SITE123 Review: A Good Website Builder?

Can you create a website in three seconds? Probably not, but that didn't stop SITE123's designers from suggesting maximum simplicity when naming their site-building platform. In this review, we'll let you know just what it's capable of.

SITE123* is a website builder that was clearly developed with beginners in mind. Instead of relying on drag and drop design according to the "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) principle, SITE123 offers ready-made layouts. To launch a professional-looking website, all you'll have to do is supply the content. In this review, we took a closer look at what SITE123 can do.

Only three steps separate prospective users of SITE123 from the site builder's editor and dashboard. To register, specify what kind of site you're making: Business, Online Store, Restaurant and Food, or Technology and Web (as well as 12 other options). As SITE123 points out, you can adjust your selection later on. Next, you'll be asked for your site's name, and in the final step, prompted for an email address and password, or a Facebook/Google login.

Once in the editor, you can watch a brief video tutorial that introduces you to the tools you'll be working with. From the first moment, SITE123 distinguishes itself from its competitors: In the lower right corner of the screen, a chat window opens that you can use to directly contact the support team at any time.

As readers of our comparative evaluations know, we greatly value live chats, however, few website builders offer them. SITE123 bucks that trend by incorporating it directly into the editor, and we heartily commend them for doing so.

SITE123's editor doesn't have intuitive drag and drop functionality, in contrast to most of its competitors. This means that you'll be bound to the templates and unable to freely move individual elements around.

For text, a small formatting menu opens, allowing you to make adjustments directly in the window. Using the toolbar off to the left, you can access additional options, such as integrating animations or changing the font.

Other elements are modified not on the page itself, but rather, in a pop-up window that opens when you click on its "Edit" button. On the "About Us" page, there's a text editor and a space for uploading images. Clicking on "Layouts" next to the "Edit" button loads a series of designs available for that particular section or page.

SITE123's ease of use is refreshing, even though it limits the freedom other site builders offer users. The ready-made components and elements can be customized to varying degrees.

Setup tutorials, a video introduction, an embedded support chat, and the somewhat limited editor all make SITE123 very cozy for anyone new to site building. Of course, there is a trade-off between creative freedom and simplicity, but so long as you accept this going in, there won't be any nasty surprises. Our only major criticism concerns the number of ads in the free version.

SITE123 provides users with access to the most important site-building features, however, these appear to be less developed than those offered by the platform's competitors. Whereas other site builders make complicated code sequences easily modifiable using brushes and other tools, SITE123's editor treats various page elements like puzzle pieces that can be colored, but not really shaped.

Text and elements aren't edited directly on the site, but rather, in separate windows. Under Settings, you can specify whether your site will have a single page or multiple pages.

Each SITE123 "Section" is a page that can be displayed on your website's main navigation menu (but doesn't need to be). Depending on what sort of website you've selected, visitors will click on the corresponding link in the menu, opening either a window with its content or a new page.

New pages can be added by clicking on the plus symbol which appears between sections. A nice choice of categories is offered, including contact pages, galleries, portfolios, customer testimonials, and restaurant menus. As is the case with most providers from our sample, SITE123 serves up all the essentials, along with a few extras, but could definitely offer more.

Subpages can be arranged and modified in the "Pages" sub-menu. It's also possible to group subpages into categories, which will then be presented in a drop-down menu. This is particularly useful if you're hosting multiple types of the same content (such as two blogs, for example).

SITE123's solid support for blogging definitely makes the Israeli service worth checking out. If you click on the "Edit" button after adding a blog page to your website, you'll be able to arrange its entries and schedule them for publication at a future date or time. As might be expected, you can't freely group your blog entries, but according to a ready-made layout (which you can select).

Comments can be managed internally via Facebook or Disqus, while the service's statistics keep you up informed about who is visiting your blog.

Other features, like an archive, or the ability to add tags or categories are not included. Similar to its overall approach, SITE123 offers the basics but struggles when it comes to depth and functionality.

The service does have an app market for external plugins, making it possible to add analytical tools, a support chat, or other features to your page. When set alongside what other providers offer, what SITE123 brings to the table isn't too remarkable. User-defined code can be added, but only if you're a paying subscriber.

SITE123 finishes this section of our review on a high note thanks to the ease with which it allows multilingual websites to be created. Depending upon your subscription, it's possible to create up to five different language localizations. SITE123 will automatically translate all of your content, however, you can manually edit this.

Overall, SITE123 makes everything needed to create a professional-looking website available, without offering any advanced features or design options. More of these would not adversely impact the platform's user-friendliness. If your only goal is to quickly and easily create an optimized and appealing website, you won't be disappointed with SITE123. For any other type of user, there will be some frustration here and there.

SITE123 makes around 160 design templates available, all of which can be viewed by clicking on the "Templates" button. There, you'll find a number of layouts, all of which can be modified, creating far more options than seem available at first glance.

The number of templates is impressive, even if many of them aren't too different from one another.

