What you need to know before choosing a website building platform for your business

 

WordPress.org, WordPress.com, Squarespace, Weeby, Wix, Leadpages Sites, Blogger..…  There are a ton of website building platforms out there, so how do you know which to use?  In this post, I will be comparing 7 popular website builders so that you can be sure that you are choosing the best website building platform for your blogging business.  

This post contains affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure page for more info

What is a website building platform?

First, let’s define what a website building platform actually is. 

A website builder or website building platform is simply a tool/place to build a website without needing to manually code your site from scratch.  

Self-hosted vs. Hosted Sites

The first thing you have to decide is if you prefer a hosted or self-hosted website building platform for your blog.  Every platform is either hosted or self-hosted and your choice will make a big difference in the overall abilities of your site.

What is hosting and why is this important?

A host or web hosting service provider provides a space for your website to live.  When you sign up for hosting, you are essentially buying space on the Internet for people to visit your site.  Just like you need a physical space to display your products and sell things in the real world, you need a physical space in the online world as well to store your files and code from your website.

I like to think of hosting as the equivalent to renting or buying a physical storefront property, only the online cost is a lot cheaper!

Self-hosted website building platforms

With self-hosting platforms you have to purchase your own hosting.  This hosting can range anywhere ftom $3-$35/month depending on the length of time you are purchasing hosting for, the plan you chose and what host you go with.  The longer you commit to hosting, the cheaper the rate becomes.  Typically most people can get good hosting that meets their needs in a price ranging of $3-6/month.   

Self-hosted pros

• You have full control of your site
• High level of customization

Self-hosted cons

• Not as user-friendly
• You have to manage your own updates and backups

The two self- hosting providers I highly recommend are Bluehost and Siteground.  Siteground is faster in my opinion and good for those with a lot of information and graphics on their site, but for those just starting out I strongly recommend Bluehost.  

Bluehost offers a low, affordable price and great support for those just starting out.  They also give you a free domain for your first year, which is an awesome bonus! You can learn more about Bluehost hosting and plans here.

Learn how to set up your blog on WordPress.org with Bluehost hosting step-by-step here:

Hosted website building platforms

A hosted website building platform allows you to build your website with their software AND provides you with the space for your site to live.  Sounds like a great deal, right?  So why wouldn’t everyone pick this option?  Here are a few pros and cons to hosted website building platforms.

Hosted pros

• Simple to set up
• Ease of use.  Much more user-friendly
• Software updates are done for you

Hosted cons

• Limited customization abilities
• You don’t have full control.  If their hosting company goes out of business, you lose your content
• Typically more costly.  Free plans are very limited and usually come with a branded domain and host ads on your site.  (Not very professional)

What are your business goals?

Before you choose a website building platform, it is also important to evaluate the goals you have for your business and what you need your website to do.  

• Do you plan on having an online store or a membership site?
• Will you be relying heavily on content marketing with a blog?
• How much freedom do you want to be able to customize the look and feel of your site

7 Website Building Platform Choices: Pros and Cons

1. WordPress.org

WordPress.org is a free and open source software, meaning that it can be modified and shared by people because it’s design is publicly accessible. 

It is a self-hosted website platform, so while it is free to use, you will need your own domain and hosting to use it. 

In my opinion, if you need a customizable business website that will grow with you or a blog that you want to monetize, you must have a self-hosted site. 

I believe that WordPress.org is the best choice for this.  This is what I use with my business websites (with Bluehost hosting) and highly recommend to my clients.

Pros

• Self hosted so you have full control of your site
• Unbranded domain name (Free for the first year when you sign up for hosting with Bluehost)
• Highly customizable
• Access to countless themes and plugins
• Monetize your website however you want with ads, online stores, memberships, etc.
• Your site can change and grow with you

Cons

• Larger learning curve when designing site
• Responsible for your updates to plugins, themes, etc.  (Most only require clicking the update button though)
• You need to backup your own site

Price: Available for free with a hosting provider

Learn how to set up your blog on WordPress.org with Bluehost hosting step-by-step here:

2. WordPress.com

People often ask me if there is a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.  My response is always a resounding YES!

It is so easy as a beginner to get these two platforms confused and sign up for the wrong one.  (I did this myself in the beginning of my blogging journey years ago!)

The biggest difference is that WordPress.com is a hosted platform that does not require a domain or hosting.  While WordPress.org is self-hosted.

While there are a few benefits to choosing WordPress.com, it is important to understand that this hosted platform comes with some major limitations.

