Best Website Builders in 2024

Do you want to set up a personal or a small business website but don’t know anything about coding or design?

Then, you should try a website builder!

Most modern website builders offer visual “drag and drop” editor software that lets you create your own website without any specific technical skills.

But how do you pick the best website builder for your individual needs? 

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EDITORS’ CHOICE (JUNE 2023)

The 10 best website builders (also most popular)

Today, there are dozens of free and easy-to-use site builders that can help you to make a perfect website in minutes. You just choose a template, apply design changes (usually with a drag-and-drop editor), and edit your content.

Here is my top 10 list of the best reliable website builders on the internet:

1. Wix Free and easy-to-use website builder
2. WordPress.com World’s most popular website builder
3. Squarespace Turn your ideas into reality
4. Weebly Make your website look professional
5. GoDaddy Prime web hosting and website building
6. Jimdo Perfect for small businesses
7. IONOS Websites that design themselves
8. Webflow Responsive web design tool
9. Carrd Fully responsive one-page sites
10. Format Websites for photographers

Whether you need a simple one-pager or a complete online store, one of these web builder software companies is sure to meet all of your needs.

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Wix — Free and easy-to-use website builder

Wix is one of the most popular free website builders, and it’s ideal for beginner users.

With the Wix website builder, each user can create a unique online presence thanks to over 500 designer-made templates. Wix also offers plenty of drag-and-drop features, mobile editor tools, search engine optimization plans, and more.

Regardless of your website-design skill level, Wix will allow you to make a website according to your needs. Their tools are hassle-free and intuitive, yet have plenty of advanced features that will cater to pro designers as well.

Even though Wix is a free website builder, it does have its own set of Premium plans for those who want to get a little more out of their website.

Wix helps you to grow your online business, regardless of your website’s niche. Their services are ideal for making blog-style sites, logos, mobile-optimized pages, online stores, SEO-friendly content, and custom domains. Wix states on their website that they are the builder of choice for over 160 million people from across the world.

The Wix platform is continually improving, releasing new updates and tweaks to their already impressive set of services.

Plans and pricing

Wix has several pricing plans.

All of the Website plans (Connect domain, Combo, Unlimited, and VIP) come without Wix ads.

Wix is definitely at the top of the best website builder list with their attractive free offer. 

Visit Wix.com for additional information

WordPress.com — World’s most popular website builder

Over one-third of all websites on the internet are created using WordPress, and there’s a good reason for that.

Even if you don’t know much about website builders, chances are that you’ve heard of WordPress.com. This popular web builder or CMS (Content Management System) represents the backbone of millions of sites all over the web. It is characterized by its simplicity, and it’s ideal for everyone, from bloggers and small businesses to world-famous brands.

WordPress doesn’t offer drag and drop website builder design flexibility and has a learning curve, but it does have hundreds of customizable themes, with new themes released every week. WordPress sites look great on every device, and creating a mobile-friendly page only takes one click.

You can start your WordPress subscription for free, but if you choose one of their four paid plans, you will enjoy many additional perks.

Pricing and plans

WordPress has four paid plans, along with a free plan that lets you test some of the builder’s basic options.

WordPress is definitely a popular choice among all of the available website builders for people starting a blog website. 

Visit WordPress.com for additional information

Squarespace — Turn your ideas into reality

Squarespace is one of the fastest-growing website builders that can help you to build your online presence with easy-to-use tools.

Squarespace is a website builder and hosting service that has shown staggering growth over the last several years. This is the web builder of choice for millions of people, ranging from artists and bloggers to small and big businesses. 

With Squarespace, you can use hundreds of modern templates for anything you need, whether it’s a simple portfolio or an eCommerce store with thousands of products.

You can start your free 14-day trial with Squarespace to test it out, or immediately subscribe to one of its relatively affordable plans. They are all worth it!

Plans and pricing

Apart from a free trial, Squarespace offers several paid plans that you can pay for in two ways. If you pay annually, you will save up to 30% and get a free custom domain for a full year.

If you are planning to make a portfolio type of site, Squarespace is a top pick for that from among all website builders.  

