Best Free Website Builders

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Have you ever cooked a dish so good you even surprised yourself? You followed the recipe perfectly and viola! Somehow, everything aligned.

When it comes to building a website, it can work the same way. Before modern and more intuitive website builders, coders and software engineers had to spend hours designing web pages, adding long strings of code in order to simply add one image to a section. 

But now you don’t have to be a web designer to create a stunning website. In fact, you can create an online business in minutes with a free website builder. 

Set up shop and sell your product or service with very little effort and no cost at all.

With these intuitive builders it’s less work and more fun. It’s like putting together a puzzle, but one that makes you money after you’ve completed it.  

So get relaxed and read every word of this article. Because if you are looking for the best free website builders, we’ve reviewed the top options available.

The 5 Best Free Website Builders 

• Wix – Best free customizable website builder
• WordPress – Best free website builder for blogging 
• Strikingly – Best free landing page builder
• Weebly – Best free website builder for small business owners
• Site123 – Best free website builder for beginners

When It Makes Sense to Use a Free Website Builder

If you need to create a website to showcase your business or anything else, it should not be overly complicated. A good website builder creates an easy path to your vision of what you want your website to do for you.

You don’t want to have to hire a web developer to piece together your ideas. They are expensive and often are best used in creating a particular function you need. 

Instead a website builder is the perfect DIY solution. 

But, wait, we’re talking about free website builders. I hear you asking, “Can I get the same quality as paying somebody for it?” 

With modern free website builders, you absolutely can if all you need is a home for your webstore, blog, company website, or the like.

The only investment will be your time in learning and building your home on the web.

#1 – Wix  — The Best Free Customizable Website Builder

Wix offers a free website builder that is second-to-none. It powers more than 100 million websites and its flexibility continues to surprise even the most advanced users of this website builder. 

It’s not only the hundreds of templates that make Wix so customizable—the drag-and-drop editor gives you the power to control what pops off of your web page. 

So, you can create a gorgeous website without knowing one line of code. 

What we also found great was the complete hands-off approach Wix offers. 

If you don’t want to spend time designing your site, the artificial design intelligence (ADI) software will ask you a series of questions and Wix will design your site for you. 

For example, Wix will ask what industry you work in, what services or goods you provide, and a few other questions before putting together the right site for you. 

Another thing we really love is the ability to utilize the hundreds of integrations available in the Wix App Market, which isn’t something many other website builders offer at the free level. Wix’s app marketplace has more than 280,000 apps available. 

Plus, Wix offers marketing tools and standard SEO optimization free of charge, which will help you rank higher on Google faster while also building your organic web traffic. 

Wix even includes web hosting, live chat widgets, and even more features with its free forever site builder.

One thing you won’t be able to get as part of the free plan is a custom URL. You can find more information about both the free version and the pricing plans at Wix.com.

#2 – WordPress — The Best Free Website Builder for Blogging 

WordPress is all about blogging and has all the features you need to run a successful blog. 

WordPress powers over 38% of the internet, so you can rest assured that your blog is using the best software available. Not only do you want reliability—you want features and something that looks great. Here, WordPress overdelivers. 

All of the relevant features that are needed to make your blog shine and stand out, WordPress offers standard. 

To get started, pick your website theme from one of dozens of free templates. Then, build your site out with over 60 style elements you can use, customizing it to make it specific to your brand. 

WordPress gives you quick access to go and start your blog. It doesn’t matter if it’s personal or for business, easily set it up in minutes. 

Another great benefit of using WordPress is the ecosystem of plugins you can use that allow you to grow your blog or website over time. And, most of the plugins are free too. 

Now with WordPress you will need web hosting that’s affordable but also reliable. And Bluehost is both and recommended by WordPress as its top hosting provider.

Now, web hosting makes this not totally free, but Bluehost’s affordable plans won’t gouge your wallet. Plus, you get one thing none of the other website builders on here provide for free—a custom domain.

#3 – Strikingly — The Best Free Landing Page Builder  

Strikingly offers one of the simplest website editors available. It allows you to make a full one-page website in under thirty minutes. Now that’s fast. 

Within an hour you can have the best landing page you ever created at no cost.

When you first come to Strikingly and start creating your site, you get a nice onboarding tour to walk you through picking a template and how to edit it. 

A landing page is one of the biggest tools for converting prospects, leads, and visitors, so being able to design them so well, so quickly is what makes Strikingly so unique.

You can also create unlimited one-page sites under the free plan and are given 5GB of bandwidth per month.

This is perfect for quickly building landing pages as your marketing campaigns begin and progress. Plus, being able to utilize a potentially unlimited number of free landing pages gives you plenty of opportunity to run A/B testing between strategies or segment leads through individualized pages.

Plus, Strikingly will give you simple web traffic analytics and easily integrate with your Google Analytics account so you can gain quick insight into how your landing pages are performing.

#4 – Weebly— The Best Free Website Builder for Small Business Owners

Weebly is a simple drag-and-drop website builder. It’s free and keeps your website modern and mobile-friendly.

