Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve no doubt seen those new fangled online website builders / designers advertised on TV. They claim to be the next big thing and will allow you to create a nice new sleek looking website – for free! This news undoubtedly had web designers and developers alike running for the hills but are they all they’re cracked up to be or just the next gimmick in a long line of gimmicks designed to line the pockets of some rich web geeks? Or are they something more? Do they have a place in the market or are they simply a fad which will die out when their user base realises that in order to succeed on the web you need something significantly more than a 5 page website that looks identical to that of your competitor.
In this article we’ll going to discuss the specific providers along with a brief explanation of what they are and what you can do with them should you feel the need to try one out. Be warned, I’m not the biggest fan of online web design applications but I can see that they do have a place in the market for a highly specific niche – they most certainly do not cater for everyone. But I’ll try to keep an objective view on the matter for the purpose of a fair write up on the same.
What They Are
Online web designers do exactly what they say on the tin. They allow you to build and create a website using a 100% web based interface. Using drag and drop functions written in Javascript you can drag elements such as images, text blocks and forms onto what is effectively a blank canvas and magically turn that into a fully functional web page with its own domain name and all the bells and whistles that go with it. This is obviously a big draw for those who don’t have the budget to hire a designer, a developer or have the time or knowledge to undertake such a task in the traditional way. This is part of the attraction but I feel it’s the limitations of such that makes them simply too primitive for those who want a little more than a personal homepage. And you’d have to argue as to whether you need such a basic personal homepage when your social profiles contain pretty much the same sort of information you personal website would – just with much more in the way of features and functions.
The Options
The big four as I like to call them are Wix.com, Moonfruit.com, Weebly.com and SquareSpace.com. There are also smaller offerings that come bolted onto web hosting companies. The PrestoWebsite service from HostPresto.com is a great example of this.
Price wise and feature/function wise, you’ll find them difficult to split. They’re all pretty much priced the same and you’d struggle to tell them apart if you lined up the interfaces side by side and excluded the branding. Some however do make you pay more for bolt ons than others. But for a basic build they’re extremely similar.
Their Place in The Market
As touched on above, they would have you believe that they cater for everyone and that their services have truly cornered the market by way of Microsoft or Apple proportions. But, the reality is somewhat different. The main user base seems to consist of first timers creating their first website before moving onto something more detailed and complex right through to pensioners who are bored in their retirement village and want to try their hand at something online. But the developers won’t care given they have no outlay per customer so if someone stays for a month, it’s all profit.
Limitations
The limitations would have to be the fact that once you’ve built your site there. You’re stuck there. No changing hosts etc. It stays where it is. Also, if you want to do anything other than build a highly basic site then you’ll struggle. Basic pages of text and images are fine but if you want any kind of proper CMS or interactivity of any kind you’re best off going elsewhere.
Conclusions
So with all this in mind, what do you think of these new tools? Are they here to stay or will they die a slow and painful death like the recently released new global top level domain extensions. I read countless articles saying that they’re the future of the web but in reality, they’ve not took off at all. I feel these new online tools will go the same way. They’ve been put out there because of the capabilities of the likes of jQuery and Angular which has allowed developers to create such a tool but when it comes down to it, there is really no substitute for hiring a proper web designer or developer.
Author: Technology and Beyond
