With distributed workforces the norm, incorporating video into communications with colleagues and customers isn’t just a nicety anymore–it’s a necessity. Recording the most important of these video calls helps you preserve information that can later be reviewed and shared with colleagues, customers, and even prospects.
In this guide, I’ll show you how easy it is to record video calls and explain the reasons why you might want to hit the record button next time you’re in an online video meeting. I’ll also explain the basics of how video calls work, cover what makes video calls different from video conferences, and share tips on creating a professional video conferencing environment.
Video Call Recording Quick Links
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Video calls can be made with a tool like Skype or Slack. But these tools have limitations, especially when it comes to the number of people you can have on any call. And starting a video call is about all you can do with them—there is no easy way to record the video calls you make.
As your video conferencing needs grow, you’ll want a more robust tool–one that easily connects many people in diverse locations. You’ll also want a tool that makes it simple to record and create a library of your past video conferences.
Any of the following services will help you do all this with ease. So you can save your other chat tools for the thing they do best—quick and informal written exchanges.
RingCentral — Best video conferencing service with VoIP business phone plans.
GoToMeeting — Best video conferencing service for small businesses.
ClickMeeting — Best video conferencing software for webinars.
Zoho Meeting — Affordable video conferencing service with basic features.
Microsoft Teams — Best video conferencing software for internal communication.
Zoom — Best video conferencing service for scalability.
Join.me — Annual contract video conferencing plans for small meetings.
Webex — Best video conferencing software for cloud collaboration.
Want to know more? Find out everything you need in my guide to the best video conferencing services. There you’ll find information about each service on the list, plus a framework to help you choose the service that best suits your needs.
Video Calls Explained
Whether you’re new to video calling or a seasoned pro, there might be things you never knew about this very convenient technology.
But there are basic concepts you should know and understand in order to make the most of your next video meeting and elevate yourself to a video call pro.
Video Call vs. Video Conference
Video call. Video conference. These two phrases get thrown around a lot in today’s business world.
You might be wondering if they’re the same thing. They are…sort of. Video calls and video conferencing both use the same technology, and practically speaking, whether you say video call or video conference doesn’t have much impact on the call itself. To most people, either phrase gets the point across that the call includes video.
But the two phrases do differ, and it’s helpful to know how. The main difference between video calls and video conferencing is how many people are on the call.
Video calls are two people in different locations speaking in real time to each other. A typical example is two remote colleagues opting for a video call to chat about a complex issue they’re working on together. Exchanging chat messages takes too long and a phone call won’t let them share the visuals that will make things clear.
Another example is a customer service representative helping a client solve a complicated product-related issue. The power of video lets the two connect and visually walk through the steps needed for quick resolution and ultimate customer satisfaction.
Video conferencing, on the other hand, involves three or more people participating in a video conversation together.
Some examples of video conferencing include company-wide meetings with dispersed workforces, weekly team meetings with multiple colleagues in different locations, and even online meetings with prospects or clients located around the world.
In terms of the technology that makes the magic happen, though, video calls and video conferences are identical. In fact, you can use the same video conferencing service to video chat with one person or video conference with many. You can even use the service to make calls that don’t include video.
The Technology Behind Video Calls
The magic that unfolds on your screen when you start a video call is thanks to a technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This technology transmits both audio and video data from one remote location to another using the internet and algorithms called coders and decoders.
One person on the video call speaks and both the sound and camera image is captured and coded. That coded data then gets distributed to all recipients on the call, where it is decoded on delivery so they can see and hear the information on their own devices. Dedicated video conferencing software takes care of the coding and decoding, so everyone on the call needs to be using the same tool.
It all happens so fast it seems instantaneous, and that’s not by accident. The best video conferencing service builds echo cancellation into the software, so participants enjoy a seamless experience with no audio or video lag.
Why Recording Video Calls Is Important
There are many reasons why you might want to record a video call, and a good video conferencing service makes it easy to do. That is part of the service’s value.
Here are some of the most popular reasons you might want to record your next video call:
Reference: Focus on the conversation at hand and give the person speaking your full attention, including all-important eye contact. You can skip taking extensive notes during the video call when you record it. Afterward, you can go back and replay key parts to recall the important information you need.
Share: Keep things relatively stress-free for attendees who can’t make a video call. Record it and share the recording with them to review when they have time.
Train: Conduct training once, record it, and offer it on-demand to others. This is an excellent way to build efficiencies and a library of great reference material.
Repurpose: Take advantage of the information collected during a video call to reuse later in other projects. For example, you might be speaking to a subject matter expert and want to use a partial video clip in a marketing video later on.
As you can see, there are a lot of reasons you might want to record a video call. That’s why it’s important to know how to make that happen.
How to Record A Video Call
When it comes to recording a video call, the “how” will depend on the tool you are using for the call. Every solid video conferencing service on the market today will make recording easy to do.
For this guide, I’ll walk you through recording a video call using RingCentral.
Why RingCentral? Not only do they offer one of the best video conferencing services on the market today, but they also offer VoIP business phone services that let you eliminate the need for a traditional phone line. For most businesses, this is a great way to gain efficiency and save money, too.
Also, RingCentral offers a free subscription to their Video Pro plan that gives you unlimited meetings with up to 100 participants, temporary cloud storage for recordings, and integrations with popular tools like Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams. And it’s always free, with no credit card ever required.
Here’s how to record your video call or conference on RingCentral.
Start by downloading and opening the RingCentral desktop app on your computer or go to the RingCentral website. Whichever option you choose, the steps that follow are identical.
Click on Sign In and follow the on-screen prompts for your username or email and password.
On the left-hand menu, choose Video and then Start.
When prompted, select Join audio by computer.
When all attendees are on the call and you’re ready to begin the meeting, choose Record from the options at the bottom of the RingCentral window.
You will then see an active recording window to the left and Record will now say Pause.
You can start and pause recording as often as you’d like during the video call. Once you leave the call, recording stops. A copy of your recording is available in your RingCentral library once it is processed.
How to Review and Manage Your Video Call Recordings
As you record video calls and conferences, you’ll eventually build up a library and want to review those recordings. You may also want to download or share those recordings, too. Here’s how to do all of those things.
From the menu on the left side of the screen, choose Video then All Recordings. You’ll see a list of each recording you’ve made, along with the length of the video or its current status if still processing.
Click on the name of the recording you want to review or share and a pop-up window will appear. The options on this screen include download, delete, or share, and are all represented by icons in the upper-right corner. You can also replay your recording from here.
To download the recording, click on the download icon. Your download will automatically begin.
To delete the recording, click on the trashcan. Be careful, though, as you don’t get a second prompt before your recording is deleted. Once you click on the trashcan, your recording is gone!
