Strikingly Review

Detailed Reviews

Strikingly allows people with limited or no technical skills to design beautiful websites loaded with all the features that a website created by professionals may have. The company is headquartered in the US and helps people from all over the world to design their own websites to put them on the internet.

Pros

• Easy-to-use library: The library of Strikingly offers a wide variety of content to the user and is straightforward to use. It provides the user with a lot of stock images, icons, templates, layouts, themes, font styles, etc.
• Sign-up form: The user can add a sign-up form on the website. It will allow the viewers on the site to submit queries and requests along with their email addresses. The builder will filter the spams and forward legitimate messages to the webmaster. This feature helps with site management.
• Site search: The website builder allows the pro subscribers to have a site search tool on their websites. The tool helps the viewer to locate various elements on the website. It makes the website more user-friendly and helps to increase the search engine rankings as well.
• Speed: The websites created on Strikingly don’t undergo many latency issues. The service provider uses CDN to reduce the loading time for the websites. Browser caching is also employed by the website builder to enable faster loading for the revisiting viewers on the website.
• Accelerated Mobile Pages: The use of AMP makes it easier to browse the website on a mobile device. AMP doesn’t run into the common latency issues on mobile browsers such as delay due to advertisements and incoherence in the loading of text and images.
• SEO assistance: The website builder helps the user with search engine optimization for the website. It provides the user with a checklist and makes recommendations for the necessary changes. The user can benefit a lot from this website builder when it comes to ranking higher on the search engines.
• Collaboration option: Strikingly allows the webmaster to involve other people in the website building process. The user can add up to 10 people who will work on the same website. The builder also makes it easy to define the roles of the individuals involved by allowing the webmaster to assign them a different level of control over the content of the website.
• Third-party applications: There are a lot of third-party applications available in the app store of the website builder. One can use them to improve various sections of the website. It can be related to anything ranging from social media tools to the email management applications. The client also allows the user to embed codes of the applications which are not available in the app store.

Cons

• Pro pro-subscription: Most of the features on the website builder are restricted to pro It is true that the builder cannot avail its services for free to the users, but the restrictions are so strict that it does not leave much room for the testing of the service. Since the competitors of Strikingly let users try a lot of the features for free, it may make things difficult for the website builder.
• No membership page: The builder does not allow the user to create a membership page. Membership pages can be useful for businesses as it will help them keep track of the customers and provide competent services. A lot of the prominent website builders allow for a membership page on the website.
• Security: The security measures installed on Strikingly don’t seem very robust. They do not even consider the websites created by the free subscribers worth HTTPS protocol. We are not very sure about the security mechanism of the website builder for its pro users as well.

Introduction

The Internet is huge. There are tons of websites on it which are in turn filled with loads of content. The number of websites and the volume of information is increasing at an exponential rate.

People are creating websites for blogging, businesses, entertainment, and a lot of other stuff. It is no easy task for a new website to get recognition on the internet. One of the ways to have a unique website is to create one herself.

Back in the days, creating a website was no easy task. The person had to be equipped with in-depth knowledge of computer language and a lot of other stuff.

However, the times have changed, and one can easily create a website in only a few minutes using a website builder. The builders don’t demand the user to be proficient in computer languages or acquire any other special skill.

If you can think of a website, you can also make one with the help of a website builder. There are a lot of website builders available out there, and they avail different ways to the user to create a website.

Strikingly is one of the website builders which is easier to use. The ease of use makes the website builder a lot more user-friendly and allow the user to create a website quickly.

Strikingly claims that one can create a website on this builder in matter of a few minutes. They also claim to provide a lot of the features which let the user create a wide variety of specialized websites.

We will examine the efficiency of the tools provided by Strikingly and compare them with what other website builders have got to offer.

Customizability on a website builder is something that can never be compromised, and we will see how well this website builder took care of it.

The review will also go through some of the less discussed yet important features of a website builder such as speed and security.

Ease of Starting

Every long journey begins with the first small step. However, often this first step is the toughest one.

People find it tough to find from where to start. Same goes with the case of website building. You know what you want from the website, and you also want it to look awesome.

But a lot of designs can look awesome, and this is when you start getting confused about the color scheme and other such things.

