Dreaming of becoming big in the online industry? All great things come with a rough start, but why not give yourself a starting boost with some of the greatest website builders available in the online marketing industry? There are many options that you have right at your fingertips when choosing a website builder.
In order for you to come to the best decision, this review is detailed so that you can judge a website builder by the following:
- Domain and hosting bundle
- Design services
- Ease of access
- SEO
- Tools
- e-Commerce tools
Allow me to walk you through the top 5 website builders.
5.) Wix
- Domain and Hosting Bundle
- Design Services
- Ease of Access
- SEO Tools
- eCommerce Tools:
Average Rating: 3.2 stars out of five
Pricing: Free to get started $4 to $25 per month
Wix Overview:
Wix is one of the largest website builders with a whopping 63 million users and 80 million hosted websites. It allows you to create HTML5 websites with their drag and drop interface. Being a purely a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor, this is great for people who have little to no coding skills. You can start building with Wix for free and end up with a subdomain (yourbusiness.wix.com).
Wix has introduced some pretty awesome eCommerce tools that allow you to configure shipping and handling fees, set up tax rates and mark orders as “complete”. It also allows you to send out “thank you” e-mails to your customers after every purchase.
As for the SEO aspect of using Wix, you can edit the page title, page description and keywords through their SEO page settings. But it takes more effort to change how their URLs look. For example, you already used a custom domain, the default URL to an About Page looks like this: mysite.com/MYSITE#!about/cjg9 and you have to use 301 redirects to get them to look like this: mysite.com/about. I’d say that’s a lot of effort compared to other website builders that do that for you.
Wix is ideal for
⦁ Beginners
⦁ Artists (photographers, designers)
⦁ Bloggers
⦁ People who know little to no coding skills
⦁ Small businesses
What I Like
⦁ eCommerce tools are not bad
⦁ Using the editor is a no-brainer and you can do it intuitively
⦁ Their free feature goes on indefinitely and it’s not a limited trial with a set number of days
What I Don’t Like
⦁ Wix ads displayed on free platform – there are ad logos on the side and bottom of the site you publish
⦁ Their ad-free plans starts at $8.25 which is really pricey compared to other site builders; their starter plan which is at $4.08 per month still displays the Wix ads which are such an eyesore
⦁ You can’t change templates – so try out a few of them before you settle on one
⦁ Uses a subdomain instead of a regular URL (as discussed in the overview)
⦁ In the editor, there are no parameters to keep your site looking good – you literally just drag and drop anywhere without any direction
⦁ If you have some CSS knowledge, you can’t tweak your site with the editor directly – you need to use 3rd party apps in the Wix App Store
⦁ Some of the apps in their store aren’t apps at all – for example, the Etsy app isn’t an extension to your website, instead, it is an iFrame (or window) for people to navigate Etsy while staying on your website
Wix is one of the leading website builders because of how easy it is to make stunning layouts, but many of its features are behind in comparison with other site builders.
4.) Weebly
Domain and Hosting Bundle
Design Services
Ease of Access
SEO Tools
eCommerce Tools
Average Rating: 3.4 stars out of five
Pricing: $4 to $25 per month
Weebly Overview
Weebly is the easiest builder for making your own website. It is a web hosting company where you can easily make a professional looking website with their drag and drop builder. They offer great eCommerce tools that come in handy if you plan to sell online.
Its eCommerce features include a mobile ready layout, filtered product searches, shipping options, tax control, inventory tracking and importing products. Take note that these features are only available to their Business Plan users at a price of $25.
The SEO tools are pretty simple. You can update the title, page description, permalink, image alt text, and meta keywords. That’s pretty much all of it.
If you choose Weebly, it is recommended that you upgrade to their Business Plan. Otherwise, the URL to your About Page will look like this: mysite.about.weebly.com. With their business plan, it will look like this: mysite.com/about.
Weebly Is Ideal For:
⦁ Small businesses
⦁ Artists (photographers, designers)
⦁ Restaurants
⦁ Less advanced e-commerce online stores
⦁ People who want something super simple
⦁ People who want their site to be online ASAP
⦁ People who want non-techy staff to make updates
What I Like
⦁ Drag and drop builder is pretty straightforward – you only need to drag and drop elements such as text blocks, images, headings, etc.
⦁ Mobile-friendly templates
⦁ Pre-designed page layouts for home, contact, about, services, and portfolio
⦁ Great e-commerce features for Business Plan users
What I Don’t Like
⦁ Less customization
⦁ Its infrastructure is not recommended for websites that sell thousands of products
⦁ Sort of primitive blog features (lacks features to display related, popular and latest posts)
⦁ Limited number of theme options, some of the Weebly themes look pretty outdated
⦁ Only a few 3rd parties that design themes specifically for Weebly (e.g. DivTagTemplates)
⦁ You cannot purchase a domain directly at Weebly, you will have to do it yourself
⦁ No AdSense widget: if you plan on putting AdSense ads, you will have to put the code on every single page
⦁ Does not allow installation of software for content management services (e.g. Drupal,Joomla, phpBB)
Weebly is really user friendly but if you plan on having a comprehensive, advanced and larger-scaled business website, this is not for you.
