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Studies
Our studies cover a range of trending topics and deliver original, reliable data you can't get anywhere else on the web.
By: PJ Fancher
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Cristian Lopez
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★★★★★
With an excellent price-versus-performance tradeoff, iPage has plans starting at around $2 a month. The hosting company's shared offerings are hard to compete with, especially for folks that are new to web hosting and just need a simple site. Aimed primarily at first-time site owners, iPage puts together an impressively deep feature set. Offering strong, custom site builder options, iPage brings what-you-see-is-what-you-get simplicity to the site-building experience. If ecommerce platforms are your thing, an online store builder is also included. Don’t have a domain yet? Register one for free with iPage. Once you have a new site, what do you do with it? To kick-start promotion for your site, iPage gives you $200 of marketing credits to get you started on Google and Bing, giving your online presence the exposure that any site needs. Additionally, iPage offers a full security suite to keep your site running without worry. Daily malware scans, spam scans, and constant network monitoring are just some of the features. Full technical support is also part of the package by way of email or 24/7 phone support with a promise to answer calls in two minutes or less. From site-building tools and a free domain to a jump-start on your marketing efforts, iPage has put together a very impressive package for their price and they should absolutely be considered for first-time users.
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★★★★★
As a web builder, Wix is an industry leader when it comes to ease of use, setup time, and available features. The browser-based, WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) site-building service is hands down one of the foremost brands in this industry niche, and that's not without just cause. Getting started and familiar with the platform is a straightforward process, and the resulting websites you can build are in keeping with industry standards, as far as design and customization go. While you're not going to get the same level of support as you would from a leading web hosting service, the feature set available and included in this free service is a pretty exhaustive list. All it takes to sign up — and said signup is free — is an email or a Facebook account. Once you're in, you can preview thousands of templates, which are all broken up into categories and then further classified by design or industry type. For example, choose the Online Store category with the Clothing & Accessories subcategory to start selling your custom-printed t-shirts. Your garage band can showcase your latest performances and let family and friends know of upcoming shows by utilizing the Music and Band categories. You can browse the most popular templates and check out the newest additions. Once you've made your pick, you may feel a tad overwhelmed at the interface — but that's only because the functionality exceeds that of your typical drag-and-drop builder. You can manipulate and edit virtually any facet of your new website, until it perfectly matches the picture in your head. Finally, get your finished creation noticed by search engines (and the millions of web surfers that they send to websites) using the Wix SEO Wizard. Just tell the Wizard the words or phrases you want people to search for and find your site, and Wix will spit back out a full SEO report — so you know where you stand in terms of relevant visitors being sent to your site. Wix premium plan customers can also benefit from $300-worth of search engine advertising credits, upping the chances of increased site visitors. Anyone could find themselves wanting a website at some point in their career or personal life. Whether you're a stay-at-home mom with a creative writing habit to share or a serial entrepreneur ready to profit from your next great idea, you don't want building your own website from scratch to be a strain — on your wallet, your time, or your brain. With Wix, you can be your own web designer, developer, and marketer. The interface is easy to use and the end designs are up to snuff with industry standards. When it comes to code-free website building, Wix is a leader and an innovator.
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★★★★★
Whether you're a first-time website owner or a web veteran, iPage’s excellent hosting services and a fantastic list of extras make the brand one of the best values in web hosting. Unlimited disk space, scalable bandwidth, and emails are just a part of what makes iPage’s shared hosting plan a great deal. The company offers very good suites of extras focusing on web hosting necessities like security, marketing, and support. If you don’t yet have a site, iPage includes a free domain and website builder to get you rolling quickly. We especially love the web hosting company's inclusion of ecommerce templates and online shopping carts for the same low price. Support is one factor that’s very important to us, as it should be to you. For iPage customer support, the hosting company has phone, email, and chat available 24/7. For the DIY crowd, the company also has an extensive list of tutorials and helpful documents. One of the very best budget web hosts out there, iPage offers great hosting features and server performance for a low price. If you are searching for a cheap, reliable web host, iPage should definitely be near the top of your list.
