WordPress and Joomla are two of the most frequently used content management systems or, said in English, website platforms.  So what's the story with WordPress vs. Joomla?

They are both free because they are built using "open source" software that is built by the community.  Using WordPress or Joomla as your webssite platform can significantly reduce the overall cost of building and maintaing your website

The Cost Factor

The reason both WordPress and Joomla sites are cheaper to build and maintain is because there are easy ways to setup the sites yourself if you don't mind using one of their standard, free templates.  Or for a relatively small amout of money you can find Wordpress or Joomla developers that can customize your website design and functionality.  Because these platforms are so easy to use and there are so many WordPress and Joomla developers out there, the costs are low.  In addition, because they are both content managment systems, non-technical members of your team can update content easily without any intervention from someone technical.

What are the Differences Between WordPress and Joomla

It must be noted that WordPress has the highest market share of websites by a long shot. According to W3Techs, WordPress is used by 54% of websites that have content management systems.  What that means is there is a never ending supply of affordable developers to help build your WordPress site and an exhaustive list of free or very inexpensive plug-ins that can add functionality to your site.  WordPress is primarily known as a blogging platform, and that's where it shines. The software can quickly publish and edit content, as well as manage media files and tag posts.

WordPress and Joomla offer a lot of the same features. They both allow users to create sites that are easy to enter in content and manage for free.  Both systems also support a large number of users, so you can have multiple people writing posts and managing the content on your website.

WordPress shines as it has made it easy for the end user to enter in content.  It has been built for the business user who wants to enter content and not for developers.  Also for beginning developers, it is very easy to learn some simple programming to get a WordPress site up and running.  There are also many ecommerce plugins if you are building an ecommerce site and it is easy (with developers) to add community functionality to a WordPress site thorugh using the BuddyPress plugin.

Where Joomla shines is that it is better suited to handle more complex sites that are "data centric".  What that means is that if you will have multiple types of data that your website will display, such as handling detailed searches, having many attributes you want users to sort through on your site, Joomla is a great option and WordPress would not be able to handle this complexity. 

WordPress does have some areas in which it could improve. According to Jake Goldman, a WordPress rock star, "WordPress could stand to improve in having sites which support many different languages and could do better handling complex workflows." 

Cautionary Note

In either case, with WordPress or Joomla, because it is so easy to get started, there are a lot of subpar developers out there.  If you are building a very simple website, you are probably fine.  But, if you are looking to build a more complex site, doing your homework on the developers you select is priceless. 

Top tips for vetting these developers includes seeing what work they have done.  And it's not just about how good the site looks, it is also about whether the developer has made sites with similar types of functionality.  Lastly, ask for a lot of references for the developer and call them and ask them if they are happy with the developer's work, did they stay within budget, did they deliver on time and what they wish they had known before starting the website project.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' website management software rankings.

Yahoo! Small Business Websites and Yola are two of the top-ranked website creation and hosting services. In terms of name-brand recognition, Yahoo! has a decided edge. However, in the realm of real customer satisfaction, Yola wins decisively.

Our expert reviewer summed up Yahoo! as offering a respectable range of features that are neither a bargain nor offer the widest range of available features, while advising that there were “numerous reputable alternatives that are less expensive, less difficult to navigate, more flexible or ‘all of the above’ compared with what Yahoo! offers.”

Yahoo! fares worse than this middling assessment in the customer sentiment found in online reviews and forums, where the discontent far outweighs the satisfaction expressed. In general, there is a lot of dissatisfaction expressed for Yahoo!’s functionality and service, with many complaints about Yahoo!’s control panel, the difficulty of configuring systems, and the poor quality of technical support. A good number of Yahoo! customers describe being unhappy with the discontinuation of Geocities, lamenting what they see as a decline in service after being forced to switch from Geocities to Yahoo!.

Many customers also describe Yahoo!'s fees as being too expensive, which jibes with our expert reviewer who noted that after your initial term on Yahoo! expires, each domain will cost you $34.95 per year, “which is expensive compared with all leading competitors identified by Comparz.”

For Yola, on the other hand, the number of glowing reports and praise far outweigh the amount of discontent expressed. Yola has built a solid reputation by striving to provide easy-to-use web creation tools and exceptional service at low prices, and customer testimonials reflect the success of the company in achieving those goals. In general, users find Yola’s tools more modern, user friendly, and glitch-free.

As our expert reviewer noted, “Yola's streamlined, consistent offerings make choosing a construction and hosting package more simple and straightforward than it is at the sites of several competing providers.”

The pet peeve users have with Yola is the lack of free e-mail and the alternative choice of Yola Mail, an option priced at $9.96 per year per mailbox.  

