Ucraft Overview
What is Ucraft?
Ucraft was founded in 2014 by Gev Balyen and a group of design enthusiasts. In 2010 they set up a ‘templates club’ to give members access to professional website templates. From this, they expanded into an all-in-one platform.
Ucraft is currently based in California and has about 132 employees. They also have offices in Armenia and Moscow and roughly 360,000 active users worldwide.
They seem to take pride in allowing customers to make great sites. They even have a section on their website that showcases a collection of customer designed websites. It’s an excellent section to browse as it will inspire you and show what you can achieve with Ucraft.
In 2016 they decided to get into the wholesale website builders business. They started to provide a white label website builder designed for designers. If this sounds confusing, think of it a bit like the film ‘Inception’… it’s a website builder that allows website builders to build websites for clients who don’t want to develop their own website.
Clear now? Well, let’s say you’re a freelance website designer, then you need to check out their branded plans, and if not, stick to their personal ones.
Over the years, Ucraft has received several awards. They are passionate about their industry. Their blog gives a lovely round-up of their year and makes this company feel very personable.
So they seem like good people, but does this translate into good website building? Let’s go through Ucrafts’ interface, tools, pricing and customer service to see if this is the web builder meant for you.
Are you looking to create your website with a Website Builder?
Ease of Use
How Easy is Ucraft to Use?
To start your free trial, choose your plan and click get started. Alternatively, if you’re unsure what plan to go for yet, you can start building your free site.
Although you can sign up using your phone, you can only edit your site in the desktop version. They have Mobile Editor App available, but only to those who pay for the Pro Shop or Unlimited packages.
Ucrafts dashboard is easy to navigate
You’ll choose a template and domain name before signing up with your email. When setting up your site, you will select a Ucraft sub-domain which you can switch to a custom domain at any time.
The interface itself is clean and well laid out, so it’s easy to navigate. All the editing functions are located in the left-hand sidebar. The rest of the screen is dedicated to the preview of your site.
While Ucraft is simple to use, it’s not quite as easy as an actual drag-and-drop website builder. That being said, once you get used to their editor, it is plain sailing. Ucraft uses ‘blocks,’ and you can edit each site element contained in these blocks.
You will be limited with placement as your blocks have a predetermined place on your page. However, you can add more blocks containing elements like blogs or contact forms. The blocks can look a bit similar so that you may feel restricted in layouts.
If you want to build a site quickly, then there are other builders out there that will be able to set you up quicker than Ucraft. The templates can be limiting, so you may find yourself deleting the preset blocks and adding your own. This does allow you a certain degree of creativity that AI site builders don’t have, but the price you pay for this is time.
Tools and Features
What Are The Features Of Ucraft?
Even Ucrafts most basic features are fabulous. With their free package, you still get SSL security and access to Google analytics.
The analytics are an excellent way to measure your site’s success, so you could use this to decide if you want to step up to a paid plan and access more features.
Paid plans allow you to give your site a personal touch by using custom fonts and the designer tools let you customise templates.
You can change the theme, page width, borders and navigation styles. There are also tools for editing images. You can even add video backgrounds to give your site an extra dimension.
Add video backgrounds to your website design
Website Language Detection is an excellent feature for international sites, which changes your site’s language based on the visitor’s IP address, browser language, or default language.
An in-built blog function is excellent and allows you to create drafts, share on social media, and include an image shown when your article is shared.
Ucraft has integrated with Disqus to add a comments section so your readers can share their thoughts. They also have a comprehensive app store with over 20 apps to access tools like Zendesk, MailChimp, YouTube, PayPal, SoundCloud, and Eventbrite.
All but the free plan have eCommerce features, which is a big bonus. While the tools are more comprehensive the more you pay, it’s still a big plus that you have at least some included with the cheapest paid plan.
Plus, they don’t charge transaction fees at any level, which is uncommon. As well as eCommerce, there are some marketing tools available on all paid plans. You can link Ucraft to your social media site, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and more.
This is pretty much essential in today’s business market as well as your personal life. You can also use tools such as Hello Bar, Algolia, Typeform, Mandrill and more to create marketing campaigns, take feedback and add pop-ups.
Like a lot of website builders nowadays, Ucraft provides a logo maker. However, unlike the usual AI offering, Ucraft essentially gets you to make your own. They supply you with icons to scroll through, options to add text, shapes and background colour.
Are you looking for a featured-packed Website Builder?
Plans and Pricing
How Much Does Ucraft Cost?
Ucraft offers five different personal plans and three branded plans. The branded plans are white-label websites that are under your brand and domain name.
The cheapest personal plan is entirely free, so already good value for money! You can take advantage of their free sub-domain or connect to your own domain (or buy one through Ucraft’s domain app).
Your site will display a Ucraft branded watermark if you go free. Still, you get 15 pages, SSL security, unlimited bandwidth, Google analytics, 24/7 customer support and password-protected pages.
The most popular paid plan is Pro Website, charged at $10 per month when paid annually (so around £84.48 per year). Adding to the free package, you get unlimited pages and tools for SEO, blogging, custom fonts and access designer tools.
You can add team members, display news from an external source, collect additional information from customers when they create an account and access over 20 different apps and tools. You also get some eCommerce functions, like 15 products with no transaction fee, two different payment methods and 20 shipping options.
