Web.com Review: Powerful, but Not for Experts (In 2024)

Web.com at a Glance

Web.com Pros, Cons, & Things That Could Be Better

Web.com has a well-earned place in website builder history. But coasting on legacy alone isn’t enough in an industry that thrives on adapting to the cutting edge – something that Web.com hasn’t always proven capable of. After a massive overhaul, however, Web.com is looking to reclaim its place as an industry giant.

After hours upon hours of in-depth testing of everything that it has to offer, I’m happy to report that Web.com is now an impressive and well-rounded website builder – with some caveats. I was pretty satisfied with the initial template selection and customization process, but its limited set of advanced tools (there’s no dedicated builder for professionals) puts it in an awkward spot.

Still, as it stands today, Web.com is an outstanding tool for intermediate designers looking to take their skills to the next level. It offers feature-rich plans, and its advanced editor gave me impressive design flexibility and control during my tests. However, it’s not the ideal choice for creating a quick and simple website.

Will Web.com meet your needs, or are you better off with something different? Read on to find out.

Elegant and Eye-Catching Templates for a Variety of Niches

Each one of Web.com’s 220+ templates showcases its flexibility for adapting to a wide range of styles. Almost no template is over or under-designed, as is sometimes the case for other builders. For example, the template for a legal service looks sleek and professional, with minimalistic design choices and only the essential information. Meanwhile, a punk band or a gaming blog needs to feel way more dynamic and fun, so the templates include a ton of elements, contrasting colors, and eye-catching visuals.

1

You can find templates under the Business, Blog, Store (only available with e-commerce plans), Personal, Portfolio, Health, Beauty, and Restaurant categories. It’s far from the widest range of categories I’ve seen, but you have to keep in mind that Web.com is aimed at people who don’t mind putting some time into website customization. This means that while there might not be templates specifically made for a business that sells pajamas for dogs, it does give you every tool you need to create that website.

Ironically, I found that Web.com’s attention to making each template stand out isn’t always a good thing. While it certainly looks great and shows you the builder’s capabilities, it can also make the prospect of modifying any template to make it unique to your website seem daunting and time-consuming.

Design and Customization

All my favorite builders let you customize the broad strokes of design, as well as provide tools that let you get as meticulous about each detail as you want. In that regard, Web.com absolutely delivers.

For starters, each template has a one-page and multi-page version, so you can choose which one works best for your vision. I recommend going for a single page if you’re just trying to get one message across (like announcing your professional services or promoting an event) and multi-page for anything that involves a larger amount of information (like a blog, online store, or portfolio).

Once you’ve picked a template you like, you can change the overarching design of your site from the template settings on the left-hand-side navigation bar. There, you’ll be able to modify your logo, fonts, and colors.

One feature I particularly like is the color wizard, which lets you automatically adapt your site’s color scheme to match that of any image of your choosing. This ensures that if you already have a logo or a design document ready, the rest of your site can perfectly match its colors.

To add content, click on the “Add element” menu, and you’ll see a long list of different elements you can add. These include pre-made blocks such as timeline displays and progress reports as well as widgets like contact forms, maps, and sliders. There’s also a dedicated menu for setting up bookings on your site. From there, you’ll be able to manage your schedule, offer promotions, and set up automated email responses.

Overall, Web.com gives you a truly impressive level of customization over your site. It’s great for design-conscious users, but do keep in mind that things can quickly get out of hand if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Powerful Features for In-Depth Design

Web.com takes an interesting direction with its features. Though it offers a wide variety of tools to let you fine-tune the design and capabilities of your site, it doesn’t get as in-depth as other builders that cater to professional designers and agencies. The end result is a toolbox that’s considerably more extensive than that of traditional website builders. That said, it doesn’t have essential components like a variety of spacing measurements or direct CSS editing.

That also puts it in a bit of an awkward position. Since it offers more advanced customization than beginner-friendly builders, I wouldn’t call it ideal for setting up a site quickly and forgetting about it either. However, it is a builder that offers just the right amount and selection of features if you’re a web-design intermediate or looking to ease into more advanced design concepts.

Varied and Powerful Widgets for Broadening Your Site’s Functionality

Just like most other modern website builders, you add individual elements to your Web.com site through a widgets menu, which includes basic tools like headings, images, and buttons. However, Web.com’s widget menu stands out thanks to its wide variety of options and advanced features for editing each individual element.

