There are many options today for web builders, and many claim they are easy to use. However, what’s best in the health and wellness industry - and, more importantly, for your business, can vary widely. And a builder that is easy for one person can be difficult for another, depending on their knowledge of technology terms and concepts and their needs. If you are interested in building a website for marketing your health and wellness business, there are various customizable template-driven web building services.
Remember that a builder is just that - the tools needed to do the job. You also need to pay attention to your brand, the clarity of your story and the entire customer journey. The importance of developing a website that meets customer or client needs cannot be overstated, but it is also just as important to choose a web builder that enables both ease of setup and the ability to scale as the business grows.
Today, we’ve done the hard work for you, reviewing the features of six of the best web builders for health and wellness companies, including WPBakery vs. Elementor, Wix vs. Squarespace, Thrive Theme Builder and finally, WebWiskee. Dive in to find out which one works best for your business needs!
WPBakery vs. Elementor
We’d recommend either of these two web builders if you don’t have much knowledge in terms of programming or website building.
WPBakery and Elementor are very similar in terms of the options for building and customizing a webpage.
Similarities
- Template library available
- Intuitive drag-and-drop builder
- Ability to customize templates
- No programming knowledge is required
- Great customer support
Best Web Builder for Developers: WPBakery
WPBakery was formerly Visual Composer and one of the first WordPress page builders. It features:
- Templates – over 100+ predesigned templates that you can customize by creating element settings
- Editing – web pages are built by using drag-and-drop building blocks of content; has a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor and intuitive inline editing is easy to use
- Addons – more than 250 add-on elements and extensions that enable additional customization
- Elements - more than 50 content elements, like a message box, Facebook Like button, FAQ, Call to Action, and much more
- Customization – choose custom colors, fonts, shape dividers, and more; shape dividers enable creating separate page sections with different shapes, like setting the width and height of a section
- Third-party plugins – There are currently seven third-party plugins that WPBakery supports, including WooCommerce
- Pricing – three plans: $59 for a single site; $256 for five sites; $499 for 10 sites, and all are “pay once-use forever,” but hosting on Indystack is $19.99 per month
- Speed – testing by other people has found it is a little slower than Elementor
- SEO – SEO friendly and supports plugins like Yoast SEO, but never deactivate the plugin once installed because it breaks codes and makes a mess of the website
Best free, beginner-use Web Builder: Elementor
Google hosts Elementor’s WordPress, so it includes daily backups, SSL, and CDN by Cloudflare.
- Templates – more than 300+ predesigned templates and more than 110 website kits (includes parts of templates, pages, posts, popups, etc.)
- Editing – has a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor and allows an easy and quick undo feature to correct mistakes made during the building process
- Addons – over 50 basic widgets to supplement built-in capabilities on the basic plan and more than 110 widgets for the Pro Website Plan
- Third-party plugins - plugins designed explicitly for Elementor; supports WooCommerce
- Customization – choose global fonts and colors, custom positioning, margins, and breakpoints; can choose advanced design features like the ability to add customer pop-ups and animations
- Pricing – free option with limited to the plugins and other options; Pro plans are inexpensive and give you access to all of Elementor’s features; if you choose to use a different host for WordPress, the Pro Plugin Plan is $59 per year for one website and $199 per year for 25 websites; Elementor Pro builder which includes managed WordPress hosting on Google is $9.99 per month for one website and $19.99 per month for Business for one website, an option recommended when using Woo Commerce
- Speed – Has a 96 speed rating
- SEO - very SEO friendly and compatible with the most common SEO plugins; plugin can even be deactivated after installation without causing page code breakages or other issues
Differences
- Elementor is easiest for beginners and never requires coding, whereas some coding may be necessary to achieve desired results in WPBakery.
- Elementor is more user-friendly for making changes.
- Elementor has a faster homepage load time.
- Elementor has more reliable page functionality because the SEO plugin can be deactivated.
- WPBakery cannot be migrated to another web builder provider, which is a significant consideration.
- An Elementor WordPress-hosted site can be migrated, though it requires some moderate-to-high technical knowledge.
Wix vs. SquareSpace
Wix and SquareSpace are two more web builders that offer similar features. The builders share similarities, including ease of initial setup, though there are a few significant differences.
