The search for the best drag-and-drop website builder hasn’t ended, with more and more users wanting to experience convenience online. Sitebuilder features are sure to amaze newbies who are looking for a platform where coding is an unknown language. The Sitebuilder website platform has been a huge choice over the years as it takes the ranks of its major competitors. But the question is this: is Sitebuilder sustainable enough for medium to large websites? We’re going to take a look here.
Sitebuilder has a plethora of features that, not to brag, are really for the books. Paired with an intuitive and user-friendly platform, I think most newbie website creators would enjoy the experience. However, just like any other website builder platforms, we have also some strong reservations.
Sitebuilder PROS and CONS
Some of the common issues we’ve read about and experienced ourselves are the overwhelming interface and lack of self-help resources. To let you see the bigger picture, here’s our Sitebuilder review.
PROS
-Easy and quick-to-use website platform
-Comes with basic e-commerce tools
-Speedy and convenient
-Very affordable short-term pricing
-Simple drag-and-drop editor
-Tons of templates to choose from
CONS
-Very basic SEO tools
-There’s no way you can access the HTML/CSS part
¬-Migrating your site to another platform is a pain
-Lack of tutorials and self-help resources
Why Sitebuilder.com is great?
Key features
If we are to look at it in a newbie’s perspective, Sitebuilder has a pretty impressive set of features. You get the basics plus a few things that add up to its value. Again, I think the biggest selling-factor here is the convenience and an easy learning curve. Just tweak the platform and you’ll get the hang of it in no time. That’s way easier than setting up a self-hosted website.
However, be reminded that there aren’t many surprises here. If you’ve used other website builders before like WordPress, Wix, or Weebly, you may find Sitebuilder a little too simple for your taste. But anyway, here are some of the highlights of this platform:
Built-in blog. Its solid blogging feature is one of the good things in Sitebuilder. There are full-featured templates so you no longer have to design your own pages. Still, you can try your hand on the blank canvas editor. This can be a little overwhelming for beginners so take some time to practice.
Social media integration. You can easily place widgets anywhere you wish using the drag-and-drop editor. Also, setting up a social media sharing widget is also a breeze.
Analytics. Sitebuilder has site analytics that will guide you on the traffic of your pages. This way, you can improve the performance of your site.
E-commerce. To be fair, Sitebuilder has some useful tool in creating an online store. Not all are diamonds so it goes without saying that this platform is still a work in progress.
Overall, there are great features but a bit limited than what you’ll get from Sitebuilder’s competitors. The features are very basic and it can get really frustrating to deal with at some point. As much as you can enjoy added features like contact forms and social feeds, it’s not a very sustainable option for those want to grow their site.
Ease of use
We have to give the drag-and-drop feature of Sitebuilder a big plus. Unlike WordPress, designing pages is easy-peasy and you get to see what it will look like right away. You can customize your pages in Sitebuilder, but remember that you’ll come to a point where it will prove to be limited.
Sitebuilder allows users to utilize the social login so you can access your site in a single click. Signing up is also pretty straightforward: pick a domain, select a plan, pay, then you can start building right away. The platform is fully hosted so you no longer have to spend additional dollars for third-party hosting services.
The guided tour at the very start will dampen the learning curve. For those who have prior experience with site building, this can be skipped.
After that, you can start exploring the features. One word of warning, though: the drag-and-drop editor isn’t as free as what Wix has. You just can’t drag elements anywhere you like but it’s still easy to use in our opinion.
There’s also a built-in photo editor inside Sitebuilder so you no longer have to switch to another software. Overall, it’s easy to use, but with prominent limitations.
Sitebuilder templates
If we’re going to judge templates by the numbers, Sitebuilder is a clear winner. However, considering that quality matters than quantity, this platform may lose substantial points. It’s not the best website design software, but worth the try nonetheless.
Sure thing, there are tons of website templates that you can readily use but not all of them are good enough. Many are outdated and lack the sleek and chic look that you’ll typically see on WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.
Still, one thing that offsets this caveat is the fact that the templates are packed with dummy industry photos that you can choose to keep. This saves you from the hassle of sourcing it from a stock photo website.
Choose the template that you’re sure about. Once you’ve picked a design, you simply can’t switch to another one like what you’ll do in WordPress. You’re stuck on the template and you only have one choice to change it: create another website. This is a big shame and a notorious downside of Wix and Websitebuilder as well.
SEO tools
Sitebuilder has basic SEO tools that are somewhat similar to what Wix has – nothing more, nothing less. You won’t get to submit sitemaps or integrate Schema which sucks on the part of ranking on Google. It’s just disheartening for those who want an easy fix while having a good footing on the SERPs.
Remember, Sitebuilder is a quick solution. With the control and customization it allows, it’s just hard to integrate additional tools. If you’re going to ask professional website developers, they will ask you to move out of this platform without batting an eye. Sure, it’s affordable, but you get what you paid for.
Sitebuilder pricing
If there’s one silver lining with all these downsides we’ve just mentioned, it would be the fact that Sitebuilder packages are very affordable. Basically, there are three different packages:
| PACKAGE | PRO $12/mo | BUSINESS $25/mo. | PERFORMANCE $38/mo. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Members | 100 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Email campaigns | No | No | Yes |
| Digital goods | No | Yes | Yes |
The introductory price really looks great, but if you’re building multiple websites, it might be better to pay for a self-hosted platform. In Sitebuilder, you pay monthly for each website whereas you can host multiple websites in self-hosted platforms.
Take note that this pricing may change depending on the promos Sitebuilder runs. Typically, there would be discounted prices for new users which will revert to regular pricing on the succeeding months. The same goes for the free domain which you’ll have to pay for after a year.
There’s a free website builder account as well but it offers almost nothing. If you want to build a decent website, you might as well avail the Pro package. For those who want to build their online store in Sitebuilder, the tools might be a little too few.
Customer service
Sitebuilder may get you on the ease of use, but when problems arise, you’ll have a hard time finding for solutions. You can reach Sitebuilder support via phone, live chat, or email. However, there’s no guarantee that the response would be fast.
As for the self-help resources, what Sitebuilder has is disorganized and very limited. There are answers to questions, but these are only brief and less informative articles. Sitebuilder is also a newcomer so you only have a few search results to refer to. This is a big downside as compared to powerhouse website builders like WordPress and Wix.
When it comes to the live chat option, it’s not basically a “live chat”. You’ll fill out a form, send it, and you’ll wait until a representative chats with you. It’s more of a ticketing system, not to mention the slow and ambiguous answers you’ll get.
Integrations and security
When it comes to integrations, you can use Sitebuilder’s App Market to shop for the integrations you need. If you’re integrating from the App store, it would be fast and easy. However, the apps are only a few and a bit of a shame if compared to Wix and WordPress.
If you plan to stand out from the crowd, it would be difficult to do it in Sitebuilder. No matter how skilled and patient you are, the limited tools may stymie any efforts you’ll exert.
How about security? Since Sitebuilder is fully hosted, they have a solid place to store your files in. They also give free SSL certificates and secured domain. Sitebuilder also has the security tool Sitelock which scans pages for malware and possible security risks.
After looking at the Sitebuilder features, pricing, and extra perks, it’s safe to say that this is a great platform for beginners. But for those who want to perform in-depth designing and SEO tools, it’s best to look elsewhere.