WordPress Development - Visual Composer Website Builder https://visualcomposer.com/blog/category/development/ Create Your WordPress Website Thu, 23 Nov 2023 11:05:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.3 https://visualcomposer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/cropped-vcwb-favico-32x32.png WordPress Development - Visual Composer Website Builder https://visualcomposer.com/blog/category/development/ 32 32 Wix Alternatives: 5 Website Builders You Can Use in 2023 https://visualcomposer.com/blog/5-wix-alternatives/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/5-wix-alternatives/#respond Fri, 18 Aug 2023 10:50:45 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=35552 Wix is a website builder that many people use. Like all other software, it has its good and bad points which can affect your development efforts. Here are five alternative web building platforms you may want to consider in 2022, including a comparison of stand-alone and CMS-based builders.

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Wix Alternatives: 5 Website Builders You Can Use in 2022

Wix is a no-code website builder that allows you to create and customize websites and online stores without design or technical skills. While it provides helpful features, it also has some drawbacks that motivate users to look for the perfect Wix alternative.

Users are searching for the best website builder with features such as design templates, third-party app integrations, hosting options, and content management systems at an affordable price.

One such solution is Visual Composer, our WordPress website builder that lets you seamlessly create professional or personal websites. You can use our drag-and-drop editor to create your website or an online store in a hassle-free way. It is suitable for beginners and advanced users. Get started today and join thousands of web creators who already use Visual Composer.

If you need more ideas, in this article, we will evaluate the best alternatives to Wix to help you choose the most suitable option for your business. Let’s start with some basic information about the Wix website builder.

What is Wix?

Wix website builder interface
Wix website builder interface. Source: PCMag

Wix is a website builder that allows you to create, design, and manage HTML5 and mobile websites with drag-and-drop tools. Wix provides many features, templates, and integrations. However, users on popular review websites have made several complaints about:

  • Poor customer service
  • Overwhelming features and options
  • High learning curve
  • High cost for advanced features, and integrations with third-party apps

Due to these issues, users seek other website builders to meet the needs of their online businesses. We researched the best Wix alternatives, so let’s cover the most popular ones.

Wix Alternatives: The Evaluation Parameters

In this article, we will evaluate the best Wix alternatives using the following criteria:

  • User rating
  • Unique features
  • Integrations
  • Customer support
  • Pros
  • Cons
  • Pricing

Our goal is to guide you through making an informed decision for your business.

5 Best Wix Alternatives in 2023

The website builders we will highlight as alternatives to Wix in this article include

  • Visual Composer
  • Elementor
  • Brizy
  • Squarespace
  • Webflow

Let’s start with Visual Composer and explain why we consider it to be the best website builder and the best alternative to Wix. We believe that not just because it's our product but also because of the number of features Visual Composer offers compared to others.

1. Visual Composer

Visual Composer website builder editor interface with elements

Being one of the leading website builders, Visual Composer is ideal for creating responsive websites without coding. Our drag-and-drop editor makes it suitable for people without web development skills, but it’s also prevalent among experienced developers.

Visual Composer editor design options window

Visual Composer empowers you to create your custom website quickly, using the complete WordPress website builder, elements, extensions, blocks, and templates. Our built-in features help you create, edit and optimize your web pages to enhance the user experience.

Visual Composer gives you complete control over your website's appearance. It’s the go-to solution for:

Visual Composer helps you streamline your web development process. It has helped many web creators to scale their businesses successfully.

User Rating

Visual Composer scores 4.3/5 stars on Capterra, based on 55 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Visual Composer is not just your regular WordPress website builder.

It provides automatic SEO tools that boost your website performance and speed. Its eCommerce tools help you increase conversion rates and close more sales.

Visual Composer also offers stock images, 500+ content elements, pre-designed templates, powerful add-ons, and compatibility with all the top WordPress themes and plugins.

Compared with Wix, Visual Composer features are easy to use and are not overwhelming for beginners. It’s the perfect Wix alternative to make you stand out from other web creators.

Integrations

Visual Composer is compatible with the most popular third-party plugins and marketing tools, like

  • MailChimp
  • Yoast
  • Advanced Custom Fields
  • WP Forms
  • wpDataTables
  • WooCommerce
  • Gutenberg
  • Weglot
  • Google Fonts
  • Unsplash
  • YouTube
  • Google
  • Giphy

Customer Support

Visual Composer offers reliable support to customers via email, live chats, and tickets. In addition, our help center also has useful resources like blog posts, FAQs, tutorials, and a community of fellow creators to guide you through basic issues.

We have a 94% customer satisfaction rate and a fast response time considerably above the industry average.

Pros

  • Intuitive user interface
  • Built-in SEO features for high speed and performance
  • Responsive design
  • Numerous content elements, add-ons, and design templates
  • Supports live editing, with the option of undoing and redoing actions
  • High-class support and regular updates
  • Theme builder options for creating customized layouts

Cons

  • The website building tool has a slight learning curve for new users, but lower compared to other tools

Pricing

Visual Composer is not an entirely free tool. While we provide a free version with a free page builder, we also offer premium plans with advanced editing features.

We also provide the best price for developers with 1000 sites, with a friendly price for single and 3-site licenses.

The pricing plans include

  • Single — $49/year for one website
  • Plus — $99/year for five websites
  • Accelerate — $149/year for 20 websites
  • Growth — $349/year for 100 websites
  • Agency — $849/year for 1000 websites
  • Lifetime —  $149 for 1 website (onetime payment)

The first five plans are Annual subscription plans, while the Lifetime plan is for creators who don't want to manage subscriptions for their clients but want to charge them for the license per project.

Visual Composer doesn't offer a free trial, but it has a 30-day refund guarantee. To see how Visual Composer works, get started now for free.

2. Elementor

Elementor website builder interface
Elementor website builder interface. Source: WP Pagebuilders

The second Wix alternative on our list is Elementor. It’s another WordPress drag-and-drop page builder that allows you to build websites for your clients without coding knowledge.

Elementor offers templates, widgets, features, and integrations. You can check out our article about Elementor alternatives to learn more about the software.

User Rating

Elementor scored 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra, based on 590 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Elementor has an intuitive user interface that helps you create websites with attractive designs. Its animation and motion effects are also popular.

Elementor offers built-in web hosting and total control of your custom domain, which you can connect with your Elementor website.

Integrations

Elementor integrates well with popular marketing tools and third-party apps like

  • HubSpot
  • MailChimp
  • Zapier
  • Discord
  • ConvertKit
  • ActiveCampaign
  • Slack
  • MailerLite
  • Customer support

Customer Support

Elementor offers support through live chats, emails, FAQS, and other knowledge-based resources. It also has a community of interactive web creators from all over the world.

Pros

  • It has a responsive drag-and-drop editor
  • It creates aesthetically pleasing websites
  • Easy to use and integrates well with third-party apps

Cons

  • It creates bulky websites that load slowly
  • Sometimes requires plugins to help optimize the website performance
  • Lacks great pre-designed templates
  • Adjusting padding and margins can be difficult

Pricing

Elementor doesn't offer a free trial, but it has a free plan which allows you to build websites with basic features. The paid version has three plans:

  • Essential — $49/year (with one pro website activation)
  • Expert — $199/year (with 25 pro website activations)
  • Agency — $399 for the first year and $999/year subsequently (with 1000 pro website activations)

If you would like to build and host your website on Elementor, it offers a fixed price of $99/year/website, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

3. Brizy

Brizy website builder interface
Brizy website builder interface. Source: Bob The Web Builder

Brizy is a WordPress site builder that allows web creators to build no-code websites from scratch with its intuitive drag-and-drop editor.

User Rating

Brizy has a 4.5/5 rating on Capterra, based on four reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Brizy allows you to include custom headers and footers on your clients' websites. Besides a theme builder, Brizy also has a WooCommerce builder, which is suitable for small businesses with eCommerce stores.

Integrations

Brizy integrates well with popular marketing and eCommerce tools like

  • WooCommerce
  • Yoast
  • Zapier
  • MailChimp
  • HubSpot

Customer Support

Brizy doesn't have a live chat feature, but it has a support forum where you can get solutions from other web developers and designers. It also has helpful articles and videos to guide you through potential issues you might encounter.

You can contact support via email for critical issues. Its limited customer support is one reason users seek other Brizy alternatives.

Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Affordable

Cons

  • Few design elements compared to other website builders
  • Some WooCommerce plugins might not be compatible
  • Poor customer support
  • Loading large files sometimes crashes the application

Pricing

Brizy has a free version with about 24 elements and contact form builders for lead generation. The paid version has three pricing plans with lifetime and yearly payment options.

Yearly plan pricing

  • Personal — $49/year (one PRO website)
  • Freelancer — $99/year (100 PRO websites)
  • Agency — $199/year (500 PRO websites)

Lifetime plan pricing (one-time payment)

  • Personal — $149 (one PRO website)
  • Freelancer — $299 (100 PRO websites)
  • Agency — $399 (500 PRO websites)

4. Squarespace

Squarespace website builder interface
Squarespace website builder interface. Source: PCMag

Like other Wix alternatives, Squarespace is a website builder that allows you to design and customize your clients' websites, online stores, or portfolios without a single line of code.

User Rating

Squarespace has a 4.6/5 rating on Capterra, based on 2517 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Unlike Wix, Squarespace has a structured editor with better features and design templates. Squarespace also has eCommerce features and SEO tools that make it easy for you to sell online and get found by potential customers.

This website builder is best suited for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Integrations

Below are some noteworthy integrations that Squarespace offers:

  • Stripe
  • Zapier
  • Unsplash
  • MailChimp
  • Weglot

Customer Support

While Squarespace doesn't offer phone support to users, it has other customer support channels like live chat, email support, social media support, video tutorials, knowledge-based resources, and an active online community.

Pros

  • Robust customer support channels
  • Offers a 14-day free trial
  • Provides eCommerce and SEO tools

Cons

  • Limited features, plugins, and templates
  • Limited customization options

Pricing

While Squarespace doesn't have a free version, it offers a free trial on its paid plans. It has four pricing plans:

  • Personal — $23/month ($16/month billed annually)
  • Business — $33/month ($23/month billed annually)
  • Basic Commerce — $36/month ($27/month billed annually)
  • Advanced Commerce — $65/month ($49/month billed annually)

Each plan comes with a free domain name for the first year (for the annual plan).

5. Webflow

Webflow website builder interface
Webflow website builder interface. Source: CMS Critic

Webflow is a website builder that allows you to design and launch your website without coding. It offers a CMS and advanced eCommerce features.

Unlike other Wix alternatives, suitable for non-techies, Webflow was made for advanced designers, developers, and marketers with developing skills.

User Rating

Webflow has a 4.6/5 stars rating on Capterra, based on 174 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Webflow offers drag-and-drop features and CMS, SEO, and eCommerce tools to help you promote your website and boost sales.

Integrations

Webflow integrates with

  • Zapier
  • Pixie
  • Weglot
  • MailChimp

Customer Support

Asides from a community of web creators, FAQs, and tons of tutorials, Webflow only offers email support to users.

Pros

  • Easily customizable
  • Simple pricing plans
  • Helpful tutorials

Cons

  • Created for advanced users
  • Limited customer support channels
  • High cost of maintenance
  • The UI could be better

Pricing

Webflow doesn't offer a free trial, but it allows you to build your site for free until you need to add more web pages and a custom domain.

Webflow has four paid plans:

  • Basic — $15/month ( $12/month billed annually)
  • CMS — $20/month ( $16/month billed annually)
  • Business — $45/month ( $36/month billed annually)
  • Enterprise — Contact support

Wix Alternatives: Features Comparison

The table below shows a brief comparison of the five best Wix alternatives.

Features

Visual Composer

Elementor

Brizy

Squarespace

Webflow

Drag-and-drop editor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Fully responsive

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Works with any WordPress theme

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SEO-friendly

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Cloud marketplace

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Theme builder

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Popup builder

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Custom widgets

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Premade templates

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes 

Free templates

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Premium templates

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Free stock images

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Advanced design customization

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Mobile editing

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Integrations

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Translation-ready

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

WordPress CMS-Based Website Builders vs. Stand-Alone Website Builders

Woman typing on laptop computer

WordPress CMS-based Website Builders

Website builders that are WordPress CMS-based, allow you to create, store and manage your website and its content. They streamline your website creation process and give you complete control while offering various elements, templates, themes, plugins, and add-ons.

Popular examples of WordPress website builders are Visual Composer, Brizy, and Elementor. These website builders do not require you to code. They do not host your websites but give you access to various hosting platforms. They are more suited for large-scale websites.

WordPress is the most popular CMS platform, and it currently powers about 29.13% (291,329) of the top 1,000,000 websites, according to trends by Built With. Because building websites on the WordPress CMS requires more technical knowledge, no-code/low-code solutions like Visual Composer make it easier for non-techies and advanced users to build their websites with great customization options than stand-alone builders.

Pros

  • Suitable for building any website
  • Offer many themes, plugins, add-ons, and third-party integrations
  • Allow you to either create your layouts with a builder or use pre-made themes
  • Allow you to move your site to your hosting
  • Give you more creative control and flexibility
  • Faster and cheaper than stand-alone builders

Cons

  • You carry out website maintenance, backups, and updates on your own
  • Some CMS-based website builders have a high learning curve
  • Need to pay subscription fees for paid add-ons or plugins

Stand-Alone Website Builders

Man coding on a computer

Stand-alone website builders like Wix, Webflow, and Squarespace allow you to use their proprietary tools to create your website on their hosting platform. These websites do not help you store or manage your content like the WordPress CMS-based ones.

