uKit is a handy website builder for small businesses

uKit is a Russian website builder for business cards, landing pages and stores launched in 2015. Website development is built around a visual editor, which is the most convenient format for creating web pages for beginners. With its help, without programming and design skills, almost any person who owns a PC at an average level is able to create a modern website in about 2-4 days.

The peculiarity of the constructors is that they are boxed solutions. That is, in the absence of the need to set up hosting, install an engine, look for plugins, templates and everything else.

You get a complete set, immediately ready for use after a short registration. uKit has several trump cards that make it stand out among similar products. Let’s take a look at all the nuances in order.

uKit functionality

uKit is a constructor aimed primarily at small and medium-sized businesses. All sites turn out to be adaptive, that is, they are beautifully displayed on all types of devices without special actions from the user. If desired, you can edit the page layouts for phones, PCs and tablets separately to achieve the most comfortable content perception.

uKit can be used to create your own and client sites. High speed of development, simplicity and quality of the result speak in favor of this statement. No coding is required, although advanced users will be able to add any HTML/CSS code on the older plan.

The main workspace, the visual editor, has a clear structure:

1. Site pages

You can add an unlimited number of pages that will automatically fit into the main menu. The only limitation is the space for its placement. Two-level structures are supported, which allows you to hide in one item, for example, a list of pages with services or categories of goods in a store.

Pages can be duplicated, their order can be changed, and SEO settings can be set for them. Sample service pages (404, privacy policy, store checkout, and user agreement) are in stock. There is also a pop-up window designer, which is convenient to use for displaying ads, promotions and forms for sending visitor data. To add a blog to the site, you need to create a page in the “News” format and add a widget.

2. Constructor

Menu with widgets, combinations of which you will form pages of the site with different content. The list of them is as follows: text, icon, menu, slider, button, gallery, picture, separator and space, card, spoiler, table, reviews, stages, timeline, quote, countdown timer, search, price, basic button / picture / card , store product, video, file, feedback, callback, map, contacts, online consultant, service calculator, social networks.

3. Design

A section in which you can change the current template, as well as the design of the site. Each widget has its own structure and design parameters. Let’s put it this way: there’s not a lot of room for customization, but enough to get a beautiful, neat site.

It is possible to change fonts, colors, backgrounds, color schemes, the structure of elements in the section and add various animations. There is also an activator of the version of the site for the visually impaired, which is especially important for educational sites – the law requires. You can also disable the header and footer for selected pages.

4. Adaptive version of the site

This menu contains switches between versions of the site for desktops, phones and tablets. You can see how the pages look on these types of devices, as well as edit them for optimal viewing. Yes, the content of uKit sites can look a little different depending on where it’s being viewed from.

uKit has a simple and easy-to-manage store. You should not try to use this module to create large trading platforms. It is suitable for placing hundreds of other goods.

You have a product card consisting of photos, description, cost, additional properties (color, size, and so on) and a shopping cart. In the order form, the buyer will see the payment methods (PayPal, Wallet One, cash) and delivery. The fields and appearance of the cart are customizable, just like the storefront itself. It is possible to enter promotional codes for discounts, markups – positive and negative for different product options. There is a catalog of goods and a list of current orders.

The blog module is suitable for creating a news section of a business site, but is not suitable in terms of functionality for launching a thematic or personal blog. The post editor is the same as the pages, there are SEO settings, but managing a large number of posts is inconvenient. Small – quite.

uKit makes good landing pages. There are many one-page templates here. It is easy to create pages of the desired structure, collect custom forms for receiving applications, sales statistics and so on.

The constructor contains a set of useful integrations: amoCRM, BoardCRM, Jivo, LiveChat, SendPulse, Yandex and Google statistical services, Ecwid, MailChimp store plugin, social networks and Disqus.

In general, the strongest distinguishing feature of uKit against the background of the same class of platforms is the potential for website promotion. This constructor has a fairly clean and simple code that search engines like.

Sites work quickly thanks to lazy load support and automatic image optimization (compression in WebP without quality loss). There are the usual SEO settings here: meta tags for pages and images, requests for indexing and its prohibition, 301 redirects, CNC. Canonical links are active by default.

