As website builders become more and more popular, it's essential that there are a variety of options available. That's where Strikingly comes in – a website builder tool that is seriously upgraded for 2023. Strikingly has something for everyone, from its solid web design tools to its robust features. But is it the best option? Let's decide as we walk through this comprehensive Strikingly review with a slideshow walkthrough of designing in Strikingly.
What is Strikingly?
If you don't have a website in 2023, you're way behind and likely need to catch up quickly. That's why Strikingly is such a game-changing website builder tool. It's fast, easy to use, and looks great on any device. You can build one-page websites or robust online stores with unlimited products.
Strikingly has the perfect template for you, whether you're a beginner or a pro. You can create single- to multi-page websites, e-commerce sites, and landing pages. In addition to its excellent design, Strikingly is intuitive and easy to use, making it perfect for anyone who wants to build a professional website quickly and easily.
Strikingly Website Builder Specs
Web design has come a long way in the past few years, with new and innovative platforms like Strikingly making website creation more accessible and user-friendly. Although its market share is low, its fanbase is starting to grow. This platform focuses on the modern web and looks toward the future of web design. It's fast, user-friendly, and efficient, perfect for creating 2023-style websites. Let's get into the specs.
Drag-and-Drop Editor – This is the preferred builder for most users who do not know how to code or alter HTML and CSS. You don't have to be a web designer to use Strikingly effectively. Note that all the best website builders have this available to the user.
Templates – Strikingly has close to 200 templates that cover every niche across websites, online stores, business websites, blog sites, landing pages, course and membership sites, and more. You can also work from a blank canvas if you can't find a suitable template.
SEO & Analytics – SEO features are a must to help your site rank higher on search engines and analytics for measuring site stats. Strikingly has both available on all plans and Strikingly's free plan.
Email Marketing – Email marketing and subscriber capture for email follow-up and email marketing automation, which most website builders do not offer.
Free SSL Certificate – Always valuable and needed to support SEO and security
Custom Forms – If you want to capture leads, you must have forms. Strikingly allows you to build custom forms specific to your website's needs (Pro plan and up).
Product Reviews – Product reviews are essential to running a successful eCommerce store. Strikingly offers product review functionality (Pro plan and up).
Pop-ups – Pop-ups are a great way to engage your users, entice them to take action, or subscribe to a newsletter or for promos and deals (Pro plan and up).
Live Chat – Essential for busy websites where interaction with the user and providing excellent customer service are front and center. Strikingly offers a Live chat widget (VIP plan).
Site Options – Strikingly lets you build single and multi-page sites, from a simple landing page to a complex online store with advanced features. There are many options to choose from when creating your website.
Strikingly Pricing Plans
Strikingly offers a variety of pricing plans that suit different budgets and needs. There's a free forever option and three paid plans, ranging in price from $12/mo for the Limited plan to $59/mo for the VIP. The $20/month Pro plan is the most popular and provides the most value for getting started.
Strikingly also offers a 30% savings when you pay annually, and you can sign up for up to 5 years, saving you $528.
Strikingly also offers a free forever option with quite a bit of functionality. We recommend testing the features on the free plan and then opting for the Pro plan when you want to connect your domain.
Getting Started w/ Strikingly
Getting started with Strikingly is incredibly easy. You can sign up with your name, email, and password for free, and by verifying your email, you'll be ready to start designing. You can sign up with Facebook or log in with LinkedIn if you prefer the social login option.
Upon logging in, you'll be greeted by the Strikingly dashboard, where you can start creating. The Create New Site button is your ticket to get started. If you have an existing project started, you'll see it listed, and you can also choose to work on that by clicking the edit button.
Once you get started, you'll need to choose a template. As mentioned, Strikingly has close to 200 to choose from across multiple website types, so peruse until you find one you like that meets your needs. You can preview it or click to open the editor.
The design interface of a new template will look similar to the one above. This is essentially your canvas to work from based on the template you selected. You'll notice that many areas can be edited as you mouse over it. You'll also see two black buttons open to initiate changes within the background and layout.
The left panel of the design editor has the navigation for your pages and controls the styles, settings, audience elements, and more. This is also where you can find the preview and publish buttons and the ability to exit the editor.
Strikingly's Web Design Tools
Strikingly offers many features, including drag-and-drop design, custom fonts, and unlimited colors. With Strikingly, you can also create complex website designs without requiring programming.
Elements are easy to move around the page and add customization, and the vast assortment of templates gives you a great starting point. In addition, Strikingly offers background flexibility with images and video, and you can upload your own files.
