Choosing a platform to build and design your fitness website can sometimes feel like a struggle because it’s hard to know what factors are important when making a decision. All design platforms are probably much the same… aren’t they? Well, some offer a lot more options than others.
For example, a website builder provides everything you could need to launch a new fitness website, from website building tools to the hosting, domain registration, SSL certification (important for security and SEO), customisable templates, and customer support if it all gets a bit confusing. But in exchange for this easy interface, you give up some control over certain aspects of your site.
By contrast, a content management system will provide much more flexibility in how you use it. The site’s appearance is totally customisable, you can even edit the underlying code, and have free choice over your own hosting. However, that means you have more responsibility for setting up and running your site.
Overview
This article will example the 5 top fitness website design platforms based on set criteria to help you to make an incredible first impression.
First we'll look at each of them and what they bring to the table in a nutshell, then we'll dig deeper into each of the 4 most important aspects: ease of use, flexibility, support and blogging platform.
Weebly
Website builder offering built-in hosting, suitable for users of any experience level to create a website using pre-designed templates, drag and drop style building and an automatic code editor.
Squarespace
Stylish, and carefully curated and highly structured site editor. Probably the best templates of any website builder.
WordPress
Offering a huge selection of themes and plugins, total control over source code, suitable for large, complex, versatile sites. Real mastery takes time and effort.
Duda
Comes with a broad range of apps and widgets to make personalisation easy, pre-made templates to help make your fitness website look professional, and a little pricier than other platforms - but with a 50% off discount currently running.
Wix
Hugely customisable, if slightly chaotic editor. A massive number of website features, and a huge range of templates.
First we'll look at each of them and what they bring to the table in a nutshell, then we'll dig deeper into each of the 4 most important aspects: ease of use, flexibility, support and blogging platform.
Weebly
Website builder offering built-in hosting, suitable for users of any experience level to create a website using pre-designed templates, drag and drop style building and an automatic code editor.
Squarespace
Stylish, and carefully curated and highly structured site editor. Probably the best templates of any website builder.
WordPress
Offering a huge selection of themes and plugins, total control over source code, suitable for large, complex, versatile sites. Real mastery takes time and effort.
Duda
Comes with a broad range of apps and widgets to make personalisation easy, pre-made templates to help make your fitness website look professional, and a little pricier than other platforms - but with a 50% off discount currently running.
Wix
Hugely customisable, if slightly chaotic editor. A massive number of website features, and a huge range of templates.
Ease Of Use
For beginners, this is probably one of the most important considerations. Your website needs to work hard for you as the shopfront of your personal training business. It should not be a time pit that doesn’t bring you any leads.
Creating and managing content, analysing the performance metrics of the site, and installing and managing plugins and themes from the dashboard will give you a rough idea of how user-friendly the website will be and how steep the learning curve is going to be.
Weebly
Weebly comes with everything you need to get started building your fitness website quickly. You can even buy your domain from them and sort out your SSL certificate. You can use their templates to drag & drop to get your content published without needing to know any coding. They also offer an effective eCommerce feature that's plugged into Square payments.
Creating and managing content, analysing the performance metrics of the site, and installing and managing plugins and themes from the dashboard will give you a rough idea of how user-friendly the website will be and how steep the learning curve is going to be.
Weebly
Weebly comes with everything you need to get started building your fitness website quickly. You can even buy your domain from them and sort out your SSL certificate. You can use their templates to drag & drop to get your content published without needing to know any coding. They also offer an effective eCommerce feature that's plugged into Square payments.
Squarespace
Straight forward and highly stylised, Squarespace is one of the easier design platforms to use because of the highly structured drag and drop methods they use to design sites. While this is a little restrictive, it does make it easy to get a great looking website up and running quickly.
WordPress
Open source content management systems like WordPress are a bit more involved to set up but do give you complete freedom in use. You can use a hosting provider (WordPress.com will do this but you can select from a huge range), purchase a custom domain and then sort out the SSL certificate separately.
Straight forward and highly stylised, Squarespace is one of the easier design platforms to use because of the highly structured drag and drop methods they use to design sites. While this is a little restrictive, it does make it easy to get a great looking website up and running quickly.
