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17 Best Site Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Choosing the best site builder can be difficult, as there are 74 popular choices to choose from.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best website builders to make a web site based on price, reliability, web hosting solutions , technical assistance, site speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and more.
We will also compare:
The ideal website contractors for small businesses.
The ideal free and cheap choices.
The ones with the best SEO.
The top platforms with online shop capabilities.
The best builders for agencies.
And the best choices for photographers and artists.
What’s the Best Website Builder?
Using a site 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 website design into one stage.
If you’re not too knowledgeable about web design and development, you’ll 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 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 innovative design features like animation and video backgrounds.
In case you already have a domain name on GoDaddy or need to register one at Wix.com, they make it super easy. Additionally, 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 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 are looking to bring an e-commerce store can find these great new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly website 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 website builder. Wix ADI learns on your website and uses that information to design a site tailored to your specific needs.
This tool leverages AI selecting from billions of combinations of images, text, designs, and contact forms.
Ultimately, if you’re seeking the best website builder for small businesses, Wix is your 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 site builder with a mission to help local businesses to tell their unique stories on the web.
Overall, they’re famous for simplicity and speed.
With Zyro, you may make a business website quickly and easily with no programming required. Your site also loads fast because of its light framework and looks great on all devices.
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 choose your type of organization, then write 2-3 sentences describing your brand and context. Then you adjust your AI settings and customize them based on length, expertise, and creativity level. Lastly, you click the Generate button and see your distinctively created content.
Since content generation is a challenge for many site owners, this tool creates new paragraphs for you which can rank better in search and increase conversion rates.
Another excellent features include:
Built-in SEO 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 improve website conversions and predict visitor behavior.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website designs.
Free website design templates for different industries like creative agencies, startups, fashion brands, wellness businesses, bakeries, and much more.
Zyro offers three primary pricing plans — a free plan, a mid-tier”Basic” program at $1.99/month, and their high-tier”Unleashed” program at $3.49/month.
Their free program doesn’t include a custom domain name but does provide 99.9% uptime, an SSL certificate, 500MB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage.
Their “Basic” plan permits 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 really popular plan that’s most suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
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 for this plan 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 seeking to create and develop a site 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 get started with Zyro free of charge to check out their platform, then upgrade to a paid program 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 right 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 choose from, they lead the pack in regards to design. Squarespace templates look excellent down to every detail. The fonts, color schemes, and vision all mesh perfectly for any site.
Besides design, their stage is wonderful for bloggers. I tested out their WYSIWYG blog editor, and it is very intuitive.
You drag elements like pictures, 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 limitations hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. To begin with, my XML sitemap pulled two versions of each page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This double indexing may potentially result in SEO and duplicate content issues down the road. They didn’t have an easy fix the last time I checked.
Secondly, your blog headlines become your meta titles, 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 build with their editing tools. In-built analytics tools provide continuous data on-site visitors if you’re not using Google Analytics. Plus, it’s tough to go wrong with a beautifully-designed site 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 prices are based on a one-year contract, and Squarespace includes a free domainname. The Personal plan provides a free domain name, unlimited bandwidth and storage, free SSL, and 24/7 customer service.
In general, if you’re a small company that needs first-rate web design or a blogger who wants your articles 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 easy 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, pictures, and articles.
They also have a mobile app to keep track of your site’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 comes with 500 MB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and a domain with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain with this plan but are made to get Weebly branding throughout your website. Additionally, the free program only comes with chat and email support, but no phone service.
Weebly’s paid programs range from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Plan 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 suppliers.
The level of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You’ll find assistance yourself in several areas, including their site, service centre, community discussion, social media, and programmer 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 begin using Weebly.
Best Site Builder for Ecommerce ($29/month)
Shopify is a favorite 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 app partners.
While not every website owner needs product-selling performance, I added Shopify to the list because any small business could use them to install their site.
Take a salon for example.
With Shopify, not only could you set up a quick site including a site, 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 lot 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 promotion and SEO features.
They also offer mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automatic carrier shipping rates, automatic tax rates, and the complete checkout experience. Besides, you can enjoy omnichannel selling across Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Instagram, and more.
If you’re establishing a new website and believe that you may want to sell products online in the future, it is far 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 Fundamental Shopify Plan should give website owners everything they want, including a complete website, an internet store with unlimited products, blog features, 24/7 support, and 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 add and edit content to your live website.
Invite additional team 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 via email, Webflow community forum, and help center.
Integration with Zapier lets you connect with tools like Slack, MailChimp, and Asana.
You can add up to 3000 products on your website with eCommerce support.
Best WordPress Themes for Photography and Creative Websites ($279 one-time).
Flothemes is a business that provides 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 stream page builder, providing limitless customization options.
All the templates and themes include premade designs and content blocks. You may also customize colors, fonts, the arrangement of the webpage, 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 per month.
Install WordPress.org and connect it to your website hosting. Luckily, most hosting services provide a one-click WordPress installation.
Finally, select a theme for your site 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 website, you can drop a message, and their staff will do everything for you.
Flothemes will allow you to set up your website for just $499-$1999. Besides setting up your website 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 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 setup, Typography, color scheme stylization, and much more. You also get 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 Setup Package: $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 site setup, styling & launching, site speed optimization & an search engine optimization consultation. Additional features include typography & colour scheme stylization, SSL implementation, speed optimization, etc..
Pro Setup Package includes all of 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 top-notch CRM tool which 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 to 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 advertising, get found online, and capture, engage with and understand prospects.
For instance, when you create a webpage, you can add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into leads. Then, when you understand your visitors, you can dynamically create content unique to website visitors based on their location, device, language, traffic source, 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 leads.
Email marketing, retargeting, and messenger integrations send customized messages to your prospects.
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’re seeking a site builder that also includes a full-featured set 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 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 create bootstrapped websites
Best Site Builder for Agencies and Multilingual Websites
What is a Website Builder?
A website builder is a tool that allows anyone to manage a site and domain name without manual coding. In other words, a site builder is a tool or software application to help 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’s 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 news websites 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 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 list down to the top so that you can choose the option that’s right for your small business or online brand.
If you are looking for the very best site 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 website to sell products online, Shopify is a good choice.
What site builder do you use?