Moonfruit. Although you may not have heard the somewhat funny sounding name, according to their website, they’re the number one hosted website builder in the UK. Around for over 15 years, Moonfruit offers a traditional style website builder that helps users with no coding experience build a professional looking website to manage themselves. Read our Moonfruit review below.
OverviewMoonfruit is the curious website builder that might appeal to your sense of nostalgia. While it positions itself as another fully-fledged website builder, it lacks the modern touch of comprehensive platforms such as Wix and Squarespace.
The editor will remind you of older Windows desktop applications, which is just perfect if that’s what you feel most comfortable with. It doesn’t contain all the bells and whistles of a full widgets library or all-inclusive social media and SEO integrations, but if you aren’t going to use them, then why have them around?
Who will Moonfruit be good for?
Moonfruit is perfect for people that are comfortable with using older Windows style design tools and applications, due to the nature of the editor.
It can be a platform to consider if you run a small business, or would like to open a small online shop. It may also be useful for designers, photographers, and artists, or those looking to set up a unique event page.
Who should avoid Moonfruit?
If you imagine your website to have your Instagram feed scrolling down the side, some downloadable tunes for your customers to buy, or other modern features that people may expect these days, then you’re out of luck. It doesn’t look like Moonfruit will be putting in these sort of features any time soon.
If you don’t have much time to build your website, Moonfruit can be fiddly to adjust. And if you want a modern look and feel when using your builder, look elsewhere too.
How scalable are Moonfruit’s websites?
When you first get yourself a free Moonfruit website, you’ll have one site with 20MB of storage to play with, limited bandwidth, five pages and a shop with up to 10 items. The top tier of Moonfruit’s pricing plans allocate up to 20 sites, unlimited pages and bandwidth, 10GB of storage, and up to 1000 items in your shop.
Since Moonfruit with a CDN hosts the websites, you will have to rely on their services if you are expecting a major uptick in traffic.
What is Moonfruit’s reputation?
Customers of Moonfruit seem to either be on one side of the fence or the other: they love their site and the services provided, or they hate it and find the customer service trying to fix their issues sluggish. From what we’ve read, those with problems have likely not read instructions correctly or are trying to do things the editor is simply not capable of.
Another consideration to take into account has been the downtime suffered by Moonfruit over the last year or so. Users websites may be offline for a day while Moonfruit deals with technical issues. A DDOS attack in December of 2015 left some users without their sites for up to three days.
Is there a money back guarantee with Moonfruit?
There sure is. You can build your website with a 15-day free trial (which is infinitely extendable, save for the annoying popups asking you to upgrade your plan), and all paid plans come with a 14-day money back guarantee.
We recommend building your site fully within this period. Moonfruit lacks some features – that you might not realize you wanted until it’s too late – if you decide to build your site slowly.
Key FeaturesOverall, the experts give Moonfruit a fair rating. The program has some clear limitations, but for the right person, it can be an affordable tool. Moonfruit does offer inexpensive pricing plans, a strong blogging tool and other user friendly tools that make it easy to build a website. For critics, that main problem with Moonfruit is that it simply hasn’t kept up with times or its competitors.
Experts commented that the interface feels outdated and can be buggy. The program also lacks reporting tools. This can be a huge disadvantage for businesses looking to build a site and grow their brand. Limited photo editing tools can also lead to amateurish looking websites.
Moonfruit does deliver on its promises, but experts are quick to point out that there are more modern alternatives that offer additional features for a comparable price. Moonfruit is a solid choice, but perhaps not the best choice.
For every negative user review concerning Moonfruit, there are at least two overwhelmingly positive reviews. While some people who completely disappointed and even angered by the customer service, a large majority were pleased with the quality and speed of the service they received. Most users reported having their problems solved quickly.
Satisfied customers also found the website builder easy to user and super friendly for beginners with little to no design experience. Users commented the program was intuitive, operated smoothly and was simple to use. Moonfruit doesn’t come with a lot of bells and whistles, which can be perfect for beginners who don’t want to get bogged down in too many features. Customers who were looking for a simple and straightforward too were pleased with Moonfruit.
Perhaps it is best to always beware of anything that is advertised as free. While Moonfruit users do have some positive things to say about the actual website builder, they are less than pleased with billing practices and a lack of customer service. It seems that “free” comes with some strings attached. According to users, Moonfruit doesn’t exactly offer transparent billing and resolving unwanted charges can create a real headache.
Those who felt they were unfairly charged or inexplicably denied access to their site, began to get the feeling that the entire setup was a scam designed to take their money. There are enough complaints that echo the same problems to raise cause for concern. Make sure not to be blinded by the word “free.”
Design & CustomizationStarting your website with Moonfruit will require a fair bit of clicking around to get yourself familiar with the editor. Each item that you insert or select from the template may be moved anywhere in drag and drop fashion, resized, changed fonts, links added, etc., etc.
