Easy to Use
Fully integrated blog and e-commerce solution
Stunning design templates
Custom Design option
True multilanguage site options
Voog is positioning itself as the website builder to beat. It offers the best solutions for those wanting multilanguage site options. This builder offers a simplified interface to make things as easy as possible for newbies, but also the option for more advanced users to take things up a notch.
Why not see for yourself using the free trial?
There are many different website building tools out there. Each one claims to be simple to use and easy to customise, even for those without programming skills or experience.
The developers at Voog make the same claims. But how accurate are these claims? Is the software really as simple to use as stated? We had to test it out for ourselves before creating this Voog review.
After all, the proof is in the pudding – or in this case the coding. Can you actually build a great site without any prior experience using this software? We decided to find out for ourselves. We took full advantage of the free trial period and put the software through its paces.
We created two sites. One was an e-commerce, and the other a standard service site. You may have read reviews before, but none quite like this one. We promise to be thorough so you can decide whether or not Voog is for you.
We found that the Voog website builder was simple to use once you got a handle on the different menus. The menus are pared down to present fewer options than most other builders. This makes it easier to get a handle on.
You just sign up for an account and get started. If you like, you can use the walkthrough, in the beginning, to show you exactly how everything works.
From there, choose the basic template and a dummy site is loaded. All you have to do is to select the different elements that you want to change.
So far, it is straightforward to use for the newbie. If you know a little something about coding, inserting custom elements is also simple enough.
You’ll know from our previous reviews that we’re not easily impressed. It’s exciting to create your first website from scratch as an amateur. As a reviewer, though, the novelty wears off quite quickly.
To be honest, most website building tools are pretty much the same. That’s why you should truly appreciate it when we say we were bowled over by one simple feature with the Voog website builder. Technically, it’s not even a feature – it’s more like a clever innovation that will make you wonder, “Why did no one else think of that?”
What are we going on about? There is no placeholder text. Yes, this seems like a strange thing to get excited about. But think about it for a second. Have you ever stumbled onto a webpage that’s got some weird Latin text in it?
How did you feel about the skills of the site builder? Did you trust the site or wonder if it was some kind of scam? That Latin text is simply placeholder text that the site builder forgot to take out.
It’s something that’s easy to do – if you’re building several pages, it’s easy to overlook a couple of paragraphs here or there. If there’s no text in these paragraphs, there’s also no glaringly obvious proof that you don’t really know what you’re doing.
All you have to do is to drag and drop your text or other elements in. If you forget a paragraph, it’s not a big deal. This made the whole Voog website builder review worthwhile for us.
Images are added using the Files tab. Adding individual images is simple enough. Just drag and drop them into place. Editing images is also pretty easy. Much like with WordPress, you need to upload them onto the interface before you can create a gallery.
There is no in-house image editor, so make sure that your photo looks great before adding it.
If you need to go back in later and edit content, it’s effortless. If you know your way around a basic Word document, you already have all the skills you need. The basic editing options have been simplified to make things easier for newbies.
If we compare Voog to other editors, the options may seem to be limited, but there’s everything that you need.
This is where we did feel a little let down. There are only 12 themes to choose from. They are free and look amazing, but that’s not exactly a huge range of choice.
On the upside, though, Voog has one developer template that is basically just a clean slate. So if none of the current templates appeals to you, you can create your own from scratch.
The themes are slick and modern and look awesome. They are harmonious and won’t cause too much eyestrain.
All of the preset themes are responsive and look awesome on mobile and desktop. We tested our new sites on an old iPhone 5, a Samsung Galaxy, a laptop, and a cheap old tablet. They performed well across all of these.
With the developer’s template, you’ll be creating the site from scratch, so take notice of what aspects a mobile-friendly site should have first. We’d advise you to design it for a mobile device first.
Unlike many other website builders out there, with Voog, your blog page is one of the default options when you sign up. You can run this page as your main blog or embed a link to your existing blog and set up an RSS feed.
