Webnode Review: We put Webnode through its paces
Whether you need a simple website or a complete online store, Webnode does it all. It has two core components:
- a website builder (for both personal and business websites)
- an online store
The difference between Webnode's personal and business packages lies mainly in the number of designs you have to chose from. There's a wider range of templates available for business websites, along with some pre-filled industry-specific content. But there's no real difference aside from this, which means you might want to consider building your business website on one of the more affordable personal plans.
In fact, you're looking at a product of Webnode's capabilities right now – we used it to build this site. We even spent a long time on the free version, upgrading to the Standard Plan (for personal websites) only by the end of 2010 when we found our increasing visitor numbers tipped us over the free package's traffic limit (approx. 150 visitors a day).
Webnode in detail
| Criterion | Personal and business websites | Webnode's eShop | Comments |
| Ease of use |
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Sophisticated editor with a wide range of functions. |
| Choice and flexibility of design (templates) |
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Can look dated, but are functional and include access to CSS. (See Templates for Advanced Users: English version via Google Translate). The template for the online store is still a little basic. Nice: a smartphone-friendly website will be generated automatically |
| Advertisement- free | In 'Standard' plan | In 'Standard' plan | Free version puts a link and a small button banner in your website's footer. |
| Languages |
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Webnode is multilingual. Interface languages include EN, DE, FR, ES, CZ, PL, SL and CN. Also supports different language versions of your website (but not the online store). |
| Features | |||
| - Top-level domain (e.g. .com or .net) | Yes | Yes | Register a domain via Webnode or re-direct your existing domain. |
| - Depth of navigation |
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Seemingly unlimited sub-navigation (we were able to continue adding levels below six). |
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- Widgets (small tools to add extra functionality) |
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Video (YouTube), images (photo galleries, Flickr) and more. |
| - Monetization | Yes | Yes | Google AdSense integration, but code has to be inserted into a separate section, i.e. not embedded inside a text block. |
| - e-Commerce |
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Limited options on the personal and business packages. The paid package for the online store offers very sophisticated functionality. |
| - Search-engine optimization (SEO) |
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Page titles, meta tags, URL fields and image ALT tags are all freely editable - excellent! |
| - Blog |
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Does the job but is too basic for dedicated bloggers. Commenting can be improved with Disqus. |
| - Visitor statistics |
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Looks very good. Google Analytics can also be added. |
| - Contact form | Yes | Yes | Has three fields: name, email and message. Sufficient for most cases. More extensive forms available with these form builders. |
| - Add HTML Code | Yes | Yes | Allows you to add other widgets and tools. |
| - Storage space | From 100 MB (Personal Website) | From 10 MB | Upgrade to 5 GB with the paid version. Large files can be uploaded using the Upload Manager. |
| - Forum | No | No | "Forum" option is actually just a commenting feature. |
| Support | Email, forum and knowledgebase | Email, forum and knowledgebase | Technical support questions answered quickly but not always to our full satisfaction. Help files are not very comprehensive. |
| Fun factor |
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Wide range of features certainly encourages experimentation. |
| Overall rating |
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Webnode offers a powerful website builder that features quite a few interesting options particularly suited to larger websites. |
Conclusion:
Webnode has some great strengths in a couple of key areas: the editor offers top-class drag and drop functionality, and no other website builder makes it so easy to create a multilingual website. Webnode also makes it possible to truly optimize the pages of your website, so they can be easily found by search engines.
Its weaknesses lie in its template designs which won't be to everyone's taste and are not easy to customize. But it's still worth having a look to see if you can find one you like. More designs were added recently, although unfortunately not for the eShop.
The eShop package offers very sophisticated features but could be confusing for beginners. Webnode's knowledge base is very limited and doesn't help much. Saying that, we still recommend both the free and paid versions of Webnode's personal website package.
> Click here to try Webnode for free
Updates
22 Nov 2011 - We have tested Webnode's server performance.
16 Aug 2011 - New look and functionality for the editor
30 Mar 2011 - General update
16 Jan 2011 - The free plan now features a small Webnode banner button. So it is not really ad-free anymore, contrary to Webnode's claim on its website.
11 Jan 2011 - Update of all reviews: Webnode hasn't released any new features for a couple of months now. We are waiting :)
Last updated: 22 Nov 2011 | Robert Brandl
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