Google Sites vs Instapage: What’s the Best Builder in 2024?

Google Sites vs Instapage: Final verdict

Google Sites and Instapage both offer unique advantages, but they cater to different user needs and preferences.

• 
  Google Sites (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is ideal for users seeking a simple, collaborative website builder with seamless integration with Google services. It is particularly well-suited for team projects, personal portfolios, and small business websites. While it lacks advanced design customization and ecommerce features, its ease of use and affordability make it a practical choice for basic web presence needs.
• 
  Instapage (Overall Grade: 6.6/10)
  
  excels in creating high-converting landing pages with extensive customization options and advanced marketing tools. It is designed for users focused on improving advertising conversion through personalization, optimization, and testing. Instapage’s robust integration capabilities and user-friendly interface make it a powerful platform for marketing campaigns, although it comes with a higher price tag compared to Google Sites.

Which one is the best for ecommerce: Google Sites or Instapage?

Verdict

: Google Sites and Instapage are not primarily designed for ecommerce, but Instapage offers more robust integration options for online selling.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Google Sites is more suited for simple websites and team projects. It lacks built-in ecommerce features but allows for basic integrations with third-party tools like PayPal or Stripe. This makes it a less ideal choice for businesses with significant ecommerce needs. Best For Ecommerce score: 1.8
• 
  Instapage
  
  : Instapage excels in creating high-converting landing pages and offers better ecommerce integration options, such as Shopify and various payment gateways. While not a full-fledged ecommerce platform, it provides more flexibility for online selling compared to Google Sites. Best For Ecommerce score: 4.2

Which one is the best for informational and business websites?

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, Instapage slightly outperforms Google Sites. Instapage’s robust design functionalities, ease of use, and extensive customization options make it a strong contender for businesses looking to optimize their online presence. Google Sites, while user-friendly and well-integrated with Google services, may lack some advanced features desired by more experienced web developers.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Google Sites is a structured web page-creation tool included in the Google Workspace package. It enables users to build websites easily without having to know how to code, using a drag-and-drop interface. Users can integrate various Google services, such as Google Drive, Maps, and Calendar, directly into their websites. It’s designed for collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on a site simultaneously, making it a popular choice for team projects, personal portfolios, and small business websites. However, its simplicity comes with limitations, such as a lack of advanced design customization options and limited third-party integrations. Score: 7.2
• 
  Instapage
  
  : Instapage is a comprehensive landing page platform designed to improve advertising conversion through personalization, optimization, and testing. It offers a range of tools for creating, testing, and optimizing landing pages with a focus on increasing sales, leads, and customer satisfaction. The platform boasts features such as AI content generation, targeted messaging through personalized landing pages, data-backed insights for optimization, and seamless ad-to-landing-page experiences. Instapage is recognized for its ease of use, allowing for the creation of high-performing landing pages without the need for a developer, and it facilitates team collaboration with its intuitive, cloud-based features. Score: 7.9

Google Sites vs Instapage: Detailed comparison

🏆

Winner: Instapage.

If you’re looking for a platform with extensive customization options and a wide array of design features, Instapage is the preferred choice.

Google Sites offers a limited number of templates (around 17) suitable for various purposes, from personal blogs to business websites, with both free and premium options available. 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

Instapage provides an extensive collection of 100+ design templates for website building, business-specific templates. These templates are tailored to support small teams and businesses in executing their marketing campaigns efficiently, including features for marketing automation, CRM, and analytics integrations.

Instapage Themes

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. Scoring an 8.5, Instapage slightly edges out Google Sites, which scores 8.3. Instapage is recognized for its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and extensive customization options, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. Google Sites also offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and seamless integration with Google services, but it may lack some advanced features desired by more experienced web developers.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. Both platforms provide comprehensive learning resources, but Instapage’s extensive educational materials, including blogs, webinars, and a detailed Help Center, offer a more robust support system for users.

Google Sites and Instapage are not primarily designed for ecommerce, but they can be adapted for online selling through third-party integrations. Google Sites is more suited for simple websites and team projects, while Instapage excels in creating high-converting landing pages.

