Strikingly Website Builder Review: Is it Worth it?
Strikingly, an all-inclusive website building platform, is designed to help entrepreneurs quickly get online. The platform is easy to use and requires no design or code skills. This means that even people with little experience in website creation can make a beautiful site in minutes.
Strikingly current plans & pricing
Strikingly was a great choice for me to review. Before I dive into my review of Strikingly, let me give you a brief overview of tools that can be used to build websites.
There are many things to consider when selecting a website builder. And there are many ways to achieve what you desire in terms of functionality and pricing. It doesn’t matter if you are building a website for personal use or for business purposes, your choice of site builder can have major consequences.
It can affect your flexibility, functionality, and brand in the long-term. It can cause headaches in the short-term. However, it is not possible to choose the best or most desirable physical home or office. It’s all about your experience, goals, and circumstances.
What is Strikingly a Website Builder?
Strikingly is the only website builder that offers all the options. It provides everything you need to start and grow your site. This contrasts with other solutions that allow you to buy, install and manage each “piece” of your website individually.
Strikingly works in the same way as leasing an apartment in a luxurious development and personalizing it. While you retain control over decor, cleaning, and other aspects of your daily life, the property owner is responsible for the building, plumbing, security and infrastructure. This is crucial because convenience and control are often in direct conflict.
Strikingly is a great website builder that can make everything work together. However, it may not be exactly what you are looking for.
Strikingly is in direct competition with all-inclusive web builders such as Squarespace, Jimdo and GoDaddy.
They are faster and more user-friendly than their direct competitors. Strikingly provides several templates that you can customize without any coding or design experience (more details in a bit).
Strikingly Different Alternatives
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The Best Website Builder
Pros Of Strikingly
Here are the pros I discovered about Strikingly website builder, not only in comparison to GoDaddy or Wix but also as a complete website solution.
Straightforward Sign up process
Strikingly greatest advantage is its ease of use. You only need to enter your information and choose your theme.
This is ideal for DIYers who are looking to quickly get started without having to create an account or select a niche.
Template Design / Functionality
Strikingly offers many responsive template designs. These templates look great on any device (tablet, mobile, or computer). Strikingly offers many options, but they have them separated by niche so that you can choose a template that provides the functionality your company needs.
Although Strikingly doesn’t technically drag and drop (where you can choose from premade sections, then “drop” them onto your page), it is very intuitive to use. You can modify the style of the page, such as colors and fonts. However, you cannot add new elements at will.
It’s like painting with numbers.
While there are some drawbacks to this setup that I will address in the disadvantages section, it does offer a great advantage of having limited, but easily accessible design options. Strikingly is a great choice for DIY-ers and entrepreneurs who want a professionally designed website without the need to hire someone or spend a lot of time tweaking it.
No cost trial and no obligation plan
Strikingly also offers a 14-day trial for free and a free plan.
Strikingly lets you test any plan, even the most expensive! You can try any plan for 14 days before you commit. This is a great way for DIYers to test out a plan before they commit.
A free plan is also offered, which offers a lot more features than competitors like unlimited websites and limited ecommerce functionality.
There are some cons with the free plan, such as limited storage, limited pages, having to use a subdomain (ex: yourname.strikingly.com), and extremely limited integrations — but if you’re looking for a simple site for a short-term project, this could be a solid option.
Some product integration
Although it is limited, Strikingly offers some product integration such as ecommerce functionality, apps in their app shop (which allow you to add forms, maps, and other functionality on your site).
For an additional $25/year, you can add custom email. These additional functionality and integrations are available to paid customers. Although this is not necessarily a problem, it is important to be aware of. Especially if you chose the self-hosted WordPress route.
Cons of Strikingly
It is important to also consider the negative aspects of software. There will be complaints about every piece of software. Let’s take a look at some of the cons that I experienced when using Strikingly as a website builder.
Pricing + Plans
Although Strikingly can be used by DIYers and small businesses for their services, pricing is a problem. Each plan comes with a limitation. This could be domains or the number of sites you can publish to “pro” sites, or storage.
The monthly payment option does not allow you to access VIP plans. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, unless you really need VIP features and are willing to pay monthly. If you don’t want to pay monthly, then you are out of luck. You can also change the price depending on how long you commit, which is a pro for those who are looking for a long-term solution and a con for those who are looking for a shorter-term solution.
Limited Feature Set – Design
There is always a compromise between convenience and control when using technology products (think Android vs. iOS).
This is the trade-off that Strikingly offers with their website builder. Their design layout is very easy. It is easy to use and allows you to focus on putting your content in a premade template. It can be customized with sections and pages, but it has everything you need.
The builder is not able to do more than the basic design elements. You cannot add to the premade sections. Also, you cannot create your own sections. The elements that you can modify on the overall template are very limited.
The design limitations of a website can make it difficult to grow or become a larger part of your business. Strikingly is not like other website builders who attempt to fix this problem through extensions or apps. You can embed HTML/CSS/Javascript if you have a Pro plan, but you cannot modify the template that you are provided with.
Technical – Limited Features Set
Design limitations can also be reflected in technical limitations.
Technical limitations are features you don’t want until they’re actually needed. Then you realize you can’t have them.
These include integrations with Facebook and Pinterest, Twitter. Social sharing options. Blogging. There are also a host of advanced marketing tools from intermediate . Strikingly offers some connections, such as DNS/hosting, and email for an additional fee. You can also insert code in the header of your website to do things like analytics tracking (but this is only for Pro plans).
There are however a lot of technical features Strikingly does not provide, or that are very limited.
Let’s take Strikingly features for SEO. I can edit the title and description and add a category or social share image. Apart from that, I am pretty stuck with what I have. Schema and Open Graph settings are not available. – far less advanced options.
The additional products and integrations available are very limited. Other than adding code to your website’s header for Google Analytics or Facebook Analytics, there is not much you can do marketing. This feature is only available for Pro plan customers.
Strikingly is lacking in product integrations and other technical features that will help you market your website better.
Strikingly reviewed conclusion
Strikingly is a fast and simple way to get your website online. This makes it an excellent choice for DIYers looking for a quick and simple way to create a website.
See Strikingly plans.
There is a compromise between convenience and control when using all-inclusive web builders. This is especially true when you consider the price. Especially when you consider the technical limitations and the higher priced plans, strikingly priced pricing can leave much to be desired. You’re better off looking elsewhere if you want more control and scalability.
