Ucraft Review

Intro

Ucraft is a block-based website builder — ideal for small business websites. Block-based builders are unique, in that websites are built by stacking blocks vertically on top of one another. This creates a neat, and well-organized site that ensures there’s no photo, text box or graphic out of place.

 

Ucraft’s website builder also enables small business owners to build websites quite quickly.

 

Websites powered by Ucraft look professional, and because of its ease-of-use, users both novice and advanced should have no challenges navigating its user interface and countless features. Once you’re ready to build your site or landing page – we recommend taking advantage of the free 14-day trial, this way you can explore all of Ucraft’s premium (paid) features.

 

 

New users can gain access to their free trial from Ucraft’s homepage, and setup is as simple as one two three. After you choose the kind of page you’d like to create, you’re immediately presented with Ucraft’s diverse bundle of templates.

Templates

 

Since Ucraft is a block-based website builder, creating websites quickly is fairly simple. The website builder has over 60 templates ranging from business to personal, travel and even has the option to add a blog section to your website.

 

There are ten categories of templates, all of which are highly-creative and a great starting point for any size business:

 

Ucraft’s templates are categorized as follows:

Popular	Events	Blog	eCommerce	App
Business	Personal	Health & Care	Restaurants	Art

One of the major advantages of Ucraft is its ability to swap back and forth between templates without losing valuable content. You will, however, need to make adjustments to headings, fonts and colors – as they do not automatically adjust.

 

As of now, uploading your own template is not possible, however, a blank template is available.

 

Users can also create branded landing pages. These are usually made for conversion purposes and for collecting valuable demographic information from visitors. Ucraft landing pages do come with some restrictions, the most prevalent being the Ucraft branding at the bottom right-hand corner of each page.

 

The Editor

 

Although Ucraft’s templates are well-designed, changing elements like typography can only be done via its Designer Tool. In terms of what the editor has to offer, it does feel fairly limited, compared to other leading website builders such as Wix.

 

For example, elements are styled individually in Ucraft. So, if you want to change the color of all of a specific heading, you’d need to use Ucraft’s designer tool. This lets you make adjustments to buttons, headings and more.

 

Once you’re in the editor, and ready to customize your site – access Ucraft’s dashboard which lets you manage the following:

 

 

Pages: This lets users reach the various pages on their site and edit, “go to,” duplicate and password protect them. Here, you can also customize what your 404-page error message.

From within Ucraft’s editor, you can access various elements to customize your site:

 

Element	Features
Image	You can add custom images for free through Unsplash, and add personal images, too.
Image Slider	This feature creates a slideshow of personal or stock images.
Gallery	Here, you are able to add photos to your site’s gallery and showcase products, photography and more.
Title	The Title feature enables you to edit your site’s headings.
Paragraph	Write and edit a new paragraph of text on your website.
Video	Users can add embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo or add as a block background.
Icon	There are over 200k icons in Ucraft’s library to assist in creating your site’s logo.
Logo	Users can create their own logo with Ucraft’s logo maker.
Button	You can add custom buttons with CTAs such as “click here to sign up”
User Account	This lets visitors register or log-in to a private area on your website.

 

For example, typography is a key feature, which can only be refined via its Design Tool. Through Ucraft’s UI Kit, users can add buttons, and get access to editing the following elements:

• Distance between elements
• Distance between blocks in mobile
• Distance between columns in mobile
• Distance between elements in mobile
• You can also access typography
• Layout
• Gutter
• Distance between blocks
• Headings
• Colors

Media: From the media section, you can drag and drop files images you own or have purchased, or browse through free stock images with Unsplash.

 

SEO: Under the SEO tab, you can make optimizations to each main and secondary page of your site. You are given the option to title your page, add a description, leave instructions to index, label links as follow or no-follow links.

Domain: Under Domain, you can connect an already-existing domain or use a Ucraft branded domain free of charge. You can also purchase a domain, which we will touch on a bit later.

 

Team: Here, you can invite other members of your team to collaborate on the site with you.

 

Logo Maker: This is by far one of its coolest features – and it is free! There’s also no shortage of icons either, as Ucraft has over 200k to choose from in its library.

 

Site Settings: Under Site Settings, users can edit their website’s name, language, put in a logo, insert code in the header, footer and body of the site.

 

Articles: This is where you can manage the blog portion of your site. You can categorize, add new and manage current blogs/promotions.

 

 

Templates: You can change or reset your current template from this section.

 

Integrations: You can access third-party integrations like Intercom, ZenDesk Chat, HotJar, Google Analytics, Hello Bar, Disqus and more.

 

Languages: Users can add multiple languages to their site using the ‘Language App.’ The app allows you to duplicate pages and with the simple click of a mouse, and have the pages translated to, let’s say, Spanish or Russian.

 

Fonts: This section offers an integration with Google Fonts, so user can find the perfect font straight from the builder.

