out of 5 stars by
AppAppeal Editor
Jimdo is an online web editor which makes it easy and quick to build websites even if you don’t know any specialist knowledge. It’s possible to incorporate multimedia components and customize the look and feel of your site. Jimdo has a nice AJAX interface and it also has a nice feature to copy the designs of other sites. The interface is very simple which makes it ideal for people that know nothing about building websites. Jimdo was initially aimed at businesses, however soon after a consumer version was released. This is available in seven languages including Chinese, English, German, Spanish, Italian and Russian. Jimdo Free is the free version of the site; this does not have the option of using your own domain name. It also comes with some adverts; however the adverts don’t really get in the way as they are only two links. Jimdo Pro makes it possible for you to host your site without adverts and it’s also free of all adverts.
Jimdo was founded in March 2007 by Fridtjof Detzner, Matthias Henze, and Christian Springub. Additional features have been added on a regular basis; in March 2008 social features were added, in May of the same year a blogging platform was released. This has made it possible for users to build their own blogs. Competitors of Jimdo include Real Editor, Synthasite, Sampa and Weebly. Jimdo currently has over 100,000 users in lots of different countries thanks to the site being available in so many different languages.
Unlike other applications you have to log on in two stages, you also can’t log in for the first time unless you click the link in your email. Having to log in and then change your password is also quite annoying. The drag and drop features are very nice, and that part of the application does work very well. One very nice feature is the ability to copy other sites designs without having to do anything difficult.
The application is ok to use, the most annoying bit is logging into the application in the first place. Instead of being allowed to enter your username and password together you must enter your username, click a button and then type in your password. It takes some time to understand how to edit a website and change settings.
Creating your own account with Jimdo is very easy; it just involves picking a username and then entering it along with your email address on the main page of the site. Your username will form your URL you will get yourusername.jimdo.com. Once you have doe that you will then be sent an email which you need to read to get your password. You also get the option of upgrading to a jimdo pro account. Once you have received the email you need to click on the link and log in to accept the terms and conditions, rather annoyingly you cannot use the login link on the site, you must waste time visiting the link in the email. Also being given an automatically generated password is very irritating.
There are two different types of subscription, a free account known as jimdo free, and jimdo pro which costs $5 per month. Jimdo pro makes it possible to use jimdo with your own domain name, offers more storage, and also removes adverts.
Jimdo is a nice application that can be used by anyone wanting to build websites quickly and easily. It’s great for people that don’t know how to build websites but still want to build their own presence on the internet. There are other web cms applications available with an easier interface.
English
Spanish
French
German
Dutch
Portuguese
Chinese
Russian
Japanese
Italian
Twitter followers:
4,643
FC2
Weebly
Webs
Wix
uCoz
Squarespace
AngelFire
Homestead
Webnode
About.me
on 10 May 2012 at 03:10
I’ve done three Jimdo sites, two for a previous employer and a personal site. I had used Wix for my past employer’s two commercial sites last year and found the page load times excessive, (up to 13-seconds). The replacement Jimdo sites load in less then 5-seconds or less even with loads of pictures, second load is 1.5 seconds My personal site loads in just under 2-seconds. Fast loading is very important if you want to keep a possible viewer interested, even worse if you are using a poor internet connection. I must of tried at least 10-15 different WCMS sites. Some OK, others with crazy pricing, or just lousy editors. Jimdo seemed to be a good choice in the end. Many WCMS are a bit crazy for pricing $20 or more month.. can’t see it. Jimdo is $5/month. Jimdo’s editor is not as sophisticated as Wix’s flash editor, and there are many opportunities for Jimdo to add enhancements. The templates are OK, but many do not have 100% editing available. A bit more flexibly with the main structure would be nice, such as switching navigation side to side, or adjusting footer heights, or side bar widths. Why things like background images or colors are not changeable on some templates is beyond me(???). Jimdo’s page password system is why I selected them for my personal site. One password for all users was my intention. Other WCMS sites required a user name and password, too complicated for my need but could be what other WCMS users would want. I have experience with Front Page, and find Jimdo or Wix is much less work to get the similar or better result. With Jimdo, the elements stack one on another, and simple to move them around. Gallery works great. You can add scripts, widgets, and edit head. More selection of elements and flexibility would be nice. The best part of Jimdo is each site automatically creates a mobile version. For example, with Wix you need to build a completely separate mobile site just to have a mobile version.. too much hassle, too much extra time and great opportunities to have differences between the sites, such as copy errors or simply changes you forgot to add to both sites. Not good if you have prices for items you are selling, and the two sites have different prices. With Jimdo, you make a change to your regular site, and your mobile version is exactly the same.. easy… no extra work, no worries. The login process with Iimdo is actually good. You can leave a Login link on your home page footer, or remove it. If you remove it, you go to Jimdo.com, and login there for editing. That way your website’s viewer will not see a login link and a Jimdo labelled login box (if they click on it), so if you used a WCMS or conventional web design software is not apparent to viewer. Just recently the login at Jimdo.com has been changed and Firefox can save login/password, so that’s faster too. Jimdo tech support is decent. It could be a day or so before an answer, but they do get back to you. No issues for me at all. Very good experience, no quibbling from me. Reading comments about Wix, and their tech support, most issues were from users not being careful when editing. Just mousing over your page in Wix can, out of control, move the elements all around or totally out of view. Wix has a locking feature for each element, that obviously a lot of Wix users are not using but causing themselves grief, and further wining about tech support.. Jimdo doesn’t have this issue as each element stacks like bricks on each other element, don’t slide around as easy. Less hassle again. What would be nice is a back-up feature as some other WCMS have. I think Webnode offers a copy of your site beside the one you are using. If you make a major error, you can recover. Plus pictures are not stored on Jimdo’s site, so you need to upload each picture, each time. They have a Dropbox link there for this purpose, but I haven’t tired it yet. After finding a Jimdo help link about spell checking, I added” After the Deadline” to Firefox to spell check my Jimdo elements. (super thing to have in Firefox, works with any form box) Another thing I’d like is an “undo”. I guess because Jimdo’s sites are live, no publishing button. You make a change, it’s published when you finish editing that element. Everyone makes mistakes or jus t don’ t like a change you just made..an “undo” would be great. Paying for Jimdo is easy, and they also accept Paypal and credit cards (I don’t like online credit card use) Wix requires a credit card only, and this created a bunch of online complaints about extra billing by Wix because of the ease of adding credit card charges once they have the numbers. For Wix I used a prepaid credit card loaded with just enough money to prevent this. A second unwanted charge would just tank due to lack of funds on card. Jimdo takes Paypal and for me, Paypal is much more secure, as an invoice or subscription is required, so no extra billing happens.. I noted on Wix’s site they need to add Paypal, but they aren’t interested, probably because Paypal cost them more. The next thing is with all WCMS, is the lack of need for software, no updates required, and access to the site at any internet connection. No need to go to a dedicated machine and FTP changes to server. Simply login, make changes, done.. If you are supporting a business’s site, the business owner should be happy no software is needed…. And who needs programming, especially for simple sites. Anyway, three months in with Jimdo, and no issues to complain about. Good value, good fast loading sites, few technical issues, decent tech support, very honest billing practices. I do recommend Jimdo…
on 23 Apr 2012 at 08:19
on 22 Mar 2012 at 15:48
on 07 Feb 2012 at 23:22
on 07 Feb 2012 at 23:18
on 06 Sep 2011 at 08:58
on 30 Aug 2011 at 03:44
on 02 Dec 2010 at 11:58
on 01 Dec 2010 at 11:26