Looking for the best Squarespace alternatives? You have come to the right place.
Among a few things I don’t like about Squarespace is the fact that they don’t have a free plan, so there is no such thing as a free Squarespace plan. But, there is a way around this and that way is finding better alternatives. Let’s do it.
In this post, I’ll:
- Give you 10+ best alternatives to Squarespace that you get started with right away.
- Give you their best features and tell you all you need to know about these Squarespace competitors
So if Squarespace is not for you or you’re just looking for something BETTER, you’ll love this post. Without any further due, let’s get right in.
The 11+ Best Squarespace alternatives
At a Glance: Handpicked Squarespace alternatives
| Best For | Platform | Free/Trial Plan | Visit Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| eCommerce & Dropshipping | Shopify | Starts at $9/month. 14-Day trial available | Learn more at Shopify |
| Best for informational websites, e.g. church, museum, etc. | Weebly | Starts at $5/month. Free Plan available | Learn more at Weebly |
| Best for Blogging | WordPress | Starts at $2.59/month with Dreamhost | Learn more here |
| Best overall alternative and better free plan | Wix | Starts at $8/month. Generous Free Plan available. | Try Wix For Free |
| Best for quick and easy professional websites | Weebly | Starts at $4/month. Free Plan available. | Try Webnode For Free |
| Best for events, booking & reservation websites | Site123 | Starts at $8/month | Try Site123 For Free |
| Best for selling digital products | Sellfy | Starts at $19/month. 14 Day Trial available. | Try Sellfy 14-Day Trial |
- The 11+ Best Squarespace alternatives
- Wix: Best Overall Alternative
- Shopify: Best for eCommerce & Dropshipping
- Weebly: Best for information websites
- BigCommerce: Best for eCommerce
- WordPress: Best for building a Blog
- Webnode: Best for Quick and Affordable sites
- Site123: Best for events & booking sites
- Strikingly: Best for on-page websites
- Sellfy: Best for selling digital products
- 3dCart: Cheapest eCommerce platform
- Volusion: Best for Big eCommerce websites
- Summary: Which Should I use?
1. Wix
Best overall Squarespace free alternative. (starts at $8/month. Free Plan available)
Wix is a very popular alternative to Squarespace, and for the right reasons. First, with Wix, anyone can build a website, and thanks to their highly intuitive drag-and-editor. They’re currently powering over 100M+ sites on the internet, all built without ever right a single line of code. So what makes Wix so popular?
Wix Best Features:
- Extensive templates collection. Whatever the kind of website you want to build, Wix can start you off with one of the 500+ professional and stylish templates. All their templates are free.
- Powerful Drag & Drop Editor. This means you can place elements wherever and however you want on your page, all without writing a single line of code. If that still sounds like a lot of work to comb through, meet Wix ADI, your personal website designer machine.
- Support & Wix Help Center. Although Wix editor allows you to be in the pilot seat and take control of your website design, they make it even easier with their massive knowledge base which simply there isn’t a query you can’t find answers to, period.
- Free Forever Plan. You can use Wix for free, forever, with their Free Plan. Although it includes Wix subdomain and ads, it’s definitely great when you want to test it out and get a feel of the Wix as a whole.
- Third-Party App Market. With 280+ apps in the Wix App Market, you’ll be sure to find an app that can help with what Wix can’t do (mind you, their built-in features are exceptional) but should you need additional functionality their App market can help.
- SEO. Last but not least, SEO is the foundation of improving your chances of being found on google. And Wix goes to great lengths to make your website SEO friendly with a step-by-step plan (called SEO Whiz) to help improve your site’s SEO and thus your chances of ranking higher on google.
Does Wix have a free trial?
No Wix does not offer a free trial, however, they do have a free forever plan which means you can create and launch yout site without ever having to pay a cent.
Does the Premium plan come with a free domain?
Yes, it does. All Wix’s premium plans, which start at $9/month, include a free domain for one year after which is renewable every year for $15.
Does Wix have a good eCommerce Platform?
Oh yes. I have run one of my online store on Wix and I gotta say I was impressed with it. However, I had to move it over to Shopify because of how eCommerce centric Shopify. I particularly liked Shopify’s app market and store functionalities you can extend with them. Besides that, Wix is arguably one of the best eCommerce store builders out there.
Is Wix Website Slow?
