I know what you are thinking. You want to build a website easily, without having to set up anything sophisticated, right? Fortunately, web technology has invented the drag-and-drop feature that is fast becoming popular these days and SnapPages is a good example of such website builder. Let’s see how it works and if it is the right platform for creating a site.
What Is SnapPages?
SnapPages is a do-it-yourself software created in 2008 by Steve Testone. The idea behind the product is to make website building a useful, simple and awesome experience for the users.
How Does It Work?
To get started, you must first create a domain (or subdomain) name. Next, choose a theme that you like from the 20-over modern designs available in the theme library. Right after that, you can start to edit your website content.
Here’s a quick peek at how SnapPages works behind the scene.
On your user dashboard, you’ll see something like this;
- On the left side of your user dashboard, you have some pre-built pages for the main menus.
- The theme section where you can change themes whenever you like.
- The blog section for publishing posts.
- The apps feature which allows you to upload photos, store files, organizes events and create HTML emails to your subscribers.
- The website settings that enable mobile responsiveness, SEO setting descriptions and keywords, and 3rd party plugins such as social sharing and Google Analytics.
To the right of the user dashboard, you have the help desk and descriptions for each of the features.
For content editing purposes, you’ll have to click on either pages or blog which will then bring you to another user dashboard. Here’s where you get to use the drag-and-drop feature to construct your content from anything text to design layouts.
Whenever you hover a pre-built column, the dashboard will respond intuitively by showing you the type of command in which you can edit. Whether it is text or images, the editing process is fairly simple to work on. Once you are happy with all your website content, simply save as draft or publish it online.
If you wish to build an online store, SnapPages allows easy integration with eCommerce solutions such as Shopify, PayPal and Square. All websites are cloud-hosted by RackSpace so that your web content is more secure and will load faster online.
And there you have it – a new website built with a few simple drag-and-drop feature.
How Much Does It Cost?
You can try SnapPages for free for 14 days, in which you are only limited to publishing 5 pages on your website. To make the most out of your website, you should consider the paid plans which are the Pro and the Dev (short for Developer).
The main advantage of the Dev plan is that you get to change the theme’s layout by tweaking the HTML/CSS code (if you wish) and manage multiple websites for your clients.
If you want to upgrade, the price varies between Pro and Dev plans, according to the duration of your subscription.
Pro Pricing Plans
Dev Pricing Plans
* Custom domain will be charged with a separate fee.
SnapPages Is Great…
If you are completely new to website creation. The intuitiveness will give you an idea on how to navigate a website from a user’s perspective. The free trial doesn’t require any credit card information so you are free to explore the functions to see if you are comfortable using this tool or not.
However, SnapPages Isn’t That Great…
If you are serious about creating a dynamic website. So, for small business, a big project or a platform that requires a lot of reader engagement, SnapPages will fall short because;
- It has limited marketing tools.
- It doesn’t allow addition functions for more customization.
- It lacks certain SEO functions to improve website traffic.
- It is a flash based website builder which means older web browsers might have problem ‘reading’ it.
If you are using it for monetization purposes, SnapPages will take 50% cut from your revenue *ouch!*(This no longer applies. Read Steve’s explanation in the comment below)
So Is SnapPages Worthy of Your Time?
If you are planning to grow your online presence – whether it is personal or business related – then you should look at something more reliable and customizable like WordPress.
While WordPress isn’t your typical drag-and-drop website builder, it is definitely the leading content management system software used by many small to large organizations and worldwide. This powerful tool is also available for free and you can actually create one easily with SiteRubix.
Simply create a domain name below to launch your own WordPress website now.
Thanks for the great review! I saw that a few people had some questions or concerns so I just wanted to clarify a few things.
1. SnapPages is not a flash based website builder. It was when we first launched but we switched to HTML5 a few years ago.
2. We used to have a plugin for Google AdSense that you could optionally add and that did as you mention take 50%, but we did away with that as well. You can now integrate AdSense easily by inserting your own code and this will give you 100% of any revenue from that.
3. A few people mentioned being worried about being limited with simple website builders like this. Our Dev plan is really designed for people that know what they are doing and it allows you to take the training wheels off to do things like code your own custom templates, etc.
4. You mentioned a lack of SEO capabilities, but perhaps we don’t put these front and center enough which is good feedback. I clicked on the link for your suggested SEO stuff and SnapPages allows you to do all of the things you mentioned (analytics, sitemaps, etc.).
