If you need to create a website, you will no doubt be aware that there is a vast number of ways to do so. These mostly centre around two basic options – designing the website yourself, or paying someone else to do it for you.
Paying someone else to design your website for you can often be complex, time-consuming and above all a costly affair, so for those reasons many individuals, businesses and organisations attempt to design their websites themselves.
You might be thinking that in order to design your website yourself, you would have to buy some expensive software that you need to install and run on your computer.
Up until a few years ago, that was sadly the case, and you would usually have to spend quite a lot of your time learning about how the software works before you could even begin the process of designing your website!
Luckily such software is aimed only at experienced web designers, and there is a much simpler way of designing websites which anyone from beginner to expert level can take advantage of; I am, of course, referring to online website builder software. Here are the pros and cons to using such software, as well as a brief explanation of how they work.
Online Website Builder Software – how it works
Rather than using a piece of software that is installed on one computer, online website builder software actually runs inside a web browser window. This means you will be able to use the software from any computer – regardless of operating system – around the world!
The Pros of using Online Website Builder Software
The main selling point of online website builder software is the fact that they are so easy to use, and as such you are not required to have a computer science degree in order to set up your website using one!
They are typically offered by companies that also provide web hosting, domain name registration and e-commerce services, either as a free product for customers that purchase web hosting, for example, or as a separate premium product.
Another selling point about the use of online website builder software is the fact that the costs associated with such software are so cheap; it can be described as practically being given away!
An important fact to bear in mind is that they are backed by solid technical support, so if you come across any problems you can be assured that they will be addressed and resolved in a timely fashion.
The Cons of using Online Website Builder Software
Of course, there are always downsides to most things in life, and the use of online website builder software is no exception.
Because such systems rely on the use of templates, you cannot be guaranteed that you will have a bespoke website (at least, in terms of layout and colour scheme) as it will be more than likely that other customers will also have used the same template that you are using.
They are also designed only for basic websites or those that only have the most simple requirements, so if you are looking for a custom database-driven solution that connects to certain cloud storage solutions, for example, then you will need to go down the web developer route.