Zyro Website Builder Review: A Budget Friendly Option?

Website-building tools seem to be in a constant race to the bottom. These builders constantly try to “out-cheap” each other, driving towards lower costs to get long-term customers. Of course, not all of these cheap providers make a quality product. 

When you look at Zyro, it seems they’ve made a pretty high-quality product.

Zyro is a website builder that tries to compete with the top dogs: Squarespace, Wix, and Gator. What makes it unique is the focus on AI technology, seemingly saving you from hiring professionals to make website copy or build websites.

But does Zyro use this technology effectively to make a quality product? Let’s find out in this review. 

What is Zyro?

Zyro is a website-building tool owned by a company under the same name. That company is owned by Hostinger, a well-known web hosting company with deeper experience. Zyro has been around since 2019.

The CEO of Zyro, Giedrius Zakaitis, is quoted as saying that the company is “obsessed” with the fastest way to build a website or online store. Obsession over being the best is a big part of their about us page. You can also find out that this company segment is based out of Europe.

Unlike with Strikingly or Carrd, there’s no major attempt at adding personality to the brand. All that personality was given to Hostinger, the parent company known for putting out a good product.

Who is Zyro best for? 

 Zyro is best for small businesses and solopreneurs looking for a simple website builder or eCommerce store builder. Medium to large companies will find the lack of features somewhat annoying. 

Zyro lets you use the builder for free but requires you to pay per website to share it. The websites all come with unlimited bandwidth and storage, making them easy to manage at an affordable rate. But, if you have multiple websites, Zyro is not cost-effective.

Zyro is one of the best website-building tools, competing with Squarespace and Wix quite easily. To find out more, read our detailed review below. 

Zyro Builder Pros & Cons

Zyro pricing & plans

Zyro features two different pricing options: the Website and Business Plans. Neither has a free trial, but both plans offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

The good news is that you don’t need to provide a payment card upfront to start your site. But payment comes when you need to publish yours. Thankfully, Zyro offers some affordable plans.

Both plans come with one free domain, free hosting, and a free email for the first three months. You also get access to Hostinger’s customer service team, which is nice. 

The Website Plan is your cheapest plan, costing $11.99 per month, often discounted to around $3 per month if you pay for a year upfront. This plan helps create online business websites or blogs.

This basic tier comes with these features:

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage
• A free domain for one year 
• Free web hosting 
• 24/7 customer support 
• A built-in SSL certificate
• Available SEO features 
• Live chat features that integrate with Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp
• Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel integration
• Remarketing tools 
• An AI logo maker 

You’ll want to pay for the Business Plan if you want an eCommerce site. This plan costs $14.99 monthly and is often discounted to just below $4 per month on special deals. This business plan gives you access to 500 products for your eCommerce website. 

Here’s what you get with the eCommerce tools:

• Everything with the base tier 
• 1% processing fees 
• Multiple payment options 
• Built-in email notifications
• Order management features 
• Inventory management features 
• Booking features (still in beta)

At the time of my writing this, Zyro has a Black Friday deal. So, if you want to save some money on a website builder, check it out. You’ll have to pay for one of their yearly plans.

You’ll eventually have to pay a few extra dollars per month for a professional email address. However, the email generally doesn’t cost more than $3 per month and is supported by Titan. 

But before you consider paying a dime for this software, let’s take a closer look.

Getting started with Zyro Website Builder

When you make your account with Zyro, you get one of three options to build your website:

• Using the AI website generator 
• Using a website template
• Starting from scratch 

The AI generator is the most exciting thing here. So that’s where we will start. 

Generating your AI website

 The AI website generator bases your website generation on a series of questions. These questions include the type of website you want, the theme (or color combinations) for your site, what features you want to have (blog, gallery, contact form, subscription form, Instagram feed, maps, and video), and what pages you want to include (about, service, contact, gallery, and portfolio pages).

When you answer these questions, it creates two websites based on your preferences. Here are the results I got:

If you don’t like the results, you can click the “generate again” button at the top of this page. Once you pick the website design that appeals to you the most, you are brought to the actual website builder. 

The AI generation tools are neat, and you can generate as many times as you want before you stick to a design. The AI generation tool seems to have some notable limitations, as it didn’t take long for me to notice repeat designs. 

This leads us to the alternative option: choosing a website template

Choosing a website template

 Zyro has 15 pages of templates, with each page holding about ten. This means you get about 150 templates, which is a healthy number. 

The templates you can choose from are broken down into different website categories. These include popular templates, blank templates, landing pages, industry templates, and purpose-based templates (like events, portfolios, or resumes).

All the templates are professional looking and have a wide range of variety. So, regardless of how you want to start, Zyro will support you. 

Regardless of your pick, you eventually use the same website builder.

Navigating the Zyro Website Builder

Zyro starts you out by giving you a step-by-step overview of the navigation. This quick tutorial gives you a good idea of how to start editing. 

