SITE123: Simplifying Web Design with Powerful Features
September 3, 2024
Having an online presence is essential, but designing, coding, and maintaining a website can be daunting. SITE123 simplifies this process, offering a user-friendly platform that enables you to create a fully functional, visually appealing website—no design or coding skills required. With features like multilingual support, eCommerce capabilities, and SEO tools, SITE123 provides a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to establish or enhance their online presence quickly and effectively.
Pros
Cons
Content
Quick Stats
Site123 at a Glance
Headquartered in Beersheba, Israel, SITE123 has been specializing in helping small to medium-sized businesses create their own websites since their establishment in 2015. The company aims to provide an intuitive and accessible solution for users to establish a robust online presence effortlessly. With ready-made layouts, SITE123 enables customers to create fully responsive, search-engine-optimized websites that adapt seamlessly to various devices and screen resolutions. Additionally, SITE123 offers a range of services, including multilingual websites, mobile websites, eCommerce, and web apps, allowing users to tailor their websites to meet diverse needs.
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SITE123 Features
24/7 live support: SITE123’s 24/7 live chat support ensures that help is always available, making it easier for users to tackle any website design challenges they might face. Whether you’re setting up a website, customizing it, or dealing with technical issues, the live chat support provides quick, reliable solutions. This is especially beneficial for those new to web design or businesses needing immediate assistance, enhancing the overall user experience and helping you get the most out of SITE123’s features.
Email accounts: Depending on the subscription plan, SITE123 allows you to set up professional email accounts associated with your domain. This is particularly useful for businesses looking to maintain a professional image.
Payment options: SITE123 offers robust support for multiple payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, and 2Checkout, enabling users to accept payments in over 80 currencies. The platform also accommodates offline payments, such as checks and cash on delivery.
Product management: Users can sell physical and digital products with comprehensive tools for inventory management, creating product variants, and setting up product attributes. Additionally, the platform supports the use of coupons, discounts, and customer reviews to enhance the shopping experience.
Order management: SITE123 includes order tracking and customer management features, allowing businesses to manage their sales efficiently. Tools like abandoned cart recovery and wishlists help boost conversion rates by reminding customers of their intended purchases.
Shipping and tax calculations: While SITE123 allows manual shipping rate settings and tax configurations, this service lacks advanced features like real-time shipping rates or integration with shipping carriers.
User-friendly interface: The eCommerce editor is designed with ease of use in mind. It allows users to add products and manage their store without requiring extensive technical knowledge. The straightforward setup process makes them accessible for beginners.
SEO tools: SITE123 offers essential AI-powered SEO tools to help optimize your website for better search engine rankings, including an SEO Adviser that analyzes your site and provides suggestions for improvement. However, full audits are reserved for the higher-tier Gold plan. Users can set SEO titles, meta descriptions, custom URLs, and more for each page and submit their sitemap to webmaster tools like Google Search Console. However, limitations include the inability to modify the robots.txt file and a lack of mobile-friendliness, which is crucial for SEO. While the tools are user-friendly, advanced users may find them lacking flexibility compared to dedicated SEO services.
Plans & Pricing
Free plan
The Free plan is SITE123's entry-level offering, available at no cost. It provides 250 MB of storage and 250 MB of bandwidth, making it suitable for basic websites or those looking to test the platform without any financial commitment. The plan includes a SITE123 subdomain, allowing users to create a simple online presence without needing a custom domain.
Premium plan
The Premium plan, priced at $5.80 per month, builds on the Free plan by offering more robust features. It includes 3 GB of storage and 3 GB of bandwidth, providing ample space for personal websites or small projects. This plan also includes a free domain name for one year, allowing users to establish a more professional online presence. Additionally, the Premium plan removes the SITE123 floating tag and allows users to connect their own domain, making it a popular choice for those seeking a more polished website.
Basic plan
The Basic plan is priced at $12.80 per month and is ideal for personal use. It includes 3 GB of storage and 3 GB of bandwidth, with a free domain for one year. Additionally, you can connect your domain and remove the SITE123 floating tag, providing a simple, no-frills setup for small websites.
Advanced plan
For $21.33 per month, the Advanced plan offers 10GB of storage and bandwidth, making it suitable for small businesses. It includes 1,000 mailing list messages, two mailboxes, a free domain for one year, and the removal of both the SITE123 floating and footer tags.
Professional plan
At $41.00 per month, the Professional plan is tailored for businesses and online stores. It includes 35GB of storage and bandwidth, 2,500 mailing list messages, five mailboxes, support for one additional language, and features like website statistics and popups alongside credit card gateways for up to 100 monthly orders.
Gold plan
The Gold plan, priced at $46.00 per month, adds advanced features for expanding businesses. It offers 50GB of storage and bandwidth, 10,000 mailing list messages, ten mailboxes, support for three additional languages, and advanced eCommerce tools like store wishlists, reviews, abandoned cart recovery, and 30,000 TextAI credits.
Platinum plan
The Platinum plan costs $80.00 per month and is designed for large-scale enterprises. It provides 100GB of storage and bandwidth, 50,000 mailing list messages, 25 mailboxes, unlimited language options, and comprehensive eCommerce features, including unlimited orders, back-in-stock notifications, automatic coupon discounts, and 100,000 TextAI credits.
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Pros & Perks
Free domain for a year
Site123 offers a free domain for the first year with all annual premium plans. This helps new users establish a professional online presence without the initial cost of domain registration. The process is simplified further with their domain management tools, including features like DNS management and domain redirects, allowing you to control your domain efficiently.