To share the recording, click on the share icon. You’ll be prompted with a pop-up box where you can type in the name of the person you want to share the recording with, then click Share.
And that’s all there is to it. You can replay, download, share, and manage your RingCentral video call recording library with ease.
How to Set Up a Video Conference Space
If you’re going to regularly make video calls, you’ll want to create a space that ensures success and portrays you as the professional you are.
Video Conference Setups for Individuals
If you are a remote worker or someone that jumps on video calls regularly from your desk, all you need to make a video call happen is a solid internet connection and a device with a screen, camera, and microphone. Your laptop, desktop computer, or smartphone are usually enough.
With just these basics, you can join a video call from virtually anywhere.
Of course, just because you can join from anywhere, doesn’t mean you should. To keep things professional, be sure to consider good online meeting etiquette so that you present yourself in the best possible light on every call.
Video Conference Setups for Businesses
The stakes are a bit higher for businesses that plan to regularly host video conferences, especially when those events involve people outside the company. While a business can also get by with the basics, it doesn’t mean that approach is always a good one.
Investing in high-quality equipment ensures your video conferences are seamless. It may even be the thing that sets you apart from the competition in a good way.
The ideal business video conferencing set-up includes the following:
Stable, high-speed internet connection: A slow internet connection or one that drops repeatedly can wreak havoc on a video call. Invest in the fastest and most stable internet service available to avoid these issues.
High-resolution display screen: Invest in a good video display screen that has very high resolution to ensure the best video experience, especially if remote participants will be sharing documents during the call. The size screen display you choose should be in proportion to the size of your conference space and be placed in a location that is easy to see by everyone in the room.
Wide-angle web camera: For maximum effectiveness during a video conference, everyone sitting in the room should be seen on camera. Installing a high-quality webcam that captures the entirety of the room will accomplish this.
Multi-directional microphones: Seeing attendees is just part of the equation. Hearing them is equally important. A good quality microphone, placed in the center of the room, will help capture all audio so remote attendees can clearly hear what is being said.
A/V connection ports with multiple cables/connectors: Eliminate the confusion and frustration that occurs when someone shows up but can’t connect to the audio-visual equipment. Have the right cables on hand so both Windows and Mac computers can quickly connect to your video conferencing system.
Dedicated location: Choose a quiet location with a door that can be shut to ensure an uninterrupted experience during your video calls. Nothing is more distracting than outside noise or an unexpected interruption bringing your video presentation to a halt.
Yes, it can be an investment. But for businesses serious about video conferencing, it is an investment that reaps potentially large dividends.
Pros and Cons of Recording Video Calls
There are many benefits that make recording your video calls a solid decision, including:
Building a training library: Video conferencing is a great way to offer employee training, and recording those calls means you can share the same training with new workers without having to hold the live training session again. Record once, then share as needed.
Keeping accurate records: It is hard to dispute what was said during a video call when you have a complete recording to fall back on. Need to verify the details of key decisions made? Have a question about who was assigned to do what? Just review the recording.
Sharing after the fact: When you record your video call, you have an easy way to share the information from the call with others. Whether it is a colleague that couldn’t make the meeting or entire teams that need to know what was discussed, the information can be shared with just a few clicks.
Of course, nothing is perfect and this applies to video conferencing, too. There are a few potential downsides to recording your calls, like:
Sharing old information: Building a training library is great, but when data or procedures change, you have to have a plan in place to replace old video recordings with new ones. This requires vigilance and someone assigned to library management. This is critical so you avoid sharing outdated information.
Illegal recordings: Depending on your state’s laws, recording employees or third parties without their express permission can expose you to significant liability. To avoid this, be sure to disclose your plan to record the video call before or at the beginning of the session. People don’t have to verbally consent, though. Their continued presence in the video call is a presumption of consent.
Infringing on personal preferences: Some people simply don’t want to be captured on a recording, especially if they don’t know why the recording is taking place. It is good practice to give invitees to a video call advanced warning that the event will be recorded AND allow them to opt out without fear of penalty. This is especially true for employees who may feel uncomfortable leaving a call if that is when they first learn it will be recorded.
The pros definitely outweigh the cons when it comes to recording video calls, but it is good to know what might go wrong. That way you can develop contingency plans and strategies to deal with situations that might arise.
Final Thoughts About Recording Video Calls
The ability to conduct business from anywhere using video conferencing has changed the way we work. Entire companies are leveraging the power of this technology to run businesses with fully remote workforces.
Even those businesses with traditional bricks-and-mortar locations are embracing video conferencing technology as a way to streamline workflows, engage with clients, and attract top talent. The ability to record video calls adds value to an already valuable technology, and it’s easy to do. That’s a win for everyone.
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Webinar success is often measured by registration and attendance. But in today’s non-stop, tech-driven world, how do you rise above the noise and capture the attention of busy prospects? And once you do, how do you get them to actually commit their time to show up for your webinar?
The secret is to offer a topic that is interesting, engaging, and, above all, valuable. If you don’t, you may find yourself presenting to empty seats. To ensure your webinar is standing room only–virtually anyway–it’s critical to choose a great webinar topic. In this article, I’ll show you how easy that is to do.
How to Choose a Webinar Topic in 5 Steps
Selecting the right webinar topic involves more than just picking a subject that is interesting to you. It requires a strategic approach and analysis. But that process isn’t as hard as it sounds. You can choose a winning webinar topic and create a successful webinar in just five steps:
Ready for success? I’ll walk you through the full webinar planning process in detail.
#1. Identify Goals and Objectives
Choosing a great webinar topic begins with a little legwork. Start by thinking about why you want to do a webinar in the first place. What do you hope to accomplish?
Here are a few common reasons people put on webinars.
Reach and Teach Employees
With more and more workforces going remote, sharing important information with employees–and ensuring they understand it–can be a daunting task. Zoom is a great option for smaller meetings among teams or departments. But when you need to reach larger groups or even an entire large organization, a webinar is far more efficient. It allows the host and presenters to control the exchange of information and avoid the typical interruptions that arise when anyone on a call can freely access their microphone.
Onboarding and employee training are other areas where webinars can be quite valuable. Creating a webinar that covers all the basics of starting the new job or learning common performance skills and processes eliminates the need for HR or other managers to repeat the same information again and again for every new hire.
Support Sales & Marketing Teams
When done well, webinars can be an effective component of your company’s overall marketing and sales strategy. Product-specific webinars can attract leads and get prospects in the sales funnel. Webinars can also provide valuable information that can be saved and easily shared with decision-makers when a prospect is considering your company’s products or services.
The sales funnel itself is ripe with webinar opportunities, too. Find out where prospects tend to hit roadblocks, then build your webinar to ease those pain points. Whether it’s a lack of clarity on a product’s functionality or a missing value proposition, a webinar is a great way to have that information available to leads on demand. It can help move them through the funnel instead of being stymied by indecision and dropping out altogether.