3.) Shopify
Domain and Hosting Bundle
Design Services
Ease of Access
SEO Tools
eCommerce Tools
Average Rating: 4 stars out of five
Pricing: $29 to $179 per month
(excluding other fees, apps)
Shopify Overview
Shopify is a website builder that helps you set up an online store. It allows you to organize your products, customize storefront, set payment methods, track orders and respond to customers.
This site builder prides in its advanced eCommerce CMS and shopping cart. Their CMS (Content Management System) comes with built-in SEO features that let’s you customize headings, titles, and meta keywords. Shopify also automatically generates sitemaps.XML files so that the new products you add show up on search engines.
The Shopify Theme Store offers you 100 premium themes and several other free templates. They keep their designs up to date as they continue to partner with 3rd party designers.
You can also purchase a custom domain directly on the Shopify platform at a regular fee of $13 per year. You can also purchase country and premium domains at a price range of $13-$54. The custom domain will automatically configure with your Shopify store. You should also know that their domain services exclude e-mail accounts.
Shopify Is Ideal For
⦁ People who want an online store
⦁ People who have a physical store and wants to expand it online
⦁ People who favor convenience
⦁ People who are willing to pay for that convenience
What I Like About It
⦁ They have stunning and professional designs
⦁ Comprehensive eCommerce tools which include 1,100+ apps in the Shopify App Store
⦁ 24/7 support (phone, live chat, email)
⦁ You can purchase a custom domain directly in their platform
What I Didn’t Like About It
⦁ You have to pay a monthly fee for their eCommerce apps – for example, FreshBooks (a bookkeeping software) charges you $31.99 per month
⦁ You have to pay for apps that, in my opinion, should already be integrated into their platform (e.g. reviews, social logins)
⦁ Shopify charges you transaction fees – except with their Unlimited Plan, you will be charged a 1%-2% transaction fee (for every $1,000 in sales, you spend a $10-$20 fee)
⦁ There is also a 3% credit card fee – another fee to weigh you down
⦁ The means of customization is in the form of Shopify Liquid so if you’re a person who likes to make minor tweaks to their website once in a while, it takes a lot of work since you’re working with a language that is not as common as PHP or CSS
⦁ You will need to hire someone who is a Shopify Liquid Expert, and that is not as cheap as a normal programmer
⦁ Shopify does not include e-mail accounts in its domain services
Shopify is a really amazing platform, that is, if you are willing to pay the price. The thing is, you need to spend about $179 per month to get all the features of Shopify.
On top of that, you have the 1%-2% transaction fee, 3% credit card fee, and the monthly fee for the apps you use.
If we do the math:
179 + 100 (for apps) = 280
280 x 12 months = 3,360 excluding other fees
Pretty crazy, right? So, if you’re a small scale business, you better think twice.
2.) WordPress
Domain and Hosting Bundle
Design Services
Ease of Access
SEO Tools
eCommerce Tools
Average Rating: 4.4 stars out of five
Pricing: $13-$18 per year
WordPress Overview
WordPress is a website building tool written in PHP. It is also a very powerful Content Management System and blogging platform. Despite its power, it is also fairly easy to use which makes it very popular for the average user.
You are definitely in good hands if your website is powered by WordPress. This is the number one website builder used by many companies including Vogue, New York Times, CNN, Toyota, Walt Disney and more.
This site builder offers thousands of plugins. These have functions for eCommerce and the big news is that many of them are for free. Furthermore, WordPress is also one of the most SEO friendly platforms. There are free plugins such as Yoast SEO that can help you focus on keywords, keyword density, description, length and more.
Basically, WordPress is renowned as the King of Website Builders and surely, there are reasons why it has earned this title.
WordPress Is Ideal For
⦁ Beginner/Novice Bloggers
⦁ Online Entrepreneurs
⦁ Any sort of company in general
What I Like About It
⦁ It literally takes a minute to set up a blog
⦁ No need to be a coding expert
⦁ It is 100% free – yes WordPress is free to use although you have to pay for hosting
⦁ There are 10,000 WordPress themes to choose from plus themes created by 3rd party designers
⦁ There are over a thousand plugins to customize the look and improve the functionality of your website
⦁ WordPress is really SEO friendly especially if you use the right plugins
⦁ Mobile friendly – the themes come with a mobile layout and you can also publish content directly from your phone
What I Don’t Like About It
⦁ If you want to modify your site, you should learn PHP
⦁ If you want to modify graphics, you should learn CSS and HTML
⦁ Having too many plugins can affect the efficiency of your site – I suggest that you choose 5 at most
⦁ Choosing the right plugin takes time because, among the thousands of plugins, many are just clones
⦁ The PHP script is not as protected compared to other platforms
You might be thinking, what can get better than WordPress? Read on and you’ll find out.
