SiteBuilder.com is a new online website builder as of 2014. Regarding the intricacies of website building, SiteBuilder.com seems to have one of the best reputations on the market. The company claims to offer a "no skills required" experience. Read our SiteBuilder.com review below.
OverviewSiteBuilder offers the solutions today’s website builders are looking for, with minimal limitations. The company is making strides with new business owners and web designers seeking a contemporary look and feel.
SiteBuilder ranks high regarding value, features, ease of use, and template variety. Made for beginners and yet suited for relatively sophisticated websites, SiteBuilder is just right for today’s small business managers.
SiteBuilder advertises a free domain and free email along with over 10,000 templates that can be used with drag and drop editing. Getting started is free, and users can stay on a feature-limited free account. Subscribers receive a free domain name and can eventually select monthly or annual billing. The pricing table is not available from the home page. Below is more of the fine print.
Who Is SiteBuilder Recommended For?
This website builder is designed for doing it yourself. Like most web builders in its class, live support is more limited than with a full website design firm. SiteBuilder is suited for small business managers, work-from-home entrepreneurs, third-party web designers, and nonprofits that want to maintain some level of control. It ranks medium concerning eCommerce solutions, using Ecwid integration for selling products.
SiteBuilder’s Area of Focus / Specialties
SiteBuilder is focused on professional and clean mobile-friendly template designs for personal and business websites. This site builder shows strength in the number and style of templates and the drag and drop interface.
Some of their specialties include SEO control and resources, email marketing accounts, some HTML editing, a decent blogging option, audio, video, and a variety of customer support resources. SiteBuilder is an excellent platform for selling products and services online. There are some that do it better for larger eCommerce needs.
SiteBuilder’s Technical Specs / Limitations
There is no shortage of features with SiteBuilder’s website building interface. Every feature a business owner or individual might need is listed including a shopping cart, 500MB storage, unlimited bandwidth, audio, video, support, and more.
SiteBuilder offers a free trial, but it is not entirely clear from the home page what is included. It appears users receive a free domain name, over 10,000 templates, a free email address, search engine optimization tools, eCommerce solutions, and a blog site. Many of these features include separate charges.
.You do not see added features and site pricing details up front. The only option from the home page is to get started with a free trial. It isn’t clear as to which of the features listed are included in the free plan. The only way to find out is to create an account and include your name and email address. There is a support link at the bottom of the home page that provides some details.
Regarding functionality, there are only a few limitations with SiteBuilder. You cannot easily swap templates once you’ve selected one and entered content. You have to begin again to select a different template. Also, there are not as many eCommerce based templates to select from. There is no auto-save feature, and live support is a bit limited except on the third-tier plan.
Is There Adequate Scalability / Room To Grow?
SiteBuilder offers three plans that can be paid monthly or annually. These plans range from $5 to $10/month, a reasonable cost for the value. With Personal, Pro, and Premium plans to choose from, small businesses have scalability and growth options. All three plans include a free domain name, free hosting, and free ad credits. Expect to pay more for some individual eCommerce features.
What is the MoneyBack Guarantee Policy?
A free trial is offered as well as a money-back guarantee (that does not include the cost of a domain name purchase through SiteBuilder). The site provides a cancelation, although a fellow tester had difficulty canceling an account.
What is SiteBuilder’ Reputation?
For being the newbie, SiteBuilder has a pretty good reputation out there. They show 3-5 stars and plenty of good customer reviews. Users like the platform, the interactive editing options, the templates, and some flexibility in HTML coding. The price for the value stacks up well.
SiteBuilder is a Peoples Choice Award Winner in the categories of Best Social Network Platform and Best CMS for Communities.
Why Choose SiteBuilder?
For business managers or individuals who need a contemporary website design for a small business along with a smooth interface, SiteBuilder has a good rating. Users can set up a free website or subscribe for a low monthly rate for the features they need. You select from over 10,000 templates, and the free services are more than adequate. The toolset includes most of the website components a business owner requires to run a small business.
Key FeaturesThis is another potentially murky area. If you take a look at “expert” reviews, make sure that you are actually reading work from an objective source. I came across plenty of reviews that were published on less than credible sites and had nothing but glowing things to say about SiteBuilder.com. In my mind, if you don’t have any criticism or suggestions to offer, then you probably didn’t look that closely at the service.
Among those who did some real digging, here is what they had to say:
Ultimately, the website builder might actually be a useful tool if the company wasn’t engaged in so many shady practices. It is better to stay away.
Basically, I don’t trust any of the positive customer reviews that I read. I would not put it past this company to visit review sites and post their own reviews in order to counteract the negative publicity. One site contains nothing but perfect reviews and text that simply doesn’t sound like it was written by the average consumer. And we are talking dozens of reviews along these same lines. I just don’t buy it and I don’t think that any potential customer who spends more than 3 minutes looking into the company would either. For that reason, I am going to go ahead and say that there aren’t actually any positive reviews or good things to say about this website builder.
