Are you looking for the best website builder to create a website on your own?
It was not too long ago that you needed to know how to code or hire a web developer to build a website. But that isn’t the case anymore.
Website builders have made it incredibly easy for anyone to create a website. And the best part? You can do it with little or no investment!
In this guide, we’ve compared the top website builders, both paid and free. We’ll walk you through their features, pros and cons, pricing, and even tell you who it’s best suited for.
By the end of this post, you’ll know everything you need about the top website builders so that you can pick the right one to build your website.
Choosing the Best Website Builder- What to Look For?
Website builders are easy to use but there are a few things you need to consider when it comes to choosing the best website builder for your needs. Some of them are:
Budget: For small businesses, this is one of the most important factors to consider. You want to pick a builder that makes it affordable to create and manage a website. Some builders may start off cheap and bump up the price later. Ideally, you want to pick a builder that make it easy and affordable to scale as your business grows.
Ease of use: If you’re an absolute beginner, you might consider a solution that comes with templates and an easy-to-use drag and drop visual builder. This will let you design your website as you would see it when it’s live. You won’t need any design skills whatsoever.
Technical control: If you can handle web hosting, backups, and security comfortably, then you might want to choose a robust website builder, preferably a self-hosted solution such as WordPress.org. These builders give you better control over your website and its configurations.
If you want to skip these tasks and let your website platform handle them, then you’re better off choosing an all-in-one solution like Wix. But keep in mind, you’ll lose control of your website customizations and settings as the website builder will handle that for you.
With these features in mind, we’ve picked the top website builders for small businesses. Since this is a long list, we’ve categorized it according to the type of website you want to build:
Best Website Builders for Small Business Websites
1. Self-Hosted WordPress
WordPress.org, also known as self-hosted WordPress, is the most popular website builder in existence. Almost 40% of the internet uses WordPress to create blogs, small business sites, online news publications, enterprise websites, you name it.
With WordPress, you can find dozens of themes so you won’t have to start from scratch. You just have to pick the theme that suits your brand the best. Then, there’s a default page builder to customize your site.
If that’s not enough, you’ll find plenty of third-party page builder plugins that you can install on your site such as Beaver Builder, Elementor, and Divi. These plugins make it easy to design your website as it appears on the frontend so you never have to touch any coding.
You can also check out landing page builders like SeedProd to create stunning pages for your website. With WordPress, if you want a new feature on your site, there’s a high chance you’ll find a plugin to help you add it. The WordPress plugin repository has over 55,000 plugins, both free and paid.
Keep in mind that there are two versions of WordPress: WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress. It’s easy to get confused between the two. For more details, you can check out our comparison: WordPress.com vs self-hosted WordPress.
We recommend the self-hosted option because it’s more flexible and gives you complete control of your website.
Pros:
- Free: WordPress is a free and open source platform. It’s also extremely popular so it’s available on almost every web hosting platform.
- Easy to use: It’s easy to set up and gives you endless customization options to create a website the way you want. There are also tools like Astra that come with starter templates. You can import an entire premade website and you’ll only need to make changes to the text and images. Everything else is already set up for you.
- Extensions:You can easily extend your website’s look and functionalities using WordPress themes and plugins. Many of these are free but you can also find premium ones that have better features, functionality, and support. You’ll find a tool for just about everything to optimize your site’s SEO, speed, and performance.
- Marketing: WordPress gives you access to plenty of marketing and promotional tools. For instance, if you want to create popups and sign up forms, you’ll find plugins like OptinMonster and WPForms.
- eCommerce:There’s a free eCommerce plugin called WooCommerce to set up an online store. It lets you create products, add shopping carts, accept payments online, handles shipping and tazes, and more.
- Control: You get complete control over your website design and configuration. You have freedom to choose your web host, backup, security, and much more!
- Support: WordPress has a huge support community. You can get help for anything you need by asking on WordPress forums.
Cons:
- There’s a bit of a learning curve compared to other hosted solutions. But there are lots of WordPress tutorials to help you out.
- You’ll need to manage backup and security yourself.
- You have to update your WordPress installation, themes, and plugins on your own.
- You can’t create a website for free. You’ll need to buy a domain name and web hosting.
