Best Website Builders

We’ve built and managed hundreds of websites over the last decade using just about every website platform for various projects and use cases. Based on our experiences, Wix is the best website builder for most because it’s incredibly easy for anyone to use, affordable, and versatile enough for just about any type of website. You can build your personal blog, company site, landing page, or web store in no time at all with the Wix platform.

The Best Website Builder for Most

If you’re looking for a fast and affordable way to build your next website, Wix is the way to go. You can choose from more than 700+ pre-made templates or leverage Wix’s ADI tool to automatically build your website in a matter of minutes.

Its drag-and-drop interface is suitable for everyone, even complete beginners. Plus, you can create any type of website including an online store, a blog, or a business site.

The 7 Best Website Builder Options to Consider

1. Wix – Best website builder for most users
2. Squarespace – Best website builder for creatives
3. Zyro – Best for simple online stores
4. Web.com – Fastest way to build a new website
5. Shopify – Best ecommerce website builder
6. WordPress – Best for bloggers and content creators
7. Weebly – Best free website builder

When it Make Sense to Invest into a Website Builder

You can invest in a website builder as soon as you’re ready to start creating a website. And in most cases, there’s little to no upfront investment to get started.

Yep, you can build a website for free. And aside from WordPress, all of the options on this list don’t require you to buy web hosting services. So you don’t have to worry about the tech side of connecting things on the backend of your website.

Keep in mind that while you can start for free, you eventually need to upgrade to a paid plan if you want a professional website. You can upgrade after your trial period or right before you’re ready to launch.

In the meantime, you can experiment with different website builders to get a feel for them before paying anything.

#1 – Wix — The Best Website Builder for Most

Website builders are known for being easy to use but most are severely limiting and only offer basic customization. However, Wix does things differently. It strikes the perfect balance between usability and design flexibility.

Despite it being a great choice for beginners and non-technical users, you can also create just about anything you can imagine.

With no design, coding, or website development skills, you can build a professional website that looks exactly how you want it to in less than an hour. Or even faster if you use the ADI tool.

Wix ADI makes setting up your new site easier than ever. All you have to do is answer a few questions, decide what pages you want to have, and let the artificial intelligence software do the rest. It’s a huge time-saver and requires no technical know-how.

In just a few clicks, you’ll have an entirely functional website ready for you to start customizing.

If you don’t want to use the ADI tool, you can choose from more than 975 professionally designed templates, add the pages you need, and customize your template using the drag-and-drop builder.

Either way, you’ll be able to build a stunning website without the headache of design limitations or tools that take months to learn.

All of Wix’s templates are responsive, SEO-optimized, and completely customizable. You can add new sections, remove sections you don’t need, control global colors, control styles of individual elements, drag things wherever you want them, and more.

Because of its flexibility, you can build any type of website, including an ecommerce store, a blog, a creative portfolio, restaurant menus, scheduling tools, and more.

Wix also offers more than a dozen business tools for specific use cases like online ordering for restaurants, appointment booking for service providers, event management tools, and a robust blogging engine for bloggers. Most of them operate on a freemium model with basic features for free.

Regardless of the plan you choose, you get dozens of features you can use to design your site, extend its functionality, and share your message.

You can actually use Wix completely for free. Build and launch your site without paying a dime, just know that you’ll be stuck with a Wix subdomain.

That can look long, messy, and unprofessional, which is fine if you’re building in preparation for later popularity. Once you start getting traffic, though, we highly recommend a paid Wix plan.

Pricing for a personal website starts at just $14 per month. That unlocks a custom domain (which is free for your first year if you get one through Wix) and removes native Wix advertising from your site. There are other plans ranging from $18 to $39 per month that add more storage space and features.

If you want to accept online payments, you’ll need to upgrade to a Business and Ecommerce plan starting at $23 per month. Those plans also come with a robust set of selling and marketing tools to help your online business.

Sign up for a free account to get started with Wix today!

#2 – Squarespace — Best Website Builder for Creatives

If you’re an artist, musician, designer, photographer, or another type of creative that relies heavily on visuals to sell your work, Squarespace is the way to go. Its templates and overall design aesthetic are perfect for image and video-heavy businesses looking for fun and creative ways to showcase their portfolios.

Whether you’re looking for a place to display your work or you want an easy way to sell it, Squarespace is an all-in-one website builder that comes with everything you need.

Getting started is just about as easy as it gets, too. All you have to do is choose a template you like, customize it using a drag-and-drop builder, and smash the publish button.

