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Alexey Shashkov

Hey Founders and Makers, what's the best tool for building a startup website?

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I mean what's the best product for building a full-blown marketing website for a startup including: – Landing pages – Blog – Documentation / Help – Public Changelog – Public Roadmap Can you share your experience and thoughts here?

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Cica-Laure Mbappé
We started with Wix, but we rapidly had some issues. We' moved to Webflow and I really recommend this builder. You don't need an expensive plan to build something cool, the builder is very versatile.
Cica-Laure Mbappé
@shashcoffe First, Wix was a bit limited when it comes to design. Then we had some troubles, our website was down for 48 hours and the problem was from them. So my team was more likely to switch to Webflow. I had a few design skills but I improved them on Webflow.
Alexey Shashkov
@cica_laure_mbappe Hi Cica-Laure! It's so interesting case. Webflow is excellent. But what problems did you have with Wix? Can you specify? And do you have design skills?
Alexey Shashkov
@cica_laure_mbappe Ok, understood. Thx 🙏
Alex Belding
Early Stage? No-Code builder - pick your poison - no-code is basically a box, once your startup doesn't fit in the box it's time to grow up. With no-code you'll have a poor CMS experience and it will be annoying for SEO and other things but it's early days right :) Ready to go after SEO and growth? Low-Code Headless CMS Why Headless?? 1 - You can manage ALL of your content from one place. Landing pages, microsites, knowledge base, blog, App, IoT etc. "Single Source of Truth" for your content. 2 - It's API first - all the other features/functions you need can be built into the stack as microservices. Commerce, Forms, Portals, CRM/ERP, etc, etc - it also means lower maintenance, better performance, scalable, better security. 3 - it's headless, meaning decoupled from the backend. This means you can quickly change and update the frontend experience without all the cumbersome processes from traditional CMS. Also you can have the backend experience you actually want. No need to bend things to your will. 4 - build on purpose. So many tools come with technical debt and are over engineered. Headless keeps everything lightweight and on purpose. Total control. 5 - You can build your own DXP - Digital Experience Platform. No need to have multiple systems and complex workflows. Everything takes places in the headless CMS I like Sanity CMS - https://www.sanity.io/ but there's a ton to choose from.
Alexey Shashkov
@alex_belding Hey Alex! Thx for you detailed comment. Much appreciated. I feel you have experience and expertise in this area. Cool. 🤝🙂
Alex Belding
@shashcoffe yea - I've ran shops and brands on Magento, Adobe Muse, Adobe Business Catalyst and of course WordPress but shifted my entire world view when I discovered headless a few years ago. I like the no-code movement but eventually you need a CMS. Actually putting a new podcast episode together on this topic so I was already prepped to answer this question LOL.
Alexey Shashkov
@alex_belding Thank you for the reply, Alex. Where can I listen to this new episode?
Alex Belding
@shashcoffe once published you can find it anywhere you find and play podcasts. I am using Acast now for the hosting and distribution. About to build it into our website. It's called The Headless Marketing Show :) https://shows.acast.com/the-head...
Alex Belding
@shashcoffe got that episode published - https://shows.acast.com/the-head... You can also listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts etc
Wael Khattar
Bubble.io, don't look anywhere else
Alexey Shashkov
@wael_khattar1 Hi Wael, yeah, Bubble is an awesome tool. Do you use it for websites too?
Alexey Shashkov
@tony_ls Anthony, yeah, agree. This is the one of the best tool in this area. But is it good for the website building?
Wael Khattar
@shashcoffe Yea, it can be used for both websites and webapps. Obviously Webflow for example is probably better suited for static websites but in his case he can build the blog and database for the Roadmap and Changelog into Bubble. He can also directly link his CI/CD pipeline directly into the Changelog through APIs, things that you can't do easily with Webflow for example
Anthony Losso
@wael_khattar1 amazing tool for building an app 👍
Alexey Shashkov
@wael_khattar1 Wow, that is cool. Thanks a lot, Wael. 🤝🙂
Alice Rodgers
We were using WordPress first, but moved to Tilda later, cos it's much faster and easier to use.
Alexey Shashkov
@cn__katie Hi Katie, wow=) It’s not often to meet people who use WordPress) Tilda is cool, yeah.
Alice Rodgers
@shashcoffe WordPress offers more customisations which we really needed
Vadym Shcherbakov
I really believe that WIX is enough for landing page and blog creation. I would like to recommend Basecamp as a starting tool for Backlog sharing. On the other hand, Jira is the best tool for Backlog management. We are using GitHub for public documentation at Identance
Alexey Shashkov
@vadim_shcherbakov Hey Vadim, thanks for sharing that! Much appreciated. 💪
Jenny Kim
We used Wix for our RoundUp website. Given it's a MVP, we needed something quick and easy to set up and it included all the features you listed. We didn't even have a designer so our marketer jumped in but was able to navigate quite well, and noticed most of the work required by developers were provided as a self-setup. Blogs, SEO built-in, A/B testing features were all helpful. Only downside is it's not as robust with design functions (e.g. for CTA buttons, there's only a handful of fonts/colors you can select). We did look into Squarespace too and they have more or less the same features - pricing was a little lower for Wix so we decided to give it a try.