We must mention that if you want to hand over WordPress maintenance tasks, web hosts offer managed WordPress hosting. It costs a bit more but they will take care of the technical aspects of your site so you can concentrate on growing your business.
Who Is It For?
WordPress is best suited for anyone who wants to build a website regardless of their skillset. It’s the cheapest website builder for beginners, yet it provides more features and full control over your site.
If you’re a developer and prefer to have access to CSS, HTML, and cPanel, then WordPress is the best option.
Check out this WordPress website builder review for more details.
Pricing
WordPress is an open-source, free web design software, but you’ll have to purchase a domain name ($14.99 per year) and web hosting ($7.99 per month) to start a WordPress website. If you need a drag and drop solution to build a website, all you have to do is install a page builder plugin.
Because the combined cost of both the domain and hosting can seem like quite a lot, we’ve worked out a deal with Bluehost for IsItWP users. You’ll get a free domain name, free SSL, and over 60% off on WordPress hosting. You only have to pay $2.75 per month.
Get started with Self-Hosted WordPress!
2. Web.com
Web.com is one of the original and most popular do-it-yourself website builders on the market. It has one of the lowest starting costs making it affordable for anyone to launch a website.
Building your site is super simple with the intuitive drag and drop builder. Plus, they offer a ton of readymade website templates to get you started FAST. All of the templates are 100% mobile-friendly and customizable.
You also get access to thousands of stock images and photos so you can easily customize your site without having to spend on expensive memberships to stock photo sites.
All Web.com plans come with a free domain name for one year. You can also add on business email address, SEO tools, website analytics, website security solutions, and more.
Pros:
- Easy drag and drop builder with features like photo galleries, social media buttons, contact forms, testimonial sliders, and more.
- Fast website loading times and the ability to add unlimited web pages to your site.
- eCommerce features to sell products, track and manage orders, and securely accept payments online.
Cons:
- Blogging functionality is limited compared to other website builders like WordPress.org.
- The eCommerce plan only allows you to add 50 products.
- Web.com starts off cheap but becomes expensive after the first month.
Who Is It For?
Web.com is a great small business website builder for those who have limited resources and need a non-technical solution.
Pricing
The Starter website plan starts at only $1.95 per month (renews at $10 per month). Or you can subscribe for a year and pay just $100.
There’s a marketing plan that costs $2.95 for your first month (renews at $15 per month or $150 per year).
The eCommerce plan starts at $3.95 per month (renews at $20 per month or $200 per year).
Web.com also offers a custom website deal where they’ll design your website and optimize it at a setup fee of $750.
Get started with Web.com!
3. Gator Website Builder
The Gator web builder is created by HostGator, a renowned web hosting company. Gator is probably one of the most feature-rich website builders offered by a web hosting company.
The best thing is that Gator is developed in-house to provide super fast web experience to visitors.
The Gator Website Builder package includes free web hosting, a domain name, website analytics, and a free SSL certificate to keep your site secure and help you rank high in search engines.
Pros:
- Cheap introductory price
- Website analytics is included with all plans
- Extensive collection of templates available
- Drag and drop website builder
- Save history feature to revert back to previous designs
Cons:
- No free plan is available to try out the service
- Priority support is only offered in Premium or higher plan
- eCommerce integration is only available with eCommerce plan
Who Is It For?
If you have a hosting plan from HostGator, it may make sense to use the Gator website builder. This will streamline your website management.
Pricing
There are 3 plans: Starter, Premium, and eCommerce. We’ve negotiated a deal with HostGator, so as an IsItWP user, you’ll get a special discount on their introductory pricing. Take a look at their introductory price below.
Starter: Starting at $3.46/mo (All features included)
Premium: Starting at $5.39/mo (With priority support)
eCommerce: Starting at $8.30/mo (eCommerce integration)
Get started with Gator Website Builder!
4. HubSpot Website Builder
HubSpot Website Builder is a powerful all-in-one content management system that lets you create blog posts, site pages, landing pages, and emails from one place.
It also comes with HubSpot’s well-known CRM and marketing automation tools. With these tools, you can create a website experience that’s personalized to every website visitor.