Like other page-building tools, most of your tools are on the left sidebar. Here’s a breakdown in order from top to bottom:

• Add website elements 
• Switching between different pages and changing the navigation
• Changing the website style
• Blog creation tools 
• eCommerce store management
• Language settings 
• AI tools
• Feedback 
• Help (where you find the knowledge base and customer support)
• Settings (includes general settings, integrations, SEO, form submission data, and the ability to export your site to WordPress)

Along the top and start on the left, you’ll find a start guide that will bring you through the steps you need to complete your website. You’ll also be able to switch between a mobile and desktop view, an undo/redo button, a website preview button, and a go-live button (which lets you publish your website). 

The series of buttons in the upper-right corner appears after clicking on various website elements. These are for editing purposes, which we will get into shortly.

Adding and moving elements on your website

When you click the add button in the upper-left corner, you are given various elements you can get on your website. To get them added, all you need to do is drag them onto the page.

When you get them onto the page, you can reposition them by simply holding the left mouse button. This reveals that Zyro uses a freeform editing style that is not constrained by containers or grids, making it much easier to work with. 

To keep things even (for picky designers), Zyro has a series of columns that appear as you drag the item around. This lets you align your text and images with each other, creating a symmetric page. This is part of what makes Zyro a powerful builder.

That being said, the element you get access to are somewhat limited. There are no countdown timers, image carousels, or other advanced elements found on some page-building tools. That being said, those elements are situationally helpful, so you might not need them. 

Editing elements on your Zyro website

For editing, you need to click on any page segments and select one of your options above. 

For example, if you select the entire section, you can change the background, and settings, move the element (up or down), change the visibility, and delete it. Visibility changes let you control what elements appear on desktop and mobile views. So, your pages are still divided into different sections.  

Text editing is convenient, with simple editing just above the element. There’s no unnecessary sidebar that appears on the right side. However, this limits some of your editing opportunities, as other builders provide more advanced style options.

When you edit buttons, you can choose to have them switch to different pages, insert an external URL, or let the visitor download a digital file. You can adjust these settings directly from the editor. 

The Zyro form builder is also simple, letting you control the fields requested. By default, this information is sent directly to your email address, letting you use this as a lead generation tool. 

 Zyro’s biggest weakness is that more complex website builders are out there, and these site tools have more features. However, Zyro is a focused tool, making it much easier to use than other builders. But the marketing connections with this are non-existent, making other form builders more powerful

Style editing tools

The styles tab lets you switch the color, text, and button styles in simple ways. Like Zyro’s other features, it focuses on simplicity, not providing too many options. 

Your color choices let you change between a series of related color options. By clicking “change colors,” you get a few more options that are somewhat similar.

Text lets you change the overall style of the headers and body text. There are a few pre-made sections, but you can choose the text from their wide range of options by clicking “edit text.” 

Meanwhile, your button style changes let you change between circular, rounded boxes, and square buttons. You’ll need to click on the buttons for individual style changes. 

Zyro’s blogging tools 

Clicking “add new post” will add a new post under the blog builder. Next, you’ll see a new entry under “a blog post” under your drafts tab. To edit them, click the three-dot menu on the right and click “edit post.” This brings up a new page that uses the same page-building technology.

To start, you’ll need a good title, which Zyro says you don’t have to figure out yourself. They have an AI blog title generator, a unique way to create blog ideas. 

The tool starts by asking about your category. If you don’t fit any category, I guess you are out of luck. But if you fit one of the categories, the title generator throws a series of ideas at you. 

It’s neat but not helpful if you are trying to meet specific content-related goals. The text editor follows the same rules as the general website editor.  

Building an online store using Zyro

The Zyro store-building tools are also built into the standard page-building software. You automatically get a lite store but can make an advanced store with some work. 

Clicking “manage store” for the first time will ask you for a business name. This brings the AI business name generator. To use it, you enter a word, and it suggests a business name. 

But, much like other AI tools, a lot of the business names seem to be nonsense. Here’s what I got after entering “cool shoes:”

It’s more valuable than the AI blog title generator. So, if you are struggling with ideas, this might be a good brainstorming tool. After you pick your business name, currency, and home country, you get to the eCommerce building tools.

The eCommerce store building dashboard

Zyro’s store-building tools have a unique dashboard. This takes away clutter from the main page builder, which is nice. 

Below is a breakdown of the dashboard in order from top to bottom:

• Dashboard (lets you view your store performance)
• Products (lets you add and manage products)
• Categories (lets you sort through your products)
• Orders (lets you track current orders)
• Bookings (lets you track online bookings for your business) 
• Discounts (lets you create discounts for your store)
• Feedback (lets you provide feedback to Zyro)
• Marketing (connects you to various ad programs like Google, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok)

Below, we will break down how each process works:

Creating products on Zyro

Adding a product is similar to how you would do it via Shopify. There are helpful sales features that let you create multiple product types. 