It’s seriously that easy.

While the drag-and-drop site editor is one of the easiest we’ve ever used, you do sacrifice a lot of design freedom and flexibility. With that said, Squarespace’s pre-built templates are beautiful and ready to go out of the box so the limited customization doesn’t mean settling for a less-than-perfect website.

Once you get up and running, Squarespace gives you tools to turn your website into a marketing machine that sells your services and products for you.

From a video maker, social media marketing tools, email marketing functionality (and a drag-and-drop email builder), and SEO tools to appointment scheduling, checkout links, and full ecommerce functionality, Squarespace is a one-stop-shop for creatives.

Squarespace pricing starts at $12 per month for the entry-level plan, making it a cost-effective way to get your portfolio online and start attracting new clients or projects.

However, if you want built-in ecommerce functionality, business plans start at $18 per month.

It’s important to note that Squarespace keeps 3% of every transaction on the basic ecommerce plan. But you can upgrade to a higher tier to avoid those transaction fees if they become too expensive.

Sign up for a 14-day free trial to take Squarespace for a test drive today!

#3 – Zyro — The Best for Simple Online Stores

With Zyro, you don’t have to choose between ease-of-use and getting the functionality you need to build an attractive online store. If you opt for an ecommerce plan, you get all the features you’d expect on top of the intuitive drag-and-drop Zyro builder.

Plus, it comes at a reasonable cost in comparison to other big-name ecommerce builders, like Shopify and BigCommerce. If you’re looking for powerful ecommerce simplicity at an affordable price point, it’s the way to go.

It’s so easy that 90% of Zyro’s users are able to build, customize, and publish their sites in less than an hour. Simply choose from one of 24 professional templates that look excellent out of the box, edit it to match your vision, add your own content, and publish—we tested it and it really is that easy.

With the easy drag-and-drop interface, it will be a headache-free process that will only last as long as it takes to populate your web store’s inventory. Zyro even makes it easy to embed code to integrate calendar apps, widgets, and more.

While only two of Zyro’s four plans include the ability to sell products, the eCommerce and eCommerce Plus plans are loaded with premium tools, features, and bonuses.

The lower-priced eCommerce plan allows for up to 100 products, while eCommerce Plus lets you have up to 2,500.

With both, you get unlimited storage and bandwidth, free hosting, a free year of your custom domain, and online payment processing, plus:

• Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp site integration
• Google Analytics and Tag Manager
• Order and inventory management
• Gift cards and coupons
• Branded order status emails
• Google and Facebook visitor data and remarketing tools

The eCommerce Plus plan also adds in multichannel selling capability—you can integrate your Zyro ecommerce site with your stores on Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon—web store translation to multiple languages, and product filters for shoppers.

Zyro pricing is very competitive for the ecommerce features you receive, and you get a rock-bottom rate if you sign up for four years upfront.

A four-year commitment gives you the eCommerce plan for just $9.90 per month or eCommerce for $14.90 per month. You can still get a solid rate on one- and two-year commitments as well, but even if your web store is simple, you want to be in it for the long haul.

That’s why we recommend it most for simpler online stores. If your selection of products or services will never exceed 100, you get an incredible deal with Zyro’s cheaper web store-oriented plan. The only thing you’ll miss out on is easy syncing with Amazon and social stores, but that can be managed easily enough through other means or manual effort.

Lock in the best rate for an ecommerce site builder with free hosting by signing up with Zyro today.

#4 – Web.com — The Fastest Way to Build a New Website

If you’ve never built a website before and want something fast and simple, Web.com will feel like a breath of fresh air.

In about an hour, you can turn your idea or brand new business into a full-fledged professional website with its drag-and-drop builder, 150+ templates, pre-designed content blocks, and one full hour of free design support.

Features like these paired with free stock photos, pre-built color schemes, and Web.com’s focus on simplicity make it a great choice for first-timers, non-coders, and anyone looking to build a new site… fast. All you have to do is choose a theme, update the colors, add your images and content, add a contact form, and click publish.

Better still, you get a free domain for a year when you build your site with Web.com, making your path to going live on the web even easier.

Web.com’s experts are also at your disposal if you have any questions or issues. On all of its plans, you get unlimited phone and live chat support and access to a website coach. If you wonder about where best to place your content or don’t know how to make a template look the way you want it to, there’s somebody with the expertise to lend a hand.

Not only that, but every Web.com pricing plan includes five email boxes for your business or project needs.

