When you look at the SiteBuilder website, you may be surprised to see how simple it is. While many companies opt to tempt users with flash, SiteBuilder seems to be content and comfortable with its reputation.
But is the company resting on its laurels or do they actually have a winner on their hands? I signed up for an account using the service to find out.
A website building powerhouse? Click To Tweet- Pros and Cons
- Getting Started
- Ease of Use
- Template Selection
- Blogging with SiteBuilder
- SiteBuilder Premium
- Conclusion
Pros and Cons
Pros
- SiteBuilder premium includes a free domain name, a free email address, and hundreds of free templates.
- The cost of the service is on the low end of the spectrum.
- The website building software is fast, clean, and a pleasure to use.
Cons
- SiteBuilder lacks live customer support, making it take longer to get responses to questions not found in the FAQ.
Getting Started
New users can get started by providing a minimal amount of information, including a name, email address, and a password.
Once provided, you have the option of choosing a domain name and completing the premium signup process by providing payment details. Alternatively, you may opt to continue for free to the website builder software.
Admittedly, this was not so clear and I wasn’t sure that the service offered a free site when I was in the process of signing up. Nevertheless, I figured it out.
Ease of Use
After creating an account, you can move on to build your website. To accomplish this, you will use SiteBuilder’s proprietary website creator tool and it is a good one.
The first step is to choose a template from one of the thousands that SiteBuilder offers. Once selected, you can make any changes to your chosen theme using the sidebar. From there you can control elements, pages, sections, and the overall site design. You can also add to your blog, maintain your store, view your website stats, and manage the nitty gritty details.
SiteBuilder.com makes use of a drag-and-drop builder. This means that you simply select from a list of elements like buttons, contact forms, containers, images, maps, shapes, and social tools and drag them anywhere you want. Unlike other popular website builders, you are not bound by a grid.
Adding new pages is just as easy. You can select from a variety of different page styles that are designed to mirror the overall look of the theme you select throughout your site. Each page is made up of sections which you can choose and then easily customize.
Finally, you can change the overall look of the design of your site with custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and text styles. I am usually hesitant to mess with the pre-made templates, which are designed by professionals, but the changes you can make are mostly subtle.
Template Selection
SiteBuilder.com has hundreds of free templates for you to choose from. They range from modern and minimalistic, to charming and warm. While many website builders keep their dated themes up, it seems like the SiteBuilder collection is more curated and thoughtfully presented.
You can filter the templates by categories and even search through them. When I tested the search box for terms like food, mechanic, and dog, all results were relevant and accurate. You can also preview themes before applying them.
All of the templates that SideBuilder offers are mobile-friendly because they are fully responsive. This means that, no matter what device your visitors view your site on, it will look great.
Blogging with SiteBuilder
If you want to add a blog to your website, SiteBuilder is one of the best tools you can use to do so. That’s because, unlike other providers, the platform offers users the choice of custom blog templates. This means that your blog can be unique to the rest of your site. There are over ten different templates to choose from and you can begin adding your own posts immediately after selecting your favorite.
The blog manager is simple to use, with buttons for quick actions like previewing, editing, and deleting posts on the fly. You can create fully customized posts with a title, date, author name, tags, and cover image. The word processor is really well built as well, and I would even say it’s comparable to WordPress. There are even advanced features like friendly page URL creation, SEO summary, and cover image description.
SiteBuilder Premium
SiteBuilder offers users a great free option, but if you want premium features like your own domain name and even more templates, you will need to sign up for a paid account.
The paid options are broken as follows:
Personal
A personal account costs $8.99 per month and includes a domain name, templates, and no forced website ads.
Pro
A pro account costs just $4.99 per month (for an introductory period) and includes everything from the personal package in addition to a free email address. The pro tier is the most popular paid option.
Premium
A premium account costs $7.79 per month(for an introductory period) and includes everything from the pro package in addition to SEO tools and priority support.
eCommerce
If you plan on using your website for eCommerce, you can access SiteBuilder’s online store building tools for $11.99 per month.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed using SiteBuilder. The actual software probably comes in a close second to Wix, but the overall process was so enjoyable that I found myself looking into it even more on my free time outside of the review.
I highly recommend SiteBuilder for any kind of website and user, especially if you are completely new to website building.
