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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 options 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 services, technical assistance, website speed, SEO, features, ease of use, template design, and much more.
We will also compare:
The best website builders for small companies.
The ideal free and cheap options.
The ones with the best SEO.
The best platforms with online store capabilities.
The best builders for agencies.
And the best choices for photographers and artists.
What is the Best Website Builder?
Using a site builder is a quick and effortless way to construct a presence for your brand or internet business. These tools simplify your site management by combining domain registration, hosting, and site design into one platform.
If you are not too knowledgeable about web design and development, you will 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 season.
Wix.
Best Site 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 look beautiful, with scroll effects, and innovative design features like video and animation backgrounds.
If you already have a domain on GoDaddy or want to register one at Wix.com, they make it super simple. 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 are a small business, 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 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 always customize the appearance and feel of your site with no coding knowledge.
They also have a tool named Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) — the first artificial intelligence site builder. Wix ADI learns about your website and uses that information to design a site tailored to your precise needs.
This tool leverages AI selecting from billions of combinations of pictures, text, designs, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re looking for 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 site builder with a mission to help local businesses to tell their unique stories on the web.
Overall, they are best known for speed and simplicity.
With Zyro, you can create a business website quickly and easily with no coding required. Your website also loads fast due to 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 tool, mobile-readiness, and over one million stock pictures 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 duration, expertise, and creativity degree. Last, you click on the Create button and see your distinctively created content.
Since content creation is a challenge for many website 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 search engine optimization tools to improve your search rankings.
A free SSL certificate and custom domain names.
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 designs.
Free website design templates for various industries like creative services, startups, fashion brands, wellness companies, bakeries, and much more.
Zyro offers three main pricing plans — a free plan, a mid-tier”Basic” program at $1.99/month, and their high-tier”Unleashed” plan 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 allows 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 acceptable for small and medium-sized companies.
Finally, their “Unleashed” program provides every Zyro feature and provides unlimited bandwidth and storage. At such an affordable price of $3.49/month, it makes sense to go for this program and enjoy the unlimited features if you plan to get a lot of content on your site.
Overall, Zyro is best for small businesses seeking to create and develop a website 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 get started with Zyro for free to test out their stage, then upgrade to a paid program when you’re ready to grow your online 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 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 select from, they lead the pack in regards to design. Squarespace templates look excellent down to every detail. The fonts, color schemes, and imagery 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 images, headings, and text onto the page and place it where you would like. They also offer multiple user permissions, Google AMP functionality, and you can schedule your posts:
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 could potentially result in SEO and duplicate content issues down the road. They didn’t have an easy 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 on-site visitors if you are not using Google Analytics. Plus, it’s tough to go wrong with a beautifully-designed website for only $12/month.
Monthly costs range from $12/month for their Personal 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 support.
In general, if you’re a small business that needs first-rate web design or a blogger who wants your content to look great, Squarespace is a trusted choice.
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 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 site’s performance on the go. And email marketing tools allow you to send newsletters to your subscribers from within 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 have Weebly branding throughout your site. Additionally, the free plan only includes chat and email 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 through Square and other suppliers.
The level of customer support you get is based on your subscription level. You’ll find assistance yourself in many locations, including their site, support centre, community discussion, social networking, and programmer documentation. They also have live chat, email, and phone support.
If you are looking for a simple website 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 functionality, I added Shopify into the list because any small business could use them to install their website.
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 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 topics, a free SSL certificate, and promotion and SEO features.
They also offer mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automatic carrier shipping rates, automated 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 might want to sell products online in the future, it is better to get started with Shopify rather than another tool that does not 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 need, including a complete website, an internet store with unlimited products, blog features, 24/7 support, and more.
If you’d like to give Shopify a try, they offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Best For Professional Designers ($16 a month).
Some of its other key features include:
You can edit and add content to your live site.
Invite additional team members to collaborate on a single dash.
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 support 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.
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 with no need for custom coding. It’s powered by Flex block, a powerful free flow page builder, providing limitless customization choices.
All the templates and themes include premade layouts and content blocks. You can 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 web site 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 support team.
If you need help setting up the entire 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 site from the beginning, they also offer services like page load speed optimization, SEO, styling, etc.. In addition, you get two screen sharing sessions of 45 minutes each with specialists 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 setup, Typography, color scheme stylization, and 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 plans for their website setup services, including:
Simple Installation Bundle: $499
Advanced setup packages: $999
Pro Setup packages: $1,999
The Simple Setup Package helps you skip the technical components and jump directly to adding content and personalizing your theme. It provides features like WordPress installation, website layout setup, theme installation, WordPress transfer, site launching, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package includes full assistance with website setup, styling & launching, site speed optimization & an SEO consultation. Additional features include typography & colour scheme stylization, SSL implementation, speed optimization, etc..
Pro Installation Package includes all of the features in the Advanced Setup Package together with the tailored mockup & implementation for your homepage.
Best Website 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, 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 range of marketing software, including tools to manage email advertising, get found online, and catch, engage with and understand prospects.
By way of example, when you create 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 website visitors based on their location, device, language, traffic source, or some other detail you choose to catch 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 personalized messages to your prospects.
Their contact report builder, analytics tools, and record segmentation help you understand your prospects.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into customers.
Overall, if you’re looking for a website builder that also includes 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 Sites
Best Digital Advertising Website Builder for Local Businesses
A Personalized Website with the Power of AI
Best for Enormous Online Stores
Great for Photographers and Artists
Best for startups that want to create bootstrapped sites
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 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 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 businesses and bloggers to news sites 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 choices out there, I’ve condensed the listing down to the very best so you may choose the option that is right for your business or online brand.
If you are looking for the best site builder complete, I recommend you get started using Wix.
For the best designs and templates, take a look at Squarespace.
If you need an e-commerce website to sell products online, Shopify is a fantastic choice.
What website builder do you use?