Building a modern sports website will hardly be a walk in the park especially for users who do not have any coding and web designing skills. On the other hand, modern website builders make it easy to create a sports team or league web resource from scratch within a couple of hours. It will contain a pack of essential features that let you handle strategic issues.
Website builders are designed to put an ease on the creation process. They narrowed required actions to simply slapping the domain name together with the template in addition to intuitive and user-friendly editing tools. All you need is to define fundamental things your resource is supposed to accomplish.
Whether you create a fan page for a sports team or need to come up with an extended website for a bigger sports community featuring standings, videos, latest stats and news, website builders deliver a set of functions that will let you bring a future resource to life. They help to improve team’s online presences as well as create a recognizable and catchy sports media page.
We have conducted a detailed survey to identify the best website builders for different purposes. With so many platforms available today, choosing the right tool may look daunting especially for newbies. Our research is aimed at defining the core advantages of described builders, so you could easily pick the best bet.
We Tested Out 10 Of The Best Sports Website Builders For Leagues & Clubs
- Wix – The Best Sports Clubs & Leagues Website Builder
- Bluehost – Hosting & Website Builder for Sport Websites
- SportsPlus – Sports Management Platform for Tournaments
- Playpass – Sports Website Builder For Leagues & Clubs
- LeagueLineup – FREE Sports Team and League Management
- uCoz – FREE Sport Community Website Builder
- Jersey Watch – Sports Website Builder & Management Software
- TeamSnap – Youth Sports Website Builder
- LeagueApps – Sports Team Website Builder
- LeagueRepublic – Website Builder for Sports Teams
When thinking about choosing the best website builder to start your sports website, it makes sense to consider the major features, pros and cons each of them offers. This will help you draw the conclusions that will affect your choice. It’s high time to review the platforms included into the list of top sports website builders now.
Wix – The Best Sports Clubs & Leagues Website Builder
Product Name: | WIX |
Official Website: | https://wix.com |
Founded: | 2006 |
Sports Templates: | 67 |
Complexity: | Very easy |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $13/mo |
Wix – is the most popular DIY website builder, which works great for the development of all types of sports websites. The platform is equally great for small team fan pages as well as for more compleх and feature-laden projects like forums, league portals etc. Wix makes it possible to start any website, irrespective of its complexity level and special features it should involve. Have a look at the major highlights Wix includes:
- Free Sports Templates – The website builder comes with a collection of sports templates available in the corresponding Sports & Fitness section, which are free, mobile-ready and completely customizable to come up to the needs of users. This is where you can choose the required design, browsing versatile niche sections, ranging from sports forums category and fan sites and up to eCommerce fan shops and sports blogs;
- Forum – The platform allows connecting a full-featured forum to your sports website by integrating the corresponding Forum widget. This lets you get in touch with your website members by letting them initiate discussions, create and manage topics or join the existing ones, upload video and photo files, leave your own comments or follow those posted by other members;
- Blogging – With Wix, you can attach a blog to your sports website to share the related niche information by means of publishing posts. The blogging engine makes it possible to add and schedule new articles, start discussions with your blog members, add a Featured posts section, enable comments in the social networks, choose from multiple blog templates etc.
- Wix Membership – Wix now offers a coding-free system for website owners that lets users sign up and gain access to exclusive content. All the benefits implied by Wix Membership feature are free unless you decide to go for payment processing or/and online bookings feature.
- eCommerce – The website builder also comes with the eCommerce platform that lets you start and manage a fan store, for example, to sell souvenirs, special sports accessories or other related items related to your sports brand.
- Sports Widgets and Extensions – Users, who intend to start sports/fitness websites, have an opportunity to choose from multiple widgets and extensions available in the App Market. There are free and paid add-ons here, which can give your project enhanced functionality and customer interaction. Some of the most useful widgets include Events, Tidio Live Chat, 123FormBuilder, Wix Pro Gallery, Live Chat, Events Calendar, Scheduling Pro, Scheduling Pro, Countdown Timer, Contact Management +CRM, Callback, Book Appointments Online, Google Event Calendar and more.
- Client Reviews and Testimonials – The App Market also has a set of widgets that let customers post their reviews on the website to share their ideas and personal experience. These include Testimonial Builder, MyReviews, Comments, Yelp, Voice Comments+, Customer Reviews, Social Testimonials etc.
- HD Video Hosting – If you need to integrate videos into your sports website, Wix lets you do that in two ways. You can either upload your video files to YouTube or another video hosting platform to further add it to your sports project or upload it directly to the service hosting to have access to it when required.
The cost of using the entire feature set Wix offers to its users depends upon the plan chosen. There is a free subscription that lets you test the system’s functionality at no cost, but comes with certain restrictions. To get rid of these limitations and gain access to the advanced Wix features, it’s desirable to upgrade to one of the paid subscriptions the system offers. These fall into 2 large groups – Website and Business/eCommerce plans. Each group, in its turn, includes more detailed plans, the cost of which starts at $13/mo.
Bluehost – Hosting and Website Builder for Sport Websites
Product Name: | Bluehost |
Official Website: | https://www.bluehost.com/ |
Founded: | 2003 |
Sports Templates: | - |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | No |
Paid plan: | From $2.95/mo |
Bluehost – is a powerful and trusted hosting provider, which can be a great choice for users looking for a reliable and functional platform to host a sports website. The service is officially recommended by the WordPress CMS as one of the top hosting companies in the world. The platform comes with a set of features and advanced tools, which provide secure and reliable hosting for any type of sports websites, irrespective of their complexity and range of features included. Here is the list of features that make Bluehost a worthy hosting solution:
- Instant WordPress Installation – The platform ensures one-click WordPress installation to lets users get the most out of the CMS performance. This is very convenient for everyone, who intends to use WordPress in conjunction with Bluehost to cut down the website development and hosting selection time to the minimum.
- High Uptime Rates and Fast Page Load Speed – If you have the intention to make your sports website functional and fast-loading, hosting it with Bluehost is a great idea. Regardless of the traffic amount your project has, the platform will ensure its worthy performance.
- Safety and Flexibility – Bluehost features advanced flexibility due to its potential integration with multiple external services, apps and add-ons. Additionally, the system ensures the utmost website safety guaranteed by the accessibility of integrated security tools, including Spam Expert, Spam Hammer etc. There is also the hotlink protection feature here that contributes to website security.
