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17 Best Website Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Choosing the best site builder can be hard, as there are 74 popular options to choose from.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best website builders to create a web site based on price, reliability, web hosting solutions , technical support, site speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and much more.
We’ll also compare:
The ideal website contractors for small businesses.
The ideal free and affordable options.
Those with the best SEO.
The top platforms with online store capabilities.
The very best 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 online business. These tools simplify your site management by combining domain registrationhosting, and website design into one stage.
If you’re not too savvy with web design and development, you will want to go with a simple drag and drop editor.
The choice is up to you.
Here are my top picks for the best site builder to use this year.
Wix.
Best Website 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 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 animation and video backgrounds.
If you already have a domain on GoDaddy or need to register one at Wix.com, they make it super easy. Also, if you’d like to add e-commerce to your website so you could sell online, plans begin a $20/month.
If you’re a small business, I recommend 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 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 website with no coding 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 precise needs.
This tool leverages AI choosing from countless combinations of images, text, designs, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re seeking the best website builder for small businesses, Wix is the very best choice.
Read my full 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 companies to tell their unique stories on the web.
Overall, they’re best known for speed and simplicity.
With Zyro, you may make a business website fast and easily with no coding required. Your website also loads fast because of the light framework and looks great on all apparatus.
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 offers 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 paragraphs describing your brand and context. You then correct your AI settings and customize them based on duration, expertise, and creativity level. 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 which can rank better in search and increase conversion rates.
Some other excellent features include:
Built-in SEO tools to increase 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 behaviour.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website layouts.
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” program 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” plan allows 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 is most acceptable for small and medium-sized companies.
Finally, their “Unleashed” program provides every Zyro attribute and gives unlimited bandwidth and storage. At such an affordable price of $3.49/month, it is sensible to go for this program and enjoy the unlimited features if you plan to get a lot of content on your site.
Overall, Zyro is best for small businesses looking to create and develop a website quickly, save money on writing and logo-making with 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 test 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 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 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 perfectly for any website.
Besides design, their platform is wonderful for bloggers. I tested out their WYSIWYG blog editor, and it is very intuitive.
You drag elements like images, headings, and text onto the page and place it where you want. They also offer multiple user permissions, Google AMP performance, and you can schedule your posts:
A few small search engine optimization limitations hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. To begin with, my XML sitemap pulled in two versions of each 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.
Secondly, your site headlines become your meta titles, so be cautious when adding 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 — sites are elementary to build with their editing tools. In-built analytics tools provide steady data on-site visitors if you are 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 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 domain. 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 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 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 content.
They also have a mobile app to keep track of your site’s functionality on the go. And email marketing tools let you send newsletters to your subscribers from inside 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 name with this plan but are forced to have Weebly branding throughout your site. Also, the free plan only comes with chat and email support, but no phone service.
Weebly’s paid plans vary from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Strategy gets you innovative e-commerce performance, a free domain, and $200 of Google ad credits.
Their e-commerce features include product options/variants, coupon codes, inventory management, a shipping calculator, shipping labels, and the ability to accept payments via Square and other providers.
The degree of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You’ll find assistance yourself in several areas, including their site, support centre, community discussion, social media, and developer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and telephone support.
If you’re searching for a simple site creator to get up and running, I recommend you get started using Weebly.
Best Site 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 because of their simple dashboard and integrations with thousands of program partners.
While not every website owner needs product-selling performance, I added Shopify to the list because almost any small business could use them to set up their website.
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 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 topics, 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 might choose to sell products online in the future, it’s better to get started with Shopify instead of another tool that does not 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 offer 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 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 care via email, Webflow community forum, and help centre.
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 without the need for custom coding. It’s powered by Flex block, a potent free stream page builder, providing limitless customization choices.
All the templates and themes include premade layouts and content blocks. You can also customize colors, fonts, the structure of the webpage, and more.
Flothemes help you build your site in a few measures, including:
Register a domain name and hosting service provider for your website. You can even check Flothemes cloud hosting services, starting at $26 per month.
Install WordPress.org and connect it to your website hosting. Fortunately, most hosting services offer a one-click WordPress installation.
Finally, select a theme for your website 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 staff will do everything for you.
Flothemes will help you set up your site for just $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the start, they also offer services like page loading 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.
Additionally, Flothemes provides features like SSL implementation, WordPress installation, Typography, color scheme stylization, and more. You also find complete design freedom, SEO options, and a dash.
Pricing:
While their themes cost a one-time $279, Flothemes offers three pricing strategies for their site setup services, including:
Simple Installation Bundle: $499
Advanced setup packages: $999
Pro Installation packs: $1,999
The Easy Setup Package helps 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 setup, 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 includes all of the features in 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 that also has 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 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 broad range of marketing applications, including tools to manage email advertising, get found online, and catch, engage with and understand prospects.
By way of instance, when you make a webpage, you can add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into prospects. Then, when you know your traffic, you can dynamically create content unique to site visitors based on their location, device, language, traffic origin, or any other detail you choose to capture on your HubSpot CRM.
This integrated marketing suite covers all parts of the customer lifecycle:
Types, live chat, and conversational chatbots capture prospects.
Email advertising, retargeting, and messenger integrations send personalized messages to your leads.
Their contact builder, analytics tools, and record segmentation help you understand your own 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 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 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 programming. In other words, a site 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 website. Today, if you want to code a website, 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 information sites and ecommerce companies 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 site for my business?
There you have it — my list of the greatest website builders. As there are 74 options out there, I have condensed the listing down to the very best so that you can choose the option that is perfect for your small business or online brand.
If you are looking for the best website builder overall, I recommend you get started with Wix.
For the best designs and templates, take a look at Squarespace.
If you will need an e-commerce site to sell products online, Shopify is a fantastic choice.
What site builder do you use?