Another unique feature is HubSpot’s adaptive testing. This lets you choose up to 5 different versions of a web page, and HubSpot will monitor and serve the best-performing version.
Pros:
- Create a site in minutes with pre-built website themes and the easy drag and drop editor.
- Personalize website content based on location, device, source, language, or any detail stored in your HubSpot CRM.
- Comes with business tools like email marketing, detailed analytics, live chat software, multi-language content support, and more.
- There’s a free plan available but doesn’t not include CMS capabilities.
Cons:
- Not suitable for creating online stores or advanced business websites.
- Marketing automation features can be intimidating for beginners.
Who Is It For?
HubSpot website builder is best for marketers and small businesses that want to create simple websites and get access to powerful marketing automation features at the same time.
Pricing
The Starter website plan starts at $25 per month.
There’s also a Professional plan which starts at $400 per month and an Enterprise plan that starts at $1,200 per month.
If you’re not ready to invest, you can try HubSpot’s free website builder. It lets you get started with landing pages, forms, live chat, email marketing, and more.
Get started with HubSpot Website Builder!
5. SiteBuilder
SiteBuilder is a powerful website builder that you can use to create your own website. It lets you build a website in 3 easy steps. Its point and click tool helps you add text, media files, and other modules to the website quickly and easily.
Pros:
- It ships with hundreds of pre-built templates to quickly launch a site.
- Web hosting is offered for free with each of their plans.
- Their pro pricing plans are affordable for any budget.
Cons:
- A free domain name is offered with SiteBuilder, but their domain renewal price is costly.
- You need to pay separately for all the email addresses that you create with your domain name.
- The analytics and user insights features are fewer than the other platforms.
Who Is It For?
If you’re looking for a one-stop solution to create a website without spending a fortune, then SiteBuilder is a perfect choice with all you need.
Pricing
SiteBuilder offers 3 plans, including a separate plan for eCommerce sites. Their starter plan costs $5.20 per month, which is billed annually.
It also includes free website hosting and domain name. The domain name is free for the first year, and after that, you need to pay the regular rates for renewal.
Get started with SiteBuilder!
6. Squarespace
Squarespace is a full-featured website builder that comes with all the tools you need to build a beautiful website. You can also choose from dozens of website templates for your site. Each template comes with hundreds of customizable features.
Added to that, you can register a domain name for free with your annual Squarespace subscription.
It’s the best platform for artists, photographers, and content creators.
Pros:
- Choose from an extensive collection of built-in site templates.
- With any plan, you get unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage.
- No transaction fee is charged for eCommerce transactions with their eCommerce basic or advanced plans.
Cons:
- Unlike most website builders, Squarespace doesn’t offer a free plan.
- The starting plan is a bit expensive compared to other builders.
- No third-party apps or extensions are allowed.
You can get started with Squarespace but as you grow, you may find it difficult to scale. You can switch over to WordPress later but the process is a bit technical. See how it works here: Switching from Squarespace to WordPress.
Who Is It For?
If you’re after an all-in-one website builder that lets you easily build a website from scratch without having you to sign up for a third-party service, then Squarespace could be the best choice. Since all the necessary tools are available to you right out of the box, you don’t have to pay extra for templates, addons, or any other services.
Pricing
The Personal plan costs you $12 per month, which lets you build unlimited pages with unlimited bandwidth and storage.
To add an eCommerce storefront to your Squarespace website, you can choose the Business plan for $18 per month.
To waive off transaction fee on your online store, you can upgrade to the Basic Online Store plan that costs you $26 per month.
Get started with Squarespace!
7. WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a free blog and website hosting service run by Automattic, the same folks behind WordPress.org. WordPress.com enables you to focus on your content without having to worry about the technicalities of handling a website, such as hosting, security, or backups.
In a nutshell, WordPress.com makes it easy for anyone to publish a website online, regardless of their budget. The platform is popular among bloggers who want a free space to write.
Pros:
- WordPress.com is an SEO-friendly publishing platform.
- It enables you to create a free website with a WordPress.com subdomain.
- Out of the box, it comes with all the essential features you’ll need to build and grow your website.
Cons:
- While you get many enhanced features with their premium plans, they still lack functionalities that you can avail from self-hosted WordPress.
