Jimdo Website Builder Review

Jimdo – is a progressive website builder and a commercial project. It is usable and is known for intuitiveness and affordability. Founded in 2007, the service keeps expanding its capacities. With over a dozen years of expertise, the company now powers millions of high-end websites with exceptional performance. One of the most distinctive features of the service is the urge for progress. The presentation of Jimdo editor has become an example of perfection integrated with outstanding performance. The service is not suitable for creating amateur websites but for business only.

Despite the above mentioned, Jimdo remains an interesting product. The tool has a lot to offer now, as the best option for customers, who value time and quality. The users are aware of the tool’s greater convenience, and functionality improvement. The service allows generating various kinds of websites, comprising digital stores and landing pages. So, let’s test the site builder to check out what is hidden behind it.

Easy and impressive web building. Over 12 years of niche expertise. Comes with Jimdo Dolphin AI tool.

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Pros and Cons

Jimdo, despite the overall high level of quality, and efficiency, does not look ideal or close to such a system at all. Just like any other service, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Let’s see the major positive and negative aspects of the system.

In general, a lot depends on your desire to pay for the second package. If you decide to do this, the main disadvantages are leveled. Unfortunately, you will not be able to try out all the features of the system without paying anything. Therefore, you are essentially making a blind bargain.

What is it Good For?

Jimdo is suitable for inexperienced users to create their first website. Jimdo’s audience is entrepreneurs who want to create a business card in support of business, photographers who need a portfolio, musicians, makeup artists, and others. Now the service has improved the algorithm to a higher level. It’s not difficult to get used to, as long as you liked it initially. This is a good tool for building simple, undemanding sites with a variety of designs and functionality.

This is an average-level constructor with a visual editor. Beginners will like the semi-automatic mode of building sites with the right number of pages, themes, and functionality. Some webmasters create client sites on Jimdo. This seems like a bad idea. It makes no sense to use a constructor with average functionality, having a bunch of successful alternatives.

Ease of Use

Jimdo’s panel is quite easy to use but slightly specific. The design settings strongly resemble the control panel in Mac OS. Everything here works on a visual editor, but there are engines in which this approach is implemented more ergonomically. Here you will find standard functions like adding pages, domain management, and SEO. The website constructor has everything you need to create a blog, an online store, business cards, or a specialized website in a couple of minutes. It provides modern templates that are optimizable for both desktop and mobile devices.

After completing a registration form, you’ll use its manageable web design nature, and ease of use.

This tool’s interface offers to select from the template gallery, images, background videos, media files, and many others. For users, who want to launch a more extensive project, an updated creator with an intuitive drag-and-drop option will be handy. The easy-to-use WYSIWYG site editor doesn’t require a new user to know any software design languages.

Jimdo’s interface to a certain extent resembles those of Wix and Weebly with their separate dashboards. There you can manage the domains, SEO, and other applications. The only shortcoming of the classic Jimdo version is that it doesn’t include a preview option. You’ll need to publish the page to view the result.

Here are the steps to take:

It uses AI and lets you structure your site quickly. Even a novice user can create a website fast enough. Also, the tool will be handy for users who need one-page schemes or standard company websites. This mode takes details from your social sites. Also, you need to answer some questions to help the system build the store. This simple program will generate a tailored website for you based on the responses.

1. First, select the website category: personal or business.
2. Create the site name. Using it, the program will seek business-related info.
3. Connect your Facebook account to your website.
4. Next, you’ll choose the industry you specialize in.
5. Upload a logo to make your site more customized.
6. You can link your Instagram profile to the website to add specific features.
7. Select the style for your website plus the domain name.

That’s it! In a few seconds, you’ll have a ready-made site with content delivered by default.