- Integrated Marketplace – The platform allows choosing from multiple integrated add-ons, widgets, extensions, apps and scripts that can be effectively used for website customization. There is an opportunity to choose from multiple WordPress sports templates, image galleries, ecommerce and marketing tools etc.
Bluehost is an affordable web hosting that comes with multiple features and tools included into its plans. The cheapest plan the platform offers costs $2.95/mo, which is more than a worthy investment for everyone looking for cheap yet reliable hosting.
SportsPlus – Sports Management Platform for Tournaments
Product Name: | SportsPlus |
Official Website: | https://sportsplus.app |
Founded: | 2014 |
Sports Templates: | Multiple themes |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | 14-day free trial |
Paid plan: | From $49/mo |
SportsPlus – is a sports management platform for tournaments, sports clubs, teams, leagues, coaches, athletes and all other users, who are interested in creating sports projects. The platform is run and supported by Thapos. It allows launching and managing all kinds of sports events, providing registration, payment processing, scheduling options as well as a wide array of communication management tools. It is also possible to create and manage athlete profiles, events and sports performances from the same place. Here is a brief overview of the major feature set of the platform:
- Website Builder – The platform comes with the integrated website builder that allows starting, managing and updating visually-impressive, functional and mobile-friendly sports websites without any coding or web design experience required. The system allows for extensive integration of third-party extensions and apps, including Eventbrite, Survey Monkey, Facebook, WePay, Authorize.Net, Braintree, WeatherForYou, Twitter, YouTube and many more.
- Registration and Team Management Tools – The platform grants access to the broad range of registration management tools, which make it possible for players and other users to sign up and look for their favorite programs and tournaments. It’s possible to add the required custom fields to the registration forms here, introduce multiple sports programs, manage discounts, create advanced sports reports. Users can also collect secure payments, track their financial expenditures, manage sports schedules (including matches, teams, events and more).
- Multiple User Engagement Features and Tools – With SportsPlus, users can access and manage team data from anywhere and anytime, manage team schedules and events, check player availability, manage volunteers, view live game scores, share related resources, post announcements, manage team shops, send messages and notifications to other members etc.
SportsPlus offers three paid plans to choose from, including Bronze, Silver and Gold. The cost of the cheapest subscription constitutes $49/mo and it keeps growing with regard to the plan selected. Each of the plans comes with the 14-day trial that can be activated without any credit card or personal data.
Playpass – Sports Website Builder for Leagues & Clubs
Product Name: | Playpass |
Official Website: | https://playpass.com |
Founded: | 2014 |
Sports Templates: | Multiple themes |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $9/mo |
Playpass – is a sports website builder for creating free projects for leagues and clubs. Websites created with the system are mobile-friendly and customizable. They look great on all mobile and desktop devices, letting you create custom web pages, showcase sports events and schedules, upload media files, register new activities etc. The list of Playpass features currently includes:
- Online Scheduler – The platform allows creating online sports schedules in a quick and hassle-free way. What you should do to get started here is to pick the number of teams and the type of schedule you intend to create and then customize it by filling out the required parameters and details. The feature allows creating the unlimited number of sports schedules, setting times, dates and duration of games, adding and removing games, sharing the required schedules with the target audience, tracking scores, adding staff members, uploading documents and files etc.
- Online Sports Registration Software – Playpass grants access to the sports registration software, which works great for mobile and desktop devices. This facilitates the process of online registration for each and every user. Additionally, the platform allows using Stripe for secure and reliable online payments.
- Sports Waiver Solution – Playpass makes it possible to create and store sports waiver templates to further customize and manage them with regard to your business needs. The feature lets you create the unlimited number of waivers, add waiver signatures and storage options, allow users to download and save your waivers/upload signed forms, attach waivers to to online registration for further payment etc.
Playpass has a free Personal Plan you can use for as long as you need to test the entire feature set of the platform and a paid Business subscription, the cost of which starts at$9/mo. There is a free 7-day trial that does not require any credit card data and lets users cancel the selected paid plans anytime.
LeagueLineup – FREE Sports Team and League Management
Product Name: | LeagueLineup |
Official Website: | https://www.leaguelineup.com |
Founded: | 2016 |
Sports Templates: | Multiple themes |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $39.95/mo |
LeagueLineup – is one of the leaders of the sports website development niche that allows launching free team and league websites. The platform grants access to multiple online league management tools, making it possible to start a feature-laden project to come up to various sports web development needs. The list of features the platform offers is as follows:
- Ultimate Website Customization – Whatever type of sports website you intend to launch, the system allows customizing it as you wish. It’s up to you to change website colours, backgrounds, edit fonts, menu options and other website parameters. Users get 24/7 access to their projects, which allows maintaining and updating them on time.
- Integrated Fan Shop – Each website created with LeagueLineup comes with integrated custom Fan Shop, which features more than 500 fully customizable products. They guarantee 5% reward for each sale made with the system.
- Free Online Registration – Each LeagueLineup website offers free online forms that let you accept team and player registrations within the shortest time possible.
- Schedules & Calendars – The website builder makes it possible to post game schedules, special events, meetings and other planned sports activities. This is a handy feature for all sports website owners.
- Automated Standings – With LeagueLineup, you can post the results of sports games to make them automatically display on the website, when required.
- Player & Team Statistics – The platform allows posting detailed statistics for teams and players for Basketball, Baseball, Football, Lacrosse, Hockey, Soccer and Volleyball.
- Versatility of Sports-Related Features – Along with the features listed above, the platform grants access to the following features: photo albums, message board and guestbook, online polls, Google Maps integration, secure contact forms, sports training videos etc.
LeagueLineup has a completely free plan that is mainly used to test the major functionality of the platform. There are also two paid plans – Pro and Elite. Their annual pricing is based on the number of participants your sports organization supports. The average cost starts at $39.95/year.
uCoz – FREE Sport Community Website Builder
Product Name: | uCoz |
Official Website: | ucoz.com |
Founded: | 2005 |
Sports Templates: | - |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $3/mo |
uCoz – is a free sport community website builder, which is used by newbies and web design pros to launch and manage different types of sports projects from scratch. The system grants access to multiple modules, intuitive DIY website editor, integrated eCommerce and blogging engines etc. Here is the list of uCoz sports-related features:
- Forum Module – The website builder makes it possible to use its Forum module to set up a full-feature forum for your sports project. This is the top destination for all website members, who wish to share their ideas and emotions with co-thinkers, browse multiple branches and topics that tackle the sports niche etc.
