Choosing the right website builder is a crucial decision for any entrepreneur looking to establish an online presence. Strikingly and AboutMe are two of the most popular options in the world, but they have key differences in their features and ideal use cases.
In this Aboutme vs Strikingly comparison, we will evaluate how Strikingly and AboutMe stack up across criteria like market position, ease of use, design capabilities, functionality, performance, support, pricing, and reputation.
Understanding the strengths and limitations of Strikingly versus AboutMe will empower you to choose the platform that best fits your unique needs and goals. Read the rest of this in-depth, side-by-side analysis of these two website builders to help you make an informed choice when establishing your digital footprint.
1. Understanding the Basics
Strikingly was founded in 2012 by David Chen, Danyang Lin, and Tianquing Pu. It is headquartered in Shanghai, China, and has raised over $22 million in funding. Strikingly is one of the most popular website builders in Asia, with over 2 million users as of 2019. However, Strikingly has relatively low popularity in the US and Europe.
AboutMe was created in 2010 by Ryan Allis, Thomas Chavez, and Steven Hall. The company is based in San Francisco, California. AboutMe focuses on personal profile pages and has over 1 million users worldwide. However, AboutMe shut down some features in 2021 to become a more specialized profile page builder.
Strikingly has an official Facebook group with over 2,500 members where users can get support and feedback. AboutMe does not have an official Facebook group, but there are several public AboutMe profile review groups:
Both Strikingly and AboutMe have solid footing in the website builder market, but Strikingly appears more popular globally while AboutMe caters to a niche of online profiles. Users of both platforms can leverage Facebook communities for help.
2. Ease of Use
Strikingly
Strikingly has a modern, visually appealing interface. The Strikingly website dashboard uses a straightforward layout with large icons and clear labels, making it beginner-friendly. Users can easily navigate between pages, themes, settings, and other functions.
The editor utilizes a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) approach, allowing users to visually build pages by dragging and dropping elements. Sections, images, videos, and more can be added with simple clicks rather than manual coding. This intuitive process enables even novices to build professional-looking sites.
Strikingly has a gentle learning curve overall. The platform provides tips, tours, and an online knowledge base with articles and videos to guide users. New sites come preloaded with sample content to demonstrate possibilities and best practices. Strikingly also has a mobile app so site owners can manage their presence on the go.
However, some users report the backend customization settings can be complex. Adjusting SEO, analytics, workflows, and other advanced options may require learning technical skills. However, the core editor and content management are exceptionally user-friendly.
AboutMe
AboutMe uses a clean, concise, minimalist interface optimized for showcasing your personal website so you can make a great first impression. The single-page design makes it easy for users to build a page all about themselves, their online identity, or their brand. Simply select a template, add a profile photo and cover image taken previously, and start populating sections with content about you.
The editing process is very straightforward ‒ users can just click on any section of their page to open an editor to insert text, links, videos, and high-quality images as desired. AboutMe is a user friendly platform thatoffers guidance with tooltip overlays and prompts suggesting content to include. The simple approach allows anyone to make an engaging profile page in minutes, without the expertise needed.
However, AboutMe lacks the full site-building capabilities some users may want to explore your online identity. The sole focus is profile pages, so users cannot create content-rich websites with multiple pages, blogs, galleries, and advanced features. Users are also confined to existing sections on the templates rather than having freeform customization.
Overall, AboutMe is more limited yet slightly easier to use than Strikingly for the specific purpose of profile pages. But Strikingly offers a much more robust and flexible website builder for users wanting fuller digital presence capabilities.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly wins for superior ease of use and user experience. Its editor empowers anyone to create multi-page websites via an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Strikingly also provides ample guidance to onboard users at every skill level.
3. Design and Customization
Strikingly
Strikingly provides over 100 designer-made and mobile friendly templates spanning categories like business, portfolio, event, blog, and online store. The modern, mobile-optimized templates only take a few clicks to apply.
You can add links, contact information, and other detailed information to customize templates to match your brand. The drag-and-drop editor allows tweaking layouts, changing colors and fonts, adding shape dividers, and more. CSS and HTML code editing is also available for advanced customization.
Strikingly has excellent mobile responsiveness. The mobile editor lets users optimize sites for any device. Sites load quickly on mobile and automatically adapt with excellent formatting.
However, some templates seem geared more toward certain industries. Users may need to test multiple options to find a template that suits their niche. Overall, Strikingly delivers styles and personalization capabilities ideal for small businesses.