You know that this one presentation scheme can just be the perfect one for your website but so could be that other one.

This is when you want some baseline to start your project. Strikingly can help you get through the cold feet situation by doing some of the work for you.

When you start building a website on Strikingly, it will serve you with a tremendous number of templates. The builder allows you to sort these templates as well.

The templates can be sorted into various categories such as business, store, blog, personal, etc. One can pick either one of these categories for the templates.

Or choose any template irrespective of the category. There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to choosing the templates.

Once you choose a template of your liking, there are plenty of options in Strikingly to mold the content according to your priority.

The best thing about the starting process with Strikingly is that it does not tie the user to certain boundaries. It will have some specific suggestions for the user once the choice of category is made.

But the user always has the option to look beyond the scope of categories as well.

If you are planning to create a website for your blog, and really like that one template you saw in the ‘store’ category, it is perfectly fine to go with the store template for your personal blog.

There will be options to do away with the product categorization on the template anyway. The same rule can be applied for other website categories as well.

Unlike other website builders, where it is necessary to choose a category before the application can suggest even the color scheme to the user, the Strikingly users have the full freedom to make choices irrespective of the class.

However, there might be some users who don’t prefer getting lost in the jungle of options to discover that one gem of a template. Well, they can get a bit more relevant suggestions by picking up their choice of website category.  

Simple editing

The webmaster is expected to make a lot of changes in the model templates and layouts provided by a website builder. He/she will also add content on the webpage and try to arrange it in a manner which best suits his/her style.

The ease with which the changes can be made, and the items can be rearranged in the editor varies from one website builder to another.

Sometimes, the ease of use is confused with limited control of the webmaster over the website. A lot of the website builders take away control from the user in their quest to make the website builder easier to use.

This might be the solution for a smaller timeline, but one cannot expect this to work over a long period.

We are saying so because a builder with limited options may be easy to use for a beginner, but once the user gets used to the builder, he/she will want to have more control over the elements of the website.

And this is when the website builder will fail to serve the needs of the user. The editor in strikingly has designs and templates which take care of both the phases of the website making process.

There are templates and designs which do most of the work, and the user needs just to replace the content with his/her original one.

The layouts which give the user more control over the arrangements and sorting of the content are available in the pro subscription of the website builder.

Once you have chosen a suitable template for the website, the website builder directs you to the editor.

The editor on Strikingly enables the user to edit the section and options in the preview mode which gives the user a better idea of how the changes affect the website.

The website looks just the same in the editor as it would look after it gets published except for the fact that the editor shows the guidelines and a few buttons which help user making the changes in the website.

The editor allows the user to interact with the website in three ways. One is from the side panel on the editor which lets the user decide the color schemes, fonts, manage sections, and a lot of other similar stuff. This panel hardly allows any interaction with the content on the website.

The next way to make changes is to directly change the content on the website such as the headlines and the slogans. The third and final way to make changes on the website is to use the buttons for layout and background which are present on every section.

Let us now have a closer look at all these methods of making changes in the design and other aspects of the website builder.

At first, we have got the side panel of the editor. It is present on the left side and pops out on clicking on the ‘Editor Panel button’ on the editor.

We found this feature of hiding the side panel very useful as it negates the need to go into the preview mode every time the user wants to see how well the website absorbed the changes made.

The top of the side panel features four buttons which are ‘Preview,’ Publish, ‘Styles,’ and ‘Settings.’

The role of the first two buttons is the same as their names. The user can have a look at the preview of the website and publish it once he/she is satisfied with how the website looks.

The next button is Styles, and it is both a boon and a bane for the users depending on the way they use it.

Even though the website builder allows the user to pick the category of the website, and then choose the template for the category, it allows the user to change the template for the website once again.

This is when the second thoughts may start creeping in the mind of the webmaster. There are again tons of options for the user to choose the template.

However, those who have a clear picture in their mind about the website they want to create will use the plethora of options to their advantage.

Once the user has put in his/her content in the editor and then finds out that the content does not go well with the current template in use, there is an option to check how the same content will appear in different templates available on the website builder.