The Starter plan from Web.com is great for instantly going from no website at all to one that’s alive and kicking. It’s also incredibly affordable—you can get started for just $1.95 for your first month before it goes up to $10 per month, which is still incredibly competitive with the other options on this list.

Or, you can pay for the year upfront—just $50—and save over $60. Your next year and all concurrent years will cost $100 for the entire year.

If you need a bit more than a free domain and free templates and stock images, you can take a step up to either Web.com’s Marketing or eCommerce packages.

Marketing takes your website and submits it to major search engines on your behalf, as well as local business directories, so your new site can get found. This plan starts at $2.95 for the first month before renewing at $15/month (or, again, set yourself up for the whole year for just $75).

Need a web store, too? You can sell up to 50 products on your site built through the eCommerce package, plus get credit card processing, a shopping cart for your site, and order tracking and management.

But we recommend Web.com most highly for those who need relatively simple (but still eye-catching) sites done at lightning speed. Waste no more time and plant your flag on the internet with Web.com’s easy website builder.

#5 –Shopify — The Best Website Builder for Ecommerce

When you’re slicing up a whole pizza, what’s the better tool to use—a regular old knife or a pizza cutter?

It’s kind of like that with ecommerce. Sure, you can build your web store with any old site builder that includes selling features. But why wouldn’t you just go with Shopify, a website builder whose sole focus is ecommerce?

Start with a site builder that’s every bit as intuitive as most of the other options on our list. And Shopify is no slouch when it comes to providing a wide variety of professional site templates. Whether you want to build from scratch or get your store off the ground as quickly as possible, Shopify has you covered.

Shopify has a mix of free and paid themes for everyone. From minimalist styles to big imagery, grid style, 3D products, and large inventories, you’ll be able to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Whichever one you start from, simply customize it with your branding and add your products, then you’re all set.

Once you build your online store, Shopify makes it easy to sell from anywhere. In addition to your website, you can sell via social media, online marketplaces, and even in-person with Shopify POS software.

As an all-in-one solution, you can even use Shopify to find a business name and create your brand identity using their free tools.

You can customize your site and soup up your ecommerce offerings and service with the over 3,200 integrations and features available on the Shopify App store.

If you need some extra assistance, you can connect with a Shopify expert to help set up your store or get everything optimized for search engines. You’ll also benefit from award-winning support 24/7.

Shopify has three plans, starting at $29, $79, and $299 per month, respectively. You’ll have to pay extra for some app integrations and themes.

The only real downside of using Shopify as a website builder is the fact that it’s so niche-specific. It’s only made for building ecommerce websites.

If you’re starting an ecommerce business, set up a Shopify account and try it free for 90 days.  

#6 – WordPress.com — Best for Bloggers and Content Creators

WordPress is the most popular CMS platform in the world. It powers more than one-third of the entire Internet, and we use it here at Crazy Egg.

With that said, there are two versions of WordPress—an open-source version, and an all-in-one site builder. You can learn more about the former at WordPress.org (that’s what we use here because it comes with advanced customization capabilities).

The latter is what you’ll find at WordPress.com, and it’s the option that’s easier on first-timers and people in a rush to create a blog or simple website.

It comes with everything you need to launch your website out of the box, including web hosting, a free domain for the first year, and dozens of free themes to choose from.

The lower pricing tiers are a bit limited, but they’re an excellent place to start if you’ve never built a website before. In fact, the free forever plan comes with included hosting and dozens of themes to use (but you’ll have to pay for a custom domain if you want one). It’s an excellent way to take the platform for a test drive before investing.

The tiers that cost you $4 – $45 per month is where things start getting more interesting. You get tons more room to customize your site and the ability to use features like ecommerce functionality, social media integration, and advanced customer support.

On the Business Plan ($25/month) and higher, you can install plugins to add unique tools and capability to your website.

There are more than 50,000+ plugins you can use, making the possibilities endless. From integrations with your other software to ecommerce, SEO tools, and automatic translations, there’s seriously a plugin for everything.

Plus, you also get unlimited premium themes with more advanced customization options and design control.

With WordPress, you can easily create new blog posts with the Gutenberg editor. Post them now or schedule them to go live whenever you’d like, then monitor each post’s performance with easy-to-understand analytics.

All of this can be yours without ever having to touch a line of code.

Head over to WordPress now to try out the free-forever plan or choose the right paid plan for your needs.

