Advantages of Implementing Figma Design in Weblow

There are several benefits to incorporating Figma to Webflow:

• Teamwork and communication.
• Prototyping and testing.
• Flexibility and scalability.
• Ease of use.
• Webflow integrations with other tools.

About the Plugin

As mentioned before, it is elementary to use and configure. There are two main functions of this plugin, namely layouts and structures. With them, you can create a great site in Figma that requires almost no additional editing before exporting.

1. Layouts

This is a collection of pre-made layouts and wireframes that you may add to Figma and alter by your needs and preferences. As mentioned above, the function dramatically simplifies the process because Auto Layout has already arranged the entire structure, so you don’t need to bother about it. Furthermore, the plugin’s developers pledge to expand the choices accessible in the future.

2. Structures

The frames or containers that layouts will be applied to are called structures. You can grasp what we’re talking about if you’re familiar with the basics of this web platform. Like how columns and rows are used in HTML, the structure also contains tables and divs.

Three Steps to Export Any Design

1. Creating a Design Using Auto Layout

You must use Auto Layout for the plugin to work correctly. Remember the Layouts section of the plugin because all the wireframes within it are built based on Auto Layout.

2. Renaming the Layers

Take the time to name all the layers appropriately, as the plugin converts these names to classes. Then, see the corresponding tutorial or ask a Webflow developer if you need to learn about courses.

3. Export the Design with the Plugin

After that, you must copy the design by selecting the frame, setting the project to which you want to export it, and pasting (CTR+V or CMD+V) into the body section.

Webflow & Figma Integration – Conclusion

In conclusion, the combination offers a powerful and efficient workflow for creating stunning websites. Figma’s comprehensive design capabilities, including sketching, prototyping, and meticulous design development, perfectly complement Webflow’s website creation capabilities, which allow it to create full-featured websites without coding.

Integrating Figma projects into Webflow is easy through a plugin. This plugin offers ready-made layouts and structures, simplifying the design process and eliminating the need for additional editing before exporting. Following three simple steps, we can quickly ship their designs from Figma to Webflow, providing a seamless transition from design to a full-featured website.

The post Why Webflow Is the Perfect Tool appeared first on DesignWebKit.

[Spoiler] At the very end of this post, you will find the table that covers the most important differentiating criteria of every website builder better than Wix. If you are running short of time, feel free to go directly to the table for better insights into Wix alternatives.

Why Look for a Website Builder Better than Wix?

If so many people want to find Wix alternatives, then one might think that there has to be something seriously wrong with Wix itself. The truth is, however, Wix is doing perfectly fine and remains one of the most popular website builders on the web. So what exactly makes people want to find a website builder better that Wix? Here are the three most obvious reasons.

Wix offers the confusing pricing policy

For starters, Wix offers you 5(!) plans. Yes, there are five of them. In practice, it means that you need to get ready to take quite some time to decide which plan fits your online project best. For a novice, this is a definite downside. How on Earth, can a non-developer say right away how much storage place (s)he will need for a website to look smart, right?

One more funny thing is how Wix manages to misguide its first-time users about the types of subscriptions it offers. The problem starts when you see the line “Site Booster, Form Builder and a free domain are not included in monthly subscriptions”. You understand that there are other subscriptions available, but the official pricing page suggests there is none. To find the information on subscription types, you need to select a plan first. How smart is that?

On top of that, Wix requires you to renew the subscription on a regular basis. The subscriptions options are monthly and yearly payments, as well as a 2-year subscription. Sadly, there is no way you can Wix pay once and get it over with.

You can not rely on Wix tech support 24/7

It is a pity to spill the beans but the tech support from Wix leaves a lot to be desired. Let’s put it straight – only if you have the VIP Premium Plan, your question might get answered promptly. As the Web team elegantly puts it, with the VIP plan, “your ticket will be pushed to the front of the line for a quicker response”. No immediate solution to a problem, just a possibility of a quicker response. Honestly speaking, this is not what people expect from the VIP plan, right?

The functionality of Wix is limited

In many aspects, it seems that the Wix team decided to compromise the functionality of this website builder for the sake of simplicity. For instance, customizing a website may be time-consuming because Wix does not allow you to fully integrate the third-party applications. In addition, Wix is not the #1 website builder to opt for if you want the SEO-optimized website on an online store.

As you understand, the above-mentioned issues with Wix stimulate both novices and web programmers look for a better web builder to make a website in 2018. That is why we are happy to present our list of Wix competitors that are worthy of your attention.

The Best Wix Alternatives 2018

1. MotoCMS Website Builder

MotoCMS Simple Website Builder stands out among Wix competitors thanks to its collection of pre-populated website builder templates. Firstly, this collection contains more items than any other Wix alternative discussed below. Secondly, MotoCMS offers advanced sorting options to cater to your needs to the fullest. For example, you can choose between 4 types of a template (eStore, responsive Moto3, and HTML templates as well as landing pages) and 60+ market niches.

Another great advantage of MotoCMS Website Builder is its top tech support. The tech managers are available 24/7 via a phone call, a live chat, and the help center. On top of that, you will get to enjoy working with the personal assistant for free (!) after you register a 14-day trial. Needless to say, MotoCMS leaves all other Wix competitors in the dust when it comes to helping novices to build their first websites.

Surprisingly enough, when choosing MotoCMS Website Builder, it is highly probable that you will never learn about the quality of MotoCMS tech support after all. How so? The answer lies in the quality of the admin panel from MotoCMS. As it was created for complete novices, it is self-explanatory and intuitive. Powered by the drag-and-drop functionality and packed with the video tutorials and information buttons, the admin panel is tailored to satisfy the demands of non-programmers to the fullest.