Help Customers After the Sale
After the sale is an equally valuable place for webinars. When you know the common problems your customers consistently ask about, for example, you can design a webinar to solve them. Put the recording on your website and customers may even be able to solve their issue without ever contacting customer service at all.
You can also design webinars that showcase unique features of your products that customers might not know about. This value-added approach is a great way to increase customer satisfaction, encourage referrals, and even turn a one-off customer into a strong referral source or even a repeat buyer.
#2. Define the Target Audience
Now that you know the “why” about your webinar, it’s time to focus on the “who and what” part of the equation. Resist the urge to build a webinar that tries to be all things to all people. That strategy rarely succeeds. Webinars are way more successful when they offer a precise topic aimed at a narrow, well-defined audience.
Here’s how to answer the “who” and “what” part of choosing a webinar topic.
What does your ideal attendee look like?
I’m not talking about actual appearance here. I mean the intangible characteristics of your ideal webinar attendee.
For example, an onboarding webinar that walks someone through setting up benefits and payroll is geared towards new hires. A “how to” webinar explaining the nuts and bolts of registering a product warranty is geared toward customers who have already purchased your product.
But when your audience isn’t so readily defined, it helps to think about audience characteristics when defining your ideal attendee. Start by talking to your sales and marketing teams. They can be a big help in defining your company’s ideal customer, and likely have audience personas created already. Reviewing this information can help you quickly hone in on what your ideal attendee looks like.
What does your ideal attendee need?
What is keeping your ideal attendee up at night? What issues are they having trouble solving on their own? Figuring out the problems they face or the fears they have will reveal a bevy of possible webinar topics your ideal attendee finds hard to resist.
Perhaps your company sells a product that is great at solving a complex issue but is also expensive. Your ideal attendee is someone who already knows about your product and likes it, but also has a major pain point when explaining to their boss why the high price is justified.
If you offer a webinar that clarifies all the ways your product saves time and money and enhances a company’s bottom line, you’ve helped solve that pain point. Your ideal attendee can take the webinar information back to their boss, move everyone past the price hurdle, and become a satisfied customer.
#3. Finalize Your Webinar Topic
Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for! You’ve done your homework, figured out the “whos” and “whys” and created a webinar topic short-list. You’re ready to pick the best one.
Before you choose your final idea, though, it pays to do just a little bit more research.
Reach Out To Colleagues (again)
Yes, you already spoke to your colleagues to get some initial webinar ideas. And your short list is the product of those conversations. But it never hurts to have a deeper discussion with these same stakeholders one more time to flesh out how each idea on your shortlist might come to life.
If you are going to train employees, go back to HR and identify the most critical elements to cover for each of your short-list topics. They may come up with ideas you never thought of, or explain why one of your short-list topics should be tabled for the moment in favor of a more time-sensitive option.
Is your goal to help sales and marketing bring in more leads or convert prospects? Share your pared down topic list, explain the content you envision for each, and get their feedback on the approach they think will work best given current market conditions.
Your internal subject matter experts can be an invaluable resource for finalizing a webinar topic, and contributing to an outline that will eventually shape your final presentation.
Look At The Data
Google Ads Keyword Planner is a free tool that can help you identify keywords and topics that are hot right now. If you’re not familiar with this tool, check out our tutorial on how to use the Google keyword planner tool.
The goal of Google’s Keyword Planner is to identify phrases that people are searching for right now, and determine which of them are most popular based on search volume.
This type of information can help you in two ways. It will show you what is–and isn’t–being regularly searched for, helping you rid your webinar short-list of topics nobody cares enough about to bother with a Google search.
And when you do narrow your topics down to that final winner, the data will also show you how to name and describe your webinar topic so that it is more likely to be found during a Google Search.
#4. Determine the Webinar Layout
Okay, you landed on this post because you wanted to know how to choose a webinar topic, and I showed you how to do that. But picking a topic is just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s a lot going on under the waterline that makes or breaks an online learning experience. Consider these two final steps a bonus to help you achieve webinar greatness.
First things first, you have to decide how long your webinar will be. The most successful webinars are at or just under 60 minutes, with 30-45 minutes dedicated to the presentation and 15 minutes allocated for audience Q&A.
Likewise, you’ll have to make a decision about what materials to show during the webinar. A Powerpoint presentation is a go-to favorite, but you can also share PDFs, spreadsheets, JPEGs, and other multimedia to keep your audience engaged.
The benefit of including visuals is that it allows attendees to see the information in a different form than just a verbal presentation. This helps address a variety of learning styles, very important when you have a lot of attendees in the audience.
You’ll also need to determine who will be presenting in the webinar. Some webinars can be run by a single expert who can speak to all aspects of the webinar topic.
However, offering a moderator and two to three different presenters is also a great way to keep things fresh and maintain audience attention. This is an especially great strategy if your topic has diverse components, where different people are experts in each area.
#5. Select High-Quality Webinar Software
Putting on your first webinar might seem overwhelming at first. The great news is there are many webinar software options available to make the job easier. You definitely don’t have to go it alone. Webinar software does the hard technical work for you, freeing you up to focus on the creative side of the equation.
If you’re not sure where to start, check out our review of the best webinar software options. All of these tools will walk you through the process of setting up and hosting a webinar. And if you have other questions about actually hosting your webinar, be sure to check out our straightforward how-to host a webinar guide.
Final Thoughts About Choosing a Webinar Topic
Picking a topic for your webinar is not always an easy task. To achieve maximum success, it takes a thoughtful assessment of your goals and objectives and an analysis of your target audience.
But once you’ve done your research, zeroing in on a great topic gets a lot easier. And when you’re ready to rock and roll, using webinar software will make planning and hosting your event easy and fun.
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Want to jump straight to the answer? The best website builder for most people is Zyro or Wix.
The best website builders make it easy for anyone to create a new website from scratch—even if you have zero experience. Just start with a professionally designed template and customize everything to make it your own.
Squarespace – Best website builder for creators of all stripes
Weebly – Best for making money with an ecommerce store
GoDaddy – Best for building your website from your phone
Website builders have gotten so much better over the years. Today, you don’t have to struggle getting a site online or updating it with the times.
To find out which ones were the most helpful, the Quick Sprout research team got in touch with people who used these website builders for their business.
Through surveys and interviews, we were able to get a really great picture of how each website builder performs in real life. Keep reading to get the real story.
Zyro (pronounced like zero) is the perfect low-cost solution if you want a website you can build and update yourself. There are only a handful of excellent website builders–this is the least expensive one that doesn’t cut corners.
You won’t have to hire a developer. You won’t have to learn WordPress or HTML. Drag, drop, and click your way to a great-looking website. And you’ll save hundreds of dollars a year compared to similar services.
