Better known for its other services, you may be surprised to learn that GoDaddy also offers one of the best website builders on the market.
GoDaddy’s website builder boasts a simple to use interface and reasonably priced packages. In fact, it even offers one of the best free website builder plans. So, if you already use GoDaddy for your web hosting or as your domain registrar, or if you are just looking for a great stand alone option, its website builder is well worth considering.
Our expert reviewers have gotten hands on with the GoDaddy website builder, including all the features and tools it has to offer. Now we have created this review to give you all the information and insight you need to make an informed decision on whether GoDaddy is the right website builder for you.
The design interface is very simple and clean (Image credit: GoDaddy)
Getting started with GoDaddy website builder
After having answered a handful of simple questions, GoDaddy creates a few sample pages for you, which can all be seen in the sidebar to the right.
The interface is very simple to use and understand: to edit a page, simply mouse over a section. As it highlights, click on it. The tools you need either appear in the sidebar, or hover near the highlighted section itself. This makes it one of the easiest website builder platforms around, and provides the tools you’ll need to quickly build your website.
Add as many sections to your pages (Image credit: GoDaddy)
There are chevrons to reorder your pages’ sections, and a big plus between sections to add another. You’re offered a list of different types of sections to add to your page, such as Introduction, Photo Gallery or Livestream, with most offering you various layouts to choose from.
Galleries are automatically populated with stock images (Image credit: GoDaddy)
Adding a gallery is a very easy affair: choose it from the ‘Sections’ menu, select the look you prefer, and GoDaddy automatically populates it with stock media based on the business description you typed in when you first set up your site.
Obviously you can customise this, either by adding your own photos or choosing different stock images. Each one can be individually captioned. The only image processing you have at your disposal is to set photos to black and white, and crop them. If you need to edit them more extensively, this has to be done outside of this service.
It’s basic, but is works and it looks good.
Add additional pages via the sidebar on the right (Image credit: GoDaddy)
The ‘+’ top right of the Sidebar not only allows you to create new pages for your site (there doesn’t appear to be a limit to how many you can have), you’re also given a choice how the information is presented in the navigation menu, and even have the ability to add a URL or even create a drop down menu.
Placing links to pages in the Footer is another option, and so it making a page private - this means that only specific people which you invite can see those pages.
Blogging tools offer your what you need to start posting (Image credit: GoDaddy)
Blogging on GoDaddy website builder
The blogging section is quite nice, and if your needs are simple, you’ll be very happy with this feature.
Everything you need to create a blog is right there: adding headings, URLs, bold, italicise, bullet points or numbered list, you’ve got it.
We quite liked the fact you can add images within your post and even choose how to align them - to the left or right of a paragraph, or on its own. You also have the option to add a caption and crop the image (by zooming into it). Sadly there doesn’t appear to be a way to resize the image so it sits better within your page.
Videos can also be inserted just as easily. You can upload them just as you would an image, or paste the video’s URL (this works for most sites we tried).
Once written, you have the option to publish your post immediately, or schedule it, which isn’t something we see in many free website builder plans.
Creating an online store is a very easy process (Image credit: GoDaddy)
Ecommerce features on GoDaddy website builder
Activating the Shopping section is done differently than any other, by clicking on its button, bottom of the sidebar. For such a complex addition to any site, it looks pretty simple to use. If you’ve got a Square account, you can import your inventory from there, which would be an excellent time saver. CSV files are also supported.
Adding a new product manually is very straightforward, be it physical or digital. There’s a place for photos and videos, a description, category, inventory, variations, shipping cost, and even additional extras like engraving or gift wrapping.
When it comes to accepting payments, GoDaddy offers you three options: PayPal, Stripe or Square, with very clear descriptions as to which service offers what. PayPal is selected by default when you create a store. There’s also an ‘offline payment’ option (cash/check/bank transfers), should you prefer.
GoDaddy website builder appointment features
There’s a very clever feature to GoDaddy’s Website Builder and that’s Appointments. This allows you to set up and schedule client meetings, one-off classes and recurring courses. Everything can be done online, even payment.
Clients are sent email reminders automatically, and you can set up when you’d like those reminders to be sent. Additionally, text messages can also be used - but this feature could incur a cost.
GoDaddy website builder publishing
When it’s time to publish, your free options continue since GoDaddy will host your site for you and give you a [yourbusinessname].godaddysites.com URL. If you want to connect your site to a specific domain name however, you have to pay for the privilege.
GoDaddy website builder pricing and plans
Note: If you pay for 1, 2, or 3 years upfront GoDaddy offers a discount that lasts for the duration of the period you have signed up for. This saving, along with the renewal rate (once the initial sign up period is over) are illustrated below.
GoDaddy allows you to explore its website building service free for 30 days. When you’re ready to upgrade, four plans are open to you:
The first one is called ‘Basic’. This plan includes all the basic website features you would expect such as an SSL certificate, ability to connect a custom domain, and access to customer support. You also get other benefits including up to 100 email marketing sends a month, 5 social posts, 1 social media platform support, and free professional email (for one year).
‘Standard’ provides more flexibility and space to grow your website, offering increased limits for email and social media, as well as built-in SEO options.
‘Premium’ supports unlimited social media platforms and posts, as well as up to 25,000 email sends a month. There are also additional features, such as recurring appointments, one-time group events, payments for appointments, as well as reminders.
Finally, ‘Ecommerce’ expands on the above by offering a range of ecommerce features, such as product listings, flexible payments and shipping, promotional features, as well as marketplace selling.
GoDaddy website builder review: Summary
If you’re on the lookout of a service that allows you the flexibility and creativity to design your own web presence, with a flexible layout that will look good on any screen, you should definitely take a look at GoDaddy’s web builder offering.
If you're looking for a free file recovery tool, one of the first suggestions you'll come across is TestDisk and PhotoRec. Since 2008 this open source file recovery tool has grown in popularity, thanks to its flexibility and ease of use. That's despite TestDisk and PhotoRec relying on a command line interface rather than a mouse-driven user interface.
One of the main draws of TestDisk and its companion photo recovery app PhotoRec is support for a wide range of platforms.