First of all, SiteBuilder.com is the same company as WebsiteBuilder.com, Sitey.com and Sitelio.com. You will be getting the exact same product with slightly different pricing plans. Consumers who caught on to this were understandably turned off by the idea of a company passing themselves off under different domain names.
Other consumer reviews contain the words: “Dodgy, crooks, appalling, scam” and many others along those line. Users ran into a plethora of billing problems, were contacted by sales people trying to sell them their own domain name, and all sort of other suspicious activity. Based on the consumer reviews, I am surprised that this site is still up and running and hasn’t been completely shut down by watchdog agencies. It may be a matter of time.
Design & CustomizationDesign and customization on SiteBuilder.com are quite robust next to some competitors. The 10,000+ design templates provide a vast range of choices, and the interactive platform for customized pages is easy to navigate. Below are some notes about SiteBuilder’s design and customization features.
| Feature | Overview |
| SiteBuilder Templates | SiteBuilder has the market on templates, with over 10,000 to choose from including mobile-friendly options. There are fewer eCommerce templates to choose, but business owners seem to find what they need and have the ability to customize.
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| SiteBuilder Interface | SiteBuilder is intuitive for designing and modifying content and components. New users easily work with audio files, videos, images, colors, content, and style. SiteBuilder offers a secure login from the home or support page so you can make revisions, for instant updates on your website. |
| Page Style Customization | Page style customization allows you to personalize your website and tweak the content and components to meet your specific website needs. Often, users want to modify HTML/CSS code. SiteBuilder is perfect for most aspects of page style customization.
Once you sign up with SiteBuilder.com with your name and email address, you can preview the templates. Be sure to choose one and stick with it, as you can’t quickly select a different template after you have inserted content and components. |
| Site Navigation | Site navigation is primarily based on the template you select, but it can be customized to a degree to appear in the locations that are suitable for your customer audience. You can choose a mobile view to verify how your content and layout will seem to your mobile customers. |
| Content Management | Managing content on SiteBuilder, much like other site builders, is pretty basic and easy to do. You need only an Internet connection to log in to your account from SiteBuilder’s home or support page. Edits are easy to perform and quick to upload to your personal website. |
| Photos and Galleries | The SiteBuilder photo gallery is quite extensive, or you have the option of uploading your photography. Not only that, you can customize your photo pages regarding spacing, the number of items, transitions, columns, etc. |
| Mobile Site Building | SiteBuilder offers thousands of mobile optimized templates, and you can display them for review as you are working on your account. Since SiteBuilder is relatively new in the website builder market, mobility is a given. Many new platforms are forced to add new templates to functionality for displaying websites on a mobile device. |
| Social Sharing Integration | Social media integration is another given for SiteBuilder. With social media on the rise for marketing, reaching customers, and sharing services, this website builder includes the primary social media platforms—Facebook and Twitter. They also use SocialBooster, for your social media marketing. |
| Design Services | SiteBuilder is not in the business of providing comprehensive website design. It is considered a do-it-yourself web-building platform for any level of a user. |
Features & Tools SiteBuilder is a major website builder with most of the features designers, and business owners are seeking for a site. With early success stories by SiteBuilder users, the future looks promising. It’s a feature-rich platform, easy to use, and adequate for most small or medium sized businesses. Again, below is more of the fine print.
| Feature | Overview |
| SiteBuilder Setup | SiteBuilder offers a one-click free account, but be prepare to share your name and email to get started. Peruse through thousands of templates before you select the one that aligns with your business. Getting started is free and straightforward. |
| Web Design | Once you have selected the right template, you are ready to begin the web design process. SiteBuilder offers a blank page, or canvas, with a menu bar for adding components and building your site. You cannot change your mind on the template without a complete redesign, so be sure you’ve selected the right one. |
| Depth of Navigation | With the free plan or one of SiteBuilder’s three pricing plans, customer navigation options and the number of pages are adequate for any business design. Start with a template that offers the appropriate layout, and expand it from there. |
| Widgets and Apps | Users have some page widgets to choose from for increased customer interaction. As far as apps, it appears users can add apps from Google, but SiteBuilder doesn’t come with its apps. This one may require some research. |
| Monetization | SiteBuilder offers relatively good options that are serving some sales websites within the past year. This site builder uses Ecwid, short for “eCommerce widgets,” for shopping cart integration. |
| Visitor Statistics | Most site builders today offer accurate and real-time visitor statistics, and SiteBuilder is no exception. SiteBuilder allows you to add Google Analytics code for tracking and reporting visitors, website traffic, and more. |
| Photo,Video,and Audio | SiteBuilder does a good job with options for interactive media and imagery. These are necessary for today’s online business owners, and SiteBuilder lets you insert audio files, photos, videos, and more, to engage customers. |
