Are you looking for a website builder that offers more options and flexibility than Showit?

In this article, we’ll explore the reasons why you might want to consider other providers when it comes to building your website. While Showit is a popular choice, there are alternative platforms out there that may better suit your specific needs.

Whether you’re in search of advanced customization features, e-commerce capabilities, or a more budget-friendly option, we’ve got you covered. Let’s dive in and discover the possibilities beyond Showit!

What is Showit?

Showit is a website builder platform that allows users to create and design websites using a visual drag-and-drop interface. Unlike traditional website builders that rely on coding or templates, Showit allows users to freely move web design elements like images and text around the page, giving a similar experience to Adobe Illustrator or Wix. The user interface is fairly intuitive and easy to learn if you have previous graphic design skills. Showit is popular among photographers, designers, and creative professionals who want to design freely without needing to learn to code.

Why is Showit popular among photographers?

Showit is popular among photographers for several reasons, including its drag-and-drop page builder, ease of design, and decent support service. Let’s explore why these features are important to photographers:

Drag & drop page builder

Showit’s drag-and-drop page builder allows photographers to create and customize their websites without any coding knowledge. With the drag-and-drop functionality, they can arrange and rearrange elements such as images, galleries, and text blocks on their website visually. This flexibility enables photographers to showcase their work in a way that is visually appealing and unique.

Beautiful designs

Showit includes some free professionally designed templates tailored specifically for photographers. Showit also has a marketplace with hundreds of other premium templates which you can buy from designers. Photographers can choose from different styles and layouts that suit their niche or personal style, ensuring that their website reflects their artistic vision.

Decent support service

Showit is known for its helpful customer support. Showit’s support team is available via chat to assist users with any questions, issues, or customization needs they may have. This level of support ensures that photographers can confidently use the platform and receive timely assistance if they encounter any difficulties during the website creation process.

What are the cons of using Showit?

Limited SEO & performance

Achieving good SEO results and ranking for chosen keywords can be challenging for Google to discover and crawl Showit pages properly because they are not based on the default WordPress editor. Showit is also generally slower than other themes like Kadence, which are performance and SEO focused. The Showit page editor does offer areas to input SEO terms but the main editing interface isn’t compatible with familiar SEO plugins.

Showit is not based on the Gutenberg editor

Showit pages are built using a proprietary front end page builder which means that your content cannot easily be exported to other platforms. The Gutenberg editor or block builder is a universal editing system and it the best way of protecting your content in the long run because it forms the core editor of every WordPress theme. Whilst the blog part of Showit is based on WordPress, the WordPress area is styled using the Showit editor.

Showit is relatively expensive

Showit is a hosted platform (you can’t use your own hosting provider) and has limitations (custom plugins, custom code and other vital options are only available with the most expensive plan which is $39 / month or $408 / year). The themes and templates on offer are significantly more expensive that comparable WordPress templates and need to be purchased separately.

Showit Mobile design is limited to one breakpoint

It can be difficult to design a fully compliant mobile-first website, as Showit’s mobile builder only offers one breakpoint. This means that your website is displayed as scale across various devices rather than behaving responsively. The width of the design canvas also limits the width of certain design features.

What are the Best Showit Alternatives?

Kadence

KadenceWP is widely considered to be the best WordPress theme for photographers. The Kadence WordPress theme and blocks plugin together forms a powerful set of tools making it easy to design and customize photography websites built with WordPress. KadenceWP is a highly versatile theme and is paired with a collection of customizable blocks that work seamlessly with the Gutenberg block builder.

1. Kadence is lightweight and built with SEO in mind
The KadenceWP theme is a flexible WordPress theme that provides users with a solid foundation for building their websites. It offers a range of customization options, including layout settings, typography controls, color schemes, and more. The theme is optimized for speed and performance, ensuring a smooth user experience for website visitors. With its intuitive and user-friendly interface, the KadenceWP theme allows users to easily create visually appealing and professional-looking websites.

2. Kadence Theme works perfectly with Kadence Blocks
The Kadence Blocks plugin is a collection of custom blocks for the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg). These blocks enable users to add various content elements and design elements to their websites effortlessly. Some of the available blocks include galleries, testimonials, sliders, accordions, pricing tables, and more.

Each block comes with numerous customization options, allowing users to tailor the appearance and functionality of their website to their specific needs. The Kadence Blocks plugin enhances the versatility of the WordPress block editor, empowering users to create engaging and dynamic layouts without the need for complex coding or external plugins.

