I still get asked from small-business owners, writers, marketers, and other self-employed types about the “best software” to build a web site. And over the last few years my stock answer has been WordPress: .org for do-it-yourselfers, and .com for everyone else. I now have a new option to offer thanks to a pure web-based approach from a company called Webydo. Public-beta Launched at TechCrunch Disrupt, Webydo allows “professional designers to create and manage cross-platform websites without writing code”.
The press release I grabbed that quote from is more or less right. But I’ll add that even for those with the smallest bit of design sense, a group I include myself in, Webydo brings a credible website with reach. Judge for yourself: within two hours or so, I used Webydo to design a site for my mythical trattoria–you can gaze upon my creation here.
The mobile space, of course, in recent years has seen more than a few startups specializing in web-site and app generators for smartphones and tablets. But I’ve seen few startups focusing on instant site-creation for plain-old laptops and legacy desktops. One notable exception is Pittsburgh-based Webkite, which I have effusively praised in a previous post.
Outside of the startup world, Wordress.com has helped zillions get a foothold in the Intertoobz. And there’s other software available that has a similar drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG features to Webydo. But Webydo combines a no-coding cloud-based approach with instant hosting. One click to publish, and you have an accessible website within your own domain. It’s a good formula for success.
Webydo’s browser-based software provides all the usual objects–text, graphics, video, forms, gallery of images–as well as a way to add new functions through direct HTML or iframes. They also have an integration with something called Ecwid, which allows you to instantly create an e-store for your site. I didn’t try working with it, but Ecwid’s ecommerce widgets will certainly make great sense for retailers and other small merchants.
What I like most about Webydo is that it allows you to differentiate the site from the one-size-fits-all templates provided by WordPress and other content management vendors. To help you become an instant designer, Webydo’s visual interface provides help in getting page elements aligned and centered. That is quite powerful and lets you avoid having to muck around with HTML and CSS.
The marketing for Webydo is focused at designers, who could certainly do more with Webydo than an over-achieving laymen or laywomen. In any case, Webydo’s freemium model lets you try out the app for free, but for your own domain, you can choose either a month-to-month plan at $9.90/m or else take it for year at $7.90/m.
FYI: Webydo says they support cross-browser compatibility on different devices. In general, it’s a great feature even when not implemented perfectly for iPhones and Androids. I didn’t have time to test it out on my own gadgets for this review.