Which Web Site Builder is the best?
Determining which is the best web site builder, one must consider some of the following:
Wheather the site:
a) Will be for a commercial purpose
b) Already exists in some form
c) Needs e-commerce functionality - For a more detailed examination of e-commerce functionality and options.
d) Will require some kind of web marketing
e) Needs to work owth other web based applications like Froogle, Google Analytics, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter etc.
and whether you:
a) Want to be able to edit the site from anywhere
b) Would prefer to avoid having to upload changes to an ftp site
c) Want help with the web marketing - For more information about web marketing services and tools.
d) Are building the site for yourself or on behalf or someone else.
e) Are comfortable working with web interfaces
For a closer look at E-commerce functionality you might like to take a look a our article on What makes a good E-commerce site builder.
If you are a web professional yourself, you may find our Professional Site Builder article of interest.
Here is a summary analysis of the competition broken down into areas of focus such as marketing, seo, range of functionality, back office support, e-commerce etc.
We have scored the various providers of web site building web applications:
According to 150 features and characteristics.
In 13 categories:
We will be analyzing the following SAAS offerings in this category:
WebDeva
Weebly
Homestead
Site2You
EDirectHost
SiteCube
Site Maker Live
Yola
Ease of setup, access to support, simple pricing structure
Sites get an extra point if they do not ask for your credit card details until you are ready to go live.
And loose a point if they charge based on use of particular functionality
WebDeva 4/4
Weebly 3/4
Homestead 2/4
Site2You 3/4
EDirectHost 1/4
SiteCube 1/4
Site Maker Live 2/4
Yola 0/4
B2B offering (SAAS / White label product)
WebDeva 5/5
Weebly 1/5
Homestead 1/5
Site2You 1/5
EDirectHost 2/5
SiteCube 3/5
Site Maker Live 3/5
Yola 2/5
Interface Design and Ease of use (web based application, wiziwig interface etc)
WebDeva 3/5
Weebly 3/5
Homestead 3/5
Site2You 2/5
EDirectHost 2/5
SiteCube 1/5
Site Maker Live 3/5
Yola 1/5
Site and Menu Templates: variety, design, editability
WebDeva 7/8
Weebly 5/8
Homestead 6/8
Site2You 4/8
EDirectHost 7/8
SiteCube 2/8
Site Maker Live 6/8
Yola 3/8
Available Elements, modules and functionality.
(use of third party functionality eg. scripts, widgets and partnerships is not included)
WebDeva 32/44
Weebly 20/44
Homestead 27/44
Site2You 27/44
EDirectHost 39/44
SiteCube 13/44
Site Maker Live 27/44
Yola 15/44
Permissions
WebDeva 2/2
Weebly 1/2
Homestead 1/2
Site2You 1/2
EDirectHost 2/2
SiteCube 0/2
Site Maker Live 2/2
Yola 1/2
E-Commerce Support
(use of third party functionality eg. scripts, widgets and partnerships is not included)
WebDeva 6/9
Weebly 0/9
Homestead 8/9
Site2You 4/9
EDirectHost 8/9
SiteCube 1/9
Site Maker Live 0/9
Yola 0/9
E-Commerce Payment Options
WebDeva 5/9
Weebly 3/9
Homestead 3/9
Site2You 1/9
EDirectHost 6/9
SiteCube 1/9
Site Maker Live 1/9
Yola 0/9
E-Commerce Shipping and Tax functionality.
WebDeva 3/5
Weebly 0/5
Homestead 4/5
Site2You 0/5
EDirectHost 5/5
SiteCube 0/5
Site Maker Live 0/5
Yola 0/5
Reporting
(use of third party functionality eg. scripts, widgets and partnerships is not included)
WebDeva 2/6
Weebly 0/6
Homestead 1/6
Site2You 0/6
EDirectHost 4/6
SiteCube 0/6
Site Maker Live 0/6
Yola 0/6
Marketing tools (cross selling, promotional functionality)
WebDeva 5/9
Weebly 0/9
Homestead 1/9
Site2You 0/9
EDirectHost 2/9
SiteCube 0/9
Site Maker Live 1/9
Yola 0/9
SEO support and tools
WebDeva 6/6
Weebly 1/6
Homestead 1/6
Site2You 2/6
EDirectHost 5/6
SiteCube 0/6
Site Maker Live 2/6
Yola 0/6
Back Office Support
WebDeva 11/19
Weebly 0/19
Homestead 0/19
Site2You 2/19
EDirectHost 12/19
SiteCube 1/19
Site Maker Live 1/19
Yola 0/19
In summary:
WebDeva has particular strengths in Marketing tools and SEO support and tools, has a robust e-commerce feature set and with the exception of one competitor (EDirect) they offer the most variety and depth of site elements and feature sets. Their weekness is in reporting. Although they offer 4 types of traffic report they do not offer reports on site searches or sales. However they are planning to add this functionality this year. They are also the only application of its type to offer a complete set of features for white label customers.
Weebly's great strength is their attractive site editing interface. However a notable shortage of key site elements and functionality, e-commerce support, seo or back office support, make this a poor choice for
professional use.
Homestead is one of the most compelling players in this market. Owned by Intuit they have excellent customer service for their retail customer, and offer a very good range of modules and features to this retail customer. Their support for the wholesale customer is poor and they offer no provisions for white label resellers at all.
Site2You has a fair functional offering for retail customers looking for a basic flyer / business card style web site. But lacks the breadth or depth to appeal to a professional audience.
EDirectHost is the most impressive overall offering. They score well in almost every category except, 'ease of setup' and 'functional support for white label customers'.
SiteCube has a fair functional offering for retail customers looking for a basic flyer / business card style web site. But lacks the breadth or depth to appeal to a professional audience.
Site Maker Live scores very well in its variety and editability of templates and themed sites. They offer an above average range of site elements and features but do not offer any ecommerce support, marketing or seo tools, back office support or reports. They do have a somewhat popular white label solution but appeal primarily to the type of reseller who has a retail rather than professional customer base.
Yola has a basic functional offering for retail customers looking for a rudamentary flyer / business card style web site. However it lacks the breadth or depth to appeal to a professional audience.
The feature matrix upon which this is based is a living document, constantly being updated and can be found here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Au6D7fvreilydGlRQ1ZLUkdiUkRTYnRqLUdYRm1PVnc&hl=en&output=html
Both the feature matrix and this analysis may at times become 'out of date'. Please feel free to Contact Us if you are the product manager of a product and would like to provide additional information for us to add or update either or both of these documents.
