Do you have your own business but not a website to promote your products or services? uKit can provide an eye-catching website, even if you have no idea how to code.
Before we start, you should know that I usually create multiple websites on a website-building platform and then write a detailed review based on my experience. I’ve taken the same steps to provide you with an in-depth uKit review.
Read on to learn more about uKit features, eCommerce options, pricing plans, and customer support.
uKit Overview
uKit entered the website development market in 2015. But the builder’s parent company, the uKit Group, has been around since 2005. Its first product was uCoz — a developer-friendly website builder.
In 2015, the uKit Group took a different approach to website creation and presented uKit — a code-free website builder. Its editor has a drag and drop functionality, but if you need assistance, you’ll likely find the answers to all your questions in the extensive knowledge base. Plus, there’s a 14-day trial period, so you can check it out yourself.
Who Can Benefit the Most From uKit’s Services?
- Businesses — I’m sure you’ll find at least several landing page templates and, with mild editing, they can be perfect for your business, no matter the industry.
- Artists — Because it’s effortless to modify the themes, it’s great for musicians, photographers, graphic designers, and others in the art industry. Here, you’ll find beautiful themes for portfolios.
- Online sellers — With a Pro plan, you can add an eCommerce store to your website with checkout and shopping cart.
Main Features
- eCommerce tools — You can add your product catalogue, forms for orders, shipping and payment methods, and promo codes.
- Drag and drop editor — You don’t need any coding knowledge, and you can move the website elements as you want.
- Analytics tool — You’ll have access to statistics, and all plans except Minimal can use Google Analytics.
- SEO features — Here, you can add a sitemap of your website, meta tags, and other options to help you gain more visibility on search engines.
- Integrations — You can add various integration options in just two clicks.
Setup Process
My first step in this website-building journey was to create an account with my email address. Alternatively, you can connect with your Google, Facebook, Linkedin, or uID account.
In the second step, you have to choose a template. Then, you can browse through the categories and preview different uKit website examples.
In the third step, you need to pick a domain name for your website.
Upon setting up a domain name, you’ll see a quick tutorial about the main features and how the editor works. You can also skip the tutorial if you wish.
After that, I started exploring the uKit website editor, which, at first sight, looked like a coherent website-building tool.
Ease of Use
The uKit site editor left a positive impression on me as becoming fluent with the system was a simple task. Getting a full grasp of the editor’s main components didn’t take more than 15 to 20 minutes.
You’ll find all the tools you need to customise a website on the left side of the page. There, you can easily add and manage web pages, essential site elements and modify the template’s design.
The Adaptive tab is a neat feature, too. It lets you check how your website looks on different screens and determine if anything needs adjusting. That’s particularly valuable to optimise your website for mobile devices and tablets.
Drag and Drop
The uKit builder lets you interact with the website creation tools via drag-and-drop functionality. Apart from its many widgets, you can add and edit pre-made uKit blocks, including headlines, content, and blank blocks.
uKit design reviews confirm that the drag-and-drop functionality works flawlessly. That convenience and simplicity make using the uKit editor an enjoyable experience. It’s beginner-friendly and can even compete with popular website builders like Wix.
Image and Content Editing
The uKit image editor offers many options. Its advanced tools include a drawing tool, flipping, rotating, adding icons, shapes, and text. You can also pick aspect ratios and freely crop your images.
Apart from its cropping tool, the editor supports resizing images via the zoom in/out feature, image captions, and alt attributes.
uKit’s media library features several free images, while the more extensive collection contains stock photography from DepositPhotos. Additionally, you can upload your own photos or import them from social media accounts.
uKit reviews from its users confirm the platform supports easy-to-use content editing tools, like text formatting, colour, and style options.
Moreover, the builder features different types of content widgets to help you further enhance your website content. Besides adding text and heading widgets, you can also implement price lists, tables, or user reviews into the website structure.
Themes
The website builder features over 200 templates. Its library has various categories, including Business & Finance, Games, Food, and Software & Apps. Also, you can sort the templates by predominant colours and popularity. The New category displays the latest additions to the uKit themes library.
The builder also separates single and multi-page website designs. So if you plan on creating a portfolio or event website, you’ll find what you need on the One Pager category.