Beyond Windows 11, TestDisk and PhotoRec can be run on Linux, macOS, Mac OS X on PowerPC, and various ARM-based platforms. Available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, there is even a Windows 9x/MSDOS build of TestDisk and PhotoRec. Source code for the software is also available to download and compile. It can also be run as 'Live' CD or DVD in case your OS isn't recoverable.
This is the command line interface of TestDisk and PhotoRec (Image credit: CGSecurity)
Key recovery features
With TestDisk and PhotoRec, recovery is split into two broad groups: partitions and filesystems, and photos and other images.
Many recovery issues concern missing partitions. TestDisk can find many lost filesystems, including NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS, JFS, and many others. Furthermore, TestDisk can also undelete files on certain filesystems, namely FAT, exFAT, NTFS, and ext2.
PhotoRec also has a graphical user interface (GUI) available to make photo recovery easier (Image credit: CGSecurity)
Meanwhile, PhotoRec can find a vast selection of file formats, such as common image files (JPG, PNG, etc.), Microsoft Office files, OpenOffice file formats, PDFs, and TXT files. Over 440 file types have been recorded, meaning that if the data is intact, it can in theory be recovered with PhotoRec.
In addition, PhotoRec has a GUI option. In Windows this is qphotorec.exe. This works in largely the same way as the CLI tool, with the options displayed in a single window rather than a step-by-step series of commands. Recovered partition images can be checked in TestDisk using the terminal.
Find files with TestDisk and PhotoRec
In our original tests with TestDisk and PhotoRec 7.2 in September 2022, we used an unmountable 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB thumb drive with files of various types was connected to a standard USB 2.0 port on a Dell G5 5505 SE laptop running Windows 10.
Recovery with the command line TestDisk was attempted first. After opting to Create a new log file and selecting the correct disk, the Proceed option was selected followed by the partition table type. We selected "Image Creation" to search for a location to save the file, using the arrow keys and then hit Enter to navigate. Finally we hit C to choose the recovery destination directory and waited as the partition was recovered as a disk image.
Throughout the recovery process, TeskDisk selects the default options that are typically most suitable for the recovery media. These may or may not be correct but they do give the best results if you don't know what you're doing. Various additional settings can be found using the Options menu before commencing recovery.
Images stored on the USB thumb drive were sought out for recovery using the PhotoRec tool. After identifying attached disks, and selecting the correct device, PhotoRec presented a File Opt submenu. Here, the various compatible filetypes can be selected, covering everything from Skyrim save games to FLAC audio. As with TestDisk, a recovery location must be selected for the files to be saved to. When recovery commences, an estimated time to completion is displayed along with various statistics concerning recovered filetypes.
How we tested this time
For our data recovery tests this time we used a virtual machine with a clean install of Windows 11. The only third-party tools installed besides TestDisk and PhotoRec were VLC Media Player and GIMP.
For the sake of simplicity we also used the graphical frontend for TestDisk : QPhotoRec.
This is much easier than using the command line. You can start by selecting a disk device to recover from the drop-down menu, then select a partition. After you confirm the filesystem type, you can then hit Browse to find (and create, if required) a destination to save the recovered files to. After that hit Search and wait.
The simplicity of the QPhotoRec interface can save time, particularly if you're unfamiliar or uncertain with command line interfaces.
Data files
The files we chose for our most recent recovery tests were an album of Mozart's Music available from the Internet Archive.
We did this as we wanted to see how the utility performed with a wide variety of files.The album included 4 music files (2 in Mp3 and 2 in FLAC) format, 6 JPG image files of album covers (with thumbnails) and 4 PNG image files. The files also included 2 XML files, a torrent file and an 'SQLite' file containing details of the album. There were 25 files in total.
We copied the files in the music album to a 512MB virtual NTFS-formatted hard drive, which was then attached to the Windows 11 virtual machine.
Data tests
The tests were performed one after the other on three separate virtual drives:
1. File deletion: the album files were simply deleted from the drive and the Recycle Bin emptied. No other data was copied to the drive. We then tried to recover the files.
2. Delete & format: The files were deleted as outlined above and we also performed a 'Quick Format' using the 'Disk Management' utility built into Windows 11. We then tried to recover the files from the formatted partition.
3. Recover corrupted files: We used the freeware program 'Victoria' to overwrite the volume header of the drive containing the files with zeroes. The drive didn't mount automatically in File Explorer and showed as being unpartitioned in Windows "Disk Management" utility. We then checked if the utility could see it and if so, recover the files.
We do not believe that running data recovery tools in a virtual environment has a significant effect on how they function. Still, if you're considering buying software we encourage you to read all reviews thoroughly and make sure that the developer offers a refund policy.
Recovery Performance
In our previous tests, we found that Partition recovery with TestDisk was relatively straightforward, despite reliance on the command line interface. Browsing for a directory is slightly disorientating for anyone unused to the CLI, but the recovery process itself is efficient. A progress bar charts how far through recovery the process is.
Sadly, with the recovery media, TestDisk was unable to complete creation of the disk image, stopping at 74.5%. Instead, an incomplete image was created. Disappointingly, this would not open in TestDisk or PhotoRec.
Using PhotoRec was similarly uncomplicated, interface aside. We used the software to dig out complete and incomplete files alike in a fresh recovery process.
Unfortunately, it can also over-deliver as the filetype options don't always give you the results you need. The list of recoverable formats is as complete as it is long to browse through. Consequently, you can end up recovering every type of data to find specific and unusual filetypes – the resulting index of files can take a long time to sort.
On the other hand, QPhotoRec passed our most recent tests with flying colors. The first test was performed on a drive attached to the virtual machine where the files had simply been deleted.
The utility detected all 25 files within seconds and even listed them by type. When we went to the folder we'd created earlier to save recovered files, we found all of them were intact and opened without any issue.
Our next test was on the drive which had been given a "quick" NTFS format after the files had been deleted. Once again we selected the drive from the top down menu and selected a new folder to save recovered files. Once again QPhotoRec didn't disappoint. It recovered a total of 37 files, amongst which were all 25 original files intact. The extra files were duplicates of some of the JPG files but all opened without issue.
The final test was performed on the drive with a corrupted volume header. Although it wasn't visible in Explorer, QPhotoRec still displayed it as a "missing" partition in the drop down menu. This time we chose to extract files from the "whole partition" via the menu option.