AboutMe
AboutMe offers around 10 clean, minimalist templates focused specifically on personal branding with engaging visuals. The templates come in various color schemes but have a largely uniform look and structure.
Customization is very limited. Users can only change colors and fonts from a short selection of predefined options. The fixed layouts and sections cannot be edited, added to, or rearranged.
On the plus side, AboutMe profiles display well on mobile, allowing you to showcase your skills easily. The web design features alternating side-scrolling designs tailored to mobile screens to make sure your site looks good on all devices. However, the lack of template choice and personalization can make it difficult for users to stand out.
In summary, AboutMe offers a streamlined yet restrictive approach to design for profile pages. Strikingly empowers greater levels of branding and customization for small business websites.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly is the clear winner for superior design flexibility and customization. Its ample templates and drag-and-drop editing enable business owners to craft an optimized site matching their niche, style and needs down to pixel-level changes. The platform even has integrations for social media profiles and you can get started building your audience right away.
4. Features and Functionality
Blogging Tools
Strikingly
Strikingly allows users to create blog sites or add blogs to any website. The platform provides blog templates optimized for SEO and engagement.
Within the blog editor, users can create posts with rich formatting like headings, lists, quotes, images, videos, and more. Drag-and-drop widgets add extra elements such as contact forms, buttons, maps, and social sharing icons. Posts can be scheduled and there is an integrated spell checker.
Strikingly also enables blog post tags and categories to organize content. Recent posts, archives, author bios, and newsletter signups can be showcased in responsive sidebars.
Users get metrics like pageviews and average time on the page to gauge engagement. New blog comments can be emailed to the site owner. Sensitive words can also be filtered from comments.
Overall, Strikingly covers blog essentials for small businesses. However, advanced features like multi-author publishing, podcast integration, user-generated content, and custom post types are lacking.
AboutMe
AboutMe does not offer full blogging capabilities. Users can only add a short “Journal” section to their profile page.
The Journal section allows brief paragraph-length updates, limited to plain text. Posts appear in reverse chronological order but without templating options beyond a title and date stamp. Images, videos, and comments cannot be added.
Because of the simple implementation, AboutMe’s Journal functions more like a microblog or activity feed rather than a content hub. Users cannot create search-friendly, external-facing blog content to drive traffic and engagement.
In summary, AboutMe lacks robust blogging tools and focuses solely on lightweight profile updates. Strikingly provides far more features and flexibility for producing optimized blog content that attracts visitors.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly easily wins for blogging, with capabilities optimized for SEO, engagement, customization, and analytics. In contrast, AboutMe has extremely basic blogging functionality suitable only for minor profile updates rather than content creation.
AboutMe vs Strikingly – E-commerce Capabilities
Strikingly
Strikingly offers integrated online store capabilities to sell physical, digital, and service-based products. Users can add a store with product listings, cart, and checkout to any site.
The store editor simplifies adding products via a form. Fields include price, variants, shipping, inventory tracking, discounts, and SEO metadata. Payments are processed through Stripe with support for 40+ currencies and payment methods.
Store owners can create product categories, tag items, showcase best sellers, and add policies. Email notifications alert when orders come in. Abandoned cart recovery can help reduce missed sales.
However, Strikingly lacks some advanced selling features like gift cards, subscriptions, drop shipping, and marketplace functionality. But overall, it provides solid core e-commerce tools for small businesses.
AboutMe
AboutMe does not offer any native tools for accepting payments or selling products through sites. Users cannot add store sections or product pages.
The only sales functionality is adding external links within the profile content. This allows promoting affiliate offers, online courses, or other digital products hosted off the AboutMe site.
But for users needing full-featured on-site stores with carts, checkout, and order management, AboutMe lacks the required e-commerce capabilities. The platform exclusively focuses on personal profile pages rather than business websites.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly is the clear winner for e-commerce functionality. Its native stores, flexible product options, promotional tools, and Streamline integration enable businesses to sell physical and digital goods from their sites. In contrast, AboutMe sites are limited to affiliate links or off-site sales channels only.
SEO Tools
Strikingly
Strikingly automatically optimizes sites for search with configurable search engine optimization settings. Page titles, meta descriptions, alt text, and other metadata can be added to maximize discoverability.
The platform generates sitemaps and robots.txt files for indexing. URLs can be customized for keyword targeting. Integrations with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools allow monitoring performance.
Strikingly also provides SEO guidance content and tools to analyze pages. The built-in SEO checker identifies improvements to boost rankings.
