15 BEST WEBSITE BUILDERS
REVIEWED & COMPARED 2022
Luca Tagliaferro is an SEO consultant for some of the biggest brands in the UK, with 9 years experience in digital marketing under his belt. His work has been featured on SEMRush, Moz, SmartInsights, SEObility and many more. Read more
Regardless of whether you are starting a blog as a photographer, consultant, freelancer, artist, or small business owner, it is important to have an online presence, where you can share your products and services and attract potential customers.
This is where having a website comes in, as they enable you to do these things and much more.
However, it can be taxing to both your time and resources, especially if you are just starting up, to build a website from scratch with little to no coding skills. Which is why website builders are so important.
With website builders, you don’t have to know how to code to build your website, and it requires minimal effort for you to customise and make it look and function as you want it to.
There are several website builders available, and choosing the right one depends on your specific needs.
It can be very daunting to comb through different website builders from the free options to those for business websites, e-commerce sites, photography pages, portfolios, and others.
Many of these website builders have unique features that make them stand out, and this article will discuss the best ones based on the essential features, pricing, and functionalities.
First, let’s take a look at some features to look out for when choosing a website builder.|
- 1. Wix
- 2. Squarespace
- 3. Webnode
- 4. Weebly
- 5. Ucraft
- 6. WordPress
- 7.Shopify
- 8.Zyro
- 9.Jimdo
- 10. GoDaddy
- 11.Webflow
- 12.Strikingly
- 13. Duda
- 14. Site123
- 15. One.com
Pros and Cons of using a Website Builder
Pros
- Website builders are the cheapest option on the market to get a website built. Most are free to use but they require you to pay to remove their ads and to buy a custom domain name. That costs normally $50 to 100$ per year.
- Website builders are available 24/7, meaning you can get a website literally any time you need one.
- They offer templates. You can have a website completed in a matter of hours after choosing the right template for your business (or less, depending on your level of perfectionism).
Cons
- Some website builders let you build the website but do not let you access the backend code of your website, that you need to make big changes. These websites are temporary solutions at best.
- Many other people are using the same website builders, including your competitors. That means that there are potentially hundreds of businesses out there with the same layouts and templates.
Tips to get the most out of a website builder
Before you jump in a get your hands dirty with a website builder, it’s important to prepare a few thoughts on your website so that you can maximise the potential.
Domain Name
If you haven’t done so yet, a must-do step is naming your domain name. Not only the name will be a crucial thing people will remember, but it will be featured in any marketing communication as well.
Consider your products and services
Secondly, take a moment to consider your company’s products and services: what are you selling? Who do you serve? And what markets are you selling to? This helps target your audience better: are you selling to SaaS startups or B2B corporations? Is your product different than competitors and how so?
Decide on the main pages of your website structure
Once you have thought about your products and services, consider how these money-making pages will be displayed on the website: this helps customise your template design.
Taking my blog as an example, I have settled for an SEO Consultant page where I push myself as a freelancer SEO consultant. This emphasizes the approachable and human part of SEO consultancy, as opposed to having listed a series of services that most agencies in the marketing space use.
I built also an About me page where I push my personal profile, if people feel they know you, they’ll trust you more and do business with you. To me, it’s important people know who I am, where I come from, how I ended up becoming an SEO consultant and writing software reviews.
There is definitely room for improvement here, so I went ahead and built also my SEO speaker page to target a different set of keywords.
How to Select the Best Website Builder
There are hundreds of website builders available in the market and it can be overwhelming trying to pick one from the pile. However, before you start the selection process, you must narrow down your specific needs, design options, and decide if you want complete customization functionality or if you’ll be blogging or selling products. Plus, there are lots of other factors to consider like cost, integration, ease of use, flexibility, and customer support, among others. Outlined below are the criteria you have to consider when choosing a website builder.
Your Site Purpose
The first step you need to take is to determine the primary purpose of your website. Do you need just a landing page or a complete website where you can sell your products and services? Once you establish your site goal, it’ll be relatively easy for you to prioritize features, capabilities and plugins you want in your website builder. Besides, your site purpose will enable you not to get sidelined by fancy functionalities and integrations you might not need. If you are interested in sales, you should look for e-commerce website builders that simplify the process of building an online store. Same goes for if you want a website builder for your blog or photography business. Another factor you need to consider is the website size and the amount of time you want to invest in building your site, as this would help you further simplify your options.
