Last Updated on September 21, 2024 by E. Scott
If you ask ten different developers how to build websites, it’s likely you’ll get ten different answers. Which is no surprise. Nor is it wrong, because there’s an innumerable way to build websites.
In this article, I’m going to cover a dozen ways to do so. Some undoubtedly easier than others. Developers will most likely gravitate towards certain technologies. Non technical people will be attracted to other methods as they’re easier to build a small business upon.
Lots of both groups will probably be fascinated by AI powered solutions.
No matter who you are or what your skillset is, you’ll learn how to build websites at least one way. Most likely numerous ways. Learning this invaluable skill will save you tremendous money.
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How to Build Websites with Relume
Relume is both fascinating and very unsettling. It’s a tool that enables near anyone to create websites of varying complexity mind bogglingly fast. Unsettling because it’s a tool that directly threatens jobs designers and developers.
The flip side here, is that Relume is a tool that utilizes all these specialties. It gives users the power to do what these people, and others do for a living. Enabling consumers to save money!
It also enables developers to build websites ridiculously fast and charge far more for their time. Or position themselves to be highly competitive.
Relume rapidly generates AI powered sitemaps based on textual input. Wireframes are also produced automatically.
Upon inception, Relume was a component library. So it’s no surprise it offers over 1,000 human designed components for Webflow and Figma. Said components can then be used to build websites. Edit copy, swap/ mix and match/ organize components however you see fit while Relume does the heavy lifting.
Figma is a tool used by designers for developers to build feature rich websites, components, apps, etc. I don’t care for it one bit. The code it produces is garbage and unrealistic. In turn, if Relume is using code from Figma I’d be interested in seeing whether speed and performance is impacted.
Do Relume websites automatically rank well? These are just a few things to consider. How about maintenance and sustainability? Knowing how to build websites is undoubtedly helpful as one can often fine tune the results. Knowing a little JavaScript will go a long way!
The platform supports team collaboration, project sharing, and commenting resulting in a streamlined process. There’s a limited free plan and a feature rich paid plan.
I’ve personally experienced bugs and inconveniences in conjunction with reviews. So it’s undoubtedly far from all ice cream and lollipops.
Pricing is somewhat reasonable but may be a stretch for small businesses or freelancers. To get started, I’d suggest beginning with tutorials.
Webflow
Next on the list of how to build websites is WebFlow. A powerful, visual and development platform. Enabling users to design, build, and launch fully responsive websites without coding abilities.
Combining design, features familiar to CMS users, and hosting all in one, it’s an all inclusive tool. What’s more, is the inbuilt AI capabilities that enhance both design and development.
This includes but is not limited to AI assisted tools for generating, altering, and summarizing content. SEO settings auto generate things like image alt tags. Tackling things of this nature improve accessibility which impact search ranking.
Webflow automatically applies a variety of SEO needs. It does this and more with best practices in mind. In turn, site speed and SEO are said to be of professional grade.
Beginning with AI generated templates that can be customized based on personal needs, users bypass the obstacle of starting from scratch.
Responsive support is inbuilt so users can focus on adding animation and interactivity that’ll enhance engagement. Because of its CMS foundation, content management and organization is simplified.
The platform supports team collaboration with features like version control. Version control is a method of taking snapshots of current project states. Workflow efficiency is shortened because of this.
Webflow offers an array of resources to begin. Help articles, community support, and Webflow University are just a few of said tools.
Access a marketplace of templates and components. Engage with a vibrant community of designers and developers to collaborate with on projects.
Secure hosting is provided with features such as SSL certification and rapid content delivery. This ensures safety and reliability.
One notable feature that caught my attention was “copilot”. Copilot gives users the ability to make changes using textual commands. Design and development are both updated quickly and seamlessly.
Bubble
Just like Webflow, Bubble is also a no-code capability approach. It too is a visual editor vs a technical one.
- Rapid previews.
- Drag and drop UI.
- Extensive customization options. So extensive, they’re presumably similar to conventional coding, which is entirely flexible.
- Excels in creating both responsive apps and Progressive Web Apps. PWAs operate like native apps, making the UX seem more fluid vs page update, flashes, reloads, etc.
- Connect apps in Bubble to external databases and run SQL queries.
While flexibility is undoubtedly a strong piece of Bubbles large pie, users have reported potential limitations as projects grow. Regarding how to build websites, any website, scalability is of the utmost importance.
Bubble does not support native mobile apps. Which is normal actually. Creating websites for all browsers and every screen size is always one endeavor while native apps is another.
Bubble is ideal for a wide range of sites such as marketplaces, social networks, booking websites, and small businesses just to name a few.
Please note, regardless of what tool you use, learning how to build websites is a multi step process. And there is no tool that’ll support every feature imaginable. Bubble however will save you many thousands of dollars and most likely hundreds of hours.
It’s no surprise Bubble is the tool of choice for startups to create efficient, cost effective, customizable, complex, high performance web applications.
Other features include:
- database management
- user authentication
- payment processing
- API integrations
- thousands of users
- rapid prototyping
MEAN/ MERN Stack
MEAN and MERN are acronyms for Mongo, Express, Angular or React, and Node. The MEAN and MERN stacks are known throughout the industry.
- Mongo is the database.