- Blogging – With uCos, you can set up and connect a feature-laden blog to your sports website. This is the place, where you can post/update niche-related articles, enable user comments, start discussions with your website visitors etc.
- eCommerce – The website builder also boasts a powerful eCommerce engine, which grants an opportunity to set up and manage a web store. This is where you can offer for sale various sports-related accessories, souvenirs and other related products.
- Membership – If you plan to update/manage your sports website with other members, this feature will certainly be of great help. You can assign membership rights to those users you plan to share project management rights with.
uCoz is a free website builder, which lets you test its functionality at no cost at all for as long as you need. At the same time, the platform offers an opportunity to upgrade to one of its paid subscriptions. Their cost starts with $3/mo and grows up to $8/mo.
Jersey Watch – Sports Website Builder & Management Software
Product Name: | Jersey Watch |
Official Website: | https://www.jerseywatch.com |
Founded: | 2016 |
Sports Templates: | Multiple themes |
Complexity: | Easy |
Free plan: | Free trial |
Paid plan: | From $29/mo |
Jersey Watch – is a powerful sports website builder and management software, which allows starting and running feature-rich sports projects. The system can also be used to launch websites for other sports types, including football, basketball, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, softball, wrestling and more. Whatever website type you need, the platform ensures easy management and customization of your project. Have a look at its major made-for-sports features now:
- Advanced Management Tools – The platform grants access to high end management tools, which simplify the process of team/player organization, user communication, event scheduling process etc.
- Sports-Related Options – The website builder allows for easy and convenient launch of your sports website, offering a set of niche-related features. These include built-in registration forms, payment collection tools, email/text messaging, creation of team schedules, launch of background checks for coaches and volunteers etc.
- Design Customization Tools – It’s up to you to create your own website design, using a set of integrated tools. You can customize color schemes, design and add your logo, add website header/headline, connect custom domain name etc.
- Quality Organization Promotion – Having launched your organization, you can easily promote it with the system by posting and sending announcements, dealing with sponsors, listing board member info and other related details.
- Scheduling Parameters – With Jersey Watch, you can easily schedule your organization events, coach and board meetings, player registration dates, add schedules for team and individual players, post events with start/end time specification, upload game results and other useful info.
Jersey Watch doesn’t have a free plan. Instead, it has three premium subscriptions, each of which comes with a free trial version. Paid plans include Starter, Plus and Pro. Their cost starts at $29/mo. All the plans include website creation feature with custom design, opportunity to register players and collect payments online as well as free domain connection. The difference between the plans is about the number of text messages and emails per month.
TeamSnap – Youth Sports Website Builder
Product Name: | TeamSnap |
Official Website: | https://www.teamsnap.com |
Founded: | 2005 |
Sports Templates: | - |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | Free trial |
Paid plan: | From $5.84/mo |
TeamSnap – is a youth sports website builder, which is built for coaches, players, sports club administrators and parents. The platform comes with a set of built-in and easy-to-use solutions for effective communication, payment collection, scheduling, registration and real-time game sharing. The software helps save users; time and effort, ensuring professional management of your sports organization. The list of its highlights is as follows:
- Hassle-Free Online Registration – The system lets you automate the collection of user payments and contact info, making the registration procedure easy and quick for everyone. Using a self-service form builder, subscribers will save time eliminating the need of manual sign up. Additionally, the system offers account credits to newly-subscribed members.
- Communication Tools – The system lets you communicate with individual users, teams and groups of people (fans, volunteerism, coaches, managers etc.), using a set of built-in groups.
- Invoicing – With TeamSnap, you can easily manage and complete all payments in one place without any time loss. All the payments are safe and transparent here, which means that you can check their status when required. You can use the invoicing feature for all the transactions the system implies, including tournament fees, monthly payments, facility expenses and more.
- Automated Scheduler – You can save time and effort with the automated league and club scheduler. It lets you create schedules for any game and sports event you organize.
- Sports Store – TeamSnap makes it possible to create and customize your own sports store, choosing your brand logo, color scheme, special parameters and other related aspects.
TeamSnap offers a range of pricing options based on user requirements and budget. New subscribers get a free trial that lets them test drive all the options the platform includes. As soon as you are ready to build a sports project and go live with it, you will have an opportunity to choose from two pricing offers.
The first one targets clubs and leagues, providing three types of plans, namely Basic, Premium and Ultra. To find out their cost, you will have to contact the manager and discuss your project independently. The second group of plans targets teams and includes a free plan and three subscription types – Basic, Premium and Ultra. Their cost starts at $5.84/mo.
LeagueApps – Sports Team Website Builder
Product Name: | LeagueApps |
Official Website: | https://leagueapps.com |
Founded: | 2011 |
Sports Templates: | - |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | - |
Paid plan: | Discussed individually |
LeagueApps – is a full-featured sports team website builder and a professional operating system for sports organizations. It provides a set of tools required to start, manage, promote and grow a project. The software is customer-focused, being created for sports organizers and managers, working on the development of large sports clubs/organizations. Let’s review the main features of the platform now:
- Registration Optimization – The software lets you optimize your registration flow, offering a set of registration forms, league scheduling and team communications tools as well as program management features in one place.
- Brand Promotion Tools – The platform offers effective brand promotion features that help make your business popular with the target audience.
- Design Shop – The system allows showcasing your sports organization, hiring one of its developers to create a unique digital project for your facility, club, tournament, league etc.
- Sports Website Management Features – LeagueApps lets you use a set of website management features for effective project management. These include attendance tracking tools, billing and invoicing parameters, event management features, marketing automation settings as well as online booking and scheduling tools to mention a few.
- Member Portal – All user information is available in a member portal along with a set of membership and registration management tools, website settings and other related info.
LeagueApps offers quite a unique pricing approach, providing transparent solutions to fit diverse user requirements and budget preferences. The cost of your project is discussed independently based on your individual needs. To apply for a demo version of a program and to get the estimation of your website, you should fill out the form available online.
