Choosing the right website builder is a crucial decision for any business owner launching an online presence. Strikingly and PageCloud are two popular options, but they have key differences that entrepreneurs must understand.
This Strikingly vs Pagecloud comparison examines the market position of each platform, if it’s easy to use, its design capabilities, features, performance, support, pricing, reviews, and reputations of Strikingly and PageCloud.
We will evaluate the platforms across several criteria to help you determine which solution best fits your business needs and website goals.
1. Understanding the Basics
Strikingly was founded in 2012 by David Chen, Dafeng Guo, and Tianhang Gao. It has quickly grown in popularity, with over 2 million users as of 2019. Strikingly holds a strong position as one of the top website builders on the market.
PageCloud launched in 2013 and was founded by Craig Fitzpatrick. While smaller than Strikingly, PageCloud has established itself as a competitive website builder used by over 300,000 sites.
Those looking for community support for Strikingly can join the Strikingly Users Facebook groupwith over 52K members. For PageCloud, users can connect in the PageCloud Community Facebook group with over 115K members.
2. Ease of Use
Strikingly
Strikingly prioritizes usability and has a very intuitive drag-and-drop editor. The interface uses a block-based design that makes it easy to add and arrange sections. Strikingly offers numerous pre-designed templates that can be further customized. This allows even total beginners to quickly create a professional-looking site.
The editor has a responsive design that adapts as you build your site. This helps you visualize how your pages will look on desktop and mobile. Inline editing makes it simple to update text, fonts, colors, and images on the page. Strikingly also provides helpful prompts guiding users through the site-building process.
Overall, most users find Strikingly to have a smooth and frustration-free user experience. The learning curve is gentle, especially for those with no web design experience. Strikingly offers an extensive knowledge base with articles, videos, and guides to assist users of all skill levels.
PageCloud
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PageCloud uses an intuitive drag-and-drop builder with a clean interface. It provides numerous templates suited for different industries like retail, restaurants, agencies, and more. Users can easily customize these templates by tweaking colors, fonts, and layouts.
Unlike Strikingly, PageCloud’s editor is not responsive. You must preview the mobile and desktop versions separately. The editing experience is also more complex, involving more steps compared to Strikingly. PageCloud does offer an inline style editor, but overall the interface feels more rigid.
The learning curve with PageCloud is steeper, especially for beginners. While PageCloud offers documentation, the user experience is not as smooth. Technical users may appreciate the expanded options, but novices could find it overwhelming. Patience is required to master PageCloud’s builder.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly wins for its easier, more intuitive editor optimized for beginners. Its responsive web design, templated starting points, and helpful prompts guide users seamlessly through building a professional site quickly compared to other website builders. Strikingly’s superior usability makes it the better choice for users of all skill levels.
3. Design and Customization
Strikingly
Strikingly provides users with over 100 free mobile-optimized templates to choose from. You can build sites with single pages or multiple pages. The templates are professionally designed and span industries like businesses, portfolios, events, blogs, online stores, and more. Users can customize colors, fonts, layouts, and images within these templates.
Advanced users have access to more in-depth customization options. This includes adding custom CSS and HTML code, adapting mobile and tablet views, changing background patterns, and fine-tuning individual element styling. Strikingly also allows users to develop custom sections and elements if desired.
Overall, Strikingly provides ample design flexibility to adapt the templates for most users’ needs. The mobile-friendly templates and responsive site design ensure your site looks great on all devices.
PageCloud
PageCloud offers over 500 templates covering diverse niches and styles. Each template can be previewed on mobile and desktop. Users can freely modify template colors, fonts, and layouts to match their brand.
Experienced users will appreciate PageCloud’s advanced design features. The platform allows extensive CSS editing and supports uploading custom code. Users can fine-tune paddings, margins, animations, overlays, and other stylistic elements. PageCloud also enables building custom sections from scratch for maximum control.
On the downside, PageCloud’s template previews only show desktop versions during editing. You must toggle to the mobile view to see those changes. PageCloud also lacks some of Strikingly’s automatic mobile optimization features.
Winner: Tie
Strikingly and PageCloud offer ample templates and customization capabilities to satisfy most users. Strikingly’s mobile-first approach gives it an edge for responsiveness. But PageCloud provides greater control for experienced designers. For most users, both platforms can deliver professional, customized site designs making this category a tie.
