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17 Best Website Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Choosing the best website builder can be hard, as there are 74 popular options to select from.
In this guide, I rated and reviewed the best website builders to make a web site based on cost, reliability, web hosting services, technical support, website speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and much more.
We’ll also compare:
The ideal website builders for small businesses.
The ideal free and affordable choices.
Those with the best SEO.
The top platforms with online shop capabilities.
The top 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 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 platform.
If you’re not too knowledgeable about 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 site builder to use this season.
Wix.
Best Website Builder for Small Business ($13/month)
Wix is the most popular website builder on the current 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 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 easy. Additionally, if you’d like to add e-commerce to your website so you could sell online, plans start a $20/month.
If you are 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 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 endlessly customize the look and feel of your website with no coding knowledge.
They also have a tool named Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) — the first artificial intelligence site builder. Wix ADI learns on your website and uses that information to design a site tailored to your precise needs.
This tool leverages AI choosing from billions of combinations of images, text, layouts, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re seeking the best website builder for small businesses, Wix is your best option.
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 website builder with a mission to assist local companies to tell their unique stories on the web.
Overall, they are best known for speed and simplicity.
With Zyro, you can create a company website quickly and easily with no programming required. Your website also loads fast because of the light framework and looks great on all apparatus.
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 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 choose your type of organization, then write 2-3 paragraphs describing your brand and context. You then adjust your AI settings and customize them based on length, experience, and creativity degree. Lastly, you click on the Create button and see your uniquely created content.
Since content generation is a challenge for many website owners, this tool creates 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 behavior.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website layouts.
Free website design templates for various industries like creative agencies, startups, fashion brands, wellness companies, 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.
Next, 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 suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Finally, their “Unleashed” program provides every Zyro attribute and gives unlimited storage and bandwidth. At such an affordable price of $3.49/month, it makes sense to go with this program and enjoy the unlimited features if you plan to have a lot of content on your site.
Overall, Zyro is ideal for small businesses seeking to create and develop a site fast, save money on composing 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 get started with Zyro for free to check out their stage, then upgrade to a paid program when you are ready to grow your internet 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 to 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 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 functionality, and you can schedule your posts:
A few small SEO limitations hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. First, my XML sitemap pulled two versions of each page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This dual 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 names, so be careful when adding your headlines for SEO. You can read more in my full Wix vs Squarespace review.
Other great features compensate for these drawbacks. Their ease of use is top-notch — 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 only $12/month.
Monthly costs range from $12/month for their private 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 plan provides a free domain name, unlimited bandwidth and storage, free SSL, and 24/7 customer service.
Overall, if you are a small company that needs first-rate web design or a blogger who wants your articles to look great, Squarespace is a trusted option.
Best Free Website Builder (Free — $25/month)
Weebly powers over 530,000 domain names and is known as the easy website 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 select a domain name and use their editor to add your own text, pictures, and content.
They also have a mobile program to track 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 with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain name with this plan but are made to get Weebly branding throughout your site. Also, the free plan only includes email and chat support, but no phone support.
Weebly’s paid plans vary from $5 to $25 per month. On the high end, their Business Strategy gets you innovative e-commerce functionality, a free domainname, 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 blog, support centre, community forum, social media, and developer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and telephone support.
If you are looking 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 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 program partners.
While not every site owner needs product-selling functionality, I added Shopify to the list because almost any small business could use them to install their website.
Have a salon for example.
With Shopify, not only could you set up a quick site including a blog, a map of your location, contact info, 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 listing, such as hosting, your own domain name, 70+ professional topics, a free SSL certificate, and marketing and SEO features.
They also supply 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 more.
If you’re setting up a new website and believe that you may want to sell products online in the future, it is better to get started with Shopify instead of another tool that doesn’t take online shopping as seriously.
They offer three plans ranging from $29/month to $299/month. The $29/month Fundamental Shopify Plan should give website owners everything they need, including a full website, an internet 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 painters ($16 per month).
Some of its other key features include:
You can edit and add content to your live site.
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 support via email, Webflow community forum, and help centre.
Integration with Zapier enables you to connect with tools like Slack, MailChimp, and Asana.
You can add up to 3000 products on your site with eCommerce support.
Best 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 with no 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 include premade designs 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 measures, 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 connect it to your web site hosting. Fortunately, most hosting services offer a one-click WordPress setup.
Finally, select a theme for your site 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 staff will do everything for you.
Flothemes will help you set up your website for just $499-$1999. Besides setting up your website from the beginning, 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. All in all, you get six rounds of implementations.
Furthermore, 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 dash.
Pricing:
While their themes cost a one-time $279, Flothemes offers three pricing strategies for their website setup services, including:
Simple Installation Bundle: $499
Advanced setup packs: $999
Pro Installation packs: $1,999
The Simple Setup Package can help you skip the technical components and jump straight to adding content and personalizing your motif. It provides features like WordPress installation, website layout setup, theme setup, WordPress transfer, website launching, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package incorporates full assistance with website setup, styling & launch, site speed optimization & an SEO consultation. Additional features include typography & color scheme stylization, SSL implementation, speed optimization, etc..
Pro Installation Package includes all of the features in the Advanced Setup Package along with the tailored mockup & execution for your homepage.
Best Site Tool with Integrated CRM Tools
HubSpot is a top-notch CRM tool which 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 using their pre-built templates.
Their drag-and-drop editor uses responsive design to 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 wide assortment of marketing applications, including tools to manage email advertising, get found online, and capture, engage with and understand leads.
By way of instance, when you make a webpage, you may add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into prospects. Then, when you understand your traffic, you can dynamically create content unique to site visitors based on their location, device, language, 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 prospects.
Email marketing, retargeting, and messenger integrations send customized messages to your prospects.
Their contact report builder, analytics tools, and record segmentation help you understand your own prospects.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into clients.
Overall, if you’re looking for a website builder that also comes with a full-featured pair of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is your best alternative.
The World’s Most Popular CMS
Easiest Free Website Builder for Small Sites
Best Digital Advertising Website Builder for Local Businesses
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 websites
Best Website Builder for Agencies and Multilingual Websites
What is a Website Builder?
A website builder is a tool that allows anyone to manage a website and domain name without manual coding. In other words, a website builder is a tool or software application to help you build a website.
In the old days of the web, programmers needed to understand HTML and CSS to make a site. Today, if you wish to code a website, there’s a steep learning curve — you want to have extensive knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. Not so with site builders.
These tools assist everyone from small companies and bloggers to information websites 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 site builder?
Can I get a free website for my company?
There you have it — my list of the top website builders. As there are 74 options out there, I have condensed the list down to the very best so you may choose the option that’s perfect for your small business or online brand.
If you’re looking for the best website builder complete, I recommend you get started with 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 fantastic choice.
What site builder do you use?