The best website builders available make creating a site simple, and here are our top picks
A modern business simply cannot afford to be without an online presence – and our list of the best website builder options will show you how easy it is to get yourself set up. The best website builders provide organizations with the tools they need to create a first-rate online portal, regardless of the industry they inhabit. Like the best web hosting services, they have become essential to business success in the digital age. Modern website builders provide a multitude of features tailored to each individual’s or organization’s needs. Some are relatively straightforward affairs that value simplicity above all else, while others come with so many customizable elements that it’s hard to know where to begin. The good thing is, there is such a huge variety of builders available that there is bound to be one that can bring your online vision to life. The first step to choosing the right website builder comes from you – do you have a plan for what you want your website to look like? Is it an e-commerce store, some other type of business or simply a way to publicize your hobby? Whatever your online strategy and whatever your budget, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of the 40 best website builder services in the world right now. Wix claims the title of best website builder overall due to the way that it combines ease of use and great design flexibility. It offers users a range of plans, and a drag-and-drop editor that allows them to tweak and customize every aspect of their site without requiring them to be a coding expert. Today, Wix is one of the most popular online website builders in the world with more than 180 million users across 190 countries and it is easy to see why. One of Wix’s biggest strengths is the breadth of features it offers. It comes with more than 500 industry-specific themes, so whether you need a website to advertise your new café or want a place to show off your photography skills, it’s easy to create a website that’s right for you. At the start of your Wix journey, you’ll be given the choice of two options: WixADI or WixEditor. WixADI uses answers to a few short questions to design the site for you – great if you’re indecisive, but not so good if you want total control. WixEditor, on the other hand, is a drag-and-drop process that will take longer but lets you create a website that’s completely customized for your needs. In terms of downsides, Wix doesn’t have many. The fact that it imposes data limitations for each of its plan tiers could be an issue, particularly for sites which have a lot of visual content. Also, some users have complained that its tech support is somewhat lacking. Nevertheless, its smart design, brilliant SEO and first-rate marketing tools mean that Wix is our number one pick for anyone who needs a website builder. There is a free version available (more on that later), as well as Business Basic, Unlimited and VIP pricing plans. Whichever one you opt for, all Wix premium plans come with a free two-week money-back guarantee, so there’s no risk involved. Another popular choice comes courtesy of HostGator, whose website builder solution, Gator Website Builder, has been commended for its simplicity and price, both of which should appeal to small businesses. Gator is available in three versions. The Starter plan costs $3.84 a month and comes with free hosting, website analytics, free domain name registration for a year and unmetered storage. The Premium plan comes with all that plus priority support for $5.99 a month. The e-commerce plan, meanwhile, costs $9.22 a month and offers additional features like inventory management, a shipping and tax calculator, and the ability to create coupons. Whatever plan you choose, you’ll gain access to an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface that lets you employ commonly used design elements such as images, videos, text boxes, columns, maps and contact forms. Each of Gator’s 200+ web templates is fully customizable, so it’s easy to get your website looking just right. There are also a sizeable number of mobile-friendly themes available to ensure that your online portal looks good on all devices. For small businesses that might not have access to top-quality photography equipment, Gator comes with its own built-in stock photo library and a number of video tutorials are on hand if you are in need of extra support with anything. If there’s any real downside here, it would be the lack of functionality for larger, more complex websites. There are no built-in email marketing features, for example, and blog building options are relatively basic. Still, for small businesses or anyone starting their first online project, Gator’s quick, professional and well-designed sites should work perfectly. And with 24-hour tech support on hand for all users, and free analytics solutions to let administrators know how their site is performing, there are plenty of reasons to choose Gator for website building. Wix is the website builder of choice for many, but a lot of reviews focus on the benefits of its paid plans. In actual fact, its free service packs quite the punch too, with hardly any restrictions in terms of the features and templates available, so it makes the cut for our list here. Non-paying users also receive access to the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) mode, which combines social media information along with a few user-generated answers to automatically create a website in just minutes. Alternatively, the full Wix editor can be used to fine-tune your website if you prefer a more hands-on approach. The free plan comes with an extensive app market,500MB of web space, no page limits and full SEO customization, so users can enjoy a range of top-notch features before they decide whether or not it’s worthwhile stumping up for the paid version. Ultimately, users may decide to stick with the free plan indefinitely, however. It still provides a polished experience after all, and comes with excellent customer support should anything go wrong. Plus, Wix remains keen to bring new features to all its users, whether they are on paid or free plans. Site verification and new APIs are just a couple of the additions that Wix has launched in the past year. Criticisms of the free plan offered by Wix largely surround the ad that accompanies all sites. For desktop websites, this ad is sticky and very visible, located at the top of the page. Thankfully, it’s not quite so prominent on mobile sites. The other drawback facing free users is that they do not receive their own domain name, meaning they have to rely on the free URL, which is pretty long-winded and so not the best for name or brand recognition. Having said all that, Wix still represents a fantastic free option for any business looking to enter the world of website building, and you can always upgrade later as mentioned. Zyro stands out for its simplicity – this really is the perfect site builder for businesses or individuals who may not have much experience creating their own website. A great drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to select design features, and the platform’s unique AI writer can even create some of the text content for you, potentially saving you hours of time. The web builder interface is also easy to use and setting up an account is straightforward. The relatively small number of templates – compared to some other website builders, anyway – may be limiting, but that only plays to Zyro’s strengths in some respects. Rather than wading through countless designs, the smaller range of punchy options should help speed up the web building process for novices. Zyro comes with a number of pricing options. The free plan comes with 500MB of storage and monthly data transfers, but users will have to put up with a few adverts. The paid tiers start with Basic which includes 3GB of bandwidth,1GB of storage, AI business branding and SEO tools, for $2.49 a month. The Unleashed plan, meanwhile, provides unlimited bandwidth and storage, as well as a free domain for a year, for $3.29 a month. Ecommerce plans that facilitate online payments, order tracking and tax management are also available. With Zyro, some of its strengths could also be seen as its main weaknesses depending on what you are looking for in a website builder. The small range of templates could frustrate more experienced users, and others may notice a few bugs here and there. Given that Zyro is a relatively new player in the website building space, however, updates and improvements are coming all the time. For now, though, Zyro still makes a great option for anyone looking for a simple, intuitive website builder that delivers excellent uptime,24/7 support, and doesn’t overwhelm with unnecessary extras. Although Constant Contact delivers an impressive website builder, it is best known for its email marketing solution. The site builder is a straightforward affair where users simply start by describing their business. In response, Constant Contact will automatically generate homepage previews to choose from, each of which come with high-quality royalty-free images to give your site a professional feel. The website builder costs $10 a month and comes with ecommerce features, unlimited storage, an SSL certificate and SEO tools. Constant Contact’s website builder plan also provides analytics, app integration and the option of adding a blog to your site.
