Jimdo Review
Detailed Reviews
Jimdo is a website builder developed in Germany by three friends in the farmhouse of one of their parents. From these humble beginnings, Jimdo has grown up a lot. There are now more than 20 million websites that have been created on this website builder. The builder was created with an aim to provide a fun and easy way for the users to create a website.
Pros
- Create a website within minutes: The website builder has a mode in which the user has to answer a few questions, and the builder will generate a website according to the needs of the user. The websites thus created, take care of the style preferences of the user and are relevant to the user’s purpose.
- Helps with SEO: The builder helps the pro users to take care of search engine rankings of the website. It reminds the user to follow all the general SEO guidelines. The builder has also got its own application for SEO assistance which the user can employ if he wants.
- No latency issues: Jimdo creates websites which don’t run into a lot of latency issues. This helps the user enjoy better traffic on the website.
- HTTPS for all: The website builder avails HTTPS protocol for all the websites created on the builder irrespective of the status of subscription of the user. The protocol also helps to improve the search engine ranking in some way.
- Password protection: The website builder allows the user to enable a password for the pages on the website. One can choose to have password protection for just one page or a lot of pages on the website. This feature is particularly useful when the user wants to provide limited access on some of the pages. It can also be used to provide access only to the members of the website.
- Under construction mode: The website builder allows the user to enable the under-construction mode for the website. This will enable the webmaster to build the site at her own pace. The visitors on the website will see a message that the page is under construction. The feature is available for the pro users only.
- Adaptive view: The website builder allows the user to preview the website for various devices and screens. A lot of people browse the internet through mobile devices, and hence, it is important for the webmaster to make sure that the website looks equally good on mobile phones and tablets. One can use the different preview modes on the builder to make sure that the site looks appealing on all kinds of screens.
- Mobile application: There is a mobile application of the website builder. One can download the application and create stunning websites on the go. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.
Cons
- Old template designs: The user needs to choose a template when creating a website manually on the builder. It requires the user to select a suitable template for the site. There are a lot of options for the templates, but most of them have old and outdated styles.
- No app store: The website builder does not provide a store for the users. One needs to add an element on the website to include third-party applications. It would have been a lot more convenient for the user if there was a store on the builder which included the popular applications.
- Can’t work in teams: The builder does not allow to collaborate with others while creating a website. The collaboration feature would have made it a lot easier to create large and complex websites on the builder. It would have also helped the user to manage the site by delegating various tasks related to content management.
- No live chat support: The website builder does not provide any means to the user to have one-on-one interaction with the support executives. The builder has not included live chat support or phone call support for the users. The user needs to take help of the query ticket system or the support page on the official website of the builder.
Introduction
There can be no place better than the internet to get an audience. There is also no place better than the internet to get customers for your business or users for your service.
A website is the first thing that one needs in order to use the internet as a platform for anything. Website making used to be a specialized task as it would require a person with knowledge of coding and various other skills related to website building.
However, gone are those days, and website builders have now made it a straightforward task. The builders don’t require the user to know a thing about coding and yet allow her to create a website.
Jimdo is one such website builder which is breaking the boundaries of what used to be considered as easy website building.
The builder is famous for coming up with impressive websites coherent to the needs of the user. The builder also allows one to create a website up from scratch.
This review will assess how easy it is to create a website on Jimdo and will also go through the other facets of this builder as well.
We will see how easy it is to go about making changes on this builder and analyze how the builder helps the user in managing the site once it is created.
We will also scrutinize areas such as speed and security of the websites created on the builder. Online stores have been gaining a lot of popularity recently. We will see if this website builder has all the necessary tools for one to create a functional online store.
The review will also include some direct comparisons with the other prominent website builders.
By the end of this review, you will be better equipped with the knowledge to know if this website builder is the one most suitable for your needs.
Got two ways to start
The website builder gives two options to the users at the beginning.
One is focused on those users who don’t want to spend an awful lot of time tweaking the settings of various components of the website. The second option is suitable for those who want to customize every crack and crevice of the website themselves.
Website building starts with three options at the outset. The user needs to choose between a website, a store, and a blog.
Then the builder asks the user if she wants to let the builder create a website for her or if she wants to build it step by step herself.
Let us start with the first approach offered by the builder, that is, to let the builder do most of the work.
