Alright, you always here this platform is better than that one, you should use this one, don’t use that one, blah, blah, blah. But seriously, what platform is best for you? Just because a a platform is good for your business bestie, it doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. There isn’t a one size fits all, so we’re going to dig into the most popular ones: WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly and GoDaddy Website Builder.
WordPress
WordPress.org (click here if you want to learn the difference of WordPress.org vs WordPress.com) is the world’s most popular website building platform, almost 40% of all websites on the internet are powered by WordPress.
Now, WordPress isn’t generally as user friendly as some of the other options that we’re going to go over below, but, it is probably the most cost efficient. There are ways for a WordPress website to be set up with plugins like Elementor or Beaver Builder that make it just as user friendly as other website builders. If you are not great with computers I would suggest having a website designer set it up for you and then teach you how to use the website (If you are local to the Lower Mainland in BC, we offer in-person Website Training sessions, click here for more details).
I personally, love WordPress for any service based business or a blog. The website that you are currently reading this blog post on, is a WordPress website. The nice thing about WordPress is that the options for your website are basically endless. Some of the other platforms that we’re going to go over are ready for just e-commerce, but you can basically do anything with a WordPress website, but it is a learning curve in order to achieve it, if it isn’t something you are already familiar with.
Technically WordPress is a free website builder but you do still need to purchase a domain name and website hosting (while many of the other platforms have a lot of this all included in one higher price). If you do go this route, I highly recommend you explore SiteGround, they have great pricing and I find their customer service superb. You can expect to pay around $15-$20 for a domain name (per year) and $8-$12 per month for the hosting. The longer you commit to/pay upfront, the lower the monthly rate will end up being.
Shopify
Shopify is a fairly popular eCommerce website builder (and my personal favourite – Fun Fact: My business, The Local Space runs on Shopify). It powers more than half a million businesses online.
Shopify is extremely user friendly and is an all-on-one solution; which means, unlike WordPress where you need to do your software updates yourself, doing updates, etc., Shopify does that all for you automatically.
If you are a maker that participates in markets or events, Shopify has a great bonus for you. It has a POS app that you can download onto your phone and a swiper that links into your output slot, so you can accept credit cards right in person. When selling in person, it automatically takes the inventory off the website, so no worrying about overselling.
Shopify offers thousands of apps and themes, so there is bound to be something for what your product based business needs. It has the ability to tag and sell your products right on Facebook and Instagram – cool, right?
Shopify does offer a free 14 Day trial, I highly recommend you give it a try. Sometimes when switching over to Shopify some people get sticker shock, but let me say this: Your time is money. The extra’s that Shopify offers from the reporting for Accounting, to the ease of printing shipping labels, to the general updates of the website, it’s all worth it. You’re a business owner, you can’t be spending 16 hours per day just on your website, you have a lot of other things on your plate that you need to be focusing on to continue to grow your business. Pricing starts around $29, but I recommend checking out the different plans to see what fits what you need the best.
Squarespace
Squarespace I would say is a happy medium of WordPress and Shopify mixed together. It still has has e-commerce abilities and is a very user friendly platform. I personally recommend Squarespace for people who find WordPress a bit too complicated and do not need the robust e-commerce abilities that Shopify offers.
Regular Squarespace websites are $12-$18 per month and their online stores start from $26 to $40 per month. You still would need to purchase a domain outside of this.
Wix
I have experimented with Wix a few times, and yes, it is extremely user friendly, but it would not be a platform that I would recommend. The reason for this is SEO (Search Engine Optimization, which basically means how you are found on Google).
Wix has done some amazing improvements over the years to improve it’s SEO rankings, but at the end of the day, the way they set up their website builder, it will always remain an issue.Wix is basically a drag and drop website, which is great for people that are not great with website building. The downfall is that because it’s all drag and drop, it means there is A LOT of coding in the background of the website which makes it very hard for Google to find the keywords within your website to make it rank on Google. If you aren’t concerned with being found on search engines, then that’s fine, but most people do want to be found on Google.
The pricing for Wix is quite similar to Squarespace and Shopify; $10 per month for a non- e-commerce website and $26 for an e-commerce website.
Weebly
Weebly is very similar to Wix; it is also a drag and drop website so SEO isn’t overly awesome. It’s pricing is also very similar. I will say that Wix does have more options of apps than Weebly has, Weebly is much more limited in it’s abilities. Again, not something that I would personally recommend, but it is extremely user friendly.
GoDaddy Website Builder
GoDaddy is one of the largest website providers out there. You can purchase domains through them, do WordPress hosting and they also have their own Website Builder tool (which we’re going to talk about here).
Again, this is a drag and drop tool – similar to Wix and Weebly – which means, the SEO is not overly awesome for any website built with this platform. It is extremely user friendly, but it is also limited with its abilities.
Plans for this builder can be as low as $6, up to $15 per month (not including the annual cost of your domain). So yes, it is affordable, but it again depends on the needs you are looking to fulfill for your website.
My Pick for a Website Builder
My personal pick is a tie between Shopify and WordPress – it really depends on what you need for your business. If you are looking to sell products, I would recommend Shopify and a Service based business I would recommend WordPress. For people that do not find WordPress user friendly enough, I would suggest Squarespace.
Try them each out, watch some YouTube videos, explore and experiment before you make a choice. Every business has different needs. And remember, you can always book a Website Training session if you need more assistance.
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