Google Sites vs Bandzoogle: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Google Sites and Bandzoogle cater to distinct audiences with their unique sets of features, making the choice between them dependent on the user’s specific needs.

• 
  Google Sites (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is a versatile, user-friendly platform ideal for creating simple, collaborative websites. It integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace, making it a great choice for educational projects, team collaborations, and personal portfolios. Its ease of use and integration capabilities are its strongest points, though it falls short in ecommerce and customization options.
• 
  Bandzoogle (Overall Grade: 5.9/10)
  
  , tailored specifically for musicians and bands, offers a range of specialized features such as music sales, fan subscriptions, and event promotion. It stands out for its ecommerce capabilities and design templates suited to the music industry. While it may offer less in terms of broad website building features, it excels in its niche, providing artists with the tools they need to succeed online.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: For musicians and bands looking to sell directly to their fans, Bandzoogle is the superior choice over Google Sites, thanks to its specialized ecommerce features.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : While Google Sites allows for basic website creation with the possibility of integrating third-party ecommerce tools, it lacks native ecommerce capabilities, making it less suitable for those looking to manage and grow an online store.
• 
  Bandzoogle
  
  : Designed with artists in mind, Bandzoogle excels in ecommerce by offering features like commission-free sales of music and merchandise, fan subscriptions, and crowdfunding. Its platform is tailored to the unique needs of musicians and bands, making it the best choice for ecommerce in this niche.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Google Sites and Bandzoogle are closely matched for informational and business websites, with Bandzoogle slightly leading due to its niche focus and design capabilities. However, Google Sites’ broader applicability and integration with Google’s ecosystem make it a versatile choice for various types of users.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Offers a straightforward, no-frills approach to website building, making it ideal for informational sites that benefit from Google’s seamless service integrations. Its collaborative features and ease of use make it a strong contender for businesses looking for a simple online presence.
• 
  Bandzoogle
  
  : While it edges out Google Sites slightly in this category, Bandzoogle’s specific focus on musicians and bands means its features are highly specialized. For informational business websites outside the music industry, this might limit its applicability despite its slightly higher score.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Bandzoogle.

Bandzoogle offers a more diverse range of design templates and customization options, specifically tailored for musicians and bands.

Google Sites offers a limited number of templates suitable for various purposes, from personal blogs to business websites. These templates are designed for user engagement, simplicity, and functionality, allowing for customization to meet specific needs. However, compared to other website builders, Google Sites might offer less variety in templates and design customization options.

Google Sites Themes

On the other hand, Bandzoogle offers a diverse range of design templates for musicians, bands, and DJs, ensuring artists can create a professional and engaging online presence without needing extensive web design knowledge. These templates are responsive, customizable, and can be switched freely without affecting the user’s content, allowing for a tailored look that matches the artist’s style.

Bandzoogle Themes

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. With a score of 8.3, Google Sites edges out Bandzoogle, which scored 8.1. Google Sites offers a user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other Google services, making it an efficient and straightforward tool for creating basic websites. Bandzoogle, while tailored specifically for musicians and bands, may have limitations in customization compared to more general website builders.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites offers a wide array of learning resources, from practical guides for educators to comprehensive digital skill development programs for the wider public. Bandzoogle also offers a variety of learning resources aimed at assisting musicians and music teachers with website creation and optimization, but it lacks a large community of users across various platforms.

When it comes to ecommerce, Bandzoogle clearly outperforms Google Sites. Bandzoogle is designed specifically for musicians and bands, offering a range of music-specific ecommerce features such as a built-in music player, the ability to sell music and merchandise directly from the site commission-free, and tools to manage fan subscriptions and crowdfunding campaigns.