• You may customize the suggestions just by dragging-and-dropping various elements.
• In Jimdo, you will work with a visual editor and use drag-n-drop everywhere. If you want, you can replace it with your own content, add pictures and other things to be displayed on your web pages. The structure of the pages can be changed easily by clicking on content areas and moving, stretching them. You may immediately add a gallery, image, product, button, form, table, or video.
• The Adobe Creative SDK image editor deserves special attention. With its help, you can adjust a lot in images: apply effects very similar to those in Instagram, use automatic enhancement, change orientation, add frames, color, overlay, focus, change color, or crop. Its application will be especially convenient if you like to add photos to the site from a smartphone.
• Jimdo is available to import products from table files. It makes it possible to fill the showcases in automatic mode. The main thing is to prepare the CSV file correctly. You can also set up discounts, methods/cost of delivery and payment, and make order forms. The store can be configured in detail, which is convenient for both you and customers.



• You will be given a free subdomain of the site type.jimdo.com. It will have to be changed to a level 2 domain. To attach a domain, you need to pay for any of the 2 plans – Pro or Business. On the first one, you will be presented with 1 domain, on the second – 2. The domain can be registered directly from the admin panel.
• Another interesting point is the possibility of adding widgets to expand the functionality, hidden in the “Help” section. You can add multimedia players, questionnaires, social media buttons, advertising modules to the site. Most of the widgets will be useful when creating a store.
• Note that you won’t see about half of the functionality on the free plan. To use it, you will need to upgrade to the paid version.

The whole process typically takes less than half an hour, but the result will impress you. There are no obvious drawbacks, but it was possible to implement the idea better. Beauty, a good level of convenience, code editing, a powerful store, widgets, a mobile version of the site, SEO statistics, and business mail plus mailing lists – a lot of useful things can be found in the admin panel. Overall, the power of the engine is excellent, and the convenience is decent.

Features & Flexibility

When we look into the basics, Jimdo does not differ much from its competitors. The service allows swift customization of handy templates using its add-on widgets and tools. As for the additions, check out their eCommerce and blogging sections.

E-Commerce

The service’s eCommerce is very personalized. There are various properties you can configure here: product description, availability, item display, tax, delivery costs, email confirmation, etc. For clients, who dream of effective marketing site construction experience, Jimdo provides manageable templates, an assortment of click-to-edit tools, innovative SEO tools for operative web store advertising, and email order templates to streamline the ordering procedure.

Creating an eCommerce store here takes a few minutes, while running it won’t be difficult at all. The system allows customizing delivery expenses, generating discount codes, and observing the inventory list. There is a free app for Android/iOS that allows running digital stores on the go. That’s convenient!

Blogging

Jimdo will help you create self-motivated blog posts using several user interactions: flash animation, understandable blog designs, custom widget/HTML, Google Maps, cutting-edge SEO settings for each post, and the posts’ arrangement by tags or categories. You may create drafts, but the service has no scheduled posting. You won’t have to create a separate blog, as it comes with your site. In this way, you’ll get a unique and customized blog.

For everyone willing to launch a blog, Jimdo has designed a handy post-editing tool. Hence, you can integrate all the desired content from your site directly to the posts, whether this is videos, widgets, image galleries, or products from your store. This is an exclusive feature for site builders.

SEO

The web builder is SEO optimized, yet the gizmo developers work hard to continuously introduce more progressive tools. They help you to boost the results of your site’s search engine. Users may add and edit the store’s meta tags and also adjust URLs. Buyers of JimdoPro with JimdoBusiness can override the page names and specify the precise URL of a page.

Besides, the Business and Platinum kit owners have access to extended SEO settings such as meta tags. They help regulate the collaboration of the search engines with site pages. Note that Jimdo the tool helps newbies perform basic SEO alterations using the add-on RankingCoach.

Multilingual Support

The interface of the Classic version supports 8 languages, and the editor works with any preferred language. You can build multilingual sites here, but this may take some time.

Legal Text Generator

The service now allows using the Legal Text Generator, which gives a legally-compliant Imprint and Privacy Policy. You won’t be concerned about new guidelines of GDPR as the platform has partnered with the Trusted Shops to simplify the process. Thanks to the update, it is possible to write and update legitimate texts for your venture, focused on your company development.