- If you want enhanced functionalities on your site, like Google Analytics tracking, custom domain name setup, plugins, support, etc. then you might consider upgrading to a premium plan.
- Even if you’ve subscribed to a premium plan, you must abide by WordPress.com’s Terms of Services, which means, among other things, you can’t accept payments, host AdSense ads, or monetize your site with affiliate marketing.
Who Is It For?
If you prefer building a website on a reliable publishing platform over a drag and drop builder, then WordPress.com is the best choice for you. If you want to get complete control over your site, then you might want to use WordPress.org instead.
Pricing
The basic plan is free and you can get started without a credit card but it comes with limited features. To connect a custom domain name and remove WordPress.com ads, you can choose the Personal plan for $48 per year. If you want to monetize your site, then you’ll need to pay $96 per year for the Premium plan.
For advanced features like unlimited storage space, plugin installation, Google Analytics integration, you can choose the Business plan for $300 per year.
Get started with WordPress.com!
8. Wix
Wix is a drag and drop builder that lets you build any type of website easily. You can choose from hundreds of designer-made pre-built templates for every kind of business. You can create stunning websites with parallax, animation, and video backgrounds, all without having to touch a single line of code.
Pros:
- Wix comes with a free plan with limited functionalities to create a website with drag and drop.
- You can easily integrate advanced features into your site such as an eCommerce storefront.
- Wix websites are mobile-friendly, meaning your site will look great on all devices.
Cons:
- Your website will display Wix-branded ads unless you upgrade to a premium version.
- The ability to customize your site, widgets, and configurations is limited.
- Switching over to another platform, should you decide to move, is difficult.
Who Is It For?
Wix is best suited for beginner-level users who need a drag and drop solution to create a website. With a premium Wix plan, you can use your own domain name, remove Wix ads, and integrate your website into Google Analytics, and more.
However, if you want a website builder that gives full control over your site, then you might use a self-hosted WordPress website instead.
Pricing
Wix offers a limited free plan with a Wix branded subdomain. You can connect a domain for $5 per month. Their combo plan costs $11 per month, which gives you a free domain name, allows you to connect it with your site and removes Wix brand ads.
You can add an eCommerce storefront to your site for $17 per month.
9. GoDaddy Website Builder
GoDaddy is a popular domain name and web hosting provider on the market. It also offers an AI-powered website builder to get your site up and running quickly and easily.
GoDaddy’s site builder is simple and limited in features. This may be ideal for beginners or small websites that want to establish a basic online presence.
Pros:
- It’s mobile responsive so you can launch and customize your site even using a mobile device or tablet.
- It comes with readymade blocks to create and customize your website in just a few clicks.
- It integrates with Getty Photography library, which means you will have access to professional stock photos for your website.
Cons:
- Unlike other website builders, it has limited features and limited design options.
- Once your website is ready with GoDaddy Builder, it’s not easy to move to other platforms like WordPress.
Who Is It For?
GoDaddy Website Builder is an ideal solution for users who have purchased a domain name from GoDaddy and want an easy way to start a site.
Pricing
GoDaddy has a pricing plan for you based on the type of website you want to build.
- Basic plan: Get started at $6.99 per month
- Standard plan: Build a small business site for $10.49 per month
- Premium plan: Get advanced features at $13.99 per month
- eCommerce plan: Sell online at $17.49 per month
Get started with GoDaddy Website Builder!
10. BoldGrid
BoldGrid is a free WordPress website builder plugin released by InMotion Hosting. It also offers a hosted website builder solution.
It’s easy for beginners to get started with a website using themes and a drag and drop editor. This also means it’ll be faster for seasoned professionals to build a website.
Pros:
- It comes with built-in themes for your WordPress website.
- It has a user-friendly drag and drop website builder to customize colors, fonts, navigation menu, and more.
- It offers GridBlocks that you can use to create a custom landing page or page layout easily.
- BoldGrid is compatible with WooCommerce, and you can use a built-in theme to design storefront.
- It lets you create a staging website in 1-click. You can test your plugins, themes, design combinations, and more on the staging site and it doesn’t affect your live website.