Some require basic coding knowledge, while many provide drag and drop editors to let you create layouts and content. Stand-alone website builders are suitable for simple websites without a lot of content.

Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Set up is easier
  • No need to bother about maintenance and updates
  • Offer web hosting services

Cons

  • Limited customization options
  • Not suited for all website needs
  • You can’t move your site to a new host
  • You don’t get complete control over your website
  • Only provides access to a predefined list of features
  • Some do not offer SEO features

In summary, CMS website builders offer more benefits and functionality than stand-alone builders. They give you complete creative control to edit your websites as you like and are also suitable for creating just about any website like online marketplaces, eCommerce stores, business websites, personal blogs, and more.

Wix Alternatives: The Final Verdict

Visual Composer tops our list as the best Wix alternative. Visual Composer is an all-in-solution that can help you create responsive, professional websites, manage content, sell online and increase your website performance.

Our tool has 500+ content elements and pre-designed templates to help you design your website without coding. Our drag-and-drop interface simplifies the website creation process, and our built-in SEO tools help your websites to rank well on top search engines.

We also have affordable pricing plans that suit your business demands so you can better control your budget. You can start using Visual Composer now to create websites that will distinguish your brand from competitors.

Created with Visual Composer
Discover the Powerful Drag & Drop Website Builder for Web Creators

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A Comprehensive Guide To Earning More As A Web Creator In 2023 And Beyond https://visualcomposer.com/blog/web-creator-guide-to-earn-more/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/web-creator-guide-to-earn-more/#comments Wed, 16 Aug 2023 16:39:24 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=34429 This guide covers how to scale your web creator business, including tips on building a strong online presence and optimizing your workflow.

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Whether you're running a small agency or just starting to make a name for yourself as a solo web creator, it's not uncommon to feel like you're either not working enough, or working yourself dry. Even thinking of setting some growth goals or becoming more profitable might seem like a pipe dream. After all, you’re most likely usually stuck in the feast or famine cycle, solely focused on making ends meet.

But, with the right knowledge, and the help of the experience of others — boosting your earnings from website creation work consistently can become reality.

That is why we have gathered a few known and proven ways to land higher-paying clients and scale your web development or design business of creating websites to success. Many entrepreneurs, like yourself, have struggled in this space and found the perfect balance before. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself”. So, without further ado, let's get into it.

How To Value & Price Your Work Properly

Web developers are in high demand currently. The most important question right now is: How do you become a successful web developer? The answer to this is much simpler than one may think — all it takes is a few simple steps.

First off, get yourself the right tools and invest in filling the gaps in your knowledge by taking online courses or reading books on the subject matter. Next, make sure that you take up any networking opportunities that can help build relationships between other professionals with shared interests. And lastly, price yourself competitively and learn to qualify leads in a better way.

Earn More By Giving More Value

The most straightforward way to increase your average income as a web creator is by learning more complementary skills. The more value you can offer a client, the higher will be your earnings. You can prioritize your field of skills by advancing in designing, programming, or in a particular framework or language you want to master. It's always a good idea to look into which combinations of skills are in demand currently.

Experience is a strong indicator of competence. Oftentimes the size and the success of the projects you've worked on has a greater impact on potential clients choosing you than just a list of degrees and certificates alone.

However, there’s an even more powerful way to create value in the eyes of your prospects. And that is making sure your clients understand you’re not there to simply provide them a service but to help them achieve their own goals.

Think of it like this: you’re not simply creating a website, you’re helping another entrepreneur enable their full potential and build their own empire. Or simply just perform better at their job (e.g. an in-house marketer). In a nutshell, it means changing the focus from yourself to the needs of the client.

Instead of talking about YOUR accomplishments, ask them about their goals. Asking “Why?” 5 times is a great technique to come to a conclusion of why something is important to the client. Even when they approach you to rebuild their website, for example, they might be looking to not only increase sales but also better communicate their brand values.

In addition, be transparent about addressing expectations, deliverables, and due date(s) beforehand. Because these things give people hope for successful outcomes while also showing dedication towards earning a said paycheck.

A Comprehensive Guide To Earning More As A Web Creator In 2022 And Beyond by Visual Composer

Find Your Niche & Increase Fees

The benefits of specializing in just one field are numerous. You can satisfy the needs and wants of a more niche audience, as well as give your potential customers significant value. By solving more specific problems you satisfy those not-as-often addressed customer needs. Plus, they will more likely to choose you, because of the demonstrated understanding of where their type of business is and where they want to be.

This will also allow you to increase your fees, while also adding to your value as a web creator. You may choose not to raise prices for existing clients but only go higher with new ones to build and maintain a loyal client base. Interestingly enough, most freelancers are seriously underpricing their services and rates, so check for the signs telling you if you should be re-evaluating your prices.

​​Raising prices helps increase your earnings because it indicates a high-quality service. And therefore also attracts better quality clients (just make sure you can deliver). On the other hand, keeping prices low attracts customers who don't want to miss a good deal. Especially in a tight market like this one, with increasingly more competition among designers and developers. The best thing about increasing them though? It allows you to eliminate cheap customers — so do it now, to avoid unnecessary headaches further down the road.

One of the best tips here is to know your target customer, their wants, needs, and peculiarities, so you can adjust your prices and offers accordingly. And then think about what is your unique value proposition you can offer them, that differentiates and makes you more beneficial to them, than other creators.

Web developer and digital designer employment growth prognosis
Web Developer and Digital Designer Employment Growth Prognosis 2020-2030 (Source: U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS)

Focus On High-Paying & Long-Term Clients

There are two basic ways that you can increase revenue as a freelancer in web development, or any other niche for that matter. You could either land more clients or increase the lifetime value of each client (or both, of course). And do so, not by over-charging them but simply — asking the fair price for the value you bring.

Identifying the high-paying customers is simple — they’re the type of customers who spend the most and purchase more of your offered products and services at once. If you don’t know who they are, it might be time to take stock. And having a system to track your business, like a CRM or marketing automation software, helps a lot in this case.

By focusing on clients who see you as a strategic expert, rather than someone doing ‘monkey work’ you will be able to command higher fees. This will also prevent yourself from too much scope creep where you’re constantly working on small tweaks here and there, that reduce your productivity. Plus, most web creators are solopreneurs, which means there’s also a limit to how many clients you are able to take on at the same time, so plan accordingly.

It's also much easier to work with existing clients and upsell or cross-sell your services to them than to target, attract and land new ones. So, acquiring new clients takes much more time and effort, and if you have to do it continuously, can be a bit soul-crushing. That's why you should be focusing on satisfying existing clients, and offering ongoing services so you can obtain recurring revenue.

Optimizing Your Workflow

Optimizing your day-to-day activities by figuring out which tasks you struggle with for longer than you'd like, can have a positive impact on your revenue. From hiring help to using streamlined tools, and automating processes — invest in tools and people that will save you time, and in return, help get to your desired results faster.

Using Streamlined Tools

It's easy to get overwhelmed with all the productivity advice out there. Even more so, because many tools make sweet promises that feel pretty tempting, but don't always deliver. That's why it's important not to overcomplicate things when you're first mastering this whole streamlining thing — keep things simple!

First and foremost, take advantage of all of the free tools available online. If you want something enough, you will make it happen. Just look at these 17 killer web applications to increase your productivity in no time.

Secondly, think about using tools that get you from point A to point B faster, while also delivering the same excellent quality to the end-user. Meaning, does it really matter if you used a CMS to build a website, or build it with “real code”? If it delivers basically the same result for a client visually and practically, opt to save your time. Despite it being more expensive, it doesn't really add any additional, visible value from websites built on WordPress, for example.

The greatest benefit of using tools like website builders is that they allow your customer to maintain their websites easily by themselves, without breaking them. Besides that, website builders have gotten so advanced that they allow web creators to create completely unique designs with close to zero code and reuse them for faster turnaround.

Discover Website Builder used by Web Professionals to scale their business to success

If you're a web creator, the work doesn’t stop when you launch a website. We highly recommend using Conversion Optimization Tools and building them into your maintenance package to create more sustained income. CRO tools record users' sessions on-site, generate heatmaps of which parts users linger on, and what CTAs convert them the best. This way you can improve client website design based on actual data — by magnifying what works, and changing what doesn't.

Lorem Picsum placeholder generator for pictures
Placeholder Generator For Pictures (Source: Lorem Picsum)

 

Transition From Single Project Work To Retainers

Aside from increasing your fees, generating a constant stream of revenue should also be your top concern. One way to achieve this is through retainers. Otherwise known as a contract between a client and a web creator to work together month to month over a longer period of time.

The benefits of working with retainer agreements which typically include a recurring flat fee are:

  • Having a clear schedule and steady and guaranteed income for a set amount of time
  • You can focus your energy on a single project at a time, making you more productive as studies show, and deliver better results to clients, in the long run
  • You can budget your monthly expenses based on the agreement
  • The client is guaranteed that their project will be given top priority and all of the web creator's focus for a certain amount of time (as agreed on) each month

Of course, there are benefits and disadvantages to each pricing strategy, but surely retainers are overall better if your goal is consistent revenue. In comparison to charging a fixed or hourly rate for short-term clients.

Retainer agreement free template from SignWell
Retainer Agreement Template (Source: SignWell)

 

Hiring Help To Do More Work

Although most of us like how we do things ourselves, choose to work smarter, not harder. Even if web development, design, and freelancing are just a side-hustle. Essentially, you should keep doing the things you're the best at and are your main income generators. All of the rest, you should consider handing over to others, who do it just as well, for lower rates.

As a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak, the demand for web development has increased even more (2,5% in 2022). Because many businesses and entrepreneurs are pushed to build and expand their online presence. Take advantage of a negative situation and turn it into a positive, and help people launch their business online.

Also, by help, we don't mean only other freelancers, but also applications and tools, including AI. They are built to replace or facilitate mundane activities — so take those advantages.

Consider introducing online chats with auto-replies, implementing personalized contact forms, and automated customer scheduling applications for more efficiency. Those and other activities can be easily optimized with the help that many Customer Relationship Management softwares, like Hubspot, provide.

The secret to success is to optimize and automate as many processes in your work routine as possible. A great way to find some helping hands, to get the job done faster, is through freelancing platforms. The most popular ones are Upwork, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, and Codeable.

Professional web creator in his work space

Create a Stronger Online Presence

Web creators prefer to focus on creating designs and websites for their customers. So spending time on their own sales and digital marketing activities might come as a challenge. Still, even with a small time investment into basics, you can achieve a boost to your brand. Here are some tried and true fundamentals.

Build A Personal Portfolio

Creating a portfolio website is an effective way to showcase the work you're most proud of. Plus, it helps distinguish you from other web creators in today's competitive market. It's an excellent way to establish credibility, show off your style and personality. And most importantly — what your work ethic is all about.

When it comes to your online presence, the first thing that potential clients will look for is a professional-looking profile. It's a digital footprint that represents you as an individual or your company in this ever-growing world of business networking. So if you don’t have one or haven't updated it in a while, it should come as a top priority.

Portfolio websites can serve as displays of creative projects you have been involved with. As well as a springboard for attracting new opportunities. Potential clients are more likely to hire you having cold hard proof of your past successes in front of them. That's easiest done in the form of a portfolio or website.

You may want to include all the comprehensive details of your past web development or design work. But it's important to not go overboard and choose quality over quantity. List only your most-valuable accomplishments and do make sure your contact information is easily accessible.

Essentially treat your site like a product itself.

Aside from making your portfolio look pretty, it should also be practical and perform just as well. That includes applying the best practices that contribute to a good user experience. This means making sure you: 1) Apply the best SEO approach for attracting traffic on search engines like Google. 2) Adjust it for accessibility so it's usable for everyone. 3) Ensure high performance across all devices by using responsive design techniques.

In addition to owning a website, or sometimes using it as a ‘placeholder’ till they have one, web creators gravitate towards Dribbble and Behance. Both are great sources for inspiration and gaining more exposure for your work.

In conclusion, take good care of your website's usability and design as much as you would for a client's site. And start by taking some inspiration from the best web developer portfolio examples on the net.

Dribbble portfolio example search results
Portfolio Examples (Source: Dribbble)

 

Leverage Social Media Where Your Clients Are

Social media stopped being a sensation an eternity ago. And it seems an obvious thing to tick off when it comes to building your personal brand. But there is a difference between having a presence and approaching it strategically.

Prioritize making a consistent presence on the platforms your best type of client is most likely to be on. Having a LinkedIn profile is a good idea to have for entrepreneurs and experts of any industry. Since it's one of the world's largest and most frequently used professional networks on the internet, to search for jobs. Even more so, it's an avenue for personal brand and relationship building with prospects and clients.

If you're a web developer that doesn't shy away from code work, you might already have a profile on GitHub. It's one of the most popular code hosting sites that allows you to collaborate with others on projects from anywhere. Alongside GitHub, most established devs also use CodePen, DEV.to, and Hashnode to connect with other professionals around the world. This is a great way to grow your skills and authority in the field. As well as stay in the loop with the latest scoop.

If you want to be successful, choose a platform that you enjoy in your free time. Find inspiration in popular content creators on that platform, and start creating your own content. When creating content, think about the pain points that your customers have with websites. Typically - growing their own business, capturing more leads, and converting them into paying customers. Or even just launching a multi-lingual website to target different audiences. Whatever it may be, you should be able to provide valuable solutions to their problems. And creating content is a great way to show the expertise and services that you can bring to the table.

