Web.com Review: Does Its Site Builder Stack Up?
Elizabeth Kraus has more than a decade of first-hand experience building and growing a boutique digital marketing agency and double that in small and mid-size business marketing management. She provides expert answers to marketing questions related to branding, content marketing, web development, email, social media, and SEO.
This article is part of a larger series on Small Business Websites.
Web.com is a web hosting platform and domain registrar that also offers a beginner-friendly site builder. Although Web.com reviews show that it’s easy to use, site customization is limited and the features included are very basic for the price. Web.com might be enticing to those building a personal website, but most small businesses would benefit far more from all-in-one website builders like Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly.
Web.com Overview
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Affordable, starting from $1.95 for the first month and renewing at $10/month (or $50 when paid for a whole year) | No free plan or free trial period |
| Decent template selection and more than 100 modern templates | No third-party app marketplace |
| Clean interface and block editor—build a website in just a few steps, similar to using a site builder like Squarespace | Site builders like Squarespace offer more features at a comparable price |
| Not great for ecommerce | |
| Search engine optimization (SEO) is very basic | |
| No SEO with Starter plan | |
Who Web.com Is Best For
Web.com pricing is attractive, but its features are just a little too basic, especially when you compare it to plans in the same price point from Squarespace, Weebly, and GoDaddy. Most small businesses need solid search engine optimization (SEO) to get found by prospective customers online. But based on Web.com review, one of its biggest failings is its lack of SEO, especially on its cheapest plan. For this reason, it’s best for personal, non-business websites.
Web.com is recommended for:
- Individuals looking to create a personal website: If you don’t need a professional website, our Web.com review shows that it can work as a personal website. The low price point and unlimited storage and bandwidth for $10 per month are good for sites that aren’t worried about growing an online audience.
Who Web.com Isn’t Best For
Web.com allows you to build a professional website within minutes. But despite being able to quickly build a site with Web.com, it has limited features and design capabilities for the price, and we wouldn’t recommend it for anyone looking to build a website for their small business.
Web.com is not recommended for:
- Businesses looking to get found online: Web.com has no built-in SEO on its cheapest plan and even goes a step further by actually preventing search engines from indexing your website. You have to upgrade to at least the more expensive Marketing plan to get this feature along with features like SEO titles and descriptions. In comparison, even the free versions of GoDaddy, Wix, and Weebly all have built-in SEO and site analytics. To get found online, see which website builders are best for SEO.
- Ecommerce businesses: To sell online, you need to upgrade to Web.com’s $20 per month eCommerce plan. It doesn’t sound all that expensive—until you take into account that it limits you to selling up to 500 products. Plus, Web.com currently doesn’t support the sale of digital products. For better ecommerce features in the same price range, try Weebly, Wix, or Squarespace. Alternatively, find out how to start selling online free with our list of the best free ecommerce website builders.
- Dropshippers: Aside from the lack of ecommerce features, Web.com also doesn’t have a third-party marketplace, so you can’t connect dropshipping integrations. If you’re setting up a dropshipping business, use a site builder like Shopify instead. It’ll give you all the tools you need to grow your business successfully with a wide array of third-party applications.
- Service-based businesses: Web.com lacks a booking and reservation system, making it a poor choice for service providers. Instead, try GoDaddy, with its fantastic built-in booking system. You get one-time appointment booking tools in GoDaddy’s free version as well as its cheapest plan. Read our expert GoDaddy review to learn more.
- Real estate agencies: Web.com’s lack of a third-party marketplace also extends to real estate integrations. There’s no way to connect MLS integrations to your Web.com website. If you’re running a real estate agency, we suggest trying out the top real estate site builders instead.
Web.com used to be extremely expensive, but recently reduced its prices to be more in-line with other site builders. Still, when it comes to its price-per-feature ratio, there are other, more robust options that are not only beginner-friendly, but also give more bang for your buck. We recommend trying out Wix, Squarespace, or any of our top small business website builders instead.
