Should you use a free website builder like Wix to establish a presence online?

Whether you know how to code, regularly install websites with WordPress or other CMSs, or you are just a beginner with website creation, every website creation could start with this question: would it be easier and more productive to use a free website builder to do the job?

Free website builders for beginners

For a beginner, there is no question in my mind, they should just go to Wix directly if they want to get their project up-and-running quickly.

Fastest learning curve

I’ve had friends coming to me for a quick WordPress website. I installed it for them, but they struggled to manage it, not mentioning that they had no power over the design aspects. So, I referred them to Wix, and they were up with a new website in a matter of hours, completely in control of the look-and-feel and of the features. Why is that so easy? Because of the great product UX and the drag and drop interface.

Powerful features for the technically not savvy

If you have never created a website, some website features are truly out of your reach, at least on the short-term. If you prefer to focus on creating your business and running it instead of learning web design, you should go for Wix and enjoy the ability to simply create image galleries, e-commerce sites, parallax effects, email marketing campaigns,… and much more!

Free website builders for web professionals

For web professionals, it’s another story. They are often comfortable with most web technology and able to get a WordPress site running within a day. However, there are plenty of good reasons to go for Wix on specific projects.

Templates updated with the latest technology

This is one of the best featured, you can get plenty of very professional html5 website templates in a couple of clicks, no need to learn the latest technology to apply some trendy effects. If you are like me, you are regularly confronted to choosing the right technology for each project, and sometimes you have to learn new things for a low-budget project. If the money doesn’t afford your design education, don’t go for it and choose Wix for your client.

Back-end constantly updated

This is another important point. Clients often don’t want to pay too much for maintenance work, and that work is not very interesting for you anyway. In those cases, Wix will be the best option, as the company is filled with engineers constantly working on implementing the latest technology or optimizing the servers.

If you have been maintaining at least one website and tried to update it to be successful during the past five years, you know that you must regularly stay up-to-date on the technological side. For example, all site must be SSL-ready by October 1st, 2017, or they will be penalized by Google in the search results and will be displayed as potentially dangerous on Google Chrome. This may not sound like much for you, but it’s a big deal to handle for many website owners.

Stop focusing on technique

Let’s say you are helping a bar, a medical facility, or a consultancy firm, with their branding, design and marketing. Do you really want to spend hours on aligning some CSS boxes, installing WooCommerce, setting up contact forms, or upgrading the PHP version? Of course you don’t, you don’t want to go through all that frustration, because you would rather focus on what really matters and what you are good at: designing. Believe me, it will make your life much less stressful.

Do you really need to choose between React.js, Node.js, Angular.js, or Whateverthehell.js? No you don’t, getting the effects you want to work quickly is more important than being able to understand every javascript library. Of course you can still learn Angular.js, and use it on some of your projects, but it should not hold you back when you can do it the Wix way.

E-commerce made easy

Despite large progress made by CMSs creators, you still require quite a big amount of time to set up an e-commerce site, even if you use Magento or WooCommerce. These two systems are now quite user-friendly, but they need a technical setup that can become a nightmarish process, especially when it comes to accepting payments or customizing anything. These systems are also notoriously often updated, and it’s more complicated than upgrading a simple CMS.

Luckily, Wix comes with a powerful store system that makes setting up an e-commerce site easier than ever. Unless you have a complex business that requires very advanced functionality, WixStores got you covered.

Conclusion

Over time, designing websites has become more and more complex, with advanced technologies to handle if you want to add features and stay up-to-date with the latest technology. The free website builder Wix is the perfect solution for a website if your reasons for creating a website are purely goal-oriented.