Building a website is essential in order to have a presence online regardless if you are running a business or a personal blog. In this article, we are going to tell you everything that you need to know about website builders and how to choose the right one for you.
What Are Website Builders?
Website builders are software that is now mostly hosted online which allow anyone to quickly and easily create and edit their own website without requiring any special knowledge of website design and programming languages.
Free vs Paid Website Builders
There are two main categories of website builders, the first one is the free ones such as Google Sites, Weebly, and Wix. They are great for people that want their very own website but do not want to spend a lot of money on creating it. However, it is important to note that although there are a lot of free website builders out there most of them require you to pay in order to use all the features of their platforms.
The other option that you have available at your disposal is the paid website builders such as WordPress, Shopify, and the custom-made website builders created by the various domain registering businesses such as GoDaddy and 1and1.
Pros of Free Website Builders
There is no startup cost associated with creating your website, a lot of free website building platforms such as Weebly, Blogger, and Google Sites will allow you to host a free subdomain which saves you money from having to spend money on registering a domain name.
You can keep maximum privacy when creating your website as you do not have share any personal information or banking information as you don’t have to make any payments since the service is free.
You get free storage for your writing, pictures, and videos which can easily be increased if you ever decide to upgrade to the paid options.
Cons of Free Website Builders
A lot of the features on most free website builders will not be free to use for non-paying customers once their trial runs out. This can make it more tedious to create and edit your website.
Most free website builders do not allow you to create or upload website themes that are not part of their gallery which means that your website is not able to have its own unique look.
Furthermore, all free website builders will have an unremovable link to their platform at the bottom of your website which can only be removed if you upgrade to the paid version.
Pros of Paid Website Builders
You get active customer support to help you if you have any problems or questions, which is extremely valuable especially if you are new to website designing.
By using a paid website builder, you get a lot more storage space with a lot of paid website builders offering unlimited storage options allowing you to have peace of mind that your website will never crash no matter how much information and data it hosts.
Paid website builders are also a must if you are going to be running an e-commerce website as all paid website builders frequently which helps fix and vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cybercriminals.
Cons of Paid Website Builders
There are a lot of bad paid website builders out there that will charge you high prices for subpar service with your websites constantly crashing. So, you need to make sure to do the necessary research in order to not waste your time with the terrible companies that are out there.
Hidden fees and extra charges are also a problem, although all the information about these is included in the terms and conditions, most people do not bother to read the fine print. This is something that you need to be aware of and if you are running on a tight budget you need to decide if it is worth the risk.
Many website builders that are hosted on website registrants are very basic and do not allow for a lot of customization. So instead they all offer WordPress as an add-on at an extra cost which can be avoided if you simply sign up for a WordPress.com plan and just buy your domain from the domain registrant companies.
We hope that we manage to give you a brief overview of what a website builder is and some useful information about what type of website builder is the right one for your needs and budget.
If you are looking to still discuss this further or want a custom website, drop us a mail on info@mintmatters.com