Finding the best website builder might be challenging, especially if you are an absolute novice in the IT-sphere, and it’s your first website.
But no worries.
We’ve got a list of the best solutions to help you create the website of your dreams.
Whatever the size of your project, this article can help you learn everything you should know about the best website builders in 2021.
What is the best website builder?
A website builder is a system, a freeware web design application, or a set of tools that allows you to create a functional website without coding or special tech skills.
Anything from an e-commerce platform, a file transfer service to a full-fledged blog is possible.
The best website builder should be convenient to use and have clear navigation, an abundance of high-quality templates, themes, widgets, features.
It should act as a productivity tool both for web developers and beginners.
Moreover, all of them should represent advanced and trendy designs. After all, who needs a website that looks like it was built in 2001?
Top website builders to create a website
1. Wix
Wix is one of the top-rated website builders in the world. Web developers prase it for its external attractiveness, which makes working with the tool a real pleasure, but there’s much more to it.
Wix is perfect for creating business cards, blogs, landing pages, or stores. The service can afford what others can’t: to invent and implement new features, attract competent developers, partners, and provide record discounts to its users. Updates occur very frequently – everything is optimized. Wix also has a high-quality and promising engine, worth doing business with.
It is an all-in-one innovative drag-and-drop tool and an optimal business solution for those who need a high-quality, mobile-friendly website. Wix offers custom domains, free web hosting, templates, website security, analytics, and SEO tools. You can also use various convenient visual tools for web design (photo filters, media galleries, animated texts, etc.).
Wix has a large selection of plans for businesses of all sizes. The basic plan costs $4.50 per month and includes the following features: a custom domain, a free SSL certificate, bandwidth (1GB+, it depends on your plan), storage space (500MB-35GB), 24/7 customer care.
More advanced plans will get you the following benefits: video hours; $75 ad voucher; site booster AppFree for 1 year; visitor analytics AppFree for 1 year; professional logo; social media logo files.
2. Weebly
Weebly is a professional website builder with a comprehensive visual editor. With it, you can create great online stores, business cards, corporate websites, portfolios, blogs, or event posters. It’s an easy-to-use website builder that offers an incredible user experience, 67 modern and minimalistic templates, and a user-friendly mobile app (iPad). With Weebly, you can also migrate your website to another platform and optimize the SEO component.
There’s a variety of convenient and highly useful functions including your own domain name, multiple navigation levels, powerful widgets, e-commerce, visitor statistics, contact forms, password security, etc. Moreover, you have a convenient tool for newsletters, the ability to add HTML code, plenty of storage space, restore/backup options, and reliable support.
Anyone can afford to create an online store and a simple website in less than an hour. Weebly also allows integration with other apps and add ons to upgrade your website.
The tool meets all security and cookies standards, has an auto-save function, and stylish templates. SEO guides in the help section are extremely helpful.
Weebly may not be as advanced as Wix, but it’s constantly improving and adding new features. You can expect an incredible user experience, site export capabilities, and great e-commerce tools.
3. Squarespace
Now if you are looking for the coolest templates, you might want to check out Squarespace. If you’ve ever heard of this fully-managed web service, chances are it was because of its templates.
Squarespace is an amazingly elaborate and yet simple website builder with features and capabilities that will suit the widest user audience. It’s a wise choice for those who want to build an online store. In this respect, Squarespace is the absolute leader.
Another outstanding feature of this service is its various integrations with third-party platforms. Partnerships and integrations seem to be a key feature of the service: from image gallery (hello, Getty Images) to accounting integration with Xero (an online accounting program).
You can expect free custom domains, SSL security, unlimited bandwidth and storage, built-in SEO tools, logo design kits, professional portfolio designs, customization tools, in-depth analytics tools, eCommerce integration tools, style kits (fonts, imagery, margins, etc.), and much more.
The cost of the basic plan is $12 per month, paid annually (monthly payment is $16). Advanced plans will grant access to features like automated abandoned cart emails for recovery, sell subscriptions; advanced shipping and discounts, commerce APIs, etc.
4. WordPress
WordPress is a powerful content management system that works great for developing various web projects thanks to an abundance of extensions. The engine is used to create blogs and information portals but you can also run an online store with the integration of plugins.
The latest version of the system is 5.6. The update has noticeably changed the content management process by introducing advanced features and tools. Block templates, word count in the dashboard, navigation, drag-and-drop interface, and many more features have been improved. These innovations made it easier to correct errors during the site-building process or further management. The system now offers many effective tools used to identify and fix serious errors and configuration problems.
