A look at Webnode

I received some email (Apparently, I had comments shut off for some posts. I think I’ve fixed that.) after my previous post about Weebly that encouraged me to take a look at Webnode. The email from Nicholas even suggested I take a look at this post by a teacher who enthusiastically endorsed Webnode.

I did take a look. Here’s what I think.

Webnode provides a powerful set of online tools that allow you to create a website absolutely free. The site can be published free on a subdomain at webnode, or it can be published to a domain of your own. To publish on your own domain, a novice web page creator going to Webnode would need a basic understanding of FTP settings and DNS information prior to signing on with Webnode. If you don’t already own a domain name, Webnode will arrange the purchase.

If you wanted to create a website, but couldn’t afford to buy an expensive tool like Dreamweaver, Webnode would be an alternative. That said, I found it to have a steep learning curve. The interface was not obviously intuitive—at least to my mind. Any template you pick has a predetermined set of pages that have to either be edited or deleted. There’s already a variety of content on the suggested pages that must be either edited or deleted so that your own content and images can be added. You can add your own template, which implies that you already have web design experience and tools at hand. You can also edit the CSS files, which implies that you already have CSS experience. It seems to me that anyone wanting to create a website using online drag and drop tools would be lacking in such background experience, but maybe I’m misunderstanding who the target audience is for this site.

Webnode gives you email and stats, RSS, and handy widgets like PayPal options, maps, image galleries and other handy drag and drop goodies. It has a lot to offer, but demands a lot of effort from the user.

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Related Posts: Weebly, Site Kreator, SynthaSite

15 thoughts on “A look at Webnode”

  1. Hello, I was wondering if the blog feature in webnode enables the visitors to comment on our article? i couldn’t find the option to enable comments.

  2. I just went back and looked at it again to see if I could find anything about blog comments. I don’t see a thing about it. I’m guessing it is not an option.

  3. Hi, it seems to work by adding a forum towars the end of the blog article…however its not a full featured blog like the one weebly offers….other features are great…

  4. I totally disagree with your review about webnode, I’m not sure what you were doing wrong but trust me you were making it difficult. I have never in my life used a program like webnode that as easy to use. Anyone with no experience can you this. I have been designing websites forever and when I saw and tried this I Thought it’s a no brainer. IT lacks some important things like a back up but with time this will come hopefully.

  5. I created my website using Webnode. Petr, at Webnode, responded to my email questions whenever I needed help with my website. I don’t have the Webnode free version, I pay for the very, very affordable Mini Webnode website. The Webnode learning curve did take a bit of effort, but the small amount of effort was well worth it. Don’t equate creating your Webnode website with ordering fast-food. Building your website will take time and effort, and Webnode is willing to help you every step of the way.

    Cathy Prews last blog post.. Happy New Year, Happy New JOB

  6. I agree with Brenda, Webnode appears to be an extremely user-friendly, economic alternative with many features that one can pay big bucks for, I never cease to wonder why people spend hundreds of bucks on programs when they can get similar software eithr free with Open Source (tho’ I admit the learning curve can be steep, sometimes I can’t even get eh OS to install!!!)

  7. We are evaluating CMS and doing webpages for 10 years now and I never found a more intuitive and flexible tool like webnode.
    To configure your domain has nothing todo with FTP, once one knows the basics of web and good webcode you get an idea what webnode does for you.
    I see also no point to compare webnode with dreamweaver. Webnode developer used quite well such design-tools to develop webnode templates in order that you don’t have to. Further dreamweaver never was meant for people knowing nothing about HTML.
    If you do not care about good search results, you maybe would focus on flash-based websides, if you do for sure you will prefer someone who knows some basic html + css.
    As you can read on their website, the service comes in different versiòn, from basic free to paid services including multilanguage sites and backups.

  8. I’ve just tried webnode and though I’ve build my own CMS’es from bottom up, it seems kind of nice to be presented with a final solution thingy – if it really is the final one is up for debate, as many doesn’t know the first thing about creating webpages, databases or designs – and I find it somewhat slow in refresing and posting data (updating) – might help to have it on your own fast server close by…
    I might actually try and build a shop with this soon… even if I didn’t got around testing the payment modules

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