Which Website Builder Should I Choose?

by | Aug 5, 2018 | Wordpress Tips and Tricks

*This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions represented here are my own.

You know your business needs a website, but you have no clue where to start. You’d like to try building your own site, but you don’t have very much coding experience at all.

Is that even possible?

Don’t stress! In this post, I outline the pros and cons of four of the most popular website builder so you can make an informed decision to choose a website builder and get your site off the ground.

Let’s go!

Which Website Builder Should I Choose?

 

All In One vs WordPress

 

When choosing a website builder, you need to decide if you’re going to use an All-In-One builder or a more DIY builder like WordPress. 

 

All-In-One Builders:

  • Include hosting, domain, and design templates
  • Typically have a team on the back end keeping your site fast and safe
  • Usually have a drag-and-drop builder for design
  • Sometimes have third-party apps for added functionality
  • Can start with either a free or paid plan

 

WordPress:

  • Requires you to purchase hosting, domain, and themes separately
  • Is endlessly customizable with millions of third-party plugins
  • Needs lots of know-how or time to learn how to use
  • Is typically cheaper in the long run than All-In-One builders

 

 

Let’s get to know some of the pros and cons of the All-In-One builders:

 

 

 

Wix: Pros and Cons

 

Pros:

  • Drag and drop builder with pre-loaded templates
  • Good support and onboarding sequence, easy to learn
  • Wix team handles site speed and security so you don’t have to
  • Selection of Wix apps to add functionality
  • Free to start with a domain.wix.com address

 

Cons:

  • Limited free storage and bandwidth
  • Wix ads displayed on your page even with some of the free plans
  • Most paid plans more expensive than competitors
  • Can’t move your content over if you decide to switch platforms

Starting Price: Free

Paid Plans Starting at: $5 per month

Check out Wix here

 

 

Weebly: Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Drag and drop builder with pre-loaded templates
  • Good support and onboarding sequence, easy to learn
  • Weebly team handles site speed and security
  • Some apps available for adding functionality
  • Can upload own files
  • Blog capability
  • Can add custom CSS and HTML
  • Good, responsive customer support
  • No caps on bandwidth or storage
  • Very competitive pricing
  • Free to start with domain.weebly.com

Cons:

  • Hard to migrate if you switch platforms
  • Limited apps available
  • Paid plan needed to remove ads

Starting Price: Free

Paid Plans Starting At: $8/month

Check out Weebly here

 

 

 

Squarespace: Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Drag and drop builder with particularly well-designed templates
  • Good support and onboarding system, fairly easy to learn
  • Squarespace team handles site speed and security
  • Blog capability
  • Maintains automatic backups of your site
  • Built-in integration with Google Analytics, Search Console, etc
  • Does have e-commerce functionality
  • Can export data for migration if you switch platforms

Cons:

  • No third-party apps available
  • Can be tricky to get everything perfect, not totally intuitive
  • E-commerce functionality is not perfect
  • No phone support for customer service
  • Hard to customize SEO
  • Hard to use Google Analytics and Search Console integration
  • Starts with paid plans ($12 monthly for personal, $18 monthly for business)

Starting Price: $12 per month

Check out Squarespace here 

 

 

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

 

You should also know that there’s a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org! The dot-com version of WordPress is self-hosted and easy to install, meaning you can get started without paying for outside hosting or a theme, however, it is extremely limited in its functionality. You can’t really make any edits to your site at all.

 

WordPress.org, while a bit trickier to install, has endless customization capabilities with the ability to not only to use custom code, but access to millions of plugins to work with! As an added bonus, if you decide to host your website with Siteground, they will install WordPress for you, hassle-free! Simply put, if you’re serious about using WordPress for your site, you should use WordPress.org.

 

 

So what’s the final verdict?

This can be kind of a loaded question because the best website builder is one that fits your needs and price range. All-In-Ones are great for small projects or for people who are just starting out to dip their toes in the water.

That being said, if you’re serious about growing your presence online, you need to be using WordPress and not an All-In-One builder. WordPress is infinitely more customizable than its All-In-One cousins, is much easier to integrate with crucial metric trackers like Google Analytics, and is actually cheaper in the long run than the All-In-One builders.

 

 

Bonus freebie!

Want to keep this information for later? Grab my free PDF guide for all of these website builders below!

 

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