What are the Best Solutions to Create Your Website?

If you need a website but have no technical knowledge and little budget, there are several options for you. Let’s see which tools exist and which are the most suitable for your project.

• Here’s the program:
• What Are the Main Types of Websites?
• The Tools to Create Your Website
  • Wix
  • Weebly
  • Tumblr
  • WordPress.com
  • Blogger
  • SimpleSite
  • Shopify
  • PrestaShop
  • Forumotion
  • Ning
  • WordPress.org
• Conclusion

Creating a website is a key element in the development of a project. It is the visage of your brand, the one you present to the connected world. It can have many uses, but above all, it brings various non-negligible benefits, such as increasing your visibility, creating an identity, strengthening your credibility, and giving you total freedom of expression.

The first question you need to ask yourself is exactly what type of website you need as there are several types of sites: static sites, blogs, e-commerce, social networks, forums, etc. This is important since the choice of tool(s) you will use depends on the answer to this question.

In order to help you to see more clearly, let’s start with a list of the main types of websites that exist, and later, I will discuss each of these platforms in the second part of this article.

What Are the Main Types of Websites?

Static Site

It is generally used to showcase a project, a company, a product, an artist, portfolio, etc. Its content is static, meaning it is never (or rarely) modified.

The site may consist of one or more pages containing the essentials: an image illustrating the project, an explanatory text, and a contact form. The rest depends mainly on your project and what you want to propose.

Blog

A blog is a personal space for expression, which looks a bit like a logbook or a diary where we usually publish moods or articles on a specific subject. These can be reviews of movies, Photoshop or gardening tutorials, cooking recipes, fashion, sports, the wierd life of sea cucumbers—in short, any topic which you want to discuss (and preferably have a minimum knowledge of) that may be interesting to your readers.

Blogs are the easiest to set up because there are numerous free blogging platforms, and their dashboards (the administration interface of the blog) are quite intuitive and therefore relatively easy to use.

Online Stores

If you want to sell any product, such as body creams, clothes, underwear, your art, your music, a book, etc., you will choose to start an e-commerce site.

Each product is listed on a page through which the user can order it, pay for it (by card, transfer, etc.) and have it delivered.

You can also use this type of site to sell real estate (houses, apartments, villas…) or various vehicles (cars, boats, airplanes…). The difference here is that there are no payment or delivery options on the product page.

Putting a store online usually requires more work, especially if you offer a lot of items in different categories, but it is quite accessible to determined neophytes.

Social Network

Do I really need to explain what social networks are? Because yes, you, too, can create a website offering the possibility for users to share content (messages, images, videos, sounds) on a virtual ‘wall’ (Timeline), to personalize their personal space, to correspond with other members via a private messaging system, etc.

Creating your own Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat requires a bit of work, but it’s quite feasible and even free if you use Buddypress with WordPress.

Forum

The forum is mainly focused on the exchange of messages, sometimes accompanied by images, videos, or sounds, between different members of a community gathered around a specific subject, often a passion that they have in common.

Imagine that you are passionate about hunting Pokémon and want to gather a community around this topic in order to discuss the different capture techniques, the best spots, or the necessary equipment. A discussion forum is quite suitable for that.

The golden age of the forums ended with the arrival of social networks, but that does not mean that they have become totally obsolete. Many sites continue to use forums for a variety of reasons, such as providing technical support for their services.

So, those are the main types of websites. There are still others, but here we have seen what constitutes 99% of the ‘mainstream’ web. It is quite possible, and even very common, to combine these different elements on the same website. On Sweekr for example, some pages are static (home, contact, legal information), but there is also a forum, a social network, and a blog.

The Tools to Create Your Website

Now let’s look at the tools that will allow you to create your website. There are dozens, so I will obviously not mention them all here, but I have prepared a selection of the most popular or those that seem to be the most interesting.

Almost all the solutions that I will be talking about here are available in several languages, allow you to create a site that fits all screens (mobile, tablet, and computer), and offer a free plan.

Wix

Wix is a very popular and easy-to-use website builder that allows you to create different types of websites. It works from any Internet browser, so there’s no need to install software and no Mac/Windows/Linux compatibility issues.

This is one of the simplest tools to use because no technical knowledge (HTML, CSS) is required. The site is built in a completely visual way: you register, you select a template from the hundreds available, and then you simply drag and drop the elements you need on your page, and add your own text and images.

