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17 Best Site Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Choosing the best site builder can be hard, as there are 74 popular choices to select from.
In this guide, I rated and reviewed the best website builders to make a web site based on cost, reliability, web hosting solutions , technical support, website speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and much more.
We will also compare:
The ideal website contractors for small businesses.
The ideal free and affordable options.
Those with the best SEO.
The top platforms with online store capabilities.
The very top builders for agencies.
And the best choices for photographers and artists.
What is the Best Website Builder?
Using a website builder is a fast and effortless way to build a presence for your brand or online business. These tools simplify your site management by combining domain registration, hosting, and site design into one platform.
If you’re not too savvy with web design and development, you will want to go with an easy drag and drop editor.
The choice is all up to you.
Here are my top picks for the best website builder to use this year.
Wix.
Best Site Builder for Small Business ($13/month)
Wix is the most popular website builder on the current market, with over 100 million consumers.
They have 500+ ready-to-use templates to design your website in any business. These templates are mobile-optimized and have 100 fonts to choose from (or you can upload your own).
Their designs also appear beautiful, with scroll effects, and advanced design features like video and animation backgrounds.
If you already have a domain name on GoDaddy or want to register one at Wix.com, they make it super simple. Also, if you want to add e-commerce to your site so you could sell online, plans begin a $20/month.
If you are a small business, I recommend Wix as the best online store builder. You don’t necessarily require a platform with more advanced options like BigCommerce and Shopify. Wix website owners that want to add an e-commerce store can get these great new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly site tool on the market. You can almost endlessly customize the appearance and feel of your site with no coding knowledge.
They also have a tool named Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) — the first artificial intelligence website builder. Wix ADI learns about your website and uses that information to design a site tailored to your specific needs.
This tool leverages AI selecting from countless combinations of pictures, text, layouts, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re looking for the best website builder for small businesses, Wix is your very best choice.
Read my full Wix review for more in-depth analysis.
Get started with Wix.
Greatest Modern Website Builder with Free Plans (free — $3.49/mo)
Zyro is a website builder with a mission to help local businesses to tell their unique stories online.
Overall, they are best known for simplicity and speed.
With Zyro, you can create a company site quickly and easily with no coding required. Your website also loads fast due to the light framework and looks great on all apparatus.
With a powerful set of tools, Zyro helps grow your online business with pre-made design templates, AI-driven text, an intuitive drag-and-drop grid tool, mobile-readiness, and more than one million stock pictures to select from.
One of their standout features is their AI Content Generator, which offers SEO-friendly content ideas based on your industry and specific business type.
To begin with this tool, you choose your type of business, then write 2-3 sentences describing your brand and circumstance. Then you correct your AI settings and customize them based on duration, expertise, and creativity level. Last, you click on the Create button and see your distinctively created content.
Since content generation is a challenge for many site owners, this tool creates new paragraphs for you which can rank better in search and increase conversion rates.
Some other excellent features include:
Built-in SEO tools to increase your search rankings.
A free SSL certificate and custom domains.
An AI-driven logo and slogan manufacturer.
24/7 customer support via email and live chat.
AI heatmaps to improve website conversions and forecast visitor behaviour.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website designs.
Free website design templates for various industries like creative agencies, startups, fashion brands, health companies, bakeries, and more.
Zyro offers three primary pricing programs — a free plan, a mid-tier”Basic” plan at $1.99/month, and their high-tier”Unleashed” plan at $3.49/month.
Their free plan doesn’t include a custom domain name but does provide 99.9% uptime, an SSL certificate, 500MB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage.
Their “Basic” program allows you to connect your domain name, increases bandwidth and storage, and includes extra features like ad removal and integrations with tools such as Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Facebook pixels. This is a very popular plan that’s most acceptable for small and medium-sized companies.
Finally, their “Unleashed” program provides every Zyro attribute and gives unlimited storage and bandwidth. At this affordable price of $3.49/month, it makes sense to go for this program and enjoy the unlimited features if you plan to get a great deal of content on your website.
Overall, Zyro is ideal for small businesses looking to create and grow a site fast, save money on composing and logo-making using their AI tools, rank high on search engines, and increase conversion rates with high quality, mobile-friendly design templates.
You can begin with Zyro for free to test out their platform, then upgrade to a paid plan when you are ready to grow your internet business.
Get started with Zyro and begin building your website today.
