BEST Website Builder 2024 (My TOP Recommendation)

Summary

The video discusses various website building platforms, comparing their features, pricing, and customization options. It emphasizes that once you choose a platform, switching is difficult, so it's important to pick wisely. The speaker shares insights from years of freelancing and web development, offering recommendations for platforms like Go High Level, WordPress, Webflow, and more. The video also highlights the importance of SEO, outsourcing work, and generating recurring income through website management, ultimately advising viewers to focus on building scalable, well-designed websites for clients efficiently.

Takeaways

• 💻 There are many website-building platforms with different prices, features, and customizations, and switching between them is difficult once you start using one.
• 🎨 Once you familiarize yourself with a platform, building beautiful websites becomes easier, faster, and more efficient.
• 🤖 Outsourcing website building to virtual assistants can free up time for business owners to focus on other aspects like client acquisition.
• 💼 There are low-budget options for clients who need basic websites, like copy-paste templates, and higher-end packages for custom or e-commerce sites.
• 💡 The Go High Level platform offers unlimited websites under a single account, along with additional features like sales funnels, email marketing, and appointment booking.
• 🌐 WordPress is highly recommended for custom websites and SEO, but it requires separate hosting and premium plugins for advanced features.
• 🔧 Webflow is ideal for highly customizable websites but requires expertise, with a minimum pricing recommendation of $3,000 for building such sites.
• 💰 GoDaddy, Squarespace, and Wix are easy-to-use platforms for simple websites, though they may have limitations and higher ongoing costs compared to more feature-rich platforms.
• 🛒 Shopify is the preferred platform for e-commerce stores, offering more ease of use compared to WordPress when building online shops.
• 📈 Recurring revenue models, such as charging clients for hosting and website maintenance, can be more profitable than passing on minimal hosting costs.

Q & A

What are the challenges of switching between website-building platforms?

Switching between website-building platforms is nearly impossible once you've started building on one. Each platform has its own unique features, and moving a website to another platform is difficult, often requiring a complete rebuild. This means you are typically committed to the platform you choose for the long term.

How can getting comfortable with one website builder benefit you?

Once you become comfortable with one website builder, you can build websites more quickly and efficiently. You will know where all the features are and how to customize elements, which will result in better designs that your clients will appreciate. It also allows you to focus on other aspects of your business, like getting more clients, rather than spending time on technical details.

How can you outsource website building tasks to virtual assistants?

After mastering a specific website builder, you can document your processes and outsource tasks to virtual assistants. This allows them to help with the building and customization process, freeing up your time to work on more strategic tasks within your business.

What is the key advantage of using Go High Level as a website builder?

Go High Level allows users to host unlimited websites within one account, even at the baseline plan. This platform also includes additional features like sales funnels, email marketing, and SMS reminders, making it a more comprehensive solution compared to other website builders.

What are the pricing options for websites built on Go High Level?

Go High Level offers two pricing options: a lower-tier package at $150 per month for a simple, copy-paste website, and a higher-end package ranging from $4,000 to $6,000 for a custom site. For e-commerce websites, prices can go as high as $10,000 to $15,000.

What makes WordPress a strong option for custom websites?

WordPress is a highly customizable platform and is great for building SEO-friendly websites. It also supports international rankings and offers various plugins for added functionality. However, it requires hosting, and there may be costs for premium plugins.

How does Webflow compare to WordPress for website customization?

Webflow offers a high level of customization, making it a popular choice for designers who want complete control over the look and feel of their websites. While it's visually appealing and slick, it requires a higher level of expertise compared to WordPress.

Why is GoDaddy's website builder ranked low among the options discussed?

GoDaddy's website builder is ranked low due to its limitations in terms of customization and overall performance. The platform is considered slow and less user-friendly compared to others like Webflow or WordPress, and it lacks flexibility in what users can achieve.

What is the main advantage of using Shopify for e-commerce websites?

Shopify is specifically designed for e-commerce, making it an ideal choice for online stores. It offers features that are optimized for selling products, making it easier to manage and scale a store. While WordPress can also be used for e-commerce, Shopify is a more straightforward solution.

