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17 Best Site Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Choosing the best site builder can be difficult, as there are 74 popular options to select from.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best website builders to make a web site based on price, reliability, web hosting services, technical assistance, site speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and more.
We’ll also compare:
The best website builders for small companies.
The ideal free and cheap options.
The ones with the best SEO.
The best platforms with online shop capabilities.
The best builders for agencies.
And the best options for photographers and artists.
What is the Best Website Builder?
Using a site 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 registrationhosting, and website design into one platform.
If you’re not too savvy with web design and development, you’ll want to go with an easy drag and drop editor.
The choice is up to you.
Here are my top picks for the best website builder to use this season.
Wix.
Best Site Builder for Small Business ($13/month)
Wix is the most popular website builder available on the current market, with over 100 million consumers.
They have 500+ ready-to-use templates to design your site in any industry. These templates are mobile-optimized and have 100 fonts to choose from (or you can upload your own).
Their designs also look beautiful, with scroll effects, and advanced design features like video and animation backgrounds.
In case you already have a domain on GoDaddy or need to register one at Wix.com, they make it super easy. Also, if you want to add e-commerce to your website so you could sell online, plans begin a $20/month.
If you are a small company, I urge Wix as the best online store builder. You don’t necessarily need a platform with more advanced options like BigCommerce and Shopify. Wix website owners that are looking to bring 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 look and feel of your site with no programming knowledge.
They also have a tool called 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 choosing from billions of combinations of images, text, designs, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re seeking the best site builder for small businesses, Wix is your 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 assist local businesses to tell their unique stories online.
Overall, they’re famous for simplicity and speed.
With Zyro, you may make a business site quickly and easily with no coding required. Your site also loads fast due to its light frame and looks great on all devices.
With a strong set of tools, Zyro helps grow your online business with pre-made design templates, AI-driven text, an intuitive drag-and-drop tool, mobile-readiness, and over one million stock pictures to select from.
One of their standout features is their AI Content Generator, which provides 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. You then correct your AI settings and customize them based on length, experience, and creativity degree. Lastly, you click the Create button and see your distinctively created content.
Since content creation is a challenge for many website owners, this tool generates new paragraphs for you that can rank better in search and increase conversion rates.
Another excellent features include:
Built-in search engine optimization tools to improve your search rankings.
A free SSL certificate and custom domain names.
An AI-driven logo and slogan manufacturer.
24/7 customer support via email and live chat.
AI heatmaps to improve website conversions and predict visitor behaviour.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website layouts.
Free website design templates for different industries like creative agencies, startups, fashion brands, health businesses, bakeries, and much more.
Zyro offers three primary pricing plans — a free plan, a mid-tier”Basic” plan at $1.99/month, and their high-tier”Unleashed” program at $3.49/month.
Their free program does not include a custom domain name but does provide 99.9% uptime, an SSL certificate, 500MB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage.
Their “Basic” plan permits you to connect your own domain name, increases bandwidth and storage, and includes extra features like ad removal and integrations with tools like Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Facebook pixels. This is a very popular plan that’s most acceptable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Finally, their “Unleashed” plan provides every Zyro feature and provides unlimited bandwidth and storage. At such an affordable price of $3.49/month, it is sensible to go with this plan and enjoy the unlimited features if you’re planning to get a lot of content on your website.
Overall, Zyro is ideal for small businesses looking to create and develop a site fast, save money on writing and logo-making using their AI tools, rank higher on search engines, and increase conversion rates with high quality, mobile-friendly design templates.
You can begin with Zyro for free to check out their platform, then upgrade to a paid program when you’re ready to grow your online business.
Get started with Zyro and start building your website today.
Best Website Design for Personal Sites ($12/month)
When I think of Squarespace, my mind goes directly to their beautifully designed home page. They truly know how to create beautiful, high-quality sites that look great for both small businesses and personal websites alike.
With over 100 design templates to select 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 wonderful for bloggers. I tested out their WYSIWYG blog editor, and it’s 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. To begin with, my XML sitemap pulled two versions of every page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This dual indexing could potentially lead to SEO and duplicate content issues later on. They didn’t have a simple fix the last time I checked.
Second, your blog headlines become your meta names, so be careful when adding your headlines for SEO. You can read more in my whole Wix vs Squarespace review.
Other great features compensate for these drawbacks. Their ease of use is topnotch — sites are elementary to build with their editing tools. In-built analytics tools provide continuous 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 costs range from $12/month for their Personal 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 domainname. The Personal plan provides a free domain name, unlimited bandwidth and storage, free SSL, and 24/7 customer support.
In general, if you’re a small company that needs first-rate web design or a blogger that wants your content to appear great, Squarespace is a trusted choice.
Best Free Website Builder (Free — $25/month)
Weebly powers over 530,000 domains and is called the easy site builder of choice for people without much technical experience. They offer a lot 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 text, images, and articles.
They also have a mobile program to keep track of your website’s performance on the go. And email marketing tools let you send newsletters to your subscribers from within their tool.
They have a free program which comes with 500 MB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and a domain with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain with this plan but are made to have Weebly branding throughout your site. Also, the free program only includes email and chat support, but no phone service.
Weebly’s paid plans range from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Plan gets you advanced e-commerce performance, a free domainname, 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 via Square and other providers.