The builder asks a bunch of questions from the user to create a perfect website most suited to his needs.
The user first needs to specify the goals that he has in his mind while creating the website. The options include promoting business, selling products, announcing events, etc.
The builder allows the user to choose more than one options. The builder also asks the user to select the style of the website and then specify the niche of the site.
These questions help the website get more specific with the design, and therefore, come out with a more relevant and likable website at the end of the process.
The most impressive part of this approach of creating a website is that the choices made by the user do matter.
We created a whole bunch of different sample websites, and each one of them was coherent to the choices we made prior to creating the site.
Another advantage of this method is that if you are not impressed with the website at the end of the process, you can create another one by making some changes in the choices you made.
And if that also does not work for you, then the second method of creating the website on the builder is still available.
The second method does not ask a lot of questions from the user. It is just a two-step process. The builder will first ask the user to choose the subcategory of the website. And then it presents various templates according to the choice made.
There is also a blank template for those who don’t want to follow any guidelines whatsoever.
There might be a few of you who are not very fond of getting so specific before even starting the website building. Well, the builder has got these people covered as well.
There is always either an option to skip the question or an alternative equivalent to making no choice at all, such as ‘not sure’ and ‘other.’
We commend the dual approach of Jimdo at the start of the process. It encompasses a broader range of users.
The user is redirected to the editor at the end of both the processes.
The Editor
There is hardly any section on a website builder which is more important than the editor. It is where all the magic happens, and the user can call the website her own after making the suitable changes on the initial template or the canvas.
The editing options and their ease of use are what determines the success of the website builder. There is no point of having excessive control over the items of the website if it is extremely tough to master the controls.
The builders need to maintain a delicate balance between the extent of control and the ease of use.
The first thing one will notice about the editor on Jimdo is that it is elegant and free of clutters and unnecessary panels.
In the normal mode, the user will see only a top panel and a preview version of the website. The top panel has the menu button at the left side and a few buttons on the right such as the ones for preview and notifications.
This mode lets the user manage the elements of the website. The items already present on the site, get highlighted when the user hovers the mouse pointer over them.
At this point, one can delete the item or move it around on the website. If the user wants to make changes in the element, he needs to select it.
The selected element will show various customization options available for it. For instance, if it is an image element, the user can change its size, rotate it, insert links on it, etc.
Similarly, if it is a text element, the user can change the alignment, line spacing, insert bullet points, etc.
However, the user should be mindful of saving the changes she made in the element. Unlike other website builders, Jimdo does not accept the changes until the user clicks the save button. The user needs to save the changes made in each element individually.
But one can take a respite from the fact that the elements with unsaved changes get highlighted in a different color when the user hovers the mouse pointer over it. It reminds one of going back and saving the changes.
An ‘Add Element’ button appears every time the pointer moves in between different sections on the builder. The builder provides a lot of elements which the user can employ on the website.
The common elements of a website such as text, image, columns, lines, spacing, store item, etc. are all available in the ‘Add Element’ box.
But these are all standard options and generally available on all the builders. The area where Jimdo impressed us is when we discovered that there are a whole lot of specific elements available on the builder as well.
One also gets the option to add elements such as a table, maps, RSS feed, HTML embedder, etc. And this is not where the options end, the user can also add a lot of the widgets from this box as well.
There is hardly anything which the builder missed when it comes to the elements of the website.
But there is still a limit on the extent of changes that the user can make on the builder. The elements can be moved within certain restrictions on the canvas. One cannot just place an element of the builder the way he wishes.
Sometimes the limitations are also affected by the template that one is using. Some templates have a background and then a dynamic section over it, while there will be some templates in which all the sections are mobile.
One can always consider changing the template if not satisfied with the freedom on the current one.
The modes of customization available for the websites may differ depending on the fact if it is an auto-generated website or a custom one.
The auto-generated website will not give a lot of granular editing options to the webmaster. But there are styling options, and the user can edit most of the parts of the website in one way or another.
We have primarily focused on the styling options available on the custom websites. The auto-generated does not lets the user control all the style elements but allows changes by presenting different styles and color schemes in general.
It is also because of this reason that there is a slight difference in the editor available on both the types of websites.
So far, we discussed how one could manage the various elements on the builder. Now comes the styling part of the editor. You cannot do much about the styling of the content inside the element from the normal mode of the editor.