This editor itself will evoke memories of older design programs or text editors. A comfy feeling, but you will be wondering why they haven’t tried to modernize it a bit. Navigation between the various parts of your website, for instance, blog pages, shop, regular pages, and analytics is relatively easy to get the hang on.
All though there are not as many elements that you can add, each one is quite extensible, and can be moved anywhere on the page.
Here are some design features of the platform:
| Feature | Overview |
| Website Templates | Moonfruit offers all users, regardless of whether they are on a free plan or top tier plan, 62 templates to choose from. Although 62 templates don’t sound like an awful lot, the variety between each is quite right, unlike some other sites.
The templates may not be the most up to date in website fashion, but they are professional and clean and are more than adequate to produce a website that doesn’t look out of place in 2016. A word of warning: you can’t just switch templates once you’ve chosen one – you’ll have to restart again from scratch if you decide you want something different. |
| Website Builder Interface | The website builder interface is dated, and there’re no two ways about it. Although it is well thought out and has everything you need in the one place, if you are comparing it with some of the other website builders on the market you will be disappointed.
In the editor itself, you will have your current page displayed in the middle, an action bar along the top for overall site control, another bar along the left-hand side for current page control, and a floating box for element control (if you have an element selected). |
| Page Style Customization | Each element on the page is completely customizable and can be moved anywhere. This may get frustrating when trying to make things “just so”. The ‘Page Master’ feature gives you the option to edit the running theme across the pages too. |
| Site Navigation | Site navigation is made easy, by a drop box menu at the top left of the editor, just underneath the action bar at the top. On this menu, each page is listed and can be selected for editing. |
| Content Management | Moonfruit has a handy File Manager that you can upload files to and retrieve from to place them on pages. |
| Photos and Galleries | Unfortunately, you can only upload images from your local machine, and you aren’t able to edit them in Moonfruit, you’ll have to sort out all that beforehand. You can’t pull them in from Facebook, etc.
The builder has a basic gallery widget that is simply one row of images. Depending on your situation, this may be a make or break inadequacy in your evaluation of the platform. |
| Mobile Site Building | Although the design will fit on mobiles, you will need to have a fiddle around in the Mobile Editor to find the best look for your site on mobile. There’s not anywhere near as many design options as the desktop editing version, but it’s easy to access via the top menu. |
| Social Sharing Integration | No sharing widget built in. You may be able to use a custom HTML element to create sharing buttons instead. |
| Design Services | No in-house design services offered. |
Features & Tools Moonfruit may not have quite as full a range of inbuilt features as other website builders offer. Check out what they do have below.
| Feature | Overview |
| Setup | Username, email, password – you’re ready to go! After choosing your template, it’ll take you a while longer to set up your initial site. Moonfruit is a little trickier to get started with than say Weebly for example. |
| Web Design | Change colors, fonts, positions, links, and backgrounds. All the traditional elements that you’d expect in the editor. |
| Custom domain name | Of you’ve already got a custom domain name connecting it up is easy and available for all plans. If you don’t already have one, you receive one with the Standard plan, two with the Plus plan, and three with the Max plan |
| Depth of Navigation | One level of navigation only. |
| Widgets and Apps | There aren’t very many widgets beyond the standard range (text, titles, forms, links, HTML snippet, image, menu, file insert). There’s a Chatango chat widget, Google Maps, Soundcloud, a Photosnack slideshow, a Twitter feed, and a Vimeo or YouTube video. There are a few inbuilt Shop and Blog widgets, but for anything else you will need some custom HTML code. |
| Monetization | Aside from running an online shop, if you’d like monetized banners, they will need to be added via the HTML snippet piece. |
| Visitor Statistics | You can easily link a Google Analytics account and a Google Webmaster account to your site. |
| Photo,Video,and Audio | Very basic photo options are available, if you want audio, it will have to be via a Soundcloud widget and for video, there’s the Vimeo and YouTube widgets. |
| Blogging | A basic blogging platform comes standard with the editor. You don’t get the option to schedule posts or anything fancy. |
| Google Maps | Google Maps widget is available |
| HTML Editor | You can’t edit the total page, but you can add custom HTML snippets. |
| Social Media Integration | Only a Twitter feed widget is inbuilt. All others social media plugins will require custom HTML snippets. There is the option to create a Facebook shop for your online store. That’s it. This is a significant downside in our opinion. |
| Forms and surveys | You can easily add a form via the editor. A basic form only (name, email, message) is available with the Free and Lite plans. |
| Storage Space | Unlike some other editors, you don’t have an unlimited storage option here. You have 20MB available for the Free plan, 500MB for the Lite plan, 1GB with the Standard plan, 5GB on the Plus plan and 10GB for the Max plan. |
| Newsletter Tool | There is no built-in newsletter tool. You will need to add in a custom HTML widget such as MailChimp. |
| Forum | There isn’t an inbuilt option for adding a forum. |
| E-Commerce / Online Store | There is an online store available with every plan. You can add between 10 and 1000 items, depending on which plan you’ve chosen. The options available for managing your online store are not as comprehensive as many people would like. T he online store is recommended for those that only need basic store functionality and management features. |
| Gateway Integration | The only payment gateway available is PayPal. |
| SEO Friendly | There is the option to edit page meta-tags, and a brief guide to SEO, but that’s it. |
| Site Limited Access (Password Protection) | Password protection is available on each page. Only site admins will have access if selected. |
| Google® Analytics | Easily link your Moonfruit site to your Google Analytics account. |
| Website Security | You are required to follow correct internet safety procedures with regards to passwords, etc. PayPal transactions are secure. |
| Multiple Languages | Moonfruit is also available in French. |
| Mobile Optimization | Sites are somewhat mobile optimized, but further tweaks will likely be necessary via the Mobile editor. |
| CDN Technology | Moonfruit now uses a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for faster use for its US clients. |
Plans & Pricing When starting out with Moonfruit, you’re going to be automatically signed up for their 15-day free trial. What they don’t tell you is that this trial can be extended – and extended forever as part of their Free plan.
