Seven Top Website Builders Reviewed by VU Faculty and Students

There are a lot of options when it comes to building a personal online portfolio or starting a small business website. There’s no single perfect website builder; your selection should take into consideration current and future feature needs, technical ability, and the time and money you want to invest. In the project management field, there’s a concept called the iron triangle, which lays out three attributes of any project (cheap, fast, good) and says that you can only pick two. When choosing a website builder, there’s a similar dilemma, but in this case, you can pick two of the following: Cheap, Easy, Flexible. Good should always be the goal!

Cheap is self-explanatory, but for the purposes of this article, cheap means from $0-$8/mo. Easy refers to the amount of time needed to learn the software and create the site, as well as the technical skills required. Flexible refers to the ability to customize the site to your exact needs. Vanguard students and faculty have tested these out and offer the following reviews as a resource for current students!

Adobe Express

Adobe Express is as affordable as they come—as the web page project type is free, like other project types. It’s also very easy to use, in part because the features and themes are very limited. You create a page, pick a theme and then can assemble “sections” with text and/or images and video. Adobe will handle transitions automatically as the user scrolls down your page. You cannot create secondary pages, change fonts/color except through the theme, and have a limited choice of layouts.

If you need something quickly, however, Adobe Express is hard to beat. It is possible to be up and running with a live web page in minutes.

Students looking for features such as contact forms, portfolios or multiple pages, or who have done the work to create visual personal branding should look elsewhere. Adobe Express is best suited for a simple picture and bio page. It is possible to create long, scrolling pages with full page images and fancy transitions, but these are messy and difficult to keep on brand. In fact, Adobe’s own examples are fairly amateurish, and more appropriate for a junior high student documenting academic achievement or extracurriculars, not a career-seeking professional.

Pros:

• Free
• Incredibly easy to use
• Quick to create

Cons:

• Very limited layout and theme options
• Single page only
• Can look unprofessional quickly

Takeaway: Use Adobe Express if you have a simple name and bio/contact info design, but also want to embed a single video as part of your site. Otherwise, about.me provides a more polished service that is easier to assemble.

About.me

About.me is kind of like a partner service to Linkedin, using similar minimalist design, but providing a simple page with room for a photo, bio, socials, and what they call a “spotlight” button, which connects the user to another resource, such as a downloadable resume.

SEO ranks high here, and about.me pages will show up early in search results, increasing the likelihood that an employer will find your page. The domain is also memorable and doesn’t feel like it’s branding your page with another product, as your page will be about.me/yourname. You can, for a fee, connect your page to a custom domain. An upcharge is also required for customized spotlight buttons, and other in-page features, such as booking/scheduling.

However, the free version is all most students or recent grads will need. About.me is also incredibly easy to use, and you can choose custom colors using HEX values and you can also choose from a wide selection of fonts, making it possible to align the page to your personal brand.

Like Adobe Express, this is a single page service with a limited feature set, so look elsewhere for portfolios, e-commerce or blogging features. But if you have your portfolio of creative work showcased via a social media channel, such as YouTube, Soundcloud or Instagram, About.me can provide you with a professional looking landing page, and you can link to your work with the spotlight button or to multiple places using the socials feature.

Pros:

• Easy to Use
• Functional design
• SEO ranking

Cons:

• Single page only
• Three layout options

Takeaway: Use About.me if you just need a bio and contact page or if you have your creative work elsewhere and need a unifying landing page. Also helpful for boosting your name in search results.

Wix

Wix is a very comprehensive website builder that comes equipped with several different features to build your own website. This platform is great for individuals with minimal web development skills because it gives users lots of tips on how to create a strong website. Signing up for Wix is as easy as logging into your preferred email and getting started. There are hundreds of templates to choose from, and users are able to create anything from an online store to a personal blog or even combine different concepts. The UI feels slightly intimidating at first, but students say it is easy to learn. Overall, this website builder has a lot of unique features to help users improve their web development skills and build their brand.

Pros:

• No technical skills needed
• You get upgraded design templates
• All the tools you need to create a website are there for you on Wix
• The plan is cheap and you aren’t locked into it for extended periods of time
• Wix provides you with site security

Cons:

• Too many templates can be overwhelming
• You can’t change the template after you’ve started
• With the starter plan you still have ads on your site
• The designs can limit your creativity
• There are not many apps that can be used with Wix

Takeaway: Wix is a good option for first time users looking to build a website with more advanced features such as portfolios or ecommerce – if they can patiently follow all of the steps and are willing to upgrade to a paid option.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website building and hosting website that has many different templates and uses to choose from. It is a user-friendly way to make a website that allows the use of pre-built templates where you can drag and drop selects or you can harbor a little less structure and build the website to more of your desired look. A beneficial aspect of this user-friendly design is that it has premade templates to create professional-looking websites to fit a portfolio, a small business, or even a personal blog. Squarespace also allows for a domain transfer from a previous website or the choice to create your own. There are also features to check the analytics of the website built-in, so there is no need for third-party analytics software. Squarespace really is the all-in-one website to create and house an online presence.

Students say that Squarespace is an extremely practical and easy platform to navigate. The pros far outweigh the cons, with the main drawback consisting of the sheer cost of maintaining and using the platform. The ease of use is wonderful, with endless options for media uploads, interesting font and design options, as well as the choice to either use a professional template or design something completely from scratch. The eCommerce capabilities are a main highlight of the website builder, as it enables businesses to price, track sales, store and use customer addresses, collaborate with shipment companies, and track the success of sales over time.

