Site123: The Easiest Free Website Builder

OVERVIEW

SITE123 May Be Easy to Use, but Is It Your Best Option?

On the wide spectrum of website building solutions, Site123 lives on the end that is all-inclusive and provides everything you need to get started and grow your website. It contrasts with solutions where you buy, install, and manage all the “pieces” of your website separately. I wrote a post on Website Builders, Explained for more background.

Using Site123 is sort of like leasing and customizing an apartment in a really classy development instead of buying and owning your own house. You’re still in control of decor, cleaning, and everything living-wise – but you leave the construction, plumbing, security, and infrastructure to the property owner. That point is key because there’s usually a direct tradeoff between convenience and control with all software, but especially with website builders.

Everything may fit together just right with a website builder like Site123, but that may or may not be what you’re looking for.

FEATURES

Robust Features, If You’ve Got the Cash

Templates are the foundation of any website builder, but the customization features are where things get really interesting. Here’s a closer look at some SITE123 features that I find especially useful for growing a business.

All the Essential E-commerce Features

SITE123 offers easy and fairly robust e-commerce tools. Most of these features are reserved for the two highest subscriptions, called Professional and Gold. But if you’re looking to open an online store, the investment might be worth making. With these two plans, you can:

• Accept online payments through Stripe, PayPal, Square, AmazonPay, and more
• Display an unlimited number of products
• Process an unlimited number of orders per month
• Send up to 10,000 marketing list emails per month
• Gather/display customer ratings and reviews for products
• Allow customers to create personal wish lists, saved to their accounts

SITE123 does not take any sales commission, so the only sales-related added cost you’ll be dealing with is the transaction fee from your chosen payment processor. (This is standard across all e-commerce platforms; transaction fees usually hover somewhere around 3%.)

Speaking of transactions, you might be wondering, just how secure is SITE123? Good news here – even free users get SSL/HTTPS encryption, so your customers won’t have to wonder whether their information is protected.

It’s also worth noting that you can actually add an e-commerce website page even with the free plan. You just won’t be able to accept online payments or use your own domain. So the SITE123 free plan definitely isn’t the best option for an online store, unless your customers love making offline bank transfers to a random SITE123 domain. (In which case, I have some follow-up questions about who is buying your stuff. Just saying.)

Apps and Plugins for SEO, Live Chat, and More

With either of the top two subscriptions, you’ll have full access to SITE123’s library of plugins and App Market. However, not all of these tools will be included in your plan. You’ll have to pay extra for some of them, even if you’re a Gold subscriber.

Available plugins allow for seamless integration with some of the biggest names out there, including:

• Google Analytics for SEO
• Hotjar for UX and conversion optimization
• Drip for multichannel marketing
• Zendesk and Facebook Chat for customer support

In addition, the SITE123 App Market offers tools for form building, pricing tables, online bookings, and more.

While these apps and plugins add a lot of functionality to your SITE123 e-commerce shop, they still aren’t as robust as the features offered by specialists in e-commerce. If you’re running a medium-to-large business, you’ll probably want the more powerful built-in tools provided by BigCommerce or Shopify for shipping, invoice management, inventory tracking, customer relationship management (CRM), etc.

You Can Display Your Website in Multiple Languages

In addition to using the SITE123 website builder itself in 21 different languages, you can set up your website to display in up to five languages (out of hundreds available). It probably won’t surprise you at this point to learn that in order to get this multilingual option, you need a paid subscription. The higher your subscription level, the more languages you can use.

Bottom line: SITE123’s features are versatile enough for many personal and business users, although you get the most functionality by paying the highest price. Keep in mind that just like with the templates, you’ll be limited to what SITE123 offers. You can’t purchase/integrate any third-party plugins or apps.

PRICING

Paid annual plans contain a free domain the first year and allows you to connect an existing domain. Price might decrease if you opt for a longer term.

Conclusion

Site123 certainly makes getting a website up and running easy, especially if you need something that’s done-for-you and requires little customization. They have a straightforward user-experience and easy-to-use editor that makes getting your content out there a breeze.

However, there are trade-offs to consider with an all-inclusive website builder — specifically functionality, customization, and control. And this is where Site123 falls short when compared to other all-inclusive website builders. If you’re looking to create a website with a base template but still have some flexibility over design and functionality, Site123 may not be the best option for you.