When Hoot Host launched our Website Builder plans, we did a lot of research. It turns out our vision to reinvent the way websites are built for businesses is still very much a fresh and innovative approach to the traditional agency option.
We build affordable websites with your domain, hosting, monthly maintenance, our CRM and marketing suite, and ongoing optimization all included. With no big upfront costs or contracts. Just an affordable monthly plan for your business to have an effective, professional website. Our customers understand the immense value in our Website Builder plans and the response has been amazing.
Build a WordPress website for your small business starting at just $100 per month with no big upfront cost or contracts! Plus a full scale CRM and marketing suite built-in to help you grow your business. Watch the video to learn more:
But the truth is, there are a few other companies who are following this solution-first model to building affordable websites. One example of a company doing it too is Jottful. Jottful uses their own proprietary software called “Magical Editor” to build and manage affordable websites for small businesses. They offer similar low rates as Hoot Host between $100-500 per month, so even startups and very small scale businesses can afford to get a website.
With regards to the way Jottful works, we do have a lot of questions though. Why use your own proprietary content management system? Hoot Host aims to empower our customers with the world’s greatest CMS – HootPress – our enhanced version of WordPress! By comparison, all a proprietary platform like Jottful does is traps a business with a website that limits their growth and capabilities.
A business of any size deserves a better solution that they can still afford, and HootPress our enhanced version of WordPress seems like the obvious answer vs Jottful’s approach. Jottful will claim a startup or small business doesn’t need a professional website, just the very basic site that they offer, but this approach only holds a business back! Hoot Host believes a business of any size should have an online presence to best represent their business and help it grow. The best way to achieve that is through a powerful, but still affordable platform like HootPress – our enhanced version of WordPress.
When you compare a Jottful Magical Editor website vs a WordPress website – topics like overall design presentation, best practices, search engine optimization, compliance, and performance are all brought into question. Let’s explore the differences to showcase why WordPress is the better option for a business of any size!
We took a deep dive into several Jottful Magical Editor sites and compared them to recent Hoot Host Website Builder customer websites we built in WordPress. The results are an obvious win for HootPress – our enhanced version of WordPress.
Performance, Accessibility, and Search Engine Optimization
When auditing sites built on Jottful Magical Editor, most websites were being given poor ratings in performance, search engine optimization, best practices, and compliance. All audits were completed using Google Lighthouse and only a few of the sites we audited had decent metrics to speak of. But this is an issue for a business of any size. Even for the smallest business with just a basic site, you need your website to load efficiently on desktop and mobile. Even more so, you need to maintain search engine optimization practices for ideal search engine ranking. Most importantly, you need your website to meet standards for ADA, WCAG, GDPR, and CCPA compliance.
To be fair, we audited several recently built WordPress websites from Hoot Host Website Builder customers. While every website (regardless of how it was built) always needs to improve on something, it is more than fair to say WordPress websites are the clear winner when it comes to these topics. Our customer’s WordPress websites outperformed Jottful Magical Editor sites in performance, search engine optimization standards, best practices, and compliance.
Let’s Talk Design: Jottful’s cookie cutter approach vs WordPress design flexibility
Next, let’s talk about design. Jottful likes to say small businesses don’t need the high end design an agency would provide and overcharge for. So a small business can build a very basic site with them and at least have an online presence.
But we ask the question, does this help or hurt a business? Just because your business has a website, does not mean that website is benefiting your business. Especially when your site has a dated design with poor presentation (and maybe even an issue with ADA compliance).
From what we can tell Jottful Magical Editor has a few very basic theme options that is slightly customized for each of their customers. Compare this to HootPress – our enhanced version of WordPress which has hundreds of built-in themes to choose from and the debate is over.
Plus, with Hoot Host Website Builder our customers receive customized design options, branded specifically to their business! No templates, no basic cookie cutter approach – a custom designed website to best represent your business. So Jottful just cannot compete with WordPress in it’s flexibility, themes, and endless customizable design options. On the design debate – an easy win for WordPress.
