GeoCities. Dreamweaver. FrontPage. Some may call these programs ‘niche’, or ‘outdated’– but in the early 90s, they were all the rage. With the first website ever going online on December 20, 1990, users were swept into a digital world beyond their wildest imagination. These blossoming applications were a means for anyone to make their mark on the World Wide Web, and with newfound accessibility came everything from small business sites to personal hobby blogs. 

Microsoft FrontPage was shut down in December 2006. GeoCities was officially closed on March 31, 2019. Millions of user-created websites disappeared, leaving a digital void. But this doesn’t mean it can’t be refilled. Regardless of what needs to be built, if it’s a portfolio or a business, a blog or a directory, there are numerous options available for website building and hosting in the modern era. 

Squarespace

Experience Necessary: Moderate

Squarespace is listed as being one of the most popular YouTube sponsors by the Influencer Marketing Hub, and with over five million unique sponsorships, it continues to be one of the most active website builders available today. The Squarespace informational page states that the site was founded in 2003 by Anthony Cassalena, who “wanted a better personal website for himself”, and was inspired by Drew Houston, the CEO of DropBox.

Highlights:

• Being highly popular, Squarespace is frequently updated, and well maintained.
• Squarespace’s element-based building means that no prior coding experience is necessary to build a website.
• Professionally designed templates provide a framework for jumping into the world of web design.

Notes:

• While not required, prior knowledge of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and even HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) can be beneficial when building with Squarespace. The platform’s interface leaves plenty of room for learning and growth
• Squarespace’s professional appearance comes with the drawback of several paywalled features. A basic membership costs $16 a month, while access to the full feature list with a “plus” membership goes for $99 a month, making Squarespace best suited for businesses, or monetized ventures. 

Wix

Experience Needed: Minimal

Wix comes in leading the charge, with nearly 300 million active users worldwide. Where Squarespace’s primary user-base is the United States, Wix has active partnerships with over 190 countries, and is one of the most popular website builders in both America and Brazil, according to the stats blog My Codeless Website. My Codeless Website also explains that over 12% of all Wix users have used the site to make at least one blog post, solidifying it as a great choice for all sorts of users and hobbyists.

Highlights:

• The drag-and-drop interface means that, like Squarespace, no prior coding experience is necessary.
• With multiple free plans, a variety of Wix’s features are accessible from the start. This makes Wix a great contender for those who want to try out website development for themselves.
• Wix is mobile-friendly, meaning that no optimization or extra coding is needed on the user end to make a website appear crisp on phones or tablets. 

Notes

• Much like Squarespace, Wix does have membership options. Their “light” membership is $17  a month, and offers just enough options for users to dip their toes in the water. Wix’s “business” membership is $39 a month, which includes a full year of free website hosting, and even a custom URL.
• One of the things that sets Wix apart from its competitors is the ability to add collaborators to any website that was created with at least a “light” membership. This can not only lighten the workload, but can serve as a team building tool.

Carrd

Experience Needed: Minimal 

While Carrd may not be as popular as its competitors with an estimated two million active users worldwide, it maintains a cult following amongst those who frequent other popular blogsites, such as Tumblr. Created in 2015 and publicly launched in 2016, Carrd was founded by a user anonymously known by his tag “ajlkn”. While not much is known about AJ, aside from Carrd’s “The Making Of” website saying that he “indents with tabs”, the level of detail in every one of Carrd’s interfaces makes it painfully clear that AJ’s nearly 30 years of web development experience have not gone to waste.

Highlights:

• Carrd’s block-based interface makes building easy and accessible, especially for users who are familiar with other block-based programming languages (for example, Scratch).
• Almost every feature is explained in detail through Carrd’s side menus, meaning that not only is programming experience not always a necessity, but even those who are entirely unfamiliar with the world wide web have a soft landing.
• With the exception of custom URLs, it is completely free to get a website running using Carrd, using their full feature library.

Notes:

• Registering a custom URL can cost anywhere from $10-$20 dollars a year, but is not necessary in order to have a functional site.
• One of Carrd’s few paywalled qualities is the fact that a free website may only have a limited number of  “elements”. These “elements” include things like text boxes and images, which a free site can only have 50 of. The cost to upgrade to unlimited elements per page is $9 a month, as listed on Carrd’s membership website. 

Rentry

Experience Needed: Moderate/High

Upon opening Rentry, there’s only one thing: a giant grey rectangle. While this may appear daunting, Rentry is a simple option for website building, because all it needs is input. Created on December 15, 2018, Rentry is not a true site building service, but rather something called a pastebin. As the name suggests, it provides users with a place to store large quantities of text or code, and assigns them a custom URL. This was popular in the 90s for individuals interested in early coding, archiving text, and even in activist communication. For these reasons, Rentry is especially handy to those who have some coding experience, or those who are interested in web history.

Highlights:

• Rentry’s primary coding language is called Markdown, which is easy to learn, but hard to master. IBM states that Markdown is a simpler, easier-to-read alternative to the combination of HTML and CSS.
• Rentry is completely free, and requires no registration, making it easy to jump right in.
• Many users have made “resource” pages with Rentry, providing helpful coding tips, customization options such as photos and frames, and even pre-made templates for sites.

Notes:

• While Rentry is entirely free, they do take the liberty of promoting ads on user sites. Rentry itself contains no malware, and while exercising caution regarding these advertisements, is completely safe to use.
• Rentry is markdown based, but can be modified to use a variety of coding languages, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is a popular choice for those hoping to hone their coding skills by creating unique websites.

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Squarespace, Wix, Carrd, Rentry. Each serves millions of users, and are always looking for more. Bloggers, hobbyists, business owners, and all internet enthusiasts rejoice. While the web has come a long way since the 90s, one thing has always been for certain: you can make your mark.