The best website builders simplify and speed up the process of building a website. You can build a website that allows you unlimited flexibility and customizable elements, or one that’s done in next to no time and requires little advance knowledge.
Drag-and-drop editors allow you to create visual, attractive sites in hours, and for all site types including ecommerce, small business, free blogs; even sites for photographers and musicians. With so many different platforms and types, it can be a challenge to choose just one of the best website builders, however.
Our recommendation is to consider integral elements, such as your site’s intended purpose; the editor’s ease of use; whether any future scalability might be required; and what level of customer support you’ll need. Options open to the more technically experienced include the best web hosting services, or a content management system (CMS) like WordPress via WordPress hosting and a website builder plugin.
We analyzed the best website builders against those key factors, main features, and pricing plans, in order to help you select the right service for your needs.
What is a website builder?
A website builder offers end-to-end site creation, via a selection of templates, a visual editor, and extra advanced tools. They are generally extremely beginner-friendly, with many providing a drag-and-drop editing interface.
No prior coding or technical experience is required, and they’re a great option if you want to create a simple site quickly. Some offer significantly more design flexibility, and can even provide coding access for advanced editing.
You’ll also need to bear in mind registering a domain name: our guide on how to choose a domain name outlines step-by-step how you can do this.
The top 3 best website builders right now
1. Wix: the best all-round choice
The best website builder available, Wix has hundreds of templates, a flexible editor, and a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. The full website builder is included with its free package, while its fairly-priced paid plans have a 14-day money-back guarantee, an ad-free experience, and extra features.
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What are the best website builders?
Wix is our choice of the best website builders. its top features include drag-and-drop customization, artificial intelligence design technology, the largest template library available in the market, a built-in image editor, and third-party app integration. Excellent options are available across a fair pricing structure, with free domain registration and advertising credit, while a detailed free plan broadens its appeal.
Squarespace’s highly intuitive editor and responsive, excellently-designed templates justify its higher prices, while GoDaddy’s in-house optimized creator is user-friendly, and comes packed with analytics, strong support, and a library of own-brand apps.
Shopify and Weebly’s ecommerce proficiency set a high bar, while web hosts 1&1 IONOS’ and HostGator’s built-in builders are impressive. In turn, online productivity suite Zoho’s competitive Sites builder is relatively new, but well worth considering.
| Website builder | Lowest pricing plan | Storage | Bandwidth | Ecommerce features? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | $5 a month (Connect Domain) | From 3GB | From 2GB a month | Yes |
| Squarespace | $12 a month (Personal) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes |
| GoDaddy | $6.99 a month (Basic) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes |
| Shopify | $29.99 a month (Basic Shopify) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes |
| Weebly | $6 a month (Personal) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes |
| 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite | $1 a month (Starter) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes |
| Zoho Sites | $4 a month (Starter) | 500MB | 10GB | Yes |
| HostGator | $3.84 a month (Express Start) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Yes |
The best website builders you can buy today
Wix is rightly regularly considered the best of the best website builders. With over 500 attractive templates, an extremely powerful editor, and various other features, it brings plenty to the table. In particular, its Wix Editor stands out as arguably the most advanced available.
The drag-and-drop interface enables you to place elements in pixel-perfect positions. Personalizing colors, fonts, and other content is extremely straightforward, and designs will really only be limited by imagination. You can also use the Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) for a more straightforward experience.
After answering a few quick questions, Wix will select a custom template, which you can populate and publish online in just hours. Should you want to make changes outside of the template model, Wix offers Velo Dev Mode too, which allows you to add features that usually require a developer, including custom forms, dynamic pages, and databases.
Wix also provides ecommerce tools for those looking to create an online store. You’ll find virtually everything you need to get started, including powerful inventory management tools, multi-channel selling, and subscription and digital product support.
The full website builder is included within the excellent free package, while each paid plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee. Bear in mind that the free plan’s limitations include advertisements on your site and other restrictions: but it allows you to try Wix out before you pay for a subscription.
It is a little expensive, however. Pricing starts with the cheapest Connect Domain plan at $5 a month, but this is limited to just 1GB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage. The Combo plan ($14) comes with a free domain for the first year, 3GB of storage, and 2GB of bandwidth.
Upgrade to Unlimited ($18 a month), Pro ($23 a month), or VIP ($39 a month) subscriptions for more server resources and additional tools. Finally, to access even more business and online store features, there are three Business and Ecommerce plans (ranging from $23 to $49 a month).