Wix offers a free plan that may be suitable for small projects, but an ad bar will be displayed at the bottom of your site. Another restriction, some templates are only available if you subscribe to a paid plan. This is the case for ‘e-commerce’ or ‘travel & tourism’ templates.

The hosting and the domain name (the web address of your site) are also included, so there’s no need to bother finding a web host to understand how to set everything up. The only small restriction, however, if you opt for the free version is, your URL (Internet address) will include the subdomain wix.com, e.g., http://yoursite.wix.com.

Via the Wix App Market, you also have access to a series of modules (some free, others paid) that will allow you to add some very useful features to your site. For example, you can easily integrate a forum, an image gallery, or a form to your site.

Wix is a great solution for anyone with no web experience who wants to be able to create their site easily and quickly. The only disadvantages I see here are the limitations of the free version and the lack of absolute control of your site, compared to other solutions such as WordPress.org.

Cost : from $0 to $39/month. Online stores from $23/month.

Website Types : Static site – Blog – Online store – Forum

• Wix : Themes
• Wix : The creation interface
• Wix : Apps

Weebly

Weebly works via an easy-to-use ‘drag and drop’ interface, proposes over a hundred templates, offers the ability to add features via their ‘App Center’, and the hosting and domain name is included, all from $0. But Weebly has the same restrictions as Wix for the free plan: your domain name will include the subdomain weebly.com, e.g., http://yoursite.weebly.com and advertising for Weebly will be posted on your site.

So, what’s the difference between Weebly and Wix? In fact, there are several. First, Weebly is a little cheaper if you opt for one of the paid plans. For example, if you want to get rid of the banner ads and use your own domain name (without the subdomain), it will cost you $8.25/month at Wix and $6/month at Weebly. On the other hand, the price of the apps sometimes differs greatly between the two platforms, and some apps, which are free on one, are paid on the other.

Another difference is the more restricted choice of templates. Where Wix offers more than 500, Weebly offers a good hundred. Weebly includes an HTML/CSS editor, allowing you to add or customize elements of the template (if you know the basics of HTML/CSS).

Finally, last but not least, you have the option to change templates in a few clicks, which is not possible at Wix.

Cost : 0 to $26 for a site, from $26 for an online store.

Website Types : Static site – Blog – Online store – Forum

• Weebly : Themes
• Weebly : The creation interface
• Weebly : Apps

The best option, if you’re not sure, is to create a free account on Wix and Weebly to do some tests, to compare the proposed applications and tariff plans, and then to choose the one that suits you.

And if you are not convinced by either, know that there are other similar site builders such as Webnode, Jimdo or SquareSpace (this one doesn’t offer a free plan). These are good alternatives that operate on the same ‘drag and drop’ principle and are available in several languages.

Tumblr

Tumblr is an American microblogging and social networking website. If you are looking to create a blog (or maybe even a fairly basic static website), and you do not want to spend hours creating it, Tumblr can be a very good solution. Simply create an account, choose from hundreds of free or paid templates (or use the default one), then add your content: text, images, videos, audio, all this adds up very easily via the dedicated buttons for this purpose.

Most templates offer a wide range of options that will allow you to customize it quite simply. Change the size, type, and color of different texts, change the background color, add a logo, links to your social networks, and much more.

Another strong point, you also have the possibility to modify the source of the template via the HTML editor. This requires a minimum knowledge of HTML/CSS or at least the desire to learn the basics (it’s not that complicated), but it will allow you to modify or add any element on your site.

Tumblr is free, and that’s cool. Hosting your site is included, but your domain name will be, as with Wix, composed of their subdomain (yoursite.tumblr.com). If you want to have your own domain name, you will have to buy it from a domain registrar for about $10 to $20/year.

Another possible cost, you can opt for one of the many premium templates, which generally offer more options and features, and whose price ranges between $9 and $49. The template choice is important because unfortunately, Tumblr does not offer the ability to add an app (as in Wix) or an extension (as in WordPress). We must, therefore, opt for a template that already integrates what we want or manually add them into the source code.

The other slight con—in my opinion—is the requirement to create a Disqus account if you want to add a comment form at the bottom of each of your blog posts. It’s nothing very complicated since, once registered, it will be enough for you to enter your Disqus username (Short name) in the options of the template, but I am just surprised that it is not integrated natively in Tumblr.

