Format vs SubHub: What’s the Best Builder in 2024?

Format vs SubHub: Final verdict

Format and SubHub both offer specialized platforms, but they cater to different audiences with unique needs.

• 
  Format (Overall Grade: 5.8/10)
  
  is tailored for creative professionals such as photographers, artists, and designers. It excels in providing customizable templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to create visually appealing portfolios. With features like an integrated online store, client proofing, and blogging tools, Format is ideal for creatives looking to showcase their work and connect with potential clients. When comparing Format vs SubHub, Format stands out for its design functionalities and ease of use.
• 
  SubHub (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is designed for content creators and entrepreneurs aiming to build and monetize membership sites. It offers tools for setting up subscription models, managing member access, and providing exclusive content. SubHub’s strengths lie in its ecommerce capabilities, user management, and marketing features, making it a suitable choice for those looking to grow a membership-based business. In the Format vs SubHub comparison, SubHub excels in user management and marketing features, providing a comprehensive platform for content monetization.

Which one is the best for ecommerce: Format or SubHub?

Verdict

: Format and SubHub cater to different niches, with SubHub slightly edging out Format in ecommerce capabilities. Format is ideal for creative professionals, while SubHub is better suited for content creators and entrepreneurs.

• 
  Format
  
  : Format offers essential ecommerce features tailored for creative professionals. It includes inventory management, discounts, and multiple currency options. However, its ecommerce capabilities are basic, making it more suitable for showcasing and selling creative work rather than handling complex ecommerce operations.
• 
  SubHub
  
  : SubHub provides a more comprehensive set of ecommerce tools, including PayPal and Stripe integration, physical and digital product listings, and pay-per-view content. It also offers extensive product page customization options and does not charge commissions on transactions, making it a better choice for content creators and entrepreneurs looking to monetize their content.

Which one is the best for informational and business websites?

Verdict

: Both Format and SubHub score equally at 7.2 for informational and business websites, but they cater to different needs. Format is ideal for creative professionals looking to showcase their portfolios, while SubHub is tailored for membership sites and content monetization.

• 
  Format
  
  : Format is designed for creative professionals such as photographers, artists, and designers. It offers a range of customizable templates that are visually appealing and easy to manage with its drag-and-drop interface. Format includes features like an integrated online store, client proofing, and blogging tools, making it a comprehensive platform for creatives to share their work and connect with potential clients. When comparing Format vs SubHub, Format stands out for its focus on high-quality imagery and mobile-friendly designs.
• 
  SubHub
  
  : SubHub is a website builder designed specifically for creating and managing membership sites. It offers tools tailored for content creators and entrepreneurs who aim to build a community and monetize their content. SubHub simplifies the process of setting up subscription models, managing member access, and providing exclusive content. It is an ideal choice for those looking to start or grow their membership-based business. In the Format vs SubHub comparison, SubHub excels in providing a user-friendly platform for building and managing membership websites.

Format vs SubHub: Detailed comparison

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Winner: Format.

If you’re a creative professional looking for a platform that offers a range of customizable templates tailored to showcase portfolios in a visually appealing manner, Format is the preferred choice.

Format is a website builder specifically designed for creatives, offering nearly 100 customizable templates tailored for various artistic disciplines. It emphasizes high-quality imagery and mobile-friendly designs, ensuring portfolios look professional on any device.

Format Themes

On the other hand, SubHub is a website builder designed specifically for creating and managing membership sites. It offers a range of tools tailored for content creators and entrepreneurs who aim to build a community and monetize their content. SubHub offers a variety of customizable membership website templates designed to cater to different needs and themes.

🏆 Winner: Format

. Scoring 8.3, Format is specifically designed for creative professionals, offering a range of customizable templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. SubHub, with a score of 7.7, is a user-friendly platform designed for building membership websites and online courses. However, Format’s focus on creative professionals and its user-friendly interface give it the edge in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: SubHub

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but SubHub goes a step further with its video guides and tutorials, comprehensive FAQ section, and premium phone support, making it easier for users to learn and adapt.

