How do you imagine creating your own website? Most likely, you get the picture that the project is being written by an experienced programmer, and a designer artist is helping him with this. Of course, if a large company needs a web resource, then you can't do without a team of professionals. But even ordinary users or young programmers will be able to develop a one-page landing page. Thanks to special designers and programs, this will take less than a couple of hours.
In this article, you will learn about two main ways to create simple Internet sites. Let's go!
Method 1: Using programs
Special programs for creating projects are called CMS systems (or content management systems, if translated from English). Any site consists of information: text, pictures, videos. You can add, change, or delete them. Do this with programming difficult — you need to know how to work with codes. Therefore, CMS systems have appeared, which now make it much easier to create and change content on portals. That is, these systems (also called engines) include a universal set of parts for creating and managing your page.
There are several platforms that are most commonly used: WordPress, OpenCart, and Joomla. We will deal with each one in more detail.
WordPress
Users choose it for its large number of templates that allow you to prepare a blog, business, school, news forums, and much more for free. You don't have to be a programmer to do this. However, if you develop in this area and explore additional opportunities, you will eventually be able to improve your platform and add new features to it.
Pros:
- Minimum expenses. You will have to pay about 2,000 rubles a year for hosting (rent): this will allow you to create one resource and provide it with an average level of security. There is an option to try a free trial first. You will not have to pay for the name, if it is in the Russian-language .ru zone.
- Easy installation. You can start after a couple of minutes of setup.
- Automatic update. You don't have to download new versions, they will be installed on their own.
- Easy to use. You don't need to figure out for a long time where to press for a particular action; everything is clear when you first look at the buttons.
- Different workpieces. You can choose an option at your discretion.
- Mobile versions. It will be convenient to view pages from all gadgets.
- The missing information is easy to find. There are many tips and video tutorials on the Internet for creating specific models.
But WordPress also has its own cons:
- They can be hacked. Protection depends on hosting, and hosting is paid. Therefore, often minimal protection allows hackers to hack into your service.
- There is no technical support. This means that developers will not be able to complain about problems and they will have to fix them yourself.
Joomla
It is in second place in popularity. Using this service, you can create different types of projects: simple home pages or more complex ones for companies. It is simple to install, easy to manage, and protection from fraudsters will be reliable.
Benefits:
- Regular updates. Joomla is constantly improving and eliminating the shortcomings of previous versions.
- Different types. Suitable for designing all kinds of resources: a personal blog, a school portal, a forum for communication.
- Teaching the basics to beginners. Those who have already understood the service share their experience and post useful life hacks for free access.
Shortcomings are associated with hacks, problems after updates or feature extensions. Plus, users in the discussions note that it is difficult to learn Joomla, so the creation may take longer.
OpenCart
It is most commonly used to create online stores. In this system, a person without programming experience will also be able to assemble a page. It will be easy to do this, and it will be easy and convenient to use the site in the future.
Pros:
- It is easy to find all the information. There are tips on how to improve your web resource on the Internet.
- Quickly set up all sections for online sales. For example, choose payment methods or categorize items.
- It is possible to enable the management of several sites for one user.
- It is convenient to analyze data on page visits.
Cons:
The main cons are related to working with additional extensions. That is, if you want to improve your landing page, be prepared that it may function more slowly, attract the interest of scammers, or stop being combined with the new version of OpenCart.
Let us summarize the interim results of the use of three platforms.
We recommend starting with WordPress. It will be easier for you to understand it, and the free version, lots of templates and user-friendly features will make the process of working on the page quick and fun.
The next level of difficulty is to create a project on Joomla. It is also possible to choose a free version, any type of site and choose a template for it.
And while OpenCart is easy to figure out, you can create a platform only for a store. And that might not be interesting to everyone. So we leave him third place.
Method 2: Using the constructor
You can create your own landing page in the second way, which will take even less time.
What is a constructor? This is a site with ready-made templates for your future page.
