Web.com Review: The Truth About the Web.com Website Builder

Web.com offers one of the most popular site builders, as well as both regular and WordPress hosting plans. Over the past few years, Web.com has rebranded itself to also provide AI-tools that can help you build a website from zero fast, even if you don’t know anything about web development. In this review, I look into whether all those tools are worth using.

I’ll discuss how Web.com works and whether its AI functionality is worthwhile. I’ll also go over pricing, and discuss whether you should consider using Web.com for your own site. Let’s get to it! 🚀

An overview of Web.com 💡

Web.com vs main competitors 🥊

TL;DR: In general, Web.com has some nice things about it, but we found it to fall flat when compared against other popular website builders like Wix and Squarespace.

How the Web.com site builder works ⚙️

In this section, we’ll show you how the Web.com site builder works. We’ll go over what options the builder offers, talk about whether it’s easy to use, and share our outlook on its AI functionality.

The AI site builder

It’s impossible to talk about the Web.com site builder or editor without delving into its AI functionality. Web.com is trying hard to position itself as an AI-first company. Its main selling point these days is that you can use AI to build a professional-looking website fast.

By “using AI,” Web.com means talking with a chatbot to tell it what kind of website you’re interested in building. This is the first thing that Web.com does once you sign up for one of its hosting plans:

You can’t skip this process and start building the site manually. You’re required to use the chatbot, which will guide you through three simple questions. Web.com uses this information to determine what base template to use, and to generate boilerplate content for your site:

This approach is nice if you have zero experience with web development or hosting. However, Web.com’s AI site builder tool is akin to filling out a simple web form. The chatbot format is simple to use, but it’s not superior to (or that much easier than) selecting a template from a list of options.

Once you answer the AI chatbot’s questions, Web.com will generate a site using one of its templates and the information you provided. This process just takes a minute or two, and then you’ll get access to the site editor.

The site editor

If you’ve ever used a drag-and-drop site editor before, you’ll feel right at home with Web.com. The editor works very similar to options such as Squarespace or even WordPress page builder plugins. If you haven’t used tools like this, it’s still pretty intuitive.

The first thing the editor does when it opens is offer a tour. This tour is straightforward and covers the basic Web.com options:

All of the builder’s key elements are located in the main navigation menu to the left. You’ll spend most of your time using the Build option.

Selecting that option will enable you to choose between pre-built elements. Web.com separates these elements into Features (including basic options such as text and images) and Blocks (including tools such as galleries and menus):

In practice, both sets of elements are similar. You can select any option you like and place it in the site preview. With some blocks you also get to choose from multiple pre-designed sections:

You can re-arrange elements at will within the editor, and if you select one, you’ll get access to an array of customization options. These options change from one element to another:

At any time, you can preview how the page looks using the device icons in the top navigation menu. When you’re ready, you can publish your designs.

Overall, the editor is remarkably simple to use, but it lacks a lot of advanced elements you might want to include on a site. It’s good enough for simple websites, but you have no way of expanding what features the builder offers.

That aside, adding pages is simple. You’ll start by accessing the Pages option in the main navigation menu. The editor enables you to start with a blank slate or choose from one of the existing templates:

Note that you can’t generate new pages using AI, making this feature even more limited. This means you’ll need to emulate the AI’s design if you want to stick with the same style.

Theme and template customization

One of the most important factors to cover in a Web.com review is theme customization. After all, if you’re using a site builder, you probably don’t want to design an entire website from scratch. That’s where themes come in handy.

Themes offer design templates that you can use as starting points for your site. Once you’ve chosen a theme, you get to add new pages that will already have the same default styling applied. This keeps everything on your website looking consistent, and gives you control of the overall appearance.

However, one significant issue with Web.com is that you can pick a template when adding a new page, but you can’t switch themes for existing pages. This makes it difficult to change your site’s appearance if you want to, or even simply view many different looks so you can choose the best one.

Putting that aside, the Web.com template selection is great. You get access to dozens of themes with widely-varying designs. There are no theme categories or even a search feature, though, which makes it hard to navigate and find what you’re looking for.

If you want to modify the base template, you can open the Theme option in the main navigation menu. Inside you can change any aspect of the existing theme, ranging from its colors to the fonts it uses:

While these features are useful, being able to switch themes on the fly for the entire site is a feature that’s sorely missed. Moreover, it’s a feature that most other popular page builders offer.

