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

Format vs Unbounce: Final verdict

Format and Unbounce both offer specialized platforms, but they cater to different needs and audiences.

• 
  Format (Overall Grade: 5.8/10)
  
  is tailored for creative professionals such as photographers, artists, and designers. It excels in providing visually appealing, customizable templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, making it easy for users to showcase their portfolios. While it offers basic ecommerce functionalities and strong customer support, it lacks advanced marketing features and extensive plugin integrations. Format is ideal for creatives looking to build a professional online presence without needing technical expertise.
• 
  Unbounce (Overall Grade: 6.4/10)
  
  is designed for creating high-converting landing pages, popups, and sticky bars. It stands out with its focus on optimizing conversion rates, offering a wide range of templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder. Unbounce integrates seamlessly with numerous marketing tools and analytics platforms, making it a powerful choice for marketers aiming to capture leads and analyze performance data. However, it has been critiqued for its pricing and limited template selection. Unbounce is best suited for businesses focused on digital marketing and conversion optimization.

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

Verdict

: Format is better suited for creative professionals looking to sell their work online, while Unbounce excels in creating high-converting landing pages with ecommerce integrations.

• 
  Format
  
  : Designed for creative professionals, Format offers basic ecommerce functionalities such as inventory management, discounts, and multiple currency options. It is ideal for artists, photographers, and designers who want to showcase and sell their work online. However, when comparing Format vs Unbounce, Format’s ecommerce capabilities are more limited in terms of advanced features and customization options.
• 
  Unbounce
  
  : While primarily focused on creating custom landing pages, Unbounce allows for the integration of ecommerce solutions like Shopify and Ecwid. This makes it a powerful tool for marketers looking to optimize conversion rates and drive sales through high-converting landing pages. However, it may not be the best choice for those needing comprehensive ecommerce features directly within the platform.

Which one is the best for informational and business websites?

Verdict

: Format is the better choice for informational business websites, especially for creative professionals, while Unbounce is more specialized for landing pages and conversion optimization.

• 
  Format
  
  : Format scores 7.2 and is tailored for creative professionals like photographers, artists, and designers. It offers customizable templates, an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, and features like an integrated online store and client proofing. This makes it ideal for showcasing portfolios and managing an online presence without needing coding skills.
• 
  Unbounce
  
  : Unbounce, with a score of 5.9, is designed for creating high-converting landing pages, popups, and sticky bars. It provides a range of templates and a drag-and-drop interface, focusing on optimizing conversion rates. While it integrates well with marketing tools and analytics platforms, it may not be as suitable for general informational business websites compared to Format.

Format vs Unbounce: Detailed comparison

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Winner: Unbounce.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control, a wide array of design features, and a strong focus on optimizing conversion rates, Unbounce 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

Compared to Format, Unbounce provides a gallery of over 100 high-converting templates for landing pages, popups, and sticky bars. These templates are designed with conversion in mind, incorporating knowledge and insights gained from Unbounce’s experience in optimizing landing pages. Users have the flexibility to choose from these ready-to-use templates or start with a blank canvas to create their own designs using Unbounce’s drag-and-drop builder.

Unbounce Themes

🏆 Winner: Format

. Scoring a close 8.3, Format edges out Unbounce, which scored 8.2. Format’s intuitive and user-friendly platform, tailored for creatives, offers a range of professionally designed, customizable templates and essential features like portfolio pages, online stores, and blogging tools. Unbounce, while also user-friendly, has been critiqued for its pricing and limited template selection.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce offers a rich collection of learning resources designed to help users maximize their platform’s capabilities, including a comprehensive Help Centre, the Unprompted Podcast for marketing insights, and a Video Library for visual learning. Format, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive help center with a wide array of articles and maintains an official YouTube channel that features tutorials and updates.

Format and Unbounce both offer ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different needs. Format is designed for creative professionals and offers basic ecommerce functionalities for selling physical and digital products. Unbounce, on the other hand, is designed for creating custom landing pages, popups, and sticky bars, with a strong focus on optimizing conversion rates. It allows for the integration of ecommerce solutions like Shopify and Ecwid.

Format ecommerce features:

• Inventory management and tracking
• Discounts
• Multiple currency options

Unbounce ecommerce features:

• Shopify, Ecwid, or and other ecommerce solutions integration

Product page customization

Format offers limited specific details on product page customization directly, but its e-commerce 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.

Unbounce, on the other hand, does have the possibility to create or customize product pages, it’s primarily focused on building landing pages, with the possibility to integrate with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify or Ecwid.

Payment processing

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

Unbounce supports payment processing through an integration with Stripe, allowing users to create landing pages that can handle transactions directly, with Stripe facilitating global payments in over 135 currencies. Unbounce itself does not mention charging additional fees for transactions, implying that fees are subject to Stripe’s own pricing structure. The platform is focused on optimizing online conversions and does not offer Point of Sale (POS) capabilities, as its core features are designed for enhancing digital experiences such as landing pages and pop-ups.

Winner: It’s a tie.

Both Format and Unbounce scored 7.5 for their website editors.

Format’s website editor is highly regarded for its user-friendliness and is especially geared towards creative professionals, making it accessible for beginners. With a quick setup process, a wide range of customizable templates, and no need for coding knowledge, users can easily create and manage their websites. Features such as drag-and-drop image import, social media integration, SEO tools, and e-commerce capabilities enhance the platform’s utility.

