Jimdo – is a simple yet full-featured website builder that has positioned itself as a quality software for the development of personal projects and business websites (find more platforms here). The platform was introduced to the market in 2007. According to recent estimates, it now powers over 835,035 websites.
The website builder offers quite a unique approach to the process of website creation. Along with standard project editing options, the system introduces the advanced AI builder that simplifies the entire design process by generating customized website templates based on user responses.
Along with user-friendly design capabilities, Jimdo provides a range of features tailored to support the growing needs of modern businesses. These include SEO tools, eCommerce and blogging solutions as well as responsive mobile site design, ensuring that websites display great on any device you use. Let’s take a closer look at what makes Jimdo stand out in the crowded market of website builders.
What Is Jimdo?
Jimdo cannot be called a young player in the website creation market. Instead, it has won a good reputation among beginners and web experts alike. You can use the system to set up almost any website type, be it a personal site, a business project, a blog, a landing page, a web store, a portfolio, a real estate site (explore the best platforms here) etc. The list of its highlights includes:
- AI builder;
- eCommerce options;
- Blogging functionality;
- Multilingual support;
- Legal text generator;
- Business Listings option;
- Integrations;
- Logo Creator;
- Shared access rights.
Thus, Jimdo offers everything you might need to set up, manage and customize a full-featured project. The company also has a great value for money, when it comes to launching a standard site. Let’s quickly discuss the list of Jimdo’s features provided above.
AI Builder
Jimdo’s AI Builder simplifies the web creation process by using the power of artificial intelligence to customize the design based on the responses users provide to a series of questions generated by the system. The feature automatically selects templates and layouts that best fit the user’s business type, answers and personal preferences, making the setup process quick and efficient.
eCommerce Options
Jimdo comes with a strong eCommerce engine that makes web store set up and customization simple and intuitive for users with diverse coding backgrounds. The feature includes everything from product management and payment processing to shipping options and order tracking. Jimdo supports multiple payment gateways, ensuring that businesses can offer a secure and versatile shopping experience to their customers.
Blogging Functionality
The platform has an integrated blogging tool that enables users to publish blogs directly on their websites. This functionality is essential for content marketing and SEO, letting users regularly update their projects with fresh content, engage with their audience and improve search engine visibility.
Multilingual Support
With Jimdo, you can create websites in several languages. This is crucial if you aim to reach the audience worldwide. This is a nice way to broaden your customer base and enhance user experience for non-English speakers.
Legal Text Generator
To help users comply with legal requirements, Jimdo offers a legal text generator that automatically creates essential legal pages such as privacy policies and terms and conditions. This tool is particularly valuable for users in regions with strict data protection laws, such as the European Union.
Business Listing Option
Jimdo makes it possible to add your company listing to Google Maps and other popular directories. This helps improve local SEO and lets businesses attract more local customers by enhancing their visibility in local search results.
Integrations
Jimdo comes with a set of integrations needed to extend your website functionality. These extensions include social media, marketing tools, analytics and more, providing users with the ability to streamline their workflows and enhance their website’s capabilities.
Logo Creator
For businesses that need to establish a brand identity, Jimdo provides a logo creator tool. It helps users design a professional-looking logo that can be integrated into their website and used across various marketing resources.
Shared Access Rights
Jimdo allows multiple users to manage a website by offering shared access rights. This feature is especially valuable for teams, enabling various members to contribute to the project, manage products or update content, depending on the permissions set by the administrator.
Jimdo Pros and Cons
Along with powerful functionality, Jimdo also provides a number of demerits users should consider to make a truly unbiased decision regarding further system application. Let’s enlist the most obvious pros and cons of the website builder now.
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The final choice, however, should depend on your desire and readiness to invest in your project. If you upgrade to higher plans, the demerits will be not so obvious as in the basic plan.
Editing a Website with Jimdo
If you have ever explored Jimdo’s panel, you will certainly agree that it’s quite specific. The entire website editing process is based on the WYSIWYG approach, making it possible to create various project types. Users will get access to standard features like adding and customizing web pages, adjusting SEO settings and managing domain name parameters. To proceed to website editing, you just need to sign up and pick one of two options – AI builder or standard editor.
