Beautiful Free Web Design Templates [SimpleSite Review 2021]

Wow, wow! That was my reaction to the beautiful free web design templates on offer at SimpleSite.com!

Their designs are:

• very eye-catching,
• the colours are incredible and
• they truly do live up to their name – SimpleSite!
• How?
  • they make it as simple as possible for a newcomer to create their first website.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying they are the be-all and end-all of website building platforms, that is merely my first take.  You know they say that first impressions count, right? Well, let us delve a little deeper and see if there is substance to what appears to be an awesome website-building opportunity!

SimpleSite Review 2021

Introduction and Summary

As I mentioned above, I am very impressed with the beautiful free web design templates available at SimpleSite.

They are true to their word in the simplicity of everything they offer: the ease of use within the platform and, the user experience is awesome too.  And the designs, oh wow, I love them.

Let’s scratch below the surface though and have an in-depth look at everything they have to offer.  You may be looking for the beauty in the free web design templates, but there has to be more to keep one signed up with a platform.

Let’s ensure that SimpleSite tick all the boxes for us.

My initial take is this:

• Simple Site could be best for complete beginners;
• People who are seeking the gorgeous look and feel
• Without having to concern themselves with actual designing skills

I suspect that if you are looking for a really powerful website, SimpleSite may not be the right place for you. Let’s not judge too soon though. Stay with me as we dig deeper.

Overview: SimpleSite At A Glance

Name:	SimpleSite
Website:	simplesite.com
Price:	Basic: Free; Pro: US$15.49 per month; E-Commerce: US$30.49 per month
Owners:	Morten and Jacob Elk, Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded:	2003
Overall Rank:	6,5 out of 10

The SimpleSite Review – Beautiful Free Web Design Templates

Thank you for taking the time to have a look at the SimpleSite Review, put together especially for you.

My wish is that this review will assist you in making the best decision for your needs.

Sometimes it is better to look for more than just beautiful free web design templates so you are wise to do your research before building your website.

Let’s get into it …

I have gone into the SimpleSite website and tried out their system. Below you will see the welcome you receive at SimpleSite and they certainly do make the process as easy as pie.

As can be seen below, you have the choice of Personal/Blog or Business or Other. I first opted for Personal/Blog to see what I would get.

Have a look at this layout, I am sure you can see why I got so excited!

It’s a beautifully classic look.  Gorgeous feature image and easy-on-the-eye layout.

This platform certainly makes it as easy as can be for you to simply click and select everything you need:

• from the colour palette (on the left, you select your colour theme and it can be changed later if you’re not happy),
• you get to view how well the theme is optimized on the different devices (desktop, tablet and mobile phone);
• it prompts you with what page you’re on, to your title to “I’m a paragraph”. Just clever.
• You do not even need to think about your social media buttons, which designs to choose, where to place them – that is already done for you. I really like it. 

Not everyone appreciates the value of a done-for-you version, I understand. that.

Layout & Colour Theme Selection

Image Selection

From there you go on to select an image for your site.  Again, this can be changed later.

Within the platform, you have access to free images via pixabay.  There’s a wide range of gorgeous images to choose from.  No matter what you are going to be blogging about, there will be images perfect for your site.

You do not even need to scroll through all the images, you can type in something to search for too.

I love traveling and sun scenes (sets or rises) so I stayed with the feature image they had in default. 

The next thing you need to do is give your website a title and after clicking that you are prompted to move to the next stage where your Username needs to be added into the mix too.

Selecting Your User Name

At the next screen, you type in your username of choice. Don’t you appreciate just how easy their layout is to navigate?

I certainly do. Click OK in the bottom right hand and continue.

I went back and changed the image because I also love “Flutterbyes”.  They’re amazing the way they transform from caterpillars to cocoons to butterflies.

Just like a website does as you create it. How pretty is this butterfly?

Selecting Your User and Site Name

Onto name selection and I hit a little glitch.  My “Flutterbye’s” name was taken.

So, I changed the name to “Flutterbayes” and the next cool thing that happened was a website domain suggestion of www.flutterbayes.com which is perfect for the name I selected.

In real life I would not select the name or domain “flutterbayes.com” purely because the average man or woman on the street will not know what “Flutterbayes” are.

As you are researching building your website?  Here is a piece I wrote about how to find the best domain name.   Have a read, it’s interesting.

The dotcom option is the best choice so it’s great to see that SimpleSite offers that first too.

 

 

 

 

 

The Last Step: Sign Up With SimpleSite

The last step you take before your website goes live online is to sign up with Simple Site.

They give you more than one option for that. You can sign up with Facebook or with your Email address.

As I was doing this for demo purposes only, I didn’t take that last step of course.

Business Options

Curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to also look at the business options offered at SimpleSite.com.

As you can see below you have the options of:

• All Templates (36);
• Cafes & Restaurants (6);
• Online Stores (10);
• Physical Stores (12);
• Service Businesses (20); and
• Generic Templates (3).

The numbers in brackets are how many templates they have per option, that is a decent number of options to choose from.

I particularly loved The Candy Rush option, being a candy lover plus, the colours appealed to me.

Under the Online Shops option SimpleSite offers a lovely array of options, they’re listed below:

• Candy,
• Children’s Clothes,
• Electronics,
• Handmade Accessories,
• Home Decor,
• Novel Jewelry,
• Generic Online Store,
• Potters,
• Toy Animals,
• Vintage Clothing.

The colours are absolutely gorgeous, they offer awesome layouts, great designs, and clever ideas.

They promise simple and deliver on that promise, plus more when it comes to the designs on offer.