Hashnode web development tag results
Trending Tag: #web-development (Source: Hashnode)

 

Networking, Networking, And Once Again Networking

Networking can be difficult. Especially in the era of COVID-19. But it's also incredibly beneficial for extending your career as a web developer or web designer. If in-person events are not possible, you can use apps like Meetup or Run The World to find online events.

Word-of-mouth can be an incredible asset when it comes to winning more work. When someone has heard good reviews about you, they are likely to consider you as their web creator of choice.

Working alone can be difficult, especially if you're a freelancer or independent creator. That why collaborating with others is a great way to expand your network. By building relationships with others who share similar interests and skillsets, that complement yours — you can help each other out.

Lastly, focus on building long-lasting and meaningful relationships with clients, prospects, and colleagues alike. As a business owner, you know that the key to success is customer loyalty and satisfaction. This means understanding what makes our clients tick so we can keep them happy in the long term. It also helps us generate more revenue over time. By building up repeat business from satisfied customers who refer others when they are pleased with their experience as well. This leads back into the importance of developing and nurturing strong relationships between yourself and your clients.

Meetup online web development event search results
Web Development Online Events (Source: Meetup)

 

Conclusion

Now you know the 3 main concepts you should be paying attention to in order to scale your web creator business to success. Alongside plenty of actionable tips on how to implement them in your day-to-day activities.

If you keep on improving your craft and working more strategically, by hiring more help. Eventually, you will attract better-paying customers, earn more per client and improve your overall income. If building a team is your dream, these tips can also help you turn your freelance business into an agency. It doesn't matter if you're only just considering taking up web development as a side-hustle, or as a full-time carrier. Working on these 3 main areas is beneficial to any size business.

Discover the Website Builder used by Web Professionals to scale their business to success

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Visual Composer’s Key Features for Accessible Websites in 2023 https://visualcomposer.com/blog/key-features-for-accessible-websites/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/key-features-for-accessible-websites/#comments Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:14:31 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=36968 Discover the key Visual Composer features to create inclusive and accessible websites in 2023 while understanding the importance of web accessibility and how to test it on your website.

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Just like how WordPress embraces inclusivity, web accessibility is all about creating websites and content that is accessible to all, especially with new advancements in technology every day.

Whether you're a developer or a designer, it's your responsibility to ensure that your website is accessible for everyone, regardless of their physical abilities.

With Visual Composer, you can easily make your websites accessible and user-friendly for everyone, ensuring equal access to information and services online. Let's explore the key features that can help you create inclusive and accessible websites in 2023.

Importance of Web Accessibility For Your Website

Web accessibility is not just the right thing to do, it is also becoming increasingly more important in terms of legal requirements. Approximately 15% of the world's population faces limitations in accessing websites due to disabilities, yet only around 10% of the web is currently accessible.

Various countries have laws mandating website accessibility for people with disabilities. For instance, in the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires all websites that offer goods or services intended for the general public, to be accessible.

More recently, web developer communities have been raising discussions about the first cases of website accessibility lawsuits. So, even if you think this doesn't currently affect you, consider how you or your clients would feel if faced with a letter regarding website accessibility flaws.

With Visual Composer, you can ensure that your WordPress websites are compliant with all of the following web accessibility standards and best practices:

  • Optimal contrast between text and background, ensuring it is possible for people with visual impairments to read the content.
  • Readable fonts with adjustable font size, which allow users to increase or decrease the text size according to their preferences.
  • Alternative text and ARIA attributes for images, that provide a textual description of the image and help individuals with visual impairments who use screen readers to understand the content.
  • Keyboard accessibility, ensuring that all functionality and interactive elements on the website can be accessed and operated using a keyboard alone for individuals who have difficulty using a mouse.
  • Responsive design, that adapts to different screen sizes and devices, ensuring that users can access the website and its content easily regardless of the device they are using.

Implementing these practices ensures that your website is inclusive and can be accessed by a wide range of users, including those with disabilities.

Visual Composer Features To Make Your Website Accessible

Visual Composer offers powerful features that help create accessible websites. Let's explore these four key features and how they can enhance the accessibility of your website.

Contrast Checker and Insights

One of the most important aspects of web accessibility is readability.

The built-in Contrast Checker in Visual Composer Insights checks your website's text and background colors, identifies colors with insufficient contrast, and allows you to change them easily.

This is important for people with visual impairments or color blindness, as it improves readability and ensures the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 AA contrast ratio standards of 4.5:1 are met.

Visual Composer Insights contrast checker

Insights also checks your content for missing image descriptions, ALT attributes, headings, and other attributes, that help describe images. This helps people who use screen readers to understand and be able to interact with your website.

Custom Data Attributes

Custom data attributes are another useful feature for accessible websites, as they provide more context.

Visual Composer allows you to add extra data attributes, such as the aria-label, to images, buttons, or any other element on your website that doesn't have a visible label.

Visual Composer Custom Data Attributes for accessibility

​​These attributes are used by screen readers and other assistive technologies to ensure accurate interpretation and help people using them understand the purpose of each element.

Font Sizes

Optimal font sizes are essential for readability, as they ensure a consistent and pleasant reading experience for your visitors.

Visual Composer allows you to adjust font sizes to fit your design and for each device, ensuring optimal readability across different screens and devices. All of this is possible through the Font Manager.

Visual Composer Font Manager for accessibility

In addition, Visual Composer allows you to use REMs instead of pixels as a unit of measurement. Using REMs allows users to zoom in or increase their font sizes without disrupting the layout, while pixels do not. Therefore, using REMs is highly recommended to enhance accessibility.

Responsive Design

Lastly, let's talk about responsive design, a crucial aspect for everyone who browses the web using various devices.

Responsive design ensures that content remains accessible and readable, regardless of the screen size.

With Visual Composer, you benefit from automatic responsiveness, meaning your designs will adapt to different devices seamlessly. However, the editor also provides additional options for custom responsiveness, allowing you to fine-tune your layout according to your preferences.

Visual Composer responsive design for accessibility

Additionally, all Visual Composer pre-built templates are also made responsive with accessibility in mind.

Responsive websites play a vital role in promoting inclusivity, expanding audience reach, and showcasing a strong commitment to accessibility for all users. It's a crucial step that should not be overlooked.

How to Check if Your Website Is Accessible

There are several tools available that can help you check if your website is accessible. One popular tool is the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool, which checks your website for accessibility issues and provides suggestions for improvement.

Another tool is the Web Accessibility Checker, which checks your website's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

In addition to using these tools, there are plenty of other web accessibility testing tools and audits available. These can give you a better understanding of how people with disabilities use your website and where improvements can be made.

Create Inclusive Websites Accessible to Everyone

In conclusion, Visual Composer is the perfect tool for creating user-friendly and inclusive websites for everyone. Its built-in contrast checker, advanced settings for custom data attributes, customizable font sizes, and responsive design features make it easy to create accessible websites.

Whether you're a web expert, WordPress developer, or web designer, you should seriously consider using Visual Composer if you want to design and build accessible websites in 2023.

So, start building accessible websites today! 

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Top 5 Brizy Alternatives to Consider in 2023 https://visualcomposer.com/blog/top-5-brizy-alternatives-to-consider/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/top-5-brizy-alternatives-to-consider/#respond Fri, 09 Jun 2023 11:46:20 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=34936 Are you looking for an alternative to Brizy? There are several great visual website builders on the market, and we've compiled a list of the top five to consider in 2022. Each of them offers its own unique features and benefits, so you're sure to find one that's a perfect fit for your business.

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Brizy is a visual website builder that offers businesses extensive customization tools and templates to create a professional online presence. However, some users need more advanced features or website builders that align better with their budgets. In such cases, it makes sense to look for other alternatives.

You can start with Visual Composer, our intuitive, drag-and-drop website builder for WordPress that allows you to build and customize your website visually. It's created for web creators of all experience levels. It’s easy to use and has many features that help you create the best possible user experience. To start using Visual Composer, get started for free today.

In today's article, we will evaluate the five best Brizy alternatives to help you make an informed decision and choose the best website builder for your next project.

Let's start by explaining what Brizy is.

What is Brizy?

Brizy Website Builder Editor
Brizy Website Builder. Image source: Helpie WP

Brizy is a WordPress website builder that offers an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. It also gives web developers the flexibility to build a site from scratch with Brizy themes, pop-ups, and blocks.

While Brizy has shown promising potential to WordPress site builders, it is not a perfect tool. For example, it doesn’t leave a clean line of code after you uninstall the plugin. Brizy also offers fewer design elements compared to other page builders. These are some of the reasons why users search for alternatives.

Brizy alternatives: The evaluation parameters

We have evaluated the five Brizy alternatives based on the following parameters:

  1. User rating
  2. Unique features
  3. Integrations
  4. Customer support
  5. Pros
  6. Cons
  7. Pricing

In the following sections, we will discuss each solution and present our findings.

Top 5 Brizy alternatives in 2023

After researching available website builders on the market, the following solutions have the best results based on our evaluation parameters. Let's discuss each of them.

1. Visual Composer

Visual Composer Website Builder tutorial template
Visual Composer Website Builder. Image source: Visual Composer

Visual Composer is a user-friendly website creator that allows you to create professional sites via a simple drag-and-drop editing tool, premium templates, and design elements.

User rating

On Capterra, Visual Composer has a 4.4 score out of 5 based on 55 user reviews.

What makes this website builder unique

Visual Composer includes over 500 elements, ready-to-use templates, and premium features to help you build a professional website without writing a single line of code. It offers a theme builder and a simple interface in the frontend editor to bring your creative website ideas to life. We also have a unique add-on, our font manager, that lets you change WordPress fonts globally.

If you need some inspiration as you build your website, you can check out some stunning website examples built with Visual Composer.

Integrations

Visual Composer offers integration with numerous marketing tools and plugins like WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, Facebook, WPML, etc.

Customer support

Visual Composer provides support via live chat, tickets, and email, with an average first response time of less than an hour and a 96% customer satisfaction rate.

Pros

  • The Visual Composer Hub provides numerous content design elements and templates to build a professional website that your clients will love
  • It provides automatic optimization to boost your SEO efforts
  • It automatically adapts your website designs for mobile responsiveness and offers custom optimization for different device types

Cons

  • The website building tool has a slight learning curve

Pricing

Visual Composer offers a free version, that's free forever, and premium plans, each including all premium features of the plugin. It has the following six pricing plans:

  • Single – costs $49/year for one website
  • Plus – costs $99/year for five websites
  • Accelerate – costs $149/year for 20 websites
  • Growth – costs $349/year for 100 websites
  • Agency – costs $849/year for 1000 websites
  • Lifetime – costs $149 for 1 website (one-time purchase)

If you’re interested to see how Visual Composer works, get started for free today or explore how it can benefit your web creator business.

2. Elementor

Elementor Website Builder Interface
Elementor Website Builder. Image source: Epic Win

Elementor is a WordPress page builder that lets you create websites via a simple drag-and-drop visual builder.

User rating

Elementor has a 4.7 score out of 5 on Capterra based on 553 user reviews.

What makes this website builder unique

Elementor lets you create sticky headers and footers that display as your site visitors navigate your website.

Another unique feature you can get from Elementor is the ability to make your site visually appealing and interactive via animations and motion effects. Though this feature is present in Brizy, there are more animation effects in Elementor.

Integrations

Elementor integrates with marketing tools like MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, Zapier, MailerLite, Hubspot, Woocommerce, etc.

Customer support

Elementor provides support via email, FAQs, and knowledge base. This visual website builder also has an active community where you can interact with other developers and web designers. You can also use video tutorials to learn more about Elementor features.

Pros

  • Fully responsive page builder with a drop interface that lets you build websites without any coding skills
  • Integrates with many marketing tools and supports many WordPress plugins for improved functionality
  • It provides many widgets you can use on your web pages

Cons

  • Its drag and drop editor doesn't let you adjust padding and margins
  • It doesn't offer a lifetime payment option like Brizy and Visual Composer.

Pricing

Elementor provides a free version you can use if you don't need an advanced feature like the popup builder. With the Elementor free plan, you can access 50 widgets, live editing, and drag and drop editor. In terms of the paid version, Elementor offers four plans:

  • Essential – costs $49/year with one pro website activation
  • Expert – cost $199/year with 25 pro website activations
  • Studio – $499/year with 100 pro website activations
  • Agency  – $999/year with 1000 pro website activations

3. ThriveThemes

Thrive Themes Website Builder Interface
Thrive Themes Website Builder. Image source: Jussi Hyvarinen

This WordPress website builder helps you build marketing websites that convert users and drive revenue. It offers an intuitive interface and almost 300-page templates you can choose from.

User rating

ThriveThemes scores 4 out of 5 on G2 based on 25 user reviews.

What makes this website builder unique

ThriveThemes targets a specific niche - marketing and affiliate. It makes this WordPress website builder more conversion-focused. Marketers and business owners who sell products can use the ThriveThemes digital marketing tools to drive revenue.

Integrations

ThriveThemes offers API integrations with numerous marketing tools like MailChimp, DropBox, Google, ConvertKit, Facebook, HubSpot, etc.

Customer support

ThriveThemes offers free training via Thrive University, where you can find courses to learn how to use each tool. It also provides support via tickets.

