Yola
Website Building and Hosting
Rated
4
out of 5 stars by
AppAppeal Editor
What can you use the app for?
Yola (formerly SynthaSite) is an application that’s designed to make building websites really quick and easy. Traditional tools to build websites were always very complicated, however using synthasite is simply a matter of dragging and dropping various components around and designing your website. Unlike a number of other online site designers this one produces very high quality, professional looking websites that you will be proud to show off to everyone. The website can also be hosted for free which is another unique idea.
What is the history and popularity of the app?
Synthasite was founded in 2007 by Vinny Lingham, Brent Viljoen, Trevor Harries-Jones, Peter Bodechtel, and Stefan Lourens. The site raised $25 million in funding from a number of different sources including Reinet Fund. It’s a very popular site and its competitors include Wix, Jimdo and MindTouch. In 2008 they acquired Clickpass which is designed to make OpenID easy and accessible to the masses. SynthaSite changed it's name to Yola in March 2009.
What are the differences to other apps?
Yola offers a number of differences over other online web designers. This service offers free hosting and it’s possible to create websites by doing nothing more than pointing and clicking. You can then easily upload this site to your own hosting account, or host it for free on their servers. The whole system and process is very easy to use, you don’t need to know how to build websites, all you need to do is point, click and drag objects around to create your site. There’s no need to use expensive tools, or spend time learning complicated programming languages.
How does the web app look and feel to use?
Yola has a very attractive design, the design is very clean and it’s very easy to find out where you need to click to do various things. Creating a website with Yola is very easy; all you need to do is name it, then select one of the many templates. You can also customize some of the templates by selecting different color pallets. The site is a little slow at times, but this is to be expected as what it is doing is actually fairly complex. As soon as you have chosen your template you can then set to work dragging various components onto the screen. There is a toolbox at the right hand side that contains all of the different types of content. It also incorporates with PayPal for online shopping cart functions.
How does the registration process work?
Registering for an account with Yola doesn’t take very long; you just need to fill out the form on the main page. After you have done this you will be able to start building your own site, you are walked through a number of different options to set your site up exactly how you want it.
What does it cost to use the application?
Everything is free on the site except for domain names. Every account comes with free hosting and free website design tools. You also get a sub domain to access your sites through (xxx.yola.com), however if you want a domain name then you will have to buy one. Buying a domain name from yola will cost $19.95 per year; however you can get a domain name from anywhere else if you want to at a much lower price.
Who would you recommend the application to?
Yola is a fantastic application which is ideal for anyone who wants to build websites but lacks the time or inclination to build their own sites from scratch. Because there are so many templates on offer it’s pretty easy to build unique sites even though you’re using templates. It’s also possible to create sites that look professional and are very high quality.
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Create sites by clicking and dragging
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Free hosting
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Domain names available upon request
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Sites can be downloaded to your computer
Published on
04/15/2009
English
Spanish
French
German
Portuguese
Italian
Website
http://www.yola.com/
Permanently free version
on 04 Jan 2012 at 19:32
on 20 Dec 2011 at 04:16
I LOVE YOLA! I had made websites before but they didn't quite satisfy me. I tried Weebly, Webs, and many others but I couldn't find the right one. One day, I was being bored on the computer when I decided to look at sites. I remembered a website my siblings and I had made a long time ago and I wanted to check it out. I was looking at it when I noticed the domain host: YOLA! Actually at the time it was made it was SynthaSite but when i went to the website for Yola it was-obviously-Yola! I tried it out and LOVED IT!!! I SOOOOO recommend Yola! LOVE IT!
on 16 Nov 2011 at 22:26
Yola support is a complete joke! If your site has an issue, you will be waiting more than 1 week for them to even begin looking at the issue, no matter how small the problem. Best to search another provider. These guys are just HORRIBLE at fixing problems.
on 22 Oct 2011 at 01:10
Absolutely fantastic if you are looking for a completely flat home made looking web site which has all the features of one of those freebee blogs you see all over the net. Yola makes sure that anything that remotely looks good or professional is for those who upgrade. Even then the choices are limited. All the hype and adds from that guy from the Dragons Den should have given given me a red flag before I started dicking around trying to make the Basic look like something potential customers would respond to. This is a perfect example of “you get what you pay for”. You pay nothing and guess what? You get what you pay for. If you don’t care what you look like on the net, go for basic. If you do care, get a proper web designer. As for the promotions associated with this company, I will admit that I am pissed. They make it sound like they are here to help the poor lowly wannabe entrepreneur. They are there to take your money, pure and simple. I hate false advertising and being lied to. Also, be prepared to be inundated with emails from Yola once you joined. All neatly disguised as messages to help you succeed.
on 11 Oct 2011 at 23:02
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on 11 Jun 2011 at 16:34
I've used yola for a year, using their free account. No complaints here; all I need is something basic. Commenting here to give a huge 5 star rating to their customer service - I recently renewed my domain name and something hit a snag in their payment department, resulting in the renewal being missed and for a day I couldn't access my page. When I contacted them, they had the problem fixed within 24 hours - AND by way of apology, they renewed my domain for FIVE years at no extra cost. I had not asked for or expected anything of the kind. Thank you, Yola - you have a lifelong fan.
on 07 Jun 2011 at 00:25
I've been using yola for two days and have half my site built. It's a great tool for what it is, however if you're trying to have a fully functioning site were everything is perfect, try something else. The free versions, including the paid accounts are BASIC websites. What do you want for free? Seriously? It's a free website maker that is very customizable. A great tool for someone trying to get a start up.
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