Yes in the past Wix struggled with slow loading pages but they have since fixed that with their latest technology called Wix Turbo in early 2019 to improve loading time speeds. Some of the changes included code and page layout optimization, added 4 more server infrastructures and page caching to allow for a faster page load and response time.
Does Wix offer money back guarantee?
Yes, Wix has a 14-day, no questions asked, money-back guarantee. And that means if you decide to cancel one of their premium plans and you do so within 14 days, you’ll be fully reimbursed.
Is Wix a good Squarespace alternative?
Although Squarespace costs few dollars less than Wix on their entry-level Premium plans, Wix seems to have an upper hand on most other levels.
One of the starkest differences between Wix and Squarespace websites is their editor. Wix features an unstructured editor, meaning you can place elements wherever you like and thus allowing you greater design freedom and flexibility. On the other end, Squarespace’s editor is structured and that is you can only add elements within designated blocks and content areas.
The other big difference: Wix offers a generous free plan while Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan. So, looking for a Squarespace free alternative? Wix may be your no.1 option.
If you’re planning to design your own website and would like a lot of design freedom then Wix will be your first choice. The flexibility it offers goes well beyond the editor itself, it includes being able to add 3rd party apps, pricing, and usability; biggest of all? It’s really fun building a site with Wix.
2. Shopify
By far the best eCommerce Platform ever (starts at $29/month. Free 14-Day trial)
Maybe this is nothing more than my personal opinion but I always assert that Shopify is the best eCommerce platform you can try, better than Squarespace no doubt. What makes it so powerful, you ask? The sophistication is hidden within its simplicity, making it easy to launch a full-fledged store within hours -all without ever writing a single line of code. So, if you want an alternative you can build an online store with, Shopify should be an easy choice. Here is part of what makes it so highly cost-effective.
Shopify Best Features:
- Ease of Use & Functionality. Yes, it’s uber simple to use Shopify, but don’t be fooled. Within that simplicity, Shopify is packed with advanced features that are unrivaled by any other eCommerce platform.
- Payment Gateaways, Shipping & Taxes. With 100+ payment getaways depending on your country, you’ll be hard-pressed to not find a payment method that works well for your customers. What’s more? Shopify automatically handles taxes and shipping based on your country so you can focus on making your online store successful.
- 3rd-Party Apps. This is one of Shopify’s biggest strengths. See, Shopify’s built-in features can already do a lot, but add additional functionalities from 2000+ apps in their App Market and you get an eCommerce platform you can create virtually any store with it.
- Shopify Mobile App. Like the web-based platform, Shopify’s mobile app is intuitive, fresh and packed with awesome features. I am yet to find anything you can’t do on it; from editing product pages, variants, descriptions to changing your marketing preferences such as discounts & coupons – it has got it all.
- Shopify Help Center & 24/7 Support. Shopify support team is available literally around the clock, whether you prefer email, chat, or even phone call, you can always count on getting help. As if that wasn’t enough, there are also discussion forums where you can get answers to your most pressing questions quickly and easily by typing in your question in the search bar.
- Store Management & Analytics. Being able to understand how your customers interact with your site it’s uber important and Shopify makes that a whole lot easier with their actionable dashboard that shows sales, orders, traffic, etc. Best part? You can integrate it with google analytics (and other 3rd-party apps) to take your visitor analytics to a whole new level.
Why is Shopify so popular?
Shopify’s main goal is to empower small businesses and entrepreneurs with a platform that can allow them to sell online and stand a chance to compete with the “big boys” without running into thousands of dollars in software and web development costs. And frankly, they have mastered the trade and make it look so easy and affordable.
Is Shopify easy for beginners?
Yes it is. At first, it can be intimidating but soon enough you’ll realize how intuitive and guided the whole process of building a website is.
How does Shopify free trial work?
You simply sign up and then you can begin testing out their platform before committing to anything. No credit card required during your trial but should you decided to sell within that 14 days you’ll be required to select a plan beforehand.
What is Shopify Dropshipping?
Dropshipping has been making waves for the past 8 years or so. In simple terms, it’s selling products online without the need to ever hold inventory. When the customer buys your product, you pass the sales order to a 3rd-party supplier (most people use Aliexpress) and then they fulfill that order for you.
How does Shopify Compare to Squarespace?
Squarespace’s eCommerce platform is praiseworthy on many levels such as its inventory tools, world-class templates, and customer-focused checkout page to name but a few. But head-to-head, pound-for-pound, Shopify is by far the best eCommerce platform for you.