Photos and Images in Strikingly
Working with photos and images is straightforward and not cumbersome. You must hit the background button to open the interface to add or edit images or videos. You can stretch the image to fit the entire site, add screens to the image for additional contrast, and set the focus to various parts of the image. The tools work well in this regard.
You can also upload an entire library of images you've curated or use the images within Strikingly. Strikingly offers a decent library of onboard images to use if you don't want to upload or don't have an image that works. They are general in nature but will do the job in most instances.
Building Mobile Sites w/ Strikingly
Mobile website design has come a long way in recent years. With Strikingly, business owners can build beautiful, responsive websites on the go. This builder tool is perfect for businesses that want to quickly and easily create mobile-friendly sites. The platform allows you to preview across devices to see how your site will look on tablets and phones and make adjustments to your liking.
Strikingly's E-commerce Options
You can use the Strikingly platform to sell anything from products to services. Even their free version allows for selling a single product. The Pro provides up to 300 products with a 2% transaction fee, and the VIP offers unlimited products with no transaction fee. You'll still pay the payment processor fees, which is a considerable savings across many products.
Strikingly Review – Top Five Features
When it comes to website building, there are a lot of options out there. But what makes Strikingly stand out?
1) Strikingly offers powerful features that are perfect for the modern marketer. It has everything you need – from design to hosting and marketing tools – to create a website that looks great and is optimized for search engines.
2) The platform is easy to use and can be accessed from any device. They offer both an iOS and Android app for website management and maintenance.
3) They pipe your Google Analytics data into the platform so you can access reporting from within the tool without going through Google.
4) The VIP plan seemingly has it all. You can have a multilingual website with automatic translation, multiple membership tiers, 2,000 contacts to send newsletters, and unlimited bandwidth. Did we mention the plan covers 5 websites with all these capabilities?
5) Top-notch support team available 24/7 via email and chat to help with any questions or problems that might arise. With the VIP plan, you get priority customer service, phone support, and a dedicated account manager. They are fanatical about your success and label their support associates as Happiness Officers.
Pros and Cons of Strikingly
Businesses of all sizes seek website builder tools to help them grow online. Strikingly is one of these tools, and it has many benefits that make it a great choice. It has all the features small and medium-sized businesses need to get started online and more, but it is not perfect. Let's review the pros and cons.
Pros
- Designed with business growth in mind
- Reasonably priced in comparison to other builder tools
- Intuitive drag-and-drop editing tools
- Fantastic assortment of templates to start from
- Three sites with the Pro version for $11.20/mo if paid for a year
- Packed with features that you want for a website
- Ability to sell directly from the site with low to no transaction fees depending on the plan
- Free forever plan and a 14-day trial on paid plans
- Domain names and custom email offered for a fee
Cons
- You can't transfer a website from another builder tool into Strikingly
- There are no active AI tools available to use
- Domains are a bit pricey and can be purchased much cheaper elsewhere
- Custom email addresses are not free and are priced higher than other options
- The platform is slower than other website builders
Strikingly Review – Extra Value-add
We like to add additional value for our readers when reviewing software. You're relying on us to get it right and give you the information needed to help you decide. Here are some of the extras that will help in your decision.
- Strikingly offers multiple languages, which is a step above what other website builders have.
- You can create a website in minutes without knowing how to code with Strikingly.
- Strikingly is updating the product constantly to ensure they stay ahead of customer needs, and you can have those sent to your email weekly if you want to stay apprised.
- They offer both a knowledge base with answers and videos for using every aspect of the product and an idea center where you can post your idea to improve the platform and upvote and downvote other ideas.
- They also have added embeddable apps like TypeForm for interactive forms, SoundCloud for audio, Pinterest for pinning images, and Eventbrite for events and are adding more advanced functionality routinely.
What are Some Good Alternatives to Strikingly?
There are a lot of website builder tools out there, and it can be tough to decide which one to choose. That's why it's essential to research and consider the alternatives available. We've compiled a short list of a few that match up well and provide equal or more value overall.
Weebly
Weebly is a fantastic tool that can go up against any website builder and does in our comparisons of Wix vs Weebly and Weebly vs Squarespace. Wix offers a lot of value and has a free option sans a custom domain name.
Notable Differences
- Faster platform
- Image editor
- Parallax features
- Audio capabilities
- Access to the code
Weebly Pricing
Weebly also has a free plan and offers three paid plans, including the Personal plan for $10/mo billed annually, the Professional for $12/mo billed annually, and the Performance plan for $26/mo billed annually. It's not the least expensive option, but it offers great value.