If you are a freelancer or run a small business that just needs a website, Zyro should be at the top of your list. Can it do everything Wix and Squarespace can do? Not quite, but it’s a fraction of the price, and basically as easy to use.
There are a few tradeoffs that come with the low price of Zyro. I’d argue that many of these missing bells and whistles are not going to matter much to users that just need some digital real estate for their business.
If every dollar counts, there is no better way to build your website than Zyro.
Building a Website with Zyro
“Easy” and “affordable” don’t usually go together when it comes to website builders. Zyro can offer this because they were acquired by Hostinger, one of Quick Sprout’s top picks for affordable web hosting companies.
Zyro already offered a great website builder, and now it’s running on Hostinger. It’s this partnership that allows them to keep prices low. The end result is that you don’t have to compromise: pay low hosting rates and get a super-easy website builder.
This is the appeal of Zyro in a nutshell. A total beginner can build, edit, and update their website for a few bucks a month.
We interviewed a Zyro user who needed a polished website when they struck out as a freelancer. She’d never built a website before, and told us that Zyro is “great for anybody who’s intimidated by the web.”
It took her less than a day to build her site with Zyro. “This is your confidence builder,” she said, “very, very intuitive.”
When you’re designing your site on Zyro, it’s truly “what you see is what you get.” Pages are automatically optimized for mobile or desktop, with no extra work on your end.
Everything is laid out in a grid system, which helps non-designers keep the site looking organized. Your website visitors won’t see the grid, it’s just there to help as you build.
Courtesy of Zyro
You don’t have to start from scratch, either. Zyro has 148 templates ready for you to customize. If you are willing to keep things conventional, you could have a Zyro site built in minutes.
Of course if you want to get real crafty, that will take a bit more time, but it’s all point-and-click. Add videos, links, maps, galleries, or switch up the color scheme–you’ll never have to jump into CSS or HTML to get things looking good.
You could use WordPress with a solid host (like Bluehost or Hostinger) to keep costs down, but it’s not as easy for beginners to get their site looking the way they want it. You’ll have to add plugins and potentially dive into the code if you want to add visual elements. With Zyro, you can avoid all of that.
Zyro includes simple tools to handle the fundamentals, like creating contact forms, landing pages, and scheduling blog posts. But there are also some standout features that you wouldn’t expect from such a low-price option.
The AI Heatmap tool, for instance, shows you where people are clicking, moving their cursor, or scrolling down. You’ll see a heatmap of “hot” and “cold” areas on your site based on where users spend their time.
You’ll also get access to a logo maker, image-editor, and tools to generate writing, slogans, and titles. These are all things you need for your website. The AI-generated writing for your website isn’t perfect, but it’s a start, and sometimes that’s all you need.
Zyro isn’t giving away million-dollar design software for free. The benefit is that you’re not going to have to hunt down some free website to compress images or get rid of the background of your logo. You can do everything in Zyro.
Never had to optimize an image or use SEO to improve your site’s rank in Google? Don’t worry, Zyro walks you through everything the first time you do it. There’s plenty of online help if you get stuck, and you can reach out to customer service 24/7.
Some website companies won’t offer much in the way of customer service, but Zyro is there. They have a pretty good track record from what we could see online, and the users we spoke with were very happy.
“They’ll give you a canned response in some cases,” one user told us, but it “wasn’t a big deal” most of the time, because the online FAQs were very good. Overall, she said, the agents she connected with “were very, very helpful, right from the start.”
Tradeoffs with Zyro Website Builder
In terms of design, you can do more with a WordPress website than you can (currently) with Zyro. The same is true of Wix and SquareSpace.
If you are trying to make a splash in the world of web design, I might point you to one of those options. Wix has hundreds more templates to choose from, for example, and far more integrations with other online tools to amp up your site.
Another thing to bear in mind is what we call “template lock-in.” Some website builders like Wix and Zyro don’t allow you to switch templates. You can copy everything over to a new template in Zyro, sure, but that takes a lot more time. Squarespace lets you switch templates whenever you want with little fuss.
Some users we talked with felt a little constrained by the grid system. Yes, it helped keep the page organized, but sometimes it was tough to fine tune things the way they wanted.
“Spacing was a big issue for me,” said one user. “I wanted to move the wording down half an inch, but I had to move it a whole inch,” they explained. “It wanted to force me into that grid.” In the end, they were able to find a solution, but Wix is definitely more of a flexible tool in terms of design.
One word about price. Zyro is the best price on a good website builder looking at the total cost over time. But like most web hosting companies, you get the best deal by signing up for a long time.
It’s a really low per month price, but you have to pay upfront for the whole thing. This kind of commitment can deter people. If you’re always going to need a website, I’d say this tradeoff is one worth making. Over the years, you will save a ton of money.
Why We Recommend Zyro Website Builder
Zyro squares the circle when it comes to a low-cost, easy-to-use website builder.
You’ll be paying less than the cost of a cup of coffee each month for a fast, reliable website. Want to change the store hours or run a special sale? You can do it yourself in minutes.
If you know that you always need a website, there’s not a lot of downside to signing up for a long plan, especially when that price is hundreds of dollars less over the years. Zyro gives you everything you need for your website and tools that anyone can start using right away.
Bottom line: Don’t spend any more than you have to get a great looking site for your business. Try Zyro free for 30 days.
If you’re a beginner looking to build your first website, there’s a clear choice: Wix.
It offers a way that makes your website building experience painless and, dare I say, fun.
Their AI helps you create a website after answering just a few questions about your goals. It’s like taking a Buzzfeed quiz, but when you’re done you have a great website (instead of just wasting time during your work day).
All the users we spoke to attested to how easy Wix was to use—without sacrificing the quality of the final product.
“[Wix] is very intuitive and they give you great tools to create great websites,” one user told me. They also spoke highly of the hundreds of templates the builder offered, praising the variety of great-looking designs along with “its easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder.”
They have templates for music, art, fashion, health, travel, photography, construction, and restaurant sites—just to scratch the surface.
Wix also offered numerous revenue streams for one user we talked to.
“My Wix website got me a few jobs,” they told me. “I’m also making consistent monthly income because of an online store I built on my site.”
Even though Wix offers a user-friendly website builder, they also give you a comprehensive knowledge base of articles you can use if you ever get stuck.
“If I’m unsure about a certain topic, it’s quick to find via their support,” one user told me.
If you need a little bit more hands-on help, they offer a 24/7 callback service for US-based users so an actual person can walk you through any issues.
That’s a rarity in the website builder world—and definitely something that’ll help you in the long run. That way, if something breaks or your website crashes, you can immediately call someone up to help you.
Of course, I wanted to test it out for myself, so I jumped in and created my own Wix page from scratch.