What recurring revenue strategy can you implement with WordPress hosting?

You can charge clients a monthly hosting fee for their WordPress websites, usually around $100 to $150 per month. This includes security, maintenance, and any updates they might need, providing both value to the client and recurring income for your business.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Choosing the Right Website Building Platform is Critical

The speaker discusses the challenge of selecting a website building platform, noting that once chosen, it’s difficult to switch. They emphasize the importance of finding a platform that balances price, features, and customizations because you're likely to stick with it for the long term. Once comfortable with a specific platform, you'll be able to design faster and more efficiently. The speaker suggests outsourcing to virtual assistants to focus more on growing your business rather than getting stuck with website-related tasks.

05:00

💡 Insights from a Freelance Web Developer

The speaker shares their personal experience, having started building websites in 2016 and founding their company in 2017. Through these years, they’ve learned how to offer high-ticket website design services and SEO optimization. They mention Go High Level as an efficient platform for creating custom websites with scalable options, making it ideal for those looking to offer website templates or custom solutions. Their packages range from simple $150/month templates to $6,000 custom sites, demonstrating the wide range of possibilities.

10:01

🌐 WordPress: A Powerful and Flexible Website Builder

The speaker praises WordPress for its affordability and flexibility, particularly for custom websites and SEO purposes. They highlight the need for additional hosting platforms and premium plugins but note that WordPress is great for building unique sites. They also mention that Go High Level offers WordPress hosting, making it a comprehensive platform for managing both simple and complex sites.

🎨 Webflow and GoDaddy: Two Different Website Builders

Webflow is recommended for high customization and clean, professional designs, though it requires more expertise. The speaker advises charging at least $3,000 for Webflow projects due to the time and effort involved. On the other hand, GoDaddy’s website builder is described as less user-friendly and slower. The speaker recommends using it for low-ticket websites but warns about its limitations and high costs over time.

🛠️ Simple Yet Effective: Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly

Squarespace is highlighted as a user-friendly platform, though a bit overpriced for its basic functionality. Wix is preferred over Squarespace for being faster and cleaner. Shopify is praised as the go-to platform for e-commerce, while Weebly is seen as a cheaper alternative, though limited in its shopping features. The speaker discusses the benefits of handing off simple website designs to clients using these platforms.

💼 Maximizing Monthly Recurring Revenue with Hosting

The speaker emphasizes the importance of charging clients for hosting services to build monthly recurring income. They recommend charging $100 to $150 per month for hosting WordPress websites, offering added value through security, support, and website maintenance. By doing so, freelancers and web designers can establish long-term relationships with their clients and generate consistent revenue.

🚀 Final Thoughts on Website Builders and Customization

The speaker concludes by recommending Webflow or WordPress for highly customized websites due to their flexibility and site speed. For more basic website building needs, Go High Level is preferred for its ease of use and scalability. They stress the importance of choosing the right tool for the job based on customization needs and long-term business goals.

Keywords

💡Website Builders

Website builders are platforms that allow users to create websites without needing to code. In the video, several website builders are discussed, such as Go High Level, WordPress, and Webflow. The speaker emphasizes the importance of choosing the right platform because switching between them can be difficult, highlighting the long-term commitment when selecting a website builder.

💡Customization

Customization refers to the ability to modify and personalize a website’s design and functionality to suit specific needs. Platforms like Webflow and WordPress are noted for their high level of customization, allowing users to create unique websites. The video points out that while some builders like Webflow offer extensive customization, they may require more expertise compared to simpler platforms.

💡SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the process of improving a website's visibility on search engines like Google. The video touches on the SEO capabilities of different website builders, such as Go High Level and WordPress, emphasizing the importance of selecting a platform that can rank well on search engines. The speaker's experience with SEO services and how it influences their choice of platform is a key point.

