Hoot Host vs Jottful – A Review of Jottful Websites
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, email, easy to manage updates, our full CRM and marketing suite, and 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 website for your small business starting at just $100 per month! With our full scale CRM and marketing suite built-in to help you grow your business. Plus fill out the form below and you will receive a 50% discount for life!
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 very basic websites for small businesses. They offer similar low rates as Hoot Host, 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 limit businesses, regardless of them being a small business, with such a basic website? All a platform like Jottful seems to do is trap 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 Hoot Builder with all it’s easy to use built-in features, seems like the obvious answer vs Jottful’s limiting approach. Jottful will claim a startup or small business doesn’t need a professional website, just the very basic brochure 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 over time. The best way to achieve that is through a powerful, but still affordable platform like Hoot Builder.
Build a website for your small business starting at just $100 per month! Plus a full scale CRM and marketing suite built-in to help you grow your business. Watch the video to learn more:
When you compare a Jottful Magical Editor website vs a Hoot Builder 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 Hoot Builder 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. The results are an obvious win for Hoot Builder.
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 website, you need your website to load efficiently on desktop and mobile. Even more so, you need to easily 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. Hoot Builder includes these features built-in so the business owner doesn’t have to worry about these technical standards.
To be fair, we audited several recently built Hoot Builder 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 Hoot Builder websites are the clear winner when it comes to these topics. Our customer’s 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 Hoot Builder 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 brochure website 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 website has a dated design with poor presentation.
From what we can tell Jottful Magical Editor has a few very basic template options that are slightly customized for each of their customers. Compare this to Hoot Builder which has hundreds of built-in, professionally designed themes to choose from and the debate is over.
Plus, with Hoot Host Website Builder our customers can easily customize design options, making a website that is branded specifically to their business! No basic templates, no cookie cutter approach – a custom designed website to best represent your business. So Jottful just cannot compete with Hoot Builder in it’s flexibility, professionally designed themes, and endless customizable design options. On the design debate – an easy win for Hoot Builder.
Scalability and Growth – Hard to do with Jottful
This video is starting on the Enhanced Features and Scalability section of the presentation. This will highlight how you want a website that will scale with your business and grow with your online goals over time. Jottful websites are basic online brochure websites that do not offer built-in scalability and advanced features.
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 built-in premium functionality options in Hoot Builder. With Hoot Builder our customers have access to dozens of built-in marketing tools, CRM and business productivity features, advanced functionality add-ons for blogging / e-commerce / memberships / bookings, and endless integrations to help them grow their website with their business. Hoot Builder is literally built for growth and scalability, so this is another clear win over Jottful’s basic brochure website approach.
Does Jottful provide a CRM or any marketing tools? No! – but Hoot Builder affordable websites come with a full scale CRM and marketing suite!
A major difference between Jottful and Hoot Builder affordable plans is the inclusion of tools to help you actually grow your business! Jottful offers just the limited brochure 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.
This means that with our affordable website plans, you not only get a beautifully designed and high-performing 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:
The Bottom Line: Jottful Can’t Compete with Hoot Builder
Our Hoot Host Website Builder plans simply offer more than Jottful Magical Editor can with their limited approach to building websites.
Our plans offer truly customized design (with hundreds of professionally designed themes to choose from), a full scale CRM and marketing suite built-in to help you grow your business, and tons of built-in marketing tools and add-ons to help you grow your business and scale your website with it. Not to mention the ongoing maintenance, optimization, and security benefits Hoot Host customers love us for!
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 coaching and support? We help you and have tons of training built-in! Need a CRM and marketing suite to grow your business? That’s included too!
All built on the reliable Hoot Host 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 or very small business, you want an impactful website, not a basic online brochure that does nothing for your business. You want a website platform 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 Hoot Builder!
Build a website for your small business starting at just $100 per month! With our full scale CRM and marketing suite built-in to help you grow your business. Plus fill out the form below and you will receive a 50% discount for life!