It seems that the only downside of MotoCMS Website Builder is its pricing, which may look a bit higher in contrast to other Wix alternatives. However, if to take into account that it is a one-time payment, then the price is more than reasonable.

2. GoDaddy Website Builder

GoDaddy Website Builder is one of the simplest builders you can use to create websites like Wix. But in comparison to Wix, GoDaddy is a bit more expensive. For a personal website, you would pay $5.99/mo, and for an online store – $29.99/mo. What is more, you have to pay for the whole year in advance, which is not that convenient.

One more drawback of GoDaddy is that it is limited in terms of the customization. For starters, this website builder does not have the drag-and-drop functionality. As a result, if you are not a web developer, you are stuck with the layout that GoDaddy template already contains. In addition, there are not so many options you can change in the design of a template. These options include colors, fonts, and the overall style. No additional elements or apps can be integrated into the website.

On the bright sight, all the website templates that GoDaddy offers are pre-populated. So, you do not have to worry about how to fill your future multi-page website. What also makes GoDaddy a website builder better than Wix is how it deals with the first-comers. The website templates collection from GoDaddy is extensive and contains quite a few niche-specific solutions.

3. Weebly Website Builder

Weebly Website Builder is one of the strongest Wix competitors. As a web designer, you will appreciate the chance to edit Weebly HTML/CSS. As a non-programmer, you will get to enjoy the collection of pre-populated website templates. What also makes Weebly popular is that you can actually integrate additional web elements into your future website. As a result, with diverse applications or custom Javascript, your online project will look much more interactive and informative.

However, even this user-friendly website builder has its disadvantages. For example, it is surprising that Weebly still demands 3% transaction fee for an online store (in Starter and Pro plans). Also, the collection of Weebly themes is not properly sorted. For starters, there are only 7 categories of website templates available (i.e. Featured, Online Store, Business, Portfolio, Personal, Event, and Blog). The number of templates to choose from is also not very impressive. For instance, there are only 15 templates for an online store, which does not cover most market niches.

4. Squarespace Website Builder

Squarespace Website Builder can help you build websites like Wix – quickly and without any coding skills. The Squarespace team makes it very clear with the intensive marketing campaigns, that involve many celebrities. For example, Squarespace YouTube channel contains the video with Jeff Bridges (!), advertising the website builder.

The definite advantage of Squarespace is its collection of templates, that can be sorted according to 15 market niches. In addition, you can pick between such sorting options as Features, Latest, Most Popular. One more positive feature of Squarespace is its straightforward pricing policy. There are only 3 subscriptions plans to choose from, which looks great in comparison to other website builders. Also, unlike GoDaddy and Weebly, Squarespace is rather flexible in terms of payment periods. You can either renew your subscription every month or yearly. On top of that, Squarespace is developer-friendly. Thanks to Git, the version control system created by the Squarespace team, web developers can enjoy the ultimate control over coding. This is especially helpful for small and medium-sized web agencies where several programmers work on one website. With Squarespace, these agencies can optimize their workflow big time.

As for disadvantages, Squarespace is often criticized for being less intuitive than other Wix alternatives. The possible explanations for these critical remarks are a bit too big range of customization options and the relatively poor mechanisms for introducing the Squarespace admin panel to newcomers.

There are also downsides of Squarespace that are connected with the specifics of the builder itself. For instance, you can not build a menu with more than one sub-navigation. Also, the Squarespace team has not created a Preview Mode for their builder yet. In practice, it means that there is a high chance that your online visitors will experience inconveniences while you are modifying the website.

5. Elementor WordPress Page Builder

Elementor WordPress Page Builder is a website builder like Wix but it is open-source and much more advanced. Aimed at WordPress websites only, Elementor offers the impressive drag-and-drop functionality.

Also, the Elementor team releases new features on the regular basis. With this builder, you know that you stay on top of things in the web world. For instance, now you can not only add website templates to your WordPress project, but also separate content blocks and individual pages. What also makes Elementor a website builder better than Wix is how it deals with the layout. For starters, in Elementor you find 12 (!) layout blocks, each created to make your multi-page website unique and visually attractive with one click. Called sections, these layout blocks can be further customized in terms of width and height. In addition, Elementor is friendly to 3-party web products. You can add these products and perform the advanced styling on them without any extra coding.

Elementor is different from other Wix alternatives thanks to the impressive number of its pre-made templates. In fact, there are 300+ ready solutions to cover multiple market niches, which is several times more than Weebly has to offer with its 60+ themes.

The only downside of Elementor is its tech support. You can contact the tech team only via ticket-based emails. As there are no direct communication channels like a live chat or a phone, novices and first-time users might experience difficulties when getting started with Elementor.

6. Novi Builder

Novi Builder specializes in creating HTML websites only. What makes Novi Builder different from Wix alternatives discussed in this post is its pricing policy. The good news is that to get Novi, you need to choose only between the regular and the unlimited licenses. Also, you pay once. And this fact makes it a website builder better than Wix. The price is more than reasonable with $16 for the regular license and $80 for the unlimited license. For this money, you get access to several web products, i.e. multi-page HTML websites, one page HTML websites, and landing pages.

The potential of Novi is truly amazing. Thanks to the three functional modes, i.e. Preview, Edit, and Design, Novi helps you to coordinate the efforts of developers, designers, and a customer. With Novi, you can make any adjustments to HTML and CSS, let alone JS. Novi contains 34 content components, all available for further styling and customization. These components, like a radial progress bar, an owl carousel, and testimonials, are aimed at creating websites that look one-of-a-kind and professional.

