Hey Founders and Makers, what's the best tool for building a startup website?
Alexey Shashkov
85 replies
I mean what's the best product for building a full-blown marketing website for a startup including:
– Landing pages
– Blog
– Documentation / Help
– Public Changelog
– Public Roadmap
Can you share your experience and thoughts here?
Replies
Roberto Robles@robertoseo
For my startup KatLinks I'm using:
- Wordpress for my main website and blog
- Froged for my Knowledge base
- ProductStash for my roadmap/changelog
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We used Wix for our RoundUp website. Given it's a MVP, we needed something quick and easy to set up and it included all the features you listed. We didn't even have a designer so our marketer jumped in but was able to navigate quite well, and noticed most of the work required by developers were provided as a self-setup.
Blogs, SEO built-in, A/B testing features were all helpful. Only downside is it's not as robust with design functions (e.g. for CTA buttons, there's only a handful of fonts/colors you can select).
We did look into Squarespace too and they have more or less the same features - pricing was a little lower for Wix so we decided to give it a try.
(1) Elementor: Really good website builder for WordPress
(2) BigCommerce: If you’re looking to create an online store that scales
(3) Trello: Tool to share your product roadmap
For our startup we use Tilda, it's very easy to deal with and user-friendly with a big amount of functions.
I really believe that WIX is enough for landing page and blog creation.
I would like to recommend Basecamp as a starting tool for Backlog sharing. On the other hand, Jira is the best tool for Backlog management.
We are using GitHub for public documentation at Identance
Our team uses simple lightweight tools, such as Tilda or WebFlow. I'd personally recommend using WebFlow - there are more developers on the market, so it would be easier to maintain your site in future.
Bubble.io, don't look anywhere else
@wael_khattar1 Hi Wael, yeah, Bubble is an awesome tool. Do you use it for websites too?
@shashcoffe Yea, it can be used for both websites and webapps. Obviously Webflow for example is probably better suited for static websites but in his case he can build the blog and database for the Roadmap and Changelog into Bubble.
He can also directly link his CI/CD pipeline directly into the Changelog through APIs, things that you can't do easily with Webflow for example
We started with Wix, but we rapidly had some issues. We' moved to Webflow and I really recommend this builder. You don't need an expensive plan to build something cool, the builder is very versatile.
@cica_laure_mbappe Hi Cica-Laure! It's so interesting case. Webflow is excellent. But what problems did you have with Wix? Can you specify? And do you have design skills?
@shashcoffe First, Wix was a bit limited when it comes to design. Then we had some troubles, our website was down for 48 hours and the problem was from them. So my team was more likely to switch to Webflow. I had a few design skills but I improved them on Webflow.
We were using WordPress first, but moved to Tilda later, cos it's much faster and easier to use.
@cn__katie Hi Katie, wow=) It’s not often to meet people who use WordPress) Tilda is cool, yeah.
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I use Webflow for my startup. Since it's no-code, it's a lot easier to make quick changes and takes less time to build.
@bomajosiah Thank you, Boma. Do you have design skills?
Early Stage? No-Code builder - pick your poison - no-code is basically a box, once your startup doesn't fit in the box it's time to grow up. With no-code you'll have a poor CMS experience and it will be annoying for SEO and other things but it's early days right :)
Ready to go after SEO and growth? Low-Code Headless CMS
Why Headless??
1 - You can manage ALL of your content from one place. Landing pages, microsites, knowledge base, blog, App, IoT etc. "Single Source of Truth" for your content.
2 - It's API first - all the other features/functions you need can be built into the stack as microservices. Commerce, Forms, Portals, CRM/ERP, etc, etc - it also means lower maintenance, better performance, scalable, better security.
3 - it's headless, meaning decoupled from the backend. This means you can quickly change and update the frontend experience without all the cumbersome processes from traditional CMS. Also you can have the backend experience you actually want. No need to bend things to your will.
4 - build on purpose. So many tools come with technical debt and are over engineered. Headless keeps everything lightweight and on purpose. Total control.
5 - You can build your own DXP - Digital Experience Platform. No need to have multiple systems and complex workflows. Everything takes places in the headless CMS
I like Sanity CMS - https://www.sanity.io/ but there's a ton to choose from.
@alex_belding Hey Alex! Thx for you detailed comment. Much appreciated. I feel you have experience and expertise in this area. Cool. 🤝🙂
@shashcoffe yea - I've ran shops and brands on Magento, Adobe Muse, Adobe Business Catalyst and of course WordPress but shifted my entire world view when I discovered headless a few years ago. I like the no-code movement but eventually you need a CMS. Actually putting a new podcast episode together on this topic so I was already prepped to answer this question LOL.
@alex_belding Thank you for the reply, Alex. Where can I listen to this new episode?
@shashcoffe once published you can find it anywhere you find and play podcasts. I am using Acast now for the hosting and distribution. About to build it into our website. It's called The Headless Marketing Show :)
https://shows.acast.com/the-head...
@shashcoffe got that episode published - https://shows.acast.com/the-head...
You can also listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts etc
If you want to create an app I recommend bubble.io and if it's for a website you can use Wordpress with the Elementor integration (it will make the development much easier)
I've been a designer for years and never seen a better product than Webflow
@shashcoffe Eek well it depends how non of a designer you are. I still design first in figma then transfer it too webflow. So if you do design just do it on figma or just pay someone to do it on figma
Founder of Versoly here a Website builder for Startups (mainly SaaS at the moment).
https://www.producthunt.com/post... got #3 of the day and PH users love us.
We handle landing pages, blogs, docs, and changelog.
Most of our customers try 5+ builders before finding us and upgrading (lots of hype and overselling by other builders).
Versoly is a little different, we give you access to the code so there is 0 vendor lock in and you can create completely custom websites without exporting.
I'd recommend getting someone to set up a simple headless CMS application which non-tech stakeholders of the team can always update with relevant information whenever required!
@thegeorgejoseph Thanks for the idea, George. Why existing Headless CMS don't work for you? How about sanity.io or something like that?
Landing Page - Use either Wordpress or webflow
For Documentation, Public Roadmap you can try our platform Due.work
Trello for planning; wix for creating a website; jivosite for technical support
@tylerhappinin Whew, so powerful bundle of features in one place. Looking cool! 2k+ upvotes on PH, Golden Kitty. I never heard about it. What a brilliant tool! I'm going to try it. Thanks a lot for sharing it, Tyler.
If you love no-code then bubble.io if you are a developer or have access to developers then I would say build it from scratch using ruby, python nodejs etc.
You can also checkout ghost.org.. it's mainly a publishing platform but with some tweak you can do all from the list above
@md_salehin_khan Thanks, man. I see this product provides tools for launching subscription business. That is so interesting area.