your whole online presence in one place.

Ollie Simpson Senior Research Executive

How We Test Website Builders in 2026

We evaluated 12 top website builders across 207 criteria and 300+ hours of testing to determine our 2026 rankings. We also carried out hands-on testing with each builder to add unique insights and personal experiences to our review pages.

Our research process covers six core categories, with each given a unique weighting:

Website functionality: 30%
Design features: 25%
Pricing: 15%
User experience: 15%
Help & support: 10%
Reputation: 5%

We give each website builder tested a score in each category to contribute to the overall rankings you see above. We also have individual rankings to reflect the builders’ suitability for different industries and purposes, including blogging, small business, resumes, weddings, photography, and more.

If Wix isn’t the right fit for you, here’s who we recommend our other top builders for:

Squarespace is second to Wix in our research. Its drag-and-drop editor means it’s the easiest builder to use, while service-based businesses can make use of its powerful bookings tool.
Hostinger offers the lowest starting price among our top tested builders at $2.99 per month (billed every 48 months).
If online selling is your goal, Shopify is the most suitable option here, since its sales tools for ecommerce businesses are unmatched.
Short on time? GoDaddy is a beginner-friendly platform that’s quick and easy to set up with—you can build a site in less than a minute if you’re under time constraints.

Wix is the best website builder for SEO that we’ve tested, with most major platforms handling the SEO basics and providing the tools you need to monitor and boost your site’s online presence. For example, Wix recently introduced an AI-powered tool to help you track your site’s visibility across AI search engines, including ChatGPT and Perplexity.

No, you don’t need a dedicated ecommerce platform to sell online, since most website builders offer a mix of plans, including ecommerce upgrades. For example, Wix’s free plan and Light plan offer standard features, but its Core plan and above include ecommerce functionality.

That said, if your site’s primary purpose is to sell products, it’s worth looking at dedicated ecommerce builders like Shopify. These platforms provide advanced sales tools and scalability for growing online stores, but you’ll likely need to pay a little more at the start.

Depending on the website builder you choose, there can be additional costs to consider, such as domain names, third-party apps, transaction fees, and security. A lot of platforms include a custom domain name as part of your subscription, but this will only be for the first year of your plan. After that, you’ll need to pay around $10–$20 per year for your domain.

When choosing your website builder, look at these potential extras, especially if you’re on a budget. Some builders, like Squarespace, will reduce transaction fees as you upgrade your plan. Others, like Shopify, rely on third-party apps, which can come with an additional price tag. It’s best to scan a plan’s features to see what’s included and what’s missing before you sign up.

Written By

Emma Ryan

Emma is Deputy Editor of MVF’s B2B brands, specializing in website builders, ecommerce, marketing, and vibe coding. Emma combines her wealth of knowledge and years of hands-on testing with a passion for helping small businesses and website owners navigate the highs and lows of being online. Her work has been featured in Newsweek, Digiday, TechRound, and Industry Today.

More about

Reviewed By

Natasha Willett Lead Researcher

Natasha brings her expert credentials – a BSc, Ma, and MMRS – to Website Builder Expert. Natasha has qualifications in Advanced Statistical Analysis, MRS certificate in Market Research, Brand, Finding the Story in the Data, and Big Data: Measuring and Predicting Human Behaviour. These have allowed her to carefully analyze over 64 providers across website builders, ecommerce web builders, and hosting.

Natasha began building websites when studying sports science, originally using Weebly to create websites to help students learn in a more interactive way. During her first week at Website Builder Expert, she realized that website builders would become important in giving business owners full control over their websites. She began creating a rigorous methodology of research that centered around testing providers and products against a large set of mixed criteria turned into quantitative findings, comparing value for money, design, ease of use, and more. All to provide the most honest and objective insights rather than just looking at their claimed features.

In five years at Website Builder Expert, Natasha has attended multiple expos in her field, including ESOMAR, MRS, eCommerce Expo, Ad World, Digital Customer Engagement Summit, and IMRG, just to name a few. Natasha has also worked alongside website builders directly to share her research with them, so that they might improve their products for users.

She’s clocked an impressive 9,600 hours of product research and testing, pulling data from multiple sources and providing the Website Builder Expert team with the scores and product details they need to give you the best recommendations to succeed online.

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1133 comments

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This comparison chart is incredibly helpful! I love how you laid out the pros and cons of each website builder. It makes it so much easier to decide which one suits my needs for 2026. Thanks for the detailed insights!

Reply
D06 3 days ago

This comparison chart is super helpful! I love how you broke down the pros and cons of each website builder. It definitely makes choosing the right one feel less overwhelming. I’m particularly interested in trying out the top-rated options for e-commerce. Thanks for putting this together!

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Loshuart 3 years ago

Hello, I found out that Google Blogger can also be used as a website portfolio through this Coursera course. Is this site permanently available? I am curious about various social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.) and how to use them more efficiently. I lost a lot of data while moving jobs. Is there a well-established 'community' where you can share portfolios and communicate?

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Reply
1 reply
- Lucy Carney 3 years ago
  
  Hi Loshuart,
  Thanks for your comment! We haven't put Blogger through our in-house research process so I can't share many insights on it I'm afraid, as I wouldn't want to give any recommendations without full research behind it. However, yes Blogger is a well established site so you may want to explore it if it sounds like something that'd suit your needs. If you're interested in creating a social media strategy we have a helpful guide to get you started! I'm not entirely sure what you need out of the free and open site so can't recommend anything specific, but Wix is an excellent free web builder if that's helpful?
  Really hope this helps, and happy building!
  Cheers, Lucy
  
  Reply
Emma 4 years ago

Hey! I am interested in using Bowwe builder but wanted to get some opinions first. Did you use it before? I don't know how it feels in comparison to others.

Reply
1 reply
- Emma Ryan 4 years ago
  
  Hi Emma,
  Thanks for commenting! We love to hear what website builders people are interested in using! Though BOWWE doesn't feature in our current research, we'll make a note of it for our next analysis. However, we have years of experience testing website builders, and we'd highly recommend Wix, Squarespace or GoDaddy as a good starting point.
  Very best,
  Emma
  
  Reply
whitney 4 years ago

Are there any website builders that relinquish rights to the domain and logo once it is created? If I used WIX or GODADDY to create a logo and build a website, do they ulttimately have rights over it?

Reply
1 reply
- Jordan Glover 4 years ago
  
  Hi Whitney,
  Thanks for your comment. If you are registered as the domain name's registrant or owner, that means you have the rights to it. In terms of logo makers, when you purchase your logo from the maker, this usually means you are given full commercial rights. In other words, you can use the logo to promote and sell products or services as you see fit. When choosing a logo maker, though, it's best to consult the terms and conditions, just to be sure!
  I hope this helps,
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Brenda 4 years ago

Hello, my name is Brenda and I would like you to help me find which is the best free website that I can use for an organization for women and child Rights initiatives.

Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Samuel Jagger 4 years ago
  
  Hi Brenda! Thank you for your comment! I think your organization is such a great idea. I would recommend Wix as your go-to builder. It's easy to use, has all the features you could ever want, and runs a free plan so if it's not for you there's no obligation! You can check out Wix and start building today by clicking the link here. Hope this helps! All the best - Sam
  
  Reply
Neeta 4 years ago

Hi I'm Neeta. I'm in education field. Suggest the best website for recording videos+ audio with ppts

Reply
1 reply
- Jordan Glover 4 years ago
  
  Hi Neeta,
  Thanks for your comment. I'd recommend Wix in this situation. You can upload videos and powerpoints to your website, and if you upgrade to a paid premium plan, you can also live stream for up to three hours.
  I hope this helps,
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Joseph A Carrier 4 years ago

I am a university professor teaching a business writing class. I am having the students create a simple website for a small business of their choice. I am finding that most of the free plans won't allow the transfer of ownership once a website is constructed. Some of these businesses may want to take over the websites once this class is over. Do you know of any web builder that has a free plan that allows the transfer of ownership?

Reply
1 reply
- Jacqueline Renouard 4 years ago
  
  Hi Joseph,
  Yes Wix offers a free plan that you can transfer ownership of or collaborate on a website with others - which could be great for your students. It's also the easiest website builder to use. To learn how to do that head over to Wix's transferring a free site page. All the best to you and your class!
  Warmly,
  Jacqueline
  
  Reply
Anjali kumari 4 years ago

I am an artist which is the best website for me to create a portfolio as our whole career is based on this

Reply
1 reply
- Jacqueline Renouard 4 years ago
  
  Hi Anjali,
  We're excited to hear you're looking to create an artist portfolio! We actually have an article that compares the best website builder for artists, our top choice was Squarespace and have a little read to find out why and discover other great builders for artists. All the very best in your creative career!
  Warmly,
  Jacqueline
  
  Reply
Israel 4 years ago

Am told WordPress is the best web builder based on research this days... But I don't really know how true it is coz I wanna open an online store but I need a builder that is very easy to use.. which do you think I should go for??

Reply
2 replies
- Samuel Jagger 4 years ago
  
  Hi Israel! Thank you for your comment! While WordPress has its merits: ultimate control, unlimited creativity etc it's also not very accessible and requires at least some degree of coding knowledge. From our research, the easiest to use builder is Wix. Wix is a fantastic builder that also offers a free plan. Their online store options are amazing too. Hope this helps! All the best - Sam
  
  Reply
- Jordan Glover 4 years ago
  
  Hi Israel,
  Thanks for your comment. Although WordPress isn't difficult, we don't think it's as easy as using a website builder. If you're looking for something that's really simple to use, we'd recommend Wix or Squarespace. These builders are both pretty straightforward and during our user testing, Squarespace came out as the easiest website builder to create an online store with.
  I hope this helps,
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Bethany 4 years ago

Just wondering if these comparisons take into account WHERE people live. Meaning that for those in say Europe (I'm in France and travel to Germany) not having access to the Live Chat function is a major drawback (more so when considering the sub-glacial speed of e-mail responses when I sent some off). There is LIVE CHAT but it only kicks in late in the afternoon, i.e. 3pm or so ( times on the site actually list both 8am and 9am EDT) which is beyond frustrating when dealing with a problem that kinda' sorta' needs quick resolution. Just a thought. I should of course have looked for a web building service that offers regular service regardless of where one lives. Next time.

Reply
1 reply
- Jordan Glover 4 years ago
  
  Hi Bethany,
  Thanks for your comment. As we're a US-based comparison site, most of our reviews and research focus on US website builders as we write for a US audience. That's not to say that the website builders we feature don't cater to customers in Europe — many of them do — but the European features aren't always the same as those offered in the US. This is particularly true for help and support, given that live chat centers and phone lines will usually operate according to local US time. If you are looking to switch to a builder with round-the-clock support, we would recommend Wix. Its live chat service is available 24/7 if you need a hand!
  Regards,
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Alina Chepel 4 years ago

Hi, thanks for the valuable information.

Reply
1 reply
- Lucy Carney 4 years ago
  
  Hi Alina,
  Thanks so much for your comment, I'm so glad you found it useful!
  Have a great day!
  Lucy
  
  Reply
Peter 5 years ago

Hi there
Do you have an expert opinion on standout digital? It seems too good to be true… I’m a beginner and looking for a cheaper alternative but I’m worried that this may not be the right option.. any advice gratefully received. Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Lucy Carney 5 years ago
  
  Hi Peter,
  Thanks for your comment! I can't offer an expert opinion on Standout Digital I'm afraid - we're very passionate about our research process here at Website Builder Expert to provide independent, reliable recommendations and insights. We haven't put Standout Digital through that research process since it seems to primarily offer digital marketing rather than website building, so I wouldn't want to tell you whether you should use it or not without more information! I would say it looks more expensive than a usual website builder, because it offers a very different set of services, so I'd recommend checking that you need all its marketing services before signing up.
  Sorry not to be of more help, and best of luck with your decision!
  Take care, Lucy
  
  Reply
JT 5 years ago

Do any sites bundle accounts (say ten sites) as one shared host?

Which platform is the most secure? Word Press driven sites have been hacked in the past. Which use end to end encryption for messaging and email? How is personal data protected? What is the additional cost for these services?

Reply
1 reply
- Jordan Glover 5 years ago
  
  Hi JT,
  Thanks for your comment – these are all really important questions! First off, most website builders allow you to make more than one site, however, the exact number may depend on the paid plan you choose. Regardless though, all of your websites can be managed from one account. They'll all serve as an individual website in their own right, but it makes it a little easier for you to oversee them all this way.
  In terms of security, website builders don't come with the same security issues that you might see with WordPress because it's all managed in-house by the website builder team. With WordPress, a lot of the time, the buck stops with you, so you're responsible for making sure your site is as secure as possible. Website builders usually come with PCI and GDPR compliance, meaning that all of your personal data, and data submitted by your customers, is safe and secure.
  I hope this helps!
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Bill 5 years ago

Jordan, The one feature that I could not find mentioned, and it is a key decider for me, is the ability to support multilevel menus. Weeby has it but Wix and Squarespace don't. I want a managed hosting service like Weebly and Wix. Is there any managed hosting service, other than Weebly, that provides multilevel menu support?

Reply
1 reply
- Jordan Glover 5 years ago
  
  Hi Bill,
  Thanks for getting in touch – this is a great question! Squarespace actually does support expandable menus. If you add a folder, rather than a blank page, to your navigation bar, you can create a top-level menu with multiple pages underneath it. Site123 and GoDaddy also offer this feature, too. Let me know how you get on, or if you have any more questions!
  Thanks,
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Judy 5 years ago

I want to build 3 separate websites (already have the domain names) under 1 account. What name should I use to create the account?

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1 reply
- Jordan Glover 5 years ago
  
  Hi Judy,
  You can use whichever name you prefer when creating your account as it won't appear on your websites. Instead, you'll be able to edit the name for each separately. When you create your account, any name you enter just shows that it belongs to you!
  Thanks,
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Michael Ogbonna 5 years ago

You guys are just good. Thanks alot

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1 reply
- Jordan Glover 5 years ago
  
  Hi Michael,
  We're glad to hear that you've found our website helpful!
  Thanks,
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Sharon 5 years ago

We are a wedding service group who are looking to market collectively but also have our own individual content on a site. What would you recommend?

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1 reply
- Jordan Glover 5 years ago
  
  Hi Sharon,
  Thanks for your question. For those working in the wedding industry, we recommend opting for Wix or Squarespace. Wix is very easy to use, but still gives you lots of creative freedom to build a website that reflects your brand. Its free plan is also useful if you want to take it for a spin and see if it suits you. Alternatively, Squarespace excels when it comes to design, boasting some of the best template designs we've ever seen. It's definitely one to check out if you're planning an image-rich website because it can support high-resolution visuals.
  Thanks,
  Jordan
  
  Reply
Pierre Belarge 5 years ago

I am late to photography and in my 60s. I am in the process of trying to develop a web process for exposure and hopefully some kind of sales. I am also interested in a blog/Youtube presence as well. I found your site today and I am impressed with your presentation and attention to detail. Thanks for all of your effort to help us out here to make a qualified decision.
Pierre

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Larry Diamond 5 years ago

how do I print out the comparison chart for the website builders above? PDF????

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 5 years ago
  
  Hi Larry,
  
  I'm so sorry, we don't have a printable version of this available at the moment. Thanks for the feedback though - we'll look to create one in the near future.
  
  Many thanks,
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
Alfredo 6 years ago

Hi,
thanks for the valuable information. I would like to know what is your takeaway on the ECWID platform? I have seen some of its features and it looks acceptable, but I'm not sure where is it standing when compared to the website builders you have listed above.
Thanks for your feedback!

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David Ojah 6 years ago

Thank you for the website comparisons, very helpful to know. David

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deb 6 years ago

IS Godaddy the same as SmugMug. if not what is your take on SmugMug?

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 5 years ago
  
  Hi Deb,
  
  No they're different platforms! Check out our SmugMug review for more info.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
John 6 years ago

Which site is best for small construction companies how does it work is the website put out like advertising or is it just when people are looking for companies how do I know it's even going to be seen by people

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 6 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  Thanks for getting in touch! Any of our top three choices will work well for you here. Wix has a great template designed especially for construction services, so this makes things extra simple. Once you publish your website (the website builder will lead you to this point), your site is live on the internet, and anyone can access it if they type in your domain name (ours is websitebuilderexpert.com), or follow a link you've sent them. As a construction company, I'd imagine finding local business is the main priority. By taking the time to write a great About Us page, and mentioning your location elsewhere on your site (e.g. on a Contact page), this will help Google better understand what your company does, and give your site more chance of ranking towards the top of the search results for 'Construction company in Charlotte' (as an example). This is known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and it basically just means making your site as easy for Google to understand as possible. This may sound daunting, but Google's bots are pretty smart these days, and if you build a nice site, and keep it up to date, you should see it start to rank naturally over time without too much extra effort. Social media can also be a great tool for drumming up new business, and you have the option of paid Google and social ads, too. There's a lot to say on this topic, so I'd suggest reading our How to Promote a Website guide for more information (or feel free to comment again/email me - hannah@websitebuilderexpert.com - if you have any more questions!).
  
  Many thanks,
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
Fred 6 years ago

I agree in everything except Squarespace is better than Wix for creatives, I use squarespace now and it gives me a hard time always trying to express my design in the platform but Wix gives more freedom in design and easily, I am a graphic designer and using squarespace frustrates me A LOT and now I am trying to make my boss to change to Wix.

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 6 years ago
  
  Hi Fred,
  
  Totally get what you mean - we recommend Squarespace for creative industries because the templates are so well-suited to them, but you're absolutely right that Wix gives you much more creative freedom (without coding), so is the better option if you want to really play around with your design, or even start one from scratch. Thanks so much for sharing your experience! Hannah
  
  Reply
David 6 years ago

Hello.

I apologize in advance for this question, but I feel the need to know. Does your firm receive an endorsement fee or commission from the website platforms you work with and direct your customers to? Not that I am against it, but it does muddy the water a bit.

Thank you.

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1 reply
- Maura Monaghan 6 years ago
  
  Thanks for your comment, David! In order to support our objective reviews and research, we do earn small commissions from some of the website builders on this site. But it's our meticulous research process that determines which website builders rank where.
  
  We only receive funding if a reader signs up for a paid website builder plan, and since most builders offer free trials or money-back guarantee periods, we only get paid if a reader is happy with the builder they choose. If you'd like to learn more about how we're funded, you can read about it here. And definitely let us know if you have any more questions!
  
  Maura
  
  Reply
Arnold 6 years ago

Ok, so I just finished my first bronze sculpture and need a platform to showcase and sell. I'm not a programmer or coder and need something simple yet elegant in terms of design. Thoughts

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1 reply
- Maura Monaghan 6 years ago
  
  Hi Arnold, it sounds like design and ease of use are important to you. With these factors in mind, we've actually ranked the best builders for artists and the best builders for selling art online, both of which you can find here. Let us know what you end up choosing!
  
  Maura
  
  Reply
Debbie 6 years ago

I use Wix and I love it

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Neeta 6 years ago

Great! Very well presented. Good Information. Thanks. Will definitely try these websites and will have some productive outcome.

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Awani 6 years ago

Great, which website we try for free.

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 6 years ago
  
  Hi Awani,
  
  You can try all these website builders for free - Wix, Weebly and Site123 actually have free plans you can stay on for as long as you want, while Squarespace and GoDaddy both offer free trials.
  
  Hope that helps!
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
Iffat Jahan 6 years ago

thanks a bunch, it really helped.

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Ankita 6 years ago

Helpful

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Ogy 6 years ago

I love Wix, It is really easy to use. Is the best ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever .

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Ellen 6 years ago

Putting together a news site and this was spot-on with frank reviews and details for individual purposes. Thanks!

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Lewis 6 years ago

I am convinced. When can we start?

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 6 years ago
  
  Hi Lewis,
  
  Great! The setup process is pretty quick with each builder - no time like the present!
  
  All the best,
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
Tina 6 years ago

I am comparing web site builders for a small non-for-profit club. Is a security feature included in the $22/$23 plan?

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 6 years ago
  
  Hi Tina,
  
  Thanks for your comment! I'm not sure if you have a particular builder in mind at this stage, but at that price point I'd definitely expect you to have all the security you need included. Let me know if there are any specific features you're concerned about having and I'll take a look for you.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
Bonnie 7 years ago

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I needed this desperately and quickly! Very well organized. Very relevant information and your tool for helping to choose works well. Great comparison chart with just the right amount of information. THANK YOU!!!!!

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Neri 7 years ago

Thanks so much, this helped a lot :)

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Paul 7 years ago

This is such a great chart, thanks.

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Vic 7 years ago

Great chart. I really appreciate your time and effort in making it. The challenge is products are always updating. For example, Squarespace recently added new SEO features and a built-in email service.

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Susan 8 years ago

I have long told my clients who aren't website savvy that WIX is the way to go. Ease of use is amazing and those who want to make their own changes aren't overly challenged by builders like WordPress. Thanks for the chart! Susan

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1 reply
- Hannah Whitfield 7 years ago
  
  Hi Susan,
  
  Thanks so much for your comment - we love how easy to use Wix is, too!
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
David 8 years ago

I want to create a business website for a friend of mine. He wants to have a link to groupon on the website. What website builder do you recommend to accomplish this.

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1 reply
- Dan Barraclough 8 years ago
  
  Hi David,
  
  Thanks for your comment. It depends what type of website your friend is looking for. If he wants to sell products online, we'd recommend Shopify which is the best ecommerce platform out there. If he just wants a website for his business, we'd recommend Wix, our top-rated website builder.
  
  Thanks,
  Dan
  
  Reply
Grace 8 years ago

How about WordPress?

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1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Grace,
  
  WordPress is split into two different platforms - WordPress.com and WordPress.org. the '.com' site is specifically designed for blogging websites so, as an overall website builder, it doesn't make it onto our chart. The '.org' version of WordPress is far more technical and requires a higher level of knowledge than any website builder. We do have reviews on both WordPress platforms that you can read below if you're interested though:
  
  WordPress.com Review
  WordPress.org Review
  
  Hope that helps!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Nivert 8 years ago

Hi I wanted to thank you for the great post so helpful when you are just starting out and finding your feet with the amount of information out there! Was wondering which you thought would be best if prodominently the aim of site was to sell products and to launch a new brand. Also do you have a comparison with shopify on it? Thanks in advance

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1 reply
- Lucy Carney 8 years ago
  
  Hi Nivert,
  Thank you so much for your comment, I'm so glad we could help you out! I would recommend checking out Shopify if you're really serious about online selling, as it's the best all-round ecommerce platform on the market. It'll help you establish your brand and you'll have loads of sales tools to boost your store. If you've got more of a focus on your brand and want lots of creative control, check out our review on Wix eCommerce. It gives you loads of customization over your store's design, along with a good range of sales tools - it's the best website builder with ecommerce functions. We have quite a few Shopify comparisons - here's our Ecommerce Website Builder Comparison Chart so you can see how it ranks. We even have a Wix vs Shopify comparison in case you're stuck between them!
  I hope that helps - let us know which one you choose!
  Best, Lucy
  
  Reply
Peter 8 years ago

Charlie please kindly help me with the creating of a job posting website

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1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Peter,
  
  Unfortunately we don't create websites, just review ways of making them. If you've got an afternoon to spare, we're sure you could build a website yourself using any of these fantastic platforms. Best of luck!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Timika 8 years ago

Thank you for the great information!

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aimee 8 years ago

Are there any website builders that translate with google translate or do you have to create a duplicate site for each language, as WIX and Squarespace suggest?

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1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Aimee,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Jimdo integrates seamlessly with Google Translate and can automatically translate your site into 60 different languages!
  
  Hope that helps,
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Mary Pat Cross 8 years ago

Just beginning to review and wonder have you researched what works best for photography sites.

Thank you.

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1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Mary,
  
  You're in luck! We have a detailed review on the best photography website builders here.
  
  Hope that helps,
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Sam 8 years ago

Nice write- up for the beginners. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing read.

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happy baba 8 years ago

Hi

I really enjoyed reading your blog .Nice article! Great information about.These tips are very helpful to me. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful article. Really perfect advise and step by step I did them all.

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Saima Hamid 8 years ago

very helpful for the beginners in this field of web building.

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Fred O'Brien 8 years ago

Hi Eli,

Sorry to hear you've had trouble with Wix! SEO is a competitive, unforgiving space, so I understand your frustration. I'm slightly surprised you've found Wix's SEO to be lacking, as we think its features are strong there. Do your blog entries rank when you post on WordPress?

Best,

Fred

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Richard 8 years ago

Good comparison of those free website builders. Aside from the ones on your list, there are also emerging ones such as Jigsy (link at https://www.jigsy.com) and hPage (link at https://www.hpage.com/). I feel like they're gonna be a big competitor for those websites someday since their customer service is really great and prompt. I think I will stick with them since they are more affordable and I get the same benefits as well. I specifically like that they have a slideshow gallery, member area, and that some pages can be password protected. There's also an admin log so if there are multiple people who post or manage the website, you can see the timeline of the changes. I suggest you guys give it a try. They are not as well known for now but they can surely compete along with these more popular websites!

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eli 8 years ago

Wix SUCKS!! I wanted to love it because it's so easy to use, but my blog posts never showed up in Google after 10 months and all normal SEO steps taken. I will reluctantly return to Wordpress (which I hate).

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Stephen Tremp 8 years ago

Holy Friojoles Batman! So glad I stumbled upon your site. Bookmarking this right now.

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Terry Beck 8 years ago

Great information. I have been using wix for a few years now but i have now built a site with weebly. I find their site loading time much faster than wix which is all so important for browsers. My site is a business site with lots of content. Wix can take anything up to about 12 seconds to load, especially if you use animation or gifs. Weebly is instant so i shall be swapping to a premium plan with them very shortly.

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George Ekman 8 years ago

I have been using Weebly for some time and am quite pleased with it. However, I logged on today and find they have sold out to Square and am wondering if this was a great idea. My links are all broken or lost. They also have a new multi-page contract that is more than a bit confusing. So I am looking for your opinion.

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1 reply
- Lucy Carney 8 years ago
  
  Hi George,
  Thanks for joining the discussion. I'm glad you've enjoyed using Weebly, that's great to hear! I'm sorry to hear you've had problems recently, I would suggest contacting Weebly's help and support to try and solve the issues with your links. (I have included the link to the support page but you will need to log in to contact them directly.) Yes, Square have acquired Weebly but this shouldn't affect your site in any negative way. From the announcements that have been released it seems that this change will bring more ecommerce features and updates to provide a wider service for online stores and businesses. Depending on the type of your website you could find this really benefiting you! But as always make sure you read over the new contract thoroughly to make sure you're happy.
  I hope this helps and thank you for reading,
  Lucy
  
  Reply
Anne Albright 8 years ago

Love your comparison chart. One thing I'd like to note is that Weebly does not have a separate mobile editor. Their old themes had the mobile editor; Weebly's new themes are responsive with no ability to edit the mobile version.

Thank you for all the work you do compiling the comparison. Very helpful and I am considering switching over to Squarespace.

Anne

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Fauna Grant 8 years ago

Have you ever reviewed 3dcart? My husband is pushing me to use them even though I love wix. How do they compare to the ones you have reviewed. Thanks in advance.

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1 reply
- Natasha Willett 8 years ago
  
  Hi Fauna,
  Welcome to the community. Great question, we are actually in the process of review 3Dcart. A review and new ratings will be up on site very shortly, watch this space.
  Thanks,
  Natasha.
  
  Reply
Nicole 8 years ago

Ok, I searched through all the comments but didn't find this exact scenario. I'm looking to build a photography website. It will be mainly gallery tabs and a contact form. But I also want to be able to set certain galleries as password-protected and allow downloads from those (these would be pages where clients could pick up their pictures). I am fine with those being all the same login info if needed, since I would have to send them a direct link to the page anyway, so I don't need a member database or a paywall. I had been looking at SquareSpace due to design and ease-of-use, but it seems from your chart they don't have password-protected pages. Is that correct? Would Wix be better for this type of design?

Alternately, could I build a regular gallery website without the password-protected area, and then later export to WordPress and do all that at a later time? I've never built a website before, but I'm teaching myself Python so hopefully I'd be able to code it eventually. I just need to get something up and running ASAP so I thought a drag-and-drop would be best.

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1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Nicole,
  
  Thanks for your comment. We recently updated our comparison chart to show the latest features available on each website builder and incorporate our own testing into our scores. Squarespace now do provide both password-protected pages and a members log-in area. Squarespace is also highly regarded for its design so it's well suited to creative industries such as photography. Given the time it takes to learn code, we'd recommend trying Squarespace first and seeing what you think. You can read our Squarespace review here and see if it helps make up your mind.
  
  Thanks and best of luck!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
visit here 8 years ago

Everything is very open with a very clear clarification of the
challenges. It was really informative. Your website is useful.
Many thanks for sharing!

Reply
1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  Thanks for your comment, we're glad you found our comparison chart so helpful!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
social.cambrianenterprises.In 8 years ago

This is really fascinating, You're a very professional blogger.

I've joined your rss feed and stay up for in quest of extra of your wonderful post.
Additionally, I've shared your website in my social networks.

Reply
1 reply
- Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  Thanks for your comment. It's great to hear you enjoy our posts and thank you for sharing - you never know who else it may help!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
James 8 years ago

Hi

I would like to build a website and have it hosted by wix. Can you advise me what would be the best template and site hosting options...my business is selling bespoke music backing tracks and sheet music arrangements of classic and modern songs, plus advertising music production and myself as a session musician/producer/arranger. I would like people to be able to view my music arrangements and purchase the tracks or sheet music directly if they wish.

Another option is to enable people to sign up as a member for an annual fee and have access to various content.

Many Thanks

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1 reply
- Natasha Willett 8 years ago
  
  Hi James,
  Welcome to the community. I would personally have a look at one of Wix's specific music templates, check this one out for example: https://www.wix.com/website-template/view/html/2237/?siteId=082b9945-97b0-4b75-8e3a-0f796967da0f&metaSiteId=ff695d62-fd63-44c0-88be-46c811a5ae52&originUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wix.com%2Fwebsite%2Ftemplates%2Fhtml%2Fmusic. There's some great features such as the ability to sell your songs or play a preview, while still offering a blog. Wix also offer membership / password protected pages, so this should help you with limiting various content elements to only certain individuals.
  All the best with your website.
  Natasha.
  
  Reply
margaret garduno 8 years ago

very helpful, thank you

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9series Solutions 8 years ago

Nice post you had shared here.
Thanks for this info

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Simon Bull 8 years ago

I'm confused, I thought Wordpress was the best and most advanced website builder with more functionality and more features. This is not based on anything except conversations. I do not really understand all the technical differences etc between Wordpress and WIX . . . but you haven't even included WP in your comparison. What am i missing?

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Simon, in our comparison chart we've focused on hosted website builders, rather than open source platforms like WordPress. Hope this clears up any confusion.
  
  Reply
Hanna 8 years ago

What is the difference between these site builders, and CMS platforms like Wordpress & Drupal? Why aren't they on the list?

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Hanna, in our comparison chart we've focused on hosted, intuitive website builders that take care of the technical side for you. Hope this answers your question!
  
  Reply
Monika Gab 8 years ago

I would like to advise you to take a look at Exai website builder as well.
Cheers!

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Thanks Monika, we'll keep Exai in mind!
  
  Reply
Beth 8 years ago

Where does WiX fall with "responsive themes?"

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Beth, thanks for the comment. Wix themes are getting more and more responsive but they're not quite the finished article yet. Wix recommends using full-width elements on your site to help.
  
  Reply
slightlydisappointed 8 years ago

I've used Wix for 2 years now. I'm satisfied with everything except my page load time. Although I have no way to make an accurate 'apples-to-apples' comparison, I'm very disappointed in my 'speed-test' results.

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James 8 years ago

I love WIX. I've developed several websites with multiple pages within hours. The only problem with WIX is that some features, like RSS feed, cannot be installed on their new Blog. They finally got Adsense working. But the Clickbank link will not install on WIX. I think they would surpass WordPress if they added all the features that most builders include.

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Cher 8 years ago

I called GoDaddy and some of your information is out of date.

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Cher, thank you for keeping us on our toes. We regularly update our guides, which parts do we need to look at?
  
  Reply
Robin 8 years ago

Hi Jeremy, I'm very, very new to this cyber space business. I wish to develop a site for those dealing with cancer. Due to learning difficulties I need someone to build the site for me.
How will I get this underway?

Regards...Robin

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Robin, there are companies that will build your website for you - check out Volusion. Wix has also recently launched a product called Wix ADI - it might be worth checking that out too. https://www.wix.com/blog/2016/06/wix-artificial-design-intelligence/ Hope this helps and good luck with your website.
  
  Reply
Cheryl 8 years ago

I would like to know the least expensive commission for donations. I have seen 3% which seems high. Which is the least expensive of your recommended above website builders?

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Cheryl, by donations do you mean transaction fees? If so, neither Wix or BigCommerce levy transaction fees.
  
  Reply
Vicky 8 years ago

Hi

Thank you for your comparison. I see that you record Wix as not having responsive themes. That seems strange given the prevalence of mobiles etc today. Is that still the case and what are the implications of this.

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Vicky,
  
  As far as I'm aware Wix sites are becoming more responsive but it's not the finished product yet. There's some information on the implications of this here - https://support.wix.com/en/article/request-responsive-sites. Hope that helps!
  
  Reply
Susanna 8 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I've been reading your articles on various e-commerce websites and found it very helpful. I had decided to choose Shopify, and taking the quiz, it also indicated that Shopify might be my best choice.

This morning, I read your 50% discount for Wix. Will you be offering a Shopify discount soon?

Susanna

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Susanna, thank you for the comment - glad we've helped you settle on the right choice for you. If you're signed up to our email newsletter, then you should get a Shopify code at some point! Keep a look out.
  
  Reply
Fred Isaac 8 years ago

Cheers!

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Jaime 8 years ago

My company has hired Regency to build our online web store, but we are not happy with how many screens it takes to do most tasks. I am looking at other website builders. We are an automotive wholesaler supply company. We have over 5000 products and would like our car dealerships, autobody shops, and customers to be able to purchase online. We would need inventory system as well as counter sales funtctions for quick checkouts. We currently use Quick books and would be okay to continue using it if it integrates well. Also our customers have different pricing so we would have to set up pricing for each customer. What are your recommendations?

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Jaime, Shopify is our number one ecommerce platform. It powers some of the biggest stores in America. I've had a look and Shopify offers easy integration with QuickBooks - so that sounds like a good option for you guys. Good luck with the business!
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Janna Morrison 8 years ago
  
  Fred- I tried to use shopify and found it really confusing! I've made my own website using yahoo sitebuilder for 15 years- so not new to putting sites together but I dont get all the oversized everything- I need a normal looking e-commerce site to sell my mosaic glass on (tired of paying ebay 10%) One that looks like the ebay store or even smaller so like 5 items fit across the screen - like a normal catalog looks like. Where they click on the picture to see a closer view. I dont want a "theme". I prefer clean and simple looking- like white with the images of my glass being the color. or just a solid color background (like aqua blue) My glass needs to be the star of the show. Designs all over the background seem distracting. I dont need a bunch of emails or other extras. I do need a shopping cart. And easy to change whats listed for sale. I have like 30 to 50 items with bag size options for each (50 pieces, 100 pieces) I already bought a domain name (makenatile.glass) So - Which builder should I use?
  Or.....
  Do you build websites for people? How much to have you set up a site as described for me? I'm so busy making the glass I sell- I barely have time to think! This was an unexpected business venture that's totally taken over my life! I'm in over my head. (trade mosaic glass for site building service? Its super pretty- great christmas gift...) Thank you!!
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Janna,
  
  Thanks for your comment. When it comes to online stores, there's two types of website builders you can use: those designed specifically for ecommerce, and those that offer ecommerce functionality as an additional feature. Shopify falls into the first category, it's a powerful ecommerce building platform with lots of management tools. Now, usually, the other category that offer ecommerce functionality as an additional feature (think Wix, Squarespace and Weebly), are easier to use.
  
  If setting up your online store is giving you a headache on Shopify, we'd recommend taking a look at something like Wix or Squarespace. Wix is easier to use (read our Wix review here) but Squarespace has cleaner, less cluttered templates (read our Squarespace review here). We'd recommend trying both for free first and seeing what you think. Hope that helps and best of luck!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Qpoe 8 years ago

I'm looking for a website builder/host who can take secure payments, and work with USPS and UPS for automated costs. Also one who automatically submits the free adds to Yahoo and Google shopping to insure they have accurate data for up-to-date pricing. I currently have 50 items to list and eventually wold like to grow to 200 within a year or two. Basically, the more automated the better.

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Gina 8 years ago

Ive read that Wix is good choice if you only have a limited amount of retail product to sell, example given was 10 products. Is this true?
Thank you for all your help.

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Gina,
  
  Generally speaking, our rule of thumb is that if you want to sell over 50 products, a dedicated ecommerce platform like Shopify might be a better bet. How many products do you want to sell?
  
  Our quiz might help you find the builder for you
  
  Reply
Stephanie 8 years ago

I already have a domain purchased I only need a free website, is there any available?

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Stephanie,
  
  You need our thorough list of the best free website builders - https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/best-free-website-builders/
  
  Hope it helps!
  
  Reply
Luana Nicole 8 years ago

I was surprised not to see Wordpress in the comparison chart. It is quite well known. Was there a reason it was left out? (It seems to have many different levels of development. ie: beginner, intermediate, graduate and graphic designer who knows how to code as well).

Reply
1 reply
- Natasha Willett 8 years ago
  
  Hi Luana,
  Great spot. WordPress is one that we are currently reviewing with the intention to get placed on the chart as soon as possible. Watch this space.
  Thanks,
  Natasha.
  
  Reply
Ellen 8 years ago

This comparison chart is helpful in identifying the features most important to me. However, the GOLD is in the readers' comments and the detailed responses to questions, especially Tom's explanations. Thanks, guys. Keep up the great work.

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Thanks very much Ellen, glad you find our stuff useful!
  
  Reply
Rick 8 years ago

Hi;

You might want to include Zoho Sites in your recommendations. Easy to use, awesome support, plenty of features, remote assist, membership, unlimited pages, two payment options - monthly or yearly - yearly is discounted, audio and video upload, unlimited bandwidth, and more than I can remember off the top of my head at the moment.

In Christ's Service;

Rick aka C R Lord, Author

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Rick, thank you for getting in touch. We'll be sure to check out Zoho sites.
  
  Reply
Rich 8 years ago

Good comparison chart and analysis - thank you. Curious as to why you did not include 'wordpress' in your analysis/comparison? Also, relative to flexibility in hosting, which stands out (don't see that as a category)? - your thoughts on both would be helpful.

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1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Rich, excellent point! We've focused on easy-to-use platforms in this chart because they represent the most accessible option for new website builders. We are increasingly looking at WordPress and have included a section on hosted ecommerce software here: https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/ecommerce-website-builders/ecommerce-software/
  
  Reply
Management Consulting Company UAE 8 years ago

This is a wonderful post! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us! I hope to read more of your post which is very informative and useful to all the readers. I salute writers like you for doing a great job!

Reply
1 reply
- Natasha Willett 8 years ago
  
  Hi Sheraz,
  
  Thank you for your comment, it's great to hear you have found this article so useful. Please feel free to share the article if you think others will benefit too.
  
  Natasha
  
  Reply
Steve Hillyer 8 years ago

1. I have requested the 8 free tools multiple times. Never comes? Is it a pdf or just a link to a web page?

2. I am looking for a Person who can use and improve the free platform and expand on and improve it. I don't mind paying for the service.

3. Does such a person exist?

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Steve, sorry to hear the 8 tools haven't come through. Would you mind checking your spam folder and letting me know if it's in there?
  
  Reply
Marylyn 8 years ago

Very helpful. I was thinking about GoDaddy since I bought a domain name from them, but this chart shows me better options without my having to do all the research myself. Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  That's the idea! Great to hear our comparison chart has been helpful.
  
  Reply
Gordon Everest 8 years ago

What about Google sites? How does it fit/compare with the ones in your chart?

Reply
1 reply
- Natasha Willett 8 years ago
  
  Hi Gordon,
  Thanks for your comment. We see Google sites as a basic web builder with a lot of the control placed on you. There are themes rather than templates and because of this you have to feel very comfortable with how you intend your site looking and the features / functionalities it requires. On first impressions I would compare to Godaddy without all the pre-coded features such as subscription boxes or contact forms. If you are happy to code elements and know how you want to your site to look, go for it. Do let us know how you get on.
  Natasha.
  
  Reply
MaryEllen Redmile Cooper 8 years ago

Jeremy, I am setting up a wix.com premium website for an author. I am the editor of her book and have established a site with home page, books page, bio, blogs, gallery (new) and photo album (new). It is looking beautiful and I am grateful for all the thought you have put into everything. I am using a MacBookAir, and am really only used to Macs, which I have been using since they were first released, I think. I am nearly 75 years old and write and edit every day, promoting, designing, ghostwriting, you name it, a bit of everything, and I love it.

However, The book We are promoting on our wix site is written in English with a few words of French and German, and even less in Yiddish and Czech and so on. That means I need to do accented text, especially e's, c's, and a's, and I also need m dashes and have been using dashes for n dashes and m dashes (you can tell how old I am!).

Minimally, if I could only put an accent on the word Resistance from the title through the text, I would be thrilled.

I have repeatedly tried to carry out the various solutions in the wix editor and must be doing something wrong. Can you help and old lady get this text complete so we can get up and running, please? (Watched you on video, too!)

Please respond asap. Thank you.

Reply
1 reply
- charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi MaryEllen,
  
  Thanks for your comment.
  
  The book sounds great! If you go into the text box inside your Editor and hold down the relevant letter on your keyboard, you should be able to select an accented character. If you need more assistance, check out Wix's helpful guide here.
  
  Hope that helps and good luck with it all.
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Jose GCD 8 years ago

I would like to build a Website for contractors/service providers for them to give quotes and gain project contracts, similar to Homestarts but with plan to go beyond that - what would be the best option / please advise

Reply
2 replies
- Natasha Willett 8 years ago
  
  Hi Jose,
  Thanks for your comments and welcome to the community. I think in terms of the website requirements I would look at Wix, see our Wix review here. Unlike some of the other builders you will find specific templates which will have all the inbuilt features you would require such as booking forms and email contact at no additional cost making it so much easier to get your site up and running in no time. You could also have for example member only areas or password protected pages to allow existing clients access to unique content.
  Good luck
  Natasha.
  
  Reply
- Jose GCD 8 years ago
  
  btw; I'm new to website building and no basic understanding of coding but willing to pay for the service as long as it is a reasonable cost
  
  Reply
Joanne Davies 8 years ago

I've found this comparison v useful but I'm still unsure which one to use. I have my own domain name but no website. I'm a complete novice when it comes to technical things so I need a website thats easy to use, need it to be cheap as well as just starting up my own business. Would welcome any suggestions.Thanks in advance

Reply
1 reply
- charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  Hi Joanne,
  
  Thanks for your comment.
  
  Taking into account both the pricing and ease of use, I'd recommend Weebly. It's really user friendly for non-techy individuals and comes with some great features. If you want to take a closer look at Weebly, read our comprehensive review here.
  Hope that helps!
  
  Charlie
  
  Reply
Jose Vera 8 years ago

Has anyone heard of Optuno? While it isn't a DIY type of platform? They churn out agency quality sites fairly quickly and the customization is insane. Best part is that one doesn't have to do ANYTHING, and it's fairly affordable.

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi Jose,
  
  I'm not familiar with Optuno, are they an agency that creates a website for you?
  
  Fred
  
  Reply
Parth Desai 8 years ago

Very informative content.

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David Creater 8 years ago

This chart is really informative.

Although I have tried other website builders, I personally prefer Wix because it becomes really powerful if you know how to use Wix code.

But finding work as a Wix designer is a whole another struggle and takes really too much out of a person, the only decent place is Fiverr but it is great at clients perspective, but as worker it's a whole another struggle.

I left my day job as web developer and currently trying to work as a freelance website designer, but you only get work when you have great client base, and it's very hard if you are new there.

I haven't scored a single job, even with a $40 price tag, when my Wix designs were far more modern, creative and SEO optimized than most of the top rated sellers who charge $400+.

Just wish my luck grows.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know:

Reply
1 reply
- Fred Isaac 8 years ago
  
  Hi David,
  
  Glad you found the chart useful!
  
  Sorry to hear you're struggling to find work as a Wix designer. Hope work picks up soon!
  
  Fred
  
  Reply
Hamidullah 8 years ago

Can I download my template from any site?

Reply
1 reply
- charlie Carmichael 8 years ago
  
  "Hi Hamidullah,
  
  Unfortunatley, you can only use the templates provided on your chosen website builder. This is so the company can continue to help and support you with any technical issues you may be having.
  
  If you do have a strong need to use a specific template, then WordPress will allow you to integrate a pre-existing one.
  
  Hope that helps. Thanks,
  
  Charlie "
  
  Reply
sam 8 years ago

Hello !
Could wix really help to to build something like Bigcommerce or Shopify website ? if yes how please ? (is wix open source , or are you open to deliver the source code with a plan ? which one please ?) .
Thanks .
kind regards
sam.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 8 years ago
  
  Hi sam,
  
  Recreating something like BigCommerce or Shopify is definitely beyond the scope of Wix. It is a website building tool designed to make it easy for non-technical people to make their own website.
  
  It isn't open source, nor is it really a development tool that you can use to code a website from scratch. You would need to work with a professional developer in order to create something as sophisticated as Shopify (which is a website building platform itself..!).
  
  Hope that clears things up,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Jennifer 9 years ago

Ok - I left a message on a different post looking for exactly an article like this - so found it!! One question though - I have also been looking into Wordpress - I was under the impression that WP was one of top or one of the best ??? Why is it not listed on this? Any cons about it I should be aware of??

Thanks again,
Jennifer

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 8 years ago
  
  Hi Jennifer,
  
  WordPress is a very good website building platform, yes.
  
  However, it is more sophisticated than the builders we have compared above. It is not as user friendly to get started, has a much steeper learning curve, and requires that you have at least a basic understanding of coding to really get the most from it. The upside is that if you can master the technical side of things then you can pretty much do anything you want on WordPress!
  
  On the other hand, our comparison chart compares some of the best drag-and-drop website builders available on the market. These are all user-friendly, easy-to-use platforms that make it simple to build your own website without needing to know how to code.
  
  If you're new to website building (as you mentioned in your other comment elsewhere on the site), I'd really recommend giving one of the website builders above a go first. They all offer free trials or free plans, which lets you dip your toe and see what you're getting into without committing any cash.
  
  For ease of use, I'd recommend Weebly.
  For eye-catching, sleek designs, I'd recommend Squarespace.
  And for all-round versatility (ease of use + great designs), I'd suggest Wix.
  
  I've linked to our in-depth reviews, so have a read and see what you think!
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Akin 9 years ago

Just got to know about wix website builder some days ago and Im very impressed to say the least. The ADI editor is very easy to use. I stumbled into the wix editor arena and felt intimidated (smiling) so I had to revert to ADI until not so long from now when I am satisfied with my site arrangement and ready to upgrade. Thank a million to wix

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hello Akin,
  
  Thanks for joining the conversation and sharing your experience.
  
  Really good to hear you're getting on so well with Wix and making the most of the tools available to you.
  
  Wix ADI really does make website building easier than ever before, doesn't it! Hopefully it's got you to a place where you can now take a bit of time to familiarize yourself with the Wix Editor (like you said, it can be a teeny bit overwhelming at first).
  
  Best of luck with your site building
  - Tom
  
  Reply
maddy 9 years ago

Yes, everything that you have explained is correct. I totally agree to this.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Thanks Maddy, glad our thoughts resonated with you! Happy building,
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Katie 9 years ago

This chart is very helpful and the individual reviews give a lot of information. The footnotes are also very helpful explanations for what is available.

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Chris 9 years ago

There's really only one question I had (and others may too?) that seemed completely absent but maybe it's language...

Which if any has functionality of form submit into a manageable database I can access later? This will determine our choice.

Also do any have a cart function to make a donation?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  Database functionality is beyond the capabilities of most website builders. However, with the release of Wix Code you now have this! It's actually a really impressive feat so I'd recommend having a read of our overview (which I've linked you to). See what you think, the possibilities it offers look to be a real game-changer.
  
  As for accepting donations, most website builders offer some form of this, but you'll need to poke around in their App Stores + Markeplaces to see which is right for you.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Marina G. 9 years ago

Hi Jeremi,

Many thanks for this comparison chart! It works as a good compass!

I'm looking to create a blog website and provide both free and subscription content. I was thinking about going with Wix, but recently was caught by ClickFunnels. It seems to me that the ClickFunnels might be the right option for me, but I also feel that they do too much of aggressive marketing.

Why didn't you include them into your comparison, and where are they in relation to others from your table?

Many thanks for your help here!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Marina,
  
  Glad to hear you found the chart useful.
  
  I'm not too familiar with ClickFunnel, but it seems to more of a sales funnel generator than a website builder...so I'm not too clear on how it works.
  
  One solution for you (via Wix), is to use the POWr ecommerce app, which you can find in Wix's App Market (I've linked to the app store for you).
  
  POWr lets you charge a subscription fee for your content, so you can share your work for free or charge as you see fit.
  
  Hope that helps,
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Marina G. 9 years ago
  
  Hi Tom,
  
  Many thanks for the feedback! Quite helpful.
  But I'm still doing my comparison, as ClickFunnels says they're a website builder (+sales funnel). Difficult to say, how good they are.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Marina,
  
  no trouble.
  
  If you're still undecided, I'd recommend trying out the ClickFunnel free trial so that you can see what it's all about first-hand. That will definitely help make your decision easier.
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Frederick Gilbert 9 years ago

Jeremy, question: I have several websites and domains with Wix. Not very happy with their support and billing dept. Just need to know what will happen to all of my work I already done on those websites, will I lose them, will they stay on my domain or can I transfer to another website building company?
I build the websites using their application for over two years.
I could not go in to much detail, because your box here doens't allow me, of my last encounter this morning 123form builders and same type of experience with I have with Wix. both avoid telling me directly about the billing (printing too small or what I am paying except an id number with no of what I paid) today 123 building forms would my starter plan include?

I am getting very depressed over losing all my work, please give me some ideas of what I should do?

Frederick Gilbert

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Frederick,
  
  I'm sorry to hear you've had a bit of a frustrating time - never good to hear!
  
  What sort of billing issues you have had?
  
  I've found Wix to be quite clear with their pricings (I always opt for the annual renewal to get a discount and also not to worry about it for the next 12 months!). You might find the information in our article about Wix pricing of interest too.
  
  To clear things up for you - if for any reason you no longer want a paid account with Wix then you will not lose your website or content. You'll simply revert back down to the free Wix plan and the limitations associated with it.
  
  In any case, I would always suggest creating backups of your content, even if you save the text as MS Word or Google Documents. That way you're always covered and can re-post or recover things quickly if needed.
  
  I hope that eases your worries,
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Management Consulting Company 9 years ago

Thanks for Information about Internet Marketing. Your Article is impressive and very informative. I am now regular visitor of your website and bookmarked it.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  Thanks for the great feedback - it means a lot.
  
  We'll take your bookmarking and wear it as a badge of honor - thank you. It shows that we are creating the right content and helping people, which is reassuring.
  
  Please feel free to share the site on your social channels - you never know who else could benefit!
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
prashant 9 years ago

Great Article! Very informative blog.

Reply
Carol 9 years ago

Jeremy, have you ever checked out Fine Art Studio Online? I am an artist who is looking to go online with an artist ecommerce site. Do you know of any website builder comparisons that include FASO?
Thank you for any assistance you may offer.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Carol,
  
  I'm not too familiar with FASO I'm afraid. From what I can see though, it looks like more than just a website builder but a very strong and inter-connected community of artists! If you value that as part of the package then FASO looks like a good choice.,
  
  Outside of FASO, I'd recommend having a look at our guide to Portfolio Website Builders as I think there is some crossover there with what you are looking for.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Bonnie 9 years ago

i feel that shopify is more common and has better features or at least equal features than those on the comparison chart, why did shopify not make the list?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Bonnie,
  
  This comparison chart is for general website builders.
  
  Shopify is a dedicated ecommerce store builder and so is in our ecommerce website builder comparison chart (where it ranks nice and high!)
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Angela Benton 9 years ago

I'm trying to figure out the link between WIX and a domain name.
I have a two domain names set aside. They are in my ex-husband's name and we're transferring them to me.(They are set to renew in a couple months)
So, I have 3 questions-

1. Can a WIX website be created with a Wix sub-domain name and then link my own domain name later?
2. Can we link the domain name I have set aside now, even though it's in my ex's name and then transfer it to me afterwards?
3. Can you link more than 1 domain name to your Wix website?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. It looks like Wix is having a great sale this week on some of the premium plans that I want to take advantage of.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Angela,
  
  Let's run through these in order for you:
  
  1) Yes, you can build a Wix website and connect a personal domain to it at a later date. Until that time the free Wix site URL structure is: username.wixsite.com/sitename/page-url
  
  2) I don't see any reason why you cannot connect the domain with your Wix website, especially if you've purchased it through a third party vendor. Changing the registration shouldn't affect your Wix website as far as I'm aware.
  
  3) You can connect up to 6 domains to a single Wix website.
  
  Hope that clears things up for you!
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
JD 9 years ago

Jeremy, are you aware of whether any of these platforms have the ability (either a feature or through a partner app) for end user/customers to customize a product online? Think selling t-shirts, customer goes to the site, uploads a graphic to a t-shirt template, gets online preview/approval and submits order to be fulfilled. Can Shopify, Wix, etc. do this or would i have to go to a specific web to print vendor or build custom software?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi JD,
  
  Advanced customization isn't currently supported in Wix stores, but you should be able to find an app in the Shopify App Store that lets you do this.
  