1.) SiteRubix
Domain and Hosting Bundle
Design Services
Ease of Access
SEO Tools
eCommerce Tools
Average Rating: 4.8 stars out of five Pricing: $0 Starter, $47/ Month Premium Sales Page URL: www.siterubix.com
What Is SiteRubix?
Basically, SiteRubix is a website builder that utilizes the WordPress Content Management System (CMS). It is powered by Wealthy Affiliate and that gives it an edge against other builders out there.
Surely, you’d ask: Wait a sec, why should I go for SiteRubix if there’s WordPress in the first place? Isn’t it the same thing? That’s a really great question! Yet, with all the good things that come with WordPress, SiteRubix is there to help you kick it up a notch.
Why It’s My Number One Recommendation
There are four aspects which make SiteRubix my number one recommendation for a website builder which I’ll list for you guys below.
⦁ Community and Support
⦁ Training
⦁ Tools and Features
⦁ Four Click Website Builder
Community And Support
Ever heard of a website builder that cares? SiteRubix is here to guide you as you create something beautiful and work towards greatness. It does that with the help of the Wealthy Affiliate Community. They provide you with online support, coaching, state of the art secure and high speed hosting, and technical help.
You can also get feedback on your website from experts and experienced internet entrepreneurs. With SiteRubix and the Wealthy Affiliate Community, you are never alone in making your online dreams come true.
The SiteRubix Technical Support is open 24/7. What’s also great about their Support is that you’ll likely get a response really quickly and in most cases, less than ten minutes. If you doubt it, go ahead and give it a try. SiteRubix is literally there for you every step of the way, and that includes if and when you should have any technical difficulties.
Training
This is what makes SiteRubix stand out from other web builders out there in the online world. If you want to succeed as an online entrepreneur, you need to learn how to be one and improve in what you do.
After signing up for your starter account you’ll be provided with 10 lessons on how to get your website setup, built, and how to starting writing content for it.
These step-by-step training sessions will teach you on topics ranging from getting ranked in search engines, earning revenue, and advertising your site on Facebook.
They even work with you one on one and show you how to find a niche and how to narrow this down and find your targeted audience.
With SiteRubix, you are not only armed with their tools, they also tell how to wield these tools as you build your online business.
Tools And Features
⦁ Mobile Responsive Websites- We all have to admit that smartphones are pretty much glued to people nowadays. Trust me on this, a website that isn’t mobile ready loses half of its potential from the minute it launches
⦁ Thousands Of Professional Designs- There are loads to choose from and not only that, SiteRubix will also recommend some of the designs to help you kick start your website. You can change how your site looks at any time with only a few clicks of your mouse.
⦁ Site Health- As a website builder, You’ll be presented with a plethora of features to increase the functionality of your website. With their newly added “Site Health” feature you can keep an eye on your publishing frequency, pending comments, how many plugins you have installed, and many other built in features.
⦁ Easy To Use Builder– You could take advantage of the “instant” website setup or create stunning websites with your own domains. SiteRubix helps by facilitating these processes and making things simpler for you.
⦁ Powerful Hosting- SiteRubix has one of the most powerful web hosting services out there. You are guaranteed with secure hosting, unlimited web storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited monthly visitors, 24/7 website monitoring and daily backups.
Four Easy Steps
Want your WordPress site to be up and running in minutes? Well, that’s just as easy as these four steps:
⦁ Choose your kind of website
⦁ Name your website
⦁ Choose a theme
⦁ Start building
How Much Does SiteRubix Cost?
There Are Two Options
⦁ Free Membership – Where you can have two websites on a SiteRubix subdomain (i.e. yoursite.siterubix.com)
⦁ $47 Premium Membership – Where you can have 25 SiteRubix subdomain websites and 25 custom domain websites. It’s almost like having an unlimited number of websites because that’s like 50 websites. Not many of us can use all that but SiteRubix gives it all to you.
My Final Verdict
All of these website builders are great and It’s vital that you pick the one that will suit your needs the best when getting started online. If you’re looking to start up an eCommerce site and you have some capital to invest then I feel that Shopify would be your best choice.
However, if you’re not looking for all the fancy bells and whistles and the added expense that comes with running an eCommerce store, then you really should consider Siterubix as the platform to build your website.
With Siterubix, You’re not just paying for a web hosting service and a website builder, you also get the full package which comes complete with training, tools, and all the help and support you could possibly need to build a thriving business online.
I really hope this review has given you guys an inside look at the top 5 website builders that are available to you when starting a business in 2016 and beyond. What are some of your thoughts on these website builders? Have you had any experience with any of the builders that I’ve listed above?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this as well as answer any questions you may have for me in the comments below.
Until Next Time
~Scott~