Amy Top Website Builders
It is important to have a website, mandatory actually if you want to have a credible business, build a blog or affiliate marketing business. But, what is your website doing for you? If your website isn’t collecting data, potential customers, and contributing to your growth, then it is simply costing you time and money.
Choosing the best website direction can be difficult. Let’s break it down:
- Custom Website Design (estimated at $5,000+ per site) — typically an agency is hired that employs coders, designers to build a custom site dependent upon your specific business needs and brand.
- Website Builders (range from free to $80+ per month) — this segment has exploded over the past 10 years with over 70 options to choose from with different features.
- CMS (Content Management Systems) — this segment is dominated by WordPress and was launched nearly 20 years ago. It was and is ideal for bloggers, or anyone with a tremendous amount of content to manage online.
Difference between CMS and Website Builder — Simply put, website builders are less flexible but easier to use. A CMS has a steeper learning curve but is more flexible and scalable.
The purpose of this post is to give you the top 3 website builders, based on template designs, user interface, level of difficulty, reliability, SEO, price, scalability, and more.
Please note that the below contain my affiliate links — all of which, I have accounts with and use. If you’d like my feedback on digital tools and software not listed, send me a DM.
I currently have several sites in Wix
TOP PICK FOR: Affiliate Marketers, Small Business, Local Business, Restaurants
Wix has gained attention and popularity over the past few years due to their endless template options, fantastic design, and ridiculously easy drag-n-drop site build functionality.
- Currently have over 100 million users and 500+ website templates.
- Reasonably priced and priced comparably to WordPress and others in the DIY/Website Builder category.
- Free to $50 per month.
I have several websites with Wix. I personally like their SEO bonuses and ability to seamlessly build-in basic SEO and Google Analytics. Their site building is similar to creating a PowerPoint, honestly. The more you use it, the easier it becomes.
With Wix, you can easily upgrade to an eCommerce site at any point, which is ideal for bloggers, affiliate marketers, and small businesses selling products online.
Now for the cons, Wix plug-ins and add-ons do not compare to that of WordPress. They are more challenging to use and don’t offer the tremendous flexibility and scalability that WordPress offers. Wix also bills in advance. Thus, if you have a premium/paid site, when it is time for your annual renewal, it is billed to the card on file about 30 days out/ahead of time. My recommendation is simply to put a reminder on your calendar 45 days out of your renewal date so that you’re not caught off guard.
I recommend the combo plan for bloggers and affiliate marketers. Restaurants and small business might consider the plan that is a step up from the combo plan. With my link, start a free site and see what you think. You can also get your domain/s with Wix or transfer your domain from Bluehost, SiteGround, GoDaddy, etc. to Wix.
Grab a Wix discount on premium plans with this link.
The inside scoop on WordPress (as a current WordPress customer)
TOP PICK FOR: Bloggers, Small-Midsize Business
Note: There are two options — start with a web host (i.e. Bluehost) and create a WordPress site on WordPress.Org OR build a site from the platforms on WordPress.com. The former is the original. The latter is relatively new and built to compete with Wix and other Website Builders.
The Original — Wordpress (CMS)
A lot of bloggers started out using WordPress and it is touted as one of the best websites on the market. My first website was done in WordPress using Bluehost as my hosting partner company. I still have a website in WordPress today.
I don’t recommend it for beginners or if you are just starting out in the digital world.
If you have time to invest in learning WordPress, go for it. Otherwise, there is a learning curve and you could spend the first few weeks, or months, getting frustrated. I figure building your online business is a constant learning process anyway, why add more challenge to it with a website design that has such a high learning curve.
Now, for the positive, WordPress is easy to scale and it has a lot of fantastic plug-ins or add-ons for your website so that you can increase functionality and add the latest-n-greatest, including strong lead generation, without completely re-doing your site every year.
I might create some enemies by writing this, but when I choose WordPress, it was because I read so many reviews that raved about WordPress and Bluehost. Thus, I took the bait. I figured, how could so many be wrong. What I didn’t realize at the time was that WordPress has a high paying affiliate program; probably one of the best on the market today. And, those reviews are paid a small commission. That’s not to say they are false reviews as many online entrepreneurs, bloggers, and small businesses are true fans of WordPress, and rightfully so, it’s a highly functional CMS. And, let’s be honest, if you’re a successful blogger, you’re also an affiliate marketer. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
WordPress is here to stay as they keep up with the new and emerging with their continuous, seamless updates and increased functionality through plug-ins.
Bottom line, if you have some tech skills, WordPress is an excellent choice. If you really want to invest your time into learning and creating what will be a scalable website that will stand the test of time, then dive in.
WordPress is ideal for bloggers, entrepreneurs, and small to mid size businesses. Additionally, if you plan to have a significant amount of content, I highly recommend going with WordPress.
They are priced comparably to the others in the Website Builder category. I recommend giving it a try to see if you like the functionality. What do you have to lose?
Grab a discounted domain name and Bluehost plan with this link.
You begin with a domain name and hosting through Bluehost and start building your Wordpress site.
There is a 30-day money back guarantee.
The inside scoop on WordPress (as a current WordPress customer)
IDEAL FOR: Bloggers, local business
It is WordPress made simple or a no-frills WordPress perhaps. It was created to compete directly with the oh-so-popular website builders.
The have a solid free plan with 3GB of storage, and customer support. There are 5 paid site options that give you access to basic SEO, social sharing, and analytics.
I included this one as #2b because it is an excellent opportunity to try a free site and WordPress. I mean who can pass up a free site, right?
RECOMMENDED FOR: Affiliate marketers, independent marketing campaigns
Leadpages is one of my favorites for lead generation and you might be wondering why I have it listed under website builders vs digital tools. The reason why is because they have websites. And, these websites are built for lead generation and conversion.
Website templates, landing pages, pop-ups, alert bars, social ad builder , and it is all under one roof. They didn’t skimp on the template design either. Tremendous designs with pre-formatted options to choose from, and all mobile-responsive.
Key Features
- A/B testing
- Drag and drop editor
- Coming soon pages
- Social media integration
- Mobile-responsive — this is important as you don’t have to re-arrange content to fit desktop/tablet/mobile. It just … responds all by itself.
- The price is attractive as well beginning with a standard plan of $25/month, pro at $48/month, and advanced at $200/month.
Grab a free 14-day trial with Leadpages
