Author: onetop10.com

Lightspeed offers powerful POS systems for the retail and restaurant industries, with a greater focus on retail in the US. Whether you use Lightspeed Delivery for your restaurant or Lightspeed eCom to sell products, you’ll get the same level of detail and functionality. Accounting integration with Quickbooks takes just a few clicks. You can also manage special orders and discounts from your Mac or iPad and include special touches like branded receipts.

Pros

• Original analysis of product, sales and employee management.
• There are no setup fees

Cons

• High monthly costs
• Customer complaints about software failures

Here’s Why Successful Businesses Choose Lightspeed

“We’ve been using Lightspeed since it was first introduced. The company is fantastic to work with small businesses and really care about small businesses. The software continues to evolve and seems to get better and better with each update. I would recommend it to any small business that wants to be as efficient as possible and wants an outlet that can grow with them.”

– Ray’s Bike Shop

“Lightspeed Restaurant is extremely easy to use and offers excellent customer and technical support. “Lightspeed has many POS formatting options, which is a plus for any restaurant.”

– Hive Café Solidarity Cooperative

“Lightspeed is like your most important employee. Manages your entire business for you. Now I can focus on what Exclucity will be like in 5 years, 10 years. I am 1000% confident that we will continue to expand and grow.”

– Exclusivity

Why Go With Lightspeed

Lightspeed is a business management tool for the retail and service industries as well as a powerful POS system. A restaurant POS allows you to create floor plans to match your restaurant’s seating plan, control access to the system among your staff members, and the ability to create and edit your menu online. You can print your orders anywhere and send information seamlessly from your front desk to the kitchen. Special features for different types of businesses are what set Lightspeed apart; for example, the integration of bar accounts for nightclubs or the separation of accounts for cafes and restaurants.

What’s On Offer

While some platforms serve only one industry, Lightspeed has many different functions for different industries. That means the roles available can vary widely, from retail to restaurants, and even within specific verticals within each industry. They include:

LightSpeed Retail.

• Import your shares to the online platform with one click
• Create discount codes
• Use tables to update product data
• HD product display
• Choose from customizable eCommerce templates
• Create points-based reward systems with Lightspeed Loyal
• Allow customers to create wish lists
• Arrange deliveries through eCom back office
• Integrates with shipping apps like EasyPost and Shipstation
• Improve marketing with integrated SEO tools
• Create newsletters and send email alerts
• Websites are available in up to 14 languages
• Track performance with weekly sales reports

Lightspeed Retail is generally best suited for businesses with physical inventory that is sold in whole units. Businesses whose products are priced by weight (such as candy stores, soft drinks, and gas stations) or sold in fractional quantities (such as fabric stores) have proven to be less compatible with Lightspeed, as have resale shops (which product has no skus). ) and service-based companies (those with no physical inventory).

Lightspeed Retail typically works best with the following types of businesses:

• Clothes and clothing stores
• Sellers of sports goods and shoes.
• Gift, toy and hobby shops.
• Vape and smoke shops
• Wine and liquor stores
• electronic stores
• Jewelry stores and jewelry repair companies.
• Pet stores and pet supply stores.
• Home decoration and furniture stores.
• Any other business with physical products sold in firm units.

Lightspeed Restaurant:

• Create custom menus with photos and menu descriptions.
• Adjust floor plans so everyone can see them
• The kitchen screen allows you to create visible kitchen plans
• Create individual staff profiles
• Process pick-up and delivery orders
• Access data, menu and ordering system from mobile devices
• Monitor progress with real-time reports
• Create individual staff reports to track hours and performance.
• Get an overview of sales and cash register activity with end-of-day reports

No matter what you use Lightspeed for, you can expect many more features, including:

• Multiple bidding options
• Inventory management with extensive customization to individual product/part inventory tracking. You can also group products for group product sales and promotions.
• Purchase order management to track suppliers and purchase orders, product management, shipping corrections and warranty/customer return events.
• Employee management with key employee time clocks, employee sales, customizable roles, and more
• CRM functionality to better engage current customers, prevent churn, manage customer data, and more.
• Work order management
• Versatility for location and transport between warehouses, plus mobile POS/kiosk functionality for trade show events.
• There are also various integrations including QuickBooks, Xero, NimbleSchedule, Booxi and MailSync or MailChimp.

Additional Lightspeed POS integrations and add-ons include:

• Accounting program
• Loyalty rewards to integrate with CRM related software to track and reward customer behavior.
• Scheduling online employee time tracking, including vacation time requests and shift changes.
• E-commerce integration so you can use your own web store to sync data between platforms
• Rental management for retailers that rent equipment such as bicycles or tools.
• Email marketing to use platforms like MailChimp to drive customer engagement and drive return purchases.

More Reasons to Choose Lightspeed

Lightspeed is technically a cloud-based POS platform that is hosted on Lightspeed services and automatically syncs with every device you use. If you are using a desktop device, you can also access Lightspeed through the browser interface. This is not necessary if you prefer a mobile or tablet experience. The iOS app can be downloaded to your iPad to use as a POS device.

Either way, you’ll need additional hardware to pay, including a cash register and printer, as well as integration with a retail barcode scanner. Because it can work in both formats, Lightspeed sells all peripherals in bundles if you don’t have one on hand. This includes your choice of iPad POS Kit (drawer, stand, plug-in scanner, receipt printer; iPad not included) or Desktop POS Kit, which includes painting, USB scanner and printer. Like the iPad, you must have your own computer.

Because of the browser interface, you don’t have to use Apple’s desktop products. This gives you more freedom in the environment in which you work.

Ease of Use

Both front-end registration and back-end management tools are very easy to use. Like many iPad solutions, it’s beautifully designed and involves a very small learning curve. You will be guided through the desktop or iPad software to add inventory and manage payments. There are also many customization options for inventory, analysis and design. The iPhone app is also easy to use, although you can’t use it to accept payments.

Whether you’re working tables with guests or serving a long line of customers at a big event, you want your POS to work effortlessly. Lightspeed offers an extremely intuitive design that is easy to operate on both the front and back.

Since it’s primarily browser-based, installation and setup is a simple step-by-step process with a wizard that walks you through the setup from start to finish. Control functions are strategically grouped by category on the back, making all important information easily accessible instead of being buried in multiple menus.

Whether you’re working on the front or the back, the buttons are easy to push with clear, concise instructions on functionality and progress through the sales process. It is almost impossible to get lost in the menus. From product management to employee management, this POS platform is easy to customize and use… and fun to work with. Once you get the hang of it, it feels effortless.

What’s Unique About Lightspeed?

Lightspeed comes with hundreds of pre-made printable reports that you can customize as you like based on date. Reporting is essential to running a business, and Lightspeed definitely delivers. The platform allows you to view total revenue or margin profit, track the effectiveness of promotions, schedule and assign tasks to employees, perform day-ends and much more. Lightspeed’s advanced reporting features include a variety of responsive widgets so you can create a visual dashboard of the elements most important to running your business. In addition, any report can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet.

In addition to advanced reporting, it also offers opportunities to sell services alongside physical products. This extends the use of Lightspeed beyond retail to any service-oriented environment, such as oil change shops or any other business with service and repair orders.

Customer Support

Lightspeed has 24/7 support through its toll-free phone number and contact form, as well as live chat. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and you’ll get absolutely free installation help, as well as free updates with all the support you need to learn any new features. With secure cloud backup, you’ll never risk losing customer data or important inventory information.

Pricing (Software and Hardware)

*Prices are for annual payments. If you choose to pay monthly, the rates will increase.

All Lightspeed retail plans include a POS system with payment terminals, while benefits begin to accumulate with the starter plan. For example, the Starter, Standard, Advanced, and Professional plans all include e-commerce capabilities. The top 3 tier plans (Standard, Advanced, and Professional) also include accounting tools, while higher tiers also include customer loyalty tools and analytics.
Restaurant POS is offered at a basic price, although users have the option to add upgrades such as customer-facing displays, advanced reporting, and self-ordering table menus. Premium add-ons include accounting, loyalty apps, self-service kiosks and delivery integrations.

Contract Terms

Lightspeed has a free 14-day trial so you can try out the POS before committing, making sure it’s the right solution for you, and then you’ll be offered a long-term contract to get the lowest prices on a monthly basis. The standard term is 14 months. For hardware, Lightspeed offers its own 30-day warranty, which is then rolled over to the manufacturer’s warranty.