Building a Website with Wix
When I set up my Wix account, I was surprised to find that they actually gave me a few ways to create my own website.
First, I could get my hands dirty and choose a template and build my website from the ground up.
Or, I could simply answer a few questions about the type of website I wanted to build and Wix’s ADI builder would handle all of the work for me. I had a decent-looking site after just a few answers.
Once you pick a template, you can update everything from the font, logo, and colors to images and more. That means you can make any of the already great-looking templates all your own with a little bit of tweaking.
When I tested Wix, I loved how easy it was to find a template that matched our vision. The AI stayed with me as I edited the page, helping me pick the next thing to edit and showing me how to do it.
The Wix AI matched my new site to my existing social media accounts, used my logo to create a color palette for my site, and gave me a template pre-populated with that logo and our street address. Connecting images from existing social media accounts made it easy to pull in all the assets we already owned.
Pick a business you already know and see how close Wix’s AI comes to replicating it. I used a local yoga studio as an example and Wix did closely match the studio’s existing site. Even better, I bet they paid a web designer a bit for their design and I did mine for free with an AI assistant.
Tradeoffs With Wix Website Builder
Take note: all of Wix’s plans are automatically set to auto-renew. Sticker shock is real, especially if you signed up with an introductory promo pricing. As one of our users put it, “the price per month tends to be quite high.”
That can be a big deal if you’re, say, a scrappy startup trying to make and save as much as possible. If you want to recoup some of the expenses with an ecommerce site, you’ll still have to pay for a more expensive plan for the subscription fee.
Zyro is going to be a good bit cheaper than Wix. If you just need a website that looks good, the extra cost might not be worth it.
Most of our users we spoke to did use Wix to build their own personal portfolios and blogs. That allowed them to find clients and customers.
Since Wix occasionally features their own users on their official blog, it can lead to more opportunities for you if you choose the platform. That’s exactly what happened to one of our users who said, “Being featured on Wix got me some freelance opportunities and ultimately landed my full-time job.”
Why We Recommend Wix
Overall, Wix offers the best combination of ease-of-use and customization of any platform we looked at. It’s not the cheapest, but people seemed really excited about the sites they were building.
Their themes are varied and fantastic. You’ll also be armed with the tools you need to customize its look and feel to your exact specifications—or pretty darn close.
Wix gives you the option to essentially build your website for you through their AI site builder. That’s an amazing feature that no other website builder we reviewed offers. It takes the guesswork out of everything, especially if you just want to get a website up and running right away.
A quick disclaimer: WordPress is the content management system (CMS) we use here at Quicksprout. They don’t pay us to, mind you—we just like the product. So, I can personally attest to how great it is.
We’re not alone either. If you use WordPress, you join the likes of Vogue, Bloomberg, and even Beyonce’s own website who use it as their CMS.
Don’t just take my word for it though; our users all thought the same thing.
“With no knowledge of WordPress when I started it was a bit of a steep learning curve but I figured everything out quickly enough,” said one user. “WordPress is very intuitive and if you can’t figure something out, you just have to Google it or check on YouTube and you will likely find an answer.”
Not only is it highly customizable, but it’s also scalable. This is a CMS that can grow as large as you want, or be scaled back to as small as you want.
Another user loved how flexible WordPress was. That’s because it’s an open-source application so the back-end code is widely available—allowing developers and creators to make their own themes, widgets, and plugins for the CMS.
That means there are a ton of different ways you can mix and match plugins and themes out there. And, if you want to get your hands dirty, you can jump into the backend yourself and customize your site to your heart’s desire.
WordPress also has more than 11,000 themes. Many of them are free, some of them are paid.
The benefit of doing this is that your website will easily stand out from the rest. When you go with one of the popular free themes, it’s just going to look like hundreds of other WordPress websites. However, if you put in a little work—and a little money—you’ll end up with a site that’s uniquely you.
All of our users built their sites exclusively to draw in leads, customers, and sales. The CMS allowed them to do so with easily integrated ecommerce functions, as well as powerful SEO tools such as Yoast to help capture organic traffic.
“I was able to monetize my website using affiliate marketing,” one user told me, “along with infoproducts like ebooks and minicourses once my audience got big enough.”
This user runs a genealogy website dedicated to helping people connect with family members. They were able to use their ancestry-specific blog along with a popular newsletter to build a loyal community of readers (and therefore customers).
“One thing that helped with that was creating an email subscriber list and a newsletter using the Mailchimp plugin,” they said. “It’s a must-have if you want to monetize your blog.”
Building a Website with WordPress
Like I said, this is what we use here at Quicksprout—so I’m well-versed in WordPress.
That said, there is a little bit of a learning curve for new beginners. The backend dashboard can frankly be overwhelming.
The good news is that after just a little bit of exploring and experimenting, you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
From your dashboard, you’ll be able to do everything from creating new pages for your site, to crafting blog posts, to downloading new themes, plugins, or widgets.
The blog and page editor uses WordPress’ proprietary Gutenberg interface: a user-friendly blog and page creator that leverages drag-and-drop tools to help you create the page you want.
It’s not the What You See Is What You Get interface that Zyro or Wix have—but it’s close. If you want to see what your page or blog post looks like in the final product, you’ll have to click on the Preview button at the top of the editor. That’ll open up a new tab with the preview of your page/post.
It’s much, much more intuitive than its old editor—and will give any other WYSIWYG editor a run for its money.
Like I mentioned before, WordPress is scalable. If you want to build a big website with a ton of different assets, you can choose the right plugins to help. You can hire a developer (or yourself if you have PHP skills) to jump in the back end and build exactly what you need.
“WordPress gave me everything I needed to create the blog I wanted,” one user told us. “It gave me an easy interface to post my blogs, as well as everything I needed or wanted in my blog: a subscription box, an author area; just the look I wanted and the flexibility to change things as needed.”
I highly recommend you start small when it comes to plugins. My favorite plugin is Yoast SEO. It’ll help you make your page and blog posts rank better on Google search results by helping you find optimization opportunities in your content.
Choosing a Host
If you want to build a website with WordPress, they give you two options:
Build it for free. This means your site will be hosted by WordPress. We don’t recommend this for a number of reasons. One of the obvious ones is that you’ll have to have a WordPress branded subdomain (e.g quicksprout.wordpress.com). Note: WordPress.com is their free, fully hosted version. If you want the self-hosted option (which I recommend), you’ll have to go with WordPress.org.
Host it somewhere else. By hosting it elsewhere, you’ll get access to more resources and (potentially) a free unbranded domain name. This is where WordPress.org comes into play.
It’s one of the most popular web hosts out there. It’s also the one I highly recommend to beginners.
Every Bluehost plan comes with one-click WordPress installation, allowing you to easily create a website using the CMS once you sign up.
