Virb used to be a great platform for creating new websites. However, since GoDaddy acquired the platform in 2014, it hardly received any exciting new feature at all. But there are some people who still use Virb and somewhat satisfied by the service.
Ease of Use
Getting started with Virb is very easy. You need to provide all the information about your website while signing up for an account. Compared to the other platforms, this is rather unique. The next step is to choose the theme. There are several great-looking themes available. You can filter the themes by using various types like personal, portfolio, business, organization, restaurant, music, etc.
Virb has made it a lot easier to create specialized websites like photography, music, restaurant, designer, or general websites. For each of these types, there are some recommended themes and features which will help you get started quickly.
There are lots of customization options to help you choose your own color, font, and other styling features. It is also possible to add custom CSS and HTML to apply your own styling and to add custom elements.
Performance
Hosting plays a very important role in the overall performance of a website. Virb acknowledges this by offering cloud hosting for the users. Your website files will be hosted on secure cloud servers which are also capable of ensuring a fast delivery speed for the files. As the platform offers unlimited storage, you are free to store all the necessary website data on the server.
If you are creating a blog, list site, or other frequently updated websites, you are going to have a large number of pages. Virb allows unlimited pages, which takes care of this issue. The built-in content delivery network will make sure that your pages are served from the nearest location of the visitor.
Virb works correctly with Google tools. That means you will have easy access to useful tools like Google Analytics and other tools right from your website. The platform also follows the SEO best practices to help you get better search engine ranking for your content.
Features
As I mentioned earlier, there are lots of readymade themes available for you. All these themes are provided with mobile styling. That means your website will look great on mobile, tablet, and other devices.
Virb allows a large number of page types including common names like about, contact, gallery, blog, etc. The store page will be useful for connecting your existing shopping carts. You can show the list of available products or other items by using the listing page type. And in case you want a blank layout, the custom page type is there for you.
Virb also comes with close integration with several third-party services. For instance, you can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, SoundCloud, LastFM, Etsy, Instagram, Dribble, Tumblr, etc. with your website.
If you are creating a private website, there is a handy feature to protect your website by using a password. It is also possible to restrict specific pages with the password.
There are several ways to get help and support about using Virb. First of all, you can check out the video tutorials to find out the solution. Additionally, you can seek help from the Virb user community.
Who Is It For?
As you can already guess, I do not recommend Virb anymore. It has been a while since they updated their themes and they don’t offer any drag and drop feature. However, if you are looking for an alternative website development platform with a clean, simple layout, you can give it a try.
Pricing
Virb follows a simple pricing policy with a single plan for everyone. For $10 per month, you will get unlimited pages, cloud hosting, dedicated support, SEO tools, analytics, store integration, custom domain support, etc.
If you are a student, you can get your first year for free by using the special Virb student program.
Pros
- Has all the features to run a basic website.
Cons
- Hasn’t been updated in while(slowly declining)