Bottom Line

Lightspeed wins with features, with specific systems for retail and restaurants, as well as specialized options for subcategories of the restaurant industry, such as cafes or bars. You can choose your own powerful integrations from over 250 partners and purchase all-in-one hardware solutions directly.

If you need to balance an efficient and intuitive interface with high functionality for front and back of house, Lightspeed is a great choice. If you are a small business or a startup, this is probably not the right option due to the high cost.

SITE123 isn’t the most powerful website builder we’ve used, but it gets beginners online quickly. Its section-based editor is extremely simplistic yet intuitive, and you can base your design on any of hundreds of templates. The integrated ecommerce, marketing, and blogging tools are all functional, but don’t expect them to be overly powerful; The prices are fair and the forever free plan lets you try out most of the features.

PROS

• Very easy to use
• Excellent support
• Competitive price

CONS

• The editor is a bit limited.
• Unable to add custom code

SITE123 Video Review

Overview

SITE123 is a simple website building platform that has been in the space since 2015. It has quickly become a leading choice and is known for its easy-to-use and fast website building solutions.

Creating a website with SITE123 is a simple process and there are plenty of video tutorials and articles to help you get started. Consider this platform if you’re looking for a simple, beginner-friendly website builder, but look elsewhere if you need decent design flexibility, advanced eCommerce tools, or powerful marketing integrations.

 

How SITE123 Works

Getting started with SITE123 is easy. You’ll be asked what type of site you want to create, what it’s called, and a name, email address, and password to create an account. You can also sign in with Google or Facebook.

The admin panel is a bit clunky and the overall design feels a bit dated. But the expected tools are available and the navigation is intuitive. The editor is fast and responsive and we had no problems using it.

SITE123 Features and tools

Site123 offers a number of remarkable features that you can take advantage of when creating your new website, whether for personal use or to create your online store.

Plugins

There is a selection of plugins that you can use to integrate with third-party platforms or add additional features to your site. Most of them are free, but some of them will require you to pay.

Free domain name

All premium subscriptions of 12 months or more come with a free domain name for the first year.

Multilingual support

All SITE123 websites include multilingual support. Hundreds of languages are supported, and you can display your site in any combination of up to five of them.

How to Create a Website with SITE123

To open a new site, log into your SITE123 account and click the “New Site” button at the top right of the screen. Follow the instructions and wait a few seconds to be redirected to the editor. So far, so good.

There are 189 templates to base your site on and you can switch between them by clicking the Templates button at the top right of the editor. All designs are fully responsive and mobile-friendly, but you won’t be able to change themes once your website is published.

SITE123 uses a basic section-based editor

Pre-designed blocks can be added or removed from each page, allowing you to add the elements you need. There are different layouts available for each block, but you cannot create your own custom layout.

Because of this, the editor is very easy to use and great for beginners, but the flexibility of the layout is certainly below the standard we would like to see. You can preview mobile, desktop, and tablet versions of your site, although it can only be edited in desktop mode.

Despite its reputation as a beginner-friendly website builder, SITE123 does not provide any real guidance in the website building process. We would have liked to see some tips or an editor’s tour after our first entry, but there was none of that. Keyboard shortcuts are also missing and there is no layout assistant.

As a final note

As a final note,SITE123 does not allow site exports. This means that you can’t leave the platform and take your website (or at least its code) somewhere else.

Overall, SITE123 lived up to our expectations. It markets itself as a beginner-friendly web builder, and it really is. You won’t have access to advanced editing tools or a pixel-perfect drag-and-drop builder, but you will have what you need to get a beautiful website online with minimal fuss.

 

Adding Multimedia to Your SITE123 website

SITE123 allows you to add all popular image and video file types to your website. Add files to your media library by uploading them directly from your computer. Or connect to Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Flickr. You can also take pictures directly with your device’s camera.

However, you can only upload one media file at a time, and the maximum file upload size is 100MB. There is integration with the Unsplash media library, but there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to add videos hosted on YouTube or other video hosting platforms.

There’s also a basic image editor, but it’s disappointing and oversimplified. Overall, SITE123’s media management tools are good, but we’ve certainly seen better.

Marketing Functionality with SITE123 Websites

SITE123 includes email. There are templates available, but they are basic and customization is very limited.

There is also a blog section that you can add to any page of your website. The blog manager is extremely basic and you will have very limited post design and customization options. You can add media links to your site, but there are no other social media tools to speak of.

Both blogging and email marketing come with basic reporting tools.

SEO Functionality and Add-Ons with SITE123 Websites

SITE123 offers basic SEO tools that you can use to improve your search engine ranking. The SEO Advisor can be accessed through the Settings menu in the main admin panel. It allows you to add home page meta tags, sitemap, favicon and custom domain name. You can also set up 301 redirects if needed.

The built-in SEO audit tool can be used to identify simple issues such as a lack of effective page description or title tags. Google Analytics integration is available, but the built-in analytics tools are quite limited.

Ecommerce

SITE123’s eCommerce website builder is ideal for anyone who wants to sell online and wants to use one builder tool that can do it all. SITE123 allows users to create template-based websites, create 301 redirects to ensure old URLs point to new ones, and even includes settings to optimize mobile versions.

Currency Support & Payment Processing

Currency support and payment processing
More than 80 currencies are supported by SITE123’s e-commerce capabilities.

SITE123 integrates with 3 payment gateways:

• 2 Pay
• the brain
• Strip

Users can connect Paypal and bank accounts to receive money.

SITE123 does not charge any transaction fees, but payment gateways do.

SITE123 Customer Support

offers 24/7 live chat support, but email and phone options are noticeably absent. A selection of self-help resources is available through the SITE123 Support Center. These include detailed video tutorials, well-written how-to guides, and various other informative articles. We’d like to see more integrated advice, but the support resources on offer are generally excellent.

SITE123 Pricing

Pricing & Special Offers

In addition to the limited free forever plan, there are 4 subscription options ranging from $12.80 per month to $34.80 for a 12-month term. Monthly payments are not available and prices are significantly higher with a minimum 3 month term. Introductory discounts are available from time to time and you can avail bigger discounts for 24 months, 36 months, 60 months and 120 months.

Bottom Line

SITE123 offers excellent website building solutions for those with little experience in the industry. Its intuitive, beginner-friendly editor allows users to connect immediately. Design flexibility is limited, but there is a decent selection of attractive templates and designs on which to base your site.

The integrated blogging, ecommerce, and marketing tools are pretty basic, but the basics are there. Prices are around the industry average and customer service is decent. Overall, we suggest you try SITE123 if you want to develop an online presence with the least amount of hassle.

Toast is designed with restaurants in mind, keeping all your tech components in one place for a stellar, efficient selling point that makes running your restaurant easy. With the recently released Toast Payroll & Team Management product, Toast offers a complete business solution.

Pros

• Pay on the table to turn tables quickly
• Built with restaurants in mind
• Easy-to-use and personalized Android tablets

Cons

• High setup/monthly costs
• Own equipment required

Restaurateurs Are Raving

“Our tipping has doubled since we implemented the ‘Toast’ guest displays, just like I knew it would. . . . This is one of those times where technology has really provided a financial opportunity for the business.”

Jeff Good, managing partner of Broad Street and president of Mangia Bene Inc.

“We’ve saved 15% to 20% annually by not having to pay for multiple platforms…when I bought it over the course of a year, we would have saved several thousand dollars just by moving everything to Toast Payroll. . ”

John Rhodes, CEO of Alto Pizza Kitchen and Bar

“Without toast, it would be much more difficult to achieve the volume we see at lunch. We could do 100 to 200 posts in a few hours. Kitchen displays have helped us reach that level of service.”

Brad Gillis, co-founder of Homegrown

How It Works

Toast is a completely web-based platform where all information is stored in the cloud. LAN is required for client functionality. All POS data, mainly your menu and local settings, is downloaded and stored separately on connected devices. This allows your POS system to function even if your broadband connection is interrupted.

No need for WiFi as the devices are connected at the point of sale. however, portable mobile tablets that require WiFi are available. Printing is done via local network. In the event of an outage, all credit card transactions are queued locally and then processed in batches when the connection is restored.