On a personal note: Before I moved one of my sites to Shopify, I was hosting it on Wix and as my needs grew I realized Wix’s eCommerce limitations and soon moved it to Shopify (which was tedious) and I had never complained ever since that time.
Shopify levels the playing field and makes it all possible to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with “big boy” brands with all the tools and resources they put in your hands.
3. Weebly
Best overall for informational websites (starts at $5/month)
Weebly has been around the block for quite a while. It currently powers 50M+ websites, and it’s no surprise that so many people like it. Weebly is similar to Squarespace in more ways than they’re different. One thing I love about Weebly is the website’s performance even with overloaded 100+ pages on a website. It features a simple and easy to use interface, no-frills pricing structure and some sweet features for bloggers and eCommerce stores.
Weebly Best Features:
- Pricing Structure & Value-for-money. Weebly’s pricing structure is without any fuss and very straight to the point, and offers a big bang for the bucks. Only 4 plans are available, starting with a free forever plan to Personal (starting at $6/month), Professional (starting at $12/month, ads-free) & Performance Plan for eCommerce stores which starts at $26/month.
- Responsive & Customizable Templates. Although Wix doesn’t have a large collection of templates like Wix, the ones they have available are crisp and modish and are responsive across different devices such as smartphones and tablets.
- Structured Drag-and-Drop Editor. Weebly’s clean editor makes it easy to find elements to add to your site and thus saving you sweat and frustrations. Additionally, if you have some coding experience, you can add custom code to your editor to add more functionality.
- Weebly App Center. If coding is not your forte, then you may like Weebly’s App center that allows you to improve your site’s functionality with their modest collection of apps available, many of them free.
How does Weebly free plan work?
Like with Wix, Weebly allows you to built your site for free as long as you want. However, that means you’ll have to live up with annoying Weebly branded ads and customized URL.
Is Weebly better than Wix?
While Wix offers a wider range of features & designs and spots the best drag and drop editor of the two, Weebly performs exceptionally well with larger sites containing 100+ pages. So if you’ll be building a website with 30+ pages I would recommend using Weebly besides that I think Wix will offer more creative freedom & flexibility.
Can I sell on Weebly for free?
Unfortunately not. Weebly’s free plan, unlike Wix, does include eCommerce features and therefore you may have to switch to one of their eCommerce plans or altogether switch to Wix’s free plan in order to sell for free.
Does Weebly have a free trial?
No, they currently don’t have any free trials but they do have a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. This means if you decided Weebly is not good for you within 30 days you’ll receive your full refund.
Is Wix a good Squarespace alternative?
Here are three things, that you may care about, where Weebly has an upper hand: First, Weebly performs really well with sites with overloaded pages (100+) and they also allow multiple navigational subpages (something Squarespace is lacking with). Secondly, Weebly offers additional customization and functionality through either coding or adding 3rd party apps, something you can’t do with Squarespace. Lastly, Weebly offers a free plan and Square does not.
Besides the above differences, Weebly and Squarespace are mostly very similar, both in terms of features and pricing. But if you care about added functionality that comes with coding or 3rd-party apps or would like to try out a free plan before voting with your pocket, then Weebly may be a better Squarespace free website alternative.
4. BigCommerce
Best for scalability and flexibility (starts at $29/month. Free 15-Day Trial)
BigCommerce is one of the big players in the SaaS eCommerce store builders. Although known to serve big clients such as Toyota, Ford UK, Ben & Jerry, it also has the resources and capabilities for smaller businesses. From 50+ payment gateways & integrations to responsive & customizable themes, BigCommerce is definitely a force to be reckoned with in the eCommerce space. Let’s take a long at some of the cool features.
BigCommerce Best Features:
- No Additional Transaction Fees. One of the biggest advantages of choosing Bigcommerce over other eCommerce platforms is that you get to pay zero transaction fees on all your sales. These fees can be as high as 3%, which can quickly add up with large sales volume.
- Multi-channel Selling & Payment Gateaways. Although not limited to BigCommerce only, BigCommerce also allows you to sell across multiple channels such as Pinterest, Facebook, eBay and even Amazon. What’s more? You can sync your inventory across all these platforms for better inventory management. Additionally, you can accept payment from 55+ payment providers across many countries.
