The Criterions of the Best Website Builder Software
By Sam Nguyen
Choosing the right software for website creation will avoid many problems during the development phase and subsequent upgrades. The right software will ensure normal ranking in search results. Maybe, you have already decided on the functionality and approximately imagine the design of your future website. Now you can go directly to the creation of the site and the first step in this journey - choosing the optimal software (engine), on which it will run.
Serious projects are developed manually, involving experienced programmers, designers, and optimizers. But the beginner does not need to hire high-paid professionals or try to learn how to write program code or learn HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript. Much easier and faster to make a website with CMS or website builder software. Below we will consider the criteria of the best website builder software.
General features of the website builder software
The website builder software should be intuitive and offer a wide range of features, including graphics, image editing tools, web page templates, and useful documentation.
Feature set
Website builder software should include a wide range of features. Many different components are required to create a website, and the software should cover all the most needed options:
- Availability of scripts, such as JavaScript and VBScript.
- Support for multimedia, including flash animation, embedded video, and audio.
- E-commerce capabilities, or in other words, the ability to sell goods and services.
- Built-in FTP features.
- Editing HTML code.
Whether your interest in building a website is amateur or professional, the right website builder software will allow you to create your perfect website within hours.
Templates
A library of web page templates is required. These templates should be easy to use and of professional quality. In addition, it should be possible to download additional templates or find them online.
Graphics and visualization tools
Creating a website requires a large built-in library of images: pictures, animated GIFs, buttons, etc. Built-in tools allow you to manipulate (resize, crop or compress) images and preview them in different resolutions, which is useful when you need to reduce image quality to load a web page faster.
Ease of use
The website builder software’s features and instructions should be easy to find and simple enough for novice users. Creating a web page from scratch and a template should be equally easy.
Help and Support
The technical nature of website builder software requires a complete user manual and help system. You may need tutorials on creating websites and website builder software should be able to offer such tutorials on their websites. The website builder software should include an email for customer service contact or phone number in case you need specific help.
Principal criterias of the best website builder software
When choosing website builder software, you should take into account some criteria. Their priority of course depends on your needs, but our top five criteria are:
Ease of use
It is pleasant to work in a service where everything is intuitive, there are no questions like “What happens if I press this button?” and functions do not have to search for a long time. It should be easy to change the structure of the website as well as it should not be a problem for you to add or edit certain sections and categories.
The control panel should be a convenient tool, not another complexity. This is why we put this criterion in the first place: creating a website should not become another ordeal. When choosing a website builder software, be sure to pay attention to its admin panel. Everything should be clear at a glance.
Pricing
The website building software may be both budget and rather expensive. But here it is important to look at what you get for the money - that is, the ratio of price to functionality.
There are times when the base cost seems low, but you have to pay extra for every extra feature - and the total comes out to a tidy sum. Or vice versa: a paid website building software rate seems expensive at first glance. But if it has everything you need, and even convenient add-ons that remove the headaches of working with the website - maybe it’s worth it?
Design & features
Good website building software should have extensive possibilities in terms of design. Ideally, you should undergo a minimum amount of time and labor for the formation of a spectacular and attractive design. Also, for beginners, a very positive criterion for choosing a website builder software will be a huge number of ready-made templates in the free access. Email marketing features An email marketing solution that offers website builder software should help users develop and communicate with their subscribers. Basic features of such software should include templates, email editors reporting and analytics as well as form builders. Advanced website builder software with email marketing should offer customer segmentation as well as other marketing automation solutions.
Customer Support
No matter how convenient and intuitive your chosen website building software, the questions are inevitable. Therefore, another relevant criterion in the selection of website building software - the presence of prompt and adequate customer support. It can be implemented through online chat, personal messages on social networks, or just correspondence by email. Data ownership & portability Usually, newbies don’t think about data ownership & portability, however, after a great activity in this industry for over two decades, we recommend you to pay additional interest to this. Website builder software terms should guarantee that you have your data, and this data is transportable if you need to switch.
3 Best website builder softwares
Here is the most popular website builder software.
