When choosing a website builder, you should begin with a few essential questions: What goals am I trying to accomplish with my website? What features and tools do I need to achieve those objectives? How much can I afford to spend? The answers to those questions can help you narrow down the options. In fact, you can use guides like this one to see which platforms line up with your preferences and budget.
Of course, there are several other factors worth considering. Business.com spoke with dozens of business owners and web designers to see what they prioritized when deciding which website builder to use.
Cost
Whether you’re operating a new business or an established one can affect how much you have to spend on a website builder and, therefore, which platform you choose. But higher upfront costs for a better solution may be worth it in the long run.
“Budgeting and funds can be tight when you’re just getting started out. It’s easy to skip over higher quality or higher priced options in exchange for saving a few dollars,” said Jason Anthony of the Jason Anthony Group. “Sometimes when this happens, changes have to be made down the line and more development and design costs are accrued from having to rebuild or rework your project. Getting it right the first time [can] save you money down the line.”
David Ilgenfritz, co-founder and CEO of Roastify, told us, “Don’t, under any circumstances, just buy the cheapest [platform]. The difference between free, or $20 or $50/mo ought to be negligible if you are starting a business that is reliant on a solid web presence.”
Customization Abilities
“My most important criteria were the customization options and no platform or vendor lock-in,” said Derek Hassan, owner of Five Lights Web Design. “I greatly value the ability to change or customize the website as I see fit, and the freedom to change web hosting companies if required.”
Ilgenfritz also kept “flexibility and functionality” top of mind when deciding which website builder to use. “You want to make sure that your tech stack doesn’t preclude you from making … changes,” he said. “If you need to add some plugins or custom code in at a later date, you want the ability to do so. Some platforms are very closed off and make it incredibly difficult to do anything custom.”
JD Lloyd, business development manager at Bella Virtual Staging, also prioritized flexibility when searching for a website builder.
“We prioritized ease of use and design flexibility above all else,” he said. “As a visual staging company, our website had to look top-notch and be easy to navigate. We also considered the cost, but in the end, we were more focused on finding a tool that allowed us to build a site that would do our work justice.”
Skill Level
In addition to evaluating website builders’ user-friendliness, you need to consider the skills of your team members responsible for building your site.
“People need to choose a platform that coincides with their skill level,” advised Ilgenfritz, noting that some people “aren’t comfortable with some basic concepts around HTML or CSS,” while others “want more control to do custom elements and don’t want to be limited by themes.” He recommended, “Choose something you understand and that you can get in the weeds with.”
Lloyd and his team wanted to “create a professional-looking site without needing to dive into coding.” They ultimately chose a solution that had “a variety of templates and customization options without overwhelming us with too many technical details.”
Madjeen Lorthe, founder of Transitions Well Done, chose a solution that was “pretty straightforward and intuitive,” as she didn’t want to “rely on a developer or handle technical updates, which was a big concern for me before deciding.”
Scalability
SAHA Collective founder and CEO Alenka Kyslik knew it was critical to consider not just her business’s current website needs but its future ones as well.
“I was looking for a platform that could scale with my business as it grew. This was both in terms of features available and stability,” Kyslik said. “In a perfect world, I wanted to pick a solution that could get me through the first few years of my business, [but] I really wanted to avoid having to switch solutions every year or more, as it takes so much time and that time could be better spent elsewhere.”
Indeed, Lloyd admitted, “If I could go back, I might have spent a bit more time exploring options that offer greater scalability.” While “pretty satisfied” with his website builder, he’s since found “some limitations” as Bella Virtual Staging’s needs have changed, and his company might made a different purchase decision had they “known how quickly our business would evolve.”
“Think about where you want your business to be in a few years, not just where it is now,” Lloyd recommended. “Your website should be able to grow with you. So, look beyond just getting a site live quickly — consider how easily you can add new features, integrate with other tools and expand your site’s capabilities as your business needs evolve. It’s better to plan for growth from the start than to have to make a major switch down the line.”
Reliability
For Christopher Pappas, founder of eLearningIndustry.com, “The deciding factors were reliability and hosting support, as we needed a platform that could handle large volumes of content and traffic. Our community relies heavily on accessing e-books, webinars and articles, so uptime and speed were non-negotiable.”
Looking back though, Pappas regrets not also diving deeper into different content management systems “to ensure smoother scaling as our content grew rapidly.” Now, he advised, “For content-heavy [businesses], prioritize uptime, scalability and customer support. Your business relies on your website being accessible, so ensure your builder can keep up with your needs.”
Customer Support
Though Heidi Blackie, owner of Somersault Wellness, wanted a flexible website builder, she knew she wouldn’t be able to tackle every aspect without some guidance.
“I am not at all tech-savvy, so when I decided to build my own website, customer service was at the top of the list,” she said. After testing multiple programs, she ended up choosing the vendor with better ease of use and the “best customer service.”
Ilgenfritz even suggested taking advantage of a vendor’s customer support resources before signing up for their service. “Use the platform’s tutorials and video libraries [and] make sure you can learn and understand the system before you go with it,” he said.