4. Features and Functionality
Blogging Tools
Strikingly
Strikingly provides a built-in blogging engine that makes it easy to publish content. Users can create blog pages and posts through the editor’s intuitive interface. Blog pages can be linked together into logical categories.
Creating posts is simple with options to add titles, feature images, tags, publishing dates, and author details. Strikingly supports rich text editing of posts directly in the visual editor. You can format text, add links, embed media, and more.
Moderation tools allow drafting posts privately before publishing live. Strikingly also enables comment moderation so you can engage readers while limiting spam. Users can also add lead capture and email subscription forms to blog pages to build their audience.
Overall, Strikingly covers the core blogging needs of most users. The integrated blogging engine means you don’t need third-party tools or code additions. However, advanced bloggers may want more formatting options or prefer WordPress.
PageCloud
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PageCloud lacks a built-in blogging engine but offers two workarounds. First, users can install open source software like WordPress to add robust blogging functionality. This requires technical expertise.
The simpler approach is using PageCloud’s page and post features to mimic a blog. You can create blog-like pages with publishing dates and comments. However, this lacks convenient features like blog categories, tagging, post previews, etc.
For basic blogging needs, PageCloud’s make-shift approach works. However, the lack of a truly integrated blogging engine makes publishing and managing content far more difficult. For advanced blogging features, most PageCloud users must integrate third-party software.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly wins for offering an integrated blogging engine optimized for the platform. This allows users to easily create blogs and publish content without technical hurdles. PageCloud lacks built-in blogging tools and forces users to seek complex workarounds. For straightforward blogs, Strikingly is the superior choice.
E-commerce Capabilities
Strikingly
Strikingly provides integrated e-commerce functionality to create online stores. Users can showcase products with photos, descriptions, variants, and pricing. The editor makes it easy to design product pages and catalogs.
Strikingly supports standard store features like carts, shipping rates, coupons, and taxes. It also includes tools to manage inventory, fulfillment, and orders. For payments, Strikingly offers integration with PayPal and Stripe.
While Strikingly covers the basics, advanced stores may want more complex capabilities. You are limited to Strikingly’s default design styles for product pages which lack some customization. Abandoned cart recovery and advanced reporting are also missing.
For small to medium-sized stores, Strikingly provides ample selling tools. However, larger merchants may need an e-commerce-focused platform like Shopify or custom development.
PageCloud
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PageCloud lacks built-in e-commerce features but offers two optional integrations. Users can install open-source WooCommerce to create online stores. This requires managing products, orders, and payments across WordPress and PageCloud.
The simpler option is using PageCloud with Snipcart for basic sales capabilities. This allows you to sell a few products via buy buttons. However, Snipcart lacks key store features found in Strikingly like carts, shipping, and taxes.
Overall, creating anything beyond a basic online store with PageCloud requires significant technical work. Strikingly’s integrated store builder is far more appropriate for typical e-commerce sites. Only advanced PageCloud users should attempt stores.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly easily wins for e-commerce capabilities due to its user-friendly, built-in online store builder. This enables anyone to create a customized store and start selling without headaches. PageCloud lacks native commerce tools, forcing complex workarounds that are only suitable for advanced users.
SEO Tools
Strikingly
Strikingly automatically optimizes sites for search engines. All templates are mobile-friendly and use a responsive design. Pages include SEO titles, descriptions, alt text, and tags.
The editor lets you customize URLs for search engine readiness. Built-in image optimization compresses files for faster loading. Strikingly also provides integrated analytics to assess traffic sources and optimization opportunities.
For on-page content, Strikingly supports SEO-friendly text formats like H tags. The blogging engine makes it easy to publish keyword-optimized blog content. Advanced users can also add metadata and schema markup through code injection.
One downside is the lack of automatic sitemaps. However, the Strikingly API enables creating sitemaps manually or through plugins. Overall, Strikingly covers the essential technical and content-related SEO needs of most users.
PageCloud
PageCloud enables editing SEO titles, descriptions, alt text, and other metadata for optimization. Templates utilize responsive design and pass Google Mobile-Friendly tests.
However, PageCloud lacks on-page content features like heading tags or schema markup support. The platform is also missing automatic sitemaps. PageCloud only provides basic visitor analytics rather than full SEO-focused reporting.