Pros

  • This web page builder has unique features for building affiliate and marketing websites
  • It provides almost 300 templates to give you more flexibility when building your website
  • It is focused on conversion and lead generation

Cons

  • You might not fully benefit from ThriveThemes if your goal isn't to build a marketing site
  • It offers numerous products, which can result in a high learning curve
  • The customer support response time is quite slow, which can be annoying if you encounter an issue

Pricing

ThriveThemes doesn’t offer a free plan or a free trial. It provides two paid pricing plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The paid plans include:

  • Thrive Suite Quarterly – for up to five websites. It costs $99/quarter.
  • Thrive Suite Yearly – for up to five websites. It costs $299/year and provides access to all features at the lowest price.

4. Wix

Wix Website Builder Interface
Wix Website Builder. Image source: Compare Camp

Wix is a website builder that offers an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. It is beginner-friendly, and you can use it to build an e-commerce store, portfolio, freelance, and small business websites.

User rating

Wix has a 4.2-star rating of 5 on G2 based on 1,453 user reviews.

What makes this website builder unique

Wix provides over 800 templates that let you build marketing landing pages and professional websites.

Integrations

Wix integrates with over 200 marketing tools like MailChimp, ZenDesk, Hubspot CRM, SalesForce, etc.

Customer support

Wix offers support via live chat, tickets, knowledge base, email, and phone support.

Pros

  • Wix provides a simple drag and drop web page editor even if you have no coding skills
  • It has numerous e-commerce tools you can use to build an e-commerce site

Cons

  • You will have to start from scratch if you need to change your template after publishing your site
  • Its numerous web design options can be overwhelming

Pricing

Wix has many pricing plans that don't seem very clear at first. While it offers a free plan, it also provides paid plans you can use for professional sites, e-commerce, and business sites.

Professional pricing plans:

Connect domain – costs $4.50/month and includes 500MB of storage space
Combo – costs $8.50 and includes 3GB of storage space
Unlimited – costs $12.50 and includes 10GB of storage space
VIP – costs $24.50 and includes 35GB of storage space

The e-commerce and business pricing plans:

Business basic – costs $17/month and includes 20GB of storage space
Business unlimited – costs $25/month and includes 35GB of storage space
Business VIP – costs $35/month and includes 50GB of storage space

5. Oxygen Builder

Oxygen Website Builder Interface
Oxygen Website Builder. Image source: GitHub

Oxygen Builder combines all necessary features for building websites, blogs, portfolio websites, or any other type of website. It includes a drag and drop page builder, content builder and editor, and a single page builder.

User rating

Oxygen Builder has a 4.5 score out of 5 on G2 based on 24 user reviews.
What makes this website builder unique
Oxygen Builder includes analytics, hosting, increased security, and social media integration.

Integrations

This WordPress website page builder offers WooCommerce integration that gives you the ability to create an online store. It also integrates with other web page builders like Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, and Elementor.

Customer support

Oxygen Builder provides support via FAQs, video tutorials, manuals, and tickets.

Pros

  • Advanced features for developers and designers that prefer a more complex page builder
  • Flexible and easy-to-use design customization options

Cons

  • If your goal is to build a simple blogging site, then Oxygen might not be a suitable option
  • Its advanced functionalities lead to a steep learning curve

Pricing

Oxygen Builder offers a free plan and a lifetime payment option. It includes four pricing packages with a 60-day money-back guarantee:

  • Basic – costs $129 with a lifetime license
  • WooCommerce – costs $169 and includes a lifetime license and
  • WooCommerce integration
    Agency – costs $199 and has everything in WooCommerce plus Gutenberg block builder and simplified client UI
  • Ultimate – costs $229 and includes everything in Agency plus composite elements

Brizy alternatives: Features comparison

So far, we've highlighted key features of the notable Brizy alternatives. We've prepared a comparison table so you can easily spot critical differences between these solutions and make your decision faster.

 

Visual Composer 

Elementor 

ThriveThemes 

Wix

Oxygen builder 

Drag and drop editor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Fully responsive 

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

SEO-friendly 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Works with any WordPress theme 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Cloud marketplace

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Theme builder

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Pop-up builder

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Custom widgets

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Premade templates 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Free templates 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Premium templates 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Free stock images

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Advanced design customization

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Mobile editing

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Integrations 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Translation ready

Yes

No

No

No

No

Developer-friendly 

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Non-tech-savvy user-friendly

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Brizy alternatives: The final verdict

The five Brizy alternatives explained in this article undoubtedly include features that the Brizy page builder lacks.

Visual Composer stands as the best choice for your next project. It offers over 500 content elements and ready-to-use templates that give you the flexibility to create beautiful websites that your clients will love.

It also offers automatic optimization to boost SEO and your site's speed. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface eliminates the complexity of building a website. You can check our case study to learn how Visual Composer has helped web creators achieve success.

Get started with Visual Composer today and enjoy all the advanced features that will help you skyrocket your website.

Discover the Powerful Drag & Drop Website Builder for Web Creators

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Top Alternatives to Hubspot CMS to Try in 2023 https://visualcomposer.com/blog/alternatives-to-hubspot-cms/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/alternatives-to-hubspot-cms/#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2022 17:03:11 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=36258 In today's article, we will look at the best alternatives to Hubspot CMS. Hubspot is definitely a wonderful tool, however, it's not particularly cheap. If you're looking for an alternative CMS and web development tool for a lower price, then this article is for you.

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Top Alternatives to Hubspot CMS to Try in 2023Looking for alternatives to Hubspot CMS?

There are many reasons why you might need them.

Luckily, there are CMS systems out there that allow you to build your site and manage your website content without any coding knowledge.

Depending on your needs, here are some of the most popular HubSpot CMS alternatives.

But first, let's see why you might want to look at HubSpot CMS alternatives.

Why Consider Hubspot CMS Alternatives?

HubSpot CMS interface
HubSpot CMS interface. Source: HubSpot

HubSpot is a popular marketing software solution that combines different aspects of marketing including CRM, inbound marketing, and sales automation.

It offers a website builder and content management system that allows you to build websites.

HubSpot CMS is used by many businesses, but it has its fair share of disadvantages. One of the biggest disadvantages of Hubspot is its cost. HubSpot is a paid platform, which means you need to budget for it as part of your overall marketing costs. For instance, the starter plan is priced at $23 per month, the Professional plan at $360 a month, and the Enterprise plan at $1200 per month.

While there is a free forever plan, it comes with HubSpot branding and offers basic SEO recommendations apart from allowing you to connect one custom domain.

Most other advanced features are hidden behind a paywall including:

  • A/B testing
  • Custom web applications
  • Partitioning
  • Advanced SEO recommendations
  • Dynamic content
  • Phone, email, and live chat support

In addition, HubSpot can be difficult to learn and use, especially if you're not familiar with other CMS platforms. And finally, HubSpot's support can be hit or miss, leaving you on your own if you run into problems.

The message is clear. To unlock tangible value from your marketing investment, you need to explore different Hubspot CMS alternatives.

Top Alternatives to HubSpot CMS in 2023

1. Visual Composer

Visual Composer Website Builder for WordPress

If you are looking for an affordable and intuitive HubSpot CMS alternative, you can't go wrong with Visual Composer.

The drag-and-drop WordPress website builder is ideal for web developers and web designers of all experience levels, who wish to decrease the coding needed in the web development process close to zero.

While it is not entirely free too, there is a free version that's free forever. The free version offers more than enough features to build a simple website, while the premium version allows you to create any kind of website imaginable, from portfolio to eCommerce sites. The premium plans are priced at affordable rates ranging from $49/year for one website to $349/year for 100 websites, making it one of the best alternatives to HubSpot CMS. Plus, all premium plans also include all premium features.

Pros

  • Visual Composer offers over 500 content elements and pre-designed templates to design a fully functional WordPress website
  • Supports the most popular plugins
    Compatible with any WordPress theme that complies with the coding standards set by WordPress Codex.
  • Optimal SEO to help you rank higher
  • Faster-loading pages
  • Easy to use
  • Offers powerful integrations with a range of marketing and design tools including Mailchimp, Yoast, Unsplash, Google, YouTube, WP Forms, WooCommerce, Giphy, Weglot, etc.

Cons

  • While Visual Composer offers a wide range of features in addition to an intuitive user interface, it can involve a learning curve for those new to the WordPress CMS platform or website design.

2. Wix

Wix website builder interface and navigation bar
Wix website builder. Source: Expert Reviews

Wix is a website-building platform that offers a wide range of features for designers and non-designers alike. The Wix CMS allows users to do everything from adding text and images to creating pages, menus, slideshows, galleries, and more.

Wix offers a limited free plan and paid plans that you can use to create more complex sites. Paid plans differentiate by the features each provides and vary from $5.50/month to $44/month depending on the storage space, which comes down to around $66 to $528 a year.

Pros

  • As one of the good HubSpot CMS alternatives, Wix provides a drag-and-drop interface for designing websites. It has features such as SEO, integrations with Google Drive and Dropbox, and more.

Cons

  • There are limitations in website structuring and creative design
  • Lack of flexibility when it comes to adding widgets or code
  • Not as customizable as other HubSpot CMS alternatives
  • Not the SEO-friendliest alternative to HubSpot CMS
  • Content-heavy Wix sites take a long time to load

Read more about the best Wix alternatives: 5 website builders you need to try in 2022.

3. Webflow

Webflow website builder interface
Webflow website builder interface. Source: CMS Critic

Webflow is a cloud-based platform that enables users to create responsive websites without having to write code. It is used by web designers and developers to create custom-designed websites. The platform combines content management, web design, e-commerce, and marketing tools to make it easy to build a website from scratch.

Webflow allows you to sign-up for free, but like most website building platforms, requires a hosting provider to get your site up and running. Webflow offers both general and eCommerce paid plans. Paid plans range from $18/month to $235 /month (up to 22% cheaper when choosing the option to get billed annually) and vary in features each of them offers.

Pros

  • Webflow uses a drag-and-drop interface, which makes it easy to create and edit website designs.
  • Webflow also has pre-built templates and themes that users can choose from to get started with their website design.

Cons

  • One of the biggest disadvantages of Webflow is that it can be more difficult to use than other website builders. The user interface is not optimal.
  • Additionally, Webflow does not offer as many features as some other website builders, so you may need to use other tools to supplement your website.
  • Another downside of Webflow is that it can be more expensive than other website builders. If you're on a tight budget, you may want to consider another platform that offers a more affordable option.

Discover the 5 best Wefblow alternatives you should be using in 2022

4. Drupal

Drupal CMS interface
Drupal CMS interface. Source: Drupal

Drupal is a content management system (CMS) that enables you to create a website or blog from scratch or improve an existing website. It is used as the backend system for many popular websites, including The Economist, Examiner.com, and Daily Kos.

On average website projects built on Drupal CMS are way more expensive than website projects built on WordPress CMS (including the use of website builders). The cost varies strongly on the type of website and features you wish to be added to a website (anywhere from $500 to $40 000+ per website project).

Pros

  • Drupal is free and open-source software, released under the GNU General Public License. This means that anyone can download, install, and use Drupal without having to pay for it. It also means that Drupal's code is available for anyone to study, modify, and redistribute.
  • In comparison with other alternatives to HubSpot CMS, websites built on Drupal have good SEO (search engine optimization) properties.

Cons

While it is a flexible CMS platform, there are certain cons that you need to be aware of:

  • Drupal is slow. For your site to work fast, you may need to set up a caching solution
  • There are limited options in terms of fewer plugins or modules as compared to WordPress or Joomla.
  • Most plugins on offer are paid ones.
  • Lacks a good user interface
  • Not an ideal HubSpot CMS alternative for a non-tech person
  • It can be time-consuming to build a website

5. Duda

Duda website builder interface
Duda website builder interface. Source: Digital

Duda is a website builder with client management and team collaboration tools that helps you craft efficient websites optimized for tablet, desktop, and mobile devices.

Duda offers four paid pricing plans, which vary in features. The basic plan costs $19/month, while the highest plan costs $99/month and offers an additional 14-day free trial. Duda pricing plans also cost 25% cheaper when choosing the option to get billed annually.

Pros

  • 100+ templates and a drag-and-drop editor
  • Traffic analysis
  • Useful e-commerce features

Cons

  • Duda limits your creative control
  • Expensive plans
  • SEO features are basic
  • Can be a bit clunky for those new to website building

Another big limitation of Duda is that it locks you into using the platform for running your website, unlike Visual Composer.

6. Breakdance

Breakdance website builder interface
Breakdance website builder interface. Source: Breakdance

Breakdance website builder is a relatively new platform from Soflyy, Oxygen's parent company, that comes with expected features such as templates and drag-and-drop builder.

Breakdance currently offers only one paid plan option, which costs $149/year currently for unlimited sites. The pricing page suggests, that the price will rise to $349/year, but it's unclear when the price will rise. The plan also includes a 30-day free trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

  • Full site editing
  • 100 + elements
  • SEO friendly
  • Gutenberg and WooCommerce integration

Cons

  • Steep learning curve
  • Lacks the themes, knowledge base, features, and support available with other HubSpot alternatives such as Visual Composer
  • Being a new platform, Breakdance may not be the most reliable platform in the market.

In Conclusion

As you can see, there is no shortage of options when it comes to building a website with CMS. These tools have made it possible for marketers to streamline their workflow and create websites without any technical knowledge. Choose the right one based on your budget, coding knowledge, and flexibility needs.

The post Top Alternatives to Hubspot CMS to Try in 2023 appeared first on Visual Composer Website Builder.

