What online provider for micro business website?

tea and coffee

Sole trader in healthcare space. What online website builder would recommend with someone with limited tech ability.
Looking at SquareSpace and Wordpress at the moment, for example.
Down the line would want online booking system (again recommendations welcome) such as Phorest (more for beauty really) or Cliniko... How well would something like a booking system integrate?

Thanks

tea and coffee

Or better to get a static site / one off payment?

daymobrew

Years ago I developed a brochure site for a local tanning/nails/spa. They already did their bookings through an external site. We didn't change that because it did exactly what they needed - the site simply redirected customers to that external site to make bookings.

So, don't worry too much about integration with the bookings service.
(On the flip side, one site I work on uses a service that integrates with WordPress - here the timetable is embedded on the WordPress site: https://www.reformdublin.ie/morning-lunch-evening-weekends/).

Axwell

Squarespace is probably more suited to someone wanting to DIY who is less tech-savvy but it comes with its own limitations at the same time, a limited set of templates, stuck with your site on their platform etc.

WordPress is a much better solution and comes with plenty of plugins and integrations for bookings and much more but requires a bit more knowledge if you want to build something bespoke. There are a lot more off the shelf themes out there for it though if you want to DIY still and find one that fits and just needs minimal changes.

That's just to get the site up and running though - you have other factors then like hosting and SEO to consider. Also, you want the website to reflect your brand - unless you have a good eye for design, typography, and layout that's not something you can just make happen doing it DIY and why I always suggest people hire a professional.

shane001daly

I'd definitely recommend WordPress.

You can use WordPress to make a website as simple or as complex as you like and there are tonnes of plugins available to increase functionality, including booking plugins.

You can get themes and plugins for free but there is usually a trade off with performance.

It's obviously better to get a custom theme made for you that does exactly what you want as the pre-made themes are usually bloated with lots of unnecessary code which can slow them down.

You can go the free theme and plugin route with this and only pay for a domain name and hosting but I would recommend investing some money in a custom theme and premium plugin straight away as in my experience this will save you time and money in the long run. (I am a web developer so my opinion here may be biased)

If you want any further advice feel free to pm me or if you want a quote on a website and premium plugin pm me and I'll do one up for you.