Cost
You have to factor in your budget when choosing a website builder, as it would help you rule out costly options. If you find a website builder that is way above your budget but has all the extensions and capability you want, it may not be the right choice for you to choose that. This doesn’t mean you should underfund your website – you just have to select the best that you can afford.
Having a budget will also help to prioritize features that are essential and those that are non-essential. Once you’ve streamlined your options, look at the price plans for each of them and choose the best one you can afford. Plus, you can take advantage of the free trials and plans to find out if it’s the right website builder for you.
Control
The amount of control you have over the builder will determine how much customization you can actually do. While some website builders have a rigid design structure that let you only customize color, font and content, there are others that allow you to customize and design your website to suit your needs with little to no rigidity. You need to ensure you know the control capabilities of the website builder before selecting it, as this would help you in the long run.
Flexibility
Some builders lock users into their hosting service and gives them no option to switch to other services. If you are not sure about what the future holds in terms of hosting, it is best to choose website builders that are flexible enough to allow you evolve and go with another hosting service. This is why a free trial period is critical, as it will help you understand if you made the best choice in website builders or not.
Features
When assessing several website builders, consider their features and in-built capabilities. Does it have all the features you need? Does it have mobile responsiveness, drag and drop functionality, and usable template? There are several features that are specific to your site purpose. Besides, you won’t need to bother about installing extensions if the website builder offers all the features you need.
Third-party Integrations
Often times, it is hard to find a website builder that offers every feature that you need for your site. Which is why it is essential to check if the builders offer integration with third-party application, as this will enable you include any missing features to your site. Also, you need to check which of the add-on selections are free and which are premium to enable you include it into your budget.
The Best Website Builders
Wix is one of the largest website builders in the market with over 100 million users and websites built, including this website you are visiting now.
This beginner-friendly website builder simplifies the website creation process and enables users to have control and flexibility over their site design and customization process. Wix has over 200 fonts and 500 mobile-ready templates available for users on the site. Plus, this cloud-based website builder is a wholly hosted platform, so you don’t need to pay to host your website.
You can use this website builder regardless of your type of business – so you can use it to create landing pages, web blogs, and commercial websites. Wix is also constantly adding new features to their site like a bookings feature, for users with businesses that need a booking system, and a restaurant feature, to enable customers of food businesses to check out their menus and order food. Besides, they offer a set of business and marketing tools that include automations, CRM, email marketing, invoice generator, and video maker.
Favourite features
- Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) Technology – Wix offers you a guided website creation assistant that asks you a series of questions and uses your answers to build your website with ease.
- Social Sharing – You can promote your website on different social media platforms with ease.
- SEO tools – Wix provides search engine optimization tools to enable you to optimize your site on Google.
- Wix App Market – The application store has a number of extra features, like newsletter, forum, subscription form, and others that you can add to your website.
- Mobile Editor – Wix enables you to modify your website to make it compatible with mobile devices.
Pros
- Easy to customize
- Completely editable templates
- Every Wix website gets free SSL
- Beginner Friendly
- Variety of pricing plans
Cons
- Data and space limitations
- No analytics and statistical feature
- Limited functionality control
- Pop-up ads on the free plan
- Complicated website migration process
- Restricted third-party app integrations
Pricing
Wix offers a limited free plans for people and businesses to build their website. They have 8 premium plans, starting at $4.50 monthly. Additionally, there are plans for business and ecommerce websites.
Small businesses and creative individuals will get the most out of Squarespace as it offers a wide variety of template designs for them to choose from. Its drag-and-drop feature and different elements make it easy for you to customize your website. This easy-to-use builder provides one of the best blogging functionality in the market, and it offers a wide range of features for you to choose from. With over 1.5 billion websites built, Squarespace is one of the biggest names in the market. Besides, this website builder allows you to correct the website code and insert your own if you are on the advanced plan.
Favorite features
- Squarespace Extensions – Squarespace enables users to optimize their site and integrate with different third-party applications like Quickbooks, MailChimp, ShipStation, Open table, and Printful.
- In-built CSS Editor – Users can use this builder’s in-built CSS editor to add custom CSS to their template design.
- Website Editor – You can create websites that will look good on tablets and mobile devices with ease.
