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17 Best Website Builders: Wix, Squarespace, and More (2021)
Choosing the best site builder can be difficult, because there are 74 popular choices to select from.
In this guide, I ranked and reviewed the best website builders to make a website based on cost, reliability, web hosting services, technical assistance, site speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and more.
We will also compare:
The ideal website builders for small businesses.
The best free and affordable choices.
Those with the best SEO.
The best platforms with online store capabilities.
The top builders for agencies.
And the best choices for photographers and artists.
What is the Best Website Builder?
Using a site builder is a fast and effortless way to build a presence for your brand or online business. These tools simplify your site management by combining domain registrationhosting, and site design into one stage.
If you are not too savvy with web design and development, you will 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 year.
Wix.
Best Site Builder for Small Business ($13/month)
Wix is the most popular website builder 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 look beautiful, with scroll effects, and advanced 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 simple. Also, if you want to add e-commerce to your site so that you can sell online, plans begin a $20/month.
If you are a small business, 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 want to bring an e-commerce store can get these excellent new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly site tool on the market. You can almost always customize the look and feel of your website with no programming knowledge.
They also have a tool called Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) — the first artificial intelligence site builder. Wix ADI learns on your site and uses that information to design a website tailored to your specific needs.
This tool leverages AI choosing from countless combinations of images, text, layouts, and contact forms.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for the best website builder for small companies, Wix is the very best choice.
Read my whole 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 website builder with a mission to assist local companies to tell their unique stories online.
Overall, they’re famous for simplicity and speed.
With Zyro, you may make a business website fast and easily with no coding required. Your website also loads fast due to the light frame 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 select 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 begin with this tool, you choose your type of business, then write 2-3 paragraphs describing your brand and context. You then correct your AI settings and customize them based on length, experience, and creativity degree. Last, you click the Create button and see your distinctively 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 manufacturer.
24/7 customer support via email and live chat.
AI heatmaps to increase website conversions and predict visitor behavior.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website designs.
Free website design templates for different industries like creative services, startups, fashion brands, wellness companies, bakeries, and much 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 program 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” 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 acceptable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Finally, their “Unleashed” plan provides every Zyro attribute and provides unlimited storage and bandwidth. At this affordable price of $3.49/month, it makes sense 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 best for small businesses looking to create and develop a site fast, 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 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 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 select from, they lead the pack when it comes 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 on the page and place it where you would like. They also offer multiple user permissions, Google AMP performance, and you can schedule your articles:
A few small SEO limits hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. First, my XML sitemap pulled two versions of every page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This double indexing may potentially lead to SEO and duplicate content issues down the road. 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 adding your headlines for SEO. You can read more in my whole Wix vs Squarespace review.
Other great features make up for these drawbacks. Their ease of use is topnotch — sites 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 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 domainname. The Personal program provides a free domain name, unlimited storage and bandwidth, free SSL, and 24/7 customer service.
In general, 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 called the simple website builder of choice for people without much technical expertise. 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, images, and articles.
They also have a mobile app to keep track of your website’s performance 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 made to get Weebly branding throughout your site. Additionally, the free program only comes with chat and email 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 functionality, 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 through Square and other suppliers.
The degree of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You’ll find assistance yourself in several locations, including their site, support center, community discussion, social media, and developer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and phone support.
If you are searching for a simple website creator to get up and running, I recommend you get started with Weebly.
Best Website Builder for Ecommerce ($29/month)
Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform used by over 800,000 online businesses 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 functionality, I added Shopify into the list because any small business could use them to install their site.
Have 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 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 business.
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+ specialist themes, a free SSL certificate, and marketing and SEO features.
They also offer mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automatic carrier shipping rates, automatic tax rates, and the full checkout experience. Plus, 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 choose to sell products online in the future, it’s better to get started with Shopify rather than another instrument 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 site owners everything they need, including a complete website, an online store with unlimited products, site features, 24/7 support, and more.
If you’d like to give Shopify a try, they give 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 add and edit content to your live website.
Invite other team members to collaborate on a single dash.
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 lets you connect with tools like Slack, MailChimp, and Asana.
You can add up to 3000 products on your site with eCommerce support.
Finest WordPress Themes for Photography and Creative Websites ($279 one-time).
Flothemes is a company that provides customizable WordPress themes. These templates enable you to build websites inside of WordPress without the need for custom coding. It’s powered by Flex block, a powerful free flow page builder, providing limitless customization options.
All the templates and themes include premade designs and content blocks. You can also customize colors, fonts, the arrangement of the page, 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 also check Flothemes cloud hosting services, starting at $26 a month.
Install WordPress.org and connect it to your website hosting. Luckily, most hosting services offer a one-click WordPress installation.
Finally, pick 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 site, you can drop a message, and their team will do everything for you.
Flothemes will allow you to set up your website for just $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the beginning, they also provide services like page loading speed optimization, SEO, styling, etc.. In addition, 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.
Additionally, Flothemes provides features like SSL implementation, WordPress setup, Typography, color scheme stylization, and 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 site setup services, including:
Simple Setup Package: $499
Advanced setup packages: $999
Pro Setup packages: $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, website layout setup, theme setup, WordPress transfer, site launch, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package includes full assistance with site setup, styling & launch, site speed optimization & an SEO 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 along 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, you can create website pages, blog posts, landing pages 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 listing, HubSpot comes integrated with a broad range of marketing applications, including tools to manage email marketing, get found online, and catch, engage with and understand leads.
By way of example, when you make a webpage, you can add calls-to-action and forms that convert visitors into leads. Then, when you know your traffic, you can dynamically create content unique to site visitors based on their location, device, speech, traffic origin, or some other detail you choose to catch in 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 customized messages to your prospects.
Their contact builder, analytics tools, and record segmentation help you understand your prospects.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into clients.
Overall, if you are seeking a website builder that also comes with a full-featured pair of CRM and marketing tools, HubSpot is the ideal alternative.
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 sites
Best Website 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 application that will assist you build a website.
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 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 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 website for my business?
There you have it — my list of the greatest website builders. As there are 74 choices out there, I’ve condensed the list down to the very best so you may choose the option that’s right for your small business or online brand.
If you’re looking for the very best site builder complete, I recommend you begin using 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 good choice.
What website builder do you use?