The basic hardware package offered is the terminal package, which includes a receipt printer, tablet, stand and credit card reader, with additional routers and kitchen printers sold separately. You can also purchase a mobile device or portable tablet package that allows you to order and pay right at the table.

Toast doesn’t use iOS integration and is powered by Android instead. For their hardware packages, they offer Elo tablets that their operations team installs and configures in advance. So all customers have official Toast hardware, ensuring higher quality technical support should a problem arise.

Reporting

From standard sales reports to labor, product mix, tips and more, there are many reports available.

Summary reporting is the most powerful, including net sales, gratuities, gratuities, table turns, a complete breakdown of all your service types, and guest counts. It’s a scannable dashboard that provides an overview of a manager or owner’s needs when they’re too busy walking around the plant to quickly review individual reports. If you want to drill down on any of the gauges, you can do so with a simple tap.

Ease of Use

Even if you didn’t have a Toast representative by your side to help you through setup and training, it would be ridiculously easy to learn this system. Despite the incredible array of features built into Toast, you can still master enough to get your business up and running in a matter of hours. It’s not hard to learn, and the initial 30-60 minutes of training you get will go a long way in helping you get the hang of it, even without technical knowledge.

Cost and Contracts

The Toast starter pack is free and ideal for small restaurants that only need one or two terminals. The Essential package, which includes online services like digital ordering and the Toast Takeout app, starts at $165 a month. Pricing plans are also available, but you’ll need to call a Toast representative.

This is where you need to think about the product’s return on investment and decide whether a more efficient operation with such a robust platform will help you run a cleaner store, turn tables faster, and therefore pay for itself. If you can get it to work as intended, the price isn’t too bad.

For restaurants who anticipate needing more than 6 terminals, we recommend speaking with a representative about custom pricing based on volume.

• $25/month to add loyalty program access
• $50/month to create and use physical and digital gift cards
• $50/month for integrated online orders

Fortunately, contracts are not binding. Financing is available with flexible payment options, so you don’t have to pay the full cost of the equipment upfront, which would likely require you to sign a contract for the equipment. Consult your representative regarding financing requirements and terms.

Features and Add-ons

It’s surprising how much Toast includes, given the simplicity of the interface and intuitive design. For example:

• Simplify ordering with tabletop terminals or order tableside with mobile tablets
• Digital receipts emailed to customers (a great way to capture email addresses)
• Fully customizable menu groups are categorized into smaller menus, such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and further categorized into sub-menu groups, such as appetizers, salads, main courses, kids, and more. The menu modification system is amazingly detailed, giving you a lot of control over your menu
• Native CRM features for customer management and remarketing
• Employee management for work and scheduling.
• Behind the times
• Loyalty programs

Toast Payroll & Team Management

Toast can help you streamline operations with its team management and payroll platform built specifically for restaurants.

What do you get with Toast Payroll and Team Management?

• Payroll that syncs with POS
• Automatic distribution of reminders
• Hours synchronized with wages
• Accurate payments
• Tools to help you comply with changing regulations

Bottom Line

Toast is a true full-service POS system for restaurants that allows you to manage your entire restaurant from a single interface. The feature-rich platform impresses on every level and runs on Android instead of iOS. This makes it cheaper and more versatile, and a great option for restaurants that prefer not to invest in Apple products.

Jimdo helps you create a custom site with text, photos, and other details tailored to your industry in just 3 minutes. Dolphin is used by entrepreneurs, musicians, photographers, and even people who simply want to share their stories and inspiration. The company has more than 200 employees in Hamburg, the Netherlands and Tokyo, and its tool has been used to create more than 25 million websites.

PROS

• Very easy to use
• Excellent support
• Competitive price:

CONS

• The editor is a bit limited.
• Can’t add custom code

How Jimdo Works

imdo is a website builder and hosting service based in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 2007 and has gone through several iterations of its website builder. In the most recent iteration, Jimdo has done away with templates and uses AI to help you launch a new website.

Jimdo is best suited for those who want to build a custom website as quickly as possible. It’s also fairly inexpensive and a good budget option if you don’t mind giving up some control over your website design.

Using Jimdo

Designing a website with Jimdo is quick and easy. It uses an automated site designer to help you get started, then you can customize your site in sections of the page rather than content element by content element. While this doesn’t give you much flexibility, it’s ideal for getting up and running as quickly as possible.

Jimdo Features and Tools

Web Hosting

All Jimdo plans include web hosting, although storage and bandwidth limits vary by plan. You also get a free SSL certificate and a free domain for 1 year with paid plans.

Logo designer
Jimdo has a logo designer to help you brand your online business. Just enter your business name and category and will immediately suggest a logo design. There are several options for customizing your design, and you can download the final product as an SVG file.

How to Create a Website with Jimdo

The process of creating a website with Jimdo is a little different than with other website builders. Instead of choosing a template, you’ll answer questions about your business and the types of pages you want to include on your site. Based on this, Jimdo will use AI to offer several personalized website options. Just choose the one you like the most to start customizing it with the page editor.

Jimdo does not allow you to drag and drop individual content elements such as text boxes or images onto your pages. Rather, you can only add page blocks, each containing multiple content elements. For example, a block can include an image and text box, a banner, or a gallery. Jimdo has dozens of pre-made blocks, so it’s easy to quickly build your site’s content. You have very little control over the layout of each block, although you can show or hide individual content elements within blocks.

Notably, Jimdo also doesn’t give you much control over your site’s styles; You can customize your color palette, fonts, and button shape, but that’s about it. There are no options to modify the block tab, navigation bar layout, or your site’s footer. All Jimdo sites are mobile responsive, but you can’t easily customize the look of your mobile site.

Jimdo’s approach to website design will appeal much more to those who want to get up and running quickly than to those who want tight control over their website design. It’s easy to create a custom website in minutes, but your options for creating a unique look or layout are very limited.

Adding Multimedia to Your Jimdo Website

Jimdo lets you import images and videos from your computer, Facebook, and Instagram. If you choose to import images when you first create your site, AI Designer will include them in the sites it recommends for you. Jimdo stores all your images in a media library, making it easy to add alt text and reuse them anywhere on your site.

Jimdo also lets you add audio to your site via a Spotify or iTunes link. However, there is no way to add documents or PDF files.

Marketing Functionality with Jimdo Websites

Jimdo has very few marketing features. You can import pictures and videos from social media, but you can’t automatically publish your website updates to your social media pages. Additionally, Jimdo does not support blogging or any email marketing or newsletter tools.

SEO Functionality & Add-Ons with Jimdo Websites

Paid Jimdo sites include SEO tools that help your site get discovered by Google. All sites are optimized for mobile devices and you can click to have your site re-indexed by Google after making major changes. Additionally, you can edit the meta titles and descriptions for all your pages. even offers personalized tips to help you maximize your website’s SEO potential.

Jimdo does not offer its own analytics tools; Instead, the platform offers instructions on how to integrate with Google Analytics to monitor your website statistics.

Ecommerce

Jimdo is one of the cheapest platforms to build an eCommerce website. We don’t love the e-commerce features, but they work well enough for mainstream storefronts.

You can design products using the same page editor as the rest of your website. In fact, products are just a type of block that you can add to any page. That gives you some flexibility, but it also means that doesn’t let you add SKUs or track inventory. You also may not sell digital downloads or organize products into categories that visitors can search for or filter.

That said, has some handy store features. The business plan allows you to sell products on Facebook and Instagram, as well as create discount codes and product options. You can also set custom shipping rules.

Jimdo Customer Support

Jimdo offers 24/7 customer support via email only. The company offers different levels of feedback according to your plan; Grow, Basic, and Business customers can expect a response in less than 4 hours, while Play and Start customers can wait 1-2 days for a response.

Jimdo has a detailed online support center, but it doesn’t include many screenshots or video tutorials. Additionally, a large number of support articles refer to an outdated version of the website builder.

Jimdo Pricing

Jimdo offers 5 plan options, including a free plan. Three of the plans are for basic websites, while 2 are for e-commerce sites. All plans except the free plan include a free domain for 1 year. Plus, all plans are paid annually and come with a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Jimdo vs Wix

Wix is one of the most flexible web builders available and has a huge selection of content elements. It’s ideal if you want to have complete control over the design of your website, although it can take a lot longer compared to Jimdo. Wix has a much wider range of ecommerce and marketing tools compared to , but its ecommerce plans start at $23 per month.