This being said, it looks like Novi requires some web development experience after all. This is why we rate it as the least friendly to non-programmers in comparison to other Wix alternatives discussed in this post. One more issue with Novi is that the tech support it comes with is only short-term, i.e. 6 months. The good news is that you can extend the support up to a year. The bad news is that after a year, you will have to figure out everything on your own. Keep in mind that the Novi tech support does not cover any issues connected with the customization process or problems while installing this builder.

7. PageCloud

When it comes to the experience you get within the editor, PageCloud is arguably Wix’s closest competitor. Both tools offer what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) interfaces that let you position your content anywhere on the page. This means that every PageCloud template can be customized in any way.

Another one of PageCloud’s key benefits is how fast you can design a high performing custom site. For example, PageCloud allows you to quickly bypass image upload dialogs by dragging in content directly off your desktop and dropping it on your pages. Plus, thanks to PageCloud’s automatic image optimization and unique flat page architecture, every page you create will load in record time. Another cool thing is the dozens of keyboard shortcuts PageCloud has to offer that makes you feel like you’re using one of your favorite desktop apps.

The main drawbacks to PageCloud are its price and the lack of features it has compared to Wix. Pricewise, PageCloud currently only has one plan that sits close to Wix’s premium plans. Also, despite the hundreds of third party apps that integrate seamlessly with PageCloud, it lacks the native features that Wix has to offer like booking software, e-commerce, forums, and membership websites.”

8. Pixpa

Pixpa is an all-in-one platform for creators and small businesses to create beautiful, professional websites with built-in online stores, blogs, and client galleries and is one of the popular Wix alternatives out there. 

Pixpa’s versatile platform has everything you need to showcase your work, share ideas and sell your stuff online, without any coding knowledge.

Adding pages to your website is a breeze with Pixpa’s drag-and-drop page builder and you can customize your site design using a simple & powerful visual style editor. With a host of built-in tools such as SEO manager, Marketing Pop Ups, Announcement Bar and much more, you can start growing your traffic and converting more leads. No extra plugins needed. 

Some key Features of Pixpa 

• Minimalist, responsive and pixel-perfect templates
• Built-in Online Store
• Fully digital workflow with Client Galleries
• Affordable cost

Pros and Cons of Pixpa

Pros

1. Pixpa’s beautiful, responsive templates that are modern and minimalist in design aesthetics are one of its core USPs. All templates are mobile-friendly and can be fully customised without touching any code.
2. A wide range of gallery layouts to choose from which offers a lot of flexibility and options of further customisation.
3. Easy, drag-and-drop Page Builder that lets you make any kind of custom, information page.
4. With Client Galleries, photographers can share, proof, deliver and sell images as prints and downloads.
5. A full-featured ecommerce store builder to sell products, digital downloads or services and has all the features you need to run your business.
6. Exceptional site speed with secure and scalable hosting infrastructure powered by AWS. Offers free custom domain with annual subscriptions and you connect the domain name to your Pixpa site. 

Cons

1. Your website is only visible to you while you are building the website in the trial period. You have to start a subscription to go live with your website and share it with the world.
2. You cannot make a multilingual website on Pixpa. You would need to create an additional website if you want your website in a different language. Pixpa does offer a 50% discount on additional websites.
3. Doesn’t offer email hosting. You can take domain based email hosting from Gmail for Business or a slew of other providers.

Pixpa Pricing 

Pixpa offers all-inclusive pricing plans that are simple and affordable with no hidden costs. While there is no free plan, subscriptions start at just $7/month making it one of the most affordable yet feature-rich platforms. All plans offer generous resources, unlimited bandwidth, SSL certificates and 24/7 support.

Why to Choose Pixpa as Wix alternatives?

Pixpa empowers creators to manage their whole web presence from one location. Be it showcasing your portfolio, starting your business website, setting up your online store or publishing a blog – do it all seamlessly with Pixpa, saving time and money.. Alongside the product, Pixpa offers fast and timely support 24/7 through live chat and email ensuring help is always at hand.

Already Picked a Website Builder Better than Wix?

As you can see from the table below, every website builder better than Wix is unique in its own way. MotoCMS is the #1 choice for complete novices thanks to its rich niche-specific collection of templates and the unbeatable tech support. GoDaddy is the least expensive website builder on the list. However, it lacks the drag-and-drop functionality. The Weebly builder is user-friendly and fun to deal with but the assortment of its templates is confusingly limited. Squarespace designs are elegant and allow the intensive customization. Elementor attracts attention as it is initially free. Novi seems to be really handy for creating websites for beginner web designers and small web agencies.

Wix Alternatives

All in all, the web market is full of website builders. Regardless of how much you know about the web development or the web design, you will be able to find the website builder better than Wix, no doubts. So, have a look at the table above again, make the right choice, and create online projects with ease!

The post 8 Wix Alternatives – Compare and Choose a Website Builder Better than Wix (Updated) appeared first on DesignWebKit.

Blue vector created by vectorjuice – www.freepik.com

Someone who can’t manually code or afford a developer can spend considerable time learning to do so or be rescued by certain helping tools. Tools that are specifically curated to build you a website from scratch. The two most common tools or apparatus for constructing a great first-time website are Web Builders and CMS (Content Management System). Let’s skim through what both of these tools specifically cater to.

CMS – Pros and Cons

As the name suggests, CMS manages all the content on a website and might seem a little complicated to beginners. It is online software that leverages a pre-built framework where you can easily design and set a theme with a drag-and-drop feature or simply purchase customizable, predefined themes and many add-ons. The main advantage of CMS as your tool of choice is that you have more room for creativity. You can create plug-ins and insert or delete features and designs you find appropriate. It helps you manage, create, search, and store content that is customarily stored in a SQL database. Installing plug-ins is not only an easy way to improve your website’s functionality and usage but also helps you manage backups, security, and statistics.