To do so, the user can take help of the ‘Styles’ button and then change the template for the website. The editor swaps the content into various layouts that the user chooses, and once the user is satisfied with one layout, the changes can be made permanent.

The templates can be sorted into various categories of websites such as personal, store, blog, etc. Having templates for all the categories at disposal has the advantage of its own.

The webmaster can now choose the template which best suits his/her content and style irrespective of the category of the website.

Templates are just one section of what the ‘Styles’ button has got to offer the webmaster. There are options to change the font, make changes in the header section, add animations, manage sections, etc.

The ‘Styles’ button is to make changes across the whole website. Let us have a brief look at the other items available under this button.

First comes the ‘Color Scheme.’ The notable part about the color scheme selection the website builder is that the available options change according to the templates.

The builder is also able to adjust the color scheme of the website in accordance with the colors in the logo uploaded by the user. This feature helps the user give a more personalized touch to the website.

Then comes the ‘Font’ section which allows the user to choose the font style separately for the title, headings, and the text. This feature comes in handy if the user wants to follow the same font style across the whole website.

There is also an option to change the text attributes separately. The separate changes can be applied while the user is adding the text on the website. The website builder took care of both the sects of users who follow different techniques when it comes to the font style on the website.

The ‘Header and Navigation’ tab provides the user with multiple options related to the header section of the website. The user can make all sorts of adjustments for the navigation pane of the website and the way the logo and the name appear on the website.

The user can change the physical attributes of the sections of the website such as their size and alignment in the next tab called ‘Sections.’

‘Section’ refers to the various parts in which the website is divided. Some examples of sections are home, blog, contact, etc.

Some of you may be wondering that these can be the different web pages on the website, which is absolutely right. However, Strikingly allows the user to create a website with multiple pages only for on the pro version of the website builder.

 The next few tabs are about animations, text size, text color, and buttons on the website.

The fourth button on the side panel is ‘Settings,’ and it concerns to other aspects of website building rather than editing. We will discuss the items under this button in the later sections of the review.

The rest of the side panel is divided into two sections which are ‘Sections’ and ‘External Links.’

The first one lets the user add and remove sections on the website and make certain minor adjustments such as renaming the section.

The second part is all about external links on the website which will be displayed on the navigation pane of the website.

So far, we discussed the first way of making the changes on the website which will be visible to the users.

The second way is when the user directly interacts with the content on the website. The layouts on the sections have specific areas where text, images, videos, and other such content can be added.

The editor highlights the sections which can be edited when the user hovers the pointer over the particular field.

The editor also provides suitable editing options for the content added on the builder irrespective of the type of content. One can change the aspect ratio of the images, style of the text, orientation, etc.

One can add or remove items from the sections by interacting with the layout directly. This style of editing is intuitive and fast and enables the user to make changes quickly.

The third and final way to make changes in the presentation on the website is through the two buttons present on every section of the website.

These buttons are ‘Layout’ and ‘Background.’ The names of the buttons suggest their functions as well. The ‘Background’ button lets the user add images and videos in the background of the sections.

One can also take help of the vast and rich library of the website builder to add high-quality images in the background.

The ‘Layout’ button offers different layouts to the webmaster in accordance with the category of the section.

Every section available on the website falls under some category, and even when the user adds a new section by herself, she has to choose a category for it.

There are some sections which are available only with the pro subscription of the website including the one which offers full customizability.

The layouts available in the layout button are different for every category of the website. The layouts offer enough ways to the user to present the same content in different ways.

The layout button also contains advanced setting options sometimes which allows the user to customize the layouts even more. However, one cannot expect the advanced settings button with the layout button each time.

The layout button itself may not be present on certain sections as the builder does not offer any options in the way the section can be presented.

The editor on the website builder offers enough options to the webmaster to come up with a great website. The editor is simple enough to use and provides enough customization options as well.

However, one can also say that the builder does not give much room to the user to exercise creativity. But it is also tough to deny the fact that the website builder makes it effortless to create an excellent website with its custom templates and layouts.

Create your own shop

Web stores are becoming just as common as the physical stores these days. A lot of people start a website with the intention to sell products online, and these are called e-commerce websites.