Recovery this time was a little slower, taking just under a minute but again all 25 files were successfully saved to the new folder. We tested each of the files and found they opened or played without any problems whatsoever.
As stated in the online documentation PhotoRec is a file carver in that it analyzes data for known patterns without paying attention to missing file headers and other data. This means that while all the files were recovered intact each time, the filenames were missing.
Still, to date, this is one of the very few data recovery utilities on the market that has passed all three of our battery of tests when it comes to retrieving files.
We were also particularly pleased to see that QPhotoRec has a handy "File Formats" button. While virtually every extension is highlighted by default, you can click "Reset" to clear these and then search only for specific file types such as JPG images.
The only bug we came across during testing is that if we tried to choose a "File System" for a disk that was different to the one actually used e.g. ext2 instead of NTFS, the app would crash. This is only a small point and by default the utility selected the correct partition type.
You can turn to CGSecurity's support forum for help if you have any issues with TestDisk or PhotoRec (Image credit: CGSecurity)
Multi-language support
No recovery tool is without its problems. If you run into issues recovering files with TestDisk or PhotoRec, you can refer to the support forum.
Both these utilities are the brainchildren of French developer Chrisophe Grenier, so it's no wonder that the subforums are available in English, German, and French, you should find all the help you need.
Of course, there is a small shortcoming – the possibility of a problem and solution being discussed in the French subforum that might prove useful to a user in the English or German subforums.
Fortunately the main website itself is able in a variety of languages beyond these including Italian, Japanese, Turkish and Russian.
For the time being it seems the online documentation is only available in English however but if you are an Anglophone then you can learn about basic operations like data recovery as well as how to do more exotic tasks with the utility like create a bootable USB. The ZIP file we downloaded from the main website with the program also included a PDF in English of the online documentation.
The only downside of TestDisk that we could see is that the installation files are downloadable only in ZIP format. This caused Microsoft Defender SmartScreen to highlight the software as unrecognized and prevent us from downloading it. For a recovery tool that has been around for as long as TestDisk and PhotoRec have, this is unfortunate. However, SmartScreen has been hurting independent developers for years, so this is nothing new.
The fact that the app can be run from the folder from where it's unzipped also means it can easily be made 'portable' by copying it to a USB.
Final verdict
As a free partition and file recovery solution, TestDisk and PhotoRec does everything a domestic user might expect. They're as suitable for standard PC workstations as they are for laptops, but you wouldn't rely on these tools for recovering servers or specialist and business critical data.
While the command line interface is straightforward, the QPhotoRec option maximizes the usability, and it would be nice to see this replicated for TestDisk in a future release, for those not comfortable with the CLI.
The QPhotoRec app itself has a very basic GUI but is easy to follow. We were extremely impressed that it passed all of our data recovery tests, retrieving all deleted files even from formatted and corrupted drives.
Very few of the commercial data recovery products for which people pay annual subscriptions have been able to do the same, so we certainly recommend using this free and open source utility.
As a business owner, you need to ensure that your website is modern, user-friendly, and easy to manage. If you’re facing these challenges or simply want to make sure that your website looks its best, then it’s time to consider using a website builder.
Weebly is a popular and comprehensive site builder that can help you build your website quickly. Founded in 2007, Weebly is an excellent tool for creating an online store. Its App Center has hundreds of widgets for enhancing and integrating your site with other services, and the integrated web store enables selling any combination of physical products, digital downloads, and services.
What is Weebly?
Weebly is a free and paid website builder platform that allows individuals and businesses of all sizes to create a custom website or online store quickly and easily.
It has a simple drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for even those with no coding experience to create an attractive website without having to hire a web designer or learn HTML.
With Weebly, you get access to hundreds of themes and templates optimized for mobile devices and other features such as analytics tracking, ecommerce tools, and more.
(Image credit: Weebly)
Weebly features
I personally found it easy to customize the website I created. I was able to add ecommerce features such as shopping carts, product pages, and payment gateways. Also, I added Weebly’s branding tools to modify my ecommerce logo, color scheme, font, and more which gave my site a unique look and feel. Additionally, there are hundreds of professionally designed themes that can help you quickly get your site up and running.
Weebly makes it incredibly simple for me to get a full overview of my test website performance and track its progress over time with its analytics tool. After logging in to my Weebly account, all I have to do is click on “Analytics” in the left sidebar and I am presented with an array of data points such as page views, unique visitors, average session duration, and more. This page also provides a graph that shows me how much traffic has been coming through each day so that I can identify any trends or changes in user behavior.
For even more detailed information about how users are interacting with my site, Weebly provides filters that allow me to drill down into specific data points. For example, I can view which devices users are accessing from or what countries they are located in so that I can customize my content accordingly. Additionally, if there is ever any issue with a specific page on my website—such as an image not loading correctly - I can use the filter options to see what pages people visit when they run into this issue and adjust it accordingly.
This platform’s features made it easy for me to upload photos directly onto my test website through its drag-and-drop interface. Also, all of Weebly's templates are built with responsive design in mind so it automatically resizes for different devices (phones, tablets, etc.). This ensures that my test website looked great regardless of the device I used to view it.
Weebly’s SEO & blogging features helped me to improve the visibility of my website in search engines like Google and Bing. The platform includes powerful SEO tools such as title tags, meta descriptions, keyword optimization, etc., all of which help ensure that my site is properly indexed by search engines. Additionally, with Weebly’s blogging capabilities, I was able to create content for my website. Another great feature of Weebly I like is the App Center which provides a directory of third-party app integrations that provide extra services such as email marketing campaigns or customer feedback surveys etc.
Weebly offers you a good range of themes to build your site from (Image credit: Weebly)
Is Weebly easy to use?
I found the Weebly signup process to be relatively straightforward. All you need is an email address and you can get started in no time. Once you enter your credentials, you will be taken to the Weebly dashboard where you can begin creating your site. The dashboard is organized in a way that makes it easy to customize different aspects of your site such as fonts, colors, templates, etc.
