A website is a pretty essential part of running a business these days, and it’s easier than ever to put one together. There are so many options out there for building a website, no matter what level of experience you may have. Innovative drag and drop “what you see is what you get” website builders provide the perfect balance of control and ease, making them an ideal solution for startups big and small.
Here are some of our favourites…
Squarespace
Squarespace is a simple block based website building platform, with nearly 100 templates to pick from, each with customisation options that allow you to put your own stamp on your site. The templates are all responsive, making it easy to ensure your website works well across all devices.
The level of customisation available depends on the templates, but there are options available to suit most site needs, particularly for startups and small businesses. They benefit from stunning visuals and their system of “content blocks” make it easy to drag and drop the page elements to create a design that suits you. This system makes it easy to pull together attractive webpages pretty quickly, and the added option of choosing from prebuilt page templates to tweak can make the design process even quicker.
Wix
Wix is a simplified web builder that still packs a punch, with a library of customisable responsive templates to choose from and tweak to your specifications. They have a variety of different plans available, including a free plan to get started with, and offer a wide range of widgets to add extra functionality to your website.
It’s not the most sophisticated of systems and it is better suited to smaller websites, but it is a great starting point and allows for e-commerce integration at a relatively low cost. It’s worth testing it out on the free plan to see if it’s a good fit for your business before committing.
Shopify
Shopify is a great option for those looking to build online storefronts, with a powerful ecommerce platform that allows you to set up a working online shop in a matter of minutes. There are over one hundred templates to pick from, and countless integrations available to help you supercharge your shopfront. Shopify users benefit from inbuilt analytics, helping you to get to know your customer better, and a secure checkout system to give you and your customers peace of mind.
Webflow
If you want a little bit more control over how your site looks, then Webflow might be the best option for you. Webflow offer three main products - a visual website designer, a content management system and web hosting. Their visual designer can look a bit complicated at first, but it acts as an automation tool for HTML and CSS, automatically generating the relevant code for the elements you position and style on the canvas.
It’s by no means the easiest of design tools out there, but if you have a basic understanding of CSS or the time to get stuck into their library of tutorials then you’ll be able to create some great websites without the need to code it all yourself. There are a variety of free and premium templates if you’re not comfortable starting from scratch, and Webflow recommend giving these a go if you don’t have much experience with HTML or CSS. It’s a bit of a step up from the likes of Wix, but the results are worth the little bit extra effort.
For a more in depth review of Webflow, check out this review on the Satori Studio site.