LeagueRepublic – Website Builder for Sports Teams
Product Name: | LeagueRepublic |
Official Website: | https://leaguerepublic.com |
Founded: | 2002 |
Sports Templates: | - |
Complexity: | Complex |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $7/mo |
LeagueRepublic – is a website builder for sports teams and a high end sports league management software, which works best for leagues that have team/player formats. The platform grants convenient scheduling solutions for different divisions with venue sharing issues. The system can also be used for starting websites of leagues with complex stats requirements. Whether you need a soccer, darts, gaming, snooker, pool, basketball or any other sports project, LeagueRepublic will come with the best solution ever. Check out its major advantages now:
- League Schedule Generator – The system has its own schedule maker that can generate detailed schedules for simple and complicated events. The option is available for free.
- Team/Player Registration Management – With LeagueRepublic, you can easily manage your team/player – related issues. There is also an opportunity to work with versatile online payment options to get maximum exposure.
- Stats Tracking – The platform delivers a flexible stats tracking and scoring system, which allows deciding on users, who will enter the corresponding data in the required format.
- Professional League Website Design – The website builder grants access to multiple tools and features that let you run a professional league website. These include online scheduling tools, results and stats tracking settings, extensive member management options etc.
LeagueRepublic offers versatile options in terms of pricing, which are based on the number of teams you plan to manage. There are 4 groups of plans here that are meant for 25 teams, 100 teams, 300 teams and more. Each group includes a free subscription, which offers everything you need to run a basic league. The cost of premium subscriptions starts at $7/mo.
What Do You Need to Start Building a Website for a Sports Club?
When it comes to starting a website for a sports club, you may encounter two basic web design options to use. You can either hire a web studio to start a project for you or create it independently using website builders.
The first option seems simpler at first sight as you don’t have to bother about the details of your project and design-related nuances. It is a web developer, who will do all the work for you, offering a ready-made project as a result. When you dive deep into the details, however, you will realize that hiring a web designer will hardly work well for you for several reasons.
Firstly, you won’t be aware of all the project parameters and, thus, you won’t be able to manage a website on your own. This, however, is crucial when it comes to sports websites. Secondly, hiring a web studio is quite expensive, especially considering the niche specialization of your website. In this respect, it is much more convenient and easy to launch a project with a website builder on your own.
The global web brings plenty of website builders for different purposes. Choosing the right one may look challenging. For this reason, you need to define the core features and functionality of your future web resource. Then it will be easier to choose a matching platform that has tools you need.
What features should a Sports Website Have?
The list of features will depend on the type of website you need. Whether you are planning to build a football league portal, website with the latest news and stats or a web page representing a single team or athlete, consider the following fundamental points:
- Keep the Visitors Aware – the sports world is updating all the time. So is your content. You are supposed to deliver latest events and highlights. This is where a blog or “news” section will come in handy. Website templates are designed with the already built-in blog section. Simply post the content you need;
- Catchy Images and Videos – media content speaks the volume. Luckily, website builders have a solid multimedia section. You can easily add new photos and videos as well as replace the old ones. Make sure you choose an appropriate plan featuring enough storage;
- Team Roster – if you build a website for a sports team, make sure you have actual team data. The starting lineup can change from time to time, while the team may purchase new players. Let your readers keep in touch with the latest updates;
- Schedules and Events – the event calendar is a vital feature for sports fans. Make sure your website provides actual dates and upcoming events. Website builders contain necessary widgets that are free. Simply add them you a web page;
- Athletes’ Profiles – your readers might be interested in players’ stats and personal data. Your website should contain athletes’ profiles highlighting all necessary data. The section may be linked to leaderboard, standings and top scorer stats;
- Contacts – once you gain recognition and solid web representation, most of your visitors would probably try to keep in touch with you. Make sure you provide actual contact information in an already built-in contact section of your template.
More Features to Enable Sports Website Growth
Apart from core functions, you need to ensure your website growth on the web. Luckily, website builders offer simple SEO and other tools to increase your site search engine ranking.
- SEO Tools – web building platforms come up with simple SEO tools. You can focus on a necessary keyword as well as edit title and description to make each page more SEO-friendly;
- Blogging – the more content you publish, the better. Sports is a changing world where readers seek for actual information. Make guest-posts, add articles with catchy images and media files, create engaging content;
- Social Sharing – social networks are the good source of extra traffic. Website builders offer social sharing buttons and widgets to let your visitors easily share the content via most popular social platforms.
After you define the core features of your future website, you will easily pick the right website builder to handle any of the above-mentioned issues. Or you can keep on reading and choose from the reviewed platforms.
Bottom Line
With so many web building platforms available today, Wix proves to be the undeniable leader of the sports web design niche. The website builder comes with an impressive set of industry-related features, design customization tools and pricing options that make it possible to build and effectively manage a sports team or league website.
While Wix comes as a multi-purpose platform with advanced SEO and e-commerce tools, to build any sports website from club page to fan shop, Contemporary world is unthinkable without the global network and the unlimited benefits it reveals. Blogging has always been and now remains the undeniable part of the digitalized society. Actually, there is nothing surprising about that as blogging is a popular, widespread and quite effective way to customer generation and client base growth.
Blogging encompasses several benefits at a time. It lets you stay in touch with the target audience, create user communities based on their interests and topics, initiate discussions that attract user attention and take active part in them, thus, building customer trust.
Suppose, you’ve decided to launch a blog. One of the first questions you will be concerned with is the choice of the right web building tool. With such an extensive selection of these systems available in the modern web design market, it often proves to be not that easy to find the platform that covers the entire spectrum of your blogging needs.
This is especially true when it comes to first-timers, who are not proficient in all the blog-building nuances and, thus, frequently face multiple problems, while making the choice. What you should know is that you may choose between two popular options:
- The connection of a blog to the ready-made website;
- The launch and customization of a blog from scratch.
Thus, the choice of the web building tool will mostly depend upon the option you will go for.
In most cases, the second solution is more preferable for users, who have long-lasting web design aspirations and wish to avail multiple benefits at once. These include an opportunity to start a full-featured blogging website to provide all the required business-related information extra profit generation opportunities, a chance to find co-thinkers and initiate interesting discussions with them, promote your business and, finally, create a large professional blogging network.
If these are the goals you currently pursue, we are right about to recommend the best blogging systems that will definitely come up to your needs, requirements and expectations. Have a look at them now.
