In the early days of website building, clever people invented tools to make coding the website and creating its content easier. Coding tools aside, content management systems (CMS) were invented to make it easier for any team in an organisation to collaboratively create, modify and manage digital content.
What sounds great on paper has become limited as the digital world has evolved. Now we have websites, mobile and web apps, e-commerce stores and social media. This Cambrian explosion begs the question: How do you still collaboratively manage all the content in one central place AND deliver it to the various platforms and devices?
That’s where headless CMSs come in. These tools were invented to push content to multiple “heads” via an API. Think of the content as the body and the many different websites, apps, online stores and so on as the heads.
With Builder.io you can separate the technical part from the content part. This means that your content creators can work on the content independently of your technical people and vice versa. They also won’t interfere with each other.
Pros and cons of Builder
Builder is headless CMS and visual web development platform rolled into one. It allows you to to create and manage digital content, websites, and applications through a visual, drag-and-drop interface.
In other words, you can build any kind of app or website with your technical team while your content team creates and manages the content independently and the content is consistent across all platforms. Of course, this assumes you have access to IT resources.
The cool thing about Builder is that you can also use it just like any other website builder where you create and publish it, you know, just like WordPress or Joomla.
Pros
- Free forever plan
- You can use SVG files
- Automatic image optimisation
- High degree of control and flexibility
- Collaborate in real time with your teams
- Fair and transparent prices
Cons
- You need time and developers to set up and maintain everything to unleash its power
Who is Builder for?
Builder is versatile, so you can use it just like any other website builder. In this case, you can create a beautiful website or app just as you imagine it. Builder gives you a high level of control over the design and layout of your site. If you work with Figma, you’ll love the Builder. You can easily import your layouts from Figma and the editor looks and feels very similar to Figma.
If you want to play to Builder’s strengths, it’s like the Rolls Royce of tools, allowing you to build anything you and your IT team can dream up, while letting your content team get creative.
Aside from your coding and content creativity, Builder is great if
- You want a CMS that you and your clients can use to create and maintain content after the project is complete.
- You want an API-based architecture so you can feed your content to different applications and platforms.
- You need multilingual support
- You want to AB test your content
- Want to translate your website into different languages
How easy is it to use Builder?
Builder isn’t your typical website builder, although it has a similar approach: It uses a block model, a theme studio that contains templates.
To get a feel for Builder, take a look at one of the sample pages. If you work with Figma, you’ll be at home in no time. Even if you don’t, you’ll have a very powerful tool to let your creativity run wild.
You find the elements and editing tools in the left sidebar, and you drag and drop elements onto the canvas. You adjust their position, height and width to exactly what you want. The visual editor behaves just like any other low-code or no-code website editor.
If you want to get the most out of Builder, it’s a good idea to spend some time planning your content models.
Visual editor AI
Although the visual editor AI was still in beta at the time of writing this review, it’s handy feature that helps you create your website as long as you can describe what you want and in what website style. You can use it to create new or edit existing content.
Collaboration
Since CMSs are a way to collaborate, Builder comes with a set of useful features for you to work in real time with your team members and across teams. You can assign roles to the different contributors. The different roles means that you can control what your team members can see and do.
As you work together, it’s helpful to track changes and see the history of your content. Builder includes versioning and history features, allowing you to monitor edits and revert to previous versions when needed.
You can also share or discuss your ideas on an entire content entry or on a specific block with your coworkers.
Builder integrations
You already know that you can import your designs from Figma and use many different frameworks to build your frontend – the apps and website where you display your content. Builder also has integrations so you can use it to feed your ecommerce storefront (such as Bigcommerce or Magento) or as the basis for tools like V0.dev.
Builder developer support
Out of the box, Builder supports a wide range of frameworks including React and Angular. As a headless CMS, there are many ways for you as a developer to integrate Builder into an existing application.
Builder support
If you need help or have a question, click on the question mark icon in the bottom right hand corner. This will bring up the searchable Builder Knowledge Base and a number of options for getting help:
- Post your question on the Builder Community Forum,
- Contact the dedicated support team
- Ask a Builder Partner for help
Builder pricing
Unlike other headless CMSs, Builder has a simple and transparent pricing structure. Including the free plan, Builder offers 4 subscription models to help you scale your business. The higher plans give you access to priority support or emergency contact.
Is Builder the right tool for you?
Of course you can use Builder as a build, publish and forget tool to create your online presence. But it can do so much more. If you use Builder as a standard no code website builder, it’s like using a Rolls Royce to build your website.
Builder is great if you want to
- Deliver consistent content across your different platforms, such as native apps or a website
- Give your audience an engaging experience with your design
- Need multilingual support
- Want to explore your creative coding and design options
Of course, this means you have access to both coding and creative/marketing resources.
Original post here: Builder.io Review
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