Jimdo vs WordPress.com

While Jimdo doesn’t support bloggers, WordPress.com is designed primarily for bloggers. All WordPress.com paid plans allow you to sell products, and more advanced plans allow you to place paid ads on your blog. However, WordPress.com is much more expensive than if you want to sell internationally or access plugins for marketing and SEO.

Jimdo vs Squarespace

Squarespace offers a significant degree of design flexibility and control, which sets it apart from Jimdo. Additionally, Squarespace’s tools for online stores, email marketing, and blogging are much more in-depth than what offers. Expect to pay for advanced features, though. Squarespace plans start at $12 per month and eCommerce plans start at $26 per month.

Bottom Line

Jimdo is a user-friendly website builder that uses AI to create a personalized website for you in minutes. It’s a good option if you want to launch a website or online store as quickly as possible. Jimdo is also cheap compared to other website builders, and you can get started for free with the Play plan.

The downside to is that you give up a significant amount of creative freedom. You can’t drag and drop individual content elements, and the style customization options are pretty limited. also lacks many marketing features and does not support blogs. So it’s best suited for website builders who want to prioritize value and don’t mind keeping things simple.

Thrive describes itself as a results-driven digital marketing agency. And when it comes to designing websites, the team is certainly not afraid to roll up their sleeves. The list of websites you can design includes ADA compliant websites as well as eCommerce builds. The team also offers web hosting so everything you need to get online can be bought under one roof.

Pros

• Web hosting is also offered
• ADA Compliant Website Design
• Content writing plugin

Cons

• Custom builds can take up to 8 weeks or more

Thrive Agency Web Design Examples

Thrive has an excellent portfolio of client designs available for users to explore on their website. On its site, users can try a number of different layouts from categories including nutrition, finance, health, education, technology and entertainment.

In addition, the Thrive team has prepared a detailed description of the process involved in each project, as well as the results obtained. For the latest release, the company showed an increase in email conversion rates, an increase in pageviews, and a jump in email conversion rates. Prospective clients should check out some of the featured projects to get an idea of what the Thrive team can do for them.

What Services and Features Does Thrive Offer

Thrive can design both traditional and e-commerce enabled websites. The agency is listed on Clutch, a popular review aggregator and agency listing site, and has received favorable ratings for various services.

Within its web design product vertical, Thrive offers:

Custom Website Design

Thrive can design completely custom builds and start from a template. For templates, users can add their own content around a basic skeleton created with HTML and CSS and change properties such as color, font style, and images. The agency has experience building websites on WordPress and Shopify, but is particularly experienced in designing WordPress websites. To date, the team has designed over 350 websites for clients.

Ecommerce Site Design

Additionally, the team can design websites for companies that need to sell online. These sites can be equipped with full online sales features, including commerce, payment gateway integration, and of course, shopping cart and checkout functions. The company specializes in using Shopify, a very easy-to-maintain marketplace, to create efficient, easy-to-design e-commerce websites.

ADA Compliance

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) sets a voluntary compliance standard for websites that are accessible to blind people. By creating an ADA-compliant website, users can be confident that they are creating online content that is accessible to everyone. Thrive uses an advanced AI-powered tool to ensure websites are built with accessibility in mind.

In addition, for users who want to go the extra mile and enrich their website with a more professional input, Thrive also offers the following additional services:

Video production. Thrive works with a Dallas video production studio to offer clients high-quality video content. For users who want to enhance their pages with a rich multimedia experience, this can give websites an impressive advantage. The range of projects available for viewing on Thrive’s show tape includes a commercial for a dust removal tool and an explainer animation.

Website Hosting

Getting an attractive website is only half the battle. That site needs to be hosted somewhere in order for it to reach visitors. The good news is that you don’t have to worry about understanding the difference between VPS and shared hosting. Thrive offers managed WordPress hosting with uptime and fast page load times. By signing up for web hosting and design, users can truly get everything they need to build a website under one convenient roof.

Prices, Plans and Value for Money

Thrive does not list prices on its website and users should contact the team for a final quote. However, some common stages are as follows:
Template-based websites take an average of 4-6 weeks to complete, while e-commerce sites can be completed in 10-14 weeks. Customers get 2 full rounds of quote price reviews.

Ease of Use

Working with Thrive is a simple process for customers. The team can receive creative briefs via email or any other means convenient for the client. After specifying the desired design, in an in-depth collaborative process, all clients are entitled to 2 (full) reviews to ensure that the site they end up with meets their expectations.

What People Say About Thrive

“These guys are unbelievable. “They’ve helped us grow our business, and now the biggest problem we face is having too much business.”

Whitney Wells Lewis, PARC Urology Practice Director

“Working with the Thrive team was a very pleasant experience.

Chad Montgomery, CEO of Accurate Leak and Line

“Thrive is honest, direct, takes care of ALL your needs quickly, is reliable, you can count on them, and most of all, does everything they say they will do.”

Marci Wiersma, Broker, Roatán Real Estate

FAQs

Can Thrive write content for my website?
Yes, Thrive also offers a content writing service. The team handles on-site copywriting and blogging. All content is SEO optimized.

How does Thrive receive reports?
The company receives reports from clients in a collaborative and in-depth process.

Can Thrive build an eCommerce website for my business?
Yes, Thrive can build both traditional and eCommerce enabled websites.

Bottom Line

Thrive is a US-based agency with a reputation for being client-focused and building great websites. To date, the team has built over 300 websites and offers template-based and fully custom designs. Customers receive 2 full rounds of reviews and can browse a selection of past projects online.

IONOS MyWebsite is a powerful and affordable website builder for small businesses. It offers 2 versions of its site editor to cater for both beginners and advanced designers. Features like email and traffic analytics are standard, while an online store option offers inventory management and social media cross-selling. Overall, IONOS MyWebsite is a great option if you are a small business owner looking to grow your online presence.

PROS

• Very easy to use
• Excellent support
• Competitive price:

CONS

• The editor is a bit limited.
• Can’t add custom code

How IONOS by 1&1 Works

IONOS is a web host and domain registrar founded in 1988. The company offers everything from shared hosting to cloud computing. Its MyWebsite website builder includes shared hosting by IONOS with unlimited storage and bandwidth.

IONOS MyWebsite builder is built for small businesses. It offers website editors for both first-time and experienced designers, and sells tools that can help your business grow. It’s ideally suited for small businesses that want to build a large-scale online store, but don’t want to spend a fortune on a more advanced e-commerce-specific platform like Wix or Shopify.

Using IONOS

We found the overall experience Builder of using IONOS MyWebsite to be quite smooth. You can sign up, choose a template, and start designing, all in a few minutes.

The complexity of the editor will depend on whether you sign up for the beginner-friendly MyWebsite Now or the more advanced MyWebsite Creator editor. In any case, it’s easy to customize your template styles, drag and drop content elements, and preview your site.

Hosting

:
All IONOS MyWebsite plans include IONOS shared hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth. You also receive a free SSL certificate, a free domain name for one year, and 1 free email address on your domain.

Privacy Tools

IONOS helps you communicate to your visitors that you take privacy seriously. You can easily add a banner to your site explaining your cookie policy. Plus, any forms you add to your site are GDPR compliant by default.

How to Create a Website with IONOS

The process of building a website with IONOS MyWebsite starts with choosing a template. There are only 18 templates available, far fewer than comparable website builders. The designs are decent, although they can feel a little bland. You can change templates at any time, but if you do, you will have to restart the design process.

After choosing a template, you can customize it and add content elements to your site. How much control you have over this process depends on whether you choose MyWebsite Now or MyWebsite Creator.

With MyWebsite Now, you just have a little more flexibility to customize your website. You are limited to showing or hiding content elements within the blocks already present in your chosen template. You may not drag and drop new content elements onto your site or edit your site code.

With MyWebsite Creator, you can drag and drop content elements such as text boxes, images, buttons, shapes, and more. You can customize the layout of these elements and add effects such as a video background. MyWebsite Creator also allows you to edit your website’s CSS code so that users with coding experience can make more in-depth changes to the basic design.

Whichever editor you use, we found MyWebsite to be pretty straightforward. You can preview how your site will look on desktop, tablet and mobile devices, and it only takes one click to activate your site.

