Intuit Websites
December 11th, 2009Recently I was contacted by a gentleman requesting a quote for search engine optimization for his website. He used Intuit’s Website to create his website. So being curious, especially after seeing TV commercials, I went and checked it out.
Their package details can be found here. And quite frankly I cannot recommend them even for someone starting out. And for $14.99 extra a month you can be listed in their WebListings and get found. You would be further ahead listing yourself in Google’s business listings and manually submitting your website.
Intuit Packages*
*As of December 11, 2009
| Monthly Fee | Annually |
| 4.99 | 59.88 |
| 19.99 | 179.88 |
| 49.99 | 599.88 |
| Search Engine Package | |
| Monthly Fee | Annually |
| 14.99 | 179.88 |
Intuit mentions nothing about submitting to Google, Yahoo or MSN, and quite frankly most website designers/developers always feature your site (at least good ones do) so you’ll get picked up. But content and a search engine friendly website is important.
E-commerce with Intuit
They use SimpleStore and is an additional $9.99 a month and is only available to Gold or Platinum website packages. Details are here with additional packages here, and quite frankly if you pick one I think you are unbelievably stupid to pay those prices.
For what they want for the Enterprise Package ($2759.88 annual costs and that is for each and every year). For that price you could have a professionally designed website and a shopping cart, and then you only have annual hosting fees with a good web host, merchant fees (which are extra no matter what service you use) to process credit cards and an SSL, or use PayPal. There are several excellent shopping carts.
My Recommendation
Businesses would be further ahead using WordPress. It’s great for SEO, it’s dynamic, it’s easy to add content, you can blog which can be a simple as just news about your business, get subscribers, use social media, affiliates, and so much more. There are several WordPress e-commerce plug-ins, or just simply add Buy Now PayPal buttons. If you want to add features such as wholesale, wish lists/gift registry, etc. then you will need a full-fledged e-commerce solution.
Reviews
Amazon
Why not to use Intuit Website Builder
Footnote
It’s not just Intuit. I have a current client that will be moving to a different shopping cart. The original web designer set the business up with a company that charges $229.00/$299.00 a year for the cart and that’s in addition to separate hosting fees for the site. For $159 the client will have a shopping cart that does not require annual fees.
Bottom line is that a good web developer knows what’s out there, and what does and doesn’t work, and will save you money in the long run.
6 Responses to “Intuit Websites”
Leave a Reply
I welcome comments. However, if you are just looking for a incoming link (and I can tell who you are since I look at the url you provide) I won't approve your comment.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Naomi Niles, Christina Lannen. Christina Lannen said: Intuit Websites: http://tinyurl.com/y9u7vpr [...]
February 16th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Intuit does have their own blog system. It is included in the gold packaging. Blog pages can be designed the same as any other page in with the page design tool
February 18th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
It’s interesting that this comment is actually from Intuit (208.240.243.170, charger.intuit.com). I do receive a nice amount of information about the comment author when a notice is generated to approve, delete or spam it the comment.
Well with your Gold package you are limited to 100 pages which for a blog is woefully inadequate and having to pay $19.99 a month is outrageous. The only mention of a “blog” is a brief mention under “Bandwidth”. Nothing about a customer being able to add a blog. One of my clients has a blog with over 1,400 posts in it so if they were signed up with Intuit they’d be paying $49.99 a month.
Heck, I’d have to pay $49.99 to host this site if it were able to be hosted with Intuit (a WordPress site that has a combination of posts and Pages totaling over 116). And that’s a total waste of money.
March 18th, 2010 at 11:02 am
You know you are in the right business when the big boys start moving in with their scams.
May 13th, 2010 at 9:38 am
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May 17th, 2010 at 3:28 am
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