Pros

• Good if you want a simple, free site without a lot of features
• Powerful blogging platform
• Fairly easily to move your content to WordPress.org if/when you are ready

Cons

• Hosted by WordPress so you don’t have complete control
• Limited customization abilities
• You need to upgrade to a paid plan to have access to plugins and custom themes
• Free plans come with ads and a WordPress branded domain
• In order to get ecommerce features, Google Analytics and custom CSS you have to upgrade to a pricey package 
• Hosting storage is also limited and varies by plan

Price: Free-$45

3. Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder that has been quick to rise in popularity in recent years due to it’s high quality designer templates and it’s ease of use to create a basic website.

It’s an intuitive drag and drop website builder that favors ease over flexibility.  Check out the pros and cons below.

Pros

• Ability to get a well-designed website up fairly quick and easy
• Over 100 design templates available to choose from in 14 different niche categories
• Allows you to switch website templates while keeping your content intact
• E-Commerce friendly
• Excellent Support via live chat, a searchable knowledge base, video tutorials and forums
• Free custom domain name when you pay annually for services, as well as a FREE SSL certificate and WHOIS privacy 
• 14 day free trial

Cons

• No free plan
• Less flexibility and customization options than WordPress.org
• Not a self hosted site so you do not completely own your site.  If they felt it necessary, Squarespace could remove your content should it conflict with their policies
• If you are using SquareSpace for a business site you will want the $26/month plan or higher which gets costly

Price: 

$12-$40/month when paid Annually

$16-$46/month when paid monthly

4. Wix

Wix is a drag and drop website builder and hosted platform.  It has become a pretty well-known website builder thanks to its big-budget marketing efforts.  You have likely seen Wix ads on TV, YouTube

Pros

• There is a free plan available 
• Very beginner-friendly and easy to use
• You have access to an extensive list of templates to choose from (over 500)

Cons

• The free plan includes Wix ads on your site
• Your domain name will end with .wix if you don’t upgrade to a paid plan
• Since it’s not a self-hosted website, they 
• Less storage for a higher price
• Can’t switch out your chosen template for a different one once you build your site
• Complicated to move a website off of the Wix platform

Price: Offers a free plan (with ads) with options to upgrade to premium plans shown below

5. Weebly

Like Wix, Weebly is also a use drag and drop website builder and a hosted platform that is very user friendly.  It allows anyone, regardless of their skills, to create a professional-looking website quickly.

Pros

• Easy to use and get a website up quickly
• Great for ecommerce.  All Weebly’s plan options include a store
• Offers a free plan
• Access to basic SEO tasks

Cons

• Free and personal plans are ad-supported so you will have Weebly banners on your site
• A custom domain name is not available with the free plan
• Limited templates 
• Not very blogger friendly

Price: Free up to $29/month depending on your plan and payment schedule

6. Leadpages Sites

For years, Leadpages has led the way in creating high-converting landing pages.  In spring of 2019, they took their knowledge of conversion marketing and introduced the first conversion-first website builder-Leadpages Sites.  

It uses the same drag and drop feature of their landing pages and is designed to help your site not only look good but to convert leads and grow your business.  

There are some really appealing features of this new website builder, but there is big con that may be a deal-breaker to many people.

Pros

• If you are already paying for Leadpages (which I highly recommend for conversions), a site is included in the price.
• Offers High-converting templates (Based on years of collected data on what converts and what doesn’t)
• Fast page load speeds 
• 100 percent mobile responsive design
• Complete conversion tool kit so you can create pop ups, opt-in forms, alert bars etc. all within site
• Offers a free 14 day trial

Cons

•  You can’t add blog posts yet, so if you are a blogger, then this option is off the table as of now.

Price: 3 pricing plans that range from

$25-$199/month when paid Annually

$37- $321/month when paid monthly

7. Blogger

Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google.  It is very simple to use and is a good basic platform for those wanting to try out blogging for the first time. 

I recently set my nine-year-old son up with his own blog on the platform to get a taste for blogging.

Blogger was also my first introduction into the blogging world back in 2014.  I created a hobby blog on this platform, but when I decided to turn my blog into a business, I quickly realized that this was not the ideal platform for doing this and switched to WordPress.org   

Pros

• Good for hobby bloggers- Offers a very simple dashboard that is easy to use.
• It’s completely free (All that is required is a Google account to create your site)
• A variety of basic templates to choose from 

Cons

• You don’t fully own your content as it is hosted by Google
• Very few options for customizing your blog
• Support is extremely limited
• Your domain name will end with .blogspot.com unless you purchase and set up a custom domain name 
• Very difficult to transfer your content to a different platform should you choose to in the future

Price: Free- All that is required is a Google account to create.

Which website building platform is best for your business needs?

You now know the pros and cons of seven different website building platforms.  Which one do you feel will be the best option for your business?   What was your biggest takeaway?  Share it with us in the comments section so others can benefit as well!