With the drag and drop tool, I was able to create a beautiful website with ease. This intuitive site builder is designed to make it simple if you want to build a website without having any coding knowledge or experience. The builder also comes with a library full of professionally designed template tools that made it easy for me to create a beautiful website quickly and with the custom fonts tool, I customized my website's style and brand with unique fonts from across the web. With this tool, as a beginner, you can easily find custom fonts that match your preferred website’s aesthetic and tone. With Weebly’s parallax and reveal tool, I was able to make my test website professional-looking with advanced animation effects. These effects gave my website an extra layer of interactivity and engagement by adding movement to static pages, helping them come alive on desktop or mobile devices.
I found Weebly’s image editor tool incredibly useful when it came time to spruce up my website design. For example, when adding photos from my blog posts onto my home page slider, I was able to use the cropping feature to make sure each image was perfectly centered and sized for optimal viewing on desktop and mobile devices alike. Another great thing about Weebly's image editing tool is that it allowed me to make my images look professional without having any graphic design experience or knowledge. With just a few clicks of the mouse, I was able to adjust colors, add text, apply filters, crop, and rotate images - all with amazing results! Plus, there were also tons of presets available that made customizing my images even easier.
Weebly shipping tool makes sending products domestically or internationally easy by providing real-time shipping rates dynamically by carrier address weight and quantity. So no matter where your customers are located you can rest assured knowing that you have reliable shipping solutions in place.
I used Weebly’s customizable email templates tool to send email to my Google mail account. These email tools are customized according to each customer's needs including abandoned cart emails, welcome emails, promotional emails, etc. allowing an increase in sales, conversions, loyalty, and engagement.
Weebly offers three paid plans and a free plan (Image credit: Weebly)
Plans and pricing
Weebly offers plenty of plans to choose from. One of my favorites is the Weebly Connect plan. For just $10/month (when billed annually) or $13 per month, I got access to most of the features I needed and I was able to publish my site to a custom domain name - all without sacrificing quality.
If you want even more customization and control over your website, the Pro plan is ideal. The pro plan gives you access to listing up to 25 items for sale as well as phone support whenever you need help with your website. It's available for $12 per month billed annually or $18 month-to-month. If you're serious about taking your online business further, then the Business plan might be right for you.
With this package, you have access to list unlimited items for sale as well as accept payments through PayPal - allowing you to easily monetize your website without any extra hassle or fees. The Business plan costs just $25 per month billed annually or $35 month-to-month.
Finally, there's the Business plus plan - ideal if you need even more features in order to scale up your operations quickly and efficiently. With this package, you gain access to powerful features like abandoned cart emails that help recover lost sales - a great way to increase revenue without any extra effort. All of these features come at just $38 per month billed annually or $46 month-to-month.
Weebly security
Weebly offers one-click SSL certificates for free with all of its plans. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) provides an encrypted connection between the server and the browser, so any information sent from the user's computer is kept secure. This encryption helps protect your private data from potential hackers or other malicious actors who might try to steal it. It also helps build trust between visitors and the website owner, as customers feel more confident providing their information when they know it’s encrypted.
Weebly also provides DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) mitigation services. A DDoS attack occurs when multiple computers flood a server with requests in an attempt to overwhelm it and take it offline. By having DDoS protection in place, Weebly can help protect against these malicious attacks and keep any site available to its visitors no matter what kind of traffic is coming in.
Blogging is basic, while at the same time, quite flexible (Image credit: Weebly)
Blogging
Weebly's blogging component didn't immediately impress us. It's plain-looking, and doesn't come with any post templates, so you have to manually drag-and-drop titles, text blocks, images and so on, to suit your needs, in a same way you build your other pages, just without any templates to guide you.
Posts can be published immediately or scheduled for later. There are also per-post comment settings enable turning comments on or off (or have them require your approval).
(Image credit: Weebly)
Weebly help and support
Weebly has a robust library of articles and tutorials that provides help on how to understand and navigate the website-building tool. On the contact us page of this platform, I found a list of helpful articles on how to create a custom domain name or how to set up an ecommerce store. The articles are written in plain language and easy-to-understand steps, so even if technology isn’t your strong suit, you will be able to find the solutions you need. The knowledge base is an extensive database containing answers to commonly asked questions about using Weebly. This is a great resource for finding solutions quickly without having to wait for live assistance. To save time and effort, use keywords specific to your issue when searching through the Weebly knowledge base - you may find that someone else has already encountered the same problem as yours and found a solution.
The Square Seller Community is an online forum where you can ask questions about Weebly and share advice. I’m able to connect with other people who are using Weebly tools. However, if none of these resources can provide what you’re looking for, then live chat support may be your best option. Just click the “Contact us” link on Weebly’s website, enter your contact information (including email address), and start chatting with one of its friendly customer service representatives.
Is Weebly right for you?
Weebly is an excellent choice for creating websites quickly and easily without having any coding knowledge or design experience. The platform offers plenty of features and customization capabilities as well as robust security. With its drag-and-drop interface and comprehensive help resources like tutorials and forums, Weebly makes it easy to create modern websites tailored specifically to any budget. So if you're looking for a reliable web-building platform with plenty of options available at an affordable price point, then look no further than Weebly.
Weebly FAQs
Is Weebly free or paid?
Weebly offers both free and paid options depending on your needs. The free option provides access to basic features such as templates, drag-and-drop design tools, ETC.
However, if you want access to more advanced features such as custom domain name registration, website analytics, email marketing tools, SEO tools, etc., then you need to upgrade to one of its paid plans.
Which is better Wix or Weebly?
It really depends on what kind of website you're trying to build. If you're looking for something simple and straightforward with limited customization options, then Wix might be the better choice. However, if you want something more advanced with greater design capabilities and flexibility, then Weebly is likely the way to go.
Gator offers an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface that makes creating your own website simple and straightforward.
What is Gator website builder by HostGator?
Gator is a website builder created by HostGator that makes website building easier than ever before. It's designed to be intuitive, so even if you don't have any experience in web design, you can still create a great-looking website with ease.
The drag-and-drop editor allows you to customize your site without having to write code. With Gator, you can choose from hundreds of templates and customize them with your own images, text, videos, and other content.
Gator Website Builder offers three different plans to choose from depending on your needs (Image credit: HostGator)
Pricing: Is Gator good value for money?