You will now have to refer to the Menu button for further styling options on the editor. The menu button will display a lot of options with ‘Design’ being at the top. The other items in the list are a topic of discussion for the later sections of the review.
The builder allows the user to take control of design in two ways. One is ‘Main’ where the user can change design elements of the current template or change the template itself. This is the usual method which is generally present on the website builders.
The other proposed option is using a custom template. It requires the user to paste the code of a custom template.
If the user has some readily available codes for a template, then this method may turn out to be beneficial. Otherwise it will be akin to going back to the conventional process of designing a website.
Those who don’t have much knowledge of how coding works may prefer to stay away from this method of styling the website.
The first method of styling the website contains three option for the user. They are template, style, and background.
The template and the background options are obviously there to change the templates and the backgrounds on the website. The templates presented this way are not categorized. The user can scroll between them and also get the preview of the template before applying it on the website.
The ‘Style’ option lets the user change the design features of the content present inside the elements. There is a ‘Style by Element’ button which lets the user decide if she wants to make the style changes for all the elements in one go or wants to style them separately.
The sections again highlight when the pointer hovers over them. The builder will display all the designing options when the user clicks on the section.
Color schemes, font styles, font colors, background colors, and a lot of other properties can be customized.
The builder has nothing spectacular to offer when it comes to the styling options. Many times it will let the user change only the background color of the element.
Let us also discuss the page management and the navigation panel on the website.
The builder will show an ‘Edit Navigation’ button when you hover the pointer over the navigation panel. The button will show all the pages of the website.
There are options to decide the hierarchy of pages, changing their position in the panel, deleting the page, creating a new page, and hiding the page from the navigation panel. The controls in this section are simple enough to understand, and one should not have much problem in managing the pages on the website.
When you create a new page, the builder will provide you with a blank page and also give you the option to choose the layout of the page from the various categories available. There are a handful of page categories available for the user to choose the layout.
Jimdo’s editor does not have a lot of specialized tools or features. But the editor has been created in such a way that the user does not feel the need for any more customization options.
The editor tried to present the advantages of both drag and drop builders as well as the template-based builder, and that too successfully.
The Dashboard
Jimdo’s dashboard does not present a lot of website management options as one would typically expect. Each website you create on the builder will have its separate dashboard.
So, before getting into the dashboard, let us first discuss the window where you can manage the websites all at once.
The ‘website’ page on Jimdo shows all the websites created by the user. One can sort the sites by the alphabetical order, edit date, and age.
However, there is no option to categorize the websites on any basis. Grouping of websites would have made it a lot easier to manage them.
The user gets the option to edit, delete, and even transfer the websites from this page. The option to see the dashboard of the site is also available.
The dashboard has got nothing extra to offer when compared with the options available on the previous window.
It keeps showing up some suggestion for the user to enhance the website. Most of these suggestions will be to use some third-party application along with the builder.
Jimdo is a freemium service, and we were using its free version. So, the dashboard also had an upgrade panel on it.
The settings button on the dashboard serves the user with only two options, that is, to either delete or transfer the website. The builder allows the user to transfer the site from one Jimdo account to another.
The dashboard does not offer much to the user, but that does not mean that the builder lacks features. Most of the customization features can be managed on the editor itself. We will discuss all these features in the upcoming sections of the review.
E-commerce
The consumer market has changed a lot in the past few years. There has been a massive shift from physical stores to the online ones.
It does not matter if it is a product, good or service that the business provides, online stores are a must-have for businesses. More and more consumers are now relying on online stores to suffice their needs.
E-commerce is an essential element of website builders these days. It is not just the e-commerce websites which sell products online, but you may often come across sites from various categories which have a small web store.
It is, therefore, necessary for website builders include all the features which would let the user create a full-fledged online store.
Jimdo also allows its subscribed users to create a functional online store. There are a few differences in the auto-generated and the custom websites when it comes to the management controls of the store.
However, both of them provide the user with the same extent of control over the website. We will be explaining the controls as they are present on the custom websites of the builder.
The builder gives the user the option to list the product on the website either through the store catalog element or the single product element.
This paves the way for the user to exercise her creativity and showcase the products in a lot of different ways. A lot of the website builders are very rigid when it comes to listing the products on the website.