Overall, we were quite satisfied with the website development process for IONOS MyWebsite. We think most users will like the flexibility of MyWebsite Creator, although MyWebsite Now may be useful for first-time designers who want to get a website up and running as quickly as possible.

Adding Multimedia to Your IONOS Website

IONOS MyWebsite supports photos, videos, audio files and PDF files. You can upload files by simply clicking on an existing media content item. Files are stored in a content library, so it’s easy to reuse them on your site.

One thing we particularly liked about IONOS is that the platform automatically resizes images to optimize them for faster page loads. You also get access to thousands of free stock images to use on your website. Overall, the platform’s media management is pretty solid.

Marketing Functionality with IONOS Websites

IONOS offers several features for marketing your online business. First, all sites include a built-in email marketing tool that you can use to send newsletters to your contacts. It’s not the most customizable newsletter writer we’ve seen, but it’s pretty handy if you don’t want to pay for a third-party email marketing service.

MyWebsite Creator users also have an online meeting scheduling application. Although this application does not integrate with MyWebsite’s online store system, it can be of great help to small businesses that offer personalized services.

IONOS has good support for blogs, although you need to use MyWebsite Creator to create a blog. You can schedule posts ahead of time, create accounts for multiple bloggers, and aggregate your posts into an RSS feed. You can also easily promote your new posts on social media or in an email newsletter.

Finally, users of IONOS’ top-tier Pro plan can personalize the visitor experience based on how they got to your site, whether they’re visiting for the first time, and more. For example, you can place a coupon code on your home page that is visible to first-time visitors, but not to anyone else.

SEO Functionality & Add-Ons with IONOS Websites

IONOS MyWebsite offers strong SEO capabilities. To get started, you can add a meta title and description to every page on your site. You can also add alt text to images and videos to help search engines better catalog your site. In addition, MyWebsite optimizes your content, including images, so that your website loads as quickly as possible.

To analyze your visitor traffic, IONOS offers a built-in analytics tool. You can also integrate Google Analytics.

ECommerce

Using IONOS, users can get their e-commerce site online quickly without investing a lot of time getting involved in the small technical details of setting up their online storefronts. Users can choose between three subscription levels for eCommerce builders to suit their needs.

All eCommerce templates include drag and drop sections such as

• Fraud checker. Any major e-commerce site can be subject to fraudulent purchasing activity. IONOS has a fraud detection engine that helps store owners identify fraudulent transactions. Users can receive warnings if transactions trigger certain conditions, such as from certain IP addresses known to be botnets or representing malicious activity.
• Sales tax calculator. Tax rate changes are determined automatically. Additionally, users can set up their businesses as sales tax leads and mark specific customers as tax exempt.
• Multilingual shop. Users can submit different versions of their online stores in different languages.
• Instagram/Amazon/Ebay. Thanks to the app’s integrated solution, subscribers can sell through Amazon, eBay, and even Instagram purchases.
  

  Payment Processing

  Stores built with Builder can accept payments processed through PayPal as well as all major credit cards. Additional payment gateways can be configured depending on the store location. Some users may prefer to set up options like Stripe and Bitcoin.

Scalability

IONOS Ecommerce sites are also scalable, with features that allow users to expand their store as their business grows. This includes extensive inventory management (subscribers can add up to 10,000 products and electronics to their stores), customer wish lists and B2B support. Stores built with the IONOS website builder are based on expertly designed templates that are beginner-friendly and easy to use. Automatic tagging of sale items and drag-and-drop sections ensures that users can sell their inventory online without technical skills.

IONOS offers 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and live chat. You can also request a free personal advisor so you have a single point of contact for all questions about your website.

For DIY troubleshooting, IONOS offers a detailed online knowledge base with tutorials for both MyWebsite Now and MyWebsite Creator. The tutorials don’t have many screenshots or videos, but they are still quite complete.

IONOS by 1&1 Pricing

IONOS offers 3 plans: Starter, Plus and Pro. The Starter plan includes access to MyWebsite Now, while the Plus and Pro plans use the more advanced MyWebsite Creator software. You can add eCommerce functionality to any of the 3 plans for an additional fee.

All plans are billed annually and you can get a greatly reduced price for the first year. There is no free trial, but you can request a refund if you cancel within the first 30 days of your subscription.

IONOS vs GoDaddy

IONOS and GoDaddy are very similar when it comes to creating a small business website. GoDaddy offers slightly better tools for email marketing and online appointment booking, but we prefer IONOS’s e-commerce functionality. We think IONOS comes out on top if you are thinking about launching an online store.

IONOS vs Bluehost

IONOS offers a much smoother design process than Bluehost and more robust eCommerce features. That said, Bluehost is built on WordPress, so it’s worth looking into if you want to launch a blog rather than an online store.

IONOS vs Wix

Wix is more customizable than IONOS and offers paid apps to expand your eCommerce potential. However, it is also much more expensive than IONOS. Therefore, we believe that Wix is best suited for online businesses looking to increase their marketing and sales efforts, while IONOS is best for businesses just starting to sell online.

Bottom Line

IONOS MyWebsite is a powerful yet affordable website builder that offers many of the tools small businesses need. With this site builder, you can create a highly personalized website, market to customers with an email on your domain, and sell products online for local delivery or pickup. There are many things I like about IONOS MyWebsite, and we found some drawbacks for companies starting out in online sales.

That said, IONOS MyWebsite is not suitable for everyone. The platform doesn’t offer blogging functionality with its most basic plan and isn’t as scalable as an e-commerce-focused website builder like Wix. Overall, we think IONOS is best suited for businesses that want to expand their online presence and don’t want to spend a fortune to launch an online store.

Network Solutions offers a basic drag-and-drop website builder that lets you get your store online in minutes. It comes with over 150 professionally designed templates, a free domain, and a cheap introductory price. However, the site editor is very limited in scope and regular pricing can be prohibitively expensive. Overall, we think competing website builders offer a lot more bang for your buck, even if you only need a basic website for your store.

PROS

• Very easy to use
• Excellent support
• Competitively priced

CONS

• The editor is a bit limited
• Unable to add custom code

Overview

Founded in 1979, Network Solutions is recognized as the world’s first domain registrar. With over four decades of experience, the company has adapted to the changing Internet landscape and now serves as a comprehensive e-commerce platform. Offering web hosting, domain services, and an easy-to-use website builder, Network Solutions meets a variety of online needs.

While the Network Solutions website builder is suitable for basic websites, its pricing structure may deter users looking for more advanced design and marketing tools. Competitors like GoDaddy, WordPress.com, and iPage offer a broader range of features at a competitive price. However, Network Solutions remains a reliable option for people looking for reliable domain registration and web hosting services.

How Network Solutions Works

One of the first problems we found with Network Solutions is that the pricing structure is opaque. The website only shows the introductory price for the first month. To find the usual price, you should consult the Network Solutions terms of service.

However, once we got into the drag and drop editor, we found the interface to be easy to use. Network Solutions uses a content editing panel similar to those offered by other site builders. Adding and moving content is intuitive, and after designing a site, we can publish it with just one click.

Free Domain

All Network Solutions website building plans include a free domain for one year. It’s a good deal, although it’s worth noting that most other builders offer it too.

Professional Design Service

If you don’t want to spend time creating your own website, you can pay Network Solutions developers to do it for you. The company will create a website to your specifications and then you will have access to Network Solutions’ standard site builder to make changes and maintain your site over time.

How to Create a Website with Network Solutions

The first step to creating a website with Network Solutions is to choose a template. The platform offers more than 150 professionally designed templates, with categories for the most common business types. In fact, the templates were one of our favorite things about the Network Solution Builder. The only downside is that if you want to change templates later, you’ll have to restart your design from scratch.

Once you select a template, you’ll be taken to the drag-and-drop site editor. It’s quite intuitive to use, with a panel of content elements that you can drag onto your site. Content elements include basics like text boxes, images, videos, forms, and buttons, as well as more advanced elements like HTML snippets and image sliders. You can also modify the fonts and background colors of your template, although there aren’t many customization options available.

Notably, the Network Solutions builder also offers pre-designed blocks. These are full-width panels that contain multiple content elements. Blocks offer an easy way to design your site without needing to organize individual content elements, making them a great option for novice designers.

Network Solutions does not have a mobile editing interface, but all sites are mobile responsive. As you build your site, you can easily preview how it will look on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device.

