Every Day I call hosting Support!
Updated: Jun 11, 2022
Seriously, nearly everyday there is an issue with something to do with a hosting problem for one of our clients. And since Jinx doesn't host sites, we just help clients manage their sites with various hosting companies, its part of our job to fight with the hosting companies for them. It used to be, a call for set up, and maybe later a call for an outage, but these days, it's everyday that someone is; exceeding space limitations, exceeding usage limitations, email routing issues, spam issues, back-ups failing and SSL!!!! Anyone that has run a WordPress site knows that in addition to making back-ups, managing posts, updating plug-ins, updating themes, you still need to manage hosting. It's a lot!! and on top of all of that you still need to run your own business.
Enter the hosted Solution!
Wix, SquareSpace and many other services offer a contained, hosted solution. It's not right for everyone, but it's a much better idea that you might think.
CONS: In the past we all saw these systems as closed systems. All your content was in one spot and if you wanted to move your content you were pretty much out of luck. I have manually cut-n-past entire sites out of a closed system and into Wordpress and had to manually download every image, PDF and form database then rebuild in a new system. Well, those days have pretty much past, most modern hosted solutions let you export, back-up and migrate. Another objection has been that these systems are limited in their abilities or functions...Well, everything has it's limitations but these days most of these systems can be extended with plug-ins, add-ons and widgets. The up-side is these closed systems only allow plug-ins and widgets that have been fully tested in the system vs the Open Source world where anyone can make a plug-in and share it with their community.
PROS: As I mentioned, a closed system only allows extensions that are verified and will auto update as the system updates, so you, the site manage doesnt need to update plug-ins and such or if they do, it's a one button update that you can feel confident in pushing it. Back-ups, most of these systems are making daily or monthly back-ups. One bill!!! there is no separate bill for hosting, web tools, themes and so on.... some thing may have additional costs to add on to your basic plan, but it all comes through in one bill for the most part.
Why WIX?
Speed of set up. Speed of design/development. Ease of adding functions. Integrations with external tools. Additional tools in WIX to run your business! There is really so much here. It's easy to think, "oh their CRM cant be as good as SalesForce, well, it's not as powerful, but it takes 15 min to set it up to handle 90% of what most users/businesses need, vs hiring a Salesforce expert to spend 2 weeks setting up Salesforce... time and money thrown out the window in my opinion.
SquareSpace, WIx, Shopify... they are all really good and have their own strengths. But a modern WIX site is really super powerful. If you are a small company or a one man shop, you can drag and drop items onto your screen and they will show u just the way you want. Yes, there are some layout-limitations that are easy to work around. But for the most park WIX is really about making your whole small business integrate into your website and vice versa. Making a form integrate with your CRM or using the WIX CRM, galleries, and so much more.
I also have to say, I don't even know if WIX has a support call line because I have never had to call them! (I'm sure they must). But like anything, learning a tool takes time. Making design decisions can be tough. Organizing content can be confusing. This is where JinxUOMe comes in. Even when building a site with a tool like WIX, unless your company's focus is on making website, this may not be what you want to do with your time. JinxUOMe can build your site and set it up for real success and make it work with your business processes.