XYZ Product Series: Free No-Code Platform to Start Your Own Business Website & Apps
We know that a website is one of the essential platforms for ecopreneurs to connect with the market. Since building a website from scratch requires code-skill, some people decided to not put the website on their priority list and use other platforms to promote their business instead, such as social media. However, an official website could help build the credibility of your company or organization. The good news is: Now there are lots of website and apps builder platforms that can be used for free and it’s beginner-friendly!
After looking for recommendations from several websites, we decided to take a deeper look into these four popular platforms:
Through this article, we will share some reviews about the experience when getting started to design a simple landing page with those platforms and then compare them so it will ease you to decide which platform meets your needs. but before choosing the best one, we emphasize you should know how these website builders work:
- First, you need to choose your desired business website builder and the best one should offer you ease of use, mobile compatibility, customer support, and affordability.
- Then, you need to choose your template. The template should suit you in terms of its easy customization according to your business needs.
- After that, choose what pages you want to add and then start uploading images with texts into the pages. Here, you need to prioritize your target audience.
- Finally, add other features such as social links, buttons, header, footer, and contact forms on the website.
We hope that through this simple research, we can help ecopreneur friends to determine what platform suits your business and current preferences.
WIX
- Getting started with Wix
The steps in creating a website on Wix are very easy. We can either choose to start with a blank template or use their template recommendation. If we want to use their recommended template, we just have to answer a few questions and choose some design preferences for our website.
- Business Service
In Wix, we’re not only provided with templates. Each website category also has its unique form template and service system attached with the template to support your business activity and how you want to interact with the market.
- Editing Page
Editing the UI in Wix is very easy. There’s an ‘Edit’ button on each section to edit the appearance. We can also customize how the button works.
- Unique Form Template
Wix UI elements are very well-designed, including the form template. We can choose how our form looks and we still can edit each part of the form. There are also upload options available in the form input.
- Plugins
Wix also provides ready-to-use plugins that we can add to our page. We can find them in the Apps tab in the layout editor
- Guide & Tutorial
Wix provides step by step guide and checklist in the dashboard to make sure we didn’t skip any step when building the website
Zyro
- Getting Started with Zyro
Similar to Wix, Zyro also provides AI tools to ease the website building process for beginners. Their interface might be simple, but it still has a fresh look and up-to-date design elements.
- Editing Page in Zyro
Layout Editor in Zyro is very intuitive — we can easily recognize how we can edit the elements. Adding elements is also as easy as drag and drop.
- Form Options in Zyro
Compare to Wix, the Form editor in Zyro is more simple. However, Zyro has limited form options available and doesn’t provide an attached service system.
- Plugins
Zyro didn’t have integrated plugins, but it allows us to input code to our webpage.
- Guidelines and Tutorials in Zyro
Zyro tutorial can be accessed on the support page. It is supported by the community of Zyro users who answered the frequently asked question.
Bubble
Once we log in to Bubble, we won’t be welcomed by AI tools that will help us to create an instant web page. We have to build the web from scratch or choose the available templates provided by the community.
For a beginner, the editor page in Bubble is very complex because all the settings are one on one page, this includes editing the appearance and interaction on the website.
Meanwhile, it is quite hard to find where we can find the ready-to-use template in Bubble. Bubble doesn’t have AI tools that can give us template recommendations in an instant like Wix and Zyro. But they still provide several editable templates that we can choose to work on.
Bubble doesn’t provide any form template. We need to create the form element one by one from the design toolbox. But Bubble has the most varied form options among other platforms, including file uploader and schedule options.
Bubble provides integrated plugins that we can install. The options are varied, most of them are paid.
Although Bubble has a very complicated experience compared to the other three platforms, it provides guidance and tutorial in the beginning process when we’re entering the layout editor. We can follow the instructions to make us more familiar with the tools provided.
AppyPie
It’s quite easy to create a very simple website in AppyPie. However, since this platform has very limited features for the website builder, it will be very challenging if you want to build a website with up-to-date design elements.
AppyPie template option is very limited. It only provides the basic interface. Personally, I found this editing process is very challenging since the live preview is not available. (note: once we clicked preview in AppyPie, we won’t be able to edit the site again unless we upgrade our account)
However, Appypie has the simplest experience among all the platforms that we’ve tried. Specifically, if you want to create mobile apps.
Summary
Based on the reviews that have been carried out on the four platforms, we have summarized them into several variable options that you can consider which is the most appropriate option for you.