Web.com Pricing
Although Web.com pricing doesn’t include a free version and plans don’t come with a free trial, it offers cheap prices ($1.95, $2.95, and $3.95, respectively) for the first month. After the initial billing, Web.com pricing increases steeply. Aside from its DIY Site Builder (do-it-yourself), you can reach out to Web.com for a custom, professionally designed website package.
Starter | Marketing | eCommerce | |
|---|---|---|---|
Web.com Pricing for the First Month | $1.95 | $2.95 | $3.95 |
Renews At | $10 | $15 | $20 |
Pay 12 Months in Advance, First Year | $50 | $75 | $100 |
Renews At | $100 | $150 | $200 |
Free Email Accounts | 5 | 5 | 5 |
Free Domain for 1 Year | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Connect to Domain | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
SSL Certificate | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Unlimited Storage and Bandwidth | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Blog | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
SEO Tools and Site Indexing | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Ecommerce Tools | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Number of Products Allowed | ✕ | ✕ | 500 |
For more information about Web.com pricing and plan features, select a plan from the drop-down menu below:
Starter
$10 per month doesn’t break the budget, but the Starter plan is extremely basic. For this amount, you get access to the DIY Site Builder, which utilizes a block editor, a free domain name for one year, and unlimited storage and bandwidth. It does not include SEO tools and actively restricts search engines from indexing your site—which doesn’t make a lot of sense except to force you to subscribe to a more expensive plan.
There’s not much else to recommend this plan, either, especially for business websites. It lacks the SEO tools that come with Squarespace’s $14 per month base plan or that even come in the free versions of GoDaddy, Wix, and Weebly. It doesn’t include ecommerce features like you can get with Weebly or the site design freedom Wix offers starting from free.
Marketing
For $5 more at $15 per month, you get access to Web.com’s Marketing plan, but the Web.com pricing page isn’t all that clear as to what is included. It states that you get everything in the Starter plan plus a business profile in local directories, but doesn’t list which directories. On this plan, Web.com also allows your site to be indexed in search engines and adds SEO titles, descriptions, and alt text to your images.
Even so, what you get is a letdown compared to other site builders. All the SEO features (e.g., XML sitemap submissions and SEO titles and descriptions) are standard with site builders like Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, and Weebly, even on the most basic plans.
At $15 per month, we highly recommend skipping this plan entirely and using one of the aforementioned site builders instead. No matter which site builder you use, you can create a Google My Business profile yourself and list your site on applicable online directories.
eCommerce
Web.com’s most expensive plan is its eCommerce plan at $20 per month. At this price, you get everything in the Marketing plan, the ability to sell products on your website and connect your site to Facebook Marketplace, plus built-in ecommerce tracking and tools. Although it may seem relatively affordable, you’re limited to only 500 physical products with no option to connect other marketplaces, sell digital goods, or set up dropshipping integrations.
At this price point, you should consider builders like Wix (with ecommerce plans starting at $23 per month) or Squarespace (online selling starts at $23 per month). There are cheap website builders with free ecommerce, like Weebly, and far more powerful ecommerce platforms starting from $29 per month, like Shopify. Any of these ecommerce platforms will be of much better value and allow your store to grow without the limitations of Web.com.
Web.com Features
As part of our Web.com review, we determined whether or not Web.com’s DIY Builder can hold its own against more popular site builders like Squarespace and Wix. To do this, we looked at Web.com’s ease of use, selection of templates and design abilities, features, and customer support. We found that Web.com needs more unique features and more valuable packages to compete with the top builders.
For a more in-depth breakdown, click on the tabs below.
Templates & Design
Preview of a website you can build on Web.com
(Source: Web.com)
Web.com has over 100 templates, but it still can’t hold a candle to Wix, which has over 800 templates at your disposal. Still, Web.com’s template selection is modern enough and easy enough to customize.
It’s not bad for a beginner builder, but keep in mind that the nature of block editing means limited customizability and design freedom. Similar to our experience, you may end up resenting the limitations its site editor imposes.
