A Complete Guide to Choosing a Website Builder

There was a time not long ago when building a website required spending thousands of dollars on paying a developer or months of learning to code when building it yourself. Today, thanks to dozens of website builders, it is easier than ever to create a website by just using a simple drag-and-drop interface. There are website creators that are designed for specific uses such as starting an online store, blog postings, and affiliate marketing.

Website builders are the ideal tool for small businesses, entrepreneurs, individuals, and freelance workers to have the freedom to manage their own platforms. But with so many options in the market, finding the best website builder can be tricky for beginners. So in this article, we will take you through the correct steps for making the best decision in choosing the top website builder that suits your requirements.

Choosing the Best Website Builder — What to Look for?

Before you start your search for an easy website builder or find the answer to what is the best solution, the first thing to think about is what you need from your business website. For instance, you can take a review and write down all the features you will need in your website such as an online store, payment system, SEO, photo and video gallery, social media compatibility, etc. One of the best ways to do this is to check out the web pages of your competitors and take note of all the useful features you will need on your platform.
The best website creators are easy to use, intuitive, and affordable, and allow long-term growth opportunities. The most pertinent question that you need to answer while selecting a builder is whether the platform you are choosing is capable of handling your business’ growth.

Criteria for Our Best Website Builder Review

Website builders are platforms or applications which offer a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for you to create and build a website. They generally offer an array of features such as integrated storage for photos and videos, SEO analytics tools, options to add a custom domain, custom email addresses, hosting and publishing capabilities, in-built templates and themes, and more.
When evaluating different software or platforms to build your own website, you would want to consider some parameters like cost, built-in functionality, flexibility, and ease of use, among other factors. This will help ensure that you choose a website-building software that aligns with your requirements. Let us take a closer look at the top five elements you should consider when choosing your ideal website-building platform.

Ease of Use

Primarily you do not need coding knowledge to use website builders. But that does not mean they are easy to use for absolute beginners. With some builder platforms, you can just click a few buttons and follow the available prompts and your business site will be ready, while others might require you to follow a few tutorials before you can complete your website.
It is important to ensure that the website builder software you have chosen is easy to use and comes with features that match your requirements. Some of the features you should look for are a drag-and-drop builder function, powerful editing tools, in-built customizable themes and formats to choose from, and other design template options. The best part is that every website builder offers a free trial period during which you can quickly understand, if the one you have selected is going to be straightforward to use or a massive hurdle.

Pricing

Pricing is the number one criterion to consider when it comes to any business decisions. Being in a competitive environment, we must look for a website builder that offers maximum value for its price. Most website builder platforms work on a subscription basis, and their home pages are full of tempting low-price introductory offers that anyone can afford. Unfortunately, after the introductory period is over, the prices usually jump up, or you will end up paying more for some of the features. This is similar to booking a cheap airline ticket only to find out that things like baggage, meals, and transfers are not included in the price. So always look through the plan you are selecting and whether it includes features such as a free professional domain name, custom email address, SSL, ample storage and bandwidth space, easy payment getaways integration, etc., to get maximum value for your money.

Design & Features

We know this parameter sounds like a cliché, but the design elements and features of website-building software are probably the most important factor to consider. It's important to verify that the builder application provides a wide range of high-quality website templates and themes for you to choose from. Along with that, it should also offer the flexibility to add additional features like Google Analytics, CMS, SEO features, CRM, mobile compatibility, optimization tools, and easy integrations with third-party marketing tools so that you can add missing features like forms, live chat, social media pages, etc. to your website. When going through the offered features in the plan, do check out which ones are free or included, and how many are available as an add-on. This will ensure that you do not pay or miss out on an important feature you need once your website is up and running.

Customer Support

Even if your chosen website builder has an easy-to-use interface, it will still require a slight learning curve to understand it fully. Also, there will be times when you run into problems or have issues with adding a particular element to your website. At times like this, we want to make sure that the website builder company we have selected provides a good customer support system that is available when needed. So it is important to have a glance at the company’s “Help”, “FAQ”, or “Documentation” section, and whether customer support is provided via email, chat, phone, or support tickets. Ideally, many organizations will provide video tutorials and texts on how to use their application. One of the best ways to check the efficiency of the support and the credibility of the website builder is to go through the customer reviews posted on social media or third-party reviewer websites.

Data Ownership & portability

Data ownership and portability are one of the few things that many businesses and individuals forget about or do not take into consideration when creating their websites. Data ownership is the possession and responsibility of information that passes through your application or website. While as Data portability is the ability to move your information from wherever it presently lives to another digital platform or service. Since data or digital information has become the most valuable resource for an online business in recent years, it is essential to have control and flexibility over it. So when making the choice in selecting a website builder, make sure to read the terms of services and privacy policy of the organization to ensure that you own your data and its portability, in case you need to switch platforms.

Conclusion

Website builders are the perfect tool for small businesses, photographers, bloggers, online stores, restaurants, and hotels. After carefully evaluating all the popular online builders and evaluating customer reviews, we recommend using SpreadSimple for creating your website. It is a great choice for beginners as it is flexible, easy to use, and has Google Sheets as its CMS. This helps reduce the learning curve involved with other website builders. Start creating feature-rich websites with SpreadSimple today!