2024’s Top Notion Website Builders for Blogs
Notion is a productivity tool with nifty integrations for notes, tasks, databases, and calendars into one platform. With its user-friendly interface and adaptability to a wide range of use cases, both personal and professional, it is no wonder that Notion has become all the rage.
Have you ever thought of the possibility that you can turn your Notion pages into professional, aesthetic, responsive websites? Calling all Notion lovers, that day has come! Notion website builders, like Simple.ink, Feather.so, Bullet.so and Sotion.so, are alternatives to the more common yet complex blogging tools, like Wordpress. Continue reading for a comprehensive review of these Notion Website Builders, where we cover the good, the bad and the ugly.
Benefits of building your site on top of Notion
Building your site on top of Notion will allow you to use an interface that you are already familiar with and avoid spending time navigating complex tools, like Wix or Wordpress, to host your blog sites. With Notion as your content management system (CMS), you can leverage your expertise in Notion to build your desired website with ease.
Besides, you can use all of the existing functionality built into Notion to help with your blog writing processes. For example, you can use Notion AI to help you generate or refine your blog content. You can also collaborate within a team to edit contents of your blog together by sharing the same Notion workspace.
Website Builder Options
If you've decided to use Notion as your CMS, the next step is choosing the right website builder. We’ve conducted a thorough analysis of several options, including Simple.ink, Feather.so, Bullet.so, and Sotion.so, to help you determine which is the best fit for you. Our detailed review covers all the essential details and even highlights which builders offer free trials!
1) Simple.ink
The core idea of Simple.ink is in its name, simplicity. So if you want an option which is the least hassle to set up, Simple.ink is the way to go. They offer different plans based on the features offered as well as the number of sites you can host. For example the starter plan offers 1 pro site and 3 free sites, while the pro plan offers 3 pro sites and 3 free sites.
Pros
- Simplistic interface with all the basics (custom domain, search functionality, ssl protection and Search Engine Optimization etc), no learning curve
- Offers a great variety of templates you can choose from to reflect your brand
Cons
- Does not offer analytics (statistics about number of page visits, user demographic etc) as part of the package. Simple.ink promotes another tool for analytics, called Notionlytics which is a separate subscription altogether. It is worth mentioning that Simple.ink itself does not own Notionlytics.
2) Feather.so
Feather.so is specifically designed for creating SEO-friendly blog websites. The pricing model is based on number of pageviews per month, starting from 10k pageviews per month for $39. You do get two months free if you subscribe for the year plan.
Pros
- Feather helps you to keep track of all emails of your subscribers. This will be helpful in sending marketing emails to your blog subscribers.
Cons
- Feather does not have content gating features to allow certain readers to access you blog via paid memberships or email logins. This may be important for bloggers to monetize their work.
- Although Feather lists Comments as a feature unlocked through the paid plan, it’s not actually built into the platform. Their customer support directed us to subscribe to Cusdis’ free plan to enable the Comments feature. This isn't ideal, as the availability of the Comments feature depends on Cusdis’ offerings, and they could remove the free plan at any time. Well played...
Don't say we don't have the receipts to show ;-)
3) Bullet.so
Bullet.so is the most customizable website builder among the others mentioned in this post. If you like having the ability to control the fine details, you will enjoy using Bullet. Similar to Simple.ink, Bullet offers different plans based on the features offered as well as the number of sites you can host.
Fun fact, Bullet’s analytics dashboard offers the same metrics that is seen in Feather’s.
Pros
- You can control when your edits are actually published to the web. Some website builders automatically sync all your changes in Notion to the published website, so you can’t make changes to your Notion pages and publish them at a certain time.
- Unlimited Bandwidth for the Startup plan and Business plan! This means you can add all the media like images or videos you want and Bullet guarantees the speed of your site.
- Bullet has integration to Zapier. Zapier can be a game-changer for your websites by automating tasks and connecting various tools. From automatically sharing your new blog post on social media platforms to creating a new ticket in your customer support system (e.g., Zendesk) when a feedback form is submitted, you will be able to eliminate a lot of manual work via tools on Zapier.
Cons
- There is a higher learning curve compared to the other website builders, as with more customizability brings more complexity.
4) Sotion.so
Sotion.so is great for membership management. Their content gating features enables controlled access, and allows you to monetize your website by locking premium content behind a paywall. Sotion also offers different plans based on the features offered as well as the number of sites you can host.
Pros
- Sotion offers features to control access to your site through password protection, email sign in or even paid memberships (Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, or Gumroad).
- Sotion offers support for integration into your existing systems, for example Beehiiv, Teachable, Slack and Zapier. Sotion will assess your use case, draw up the solution and do the handover. There is a one time fee for the integration support, but it may be worth it for the sake of operational efficiency.
Cons
- Your site to look exactly like your Notion pages. You will be able to customize your website logo, favicon (the little icon that appears on browser tab), but there’s not much you can do beyond that. So if you have a particular brand image that you envision your website to reflect, this may not be the best option.
Feature Comparison
Here’s a quick overview of the different features offered by each website builder:
Custom code for styling : If you know CSS, you can write some code to further customize the appearance of your website and tweak it to your preference.
Subdirectory-hosting : You already have an established domain and are looking to add a blog. You might want to setup a subdirectory blog (e.g. domain.com/blog) instead of a subdomain blog (e.g. blog.domain.com). Subdirectory blogs are better for search engine optimization (SEO) as they help to consolidate a website’s domain authority. It is also a great option for better user experience and brand consistency.
Final Word
With so many website builders to choose from, it all depends on your use case and preferences. Tldr, here’s our take:
- Choose Simple.ink if you are looking for the simplest website builder possible that covers the basics.
- Choose Feather.so if you do not require content gating features and you have the financial means to host your site on Feather even as traffic to your site increases.
- Choose Bullet.so if you like having fine grain control over your website and your foresee high traffic to your website that will eventually bring about the need to utilize automation tools.
- Choose Sotion.so if you want to create a paid membership site and you are fine with your site looking like Notion pages.
