youtube.com/watch?v=nLJvniZrSp4
17 Best Website Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Picking the best site builder can be hard, because there are 74 popular choices to select from.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best website builders to make a website based on cost, reliability, web hosting solutions , technical support, site speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and more.
We’ll also compare:
The ideal website contractors for small businesses.
The ideal free and cheap choices.
The ones with the best SEO.
The best platforms with online shop capabilities.
The top builders for agencies.
And the best choices for photographers and artists.
What is the Best Website Builder?
Using a website builder is a quick and effortless way to construct a presence for your brand or internet business. These tools simplify your site management by combining domain registration, hosting, and site design into one stage.
If you are not too savvy with web design and development, you’ll want to go with a simple drag and drop editor.
The choice is all up to you.
Here are my top picks for the best site builder to use this year.
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 appear beautiful, with scroll effects, and innovative design features like video and animation backgrounds.
In case you already have a domain on GoDaddy or want to register one at Wix.com, they make it super easy. Additionally, if you want to add e-commerce to your website so that you can sell online, plans begin a $20/month.
If you’re a small company, I urge 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 find these great new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly site tool on the market. You can almost always 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 site and uses that information to design a site tailored to your precise needs.
This tool leverages AI choosing from countless combinations of pictures, text, layouts, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re looking for the best website builder for small companies, Wix is your best option.
Read my whole 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 companies to tell their unique stories online.
Overall, they’re best known for speed and simplicity.
With Zyro, you can create a company site fast and easily with no programming required. Your site also loads fast due to the light frame and looks great on all devices.
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 tool, mobile-readiness, and more than one million stock images to choose 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 get started with this tool, you pick your type of business, then write 2-3 paragraphs describing your brand and circumstance. You then adjust your AI settings and customize them based on length, expertise, and creativity degree. Last, you click the Create button and see your uniquely generated content.
Since content creation is a challenge for many site owners, this tool generates new paragraphs for you that can rank better in search and increase conversion rates.
Some other excellent features include:
Built-in SEO tools to improve your search rankings.
A free SSL certificate and custom domains.
An AI-driven logo and slogan maker.
24/7 customer support via email and live chat.
AI heatmaps to increase website conversions and forecast visitor behaviour.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website layouts.
Free website design templates for various industries like creative services, startups, fashion brands, wellness 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” plan at $3.49/month.
Their free plan does not include a custom domain name but does provide 99.9% uptime, an SSL certificate, 500MB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage.
Next, their “Basic” plan allows you to connect your 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 is most acceptable for small and medium-sized companies.
Finally, their “Unleashed” plan provides every Zyro attribute and provides unlimited bandwidth and storage. At this affordable price of $3.49/month, it is sensible to go for this program and enjoy the unlimited features if you plan to have a great deal of content on your site.
Overall, Zyro is best for small businesses seeking to create and grow a site quickly, save money on composing 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 stage, then upgrade to a paid program when you’re ready to grow your online 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 directly to their beautifully designed home page. They truly know how to create beautiful, high-quality websites 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 look excellent down to every detail. The fonts, color schemes, and vision all mesh perfectly for any site.
Besides design, their platform is great for bloggers. I tested out their WYSIWYG blog editor, and it’s very intuitive.
You drag elements like images, headings, and text onto the page and position it where you would like. They also offer multiple user permissions, Google AMP functionality, and you can schedule your posts:
A few small search engine optimization limits hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. First, my XML sitemap pulled in two versions of every page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This double indexing could potentially lead to SEO and duplicate content problems later on. They didn’t have an easy fix the last time I checked.
Second, your site headlines always become your meta names, so be cautious when incorporating your headlines for SEO. You can read more in my full Wix vs Squarespace review.
Other terrific features compensate for these drawbacks. Their ease of use is topnotch — websites are elementary to build with their editing tools. In-built analytics tools provide continuous data on-site visitors if you’re not using Google Analytics. Plus, it’s hard to go wrong with a beautifully-designed website for just $12/month.