The mid-range plan is Pro Shop, priced at $21 per month when paid annually (roughly £177.37). They bump up the eCommerce features, allowing 1000 products with no transaction fee, over 50 payment methods and abandoned cart saver.
They also give you a host of data management tools, including selling digital goods at 1GB per file, inventory tracking, a store management app, tax options, and the ability to sell via Facebook, Instagram, Amazon and eBay.
The Unlimited plan is $69 per month when billed annually (about £583.04). As well as everything offered with Pro Shop, you get unlimited products with no fee and digital goods at 10GB per file.
The Branded plans are for freelancers and businesses that build websites for others, and these plans will let you do this under your own brand. They’re billed monthly at $39 for the cheapest, $69 for the mid-range and $109 for the most expensive.
Ucraft Personal Website Plans
| Main Features | Free Website | Pro Website | Pro Shop | Unlimited |
| Price | Free | £7.25 /mo | £15.23 /mo | £50 /mo |
| Custom Domain | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Number of Pages | 15 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Advanced Elements | ✖︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Free SSL Certificate | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| SEO Tools | ✖︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Designer Tools | ✖︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Blogging Tools | ✖︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Google Analytics | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ | ✔︎ |
| Customer Care | 24/7 Support | 24/7 Support | 24/7 Support | Priority Support |
Help & Support
How Good is Ucraft Support?
Ucraft offers the usual support avenues, the first being articles that give advice and answer questions about most subjects. They also have a support forum that gives you a monthly update about the company’s activities and allows you to share tips, give feedback and ask questions.
You can learn about the latest products, get (and give) expert advice, submit feature requests and participate in community discussions. They also provide you with access to a blog and have several online guides that cover most FAQs. With all this, you may not need assistance at all.
Suppose you want to ask a specific question or communicate directly with the team. In that case, their chat feature is available at any time through a little blue box at the bottom right of the screen. They claim that their usual answer time is under 10 minutes, and based on other customer reviews; this is an overestimate.
You won’t be able to call, but their live chat is live and not a chatbot. They are friendly and knowledgeable and answer queries quickly, and I got a reply within a few minutes.
They are also available 24/7, and you do get assistance in real-time. The email support team is also pretty prompt in replying, with users typically getting a reply in a few hours.
All in all, they do well at customer service. Their passion for, and appreciation of, their customers defiantly shines through.
Does expert support matter to you?
Pros & Cons
What We Like & Dislike About Ucraft
Ucraft Pros
Free plan – I’m all about that freebie life. The free plan is pretty good and is an excellent choice for a personal website. The fact that it comes with unlimited bandwidth, SSL and analytics is rather impressive.
Easy to use – while not the quickest way to set up a site, Ucraft is undoubtedly easy to use.
Customisable – Yes, there are quicker web builders out there, but this one does offer a high level of personalisation. You can even add custom HTML, CSS or Javascript if you’re that way inclined.
Wide range of payment plans – I’m pretty sure that Ucraft will have a plan that suits your needs as well as your budget.
What Are The Alternatives To Ucraft?
Wix Best Overall Website Builder
+ Innovative drag and drop editor
+ Powerful web app integrations
+ FREE SSL certificate
Zyro Best Modern Website Builder
+ Brilliant blogging tools
+ Quick launch eCommerce solutions
+ FREE SSL certificate
Squarespace BEST ALL-AROUND WEBSITE BUILDER
+ Powerful blogging tools
+ Integrated SEO & Analytics
+ Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage
Duda Best Website Builder for Creatives
+ Easy drag-and-drop editor
+ Modern responsive website templates
+ Unlimited Sites and Bandwidth
Weebly Best Free Website Builder
+ Integrated email & digital marketing
+ Advanced eCommerce tools
+ FREE SSL certificate
Jimdo best website builder for ease of use
+ High quality image library
+ Great social media integration
+ FREE SSL Certificate
Godaddy Website Builder Best Website builder for beginners
+ Beautifully crafted website templates
+ Backup and Restore feature
+ FREE SSL certificate
Gator Builder best website builder for basic websites
+ Excellent eCommerce management tools
+ Free access to Unsplash image library
+ FREE SSL certificate & Free domain
Constat Contact best for simple & Quick websites
+ Email marketing integration
+ Powerful eCommerce platform
+ FREE SSL certificate & CDN
Final Thoughts
Do We Recommend Ucraft?
Ucraft will provide you with enough features to keep it interesting. The creators have put in a lot of effort to create a builder that allows the user to build a good-looking website with little to no technical know-how.
However, while other builders will allow you to create a site in minutes, you will have to work However, while other builders will allow you to create a site in minutes, you will have to work a bit longer with Ucraft. This gives you a higher level of personalisation, so really, it’s just down to your priorities. If you’re happy to work a bit harder on your website to craft a unique site, then this website builder will allow you to do just that. It’s all there in the name.
The interface is easy to use once you get the hang of it. A 14-day free trial and a free site option will give you plenty of time to master it before parting with any cash. Another bonus is that you can switch templates without losing content, so you can swap it with minimum upheaval if one isn’t working for you.
The free and cheaper plans are great for personal users and landing pages. In contrast, the more expensive plans offer many eCommerce features. However, there are better eCommerce offerings out there, so if you’re thinking of building a big site and anticipate lots of traffic, then maybe shop around first.
I would still recommend trying the 14-day free trial. Ucraft might be able to provide what you’re looking for, and the eCommerce plan is reasonably priced.
Ready to give Ucraft a try?
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