Website Platforms: Showit

Showit is a website page builder intended to build beautiful websites. It is also a gateway to WordPress, intended to keep you from dealing with hosting and most security issues. However, you don’t need to go through that gateway unless you want a blog, e-commerce, or other advanced features on your website.

If all you need is the standard five-page website, maybe with a portfolio of photos added, then you can use Showit without getting into WordPress at all.

Created for photographers, beautiful websites for creatives are Showit’s wheelhouse.

Who is it for?

Showit is for photographers, creatives, or other business owners who want a beautiful website with many design options without worrying about WordPress hosting.

If you want a blog, an e-commerce store, or any advanced functionality, you’ll have to use the WordPress platform to do it. However, since you still build the rest of your site with the Showit builder, you’ll have the beautiful site you are looking for.

As a non-techy, Showit may be intimidating with all the design options available. However, you can buy templates to get you started. Some come with instructions or even a complete course on using the template, so make sure to find something like this if it would be helpful to you.

Who is it not for?

For people who want the most straightforward website platform, Showit is not the best choice since it gives you so many design options. However, there are many beautiful templates available, some with instructions on their use so that you can still build your site as a non-techy.

If you want the most advanced search engine optimization features or the ability to host your site, Showit may not be not your platform.

Finally, if you do not want to deal with the WordPress environment but want a blog, e-commerce, or other advanced website features, your setup will be tricky. 

The only way to accomplish this would be to build your website in Showit, then use a different platform for your online store, e-course, or other feature. Then you could link the two together and send users from one to another.  

This kind of system can get a bit complicated, but in some cases, it is the best option for having all the features you want.

Features

Showit focuses on building beautiful websites. There are themes/templates available from free to four figures, so there are options for everyone. 

In addition, they offer a drag-and-drop website builder, so you can place every element exactly where you want it on the page.  

While you must use this feature carefully to prevent user experience issues, especially on mobile, it allows unique, creative website designs. 

Also, you can customize the mobile view of your site, optimize it for search engines using SEO tools, and fully control the appearance of your site.

Showit takes care of the hosting. Showit uses the WordPress host WPEngine, a well-respected host that focuses on security and quality. 

For maintenance, that’s a bit trickier. 

 On the lowest plan, Showit takes care of everything except your website content and design.

 On the higher plans where you can use WordPress plugins, you’ll have to update them yourself. That’s usually a five-minute job – unless something breaks. Troubleshooting adds more time, and it could take 2 minutes, 2 hours, two days, or two weeks.

Plans and costs

Showit offers three plans at a cost ranging from $19 to $39 per month, depending on your selected level and whether you pay monthly or annually.

The three plans differ by what kind of site they are most suitable for. For example, the lowest level plan is excellent for basic websites with informational pages only, such as your homepage, about page, and portfolio.  

  

It’s on the middle plan that you dive into the world of WordPress. You can use Showit to create a custom blog design within WordPress.

The middle plan also offers a WordPress blog and some assistance with migrating your blog posts from your current website, depending on where it is hosted and how many posts you have.

 Also, you can use a standard suite of WordPress plugins on the middle plan. More than a dozen plugins allow you to optimize your images, improve your SEO, add a contact form, connect with ConvertKit for email marketing, and more. 

The middle plan also still only allows one blog user account. So if you want additional user accounts for other team members to log into your blog or website, you’ll have to go to the highest level plan.

In addition, on the highest plan, you can install additional plugins that are not on the middle plan list of approved plugins. Installing these additional plugins is how you can add e-commerce and other functionality to your Showit site. 

However, there are still some plugins that are not allowed even at the highest plan level. Also, Showit is not built for e-commerce, so large stores are not recommended. However, Showit would work well for selling a few products from your site.

Although it is only recommended for advanced users, you can also request FRP access to the database on the highest plan.

Positives

Showit wants you to have all the design control for creating your site. So Showit has created a simple drag and drop design environment like Canva uses for graphics. Many designers offer beautiful templates for Showit, and some of the designers provide instructions on how to use the templates to design your site..  

You get the benefit of using WordPress without dealing with hosting – and they’ve partnered with a fast, secure host. You have quite a few SEO options, even though you can’t customize everything. It’s enough for most businesses.

Watch out for

If you decide Showit might be your platform, make sure you are prepared for the WordPress environment if you plan for any advanced features beyond just an informational website.  

Also, WordPress plugins may require updates and some tech-savvy to make sure they all fit together correctly.  

And while the SEO options are reasonable, there are platforms with more flexible SEO features - they just come with more technical demands.

Finally, make sure you can stay within the limits of the hosting provided. If you'd rather have your own hosting, choose a different platform.

Summary

Showit offers remarkable design features and a unique way of providing beautiful websites without much technical savvy required. It's a creative's platform built for gorgeous graphics and impressive images. Just make sure you're prepared for the demands - or limitations - that come with features like blogging, e-commerce, or other advanced features.

Here’s the link to the Showit platform, if you’d like to explore it.  

If you have questions about the Showit platform or other platforms, please get in touch or schedule a call.  

Appy

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