
Online website builder – advantages and disadvantages
Explore the pros and cons of online website builders to determine if they're right for your project.
Page builders have revolutionized web development by making it easier for individuals without coding skills to create websites.
They operate entirely through a web application, eliminating the necessity of installing any software on your device.
They offer a variety of features, including drag-and-drop interfaces and customizable templates. This simplicity makes it useful for users with varying degrees of technical ability, from beginners to experienced designers.
There is also the other side of the coin of page builder solutions – limitations. And in this article, we will share our experiences while working with page builders.
Avoid page builders? Use page builders? Let’s dive into the details.
Advantages
Ease of use
An easy to use website builder typically refers to a platform that allows users to create a website with no technical knowledge or coding skills.
Website builders are designed to be user-friendly, often featuring drag-and-drop interfaces that allow users to easily add elements like text boxes, images, and buttons to their pages.
Quick setup
Users can launch a website in hours or days rather than weeks or months, as is common with custom-built sites. This speed is ideal for those who require immediate online visibility.
No coding required
Most website builders do not require any knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or other web technologies, making them accessible to beginners.
The phrase no coding required
in the context of online website builders means that users can create and manage websites without needing to write any code, such as HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. This approach is designed to make website creation accessible to individuals who may not have technical expertise or programming skills.
Templates and themes
When it comes to creating a website, the choice of templates and themes can significantly impact the design and functionality of the site.
Website builders usually come with a wide variety of templates and themes that can be customized to fit your brand or personal style. This saves time and effort compared to designing a site from scratch.
Cost-effective
Many website builders offer free plans or low-cost subscriptions, making it affordable for individuals and small businesses to establish an online presence without significant upfront investment.
Integrated features
Some website builders include built-in features like SEO tools, social media integration, and e-commerce capabilities, which simplify the process of running an online business.
Disadvantages
Ownership issues
When using online website builders, ownership issues can arise that affect both the control over the content and the domain name associated with the site. These issues often stem from the terms of service provided by the website builder platform, which may not be fully understood or considered by users during the initial setup phase.
Some website builders may claim ownership over the content uploaded to their platform. This can limit what users can do with their own content outside of the platform. They often use proprietary technologies, making it difficult to export your site to another platform without significant redesign or redevelopment.
Additionally, when purchasing a domain through a website builder, the ownership details might be registered under the platform’s name instead of the user’s. This can complicate transferring the domain to another registrar or hosting service later on.
Limited possibilities of change
Page builders offer ease of use and often add-ons that offer additional functionality. However, what is their advantage is also their weakness.
When you want to make some custom changes, in most cases, you’ll face restrictions. This is because page builders are trying to keep everything consistent, and allowing users to customize anything introduces the risk of breaking changes.
You can verify that by asking to modify any part of your site, for example, the footer or header. It is often not possible directly.
Complexity and learning curve
Page builders claim to be intuitive and user-friendly. Unfortunately, that is far from the reality. They typically include a variety of elements, each with multiple screens of configuration options for layout, content, and styling.
No matter if you are a beginner or an expert, you will undoubtedly face a steep learning curve because familiarizing yourself with each page builder’s functions requires a significant amount of effort.
You have to spend significant amounts of time learning their functionalities and the way they work. Unlike learning HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, this knowledge is not transferable.
Learning web technologies would be a better use of your time because the knowledge can be applied to any project. In addition, you will be able to build only what is required.
Poor site performance
Site performance refers to how quickly and efficiently a website loads and operates for users. It is essential for enhancing user satisfaction, improving SEO rankings, boosting conversion rates, ensuring cost efficiency, and gaining a competitive edge.
Slow performance comes from two sources: loading a lot of files (scripts, styles, fonts, images, etc.) and executing a large amount of unoptimized code.
Sometimes even the same type of package is loaded, but just with a different version. You’ll face a significant number of HTTP requests that you can’t optimize because doing so would require too much work, introducing the risk of breaking changes with future updates.
Poor SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important for increasing the website’s visibility and ranking higher on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).
Speed is one problem, but missing semantic HTML is another, often overlooked, issue. Unfortunately, page builders don’t create good output with semantic HTML.
Semantic HTML plays a crucial role in enhancing the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of a website by making its content more understandable to web crawlers. Web crawlers are programs used by search engines to visit web pages and collect information about them. Semantic HTML helps these crawlers better understand the structure and content of a webpage, leading to improved indexing and potentially higher rankings in search engine results.
Crawlers can’t understand the content the same way as humans. Hence, we need to wrap our content in code that helps crawlers understand meaning and purpose.
<div>
<p>Main Title of the Page</p>
</div>
<div>
<h2>Subheading</h2>
<p>This is a paragraph within a section.</p>
</div>
<div>
<span>Copyright © 2024</span>
</div>
<header>
<h1>Main Title of the Page</h1>
</header>
<section>
<h2>Subheading</h2>
<p>This is a paragraph within a section.</p>
</section>
<footer>
Copyright © 2024
</footer>
Poor Accessibility
One of the significant concerns associated with using page builders is their impact on website accessibility.
Digital accessibility refers to the practice of designing digital content, websites, applications, and technologies so that they can be used by everyone, including people with disabilities. This includes individuals who have visual impairments, hearing impairments, motor impairments, cognitive impairments, or any other type of disability.
How page builders affect accessibility?
- Complex code: page builders often generate complex HTML structures that can be difficult for screen readers to interpret correctly. This complexity can make navigation challenging for users relying on assistive technologies.
- Missing alternative description: images added through page builders sometimes lack alternative text (
alt
text), which screen readers use to describe images to visually impaired users. - Inconsistent navigation: the drag-and-drop functionality of page builders can lead to inconsistent navigation structures across different pages, making it harder for users with cognitive impairments or those using keyboard navigation to navigate the site.
- Color contrast issues: page builders may offer templates or design elements that do not meet the recommended color contrast ratios, affecting the visibility of content for users with visual impairments.
- Legal consequences: many countries have laws requiring digital accessibility, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the U.S. Non-compliance can result in lawsuits, fines, and reputational damage. Businesses that do not meet accessibility standards may face legal challenges that can be costly and damaging to their public image.
Reduced WordPress capabilities when used with online builder
The WordPress has online builder plugins that allow users to design and build websites visually without needing to write code. They provide a drag-and-drop interface where you can add and arrange elements on your pages, such as text blocks, images, buttons, and various widgets, to create custom layouts.
While they offer a wide range of widgets and features, they may not always integrate seamlessly with all themes, especially those that have unique structures or custom functionalities.
For developers who prefer to have direct control over the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript of their site, their way of managing the site and interface can feel restrictive.
They create often strong dependencies, and disabling one of their features may break the site. They are tightly integrated with WordPress, meaning they cannot function independently. This dependency can lead to complications, especially when WordPress updates or when other plugins conflict with them. Users often report needing to deactivate other plugins to troubleshoot issues, which can be frustrating and time-consuming.
Ultimately, whether such an online builder is suitable for a WordPress site depends on the project requirements, the team’s familiarity with the tool, and the desired level of customization and control. It’s important to weigh these factors against the benefits of using a visual page builder for ease of use and rapid development.
Competition from native WordPress features
With the introduction of the Gutenberg editor, which is now part of WordPress, some users feel that the need for a third-party page builder is diminishing. Gutenberg offers a more integrated experience and is continuously being improved, which may lead to a shift away from the page builder in the future.
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