Lets Host website builder any good?

Ciarrai76

We are looking to re-design our website, and I noticed that our hosting company, Lets Host, have a website builder to let you build your own website with many templates to choose from. It would probably be a lot cheaper than getting a company to re-design, and I'm confident enough to be able to do this myself.
Their templates seem pretty good visually, but wondering if they are ok to work with etc. I'm just looking to see if anyone else has used this and if its any good?
thanks

Mister Man

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

We are looking to re-design our website, and I noticed that our hosting company, Lets Host, have a website builder to let you build your own website with many templates to choose from. It would probably be a lot cheaper than getting a company to re-design, and I'm confident enough to be able to do this myself.
Their templates seem pretty good visually, but wondering if they are ok to work with etc. I'm just looking to see if anyone else has used this and if its any good?
thanks

In my experience, any of these Builder it yourself websites are pretty poor, and most people that actually use them, end up leaving in loads of things that they don't need, are can't mold the template around their needs, leaving them with a website that will never look like the template shows you.

I'd recommend having someone do it for you. That way, you'll get something that fits your needs, and you can actually have features like logins, blog, forums or something like that

Ciarrai76

Mister Man wrote: »

In my experience, any of these Builder it yourself websites are pretty poor, and most people that actually use them, end up leaving in loads of things that they don't need, are can't mold the template around their needs, leaving them with a website that will never look like the template shows you.

I'd recommend having someone do it for you. That way, you'll get something that fits your needs, and you can actually have features like logins, blog, forums or something like that

Yeah, I'm not sure about it as I thought about not being able to put in our own features etc. We have an existing website, but its a bit dated, especially the coding, so we have to start from scratch as no web company want to do anything with it. Starting from scratch & getting a web company to design a new site is expensive, which is not really an option at the moment.

adrianshanahan

THe simple answer is no, and if you are asking the question I'm fairly confident in saying that you don't have the skills or experience to do it yourself.

The saying is your website is your hardest working employee holds pretty true, get an experienced professional to provide professional results.

Link up your current site so we can have a look.

Ciarrai76

adrianshanahan wrote: »

THe simple answer is no, and if you are asking the question I'm fairly confident in saying that you don't have the skills or experience to do it yourself.

The saying is your website is your hardest working employee holds pretty true, get an experienced professional to provide professional results.

Link up your current site so we can have a look.

I'm asking the question as I wanted to know if these templates are any good! I did basic web design when I was in college years ago, so although I'm not a web designer, nor could I build a website from scratch anymore, I am able to understand the basics! I would rather get a professional to do the site, but the money isn't there right now, so will have to put it on hold.

Shad0r

Ciarrai76 wrote: »

I'm asking the question as I wanted to know if these templates are any good! I did basic web design when I was in college years ago, so although I'm not a web designer, nor could I build a website from scratch anymore, I am able to understand the basics! I would rather get a professional to do the site, but the money isn't there right now, so will have to put it on hold.

To answer your original question, auto site builders produce crap, and Letshost's is only as good as a site builder can be. If the website is for your business I'd strongly recommend getting a professional to do it for you. After all you never get a second chance at a first impression.

Attempting to build a website yourself, because you don't have a budget for a site, is like buying an ancient car that's in bits with the plan to fix it up yourself, (because you can't afford a decent one) when all you've ever done is change the oil in your car.

The likelihood is that you are going to spend a lot of time you probably don't have, learning things that aren't helping your business grow and make more money, to end up with a site that looks like crap and doesn't do anything positive for your business.

I don't mean any dis-respect or offence in saying the above.

I guess what I'm saying is that you should really think about WHY you want to have a website in the first place. What benefit are you hoping to get from having the site?

Building a site yourself is unlikely to get you those benefits and I can absolutely guarantee that your time will be more profitably spent working on growing your business and doing whatever it is that you actually do to make money.

Maybe until you do have budget you could buy a domain and redirect it to a Facebook or Google+ page?

Six Degrees

I'd have to agree with all the other comments above. Using a page builder for a business website is pretty pointless unless you plan on not using it or getting any traffic.

Websites can be, as someone pointed out, your hardest working employee. They are on 24-7 and can be the difference between sales and no sales.

If the money isn't there which unfortunately is the case for many businesses these days, I would suggest trying to set aside a budget over a period of time to develop one. It is an investment and, depending on your sector, could dramatically increase your business.

Best of luck with it!

Ciarrai76

Six Degrees wrote: »

I'd have to agree with all the other comments above. Using a page builder for a business website is pretty pointless unless you plan on not using it or getting any traffic.

Websites can be, as someone pointed out, your hardest working employee. They are on 24-7 and can be the difference between sales and no sales.

If the money isn't there which unfortunately is the case for many businesses these days, I would suggest trying to set aside a budget over a period of time to develop one. It is an investment and, depending on your sector, could dramatically increase your business.

Best of luck with it!

Thanks for your advice. I don't think I'll go down the page builder route based on the advice given. I was just wondering if they were any good, and obviously they're not!
We will just have to hold off on re-designing the site for another few months and hopefully find a good web company, which isn't easy as there are so many out there, and not sure who is good etc!