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Why build another website builder?

makeswift.com

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Re: Why build another website builder?

#81

Post by migueloller »

OJFord wrote: post #73
migueloller wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, you can't do that right now. But we do have plans to support self-hosting. We believe it will be table stakes for various customers. We're a small team of 5 right now, though, and decided to focus on the core experience right now.

Bit confused reading this, thread was talking about Shopify. (Other confused readers: parent's profile says they work at Makeswift, the site builder in OP.)

I mistakenly replied to the incorrect thread hah. Sorry for the confusion!

Re: Why build another website builder?

#82

Post by logicalmonster »

There’s nothing wrong with more website builders, and I say this as somebody who makes his money through building custom websites. Every builder is different and takes a different approach. Every business wants something unique. The more choices that are out there, the more likely peoples’ needs will be met. Just try and add some kind of unique value proposition. Don’t just clone other tools out there.

Re: Why build another website builder?

#83

Post by teilo »

fizixer wrote: post #57
teilo wrote: post #28

I realize this sort of tool targets a completely different audience, but what we desperately need is not more no-code builders, but a robust, DB-backed builder with an object-based workflow, and with code-behind for custom workflow logic. Like something that can compete with Zoho Creator, but is actually engineered in a sane manner, and offered at a sane price. It would take the market by storm. Most of the solutions…

> ... code-behind ... > We need an Access for the web, but nothing comes close. You're using ASP.NET terminology (code-behind) and implying that Access was some sort of DB revolution on the desktop. About time to get out of your bubble.

I'm using the term generically, and you have no idea what you are talking about. Access was a DB revolution on the desktop. And that was both good and bad, as anyone who has had to migrate complex legacy Access apps to MSSQL will tell you.

As for my "bubble," stop being so judgmental. You have no idea what my background is. I'm primarily a Python dev, specializing in systems integration.

Re: Why build another website builder?

#84

Post by vagrantJin »

migueloller wrote: post #56
robertlagrant wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All components use to build Makeswift sites are React components and we are planning on opening that up so that third-party developers can create components any Makeswift user could drop in to their website I'm being a bit facetious, but why would you need this if marketers can control everything already? :-)

Hah, all good. We give them _visual_ control of everything. But say you wanted to make a component that pull the last 10 tweets from an account or a Stripe Checkout button or some other custom component, then you can. Any React component is already a Makeswift component, the question is, how do you get the props? Well we've got a whole bunch of what we call prop controllers for basic stuff like numbers, colors, image…

Dumb question. Does React matter in using the service - like an advantage of something like wordpress or shopify?

Re: Why build another website builder?

#85

Post by migueloller »

vagrantJin wrote: post #84
migueloller wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah, all good. We give them _visual_ control of everything. But say you wanted to make a component that pull the last 10 tweets from an account or a Stripe Checkout button or some other custom component, then you can. Any React component is already a Makeswift component, the question is, how do you get the props? Well we've got a whole bunch of what we call prop controllers for basic stuff like numbers, colors, image…

Dumb question. Does React matter in using the service - like an advantage of something like wordpress or shopify?

It will give us the opportunity to let developers build their own components, allow us to use frameworks like Next.js to power our users' sites, and let us leverage the ecosystem to build cool components and integrations. So as far as the end-user is concerned this should result in better performance, more options for components, and easier extensibility if they are developers.

Re: Why build another website builder?

#89

Post by andrewl-hn »

icameron wrote: post #48
apledger3 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extensibility is a good way to sum it up, but there's many specific issues with each. The biggest problems we hear about with Squarespace are responsive layout overrides. The templates are also generally pretty rigid. Wix's current editor is based on fixed position (think photoshop / illustrator). This approach works great for banners, graphics, icons etc, but is inherently at odds with web design. The solution for f…

Wix has a responsive layout from what I've seen as a casual maintainer of a rather large Wix site, which was originally built by a non-coder. Maybe it was part of the template he used, but a row of 3 images on Desktop automatically becomes a column of 3 images on mobile, and the top menu turns into a hamburger. You can also switch to mobile mode while editing to adjust the layout of the mobile version.

It's more complicated than this. You design a desktop version of the site in Wix, and it automatically generates a mobile version. Some widgets like image galleries and lists are responsive, but they have hardcoded rules.

So, it's not a fully responsive templates, but they are good enough for most websites.

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