Yola web site builder review

Posted on May 23, 2009 | Category: CMS, CSS/HTML, Informational, Reviews

Yola site builder provides users with an architecture to build and host a web site. The service is similar to other site builders such as Jimdo, but the interface seems a bit more fluid, with more content options to choose for your page. The fluidity of the page could be related to my test machine. I utilized a Kubuntu 9.04 Linux box with Firefox 3.0.10 with all the relevant plugins.

Registration is instant and does not require email validation. The registration was simple and quick. What else could you ask for in a site builder?

Yola homepage

Ok, so there is a bit more… Yola uses subdomains attached to the yolasite.com domain to host your site. If you are impatient, follow the following link > http://buckycomputing.yolasite.com to view the site I created.

Initial page view without much content

There are many content options to choose from with Yola site builder. Content is organize in blocks, similar to Concrete5 CMS, but with many more options. You can search through many different categories of widgets. Examples of widgets include e-Commerce sites with PayPal integration, Google Maps, AdSense, Forms, a variety of widgets, embedded videos, photo gallery from Flicker, and more. One note on the photo gallery – it would be nice to have Picasa included.

Yola site builder does not have ads included on your site, nor does it have them on the administration panel. However, I noticed that a couple of the widgets do include them. One of my test pages located at http://www.buckycomputing.yolasite.com/iframe.php shows an iframe type of a widget browser that shows ads everytime a web location is queried.

My gripes for this sitebuilder and widgets are minimal. It took me a while, but I could not find the link or location to my site that I created! Funny, but I finally found it. Additionally, the RSS widget resets to default if you make an edit. It can be annoying if you have made several edits to the widget interface – more typing. It may have been the widget, but the RSS widget did not link to the article that I clicked. It simply opened another duplicate page.

Otherwise, Yola site builder seems well built and REALLY user friendly. I am impressed with the number of widgets and ease of use. One site feature that I did not see is the option to choose custom CSS or theming. Otherwise, if you are looking to create a dynamic, Web 2.0 website, I would strongly recommend visiting Yola.com and trying it out!

Check out all of the screenshots below.