For CMS, you will require a host that, if need be, can be changed without any downtime or complex changes. Acquainting yourself with all the ins and outs of CMS may steepen the learning curve if compared with Web builders, but it also presents many options for themes and features. All are easily manageable by people with minimal technical know-how. The open-source access to the main underlying code allows you to tweak the code and make the open-source ranges, unlike a web builder. Some commonly used CMS are Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, and MotoCMS.

What You Need to Build a Website – Specifics of Web Builders

Moving towards Web Builders, they offer relatively less flexibility than a CMS. This is because they are limited by a platform that they are hosted on. Web Builders use some proprietary tools and pre-built components that help to create a fully functioning website without any coding and technicalities. They are more user-friendly in comparison with CMS as you can completely change the layout of your website from simple, streamlined tools in a drag and drop function.

No matter how quick and easy setup is with a Web builder, they still hit a limit when some changes and features need to be made/added. This is why they are not ideal for larger organizations and businesses that need control over their websites for scaling and customization with time. Some popular web builders include Shopify, Weebly, Squarespace, and Wix. Understanding the difference between the two is not sufficient to get started. You need to keep in mind certain things before launching a new website. Here’s a little checklist for building a first-time website in no time!

What You Need To Build a Website – Pick a Domain Name

First and foremost, pick a domain name! A domain name, a.k.a URL of your website, is the address that will be used to identify, visit, connect or find your website. After several attempts (for the availability of name) your first step of building a website will be out of your way. Creating a domain will cost you no more than 15$-20$. You can easily register a domain name online at platforms like Domain.com, GoDaddy, NameCheap, etc.

Choose the Right Web Building Platform

As discussed earlier, you can either opt for creating a first-time website by yourself or go for a platform that offers tailored tools for this very job. But the choice between the two can be influenced by many factors. The end goal of your website will determine which of these website creation tools you should be using. For instance, if it’s a blog site you intend to run, have no coding experience whatsoever, and have no time to go through the technicalities of a CMS, then a Web Builder is your best pick. Consider the skill level and features you want on your web page. Your target audience might help you decide how advanced or simple your website should be appropriate.

Web Builders are a perfect choice for all the first-timers as they are inexpensive, quick, and require absolutely no prior knowledge. Have a thrilling new idea? Get on a web builder and get your website up and running in only twenty minutes. As easy as a web builder’s operation is, they also offer a great cost-saving solution. You can pick a professionally designed template off of your web builder software and start off. A pleasing first look at the website creates a good impression on the visitor and encourages them to stay, read, or share your website. Pick from antique, modern, colorful, or subtle templates according to your requirements.

Read also: How to create a website without coding

Website Hosting

A website host is an online location where all your data and content from the website are stored and kept. The host is a server that is accessible by all users of the internet. This directs users to your website at any time and hence allows 24/7 reachability. You can host your website from a website builder or your domain platform. If your website is getting more and more visitors, you might need to upgrade your host to a more advanced one that can handle the increased traffic. The website’s loading speed will be enough to indicate this need for up-gradation.

What You Need To Build a Website – The Logo

Hire a graphic designer if you have the budget. If not, simply use free online logo originators to create a catchy yet sophisticated logo. You also get paid logo originators online, which is still a less expensive option than a professional graphics designer. Though they cost more, your logo is worth the investment. The logo is half the part of your brand identity, and it depicts that your brand is trustworthy, serious, and here to last! Lastly, if you own some artistic skills yourself, all you need is Photoshop or Adobe Corel draw to put together a fascinating logo quickly.

Content to Rank

SEO and uniqueness of content are crucial for any web site’s success! You must be well-acquainted with how Search Engine Optimization works if you’re building a website. Make sure that your website has a good SEO foundation. Take sufficient time to figure out the content hierarchy, site architecture to metadata. To rank high on Google search results, you need engaging, interesting, and original content on your website.

Hire professional writers and copywriters who are aware of tactics that capture more visitors to your site.

KarDone Multipurpose Shopify Theme to Build an Effective Website

What is the fastest way to create a website, especially an online shop, which is a must-have nowadays? Surely, it’s building the website on a base of the ready-made Shopify theme, such as KarDone. Why is it one of the most efficient themes? The first benefit is a Shopify visual builder. With its help, you get the possibility to create as many unique layouts as you need. Just expand your limits and order the sections as the ideas spring to mind.

Then, you will be pleased to get only one theme with a set of 16 templates inside. They allow you to build a diversity of websites with the necessary topic, for instance, auto parts, medicine, sport, fashion, and others. KarDone provides the online shop with responsive pages, sliders, wishlists, product reviews, and multilingual options essential for any customer. Catch KarDone Shopify theme, build your layouts and fill them with your content and gain clients.

Sirius – Handmade Minimal Shopify Theme Store for Dropshipping

No matter who you are: a student, a beginner entrepreneur, a representative of a large company, or just a person who is well versed in modern technologies – sooner or later, you may have a desire or need to create a site on the Internet. What do you need to do? Perhaps you are stopped by a lack of experience or lack of time. With the minimal Shopify theme store, you get a lot of benefits that can make your work much easier.

Despite the fact that each site is unique, this topic can become a great base. You can change the design and fill it with unlimited products. It will help you create a multi-page site or simple landing. Take advantage of the great features and tools: to set up an online store, attract customers, and increase sales. Sirius is the best solution to help you promote your business.