- Product Options & Variants. Often out of sight features that can easily be overlooked. BigCommerce does a good job of allowing you to add 200+ product variants for a product option. If you’ll be selling a product with a lot of variants then this may be a future you wanna learn more about.
- Multiple Shipping & Fulfilment Options. BigCommerce partnered with more shipment providers and carriers than any other eCommerce platform. This includes services such as UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, Canada Post, and many more. This makes it uber easy to handle your shipping & fulfillment. Plus, if you like you can easily outsource shipping & fulfillment with their trusted 3-party logistics all right within your shipping dashboard.
- Hosting & Security. Most Cloud-based SaaS platforms offer an adequate level of security for their users, but BigCommerce takes it a step further with their multi-layered security measures. Their uptime and loading speeds are among some of the best in the industry, making sure the only thing you have to worry about is generating sales.
- Customer Service & Support. Like Shopify, BigCommerce gives you around the clock support and help through email, chat and via phone as well. Their support page also offers a huge base of resources in form of articles and videos to help you out should you get stuck.
How do I know which to choose between BigCommerce & Shopify?
Good question. They offer almost similar features and pricing, so does it really matter which you choose? While BigCommerce offers more built-in features, Shopify offset that apparent strength with their 5000+ apps (many of them free) that can extend your site’s functionality and help you tweak and twist however you like.
How does their free trial work?
It works the same way as Shopify; you sign up and start your free trial and test out the platform and if you decide it’s not for you, no big deal. But if decided to continue with it, you’ll have to pay at the end of your trial to continue using it.
Is Wix a good Squarespace alternative?
Although BigCommerce’s themes are modern and visually appealing, the lack of variety and options available for free themes is the biggest drawback I have with it, and that happens to be one of Squarespace’s biggest strengths with their collection of 100+ free themes to choose from.
Look, no software is perfect. Beyond the limitation I pointed out, I think BigCommerce is a great SaaS platform for building a great online store. Compared to Squarespace, they’re without a doubt in a different class when it comes to eCommerce but if you need a non-eCommerce site then your best shot would probably be Wix or Weebly or Webnode.
5. WordPress
Best overall for blogging (Premium starts at $2.25/month)
Although WordPress can be intimidating at first glance, there is plenty of resources to help you get accustomed to in a rather short space of time. WordPress powers over one-third of all the websites currently online today, and it’s still the choicest open-source software for many today. Even though you can build any kind of website you can imagine, WordPress is natively still very popular among bloggers and for all the good reasons.
WordPress Best Features:
- Customizable & Responsive Designs. Since WordPress.org is a self-hosted software, you can tweak and twist your code to make it look as you wish. Big BUT, you may have to play with coding to achieve that. Host your site on Bluehost or Dreamhost, or any other similar web hosting platforms, and you’ll have 100+ templates to start off and you can customize it further.
- 55 000+ Plugins & 5000+ Free themes. With that many options, you’ll be hard-pressed to not find what you’re looking for. But with a lot of choices come a lot of confusion, right? No worries, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Here is a list of Best Top 5 WordPress Themes For Bloggers & a list of Top 20 Best WordPress Plugins.
- SEO Friendly & Mobile Optimized. You don’t power 37% of the internet without being friendly to google, do you? That’s right, there’s one WordPress plugin called Yoast SEO that does all the heavy lifting for you and gives you suggestions on what you can do to improve your site SEO.
- Wide variety of hosting options. Since WordPress.org is an open software that means you have to find a web hosting platform to “house” your website. I personally use Dreamhost or Bluehost, in fact, WordPress itself recommends both for it’s hosting. But there are many you can choose from with many differences in features and pricing.
What’s the difference between WordPress.com & WordPress.org?
One of the key differences between the two is about who’s hosting your website. WordPress.org is self-hosted, meaning you have to buy a hosting platform (Bluehost and Dreamhost are out top pick hosting platform starting at only $2.45/month) while with WordPress.com your site is hosted by WordPress.com. WordPress.org with Bluehost is better because it allows you further customization of your site with 50 000+ plugins while WorPress.com does not allow you to customize their themes and you cannot add any plugins, further limiting the ability to control your website’s design.
Is WordPress beginner friendly?
Definitely not as beginner-friendly as the likes of Wix & Webnode, but with some little effort and desire to learn you can master WordPress within few days. There’s a common misconception that one has to know coding in order to use WordPress, but that simply ain’t true. You can create your WordPress website without ever having to write a single line of coding. In fact, that’s how almost everyone uses WordPress.Wanna learn more? See this full tutorial to learn more.
