Webnode Review: Why Opinions Are So Mixed [2023]

Webnode Has Some Great Advanced Features, and a Few Annoying Downsides

I’m going to be honest – Webnode has some unique tools, but it can also feel limiting or frustrating at times. It’s a bit of a roller coaster, so make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened and keep your legs and arms inside the vehicle as we get started.

For starters, Webnode has great SEO support and it gives you the ability to set up your site with multiple languages. But there are also some weird limits on customization and the site building experience can be a bit clunky at times. It feels like Webnode decided to focus on specialized features (which it does very well), and forgot about basics like letting you use custom colors.

But before you get discouraged, let me just say that there’s a reason Webnode ended up on our list of the best website builders for 2023. There are a few things to complain about (I complain about them below) but also some things I can honestly endorse (please also see below). Read on to see if Webnode might be just the right fit for you.

Webnode Has Good-Looking Templates, But They Can Be Hard to Customize 

Webnode has a surprising number of well-designed and fully responsive templates, with over 100 options in eight different categories. Some templates look much better than others, so you may need to do a bit of browsing to find one you really love.

Finding the perfect template is more important on Webnode than on other builders, because your customization options are pretty limited (unlike on Wix, where you get unlimited creative freedom, even on the free plan). It’s relatively easy to add or rearrange content elements through the block editor, so you can adjust your layout to your liking. When it comes to colors and fonts, though, you don’t have many options.

Another downside is that you don’t get the freedom to choose any colors you want for your website. You can only use the shades Webnode offers, and those colors will depend on what element you’re trying to customize. There’s a complementary color option that can be applied to headings, subheadings, or icons, but there are just five or six colors available that were specifically selected to match the overall aesthetic of the template.

If you have a specific color in mind, this can be a bit annoying. The good part is that your design will be consistent throughout, and you don’t have to put a lot of effort into making it that way.

Your font options are similarly limited, with ten or so choices included in each template. You have more options for text color than you do for the complementary color selection, but it’s still a rigid set of choices.

Because your options are so limited on colors and fonts, I expected to be just as restricted when choosing background colors or images. But I was wrong.

You have more options for customizing the background than any other part of the design – but the setup is a bit weird. Essentially, the interface makes it seem like you can only add a background image for certain content blocks, but you can add a solid color or a pattern as the “image.”

A little confused? Me too, but it comes down to this: you can change the background of any content block to any color, image, or pattern you like, and add some cool effects to it as well. You might have to add your own image to get exactly what you want, but it’s the most customization you can do on Webnode.

Webnode Has Far More Features than It Does Design Options

I was pleasantly surprised to find some solid features that truly extend your site’s functionality. These include some common website builder features, like blogging tools and an online store, as well as a couple that are hard to find elsewhere.

Most of the features discussed below are only available on higher-tier plans – I’ll talk more about that in the pricing section.

E-commerce Capabilities

Webnode doesn’t have the most advanced e-commerce features, but it’s got enough functionality to work well for smaller retailers. It would quickly become frustrating if you’re managing hundreds of products, but if you want to sell some handmade throw pillows alongside your crafting blog or offer your favorite office supplies to your fellow business bloggers, it would work well. The same could be said about selling digital products, like ebooks or music.

The product information options go beyond just description and price, letting you add variants (like different sizes or colors), track stock and inventory, and include product-specific promotions. You can create and manage categories for your products, which will appear in your online store’s navigation. There are also bulk import and export options.

Webnode also has a decent order management interface, where you can set orders as paid and fulfilled when appropriate. What’s annoying is that tools like order management and settings for payment and shipping options are really disconnected from the product tools. The latter appears in a pop-up screen within the editor itself, but you have to navigate out to your dashboard to find those other options.

It’s not that difficult, but it’s not very intuitive either. It would definitely be a smoother experience if everything was in one place.

Multi-Language Sites

The multi-language feature is what really makes Webnode stand out as a website builder. While there are ways to get this feature on other website builders, Webnode has the smoothest setup.

Essentially, the multi-language feature duplicates the architecture, pages, and other content of your site to create a new version for whichever language you select. It copies all of your content in the original language, so you are responsible for translating all of your content to the new language. Webnode then uses your visitors’ browser preferences and other factors to determine which language to display to them.

What’s best about this tool is that it will perfectly recreate the overall user experience, regardless of what language the site is viewed in, helping you maintain a consistent brand as you expand your audience. It takes care of many technical and SEO elements, too, and does it so much more smoothly than other website builders.

You can have two languages on the “Standard” plan, and unlimited languages on the “Profi” Premium plan. This feature isn’t available on the lower-tiered plans.

SEO Tools

Speaking of SEO, Webnode has some excellent optimization tools that can help your site get found on Google. It’s rare to find a website builder that makes it so easy to optimize every single page, and that’s what makes Webnode stand out the most to me in terms of SEO.

Want to customize your blog post URLs? Great, you can do that. Need custom product descriptions with your top keywords for each page? You can do that, too. Effectively using SEO tricks places your site higher on Google searches, driving more traffic to your website.

One of the best SEO features is the custom HTML header code field. This is how you add tracking IDs for tools like Google Search Console – an essential in the SEO toolbox. When I’ve tested other website builders, I’ve either had to hunt for this field or work with the actual HTML code, which can be pretty annoying and time-consuming. Webnode solves both of those problems.