  One to consider on Shopify could be 'Product Customizer'.
  
  Hope that points you in the right direction,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
kevin 9 years ago

Hello. my name is Kevin Sims. i currently have a site on wix and building another. im trying to allow my visitors the ability to be able to upload video from
cell phones to a forum but i dont see that any of these builders offer that capability. did i miss something somewhere or is this function not available

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Kevin,
  
  Your forum members should be able to upload video and images from their desktop or laptops into your forums, but it's not possible to do this from your phone just yet. (Wix are looking into it though).
  
  For clarification, Wix have listed the file types that users can upload to forums here.
  
  I think we'll see this functionality become more and more popular though because mobile phones are rapidly becoming the number one way in which people browse and use the internet.
  
  Fingers crossed it occurs sooner rather than later.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Jacob Martin 9 years ago

Such a nice post, keep providing good resources.

Reply
Daeen Chong 9 years ago

Thank you so much for the thorough review!
Considering chang my builder now and it helped me so much.
This is a great work.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Thanks Daeen! Good to know it's been useful for you.
  
  Please do share our website with others if you found it helpful.
  
  You can do this by clicking on the social sharing buttons to the left of this page. We really appreciate it!!
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Management Consulting Company 9 years ago

Interesting Blog! Good to find you people having great work. Thanks for sharing

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi MCC,
  
  Really glad you found the article interesting - it let's us know we're doing out job right :)
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Ted 9 years ago

Thanks for the article, it helped narrow down some stuff for me. WP too clunky for me and too many themes to choose from. Would rather build my own with drag and drop editors which I have used before. My intention is to have a blog with an online store attached to it in the not too distant future. I also would like to have the ability to show ads and affiliate links as well.

With those elements in mind, which would be, in your opinion a better choice Wix or Squarespace. If you have another option in mind please feel free to share that as well.

BTW thanks for being so responsive to all the people who have asked so many questions of you, me now included.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Ted,
  
  I would say your choice comes down to how many products you want to sell.
  
  Both Wix + Squarespace are tailored towards smaller stores, whereas a platform like Shopify can expand alongside you.
  
  Each platform allows you blog or add content alongside selling, with Wix being the easiest and most versatile to use, Squarespace with the nicest designs, and Shopify the best for ecommerce.
  
  You should have no problem showing adverts on Wix or Squarespace as you can upload the ad image and then link out to your clients relevant page. I'm not sure how viable this is on Shopify though.
  
  All three platforms offer a free trial, so I would recommend giving each a test drive before committing any cash. This way you'll figure out which works best for you without having to invest a lot of money up front.
  
  I've linked you out to each platform so you can sign up to the trials and get testing!
  
  Hope that helps,
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
satya web 9 years ago

Interesting and informative content, Thanks for sharing This article. Good job.

Reply
Robin 9 years ago

I am a coach who wants a site that has ecommerce capabilities (for selling ebooks, workshops, etc). I also want to have a page each for my coaching services and packages. Of course, a blog is also very important. I'm debating between Squarespace and Wordpress.org. I love some of the Wordpress templates I've seen and have hired someone to install one for me if I go with WP. But, if I do that, will I be able to update it myself? Would Squarespace be a better fit for me? Thanks in advance.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Robin,
  
  As a quick summary, to get the most from WordPress you should ideally be pretty comfortable using technology and have a grounding in basic coding, or at least have an idea of what you're doing so you can trial & error your way past problems.
  
  To get the most from Squarespace, you should have an idea of what you think an attractive website looks like. That's it. It's not necessary to know how to code, although if you do you can add great features.
  
  Squarespace is much more drag and drop, and so much easier to pick up and use.
  
  I'd recommend Squarespace for this reason alone. But you run an ecommerce business from Squarespace and run a blog too - solving both of your problems!
  
  It would be worth looking into Squarespace's ecommerce plans to see what you get for your money, but I think it will be a lot less stressful for you in the long run.
  
  Here's a link to our 'Squarespace vs WordPress' discussion, which should give you plenty of food for thought.
  
  Here's a thought - if you've hired a developer to design your WordPress site already...are you going to have to hire him or her again the first time you want to change any on-site designs or tweak something behind the scenes? This could potentially be very costly!
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
lucy 9 years ago

Hi... I actually need something that I can place banners and links on and very few items for sale, who has that ?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Lucy,
  
  Banners tend to not be much more than image files that have a link associated with them.
  
  So as long as you can upload images to your website builder (which you can do on pretty much every one) and attach a link to the image once it's been uploaded and placed on your web-page design, then you should be good.
  
  Wix would be a good bet for this as the editor is easy to use and it's simple to upload images then add a link.
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Marius 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Great article and refreshing to see a blogger respond to all the readers comments.

I need to develop a site for a not-for-profit and need some back-end database and server scripting (dynamic web pages).
Three key features would be - 1) membership management - 2) Community projects (allow community to suggest projects) - 2nd part is to publish these projects with funds donated /target (like some crowd funding sites) - 3) support donations (payment gateway).

Which of these website builders will support our needs (if any)?
If none - are there other platforms you know of that might?

Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Marius,
  
  Let's try and tackle these problems in order.
  
  1) You can create a members only area on Wix websites, restricting content to those who have registered. Or you could use the membership app 'Sentry Login' with Squarespace and Weebly.
  
  2) Letting the community decide projects sounds like you want a voting feature ,which is something Wix can also help you with. There are several 3rd party apps that allow you to run polls and votes on your pages, so this should let your community decide on a project.
  
  For the crowd-funding you could look into Wix's 'Get Funding' app, which lets you raise funds in a PayPal account after your users have donated.
  
  3) Usually to connect a payment gateway and accept online payments you would need to subscribe to an ecommerce plan. However, it's not made clear whether this is necessary with Wix's 'Get Funding' app, so it's worth having a look and seeing how you get on.
  
  Best of luck + hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Linda G. 9 years ago
  
  I currently use Wix for all the websites I build for others. I am looking at the same issues for a non-profit, but I am also looking for a membership data base that I can group message, by particular group. Would that also be a 3rd party app?
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Linda G.
  
  How have you been finding Wix? It would be great to know what keeps you coming back!
  
  As for your query, I believe you should be able to use 'Wix Shoutout', their newsletter/mass-email tool.
  
  There's some more information here, which might prove handy.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Kim 9 years ago

I have been a blogger for over 5 years, the last year w/WP, but I'm seeking a website company were I can make changes to the site myself. I have spent a lot of money hiring we builders! I am leaning towards WIX, but I want to be sure that about it's hosting capacity. Would you recommend that I purchase a separate host? Also, is it possible to change to a different domain carrier after a year if I want to or am I stuck with WIX?

Thanks for your help!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Kim,
  
  Wix provides free hosting on both its free + paid plans.
  
  This hosting lasts as long as you stay with Wix, so there's no need to connect a 3rd party hosting plan to Wix.
  
  What I would recommend though is buying a personalized domain elsewhere and then connecting this to a Wix premium account (if you opt for one!).
  
  I've found it easier to move a custom domain around different builders if it is fro ma 3rd party, rather than the builder itself.
  
  So - I recommend getting hosting through the builder, but a domain from a 3rd party.
  
  Hope that clarifies things,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
shipmychip 9 years ago

thanks for all this information.

I’m trying to build a site that’s heavily dependant on crowdsourcing. Sort of like a recipe site that allows users to both submit and rank best chocolate cake recipe. So I need community to be able to do more than just “like”.

So, I need to have people register using facebook or unique name. Then contribute. Then vote. Would squarespace (or weebly or other), let me build such a site?

Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi shipmychip,
  
  Straight away, I don't think you will be able to achieve EXACTLY what you want to on Squarespace - but there are a few workarounds you could try (if you don't mind fiddling with on page code and 3rd party plugins).
  
  I would recommend looking into a 3rd party Squarespace plugin called 'Sentry Login' or 'Moosko'. These both allow you to restrict on-page access to certain visitors - which you can use to create a members only section. Moosko also allows you to setup a login via Facebook feature.
  
  Sqaurespace have more info here.
  
  You can then use Squarespace's 'Form Blocks' to create polls and votes in order to rank the recipes on site.
  
  It's probably not as straightforward as you were hoping, but the above should definitely help you achieve something similar to your original idea!
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Kerry A. Thompson 9 years ago

Thank you, Jeremy. In 2016 I started a website design business to help small businesses create websites they can maintain easily on their own. Your comparison chart was a major factor in my decision to focus on the two website builders I would specialize in. I chose Squarespace and Weebly as the two platforms to focus on. The lack of fully responsive designs in Wix was the reason I decided not to recommend that platform. Thanks very much for such an informative and helpful comparison.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hello Kerry,
  
  It's great to hear you found a builder suited to your needs.
  
  Both Weebly and Squarespace are great platforms, so I'm sure you'll be able to build a great website in no time.
  
  If you think friends or family might benefit from our comparison chart too, then please feel free to share on your social channels - we really appreciate everyone who helps to spread the word :)
  
  Thanks for reading,
  -Tom
  
  Reply
JB Nelson 9 years ago

Good information, but I still have a lot to learn and research. Thanks, JB

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi JB,
  
  Good to hear you found the discussion to be a useful jumping off point.
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Jim 9 years ago

Great work, Jeremy. You thought out and completed a great summary with details added. thanks. Jim

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  Great to hear you found the chart so helpful - best of luck with your website building!
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
sasa 9 years ago

interesting articles and this is my first first reading a very interesting article thanks for this article.

Reply
shirley hackney 9 years ago

i know how to turn my computer on and pretty much so how in the world do i create a website ?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Shirley,
  
  If you want to build a website, you've come to the right place. We've got a number of articles that might help steer you in the right position:
  
  - Website Building Frequently Asked Questions
  - How to Start Your Own Website
  - How To Choose The Best Website Builder
  
  These should definitely point you in the right direction and give you a good grounding of knowledge about website building - it's not as complicated as it sounds, I promise.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Eileen 9 years ago

Very informative article. Thank you. Now I know why Google kept saying they could not verify my site, despite my pasting their meta tag code on my home page as requested! My other site is a WP one. Just needed one page this time and was advised to use SiteBuilder as it is so easy. Will get a premium plan or change to WP.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Eileen,
  
  Good to know the discussion has proved helpful to you!
  
  Feel free to share on your social channels if you think others would benefit too, we really appreciate readers helping the site to spread :)
  
  Thanks for reading
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Sean Ellis 9 years ago

How do you make an Artificial intelligence for weebly? I need it for a project that might save lives.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Sean,
  
  Weebly isn't really designed for that sort of project, it is much more a of a basic website builder.
  
  If you wanted to make a website about Artificial Intelligence and the life-saving benefits it offers, then Weebly, Wix or Squarespace would all be strong choices of website builder for you to consider.
  
  I've linked to our in-depth reviews, which might help point you in the right direction.
  
  Thanks,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Dietmar 9 years ago

Hi,

Great article and comparison. As a novice who was previously steered in the direction of Wordpress, I'm however wondering why it isn't included and not commented upon. I understood it to be the largest ad most popular web building software.

Dietmar

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Dietmar,
  
  Thanks for joining the conversation.
  
  We don't really include WordPress in our discussions because to maximize it's potential you would need to be much more technologically proficient than many of our readers are.
  
  It wouldn't be a fair comparison to put WordPress - with all its add-ons, plugins and custom HTML code - up against code-free web builders like Wix and Weebly, which are much, much better suited to the conversation scope we hold on the site.
  
  Maybe in the future we will look at more advanced website builders like WordPress, but for now we are focusing on the easier-to-use, no-coding-necessary platforms.
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Omar 9 years ago

I have a 90 training program for an extreme sport that I want to market. I hired someone to build the website from fiverr.com. Make a long story short she suggested I make the landing page in Wordpress and the rest of the site in PHP so the videos couldnt be downloaded. What a F*** story. The flow of the site is garbage, to get something changed takes forever because the PHP apparently takes forever to change. One nightmare after another. I wont bore you with the details but this isnt even scratching the surface. I then contacted a web designer and he asked for 6,000 Euros.

My question is which of these platforms works best for something with a 90 day program, a members area, analytics, mobile phone compatibility (especially google mobile optimization), ease of payments and flow. Can you give me examples of sites that use the platform that you recommend. Appreciate your answer and please help. (www.peterparkour.com) and facebook.com/whoispeterparkour

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Omar,
  
  To market your course online, you will require an ecommerce platform as this will allow you to charge and accept payments for it. The biggest ecommerce platforms are Shopify and BigCommerce, both of which allow you to create member ares on your site/store.
  
  This should help separate your customers between those who have purchased content and those who haven't. However, it's worth looking into whether you can create a paid membership system, otherwise you may need to figure a workaround such as charging for the course and then manually changing member settings for each person who buys a subscription.
  
  Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer a wide number of payment gateways so you shouldn't have any trouble in setting up a merchant account or getting paid.
  
  Their editors are in-depth but intuitive to use, which will help you when designing your website/store - especially when ensuring a smooth customer flow. It's worth sketching out ideas for how you want the pages to look and then identifying out the best order for them too. Likewise, both platforms offer a large number of mobile responsive templates, compatible with Google best practice and ideal for shoppers on the go.
  
  I've linked to our reviews too.
  
  I hope that gives you some food for thought,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Cat 9 years ago

Brilliant article. Very thorough, thank you for making it easy for a novice!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hello Cat,
  
  Thanks for your feedback, great o know it was useful.
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Lee Papadeas 9 years ago

I would like a website builder to emulate what a designer had done for me and is no longer available to make changes or build a clone for another city.
I have design skills but no coding experience.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Lee,
  
  You might find it a bit of a struggle to recreate exactly what your designer previously made from scratch for you.
  
  That being said, website builders can give you a lot of design flexibility, and by using apps or plugins from their marketplaces you can even even greater functionality.
  
  I'd suggest taking a closer look at Wix, Weebly and Squarespace who are all very intuitive builders that are easy to use. Wix, especially, gives you huge creative freedom with its drag and drop editor.
  
  As I said, it will be difficult to create a like for like copy of your previous design work, but the three builders i mentioned will help you give it a good go!
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
dubai training institutes 9 years ago

fantastic blog dear, very impressive information. thanks!

Reply
Carlene Golightly 9 years ago

Hi really helpful article thank you. I am transferring copy from a very old wordpress that is currently hosted with someone else. I have a domain name. I am thinking about Squarespace I am a therapist, life coach and events organiser. I will need a shop too. Can I transfer my existing domain name to Squarespace? Also I would like to add music to my header banner is this possible with Squarespace? Thank you Carlene UK

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Carlene,
  
  You absolutely should be able to move your domain name over to Squarespace, we've more information on this in our domain name discussion.
  
  As far as I am aware, you should also be able to migrate most of your WordPress site directly to Squarespace. It appears that Squarespace have even created this handy guide to help you do this!
  
  One thing to be aware of though is that if you plan on selling goods or services, you will need to subscribe to a Squarespace ecommerce plan.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Ben Dickson 9 years ago

Hello Jeremy

Extremely informative, looking for a website builder for and international co. I like square, very professional apperance, is the reason wix is so large and the others you mentioned because of price.

Is it possible to create and international website with the appropriate security these days, also would like to comm with our partners through the website which one if any could provide this.

Since Im leaning towards square not sure if any of these are suitable for an international co, oh and how current is your data regarding squarespace, anything new.

Thanks Ben

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Ben,
  
  Good to hear you found the chart useful.
  
  Your choice of website builder really depends on what you want to achieve with your site. What sort of on-site communication between partners do you envision? If it is just posting news updates then this will be much more easily achieved than if you want to embed an on-site live chat application. So it's worth thinking about.
  
  For what it's worth, Squarespace would be a good choice if you are interested in a clean, professional website design as it lends itself to the creation of slick, beautiful sites with a high-end feel. So, definitely one to consider for your business on a looks front.
  
  On the other hand, Wix offers you more versatility on the editing and site building front than Squarespace. Something to consider with Wix is the upcoming launch of Wix Code, which will help you to create large, engaging websites quickly and easily that otherwise would've required you to hire a professional developer. I mention this as you said your company is an international one, so it may need a larger site to host more content. Wix Code will also help you to create more custom forms and interaction to help you collect more information from users and partners too.
  
  Wix's prices do add to its popularity, but I believe it comes down more to ease of use and intuitiveness. While Squarespace is quite easy to get to grips with, Wix is the easiest website builder to pick up and start using.
  
  Both offer you reliable security options, offering free SSL certificates for added security.
  
  It might be worth reading our Wix and Squarespace reviews too.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Mary 9 years ago

Super information - Thank you Thank you!!!
I too have a question - I have two websites (Organic Skin Care Co.) that are hosted my Lunar Pages :0 - both sites are WordPress that I built myself (a lot of time) one has e-commerce shopping cart (PayPal) not a lot of traffic and just starting-

Both sites have given me issues - (blank screen when I try to edit pages, to lost listings on the web, lack of e-mails being directed from the site to my gmail and now it looks like malware virus,) I understand this is probably due to building the site myself and not knowing a lot

Because of this I am thinking about going to a website builder / hosting that will make it easier for me to do updates, keep track of issues, and do backups. I realize this will be more costly but will free up my time to make products.

The most updates I am interested in doing myself is, adding pictures or products ( freshening up the site seasonally)
Square Space, Shopify, Indie made - could you point me in the right direction - is website builder correct direction -
Thank you again for all your site with great information.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Mary,
  
  Welcome to the discussion.
  
  From the sounds of what you're looking for, website builders sound like a good direction to head in.
  
  I will point you towards our ecommerce comparison table, which should prove most helpful for you if you are looking to move your shops onto different platforms.
  
  If your main tasks will be adding pictures and products (and you don't need a highly sophisticated back end) then I would recommend looking at Wix's ecommerce plan, which is more basic than either Shopify or Bigcommerce - but covers the essentials like adding products, etc very well.
  
  However, if you needed something a bit more in-depth and wanted to get stuck into reporting and growing your business quickly, then I would suggest Shopify as the platform to do this on. The sheer scope of Shopify dwarfs most of its rivals when it comes to ecommerce functionality, so it is a very good bet if you are serious about growing your online stores.
  
  I've linked to our ecommerce reviews for Wix and Shopify, so that should help you build up a better idea of what you should opt for.
  
  Hope that helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
kim 9 years ago

This was extremely helpful-thank you! I do have a question....Are you saying that WIX does not have an option to transfer your blog if you decide to, that all would be lost if you do not remain w/WIX forever?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi kim,
  
  Glad to hear you found the discussion useful!
  
  At this point in time it isn't possible to export a website from Wix and take it elsewhere, either to another domain or to another website builder.
  
  This is because your site and its content will have been created within the Wix platform and hosted on Wix's servers, which just aren't compatible with other builders.
  
  You can copy all your text and store it in backup documents and also save copies of your imagery, but otherwise you would need to rebuild from scratch I'm afraid.
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
John 9 years ago

I have been considering WordPress as well. Why doesn't that fit into your chart?

I am just starting the process to self-design websites. I hope to do over 100 in the next year. I need a low/no cost start to build proof of concept before I am ready to invest more seriously. Any recommendations?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  WordPress doesn't fall into the same category of builder as the platforms we have reviewed on WBE. It tends to require more time and money commitments to achieve similar results as you are required to have a greater understanding of technical web building, including HTML and CSS.
  
  Our aim is to look at website builders suited towards less-technically skilled users.
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Alina 9 years ago

Hello there! Really helpful article and comparison here (and I'm glad to see it's updated).

Would you please include Tilda in this comparison? I've heard of it from a friend and I'm be very curious about it (considering the criteria you used for the others). Or at least say a few words about Tilda in a comment. It would be very very helpful!

Thanks a lot!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Alina,
  
  We haven't heard of Tilda before, but we'll be sure to give it a look over at some point.
  
  Thanks for reading,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Paul B 9 years ago

Many thanks for this article - its been a great help in getting my head around the differences!
Just one clarification - you mention in your wix vs squarespace comparison that wix allows placement of any media anywhere. How does it do that if you have to select a template? How does it differ from squarespace in this?
Thanks, Paul

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Paul,
  
  The Wix Editor lets you start with a template and then you have free reign to move elements wherever you like. The template is more of a jumping off point than anything else.
  
  Whereas on Squarespace, you're a little bit more restricted as to where you can put elements on the page and don't have quite as much free reign to drag things wherever you want them.
  
  Hope that clears things up,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Romana 9 years ago

Hello!

I stumbled upon your article by accident and it was extremely informative! Thank you so much for sharing!

I may have a bit of a strange question about website building...
I already have 2 websites (one was built by a friend) and I built the other one myself using Wordpress. ALOT of frustration and tears building my site but I finished it. I'm not super happy with it and the sites are to promote books I've written (so I really need just a very simple website). The friend got me set up with Wordpress and now I've lost touch with her. I've recently got an email from Sitelock stating that there is some vulnerabilities on the websites. I'm super stressed and confused about this. I went to FIVERR and contacted someone about fixing the vulnerability problem but he said my sites are very old technology and need some new coding (or whatever) to update them so it'll cost me a few hundred dollars to update and fix each site.

Also, when I was signing into my Wordpress.org dashboard using Firefox, it was warning me that if I was to plug in my password, it was not secure and could be compromised. I spent an hour researching out to deal with this problem and basically couldn't find an answer. I used internet explorer to log in.

Is it possible to start both my websites fresh with Wix and get away from Wordpress? Can I transfer my domain to Wix? What would be the easiest way to do this?

I appreciate any advise you have!

Thank you,
Romana

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Romana,
  
  It sounds like you've had a tough time of it!
  
  I'll run through your questions and then make my suggestions.
  
  So, first off your WordPress issues. I believe that if Sitelock, who I assume you have an account with, were good enough to contact you to let you know you have 'vulnerabilities' then they would be good enough to tell you what they are? This is doubly confusing because if the vulnerabilities were on the WordPress.org website then there's no way they are 'old technology'.
  
  Secondly, your login and security issues - this is because your site does not have an SSL certificate, which you need to have in order to have 'https' in your web address. This essentially means you have a more secure connection that can protect visitors to your site. Contact your hosting partner and ask them about an SSL certificate - many companies offer them for free or very cheaply.
  
  Now, if you are looking to move from WordPress I would thoroughly recommend Wix eCommerce to you. Not only is the editor an easy-to-use drag and drop editor (so what you see in the editor is what you see on the website!), but its ecommerce functionality is getting better and better. It's not as in-depth as Shopify but it is robust enough to help you sell your books and manage the whole process without getting overly complicated.
  
  It shouldn't be an issue to move your domain either, Wix even have a guide to doing this.
  
  We've got a more in-depth look at Wix eCommerce here.
  
  Hope it helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Vishakha 9 years ago

Brilliant article, incredibly helpful and well-presented, and so appreciated -- especially the updates that you've added as sites have improved their services. Thanks a mill.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Vishakha,
  
  Great to hear you found the discussion useful!
  
  Feel free to give us a share on social media if you think others could benefit too - it's a great way of paying it forward :)
  
  Thanks for reading
  - Tom
  
  Reply
jen cameron 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you for providing this information.
Can you recommend a website builder that will work as a front end for a complex software application? It would have to allow signup, login & password recovery.
Most of these seem suitable to work as brochures or blog platforms.

Thanks Jen

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Jen,
  
  It depends on what sort of software application you will be looking to run on the front end of your website?
  
  I believe what you're looking for is probably outside the scope of this discussion. However, it may be worth looking into Wix Code, which is in Beta at the moment and may be able to offer a solution.
  
  Hope it helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Meeka 9 years ago

I would love your expert opinion. We currently have wix, but our non-for-profit group misses having an email thread that links from the website to inidividual member emails (similar to a yahoo group format). Our former subscription-based website format was really probelmatic (thus the switch to wix), but the forum with email thread was the only good desireable option. I have spent so much time searching for a site that will provide this for our group for little to no cost. Wix does provide a forum app that could possibly work, as well as our current use of a wix forum, but it would be nice to have an app or website that provides the email service WITHOUT having to link and open the actual message/post via having to go to our website. The emails provide a notification that a message has been posted, but does not allow the user to read it, without having to click and open it up elsewhere. I hope this makes sense. Would so appreciate your advice. Thanks kindly!

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Meeka,
  
  Thanks for joining the discussion.
  
  What it sounds like you're looking for is a way of sending notifications to forum members each timer a comment is posted?
  
  If so, I'd recommend looking this Wix help thread, which could solve your issues as it is about customizing notifications in Wix Forums.
  
  Hope it helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Jennifer 9 years ago

Helpful post, comparison and review of 3 website builders! Thank you!!

Reply
business etiquette course 9 years ago

I really like your blog, keep bloging like this.

Reply
Tom Watts 9 years ago

hey Gurpreet,

Thankfully websites and blogs aren't mutually exclusive. There's no reason why you can't create a website and dedicate a page to a blog.

For ease of use and blogging/writing capabilities I would suggest either Wix or Weebly, especially if you've no plans to monetize or look into ecommerce at this moment in time.

give the free trials a go and see how you get on.

- Tom

Reply
Gurpreet Singh 9 years ago

Brilliant effort and content.
Wanted your view. I plan to publish regular content on Financial products and real estate. Currently no plan to monitize but want to keep all options open. The content will be categorised as per the product eg Equity , mutual funds, taxation etc and each will have subcategory. Same should also be sharable on social media and should be mobile friendly. Now with this in mind which will be a better option -a web site or a blog? also which service will you recommend?
Thanks

Reply
Angela 9 years ago

Hi there, Awesome article.
Where do I find valid discount coupons for Wix. I have tried about 20 different ones and I can't get them to work.

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Angela,
  
  We've had a bit of trouble with the code over the last two weeks as it expired - so we've been working hard to get a new one!
  
  Thankfully, we've got that new code now and have just emailed it over to you.
  
  Hope it helps,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
training institute in dubai 9 years ago

Excellent Work in article it’s a very helpful for me thanks to share this info.

Reply
Grady 9 years ago

Yaa This is Very Informative Article

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Thanks Grady, great to hear you found it handy.
  
  Feel free to give it a share on social media if you like - just use the buttons above. You never know who else might find it useful!
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Merck D'Silva 9 years ago

Very interesting and informative

Reply
Tom Watts 9 years ago

Hi prashanth,

Thanks for the feedback and for joining the discussion.

Sounds like you've had a bit of a frustrating time! This is an issue that crops up from time to time, but rest assured Wix SEO is as good as any other website creator. Google has even come out and said that there is no problem indexing Wix Websites in their search results - and that's straight from the company itself, not a third party "SEO expert". You can find some more information about this under the SEO section in our Wix Review.

On the indexing front, unfortunately the time it takes to index a website varies from site to site, even if the websites being compared are all built with WordPress.

If you're looking for a bit more information then take a look at this guide, which compares SEO across a number of website builders.

You're right that the Wix mobile site editor is a little bit more hard work, but it does give you more control than many over website creators - so it can be a bit of a catch 22 if you're looking for a quick fix.

- Tom

Reply
william cope 9 years ago

Good comparisons overall. I am wanting to build a simple responsive Asian massage website for my business. I have not seen many examples among these. I do not cater just to women as some of these show, but mostly men and women will be marketed also for more early to mid day appointments usually.
suggestions where to get more asian them stock images to give it that Asian them feel overall?
thanks,

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi william,
  
  I'm not too sure about specifically Asian themed stock photographs, but take a check at these two articles as they may prove handy:
  
  1. Where to find professional images for your website
  2. Where to find free images for your website
  
  Both list a number of great websites where you can find a lot of stock imagery (including some hopefully aligned with what you need!)
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
prashanth 9 years ago

Great Info.
but some how i feel, wix needs lot of improvements when it comes to SEO. Recently I designed 2 websites one in Wix and other in Wordpress (Both are on Free Plan), when i submitted my sitemap to google for indexing, i could easily index wordpress, wix failed in many aspects (with the Same content). another issue i found while working on my wix website that many times it doesn't save even after you save and publish. i had to resubmit the content once again. designing wix for mobile site is again a difficult task.

Reply
Eduardo 9 years ago

Hi Guys ! Im interested on build a membership site, do i need some programming experience to build a site on wordpress?
Or could you give me any info about which website builder works better for what im looking for?
Regards

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hey Eduardo,
  
  Wix and Weebly both offer the functionality to build a membership site. With Wix you can support an unlimited number of members from their free plan upwards - you jsut need the Membership App. A little tip though - you won't have access to the full range of Wix tools if you stay on the free price plan.
  
  Weebly on the other hand requires you to upgrade if you want to have membership functionality. You'll get 100 invites on the Pro plan and an unlimited amount on the Business + Performance plans.
  
  Check out the reviews I've linked to for Wix and Weebly before making a decision as both are great platforms and will be easier to manage than WordPress.
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Eduardo 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy ! Im looking to create a membership website, could you help me with that? , which would be the best option for me?

Reply
1 reply
- Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hey Eduardo,
  
  Wix and Weebly are the only 2 website builders that have built-in membership login functions.
  
  Wix allows you unlimited members even on their free plan and you just need to add the Membership App to use this function. Bear in mind that you won’t get the full range of Wix tools if you remain on their free plan though.
  
  With Weebly, you'll need to upgrade in order to invite members. The Pro plan allows up to 100 members, while the Business and Performance plans allow unlimited invites.
  
  If you don't mind external tools, you could use Sentry Login in combination with a Squarespace or Weebly site to create members functionality. However as it is not a native app, it may experience a few compability issues (not a guarantee, but something to be wary of!)
  
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Justin McCann 9 years ago

Great work guys! Thanks for helping a codling illiterate like myself to become a little less confused.

Reply
Pamela 9 years ago

The level of detail on features and options is really useful - covers all I want to know, overall control is huge along with options for blogging & newsletters. My lead designer is recommending Squarespace. I just wanted to verify the quality & reviews. While I like the Wix AI option- because we have tons of photos and related data to include - however, this has proven to me that she has made the right choice. This review also gives direct links to all the basic information I want to know as an owner - and I was not having an easy time finding it on the various sites myself.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Pamela,
  
  Glad you found our page helpful and that we were able to direct you to the right pages. Best of luck with your website!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 9 years ago

Hi Noemi,

Assuming if you don't need any specialized tools and that you just want to build "basic" pages highlighting your services, contact information, etc, then any one of the website creators we've compared above will work.

Wix has a big library of design templates so they are a platform to start exploring. At the end of the day, I'd suggest you sign up for free / trial accounts with at least 2 website creators so you can get a good sense of what you like or dislike about them. It's sort of like testing driving cars - you won't know if you like it until you try them!

Jeremy

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Lulu Coelho 9 years ago

WOW! Very in depth review of all the website builders. Thank you! I have been building in Weebly and found it to be easier than Wix – so maybe I can try Wix out again sometime. I am definitely interested in Squarespace now! Thank you for taking all the time to share this valuable info!
Lulu

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Lulu,
  
  Thanks for your comment! If it helps, we have a direct comparison guide between Wix and Weebly here. We also compare Wix and Squarespace in this guide.
  
  Hope you find them interesting and helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Noemi 9 years ago

Thank you for your helpful article. I am clueless when it comes to technology and internet. I am in the process of building a cleaning business so I need to build a website. I already have a logo and a gmail account. I am just a little confused on what website builder should I use!
Do you have any recommendations?

Thank you so much!!

Reply
Rita 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy, thank you for this very informative article and comparison chart. I will be building a new site for a small church. For ease of construction and ongoing maintenance I like Wix. There is one problem. The church's current site is hosted by IPOWER and with it they have MS Exchange email accounts. My understanding is that Wix does not support Microsoft email. Do you know of any workarounds for the is situation? I really don't want the staff to have to get new email accounts through Gmail. Thanks in advance, Rita.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Rita,
  
  If you decide to use Wix to create the website, you don't have to change your email services at all. You can just keep your email service provider as is (don't change), and just create your website using Wix. So in a way, you can mix and match your service providers. They are completely independent / separate items.
  
  Hope this makes sense!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
John 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

This article was just what I needed!

My wife and I will be travelling overseas for extensive periods and will maintain a travel blog. We want to be able to notify contacts ( by email) when new blogs appear and allow comments to be sent and responded to on the blog. I was looking at Squarespace, but am unsure as to whether we could maintain a contact list and generate notifications. We have done this previously through Travelpod ( not sure who built the website), but want to change website builders. We want to keep the blog simple so Wix and Squarespace seem to fit our needs.

Thanks

John

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello John,
  
  Wix offers you a newsletter subscription program so you can blast out an email to your subscribers every time you want to notify them of something.
  
  The newsletter program is called Wix Shoutout.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Charity 9 years ago

Oh my word!! I just want let you know, you have helped me so much with a newbie and techie dummie like me. I still have to come back and review everything above, but so far, I know your article is all what I need to start a website for my business. One quick question tho- what website builder do you recommend for my beach house rental? I don't do blogs, just to lay out everything about our small resort for all travelers. I have my 2 own picks already, but I still want to see what can you recommend, since you seem like an expert. Thanks a million

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Charity,
  
  Thanks for your kind words! Glad our discussions are helpful.
  
  For hotels / home rental type businesses, check out Wix Hotel. It's a specialized feature that enable users to build hotel-type websites where customers can book rooms directly through your website.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
GM Medalla 9 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

Great Article and very relevant topics - I have a question though, I am looking into using Weebly to develop my website however does weebly have the ability to store files (like pdf, excel templates, word documents, etc) so that visitors can upload these files to their desktop?
thank you very much and more power to you man

GM Medalla

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey GM,
  
  Yes. With Weebly, you can insert documents into your webpages and your visitors can download them to their computers. I think all of the website builders above have this capability.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Genevieve 9 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

I am hoping to build a website soon and so far your page is extremely helpful, has great detail and the comparison chart is a winner. Thank you and kudos!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Genevieve,
  
  Thank you for your feedback! Glad to hear you're finding this comparison helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Marguerite Corrado 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you for your email. All your emails were very interesting and informative. I've decided to go with the Shopify website at Facebook.

There are many features that Shopify has I like..The themes are beautiful, security and pricing reasonable.. i think I can build a professional ecommerce store there to grow my online business.

You sent me a discount coupon on 1/14/17 and I saved it hoping to use it when I was ready. Is it still valid?

I hope to be putting up the website soon. Look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Marguerite

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Marguerite,
  
  Shopify is definitely one of our favorite ecommerce builders. We have a full review on them here, and we also compare it to other online store builders (just in case you haven't seen this chart yet).
  
  Give them a try and let me know what you think! But definitely take advantage of their free trial period just so you are well informed to see whether they are a good match for you.
  
  The discount should still work... I hope! Give it a try.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
billygomban 9 years ago

Wix does in fact allow embedded HTML.. its found under the add / more / HTML add on.. The box will appear on the page and you simply copy and paste the code into the box. Works great..

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Etienne 9 years ago

Thanks for the great overview.
Based on what do you claim that on an iPad you can work offline with weebly? I have it on my ipad, but without any internet, i can't eg add images.

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2 replies
- ALICA OUZEN 8 years ago
  
  I have been using Wix and love the design flexibility and the available apps. Recently needed to add code for marketing automation and found out Wix does not support adding HTML. I went with weebly and it’s good enough, not as flexible on customizing design templates and no control over what site looks like on mobile, love the ability to edit mobile on Wix. I really like the Squarespace templates, but I can’t find any information about apps they have available for additional features on the site. Any insight?
  
  Love your site BTW, always helpful information.
  
  Reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Etienne,
  
  You should be able to upload images, as long as the images are saved on your iPad (offline). If you're having trouble, did you try reaching out to Weebly's support team to let them diagnose the issue?
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lola 9 years ago

I have been using Wix and love the design flexibility and the available apps. Recently needed to add code for marketing automation and found out Wix does not support adding HTML. I went with weebly and it's good enough, not as flexible on customizing design templates and no control over what site looks like on mobile, love the ability to edit mobile on Wix. I really like the Squarespace templates, but I can't find any information about apps they have available for additional features on the site. Any insight?

Love your site BTW, always helpful information.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Lola,
  
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Weebly is definitely a strong candidate if you want more flexibility to edit / add codes as they allow users access to the HTML and CSS codes.
  
  However, Wix does have a fairly sizable app market where you can bolt on additional marketing tools. I'm guessing you didn't find what you need in the app market?
  
  For Squarespace, it really depends on what external widget / apps you want to add. One method to quickly check is to search for the app name and the website builder's name together. If there are discussions from the app creator about how to install it into a website builder, it will show up.
  
  So if you are trying to install App XYZ into Squarespace, try searching "XYZ Squarespace". Any relevant discussions will show up.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
James Saxon 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the thorough and excellent guidance. However, I did not see if Wix or Weebly permits the use of PayPal. Can your please verify if one or the other uses PayPal? As I recall the absence of PayPal cooled you on Squarespace.

Regards,
Jim Saxon
San Jose, Costa Rica

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello James,
  
  Wix and Weebly's ecommerce plans do integrate with PayPal. To access this integration, you'd have to subscribe to Wix's ecommerce or VIP plan, or Weebly's Business or Performance plans.
  
  As for Squarespace, they actually do integrate with PayPal now if you subscribe to their ecommerce plans.
  
  We have an ecommerce comparison table which will benchmark these website builders against each other from an ecommerce perspective.
  
  You can also read what we have to say about their ecommerce features here (Wix / Squarespace / Weebly).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Becky 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for this comparison chart, it's very helpful.

I'm tossing up between Wix and Weebly. Do you know whether either of these builders allow viewers to download free documents by providing an email address? The reason why I am wanting this feature is to generate leads :)

Thanks,
Becky.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Becky,
  
  I'm glad you're finding this comparison chart helpful.
  
  As for capturing leads - Yes, both Wix and Weebly allow you to do so.
  
  The mechanics are quite popular and simple - offer some sort of incentive (such as your documents) for people to sign up to your newsletter, then send them once they sign up.
  
  Wix and Weebly both have their own built-in newsletter delivery system:
  
  1) Wix Shoutout
  
  2) Weebly Promote
  
  We also have more details about these under Note 18 above.
  
  Both enable you to create sign up boxes and configure your newsletters so they automatically deliver to your subscribers without you having to manually do so. In fact, Wix give you the ability to create lightboxes (pop up email sign up boxes).
  
  Once you have the system set up, the whole cycle works automatically and really helps free up your time to do other things. More over, you can also add more to your newsletter series to keep in touch with your subscribers, to start building business relationships with them. All part of building up your business!
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
David Sellers 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I just wanted to say thank you for all of the information you have put together and how well organized and written that it is. It really helped me understand website building and builders and gave me a really good sense of what would be the best fit for me.

Best regards
David Sellers

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Thanks for taking the time to comment, David. I really appreciate it!
  
  Reply
Maureen 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
This was super helpful. I had no idea where to even start and this article has helped me in knowing which firms can help me get started and now I'm down to 2 options. Will either be Wix or square space. I was leaning towards square space the whole time until I read that only wix helps build a membership function , which I do need in my website, but I find most useful all the available options square spac offers in comparison to the rest. If you have an opinion in regards to the above, would be greatl appreciated! Thanks again for this article, definitely extremely helpful!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Maureen,
  
  Thanks for your note and we're glad to hear that you're finding our website helpful!
  
  As for Squarespace, what you can experiment with is bolting on an external membership app called Sentry Login. I believe they can work with the Squarespace platform and basically adds the membership function to your website.
  
  There are pros and cons with this approach, though.
  
  Pros - You get to use Squarespace (if that's who you end up choosing) and Sentry actually gives you the ability to charge your members monthly recurring membership fees. Although Wix enable you to setup members for free, it doesn't have a feature where you can charge your members membership fees.
  
  Cons - It's an "external" app and so it might not be perfectly integrated with Squarespace. I generally prefer tools that are built by the website building platform so if anything goes wrong, they will fix it versus them not being able to fix any issues that might be created by external apps.
  
  Also, Sentry is not free.
  
  There are other membership apps out there as well. So make sure you do a search to see which one might be more suitable for you! Or, if you want to keep things simple and use a membership tool that is fully integrated with the website builder, Wix is a good option.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Irene Labombarde 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Just wanted to write a quick note to thank you for the valuable help you unknowingly provided me as I designed the website for my business, a proofreading and editing service.

After years of working for someone else/making them rich, I decided to fly solo and open my own business last year, and recently decided I needed to build a website. I knew what I wanted it to say, but was totally clueless regarding how to proceed. Two of my friends in the business offered their services to get me up and running at a discount, but I could only afford the DIY method.

Your side-by-side comparisons made it easy for me to determine which company would work best for me (Wix). I was very excited to finally launch on 3/14 (during the blizzard that hit the Northeast).

Regards,
Irene

Reply
Jeremy 9 years ago

Hello Zakiyyah,

Wix and Squarespace each has its own pros and cons. The best way to know for sure is to sign up for trial accounts with both website builders and "play" with each platform to see which one you prefer working with. They're free to try so why not, right?

We also have a Wix vs Squarespace comparison guide and a guide on How to make sure that you pick the best website builder - hope you find them helpful!

Jeremy

Reply
Zakiyyah Ali 9 years ago

Jeremy, this was such a fantastic article! Thank you 1000%! I am a complete novice when it comes to establishing a website, hosting, and domain-ing! I have two options in mind, Wix or Square Space--I don't like to fuss over things and lot and I pretty much want the site to run itself, so to speak. Which one?

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Nimesh 9 years ago

Pretty good article Jeremy! Thank for sharing! This information can be really helpful for beginners.

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JAMES M GROSSMAN 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
The comparison chart is great. But I'm wondering about best builder when a podcast (along with membership, product sales, coaching, etc.) is the foundation of a site. Have you looked at Rainmaker?
Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey James,
  
  No, I haven't used that before. It looks like a pretty specialized platform for digital marketing and online courses.
  
  The website builders compared above (Wix, Squarespace, etc) are not as narrowly focused as Rainmaker. They're more generic, flexible, and probably easier to use for people who don't have specific needs for membership programs, selling digital courses, etc.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Vaughn 9 years ago

OMG... such a helpful article! Thanks for giving the sites that are well thought of, this helps narrow down an otherwise overwhelming challenge.

Starting an interior design business, but sooo not tech savvy, any suggestions on where to start and what to look for?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Vaughn,
  
  It's hard to determine the exact 5 things you should look for. Perhaps think about what are the most important things you want to accomplish with your website (blogging, videos, images, galleries, etc) and prioritize them. Based on what you want on your website, sign up to a couple of test / trial accounts and see if you like using their platforms and if their tools are sufficient for your needs.
  
  Even though the website builders above will deliver basic (and in some cases, more advanced) website building tools, you also have to be comfortable working with them. Each person will prefer a different website builder for unique reasons (different user interface, etc).
  
  Hope this helps somewhat.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
James 9 years ago

Hello,
Nice comparison and analysis. Do any of these or any other website builder offer you to check bandwidth usage?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi James,
  
  I don't think any one of them allow you to check how much bandwidth you've used. But do note that aside from certain Wix plans, all of the website builders give you unlimited bandwidth so you won't have to worry about it. For Wix, most of their more popular plans such as the VIP and Unlimited plans give you unlimited bandwidth.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Muraly 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

The comparison chart is quite useful listing the many facets to be considered for building a web-site.
Do these sites offer hosting services as well or we need to find web hosts to launch the site built using these builders?

Can we use this to build websites commercially for other users?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hello Muraly,
  
  Yes - all the website builders compared above provide you with hosting services. So you don't have to find and pay for separate hosting services!
  
  Yes - I've seen a lot of designers offer website building services using Wix, Squarespace and Weebly!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
jorgie 9 years ago

Thanks for this useful site Jeremy, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on Sandvox which has taken over from iWeb for Mac? I found iWeb easy to use and need to upgrade but not sure if Sandvox is mobile friendly etc. I'm not worried about their out of date designs, mine will be minimal!
Thanks
Jorgie

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Jorgie,
  
  I don't have a whole lot of experience using Sandvox. One thing to consider is that the website builders compared above helps you host your website (so you don't have to get your own) and they also have full time support teams to help you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mark 9 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the comprehensive and very informative article.

I've just registered three domains with GoDaddy and received a month free website builder. Before investing irretrievable time and energy into creating an undesirable website I Googled "GoDaddy website builder review". Considering your top rating and knowing you get what you pay for I'm thinking Wix may be the way to go for me (in the long term). My question for you is can I migrate my GoDaddy website over to Wix if I wan't to upgrade (so to speak) at any stage or after the end of the free trial?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hey Mark,
  
  Unfortunately there isn't a way to import another website into Wix. Very generally speaking, since Wix is built on a proprietary platform, other websites are not coded in a similar way that it can function within Wix's operating platform. This is why it's very challenging and sometimes not possible to migrate a website from one website builder to another.
  
  Have you considered signing up to a free account with Wix and testing them out? This way, if you like it better than GoDaddy, perhaps just start using Wix right away so you don't have to worry about migrating a website from GoDaddy to Wix.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Daryl 9 years ago

Great work! Thanks for the info. Which site(s) would you recommend considering for a business that offers online webinars and would like to receive payments onsite and would also consider conducting the webinars onsite (not really a game changer).

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Daryl,
  
  None of the website builders can help you stream your webinar directly on your website. I believe that most companies conduct webinars using dedicated tools such as GoToWebinar.
  
  What they usually do is create a webpage to let people know when the webinar is and how to sign up. Once people sign up, they'll receive an email to tell them when and which webpage to go to to watch the webinar. The webinar is hosted on tools such as GoToWebinar.
  
  So websites only facilitate the process of ushering people to sign up to the webinar. It won't stream the webinar directly.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kirsten Wellens 9 years ago

In your footnotes ([14] Support:) you provided the following: Wix’s phone support is available across all plans (including the free plan) which is fantastic, and if you are a VIP plan user, you get access to their “VIP Team”.

As recent as a week ago, phone support is no longer provided with Wix regardless of the plan you have. Rather when you call their toll free number (800-600-0949), you get an automated message which, if you are calling from a cell phone, sends you a text message. Once you click on the text message, you are taken to their website where you can go through a series of Q&A's. If the answer is not there, you are allowed to generate a support ticket, however Wix is not responsive... at all. I generated a support ticket over 4 days ago and still have not received an email, text, or phone call back.

Truly a step down in terms of support for Wix as my past experiences with their customer and tech support were always positive. I am currently looking at other options to transfer my sites to. if I can't speak with a technical support person when my site isn't working, then what's the point in doing business with Wix?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Kirsten,
  
  Wix’s support portal now offers “Wix Quick Solutions” that guides you to specific help articles to address some of the most commonly asked questions. I think it's just a way for them to streamline their support so they don't become overwhelmed with phone calls when users can reasonably find help in their support center.
  
  If you still can't find a help guide that answers your question(s), there is a link at the bottom of the pop up box that says “Contact Us”.
  
  Click on that and it offers you a callback phone support. Just insert your phone number and they will call you back. You’ll have to be logged into your Wix account in order to see this.
  
  I just checked out this phone callback service and the next help agent available is in 10 minutes – not too bad.
  
  Do note that their phone support is only available from 6pm – 5pm PST time zone.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Joyce 10 years ago

Jeremy, I really appreciated your article. i am not tech savvy and want to develop a website for my part time private psychology practice. Based on my needs, I'd pick SquareSpace, partly because their website is intuitive, clean, easy to navigate. One other web builder I've considered is Strikingly. How do you feel about Strikingly?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Joyce,
  
  We haven't tested Strikingly thoroughly so we don't have a firm opinion about them. Sorry about that. But Squarespace is a solid website builder so if you feel comfortable with them after testing them out (14 day free trial), they're awesome too!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
chris wale 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy, I am looking to design my own web site and have a specific logo in mind, Can any of these sites offer a design if I show them an example?

Reply
Joanne 10 years ago

Are Weebly and WIX the only web site creators that allow for Login applications on their sites?
Does WIX' login app allow for unlimited # of members on their FREE site or does one have to be on one of their Premium sites to take advantage of this app?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Joanne,
  
  Yes, Wix and Weebly are the only 2 website builders that have built-in membership login functions. If you don't mind using an external membership tool, you can also check out Sentry Login which should work with most website builders. The drawback is that they are not "native" to the website builder so there is a chance that certain functions may cause conflicts (not saying that it will, but it's a possibility).
  
  For Wix, I believe that you can have unlimited memberships and you can add the app to your Wix site even if you are using the free plan. Of course, you won't get the full range of Wix tools if you remain on their free plan.
  
  For Weebly, you will have to upgrade to their Pro plan to be able to invite up to 100 members. If you want unlimited members, you'll have to upgrade to their Business or Performance plans.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
John Madden 10 years ago

Hello! I am an old Chem Eng and we need a web site for our family chemical company. We have hundreds of products and need a website that is easy to navigate and search. where do i start? Our existing web site is basically a brochure with no user friendly search buttons. John

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  Are you trying to build an ecommerce website to sell your products online? If so, I'd suggest checking out Shopify since you have hundreds of products to manage. Take a look at our ecommerce builder comparison chart here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Alexandra Chalusiak 10 years ago

Excellent article. I need a website site for my candles and am really terrified about the cost etc. but I will start with baby steps and with all the great info you provided , onward and upward . Thanks guys.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thanks for your comment, Alexandra. Best of luck in building your website!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Leslie 10 years ago

Hello -
This is great information. My website - joomla was hacked, Go Daddy is my host. Instead of paying a fortune to get rid of the malware, I want a new website. It is time. I am considering Squarespace for my new site. Can I still use Go Daddy for my email? How secure is Squarespace? Will I still be subject to hackers or do they take special security precautions to prevent it?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Leslie,
  
  As far as I'm aware of, Squarepace is secure as they have a full time tech team to manage their platform and keep the security aspects of their platform updated. But of course, the best defense is to keep your password strong. The best practice to include alphabets, numbers and symbols, and to update your password once in a while.
  
  Squarespace does offer you G Suite (basically Gmail for businesses) for a few dollars per month. It's easy to set up and is fully integrated with your Squarepace account. We use G Suite ourselves as we like the reliability, stability and friendly user-interface of Gmail.
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Bob Leedom 9 years ago
  
  "The best practice to include alphabets, numbers and symbols..."
  I think it's generally agreed that length (12 or more characters) provides more security than complexity (requiring upper & lower case, numbers, and symbols). Password-cracking tools can easily cycle through all the characters you can type, so you're fooling yourself into thinking you're more secure if, for example, you threw some capital letters into the mix, or you changed the letter "i" to a one, or the letter "o" to a zero.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 9 years ago
  
  Hi Bob,
  
  Yes - I definitely agree that the longer the password, the better!
  
  Thanks for adding to this discussion!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ruth McLachlan 10 years ago

Awsome! Thank you! This was very helpful to our non-profit getting started on building a website. Kudos!

Reply
Oso Red 10 years ago

a site builder is the best online tool for small businesses or freelancers, especially if you have a little knowledge in image editing and patience to learn, do you know if they have MB limits in the images to upload? Do they put limits on the total space to use? Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  There are no limitations as to the size of the images that you upload. However, Wix does have storage space limitations. The higher the plan, the more storage space you get.
  
  For instance, if you pick their lowest plan (the Connect Domain plan), you only get 500MB of space which isn't a whole lot if you're planning on uploading a lot of images. You get 20GB of storage space if you subscribe to their higher plans. So check out their pricing page for more details.
  
  With Squarespace and Weebly, you get unlimited storage space if you subscribe to their paid plans.
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Alynne Loupe 10 years ago

Fantastic information and advice. As an artist, still creating by hand, choosing a web option is overwhelming. Still researching, however, this task seems possible. "Less is More" thanks for reminding me. Alynne

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Alynne,
  
  Thanks for your comment. Since you're an artist, I'd suggest you check out Squarespace as their designs are very creative and you just might enjoy browsing through them.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
charlotte 10 years ago

hello,
i am looking to build a website and i'm not sure which one to choose. in the beginning, i will just need a few pages....a home page, about page, a page to detail pictures and descriptions of the rooms we have and a tab to redirect to our airbnb pages and a blog page. later, i would like to add a shop page. being able to design my own website is a top priority. could you direct me to the best builder?
thank you,
charlotte

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Charlotte,
  
  The top website builders highlighted above (Wix, Squarespace, Weebly) will all be able to do what you want. You can also add ecommerce functions later on when you're ready.
  
  In terms of design, Squarespace has the best looking designs. But if you want a broad selection of template designs and control, Wix is a strong candidate. They have over 500 designs, categorized by industries to help you narrow down the choices. You also have complete freedom to drag and drop content to wherever you want to on your pages.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  charlotte 10 years ago
  
  thank you so much for your reply.
  i do not want the builder's logos on my website. should i upgrade from the free website, and if so how much should i upgrade for the needs i stated above?
  so, with wix i will have more freedom to design as i want instead of stay within the parameters of the template?
  i saw that wix offers a blank template. are these hard to use?
  thanks again,
  charlotte
  
  Reply
  
  2 replies
  
  charlotte 10 years ago
  
  hello,
  just waiting for your response.
  thank you so much for the help,
  charlotte
  
  Reply
  
  Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Charlotte,
  
  Yes - you'll need to upgrade to a premium plan if you want to remove the logo advertisements. For Wix, just keep in mind that even with their "Connect Domain" plan, the logo will still be there. So you'll have to upgrade to at least their "Combo" plan to get rid of the logo. We have more discussion about Wix's pricing plans here.
  
