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How to Build a Website with No Code (2026)

2023-04-16 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 14:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Tools, apps and tech (also: Business and entrepreneurship) · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: His own numbers, His own products discussed, Sponsor segment present

Ali sorts website building without code into three paths (publishing content, showcasing yourself or your services, selling) and recommends platforms at three levels for each: Substack, Ghost and WordPress; Carrd, Super, Squarespace and Wix; Shopify, Podia and Kajabi.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why have a website, website versus web app, and the three paths

  • ★★ Ali says a website can now be built in minutes without knowing code; having built websites several times a year since 2010, he says it has never been easier. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali suggests professionals have a personal website as a CV of sorts, because someone looking to hire them will probably Google them and the website is normally the first result. — 00:00:58 · LinkedIn, Google
  • ★★ Ali says a web app such as Twitter is really hard to build without knowing how to code, unlike a traditional website. — 00:01:56 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Ali divides traditional websites into three paths, each with its own platform recommendations: a place to write content, a place to showcase your work or services, and a place to sell things. — 00:01:56

00:03:20 — Path one, publishing content: Substack, Ghost and WordPress

  • ★★★ For publishing content, Ali recommends Substack as the free first level: a newsletter platform that also hosts the posts on a website, with an optional own domain. — 00:03:50
  • ★★★ Ali recommends Ghost, from $9 a month, as the second level for publishing content regularly with a proper website rather than just a Substack account. — 00:04:19 · Ghost
  • ★★ Ali has used Ghost since 2015, and his website has been hosted on it for the eight years up to this video. — 00:04:19 · Ghost, aliabdaal.com
  • ★ Ali says he used Ghost's free default theme for his website and constantly got emails asking how he designed such a pretty site. — 00:04:48 · Ghost, aliabdaal.com
  • ★★ Ali says Ghost has newsletters and paid memberships built in: the same functionality as Substack, but with a proper-looking website. — 00:04:48 · Ghost
  • ★★ Ali says WordPress is free open-source software that powers around 40% of the websites on the internet. — 00:05:17
  • ★★★ Ali's team has just moved his website from Ghost to WordPress, because the site, at about a million hits a month, needed more features. (hedged) — 00:05:47 · aliabdaal.com, Ghost
  • ★★ Ali says he kept WordPress off his personal site because it is bloated: whenever he fiddled with it he felt overwhelmed and ended up writing nothing. — 00:05:47
  • ★★★ Ali does not recommend WordPress for most people: for a blogger who wants a pretty website, Ghost is still a really solid option. — 00:06:16 · Ghost
  • ★★ Ali recommends WordPress for a more full-featured, customizable website, with tens of thousands of plugins. — 00:06:16

00:06:45 — WP Engine sponsor read

00:07:59 — Path two, a showcase: Carrd, Super, Squarespace and Wix

  • ★★ Ali says Carrd is free to start and its pro version costs only $19 for the whole year. — 00:08:13
  • ★★★ For a one-page website, such as a freelancer's or a small business's, Ali calls Carrd the best platform. — 00:08:42
  • ★★ Ali says free website hosting generally sucks, so you generally have to pay at least something for hosting. — 00:08:42
  • ★★ Ali recommends Super, which turns a Notion page into a website, for showcasing services, a business website or a careers page. — 00:09:40 · Notion
  • ★★ Ali thinks Super's professional package starts at $12 a month, more than Carrd or Ghost's starter plan. (hedged) — 00:10:10 · Ghost
  • ★★ Ali says he has not been a fan of making websites on Squarespace or Wix compared with Ghost, Carrd or Super, though he has not used them in the last year. — 00:10:39 · Ghost
  • ★★ Ali calls Squarespace and Wix pretty good for a business website with customizable navigation, colours and fonts, but not for publishing lots of content regularly. — 00:11:08

00:11:32 — Path three, selling: Shopify, Podia and Kajabi; choose by what the website is for

  • ★★★ To sell physical products, Ali says the best option is Shopify, generally considered the gold standard for e-commerce stores. — 00:11:37
  • ★ Ali's team sold its stationery on Shopify. — 00:11:37
  • ★★ Ali says Shopify powers even huge brands such as Gymshark, which he says does about a billion dollars in sales a year. — 00:11:37 · Gymshark
  • ★★ To sell digital products, Ali recommends Podia, which he used from 2017 to 2022, as the beginner option. — 00:12:11
  • ★★ Ali thinks Podia costs about $39 a month. (hedged) — 00:12:11
  • ★★★ Ali's team made about $2.5 million in sales of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy while hosting it on Podia, and has now moved everything to Kajabi. — 00:12:40 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ Ali says Kajabi is more customizable than Podia, with funnels and an email list, and starts at around $150 a month. — 00:12:40
  • ★★ Ali recommends a platform like Kajabi to anyone expecting way more than $150 a month in digital-product sales. — 00:13:09
  • ★★★ Ali says the main thing in choosing a website platform is to work out what you personally want a website for and then try a few platforms, since there is no one best one. — 00:13:09

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Carrd · Ghost · Kajabi · Podia · Shopify · Squarespace · Substack · Super · Wix · WordPress

Also: Projects: aliabdaal.com · Essentiali · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Organizations: Google · Gymshark · LinkedIn · Twitter · WP Engine

Products: Notion

Also centred on Carrd: How to make a website in 5 minutes · Medical Students Making an App - Episode 3

Also centred on Kajabi: 12 Tools I Use to Run My $4m Business

Also centred on Squarespace: How To Build A Website in 2026

Also centred on Substack: How To Build A Website in 2026 · How to Start an Email Newsletter

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