Mysterio – Fashion Shopify Theme

Today, aspiring entrepreneurs most often rely on customer acquisition through word of mouth and social media. However, even in the case of a small business, the site can serve as a good help and give new impetus to the growth of the client base. Having your own representation on the Internet is an important step in strengthening the company’s image and increasing the confidence of users/buyers. It is also a great way to find new partners and quickly gain the trust of the audience. Don’t know where to start? Use Mysterio – it’s a great foundation for building any website.

It is important to understand the sequence of actions. Especially if you are working on the site for the first time. Working with Mysterio is easy. You will find detailed documentation in the package. You can even create a list for yourself if that makes your job easier. You will be sure that you will not miss anything, and your website will become a great helper for the development of your business.

Bottom Line

Any kind of first-time website can be crafted by following the aforementioned checklist. The list of things that you need to build a website may seem like a lot, but in the end, it always proves to be worth it. All you need to do is plan, break it down, and stay on track. Using web builders and several other online tools, you can pull off a great first-time website all by yourself. And once you do, be consistent with fresh content, and you’re good to go!

The post What You Need To Build a Website – Top 5 Checklist  appeared first on DesignWebKit.

If such a question bothers your head, you are in the right place. In this article, we’ll overview several modern site builders popular among users. We’ll focus on their main features as well as advantages and drawbacks. After reading this article, we hope that you’ll understand what website builder is best in your particular case. Don’t forget that in case you need to create some more specific web products, like online courses or webinars, you’d better choose tools specially made for that purpose, like webinar software.

What Is a Website Builder?

Not long ago, it was impossible to bring your business online without special tech skills. To build even the simplest one-page website, you had to possess profound knowledge in coding and web design. Luckily, the situation has changed with the appearance of online website builders.

A website builder is a handy modern tool. It enables everyone (even a novice) to create any kind of site without using a line of coding. Whether you need a single-page website or a robust online store, it’s not a problem. A good website builder will provide you with all the necessary tools and detailed instructions. As a result, you can have a functional site without hiring a pro. The only difficulty here is to determine what website builder is best for your individual case. But don’t worry. With our help, you’ll definitely be able to do it quite soon.

How Website Builder Works

Frankly speaking, some people are still skeptical and don’t think that a website builder is the right solution. They strongly believe in the severe confrontation: a website designer vs. website builders. However, the fact is that lots of web developers and designers take advantage of site builders in their work. A website builder decreases the effort to make a site to a minimum. Firstly, it offers you a collection of pre-designed templates. It means that you don’t have to start from scratch.

Secondly, website builders possess helpful drag-and-drop functionality. To put it simply, they allow you to create a site using only your mouse and imagination. The procedure an easy website builder suggests is elementary. You click on a ready-made block you need and drag it to any place on the layout.

Thirdly, website builders allow you to customize templates according to your requirements. They come with various tools that let you change colors, fonts, edit images, etc. Also, they make it possible to add diverse content.

Finally, website builders enable you to employ useful tools for improving your site performance. For instance, SEO tools for high ranking in SERPs and Analytics for tracking and measuring your success. In a word, if you manage to define what website builder is best for your business, you get everything you need for site creation in one place.

Is Website Builder Free?

It’s not a secret that there are loads of free online tools today. Website builders are not an exception. Whatever field you are in, it is possible to find a website builder with free themes. The only question is whether the result will satisfy you completely. To tell the truth, we are not sure that you’ll enjoy it.

Actually, many good website builders offer you a free plan. However, don’t be in a hurry to jump with joy. You are not a kid already. Therefore, you should realize that the free plan will never give you the opportunities for the paid ones.

As usual, free plans have various limitations. For starters, with a free plan, your site is likely to include branding from the provider. Next, your domain name won’t look unique because it will include the name of the builder. Then, a free option will offer somewhat restricted bandwidth and storage, as well as limitations in features.

How Much Does a Website Builder Cost?

In fact, there’s no single answer to this question. The reason is that various website builders have different approaches to charge their customers.

On the one hand, there are website builders that charge only once when you purchase one of the website builder templates. After you buy it, you don’t have to make any additional payments. In other words, it’s a one-time investment for having a site of your own.

On the other hand, there are website builders that charge you monthly. As a rule, they have several plans to choose from. Approximately, such plans can cost you from $4 to $25 per month.

What website builder is best, one with a single or per month payment? In our opinion, it depends on your goals and confidence in that you’ll go on with your business, and won’t give it up in a couple of months. If you are sure that you’re building a website for an extended period, undoubtedly, it’s more cost-effective to invest once. In case you are just experimenting trying to find yourself, it would be better to go for per month plans.

How to Choose Website Builder?

Now, when you know the basics, it’s high time to move to the vital question. What website builder should I use to create an effective site without much effort?

The answer is as follows. Unfortunately, there’s no one-fits-all solution. Everything depends on your business requirements, targeted audience, and expectations. Consequently, to make the right choice, you should study the features of the web builder and consider several crucial factors. Only such an approach will help you define what website builder is best in your case. So, let’s focus on the features that you should take into account.

Ease of Use

Ease of use is one of the first things when it comes to deciding which website builder is best. Obviously, you are not ready to spend months creating a site. Therefore, you should look for a WYSIWYG web builder that doesn’t make you study complex technical nuances. On the whole, you need a user-friendly tool with the shortest learning curve.

While determining what website builder is best for you, firstly, pay attention to the simplicity of installation and customization. Make sure that neither of them requires additional coding. Secondly, find out if the builder has step-by-step guides, video tutorials, and other helpful stuff.