Google Sites ecommerce features:

• No built-in ecommerce features
• Can integrate third-party tools or widgets
• Embedding payment processors like PayPal or Stripe

Instapage ecommerce features:

• Shopify integration
• Payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal

Ecommerce themes & templates

Neither Google Sites nor Instapage offers ecommerce-specific templates. Google Sites does not have any ecommerce templates, while Instapage focuses on landing pages without dedicated ecommerce templates.

Product page customization

Google Sites lacks any product page customization features. Products can be listed by embedding third-party platforms, and all customization must be done within those platforms. Instapage also does not have product page customization capabilities.

Payment processing

Google Sites allows for payment gateway integration using external tools or links, such as embedding HTML code for payment buttons from services like PayPal, Square, or Stripe. However, it does not offer comprehensive ecommerce capabilities.

Instapage supports payment gateway integration through external systems and third-party services like Commence Payments for Stripe, facilitating various payment options such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and card payments. The platform itself does not directly charge commissions for transactions, but payment gateways may have their own fees.

In summary, while both platforms can be adapted for ecommerce, they are not ideal for businesses looking for robust ecommerce solutions. Google Sites is more suitable for simple websites with basic ecommerce needs, whereas Instapage is better for creating high-converting landing pages with some ecommerce integrations.

🏆

Winner: Instapage

. Instapage, with a score of 7.5, offers a comprehensive website builder focused on creating and optimizing landing pages for various marketing campaigns. It features a drag-and-drop editor, AI content generation, detailed analytics, and extensive customization through custom code editing. Instapage supports collaboration, integrates with numerous marketing tools, and is designed to streamline the process of building, testing, and optimizing landing pages to increase conversions.

Google Sites, scoring 7.0, provides 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. Google Sites integrates seamlessly with other Google services, enabling the incorporation of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Maps directly into the website. However, its simplicity comes with limitations, such as a lack of advanced design customization options and limited third-party integrations.

Mobile editor/app

🏆

Winner: None

. Both Google Sites and Instapage do not offer dedicated mobile editor apps. This absence means that users cannot make on-the-go adjustments to their websites or landing pages directly from a mobile device.

Google Sites is designed for simplicity and ease of use, making it accessible for beginners to create and publish websites without advanced technical skills. However, the lack of a mobile editor app limits its flexibility for users who need to make quick updates or edits while away from their desktops.

Instapage, on the other hand, focuses on creating and optimizing landing pages for marketing campaigns. While it offers a user-friendly interface and a range of features for desktop use, the absence of a mobile editor app can be a drawback for marketers who need to manage and optimize their landing pages on the go.

In summary, the lack of mobile editor apps for both Google Sites and Instapage means that users are restricted to desktop editing, which can be a significant limitation for those requiring mobile flexibility.

Overall Result

:

Google Sites wins

. Google Sites scores 6.9, slightly higher than Instapage’s 6.1, due to its more accessible testing options. Google Sites offers a free version and a 14-day free trial, allowing users to test some premium features without any payment information. Instapage also provides a 14-day free trial but requires payment information upfront, which may lead to automatic charges if not canceled in time. Additionally, Instapage offers a 24-hour money-back guarantee, providing a brief window for refunds.

Google Sites offers more affordable plans suitable for small to large businesses, while Instapage focuses on high-conversion landing pages with premium pricing.

🏆

Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites provides a more reliable hosting solution with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and extensive global data centers. Instapage, while effective for landing pages, does not disclose its data center locations and has a lower hosting quality score.

🏆 Winner: Instapage

While both Google Sites and Instapage offer various strategies for optimizing website speed, Instapage has a higher overall score in this category.

Google Sites employs a range 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, making it difficult to gauge the real-world performance of sites built on this platform. Google Sites does emphasize improvements in Core Web Vitals, focusing on metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Instapage, on the other hand, focuses on responsive design, image optimization, and caching to enhance website speed. While specific load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on the level of optimization, Instapage generally provides a more transparent view of its performance metrics. Although Instapage does not provide detailed information on Core Web Vitals improvements, its higher overall score in website speed optimization suggests a more effective approach to enhancing site performance.

In conclusion, Instapage outperforms Google Sites in terms of website speed optimization, making it a better choice for users who prioritize fast-loading pages and efficient performance.