There are other websites which don’t start with the purpose of selling products, but then down the line, the website may get enough popularity that it may decide to launch merchandise or sell some other sponsored products.

These websites dedicate a particular section of the website to selling products which can be called the web store.

In both cases, the webmaster will need some specialized tools which can help him/her sell the products efficiently. It is up to the website building software to provide the user with specialized tools if the builder allows the user to set up a webstore.

Strikingly does offers the webmaster an option to have a web store on the website or even create a full-fledged e-commerce website on the website builder.

However, this website builder had a trick up its sleeve to avail the e-commerce services to only those users who have pro subscriptions but without the need to accept the fact that the services are not available for all the users.

A user without the pro subscription of the website builder cannot add more than one product in the web store. And we all know that no one sets up a webstore to sell just one product.

This way the e-commerce services are available for all the users on the website builder, but practically, they are only for the pro subscribers.

Let us now discuss the features of the store in Strikingly. It does not matter much if the user has an e-commerce website or just a small store on her website. The methods to deal with the shop are the same for both the cases.

Adding a product in the shop is a simple task. The user needs to click on the ‘Add New Product’ button on the shop management page and fill in the required information. The builder allows the user to add multiple images of the product as well.

The details about the pricing go in on this page as well, and the user can also add information about the variants of the products which may or may not have the same price.

If the product is such that the user will need to ship it to the buyers, then he can check in the box against the ‘Shipping.’ This will prompt the buyer to fill in the delivery details when purchasing the product.

The pro subscribers also get the option to add a product description page as well which allows the user to cater more information about the product when necessary.

To make it easy for the buyers to navigate through the store, the webmaster can create different categories for the products as well. The builder avails two ways to display the products under different categories.

One is to display all the products in one section or page with the categories available in the navigation pane. The other option is to display different categories in different sections or pages of the website.

With the advanced layout settings available in the builder, the user can decide the arrangement of products on the page. This makes up for the lack of layout options in this section of the website.

But the builder should have added a few options for the user to make use of the multiple images he/she added for the product. The product display is static in the sense that a buyer will have to click on each product just to see the other images of the product.

A simple slide show on hovering the pointer over the product would have made it effortless for the buyer to view the products.

Tiny details such as these have a huge impact on the experience of visitors, and therefore, the website builder should try to add more flare to product display in the store.

Coming to the other essential features of a shop, Strikingly has very well taken care of it. One can easily manage the shipping details, payment methods, coupons, and other stuff related to the shop in the dedicated sections.

The builder allows the user to manage the email notifications from within the store management area which is impressive.

The page also displays the orders and their statuses, but it is just a list which shows the dates of orders, and if they have been delivered to the customer or not.

There are no infographics related to the page. The analytics part becomes important especially when one is managing a business.

The builder does provide an analytics page for the whole website. If something similar is available for the store as well, then it will definitely come in handy for the user to grow the business.

The store on Strikingly comes with all the necessary features that will enable a user to sell products online, but it lacks a lot of the advanced features.

A lot of the features in the store apply to the pro users only. This makes the store an exclusive feature limited only to the pro users in many ways.

Therefore, it becomes even more important that the builder includes a few more advanced features, to deliver a product worth the money to the pro users.

The Dashboard

Strikingly offers the user to manage all his websites at once. The dashboard of Strikingly shows all the websites created by the user and displays their status as well.

The user can see which websites have been published and which have been connected to a domain. The dashboard also displays the total number of views that the website has, and the last time it was updated.

In a brief look on the dashboard, the user can easily gauge the status of all her websites. This makes the management of multiple websites on the builder very convenient.

There is no limit to how many websites a user can create on this website builder. It means that there might be a lot of people who have created more websites than what can fit on the dashboard screen.

It may make it a bit difficult for the user to navigate through the websites on the dashboard. This problem could have been at least minimized, if not solved if some categorization of the websites was available.

The dashboard does not provide any default categories for the websites. It will be a lot easier for the webmaster to manage the websites on the dashboard if they are sorted into different categories.

The user should be allowed to create custom categories for her websites. It will empower users to manage the website however they want.

For example, some may prefer grouping the websites into categories such as blogs, stores, business, etc while there may be other workhorses who prefer to categorize the websites into completed, pending, and other such categories.