Each plan also comes with a free domain name registration too. In one fell swoop, you’ll be able to get a great domain, set up powerful and affordable web hosting, and create your WordPress site. Triple win!
All of our users surveyed used the powerful combination of WordPress with Bluehost. “I’m still using Bluehost after four years for most of my sites,” said one user. “It’s great for beginners due to how the pricing model is structured.”
Bluehost offers rock-bottom promotional pricing starting at just $2.75 per month.
Every Bluehost plan comes with 24/7 customer support. You’ll be able to email them directly and they’ll help solve your issue as soon as possible.
That was the case for one of our users when their website crashed—but they said, “I contacted their chat support and they were able to identify the issue (a broken plugin) and fix it immediately. [I’m] very grateful for that.”
They’ll also help you migrate to their host if you’re coming from a different hosting service. This can easily be the biggest headache for any website manager—but Bluehost makes it a snap.
“The website migration was unbelievably easy!” one user told me. “And I really prefer the portal at Bluehost compared to the old place plus the service is better for me.”
Cons of WordPress’s Website Builder
When it came to the drawbacks, our users agreed on one thing: It’s not the most beginner-friendly website builder.
In fact, they each told me about their frustrations when using the CMS for the first time. One user said, “I don’t like how it does take a bit of a learning curve to use. Sometimes I’d like to have my hand held more through the [website creation] process rather than having to look up a bunch of YouTube how-to videos to learn how.”
The dashboard is complex at first look. Once you learn it, you’ll be able to jump into the backend of any WordPress website and know how to get around with ease. This can be a valuable skill set to have—and one that employers frequently look for.
Still, this isn’t going to be the website builder for you if you’re looking to easily create a website out of the box with little to no site building experience or knowledge needed. For that, we recommend you look towards Zyro or Wix instead.
But if you’re willing to put in the work, learning even just the basics of WordPress can result in a massive return on investment. Not only will you be able to create a fully customized website, but you’ll have a valuable skill employers definitely look for.
Another thing to mention is that WordPress doesn’t have the most comprehensive support system. “I wish there was a help desk that you could contact either by email or chat,” one user opined.
In fact, the only option WordPress offers for support is a forum where you can pose questions or bring up issues you’re having with your site.
I decided to jump in and test it out and posted a question about a fake issue I was having with my website. It took about two hours before I received a reply. While the answer was comprehensive and answered my question, it still took two whole hours before it was answered.
If I had a business and relied on that income to keep my lights on, those two hours represent my livelihood. I would need help faster than that.
Why We Recommend Bluehost Website Builder
WordPress is the most popular website builder on the planet, and it’s not an accident.
The users we spoke with liked how easily they were able to monetize their blogs to turn their websites into income generation engines.
While there is a learning curve, once you get the hang of it, we promise you won’t look back. By the end of it, you’ll have a website that is endlessly customizable—and it’ll be able to grow as big as you or your business gets.
That means if you’re creating a blog for your passion, and the blog grows a big audience, you’ll be able to turn the same WordPress blog into a website that generates revenue for you from your audience.
Bottom line: It’s going to take a little bit more elbow grease, but once you create a WordPress website, you’ll have a customizable website that you can make into whatever you want it to be. Couple that with Bluehost and you’ll be able to do so easily in one fell swoop.
Squarespace – Best Website Builder for Creators of All Stripes
Squarespace has long been the top choice for creatives and business owners that really care about the look of their website.
It’s no coincidence the Squarespace users we talked to had creator-focused websites. These users included a web design expert who teaches students how to create jaw-dropping sites, and an interior design blog who features gorgeous home tours on their website.
“I think I had my blog up and running within a day,” said one user. “Squarespace offers clean, beautiful templates you can easily tweak.”
Building a Website with Squarespace
Jumping in, I found that Squarespace does indeed give you an easy way to start a blog just like Wix. However, I had to admit that as much as I liked Wix’s themes, Squarespace would take home the Best In Show ribbon for how gorgeous their themes looked.
The backend editor is also fairly intuitive. That’s great for beginners like the newly graduated graphic designer looking to build their portfolio, or the photographer who wants to make their first business website.
They’re also great for the new generation of creators and influencers across platforms like YouTube or TikTok to create a home for your brand outside of those platforms. Squarespace plays especially well with YouTube allowing you to embed videos along with more information or content that exists solely on your website.
“They have a great What You See Is What You Get builder,” said one user. “That means when you’re building the page, you see what the page will look like as you’re building it.”
In fact, this is something that builders like Squarespace and Wix have an edge on WordPress. You can easily see the changes you’re making to your website as you’re making them. No clicking back and forth between preview windows.
This can make it easy to use if you’re just starting out. Even seasoned website managers might find it a breath of fresh air compared to the alternative.
“Sometimes, like in WordPress, you’re editing your site in the backend, but then you have to go to the front end to see what it’ll look like when you’re finished,” the user said. “With Squarespace, as you’re building the blog post, you’re seeing the changes happen at the same time. And I think that’s really useful. That’s one aspect that makes it easy to use.”
Tradeoffs with Squarespace Website Builder
While Squarespace ranked fairly high on customization, it was still an area of some contention for our panel of interviewed and surveyed users.
One user enjoyed what Squarespace offered in terms of customization options and extra tools such as an ecommerce function, integrated email marketing, and podcast support. However, it’s still fairly limited when compared to the enormous customizability of WordPress. Not to mention, you might have to pay more for the plugins and widgets you need to make certain things work.
“Custom CSS is only available in the Business Plan,” said one user. “It’s doable for my website, I found some great tutorials on the internet for extra CSS customization and I had to buy a sidebar plugin because it wasn’t integrated in my template. For more complex websites this might be a problem.”
Mobile customization is also an area our users flagged. One user found it particularly frustrating since they essentially had to create your website twice—once for desktop and another time for mobile.
But, it should be noted that the Squarespace version you use might result in a different desktop vs mobile experience. For example, Squarespace version 7.0 might have templates that include extra built in mobile styles that’ll make your site look differently depending on what device you’re using to browse.
And while the website builder is easy to use, it could certainly be more intuitive. This is an area where Wix has an edge on Squarespace. One user told us, “It could be more obvious how to perform certain actions. Sometimes you have to hunt and click here and there. Every now and then I’ve accidentally deleted a blog because I’ve clicked the wrong button.”
Why We Recommened Squarespace
Squarespace allows you to create a striking blog or portfolio without a lot of trouble. For people who want a million interactive features on their site, it might not be the best. But if your aesthetic is minimalist, or you really need to showcase images and videos–Squarespace should be your top choice.
The website builder’s gorgeous templates and creator-friendly features earned it a spot on our list. Their designs truly can’t be matched.
Bottom line: If you’re a creator looking to show off stunning visuals of your art, photographs, graphic design, and more, then Squarespace is the builder for you.