Scalability and Growth – Hard to do with Jottful
What about scalability and growth? In the Jottful Magical Editor websites we reviewed, we saw minimal integrations and add-ons. While Jottful does claim they offer a handful of higher end integrations and functionality add-ons, we could not find any live examples of this – and they simply cannot compete with the open source community around WordPress. With WordPress as the backbone of our affordable website plans, our customers have access to thousands of plugins, tools, security add-ons, and easy integrations to help them grow their website with their business – and easily integrate with literally any third party tools or other platforms! WordPress is literally built for growth and scalability, so this is another clear win for WordPress.
Does Jottful provide a CRM or any marketing tools? No! – but HootPress affordable websites come with a full scale CRM and marketing suite!
A major difference between Jottful and Hoot Host affordable WordPress plans is the inclusion of tools to help you actually grow your business! Jottful offers just the proprietary website – no integrated tools for managing your customers or scaling your marketing efforts. If you want a full scale CRM or any integrated marketing tools, you’ll need to find (and pay for) third-party solutions on top of your Jottful plan.
But HootPress – our enhanced version of WordPress, comes with HootCRM built-in! Our powerful CRM and all-in-one marketing suite that our customers use daily to manage business operations and grow their business.
This means that with our affordable website plans, you not only get a beautifully designed and high-performing WordPress website for similar rates as Jottful, but you also have the tools to manage and grow your business right from your online dashboard. Jottful just can’t compare to the ongoing value offered by Hoot Host Website Builder plans.
Learn more about HootCRM – included in all website plans from Hoot Host:
Jottful Proprietary Limitations vs The Most Supported Platform in the World WordPress!
What happens if you want to take your website to another host or provider? With Jottful – you can’t. Plain and simple. However WordPress is hosted and supported by all the major providers and thousands of others around the world. It is truly the most used and supported platform in the world. While Hoot Host does have some limited terms and conditions for new customers, we don’t hold your website hostage if you choose to take it elsewhere somewhere down the line. Jottful Magical Editor being a proprietary platform, they will not let you take it anywhere else, ever.
It does not matter if your business is very small or a large enterprise – you need to own your website! With Jottful, you don’t own your online presence, you are simply renting their proprietary platform.
The Bottom Line: Jottful Can’t Compete with HootPress – Our Enhanced Version of WordPress
Our Hoot Host Website Builder plans simply offer more than Jottful Magical Editor can because we are using WordPress as the backbone of our affordable website approach.
Our plans offer truly customized design (or a theme of your choice), a full scale CRM and marketing suite built-in to help you grow your business, and the largest community of plugins and tools on the web to help your website grow with your business over time. Not to mention the ongoing maintenance, optimization, and security benefits we include every month!
We don’t tag on extra fees like Jottful does for your domain, email, or other add-ons with confusing pricing. With Hoot Host you get everything included with no extra fees and far more comprehensive services included every month. Need professional email? It is included. Need help writing blog posts? It is included. Need a CRM and marketing suite to grow your business? That’s included too!
All built on the WordPress platform so you know your website is the modern, professional, optimized, and secure online presence it should be for your business. Regardless if it is a startup, small business, or large scale enterprise – you want to own your website, not use a proprietary platform, and you want a website plan that comes with true ongoing value for your online success.
That is why we structured the Hoot Host Website Builder plans around a system that empowers your business and grows with you. That platform is HootPress – our enhanced version of WordPress.
If Jottful uses WordPress – why shouldn’t your business?
Need more evidence that WordPress is the better choice over Jottful Magical Editor? Jottful’s own website is built on WordPress! They build their customer’s websites on their limited Magical Editor proprietary platform, but their own website is built on WordPress. That is a bit of an obvious giveaway which is the better platform.
That’s where we’ll end the debate – and the winner is obviously HootPress – our enhanced version of WordPress!
Get Started with Hoot Host Website Builder for an affordable WordPress website