Today, low or no code website builders mean that you can build a website by simply dragging and dropping elements onto your page. Snappages was one of the first, and if you can believe it, the first website builder to come out and changed the way people build websites. In doing so, it democratised website building and empowered anyone to create a professional website.
Snappages was launched in 2008, making it one of the pioneers of drag and drop builders. This gives Snappage an edge in ease of use, especially for beginners.
Pros and cons of Snappages
Snappages lives up to its name as you can launch a website in a snap. You can launch your company website, blog and landing pages by simply selecting a template from the gallery and customising it with drag and drop.
Snappages is a cloud-based service, which means you get hosting and maintenance by subscribing to one of their plans. You access the service through your browser and all you need is an internet connection.
Pros
- Generally reliable and responsive support
- Easy to use
- You get a versions history and can revert to a previous version
- Transparent prices
Cons
- Limited selection of website templates
- No builtin integrations, plugins or extensions
- No undo button
Who is Snappages for?
Snappages isn’t a website builder with all the bells and whistles you might expect after using Duda, Jimdo and Ucraft.
It comes with the obligatory drag and drop editor (duh!), responsive website templates (which should be standard these days!) and a blogging tool. Thankfully, it also has a built-in form builder, a gallery tool and allows you to embed code snippets.
Have I lost you with the term “code snippet”? Embedding, or in Snappages’ words, injecting code snippets, is how Snappages lets you add 3rd party services such as YouTube to your site. However, this requires you to know a little bit of code.
All in all, Snappages gives you the basics you need to get your website up and running. It will also make your website look great. Over the last decade and more, Snappages has refined its user interface so that it’s very easy to use, especially for those just starting out.
How easy is it to use Snappages?
You literally start by choosing your template, even before you create your account. A helpful short tutorial will show you the basic features of Snappages. Snappages is so well designed that you can easily skip the tutorial and start editing your website right away if you want to.
A web page in Snappages is made up of sections and blocks. Each section is made up of a block, and you can stack as many sections on top of each other until you get what you want. Of course, you can build your page using sections and blocks however you like.
Snappages present tools and options in the context of what you’re doing, giving you the optimal tools for the task at hand. You’ll see menus, toolbars and settings change according to what you’re doing.
Of course, you can customise the fonts, colours and branding on each page. You can also create and customise forms. Unfortunately, as sophisticated as Snappages is, you won’t find an undo button. Instead, you can create versions of your website and revert to a previous version if you need to.
Snappages design and themes
Snappages only offers 9 templates, all of which are included in the plans. Of course, they’re all mobile responsive, which should be standard by now and a knock-out criterion for a website builder that doesn’t offer mobile responsive templates.
Snappages allows you to stack sections to make up a page, so it also offers a selection of page sections.
How to manage your ecommerce store in Snappages?
Snappages doesn’t offer a built-in e-commerce tool. Instead, you need to insert or embed code snippets throughout your website. This means you’ll need to embed a service like Cartloom or Ecwid to add e-commerce functionality to your site.
Snappages integrations
Just as Snappages doesn’t have a built-in ecommerce tool, it doesn’t have a gallery or app store for extensions, integrations or plugins. Instead, it allows you to embed code snippets anywhere on your website using its custom code block.
This works well with services like Google Maps, Youtube and Shopify. The main drawback is that you need to understand a bit about code snippets or embedding code.
Blog
For Snappages, a blog is made up of different blocks, all categorised as Blog blocks. You get a Posts block, an Archive block, a Categories block and a Tags block.
Payment options
If you don’t want to use a service like Cartloom or Ecwid, you can use the Snappages custom code block to embed something like a Paypal buy now button.
Snappages customer support
Snappages prides itself on its live chat for all customers. The response time is reasonable and you can expect a reply from the support team within hours. There’s also a searchable help centre.
Snappages pricing
Snappages doesn’t offer a free plan, but you can try it for free for 14 days. It does offer a basic plan at $15 a month, which is best if you’re just starting out or don’t need its advanced editing features.
Advanced features means that Snappages has less of what you can change and more features such as animated transitions, more storage and more typographic control.
Is Snappages the right tool for you?
Snappages allows you to create snappy and crisp websites that are perfect for your personal or small business website. If you don’t need third party integrations like Youtube or Mailchimp, Snappages is a builder that requires very little technical knowledge from you and you can have a website up and running in no time.
However, if you want to go even faster and with less hassle, you could try some of the AI-powered website builders such as Bookmark or Mixo.
Original post here: Snappages review
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