#7 – Weebly — The Best Free Website Builder

Weebly is another well-known and popular website builder. Like most of the options on our list, you can use it to create a website for free.

But Weebly’s free plan goes above and beyond other free plans on the market. Just for signing up, you’ll get a free SSL certificate, 500 MB of storage, free hosting, SEO tools, lead capture forms, live chat support, and email support. 

Unfortunately, the free website builder is branded with a Weebly subdomain. So it’s not a long-term solution. But it’s a great option for those of you who are just starting out. 

Weebly has a drag-and-drop site builder, which makes it easy for anyone to create and customize a website from scratch.

You’ll benefit from features like site search, custom fonts, video backgrounds, and an image editor. 

Weebly also gives you custom HTML/CSS and Javascript access. So if you have a developer or want to make changes to your site’s code, you’ll have that option. 

If you look at the other choices on our list, Weebly can be described as a blend of all four. It’s very good for basically every category. It has the drag-and-drop functionality of Wix, ecommerce capability like Shopify, beautiful designs like Squarespace, and HTML access like WordPress.

But head-to-head, I don’t think Weebly really edges out any of these particular platforms in a specific category. 

If you’re a beginner and want to start building a website for free, Weebly is a top option to consider. Premium plans start at just $6 per month. 

Methodology For Choosing The Best Website Builder

All website builders are not created equally. So how can you find the best website builder for your unique situation?

There are certain factors that you should look for when evaluating a prospective platform. I’ll explain the methodology that we use and recommend here at Crazy Egg. You can weigh these elements according to your personal needs. 

Ease of Use

Creating a website from scratch doesn’t need to be challenging. If you don’t have any development or design experience, you’ll definitely want to go with a drag-and-drop site editor.

Wix will be your best option here. But Squarespace, Shopify, and Weebly all have drag-and-drop builders as well. To get this type of building functionality with WordPress, you’ll need to install a plugin. But it will ultimately fall short if you’re comparing it head to head with a platform like Wix.

Overall, Wix will be the easiest option. You can use AI technology to automatically build a custom website for you. The entire process takes just a few minutes.

Customization

The process of creating a website using a site builder is pretty standard from platform to platform. You’ll start with a theme and template before making custom changes from there. 

While these themes and templates will give you the flexibility to add images, text, videos, and other content, there will always be some level of restriction in terms of what you can customize.

For most of us, that’s not a problem. But if you want total control for complete customization and content management, WordPress will be the best option to consider. 

Website Type

What type of site are you creating? The answer will depend on which website builder will accommodate your needs.

Shopify is the clear winner for ecommerce sites. For portfolios and sites for creative professionals, use Squarespace. WordPress is the best option for bloggers and content websites.

Small businesses and everyone else will lean towards Wix. If you don’t like Wix for some reason, Weebly is a good runner-up for beginners that need simplicity. 

Support

When it comes to something as important as your website, customer support is crucial. If your site is having problems and you need assistance, you’ll want to get in touch with someone who can solve your issue as soon as possible.

Most website builders offer 24/7 customer support. But to get the most out of that support, you’ll need to be on a premium plan. Weebly offers email and live chat support with all free plans, but you won’t get that benefit from every platform.

If you want an extensive knowledge base with self-help guides, tutorials, and access to forums, WordPress is perfect for you. But they don’t have the traditional type of customer support you’d get from Wix or Shopify. 

Pricing

Building a website doesn’t need to be expensive. In fact, three of the five options on our list (Wix, WordPress, Weebly) allow you to create a website for free—all five let you start for free.

A free website builder is not a long-term solution. It’s a great way to get started, but you’ll definitely need to upgrade if you want to build a legitimate website. 

The price will depend on the features required to run your website. For example, plans for ecommerce functionality cost more than plans for a basic personal site.

Look beyond the cost of your website builder subscription for any additional costs that will be incurred. For example, with WordPress, you’ll need to get a domain name and web hosting service from other providers. With Shopify, you might have to pay for a theme or apps that you’re integrating with your online store. 

Summary

Ready to build a new website? It all starts with choosing a website builder. For most users, Wix is an excellent place to start. Plus, you can try it out for free before you pay to see if it’s a good fit.

However, each website builder on the market today is unique. The right choice for you might not be the best for me. Whether you’re starting a blog, ecommerce site, online portfolio, personal site, small business website, or anything else, there’s an option for you on this list.

Use the methodology that I’ve described in this guide to find the best website builder for your needs.