We Tested Out 10 Of The Best Website Builders for Blog:
- WordPress – The Best FREE Website Builder for Blogs
- Wix – Best Website Builder with Blog Integration
- Blogger – The Best Online Blogging Platform
- Squarespace – Smart Blogging SaaS Platform
- uCoz – 100% Free Website Builder for Bloggers
- SITE123 – All-in-One Website Builder
- IM Creator – Free for Non-Profit Websites
- Weebly – One of the Easiest Online Blog Builder
- Medium – Online Publishing Website to Create a Free Blog
- Tumblr – Best Website to Start a Blog for Free
Which of these services works better for your individual blog building needs? Which of them prevails over its competitors in terms of ease of use and functionality? This depends upon your personal blog design aspirations, skills and other crucial nuances. To help you make the right choice, it’s high time to review each system in detail now.
WordPress – The Best FREE Website Builder for Blogs
Product Name: | WordPress |
Official Website: | https://wordpress.org |
Blog Templates: | Dozens of themes |
Founded: | 2003 |
Complexity: | Complex |
Free plan: | Completely free |
Paid plan: | Paid themes and hosting |
WordPress – is the best free website builder for blogs. To be precise, this is the world-popular Content Management System, which is recognized as the leader of the blog building niche due to its strong blogging focus. The platform stands out from the crowd due to its extensive selection of integrable blogging plugins, niche templates and stunning design customization tools. What you should know, though, when using the system is that is also requires the knowledge of coding basics to give your newly-created blog high-end personalized design.
WordPress is better used in conjunction with Bluehost – the renowned leader of the web hosting industry. That’s no wonder as the CMS does not provide any hosting options by default. Bluehost is the official hosting recommended by WordPress, which can be installed in one click, offering amazing and powerful web design features. Thus, when you think of starting a WordPress blog, Bluehost should be the top hosting to go. The conjunction of these two systems ensures stunning result and high end performance of your project.
WordPress Blogging Features
- One-Click Installation. Installing WordPress is extremely easy and quick as well as subscribing to Bluehost.
- Gutenberg Editor. The latest WordPress version has introduced the advanced block-based Gutenberg Editor that allows placing and arranging content blocks to create unique blog interface with no special coding skills required (this has made website development much simplified).
- Safety and Affordability. Being the number one hosting, Bluehost offers inexpensive plans (the cheapest one will cost you $2.95/mo only), fast page load speed, security and flexibility, strong uptime rates, intuitive control panel, rich marketplace with lots of add-ons, applications and scripts, localized SEO strategies, integrated eCommerce features, strong anti-spam protection as well as apps for business projects or blogs.
If you have the experience of creating websites with WordPress, then building a blog with the system will definitely be a smart solution. The CMS is initially geared towards blog development. As a result, your chances to get a full-featured, well-designed, SEO-optimized and quality blog will notably increase.
Wix – Best Website Builder with Blog Integration
Product Name: | WIX |
Official Website: | https://wix.com |
Fitness Templates: | 15 |
Founded: | 2006 |
Complexity: | Very easy |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $13/mo |
Wix – is the best website builder with blog integration. What’s more, this is currently the renowned leader of the web design niche, which encompasses ease-of-use, convenience, intuitive web design approach and reasonable pricing policy. The system is the all-in-one solution that works well for the development of all types of websites. Blogs are not an exception.
The website builder comes with a powerful integrated blogging engine that allows creating, managing, updating and promoting full-featured and visually-appealing blogs. Apart from the rich feature set, such websites come with social account options, easy management tools, commenting options and other indisputable merits.
Wix Blogging Features
- Post Scheduling. It’s up to you to write, update and schedule blog posts based on your web design needs and plans – just point out the time, when you wish the upcoming post to be published and watch the result.
- Featured Posts Section. Apart from uploading new posts, you can refer them to the Featured Posts section and even add a tag cloud to assign a special priority degree to the highlighted content.
- Commenting Option. Wix makes it possible to embed the commenting option and even toggle Facebook comments to contribute to more effective user interaction and engagement rate.
- Integrated Hosting. There is no need to look for the third-party hosting to publish your blog – Wix comes with integrated hosting right from the start.
- Custom Feed Creation. You can make the required posts visible to the target audience by creating the custom feed.
- Blog Templates. Wix has a separate category of blog templates, where you can find a theme to comply with your blog focus and personal requirements. There are templates for personal, food & travel, news & business, arts, fashion & beauty, sports & wellness as well as podcast blogs here. All the available designs are free, mobile-ready and customizable by default.
If you have an intention to start a logically-structured and visually-appealing blog with worthy performance, then Wix is the best website builder to go for. You won’t have to invest much effort or money into this project, enjoying its feature set, design customization tools, blog-focused options and affordable pricing policy to come up to any budget. Wix is definitely worth using!
Blogger.com – The Best Online Blogging Platform
Product Name: | Blogger |
Official Website: | https://www.blogger.com |
Blog Templates: | Multiple themes |
Founded: | 1999 |
Complexity: | Very easy |
Free plan: | Free Google-based system |
Paid plan: | - |
Blogger – is the best online blogging platform, which works great for starting high end blogs for personal and business use. This is the Google-based all-inclusive blog-focused system, which encompasses free nature, intuitive web design approach, quick accessibility and simplicity. The platform itself was created in the 1990s and has already become the service for the development of thousands of free websites. To some extent, it has unveiled the new, simplified approach to the process of blog creation, having made it intuitive, easy, quick and convenient for first-time users and for web design pros.
Blogger Blogging Features
- RSS and Comments Supported. The website comes with RSS support and commenting option enabled, which is a must for all quality blogs.
- Google Integration. Being the Google product, Blogger is integrated with the rest of its products, staying within Google ecosystem. That’s a notable bonus for all users, who have a Google account. If you don’t have the one – you won’t be able to use Blogger at all.
- Blog Design Customization. As a hosted blogging platform, Blogger lets you create and customize a blog with regard to your needs. CSS and HTML editing is supported here and you can also customize individual blog elements, embed images and media files, add links to external resources, set up blog background, color palette and what not – your options are almost unlimited here.
- Post Adding and Editing. You can create, add and share the unlimited number of posts with Blogger. It’s also possible to edit and update them any time of the day.