Read our detailed Wix review to learn more, as well as our feature pitting WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, and our guide on how to build a website with Wix.
Squarespace is known for extremely attractive, professionally designed templates, and although its library is quite small compared to Wix, designs tend to be visually appealing, as well as specifically targeted.
Another standout is its excellent blogging features, such as adding multiple authors, scheduling posts, and creating content from mobile devices, while many templates are targeted at users looking to create a blog. Other impressive elements include ecommerce integrations, search engine optimization tools, and an advanced analytics portal.
However, Squarespace’s editor could certainly be better. It can be quite confusing to use and to navigate, especially for beginners, and even we have trouble from time to time, despite having used it numerous times before. On the cost side, there also isn’t any free forever plan.
Despite this, each of the four paid plans comes with a 14-day free trial, as well as a free domain for the first year, unmetered bandwidth and storage, built-in SSL (secure sockets layer) security, and more. Prices range from $12 a month for an annual Personal subscription to $40 a month with the Advanced Commerce plan.
Read our full Squarespace review, our Wix vs Squarespace builder comparison, and our guide on how to build a website with Squarespace for more information.
GoDaddy has a built-in website creator that ships alongside its hosting services. The builder is simple and easy to use, with no third-party app market or add-ons to choose from. While that may be a disappointment for some, others will appreciate the lack of clutter.
The builder boasts excellent support and powerful analytics, two must-have essentials for any growing site. While it’s a little barebones compared to competitors, this streamlined approach means novices can focus on the important things.
The GoDaddy builder’s decent drag-and-drop interface lets you configure your site to your liking, with pre-built templates to choose from if you want to get started quickly. There are extensive tutorials available for new users, as well as a live chat support system for technical problems.
While GoDaddy doesn’t offer an app market, this means all features are built in-house, ensuring complete compatibility and greater security. It’s also worth noting that the base plan doesn’t include marketing or analytics—those are paid add-ons that require a separate plan.
Read our full GoDaddy website builder review, and our comparison feature pitting GoDaddy vs Wix, to find out more, and if you go with GoDaddy, follow our walkthrough on how to build a website with GoDaddy.
Shopify is the ultimate ecommerce platform, with over one million merchants using its services across 175 countries, While you can expect ecommerce features from builders such as Wix and Weebly, these pale in comparison to Shopify’s.
Its builder helps create an online store in a matter of minutes, and you can take advantage of an extensive collection of third-party apps for new features and functionality. This helps the builder stay clutter-free, while allowing you to opt for specific features your store requires. Pricing starts at a relatively expensive $29 a month, and ranges up to $299 a month across three plans.
Excellent additional elements include a built-in shopping cart and checkout manager, and marketing and security tools. With cybersecurity one of the biggest concerns for online shopping, Shopify is Level 1 PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant, meaning it’s extremely safe for you and your customers.
If you’re looking to build a traditional site or blog however, you are out of luck. In turn, while excellent for small businesses, larger ecommerce stores may want to look to more dedicated solutions like WooCommerce or BigCommerce. A 2.4% to 2.6% transaction fee is applicable on each purchase made too, which might be a turn-off for some.
You can read our full Shopify review to learn more, and our feature pitting Wix vs Shopify. If you go ahead with Shopify, read our step-by-step guide on how to build a website with Shopify.
Alongside Wix, Weebly is probably the most widely recognized name in the website building space. It provides a range of site creation tools, and has become known for extremely attractive templates and excellent ecommerce elements, the latter thanks to its acquisition by ecommerce giant Square Online.
Ecommerce is probably Weebly’s largest selling point, with much of its site builder dedicated to creating an online store. A large percentage of available designs include some sort of store, which means that getting started can be as easy as adding content and hitting publish.
Weebly’s editor is a little limited, however. It uses a drag-and-drop interface, but you can only move elements into pre-coded positions. But if you’re not too fussy about pixel-perfect editing, this will help keep things simple.
When it comes to pricing, there are seven plans. The free forever plan enables you to create a site and online store, but you won’t be able to connect your own domain. The cheapest Personal plan (from $6 a month) adds custom domain support and more advanced ecommerce tools, while the Professional ($12 a month) and Performance ($26 a month) plans offer even more powerful ecommerce features.
Read our full Weebly review for more, and our feature comparing Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly.
1&1 IONOS is one of the largest web hosting providers in Europe, hosting 20 million sites, and its website builder features an array of templates and great functionalities for businesses of all sizes.
Its huge collection of themes are…