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Webnode Review

Lacks theme customization.

My work is supported by affiliate commissions.
By Steve Benjamins • Updated Mar 27 2017

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Review Updates

  • Feb 15 2016 New review published.
  • Sep 2 2016 Review updated with new screenshots and information on the Webnode form builder and mailing list signup widget.
  • Mar 27 2017 Review significantly updated— Webnode launches features for blogs and membership systems.

User Experience

Like many website builders, Webnode has recently transitioned into a sections-based website editor— basically pages are made up of sections stacked on top of one another (and sections hold individual elements, such as text, images and forms.)

Sections

Right: Sections

Webnode includes preset sections that act as templates. For example, there’s a ‘contact’ section with a contact form, address and map. These preset sections are handy— but Webnode only includes 17. (Other section-based website builders such as WebsiteBuilder.com offer a much wider selection of presets.) Fortunately though, Webnode lets you customize sections by adding or removing widgets.

Preset Sections

Right: Preset Sections

Webnode is simple. And at times that may be a bit frustrating. For example, there are no customization options for photo galleries— you can’t increase the size of the thumbnails, change the display settings or customize the lightbox. It would also be nice to have the functionality to re-order sections on a page (otherwise you have to delete a section and re-add it).

It would be nice to have more display options for photo galleries.

Right: It would be nice to have more display options for photo galleries.

Over all, Webnode has a good, usable editor that provides the basics. The responsive drag and drop makes it easy to create pages (and separate elements into columns) and the basic website building blocks are all provided here.

One note: Maybe I’m crazy but I find the circle navigation (pictured) to be so faint, that I imagine some users even miss it’s there.

Right: One note: Maybe I’m crazy but I find the circle navigation (pictured) to be so faint, that I imagine some users even miss it’s there.

Features

  • Blog

    I ran into bugs while testing the blog feature but customer support has assured me it was a rare issue. So bug aside, I found the blog editor to be fine. You can schedule posts, restrict it to certain people, edit the permalink and more. It is missing RSS (though that’s increasingly outdated).  Show Screenshot

  • Ecommerce

    Not supported. (You can do ecommerce using the old version of Webnode but I wouldn’t recommend it. The old version is quite outdated.)  

  • Form Builder

    A good amount of form field options— inputs, radio buttons, checkboxes, file upload fields, dates and more. You can also customize the forms success message or send the user to a specific page after success. Webnode does save your form submissions in a database— so you can always access them later.  Show Screenshot

  • iOS & Android Apps

    No iOS or Android apps available.  

  • Retina Ready

    No. While the default theme images appeared sharp on retina displays— uploaded images were not optimized for retina displays and would appear blurry.  

  • Newsletter

    Webnode does include an email sign up form— unfortunately it doesn't integrate with email marketing services such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact. This means you'll have to manually add every email address that signs up for your newsletter— which will become frustrating if your newsletter is a success!  Show Screenshot

  • Membership System

    In March 2017, Webnode launched their membership system. It let’s you make certain pages visible only to approved site members.  

  • Design from Scratch

    Not supported. 

  • Multi-lingual

    Great multi-lingual support. You can create several different language versions of your website and write them as you need. It will require some extra upkeep (if you add a page on one language site, you’ll need to re-add the page on another language site) but that’s pretty typical of any multi-lingual website.  Show Screenshot

  • Restaurant Menu

    Not supported. 

  • Donations

    Not supported. 

  • Audio Player

    Not supported. 

  • Podcasts

    Not supported. 

Themes

Webnode offers a nice selection of 65 themes. The themes all look fresh and contemporary. They’re all great choices.

Example Theme

Right: Example Theme

All themes are also responsive— so they work great on mobile devices.

Example Theme

Right: Example Theme

Sounds great right? Here’s the thing: there’s no way to make style edits! You’re sort of locked into whatever these beautiful templates set for you. So for example, there is no way to manually set what color the navigation is for the pink theme example to the right. That’s really too bad!

Not Ideal Billing Practices


Unlike most website builders which offer monthly billing, Webnode requires you to pay for a year up front.



Written By Steve Benjamins

I founded Site Builder Report in 2012 to help people find the best website builder. My work is supported by earning an affiliate commission when readers choose a website builder based on my reviews.

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Last update: Mar 27 2017

Keep in mind that Webnode may have changed since then. If you believe something is out of date in my review, please let me know.