As a small business owner, having an exceptional online presence is more critical than ever before. But with so many website building tools and Content Management System (CMS) platforms vying for your attention, how can you possibly choose the best solution to fit your business’s unique needs?
Worry not, in this article I’m going to guide you all about this. Drawing upon years of experience helping small businesses establish powerful, high-converting online presences, I’ve identified the top website builders and CMS platforms worth prioritizing.
I will explain the main strengths and considerations for each so you can cut through the clutter and make a confident selection. Right platform build the foundation for transforming your small business’s online presence into a lead generating, sales driving agency.
User-Friendly and All-In-One Website Builders
For small businesses wanting a straightforward, visually-appealing website up and running quickly without coding headaches, these user-friendly all-in-one builders could be your perfect match:
Wix: Of all the website builders, Wix probably takes the cake for overall ease of use thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop editor and extensive library of gorgeous templates spanning every industry. Its scalable premium plans support e-commerce, online booking capabilities, SEO tools, and third-party app integrations galore.
Squarespace: Creative entrepreneurs and artists tend to gravitate toward Squarespace’s sleek templates and quality image/video editing tools that lend increased visual polish. While slightly more expensive, they offer impressive e-commerce features for optimizing online store operations at scale.
Weebly: As another user-friendly, cost-effective option for small businesses and online stores, Weebly makes it simple to get a modern, mobile-responsive site off the ground quickly using their intuitive drag-and-drop editor and respectable feature set.
Power Players in CMS Platforms
For ambitious small businesses requiring a more robust platform designed to scale, fuel growth marketing initiatives, and integrate advanced e-commerce operations, these industry-leading CMS solutions pack formidable capabilities:
WordPress (With WooCommerce): Powering over 35% of all websites, WordPress reigns as the undisputed champion of CMS platforms. Its core software is free and open-source, allowing endless customizations thanks to thousands of free/premium themes and plugins tackling any functionality imaginable.
Pair WordPress’ strength with the WooCommerce plugin, and boom – you’ve got an incredibly flexible, cost-effective e-commerce platform with built-in payment processing, product catalogs, inventory management, and other must-have store operations tools.
Shopify: As a comprehensive hosted e-commerce solution, Shopify caters specifically to small and mid-sized online retailers looking for a powerful-yet-user-friendly platform to seamlessly manage and market their product catalogs, shopping carts, sales channels, customer databases, and more. While premium plans can get pricey, their intuitive admin interface and comprehensive e-commerce features often justify the investment.
Joomla: As another free, open-source CMS platform, Joomla packs a serious punch under the hood with its robust menu/content management tools, impressive security features, and developer-friendly framework for building highly customized web applications. However, for the non-tech-savvy, their expert support and web design partners could prove invaluable.
HubSpot CMS: Can’t discuss CMS solutions without highlighting HubSpot, which has transitioned from marketing automation trailblazer to an all-in-one powerhouse platform purpose-built for growth-driven businesses. In addition to robust web design tools and SEO/marketing features, their CMS integrates natively with HubSpot’s CRM, sales funnels, reporting dashboards, and vast library of customer education materials suitable for companies more advanced in their flywheel strategies.
The Versatile Swiss Army Knife Solutions
Then you have several highly versatile, flexible website and e-commerce solutions that defy categorization, offering outstanding value and utility for small businesses across a variety of use cases:
Webflow: Once pigeonholed as simply a no-code web design tool, Webflow has emerged as a remarkably robust option for building sleek, immersive websites, e-commerce stores, and portfolio pieces without writing a single line of code. Its easy drag-and-drop visual canvas, powerful CMS capabilities, and HTML/CSS code exporting make it a favorite of designers and creative agencies.
Squarespace: Yes, them again! While I highlighted Squarespace’s visual polish and ease-of-use initially, their platform brings substantially more to the table around scalable e-commerce operations, strong SEO/marketing tools, analytics capabilities, and developer-friendly features for buildouts requiring more customizations. Granted, their premium plans get pricier than some competitors, but bang-for-buck is evident.
Constant Contact Website Builder: Best known as an email marketing titan, Constant Contact actually offers an impressively equipped, affordable all-in-one website builder for small businesses and online stores. It simplifies website creation with mobile-responsive templates, e-commerce/donation tools, SEO optimization, lead capture forms, mailing list management, and click-tracking analytics all conveniently housed under one roof.
Important Factors to Consider When Choosing a Platform
So those are some of the top platforms worth evaluating based on your small business’s scope and needs, but how should you ultimately make your final selection? These are the main points/factor to consider:
Usability and Learning Curve: How user-friendly and intuitive is the platform’s admin interface, builder tools, and general workflow? Do you/your team require huge training or developer resources to adapt?
Design Flexibility and Mobile-Responsiveness: Can you produce a visually modern, on-brand, and pixel-perfect experience easily aligning with your company’s style guide? Is mobile optimization and responsive design baked in?
E-Commerce and Marketing Integration: If selling online or generating leads is paramount, does the platform cater to seamless integration of shopping carts, inventory management, email marketing, lead funnels, SEO optimization, and all the tools you’ll need to convert visitors into customers?
Scalability and Upgrade Paths: Are you boxed into their platform’s limitations as you grow, adding products/services, staff, and customer databases down the line? What upgrade paths exist to scale resources as needed?
Security, Compliance and Reliability: Does the platform prioritize security with frequent updates, SSL protocols, PCI compliance, and other safeguards to build customer trust and data protection?
Cost and Overall Value: Can you afford the platform’s recurring costs relative to your budget while achieving ROI across all its features useful for your operations? Analysis cost-benefit aligned with concrete business goals.
Migration Capabilities: If or when you need to switch platforms eventually, how straightforward are data migration procedures and tools to minimize disruptions?
While certainly not an exhaustive checklist, taking a magnifying glass to factors like these substantially improves your likelihood of selecting the right website/CMS solution built to propel your small business’s success.
Conclusion
There you have it a comprehensive overview of the top website builders and CMS platforms deserving every small business owner’s close consideration. Define your mission-critical needs and long-term goals upfront as specifically as possible. Then carefully evaluate your options through that discerning lens, peeling back the layers on each platform’s pricing, ease-of-use, scalability, integrations, and aligning with what matters most to your bottom line.
With so many powerful platforms and highly capable tools now democratizing website and digital experience creation, there’s really no excuse for small businesses to not have a captivating, sales-driving online presence these days. You’ve simply got to put in the due diligence upfront to set yourself up with the right solution for flourishing in our advancing world.