Visit Squarespace for additional information

Weebly — Make your website look professional

Weebly was acquired by Square Inc. in 2018 and since then their primary focus has been on eCommerce. Today, the platform offers plenty of customizable eCommerce website builder templates and tools that give you the design flexibility to build your own online business.

Weebly is another member on the list of awesome website builders that can help you to create a neat-looking website. You can make your site look professional even if you don’t have any experience in website design. If you may have problems with Weebly’s speed, you may be able to fix them yourself easily. If not, their friendly and understanding customer support is available to guide you if you need any help.

Weebly’s plans come in two categories — websites and online stores. Pick one of many pricing plans or choose the free trial version.

Plans and pricing

Depending on what kind of website you’re building and how much you are willing to pay, Weebly offers several different pricing plans.

Select one of these plans for everything from basic personal use to small business sites. All Weebly plans include a free SSL certificate, SEO, chat, and email support. Weebly Pro and Performance plans unlock advanced site stats, inventory management, item reviews, shipping calculators, and the ability to remove Weebly ads.

All of these Weebly pricing plans offer unlimited storage, a search feature, custom domains, shopping carts, Square-powered payments, advanced site stats, and full support.

Visit Weebly for additional information

GoDaddy — Prime web hosting and website building

Founded in 1997, GoDaddy is one of the oldest internet domain registrars and web hosting companies with free website builder services included. Today, GoDaddy has over 44 million satisfied customers.

With GoDaddy, you can use a website builder to create a snappy and professional-looking website for your business without any technical or web design knowledge. You will receive data-driven suggestions that will help your business grow, along with many other features that will put your website on the map.

No matter which pricing plan you choose, GoDaddy will give you access to its phenomenal website builder for free for a period of one month.

Plans and pricing

GoDaddy has several pricing plans that range from basic ones to those specially designed for eCommerce sites. Every plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

GoDaddy’s builder product is at the top of the list of best website builders offering free trials, easy to use software, and 24/7 customer support.   

Visit GoDaddy for additional information

Jimdo — Perfect for small businesses

Jimdo is all that you need to create a small e-commerce store for your growing business. With features like automatic SEO and easy-to-track statistics, Jimdo will allow you to better understand your customers and improve on your product offers.

Of course, you can create any type of website with Jimdo and not just an online store. Also, this web builder has a free version with all of its basic features available that you can use for an unlimited amount of time.

Plans and pricing

Jimdo has two separate pricing plan categories. One is for regular websites and the other one is suggested for businesses.

Jimdo online store solutions pricing comparison table:

Visit Jimdo for additional information

IONOS — Websites that design themselves

IONOS offers an array of web hosting and cloud services, including one of the best website builders that can be used by everyone, from people with a basic website needs to large eCommerce store owners.

You can build a website in minutes with its MyWebsite Now tool, or you can choose the MyWebsite Creator tool if you would like access to more editing options. Either way, no coding skills are required on your part, as these tools are meant for total beginners.

If you want to start a website by yourself, all of the IONOS tools are free to use for one month. After the first month, you will pay between $5 and $20 a month, depending on your needs.

Plans and pricing

How much you pay will depend on whether you would like to make a website by yourself or if you would like to have a website built for you.

Visit IONOS for additional information >>

Webflow — Responsive web design tools

Webflow is the best website builder for designers looking for a free visual tool to use without coding knowledge. 

Even though no advanced coding is involved, it does have a learning curve. However, your website will look like it was created by a true professional.

If you’re a complete beginner, you can access Webflow’s University section where you can read guides and watch hundreds of videos that will give you some basic tips about how to create an awesome website.

There are plenty of pricing plans to choose from, but you can also start for free.

Plans and pricing

Webflow has two types of plans, both of which have several sub-plans that let you choose exactly what you want and how much you want to pay for it.

Getting started with Webflow is free of charge.

Visit Webflow for additional information

Carrd — Fully responsive one-page sites

Carrd provides everything that you need to create a simple one-page site for free. Or, pay an extremely affordable yearly subscription and receive some very useful advanced tools.