AI Builder
The AI tool is the simplest way to get started with your website when using Jimdo. Even a beginner will cope with the task in almost no time.
The entire process starts with the AI asking the user a series of questions about their business and the purpose of their website. These questions cover basic information such as the business type, the desired style of the website and specific features the user might want to include, such as an online store or a blog.
Based on the responses, Jimdo further automatically generates a fully functional website that includes tailored content and design elements. This automation extends to the layout, color scheme, style and even the initial content, which is created to match the business niche and personal user preferences.
While customizing your website, you will be able to create its name, add logo and links to the required resources and connect social network accounts. Finally, you will have an opportunity to add media files – images, videos, audios and other interactive elements. As soon as everything is ready, go ahead to publish the project.
Custom Website Builder
The Standard Jimdo Editor, often referred to as Jimdo Creator, practices a more traditional web design approach that ensures complete control over your project look and functionality. As opposed to the AI tool, the Standard Editor requires manual settings set up yet it offers greater flexibility and customization options.
Jimdo Creator works on a drag-and-drop interface that lets users choose elements they would like to add to their websites to further arrange them on a page. To set up and customize a website here, you need to complete the following steps:
- Log in to your account;
- Access the drag-and-drop editor;
- Add and edit the text;
- Add images;
- Integrate new elements (buttons, galleries, videos, media files etc.);
- Adjust design and layout;
- Preview the result;
- Test the website performance;
- Publish the project.
What’s important, Jimdo also grants access to built-in SEO tools to help you properly optimize your content and improve your website’s visibility in search results. Make sure you set all the parameters before going live with your project.
Design Customization with Jimdo
Jimdo currently offers over 30 templates that serve as a foundational basis for your website design. Each theme is fully responsive and belongs to a certain category (there are several niche categories to choose from). Users have an opportunity to change the color scheme of selected themes, edit background, fonts, special elements etc. Mind that various plans include a different template number. The more costly your subscription is, the more extensive assortment of designs you will be able to choose.
For users who opt for Jimdo Creator, the advanced style editor provides additional control over the website’s design elements. Users can adjust the padding and margins around elements to ensure their content is perfectly spaced. They can also add and remove borders and choose their color and thickness.
By the way, it’s up to you to choose which elements will be displayed on desktop and mobile devices. Both modes are available as a preview.
Finally, Jimdo offers a distinctive feature most of its competitors lack. There is an opportunity to create a unique template for your site via the Custom Template Interface (HTML/CSS editor + file manager). This feature, however, is more suitable for web experts rather than for beginners.
Read also: What Is the Best Website Builder for BeginnerseCommerce Capabilities
Jimdo comes with the built-in eCommerce engine that allows the software subscribers to set up and customize small-to-medium online stores. Whether you’re starting a new online eCommerce business or expanding an existing shop, Jimdo’s user-friendly platform offers all the tools you need to set up and manage your online store efficiently:
- order/product management;
- shopping cart and checkout process;
- inventory tracking tools;
- opportunity of web store design customization;
- multiple currency support;
- shipping options;
- discounts and coupon codes etc.
eCommerce Tools
Among the most well-known eCommerce tools, it makes sense to mention payment gateways, security features and mobile optimization. To start with, integration with multiple payment gateways guarantees that businesses can offer secure and convenient payment options to their customers.
As to security features, all Jimdo websites come with SSL encryption, ensuring that all transactions are safe and customer data is protected.
Finally, mobile optimization allows customers to shop from their mobile devices, which also contributes to your web store performance and profit generation.
eCommerce Templates
While all Jimdo themes are divided into categories, users will be able to choose designs for their web stores based on their preferences. These templates are designed to be visually appealing and functional, providing an optimal layout to effectively showcase products. Each template can be customized to align with your brand’s visual identity, ensuring a consistent and professional look across your online presence.
Analytic Tools
To help businesses track their performance and optimize their sales strategies, Jimdo provides access to high end analytics tools. These include sales analytics (detailed reports on sales performance), traffic analytics (opportunity to monitor where the traffic comes from along with user behavior) and conversion tracking (possibility to measure the efficacy of promo campaigns to develop the right strategy).
