If you’re wanting to create or update your business’s website, the best place to start is by weighing up which builder will work best for you. Our team has experience with multiple different builders, so here are our thoughts on popular sites: WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Canva and Notion.
WordPress
Our team is most experienced with WordPress – in fact – the very website that you’re reading this off was constructed in WordPress! WordPress offers a lot of features, here is the breakdown of ones we love:
- Highly customisable with the addition of plugins.
- Offers drag and drop builders such as Elementor.
- Has e-commerce capabilities.
- Easy to connect with external websites like Mailchimp and Google Analytics (thanks to plugins).
- Great blogging capabilities and SEO with plugins like YoastSEO.
WordPress is great if you’re confident with websites or willing to learn as it offers great customisation. It can be overwhelming for new people and sometimes requires technical/website knowledge to get the best out of what it offers. For beginners, something else to note is that it sometimes doesn’t notify you when they have updates, so you’ll have to watch out for them yourself.
Wix
We love that Wix can be easily navigated, especially for first time users. Rather than needing custom coding, they allow you to drag and drop elements anywhere you like. This makes the designing process super breezy.
Wix Stores is Wix’s own e-commerce platform. If you are building your site using Wix and have a Wix Business plan, then you can add the Wix Stores app to the Wix Editor to access many useful e-commerce features.
Another feature we love is their inbuilt accessibility checker. As far as we’ve seen, no other website builder has this function as part of their program. The Wix accessibility checker includes:
- Full keyboard functionality
- Wix products are automatically operable with a keyboard.
- Automatic Document Object Model (DOM) order
- The DOM is automatically arranged so visitors who use keyboards and screen readers can navigate your site (from left to right).
- Site language definition
- Sites are rendered with the correct language so screen readers can understand content.
- Correct semantics
- Components you add have correct semantics built in so people with disabilities can better understand your content.
- Smart focus ring
- Smart focus rings automatically appear when a keyboard is being used and feature dual colours so keyboard users can better navigate the site.
- Heading tags
- Having specific heading tags helps users who use screen readers understand how your site is organised.
- Skip to content
- This allows keyboard users to navigate directly to the main content on your page.
If you’re wanting to optimise accessibility on your site but are using a different platform that doesn’t have this function, you will have to check these things manually. You can use the list above as a guide as well as researching other ways to make websites accessible. Some website builders also share articles and resources on how to make your page accessible as well.
An exciting newer Wix feature is their use of AI – all you have to do is describe the type of website you want to build into the prompt, and it’ll help you build one that matches your description.
Squarespace
Squarespace is another great platform for those who don’t have much experience in website building, with everything being in the one place and having contact support within the platform.
It offers templates that make it easy to edit text, colours and images – however we’ve found that it’s not as easy to change the format with the grid “drag and drop system”.
It’s e-commerce functionality is also easy to use, which makes it great for product based businesses.
Overall, Squarespace is effective if you want something quick and easy that will essentially update itself when new updates are added to the platform. However, it doesn’t allow for as much creative freedom as WordPress and Wix.
Notion
Notion is an app and website where you can create organised and visually appealing workspaces for whatever you desire. From planning client briefs, to content calendars, to daily planners, Notion gives you the ability to turn your digital workspace into a creative space as well.
They have also just released a feature to publish your workspaces as websites, putting another use to the customisation features.
Publishing your page as a website is fairly easy to self navigate and is great for freelancers or content creators. Because the function is so new, pages tend to look more simple than if you’re using WordPress, Wix or Squarespace, making them great for portfolios or proposals to send to people you want to work with.
A downside is that there doesn’t seem to be an option to add alt text or other accessibility features, decreasing overall accessibility and SEO.
Canva
Canva has hundreds of templates to help you make a website. Simply select Presentation or Website and pick a template, and apply any edits you like.
One of our favourite features is Smart Mockups, where you upload an image and then it uses AI to create a free mockup. This is a great way to display your products or services results in a more professional way.
It will also automatically convert your website from a computer view to a mobile view.
When you’re ready to launch, all you have to do is publish as a website and pick whether you want it to be formatted as a scrollable, multipage or standard navigation site. You can publish it in three ways:
- Using a free domain
- A paid domain from Canva
- A pre existing domain
Canva free users can publish up to five websites with a free domain but Canva Pro users can publish unlimited websites. Canva is also great for building a portfolio for your services if you’re a freelancer or business owner. It does also have e-commerce website templates.
Need a helping hand with your website marketing, website copy or webpage creation?
Our team has experience in all of these areas and would love to help you achieve your goals with your website. Reach out to us if you would like to work with us, or have a peek at our website packages.