WIX
WIX is an Israeli platform that was launched in 2006. Now, this service is used worldwide (more than 160 million users). The interface has been translated into almost 20 languages. Over the years, WIX has grown to include a large number of auxiliary services: from a logo editor to outsourcing call center services.
The platform allows you to create any type of site with almost any functionality, without having to dive into the source code or programming. Although, if you have the desire and ability to do so, it is possible (there are special tools and services for professionals).
What are the advantages of WIX?
A comprehensive approach to the creation of sites is the main WIX advantage. Users receive ready infrastructure and can assemble/connect the necessary services as needed. Online page editor provides work with ready-made blocks, they can be dragged, deleted, duplicated, and customized. For faster launching, you can use ready-made templates (free of charge) or a special tool based on artificial intelligence (WIX ADI generates meaningful text and design according to your preferences).
Basic functionality can be expanded by installing applications from the store. Integration with many external services is provided. You can use the free startup plan as much as you like, and there are even free SSL certificates available.
What are the disadvantages of WIX?
A problem for novice webmasters can be an overloaded interface. It can be easily explained by the functionality, but it will take more than one day to master the service: you will not only have to figure out where everything is but also learn how to apply the tools correctly. At Wix, you can ruin a template, because the user has a lot of opportunities for editing. Another disadvantage of WIX is that the “Support” section is not informative. It’s possible to find a description of what the editor does, but without screenshots, it’s hard to know where to click.
Weebly
The developers have collected all the wishes of the entrepreneurs, owners of small businesses and created a website builder software, which allows you to run your site in a few clicks without the involvement of specialized professionals.
At the moment the platform hosts hundreds of thousands of sites. Integration with the most necessary business services is provided.
What are the advantages of Weebly?
The editor’s interface is as simple as possible, even a novice can cope with it. You can work with ready-made blocks, you can customize them, drag and drop, delete, duplicate, etc.
For a faster start, you can use ready-made templates (over 350 pcs.). The platform has no limitations on bandwidth, the number of pages, or disk space. Web pages show good results in tests for loading speed.
What are the disadvantages of Weebly?
Weebly has a poor backup system. On your local computer, website, or anything else, you always need backups. Unless you don’t mind losing countless hours of your work if something goes wrong. It takes a little navigation to get to the Weebly backup system, but the funny thing is that even if you backed up your website, Weebly won’t let you import the backup file back into your system.
Elementor
Elementor is an experienced player in the website builder software market. It provides a set of features comparable to most classic CMS systems. The modular structure allows you to activate the necessary functionality, so the service can run almost any type of site, and it does not matter if it will be for business or personal needs.
What are the advantages of Elementor?
During the work of the service, a close community has been formed around it. A comprehensive amount of information on working with the system can be found online and on the official site. The platform provides a very flexible approach to working with interfaces: drag & drop interface allows users to design custom-made, pixel-perfect websites. The built-in editor allows you to edit the source code templates to your needs.
Elementor is a professional website builder software that pays special attention to design. With its help, you can create beautiful and stylish sites of different topics and purposes. The library has full-screen blocks, background videos, static photo galleries, buttons, menus, and other elements. Each of them can be customized to fit the overall style of the page.
What are the disadvantages of Elementor?
Redundant layout and css is the first drawback of Elementor. But for those who never open the source code, it’s fine. The second disadvantage is considered low loading speed. Elementor brags about the best websites that are developed on it. But if you analyze it with other website builder software - it is one of the slowest in terms of speed.
Conclusion
A universal solution that is suitable for all projects does not exist. As in all areas, highly specialized software offers more opportunities and simplifies the work with the projects for which they are designed. When choosing a website builder software, proceed from your needs and capabilities.
If you want to make a small business card site or a small online store, which in the future is not planned to expand, with a standard design, do not want to go into technical matters, and are very limited in the budget - the website builder software will be the best solution for you.
If you are ambitious, aim at limitless growth of your site, or want to be able to scale in the future, you need a powerful, unique product with an unusual design - then the possibilities of the website builder software will not be enough. In this case - the choice is clearly in the direction of CMS.
This article was contributed by Vanessa Friedman. Vanessa Friedman is a content marketer who enjoys sharing best practices for self-development and careers with others. In her free time, Vanessa enjoys reading French literature and visiting museums.