Some of them don’t even let the user place the product on any page other than the one made for the store. But Jimdo gives ample freedom to users to put the products on the website however they want.
The usual options of adding multiple images, product variations, shipping information, etc. are also available on the builder.
There is a ‘Store’ tab in the menu which provides the control station for the properties of the store. It is divided into two sections which are ‘mains’ and ‘settings.’
The mains section is all about the management of the store. It contains tabs such as orders and inventory. One can check the status of orders, monitor the inventory levels, and access the order archive using these tabs.
Everything else about the store can be managed in the settings section. It has all the management options ranging from setting up the payment methods to the shipping details.
They also take care of the emails and texts, help manage the taxes and the return policy, and all the other tasks relevant to a webstore.
There is no point in going into the details of the store settings on the builder as it contains all the standard options — nothing less and nothing more.
You can create an awesome webstore on Jimdo with all the features expected of a store. The flexible product layout available on the builder may help your store stand out from the others if used correctly.
We don’t see a reason as to why would one prefer not to create a store on one of the Jimdo websites.
SEO
One of the most challenging tasks while managing a website is to increase the traffic flow through it. It is necessary for the growth and relevance of the site.
Website visits is a parameter to judge the success of a website. It is, and it should be one of the top priorities of webmasters to attract more visitors to the website.
One of the most common and natural ways for a person to find a new website is when he looks for something on the internet which lies within the scope of the content of the site.
Search engines are the tools we generally use to make such searches on the internet, and therefore, it is of utmost importance that the website ranks higher on a search engine. It ensures that the website will be easily visible to any possible visitor.
All the techniques which can be employed to improve the search engine ranking of a website, fall under the umbrella of SEO (search engine optimization). The methods in SEO are based on how the search engine algorithms work.
Search engine algorithms have only gotten smarter and more efficient with time. The content on the website is now one of the prime factors which affect the ranking of the website. The webmaster should ensure that the site presents good quality content to its users.
Factors such as the age of the website also affect the ranking of the site, but there is nothing much that the user can do in this case.
SEO takes care of all the other factors which are in someway under the user’s control. This website builder has a separate section to assist the user with the SEO part of the website.
There is an SEO tab in the menu. It is again divided into two sections just like it is in the case of most of the tabs on the menu.
The first section is statistics which displays all the traffic data for the website. One can filter data by dates, for pages, and in many more other ways.
The builder also gives the user the option to use Google Analytics and use the service in the SEO section of the website.
The settings section of SEO lets the user manage the meta tags and descriptions for the website. One can check if the site has been indexed on Google or not. You can also link the website directly to Google Analytics or Facebook Analytics from this section.
Jimdo also lets the user take care of website redirects and the robot.txt files.
Jimdo ranking coach is an add-on which you can purchase from Jimdo to assist you in improving the search engine rankings. This tool will give you all the necessary recommendations and guide you through the steps coherent with SEO techniques.
Such kind of tool is present in most of the prominent website builders, but it can play a vital role in taking the website higher in the search engine rankings.
The website builder takes care of SEO as much as it can. But one cannot solely depend on SEO tools. The content on the website should always take center stage for better searchability. Rest of the methods can only aid site with good quality content.
Speed and Security
It is not just the SEO techniques which define the traffic on your website. There are a lot of other factors which affect the viewers on your website.
Speed or latency of the website is one such influencer. If the website takes too long to load, it will be tough to make a user stay waiting for it to load.
There aren’t many things which are more infuriating than a slow website. Even if a person visits your website, the slow speed will only repel her away, and it will reflect in a poor bounce rate for the site.
There are a lot of factors which affect the loading time of a website. It can be the distance between the user and the server, the website architecture, the volume of content on the site, and a lot more.
However, there is also a way to tackle all these issues so that the website does not suffer a lot. The conventional methods of website building needed the webmaster to take care of all these things.
However, the website builders take care of a lot of these factors to stay ahead of the competition. Your only job, as the user, is to choose the best service.
And if that seems difficult, then we are here to help you anyway.
The tests reveal that Jimdo undertakes appropriate strategies to ensure that the website does not take too long to upload. The only fault that we discovered was that image optimization is not up to the mark.
We uploaded some high-resolution images on the website that we created, and the builder did not scale the images. But the builder came out with impressive scores despite that fact that the images were not optimized.