  Wix does offer you a blank template if you want to design your own design. It's a useful option if you know exactly what you want and don't mind investing the time to create it. It's pretty simple as it's all drag and drop, but it will take a bit of time as you are starting from scratch. Or else they have over 500 templates for you to choose from.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
John Soberay 10 years ago

Jeremy,

Great info! I'm new to this (with some practice, I will be all the way up to novice level!). I'm trying to set up a site for our condo association using GoDaddy. For some reason their new vNext developer doesn't allow the ability to put downloadable documents in your site. So, the only big feature we really need (ability of residents or potential buyers to download bylaws, rule books, newsletters, etc) is off the table. Absurd.

Now I'm considering Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace. Do these three support this feature? Another review site says Wix doesn't offer "Download Selling" -not sure what that means.

Thanks!
John
Cleveland, OH

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  If you just want to offer the ability for your website visitors to download files (including documents), Wix, Squarespace and Weebly allow you to do that as this function is fairly standard.
  
  If you want to sell these documents (digital products), then Squarespace and Weebly will be more appropriate.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tom 10 years ago

Great info on a very important topic. This saved me a lot of independent research and helped point me in the right direction. Thanks!

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Lin 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I'm having a hard time making a choice. I'm an author and need a site that will allow me to have a few pages (book with buy now buttons, bio, news, contact) and possibly a blog, nothing fancy. I don't need commerce because I'll be sending to external distributors.

I'd also like to be able to create a landing page, when necessary, to get people to sign up for my email list (not just a signup area on my homepage), and delete/hide or edit the landing page. I'm leaning toward Wix or Weebly since they offer built-in email capability, which is enticing.

I've been checking out the templates, especially the writers' templates, on Wix. Any idea how much flexibility I'd have to change or add things. For example, if I like a certain template that doesn't show a blogging section in their sample, would it be simply setting up a new page/section within the site to add it?

I use wordpress at work, but it was already set up for us; it's fairly easy to use but I only have to create new posts and add text to them, nothing else. I was leaning away from wordpress mainly because of the amount of plugins necessary and the amount of time it would take for me to resize images, find the plugins, security updates, etc.

Also, any idea how Wix/Weebly email campaign services compare to something like Mailchimp as far as setting up campaigns and scheduling them?

Thank you, and thanks for this great site and the information!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Lin,
  
  Thanks for your comment. The templates that Wix has are completely flexible. So you can just add a new blog page to the template and you can start blogging.
  
  In terms of comparing Wix Shoutout and Weebly Promote (their built-in newsletter services) against Mailchimp, I think Mailchimp is probably more advanced as they are a "pure" newsletter service - meaning that's all they do so they are focused. Also, some may say that Mailchimp will have better email deliverability but I haven't seen any credible studies / comparisons.
  
  That's not to say that Wix Shoutout and Weebly Promote are any inferior. The benefit is that they are fully integrated within your website builder (whichever one you decide to use) and so you can manage everything under one single platform without having to log in separately to another service provider such as Mailchimp. You'll also have certainty that your tools will be working perfectly without having to worry if there would be any potential conflicts.
  
  Also, Wix Shoutout and Weebly Promote enable you to use the website builders' drag and drop features to create your own designs.
  
  At the end of the day, I suspect that integrating Mailchimp with either Wix or Weebly will probably be fine.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Christine 10 years ago

Thank you so much for this very informative article!

I am looking at starting a life coaching business in the next year focused on mindfulness. I have no experience with website design or coding. I would initially like a website that can host a blog that I will be writing. I would love analytics on what blog posts most people are reading to help guide next steps in my business. I would also like people to be able to sign up for a mailing list through my site to get e-mail updates or newsletters. Eventually, I would like the site to be able to support people purchasing online courses from me. So, I would like the capacity of people to be able to pay for that course through the site as well as having a password-protected portion of the site with individual usernames/passwords where the course material can be housed. I'm not sure exactly the format of the course material yet, but I'm guessing it will be a combination of an audio and video presentation (This is very much in the infant stages).

Do you have recommendations? It looks like SquareSpace might tick many of these boxes, but being so new to web design, I am not sure where to start with a website builder.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Christine,
  
  Any one of the website builders above will allow you to write blog posts and track visitor statistics using Google Analytics.
  
  However, if you want to enable newsletter function (to build your mailing list), you have a few options. Wix and Weebly have their own newsletter functions that are fully integrated into their own platforms - Wix Shoutout and Weebly Promote (see footnote 17 above for more details).
  
  With Squarespace, while they don't offer you a built-in newsletter function, you can connect external newsletter service providers to your website (such as Mailchimp or Aweber).
  
  The advantages of using Wix or Weebly with their built-in newsletter system is that the functions are tightly integrated within their platforms. But I've seen Squarespace users integrate external systems, too, and I suspect they work just fine.
  
  Regarding selling courses, Wix and Weebly both offer membership protected functions (see footnote 18 above) so this gives you the infrastructure to share webpages with only your students (and not with the public). Squarespace doesn't have this function (yet), but if you want to consider integrating an external membership feature, take a look at Sentry Login. I haven't used Sentry Login before but I heard it works fine.
  
  Again, the risk with using an externally powered tool is that there is a chance that the tool may not be optimized for the website builder, versus an built-in tool that is tightly integrated with the website builder. The risk is not high based on what I've seen, but a risk nevertheless.
  
  I do want to point out that with the membership functions for Wix and Weebly, neither one of them allow you to charge recurring membership fees. What I'm saying is that their membership features are not integrated with their ecommerce functions. So if you want to charge monthly recurring fees to allow your students to continue to access protected pages, then Sentry Login can help with that (which also works with Wix and Weebly).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
RJ Bacani 10 years ago

What website is the most Stripe-friendly service? We are trying to build our website for free while also retain our Stripe payments. We tried using Wix, but they don't have Stripe payment. It seems you have to use third party integration services which continue to raise your fees. Is it possible anywhere to create your website for free (or small monthly plan) while using Stripe and their transaction fees BUT not having to pay the website builder or other third-party services to make these Stripe transactions? Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey RJ,
  
  The cheapest option will be Weebly. You can connect your ecommerce store to Stripe with any one of their paid plans and the cheapest premium plan is the Starter plan for $8 per month (under their annual plan).
  
  However, with the Starter plan, there is a 3% transaction fee charged by Weebly for each sale (in addition to the Stripe payment processing fee). To remove this fee, you'll have to subscribe to at least their Business plan at $25 per month.
  
  One option is to start with their Starter plan and see if your business does well. If it does, then you may have the financial resources to upgrade to the Business plan to save yourself the 3% if the math works (the 3% you save exceeds the pricing difference between the Starter and Business plans).
  
  Another option is Squarespace. Their Personal plan is $12 per month (under their annual plan), and they also have a 3% transaction fee (on top of the Stripe payment processing fee). The next higher plan, the Business plan, charges a 2% transaction fee.
  
  If your store does well, you can also consider moving up to their Online Store plans where there won't be any transaction fees.
  
  So to summarize, I'm not aware of a completely free website builder that enables you to connect to Stripe payment processor.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lani 10 years ago

I always appreciate what I can learn from your website; thank you.

RE: What are the additional costs?
How about a comparison chart on the additional expenses one should expect from each web-builder in order to have a truly functioning website (e.g., detailing all that is or is not included). SquareSpace includes SSL with all their websites whereas Weebly will require installation of an app for a fee (through Weebly or another, such as GoDaddy, for example).

I've noted you and others find SquareSpace more expensive than say Wix & Weebly, yet in the price charts comparisons I've made, Weebly can be more expensive in the higher end or so it appears. One needs to look on the websites's pricing charts to see all their pricing lists (tedious) and ask the questions (e.g., "Does SquareSpace provide SSL"). I figure you are the ones who make this your business to assist and guide us, right?

I think I am ready to build on SquareSpace. Time will tell. My reasoning being because they provide the following: SSL with no additional fee, have added paypal, are considered the most elegant of website templates (although some say, "boring") and seem possibly less expensive on the whole albeit Weebly does offer a zero monthly plan (unlimited), and SquareSpace also offers the flexibility of transferring to another website builder (e.g., WordPress).

Thank you for all your diligence and research.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Lani,
  
  Squarespace does include SSL for their websites as part of all their premium plans. With Weebly, you'll get SSL only if you subscribe to their Business and Performance plans.
  
  The reason why the price comparisons remain as they are is that even if you want to add SSL to Weebly's lower plans, you won't be able to. So from that perspective, outlining the various pricing scenarios won't be helpful since one can't add the SSL certificate anyway.
  
  So I suppose if having SSL is one of the most important items to you, then you can compare Squarespace's plans with Weebly's Business and Performance plans, and not with Weebly's lower plans.
  
  In my view (at the moment anyway), having SSL is important only if you have a membership login function or have an ecommerce checkout page, in order to protect your visitors' privacy. Both Squarespace and Weebly both have SSL protection for their ecommerce checkout carts across all plans, so you should be sufficiently protected from that perspective.
  
  One thing to consider is that Google is encouraging that all websites have SSL, but I'm not entirely convinced that it is completely necessary (at the moment) if your website only presents information and doesn't require your visitors to submit any passwords of private information.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tom Marsh 10 years ago

Why did you not include Big Comerce or Shopify in your comparisons?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Tom,
  
  This comparison table above only compares drag and drop website builders. We have a comparison table for ecommerce builders here. Hope you find it helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Scott 10 years ago

As a side project I'm looking to build a traditional news publisher site supported by third party advertising - services like adsense, media.net, outbrain/taboola, etc. I believe this is possible with Wordpress, but I'm concerned about my lack of dev skills and want something easy. Any of the other website builders particularly good for third party ad integration? I'm also interested in being able to feature web search and customize the search box experience if possible. Thanks in advance for any guidance!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Scott,
  
  I think all of the website builders above will support Adsense. But I'm not entirely sure about the other advertising platforms as I haven't used them before. But if you only need to insert a snippet of code into your webpages to display these ads, then in theory it should be fine as these website builders have tools to allow you to insert external codes.
  
  One way to find out for sure is to sign up for a free account and insert your advertising codes to see the ads show up.
  
  They also offer search boxes but they're pretty standard. If you want to customize your search experiences, you might need to use something like Swiftype that allow you control over what pages show up and what doesn't, etc. So it enables you to have control over the search results within your website. Swiftype works with Squarespace and Weebly. But the monthly fee to enable this function is pretty pricey.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
daniel 10 years ago

Hi.....i'm looking to build a web site that list the best doctors an hospitals in my city.....along with listings of the best online medical information.But i can't seem to find just the right template on Wix.Any suggestions?

Thank you

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Daniel,
  
  If you can't find a specific template that's catered to what you're trying to do, try finding the closest one and get started with that one. One thing about Wix is that they are very flexible when it comes to design so you can re-arrange items on your pages by just dragging and dropping them wherever you want to. So in a way, you can create your own listing layout based on the design you have in mind.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Peter Shikli 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

In early 2017, I will be teaching web design to prison inmates, so they'll be able to get decent jobs upon release. Prison inmates do not get internet access, so I will need a standalone editor I can load on their Windows 7 PCs. I prefer rule-based editors like HoTMetaL Pro (discontinued) which force (or at least enourage) valid markup. Recommendations?

Reply
2 replies
- Renaldo 10 years ago
  
  Jeremy, I don't have any advice but I think what you're doing to help these folks is AWESOME!
  
  Reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Peter,
  
  I haven't used any offline website builders as when I started building websites back in 2010, I only explored drag and drop, hosted website builders just because it managed a lot of technical aspects of building websites so I didn't have to (such as coding, configuring and setting up hosting, etc).
  
  Sorry about that. If any one else reading this comment has suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Dana 10 years ago

Excellent Jeremy THANK you -

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D-J 10 years ago

Hello Jeremy
I am very new to building websites, have always had someone build it for me, no this is no longer an option. I am looking for a easy and simple site builder with the ability to grow as my knowledge does (in sit building) . What i also need is the ability to stream/run my radio show from as well. Hope this makes sense.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey D-J,
  
  The top recommendations above are very easy to use and you don't need any coding knowledge to build a professional looking website.
  
  Specifically, Squarespace has a podcast feature where you can integrate your website with iTunes.
  
  The other website builders (such as Wix and Weebly) have audio tools where you can upload your audio file on to any webpage, and your visitors can click on the audio player to listen to your show.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jason - CyberNext 10 years ago

This post is perfect. Before a few months I was also looking for user friendly website builder websites and generated my rankings based on different parameters. This is exactly the sequence. But Yes.. WordPress is missing here.

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Gene Nelson 10 years ago

Jeremy,
I’m planning to start a website wherein I will offer my eons of architectural drafting experience to create custom preliminary floor plans for folks planning to renovate or add to their homes. I intend to provide multiple hyperlinked pages of helpful info and guidance, including instructions on taking specific photographs and dimensions of their existing home that will allow me to create reasonably accurate floor plans. Once contact is made, the primary communication thereafter will be email. I will also be adding pages on a regular basis, including recent projects and how-to tips. It seems to me that a website heavy in blog capability might be best, but I’m not sure I have the technical prowess to keep abreast of Wordpress updates, whereas Squarespace seems more appropriate. Any suggestions? Many thanks. Gene Nelson

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Gene,
  
  I think any capable website builders (such as the ones listed above, including Squarespace) should be able to get the job done for you.
  
  Sounds like you're only looking to setup pages, blog posts, insert tutorials / information, link together some pages to guide people to different parts of your website. Squarespace can help you do that without you having to be technical at all.
  
  Best way forward is to sign up for a trial account and give it a "test drive". That's the best way to find out!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ketaki Bhandekar 10 years ago

Jeremy,

I recently tried to transfer my domain from a dutch website hosting company to Wix.com. Unfortunately the transfer failed but there is no explanation. Can you advise what could have gone wrong? Domain connection option does not exists on my current hosting site that is why i was transferring it. Any guidance you can offer will be grand.

Thanks in advance,

K

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Ketaki,
  
  I wouldn't know as I wasn't involved. Have you tried asking your hosting company? It's very strange how they sell you a domain name but will not allow you to connect it to a website.
  
  Have you thought of transferring the domain name to another domain name registrar (such as GoDaddy)? From there, you can connect it to any website you build (including one built with Wix).
  
  We have a domain name guide that discusses about the pros and cons of transferring a domain name to a website builder or to a domain name registrar. It also contains other helpful basics about domain name you might be interested in reading.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Todd Justice 10 years ago

Jeremy,
I am a 20-year professional clean comedian and need an appropriate website with blog, etc.
Any suggestions as to which builder would be right to go with?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Todd,
  
  I don't think any one of them are specifically tailored to comedians, but you can certainly have a browse through Wix's templates. They have a broad range of templates for different niches and they are easy to use (including the ability for you to publish a blog).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jim Craig 10 years ago

Just found this...I'm building my site on the Duda platform...don't get a mention - should I be concerned!!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  We mentioned about Duda here. We haven't worked with or tested their website builder extensively, but based on my limited experience they're not bad.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kevin G. Dunn 10 years ago

looks like I am going to get a lot of help to set up a new webpage/website: THANK YOU!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thanks for letting us know! Glad our website builder comparison chart above is helpful to you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
JP 10 years ago

Excellent article! Answered all my questions so far. Thank you

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Steve 10 years ago

I think you assume a high level of basic computer literacy. I'm no idiot but I've tried Weebly and Wix and think your 5/5 ease of use ratings are way out of line for an average technophobe like me. Weebly USED to have a REALLY simple set up but it's become much too complicated and I can't do it any more :o(

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Steve,
  
  Thanks for your comment. I guess it is somewhat subjective and varies from person to person.
  
  I recall when I first started using Weebly years ago and I found that it was very user-friendly. I try to be as objective as possible when I rate them nowadays but there may be a possibility that I'm slightly biased based on my experiences with them.
  
  I try my best to put myself in a beginner's shoes when I rate them, and I also take into consideration the user-friendliness of other website builders in order to keep the scoring relative.
  
  In any case, I really do appreciate your feedback. Relative to other website builders, I do believe Weebly is one of the easiest-to-use website builders available in the market today.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tammy 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for all of the detailed info - this has been a huge help to me. My issue is that I have a website hosted by Go Daddy with a Go Daddy Online Store Shopping Cart attached. I will be building a new website as I now need to have a few pages for member login only, and Go Daddy web builder doesn't seem to offer this service. Would my best choice be to build a new website in Word Press and connect the Go Daddy Shopping Cart? That appears to me to be possible, but I'm not positive. I'm not super techie, and would like the easiest solution that would work. Thanks for your help!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Tammy,
  
  It really depends on what you have in mind with the membership setup.
  
  If you just want to grant access to certain pages to members, without having them pay for access (like a monthly subscription fee), then Wix and Weebly have such membership functions.
  
  Both website builders also have ecommerce tools so you can sell products. But bear in mind their shopping carts are not connected to their membership functions so you can't charge monthly membership fees.
  
  If you want to create a system where you can charge monthly membership fees, then WordPress has a few options for you (such as the Wishlist plugin). Using WordPress is much more challenging than drag & drop website builders. But it is more powerful and flexible if you don't mind climbing a steeper learning curve.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kat 10 years ago

Great post Jeremy. I'd like to set up a website that will enable for tiered pricing structure (e.g. fixed and recurring) to be implemented based on different service offering. Some degree of customisation will also be required so if required a designer/dev can make appropriate changes outside of what I can do.

What is required to get this tiered structure set up and integrated as an efficient payment functionality and will this work fine with sites like Squarespace?

Thanks

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Kat,
  
  When it comes to making such extensive modifications, the website builders above are probably not suitable.
  
  if anything, I'd check out Shopify or BigCommerce, if you want to keep with hosted ecommerce builders (where you don't have to manage hosting and other technical aspects of operating your website). They are pure ecommerce builders so you get a lot more ecommerce related tools.
  
  If those can't be tailored to your specific needs, then you might need to pursue more customizable platforms, which are more flexible but need a lot more maintenance and are technically challenging.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Heather 10 years ago

Love this chart! Very helpful. I'm about to set up my first website. Just some quick questions regarding Wix:

1. In the "Responsive Themes" row, Wix has an X. Does this mean they don't have mobile-responsive themes? That seems unlikely. I want to make sure my visitors can see all my content easily on their phones.

2. In the "Mobile App" row, it says Wix will allow me to work on a newsletter from my ipad. Is that the only editing / managing I can do on a mobile device using Wix?

3. In the "Export Website" row, there is an X for Wix. Does this mean my website could not be exported if needed? Am I reading that right?

4. Wix does not have online chat. Do you think that's something they'll bring on board? Online chat is one of my favorite tech help features!

Thanks for your expertise!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Heather,
  
  Glad you're finding this chart helpful to you!
  
  1) Wix doesn't offer responsive templates. But they do offer a dedicated mobile editor so that your website is mobile ready. We have a guide here on comparing Wix's mobile editor to other website builders' responsive designs. It's an intro guide so it will highlight some pros & cons.
  
  2) In addition to the app to help you manage your newsletter function (Wix Shoutout), Wix actually has an iOS app where you can receive instant notification when someone contacts you through your website, follow up on activities such as online store purchases or hotel reservations (so depends on what business you are operating), upload images on the go, etc. Visit their support portal and search for "Mobile App" and you'll see more about it.
  
  3) Correct. The main reason is that once your website exits Wix's proprietary drag and drop platform, the other hosts won't have the same infrastructure to help you manage your website the same way as how you would with Wix. Even with Weebly, it only export in codes so any modifications you'll have to edit the codes directly. If this is important to you, check out Squarespace as they allow you to export most content into a WordPress friendly format.
  
  4) They don't have a "native" online chat tool, but you can find multiple chat tools in their App Market that you can bolt on to your Wix site.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Richard 10 years ago

Thank you for providing all this information, Jeremy!

I'm a complete novice when it comes to websites, but would like one built where soccer fans can come and take part in competitions such as 'Last man standing'. This is a game where you pick one soccer team that you think will win, if they do then you are then still in the competition and must then choose a different team for the next set of fixtures. If your chosen team loses or draws you are out of the competition. The winner is obviously the last man standing.

With this idea, I would also like to offer users a 'pay to play' option, whereby they pay £1 to enter and the winner takes it all (minus 10% to help pay for running costs of the website). Also a 'play for fun' option so that people can still play, however they wouldn't win the money if they were the last man standing, this would go to the last standing paying user/users.

So with this in mind my website would have to have PayPal or card payment method for the users wishing to compete for the money prizes.

I also have around another 10 games similar to this that I would like to put on the website.

Please can you give me any advice on which website bulider to use? I would be extremely grateful.

Thank you,

Rich.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Richard,
  
  It sounds to me that you will have to look for a software that caters to what you need, and not a website builder. I'm not sure if there are any software out there that has what you have in mind, and if you can't find one you might want to consider hiring a developer to help you build one.
  
  Once you have the software built, you might be able to embed it into a website so people can participate in the game.
  
  If you need tips on how to hire developers, we have a guide on how and where to hire good developers.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeanette 10 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

I have a domain name and website designed through websitebuilder.com. While it is fairly easy to navigate, their resources and customer service and limited, i.e., have yet to have a clear answer to a direct question about how to do something on their website, and I'm hitting a wall with functionality. My first question (given my limited website design experience) is do all website builders have database creation abilities? I want to create a forum and do not see anywhere on their site options that I am directed to when following other tutorials.

My second question would be now that I have a domain and website almost completely created is it possible to switch website builders? If I do, do I lose all of my work and have to recreate from scratch?

Thanks so much for any insight.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Jeanette,
  
  I have yet to see a drag & drop (code free) website builder have the ability for you to create databases, and create forums from scratch. However, platforms such as Wix or Weebly offer you apps where you can "bolt on" a forum to your website.
  
  Wix has a couple of options so check out their App Market and search for "forum".
  
  As for your last question, if you switch website builders, you will have to re-create your content from scratch. In terms of your domain name, you can just disconnect it from your existing website and connect it to your new website. We have a domain name guide here that you might find helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Rosalind 10 years ago

Great article and website.This stuff is very overwhelming to a novice like myself. I really like Squarespace, but the fact the apps only cater to iphones was a deal breaker for me. There price was very good for ecommerce. So now I'm debating about Wix and Shopify. I know everyone uses shopfiy, but it seems they nickel and dime you for everything. I'm a clothing start-up, so all this adds up. I'm scared Wix wont be as flexible.

Thanks

Roz

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Roz,
  
  Thanks for your note. It's not unusual to feel that building a business online is overwhelming - it was for us at first as well! It gets much easier over time when things start to "click". Hopefully you're finding our discussions here helpful.
  
  Wix will definitely not be as flexible as Shopify, as Shopify in our view, is probably the best hosted ecommerce builder in the market today. They're flexible, powerful and has the ability to grow with you as your business expands. So while they're not the cheapest option around, they're scalable and reliable which are also factors you should consider as you grow your business.
  
  On a side note, we published a guide on how to craft an awesome product page here. Hopefully you'll also get some tips out of it!
  
  Thanks for commenting.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Victoria 10 years ago

Jeremy,

We need to have a website for our Vineyard. We plan to have our own wine in the future to sell and a tasting room. Right now we need a presence out there. We have people who want to follow our progress and can hardly wait for wine. We also will be selling grapes because we have more planted than we can make into wine right now. We want a website to grow with us. We would like to be able to blog, and have all the search engines be able to find us. I use Bing more than Google just because of the photo. I have noticed that Bing does not always show all of the sites out there.

I am a designer but do not know code so I would like to be able to put my creative spin on our site. We bought a GoDaddy domain many years ago so would like to be able to use that. We don't want to loose our .vine or .wine since these domain extensions were being limited. We do have a .com too. We also want our emails with our domain, myname@victoriansummit. com.

People have recommended to me SquareSpace and WordPress. I would like to know what your thoughts are and what you would recommend.

Thank you
Victoria

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Victoria,
  
  I think Squarespace is a really good choice for creatives (such as yourself). You don't need to know how to code and you can still build a really good looking website with Squarespace.
  
  You can certainly connect your domain name from GoDaddy to your Squarespace website. Squarespace's help center will have tutorials on how to do that.
  
  You can also connect your email addresses as well as Squarespace does offer you the ability to use Google Business Apps (basically the Gmail user interface) to power your custom email addresses. It's only a few dollars a month, which is affordable.
  
  When it comes to WordPress, it is a powerful and flexible website builder. However, if you're not proficient with codes or if you don't plan on hiring a coder to help you, I'd suggest giving Squarespace a trial run first. We have a much more detailed comparison between Squarespace and WordPress here. I think you'll find it insightful.
  
  As for SEO (helping your website become more searchable by search engines), take a look at our website builder SEO guide here. I think yo'll also find this helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Steph 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for providing so much detailed info. Your site is super helpful!

I've narrowed my choices down to Weebly or Wix. I've been playing around with both editors and so far I am finding Weebly more easy to use. I'm also finding the written response times of Weebly support to be way faster (minutes rather than days). That said, there are a few things above that are keeping me undecided. My sites will be a store/blog, with both elements being equally important.

You mentioned above: "Weebly IM Creator does not offer a blog system, so you need to set up your own blog elsewhere (such as on Tumblr or WordPress)". Please can you explain what you mean by this?

Also, you say that you get Wix phone support even on their free plan. I don't see a support number anywhere on Wix's site or Facebook page. In fact, I had to keep popping into their Page to nudge them to reply to my emails. I'm curious to know how you and others find Wix support to be?

Finally, you mention that Weebly is less SEO friendly. Is this something I ought to consider? I'd love to hear from you an other Weebly users how they found their SEO to be?

Thanks in advance,
Steph

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Steph,
  
  IM Creator doesn't offer a blogging function, but Weebly does. So you can definitely create a blog with Weebly.
  
  As for Wix's phone support, if you visit their support center and type in "phone support" you should be able to find it. Click on "Schedule a Call" or "Call Us Directly"
  
  We found Weebly's SEO to work just fine, but Wix has a bit more flexibility especially when it comes to being able to customize your webpage URLs. When it comes to SEO in general, have a look at our website builder SEO guide here. It will offer you a bit more insights.
  
  At the end of the day, Weebly is easier to use than Wix, but we think that Wix offers a lot more updated and advanced features, which are also pretty easy to use. Weebly is a solid website builder for sure, but Wix is much more innovative. Have a look at the introduction section of our Wix review here for more details about what we think about Wix.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ivan 10 years ago

Fantastic post, quiz tool and side-by-side analysis. All my questions are answered -thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Ivan,
  
  Thanks for letting us know! Glad you found our comparison table helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Doreen 10 years ago

I love your site, thank you! I just registered my domain name through GoDaddy and opened an account on WIX to start a multi-feature blog.
I am a bit confused, however, about how to use my domain name on Wix without upgrading to a paid Wix account. The page I'm facing on Wix says:
"Connect a domain you already own
Start by choosing a Premium plan to upgrade your website. Once your site is Premium, we'll get your domain connected.
Advanced: Transfer your domain registration to Wix"
Which should I do? I'd rather have .wix included in my url to start than to pay a monthly fee right now (unless you advise that it's worth it).

Thanks in advance!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Doreen,
  
  Thanks for your comment and for visiting our website!
  
  For Wix, if you want to connect your own domain name to your website, you'll have to upgrade to at least their Connect Domain plan.
  
  If you don't mind using the Wix subdomain at the moment, then you don't need to upgrade. You can keep using Wix's free plan for an unlimited time until you are ready to upgrade later (or not).
  
  There are certainly some advantages to upgrading. For instance, you'll get better branding through your own custom domain name. This is important as you start to brand your business (or whatever your website is built for). So having a brand or a name to your website is definitely something you should consider, at least after you gain some traction and visitors to your website.
  
  Further, if you upgrade to their Combo plan (or higher), you can remove the Wix advertisement from your website. This too, is something you can consider down the road if you want to focus on branding your website.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Robb Glow 10 years ago

Hey Jeremy, I love Wix, they allow for multiple site editors now. Good stuff.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Robb,
  
  Thanks so much for letting me know! I've updated the comparison chart above. Thanks for contributing - I appreciate it!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
mike 10 years ago

I am looking for a good hosting company and one that incorporates Wix or Weebly, i was starting to use ehost but they are so restrictive and do not allow WIX or Weebly only their own basic websitebuilder

I want to set up a site for travelers who can login via numerous ways, Facebook or their own login details created onsite
I also want to set up a number of options where people can set up their own sell items onsite and maybe cars, electrical, property, etc...
One of the most important parts is to ensure the site is user friendly and mobile friendly too, has forums in each and every country, plus each country selected will have their own content enabled

Can WIX provide this?
Thank you so much for the review, most insightful

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Mike,
  
  I don't think Wix can provide the features you're looking for. Sounds to me that you're looking to build a marketplace (like eBay or Amazon), which is a specialized type of website. If you search for "marketplace website builders", you'll find a few options.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Cathy 10 years ago

I'd appreciate your insight about the issue of "owning" versus "renting" your site.
I've read some articles that mention that when you rent ultimately, you may not have full control over your site, nor have the ability to use elements for other social media or other platforms.
Although you mention WP as less user friendly then some of the others what are the options for ownership?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Cathy,
  
  That's an interesting way of putting it. "Renting" being using a drag & drop website builder where they provide you with all the technology and support you need to power your website, versus "Owning" meaning you have to build your site from scratch (almost), manage your own technology and basically play the role of an IT manager, at times (or hiring someone).
  
  To take that idea further, it's like building your own house versus renting a place where it's move-in-ready. Building a house is not rocket science by any means, but it does take a lot more time, education, effort, energy, and a lot more financial capital. But at the end of the day, you can customize it.
  
  With drag & drop website builders, they're "move-in-ready" so you can get a website up and running very quickly, but with some limitations as they lack the flexibility of having a custom built website.
  
  If you want to control your website with a lot of flexibility, I'd definitely suggest WordPress. Other solutions can be a lot costlier and more challenging to manage (such as Joomla or Drupal). WordPress is probably the best "bang for your buck" when it comes to the amount of effort it takes to learn (or pay to have things configured / set up for you), versus the flexibility it offers you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Porus 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy, I'm thinking of developing my own website (not a techie, but encouraged by the proliferation of DIY website builders). I've heard a lot about Wordpress.org or .com as a website builder, however I did not see that in your top 6. Any particular reason for that ? Thanks

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1 reply
- Porus 10 years ago
  
  Sorry, just came across a detailed FAQ on your site on this topic. Will go through that. Many thanks.
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  No problem, Porus. WordPress.org is a really good platform, but it's fairly advanced for most beginners and non-techies.
  
  If you want more in-depth discussions about WordPress versus some website builders, take a look at this page here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kate Morgan 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Firstly, thank you for providing this forum - it appears that you are giving a lot of advice here, so I hope you don't mind me putting a question to you.

I am about to build a website for my new business, offering the service of Civil Celebrant - for weddings and funerals.

I have spent a bit of time trying both Wix & Squarespace and LOVE the way Wix works and looks, however almost anytime I ask friends / colleagues for advice they say that I should avoid Wix due to issues with Google not bringing it up in searches. One friend suggested this was because the mobile platform area is not responsive?

I am wondering if you could please advise me whether you think Wix would in fact be OK. And are there any basic tips for ensuring I get the most out of Search Engine Optimisation? Or should I put a monthly budget aside for Google Adwords?

Huge thanks..
Kate

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Kate,
  
  Thanks for your comment. I think there are a lot of misconceptions around this topic here. We go over this in details in this article here.
  
  I think you'll find it helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hello Mary,

Wow, 3 hours? Thanks so much for reading our discussions! Very flattering indeed.

It sounds to me that you need some sort of "social community website creator". Search for that phrase in Google and you'll find a few more suitable for your needs.

Website creators like Wix or Squarespace don't have ability to help you create a community / social network.

Hope this points you in the right direction!

Jeremy

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Martyn 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy, some great info on here.
I am looking to build a web site that will sell items once I have added value to them from the supplier. I need to know which website builder would be best to be able for me to take orders add some printed materials to the products supplied to me via the supplier in our workshop then to ship out to the customer. We will be starting with perhaps 20 items half of which will require printed items and growing the business adding more to the inventory. Any help on this will be gratefully received.
Thanks
Martyn

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1 reply
- Martyn 10 years ago
  
  Jeremy,
  I should have added, they will need to send me their artwork via e-mail. A turn around time would probably be 3-4 days.
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Martyn,
  
  I'm not sure if I fully understand the process. So do you mean the ability for your customer to email you their artwork, then you add the artwork on the product which you source from your supplier, then you send your customer the final product?
  
  If so, what you will probably need to do is email your customer each time you make a sale to ask them for the artwork. The actual sale between your customer and your store is fairly straight forward. They just visit your online store and purchase the product from you. Just list out on your product page that you will email them for the required information to be added on to the product, before shipping the final product to them.
  
  At least that is what I'd do. It's sort of piecing together the process, as I haven't seen an ecommerce creator that can integrate all these together.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mary 10 years ago

Hi! I've been reading articles/charts on your website for almost 3 hrs now so I wanted to thank you for all the information you have made available for beginners like me! I had only heard about squarespace and wordpress so I'm now exploring this third option called Wix. I need help figuring out what platform to use for a community website where people interact, rank and review things (image content), leave comments and create their own accounts and profiles. Something like worldcosplay dot net . Any ideas?

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Kathy 10 years ago

What about portability? That seems to be a huge topic / and barrier for this decision. I will have an image rich site and am concerned that in the future I may decide to change hosts....? Please advise.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Kathy,
  
  Take a look at Footnote 10 above, where we have more details about portability.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Don Carlson 10 years ago

I'm looking to start a "voice-over" career, so I need to be able to send audio files (as well as having a personal profile, etc.), but no need to accept payments through my site...any recommendations?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Don,
  
  Any one of the website builders above will allow you to upload audio files so your web visitors can download them. You can also create a simple biography or "about me" page with any one of them.
  
  If you really don't know which website builder to experiment with, I'd suggest starting from the left side of our table above (i.e. Wix, Squarespace, Weebly). Wix is the best "All Around" website builder, at this point.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Patricia Plake 10 years ago

I am a newbie to website building, and I am completely overwhelmed. My site is powered by Powweb.
I struggled with them for years. In recent years they have improved their customer service to where I can finally get human help. I have my site up and running now but I don't believe it is verified by Google yet. I will have to find help at Powweb to do that. My site was built using Weebly - the older version, I think.

But to get to my point, I am so glad to find your site. I wish I had found it before I even started my site. To someone who is a non-tekkie" type person, just learning what all the technical abbreviations meant was a problem. Thank you so much for this information.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Patricia,
  
  Thanks so much for sharing your comment with us.
  
  To help your website become recognized by Google, try setting up Google Search Console where you can verify that you own the website. The help articles from Weebly / Powweb should be able to walk you through that. It does take some time for Google to process your site, so just be patient.
  
  One thing to consider is to use Weebly.com directly. As you mentioned, the version of Weebly that Powweb offers is outdated. If you used Weebly.com directly, you'd receive assistance from their own support team, directly.
  
  We have a discussion about that here. The article talks about using Weebly directly, versus the version that Bluehost offers. Even though it is targeted at Bluehost, the idea is the same as if it was targeted at Powweb.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sheri Raul 10 years ago

Hi, I'm interested in starting a professional Stylist business, which website will work for me and how can I attach a mass email to clients? I have already started a blog with WordPress, but it is confusing.

Thanks,
Sheri

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Sheri,
  
  I'd suggest you take a look at Wix and Weebly to start. Both of these website builders offer you newsletter capability (Wix Shoutout and Weebly Promote). See our Footnote 16 above for more discussions about them.
  
  These newsletter tools are fully integrated with the website builders already, so they're easy to set up and manage. WordPress is a really good and flexible platform, but it's much more advanced and has a much steeper learning curve.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hey Jeff,

I'd suggest you check out Squarespace or Weebly. Both offer you responsive designs so websites built with these platforms are automatically mobile friendly. Wix is also mobile friendly, but they're not responsive as you get a separate, dedicated mobile editor for Wix websites. So I think you might want to check them out as well.

You can definitely insert slideshows, setup dedicated areas / pages for your books, link out to the several places that you mentioned and create blog posts. Those are fairly basic functions that the website creators all have.

As for the ability to capture emails, Wix and Weebly have built in newsletter services (see footnote 16 above). So your visitors can subscribe to your newsletter series.

When it comes to "pizazz", I'd suggest you take a look at Wix and Squarespace's design templates. Both of these website creators probably offer you the most professional looking designs.

A prudent thing to do is sign up for to their free / trial accounts and invest some time into testing them out. That's one of the best ways to help you make a more informed decision as to which website creator works best for your needs.

Jeremy

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1 reply
- Jeff 10 years ago
  
  Thanks so much for taking the time to get back to me Jeremy. I think I’ll be going with Wix initially, (as you’ve advised I’ve had a play with both and I find Wix more intuitive for me).
  Great service, great site, thank again.
  Jeff
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Great! Thanks for following up and letting me know. It never hurts to sign up and test drive a few of these website builders. Best of luck on your website!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeff 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
I write for a living, and having swapped over to a new agent, she is quite strongly advising me to set up author websites for my two author names. I used to be happy with WPress four or five years ago, but I don't need all the endless tweaking and SEO'ing that goes with WP, I need to be able to come up most days, post a few thoughts as easily as possible, and then concentrate on my work.

My needs are simple really - possibly a slide show of my books, an area for each book, a shopping area to buy each book, a link to the Amazon, Kobo and Apple bookshops where readers can buy also, an ability to allow free downloads of chapters/books, a blogging area that keeps readers updated with what I'm doing and where I am, and last but not least an email capture device.
Oops, forgot to list that I would like the facility to add photo's to each blog post if needed and it needs to be responsive (as I know Gurgle's algorithm penalises slow loading/non responsive sites).
And it has to have Pizazz, Real Pizazz.
Jeremy I'd appreciate your advice on the best platform, and buy via your link. BTW there are a lot of writers out there in the same boat, judging from the forums - I'm surprised that the big hitters haven't cottoned on to the need (I've just had a quick look a Ukit and they have a template for a tattoo artist but not for a writer/author - bizarre).
Hope you can help!
Jeff

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Camille Robertson 10 years ago

I definitely agree that you should have consider to try a trial series of it so that you can choose which one is most comfortable to use and which one is appropriate for your webpage.Consider all the aspects and also the pricing of it whether i is beyond or above the limit value of your concern and the content of it if it is good to be the platform.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Camille,
  
  That's definitely the right approach. It's the same idea as purchasing a car (but at a MUCH smaller scale!), it's always wise to test drive a few options before finalizing your decision. Thanks for sharing.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Scanf Solutions 10 years ago

Wix is my all time favorite site to make a website. Thanks for this info.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thanks for sharing your feedback.
  
  Reply
vially 10 years ago

Hello! How possibly can we make a network marketing website with wix?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Vially,
  
  Do you mean you want to build a website where your members / community can message each other, something like Facebook?
  
  If so, Wix won't be the right tool for you. Have a look at Ning.com, or try searching for "online community builder" or something along that line.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Diana 10 years ago

Hello Jeremy, I'm old school .. have my websites on Frontpage and they bring me a lot of business.
I want to keep the look of what I have basically but have a modern engine under the hood of my old pickup (look) if you get my drift.

I keep looking at all the new websites, themes, etc. and I do not understand the concept of 'theme's" exactly.
My assumption is that a 'theme' is the composite of photos shown?
Or is a theme the structural design? What I mean is, if I find a website that I like the structure of pages and menus, can I get rid of the canned pictures and add my own in their place?

Thank you.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Diana,
  
  Yes you can. So if you like the theme (the structural design), you can remove the default images and text, as those are just there as placeholders to help illustrate what a website could potentially look like.
  
  For instance, if you sign up to a trial account with Wix, and pick one of the themes / templates, you'll very quickly see that you can move the pre-populated content around the site by just dragging and dropping them, and you can also delete these content or replace them with your own.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
ingrid raab 10 years ago

Hello -
I would like to create a website for my handmade ceramics to show and to sell. Judging from your reviews the Wix website builder would be very good for such a thing. Can you give me recommendation for which template (s) would be most useful for me? Without knowing much it seems that 'home decor', or 'fashion boutique' and perhaps 'lilou paperie' would be good choices, but open to other template suggestions, as well.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Ingrid

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Ingrid,
  
  I'm not intimately familiar with Wix's templates (but I do enjoy browsing through them as they look so professional!), but I think you're on the right track. I looked at the 3 templates you suggested and they all look really good! Other ones that I spotted are "Jewelry Designer" and "Bow Tie Store".
  
  I like Bow Tie Store as the home page has parallax effect, giving me that 3D feel which is quite interesting and gets my attention.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Michele Gardiner 10 years ago

Thank you for all this information. I'm looking for a really easy to use, responsive site. I already have my domain name with another host. If I use, for example, Squarespace, could I still have my own domain name, i.e., MyCompanyName.Com, without any extension?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Michelle,
  
  Yes - you can just connect your domain name from where it is held / registered, to your Squarespace website. To display your custom domain name on your Squarespace website, you'll need to upgrade to at least one of its premium plans.
  
  Squarespace has tutorials on how to connect your domain name in their support portal.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Brian 10 years ago

If i start a website on wix and upgrade to a premium plan, do i need to do this for every site or does the premium plan paid once allow me to host several sites

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Brian,
  
  For all of the website builders above, each individual website is upgraded on a standalone basis. So if you have 5 separate websites within your account, and you want to upgrade 3 of them to access more advanced tools / features, then you have to upgrade each of the 3.
  
  Hope this clarifies things!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Miriam Seger 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy
I'm a set designer, and I wish to promote my boutique rental properties. So of course Squarespace is aesthetically my first choice. BUT the phone support offered by WIX makes me almost willing to compromise! Also, I did not see templates on either site that had good calendar features (for showing availability etc., and local events). Do you know if I can import a good monthly calendar from elsewhere?
Thank you!!!
Miriam

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Miriam,
  
  I think Squarespace has a calendar function that might work well for you. Have you seen their Calendar Block?
  
  Wix has numerous Calendar Apps you can check out. Visit their App Market and search for "calendar" and you'll see them.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Cynthia 10 years ago

Arghhh! - I love - love - love this site and your very helpful information!!! - however, whenever I read through a ton of content trying to find an answer, then can't, I try to post a comment/question. When done, I hit "enter" only to be told that I timed out!! So frustrating.
I still love you, though!!! LOL
Here's my question (which I am saving on Word, so when I time out I can close my browser and then go back into your site and repost).
Actually - two questions - First: I post long lists of businesses on my site. The lists include the basic details about the business, their genre, description, etc. I add and change businesses listed frequently. Squarespace only allows me to type info directly into their blocks, so I would have to edit this huge block of info, or else use separate blocks for each and move them all around each time I added/deleted. Does WIX have a better option? - ie importing from an excel or word doc?
Second: I need ppl to be able to search these business by genre and location. I see that Squarespace has an in site search capability, but can't find info on WIX. Do they have a search capability or Plug in?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Cynthia,
  
  Thanks for your comment!
  
  If I'm understanding your question properly, I think that with Wix, you'll have to update your listings the same way as Squarespace. I'm not aware of a way to import blocks of information. I think you'll have to copy and paste data from your Word or Excel file into a Wix element (such as text).
  
  As for site search function, Wix doesn't have a "native" search function built in. However, you can bolt on 3rd party search apps directly into your Wix site. The benefit of using these apps is that they are configured to work properly with Wix websites. Visit their App Market and type in "search" to look for these apps.
  
  Good luck!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jerry 10 years ago

Thanks J' for your great info. Please what do you think could be the easiest and cheapest option to build forum site where members can log in and post ideas (post) and replies to post (comments) on different issues?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Jerry,
  
  Some website builders (for example, Wix and Weebly) do have third party forum apps that you can bolt on to your website. However, I'm not entirely sure how good they are as I've never built a forum with good amount of interactions before.
  
  There is a community builder called Ning that you might want to check out. I've never used them before in my previous projects, so can't assess them objectively. But check them out!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Vanessa 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for all your wonderful information it is so helpful. I have two questions regarding Wix - after your feedback I have chosen to go with them for now. Do you know if it is possible to use 2 templates from Wix in one domain name? I want to have a blog that is a seperate template to my main website, but want the page link displayed on the main website and all reached by the same domain name. I'm having a little difficulty finding how to reach customer support on Wix for a not common issue.

The other question is if I want to expand my business later down the track and move to an online store on Shopify, is it an easy process to change teams? It would only be the domain name that is essential really, I can copy info and have a design change without a problem. Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Vanessa,
  
  You can create as many websites as you want under one single Wix account. However, each website can only use one template, and each website can only have one domain name.
  
  However, what you can try to do is create a sub-domain name. So for instance, for your main site you can use your normal domain name (such as example.com). For your blog (2nd website), you can use a sub-domain name, such as blog.example.com.
  
  You should be able to do that through your domain name registrar (consult their support team on how to do that).
  
  So you are "branding" both your websites using the same domain name. One is the main domain name, and the other is a sub-domain.
  
  In terms of migrating to Shopify (one of the best ecommerce builders in our view), it's definitely possible. You can just disconnect your domain names that are pointed to your Wix websites, and reconnect them to your new Shopify sites. Shopify's support portal will show you how to connect domain names to online stores built by their platform.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Laura 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you so much for all this information! Such a great help.
I am starting and online Jewellery boutique and want something easy to use through the back end re orders, customer information mail outs etc however I want something visually appealing design wise! and that looks great off the mobile! I have been looking at Wix, shopify and go daddy.
As I am starting out and growing my business which one do you think would be the best fit for me!

Thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Laura,
  
  It really depends. Generally speaking, Shopify is the best platform for building ecommerce websites (if you haven't seen our discussion about Shopify, you can see it here).
  
  Even though Wix is easier to use, Shopify offers more tools, support and general ecommerce ecosystem for online stores.
  
  Once you get going and if your business start to grow larger, Shopify offers you much more advanced options, as well as the options of hiring specialists (design or developers) to help you customize your store.
  
  The immediate drawback is that Shopify is a bit pricier. But they offer much broader options for you down the road.
  
  Having said that, if you just want simpler tools, and an easier user interface where you can drag and drop content anywhere you want, then Wix is a good choice.
  
  I'd go with either Shopify or Wix, before GoDaddy.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jill 10 years ago

Hello Jeremy!

Thank you for all your great information. I'm in a bit of a conundrum.

I am an online teacher and have taken some time to figure out the components I want to have in my website. And, I love (and am possibly semi-obsessed with) the designs on SquareSpace, so much so that I want to build my website on SquareSpace.

The tricky part is that I found a software I like that has the exact online classroom components that I need, but whose plug-in is not compatible with SquareSpace. This same software is compatible with WordPress.

Could you please offer me some advice as to what to do? Could I build my website on SquareSpace and then export it to WordPress, and add the plug-in there? And what exactly does it mean to export a website to WordPress? Or could I build my website on SquareSpace and then add a link for my online-classroom?

Thank you in advance for any input you can offer.

Kindest regards,
Jill

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Jill,
  
  The export function for Squarespace only exports your content. So when it comes to design, you'll have to configure that in your WordPress account. Generally speaking, if you want to make edits to your WordPress website design, you'll have to tweak the codes to do so (you can see our discussion about Squarespace vs WordPress here).
  
  So the export approach might not work well for what you want. Functionally it might work, but design wise might not be what you're looking for.
  
  The option of building your main website on Squarespace, then building your online classroom separately, then linking up both sites - it just might work. Some people prefer not to do that as they want to control everything under one roof. Another thing is that the design of your website and the online classroom may not match. They're not big deals for some people, but obviously those are personal choices.
  
  If you don't mind managing both platforms, the option you suggested will work.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hi Jill,

There isn't a website maker that I'm aware of that allows users to upload their own files into your website. You can probably create one by it will require a much more powerful, heavily customizable website maker (perhaps WordPress or something like that).

A work around is for you to list out your products, and after a customer purchases you can then send him/her an email providing further instructions on how they can send you their photos. I'd imagine you can use a website maker that allows you to sell digital products (so they don't have to fill in a shipping address).

Once they have made a purchase, you can set up an automatic email that gets send to them right away, providing further instructions on how they can send you their photos. Website makers allow you to send "Thank You" emails after someone purchases from you - so just use this email to insert your instructions.

You can see which online store builder supports digital products here.

Jeremy

Reply
Alexia 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I am wondering if I should use Squarespace which is esthetically beautiful vs using shopify which is more business oriented . I also have a dilemma since I am in Canada the templates don`t seem the same as they do in the video posted for squarepace it looks a lot more limited. I don't know if its just an impression but It seems that not all of the website builder are equipped the same as for wix which is what I have used before it clearly indicates that theres the old version and the newest version. I did not get the new version as the one4s in the recent youtube videos.Does the Ip address come into play? I am also wondering if shopify is not as esthetic does it not have a more suitable e-commerce plateform for small businesses.

What are the cons of squarespace and shopify?

Thanks

Alexia

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Alexia,
  
  All website builders should be offering the same tools and design templates for both US and Canada. I'm not aware that they limit tools / templates to users outside of the US, as Canada is a large market for most website builders.
  
  As for cons of Squarespace and Shopify, you can view our reviews for them here and here. We listed out certain pros and cons for each one of them there.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jill K Miller 10 years ago

Hey Jeremy,

Not sure what kind of site I need... e-commerce or business. I'm not really selling something but in a way I am. I take still pictures and make a video out of them along with music and transitions. So what I need is a website displaying some of my work and a way for people to order different packages. I also need a way for people to upload their photos for their video. I use dropbox a lot and thought that would be a great way to transfer the photos.
What do you suggest?

Jill

Reply
Anni 10 years ago

Hey jeremy , thanks for your information.
I am a fashion designer setting up my own buisness and recently set up my own custom template on wix. I did some researching before i published and paid and found out that apparently wix can make your website disappear if they want too? is this true ? also what would you reccomend as the best website builder for a new small buisness that needs an online store ?
kind regards

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Anni,
  
  Website builders and (most technology services online) generally speaking, can shut down your account if you grossly violate their terms of services. Some examples may include posting adult content, hate content, that sort of content when you are not supposed to under their terms of services.
  
  So if you're worried, make sure you read through Wix's terms of services / use (link at the bottom of the Wix site). One should always practice the same level of prudence for all other services you use online. I know most people can't be bothered to read them, but it's just being careful.
  
  If you are just posting or selling fashion designs / products, I don't see why they will shut you down. After all, Wix has over 1.9 million paying customers which tells you that they're a very successful business so I'm sure they're not going to "randomly" shut down "normal" websites!
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hello Judy,

Sorry to hear about your WordPress site! Take a look at Weebly. It's super easy to use and allows you to publish a site very quickly.

In addition to that, the reason why I'm suggesting Weebly (given you're short of time) is that they give you access to edit the HTML / CSS codes so you can make custom tweaks to the design if you want to. It sounds like this is something you can take advantage of given you know how to work with codes and that your customer wants a customized design. The other website makers don't give you as much access (or no access at all) to the codes of the website.

You can sell products with Weebly, and you can set up a membership area to hide some pages to the public. However, the membership functions are fairly basic, so make sure you review their support portal to see what's possible. For instance, you can't set up paid membership subscriptions (meaning your members are billed every month for joining). But you can definitely set up a membership gateway - you just can't charge for it.

Hope this helps! And good luck!

Jeremy

Reply
Judy Kinkade 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I've been going through your information for the past couple of days. So informative and thank you for posting it!

My issue is I have a job right now that's due yesterday so maybe you can point me in a direction because I'm researching myself into confusion.

I'm a print designer and illustrator that's been working for many years and I'm hired for my aesthetic sense. I've been resisting web design for as long as I've been able to. So I built my portfolio site in Wordpress and long story short it got hacked amongst other things and in the end I had to nuke it. So obviously I need something else for my client while I sort out my Wordpress skills!

In brief, they need an e-commerce site with an about page, a blog, e-mail/newsletter integration and a separate login area for wholesalers and salespeople to order. They're a small startup with a great line of products that want to grow but for now money is an issue. They want paypal and major credit cards and a very simple and straightforward site. It would be great to have something where more bells and whistles could be added later but not a must right at this second.

The big thing is they want a custom design with the artwork I'm doing for them so that's a big one. I know some code and can always become very good at something with a gun pointed at me but less stress is best and them waiting for me to learn is not really an option. I'd like to be able to customize it as much as possible.

I really thank you for any thoughts you might have.

Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hey Tanya,

Sounds pretty nerve wrecking to me! But honestly, I think a lot of businesses go through the same challenges: 1) to do it themselves or pay a lot of money to someone else to manage it; and 2) how to retain search engine ranking if you've been around for years (and rank well).

I think there are merits to paying someone to building the site and managing it for you - but ONLY if you have a proven business model that's generating profits, which sounds like you do.

A lot of people are tempted to pay designers / developers a lot of money before they even have a viable, cash flowing business yet - it's a big mistake in my view (we wrote an article about that here). I guess it's easier to throw money at a problem (them not knowing how to build / design a website), when in fact, there are a lot of solutions to help business owners (such as the website makers we outlined above).

In your case, since you have an existing business already, you have options. Either to pay the team to build / manage for you, or do it yourself. It also sounds like you're quite hands on, so it might make sense for you to use a website maker so you can add / remove / modify content yourself, without using a "middle person", so to speak.

It seems to me that your bigger concern is how to build a new website without losing business (by retaining good search ranking). This is a bit of a "black box" as there is no guarantee that search engines will behave the same way once you have a new site up and running.

So what Google recommends is that you "301 redirect" your old webpage addresses to your new webpage addresses. If you do it correctly, Google will know that your pages from your existing / current website, are now part of the new website. So in theory, all your page rankings should be passed on to your new website. In theory, you wouldn't lose any rankings in search engines.

However, in practice, it may potentially be different. So just keep that in mind. There are a lot of discussions about 301 redirects and case studies about moving websites on the internet - so do spend some time studying those.