Unique Features
Another area where Web.com is lacking is the uniqueness of its product. Web.com pricing may be affordable, but there’s nothing it does that isn’t done better (and usually more cheaply) with other site builders.
In fact, it even has features that are downright awful. For example, it prohibits search engines from indexing your website until you upgrade to its second tier. Moreover, its “built-in SEO tools” are all extremely basic anyway, so there’s nothing much to entice you.
Still, if you’re looking for a relatively affordable way to set up a blog, a personal website, or even a landing page for your business, Web.com’s cheapest plan may interest you. However, if you want a website that supports the growth of your online brand presence and business overall, we highly suggest using a more powerful builder like Squarespace or Wix instead.
Ecommerce
All of Web.com’s features are extremely basic, and ecommerce is no exception. It’s relatively affordable at $20 per month (comparable to other site builders’ full ecommerce plans). However, it has a product cap of 500, not including variants (enough for a small business, but without much wiggle room to grow your store). Take note that Web.com only supports sales of physical products, so you can’t sell digital products or even gift cards.
It lacks other, more advanced offerings too. It doesn’t have abandoned cart recovery or any shipping integrations (like dropshipping apps), and it only has very basic store tracking and analytics. Overall, if you’re serious about selling online, we’d recommend building on a proper platform like Shopify or an all-in-one ecommerce site builder like Weebly.
Ease of Use
Web.com’s block editor
(Source: web.com)
Web.com’s biggest (and maybe only) draw based on our Web.com review is its ease of use. It has a relatively clean interface and a block-based editor where you can add either premade or empty blocks to flesh out your website. While it’s a far cry from the design freedom you get with Wix’s drag-and-drop editor, it’s still a lot more customizable than a sectional builder like GoDaddy, for example.
All in all, it rates highly for how easy it is to use. For a complete website beginner, it might take a little more time to get used to Web.com’s Features and Blocks (i.e., elements and premade sections), but it shouldn’t take you longer than a few hours and you should be able to build a Web.com website in as little as four steps.
Customer Support
Web.com has 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and email, plus an hour of dedicated support from its professional design team when you sign up for any one of its plans. It also has a blog that acts as something like a knowledge base. For help using the site builder, check out Web.com’s YouTube channel. From experience, this gives the most updated information about the website builder, as Web.com doesn’t have very many tutorials online.
What Users Say in Web.com Reviews
While you can find many high ratings online, Web.com reviews mostly speak to its hosting services. On the other hand, the few Web.com reviews we found for its site builder were mixed. Some users were impressed with how easy Web.com is to use and its low prices, while others were frustrated about the lack of design and the poor features it offers.
Here’s how Web.com fared with its users:
- PCMag: 3.5 out of 5 stars
- ITProPortal: 2.5 out of 5 stars
- TechRadar: 4 out of 5 stars
These Web.com reviews are in line with our experiences with Web.com’s DIY Site Builder. It’s by no means the worst site builder we’ve ever used, but falls short of having the tools and features needed to build a good business website. Our main complaints are its lack of features, especially lack of website basics, such as built-in SEO, and its very basic offerings for the prices that you pay.
Bottom Line
Web.com’s site builder is a far cry from the likes of Wix, Squarespace, and other top all-in-one business website builders. You can build a basic small business site affordably, but if you’re looking for any sort of advanced features like SEO, marketing, and ecommerce, you’re better off looking elsewhere.
At its current state, we can’t recommend it to any small business looking to build a professional website when there are much better options available in the same price range. Instead, check out our list of the best website builders for small businesses, or try out various free website builders before subscribing to a plan.
You Might Also Like…
- Our top recommended builder for small businesses is Squarespace. See why with our Squarespace review.
- Need a fully customized website? Read our Wix review and try it out.
- If Web.com’s ease of use is appealing but you need more features, you’ll find better options on our list of the best drag-and-drop website builders.