So, there is nothing much alarming when it comes to the speed of the websites created on the builder.
Jimdo uses the CDN services of Fastly, and that is another encouraging news for the user. Content Delivery Networks (CDN) have servers all around the globe, and a copy of the content is stored on all the servers to reduce latency issues.
It reduces the distance between the server and the user. It is because of the CDNs that services such as Netflix are able to deliver high-quality content across the globe without much latency issues.
Robust security measures on a website not only help the webmaster and the visitor stay protected, but it also attracts more traffic on the site.
Use of HTTPS protocol is one of the factors which contribute to the search engine ranking of a website. Search engines do give preference to the websites which try to maintain high security standards.
Jimdo provides the HTTPS protocol for all the websites created on the platform.
It was tough to find more about the other security mechanisms on the builder as they have not discussed much of it.
However, we also did not find any significant anomaly in the security of the websites created on the builder.
Integration
There are a lot of tools available on the internet which increase the efficiency of the webmaster. Every website is created with a purpose, and these tools help the webmaster reach those goals.
Some tools help the user directly by providing specialized services, while others are more focused on the more general aspects of website management.
Some of the website builders provide app stores for popular applications. The user can refer to the store and get the basic apps in a single click.
However, it is not possible for the builders to include all the applications on the store. Therefore, there are builders who don’t add a store on the platform and ask the user to include the applications manually.
Most of the builders with a store also include the option to add applications which are not available in the store.
Jimdo has got no store and provides the widget/embed element to allow the user to introduce third-party applications on the website.
One can place the element on the website in the same way other elements are positioned and then paste the code for the application in the space provided.
This app integration can help with email marketing, media management, social media management, analytics, and a lot of other tasks on the website.
Applications are particularly useful in the cases when there is a store on the website. It will help with responsibilities such as invoicing and inventory management.
Jimdo has got only two applications which are readily available from the builder. You get the option to include Google Analytics and Facebook Analytics in the SEO section of the website.
We would have loved to see an app store on the builder. Even though it does not make much of a difference in the quality of service, it would have improved the user-friendliness of the application.
The use of applications to increase the efficiency of the website depends solely on the webmaster. Jimdo makes sure that there are no roadblocks along the way.
Resources available on the builder
This website builder provides the user with a full-fledged website in just a few minutes. The website takes care of all the preferences and the needs of the user.
It requires a lot of resources to create websites based on so many different criterions. This website builder has plenty of resources ranging from templates and styles to images and fonts.
The user will come across abundant options when it comes to making choices. The choices are plenty, irrespective of the way you prefer to create the website.
It starts with the tons of templates to choose from in one method and the different style preferences in the other. The color schemes and the layouts also make the user think before selecting one from the various options.
The builder also takes care of the images if the webmaster has not got many good ones at his disposal. There are enough stock images on the builder for one to create a website in any category.
In our opinion, one should not come across dearth of options while using this website builder. Wherever there is a possibility to provide options to the user, the builder has provided more than the requirement anyway.
Can’t collaborate
Even though the Jimdo has made it a walk in the park to create a website, there is still a lot to do while the site is being created and after it is created.
In some cases, it is easy for an individual to manage all the tasks on her own. But there are also a lot of instances when the project may need a few more hands on the deck.
It will make a lot more sense if the tasks are divided between individuals according to their field of interests and expertise.
But this website builder doesn’t provide much for the teams. There is no easy way to collaborate with others while creating a website on Jimdo.
This limitation on the builder makes it a poor choice if someone wants to create an elaborate and detailed website. It would be impossible for one person to manage all the aspects of the site and the builder has not provided an option to involve others in the project.
The collaboration feature is nowadays available on all sorts of website builders. Strikingly is a template-based website builder with this feature. Webflow is a website builder which allows the user to modify almost anything on the website, and it also has the function to work jointly on a single project.
Some of the builders make the feature even better by allowing the webmaster to delegate specific roles to the members of the team and therefore, limit their access according to their position.
If Jimdo wants to make itself appealing to groups, organizations, and teams, they need to introduce some team management features on the builder.
Two builders inside the builder
We repeatedly mentioned the two ways to create a website on this builder. One is a short and automatic way while the other is long and manual.
These two methods of creating a website are so much different from each other that one may feel like using two different website builders.