- Member Areas — Squarespace provides a scheduling tool you can use for email marketing and bookings management.
- Content Block System — You can use this builder to create complex multi-column layouts and custom content types.
- Pros
- Wide variety of features, designs, and templates
- Fully editable and flexible website design
- Seamless management of coupons, inventory, products, and orders
- 24/7 customer support
- High-level blogging capabilities
- Cons
- Relatively Costly
- Limited flexibility with functionality
- Restricted plugin installation
- Coding skills are required for custom CSS addition
- Limited e-commerce payment gateways
- Non-intuitive user interface
Pricing
Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial for users. There are four premium plans available, starting from $12 monthly (billed annually).
You can use Webnode to create your business or personal website, online store, or blog with ease, as it offers an extensive variety of templates you can customize in minutes. This globally used website builder offers a free domain name for the first year in most of their plans, alongside custom email accounts. Besides, this builder enables you add different languages to your website to allow you cater to your customers in other countries.
Favourite features
- SEO features – Webnode’s in-built SEO tools help you to optimize your website and gain visibility on Google
- Multilingual capability – Only a few website builders enable users to build different language versions of their website.
- Menu navigation – You can add 2 navigation sub-levels to your menu seamlessly with Webnode.
Pros
- A wide variety of predesigned templates
- Easy to integrate with Google Analytics
- Optimizable for search engines
Cons
- Lack of integrations
- Lack of social sharing and a site search features
- Limited functionality
- Coding is required to integrate widgets
- No app store
- No live support option
Pricing
Webnode starts at only £2,90, but I would recommend the standard plan at £8,90/month with the advanced functionalities needed to run a blog or an ecommerce website.
This website builder is best for users that don’t want to spend too much time creating their website, as its page builder automates and streamlines the website creation process. Weebly is good for first timers and it is very easy to use. Besides, you can use this website builder to create large websites as it comes with a sophisticated online store functionality, site portability, and unlimited storage (for paid plans).
Weebly is a completely hosted platform, so it provides both website hosting and management. You can also use this builder to power you website for e-commerce integration.
Favourite features
- Content Management System – This builder provides users with a CMS that can support large websites.
- Online Store – You can add new features t your website from Weebly’s online store.
- SEO Guides – Users can use the search engine optimization guides available to increase their website’s visibility
- Square Photo Studio – Weebly provides ecommerce experts to help users take product pictures.
- Code Editor – You can use this builder’s in-built code editor to customize your website’s CSS and HTML in your dashboard.
Pros
- Responsive on mobile devices
- No bandwidth or storage limitations on paid plans
- Beginner-friendly
- Ecommerce friendly
Cons
- Limited website development functionalities
- Limited ecommerce marketing tool integrations
- Hard to migrate to another host
- Lack of SEO extensions
Pricing
Weebly offers two pricing options. One for a blog and the second for an e-commerce store because the features are different.
Ucraft provides a variety of third-party applications that cover analytics, communication, ecommerce, media, and marketing. This website builder enables you to design your business logo from scratch with ease. Creative people and businesses can use this builder to develop their website to represent their brand. Plus, the paid plans come with unlimited landing pages, bandwidth, and a free domain.
Favourite features
- Logo Design Feature – you can use the logo you design from scratch all across your website.
- Third-party Integration – Ucraft offers integration to many third-party applications spanning multiple roles.
- Template Categories – Ucraft provides templates in multiple categories to enable users choose the one that best matches their niche.
Pros
- Wide variety of design templates
- Responsive to mobile and tablet screen sizes
- Free domain
- Unlimited pages and bandwidth
Cons
- Limited payment solutions
- Restricted plan downgrade
- Not beginner-friendly
Pricing
WordPress
WordPress is one of the most popular website builders in the market, as it powers over 40% of the websites on the internet. This website builder is easy to use, flexible, and customizable, and you can build any type of website using it. However, you need basic coding skills if you want to expand your website.
WordPress has a hosted version that you can use to design and build your website, and with the different plugins, you can add several other features to your site. You don’t need to install or support anything while using this builder. Besides, you can access the wide theme selection to design your website to fit your needs.
Favorite features
- Social Media Integration – WordPress.com provides users with social media integration capabilities to enable integrate their website with their social media accounts.