Overall, we thought the process of creating a simple site with Network Solutions was pretty straightforward. The site builder doesn’t offer many customization options, but it’s easy to use and the availability of pre-made blocks is a big plus for beginners. However, if you want to create a more complex site, the editor may not give you the flexibility you need.

Adding Multimedia to Your Network Solutions Website

Network Solutions allows you to add photos and videos directly to your website. You can also embed audio files, PDF files, and other types of files using the HTML code snippet content element. Adding files is easy, although you can only upload one image at a time when creating galleries. Helpfully, the builder also includes access to over 2 million free stock images from Unsplash. Overall, the multimedia functions offered are average but sufficient.

Marketing Functionality with Network Solutions Websites

Network Solutions doesn’t offer a ton of marketing features. For example, there are no email marketing tools. You can create a blog, but there are no options to schedule posts or cross-post to social media. Network Solutions offers social media icons so you can link to your social media accounts, but there’s no deep integration with Facebook or Instagram.

SEO Functionality & Add-Ons with Network Solutions Websites

The amount of SEO functionality for your website depends on which hosting plan you choose. The basic website builder plan lets you add a meta title and description to each of your pages, but doesn’t offer much else. However, if you upgrade to a website and online marketing plan, Network Solutions will automatically display your site in search engines and local directories such as Yellow Pages, Yelp, and more.

Network Solutions does not offer its own built-in traffic analytics, but you can easily integrate Google Analytics.

Ecommerce

Network Solutions offers an all-in-one e-commerce solution that combines store design, secure order processing, inventory management, marketing tools, and training and support. It is ideal for new or emerging businesses with small to medium-sized inventory looking to expand online. The service offers fully customizable storefronts, social media integration, SEO marketing tools, and mobile-friendly design templates.

Payment Processing

Network Solutions offers a secure payment processing system that easily integrates with a wide variety of credit card processing companies, including merchant accounts and payment gateways, as well as PayPal. The service is fully compliant with the Visa Certified Cardholder Information Security program and complies with all PCI data standards. Customer transaction data is never stored on the website for added protection.

Scalability

Network Solutions provides scalable hosting and storage options that offer stability regardless of the plan you choose. The catch is that Network Solutions doesn’t provide many advanced tools for inventory management or shipping. So this platform may work well for small businesses with only a few products, but it probably won’t be robust enough to keep up with your online business growth.

Network Solutions Customer Support

Network Solutions offers customer support by phone, email and live chat. Phone support is available 7 days a week from 7am to 12pm ET, while live chat is available Monday through Friday from 8am to 11pm.

The company also has an online knowledge base, although we had to go through a few links to find it. Once you find it, however, the tutorials are pretty easy to follow and include plenty of screenshots.

Pricing & Special Offers

The price of Network Solutions website builder is the main reason we do not recommend this platform. It is extremely expensive, especially considering the lack of advanced tools. Worse, Network Solutions is not transparent at all about how much it costs after the first month. We had to look into the company’s terms of service to find the website builder’s regular subscription rates.

Network Solutions offers 3 plans: Website Builder, Website & Online Marketing and Website, Marketing & Store. All plans include access to the builder as well as a free domain for one year. The Online Marketing plan adds the SEO features we’ve described above, while the Website, Marketing and Store plan lets you sell up to 500 products.

Network Solutions does not offer a free trial, but you can get a refund if you cancel within the first 30 days.

Network Solutions vs GoDaddy

We think GoDaddy offers a lot more bang for your buck than Network Solutions, especially if you’re building a website for a small business. GoDaddy offers email marketing and online appointment booking tools, as well as more advanced traffic analytics.

Network Solutions vs WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a great alternative to Network Solutions for creating a blog. With WordPress.com, you can schedule posts and share them on social media channels. You can also monetize your blog with ads, which is not possible with Network Solutions.

Network Solutions vs iPage

The iPage website builder is similar in many ways to the Network Solutions builder, but it is much cheaper. SEO tools are standard on iPage and the builder is free with any iPage hosting plan. For basic websites, we think iPage offers better value than Network Solutions.

Bottom Line

Network Solutions offers a decent web builder for creating basic websites with well-designed templates and an easy-to-use website editor. Notably, the pre-designed content blocks include quick customization, enabling users to create a unique website in minutes.

However, Network Solutions’ pricing raises concerns. Compared to other builders, it comes at a significantly higher price without offering many additional features. Especially for e-commerce purposes, running an online store with networking becomes extremely expensive without having the necessary tools for business growth.

In general, we recommend looking at alternatives such as GoDaddy, WordPress.com, or iPage, which provide more cost-effective options and a wider range of features.

Squarespace is a great all-in-one solution for creating websites and online stores, with unlimited bandwidth and storage. It has capable tools for e-commerce, marketing, and analytics. Its editor is reasonably intuitive to use but keeps you “on rails”, allowing you to place web page elements only within a set grid pattern. Overall, Squarespace is one of the best website building options, especially if you plan to have a website with a lot of images.

PROS

• Very easy to use
• Excellent support
• Competitive price:

CONS

• The editor is a bit limited.
• Can’t add custom code

Squarespace Video Review

 

Overview

Squarespace is a website builder that was first developed in 2004. With intuitive user interfaces, it, like other e-commerce platforms, makes it easy and fast to set up a website for those who don’t know how to code.

Squarespace offers a modern, aesthetically pleasing design, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, and great marketing tools.

It’s best for those who want to create a great-looking, image-focused website or online store using a clutter-free, intuitive interface. However, its limited set of plugins means it’s a poor choice if you need a site with advanced features like a community forum or complex forms.

How Squarespace Works

Building an online store with Squarespace starts with a short questionnaire that asks what you plan to do with your website, the types of products and services you sell, and how far along you are in building your online business. Your answers dictate the features your site starts with.

All of Squarespace’s features, from page design and e-commerce to marketing and analytics, are accessible from one main menu, but the interface never feels crowded or complicated. Despite Squarespace’s powerful features, it’s one of the easiest web builders for new users.

Squarespace Features and Tools

Fluid Engine

Squarespace has a drag and drop editor tool called Fluid Engine. This feature is a revision of the existing drag-and-drop functionality that provides an easy-to-use canvas and toolkit for designing online store layouts.

You can take website design a step further by using intuitive tools to create custom layouts. And excellent screen responsiveness makes it easy to edit both mobile and desktop sites.

Unmetered bandwidth

All Squarespace plans include unmetered data transfer with no usage caps. This is relatively unusual in the market. Squarespace’s competitors typically charge for bandwidth and force you to upgrade to a more expensive plan if you exceed a set limit.

Unlimited storage

Again, Squarespace impresses by offering unlimited storage on all plans. Most competitors have a hard storage limit on their cheapest plans and expect customers to upgrade to more storage as their business grows. With , you can upload as many images and videos as you need without worrying about going over the limit.

SSL security

Squarespace includes an SSL certificate with all plans. This means that your website visitors will see that your website is secure and will be more inclined to trust your website. All data sent to and from your website will be encrypted, ensuring e-commerce transactions are safe and secure.

Creating a website with Squarespace

After filling out a questionnaire that outlines your site’s focus, you’re free to choose from nearly 120 high-quality designs. From there, edit your pages in the site editor, replacing images and text as you see fit.

Squarespace uses a contextual drag-and-drop editor, so when you’re editing a section of your online store or website, irrelevant menus are hidden. This does a great job of keeping the interface uncluttered and perfect for beginners, but you may often find yourself searching for a feature you want until you get the hang of it.

The editor is also relatively restrictive. For example, you can’t just insert a video into the middle of an existing text box; instead you need to create a separate video section to place the video inside. This can be frustrating at first, but can help inexperienced designers stick to modern web design best practices and means sites are responsive.

The latest version of Squarespace (7.1) uses a new template system, which essentially means you can switch between templates at will. Until now, exchanging templates was possible, but difficult.

If you decide to switch to another provider, it’s possible to export your Squarespace site. However, the export potential is very limited. For example, you can export text from your blog pages, but exporting images isn’t nearly as easy.

Adding Multimedia to Your Squarespace Website

You can upload your own images to Squarespace while you edit your web pages. You can also choose free images from Unsplash or premium images from Getty from the interface.

Videos are also supported, but must be less than 500MB in size. Alternatively, you can embed videos hosted on YouTube or Vimeo.