Gator offers three plans, each of which is tailored to meet the needs of different types of businesses. The Start plan is Gator’s most basic plan, but it still includes some great features such as intelligent site building, free hosting, unmetered bandwidth, a free domain, bookings capability, fast websites (CDN), and a free SSL certificate. Additionally, you can access Unsplash’s image library with the Start plan. However, this plan has a limit of only three products that can be sold through your website. This makes it ideal if you are just starting out with online sales or have fewer than three products to offer customers. The monthly cost of the Start plan is $3.84.
The Site plan has all of the same features as the Start plan plus calendar management and a side-by-side view of staff calendars for email notifications. It also allows up to 10 products to be sold through your website. The price for the Site plan is $5.99/mo. This plan may be better suited for businesses that have more than three products and need additional functionality like calendar management or staff calendars for email notifications.
If you need even more features than what is included in the Site plan then consider investing in Gator’s Store plan which includes everything in the Site plan plus unlimited product sales capabilities, priority support, and no transaction fees. This option costs $9.22/mo. The Store plan may be beneficial if your business sells multiple products or services that need to be managed through your website with unlimited product sales capabilities.
HostGator also offer you a 45-day money back guarantee on the hosting fee, should you not be satisfied with their service.
Setup
Signing up for Gator Website Builder is simple and straightforward. The interface is familiar, and generally easy to use. A left-hand sidebar enables managing key areas of your hosting (websites, domains), while the opening screen prompts you to create your website, and once you're up and running, gives you a few very basic stats (unique visitors, total visits, page views, bounce rate.)
Tapping the Create A Site link displays thumbnails of Gator's hundreds of templates. There’s a lot to explore, but you can use keywords to narrow down your search.
Select an item on the page to reveal numerous editing options (Image credit: HostGator)
Features
The editing interface is familiar and straightforward. A left-hand sidebar enables adding various types of content to the site; a toolbar at the top of the screen has a range of essential functions (page navigation, undo/ redo, desktop or mobile views, Save, Preview and Publish options), and the rest of the screen is reserved for the content of your current page.
Gator's pages are initially built from predefined sections. These start with a header and a footer, but you can add others to display particular content types (text, images, videos, image galleries, schedule, a Features, Contact Us, Join My Mailing List section, and more.)
You have a large choice of templates to use for each section (Image credit: HostGator)
Each section comes in multiple templates, with their own layout and formatting. Sections like Images & Text, Video & Text and Text & Buttons allow you to include further content. Pick whatever most closely matches your needs, and you can add it to the page in a couple of clicks.
You’ll also find Elements which you can drag onto your pages - to help you further customise these templates, or create sections on your own from scratch. There are a good range of elements in most of the key areas, and include multiple button types, live feeds to Twitter and Instagram, various PayPal buttons (Buy Now, Add To Cart, Donate, and Check Out), and a range of social media features (social links, sharing icons, Like buttons, Follow buttons and more.)
Page layouts are generally very flexible. Existing section elements can be moved or resized, and new elements may be dropped onto the page with pixel-level precision.
Clicking any object within a section - a text block, an image, a menu, social media buttons - displays a floating toolbar above it, with actions you can perform. These start with a decent set of standard options, including the ability to add animations (have an image fly in from the left, for instance), use drop shadows, or have the element move with the page. But there are also a good number of more element-specific tweaks to explore.
Add a video gallery, you can set up the number of items on a space, how they're positioned, the entrance and exit transitions, the transition timings, SEO information, and set up any custom element behaviours (display a pop-up image when an element is clicked, for instance.)
The Responsive preview feels too minimalistic (Image credit: HostGator)
Although all sites are advertised as fully responsive, The Mobile Preview section feels pretty limited, only offering an illustration of what your site would look like on a phone in vertical orientation. You can’t appear to be able to rotate it, or even see what it would look like on a larger tablet.
Smart design keeps Gator easy to use. Key functions are available in a click or two, and most of the complicated stuff is tucked away where it won't baffle newbies. Overall, it's a well-balanced editor which has plenty to offer both first-timers and more demanding users.
Gator’s blogging tool feels underpowered and too basic (Image credit: HostGator)
Blogging
Adding a blog to your Gator site, and managing it afterwards, is quick and easy.
The process starts by selecting your preferred templates. New blog posts are created using a subset of the standard page editor. There are all the usual text formatting commands, but you don't get access to the main editing widgets, and the Add Element button only allows for the insertion of images, videos, lines, headings and paragraphs. If you want to add a map, or an image gallery, or any of the other components available in the main editor, you're out of luck.
There are plenty of ways to customise how your post looks and behaves on the blog page. You're able to set a title, a cover image, and a summary, as well as assigning tags to help users find related posts, and pin a post to the top of the blog.
There's no option to schedule posts, unfortunately. Blog comments are supported by the Facebook comments system only, which can't be controlled or configured in any way. The blog has one advanced feature in its optional RSS support, but otherwise it's very much about the basics only.
E-commerce
As mentioned above, all of Gator Website Builder plans give you an option to extend your site with a simple web store, but only the high end one offers you all the bells and whistles.
The store supports both physical goods and digital products. You can make the digital download time-limited, or set a maximum number of times a customer can download the same product from a single purchase.
If you need to import a ready-made product catalog, Gator accepts various formats such as Excel, Google Sheets, ecwid, and CSV. If your needs are more modest and you only have a few products to sell, you can input the data manually as well.
There is very little control over how products will be structured and displayed however. Your time will mostly be spent entering product details and configuring key store data (address, preferred currency, and so on.)
Product descriptions are basic, but there is enough power here for many simple sites. You start by entering one or more images, along with some formatted text and a price. There's support for product variants (size, color) and organizing products into categories (shoes, accessories). Setting up and applying discounts should appeal to potential customers, and adding a weight allows the site to automatically calculate shipping rates.
None of this begins to compete in depth and power with specialist e-commerce providers like Shopify, but Gator is undeniably easy to use, and much cheaper. You could manually add three or four products in a few minutes. Shipping and tax calculations (with international support) are built in, PayPal integration enables taking payments right away, and creating a Stripe account gets you card support, too. There’s also an option for Cash on Delivery.
Experienced users won't be impressed, but Gator Website Designer could be a reasonable choice for creating a simple web store.