Bandzoogle ecommerce features:

• Sell Subscriptions
• Crowdfunding
• Product Bundling and Upselling
• Payment Integrations

Google Sites ecommerce features:

• No built-in ecommerce features

Ecommerce themes & templates

Bandzoogle doesn’t offer specialized ecommerce templates, but all its existing templates can be enhanced to include ecommerce features. This allows users to sell subscriptions, merchandise, and more. Google Sites, on the other hand, does not have any ecommerce templates.

Product page customization

Bandzoogle platform enables users on Standard and Pro plans to sell a wide range of physical merchandise directly from their websites without commission fees, though it doesn’t handle distribution or fulfillment. It supports various product types, including CDs, vinyl, apparel, digital files, and more, with customizable options for product variations, shipping, and sales tax. Google Sites lacks any product page customization features, as the products can be listed with embedding third-party platforms, all the customization can be done within the mentioned platforms.

Payment processing

Bandzoogle supports a variety of payment methods including major credit and debit cards, but does not support PayPal, cash, or money orders for transactions. The platform emphasizes direct-to-fan sales tools, such as merchandising through Printful integration, and does not charge commissions on sales, allowing artists to retain all revenue generated through their websites. Google Sites, on the other hand, allows for the integration of payment gateways using external tools or links, not through native features. This can be done by embedding HTML code for payment buttons from services like PayPal, Square, or Stripe, or by linking to an external checkout page. However, Google Sites doesn’t offer the comprehensive ecommerce capabilities that dedicated platforms like Bandzoogle provide.

🏆

Winner: Bandzoogle

. Bandzoogle, with a score of 7.4, offers a website builder tailored for musicians, featuring a variety of tools for design, sales, promotion, and technical management without requiring coding knowledge. It provides responsive templates, integration with music services, and capabilities to sell music, merch, and tickets directly to fans commission-free. Additionally, it supports artist promotion through mailing lists, SEO, and social media integration.

Google Sites, scoring 7.0, offers a user-friendly website builder editor that allows users to create and design websites without needing coding knowledge. With its drag-and-drop interface, users can easily add, customize, and arrange elements such as text, images, and videos on their web pages. It also provides a variety of templates and design options to help users get started quickly and ensure their site looks professional. Additionally, Google Sites integrates seamlessly with other Google services, enabling the incorporation of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Maps directly into the website.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Bandzoogle

. Both Google Sites and Bandzoogle lack a dedicated mobile editor app. However, Bandzoogle allows users to manage and edit their websites using the mobile browser version of the editor, giving it a slight edge over Google Sites in this category. Google Sites does not offer any mobile editing capabilities, which can be a significant drawback for users who prefer to work on their websites on the go. Therefore, Bandzoogle is the better choice for mobile editing capabilities.

Overall Result

:

Bandzoogle Wins

. Bandzoogle scores 8.6, outperforming Google Sites which scores 6.9. Bandzoogle offers a 30-day free trial, which is longer than Google Sites’ 14-day trial. Both platforms allow testing of some premium features during the trial period. However, neither platform offers a money-back guarantee.

Google Sites and Bandzoogle offer a range of pricing plans catering to different needs.

While Google Sites provides options for individuals, small to large businesses, and even custom pricing for enterprises, Bandzoogle focuses on providing specialized functionalities for musicians and bands. Both platforms offer a discount for annual billing.

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Winner: Google Sites

Google Sites offers cloud-based managed hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a large number of data centers worldwide. Bandzoogle, while offering unlimited bandwidth and storage, does not disclose information about its uptime or data center locations. This lack of transparency gives Google Sites the edge in this comparison.

🏆 Winner: Bandzoogle

Both Google Sites and Bandzoogle prioritize website performance and page speed, but Bandzoogle has a slight edge in this category due to its focus on mobile optimization.

Google Sites, part of the Google Workspace package, is a structured web page-creation tool that allows users to build websites easily without having to know how to code. Google Sites uses a variety of strategies for speed optimization, including automated optimization, CDN, mobile optimization, browser caching, code minification, and the use of AMP. However, Google does not disclose specific statistics about website Page Speed scores or load times.