The Carrd official site is an excellent example of how your website could look if you use this website builder. If you’re looking for a simple and minimalistic design for your one-pager, it has all of the tools you need.

Carrd offers dozens of templates that you can browse through. Or, start from scratch, if you like, and build your site one step at a time. More importantly, the websites you create will be very responsive and smooth on every device.

The best thing about Carrd, as with other free website builders, is that you can test the product without paying for it. However, its paid plan has some useful features that are worth considering.

Plans and pricing

Carrd has simple plans: you can either choose to use the builder for free or upgrade to Pro at any time and unlock advanced features.

By choosing one of the available Pro plans, you will eliminate all Carrd branding on your site and receive access to pro templates, a high-quality image library, site icons, embeds, and meta tags. And yes, these prices are really for yearly subscriptions, making Carrd the cheapest website builder on our list.

Visit Carrd for additional information

Format — Websites for photographers

Format is a niche website builder software that caters to photographers who can use one of its many beautiful designs to expand their online exposure.

While images are an important part of any website, websites for photographers should be designed in such a way that the images are the focal point of the page and not just a backdrop. Although photographers can use any other website builder I have listed here, Format should probably be their number one choice, as this website builder is specific to their profession.

Through Format, you can create your online portfolio with ease, and use plenty of editing features and business tools to help you to grow your online presence.

Plans and pricing

Format has a plan for everyone. It is available with Pro, Pro Plus, and Premium plans. There is a two-week free trial period available with no obligation or a credit card required to get started. After the trial period, you can choose a plan that’s right for your wallet.

With Format’s Pro plans, you will have full image protection, an unlimited number of themes, mobile optimization, and custom code editing, as well as Lightroom and Capture One integration. The Pro Plus plan also includes a free professional email address from Google, up to 1,000 commission-free products, premium layouts, and other perks.

Visit Format for additional information

More website builders worth mentioning

Aside from the best website builder solutions mentioned above, there are even more tools available on the web. Many of these website builders are easy to use, offer drag and drop interface, and a custom domain setup for new businesses. 

Strikingly

Strikingly has positioned itself as a leader in the one-page site builder niche with promising results. 

Their platform includes an intuitive editor that helps you in creating sections that can be scrolled up and down as one page. You can easily get started with this one-page website builder by completing a short signup form or connecting with Facebook to automatically fill up your information. You do not need any coding experience.

Webnode

Webnode is a low-cost solution that creates modern and mobile responsive website designs. It is an easy-to-use website builder that allows you to connect with a domain name. 

It has two low-cost plans: Limited and Mini. Limited shows a small Webnode footer while mini doesn’t display ads and includes a free custom domain name for a year. These are both great plans for small personal or professional websites. 

Duda

Duda is a design-focused website platform that first became known for its flagship responsive site builder product. 

Duda has scored spectacularly well for ease of use, all thanks to a simple and fast sign up process. It also has an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that lets you customize your templates according to your taste.

Google Sites 

Google sites are part of the Google Editor suite of products such as Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings.  

It’s a free web-based product that you can use by signing up for a Google account. This website building software is not as popular as Google’s many other useful and famous services. However, it’s definitely easy to use and you can try it completely for free.  

Square Online

After acquiring Weebly, Square, a financial service and mobile payments company, launched its own new product Square Online – the best website builder with eCommerce functionality.  

It’s a free and easy-to-use website builder designed for people who want to start selling online. You can set up an online store for no monthly fee but Square will charge you when you make a sale—2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.   

Shopify

Shopify is trusted by over one million businesses across the world, and there’s a good reason for it. 

This platform is primarily designed for online shops and recognized by many as the best overall website builder for eCommerce, meaning that all of the features are there to help your products reach your potential customers. Customizable layouts allow you to set your pages up in minutes, with no coding skills required.

How to choose the best website builder

Building a website for your business should be done with great care. Make one wrong choice and you could potentially be missing out on a lot of revenue. So, even though these website builders allow you to create a website in minutes, you should take a little more time before selecting one. Here are some of the aspects that you should consider before making your choice.

