How to pick the best website builder for you
Consider your options carefully before you choose a website builder. If you rush into a decision only to find that your initial choice doesn’t have the functions you need, you could be forced to start over from scratch. Before you commit, consider the following questions.
Do you want the option of a custom domain?
If you’re just getting started, a free domain might be enough. Mailchimp’s free website builder includes a free Mailchimp-branded domain (like yoursitename.mailchimpsites.com), and that’s great for businesses that want to get up and running for as little cost as possible.
At some point, though, you might be ready to buy or connect a custom domain. These are domains like yourbusiness.com or yourcompany.net—addresses that don’t include builder brandings like yourbusiness.weebly.com, yourbusiness.wixsite.com, or yourbusiness.mailchimpsites.com. There’s nothing wrong with those branded domains, but custom domains can help you look more professional. Mailchimp offers custom domains starting at $12.99/year.
Keep in mind that some companies like Wix and Weebly don’t let you add a custom domain for free to a pre-built site. Mailchimp does.
How do you plan to drive traffic to your site?
Fewer than 6% of sites will rank in Google’s top 10 in their first year. You need a strong promotional strategy to get there, and if you don’t reach that point, you need marketing to close the gap.
If you have a robust marketing strategy already established, you might do fine with a site builder that doesn’t include promotional tools. But beware—it can be tough to track results when your marketing and website hosting aren’t connected. Mailchimp can solve that problem for you.
With Mailchimp, you get access to email and social media tools included with your free marketing plan. Your personalized dashboard makes it easy for you to see the results of each of your campaigns so you know instantly what’s working and what needs to change. While the free marketing plan is powerful, you might need more than 500 contacts and 2,500 monthly email sends. Mailchimp’s paid plans have higher contact and email send limits but the website builder and hosting are still free.
Do you need advanced analytics?
Mailchimp offers basic site view data with the Free marketing plan, but if you want to look at what specific parts of your site that people are interested in, then the Standard plan might be right for you.
With a Standard plan, you can unlock website engagement data like page views and link clicks, and advanced segmentation tools like:
The Standard plan also gives you more options for structuring customer journeys and retargeting people who have gone astray. It’s ideal for many users who outgrow the Free plan.