- Express is a Node framework used to communicate between the frontend/ UI and the database.
- Angular or React is the frontend/ UI framework.
- Node is a web server used to build scalable web applications.
One could very well substitute Angular or React with vanilla JavaScript or any other UI framework. Mongo is a NoSQL database but it too could be replaced with another type of database.
The question of how to build websites need not only apply to ready made solutions. It also applies to doing so in a manner requiring professional grade development experience. Or simply the drive to learn. Build and maintain. Upgrade and optimize everything.
Building from scratch gives one the freedom to do anything imaginable. Some or all of which may not be feasible with AI powered solutions such as any of the above.
How to build websites is akin to how to get from A to B. There’s an innumerable ways to accomplish thereof. The onslaught of options is nothing shy of awesome because every site has a goal. How it’s built and how it behaves. Small business websites, multi billion dollar corporations, landing pages, portfolios, and eCommerce sites are all created differently as they have their own goals.
With the knowledge, drive and motivation, coding a site from scratch rewarding and will save you tremendous money if none of said resources are the right tool for the job.
Node
Node is a technology used for a wide array of things. If we asked ten developers how to build websites, one of them would undoubtedly supply Node as their answer. It’s an open source, cross platform runtime environment enabling developers to execute JavaScript code beyond a web browser.
Namely on a server.
In turn, a variety of frameworks have been created that make building fast websites, quite easy. Express is one such framework.
Node allows developers to use JavaScript for both the UI and backend development. This enables a more streamlined process. It’s of course advantageous for those who already know JavaScript.
Its speed is derived from Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine which compiles directly to machine code. This offers high performance and efficiency.
With basic HTML, templates can be created. Resources can be reused. And building a server side rendered website ensures rapid loading.
Node has a vibrant ecosystem of features called packages. Node package manager (NPM) has an immense collection of average to advanced ready made features. So many, they undoubtedly out number the amount of features available in an AI powered system such as Relume or Bubble.
I created this app recently with Express. Though it’s just one page, it can be a full fledged website. One in which handles requests quickly. This is due to it’s non-blocking I/O operations.
In non technical terms, it has the ability to initiate tasks without waiting for other functions to complete.
When considering how to build websites, think of Node. Imagine building a website based on Google’s browser engine—Chrome. The speed and options are endless. It’s flexible, modern, and sustainable for most if not any web based project.
Framer
Framer is yet another AI driven website generation tool making the term, “how to build websites” less nebulous. Users have the ability to to generate web pages via text prompts.
Reddit from actual users
Unique combinations are quickly presented each with unique layouts, copy, and styling. Each of which can be customized to fit the exact need. All of which are fully responsive, if that’s not a given.
What’s unique here however is Framer’s flexible grid system and unique content stacking options. Meaning, content will not always stack the way you’d expect it. Stacking can be customized. Beneficial if you’d like content to be higher on the page in mobile than it may be on desktop.
Beyond the content, users can add animations, interactivity, and manage content through an inbuilt CMS. The system claims it’s optimized for devices but it’s unclear how as there’s numerous ways to do so.
Thousands of free and paid templates are available with custom fonts. Each with different color palettes and the wherewithal to modify individual sections.
Multilingual sites are also available if the need arises. I’m not sure how this differs from the browsers native feature of translating content though. Just like with any product on the internet, it’s good to know the fundamentals of how to build websites in this case as product descriptions may embellish or make their item sound better than it actually is. Or perhaps, it’s mentioned because it’s actually a note worthy feature.
Working in a team? Framer supports team collaboration, internal commenting, and even version control. What’s more, is the optional staging environment. Staging gives authors the power to access a private, live version. Screen sizes or devices can be better tested in addition to speed, performance, and design.
How to Build Websites with WordPress
I’ve been using WordPress for years. And so have 472 million others. That’s over 43% of all websites on the internet. With a user base that large, WordPress must be an amazing system! Here’s why:
- It’s free!
- It’s highly customizable.
- Easy to learn. Easy to maintain. And with the right configurations, it can be very secure. I’ve read about big tech companies suffering breaches. Cyber security companies have been hacked. AWS has been attacked. I’ve never however heard of a WordPress website with the proper configurations being successfully attacked.
- There’s an absolutely enormous community of developers and companies who contribute and regularly update themes, plugins, and all types of features.
- The abilities to optimize WordPress websites are endless.
If you need a type of feature…such as a table or accordion. Maybe it’s a form or application. Image or video gallery. Features for SEO, website speed and performance, etc. All these things and more can be installed via plugins. Most if not all of which are free.
WordPress is a CMS. Meaning, there’s an admin section. One in which is user friendly, and offers most if not everything you could possibly desire.
I must note, the WordPress I’m referring to is self hosted. There’s an alternate version which I have never used and that’s located at WordPress.com I believe. I have no idea if the features are the same. But…why would you want to host a website elsewhere if you’re building a small business, selling products, and drawing people in for one reason or another?
I’ve certainly encountered naysayers on the topic. But, take it from me. I’ve been a web developer since 2007. I’ve seen a tremendous amount of technologies come and go. I’ve worked with an extraordinary amount of common and crazy complex technologies. WordPress is an excellent option. Do not be dissuaded otherwise.
If you’d like to get started with WordPress, let me know in the comments below and I’ll be happy to help!
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