WordPress is one of the easiest website builders, which became much easier thanks to its visual editor. In terms of site development and pre-configuration, there are no major changes. Users still need to choose their hosting, take care of site security, and monitor updates. For that, choose a WordPress hosting that prioritizes speed and performance while applying regular updates and security patches, which lets you focus solely on the design and functionality of your WordPress site without worrying about server-related complexities.
WordPress offers unlimited functionality, which is based on open source access and many extensions, which are constantly growing. However, the system is regularly updated, which eliminates the need to install some of the plugins.
5. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a web service that has gained worldwide popularity not only as a well-known cloud-based website builder but as a company that offers hosting and domain names. It currently provides about 77 million websites and has more than 18 million users. GoDaddy is a great platform for people who don’t really know what to expect from a project and want a professional website for business use.
Today, the website builder has improved greatly, completely revamping its platform and expanding its marketing features. These include an email marketing feature, Facebook and Instagram business promotion, Google My Business, and Yelp lists. The website builder also offers an advanced InSight tool that allows you to analyze and promote your business in the best way possible.
With GoDaddy, you can use booking, lists, online feedback forms, and other elements, and view analytics to see your site’s statistics. Everything is quite intuitive, and there is a good collection of adaptive templates that can be categorized. In addition, the platform offers eCommerce and blogging systems. Thus, if you intend to launch a simple website with noteworthy functionality, GoDaddy might be one of the systems to go for.
6. Duda
Duda is a drag-and-drop website builder that provides many design customization features and advanced out-of-the-box tools to ensure pleasant and hassle-free Web site creation. The service works equally well for experienced web designers that build custom websites as it does for beginners.
To date, about 14 million websites have been created with Duda, and many more are currently on the way. The system offers multilingual support, a unique inSite website personalization tool, and many benefits that contribute to the success of the web development process in the long run.
Duda also offers powerful integration tools. The system allows new users to quickly adapt thanks to the fully automated process. The system stands out from the crowd because of its powerful customer support, detailed analytics system, multiple SEO and marketing tools.
It’s a good solution for small and medium-sized projects. It offers many adaptive templates that are 100% customizable. Coding experts can use their skills to create truly unique designs with impressive performance. If you’re looking for a responsive website builder or a place to get a feature-rich Mobile version of your current site, we highly recommend checking out Duda. These guys really know what “responsive” means!
7. Zyro
Zyro is a new and promising website builder with low prices. The company is open in its policy, offering its drag-and-drop editor with a decent amount of built-in features. Like most website builders, Zyro is simple and easy to use – almost anyone can put together the necessary blocks to create a fully-featured site.
The AI Writer will instantly compose themed texts for your site, and the AI Heatmap will predict which parts of your page will attract visitors’ attention.
Emphasis on speed and availability: All websites created in Zyro benefit from the advanced server infrastructure of Hostinger, one of the largest web hosting companies in the world.
Even Zyro’s BASIC plan offers much more resources than similar plans of competitors. And their Unleashed plan (yes, that’s what it’s called!) is by far the cheapest among similar plans with unlimited traffic and storage.
Zyro’s already super low plan prices drop even lower when you choose two- or three-year payment cycles. Even Zyro’s Basic plan includes a custom domain and removal of all ads, which makes it 3-4 times cheaper than similar plans from other providers.
8. Strikingly
Strikingly is focused on one-page websites. It’s a great single-page website builder and perfect for creating a long website to browse on a mobile device. Alas, everything else is somewhat limiting.
You can integrate a blog, though not matching the template you choose, as well as display and sell multiple products. There’s also an iOS and Android app to edit your website on the go. The price plans are quite affordable. Plus, you get a 14-day free trial.
Simplicity is revealed at every step of the website creation process: from the registration procedure to the final publication. To register, you just need to provide your name, email address, and password. This is it.
The website builder can’t boast a rich collection of templates but those available in the system are customizable and optimized for mobile devices. Moreover, Strikingly has fantastic customer support.
With Strikingly, you can effectively run single-page websites, connect blogs and online stores. Overall, Strikingly is decent value for money.
9. Site123
Site123 is one of the easiest low-cost website builders to create an attractive and functional website in just a few minutes. It offers eCommerce and SEO tools as well as good customer support and security. You can build business card sites, small stores, and blogs. It’s suitable for novice users who previously had no building experience. The visual editor here is specific, without drag and drop widgets. Some will find it convenient, others don’t.