Similarities
Both Wix and SquareSpace:
- Can handle hosting
- Designed for website-building beginners
- Have blogging options
- Template library available
- No coding required
Best for more templates/wider range of integration: Wix
Wix hosts the website on a global content delivery network (CDN).
- Templates – more than 900 templates with built-in widgets and apps
- Editing – drag and drop site content blocks with WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) anywhere on the page
- Add-ons – has large app market offering animations, text plugins, SEO business tools
- Third-party plugins – plugins include the Wix eCommerce option that enables physical and digital products and POS (point-of-sale) integration
- Customization – can choose colors, fonts, and more than 200 apps like email marketing, Wix Stores, Wix Video and Wix Bookings for booking and collecting payment for online services
- Pricing – free starter plan and $16 per month for the first paid premium plan with the recommended Business plan costing $32 per month; $27 a month for an e-commerce plan that accepts payments
- Speed – website loading has tested to be 85-90% and has gained a reputation for slow loading speed
- SEO – SEO Wiz offers meta descriptions and descriptions the user controls along with customized URLs for all pages, plus Google Analytics is available for paid plans
Best for ease of use, more structured layout: SquareSpace
- Templates – more than 150 templates that include e-commerce websites
- Editing – drag and drop site content blocks with WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) with placement limited to a grid
- Third-party extensions – instead of calling them plugins, add-ons, or apps, Squarespace calls them extensions, and they include platforms like AfterShip and Channable
- Customization – choose colors, fonts, embed features like live chat, forum, music and video platforms, and social media; add commerce and business connections like Stripe, Apple Pay and PayPal to e-commerce websites; create a blog with blogging tools that enable categorizing, sharing, and scheduling posts
- Pricing – pricing begins at $16 monthly for the Personal option, $23 a month for the Business option, $27 monthly for the basic Commerce website and $49 a month for the advanced commerce
- Speed – Speed rates have been found to vary based on the website configuration
- SEO –built-in SEO for advanced sites and offers user control over features like meta descriptions and customized URLs for all pages, and Google Analytics is available for every plan
Differences
- Squarespace is considered suitable for beginners because it offers a structured design. Wix is more unstructured, so you get flexibility as to where you place various design elements.
- Wix is considered much easier to use than Squarespace.
- Wix has more all-around design options.
- Squarespace lets the user blog immediately after the site is built.
- Squarespace is a good option for businesses that want to maintain an online store because it includes the ability to sell products and services and offers inventory management, shipping options, and discount codes.
- Squarespace has more stylish templates, according to many users, because they are fresh, relevant, and kept current with modern design styles.
- Squarespace makes it easy to change templates.
- The Wix App Market Place offers the best integration of apps, widgets, and add-ins
For ease of use and affordability: Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes is a WordPress theme and site builder that offers additional site-building features compared to the traditional framework. It is primarily a marketing funnel web builder designed to help website owners build high-converting landing pages, sales pages, and opt-in forms. The Thrive Theme builder has Walkthrough Wizard to ease the setup process. Thrive Themes has a blog, but it only works with a self-hosted WordPress.org website.
- Templates – build a theme from scratch using the Thrive Theme Builder setup wizard and access six ready-to-go companion marketing themes - Xpert, Jaya, Bookwise, Kwik, Ommi and Shapeshift - plus a blog feature; ShapeShift is the recommended companion theme; Thrive Suite includes Thrive Theme Builder, all plugins, and companion themes Shapeshfit, Ommi, and Kwik
- Editing –drag and drop editing in Thrive Theme Builder but must use Thrive Architect, which displays theme builder elements for modifying templates
- Third-party addons – e-commerce plugin is WooCommerce, and Thrive Theme Builder Integration is the e-commerce setup; other plugins include Yoast SEO, SEO Press, Rank Math, s2Member, Contact Form 7, Optimole for image optimization, etc.