As for how to move domain names, it's not too challenging. Go to a domain name registrar (such as GoDaddy) and you can purchase a domain migration service. They will have instructions on how you can move your domain name from your existing provider, and into GoDaddy.

You should technically own your domain name (but it depends on how you worked out your deal with your current service provider), so you should be able to transfer it into another domain name registrar (see our domain name guide - Topic 7). If you meet resistance, perhaps don't tell them you want to stop using them to service your entire website. Maybe tell them you only want to move the domain name. Once the domain name is out, then move on to the next phase. One step at a time.

I know it's a daunting decision and process, so take your time in studying what others have done. Learn more about the domain migration process (and make sure you confirm with your current provider that you can move your domain name) and also the 301 redirect process.

Good luck!

Jeremy

Reply
1 reply
- Tanya Fisher 10 years ago
  
  Is there a website builder that you would recommend for me and that could work with me on the 301 direct? Thank you.
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Tanya,
  
  Yes. The top 3 website builders we discussed above all give you the ability to perform 301 re-directs. If you visit their support guides and type in "301" they will give you more details about how to do them.
  
  Their 301 re-directs only work if you use the SAME domain name as your previous site. If you are changing domain names (avoid this if possible, unless you want to rebrand your company), the process becomes a bit more tricky.
  
  Basically, you tell the website builder what are your old page URLs, and what are the new ones. So if your URL for a specific page doesn't change after you migrate to a new website builder, then you don't need to do a 301 re-direct for that specific URL.
  
  Migration is always a tricky task, especially if you have good search rankings to start out with. There are different known and unknown reasons why a search engine (such as Google) will change your ranking after a site migration. Keeping the URL structure the same for each page or doing 301 re-directs for those that changed is only one part of it. There are a lot of resources / discussions that cover this online, so a Google search will lead you to some of them!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tanya Fisher 10 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

I have a website through Dex Media where I also do print advertising. I have had this site with them for over 10 years. Their platform is Website Creator Pro. I have basically written the entire site myself. As a landscape designer and horticultural consultant I have many photo galleries and blog/educational pages. It is quite extensive and now a bit clunky and overloaded.

When Dex approached me this year for my advertising renewal my options were to pay them $3,000 plus $199/month and they would rebuild my website in a word press format. After I got up from the floor (I pay $99 a month for the web site currently) I realized I had a problem.

I have two big concerns. They have my business domain 'www.coloradovista.com and if I decide to leave their program and build my own website I am not sure how that works.

I receive client calls daily because they find my business through the web site and I always appear on the first page of a google search for a landscape designer in my area. I am very hands on and like to add project photos/designs once or more a month. So I am very active with my web site. I am now also developing my designs using sketchup and need to add video files to show 3d walkthroughs. I can afford no down time and my exposure on google needs to remain at the top of the search engine.

Could you take a peek at my website (yes, you will see the need for it to be updated) and the type of content and recommend the best web site builder that I should go with to reproduce the site. Most importantly can you share with me how I transfer my domain (I have been in business since 2003) and do not want to lose what I have built in the last 13 years.

I appreciate your time and consideration in advance.

Reply
Anthony Flynn 10 years ago

Hey Jeremy...I want to start a website that is social linking...i.e., Facebook or Twitter. I need the domain name, the site itself built ( i can pay up to $10,000) as well as technical support and e-commerce; I will also need an "App" for my site. Any advice?????? Is there a company that can do it all for me? Thank you for your help, I appreciate it so much

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Anthony,
  
  Check out marketplaces like Upwork. You can find a lot of developers for hire there. But just beware that there are good developers and there are less good / bad developers.
  
  Make sure you interview them fully (check their past projects, read their reviews, message them frequently with questions and see how comprehensive / insightful and how fast they answer them, and get reference checks).
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Andrea 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Great information! I created a website some months ago before realizing the need for wordpress compatibility to allow for an interactive site. Do you know about simplesite.com and how easy would it be to export content to a wordpress compatible site like Wix? .

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Andrea,
  
  I haven't used SimpleSite before so I can't quite comment on their capabilities. If the ability to export content from a website builder into WordPress is important to you, take a look at Squarespace. In our discussion here, under section 9, we talked about its export function.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hi Rick,

Correct - "X" means the website creator doesn't offer that specific option. In the Quiz, the question asks if you want a mobile "friendly" website creator - which doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a mobile responsive design. I'm sorry if it wasn't clear enough!

Wix doesn't offer mobile responsive designs at the moment, but they do offer you a dedicated mobile editor where you can customize the mobile version of your website. So technically, your website can show different layouts / content on mobile phones, than on desktop computers.

The advantage is that Wix allows you to pick and choose which content you want to display on a much smaller screen (mobile device) - so this gives you more control and flexibility. The drawback is that you have a bit more work to do to configure your mobile website.

With a mobile responsive design (where the desktop version of your website is automatically re-arranges itself to fit nicely into a mobile device), you don't have to edit for a separate mobile website so it saves you a bit of time. The drawback, is that you don't have control over your mobile display.

So just some pros and cons to consider for other readers who aren't familiar with this.

We have a detailed discussion about mobile displays for various website creators here.

Jeremy

Reply
Rick 10 years ago

So, does the "X" mean the site does not provide this function? In the quiz, I said I wanted a site that was mobile responsive and Wix was suggested for me. Yet, from the chard it does not appear that Wix is mobile responsive. Did I miss something?

Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Jay,

Sometimes it's challenging to look at a pre-set "out of the box" template and see if it works or not, as the layout of the content and the outline of the design "as is" might not be what you have in mind.

The benefit of using Wix (for instance) is that you can drag and drop content wherever you want. They also allow you to heavily customize the design of your webpages, without coding. So it might take some work, but you can alter the layout of the templates with their tools so to create what you have in mind. This applies to most other website makers out there (though it's easier to alter designs with Wix).

Other than that, if you want a design that completely catered to what you have in mind, you can always hire a designer and coder to custom create a design for you. But I think that's going a bit too far, if you don't have a cash flowing business.

Jeremy

Reply
Jay 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I'm looking to build a business website to offer a unique set of services related to Project Management. I've looked at some of the free sites (Wix, Websitebuilder, etc.), and I don't seem to see a template that would be a good fit for the type of business and services I want to offer. I'm now thinking about looking at some of the paid website companies, but there are a lot of them. Any recommendations for either paid or free sites? Thanks.

Jay

Reply
Indigo 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you so much for this very useful information. I'm starting to create my brand and my business. I need a website that can handle my many pages -Blogging, Information on my Plays( Show dates), Motivational Speaking business inquires, email subscription list, a site that can support my podcast/podbean and youtube uploads, would allow monetize my website?

Need help

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Indigo,
  
  There isn't a website builder that's listed here that will give you all the tools you want - specifically the email subscription list and podcasting function. But they will be able to help you with your other requirements (pages, blogging, uploading YouTube, etc).
  
  If podcasting is more important than email sign ups, then take a look at Squarespace as they have a built-in "native" podcasting tool. You can then add on a newsletter sign up widget such as Aweber to your website. That will work.
  
  If having an integrated newsletter sign up function is more important to you, then look at Wix (Shoutout) or Weebly (Promote) as they have built in email subscription tools. You can integrate podcast audio sessions by inserting players like Soundcloud or something like that.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hi Cristina,

Ranking high in search engines based on just using images will probably be pretty tough, as Google (and probably other major search engines) might have a harder time understanding what your website is about if you only have images. It's easier for them to "read" your text and understand what you're discussing on the page.

Having said that, what you should do is make sure you insert "Alt Text" for all your images. This allows Google to understand what the image is about since they can't "read" pictures yet.

Also, name your image files in a very specific way. So don't name your image files generically, like "Image" for instance. If your image displays a Mac Air, then name the image file name to "Mac Air" or something like that. Be as specific as you can, as Google does assess the name of the file name when its trying to understand what the image file is about (not sure how much weigh they put on it, but it's not a lot of work to label files anyway).

Further, do all the basic SEO stuff, like meta descriptions, titles on your page so search engines know what the page is all about. All the drag & drop website creators above allow you to do that.

If you can insert written content, that would be best. Even just to describe what your page is all about. This will help search engines understand your page content.

Last but not least, try to promote your pages as much as you can. Share it with online communities, so get people talking and writing about your site. The more other websites link to your website / webpages, the higher it may rank in search results (generally speaking). Search engines view direct links to your website / webpages as an endorsement. We have a bit of information about SEO on our FAQ page here - you might find it helpful as well.

Hope this helps!

Jeremy

Reply
Cristina 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Love your articles. They're all very helpful.
I'm trying to open an online shop for my small business. I understand now how important SEO is. Problem is I don't have any coding skills so now I'm looking for website builders that have a good built-in SEO. Also content on my website will be based mostly on pictures rather than written content since it's a jewelry shop. Which one would you recommend in my case? Do you have any advice on optimizing images for SEO?
Thanks in advance.

Reply
Dave 10 years ago

Unfortunately there is no comparison for iPad /tablet usage . The trend is towards mobile devices and the deal breaker for myself and many others is that any website builder I use needs to be editable on my iPad , especially since I'm about to purchase an iPad Pro . Cheers , Dave .

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Dave,
  
  Actually, Weebly and Jimdo both have iPad apps where you can build your website directly on your iPad. We have more details about this under Footnote 17 above. So definitely check them out!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Taleana 10 years ago

Such helpful information! Thank you! I was hoping you could give me some advice on which website builder is best for my needs. I am starting a new business and need my website to include a calander of events that would include pictures and change monthly, as well as taking reservations for classes and able to accept payments for said reservations. Any advice you can offer would be helpful! Thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Taleana,
  
  Take a look at Wix Bookings. It's a tool that you can use with Wix to help you setup an online reservation system which people can make bookings with you. The tool is also integrated with a shopping cart so you can receive payments.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Taleana 10 years ago
  
  Thank you! Again... So helpful! By far the most helpful and informative website!
  
  Reply
Krupa 10 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you so much for writing this article. So very helpful and fair play to answering each comment - top man.

Take care,
Krupa

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Thanks Krupa! Glad you found helpful and valuable information from our discussions here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lenushka 10 years ago

Hey Jeremy,

do you have any suggestions, about Bitcoin payment option? All of these platforms include Bitcoin feature / is it free or prepaid one?

Thanks for you article.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hi Lenushka,
  
  Wix does have an app in their App Market that will allow you to collect payments in Bitcoin. Just search for "Bitcoin" in the search bar.
  
  You can also consider Shopify or Bigcommerce, both of which are "pure" ecommerce builders and are some of the best online store platforms in the world right now. Both do have Bitcoin payment processing capabilities. Take a look at this page here to check them out.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 10 years ago

Hi D,

Weebly does offer a year of free domain, if you sign up to their annual plan (this is highlighted in our footnote and also on Weebly's site I believe).

We also have a comprehensive discussion about domain names in this article here, where we discuss the pros and cons of receiving a domain name through a website creator (such as Weebly) or purchasing one from domain name registrars such as GoDaddy.

The auto charging of credit card relates to the renewal of your premium plan. Most online services nowadays auto charge on a monthly or annual basis (depending on which plan you chose) and this is a standard practice. It's the same as signing to a monthly / annual gym membership - they wont' call / email you to notify you that they will bill you.

Businesses nowadays assume that if you don't want to continue with their services, you'd contact them to cancel your plan. In this case, you just have to log into your Weebly user portal to discontinue your plan. This too, is a very standard procedure across all website creators (or other online services).

Sorry to hear about your disappointment though. I can understand that getting billed without expecting it is a very frustrating experience. However, it's a very standard business practice, just like if you purchased a gym membership or a monthly subscription to a magazine. What I personally do, is set up calendar reminders of upcoming renewals of all my subscriptions, so that reminder gives me ample time to consider if I'd like to renew or not. If not, I contact the service provider to cancel.

Jeremy

Reply
BJ 10 years ago

Jeremy- thanks for the info dude....good stuff. Which builder is better for allowing ads/sponsors/banners etc?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey BJ,
  
  I think all of them will be just fine. It's pretty straight forward to insert an image / advertisement banner, and linking it to another website or webpage.
  
  Having said that, you should test out a few website builders to see which one you prefer to work with, or have other tools that you are looking for. In terms of adding images / banners, all of them should do just fine.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  BJ 10 years ago
  
  Thanks! Will let you know how it goes. Thanks for all this great info.
  
  Reply
Eric 10 years ago

Jeremy,

Thanks for putting a side-by-side review of several site-building sites. Do you find in your experience that elements of sites change themselves over time? I've found text that I had put in bold to later be 'unbolded'. I have had images that I loaded end up copied into other locations. I have had images that I loaded deleted completely. These have happened after I published the site.

In your experience and time spent reviewing sites, are these difficulties typical or commonplace or part of the cyberworld?

I'm rather frustrated at this point and would appreciate insight from some with more experience than I have.

Thanks, Eric

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Eric,
  
  I've had that happen to me once in a blue moon. Specifically, I was using Weebly back then. But it's not a consistent issue as I just quickly re-bolded the text (for example) and it didn't happen again. It was so infrequent that I was thinking perhaps I changed it but forgot. It wasn't a huge issue for me, given its infrequency.
  
  Have you brought up this issue with whichever platform you are using?
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ellen 10 years ago

I use Wix as my website builder 99% of the time and recommend to other people. My clients have been very impressed with their websites developed in Wix and people have commented on how professional my own website is which I developed with Wix. When my clients saw my website they asked me what platform I used and when I told them they wanted me to create their website right away for them.

I have also worked with GoDaddy and WordPress. I still always end up going back to Wix. I find that Wix offers an abundance of features to create and build a professional website. Creating and building a website with GoDaddy was okay but I found that there were many limitations as to what I could do to 'dress up' the website, e.g. headers, slideshows, videos, include apps, etc.

WordPress also helps to produce very dynamic websites if someone prefers to use WordPress. I guess I just find Wix is easier to work with.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Ellen,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Drue 10 years ago

Hello, Jeremy,

I'm currently have a website at GoDaddy. I like the basics of their website builder, but as an educator I'd like to create a password protected area of the site and I can't do that with their interface-- they used to offer it, but it went away. So I'm wondering if you could give me an idea where I could go to have that option? I'd also like to have the option for a paypal interface as well but this isn't as important to me. Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hey Drue,
  
  Wix and Weebly both have membership gateway functions (see Footnote 16 above). However, neither has a payment gateway integrated with it. So while you can create membership areas with both web builders, you can't charge your members for access (yet).
  
  If that becomes important to you, there are membership widgets such as Sentry Login that can be used with Wix and Weebly. Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
D Nelson 11 years ago

Hello, Thank you for the great info. Just a correction, Weebly does not offer a free domain. In fact, you pay a whopping $40 USD for a single domain through Weebly. Then they make you get your email address through Google Apps for another whopping $45 USD. Also, they do not notify customers of charges to their credit cards. Not even a courtesy email receipt. I once was a happy Weebly customer. I'm super turned off and will be closing out all of my sites and re-building elsewhere.

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Larry 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

This is the most comprehensive information I have found and want to say thank you for the hard work it must have taken to put it together. I am starting a new business (for the first time) and looking at GODaddy for the domains and Wix for the design & hosting based on your information and reviews. I was looking around your site for additional information on which service is best for personalized email addresses (for ex: info@ companyname.com) to go along with the sites. GODaddy offers each email address for $3.49/month which isn't bad but price is definitely a factor to us at the moment so any comparison/information you have on price and benefits would be greatly appreciated.

While we could start with one simple email address for "info", we prefer to have 3-4 different email addresses (me, wife, info, and potentially additional hires) .

Thank you,
Larry

Reply
3 replies
- Alice Eldridge 10 years ago
  
  You can have Go Daddy forward pretty much any email address with a domain name you purchase there to another email address. That way you don't have to actually purchase the email addresses until you're ready. Worked really well for us. We have three email addresses for one domain name that are forwarded to a Go Daddy email address at an entirely different domain we own. Hope that helps.
  
  Reply
- Shane 10 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy
  
  Just a quick message to thank you for providing some very useful information on building a website; I have been investigating this over the last couple of days and out of the ones you have mentioned I am veering towards Squarespace.
  
  However I am also looking at Adobe Muse and Webflow, both of which provide software to build a site without writing code - have you come across either of these and what are your thoughts?
  
  Thanks
  Shane
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 10 years ago
  
  Hello Shane,
  
  Unfortunately I haven't used Muse or Webflow so I can't discuss meaningfully about their pros and cons.
  
  If others reading this have something to add, please feel free to do so!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello Larry,
  
  I personally use Google Business Apps to create custom email addresses, and it's about $5 per month, so marginally more expensive than GoDaddy.
  
  Note that Wix is partnered with Google Business Apps, so the set up is probably pretty easy.
  
  I personally prefer the Gmail user interface and its reliability. Having said that, I haven't used GoDaddy's email service before. So I guess it depends on which one you are more comfortable with.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hello Oliver,

I think either one (Wix or Squarespace) works. It sounds to me that you're aware of the pros and cons of using Wix and Squarespace. We do have an article here that compares both website creators directly here.

If you're a bit torn about which one to use, I'd suggest that you sign up with both platforms and just invest a few hours to play with them. You might end up loving one of them over the other! It's like test driving a car. You might think you like a car, until test driving it.

Hope this helps!

Jeremy

Reply
1 reply
- Oliver 11 years ago
  
  Yes I have read your article (as well as other reviews online) so am familiar with the pros and cons :) But like you said, I would best know by trying both out and seeing which one I prefer. Thanks!
  
  Reply
Oliver 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy. Thanks for this awesome post.

I am looking into taking my aunts's business online (it's a surprise). She sells ladies fashion items (such as handbags & shoes). Although we are based in the US, her store is back home in the UK and so she doesn't need to sells anything online. The purpose of the site is to show case items she will be shipping back home to be sold in her physical store there. She runs it from the US and has staff that work for her there. Moreover, I intend on adding details such as link to her business' Facebook page and sales announcements on the site. I have already purchased a domain name using Namecheap based off your other article. Which one of these would you recommend. I am torn btw Squarespace & Wix. I love that SqS has a responsive site and you can switch themes easily.

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Chris 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the the comparison info...very helpful!! I am looking to build a real estate related site and was wondering if Wix or the other website builders enable property searching?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks, Chris.
  
  I don't think Wix has any specific real estate / property searching tools.
  
  The way you can integrate non-Wix widgets into a Wix website is to use the "HTML Code" function, where you can embed the codes from the widget provider.
  
  So visit your real estate tool provider and see if they allow you to embed codes on websites to make them work (I'd be surprised if they don't), and just sign up to a Wix account and give that a try to see if it works well for you!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Joe D 11 years ago

Hey. So I'm an actor and need a site that's not expensive to have where I can post tons of pictures, some video- like 20 mins to so, maybe more, text and also a store w Pay Pal. Which is the best deal and is user friendly? I'll want to update often and I'm not good at this. I have Wordpress right now and it's SO damn difficult.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  hi Joe,
  
  Take a look at Wix or Weebly. Both will allow you to post unlimited number of pictures, videos and can link up to PayPal to help you process payments.
  
  Both are quite easy to use, but I'd say Weebly is easier than Wix as they have less bells and whistles.
  
  You can sign up to both for free, and give them a try. No obligations to sign up to a paying plan at all, until you're happy with your final choice.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Addis 11 years ago

Hello Jeremy, thanks for the info above.

I do have a question. My mother and I are looking to start a Retail clothing/jewelry store online. We want it very user friendly but we want it to stand out as well. Which would be best if we want it to be customized even though we don't have any coding skills?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Addis,
  
  I'd suggest you take a look at either Wix, Squarespace or Weebly. We have a comparison chart for ecommerce builders here. You'll be able to compare those 3 builders from an ecommerce perspective there.
  
  All are very easy to use, and you don't need to know code at all!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mark 11 years ago

Can you tell me which of these website builders I can purchase/register a .ca domain. I tried at WIX and can't do it there and had to leave a support ticket at Suarespace. Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Mark,
  
  Yes you can definitely connect a .ca domain name to any of the website builders above (such as Wix or Squarespace).
  
  They may not sell a .ca domain name, but you can purchase one from a domain name registrar (such as GoDaddy or Namecheap), then connect the domain name to the website you build.
  
  Take a look at our Guide to Domain Names for more details!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tessie Brooks 11 years ago

I am trying to find a web builder that has templates related to amusement rentals such as inflatables, rock wall, etc. Do you have an idea which site builder has those? I've looked at Wix templates and didn't see anything I can use. I also need it to be user friendly since I'm not very computer savvy. : )

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Tessie,
  
  That's a pretty specific niche that you're in. Wix by far has one of the largest, industry-based templates. What I'd suggest is that you look for a template in the Events section that you like, and just use that as a starting point.
  
  I guess what I'm saying is that don't let the fact that you can't a specific template that is dedicated to amusement rentals to stop you from starting! You can add your own designs into the template to make the design your own.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
John Percival 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Wow, are you thorough! Great website, thank you. I want to build a health consulting website that has content that could be used in an online course for health consumers, say through Udemy or Siminars etc. Between Wix and Weebly (my two preferables, but open to others) is there one that would be more suitable for that purpose in terms of taking content (if not the entire website) and putting it on an elearning platform?

thank you

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  I'm not entirely sure if that's how education websites or Udemy work? I "think" you build your entire course through Udemy so that's quite different than on your website? So I'm not quite sure if you can just take your website and throw it into Udemy.
  
  But what you can do is advertise your courses on your website, and link / lead people to Udemy (or other educational platforms) so they can sign up there. Either Wix or Weebly will allow you to build content around your courses and link out to wherever you sell your courses.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Cathy 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
I am currently looking for a easy to use web site to use for my Nutritional counseling practice. I need something that I can post articles on various topics, a place where clients can access and download forms, as well as an interactive calendar that I can have time slots listed and clients can book their own appointments in. I would also like to be able to include videos and have affiliate links. Can you please advise if Weebly and Wix can do those things and which is better for my purposes. Thanks so much for your great information.

Cathy

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Cathy,
  
  I'd recommend that you use Wix (see our review here if you haven't yet).
  
  They have an in-house booking engine (called Wix Bookings) that allow your visitors to book and pay for appointments directly on your website. The booking engine will also notify your clients of the appointment. Take a look a this video to see how Wix Bookings works.
  
  Wix also allosw you to insert downloadable files (for your forms), and also embed videos and affiliate links.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your comment. I actually don't entirely agree with your observation, but I can understand why one may prefer a responsive design.

Wix allows you to build a mobile friendly site with its mobile editor where you actually get to pick and choose what you display on your mobile site. So it is just as effective as a website with a responsive template.

The key point is to present your website in a user / viewing friendly way, and Wix (as well as other responsive designs) can help you accomplish that.

For some other website makers that offer responsive templates, even though the website will display well on mobile devices, you have no control over how the site will be displayed (unless you edit the codes to the template). With Wix, you get a certain level of control via its mobile editor. The drawback, is that you do have to do a bit more work to edit your site in the mobile editor but I think the trade off for the additional control / flexibility is well worth it.

A lot of very large companies out there don't use responsive designs either. They have a dedicated mobile site so they can control their visitors' user experience.

So while responsive design is a pretty hot topic nowadays, it is just an option or a tool. I wouldn't suggest getting too caught up in the "hype" and focus on what can get the job done based on what you need!

Thanks for raising this point, Gary - it's definitely an interesting discussion for all of our readers!

Jeremy

Reply
1 reply
- M Ferreira 11 years ago
  
  hi, i would like to know which website builder can do a website like ebay, i would like build one to sell items, new and second hand but let other people advertise their items too, accept payments, but charge a small fee for every sold item, thank you very
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  Unfortunately none of them have features to do what you want. It sounds to me you'll have to hire a capable developer to help you custom build something like this. I'm not aware of any software that enables you to build a marketplace. Would love to know if any others know of one!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Kate M 11 years ago
  
  Jeremy there are a couple of options - you can always go down the WP route with Woo or Easy Digital Downloads plus a good theme like Marketify, but the latest and greatest thing around for my money is sharetribe (and no, I am not affiliated with them in any way). It's a clever and user-friendly marketplace builder. Custom domains are possible on most plans, and price wise pretty reasonable (starting at US39/mo for up to 300 members). It's clean and crisp, and functionality is high with good support. Pretty much what Squarespace would look like in a marketplace offering.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Very interesting, Kate. Thanks for sharing!
  
  Reply
Gary Zenker 11 years ago

Jeremy, good info but how can anyone vote a non-responsive site in 2015 better than a responsive one? I like wix a lot but have to move from it because a non-responsive site is a no-go

Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Richard,

The statistics above (websites powered by each platform) are publicly disclosed figures from the website makers. Further, Wix is a publicly traded company so their disclosed statistics are audited every year, and reviewed / verified to a certain extent on a quarterly basis.

Based on their most recent quarterly statistics, they have over 1.6 million PAID users. So that is a meaningful number. Unfortunately, as other web builders are not publicly listed on the stock exchange (yet), there isn't a way to find out how many actual paid users they have.

Another metric we like is how frequently they are searched on Google. We have a chart here that shows you the trending of Google searches, which will give a bit of a taste of how popular they are compared to each other. It's not a perfect metric, but when combined with several other data points, can start to help you form a view of which website maker is leading the industry.

It seems to me that W3Techs (the source you quoted) is based on surveys. So there can be a lot of biases in their studies. But I guess they've formulated their table based on the best available stats they could collect.

At the end of the day, it's hard to assess with pinpoint accuracy who has the most active users given limited data. The best metric I think is the number of paid users. But as mentioned, only Wix discloses this data, at the moment.

Thanks for adding to this discussion!

Jeremy

Reply
1 reply
- Richard E Tucker 11 years ago
  
  hi Jeremy - thanks for the reply, makes sense. thanks again (and you deserve big kudos for replying to every comment you get!)
  
  Reply
Nik 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for this guide. Do you know of any solution for a website that requires user logins and user info to be saved? I'd like to use something like Wix for the front-end and a php/sql database for the back-end user accounts. I appreciate your thoughts...happy new year.

Nik

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Nik,
  
  I don't think Wix (or any of the website builder above) will be able to cater to your needs. Wix and Weebly have built in membership tools, but they're limited to allowing each member to sign in with their own user name and password to access certain membership protected pages.
  
  So if you want anything more advanced than that, such as creating a paid gateway for paying members only, or being able to customize the database on the backend, you might have to use something like WordPress.
  
  But have a look at Sentry Login, which is a membership widget that can work with Wix to help you create a paid membership site. They might also have more flexibility on the backend so you can customize a few things there.
  
  Happy New Year!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Richard E Tucker 11 years ago

the "websites powered" seem to indicate Wix with a massive majority over Squarespace and Weebly- seems to be at odds with independent measures at w3techs which shows the reverse?

source: https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all

I think this is important info to understand correctly, as user volumes do have a correlation to platform maturity...

Reply
Peter 11 years ago

Jeremy, I run a soccer club that is in urgent need of a new website and am wondering if any of these free tools will work for me. I would like to pull in content (league tables, results, fixtures) from another website, I would like to have different types of users with different capabilities, I would like to have an admin site behind the website to allow news stories to be created and published. I would like to have multi-level menu options. I would like to have a club shop function to be able to sell merchandise. I would like to be able to have users subscribe to newsletters. I would like to have the option to post a news story on Facebook, Twitter, etc (existing accounts).
QUESTION: From what you are reading, does it sound like I need a web developer to build me a site from scratch?
Regards,
Peter.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Peter,
  
  I think given the complexity of your website needs, it's best to consider hiring someone to guide you through the process especially if you don't have technical / coding skills.
  
  While some of the drag & drop website builders can cater to some of the items you need (such as selling merchandises, multi-level menu, newsletters, social sharing), some of the more advanced features are beyond the basic capabilities of the web builders (pulling in content, segmenting user capabilities, creating multiple admin users).
  
  Have a look at this article here to get a better sense of how much it might potentially cost you if you were to consider building a custom site with developers assisting you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sarah Schrimpf 11 years ago

Thanks for creating this chart, it was very helpful in deciding which site I would use!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  You're very welcome Sarah! Glad you found it helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Randy 11 years ago

WIX is a good site, I have my Travel Agency site built with WIX, but the down side is that you can not add an SSL certificate with them.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks for your comment, Randy.
  
  With Wix (or any other drag & drop website builders) above, you won't be able to add SSL certificates to all the webpages. But if you are using their ecommerce tools, the check out cart will include SSL so that all your purchasing customers' private information is secure.
  
  Generally speaking, some website owners like to add SSL certificates to every single webpage on their site. Google said that one of their many ranking factors (estimated to be well over 200 factors) is whether your site has an SSL certificate, but all the studies I've seen from leading experts indicate that this ranking factor is not meaningful to how a website ranks in search engines (yet anyway).
  
  It's an interesting topic of discussion so thanks for raising it!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Jesse,

You're very welcome and glad our discussions here have been helpful to you!

In terms of domain names, you can find decent deals at reputable domain name registrars such as GoDaddy.

As for connecting a custom domain name (your own domain name) to a website, for most website creators (if not all), you will have to upgrade to a paid subscription plan. So for Weebly, you will have to subscribe to at least their Starter plan.

If you sign up to the Starter Plan, you will only get a 1 year free domain name from Weebly if you subscribe to an annual plan. So if you sign up to the 6 months plan (which is the lowest period you can commit to for Weebly), you won't get the free domain.

If you do get the annual plan (with the free domain), after the first free year, you will have to renew it every year after that for $20. If you purchase your own domain name (such as from GoDaddy), the average cost for a domain name is about $10 - $15 per year.

So you can weigh your pros and cons there (sign up with a web builder for 1 whole year and get the first year of domain name fee waived, or don't commit as long and just buy your own domain name elsewhere, but know that you will pay a lower domain name fee every year afterwards).

As for PayPal, with Weebly specifically, you can only connect it to your shopping cart if you subscribe to their Business plan. The only payment processor that you can use with Weebly's Starter plan, is Stripe (which is quite popular). But Stripe is not offered to every country around the world (you can see where they are available here).

For your clothing / apparel store, aside from Weebly, take a look at Shopify. They're a full-featured, pure online store builder. They're not the cheapest, but for good reasons as they're really good.

Take a look at our ecommerce builder comparison chart here.

Hope this helps!

Jeremy

[UPDATE: see our Beginners Guide to Domain Names for more discussions on commonly asked questions about domain names]

Reply
Jesse, 11 years ago

Jeremy,

I want to personally thank you for wealth of information and actually SHARING with us! Answering each post is Rarely seen and Im sure I can speak for many of us.... THANK YOU!!

My father and I have a dog breeding business and I would like to set up a website for him. Nothing too fancy, I have a layout in mind. I was under the impression weebly offered a free site with the domain included (custom), but I see now it is not. So my question is, what would be the cheapest way (right now) to do this? Pay the monthly fee or buy a domain from another source? I see a few big companies offer domain name pricing pretty cheap.
We also take deposits/payments via paypal. What are your thoughts sir?

I also would like to start my online shop and I see some good options but I'm still a little confused on which one to pick. This one will be more of a retail shop for Clothing/Apparel, mainly fashion based. This will be more upscale modern though.

Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Joan,

That is very awkward for sure. I'm not sure why they should ask for your drivers license. All of the website makers that we've used before don't ask for credit card information up front - only when you want to upgrade. I think nowadays, most services offer a free trial period first before asking for credit card information.

But that is not always the case as I've seen some businesses only allow people to try their products after they provide CC information - to isolate serious candidates. But those businesses are more specialized and are at a much higher price point (mainly business-to-business types of operations).

I would be very cautious when online businesses ask for drivers license. Something just doesn't feel right. Did you ask them why they'd need that piece of information? I'd be very skeptical if their answer is "to verify that you are the holder of the credit card".

Jeremy

Reply
1 reply
- Chris 9 years ago
  
  As the director of online sales for a major automotive company, I can verify that requiring a scan of your driver's license along with a scan of the credit card you are using is a common practice to prevent fraud on large ticket items. It is a protection for the merchant to verify that the consumer actually has the card in hand and that the name on the license matches the name on the credit card. Our company has been doing this for several years and it has decreased fraudulent purchases by a huge percentage. It is also a protection for the consumer to verify that a scammer is not using their stolen credit card number. If a consumer does not want to supply this information at purchase, we either cancel the transaction or give them the option of an alternative payment method.
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Tom Watts 9 years ago
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  Thanks for adding to the discussion.
  
  It's an interesting debate, that's for sure - companies require personal information to verify legitimate users...yet users are wary of handing over very personal financial information to a company they've only just started working with, have never met and only have a virtual point of contact with. I'm sure you can see why people get concerned.
  
  Hopefully your insights go some way to clarifying why certain website builders require personal data up front.
  
  Thanks for contributing,
  - Tom
  
  Reply
Joan McDonald 11 years ago

I tried to do Site Builder.com and the first thing they asked after taking my CC info was that I should send a copy of the CC and my drivers license. No company has ever asked me for that before. Is this unusual? A little worried here.

Reply
Kimberly 11 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

I would like to become an affilliate for HSN, QVC ect... and sell their products. What would be my best choice. I don't have a website or blog as of yet.

Thank You,

Kimberly

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello Kimberly,
  
  I think all of the sites discussed above will work. If you don't have a preference based on the discussion above, take our Quiz to see if it helps.
  
  Or else I'd suggest you sign up to test out Wix, Squarespace and Weebly. Give them a free trial and see which on you prefer to work with. All of them are relatively easy to use (drag & drop website builders), but their user interfaces are different. So you might prefer one over the others.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Marianne Lenkiewicz 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy, I am currently using WordPress and find that trying to set up a website for a non-techy like me is seriously frustrating!! I will be opening up a small B&B in our town soon and would like to have something that is user friendly. WordPress uses so much lingo/jargon that I just don't understand. Layouts of text and photos are off...just doesn't work for me nor do I have the time to research and figure it out. I need something that allows me to drop in photos with ease, puts us out in the social media world, tailored to a B&B...would you recommend WiX for this?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello Marianne,
  
  WordPress could definitely be frustrating for people who aren't technical or haven't learned it before. Most people (like yourself) just want to get the website built and move on to other important things!
  
  I definitely recommend that you take a look at Wix. Wix has templates and tools that are directly relevant to hotel / B& B type websites. Their tools allow your visitors to book rooms, and you can manage your booking calendar as well.
  
  Take a look at our discussion here for more information.
  
  Good luck!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sandy 11 years ago

Hi, Sorry to bother but I am hoping to start a small website for a club. I know this is a bit of a ridiculous thing to ask, but our club isn't funded are there any website makers that don't charge monthly fees? It doesn't have to be amazing or extremely professional. I was hoping to stay away from tumblr but i am having trouble finding anything.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Sandy,
  
  It's not "ridiculous" at all! A lot of websites are not funded and are built by volunteers.
  
  Take a look at Wix or Weebly. Both allow you to publish a website for free. The only drawback is that you won't be able to connect your own custom domain name (website address) to the website. You will have to use their subdomain name structure, so it will look something like abc.wix.com or abc.weebly.com
  
  You also won't get access to some more advanced tools. But you'll get all the basic web building tools for free.
  
  There is no time limit to how long you can use the free plan either. So if you decide to upgrade down the road, you have that option.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Vickie 11 years ago

Is there any way to copy and paste a word document to one of the pages on my website? I don't want a link for someone to open a document, I want to go to a certain page and be able to see the document. If there is some way to do this, I would give WIX at lease 4 stars, maybe more.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Vickie,
  
  Yes you can do that with Wix. Go to Wix's App Store and search for "Google Drive Share Tool". You can display a Google Doc directly on your page so your visitors can view it.
  
  However, this does require you to use a Google Doc (which is very similar to Microsoft Word).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Suchitra,

The website creators being compared here are drag & drop website creators. WordPress is not a drag and drop platform and as such, it is not quite comparable to the ones being discussed here.

But we do have a series of comparison articles that you can find here, where we benchmarked the drag and drop website creators to WordPress. Hopefully you'll find them helpful.

Jeremy

Reply
Suchitra 11 years ago

Why word press is not in the list?

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Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi James,

I haven't seen an ecommerce website maker that allows a shopper to see the updates "live". A lot of them can certainly allow a shopper to choose product variations. I know what you're looking for though, as I've seen them with larger brands before (such as customizing a car with options online).

A workaround (though not as "cool") will be to upload different pictures of various variations of your products, so shoppers can have a sense of what they can expect. Of course, the shopper may not find exactly the configuration that he/she wants.

All of the ecommerce builders we've discussed here will offer product variants (but no visual customizations), accepts credit cards / PayPal and offers shipping options.

Jeremy

Reply
James Rheintgen 11 years ago

Jeremy,

I want to open an online store that sells doors and furniture that are hand made with multiple variants as: style - wood type - size (length & width

varies) - color - Add-ons such as multiple hardware options (handle, hinges, nails, bolts)

Is there any way that the chosen Variants can be superimposed on the product to create the final look of the product being purchased?

One that offers major Credit cards and Paypal too

Shipping options would be great as well

I appreciate any sound insight

Sincerely,

Jim

Reply
Cindy genrich 11 years ago

Jeremy
I am looking to set up a website for my Foundation. So I am looking for a website builder that would be able to process donations. When I read all of this I am so overwhelm. What are your thoughts.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Cindy,
  
  Refer to my comment on October 25 2015 below. PayPal has donation buttons that you can insert into your website builder. But if you want a website builder that offers a specific donation function, Squarespace has it.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hey John,

I think any one of the top website creators listed above will do the trick. They are all code free, drag and drop website creators so you don't have to write any codes whatsoever.

Just insert two text or image elements to insert your words "actor" and "voice over", then hyperlink them to two separate pages where you can insert videos or audio files. It's really quite straightforward even for beginners!

Best thing to do is sign up for a couple of free trial accounts and start testing them out (such as Wix, Squarespace, Weebly). You might like one builder over the others, so it's important to invest a little bit of time to see which one you prefer, before finalizing your decision.

Hope this points you in the right direction!

Jeremy

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Miss Thing 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy --

Just a note to say how NICE it is of you to answer everyone's questions!!! It's heartwarming to see someone take the time out to do that in cyberspace!

Take care --

E

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks, Miss Thing!
  
  Reply
John 11 years ago

Hey Jeremy! Fantastic article and your help below is well thought out and insightful...hence why I am turning to you for help! I am an actor and a voice over artist. I would like to create a really good looking site and I have the layout all thought out. It would be my main headshot on the left and on the right the word ACTOR and below that VOICE OVER. When you click on either one it would take you to the respective files....either headshots and a video reel for acting or audio files for voice over. There would also be links for whatever project I am doing at the time. Which site builder would be best. I don't even know what code writing is, let alone knowing how to do it!

Thanks in advance Jeremy!

JD

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Logan 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
I am looking to set up a website and e-commerce builder for a small business that I have created. It deals in custom order pens and has many different variations on what can be ordered. I don't know what to start with seeing that Wix, Weebly, and Square Space are on your list for E-Commerce store builders as well as this one. Any help is appreciated,
Logan

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Logan,
  
  If you want to build a straight forward ecommerce website, without a whole lot of advanced tools, then Wix, Weebly or Squarespace can work for you. If you want a lot of advanced bells and whistles in terms of tools, then pure ecommerce builders such as Shopify or Bigcommerce might be more suitable.
  
  With Wix, Weebly and Squarespace, you can list a lot of products and have multiple variations for each product (so you can sell a version of a pen that has different variations of colors, for instance).
  
  My comments to your question is quite generic but that is based on limited information. I think the way forward is for you to just go through each builders' website and study their ecommerce features. Also dive into their support pages to see what they are capable of doing.
  You should also sign up to their free / trial accounts and invest some time to testing their builders - this is the best way to get an idea of whether you like using them or not!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Veron 11 years ago

Thanks Jeremy and Connie, for a very helpful site and service, based on your own actual experience. : )

I want to build a website and/or blog that will basically be like a Facebook group. Members, posts, personal chats (PM), uploading photos, avatars, etc. I'd also like it to be password activated, meaning that people need a password that I provide to participate, and that can be changed - by me - periodically. I'd like also to have a payment feature available, and the ability to have other editors/admins/mods. I'd like to be able to have multiple groups with different passwords, and give members the ability to form their own groups, although that's optional, since they could just ask me to do that.

I basically want to make a FB group outside of FB. Not to compete with them on any kind of scale, but just to provide a safer place for an existing group to be active. Safety and ID security are essential.

I'm willing to pay a modest monthly fee - $20-30, maybe even $50 or more (eventually!).

What do you suggest? Thanks in advance. : )

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Vernon,
  
  Thanks for your question. Unfortunately if you want to create a social interaction platform, you will need to hire a whole team of very advanced developers to help you do that - and that will not be cheap!
  
  But it sounds to me that you might not want to build an entire social platform, but perhaps you are just looking for something outside of Facebook to use? If so, take a look at Ning.com. They are a tool which allows you to build your own community and might be helpful to you.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Veron 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Jeremy - will check that Ning thing out. Sorry about the double post! : )
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Songtu,

That's a pretty hard question to answer, as it depends on a lot of different factors.

But if you just want to set up a basic website that describes what you are doing, contact information, product offerings / options, then any one of the above website creators will work well for you.

But if you want to allow people to log into a membership gateway and place private orders, with each order having its own characteristics / pricing terms, then I'd suggest you hire a capable developer to help you build a custom platform for that.

Jeremy

Reply
Songtu 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I'm from Vietnam and recently moved to Peru. I want to start up a small business as left-handed one selling foods between the 2 countries. I will start from scratch & very small. I'm non-IT background, do you think I can follow the DIY approach with online resources like yours or realistically, I should hire web-developer to build one for me? Appreciate your practical advice.

Thanks & regards,
Tu

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Will 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
THanks for answering all of these great questions. I am stuck between wix, weebly, and squarespace for my healthcare consulting firm's website. I can't seem to find a theme that really speaks to me on any of these builder sites. Do you know if any of these 3 would favor healthcare or consulting? I am leaning toward squarespace for the free trial, responsive themes, and website export option.
Thanks,
Will

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Will,
  
  All three builders have free options for you to test out. But if mobile responsive design is an important option for you, Weebly also has some new themes that are responsive. Weebly also allows you to export your website, but they are exported in raw HTML / CSS format so you can't quite import it into another website builder platform (such as WordPress).
  
  If you're still undecided, one thing I'd highly recommend is to sign up to free accounts with each one of the platforms, and invest a few hours to "play" around with each website builder. Understanding what features are available for each platform's is one thing, but you also have to enjoy working with the platform!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Fran 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
I have a tiny hobby business with many low-priced items for sale.
I'm currently with jimdo @$240/yr which is pretty much absorbing my small profits & looking to move to a lower-priced e-commerce website.
I suppose I'll have to repost everything which took me weeks to do a couple years ago.
Could you please suggest the best of the above-mentioned websites for my hobby business longer term?
I mostly sell through the odd pop up shop, not online, very little online, though online is ultimately the way I want to go.
Unfortunately, I get very little traffic.
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello Fran,
  
  Have you considered downgrading your Jimdo plan to a lower plan (the Pro plan)? That way, you don't have to migrate website builders and you get to cut your annual fees by more than half.
  
  The challenge is that you mentioned that you have a lot of products to sell, and for all the website builders above, if you want to use their lower priced plans, they limit you to smaller number of products that you can sell.
  
  With Weebly, you can sell up to 10 or 25 products with their Starter or Pro plans, respectively. With Squarespace, you can only sell 1 or 20 products with their Personal and Business plans. If you want to sell more products, then you'll have to sign up to their highest plans, which won't give you cost savings which is one of your goals.
  
  So that's the dilemma. If you want to list more products, you'll need a higher plan. If you want a lower priced plan, you can't list as many products.
  
  One option is to consider trimming down your product offering to include only your best selling products. Just focus on those, and you might be able to choose a lower priced plan.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Fran 11 years ago
  
  Thanks for your reply, Jeremy. I had a feeling there wasn't much of an option.
  Sadly, I have too many products & would find it difficult to reduce them to a smaller number of items.
  Maybe, I'll have to focus on listing the items on a Facebook page or group, which I have already done.
  Shopify is being plugged a lot on FB, but it's costly.
  Cheers Fran
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello Fran,
  
  Shopify's lower plans are pretty reasonable, given that they are a pure ecommerce website builder and their tools are very advanced. If you are considering them, you don't necessarily have to dive into their higher priced plan right away. Start with the lower plans and see if they help you grow your business. If they do, then you can consider if you want to invest in a higher plan to access even more tools. You can see our review of Shopify here.
  
  One thing to know is that Shopify can help you build a decent Facebook store. Just something to consider since you mentioned you are using Facebook to grow your business.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Johan,

The platforms that you referenced (except for WordPress) are geared towards photography websites, so the focus is a bit narrow for this chart. We do have a discussion article about PhotoShelter here.

As for WordPress.org, it is a CMS (content management system) and is different from the drag & drop website makers we are comparing here. With WordPress.org, you can't drag and drop, or move content around without knowing how to code. Also, you need to set up your own hosting which can be technically challenging.

The website makers we discussed above do not require you to know how to code or set up your own hosting services. They're very user friendly and are targeting users who are not technical, or those who don't want to spend excessive amounts of time managing the technical aspects of website building.

We've considered WordPress.com (the hosted version of WordPress which is less technical than WordPress.org), but it is not a drag and drop set up. As such, this makes it challenging to customize your design and layout.

Hope this explains things a bit.

Jeremy

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Leo B 11 years ago

hi all, i dont know if the pricing in this comparison chart is wrong, or weebly have just just jacked their pricing up? here is says business is $25 pm but i just went to upgrade to business and its apparently $45+ pm ???

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Leo,
  
  As far as I'm aware of, Weebly's monthly plan for their Business Plan is still $25 per month. If you are seeing $45 per month, you might want to email their support team to get a firm confirmation whether they have updated their plans? But I just checked their website and I'm still seeing $25 per month for their Business plan.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Bram 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy, I would like to ask if any of the website builders you stated actually Build a website for me if I call them with the exact specifics. As an example if I were to build something similar to Facebook, (just saying), would they buid it for me or do I need to build something myself and look for a professional to do the coding for me. My friend and I have an idea but would like to know if any of these websites actually provide professionals who will do a more professional job rather than me doing a less professional job and annoy my prospective customers, Thanks for reading my question

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Bram,
  
  None of the website builders compared here have a "Done For You" type of services, as their intent is to enable you to build websites without having to know how to code. So they are based on a "Do It Yourself" model.
  
  But you can always hire capable designers to help you build your website. For instance, Squarespace has a listing of designers, developers and set up experts that you can hire to help you out. They're not a part of Squarespace, but they are listed on their website.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Johan Jooste 11 years ago

Hi, thanks for the valuable info. Where does programs like SmugMug, Wordpress, Photo Shelter etc. come in? Why are they not compared with these ones?

Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Geoffrey,

If you want a platform that allows you to control or store data (such as contact information), you'll probably need to find a more powerful solution, such as a CRM (customer relationship management tool), which can be costly. But if you don't mind updating a database manually, Excel spreadsheet is a very handy way to do so. This just means you won't be able to integrate your Excel database with your website, which should be fine for smaller operations. But if you are a large organization, I'd suggest you consider checking out some CRM platforms.

Regarding donations, you can always insert a PayPal donation widget into your website (you can do so with all the website makers listed above). Squarespace does have a donation tool, so definitely check them out as well. Their donation process is powered by Stripe (payment processing provider).

Jeremy

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Geoffrey cantor 11 years ago

Hey. This is extremely helpful. Can you give a little guidance regarding databases and donation options for a non-profit?

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Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Doctrinam,

I think it really depends (sorry I can't be more precise here). If you are just looking to build a simpler page structure (written content, pictures), then any one of the website makers will work.

But if you are looking to build a much more sophisticated system, such as PriceGrabber, then you'll need a pretty customized platform to do so. The drag and drop website makers will not be effective in this case. You'll most likely need to speak to a custom developer and the website will be quite expensive to develop.

Jeremy

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Jeremy 11 years ago

Hello Carmen,

You can certainly create pages of content using any of the website creators above (such as Wix as you mentioned). So you don't necessarily have to use their blog features to insert your affiliate links or advertising banners.

However, if you don't use the blog structure to create your content, you won't be able to categorize your content, as only blog posts have the ability to assign categories or tags.

Regarding collection of emails, you can use newsletter service providers such as Aweber of Mailchimp. They're quite popular and I believe you can integrate them into the website creators as a widget. I know that Aweber has a pop up feature where people can sign up through the pop up screen.

But also consider Wix or Jimdo, as they both have built in newsletter functions. Take a look at Footnote 15 above.

Good luck!

Jeremy

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jim 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy. I am in a quandary. I want to open a business/eCommerce website that sells products to the military. I need the website builder to be mobile responsive. I have not found any other sites except Wix.com that has a somewhat patriotic theme. I am sure the other websites' templates can be adjusted, but you have to find your own photos, which can be grain or poor quality from the internet. Any suggestions on which website builder can give me customizable templates and the ability to download quality photos? I also wanted to add captcha, but Squarespace does not offer it. HELP!!

Thank you. Jim

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  Take a look at this page here to see some recommended sources for both free and paid, high quality images. You don't necessarily need to rely on the website builders to source the images for you (even though they have libraries). You can definitely get them yourself and upload them into your website.
  
  Weebly also has customizable templates, as they allow you to edit the codes to the template. So if you are a bit handy with codes, Weebly offers you a lot of flexibility. If not, I'd stick with Wix as they do give you tools to modify your design without having to touch any codes.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Que K. 11 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

I am the most novice when it comes to building websites. I truly appreciate your comparison chart; it has been most helpful. As thorough as it is, I'm still trying to decide which builder would be the best for me. I think that I'm trying to decide between Wix and Square Space. Please give me your opinion on which builder would be the perfect fit for me if I want the following things when attempting to build an author's website:

- ability to collect emails from people viewing the page (mail sign up/updates)
- ability to pose a question and have people share their responses (similar to what I'm doing on your page now)
- add social media links directly from website AND the ability for people to share easily

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to the many novice people out here attempting to build their own websites :-)

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Que,
  
  Both Wix and Squarespace will be able to do what you're looking for.
  
  Wix does have its own newsletter function called Wix Shoutout (take a look at our discussion under Footnote 15 above). With Squarespace, you should be able to integrate Mailchimp or Aweber, which are independent newsletter services provider.
  
  To allow people to post answers, you will need to use blog posts in order to do so. Wix uses Facebook commenting system so that works fine (see Footnote 12 above)
  
  Both Wix and Squarespace do provide social sharing features as well.
  
  So it sounds like both website builders will be able to cater to your needs. So I'd suggest you sign up for free accounts with them and actually test out which builder you prefer to work with. That's the only way you can be sure!
  
  We also have a Wix versus Squarespace discussion post here. You might find it helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Doctrinam 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy, i'd like to ask you an advise. Which one of these Website Builders is best for developing a price comparison website ? ( loads of products, pictures, sizes, stock status, all automated. )

Reply
Carmen 11 years ago

Hi,

I'm searching for a good website builder for an affiliate marketing site. It will contain articles related to my niche and have affiliate links incorporated into the articles. I don't want it to look like a blog where you scroll and scroll down the page of numerous articles. I'd like to be able to categorize my content. Later on, I also want to incorporate other advertising banners and/or products that are related. I'd like a good to have the capacity to collect people's emails and send newsletters. I don't know much about SEO tools but I'd like to have the ability to maximize that. Would you still say Wix is the best option or something else? I was looking into Website Builder but did see a lot of options for tech support. Does Wix have the ability to add lead pages or pop up pages to gather member contact info?

Thanks!
Carmen

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Sistah Duch 11 years ago

WONDERFUL!! Many thanks for this thorough comparison chart and breakdown. It saved me a TON of time!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Sistah!
  
  Reply
Ellie Belle 11 years ago

Great article and comparison chart. What's even more amazing is the author of the article willing to help and answer questions. Greatly appreciative.
What are your thoughts about using Shopify through Facebook. For a small (15-20) product line mostly DVDs, does this seem like the best way to go? Is the 9.99 price point offered just a teaser rate? I understand other ecommerce apps can be used on facebook too.

Ellie

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Ellie,
  
  I would suggest building out a full ecommerce store using an online store builder such as Shopify. While you can definitely sell your products on Facebook (using tools provided by Shopify), it's always preferable to have a selling platform outside of social networks.
  
  As for pricing, I really can't help you much on that. All I can say is to test your assumptions and see how your audience react accordingly!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Ellie Belle 11 years ago
  
  The 9.99 per month is what facebook is offering to set up a shop, not the price point for DVDs. I thought the price was too low to be true. Thanks for the reply
  
  Reply
Juanita 11 years ago

Jeremy,
Thank you for these reviews. This is so helpful to me in my decision making process.

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margot 11 years ago

Thank you! You provide a great place to start to work out which online website design service will be useful!
Cjheers

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Margot!
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hello Rashelle,

We haven't tested Muse extensively as we haven't used it for our own projects before. But based on what I know, it is a bit more advanced in terms of user interface, when compared to the website makers we've highlighted above. Muse shares a similar user interface as Photoshop (also created by Adobe), which a lot of users find a bit challenging to learn. I heard that other website makers such as Wix or Weebly are much more user-friendly.

But if you're comfortable with Photoshop, then using Muse will feel a lot more "natural" for you.

Jeremy

Reply
Rashelle 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy-
Based on your reviews and survey, I'm leaning toward Weebly. This is a starter website that I plan to expand later. I'm curious why you did not include Adobe Muse in your comparison. The ubiquitous Adobe CC is so popular with web design. Any thoughts on that product in comparison to your top picks? Thanks

Reply
Joanne 11 years ago

I think it would be much easier for us old dinosaur's if there was a dictionary that gave definitions of the computer terms.