On the other hand, Unbounce’s website builder’s editor is equipped with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, enabling users to design and customize landing pages without the need for coding skills. It offers a variety of templates, widgets, and elements such as forms and buttons, alongside options for integrating custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for advanced customization. The platform supports responsive design, ensuring landing pages perform well across all devices, and includes features for A/B testing and dynamic text replacement to optimize conversion rates. Additionally, it allows for the integration of various marketing tools and platforms, enhancing the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Format

. Both Format and Unbounce do not offer a dedicated mobile editor app. However, Format allows users to edit their website using a mobile browser. The interface presented is the same as the desktop version, which can be challenging to use on a smartphone. On the other hand, Unbounce does not provide any mobile editing capabilities. Despite the challenges, Format offers some level of mobile editing, making it the winner in this category.

Overall Result

:

Format wins

. Format scores 8.3 in product testing options, while Unbounce scores 6.6. Both Format and Unbounce offer a 14-day free trial, but Format stands out with its 30-day money back guarantee and the possibility to test premium features during the trial period. Unbounce, on the other hand, requires users to enter their billing information to access the trial.

Format offers more affordable plans, but Unbounce provides more comprehensive features for creating custom landing pages and optimizing conversion rates.

Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce edges out Format in this category due to its disclosed uptime of 99.96%. Both platforms offer hosting services, but neither provides detailed information about the type of hosting or data center locations. Format does not disclose any information about its uptime, while Unbounce does not offer an uptime guarantee.

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

Both Format and Unbounce have similar website speed optimization scores, but Unbounce has a slightly higher score.

Format, a website builder designed for creative professionals, focuses on image and video optimization for speed optimization. However, it does not disclose any information on their Core Web Vital improvements.

Unbounce, a website builder designed for creating custom landing pages, focuses on image optimization, caching, and Speed Booster for speed optimization. Like Format, Unbounce does not provide any information on their Core Web Vital improvements. Despite this, Unbounce has a slightly higher website speed optimization score than Format.

🏆 Winner: Unbounce.

Unbounce scores 6.8, offering a wide array of apps and integrations to enhance the functionality of landing pages. It allows for advanced analytics, enhanced marketing automation, direct e-commerce transactions, and personalized user engagements. Format, with a score of 4.9, offers support for a limited selection of plugins/integrations, including Adobe Lightroom, Mailchimp, and Google Analytics. However, its overall capabilities for expansion through plugins and integrations are notably limited.

Unbounce Applications

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Overall Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce stands out for its strong focus on optimizing conversion rates and its ability to integrate with numerous marketing tools and analytics platforms. Format, while offering a range of features tailored for creative professionals, lacks in advanced marketing functionalities.

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. In the comparison of Format vs Unbounce, Unbounce takes the lead with its comprehensive support options. Unbounce offers live chat, email, and phone support, with live chat and phone support available Monday to Friday from 6 AM to 6 PM PST. Additionally, users can access 24/7 support through their Help Centre, Community, and Chat Bot, ensuring continuous assistance.

Format, on the other hand, provides 24/7 customer support through email and live chat, with a tech support team distributed across different countries to ensure round-the-clock availability. While this is beneficial, Unbounce’s more extensive support options and dedicated enterprise-level support give it an edge in this category.

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Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce takes the lead in security with a score of 8.4, compared to Format’s 7.4. Unbounce’s commitment to security is evident in its PCI Level 4 Merchant status, adherence to GDPR, robust disaster recovery strategies, and regular external security audits. The platform employs a secure, multi-tenant environment with strict access controls and daily data backups to safeguard customer information.

Format, while not as robust as Unbounce, still emphasizes user data security through encrypted data storage, both in transit and at rest, and employs strict access controls. It also complies with data protection regulations like GDPR and provides resources to help secure user accounts. However, specific details about Format’s website security measures were not directly mentioned, which may be a point of concern for some users.

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce, with a score of 7.5, offers several AI features that make it stand out. Its Smart Builder optimizes landing page creation, while Smart Copy assists in content generation. Additionally, Smart Traffic and Conversion Intelligence Insights enhance conversion rates by intelligently directing visitors and providing practical advice and recommendations, respectively.

On the other hand, Format does not have any AI capabilities.

🏆 Winner: Unbounce

. Unbounce offers more flexibility in user management compared to Format.

• Format allows only one user to manage and edit websites.
• Unbounce offers one staff account on its basic plan, with the option to expand up to 15 accounts on the premium plan. It also provides customizable permissions, enabling you to restrict or grant access based on roles such as viewer, author, and administrator.

Unbounce User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

Format vs Unbounce: 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.

The reviews for Unbounce reveal a mixed sentiment among users. On the positive side, many appreciate its user-friendly, drag-and-drop page builder, which facilitates the quick creation and editing of landing pages without the need for technical expertise. Users find it beneficial for A/B testing, integrating with CRMs, and swiftly turning around marketing content. However, there are notable concerns, particularly with a case of unexpected switch to an annual plan without consent and refusal to refund, indicating potential issues with customer service and billing practices. Additionally, some users mention technical limitations, such as responsiveness issues and the absence of global elements for content updates across multiple pages, which can hinder efficiency.

Format vs Unbounce: FAQ