💡Go High Level

Go High Level is a website builder platform that also integrates sales funnels, email marketing, and SMS reminders. The speaker highlights Go High Level as a flexible tool that allows for unlimited websites under one account, making it cost-effective for users who manage multiple sites. The platform’s ability to handle both marketing and website building tasks is a major selling point.

💡WordPress

WordPress is a popular open-source platform known for its customization and SEO capabilities. The speaker discusses WordPress as an ideal choice for custom websites and mentions their success in ranking international websites using WordPress. It is presented as a powerful tool for users who need more control over their website’s design and functionality.

💡Webflow

Webflow is a website builder that offers high customization and design flexibility. The video mentions that while Webflow allows for visually appealing and professional websites, it requires expertise to use effectively. Webflow is recommended for users who want to create custom sites with advanced features, but it's suggested that they charge higher fees due to the time and skill involved.

💡Hosting

Hosting refers to the service that allows a website to be accessible on the internet. The video mentions that some platforms like WordPress require separate hosting services, whereas others, like Go High Level, offer integrated hosting. The speaker discusses the importance of hosting in relation to the platform’s cost and ease of use, with WordPress needing third-party hosting for most users.

💡Copy-paste websites

Copy-paste websites refer to simple, pre-designed templates that can be quickly customized with a client’s logo and basic information. The video highlights that these types of websites are part of a low-budget service offering, with Go High Level allowing quick deployment of such sites for clients with limited budgets. This strategy helps streamline the process for both the builder and the client.

💡E-commerce

E-commerce refers to websites that support online shopping and sales. Shopify is mentioned as a leading platform for e-commerce due to its ease of use and wide adoption. The speaker compares building e-commerce sites on WordPress versus Shopify, noting that while WordPress offers more customization, Shopify is simpler and more suitable for clients looking to launch stores quickly.

💡Recurring income

Recurring income refers to the ongoing revenue a website builder can generate by charging clients monthly fees for services such as hosting and site maintenance. The speaker encourages website builders to charge clients a monthly fee for services like WordPress hosting, citing it as a way to build long-term financial stability. This concept is connected to the business model the speaker advocates.

Highlights

Switching between website builders can be difficult and can lead to being stuck with one platform for a long time.

Once comfortable with a platform, building websites becomes faster and easier, allowing more time to focus on client acquisition.

Outsourcing website-building tasks to virtual assistants can free up time to focus on business growth.

Some website builders offer additional features, such as email marketing and sales funnels, which can increase recurring revenue.

Go High Level offers unlimited websites within one account, making it a cost-effective option for agencies.

The $97 per month plan on Go High Level is more affordable compared to other platforms, and it also includes advanced features like SMS reminders and appointment bookings.

WordPress remains one of the best platforms for SEO and is highly customizable.

Webflow offers sleek, highly customizable designs but requires more expertise to use effectively.

Charging clients $4,000 to $6,000 for custom websites is standard practice, especially for platforms like WordPress or Webflow.

Platforms like GoDaddy are limited in features, and the user experience is not as smooth, making it a less preferred option.

Squarespace and Wix are good for beginners or simple website builds, but they tend to be overpriced for their functionality.

Shopify is recommended for e-commerce websites, providing a user-friendly experience for both developers and clients.

Charging clients for hosting and additional services can lead to consistent recurring revenue, sometimes as much as $100 to $150 per month.

Choosing the right platform depends on the level of customization required, speed, and SEO capabilities.

Webflow or WordPress should be used for custom websites with animations and high performance, while Go High Level is more suitable for agencies needing faster builds.