Best Website Design for Personal Sites ($12/month)
When I think of Squarespace, my mind goes right to their beautifully designed home page. They truly know how to make beautiful, high-quality sites that look great for both small businesses and personal websites alike.
With over 100 design templates to choose from, they lead the pack when it comes to design. Squarespace templates appear excellent down to every detail. The fonts, color schemes, and imagery all mesh flawlessly for any site.
Besides design, their stage is great for bloggers. I tested out their WYSIWYG blog editor, and it is very intuitive.
You drag elements like pictures, headings, and text on the page and place it where you want. They also offer multiple user permissions, Google AMP functionality, and you can schedule your articles:
A few small SEO limitations hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. First, my XML sitemap pulled two versions of each page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This dual indexing could potentially lead to SEO and duplicate content problems down the road. They didn’t have a simple fix the last time I checked.
Secondly, your site headlines become your meta titles, so be cautious when adding your headlines for SEO. You can read more in my whole Wix vs Squarespace review.
Other great features make up for these drawbacks. Their ease of use is top-notch — websites are elementary to assemble with their editing tools. In-built analytics tools provide steady data onsite traffic if you’re not using Google Analytics. Plus, it’s tough to go wrong with a beautifully-designed website for only $12/month.
Monthly prices range from $12/month for their private plan up to $40/month for their Online Store (Advanced) plan. Monthly prices are based on a one-year contract, and Squarespace includes a free domain. The Personal plan provides a free domain name, unlimited storage and bandwidth, free SSL, and 24/7 customer support.
In general, if you are a small company that needs first-rate web design or a blogger who wants your content to appear great, Squarespace is a trusted option.
Best Free Website Builder (Free — $25/month)
Weebly powers over 530,000 domain names and is known as the easy website builder of choice for people without much technical expertise. They offer a great deal of great features. If you’re a blogger, you can use Weebly.com to pick a domain name and use their editor to add your own text, images, and content.
They also have a mobile app to track your website’s performance on the go. And email marketing tools allow you to send newsletters to your subscribers from inside their tool.
They have a free program which includes 500 MB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and a domain with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain name with this plan but are forced to have Weebly branding throughout your site. Additionally, the free program only comes with chat and email support, but no phone service.
Weebly’s paid programs range from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Strategy gets you innovative e-commerce performance, a free domain, and $200 of Google ad credits.
Their e-commerce features include product options/variants, coupon codes, stock management, a shipping calculator, shipping labels, and the ability to accept payments through Square and other suppliers.
The level of customer support you get is based on your subscription level. You can find assistance yourself in several locations, including their site, service center, community forum, social media, and programmer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and phone support.
If you are looking for a simple website creator to get up and running, I suggest that you get started using Weebly.
Best Site Builder for Ecommerce ($29/month)
Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform used by over 800,000 online businesses so sell products online. They were founded in Canada in 2004 and quickly became a powerhouse because of their simple dashboard and integrations with thousands of app partners.
While not every website owner needs product-selling performance, I added Shopify to the list because almost any small business could use them to set up their site.
Take a salon for instance.
With Shopify, not only could you set up a quick website including a blog, a map of your location, contact information, and appointment scheduling (with an app), but you could also sell hair care products online. This creates not only a website but another online source of revenue for your business.
Shopify has a great deal of features you’d come to expect from other tools on this list, such as hosting, your own domain name, 70+ specialist topics, a free SSL certificate, and promotion and SEO features.
They also offer mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automated carrier shipping rates, automatic tax rates, and the full checkout experience. Plus, you can enjoy omnichannel selling across Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Instagram, and more.
If you’re establishing a new website and believe that you might want to sell products online in the future, it’s better to begin with Shopify rather than another tool that doesn’t take online shopping too.
They offer three plans ranging from $29/month to $299/month. The $29/month Fundamental Shopify Plan should give website owners everything they want, including a full website, an internet store with unlimited products, blog features, 24/7 support, and much more.
If you want to give Shopify a try, they give a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Best For Professional Designers ($16 a month).
Some of its other Important features include:
You can edit and add content to your live site.
Invite additional team members to collaborate on a single dash.
Add up to 100 pages to your site.
99.9% uptime guaranteed and SSL certificate.
Automated backup.
Custom fonts available.
Create custom 404 pages.
Customer support via email, Webflow community forum, and help centre.
Integration with Zapier enables you to connect with tools like Slack, MailChimp, and Asana.
You can add up to 3000 products on your website with eCommerce support.
