Ucraft Review
Flexible blocks editor, good for users with an eye for design
Ucraft is a CMS itself, based on our own vision for UI and UX. It is a responsive, drag and drop CMS designed for non-technical people wishing to start their websites instantly. Also, Ucraft is built as SaaS (software as a service) which means that it’s subscription based. All you need to do is access Ucraft editor online without any installations or additional requirements. Their official website is a perfect demonstration of how the system’s features and tools can be put to use, because it is also developed with Ucraft. The platform allows creating responsive websites with popular flat design and full-screen blocks.
Ucraft created the Designer Tools so that users can fine tune every HTML element exactly as they want. It doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced designer or know nothing about coding — you can use the tools just as easily as their website editor. It contains three main tools, namely: Typography, which lets you tinker everything font-related; UiKit, which lets you customize form fields and buttons; and Layout, where you can customize every single detail about the layout. This app costs a one-time fee of $2.99, which is really dirt-cheap considering what you are getting.
Features
Free hosting and custom domain name: Your free website needs a home and a name, which is why Ucraft also provides you with a free hosting and domain. Ucraft gives the opportunity to its registered users to connect their own domains to their ucraft website for free. If you have an existing domain, you can connect it to your website. Ucraft website builder gives you secure and reliable, free hosting with cloud technology from Google! It’s needless to say that Google Cloud hosting is amongst the most reliable on the market so your website will be in good hands.
Drag and drop: Ucraft is based on drag and drop feature, which means you can simply choose the desired element from the Elements section and drop it wherever you want. Blocks are pre-designed elements in the Ucraft’s builder that can be placed into your page as is. The main advantage of blocks is that they already look beautiful and you don’t have to spend time designing the required sections from scratch. Ucraft has a neat feature I've never seen anywhere before and that is Colors. With Colors, you can change the appearance of any of your elements simply by dragging a color circle and dropping it on the desired element. All the changes made on your site are being saved automatically, so all you need to do is play around, add your preferable elements, blocks of effects and customize them to meet your expectations and enjoy the creative process. Ucraft provides you with the capability to add animation effects to your web elements. You can fade them in, up, down, etc., or add a parallax effect to your background. The progress bar will tell you what you have completed in the website building process and what still remains. This is represented by a battery icon which is filled as you progress.
Designer Tools: Ucraft created the Designer Tools so that users can fine tune every HTML element exactly as they want. The Designer Tools package is comprised of three different comprehensive tools: Typography, which lets you tinker everything font-related; UiKit, which lets you customize form fields and buttons; and Layout, where you can customize every single detail about the layout. You can edit everything from fonts, size and spacing to color shades and opacity levels. With this tool, you can edit most of your settings in one place without having to go through each element manually. After enabling the Designer Tool you’ll also see black and green spots when you hover over the edge of a section. You can use them to manage the distance between sections, making sure each one has enough white space. This app costs a one-time fee of $2.99, which is really dirt-cheap considering what you are getting.
SEO App: When creating a website every single block and element is important to make an overall impression. That being said, titles and descriptions of your pages are one of those points that definitely shouldn’t be neglected as those elements are vital when it comes to your site's visibility on web and getting more traffic to the website. With the help of the SEO app your website will be ready to climb the SERPs. The SEO app lists all of your pages on your website and lets you adjust some of the SEO settings such as page title, meta description, and content for the meta robots tag. You can also choose a page image, which would appear when you share your site on social media.
Languages App: If your audience comes from various countries, you definitely need to address your message in different languages. Ucraft made that easy for you with the Languages App that lets you create duplicate versions of your website instantly. When you add your second language, the system automatically duplicates all your existing pages, including your headings/anchors/external pages in your Pages app to make it super easy for you to translate their names as well as the content on those pages. When you create new pages in your Default language(English) in future, the system will bring that page to your other languages as inactive! Now when your pages are cloned to second language, you may go to that pages directly and start translating the content. Use all the tools that you were previously using in your English version to edit/add/remove the elements.