🏆 Winner: Instapage.

Instapage scores 6.8, slightly ahead of Google Sites’ 6.4, due to its robust integration capabilities tailored for marketing and conversion optimization. Instapage supports over 40 integrations with essential digital marketing tools, enhancing the overall marketing funnel and providing seamless ad-to-landing-page experiences.

Google Sites, while scoring 6.4, offers a wide array of plugins and extensions, particularly through platforms like Elfsight and Common Ninja, which enhance its basic functionalities with social media feeds, review displays, chat support, and e-commerce tools. These integrations make Google Sites a versatile choice for team projects, personal portfolios, and small business websites.

Both platforms provide valuable integrations, but Instapage’s focus on marketing and conversion gives it a slight edge in this comparison.

Google Sites Applications

Instapage Applications

🏆

Overall Winner: Instapage

. Instapage excels with its advanced marketing tools, particularly in analytics, ad campaign management, and email marketing integration. Google Sites offers basic functionalities, making it more suitable for simple web presence needs.

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. When comparing Google Sites vs Instapage, Instapage takes the lead in customer support with a score of 7.6. Instapage offers live chat support within the application from Monday to Friday, 24 hours a day, along with email and phone support during business hours. This ensures users have multiple channels to seek help and maintain a record of their service requests.

Google Sites, on the other hand, provides customer support primarily through self-service resources like a Help Center and community forums. Direct support, including phone, email, and live chat, is available to Google Workspace customers, with varying levels of support based on the subscription tier. While Google Sites offers 24/7 support for critical issues to eligible customers, free users have limited access to direct support, relying mostly on self-help resources.

For enterprise users, both platforms offer enhanced support options. Google Sites provides 24/7 customer support through phone and email for its enterprise plan, with the option to upgrade to premium support levels. Instapage’s Convert plan includes personalized assistance through Success Managers and Launch Specialists, ensuring a high level of dedicated support and guidance for optimizing conversion rates and maximizing ROI.

🏆

Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites excels in security with a score of 9.3, leveraging Google’s robust infrastructure to provide SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and automatic malware scanning. The platform benefits from regular security updates, DDoS protection, and compliance with international data protection standards, ensuring a secure environment for both website creators and visitors.

Instapage, with a security score of 8.4, also offers strong security measures, including SOC 2 Type I and Type II compliance, SSL/HTTPS support, and adherence to GDPR and CCPA regulations. Their Information Security Program is based on ISO 27001/2 and NIST 800-53 frameworks, covering various aspects of security from asset management to incident response. While Instapage provides comprehensive security for landing pages, Google Sites’ integration with Google’s extensive security infrastructure gives it an edge in overall protection.

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. Instapage, with a score of 6.0, offers AI-driven tools that enhance the creation and optimization of landing pages. Its AI Content Generator helps in producing tailored content quickly, and AI Experiments facilitate efficient A/B testing by dynamically allocating traffic to higher-performing variants. These features make Instapage a more advanced option in terms of AI capabilities compared to Google Sites, which lacks any AI features.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Managing your online team with Google Sites and Instapage involves different approaches to website editing access.

• 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.
• Instapage users can be assigned different roles: Viewer, Editor, or Manager. A Viewer has limited access, only able to view pages. An Editor can edit pages, and a Manager has full access except for billing information and the audit log. The number of users you can invite depends on your subscription limits. However, only one user can edit a page at a time to prevent overwrite issues.

Both platforms support collaborative website building with varied levels of access and control for different users.

Instapage User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

Google Sites vs Instapage: User Feedback

Users consistently praise Google Workspace, particularly Google Sites, for its seamless integration, ease of use, and collaborative features, making it a go-to 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.

Users generally appreciate Instapage for its user-friendly interface, robust customer support, and seamless integration capabilities, highlighting its effectiveness in creating high-quality, high-converting landing pages optimized for lead capture. Positive feedback emphasizes the platform’s ease of use, allowing both experienced marketers and newcomers to quickly design and deploy landing pages, along with its broad range of integrations with other marketing tools and CRM systems. However, some users encounter challenges with mobile responsiveness, custom domain settings, and occasional bugs.

Google Sites vs Instapage: FAQ