However, Strikingly lacks more advanced capabilities like redirect management, structured data markup, and API access that developers may want. But it covers the core SEO best practices to help small businesses get found.
AboutMe
AboutMe has basic on-page SEO functionality. Users can customize page titles and add meta descriptions. Profile URLs are optimized for sharing and can include usernames or brands.
But other key optimizations are missing. There is no image alt text, internal linking, sitemaps, or analytics integrations. The stripped-down profiles lack opportunities for keyword optimization compared to full websites.
The platform also provides minimal SEO guidance or optimization tools for users. AboutMe focuses on profiles rather than in-depth SEO.
In summary, Strikingly offers far stronger default SEO capabilities and customization options to enhance search visibility. AboutMe’s profile pages have optimization limitations.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly wins for its robust set of SEO tools to maximize search engine visibility. AboutMe profiles lack advanced optimizations, analytics, guidance, and customization in comparison. Strikingly helps users build discoverable sites optimized for conversions.
Integrations
Strikingly
Strikingly supports integrations with other apps and services to extend functionality:
- Email marketing: Connect Strikingly sites to Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, or Sendinblue to collect each visitor’s email address, build email lists with potential clients, and send newsletters.
- Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other networks can be linked to auto-publish new content.
- Media: YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, and Vine videos and audio can be embedded.
- E-commerce: As mentioned, Strikingly has built-in e-commerce capabilities. It can also connect to Shopify, Amazon, and Etsy stores.
- Analytics: Google Analytics and Mixpanel integrate for detailed site analytics and tracking.
- Customer service: Live chat widgets from Intercom, Drift, or Tidio can be added.
- Appointments: Calendly integration enables scheduling appointments from sites.
Overall, Strikingly covers integration essentials for social, media, analytics, and communications. However, developers may want API access and Zapier integration for advanced connections.
AboutMe
AboutMe allows linking and embedding select third-party services:
- Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and SoundCloud integrations auto-publish profile updates.
- Media: YouTube, Vimeo, and Vine video embedding are supported.
- Analytics: No analytics platforms can be connected.
- Ecommerce: External affiliate links can be added but no ecommerce integrations.
- Communication: No email marketing, chat, or appointment integrations.
The social media and multimedia options help enrich profiles. However, AboutMe lacks integration support for critical functions like email marketing, analytics, CRM, or databases.
In summary, Strikingly has far more integrations for creating capable business sites. AboutMe focuses just on social media for personal branding.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly is the winner, with an extensive set of integrations, well-suited for business needs like email marketing, e-commerce, analytics, and customer engagement. AboutMe has very limited options focused exclusively on social media embedding.
Analytics and Reporting
Strikingly
Strikingly provides built-in analytics to help users track traffic and engagement. The dashboard displays reports on on-site visits, visitor locations, most popular pages and posts, traffic sources, and more.
Users can view analytics for defined date ranges and export reports. Metrics help inform content strategies and optimization efforts. Email digests can also be enabled to receive analytics snapshots.
Additionally, Strikingly supports integrating Google Analytics for expanded data. This adds info on visitor actions, demographics, behavior flows, conversions, and other advanced analytics. Strikingly insights cover the basics, while Google Analytics integration delivers enterprise-level site analytics.
Strikingly also enables Facebook pixel integration for ad analytics and remarketing. Overall, Strikingly delivers ample analytics capabilities for small business needs.
AboutMe
AboutMe has no built-in analytics or metric tracking of any kind. Users cannot access data on visits, engagement, or profile performance.
The platform also does not support integrating external analytics such as Google Analytics or other services. The only option is viewing public Likes and follower counts on connected social media accounts.
For users wanting to track reach, engagement, and conversions driven by their profile, AboutMe lacks the required analytics capabilities. The sole focus is creating a profile rather than measuring its impact.
In summary, Strikingly provides robust analytics and custom reporting essential for data-driven content strategies. AboutMe lacks any analytics functionality.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly easily wins for providing well-rounded analytics via its own dashboard plus support for advanced Google Analytics integration. AboutMe lacks any analytics capabilities, giving users no data or insights on their profiles’ performance.
5. Website Performance
Website Speed and Load Times
Strikingly
Strikingly uses optimized code and global CDN caching to deliver fast page load speeds. Minimal JavaScript and efficient image compression reduce overhead. Strikingly sites score well in site speed tests like Pingdom and Google PageSpeed.
Pages load swiftly across device types with Strikingly’s mobile optimization. The platform aims for site speeds under 3 seconds on mobile. Speed can suffer however for larger sites, blogs, or online stores with extensive pages and media.