How & Where do I get started with WordPress?
That’s a question we get a lot. As such, we have put together a WordPress for Beginners: Step by Step Guide on getting started with WordPress. This complete guide contains all you’ll ever need to know to get started with WordPress.
How do I know if WordPress is for me?
My most direct answer is this: If you’re new to blogging, WordPress offers the best blogging platform of any other website builders. It’ll take some learning, yes, but that will save you tons of time, and money, in the long run. Although other blogging platforms are okay, they have limitations that only WordPress has solutions to, and the sooner you know that the better.
Does WordPress offer a free trial?
Unfortunately not. However, Bluehost (our WordPress host of choice) does have a 30-day money-back guarantee. Better yet? Dreamhost (another WordPress recommended hosting platform) offers a 97-day money-back guarantee. Check it out here.
Is Wix a good Squarespace alternative?
If you need a simple and sweet website for your portfolio (artist, photographer, freelancer, etc) then I would recommend Squarespace or either Wix or Weebly can also do the job fashionably well too.
But if you’re into blogging and need to set up your website quickly and start writing your first blog post, then it’s no brainer that I will recommend WordPress hosted by Bluehost.
On a personal note: When I first started blogging, I hosted my blog on Wix, and rather very soon I realized I couldn’t ignore WordPress any longer so I migrated my blog over to WordPress and used Dreamhost for hosting. I had to now learn how WordPress operated and I must say it was very intimidating at first. New to blogging? Check out this complete guide we have to get started.
6. Webnode
Best Easiest & Quickest Website Builder (Free Plan available, Premium starts at $4/month)
With the website builder niche dominated by big powerhouses such as Wix, Shopify & BigCommerce, it can be easy to overlook the likes of Webnode, but they cannot be disregarded.
Webnode’s homepage says you can create your own website for FREE in minutes, and they’re 100% right – I joined over 40M+ people already using Webnode and created a website in minutes. I honestly was completely blown away by how simple and quick it is to create a website with Webnode.
Webnode Best Features:
- Fresh Interface & User-friendly editor. I am aware I said other interfaces are clean and modern, which they’re, but Webnode takes it to the whole new level. Their interface and editor are so aesthetically appealing but wait, there more, they’re uber easy to use and find your way around too.
- 100+ Modern Predesigned Templates. Webnode’s templates do exactly what templates suppose to do: Give you a framework that will require minimal changes and thus save you valuable time. Perhaps is their golden secret to being able to create a full fledged website in minutes, literally. They make it so easy.
- SEO Tools & Speed Perfomance. Fast loading pages are one of the google ranking factors, Webnode does as good as other major website builders when it comes loading speed. What’s more? Webnode allows you to add & customize your URL slug, meta tags titles and descriptions, etc.
- Online Store, Payment & Shipping. Webnode also offers online store capabilities beyond the already impressive features. Within the dashboard, you can add and manage your products, payment processors (Paypal, Stripe, Wire transfer, Credit card, and even pay upon pickup), and shipping methods (includes DHL & FedEx).
Does Webnode have a free trial?
No, but they do have a free forever plan that you can use to build an unlimited number of websites. However, Webnode’s free plan also comes with Webnode branded ads on your site and URL with Webnode subdomain.
Can I really build a website in minutes with Webnode?
Absolutely. I had a chance to test that out and there’s a lot of merit to it. Their fresh and minimal templates do most of the heavy lifting for you. With only a few and simple tweaks here and there you can have your website in less than 15 minutes.
Why is Webnode so cheap, does it mean it’s not high quality?
Not at all. Their $4/month plan allows you to connect your own domain name and doesn’t include your free 1-year domain name. Plus if you need more features (storage, bandwidth, etc) you can upgrade to their Mini plan that starts at $6/month and it includes a free domain name and additional storage and bandwidth.
How does Webnode Compare to Squarespace?
Squarespace is a great website builder, no doubt. But the reason we got here is that we’re looking for better, and maybe cheaper, alternative, right? Is Webnode a worthy alternative to Squarespace? Absolutely. I have personally vetted and built a website with Webnode and I gotta say how impressed I was with their crisp and modern interface, from their website to the editor dashboard, everything is super modern.
