Summary of "I Tried Every Website Builder — These are the BEST"
Overview
The creator tested eight popular website builders (plus WordPress as a bonus) and summarizes each tool’s editor type, typical use cases, strengths, limits, and when not to use it.
Key points:
- Practical testing approach: try a tool for ~15 minutes to see if it fits your project.
- The video description contains affiliate links (not a sponsorship); the presenter discloses affiliate commissions but says reviews aren’t driven by payouts.
Per-tool highlights
Squarespace
- Editor: grid-based drag-and-drop blocks and pre‑built sections.
- Strengths: polished templates, good visual editing, easy resizing and layout control.
- Best for: personal sites, portfolios, musicians, blogs, small business sites.
- Tradeoff: easier to use but offers less low-level customization than developer-oriented tools.
Wix
- Editor: free-canvas drag-anywhere editor (Wix Classic); also offers Wix Studio (more advanced).
- Strengths: very flexible visually.
- Weaknesses: responsive design can be clunky — blank-canvas placement can break across screen sizes; responsive tools like “strips” are awkward and can fail to preserve positioning.
- Best for: general-purpose sites when you prioritize visual freedom, but be mindful of responsiveness.
Shopify
- Purpose: ecommerce-focused platform.
- Strengths: deep ecommerce features (products, tax, currencies, inventory, shipping, returns, fulfillment) and a large app marketplace for extensions (reviews, AI product indexing, delivery routing, etc.).
- Editor: not a simple WYSIWYG drag-and-drop — there is a learning curve.
- Best for: any ecommerce business from small shops to large brands, especially where backend commerce workflows matter.
- Example: the creator migrated their store (Happy Burlap) from Squarespace to Shopify for better carrier label printing (Canada Post) and faster fulfillment.
Square (Square Online)
- Editor: “sections” editor — assemble pages by adding prebuilt sections with limited ability to change internal elements.
- Strengths: excellent integration with Square POS hardware and in‑store workflows.
- Best for: hybrid online+offline businesses (retail, cafes, salons) that want tight POS/online order integration.
- Tradeoff: simple and easy but limited customization.
Webflow and Framer (design tools)
- Positioning: developer/design-first tools that expose CSS/layout controls.
- Webflow:
- Very granular controls (typography, flexbox, margins, etc.), powerful CMS and animation capabilities.
- Steep learning curve but high freedom; good for highly custom marketing sites (creator used Webflow for Atlas).
- Framer:
- More Figma-like in approach — easier to learn for designers familiar with Figma.
- Still a design-first tool with high customization.
- Best for: designers/developers who need pixel control, custom animations, complex interactions, and bespoke CMS behavior.
- Tradeoff: significant learning time (weeks to months).
Carrd (listed as “Card” in subtitles)
- Niche: ultra-cheap, one‑page sites only.
- Strengths: extremely low cost (creator cites $19/year to host up to 10 sites on Carrd Pro).
- Best for: simple landing pages and single-page personal sites.
- Tradeoff: limited to one-page layouts; editor isn’t the most intuitive.
Hostinger
- Position: budget-friendly hosted builder / host.
- Strengths: very low introductory pricing (example: ~$2.99/month if you pay long-term upfront).
- Weaknesses: simple/no-frills builder — limited elements and fine-grained styling control; not ideal for full stores or advanced blogs.
- Note: introductory pricing renews at higher standard rates — check Hostinger’s current renewal terms.
WordPress (bonus)
- Nature: open-source platform, not a single hosted builder — requires separate hosting and maintenance.
- Strengths: extreme flexibility via themes and plugins (WooCommerce for ecommerce, Elementor for drag-and-drop editing, many plugins for galleries, SEO, etc.).
- Tradeoffs: more setup and ongoing maintenance (hosting, updates, plugin conflicts, security); can require debugging or developer work. Powerful but can be time-consuming to manage.
AI-assisted website builders/tools
- Many AI tools can generate initial sites from prompts and some can perform prompt-driven edits (e.g., upload/crop photo).
- Limitations: prompt-based editing is often slower and more tedious than direct visual editing; generated sites are good starting points but usually need manual refinement.
- Recommendation: use AI features inside established builders where they add value (for example, Shopify for product-description generation or Squarespace for background image/video generation).
Recommendations / Matches
- General-purpose, visual ease: Squarespace, Wix (Squarespace tends to be more consistent for responsive behavior).
- Ecommerce: Shopify (best for full ecommerce), Square (best for integrated POS/hybrid businesses).
- Design-first, highly custom: Webflow, Framer (expect a learning curve).
- Budget/simple: Carrd (one-page), Hostinger (very low cost but limited features).
- Maximum flexibility/customization: WordPress (self-hosted) — powerful but requires upkeep.
Other practical notes from the video
- The creator used these platforms in real projects: Squarespace (band site, therapy practice, YouTube channel), Shopify (Happy Burlap store), Webflow (Atlas marketing site), and recommended Squarespace to family for real estate sites.
- The presenter is transparent about affiliate links and notes some builders offered higher commissions (Wix offered the most), but claims reviews are not driven by payouts.
- Final advice from the creator:
Test builders yourself — 15 minutes is enough to get a feel for fit.
Main speaker / sources
- The video creator (unnamed in subtitles) — first‑hand tester who built sites on all platforms.
- Projects referenced: Happy Burlap (creator’s store), Atlas (creator’s software company marketing site), creator’s band site, creator’s mom’s therapy practice, and family real estate sites.
Category
Technology
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