And if in the previous method you need to understand the hosting and name, then here you can skip all these steps. And it's not by chance that they call it a designer; it's really like a Lego set: you have parts and use them to build your own online platform. Or you can choose a ready-made model and simply edit it.
As with CMS systems, there are several options, let's take a closer look at the most popular ones.
Tilda Publishing
Users choose it among others most often. The project is created quickly, using ready-made samples or your own.
The future web page is assembled from blocks to choose from: title, phone numbers, links, photos, videos, and more. The finished blocks are divided into categories with templates. Each section can be edited: change the color, add animation. All changes are made in one click. Or, if you want something original, you can choose the “ZeroBlock” tool and design a partition from scratch.
To get started, choose a free plan to create one 50-page portal and get started.
Pros Tilda:
- Instructions have been prepared. Video tutorials and tips for creating a web resource have been collected.
- Design models have been developed. Everything will look professional and stylish.
- Analytics programs are connected. If necessary, these programs are configured to track visits.
Weaknesses:
- You can't choose any domain name. The free version will have the word “tilda” in the title.
- Templates are available only for single-page resources — you need to make blocks of other pages yourself.
- It won't be a very big project. Even on a paid plan, only 1 GB of space is provided.
Nethouse
Any project is created here: from business cards to online stores. Most often, it is the latter that are made on this constructor. A small number of samples are not enough to creatively create a personal blog. And because of this, it won't be much different from others on this platform. But Nethouse has a lot of features to make the site user-friendly for users who will visit it.
You can choose between a free version or a paid version. With a paid one, there will be more opportunities — ads are turned off, and the ability to pay for goods remotely is added.
Pros:
- Additional apps. Services that are needed for an online store, for example, YandexCash to pay for purchases, are connected.
- Low price. The paid version costs 149 rubles in the first year.
- Remote control. It can be controlled via a mobile app.
- Quick help. If you have any problems, technical support answers questions via chat.
Cons:
- Same samples. A unique platform will not work.
- The same type of functionality. You can't create different types, only online stores.
Wix
The simple and intuitive constructor is suitable for beginners. There are many blanks that can be used to make the site different from others. Most often, landing pages or personal blogs are created. You can also organize a web resource at a free plan, but for a really working site, you will have to activate paid services. Otherwise, there will be a lot of ads and little disk space.
Benefits:
- Mobile version. It is convenient to watch from all gadgets.
- Instructions. You can figure out important settings right away in technical support.
- Advanced features. Additional features for the web page can be purchased in the app.
Weaknesses:
- Blocking. Online users complain about the sudden blocking of their account for various reasons. After that, you can lose the site.
- Advertising even at the basic rate. If you choose one of the budget plans, it won't save you from ads at all.
- Sophisticated layout editor. Beginners get lost and do not immediately understand which button is responsible for what.
Webflow
You can work with this builder without diving into HTML code; it is used by professional designers and web agencies that develop small websites for clients: landing pages, corporate blogs, low-page online stores, business card sites, and so on. Thanks to its wide functionality, you can create truly unique and effective websites here. It is also not the easiest constructor for beginners because it is not localized into Russian; most of the training materials are also in English.
Webflow is a cross between website builders like Wix and powerful engines like WordPress.
Benefits:
- A huge catalog of ready-made templates for any purpose of the site.
- Quite a lot of training materials.
- There is a free plan where you can try all paid features.
Weaknesses:
- The interface, video, technical support are all in English.
- Difficult interface, not suitable for beginners.
- The free plan is only suitable for testing features; you cannot launch a working website on your own domain on it.
After analyzing the three options, we recommend starting to get acquainted with them with Tilda Publishing. You'll love the process and the result.
Results: is it better to choose a designer or CMS?
So, you've learned about two ways creating a website and now you're thinking about where to start practicing. We recommend trying all the options from the article to understand how these services work. But it's better to start with an easy level of difficulty. Therefore, we recommend creating your very first project on Tilda. By the way, in our next article we will create step-by-step instructions so that you can create a website yourself using this builder. To be continued!
