WHAT WEBSITE BUILDER IS RIGHT FOR ME?
So you’ve decided to take the leap and create a website to showcase and sell your art. Congrats on taking the next step in growing your creative business! Now it’s time to decide which website builder to use. We are assuming you probably don’t have the capital to pay big bucks for a designer, which is totally fine because there are tons of website builders out there that are easy to use even for non-tech types. Here at Creative Founders we have three favourite website builders, all for different reasons.
Things to Consider Before Choosing a Website Builder
Before choosing a website builder, it pays to think about what you want out of it. Are you looking for something that is simple to use or something a bit more advanced that you can tweak to your exact preferences? Do you want to be in control of your own hosting, design and shop, or are you happy to let the platform take care of all of that for a monthly fee? With these things in mind, let’s go over our three faves.
Squarespace
We love Squarespace for its ease of use and beautiful templates that make you look like a pro right off the bat. You can start with a free trial where you basically set up your whole site to see what it will look like before you even pay a dime. Then when you do sign up, they will hook you up with a domain name through GoDaddy and provide you with hosting as part of the package, which is one less thing you have to worry about. Even better, they have excellent 24/7 customer service, which is great for beginners who might have a ton of questions.
Pros:
- User friendly drag-and-drop interface
- Comes with ready-made templates
- Domain name can be provided
- Hosting is included
- SSL certificate included
- Fully integrated E-commerce options
- Mobile optimized
- Built-in analytics
- 24/7 customer service
Cons:
- Monthly fees can be a bit pricey depending on the package you choose
- Difficult to make changes to the templates
- The basic plan only supports 20 pages, so if you want more, you have to pay more
- You have no control over your hosting or updates
- Limited payment gateways for non-major markets
WordPress
WordPress is by far the most popular website builder out there for its amazing flexibility and functionality. In fact, we use WordPress for Creative Founders because it allows us to tweak and add things that make our site run exactly how we want it to. The best part is WordPress is free and comes with tons of unique templates and plug-ins for everything from SEO to adding social media buttons. However, you will need to pay for your own hosting (we use Bluehost) and not all of the templates and plug-ins are free. In addition, it helps to have some HTML knowledge to play around with the design, so if you don’t have that, you may have to pay a designer to help you.
Pros:
- No monthly fees
- Very flexible
- Comes with tons of ready-made templates
- Offers thousands of free plug-ins for pretty much every function you can imagine
- Fully integrated E-commerce
- Access to style sheets for custom HTML
- Built-in analytics
- Mobile optimized
- You have complete control over hosting, updates and maintenance
Cons:
- Hosting is not included
- HTML knowledge is necessary to make some tweaks
- SSL certificate is not included
- Not all templates and plug-ins are free
- No customer service
- You might need to hire a developer to help you with changes and problems, which can get costly
Shopify
Shopify was designed with E-commerce in mind, so this a go-to builder for many people who sell products online. It’s a bit more pricey than Squarespace, but they take care of pretty much everything for you and give you plenty of options to scale up as your business grows. You can choose from a decent variety of free and paid themes, as well as apps geared towards online sales like shipping calculators and product review options. They also have a range of packages starting from $29.99 USD per month plus transaction fees.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Great free and paid themes and apps
- Very scalable
- Designed specifically for E-commerce
- 24/7 customer service
- Hosting is included
- SSL certificate included
- Built-in analytics
- Mobile optimized
Cons:
- Monthly fees can be a bit pricey depending on the package you choose
- Difficult to make changes to the templates
- You have no control over your hosting or updates
- Limited payment gateways for non-major markets
- Apps can get expensive
These are by no means the only website builders on the market, but in our experience, they are the best for artists and creatives looking to build and manage their own sites. If you have any questions at all about website builders or getting your site up and running, feel free to drop us a line!