Additional settings

Web.com presents a lot of features beyond its site builder. Many of these features revolve around AI. For example, there’s an AI content generator you can use in the hosting control panel:

You can also use Web.com AI tools to generate marketing ideas, business names, and even logos. All of these options work well on their own, but they don’t integrate directly with the site builder.

Moreover, a lot of the “advanced” AI tools are only available on the more expensive hosting plans. They can be worthwhile if you need help launching your site and creating content for it. However, if you’re not interested in generating AI content or elements, you won’t get any mileage out of these extras.

Aside from AI, Web.com incorporates some must-have marketing tools into some of its plans. Those include email marketing functionality, an ad campaign manager, and a social media content planner. These tools make using Web.com a lot more appealing if you want to handle everything related to your site from a single platform.

Pricing 💵

Web.com offers a broad range of plans, but most of them are fairly similar. The only outliers are the WordPress hosting plans, which don’t offer access to the AI website builder.

With that in mind, we’re going to focus on pricing for the Web.com Website Builder plans. These start at $19.99 per month billed monthly. There are also yearly plans, and you can get a hefty discount for your first month or year after you sign up:

As with most web hosts, you’ll need to pay close attention to the real pricing and not simply the promotional offers.

• If you pay monthly, your first month will cost just $1.95 with the promotional pricing. However, starting from the second month on, you’ll need to pay the regular $19.99 per month price.
• If you pay for a full year upfront, you’ll pay just $59.40 for the entire first year with the promotional pricing. However, when you renew for the second year, you’ll need to pay the regular price of $192 (which is $16 per month).

Overall, Web.com offers prices that are in line with most other website builders.

With prices starting at $20 per month, we can only recommend Web.com if you really enjoy using its website builder, as you can find similar (or better) hosting at much lower prices. It’s also important to note that the base Website tier doesn’t offer access to all of the platform’s marketing and generative AI tools.

Web.com pros and cons 👍👎

Pros

You can use an AI chatbot to generate a starter website.

The visual editor enables you to add elements and make changes to your site.

You’re able to customize and re-arrange elements using the visual editor.

There are AI tools for generating content and marketing ideas.

Cons

The onboarding process employing an AI chatbot is underwhelming.

You can’t change templates for existing pages.

It’s an expensive option when compared to similar site builders and hosts, in terms of the features that you get access to.

The selection of blocks and elements is limited, and can’t be expanded on.

How Web.com compares to other site builders 🚧

If you’re going to compare Web.com with other website builder tools, the most similar competitors are Wix and Squarespace. These are also site builders that aim to incorporate every feature you might need to run your site into a single package.

👉 Having said that, all three platforms offer different experiences. Here’s a quick overview of how Web.com compares against both options:

• Squarespace. With Squarespace, you get a bigger emphasis on themes and design. This platform is geared towards users who want a straightforward site builder, but also access to themes and templates that look unique. The downside (depending on your point of view) is that you don’t get to play with AI tools. Both platforms are similar when it comes to pricing.
• Wix. This should be one of your top contenders if you want a site builder that’s very user-friendly, while still offering access to more advanced functionality for those who need it. Wix incorporates AI in a similar way to Web.com, and offers comparable pricing packages. However, its design and customization options are more generous.

It’s also important to note that Wix and Squarespace offer 14-day free trials. With Squarespace, you can cancel any time during that period to avoid a charge, and Wix offers full refunds within that window.

This means you can try either service without having to commit to paying for it long-term. Web.com, on the other hand, doesn’t offer a free trial.

If you’re interested in learning more, you might want to read our Wix review or our Squarespace review. We also have a Wix ADI review, which specifically looks at Wix’s AI tools, as well as a Wix vs Squarespace comparison, which pits these two popular website builders against one another.

Conclusion: Is Web.com the right tool for you? 🤔

All in all, Web.com is a tough option to recommend for most users. Notable downsides include the lackluster AI tools and the inability to easily change your site’s theme.

There are other website builders out there that offer better editors and experiences at similar prices, including Wix and Squarespace.

If you’re a little more adventurous, you can build a WordPress site for cheap, and get much more control over your site’s look and functionality (without upping the challenge by much).

Do you still have any questions about Web.com or our Web.com review? Ask away in the comments!