- Website Statistics – You don’t need to integrate with an analytics platform as WordPress provides website insights for you to see how much traffic your site is having.
- In-built SEO features – Users can use the in-built SEO capabilities to improve their websites visibility on search engines like Google.
Pros
- Best for blogs
- Cheap plans
- Wide variety of plugins and themes
- No complicated installation or maintenance process
- Good customer support
- Good for ecommerce websites
Cons
- Limited customization and flexibility, without installing many plugins
- Not beginner-friendly
- Limited SEO on different plans
- Limited selection on themes
- Not intuitive
Pricing
Shopify is a website builder specifically for ecommerce businesses, and it provides an easy way for ecommerce stores to get up and running. This beginner-friendly website builder makes it easy for you to set up a retail operation from inventory to tax, shipping, and customer information. Plus, they have customer support available 24/7 and an active online community in case you have any questions.
Favorite features
- Shopify Payments – Shopify provides its own credit card processor to make it easy for store owners to process payments.
- Multi-currency – Customers can comfortably pay with their local currency on any Shopify store.
- App Marketplace – There are over 5000 applications in the Shopify marketplace to enable users improve their website.
Pros
- All-in-one fully hosted bundle
- Smooth integration with third-party payment platforms
- Variety of ecommerce-specific features
- Easy website building process
- Seamless integration with WordPress
- Multiple POS options
Cons
- High hosting costs
- Hard to migrate from Shopify
- Limited Field customization
- High credit card processing fees
Pricing
Zyro comes with a variety of templates that users in different industries can pick from, and you can edit them to fit your needs with ease. You can also use this tool to build an online store or a business website that is intuitive. Beside, you don’t need to have any design or coding skills to use this builder.
Every website you build on Zyro will be fast, SEO optimized, and mobile friendly, and there are no payment transaction fees.
Favorite features
- AI content generator – Zyro provides an AI-based tool to help users with different tasks like content generation and visitor behavior prediction.
- Industry-specific Templates – You can select templates that suit your industry with Zyro.
- In-built Stock Photos Access – Zyro offers over a million stock photos for users to use when building their sites.
Pros
- Fast page load time
- Social media integration
- Ecommerce friendly
- Easy to use and affordable
- 24/7 customer support
Cons
- No keyword support
- No SEO integrations
- Design and customization limitation
Pricing
Jimdo uses AI technology to build your website – all you need to do is answer a number of questions. This builder is best for building simple websites and online stores, and it has its stock photo library for users to have access to. Also, because it uses content blocks, you can develop webpages quickly. Jimdo offers pre-built templates and a drag and drop editor to enable you easily build your website. Every website built on this website builder is fully responsive and can be displayed on mobile and desktop devices.
Favourite features
- Jimdo Dolphin – This features uses ADI to help you build your website
- Jimdo Creator – You can use Jimdo to build and personalize your website.
- SEO tools – Jimdo provides search optimization tools to allow users make their online stores and small websites visible on Google.
Pros
- Ease of use
- Offers a mobile app
- Works for ecommerce stores
Cons
- Limited features
- Restricted template flexibility
- No application marketplace for external integrations
- Limited multilingual options
- No live customer support
Pricing
Although GoDaddy is known for its web hosting and custom domain name services, it is a good website builder as its design assistance makes it easy for you to build your website. You can use this website builder to set up an ecommerce store and rank on any search engine. Additionally, GoDaddy allows users to build their website for free. This website builder is the best for simplicity and speed as you don’t need any design skills to use it. GoDaddy provides free marketing tools and multiple templates that are industry specific for you to choose from. Besides, its free plan offers social media and email marketing, SSL certificate, and payment integration.
Favorite features
- Social Media Content Creator —
- In-built Analytics – GoDaddy offers users’ in-built analytics to enable them track the traffic coming into their website.
- Password-protected Pages – You can protect your webpages seamlessly using a password.
Pros
- Mobile-friendly website editor and templates
- Easy to use
- Fast websites
- Scalable
- Ecommerce friendly
- 24/7 support
Cons
- Costly
- Lack of an app store
- Limited SEO tools
- Theme switching restrictions
Pricing
Webflow combines an in-built visual editor with its CMS capabilities to build intuitive websites. Even though coding knowledge is not compulsory, you can use it on CSS to design your website. It is the best option for beginner and expert designers to build responsive websites.
