A website builder is a great tool if you have no coding skills and need a modern professional-looking website quickly. It can save you time and minimize your cost.
This article will discuss what website builders are, what they do and how using them can benefit you or your business. First of all, let’s understand what a website builder really is.
What is a website builder?
A website builder is online software that lets you easily and quickly create a website without any coding or technical skills.
Now that we know what a website builder is, let’s talk about the benefits and what its offers.
Benefits
What does website builder offer?
1. No technical skills required
You don’t need to be tech-savvy as website builders require no technical knowledge. Website builders provide tools to guard you against technical issues like hosting or protecting your website from malicious users. They also let you create affordable, professional websites or online stores and attract new customers without any coding skills.
2. Create attractive pages
You don’t need to be a web designer to create attractive and complex pages. You can create websites you’re proud of without prior web design knowledge or design skills. Website builders follow best design practices to make sure you get attractive pages both on the web, tablet, and mobile devices.
3. Save time
Website builders can save you time. Simply choose a template, change the look and feel to match your brand, add your content, and publish. Viola! Your website is ready in no time. Business owners can focus on the real business and not waste time on their websites.
4. Templates
Website builders have pre-made templates that can help you get online fast. Templates are designed not just to only look good but to follow best practices. Templates come with behind-the-scenes features that make your website search-engine-friendly as well as create a positive user experience for your audience.
5. Minimize cost
Save hundreds and thousands of dollars with affordable website plans without hiring a web designer. Website builders help you save money. You can even save money with free services such as free domains, free stock images, free hosting, and even free domain email services.
6. Free access to high quality stock images
Website builders have stock images and graphics you can use to make your website look attractive and professional. Save yourself from copyright infringements with website builders’ stock images.
Website builders provide free stock images you can add to your website to make it look professional and attractive without additional cost.
7. Ease of use
Make use of the intuitive drag and drop design without writing code. Website builders offer drag and drop features that let you create online stores, newsletters, galleries, contact forms, and much more with ease. Drag and drop elements can save time and can make a significant difference in your website’s look and feel.
8. Extensibility
Extend your website with free apps and tools to eCommerce, marketing, and social media tools. Website builders come with in-built apps to extend the functionalities of your website. Easily integrate online stores with website builders. Add new products, view sales reports, accept payments and manage your inventory.
9. Availability
Your website can be updated anytime, anywhere. You can make live changes to your websites as they are always online. You don’t need to worry about hosting issues like server downtime, denial of service attacks, or server errors as your website will always be available
10. Security
Website builders come with advanced security features to keep your website safe. Your website enjoys maximum safety with website builders who protect all websites with enterprise-level security infrastructure and internet security experts.
11. Search engine optimization
Website builders have made significant improvements with the SEO features of websites over the years. Most website builders meet the SEO basic needs.
12. Free Website
Website builders offer free websites. Free websites can give you time to experiment and test the waters. You can get your business or brand online with a free website while you decide on a domain name or business name.
13. Technical Support
Website builders are designed for beginners. Beginners often need a lot of help especially when they first get started. If you get stuck with your website, website builders offer help via customer service and tech support.
Do I need a website builder?
Website builders are designed for entrepreneurs, small business owners, events, and individuals who need an online presence.
Website builders are best for small business types such as:
- Photographers
- Restaurants
- Portfolios, Resumes
- Artists, Musicians, Bands, Recording studios
- Online retailers
- Coffee shops
- Local bars and breweries
- Beauty professionals
- Home and repair technicians
- Professional services like accounting firms, consulting firms, law firms, architecture firms, interior, and web design businesses
Website builders are also good for events such as seminars, weddings, and individuals seeking brand recognition.
Recommendations
What are some good website builders?
Here are some recommendations to get you started for free.
1. Wix
Wix is the most popular website builder with over 180 million users in over 190 countries users. The website builder offers a diverse collection of templates, an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, and capable of meeting your needs no matter what you are trying to achieve with your website.
The drawback of using Wix for free is that it can be slow. It also comes with a 500MB bandwidth limit. This means your monthly website traffic will be limited. And of course, there’s a sticky advertisement on your website.
2. Ucraft
Ucraft is packed with a lot of freebies. Many websites don’t allow you to connect to a custom domain name except Google Sites. However, Ucraft allows you to connect to your domain. This is better than Google Sites because Ucaft offers better templates and features than the bland Google Site pages.
The limitation with Ucraft is that you are limited to having not more than 15 web pages, you have limited SEO accessand you’d some sticky ad on your website unless you upgrade your account.
3. Google Sites
Google Site is as free as you can get. If you have no plans of paying for any plan in the future, Google Sites is for you. You most likely have used or currently use a Google product. The platform is intuitively designed just like other Google products which makes it easy to use and get up to speed with.
The platform allows you to connect your custom domain name. If you want to have an informational website and don’t mind the basic templates they offer, you should try Google Sites. Another good thing is that you can connect to other Google products easily.
The drawback of using Google Sites is that they lack important features like blogging and eCommerce. Maybe they will add it sometime in the future, who knows?
4. Square Online
Square Online is a totally free website builder designed for small business owners. The platform offers features such as automatic sync with Square POS, inventory management, social media integration, pickup and delivery, payment integration, SEO settings, and SSL security.
The best part is that all these great features come free. I highly recommend Square Online if you want to get your small business online asap.
The only drawback is the ad that shows up on your website which I don’t think is a deal-breaker since you’re getting the same benefits as a paid customer.
5. Jimdo
Jimdo is a simple and straightforward website builder suitable for beginners. The platform is very easy to use and offers drag-and-drop development tools.
The platform offers all-in-one business solutions such as online stores, logo design, SEO analytics, domains, and bookings. The premium plans are very affordable if you decide to upgrade in the future.
The limitation with creating a free website is that you cannot have more than 5 pages. You will need to upgrade your account. Jimdo is a very good website builder anyone can start with.
FAQs
Can I download website builder?
You can download offline website builders. Offline website builders allow you to design your website without an internet connection. After completing your design, you can get a hosting plan and domain so anyone with an internet connection can access your web pages.
website builders are available online and offline. You need an internet connection to access the online website builders. However, the offline website builders allow you to work locally and deploy your website to the internet later.
Can I start with a free website builder?
Yes, you can start with a free website. Some website builders like Square Online, Wix, Duda offer free websites to get started. You can also get a completely free website from Google Sites.
Conclusion
Is website builder good?
A website builder is good for anyone who wants to create quickly and easily create a professional-looking website without any technical skill.
You can start with free website builders such as Google Sites, Square Online, and Wix. Then you can upgrade your account if the website builder meets your needs.