Besides the basics, you can add unique elements like custom forms, countdowns, and progress reports. Not to mention complete freedom to add custom snippets of CSS code, which opens your possibilities to thousands of third-party widgets. Though a proper app market would have been nice.

For each element you add to your site, Web.com provides a surprisingly vast selection of advanced editing tools. You can change the colors, animations, effects, and meta descriptions of just about everything. This means that you can tailor every detail – big and small – of your site to fit the exact look and function you envision.

Advanced Editing Options for Full Control Over Your Final Product

Web design is as much about what you don’t add as what you do. A good understanding of negative space and the importance of spacing can make or break a website. Though it lacks tools (like relative spacing units that automatically adjust to the screen size), Web.com gives you a lot more control over your site’s spacing than other popular builders.

Besides giving you access to highly customizable tools for alignment and spacing, Web.com allows you to look at your website’s overall structure through the layout view. It’s a great tool for visualizing how each element of your site works in relationship to the rest. Also, it allows you to fine-tune spacing between elements on desktop, tablet, and mobile versions of your site.

E-Commerce Tools Galore

Starting from the Online Store plan, you get access to a wide variety of e-commerce features to create and grow an online storefront. Web.com’s e-commerce dashboard includes all the tried-and-tested features of a quality e-commerce portal, like product categorization and variations, sales tracking, and customer management. Since the dashboards for e-commerce and website building are completely different, it can also help you keep things organized.

Web.com’s e-commerce features aren’t restricted to just sales either. If you provide any sort of professional service, you can access useful appointment and scheduling features to allow customers to book you and pay directly from your site.

That said, it’s worth noting that for as much functionality as it offers, Web.com is not a dedicated e-commerce platform. That becomes clear when you look at its limited list of available payment processors and its limited (but useful) reporting capabilities.

Useful Branding and Content Features

Web.com’s selection of branding and marketing tools is truly impressive, and it makes it a great builder if you’re looking for high-quality features to help you leave your mark.

Starting from the Online Store plan and onwards, you also get access to a separate content dashboard. There, you can plan future campaigns, create content roadmaps, and even access basic image editing tools. On the marketing side of things, you’ll be able to create email campaigns and newsletters, integrate ads with major social media channels and search engines, and create a landing page that connects to all your socials.

But the true standout is the dedicated branding dashboard (I agree, there are a lot of dedicated dashboards). You can use each of these tools to help you on a different stage of your brand’s journey. If you’re just getting started, the AI business name generator and domain name checker will be useful resources. If you’re a little more advanced, you can also access a proprietary logo builder to carve an identity for yourself. Finally, you even get options for creating custom merch with your branding on it.

I didn’t get a chance to try it myself but theoretically, you could create your brand directly from the name up and create a complete merch store without ever switching tabs.

My Experience With Web.com

Getting Started With Web.com

I was really impressed with Web.com’s streamlined template selection process. Once I clicked “ADD DRAFT” in my dashboard, I was presented with two options: building my site using AI or starting with a pre-designed template.

After choosing the template route, Web.com guided me through a few straightforward steps. These included selecting a topic for my site, inputting details about my services, and accessing a curated library of templates based on my inputs. While the initial suggestions were highly relevant, I still had the freedom to explore the full range of templates if I wanted something different.

The library itself was well-organized, with templates tailored to specific industries like business, health, and beauty. However, what stood out to me was the level of detail during template selection. For instance, when I chose “business,” the system didn’t just dump me into a generic category but offered templates aligned with niches like energy and marketing. This granularity made it easy to find something perfectly suited to my needs.

One minor drawback is that there weren’t any immediate recommendations for app integrations or third-party tools during this phase. While Web.com provides essential features like social media integration later in the design process, suggestions for additional tools during template selection could have enhanced my experience.

Customizing My Web.com Website

After logging in and selecting my preferred template, I was guided to customize key design elements such as my logo, fonts, and color palette. This setup allowed me to establish a cohesive look before diving into the editor.

Web.com’s editor was intuitive and uncluttered. The left-hand menu offered just six options: Add element, Pages, Blog, Schedule, Theme, and Settings.

Each button was clearly labeled and easy to navigate. For example, when I wanted to add a new page, it was as simple as clicking “Pages” and selecting “Add Page.” From there, I could choose the type of page I wanted, such as an About or Gallery page.

However, adding blog pages required me to use the separate “Blog” button – a small quirk, but not a significant obstacle. Similarly, adding elements like text blocks, buttons, or videos was seamless – I just had to click on “Add element” and drag and drop my chosen element wherever I wanted it on the page.