You can have total control using this website builder, and you can reuse elements like templates, font, and color to ensure consistency across your website. Webflow allows users to save page elements like signup forms and navigation bars to use on other landing pages. Besides, there are a wide variety of templates for you to choose from.
Favourite features
- Animations – You can include animations into your website on Webflow.
- Visual Editor – Webflow provides an intuitive editor that enables users to edit and customize their website to fit their needs.
- Audit Panel – Users can use the audit panel and other features to ensure their website is accessible.
Pros
- Complete design control
- Solid SEO options
- Good customer service
- Many features to choose from
- Easy to customize designs using CSS
Cons
- Not beginner friendly
- Lack of third-party integration apps
- Paid templates
- Lack of support materials
- No app store
Pricing
Unlike other website builders, Strikingly focuses on on-page layouts like landing pages. This beginner-friendly builder allows you to personalize your domain name if you are on the premium plan. You can use the different templates available to build your landing page with no coding. Besides, all websites created with Strikingly are responsive on all mobile devices.
Favourite features
- Store Feature – You can use this feature to sell products on your website
- Blogging Tools – Strikingly provides these tools and features like RSS feeds, Search bar, and others to enable you create content.
- Social media integration – Users can integrate their social media accounts to their website with ease
Pros
- Mobile-optimized templates
- Beginner-friendly
- Multiple customization options
- Third-party application support
- Intuitive user interface
- Good customer service
Cons
- Limited SEO options
- The free plan supports ads
- Not appropriate for complex websites
- Limited design control
Pricing
Duda focuses on building websites for designers, agencies, and creative individuals. You can use the different templates, its drag-and-drop functionality, and other features to create your website. Plus, some of the features of this tool, like bounce rate, user personalization, and other data analytic features, are ideal for designers that create several client websites.
Duda allows you to work with your team seamlessly to develop multiple pages at the same time. This tool uses Amazon AWS, ensuing a 99.99% uptime. With its ecommerce add-on, you can create a small online store to sell up to 10 products.
Favourite features
- Multilingual support – You can use Duda to create language-specific URLs for your customers across the world.
- Data analytics functionality – Duda enables users to view advanced metrics on the website they create with ease.
- Security – You can add SSL to your website easily to secure it
- Widget Builder – Duda offers users this builder to enable them create and reuse widget across multiple sites and pages.
Pros
- Multiple design features
- Ecommerce support
- Mobile website editor
Cons
- Very expensive
- Restricted third-party integration
- Hard to migrate your website to another web hosting platform
- Not beginner friendly
- Limited customization options
- No app store
Pricing
You don’t need any coding experience to use Site123 to build your website, as it is very easy to use. This tool offers free templates, ecommerce functionalities, and SEO tools, and the editor is available in over 20 languages. You can also create multilingual, simple websites with this website builder. If you run into any issues, you can contact customer support.
Favourite features
- Artificial Design Intelligence – Site123 uses artificial intelligence to help you to set up your website.
- Mobile Responsive templates – Any website you create with Site123 will automatically fit any screen size
Pros
- Beginner-friendly
- Great customer support
- Easy to use
- Multilingual options
Cons
- Restrictive editor
- Limited design control
- Website not scalable
- Limited access
Pricing
One.com is a very affordable tool you can use to build your website, and it offers hosting solutions as well. You can use the different templates available to create your website, and its responsive nature enables your site to look good on any device. Besides, One.com offers large storage to its users.
Favourite features
- Modern and responsive templates – users can choose any template to create an intuitive website.
- Customer Support – You can reach the One.com customer support team easily via live chat or email.
Pros
- WordPress integration
- Constant backups
- Easy to use
- Affordable
Cons
- Storage cap
- Limited features
Pricing
One.com does not offer a free plan, but there are 5 paid plans available starting from $2.49 per month.
Is a website builder right for you?
By now, you should hopefully have better expectations of the quality, cost and process of using an online website builder. For budget-conscious bloggers, this might be a good starting point in creating your dream website – so go ahead and play with your favourite tool from the list!
For serious entrepreneurs, online website builders might not cut it, as the limitations in quality and differentiations are visible. In that case, don’t forget that you have other budget-friendly options such as WordPress for bloggers and news websites or Shopify for e-commerce shops.
Good luck!