Monthly prices range from $12/month for their private plan up to $40/month for their Online Store (Advanced) plan. Monthly costs are based on a one-year contract, and Squarespace includes a free domain. 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 business that needs first-rate web design or a blogger that wants your content to look great, Squarespace is a reliable 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 expertise. They offer a lot of great features. If you’re a blogger, you can use Weebly.com to select a domain name and use their editor to add your own text, pictures, and content.
They also have a mobile app to track your site’s performance on the go. And email marketing tools allow you to send newsletters to your subscribers from within their tool.
They have a free plan which comes with 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 website. Additionally, the free plan only comes with chat and email support, but no phone support.
Weebly’s paid plans vary from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Plan gets you innovative e-commerce functionality, 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 suppliers.
The level of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You can find assistance yourself in many areas, including their blog, service center, community forum, social media, and programmer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and phone support.
If you’re looking for a simple website creator to get up and running, I recommend you get started 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 performance, I added Shopify into 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 site, a map of your location, contact info, 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 great deal of features you’d come to expect from other tools on this list, such as hosting, your own domain name, 70+ professional topics, a free SSL certificate, and marketing and SEO features.
They also offer mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automated carrier shipping rates, automatic tax rates, and the full checkout experience. Besides, you can enjoy omnichannel selling across Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Instagram, and more.
If you’re setting up a new website and believe that you might choose to sell products online in the future, it’s far better to begin with Shopify rather than another tool that does not 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 complete website, an internet 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 add and edit content to your live website.
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 such as Slack, MailChimp, and Asana.
You can add up to 3000 products on your site with eCommerce support.
Finest WordPress Themes for Photography and Creative Websites ($279 one-time).
Flothemes is a business that offers 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 potent free flow page builder, providing limitless customization options.
All the templates and themes come with premade designs and content blocks. You may also customize colors, fonts, the arrangement of the page, and more.
Flothemes help you build your website 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 per month.
Install WordPress.org and connect it to your website hosting. Fortunately, most hosting services provide a one-click WordPress installation.
Finally, select a theme for your site or portfolio.
You’ll be able to see several how-to tutorials by Flothemes or contact the customer support team.
If you need help setting up the whole site, you can drop a message, and their staff will do everything for you.
Flothemes can allow you to set up your website for only $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the beginning, they also provide services like page load speed optimization, SEO, styling, etc.. Plus, you get two display 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 more. You also find complete design freedom, SEO options, and a dashboard.
Pricing:
While their themes 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 Setup packages: $1,999
The Easy Setup Package helps you skip the technical components and jump directly to adding content and personalizing your motif. It provides features like WordPress installation, website layout setup, theme installation, WordPress transfer, site launch, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package includes full assistance with website setup, styling & launch, 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 from the Advanced Setup Package along with the tailored mockup & execution for your homepage.
Best Website Tool with Integrated CRM Tools
HubSpot is a topnotch CRM tool that also includes a full-featured CMS and website builder. Using their platform, it is possible to create website pages, blog posts, landing pages either from scratch or with their pre-built templates.
Their drag-and-drop editor uses responsive design to help 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 broad assortment of marketing software, including tools to manage email advertising, get found online, and catch, engage with and understand leads.
By way of instance, when you create a webpage, you can add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into leads. Then, when you understand your traffic, you can dynamically create content unique to website visitors based on their location, device, speech, traffic source, or any other detail you choose to catch on 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 personalized messages to your leads.
Their contact builder, analytics tools, and list 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 includes a full-featured pair of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is your best alternative.
The World’s Most Popular CMS
Easiest Free Website Builder for Small Websites
Best Digital Marketing Website Builder for Local Businesses
A Personalized Website with the Power of AI
Best for Large Online Stores
Great for Photographers and Artists
Best for startups that want to create bootstrapped websites
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 website builder is a tool or software application that will help you build a web site.
In the old days of the net, programmers needed to know HTML and CSS to make a website. Today, if you want to code a site, there is a steep learning curve — you want to have extensive knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. Not so with site builders.
These tools help everyone from small companies and bloggers to news 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 website for my company?
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 very best so that you can choose the option that is right for your business or online brand.
If you’re looking for the best website builder overall, I recommend you get started using Wix.
For the best designs and templates, take a look at Squarespace.
If you need an e-commerce site to sell products online, Shopify is a good choice.
What website builder do you use?