Third-party Integrations: Integrate your Ucraft site with popular tools such as Shopify, Google Analytics, Disqus, Hotjar, Hello Bar, and more. Make sure you explore all the advantages offered and let your site benefit from the Integrations available. Let's get started with the integration with Shopify, that gives you a chance of having E-commerce functionality right on your Ucraft website. Create Hello Bars that show the right message at the right time to your website visitors. Hotjar is a new and easy way to truly understand your web and mobile site visitors. Intercom is a fundamentally new way for internet businesses to communicate with customers, personally, at scale. And now,last but not least: Google Analytics, that will enable tracking your site's visitors easily with the help of Google Analitics Tracking ID.
Articles App for creative bloggers: When you start a blog, it will most certainly boost the number of visits to your website and reach a larger audience to market your product and services. People reading your blog are most likely your potential customers. Use that to your advantage and convert them into leads and eventually customers. If you love writing/blogging, then the Articles App is just the thing for you. This tool lets you publish a blog or a news section within your site or create a blog. Mighty features to create a blog: Social Sharing, SEO & Social-friendly, Commenting System, Rich Text Editor.
Ecommerce Website Builder (Shopify App): Shopify is the most powerful ecommerce software on the planet that helps you kick off your brand and sell online in minutes! Shopify App is based on an integration with this fantastic E-commerce software, that gives you a chance to turn your business vision into online reality. You'll find all the Shopify Elements needed to create a great shop in the Elements section on the Left Panel.
Custom HTML: Want to add a specific HTML Code to your site? To get started, just drag and drop the ‘Custom HTML’ icon from the Elements section to the crafting area. Please note, that it will go active once you've connected a Custom Domain to your Ucraft website.
Team App: Ucraft gives you the opportunity to make your website better with the help of great collaborations. Here you have the chance to create your own team who will work on improving the website design and content. You can give your teammates particular roles and achieve your desired results.
Customer Support: Ucraft’s customer support comes in the form of an FAQ, a knowledge base, and live chat. My live chat query was answered within an hour by one of Ucraft’s perky millennials.
Pricing
For Starters (Free)
1 Page website with predefined template. Connect your domain for free
- Free plan
- 1 page
- Edit Content
- Connect Your Custom Domain
- SEO App
- Call Your Team
- Free Hosting
- Support
- Ucraft Watermark
For Builders
$8 / month
or $ 77 / year (20% discount + 1 custom domain)
- 1 website/ Unlimited pages
- Edit/ Add Content
- Connect Your Custom Domain
- Multilingual Website
- Articles app
- SEO App
- Connect Your Online Shop
- Call Your Team
- Free Hosting
- 15+ Integrations
- 24/7 Support
Lifetime
$ 149 / lifetime
You get a URL hosted with Ucraft as long as we survive
- 1 website/ Unlimited pages
- Edit/ Add Content
- Connect Your Custom Domain
- Multilingual Website
- Articles app
- SEO App
- Connect Your Online Shop
- Call Your Team
- Free Hosting
- 15+ Integrations
- 24/7 Support
Try Ucraft for free
Conclusion
Pros
Ease of Use: Even if you have zero website building experience you will master Ucraft quickly. The interface looks stylish and modern, it will appeal to the majority of users.
Lifetime plans for one-time flat fee. Instead of paying either a monthly or annual subscription, you can now make a one-time purchase and own your sites forever.
Free website together with free hosting and domain. Ucraft free web hosting gives you unlimited disk storage and data transfer so you can scale your business. If you have an existing domain, you can connect it for no charge to your website with a free subscription (not something most website builders allow).
The support team is very nice and quick to respond and replies. They consider to what you have to say and also pass on information very quickly to the dev team. Even though they are a startup they are worth investing in as they rapidly adapt to suggested ideas and consider it to improve their services.
Nice SEO-optimization tools that are available for each article, page, and website in general.
Cons
Sometimes I was able to adjust the padding for blocks but other times not (for example, on this header block). Other times I would hit invisible barriers when trying to expand columns.
Does not have a proprietary eCommerce solution. This means that there can be bugs and flaws in the system – something no web store owner should have to deal with.
This is truly an excellent tool and I'm very excited by how simple and easy to use it is. Things feel like they were put together given a lot of thought and the user interface is one of the best I've seen to date. Packed with great features and a really excellent builder tool, it has the chops to contend with some of the leaders in the field. Still, some of the features such as eCommerce and the baffling charge for the extra design tools makes us recommend it only to users looking for a great platform on which to start a blog, build a portfolio, or create a landing page for a business. We have high hopes for this website builder in the future as it continues to be updated with bigger and better features.