For small businesses who do decide to go with Yahoo! or Yola, it is worth considering their premier service offerings. Yahoo! Small Business offers complete Web site design consulting services via a partnership with Logoworks by HP for $299, while Yola Premiere includes consultation with a dedicated Web site designer from HP Logoworks for a $499.95 first-year fee.

Big companies pay a lot of money for a web content management solution and a professionally designed website—many in the $100,000 to $300,000 range—so the Yahoo! and Yola premier services are a bargain.

Bottom Line: Yola offers exceptional ease of use and distinctive service at competitive prices. With Yahoo! Small Business Websites, you are prone to find unexceptional tools, service, and pricing. The premier service from both providers is a bargain worth investigating for SMBs.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

Many website creation and hosting services have a less than sterling reputation, and for good reason.  The industry is notoriously riddled with scams and dishonest rating practices.

In choosing a website creation and hosting service you want one that is easy to use, full-featured, fairly priced, has high availability, provides good service, and doesn’t give you deceptive and bait-and-switch offerings.  

Some services work hard at establishing a good reputation by delivering these attributes, while others work hard at building a façade reputation and covering up their lack of delivering these attributes.

In comparing Yola vs. iPage, I felt I was seeing these polar dynamics in action. As our reviewer noted, “complaints persist elsewhere online about the reliability of iPage's hosting services and responsiveness to requests for refunds or explanations of unexpected charges.”

I went out to see what the general feeling online was towards Yola and iPage. Based on what I found, I would say that Yola’s overall reputation in reviews and customer testimonials exceeds that of iPages’.

Indeed, there are many complaints of iPage’s refund practices. Moreover, I discovered at least two astroturfesque sites that appeared to be plants by iPage to counter all the bad reports by dismissing them, praising their service, and presenting a positive image.

My overall impression was that customers were more satisfied with Yola’s product and support.

Some typical complaints I found against iPage:

• “Has anyone tried to build a website recently? I have been with ipage, but am very unhappy with what i can only describe as a scam."
• “My experience with iPage.com leads me to believe that it is shady at best and fraudulent at worst…They tack on fees for many of their services, so be careful what you use.”

I found a fairly large number of posts that echoed these sentiments.

Both Yola and iPage seek to win customers by providing low-priced and easy-to-use web creation services. However, the comparison ends there. Users and reviewers find Yola’s drag-and-drop interface to be innovative and leading edge, while many describe iPage’s as dated and more difficult.

The base pricing of iPage is attractive, however users report that key features and capabilities are not included in these plans and that you must pay significantly more to add them. For example, one user related that the iPage’s Basic Service does include the ability to link within pages, which is critical to SEO. You can unlock this capability and others, however, by upgrading to Premium service, for an extra $9.95 per month.

Similarly, this user reported that your web pages will lack H1 tags, also critical for being recognized by search engines, and that you can engage an iPage design team to add them for $500. The user also described the support service you receive for the base price as extremely unknowledgeable, and that for an additional $49 per month you can upgrade to iPage’s superior “concierge” help service.

Another user also described how iPage “doesn’t allow enough pages and the ones you have to use don’t hold much. Then you have to upgrade to premium which is another 9 dollars to get extra pages.”

While I found complaints about Yola’s service, they were nothing of the order of those against iPage's billing or add-on charges. The complaints were mostly about the depth of certain features or the limited e-mail offering. Overall, customer satisfaction appeared to outweigh dissatisfaction.

For iPage, I found our reviewer's warning to be accurate: "The company's offerings are cheap and appealing, but a lack of transparency and continuing negative allegations elsewhere online demand that you proceed with caution, if you decide to proceed at all."

Bottom Line: Do your homework before you buy. Check out what reviewers and customers are saying about these services. Beware of astroturf sites and fabricated reviews that are put up by vendors. For those who have used Yola and iPage, please share your experience here and let us know what you think.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

While every business needs a web site today, most small businesses do not have the technical know-how or resources to design and build one. The good news is there is an abundance of website creation vendors who can provide a serviceable website at an affordable price. The bad news is that these services can be spotty in their support and limited in their feature set, templates, ease of deployment, and flexibility.

Two of the top-ranked website creation services in our ratings are Yola and GoDaddy. While GoDaddy is a more ubiquitous and well-known brand, Yola’s relative obscurity appears to be a blessing for its users who value its responsive support service.

Besides support, Yola’s winning formula is ease of use and affordability. Yola makes it easy for non-technical users to set up a web site through a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, and reinforces that friendliness with helpful 24x7 toll-free telephone customer support.

While GoDaddy also offers live telephone support 24/7 in the United States, the service is not toll-free and wait times can be long and frustrating. Indeed, GoDaddy’s popularity seems to have bogged down its overall responsiveness. Once your site is published, adding new content or making changes also can be slow.

