Alquilame.io vs Website Builders: Why Rental Businesses Need Specialized Tools
You’ve decided your rental business needs a website. Great! But when you start researching, you’ll find dozens of website builders - Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Google Sites. They all look professional with beautiful templates. So why use a specialized rental platform like Alquilame.io instead?
The answer is simple: General website builders are designed to sell products, not manage rentals.
The Problem with General Website Builders
Website builders like Wix, Weebly, and Google Sites are excellent tools - for the right use case. They’re built for:
- Blogs and portfolios
- Service businesses (plumbers, lawyers)
- E-commerce stores that sell products
But rental businesses don’t sell products - they rent them. And that fundamental difference means you need completely different features:
Rental businesses need:
- Availability calendars (is it available this weekend?)
- Inventory tracking (how many tables do I have left?)
- Booking management (prevent double-bookings)
- Date range selection (from Saturday to Sunday)
- Deposit and return tracking
E-commerce sites need:
- Shopping carts
- “Add to cart” buttons
- One-time purchases
- Inventory that decreases after each sale
See the difference?
Feature Comparison: Alquilame.io vs Website Builders
Here’s what you actually get when comparing specialized rental platforms versus general website builders:
| Feature | Alquilame.io | Wix | Weebly | Google Sites |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan Available | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Free Subdomain | ✅ yourname.alquilame.io | ✅ yourname.wixsite.com | ✅ yourname.weebly.com | ✅ sites.google.com/yourname |
| Rental-Specific Catalog | ✅ Built-in | ❌ Manual setup | ❌ Manual setup | ❌ Manual setup |
| Availability Calendar | ✅ Automatic | 💰 Paid plugin ($20-50/mo) | 💰 Paid plugin ($30+/mo) | ❌ Not available |
| Booking System | ✅ Built-in | 💰 Paid plugin ($30-100/mo) | 💰 Paid plugin ($40+/mo) | ❌ Not available |
| Inventory Management | ✅ Automatic | 💰 Custom development | 💰 Custom development | ❌ Not available |
| WhatsApp Integration | ✅ Direct booking links | 🔧 Manual setup | 🔧 Manual setup | 🔧 Manual setup |
| Double-Booking Prevention | ✅ Automatic | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available |
| Date Range Selection | ✅ Built-in | 💰 Paid plugin | 💰 Paid plugin | ❌ Not available |
| Quote Generation | ✅ Automatic | 🔧 Manual forms | 🔧 Manual forms | 🔧 Manual forms |
| CFDI/Invoice Integration (MX) | ✅ Built-in | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available |
| Customer Rental History | ✅ Tracked automatically | 💰 Requires paid CRM | 💰 Requires paid CRM | ❌ Not available |
| Setup Time for Rental Features | ⚡ 30 minutes | ⏰ Days/weeks | ⏰ Days/weeks | ❌ Impossible |
| Monthly Cost (with rental features) | 💚 $0 (Free plan) | 💸 $50-150+ | 💸 $60-120+ | 💸 $0 (but missing features) |
Legend:
- ✅ = Included free
- 💰 = Requires paid upgrade/plugin
- 🔧 = Possible but requires technical setup
- ❌ = Not available
- ⚡ = Very fast
- ⏰ = Time-consuming
Real Cost Comparison
Let’s see what it actually costs to get rental functionality on each platform:
Alquilame.io (Free Plan)
Monthly cost: $0 MXN
Includes:
- Unlimited rental products
- Availability calendar
- Booking system
- WhatsApp integration
- Inventory management
- Customer tracking
- CFDI generation (Mexico)
Total: $0 MXN/month