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Case Study: How CTS Agency Creates Custom Sites Using Less Code with Visual Composer https://visualcomposer.com/blog/how-cts-agency-creates-custom-sites-using-less-code/ Thu, 15 Sep 2022 07:42:19 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=35853 Visual Composer is the most powerful tool in a web agency's arsenal. For CTS Agency, it not only increases turnaround time but also replaces any need for full-fledged developers to build out custom elements, fonts, or themes because of its built-in features that are focused on customer feedback.

The post Case Study: How CTS Agency Creates Custom Sites Using Less Code with Visual Composer appeared first on Visual Composer Website Builder.

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​​CTS Agency is a digital marketing company of eight people and counting, with a strong sense of social responsibility and a focus on cause-based projects. They also have plans to expand their business in the near future.

Visual Composer has helped them to do this by saving them time and headaches when it comes to building websites for their clients. With Visual Composer, CTS Agency can create 100% of their clients' websites with close to zero code, which allows them to focus on their mission and grow their business.

In this interview, Greg Trujillo, co-founder, and co-owner of CTS Agency walks us through:

  • How he got into web development
  • How Visual Composer has made it easier for their senior developers to focus on more complex tasks while allowing junior developers to take on simpler tasks
  • And how they make the world a better place through their work.

Tell us more about what you do and how long you have been in the business?

Greg Trujillo:
We started a little over ten years ago and the idea was to create a social media company. So websites weren't something that even was of any interest to us. But as we started doing more in the social media marketing space, we found that websites were necessary.

A lot of people were thinking of social media as a website replacement. But we found that you still need to drive people to a website and an experience that you control, for overall marketing effectiveness. So we started to dive into websites.

I'm a computer engineer by training, so I didn't know a lot about the web world, but many coding languages, whether it's C++ or JavaScript, have a lot of similarities to them. So that was kind of easy for me to pick up and start learning about web development.

Ten years ago, we were just two people. And now fast forward ten years, we're eight people and growing and we serve a multitude of different clients from non-profits to romance authors, lawyers, and service industries.

But really what we like to focus on is cause-based organizations. So whether it's a for-profit company or a non-profit, somebody with a social cause that they want to put forward and how they're trying to make the world a better place, not just by selling sneakers or something, but through their mission. So those are our ideal clients - people that are trying to change the world.

Can you tell us what CTS stands for?

Greg Trujillo:
Our agency is called CTS Agency. The CTS is an acronym for Creative, Technical, and Social. Those are the avenues that we focus on when we're putting together marketing campaigns for our clients.

Filip Galetic:
What do each of those parts mean to you personally?

Greg Trujillo:
So when creating a strategy for marketing campaigns, it takes strategic technical knowledge on how to apply certain parts of the strategy and also a sense of creativity to captivate the people that you're trying to market to.

CTS Agency website
CTS Agency website built in Visual Composer. Source: CTS Agency

And additionally, because of the way that Web 2.0 is right now, there is a vast social layer to that. So you need to make sure that we're not just broadcasting out to people, but we're creating a conversation and a dialog.

On your LinkedIn profile, you mention that you built your first computer when you were just ten years old. What's the backstory behind that?

Greg Trujillo:
So when I was ten years old, my father worked a technology job in the military. They called that microwave satellite repair. And he worked a lot with computers and different technologies. And so he brought some of that home, not his work specifically, but some of that knowledge.

So he would buy computer components and we would work together on building a computer, installing the operating system, and just overall learning about technology. I probably was the first kid on my block to have access to the Internet.

Do you have a strong passion for social responsibility? And if so, what do you enjoy most about it?

Greg Trujillo:
I like helping people that help people. So really, when it comes to social responsibility, I have been involved personally and adjacent to a lot of people who have had bad situations because of a lack of social responsibility in the world in general. Because of the situations that I and people that I know have been through, I like working with organizations that try to alleviate those conditions.

For example, I have personally experienced homelessness and that makes our work with several different homelessness organizations in the region especially meaningful. Additionally, I've had friends who have gone through a divorce due to domestic violence. And so we help domestic violence organizations as well. Really, we love to work with anyone trying to help people who are experiencing a negative situation, which is a common experience across the world.

We just want to help those kinds of organizations because they don't have the funding usually to work with a really big marketing company. And we like to be able to give them the kind of attention that they deserve, but on a budget that they can afford.

Filip Galetic:
That's wonderful. And I mean, those issues you've mentioned, they can often come in a package, right? Homelessness, domestic violence…

Greg Trujillo:
Yes. They spiderweb out and a lot of them touch each other.

Filip Galetic:
Yeah. It's great that you have this niching.  Obviously, this is a good way to help your business grow in general but then when it also helps others, you're the winner here. So congrats. Well done.

Do you have any kind of plans to grow further? How long did it take to reach the current point you're at?

Greg Trujillo:
Yeah, absolutely. So when we started ten years ago, we were just two people and we remained two people for a few years, working with contractors to fulfill needs because neither of us could design. We’d need a designer, so we were able to do that for a while. And as our clients had expanded needs, we realized that we just don't have the time and contractors aren't fulfilling it.

So we needed to bring on people and once we started bringing on employees and having people working full-time, we found that our two original people were able to go out and sell more projects. And so more projects meant that we needed more people. And it's kind of been in an ebb and flow growth trajectory where we have eight employees and then it'll come down to six employees and then go back up a little bit.

And so now we have a really solid employee base. They're excited to continue to work on these projects. They've been working with us for anywhere from 2 to 3 years. We brought them in as junior employees and now they're ready to move up and gain management experience by supervising junior employees themselves.

Filip Galetic:
Sounds great.

Greg Trujillo:
Yeah. We plan to keep expanding. One of the parts specifically is web development, and that's changed immensely because of things like Visual Composer. Before we were manually building everything. Not only the custom frontend with custom functionality, but also we would modify the admin area of WordPress. So that way it was more user-friendly for our clients.

Created with Visual Composer

Now with Visual Composer, it's very easy for our clients in the admin area because we can save a lot of the custom things that we make with Visual Composer. Our clients can easily drag-and-drop the buttons or anything else that we've styled specifically for them. So that makes the admin area a non-issue.

And then also, with all the updates that Visual Composer has had over the last couple of years, it's made it very easy for us to style things that before would have taken a lot longer and would have been a little more of a headache having to do it custom in the PHP & CSS files.

Could you give a rough estimate of how much faster you can get things done with Visual Composer?

Greg Trujillo:
Yeah. So before Visual Composer, we were making a full custom page that had been created by our designer. Developing it for both mobile and desktop would take approximately a day. And that's on a good day with a low functionality page. In Visual Composer that's a couple of hours with the functionality and styling options being built-in.

The same page could be done within 2 hours on Visual Composer where it would previously take a developer all day.

And when reviewing the work that a developer does with Visual Composer, even if I have ten changes they need to make, those changes are done within 30 minutes. Where, if I requested those changes from the developer who had hand-coded it, everything we're talking about would take another 3 hours, and maybe it's delivered to me tomorrow.

Visual Composer has immensely sped up our production because now we don't need a full-fledged developer to build out the pages, we can use a junior developer who has a basic understanding of HTML and CSS.

Do you follow strict processes when it comes to your agency workflows?

Greg Trujillo:
So basically when it comes to our processes, especially with web development, we do have processes in place, which we are documenting. But when it comes to web development, what we usually do, after we understand the goals of the client, is wireframe based on Visual Composer at that point.

So with what we know Visual Composers' capabilities and designs to be, we wireframe based off of that, making sure to keep our client's goals in mind, and then we start to design and beautify it once they've approved those designs. So yeah, we fully incorporate Visual Composers from the beginning and make sure that our designers have gone in and played with the different functionalities of Visual Composers and looked at the styling of it.

That way they can understand what's going to be easy to modify and what is a little more complex to modify. So when creating a website for a client based on what their needs are, it’s amazing to see how far we can go on the modifications with Visual Composer.

Visual Composer makes it so easy to do those sorts of modifications with CSS. Half of the modifications that I need are available within the Visual Composer elements anyways.

A lot of those are great and it just makes it so easy that we pretty much have gone to 100% incorporating Visual Composer. Before it was only for certain features and now it's full-fledged across the website.

How do you structure your business model? 

Greg Trujillo:
Since we are a marketing agency, which is the way that we approach a lot of our services, we have a lot of agency-of-record clients. So they buy a retainer, usually an amount of our time for the entire year. And then we try to section out how many hours we can work per month. And of course, since they bought our time for the year, that's a little more fluid. If they need more hours this month, we can put those in. If they need fewer hours, we can save them for another month.

We do have a lot of clients who prefer to work on that basis. But we also have one-off clients, and these are my favorite kind of projects, the one-offs that are wildly out there.

We had a client who had a real-world physical device to measure fluid inside of a container and wanted us to program a way to get the information from that device onto an analytics dashboard that we were also supposed to design and create. So we were working on that project – their whole thing is fluid inside of barrels for car washes.

So the way that they measure the fluid in car wash barrels is with a Sharpie, they just mark it with a Sharpie and put the date next to it. This person was creating a new piece of technology for that purpose. And we were able to build the web component that displayed in real time what the fluid levels were, gave them alerts on fluid usage, and also the ability to reorder products directly from their analytics tool.

What's next for your agency?

Greg Trujillo:
We do have a few clients that are outside of Florida and outside of the United States, international clients as well. What we're focusing on are cause-based clients that are interested in social causes and those branding campaigns and efforts that they may be putting forward. We found that we're really good at creating brand taglines and then being able to promote those directly to an audience.

For example, we're working on a Florida-wide youth drug prevention campaign which might make people, at least in America, think of the abstinence-focused DARE campaign, but this takes a different approach.

Better Without It website
A cause-based website built by CTS Agency in Visual Composer. Source: Better Without It.

Instead of just saying no, what we're doing is talking about positive reinforcement for healthy habits rather than telling people that if you do drugs, you'll ruin your life. Instead, if you focus on your passions, that opens a lot of doors for your future. We encourage people to focus on healthy habits and things that are going to help them now and throughout their lives.

Fillip Galetic:
Right? That's such a huge topic. And the whole 'just say no' has this inherent 'you're bad' undertone that doesn't work very successfully at all, does it?

Greg Trujillo:
Those abstinence-only ideas just don't work. And nowadays with advertising, it doesn't matter who you're advertising to. Gen Z has the Internet. They can Google things for themselves – you can't B.S. anybody anymore. So you’ve got to find different ways to communicate messages that they want to hear.

Orlando Science Center website
A cause-based website built by CTS Agency in Visual Composer. Source: Orlando Science Center.

Have you used any other website builder apart from Visual Composer and how would you compare them?

Greg Trujillo:
Oh yeah. We inherit a lot of website maintenance contracts and they already have their previous web development company put in a website builder.

So we've used a multitude of different website builders and none of them really compares to Visual Composer in terms of the capabilities and ease of use for the features.

A lot of them kind of get there a little bit, but there are little quirks that make it more difficult and less adjustable for those that have the inclination to do it.

With Visual Composer, especially the admin area updates for the Font Manager and things like that, they make it so amazing now to just create an entire site from scratch that would have taken days, weeks, and even months. I see some of these websites that we've sold that would have taken me an entire week to build as a weekend project now.

What are some of the other features that stand out to you in Visual Composer, and that you use regularly?

Greg Trujillo:
Some of the features that I use and love the most are the templating features and the layout features – being able to create templates and layouts and apply them across different sections of the website. And then we're able to select that template to apply. So I love that aspect of it. It brings that original layer of creation that WordPress had.

Visual Composer Theme Builder addon

It’s exactly like creating a template for your WordPress theme, but Visual Composer makes it much easier.

Plus the Font Manager, I can't even say how amazing it is because being able to not only set the fonts but set the font sizes and styles per screen size is an absolute godsend because before, we'd have to code in via CSS and have the font file in the website itself. Not only that but then coded for each breakpoint of what size it was going to be.

Visual Composer Font Manager addon

Do you find any benefits to using Dynamic Content, such as time savings or better reactions from clients?

Greg Trujillo:
When it comes to dynamic content for Visual Composer, that's something we use a lot because we create custom post types for our clients. Right now we're still using the old way where we’ll go into the functions using? PHP, and create a custom post type, but then with the dynamic content in Visual Composer - when we've created, for example, a custom post type to spotlight their members – we're able to grab the content dynamically from these. Which I find amazing because it's not just the built-in stuff that comes with WordPress.

When we create different post types manually Visual Composers can detect that and pull the content in dynamically. So that way, if we just want the highlighted posts that we've assigned, for example, the category of 'featured,' Visual Composer can grab that even from a non-native custom post type, which I find amazing and works well.

...because then again we can create the post type and Visual Composer can handle all the heavy lifting of displaying it.

Apart from running the agency you also teach marketing courses and do public speaking. Tell us more about that.

Greg Trujillo:
We teach non-profit marketing courses here locally. And additionally, we've been brought out to different cities to teach marketing classes and also help to put on a marketing conference every year.

Filip Galetic:
When is the next conference and is it maybe niche for the cause marketing?

Greg Trujillo:
Yeah. Well, it's social media focused and the conference is called Social Fresh. It should be next year in June. That one has some cause-based content in it, but a lot of it is big brand social media.

Social Fresh website
A conference for Social Media Managers, co-hosted by Greg Trujillo. Source: Social Fresh

If you were starting today in building CTS, what advice would you give yourself?

Greg Trujillo:
Especially when it comes to web development, understanding enough about CSS and HTML will help build about 80% of websites that clients will ever ask for.