The dashboard of Strikingly displays the attribute which the user chose before creating the website. For instance, if you picked up ‘blog’ as the category of the website, in the beginning, the dashboard will display a ‘Blog’ button with other options for the website.

The button will allow the user to manage that particular section of the website. The users with e-commerce website will get the store management button while the users with a website for blogging will get a blog management button.

The feature is handy, but even this can get some enhancements.

It is not necessary that a blogging website cannot have a small store, or a business website cannot have a blogging section. The categories keep emerging in the websites irrespective of its primary focus.

The website builder should allow the user to manage all the sections of the website which need external management or supervision. Adding the extra buttons for the website on the dashboard will only make it easy for the user to control the different elements of the website.

Other than this management button, the builder offers the ‘Edit,’ ‘Stats,’ and ‘Settings’ button to the user.

The stats button helps the user asses the traffic situation on the website and thus prepare a strategy to grow the page. The settings button will let the user publish/unpublish, clone, and delete the page.

The dashboard has separate sections for domain and emails which add up to the functionality.

We are satisfied with the dashboard of Strikingly as it allows easy macro management of the websites. And it will only get better if the website builder includes the enhancements, that we suggest in the features.

Helps improve search engine rankinngs

It is highly likely that when you create a website, there won’t be many people who will know of it unless you are a big celebrity or social media influencer.

There will be many people who will reach your website through search engines.

Search engines display results relevant to the item searched by a user. However, to decide the order in which the search results will be displayed, the search engines rely on their algorithms.

These algorithms take in a lot of factors into consideration when they rank the websites. As a webmaster, you would want to achieve higher rankings in the search engine results.

It means that you would want to stay consistent with the algorithms of the search engines. As we already mentioned that there are a lot of factors which have a role to play in these algorithms.

It is up to the webmaster to create a website in such a way that it ranks higher in the search engine results without using any unhealthy practice.

However, it will be a lot easier to do the same if the website builder assists the user in the process.

Strikingly helps the user in many aspects of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as it can. The ‘Settings’ button on the side panel has an SEO tab which helps the user in making the website more search engine friendly.

It displays a checklist in one section which consists of the various SEO recommendations. The user can employ these recommendations and make the website rank higher in the results.

The second section of the window offers some tools to the user which help improving search engine rankings.

The user must make sure that the content on the website is such that the search engine rankings improve organically. Anyone planning to rely solely on the SEO tools of the website builder will not achieve much success.

Strikingly also informs the user of the methods which can be followed to achieve a better ranking in the search results. The article is available in the support section of the website builder.

The tools provided by Strikingly do help the user in the SEO front. But the best results can only be achieved when these tools are used in conjunction with the natural ways of rank improvement on a search engine.

Speed and Security

The importance of a fast loading page cannot be stated enough. The webpages which take a lot of time to load, annoy viewers the most.

A webmaster would never want a visitor to leave the website because it took too long to load. But the webmaster would also not like to put some low-quality images on the website to improve the loading time.

This is where the method to deliver the website and the architecture used by the website builder can come in to play. The website builder can use a lot of methods to make sure that the website does not come across many latency issues.

Strikingly is one of those website builders which maintain such an infrastructure which ensures that the latency issues stay at bay when it comes to the websites created on the website builder.

CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) are being widely used by various services to deliver their websites and content at a faster rate. CDNs have servers all across the world which contain a copy of the content that is to be delivered.

So, when a viewer looks up on the internet for the content, the CDN server, which is closest to the viewer, is prompted to deliver the content.

This way, services such as Netflix deliver high-quality content to their users without compromising with the speed.

Strikingly employs CDN services of Akamai Technologies to deliver the websites created on the builder. Other than using CDN, the website builder uses some other techniques as well to fight latency issues.

Inlining of critical CSS and browser caching are the methods which they mention on a forum on the official website.

Our tests also showed that the practices used by Strikingly help deliver content at a better rate. Availability of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is also one of the commendable features of the website builder.

AMP is the way used by Google to make sure that the web pages load faster on mobile devices. This is achieved by using custom HTML and JavaScript along with some other restrictions. The technology also involves the use of CDN. And all this leads to faster loading pages on mobile devices.

