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Alpha Blog: CNET's gadget & tech news and opinions blogged by our editors
July 13, 2006, 11:51 AM PDT
SiteKreator: the Mama Bear of small-business site builders
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

SiteKreator
SiteKreator's editing interface doesn't get in your way
[+] Enlarge photo
SiteKreator
The tool makes professional-looking sites
[+] Enlarge photo

There are several Web-based site-building tools, but many are either too simple and build boring sites or too complex for a nongeek to get productive with in a reasonable amount of time.

A newer tool, SiteKreator, is trying to split the difference by offering both professional and customizable designs and an editing system that will enable a typical small-business person to get a site up and running quickly.

SiteKreator has a small but good collection of business-friendly templates. It also makes it easy to modify the templates without creating a hideous mess. More importantly, it has interactive features, such as a form builder and a message board application, that are easy to integrate into your site. The platform also allows you to register visitors to your site and to restrict some content to authorized people or groups.

The builder/designer interface is nearly WYSIWYG. In the administrator view, there are tiny letters that hover near content elements; they anchor editing menus. You won't remember what the letters stand for, but it doesn't matter: they do a nice job of collecting your editing controls.

SiteKreator builds professional-looking Web sites quickly, but it is not the only good tool for building small-business sites. See also Homestead and GoDaddy's utilities.


TalkBack
5 messages

SiteKreator does far more than most

Having created a small business website in December 2006, one year ago, I have been very satisfied with SiteKreator: features, usability, performance, reliability, and support. Lots of good-looking templates to choose from, too.

The photo hosting features are very powerful. Simply by putting a collection of photos into a ZIP file, you can upload them into a gallery, and choose many different formats to display that gallery. You can even change the format later, if you want to.

Creating forms is fairly easy. The user input for those forms is emailed to a designated address for your website.

I can recommend SiteKreator very highly, for both novices and experienced webmasters. While you do not get full control over your HTML, the ease-of-use makes up for that, and you can still embed custom HTML snippets if needed.
by gfanucci (See profile) - December 16, 2006 4:27 AM PST

Be sure to check for others first ...

I'm definitely surprised to see the byline of "Mama Bear of small business site builders" for this product. To make such a claim without a side-by-side comparison to the many other platforms available for web building is short-sighted research at best. Many of these platforms can be used for making very professional looking small business web sites. Personally, I prefer the extremely easy-to-use and absolutely free DotNetNuke (DNN4), currently in version 4. I run three small business web sites on DNN4, and useful plug-in modules such as shopping carts are free. It is necessary to purchase a professional-looking skin for DNN4, at a cost of between $15-65. But that one-time cost for me at least beats a $95 per annum expenditure for what I see as a much more limited and young product in SiteKreator.
by vois2 (See profile) - July 18, 2006 1:44 PM PDT
10 out of 10 users found this comment helpful

databases and shopping carts??

Most businesses want to be able to transact online. Does this software include a shopping cart and the ability to develop a database, or does it still require the PHP MySql route? Just developing pretty websites is secondardy. If the software just makes templates easier, it's not worth the candle.
by mcampion (See profile) - July 17, 2006 8:07 AM PDT

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