The level of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You can find assistance yourself in many locations, including their site, service centre, community discussion, social media, and programmer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and phone support.
If you are searching for a simple site creator to get up and running, I recommend you begin with Weebly.
Best Site Builder for Ecommerce ($29/month)
Shopify is a favorite ecommerce platform used by over 800,000 online companies so sell products online. They were founded in Canada in 2004 and quickly became a powerhouse due to their simple dashboard and integrations with thousands of program partners.
While not every site owner needs product-selling functionality, I added Shopify into the list because any small business could use them to install their website.
Take a salon for example.
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 a program ), but you might also sell hair care products online. This creates not only a website but another online source of revenue for your business.
Shopify has a lot of features you’d come to expect from other tools on this list, such as hosting, your own domain name, 70+ professional themes, a free SSL certificate, and promotion and SEO features.
They also offer mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automatic carrier shipping rates, automated tax rates, and the complete checkout experience. Besides, you can enjoy omnichannel selling across Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Instagram, and much more.
If you’re establishing a new website and think that you may want to sell products online in the future, it is better to get started with Shopify instead of another tool that does not take online shopping as seriously.
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 online store with unlimited products, blog features, 24/7 support, and much more.
If you’d like to give Shopify a try, they give a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Best For Professional painters ($16 per month).
Some of its other key features include:
You can edit and add content to your live website.
Invite additional team members to collaborate on a single dashboard.
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 care via email, Webflow community forum, and help center.
Integration with Zapier lets you connect with tools like Slack, MailChimp, and Asana.
You can add up to 3000 products on your site 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 help you build websites inside of WordPress without the need for custom coding. It is powered by Flex block, a powerful free stream page builder, providing limitless customization options.
All the templates and themes come with premade layouts and content blocks. You may also customize colors, fonts, the structure of the page, and more.
Flothemes help you build your site in a few measures, including:
Register a domain name and hosting service provider for your site. You can also check Flothemes cloud hosting services, starting at $26 a month.
Install WordPress.org and connect it to your website hosting. Fortunately, most hosting services provide a one-click WordPress setup.
Finally, select a theme for your website or portfolio.
You can watch several how-to tutorials by Flothemes or contact the customer care team.
If you need help setting up the entire website, you can drop a message, and their staff will do everything for you.
Flothemes can help you set up your website for just $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the start, they also offer services like page load speed optimization, SEO, styling, etc.. Plus, you get two screen sharing sessions of 45 minutes each with specialists and one SEO consultation call of 45 minutes. In general, you get six rounds of implementations.
Furthermore, Flothemes provides features like SSL implementation, WordPress setup, Typography, color scheme stylization, and much more. You also get complete design freedom, SEO options, and a dash.
Pricing:
While their subjects cost a one-time $279, Flothemes offers three pricing strategies for their website setup services, including:
Simple Setup Package: $499
Advanced setup packages: $999
Pro Setup packages: $1,999
The Simple Setup Package can help you skip the technical parts and jump directly to adding content and personalizing your motif. It offers features like WordPress installation, website layout setup, theme installation, WordPress transfer, website launch, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package incorporates full assistance with website setup, styling & launch, site speed optimization & an search engine optimization consultation. Additional features include typography & color scheme stylization, SSL implementation, speed optimization, etc..
Pro Setup Package includes all of the features from the Advanced Setup Package along with the tailored mockup & execution for your homepage.
Best Site 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, you can create website pages, blog posts, landing pages either 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 list, HubSpot comes integrated with a wide range of marketing applications, including tools to manage email marketing, get found online, and capture, engage with and understand prospects.
For instance, when you create a webpage, you may add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into prospects. Then, when you know your visitors, you can dynamically create content unique to website visitors based on their location, device, speech, traffic origin, or any 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 leads.
Email advertising, retargeting, and messenger integrations send customized messages to your leads.
Their contact report builder, analytics tools, and record segmentation help you understand your leads.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into clients.
Overall, if you’re looking for a website builder that also comes with a full-featured set of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is your ideal alternative.
The World’s Most Popular CMS
Easiest Free Website Builder for Small Websites
Best Digital Marketing Website Builder for Local Firms
A Personalized Website with the Power of AI
Best for Large Online Stores
Great for Photographers and Artists
Best for startups that want to make bootstrapped sites
Best Site Builder for Agencies and Multilingual Websites
What’s a Website Builder?
A website builder is a tool that allows anyone to manage a site and domain name without manual coding. In other words, a site builder is a tool or software program that will help you build a web site.
In the old days of the web, programmers needed to understand HTML and CSS to create a site. Today, if you want to code a website, there’s a steep learning curve — you want to have extensive knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. Not so with site builders.
These tools assist everyone from small businesses and bloggers to information sites and ecommerce companies easily create websites in minutes.
How much does it cost to build 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 site for my company?
There you have it — my list of the greatest website builders. Because there are 74 options out there, I’ve condensed the list down to the very best so that you can choose the option that is right for your small business or online brand.
If you’re looking for the best site builder complete, I recommend you get started with Wix.
For the best designs and templates, check out Squarespace.
If you need an e-commerce site to sell products online, Shopify is a good choice.
What website builder do you use?