Cons:
- It’s built for WordPress and works with a self-hosted WordPress website only.
Who Is It For?
If you have a WordPress website and you want to take a grip on customization, then BoldGrid is the right choice for you.
Pricing
The BoldGrid WordPress plugin is free to download and use.
InMotion Hosting is the official BoldGrid hosting partner. If you’re using InMotion Hosting, then it’s easy to set up BoldGrid in just a few clicks.
Get started with BoldGrid!
Best eCommerce Website Builders
Before we get to the list of the best eCommerce website builders, we need to mention that you can create an online store with WordPress.org using the WooCommerce plugin. It’s straightforward and extremely easy for beginners with no prior experience.
You’ll get all the features you need to create an eCommerce store such as product listings, pricing, shipping, taxes, payment gateways, and much more.
See our guide on How to Create a Profitable Online Store in 2021 – Step by Step.
Having said that, there are dedicated eCommerce platforms that we’ve listed below.
11. Shopify
Shopify is a fully-fledged website builder designed specifically for eCommerce businesses. It enables you to set up an online store in minutes without having to touch any code.
Shopify is incredibly popular as it providers a complete solution to start selling online. It takes care of hosting, backups, maintenance, and more.
Despite being a complete eCommerce platform, Shopify provides a web-based website builder and blogging platform to help you scale up your eCommerce business.
Pros:
- All Shopify themes are fully responsive, meaning your customers get a consistent shopping experience regardless of their devices.
- The web designer is user-friendly and feature-rich
- You can also extend your online store with add-ons from the Shopify app store.
- Without any third-party accounts, you can start accepting payments on Shopify. Additionally, it supports 100+ third-party payment gateways and provides seamless integration with your website, Facebook page, etc.
Cons:
- If you need to add multi-level categories and more product details, Shopify might not be the right choice.
- If you use an external payment gateway, then you’ll be charged a heavy transaction fee, ranging from 0.5 to 2%.
Who Is It For?
Shopify is one of the best eCommerce platforms to build an online store. Compared to other online store builders, Shopify is transparent with their fee structures.
If you want more control over your eCommerce store, then you might want to choose a self-hosted eCommerce platform, like WooCommerce. Learn more about building an online store with WooCommerce.
Pricing
Shopify’s basic plan costs you $29 per month. In addition, the basic plan charges you 2% transaction fees.
To reduce the transaction fee to 1%, you can upgrade to a higher plan for $79 per month.
The advanced plan is for those who want to scale their business and need advanced reporting. The plan carries a low transaction fee of 0.5% but will cost you $299 per month.
Get started with Shopify!
12. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a popular online store builder that comes with tons of out-of-the-box features. Just like Shopify, BigCommerce is also a standalone eCommerce platform. That means you can either set up a store on BigCommerce or even integrate the storefront into your WordPress site.
Pros:
- Essential features are offered as a standard feature, such as SEO options.
- Offers a lot of built-in features than their competitors.
- BigCommerce comes bundled with tons of marketing features such as coupons, product recommendations, and gift certificates.
Cons:
- Design options are not as extensive as their contenders.
- Editing interface is not very intuitive.
- No mobile app.
Who Is It For?
If you’re looking for a fully-fledged eCommerce store builder, then BigCommerce is the right choice for you.
Pricing
BigCommerce’s Basic plan starts at $29.95 per month, which comes with all the necessary features.
The Plus plan costs $79.95 per month by which you get a lot of conversion optimization features.
With their Pro plan, you get advanced features for $299.95 per month.
Get started with BigCommerce!
13. Weebly
Weebly is yet another website builder that allows you to build a beautiful website with drag and drop. Weebly makes onboarding easy with its tailored, step-by-step guidance. With Weebly, you can easily add a blog or integrate a storefront into your website.
Pros:
Weebly comes with powerful tools to create a beautiful website including drag and drop, pre-designed layout options, website stats, and more.
Weebly also has a free plan that allows you to use a free subdomain of Weebly.com. Users can easily upgrade to a premium plan for additional features, including custom domain support, site stats, site search, etc.
Cons:
- The built-in features are limited.
- It offers only a limited number of integrations.