Coming to the security front, the picture does not seem so bright. We don’t see the use of many robust security measures on the website builder.

The HTTPS protocol, which not only helps in the security aspect of a website but also promotes more traffic on the website, is available only to the subscribed users.

The tests we conducted also did not speak highly of the security of the websites created on the builder as well. However, we used only the free version of the service.

There is a possibility that the security status on the paid versions might turn out to be better.

The speed and security for the websites created on the builder don’t seem to be on the same page. We can say that one should not expect any issues in regards to the speed of the websites created on the builder. But we are not so sure about the security.

Provides abundant resources

The website builder offers tons of layouts, templates, images, icons, and other such items which help improve the aesthetics of the service and attract more viewers.

You already know that Strikingly offers a lot of templates and layout to the user. However, there are a lot more items which come into play when it comes to making the website look prettier.

The website builder provides the user with loads of stock images. The user can put these high-quality images on the website without worrying about copyright issues.

It might not be easy for beginners to add a lot of professional images on the website. The builder’s image gallery proves to be just the right avenue that these webmasters need.

They can replace the stock images when they have some original ones. In the meanwhile, the stock images will make sure that the background doesn’t look dull and boring.

Not just the images, but the fonts, icons, and the color schemes also provide the user with a lot of customization options on the platform.

Strikingly took care of icons as well and provided several of them in various categories. This allows the user not just to choose icons but find the ones which go well with the theme of the website.

The library of the website builder contains all the elements which are essential to start a website which looks professional as well. This feature of the website builder is most helpful to those who are new to website making and getting a taste of how things work.

Work with your mates

One of the ways to work efficiently is to delegate some tasks. If you have created a website for some business, then you may feel the need to delegate some people with the responsibility of keeping the website updated or to make it better.

Even if the website is not for business, there may be situations which demand multiple people to control it.

The ‘Collaboration’ feature on Strikingly lets you do just the same. It will allow you to include more people in the website building process. A team can do a lot of things better than an individual, and one should take advantage of the human resource if available.

The feature is available for the pro subscribers only, and the user can have up to 10 collaborators for each of her website. The collaborators don’t need to have the pro subscription. It is just the owner of the website who should be a pro subscriber.

So, this feature doesn’t cost any extra money to include a new member in the team, which is a good thing.

The process is straightforward. All you need to do is send an invite to various email addresses who you want to include in your team. If these people have an account on the website builder, then they will get access to the website editor.

If they don’t have an account, they will need to create an account on the website builder. Once the collaborator has an account on the website builder, he will have access to the website editor as well.

Members of a team have different roles, and therefore, it makes sense that members have different levels of access. This will allow the webmaster to incorporate more ideas without losing control over her website.

The three different levels of access for the collaborators on the website builder are Admin, Editor, and Blogger. You can assign one of these controls to the user to regulate the extent of access that the collaborators have on your website.

The Admin on the website will have the same control on the website as you expect for the fact that she can neither delete it nor manage the collaborators on the website.

Next comes the Editor, which falls in the second tier of the collaborator hierarchy. This person can change the appearance and the content of the website but cannot publish the changes. The publishing will require either the admin or the owner of the website.

The Editor will not be able to access any of the managerial controls of the website as well. These controls include the analytics, the settings button, etc.

The least access to the website will be available to a Blogger. The Blogger will only be able to manage the blog posts and make changes in the content. However, all these changes can be published only by the Admin or the owner of the website.

The feature doesn’t let two people work simultaneously on one website. If someone is already using the website editor, the builder will let the other person know that someone else is currently working on the site.

The advantages of using the collaborator feature are plenty on the website and can work wonders for the website when used properly.

Adaptive View

The user can get a preview of the website once he is done editing it. It will tell the user how the finished website will look on a device.

And since the viewer can be using any kind of device ranging from a mobile phone to a desktop, the webmaster should know how the website looks on other screens as well.

The preview is available for all three screen modes, that is, mobile, desktop, and tablet. You can switch between the modes in the preview mode itself and judge the appearance of the website on all the screen types.