If I were starting my company today instead of ten years ago, I would tell myself that while it's nice to know how to build things from scratch, it's not necessary, especially with tools like Visual Composer.

It's when clients are looking for those really custom features that just don't exist anywhere else that you might need to lean on somebody with more development knowledge. But when it comes down to the ease of being able to template and design with Visual Composer, you can create custom solutions for clients without having to have extensive web development knowledge.

Filip Galetic:
That means a lot coming from an experienced web agency owner and expert developer like yourself. Thanks a lot and we'll keep in touch.

The post Case Study: How CTS Agency Creates Custom Sites Using Less Code with Visual Composer appeared first on Visual Composer Website Builder.

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5 Best Webflow Alternatives You Should Be Using in 2022 https://visualcomposer.com/blog/best-webflow-alternatives/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/best-webflow-alternatives/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2022 11:24:19 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=35663 No-code/low-code website builders have become the latest trends for most small businesses and web creators. This article highlights the five best Webflow alternatives to help you create responsive websites for your clients.

The post 5 Best Webflow Alternatives You Should Be Using in 2022 appeared first on Visual Composer Website Builder.

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5 Best Webflow Alternatives You Should Be Using in 2022

Webflow is a stand-alone website builder that allows you to create websites without coding. While this drag-and-drop builder offers CMS, SEO, and eCommerce features, it is unsuitable for non-techies and has a high maintenance cost. It makes users seek other website builders for their businesses.

Statistics by User Guiding reveal that no-code/low-code solutions will account for over 65% of software development activities by 2024 and gross $187 billion in revenue by 2030. So it’s essential to choose the right solution to help you set up and maintain your site without having to learn or use too much additional HTML and CSS.

One of the best alternatives to Webflow is Visual Composer, our WordPress website builder. It’s an all-in-one solution that provides a drag-and-drop editor, advanced SEO features, numerous website templates, and web elements. It helps you build responsive websites and online stores easily. It's suitable for beginners and advanced users. Get started today and join thousands of web creators using Visual Composer.

In this article, we will review the best Webflow alternatives to help you decide the best option for your business or clients. First, we'll introduce Webflow.

What Is a Webflow Website Building Platform?

Webflow website builder interface and feature visualisation
Webflow website builder. Source: CMS Critic

Webflow is a drag-and-drop website builder that enables you to design responsive websites. It is suitable for professional designers and advanced developers.

Users seek the best alternative to Webflow for the following reasons

  • No mobile apps for site editing
  • High maintenance cost
  • Limited customer support
  • Steep learning curve
  • Poor UI

Therefore, we researched the five best Webflow alternatives for you. Let's see what they offer.

Webflow Alternatives: The Evaluation Parameters

Our article evaluates these Webflow alternatives with the following criteria:

  • User rating
  • Unique features
  • Integrations
  • Customer support
  • Pros
  • Cons
  • Pricing

Let’s see how well other website builders perform in these categories.

The Best 5 Webflow Alternatives for Building a Professional Website

Here are the best Webflow alternatives you need to know about in 2022.

  • Visual Composer
  • Wix
  • HubSpot CMS Hub
  • Duda
  • Zyro

We will start with Visual Composer and explain why it's the best Webflow alternative.

1. Visual Composer

Visual Composer website builder editor interface with elements
Visual Composer Website Builder

Visual Composer is a free WordPress website builder. You can create dynamic websites and online stores without coding. Our all-in-one platform provides content elements, website templates, pop-ups, plugins, free stock images, and third-party integrations to help you create the best websites for your clients.

User Rating

Visual Composer scores 4.3/5 stars on Capterra based on 55 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Visual Composer is great for non-tech-savvy users. It is also the go-to choice for most experienced web creators because it allows you to add custom CSS, JS, and HTML to specific web pages.

Our WordPress website builder also comes with the best features every web creator needs, including SEO and advanced marketing tools to help optimize your website and close sales.

With Visual Composer, you can edit your website content on the go from your mobile devices and tablets, unlike Webflow. It gives you the creative freedom to design the beautiful website, online portfolio, or online store you deserve.

These are just a few of the ways how Visual Composer makes you a better web creator than your competitors.

Integrations

Visual Composer offers robust options of popular third-party plugins and marketing tools, including

  • WooCommerce
  • wpDataTables
  • MailChimp
  • Gutenberg
  • Yoast
  • Weglot
  • Advanced Custom Fields
  • Unsplash
  • WP Forms
  • HubSpot Forms
  • Google
  • Giphy

Customer Support

Around 30% of all Visual Composer customers are motivated to go premium because of access to premium support rather than features. Our help center has several free resources, like tutorials, blog posts, FAQs, and an active online community.

You can also contact our reliable support team via email, live chat, and tickets.

Pros

  • Intuitive drag-and-drop editor with an easy interface
  • Compatible with different devices
  • It gives the best price for web creators with 1000 sites
  • Great platform with numerous website elements, add-ons, pre-built templates, and other features
  • Regular updates and reliable support
  • Automatic SEO features for high speed and performance
  • Theme builder options for creating customized layouts
  • It offers both mobile and desktop editing for website building

Cons

  • A slight learning curve for new users, but lower than other Webflow alternatives

Pricing

Asides from the forever free plan with a free page builder, we also offer five premium pricing plans with advanced features.

  • Single — $49/year for one website
  • Plus — $99/year for five websites
  • Accelerate — $149/year for 20 websites
  • Growth — $349/year for 100 websites
  • Agency — $849/year for 1000 websites
  • Lifetime — $149 for one website (onetime payment)

Our Lifetime Plan is for creators who want to charge their clients for the license per project without managing their subscriptions.

All plans come with a 30-day refund guarantee and include all Premium features. To experience Visual Composer Premium with no strings attached, you can get started with a 3-day free trial. Plus, you can always get started with the free version to see how Visual Composer works.

2. Wix

Wix website builder interface and navigation bar
Wix website builder. Source: Expert Reviews

Wix is a website builder that allows you to create personalized websites through its Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) software with drag-and-drop tools.

User Rating

Wix scores 4.4/5 stars on Capterra, based on 8894 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Wix achieves its level of personalization through questionnaires generated by its ADI software, helping you create a precise picture of what you want to build.

The stand-alone cloud platform offers free, reliable hosting with a custom domain name, logo maker, templates, and third-party integrations. Still, it also has some drawbacks that make users seek other Wix alternatives.

Integrations

Wix integrates with

  • MailChimp
  • HubSpot
  • Google Ads
  • Google Analytics

Customer Support

Wix offers limited support to users. Asides from its knowledge base of FAQs and helpful articles, there is not much for users to get by.

Pros

  • Helpful integrations and templates
  • SEO tools
  • Supports email marketing
  • Builds personalized websites

Cons

  • Poor customer service
  • Overwhelming features and options
  • Transferring your site to a different platform is difficult
  • Not suitable for beginners
  • High cost for advanced functionality and third-party apps

Pricing

Wix offers a limited free plan, and it gives you a 14-day free trial for their premium plans. Wix groups its premium plans into two major categories:

Websites Plans

  • Connect Domain — $5.50/month
  • Combo — $10/month
  • Unlimited — $17/month
  • VIP — $29/month

Business and eCommerce Plans

  • Business Basic Plan — $20/month
  • Business Unlimited Plan — $30/month
  • Business VIP Plan — $44/month

Wix also has a 14-day money-back guarantee on all its paid plans.

3. HubSpot CMS Hub

HubSpot CMS website builder interface
HubSpot CMS website builder. Source: HubSpot

HubSpot Content Management System (CMS) Hub is a cloud-based platform that offers developers and marketers the tools they need to create websites and manage content without coding.

User Rating

HubSpot CMS Hub has a 4.4/5 stars rating on Capterra, based on 50 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

HubSpot combines website creation with CRM, streamlining marketing processes to give customers a better experience when they visit your website or online store.

Integrations

HubSpot CMS Hub is compatible with notable third-party plugins and marketing tools, like

  • Canva
  • Google
  • JotForm
  • Wistia

Customer Support

HubSpot offers robust support channels for users on their paid plans. You can contact their support reps via email, live chat, or phone.

They also provide how-to articles, video tutorials, and an active online community.

Pros

  • Robust customer support channels
  • Helpful third-party integrations
  • User-friendly
  • Simple visual interface

Cons

  • Its web design tools can be overwhelming for new users
  • Designs templates could be better
  • Full customization may require you to have coding knowledge

Pricing

HubSpot CMS has a free forever plan with limited features and support. It also has three paid plans:

  • Starter — $23/month
  • Professional — $360/month
  • Enterprise — $1200/month

Each plan comes with a free trial.

4. Duda

Duda website builder interface
Duda website builder. Source: Digital

Duda is a tool that helps agencies and professional designers to create custom websites, landing pages, or online stores for small businesses.

User Rating

Duda scores 4.6/5 stars on Capterra, based on 175 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Duda helps you streamline your workflow, automation, and web development processes with the help of AI tools to create beautiful websites for your clients.

Integrations

Duda is compatible with notable third-party plugins like

  • Zapier
  • MailChimp
  • Stripe
  • Airtable
  • Google sheets

Customer Support

Duda offers support via live chat, web form, email, and phone. It also has an active community and a knowledge base of helpful resources and tutorials.

Pros

  • Offers multi-language support (English, Portuguese and Spanish)
  • Good for agencies
  • Pre-designed templates
  • Simple drag-and-drop editor

Cons

  • Limited customization
  • Not the best choice for non-techies
  • No built-in email marketing and project management integration

Pricing

Duda has four pricing plans with a free 14-day trial.

  • Basic — $14/month billed annually (one website)
  • Team — $22/month billed annually (one website)
  • Agency — $44/month billed annually (four websites)
  • Custom — Contact support

5. Zyro

Zyro website builder interface
Zyro website builder. Source: Cybernews

Zyro is a web design tool that allows you to create your business website or online store without coding skills.

User Rating

Zyro has a 4.7/5 star rating on Capterra, based on 300 reviews.

What Makes This Website Builder Unique

Building websites with Zyro is simple because of its unique AI tools and features like logo maker, AI content generator, AI business name generator, and more.

Integrations

Zyro integrates well with

  • Google Analytics
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Facebook Pixel
  • Hotjar

Customer Support

Asides from resources like FAQs, Zyro offers email and 24/7 live chat support.

Pros

  • Easy drag-and-drop editor
  • Reliable web hosting
  • Responsive, lightweight websites

Cons

  • Not a free website builder and has no free trial
  • Room for more features

Pricing

Zyro offers two pricing plans

  • Website — $11.99/month/website
  • Business — $14.99/month/website

All plans come with a 30-day refund guarantee.

Webflow Alternatives: Features Comparison

We compared the features of all five alternatives to Webflow with the table below.

Feature

Visual Composer

Wix

HubSpot CMS Hub

Duda

Zyro

Drag-and-drop editor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Fully responsive

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Works with any WordPress theme

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

SEO-friendly

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cloud marketplace

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Theme builder

Yes

No

No

No

No

Popup builder

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Custom widgets

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

Premade templates

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Free templates

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Premium templates

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Free stock images

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Advanced design customization

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Mobile editing

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Integrations

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Translation-ready

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Developer-friendly

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Non-tech-savvy users friendly

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Why Use WordPress CMS-Based Website Builders?

WordPress website dashboard
What is: Content Management System (CMS). Source: WPBeginner

WordPress is not just a blogging platform; it is the best CMS software we have today. According to statistics, WordPress is the leading CMS platform, used by 64.3% of all the websites which have known content management systems.

Building websites on WordPress software is complex for non-techies as it may require advanced coding skills. Therefore, no-code/low-code WordPress CMS-based website builders like Visual Composer are the best options for eCommerce business owners, freelancers, and agencies.

Below are a few reasons you should go for WordPress CMS-based website builders:

  • Allow you to create websites and manage their content
  • Offers more power and scalability for web creators and agencies
  • Give you complete control over the customization and functionality of your website
  • Provides access to many website hosts
  • Allow you to create any kind of website, no matter the complexity
  • Offer many templates, themes, add-ons, third-party integrations, and plugins

Webflow Alternatives: FAQ

Is There a Free Alternative to Webflow?

Yes, there is. Visual Composer is a free WordPress website builder that allows you to design the best website or online store for your business. You can get started now and join thousands of web creators building with Visual Composer.

Do Professional Web Creators Use Webflow?

Yes, they do. Webflow created its platform with professional web designers and advanced developers in mind. But the alternatives mentioned in this article, allow advanced developers to use less coding and save more time than by using Webflow.

Is Webflow the Best CMS?

Webflow has some drawbacks that make it difficult for us to name it the best CMS platform. WordPress website builders like Visual Composer have shown more potential, and we consider it a better CMS platform than other WordPress website builders like Elementor and Brizy.

Webflow Alternatives: The Final Verdict

While there are other known website builders like WordPress software, Google Sites, Shopify, Adobe Dreamweaver, and more, the Webflow alternatives listed above offer helpful features for small businesses and web creators.

Visual Composer stands out as the top Webflow alternative on our list. It is an affordable, all-in-one solution that will help you optimize your websites and increase sales with its SEO and eCommerce tools.

Visual Composer is the fourth most popular WordPress plugin in the Top 100K sites category, and it can help you stand out from other web creators.

Get started with Visual Composer and create cutting-edge websites for you and your clients.