I know when I was learning to sew, I had no idea what bia's meant......but when I looked it up, I figured it out.

So words like HTML codes and domain to name a few, really are not in my vocabulary, nor most old dinosaur's like me.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Joanne,
  
  I know what you mean, and I'm not an old dinosaur yet! When I first started, I was clueless and confused as to what these techie terms meant as well.
  
  Take a look at Webopedia or TechTerms. Type in what you want defined in their search bars and you'll get an overall explanation. Wikipedia may also be helpful as well. Once you get more into website building, it gets a bit easier!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kay 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy, I own a day spa and have a website built with Simplesite. I am finding it limited with regard to using resources like Google Analytics etc, and would like to switch to a new website builder. The Simplesite platform is mobile responsive and as I am not very tech-savvy, I'd need one that could be easily set up. From the chart above, it appears that Wix does not have responsive themes and does not support exporting websites. Does this mean I would have to rebuild my site from scratch if I go with Wix, and would it affect my ranking as well?

Thanks for your time and effort.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Kay,
  
  If you prefer a mobile responsive website, I'd suggest taking a look at Squarespace or Weebly. All the design templates that Squarespace provide are responsive, and the newer templates with Weebly are responsive.
  
  Squarespace allow you to export your content into WordPress. Weebly allows you to export all your website codes, but you will have to know how to edit codes to make changes once you are outside of Weebly's editing platform. Take a look at Footnote 10 above.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lauri 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy!

I would like to make websites for small companies. I have tested both Wix and Weebly. With Wix there might be a problem. It seems it is not possible to add editors? Am I right or not? I have my own user name and password but it is not a good idea to share my own password, because then my potential customers could use my credit card information to upgrade their website (my creditcard informations are availeble in my acoount settings).

Another question: Is it true that Goole does not find easily Wix or Weebly made webpages?

Lauri

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello Lauri,
  
  Wix currently doesn't allow you to add multiple editors to a single website. We've mentioned this under Footnote 18 above. But Weebly and Squarespace do allow you to do this.
  
  As for your last question - I don't think it's necessarily true. If you build a very helpful and content rich website, and promote it properly, you can rank very well in Google search results. We've done that before ourselves in our past projects.
  
  Some people believe that WordPress is much better, but there are also thousands and thousands of WordPress websites that do not rank well in Google search results. So it really depends on what you do with your website, and a lot less dependent on which website builder you use. That's just my own view and experience!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tyler 11 years ago

I recently signed up with Web.com but they are charging me $114.95 per month for our website. I'm looking to switch and create a website for our small business that my wife and I run. We are starting from scratch with no customers and I think I've narrowed down my search to Wix, Squarespace and weebly. I like them all and I like the SEO friendliness of Squarespace and Wix, but Wix doesn't have a responsive website design which I know google likes. Squarespace doesn't offer phone support to where I can call in with questions with support. They all seem to be priced about the same so any recommendations to help get our business launched? Really looking to have the website bring in new business for the monthly service we provide. No ecommerce necessary.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Tyler,
  
  Sorry to hear about Web.
  
  Wix doesn't have responsive designs, but they do offer you a mobile editor to edit the mobile version of your website.
  
  The advantage of having a mobile editor for a separate mobile site is that you can have control over the design and layout of the mobile version of your website. You can control how a piece of content looks, where it is placed, and you can even remove it from being displayed on your mobile site (and have it still appear on the desktop version of your website).
  
  So Wix's mobile editor offers you more control, while with a responsive design you don't have any control over the design / layout of your content (unless you know how to modify the codes to the template).
  
  The drawback of using a mobile editor, is that you have to spend a bit more time editing the mobile site. But once you have to configured it's just a bit of maintenance going forward.
  
  So at the end of the day it's a personal preference. I'm can't say for certainty that Google prefer mobile responsive websites (such as Squarespace) over separate mobile sites (such as Wix). I think as long as there is some sort of mobile site, then you'll be okay.
  
  Have you also considered Weebly? They do offer you some mobile responsive templates, and do have phone support.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hello Zi Yan,

When building websites, it's best to size your images according to how big you want it to actually appear on your webpages. So if you can, try not to use the resizing function provided by the website creators. Use an image editor and actually shrink the images there, rather than using the drag and drop tools to resize your images. Also, if you want to compress the file sizes without losing too much quality (so you can have webpages that load faster), try using this tool here. We use it ourselves as well.

If you want to consider another website creator, I'd suggest Squarespace. Their designs are quite suitable for photographers and designers. They do offer a 14 day free trial period so you can give them a test drive to see how they work out for you.

Jeremy

Reply
Zi Yan 11 years ago

Hello!

I have been using Wix for a while now and I have noticed that image quality appears to be poor. There have been a lot of discussion in the Support section of Wix, and till now I have yet to find a satisfactory solution from the support team with regard to the image compression/optimisation/quality.

Taking that into consideration, I would appreciate a recommendation as to which website builder is best-suited for photographers and designers, where image quality is of upmost importance.

Thank you!

Zi Yan

Reply
Shenley 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy

I have narrowed your recommendations to 2 - Wix and Weebly.
Personally, which would you prefer?
BTW, I just want a simple website for my teaching & students.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Shenley,
  
  It's really hard to say, but the good thing is that you've narrowed your choices down to two!
  
  I'd suggest that you sign up to free accounts with both Wix and Weebly, and just give them a try so you can get a better view of which one you prefer to work with. That's the only way to be sure!
  
  At the end of the day, in my own experiences, both are fantastic. But you may prefer the user interface of one over the other. So there is definitely some subjectiveness here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi John,

Squarespace is the only website creator referenced above that has built in website tools for podcasts. With Squarespace, you can also create blog posts, and sell digital products. The only downside is that their ecommerce check out (for selling digital products) only integrates with one payment processor (Stripe). But Stripe is quite popular and easy to set up, so shouldn't be a major hurdle.

You can also integrate with Google Analytics to get your traffic data, or use their built in Squarespace Metrics.

Hope this helps!

Jeremy

Reply
John 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I have a friend who is looking to build a business website that includes blog, podcast, webinar information along with selling e-books. He would like to include affiliate information and perform web analytics. What website builder(s) would you recommend?

Thanks!

John

Reply
Bryttiny 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
My husband would like to start a website for his business that would display his contact information, pictures of the food along with the pricing. The website would not only have to allow the customers to order online but allow them to pay also. Are there any website starters you would recommend?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hello Bryttiny,
  
  If the ecommerce set up is fairly basic (just information, images, add to cart button and a check out process), then Wix, Squarespace, Weebly or Jimdo will get the job done.
  
  You can have a look at our ecommerce comparison chart here, which will give you a high level breakdown of each website builder. Shopify and Bigcommerce are a lot more advanced and so I think they'll be beyond what you need (and they're pricier as well).
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
cindy chenard 11 years ago

What do you think about FASO "Fine Art Studio Online" for hosting and building an artist gallery with selling capability website? I noticed it is not listed.
thanks,
Cindy

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Cindy,
  
  We haven't seen them before, or used them. So we don't have an opinion about their services. Sorry about that!
  
  If any one else has used them before, feel free to share your experiences with us!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Jan,

Give Weebly a try, as they are probably one of the easiest, most user friendly website makers available in the market. They're free to use, and their lowest plan is a few dollars per month. By upgrading to their lowest plan, you can remove their advertisement, and can use your own custom domain name which will give your site a much more professional look and feel.

Jeremy

Reply
jan 11 years ago

I'm undecided regarding whether I want a website or a blog. I have devoted a lot of time over the past couple of months on wix, wordpress and blogger. I run into stumbling blocks with whatever I try because I have such minimal technical skills. I keep trying because I want to be able to manage whatever I create. I think a website will meet my needs better, because I'd like to provide information that won't need continual updating; but, I also want to blog about changing topics. Can you offer advice, please?

One more thing — I need minimal expense. Although, I hope to attract some clients through my website my primary motivation is to provide information for those who can benefit from it.

Reply
John 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
Will Wix allow you to charge for the membership before allowing members access to the restricted pages?
John

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  At the moment, Wix doesn't have the feature where you can charge your members a fee to access restricted pages. Have a look at Sentry Login, which is an independent widget that apparently can help add that function to a Wix website.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Niels Larsen 11 years ago

Hi there. After being ripped off too may times and becoming terminally frustrated with web developers and their 'black arts' I have just built a very simple site on Weebly. Now I want to build a much bigger more complicated site which can grow with me.

I am painfully aware that Tites, Meta tags, Back Links etc. etc are crucial so can you tell me which of your featured DIY web builders offers the best and most clear mechanics for the 'background' stuff? Many thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Niels,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experiences and glad to hear that you were able to build a website with Weebly yourself.
  
  To be honest, most of the website builders here will have the basic mechanics for you to configure your website SEO settings. The configurations won't be as flexible as using other more powerful builders (such as WordPress), but in my view they're good enough. Bear in mind the 80/20 rule, so you don't spend all 80% of your time trying to perfect the other 20%. You might be better off spending your energy elsewhere to yield a higher return for your business.
  
  But if your concern is that you want to customize your Weebly website beyond what is capable / could be handled by Weebly, then it's really a case by case situation, as some other website builders will offer certain features that Weebly won't. And if these features are really critical for your business, then a migration may be justified. But as you know, migrating a website is a big investment in time and energy. So make sure you know exactly what you are looking for before you migrate.
  
  One way of exploring what features a website builder offer (that Weebly does not), is to sign up for a free / trial account and just play around with the platform.
  
  Hope this helps somewhat!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Rosa 11 years ago

Which websites allow you to upload you own video to your homepage background?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Rosa,
  
  I think that Wix, Squarespace and Jimdo supports background videos. For Squarespace, I think it only works with their Cover Page layouts. With Wix and Jimdo, you can use video backgrounds even with their normal pages.
  
  See the tutorials for Wix, Squarespace and Jimdo here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Ayesha,

If you are looking for a website creator that has a membership log in function, take a look at Wix and Weebly (see our Footnote 16 above).

But if you need something more powerful that's completely catered to photographers, have a look at PhotoShelter. All their tools are built catered to professional photographers.

Jeremy

Reply
Ayesha 11 years ago

Hi i want to build a photography website giving access to my members only through sign in and sign up i cannot find this option on any website kindly help ....??

Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Andy,

All the above website creators should be able to do what you want to do. They all have the ability to embed codes (so you can insert external widgets), but the question is how well will the widget work for each website creator, as the widget creator may not have created the widget to work specifically with a particular web builder.

So the best way forward is to sign up for a few website creators and see which one you like to work with. It is very subjective and I wished I could tell you which exact platform is best for you. Unfortunately, it's really a trial and error type of exercise, to see which one you prefer. I'd suggest you test out Wix, Squarespace and Weebly as those are the top 3 web builders we suggest at the current moment!

Good luck!

Jeremy

Reply
Andy 11 years ago

Looking to build a website for travel basketball tournament company. Will need to be able to have our own domain, promote sponsors, make announcements and upload documents. Will also need to embed information from an outside app (tourneymachine) Just wondering if you could give me an idea of which company would be best to build our website.

Thanks
Andy

Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi there,

You can use the platform for free, but like the drag & drop website makers discussed here, you will have to upgrade in order to get access to more features, such as the ability to use your own domain name (instead of example.wordpress.com), remove WordPress advertisements, get direct support, and numerous other tools. I think they start at $99 per year, and the top plan is $299 per year.

Jeremy

Reply
Lauraxer 11 years ago

I have a question, Is Wordpress.com free?

Reply
Robert hart 11 years ago

Wonderfull and well presented. I have two complex questions. Therefor it would be very usefull to have a tel. Number for each supplier.
I am 73, retired and sarted in the cmputer professon 53 yeaars ago. I would appreciate your response to my suggestion.

Thank you
Bob

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Bob! Wix and Weebly has phone support so you can call them during their phone support hours. With Squarespace, they have a live chat.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Bill 11 years ago

Jeremy, this is a great resource, thanks. We are building site for a non-profit organization with several hundred members. We would like to include in our site a people directory of our members that shows pictures and contact information. Do you know if (a) either Squarespace or Wix has a template or app for that, and (b) if either of those two services provides a member login or password protected site functionality? Thanks, Bill

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Bill,
  
  I'm not aware of such a user interface with either Squarespace or Wix. But Wix does allow you to create a membership portal (using one of its App) where only members can log into see certain pages. You can take a look at the App here.
  
  Alternatively, Weebly also has a membership login tool that you can check out as well.
  
  Good luck!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
mphafi matima 11 years ago

Good day thanks for help it very helpfull site.

Reply
Richard 11 years ago

Great review! Thank you for sharing. As we struggle to figure out how to start our web site, we constantly struggle with the best way for a small, online business to accepts payments. Our business conducts training seminars several time a year around the country. We would like for attendees to be able to complete an online registration form and submit payment online. It seems as though services like Paypal won't allow us to do this very efficiently and most web hosting platforms want us to use Paypal or a similar service. Any suggestions? Thanks again for the great review.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Richard,
  
  Have a look at Squarespace as they do allow you to create either a custom checkout form or custom product form if you use their ecommerce tools. So you can ask your customers to leave their detailed information in multiple fields so you can collect those data for your needs.
  
  Be aware that with Squarespace, they only use Stripe to power their shopping cart to manage payments. But Stripe is a good payment processor and Squarespace makes it pretty easy to set up.
  
  You can also have a look at Shopify or Bigcommerce as their production functions are very customizable as well (see our ecommerce builder comparison table here).
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Herb,

You can actually see our ecommerce online store comparison chart here. We do benchmark Shopify against other online store builders.

As for Wix, the main reason why you can't transfer websites for Wix is that their proprietary drag & drop system can't be found with other platforms. For instance, if you want to move your content to Squarespace, or even WordPress, both of those website creators are not using the same building platform technology as Wix. As such, you can't just move the codes over and have them work.

Hope this helps!

Jeremy

Reply
herb fellows 11 years ago

I was surprised that Wordpress and Shopify were not also compared. Is there a reason for this?

I'm trying to get a small glass jewelry business up and going, getting a website and photography have been my big bugaboos. I finally got somewhat of a handle on the photography (glass is so hard to photograph!) and now have to figure out the best website for my type of business.
The one thing that struck me about Wix is that the website is not transferrable, meaning if I wanted to go with another provider for any reason, I would have to build the whole website over again? Or am I missing something here?

Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Sarah,

WordPress is probably the best platform if you are focused on blogging as they have great blogging tools compared to the drag and drop website creators we've referenced above. However, one of the challenges of using WordPress is that if you want to use it proficiently, you'll have to know a bit of codes (or working with someone who knows code). If you don't, it makes it quite challenging to adjust designs and integrate (some) tools. We have a number of discussion posts that talks about how some of the website builders compare to using WordPress here.

If you want to use a platform which requires no knowledge of code at all, and has decent tools for blogging while having an option to sell products on the side, I'd suggest you take a look at Squarespace or Wix (see our notes on blogging above). One thing about Squarespace is that their ecommerce shopping cart is only compatible with Stripe but it's quite easy to integrate. With Wix, you have more shopping cart options.

You can also take a look at our comparison chart for ecommerce builder here. You can probably ignore Shopify and Bigcommerce as they are "pure" ecommerce builders, and are more suitable for dedicated online stores.

Jeremy

Reply
Sarah 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Great info but im still stuck, im looking at building predominately a blog site that will also have reviews and eventually an ecommerce side to sell photos and gifts, I just have no idea what would be best as i have no coding knowledge at all.

Reply
DC 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I am interested in building a site for my wholesale business. I need to have "net 30" terms as a payment option, which I will obtain payment outside of the site. I know that shopify allows this, however, do any other of your reviewed sites allow for a manual payment such as "net 30"? I like using squarespace, but that appears to not have an easy solution to this.

Thanks,
DC

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi DC,
  
  Take a look at Wix and Jimdo - both have a manual payment option built into their ecommerce tools.
  
  We have a bit more discussion on Wix's ecommerce tools in this article here.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hey Robert,

I think what you're looking for is more of a CRM system ("Customer Relationship Management"). I just don't think any website makers will include such advanced tools as part of their website building platform.

Take a look at software such as Infusionsoft, which is a pretty good CRM system.

Hope this helps a bit.

Jeremy

Reply
1 reply
- Robert 11 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy:
  
  Thanks for the reply. As you mentioned earlier, we are planning to use Salesforce.com's PaaS for our backend data management system & website integration with Salesforce is common.
  
  However we want to market the service, on-board users and give them access to their account from the website for account management (customer portal). A membership function may support the last ability. In some ways, our multi-dimensional order is similar to the size-color-style requirements of clothing distributors.
  
  Perhaps this additional information can help you guide us to an appropriate solution(s).
  
  If it's more appropriate, we can speak off-line.
  
  Thanks again for all you do.
  
  Rob
  
  Reply
Dmitry 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy! Thank you for an excellent service you're providing!

I have a website which I build using Weebly through Bluehost. I think it would be a good idea to switch to a website builder, e.g. Weebly.com and start using it directly due to more functionality, ability to use updates immediately, etc. So, now I'd like to make a choice of a website builder (because it doesn't necessarily be Weebly). In my view, Weebly is simple, but offers considerable limitations in the variability of design options. I guess, however, that it applies to all WYSIWYG builders, and I am not prepared to devote considerate time to master WordPress.

My website is about the best places to visit in cities. It's https:\\theplacestovisit.com I need to have the following:
- Many pages, easily 300+ in a year, a good page tree (several layers)
- Mostly text pages with a few pictures + functional maps
- Good comment section, like the one on this your page
- Not very high requirements to the design
- Social buttons as Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Ability to sell digital products (e-books).

So, would you say that for my particular website Weebly is the most suitable, or there is a better choice?

Also, this website is to be in English only. Which builder would you suggest if I needed to create a bilingual website, in English and in Russian?

Thank you in advance!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Dmitry,
  
  Thanks for your comment. What you have in mind is indeed a pretty large website (300 pages)! If you want a good page tree structure, using Weebly.com is a good option as they are pretty flexible there.
  
  But at the end of the day, if you are going to building that many pages, WordPress might be an option for you to consider as their content management system is good which enables you to make site wide updates a lot quicker than drag and drop builders. WordPress' commenting system is also top notch.
  
  The only drawback is that WordPress does have a higher learning curve, but once you invest the time to learn it, it's not too bad at all (assuming you are just building a more basic website, as if you want to build in all sorts of features or have a lot of design flexibility, it can get tricky as you may have to deal with codes).
  
  As for building a bilingual website, we have a discussion post here.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Dmitry 11 years ago
  
  Thank you very much, Jeremy!
  
  You made me considering WordPress seriously again. It is a very important desigion to make as switching is very time consuming, I guess.
  
  Jeremy, please let me clarify: would you say that since my website is going to be quite large relatively soon, it's a good idea to start with a more powerful system, WordPress, from the very beginning, and since I plan to keep the site quite simple (mostly text with comments, just too much structured text), mastering that part of WordPress should not be a rocket science. Or would you say that if I start, say, with Weebly, and create, say, 300 pages, I may be stuck at some time because WYSIWYG builders are not really created for large websites and I would likely be forced to move out because it would not work properly or I would not be able to create a good page tree structure, or some other reasons.
  
  So, the question: is for my situation WordPress seems to be a better choice, but Weebly can also cope with those tasks OR my website is going to be too complex for Weebly or other WYSIWYG builders, and I should definitely start with WordPress?
  
  Thank you in advance! You are helping to save so many hundreds of hours!
  
  Dmitry
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Dmitry,
  
  I suspect for what you are trying to build, you can use either platform. WordPress is a bit more complex but has more advanced tools to help you better manage all your content (300 pages is a lot!), and Weebly is much easier to use, but their management tools are not as good when managing a huge website.
  
  For instance, if you need to re-use an image multiple times, with Weebly, you'll have to re-upload the same image over and over again as they don't have a database for you to grab the same image to insert into a specific page. With WordPress, once you upload an image once, you can grab the same image easily without having to upload it again.
  
  Also, if you want to highlight / spotlight certain pages, WordPress allows you to link those pages and showcase them in an automated way. With Weebly, you will have to manually build the showcase section.
  
  But the challenge with doing that with WordPress is that you will have to look for the right theme to use, and it is likely that you will have to make (code) modifications to your site to get it to work exactly how you want to.
  
  So there are definitely pros and cons to each, but if you are committed to learning WordPress and codes, I think for your unique needs, it will be a much easier platform for you to manage down the road.
  
  Here is a short post where we compared Weebly and WordPress that you might find interesting as well.
  
  Good luck!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Robert S 11 years ago

Jeremy:

Your website comparison reports are terrific and have been very helpful. Our needs are somewhat different than a traditional ecommerce business.

We are launching a new business offering a technology-enabled service. Customers will receive reminder messages at several user-specified times every day. Each message can have 1-30 reminder items which can vary from message-to-message. Thus, a customer account (order) is a 3-dimensional matrix of:

. Day (Monday-Sunday)
. 1-6 specific reminder times during each day (HH:MM)
. 1-30 specific items for each reminder time during each day with an item having several variable fields (e.g., description, amount, note, other).

We want customers to be able to setup & maintain their account (enter & maintain a standing order for the service) through our website.

Is there one or more website builder offering you suggest we focus on in our selection process?

If there isn't an "out-of-the-box" solution, which offering(s) would get us closest to our requirements and need the least customization?

Thanks again for your time, effort and help.

Rob

Reply
Cheryl 11 years ago

We are a small company, we make 1 item for the dental industry. Our product is trademarked and we have sold it for 20 years to dental supply houses. We are changing our market to direct sales to the dental professional and need to have an ecommerce site. We only have one item to advertise to this market. We already own the domain name we want to use. What do you recommend?

We are old school, not very tech savvy and need advise. We need easy. please give us a recommendation of whom might be best fit. Do any of the companies you compare really have phone numbers that can be used for support?

Any and all information will be appreciated.
Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Cheryl,
  
  I'd suggest checking out Wix or Weebly, as both of them are probably the easiest website builders to use in my view. They're free to sign up and test, so it would be a good idea to give them both a test drive before deciding which one is better suited for your needs.
  
  We also have an article here to compares both of these website builders, if you need a bit more details in regards to the differences between them.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Paul 11 years ago

Thank you for a great resource, Jeremy.

We are starting a small tour company and need to have the ability to have a calendar for scheduling/reservations, the capability of processing credit cards for reservations made through the site (maximum 6 tour choices), as well as an easy-to-use blog and all of these available through mobile. I really like Squarespace designs and their automatic conversion to mobile display.

I have built a couple of sites in the past, including one with Wix, and so have a little bit of experience, but I am certainly no expert. I'd appreciate your educated opinion on which site builder may be best for me.

Thanks in advance!

Paul

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Paul,
  
  Both Wix and Squarespace have the ability for you to allow your visitors to make appointments. However, you will need to use external widgets / apps and integrate those into either your Wix or Squarespace website.
  
  For Wix, their App Market has a few calendar / scheduling apps for you to integrate. For Squarespace, if you look in their help center (type "calendar") you'll see a few articles relating to integrating scheduling apps.
  
  But I don't think either of the allow the scheduling tools to be integrated with their ecommerce shopping cart.
  
  What you can do is insert a product so people can purchase reservations. Once they've purchased the reservation slot, you can send them to the page where they can make a reservation. You can do this by inserting the instructions on which page to visit in the "thank you" email that gets sent to them once they've made a purchase (deposit for the reservation). You can create the scheduling page and just hide it, so only those who made the purchase will know whereto go.
  
  It's not a perfect solution, and is a long workaround, but just might work.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Paul 11 years ago
  
  Jeremy, thank you for your reply! I'll investigate the options.
  Paul
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Bobby 11 years ago
  
  Hey Paul, Did you tested the option suggested? I am also facing the same issue i.e how to integrate reservation widget with weebly site in cost effective manner.
  
  Reply
Mariana Basile Resstom 11 years ago

Are Wordpress themes mobile responsive? Does it change from wordpress.com and wordpress.org? Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Mariana - I think there are responsive and non responsive themes for WordPress. So if you want a responsive theme for WordPress, make sure that you pick one that is labeled as such!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Purnima,

There really isn't a very effective way of stopping people from copying your creative work. it's just one of the downsides of the internet in that everyone can pretty much copy anything if he/she really wanted to. The same goes for the physical world as well but obviously with physical goods it takes a bit more effort, but still very much achievable. But hopefully that won't discourage you from sharing your creative work with the rest of the world!

As for domain names, some of the website makers will give you a free domain name if you sign up to their annual plans (see chart details above). But you can also get your domain name from domain name registrars such as GoDaddy, and connect it to your website.

As for which builder to use, the best way to go about choosing is to find the website maker that you enjoy using, as all of them are different from one another in terms of user interface and tools (to a certain extent). But I'd suggest taking a look at Squarespace and Wix to get started as they have some pretty good looking and creative templates.

Jeremy

Reply
Purnima 11 years ago

HI,

Wow, that is great informative to compare, but I'm looking for website that I can write quotes, poems and write a song that I don't want someone copy it without my permission sort of like watermark or copyright? I have somewhat knowledge with CSS and HTML but I have no knowledge how to get website run or how to get domain? It's something I've been think about long time now, I want to find right website builder that would fit my creative, should I go with blog or profolio website for something like that?

Thank you for amazing information!

Sincerely,
Purnima

Reply
Luc 11 years ago

Hi, great comparison first of all, very informative and helpful!

I have a few questions though. When conducting transactions online through these web hosts, are there any costs involved that goes to third parties?
Say i choose squarespace for my website and a customer decided to buy something off it, would some of the money in the ecommerce transaction be used for anything or anyone else besides me and the customer? Or are there no fees involved when setting up this eCommerce aspect of your site?

Thanks in advance!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Luc,
  
  There will be payment transaction fees. For instance, when you go shopping at a local store and you use your credit card, the merchant that sold you the product will have to pay Visa / Mastercard / Amex etc fees, which is a couple of percent of the total value of the transaction.
  
  So it works the same way with online stores. If you use PayPal (or any other payment processors) to collect money from your customers, they will need to be paid for providing that service. You can find more information about such fees directly on the ecommerce web builder that you use, or on the payment processors' websites but it's usually something around 2% - 3%.
  
  Some ecommerce builders also take a small percentage of your transaction value. But they will waive that fee if you upgrade to a higher plan (varies from builder to builder).
  
  Hope this explains things a bit.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Luc 11 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy,
  
  Thank you for the informative answer. I will check their websites, but its good to have an idea of what to expect.
  
  Luc
  
  Reply
Stef 11 years ago

I have an existing website which looks great. The problem is that when it comes to changes like text, graphics you have to use HTML and there is no ability to add landing pages for campaigns. What I'd really like to have is a copy of what I have but with the ability for a coding novice to be able to edit and change existing pages and to add additional pages at a click of a button. The site is already hosted so I don't need that function and we own our domain so we don't need that either.
Can you suggest anything?
Thanks

Stef

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Stef,
  
  Have a look at Weebly. They allow you full access to the HTML / CSS codes so you can make edits / customizations there if you want to.
  
  They also provide hosting services (part of the package) and so you won't have to use your own hosting services. In other words, if you want to use Weebly, you won't be able to use them with your own hosting services.
  
  If you have your own domain name, you can connect that to a Weebly site and they have tutorials on how to do that in their Help Center.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kevin 11 years ago

Jeremy,

Thank you for a great and informative chart!

I was looking for some advise, I am a first time builder and have no experience. Anything you could offer would be greatly appericated.

I am trying to build a business website that:

is mostly informational/educational and does not have a need to list my own products, because I don't carry inventory (currently, but may need to eventually), all things are made to order/custom. Given that, I'm looking for a system that allows for custom invoices (through email or online through a code) allowing the customer to access their order and pay online after I create the invoice,

Allows many of my suppliers websites to be viewed and browsed from mine (directly on my page) through what looks like embedding, though I am unsure if that is the terminology. (The suppliers already allow this, I just wanna make sure it would work), and

Allows for the creation of a members only area with access to videos and information.

Ascetics, and function are must in this endeavor, even if it means slightly more work. Apps are always a plus though

Let me know what you think!

Thank you again for your guidance

Kev

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Kev,
  
  It sounds like you need a pretty flexible and advanced website builder. I'd suggest you take a look at Shopify (see our discussion here) as they allow you to have a lot of flexibility as to how you want to customize your store / website, and there are plenty of Shopify Experts that can help you do custom work to enable you to get what you want.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Kevin 11 years ago
  
  Thanks a lot for the help Jeremy! Best wishes and keep up the great work!
  
  Kev
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Kate,

I don't think any of the website creators discussed here will give you the capability to create a crowd source / visitor contribution type of website. Those sort of websites are much more complex and I suspect you will need to hire a very capable developer to help you custom build what you have in mind.

The website creators we've discussed here are great for building more "typical" sort of sites, such as business, ecommerce, photography / portfolio, blogs, hobbies, general content, where the site owner will create all the content.

Hope this guides you in the right direction!

Jeremy

Reply
1 reply
- Kate 11 years ago
  
  Thanks, Jeremy. That's kind of what I thought/feared!
  
  Reply
Kate 11 years ago

Jeremy -

thanks for all this information.

I'm trying to build a site that's heavily dependant on crowdsourcing. Sort of like a recipe site that allows users to both submit and rank best chocolate cake recipe. So I need community to be able to do more than just "like".

So, I need to have people register using facebook or unique name. Then contribute. Then vote. Would squarespace (or weebly or other), let me build such a site?

Thanks!

Reply
Trudy 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy

What are your thoughts on WIX versus WordPress please?

Thanks

Trudy

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Trudy,
  
  We have a more comprehensive discussion about Wix versus WP here. Do read the comments as well as you'll more discussions there.
  
  Hope you find it helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Marlo Malaluan 11 years ago

I disagree Squarespace being the first one. I honestly do know that builder, but I'm still an avid fan of Weebly(just saying!). Their various templates and easy tools had been a major outpour for those who wants to build their own site.

Cheers though for this post. Have a great day Jeremy.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Marlo,
  
  Difference of opinion I guess! But I appreciate your input and views. It's definitely a healthy debate.
  
  Don't get me wrong, Weebly is a great website builder and we love using Weebly. But we just feel that Squarespace is pretty awesome too! : )
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hey Alvin,

Thanks for your input. Weebly allows you to export a Weebly website to import it into another hosting service, but they don't have a function for you to import it back into Weebly again. The same thing applies across other website makers discussed here as well.

I think the main reason is that each website maker's platform has its unique code base (that enables you to drag and drop content to build out your website). So if you start tinkering with the codes after you export the site, if you are allowed to import the site back into the website maker (after you've modified the codes a bit), then the codes may not work properly and /or conflict with that website maker.

But if you want to move a website across to another account, give their support team a shout and they are likely able to do that. Granted, I haven't tried that myself, but I don't see a reason why that shouldn't be a possible.

Good point though so thanks for bringing it up!

Jeremy

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Alvin 11 years ago

For export website, weebly should be "no." One can export it to html, but you cannot export it to another weebly site nor use it with weebly again. In short, you can export it, but cannot import it back to weebly. That's like saying you can do a backup, but cannot restore your backup. Absurd right?

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Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Kristin - I've never heard of them before, so I don't have any comments about them. But from a quick look at their site, it seems like they're focused on creating logos? As such, probably not a good benchmark against the website makers we've reviewed here.

Jeremy

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Kristin 11 years ago

Thank you so much for this great comparison chart and information on website builders! It has been so helpful! Just curious - do you have any thoughts on Logo Garden as a website builder? Thanks.

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fstkd 11 years ago

what do you think about ipage? any comments on how ipage stacks up against your list above?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  iPage is more of a hosting service, so not quite comparable to the website builders we've discussed in our table above.
  
  They do offer you the ability to get a WordPress site hosted, and they also offer you the ability to use Weebly. So if you are thinking about using Weebly through iPage, you should take a look at our discussion about using Weebly.com directly and using Weebly with another hosting service). There are definitely pros and cons to consider.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kamran 11 years ago

Hey mate I am creating a site were I can sell products on, Im a starter so I don't want to spend to much but I want it to look really good and mobile friendly. So I was wondering what is the best option. And also these are all compatible with putting it on google. Thanks a lot

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Kamran,
  
  Take a look at our ecommerce comparison table here. That will get you started in figuring out which ecommerce builder to check out.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Cari 11 years ago

I have inventory that belongs to my clients for which I offer warehousing and shipping services. My "customers" are employees of my clients who go on my "store" and select merchandise and literature they would like sent to them. I need a website/store that offers inventory control and does not require payment processing. I have tried Go Daddy but they require a payment method. Others do not offer inventory control. Do you know any that can do what I need?
Thank you.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  hi Cari,
  
  I haven't seen a platform that offers that before, but I'm sure it's achievable if you make some extensive modifications. I would suggest you check out Shopify (the ecommerce builder) and see if some of the Shopify Experts can help you tweak the platform to achieve what you want.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Bilal Green 11 years ago

Hi there , good work on the chart .
i need to create a website that has the possibility for visitors to open their private profile and upload photos into it and for others to see them and buy them if they want, kind of like Instagram mixed with Elance , which platform do you guys think is good for me ? thanks in advance for your help.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Bilal,
  
  It sounds to me what you need is a very customized solution. So none of the website builders that we've discussed here will enable you to do that. You can try looking for capable developers on Elance or oDesk, but make sure you know exactly what you want, including functionality, mock ups / drawings of how you want your user interface to be, etc, so that you can get a quote from some of the developers!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Bilal Green 11 years ago
  
  Hi there ,Thank you very much for your reply Jeremy,
  i actually did post a job proposal on Elance and i got one Indian website designer biding at 2500 usd for the website and the logo,and one from a "developed country" designer (as you said in one of your articles) at 80 bucks an hour for the website only without precising the number of hours needed.
  can i have your opinion please on the price asked by the Indian designer and also what's the number of hours needed for a developer to build a website if you had to guess ?
  Thanks again; the information on your website are very valuable.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Bilal,
  
  It's really hard to say, and I do appreciate how challenging it is to hire a developer especially the first time around. There are many many factors that gets factored into the quote, including how complex of a site you want, what platform you want to build it on, etc.
  
  I would say that US$2,500 is what I would expect from an emerging country, but know that if you want to make changes, add a few things here and there, then costs will start to add up. Also, in my experience, they can get the job done, but that's about it. So don't expect them to have any creative input into the process, or write very clean code. They will be there to do what you tell them to do. Of course I'm sure not all Indian developers are like that, so I'm just generalizing based on our own experiences.
  
  As for the other designer (US$80/hr), I would suggest that you lock in the scope of the work, and know exactly what you want so he/she can give you more of an accurate quote. There's always the debate between hiring on a per hour basis, or a fixed fee. There are a lot of good discussions about this topic and I'm sure you can find more info about that with a Google search.
  
  But if I was to generalize and guess, I'd say for a good developer in a developed country, I'd say a decent custom website will cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 to get developed. It really depends on what you are trying to build. And this range can quickly go into $10,000+ if you hire really strong developers who know what they're doing and write very good code.
  
  And of course, you can never get assurance that you will get what you want. But you can help mitigate uncertainty through interviews, looking at his/her portfolio, maybe even asking for references, and also, have a very clear scope of work so to minimize any disputes.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Bilal Green 11 years ago
  
  Thank you , you really helped taking out some confusion about ideas i had. it's pretty much what we could expect from a genuine good content website or blog; you're doing a great job guys.
  i have the ambition to pursue this idea that i have but surely it doesn't seem like it would be easy ,or cheap,and that's alright because that may mean that it could be worth it who knows right?!. but tell me would you have any suggestions about a good developer ? i hope i'm not asking a too much. Thanks again
  
  Reply
Susan 11 years ago

Very helpful and detailed website. Thanks for the free guide - I believe I will use it

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks for your feedback Susan! Glad our discussions here are helpful to you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Frank 11 years ago

I purchased a e-comm website on wix and need some help building the website , do you know anybody I could get in touch with to help build the website?

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2 replies
- Marlo Malaluan 11 years ago
  
  Go find some freelance designers on the Internet.
  
  Reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Frank,
  
  I don't have any referrals, but you can reach out to Wix to see if they have any suggestions.
  
  You can also try to look for freelancers on either Elance or oDesk.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
mike glamcevski 11 years ago

it was very helpful thank you.

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Jeremy 11 years ago

Hey Sheila,

Shopify is one of the best ecommerce website creators available today. You can take a look at our online store comparison chart here and get a high level sense of what they can do. We also have a more indepth review of them here.

Hope they work out for you!

Jeremy

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Tiffany 11 years ago

I am thinking I want to use squarespace for my medical intuitive RN website. I will be offering various medical advice information and also consulting. I will be asking for donations for those that cannot pay and fee for personal consultation.

On top of being an RN, I am a jewelry and interior designer. Is it possible to use squarespace for medical intuitive RN consulting and also sell jewelry for donations on same site? Does square space own my website or have rights to it? Also, I have already purchased a domain via google.domain. how do I incorporate it here? I received your informational book on line a while back and thank you for your insight. i decided to return to your site to get started on my websites....(This is the first one and then I need to make a few others for Rare Disease and a personal one) Im wondering if I should use different web builders for the various sites or stick to one! help me out please!

Thank You Tiffany

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Tiffany,
  
  You can certainly create a site with both RN consulting and also sell jewelry at the same time. But from a branding / business perspective, I'm not too sure if you should do that? If both products / services are complimentary, then I'd say go for it. But in this case, I'm not entirely sure if that's a good idea (but that's just my humble opinion without knowing too much about what you do). So do consider creating separate websites for them, so you can brand your businesses individually. People who like jewelry might not need nursing material, and so having both in one single website can be very confusing for some visitors.
  
  As for domain names, you can certainly connect it to a Squarespace site. If you visit Squarespace's help page, just type in "Domain" and you'll get some tutorials on how to connect them.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Edi,

All of the website creators discussed above allows you to insert videos, slideshows, images. So you can definitely insert your own video, or multiple images to form a gallery to showcase your products.

Jeremy

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Sheila 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy

First this is wonderful to see the comments and your answers. I have been at a bit of a loss as to what I need to do.

I have 2 websites that I have build several years ago on Frontpage, one is a personal one and one is for our business. There is no shopping cart (and not sure yet we want that but we want that option).

I need to find another program that I don't need extensive coding knowledge (as I have none) but I want it friendly for people to read (many have commented they like what we have now and how they can understand our products) (you can see the website from my email address).

We do have a lot of products and need to add more and of course change things almost weekly or daily esp with the dollar exchange rate when we buy from other countries etc.

I was looking at Wordpress.com (yes i got caught up in that webhosting) and actually signed up (tried to cancel but everything goes to a recording and no one has responded to email)

I do not mind paying for something, i just want to make sure it can grow with me and the amount of products we have but i also want it to be not too complicated. I have a business to run as well.

Also I am not understanding the difference i see with say Wix and Shopify (supposedly shopify can work with Wordpress) IS shopify one on its own or does it always work with another? (I can't be the only one with this question)

Sorry if i am confusing things here but have wanted to ask someone and of course i have people wanting to develop the website for me but I want to be able to change it myself when i want.

This is wonderful that we can ask questions here and thank you so much for your help!!!!

Is Wix extensive enough for me?

Thank you !

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Sheila,
  
  So do you need a shopping cart function? You mentioned that you didn't have one, but then said you have a lot of products to sell.
  
  In any case, if you are going to have a lot of products and want to update them efficiently, you should definitely have a look at Shopify (you can see our comparison chart for ecommerce builders here).
  
  Shopify is an "approved" shopping cart with WordPress.com - meaning that if you build an ecommerce store with WordPress.com, you can use Shopify to help you process payments. But if you use Shopify on its own, it's just a standalone online store builder and won't have anything to do with WordPress.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  2 replies
  
  Sheila 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Jeremy
  
  I had asked some extra questions but actually spent yesterday doing some research. I had been wondering about Godaddy and their online store as they have one now. I called Godaddy and they tell me they cannot do offline payments (which is something i need)
  
  I started a demo on Wix as they allow offline payments but I realized that Wix was not extensive enough for my store because I do need to enter product by supplier as well as its description.
  
  i have been reading through Shopify and Shopify allows offline payments such that i can do debits etc i just have the cart sent to me. This is very important to me.
  
  I will look more in to Shopify
  
  Thank you for all that you do on these comparisons.
  
  Reply
  
  Sheila 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Jeremy
  
  To explain, we sell products at our retail (brick and mortar) store, from our mobile (traveling) store as well we want a website that people can see our products and their pricing and even maybe add to the cart... but here is what we do/don't like about finishing the transaction online.......
  
  first some people are not sure what they actually need and we want to help them with their order, or they need to understand the properties of the product when using them.
  
  second, we cannot add to an order if its strictly online driven (or upsell if you like that term), in other words there are products that go with the items (and yes I get the "other things that go with this" product view) but many customers don't fully understand some of the properties and the products they need to go along with it or how to use it.
  
  I see that GoDaddy now has an online store, have you had a look at this at all?
  i have numerous domains all registered with godaddy and my email actually goes through godaddy (websites hosted elsewhere due to the frontpage ease of use issue).
  i love Godaddy's support, their access to support and would strongly consider their store if it was decent.
  
  Also these carts that a customer has and submits to us (in several of the ecommerce sites) charge a fee per transaction but what if we want to be in contact with the customer before the actual money transaction happens.
  
  Not sure if I have explained myself well, but hopefully you can understand what I am trying to achieve, and basically that is to have personal contact with the customer to finalize the sale.
  
  Thank you again for your help!
  
  Reply
Harry Anderson 11 years ago

Looking to build a web site for a start up handyman service with the ability to upload photos of completed work and since I'm always on the move it must be mobile. what are your thoughts on what would be best for a one person LLC?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hey Harry,
  
  If you want a functional mobile site, any of the top 3 website builders we highlighted above will work. Squarespace's templates are all mobile responsive, so they look great across all mobile devices. Wix and Weebly has their own mobile editors. But Wix has a lot more design templates for you to choose from than Weebly. But out of all 3 of them, Weebly has the easiest user interface.
  
  It's important to sign up for a few free accounts and just spend some time to see which one you like the best. Each one of them has its own pros and cons, and all their user interfaces are different. So while one person may prefer Squarespace, another person may prefer Wix or Weebly.
  
  So all of them allow you to create a mobile site. But you should pick one that you're the most comfortable with.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
edi jay 11 years ago

hello
i am a mosaic artist and i need my website to do more than just offer 2 dimensional pictures of my portraits and designs.
i need short videos and multiple pictures to show stages of development and detailed quality of mosaic designs.
but there doesn't seem to be any website options that account for this.
i have created videos that show how mosaics change when exposed to light and time of day - which will help sell my products realistically.
but i see no formats that will include it in websites, especially on first page.
what's to do? Can you help? I have tried web designers but they all dont seem to understand this basic requirement.
so i do it myself....
i would appreciate any advice

Reply
1 reply
- Hannah 11 years ago
  
  Hi Edi,
  
  A good web designer will understand your needs. If you want to contact me feel free to do so, I already have some awesome ideas.
  
  hannah @ seodeva . com
  
  Cheers!
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Mike,

Generally speaking, using WordPress is a good option if you aren't afraid of climbing are pretty steep learning curve (as compared to website makers that we discuss on our website). If you want to build your store yourself with WordPress, you'll have to be fairly technical and helps to know codes. Making changes / edits to your design or backend functions on WordPress to customize your store will require modifying codes.

It's either that or you can hire a coder to help you with this, but good WordPress developers are not cheap (and you don't want to pay for a cheap one as it can cause you even more pain (mental and financial) if you pick up the wrong developer!)

If WordPress is not for you, there are several good online store builders that can help you get your ecommerce store up without you having to be technical at all. We have a comparison table for ecommerce builders here and you can take a look to see which one best suits your needs.

If you need an advanced store and tools, check out Shopify and Bigcommerce. If you want a relatively simple store, then Wix, Weebly or Squarespace can be helpful here.

In general, the non-WordPress ecommerce builders are there to help you take care of all the technicalities of hosting and building websites. Whereas with WordPress, you'll have to spend time and energy to maintain all the technicalities of operating a website.

We have a few discussion articles comparing a few website makers and WordPress. You can see them here.

Jeremy

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Mike 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

My wife and I are looking to start an online retail store (fashion), however with zero experience seek out your advise on a single choice.
I have looked over your reviews and must admit that I'm still at a loss.
We have also come across numerous people recommending Wordpress. Would you kindly advise us. Many thanks.

Mike.

Reply
1 reply
- Tim Houston 10 years ago
  
  Please don't use Wordpress. I have so many clients coming to me to untangle the Wordpress mess it's incredible! Stick with something user friendly like Weebly or Wix. Personally, I'm a Weebly fanatic and try touse it for all of my clients, even teach them how to do it themselves. Wordpress is a nightmare.
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Ossy,

Generally I would recommend against downloading a website builder software to build your website, for a couple of key reasons:

1) Hosted website creators such as Wix are continually growing their available tools and web building features. So if you get webeasy pro as a one time payment and installation, it doesn't continually improve. The website building industry is growing quite fast, so if your service provider doesn't grow, you won't get access to advancing tools.

2) Generally speaking, one time payment of $49 might not get you a whole lot of support if you need it. Providing support is a very resource intensive process. That's also why website creators we've discussed on this page charge monthly fees, so that if you need support, they'll be there to help you.

3) If you use a downloaded software to build your site, you'll have to find your own hosting services, which will also charge you a monthly fee. With drag and drop website creators such as Wix, they provide you with all the hosting services already to power your website. They also maintain the servers and keeps it secure, so you don't have to worry about all the technical aspects of hosting. If you get your own hosting, you will have to deal with some level of technical matters.

With Wix, their lowest paid plan is just over $4 per month, and they provide you with the ability to connect your own domain name with the website, and also provides you with hosting services. Don't forget that you will also get the benefit of using new features when they release them. So it's not too high of a monthly plan.

Hope this gives you some insights into my thoughts.

Jeremy

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Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Walt,

I haven't used Kajabi before, but I've heard about it. It's built specifically for delivering online content / classes. So having said that, if that's what you want to do (to sell online courses / classes, and collect tuition fees), then perhaps they will have more relevant / targeted tools for you.

Generally speaking, the website makers we've discussed above are more "general" and have some really great tools to help people build sites. But they may not have the technical infrastructure to help you deliver courses. You can certainly create pages with text, videos, and Wix and Weebly even have membership gateways to lock up your courses so that only members can access certain pages. But they probably won't have tools specifically built for online classes.

Jeremy

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Walt 11 years ago

I have run across another web builder that I think is worth a look. Could you review and add to your comparison chart? I know it may take a while, so is there a way to get an email when you publish your review, rather than check back in periodically? It seems to be 3 products: marketing pages, online course creation, and delivery of online courses (and collect the fee). I have demoed, but I'd like another opinion since you are already familiar with other builders. It's at kajabi.com.

Reply
Jeremy Fidelis 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I'm looking out to branch out as a freelance writer for hire and though I have dabbled in wix and blogger, I want something that looks professional and FREE. Would wix or any other site fulfill my needs. Thanks.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy,
  
  If you are looking for a free web builder, then Wix, Weebly or Jimdo might work for you. Just bear in mind that they do limit the tools available for their free users, and will "unlock" more tools once you become a paying customer.
  
  So in general, you can definitely create pages, insert your contact information, post some of your past work, credentials, etc, with just the free version of Wix. But if you want to brand the website as your own (not show any Wix banners, and connect your own custom domain name), then you will need to upgrade to a paid plan. Such restriction is also true for other website builders.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ossy 11 years ago

Thank for all the great information I really like your articles.
I want a very simple website with 4 pages photo gallery and the usual.
I bought a domain name and hosting from one.com (webhotell) for $34 a year.
It has a Wordpress (one-click autoinstaller) and a primitiv web editor.
i don't like neither of them.i have tried Wix and I liked it but then I saw webeasy pro which is a program to install on my computer.
Price for webeasy is $49 one time payment.
My question is if I go with webeasy and upload my website will I lose out on SEO and other goodys Wix has to offer.
Price is definitely an issue put a good and easy manageable website is also a must.

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Brian 11 years ago

First, let me thank you for this page. After many years with a small law firm, I am going back out as a solo. I need a suitable website which a novice can make, but also one that represents my profession well. I plan on following your recommendation and pick two and try them out. Which two? The biggest question I have is about email. According to your chart, neither of the two that I am inclined to try provide email. "Weebly & Squarespace" This is leading me to consider godaddy, because they do. What do you recommend? How else can I handle email?

Thanks again!!!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Brian,
  
  With both Squarespace and Weebly, you can use Google Business App's email services to power your email. We use Google Business Apps ourselves to power our custom domain email address as well, and we love it as it's easy to use (Gmail) and is very reliable. So it's fantastic for businesses. The small drawback is that it does cost about $4 - $5 per month, but for us it's well worth it.
  
  Here are some tutorials from Squarespace and Weebly on how to set up your own custom domain email address.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ulugbek 11 years ago

Hello

i would like to start online shopping, but i dont know which provider can build great e-com... web

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Ulugbek,
  
  Take a look at our ecommerce store builder comparison table here for some suggestions of some good online store builders.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Dulce,

Wix, Weebly and Jimdo all integrates with PayPal.

None of the website makers are specifically geared towards providing virtual training, so it depends on how you want to deliver your courses.

If you are doing live video stream, you can take your training sessions off site, and use tools like Skype or Google Hangout.

But if the courses are in pre-recorded video format, then you can always create pages, insert your videos into those pages, and hide those pages. Then when someone pays, you can then email them the links to the pages with the videos.

With Wix and Weebly, they offer membership gateway features as well, meaning that you can create membership and only your members can log in and access certain pages. So in a way that offers the feeling of "exclusivity".

The membership function for Wix is free and you can find it in their App Market (more about their App Market here).

With Weebly, you can sign up 100 members with their Weebly Pro plan, but if you want more members and if you want the ability to add a "log in" button on your menu bar, you can upgrade to their Business Plan. We've discussed more about their membership program in this article here.

So while none of the web builders have dedicated functions for online courses, you can build an infrastructure around that by using some of the basic tools (as I suggested).

Hope this points you in the right direction!

Jeremy

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Dulce 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy! My husband and I are looking to expand our personal training and nutrition consultation business by offering online training and consultation aside from in person training. I've been researching what website builder would be best if we were to have people pay for our online virtual personal training and consultation using paypal. What website builder would you recommend? Is there a website builder you know of that allows for virtual training and paypal payments? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

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Drew K 11 years ago

Hello Jeremy, Thank you for the great information here and prompt responses to people's questions. I run a bbq business and have about 50 products I would like to sell online. I want a professional looking website that allows customers to use paypal/debit/credit cards. I also want to incorporate a blog, recipes, cooking videos, social media links, and hopefully an interactive game app. I have some experience building a website, but I'm not a professional, so which site would you recommend for me? Would you happen to know how I can create an app for my customers as well, so they can order products with the click of a few buttons?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Drew,
  
  Have you checked out our comparison chart for ecommerce builders? I'd highly recommend taking a look at Shopify as they'll be able to cater to the items you mentioned, except for the game app which sounds like you're going to build yourself. I haven't created an app before but you'd probably have to hire a developer for that (assuming you're not a hard core coder!)
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hey Gari,

No worries - we were just like you before as well! Everybody starts somewhere.

If you're looking for the easiest website creator to use, yet look professional, I'd suggest you test out Weebly. They have a very good (and easy to learn) user interface. You literally just drag and drop "elements" into your website (such as titles, text, images, galleries, etc).

So you can definitely set up a few pages with biography, images and also a contact form that hooks up with your email address.

Jeremy

Reply
Gari 11 years ago

I am well over 60, a solo lawyer and my knowledge of all things tech start and stop with "is it plugged in?"
I cannot afford to pay an IT person to create/host/maintain a web site, so I am determined to finally create one myself.

I am looking at the comparison charts and sadly cannot make heads or tails of most of the features, e.g. HTML, interface, etc.

All I need is a site that is incredibly simple both to build and view, but has a professional look:.

My pic,a brief bio and a description of services offered and my practice's contact info. Finally a way for a potential client to send me an e-mail inquiry directly from the website.

Could you please recommend one or two of the web services that will let me play with it for a bit, give me the most customer support and has the least possibility of letting me truly mess up?

I really would be grateful!

Reply
Myra 11 years ago

Jeremy, Your research is fantastic!

I am a financial writer primarily, and discouraged after several years of using Contribute, then trying to learn Dreamweaver to upgrade my website and make it easier to use. The learning curve is steep and is taking way too much of my time. My site is almost pure educational, needs many pages of content, but I'd also like to post up epub and ebooks, as well as linking to articles that I have written for publication, and have the ability to upload informational webinars.

Would also like to have the ability for people to give selected feedback on the site. I am vacillating between Wix and Squarespace.

Am I trying for too many things?

PS Which website did you ultimately work with, or did you decide to work with a web designer.

Thank you immensely for your help.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Myra,
  
  I think both Squarespace and Wix will enable you to do the things you want. Just not that to get unlimited pages with Squarespace, you'll need to subscribe to at least their Professional plan.
  
  You can also upload files to your webpages so that people can download them (such as ebooks). Linking to other webpages / articles is pretty straightforward. For Webinars, if you have the videos files or if they could be found on YouTube, then you can definitely insert them into your pages. But I'd suggest you upload them to YouTube first, as YouTube is much better at streaming videos and that takes the effort / load off your website. You can always mark the video as private if you don't want people to find it publicly.
  