Ideal for small businesses, Weebly easily allows you to set up your ecommerce website with an attractive online store. 

Plus, as a Square brand, it’s easy to integrate with physical store payments or accounting. You can even integrate an in-store pickup option for your visitors.

Weebly really focuses on creating functional, modern, and results-driven web stores. Pages are customizable to give you a lot of design and layout options.

Inventory management is also included for free, helping you keep track of your products. Plus, built-in SEO optimization will improve your google rankings and you can even have designated landing pages or use contact forms as a lead capturing device.

And if you have questions, the free community forum will offer insight on questions you may have. You also are given chat and email support at no charge. 

Weebly gives you the resources to build up your business’ ecommerce presence in the most efficient way. 

If you are looking to start a small online business or take your physical store to the web, Weebly has everything you need to create your site today. 

#5 – Site123  — The Best Free Website Builder for Beginners

If you are nervous about using website builder software, Site123 is the best way for a complete beginner to build a website.

In three easy steps you can establish your website and online presence. 

First, you start with selecting your website type. Site123 can quickly set up a page template for a business, a blog, an event page, or even handyman services.

Then, just add your business name and upload your content and images. Site123 will publish your site, with the whole process taking just about one hour. 

Keep in mind, with Site123 you don’t have complete creative control. But for beginners who just need a functional home on the web, this is ideal. 

Even with the array of website types and templates, your website will be mobile-friendly and SEO optimized without any complicated tasks required on your end. 

Also, you receive access to royalty-free images from Site123’s image bank, containing hundreds of stock images with no limitation of use. If you use your own content, you have 250MB of storage to utilize.

One thing to be aware of, though—Site123 only offers ecommerce functionality with its paid plan ($12.80/month). But, for a simple homepage or an online home that attracts visitors to call your physical business, Site123 is as simple and effective as it gets.

It’s okay to be apprehensive about designing your website for the first time. Site123 alleviates any concern you may have, because of their easy, hands-off, all-in-one website creation process. 

Methodology for Choosing the Best Free Website Builder

When you think about anything free, it’s easy to think that the quality will suffer. But with this list of free website builders, you can actually get more than you expect from a free solution. Here is how we judged these free options to pick out the best.   

Flexibility of Design

Having your hands tied when you want to add the one detail that can make your site unique is a terrible feeling. Imagine you want to add a “buy now” button in the header next to your navigation and the option is not available. 

Visitors want easy choices and an easy browsing experience. Having the right templates and color options, along with the freedom to add media where you want it, makes your site stand out and helps it become a conversion machine. 

It all depends on the type of site you want to make. If you need a unique, splashy ecommerce store, Wix and Weebly present the best bets. If you want a customizable blog, WordPress (with Bluehost hosting) is the way to go. For simpler needs, Strikingly and Site123’s free plans can do the trick.

Low Learning Curve

With a free website builder in particular, no one wants to waste time having to learn how to use it.

Wix, Strikingly, and Weebly all have very easy editors and can have you building a website in a few hours, even minutes if you use the artificial design intelligent software baked into Wix. 

If you’re new to the whole concept or a very small business that just needs a simple web presence, Site123 will take care of all the building for you, eliminating any learning curve at all.

Ecommerce Capability

Having the option to sell products or services is a common need for people building their own website. 

Most of the free website builders on this list offer ecommerce functionality and product marketing as part of their free plans. This is huge and gives you the ability to make money with minimal marketing costs. 

Wix even gives you the ability to capture leads using live chat and contact forms, use email marketing tools to make sales and manage campaigns, create promotional videos, and more. 

If you need a web store, make sure ecommerce is an option in your free website builder of choice.  

Minimal Advertising

Have you ever been on a site that had so many ads it was distracting? Weebly and Strikingly don’t put ads or their own branding on your free site, while Site123, Wix, and WordPress.com do (though they tend to be subtle and unobtrusive).

Keep this in mind if any ads are a dealbreaker. 

With Wix, it’s just a little sidebar saying the website was built with its platform. With WordPress, their general ad placements on your site help keep free features free. 

It all depends on what you’re comfortable with having on your site.

Low Cost to Upgrade

Let’s face it, we all want the best deal. Free is great and may be enough to get you up and running, but what if you need more because your website or business is taking off?

This list offers the most comprehensive free plans available, but also includes affordable monthly upgrades to a subscription that can be monthly or yearly. 

WordPress and Weebly’s lowest paid tiers are just $4 per month and $6 per month, respectively. With both, you unlock the ability to use a custom domain and access to more marketing and ecommerce tools.

This gives you the option to select a plan you can grow into and, if you decide it’s not for you, the risk is minimal. 

Summary

What is the best free website builder for you? It all depends on your needs.

Are you creating a blog to build a following? WordPress is perfect for that. 

Are you looking to grow your business with a specialized website? Wix and Weebly are fantastic options.

Have simpler needs? Strikingly can help you churn out beautiful landing pages for free and Site123 can take care of all the work of building your new home on the web.

Whatever your needs, the free website builders recommended in this article will help you get where you want to go.