The name of the platform speaks for itself. The control panel here is very simple. The visual editor loads faster compared to most website builders. Everything is simplified: you’ll see changes on the page in real-time, but all editing options are available in the sidebar. All actions, even the smallest ones, are performed from the menu. At first, it looks a little uncomfortable, but you quickly get used to it.
All in all, it’s quite difficult to mess things up with Site123. The customization tools provide good quality at the output without “binding” your hands too much. Photographers, musicians, lawyers, coffee shop owners, and many others can almost effortlessly launch their first site. You can expect basic e-commerce and blogging features.
10. Jimdo
Jimdo Creator is designed to create personal pages and online stores. The main features of this tool are flexible website design, personalized business domain, mobile optimization, a personal image library with copyright-free photos, and GDPR-compliant legal pages. The visual editor is easy to use and reasonably functional. But, its ergonomics are a bit strange – the elements have are not organized the way you’d expect them to be.
Jimdo has two independent modes for the use of the designer: Jimdo Dolphin and Jimdo Creator. These are two different tools in terms of the principle of operation, capabilities, and cost.
Jimdo Dolphin is a website builder working on AI (analog Wix ADI) and allowing the easiest way to build your first website or online store in the easiest way. Jimdo Creator, on the contrary, is designed for technically trained users and allows you to make more fine-tuning of the site using access to its CSS code.
A more simplified version has a better look but with much less functionality. Just answer the questions, connect your social media accounts, follow the instructions, and let the system take care of the rest! What you get is a fully-customized site with your own content to edit.
11. Shift4Shop
Designed specifically for eCommerce, Shift4Shop is a great platform for building and managing an online store. As all-in-one software, Shift4Shop includes a website builder, store management system, hosting, security, updates and more. You can easily build a beautiful website, add your products, and start selling in just a few minutes using Shift4Shop.
You’ll have 100 free themes to choose from, all of which are responsive. Themes are designed based on industry and come with unique features. Once you choose a theme, editing it to your liking is simple. You can customize your website’s color palette and fonts and add modular content blocks to any page. If you prefer editing with HTML and CSS code, you’re also free to do so with Shift4Shop.
Because Shift4Shop is a comprehensive package, you can also register a free domain name and use a free SSL with their platform. Built-in features are where Shift4Shop really shines. It gives you the ability to create email newsletters, customize pages for SEO, post blog articles, and much more. If you’re looking for a website builder designed specifically for eCommerce, Shift4Shop is a smart choice. And, best of all, it’s available for free in the United States, making it one of the most affordable choices out there.
Bonus
There’s also a brand new and promising drag-and-drop tool called Boxmode. It offers an impeccable user experience with outstanding scalability and efficiency. With Boxmode, you can create all types of promotional landing pages and complex business websites or online shops. It’s a reasonable solution for novices, however, pros can benefit from various features like Code Editor and many more.
You can expect ready-to-use niche templates, project autosave, and real-time edit features, content import/export, meta tags editing, etc. Their Starter package is free of charge.
You can also try accessiBe, an accessibility solution for ADA & WCAG compliance that helps your website visitors use it with ease. Due to AI technologies, this tool automates the entire process of compliance. It offers multiple seamless customization options so you can easily make it look like a part of your site. The tool has several price plans starting from $49/month.
Conclusion
Each website builder has its own advantages. Each of them can be used as a perfect productivity tool in a certain niche. With that said, the list of the best website builders, in our opinion, looks as follows.
With website builders, you will get speed, simplicity, and wonderful templates for your future website. Some services allow you to create one online in minutes – simply choose your required templates! You don’t have to be tech-savvy or have special design skills – just a basic understanding of your future website’s structure will be fine.
While you can always outsource website setup to a freelancer, it’s pretty quick and easy to perform future updates yourself.
High-quality website builders will save you money. Most monthly or annual subscriptions are worth a couple of tens of dollars, plus many services offer completely free packages.
Ordering a website in a web studio can cost you from $500 to $30,000 for a full-fledged website. While most of the above-mentioned platforms offer free website hosting, automatic SEO, and great SEO tools that simplify promotion in search engines.
About the Author
Kamelia Stone is the Senior Content Manager at the company Cleverfiles.com and has more than 20 successful projects. She collaborates with famous bloggers, authors of sites like Entrepreneur, and others. Kamelia is free-spirited, and thanks to her creativity, she’s only prospered.
