SiteStudio does it need replacing?

[Reece]

Hi everyone.

I've been using RP for many years now and think it is still a fantastic service, however one thing that hasn't changed much is our online Site Builder software SiteStudio.

It seems a new online hosting trend is the move to more sophisticated Website Builder software solutions, such as the growingly popular BaseKit, to cater for the rapidly increasing novice/beginner user market which are looking for simple non-traditional CMS easy to use site builder solutions such as webs.com, moonfruit.com and so on..

In fact many of the big names as they start to realise and understand this trend are now starting to place these once additional features into the prime marketing positions on their websites.

For example, uk2.net, hostgator.com and a few others.

Now before I go on I have already chatted to the RP support staff and they assure me that this has already previously been discussed and has been decided that they want to stick with it for the near future.

However, I would be very interested to know what the other RP user views are on this matter, if you think it will become growingly more important from a marketing perspective to have these intuitive, powerful and easy to use tools available out of the box to our current and potential clients and if you think SiteStudio still cuts it or is in need finally of a replacement?

Remember we are talking about users who have little interest and/or understanding in traditional CMS such as WordPress, Droopal etc and still want to build a great looking, usable site without much knowledge i.e. the examples given above.

I very much look forward to hearing your views on this matter,

Reece

[yav0r]

Thanks for the heads up Reece,

That is certainly something we will discuss with our marketing department and developers in the future. I am not saying a new web site builder will be implemented overnight but we will certainly consider providing something better than Site Studio in the future. We have no illusions it is the best site builder ever

[vlasi47gr]

Yan,

If my memory is correct, there was some talk about replacing site studio with an in-house version about two years ago. Before the upgrade to the present version. Was that idea dropped?

I know that one RSP's sister sites has what appears to be a better site builder. Any chance that could be incorporated here?

[yav0r]

Hello,

The only alternative we have is RV Site builder which is incorporated in the cPanel reseller program which only comes with cPanel and it is absolutely impossible to incorporate with our control panel.

An in-house site builder was considered at some point but the project is not even in development so I can't really say its an option at the moment.

[vlasi47gr]

An in-house site builder was considered at some point but the project is not even in development so I can't really say its an option at the moment.

Good to know that my memory is not failing me.

[bertwhite1]

I find Site Studio much easier to use than RVSiteBuilder. I have tried RVSiteBuilder in the past to create a couple of websites. Out of frustration with RVSiteBuilder, I always scrapped the project for Joomla. I prefer to use Joomla or Wordpress to create websites. If I had to have a sitebuilder, I would choose Site Studio.

[Reece]

Hi yan, thank you very much for the reply.

It's good to know that this isn't been totally overlooked as I think it could potential be a great asset to RP!

Thanks,

Reece

[Guest]

In my opinion, Site Studio is an outdated builder in so many ways and I think it is not easy enough for the complete novice. Too confusing.

However, the main thing I really hate about it is that there are not enough templates and the templates that are available are very old looking. They look like they were made by a terrible designer back in the late 80's, early 90's using MS Word website templates.

There is no reason why novice web users and website builders can't have a wide choice of generic templates with more appealing, modern designs.



As for RV website builder, it has great looking templates. However the biggest problem with RV is that it has too many industry-specific templates.

IMHO, a decent website builder would not have any industry-specific templates at all but rather a plethora of generic templates. There is no need for industry-specific templates in a website builder, IMHO. Sure, some may look more tech than others, some more conservative than others, but all in all, the more generic templates, the more appealing it is to customers as only then do they truly have a wide variety of templates to choose from.

Sure, a builder can claim they have a thousand templates. But when you actually look, the only ones available to one client are the ones specific to their industry and the generic ones, which usually turns out to be a choice of less than 20 or maybe worse.

[Reece]

I agree it's very out dated, it's hardly web 1.0 never mind 2.0 ha ha.

I think customers deserve the best that we can offer, and I know RP can offer much better than Site Studio.

What do you think of BaseKit? Note that you can not download the software and must host it on there servers which I assume would be to much of a work around for integration for Hepsia. However I see no reason why with a bit of time spent (ok quite a bit of time spent, I am under no illusion's), the developers could make one just as good going by what they have been able to do with Hepsia front-end and back-end.

Might I add picking up from where toolsavvy has left off pointing out that better templates are needed for a Site Builder that I think it would be a good and also a possibly a bit of a lucrative idea to allow RP Users themselves the ability to upload their own templates on top of the default ones offered for two reasons:

1. It allows for further customisation, offerings and functionality between RP Users
2. It would also enable RP to access more of the Freelance Designer market giving them a potentially powerful integrated CMS system built into their clients CP which they then can easily use and provide to their own customers for editing of their newly designed sites (obviously the reseller would have to be able to assign custom templates to each of their clients) all managed of course from the resellers cp.

I think you'l agree that if done, this would not only open the market but allow RP to provide a service that is not currently offered by any other provider.

Of course as I said, I am under no illusions to the time this may take, but I think that whether my suggestion is taking up on or not, we need a web 2.0 solution to replace Site Studio.

[Guest]

possibly a bit of a lucrative idea to allow RP Users themselves the ability to upload their own templates on top of the default ones offered

I would have to disagree on this. A site builder that would allow one to use his own template would make for too robust a site builder for the average shared hosting customer who just needs a simple web present. They would not know how to design the template, let alone build it with the exact specs to be able to use it with the site builder.

And to say that it would be used by the RSP reseller to build it for them and then show them how to edit their pages, well, I don't see much use for that. If you, the designer/developer, want to build a website for a client who is not savvy and use a custom template, and then teach the client how to change the content when they want to, then all you need is a CMS script like Joomla, or whatever. If all the client is doing is changing/adding content then any CMS script out there is easy enough to teach. Probably just as easy as any site builder.

The only reason for a site builder IMHO, is for the non tech savvy folks to be able to put up a simple static web presence for themselves by themselves. And Site Studio, with it's junky, outdated templates, is no match for the inexpensive alternatives out there like WIX and Intuit websites and a plethora of others, which offer very modern looking templates.

[paragon123]

Well done! I still think SiteStudio doesn't need replacement.

[xiaomin]

I have tried RVSiteBuilder in the past to create a couple of websites.