Best WordPress Themes for Photography and Creative Websites ($279 one-time).
Flothemes is a business that provides customizable WordPress themes. These templates enable you to build sites inside of WordPress without the need for custom coding. It is powered by Flex block, a potent free stream page builder, providing limitless customization options.
All of the templates and themes include premade layouts and content blocks. You can also customize colors, fonts, the arrangement of the webpage, and more.
Flothemes help you build your website in a few steps, including:
Register a domain name and hosting service provider for your site. You can even check Flothemes cloud hosting services, starting at $26 per month.
Install WordPress.org and join it to your website hosting. Fortunately, most hosting services provide a one-click WordPress installation.
Finally, select a theme for your website or portfolio.
You’ll be able to watch several how-to tutorials by Flothemes or contact the customer support team.
If you need assistance setting up the whole website, you can drop a message, and their staff will do everything for you.
Flothemes will help you set up your website for just $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the beginning, they also provide services like page load speed optimization, SEO, styling, etc.. In addition, you get two screen sharing sessions of 45 minutes each with specialists and one SEO consultation call of 45 minutes. All in all, you get six rounds of implementations.
Furthermore, Flothemes provides features like SSL implementation, WordPress setup, Typography, color scheme stylization, and more. You also find complete design freedom, SEO options, and a dashboard.
Pricing:
While their subjects cost a one-time $279, Flothemes offers three pricing plans for their website setup services, including:
Simple Setup Package: $499
Advanced setup packages: $999
Pro Installation packs: $1,999
The Easy Setup Package can help you skip the technical parts and jump directly to adding content and personalizing your motif. It provides features like WordPress installation, website layout setup, theme installation, WordPress transfer, website launch, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package includes full assistance with site setup, styling & launching, site speed optimization & an SEO consultation. Additional features include typography & colour scheme stylization, SSL implementation, speed optimization, etc..
Pro Installation Package contains all the features in the Advanced Setup Package along with the tailored mockup & execution for your homepage.
Best Website Tool with Integrated CRM Tools
HubSpot is a top-notch CRM tool which also includes a full-featured CMS and website builder. Using their platform, it is possible to create website pages, blog posts, landing pages from scratch or using their pre-built templates.
Their drag-and-drop editor uses responsive design that will assist you create webpages that look great on any device. Where HubSpot stands out is its personalization and integrations.
Unlike other tools on this listing, HubSpot comes integrated with a wide assortment of marketing software, including tools to manage email marketing, get found online, and catch, engage with and understand prospects.
For instance, when you make a webpage, you can add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into leads. Then, when you know your traffic, you can dynamically create content unique to website visitors based on their location, device, language, traffic origin, or some other detail you choose to catch in your HubSpot CRM.
This integrated marketing suite covers all parts of the customer lifecycle:
Forms, live chat, and conversational chatbots capture prospects.
Email marketing, retargeting, and messenger integrations send customized messages to your leads.
Their contact builder, analytics tools, and record segmentation help you understand your own prospects.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into customers.
Overall, if you are looking for a site builder that also comes with a full-featured pair of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is the best choice.
The World’s Most Popular CMS
Easiest Free Website Builder for Small Sites
Best Digital Advertising Website Builder for Local Firms
A Personalized Website with the Power of AI
Best for Enormous Online Stores
Great for Photographers and Artists
Best for startups that want to create bootstrapped sites
Best Website Builder for Agencies and Multilingual Websites
What’s a Website Builder?
A website builder is a tool which allows anyone to manage a site and domain name without manual programming. In other words, a site builder is a tool or software program to assist you build a web site.
In the old days of the web, programmers needed to understand HTML and CSS to make a website. Today, if you wish to code a website, there is a steep learning curve — you need to have extensive knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. Not so with site builders.
These tools help everyone from small companies and bloggers to news websites and ecommerce companies easily create websites in minutes.
How much does it cost to construct a website?
Is Wix better than WordPress?
How much does a website cost monthly?
Does Google have a website builder?
Can I get a free website for my business?
There you have it — my list of the top website builders. Because there are 74 options out there, I’ve condensed the listing down to the top so that you may choose the option that is perfect for your business or online brand.
If you’re looking for the very best website builder complete, I recommend you get started using Wix.
For the best designs and templates, take a look at Squarespace.
If you will need an e-commerce website to sell products online, Shopify is a good choice.
What site builder do you use?