Pros: This is very developer-friendly, they have a desktop version of their FTP interface, and they have Visual Studio Code integration.
Cons: Not a CMS. Because they are centered on developers, their documentation and video tutorials are very jargon heavy and can be hard to follow. They only allow static content.
Pros: It is free; you can use a custom domain with them (but you have to pay for and arrange for that separately); you can customize it a lot (but need to understand their proprietary tags). It can be used as a CMS (that is its original intention), but you have to understand Tumblr tags, which can be complicated.
Cons: For a while it was littered with porn, so many internet providers (including BYU) blocked any Tumblr site; it isn’t well supported, and honestly, I don’t know how many more years it will be in business before it is shut down. You can only use Javascript on the front page. Any additional pages will not allow you to use javascript including YouTube embeds. There are some workarounds, but it gets more complicated.
Cons: I don’t know a single student who has used Wix that was happy with the platform. They often have branding and sometimes advertising that clutter up your site.
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Pros: This is a “hipper” site geared toward creative industries so their templates are more contemporary and present images and video well; with the code above, it is free while you are a student. It is a CMS.
Cons: You will begin paying the full monthly/yearly rate once you are no longer an enrolled student, so if you put work into your site now, make sure you are comfortable creating a new site elsewhere, or that you want to pay what they are asking; limited editing capabilities.
Pros: It is a CMS. They have a free option that is always free (but has many limitations); this is an industry standard CMS that has been around for a very long time; there is a lot of community invested in the longevity of this platform; because it is so prevalent, there are a lot of template options (free and pay); if you pay, you get a lot more options for customization including building your own site from the ground up.
Cons: Be careful with plugins as those are generally by third parties and may not always be supported with software updates. To fully take advantage of building your own fully-custom site, you need a working knowledge of PHP and Javascript.
Pros: It is a CMS. It has an integrated eCommerce with some plans; lots of well-designed templates that work well with images and video;
Cons: You have to pay; limited customizing opportunities; because it is widely used in creative fields, your site can sometimes look identical to others’.
You can sometimes find student or other discounts for some of these services. For example, Squarespace markets themselves mercilessly on podcasts that usually offer a discount code. Squarespace also has a student discount—you just have to verify your status through a third-party site.