The cutting-edge add-on is now applicable for Grow and Unlimited packages. It integrates into your venture after the setup. To use this add-on, you just need to answer a couple of questions.

Integration Options

The tool lacks an integrated app store, but it lets add some third-party services such as Tidio Live Chat, social media platforms, and more. Video embedding of YouTube contributes to the simplicity of the web design procedure.

Business Listing Option

Another significant highlight is the Business Listings tool, available for higher plans. It has the features of updating the business right on the Dashboard. Once it is done, the system will by design synchronize with 10+ popular and reliable online platforms, comprising Google Maps, Google My Business, and Facebook. The tool helps keep the entered data constant on the web, improves the general ranking of a search engine, boosts the customer base, and gives your store a proficient look.

To use this feature, you should log in to your account and go to the Dashboard. Find the “Business Listings,” fill out the store details, click “Update All Platforms,” and the system will instantly update your data to all these platforms.

Logo Creator

The recent updates of the service include its innovative free Logo Creator, with which you can design and upload your project to the website. It incorporates smart technology and makes the best logo for your store. To do it, provide your project name, pick the layouts, and customize colors offered by default. The tool will make a set of styles that ideally match your business. Pick the ones you like and begin customizing the features of the logo. Next, download it and speed up to use it on your company cards, social site channels, and other sources.

Website Stats

Jimdo lets you link Google Analytics to your off-the-rack website to collect detailed statistics about the venture and its performance. Using it you will better understand your visitors’ behavior, their whereabouts, visitor trends throughout certain periods, the time spent by users at separate site pages, and the percentage of novices and regular visitors.

SSL Certification

All websites here are securely encrypted with trustworthy SSL Certificates. This is crucial for all kinds of projects, as well as online vendors. The system encrypts all data sent to and from the site, which is vital for websites supporting credit card transactions.

Password Protection

If you want, you may protect the site or some web pages with passwords. The type and strength of protection are based on the paid plan you choose, but you can protect several pages with different passwords.

• The interface offered by Jimdo is intuitive. The program is not overwhelmed with details. When it comes to the complexity of the feature set, the tool is convenient. You get access to the screen directly, and there you will see a “survey” about your store. You’ll submit your project records, social site profiles, personal info, etc.
• The system’s AI tool lets you analyze the entered details to further pick the most appropriate design and generate a website for you. Note that the editor’s speed is high – the process is smooth and without interface response delays.

Jimdo is a functional average or slightly lower. It does not stand out among other services, but it does not lose its position either. It offers simplicity and a pleasant design. There are obvious shortcomings of convenience and features. Almost everything will have to be added through a code consultant, notifications. There is clearly an emphasis on the audience of newcomers – just to be more beautiful and simpler.

Design and Templates

Jimdo has over 30 custom-made and pre-designed templates to offer. Templates are divided into categories. You can change the color scheme, font, background, as well as customize the appearance of individual elements. Note that a different number of templates are available on different plans. The more expensive, the more beautiful themes you can choose, respectively.

After selecting a template, you can change its structure to one of the suggested ones. These structures are also called templates, all named after cities. With their help, you can only change the location of elements on the page, and not the appearance of the site as a whole. These templates are adaptive, but the variety is not striking. Here’s what you can do:

• It is possible to change the structure of page blocks.
• You can upload your template or edit the standard one with the HTML/CSS editor.
• You can activate mobile versions of templates here.
• You can also set an individual background for each page.
• Customization with Dolphin lasts a few minutes only.
• You may test color schemes, styles with backgrounds, and content easily.
• If you want, you can edit the colors by hand in the editor.

Websites generated both with Jimdo are mobile-optimized by default. Whichever smart device your customer will use to navigate the website, will adapt instantly to its screen size, and resolution.

Users, who opt for website creator, can access more extensive design customization alternatives. They may navigate through a collection of templates for various website types. You can pick any of them and tailor them to your web design needs. There is a “Style by Element” toggle that lets you select between making changes to a single element or to several. This tool helps you avoid manual work.