Together, the KadenceWP theme and blocks plugin provide users with a comprehensive toolkit for building and designing WordPress websites. Whether users are beginners or experienced developers, KadenceWP offers a streamlined and intuitive approach to website creation, making it a popular choice for individuals and businesses seeking flexibility, customization options, and a seamless editing experience within the WordPress ecosystem.

StyleCloud

StyleCloud is a collection of beautifully designed WordPress themes, layouts and blocks, designed to work with the free Kadence theme and Kadence Blocks plugin. As the name implies, the extensive collection stunning layouts and blocks are stored in the Cloud, meaning you only need to download what you need.

Current page builder users will know how hard it is to keep track of layouts and pages you might want to reuse or keep for later. StyleCloud solves that problem by providing a large library of carefully designed layout options which you can mix and match seamlessly to create your perfect site.

In addition all layouts have been professionally written with helpful copy prompts making it easy to insert your own copy and tweak it to use StyleCloud’s proven copy formulas.

You connect your site to the StyleCloud library with a simple key, which gives you visual access to all of the layouts. Download a layout or section and it will magically take on your website’s own colors and fonts.
StyleCloud is the perfect solution for photographers, web designers and small creative businesses.

Coaches and service providers are also well catered for, with a huge range of marketing sign up and landing pages.

The StyleCloud team are known for their ‘ridiculously helpful’ customer service and have received many glowing reviews. They are very responsive and have a multi-lingual support chat box on the website which is manned by a friendly and knowledgeable team.

The team behind StyleCloud also own the well-known theme company, The Design Space, and have years of experience selling WordPress themes and products.

Best features:

ProPhoto

ProPhoto is dedicated photography WordPress theme that has been around for a long time and is very well respected across the photography industry. ProPhoto has its own proprietary visual builder, that looks similar to Elementor or Divi.

As with most page builders, you can easily customize all of the colors, fonts and features and adjust layouts using the drag and drop interface.

Gallery options:
ProPhoto provides various gallery styles and layouts, allowing photographers to showcase their work in a visually captivating way. From grid layouts to masonry styles, you can choose the gallery format that best highlights your photographs.

Proofing and selling tools:
ProPhoto offers built-in proofing and selling tools, making it easy for photographers to share their work with clients and even sell prints or digital files directly from their website. This feature streamlines the entire client workflow and enhances the overall user experience.

In summary, ProPhoto is a feature-packed WordPress theme tailored for photographers, providing an array of customization options, responsive design, a user-friendly builder, gallery styles, proofing and selling tools.

Showit vs Kadence

What’s the difference between Showit and Kadence?
Showit and Kadence are both popular website building tools, but they have some key differences:

1. Functionality:
Showit is a visual drag-and-drop website builder that allows you to create highly customizable and visually stunning websites without any coding knowledge. It’s a good choice if you want to prioritise design and appearance over SEO results and performance.

On the other hand, Kadence is a WordPress theme builder that focuses on providing a lightweight, fast, and SEO-friendly platform for building websites. It offers a more structured approach to web design and is suitable for users who prefer working within the WordPress ecosystem.

2. Integration:
Showit is designed to work seamlessly with WordPress as a content management system (CMS). This means that while you can design your website in Showit, you will still need a WordPress hosting account to handle your website’s content which is included in your Showit subscription. This means you will need to log into our Showit website editor and your Showit WordPress blog in two different places and styling the blog area, using the Showit design system has something of a learning curve. In addition, unless you choose the highest subscription tier, you can only add a limited number of plugins.

Kadence, on the other hand, is a WordPress theme itself which means you’ll be using one simple system to design and manage all areas of your website. Kadence is lightweight and integrates with all plugins and extensions.

3. Pricing:
Showit operates on a subscription-based pricing model, with different plans available based on website needs and features. The pricing starts at a higher tier compared to Kadence. Kadence, being a WordPress theme, is generally more cost-effective with an a very affordable annual fee or a lifetime option.

Ultimately, the choice between Showit and Kadence depends on your specific needs, preferences, and skill set. If you prioritize design flexibility and want a visually appealing website without worrying about coding, Showit might be the better option. However, if you prefer working within the WordPress ecosystem and want a lightweight, fast, and SEO-friendly website, Kadence could be the right choice for you.

Showit vs StyleCloud

What’s the difference between Showit and StyleCloud?

1. Design Flexibility:
Showit is a favorite tool for graphic designers who want to build websites without needing to know any coding. The Showit interface is very visual, with a true drag and drop experience, but can lack flexibility when it comes to responsiveness. The width of the design canvas can limit some design options and their is only one mobile breakpoint.