Blogging with Jimdo
Jimdo does not focus on business site and web store creation only. Due to the built-in blogging engine, the system subscribers can also start and run blogs. This allows enhancing your online presence, attracting more visitors and establishing quality web presence. Jimdo’s blogging tools integrate seamlessly with its website builder, making content and website management hassle-free.
Blog Templates
Just like Jimdo has separate sections of eCommerce and business themes, it also grants access to the separate collection of blog themes to make your content stand out. These designs are customizable to suit your style and branding. Whether you’re looking for a minimalistic look or a more vibrant layout, you can choose a template that best fits your blogging needs.
Commenting System
Jimdo’s integrated commenting system makes it easy for your readers to leave feedback and interact with your posts. This feature encourages conversation and interaction directly on your blog, fostering a sense of community and keeping your audience engaged. You can manage comments directly from your Jimdo dashboard, moderating and responding to them as needed.
Social Media Integration
With Jimdo, you can easily connect your blog to social media accounts, allowing for automatic post sharing to platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This not only saves time but also enhances your posts’ potential to be seen and shared further. Additionally, social media integration enables your visitors to share your content on their networks with just a few clicks, greatly increasing your blog’s exposure.
SEO Capabilities
Jimdo SEO parameters and tools are quite baseline yet this is enough to improve your project visibility and ranking on search engines. These include:
- Customizable meta titles and descriptions;
- ALT tags for images;
- Automatic sitemap generation;
- Availability of robots.txt file;
- URL redirection;
- Google Search Console integration;
- Keyword optimization;
- Website speed optimization.
How Much Does Jimdo Cost?
Just like the majority of its competitors (read Jimdo vs Wix review), Jimdo offers a free plan to let its subscribers test the system’s functionality before opting for the premium subscription. What you will get here is 2GB bandwidth, HTTPS encryption, opportunity to publish the project on the subdomain, up to 5 products to sell and 500 MB of disk space. All these features are available at no cost.
As soon as you decide to keep working with the service, the system will offer to choose a premium plan belonging to one of the packages – Website or Online Store. Let’s review them in details now.
Website Plans
- Start ($11/mo) – for a personal website – ad free website, contact forms, up to 10 website pages, domain included;
- Grow ($17/mo) – for a business website – SEO, visitor statistics, up to 50 website pages, personalized support within 4 hours.
Additionally, there is an opportunity to get the Business Listings tool at $4 per month.
Online Store Plans
- Business ($21/mo) – for a professional online store – various product variations, social marketing, social selling etc.;
- VIP ($28/mo) – the complete toolbox for your eCommerce success – unlimited storage, professional design review etc.
All the plans are ad-free and provide a free domain for the initial year of use, HTTPS encryption, e-mail address connection, unmetered disk space and bandwidth, website statistics.
Is Jimdo a Good Website Builder?
The decision to use or not to use Jimdo website builder should depend on various parameters. Your project type is what you should consider first. The thing is that the system works well for setting up small and medium projects like business sites, portfolios, blogs, web stores. If you need a complex site with an abundance of advanced features, then it makes sense to look for an alternative option.
What makes Jimdo stand out from the crowd is its two editing options users may choose from. Its drag-and-drop editor simplifies the website building process, while the innovative Jimdo AI-powered builder takes simplicity a step further by automating the design process. By answering a few questions about their business and preferences, users can have a functional website up and running in just a few minutes.
Along with ease of use, Jimdo offers a range of features that cater to various needs. Its websites are automatically optimized for mobile devices, while integrated SEO tools guide users in optimizing their content for search engines. For those looking to sell online, Jimdo’s eCommerce capabilities include product management, payment processing and order tracking functionalities, all of which are seamlessly integrated into the platform.
While Jimdo is praised for its simplicity and speed, it may not satisfy users looking for advanced customization and functionality. The design options, while sufficient for basic and moderately complex sites, might be limited for those with very specific or advanced design needs. Jimdo’s SEO features are quite baseline, which may not be comprehensive enough for competitive markets or users with advanced SEO knowledge.
Overall, Jimdo is a smart choice for those who value ease of use and quick setup, but it might be limiting for users with extensive tech requirements or those expecting deep customizability.