All uKit themes are compatible with different devices. While building your website, you can edit its appearance for desktop, tablet, and mobile from the Adaptive View tab. To ensure you’ll get a responsive template, you can hide or show specific elements on different versions of your website.
uKit recommends using only one floating widget (e.g., LiveChat or Social Share) to ensure it works properly on mobile devices. The builder also suggests disabling block images for better loading times on tablet and mobile devices.
uKit Website Examples
In this section, I want to give a glimpse of a few templates.
General
The designs are stunning, but they differ significantly, so I picked two templates from the general category.
The second one has a different navigation bar with more pages and a blog section.
Business
If you have a business that needs online representation, uKit won’t disappoint with its amazing designs.
Online Store
The templates for eCommerce shops are great, too. They’re highly customizable, and I’m sure you’ll find a suitable one for your online shop.
uKit Pricing
While uKit doesn’t offer a free plan, you can use the 14-day trial period and its 14-day money-back guarantee to find the best plan for you. There are four plans:
- Minimal
- Basic
- eCommerce
- Pro
When it comes to billing practices, uKit offers five subscription types:
- Monthly
- Three-month
- Six-month
- Yearly
- Two-year
The longer your subscription is, the greater the discount. You can purchase uKit plans via a bank card (Visa, JCB, and MasterCard) or PayPal.
Let’s see what you get with each of the premium plans, so you can make up your mind easier.
Paid Plans
The Minimal plan comes with the following:
- Unlimited number of pages
- Connect a custom domain
- Add unlimited domains
- All uKit templates
- uKit hosting
- Website backups (up to 10)
- 24/7 support team
The Basic plan includes everything from the Minimal plan. Also, it covers live chat support, dynamic text, and Google Analytics integration. Plus, you won’t have the uKit emblem on your website. The uKit eCommerce plan lets you add eCommerce functionality to your site, which is the only difference compared to the Basic plan.
With the Pro plan, you unlock options to add custom colour schemes and custom code.
Note that the Minimal and Basic plans let you try the eCommerce features for free, but once the trial period is over, you need to upgrade to an eCommerce or Pro plan to continue using them.
uKit Features
uKit comes with the typical website builder features, including:
- Free uKit Domain name
- SSL security
- Blogging
- SEO features
- Google Analytics
- Images and videos
- Forms
- Flexible design (mobile-friendly)
- Integrations
- uKit domain email
Let’s break some of these down. Security is vital, so it’s great news that you get an SSL certificate for your uKit site. Additionally, all sites made with the builder are mobile-friendly, so you don’t have to stress over device types.
Lastly, having Google Analytics on your site will give you a much clearer picture of your customers and how you can improve your content.
Storage
The great thing about uKit is that you get unlimited disk space, pages, and visitors no matter which plan you’re on. That takes the stress out of wondering how much you can load to your site.
Performance (Loading Speeds and Uptime)
I ran the uKit website builder through two online speed tests, and the results were pretty good. With PageSpeed Insights, the platform received a 98, giving it an A+. GTmetrix gave it a B, standing at 80%.
Design Features
uKit wants you to have the best possible design opportunities. The platform includes a few cool features:
- Online calculator: An interesting way to increase user interactions with your site, services, and products. For instance, you can use it to calculate pricing based on selected options.
- Fonts: You’ll find plenty of the standard fonts you can pair. Also, uKit design reviews from web developers show they enjoy the custom options.
- Widgets: They help you simplify your sire. The cool thing with uKit is that you can add animations to them, making the widgets more eye-catching.
The whole point of uKit is to keep things simple, so the drag and drop and the range of design features are handy. You can find everything on your dashboard.
Online Store
Setting up the uKit Online Store is straightforward. You simply add products, descriptions, and pricing. There are also many extras, like widgets, Learn More buttons, and size product options.
Based on my uKit review, you can set up shipping delivery options and pricing. Additionally, you can choose currencies and units of measure, making it very convenient for users.
Plus, you can integrate multiple payment gateways into your stores, like PayPal and Wallet One. Adding promotions to your store is also super simple.
