Showit vs Strikingly: Simple vs. Creative Which Website Builder Fits You? (2026)

Speed or artistry. Simplicity or creative control. That’s the real question sitting at the center of the Showit vs Strikingly debate.

Strikingly’s entire identity is built around getting you online fast no design skills required, no steep learning curve, no fuss. Showit’s identity is the opposite: it gives you every tool to create a website that looks like it was designed by someone who charges four figures for the privilege.

If you’re trying to figure out which one fits your situation in 2026, this comparison cuts through the noise.

Platform Identity: What Each Builder Was Made to Do

Strikingly launched in 2012 with a single mission — help non-technical users publish websites quickly. It is a beginner-friendly website builder that allows you to create, design, and build your own website. Because Strikingly is pitched at first-time website creators and a less tech-savvy audience, it’s extremely easy to use.

Showit was built with creative professionals in mind. Photographers, brand designers, coaches, and service providers use it to build websites that feel like extensions of their personality and portfolio. It is a 100% customizable drag-and-drop website builder — and the difference from Strikingly is felt the moment you open either editor.

These two platforms are not in the same competitive tier. One was designed to lower the barrier to entry. The other was designed to raise the ceiling on what’s possible.

Design and Customization: Fundamentally Different Philosophies

Strikingly’s design system is built around predefined sections. Users don’t get a huge selection of sections or elements either. You select a template, fill in the content blocks, and choose from limited layout variations. There is no free-drag interface, no pixel-level positioning, and no way to place elements outside the structure the template defines.

If you want to unleash your creative spirit, Strikingly’s drag-and-drop lite concept probably won’t be very appealing. Since its options are limited, you’re essentially working within the builder’s predefined layouts.

Showit operates on the opposite philosophy. The entire canvas is yours. Every element — text blocks, images, buttons, galleries, overlays — can be placed anywhere, layered, and animated. You control spacing to the pixel. You control font sizing independently for desktop and mobile. You control everything. There is really just no comparison to be made between Showit and other website builders in terms of creative freedom.

Strikingly’s templates are clean and aesthetically simple. Showit’s template library ranges from minimalist and sleek to bold and artistic. But even more importantly, Showit templates are starting points — you can deviate from them completely. Strikingly templates are the destination.

The Mobile Experience

Strikingly templates are generally responsive and optimized for display on different devices. But unlike Showit, you can’t edit mobile content separately from desktop content.

Showit lets you design a fully independent mobile experience. Given that Google’s mobile-first indexing prioritizes how your site performs on smaller screens, this is not a minor distinction. For photographers and visual creatives who need control over how their galleries appear on phones, Showit’s separate mobile canvas is essential.

Who Uses Strikingly vs. Who Uses Showit?

Strikingly works best for startups needing a landing page quickly, freelancers building basic portfolio pages, and small businesses that want professional presence without technical overhead. It is great for quickly creating simple websites with standard sections that don’t differ too much from the template’s defaults and presets.

Showit is used by photographers, wedding planners, coaches, consultants, brand designers, bloggers, and service-based business owners who need a website that converts visitors into clients. People like Jenna Kutcher and Amy Porterfield have chosen Showit to create the website for their seven-figure businesses — which tells you something about the platform’s ceiling.

Blogging and Content Strategy

This is a significant gap between the two platforms.

Strikingly is suitable for simple blogs and small shops. Its blogging functionality is basic — you can publish posts, but content strategy tools, SEO depth, and blog architecture are not strengths.

Showit integrates directly with WordPress for blogging. This means you get the world’s most capable content management system as your blog backend, including Yoast SEO, custom permalink structures, category and tag management, and full schema control. For creative professionals who rely on Google to find new clients, this blogging infrastructure is transformative.

The Showit SEO tips for photographers resource is a concrete example of how creatives use Showit’s blogging to rank for location-based and service-specific searches. Strikingly cannot replicate this depth. Photographers wanting to learn how to make the most of this setup will find the Showit SEO checklist especially practical.

E-Commerce and Integrations

Strikingly has built-in e-commerce functionality on its higher plans. It’s entry-level but functional for simple product stores. If you need basic transactional capability alongside your website, Strikingly bundles this in without additional complexity.

Showit does not have native e-commerce. It was not built with e-commerce in mind. However, you can integrate Shopify Starter, ThriveCart, Flodesk, SamCart, and similar tools through embed codes. The platform’s guide on adding a Shopify buy button to Showit makes the process accessible even for non-technical users.

For creatives selling a small number of digital products or services, Showit’s integration approach works well. For merchants who need a full-featured store as the primary focus of their site, Strikingly’s native e-commerce may be more convenient — though neither platform competes with dedicated e-commerce tools.

Pricing Compared

Plan	Strikingly	Showit
Free Plan	Yes (strikingly.com subdomain)	No (free trial only)
Limited/Entry	$12/month	$19/month
Pro	$20/month	$24/month (with blog)
VIP/Advanced	$59/month	$34/month (advanced blog)
Custom Domain	Paid plans	All paid plans
E-Commerce	Built-in (Pro+)	Third-party integration
WordPress Blog	No	Yes (paid plans)

Strikingly’s pricing is competitive for what it offers — but the platform has received criticism for inconsistent pricing display between logged-out and logged-in states. Showit’s pricing is straightforward, and all paid plans include hosting, access to the design builder, and customer support.

Strikingly’s value for money has also been questioned in independent reviews, scoring relatively low when factoring in the limited design capabilities delivered for the price.

Long-Term Scalability

Strikingly is not the right choice for bigger sites or large e-commerce businesses. If you’re starting a personal portfolio or a small business site, Strikingly will be able to get you online. But as your business grows and your website needs to grow with it — more pages, more complex layouts, a real blog strategy Strikingly’s ceiling becomes a wall.

Showit grows with you. Its canvas-based system supports single-page sites all the way up to complex multi-page business websites with integrated blogging, e-commerce embeds, client portals, and custom-coded functionality. The platform’s guide on adding functionality to Showit shows how extensible the platform really is.

The Bottom Line

Strikingly is excellent at one thing: getting non-technical users online fast. If that is your primary need and design ambition is not a priority, it delivers. The free plan is genuinely usable for small personal sites.

Showit is the better long-term investment for any creative professional who cares about how their website looks, how it ranks in search, and how effectively it converts visitors into clients. The design freedom is unmatched. The WordPress blogging integration is a real competitive advantage. And the platform’s community, support resources, and template ecosystem are built around the exact kind of user who outgrows Strikingly quickly.

If you’re ready to build a site that earns its keep, exploring Showit template customization services is a smart next step combining the speed of starting from a template with the polish of professional customization.

Frequently Asked Questions