On the other hand, Bandzoogle, a website builder specifically designed for musicians and bands, focuses on mobile-optimized design for speed optimization. While Bandzoogle does not provide specific information on their Core Web Vitals improvements, the load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on optimization and website complexity. This focus on mobile optimization gives Bandzoogle a slight edge over Google Sites in terms of website speed optimization.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites.

Google Sites scores 6.4, offering a wide array of plugins and extensions to enhance website functionality. On the other hand, Bandzoogle, with a score of 0.0, does not offer any plugins or extensions. Therefore, Google Sites is the clear winner in this category.

Google Sites Applications

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Overall Winner: Bandzoogle

. Bandzoogle offers more comprehensive marketing features, especially in email marketing, blogging, and analytics. Google Sites, while offering basic SEO and social media integration, lacks in email marketing, blogging, and ads and promotions.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites offers a more comprehensive customer support system compared to Bandzoogle. Google Sites provides 24/7 support for critical issues to eligible customers and has a variety of self-service resources, including a Help Center and community forums. Direct support, including phone, email, and live chat, is available to Google Workspace customers, with the level of support varying by subscription tier.

Bandzoogle, on the other hand, provides customer support through email and live chat during specific hours. However, it does not offer support for enterprises, which is a significant disadvantage for larger organizations. Despite this, Bandzoogle’s support team is recognized for delivering award-winning customer service, offering timely and effective solutions to user inquiries and issues.

🏆

Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites, with a security score of 9.3, offers robust security measures including SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and automatic malware scanning. It also benefits from Google’s regular security updates and compliance with international data protection standards. Google Sites’ infrastructure offers DDoS protection and data redundancy, safeguarding against data loss and maintaining site accessibility under heavy traffic.

Bandzoogle, with a security score of 7.7, also offers several security measures including automatic redirection from HTTP to HTTPS addresses for every account, ensuring that all data transmitted between the user’s browser and the website is encrypted. However, it falls short in comparison to Google Sites’ comprehensive security measures.

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Neither Google Sites nor Bandzoogle offer AI capabilities in their platforms. While Google Sites is part of the Google Workspace which offers AI features through its Gemini AI, these features are not integrated into Google Sites. Similarly, Bandzoogle, despite its focus on providing a comprehensive platform for musicians, does not offer any AI features. This lack of AI capabilities may limit the automation and personalization options available to users of both platforms.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites and Bandzoogle have different approaches to user management.

• Google Sites allows multiple users to collaborate with different roles, including Owners, who have full control, and Editors, who can modify content but not site settings. There’s no strict limit on the number of users who can edit a site, allowing flexibility in management and development. Viewers can only see the site, with no editing permissions. This structure supports collaborative website building with varied levels of access and control for different users.
• Bandzoogle, on the other hand, allows only one user to edit and manage a website. This could be a limitation for teams or projects that require multiple contributors.

Unfortunately, there are no detailed user roles and access levels tables available for these platforms.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Google Sites, part of the Google Workspace, is highly praised by users for its seamless integration, ease of use, and collaborative features. It is a preferred solution for various professional and educational needs. The platform’s simplicity and user-friendly interface are lauded, enabling effortless website creation and sharing of information within organizations. While some users desire more customization options and additional features, overall, Google Workspace remains highly valued for its versatility and streamlined workflow facilitation.

On the other hand, Bandzoogle, a website builder specifically designed for musicians and bands, receives positive feedback for its customizable and professional website layouts, ease of use, and specialized features. Users appreciate the platform’s assistance in creating an online presence, saving time, and directly engaging with fans. However, critiques include a desire for more theme variety and customization options, concerns about pricing for beginners, occasional interface clumsiness or system latency, and the lack of a fully free version. Despite these drawbacks, Bandzoogle is valued for its niche focus, helping artists efficiently promote their music and interact with their fan base online.

FAQ