The platform's lack of drag and drop functionality negatively impacts your creative freedom once again, making it impossible, for example, to customize your site's layout from the ground up, or move on-screen elements around at will. Instead, you can freely modify color schemes, background images, and fonts, so long as you've purchased the right subscription.

A range of different templates are also provided for menus, and HTML can be inserted into the editor's plugin area.

Even though it's easy to design a SITE123 website, the trade-off between simplicity and functionality unnecessarily curbs design freedom. Other site builders show that simplicity and a wide selection of templates and customization options aren't mutually exclusive. More layouts and flexibility when editing website elements would do wonders for SITE123 without unbalancing the platform.

Stores are added to your SITE123 website as a unique page, meaning that you can't include popular products elsewhere. The service provides access to basic ecommerce features, such as managing products and organizing them into categories. It's possible to create product variations (color, size, etc.), add attributes (i.e. form and style), and specify shipping and inventory details.

Under "Settings", you can adjust the design and content of your product pages and order forms, as well as configure shipping and payment options. For the latter, SITE123 offers access to PayPal, Amazon Pay, as well as a number of credit card providers, but does limit their usage to paying subscribers. Similarly, additional features, like creating coupons, are also reserved for premium users.

SITE123 makes creating a clear and well-organized online store fairly simple. The service offers access to most of the basic ecommerce features, however, keeps most options behind (subscriber) paywalls.

SITE123 comes with a fairly basic email marketing tool that can be used to interact with newsletter or mailing list subscribers. Compared to dedicated tools, such as those we looked at in our comprehensive review, SITE123's tool is rather rudimentary. As an example, it only includes two templates, which can't really be customized in any significant way.

SITE123's search engine optimization (SEO) features are decent. In the Pages menu, you can specify meta-tags and keywords for each page. Individual blog entries can also be tagged. To help even further, there's an SEO adviser in the settings menu for your website, which lets you know what you still need to complete. Rounding things out is an SEO audit tool, which scans all of your pages to ensure that they are optimized.

For analytics, you'll have to rely on external plugins. A number of these are available in the service's app market such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Yandex.

SITE123 ecommerce capabilities are a pleasant surprise, especially considering the platform's shortcomings in other areas. Still, several of its competitors offer a more well-rounded package, as well as enhanced marketing tools.

SITE123 really shines when it comes to customer support. Using the aforementioned integrated live chat, our queries were answered within minutes or even seconds, and the main support center is never more than a click away. There, you'll find clearly arranged and labeled guides and FAQs that provide detailed insight into the most important topics and issues. All of the platform's static support resources can be full-text searched.

The service's 24-hour live support chat is a real highlight, not just for SITE123, but among all of the services that we've reviewed. As such, we have no issue awarding full points in this section of the review. Beginners, who are already the platform's target audience, will definitely be pleased to know that a helping hand is never more than a few clicks away, from right within the editor.

In terms of pricing, SITE123 could do with a bit more transparency. When browsing its website, you'll only find two options: Free and Premium. In reality, a total of four premium (paid) plans are offered. These are Basic, Advanced, Professional, and Gold.

The free version includes a SITE123 subdomain, as well as 250 MB of bandwidth and storage. All paid subscriptions, which can be booked for 3, 12, 24, 36, 60, or 120 months, include a free domain for a year.

Rates differ in terms of storage (10, 30, 90, or 270 GB), bandwidth (5, 15, 45, or 135 GB), and additional features. Among the latter, email accounts and multilingual websites are only offered from the Advanced plan up, ecommerce features from the Professional tier, while the SEO adviser and advanced ecommerce tools are reserved for Gold subscribers.

Below, we've prepared an overview of SITE123's current pricing:

But how does SITE123 compare to the other site builders from our sample in terms of price? Below, we've compiled the most affordable, ad-free subscription option from each that included a unique domain.

SITE123 doesn't offer a free trial of its premium platform, however, you can use the service's free version as much as you like. Should you purchase a subscription and have second thoughts, you can request a full refund within 14 days.

SITE123's design limitations are confidently promoted as contributing to the platform's ease of use and convenience. Only a few intuitive clicks separate its ready-made templates from finished websites, and the results aren't bad. As a result, SITE123 is truly one of the most user-friendly website builders on the market.

The price for such enhanced usability is a lack of both features and customization options. While we understand the developer's approach, more of both could be added without sacrificing simplicity. For anyone intent on building a website that truly stands out, SITE123's limitations will become apparent sooner rather than later.

Most reviews for SITE123 rated the service as excellent, praising its ease of use and helpful live support chat.

SITE123 is ideal for anyone willing to sacrifice a feature or two in exchange for enhanced convenience. Should you be on the hunt for more capabilities and/or creative freedom, you'll likely want a drag and drop builder, like Wix. The best service from our sample, it's more complicated than SITE123 but does an excellent job of balancing user-friendliness with functionality.

In case SITE123's templates are too bland for your tastes, Squarespace might be worth a look. The popular site builder serves up some of the most aesthetically-pleasing and striking designs on the market.

Below, you can find more of the best alternatives to SITE123.