But you really don’t need a separate blog site. You can easily add new blog posts from the main site. You start by naming the post and can then create a custom URL. Then the new post opens up.
Start by adding the tags you want to use and then move on to creating the post. You also have the opportunity to create an excerpt that could be used as a rich snippet.
You can opt to purchase a security certificate for one or all of your sites. You may also use a security certificate administered by another provider.
You can buy your domain name through the site, and the prices are average. You can also opt for a free Voog domain name, but then your site will have Voog in the address. Neither of these solutions comes with an email address option.
If you decide to create an e-commerce site, you’ll be able to input your own email address in there so that people can contact you.
There is no form builder as such. You have the option to select one simple contact form, and that’s about it. For this Voog review, we have to admit that this was a little bit of a disappointment.
The menu is nice and prominent on all pages and templates. No one should ever get lost on your site. The links work flawlessly and moving between the different pages on the site is easy.
This is all to the good as it helps your visitors navigate flawlessly.
The site has its own analytics software and also its own e-commerce platform, so you don’t really need it to integrate with much. You can integrate social sharing buttons if you prefer, and can also use Google Analytics to get more detailed information.
Aside from that, the integrated blog function is all you really need.
You can opt to open an e-commerce store. It’s pretty easy to set up and manage this section of the site. In terms of payment gateways, your options are limited – you can select PayPal or MakeCommerce.
This is where things get a little confusing and where Voog reviews might be handy. According to the site, those using Standard and Plus packages will also have to pay a 3% transaction fee. That does seem to be in addition to the transaction fee that you’re paying your payment provider.
So if you’re using PayPal, you’re looking at a total transaction fee of around 5%.
If you don’t want to use PayPal or the MakeCommerce gateway, then you can opt to send clients invoices. Any sales in terms of these invoices will be subject to the 3% charge if you’re not on the Premium Package.
The system default is to leave the invoicing up to you. If you decide to add PayPal or MakeCommerce, you’ll have to go to the Payments page and select MakeCommerce or Paypal. You’ll need to be registered as a merchant with both of those companies beforehand.
When it comes to the payment options, we’re a little conflicted. There’s no question that it’s tempting to stick to sending out your own invoices. It’ll save you a little in terms of costs, but you could also lose your business.
Think about it this way – when you buy online, you want to be able to pay as quickly and easily as possible, and you want to know what to pay immediately.
If you opt for invoicing the client, she’ll have first to wait for the invoice to see how much to pay and then set up the payment via their banks. These extra steps mean that the client has time to reconsider the purchase.
In our opinion, add at least PayPal as a payment option. You can still give her the option to pay on the presentation of an invoice, but PayPal makes it easier. Besides which, how many legit sites do you know that don’t have an automatic payment option built in?
Another feature that makes the Voog site builder so unique is that it allows you to create sites in different languages. It doesn’t have a built-in translator, so that means building other language sites up from scratch.
This is more work, but it also ensures that there are no facts lost in translation. The online translation services do a reasonable job, but we all know that they could be a whole lot better.
By creating the translation yourself, you ensure that everything moves carefully. The two most basic packages allow you to create sites in up to three languages. And it’s relatively simple — just copy the original page, and then translate the text yourself.
If you’re running a multinational organisation, this feature becomes extremely useful. Choose your main site in the language that your target area is most likely to use. Choose a secondary site in English, for example.
All your client has to do to access the site in the language of her choice is to click on the flag in the top right-hand corner of the site and then select the new language option from there.
We liked the performance of our Voog websites overall. Signing in to edit our website could have gone a little faster. Once you’re in, though, everything moves at lightning speed.
In terms of the performance of the sites we created, we’ll print the page results in a minute. We do need to add a caveat, though. The sites we created were quite simple. We added a couple of photos here and there, but nowhere near as many as we could.
