Simvoly was a recent AppSumo deal was live last week. It was going for $49 for lifetime access. Coming from a WordPress background, I was not very keen on a website builder as we have page builders like Elementor Pro and Beaver Builder for WordPress. But after seeing much chatter on the AppSumo Facebook group, I decided to try Simvoly and boy, I liked what I saw.
Simvoly was fast, easy to use and had a drag-and-drop interface that rivalled the best WordPress had to offer. It also offered an easy to set up basic ecommerce store option that covers the necessary for an online store. Read on our Simvoly review to help you decide if you should get a Simvoly website.
Simvoly Review: The Rise of Website Builders
Before Simvoly, the only website builder I have tried were Wix, Squarespace and Weebly. But I decided to stick to WordPress due to the large plugin ecosystem that WordPress had. From powerful subscriptions extensions to funnel builders and plugins that enable the setting up of an online course, WordPress could do ninety percent of what most customers wanted.
But WordPress is troublesome. Especially if you are not tech-savvy. You need to keep the website and various plugins updated. And do daily backups to a secure off-server location. Sometimes, updates don’t work well and you get conflict issues on WordPress. Plus, it is troublesome to set up.
Here is where website builders like Simvoly, shines. Simvoly makes it easy for you to create eye-catching websites with an easy-to-use drag and drop builder. Plus, it is really fast. Let us dive deeper on the Pros and Cons of using a website builder platform like Simvoly and how does it compare to say, WordPress and WooCommerce.
Simvoly Review: How Is Simvoly vs WordPress?
Simvoly is a website builder built on making it easy for non-techie clients to start. Compared to WordPress, starting out in Simvoly is as easy as a few clicks. In our experiment, we manage to launch a website within forty seconds of visiting Simvoly.com.
Editing in Simvoly is as simple as clicking on an element and adjusting it. Compared to traditional WordPress themes, Simvoly is much easier. However, with the rise of the Gutenberg project, there will be changes to the front-end editing experience. Time will tell if WordPress will be as easy to use with all these changes.
Currently, you can do similar front-end editing on WordPress (and more) with page builders like Elementor Pro and Beaver Builder.
So why should you use Simvoly? Who is the target audience for Simvoly? What makes Simvoly special? Let us answer that next.
Why And When Should You Use Simvoly?
If you are just starting out and don’t mind something simple, start with Simvoly. It is fast and easy to use, albeit its limitations. But should you bother with this limitations? If you don’t foresee you need more complex items like the ability to sell courses, advanced forms, surveys and are satisfied with a simple ecommerce solution for less than a thousand products, Simvoly is the right choice for you.
In some way, Simvoly would be right for businesses who wants a simple brochure site. When I say brochure site, I mean sites with perhaps four to five pages. Like the home page, blog page, archive page, About Us page and the Contact Us page. Some brochure sites would also have portfolio pages as well as simple product pages.
The second set of customers that would do well with Simvoly are those who want to try out a business idea without investing too much resources on a site. Once you verify your idea, you can move to a custom web application and/or WordPress.
The Simvoly Advantage
Compared to regular self-hosted WordPress sites, Simvoly is super fast out of the box. To get your WordPress site at that speed, you will need an experienced web developer and a good Virtual Private Server (VPS).
Read: You can get an affordable but yet powerful VPS server for your WordPress site with WPHostingSpot, our preferred hosting provider. Read our WPHostingSpot Review to find out more.
With Simvoly, you don’t have to worry about maintenance. Backups and security is taken care for you, making Simvoly ideal out of the box for clients on a tight budget.
Why Should You Not Use Simvoly?
Unfortunately, Simvoly do not have a WordPress exporter feature now. So it will be a hassle to migrate to WordPress later on if you need your website to do more.
Also, due to a lack of on-page SEO optimiser (e.g. WebTextTool and Yoast for WordPress), you will need to either know how to structure your content or sign up for an external on-page SEO tool.
Unlike WooCommerce (which is a viable alternative to Shopify, Magento, OpenCart and PrestaShop), Simvoly’s ecommerce features are still quite raw.
While you are able have inventory and stock keeping unit, there isn’t any cost price. Plus, unlike WooCommerce, I can’t bulk edit products. This makes it difficult to manage any store with more than a few hundred products.
For shipping, while we can set shipping prices based on country and weight, it would not be able to cover states. This is crucial for countries like Malaysia, whereby our shipping rates vary by state. Thus, sending goods to states like Sarawak and Sabah, is costlier than sending it to Melaka. This rings true for other countries as well.
Simvoly also lacks mobile only edit (thanks Jose for the heads up!). This is crucial if you want to have a different mobile look compared to the desktop version.
Simvoly Review: The Simvoly Roadmap
Simvoly though has much potential and will get better. In the attached roadmap, we can see that Simvoly will have things like the following for ecommerce
- Brands
- Up-sells
- Multiple Currencies
- Inventory Tracking
As well as the following for your everyday website
- A Better Slider
- Revamp of the Blog Section
- SEO Analyzer (like Yoast, except better)
This makes Simvoly a very interesting SAAS (Software as a service) to look out for. I’m particularly intrigued by the SEO Analyzer as I asked for it in the group.
Simvoly Review: What Others Say
“Simvoly is a modern, capable, and user-friendly website builder… It offers a very friendly interface and good customization even within the strictures of responsive design” – PCMag review on Simvoly
“For what it is, however, Simvoly is an excellent choice for the small business owner or the hobbyist looking for a clean, intuitive website builder that produces websites that will look great on any device” – Merchant Maverick review on Simvoly
“Compared to veterans such as Wix and Weebly, Simvoly is a new kid on the block but it already has a lot going for it. This is a super-easy website builder with a seamless drag and drop interface that lets you set up a website in a jiffy” – Website Planet review on Simvoly
Simvoly Review: The Conclusion
While Simvoly will not replace WordPress, it would be an ideal software for those needing a simple maintenance-free site.
If you plan to make your website as a crucial part of your business strategy, perhaps WordPress would be a better fit. However, if you are looking for a beautiful, simple, hassle free site, you won’t go wrong with Simvoly. Get Simvoly today if it suits your needs. I will definitely get some of my clients on Simvoly.
