Did you know that, in 2019, more visitors are likely to access your website through mobile devices than they are through a desktop or laptop computer?
With that knowledge in mind, it’s never been more important to invest in a mobile optimised website.
Sounds complicated?
Thankfully, it isn’t.
The good news, is that whilst most website builders have focussed on creating desktop sites first with mobile optimization serving as something of an afterthought, a number of companies have burst onto the scene in recent years which do the exact opposite:
Providing a quick and simple way to make an attractive, functional, and professional looking websites with mobile audiences in mind.
If you’ve already got a website up and running, you’re likely to find a number of these tools bundled in with your web hosting package, though if you’re starting from scratch, it’s well worth noting that some of them do provide their services right out of the box, with no need to invest in your own hosting.
We’ll discuss this more in detail as we take a look at just four of the best mobile website builders currently on the market in 2016.
1: Impress.ly
Available as both a stand-alone service and as an add-on provided by a number of shared hosting companies, Impress.ly makes building attractive, powerful mobile websites both effortless and enjoyable.
At an average of $9 per month, it may not be the cheapest platform around, but in this writer’s opinion, you really do get great value for money, especially with a free Top Level Domain Name included in the price if you sign up directly through the Impress.ly website.
The pre-designed templates rival anything you’d pay top dollar for from a professional web developer, and are highly customizable to fit in with your brand.
The user-interface is very reminiscent of Weebly.com’s drag-and-drop website editor and comes with a number of useful tools catering to specific businesses, such as customizable menus and reservation booking systems for restaurants and bars.
Like many of the tools on this list, Impress.ly can be used to either build a website from scratch or convert your existing website into one that’s mobile optimized.
2: GoMobi
Unlike Impress.ly, GoMobi isn’t available as a service through the platforms official website, instead requiring you to invest in a web hosting package and activate it through your control panel.
In some ways, this actually works out to be a more affordable option, with iPage currently offering the service for less than $2 which, even when you add in regular web hosting fees, works out less than Impress.ly.
For a low-cost option then, GoMobi does work out well, and produces mobile websites which -whilst they aren’t necessarily outstanding- are of a decent quality.
In this writer’s opinion, this makes it a better option for those who already own a desktop website but need a simple tool to help create a mobile version, something you can do with GoMobi simply by typing in the URL of your existing website and selecting the ‘Build from Desktop’ option to convert your site.
3: Wix Mobile
Wix is a drag-and-drop website builder which probably needs no introduction. Around for a good number of years now, the service has emerged as one of the world’s most popular site creator thanks to its very attractive, mobile-optimised templates and beginner-level approach to editing.
Though this may be the only platform on our list which focusses on desktop, it deserves a mention for being -in my opinion- the easiest website builder to get used to, and because those mobile optimised templates offer a quality which far surpasses anything else on the list.
With plans starting from around $5 per month (plus the cost of a domain name), Wix is competitively priced, though if there’s one thing that prevents it from being featured higher in our list, it’s that it doesn’t offer quite the same level of flexibility nor the same amount of customisable options as the likes of Impress.ly and GoMobi.
For sheer user-friendliness alone now, this one is well worth a look for those new to building a website.
4: Duda
Last but by certainly no means least we come to Duda, a mobile-centric web design platform primarily aimed at agencies and hosting companies.
The idea behind Duda is that it gives those companies the option to create multiple websites for their clients, though that doesn’t mean we should rule it out for your solo endeavor.
The brand also offer a Basic, buy-by-site package for $14 per month. Billed annually, this package includes one website hosted on Amazon Web Services, with a 10-product online store and email support.
There’s also a 14-day free trial so that you can try it out without any commitment.
What we like about it the most, however, is the design quality.
Since it has an agency focus, you can trust that the pre-made templates and design features are of the very highest quality and I’m happy to say that some of the best-looking mobile websites I’ve seen were made with Duda.
What’s your favourite mobile website builder platform? Let us know on Twitter @WebDesignDIY or join in the conversation on Facebook.
[…] may have heard the term referred to under a number of different guises, such as ‘mobile optimised website’ but fall of those terms mean the same […]
[…] That said, if you’re willing to spend a bit of time plowing your way through the options, you will find at least a handful of templates that are as good as -if not better- than anything provided by GoMobi’s competitors. […]