- Customization – edit almost anything, including page headers, color, logo placement, etc.; a unique feature is Thrive Quiz Builder, designed to engage website visitors; Other available plugins include Thrive Architect, Thrive Leads (email list building), Thrive Ultimatum, Thrive Apprentice, Thrive Optimize, Thrive Comments, and Thrive Automator
- Pricing – Thrive Suite is $149, paid quarterly for five websites and all nine WordPress Plugins; annual price is $299
- Speed – offers a Site Speed Panel that enables optimizing CSS and JavaScript files, images, and other options
- SEO – SEO plugins work well with Thrive Themes, like Yoast SEO and Rank Math
Best Overall: WebWiskee
WebWiskee is powered by WordPress and was developed because even the most uncomplicated WordPress website builders seem to get complicated, as the previous descriptions prove.
The truth is, most health and wellness practitioners want a website that efficiently accomplishes one of three goals:
- Book an appointment or consultation
- Sign up for an email list
- Get visitors to put an item in their cart and check out
They want to showcase their solutions to the right people and get the right responses, turning visitors into people who act - and only pay for necessary features. A website for health only needs the elements that enable meeting the specific goal identified. Other website builders tend to focus primarily on aesthetics rather than working to achieve a specific goal.
Some website builders have pricey add-ons, so the stated subscription price is not necessarily the amount paid; the final monthly or yearly cost can be much higher. And overwhelmed by the amount of work it takes to do it themselves, businesses pay custom website developers for sites that fail to perform.
WebWiskee was designed to truly simplify the web-building process without sacrificing performance.
- Templates – WebWiskee begins with three Call-to-Action based website templates, designed to meet one of the three goals; elements on the templates address the specific goal. WebWiskee Business Builder is a built-in, self-guided business and marketing coach that walks users through a series of exercises to help them analyze and identify their target audience and customer avatars; guides content writing, branding, and connecting with customers after identifying the target audience
- Editing – WebWiskee uses familiar drag-and-drop Gutenberg blocks
- Third-party add-ons – anything that integrates with WordPress will integrate with WebWiskee. The builder currently guides users through the licensing steps for licensing directly with WooCommerce. (A WooCommerce licensing agreement is in the works.)
- Customization – WebWiskee can embed YouTube or Vimeo videos, as well as Acuity, Calendly, and anything with an available embed code
- Pricing – currently, a $1 trial is offered for 14 days; base subscription is $29 monthly. WebWiskee offers individual features as add-ons, rather than tiers of features, as needed, increasing economical scalability; eCommerce is an additional $8 per month; no one has to buy features or services they do not need or want
- Speed – Hosting allows for quick load times; tips and suggestions are provided so that users can keep the speed up, such as best practices for image sizes, etc.
- SEO – WebWiskee Business Builder optimizes the website for Google discoverability by helping website owners understand the keywords and phrases to target based on what customers are looking for – book an appointment, buy a product, add a name to an email list
WordPress can have a steep learning curve, so WebWiskee reimagined the WordPress dashboard to make it easier for the average business owner to navigate the platform. Another issue is the massive number and variety of choices among the web builder options. For example, Wix offers more than 800 different layouts, which can lead to "analysis paralysis" and make the design process more difficult. By only having three templates—but making them super flexible and customizable—"analysis paralysis" is avoided with WebWiskee. Website owners can quickly move forward with the next step of their website build. Goals cannot be met until the website is up and attracting visitors.
A Few Final Considerations In Choosing A Web Builder
There are a couple of things to keep in mind while reading through the options. First, prices can change at any point in time. The prices quoted are as of July 2023, per the website builder’s website.
Also, the features mentioned are just some of the ones available. Despite claims of ease of use, some web-building options are pretty complex and detailed and require a high level of technical knowledge. While the sales process may only mention the most basic features, you may spend days trying to figure out how to maneuver through the many options.
In the final analysis, the two website-building options that are easiest to use for health and wellness businesses are Thrive Themes and WebWiskee. They are the ideal choices to consider when you want to get your website up and running quickly, accurately target the right market, and convert visitors into customers, clients, or leads.
At Salt Marketing, based on guidance to brand clarity, ease of use, ideal features, and ability to scale, the best overall web builder for health and wellness businesses is WebWiskee. If you’re looking for help with website or content development, brand strategy, social media or powerful marketing strategy to fuel growth contact Salt Marketing to get started!