Transcripts

there are so many different website

building platforms all different prices

and features and customizations and the

truth is if you get started building on

one of them it's nearly impossible to

switch or to move websites you really

can't backtrack and you're going to be

stuck with that platform forever for as

long as you want to use that website but

once you actually look into the

different website Builders and you pick

your favorites you'll be able to build

beautiful websites

with ease and with speed your clients

will love the design cuz you're going to

get more comfortable with building

things you're going to know where all

the features are and you'll know exactly

where to go to find different elements

and how exactly to change each website

plus once you get really comfortable

with one you can actually take that work

and Outsource it to different virtual

assistant so they can help you and

you're not stuck all day working inside

your business and you can work on the

business and actually get more clients

instead of moving dragging and dropping

different website elements and setting

up hosting platforms and this and that

you can focus on the fun stuff you want

to travel you can travel you want to

make more money and buy a house or get

into real estate or whatever it is that

you want to do you can focus on that now

I know what you're already thinking

you're thinking well I don't want to go

through and learn each and every single

one and test them all out I don't want

to try all of them and test the

different features and see which one I

like best cuz that's going to take you a

ton of time or you might be wondering

don't a lot of these website Builders

have garbage rankings on Google what

about the page speed how does that look

like for these website Builders that's

exactly what I want to share with you

here today look I've used a lot of these

different platforms throughout my years

and years of freelancing I first started

building websites around 2016 and then I

officially started my company in

2017 and I've been charging a lot of

money for websites and I've been able to

make a really really really good income

because of the skills that I've learned

we also offer SEO services so I'll share

with you my thoughts on the ranking all

right so first website builder this is a

sample website that we have inside of

this website builder as you can see it

looks very nice and the cool thing about

this website builder is that it allows

you to pull in something that's called

custom values so you're able to build

websites with ease if you want to scale

this up or maybe you want to offer like

copy pasted website templates we have

two packages by the way for websites one

our lower ticket package is $150 per

month and it's literally a copypaste

website like this where we just put the

client's logo on top this is just a

baseline package that we have if

somebody has no website they don't have

any budget I know you've spoken to those

people we just give them this it's very

very simple takes 10 minutes to do and

then we have a more expensive package

that's between $4 to $6,000 for a custom

site and then of course if you're doing

e-commerce or you're doing shopping or

anything else like that you could charge

$10 $15,000 and plus but this is how it

roughly looks looks on the back end and

also they do have SEO settings and they

have a bunch of stuff this platform is

called go high level and they're not

although they're not the cheapest

platform if you're just building one

website this is the only one that I have

seen that you can have

unlimited websites in your account like

literally if you on the Baseline plan

you get one what's called a sub account

which is right here as you can see and

then in here you can have unlimited

websites so if you don't have a

portfolio you could just import a bunch

of website templates and that could be

your portfolio until you actually start

getting clients and you can have all of

them hosted inside of here now with

highle they do offer a bunch of

different stuff here like sales funnels

and service forms email marketing like

text message marketing so for example

something we do for clients is after

they request a free quote we do like

appointment uh bookings and then we do

SMS reminders and emails so we do way

more than just websites so that we can

charge more per month but if you don't

want to do that you'll be good with a

$97 per month plan and you can have

unlimited websites all the other website

Builders which by the way don't have all

these features are actually going to be

more expensive so and we've also ranked

go high level websites on Google as well

so this one definitely works and then

also we do have a free 30-day trial

right here instead of 14 days in the

description uh I think it automatically

enrolls you into one of the higher level

plans but you can just uh downgrade into

the $97 per month plan if that's

something that you wish next website

template is going to be WordPress so I

really love WordPress this is how I got

started and this is how I built a bunch

of websites now with WordPress obviously

it's not necessarily expensive but

you're going to need a hosting platform

you're going to need someplace where you

can actually have the website and

install WordPress on also there's

probably premium plugins that you're

going to want to buy and so forth this

is really good for custom websites it's

good for SEO I've ranked a lot a lot a

lot of websites I've even ranked

International websites on Google using

Wordpress so I absolutely love it the

cool thing too actually with high LEL is

you can have uh WordPress hosting inside

of here so you can actually have your

WordPress site all inside one platform

if you need anything custom like maybe