Included features, deployment of features, and the pricing of features is a key area in which Yola and GoDaddy differ.  Yola’s pricing scheme is simple and straightforward, with all listed features included in your monthly fee. Moreover, Yola pledges that all features that are currently free will remain free and that more free features will be added.

With GoDaddy, pricing plans can be confusing, add-on options can be expensive, and limits on capacity can be challenging—even with an unlimited plan. For example, there is a per-month additional charge for features like blog and podcast hosting, Quick Shopping Cart option, and merchant accounts to enable credit card transactions, and as our reviewer notes, information about some of the advertising and marketing services is difficult to access and investigate.

Yola’s Silver plan pricing is $99.95 ($69.95 for the first year with purchase of a custom domain fromYola), and its Premier plan is $499.95 for the first year, $99.95/year thereafter, which includes consultation with a dedicated Web site designer from HP Logoworks. Yola also offers a 5MB site for free, but with this you must endure the inclusion of Yola banners and advertising.

GoDaddy charges by the month and offers three base plans, Economy, Deluxe, and Premium, with slightly varying monthly charges for 1-, 2-, or 3-year commitments (For Economy, for example, $4.99 per month with 3-month minimum commitment, and $4.49, $4.24, and $3.99 per month for 1-, 2-, 3-year commitments).

As our reviewer noted, GoDaddy is a great choice for new users building entry-level, low-traffic websites that do not require sophisticated features. For sites that must support higher volumes of traffic and more complex features, GoDaddy’s expense can mount. 

One knock against Yola is the lack of free e-mail.  Yola offers Yola Mail, an option priced at $9.96/year/mailbox. However, Yola Mail includes some nice features not found in other free e-mail packages, such as integrated calendar, contact management tools, RSS feed reader, and the ability to display photos and play back audio files attached to e-mails.

Bottom Line: For those who value ease of deployment and responsive support, Yola is the way to go. GoDaddy is a good choice for entry-level Web sites with limited traffic and feature requirements. For more extensive features and higher scalability, GoDaddy’s deployment becomes more fuzzy and difficult and the cost creeps higher.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of website creation tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

There are hundreds of thousands of web developers out there, both firms and individuals.  And web development can become an expensive proposition for your business.  There are several easy to use web site creation tools that can get your going right away.  But, many of you will find that you want to use a web development shop to help you design and build or update your business’ web presence.  Here are some key tips when interviewing web development shops:

1. Make sure that they using a Content Management System (CMS) and that it is one of the open source CMSs.  A CMS allows you to update your content on your website with no intervention by anyone technical.  This is critical to managing updates to the site often and without any cost to you.  If the firm is not building your site on a CMS, don’t use them.  And if the CMS is not one of the big ones (such as Wordpress, Tumblr, Drupal, or Joomla), beware. 

Using a developer’s home grown CMS will provide you with more lock-in with that vendor since it will be harder for others to build on the original developers CMS.  Don’t fall for the line that their CMS is better than the ones being used by literally millions of users.  Whether it’s WordPress or others, CMS systems can be a big help in making more frequent updates to your site.  Content can be changed as simply as a copy paste feature into a text frame, and voila, your site feels fresh again.

2. Don’t let them give you a quote that does not include “SEO”, which means search engine optimization and is the key to your site getting found on the internet.  If a web development shop is not including that in its quote then they also may be overcharging you.  No site is complete without SEO.  A website is all about being found on the web and SEO is an inherent part of the building of any website.  Also, beware of exorbitant SEO charges.  Development firms often price gauge customers for SEO since they rely on your not understanding what it means.

3. If your site has a registration feature, make sure all of the currently popular methods of social login are included. This includes, being able to register via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Plus.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of website creation tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' website creation tools rankings.

You know your business needs a website, and you do not want to spend a lot.  There are multiple services out there that can enable you to build your own website and host it inexpensively.  But make sure you shop around!!

First of all, understand that a lot of the pricing "deals" you'll see online are only good for a limited time. And those prices tend NOT to go down after that time's expired!

It's also essential to get very clear on what it is your hard-earned money's actually buying. Does the site-hosting package include access to tools to help you design and construct your site? What about easy-to-use design templates or stock images? And how hard is it and how long does it take to make or request changes to your site's content?

How about e-mail? How many e-mail addresses are included, if any? Could be useful…

After your site's built, does the package you're perusing include any help with getting your site publicized, such as advertising credits or search engine optimization (SEO) help?

Is there a money-back guarantee? Does it have a time limit? What about guarantees that your site will be available 24/7/365? How are those guarantees backed up?