Even though this feature may not seem fascinating, it is one of the essentials on website builder.

The previews available in the tablet and mobiles are for the portrait mode only. We felt that the website builder should have included the landscape modes for these websites as well.

App Integration

There are a lot of facets of a website which are easier to manage when the job is left to a third-party application.

The reason is that generally, these third parties are professionals when it comes to the specific task, and secondly, they have better tools for it.

Some of the examples include payment services and social media websites. Such tools and applications make life easier not just for the webmaster, but for the visitor as well.

Strikingly allows the integration of such tools and applications in two ways. The first way is to use an application from the store of the website builder.

The app store of strikingly contains some of the popular applications used on websites such as PayPal, Google Maps, Facebook, etc.

The apps are available in different categories which are supposed to make it easy for the user to find the one most suitable for the job at hand. However, we don’t think that the categorization makes much of a difference in the store as there are only a limited number of applications.

This brings us to the next method to integrate third-party applications to the website. The user can make use of HTML code to include third-party applications on the website.

This feature is available only to the pro users. The app store, on the other hand, is available to free users as well.

One can go into the settings, and then include custom codes in the header and footer of the website to install third-party applications on the website.

This feature covers up for the lack of applications in the app store of the website builder. And both the ways add up to make a satisfactory third-party integration front on the website builder.

Customer Support

Customer support is an essential part of any service which involves the user doing a lot of the work. It is common for users to come across roadblocks while using the service.

This can happen because of a lot of reasons such as complex user interface, less knowledge at the part of the user, unconventional options, etc.

But whatever the reason may be, it is upon the service provider to guide the user through the roadblock and help her achieve the goal for which she is using the service.

There are several ways which the web services commonly employ to address the grievances of the user.

One of the ways is to provide the user with a detailed guide or tutorial of the product. This guide will help the user at every step of the way of working on the project.

There is a video tutorial of Strikingly on the video streaming website YouTube. It is available in the form of a playlist of several small videos which address separate sections of the website builder.

This segregation helps the user find the video for the relevant topic instead of making him go through the whole tutorial. Those who want to learn all about the website builder have the option to watch the whole playlist at one go.

The next line of support available for the webmaster is the live chat available on the website builder. The live chat support is open to the free as well as the subscribed users.

One can use the chat support while editing the website, and the service doesn’t take too long to come up with a reply in general.

The live chat support helps the user not just with the issues related to the editing on the builder but informs the user about a lot of the facets of the service as well. This is something that the video tutorials are missing. They educate the user mostly about the features of the editor.

We contacted the live chat support of the website builder a few times. The supports solved the problem or gave us relevant information about the issue each time.

The chat support representatives were professional in their conduct every time, and quick in response as well. We had a good experience whenever we turned to the chat support, and there is nothing that we would want the service to improve in this section.

There is one more avenue for the user whenever he hits a dead end while working on the website builder. It is the support page on the website.

The support page of Strikingly is filled with information about each and every aspect of this website builder. The knowledge base, the FAQ section, and the discussion forums add up to make a mountain of information about the website builder.

It is highly unlikely that you will not find something to read about any feature of a website builder on the support page, irrespective of the fact that the feature is available on the website builder or not.

The customer support mechanism of Strikingly has impressed us a lot, and there are not many website builders who have a superior support mechanism.  

Conclusion

The website builder is one of the advanced template-based website builders. It does not provide microscopic control over the elements, but that is often not needed when a person is new to the website building or wants to create a simple website.

There are a lot of reasons which make us say that Strikingly is one of the best template-based website builders.

It gives a lot of options when it comes to the design of the website. Editing could not have been more straightforward, and the library provides most of the resources that one needs to create a website.

There was hardly any feature that Strikingly missed. App integration, collaboration, shop management, etc. are some of the features which the website builder handled very well.

The features were not just present on the website builder, but they were good enough to be useful for the webmaster.

There are certain sections on the website builder which need more attention of the developers. There is a need to strengthen the security for the websites created on the builder. And it will only do good to the builder if the makers provide a bit more access to the free users as well.

We have no problem in recommending this website builder to anyone who is either new to website building or wants an easy way to create stunning and functional websites.