The most curious thing is the advertising module, which will help you quickly attract customers to a young site. It can launch contextual advertising from the constructor interface. That is, you do not need to understand the webmaster tools from Yandex and Google.

Choose the region and time of ad display, key phrases for them, set the campaign budget from 1300 rubles / month and start the process. The system itself will configure everything for your domain. A beginner-friendly item that has never been seen before.

uKit features and offers

The cost of uKit varies depending on the length of the payment term. The most popular tariff is “Basic”, which contains all the features for creating business card sites and landing pages. Its price is $84/year. The store costs $101/year.

Before paying, you should look for promo codes that give a 25% discount. In fact, for any tariff you will pay a quarter less if you take a couple of minutes to look for a discount code. They exist, we checked.

Any tariff plan provides the following:

1. Full access to the possibilities of the visual editor.
2. Unlimited website hosting.
3. Unlimited SMS notifications about new orders through the regular form.
4. The ability to connect your own domain and a free SSL certificate.
5. Access to all integrations.
6. Round the clock technical support.

uKit is easy to get started with zero experience. A beginner will not only be able to create a modern website, but also quickly attract new customers without specific knowledge thanks to the advertising module.

uKit pros :

• Convenient and user-friendly interface for beginners.
• Over 500 responsive templates on a variety of topics.
• Presence of shop and blog modules.
• Support for a moderate number of useful integrations.
• Popup constructor, support for dynamic text.
• Good potential for website promotion.
• Automatic backups.
• Frequent updates to the functionality and range of templates.
• Explanatory technical support.
• Moderate base price, plus holiday discounts and promo codes.

Cons of uKit :

• Payment of the “Minimum” tariff does not disable the constructor’s advertising logo.
• Adding your code on the page is available only on the Pro plan.
• Average possibilities for customizing the design of templates.

The process of creating a site in uKit

The service provides more than 500 ready-made templates sorted by 40 business topics. One of them you have to choose immediately after registration.

On the example of a one-page tourist template “Hotel Holetta” let’s consider the process of creating a site. The template looks attractive and has a good structure that describes the main points that may be of interest to potential guests.

Links in the menu are anchor, that is, they transfer directly to the corresponding blocks. In the “Book” button, you can add a form for collecting applications, standard or manually assembled by a full-time designer.

In the header, we put a beautiful logo and a title that clearly makes it clear to the person where he went. Beautiful photos, a short description and a button to go to contacts – so that you don’t have to search. Suddenly, I’m ready to apply.

In the descriptions of the rooms there are bright photos and brief summaries of them. Further features: what is in the rooms and the menu of the restaurant / dining room, plus additional services / entertainment. We write a block of reviews ourselves, in it we once again emphasize the positive experience of customers, complementing the benefits. You can add a photo gallery with views of rooms, hotel, surroundings and more.

In contacts, the form of travel is required. You can also add a price list block with the cost of rooms and services, or specify prices “from” in sections with a brief presentation of them.

In principle, it is enough to change the data in the template to your own and add or remove blocks somewhere. This is done simply: select a widget, drag it to the desired position, set up the structure and add data. It is clear that all images, text, etc. must be unique, yours.

For beauty, you can add an animation of the smooth appearance of blocks when scrolling.

You can connect an online consultant from Jivo, for example, so that customers can quickly find out the details. Don’t forget to add your social media accounts. Also fill in the SEO settings of the page: CNC, title, keywords and description.

After paying the tariff and connecting the domain, synchronize the site with the analytical tools of search engines. After about 2 weeks, which will be required for site indexing, set up contextual advertising in the corresponding constructor module. Get traffic and first requests soon.

Article Conclusions

uKit is an easy-to-understand tool for creating websites for selling goods and services. It allows you to create a one-page or multi-page site in 1-3 days without special knowledge.

The constructor has a mobile application – you can work from your phone or tablet, if you prefer. Most importantly, the engine allows you to promote the sites created in it without any skills, which is the main advantage for beginners compared to competing platforms.