When it comes to ecommerce, both Format and SubHub offer basic functionalities. Format, designed for creative professionals, provides features such as product management, currency options, and discounts. SubHub, on the other hand, is tailored for content creators and entrepreneurs, offering features like sales of physical goods, digital products, and pay-per-view content, with a customizable storefront and product categories.

Format ecommerce features:

• Inventory management and tracking
• Discounts
• Multiple currency options

SubHub ecommerce features:

• Paypal and Stripe integration
• Physical and Digital product listings
• Pay-per view products

Ecommerce themes & templates

Neither Format nor SubHub offer ecommerce specific templates. This is likely due to their focus on specific niches – creative professionals for Format and content creators for SubHub.

Product page customization

Format offers limited specific details on product page customization, but its ecommerce features suggest a focus on showcasing products through high-quality imagery and detailed descriptions. You can manage product specifics like shipping, availability, and pricing, with customization likely extending to layout and presentation styles to highlight products effectively.

SubHub, on the other hand, offers a range of product page customization options, allowing for the addition of physical items, digital downloads, and pay-per-view content. Features include the ability to manage product variants, upload images, and set visibility preferences. Users can also implement SEO strategies through meta tags and manage tax settings. Additional functionalities include member-specific discounts, image carousels, and individualized shipping costs.

Payment processing

Format integrates with major payment gateways, including Paypal and Stripe, and charges a 15% commission on the Pro plan and 5% on the Pro Plus plan. However, it does not have built-in POS (Point of Sale) capabilities.

SubHub supports two main payment gateways: Stripe and PayPal. These integrations allow for secure payment processing for subscriptions and store items using debit or credit cards. The platform itself does not charge commissions on transactions.

In conclusion, while both Format and SubHub offer basic ecommerce functionalities, they cater to different audiences and have their unique strengths. Format is more suited for creative professionals looking to showcase and sell their work, while SubHub is ideal for content creators and entrepreneurs looking to build a community and monetize their content.

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Winner: Format

. Format, with a score of 7.5, offers a variety of features for creating online portfolios. It provides nearly 100 professionally designed templates and thousands of design variations without requiring any coding. Users can express creativity with custom pages, incorporating unique gallery layouts, colors, text formatting, and custom code embeds. The templates and pages are fully responsive, ensuring a mobile-first experience. Format also supports direct video hosting, high-quality image rendering, and easy template switching to give sites a new look. Additionally, it includes studio management tools, e-commerce capabilities, and SEO tools.

SubHub’s editor, scoring 6.9, offers a user-friendly website builder tailored for creating and managing membership sites, catering to content creators and entrepreneurs aiming to monetize their offerings. Its features encompass customizable templates, diverse content publishing options, and flexible subscription plans with seamless integration for recurring revenue through payment processors. Additionally, SubHub supports online course creation, provides marketing tools like landing page builders, and offers detailed analytics for monitoring website metrics.

Mobile editor/app

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Draw: Format vs SubHub

. Both Format and SubHub have the same score of 4.0 for their mobile editor. However, neither of them offers a dedicated mobile app for editing. Users can manage some content on their website using the mobile browser version, but it’s not possible to change the layout and design of the website on mobile for both builders. Therefore, there is no clear winner in this category.

Overall Result

:

Format wins

. Format scores 8.3 in product testing options, while SubHub scores 7.0. Both Format and SubHub offer a 14-day free trial, but Format provides a longer money-back guarantee period and allows testing of premium features during the free trial.

Format offers a more affordable range of plans compared to SubHub, and also provides a higher discount for annual billing.

However, SubHub’s plans are more tailored towards membership-based businesses, offering features such as secure payment processing and a course builder. Neither builder offers an enterprise plan.

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Winner: SubHub

. Both Format and SubHub offer hosting services, but SubHub edges out with a slightly higher hosting quality score. SubHub provides managed cloud hosting with storage limitations varying by plan and daily backups. However, neither platform provides information about their uptime statistics, uptime guarantees, or data center locations.

🏆 Winner: SubHub

Both Format and SubHub prioritize website speed optimization, but SubHub has a slightly higher score in this area.