Template selection

Instead of starting with a blank canvas, website builders will save you a lot of time by offering a wide variety of templates. These templates can vary in style and design, and you should choose one according to the type of website you’re building.

Of course, the more templates a website maker has, the better. But quantity is not the only important thing here. You should compare templates on all of our selected site builders to see which company has the best-looking ones.

Mobile compatibility

Your website should look great and be highly responsive no matter what sort of device people use to get to it. More and more people are browsing the internet using their smartphones and tablets, and that’s why some website builders prioritize mobile compatibility.

If you think that your online store or portfolio is going to attract a lot of mobile users, opt for the best website builder that can make your site look great on a smaller screen.

Features and functionality 

Every site builder has dozens of features that help your website to reach a bigger audience. These features can come in all shapes, from marketing tools and Google analytics to contact forms, third-party integrations, and slideshow makers. Before you commit, check what features are available. 

Also, make sure that the website builder you choose has additional necessary functions. Here are a few important ones:

• Drag and drop – Not all site builders include drag and drop website design flexibility, so if you are looking for that type of visual editor, make sure that it is included with the software you pick. 
• SEO – Search engine optimization is a big part of any website creation process. Make sure that the software offers built-in (or integrable) SEO functionality.     
• Blogging – If you are planning to add content regularly and run a blog as an additional marketing channel for your website, make sure that the website builders of your choice include some CMS integrations. 
• Online store – If you plan to add eCommerce functionality to your website or if it’s part of your business strategy, make sure that an eCommerce store can be created with the platform, or make sure that you go for an eCommerce store builder.  

Again, you should choose the best website building software that has all of the features and functions necessary for your specific project.

Plans and pricing

The website builders listed on this page offer a wide variety of pricing plans, from the free versions to premium plans that unlock advanced features.

Some site builders are more expensive than others, of course, but paying a higher price is usually worthwhile if with that you get the ease of use. The best pricing plans are those that allow you to get a discount if you subscribe for a longer period. On such plans, you could be saving hundreds of dollars a year and still get to use everything that the web design tool offers.

Best website builders for different uses

So, you know what your website is going to be for and you have some notion of how you want it to look. But, since I listed fifteen excellent sites in this guide, you might find it difficult to determine which one is best for your particular circumstance. To help you out a little more, I have selected seven different use cases for website builders and named one service that covers each of these in the best way possible.

Best free website builder

If you’re a little light on cash right now and you can’t pay for a website, you can choose any of the free website builders. Of course, none of them will get you the same service as paid plans, but they are still worth checking out. Here is a perfect free website builder for all of your needs. 

Best premium website builder

For those who don’t mind spending a little more in order for their website to look top-notch, every site builder on my list has a premium package that includes all of their available features. In my opinion, this is the best one: 

Best one-page website builder

There are some people who don’t require big websites with loads of content. Instead, they just need one neat-looking page covering all they want to present. Luckily, there’s a website maker for that specific purpose as well:

Best website builder for blogs

There are millions of blogs across the world wide web and dozens of different website builders that power them. Taking all of your blogging needs into consideration, here is the best website builder for blogs:

Best website builder for photographers

Images are an important part of any website, but when it comes to websites for photographers, images must be the main focus. That’s why photographers choose website-builder software that caters to their specific needs and lets them build a site through which they can expand their exposure:

Best website builder for small businesses

One of the most important steps you need to take in order to grow your business is to create a professional-looking website that your customers will appreciate. Apart from the design, a quality website builder for small businesses also needs to provide you with all of the necessary tools for tracking your visitors. Luckily, there’s a great option for that as well.

Best eCommerce website builder

If the main purpose of your website is to open an online shop, you should look for a site builder with eCommerce features like being able to include hundreds or even thousands of different products, along with payment service integration, intuitive shopping carts, and more:

FAQs

Conclusion

All of the best website builder companies that are listed in this article offer solid and unique products. Website builders have their strengths and weaknesses, so you should carefully select one according to the type of project you’re planning on starting. 

However, no matter which website builder you end up choosing, any of them will almost certainly help you to build a professional website by yourself in no time at all.