To make the best possible choice of a website construction and hosting provider for your business, you've got to get solid answers to these and several other key questions. Fortunately, Comparz has a number of solution reviews ready to help you pick the best provider and get your site up and running. THEN you can start to look at cloud hosting providers that can deliver managed access to other technology resources for your business… but that's another discussion… stay tuned!

And by the way, if there are other providers or solution areas you think we should be covering at Comparz, let us know! Just leave a comment below, drop an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or both!

All businesses need a website these days, whether it is a complex site where you engage in ecommerce to a very simple set of pages so that you can connect with potential customers.  Getting started used to require personal technical expertise or hiring a web developer to build and launch your site.  These days there are several cloud-based services that will get you online quickly regardless of your technical skill level.

Website creation solutions are “one-stop shops” where you can register a website domain name, select a hosting option and build your website all in one place.  While it possible to do these steps separately, these integrated toolsets often save you time and money.  These solutions also give you the ability to change or update your website on demand without having to involve others, making your business more agile and responsive on the web.

Our top five choices for website creation tools offer a wide range of options based on your needs and level of sophistication.  iPage is for very basic users that are looking for a low-cost option.  Intuit Websites and Yola both are easy to use products with great support service.  GoDaddy Website Building is the largest provider and offers a comprehensive suite of features, although at a higher cost.  Yahoo! Small Business Websites is for more advanced users who want the most features but also have the expertise to take advantage of the options.

Comparz provides user reviews and rankings of software services and tools for small and mid-sized businesses. Click here to view Comparz' business software reviews and rankings.

click here for ipage user reviews

WHO iPage is FOR: Budget-minded small and mid-sized companies willing to pay up-front for one-, two- or three-year commitments.

WHAT IT IS: A set of Web site construction and hosting services aimed at those who are highly motivated by simplicity and low prices.

THE GOOD: Aggressively inexpensive pricing, at least initially. Drag-and-drop tools for building a site and deciding how it will look. Live, toll-free telephone support is promised 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

THE BAD: Pricing after initial promotional periods is not significantly lower than that charged by better-known providers. And complaints persist elsewhere online about the reliability of iPage's hosting services and responsiveness to requests for refunds or explanations of unexpected charges.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Overall, the features and pricing available from iPage are not significantly better than packages available from providers with stronger reputations and resources for good customer care. If you can negotiate clear and enforceable contractual terms and conditions, iPage may be a good choice. If you find that prospect daunting, however, you may want to look elsewhere.

Full Review

Pricing: This is what iPage is likely known for the most – low, low pricing. The company Web site frequently offers “sales” that promise Web site construction and hosting complete with numerous additional features for a low of $2.95 per month. However, these prices are good only for what iPage calls at its site an “initial term.” Your initial term can be 12, 24 or 36 months, and you must pay in advance for all of the months in your initial term. This means you will be billed $35.40 for 12 months, $70.80 for 24 months or $106.20 for 36 months.

You will also be billed in term-length increments for your renewal. This means that you'll be billed $107.40 for 12 months @$8.95, $190.80 for 24 months @$7.95 or $250.20 for 36 months @$6.95. Even at the longest term available, you'll never see a price close to $2.95/month again. The closest you'll come is $4.95/month, if you pre-pay for 36 months @2.95, then renew for 36 months $6.95. No month-to-month options are available.

The iPage Web site construction and hosting plan includes the following features.

• Access to drag-and-drop and template-based site-building options
• Free hosting with “unlimited” (as defined in the iPage Terms of Service) disk space and upload/download bandwidth
• Free e-mail with unlimited addresses
• Google Custom Search and Webmaster Tools support for search engine discovery and optimization (SEO)
• Shared Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security
• Free online store, PayPal integration and choice of three third-party online shopping carts for selling on the Web
• Support for easy-to-add photo galleries, blogs, online discussion forums and content management system  (CMS) integration
• Support for Real, Adobe Flash, Macromedia Shockwave and MIDI multimedia file formats
• Free advertising credits with Facebook ($50), Google AdWords ($75) and Yahoo!/Bing Sponsored Search ($25)
• Free 60-day membership in the RatePoint consumer business review service
• Live telephone and online chat support 24/7
• “Anytime” money-back guarantee (as detailed below)

Also, once you've chosen a domain name and an initial term for your hosting plan, before your Web site can get built and go live, iPage offers a number of options for your consideration. These include the following.

• Identity theft and data security features – $12.95/year.
• “Domain privacy,” or private registration, which does not publicize the registrant's contact information – $8.99/year.
• E-mail service and a temporary page for your chosen domain while you build your site – $12.95, one time.
• Listing in the iPage online directory – $12/year.
• E-mail spam filter – $9.95/year.
• Automated daily site backup – $12.95/year.
• Basic submission of your site to leading search engines and non-specified search engine optimization (SEO) features – $9.95/year.