Users can also enable caching and lazy loading in settings to improve performance. However, advanced speed optimization features like HTTP/2, code minification, and database caching are lacking.
Overall, Strikingly produces responsive sites with fast baseline speeds. However, users may need developer help optimizing very large or complex sites.
AboutMe
AboutMe page load times are generally quick given the simplistic single-page profiles. Minimal text and assets mean most pages load in under 2 seconds.
However, actual speeds depend on the template chosen. More graphically intensive themes can lag, especially on mobile. Load times degrade further when embedding heavy media like YouTube videos.
Because profiles are so barebones, there are limited optimization options for improving speed. AboutMe sites rely on the platform’s base CDN delivery and code.
In summary, AboutMe offers acceptable speeds for basic profiles but lacks tools to customize and enhance performance. Speed testing across templates is recommended when choosing one.
Winner: Tie
Strikingly and AboutMe deliver similar fast baseline speeds well-suited for their use cases. Strikingly offers more optimization flexibility for larger, complex sites. But for straightforward pages, both platforms provide responsive experiences with minimal load lag.
Website Reliability and Uptime
Strikingly
Strikingly pledges 99.9% uptime for websites created on its platform. The company uses leading cloud infrastructure and global CDN services for reliable delivery.
Historic uptime stats show Strikingly meets its 99.9% goal, with most outages under 10 minutes. Any downtime is typically related to maintenance or upgrades.
Strikingly sends notifications about scheduled maintenance that may disrupt service. Support is quick to post status updates during any unplanned issues.
However, Strikingly does not provide an SLA or uptime guarantee like some enterprise-level hosts. However, for most small businesses, the platform offers sufficient reliability.
AboutMe
AboutMe does not publish any specified uptime guarantee or SLA. Anecdotal reviews indicate occasional intermittent downtime and errors.
Prolonged total outages appear rare, but some users report frustrating site loading failures or editorial glitches. AboutMe status communication during issues is relatively limited.
As a smaller provider focused just on profiles rather than mission-critical sites, AboutMe likely prioritizes keeping hosting costs low over maximizing uptime. The platform lets you add call to action buttons to your own custom website. Overall reliability meets general standards but lags behind dedicated web hosts.
For individuals wanting to showcase their brand via AboutMe, minor downtime may be acceptable. But businesses would likely want more assurances.
In summary, Strikingly demonstrates stronger uptime track records and transparency for businesses relying on their sites. AboutMe serves profile users fine but has more variable reliability.
Winner: Strikingly
With its 99.9% uptime goal met, transparent communication, and use of enterprise-level infrastructure, Strikingly is the winner for reliability. AboutMe’s lack of guarantees and history of intermittent issues make it less ideal for businesses needing always-available websites.
6. Customer Support and Community
Strikingly
Strikingly provides 24/7 customer support via live chat, email, and support tickets. Average response times are under 30 minutes for priority issues. There is also an extensive self-help knowledge base with FAQs, articles, and tutorials.
For community support, Strikingly users can join the official Strikingly Users Facebook Group where users can get feedback, tips, and help from peers.
Strikingly also has an active YouTube channel with webinars and video tutorials. The company blog and @Strikingly social media accounts share updates and guidance.
While support coverage is ample, free users have noted getting quicker and more thorough responses than paid plans. But overall, Strikingly delivers solid customer service through multiple channels.
AboutMe
AboutMe offers email-based customer support but lacks live chat or phone options. Response times vary from a few hours to over a day. Self-help resources are relatively limited beyond basic FAQs.
In summary, while AboutMe provides basic customer service, its community resources and self-help content are limited compared to Strikingly.
Winner: Strikingly
With its robust knowledge base, 24/7 live chat, active user community programs, and regular educational content, Strikingly offers superior customer support. AboutMe trails behind in self-help resources, response times, and peer community options.
7. Pricing
Strikingly
Strikingly has free and paid plans. The basic free option is ad-supported but usable. Paid plans start at $8/month for removing Strikingly branding.
Higher tiers provide benefits like priority support, faster performance, and abandon cart recovery. But core features remain accessible at low cost.
Strikingly also offers discounted annual billing rather than monthly payments. Add-ons like extra storage, a custom domain name, or an SSL certificate cost extra per year.
Overall, Strikingly delivers strong value across plans with robust features even on the free tier. Competitors offer similar website builder pricing.