Weebly – Best for Making Money with an Ecommerce Store
Weebly is another flexible, out-of-the-box website builder in the family of Wix and Squarespace. However, where they stand out is their ecommerce functionality.
Their ecommerce builder plans are some of the most affordable out there—even lower than Wix or Squarespace. In fact, they have a free plan that gives you basic ecommerce functionality at no cost at all. If you’re a beginner looking to step up from your Etsy shop and own your platform, I highly recommend Weebly.
Weebly is powered by Square—the folks behind the popular point-of-sale system. That means if you sell products in-person like at a farmers’ market, you’ll be able to easily integrate your POS sales with your website.
This is another area where Weebly edges out other builders like Wix or Squarespace. Where they offer that type of integration at a higher paid plan (Wix) or with limited integration (Squarespace), Weebly just gives it to you.
Our panel members ranged from a musician who used Weebly to sell music directly to fans, to a LinkedIn coach and blogger who sold her coaching services via sessions directly on her website, to a website designer who used her Weebly site to bring in new clients.
“I chose Weebly to design all of my websites years ago with the idea that it was simple enough that my clients could update their own websites,” said the web designer. That user went on to add that they purchased third-party Weebly templates to access even more design options for her clients and herself.
Squarespace users talked a lot about how easy it was to get their website looking the way they wanted it.
“The themes are a perfect starting point though and provide more than enough for anyone to create their own website with little or no digital expertise,” one user told us. “Once you know your brand color codes it is simple to change the look and feel to your own brand, and you can build it up from there by adding your own images and testimonials.”
Building a Website with Weebly
After hearing our users glow about Weebly’s easy site building process, I had to jump in for myself.
True to their word, our users were right when they said it was easy. Weebly offers a intuitive website creation process. It is as simple as choosing a domain name and a template, and creating the site.
It’s also easy to add new pages to your website. One of our users told us that, “Creating the blog section of my website was super simple and took less than five minutes to set up.”
I found that Weebly integrates nicely with other third-party tools that you’ll definitely want for your website such as Google Analytics and Mailchimp.
The builder itself is drag-and-drop a la Wix or Squarespace. So like those platforms, it’s minimal effort and headache free. What you see is what you get.
There are tools for email, SEO, site analytics, shipping, and inventory for the ecommerce plan. You’ll be able to even add a product search to your online store—which I love. If you have a big catalog of products and services, you’ll definitely want to add this function in.
They also give you the ability to add badges to your products and services for when they go on sale or when inventory is low for a specific item. That’s a great way to build scarcity into your products—and make your customers want to click the buy button all the more.
Setting it up is simple and straightforward too. Since it’s a WYSIWYG builder, I can easily swap out products, prices, and descriptions, along with digital assets like logos, product images, and banner images. Setting up a rudimentary store took less than five minutes to do after sign up.
I was also pleased by how I was able to accept payments via gateways like Paypal, Stripe, and—of course—Square. Those options are a boon for users who will be able to pick the gateway they want.
Tradeoffs with Weebly Website Builder
One of our users didn’t like how Weebly doesn’t allow you to “save” changes on your site before it goes live. That would be a good addition if you were in the process of redesigning your site.
If you have a ton of products on your store or if you have a lot of traffic coming in, this means if something goes wrong and breaks, it’s going to be much harder to fix.
Another user we spoke to didn’t like how complicated it was to sync up their inventory between their Weebly website and their Square POS system.
“Square and Weebly sometimes don’t cooperate with me or each other,” the user said. “So I can’t have full, accurate inventory reflected between the two entities.”
That user also opined the fact that they had to jump back and forth between Square support and Weebly support if they needed help fixing an issue. It’s like a game of tennis and you’re the ball.
“If I want to fix something and I go to Weebly, they go, ‘No, go to Square,’ and Square’s like, ‘No, you have to go back to Weebly.”
Why We Ranked It at #4
Weebly offers a great and affordable ecommerce solution to website builders.
Like Squarespace, Weebly also lacks the comprehensive customization and scalability of WordPress.
But if you are looking to start an online store, then Weebly should be high on your list. It makes the entire process of getting set up and managing inventory as easy as possible.
On top of solid domain and hosting services, GoDaddy offers a simple and straightforward website builder.
It’s not necessarily the best at any one area—but think of it as “jack of all trades, but master of none.” From ecommerce websites to blogs to portfolios, they have tons of different templates to help you create the website that’s right for you.
If there was one single thing that GoDaddy does well though is its intuitiveness and simplicity. That was the biggest stand out for Gabriel Smith, one of the users we spoke to. In fact, Gabriel built his GoDaddy website all from his phone while he was homeless living on the street.
You read that correctly. He had just finished his memoir, also from his phone, and wanted to get his words out there. So he found GoDaddy and got to work building an entire website from his phone.
“I literally did it because I was homeless,” Gabe told me with a laugh. “What else could I do? Some way, somehow I was going to get my story out because I didn’t know how many people that could possibly help.”
Gabe was able to easily create his website using one of his few possessions: a smartphone. Using just the mobile editor, he was able to create a website that worked for him and his goal of promoting his book.
In his own words, he ranks GoDaddy’s ease of use at a five “only because ten isn’t an option.” So simplicity is definitely a strong suit for the website builder.
With some more hustle and grit, Gabriel was able to secure speaking engagements because of his book and website, as well as coaching opportunities to help out folks who were in a similar situation to him. Now, he has a successful career as a motivational speaker and a self-improvement author.
Building a Website with GoDaddy
I tried it out for myself and found that Gabe was correct. GoDaddy offered an intuitive way to create a website via a mobile editor or a desktop site builder.
That’s not to detract from Gabriel’s immense accomplishment of building a successful website on his own while homeless, mind you—just verification that it is in fact easy to use.
I like that it gives you tools to book appointments, sell different products and services, and take reservations. Their drag-and-drop website builder makes it easy to do so too.
One user we spoke to owns a gardening shop and regularly offers classes. They said that they like the way GoDaddy “easily integrates appointments and workshops into the site.”
Our entire user panel of users also liked the tools offered—but occasionally wanted more. One user who owns a coffee roastery said they were “able to build an email list with our Godaddy website which is an extremely effective way to grow, but outside of that, the growth tools were limited.”
The simplicity is a boon and a drawback (as we’ll get into shortly). But overall, I enjoy it because of how easy it is to use.
It’s pretty affordable though, with plans starting at $9.99 a month. I highly recommend it if you are already using GoDaddy for your domain or web host.
Cons of GoDaddy’s Website Builder
GoDaddy does seem to trade off simplicity for depth of customization.
In fact, they’re too simple in some ways. One user said that while the drag and drop editor was easy to use, it’s still “quite limited and you can’t easily alter things like font size.”