Some other Web site construction and hosting service providers include some or all of these features in their plan packages. And some of these iPage features are poorly described at the company's registration and sign-up area online. This can be both challenging and expensive, especially for users with little or no experience building Web sites, who may be tempted simply to avoid all of the offered options. Those who have such experience, however, may find it easier, cheaper or both to find the feature combinations or detailed information they need elsewhere.

iPage also promises an “anytime” money-back guarantee but comes with a qualification that it only covers hosting plans and not most add-on services and does not include the $15 non-refundable fee for domain name registration. It seems safe to assume that any or all of the “add-on services” you're asked to consider when registering your domain would also be non-refundable under the terms of iPage's guarantee. And there are numerous other Web sites online where people who claim to be current and former iPage customers complain of mysterious charges and long times to process refunds and reversals.

iPage also offers an Affiliate Program that promises to pay $105 for each new customer generated by iPage ads you agree to run on your site. You should consider carefully whether or not it affects your company's online outreach efforts to run ads for your hosting provider alongside your own content.

Support: iPage offers 24/7 toll-free telephone and one-click online access to support providers, as well as the ability to submit trouble or support tickets online. iPage received a June 2010 “Best Support” award from WebHostingSearch.com, an independent reviewer of Web site construction and hosting providers. However, current and former users have complained about long wait times and inadequate answers from iPage support personnel.

Fortunately, the company also offers an online Help Center that provides centralized access to a Knowledge Base, tutorials, a user guide, the iPage Terms of Service and additional useful resources from across the Web. It also offers a “Premium Support” option that promises expedited handling of all support requests for an additional $24.95-$29.95/month.

Compatibility Details: Few details are presented clearly at the company's site, but apparently any user of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox browser software on a PC or a Mac can access and use iPage's Web site construction and management tools. You definitely want to experiment with all the browser and device combinations you're likely to use for Web site construction and management within the first 30 days of signing up with iPage.

Setup: When you click on any of the numerous “sign up” or “sign up now” buttons at the iPage Web site, you're taken to a page where you can search for and select a domain name or initiate transfer of your current name to iPage. Once you've entered the billing information needed to confirm your hosting plan purchase, you'll get an e-mail that confirms your purchase and log-in information.

How it Works:

Once you log in, you can choose between iPage's Drag and Drop Site Builder or WordPress site-building tools. The Drag and Drop Site Builder offers a limited range of templates to choose from, with limited options for editing the templates you choose. WordPress (the very popular tool for creating and managing blogs) offers more flexibility, but can be a bit more challenging to navigate than the Drag and Drop Site Builder option. More advanced users can also create Web pages using their design tool of choice and uploading them to iPage using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

Another option is to get professional site design help. For $499, you can consult with an iPage designer who will build your site using the company's Drag and Drop Site Builder, so you can manage and update the site yourself. iPage also offers more extensive design and management services. These range in price from $299 for set-up and $21/month for a basic marketing and informational site to $779 for set-up and $40/month for a custom-designed site with e-commerce features. A free initial consultation is available.

Security and Privacy: There is no page or area at the iPage Web site devoted to security, so information about how the company protects its servers or your Web sites and information is scarce. Telephone representatives' ability to answer specific security questions is inconsistent as well. The company does subscribe to the SiteLock independent Web site verification service, and promises that a SiteLock license of some sort is included with every hosting plan. However, specific details about the included SiteLock services are nowhere to be found at the iPage Web site. You should demand details from a telephone representative before committing to an iPage contract.

The iPage Privacy Policy talks about what information the company collects and how it uses that information, but offers few specifics. There is some discussion of the use of cookies. But there is no mention of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Safe Harbor Program, which could be important if doing business with your business online ever involves personal data of European Union (EU) members.

A link to the iPage Privacy Policy is included on the company's Terms of Service page along with other important privacy information. Explicit information about resolving customer dissatisfaction or timely processing of refunds is not evident, and again, answers from telephone representatives appear to vary from call to call.

Comparison to similar products: iPage offers attractive initial pricing for basic Web site construction and hosting, and easy-to-use tools for site construction and management. Templates and editing options are more limited than those of other providers. Specific details about how iPage protects your Web site and information against outages or what “uptime” levels you can expect are not readily provided by the company.

Conclusions: If you want to build a professional-looking Web site quickly and easily, and also need the ability to update it rapidly with on your own, iPage may be a good choice for your business. The company's offerings are cheap and appealing, but a lack of transparency and continuing negative allegations elsewhere online demand that you proceed with caution, if you decide to proceed at all.

click here for godaddy web site building user reviews

WHO IT’S FOR: Small and mid-sized companies that need a basic Web site, especially if limited demands for capacity or changes to the site are expected.