  You can always insert comment sections (such as using Disqus) if you want to allow people to comment on your page publicly. If you want private feedback, you can insert a contact form so your visitors can contact you via email.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tanya Castiglione 11 years ago

I have built a website for a nonprofit on WIX but am looking for information on hosting reliability before I choose them. Another member of our Board suggests Wordpress because it is better established. I am not eager to rebuild the website, but she has a very good point. Anybody have information on how reliable various sites are in their hosting and mail handling?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Tanya,
  
  I think the reliability of hosting services varies across different hosts, from strong to really weak.
  
  A general rule of thumb is, the more expensive the hosting service, the more reliable it is for WordPress. There are specialized "WordPress Hosts" out there who's entire business is just to cater to hosting WordPress sites. WP Engine is one of them and their services are very reliable and security is one of their top priorities. But they do charge a premium starting at $29 per month per website.
  
  Some other hosting services, while cheaper, are not as reliable and their support team are not WordPress experts (WP Engine only employs people who are very knowledgeable about WordPress). So if you are leaning towards moving to WordPress, I'd recommend them.
  
  We do have another discussion article comparing Wix and WordPress here. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd also suggest taking a look at it!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kylie Nemer 11 years ago

I like all your articles. You give us insights of the software that help people out in deciding the right one for them.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Kylie!
  
  Reply
Brent 11 years ago

I want to build a site that is in high tech industry. It would be kind of like LendingTree.com where customers put in what they want and how many and I send to my distributors. It's all service as I will not sell any items or carry any inventory so there is no need for a purchasing option. What I need I my website to do is have multiple options for each product. There will be a lot of products and a lot of options for each product. What I want to avoid is a huge cluttered mess and make it easy to navigate. What would you recommend for this?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Brent,
  
  I just visited the site you referenced and I think you'll probably need a pretty custom solution to build something like that. So I don't think any of the drag and drop builders I referenced above will be able to help you build what you want. You'll most likely need to look for a capable developer to help you.
  
  Check out Elance or oDesk to see if you can hire a developer to help you with this.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
kerry 11 years ago

Hi Jeremy

I am an artist (painter, mixed media assemblage) down here at the bottom of the world in New Zealand (right next to Australia)! I am checking out the website builders and like the look of squarespace, but it seems it cannot do e-commerce for NZ? Weebly also appeals because it is the easiest to use by the sound of it. I'm not v. techy and I haven't sold online before. Looking at etsy and linking new website with pinterest f/b as well.

What I want: a beautiful, simple slide show for artworks. Space for "about me", "about the works", maybe some studio shots, option for a blog. Shopping and shipping. I'm not really expecting to sell outside of NZ and maybe Australia - but, hey, you never know! Essentially a showcase with option for selling.

Should I be considering a NZ website builder, rather than international? Hard to know what the nz ones are like - seem expensive and unreliable as to speed. Also would a .nz domain be better than a .com, co etc?

Thanks, you have been most informative and helpful.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Kerry,
  
  Currently, Squarespace uses Stripe to power their payment processor for merchants using their platform, and I don't think it's available in NZ yet.
  
  As for Weebly, yes I think they are one of the easiest website builder to use and you can create slideshows, blogs and other pages to showcase yourself and your products. They allow you to link up your shopping cart with PayPal so it's pretty easy way to get up and running in a very short period of time.
  
  You don't necessarily have to use a NZ based website builder, as all the website builders we discuss are global. I'd personally prefer to use global web builders as it usually suggest that they are more developed and has a much larger customer base.
  
  You don't necessarily have to get a .nz domain name. Generally speaking it's always better to get a .com domain name, just in case you expand beyond NZ. But on the flip side, if you are only targeting local clients, this will show them that you are a local store. But I suppose you can be very clear up front about that on your home page.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 11 years ago

Hi Shem,

It sounds like you need a pretty customized solution for that. None of the website makers we've discussed here has the ability for your visitors to upload their own videos into your website.

Jeremy

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1 reply
- Shem 11 years ago
  
  Does WordPress has the ability for people to upload their videos to my website? Does it cost any money?
  
  Hopefully you know and can answer me, thanks.
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Shem - WordPress is extremely flexible if you are proficient with coding, or if you hire a very capable WordPress programmer to help you. But I personally haven't looked into this before so I can't give you a definitive answer about this.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Shem 12 years ago

Hello, I want to create a website in which people can create an account and upload videos from their computer, sort of like YouTube if you will. Which one is the best website builder for this task?

Thanks,

- Shem

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Marilyn 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy, I'm interested in creating a site using Wix and wanted to know if there is a way to track how many people have visited the site? Thank you so much!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Marilyn,
  
  You can add Google Analytics to your Wix website. Google Analytics is free and it helps you track a lot of different statistics on your website, including number of visitors, how many pages they've visited, how long they spend on your site, etc.
  
  You can find out more information on how to add Google Analytics to your Wix site in their support page here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Nevin 12 years ago

Hi there,

In regards to SEO options for website builder Wix, you mention that Wix allows page level control, including H1 to H6 titles, but you cannot customize your URL. I'm not familiar with the H1 and H6 titles, what does this mean?

Also, you mention not customizing your URL on Wix, so does that mean if we switch to a Wix sitebuilder we have to add the name Wix to our own custom URL? Or are you referring only the URL as it relates to SEO settings.

If we switch to Wix from Godaddy V7 sitebuilder (which were having lots of trouble with because Godaddy tech support does not know how to fix problems despite trying many times) can they import our text and images, pages ect to their site builder (different template of course) or de we have to rebuild site from scratch.

We like Squarespace features but we do not like that black bar that borders all their templates. And we don't really like how the scroll down bar is not on the outside edge of the templates. It feels like your website is reduced in screen size to allow for those fixed borders that surround the templates. We assume this is the part that makes their templates mobile. That part just doesn't feel right to us though.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 11 years ago
  
  Hi Nevin,
  
  "H" means Heading. Very simplistically, when used, it tells Google that it is something worth emphasizing, or is a section divider. So when Google crawls and reads the content on your site, having these headings will help it understand a bit better what your content is about. H1 has a much higher emphasis than H6. So for some users, having better control over headings can help you better communicate what you are trying to emphasize on the page.
  
  Not being able to customize the URL means that if you can change the text of your URL. So for this page you are on right now, our URL structure is domain name / page name "website-builders-comparison-chart". Being able to change it means I can change it to "website-chart" (for instance). This also helps tell Google what the content of the page is, so having this flexibility is good.
  
  So you don't have to show any "Wix" text in your website address (if you are using one of its paid plans).
  
  Hope this clarifies things!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tom Bennett AMSOIL JOBBER 12 years ago

Who owns the website when an outside firm builds the website?
Thanks,
Tom

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  That depends? I'm not entirely sure how to answer your question without any more context. If you hire a firm to build a website for you, then it's really up to the contractual agreement between you and the firm. But logically you would want to make sure that you have final ownership of the website!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
RebMill 12 years ago

I am wondering if WIX has a mobile application. When I go to their site, it indicates they do have mobile; but when I look on your chart is appears they do not have mobile. Can you clarify?

Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi RebMill,
  
  Yes Wix does have a mobile editor, so you can configure the mobile display of your website built with Wix. What they don't have is a Mobile App, which some other builders have (such as Squarespace, Weebly or Jimdo) that allows you to manage your website on your mobile device.
  
  Some people who are constantly on the go prefer to have mobile apps to do some editing, approve blog comments, etc remotely. But if you're not going to be doing a whole lot of editing while you are not in front of your computer, then having or not having mobile apps is not too important.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Sa,

With Weebly, you get access to their ecommerce tools even if you are using their Starter or Pro plans. But with the lower plans, you are limited to less products you can set up (10 for Starter Plan and 25 for Pro Plan). Take a look at this more indepth discussion to see the differences between the plans.

I don't think any of the website creators we discussed here has the ability to let your visitors book a date in a calendar and make a deposit for that day. But what you can do is create product pages for people to purchase bookings, by adding the deposit amount to the shopping cart. So the "deposit" is the product that they can purchase.

However, you'll have to contact them afterwards to confirm the booking date. I'm not too familiar with other online booking engines that you can add into website creators and have them smoothly integrated.

Jeremy

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Sa 12 years ago

I have a small business that is just starting out in which we teach surf,stand up paddle boarding, fitness, ocean education and safety, etc. a feature I would like to have is for customers to be able to book a lesson or package online and pay a deposit to reserve spot. Do any of the site builders accommodate this? Also, am I reading correctly in that you only get eCommerce on weebly if you sign up for their premier ($25) plan? Whereas squarespace you get at least some eCommerce in their lesser priced plans? Thank you for this review and your feedback.

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Jeremy 12 years ago

Hey Alex,

Have a look at Shopify or Bigcommerce. We have a comparison chart here that compares both builders here. Both of them are "pure" ecommerce website makers and so they have a lot more advanced tools than Squarespace or GoDaddy.

Jeremy

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Alex 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

Thank you for your great information. I have a question to ask. I am trying to choose a company to host a eCommerce web site. I am starting a online business where I will be selling products. I need a website that can have a shopping cart and also be able to have a log in feature where I can have my customers sing up to create a account.

I tried Godday and Squarespace overall I liked both however, square space templates are so simple and plain and they only allow one picture to be uploaded for the product. And go daddy doesn't have a the log in feature.

Would you be able to advice on what your thoughts are? Do you think I possibly buy a ready made template and customize so It gives me all the features I am looking for?

Thank you
Alex

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DC 12 years ago

Jeremy,

Thank you for the very informative website builder reviews. I am looking to create a website for my real estate company that rents out space in a strip mall, has a few residential rentals and billboards. I do not need ecommerce. I would like an industry specific theme to work with. I also am looking to show photos and locations on a map. I use Mailchimp for my retail business and like its ease of use and would like a website builder that is also user friendly and not too expensive. I would welcome your recommendation.

Thanks,
DC

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi DC,
  
  I think all of the website builders have the capability to do what you want. So if you are looking for the easiest website builder to use, I'd suggest giving Weebly a try. You can sign up for a free account and test them out to see what you think.
  
  But their templates are not as nice as Squarespace or Wix, but if that's not too important for you then it's not a huge concern. But Wix has a much larger selection of industry specific templates, and Squarespace's templates are just a lot more visually appealing.
  
  They all allow you to sign up for free to test them out without any obligations to upgrade. So it's worth investing some time into figuring out which one works the best for you.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
ken hobart 12 years ago

whichof these companies would have the best presence in other regions of the world (the oriental or australia)Thanks Ken Hobart

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Ken,
  
  I think all of them are capable of helping you build websites. So in a way it doesn't really matter where you are located as long as you select one that you enjoy working with. They all have different tools and user interface so it's worth testing a couple of them out before deciding.
  
  Website builders nowadays scale their platform around the world so they have customers globally. Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Sylvester,

Shopify is probably one of the best "pure" ecommerce online store builder you can find on the market right now, that doesn't require you to be very technical to build your website.

Take a look at our comparison table here if you haven't seen it yet.

If you want something less expensive, take a look at Weebly. But in general, all of the plans across all the website makers that offer you decent ecommerce tools are priced at above $20 per month.

But put things in perspective, if your goal is to build a successful online store, a $20 - $50 per month investment for tools to build your online store so you can actually sell is not an outrageous fee! It's a cost of doing business :)

Jeremy

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sylvester 12 years ago

hi jeremy,

thanks for your recommendations. I have one through the list but still having difficulty to select the most affordable and stable (in terms of page loading speed and service quality) website builder.

I am looking to build an ecommerce website. My friend recommended me Shopify but they are sooo expensive!

Reply
Chris 12 years ago

im trying to find something affordable and easy to use is this product for me

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  hi Chris,
  
  I'd suggest Weebly if you want a website builder that's very user friendly. They might not have the most features, but they are quite easy to use!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lorena 12 years ago

Hi There,

Very happy that I came across your website!

I have an Etsy shop and a "paused" Shopify store. I have resumed building out the Shopify store and remembered one of my main issues with it....the home page is very underwhelming. What are some recommended solutions? Hire someone to build it out? Change templates? Use one of these landing page specific services?

If some of the above doesn't make sense is because I am a TOTAL beginner :))

Thanks in advance for your help!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Lorena,
  
  I guess it depends on what you mean by underwhelming. If it's a design issue, perhaps changing your theme will help and is probably the easiest thing to do (if you are not proficient with altering your codes to redesign your site!)
  
  But if you can't find the right Shopify theme, there are experts out there for hire and Shopify has a listing of them. Shopify screens all the experts that they suggest on their site, so I'm sure they'll do a really good job in assisting you with your needs.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mark Reed, DPM 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy:

First of all, thank you for your dedication to this valuable information.

I have a 25 year-old medical website that I have to modernize. It is working fine and I update it using Dreamweaver but it is still old school and not responsive. I know Dreamweaver and photoshop very well. However, I do not want to mess with CSS and HTML if I can avoid it and there is an easier alternative for a rather simple information website. I want to create a fully responsive site. Do you have any knowledge if any of the builders have Medical website templates. Considering I am not a newbie and know basic HTML and CSS, your guidance would be greatly appreciated. My old site is frame based and is 'www.footpain.org. May I thank you in advance for your kind reply. Mark Reed, DPM.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Mark,
  
  If you want a responsive website, you should take a look at Squarespace. Even though they don't have a template specific for your industry, their templates can be adapted to suit your own design needs. They also allow you to modify CSS codes so you can customize some design to a certain extent.
  
  You can also look at Weebly. Some of their newer templates are responsive but they don't have a lot of them yet (versus Squarespace - all their templates are mobile responsive). With Weebly, you have full access to both HTML and CSS. So if you're not afraid of editing codes, you can really make a lot of design customization here too.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
brinfotech 12 years ago

Website Builders Comparison Chart i s good...

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Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi CL,

I think Weebly has the capability and features to help you build those. Weebly in our view is probably the easiest drag and drop website creator available in the market right now.

That is not to say that other web builders such as Squarespace and Wix are not easy to use either. All of them don't require you to know how to code at all, and to build content you just have to drag and drop them into your website. It's just that Weebly has a bit less tools and options, so in a way a reduction of bells and whistles makes it easier for people to move forward.

But if you like more options (yet keep web building simple as you don't need to code or have any special technical abilities), then Squarespace and Wix are also excellent candidates.

What you can do is sign up for a Weebly account, and perhaps other website creators, for free, and test them out to see which you like the best. It's a good investment of time as you'll be spending a lot of time building out your website!

Jeremy

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CL Rueter 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
Great information for us beginners. I am currently doing research to get my website up and running. I have a photographer friend who likes Weebly quite a lot and recommended them but I am a writer and am planning one website with several areas to click on (i.e. cookbooks, health & wellness, favorites, etc.). I will be running a contest giveaway once in awhile too. With this little bit of information I've given you, do you think Weebly the best option - please keep in mind, I am a TOTAL novice at the website stuff.
Thank you for any light you can shed on the subject!

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Jennie 12 years ago

Hi - I'm looking for a website builder which provides a data capture facility (e.g. capture email address and perhaps also first name and last name) so that I can offer a free giveaway e.g. free ebook/list of tips etc. in exchange for customers' email addresses (like you have above this comments section). As far as I can tell none of the above website building services offer this or am I wrong? If they don't then can you recommend a website builder that does offer this? Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jennie,
  
  Wix has a newsletter function (it's called WixShoutOut) but at the moment, you have to import a set of email addresses you have already, or you can only get your visitors' email addresses if they contact you through their contact form.
  
  So Wix ShoutOut is functional in that it helps you send out newsletters to your list of contacts, but they're not as effective yet in helping you capture or collect email addresses (such as a pop up lightbox, or a sign up form).
  
  There are a few pretty good newsletter services available out there, such as Aweber or Mailchimp. They allow you to create sign up forms that can be embedded into your website, and I know that Aweber also allows you to create a pop up sign up box.
  
  Once you create your forms / sign up box with Aweber / Mailchimp, they give you a snippet of code and you can then insert it into your website. All of the drag and drop website builders listed above allow you to insert snippets of codes into your website.
  
  Hope this is helpful!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jennie 12 years ago
  
  Thanks Jeremy for your quick response and helpful information.
  Sorry I don't think I was completely clear but I'm looking for a function/tool where I can give away a free ebook on the site i.e. visitor comes to the site, sees free ebook offer, types in name and email and then the ebook is automatically sent to them by email (or link within an email sent to them). Their name and emaIl info is then captured/collected for me so I can build a database of interested people who in the future I can send a newsletter or further offers to.
  This would work in the same way as you have on your site above where you're giving away the "top 8 tools you need to know to build your website" - i.e. the visitor can get the info straight away in exchange for their email address.
  Do you know if any of the website builders offer this function/tool?
  Thanks again
  Jennie
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Jennie,
  
  I know exactly what you're talking about. None of the website builders provide such comprehensive tool that is fully integrated into the builder. That's why I suggested checking some third part newsletter software such as the one I mentioned in my previous comment. Then integrating their services into your website. A lot of people do it this way, and we've certainly done it a number of times in our other websites before. It should work across all the website builders discussed in this post.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jennie 12 years ago
  
  That's great - thanks again for your time and helpful advice!
  
  Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Cesar,

It's hard to say for sure which one is best, as what's "best" can be determined by how much you like using each of the website maker you mentioned. Squarespace and Wix are both very good website makers that enable you to build websites easily.

So perhaps the next step is to just sign up for free accounts with both of them to see which one you prefer to use. Both of their user interfaces are very different, so your experiences in using them will be different as well.

Squarespace may not have a template that's dedicated for education institutions, but you can still use their templates and just insert your own content that's related to education. Good luck with that!

Jeremy

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Lou 12 years ago

Hi, Jeremy - me again. Your comparison chart shows Weebly Pro as allowing 100 members. If only that were true. I think it's only 20.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Lou - that's very strange. They released a blog post in November 2014 that they bumped the number of members from 20 up to 100 for Weebly Pro plans. But I just looked at their plans again and I do see 20 members again.
  
  I'm wondering if they are testing different plans to see which is more receptive (well, of course 100 is better!). Have you tried asking their support team to see what's going on? They clearly stated in their blog post that they bumped the number up to 100 members!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Cesar Morillo 12 years ago

I was wondering which website builder would be the best to build a school website. I was looking at the Squarespace and WIX templates, and by far the best option seems to be WIX. I can't even find an educational institution template on Squarespace. Any suggestions? Thanks!

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Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Remy3,

Yes you can. What you'll need to do is transfer your domain name out of Wix and to another domain name registrar (such as GoDaddy). Then when your domain name is stored with GoDaddy, connect it to the new website creator you will be using.

Just visit Wix's support center, and search for "transfer domain" and you'll find an article that talks about how to transfer your domain name out of Wix (if you ever decide to not use Wix any more).

Jeremy

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1 reply
- Remy3 12 years ago
  
  Thank you
  
  Reply
Remy3 12 years ago

Hello Again

I am wondering if i bought a domain name from WIX and built a website using them, If i wanted to change the website building company later in the future, can i still use the domain name provided by WIX with GODADDY for example ?

Thank you

Reply
RA Heddinger 12 years ago

Thank you for your informative website on this topic, as a beginner, I am frankly scared of getting lost and not getting my website done effectively and up and running for our business. We had a website for exposure for about 20 years, then the times changed, with all the online sites, mortar and brick companies who did this have been pushed out of business. That is what happened to us, I never learnt the process, and now in matter of days I must learn and get our site up. Also, the company we used took care of the due dates and we just pay them with a cheque for network solutions, hosting, web changes were all taken care of.

I did not expect the business world to change as it did and I did not pay attention; our website went up for sale, the cost of retrieval was about $600.00 and we did not think it was defiantly not worth it.

We are a brick and mortar store, e-commerce could enhance our business, but mainly we are experts in ski service and repair (now includes snowboards) and only a cartoon wizard could bring the equipment in and when done sent it back to the customer (Ha! have to have some sense of humour). Squaresense (I hope I got the name right) I will try first, then Wix next. The Shopby (I think I got the name right; I am trying to remember everything from one reading) has the empty cart feature, but with the ski service for our store, I believe that Squaresense will be on top of progress and I will then have the same web company. I want to learn the web company well enough to give our customers the best service and not be a 'jack rabbit'.

There is one point that is totally missed, that is how to pay, hearsay has told me 'do not use your own personal credit card' and I have never had paypal and would have to have something else to learn. So at our convenient store I purchased a pre-paid credit card to set up our website. Please add this help to your site for others. Thank you again for your site. Now I have to get to work and see if I succeed in getting our site up.

I have to be honest, I hate this computer job and would rather be doing something else, The computer for me is 'pain in the....' and is too time consuming. I still wish there was a simpler way for us beginners!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi RA,
  
  Thanks for sharing your story. The business world is indeed changing really fast and with so many new technology coming online every single day, I also feel overwhelmed and falling behind a lot of the times.
  
  Regarding your question, it's safe to use your own credit card online (a lot of people are shopping online nowadays) but just make sure that when you insert your private information (your name, credit card details, address, etc) on the webpage, that the page is properly protected. You can usually tell by looking at the website address, and if you see "https://" in front of the website address, that means the page is protected. Make sure there is an "s" in front of "http"
  
  Best of luck in getting your ecommerce site up and running!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Belinda Corani 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy

My question is on podcasts and links to a podcast that you produce and host elsewhere (via Libsyn etc).

Wix only offer a link via Soundcloud and a button use for iTunes.
Squarespace allows all the links (RSS etc) but has the 2 week time frame before it deletes your photos and postings (I have discovered this morning!). So as this is going to take time, I'd rather not use it now.

Does Weebly or Jimdo allow all the links to podcasts?

(I wish I could get the hang of Wordpress but I find it too complicated!)
Thanks so much for these excellent reviews!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Belinda,
  
  Thanks for your question. I'm not too familiar with creating websites for podcasts, as we don't have a podcast! But can you not just create an image / button and just directly link it to Libsyn, or the page that hosts all your podcast downloads?
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Matt,

I think the top ranking website creators (such as Squarespace, Wix and Weebly) are all quite forward looking and are always improving and growing their platforms.

However, the limitation is that they are all "closed" systems so that it's not as easy for you to start adding different software / add-on's to them. It's best if you use each of these web builders using their existing tools.

If you want to start adding tools that are not offered by these website creators, it's possible to a certain extent, but just keep in mind that they're not as flexible as custom built websites where you can do as you please. There are boundaries when you use drag and drop website creators.

Also one thing to note is that there isn't an easy way for you to take your existing site and import its content into drag and drop builders, as each platform is built / coded differently so cross platform migration isn't easy (or possible at all in most cases). You might have to re-build your entire content using the new website creator that you pick.

Jeremy

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1 reply
- Matt 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy, thanks for your detailed reply.
  
  I am leaning toward Blue Host, using Weebly, and I like your reviews and comparisons, too, and I definitely need a drag and drop. As for my old site, the company that offered the soon to be defunct Trellix is going to migrate all paid customers to their soon completed site builder, so while my site was/is a pretty good revenue stream, I will just have to hope that they migrate with minimum problems.
  
  My follow-up question. I am wanting to build 50 plus websites, not subdomains, with a separate domain name for each site (currently parked), under one subscription, and with unlimited bandwidth / diskspace. The sites that I hope to build will be simple, informational in nature, and not ecommerce and do not need SSL. I will use only adsense as my sole income stream on each of the 50 sites, but I really seek a company with good tech. support, and by phone if necessary. I definitely want drag and drop since it suits my experience and comfort level, so, with apologies for delaying my question, do you think that Blue Host, using Weebly builder, is a good host and site builder option to use? If so, do you have a Blue Host link that I may click to give you credit? Thanks!
  
  Matt
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Matt,
  
  I think if you want a lot of hands on support (especially phone support), then Bluehost is a good way to go as they do offer a bit more support.
  
  50 websites is quite a lot to manage so best of luck to you. But I think Weebly on Bluehost will allow you to do that, and you can place Adsense on websites built with Weebly.
  
  We do have another discussion article here about using Weebly itself versus the version of Weebly with Bluehost (click here). It's an older post but the ideas are still very relevant.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Peter,

The drag & drop website makers that we discuss on our website provide all the hosting services for you, so you won't need any separate services for hosting. These website makers enable you to build websites on their platform, and they store the entire website along with its content for you. This makes it so much easier for you to manage and not have to worry too much about technical stuff.

What you can do is connect your custom domain name to the website maker - that's entirely possible. For instance, if you build a website using Wix, you can follow their tutorials and connect your own domain name to the website you build with Wix.

So when someone types in your website address, they will be taken to your website, that is hosted by Wix.

Hope this simplifies things a bit for you!

Jeremy

Reply
Patrick 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,
I need to build a website/blog. I have been posting a daily post/blog/devotional on FB and texting. Well, its grown to hundreds and just too much for these platforms, so I need a website so the people can "find me" rather than or in addition me reaching out to them. Just a place where I can post, then people can comment, like, share, etc... Each post (in text) has a corresponding picture/graphic. Thats the main part, the daily messages. Then I need a section for videos to be posted/shared/watched. The ability for people to join as members. And of course, to make donations if they choose to. Another section for our once-a-week "special interest" post. So basically, there are five topics and the one special interest post each week. I was looking for the greatest flexibility to add/expand the site later. I didn't want to build a whole site, then have to start over from scratch. I had found a wordpress template that I liked. From what I"ve been reading here, squarespace or weebly seems best. Open to your expert suggestions. thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Patrick,
  
  I think Squarespace and Weebly are good spots to start experimenting. You can create blog pages so it's easier for your visitors to share your posts. You can even insert videos into each blog post if you want to.
  
  You don't have to build out your entire website before deciding on which website builder to use. Just sign up for a free account with each of the builder, and just play around with it to test them out a bit. Add a blog page and insert a test blog post, and see if the formatting / layout / functionality works for you.
  
  That will be a good starting point to give you a sense of which web builder you enjoy more.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ron 12 years ago

My web designer decided to quit the business and I have to take over the websites for our 3 restaurants. I would like to create something nicer than what we had. Which web builder has stronger restaurant tools? Did you do a review on Web.com yet?

Thank you,
Ron

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Ron,
  
  We haven't used Web before, but if you want a really professional looking website design for restaurants, check out Squarespace or even Wix. Squarespace has some really good looking restaurant oriented templates, along with some pretty good tools to help you construct an online menu to display for your customers.
  
  We also referenced a Squarespace video on this page here which shows you how to build an example restaurant website.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Matt 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I have one website, 2,000 plus pages, that was built by trellix sitebuilder ten years ago, but the trellix (now web trellix) has gone the way of the dino and it did not have the ability to keep up with technology-- so it just plain left me as a bagholder and no place to migrate. So my question is, I am currently looking at building new sites with Blue Host by using Weebly, but would like to know if Weebly is able to able to adapt its site builder to new technology that continually rolls out. I know that wordpress releases plugins and is future friendly, but I am limited to drag and drop.

I want to add that my old site is at the mercy of Lycos, who had third party rights to trellix, and they hope to migrate our old sites onto their new site builder in the coming months, perhaps April 2015, but since their customer service has no answers about what to expect, I just gotta move on, but hopefully not to go through the nightmare again with a site builder that isn't future friendly. Thanks! Matt

Reply
Peter 12 years ago

Hi,

I currently have a domain through Network Solutions for my business. I presently do not have a website but would like to set one up for my business. I would like to get a website going using drag and drop type website builders and then have Network Solutions host the website. I'm leaning toward using Squarespace. Are there any downsides or limitations to this approach that I should be aware of?

I am completely new to website building.

Thank you for your assistance.

Peter

Reply
Ken 12 years ago

Hi,

Would like to ask any website builder that provide free plan, and allow for free customs domain name, means I can put in my own domain name instead of subdomain or any else.

If there is no, could you kindly recommend any that allow for free custom domain name, and yet the lowest chargers per month.

Frankly said, I just need a very simple page to show my business overlook, and so I need my own domain name but others features not really that important to me.

Thanks in advance.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Ken,
  
  Unfortunately I'm not sure any decent website builders will offer you a free domain name, or allow you to connect your own domain name to their website builder without some sort of paid subscription plan. To be honest, if I did find one, I would be cautious about its reliability and the longevity of its business, as it takes quite a bit of financial resources to develop, sustain and grow a web builder platform.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Maria 12 years ago

Jeremy--- You have a great site, thank you for all the information!

I deciding which web builder to use for a refresh of my old site. I have used GoDaddy in the past, but their CSS style sheet is no longer available in their new product. My biggest concern is optimization for search visibility. I have some image content, but the focus is much more on text information audio files as I work in the music industry.

Which builder would you recommend for ease of insertion for Header tag customization? I have looked at both Squarespace and Wix. There seems to see much dissatisfaction with Search discoverability on the Wix platform when reading user comments, but their design interface is more the direction I need for the build.

What do you suggest? Being on the first page of a long tag search is key.
Thanks.
Maria

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Maria,
  
  Regarding searchability for websites built with Wix, I've commented about this a few times in this article here. The most recent one was just from a few days ago.
  
  I (personally) think that the majority of people find it challenging to get their websites to rank high so they may naturally assume that the fault falls 100% on the web builder. But I would also think that if you gave them WordPress (known to be search friendlier), they'd probably not do too well either.
  
  It's just my guess as I don't have any empirical evidence to support that, but that's just based on our experience in observing others and how they build their sites over the past few years.
  
  Getting good ranking takes a lot of time, persistence and patience. If all sites naturally rank high, then everybody will rank high - meaning the search results will be pretty meaningless!
  
  But if you want an editor that will give you full access to the HTML and CSS codes, Weebly gives you that!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Mario,

To be honest it sounds like you'll have to build a pretty custom website to power those functions. There might be some travel booking software that you can purchase or subscribe to use their services, but if you want to create an entire booking engine from scratch, it's going to be a very expensive project and you'll need to hire some very strong, capable developers to help you engineer that.

But there is one option, which is Wix for hotel reservations. They have an app called WixHotels that you can use to power your website (built with Wix). We have an article about it here.

Other than that, I don't think any of the website makers discussed here will be helpful for your needs. They're great for people who want to build a business, ecommerce, portfolio, or personal website.

Hope this helps!

Jeremy

Reply
mario 12 years ago

hi..
i am working on a personal project..im trying to build a website that can be used for online booking of airline, bus tickets and also hotel reservations..i tried using joomla but i couldnt find what i needed..what design platform would u recommend..ps i have no knowlege of coding..pls im looking forward to ur reply.

Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Martin,

Thanks for your question. I think most of the website creators above will enable you to accomplish what you want. So it really comes down to which web builder you are more comfortable with using. They all have different user interfaces so the only way to find out is to test them out to see which one you prefer to use.

In terms of design, I'd suggest either Squarespace or Wix. Both have really great looking templates to make your site look professional. But in terms of ease of use (which sounds important to you), I'd suggest testing out Weebly. This is not to say that Squarespace or Wix are not easy to use - they are. But I just find Weebly very intuitive to learn and use. They're all very capable website creators!

However, none of these website creators offer you built in email services. You can integrate your site with Google Business Apps to power your email, allowing you to have your own custom domain email address, and also use Google's Gmail user interface which I personally like very much (easy to use and very stable).

Hope this helps!

Jeremy

Reply
Martin 12 years ago

Hi there,

I am looking to build a simple website for my construction company. I am not very technically savvy and need it to be easy to build and edit. I would like a few pages to showcase my work (portfolio of photos) and to have a comment/recommendations section. I also would like to be able to add some words/tags?? so when people are searching in my city my website will be on the top of the google listing.

I also will need to have it hosted with an email (I think or I can use gmail).

Which site would you recommend?

Thanks

Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Philip,

Yes, hiring a professional developer to custom build a website for you could be a very big investment, but there are pros with that approach as well as a very capable developer can help you build a very customized site with customized functions. But there are certainly risks associated with that as well (developer not delivering on what you asked for, budget over-runs, etc).

Having said that, it sounds like what you're looking for, is something that helps you build a community of users, so something like a social network where people can join and participate? If so, then none of the website creators above are geared towards that. They're great for building "normal" websites, such as a website representing businesses, online stores, portfolio, etc.

I heard that Ning.com is great tool to power social network type websites. Perhaps you can give that a try?

Jeremy

Reply
Philip 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy

Appreciate the way you put your thoughts behind every question and reply it so appropriately. From your posts I understand that weebly might be a solution for me... but thought to run it past you.

I am a newbie, registered my domain through godaddy and now thinking of the next step. My first train of thought was to hire a professional webpage designer/hoster but the costs are astronomical. I then came across this page through my google search. My webpage idea is build on a community of residents.. say a small county of 5000 people. I want to pull all like minded professionals in the county. have a common platform for kids, housewives etc etc. Link professionals to each other. At some stage this will involve ecomm in terms of professionals or service providers selling through our website.

Seek your advice on the best way forward. Thanks a ton mate. God Bless

Reply
John 12 years ago

Let me explain my situation. I am 86 years old, living in a large retirement community, and a member of a 100+ members writer's club. Probably 25 or more of our members have published books, some of which are sold through Amazon, local book stores, etc. Our club wants a website where we can list names of our authors and a link to a page where there is an author bio. and description of the author's book(s). We would also like to have an entry point directly to the books without going through the author's list. Other desirable features would be Calendar of coming events, Newsletters, guest short stories and club president's monthly editorial. We would like the first page of our website to be an attention grabber. I am thinking in terms of a slide show of pertinent pictures - with our ability to change the pictures (maybe 10) periodically. Money is a consideration, of course.

I retired from the computer field 25 years ago. My last job was working in a large corporation as System's Analyst after moving through all phases of the then computer field including detailed programming. I am familiar with normal office applications (WORD, EXCEL, ACCESS) but am not interested in learning new computer languages in order to support a website.

I have read your blogs, looked at your reviews and thought about your insightful comments but still not sure what to do. WHICH SYSTEM SHOULD I START WITH? Is a drag & drop out of the question?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  You can give Squarespace a try (they have a 14 day trial period) and I think you will be able to do most of the items that you want. Their templates are attention grabbing.
  
  Squarespace does offer you a calendar / event tool, and you can build in the authors' names and books by using the basic text / image tools.
  
  For newsletter, you will have to sign up to an auto responder service separately (such as Aweber) and integrate that with your website. Aweber will provide you with a snippet of code that you can insert into your website.
  
  So I think you can still try to build what you have in mind using a drag and drop builder. But you might not get all the features you want, but it's a much simpler solution than learning new codes, coding your site from scratch, or hiring a freelancer to build your site for you (which has some pros and cons).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hi Jackie,

Take a look at Squarespace as they have a built in calendar function and also allows for ecommerce. If you don't mind using an "external" calendar widget that you can try to bolt on to a website, you can check out Wix and Weebly.

I've seen some people use tools like Google Calendar and insert them into websites. But the challenge sometimes is that (depending on which calendar software you use), it may not work 100% perfectly with some website makers. The main reason being that the tools are not fully integrated into the website building platform. But with larger widgets such as Google Calendar, it should be fine.

That's one thing to keep in mind that it's always preferable to use tools that are built by the website makers, as they ensure that everything is integrated.

Jeremy

Reply
Jackie 12 years ago

I'm looking to build a website that allows e-commerce, has a calender any recommendations?

Reply
Gavriel 12 years ago

Big difference which isn't included here is which of these website builders allow you to create multiple websites from the same account. For example Square Space requires you to pay for an additional account for each website, so $20 quickly becomes $60-$100 per month if you have a few websites to create. Other providers do not charge for additional websites.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Gavriel,
  
  Thanks for your comment, and perhaps I can help clarify this a bit further.
  
  Squarespace doesn't have a "free" plan, they only offer a 14 day trial period and you can decide if you want to upgrade or not. With builders such as Wix and Weebly, they do offer free plans but you won't get access to all their features.
  
  So while you can build as many websites as you wish with the free plans, one thing that's missing is that you won't be able to connect your own custom domain name to those sites until you upgrade to a paying plan. So if you were to use the free tools, you will have to use their subdomain names which is branded as, for example, Wix or Weebly. There will also be advertisements on your site, which is fair since the site is free.
  
  If you want to upgrade the sites to their paid plans, you will have to upgrade on a "per site" basis. So that basically works the same way as Squarespace's service offerings.
  
  Good question / comment though!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Anita 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Great article. Thanks; it helps to see in comparison view. I've also read some of the full length reviews which are insightful as well. I am looking to start a business that has a subscription model with a few different options. Do you recommend any of these for something like that? I do need to build the website....

thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Anita,
  
  Glad that you found our discussions helpful! Unfortunately none of the web builders above offers you the ability to power paid membership / subscription businesses.
  
  An option is to check out Shopify, which is a pure online store builder, and they have apps in their App Market that you can plug into your ecommerce store that's built on Shopify to charge recurring payments.
  
  Obviously there are other options out there if you don't mind using WordPress.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Paul Williams 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy - I’ve found your blogs very helpful, especially the Squarespace/Wordpress and GoDaddy website builder reviews which I have just finished reading right to the end. Fantastic research you have done Jeremy saving me hours of effort. Those blogs have answered most of my questions. I have come down in favour of WP because the general opinion seems to be that it is the best blogging tool available.

I would appreciate your comments on the following:

- What are the benefits of multiple sites
- I believe WP allows site development offline before going live on the host
- Can I change themes in WP without affecting content

Thank you – Paul

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Paul,
  
  Yup for sure WordPress is really good for blogs especially if you don't mind the steeper learning curve. One of the downsides of WordPress is that if you want to re-design certain parts of your template, you'd have to be pretty handy with codes, or hire someone to do that for you.
  
  For multiple sites, I guess there are many reasons why you should or should not do it. It's really up to you. If you have completely unrelated topics, maybe it's worth building separate sites to brand them separately. But if they're related, maybe keep them together for branding reasons, and for efficiency reasons. So you don't have to manage 3 separate sites, which can also be cheaper as well if you factoring in hosting costs.
  
  You can develop your site offline, but then you'll have to be comfortable with working your file transfers and hosting related process. Some people find it very easy, some find it challenging. Again it all depends. But there are WordPress dedicated hosts out there (such as WP Engine) that allow you to create a staging account so you can do your edits there, then launch it from the staging area to replace the live site.
  
  Again it depends. If a theme has custom post type, and the other theme doesn't, the content may not migrate over. Or another way of seeing it is that the new theme may not know how to show it. But that's getting pretty technical and I'm not the best WordPress guy out there by any means!
  
  Best to consult a WordPress specialist if you need help! (As you can see, WordPress is great, but it gets much more complex than some drag and drop website builders).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Frank Walter 12 years ago

Have you performed an evaluation of webs.com
Thanks,
Frank

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Frank - yes we have and you can see it here.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Frances 12 years ago

I've been assigned the task of creating a website for my non-profit organization. I've used Shutterfly in the past, and while it was easy and I liked the layout, I very much disliked having their "shutterfly" as part of our name. Very cumbersome.

I do require it be EASY to use, but also want it to look professional. I've been researching and seem to go in circles. Do you have a suggestion?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  hi Frances,
  
  I'd suggest you test out Wix or Weebly in terms of user friendliness. Both are free to use and you can upgrade with their plans when you are ready, which will also allow you to use your own custom domain name so that your site is branded accordingly.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy 12 years ago

Hey Bruce,

All of the website makers we've outlined above allow you to build sites without writing any codes, as they are all drag and drop builders.

If you want something really easy and intuitive, give Weebly a try as in my view they are the easiest one to use.

But if you want more design options and flexibility, take a look at Squarespace or Wix, as both have really nice looking design templates and also gives you more design features to tinker with, without touching any codes.

Hope this points you in the right direction!

Jeremy

Reply
msk 12 years ago

Is there any good reason why many of these types of sites do not provide H1 page title tags for users? Seems most odd, and I cannot think of a logical reason why they're left out/unavailable. I've found this to me a huge drawback with Weebly; indeed, I find Weebly highly problematic on many counts, and getting worse, not better. The ONLY reason I've stuck with them the past couple of years is because they provide unlimited storage space, Thanks in advance.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Msk,
  
  I'm not sure either. But here is a "hack" that you can do to turn your H2 to H1. It does require you to tinker with codes a tiny bit, but pretty easy to do.
  
  What other issues are you encountering? Maybe I can point you in the right direction.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  msk 12 years ago
  
  Hmm, I replied at some length to this (yesterday), but I just noticed that, apparently, it seems to have disappeared?? Anyhow, thanks for the suggestion. As for my ongoing, ever-growing problems with Weebly, I could reply/query you offsite (if possible), but I don't wish to burden your readers with my own problems, especially if they turn out to be idiosyncratic and not indicative of what others have experienced with Weebly. (Wonder what happened to my earlier reply?? I've lost my train of thought.) Anyway, thanks again! msk
  
  Reply
Bruce 12 years ago

I'm glad I came across this site. I'm starting from scratch with no previous experience. I have a domain registered at go daddy, now I want to build a webpage and get it hosted somewhere. I don't have coding experience but I'll meet to update the web page content regularly.
What do you recommend? what will be the easiest and most convent net for future changes?
Thanks

Reply
eve 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

How important is it to have a phone number? I want to start a lip gloss business. What would be the better option for me?I did a lot of research but still cannot make up my mind.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Eve,
  
  I think it's really a personal preference. Having a phone number gives your visitors / prospective customers a bit more confidence, even if they don't call you. But if you put a phone number up, you better be prepared to answer calls at the weirdest and sometimes inconvenient hours!
  
  One thing to consider is that if you do insert your number, people expect you to pick up, or get back to them quickly. This expectations can hurt your branding if it's not carefully managed.
  
  So there are pros and cons. All depends on whether you mind or don't mind answer calls at all times.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Béatrice 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy, thank you for your nice comparative page with lots of great info. I was wondering if besides wix, weebly, godaddy etc. there is anything you know, or the users know about yahoo site building & hosting

thank you for feed back
BB

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Beatrice,
  
  I haven't used Yahoo's site builder before, but I heard that it wasn't the greatest from a few people (but their experiences were from years ago).
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
christy 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
I am looking to create a website for my handmade soap business. I don't need anything really fancy, just simple to use and I would like a shopping cart that paypal can be used with. I have never created a website and I don't even know what I should really be looking for in a site to create what I need. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Christy,
  
  I think one of the first things you might want to do is to do some basic research online to see how some business websites are built. Perhaps visiting some of your competitors' websites and see what you like and don't like, and what you think will work for your prospective customers.
  
  It's also good to look at business websites outside of your business / industry to get a sense of how they're designing their sites (and also get some inspiration from them). Do try to look (and learn) from businesses that have been established for a while, as that usually suggests that they know what they're doing (more often than not, but not always the case!)
  
  Once you have a sense of how you want your site to look like, then it's time to test out a few website builders. Since you mentioned PayPal, I'd suggest you start off looking at Wix or Weebly (Squarespace is great, but they only integrate with another payment processor called Stripe).
  
  Play around with the website builders (Wix and Weebly offer free usage with options to upgrade, so at least you can test them out for free), an see which one suits you better. Both can do the job very well, so it's personal preference after that (of course, also to factor in what features they offer you, as outlined in the chart above!)
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Bjorn 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I am thinking of creating a website that will be a type of online resume complete with experience, testimonials, referrals, etc. It would need to be simple but professional looking. I will either need help building it or would need something very user friendly. I am an account manager so I will use this as a tool to acquire new accounts by having them be able to research my history. What do you think would be the best site to create what I need? Thanks in advance.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Bjorn,
  
  I think something like Wix will be very easy to use. They have some templates that are catered to online resumes. Just visit their template page and click on "Personal" on the left hand side and you should see them!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Amy 12 years ago

Thank you so much for the great information! I have never created a website and am looking to create one for my corporate yoga business that would include a blog and a small online store (with the option to grow the store in the future). I love to design so SquareSpace sounds good, but I don't know ANYTHING about code or making a website, so I need something very easy and user friendly (maybe Wix or Weebly?). Which site would you recommend? Thank you so much for your helpful information!

Reply
2 replies
- Hannah 12 years ago
  
  Hi Amy,
  
  While website builders are good for certain things, they are pretty terrible for others. It's a kind of 'you get what you pay for' world. Having a proper website that is built on solid platforms and developed on with proper code will help you enormously with getting more traffic and inevitably more custom. I specialise in building unique websites for yoga and wellness companies across the board. Please feel free to email me if you want to know more about why website builders will hinder your reputation in the corporate world. (It has alot to do with ownership of the site - hence they are extremely low cost). My email: hannah[at]seodeva.com
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  ML0 12 years ago
  
  Hannah,
  
  Are yoga and wellness websites the only type you specialize in? The last site I helped design was my work construction business...I designed the entire website layout & pages, but had a genuine Mensa®™ genius Retiree (Programmer with patents & copyrights owned my him) from a Fortune 500 company do all the coding. I gave him my designs and he made it work :). We worked very well together!
  
  I may need similar help with building a new business website of my own. Would you be able to help in this particular situation, other than yoga/wellness?
  
  Thanks,
  ML0
  ?
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Hannah 11 years ago
  
  Hi ML0,
  
  Thanks for the reply and sorry for the delay! I had turned off the notifications from this post as they were flooding my inbox.
  
  As a general rule, yes I specialise in that niche but, of course, my team and I have exceptions. If you still need help I'd be happy to oblige, otherwise feel free shoot me an email if you ever need assistance with a web project again. My email once more: hannah[at]seodeva.com.
  
  Regards,
  
  Hannah
  
  Reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Amy,
  
  You don't need to know code to build sites with Squarespace (or Wix or Weebly). So I think you should be fine using Squarespace as they also do offer ecommerce features.
  
  Best way to find out if they're suitable for you is to sign up for a free trial and test it for yourself!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Bert 12 years ago

Jeremy,

Are there any website builders that will let you download the site after you've created it? I want to put it on my Godaddy hosting.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Bert,
  
  See Footnote 10 above. With Weebly and IM Creator, you can download your website codes as a zip file!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Stan 12 years ago

Great site here! Just finished contacting SS & Webflow about adding iContact form, and only SS allows it.

So Webflow just lost a sale.

Are there any other builders that allow an email marketing form? (opt-in newsletter)

Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Stan,
  
  You can actually manually add in an sign up form. All the website builder we've discussed have tools for you to embed custom codes. You can retrieve the codes for sign up form for newsletter services from your newsletter service provider, then embed it into the website.
  
  The only exception is with Wix and Jimdo, where they do provide you built-in newsletter services!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Stan 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy,
  
  Sorry for late reply. Thanks for your help! I found that out, finally.
  
  Keep up the great work!
  
  Stan
  
  Reply
Garth 12 years ago

I would like to create a website that provide the opportunity for me to have a blog site as well as a venue to publish some material. I am looking to connect to a mass of people with this site. I also would like to be able to have all rights to my site as well as all of my work/published material. Thank you for your assistance.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Garth,
  
  You should have all rights to your own published material for all the website builders. But the best way to be sure is to read their Terms of Services.
  
  Regarding publishing a blog and other content, all of the website builders we've discussed in the chart above will be able to help you accomplish that!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Gary Wederspahn 12 years ago

Jeremy, I want to help Miguel Andrango, an 80 yr. old native Ecuadorean weaver, build a website to display photos & a YouTube video of him at his loom. He is the last weaver using the ancient back strap loom, carding /spinning methods& all natural dyes. He wants to preserve these traditional crafts.The goal is to encourage international travelers to visit his workshop at his mountainside village for free demonstrations and to enable people to make donations toward a small museum he wants to establish at his home.. Does the free version of Weebly have the features we'd need? The website should be simple, trouble free.and free or very low cost. Many thanks for your advice!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Gary,
  
  If you are just looking to insert images and videos into a website, then Weebly will definitely work well for you. Weebly is probably the easiest drag and drop website builder we've used, and we like it a lot!
  
  But generally speaking, all the website builders we've mentioned in our chart above will allow you to insert images and videos. But if you're looking for ease of use and free, Weebly is a good candidate to consider for sure!
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Verne 12 years ago

Hello,

I want to start my thanking you for such a wonderful site - I've found it very informative. Recently I asked about using any of these programs to start a couponing business but I hadn't received a response. Should I make my post in the E-Commerce area of your website?

What I am looking to do is create a site where people can upload their coupons and special offers. Does any of these do that?

Thanks,
Verne

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Verne,
  
  Unfortunately none of these websites will allow visitors to upload their coupons / offers. It sounds like you are looking for a fairly customized solution that the drag and drop website builders probably won't be able to offer you.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
george sals 12 years ago

I appreciate your great website!

Questions:

I intend to build an ecommerce site for 200 items.

1) I have heard that SquareSpace does not allow for Paypal integration. Does this mean that we cannot offer Paypal as a payment option? If so, isn't this a very delicate issue that should be considered before deciding for Squarespace?
2) Is Shopify much more difficult than SquareSpace?
3) I tried Weebly, but find it a deal breaker that you cannot edit the size of the main image on the Product page. This should be mentioned, im my opinion, as a serious drawback.
4) What about PCI compliance in all the above web builders?

THANKS!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey George,
  
  If you intend to have 200 product items, I'd suggest you check out either Shopify or Bigcommerce (see our comparison chart here, and also how Shopify compares to Bigcommerce).
  
  They are just built to handle more product items and has a lot more advanced features to help you manage your store.
  
  Yes - Squarespace does not fully integrate with PayPal so it's definitely a drawback from their ecommerce features perspective.
  
  I wouldn't say Shopify is much more challenging to use than Squarespace, but they are both very different in terms of set up. Best way to see if you like Shopify's user interface is to sign up for a trial account to quickly test it out. It's worth spending an hour or so playing with their builder as this is obviously a big decision for you!
  
  Shopify is PCI compliant.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Rob 12 years ago

Did you look into which sites allow you to add HTML or 3rd party JavaScript for web traffic analytics? We just completed our Wix site and were told that we could add JavaScript from our marketing company and it is now not showing our page hits, click throughs, times, nothing. This has been very frustrating and need to see if any of the other companies support this type of functionality.

Thanks for any feedback!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Rob,
  
  We haven't tested that before as we never used any 3rd party traffic analytics. The majority of people will just use Google Analytics so these website builders do cater to Google. I think you might have to ask them directly to see what you have in mind will work! Sorry I can't be more helpful.
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Rob 12 years ago
  
  Jeremy, thank you for your reply. This is a frustration that I recently encountered and didn't know if your research came across this piece of information. Your article, overall, was very helpful and gave a good overview of the systems. I know what I had asked was stretching the scope of the article a bit.
  
  Thanks again.
  
  Reply
Jen 12 years ago

What about wordpress? Where does that fit in? I personally have always used weebly, but i'm looking for more layouts (or i guess i'll be learning html here soon). Wordpress SEEMS to have more ability to change things individually, although i'm just looking into it now. Any tips?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jen,
  
  Our comparison chart mainly focuses on drag & drop website builders, and so platforms such as WordPress, while very flexible, is not compared here. The website builders that we focus on do not require you to know any code at all to make most changes, though having a little bit of knowledge is very helpful.
  
  With WordPress, it has a much higher learning curve, and if you want to move content around most of the time you will have to touch code. So while I'd agree that WordPress is very flexible, it's a separate "animal"!
  
  We do have a number of discussions around WordPress and how it compares to some of the drag and drop builders.
  
  Hope you'll find them helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Phil 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
I want to start a website for my general contracting business. I am a smaller builder but very diverse in the types of projects that I do. I want a website that customers can access to see everything my company offers with descriptions and photos. Do any of the builders listed fit better for this than another?

Phil

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Phil,
  
  I think in general, most of the website builders discussed here will be able to do what you want (set up pages highlighting different types of projects, inserting descriptions and photos).
  
  But even though they can all get the job done, you may like some of them more than others, due to various factors such as user interface, ease of use, template designs available, etc.
  
  So perhaps the best thing to do is to sign up for a trial / free account with some of them and invest some time to "play around" with them to see which one you like the best!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Spyridoula Andriopoulou 12 years ago

Hello!

Very helpful stuff!!! What's your opinion on wazala compared to the others? Are they all suitable for selling music, as well as physical products?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Spyridoula,
  
  Wazala is an independent external ecommerce widget that you insert into a website. So even though it may come with more ecommerce functions, these widget may not be fully integrated into each website builder. It might work in some cases if you are just selling some simpler products, but if you need full integration then it might not be the best solution.
  
  Squarespace and Weebly both have tools to help you sell both physical and digital products. So you can consider them when you make your decision on which website builder to use!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Neji Ryuu 12 years ago

I'm trying to create a website where i can just post my stories on there just for people to read. Does any of them limit the number of pages/tabs you can have on there because I tried using webs.com and it limited me to only 5 pages and I couldn't make it work.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Neji,
  
  Page limitations are usually due to using the free versions of the website builders. So in the website builders listed above, for those that have free plans (such as Wix, Weebly, Jimdo, IM Creator), they don't have any limitations on pages you can create (at the moment anyway).
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Taunia 12 years ago

Jeremy,
Thank you SO VERY MUCH for your website! Being new to this technology you helped simplify and break it into steps so I didn't feel overwhelmed. I found your replies to questions to be respectful and understandable for us 'newbies'. You're a wonderful teacher and researcher.
Taunia

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  You're very welcome Taunia!
  
  There is a ton of helpful information here, thanks to all the excellent questions from our readers!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
John 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

Thank you for the great info! Which would you recommend if I need one I can build a content page that's secure? Such as a credit application for a loan? I went to jotform.com to build the form. Can I bring code over to these sites or do these sites give you the ability to create a secure form on their site? I like the look of squarespace but what about the security? I read through all the info on several of the above sites but there was no mention of any such thing and you seem to be a wealth of knowledge on this and it would save me a great deal of time. Thanks in advance, much appreciated!

Respectfully,
John

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi John,
  
  Unfortunately with drag and drop builders (basically hosted website builder solutions where they do all the hosting for you, so you don't have to configure your own hosting), you won't be able to add SSL certificates (which secures your webpages) to the entire website.
  
  They do offer that on shopping cart pages to secure those pages when shoppers insert confidential information such as credit card and addresses. But for other pages, those won't be secure.
  