The scope for working with the appearance of the site is quite extensive, although the presentation of the design selection is a bit strange. However, among perks, the possibility to create a special template for your site using the Custom Template Interface (HTML/CSS editor + file manager) is great (see Jimdo website examples). Most website constructors cannot boast of this unique feature. Jimdo in this category is slightly inferior to the adjacent class of uKit and Wix.

Customer Support

Jimdo has a responsive support team offering several forms of assistance, such as basic training programs to live chat. Its knowledge base is easy-to-navigate. All topics found in the knowledge base are divided into thematic groupings, comprising Domains and Email, Blogs, Basics, Design, Shop, SEO, Account, and FAQ. The service’s search filter option makes it easier to find the necessary info. You may also watch the video tutorial to get an idea about creating a site from scratch. The service has its own YouTube channel with many videos. It is updated regularly with new helpful video guides.

The priority of customer service depends on the plan to which you are subscribed. Free version users cannot get assistance. Pro account owners have access to support in the English language and wait for a reply 1-2 days. Business and Premium profile users are provided with special Premium support, receiving a response from native English agents within 2-4 hours on business days after submitting a request.

Pricing Policy

Like its competitors, Jimdo has a free account to offer. It allows novices to see how the service works. On top of getting the simple features, you will have free 2GB of bandwidth, disk space of 500 MB, HTTPS encryption plus the subdomain. You may also display and even sell up to 5 items using this plan.

All Jimdo packages have the capability to build a blog and offer specialized templates, incorporated social networking tools, the ability to embed videos, HTTPS encryption, and photo galleries. They let you add Google Maps, contact forms, and alter the site code – a standard set for a contemporary site developer.

If you intend to use Jimdo to perform serious tasks, then its free Play plan with its limitations will not work for you. It makes sense to switch to one of the paid packages. Thus, you can select one of the plans: Start, Grow, ECommerce, or Unlimited, which are purchased once a year.

The Start Plan is ideal for personal or innovative projects. The Grow Plan is recommended for projects that want to build specialized websites. The eCommerce Package is perfect for launching digital stores, and the Unlimited Plan is the optimal solution for making all website types that need a full toolset.

All the packages are ad-free and provide a free domain for the initial year of use, unmetered disk space + bandwidth, HTTPS encryption, e-mail address connection, and website statistics.

The difference in the cost of plans is large, and the price level of the engine is above average. The first one is suitable for business cards, the second one makes sense to pay if you decide to create a store. The free version can be used to familiarize yourself with the constructor to understand whether you are ready to pay for Jimdo or not.

Competitors

Jimdo is undoubtedly a quality website builder, which is in demand with newbies and web design pros. Its Standard and Dolphin editors allow for diverse degree of website customization and come up to various users’ needs. At the same time, there are website builders that can cope with some of the tasks much better than Jimdo. Just have a look at the detailed comparisons of Jimdo with its major competitors to understand what I mean.

The choice of the most suitable website builder may depend upon multiple factors – just take your time to pick the service that works best for your specific web design needs.

Verdict

Jimdo is a neat, intuitive, and simple website builder. It will serve best for small stores or individual websites. It offers several handy apps and features that will boost your website’s popularity. It is good for all categories of users, regardless of their skills and level of knowledge. It gives a free plan to beginners to test out its basic features, and its paid packages are also affordable. Jimdo has nice blogging and eCommerce platforms that help create blogs.

If you plan to generate a plain promo site with a standard feature set, then the progressive Jimdo is best suited for you. This is a simplified builder version. Just reply to the questions, link your accounts, follow the instructions and let the system do the rest! Eventually, you get a custom-built website with specific content.

If you have an idea to launch a new blog or a store, the builder with great functionality will help you generate a website quickly. You will be offered a collection of templates, design tools, and settings necessary to give your business the desired look while relishing the exciting process.

Considering all these points, Jimdo is a working and worthy choice for novices in the web marketing industry. The builder provides users with all the essential features to launch your website.

Summary

Reviewer

Howard Steele

Review Date

2022-03-21

Reviewed Item

jimdo.com

Author Rating

4