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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 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’ll also compare:
The best website contractors for small businesses.
The best free and affordable options.
Those with the best SEO.
The best platforms with online store capabilities.
The best 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 effortless way to build a presence for your brand or internet 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 an easy drag and drop editor.
The choice is all 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 on the current market, with over 100 million users.
They have 500+ ready-to-use templates to design your website in any business. 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.
If you already have a domain name on GoDaddy or want to register one at Wix.com, they make it super easy. Also, if you want to add e-commerce to your website so you could sell online, plans start a $20/month.
If you’re 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 are looking to add an e-commerce store can find these great new features.
Wix is the most user-friendly website tool on the market. You can almost endlessly customize the appearance and feel of your site with no coding 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 precise needs.
This tool leverages AI selecting from billions of combinations of pictures, text, designs, and contact forms.
Finally, if you’re seeking the best site builder for small businesses, Wix is your very best option.
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 assist local companies to tell their unique stories online.
Overall, they’re famous for speed and simplicity.
With Zyro, you can create a business website fast and easily with no coding required. Your website also loads fast because of the light framework and looks great on all devices.
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 their 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 pick your type of business, then write 2-3 sentences describing your brand and context. Then you correct your AI settings and customize them based on length, experience, and creativity degree. Lastly, you click the Generate button and see your uniquely generated content.
Since content generation is a challenge for many website owners, this tool creates new paragraphs for you that 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 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 behavior.
Mobile-optimized, fast-loading website designs.
Free website design templates for various industries like creative agencies, startups, fashion brands, wellness companies, bakeries, and much more.
Zyro offers three primary 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 plan 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” program permits you to connect your 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 very popular plan that’s most suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Finally, their “Unleashed” program provides every Zyro feature 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 website.
Overall, Zyro is best for small businesses seeking to create and develop a website fast, save money on composing 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 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 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 vision 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 images, 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 limits hold Squarespace back from being #1 on this list. First, my XML sitemap pulled in two versions of each page with and without a trailing slash”/.” This dual indexing could potentially result in SEO and duplicate content issues down the road. They didn’t have a simple fix the last time I checked.
Secondly, your site headlines become your meta names, so be careful when incorporating 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 top-notch — websites 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 website 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 domain. The Personal program provides a free domain name, unlimited storage and bandwidth, 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 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 expertise. They offer a lot 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, images, and content.
They also have a mobile app to track your site’s performance on the go. And email marketing tools let you send newsletters to your subscribers from inside their tool.
They have a free program which comes with 500 MB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and a domain name with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain with this plan but are made to have Weebly branding throughout your site. Additionally, the free program only includes chat and email support, but no phone service.
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 domain, 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 via Square and other providers.
The level of customer support you receive is based on your subscription level. You can find assistance yourself in several areas, including their site, service centre, community forum, 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 get started using Weebly.
Best Website Builder for Ecommerce ($29/month)
Shopify is a favorite 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 program partners.
While not every website owner needs product-selling performance, I added Shopify into the list because any small business could use them to set up their website.
Take a salon for instance.
With Shopify, not only could you set up a quick website including a blog, 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 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 supply mobile commerce, 100+ payment gateways, automated 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 setting up a new website and think that you may choose to sell products online in the future, it is far better to begin with Shopify rather than 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 site owners everything they need, including a complete website, an online store with unlimited products, blog 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 Designers ($16 a month).
Some of its other Important features include:
You can add and edit content to your live site.
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 centre.
Integration with Zapier lets you connect with tools such as 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 business 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 potent free flow page builder, providing limitless customization options.
All the templates and themes come with premade designs and content blocks. You may also customize colors, fonts, the arrangement of the page, and more.
Flothemes help you build your website in a few measures, including:
Register a domain name and hosting service provider for your site. You can even check Flothemes cloud hosting services, starting at $26 per month.
Install WordPress.org and join it to your web site hosting. Luckily, most hosting services provide 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 website, you can drop a message, and their staff will do everything for you.
Flothemes will help you set up your website for only $499-$1999. Besides setting up your site from the start, they also offer services like page load 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.
Furthermore, Flothemes provides features like SSL implementation, WordPress installation, Typography, color scheme stylization, and much more. You also get complete design freedom, SEO options, and a dashboard.
Pricing:
While their subjects cost a one-time $279, Flothemes offers three pricing strategies for their site setup services, including:
Simple Setup Package: $499
Advanced setup packs: $999
Pro Setup packages: $1,999
The Simple Setup Package can help you skip the technical components and jump straight to adding content and personalizing your motif. It offers features like WordPress installation, site layout setup, theme installation, WordPress transfer, website launching, etc..
The Advanced Setup Package incorporates 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 contains all the features from the Advanced Setup Package along with the tailored mockup & execution for your homepage.
Best Site Tool with Integrated CRM Tools
HubSpot is a topnotch 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 that will 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 broad assortment of marketing applications, including tools to manage email marketing, get found online, and capture, engage with and understand prospects.
For example, 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 site visitors based on their location, device, speech, traffic source, or any 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 prospects.
Email advertising, retargeting, and messenger integrations send customized messages to your leads.
Their contact report builder, analytics tools, and list segmentation help you understand your leads.
Personalized experiences, calls-to-action, and smart content turns leads into customers.
Overall, if you’re seeking a site builder that also comes with a full-featured set 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 Marketing 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 Website Builder for Agencies and Multilingual Websites
What’s a Website Builder?
A website builder is a tool that allows anyone to manage a website and domain name without manual programming. In other words, a site builder is a tool or software program that will help you build a web site.
In the old days of the net, programmers needed to know HTML and CSS to create a website. Today, if you want to code a website, there’s a steep learning curve — you need to have extensive knowledge of JavaScript and PHP. Not so with site builders.
These tools assist everyone from small businesses and bloggers to news websites and ecommerce companies easily create sites 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 site builder?
Can I get a free website for my business?
There you have it — my list of the top website builders. Because there are 74 choices out there, I’ve condensed the listing down to the top so you may choose the option that’s right for your business or online brand.
If you are looking for the very best website builder complete, I recommend you get started 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 fantastic choice.
What site builder do you use?