High-Quality Website Themes

It goes without saying that you want your future website to be a real attention-grabber. That’s why you need a template with an eye-catching design but, at the same time, not a vulgar one. Moreover, you definitely intend to find a theme that will make your website look professional. Besides, you undoubtedly wish to have a unique theme to make your site memorable. To sum it up, your future site requires a high-quality template for a basis.

Consequently, when you are evaluating what website builder is best, look at the templates it suggests. To tell the truth, not all website builders offer appealing themes with carefully thought-out layouts. So, be attentive not to be frustrated with the results later.

Must-Have Features for Your Specific Business

Of course, when you’re creating a website, you expect it to fulfill specific functions that your business demands. For instance, if you are a photographer, your future site just can’t do without various galleries to showcase your works. In case you’re selling products, you need special tools to handle orders, set discounts, and organize promos. Is your website aimed at customers worldwide? Then, apparently, you’d like to make it multilingual.

To conclude, when you’re deciding which website builder is best, take time to overthink your purposes and expectations. Work out a list of features your site requires to cope with the task. In the end, compare your list to the features the website builder offers.

Opportunities for SEO Optimization & In-Depth Analysis

Evidently, while creating a site, you intend to grow your customer list significantly. The best way to achieve this is to make your website appear on the top positions of search results. According to the Telstra Report, 83% of users believe that search engines are important while looking for a business. Besides, 47% use search engines for finding or researching a small business once a day, at least. It means that you definitely need powerful SEO tools to optimize your site for search engines.

Also, you need reliable tools to track your website performance, such as Google Analytics. They will allow you to measure the success of your efforts as well as find ways for further improvement. That’s why to determine what website builder is best, don’t forget to consider SEO and Analytics features.

Fast Page Loading Speed

Hardly will anyone deny that in the present-day world speed matters. The Kissmetrics research states that 47% of consumers expect that a web page will load in 2 seconds or less. Furthermore, 40% leave the site that tends to load more than 3 seconds.

So, when it comes to determining what website builder is best, the loading speed of web pages is an essential factor. It not only influences user experience but also has an impact on ranking in search engines. Therefore, it just can’t be neglected.

High Level of Customer Support

Undoubtedly, no one is ensured against issues that may appear during the process of website creation. One day you may face problems that will demand immediate professional solutions.

Honestly, the level of customer support web builders provide varies a lot. We recommend you to take into account three things while defining what website builder is best. Firstly, the diversity of means to contact the support team in case of any questions. Secondly, the availability of a rich knowledge base, such as guides, tutorials, and forums. Thirdly, customer reviews to find out the level of customer satisfaction.

What Website Builder Is Best – A Brief Overview

So many men, so many minds they say. These words are absolutely correct when someone asks you, “What website builder is best?” or “What website builder should I use?” Everything depends on what your business requires.

To assist you in making the right choice, we conducted our own research. We examined several web builders popular with users nowadays. We carefully studied their features as well as the sites created via them. Also, we learned customer reviews. Finally, we are ready to represent the results. We hope they will help you determine which website builder is best for you.

MotoCMS

MotoCMS is an intuitive tool with loads of high-quality themes for any field. Are you looking for appealing industrial or medical themes? Does your interest lie in education or entertainment? Do you represent the politics or security sphere? In fact, it doesn’t matter. With MotoCMS builder, you’ll definitely find the theme that completely meets your business needs.

MotoCMS is a WYSIWYG easy-to-use builder that requires no tech skills at all. It stands among the rest for its vast number of useful features. Super-fast installation, effortless customization, excellent opportunities for promotion, powerful SEO tools, and the fastest page loading speed are at your disposal. Therefore, we highly recommend you to pay attention to MotoCMS when you’re deciding on what website builder is best.

Pros

• An extensive collection of 100% responsive, cross-browser compatible themes with professional pre-made designs;
• Simple site creation, editing, and one-click updating;
• No need for additional plugins or third-party software to build a highly-functional site.

Cons

• No free plan. However, a free 14-day trial is available.

Wix

Wix is a user-friendly website builder that enables you to make your business dreams come true. It has a significant number of fans due to its attractive templates and an available free plan. Therefore, if your budget is limited and you don’t need a giant website, it may become the right choice.

Wix offers you a handy drag-and-drop editor to create a beautiful interactive site. It suggests 200+ apps that allow managing social media feeds, employing online booking, taking advantage of email marketing, etc. However, few of them are free. Whereas some users think it’s an excellent online creator, others say you can find a website builder better than Wix. Does this builder deserve being taken into consideration when it comes to what website builder is best? Unquestionably, it does.

Pros

• Full-featured website builder with user-friendly interface and tons of site gadgets;
• The auto-generated mobile version of your site;
• Free plan, though, with various limitations.

Cons

• Not the best solution for large websites as the navigation isn’t deep enough to let complex structures;
• Two out of four available plans show Wix branded ads on customers’ sites;
• Lacks site portability feature. In other words, it’s almost impossible to move your website from Wix to another web hosting service.

Squarespace

Choosing what website builder is best, many users give preference to Squarespace. It’s a modern website builder that offers eye-catching themes for numerous industries. Every theme possesses built-in integrations. As a result, you don’t have to look for additional plugins. Besides, Squarespace provides you with helpful tools for marketing, SEO, and analytics.

Though you have everything necessary to create a fully functional site, the builder may seem a bit confusing for beginners. In spite of its drag-and-drop feature, the process of editing isn’t the most straightforward.

Pros

• Good-looking responsive designs;
• Free hosting and domain services;
• Free SSL certificate.

Cons

• No free plan. Frankly speaking, one of the most expensive website builders;
• Not the easiest builder for novices;
• A rather low web page loading speed.

