Features
Designs and themes
Site123 is a simple to use website builder along the lines of Wix and Squarespace.
You’ll be offered 16 different design categories to choose from that cover broad topics like blogging, online stores, and a general business category.
Each one is broken down into more niche templates including law firms, hair salons, and gardening themes to name a few.
Search for the one that matches your businesses, and you’ll have a clean looking template and a ready-made website.
Unfortunately, more niche products aren’t covered, so if you can’t find a template to match your business, you’ll need to choose the closest business to it and tweak the design to suit your needs.
Your customization options are a little limited, however, and your entire website will be displayed on just one page. This might put some people off, but will definitely appeal to those looking for simplicity.
Apps and add-ons
You won’t find many apps and add-ons with a Site123 website. It’s purposely designed to be simple, easy to use, and accessible to beginners.
You’ll find only the most basic features to get you started in the free version, but functionality increases when you upgrade to a monthly subscription.
For example, in the free version, you can only accept payment for your products via bank transfer, which will be fairly cumbersome for most customers, but on upgrading, you’ll be able to integrate PayPal and credit card payments.
Other apps you can add to your site include analytics and reporting tools and live chat.
While you won’t find many apps, this host is always upgrading the features on its core package, and currently offers extras like customer newsletters and a basic SEO package.
Language options
Site123 allows you to build in any language you’d like. This is a great feature for such a simple web builder and something we don’t even see at much larger competitors.
We’d advise you to take a little care, though, as the multi-language options are integrated with Google translate, so you won’t always get a perfect translation if you’re selling to different markets. It’s always worth getting a professional translator to look over your site once you’ve set up multi-language options.
Marketing
Social integration and sales channels
You’ll be able to link your social media accounts to your website, but you won’t be able to integrate any stores or marketplaces on those accounts.
You’ll also need to sign up to the paid version if you want to accept payments via PayPal, Stripe and AmazonPay.
SEO tools
You’ll get some basic SEO tools in both the free and paid-for packages including meta tag modification, multilingual URLs, and page redirects.
You’ll also get access to free how-to guides on all of the host’s SEO tools via the help center, which will explain how to get the most out of your site. Things are a little basic, but more than serviceable if you’re running a small site.
Custom fields
Site123 comes with a custom form builder on the paid version. You can ask for any information you’d like from your customers, and make any field mandatory or optional.
However, your custom fields will be limited to just one or two lines of free text.
Reporting tools
The core offering allows you to track orders and manage inventory, but doesn’t provide detailed analytics. You’ll need to add an analytics plug-in if you’d like a breakdown of customers and sales.
Email marketing
The host has some basic, but solid, email marketing tools available in its core package.
You’ll be able to send out newsletters to customers, collect a passive email list based on sales through your checkout, and create custom email templates.
You won’t find the kind of detailed campaigns you might see at other eCommerce builders, such as market segmentation and personalized emails, but it’s perfect for small scale businesses.
Importing and Exporting products
Unfortunately, there’s no way to import or export products from your store, which could prove a big inconvenience for some.
You’ll instead have to manually add and remove products yourself. However, as it’s aimed at small businesses and freelancers, its customer base will likely only have a small product pool anyway, and shouldn’t be put off by this.
Pricing
Free
This will give you just about everything you need to get a website up and running quickly. However, you won’t get access to the eCommerce store on the free version and will have to accept Site123 advertising on your website.
Premium - $12.80 per month
This level unlocks the eCommerce store, gets you a free domain for a year and gives you 10GB of storage. You’ll also get access to a coupon creation tool, tax calculators, an option to sell digital products, and a store label designer.
Other Features
Support | 24/7 live chat is available to customers on both the free and premium packages. In addition, you can access a number of FAQs, videos, articles, and blogs via the support page that covers common problems. |
Security | All Site123 websites come with an SSL certificate free as part of your package. |
Shipping | You can set different shipping options for all products, adjust your own shipping costs, and set up custom pick up points for deliveries. You’re also able to choose from a range of different carriers. |
Payment options | When using the premium option, you can accept payments via all major credit and debit cards, PayPal, Stripe, and AmazonPay. |
Tax | A tax tool is available, but it isn’t automated or updated with the latest sales tax information. You’ll need to go to your dashboard and manually set the tax rate for the country and region you’re selling in. You’ll be responsible for putting the right amount in and filing the correct tax returns. |
Dropshipping | Customers currently don’t have access to dropshipping. |
Abandoned cart recovery | The eCommerce store on offer is relatively basic and doesn’t have advanced features like abandoned cart recovery or automated emails. |
Managing store on a mobile device | You can only manage your website via the desktop dashboard at the moment. |
What is Easy for Users at Site123
- This is probably the easiest website builder to use that we’ve seen. Site123 takes all of the effort out of web design and you can have an eCommerce store up and running in just a few short hours
- It's really easy to get your store set up in multiple languages and in more than 80 currencies, perfect for those selling internationally
- You can play around with your website until your heart's content on the free version, acting like an unlimited free trial period to see if this is the web builder for you
- It’s available to those on a budget. Having a fully working website and eCommerce store for just $12.80 per month is a great deal
What is Difficult for Users on Site123
- Your customization options are a lot more limited than you’ll find at other eCommerce stores. But Site123 doesn’t pretend to offer hundreds of features, just the ones you need to get started. Its target market is squarely aimed at small businesses
- You’re also very restricted in design options. If you don’t like the one-page format, you’ll need to try another eCommerce solution
Best Site123 Stores
Sofie’s: https://www.sofieslounge.com/
Verdi: https://www.verdipizza.com/
Active EP: https://www.activeep.com/
