It is an evident necessity for any business to show their presence online. It is necessary also because of the invasion of smart phones and cheap internet which has made browsing and shopping comfortable and convenient. With the help of a website, business owners highlight their products & services, engage with consumers, expand their market and growth, increase their customer base.
As much as it is necessary to have a website, it is equally important to have a well-designed and well-built website. It has been analysed that a well-organized website is able to pull more customers.
Website designing is as technical as art both. One should know the technicalities and other details while going for a website creation. While it could be easier for technical people, not so technical might find it difficult and would end up with not so effective product while spending a good amount of time and money.
But to solve this problem, there are many website building platforms available in the market. These website development platforms also known as Content Management Systems provide numerous benefits as highlighted and mentioned in the text ahead. They are quick to use, pocket friendly, customizable and most importantly no programming skills required. With almost every platform providing these features in one way or the other, it becomes tricky which option to choose from.
Here, we would be highlighting top 5-7 website builder platforms to ease your search. You can choose one from these and it would definitely serve your purpose. However, note that this is based upon our study and experience and the list mentioned below is for reference purpose to help in your searching.
Before choosing any platform, you need to note down why you want to create a website and what do you want to achieve with it. There are few things which one can keep in mind as listed below:
1. Ease of Use
2. Customization options
3. Scalability
4. Pricing
5. SEO Features
6. Performance
7. Security
8. Support
9. Content ownership and Portability
10. Performance Analytics
11. E-commerce capability
Being said and done, lets have a look at some of the most used platforms across industry.
1. Wordpress: Wordpress is one of the most popular CMS platform for website development.
2. Wix: One of the Best for Small Business
If one wants to promote his personal blogs and highlight the portfolio, WIX can be a great option. Its user-friendly interface allows to create website easily with hundreds of templates.
Benefits/ Pros:
Ø User Friendliness
Ø Wide Range of Templates
Ø Wix Artificial Design Interface can create a website of your needs on the basis of responses
Ø SEO Features
Ø Hosting included
Disadvantages/ Cons:
Ø Has limited customization capability
Ø Limited e-commerce capabilities for e-commerce businesses
Ø Difficult to switch templates
Ø Exporting from wix to other platforms can be tough
3. Sauarespace: It is another platform used by designers for its user-friendly interfaces, beautiful and latest templates.
Benefits/ Pros:
Ø Easiness in adding contents
Ø Latest and modern templates
Ø Option to add online store to the website
Ø SEO enabled
Ø Handles website hosting, security and other updates
Disadvantages/ Cons:
Ø Lesser flexibility
Ø App integration is limited
Ø No Free plan
Ø Not easy to switch templates like Wix
4. Shopify: Topmost choice for anyone thinking to build online store as it is a specialized e-commerce platform and providing the features for running an online store which other platform does not have or have in limitations.
Benefits/ Pros:
Ø Specialized e-commerce platform
Ø Extensive App Store to enable add-ons and extensions to enhance and add features to the online store
Ø Flexibility to add various payment gateways
Ø SEO friendly
Ø One of the main features of using Shopify is its Scalability. Its well suited for very larger businesses with extensive and wide range of products
Disadvantages/ Cons:
Ø Costly, the plans are costlier than most of other platforms
Ø Customization beyond basic setting would require learning
Ø As it is mostly for e-commerce sites, it has limited features for other sites
Ø Free themes are limited and the better themes often come with additional cost
5. Web.Com: One of the original and easiest to use website builder made for small businesses offering tools and solutions for marketing and creating business value of business.
Benefits/ Pros:
Ø Drag and drop feature suitable for non-technical persons as well
Ø Enriched list of pre-defined templates to choose from
Ø One can add images/ videos/ sliders etc from available free stock list
Ø Design can be changed as per tablet/ laptop/ mobile
Ø Available e-commerce tools and features allows secure payment and order tracking
Ø Unlimited chat and on call support apart from expert support
Ø All web.com plans have domain name, email address, seo tools, analytics and others
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Disadvantages/ Cons:
Ø Platform mostly suitable for small business
Ø Limited blogging options
Ø Limited product addition on ecommerce platform
Ø Not easy to switch to different platform
I will surely join your