With PageCloud, the burden falls more on the user to manually optimize pages for search and tracking performance. You also need to integrate third-party tools for sitemaps, keyword research, and link analysis. This makes solid SEO more difficult, especially for beginners.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly wins for providing a wider range of integrated SEO capabilities tailored for the platform. Hands-off optimization features plus user-friendly content tools empower beginners and experts alike to optimize their sites for search engines. PageCloud’s lack of robust SEO functionality makes it less ideal for users focused on SEO.
Integrations
Strikingly
Strikingly offers native integration with useful third-party tools. For payments, Strikingly supports direct Stripe and PayPal integration. For email and CRM, it connects with MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor.
Strikingly also integrates directly with Slack, Disqus, and Discord for communication. Built-in analytics integrate with Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel. Social media is covered through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest plugins.
For e-commerce, Strikingly enables integration with shipping apps like Shippo and inventory apps such as StitchLabs. Zapier integration further extends capabilities by connecting with thousands of apps.
The main drawback is Strikingly does not allow embedding external apps or custom code. But its curated, managed integrations cover essential needs for most users.
PageCloud
PageCloud offers fewer built-in integrations than Strikingly but makes up for it with custom code support. Developers can embed external apps like Calendly, Typeform, and Intercom that are not natively supported.
For commerce, PageCloud builds integration with Snipcart and WooCommerce. Social media is covered by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest plugins. MailChimp, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, and SendGrid are options for email marketing.
PageCloud’s integration with Zapier also enables connecting with over 3,000 apps. Overall, experienced users get more flexibility from PageCloud’s code embedding and Zapier support. But novices may struggle without Strikingly’s curated integrations.
Winner: Tie
For integrations, Strikingly and PageCloud both have strengths making this a tie. Strikingly simplifies integration with its managed ecosystem of popular apps. But PageCloud provides developers more flexibility to deeply integrate external tools through custom code. The ideal option depends on the user’s technical skills and needs.
Analytics and Reporting
Strikingly
Strikingly provides integrated analytics powered by Google Analytics. Users get insights into visits, top pages, referrals, conversions, location, technology used, and more. Charts and graphs visualize trends over customizable date ranges.
Segmentation tools let you drill into metrics by traffic source, geography, technology, etc. Strikingly also simplifies the setup of conversion and e-commerce tracking. Facebook Pixel integration is built-in for ad analytics.
For most users, Strikingly’s analytics offer sufficient performance data to optimize content and advertising. However, experts may want expanded tracking events, custom funnels, or non-Google analytics options that require external tools.
PageCloud
PageCloud has basic built-in analytics covering visits, top pages, referrers, and technology used. This gives a surface-level view of overall traffic. However, customization and segmentation capabilities are limited compared to Strikingly.
Integrating Google Analytics or other advanced platforms requires custom code implementation in PageCloud. E-commerce tracking, goal funnels, cohort analysis, and other advanced reporting features also need third-party tools.
Therefore, PageCloud analytics only suits basic needs. Businesses desiring deeper insights will quickly find PageCloud’s offerings insufficient and need to seek outside analytics platforms.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly wins for providing robust integrated analytics optimized for both novice and advanced users. The segmentation tools, goal tracking, and visualizations provide actionable insights for data-driven optimization. PageCloud trails significantly, forcing users to patch together external analytics solutions.
5. Website Performance
Website Speed and Load Times
Strikingly
Strikingly sites load quickly thanks to built-in performance optimization. Images are automatically compressed to reduce file sizes. Caching and content delivery networks speed up asset loading. Strikingly’s servers and infrastructure are designed to serve sites rapidly.
Independent testing shows average Strikingly site load times under 2 seconds. Strikingly also earns good scores on Google PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse audits. Load times remain consistently fast for sites under high traffic volumes.
For most basic sites, Strikingly’s default speed optimizations are sufficient. Performance degrades mainly for large sites with hundreds of pages and excessive images. Overall, Strikingly delivers excellent load speed right out of the box.
PageCloud
PageCloud lacks Strikingly’s automated performance features. Images are not optimized, caching requires setup, and sites rely on your own hosting infrastructure. Users must manually implement best practices like compression, minification, and content delivery networks.
