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17 Best Site Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Choosing the best site builder can be hard, because there are 74 popular choices to choose from.
In this guide, I rated and reviewed the best website builders to create a website based on price, reliability, web hosting services, technical assistance, site speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and much more.
We will also compare:
The ideal website builders for small businesses.
The best free and cheap options.
The ones with the best SEO.
The top platforms with online shop capabilities.
The best builders for agencies.
And the best options for photographers and artists.
What’s the Best Website Builder?
Using a site builder is a fast and effortless way to construct a presence for your brand or online business. These tools simplify your website management by combining domain registrationhosting, 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 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 look beautiful, with scroll effects, and innovative design features like animation and video backgrounds.
If 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 start a $20/month.
If you’re a small company, 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 excellent new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly site tool on the market. You can almost always customize the appearance 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 on your site and uses that information to design a website tailored to your specific needs.
This tool leverages AI selecting from countless combinations of images, text, layouts, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re looking for the best website builder for small companies, Wix is your very best choice.
Read my whole Wix review for more in-depth analysis.
Get started with Wix.
Best Modern Website Builder with Free Plans (free — $3.49/mo)
Zyro is a site builder with a mission to help local businesses to tell their unique stories on the web.
Overall, they are famous for simplicity and speed.
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 images 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 get started with this tool, you pick 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 duration, expertise, and creativity level. Last, you click on the Generate button and see your distinctively generated content.
Since content creation is a challenge for many site owners, this tool generates new paragraphs for you which can rank better in search and increase conversion rates.
Some other excellent features include:
Built-in search engine optimization tools to increase 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 increase website conversions and forecast visitor behaviour.
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 main pricing plans — a free plan, a mid-tier”Basic” program 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.
Next, 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 such as Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Facebook pixels. This is a very popular plan that’s most suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Finally, their “Unleashed” program provides every Zyro feature and provides unlimited storage and bandwidth. At this affordable price of $3.49/month, it is sensible to go for this plan and enjoy the unlimited features if you plan to get a lot of content on your website.
Overall, Zyro is ideal for small businesses looking to create and grow a site quickly, save money on composing and logo-making with their AI tools, rank higher on search engines, and increase conversion rates with high-quality, mobile-friendly design templates.
You can begin with Zyro free of charge to check out their platform, then upgrade to a paid program 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 directly for 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 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 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 posts:
A few small SEO limits hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. To begin with, my XML sitemap pulled in two versions of every page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This double indexing may potentially lead to SEO and duplicate content issues down the road. They didn’t have an easy fix the last time I checked.
Secondly, your blog headlines always become your meta titles, so be cautious when incorporating your headlines for SEO. You can read more in my whole Wix vs Squarespace review.
Other terrific features make up for these drawbacks. Their ease of use is top-notch — sites are elementary to build 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 just $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 domainname. The Personal program provides a free domain name, unlimited storage and bandwidth, free SSL, and 24/7 customer support.
Overall, if you are a small business that needs first-rate web design or a blogger that 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 called the easy site 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, pictures, and articles.
They also have a mobile program to keep track of your site’s functionality on the go. And email marketing tools allow you to 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 name with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain with this plan but are forced to get Weebly branding throughout your website. Also, the free program only comes with chat and email support, but no phone support.
Weebly’s paid programs range from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Plan gets you innovative 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 get is based on your subscription level. You’ll find assistance yourself in several locations, including their blog, service center, community discussion, social media, and developer 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 recommend you begin 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 app partners.
While not every website owner needs product-selling performance, I added Shopify into the list because any small business could use them to install their site.
Take a salon for instance.
With Shopify, not only could you set up a quick site including a site, a map of your location, contact information, 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 business.
Shopify has a great deal of features you’d come to expect from other tools on this listing, including hosting, your own domain name, 70+ professional themes, a free SSL certificate, and marketing and SEO features.
They also supply mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automated carrier shipping rates, automated tax rates, and the complete 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 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 Basic Shopify Plan should give website owners everything they want, including a full website, an online store with unlimited products, site features, 24/7 support, and 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 Designers ($16 per month).
Some of its other Important features include:
You can edit and add content to your live site.
Invite other 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 through 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 site 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 help you build websites inside of WordPress without the need for custom coding. It’s powered by Flex block, a potent free stream page builder, providing limitless customization options.
All of 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 steps, including:
Register a domain name and hosting service provider for your website. 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 offer a one-click WordPress installation.
Finally, select a theme for your website 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 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 beginning, they also provide 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.
Furthermore, Flothemes provides features like SSL implementation, WordPress installation, Typography, color scheme stylization, and more. You also get complete design freedom, SEO options, and a dashboard.
Pricing:
While their subjects cost a one-time $279, Flothemes offers three pricing plans for their site setup services, including:
Simple Setup Package: $499
Advanced setup packages: $999
Pro Installation packs: $1,999
The Simple Setup Package helps you skip the technical parts and jump straight to adding content and personalizing your theme. It provides features like WordPress installation, site layout setup, theme setup, WordPress transfer, website launching, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package includes full assistance with website 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 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, you can create website pages, blog posts, landing pages either 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 wide range of marketing applications, including tools to manage email marketing, get found online, and catch, engage with and understand prospects.
For example, when you make a webpage, you can add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into leads. 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 capture 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 builder, analytics tools, and list segmentation help you understand your own leads.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into customers.
Overall, if you’re 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 Sites
Best Digital Marketing Website Builder for Local Businesses
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 websites
Best Site Builder for Agencies and Multilingual Websites
What is a Website Builder?
A website builder is a tool which allows anyone to manage a website and domain name without manual coding. In other words, a site builder is a tool or software program to help you build a web site.
In the old days of the net, programmers needed to know HTML and CSS to create a site. Today, if you wish to code a site, there’s a steep learning curve — you need to have extensive knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. Not so with website builders.
These tools help everyone from small businesses and bloggers to news sites 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 site for my company?
There you have it — my list of the top website builders. Because there are 74 choices out there, I have 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 are looking for the best website builder overall, I recommend you begin with Wix.
For the best designs and templates, check out Squarespace.
If you need an e-commerce website to sell products online, Shopify is a good choice.
What site builder do you use?