Friday, March 29, 2024

How To Choose The Right Website Builder For Your Business

To sell your goods and services online, you will need a website of your own. Having a website does not only give you full control of your online presence, but it will also help you grow your business in the right direction.

Creating a website

If you have the budget, you can hire a top-notch development agency to develop a website for you.

However, if you are on a budget, it is very possible to create the website for yourself.

Since there are multiple website builders available online, you need to choose the right one to satisfy your requirements.

Here are some of the most important factors to consider when deciding which website builder to use:

Ease of Use

There are several platforms that make it easy even for non-technical people to create a website. Users of WordPress, wix.com, or Shopify can get a website up and running in no time.

Popularity

The more popular a platform is, the more likely you’ll get help if you are stuck, as well as the higher the number of skins and plugins that can help you implement the features you need.

It is also more likely to get affordable professional help, especially if you need some features that the platform does not offer out-of-the-box.

It can be hard and costly to find good developers for less popular platforms.

Hosting

If you have a website, you’ll need to store its files and database somewhere. There are three main options for hosting:

  • Shared Hosting: You need to purchase a hosting plan from a hosting provider company. When you are starting out, this is usually between $5 and $10 per month.
  • Self-hosted: You rent a server and set up everything for yourself. This requires quite a lot of technical knowledge and is probably not the option for starter websites.
  • Managed Hosting: Most paid platforms also offer managed hosting. This means that the company will make sure your website is always up and running, hence you don’t need to worry about it at all.

Cost

Some platforms, like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Magento, are free (although many of them have paid add-ons). Others, like Shopify or wix.com, might charge you a small amount of money each month.

Features & Your Needs

It is very important to consider all the features your website needs in the long term.

A platform with a modest monthly fee might offer several features that a free platform does not. Choosing a free platform might mean that you’ll need to spend thousands of dollars on development down the road.

Try Out a Demo

After you have checked several platforms, and have a few shortlisted candidates, you should give all of them a quick try to see how easily you can use them.

You can simply download and set up free, open-source platforms. Most hosting providers even offer a one-click install service for such platforms.

Most paid platforms offer a free trial for a few days or a demo account that allows you to check out all their features.

See which platform seems the easiest to work with, and stick to that.

Your Options

Here are some brief description of the most popular website builders:

  • WordPress: The most popular solution for simple websites. Ideal for blogs, brochure sites. Has many skins and plugins. A good choice for most starter sites.
  • Joomla: Another popular website builder, which is more complicated than WordPress.
  • Drupal: Also quite popular, but definitely more complex than WordPress and Joomla. It is also more demanding in terms of server resources, and chances are high that you’ll need professional help with it. However, Drupal is a lot more flexible than most other website builders. If you have big plans with your website, this might be a good choice.
  • wix.com: Has free and paid options and manages hosting for you. Great for simple sites as there is virtually no development time to set it up.
  • Magento: Free e-commerce solution with some paid addons. A popular webshop solution, but it needs a strong server to run and you might need professional help to configure everything correctly.
  • Shopify: The most popular managed e-commerce platform. It is not free, but it’s feature-rich. For a small monthly fee, you can get a nice webshop with just a few clicks.

The Verdict

There are a number of website builders to choose from, and it’s not easy to select the right one.

Here are some resources that might help you make the right decision:

Shopify vs. WordPress

These are the two very popular platforms. If you need a webshop, you’ll probably end up deciding between these two. Hop over to this site to read a great comparison of these two platforms

WordPress vs. Drupal vs. Joomla

These are the three most used platforms for content sites. There are a number of differences between them. Read this article to find out which one might be a good fit for you.