WordPress
Open source content management systems like WordPress are a bit more involved to set up but do give you complete freedom in use. You can use a hosting provider (WordPress.com will do this but you can select from a huge range), purchase a custom domain and then sort out the SSL certificate separately.
You’ve only got to do this once when you first start setting things up, and then you can manage all your content from your WordPress dashboard in a drag and drop structure that’ll feel familiar.
Duda
One of the easier design platforms, the user works with templates to structure and build a website that can be edited and customised before going live. Duda mainly markets to agencies and freelancers because building sites is so fast. They even offer to host for you, so there are no additional costs.
Wix
While there is a huge range of templates on Wix, the extremely broad editing options can lead to problems with formatting once the site goes live. The number of templates is broad, but many of them don’t seem suitable for a professional website. Finally, making minor changes, such as changing colour palettes, can be frustrating.
Duda
One of the easier design platforms, the user works with templates to structure and build a website that can be edited and customised before going live. Duda mainly markets to agencies and freelancers because building sites is so fast. They even offer to host for you, so there are no additional costs.
Wix
While there is a huge range of templates on Wix, the extremely broad editing options can lead to problems with formatting once the site goes live. The number of templates is broad, but many of them don’t seem suitable for a professional website. Finally, making minor changes, such as changing colour palettes, can be frustrating.
Flexibility
Flexibility is about the extent to which you can customise the look and features of the site. Ideally, much of this will be done within the site itself, but you’re likely to need some third party elements, even if it’s just plugins or widgets.
Weebly
Since you’re building your website using drag and drop elements, flexibility is limited with Weebly templates. With 100 add-ons to change the functionality of the site, there are some ways you can change your fitness website but there are definitely other options that offer more flexible features.
Weebly
Since you’re building your website using drag and drop elements, flexibility is limited with Weebly templates. With 100 add-ons to change the functionality of the site, there are some ways you can change your fitness website but there are definitely other options that offer more flexible features.
Squarespace
The templates and features are stylistically beautiful, but you are still working within pre-designed templates. Integration with Zapier gives some custom options, but you’re still limited to their in-house features.
The templates and features are stylistically beautiful, but you are still working within pre-designed templates. Integration with Zapier gives some custom options, but you’re still limited to their in-house features.
WordPress
WordPress offers the most flexibility of the design platforms, with total customisation possible and limited only by your own technical skill.
WordPress offers the most flexibility of the design platforms, with total customisation possible and limited only by your own technical skill.
Duda
Working to pre-designed templates, Duda lets you edit in “real-time” rather than behind the scenes. While this is arguably less flexible, it does give the user a clear idea of what changes they’re actually making and how that will look on the site.
Working to pre-designed templates, Duda lets you edit in “real-time” rather than behind the scenes. While this is arguably less flexible, it does give the user a clear idea of what changes they’re actually making and how that will look on the site.
Wix
Like Squarespace, integration with Zapier gives some additional flexibility to Wix templates, but depending on the style of website you’re building, it seems as though Wix can feel a little clunky - with lots of clicks needed in some templates to get to the part of the site the user wants to navigate to.
Like Squarespace, integration with Zapier gives some additional flexibility to Wix templates, but depending on the style of website you’re building, it seems as though Wix can feel a little clunky - with lots of clicks needed in some templates to get to the part of the site the user wants to navigate to.
Support
Learning to manage your website takes work and as your website grows, your needs will likely change with it. Having support from users, designers, developers and a dedicated customer support team that can help answer your questions can save you a lot of time and stress.
Weebly
Dedicated support through email, live chat, phone, and support tickets. However, the live chat options are restricted to users in the USA, between set times, that have a pro account. There is a very good library of FAQ articles available on their site, plenty of guides on a range f topics including marketing and there's also a huge community where you can ask questions and receive answers.
Weebly
Dedicated support through email, live chat, phone, and support tickets. However, the live chat options are restricted to users in the USA, between set times, that have a pro account. There is a very good library of FAQ articles available on their site, plenty of guides on a range f topics including marketing and there's also a huge community where you can ask questions and receive answers.
Squarespace
The live chat support option is particularly strong with Squarespace, with live support given almost immediately and sometimes going above and beyond to screencast to show you the step by step actions to take to solve your issue.
WordPress
With no dedicated professional support team you might feel concerned that you’re being left without guidance. However, WordPress has got the biggest global community of volunteers dedicated to improving the platform.