AboutMe
AboutMe has two plans for personal profile sites:
- Free: $0/month: The free account comes with About.me branding on every web page. You can link to your website, portfolio, or blog.
- Pro: $6.58/month (billed annually) adds a custom domain name, video embeds, pro photos, and graphics.
This plan has unlimited pages and additional customization features come unlocked based on the number of profile visitors.
Compared to full website builders, AboutMe’s pricing is relatively affordable. But the plans unlock fairly minimal capabilities over the free version beyond removing branding and adding a domain.
In summary, Strikingly provides scalable solutions more suited for business use cases and growth. AboutMe’s simple profile plans offer limited ROI.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly wins for providing robust features and capabilities tailored to business needs across a range of affordable plans. AboutMe is more limited to personal use cases and offers less incentive to upgrade.
8. Reviews and Reputation
Strikingly
Strikingly earns positive reviews for its user-friendly website builder capabilities. Users discuss and praise the modern templates, intuitive drag-and-drop editor, built-in SEO tools, and helpful customer support and answers.
The top pros highlighted include:
- Easy to use even for beginners
- Quality templates and customization options
- Responsive design and fast performance
- Useful blogging and e-commerce features
- Outstanding customer service
Complaints focus on the limitations of free plans and the lack of advanced developer controls. Overall, Strikingly garners excellent feedback for enabling anyone to create professional websites quickly.
AboutMe
AboutMe earns mixed reviews for its singular focus on personal profile pages over full websites. Users praise the quick and easy profile setup but frequently cite missing key features.
For example, common pros mentioned include:
- Very simple editor to build a profile
- Social media integrations
- Affordable pricing
Cons tend to highlight:
- Very limited compared to full website builders
- Lack of customization and add-ons
- Sparse analytics and SEO optimization
With an average rating of 4.0/5 on Capterra, AboutMe satisfies users wanting an online resume or portfolio. But businesses needing fuller websites express disappointment in its restricted scope.
Winner: Strikingly
With higher praise for its wider range of capabilities, Strikingly edges out AboutMe in reviews and reputation. AboutMe meets a narrower need for personal sites but falls short of robust business use cases.
9. FAQ’s
Strikingly FAQs
- What types of sites can I build with Strikingly? Strikingly is optimized for small business websites including online stores, portfolios, blogs, event sites, and more.
- Does Strikingly have mobile optimization? Yes, Strikingly sites are fully responsive and optimized for mobile devices. The platform uses a mobile-first design.
- Can I use my own domain name? The Business and Enterprise plans include a free custom domain. You can also purchase a domain add-on for other plans.
- Is Strikingly easy to use? Yes, Strikingly uses an intuitive drag-and-drop editor requiring no coding knowledge to create sites.
- How much does Strikingly cost? Plans start free and range up to $24/month for advanced features. Discounted annual billing is available.
AboutMe FAQs
- What types of sites can I build with AboutMe? AboutMe focuses exclusively on single-page personal profile websites rather than full-content sites.
- Does AboutMe have mobile optimization? Yes, AboutMe profiles use responsive design to adapt across mobile devices.
- Can I use my own domain name? A custom domain is included only on the Premium paid plan.
- Is AboutMe easy to use?
Yes, AboutMe has a very simple editor to create a profile in minutes. But advanced options are lacking. - How much does AboutMe cost? Plans start free and are $4-$8/month to remove branding and enable a custom domain.
Final Thoughts
Choose Strikingly if…
Strikingly is the best choice for anyone wanting to create a complete business website. Using Strikingly is a great way to build professional multi-page sites with features like blogs, stores, bookings, and membership areas. It has powerful website building and tools and its easy drag-and-drop editor is perfect for entrepreneurs and small teams wanting to establish their online presence quickly without coding. Strikingly is optimized to help small businesses stand out online and reach more customers.
I also recommend reading my Strikingly review to help you fully understand the capabilities of this website builder.
Alternatively, you can also check out my other comparisons, including:
Choose AboutMe if…
AboutMe is ideal for building a personal brand. It’s ideal for online resumes that leave a lasting impression on both search engines and visitors. If you just need a simple landing page to showcase your background, skills, and social media feeds, AboutMe provides an easy way to create an elegant profile. The minimalist templates keep the focus on you rather than distracting site features. AboutMe is best for individuals, not businesses needing advanced functionality.
Choosing the right platform is critical for ensuring you get the features and capabilities your website needs both now and in the future. Consider your goals, budget, and technical abilities. And feel free to ask any questions in the comments if you want help determining which builder fits your specific situation best!