Format, a website builder designed for creative professionals, focuses on image and video optimization to enhance website speed. However, the load times and PageSpeed scores can vary depending on the level of optimization and the complexity of the website. Unfortunately, Format does not disclose any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, SubHub, a website builder tailored for creating and managing membership sites, employs strategies such as image optimization, caching, and mobile-optimized design for speed optimization. Similar to Format, the load times and PageSpeed scores of SubHub websites can vary based on optimization and website complexity. SubHub also does not provide any specific information on their Core Web Vitals improvements. Despite the lack of detailed information, SubHub has a slightly higher website speed optimization score than Format, making it the winner in this category.

🏆 Winner: SubHub.

With a score of 5.7, SubHub takes the lead over Format, which scores 4.9. SubHub’s integrations with payment processors like Stripe and PayPal, email marketing tool MailChimp, and affiliate marketing supports like Affiliatly and iDev Affiliate, make it a more versatile platform. Format, on the other hand, offers a limited selection of plugins/integrations, including Adobe Lightroom, Mailchimp, and Google Analytics, which might not be sufficient for users looking for a more extensive suite of tools.

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Overall Winner: SubHub

. SubHub edges out Format with a slightly higher score, offering a more comprehensive set of marketing features, especially in email marketing and SEO tools. Format, however, offers direct Instagram integration, which can be a valuable tool for visual creators.

🏆 Winner: Format

. Comparing Format vs SubHub, Format takes the lead in this category with its 24/7 customer support availability through email and live chat. The global distribution of their tech support team ensures that users can get assistance at any time, which is a significant advantage for creative professionals who may need help outside of regular business hours.

SubHub, on the other hand, offers customer support primarily through email and a support portal where users can submit detailed requests. While SubHub provides an FAQ section for quick answers, it lacks the round-the-clock availability that Format offers. This makes Format a more reliable option for users who require immediate and continuous support for their website needs.

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Winner: Format

. Format takes the lead in security with a score of 7.4, compared to SubHub’s 4.0. Format emphasizes the security of user data through encrypted data storage, both in transit and at rest, and employs strict access controls. The platform regularly updates its security measures to protect against new threats and complies with data protection regulations like GDPR. Users are also provided with resources to help secure their accounts, including strong password guidelines and two-factor authentication options.

SubHub, on the other hand, outlines their approach to collecting, using, and protecting user personal data in their privacy policy, emphasizing compliance with GDPR and CCPA regulations. However, they do not disclose any specific information about the website security measures they provide, which is a significant drawback compared to Format.

Neither Format nor SubHub offer any AI capabilities. Both platforms focus on providing a straightforward, user-friendly website building experience without the use of AI. This makes them suitable for users who prefer a more hands-on approach to website creation.

🏆 Winner: SubHub

. Managing your online team with Format and SubHub involves different approaches to website editing access.

• Format allows only one user to manage and edit websites.
• SubHub allows multiple user accounts, however the platform does not specify how many accounts are supported.

SubHub User Roles and Access Levels:

Format does not provide information about user roles and access levels.

Additional Features

Format vs SubHub: User Feedback

Users highly praise Format for its user-friendly website builder, particularly noting the ease of adding images and the effectiveness of customer service. Many reviewers appreciate the variety of modern templates and the platform’s suitability for users without technical expertise, especially photographers. Format’s mobile app and proofing section receive special mentions for their convenience and functionality. However, some users desire more customization options, particularly for mobile views, and mention minor limitations in template flexibility and SEO functionality. Overall, Format is celebrated for its ability to provide a professional online presence easily and efficiently, solving users’ needs for showcasing work and attracting new clients.

User feedback on SubHub presents a mix of positive and negative experiences, emphasizing the platform’s feature-rich environment and customizable templates. Users appreciate the flexibility and the quality of customer service, highlighting the platform’s continual updates and support as key benefits. However, some users express dissatisfaction with aspects such as the platform’s interface, lack of community features, and service fees for ticket resale. Concerns were also raised about the custom design service and mobile-friendly solutions taking longer than expected.

Format vs SubHub: FAQ