Webnode is a web design solution (CMS) from the Slovak company “Westcom, s.r.o.”. Under its air of tools for novices, Webnode allows you to create easily, quickly and cheaply professional and aesthetic websites.

But it is not the only CMS on the market that offers this, and if you are reading these lines, it is because you want to know if you can trust Webnode. What kind of sites can you create with this editor? What features does it offer? What are its prices? How does it differ from its main competitors, such as Wix, SimpleSite, Jimdo, Squarespace or Cmonsite?

To answer all these questions, I tested Webnode methodically and as objectively as possible. In the following lines, you will know everything about our opinion on Webnode.

Summary of my opinion on Webnode
Webnode is a free website creation solution. Well, free… It depends on what you want to do with your website. Indeed, Webnode uses the freemium operation of most of its competitors by focusing all its communication on the fact that it is possible to create a website for free. But we’ll see that it’s not that easy.

When I was young, my grandmother often told me: if it’s free, it’s because you are the product! Concretely, this is what happens with Webnode but also its competitors Wix and consort. Indeed, it is possible to create a site easily and for free. However, to keep it free, you will have to accept that there are ads on it and your site will not have a dedicated URL. When you will indicate the name of your site, you will have to say: your-site.webnode.com. This is not ideal!

But then is it really Webnode?

When to choose Webnode?
The Webnode solution is a good solution if you plan to create a presentation site for your association or your company but your business is not going to be done on the Internet. Specifically, if you have a physical activity (store in the city center… etc) and you don’t want to bother with the creation of a complicated website, Webnode can do the job.

In just a few clicks, and by dragging the blocks on your screen, you can create a professional looking website and especially in multilanguages, which is the great advantage of Webnode. Once your site is online, you can start communicating on it. But keep in mind that if you want some particular features, you will logically have to pay a monthly subscription of a few euros.

What alternatives to Webnode?
If you plan to open an online store, I can only recommend you to use an alternative solution that will be dedicated to online sales. Indeed, there are solutions that are 100% dedicated to e-commerce. It is more interesting for you because, as your online store develops, it will require more and more features, more and more products to manage… etc. And there, Webnode will pose its limits.

In short, from my side, I would rather advise you to opt for a 100% e-commerce solution such as the French Wizishop or Shopify. These two solutions offer a robust solution and thought for online commerce. They are therefore much more suitable for creating a strong e-commerce.

Note that, for me, if I had to choose between one or the other, I would rather go to the French solution Wizishop which offers the advantage of offering a 6-hour video training to help you create a store perfectly suited to your needs and really effective. And above all, the after-sales service is in French and you will have easier access to external help whereas with Shopify, you will have to manage alone with the dedicated forums on the internet.

Presentation of Webnode, website creation solution

Based in Switzerland, Webnode is a generalist CMS created in 2008 and used by nearly 40 million websites in 2021. After a dazzling conquest of Eastern Europe, Webnode is opening up to the rest of the world. The editor supports about twenty languages, which makes it a CMS of choice for international sites.

But multilingualism is not the only asset of Webnode. Indeed, this solution offers a rare capability in the world of CMS and oh so pleasant: the backups and recoveries of sites. Moreover, the software has a free version, the only condition to use it being to display ads for Webnode.

Webnode aims to be generalist and easy to use. This does not mean that experienced webmasters will not find their place, quite the contrary. The creation of your site can be done either in a visual way or with lines of computer code.
Lots of templates, little customization and lots of lines of code
Webnode offers a hundred themes, all responsive design. The CMS clearly distinguishes between templates for showcases, blogs and e-commerce sites, which allows it to provide unique templates.

Take your time to choose the template for your site, because afterwards you won’t be able to change it without the risk of losing your content. Once you have chosen the template, you are free to customize it: colors, fonts, background images, page structure, etc.

On the other hand, the styles are pre-established and the modifications are limited, which can hinder your customization. However, Webnode has a solution to your problem: modify the CSS code of your pages yourself.

With some knowledge of web development and the Webnode help center, you should be able to achieve the desired result fairly quickly. Be careful though, you can’t change the HTML code of your page, so be careful about the organization of the blocks.

This point is all the more crucial when you are more interested in the HTML code of the templates, which is simply strange. Where the norm is to organize your page with an H1, several H2, H3, H4, etc., some Webnode templates simply ignore this convention, which can make your site fall in the SERPs.

The Webnode interface: simply exquisite
Webnode has a visual editor, in WYSIWYG mode. This is an excellent point for beginners – and those who hate lines of code – because you can modify your page using a “Drag & Drop” system.

However, this system will quickly find its limits for users with a very specific idea in mind. Here again, Webnode offers you to edit directly the HTML and CSS code of the page. After entering your code, validate the modification and your page will change instantly.

The only reproach we can make to this system is that you cannot visualize the result of your modifications before validating your code. So always remember to save your code before modifying it.

Multilingualism: Webnode’s key asset
Webnode is available in about 20 languages. Not through automatic translations, but thanks to teams who speak and understand these languages.
Therefore, you can easily create a multilingual site, which will also benefit from a new extension: “.fr” for French, “.en” for English, etc. Perfect therefore, to break the language barrier and to conquer the Internet users of the whole world.

Moreover, in case of problem, you are sure to receive an answer in your language. As a reminder, on many competing solutions, people who don’t speak a word of Shakespeare’s language often have to make do with automatic translations

Is it possible to create a blog with Webnode?
Yes, creating a blog with Webnode is easy. In addition to the templates designed specifically for this purpose, you have all the features required for blogging: categorization of articles, sharing buttons, tracking tools, everything is there.

Moreover, the missing features can be easily filled by adding a plugin, or for the toughest ones, by modifying the source files.

Is it possible to create a showcase site with Webnode?
Again, yes. You can easily create an institutional site, an organization site or your professional site with Webnode. You choose a template, add photos of you or your organization – with a bonus testimonial section – and that’s it.

Further down, Webnode also offers several detailed subscriptions to best suit your needs for a showcase site. What more could you ask for?

Create an e-commerce site with Webnode: yes, but…
Webnode has complete plans for creating e-commerce sites. Your e-shop will look great, be professional and sell well. In addition, you will have essential features such as inventory tracking or product variation management.

The problem will arise when your e-shop grows: you won’t have enough advanced features. You won’t have stock synchronization with your supplier – so you won’t be able to dropship – nor will you be able to automate calculations for your international customers, nor print labels…