Judging by the name of the website, Blogger is created exclusively for blogging. That’s all you need to know about that. The platform is quite easy to use for everyone and you don’t have to be an expert to launch websites with it. The website comes with a nice feature set exclusively geared towards blog development and promotion.
Squarespace – Smart Blogging SaaS Platform
Product Name: | Squarespace |
Official Website: | https://squarespace.com |
Founded: | 2003 |
Blog Templates: | 61 |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | No |
Paid plan: | From $12/mo |
Squarespace – is a smart blogging SaaS platform, which has an extensive array of applications for commercial and non-commercial purposes. The use of the website builder does not require deep coding proficiency yet it still may take some effort and time to explore and master it. The software offers a range of design customization tools to set up and manage feature-rich blogging projects.
Squarespace Blogging Features
- Blog Templates. The website builder does not have a rich collection of themes yet you can find dozens of templates designed with a blogging focus in mind. You can sort out the designs by categories, but the system can also recommend you the best project matches. All the templates are customizable, free and responsive by default.
- Unfold App. The software lets you download and use the advanced Unfold App to create and post impressive stories in social networks. This contributes to the efficacy of the blogging process, establishing better communication with the target audience.
- Style Editor. Regardless of the project type you work on, Squarespace lets you pick and add the required pages types and customize the settings that refer to your website. This is where you can add blog pages, event pages, cover pages and more.
- Logo Maker. Whatever type of blog project you run, you will be able to design and integrate a unique logo into it. This will give your website a touch of personalization, driving user attention to it.
- Image Management Options. With Squarespace, it is now possible to integrate and adjust various types of images. The system comes with drag-and-drop image adjustment options, responsive image loading, Lightbox presentation, image SEO and metadata importing, automatic image scaling, Content Delivery Network availability, Getty Images integration, image uploading from external resources, image focal point control, Adobe Image editor and other image-related settings that can give your blog outstanding design.
If you have an intention to run a quality blog, using Squarespace is a good idea. The website builder comes with extensive website customization, social media sharing and blogging features. They make it possible for beginners and web design pros to launch blogs for personal and business use.
uCoz – 100% Free Website Builder for Bloggers
Product Name: | uCoz |
Official Website: | ucoz.com |
Founded: | 2005 |
Blog Templates: | Multiple themes |
Complexity: | Complicated |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | from $2.99/mo |
uCoz – is a 100% free website builder for bloggers, which has gained worldwide popularity due to the abundance of features and tools needed for quality project design customization. The system is module-based, which allows picking and arranging content blocks to form website structure and provide the required content. It takes time to master the system as it implies a certain degree of coding awareness, especially if you intend to start a full-featured blog.
uCoz Blogging Features
- Blog Connection. The website builder makes it possible to pick, integrate and customize a special blog module. It is available in the settings section, where you can select it and set as the homepage for your blogging website.
- Blog Customization. To give your new blog appealing design and high end functionality, you are allowed to choose a suitable template, adjust display features, set up news feed functionality and design, add and update separate materials and blog categories, select general characteristics for images you plan to add to your blog posts etc.
- Functionality Set Up. Apart from design customization, uCoz makes it possible to enable email comment notifications, post rating feature, customer reviews addition as well as choose the most suitable content presentation format and the number of posts that will be visible on your website pages.
- Blog Security. uCoz takes care of your website security and blogs launched with the system are not an exception. The website builder comes with the automated backup system, which creates your blog copy by default to prevent the potential loss of the submitted content. If something unexpected happens to the published info, you will be able to restore the blog version that was automatically saved. Additionally, the platform comes with an integrated antivirus system that lets you scan your blog files to make sure they don’t threaten your website safety.
uCoz is a well-known website builder, which works great for blog development yet still requires coding awareness. This is what makes the system ill-suited for beginners. However, a bit of your time and effort investment will help you start a full-featured blog with uCoz that will cover the entire spectrum of your web design and community needs without compromising the budget factor.
SITE123 – All-in-One Website Builder
Product Name: | SITE123 |
Official Website: | https://site123.com |
Founded: | 2015 |
Blog Templates: | 23 |
Complexity: | Easy |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $10.80/mo |
SITE123 – is the all-in-one website builder, which stands out from the crowd due to its impressive simplicity, availability of free themes and initial focus on the needs of beginners. Due to the built-in WYSIWYG editor, everyone can master the system and build projects with it, regardless of the available coding skills and web design background. The software ensures intuitive and simple navigation, which does not compromise with advanced integrated functionality.
SITE123 Blogging Features
- Quality Blog Templates. The website builder has a separate category of templates for blog creation. All the designs have a quality look and all of them are free, responsive and customizable by default. If you can’t find a theme in the available collection, you can pick a blank template to create a unique blogging project from scratch.
- Commenting System. The platform comes with a good commenting system, which makes it possible to share comments under the blog posts and initiate discussions with other members. Likewise, it is possible to connect Facebook commenting or Disqus systems to manage user replies.
- RSS Feeds. To let users follow blog updates, the software allows generating RSS feeds so that the readers could track new posts.
- Multilingual Support. With SITE123, you can create blogs in several language versions with regard to your current objectives. The feature lets you target users from abroad, thus, increasing your blog traffic.
- Logo Maker. SITE123 offers a set of logo tools that let users design logos and add them to their blogs to increase their visibility. These include website logo size slider, font size, header size adjustment options, cropping tool, pick logo style and more.
SITE123 is a simple yet feature-rich website builder that can be used for blog creation. Targeting all user categories it has a collection of blog-related tools in stock. There is also a list of blog templates to choose from as well as a multilingual support feature here. The pricing policy is also more than affordable to fit any budget.
IM Creator – Free for Non-Profit Websites
Product Name: | IM Creator |
Official Website: | https://imcreator.com |
Founded: | 2011 |
Blog Templates: | - |
Complexity: | Easy |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $8/mo |
IM Creator – is a SaaS website builder, which is completely free for non-profit projects. This means that you can start a personal blog at no cost here. This is one of the undeniable highlights of the software. The platform is quite easy to use even for beginners due to its understandable drag-and-drop editor, availability of responsive themes and integrations.
IM Creator Blogging Features
- Versatile News Feed Structure. The website builder allows choosing from 5 variants of the news feed structure that look quite appealing and understandable. Each variant has a title, description and a full publication button. You can insert videos and other related content in the corresponding field.