Overview: SimpleSite.com At A Glance:

Name:	SimpleSite
Website:	simplesite.com
Price:	Basic: Free; Pro: US$15.49 per month; E-Commerce: US$30.49 per month
Owners:	Morten and Jacob Elk, Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded:	2003
Overall Rank:	6,5 out of 10

The Good & the Bad

The Good:

Pro #1 Available in multiple languages,

Pro #2 Gorgeous templates available

Pro #3 Very user-friendly, especially good for beginners

Pro #4 Mobile optimization is included and works extremely well

Pro #5 SimpleSite offers the functionality for you to manage your site from your mobile, without downloading an app

Pro #6 When you purchase a domain at SimpleSite, you also get five email addresses included, with your site name

The Bad:

Con #1 Limited number of designs available

Con #2 Customization of the site templates is restricted

Con #3 Limited customer support

Con #4 Paid plans are not the best value for money in the market

Con #5 Once you select a theme, it cannot be changed to a new theme, adjustments to layout can be made but theme changes require rebuilding it from scratch.

Who is SimpleSite For?

SimpleSite is great for beginners.

If you are experienced in web design, SimpleSite will definitely not be for you as the imitations within this platform will frustrate you.

I would recommend SimpleSite for people looking to play about online and create their first website without having to truly learn the back end and workings of building a website.

It would be perfect for you if you are not serious about building a powerful online empire. Here are some ideas of whom SimpleSite is best for:

• Social or sports club (events, news, calendar etc)
• Hobby or craft club
• Your personal blog
• A one-off event
• A Scholar could make use of it for a school project
• A very simple store (the online store is limited to only 5 items with the free website option)
• Business services (pet sitting, home repairs etc)
• The local town library

SimpleSite Tools & Training

As you can see in the demonstration I gave above, not much training is needed at all to build your first website with SimpleSite.

They really have made it a “plug and play” or “drag and drop” system.

So I decided rather to share a look at the themes they offer in this section, pretty cool:

Below you will find designs for:

• Restaurants,
• Your CV,
• A Fashion Blog,
• Contemporary Business, Craft,
• Author & Book Store,
• Blank Company Template,
• Senior Home Care Services,
• A Personal Blog,
• Family Photographs,
• Crafty Blog and
• Food Blog.

They are not necessarily the best in the online world but they are respectably beautiful designs if you ask me.

SimpleSites have delivered on their promise in my humble opinion.

Just keep in mind, if you want to make major changes to these designs, it will be problematic so ensure that whatever you choose is what you are going to remain happy with. 

Either that or accept the reality that if you decide to change the design, you are back to the drawing board.

Training within SimpleSite

SimpleSite offers a wide range of video tutorials on their YouTube channel, here is an idea of what I have seen available online:

• How To Create A Website With Simplesite
• How to Add A Photo Album Page
• How To Enable Visitor Counter and Comments
• How To Add A Map Section
• How to Add A Signature

If you are an experienced web designer you will recognize that those tutorials cover beginner training.

However, you want to start a family travel website, all of this will really appeal to you.

I would love to have a family website where we can all share our travels with each other. Great idea!

For a Travel Blog website where you may be looking to monetize the blog, I do not believe that SimpleSite will provide you with everything you need.

Here is My Number 1 Recommendation will provide the training and tools you would need to build a profitable online business.

SimpleSite Pricing

SimpleSite offers three price points with different facilities offered at each level:

BASIC – FREE

• SimpleSite ads shown
• 15 pages
• Limited design options
• 5 online store products
• Mobile-Optimized

PRO – US$15.49 per month (billed monthly)

• Free domain (US$15 value)
• No ads
• Unlimited pages
• Unlimited images
• Unlimited video minutes
• All design options
• 5 online store products
• Mobile-Optimized
• 5 email addresses

E-COMMERCE – US$30.49 per month (billed monthly)

• Free domain (US$15 value)
• No ads
• Unlimited pages
• Unlimited images
• Unlimited video minutes
• All design options
• Unlimited online store products
• Mobile-optimized
• 5 email addresses

The pricing and facilities offered are not bad, I would not recommend this option for E-Commerce stories or a professional website because the training and support are easily improved on with other platforms.

SiteRubix for one is a great alternative for more reasons than just these two.

Overview: SimpleSite.com At A Glance:

Name:	SimpleSite
Website:	simplesite.com
Price:	Basic: Free; Pro: US$15.49 per month; E-Commerce: US$30.49 per month
Owners:	Morten and Jacob Elk, Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded:	2003
Overall Rank:	6,5 out of 10

My Final Opinion of SimpleSite

I started out very excited about the beautiful designs offered by SimpleSite – and they truly are beautiful.

SimpleSite is perfect if you are just starting out building a website.

Would I recommend SimpleSite for a business site, even a small business site?  No, I wouldn’t.

I do believe you could create something really beautiful and start a business with SimpleSite.  The challenges will come when you are looking to scale your business.

When you scale your online business your website will need additional functionality, and that is not available with SimpleSite.

If you started with SimpleSite and your business is a roaring success, you would need to build another website from scratch. That is a lot of work and man-hours to put into something you will need to do all over again.l

If you are looking to create a site for any of the options listed above under “Who Is SimpleSite For?” then I highly recommend SimpleSite.

Their product offering is sound, simple and beautiful, just the way we started: Beautiful Free Web Design Templates.

If, however, you are looking to build a business website with a view to scaling your online business, I would guide you to My Number One Recommendation.

That is where you will find everything you need:

• to build and scale your online business – starting from beginner level,
• to learn – training is seriously fabulous,
• an awesome community of like-minded entrepreneurs willing to help you out 24/7,
• incredible site support 24/7/365
• site security and so much more!

I love to hear from my readers – what do you think of this review?

Have I been comprehensive enough? Is there enough information available for you to make a decision? What are your thoughts about SimpleSite? Would you recommend another website platform if so, which one would it be?

Let me know in the comments section below.

Blessings