With the advent of technology, it has become imperative for business owners to venture into the online space if they want to keep up (if not ahead) with their competition.
Now there are 2 ways to go about this — either you build your own professional website (which would require lots of coding knowledge, experience and patience) or hire a web developer (who would do the job quicker but would charge a premium). As disheartening as this sounds, fret not, as there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
What if we told you that you can have a professional looking website and run your online business without any coding knowledge and the assistance of a web developer?
Sounds too good to be true?
In this the article, we’ll take you through some web development platforms from which you can build your professional looking website without any coding knowledge suited for all businesses.
WordPress
Being the world’s most popular website building platform, WordPress is a blogging platform developed in PHP language and it supports building your website on your own server. Numerous websites on the internet are powered by WordPress as it is commonly used as a content management system to set up a commercial website. There are 2 versions of it available— WordPress.org and WordPress.com, both with their distinctive features. Being a free and open source website development platform means that you have maximum control over your website compared to any others.
What’s Hot?
- Complete control on every aspect of your website.
- Can be used to build any kind of website (e-Commerce, Personal website, social networking website etc.
- Variety of ready-made WordPress themes that you can use for your website’s design.
- Add-ons like Beaver Builder and Divi allow you to easily create your own page layouts.
- Access to more than 55,000 free WordPress plugins for additional features and functionality.
- One of the cheapest web development platforms in the market.
What’s Not?
- Full control means you will solely manage your own website and will have to get acquainted with a new system.
- Keeping up to date with WordPress updates, plugin updates, and much more.
- Cannot install custom plugins or themes until you upgrade to the business plan.
- Basic plans do not have e-Commerce features.
Shopify
Shopify is a popular e-Commerce web development platform which offers you to create a website and use their shopping cart solution to sell, ship, and manage your products. Using their service, you can get access to easy to use admin panel where you can add products, process orders and enter store data and do much more. It is designed specifically for online stores and e-Commerce websites.
What’s Hot?
- All-in-one fully hosted solution.
- Offers integrated payment solution called Shopify Payments and add can add third-party payment gateways.
- Hundreds of design templates to choose from with intuitive drag and drop interface.
- Offers in-store POS enabling you to sell products at your location, while accepting all credit cards.
- Enables integration into WordPress.
What’s Not?
- Pricing is a bit higher than some other web development platforms.
- Moving your website away from Shopify will be a tedious task.
Wix
Wix is a cloud based platform which is user friendly and comes with a set of powerful features enabling you to build your website very easily.
What’s Hot?
- Fully hosted platform.
- Access to a large variety of templates to choose from for designing your website.
- Comes with dozens of free and paid apps which can be installed on your website.
- Offers a free plan with limited bandwidth and storage.
- Free SSL with all Wix plans.
What’s Not?
- Wix ads will be displayed on your website.
- Upgrade to Combo or Unlimited plan to remove those ads.
- Moving your website away from Wix, will be a complicated procedure.
GoDaddy Website Builder
GoDaddy Website Builder is a simple tool to create professional websites, without any coding knowledge. With GoDaddy Website Builder, you can make your website as simple or complex as you’d like.
What’s Hot?
- Simple and easy to use.
- Pre-loaded items that you can drag and drop to build different layouts.
- Integrated photo library from Getty Images to upload on your website.
- Mobile friendly enables you to work on the go.
- Hosting Included.
What’s Not?
- Offers a limited set of features.
- Lacks flexibility unlike other website builders.
- Limited design options.
- Complicated procedure to move your website to WordPress.
Although there are many more out there available in the market, we have handpicked those ones which are easy to use and suitable for all business types. Our personal recommendation for beginners is to get started with WordPress, but if you’re looking to build a robust and customized website, feel free to contact us for any queries.
