Advantages and Disadvantages of Website Builders
Standard Site Templates Help to Create a Professional Site
Mar 3, 2009
Using a website builder is as easy as using a word processor. The times, when a 5-page site was monopoly of web designers, are history. Now everybody can make a simple site with minor effort and in no time at all. All this is possible thanks to special software – website builders.
However, it is not true to say that website builders are only great. They do have drawbacks and before jumping on the web design wagon, it is good to know both the advantages and disadvantages of website builders.
Advantages of Website Builders
Here are some of the most notable advantages of website builders:
- Website builders are easy to learn and use. Most website builders are easy to learn and use but if one wants to really master them, or to make complex designs, then the task gets complicated.
- Low price. Creating a site with the help of a website builder is much cheaper than hiring a dedicated web designer. Sometimes a website builder could even be completely free – i.e. there are Web hosting providers, who offer website builders for free as part of the web hosting plan.
- Many website templates to choose from. The best website builders come with thousands of ready templates, which can be customized as necessary. In such cases chances are that even the most capricious clients will find a template, which meets their requirements.
Disadvantages of Website Builders
As with many things in life, it would be too good to be true, if website builders had only advantages. Well, this is not the case – they do have disadvantages as well and some of them are:
- Not enough flexibility. Website builders come with a predefined set of templates and when a user is looking for a very special layout, color combination, or other features, it is not impossible that the standard templates can't be modified to reflect this.
- Less control over the look and feel of the site. Standard website templates can be modified but within reasonable limits. Very often there are areas, which can't be changed – i.e. there is a header and it can't be removed, or the menu on the left can't be deleted, etc. Such cases are rare but they do happen.
- Website builders come with a contract. Sometimes website builders have binding clauses – i.e. if a user wants to use the website builder, he or she must host the site with a particular web hosting provider. If the web hosting provider is expensive or unreliable, it is not possible to move the site to another provider.
There is no universal answer if the advantages of website builders are more than their disadvantages. There are cases when using a website builder is the better alternative but there are also cases when this is too much of a compromise. So, if one has to resort to website builders, he or she should decide if a website builder is the better option in the particular situation or not.