| Blogging | A blog page is fairly simple to set up and maintain on SiteBuilder, unlike some of the other web builders in its class. This feature was upgraded to better support SiteBuilder users. |
| Google Maps | SiteBuilder lets you quickly insert Google maps and customize the page as well. |
| HTML Editor | While an HTML editor is not apparent, SiteBuilder lets you customize HTML tags, headers, and other elements for added control. |
| Social Media Integration | A basic form builder is available, but it is limited regarding radio buttons, text boxes, check boxes, etc. A basic form is possible, but this is not ideal for surveys. |
| Forms and surveys | A basic form builder is available, but it is limited regarding radio buttons, text boxes, check boxes, etc. A basic form is possible, but this is not ideal for surveys. |
| Storage Space | Subscribers receive 500MB of storage space with all plans. |
| Newsletter Tool | SiteBuilder offers a business email account to manage newsletter mailings. |
| Forum | SiteBuilder does not appear to provide a community forum, but there are plenty of help files for every aspect of SiteBuilder, an email option to request help, and FAQs to find what you are looking for. A support phone number is not an option except on the Premier plan. |
| E-Commerce / Online Store | SiteBuilder integrates with a third party called Ecwid for eCommerce. While not a showstopper, Ecwid is an add-on tool that may be a cause for concern. Users may need additional support to figure out the nuances and set up their store. |
| Gateway Integration | Membership gateway services do not appear to be a service, but further testing is needed. |
| SEO Friendly | SiteBuilder offers SEO tools through an app store, but add-on fees may apply. There are some marketing, optimization, and mobile tools to support search engines. |
| Site Limited Access (Password Protection) | SiteBuilder users a password-protected account for client login and editing of the website. |
| Google® Analytics | SiteBuilder integrates with Google Analytics but expects to do a little digging to figure this out. |
| Website Security | SiteBuilder, like other website builders, makes user and customer security a priority, with password protection options for websites and eCommerce platforms. |
| Multiple Languages | SiteBuilder doesn’t appear to be offered in languages other than English. |
| Mobile Optimization | The SiteBuilder templates include mobile optimization so visitors and customers can easily access your products on mobile devices. The website displays accurately and allows customers to make purchases. |
| CDN Technology | SiteBuilder claims to offer CDN hosting for an added cost to “supercharge” your technology for high availability and high performance. |
Plans & Pricing SiteBuilder offers customers a free account along with three inexpensive options. It ‘s hard to assess what the plans include or exclude or the cost, as SiteBuilder reveals this information after you provide your name and email address to create an account. All three paid plans offer:
Pricing Plans Offered
SiteBuilder offers competitive pricing, but it appears some features incur a different cost. Deciphering on the SiteBuilder website is hard.
Consider the following factors regarding pricing:
Customer Support The customer support services at SiteBuilder lean toward the do-it-yourself model. This means most of the help involves online help files you must find and read. The support center is extensive and includes help on most every topic. It may take a few minutes to find what you are looking for.
The more complex a website, the more help is needed. This help is available if you are willing to pay more for the third-tier pricing plan. A phone call appears to be discouraged unless you subscribe to the Premium plan, as no number displays on the SiteBuilder website. For third-tier subscribers, a support phone number is offered.
Ease of Use Ease of use is perhaps the best feature on SiteBuilder. It is easy to start the process, fairly user intuitive, and simple to maintain. Keep in mind skill levels vary for those who decide to create their website using an online website builder. The best way to decide is to take advantage of free trial offers and experiment. Below are some things to consider as you walk through the template wizards:
The simplicity of Interface. The SiteBuilder interface scores middle to high for visual appeal and interactivity, suited for most users.
Suitable for Beginners / Advanced Users. SiteBuilder comes across as good for both novice and experienced users. The open canvas editing concept is a little more challenging but offers some added coding flexibility for advanced users. SiteBuilder offers nearly everything a small business owner would need to showcase and sell their products.
Retain Control Over The Website At All Times. Autonomy is in the hands of the site owner, and SiteBuilder has reliable uptime and satisfied customer as proof of their platform.
In-Editor Help Provided. SiteBuilder’s help and support include an in-editor dialog to guide new designers. This feature is compatible with other similar website builders.
SiteBuilder is a competitive new web builder that is easy to use and offers most everything small business owners want and need, aside from the inability to easily swap templates after a site is set up.
Conclusion SiteBuilder has a good following considering how recent the company was started. Users can sign up for free—in fact, they must do so actually to check it out—and eventually subscribe to one of three reasonable pricing plans. SiteBuilder is optimal for individuals, small business managers, or nonprofits. The plans offer some freebies but expect some add-on pricing for various eCommerce and SEO features.
The interface is easy to manage, and there are only a few serious limitations. The pros are extensive and the cons few with the SiteBuilder program.
SiteBuilder is a robust website builder for many small companies that are just getting started or are expanding in the eCommerce space. The features are expansive with a huge number of templates to choose from, and there are only a few limitations. Take advantage of SiteBuilder’s free website to find out if this is the right choice for you.
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