If you’re looking for a website builder that can empower you to build a professional and stylish website in a matter of a few minutes, then you gotta check out what Webnode has to offer. Best part? You can start with a free plan and get a feel for it.
7. Site123
Best Overall Customer Support Website Builder (Starts at $8/month. Free Plan available)
Site123 is right along the same alley with Webode in terms of user-friendliness. Like Webnode, Site123 has removed all unnecessary hurdles to help you get started with your website confidently.
Site123 prides itself on the exceptional 24/7 customer support they offer, and for very good reason. Everyone that has used it will tell you their customer service is like no other. Now let’s talk about the meaty stuff, shall we?
Site123 Best Features:
- Responsive Web Design. Having a website that can perfectly respond across all types of devices is non-negotiable. Site123 understands that which why Site123’s templates are responsive and look amazing on mobiles, tablets, and desktops.
- Multilingual Website & SEO. Similar to Webnode, Site123 offers a multilingual website where you can translate the whole site by a press of a button using Google or Bing translate. And if you need professional translation work, Site123 allows you to export your website files for translation. The best part? Multi-language SEO is all taken care off, that way you can be found on google in your desired languages.
- Events, Schedule Booking & Reservations. Have an upcoming event you wanna sell tickets for? Or what about accepting reservations on your site? Better yet, you wanna let your clients book and make appointments with you online? All that could easily be done with Site123. Pretty cool.
- Blogging. Site123 has fairly decent blogging features as such a nice collection of modern templates, comment & respond system and social media integration. However, as nice and handy as it is, If you wish to take your blog to a whole new level and want to monetize it, I highly recommend WordPress with Blueshost for your blog.
How good is Site123?
It’s all in the name. Site123 makes it uber easy for anyone with little to no design experience to build a website faster than you can say ‘’1-2-3’’- kidding but almost.
How is Site123 support & help?
Put simply, it’s the best of any website builder I have seen. Their service is exceptional on many levels. It has a small company feel to it and as such, they put an extra effort to ensure each customer is satisfied.
Does Site123 offer a free trial?
No, but they do have a free plan that you can use as long as want. The free plan comes with Site123 branded ads and a custom URL that contains Site123 name in it.
How do I know Site123 is for me?
If you want a simply designed event and booking website that you can launch in a few minutes, then I would recommend Site123. They have beautiful templates for events and booking websites that are easily customizable.
Is Wix a good Squarespace alternative?
Site123’s simplicity and unpopularity can fool you into believing it’s not worth the shot, but that would be totally false. In the features above, I haven’t mentioned it’s a huge collection of 3rd party apps, Logo maker, and thousands of free stock images and videos you can find right in your dashboard.
Here’s where I am getting: If you’re absolutely new to building a website and need a ton of friendly support quicker than you can say the word “help me” then you may consider giving Site123 a shot or take advantage of absolutely stunning templates with Webnode, also offers great customer support.
8. Strikingly
Best for one-page websites (starts at $8/month)
Strikingly, together with Webnode & Site123, is one of the few “plug-and-play’’ website builders that totally lets you create a website in 15 minutes or less.
Strikingly is particularly great for one-page websites with their predesigned templates but it takes the creative control and freedom from you with that kind of speed and easiness. If you don’t care about much tweaking and twisting your site to your liking, that is, pushing the limits of your templates to do more, then you may consider one of their plans.
Strikingly Best Features:
- SEO Guided Checklist. SEO can be scary for most people, let alone for beginners. It shouldn’t have to be. In fact, Strikingly guides you step-by-step on things you should do, in a form of a checklist, to better your site SEO rating.
- Domain & Security. Strikingly, unlike other website builders, allows you to connect your domain even on a free plan. Plus, they also offer custom top-level domains (TLD’s) such as my website.shop or mywebsite.boutique to help distinguish your business.
- Knowledge Base. As beginner-friendly as strikingly is, they still offer a large library of articles and videos to help you, step-by-step, should you ever need a little more help with designing your website. In addition to accessible articles and videos, you’ll have access to 24/7 customer support that will be ready to help you out.
Does Strikigly have a free plan?
Yes. It allows you to build unlimited sites with 500MB storage and 5GB of bandwidth per month (very generous I gotta say). Their free plan, as you may expect, comes with a branded strikingly domain name.
Is Strikingly any good?
