What Website Builder Should I Use?

No matter the size of your business, most business owners will come to the realization that they need a website pretty quickly. Whether it be a very simple brochure site or a full fledged web application that solves a business problem, utilizing the internet is a must for businesses of all sizes. Unfortunately, if your business doesn't have an IT department to unload this problem on to, getting up and running on the web can be quite the headache. Where do you even begin? While there's no one size fits all prescription for all businesses, there is a general guideline that you can follow that will set you up for success more often than not. Read on to learn more!

Initial Considerations

First, identifying what your website will actually need to do is a great start. There are a variety of different platforms online that solve different problems. Start by asking yourself these questions:

• Does my website need Ecommerce capabilities?
• Does my website need Sign In / Authorization capabilities?
• Will my website need updated frequently?
• Does my website need a Blog?
• How comfortable am I doing this myself?
• How much money am I willing to pay? Moreover, am I comfortable with a monthly fee?
• Do I want to have full control over the design of my website?
• Does my website need to solve a highly specific business problem?
• Does the complexity of my website encompass all of the above or more?

If this set of questions has made you realize there's a little more involved in this process than you're comfortable with, have no fear! We're here to help. Contact us with your questions, and we'll help you formulate a plan that fits your needs. Here's a quick guide to reference when deciding if you can do this alone:

I can probably handle this alone if...

• My website only needs simple ecommerce capabilities.
• My website just needs to display information.
• My website won't need updated frequently.
• I'm comfortable with a bit of technical work.

I probably need a professional if...

• I want full control over the way my website looks and feels.
• I need a complex ecommerce store.
• I don't want to deal with technical work.
• I want the best solution possible.

As your set of needs expands, so does the complexity required in building the site. There are dozens of platforms online to help build websites with 0 programming experience required, but all of them have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses that might make one better than another depending on your answers to the questiuons above. Let's explore a few common scenarios and the tools to consider utilizing to address them.

Choosing A Platform

I need a simple brochue site with NO additional functionality.

You're in luck! There are no less than a billion online platforms to choose from that solve this issue. My recommendation is Squarespace. You won't have to deal with many of the pain points associated with Wordpress sites, and they make it very easy to get up and running with a good looking (albeit generic) website in no time at all. The biggest downside here is that your needs can quickly outgrow squarespace, and you won't have many of the advanced features that you can get out of Wordpress sites.

I need an ecommerce website, and I'm comfortable with some fees.

Let's suppose you need an ecommerce website, and you don't need advanced functionality. Shopify is the tool that I recommend in the vast majority of cases. While there are monthly fees and transaction fees, the fees are affordable and there is likely a plan that fits your businesses needs. They also have an extensive theme library, a vast community to lean on for help, a library of plugins to extend the sites functionality, and it's relatively easy to use. Wordpress with the Woocommerce plugin is another potential solution, but Wordpress sites are notoriously difficult to manage and I do not personally recommend Wordpress sites to clients if there is an alternative solution that also fits their needs.

I need the most I can possibly get out of a website without having to code, and I'm comfortable troubleshooting.

Wordpress. This is the one and only situation where I recommend that you use Wordpress. As much as I hate Wordpress, it does a very good job of giving freedom to its users. If you can't code but really want to do the work to make your website your own, you can do that with Wordpress. There are a ton of reasons I'd recommend against it, such as how prone to break they are, how much of a pain managing themes and plugins can be, and the potential to mess something up if you don't know what you're doing just to name a few. But that is not to say there aren't plenty of happy Wordpress users out there. It's a great tool if you use it well. There are a lot of themes and plugins, and they leave it totally up to the user to decide what's best. Tread with caution.

*** Disclaimer *** There are two Wordpress platforms for some reason. I have never used Wordpress.com. Wordpress.org is the platform that I refer to as Wordpress.

In conclusion, for simple websites, there is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to build it yourself! It is far cheaper than hiring a developer, especially when hiring a bad developer can be even more expensive than the quote they give you. Nonetheless, it's very important that you take time considering what you need and the best way to accomplish it before sinking time and resources into doing it yourself. If you find yourself stuck at any step of the way, feel free to reach out to us!