Cost : free – Premium template from 9 to 49€

Website Types : Blog – Static site

• Tumblr : The user interface
• Tumblr : The user interface
• Tumblr : Themes

wordpress.com

Before all, it is important to mention that there are two different versions of WordPress: the ‘.com’ version, which works a bit like Tumblr, while the other one (. org) requires a little more technical intervention before you can start using it. I’m not going to detail the differences here since I wrote a fairly complete article on the subject, but if you are looking for a quick and easy solution, wordpress.com will do the trick.

A bit like Tumblr, WordPress.com requires you to start by creating an account and answering a few questions (What is your site called? What is it about?) and choose the plan that suits you ($0, $4, $8 or $25/month). Once completed, you will have access to the dashboard where you can administer your site, customize it, and create your articles or pages.

WordPress.com is a very good tool—simple and intuitive—which offers a large variety of themes but especially plugins. The plugins are a bit like Wix Apps and allow you to add extra features to your site. That’s the strength of WordPress and what made it so popular today (over 40% of websites run on WordPress).

However, the free version limits the potential of this great tool, and the most absurd thing, in my opinion, is that you have to opt for the ‘Business’ plan at $300/year to use these plugins, especially when you know that this is completely free for the other version of WordPress (. org), which I’ll be talking about below.

If you have little or no budget, then you will have to settle for the minimum options that will allow you to create a blog or a static site of reasonable size. If, instead, you can spend $300 or more (some templates or extensions cost extra) for the creation of your site, then you will have almost no limit and can add or modify anything you want on your site.

Cost : $4, $8, or $25/month, $45/month for online stores

Website Types : Blog – Static site – Online store – Forum – Social network

• WordPress.com : The user interface
• WordPress.com : Themes
• WordPress.com : The creation interface

Blogger

Blogger is one of the oldest ‘blogging’ platforms that still exists today. Released in 1999 (yes, in the 20th century) and taken over by Google in 2003, it remains a very good solution for those who want to create a small blog easily and for free.

Blogger offers a fairly simple and relatively intuitive administration interface (a bit similar to that of WordPress), free hosting, free domain names under their subdomain (yoursite.blogspot.com), a very useful statistics page to monitor your audience, and it allows additional features via ‘gadgets’.

There are, however, few template choices, and some are a little outdated. But each one of them is highly customizable by changing the options of the layouts, using the HTML editor (Theme › modify the HTML code), or with the customization button of the template (Theme › Customise). You can even add third-party applications via the ‘HTML/JavaScript’ gadget, which can be very useful.

Another advantage is that Blogger is a Google service, so you can use your Gmail account to create your blog but also access other services such as Google Photos, Google Analytics, etc.

Cost : 100% free

Website Types : Blog – Small, two or three-page static site

• Blogger : The user interface
• Blogger : The user interface
• Blogger : The user interface

SimpleSite

This is probably the simplest website builder I had the opportunity to use, and for good reason, the number of options is rather limited. This is perfect if you need to create a static site of two or three pages very quickly and very easily, a basic portfolio, or even a small online store (5 products maximum in free version).

SimpleSite can be a temporary solution until you have finished creating a more elaborate site with one of the other solutions I mentioned in this article. Even if the customization options are limited, it remains the easiest and fastest I tested. I managed to create a small site containing a homepage, a portfolio, and a contact page in just 15 minutes.

Cost : Free – Pro: $15.49/month – E-commerce: $30.49/month

Website Types : Small static site – Small online store

• SimpleSite : The user interface
• SimpleSite : The user interface
• SimpleSite : The user interface

Shopify

Shopify is a platform specializing in the creation of e-commerce sites, which allows you to start, develop, and manage your own online store. It has a clear and intuitive interface through which you can easily manage products, inventory, payments, shipping, etc.

It is a very versatile tool that will even allow you to present your products, not only on the web, but also on mobile, on social networks, in online markets, pop-up stores, or physical stores.

Shopify does not offer a free plan, but does offers a 3 month trial period at $1/month. Paid plans start from $29/month to which you will have to add the possible purchase of a template (prices range from $0 to €180) and/or additional features via the App Store, most of which are free of charge. Other paid features (the prices generally oscillate between $5 and $10/month, but some (rare) can go up to $39/month). Other costs to consider are the fees charged by credit cards levied on each transaction and whose amount is 2% of the total selling price plus $0.25.

Of course, in exchange, you will be entitled to a premium service: Number of products, visitors, and bandwidth are unlimited, analysis system, fraud protection, 24/7 technical support, SSL security certificate (HTTPS), detailed statistics on sales, customers, or the abandoned carts, automatic mailing systems, management of card payment methods, promotional codes, etc.

