The Best Web Design Platforms

When you’re shopping for web design agencies, you’re not just getting someone who will make your site look good.

You’re getting a whole website with its own infrastructure, layout, goals, and appearance. But all of that can’t stand on its own. In order to succeed, it needs to be built on a platform.

These are some of the best and most common web design platforms in the industry. Some of them are simple, some are complex, some are open-source, and some are restrictive. None of those are necessarily good or bad qualities — they’re just facts. And depending on what you want, they could be perfect for your business.

1. WordPress

WordPress is arguably the most popular web design platform in the world.

It’s easy to use, it’s intuitive, and it has a huge range of different options so that even people who aren’t designers can create good-looking sites.

WordPress also comes with a lot of additional features, including:

• Free and paid options
• Active plug-in marketplace
• Simplistic content management system (CMS)
• Lots of customization options
• Ecommerce capabilities

When a web design agency works with WordPress, it generally means that they want to keep things easy so you can make changes to the site just as much as they do.

You can quickly learn the ropes of this platform in no time — usually an hour or so — and it’s specifically designed to make your website look good, load quickly, and function exactly how you want.

Overall, this platform is excellent for first-timers who want to take a hands-on approach to their website’s design and content.

2. Joomla

Joomla is another web design platform that gives you the chance to quickly and easily make changes to your site.

It also has a huge user base, like WordPress, and it’s constantly updated with new patches and features to keep it running strong.

Some of Joomla’s most important features include:

• Simple CMS
• Lots of customization options
• Multimedia management
• Built-in website search
• Automatically responsive for mobile users

Joomla gives you a ton of features right off the bat to keep things easy. It also has an extensions system that works similarly to WordPress’s plug-ins, meaning you can download extra features to customize your site.

Overall, Joomla is a reliable and affordable platform that’s used by millions.

3. Magento

Magento is a popular web design platform for use with ecommerce, especially.

It’s designed to help websites sell products over the Internet as seamlessly as possible.

In addition, it’s open-source, which means you can code unique features into your site without any problem or using standardized plug-ins. You basically get a high-end, customizable platform that can do anything you want.

Magento’s most notable features include:

• Free and paid options
• Open-source customization
• Ecommerce specialization
• Huge support community
• Direct customer support for users

When you use Magento, you get a lot of perks — even if you’re using it for free.

You can interact with other Magento users on their website to compare experiences or work out issues and you can speak directly to the company itself for customer support.

Overall, it’s an incredibly involved, supported product that can work wonders for your business.

4. Wix

Wix is one of the most simplistic web design platforms on the market.

It’s almost overly-simply, and it comes with a convenient, what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WISYWIG) layout. You can basically customize individual pages by clicking and dragging, and there’s minimal coding involved.

It’s perfect for the hands-on project manager who wants to personally update the site without going through your web design agency all the time.

Some of Wix’s key advantages are:

• WISYWIG interface
• Low learning curve
• Free and extremely affordable paid options
• Intuitive “Help” options
• Extensive template selection

The people who use Wix are generally not coders — they’re visually-oriented people who want simple and fast results.

Wix may not have all the power of other platforms, but it’s so easy to use that even someone unfamiliar with web design can customize their site in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the regular maintenance or update schedules of more involved platforms like WordPress or Magento, but it definitely has its place.

Overall, Wix is great for companies that want a professional site that they can change with minimal input.

5. Squarespace

Squarespace is a newcomer to the industry of web design platforms, and it’s designed specifically to be user-friendly.

In general, it can be a little restrictive — especially if you want to customize your site with unique bells and whistles — but it performs adequately on its own. For the handful of standard features that come with it, it’s a great product.

Some of Squarespace’s best features are:

• Free and paid options
• Simple, to-the-point interface
• Ecommerce functionality
• Extensive modules
• Support forums

Squarespace is a niche platform that definitely has its place among the others, but it lacks the customization potential of others like Magento.

Still, it works well for smaller companies, especially if you’re looking for a website that’ll help you succeed without a lot of upkeep.

Overall, Squarespace can work for you if you don’t have huge plans for your website.

Find a web design agency that uses the platform you want

Now that you know about the different platforms you can use, you can find an agency that uses them! Take a look at our rankings list of the best web design agencies in the world, and read up on the ones that sounds like good fits for your business. We’ve done a lot of the hard work for you — now you just need to figure out who’s right for you!

Check out our list of web design agencies now!