And Shopify takes a small percentage of your sales.Adding to that, domains aren’t included for free.Things get expensive quickly, as prices start at $29 a month and you will probably invest in design and premium app extensions, etc.There aren’t a ton of templates, and they tend to be a little too similar.
Although Shopify’s store building software is pretty good, it’s not always on the level of more robust drag-and-drop editors (such as what other names on this list offer).TONs of support resources, in addition to good customer support representatives.Great shipping perks and features for selling physical products.As such, Shopify has the strongest ecommerce tools on this list (both in number and in quality). Although all the names on this list have ecommerce tools, Shopify is specifically geared towards ecommerce.True, it’s not for everyone…but it is very good at what it intends to be: an ecommerce website builder. But anyone who does should take a look at Shopify. Unsurprisingly, most of you who have no need for an ecommerce site can skip this section.
$100 billion is more than the GDPs of quite a few countries-so I don’t think we can doubt how much of a powerhouse Shopify is. Shopify is probably the most successful shopping-cart builder: Often, sites that need to ship items regularly. Websites that are selling products, that need to handle payments securely and efficiently. Websites for businesses, with ecommerce needs. It can be best thought of as…īecause while Shopify is definitely all about building websites, it’s about building specific types of websites. Shopify is not a traditional website builder. Some names here are overall good with everything. Now, this definition obviously has quite a range of platforms. They let you edit most aspects of your site’s pages, including not just content, but appearance. These typically are drag-and-drop format builders, though not necessarily. What qualifies as easy certainly ranges, but the gist is that a user won’t need to know programming to build a site. So let’s just keep in mind first that I’m using this term in a fairly fluid way.īy website builder, I basically mean a platform that lets you build a website in a fairly easy manner. As in, way more than just the platforms that call themselves website builders. Because by some measurements, a ton of platforms are website builders. Some of you might roll your eyes, but it’s a pretty important question. So I won’t make many notes about it…unless it’s exceptionally good or exceptionally problematic.īut first, there’s a question we need to be clear about: For example, all the names here have customer support.Īnd all of them, in fact, have decent customer support. It just means the builder at hand is particularly good or bad with that thing. So if I put one thing as a “pro” or “con,” it does not mean other builders lack this thing. *Note: Some features are standard when it comes to website builders. No doubt, quite a few people will disagree with my choices.īut I think if you take a look, you’ll see where I’m coming from. My experience with hosting means I’ve also used a lot of website builders-a sort of overlapping category. Well, the best option for a lot of people is to go straight to a website builder. You need something that is relatively user-friendly, but which still lets you control a good deal about your website and make something that looks good. You want to build a website for your hobby, or your personal blog.