- Mobile-Ready Themes. The system offers a collection of mobile-ready themes. There is no separate category with blog templates here, but you can actually pick any other design or a blank theme to create a new blog project from scratch.
- Integrations. With IM Creator, you can select and integrate social media files/buttons and other extensions into your blog. There is also a nice collection of the stripes “widgets” category, which lets you pick and integrate versatile plugins like OpenTable reservation form, PDF viewer, Google event schedule list, SoundCloud audio player, Facebook comments and many more.
- Multilingual Blogs. Due to the multilingual support feature, IM Creator lets you create blogs in different language versions to target international readers.
When it comes to blog development/customization, using IM Creator definitely makes sense. Along with an extensive list of blog-related tools and features, the system offers a completely free plan for the creation of non-profit projects, including personal blogs. That’s exactly what most users are looking for.
Weebly – One of the Easiest Online Blog Builders
Product Name: | Weebly |
Official Website: | https://weebly.com |
Founded: | 2006 |
Blog Templates: | 8 |
Complexity: | Average |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | From $6/mo |
Weebly – is one of the easiest online blog builders, which comes with a distinctive feature set and a bundle of tools needed to start and successfully manage quality projects. The system was initially created with blogging purposes in mind, but it later availed strong eCommerce focus. Thus, it is now used both for blog development and web store creation. The website builder stands out from the crowd due to its integrated drag-and-drop editor, abundance of design customization tools and high end flexibility that contribute to smooth and seamless blog creation and management.
Weebly Blogging Features
- Easy Blog Creation. As far as Weebly was initially used with blog development purposes, it’s quite easy to set it up and configure the major parameters. It takes around several minutes to pick a suitable template and create the required layout, making use of the integrated and intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
- Free Blog Templates. Weebly comes with an extensive collection of responsive and customizable blog templates, all of which are free. The website builder additionally guarantees free hosting and fast page load speed to provide users with freedom of choice and creative expression.
- Weebly Promote Tool. The website builder grants access to the powerful Promote tool that allows to quickly and efficiently promote your business/blog on the web. This is the all-in-one pack comprised of multiple tools that ensure quality email marketing approach and rich choice of email templates, promo newsletters, event/product introduction features, bulletins etc.
- Video Hosting. Weebly now boasts two types of video integration options that allow uploading and publishing videos in addition to the blog posts. The first one is YouTube integration that lets you pick and insert videos from YouTube. The second option is manual video uploading and free hosting.
Weebly is a professional web-based blog building platform, which comes with a distinctive, powerful and flexible set of tools and features geared for blog development and promotion. The website builder grants access to the broad range of elements, integrations and customization options, which ensure quality results in the long run.
Medium – Online Publishing Website to Create a Free Blog
Product Name: | Medium |
Official Website: | https://medium.com |
Founded: | 2012 |
Blog Templates: | - |
Complexity: | Easy |
Free plan: | Yes |
Paid plan: | from $5/mo |
Medium – is an online publishing website to create a free blog. The system sees its mission in helping users express their compelling ideas, knowledge, thoughts and perspectives via creating informative blog posts. Medium is absolutely free for everyone and its takes a couple of minutes to post an article in the corresponding topic. The platform taps into the brains of thinkers, writers and devoted storytellers, who intend to bring their smart ideas to the target audience, revealing the topics that really matter to them.
Medium Blogging Features
- WYSIWYG Experience. The platform provides the utmost WYSIWYG user interface to write articles based on one template that allows for the freedom of choice and grants access to lots of design customization tools for appealing text formatting, link adding, style choice and other parameters you can configure in the visual mode.
- Integration and Text Editing Options. Apart from the extensive post editing options and settings, the platform makes it possible to integrate photo and video files to ensure the best reading experience.
- Social Media Sharing Options. As soon as the material is written and published, you can recommend or share it the social networks the system offers. It’s laos possible to rate and “like” the materials to effectively promote them.
- Multiple Contributors. When working with Medium, you can cooperate with several authors, who are given the right to make edits in the texts, upload and integrate media files, add keywords, shorten the URLs and adjust post settings. It’s also possible to save the texts in the draft mode until they are completely ready for the publication.
- Post Scheduling Feature. The system allows scheduling the time of post publication after it is written. This is convenient, if you have the blog update plan and wish to add new articles on a regular basis, irrespective of your current plans and availability.
- Change/Edits Tracker. The platform allows revising the edits that have been made in the article before its publication. It is easy to track all the changes made in the article, especially if you share text editing rights with other authors.
Medium is a quality and professional platform, which can be used for blogging purposes. The system grants access to multiple storytelling features, text editing tools and options, SEO parameters and post publishing options that ensure the unsurpassed blog building experience.
Tumblr – Best Website to Start a Blog for Free
Product Name: | Tumblr |
Official Website: | https://www.tumblr.com |
Founded: | 2012 |
Blog Templates: | - |
Complexity: | Easy |
Free plan: | Free system |
Paid plan: | - |
Tumblr – is a feature-laden platform, which makes it possible to start all kinds of interactive, informative and multimedia-rich blogs at no cost at all. Apart from multimedia file integration, the system lets you post and share info from your social channels. All these actions can be made in a single dashboard, which notably saves your effort and time, ensuring perfect result. Such blog building approach allows creating and managing multiple accounts, controlling the posts you upload and update.
Tumblr Blogging Features
- Different Blog Types. Tumblr supports the upload of different blog/text types, including storytelling, sharing ideas, thoughts, opinions etc. It’s also possible to share links, media files and even quotations here. This helps make your blogs informative and visually-appealing.
- Commenting Option. The system allows enabling/disabling user comments while posting chat discussions and ordinary posts. It’s also possible to mark and follow the posts shared by other users and have them displayed in their account dashboards. If you wish, you can make your blog private or restrict user access capabilities to specified readers only.
- Upload of Various Multimedia Files. To make your posts and blogs attraction-grabbing and interactive, you can share your images and videos, add GIFs, TV series, links, jokes, Spotify feeds, stories, audio files, art and fashion news, charts, infographics, quotations, chats etc.
- Social Media Sharing Options. Blog owners can share their blogs via integrated social media channels to provide greater exposure of published posts to the target audience.
- Tumblr Queue Feature. The option makes it possible to schedule your posts by weeks, days and even hours. This means that you can write the post in advance, save it as a draft for future and then publish it when needed. This makes it possible to regularly update your blog, even if you are away for a certain time interval.