Absolutely. Like Site123 & Webnode, Strikingly has done a lot of legwork to make it uber easy for users to build their site in a few minutes, however that restricts some level of creative freedom. Yes, they’re good if you want a quick, and I might add, a professional site within a snap. But that doesn’t mean the website is of low quality, not at all.
How does Strikingly Compare to Squarespace?
In the true sense of the word, Squarespace is out of Strikingly’s league, they don’t begin to compare. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not a worthy alternative. In fact, it could be if you’re an absolute beginner and just want to put one leg in the water to test things out with a one-page website or even a simple free blog.
9. Sellfy
Best for selling digital products (starts at $19/month. 14-Day Trial available.)
Sellfy was created with one thing, and only one thing in mind: to help creators of ebooks, music, video, comic or any type of digital to sell their work via an easy to build online store. In fact, it takes less than 5 minutes to create a store and start uploading your files for sale.
Sellfy Best Features:
- Beautiful Store Front. Customize the store the way you like by adding your logo, language, domain name, colors, and fonts to match your brand identity, all within an easy to use Sellfy website editor.
- Trusted Payment Options. Sellfy allows you to accept payment via only Paypal and Stripe, and ofcourse with those two you can never go wrong.
- Marketing & Analytics. Built-in marketing features such as upsell & cross sell, discount codes, tracking pixels, etc.
- Integration & Security. Embed your videos & audio preview files on your page using either Youtube, Vimeo, or SoundCloud. You can also extend the functionality of your site with Zappier’s 1000+ apps.
How long has Sellfy been around?
Sellfy was founded in 2011 and now supports 210 000+ creators to sell their digital work online. Since their creation, they sold over 1.2M products and have amassed a lot of fans along the way.
Is it safe to sell on Sellfy?
Yes, it is totally safe. They make it easy to sell your digital products. In a few steps, you can have your site set up and ready to welcome your first customers.
Can I sell physical products on Sellfy too?
Yes you can, but that isn’t their biggest strength. If you want to sell physical products I would point you towards Shopify or BigCommerce.
How does Sellfy Compare to Squarespace?
They don’t compare. Squarespace is targeted towards small business owners and entrepreneurs while Sellfy tries to create a platform for creators to publish and sell their work. Sellfy is very niche-specific, and that niche is the creators of music, comics, ebooks, etc.
If you’re in the line of selling digital products, you may wanna check Sellfy out and see if it’s for you. Of course, other platforms also give space to digital creators but they are not as niche-specific as Sellfy is.
10. 3dCart
Cheaper version of BigCommerce & Shopify (starts at $10/month. 15-Day Trial available.)
An oldie in the eCommerce platform space, started back in 1997 and have since come a long way to modernize and keep up with the times. 3dCart and BigCommerce are bitter rivals that offer very similar features, although 3dCart is a little cheaper option of the two.
3dCart Best Features:
- 100+ eCommerce Integrations & 165+ Payment Gateaways. 3dCart has more than enough payment solutions to help you collect payments effortlessly and securely. 100+ integrations with marketing and financial tools (Aweber, Quickbooks, Mailchimp, etc) and plenty of sales channels (Facebook, eBay, Google, Zapier, etc)
- Marketing Features & Tools. 3dCart has plenty of features to help a beginner hit the ground running but also offer advanced features for successful stores to scale up. Such features include, ability to provide gift certificate, store credits, coupons & discounts, rewards points, etc.
- Upsell & Cross Features. These features can help you drive more sales by convincing customers to upgrade their purchase (upsell) or buy another related product (cross-sell). This is one feature that comes built-in with 3rdCart which, however, isn’t available with out-of-the-box BigCommerce features (meaning you have to buy it with 3rd-party apps).
Low Barrier to Entry. 3rdCart makes it simple to get started, and when time is right, to scale up. You can open a store for only $19/month ($10/month for a dropshipping plan), making it easy, and cheaper, for business on a tight budget.
3rdCart is old, does it mean it’s using outdated technology?
Not at all. 3rdCart has been investing in newer and latest technology over the years, one of their most recent overhaul being in 2015 where they upgraded their user interface to look more modern and user-friendly.
How do I know if 3rdCart it’s good for me?
If you’re a small business on an extremely tight budget 3rdCard standard plan at $20/month can save you some buck while giving you the best resources you’ll need to succeed online.
Though I personally feel you’d still be better off with Shopify’s entry-level plan by paying extra $9 every month. The features Shopify offers at $29/month are simply hard to beat – as best as you can get it.