Adding images to Squarespace is easy, but adding videos is less so, which may be a conscious decision by Squarespace to prevent people from getting rid of the service’s unlimited storage.

Marketing Functionality with Squarespace Websites

Squarespace offers email marketing as an additional paid feature, ranging from $5 to $48 per month. This allows for personalized email newsletters, but there are several features to automatically send emails based on user behavior.

Squarespace has great blogging features. It also works well at integrating with Instagram and Facebook, so you can automatically direct people to your Squarespace store pages from these social media sites.

SEO Functionality and Add-Ons with Squarespace Websites

Squarespace has pretty good search engine optimization features for a website builder. Sitemaps and markup are automatic and all pages are automatically optimized for mobile devices. All URLs are static, making them easily readable by search engines. There is an SEO panel where you can edit all the important SEO features of your website, such as how it will appear in search results.

Squarespace plugins are limited. There are fewer than 30 extensions and almost all of them involve adding new products to your site to sell via dropshipping. If Squarespace doesn’t already offer a feature you need, it’s unlikely you’ll find it in the list of add-ons.

Ecommerce

Squarespace Commerce is an all-in-one platform that allows you to create an online store with ease. With Squarespace’s intuitive interface, even those with no prior experience in web design or managing an eCommerce site can set up an online store.

Payment Processing

Squarespace Commerce offers flexible payment options and abandoned payment recovery, helping ensure your customers complete their purchases. You can connect PayPal, Stripe, or Apple Pay to your Squarespace Commerce site and pay their processing fees. Squarespace Commerce’s mobile-optimized checkout provides a seamless checkout process designed to increase conversion rates. The platform also provides SSL security to protect sensitive customer information.

Scalability

Whether you’re a small or large business, Squarespace Commerce offers a set of features that can meet your needs. The platform provides users with the tools and resources necessary to scale their online store as their business grows.

With advanced inventory management features, including real-time tracking and low stock alerts, businesses can manage their inventory effectively. Commerce also offers a variety of analytics and reporting tools to help users track their store performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize their business.

On the downside, many important eCommerce features are reserved for the expensive advanced eCommerce tier. This includes abandoned cart recovery, which competitor Wix includes in all eCommerce plans.

Squarespace Customer Support

Squarespace offers 24/7 support via email and live chat during business hours, Monday through Friday. There is no phone support. Email responses took 6-7 hours during our testing, while live chat was fast.

Squarespace’s user guides, FAQs, webinars, and videos are good. There is also a very busy community forum. Overall, Squarespace is doing pretty well in terms of support, but we would like to see the live chat hours and phone support option expanded.

Squarespace Pricing

Pricing & Special Offers

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial, but you can’t activate your site until you’ve paid for a plan. The 4 plans can be paid monthly or annually, with a 25-30% discount for paying annually.

Squarespace vs. Wix

Wix is probably more beginner-friendly and offers more templates than , but Squarespace’s templates are of a higher quality. Wix has a much larger list of plugins than Squarespace, but it doesn’t create responsive websites like .

Squarespace vs. GoDaddy

GoDaddy has a particularly simple interface, making it a better choice than Squarespace for complete beginners. It’s also significantly cheaper. But that simplicity comes at the cost of theme selection and design customization.

Squarespace vs. WordPress.com

Squarespace is easier to use than WordPress.com, but WordPress.com beats it due to sheer power and flexibility. For developers building larger sites, WordPress.com offers a huge list of plugins and templates that can transform a site, and if you want to learn the ins and outs of WordPress and even dig into the code once in a while, WordPress.com. worth checking out.

Bottom Line

Squarespace is one of the best online store builders we’ve tested. Although it takes about an hour to get used to its minimalistic interface, once you get the hang of it, you can create great responsive design websites in no time.

Squarespace’s high price is the main reason to look elsewhere. But given that all plans include unlimited bandwidth and storage, the playing field is leveled, especially if you plan to upload a lot of media to your site. And with Squarespace’s beautiful templates, you’re practically guaranteed a sophisticated modern website that will impress your visitors.

It’s the age of the geek, and Hibu embraces it. Hibu, a digital marketing solution, uses smart websites to increase your company’s visibility, SEO ranking and overall website performance. Hibu is bilingual and uses data to talk to Google and visual appeal to talk to its customers. The end result is better lead generation, better quality conversions, and better results across the board.

Pros

• Smart Site technology for greater optimization
• Impressive array of features available
• Excellent SEO, PPC and social media marketing tools are included.

Cons

• There is no pricing information on the website
• Not a good online store solution (limited products)

Hibu at a Glance

Price customized by customer

Service Type: Full Service Website Building, DIFM

Response time: 7-10

Level of personalization. Fully customizable

Mobile friendly sites. yes

Hibu Web Design Examples

What Services and Features Does Hibu Offer?

Hibu is a team of serious professionals. These guys are the best in their fields. So it’s no surprise that the website designs provided by Hibu are second to none. If you’re looking for high-quality design work, you can’t go wrong with Hibu. And honestly, that’s just the beginning.

Apart from the real visual appeal of the websites designed by this brand, Hibu is all about the technology. It uses algorithmic technology and data to create commercial websites that actually work with spiders to increase your search rankings, visibility and overall success. Basically, Hibu analyzed website design trends to see what worked and what didn’t in the past. He then created a system that uses SEO best practices, the right types of engagement, the best type of content, and more. for your audience. And that’s what Hibu website designers use to create your website. Basically what happens is you get more visibility, more conversions and more high quality leads.

Here are some notable features that Hibu uses to create top-notch website designs:

On-site interactions

Today, everything is online, so your customers prefer and actually expect to do most or all of the process online. Websites designed by enable businesses to offer their customers online solutions such as online payments, advance payments, gift cards and online ordering.

Integrations

Hibu websites are fully synchronized with all other business management applications. From your Google information to your Facebook page, Waze, Trustpilot reviews and more, Hibu makes it easy for businesses to maintain their web presence and run their business seamlessly.
Other important features that includes are:

• Mobile friendly sites
• Social media integration
• Optimized for voice search
• Interaction menu to promote interaction
• 24/7 support
• Schedule live or virtual meetings
• Integrated 24/7 Hibu Dashboard analytics

This is what really sets apart. It offers a set of tools and functionality that most website design services don’t even know about or have the ability to offer. It provides businesses with a next-level type of website design that will set them apart from the competition.

Prices, Plans, and Value for Money

One thing many companies won’t appreciate about this brand is that it doesn’t post any prices on its website. Hibu adapts its pricing structure to each customer’s specific needs and specifications. Therefore, the pricing model is not as straightforward as the rest of Hibu’s services. Some online reviews listed a starting price of $99 and as high as $449, but we couldn’t reach for a definitive answer on the matter. There are also optional monthly fees ranging from $99 to $159 for website security, hosting, support and maintenance.

Ease of Use

In terms of usability, Hibu is excellent. Signing up takes a few seconds, just fill out the form. Then several things will happen.

• You will receive a call from the sales team with your personalized quote.
• Agree to the terms and you’ll be on your way.
• Bring your vision for your website design to Hibu’s design team. They will ask you questions about your design preferences, styles, type of content required and the purpose of your website. Details are key to getting things right, another thing Hibu is very good at.
• Hibu’s design team will create a mockup of your website and send it to you for approval.
• You’ll get access to the backend of your website so you can control all aspects of it internally via a personal admin panel.

What People Say About Hibu

Hello, I have had a website with Hibu for a few years now. I am very pleased with my sales rep at Hibu, Gerry Elberson, and Hibu in general. Whenever I need a change or an update, Gerry gets to work right away. As a customer, I feel cared for, important and heard. Keeping your website up to date is extremely important and makes it easy. Gerry always takes the time to explain to me how I can stay up to date with technology. Thank you for everything !!” – Lillian Freeman, July 2020

“Professionalism and efficiency

I have to share with everyone what a great accounting manager we have. Dawn Turano has been courteous, professional, knowledgeable and most of all efficient like no other.  He gives us all the right information about services and carefully explains all the details of every step we take to make a better website for our company, definitely the best. Thanks Dawn!! – Tania Equivel, July 2020

“Great experience!