Another important point, Shopify offers the possibility of creating a multilingual store. This is indispensable if you want to be able to sell your products in geographical areas other than those limited by your language.

On the other hand, if you want to hack into the source code of the template in order to modify it, you will have to know (or learn) the basics of the ‘liquid’ language, which is very different from HTML/CSS.

To summarize, if you are looking to create an online store quickly and fairly simply, with a few budgets to devote to it, Shopify is an ideal solution for you.

Cost : Starting at $29/month

Website Types : Online store

• Shopify : Free themes
• Shopify : Dashboard
• Shopify : The user interface

PrestaShop

A very good alternative to Shopify, Prestashop is a French open-source e-commerce platform. But be careful, this does not mean that it will not cost you anything, because, much like other platforms, some templates or applications are not free. It is, therefore, difficult to estimate the total cost, but you will have to at least buy hosting and a domain name ($6/month at SiteGround right now!) because they are not included here.

This version is a little more ‘technical’, but, rest assured, you still don’t need to be an engineer to use it. Like WordPress.org, you will have to install it on your host first and then set it up. Fortunately, there are excellent tutorials that detail this procedure, on the Prestashop website, or on YouTube, and that will help you to go through these different steps without much difficulty.

The other strong point of Prestashop is its growing community gathered on a forum through which you will always find precious help if you encounter any problem during the creation of your store.

By opting for Prestashop, you will gain flexibility since you will have control over all aspects of your site: domain name, design, product management, customers, delivery, etc. This is where the great strength of ‘Self-hosted CMS’ lies, that is to say the Content Manager System is hosted by you.

Cost : Varies significantly, but expect to pay a minimum of around €50 to €60/year for hosting + the cost of the add-on modules you will need.

Website Types : Online store

• PrestaShop : The user interface
• PrestaShop : Themes
• PrestaShop : Modules

Forumotion

As its name suggests, this is a platform dedicated to the creation of forums, is available in several languages, and is free. It includes all the necessary tools for creation, including a hosting service, SSL certificate for a secure Internet address (HTTPS), a domain name, the possibility of creating HTML pages, an email address, an automatic backup, unlimited chat, members, ads, etc. The list of features is long, and all this is completely free!

In addition, your forum will be integrated into their directory which is divided into different categories: Social, Internet, Culture, Sciences, Finance, Nature, Games, Sports, Cinema, Auto, etc. This is an effective way to be visible and quickly grow your community. You will not find a better way to create your forum.

However, be aware that there is a very popular alternative in the form of a plugin for wordpress.org called ‘bbpress’. You will learn more by reading my article dedicated to WordPress plugins..

Cost : 100% free

Website Types : Forum

• Forumotion : Forum
• Forumotion : Forum
• Forumotion : Themes

Ning

I searched for an hour on Google to find what the different options to create your own social network were, and, obviously, there are not many platforms dedicated to this type of website. Well, it is true that this is not a very busy sector. Few people get up in the morning shouting, ‘I want to create my own social network!’ as if it were the idea of the century. But hey, I could be wrong.

I finally found a few platforms that offer this kind of service. I chose to talk to you about Ning because it is available in several languages, and it is also the one that brings together the largest number of users (and when there are more users, there are more chances of finding help in the event of a problem).

As for other platforms, the principle is simple: you create an account, choose a template, personalize it, and then go. Ning does not offer a free plan, but the list of features offered with the basic subscription at $25/month is quite complete: visual construction of the site, multiple blogs and forums, creation of groups, addition of photos/videos, activity workflow, analysis tools, possibilities to display advertising, etc. All that is needed to create, customize, and develop your own social network.

The ‘Basic’ subscription is limited to 1,000 members and 10Gb of storage, which is enough to start, but if your community grows quickly enough, you will have to consider upgrading to the ‘Performance’ at $49/month (10,000 members and 50Gb of storage), or the ‘Ultimate’ at $99/month (100,000 members and 500Gb of storage).

Ning is, therefore, a perfect solution if you have the budget and want to create your site quickly and easily.

Another very interesting alternative, in my opinion, is Buddypress, which is a plugin for WordPress, which I will talk about below.

Cost : Starts from $25/month

Website Types : Social network

• Ning
• Ning
• Ning : Themes

WordPress.org

So far, I’ve mainly talked about online platforms, which are very simple and quick to use and support the hosting of your site and even the domain name. As I said before, these solutions are for those who have no technical knowledge of the web and do not have the time to devote hours to the creation of their site.