GroovePages
GroovePages is one of a dozen Groove.cm marketing stack tools. GroovePages allows you to create unlimited free pages and attach your custom domain to them, essentially providing you with a website for free.
There are a lot of things to like about Groove.cm. They offer a lot of value within the full marketing and business software suite. You can learn more about Groove in our complete GrooveFunnels review.
Groove.cm Pricing
GrooveFunnels starts out free and offers multiple paid plans if you need to upgrade to get more features from the tools offered.
Duda
Duda offers a versatile and dynamic website builder that gets lots of praise. It's the most expensive option on our short list but is worth a spot for everything it offers and is capable of doing. It's a good option when you need scalability fast or have client websites to build and fill with content.
Notable Differences
- Dynamic page creation
- Connected content libraries
- Instant websites within a few clicks
- Workflow automation
- Widgets and widget builder
Duda Pricing
Duda starts with the Basic plan at $14/mo, paid annually for a single website. Beyond Basic, there is the Team plan at $22/mo, Agency at $44/mo, and White Label at $74/mo. These are all paid annually. All paid plans have a 14-day free trial.
How to Create a Site With Strikingly
Website building has to be easy for a builder tool to be considered a top choice. Strikingly makes the process fairly simple once you know how the tool works and how to navigate the interface. We've compiled a slideshow walkthrough to outline some of the most important features of the design interface.
An Inside Look at Strikingly's Settings
Building a website is important, but understanding how to set up the website for success is critical. Strikingly has many features buried in the settings that are worth discussing as they help separate the website builder from other options. Let's walk through the settings so you know what Strikingly offers.
Settings: Basic Info
The basic info panel allows you to enter a website title, choose a category for the site, enter a description, and handle social sharing images and favicons. It's essentially adding opengraph info to the site.
Settings: Accept Payments
You can connect with Stripe, PayPal, or Square or set up offline payments in the accept payments section of the settings.
Settings: Email Notifications
In the email notifications panel, you can set the site up to send emails from a specific name and email, add your physical address that will show on the bottom of all emails to comply with CAN-SPAM rules, and set up your domain authentication to improve deliverability.
Settings: Mobile Actions
The mobile actions panel allows you to add certain calls to action at the bottom of your site for mobile phones. Options like “find us” and “call us” and others.
Settings: Header & Footer
The header & footer panel allows you to make global changes in the site's header, like displaying the navigation menu or not, displaying buttons within the nav, and showing or hiding the footer.
Settings: Privacy & Legal
The privacy & legal settings are critical to ensure you stay compliant with privacy laws, cookie notifications, and terms and conditions for site use. There is also a box for GDPR compliance with how data is collected and used to comply with laws within the European Union.
Related Article: Maintaining GDPR email marketing compliance
Settings: Services
Within the services settings, you can connect third-party tracking through Google Analytics and Google Search Console and install the Facebook tracking pixel and various tracking text files.
Settings: Email Automations
Email automation sits outside of the settings panel. Still, it is worth noting that they are a robust feature enabling you to send emails within a nurturing or drip workflow to increase engagement and create operational efficiency.
As part of the email marketing features of Strikingly, an audience lists panel allows you to keep track of your subscribers and members. You can upgrade to an audience plan for $10/month without a paid plan.
Settings: SEO Checklist
Strikingly provides an SEO checklist that allows you to check the boxes for each SEO best practice to ensure you haven't missed anything on your Strikingly site before launch or after.
Settings: Analytics Dashboard
Strikingly provides an analytics dashboard with several useful charts to help show you your site's performance over time so you don't have to borough into Google Analytics, which can be a hassle.
Helpful Related Website Builder Content
- Best Website Builder in 2022 (Ranked & Reviewed)
- Weebly vs Squarespace – Which is the Better Site Builder in 2022?
- Squarespace Alternatives – Better Options For Great Websites
Strikingly Review Wrap-up
Strikingly has come a long way from its humble beginnings and is well-designed for success in 2023 and beyond. Whether you need a website with multiple pages or are looking for a solution for single-page websites or landing pages, Strikingly has a robust free plan. Although that provides limited features, it is a great way to test what Strikingly provides.
Is it the best website builder we've tested? Time will tell. We like it and think it is a good website builder tool with impressive features. It's perfect for small businesses that need a simple website builder to create multi-page websites or an online store. Look at Strikingly for your website project, and let us know your thoughts.
