Creator Economy, Website Builders

Integrating Services in Website Platforms

Photo by Firmbee on Pixabay

Website Platforms

Website platforms include website builders, Link In Bio, and client portals, among others.

Interaction with users, including calendar appointments, video calls, and on-site chat, is now considered standard practice on websites providing any service.

Integrate or Build

When building website platforms, you can consider several approaches to include such services.

You can:

  1. 1. Build the integration yourself
  2. 2. Using some widget for service authorization, like Google Calendar integration
  3. 3. Use an integration service, such as Nylas, for calendar integration
  4. 4. Use an infrastructure service, such as Agora, for video/audio calls

Your choice from a cost perspective is derived from:

  1. 1. Cost of building the integration or service yourself
  2. 2. Cost of the integration service or cost of service.

From a platform architecture and user experience, the tradeoffs are clear. Building your system and integrations is much more work. Yet, you have more control over the experience.

However, there is an additional usability and cost aspect to be considered.

Do Users Arrive Bare Naked?

If your users already have subscriptions to Zoom and Calendly and are used to them, then moving to another service, either through a building by yourself or integration, is cumbersome.

First, you need to bill them somehow for something they are already paying for it or an equivalent somewhere else. This would make your pricing not convenient and may hamper user activation.

Second, you force your users to move from a service they are used to something new. You are again hampering user activation.

Where is the Cross Line?

It is tough to make available projections, but professional users, such as physicians, accountants, and lawyers, would appreciate a website platform that provides all services within, without the need to bring their service subscriptions.

IT technology professionals tend to prefer bringing their services.

Creators tend to fall somewhere in the middle, with a propensity to prefer a fully rounded platform with the need to bring anything with them.

Website Platform for Professionals

We are building a website platform for professionals that provides:

  1. 1. Appointment booking
  2. 2. Real-time chat
  3. 3. Video/Audio calls

All are fully provided by the platform.

We believe we should provide a complete solution in one subscription.

Yoram Kornatzky

Yoram Kornatzky