  [UPDATE: Weebly actually offers you the ability to switch on SSL for your entire website, if you are using their Business Plan]
  
  But if you use more flexible and advanced platforms such as WordPress, you can definitely add those in but it's a bit more advanced for most people.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Hi Jeremy 12 years ago

Great site with loads of info. I am thinking of using Wix to build a website for my B&B. I choose wix as they have a booking engine that you can add. have you ever used this? also on the wix site it says that the websites are free but you have prices listed for them. are thye just free for a limited time

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  We haven't used the booking engine before, so you might want to give it a test run to see how it works out for you!
  
  For Wix, it's absolutely free to use but you won't get some of the more advanced features until you subscribe to a higher plan. But if you want to test it out for free, you can do that and there is not time limit to this.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Joanna 12 years ago

Hey Jeremy!

First - your site is amazing, very comprehensive so thanks : )

Second, as a "risk lover", I decided to check out the builder that was ranked the lowest on your chart... IM Creator.
I have to admit I was surprised - templates were clean and crisp, the builder was super easy to use (I see you gave it 4 stars) and overall, it's a great tool. I think you may have been a bit harsh on it ; )

So thanks again - I love working on my new website.

Joanna

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Joanna,
  
  Glad you had a great experience with IM Creator thus far! The reduced score is mainly due to its blogging, SEO and ecommerce features which are not as advanced as other website builders.
  
  But as you mentioned, for other aspects such as ease of use and design, we do like those as well!
  
  I think in general, and we also mentioned this in Footnote 1 above, that the scores doesn't necessarily capture all our thoughts, and that there are a lot of subjective factors to consider that are also included in our chart above!
  
  Thanks for contributing to this discussion!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sarah 12 years ago

I'm the webmaster for a non-profit ceramics guild. I am looking to change over to a drag and drop system for my guild. We want to get more modern and user friendly. I want the different chairpersons to start updating the website relating to their committees. I want my guild president able to post to the blog and have it feed to the website. Which site would be easy for the average person to use. I want stop shopping, transfer our domain name and plenty of extras.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Sarah,
  
  If you check out Squarespace or Weebly, you can set up multiple editors for a single website so that different people can have their own access to the same website!
  
  Between Squarespace and Weebly, Squarespace has much more attractive and mobile friendly designs, and I think they have a bit more advanced tools. But Weebly definitely is much easier to use.
  
  Hopefully this helps point you in the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Emma 12 years ago

Hi

I am looking to create a website similar to a dating website. So you submit detail and are sent back matches.

I don't know where to start. I like Squarespace but unsure if it will do what I need to do.

Any suggestions?

Thank you so much.

Emma

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Emma,
  
  Such a site is very intricate and often requires a pretty advanced team of coders to create. Most large dating sites in the market nowadays took years to build and probably millions of dollars in funding as well.
  
  Having said that, it's not impossible if you are a very strong coder, but something like Squarepace, which is great for building good looking, "normal" websites, probably isn't the most suitable for your needs.
  
  In your case, if you're not a strong coder, I'd suggest you start by checking out Elance or oDesk to see if you can find a capable coder, and work out how best to approach your project.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kate 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy
I found your article invaluable- especially as I have little knowledge about the technicalities of developing a website. The information provided has definitely helped me to make a decision.

I have a 'beginners' question. Do they all help to drive traffic to the websites?
Many thanks for all the information. Its great.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Kate,
  
  Glad you found our discussions helpful!
  
  The website builders doesn't help drive traffic to your website directly. So it's really up to you to promote your site, using social media, paid advertisements, word of mouth / referrals.
  
  Also you can create really interesting / helpful discussion articles on your site so that this can help your visitors become more engaged with your site and return to visit your site again, generate more "buzz", share on social media, etc. All this can also potentially help your site get better rankings in search engine.
  
  But of course, these are just very basic suggestions of what you can do. There are a lot of helpful discussions about traffic generation on the web if you look for them.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jim Palmer 12 years ago

Is there a builder that is better for a non-profit site??

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  If a significant portion of your site is going to be images, text, videos, galleries, contact information, then I think all of the website builders we've discussed will work just fine for non-profits.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Marc 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy

Thanks-a-ton for those brilliant reviews of yours on Online Web Site builders! It's a tedious task to keep such comparisons accurate and complete.

IMHO it will be a key differentiator for such services if they manage to create a platform (instead of just a service) with open application interfaces for 3rd party application and services providers and therefore a valid application market.

So you may consider to add this feature to your comparison list (e.g. Open API, number of 3rd party services & apps offered through app store, quality of apps respectively name recognition of services/app providers).

Thanks for all the great work and regards
Marc

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Marc,
  
  I totally agree with you. The website builders we discuss on this site are mostly closed-in drag and drop builders, so they have full control over their own services and product offerings. Opening them up will indeed make their services more powerful, such as the likes of WordPress.
  
  The only exception is Wix, which does have their own App Market which we discuss here. This allows developers to offer interesting tools to expand the functionality of Wix websites, offering a much more advanced experience to users (should they want more advanced tools).
  
  You bring up an excellent point and thanks for adding to this discussion!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Vinicio 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy!! You have a lot of very helpful articles!!! I have a question: I have a business and I want to make a very simple and beautiful website, but with a special functionality, I want a builder with a ¨login` section, where you can create a user and you can find special content, support, downloads, and some content for our special customers!! What builder I have to choose?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Vinicio,
  
  It sounds like you're looking for some sort of membership function? If so you can check out Wix. Wix has an App Market that offers you a free membership app that you can add to your Wix website.
  
  Here is our discussion on Wix's App Market and just search "member" when you get to their App Store. With their free member login app, you can create protected webpages that only registered members can access.
  
  I know that Weebly has been experimenting with building their own membership function. They launched a test / beta version of it a couple of months ago, but I'm not sure when / if they're going to launch the finalized product.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Kevin 12 years ago

Howdy!

Already built a site with WordPress: want to move to one of these to rebuild one of my two websites with their builder.

Do any of them support such migrations (written with a CMS such as Dropple, Joomla, or WordPress)?

Might be a good item to note on your chart.

Thanks for your excellent site!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Kevin,
  
  Currently none of the website builders above can import sites from WordPress, Joomla or any other CMS. I suspect that most sites from these CMS' are fairly customized and as such, there is no way to import those codes and have them work in a drag and drop web builder environment without extensive modification of the codes.
  
  But with Squarespace, you can export content into a WordPress site, but not the other way around.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Joseph 12 years ago

Thank you, Jeremy, for saving me a lot of time with your excellent reviews, ratings, and side-by-side comparisons. I think I can now make a more informed decision to suit my needs. Thanks again.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Joseph - glad you found our discussions helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Aaron 12 years ago

Hey Jeremy,

Trying to get an online tshirt store going. Was referred to Volusion. Have you heard of them? Any pros/cons?
If not, what company would you recommend? I just want a reliable site, that securely takes payments, that I
can easily direct people/traffic to.

Thanks so much!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Aaron,
  
  We haven't used Volusion before, but I know they're an established ecommerce builder.
  
  You can also check out our ecommerce builder comparison chart, which we've outlined some other ecommerce builders that we've used / tested. There are a lot of discussion about those online store builders on our site as well!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Adam 12 years ago

Hi,

Rookie question: Can I use these diy website builders if I've already acquired my web address through go daddy and am also parked with go daddy? I'd rather not use go daddy's builder.

Many thanks in advance,

Adam

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Adam,
  
  Yes for sure. All of these website builders, if you visit their support page, there will be detailed description on how to connect your domain name purchased through GoDaddy to a website!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
C. Dean 12 years ago

Dear Jeremy,

I wish to build an ecommerce site, have been looking at Wix then found your site and became interested in Squarespace.
However I notice that Squarespace ecommerce is not available for Australia. Is this so?

I am a total beginner so would like something simple to work with. Any suggestions?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi there,
  
  Squarespace is a really good website builder, and so is Wix! It really depends on which one suits your needs better.
  
  Squarespace is fully integrated with Stripe, which is a popular financial transaction processor that is fully integrated with Squarespace's ecommerce tools. Stripe is currently available in Australia as you can see on this chart here.
  
  We also have a comprehensive ecommerce builder comparison chart here that you might find helpful. Shopify and Bigcommerce are much more advanced online store builders. So the easier ones to use include Squarespace (our discussion here) or Weebly (our discussion here).
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Paula 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,
Help! I am completely overwhelmed : ) I am a small non-prof start up and need website good for graphics, need e-commerce (one donation only) and need email.

I've read through all of your reviews (so helpful, thank you!) but the only one I could find that fits my needs is Jimdo. But I am concerned about their support for a beginner (and I waited on live chat for a long time and their message center said they would get back to me in 1-3 business days).

So! Can you give any other recommendations outside of the ones listed here? I'm really not that picky : ) and I've been looking through DOZENS of sites.
Would be SO grateful!!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Paula,
  
  Some of the better website builders, such as Squarespace, Wix and Weebly all don't provide integrated email address.
  
  However, that is not to say that you can't use a generic email address such as Gmail or Hotmail / Outlook to run your non-profit. Some people might not think using a generic email is the most professional, but that depends on whether you are okay with it (some folks are just focused on creating, and not overly concerned about how their email looks) - personal preference I suppose.
  
  But you can sign up for Google Business Apps email which will allow you to create your own custom domain email address. They do charge about $4 per month, which isn't significant if you really want to have your own custom domain email address.
  
  The process is that you just have to verify that you are the owner of the domain name (to be used as part of your email address), and that's it! You can then have your own email address, and the Gmail interface.
  
  Plus, you can then use it with any of the website builders we've highlighted above!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Paula 12 years ago
  
  thanks! appreciate your help!
  
  Reply
Michael 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,

This is exactly what I was looking for. You're answering so many questions which I can imagine is a pain, but totally appreciated by all of us. My wife and I are looking around and wonder if you could recommend a site for a custom cakery (picures, blog capability ect.) but mostly we'd like to setup a site that would have a questionnaire to be submitted to our email so that we can review the customers wishes and date requested before we respond.

Thank you so much for any info you can give us on this.

Sincerely,

Michael

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Michael,
  
  Squarespace, Wix and Weebly will all be able to do this - enabling you to create a website to include images, a blog, just all the basic content you need to build a fairly robust website.
  
  They all also allow you to create contact forms in which you can insert your own custom fields so that you can request your visitors to insert specific information when submitting their information to you.
  
  I would recommend taking a look at our discussions about them (the links to the discussions are included in the chart above) and visiting their actual websites to get a sense of who they are. Then signing up to trial / free accounts and invest a bit of time to test which website builder you are most comfortable with.
  
  Hope points you in the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeff 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you for all the information, it helped me a lot. But I was hoping to get your view on which site is best for me. I'm going to be opening my own residential painting business. I not going to be selling anything from my website. Its more just for information, showing pictures of jobs and maybe a contact box where they can send me a question or information about a possible job quote.

Thanks again

-Jeff

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jeff,
  
  If you just want to build a straight forward website with text, images, contact forms so that your visitors can get in touch with you, then all the website builders above should be able to do it.
  
  But I'd recommend you start off by testing / trying Squarespace, Wix and Weebly, as each of them have their own pros and cons. So give them a try and see which one best suit your needs. They're free to sign up for and so you might want to invest a bit of time to explore them.
  
  If you don't like any of them, then you can also try the other website builders as well.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ruben 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy!

Thanks for all the information you provided so far!
I have a question concerning speed of the websites. If you want a best performance on loading time which Website builder should you choose? I'm considering Wix, Weebly or Squarespace.

Thanks in advance!

Ruben
Netherlands

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Ruben,
  
  It's really hard to say which of them have a faster loading speed, as it fluctuates from time to time.
  
  The best practice is to optimize the content on your site, such as making your images in the right dimension so that it doesn't exert so much effort for your site to load. A very common mistake amongst the website building community is to insert a raw, unedited large image into a page, and only want the image to display at a much smaller size.
  
  Even though visually the image is small, but when the site loads, it loads the large image size. So reducing the image dimension to what you want it to actually look on the site is a really important process to go through.
  
  Another tip is to shrink the file size of the image (not the image dimension, but the actual file size in terms of kilobytes). We use Kraken which is very helpful to instantly shrink the file size of images, which could potentially significantly improve your loading speed!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  PS: Love Netherlands! Connie and I visited Amsterdam last year and it's one of our favorite cities!
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Ruben 12 years ago
  
  Thanks for the answer Jeremy!
  
  I stumbled on another interesting point. What I want to do is, build a website and create landing pages within the website (layout). So a page-url which is not visible but still clickable via a hyperlink in an email, newsletter or Adwords campaign. Its not totally clear to me if Squarspace or Jimdo provide this function. And if so is there a difference in performance/usability.
  
  Hope you can help me out (again)…
  
  Thank you so much!
  
  Ruben
  P.s. I have to agree with you I life in Amsterdam is great!
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Ruben,
  
  I'm not sure if I fully understand what you are saying. Do you mean if any website builders can help you create a landing page where the menu bar is not displayed so that the page is cleaner?
  
  The page URL will always be showing on the website browser.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
John Parks 12 years ago

Thank you Jeremy and Connie for all of the great content.

It really is a lot of work to figure out which website builder to go with. In the past I used Wordpress, and was inundated with spam comments and the use of plug-ins and updating constantly have become quite a chore. Not to mention SEO. I have no clue to what I am doing with SEO, so my website just disappears in the search engines, which comes out to no traffic.

I'm hoping to figure this out soon and be building a great website. You sure make it a lot easier, with your tutorials and comparisons.

Thanks again,
John Parks

Reply
Tiger D. 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the nice reviews. I plan to build my first website using say Weebly basic plan with an annual plan. Can I upgrade my plan within Weebly at any time? After a year and say I don't want to continue with Weebly, can I import my website's design and contents into another builder or to my own designer?

Regards,
Tiger

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Tiger,
  
  Yes - you can upgrade / downgrade at any time within the Weebly user panel!
  
  If you want to take your website from Weebly and host it elsewhere, they do have an export function that we discuss in more details in our Weebly review here.
  
  One thing to note is that once you've exported the site, you will have to find a suitable hosting environment to host the site. At that point you will no longer be able to use Weebly's drag and drop functions which makes site building easy.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tony B 12 years ago

Thanks so much for all the help you provide. I would like to build my own easy to navigate website with 2 or 3 dropdowns that would contain a name list of places to contain about 25 names each, once a name was clicked from the list, a page would load showing 3 or 4 pictures of that location that I could change when necessary. I could not find any templates from WIX or Weebly for what I believe to be a fairly simple website design. Am I asking too much? Do I need to pay someone to build this because of the dropdown menu?
Thanks in advance for your time answering this question.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Tony,
  
  You should be able to do this with all the website builders listed above, and it doesn't have anything to do with which template you pick from any of them.
  
  It's the way you are to create your page structure. Just create main pages that will show up on your menu bar, then create subpages below these main pages and these will be the locations that you mentioned. So when people hover their mouse over the main menu bar, they will see the subpages show up by the menu bar and can click into them.
  
  You can modify all the pages with your own content as you want to.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Remy 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy
Thank you for all your efforts of trying to answer all of our questions.

Now as for me, I know nothing about building a website, i am a TRUE NEWBIE. I don't even know what's a domain name or where to obtain one ! I have never built or try to build a website in my life and i never came in contact with anyone who created one for their personal use.
Please talk to me like a three year old and in a few sentences explain to me where do i start.
do i start by getting a domain name ( what's that !) then pick one of those companies mentioned above and am done?
I am trying to build a websites for my new established business of selling services to foreigners. I am just going to use it to put information about my business, and be able to receive payments and other common things that you normally see in a business website. Nothing major except for posting a few pictures here and there.
Please help me out, your advice is much needed, I'm kind of in total darkness about this topic.
Thank you so much.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Remy,
  
  A domain name is your website address. So for instance, our domain name is https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com. That's the address where people insert into their web browser to find your website.
  
  So basically you have to connect your domain name to your website, so that when the address is searched, it will load up your website. You can purchase a domain name from GoDaddy (one of the biggest domain name providers), or some website builders above actually give you a free domain name if you subscribe to their annual plans.
  
  If you are a beginner and looking for something extremely easy to use, I'd suggest checking out Weebly or Wix. Wix has a bit more advanced features if you want to be a bit more adventurous, and Weebly is actually quite easy to use (but will a bit less tools - but good enough to build a good website).
  
  Each website builder will have comprehensive tutorials on how to connect a domain name to the website that you build with their platform.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lake 12 years ago

Hi,

I'm a teen who would like to create a portfolio website for my photos, without having to spend a bunch of money or pay a high monthly fee. What do you recommend?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Lake,
  
  If you are very price sensitive, I'd suggest Weebly then as their lowest plan is $4 per month and if you purchase their annual plan, you get a discount which lowers your investment per month even lower. With their Starter Plan ($4/month), you can connect your own domain name to the Weebly site, and also have their advertisement removed so your site is only branded with your own content.
  
  Wix also has a $4/month plan, but that plan doesn't allow you to remove the Wix logo from your site, even though you can connect your own domain name to the site.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Nick 12 years ago

Hi,

Using the various web builder 'designer platforms' or 'white label products' to build sites for clients/customers is something that I have been taking on lately, I have built some with Dreamweaver but my coding isn't great and takes ages to complete, but with these products I can produce great sites with with great results, my questions are, how is this viewed with web designers, is this frowned upon? Am I classed as a web designer? Does anyone else run this kind of business?

Regards
Nick

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Nick,
  
  This is a great question. From my perspective, if I want a website built and I want to hire someone, it's the result that matters to me, not what tools you use (within reasons of course, unless you charged me $10,000 and used a drag and drop website to create a simple website - but that's a whole other discussion about pricing and what you get!)
  
  There are a lot of designers using drag and drop website builders to help their clients build websites. The advantage includes being able to hand off the website to the client so they can manage it themselves on the go (no need to email / call the designer if you want to change the color of the font, for instance).
  
  Weebly has a good white label program and you can access it here. But for sure, it is no uncommon for designers to use these builders to service their clients. They are usually up front with their clients about this especially if they are not using white label options such as what Weebly offers.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Marie-Eve 12 years ago

Hi, What is Responsive Themes?

Thank you!

Marie-Eve

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Marie-Eve,
  
  Basically, it is a template that automatically "responds", or changes the layout to adapt to whatever device you are viewing the website with.
  
  So typically, a visitor to a website would be using a computer with a larger screen. But when he/she visits the same website using a tablet or a mobile phone (with a much smaller screen), if a website still insists that the visitor view the website the same way as he/she would with a larger computer monitor, it's creates an inferior experience as you're basically trying to stuff a large website viewing experience into a small mobile device screen.
  
  So a responsive template will "intelligently" adjust itself to "compress" or realign the content so that a person viewing the website with a mobile device will have a better experience.
  
  If you want to see it first hand, just visit Squarespace's website on your computer, then start to manually shrink your web browser and you will start to see the website content shift to fit better in a smaller screen.
  
  Also, Squarespace is the only website builder at the moment that offers responsive templates for its users.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Ben 12 years ago
  
  Jeremy,
  From my experience with WIX, you have the option of making your site responsive too. You have the option of deleting parts of the page and shrinking the text so that it is easy to use on a mobile.
  Ben
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Ben,
  
  You're absolutely correct in that you can hide / show certain content on a mobile device through using Wix's mobile editor - which is quite powerful in that it gives you the flexibility to optimize your site's mobile display (for those wondering how Wix's mobile editor works, see our discussion here).
  
  Although it isn't technically "responsive", the final outcome can be quite good with this approach, in creating a more mobile user friendly experience for your visitors.
  
  Thanks for adding this point to our discussion!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sindi McGuire 12 years ago

I have a lot of pictures on my website and would like to know how to compress them for upload to Weebly. I've never compressed anything but think I probably should. I use PC at home and Mac at work. Is there a program or is it already a part of my computer system? Thanks for your help.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Sindi,
  
  I'd suggest you use a couple of free online based software to really compress your images so that your website will load faster.
  
  Either Kraken or Yahoo SmushIt works. I personally prefer Kraken and it really does a great job in compressing your image files without sacrificing too much quality. Give them a try!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Casey 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy!

I am having problems with godaddy in regards to player mp3 audio files through my music site. Their website builder audio player is only compatible with desktop computers and not mobile. So when mobile users go to my site the audio player doesnt play....and I'd say 80% of my fans go to my website via mobile. Which website builder would you recommend would be best for me in that regards? Or is there a way to get html coding for an audio player that works for mobile that would allow me to keep my godaddy website builder.....if so where do I find the html code for my mp3 audio file I want to put on the html audio player and can I have it automatically play when someone visits my site?

Thanks so much

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Casey,
  
  Hmm that's very interesting - I didn't know that so thanks for sharing your findings!
  
  I think there are other good audio players available in the market that you can embed into your website. I don't know off hand all the big names but I'm sure you can find them with a Google search. I have seen more people using Soundcloud to embed their audio files on their websites, and I would be surprised if the Soundcloud audio isn't mobile compatible.
  
  I think they will give you some sort of embed code and you can just use GoDaddy's HTML embed code element to insert the audio player on your page. This approach should also work with other website builders.
  
  Aside from GoDaddy, you can also check out Squarespace as they have some great built-in audio tools, such as allowing you to create an audio gallery / collection (if you have multiple audio files), or you can upload one audio file at a time and play it directly on your Squarespace page.
  
  Wix also utilizes Soundcloud to power their audio players, so you don't have to mess around with codes to insert your audio player into a Wix website.
  
  Weebly has their own Audio Player built in, so you an just upload your audio file into a Weebly website.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Angela 12 years ago

So glad I found you guys!! This site is awesome =) thank you for all of the helpful info.

Reply
Peter 12 years ago

Jeremy,

Great site. Looking to set up a simple website for a non-profit org and want to do the following:

Create simple, attractive website
Collect emails from visitors and be able to conform them by email
Have email address for the site
Add other collected emails to the site list
Send out occasional email 'blast' to members to announce events
Add pictures and videos from time to time
Add links to other related sites
Add links to Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
No e-commerce anticipated
Ability to create a .org domain and transfer it if necessary

Would like to work with just one vendor (if possible) to handle domain setup, email management and website design, maybe simple blog too. Thinking that Weebly might accomplish all this but unsure.

Would appreciate any recommendation. Thx

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Peter,
  
  Amongst all the web builders we've covered on this page, none of them have "all" the features that you want, but you can certainly "bolt on" a few tools to get them which isn't too challenging.
  
  For instance, Squarespace has most of what you want, except that they don't have a built in email system, or newsletter system. But you can use Google Business App to create your own custom email address and connect it with your Squarespace site. Squarespace also allows you to integrate with Mailchimp which is a newsletter service provider as well.
  
  For Wix, they just released a newsletter feature called Shoutout which allows you to send out newsletter using their internal system so you don't have to get any external services to supplement this. But the same as Squarespace, you do have to get your own email service.
  
  Weebly doesn't have their own email services either, and doesn't have tools to integrate with newsletter services but you can definitely sign up for your own newsletter service (such as Aweber) and insert it into your Weebly site using the Embed Code element. That works just fine.
  
  For the other websites (Jimdo, GoDaddy, Webs), as mentioned on the chart above, do provide email services if you upgrade.
  
  They all should work with .org domain names (though I never had a .org domain so I haven't tested that before!)
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jay 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy,
First of all, what a great work is this site. It is really helpful already.

I am considering working on a site based on certain fandoms. Most, if not all of the builders seem to be able to handle all what I desire.
I have a question on some additional feature that might be implemented in the future.

Originally I was intending to, as part of the site, link to portfolios which visitors would like to be featured. However another option, more complex undoubtly, is to give visitors some freedom in this. So my question:

From your comments below, I see that it would not be possible for users to upload their own artwork. I was thinking that some smart user rights and blogging access might be a work around.
What would your opinion be on this and, if you think that this would be total unworkable, which builder would you recommend for something that comes close?

Reply
2 replies
- Rachel 12 years ago
  
  Hey Jeremy! I LOVE your website and you are a lifesaver for people like me!
  Anyways, I currently own an clothing store in Tictail, and I like it. But it doesnt have much flexible options. I cannot afford monthly payment services or anything like that. I chose Tictail because of the variety of style. What FREE website builder do you most recomment? Thanks. : )
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Rachel,
  
  You can still use Weebly, Wix or Jimdo to power your online store but your access to their ecommerce features can be limited (for instance with Weebly and Jimdo, you can only sell up to 5 product items).
  
  Also, without their paid plans, you won't be able to connect your own domain name to your site and you'll have to use their subdomain name (such as tictail.weebly.com).
  
  But at the end of the day, you'll still be able to sell products with the basic tools. But obviously, upgrading will give you a bit more flexibility.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jay,
  
  The website builders we've listed above don't have the ability for your visitors to upload and control some of your pages. I think a lot of webmasters are reluctant to do this as while it's a great way to build up some interaction, there are a lot of spamming out there that will be very challenging to manage.
  
  Having said that, if you really want something that can enable this, I don't have any software / platform in mind. Based on what I know, I can only suggest that you seek our a developer to help you develop this custom project.
  
  You can check out either Elance or oDesk as there are a lot of decent coders there that you can consult with, or hire.
  
  Good luck with that!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jay 12 years ago
  
  Hello Jeremy,
  
  Thank you for your reply. I feared so much, but no problem. I'll just go with a "light" version without it and if the site has enough visits to make it worthwhile, I'll extend from there.
  
  Thanks
  
  Jay
  
  Reply
Pat Jackson 12 years ago

Hey Jeremy, HELP! I'm so ignorant about all this! I tried to "build" a site on Homestead. I could get NO help. I couldn't even post a comment or
question on their so called Community page. I did get a domain name, I think. When the web site was finished and published, I could not get to it
from any search engine or even by typing in the exact domain name in the URL address. Just got a blank page. I couldn't even find a place to cancel the whole mess. It wouldn't let me cancel my 1 month trial because I had gotten the domain name. I couldn't even delete the domain name. There is no contact info. There is no phone. There is no supposed "live Chat" There is nothing except I will be billed every month for a non existent web site.

All I want is a site to show and advertise my registered cats. There are many breeders on-line. I only need 3 or 4 pages with a place to post pictures
of kittens for sale, and a home page to show my basic information. I have a business card that I would like to put on the site. Thank so much for any
suggestions. I have a friend that uses GO Daddy but she seems to have a bit of trouble with them also. Pat J.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Pat,
  
  I'm sorry to hear about about your site with Homestead. I haven't used them before so can't speak to their effectiveness.
  
  Moving on, I think any of the top 3 website builders above will get the job done just fine. They're very reputable and have good support. Squarespace will answer emails in an our and with Wix, you can even schedule up phone support. Weebly also has reliable support as they usually get back to its users in a day or 2.
  
  Squarespace has a free trial program (no credit card required) and both Wix and Weebly have free plans (but you can upgrade if you are comfortable with them).
  
  Good luck!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Cory Yeakel 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
Awesome reviews, thanks for all of the great info. I do have a question though - not sure if this is possible on any of the above builders - I'm looking to build a site that allows users to post their own content. I read below that uploading things like pictures will require an actual developer, but can any of the above builders allow users to create their own account (just a username and password) and let them upload text posts? Similar to Reddit.com if you're familiar with that.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Cory,
  
  Thanks for your question - I still don't think any of the website builders we've mentioned above will allow you to do this. It sounds like you're thinking of creating a forum, so you can try searching for some forum software that will enable you to do this.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Donna 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
This is a great resource. I'm glad I found you! First off, I am a REAL NEWBIE here! I have a marketing/PD background and am trying my best to figure out what I need to do to make money from domains I own. I do not have digital media/social media experience at the moment. I have several domain names with GoDaddy and want to build a site for one of them now. I have been researching web design companies and honestly am overwhelmed by all that is required to build a site, keep it running and make money from it! But I am determined to do so with at least one of my domains!

Without going into a long post here, it will be an information site but I need the capability for users to post comments regarding the content/information they see and for me to reply and want users able to upload pictures or photos from any device to the site. I want to monetize the site in whatever way possible. Want to be able to link to my other domains (after I create pages for them). Also have capability to use PayPal and other services like. I am the only one working on this site so I need a web builder (and hosting company) that can make my work as easy as possible. With this limited information which ones would you suggest I try out? Which one do you think would best serve my needs. Appreciate any thoughts you can offer as to best web builder and/or hosting company.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Donna,
  
  The website builders above certainly allow you to create blog posts where your visitors can freely leave your comments. However, none of them have the ability for your visitors to upload their own pictures to your site. For this advanced feature to work, it sounds like you will probably have to get a good developer to help you build a fairly customized website.
  
  As for your other questions, you will be able to connect your custom domain names to the websites we mentioned above (most of them will need you to upgrade to their paid plans before allowing you connect your own domain name), and will work with PayPal as well.
  
  Hope this points you to the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
vinothini 12 years ago

Hi,I have an idea of building a website for medical school. I need online application forms which is compulsory ,so could you suggest me is it good to build a website with website building sites. And i want a domain with edu.lc,where I cannot find this domain in any of the builder.only.org,.com etc are available. So is it good to buy a domain with any other company and connect with builder? I like to build a complete professional website(medical school) to attract students,and it should be user friendly . Even the information and the data's will be more .So please suggest me an idea. whether all my needs are fulfilled with the website builder.If so suggest me the best.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Vinothini,
  
  I'm not sure how sophisticated you need the form to be, but all the website builders above have the ability to help you insert a custom contact form. So perhaps your applicants can submit their information through the contact form, and you can customize the number of fields / requirements you need in the contact form. It's best to sign up for 2 or 3 website builders and test out their contact forms to see if they meet your needs.
  
  As for the domain name, you can try to secure the one you want through registrars such as GoDaddy. You can then connect the domain name with the website builder if you want to. All of the builders have detailed tutorials on how to connect your own domain name.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Vinothini 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy,
  Thanks for your reply. That's a nice idea. I will check with the different builders. Your message was useful. Thank you.
  
  Reply
Kathy 12 years ago

I am looking to set up a web site for our church. I have never done this before and found your site very helpful. I was wondering what hosting company do you recommend. We were looking at go daddy, since we already have our domains with them, but was wondering what you use. Is it good to go with a hosting company that provides web builder services along with it...or does it make a difference? Thanks in advance for your time.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Kathy,
  
  There is no significant advantage when it comes to using the same company to hold your domain name and also to host your website. The only (minor) things that I can think of is that it is probably slightly easier to connect your domain name to the website, and that you only get one invoice instead of two separate companies.
  
  If you are using GoDaddy to hold your domain names, you can still use other website builders that we highlighted above in the chart. All of them will have detailed guides on how to connect your domain name to the website you build. So I think the key is to focus on which website builder best suit your specific needs.
  
  The best way forward is to sign up for a free website / trial with at least 2 website builders, and invest a bit of time to playing around with them to see which one works best for you. At the end of the day, all of them are capable builders, but only you can figure out which one has the best tools for your needs!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Bec Solo 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy - Wonderful advice especially for a newbie. I want to set up a site to sell old postcards. Each is a unique item and I'd want to list 100's of them in different subjects. And I need a site that can handle the payments. Any suggestions? Thanks! Bec

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Bec,
  
  Sounds like it's a fairly straight-forward selling process, so I think the likes of Squarespace or Weebly will get the job done fairly well. Have a look at our ecommerce online store comparison chart which will highlight some of the key features for them. Hope this is helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mark Vieta 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Your article and information is great! I am not a techy kinda guy so in your opinion what web builder would you go with in my case? We are going public with a personal safety academy that involves simple awareness to firearms use and fire safety/first aid to all hazards preparation. This for individuals and families. We have full time jobs also so we need something that will not eat a lot of time on the computer. Thank you for your help!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Mark,
  
  I'd say that Wix and Weebly are both really easy to use. Wix has a lot more comprehensive set of tools and allows a bit more creativity and flexibility when it comes to site design. They also have significantly more design templates for a broad range of industries.
  
  Weebly is more minimalistic, and intuitive to use - that's what they're known for.
  
  Both are great builders so I'd encourage you to sign up for free accounts and invest some time to exploring which one works best for you!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sharon 12 years ago

Hello and thank you for offering your thoughts and experience and for providing a forum for ideas and exchanges. I am a psychologist and want an easy-to-build, simple site that

1) allows me to use and place my own images in varying sizes as visual interest on a number of different pages alongside more or less static written informational content about my practice and about me.
2) I'd like at least one page that provides links to useful articles and resources.
3) I would like the option to post articles that I write, possibly an ongoing blog.
4) I would like to be able to provide forms for downloading and printing prior to an appointment.
5) I would like the ability to accept payment in advance of an appointment.
6) Ideally I would like an email address integrated with my domain and website, but from what I have read that is not as easy as it seems for a Mac. (I think that Gmail is not sufficiently encrypted and thus not HIPAA compliant for communication with patients.) (Regardless, I imagine that I can just provide a link on the website to whatever email I use.)
7) I would like excellent accessible assistance along the way. Maybe even hand-holding.

From what I have read so far it seems that Squarespace, Weebly or IM Creator would work for my purposes, although I am not sure about a few of the features that I mentioned.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and for your expertise.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Sharon,
  
  I think the website builders that you mentioned have the tools to give you what you need. Instead of IM Creator, I would suggest you check out Wix as they have really good looking templates that are targeted to the health industry, and that IM Creator doesn't have built in e-commerce functions to help you collect payments.
  
  As for email, we use Google Business Apps to run our business emails and we feel comfortable with it. I know a lot of other much larger organizations also use Google's email app to power their email systems, but I can't say with confidence if they are compliant with you industry standards or not. With Google Business App (email), you can use your own domain name to create your own custom email addresses, and it's only a few dollars a month. The user interface is Gmail so it's really easy to use.
  
  As for support, if you need a bit more handholding, I'd say that Squarespace and Wix are pretty accessible, as Squarespace has a 1 hour email response policy along with live chat, and Wix actually provides phone support if you make an appointment with them in advance.
  
  At the end of the day, the best approach is to sign up for a couple of trial accounts to see which one best suits your needs. That's the only way to find out!
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Cheyne 12 years ago

Hello,

As everyone else has said, the information here is invaluable. What a great source!

I am a new owner of a restaurant and we already have a website through Wordpress. I'm not fond of our website now, so I'm trying to learn as much as I can. It appears that Squarespace is the solution for us. Would you share a few words of advice to see if I'm on the right track? Pub/Restaurant, sells clothes, etc... but we don't have an online store (yet). Pretty standard stuff beyond that.

Lastly, would a small business like this only merit the Professional level? Any reason to consider the premium?

thanks!!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Cheyne,
  
  Thanks for your compliments! I think Squarespace will work well for your needs, especially that Squarespace has really great looking design templates. They also have "Menu Blocks" that can help you create menus within the Squarespace site.
  
  You can always sign up for a free trial to see if they have what you need. If so, you can also just sign up for their Personal plan, as you can upgrade to their Professional plan at any time!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Andy 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Great site for a newbie like me. I would like to have a single page site to just collect user interest and registration at this point. Does any of the site builders you review (WIX, WEEBLY) offers user registration services (hosting the data), with maybe more sophisticated API integration for say social login/registration options?

Thanks again.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Andy,
  
  I don't think there are any tools that will host the data for you. But what you can do is set up contact forms and you can create options for your visitors to select which options they want (such as interests), then submit the form to you. But you'd have to manually collect the data on a separate spreadsheet for tracking purposes.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Elaine 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,
I really appreciate that you are advising people based on their needs, and not trying to sell a particular website builder. Perhaps you're the one to help us. : )

We have a small, home based wedding decor rental & consultation business. We currently have a website with Homestead, but we're not getting many hits off it and are considering making a change. Our main objectives are #1, to have a home page that will make our potential clients want to browse the rest of our site, and #2, to make it user friendly so our clients can easily see what our services are and what our inventory is. We'd like to have drop down lists for the various categories of decor and services, and also a search function for clients looking for a specific item. Our current web builder has neither of these options.

Now that you know the background, I have two questions. #1 If we decide to change web builders would we be able to do it easily, keeping our domain name? #2 Is there a particular web builder you would recommend for a business such as ours?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

~Elaine

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Elaine,
  
  1) Yes you can definitely keep your domain name. Just make sure you keep paying your annual fee to your domain name registrar. You can point / connect your domain name from your Homestead website to your new website builder. The new website builder that you choose to use will have tutorials on how to do that.
  
  What I'd suggest you do is build out your website first, using the free temporary subdomain name that the new website builder gives you. Then when you are ready to launch your site, point your domain name from your old site to your new site.
  
  2) I'd suggest checking out Squarespace, as their design templates are very professional and polished. So it can help you create a visually stunning website, which will probably be suitable for what you do.
  
  Wix also has a huge variety of available templates. So chances are pretty good that you can find a good looking, and relevant design for your site!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Elaine 12 years ago
  
  Thanks so much for the response, Jeremy! We've looked at several of the web builders from your comparison chart, and are going to play around with both Squarespace and Wix to see which we like the best.
  
  I also want to say that the emails you send are very informative. You've been a great help! Thanks, again!
  
  Reply
Christine 12 years ago

I want to set a website where clients can see who I am, what I do and contact me. They will not purchase anything from the site. It whould be pretty basic......one page and button for email What would you suggest?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Christine,
  
  All of the website builders above will be able to help you create a simple website about yourself. I suppose the question is how you envision the website to look like, then spend some time to pick the right template design to use.
  
  Squarespace has some really good design templates for you, and all their templates are responsive so that it looks great across all viewing devices. Wix also has a lot of good templates (over 280), and Weebly has been introducing some more updated templates lately.
  
  Hope this points you in the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Hanz 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Really like the detailed information on the free web builders. All of them grant you your own domain name when you sign up for a paid version. Which one of them is best when you should decide overtime to switch to another web builder? Do you own your own domain and can you take it with you, or is it lost because the web builder is the actual owner of your custom domain? I would like to use a free web builder but at the same time own my own domain name..

Thanks for you thoughts on this.

Regards,
Hanz.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Hanz,
  
  When you get your domain name, you own it and can take it with you if you decide to change websites builders. Just make sure you pay your annual registration fee going forward! All website builder services that give you a domain name use some sort of domain name registrar partner. So you can either continue to use their service (the domain name registrar that is), or you can transfer your domain name to other domain name registrars such as GoDaddy.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Maggie 12 years ago

Jeremy - your site is a godsend to our new business. Question: which, if any, of the reviewed site builders allows for people to register - and pay - for workshops? Thanks! Maggie

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Maggie,
  
  I don't think there is a checkout / product process just for paid workshops. But here is a workaround to consider.
  
  You can sell your workshop as a digital product, then after your customer pays, you can automatically send him/her an email with the workshop details (this email is an order confirmation that can be automatically sent right after the checkout process is complete).
  
  Squarespace and Weebly both has the capability for you to sell digital products, and also send out order confirmation emails automatically so it can be pretty hands off for you!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Waldopepper 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

I just wanted to thank you for the reviews and content on this site - they are so useful to those bamboozled by the various web-building services out there!

We're just starting to provide this service to clients to it's good to get overviews of which technology is good/bad for each type of requirement.

One thing we are still struggling to get an overview of, and would be good to add to your awesome comparison chart (if it gets updated), is the availability/rating of the CMS that users can use to update the site after you leave it with someone. It's useful to be able to hand over a website with different levels of access for users e.g. overall admin, designers, content writers etc. Also how good the interface is, if is saves the revision history etc.

As far as I can tell (so far!), Wix doesn't really have a detached one (it's basically the design interface which also includes text editing), Weebly has the client login page and you can restrict access to design, or just content editing which is great. Will have to check out the others too, has anyone experience of all of these and can give us a quick low-down?

Thanks!
W

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Waldopepper,
  
  We actually do have a section for that and it's the "Multiple Editors" line. Also see Footnote 13 above.
  
  In addition to Weebly, Squarespace gives you excellent control over this and you can see their help page for more information about how it works.
  
  Glad you're finding the chart helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Grant 12 years ago

Jeremy, thank you SO MUCH for the reply. I hope you dont mind if I ask you one more question. Thank you in advance. My question is my partner and I we are thinking of building a website with multiple languages (Spanish, German, French, Chinese (simplified and traditional) and English of course). WHat do you recommend? Short of learning Wordpress or coding, do you know any site builders that you compared have foreign languages built in as part of the options? Thank you Jeremy!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Grant,
  
  Building multi language sites is a bit tricky, and the website builders we've discussed above doesn't cater specifically to multiple languages.
  
  What you can do, is create a separate website for each language (yes there will be a lot of repetitive translation and setup work). Then, give your main site the main domain name (for example: 'www.example.com). Then for your other language sites, give them a subdomain such as german.example.com or french.example.com
  
  Then you can just link out from your main site to these other language sites.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Jase 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy,
  
  Like Grant too, I'd like to build a 3 language site - perhaps using Squarespace. Does that mean that I have to pay for 3 sites each month. If I subscribe to their business plan, does that mean that each month I have to pay them $16x3 = $48 each month?
  
  Below is your reply to Grant:
  
  "What you can do, is create a separate website for each language (yes there will be a lot of repetitive translation and setup work). Then, give your main site the main domain name (for example: ‘www.example.com). Then for your other language sites, give them a subdomain such as german.example.com or french.example.com.Then you can just link out from your main site to these other language sites. '
  
  I have never built a site before and will the support people at Squarespace help me or show me how to do the linking of the 3 sites?
  
  Jase
  
  Jase
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jase,
  
  I've never tried it myself (as in building a multi language site) so I suspect that you would have to pay for 3 separate websites. I think it might be helpful if you send in a support ticket to Squarespace to see what they say, and if they have a special setup / package for those who are building multiple sites (same content but different languages).
  
  As for linking of the 3 sites, what you can do is just insert a button / text links perhaps in the footer or in the body of your site, that can lead your visitors to your other websites. So for instance, you can insert a small image of a German flag or just text, and hyperlink that to the German version of your website. That will work well to funnel German visitors there.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jase 12 years ago
  
  Thank you so much Jeremy. This is most helpful. I will check out with Squarespace on that!
  
  Jase
  
  Reply
Sue 12 years ago

Jeremy - thanks so much for testing and reviewing all these website building tools and for creating a very informative website of your own!
I'm looking for a website building application for a small non-profit - we have 100+ members who each contribute money that we collectively donate each year. Our members are actively involved in reviewing grant requests and, therefore, we need a website that provides member-only access to a series of documents. Would Webs be the way to go? Any others to consider? Thanks for your help!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Sue,
  
  Glad you're finding our discussions helpful! We tested a lot of these website builders because we needed them to build our own websites a few years ago, and so we thought we'd put together our knowledge and experience to share them with others (as we couldn't find any good discussion sites a few years back).
  
  As for membership gateways, yes - Webs is the only builder that has this as part of their basic package. But there are 2 other options:
  
  1) Wix - if you visit their App Market (see our discussion here), search for "Member" and there is an app that you can bolt on to your Wix website that can create a membership area.
  
  2) Sentry Login - this is a paid service but it can be used with Squarespace and Weebly.
  
  So there are a few options that you can consider to help you build your website!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Erica 12 years ago

hello. Great job! I have a question. I like many that have asked for advice am new to the world of websites. I need your advice as well .We own a customized phone case business and looking to showcase and sell our phones. I am needing the ability to show a certain design in different colors. A drop down box that when selected goes to that particular color. I am also needing the option for our consumers to select a device after they choose their design, for example iPhone or Galaxy4. One more important option we need, is to allow our consumers to download images so we can customize the the product with their image. These our main concerns in choosing a web builder company. thank you so much for your time

Erica

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Erica,
  
  It sounds like you're going to need a pretty robust e-commerce building platform, that has good flexibility to power your store.
  
  I'd suggest you take a look at Shopify or Bigcommerce, as both are online store focused builders, and both have flexibility to create quite a bit of custom tools / functions that can match your needs.
  
  Both platforms also have quite a number of experts who can also help you customize your store. It might be worth while to seek our some of them to customize your store for you. We discussed briefly about Shopify's experts here.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Yoses 12 years ago

jeremy thanks for the article you made its helpful
but i still confuse which one to pick

im a fashion disgner but i won't sell a fashion product i just want to share a fashio/lifestyle tips
no product at all,and if i publish my website using one of those which one do you think that would make my web site appear in google search ? (SEO)
i don't wanna pay and my site doesn't appear in google search at all, which one do you think its the best ? or its depend fully with us who manage it ?

i guess its gonna be squarespace because it has a great design and SEO but do you have any suggestion ?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Yoses,
  
  I'd agree to give Squarespace's free trial a test as their templates can be quite suitable based on the industry that you are in!
  
  As for ranking on Google, it is a very complicated topic and takes much more work than just building a website to get good ranking! If that was the case, then everybody will rank on page 1 of search engines (which in fact is a very very challenging task)!
  
  There are a lot of discussions about SEO and how to rank well on the internet if you search for them. A lot of it is decent, but a lot are not that great, so it will take you some time to study and sift through them. But it's a good investment of your time if you are serious about ranking your website well.
  
  Also aside from SEO, you can also promote your site so that your content is not only discoverable with search engines, but also through social channels, word of mouth, etc.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Adam 12 years ago

Thanks for the helpful article but I still Have a few questions. I am a first time website builder so simplicity is key. I want a website to store my opinionated writings for some of my school classes, so I want it set up almost like a news site.I would really like the website to include a comment section for other to post their opinions. My main concern is money. I want NO costs for this website while still being able to do what I asked for above. Which website do u recommend?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Adam,
  
  The easiest website builder to use in our view is Weebly, and you can sign up for free as well. I'd suggest you use their blogging function, so that others can leave comments on your blog posts. Hope this is helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Geoffrey Grosse 12 years ago

Jeremy,
First off...thanks for providing this resource. I've used weebly to create a new site and overall like it as a website builder. What it doesn't do well is any sort of document management. When files are uploaded via Weebly for users to access, it's extremely clunky for a site admin to delete those files later on.

Question: What is your experience with these tools in this area? Do any of them provide any level of document management, such as bulk add / delete, etc? I'm not interested in document workflow or versioning by any means, just a better way for clients to manage documents once the site is handed over to them.

Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Geoffrey,
  
  Squarespace does allow you to manage files a bit better than Weebly. You can rename and delete files in a separate window, but I don't think there is a bulk delete button. But it's still a lot easier to manage!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jim 12 years ago

I am a fledgling, new author who is just getting into the game, so to speak. I have written and published two books and I am planning to complete and rewrite 10 to 15 more over the next several years. I am looking for the best website builder to help me help readers find my books, purchase them through the appropriate channels, and hopefully continue to build followers of my books and writing. I am not necessarily a geek when it comes to this kind of stuff, although I'd like to be. I am just concerned I will choose the wrong builder and waste time getting up and running. Appreciate any and all recommendations.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  I think all of the website builders will allow you the ability to showcase your books. You can set up the pages so you can add descriptions and images for each book, and show your readers where they can purchase the books. You can even sell the books directly on your site if you use each website builder's commerce functions.
  
  The question is which website builder you ultimately feel comfortable working with. It also depends on which design template you prefer to use. If you are looking for the easiest website builder to use, I'd suggest testing out Weebly. If you want something a bit more interactive with sliding backgrounds (for instance), Wix has a lot of templates and tools to allow you to do that.
  
  Squarespace has some really nice looking design templates and they are all responsive so they are optimized for mobile viewing experiences. The websites that they can build tend to be a lot more polished looking.
  
  You should sign up and invest some time to test them, as that's the only way you can see which one of them is a good match for you!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lane 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy, great writings here. I just have a question. I've been using WordPress for around a year for professional blogging and posting my articles from the Lamar University Press that I've written for my portfolio. What website would you suggest for that? I need to get into SEO for more traffic and maybe one of these websites are good for that too. I've been thinking Squarespace. I'd like to have separate pages or folders for portfolio content then everyday blogging content. I like that you can integrate everything from WordPress into Squarespace.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Lane,
  
  I think Squarespace is a good candidate to test out as they do allow you to import WordPress content so you don't have to start from scratch again. You can also separate your blogging content with your other content, as your blog page doesn't have to be blended together with your other pages.
  
  Plus, our of all the website builders that we've used and discussed, Squarespace gives you a bit more flexibility when it comes to SEO. Now, this doesn't guarantee that your website will rank really well (nobody can guarantee that!) but Squarespace does give you a bit more tools over the other website builders.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tina 12 years ago

This is great, thanks for the review... I've been looking for a site builder to build a hotel website and I ended up with im-creator, after seeing this site I'm now a bit concerned. Which site builder would you recommend for small hotels?

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Tina,
  
  I don't think you should be concerned about IM Creator at all, as they are a very capable website builder! Finding a website builder that suits your unique needs is an exploratory process, and while some website builders work well for some people, it may not work well for others.
  
  If you really want to (as in if you are not satisifed with IM Creator), I'd suggest you sign up to try some other website builders and test them out. THat's the only way to figure out how well each builder caters to your own needs!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sindi 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy
I have never attempted to build a website and my group is slightly different. We are a motorcycle group that would like to share our information with the public such as pictures from events, calendar of events, educational safety information and a place for our members to post. I've looked at the different sites you have reviewed and still I am not sure what might be the best for me. Simple is better and time is not something I have a lot of. Thank you for your help.

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Sindi,
  
  In this case I'd suggest you check out either Weebly or Wix. Weebly is probably the easiest website builder to use in our opinion, but Wix isn't too far behind. You will be able to drag and drop elements directly into your webpages, where you can just insert your pictures or text very quickly and easily.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Craig 12 years ago

Hello, I am not a technical person but was hoping there was a website template that acted similar to Craigslist that allows users to input a one or two line summary on the homepage in a list form and if a user clicks on the summary, it redirects to a more in depth page with more detail. I don't know what it is called, but almost like a classified add.. I would also like the home page to target the city in which the user is accessing the site.. does this make sense? I believe it is possible since I regularly get poppups of adds in my city. Sorry I am such a novice, but not sure where else to turn.
Thank you so much
Craig

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Craig,
  
  It doesn't sound like any of the website builders that we've covered here will be able to do this, as it sounds like what you're looking for is a very customized solution. Perhaps you should look at perhaps using WordPress (I'm not entirely sure if they have a template that will allow for these functions) or even hiring someone to custom build it for you?
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Craig 12 years ago
  
  Thank you Jeremy
  
  Reply
dan 12 years ago

What do you think of WebEasy? I'm a technical person but am just considering the simple drag-and-drop or wysiwyg type web builders, because this can't take a lot of my time, don't want to work with HTML or other coding and also because I'm building a site for a non technical person who will take it over.

Base on what I've seen here the top candidate for me is Weebly, but I don't want to tied to one host for ever, would not use their web hosting, if it's possible. I'm old fasion, I like the idea of buying software, getting a CD, installing it on my PC, and having control of the files that are created. If the builder is online, like godaddy, then I don't want it, because it ties me to that web host, which I don't like. Is Weebly like that? This is one good thing about WebEasy, although I hear there are support issues with WebEasy.

Any comments would be appreciated!
Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Dan,
  
  We haven't used WebEasy before so can't really comment on them. But Weebly is in our opinion, the easiest drag and drop builder to use. Even though by default, your website is hosted with Weebly (which a lot of people like as they don't have to deal with the technicality of hosting their own websites), there is an export function which we discuss a bit more in our detailed review of Weebly (look under the "Hosting and Export Options" section).
  
  So you can definitely export whatever you create into your own host, but there are some drawbacks to that such as you will have to edit the codes directly once you export your site out of Weebly's drag and drop builder environment.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jason 12 years ago

I see where Wix was knocked for not allowing you to change your template. Which provider is the most flexible in this regard?
Thanks,
Jason

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Jason,
  
  Squarespace, Weebly and Jimdo all allow you to change templates, while retaining your content!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ken 12 years ago

Hi,
I'm a psychotherapist who wants to build a web site. I signed up with BlueHost and started to build a web site with Weebly. I talked to one of the BlueHost staff who thought I would be better off building a site with Word Press. I did notice that Word Press has more Themes to choose from. Some of the themes say they haven't been updated in two years so I'm wondering if I would have a problem choosing a theme from Word Press.

I don't think I'd need a lot of pages. Maybe ten pages with a page for billing, pages for different types of information, one for directions, etc.

My knowledge of building a web site building or anything related to building a web site is minimal.

Do you have any words of advice for me regarding Blue Host or Word Press.

Thanks,

Ken

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hey Ken,
  
  You should also consider whether you would like to learn how to use WordPress effectively as it has a much higher learning curve than using drag and drop web builders such as Weebly. On the other side of the coin, WordPress is a lot more flexible and customizable, if you have the technical knowledge (codes) or have the resources to hire someone to help you do that.
  
  If you were to go with WordPress, you should make sure that you use a theme that is updated, as outdated themes may not incorporate the latest features properly and could even potentially be a security hazard to your website. This is one of the benefits of using hosted website builders (such as Weebly) as they are the ones who are providing themes themselves, so they're always updated.
  
  We have a number of discussions that compares using WordPress and various drag and drop web builders. You'll find some thoughts and discussions on this topic.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
T 12 years ago

Great article, as always; you're insight is much appreciated by those of us not in the know.

I've been researching the various platforms, and have been between Squarespace and Virb, though still unsure if either is right for my medium. I enjoy making YouTube videos, but would like a personal site to organize them in a manner more consistent than by upload date or playlist. I would prefer a site that allows Google Adsense (without taking 50% like Weebly), plus has ecommerce opportunities for a small business.

Ideally, I would learn about web deisgn or hire someone, but this is new to me and I prefer to start with one of these and go from there. Any advice or recommendations for what I'm attempting?

Thanks again!