WHAT IT IS: A popular and well known Web site construction and hosting solutions provider.

THE GOOD: Easy to use for creating, registering and launching a basic business Web site.

THE BAD: Pricing plans can be confusing, add-on options can be expensive, limits on capacity (even with an “unlimited” plan) can be challenging and waits for support can be frustrating.

THE BOTTOM LINE: GoDaddy.com is a great choice for new users building entry-level Web sites that they don't expect to face very high traffic levels or to require comprehensive feature sets. Those building sites with higher traffic or more complex feature requirements can probably save money, get more features or both elsewhere.

Full Review

Pricing: GoDaddy.com offers three basic plans for Web site construction and hosting – Economy, Deluxe and Premium. Specific pricing is based on the length of commitment you're willing to make. For example, the Economy plan is priced at $4.99/month with a minimum three-month commitment. This goes as low as $3.99/month ($2.99/month during a recent “sale”) in exchange for a 36-month commitment.

Note: GoDaddy.com occasionally discounts prices on commitments of 12 or more months.

Every GoDaddy.com Web site construction and hosting plan includes the following features.

• Access to thousands of free images and support for image and video uploads
• Easy “click-&-type” editing with customizable colors and fonts
• Free hosting and e-mail
• Google Webmaster Tools support for search engine discovery and optimization (SEO)
• Live telephone support 24/7
• More than 3,000 “professional design options” (templates), 120 pre-built websites and 14 page layouts
• PayPal support for online selling or donations
• Pre-built Adobe Flash introductory pages
• Support for built-in photo albums, image galleries, guest books and online discussion forums
• Support for easy integration of GoDaddy.com's “Quick Shopping Cart” option
• Support for Really Simply Syndication (RSS) site subscription feeds
• Uptime of at least 99.9 percent.

Support: GoDaddy.com promises live telephone support 24/7 in the United States. However, thanks in part to the company's popularity, wait times can be maddeningly long, and there is no toll-free number provided at the site. The company does promise to respond to support requests via e-mail within 24 hours. There is a link at the company's Web site for help in Spanish as well.

Users can opt to create and submit support tickets online. There is also extensive online help available via a knowledge base, a blog, an “insider” newsletter and numerous online forums.

Compatibility Details: GoDaddy.com's WebSite Tonight site-building tool supports all leading Web browsers, although details are scarce at the company Web site. There is a GoDaddy.com mobile application for Apple iOS and Android devices, but it can only be used for buying and managing domain names, checking e-mail and other limited functions.

Setup: GoDaddy.com makes it very easy to search for, find and register new domain names, or to transfer already-owned domain names to its servers and services. There's nothing to download, and the on-screen site navigation tools are fairly straightforward. Users can also opt to call the company and work with a human being or to use an “online product advisor.”

Once you've got your domain name locked up and chosen your plan, GoDaddy.com will e-mail you confirming information and you can log into your account at the company Web site. Once there, you can search for and purchase other domain names, manage the name or names you've already registered or begin building your Web site using GoDaddy.com's “WebSite Tonight” online tool.

How it Works:

GoDaddy.com's “WebSite Tonight” makes it fairly simple and fast to build your Web site. You can begin by choosing and editing templates or complete, pre-built five-page Web sites. And each page of your site can have any of 14 layouts. All of these are sorted into categories and easy to browse.

You can easily edit or add text, images, videos or other elements to your site, and preview your work as others will see the site when it “goes live.” Once you're satisfied, you can then publish your site to the Web with a single mouse click. However, once your site is published, adding new content or making changes to it can be slow, again thanks to GoDaddy.com's popularity.

GoDaddy.com also offers fee-based Web site design and construction services. For those with access to Web site programming expertise, GoDaddy.com also supports multiple popular programming languages and construction tools, including ColdFusion and FrontPage.

Additional Useful Features: GoDaddy.com Deluxe and Premium Web site construction and hosting plans include several additional features. These include easy addition of an event calendar to a site, separate header images for specific site pages and the ability to password-protect individual site pages. Deluxe and Premium subscribers can also easily add “widgets” to their sites that enable display of and access to features ranging from clocks and maps to Flickr and Twitter.

GoDaddy.com also offers blog and podcast hosting, a Quick Shopping Cart option, merchant accounts to enable credit card transactions, Web site analytics, SEO and Google advertising services and a Web site protection service to combat viruses and other “malware.” However, each of these involves a per-month additional charge, and information about some of the advertising and marketing services is difficult to access and investigate.

