Question
I get asked this often, probably because I do blog about it so much.
What is the simplest way to get a basic website set up.
Answer
Well firstly, get me to do it for you! :).
But if it is simple you are after, then you should be able to do it yourself. I use WordPress.com because I find it to be the right mix of simplicity and configurability and no hosting issues or updates to worry about.
Full WordPress is the next level up and is not really something to try on your own if you want “simple”.
Some other suggestions to look at are:
- www.squarespace.com – looks nice and simple to set up.
- www.drupalgardens.com – this looks quite interesting and has many more configuration options than WordPress.com but also then comes with a caveat that it is not as simple.
- There are also services like www.shopify.com if your site is mainly e-commerce.
- What ever you do, don’t use MYOB Atas and be very cautious of Adobe Business Catalyst (again, looks simple but it’s not).
- For a very simple web presence there are sites like flavors.me and about.me that are good for a personal site that links off to your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other services.
Note: The context of this question was around what sites would you want to recommend if a friend was asking for a simple website. Of course there is no comparison in features between DrupalGardens and About.me and you would really need to know their requirements, especially when it comes to e-commerce features, but this might just help as a few places to start looking.
Have you found any other services that help you make a simple website? Let me know in the comments as I would love to have a look at them and compare them to the ones I’ve mentioned.