Final verdict
Gator Website Builder's smartly-designed editor is a great way to quick create professional and good-looking websites. The integrated blog and web store are relatively basic, though, and are unlikely to satisfy demanding or experienced users, but could well be appealing to beginners.
iDrive offers what might be the best cloud backup and best cloud storage services in a comprehensive, user-friendly package that even lets you backup all of your PCs, Macs, mobiles, and tablets from the convenience of a single account.
Personal plans come in 5TB, 10TB, 20TB and 50TB forms, and Team plans are available for anywhere between five and 100 users, offering 1TB per person.
Larger companies will benefit from the Business plan, offering as little as 250GB or as much as 50TB per person, with an unlimited number of users.
The flexible and tailored pricing strategy does make iDrive a very reasonable proposition, although the cost does go up for those that need the business features – such as server backup. At the higher tiers, it becomes a more expensive solution than the likes of Google Drive and Dropbox, justified by its wider set of features.
1. IDrive is the best cloud storage provider IDrive, the cloud backup veteran, delivers tons of storage online for an incredibly small outlay. 10TB for $3.98 for the first year is unmatched till now and so is the support for unlimited devices and the extensive file versioning system available. View Deal
iDrive: Pricing & plans
iDrive used to offer 5GB of free storage with no credit card required - making it one of best free cloud storage solutions for casual users. Now, you get an even sweeter deal: 10GB free cloud storage, which is among the best free offerings of any cloud service. Services and features are more limited in this case, though.
A basic Personal plan starts at 5TB, costing $59.62 a year, although a $15 upgrade for twice the amount of storage (10TB) will likely provide greater peace of mind when backing up several devices.
The Business plan offers unlimited users and devices, with pricing starting from $74.62 for a year for 250GB, going up to $8699.62 for 50TB of space per user. Sitting somewhere in the middle is the Team plan. This comes in several version, offering support for five to 100 users, each with 1TB of space. The cheapest plan starts at $74.62 for one year, climbing to $7499.62.
Choosing the business account rather than a personal one also gives you extra features such as server backups, multiple user management, and access to priority support. We also like the support for single sign-on, which helps to streamline access for non-tech savvy employees making iDrive a genuinely usable service for all.
TechRadar readers can get 10TB of cloud storage for $3.98 for the first year. You can grab this exclusive deal by clicking here.
iDrive: Features
(Image credit: iDrive)
It’s really hard to accuse iDrive of being short on features. For example, there's Snapshots, which lets you store up to 30 different versions of your files, an Express service that lets you put your data on all the best hard drives and actually post them off, and the ability to create full disk images in case you need to rebuild a computer from scratch. All paid users get access to these physical backups via a temporary storage device via 'iDrive Express, which is especially handy for those with poor Internet connectivity.
This is capped at once per year for Personal customers and three times a year for Team and Business subscribers, though subsequent requests are always available at the cost of $59.95.
Then there's also some less obvious functions. iDrive only uploads modified parts of files to reduce bandwidth usage; data gets retained until you specifically delete it; there’s an extensive set of activity logs and reports you can access. For team managers, there are multiple user management and remote backup services.
This is all on top of the core functionality, which backs up an unlimited number of devices – computers, mobile phones, servers – to a single account. If necessary, it can also back up data from mapped drives on a network. Meanwhile, the iDrive web portal makes short work of managing all of these devices together in one place. While it is filled with function, the basic and frankly uninspiring user interface of the desktop client does leave users feeling somewhat short-changed.
In addition to the standard features that will appeal to everyone, there are several aimed at organizations with larger, more complex requirements. This includes server cloud backups covering Linux, Oracle, Sharepoint, MS SQL, Exchange Server, and more.
iDrive includes bare-metal disaster recovery, which is the business-grade solution for the best ransomware protection. Help with new data standards can be found as well, via encryption and date stamping for those in the medical, accounting, and legal professions.
iDrive: Interface & experience
(Image credit: iDrive)
Cloud storage can be accessed through the browser portal, but for the full experience including device backup, the relevant program or application should be installed. Handily, iDrive supports all major device types, though the desktop clients are more impressive than the mobile apps in terms of polish and features. You can have iDrive backup your entire hard drive (or mobile device) or just specific files and folders, and run backups manually or on a schedule.
By default, the desktop client selects your Music, Video, and OneDrive folders for backup, although you can add or remove other locations. The goal here is very much ‘set and forget’. Set up everything the way you like, and then let iDrive quietly work in the background.
Another useful feature is folder syncing, for keeping certain files consistent across all of your devices. There are intuitive menus and settings screens that make it clear how to create the configurations you need. It’s also great that it is simple to use, so you don't need to have an IT degree or to even consult the help pages to figure out how to do the vast majority of tasks.
The iDrive cloud storage apps have a ton of settings, though iOS versions are less impressive. While the Android client is able to back up things like your SMS messages, iPhones and iPads are limited to contact, calendar, photos and videos. In fairness, this is more of a limitation set out by Apple than iDrive. The desktop client allows granular adjustments for bandwidth throttling, file and folder exclusion, data verification, and more. You can even pause a backup if the battery level on your laptop or your phone drops below a certain level.
Uploading and backing up files is just as quick as big players in the cloud storage game, such as Google Drive. As such, it’s unlikely that iDrive will be the bottleneck here. The primary restriction will come from your ISP’s upload speeds which, in most cases, is slower than the download speeds.
(Image credit: iDrive)
Worth noting is that browser downloads redirect to a new tab, and the process of opening the new location can be slow. In our original benchmark the 1GB test file took up to 6 times longer to open in a new tab on the mobile client than the actual download process, which can prove both time consuming and rather annoying. The entire download process wasn’t quite as slick, and took several minutes more than Google Drive. Fortunately, we didn't find this to be a problem when using the desktop client for our most recent tests - more on that in a moment.
One feature of the iDrive web interface that particularly impressed us was that the account password is required to delete any file, helping to prevent any accidental deletes as the user unconsciously navigates the portal on autopilot.
Due to the nature of the service, iDrive is intended more as a backup drive than a cloud space from which to work, so editing documents online is a no-go. This means downloading and reuploading your files as and when necessary, so it’s crucial that you take into account the somewhat convoluted downloading process mentioned above before committing.