That user also criticized how slow the editing tool becomes if you have too many digital assets on the page.
Also, if you’re hoping to direct your emails to a portal of your choice, it’s going to be tough. “I think my biggest issue with them is their webmail that’s tied to the website,” one user said. “After a very frustrating season of my emails to customers constantly getting stuck in spam filters I had to give up and switch to Gmail for all correspondence. GoDaddy has not been able to fix the issue.”
They continued, “It’s a bummer because I’m paying for the service and I want to have that professional email address but I just can’t use it and have confidence that it will get to my customers.”
Another user actually recently switched from GoDaddy to WordPress because they felt like they had to “compromise on some aspects” of their website when building with GoDaddy.
“I wanted a store list of the physical locations people could buy our [products]. This didn’t exist,” said one user. They ended up having to get creative with a menu tool to create this page—but it obviously wasn’t ideal.
The user also added that, “The lack of ability to have recurring purchases for our [product] subscription service was also a big factor in deciding to switch from Godaddy to WordPress.”
Why We Recommend GoDaddy Website Builder
If you’re looking to build a website easily and quickly and don’t expect to upkeep it too much, GoDaddy could be a good choice for you.
It’s a fantastic alternative if you’re a busy, on-the-go professional or someone who might be limited in the ways they can create their website looking for a dead simple website builder to get the job done.
In any case, Gabriel is more than happy to tell you how happy he is with GoDaddy—and that makes it a fantastic choice in my book.
I chose all six website builders based on three criteria:
Ease of Use
Depth of Customization
Ability to Earn Money
I took a look at dozens of the most popular website builders on the market today, and benchmarked each of them against the three qualities above.
For each website builder I found, I created a bare bones website to test out their tools and features. I also took into account the things offered in paid premium plans.
Using this method, I was able to narrow down my list of more than a dozen website builders to what I considered to be the six best. These six best showcased the three criteria above in unique—but effective—ways.
In all, this stage of the research process took two weeks to complete. When I finished, it was time to find real users of each product.
How We Reviewed Each Product
At Quicksprout, we believe that if you want to get actual insights about a product or service, you need to talk to actual users.
You can’t just trust the website builder’s marketing or even the testimonials you find on review sites. Instead, you need to find the people who have used the builders before. Only then can you get the good, the bad, and the oh-so-frustrating.
It took time to find and verify users, but in the end, we were able to connect with a few dozen people that used these website builders for their business.
Each person agreed to either a phone interview or a survey. Questions for both were identical, though some of our interviewees had a lot to say about their experience.
We took all of our research, interviews, and surveys and synthesized them into the post you are reading now.
What We Learned Choosing the Best Blogging Platform
There’s no such thing as a “perfect” website builder. Instead, each one offers a unique set of features and tools for a different kind of user.
Everyone wants something easy to use, but what exactly does that mean when it comes to website builders?
Keep reading to hear insights from our research and user interviews that can help you hone in on a website builder that really matches your needs.
Ease of Use
If you’re reading this, you’re likely a beginner. We all need to start somewhere.
What that means is that ease of use plays a bigger role in your ultimate decision than ever.
The reason is because it’s easy to get frustrated and burned out when learning a new skill like website building. That can easily result in abandoning your website building efforts entirely.
To combat that, you want to make things as easy as possible in the beginning. That’s why we highly recommend finding a platform that can help you create a site easily and quickly.
With something like Zyro or Wix, a first-time user is not going to run into any trouble.
“[Wix’s] intuitive and has great tools to create individual website designs,” one Wix user told us.
We also love that it will hold your hand through the process—and will even build out the website for you if you want.
That said, Squarespace, Weebly, and GoDaddy are also easy-to-use products as well. It just depends on what you’re looking for.
For example, if you’re looking for a great WYSIWYG website builder to create gorgeous blogs and portfolios, Squarespace is for you.
If you want to create a cheap but lucrative online store, Weebly is for you.
If you want a simple builder with a great mobile editor, look no further than GoDaddy.
Depth of Customization
Being able to customize your website to the exact look and feel you want is crucial—but it sometimes makes the learning curve for the builder a bit steeper.
This is a delicate balancing act. But once you strike it, the platform will allow you to not only align with your brand, but also draw in the type of readers and customers you want.
Customization also includes things outside of the way your website looks. It’s also the ability to add the features you need to accomplish your goals.
For example, if you want to build a list of email subscribers for a newsletter, you want to find a website builder that’ll allow you to easily capture your visitor’s contact information. For that you might want to go with Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress as they give you either native tools to do so or allow you to download a third-party plugin like Mailchimp.
Not all platforms offer the same amount of customization. A website builder like WordPress offers the deepest level of customization on this list. You’ll be able to create the exact website you want so long as you have the knowledge to code and edit, or are willing to pay someone to do so.
A website builder like GoDaddy offers likely the least amount of customization. That’s not to say you won’t be able to build a good website. They’re just not open-source. As such, there’s no community out there dedicated to creating widgets, plugins, and themes for GoDaddy sites.
A builder like Squarespace allows you to include things like ecommerce stores easily right out of the box.
“One of the reasons why I recommend Squarespace to small businesses or bloggers is because you don’t need to go get a third-party plugin to add a shop or to have your Instagram in the footer, or create your email newsletter collection,” said one of our users. “It’s really an all-in-one system, which is wonderful.”
It all starts with the templates that they give you. You start with a theme, but are able to use it as a launching point. Once you tweak and customize it to your specific needs, it becomes virtually whatever kind of website you want it to be.
Ability to Earn Money
If you’re building a website for your business, or portfolio, or even a simple blog, you likely want to make money from it.
Websites are marketing channels after all. They exist to promote brands, products, services, movements, and more.
The website builder you choose will have a fairly big impact on how much money you can earn.
For example, if you want to build a good ecommerce store, I would highly recommend going with Squarespace or Weebly. They both have native ecommerce store builders.
However, Weebly is partnered with Square—and offers ecommerce features across all their plans (including the free one). So if you want to have a good way to make sure all of your sales system is in sync from inventory, to card swipes, to price changes, (while saving money) it’s the best choice for you.
If you run an info product business where you offer online courses, ebooks, and the like, WordPress is a great option for that. They offer a ton of great third party plugins to help you build a list and sell.
Sure, you won’t have out-of-the-box ecommerce functionality. But WordPress gives you a much higher ceiling in terms of being able to customize your website and creating even more avenues to revenue beyond sales.
The Top Website Builders in Summary
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for website builders. What works for one person or business might not work for you—and that’s okay. Look for a website builder that addresses your needs and skill level. Start with a template, and you’ll be on your way.
Use the recommendations in this guide as a resource as you’re evaluating the best website builders. Our reviews still steer you in the right direction.
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