Free web hosting
All websites on Site123 benefit from free web hosting, which is included across all plans, including the free version. The hosting service is optimized for speed and reliability, utilizing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to ensure fast loading times for visitors, regardless of their location. The hosting also includes SSL encryption to secure data exchanges on your website.
Website password protection
Site123 allows you to password-protect your entire website or specific pages. This feature is valuable for creating private sections of your site, such as members-only areas or confidential client portals, ensuring that only authorized users can access certain content.
Robust plan options
SITE123 offers a robust selection of plan options suited for any type of website, allowing users to easily find a plan that matches their specific goals and budget. These plans range from basic packages suitable for personal websites to more advanced options designed for businesses that require eCommerce capabilities, enhanced storage, and premium features. Each plan is designed with scalability in mind, allowing users to upgrade as their website grows, ensuring they have access to the resources and tools necessary for their evolving needs.
Comprehensive app market
SITE123 boasts a comprehensive app market that significantly enhances the platform's functionality. This app market includes a wide array of integrations, covering everything from SEO tools and marketing apps to social media widgets and online payments. Users can easily browse and install these apps to customize their websites, improving user experience and boosting site performance. Offered apps include Google AdSense, Google Analytics, Yandex, LinkedIn Ads, Stripe, and many more.
Cons & Drawbacks
Limited storage
Site123's free plan offers only 250 MB of storage, which is quite restrictive if you want to upload numerous images, videos, or other large files. Even with the higher tier plans, the storage capacity remains limited compared to some other website builders. For instance, the Basic plan provides 10GB, and the highest Platinum plan offers 100 GB of storage. While this might suffice for small websites, those planning to host large amounts of content may find these limitations restrictive.
Limited bandwidth
Similar to storage, the bandwidth on Site123 is also limited, especially on the lower-tier plans. The free plan includes just 250 MB of monthly bandwidth, which could quickly be exceeded if your site experiences moderate traffic. The premium plan increases this to 3 GB, while the Professional plan offers up to 35 GB. These limits might work well for small, low-traffic websites but could become restrictive as your site grows.
Limited plan visibility
SITE123 only reveals all of its available pricing and plans after you create an account. When you first visit the site, you'll only see the Free and Premium plans, with the full range of pricing tiers visible only after signing up. This approach can make it challenging to fully understand your options upfront.
Lack of drag-and-drop editor
The customization options on Site123 are quite restricted, particularly in comparison to other website builders. For instance, you cannot freely drag and drop elements, and many design elements are fixed, meaning you have limited control over layout adjustments. This can be frustrating for users seeking a more flexible design experience, but it does help maintain a clean, professional, albeit generic look without much effort.
Customer Reviews
Customer reviews for SITE123 present mixed sentiments, with ratings across platforms reflecting varied experiences. On Trustpilot, SITE123 has garnered an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5, while G2 reviews rate the platform slightly higher at 4.3 out of 5. However, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) rates SITE123 much lower, giving them a 1 out of 5 stars and an F rating. Most reviews lean positively on sites like Trustpilot and G2, but significant concerns have been raised in the negative feedback, particularly on the BBB.
Positive reviews
Many customers praise SITE123 for their user-friendly website builder, especially for beginners. The platform's ease of use and efficient customer support are frequently highlighted as their strong points. For instance, one user expressed appreciation for how quickly SITE123 responded to their inquiries, making the website-building process smooth and stress-free. Another customer shared a positive experience with the support team, noting that they were patient and helpful during domain issues, leaving the user satisfied with the service.
Negative reviews
On the other hand, negative reviews focus heavily on issues with billing, auto-renewal practices, and inadequate customer service. Multiple customers reported unauthorized auto-renewal charges and difficulties in obtaining refunds. For instance, one reviewer shared a frustrating experience where they were charged without prior notice and struggled to get a refund despite providing proof that the auto-renewal option was turned off. Another customer expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of direct communication, noting that the support team was unresponsive to emails and calls, leaving them feeling taken advantage of. These issues, coupled with SITE123's poor BBB rating, suggest significant concerns that potential customers should be aware of.
How Can I Contact Site123?
To contact SITE123, you'll first need to create an account. Once logged in, you can schedule an appointment or submit a query using the popup icons at the bottom right of your screen. For general support, you can email them at [email protected], and for privacy-related inquiries, reach out to [email protected]. Additionally, their support page offers guidance on various tools and an extensive FAQs section. You can also connect with them on social media via Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Conclusion
Founded in 2015, SITE123 is a platform designed to help small to medium-sized businesses create professional websites without any design or coding skills. They offer an intuitive, user-friendly interface with ready-made layouts that enable users to effortlessly create fully responsive, search-engine-optimized websites. Specializing in multilingual support, mobile websites, eCommerce, and web apps, SITE123 caters to various business needs. The platform's strengths include built-in SEO tools, robust eCommerce features, and 24/7 customer support. However, they have some limitations, such as restricted storage and bandwidth on lower-tier plans and limited customization options due to the absence of a drag-and-drop editor. While SITE123 receives praise for their ease of use and support, some users have raised concerns about their billing practices and customer service, reflected in mixed customer reviews.
If you're considering SITE123, it's wise to explore all your options to ensure you get the service that best fits your business. Start by browsing our list of top website builders and using our comparison tool to see how they measure up. For additional insights and tips, visit our blog to stay updated on the latest website creation trends.