Nevertheless there is a Cloud Drive option, which you need to manually activate when you download and run the client. Any files or folders placed in this folder in your home directory are synced to iDrive’s servers.
Having reached out to iDrive, it is confirmed that there is no maximum file size limit, which is great news to teams and businesses working on large projects such as video production.
iDrive: Security
On top of two-factor authentication, iDrive provides end-to-end encryption for your data. Be cautioned that this requires a private key known only to you, so don’t forget it, or you can't get anything back. It also means that you won't be able to share files and folders with other people, as this will break the end-to-end encryption protocols.
Another option is standard encryption, which isn't quite as secure, but will still protect your data against most potential breaches. In this scenario, iDrive stores the encryption key, and can help you restore your data if needed as well as potentially hand over your files if compelled to by law enforcement. The other advantage is that you get to use the file and folder sharing features with this setting. If you still want to be able to share some files, we recommend using best encryption software to protect any data before uploading it to the cloud.
iDrive: Our tests
When testing iDrive’s performance, we ran a total of 3 tests measuring sync speed, file recovery, and versioning. In order to do this, we used the free 10GB plan, as our chosen files were well within the limit. As we understand it, iDrive doesn't limit transfer speeds or features for users on the free tier. Tests were completed on a Windows 11 virtual machine running the iDrive desktop client. Our VM was connected to the internet through fiber broadband via VPN server, which in our speed tests consistently showed an average upload speed of 70 Mbps
Test 1 - Sync speed
(Image credit: iDrive)
For this test we first closed any third party/internet apps. We then copied a 650 MB folder of Sherlock Holmes audio books from the Internet Archive into the application directory. We measured how quickly the desktop client was able to sync the files to the cloud. The folder contained 22 files including MP3s, images, metadata files and a PDF.
In order to get cloud sync working, we had to open the desktop app and enable it manually from a tab. A new folder named Cloud-Drive then appeared in our home directory. When we copied the folder of audio books into here, the folder appeared with a green tick next to it, suggesting it had synced right away. We had to double click to go into the folder to see some files had been uploaded (green tick) while others still had the 'pending' icon.
The iDrive Tray icon also reported on the sync process. In all it took 110 seconds to upload all 625MB of data, which is consistent with our device's uploaded speed.
Test 2 - File recovery
(Image credit: iDrive)
In this test we simply deleted the audiobook folder from the application directory, removing it from the device. We then checked to see if the files had been removed from the cloud drive and if it was possible to recover them.
If the cloud provider offers you a way to store files in the cloud without keeping them on your device, we test this feature too.
After we deleted the audio book data from the Cloud-Drive folder, we emptied the Recycle Bin then opened the iDrive desktop client. We found the 'Restore' tab but the deleted files weren't listed.
We had more joy when logging in via the web portal though. We found after login if we clicked "Cloud Drive", then "Trash", the deleted files were listed. We selected them all then clicked "Put Back". The client took a minute or so to respond but then it did quickly download the deleted files back to their original location.
Test 3 - Versioning
(Image credit: iDrive)
If you're writing a long, important document, the last thing you want is to make changes you can't undo. Some cloud providers prevent this by regularly saving different versions of a file. This means if you change something you shouldn't have, you can just roll the file back to before this happened.
To test this in iDrive, we copied a Microsoft Word (.docx) file of the public domain story The Purple Cloud to the cloud application folder. Once it synced, we then deleted all the text except the introduction, then saved and closed. We then tried to restore the document back to its original form, complete with all chapters.
In order to test whether iDrive could restore an older version of a file, we first copied the Word document to the Cloud-Drive folder. Even though it was less than 400KB, it still took around a minute to sync.
We then deleted all text except for the introduction, closed the document then opened the desktop app. We were able to click the file in Recently Modified Items, but this just opened the Cloud-Drive folder.
Luckily, this is where the iDrive website dashboard came to the rescue again. When we opened the cloud drive there and selected the file, we were able to select Version. From there we could download the original unmodified file by clicking on the corresponding icon.
iDrive: Verdict
iDrive gets high scores for the sheer breadth of services offered – from backing up the photos on your smartphone to backing up the files on your company's servers. The software packages and various interfaces aren't the best ever, but they get the job done very well.
For those that have a lot of devices with data that needs to be secured at reasonable prices, then iDrive could well be the service for you. It has a great feature set that covers a lot of ground, with enough security protection and extra features such as folder sync and bandwidth controls to satisfy the majority of users.
During our tests the files synced to the cloud quickly. We were also able to see that iDrive can handle restoring deleted files or even older versions. However, it's a shame you can't access those features from the desktop client.
The free 10GB plan only makes sense for users looking to store documents in the cloud, as space is too limited to perform any major backups of computers, phones and tablets. In this case, due to the lengthy and awkward download process, it’s hard to recommend the free version, even if the sizable 10GB of storage space is rather valuable.
When considered relative to other free allowances offered by other cloud storage providers, iDrive lands somewhere in the middle. It's much more generous than Dropbox's 2GB but considerably smaller than Google's generous 15GB. We can't help but feel that iDrive might be better off taking their focus away from server backups and raising their free allowance game instead. Still, pricing is clearly laid out and can be customized to your needs.
Ultimately, iDrive is best suited to businesses - from self-employed individuals and small teams to huge, international corporations - thanks to the level of flexibility across three different plan types.
Backblaze started in 2007 to backup a friend’s computer online. Fast forward to the present, and it is in 175 countries, in excess of 50 billion files backed up, encompassing over two exabytes (that's two million terabytes in case you were wondering) of data stored.
In other words, it is a serious contender for best cloud backup. Additionally, it has managed to build an efficient outreach program as it publishes every quarter a detailed analysis of the failure rates of hard disk drives and SSD that it uses.
Backblaze also operates another service called B2, which it describes as an "enterprise-grade, S3 compatible storage used to store and serve data while improving companies' cloud OpEx vs. Amazon S3 and others".
A major advantage of this service is that it offers no tiers, instead just providing a single unlimited data backup locker, so even as the amount of data you've got keeps on growing, you're still paying the same amount.