Discover the Best Webflow Alternative & Create Websites with No Coding

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Why Ambitious Web Agencies Choose Visual Composer https://visualcomposer.com/blog/why-ambitious-web-agencies-choose-visual-composer/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/why-ambitious-web-agencies-choose-visual-composer/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2022 15:02:49 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=35580 Many ambitious web agencies choose Visual Composer as their main web development tool because it helps them spend their time more efficiently and allows them to focus on growing their business.

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Why Ambitious Web Agencies Choose Visual Composer

Web agencies share a common goal of wanting to accelerate their growth in revenue, client acquisition, and speed of delivery. Most agency owners struggle with higher-scale problems such as optimizing their workflow and processes in a way that works for them. And lower-scale problems such as — making sure clients don't break the website.

Visual Composer can help with both.

Visual Composer for WordPress allows you to build high-quality websites quickly and easily, with substantially less coding. In this article, we will discuss why Visual Composer is the perfect choice for busy agencies who want to focus on their business goals by reducing the time spent on website development.

How Visual Composer Helps Improve Processes to Speed Up Growth

As a web agency, you are always looking for ways to optimize your workflow in order to get more done in less time.

Part of that is making sure that you have the right tools for the job.

Visual Composer is a powerful website builder that comes with everything you need to create beautiful and responsive websites without touching a single line of code.

Optimizing Processes and Workflows

With Visual Composer for WordPress, you can create websites faster and more efficiently than ever before.

This means your existing workflows and processes for website production also get more efficient: reusing templates, blocks and layouts lets your developers avoid starting from scratch when they don't need to, which in turn allows them to complete projects faster.

Additionally, as they progress more efficiently through less demanding projects that can be handled with pre saved elements, they are able to take on more work. As a result, your agency profitability improves as well - you can say yes to smaller projects, and complement your A-level client work with smaller jobs.

And because Visual Composer is built to produce websites that look good, work fast and have hundreds of elements that help your clients achieve their business goals, you will have a greater chance of having happier, more satisfied clients. And we don't have to spell out what this means for your customer retention and word of mouth.

Building Working Prototypes Faster

Some of the most common problems with prototype development are clients' constant requests for changes outside the project scope, resulting in delays in completion.

Building a prototype can also cost a lot of money depending on the additional software platforms you need to purchase.

For agencies, such as ​​Alotropy, Visual Composer has allowed them to practically skip the prototyping phase and go straight into production. Because web developers use Visual Composer as a prototyping tool itself, which speeds up the process of launching a website.

The biggest benefit to using Visual Composer is that it can help create a mockup for a website together with the client.

The drag-and-drop interface combined with a large variety of customizable website elements, templates, and design options makes it easy to create a page layout in half the time. Plus, all of the elements in the editor look and work the same as the final version on the screen.

Visual Composer for faster prototypes by Elsey Adcock Design agency
Elsey Adcock Design web design agencies tool of choice. Source: Elsey Adcock Design

Increasing Website Performance Easily

With first impressions being 94% design-related, visual design is essential in web design. But if the website performance suffers, you won't be able to fulfill clients' goals of gaining more traffic and boosting sales from website visitors.

Another common mistake web developers make is not implementing responsive design from the beginning. And, since more than half of website traffic is generated by mobile devices, every website should be built mobile-first.

Implementing web standards for accessibility is becoming increasingly more important, and even a legal requirement in some US states.

Website optimization strategies
Website optimization strategies. Source: Webcom Kenya

Website speed is important for both users and search engines. Visual Composer's built-in performance optimization tools are popular with web agencies because they help make websites load faster.

Visual Composer offers features for building fully responsive and SEO-optimized websites. Plus, you can integrate third-party plugins for clients to achieve more specific functionalities.

In fact, according to a recent study, 73.1% of web designers believe that the top reason why visitors leave a website is the lack of responsiveness for multiple devices.

Another tool, that just makes sense, is the WordPress content analysis tool - Insights. The tool analyses and reports any issues related to technical SEO, accessibility, and user experience. With it, there's no more forgetting about even the simplest tasks such as image optimization.

Visual Composer Insights Assistant Tool for Website Performance Improvement tool
Visual Composer Insights Assistant

Reducing the Impact of Scope Creep

One of the main reasons web agencies are choosing to use a no-code solution is because it helps decrease the impact of last-minute changes.

The extra requirements imposed on a project by clients can have a big impact on its budget. After all, usually, these tasks take up time that is scheduled on other projects.

Clients' demands for sudden changes are inevitable, but with Visual Composer, they can be done quickly and usually without writing any code. 

Although Visual Composer is used by professionals, users without any experience can easily adapt to using the tool. Like most web agencies, Migman Media finds it easy to train clients to use the editor to do their own maintenance work.

Created with Visual Composer
Created with Visual Composer
Discover the Website Builder for Agencies and Scale Your Business to Success

Web agencies that use Visual Composer agree that it helps them with client retention. By allowing clients to make changes on their own, they are more likely to stay with the agency in the long term.

It saves you time when clients demand website changes out of the blue, because any tweaks, no matter how major can be made site-wide. This includes styling texts, changing the design and layout of pages and posts, and making changes in global elements.

Visual Composer saves me tons of time in development! My sites are also looking more professional and robust thanks to the custom layouts I can make with ease.

Adam Baney
Founder of Baney Design

Employee Engagement

Web design companies tend to range from 1 to 10 people, with only a couple of agencies exceeding 100 or more. Most focus their work on a specific geographic area or industry. So inevitably agencies are limited by size and location, which technically isn't a bad thing.

In order to grow and see results, you need to have a team of like-minded individuals. But sometimes, you also just need to get the job done. That's why many agencies hire freelancers on retainers for extra helping hands. Although it is a smart move to outsource tasks to people who can do it for less cost, with it comes risk.

That is why agencies prefer using intuitive and user-friendly tools like Visual Composer. They are able to pass on simpler tasks to anyone in the team, including less-experienced colleagues. This builds transparency in the work culture, making sure everyone is on the same page.

Avoiding potentially serious consequences of putting the website development in hands of new, inexperienced, or outsourced people, should be a worry of the past. As long as you do semi-regular backups, and use role manager to set appropriate capabilities for each person's role in the website development process, all your hard work will be safe.

As a result, engaging employees and making them feel involved, also increases their job satisfaction and builds a strong team in the long run.

Employee engagement statistics by Carnegie
How employee engagement affects retention rates. Source: Dale Carnegie

Co-creation of Visual Composer Based on Long-Term Customer Feedback

Some website builders in the WordPress market stop their development after a certain point, leaving the users stuck with an outdated version.

The Visual Composer team recognizes that clients' needs come first.

That's why anyone can access our public roadmap, and see upcoming features you can expect in the near future.

We want to make sure that Visual Composer is the best website builder for web agencies, so we created a feedback loop where you can request features. Then, our team prioritizes the most frequently requested features and builds them into the product.

This way, you can be sure that the product is always up-to-date with the latest trends and also constantly improving based on customer feedback.

Finally, providing an exceptional customer experience is our top priority. With a customer satisfaction rate of 94%, Visual Composers' support is way above the industry average. Plus, 80% of users highlighted support being the best feature in Visual Composer Premium.

Visual Composer support rating

Visual Composer clients also appreciate being able to beta-test upcoming release features and shape the product in a way that is accessible and easy to use for them. If you wish to be the first to test the latest Visual Composer features before the official releases, you can download the beta versions here.

How Visual Composer Helps Web Developers With Their Day-to-Day

Using a website builder also comes with other benefits that help on a smaller scale when it comes to more menial tasks and small time stealing tasks that can quickly add up.

Continuity

Let's say one of your team members is on vacation or is taking a sick day. With Visual Composer, other team members can easily pick up where they left off without any issue. This helps to keep the project moving forward, and prevents any delays.

User Management

As a web agency, your ultimate goal is to make your clients happy with the end result. You want to give them a website that is not only beautiful but also easy to use and navigate. And most importantly, you want to be able to do it in a way that is time-efficient and cost-effective.

The last thing you want is for them to come back to you and say that their website is broken because they tried to add something new themselves.

Visual Composer takes care of that by giving you full control over what your clients can and cannot access.

Learn how to secure your clients' sites from unwanted changes with Visual Composer.

Intuitive Yet Powerful Interface

Some of the problems agencies face include wasting resources on training employees to use complex and expensive tools.

This can get costly pretty quickly and may end up not fulfilling your needs in the long run.

The intuitive interface offered by Visual Composer is another big benefit for agencies. An intuitive design simply means the tool is easy to understand and to work with, with minimal instructions.

With Visual Composers' user-friendly interface and simple navigation, the users can reduce the learning curve of getting started with a new tool and meet their needs in a fast and efficient way.

Visual Composer is a tool that offers everything agencies need for faster web development, plus it can reduce their costs, paying for as little as $1 for a single website a year.

Cost of website development by Website Builder Expert
Website development costs for website developers. Source: Website Builder Expert

Thanks to our partnership, you can launch a Visual Composer website on Cloudways hosting in just 1-click. The bundle includes a free SSL certificate, and is optimized for performance.

Visual Composer is also compatible with all WordPress plugins and themes, that comply with the coding standards of WordPress set by its Codex.

And lastly, Visual Composer is fully compatible with WooCommerce, the top e-commerce plugin for WordPress. Making it easy to integrate e-commerce elements into your clients' sites and help them start selling their products and services.

Drag-and-Drop & Code — A Powerful Couple

Web agencies know better than anyone, that clients' demands can get complex fast. This can highly impact the web development time and take away from time planned on other projects.

That is why Visual Composer is the perfect balance between no-code and low-code. This means you're able to drag and drop pre-made elements to the layouts instantly, while still being able to do custom coding, if necessary.

Learn how to create custom elements with the Visual Composer API.

Visual Composer API documentation

The ability to develop your own custom elements is one of the biggest advantages of Visual Composer for professional developers. Plus you can add custom CSS and JavaScript in the same place where you create a page, all without exiting the editor.

The intuitive interface makes it easy for agencies to drag-and-drop elements, and the code editor ensures that they can customize everything to their clients' needs. Those are the top website builder features every web creator needs.

Ready-Made, Customizable & Reusable Elements

One of the most common website design problems is outdated designs and broken layouts.

The Visual Composer Hub offers a library of ready-made elements and templates, which means that agencies can get websites up and running quickly.

Content elements, templates and new features in Visual Composer are constantly being added to the editor by our team. So you can be confident that your websites will always look modern. And, if you ever need to change anything, you can simply update the elements.

With Visual Composers layout builder, you can create custom layouts that include headers, footers, and sidebars, which can be assigned globally or individually for pages, posts, custom post types, and archives. With it, developers don't have to rely on theme-defined layouts or designs and can manage it all from one place.

While most website builders limit you to their own features and options, Visual Composer provides full access to the code. This means that you can extend the functionality of your website with custom code or third-party plugins. And, if you ever need to switch themes or website builders, you can do so without losing any of your content.

Lastly, the ability to reuse your previously created designs, elements, and sections is one the biggest time-savers for busy agencies, that don't have to start from scratch with each new website.

Add global templates for reusable content

Takeaways

Taking advantage of a website builder also has an effect on how much time is spent on a project, and consequently — the profitability of the project for the agency.

Website builders like Visual Composer speed up your web development process.

While some website builders can be a bit clunky, and difficult to use — Visual Composer is different. It is built with the latest technologies and agencies in mind, and it shows in its features and design.

From an agency perspective, what really sets Visual Composer apart from other builders, is that it's the best of both worlds — allowing them to build web pages completely without code and have the option to add code if needed.

Overall, using Visual Composer can help your agency in a number of ways:

  • Save time on projects
  • Reduce the risk of client damage
  • Improve employee engagement
  • Increase customer satisfaction

​​If you recognize how valuable your time is and want to spend more time focusing on your agencies growth, take advantage of our Premium website builder today!

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What Is a Website Builder? Everything You Need to Know https://visualcomposer.com/blog/what-is-a-website-builder/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/what-is-a-website-builder/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2022 10:21:35 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=35428 Website builder makes it easy for non-technical users and professionals to streamline their web development process without coding. Discover what is a website builder, how it works, and how to choose the right one for your needs.

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So you want to streamline your web development business but have no clue where to start? Or maybe you've tried DIY website builders in the past and had a terrible experience? Don't worry. We know that building a website requires much time and headaches, but good website builders can make a big difference and reduce your efforts greatly. We've got you covered.

In this blog post, we'll explain everything you need to know about drag-and-drop website builders for WordPress. We'll discuss what they are, how they work, and why they're popular. Plus, we'll give you some tips on how to choose the right builder for your needs. Let's get started!

What Is a Website Builder and How Does It Work?

A drag-and-drop website builder is a software platform that makes it easy for users to create a website with the help of a drag-and-drop editor and pre-built elements. Generally, website builders allow you to create websites without relying on any coding, but some offer coding options for additional customization and functionalities if needed.

The main difference between website builders is in how they handle the hosting of your website. There are stand-alone builders, such as Squarespace, and content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress. The difference is that one comes with included hosting solutions, while for the other, you can choose a hosting provider, that suits your specific needs. You can also host a website locally on your personal computer.

WordPress is ideal if you want more power and control over the customization of your websites, and is the most popular website building platform. It is used on over 43% of the websites on the web, while Squarespace is used only on 2%. The reason this open-source software platform is so popular is that it offers complete freedom and control of your website and content, with unlimited third-party plugins, such as WordPress website builders.

CMS Usage Statistics from W3Techs
Usage statistics of content management systems. Data Source: W3Techs

The magic of website builders is that one doesn't have to build a website from scratch, but rather do it time-efficiently while providing the same great quality and performance.

