You don’t have any programming skills but you still want to start a website? The first idea that comes to your mind is: “Maybe I should take an online course and learn some web design.” Yes. Taking an online course will help you gain some skills, but you won’t be able to design a website from scratch for a long time.
Why don’t you try a website builder?
But what is a website builder, exactly? With the software of this type, you can create any kind of website even if you don’t have programming skills. You pick the design and customize it to your needs.
You’re probably wondering: how does a website work?
Simple: you get tools and templates that help you design a site that’s professional, sleek, and usable across devices. In its typical version, it works through a drag-and-drop function. We’ll get to that point in detail.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Using Website Builders?
There are multiple advantages to using a website builder. These tools are especially beneficial for beginners, who don’t have any skills to develop a site from scratch.
These are some of the main reasons to start using a site builder:
- It’s easy to use. Through a simple drag-and-drop feature, you’ll include everything you want the page to have. You can rearrange them to make the design visually appealing.
- No need for coding!
- You can use a premade template, which already looks good. But if you don’t want your site to look similar to another one designed by that template, you can customize it.
- Using a website creator is the fastest way to design a site and get it running in no time.
- This is the cheapest way to design a website if you don’t have coding skills. If you were to hire a professional developer, you would have to pay them at least $40 per hour, depending on their requirements. According to the information provided by Upwork, full custom site design comes with hourly rates of $45 – $75.
Does this type of software have any disadvantages in comparison to web development from scratch?
- It’s hard to start creating a website and find website maker software with really good customer support. In most cases, you’ll have to rely on online tutorials and forums to overcome the difficulties.
- To access the full range of features, you’ll need to invest in a premium plan. That’s still more affordable than hiring a professional developer, but it won’t be free.
- Even though you can customize a template, you’re still not getting 100% unique design.
- If you want to present a serious business, you’ll need a design of the finest quality, pro features, and SEO coding. A drag-and-drop site maker won’t give you that.
If this is the beginning online project for your business, you’ll do well by choosing a reliable software. But if you’re more serious about the website, you won’t get maximum results with a site builder.
How Does the Website Builder Work?
We already gave you a website builder definition, but let’s expand on its meaning. How does the program work?
Most builders give you a great selection of templates. You can customize them to a great extent, so you’ll avoid designing a site that looks too similar to another one. It’s easy to replace the images and text from the template with your own content. You just click on the element you want to customize and make the changes.
When you choose the right template, building the website is a piece of cake. By dragging and dropping, you can rearrange the elements of the page to make it look unique.
If you want to make the template richer, you can add widgets and other elements. If you’re designing an eCommerce site, for example, you can add a Buy Now button that takes the user to the shopping cart. You can also add galleries, social media buttons, videos, and more.
When you’re happy with the way the design looks, you’ll publish the website. It’s that easy.
Types of Website Builders and Reviews of the Best Ones
There are two main types of website builders:
Online site builders don’t impose the need to download and install software to your computer. This is convenient since you can work on the site from different devices.
Offline site builders require computer installation. By definition, that’s useful if you want to work on the design even if you’re offline. Most users opt for online software, as the more convenient option.
But what are the best website builders for 2019? We have a list for you:
This is a free website builder with awesome features. It’s available in twelve languages. The templates look very professional.
The greatest advantage of this tool is the fact that it gives you ready-to-use modules. You can add photo albums, FAQ page, blog, forum, site catalog, videos, and more.
This is one of the simplest website builders on the market. It allows you to build a multilingual site. The free plan gives you limited storage of 0.5 GB, which should be enough if you just want to try out the tool. If you’re ready to move up, you can choose the Premium plan for $7 per month or Premium Plus for $14 per month.
The customer support is not impressive, but you get a lot of tutorials that should answer your questions.
Again, you get great templates and an easy drag-and-drop feature that lets you design a site in no time. The Starter package costs $2.45 per month. It lets you design up to 5 pages, and you get 25 GB of storage. Plus, the website will have an SSL certificate and it will be mobile-responsive.
If you want to upgrade to Premium (costs $3.72 per month), you’ll get access to premium templates, backup and restore features, and free images. None of these plans let you build an online store.
This one is great for designing an online store. You can try it out for free, but you get only the basic features. If you like what you see, you can choose one of the four paid plans. The Unlimited plan costs $39 per month and it gives you professional design analysis, unlimited space, and VIP support.
Weebly is focused on small business owners as a target audience. It lets you create a simple website with a mobile-responsive design. If you know some CSS and HTML, you can fine-tune the themes to perfection.
The Business plan costs $25 per month.
Visual Composer is the best drag and drop visual website builder for building beautiful and professional WordPress websites. It comes with both free and premium versions, more than 500 content elements, templates, blocks, addons, stock images, built-in SEO analysis tool, powerful design tools, and more. With Visual Composer, you can build a whole site from headers to footers within just a few clicks. You can get started for free or choose a premium plan according to your needs.
Wix is one of the most popular website builders. According to the info from Statista, it holds 22.61% of the market share. There’s a free version, but you’ll benefit the most with the VIP plan, which costs $24.50 per month.
How to Choose aTop Website Builder
To choose the software that suits your needs, you should first determine a monthly budget. There are awesome programs that cost a lot of money, so you want to know your limitations first. What builder gives you the greatest selection of features for the price you’re willing to pay?
If there areа few options after this initial evaluation, you should consider your needs. Do you need an online store? Maybe you want to add a forum or a blog? What’s the easiest tool to use?
The best thing about website builders is that you can try most of them for free. If you’re having doubts about the final choice, experiment with few options. See what you like and it will be easier to make a commitment to one program.
Now, you feel inspired to try a few website builders? Go ahead!