However, do be aware that Backblaze is a backup service-only, and that it's not a place to store and sync your files like an ordinary cloud storage service might provide.
Backblaze does not bother you with the details of your backup plan, just that it is occurring: when you initially install the desktop client, it doesn’t require you to select files and folders, but rather just grabs all the files and folders it considers important and starts transferring them to your Backblaze cloud backup.
By default, Backblaze copies everything for an ISO, DMG (Mac disk image), a virtual drive, system files or executables. You have the option to exclude other file types if you wish, but unless exclusively told to ignore them, it will include all other file types. We find it very simple and straightforward, and you can rest easy that your entire computer can be recovered if needed.
We consider it a set-it-and-forget-it solution: Backblaze is there to help you recover data such as if your hard drive catastrophically fails or your laptop fails to boot. However, realize that Backblaze is not for syncing files between computers, or getting at your music and video files in the cloud. You can include external hard drives and (on a business plan) servers in your backups, but networked drives can't be included.
Backups can be continuous, once a day, or initiated manually. Some extra variety with those timescales would be nice, but we expect the majority of users will leave it set to continuous backup mode. It's worth noting that while you can backup an unlimited amount of data, you are restricted to one computer for each Backblaze account, and mobile devices aren't included.
As standard, unlimited versions of files are kept, though only for a period of 30 days. This can be somewhat limiting, especially as weeks can pass before you realize that you are missing an important document. Given the reasonable price for the standard plan, combined with the fact that an unlimited amount of storage could hold thousands of folders filled with documents, images and videos, we think the extra $2 per month (or $14 per year) for extended file history is a no-brainer. This extends it to one year.
While only one computer is supported per license, totally unlimited data storage with no file size limits means that BackBlaze should never be the restricting element to your backing-up needs, which makes this a hugely valuable tool that is also affordable compared to many of its key rivals such as Polar Backup, LiveDrive and Carbonite, all of which offering unlimited storage plans that are currently more expensive.
Because there are no subscription tiers, every account benefits from otherwise premium features. Uploading and downloading when using the desktop client is unthrottled, which means superquick backups up to the maximum speed of your ISP and router. In order to give users more control, manual throttling can limit the amount of bandwidth used by BackBlaze in order to prioritize other tasks. This can be useful for workers who often find themselves on video calls, as it allows backups to continue automatically in the background while providing optimal speeds for your workload.
(Image credit: Backblaze)
Backblaze interface
The Backblaze desktop client targets simplicity over power or flash. The options of the Backblaze package are limited, so the software doesn't have to do much except focus on the job at hand- to make sure that your files are getting continuously backed up in the background.
There is an option to exclude certain files and folders from a Backblaze backup, but it could be more straightforward. Considering you get an unlimited amount of space in the cloud, it's easier to just let Backblaze backup everything, just in case. Transferring data from an entire computer to the web is potentially a lengthy process, but the speeds Backblaze managed were impressive. You can also choose to pause or throttle the upload process if you think Backblaze is taking up too much bandwidth to override the automatic throttling.
We like its integration within the operating system that helps to simplify the backup process - or at least, for those rare events that users need to modify controls. In this case, Backblaze sits neatly in System Preferences within macOS.
Like the desktop client, the web interface is also cut down and minimal, letting you review backed up files and restore them if needed. There's also a mechanism for sharing stored files to others that is exclusive to the web interface. Unfortunately, in terms of web functionality, Backblaze falls short of Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud when it comes to sharing files, however it is ultimately a different proposition so this comparison is unfair.
In the event of a system failure or loss, files can be downloaded for free, or Backblaze will put them on a USB hard drive for $189 and ship your data to your door. While it may not do much beyond suck up all the files on a computer and let you restore them, Backblaze does these core jobs very well. The almost $200 spent on backing up your files should be seen more as a holding fee for the value of the large hard drive (up to 8TB), as when the restore is complete you can return it by mail and receive a full refund.
Backups are limited to PCs and Macs, however alongside the web interface there are iOS and Android apps that allow you to access your data from anywhere. Backblaze Mobile 6.0 - released on December 20th - has a new feel to it with authentication improvements for both platforms plus a bunch of teaks and updates.
While Backblaze focuses on backups rather than cloud storage, backing up a file from your computer will allow you to use it for cloud storage in a rather ‘round about’ way.
(Image credit: Backblaze)
Backblaze security
Backblaze gets high marks from a security perspective: not only can you enable two-step authentication on your account, but you can also rely on AES 128-bit encryption and an SSL connection to avoid your data being intercepted as it travels through the internet. While it's not full end-to-end encryption, it's certainly safe enough for most users.
There is also the option to set up a private encryption key, known only to you, which adds an extra layer of protection to your data, for those worried about Backblaze staff prying into their affairs. The downside of this is that Backblaze can’t help you if you forget the key, and you need to share it with Backblaze if you ever need to restore your data.
Also worth noting is that users can pick between EU and US data centers.
(Image credit: Backblaze)
Backblaze pricing
You can try Backblaze for free for 15 days without giving up any payment card information, but there's no free tier (as you would expect, because you're getting unlimited cloud backup). Personal plans currently cost $7 per month, also payable annually ($70) or every two years ($130), which is an increase of $1 per month since last year. There is also the $2 monthly charge in order to upgrade file version history from 30 days to one year, which in our opinion is a must.
Business customers get the same pricing, although you can contact Backblaze directly for different quotes for backing up multiple computers and servers, and on putting more of your data in the cloud for long-term storage (to replace tape backups). It's refreshing to see this sort of flexible pricing, but it does make it more difficult to compare Backblaze against competing services.
Backblaze verdict
Backblaze has a large user base, and even some fans, and it's easy to see why – if you want to back up everything from one computer and its external drives, simply and securely, without spending too much, then it's hard to beat. We appreciate that there are no limits on file sizes and no limits on the amount of data you can send to the cloud.
Just be certain you know exactly what Backblaze is before you part with any cash: it's not for syncing files between computers or getting easy access to your files through a web browser. It's a comprehensive, set-it-and-forget it backup solution for protecting your data should the worst happen, and at that task it provides a great solution.
As such, Backblaze is our favorite backup service thanks to its unlimited storage at a reasonable cost, aided by its array of restoration methods and ease of use.
