It used to be impossible for an individual to create his own website. Hiring a professional that will keep your site up and running at all times is both expensive and intensive. The era of fear is no longer with us because there are plentiful of drag and drop site builders that will help you make a site that is professional without using coding. These builders are also affordable because you will no longer have to hire a coder that will help in maintaining the site for a long time. You will have freedom and chance to create and functional and good-looking website. Below are some of the best website builders you can find in the market.
Recommended reading: How to Choose the Right Website Builder for Your Business
Squarespace
This website builder is crucial for building professional, elegant websites, without coding by you. Websites done by this builder come with the primary design of telling a story, plus an extensive collection of stock icons and images that are readily available. Each site is responsive and possesses a basic plan with an integrated store. It comes with a default stripe that that facilitate e-commerce payments but you can make an additional code for PayPal payments. This builder also comes with an in-built blogging platform that has limited posts as it lacks function and post management options. Unlike other host builders, Squarespace does not have free hosting and plans. You will have to purchase independent domain and hosting for each plan.
Weebly
Weebly is a populous site builder which has been in the market for more than ten years. It possesses a simple interface for new site enthusiasts. It comes with its own website statistics and content management system. It comes with a basic e-store and a free plan that is perfect for beginners, while the premium plan has an integrated sales and inventory management system.
This free website builder software allows you to edit the resulting code, export it, and migrate it to WordPress. This option is right for do it yourself enthusiasts who want to do experiments in their initial phases of business. It is also possible to come back to this site some time later or even transfer it to a professional. You will get free hosting on all plans, even if you have a custom domain; you do not have to get extra hosting. When you compare these builders with others, you will find that weebly has a code bloat.
Strikingly
Strikingly is an elegant builder that allows you to create a single page site. It focuses on visual appeal with smooth flow, quality background images, and clean lines. Although it has almost twelve templates, they are easy to customize and give classy results. According to website builder reviews, strikingly builder has subdued sophistication for single page sites, which emphasize heavily on visual elements. The catchy part is that it does not allow you to export code or change the template at a later date. It means that you will have to stick to the site you create or lose everything. Even though you are a code enthusiast, this builder will not allow you to edit its CSS or HTML of the site. Optimization is out of picture with strikingly site builder.
WordPress
WordPress platform is open source and comes with hundreds of plugins and themes that are either free or paid, with all features you may require in a site. You can create a fully functional, and awesome WordPress based blog or site for nothing more than the price of hosting and domain. It is possible to set up an equipped store by use of the woocommerce plugin. Many webhosting service providers offer automated tools for installing WordPress. You can perform management of this builder through the administrator interface. However, you need to undergo a high learning curve than the aforementioned builders as a result of many plugins and themes available in the market.
Recommended reading: Here’s An Outstanding Guide on Setting Up a New WordPress Website
The potential drawback here is the attention you need to pay to all the plugins and themes in this platform. The advantage with this platform is that there are many developers who are willing to help you whenever you get stuck. WordPress is a sound choice when you want to build a brand and do regular content marketing through blogs. This platform is the most accessible, customizable, scalable, and dynamic for your business website.
When you are starting your business, there are chances that you do not have a budget for a professional web developer. You are lucky that there are various builders on the internet that are not hard to access but finding the right template for your business might be tricky. Below are some factors that will influence your choice of the page builder.
Compatibility
You will realise that small sit builder companies do not integrate with other social media, marketing platforms, and design. Bigger site builders integrate with other supporting platforms like CoSchedule for editing and HootSuite for social promotion. When you are planning to use several platforms, put compatibility into consideration.
Plugins
You can use plugins to augment the capability of the site builder. You need a site builder with ample SEO plugins, collaboration, tagging, and social media integration.
Cost
You need to determine you budget before procuring a website builder. You budget needs to base on specific requirements of your business.
Usability
You need a site builder that has an intuitive design that you can easily locate features and upload web content. It is not necessary for you to learn HTML to be able to edit the site. You need a template that will give you what you see.
There are many examples that qualify as site builders in the market. It is overwhelming when you try to decide the right one for you when you are starting your business. WordPress is the best bust builder for small businesses. You need to run an in-depth evaluation of the sites basing on features, look, and feel that the site should have. You should also base it on effort, time, and money you would like to spend on constructing your site.