- HTML Editing Allowed. The platform lets your edit HTML codes to enable users customize their blog design and display parameters in a unique and one-of-a-kind way.
- Messaging and Inbox Features. These options allow blog owners and their readers exchange information, send questions and inquiries to each other and just chat in the real time mode. What’s more, it is possible to send anonymous messages to other bloggers, if needed.
Tumblr is quite a feature-laden and free web-hosted service, which is absolutely free for everyone. The system allows creating different blog types, uploading and integrating various elements, media files, tools and features. The service offers blog post scheduling option, HTML editing feature and regular article updates to keep users informed and interested in the topic.
How to Choose a Platform for My Blog?
If you are currently in the search of the best blogging platform and cannot figure out which service works better for your blog building needs, there are a few things to consider. Prior to diving into the list of popular blogging platforms and exploring their features, you should distinctly realize what exactly you expect from a service you will choose. This, correspondingly, is closely related with the objectives you pursue, when deciding to start a blog.
Other aspects to be taken into account include the complexity of the platform you are planning to work with, your coding/web design background (if needed) and the result you wish to avail in the long run. Finally, it’s crucial to understand right from the start what kind of blog exactly you intend to launch and how frequently you plan to update it. The more often you plan to add and manage new posts, the more flexible and simple the platform should be.
And one more thing: don’t forget about the pricing aspect – it doesn’t make sense to pay much for a standard blog, if you are a first-timer, who is just about to explore new web design opportunities. These are only a few nuances you have to consider, when choosing the right platform for your blogging website.
What Is the Best Site to Start a Blog for Free?
It’s close to impossible to pick the best website that will come up to the needs of all users at a time. Much depends upon the issues listed above as well as upon the proficiency level of a user.
A web designer, who is just exploring the industry basics, should limit the choice to those systems, which are easy-to-use, intuitive and convenient. Some of the best examples here are Blogger, Medium, Tumblr and, of course, Wix. Such platforms do not require any coding skills to create personalized blog design and they also offer slight learning curve to help you get started with ease. They also offer free and paid blog building options to provide creative freedom and extensive web design options.
In case you are a skilled web designer willing to start a full-featured and informative blog, then you may think about using a more complicated system like WordPress CMS, for example. This is where you will find plenty of web design opportunities, advanced customization tools, variety of integration options and high end blog management and promotion perspectives. Wix will also be a great pick for a professional web designer. This is the website builder, the feature set and design customization options of which work great for blog development. The system comes with its own integrated blogging engine, which lets you design a full-featured blog with ease.
So, weigh your web design skills and objectives as well as all the pros and cons of the systems you are interested in to make the choice you’ll be absolutely satisfied with.
How to Make a Blog Look Professional?
A good blog has a number of must-have features that matter for each blogger, reflect the author’s personality and serve as a handy visual tool to drive traffic to the website. Prior to proceeding to the development of your blogging website, take your time to explore the most crucial features a blog should provide to come up to your needs, expectations and requirements. Here they go:
- Functionality and Design Customization Freedom – A full-featured blog should come with multiple tools and parameters that can cover the extensive variety of blog building needs. This concerns both website performance, irts visual appeal as well as text editing options. It is a user, who should be able to edit text fonts, sizes, styles, article backgrounds, adjust formatting settings to give a project personalized look and high end functionality;
- Catchy Content Presentation – It’s no secret that “Content is the King” and blog building is exactly about catchy content presentation. The more appealing and trendy your website content is and the more quality and niche-related information it provides, the more professional it will be;
- Slight Learning Curve – Blog building should not be difficult at all. Instead, it should be available and affordable to beginners, who are just exploring the niche and wish to make their blog a success. Blogs should be easy to create and manage and they should also be intuitive enough to be understood by everyone, irrespective of the web design background a user has;
- Fast Loading Speed – It’s quite understandable that the faster the blog loads, the higher user retention rate will be. No one wants to wait until the content is displayed well enough to be viewable and distinct. This is what makes the choice of reliable hosting important;
- Regular Updates – To make your blog popular and professional, you should obligatory update it on a regular basis, providing recent information related to your area of specialization. If you underestimate the importance of this aspect, your traffic flow will soon decrease just because your users won’t be able to find fresh information they are interested in and will have to switch to your competitors;
- Visual Effect Matter – To give your blog trendy, stylish and professional look, make sure to add visual effects to each and every post. These include images and videos, audio files, GIFs, animations, infographics, polls and all those elements that encourage users for active blog browsing;
- Share Options – If you aim at building user base, make your blog easy to share. This will make it possible for users, who are genuinely interested in your blog posts and content in general, share it with other co-thinkers (friends, colleagues, acquaintances, relatives, enthusiasts etc.) via social accounts or other shareable links you will provide.
Bottom Line
The popularity of blogging keeps growing with every passing year as well as the number of bloggers. For most users, who have made up their minds to join the “blogger community”, the choice of the most suitable platform to get started frequently becomes a challenge.
WordPress, Wix, Medium, Blogger and Tumblr are those services that will help you launch and manage a full-featured and informative blog with ease. These systems are the best in the niche due to their advanced blog building, customization, management and promotion options.
The final choice of the best blog development platform, however, should be based upon the type and specialization of the project you wish to set up, the industry you specialize in, the goals you set, the result you expect to avail in the long run and, of course, the budget you are ready to invest into the project. That is exactly why, the choice of a suitable platform that will help you complete all these tasks matters a lot.
Which service works best for your web building needs? This depends on your individual blog development aspirations as well as on other above listed nuances. Anyway, consider all the options reviewed in the post to pick the solution that works best for you.
Bluehost has revealed itself as the best hosting solution, which especially works great for websites created with WordPress. However, the platform initially implies coding awareness and specific web design background to start projects with it.
When it comes to comparing SportsPlus, Playpass, LeagueLineup, uCoz, Jersey Watch, TeamSnap, Leagueapps and LeagueRepublic, these are specialized platforms, which also require industry-specific skills and knowledge to launch sports websites with them. It doesn’t make sense to try using them as it’s better to give preference to more full-featured all-in-one platforms that can ensure worthy result you count on. Anyway, make sure you stress the core goals and features of your future sports website to select the right-matching platform.