Every plan has access to the editor, the 62 templates, blog functionality, and an online store. The pricing points are reasonably comparable to other website builders.
Free Plan
The Free plan is offered to users so long as they update their websites, at least, every six months. Users get 20MB of storage, 1GB of bandwidth, five pages, and ten items in their online store. You will not be able to access customer service (apart from browsing the tutorials and community boards), and there is Moonfruit advertising on your site. Your website address will look like username.moonfruit.com.
Lite Plan
US$4.50/month yearly, US$6 month to month
The Lite plan will bump you up to 10GB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage. You’ll be able to sell up to 20 products in your store, and the Moonfruit ads will disappear from your site. You can connect a domain name up to your site now, or purchase one (for a fee) through Moonfruit. You’ll now have access to Moonfruit’s email support, too.
Standard Plan
US$9/month yearly, US$12 month to month
On the Standard plan, you can now have unlimited pages, 20GB of bandwidth, and 1GB of storage. You’ll be able to have up to 50 items in your online store. You have access to a Form Builder and the Getty Images library. You’ll receive £75 worth of Google AdWords credit to build your business and one domain name too if you sign up for the yearly plan.
Plus Plan
US$15/month annually, US$20 month to month
You now have the ability to add up to 10 different websites. You’ll get everything in the Standard plan, plus unlimited bandwidth, 5GB of storage, and up to 150 items in your online shop. For those purchasing yearly, you’ll get the AdWords credit and up to 2 domain names. Phone support is also available on the Plus plan.
Max Plan
US$26.25/month annually, US$35 month to month
For a substantial investment in the platform, the Plus plan gives you everything in the Plus plan with 20 different websites, with 10GB of storage and up to 1000 items in your online store. You’ll also have the option to have three different domain names if you sign up for the yearly plan.
Customer Support The support provided via Moonfruit is dependent on which plan you’ve chosen to go with. They aren’t available 24/7 so expect to wait a little while for a reply. Check out which options are provided below.
Ease of Use How easy to use is Moonfruit? We’d say it’s about a middle of the range. It takes a little while to get used to, but you will get there in the end. It’s drag and drop, and clickable elements are intuitive for anyone who has a Windows background.
If you don’t need a lot of widgets – like for social media or advertising – then you likely won’t need to add any custom HTML elements. Custom HTML elements is a place where beginners start to lose hope as coding is required!
If you’re a complete beginner or a bit of a technophobe – you might be overwhelmed by the editor. It offers a design layout typical of traditional word processing and design applications. It will not be so simple to learn if you aren’t familiar with these sorts of applications.
For others, you should feel fairly at home after playing around for about 15 minutes or so. In a few hours, you will be able to create and publish a professional looking website.
Help is offered via video tutorials and forums for those who are struggling with the editor and designing their page.
Conclusion Moonfruit can help users build professional looking websites in a few short hours – provided they have a basic computer knowledge. Its plans are comparable to other website builders, and you can build a personal or business site that does the job you want – as long as you’re only after fairly basic to standard features.
The question lies in whyyou would choose Moonfruit over one of its competitors. The editor and available widgets seem like they are around five years behind some of the other website builders around. And when they’re priced similarly, you’d have to look at what benefits Moonfruit provides.
Sure, there is a lot of customizations on each page, but other editors offer this too. If you like the old type design editor, then Moonfruit could be a right platform to choose. If you’re after a free online store (with up to 10 products) and don’t mind a bit of advertising on your page, then the Free plan might be right up your alley.
If you’re checking out Moonfruit, we recommend looking at the competition too – because we think they’ll probably trump them.
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