The Hibu team has been an incredible resource for our website and marketing. Talen is friendly, consistent and thorough. I really appreciate your knowledge and excellent customer service skills. Am excited to see the continued growth of our dental practice under Talen’s leadership. I highly recommend your services. -Jessica Puckett, July 2020

FAQ

Question: What does HIBU mean?
A: In fact, nothing! CEO Mike Pocock said he just made it up, it sounded good, and then it stuck. Like Google or Yahoo!

Question. Does Hibu have built-in analytics?
A: Yes, Hibu provides reports for all aspects of the service it offers and makes them available 24/7.

Question. Can I trust HIBU?
Sure enough, the company has an A+ rating from the BBB, maintains a strong, positive social media presence, and uses security measures to protect its customers.

Bottom Line

Hibu is one of the most professional website design companies you will find in the industry. Using technology that some businesses only dream of, creates smart websites that are fully optimized, increase visibility, generate more (and higher quality) leads, and perform better in every way. Hibu brings together all the aspects needed for business success and also includes some juicy extras. With additional services ranging from social media marketing to customer review management, listing management, on-site SEO and video advertising, Hibu truly creates a complete package for its clients. If you are looking for professional, high quality and proven success, Hibu is a great choice.

Web.com offers a basic website builder with over 150 templates for professional websites and online stores. The platform offers decent customization options, but the page editor sometimes looks clunky. Web.com is also expensive and forces you to upgrade to get essential features like search engine indexing. Overall, we think most people would be better off with an alternative website builder.

PROS

• Very easy to use
• Excellent support
• Competitive price:

CONS

• The editor is a bit limited.
• Can’t add custom code

Web.com Video Review

How Web.com Works

Web.com Group Inc. is a domain name registration and website building services company based in Jacksonville, Florida. Basically, it serves as a one-stop shop for everything you need to create a free website or online store, including a custom domain and email services.

The Web.com website builder is designed to be accessible to first-time website builders, but we believe there are other website builders better suited for this purpose. Its page editor can be difficult to work with and takes some time to customize. The platform also makes your website difficult to find unless you upgrade to a more expensive plan.

Using Web.com

The Web.com experience is anything but perfect. The back panel is not specific to the website creator, but includes all Web.com services. This means that the tools available to you, including the site editor, are interspersed with ads to purchase additional services.

Furthermore, the editor of the Web.com website is uncomfortable. Pages and widgets take a few seconds to load, and it’s easy to accidentally mess up your site’s design by moving content elements. However, it offers more layout flexibility than other editors, which is a plus if you have time to build your site.

Web.com Features and Tools

Web Hosting

All Web.com sites include web hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth. You also get a free domain for one year, an SSL certificate, and five email addresses with 2GB of storage each.

Expert Design Service

Each new Web.com website development package includes one hour of personalized customer service and technical support with the company’s design experts. You also have the option of paying Web.com’s design team to build your site for you. The site will be designed to your specifications and you can manage it with Web.com’s site editor once your site is up and running.

Web.com AI Builder

Web.com’s new AI-powered website builder is revolutionizing the way we create and manage online content. The builder is made up of a few different tools.

There’s AI Writer, a game-changer for effortlessly creating or revamping engaging content, ideal for everything from website updates to engaging blog posts. Finding the perfect online identity is now a breeze with the AI-powered Domain Name Generator, which creatively aligns your vision with a unique domain name. AI Builder streamlines content creation, efficiently generating the necessary framework and content based on a few quick questions, allowing you to focus more on bringing your ideas to life. Additionally, AI Logo Builder offers a variety of customization options to create a distinctive brand identity with a visually striking logo.

These tools together offer a comprehensive solution to elevate your online presence with ease and creativity.

How to Create a Website with Web.com

The process of creating a website or online store with Web.com begins with choosing a template. The platform has more than 150 templates, all of them adaptable to mobile devices. They are organized by industry to make it easier to find a design that suits your needs. However, keep in mind that you won’t be able to change the templates later, so choose carefully.

Web.com templates are quite customizable. You can modify not only the color palette and fonts, but also details such as header styles, link colors, and button formats. More options would be even better, but this level of control at least allows you to customize your template without spending hours on it.

Customizing Content

To customize your site’s content, Web.com offers a drag-and-drop website builder with two different styles of content elements. Features are individual elements, such as text boxes, images, and buttons, that you can add anywhere on your site. Blocks are full-width page sections that come with preset functions. You can add additional functions to blocks to customize them.

The combination of functions and blocks offers great design flexibility. However, we found that designing content within the Web.com site editor can be a challenge. The platform divides each section of the page into columns, and it’s relatively easy to change the layout of an entire section when you add, remove, or move features. The column-based layout needs to be more consistent or removed entirely to make this experience more fluid.

Overall, we were pretty satisfied with the Web.com site builder, but it didn’t stand out compared to other website builders we’ve tested. Problems with feature design also take a lot of the fun out of experimenting because it’s so easy to unbalance the entire site with a few incorrect moves.

Adding Multimedia to Your Web.com Website

Web.com allows you to add photos and videos to your website, but not audio files, PDFs, or other types of multimedia. You can upload photos from your computer, Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox, Box or Flickr or search Unsplash’s library of thousands of stock photos. Uploaded images are stored in a media library, but the library cannot be searched.

You can add or replace images by simply clicking on any image box on your website. However, when creating galleries, you must add each photo individually.

Marketing Functionality with Web.com Websites

Web.com requires you to upgrade to its basic plan to access its online marketing features. The main marketing tool Web.com offers is Local Listings, a service that will list your business on sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and Yellowpages.com.

You can connect your site to Instagram, Pinterest, and Disqus, but not to a Facebook business page. Web.com also does not offer email marketing tools.

SEO Functionality & Add-Ons with Web.com Websites

One of Web.com’s biggest problems is how it treats SEO. In order for your site to appear on major search engines like Google and Bing, you need to upgrade from the basic pricing package.

The good news is that if you upgrade, Web.com allows you to customize the SEO titles and descriptions of your pages and add alt text to your images. You can also start a blog on any Web.com site.

Web.com does not have its own traffic analysis tools, but you can connect your site to Google Analytics.

Ecommerce

Web.com’s top tier plans allow you to sell up to 500 products. Digital downloads or gift cards cannot be sold, and the platform does not support in-store pickup or local delivery. Web.com also lacks many advanced features such as inventory management or abandoned cart recovery.

On the plus side, Web.com online stores can generate discount codes, and you can choose Stripe, PayPal, and Square to accept payments. You can also create an unlimited number of product options for customers to choose from.

Overall, however, we weren’t impressed with Web.com’s e-commerce capabilities; For the price, we think other website builders offer more advanced tools and better customization options.

Web.com Customer Support

Web.com offers 24/7 customer support via phone, email and live chat. All new website development plans include one hour of one-on-one support from the company’s professional designers to help you get started designing your website.

Web.com also has an online knowledge base. However, the articles appear to link to an outdated version of the site’s creator. Finally, we found a number of detailed manuals on the current builder, but the articles were difficult to find because they were not located on Web.com.

Web.com  Pricing

Web.com offers 3 affordable plans: Starter, Marketing, and Ecommerce. All three offer cheap introductory prices for the first month, but no free trial.

Web.com vs Weebly

Weebly is an easy-to-use website builder with 75+ templates and tons of features for selling online. While their advanced plans are more expensive than Web.com’s plans, Weebly offers essential tools for SEO, inventory management, email marketing, and more. You also have third-party applications that you can use to extend the functionality of your site.

Web.com vs GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a lot like Web.com in that it offers a website builder along with domain and hosting plans. However, you get more for your money with GoDaddy. The company’s website builder includes an email marketing suite, online appointment booking tools, and built-in analytics.

Web.com vs Wix

Wix is one of the most customizable website builders on the market and has over 800 templates to choose from. The Wix site editor is easy to use and feels perfect compared to the Web.com editor. While Wix is more expensive than Web.com, you get access to a wide range of marketing and e-commerce features.

Bottom Line

Web.com is a relatively basic website builder that offers a good selection of templates and design options. However, we weren’t very impressed with the platform’s site editor and general lack of features for the price. Web.com does not offer email marketing and does not give Starter plan users access to essential SEO features. Online stores will lack sales tools such as inventory management and abandoned cart recovery.

We believe that most users would be better served by website builders from Weebly, Wix, or GoDaddy. All three platforms offer more customization options, more marketing tools, and better support for expanding your site.