The first website builder makes it effortless for the user to create a website. It asks a few questions from the user and then creates a website based on those answers.
The user can still make changes in the website created, but generally, there is nothing much left to do other than replacing the content of the website.
There are not many website builders which are capable of generating a website which takes care of so many needs of the user. Therefore, it is one of the best in its class.
If we look at the other website builder in this tool, then there are so many builders like this one. The user first needs to choose a template, and then manage the items on the template according to his needs.
The builder provides the user with a lot of different elements as options to put content on the website. But the other builders in this category do the same.
In fact, some of them do it better than this website builder. They provide more options for the templates and make them relevant by sorting them into different categories. The controls on some of these website builders are also better than what Jimdo has got to offer.
This is where Jimdo needs to improve the most.
The service provider should also consider the two methods to create a website as two different builders and try improving the second one.
It the second builder also becomes one of the top products in its category, then there will hardly be any website builder which will be able to compete with Jimdo.
Customer Support
Customer support becomes crucial in those services which involve a lot of learning on the user’s part. And since it can be overwhelming for any beginner to learn about all the facets of websites and website building, a good customer support system is always needed on a website builder.
The relevance of customer support services varies from one user to another. Some customers may already have some understanding of how to use the tool, and they may get through the whole process without the need for guidance at a single point.
While there may also be some other users, who are in the early days of website building and may need some assistance to do even the most obvious tasks on the builder.
It is the responsibility of the service provider to take care of the needs of all its customers, and therefore, a satisfactory customer support service is a necessity in this case.
The service providers employ different ways to assist customers. These methods may or may not involve interaction between the user and a customer support executive.
Jimdo has got two ways to address customer grievances. One is through email support, and the other is by letting the user get help himself by referring to the knowledge base on the website.
The website builder does not provide any live chat service or assistance over phone calls. The email support works better for the pro users. The others can expect a reply within one weekday.
The knowledgebase section and the FAQ section on the official website also act as a support mechanism. However, the service provider could have done a lot better to cover more aspects of the platform in these sections.
Most of the website builders employ interactive videos and animations to explain the working of the product, but that was also missing on this website builder.
The service provider failed to encompass a lot of the important sections in the knowledge base section, and the user was left searching for answers at times.
They have also not included a discussion forum on the official website. A discussion forum not only helps the user but also benefits the service provider.
There can be no better feedback source other than the customers. We believe that Jimdo is bearing a double loss by not having a discussion form on the website.
The customer support service on the website builder is satisfactory but not among the best. In our opinion, there is room for a lot of improvement. They can begin with adding more content into the knowledge base section for starters.
Conclusion
Jimdo is without a doubt one of the better website builders out there. There are a lot of factors which contribute to its success.
One of the best things about this website builder is how easy it is to start making a website using this tool. Its ability to create a complete website after asking just a few questions from the user is also impressive. It does not just create websites, but the websites are always relevant to the choices made by the user.
It also provides another way to create a website for those who want to make decisions about every aspect of the website.
The builder also allows the user to create a functional webstore. The e-commerce part of the website builder is also equipped with all the necessary tools needed to manage the store.
The store allows the user to try different designs for layout the products. However, a few more features could have been added when it comes to displaying the multiple images of the same product.
Jimdo helps the webmaster take care of the SEO aspect of the website. Since it is very critical to the success of the website, the website builder gives a slight advantage to its users.
The editor on the website is very intuitive and easy to use. But they could have made it a lot more user-friendly by including in a few more customization options.
We did not like the idea of keeping the designing and the editing sections separate. However, that is our opinion, and some of the users may prefer having things this way.
There weren’t many concerns regarding the latency of the webpages created on the builder. The builder lacked a bit when it comes to scaling images, but that did not affect the loading speed very much.
The use of HTTPS protocol for all the websites created on the builder also makes life a lot easier for the website builder.
The builder allows the user to integrate third-party applications on the website by the use of HTML/widget element. But the presence of an app store on the builder would have sweetened the deal even more.
The builder showed promise by having features such as adaptive view and password protection for pages. On the other hand, it let down the users by not having essential features such as collaboration and live chat customer support on the builder.
In the end, this website builder has a lot of useful features for the user and a few areas which need improvement. There is no better website builder if the user wants to start with the website right away.
We hope that Jimdo will address the issues we mentioned and serve an even better product to its users in the future.