Alexey Shashkov
@jenny_at_wanted Wow, thanks a lot, Jenny, for so detailed response!
Debajit Sarkar
(1) Elementor: Really good website builder for WordPress (2) BigCommerce: If you’re looking to create an online store that scales (3) Trello: Tool to share your product roadmap
Alexey Shashkov
@dsarkar Thank you so much, Debajit.
Julia Doronina
For our startup we use Tilda, it's very easy to deal with and user-friendly with a big amount of functions.
Alexey Shashkov
@julia_demyanchuk Yeah, agree. Tilda is cool website builder. Thank you for the answer, Julia.
Noah Lenz
Historically I've used WordPress but it can get bloated and hard to maintain as you add more plugins for more functionally. Now, Webflow is what we primarily use and it's lightweight and fairly easy to use. You can build everything you mentioned on Webflow and WordPress, however, I'd recommend Canny for your changelog/roadmap & I'd recommend building your help center inside of your helpdesk tool (if you have one) or perhaps Notion.
Alexey Shashkov
@noah_lenz Thank you for your answer, Noah. Much appreciated. I like Webflow and Canny too. I’m using Freshdesk but I don’t like the docs part of it. What helpdesk are you using?
Noah Lenz
@shashcoffe Yeah, I've used Freshdesk a few times in the past and really am not a huge fan of it all together but the docs part is defiantly lacking. Currently, we're using Intercom, but HelpScout works great as well. Zendesk is a good Freshdesk replacement but is quite expensive and bloated and generally not necessary until you scale more.
Alexey Shashkov
@noah_lenz Thank you for sharing your experience here, Noah. 🙌🙂
PB Josiah
I use Webflow for my startup. Since it's no-code, it's a lot easier to make quick changes and takes less time to build.
Alexey Shashkov
@bomajosiah Thank you, Boma. Do you have design skills?
PB Josiah
@shashcoffe Yes, I'm a Product Designer.
John Allen
Webflow is by far the best low-code tool for building a marking website. Their features are superb for this use case and the product is essentiality an abstraction of classical web development which makes your website work as well as a professionally built website.
Alexey Shashkov
@jall_n Hey John. Much appreciated comment! Thx. Is Webflow for people with design skills?
John Allen
@shashcoffe I'm a designer myself and find Webflow to be intuitive. There is a learning curve for people who are not familiar with web development principles but overcoming that challenge will ultimately make you a better creator.
Alexey Shashkov
@jall_n Yeah, agreed. Thanks for the reply, John. 🤝🙂 Much appreciated.
Nik Hazell
Anybody using Shopify? Offers an awful lot of what's required, particularly (obviously) if you're selling physical goods!
Alexey Shashkov
@nik_hazell Yeah! I think this is the best product in the e-comm area today.
Nik Hazell
@shashcoffe Yeah agreed! 👊
YvetteAhono
A little late but you can use OLITT Website Builder to create free landing pages for your startup. OLITT offers SSL, Web hosting and Domain connection to websites for free. I hope this helps.
Alexey Shashkov
@ahonoyvette Hey Yvette, thank you so much for sharing this tool. I'm going to check it out.
YvetteAhono
@shashcoffe No problem. All the best!
Ghost Kitty
Comment Deleted
Alexey Shashkov
@anatoly_corp Thanks for sharing it, Anatoly. Good landings. 👍
Volkan Kaya
Founder of Versoly here a Website builder for Startups (mainly SaaS at the moment). https://www.producthunt.com/post... got #3 of the day and PH users love us. We handle landing pages, blogs, docs, and changelog. Most of our customers try 5+ builders before finding us and upgrading (lots of hype and overselling by other builders). Versoly is a little different, we give you access to the code so there is 0 vendor lock in and you can create completely custom websites without exporting.
Alexey Shashkov
@volkandkaya Hey Volkan. I saw your product. It looks good for this task. Thanks for doing it.
Suraj Keshri
If you want all these features in one platform and want to build a community around it, checkout https://gully.to. Founder of Gully here :)
Alexey Shashkov
@quantdaddy Ok, man. I'll check it out)
Oleg Meisner
Our team uses simple lightweight tools, such as Tilda or WebFlow. I'd personally recommend using WebFlow - there are more developers on the market, so it would be easier to maintain your site in future.
Alexey Shashkov
@oleg_meisner Oleg, thanks a lot. Webflow is a perfect tool, it's true.
Anthony Losso
If you want to create an app I recommend bubble.io and if it's for a website you can use Wordpress with the Elementor integration (it will make the development much easier)
Alexey Shashkov
@tony_ls Yeah, bubble is cool for the app. But why WordPress? Why not Webflow or Wix?
Connor Burns
I've been a designer for years and never seen a better product than Webflow
Alexey Shashkov
@coburns_ That's a good answer, Connor. Is Webflow good for non-designers?
Connor Burns
@shashcoffe Eek well it depends how non of a designer you are. I still design first in figma then transfer it too webflow. So if you do design just do it on figma or just pay someone to do it on figma
George Joseph
I'd recommend getting someone to set up a simple headless CMS application which non-tech stakeholders of the team can always update with relevant information whenever required!
Alexey Shashkov
@thegeorgejoseph Thanks for the idea, George. Why existing Headless CMS don't work for you? How about sanity.io or something like that?