SITE123 is an all-in-one website builder with all the essential features and components a business needs to create a website. However, its feature set isn’t necessarily impressive compared to its competitors. While it does have an easy-to-use site editor, pre-built templates, and a built-in image library, all plans have low storage and bandwidth limits, domain names are free for the first year only, online store functionality is limited to the mid- and high-end plans, and the built-in email marketing tool has a very low monthly email sending limit.

Storage and bandwidth

One of SITE123’s weaknesses is that it has very low storage and bandwidth limits on all of its plans. While it’s perhaps not surprising that its forever free plan has low storage and bandwidth limits, it is surprising that even its top-tier plans have limits. The majority of its competitors, on the other hand, offer unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth on mid-tier and/or top-tier plans, and more storage and bandwidth on entry-level plans. For example, unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth are standard on Squarespace and Shopify’s plans.

Domain name and SSL certificate

All SITE123 paid plans include a free domain name for your first year. After your first year, top-level domains (e.g. .com) renew for $16 per year – except for .co.il and .org.il, which renew for $19 per year. All domains and subdomains include a free SSL certificate, which not only improves site security, but also improves your SEO and is a requirement for those who want to accept online payments.

Templates and Site Editor

The SITE123 editor is very user-friendly with a simple and intuitive drag and drop builder. It includes a built-in image library, which is a helpful feature, and all site elements are click-editable, so if you want to update text, just click on the text you want to edit and you can make changes to the site. Although the editor is easy to use, it is very limited in terms of design options.

It doesn’t use a standard template library like most website builders, such as Squarespace, Shopify, and Wix, but instead offers a variety of page structures to choose from. And while you can add new sections using the “+” icon between each section, you can’t move elements (e.g. image, header, text) around the page. This can be a good thing for beginners, as it ensures the design stays consistent. However, it’s probably not suitable for more experienced users who want to create a more unique website.

Marketing and SEO tools

SITE123 offers a variety of marketing tools to help businesses build a brand, increase their visibility, and generate more revenue. It offers a logo builder, built-in search engine optimization (SEO) tools to help your website get found in organic search, a custom form builder to generate leads, and an email marketing tool to automatically communicate with leads and convert them into sales. However, I found that these features aren’t on par with standalone email marketing software, professional SEO services, and easy-to-use logo builders like Canva. Still, it’s nice to have these available, but they probably won’t be enough for every business.

E-Shopping

While SITE123 may not be the most well-known eCommerce website builder, it offers a surprisingly long list of features to make it easier for users to sell online. These include inventory management, order management, payment gateway integration, built-in shipping and tax calculators, the ability to sell digital products, creating product attributes and variants, a “Frequently Bought Together” tool to increase sales, order limits (minimum and maximum), store wishlists, abandoned cart recovery, the option to add products to multiple categories, the ability to choose from 80 currencies, conversion codes to track leads and sales, and more.

Admittedly, SITE123 offers an impressive list of eCommerce features at an industry-low price for an online store ($12.80 per month). However, a major downside in my opinion is that its design options are very limited. While it is very user-friendly, it is not the most advanced and its template library is incredibly sparse compared to the best eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Wix or Ecwid.