Creating a professional website: free and paid tools
With its billion websites online, the Internet has become a place where it's difficult but essential to make your mark. Many tools enable you to easily create your online sales site, your blog, or simply your corporate website, but not all offer the same advantages. Check out our CMS comparisons in the dedicated section.
Free and Open Source CMS
Free and Open Source CMS (Content Management Systems) make up the vast majority of websites created. CMS allow you to create a website free of charge, apart from hosting it on a server, which you have to pay for. Moreover, if you wish to use a domain name of your choice, such as "www.mon-domaine.com", you will also have to pay a rental fee to a domain name registration service such as OVH, Gandi or GoDaddy.
You should expect to pay around 50 euros a year for hosting and reserving a domain name for a blog, and 150 euros a year for an e-commerce site. The latter require more storage space and greater server power. Here are the advantages and disadvantages to be aware of before taking the plunge:
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| CMS are free Many free themes are available Frequent updates Numerous free and paid extensions are available |
CMS installation is intended for technical profiles Hosting and domain name at your expense Quality themes are often not free |
How do I create a free website?
Many free CMS are available, but 3 leaders stand out from the crowd: Wordpress, Joomla! and Drupal.
Wordpress
More than half of all websites are created with Wordpress, and that's no coincidence. The ergonomics of this CMS are perfect, and it's suitable for less technical users. Originally designed for easy creation of blogs and personal sites, Wordpress has become very versatile: it can be used to create corporate sites, free showcase sites and online sales sites. The sheer number of extensions means you can do almost anything with Wordpress, and create a complete professional website free of charge, provided you don't want to turn it into too big a platform.
WordPress
Joomla!
Joomla! is a free CMS that lets you design robust websites and create a free online sales site. Supplanted for years by Wordpress, Joomla! seems to be making a comeback in 2016, thanks to its ergonomics, its numerous extensions, and above all its possibilities for natively creating solid ecommerce sites and intranets. Joomla! is aimed at an advanced audience with a strong need for functionality and security. Bloggers, however, will prefer Wordpress.
Joomla!
Drupal
Among open-source CMS, Drupal is the one that will evolve the most in 2016 with version 8. Drupal is designed to create complex websites. Its interface is not its strongest asset, but it makes developers' work much easier. Drupal is highly recommended for its security and the number of features that require extensions for its competitors. The Drupal option is therefore recommended for developers rather than users without technical skills.
Drupal
The best free website creation software: Wordpress, Joomla!, Drupal comparison
| WordPress | Joomla! | Drupal |
| ✔ Best ergonomics ✔ Simplest CMS ✔ Free extensions for everything! |
✔ Very good media management ✔ Suitable for all sites from blog to ecommerce site ✔ Excellent functional coverage |
✔ Excellent level of security ✔ Enormous native functionality ✔ Suitable for very large sites |
| ✖ Frequent security problems ✖ More suitable for blogs than professional sites |
✖ Sometimes complex to do simple things ✖ Fewer themes and plugins available than WordPress |
✖ Not very ergonomic ✖ Fewer themes and plugins available than WordPress ✖ Poor media management |
Create a professional website: pro tools and services
Dozens of companies offer to save you the hassle of installing your CMS, hosting and purchasing a domain name, while providing optimal convenience for creating a beautiful site without writing a single line of code.
These services, which extend beyond the actual design of your site, are logically more expensive than their Open Source competitors. To create a paid-for website, you'll need to pay on average twice the cost of a free CMS. Here are the main advantages and disadvantages of these tools:
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| No technical knowledge required End-to-end control and support Automatic submission to search engines Easier and faster to create than an Open Source CMS Many free services such as themes and image galleries are included |
Cost on average twice as high as Open Source CMS User dependence on service provider (impossible to change hosting provider) Dependent on provider's reputation for SEO. |
Wix.com: the leader in website creation
Wix is the world leader in website creation for small businesses. With over 80 million users, Wix has become the benchmark and is constantly improving. With a simplified experience, creating a wix site requires no technical knowledge. However, Wix sites are not immune to surprises, such as Google's recent penalization of all Wix sites (since corrected).
Wix
memboGo: websites for associations
memboGo is a complete management suite for associations, including a website creation tool. This option is particularly relevant when you're managing memberships and members. Members can log in to their interface to access their account and private data. memboGo lets you create pages, articles, contact forms, photo galleries and much more.
WebSelf: simple, free website creation
Webself is an all-in-one option for creating a showcase or ecommerce website for small businesses. In just a few clicks you can reserve your domain name, choose a graphic theme for your site and create your first pages with your product catalog. WebSelf is a really simple option for all businesses that want to launch quickly and easily on the Internet.
WebSelf
Wix, memboGo, WebSelf comparison for a paid website
| Wix | memboGo | WebSelf |
| ✔ Very simple ✔ Very good SEO ✔ Neat template design |
✔ All features for associations: members, memberships, elections ✔ Price |
✔ Very simple ✔ Wide choice of templates and images ✔ Equivalent alternative to Wix |
Website creation and hosting services are very practical for small companies, as they avoid devoting too much energy to a discipline that requires expertise if you want to have a beautiful site well positioned in Google results. On the other hand, they are more expensive and make you dependent on their services.
CMS such as Wordpress, Joomla! or Drupal, on the other hand, offer total freedom in terms of hosting services and site design. They offer much greater potential and functionality, but at the price of a compulsory increase in technical skills.
Conclusion
As you can see, your company's website is a real challenge today. Compare the solutions on the market (such as ipaoo, mywebsite) to find the one best suited to your company's needs, and consult our marketing guides to develop your business.
Article translated from French