Webnode doesn’t have an SEO checklist or walkthrough like you’ll find on Wix, but it does have a support article that rounds up all of its SEO-related blog posts, which are actually pretty good. A lot of website builders make SEO sound far easier than it actually is, but Webnode’s articles set realistic explanations and are a great resource for beginners.

Custom Form Builder

I absolutely love this feature. On Webnode, you can completely customize your contact forms, adding your preferred fields via the block editor. In addition to the basic fields like name and email address, you’ll also have advanced field options to choose from, like drop-down lists, file uploads, and date pickers.

On the one hand, this feature lets you collect exactly the information you want from your site visitors. On the other hand, this process does take longer than using a contact form template, and having to build out a basic form from scratch might prove tedious.

Webnode Has a Streamlined Interface, but There’s Definitely a Learning Curve

Webnode’s clean and streamlined interface implies ease of use, but in practice, it doesn’t quite deliver a completely seamless website building experience. Webnode strives to simplify the editing process, but overall, there are several instances where unnecessary additional steps are involved.

Simple Drag-and-Drop Editor

Webnode’s site editor is a tool that you can learn quickly, and relearn quickly, too, when you decide to update your website a few months later, despite having forgotten everything you knew about building a website. You add content blocks via a drag-and-drop editor, choosing the desired location on the page before opening the block menu.

Once you’ve added blocks to the page, you can drag them around to create different layouts. You don’t get true drag-and-drop freedom because you’re tied to a preexisting grid, but there’s a lot of flexibility in the types of layouts you can create.

Smart Tips in the Editor

Webnode has a few places where instructions pop up when you hover over a button within the editor. These tips are helpful in pointing you toward store settings or SEO tools, but they don’t appear as often as I’d like, and they don’t offer a whole lot of information.

If you want a more robust Webnode tutorial, you can watch a seven-minute video that walks you through the basics of changing colors and fonts, adding pages, and a few other tasks. The video covers some useful information, but isn’t really a good reference as you work. It covers too many topics in one video, so you’d have to skip around to find the answer to your specific question.

Pop-Up Windows for Editing Settings, Products, and More

Many of Webnode’s setting menus and site management tools appear in pop-up windows, allowing you to have a clear view of what you’re working on without much distraction. These pop-ups appear for general site settings, product management, design choices, and a few other things.

In general, I like this setup, and I think it works especially well if you find busy interfaces distracting when you’re working on a more complex task. Some of them feel a little unnecessary or clunky, though. For example, if you are trying to change your website’s font, you have to enter the pop-up menu only to be directed back to the editor, now with your font choices available at the top of the screen.

The pop-ups are a good concept, but poorly executed in places. Some things work really well in the pop-ups, but other things aren’t where you expect them to be or would make more sense in another location.

The More You Pay, the More You Get

It probably won’t come as a surprise that if you want access to ‘premium’ customer support, you’ll need to be on a ‘premium’ plan. However, whether you’re paying a few dollars a month or you’re on the highest Profi plan, as long as you’re paying something, you’re entitled to priority support.

But what does that really mean? In Webnode’s words, it’s available five days a week, via phone or email, and they aim to resolve your inquiry within 24 hours.

Unfortunately, there’s no live chat, but I did try out the email route since that’s what every user (paying or not) gets access to.

I enjoy receiving quick answers, and my questions are typically casual inquiries that don’t require lengthy emails. Surprisingly, however, a Webnode support agent replied to my email inquiries (on two different days) within approximately 12 hours, which is faster than any other recent email support response I’ve received.

The support agents attempted to be thorough – for one, they even sent a screen recording demonstrating where I could find something – but I didn’t feel either of my questions were fully answered. I felt they were as prompt as could be expected and answered simpler questions very well, but the answer to a very technical SEO question got confusing really quickly.

While I was waiting for my email response, I browsed the knowledgebase. Its slightly outdated design makes a poor first impression (is it 2002 or 2023?) but ultimately proves to be a valuable resource. It’s not the most extensive support center I’ve ever seen, but it covers most of the basic tasks or processes I expected. Each article includes clear, step-by-step instructions and screenshots to make it even easier to understand.

In general, Webnode support effectively handles the basics and some intermediate tasks, but it struggles to assist with more complex site-related issues.

Webnode’s Pricing Is Fair, But the Best Features Can Get Expensive

Webnode’s cheapest plans seem really enticing when you just look at the prices, but those cheap plans don’t let you access any of the good features. The cheapest plan only provides 200MB of storage – the smallest amount I’ve ever seen on a website builder plan – and access to your site statistics for the past 30 days. At least you get an unlimited number of pages, even on Webnode’s free plan.

You’ll need to pay for one of the top-tier plans to get more storage, remove Webnode ads, and access features like e-commerce and the multi-language function. Still, these are reasonably priced plans.

Webnode accepts payments via credit or debit card (Visa, MasterCard, and American Express), PayPal, and wire transfers.

Cancellations & Refunds

You can get a full refund within 15 days of beginning a new contract by contacting the support team. The refund policy doesn’t apply to renewals, and you may receive less than a full refund if you cancel after redeeming a free domain voucher.