Showit is my favorite website platform to use and it’s where I host my website. But I know that it’s not always the right fit for every business. It’s important to not only choose a website builder that will serve you right now—but also look ahead at where you see your business going in the future. You want to go with the platform that your business will grow with the best over time.
Showit is usually a great fit for service providers, bloggers and sometimes small shops. But just like any website platform Showit comes with its own list of pros and cons.
That’s why in this blog I’m giving my Showit review of the pros and cons of using the platform—so that you can make a wise decision on whether or not to host YOUR website on Showit.
My Showit Review
Showit Review: Pros
Unlimited Design Flexibility Without Using Code
One of Showit’s best features is unlimited design flexibility. Showit is a drag-and-drop style website builder. You can literally drag around any element on your website to where you want it on the page. This is often the reason why most people will prefer Showit over Squarespace when it comes to drag-and-dropping.
Showit vs Squarespace: Which Website Builder Drags-and-Drops Better?
#spoileralert while both Showit and Squarespace, in some ways, are similar style platforms when it comes to being able to customize without code Showit is the clear winner when it comes to dragging and dropping with ease. And a lot of design layouts that are achieved in Showit without code need a lot of code in Squarespace.
Why I Switched from Squarespace to Showit
Complete Mobile Customization
Showit’s design flexibility partially shines when it comes to designing the mobile version of your website. You can completely customize everything on mobile without coding or limitations of any kind. This feature alone is often why someone, designers especially, will say that they love Showit.
Now this does take more time than if your website builder automatically designs the mobile layout for you. BUT I personally think it’s worth the extra effort to have the customization freedom. Especially because 50% of people browse websites on their phones.
Easy to Use & Understand Which Means You Can Launch Faster
Showit is very user-friendly which in my opinion is the most important feature of any website builder. If your website builder isn’t easy to use—you’re going to end up having to hire a website designer every time you need to edit your website. Not only is that scenario very annoying but it’s also going to get very expensive.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Website Designer?
Why You Should DIY Your Website Using Templates
Awesome Customer Support Team & Help Articles
Showit has an awesome customer support team that surprisingly enough doesn’t have very many people on it. Because Showit has a smaller team any response from them is going to feel more personable and you get to know who you’re chatting with every time.
Showit Review: Potential Cons
Depending on what kind of business you have and what type of person you are, there are a few potential cons when using Showit. These features or lack of features aren’t always a con, but they could be for your particular business and website.
Blogging With Showit is Technically Through WordPress
Having a blog on your website is very important. When you create your website using Showit you technically do all of your blogging through WordPress. I almost never recommend having a stand-alone WordPress website. But blogging on Showit through WordPress is the one exception to this rule.
To create your Showit blog on WordPress you design the layout of your blog inside of Showit. You log into your WordPress admin account when you need to publish blog posts. Setting this up is easier than it sounds because the Showit team will do most of the work for you.
Depending on who you ask you’ll most likely get one of two responses when it comes to blogging on Showit. Most Showit designers love that Showit uses “the power of WordPress” for blogging and would consider this feature a pro. Other designers will tell you that they don’t like having to log into one account to design your website and another to publish blog posts.
Personally, I’ve grown to like having separate logins so that I don’t get distracted with the design of my blog when I’m trying to publish a blog post—so for me, this is a pro.
Some Things Require a Third-Party Integration
Showit is not an “all-in-one” platform like Squarespace. If you want to add something like an email subscriber form you’ll have to use third-party software like ConvertKit. But it’s very easy to add one of the subscriber forms to your Showit website.
You can copy and paste the code that’s automatically generated from your email marketing software into an embed code box on your Showit page. You don’t have to edit any of the code all you need to do is copy and paste.
In comparison even though Squarespace is an “all-in-one” platform and offers a built-in email marketing system I find that most business owners still have to use a third-party option. While it might seem like a con that Showit is not “all-in-one” in most cases it’s no different than an all-in-one platform.
How to Add ConvertKit Forms to Showit
Designing Desktop & Mobile Separately Can Potentially Take More Time
It’s amazing that you can completely customize the mobile version of your Showit website. But keep in mind that this could make it take more time for you to design your website. In my opinion, the potential extra time spent is well worth it but it’s still something to be aware of.
If you design your website using a Showit template from a website designer—this will help make the design process of mobile and desktop much quicker because the design will already be set up on both views.
Keep in mind that Showit is technically only mobile-friendly and not mobile-responsive. Mobile-responsive websites, automatically adjust the order of elements based on screen size. They also scale elements, like text, in size to whatever screen size the website is being viewed on.
Showit is only semi-responsive in the sense that it will scale based on screen size but won’t rearrange elements. This is not a deal-breaker by any means. Since some of Squarespace’s recent updates to Fluid Engine, I’ve even found Showit to be more responsive.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Squarespace
Showit Review: Cons
No Built-in E-commerce Options
When it comes to cons Showit doesn’t have very many. BUT if you’re primarily an e-commerce business Showit might not be the right fit for you.
You can sell products on your website using something like Shopify Starter, ThriveCart or Woocommerce. I use Woocommerce on my Showit website currently and I’ve used Shopify Starter (formerly Lite) in the past.
If you sell courses or digital products Showit can still be a good fit for you. If you sell lots of physical products (over 100+) you’ll probably need to have a full Shopify website.
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