Jimdo

When you ask yourself, “What website builder should I use?” there’s one more candidate to learn about. It’s Jimdo, a WYSIWYG web builder, especially suitable for creating multilingual sites. With its three pricing plans, the builder is affordable for users with any budget. Furthermore, Jimdo provides you with both a website builder and hosting in one place.

Though Jimdo doesn’t have many templates, the quality of themes is rather good. The process of customization includes selecting fonts, colors, backgrounds, and other elements. However, it’s not always the fastest one until you become a specialist in Jimdo.

Pros

• Free plan;
• Opportunities for upgrading to other plans at any time without any changes to your content;
• Opportunities for changing a template without losing your work.

Cons

• Poor choice of templates;
• Editing is not entirely intuitive and requires a bit of learning;
• Rather low loading speed.

Weebly

Weebly is the site creator that finishes our should-study list for choosing what website builder is best. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that it’s worse. Weebly offers quality pre-made templates for different business niches. Unlike other website builders, it allows importing templates from third-party providers onto the Weebly platform.

Weebly lets you upload any type of content and provides users with 200+ apps and integrations. Moreover, it enables you to make your site even more engaging by employing polls and forums.

Pros

• A huge App Center;
• Enables creating complex websites with lots of pages;
• Offers a good level of customer tech support.

Cons

• Not the widest choice of themes;
• Features of the free plan are too limited;
• No opportunity to employ additional software from other providers.

What Website Builder Is Best – Comparative Table of Features

Of course, a text overview is a good thing. However, it won’t give you a full picture to understand what website builder is best. That’s why we decided to compile a comparative table of the web builders’ features. Undoubtedly, it will make your choice easier and help you answer the question, “What website builder should I use?”

Please note that this table is based on the features available with the paid plans. Don’t forget about it while making a decision on what website builder is best.

Which Website Builder Is the Easiest to Use?

If you ask us what website builder is best for beginners, we’d advise trying MotoCMS or Weebly. Both of them guarantee a smooth and flawless process of site creation. These intuitive site builders with drag-and-drop functionality come with convenient editors. Whether you choose to work with Weebly page editor or MotoCMS block editor, you’ll be able to add any type of content on the fly. Also, you’ll have an opportunity to customize every element in a couple of clicks.

What’s more, both builders allow you to make your site fully functional without additional software. Weebly apps, as well as MotoCMS widgets, are quite enough to cope perfectly with the task. The best thing is that both builders let you create even large websites with more than 25-30 pages.

What Website Builder Is Best in Terms of Numerous Quality Themes?

If you had a look at the comparative table above, needless to say, that MotoCMS is an evident leader. Its 2500+ templates cover more than 60 topics, from architecture and charity to law and transportation. All themes are attractive and offer well-structured layouts. Moreover, every template includes a full set of pre-made pages necessary to promote your business online. Besides, each theme is 100% responsive and cross-browser compatible.

Are you not searching for a completely unique theme but still want a qualitative one? Then, Wix templates also deserve your attention. The collection includes 50 categories that cover various industries. The majority of themes look eye-catching and clean. Furthermore, they are fully responsive.

What Website Builder Is Best for Small Business?

According to the Clutch Small Business Websites Survey, only 29% of small businesses don’t have a website. What’s more, 92% of business owners without a site are planning to create it. Consequently, if you don’t want to fall behind, you also need one.

What website builder is best to take your business online? Unquestionably, the answer lies in your business goals. Do you need a website that doesn’t exceed 20-30 pages? Then, Jimdo or Wix can be the right choice. Are you going to grow your online business continuously and want a big website? In such a case, it’s better to start building with MotoCMS, Weebly, or Squarespace.

Which Website Builder Is Best for Ecommerce?

Do you want to launch an online store and look for the best website builders for e-commerce? Then, it makes sense to go with Squarespace, Wix, or MotoCMS. These builders offer you lots of useful tools to sell online. Though the builders have their own pros and cons, they can be an effective solution for e-commerce.

What Website Builder Is Best for Photographers?

What a photographer needs to make his site shine on the web? Firstly, he needs various galleries to showcase his works in the best light. Secondly, his business requires multiple opportunities for promotion. Thirdly, the loading speed of pages really matters. So, what website builder is best in this case?

Perhaps, you should choose between MotoCMS, Wix, and Squarespace. For starters, these three builders are known for their marvelous themes for photographers. Next, they provide you with a reliable means to reach your audience. Finally, they ensure fast loading speed, which makes them the best web builders for photographers.

Which Website Builder Is Best for Blogging?

Frankly speaking, when it comes to blogs, it’s hard to advise you on a particular web builder. Actually, all builders in our research have helpful integrated tools for blogging. They let you post diverse content to engage your readers alongside the options for commenting and sharing it. That’s why the success of your posts will vary only due to their quality.

What Website Builder Is Best for SEO?

We’ve already mentioned the crucial role of SEO for your future website. So, which website builder is best to optimize your site for search engines? Undoubtedly, it’s the one that lets you optimize every element that influences the ranking position. Below you’ll find the table that will help you determine what website builder is best for SEO.

What Website Builder Is Best in Terms of Customer Support?

Honestly, not all web builders can boast the highest level of customer tech support. For instance, Wix lacks live chat, whereas Squarespace doesn’t have a phone customer support option. Jimdo also doesn’t offer phone tech support, and their live chat feature is available only 9 am – 5 pm. Though Weebly suggests email, chat, and phone support, only an email option is available with a free plan.