On the bright side, none of our photos was web-optimised, so the speed at which the sites loaded was encouraging. We wouldn’t expect the same level of speed from a fully-loaded site, though.
Overall, however, we were impressed with the general Voog performance.
Desktop Loading Speed
Mobile Loading Speed
You can edit the metadata. Your sitemap is updated with each new edit, and you can view this sitemap whenever you like.
You have the option to change the URL structure and your domain name if necessary.
Traffic evaluation can be done in one of two ways — through Voog own analytics or through Google webmaster tools. The former offers a quick overview of visitors, referrers, and so on. It’s a lot more basic than Google Analytics, and this will work in your favour if you’re a newbie.
If you want more information, you just plug in your Google Webmaster ID and work from there.
Voog pricing is simple. There are three basic plans:
Starts at €6 per month. This is the most basic plan, but it covers quite a lot. It includes:
This starts at €10 a month and includes everything that you get in the previous plan:
It starts at around €39 per month and gives you access to everything the company offers:
The company is pretty upfront about the costs. Choose your package, and that’s what you pay. You don’t need to buy expensive add-on templates or plugins to get your site to work as it should.
The only extra cost that you should be aware of is that VAT will be added if your company is in the EU, and you can’t provide a VAT number.
You can pay through PayPal or using a card. There are discounts if you pay for a year’s subscription in advance. The Plus Plan’s free domain is contingent if you pay a year in advance.
You get a month to try out the service and see how you like it. You’re not asked to input any payment details until that month is over.
The company also offers a discount code for Voog from time to time.
Your first stop is to look through the FAQ and see if you can find an answer. If that doesn’t work, check out the company’s Facebook page and ask your question there. You could even go over to its blog and check from there.
Voog promises to be available 24/7 to answer queries. If you’re onsite, you can email the team through the form onsite. It’s quite helpful and it will answer you within a few hours.
Alternatively, you can call support in Germany during office hours. The support team is friendly and knowledgeable.
What we did find disappointing is that there is no instant chat option for queries. We did, however, find the Knowledge Base on the site to be extremely helpful, so it’s doubtful that you’ll ever need to contact support in the first place.
The Knowledge Base is further evidence that the company truly cares about its clients getting the best possible results. It contains technical support information. But even more useful is that it contains a range of information on other topics like submitting your site to Google and Bing, SEO, and even getting your site off to a good start.
Its staff has written content and a series of webinars. In all honesty, this information would be good for all webmasters to know – even we learned a thing or two. So take some time and do scroll through the Knowledge Base.
This is one of the simplest and most effective drag and drop site builders we’ve seen in a long time. It’s perfect for newbies because the number of choices has been pared down to make things easier.
No, you don’t have hundreds of templates to draw on. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You can customise each element of the template to make sure that you get a unique site.
By cutting down the range of choices here, you don’t have to fuss too much over choosing the exact right template out of thousands of options. And if you don’t like what’s on offer, you can always go ahead and build your site using the developer’s template.
What we love about this tool is how easy it is to use and that there are no hidden costs. The prices are not the cheapest that you’ll find, but when you consider that you’re getting an integrated e-commerce store, loads of support, and a blog all in the package, it’s not that bad.
Also, where else do you find a provider that will allow you up to 30 pages in three different languages on their most basic package?
Best of all, though, you don’t even need to take our word for it. You can sign up and take the builder out for a test-drive, publish the site, and see how it runs for a month before you even need to give any payment details.
It’s a no-risk scenario because you don’t give any credit card details upfront. You don’t have to worry about not being able to prevent charges being levied at a later stage.
Overall, for this Voog review, we have to end saying that it’s an impressive tool. We’d like it better if there was an instant chat facility available for users, but there are still a lot of support options available, so this isn’t a deal breaker.
The Voog site builder is perhaps one of the simplest drag-and-drop site design tools going around. Using this tool, you can quickly build a site for your personal blog, small business, and more.