Average PageCloud load times tend to land between 3-5 seconds for simple sites according to third-party tests. Scores on web performance benchmarks are also lower compared to Strikingly. Load times can drag even more for complex sites.
Expert PageCloud users can optimize code and infrastructure for better performance. However, most users will struggle to make PageCloud sites fast without dedicated work. Speed optimizations are not a strength of the platform.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly delivers markedly faster load times out of the box through automatic optimizations. PageCloud puts the burden on users to manually tune performance one piece at a time. Strikingly’s speed advantage provides a better visitor experience that benefits all users.
Website Reliability and Uptime
Strikingly
Strikingly guarantees 99.9% uptime for sites built on its platform. This high reliability comes from its global cloud infrastructure and network of data centers. Resources can be dynamically shifted to maintain responsiveness under changing traffic loads.
Independent monitoring shows Strikingly averages under 30 minutes of total downtime per month. Any significant outages are typically remediated within an hour. Status pages keep users updated during incidents.
For most businesses, Strikingly’s uptime is exceptional and exceeds the reliability of a typical self-hosted site. Only mission-critical sites with special high-availability needs would require dedicated redundancy infrastructure beyond Strikingly’s platform.
PageCloud
PageCloud leaves uptime and redundancy responsibilities fully to the user. Sites are hosted on your own infrastructure, whether a basic shared host or a robust cloud network.
Most PageCloud users opt for low-cost shared hosting with higher downtime risks. These basic plans often deliver only 99% uptime with a few hours of monthly outages. Lack of failover and backup also increases the likelihood of prolonged downtime.
Achieving Strikingly-level reliability on PageCloud requires a well-architected IT infrastructure. This added hosting complexity and cost means most PageCloud sites suffer lower uptime than Strikingly.
Winner: Strikingly
With built-in redundancy and failover capabilities, Strikingly is the clear winner for reliability. Users don’t have to orchestrate complex hosting configurations to achieve excellent uptime. In contrast, basic PageCloud sites are prone to typical shared hosting downtime issues. For worry-free reliability, Strikingly is the better choice.
6. Customer Support and Community
Strikingly
Strikingly provides 24/7 customer support via live chat, email, and support tickets. Average response times are under 5 minutes for chat and a few hours for tickets. Knowledgeable English-speaking representatives can assist with technical issues or questions on using Strikingly.
The platform also offers an extensive library of written guides, tutorial videos, and webinars accessible 24/7 for self-help. Strikingly’s active user community forum and Facebook group further help troubleshoot issues.
Overall, Strikingly’s stellar customer support infrastructure enables users to quickly get assistance when needed. Between self-help content and prompt human reps, most issues are easily resolved.
PageCloud
PageCloud provides business hour email and ticket support with fairly slow response times of 1-2 days on average. They lack live chat for rapid answers. Telephone support is only available on higher-priced plans.
Self-help resources are weaker compared to Strikingly. PageCloud’s knowledge base offers limited articles and tutorials. Users often need to seek help from PageCloud’s small Facebook user group for community-based troubleshooting.
In summary, PageCloud’s minimal client support resources make it difficult to get timely assistance. Be prepared to depend on your own troubleshooting or delayed ticket responses for issues.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly wins for providing exceptional 24/7 customer support through multiple channels. The combination of responsive chat, extensive self-help content, and active user forums enables quick resolution for any problems with the platform or your site. PageCloud trails severely in support availability, channels, and responsiveness.
7. Pricing
Strikingly
Strikingly offers a free version covering core website-building capabilities. This is perfect if you want to create a website with up to 5 pages, 500MB bandwidth, and 100MB storage. Strikingly’s paid plans start at $8 per month for more advanced features.
The Pro plan at $16 per month suits most small business sites. It includes unlimited pages, unlimited bandwidth and storage, basic e-commerce, priority support, and other capabilities. High-traffic sites can utilize the $49/month VIP plan if they need priority live chat support, dedicated IPs, and additional performance.
Overall, Strikingly delivers extensive value at affordable prices for different needs. The free tier enables no-risk trials while paid plans are cost-effective for professional sites.
PageCloud
PageCloud has paid plans starting at $20 per month. This Basic plan allows 100 page views per month and 50MB of storage. For more robust small business sites, the $36 per month Professional plan provides 5,000 page views, 500MB storage, and higher support priority.
