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17 Best Website Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Picking the best website 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 web site based on cost, reliability, web hosting services, technical support, site speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and much more.
We’ll also compare:
The best website builders for small companies.
The best free and cheap options.
The ones with the best SEO.
The top 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 fast and easy 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 stage.
If you’re not too knowledgeable about web design and development, you’ll 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 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 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 on GoDaddy or want to register one at Wix.com, they make it super easy. Also, if you’d like to add e-commerce to your website so that you can sell online, plans start a $20/month.
If you’re a small business, 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 are looking to add an e-commerce store can find these excellent new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly site tool on the market. You can almost always customize the look and feel of your site with no coding knowledge.
They also have a tool called Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) — the first artificial intelligence site builder. Wix ADI learns on your website and uses that information to design a website tailored to your precise needs.
This tool leverages AI choosing from billions of combinations of images, text, layouts, and contact forms.
Ultimately, if you’re seeking the best website builder for small businesses, Wix is the 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 companies to tell their unique stories on the web.
Overall, they are best known for simplicity and speed.
With Zyro, you may make a company website quickly and easily with no programming required. Your website also loads fast because of the light framework and looks great on all apparatus.
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 grid tool, mobile-readiness, and more than one million stock images to select from.
One of the standout features is their AI Content Generator, which provides SEO-friendly content ideas based on your industry and specific business type.
To get started with this tool, you pick your type of organization, then write 2-3 sentences describing your brand and context. You then adjust your AI settings and customize them based on duration, expertise, and creativity degree. Lastly, you click on the Generate button and see your uniquely generated 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.
Some other excellent features include:
Built-in search engine optimization 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 improve website conversions and predict visitor behavior.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website designs.
Free website design templates for different industries like creative services, startups, fashion brands, wellness businesses, bakeries, and much more.
Zyro offers three primary pricing programs — a free plan, a mid-tier”Basic” plan at $1.99/month, and their high-tier”Unleashed” program 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.
Their “Basic” program permits you to connect your own 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 is most acceptable for small and medium-sized companies.
Finally, their “Unleashed” plan provides every Zyro attribute and gives unlimited storage and bandwidth. At such an affordable price of $3.49/month, it is sensible to go with this program and enjoy the unlimited features if you’re planning to get a lot of content on your site.
Overall, Zyro is best for small businesses looking to create and grow a website quickly, 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 check out their platform, then upgrade to a paid program when you’re 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 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 in regards 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 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 on the page and place it where you would like. They also offer multiple user permissions, Google AMP functionality, and you can schedule your posts:
A few small SEO limitations hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. First, my XML sitemap pulled two versions of every page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This double indexing may potentially result in SEO and duplicate content problems later on. They didn’t have an easy fix the last time I checked.
Secondly, your blog headlines always 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 terrific features compensate for these drawbacks. Their ease of use is topnotch — sites 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 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 domainname. The Personal plan provides a free domain name, unlimited storage and bandwidth, free SSL, and 24/7 customer service.
In general, if you are a small business that needs first-rate web design or a blogger who wants your articles to appear great, Squarespace is a reliable option.
Best Free Website Builder (Free — $25/month)
Weebly powers over 530,000 domain names and is known as the simple site builder of choice for people without much technical experience. They offer a lot of great features. If you are a blogger, you can use Weebly.com to pick a domain name and use their editor to add your text, pictures, and articles.
They also have a mobile program to keep track of your site’s performance on the go. And email marketing tools let you send newsletters to your subscribers from within their tool.
They have a free plan which includes 500 MB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and a domain name with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain name with this plan but are made to have Weebly branding throughout your site. Additionally, the free plan only comes with email and chat support, but no phone support.
Weebly’s paid programs range from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Strategy gets you advanced 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 through Square and other providers.
The level of customer support you get is based on your subscription level. You can find assistance yourself in many locations, including their site, support center, community discussion, 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 suggest that you get started with Weebly.
Best Website Builder for Ecommerce ($29/month)
Shopify is a popular 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 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 site including a blog, a map of your location, contact info, and appointment scheduling (with an app), but you might also sell hair care products online. This creates not only a website but another online source of revenue for your company.
Shopify has a great deal of features you’d come to expect from other tools on this list, including hosting, your own domain name, 70+ professional themes, 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 complete checkout experience. Plus, 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 want to sell products online in the future, it’s far better to begin with Shopify rather than another tool that doesn’t 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 need, including a complete website, an internet store with unlimited products, blog features, 24/7 support, and much more.
If you want to give Shopify a try, they offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Best For Professional painters ($16 a month).
Some of its other Important features include:
You can edit and add content to your live website.
Invite other group members to collaborate on a single dash.
Add up to 100 pages to your website.
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 center.
Integration with Zapier lets you connect with tools such as Slack, MailChimp, and Asana.
You can add up to 3000 products on your website 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 with no need for custom coding. It is powered by Flex block, a potent free flow page builder, providing limitless customization choices.
All of the templates and themes include premade layouts and content blocks. You may also customize colors, fonts, the structure of the page, 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 a month.
Install WordPress.org and join it to your web site hosting. Luckily, most hosting services provide a one-click WordPress setup.
Finally, select a theme for your site 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 entire website, you can drop a message, and their team will do everything for you.
Flothemes can help you set up your site for only $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the start, they also offer 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. In general, you get six rounds of implementations.
Furthermore, Flothemes provides features like SSL implementation, WordPress installation, 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 helps you skip the technical parts and jump directly to adding content and personalizing your theme. It provides features like WordPress installation, website layout setup, theme installation, WordPress transfer, website launching, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package includes full assistance with site setup, styling & launching, 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 the features from the Advanced Setup Package together with the tailored mockup & implementation 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 from scratch or with their pre-built templates.
Their drag-and-drop editor uses responsive design that will help 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 broad assortment of marketing applications, including tools to manage email marketing, get found online, and catch, engage with and understand prospects.
By way of example, when you create 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, speech, traffic source, or any other detail you choose to capture in your HubSpot CRM.
This integrated marketing suite covers all parts of the customer lifecycle:
Types, 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 customers.
Overall, if you are looking for a site builder that also includes a full-featured set of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is the ideal alternative.
The World’s Most Popular CMS
Easiest Free Website Builder for Small Sites
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 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 programming. In other words, a website builder is a tool or software application to assist you build a web site.
In the old days of the web, programmers needed to know HTML and CSS to create a site. 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 website builders.
These tools assist everyone from small businesses 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 site 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 have condensed the list down to the very best so you can choose the option that is perfect for your business or online brand.
If you’re looking for the best site builder overall, I recommend you get started using 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 site builder do you use?