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
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.
Alexey Shashkov
@curiousoffice Thank you, Kelly! I see you are a big fan of Webflow. It's awesome. Is starbucks.com made by Webflow?
Tyler Kelly
Unstack is a pretty cool tool that we have used.
Alexey Shashkov
@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.
Tobias Horka
Part of it should be www.onescreener.com
Alexey Shashkov
@tobias_horka Wow, so simple, so lightweight! Cool!
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.
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.
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.
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)
Roberto Robles
For my startup KatLinks I'm using: - Wordpress for my main website and blog - Froged for my Knowledge base - ProductStash for my roadmap/changelog
Alexey Shashkov
@roberto_robles Whew, there are some products. Thank you for your answer, Roberto. 🙌🙂
Md Salehin Khan
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
Alexey Shashkov
@md_salehin_khan Thanks, man. I see this product provides tools for launching subscription business. That is so interesting area.
Rob Works
Been using Webflow for some time now and I am really impressed by its capabilities, design wise.
Alexey Shashkov
@robertgavriles1 Hi Robert, thank you for your reply. Is Webflow a tool for people with design skills? What do think about it?
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 Yeah, agreed. Thanks for the reply, John. 🤝🙂 Much appreciated.
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.
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.
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?
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 Ok, understood. Thx 🙏
Arpit mishra
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.
Alexey Shashkov
@arpit_mishra_scarneck_ Thank you for sharing it, Arpit. That is a cool bundle of tools.
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?
Alexey Shashkov
@anatoly_corp Thanks for sharing it, Anatoly. Good landings. 👍
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. 🙌🙂
Nik Hazell
Zappi Ad Predictor
Zappi Ad Predictor
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
Zappi Ad Predictor
Zappi Ad Predictor
@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!
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. 🤝🙂
Gleb Braverman
Carrrd is pretty good!