youtube.com/watch?v=nLJvniZrSp4
17 Best Site Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Picking the best website builder can be difficult, because there are 74 popular options to choose from.
In this guide, I rated and reviewed the best website builders to make a website based on cost, reliability, web hosting services, technical assistance, website 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 affordable choices.
The ones with the best SEO.
The best platforms with online shop capabilities.
The very top builders for agencies.
And the best options for photographers and artists.
What is the Best Website Builder?
Using a website builder is a fast and easy way to construct a presence for your brand or internet business. These tools simplify your website management by combining domain registrationhosting, and website design into one stage.
If you are not too knowledgeable about 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 website builder to use this season.
Wix.
Best Site Builder for Small Business ($13/month)
Wix is the most popular website builder available on the market, with over 100 million users.
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.
In case you already have a domain name on GoDaddy or want to register one at Wix.com, they make it super easy. Additionally, if you’d like to add e-commerce to your site so that you can sell online, plans start a $20/month.
If you are a small company, 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 are looking 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 site with no programming knowledge.
They also have a tool named Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) — the first artificial intelligence website builder. Wix ADI learns on your site and uses that information to design a website tailored to your precise needs.
This tool leverages AI choosing from billions of combinations of pictures, text, layouts, and contact forms.
Finally, 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.
Best Modern Website Builder with Free Plans (free — $3.49/mo)
Zyro is a site builder with a mission to assist local companies to tell their unique stories online.
Overall, they are best known for speed and simplicity.
With Zyro, you may make a company website fast and easily with no programming required. Your website also loads fast because of its light framework 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 grid tool, mobile-readiness, and more than one million stock images to choose 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 begin with this tool, you pick your type of organization, 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. Lastly, you click the Generate button and see your distinctively created content.
Since content generation is a challenge for many website owners, this tool creates 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 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 forecast visitor behavior.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website layouts.
Free website design templates for different industries like creative agencies, startups, fashion brands, health businesses, bakeries, and more.
Zyro offers three main pricing plans — 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 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” 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 really popular plan that’s most suitable for small and medium-sized companies.
Finally, their “Unleashed” plan provides every Zyro feature and gives unlimited storage and bandwidth. At such an affordable price of $3.49/month, it makes sense to go for this plan 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 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 begin with Zyro for free to check out their platform, then upgrade to a paid plan when you are ready to grow your online business.
Get started with Zyro and start 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 websites that look great for both small businesses and personal websites alike.
With over 100 design templates to choose from, they lead the pack when it comes to design. Squarespace templates appear excellent down to every detail. The fonts, color schemes, and vision all mesh perfectly for any site.
Besides design, their stage is great 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 functionality, and you can schedule your articles:
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 problems later on. They didn’t have a simple fix the last time I checked.
Secondly, your site headlines always become your meta names, so be careful when incorporating your headlines for SEO. You can read more in my full Wix vs Squarespace review.
Other terrific features make up for these drawbacks. Their ease of use is topnotch — websites are elementary to assemble with their editing tools. In-built analytics tools provide steady data on-site visitors if you’re not using Google Analytics. Plus, it’s tough to go wrong with a beautifully-designed site for only $12/month.
Monthly prices range from $12/month for their Personal 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 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 appear great, Squarespace is a trusted choice.
Best Free Website Builder (Free — $25/month)
Weebly powers over 530,000 domains and is known as the simple website builder of choice for people without much technical expertise. They offer a great deal 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, images, and articles.
They also have a mobile app to track your website’s functionality on the go. And email marketing tools allow you to send newsletters to your subscribers from inside 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 forced to have Weebly branding throughout your site. Also, the free plan only comes with email and chat support, but no phone service.
Weebly’s paid programs vary from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Plan gets you advanced 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 suppliers.
The level of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You’ll find assistance yourself in many areas, including their blog, service centre, community forum, social media, and programmer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and telephone support.
If you are searching for a simple site creator to get up and running, I recommend you get started with 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 due to their simple dashboard and integrations with thousands of app partners.
While not every site owner needs product-selling functionality, I added Shopify to the list because any small business could use them to install their site.
Have a salon for example.
With Shopify, not only could you set up a quick website including a blog, a map of your location, contact information, 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 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+ specialist themes, a free SSL certificate, and promotion 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 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 better to begin with Shopify instead of another instrument 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 site owners everything they want, including a full 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 Designers ($16 per month).
Some of its other key features include:
You can add and edit content to your live site.
Invite additional group members to collaborate on a single dashboard.
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 through 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 offers customizable WordPress themes. These templates enable you to 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 the templates and themes include premade designs and content blocks. You may also customize colors, fonts, the structure of the webpage, 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 per month.
Install WordPress.org and connect it to your web site hosting. Fortunately, most hosting services offer a one-click WordPress installation.
Finally, select 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 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 loading speed optimization, SEO, styling, etc.. Plus, you get two screen sharing sessions of 45 minutes each with experts 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 get complete design freedom, SEO options, and a dash.
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 packs: $999
Pro Installation packs: $1,999
The Simple Setup Package can help 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 incorporates 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 contains all of the features from the Advanced Setup Package along with the tailored mockup & implementation for your homepage.
Best Website Tool with Integrated CRM Tools
HubSpot is a topnotch 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 using 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 assortment of marketing applications, including tools to manage email advertising, get found online, and capture, engage with and understand leads.
For instance, when you create a webpage, you may 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, speech, traffic source, or some 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 customized messages to your leads.
Their contact report builder, analytics tools, and list segmentation help you understand your leads.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into customers.
Overall, if you’re seeking a site builder that also comes with a full-featured pair of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is the ideal 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 create bootstrapped sites
Best Website Builder for Agencies and Multilingual Websites
What’s 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 website builder is a tool or software application that will assist you build a web site.
In the old days of the net, programmers needed to know HTML and CSS to make a site. Today, if you wish to code a website, there is a steep learning curve — you need to have extensive knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. Not so with site builders.
These tools help everyone from small companies and bloggers to information websites and ecommerce businesses 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 website for my company?
There you have it — my list of the greatest website builders. As there are 74 options out there, I’ve condensed the list down to the very best so you can choose the option that is perfect for your small business or online brand.
If you’re looking for the very best website builder overall, I recommend you begin 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 site builder do you use?