Pros:

• No setup fee
• Easy to use and set up
• Great professional templates with the option of including a wide variety of media types (video, audio, photography, etc.)
• A great deal of website help is available
• Free 14-day trial
• Free domain for the first year of use for your platform if you sign up for the year-long payment plan, and also allows for domain transfer
• Offers students 50% off of the first year of Squarespace
• The website can be used for other purposes outside of a social platform – their eCommerce options are extremely useful for businesses and enable easy tracking of purchases, shipping, etc.
• Includes a wide variety of typefaces for which to use
• Marketing options are available for the promotion of your website/brand, and email campaigns can be tied directly through the site
• There is a new scheduling option offered on the site where both employees and clients of a brand or business can book services or meetings, reschedule, change timezones, etc.

Cons:

• No phone support (downloadable option/ app)
• No completely free option, there is only a 14-day free trial
• Pricing is expensive and varies from $19-$65 a month
• You don’t have the option of using third party extensions or websites
• You may have to go outside of the Squarespace platform to purchase a domain you like, which would be an additional cost

Takeaway: Squarespace would be great for any and all uses but may be especially helpful for small businesses getting their start—just be prepared for the monthly costs!

Adobe Portfolio

This offering from Adobe comes with the Creative Cloud subscription, so it is a cost-effective option if you already plan to maintain an Adobe subscription but expensive if you don’t. However, for photographers, it could be a value-add choice, compared to some of the competition, as Adobe includes Portfolio in its $9.99/mo. photographer plan, which includes Photoshop and Lightroom.

Geared for displaying creative work, the available templates are nearly all minimalist design that put the content front and center. The Adobe integration makes it a great choice for photographer and videographers with a lot of content, especially if you use Lightroom to organize your images. Aligning the website with your personal brand is possible as you do have full control over colors and access to the Adobe fonts library. You can choose to use your own domain name, though you do need to purchase the domain name elsewhere. Portfolio does not have e-commerce options and students with writing or social media portfolios may find it harder to bend to their use, as it’s very focused on visual content.

Pros:

• Clean, creative layout options that can be branded
• No ads
• Ability to use custom domain
• Easy integration with Lightroom

Cons:

• No online store or blog options
• Lack of templates for other types of creative work
• Lack of add-ons/plugins for displaying social media posts

Takeaway: an excellent choice for graphic designers, photographers and videographers already invested in the Adobe CC products, but a little limited for everyone else.

WordPress

WordPress is different from the other offerings on this pages, as it’s not actually a website builder. WordPress is a full-blown CMS– a content management system. WordPress is the most popular CMS on the web today—an estimated 42% of sites on the internet today are created with WordPress. WordPress itself is free, but you have to purchase a domain and hosting to use it. Free hosting and a free non-custom domain can be found via wordpress.com, which is a great place to start. The version of WordPress on offer has some limitations, and there are ads. You can upgrade to a $4/mo. plan to remove ads and get a custom domain (free for one year, extra charge after that).

One of the biggest advantages of WordPress is that it is immensely flexible and future-proof. WordPress themes can be changed and new features added without having to rebuild your existing content. Coding knowledge is not required to get running with WordPress, but because it is built to be highly editable, it can be more challenging to learn than other platforms. If you do decide to learn some coding, then what you can make with WordPress is fairly limitless. WordPress users have access to millions of themes and plugin, free and paid, that can change and extend your site. Online stores, membership sites, portfolios, and simple one-page sites are all possible, and features such as forms, social media feeds, blogs, analytics, email marketing are all easily added via plugins.

Pros:

• Complete control and flexibility
• Thousands of themes and plugins
• No coding knowledge needed
• Free or inexpensive

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve
• Too many options
• Some technical knowledge required

Takeaway: Use WordPress if you are someone who feels constrained by other platforms and wants a truly custom site. Also great if you plan to expand the features of your site in future.

Weebly

Weebly is a website builder common among small businesses, owned by the mobile payment platform Square.  It allows you to drag-and-drop edits and has a large range of features and apps that include integrating social media platforms, tracking analytical metrics, and even the option to install sales-boosting apps.  Weebly allows users to select a theme including Business, Portfolio, Personal, Event, Blog, Coming Soon, and Other sites. They offer a free version that is limited to having “weebly.com” to the domain name, but also offer several paid plans with varying price ranges for all different user needs.

Pros:

• You get a free domain.
• A simple interface that allows easy edits
• Allows for a variety of themes (eCommerce, blog, etc)
• Includes basic tools for building a business site or an online store.
• Extremely customizable templates with clean, simple, and stylish templates.

Cons:

• Although you get a free domain, you have to use weebly.com within the name of your website, e.g. vanguarduniversity.weebly.com
• No free version
• “Personal” plan for $6/month has limited storage, Weebly ads on the site, does not allow videos or audio uploads.
• Ecommerce businesses would have to purchase the “Performance” plan at $26/month in order to accept payments.
• Editing is limited and the personal version is even more restricted

Takeaway: Use Weebly if you are casual user or just want a simple plug and play website. If you are running a small business, the integration with the Square POS system might make it a good choice, especially if you already invested in that payment platform.

These website builder reviews were compiled with contributions from VU students: Isaac Rodriguez, Samuel Huff, Faith Zimmerman, Savannah Limon, Gabriel Warner, Caden Castillo, Dylan Lesch, Maggie Mahoney, and Jessica Singleterry.