Thanks again for checking us out!
Hi Steve,
Thank you for the clarification. I am sure it will benefit the understanding of the readers in this blog.
Great review on SnapPages. I can’t believe they take 50% of any revenue made on the website. WOW – not good for a serious online business owner.
Wealthy affiliate provides great training on creating WordPress sites and doesn’t take any of the revenue you earn. They break it down in a simple to use manner so drag and drop features aren’t needed.
Hi Kimberly,
WordPress is a content management software so it is definitely better at organizing your web content. You can use it for personal blogs as well as for starting an online business.
The good thing about building a site with Wealthy Affiliate is that everything – website, hosting, training – sits on the same platform, giving you the convenience of access and immediate technical support. It’s an awesome technology.
Hi Cathy,
There are many drag-and-drop website builders available, but I think most are only good if you are just starting your first website or you want a personal site. Although they are easy to use and offer free trials, often they seem to lack certain features that are necessary if you are starting an online business. SnapPages seems to be the same and the fact that they take 50% of your revenue is a rip off.
Therefore, I agree with you that WordPress is the best solution for building a site. In terms of functionality and flexibility I don’t think it can be equalled, plus it’s free and easy to get started. I haven’t found a drag and drop editor that can match it.
Neither have I, Peter. I have researched about 10+ website builders including the popular one from GoDaddy and none of them are a match to WordPress. I did find Blogger (a blogging platform by Google) to be an interesting one. It has a cleaner interface and loads pretty fast too.
Hi Cathy!
Interesting… and expensive!
Right now I use WordPress, which I think is great. I get to choose a variety of WordPress themes. If I want something different that doesn’t fall into the “free category”, I’ll just purchase it, and at more than 1/2 the price of SnapPages!!!
And that’s exactly what I did, with all the “Drag & Drop” capability I’d ever want – at 1/2 the price as mentioned. I also started with the SiteRubix – great way to go!
Welcome back to my blog, Joanne.
From what I have researched, some website builders can be quite expensive for yearly subscriptions. Not sure if the technology requires more hosting maintenance or if it’s simply an up-selling strategy. Self-hosted WordPress sites are surely more cost-effective in that sense.
I have never heard of SnapPages before and while it looks like a fun way to manipulate web page design, I should imagine that it can become complicating if you have to use coding.
Many years ago I tried coding and what I learned is that it takes time to learn and master. You really need to know what you are doing. WordPress, however, sounds more user-friendly.
Hi Lis, there are some coding involved in WordPress as well, but most the time, installing a plugin will get the work done. I would recommend beginners to learn coding step-by-step from video tutorials before attempting to do it on their own.
Although I haven’t used SnapPages, I have used many other “trending” website builders like this with very little success. They are cumbersome and they move at a speed slower than that which the internet moves (just my findings).
If you are building websites and starting an online business and aren’t using Joomla or WordPress, you could be walking the plank with your biz. If you don’t have the marketing know-how to build out your business, then you are also going to be walking the plank.
SiteRubix with Wealthy Affiliate is the ultimate combo online and I cannot recommend it enough. I have been using this combo for 6 years now and I have been full-time for 5 as a result.
You are right, Jake.
The two important things when it comes to building a successful online business is 1) Using the right platform and 2) Marketing the business itself. Both of these should be acquired together and your testimony on Wealthy Affiliate reassures me that I am moving on the right direction.
Interesting. Never heard of SnapPages before. I have used Weebly before WordPress and I loved it. I can see it’s limitations are similar to what you found with SnapPages.
To create a dynamic website however, I still like WordPress the best. Especially since you can get two free websites through Wealthy Affiliate.
Have you ever tried any other platform?
Hi Lin,
I have tried Blogger actually. It’s the blogging platform by Google. I actually prefer it than most of the simple website builders out there. It’s more organized, comprehensive and has more SEO features in place.
Interesting post. It’s nice to have the opportunity to see a review on a platform other than WordPress. You mentioned that SnapPages is not very customizable and missed some SEO functions. Does this mean that addition of plugins to improve sites functionality is also limited in terms of offer and price (free)?
Thank you for your question, Ana.
SnapPages is a drag-and-drop editor. It is built with their own sets of plugins, so you don’t really get to install plugins like WordPress. During the free trial, you get to access most of the features (and plugins) but after that, you’ll have choose either one of the pricing plan in order to continue – in which I didn’t so I can’t really comment.