Overall, Web.com’s editor provides a straightforward and user-friendly experience, making it accessible for beginners. However, while its simplicity is an advantage for those seeking quick results, it may feel limiting for users who want more advanced design options. If you’re looking for a platform that allows for more fine-tuned customization and a highly unique website, you might want to explore other builders like Wix.

Additional Ease of Use Features

A Professional Design Service at Your Fingertips

It takes a bit of professional design experience to get the most out of Web.com’s service, especially during the initial stage when you want to set up everything to be as close to your vision as possible. Thankfully, Web.com gives you the possibility of having your website designed by an experienced professional.

For an additional, one-time fee of $149, you can hire Web.com’s Quickstart service. It’s a big initial investment but with Quickstart, you’ll get access to a design professional who will listen to your vision for your website, your needs, and any other additional specifications. Then, all you have to do is wait for them to design the ideal site for you. Once they’re done, your tailor-made website will be entirely available to edit from your website builder. So, if there is anything about the final product you want to change, you’re at complete liberty to do so.

While Quickstart does represent a significant initial investment, it’s still quite affordable when compared to other professional design services. If you’re planning on sticking with Web.com for the long haul, I think that Quickstart is more than worth its value.

Powerful AI Copywriting To Attract New and Returning Visitors

If you don’t have a full-time copywriter on your team, the AI copywriter tool can help you write all sorts of impressive copy. All you have to do is go to your “Content” submenu and select “AI Writer.” From there, you can choose which language you’re writing for, the content you want to create (landing page, SEO article, Ad, etc…), write a brief description of your content, and specify the tone.

The results are outstanding, especially for matching the correct tone and voice you’re looking for. And even if the generated text isn’t up to your standards, you can use it as a starting point or inspiration to create unique copy that works for you.

Undo Any Mistakes With the Click of a Button

This last one is a little thing, but it can go a long way toward making your building experience go a lot more smoothly. The website builder’s undo button can help you quickly get rid of any mistake you might have made accidentally. For larger issues, Web.com makes automatic backups of your site, as well as letting you create manual backups anytime. If you ever want to revert to a previous version, all you have to do is click on the “Site Backups” button in the upper left corner, and choose which version you want to restore.

I started my testing of Web.com by royally messing up. The problem is that I initially signed up for the Website plan, which doesn’t offer some of the most interesting e-commerce features, and there isn’t really an easy upgrade option.

Since I have a nasty habit of eating and paying rent, I try to avoid paying for something twice whenever possible. I immediately got in touch with customer support to try to resolve my situation. My support representative went above-and-beyond to help me solve my problem.

My representative was prompt and friendly, and even though I was supposed to be beyond the cancellation window, they helped me get a refund for the Website plan and even signed me up with the discounted initial price for the Online store plan. Honestly, there’s not much more I could add here to show just how good the live-chat support was.

That said, my experience with phone support wasn’t as good. Though the representative was more than willing to help, I ended up waiting on hold for more than half an hour for a response on whether Web.com was available in other languages. When they couldn’t find a straightforward answer to my questions, they just unceremoniously hung up.

I can’t be too mad though. In the end not only did support solve my most important concern, it even went the extra mile to make sure I was pleased.

Great Initial Pricing, but Beware of Renewal Fees

Considering the vast selection of tools it offers, Web.com’s initial pricing is more than fair. If you’re not interested in advanced e-commerce and branding tools, the Website plan offers in-depth design flexibility for just $1.95. If you are interested in e-commerce, the e-Commerce plan starts at $3.95 and comes with more than enough tools to help you build a store and brand identity from the ground up.

Once the first month has passed, expect to pay $4.99 for the Website plan and $9.99 for the e-Commerce plan.

Considering the sheer amount of tools jam-packed into every one of Web.com’s plans, each is more than worth its price. At least at first. I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that after the first billing cycle, the renewal prices are considerably steeper.

Not only are the renewal prices more than double the original ones, but you’ll have to pay for your domain hosting and business email. You get a free domain for a year and a free professional email for 3 months, but these offerings come with ongoing costs once the promotional period ends.

Even after all the upfees though, I wouldn’t say that Web.com is ever unreasonably priced. Once again, you have to consider the quality and quantity of tools available with every plan. Still, it’s easy to get carried away by the initial pricing, but you should definitely consider if the renewal fees are worth it to you.