- Exporting your Weebly site to another platform can be quite difficult.
Though Weebly is a great platform, it lacks certain features you’ll need to scale your website and online business. You can switch to WordPress later. See our tutorial on how to move your website from Weebly to WordPress.
Who Is It For?
If you need a drag and drop solution to quickly build a WordPress site, then you might want to give Weebly a try.
Pricing
Weebly offers a limited free version for beginners. You can connect a custom domain name to your site for just $6 per month. To remove Weebly brand ads on your site, you’ll have to upgrade your plan to Professional which costs $12 per month.
If you want to build a full-fledged eCommerce store and waive off the transaction fee, then choose the Business plan for $26 per month.
Get started with Weebly!
14. Zyro
Zyro is a new website builder on the market. It comes with economical plans for small businesses and online stores. It lets you create secure websites with a hosted solution and offer SSL certificates. You can connect your domain and start making a website or eCommerce store in just a few clicks.
Pros:
- Focuses on the speed and performance of your website from the start that helps improve your search engine rankings.
- Comes with readymade templates for different business niches saving you time. All templates are fully customizable so you can control what you want to add to your website.
- The most popular feature of the Zyro builder is their AI Writer tool that helps startups and small businesses to write content without hiring a professional.
- Provides hundreds of stock images for free that you can use on your website.
- Offers logo and slogan makers for small business owners to design website logo and create slogans that grab users’ attention.
- Integrates with dozens of apps, including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel, and so on.
- Tons of payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, and more.
Cons:
- It’s slightly difficult to add a domain at Zyro. You need to edit the CNAME records and it can be challenging for beginners to update domain record.
- Zyro is new in the market and they’re updating it a lot to compete with other website builders. So, you need to stay ahead and look for any bugs that need an update.
- The customer support team takes some time to get back to users. Their knowledgebase is also new and limited.
Who Is It For?
It’s suitable for small businesses and eCommerce stores setting up their website.
Pricing
Zyro offers 4 paid plans. Basic, Unleashed, eCommerce, and eCommerce Plus. Their pricing starts from $2.90 per month. You can start with the basic plan that comes with 3 GB of bandwidth and 1 GB of storage.
As your business grows, you can move to a better plan. For online stores, you need to start with the eCommerce plan costing $8.90 per month. This plan lets you accept online payments and it’s commission-free.
Get started with Zyro!
Which is the Best Website Builder for Small Businesses?
Now that we’ve reviewed and compared the top website builders on the market, we’ll give you our final verdict.
The best overall website builder is WordPress.org. It’s beginner-friendly, easy to use, and scalable.
Added to that, you get complete control of your website. This means you can change your hosting, theme, plugins, and everything about your website as and when you want. You also get complete control over your backups and security as well.
To top it off, if you face any issues, you have a solid community to rely on. You’ll also find plenty of tutorials and resources on websites like IsItWP and WPBeginner.
You can even set up a WooCommerce store for free. So you can start selling products on your website right away! Website building is easy, affordable, and flexible with WordPress.
To recap, here’s our list of the best website builders:
- Self-Hosted WordPress: #1 website builder to create any website
- Web.com: Powerful website builder for beginners
- Gator Website Builder: Simple and budget-friendly website builder
- HubSpot Website Builder: Best builder with marketing tools and automation
- SiteBuilder: Build professional websites fast
- Squarespace: Best builder for photographers, artists, and content creators
- WordPress.com: Free managed websites with limited options to monetize
- Wix: Easy to use builder but with extremely limited control
- GoDaddy Website Builder: Simple builder for a basic online presence
- BoldGrid: Visual drag and drop WordPress website builder
- Shopify: Popular all-in-one eCommerce platform
- BigCommerce: Another powerful platform to sell online
- Weebly: Best builder for small online stores
- Zyro: Budget-friendly builder for websites and online stores
That’s our pick of the top website builders to create your own professional website.
We hope you found this post helpful. Next, we’ve picked these posts to help you set up your website with ease:
These posts will help you get started with creating, marketing, and promoting your website to grow your business.
Keep reading the article at IsItWP – Free WordPress Theme Detector. The article was originally written by Editorial Team on 2021-10-29 07:15:00.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.