Other Web site construction and hosting options include versions of at least some of these features and make others easier to find and invoke. Users attempting to build richly featured sites may find that GoDaddy.com's pricing quickly outpaces that of competing alternatives.

Security: GoDaddy.com has a comprehensive online “security center.” From this Web page, users can view system alerts and recent security-related news items, blog posts, notifications from the company and security forum discussions. A “Resources” link connects to various articles on security written by GoDaddy.com and partner companies.

The company also partners with numerous independent providers of online security and verification services. In addition, GoDaddy.com offers site-builders numerous options for support of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, a widely used industry standard for online security. Standard SSL is priced starting at $69.99/year for Standard SSL domain validation and verification for a single Web site. Premium SSL validates both the Web site and the company it belongs to, and displays a green browser bar to site visitors to showcase this enhanced security. Premium SSL is priced beginning at $99.99/year for a single Web site. Subscribers to the Premium hosting plan receive a Standard SSL certificate at no additional cost for the term of the initial hosting plan purchased.

Privacy: Go Daddy.com is a licensee of the widely used and respected TRUSTe Privacy Program, and makes it easy to contact the company by telephone or e-mail with privacy-related questions. The Web site's privacy policy also clearly states that the TRUSTe Privacy Program “covers only information that is collected through this Site, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from the Site.”

Go Daddy.com also complies with the EU Safe Harbor framework as set forth by the Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union. The company's online security policy provides detailed information about its use of cookies and what it does with the information it collects, including what happens to the information of users who terminate their accounts. However, the privacy policy says nothing about refusing cookies or opting out of any specific privacy-related requests or requirements.

Comparison to similar products: GoDaddy.com offers most of the features offered by competitors, although not always as economically or as tightly integrated with primary site-building tools. However, few, if any, alternatives can match GoDaddy.com's ubiquity or brand recognition. And it really couldn't be more simple to register a domain name and then start immediately to build and publish a Web site than it is at GoDaddy.com.

Conclusions: GoDaddy.com is one of the largest and most successful providers of Web site construction and hosting services, including domain name registration. If you want a one-stop shop for almost all of your Web site construction and hosting needs, GoDaddy.com is definitely worth considering. However, if you're trying to build or enhance multiple Web sites or support multiple or comprehensive advertising, marketing or analytics and reporting features, you should shop carefully. You may find that GoDaddy's breadth and depth of features comes at a total cost that makes that one-stop convenience more than your business can afford.

click here for Intuit Web Site Creator reviews

WHO IT’S FOR: Small and mid-sized companies that need a basic Web site that can be easily expanded and updated without technical knowledge or assistance.

WHAT IT IS: A set of Web site construction and hosting services offered by an experienced provider of software and online services widely used by small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).

THE GOOD: Easy-to-use and easy-to-navigate tools and options for basic Web site construction and appearance, and a wealth of well-organized templates and images. Users can make changes to their Web sites immediately, as often as they want or need. Plans include live, toll-free telephone support available 11.5 hours a day, seven days a week.

THE BAD: Some advanced features are not as “intuit-ively” presented as core features, and you may need more e-mail addresses or more flexibility than provided with the “advertising credit” included with Intuit's “Professional” (or “Platinum”) plan.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Intuit Websites offers a strong range of templates and images for site-building, and great flexibility for those who need to create new or edit existing Web site pages frequently, quickly or both. For those seeking to sell at their sites, however, Intuit's feature mix may not exactly align with specific business needs or goals.

Full Review

Pricing: Intuit Websites offers three plans for Web site construction and hosting. The “Personal” plan is free for 30 days and only $4.99/month thereafter, but is too limited in functionality for most if not all SMBs. Intuit's “Business” plan includes all of the core features a business Web site requires. A “Professional” plan adds advertising and search engine optimization (SEO) services intended to increase traffic to your site. (Confusingly, these latter two plans are sometimes referred to as “Gold” and “Platinum” respectively at the Intuit Web site.)

Every Intuit Websites construction and hosting plan includes the following features.

• Access to hundreds of templates, many designed for specific business types, and more than 250,000 stock images
• A 30-day money-back guarantee
• Toll-free telephone support from 6 a.m. Until 5:30 p.m. US Pacific Time, seven days a week
• Access to detailed information about how many people visit your site, where they are, how they found it, how long they stay and what they look at while there
• Support for easy-to-add Facebook links, forms, guestbooks, maps, photo albums, polls and YouTube videos
• Uptime of at least 99.9 percent

Intuit Websites also offers fee-based professional Web site design services. Two options are available. $799 buys up to five Web site pages featuring up to two products, 30 minutes with a design consultant and 30 minutes of training on Intuit's site management and editing tools. $1,299 buys up to 10 Web site pages featuring up to five products, up to two design consultation sessions and more advanced editing and management training.