The WordPress Codex is the official dedicated support forum, but there are slack channels and even live meetups for people that need support. More self-directed that many other design platforms this could be intimidating for a total novice, and this may suit a more experienced user.
Duda
Support ranges from email only on the most basic plan to priority email, chat, and phone on their top level plan. There’s a help centre with articles which is available to you at every level of plan. There’s also a live chat option, but this is run by a bot, not a live human, so keep your questions very simple.
The live chat support option is particularly strong with Squarespace, with live support given almost immediately and sometimes going above and beyond to screencast to show you the step by step actions to take to solve your issue.
WordPress
With no dedicated professional support team you might feel concerned that you’re being left without guidance. However, WordPress has got the biggest global community of volunteers dedicated to improving the platform.
The WordPress Codex is the official dedicated support forum, but there are slack channels and even live meetups for people that need support. More self-directed that many other design platforms this could be intimidating for a total novice, and this may suit a more experienced user.
Duda
Support ranges from email only on the most basic plan to priority email, chat, and phone on their top level plan. There’s a help centre with articles which is available to you at every level of plan. There’s also a live chat option, but this is run by a bot, not a live human, so keep your questions very simple.
Wix
Support from Wix is available in a broad range of languages, with English language support available 24 hours a day. They encourage you to categorise your support request ticket for the fastest possible support, but this sounds like a pretty robust option.
Support from Wix is available in a broad range of languages, with English language support available 24 hours a day. They encourage you to categorise your support request ticket for the fastest possible support, but this sounds like a pretty robust option.
Blogging
The blog on your fitness website is a critical component. It’s the most influential part of your site for ranking on Google, because it will get updated the most frequently. It’s the part of your fitness website that will establish you as an authority in the eyes of your audience, and keep them coming back for more free content.
Weebly
Weebly offers a decent range of tools and features, some of the more advanced are the sharing and scheduling features, social media sharing, and comment management. Effortless drag and drop templates make it easy to get the blog published and important metrics can be tracked regularly.
Squarespace
The blogging options for Squarespace are excellent, with features which include post tagging, categories, keeping drafts automatically, comments, and customizable urls. If blog content is a priority, Squarespace is one of the best options, offering an impressive level of collaboration with “teams” - so you could share the blogging responsibility with a dedicated team of content writers.
WordPress
WordPress is the only design platform which matches Squarespace on blogging features. The interface is extremely flexible, with total control over the blog features which could influence SEO.
Weebly
Weebly offers a decent range of tools and features, some of the more advanced are the sharing and scheduling features, social media sharing, and comment management. Effortless drag and drop templates make it easy to get the blog published and important metrics can be tracked regularly.
Squarespace
The blogging options for Squarespace are excellent, with features which include post tagging, categories, keeping drafts automatically, comments, and customizable urls. If blog content is a priority, Squarespace is one of the best options, offering an impressive level of collaboration with “teams” - so you could share the blogging responsibility with a dedicated team of content writers.
WordPress
WordPress is the only design platform which matches Squarespace on blogging features. The interface is extremely flexible, with total control over the blog features which could influence SEO.
Duda
While there are blogging tools available with Duda, this isn’t the element of the design that they’re especially strong on. They’re missing a newsletter feature, which is really useful for staying in touch with your audience and cultivating leads, and it lacks some of the more powerful features that you’d get with other platforms.
Wix
Wix blogs are beautiful but restrictive, as you can’t change templates, although there are about 500 to choose from initially, and the customisation options are limited. If blogging is a main focus of your fitness website, there are better options available.
While there are blogging tools available with Duda, this isn’t the element of the design that they’re especially strong on. They’re missing a newsletter feature, which is really useful for staying in touch with your audience and cultivating leads, and it lacks some of the more powerful features that you’d get with other platforms.
Wix
Wix blogs are beautiful but restrictive, as you can’t change templates, although there are about 500 to choose from initially, and the customisation options are limited. If blogging is a main focus of your fitness website, there are better options available.
Conclusion
Building your own fitness website is an exciting undertaking, but choosing the right platform to design your site will likely make a difference to how much time you spend actually publishing useful content vs. how much time you spend trying to figure things out on the back end. If you want help to build your website, and help with generating high ranking blog content & SEO articles for your site, you can get in touch with us.