Backup
You know how vital a backup is if you’ve been in the web design industry. Working long hours on a project and losing the files by accident is one of the worst feelings. Fortunately, uKit offers an automatic weekly backup of your site, or you can backup manually as you see fit.
Features Table
| Feature | Comment | Rating |
| Flexible design (mobile-friendly) | All sites are suitable for mobile use | 5 |
| Fonts | Pick from automatic fonts or create your own | 5 |
| Storage | Get unlimited disk space | 5 |
| Drag-and-drop editor | Make changes quickly and conveniently | 5 |
| SEO features | Helps with optimizing your content creation process | 5 |
| Google Analytics | Find out who your users are and where they come from | 5 |
| Backup | Available automatic and manual backups | 5 |
| Unlimited disk space, pages, and visitors | Create as much content as you need without risking storage space | 5 |
| eCommerce | Multiple online payment integrations | 4 |
| Widgets | Add interactive elements to your site | 5 |
| Animations | Create interesting and unique designs | 4 |
| Images and videos | Add media to your gallery | 5 |
| Integrations | Link and manage the third-party integrations you need | 5 |
| Performance (loading speeds, uptime) | Impressive load times | 4 |
| Forms | Give your users a way to contact you or sign up for your services | 5 |
| Payment Gateways | Link multiple payment options, like Wallet One | 5 |
| Online calculator | Help customers by letting them check the pricing depending on what they select | 5 |
| Shipping | Add and edit shipping methods and pricing | 5 |
| Domain name | Create a unique domain name or import an existing one | 5 |
| SSL security | Get a free SSL certificate when you sign up | 5 |
| Blogging | Create digital content directly for users | 5 |
uKit Reviews and Ratings
Most customers enjoy the builder saying that it’s easy to use, inexpensive, and has everything you might need for a quality site. Still, one customer found some of the uKit app features a bit slow.
There aren’t many reviews to go off, but from what I can see most are happy with the service. The platform scores 4.2 stars on G2 and 4 stars on TrustPilot.
uKit vs Squarespace
uKit and Squarespace are great options for small businesses that want to build their online presence quickly.
Squarespace offers more customization, but it comes at a cost. Four plans are available, ranging from $12–$40 per month. For more details, check my overview of Squarespace. With uKit, the plans range between $3.50–$10.50 per month.
uKit Alternatives
If you want to make a website, blog, or online store, it’s good to start with an in-depth builder comparison. That’s where I come in. Let’s have a look at the top competitors.
uKit vs Tilda
Both website builders have the basic features you’ll need, but they differ in plan options.
With uKit, you get unlimited disk space and pages no matter which plans you select. The uKit pricing includes four plans — Minimal, Basic, eCommerce, and Pro, ranging from $3.50–$10.50 per month. In contrast, Tilda offers a set amount of pages (500) for your selected plan. There are two paid plans — Personal ($10 per month) and Business ($20 per month).
uKit vs Wix
Wix is among the most popular website builders, with over 200 million users. It’s been around since 2006, so it has a lot of experience to offer. Also, Wix stands out with its design templates and customizability. In my opinion, it has the best variety and will outdo any other builder in this regard.
But if you’re looking for a way to get your site up and running quickly and affordably, uKit is the way to go.
uKit Customer Service
uKit provides customer support via email in a feedback form. Alternatively, you can look for answers in the builder’s knowledge base.
I reached out to the customer support team and found that uKit doesn’t offer phone support at this time. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by uKit’s email support team. I got in touch with them on multiple occasions. Even though their response times varied from minutes to several hours, I always got accurate and precise answers.
Conclusion
uKit is a highly affordable website builder with fantastic features, like an online calculator, multiple third-party integrations, and interesting design options. Plus, setting up a store is super simple with the uKit Online Store widget.
I’d recommend the builder to businesses or individuals that need a quick setup with all the basics.
FAQ
Is uKit legit?
Absolutely. uKit is a legit website builder with great features for small business owners that want to get their sites going fast at a reasonable price.
How much does uKit cost?
The pricing for the four annual plans is between $3.50–$10.50 per month. uKit’s monthly plans range between $5–$15 per month.
Can I buy a domain through uKit?
Yes, my uKit review shows you can bring your own domain name to your site or purchase one from the platform.