Hey Founders and Makers, what's the best tool for building a startup website?
Alexey Shashkov
83 replies
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?
Replies
Kelly Smith@curiousoffice
Webflow is pretty much the way to go. We'll see Webflow become one of the main ways to do this kind of thing in the future. It will sit alongside Figma as a core bit of kit, with more designers realizing it's an easier way to launch sites for our multi-screen world. Other "low-code" tools aren't this polished and don't follow basic HTML/CSS semantics as well.
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FromNotion
@curiousoffice Thank you, Kelly! I see you are a big fan of Webflow. It's awesome. Is starbucks.com made by Webflow?
PitchPages
FromNotion
@tylerhappinin Whew, so powerful bundle of features in one place. Looking cool! 2k+ upvotes on PH, Golden Kitty. I never heard about it. What a brilliant tool! I'm going to try it. Thanks a lot for sharing it, Tyler.
Onescreener
Part of it should be www.onescreener.com
Cartalog
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.
FromNotion
@bomajosiah Thank you, Boma. Do you have design skills?
Versoly
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.
(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
Truegit
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 :)
SuperSEO Tips
For my startup KatLinks I'm using:
- Wordpress for my main website and blog
- Froged for my Knowledge base
- ProductStash for my roadmap/changelog
If you love no-code then bubble.io if you are a developer or have access to developers then I would say build it from scratch using ruby, python nodejs etc.
You can also checkout ghost.org.. it's mainly a publishing platform but with some tweak you can do all from the list above
FromNotion
@md_salehin_khan Thanks, man. I see this product provides tools for launching subscription business. That is so interesting area.
FromNotion
@robertgavriles1 Hi Robert, thank you for your reply. Is Webflow a tool for people with design skills? What do think about it?
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.
FromNotion
@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.
keypup.io
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.
FromNotion
@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?
keypup.io
@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.
We tried using No-code and struggled as we grew, the sync between the main website, blog, resources was difficult. No or Low code has its own demerits.
What worked for me across multiple products
- The New WordPress.com for Landing pages and blogs. Opt for a theme if you need low code.
- Notion 2.0 for Documentation
- Airtable for changelog and roadmap
Been trying to explore how Ghost impacts in a long run time over other alternatives. Seems like a good choice.
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)
FromNotion
Comment Deleted
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.
FromNotion
@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?
@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.
Zappi Ad Predictor
Anybody using Shopify? Offers an awful lot of what's required, particularly (obviously) if you're selling physical goods!
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.
Bubble.io, don't look anywhere else
FromNotion
@wael_khattar1 Hi Wael, yeah, Bubble is an awesome tool. Do you use it for websites too?
FromNotion
@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
HackerPulse
Carrrd is pretty good!