If you're looking to set up a website there are a multitude of options. With no budget or time restrictions the choice is clear: design a bespoke site from the ground up. However, in the real world that's often not a possibility. Sometimes we need to turn to an off-the-peg solution.

Striking.ly is a new start-up that wants to provides one such way to create professional, single-page, responsive websites. Does it do the trick?

The pros

• Very good templates which are responsive: as discussed, the whole purpose of this site is to be a quick fix for a website that's responsive. These templates look good. They're obviously high-quality designs and great if you're into the bold yet simple look. They're great for professionals as well as creatives and do not have room for a lot of fluff. They seem to work in all browsers as well.
• Easy to use: there are some WYISWG editors out there that suck. They claim you can edit with the click of a button but that's rarely the case. By contrast this is probably the easiest editor I've ever used. It makes sense. It's intuitive (with the exception of the background and text thing) and it's straight-forward.
• New startup: they started in July, and I'm always an advocate of supporting our own. I think being new is a gift and a curse, but I think it's wonderful to hop on the bandwagon early. I've also gotten some very personalized e-mails from them, so it seems like they're here to help and you can be heard.

The cons

• The pricing: let me first start off by saying, the features aren't all that. For free, I can make 2 single page websites which are only to be viewed by 500 visitors — which isn't necessarily true as they admit they'll only send you a warning and your page will still be visible. For $8 a month ($96 annual), I get the option to create 5 single page websites, use a custom domain name, get Google Analytics and show my site to 5,000 people.

  It's not the worst deal, but I can spend $96 at GoDaddy and get much more as far as hosting is concerned. Then, I'm not 100% sure why I need 5 single page websites. And isn't Google Analytics free? It doesn't seem too realistic especially if I'm just one person or business who needs a quick fix. I'm not sure a quick fix is worth $96. There's an even 'bigger' plan for $192 a year as well.

• No email addresses: the biggest feature that was missing from any of these packages is e-mails. You cannot get an e-mail account with their hosting. I'd assume for their target market, a personalized e-mail address is essential.
• Template designs are virtually un-editable: it's no big deal now because they're still new. We can assume as time moves forward, there will be more templates. You can edit the info easily, but you cannot really edit the design, so it's kind of obvious if you and someone else have the same template. It's not a huge thing because people use templates all the time and they're basic enough to not even matter, but it's something to consider.

Verdict

Use this as a start. As you can tell, the pricing is probably my biggest issue. For now, I probably wouldn't pay for it. It's beneficial especially if I'm starting because there's only a small logo at the bottom of the page. The restrictions are pretty useless and I could buy my own domain name and forward it.

The interface is easy to use and the templates are great. This is great to have for yourself or to show to that client who wants something nice but doesn't have a budget for something customizable. I think with some changes and a revision of their pricing, Striking.ly could be pretty popular.

Have you used Striking.ly? How did you find the service? Let us know in the comments.

Featured image, blank slate image via Shutterstock