you want to build like a forum or you

want to pull in like Instagram feeds

from your clients and just anything

custom at all we have done this in

WordPress and it's worked very very well

next one is webflow this one is very

very nice and it allows you to really

customize your website any way that you

want I really like web flow I think it

looks super clean I think it looks super

slick but it does require expertise

that's the downside of something like

WordPress here or web flow these

websites you should for sure be charging

minimum I mean minimum

$3,000 upfront 3K we charge 4 to 6,000

but if you can't charge that yet you

know build your portfolio but definitely

get up there because this takes a lot of

time but once you figure it out it does

look very very good next we have the

GoDaddy website builder again so this

would be an example of like a Load

Ticket website if you want to offer copy

paste websites for a couple hundred

bucks I guess you can do it with a

platform like this it's going to end up

being more expensive after you get a

couple clients but even so I'm not a

huge fan of GoDaddy as a whole I don't

buy domains from them I don't have

hosting within GoDaddy I think it's just

a bit slow I've used the website

templates they really limit you on what

you can do the website Builder is not

very friendly uh overall I would say

this is on the bottom of my list when it

comes to website Builders Squarespace

this one is interesting this is the

pricing for it so $25 per month per

website that's again if you pay per

month so it makes way more sense to use

a platform that gives you unlimited

websites like goad level and then if you

want you can also have you know more uh

tools and you're able to White Label it

so your clients can actually log in and

see your logo at the top and and all

that stuff uh if that's something you

choose to do but with Squarespace it's

cool because it's very simple to use

it's very easy I've actually seen

business owners log in and literally

edit their own websites with this uh my

first couple websites I actually built

on I think Weebly was the one because

the client didn't have a big budget and

I didn't want to build them a whole

custom like WordPress site so it was a

flotation spa and I just handed them

over the weebly website and they were

able to go in it was a onetime fee and

if they ever wanted to change anything

some content some images I just showed

them exactly how to do it in person one

time and that was part of my package so

I think Squarespace is cool I think it's

good I think it's a little bit

overpriced for what it is because of how

basic it is but it definitely can work

and if you do want to hand it off to

clients I think it works very very well

Wix is nice as well I probably prefer

Wix a little bit more than Squarespace

I'm not really sure why it just seems to

be a little bit cleaner when you use it

a little bit quicker when you use it and

I just kind of like the themes that that

come with it if you ever want to build

anything that's like e-commerce though I

would actually prefer to use Shopify

which is the next site template that we

have Shopify is great pretty much every

store that you see online was most

likely built in Shopify I've built

e-commerce websites on WordPress before

and that absolutely is possible but is

it is a hassle way more customizable but

it's just difficult if you're launching

some kind of store for your client and

you want to hand it off to the client

definitely use Shopify but if you're not

doing anything e-commerce um using one

of these website templates should be

just fine within Wix or any of the other

ones that we mentioned the next one here

that we have is going to be Weebly so

with Weebly I think they're also great I

think they have really good templates I

think that the the shopping section

doesn't work that well I've used it and

it's just very basic it's very very

minimalistic let's take a look at the

pricing here so I can show you what this

looks like so as you can see it is

cheaper than some of the other ones but

it does add up especially if you are

covering this for the client meaning

they're paying you for hosting could it

be profitable the answer is yes but

chances are you're going to build this

for your client and then if you hand it

off to them and they're paying that $10

a month I think you are leaving money on

the table instead of giving this to your

clients and making them pay $10

per month what I like to do and this is

what we do with all of our um WordPress

websites is they pay us $100 or

sometimes even $150 per month just to

host their WordPress website and the

reason they do that is because we offer

security if anything ever happens to

their website form submissions and

they're getting spam anything else that

they might need or maybe they have to

update a photo or just in general they

like having a website guy or website

girl that's in their Corner rooting for

them and making sure that everything is

working so I wouldn't do it this way you

might as well just charge a 100 they

already trusted you to pay you thousands

of dollars they're happy to keep paying

you $100 a month and it also builds your

monthly recurring income so with a lot

of these tools it really depends on what

exactly it is that you need if you're

doing custom websites if you need

different animations and how custom you

need it overall anything custom if you

need it to move if you need good sight

speed I would use webflow or WordPress

but again that's going to require more

skill if you're just building websites I

still like to do high level I think they

have absolutely amazing websites you can

build them with speed and to top it all

off you can still rank them on Google

I've done it myself