How does 3dCart Compare to Squarespace?
3dCart is in the same league as BigCommerce, Shopify, and Volusion. They’re eCommerce website builders that allow you to launch a full-fledged online store in a matter of hours. However, 3rdCart, unlike Shopify and BigCommerce it’s a much cheaper option, starting at $10 less than both.
3rdCart is a much better option to Volusion but trails behind Shopify and BigCommerce when it comes to features. If you’re on a tight budget (i.e. you could save an extra $10/month) and want to build an online store, then 3rdCart will be a better option for you. Otherwise, you’d be better off sticking around with the best – Shopify or BigCommerce.
11. Volusion
Best for data-driven business owners
Volusion has been around the block for a while; twenty one years and still going strong, and growing younger and fresh with each new update. It bills itself on it’s homepage as eCommerce platform for everyone, and helps you create store faster than anywhere else. But is that true?
Before I mention the best features, let me come outright and tell you the two biggest limitations with Volusion: 1. You cannot sell digital products, big setback if you wanna sell ebooks, music, creative art, etc. 2. Does not provide a blogging platform, something that’s very standard with other platforms and is crucial to SEO. Now that I’ve ironed that out, let’s keep moving.
Volusion Best Features:
- Inventory & Analytics. This one area where Volutions excels and deserves a cake. With Volusion you can do some pretty advanced stuff when it comes to inventory management such as forecasting, KPI management, multi-warehouse inventory, etc.
- Mobile App & Themed Templates. Volusion offers decent amount of themes to start off design with, plus they’re modern and stylish and you can change them anytime you feel like. Their mobile app, which is exceptional, allows you to manage your business on the go.
- Payment Gateways & Shipping Options. Although not as advanced and feature-rich as the likes of Shopify, Volusion still offers enough features to allow you to collect money in 35+ payment methods and ship merchandise via a wide variety of options.
- Multi-channel selling. Volusion allows you to sell your merchandise on eBay, Facebook, Amazon, and beyond. This is uber important as it allows you to scale your online business.
Is volusion better than Shopify?
While both offer advanced features to help your business grow, Volusion’s strengths lie in its data analytics and comprehensive inventory, Shopify is much easier to use and offers far more sales features & content management system than Volusion.
Does Volusion offer a free trial?
Yes it does. Like Shopify, Volusion offers a 14-day free trial you can activate by simply signing up and start taking it on a test drive.
How does Volusion Compare to Squarespace?
The fact that Volusion, 1. does not support blogging platform on the CMS as your online store, and, 2. You cannot sell digital products, it’s a sore spot for me. What’s more? Unlike other platforms, Volusion’s premium plans do not include SSL which doesn’t come cheap at $90, a price that’s too heavy to simply just fork out.
I give this as my opinion: Volusion is not beginner-friendly, both in terms of features and pricing. If you’re just starting out you cannot afford not to have a blog on your site. Shopify is a much better option in terms of pricing and what you get overall.
Summary: Which Should I use?
It’s hard to boil this to one specific platform. I hate to say, but it really depends on your needs and the kind of business you’re into. Here is a nifty little summary I created to make your selection, hopefully, a little less painful:
| Best For | Platform | Free/Trial Plan | Visit Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| eCommerce & Dropshipping | Shopify | Starts at $9/month. 14-Day trial available | Learn more at Shopify |
| Best for informational websites, e.g. church, museum, etc. | Weebly | Starts at $5/month. Free Plan available | Learn more at Weebly |
| Best for Blogging | WordPress | Starts at $2.59/month with Dreamhost | Learn more here |
| Best overall alternative and better free plan | Wix | Starts at $8/month. Generous Free Plan available. | Try Wix For Free |
| Best for quick and easy professional websites | Weebly | Starts at $4/month. Free Plan available. | Try Webnode For Free |
| Best for events, booking & reservation websites | Site123 | Starts at $8/month | Try Site123 For Free |
| Best for selling digital products | Sellfy | Starts at $19/month. 14 Day Trial available. | Try Sellfy 14-Day Trial |
Now your situation may be different, and if it is be sure to let me know in the comment section. And I will do my best to respond to every comment.
Over to you
I have done my best to give you an easily digestible comprehensive list. Now you tell me, which one are you gonna try? Do you have any questions or comments about any of these platforms?
If you do, feel free to shout out in the comment section. I am eager to hear your thoughts or questions.
Cheers!