However, PageCloud charges add-on fees for features that are free on Strikingly. Extra page views, bandwidth, storage, SSL certificates, and dedicated IPs all incur additional costs. PageCloud pricing can quickly balloon for complex sites.
In summary, PageCloud’s pricing tiers force even basic sites into paid plans and nickel-and-dime sites needing advanced capabilities. The costs add up rapidly.
Winner: Strikingly
Strikingly easily wins the site builders pricing contest as it offers free and paid plans packed with value. Cost-conscious users can build basic sites at no cost to test the platform to discover all the pros and cons before committing to a paid plan. Growing businesses appreciate Strikingly’s features-packed mid-tier pricing. PageCloud’s rigid pricing provides less flexibility and value in comparison.
8. Reviews and Reputation
Strikingly
Strikingly earns positive reviews for its easy site builder and quality templates. Users praise the intuitive drag-and-drop editor that makes creating professional sites simple even for beginners. Ongoing site management and blogging are also straightforward.
Top consumer review sites give Strikingly high ratings. The main complaints involve limitations for expert users.
Overall, Strikingly’s reputation is strong for empowering anyone to make attractive sites quickly. It satisfies most individual and business needs.
PageCloud
PageCloud receives mixed reviews. Users highlight the platform’s design flexibility and customization for developers. But many complain about its complex interface and steep learning curve, especially for novices.
Reviews on SiteBuilderReport and BuildFire criticize tricky editing, lack of support, sluggish speed, and poor mobile optimization.
In summary, PageCloud satisfies advanced users but falls short for beginners. Its reputation leans more negative overall.
Winner: Strikingly
With overwhelmingly positive feedback on its ease of use and quality, Strikingly is the clear reputation winner. The platform leaves most users highly satisfied with its versatility catering to beginners and experts. PageCloud trails significantly with its steeper learning curve and lack of intuitive editing.
9. FAQ’s
Strikingly FAQs
- What is the maximum number of pages I can have on the free plan?
- Strikingly’s free plan allows up to 5 pages. Paid plans offer unlimited pages.
- Can I sell products through Strikingly?
- Yes, Strikingly provides built-in e-commerce capabilities to create online stores and sell products.
- Does Strikingly work with custom domains?
- Yes, Strikingly enables connecting custom domains purchased from any provider.
- Is Strikingly good for blogging?
- Strikingly has an integrated blogging engine making it easy to publish blog content.
- Can I edit HTML or CSS code with Strikingly?
- Strikingly does not support custom HTML or CSS. Advanced customization requires migrating your site elsewhere.
PageCloud FAQs
- Does PageCloud have pre-designed templates?
- Yes, PageCloud offers over 500 templates to customize for your site.
- What e-commerce options exist on PageCloud?
- PageCloud must integrate external e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce as it lacks built-in selling features.
- Can I use PageCloud on shared hosting?
- Yes, PageCloud allows hosting your site anywhere, including shared hosting accounts.
- Does PageCloud allow editing code?
- Yes, developers can customize PageCloud sites using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other code.
- Is PageCloud easy for beginners?
- No, PageCloud has a steeper learning curve compared to competitors. Beginners may find it overly complex.
Final Thoughts
Choose Strikingly if…
Strikingly is the best choice for beginners wanting an easy yet powerful website builder. Its intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it simple for anyone to create an attractive, professional site quickly. Strikingly also suits small businesses needing integrated e-commerce, blogging, and marketing features without extra tools. Overall, Strikingly is the right solution if you value ease of use and all-in-one functionality.
If you’d like to learn more about this website builder, check out my Strikingly review.
Otherwise, I recommend taking a look at other website builder comparisons that I’ve done:
Choose PageCloud if…
PageCloud fits advanced developers who want maximum control over website code and infrastructure. Its flexible customization and ability to embed external apps suit complex or highly customized sites. PageCloud also works if you plan to host your site separately from the builder. Just be prepared for a steeper learning curve best suited for technical users.
Choosing the right platform is critical for creating a successful business website efficiently. Carefully weigh whether Strikingly or PageCloud better fits your specific situation, needs, and skills. Please ask any questions in the comments if you need help making the perfect choice for your website!