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17 Best Site Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Choosing the best website builder can be hard, because there are 74 popular choices to choose from.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best website builders to create 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 ideal website builders for small businesses.
The best free and cheap choices.
Those with the best SEO.
The top platforms with online store capabilities.
The best builders for agencies.
And the best options for photographers and artists.
What’s 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 website management by combining domain registration, hosting, 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 year.
Wix.
Best Website Builder for Small Business ($13/month)
Wix is the most popular website builder on the current market, with over 100 million users.
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 advanced design features like video and animation backgrounds.
In case you already have a domain name on GoDaddy or need to register one at Wix.com, they make it super simple. Also, if you’d like to add e-commerce to your site so you could sell online, plans begin a $20/month.
If you are a small business, 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 want to bring an e-commerce store can find these excellent new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly site tool on the market. You can almost endlessly customize the look and feel of your website with no programming knowledge.
They also have a tool called Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) — the first artificial intelligence site builder. Wix ADI learns about your site and uses that information to design a website tailored to your specific needs.
This tool leverages AI selecting from billions of combinations of pictures, text, designs, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re seeking the best site builder for small businesses, Wix is the best option.
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 on the web.
Overall, they are best known for speed and simplicity.
With Zyro, you may make a business site quickly and easily with no programming required. Your site also loads fast due to its 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 over one million stock pictures to choose 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 business, then write 2-3 sentences describing your brand and circumstance. Then you adjust your AI settings and customize them based on length, experience, and creativity level. Last, you click on 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 forecast visitor behavior.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website designs.
Free website design templates for different industries like creative services, startups, fashion brands, health businesses, bakeries, and more.
Zyro offers three main 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 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” program 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 suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Finally, their “Unleashed” program provides every Zyro feature and provides unlimited bandwidth and storage. At such an affordable price of $3.49/month, it makes sense to go for this plan and enjoy the unlimited features if you’re planning to get a great deal of content on your website.
Overall, Zyro is best for small businesses seeking to create and develop a website quickly, 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 get started with Zyro for free to check out their stage, then upgrade to a paid plan when you’re ready to grow your internet business.
Get started with Zyro and begin building your site today.
Best Website Design for Personal Sites ($12/month)
When I think of Squarespace, my mind goes right for their beautifully designed home page. They truly know how to make beautiful, high-quality websites that look great for both small businesses and personal websites alike.
With over 100 design templates to choose 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 perfectly for any website.
Besides design, their stage is wonderful 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 performance, and you can schedule your articles:
A few small SEO limits 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 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 blog headlines always become your meta titles, so be careful when incorporating 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 — websites are elementary to assemble 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 Personal 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 program provides a free domain name, unlimited bandwidth and storage, free SSL, and 24/7 customer support.
Overall, if you are a small business that needs first-rate web design or a blogger who wants your content to look great, Squarespace is a trusted choice.
Best Free Website Builder (Free — $25/month)
Weebly powers over 530,000 domains and is known as the easy website builder of choice for people without much technical expertise. 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 own text, pictures, and content.
They also have a mobile app 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 plan which comes with 500 MB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and a domain name with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain with this plan but are made to have Weebly branding throughout your website. Additionally, the free program only includes email and chat support, but no phone support.
Weebly’s paid plans range from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Strategy 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 through Square and other suppliers.
The level of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You’ll find assistance yourself in several areas, including their blog, service centre, community discussion, social networking, and developer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and phone support.
If you’re searching 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 businesses 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 website owner needs product-selling performance, I added Shopify into the list because almost any small business could use them to set up their website.
Have a salon for example.
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 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, including 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, automated tax rates, and the full checkout experience. Besides, you can enjoy omnichannel selling across Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Instagram, and much more.
If you’re setting up a new website and think that you may choose to sell products online in the future, it is far better to begin with Shopify instead of another tool that doesn’t take online shopping too.
They offer three plans ranging from $29/month to $299/month. The $29/month Basic Shopify Plan should give website owners everything they want, including a complete website, an online store with unlimited products, site 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 key features include:
You can add and edit content to your live website.
Invite additional group 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 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 website with eCommerce support.
Finest WordPress Themes for Photography and Creative Websites ($279 one-time).
Flothemes is a company that provides customizable WordPress themes. These templates enable you to build websites inside of WordPress with no need for custom coding. It’s powered by Flex block, a potent free stream page builder, providing limitless customization options.
All 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 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 join it to your web site hosting. Luckily, most hosting services provide a one-click WordPress installation.
Finally, pick 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 whole site, you can drop a message, and their staff will do everything for you.
Flothemes will allow you to set up your site for only $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the beginning, they also offer services like page load speed optimization, SEO, styling, etc.. In addition, you get two display sharing sessions of 45 minutes each with experts and one SEO consultation call of 45 minutes. All in all, you get six rounds of implementations.
Additionally, Flothemes provides features like SSL implementation, WordPress installation, Typography, color scheme stylization, and much 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 Installation Bundle: $499
Advanced setup packages: $999
Pro Setup packages: $1,999
The Simple Setup Package can help you skip the technical components and jump directly to adding content and personalizing your theme. It offers features like WordPress installation, site layout setup, theme installation, WordPress transfer, site 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 Setup Package includes 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 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 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 leads.
For instance, when you make a webpage, you can add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into prospects. Then, when you know your visitors, you can dynamically create content unique to site visitors based on their location, device, speech, traffic source, 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 personalized messages to your prospects.
Their contact report builder, analytics tools, and list segmentation help you understand your prospects.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into customers.
Overall, if you are seeking a website builder that also comes with a full-featured pair of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is your best choice.
The World’s Most Popular CMS
Easiest Free Website Builder for Small Websites
Best Digital Advertising 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 website and domain name without manual programming. In other words, a website builder is a tool or software program that will assist you build a website.
In the old days of the net, programmers needed to know HTML and CSS to make a site. Today, if you want to code a website, there is a steep learning curve — you need to have extensive knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. Not so with website builders.
These tools assist everyone from small companies and bloggers to information sites and ecommerce businesses easily create sites 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 business?
There you have it — my list of the top website builders. Because there are 74 choices out there, I’ve condensed the listing down to the very best so that you may choose the option that is right for your business or online brand.
If you’re looking for the very best site builder overall, I recommend you get started with Wix.
For the best designs and templates, check out Squarespace.
If you will need an e-commerce website to sell products online, Shopify is a good choice.
What website builder do you use?