That’s why we think that MotoCMS holds the lead in this aspect. Their free tech support is available 24/7. Whether you prefer a live chat, callback, or email option, you’ll have it with this website builder. The best thing is that they respond very quickly. Besides, their knowledge base is rich in how-to guides, tutorials, and FAQs.

What Website Builder Is Best – Bottom Line

Well, perhaps, choosing the right site builder is not the most straightforward task. Nevertheless, we hope that thanks to our article it will become a bit simpler. Don’t be in a hurry. Scrutinize the features and correlate them with your goals. It will help you determine what website builder is best in your unique case and create an effective site.

The post What Website Builder Is Best – Comprehensive Guide on Popular Web Builders appeared first on DesignWebKit.

Sure, anyone is capable of producing a professional-looking website with the help of “DIY-style” website builders. But if you’ve been in the industry for a while, you’ll know that a fancy-looking website is never enough if you truly care about the success of your clients and the scalability of your organization.

It’s all about providing the best user experience possible — not only to your clients but also to their target audience. And for that, you’re going to need a lot more than just a cookie-cutter website builder.

In this post, we’ll talk about the features and web developer tools that any self-respecting web developer must use.

Let’s get started with our list of top web developer tools.

1. Web Developer Tools: Smart Asset Collection

Collecting content from clients is one of the needlessly stressful tasks of web development.

While using placeholder text and images in your initial design shouldn’t be a problem, it can sometimes lead to unpleasant surprises, like having to squeeze ten paragraphs of text into a landing page that you designed to look compact.

To make the asset collection phase as streamlined as possible, you can provide clients with a content collection form. This gives them a convenient way to organize and submit everything — from images to web copy.

With a comprehensive website platform like Duda, you don’t have to build or code a content collection form yourself. Ready-made forms are automatically generated for all website projects, you just have to send the right URL to your clients.

Duda’s content collection form also gives clients more options for submitting data.

For example, apart from uploading files from their local storage, they may also use direct links, cloud storage, their Facebook company page or their email service providers.

2. Web Developer Tools:  Page Speed Optimization

For users, a website’s loading speed is one of the factors that can make or break the experience.

Data from Kissmetrics reveals that up to 40% of users bounce away from a website if it takes more than three seconds to load completely.

This means you could be losing nearly half of your potential leads if you don’t optimize your website’s loading speed.

To be fair, most if not all website builders offer stripped-down, minimalistic themes that can be used for fast websites. But as you modify your website’s code and incorporate more visual content, you can inadvertently diminish its performance — ruining what could’ve been a fluid user experience.

That’s why you need a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights to make sure you’re not overlooking issues that may slow your website down. You just have to enter your website’s URL and wait for the tool to finish its assessment.

Apart from grading your website’s performance, PageSpeed Insights also provides you with actionable tips on how to fix problems, such as redirects, render-blocking JavaScript, and unnecessarily large images.

3. Web Developer Tools:  Automatic Backups

In web design, you sometimes need to rely on trial and error to achieve the effect that you visualized. Coding, for example, is something that may require several attempts for you to get it right. Agile methodologies allow web development to involve constant iteration.

And when you get it wrong, it could lead to problems that could lock you out of your platform. In such times, you’ll wish you have a clean backup ready to quickly get things back in working order.

With a tool like Dropmysite, you can work with confidence as your website and database get backed up in the background. If you’re not willing to spend for automatic backups, you can opt instead for the free Xcloner, which only requires you to pay for the 24/7 premium support.

Remember, you don’t have to be a reckless developer to warrant the use of automated backups. Malware, updates, and plugin compatibility issues may also lead to a host of problems that can render your website inaccessible.

Even if you’re confident in your ability to maintain a website’s integrity and security, the least you can do is offer your clients the peace of mind that they can roll back to earlier versions at a moment’s notice.

4. Web Developer Tools: Back End Customization

Building your agency’s brand can be hard, but it’s a must if you want to land higher paying projects in the future.

At this point, you’re probably aware of key strategies that can build your authority. You can write a web design blog, guest post in popular publications, launch a newsletter, and so on.  

You should also consider incorporating branding elements into the content management back end experience that you serve up to clients — from the login screen to the main dashboard. Doing so will enable you to foster brand loyalty, add to your prestige and fine-tune the experience of your clients.

For back-end customizations, some content management systems require you to use code or install plugins. Platforms like Duda, on the other hand, have built-in features that make the process easy.

5. Web Developer Tools:  Analytics and Performance Tracking

Finally, it doesn’t matter if you’re the most talented and experienced web developer in the world.

Different clients have different needs and expectations. As such, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” blueprint that can be used for all projects.

Your best bet is to use analytics to spot opportunities for improvement. Google Analytics, for example, can help you monitor how users interact with the website’s content.

Apart from user interactions, Google Analytics also track conversions, bounce rates, session durations, visitor demographics, and other metrics that matter. You can also view a list of the top-performing pages, which will help you gain a deeper understanding of your audience’s content preferences.

If you’d rather skip the number crunching, you can use a heatmap tool like Crazy Egg to visually observe how visitors use your website, which is even more helpful for ongoing conversion optimization engagements with clients.

Put simply, heatmaps work by identifying the “hot” zones of a website that receive most of the clicks, as well as the “cold” zones that tend to be ignored. This will help you restructure your website’s layout to make sure the elements that matter are front and center – and that things function as your visitors think they will.

Conclusion

If you want to efficiently build and maintain a high volume of client websites that are ready to compete, a simple website builder simply won’t cut it.

Branding, content management, performance optimization, security — there are several other factors you need to pay attention to if you want to thrive in web development industry. And with the post above, your projects from here on out should have a more profitable trajectory.

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