Support: Intuit Websites promises unlimited, toll-free access to support providers seven days a week between 6 a.m. And 5:30 p.m. US Pacific Time. The company also promises unlimited e-mail support and offers a comprehensive online Help Center to subscribers. So-called “Web advisors” are available to provide assistance with everything from hosting plan and domain name selection to advertising and marketing options toll-free from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT.

Compatibility Details: Any user of Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox browser software on a PC or a Mac can access and use Intuit Websites' SiteBuilder tools, according to the company.

Setup: Intuit Websites presents a single screen from which you can search for and obtain domain names, learn about hosting options, choose a plan and begin building a Web site. The clean, easy-to-navigate interface reflects Intuit's years of experience delivering financial software and services to non-technical business and personal users.

You cannot view all of the templates and images in the Design Gallery without signing up for at least a free trial. However, you can view several examples of real-life customer-created sites.

There is not a lot of detail about how to transfer or work with domain names you may already own. However, a toll-free call to a Web advisor promises to address all such questions.

Once you've got your domain name locked up and signed up for a plan or a free trial, you'll get a confirmation e-mail, user ID and password for access to Intuit Websites' SiteBuilder tools and complete Design Gallery.

How it Works:

The Intuit Websites Design Gallery offers more than 100 templates, grouped into business categories. They can all be edited with the SiteBuilder tool to include whatever text and images you prefer, or you can design each page of your Web site “from scratch.” Everything on every page can basically be dragged, dropped and tweaked until it's just the way you want it. Once you're satisfied with all of your pages, a single mouse click publishes your site to the Web, and you can then think about ways to drive traffic to your site. Again, Intuit Websites advisors stand ready to help at the drop of an e-mail or a toll-free telephone call.

The Intuit Websites Professional/Platinum package includes free basic listing submissions to services such as Google Maps and Yahoo! Local, increasing the odds that your site will appear in the search results presented to users of those services. Intuit will also include your information in the Intuit Business Directory. The Professional/Platinum plan also includes advertising credits for a service known as SearchLight. This service includes ad composition, placement and search engine optimization (SEO), and guarantees a minimum of 400 clicks per year from Google and Yahoo!

Security: Here is a quote from the Intuit Web site. “As you should expect from a company producing top financial solutions like TurboTax, Quicken, and QuickBooks, data security, particularly over the Internet, is a critical priority at Intuit. We process millions of sensitive tax returns a year, so we know how to keep online data secure. Intuit Websites uses the same SSL [Secure Sockets Layer] data-encryption technology used by leading banks, and our servers are protected by security systems and personnel, firewalls, and intrusion detection software and hardware. And, of course, Intuit Websites is a VeriSign Secured ™  product.” (VeriSign is a widely used and respected independent provider of Web site verification services.) Intuit also offers a comprehensive Online Security Center (athttp://security.intuit.com that offers information about how Intuit protects your information and how you can better protect it yourself.

Privacy: Intuit is a licensee of the respected and independently managed TRUSTe Privacy Seal program. This means that Intuit's privacy-related policies and practices comply with TRUSTe's requirements.

The Intuit Small Business Privacy Statement provides extensive detail about what information Intuit collects. The Statement also explains how Intuit collects that information (including its use of third parties to place so-called “Web beacons” and manage cookies on its sites) and how that information is used. The company explicitly states that it does not “sell or rent your personal information with anyone for promotional or marketing purposes.” Nor does Intuit “share your personal information with anyone outside of Intuit for their promotional or marketing use without your consent.”

Some Intuit businesses and processes comply with the U.S. Department of Commerce's Safe Harbor Program, which protects the privacy of European User (EU) residents. Intuit Websites is not explicitly mentioned as one of those businesses or processes. So if your business does business in the EU, you may want to talk about this with an Intuit representative.

Intuit's Terms of Service also include some fairly specific and extensive restrictions on allowed content, and give Intuit the right to decide how long your Web site's information is retained or how much storage or bandwidth it is allowed to consume. The Terms of Service add that Intuit can change the terms at any time, without notice, and that “unlimited sites” actually cannot exceed 99 sub-domains each.

Comparison to similar products: Intuit Websites' SiteBuilder tool is easier to use than many alternatives, and Intuit's templates are often more flexible to edit. However, Intuit's options for online advertising, marketing and selling may seem restrictive when compared with others.

Conclusions: If you want and need to build a professional-looking Web site quickly and easily, and want the ability to update it rapidly with on your own, Intuit Websites is a great choice for your business. You may find Intuit's options for advertising, marketing and selling a bit expensive or restrictive, but if these issues don't matter to you, you should find Intuit Websites fully featured and easy to use.