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1 reply
- Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi T,
  
  I think for Squarespace you do have a bit more customization capability than other website builders that we've looked at. For instance, you can create Gallery Pages in Squarespace to display just images or videos (which you have), and you can choose which videos to display depending on how to tag or categorize your videos.
  
  So once you upload a video, you can give it a tag (think of it as a label) or categorize it. So when you tell the Gallery Page to only show specific tags or categories, then only those videos will be displayed.
  
  If you want even more flexibility, then you might have to use a more powerful platform such as WordPress and have someone custom create whatever function you are looking for.
  
  As for Adsense for Weebly, they no longer take 50% of your earnings. Whatever you earn through Adsense while using Weebly, you now get to keep 100% of it (see this announcement here).
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
ren 12 years ago

what is your opinion on godaddy?

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Ren,
  
  You can see our thoughts on GoDaddy here.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
AK 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy,

Thank you very much for the many great articles. Love your writings.

I just have a quick question. If I want to create a website with online assessment forms/surveys, and auto generated reports for the users, and credit card payment systems (based in Thailand) for face to face/skype counseling, with members log-in system for members to check their appointments and progress reports. What is the best website builder that you would recommend?

Thank you very much for your kind guidance in advance.

Best,
AK

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi AK,
  
  I think what you need is a pretty customized set up and best to hire a professional developer to help you map out your website system and to custom build something for you. That is not to say you can't create something with a drag and drop website builder, but your entire system will be pretty manual and will be a bit labor intensive.
  
  For instance, you can get your visitors to submit a contact form (which you can customize to a certain extent to ask for key information), then you have to extract these data points and generate your own reports manually for each visitor. Then you have to somehow guide the them to pay you, then you manually reach out to them to set up an appointment, etc etc.
  
  So if you want a fluid system where each function is fully integrated, I think your best bet is to hire someone to custom build the system for you.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ed 12 years ago

having now tried our several web builders we have thankfully settled on Shopify.
It is absolutely brilliant and the add on's (many are free) make this into a complete professional package.
In our viewm Shopify beats hands down all of the other ones (we also tried squarespace, weebly and wix),
The templates are completely customisable, as are the add ons. such as marketing, selling, emails etc,
Thanks to these articles and Jeremey and Connie's hard work, we were able to make an excellent choice.
The ONLY fault with Shopify is their lack of response to queries, some take up to 4 days to answer, very frustratring.
The product, howeverm, is top notch and we would not use any other now,
We are due to go live with our new website withi the next 7 days, so fingers crossed. Our old one has beem up for 7 years and is a little tired now.
Thanks again to you both.
Ed and the team

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Ed,
  
  Thanks for sharing your experience with Shopify. They are indeed a very powerful and comprehensive e-commerce online store builder (others can read our review on Shopify here). The thing I really like about them (aside from being a Canadian company!) is that they have so many Apps available, that you can rest assured that as you grow your business and need more tools, there is a good chance that you will something that can help you in their App store.
  
  As for support turnaround time, I think they are growing so fast that they might be falling a bit behind in terms of responsiveness (typical growing pains for fast growing companies). But we didn't have any issues with that before (our own experience anyway). One thing to know, if you're not aware of it yet, is that they recently raised $100 million and I'm fairly confident that one of the things they want to invest in is more customer support specialists (in addition to growing and improving their platform / tools).
  
  Thanks for adding to this discussion again!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Roy 12 years ago

What an incredibly usefui set of articles -- thanks!

I have had experience with Drupal and Wordpress (and looked at many other CMSs) but never "cloud" tools like these. How would you compare using, say, Wordpress, to using Weebly or Squarespace to build a small business site with a few dozen pages? How about adding more content later on, searching for content, and working with a database?

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Roy,
  
  I haven't had a chance to familiarize myself with Drupal (didn't have an opportunity in our projects) so I'm not quite qualified to comment on it. But in general, WordPress is much more powerful and flexible than the likes of Squarespace and Weebly. But the drawback is that WordPress has a much higher learning curve than these cloud-based / hosted website builders.
  
  So at the end of the day, I always advise readers to choose a builder based on their specific needs. Some people will need maximum flexibility and the option of hiring developers to build in some customizations into their websites. In such cases, WordPress (or Drupal?) may be the better approach. Just bear in mind that hiring good developers is not cheap.
  
  But for those who doesn't need maximum flexibility and just want to build a great looking website without climbing a steep learning curve (not technically oriented, or just don't have time), and/or for those who may not have the financial resources to hire a developer, then these drag and drop website builders are really great options. You can definitely keep adding more content later, and grow your website with these website builders as well. But if you want to work with a database, then WordPress is the way to go.
  
  I have more benchmark discussions comparing WordPress with these drag & drop website builders here.
  
  Hope this is helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Roy 12 years ago
  
  Thanks for the response! I used Drupal quite a bit before using Wordpress and, in my opinion, Drupal is like a more complex, harder-to-learn but more flexible and more powerful equivalent to Wordpress. I'm a developer myself, old school, way pre-web. I've taught myself HTML (not v5 yet), CSS, PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, etc., and can do a decent job with them. Integrating custom PHP code into Wordpress can be tricky, and doing so successfully with Drupal can be way beyond tricky. (Haven't used Drupal in a few years and it may have gotten a lot better in that time.)
  
  Since I wrote my comment, I read your article comparing e-commerce solutions. It was superb. I maintain a system that was created with osCommerce a decade ago and it can be a nightmare to update. You got me motivated to look into switching to a more capable, friendly, and up-to-date solution.
  
  You make a great website with very helpful, well-written, and informative articles. Kudos!
  
  Reply
Carol 12 years ago

Hi

Thanks for all the info. I am a first timer and looking for a basic site, easy(ish) to build and economical to run. My main query concerns something not addressed here (I dont think). If I build a website (using my macbook air) will the site be viewable by others on iPads, iPhones, and tablets etc as so many people use mobile devices these days

Also do all these builders have the ability for readers to send an email to the site's admins.

Thanks for your help, Carol

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Carol,
  
  As mentioned in some of my comments below, the easiest website builder to use is probably Weebly. It is also mobile ready and so your website will look good on mobile devices. Wix is also pretty easy to use and has a bit more tools than Weebly.
  
  But at the moment, Squarespace has the best mobile experience as their templates are all responsive and so your content will look great on all mobile devices. Their templates are also very stylish, but they do have a bit steeper learning curve compared to Weebly.
  
  For all the website builders, you can set up contact forms and so people can fill in their comments / questions to contact you through your website.
  
  Hope this is helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Krupa Kapadia 12 years ago
  
  Carol,
  
  I completely agree with Jeremy on this one.
  
  I've been using for over a year and recently shifted to squarepace thanks to this article.
  
  It is a little tougher to use square space, however they have a brilliant help tool which make it really east to use square space. I'm a weebly fan but there is something about square space that makes it worth a try!
  
  Reply
Priyanka 12 years ago

Hi,

You have a very interesting blog here. Keep up the good work.

I'm a first timer when it comes to building a website and the options out there is quite overwhelming. I hope you can help me make a decision. I am a freelance writer and I want to build a website to showcase my services. Which website do you feel would best suit my needs?

Thanks in advance for your help.

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Priyanka,
  
  If you are looking for something very easy to use, I'd suggest you check out Weebly or even Wix. But if you are looking to create website that is very stylish and has responsive templates, I"d suggest you test out Squarespace.
  
  At the end of the day, it's very challenging to find a "perfect" website builder for you without testing some of them out. So it's worth investing some time to sign up for 2 - 3 website builders and just play with them to see which one suits you the best.
  
  Just because one website builder works for someone doesn't always mean you will like it either! So I'd encourage you to sign up for a free accounts and test them out.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Krupa Kapadia 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy & Connie,

I cannot thank you enough for this article!
It saved me hours of research. Great work & I particularly love how updated it is!

I have a weebly pro account, which was purchased over 2 years ago. I pay only 48$ for that and it supports 10 websites!
I need another account like that which even if more expensive, supports multiple websites.

What do you suggest?

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Krupa,
  
  Yes - in the past, when you upgrade to Weebly pro, you get Pro for all 10 websites! However, this has changed about a year ago and now you have to upgrade to Pro 1 website at a time, which is consistent for all website builders that we've discussed.
  
  If you just want to manage multiple websites within the same account, you can just sign up for another Weebly account (using a different email address) and you can create up to 10 different websites under this same Weebly account. But to upgrade to Pro, you will now have to upgrade 1 website at a time.
  
  Another website that supports having multiple websites within the same account is Wix.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jocelyn 12 years ago

Hello Jeremy & Connie

Can you please suggest a website builder for a first timer. I am having a very difficult time deciding. Preferably a low cost, easy to build, easy to edit, mobile friendly, that will help me with domain & hosting questions because I'm confused with it all. And maybe 24/7 customer support too. (or should I just hire someone? & who would you suggest?)

Thank you in advance

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jocelyn,
  
  For ease of use, I'd suggest checking out Weebly as they are one of the easiest website builders to use.
  
  Squarespace is also a very good candidate to test out as they have really stylish responsive templates, very mobile friendly, and has 24/7 email support in which they answer emails within 1 hour (which is pretty awesome).
  
  Wix has phone support and you just have to make an appointment in advance, and they will call you.
  
  Another great 24/7 support website builder is GoDaddy (see our review here).
  
  So if you have any questions or need a lot of handing holding, I'd suggest checking out Squarespace and GoDaddy website builder.
  
  Hopefully this points you in the right direction!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mark 12 years ago

Hey there,

I am new to this but want to create a website for presentations in schools boards. Teachers can find my website using google and also through my cards. I want to have pictures and videos on the website and be able to possibly hook an email up to it using the name of the website. I want my own domain name without anything else on the URL but the name and .ca. I wouldn't mind being able to set up a paypal option to pay for small shipping fees for the presentation equipment but that isn't crucial. Looking forward to hearing from anyone that can possibly help me out with this. I wouldn't mind it to look professional and let me personalize and customize it and have a possible like ticker tape window that is always showing quick one sentence reviews of the presentations that I have done it the past. Don't know much about this stuff. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Mark

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Mark,
  
  Pretty much any of the website builders above can do what you are looking for, including connecting the site to your own custom domain name (note that Squarespace and Wix gives you a free domain name if you sign up to their annual plans), and you can also set up your own custom email address by using either Google Business Apps or Microsoft mail (free).
  
  All of them can be connected with PayPal buttons as you can get an embed code from PayPal and just insert into the website builder.
  
  I think the best way to find out what works best for you is to sign up for 2 - 3 website builders based on our discussion points above, and just invest some time to test them out. There isn't a "perfect" website builder out there, so it's important to try a few of them to see which one suits your needs the best.
  
  Hope this is helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tomija 12 years ago

Hi, i want to create a blog with some different themes, like exercise nutrition and stuff that generally is about my life.

What website builder would you prefer? I think those normal blogs are not that good cuz it's kind of difficult to add ads.

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Tomija,
  
  I think most of the website builders I mentioned above will work, as their blogs will allow you to insert images on the sidebars or even in the content area of your blog posts. There, you can insert your own advertisements if you want to, either with images or text.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mansi 12 years ago

Hi.
I think u guys have done a fab job on the charts n stuff.
My issue here is I have a website but my domain name expired and it's with volusion so here it is first I want to change from volusion and get it to a more simple one. Do I just cancel my account .. Can I transfer the data n stuff to a newer one
Which website developer do u suggest. Please help
Thank you
Mansi

T

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey Mansi,
  
  I don't think you can import your data from your Volusion site into any one of the website builders above. Squarespace does allow you to import content from Tumblr, Big Cartel, Etsy, Shopify, Blogger and WordPress, but not Volusion.
  
  But I'm not 100% sure if you can migrate from Volution to Shopify or Bigcommerce or not. I would imagine that there must be some discussions on this on the internet. Maybe what you can try is contact Shopify or Bigcommerce support teams and see if they have a way to migrate your data from Volusion.
  
  In terms of your expired domain, you should try to see if you can register for it again using domain registrars such as GoDaddy.
  
  Once you have the domain name registered, you can then connect it with any website builder and continue to use your domain name. You would, however, need to build your store from scratch again (if you can't migrate your data to either Shopify or Bigcommerce)
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ed 12 years ago

I personally think that Shopify will be your best bet here Mary Ellen.
Though it will not allow you to disable the cart system, you will be able to place a link on the page that will take your visitors to a custom form that you use.
I must say that Shopify is absolutely brilliant to use, though it is not the cheapest.
It is, howeverm, in our opinion, the most professional of them all.
None of us here are web experts, and I myself am merely a beginner, but Shopify allows you to use as much, or as little of HTML/css coding as you like. It really is simplicity itself to use.
Our only regret is that we did not use Shopify sooner.
Regards
Ed

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Ed,
  
  Thanks for contributing to this discussion relating to Mary Ellen's question. Shopify is a really stand out shopping cart as well. I forgot to mention this to Mary Ellen so thanks for your suggestion. We have another comparison chart which focuses on e-commerce online stores here. For those interested in our thoughts on Shopify, you can also see our discussion here.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Mary Ellen 12 years ago

Hello Folks:

I have a small antiques business for which I have finally decided to take the plunge and build a website. I have been weighing the option of designing a site using either Square Space or Weebly. For me-simpler is definitely better.

Ideally, I want to have a venue where I can showcase my wares, give a description and a price for an item and a means for a customer to contact me for more information and/or to make a purchase. At this time, I do not want to utilize an automated checkout/shopping cart.

I have a logo and photos I have taken which would provide the backdrop for the site. The changing array of antiques will provide the majority of the photos for the site.

I need to be able to show multiple views of an item and would like a “click to enlarge photo” feature.

Also, in lieu of clicking on a purchase button to add an item to a shopping cart-ecommerce checkout system-I would like the button to take the customer to a contact page or form that they can complete and email to me for further information and/or to make a purchase-which I guess equates to “disabling the shopping cart feature” on a template.

I was looking at the Square Space “Montauk” template-but I can’t seem to find anywhere in the information whether the shopping cart can be disabled. Do you know if that can be done?

In looking at Weebly-it wasn’t clear if there was a “click to enlarge” photos component to their templates. Do you know if this can be done with Weebly?

Lastly, I’m wondering if you would be kind enough to give me your opinion, based on the information I have provided-which website builder you think would best fit my requirements.

Thanks very much. I have found your website comparison articles to be endlessly informative and helpful, and your story of how you started your business to be very inspiring.

Best Regards,

Mary Ellen D.

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey Mary Ellen,
  
  Thanks for your comment and glad you found our story inspiring! If we can do it, so can you!
  
  To answer your questions, I don't think any website builders allow you to disable their shopping cart buttons, or to re-direct them to a contact page instead of the shopping cart. I'm sure this can be done with a custom built site, but the drag and drop builders that we've discussed don't have this flexibility as it's not a common set up.
  
  What you can do, without complicating the process, is to just have a banner or text on your pages where you display your products, to communicate to your interested prospects to reach out to you through your contact form. Then have a button and hyperlink it to your contact form.
  
  This way, it's clear and not ambiguous that if they want to purchase or want more information, to email you through your form. I like this approach as you don't have to mess around with trying to customize the shopping cart function (I'm not even sure if it's at all possible).
  
  You can also insert galleries, slideshows to highlight your products. You can do this with both Squarespace and Weebly, or just with any other website builders out there to be honest. But for the long haul, if / when you are ready to activate the shopping cart function, Squarespace and Weebly do have great e-commerce functions. So starting off with them are good choices, at least in my view.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Teena Davidson 12 years ago

Hello, my company manufacturers upholstered furniture. We currently have a static website that is "to the trade only". We are wanting to create an ecommerce site where we have 2 price lists. We found that Yahoo has a module that will satisfy that need. We also need the site to be able to handle the many options that we offer for some of our pieces. Like a chair... leg color, tufting or no tufting, nail heads, etc. We have been looking at Yahoo as it seems to satisfy these needs as well as a shipping module which is also important. However it concerns me that we have to pay a monthly subscription for the shipping module as well as the log in module that provides a 2nd pricing structure. Then I find out we have to pay a percentage of sales to Yahoo. We are a small company at the crossroads of trying to expand our business. I think one of the reasons I am liking Yahoo is I finally found someone that does the programming for this platform that I could actually speak with and he understands what we are trying to accomplish. We had such a nightmare of a time 6 years ago trying to create an eccomerce site that we just gave up and created a static one in Magento. Please help.

Thanks Teena

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Teena,
  
  Thanks for your note. I'd suggest you check out Shopify or Bigcommerce as both have very comprehensive e-commerce tools and are growing their tools and users really rapidly. Here is our comparison chart for e-commerce online store builders. You can also access our main discussions of Shopify or Bigcommerce here.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ed Bradford 12 years ago

Hello. Do you have any recommendations for a good product to use to build a website for a historic theatre and ballroom. The theatre hosts live plays, concerts, MET Opera streamed live, comedians and the like. Not so much movies, although we have that capability. The ballroom is used for wedding receptions and fundraisers.

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey Ed,
  
  There isn't any website builder that's tailored specifically to your industry, so I think all of the above will work. It really comes down to what matters more to you and which one works best for you (in terms of user interface).
  
  If you are looking for a builder that's more imagery oriented, I'd suggest Squarespace or Wix. But if you prefer a builder that's very easy to use, Weebly and IM Creator works well. Jimdo is great if you like to be on the go and build your websites using a mobile device.
  
  At the end of the day, I'd suggest signing up for a free or trial account for a couple of them (read our reviews and narrow down your choices) and just invest some times to test them out. That's the only way to know for sure which one fits you the best!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ed 12 years ago

Hey both, love your comments and advice.

I am wondering why you left out Shopify from this list? Surely it has to be top of the list for any serious website owner? Or is it that it provides mainly ecommerce sites, rather than general websites?

Anyway, we have taken the plunge and started our Shopify website build prior to moving our existing website over to them. All of this mainly due to your very in depth reviews of them and others.

We have a few early teething problems, but nothing major. Not too happy with their response time though. emails take up to 4 days for a reply and their online chat service, well, yesterday we were in the queue for over 50 minutes before we hung up- still at number 11 in the queue.

All in all though, we think Shopify is top dog in the ecommerve website building league.

Keep up the good work, we need people like yourselves to help point us in the right direcion in the Intenet maze.

Ed

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey Ed,
  
  Yes you're right, this chart above mainly focuses on non-e-commerce focused builders. We do have another comparison chart dedicated to e-commerce builders.
  
  Glad we've been helpful in pointing you in the right direction! I think in terms of support, Shopify is definitely beefing up their support team as they are growing so fast (high new paid subscribers growth). They recently raised US$100 million to aggressively improve and add more e-commerce tools, and i believe that a dedicated portion is to further enhance their support!
  
  Thanks for sharing your thoughts and adding to this discussion!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
David 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy!

I am so glad that you guys created Website Builder Expert. It has really helped me learn a lot about site usage and what not. I wanted to ask you if once I create my domian name under Wix would I be able to transfer my domain name to another site builder if I so choose so? I've heard that once you create a domain name with Wix it stays with Wix. Is that true?

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey David,
  
  Glad you found our resources helpful! Do click on the social sharing buttons to spread the resources as it can help others in need as well.
  
  As for your question, once you purchase a domain name, you own it and you should be able to transfer it out and use it on another website if you wish (as long as you are paying the annual registration fee going forward).
  
  What you can do if you use Wix, is to just purchase your own domain name with domain name registrars such as Godaddy, then connect your domain name with Wix if you want to. This way, you can help ensure that you keep your Wix site (hosted with Wix) separate from your domain name - if that makes you feel better.
  
  You can find out how to connect your domain name from GoDaddy to Wix here. Hope this helps clarify things for you!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago

Hi Shirish,

I don't think the website builders listed above has a lightbox function for videos. But an option is to consider browsing MOJO Marketplace for a Video Lightbox widget, which would allow you to insert your own custom thumbnail image for a YouTube or Vimeo video inside a Weebly website.

See if this helps!

- Jeremy

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shirish 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy and Connie, Thank you for an informative forum. I was wondering if any of the website builders offer video through lightbox pop up. Basically I wish to have a collapsible list of videos, and link the text to video hosted at vimeo or any other hosting site. If I show thumbnails, it will occupy too much space, so a collapse/expand text list is the only way forward for me. I doubt Wix offers these features. Much appreciate your help. Best,

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Caue Rego 12 years ago

I see you've already answered about multiple language support, although you do not cite the top one, SquareSpace. I've actually tried making such a site once, and it has very limited support for doing it. If you want a "simple" site which has each page in just 2 different languages, you basically can't have it easily. There is no direct way to do it. You can use a custom template for best results, or manually make 2 sub domains which won't link one page to another unless you manually add the links (and thus, risk breaking them if you change anything). It's quite bad.

Here I ask a bit deeper on this similar subject, although I suspect from your previous comment you won't know the answer.

How about international support? Not only multi language, but also things like shopping cart outside USA (I know SquareSpace doesn't have it) and a builder in other language (again, not in SS). Can you elaborate on that?

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Caue,
  
  For international support, I know that Jimdo has multiple support teams around the world, including in the US, UK, Spain, France, Italy, Russia, Portugal, Netherlands, Poland, Turkey, Japan and China.
  
  Jimdo is a very "international" company! Here is our review of Jimdo if you haven't seen it yet.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Sue 12 years ago

Hi Jeremy and Connie,
Wonderful forum and very informative Q&As. I am not very savvy in website making, have a full time job. I need to get an e-commerce website made for my product line (lotions, body sprays, body and face scrubs etc.). I need to get it built since I do not have time to do it by myself and need to build it fast, but good. What should be my budget for a full functional website? I will need to add discount coupons, code etc from time to time. And, will change products as well. Need to build the site from scratch, get it maintained and will need logo etc. done as well. Please guide.
Thanks,
Sue

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2 replies
- Binyomin 12 years ago
  
  [NOTE FROM JEREMY: The following comment is just an example estimate from one of our commenters who is a freelancer. His price / quote estimates are unique to what he has to offer, and so it only gives you a frame of reference. But as I mentioned in my comment above, prices fluctuate greatly amongst service providers. So take his estimates as a reference point.]
  
  Hi Sue,
  I saw your post on Jeremy's great website. His answer is 100% correct.
  As a graphic designer and web builder, I can provide you with figures that are a little clearer.
  These are my personal charges, and vary from designer to designer. I charge $500 (per language) to build an average site of 7 to 10 pages. This includes shopping pages and carts, general info page, contact us and google maps, etc..
  I can create the site to be mobile friendly as well for an additional $180.
  This price does not include maintaining the site after all is finished.
  If you want me to stay available to make changes, add, delete products, update special offers and change pictures, etc or upload testimonial videos etc.. I charge $25 per hour aprox.
  To create a logo I charge $50 for 3 designs. THIS IS FREE IF I DO YOUR WEBSITE.
  You need to pay for shopping cart hosting which I can get you for around $100 a year.
  You need to pay for a domain name of your choice for around $12-$15 per year.
  I hope this is useful for you.
  Feel free to contact me for any other questions or services.
  Binyomin
  
  Reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Sue,
  
  It's really hard to provide guidance on the cost of building a website, but a few items that you will need include monthly subscription fees if you upgrade to a premium plan of a website builder, annual domain name fees (some builders include this as part of the package if you subscribe to a premium plan), email services (you can find free or paid), design costs (if you hire designers, which can vary in prices), freelancers (if you hire people to help here and there, such as formatting of images, some modification of codes), etc.
  
  So it's quite challenging to estimate, and can go from hundreds per year into thousands if you really want to. Also, if you plan on using advertisements to drive traffic to your site, this guess-timate can go much higher!
  
  Just in case you haven't seen this yet, but we also have a comparison chart for e-commerce online store builders.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Sue 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jeremy and Connie,
  Appreciate your prompt response. Do you have any feedback on the company called Deluxe. They make e-commerce websites and they are offering a package of approx. $129/ month. Any suggestions?
  Thanks,
  Sue
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Sue - we haven't used them before so we can't quite comment on them.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Molly 12 years ago

Thank you for your easy-to-follow chart! I love seeing everything in one place like this! In my research, I've also run into Breezi and Strikingly as options. I would love to see your thoughts on these!

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Daley 12 years ago

Thanks for the comparison chart.

From the 6 website builders above, I've tried Weebly and IM Creator.

While Weebly is certainly a good website builder: easy to use, good costumer support etc., I found more cool looking templates at IM Creator. Plus, they seem more suited for those looking to build a website and not a blog.

Nevertheless, this is my personal opinion, but I think IM Creator deserves a 5/5 as well.

The comparison chart is definitely great. Keep up the good work!

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey Daley,
  
  Thanks so much for providing feedback for IM Creator! Good to hear that you're enjoying their builder.
  
  The main reason why we didn't give it 5/5 is because its SEO functions aren't as flexible as other website builders, and that they don't have any built-in e-commerce functions. You need to use 3rd party widgets if you want to operate an online store. But if you don't need e-commerce features, then you can definitely build a good looking site with IM Creator!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tan 12 years ago

Which website builders allow for you to have multiple languages on your website? Being able to switch the whole website to a few different languages...
Is it easier/more difficult with any?

Thanks,
T

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Tan,
  
  I think most of them can have this capability if you know how to implement them manually. For instance, if you search for the term "language" on Wix's support page, they have a video showing how to create multilingual structure on a Wix site. Same for Jimdo's support center.
  
  For Weebly, I think the only way to do it is if you set up a sub-domain structure. So your main domain will be in your primary language, then you can set up a subdomain and have it in a separate language. Then you can link using images, buttons, or text in your main domain, hyperlink them to your subdomain site to lead people to the different language.
  
  Note that all the options above will require you to translate your main site yourself. Pretty much duplicating your entire site. If you prefer to to use an automatic translation tool, check out Google's free Translation Widget which will you can insert into your site as an HTML code (use the HTML widget that the website builders provide) which will then become a drop down bar for people to choose which language they want to see your site in.
  
  Just a caution that this translation tool from Google is just like Google Translate. It will probably get the points across, but not the best available translation. So even though it's much easier to implement and can get the job done, if you are running a business you may want to consider investing the time to manually translate your site!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
SMx 12 years ago

Thanks for the information. Very helpful. Are you aware of any website builders that allow you to create and integrate a database so you can have pages that have a portion which is dynamic and driven by the database? Ideally the users would also be able to do some searches based on some of the elements in the database. Thanks.

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey SMx,
  
  I think you will probably need a much more powerful platform such as WordPress, or something custom built. All of the drag and drop website builders are not as advanced enough to cater to what you are looking for. But if you are looking to build a good website without having to display information dynamically from a database, the platforms above are good candidates.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Dee 12 years ago

I'm an artist looking to update my website. I have been creating my own list of comparisons based on what I'm looking for (Much like your list...and includes a few of your website comparisons). So, I was very pleased to come across your site and to see your you-tubes as well. Extremely helpful! Thanks for doing all the homework! I'm finding the questions others are asking below are my own questions and worth taking the time to read and see the answers.

Customer support is VERY important to me! I spent most of my day trying to get through to support on my current web hosting yesterday! Ugggg. I really just want to be an artist..not be in the business of building websites! But unfortunately, being an artist also means cost is an important factor too.

I plan to try out a few of the free ones...as a test drive. I just hate how long it takes to set up just to get the feel for it. And then having to do it on 3-4 different platforms all takes time. But this is all the business side of things. I just wanted to say thanks for all your work on these reviews. One other thing to add on your list is whether or not blogs are integrated. I have a separate blog now and would like to have it as part of my website and not have my clients leave my site.

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Dee,
  
  Thanks so much for your comment! I think reading through all the comments is very informative as well, as we spend a lot of our time responding to comments (and great questions), which provide "extra" information on top of our existing reviews!
  
  I'd definitely agree with you that building websites can be a bit of a pain, especially if you want to focus on other parts of your craft. But it's a necessary step, and just treat the initial learning curve as a 1-time investment up front! No doubt, there will be some updating work from time to time, but once you get the hang of things, and choose the right builder for you, it will get easier.
  
  Thanks for recommending to include whether blogs are integrated or not. If we get more questions about this, we'll add it to our chart.
  
  Thanks for adding to this discussion!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Bill and Jody 12 years ago

Dear Jeremy and Connie,

Just a note to thank you for your excellent reviews, emails, and comparisons of websites.

We have never seen anything as helpful as your work, and we really appreciate everything you've done.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Bill and Jody
Minneapolis, Minnesota

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Bill and Jody,
  
  Glad you found our materials helpful! Be sure to click on the social sharing buttons at the top or left side of any page that you found helpful - you never know who else you can help along the way!
  
  Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Darren 12 years ago

Thanks for your site. Do any of these websites have integrated memberships? I'm looking for a site that will not only let me sell products but also allow shoppers to buy a monthly or yearly membership. Once a membership is purchased I would like them to have access to a members only area that they access via a personal log-in. I would like the whole purchase and get access be automated. If the card expires or the membership is over they would automatically no longer have access to the embers only site. The members only are would be a place to get current work-outs in video format.

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey Darren,
  
  Unfortunately none of these builders have a membership payment gateway fully integrated with their platforms. I've discussed a possible solution with Squarespace and Weebly in my March 5 2014 comment below.
  
  Wix as has a membership app add-on. See a short discussion on this on December 23 2013 below. We also have an article on Wix's app market here.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
MJ Stamper 12 years ago

Not sure where to best ask this question...getting ready to set up website for my husband's art (paints on palm fronds) and I believe we'll go with Squarespace. My question is: do any of these allow you to put your store on "inactive" status like when you're on vacation for a week or two and can't ship product? Thanks!

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey MJ,
  
  I answered this question in the other post where you posted your question. Here it is again!
  
  What you can do is set your inventory levels to zero, then Squarespace won’t allow your visitor to add any products to the shopping cart. So this workaround will definitely work for you!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Gillian 12 years ago

Hi there:
I am a copy writer/content marketer but am looking to expand my business into creating websites for small businesses using a website builder service. Here are my questions:
a. is there a service which allows you to change themes without losing your content?
b. do they include email services?
I love your website and really appreciate your observations
Thank you, G

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Gillian,
  
  1) Check out Squarespace, Weebly and Jimdo to start. With them you can change your themes without losing content.
  
  2) The ones I suggested don't. Check out footnote 9 above to see more information that can help you.
  
  GOod luck!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Karen C 12 years ago

I am working with a friend to help them set up a website for their small business (I'm a novice at this myself, but they are relatively clueless). We've narrowed it down to Weebly and Wix. They want to be able to collect email subscribers from the site. Can we add in something like MailChimp to either of these for that purpose?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Karen,
  
  Yes you can integrate newsletter services such as Mailchimp or Aweber (we use Aweber ourselves) to both Wix and Weebly. When you sign up for these newsletter services, they give you tools to create / design sign up forms. They then provide you with a snippet of code based on what you've designed and you just have to insert these codes into either your Wix or Weebly website.
  
  If you decide to use Wix, you can use their "HTML App" to insert the code. If you are using Weebly, use their "embed code" element. Once you do that, then your newsletter sign up form will appear on your website!
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ed 12 years ago

Thanks for the great comparison chart. I'd like to create a website to promote and market training videos. I'll need a membership site option with online payment and an e-commerce option for virtual sales only. Since I've never created a website before, I need a fairly easy to use web site builder, but I'd like it to offer me options for professional customization in the future so that I can improve my site over time. Being able to export the site in the future would be nice but it is not essential.

I'll also need a site that makes it easy to post lots of photos for each video with some type of options for narration of the images. I'll also need a good Search function so members can find what they are looking for. After reviewing your list of web site builders, it looks like the Webs.com site offers me basically what I need, but I'm a little concerned about the mediocre rating it received relative to the other sites.

What other Web Site builder would you recommend that I compare to for this type of web page. Also, I'll need to know if I can keep my website name and take it with me if I decide to choose a different website builder. Thanks for the help.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hey Ed,
  
  Currently, only Webs has a membership gateway function built directly into its platform. However, they don't have a "paid member" option built in yet.
  
  There is a service called Sentry Login that can help turn a Squarespace or Weebly website into a membership site, where you can either grant access to restricted pages only after your visitors become a member (free or paid).
  
  Both Squarespace and Weebly allow you to export your site so that's helpful for you (see our Footnote 6 above for more details).
  
  Both Squarespace and Weebly allow you to insert a lot of images and video, and you can definitely insert caption / narrative for them. Both platforms also have a search function.
  
  If design is important to you, Squarespace's templates have an edge over Weebly's templates, as they are more "designer oriented" which gives you richer visuals and presentation, plus they are responsive so they work well across all mobile devices. See our thoughts on their templates here.
  
  If you get a free domain name from Squarespace, you actually own it and so you can take it with you even if you decide to leave the platform. You just have to make sure you pay the annual registrar fee so you get to keep the domain name.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Peter Gellatly 12 years ago

Aloha,

I love your reviews. They are simple yet thorough, engaging and personal, kind-spirited and buoying for simpletons like myself. That's the problem, actually. Or I should say that I'm the problem. The information you presented sold me on Squarespace, and I can't figure out how to get started. I have asked their staff many questions, and I have watched tutorials, but it's not clicking with me.

Can you possibly recommend a "how to" piece that will kick me in the okole (Hawaiian for read end) and tug me into the future? I have very specific ideas and content ready to go for the creation of a travel guide for the island of Oahu.

mahalo & aloha, Peter

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Peter,
  
  Thanks for sharing your feedback. That's just part of the process of finding the best website builder that fits your unique needs. When we first started, we tested so many different platforms and invested a lot of time into this! This is what inspired us to create this website to hopefully help others "jump start" their search.
  
  The only way to really find out which website builder is suitable for you is to sign up and test a couple of them. If Squarespace doesn't fit your needs (as it does have a slightly higher learning curve), test out Wix or Weebly (see some of our thoughts on them in the chart above). In my view, Weebly is probably the easiest website builder to use.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
David Seppa 12 years ago

Very useful, comprehensive collection of information. Thank you, guys.

Reply
SK 12 years ago

Great info on your site. I think you should also include GoDaddy's Website Builder. It's drag and drop. Lots of customizable templates, robust, and very easy to edit. The only negative is that the slideshow does not have a stop/pause button, and captions on the slideshow and image gallery are inside the image, and the images for the gallery have a white border. Hopefully, they will address these issues soon. I just experimented with most of the sites you reviewed, and realized that the GoDaddy Website Builder is on par with and in most instances better than most of them.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi SK,
  
  Thanks so much for suggesting GoDaddy! We tested it out and you can find our GoDaddy website builder review here. Definitely worth while checking them out as they have a number of great things going for them, and some drawbacks (which all website builders have!).
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi
  
  I want to build a website for my boutique I'm clueless when it come to making a website...I'm gnna need shopping carts and payment options please help..I would prefer a website that does all of this for me : )
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Connie,
  
  Unfortunately these website builders do not offer any hands on services, but rather, they focus on giving you tools so you can build your own websites.
  
  What you can do, is look for freelancers to help you build your website in return for a free. You can usually find a lot of these individuals on marketplaces such as Elance or oDesk. Good luck!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Deborah 12 years ago

Hi -- I've recently closed my brick & mortar retail business and am looking for a free solution to maintain some form of web presence (primarily informational for customers looking for products we carried). Currently I'm using 1&1 (no e-commerce) and it's been okay, but I don't want to pay for something when there isn't any income. I've found your information very helpful, but the one question I have is I'd like to continue to use the web address I've had for a very, very long time. Will any of these sites allow me to do that for free while I figure out what is next?

Thanks

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi Deborah,
  
  For all the website builders here, you will have to at least upgrade to their lowest plans before you can connect your own custom domain name to the website. In a way it's a "fair" trade to them to provide website building services to you and to help you connect your domain name to the site.
  
  You can always sign up to their month to month plans so that you can cancel if you have a "change of plans" so you don't have to commit long term to their services.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
YK 13 years ago

Hi Jeremy , Connie,

excellent work you are doing here on website builder reviews. Just wondering if u have a review on email marketing systems, such as mailchimp and its counterparts comparison?

and thanks again for all the work done here on this site!

yk

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 12 years ago
  
  Hi YK,
  
  We don't have any reviews on them, but we use Aweber ourselves which is really easy to use and we like it. Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeannette 13 years ago

Thank you for a very informative analysis of web builders. It confirms what my head and heart said!

Reply
Marv.n.Jo 13 years ago

Congrats on living the dream! And great review of the various website builders! Out of curiosity...which one did you use to build this site? It looks fabulous!

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1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hey Marv,
  
  Thanks! We built this site on WordPress as we needed a lot of the additional tools that we envisioned our website to have. But this is after spending a few years learning how to work websites properly, and also investing a lot of time to learn coding which is very helpful.
  
  When we first started a few years ago, we used pretty much most of the major, reputable website builders out there. Connie and I just experimented through trial and error, and invested a lot of time into testing them. That's why we started this blog so to share our experiences with those who are going through what we went through a few short years ago.
  
  We wished there was a resourceful blog back then that shared ideas and discussions but couldn't find anything that was good. That's what compelled us to start this one!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Greg Sargent 13 years ago

I just discovered this blog today...and love the work you have put into all this amazing content! I will for sure have to direct people here who are trying to make the DIY website decision. I recently started a Squarespace centered blog (content is covering everything Squarespace...not just built using Squarespace) and found you on my MOZ keyword report! You have a great blog, great content, great delivery! Keep up the good work!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hey Greg - Thanks for your comment! Your site looks very helpful as well! Awesome job!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Chris 13 years ago

Greetings, great site you have here.

My question is about credit card transactors. Are there ANY of these ecommerce builder sites, etc.
that offer a BUILT-IN credit card transactor? Perfect examply would be 2nd hand sellers on
Amazon.com - Amazon does ALL the financial transactions without the 2nd hand sellers on their
site having to start their own secondary CC transactor service.. Amazon does it all nice, simply, and efficiently..
and deposits the money into your checking, piece of cake)...
Meaning, without you having to sign up ot contract with PayPal (can't stand them... read the THOUSANDS of horror stories on PayPalsucks dot com),
Stripe, Authorize dot net, etc? This is the bane of starting or creating and trying to flourish
a personal or ecommerce site to sell something...

THanks, hope to hear your feedback.
Chris

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Chris,
  
  The only e-commerce online store builder that provides its own transaction services is Shopify with their Shopify Payments feature. So everything is under Shopify, and so you don't have to use an external payment processor like PayPal, if you don't want to.
  
  Check out our review on Shopify here.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ed Barker 13 years ago

Is there a website builder that provides the ability to restrict individual content editors to update just their own pages?
Thx, Ed

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Ed,
  
  I don't think any one of these website builders have the capability for you to invite other editors to edit your sites content. Something like that might require a more customized solution, or a more powerful platform such as WordPress.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Lena 13 years ago

Jeremy,

If you had a choice between a free Bluehost account and a paid Weebly Pro account, which would you choose and why?

THANKS for all you do!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Lena,
  
  Great question. Check out our post here about using Weebly directly or Bluehost's version of Weebly. The images within the article are slightly dated but the general principles still remain unchanged. Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Todd 13 years ago

Thanks great article! Do you know if any of these offer white labeling?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hey Todd,
  
  Weebly and IM Creator offer white labeling.
  
  For other readers who are not familiar with white labeling, basically it is a service that allows designers to use the website building platform (such as Weebly or IM Creator) to serve the designers' customers. The designer can insert his/her own company logo into the drag and drop builder and brand it as his/her own. So the end customers will receive "full" service while the designer will get to build a brand around his/her services.
  
  Currently, if a customer logs into the a Weebly or IM Creator website, they will wonder why the designer is using Weebly or IM Creator. So with white labeling, the designer can brand the drag and drop builder as his/her own!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Pieter 13 years ago

Squarespace is awesome, however the payment gateway stripe is not available in all countries which means they don't support all currencies.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Pieter,
  
  You're right in that their payment gateway is slightly restrictive in that they have selected using Stripe as their preferred partner to integrate into their ecommerce platform. Stripe has been expanding internationally in 2013 and I think they will continue to do so in 2014 and forward as well. You can see in our Squarespace e-commerce discussion that Squarespace now caters to e-commerce markets in Canada, the UK, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain. I'm sure this list will continue to expand in the near future!
  
  There is one other option - to use an independent shopping cart service provider - Ecwid - and integrate that with Squarespace. Ecwid is a pretty powerful e-commerce shopping cart widget that you can use with Squarespace. They currently have over 400,00 customers in over 175 countries and so supports you wherever you are internationally.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Tsen 13 years ago

Thank you for the great work! My friend directed me to your site as I have been researching all the sites that compare the web builder service and find yours the most comprehensive and up-to-date. It seems that you have some exposure in China so your feedback is highly appreciated.

I am starting with
phase1. An English blog that I can upload video/blog for users to leave comments for audience outside China BEFORE BUILD
phase2. A property listing site in Chinese for Mainland Chinese audience

Q1 Since the export functions is important at the later stage, it seems i can only considered Squrespace, Weebly, or WordPress.org , doesn't it?
Or shall I leave out squarespace as it can only be exported to wordpress.org?
Q2 I read that Squrespace and Weebly are (occasionally) blocked in China. What choice would I have if I prefer my site being viewable in China from phase I?
Q3 If I just focus on phase I to get the site running swiftly on my own, which would you recommend.

Could you suggest where you are based since you offer website building service.

Thank you,
Tsen

However would it be okey if Squrespace seem to export to Wordpress.org only?
What would you recommend?

Q2

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Tsen,
  
  IM Creator also allows you to back up your website. Squarespace only allows you to export to WordPress at the moment, whereas Weebly allows you to export all the codes so you can upload them into your own host if you wish. However, just note that not all Weebly functions will work outside of their own hosting platform.
  
  I haven't heard of Squarespace or Weebly being blocked in China - but then I don't live there so I can't really share any experiences there. Has any one else had similar experiences?
  
  As for Squarespace or Weebly, it really depends on your preference on which website builder works better for your needs. I would suggest you sign up for both and invest time to using them to see which one suits your needs. Both have blogging functions so you can definitely insert your content that way to share with your readers. As for listing properties, you can upload images and text to showcase the properties. But if you were to use some sort of external widget, both Squarespace and Weebly have the ability to allow you to embed codes into their sites so they can run external widgets.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Michael 13 years ago

I just need to say that they way you present your information and manage this site is outstanding. The content is excellent, the formatting and layout (ease of read) is great, and your professionalism in responding to every comment - good or bad - in a helpful, courteous manner is really something to be admired. I know all sites should operate this way but we all know most don't. Thanks for doing what you do so well!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Michael,
  
  Thanks so much for your comment! Glad you found our website helpful. If you think others will also find it helpful, do share it with others by clicking on the social sharing buttons at the top of the page or on the left hand side. You never know who else will find it helpful!
  
  Best,
  
  Jeremy
  
  Reply
Janet Gonzales 13 years ago

Thanks for all your information. Your reviews and comparisons are helping me learn as I have no experience in website builders and hosters. I read somewhere that I should look for builders that provide/use HTML5. Your WIX review noted their use of HTML5. Do Weebly, Jimdo and Squarespace also use/provide HTML5?

Also, I will be selling products online and want to be sure transactions are secure. Is there a difference in security of transactions between the free and the paid for accounts?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Janet,
  
  Thanks for raising a great point! Yes, Weebly, Jimdo and Squarespace are all HTML5 compatible.
  
  All the transaction pages are secure. If you want to check, just take a look at the URL of the webpage when you are on a transaction page (such as the page where you insert your check out information). You should see that the URL changes from "https://" to "https://". "https://" indicates that the page is secured.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Larry B 13 years ago

Very informative comparison with useful information, especially for those "not up to speed" on we-hosting. The one area I feel you lacked to compare is the email hosting abilities for each. I know for me, this is a must.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Thanks Larry, and a very fair point and I will add this to the list above.
  
  But just a bit more discussion on this. For all the website builders listed above, only Jimdo and Webs offer email services, but with both you have to be subscribed to their premium plans.
  
  One thing I think people might be nervous about, is what if they decide to leave Jimdo or Webs and move over to another website builder, or custom build a website. What would happen to their email account and all the email history?
  
  Having said that, there are email apps that you can use to create your own custom domain email addresses. One is Google Business Apps (which we use ourselves) but it is now a paid subscription (about $4 per month) and you get to use the Gmail interface and have your own custom email domain. The other service is Windows Live (Hotmail) which at the moment, is still free if you want to set up your own custom email domain.
  
  I think use either one of these services / apps is a worthwhile consideration, as you get to keep the email accounts if you ever decide to use a different website builder service. Your emailing function won't have to change at all, and you won't lose any history.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  Stacey 13 years ago
  
  Jeremy, would Hushmail and Yahoo also be email services that can be used with some of these website builders? I may want to use them as part of my business
  Stacey
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Stacey,
  
  Hushmail looks interesting (I haven't seen them before). It looks like they allow you to use your own domain name, though I'm not sure if they are free. We recommended Gmail Business Apps and also Hotmail because they are established players in the emailing space. I'm not sure if Yahoo also provides the same service or not.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Chad Miller 13 years ago

Thank you for the candid information and your expert opinions. I am sifting through all of the information out there in my quest to start my own website and it is overwhelming to say the least. I am aware many review sites and such are reviewing products that lead to affiliate sales so I always struggle with what is an honest assessment or merely sales copy. Never-the-less, I am attracted to Wix apps options as I'd like to have a forum, and add other apps for registration services if possible and potentially password protected content that requires a membership or one time fee to access or purchase. Wix appears to offer a relatively easy to use app section, however I'm sure it is limited to apps they have partnerships with so the selection could remain limited to these partners. Do any of the other drop and drag builders offer the ability to add things like this as Wix app page allows?

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Chad,
  
  Aside from Wix, the website builders that we have listed above don't have app markets. The only one that has a membership area is Webs. However, what you can do is check out Sentry Login which is a membership widget that you can plug into Weebly and Squarespace. I haven't used them myself before, but have heard a few Weebly users using them.
  
  Hope this helps!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
joe 13 years ago

How is Wix and Weebly with spam bots. Have simple web site on Wordpress and always trying to guard against bots filling forms with spam and getting blocked by gmail.?

Also does Wix and/or Weebly have good set-ups for using video on web sites.?

Thanks, Joe

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Joe,
  
  Both Wix and Weebly doesn't have spam bots (such as Captcha) guarding tools at the moment. Nevertheless spamming technology nowadays have the ability to force its way through captcha, so perhaps these spam avoidance tools will get weaker in time. It's nasty and annoying, but plenty of WordPress sites get spammed really badly too!
  
  Yes both Wix and Weebly can use videos. You can drag and drop their video elements into the screen, and either upload your own video or play YouTube videos.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ann 13 years ago

Is GoDaddy a bad option? An Executive Board Member uses it for her org and wants me to go that route, but I have read so many bad comments that I am scared off. Plus I was originally turned off by their advertising. Thanks for any insight.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Ann,
  
  I'm not really sure as I haven't used their web builder myself. Though I have seen some negative reviews about their website builder - but all businesses gets both positive and negative reviews. Have you tried using it before? You never know until you test it!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Stan 13 years ago

I'm new to your website and to the very helpful reviews and relative information that you have provided. A while back, I used a Website Builder called Lifeyo. I was very pleased at the time with the functionality and ability to create a nice looking product. However, I never see them in the mix, when it comes to Website Builder products. Having said that, I'm wondering if you would have a comment or two on the Lifeyo's product, as I'm getting ready to produce several more Websites and I'm wondering if I should make a change. At present, I'm very impressed with your review on the Squarespace option....but just curious as to why there was no mention of Lifeyo, since they are so similar in useability...Thank You

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Stan,
  
  Thanks for your suggestion. I've heard of Lifeyo before but never tried them on any of our previous projects. I suppose they are "relatively" new so we just haven't had the opportunity yet. But thanks for bringing it up. I just tried to visit their site but their website isn't loading - not necessarily a great impression! In any case, I'll circle back to them when I have some time to take a deeper look.
  
  If you want to take a deeper dive into Squarespace, we have a category page here that will show you all the posts that relates to Squarespace.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Erica 13 years ago

Fabulous. As a soul business proprietor you guys are just the best. Thank you for all your help and much appreciation. Your expert guidance and advice makes the process of setting up the website so much easier.

Reply
Michael B 13 years ago

Hi Guys, Great work, appreciated.

Would like to see you look at and review Snappages. I know it is much smaller company than some of these, but their NEW version 2.0 has been up and running for some time, and it was a BIG step up from earlier version. I'm just a user, but have become enamored with their engine and level of flexibility. I'm a big WEEBLY fan as well, but for now doing my projects in Snappages.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hey Michael,
  
  Thanks for your suggestion. Snappages look interesting. When we free up some time maybe we'll give it a try!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
cyndi 13 years ago

Thank you for this! It helps a lot as there are so many variables to look at when you make your decision. I noticed in Squarespace you indicate 14 day free trial. Is the price after the prices you list above or is it an additional amount?
I am with Weebly and because it is a blog - I feel I am stuck as I believe weebly does not export blog entries - only the rest of the site. Do you think they may change this anytime? Also, thanks for your list of tutorials you sent the other day. I took some of your advice in one of them and made the "recent blogs" boxes for mine! You guys rock!

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Cyndi,
  
  Squarespace doesn't have a permanent free program, like the other web builders. So they give you a 14 day trial which in my mind is not a short time for interested people to test things out. But after the 14 days expires, you have to make a decision to upgrade to one of their plans (hint: I think you can extend your trial period - they give you this option when the 14 days is up).
  
  As for Weebly blog posts, I'm not entirely sure when they will be exportable - hopefully soon! But to be quite honest, even though one can export the entire website, you can't really edit / modify the site in another host unless you are proficient with codes. Weebly as a platform allows you to drag and drop items without knowing codes, so this ability goes away once the website is outside of its operating environment.
  
  With Squarespace, at least you are exporting the content and importing it into WordPress, which gives you some sort of infrastructure to host and modify your content.
  
  Glad you liked our tutorials! : )
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Jeff 13 years ago

Why is there such a big difference between Squarespace (4.8/5) and Jimdo (3.6/5)?
A good motivation would be appreciated. I think Jimdo has some desadvantages, but it is hard to beat its overall performance.

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Jeff,
  
  I think Jimdo is great, but as I noted in the footnotes (specifically footnote 9), the scoring is based on a simple average and should not be taken literally without reading the detailed review that we've written up for Jimdo. Based purely on the scoring, the main reasons why Squarespace looks better are due to it having more SEO related flexibility and also the caliber of themes that it provides. Functionally, I think Jimdo is also great, but just lacking a bit behind in these two aspects.
  
  Hope this makes sense!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Laura Lash Fitzgerald 13 years ago

Great information, but I am curious why you only chose these to compare? And what about wordpress? (I'm not an advocate of wordpress but am recently forced to use it).

Regardless, thank you for the useful information.
Laura

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Laura,
  
  That's a very fair question. We left out WordPress as it is a complete different "animal" from hosted, drag and drop website builders (or WYSIWYG builders). We would not consider it as a good apples to apples comparison. We do have several articles comparing WordPress to a few drag and drop website builders. I think you'll find those a lot more detailed and helpful.
  
  Thanks for asking though.
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
Ben 13 years ago

Why is wordpress, joomla and droopal not on the list ? I am sure that readers would like to see how they compare....(if they compare !)
Thanks
Ben

Reply
1 reply
- Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hey Ben,
  
  Great question. See my answer to Laura just above your comment regarding WordPress. As for Drupal and Joomla, we don't have any hands on experiences with using them, so we're not quite qualified to comment on them. Maybe one day we'll try our hands on them!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  1 reply
  
  ekkekan 13 years ago
  
  Thanks for a most informative item.
  
  Any comments on yola?
  
  I'm looking a a web site builder that is easy to work with and easy to find the links to any file used to post in blogs.
  
  Regards.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy & Connie 13 years ago
  
  Hi Ekkekan,
  
  We haven't used Yola before so we can't comment on this. but if anyone reading this comment has had experiences with Yola, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on them!
  
  - Jeremy
  
  Reply
  
  2 replies
  
  systoo 10 years ago
  
  Really your post is too wonderful. carry on your good work and share your information from us.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  siwnax 10 years ago
  
  This site has good chart for building for website.
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  john 9 years ago
  
  so thought i am!
  
  Reply
  
  Judith 12 years ago
  
  Hi jeremy!
  
  firstly, i wanted to say that you are making a great job giving the advices for us, so lost sheep)))
  2ly, i have a question as all of us here: I own a restaurant and after several weeks of studing the market of mobile apps i chose the one - Restaurant solution, so now we have a very accurate and clear site with small fee for it( what is important!!!) . The thing is that i can`t understan if we should build the usual site, if we need it... What do you think? and which one from those above is better to use if i want to repeat the style which we used in Mobile app????
  
  Thank u for ur answer in advance!
  
  Reply
  
  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Judith,
  
  If you are building a restaurant, I'd suggest you go with Squarespace as their design templates are really great looking and can help you create a really nice looking restaurant website. Further, their designs are all responsive and so will look great across all mobile devices automatically.
  
  Also, Squarespace has a "Menu" block which is a feature that allows you to create menus on your site and you can update it really easily. So you don't have to upload any PDF's, or custom code menus into your site. They've taken care of that for you already.
  
  Squarespace also has an OpenTable "app" that can help you connect to OpenTable - so your visitors might find that helpful!
  
  - Jeremy
  
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  Jon Wilson 12 years ago
  
  I want to create a business page of handbags, clothes, phone cases. What would you recommend? I want unlimited posts with tabs , logos, and the customers can actually transfer money to my paypal account. Thank you much
  
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  1 reply
  
  Jeremy 12 years ago
  
  Hi Jon,
  
  Take a look at our ecommerce store builder comparison chart here. It will outline a few difference choices for you to think about.
  
  Jeremy
  
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