On the other hand, StyleCloud offers a large collection of beautifully designed Kadence themes, layouts and blocks which you can mix and match in any combination giving plenty of design freedom. All of the layouts are completely customisable and it’s also easy to design your own layouts and sections from scratch.

StyleCloud has taken care to format all sections for tablet and mobile making it easy to get up and running quickly.

2. Functionality:
Showit is a drag-and-drop website builder that offers a visual interface where users can simply drag and drop elements onto their website canvas and customize them to their liking. Showit also includes a WordPress blog with limited functionality.

On the other hand, StyleCloud is a full-featured WordPress solution powered by the free Kadence theme and Kadence Blocks plugin. This means that any plugin that works with Kadence, will also work perfectly with StyleCloud. This includes popular plugins like WooCommerce, LifterLMS, Easy Digital Downloads plus popular form plugins like Fluent Forms, Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms.

StyleCloud layout have also been professional copywritten to give you a head start, and when you add an SEO plugin like Yoast, All In One SEO or SEOPress, then the you have the powerful combination of well-written copy structured for SEO success.

In summary, if you love the aesthetic and design feel of Showit and popular Showit templates, but want the power and performance of WordPress, then StyleCloud is a great choice for any photographer or creative.

4. Pricing:
As mentioned before Showit offers a subscription-based pricing model ($24 per month), with a basic and higher plan also available. However most Showit users end up buying a premium templates which cost considerably more than comparable WordPress themes. Most templates start at $250 and go as high as $2,000.

However, StyleCloud gives you access to 7 themes, 100+ layouts and 150+ section for just $169 per year, which is incredible value for money. StyleCloud also works with the free version of Kadence, so there are no hidden costs.
Note: you do still need to arrange and pay for your own WordPress hosting.

Showit vs ProPhoto

What’s the difference between Showit and ProPhoto?
Showit and ProPhoto are both popular dedicated photography website solutions, but they have some key differences in terms of features, design flexibility, and target audiences.

1. Design Flexibility:
Showit is known for its highly customizable drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to create unique designs without any coding knowledge. It offers complete creative freedom by combining a WordPress backend with a separate front-end builder. On the other hand, ProPhoto is more template-based, providing pre-designed templates that can be customized to fit your branding.

2. Overall Functionality:
Showit focuses on creating visually stunning websites with seamless integration of images, videos, and animations. It is particularly popular among photographers, designers, and creative professionals who want to showcase their work. ProPhoto, on the other hand, is specifically designed for photographers and offers various features like client proofing, password-protected galleries, pricing grids, and blogging capabilities.

3. WordPress Integration:
Showit relies on WordPress for content management, allowing users to leverage the power of WordPress for blogging and SEO optimization, while still enjoying the flexibility of the Showit visual editor. ProPhoto also integrates with WordPress, but it is primarily built as a WordPress theme, providing a more seamless experience with WordPress features and functionality.

4. Pricing:
Showit offers a subscription-based pricing model ($24 per month), with different plans available based on website needs and usage. ProPhoto also offers has a subscription model ($39 per month), which includes good quality WordPress hosting, and dedicated WordPress support from a friendly team.

Ultimately, the choice between Showit and ProPhoto depends on your specific needs, design preferences, and technical expertise. Showit is a great option for those seeking design freedom and creativity, while ProPhoto is tailored towards photographers looking for specialized features within a WordPress framework.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve looked at the best alternatives to Showit for photographers.

Best for design freedom: Showit

Ultimately, the choice comes down to whether you want to prioritise design freedom over performance and SEO success. If you want to only focus on design, then Showit is a great choice for you, but be prepared to work a lot harder to compete at SEO and other factors like site speed and Google indexing.

Best all in one solution: ProPhoto

If you want all of your online photography tools in one place, then ProPhoto is an excellent choice because it includes photography galleries and proofing tools. However, you are locked into ProPhoto’s own hosting and the plugins and performance that they permit or offer inside that hosting.

Best for design, performance & value for money: Kadence + StyleCloud

The free Kadence theme and blocks plugin combined with the extensive StyleCloud library of themes and layouts offers you the most design flexibility and still gives you complete control over your own hosting arrangements.

Because StyleCloud works with the free version of Kadence theme and blocks, there are no extra costs which makes it one of the cheapest and most stylish website solutions for photographers. With a growing library and truly excellent support, StyleCloud is one of the most popular website solutions for photographers and other creatives.