Before you can build a website, you need to choose a website builder. And preferably, you’ll choose a website builder that makes your life easy in the future, offering convenient and intuitive usability with plenty of customization options – regardless of who’s actually building your website. Learn in this guide the top things to consider, important factors, and how to choose the best website builder to create your page.
So how can you make the best choice? What should you keep in mind when choosing a website builder?
The Role of a Website Builder
What exactly is a website builder?
As the name implies, it’s a tool for helping people build websites. Website builders come in all shapes and sizes, from simple online editors designed to make it easy even for amateurs to design and build their own website to advanced professional tools that are best used in the hands of talented designers and developers.
In any context, these tools typically have templates, themes, styles, and simplified editing tools developed to make it easier to put together a website from scratch.
These tools also have features designed to make it easier to manage websites in the long term. For example, they may have content editors that make it easy for webmasters to publish new blog posts, make tweaks to existing products and pages, and tinker with design elements.
An example of a website builder is uSkinned, which is a “content-editor experience designed to help anyone launch a new website using the powerful Umbraco CMS. Once installed on top of Umbraco, uSkinned provides a user-friendly, no-code environment for stunning website authoring.” It’s open-source, making it free and transparent, and it has practically every web development tool the average user needs to create a beautiful and functional website.
What Makes a Good Website Builder?
These are some of the most important qualities of a “good” website builder:
Open-source nature
While it’s certainly not a requirement, open-source tools are advantageous in several ways. They’re typically free (or at least have a free version), they’re managed by a community, and they can be flexibly customized to suit your needs if necessary. Proprietary tools can be valuable, but they come with some inherent limitations.
Pricing: Choose best website builder
If you decide not to go the open-source route, you’ll also need to consider the pricing of your website builder. Some tools are inherently more expensive than others, usually because they offer more advanced features or other perks. You’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of each platform carefully to determine whether the cost is worth it.
Core features
What are the core features of the website builders you’re considering? Are you able to easily design and build a website from scratch using this type of tool? Is there support for eCommerce? Can you set up analytics and track conversions with this tool?
Available templates
Most website builders have templates and stylistic elements made to make it easier for you to design your website. You may want to adjust your decision based on what’s available on the website builder you choose.
Accessibility/usability
If you’re the one that’s going to use this website builder, you’ll need to pay close attention to its accessibility and usability. Assuming you’re not a technical expert, you’ll need to choose a tool that’s flexible, easy to learn, and possible to master. Some tools are best suited for people with existing professional skills.
Support: Choose best website builder
If you plan on using this tool to manage your website in the future, you should think about support. If something goes wrong with your website management, who do you contact? So, there are bugs or problems with the tools, are there available developers to step in and resolve them?
Compatibility
Most people managing websites want to use a host of other third-party tools and applications in coordination with that website. Accordingly, you’ll need to study each website builder’s compatibility. Does this tool make it easy to incorporate other tools and platforms?
Overall fit with your goals: Choose best website builder
There’s no such thing as a perfect website builder; there are always trade-offs to consider. Because of this, it’s important to consider the overall fit with your goals. For example, some businesses may be willing to spend more if it means getting access to better features, and some businesses are interested in building a website as quickly as possible, with all other considerations being secondary.
Tips for Making the Right Choice
These are some additional tips that can help you make the right choice. Learn in this guide the top things to consider, important factors, and how to choose the best website builder to create your page.
Trust who you hire
The best path to developing a website from scratch is hiring a team of professionals, like hiring a website development agency. If you go this route, trust their recommendations. Your website developer may have preferred tools that they use or suggestions on how to approach website development as efficiently as possible.
Shop around
There are more than 18 million actively managed websites on simple website builders right now, with dozens of highly popular tools used to build and manage those websites. There are countless options available to you, so broaden your search to learn about all of them.
Actively participate
Don’t just read marketing pages or blindly trust recommendations; try out these various website builder tools so you can see how they work firsthand.
Choosing a website builder can be challenging, especially with so many options available. But if you’re willing to trust the professionals and you know your most important priorities, you’ll be in a much better position to make the right call.