But if your site project is large, you intend to have very heavy traffic, need very specific features, or want to give your site a truly unique look, you could very quickly be faced with the limitations of these platforms. Of course, you could always take a higher subscription plan than the one to which you subscribed, but still, there will always come the moment where you could find yourself ‘stuck’.

Another solution would be to go directly to a website developer, and this is the most effective, of course, since you will be sure to have a site exactly as you imagined, coded safely by a professional who knows the best practices and can give you the best advice to achieve your goal. But this is only possible if you have a solid budget to devote to it, and I imagine that, if you read this article, that is probably not the case.

There is, however, an intermediate and even free solution: WordPress.org. It is a tool that I know well as it helped me create several projects already. It is a bit more technical to use since you will first have to find yourself web hosting and proceed to the installation of WordPress on this host before you can use it. But, through this process, which is not so difficult, you will open ‘Pandora’s Box’.

First, wordpress.org is open-source, which means it’s free, and you can change it without any restrictions. Then, on a design level, you will have a lot of choice since there is a plethoric number of free or premium themes (rarely expensive).

Same for plugins, these are modules that you can add to WordPress to bring new features. Whatever your needs, there is a good chance you will find an extension for you without much difficulty. It is also thanks to this that WordPress can adapt to any project: WooCommerce for an online store, BuddyPress for a social network, Bbpress for a forum, etc.—all these plugins are free and are installed in two mouse clicks.

So, obviously, WordPress requires a little more work and usually more time to create your website, but you will, in return, have total freedom and control over your site. The only limit will be that of your imagination.

WordPress can be a bit more technical sometimes, especially if you have very specific needs, but you can always find help from the huge community of users, either through their support forum or on specialized sites such as StackExchange, or with a simple Google search. In 9 out of 10 cases, I personally always ended up finding an answer to my questions. And if the problem seems really insoluble, you can always go on UpWork, Freelancer, or Fiverr, for the services of a specialist for a few dollars (depending on the work to be done obviously).

If you want to know more about WordPress, learn how to install or use it, I wrote an article about these topics that should be of great interest to you.

Cost : Gratuit, sauf le nom de domaine et l’hébergement (±50€/an)

Website Types : Blog – Static website – Online store – Forum – Social network

• WordPress.org :Create a post
• WordPress.org : Customization
• WordPress.org : Themes

Conclusion

The number of possibilities available to you for creating your own website is as vast as it is plethoric, and the choice you make will not be easy. Knowing that you are going to devote a large portion of your time to your site, it is only logical that you will try not to make mistakes.

I hope this article has helped you a little bit in this task, but if you are still hesitating (or jumped directly to the conclusion), here is my advice:

• If you have no time or budget, your project is just starting, and you are looking for a quick and easy solution to be present on the web, Tumblr seems to me to be a very good choice for a blog or even a small static site.

  If you want to start an online store, then you have a problem. I searched the web, searched Google, no 100% free solution exists (even PrestaShop requires some costs). In addition, if you want to have a chance to stand out in front of the competition, it is useless to start if you do not have a minimum amount of time to devote to it. Shopify seems to me to be the simplest and fastest site to start with (the basic plan is enough to begin).

• If you want to have a site with a minimal, professional look, the plan without ads and personalized domain names on Wix seems very viable. It’s a quick and easy tool to use and their $8,50 plan seems reasonable and complete. I had the opportunity to test the free version of Wix, and in a few minutes, I had created a small site of three pages (homepage, portfolio, and contact page) which already looked pretty good.

• If you have time, energy, and a small budget, WordPress.org will help you make any website. It is a tool that I’ve used for a long time now and I have not found any other as flexible, complete, and free (except for the static sites that I create entirely with Notepad++ in HTML/CSS/JS).

• If you have the time and a big budget, then do not hesitate and just call a professional who will do exactly what you need. You will find many who have proven themselves on platforms such as UpWork, Freelancer.

• And if you hesitate between several solutions, create an account on each platform, test, compare, and choose the one with which you feel most comfortable. Chip and quibble again and again. In the worst case scenario, you will have lost some time, but you will also have learned a little more about how each platform works.

Voilà! You have now reached the end of this article. I hope it has helped you see a little more clearly. And if you have any suggestions, want to share your experience, or react in any way to this article, feel free to leave a comment.