 

eCommerce: Here, you’ll find a fully integrated eCommerce App in the editor. You can add products, verify geographical settings, set up shipping and manage payments through the system.

 

One of the biggest benefits of Ucraft is no transaction fees on all premium plans. Fees per individual transaction can get pricey, so this will undoubtedly save users a lot of money in the long-run.

 

Mobile

 

Currently, any and all mobile optimizations must be made from within Ucraft’s main editor, as there is no editor specific to making adjustments for mobile devices, tablets, etc.

 

Ucraft’s developers are currently making a mobile editor, which will make editing for mobile more streamlined. We will be sure to notify you once this feature rolls out!

 

There are a few customizations you can make from within the main editor that will have bearing on your site’s mobile view:

• Distance between blocks in mobile
• Distance between columns in mobile
• Distance between elements in mobile

 

 

Ucraft Apps/Tools

 

Landing Page Builder

From the landing page builder, users have the choice of nine categories of templates ranging from business to app. There, you can build a free (Ucraft branded) landing page or personal branding page.

 

Free Logo Maker

From within the logo maker, you have an immense amount of icons to choose from. You can change elements such as font and color.

 

Designer Tools

Likely Ucraft’s most important tool – it enables you to best optimize your site. The tool offers control over nearly every element of your website, and being able to make adjustments to things like color, typography, placing text, etc. when you need it most.

 

Articles App

This app lets you write and publish blog posts, create tags and categories as well.

 

SEO App

Ucraft’s SEO App enables users to optimize pages for popular search engines like Google. This allows them to add ALT text, page descriptions to each individual page and make modifications to a host of other features.

 

Support

 

Ucraft support = wow, just wow. We can say with certainty that its online chat support, which can be accessed through nearly any page on the site, is simply lightning-fast and reliable. The best part is, its 24/7. In our experience with Ucraft, we turned to its live chat feature several times, and each time our issues were resolved within a matter of minutes.

 

Its online support taps the CRM power of Intercom to quickly provide answers from knowledgeable agents. Email support is also available, and a Q&A section. For email support, it only takes a few hours in most cases to receive a reply.

 

There is no phone support.

 

Hosting/Domain

 

Through the Domain App (which can be accessed through Ucraft’s dashboard), users can change the name of their subdomain, purchase a new one or connect an old one free of charge.

 

 

Ucraft domain names are provided by Namecheap, but can be purchased from whichever provider you choose. As a result, domains will all vary in price and can cost anywhere from a few dollars to $20. If the domain you’re looking for is not available, Ucraft will present you with a number of other similar options with like pricing.

 

The great thing is, Ucraft offers free website hosting, through Google Cloud Hosting. This means backups, and faster site loading speeds – a major plus.

Pricing/Plans

 

Ucraft offers a free plan as well as three premium plans starting at $10/month. This includes hosting, 24/7 support, access to the website builder and more.

 

Ucraft’s monthly plans can be seen detailed below:

 

Plan	Term	Price
Free Website	Monthly	Free
Pro Website	Monthly	$10/mo
Pro Shop	Monthly	$21/mo
BigCommerce	Monthly	$39/mo

 

Premium plans include a free custom domain name, no Ucraft branding, on-site search, 0% transaction fee on sales and a range of customizable elements and effects. A 14-day free trial is available, enabling you to test the features of Ucraft’s website builder before purchasing a subscription.

 

Ucraft’s free plan also allows you to test out the platform for an unlimited time, but note that sites published on the free plan include:

• Ucraft branding
• Either a Ucraft branded domain or add a custom domain for an extra fee
• Access to only basic editable elements such as images, title and paragraph text, logo and button
• No eCommerce capabilities

Integrations

 

Feature	Yes/No	Details
Google Analytics	Yes	Built-in Integration (Dashboard > Integrations > Google Analytics)
Social Media Profile	Yes	Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TripAdviser, Youtube, Vimeo, Dribble, Behance, SoundCLoud, VK, Telegram, GitHub, Medium
Social Media Share Buttons	Yes	Facebook, Twitter, Google +,  LinkedIn, Pinterest, VK
Mailbox	No	Not available, however, website visitors can contact you if you create a form but responses are handled through your personal email account or MailChimp
CRM	Yes	ZenDesk
MailChimp	Yes	You can receive emails to MailChimp, Google Sheets or your personal email
3rd Party Reviews	Yes	Can be accessed from Ucraft’s homepage
Tracking Tools	Yes	HotJar
Music	Yes	SoundCloud
Video	Yes	YouTube, Vimeo
PayPal	Yes	Users can accept payments via PayPal for items sold through their site’s online marketplace.
Disqus	Yes	Comments Widget
Eventbrite	Yes	Event management and ticketing widget
Calendly	Yes	Scheduling and booking widget
Typeform	Yes	Online form building and online surveys widget