Choosing a website builder over manual code editing is a no-brainer for web developers in today's competitive market and for business owners who wish to maintain and update websites on their own.

What is the difference between website builders and page builders? Page builders allow you to create separate pages but not the whole website, while website builders allow you to create the entire website.

What Features Should a Website Builder Have?

Website builders are the most clever and fastest way to set up a professional website and create stunning designs, even without technical experience or talent.

Typical website builders offer ready-to-use design elements, drag-and-drop functionality, and a user-friendly interface, which makes creating and customizing website pages easy. The key website builder components that are essential for web creators are:

Purpose Feature
Being able to quickly change the layout & move elements on the page Drag-and-drop interface
Knowing that what you create in the editor is true to what you see on the finished screen WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get)
Not requiring a coding experience and/ or reducing time spent on coding to build a website Zero coding & custom coding options (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) 
Being able to choose from various, customizable pre-designed content elements & website templates  Content elements & templates
Being able to integrate third-party plugins & themes, for additional functionalities Compatibility & integrations
Optimized design that automatically adjusts depending on the device a visitor is browsing the website Automatic & custom responsiveness
Ensuring that each page of your website is optimized for search engines, performance & navigable for people with disabilities Built-in content analysis & improvement tool
Option to create unique custom elements & theme integrations for developers API
Receiving a fast & individual approach to solving product-related issues  Customer support
An accessible overview of upcoming features & the option to submit feature requests  Roadmap & feature requests

What is the clearest sign of a good website builder? An accessible overview of the roadmap with upcoming features and the option to submit feature requests is the tell-tale sign that a builder is continuously making improvements and takes customer feedback into account.

Choosing a builder that comes with built-in integrations can make your website easier to manage and work on. By limiting the number of plugins you use to only those that are essential you also won't risk having negative effects on your website's performance.

Is It Worth Using a Website Builder? Pros and Cons

What are website builders for? Some website builders are used to create a website from scratch, while others are used to help with the design and development of websites. These platforms are great for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to establish a strong online presence quickly and easily.

They are used by both non-tech-savvy people, who want to take control into their own hands, and web agencies and professional web creators, who wish to streamline their web development business to success. While there are certainly more benefits than drawbacks to using a drag-and-drop website builder, you should be aware of both before making your decision.

Discover the Powerful Drag & Drop Website Builder for Web Creators

Pros

  1. Ease of use in combination with limitless design options for website builders is surely the biggest advantage, to create a beautiful and functional website time-efficiently
  2. Website builders provide a perfect mix of no-code and low-code solutions, making it easy for anyone to build and launch a website without any programming experience, yet allowing to also add custom code 
  3. Drag-and-drop builders use modern technologies that generate clean code and are built keeping the best web development practices in mind, for the best performance results
  4. Web builders have a simplified website maintenance process for web creators and their clients to be able to easily maintain and update websites post-launch
  5. There are many readily available and reusable design elements, which allow flexibility in creating any kind of business, portfolio, or blog website
  6. With most builders there are plenty of website templates available, so you can find one that suits your needs
  7. Many website builders come with eCommerce features, which are perfect for small businesses or anyone who wants to sell products online
  8. The return on investment (ROI) for using a website builder is very high, since there are free options available and low-cost premium options, given that the time you spend building a website is reduced immensely
  9. Many web creators use website builders to create mockups of website designs, which saves them time in the prototyping phase and gets them into production as quickly as possible
  10. Website builders keep up with the ever-changing web standards for technologies like CSS and JavaScript, so you have even less to worry about

Which website builder should you choose: free or paid? If you want to devote yourself to web development, you should choose a premium builder. WPRacoon provides a helpful comparison table of WordPress plugins, with information about pricing and licensing types, as well as refund options. This can help you find the best value for your money when selecting a WordPress website builder.

Cons

  1. With earning to use a web builder, just like with any tool, there can be a learning curve. That's why you should look for a builder with a user-friendly and intuitive interface
  2. You might have less control over your website design than if you were to code it, but the time and effort you save in return should be taken into consideration
  3. Using a website builder can get expensive, especially if you need additional features for eCommerce, SEO, contact forms, etc., so you should choose a builder that's multifunctional
  4. The stigma surrounding website builders for professional web designers may seem legitimate, but that idea is outdated as the tools available today are based on the latest technologies and conform to coding standards. Therefore, it is unlikely that this can lead to a bloated website.

How to Choose the Right Website Builder?

With the variety of different options available at your fingertips, how should make your decision? Size, features, and price are all important factors in your decision-making process, but what's most important is your needs.

When choosing a website builder, you should think about what kind of look, feel and style you desire, which features are most important to you, and the control over the content and design you wish to have for your websites.

To choose a website builder, keep in mind that some are better suited for more non-technical professionals than others, but all are developer-friendly and help streamline website development in all cases. Here are the factors upon which you should decide on choosing the right website builder and whether it's worth considering with the price point for you:

  • How steep is the learning curve? A good, multifunctional website builder requires time to adapt to the tool, but some options are more intuitive than others
  • What are the performance metrics of a website created with the website builder? Look for speed tests on different tools, such as Pingdom, GTMetrix, PageSpeed Insight, and others
  • How seamless is the integration with other tools? Compatibility with other tools is a great factor of importance, given most professional websites need additional functionalities to fulfill marketing and sales needs
  • Does it offer a free trial period? A free trial period can be a great factor when choosing a builder, for making sure it suits your needs and trying different web builders before committing fully to one tool
  • Does it allow you to override theme default designs? While there are tons of unique themes, surely one for each individual, a great builder gives you the power to customize fonts and layouts
  • Lastly, does it come with hosting included or does it allow you to choose a hosting provider for your specific needs? An easy way to decide on the website builder and hosting provider combo is by looking for bundle deals that are optimized for the greatest performance

How to choose between multiple website builders? Ultimately what it comes down to is your long-term goals, and how the tool can help you scale web development or design business to success. The best judge, in this case, is how reliable it is for other users. So, look out for user success stories, case studies, and reviews.

How to Get Started with a Website Builder?

The best way to get started is to explore the different features each website builder offers. Once you have an idea of what you need, you can narrow down your choices and pick the one that’s right for you. Let's look at the overview process of getting started and using a WordPress web builder:

  1. Download and install WordPress
  2. Choose a website builder
  3. Secure a hosting provider
  4. Get a domain name
  5. Choose a lightweight theme
  6. Create a site structure/ map
  7. Create & customize
  8. Add content
  9. Adjust responsiveness settings
  10. Preview & publish

How to choose a good hosting provider? Go for fast, secure, and performance-optimized web hosting, that offers a free SSL certificate, and is easy to set up with a website builder.

Final Verdict: Is a Website Builder Worth It?

Short answer - YES!

Today's website builders are no longer just for amateurs. They are being used by professionals and agencies that create websites for a living who want to make their sites look good and function properly on any device or browser without much hassle.

As long as the websites you create are fast-loading and match the design your clients pictured in their minds, they will be happy. Clients don't care if you use an automated tool or hand code it yourself, so it also shouldn't matter to you. Given the saturation of web creators who are able to deliver high-quality websites quickly in today's competitive market, using the right tools can help you beat the competition.

The biggest benefit is the amount of time and headaches saved by using a good builder, instead of manually coding a website from scratch. Best of all, seeing the design come to life instantly is fun and motivates you to get the job done faster, and helps you land high-paying clients for the long term.

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5 Ways A Website Builder Can Help You Stand Out From Other Web Creators https://visualcomposer.com/blog/stand-out-from-other-web-creators/ https://visualcomposer.com/blog/stand-out-from-other-web-creators/#comments Tue, 05 Jul 2022 10:46:49 +0000 https://visualcomposer.com/?p=35336 Website builders can help you create more professional-looking websites faster and easier than you could on your own, as well as offer tools that make it easier for your clients to manage and update their websites on their own.

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5 Ways A Website Builder Can Help You Stand Out From Other Web Creators blog post featured image

Some ways a website builder can help you stand out from other web creators are by making it easier to create websites, as well as tools that make it easier for your clients to manage and update their websites on their own.

In addition, website builders can help you optimize your workflow by automating tasks that would otherwise take up valuable time, such as creating sitemaps and generating code. By streamlining your workflow, you'll be able to take on more clients and provide them with a better overall experience.

Now that you know the initial benefits, let's dive into all the ways using a website builder can help you prosper in your career, and increase your chances of landing better clients.

Streamlining the website creation process

Website builders can help web professionals save time in the website creation process by optimizing workflows and automating tasks. By using a website builder, web creators can focus on designing beautiful websites rather than worrying about the code or other technical aspects of site-building.

As a result, agencies are using streamlined tools to reduce repetitive tasks. This ultimately saves you time and money that you can reinvest elsewhere to help grow your business, become an overall happier and better professional, or have a more satisfied, more productive team.

For example, as owners of web agencies that were part of our recent interviews revealed, a website builder allows you to skip the prototyping phase and move to production immediately. In a regular project built with the help of a CMS, like WordPress, you can easily create wireframes, plan the main features and navigation of the clients' website design, and start putting it together right away.

Usage of content management systems statistics by W3Techs
Usage of content management systems. Image Source: W3Techs

In addition to the faster development process, website builders such as Visual Composer can save you time by reusing pre-made designs. The builder allows you to reuse components from previous projects, that you can customize, save, use, and repeat. Creating a new website from scratch every time can be time-consuming, but using preexisting designs while still being able to customize them to your clients' needs speeds up the process.

Automation of website improvement processes

Impact of automation on time and cost savings from Sales Force report
Impact of automation on time and cost savings. Image Source: Salesforce

A huge part of being an above-the-curve web developer is being able to design websites that not only look good but also perform well. According to Google's research, it takes about 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about a website. And, that's why the first impressions of the website matter the most.

Working on improving website performance while designing is key to ensuring an outstanding website experience, clean code, and end results for your clients. Luckily, website builders can speed up the website optimization process, because of the built-in tools they have that cover those areas.

For example, the Visual Composer website builder allows you to optimize your website for search engines, mobile devices, accessibility, and performance on the go, with the built-in WordPress content analysis tool. Which is also fairly more convenient than using multiple tools and paying more for the same, great quality optimization.

Being able to deliver a fast-loading and well-performing website is major, because it will ultimately, not only attract potential customers but also help reduce bounce rates and increase conversions for your clients.

Added flexibility with presenting the progress to clients

As a web creator, you need to be able to easily show your clients the progress of their project, but the traditional methods can be either slow or restricted. Most people find it difficult to present the progress of their project in a way that is both visually appealing and easy to understand.

With the drag-and-drop interface website builders offer, you can easily present the progress by simply showing the website preview from within the editor. While presenting, you can add and change images, text, and other elements in your layouts on the go. Plus, the libraries of pre-made templates make it easy to get started right away.

And don't take it from us, take it from Michael Bellina, an agency owner who can attest that Visual Composer has the first editor he's used that had a good live editor, true to what you see is what you get, compared to other website builders in the game.

Another benefit, website builders help with is compatibility with all of the best WordPress themes and plugins, which allows you to use additional tools, like AI copywriters and stock images, that integrate seamlessly and allow you to take the extra workload off your and your clients' hands.

Easier website maintenance

One of the greatest advantages of using no-code and low-code solutions is combining the best of both worlds. No-code platforms make it easy for users to create applications and solutions using only a visual interface and drag-and-drop. Low-code platforms allow additional coding, while both types make it easier for users to speed up the design and development process. And, website builders can be both.

No-code/ low-code market growth forecast from SpreadsheetWeb
No-code/ low-code market growth forecast. Image Source: SpreadsheetWeb

After launching a site, this also allows you to bring clients through the process of using a website builder to do their own maintenance work, and update their sites by themselves, without worrying that they could break something.

Configuring user roles can help restrict clients from making unwanted changes to a website. This can be done by setting up different access privileges for different user roles. And different website builder plugins allow you to set up user roles more easily compared to WordPress alone.

Business model optimization

What makes a good web professional stand out is their ability to create and maintain high-quality websites. Delivering well-designed, functional, mobile, and search engine optimized websites is important, but having soft skills, like patience and good communication skills are also critical when it comes to distinguishing yourself from the competition.

That's why using a website builder can help you become a better web creator and save you a lot of hassle in the process. When you are able to work more quickly and efficiently, you can spend more time growing your business by taking on more work, upgrading your portfolio regularly, and ensuring the best customer service possible, because you are less likely to experience burnout.

While website builders might be costly, the investment return can be enormous. Consider this, the typical premium plan for agencies and professionals for 1000 websites costs around $850 a year, which boils down to less than $1 per website in the end.

Cost of designing a website statistics by GoodFirms
Cost of designing a website statistics. Image Source: GoodFirms

Summary

Using the right tools will ensure you come out on top. While the design is important, you can't compromise on the quality of your clients' websites. When choosing a builder, it is important to choose one who qualifies for your criteria. Before you decide whether or not to use a WordPress page builder, you might want to compare its speed tests against other options.

Best of all, website builders offer tons of professional, pre-made templates that can help you get started even faster. Creating visually appealing designs is essential to standing out as a web creator. As Google's research shows, people strongly prefer website designs that look both simple and familiar, and Visual Composer can help you achieve both.

And if you are still stuck in the mindset that professionals need to code a website from scratch, you are just sacrificing your own potential success. What it ultimately boils down to is getting from point A to point B faster, and website builders can help you speed up your journey to the top, while still allowing you to be in complete creative control by adding custom code if needed.

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