To start, Zyro supports physical and digital product types. This includes services and online bookings, which let you set up consultations with clients. The booking features are still in beta. 

You can also add a price, sales price, SKU (stock keeping unit) data, weight data, and quantity information. The product page also lets you add product variants (like colors or sizes) and product categories. 

Much like everything else, the basic features of this tool are handy. But you have fewer details than the most competitive eCommerce store alternative: Shopify.

Like Shopify, your new product appears on a page when you create it. This makes Zyro a simple, easy-to-use eCommerce builder for beginners. You don’t need to know any advanced coding knowledge. 

Helpful eCommerce features you get with Zyro

You’ll notice most of the store’s helpful features in the settings tab. 

To start, it lets you set up your preferred payment portal. You get most of your standard options (PayPal and Stripe), but you also get a few advanced options (Afterpay, Alipay, FPX, Grabpay, etc.). Zyro supports more than 70 payment providers, allowing you to work with multiple countries. 

The settings tab also allows you to change company information, shipping zone data, and your checkout page. The two customizations ask you to either require a phone number or add a custom field to the checkout. You can also change the language of the shopping cart. 

Finally, you can change your email settings to send out order confirmations, digital file downloads (if you sell a digital product), and booking confirmations. The one thing missing here is the abandoned cart notification, a must-have for modern eCommerce store owners. 

Zyro doesn’t offer as many eCommerce builder solutions as other providers. But, among builder services, they are one of the more straightforward options. 

Creating a multi-language website

One of Zyro’s most powerful features is its automatic translation feature. This automatically translates your complete website to potential customers who speak another language. 

The automation translation tool is an essential cost-saving tool. Hiring a professional translator can be very expensive. 

The inherent problem with automatic translation is that it doesn’t always work. So, your translations won’t always be professional. 

If you don’t speak the language you translate into, it’s recommended you don’t change to that language. After all, the visitor will expect that you know the language if you use it.

Advanced AI toolset

One of the last tools you have on the list includes the AI toolsets. This includes three different areas:

• An AI logo maker
• An AI writer 
• An AI heatmap (it tracks where visitors are most likely to look)

Below, you’ll find out more about each tool:

The logo creation tool

Zyro’s logo-building tools come in two forms: the standard building tool and automatic logo generation. Let’s start with the generator.

Much like the AI website builder, the logo generator starts by asking you what starter logo you like, your favorite color, and a shape. You can click the spacebar to reload these images. The logo generation tool focuses on abstract forms and sometimes makes weird things.

Here’s something that vaguely looks like the Chevy logo:

You don’t get any way to influence how this logo comes out, but you can adjust its position and the text that comes after. So, you end up clicking “generate” until you see something that makes sense. The built-in image editor is a bit more practical. 

AI text generation 

The Zyro AI writer is another unique feature you get with your annual subscription. Much like Zyro’s other AI features, the results you get are hit-or-miss. 

You can find a free version of this content generator as well. The generator asks for you to generate the text by category, asks for a more narrow version of that, and then (might) ask for something specific you want from it (like a biography). For example, you can use this as a slogan-generation tool. 

Here’s what I got for the about us section for a real estate company:

Much like Zyro’s other tools, this text is unusable. 

 AI heatmap

The most helpful AI feature you get from Zyro is the heatmap. A heatmap is a way to find out how your users will interact with your page. Like the other AI tools Zyro offers, you can take advantage of this with a free heatmap reading of your website.

 The heatmap tool can be beneficial for determining where your customers might look. Although AI isn’t entirely like human activity (it only emulates it), it can be helpful when sorting through busy web pages and deciding how to simplify them. 

What do users say about Zyro?

Zyro has received high marks across the board. When looking at Capterra, Trustpilot, and G2, we found an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. So, Zyro is close to perfect, but some people have critiques.

Most of the positive reviews share what we’ve expressed in this review. Using the builder is incredibly easy. Many customers also complement its page loading speed. Some people have compared it to Canva in its simplicity.

Most complaints come down to how the website builder doesn’t let you change website templates. There’s also a complete void of add-ons and integrations, making this tool less helpful regarding marketing integrations.

FAQs

Is the Zyro Website Builder worth it?

To make a long story short: Yes, Zyro is worth the money you pay. But only if you want a single website.

Zyro’s yearly subscription rates are incredibly competitive. They usually run deals to reduce costs. Even if you don’t want that, you can pay a monthly premium of $15 (at most) for using the service.

This rate comes with unlimited bandwidth and storage. So, you don’t have to worry about limitations from a WordPress site. 

The builder is also straightforward to use. The knowledge base provides you with essential details, but you don’t need it because of how simple the builder is to use. 

Critiques are often levied at their AI tools, which aren’t very good-looking. The company could also stand to improve its integrations. 

But with all this in mind, it is one of the most uncomplicated website builders you can get. Zyro sets the bar when it comes to ease of use.