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★★★★★
Wix is known as a web-leading site builder service that's one of the most affordable — because getting started is absolutely free and about as easy as processes get. You can log in via Facebook or your Gmail account and be editing your new web property within minutes. All but the most basic of plans include a free domain name voucher for your first year of service, and with Wix comes the wealth of templates to be customized within the Wix Editor. This interface is extremely intuitive, once you take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with it. Once you're comfortable, you'll find yourself dragging and dropping images, text, menus, sliders, and more — all without any code — and feeling like a full-fledged web designer extraordinaire. All of the template designs are up to the latest industry standards, including parallax layouts, a mobile display editor, and responsive designs, and there are thousands of themes to browse. If you've read our reviews and seen the multitude of features that can be had for a mere few dollars a month, you've probably realized that Wix is not the cheapest on the list. With Wix, you're paying for the user-friendliness of the no-tech-skills-needed platform, as well as the speed at which you can get your new site up and running. You're paying for accessibility, so to speak. That doesn't mean you're not getting a lot for the price. Premium plan holders, in particular, can benefit from $300-worth of ad vouchers, free apps for building forms and boosting your site's SEO status, and even priority support. Bottom line: There is tremendous value in the offerings of Wix plans. Things like 24/7 expert phone support, stellar uptime rates, and mega-powerful servers are not features they tout, but that's intentional. Wix is an awesome website builder service, and if that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.
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★★★★★
For those looking for an affordable and simple-to-navigate host for their WordPress site, definitely consider iPage. The iPage offer gives you a nice list of extras and provides a great alternative to shared hosting. While not as robust and fast as more expensive options, iPage offers a great value in WordPress hosting. The company's platform has been designed to make page load speeds 2.5 times faster, with unlimited disk space, email accounts, and bandwidth. Other niceties include a free domain name and SSL certificate. For those without a site design, iPage includes a number of curated WordPress themes for you to choose from. Each theme is tested for performance and usability. In addition, the company includes many pre-installed plugins such as W3 Total Cache and Jetpack. Finally, SiteLock keeps your site secure and free of malware. 24/7 phone support is included on all packages in case you ever run into any issues. One of our favorite low-budget web hosts out there, iPage offers great hosting features and server performance for a low price. If you are searching for a cheap, reliable web host, iPage should definitely fall towards the top of your list.
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★★★★★
Do you want your website built today? If you answered "yes," you should look no further than iPage. In fact, it's possible for you to be online before you even finish reading this article. Thanks to iPage's user-friendly interface, instant provisioning, and free domain name, you can have a live, attractive website in mere minutes. For those that have been around the web for a while, you may remember when it took a day to get your server online; thankfully those days are gone. Your site is live the second you complete your order with iPage. A domain name is also included, so the ordeal of purchasing a domain name, setting name servers, and waiting for them to propagate is also extinct. Once that's completed, you are taken to the incredibly user-friendly interface, where you can begin your site creation process. Powered by their own proprietary builder, iPage makes it easy to have a professional-looking site created in minutes. It all starts with your choice of template — with hundreds of options available. From there, you can customize color schemes, fonts, and sizes, and add your own pictures and videos. Adding forms for comments, RSVPs, or business contacts is just as simple. Before you know it, you have an attractive, functional website. From the ease of use to the speed at which you are able to get a site live, iPage leaves us with little doubt as to why we've ranked the company near the top of our list of web hosts with site builder functionality. An already incredible value, the company's 30-day money-back guarantee means that you can feel at ease knowing that iPage stands behind its product, and the team is confident you will be happy with their service.
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★★★★★
#1 out of 9 in Website Builder Hosting reviews Website building is where Wix shines. The thousands of templates, the intuitive editor, the industry-leading designs that cater to a variety of specific fields and use cases — all these facets represent a platform that excels at facilitating easy web design for the non-tech-savvy user. Sign up with your Facebook account or email address and get started for free. I'll admit, the Wix Editor may appear daunting when you first meet it, but get to know the interface. Once you familiarize yourself with the environment, you'll realize that what first comes across as overwhelming is actually empowering — the customization functionalities to be had are many, and they're awesome. There's no need for coding of any kind. Just drag and drop elements of your new site and BAM: What You See Is What You Get (i.e., Wix is a WYSIWYG website builder!). You don't have to design your website from scratch with Wix, though blank templates are available. There are thousands of templates, each one categorized by design need and further classified into industry niches, and the site's look can be molded to match your brand or personality very easily. Layout and design options include parallax themes (where the viewer scrolls down the screen and one page rolls seamlessly into the next), custom sliders, multiple columns, mobile-specific and mobile-responsive displays, and tons of button and menu navigation tricks. While Wix isn't our favorite host in terms of expert support or top-of-the-line hardware, it's an industry-leading platform for website building. It's popular for many reasons: the simple startup process, the ease of use, the array of customization options, and the WYSIWYG results, as examples. Its reputation precedes it, and we can totally see where the rave reviews are coming from.
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