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17 Best Website Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Picking the best site builder can be hard, because there are 74 popular options to select from.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best website builders to make a web site based on cost, reliability, web hosting services, technical assistance, website speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and much more.
We’ll also compare:
The best website contractors for small companies.
The ideal free and affordable choices.
Those 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 effortless way to build a presence for your brand or internet business. These tools simplify your site management by combining domain registration, hosting, and site design into one stage.
If you are not too savvy with web design and development, you will want to go with an easy drag and drop editor.
The choice is up to you.
Here are my top picks for the best website 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.
In case you already have a domain on GoDaddy or need to register one at Wix.com, they make it super simple. Also, if you want to add e-commerce to your site so you could sell online, plans start a $20/month.
If you are 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 add an e-commerce store can find these excellent new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly website tool on the market. You can almost endlessly 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 about your website and uses that information to design a website tailored to your specific needs.
This tool leverages AI selecting from countless combinations of pictures, text, layouts, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re seeking the best site builder for small businesses, Wix is your 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 website builder with a mission to help local companies to tell their unique stories on the web.
Overall, they’re famous for simplicity and speed.
With Zyro, you can create a business site fast and easily with no programming required. Your site also loads fast because of its 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 more than 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 adjust your AI settings and customize them based on duration, experience, and creativity level. Last, you click the Create button and see your uniquely generated content.
Since content generation is a challenge for many site owners, this tool generates new paragraphs for you that 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 increase website conversions and forecast visitor behaviour.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website layouts.
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” 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” 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 is most acceptable for small and medium-sized companies.
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 have a lot of content on your website.
Overall, Zyro is ideal for small businesses looking to create and develop 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 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 for their beautifully designed home page. They truly know how to create 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 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 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 two versions of each page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This double indexing may potentially lead to SEO and duplicate content issues later on. They didn’t have a simple fix the last time I checked.
Second, your site headlines 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 great 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 onsite traffic if you’re not using Google Analytics. Plus, it’s hard 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 domainname. The Personal program 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 that wants your articles to appear great, Squarespace is a trusted choice.
Best Free Website Builder (Free — $25/month)
Weebly powers over 530,000 domain names and is called the easy website builder of choice for people without much technical expertise. They offer a lot of great features. If you’re a blogger, you can use Weebly.com to select a domain name and use their editor to add your text, images, and articles.
They also have a mobile program 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 program which includes 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 innovative e-commerce performance, 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 through Square and other providers.
The degree of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You’ll find assistance yourself in many locations, including their blog, service centre, community forum, social networking, and developer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and phone 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 almost any small business could use them to set up their website.
Have 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 a program ), but you could 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 list, such as hosting, your own domain name, 70+ specialist themes, a free SSL certificate, and promotion and SEO features.
They also supply mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automated 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’s better to begin with Shopify instead of another instrument 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 site owners everything they need, including a full website, an online 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 Designers ($16 per month).
Some of its other key features include:
You can edit and add content to your live website.
Invite other 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 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 company that offers customizable WordPress themes. These templates enable you to build sites inside of WordPress without the 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 come with premade designs 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 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 connect it to your web site hosting. Luckily, most hosting services provide a one-click WordPress setup.
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 site, you can drop a message, and their team will do everything for you.
Flothemes can allow you to set up your site for just $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the start, 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 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 dashboard.
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 packs: $999
Pro Setup packages: $1,999
The Easy 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 setup, WordPress transfer, website launch, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package incorporates full assistance with site setup, styling & launch, site speed optimization & an search engine optimization consultation. Additional features include typography & colour scheme stylization, SSL implementation, speed optimization, etc..
Pro Setup Package contains all the features in the Advanced Setup Package together with the tailored mockup & execution for your homepage.
Best Site 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, 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 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 software, 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 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 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:
Forms, live chat, and conversational chatbots capture leads.
Email marketing, retargeting, and messenger integrations send customized 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 clients.
Overall, if you’re looking for a website builder that also includes a full-featured set of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is the best alternative.
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 site and domain name without manual coding. In other words, a website builder is a tool or software application that will help you build a web site.
In the old days of the web, programmers needed to know HTML and CSS to create a website. Today, if you want to code a site, there is 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 companies and bloggers to news websites and ecommerce businesses easily create sites 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 site for my company?
There you have it — my list of the top website builders. Because there are 74 options out there, I’ve condensed the listing down to the very best so you can choose the option that’s perfect for your 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, check out Squarespace.
If you will need an e-commerce site to sell products online, Shopify is a fantastic choice.
What website builder do you use?