Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Online Or Offline Web Builders - Which Is The Best For You?

Going offline or online, which is better for building your website? Both have unique advantages and disadvantages. Here's a list of them to help you better decide which the better option for you.

Online website builders

There are a number of different providers to choose from such as Yola, Webs, Webnode, and Circlepad to name a few examples. Online site builders offer different levels from free websites with limited options and sub domain to packages that allow you to have your own custom domain and tonnes of storage space.

The advantages

- Simplicity, you have everything located in one location and easy to find

- You can access and modify your website from any location with an internet connection

- Almost all of them are use some type of drag and drop technology making website building easy and fast.

The disadvantages

- If their servers go down your site can do down with it. Moving to another host provider can also be difficult if not impossible if you built your website with their online web builder.

- Limited in what you can do. All these sites have pre designed templates and the ability to create a blank page. Their editing tools however can be limited, leaving your site looking like a "cookie cutter" website that doesn't stand out from the rest.



Offline website builders

An offline site builder is just that offline. Instead of having to rely on a website to build your site you download and build your website on your computer. Then when it's ready to be seen online you upload the files to your hosting provider.

The advantages

- Unlimited control. Unlike online site builders that limit what you can build with their editor tools, you have free reign to design website any way you want.

- You launch when you're ready. Some online site builders publish your content as soon as it's saved; this leaves your visitors looking at pages you might not want them to see because there not finished.

- Flexibility, if a host provider crashes you can easily transfer to another hosting provider. You also never have to worry about them accidentally erasing your content since all the files are saved on your hard drive

The disadvantages

- There's a learning curve. Unlike online web builders, offline site builders are a little more complicated and require more time to get used to. Many have drag and drop features like most online site builders. But the extra options can take a bit of getting used to, especially if you're brand new to building websites. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it does mean it could take longer for your site to go online.

- The cost. Instead of paying one fee for a domain name, hosting, and web builder you have to pay for all this separately. Offline web builders can range from 50 to several hundred dollars; you have to pay between 5 and 12 dollars (depending on hosting provider) per year. On top of that you have to pay for hosting separately which can range from 7 to 19 dollars a month. Sites like Go Daddy do allow you to host an unlimited number of websites or blogs, but you still have to buy each domain name separately.

- You can only build your site from one location. Again your limited to your computer, need to go somewhere you can't take your website with you unless it's a laptop

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