From today’s perspective an online presence is essential for every business owner. It may be even crucial if you are a small business owner! This is the first place (and hopefully the easiest one to find) when someone wants to get more information about your business. Enough introduction! Let’s start with the real content! In this list we have gathered the 10 most popular platforms for website building and they range from more difficult and customizable to mostly premade solutions.
1. Wordpress
Over the last few years WordPress has become the most popular platform for website building. It is one of the most customizable on the list, because you can do pretty much everything there. However it is also one of the hardest, because not everything is as intuitive (compared to other platforms but not compared to coding the site yourself of course). The price highly depends on what you want to accomplish with the website, but the more functionalities you want to add the more expensive it becomes, because plugins generally aren’t free.
2. Shopify
Shopify is another very famous website builder and it’s mostly used for ecommerce sites. It makes the product buying process settings a lot easier than if you were setting it through other platforms. Also it releases a lot more pre-made templates so there is less control than for example in WordPress. Of course there is an app store, where you can add any other apps you may need to enhance the functionality of your website.
3. OpenCart
Here is another ecommerce website option. It is even more pre-made than Shopify and the level of possible customization is pretty low. However if your goal is simply to have a functioning store it is a pretty easy option.
4. Digital Deck
Digital Deck is the newest platform on the list, but it is also the easiest to use. You don’t have the traditional website builder, but they offer a completely customizable page on their profile. It is a great option for people that don’t need a website with many functionalities, but they want their profile to pop in search results. Normally building a website is not that easy, but Digital Deck does it all for you! Not to mention that the price is considerably lower than if you were building a website.
5. Wix
Wix has gained huge popularity recently, because it is a very easy platform to use. If the design of your website is important for you this is a great option, because there are countless templates. However, a big disadvantage of Wix is that it is not suitable for bigger websites. If you plan on having more than 30 pages you should consider other options.
6. Squarespace
Squarespace has been around for more than a decade and there are countless sites built on it. It offers beautiful designs and it is the best place if you want to start a blog. However if you are looking to sell something it may not be the best option… Also the speed of the sites are not the best and unfortunately there is not backup and restore funktionality, which can cause problems.
7. Weebly
Weebly is by far one of the easiest website builders to learn and use. Their designs are not only very pretty, but they are also responsive, which is an essential for mobile use. There are not that many options when it comes to apps though, so the functionalities you add are limited. Also another thing to bear in mind is that the multilingual options aren’t that well supported.
8. Webnode
Webnode may not be the most popular plattform, but depending on what you are doing it can be very useful. The advantages are the responsive designs and the great SEO options. Moreover it is great for multilingual sites. However, if you are looking to start an ecommerce site or a blog, you better look for something else. The options here are very limited and the functionalities are pretty basic.
9. Jimdo
Jimdo is a german website builder and its advertisement promises a working website in only 3 minutes. Sounds provocative, right? We’re not that sure, but it is definitely one of the quickest ways to build a website. The functionalities are of course pretty limited and the designs aren’t countless, but it’s great if you are looking for a quick solution.
10. Webflow
Webflow is sometimes compared to WordPress, because of the high level of customization. It’s not generally considered a great option for beginners, however it is useful if you want to create a responsive site. Something to bear in mind is that they don’t have many apps to choose from.
Building a website can sometimes be very challenging, so it is important to pick the right platform for your skill level. If you are looking for great creative freedom and you have some experience WordPress is a great option, but if you are looking for a simply presentational website something like Digital Deck or Wix will be better compared to most of the platforms for website building.
