In the last decade, we’ve seen dozens of internet portals, software companies, and startups develop solutions solving the same problem: Everyone wants a webpage, but few people know how to actually make one. In the early days sites like Angelfire offered templates, but users were guaranteed a generic design that was ugly even by 1999’s standards. Since then we’ve made progress - modern WYSIWYG editors can produce high quality webpages within minutes, and affordable web designers are easily found. Yet somehow given these powerful resources, many people still manage to craft eyesores.
The problem, according to SnapPages founder (and sole employee) Steve Testone, is that we’re giving these users too much choice. He says that oftentimes designers will create perfectly suitable webpages, only to have them ruined when their clients start adding clashing colors and irregularly spaced images. Clients inevitably start complaining that their site has somehow become “ugly”, but they can’t figure out where they’ve gone wrong.
SnapPages is a gorgeously designed service that looks to solve this problem by taking some of the choice away from the end user. The site offers a number of customizable templates, allowing users to specify colors and the placement of columns, text boxes, and widgets, but only to a limited degree. For example, users can only choose three colors to be repeated throughout the template, which helps maintain consistency (they’re still free to upload their own logos and choose from a smattering of patterns).
This isn’t to say that the editor isn’t capable of creating rich, multimedia webpages. On the contrary, users are free to drag and drop text boxes, widgets (including Google Maps), and photographs into their sites. SnapPages also includes a full-featured integrated calendar and photo album viewer. All pages are built with standards compliant CSS/HTML, and are SEO friendly.
SnapPages has a lot going for it. The interface is sleek and intuitive, easily passable as something Apple might have designed. It may not be quite as tweakable as other WYSIWYG editors, but it produces professional results quickly, which is all that matter for most people. The full-featured premium service costs $50 a year (there’s a 30-day free trial), and there’s a limited version available for free. Other startups in this crowded space include SynthaSite, Wix, and Weebly.
For more on SnapPages, check out CenterNetworks and Solution Watch.
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Anyone who references Bob Loblaw Law is okay in my book
My first thought.
We’re not here to talk nonsense to Bob Loblaw.
pretty awesome for one guy… though did he really have to life apple’s cover flow ui?
It doesn’t work on linux x64. Just get a gray screen.
Moving on.
Pretty good but these web page maker apps are a dime a dozen. No offense to SnapPages but Squarespace.com is about 10x better.
Get real. The UI on SnapPages is much more handsome than that of Squarespace.com, and the site just plain looks better, which speaks volume for a website devoted to, well, creating websites.
I should also add that this site looks like a great way for apple to leverage their mobileme into an easy to create/navigate website for public sharing of user’s media content, or even individual access. Looks really good, well done.
Very impressive. The design is beautiful and the features list is incredible for a one man operation…
The market is overcrowded with these apps though (wix.com is also worth mentioning here).
I agree, impressive and just another app. However, with social media and all about (me, you, us) type thinking, this app may find a home within a bigger application. I’ll keep an eye on this…
Jason
Props to SnapPages for producing clean standards compliant markup. I may be pretty extreme but I could never recommend a website creator that produces crappy markup, even if it works.
Nice looking set of tools - looks like it is geared for a wider set of people than some of the other companies I have seen and I like the design angle. Are these guys aiming for acquisition?
The problem with most web page builders is that they don’t let you build the page you want. Also, these tools tend to offer often crowded user interfaces.
Webepags allows you to build your page the way you want it, in seconds with the easy, straightforward user interface.
Try it at http://www.webepags.com
Is this site a joke?
Wow. I certainly hope so.
no
What makes you say that?
Check out the “Pages that have been recently built”. Simply breathtaking. Especially “nightlytest19″.
Such a spam ploy. Not one attempt to hide the spam. Anyone?
As someone who understands the unsophisticated nature of most small business. I can say simplification is the key to success in this market and I think they are on the right track. A beautiful simple website at a reasonable cost. Was my pick of the demo pit for that reason.
Try and simplify the sign-up. It needs HELP!!
I agree..the sign up was brutal, so much that I lost interest. I still can’t sign in.
excrement
You are dumb :p
Pretty awesome for a sole guy! I worked in a web dev company before and I can tell you that this kind of app are already taking market shares… Keep it up!
Thanks for the great feedback everyone. What sort of problems are you guys having with the sign ups?
They just like to complain, and they caused me to go check it out. It was easy.
Username, email, Password>>>Email Confirmation>>>Done
Now we’ll see if there is anything good here
So far, all decent features are “premium”, not a sin to want payment but I ain;t got anything yet. The freemium model should allow for more of a draw-in (eg. give me more value), before asking for payment.
The social features are a joke. Nobody cares to “connect” on your site.
More feedback later.
Incredible product, I’m amazed that one person was able to pull that off. The level of detail in development is simply stunning (for example, the location of the sun when changing times in the calendar).
Very impressed, looking forward to hearing of either your acquisition or greater success!
SnapPages is absolutely fantastic. Thanks Jason for sharing it! I love that website.
This post is just the type of articles you guys should be writing on and sharing with your readers. Keep the PR reporting about MS/Google/Yahoo/Apple and the shallow 100-word industry analysis to other blogs and keep bringing us more stories about cool websites like this one. That’s why I started reading TechCrunch in the first place!
I don’t get it — Where does Apple fit in with this service?
Steve, I signed up and it’s very impressive, but there’s no way to incorporate a blog. Are you adding blog functionality?
Lots of people have asked for a blogging tool, and it’s the next thing that I will be adding to the site.
I think CirclePad is a way better tool:
http://www.circlepad.com/
Snap pages has better marketing, but the stuff you make with it is much more generic.
Frank
Hmm I think I will consider it .
verygood
This is a truly breathtaking site. I am amazed at the creativity and cleanliness of snappages, and the simplicity of creating your own perfect website that meets your highest standards. This is sure to make a huge name for itself soon, and Apple would be a fool not to buy it before they miss their chance.
I have had this site for 5 days and it still
is not running why not i have my domain name
please respond scott correia
Hi. Good site.
fyi they did recently add the blog feature. it’s in beta now (jan 9th), but you can get it if you sign up, then find the URL in their blog post about it.
Hi Steve,
I am looking to upgrade to “Premium”. I wanted do more than marketing. Can you add Payment features to the site- I didn’t see any info in FAQs. Please advise. Thanks.
Just learned of SnapPages a few days ago and decided to give it a try. One conclusion I have come to is that this cannot possibly be a one-man operation–the site is just too cool and no one is that cool to create something like this by themselves (*wink*).
I’ve had a website out here with another company for about 6 years and, at one time, the user-interface was easy to understand, easy to use—making changes, without needing to know all of the technical ’stuff’, was simple. But, about a year ago (or so), an email was sent out to the company’s (paying) customers and things changed. They wanted to go more in the direction to accommodate people who knew the technical ’stuff’ and offer them the ability to have more control over their (individual) sites. People like me (zero website design skills), who the company originally marketed themselves for, got screwed. We ended up with nothing but a shell of what we were used to (and paying for).
I don’t know code and I don’t want to know code.
All of this technical ’stuff’
["makes"";;me::~=~loopy~"]
I would rather pay someone to figure that out for me and, at the same time, not have a cheesy-looking site. Steve is offering so much more and he’s offering a free version…..oh, and the site is rockin. It kicks some serious butt and I like that. Steve’s site, like someone said here a few months back, is breathtaking.
Marcia—you can add a PayPal link—check out the forums.