Let’s be fair—website builders serve a purpose. They are excellent for specific scenarios.
The Landscape of Popular Website Builders in India
The Top Contenders:
- Wix & Squarespace: Ideal for portfolios, simple service pages, or personal blogs. Their drag-and-drop interfaces are intuitive, and they offer decent templates.
- Shopify: The undisputed leader for launching a standard online store quickly, especially with its easy integration for Indian payment gateways.
- WordPress.com: A hosted, simpler version of the powerful WordPress platform, good for straightforward blogging.
The Real Cost of “Easy & Cheap”:
While the monthly subscription seems affordable, the hidden costs are significant:
- The “Template Trap”: Your site risks looking generic, similar to thousands of others. In competitive markets, blending in is a risk.
- Performance & SEO Limitations: Builders often add bloated code that slows down your site. Speed is a direct Google ranking factor, especially on mobile. Advanced SEO fine-tuning is usually restricted.
- Scalability Walls: What works for a 5-page site today will struggle when you want to add member logins, custom booking systems, or complex product configurations.
- The Lock-In Effect: Migrating your site and content away from these platforms later can be technically challenging and costly.