The best website builders provide fast, simple site creation for those building their first website or their latest, via drag-and-drop editors offering ease-of-use. Their range and utility extends to visually-distinctive templates, high-performance tools, and simple pricing structures, and their popularity has seen this market expand.
As a result, multiple providers vie for your business. Most specialize in certain types of sites, such as ecommerce or small business, while some of the best website builders are WordPress plugins. A number are also packaged with the best web hosting services, so you can craft your site and host it without extra spending.
Costs are key, as budget is so often king. Thankfully, most of the top builders provide free trials or free-forever plans, so you can try before you buy. While limited compared to paid plans, free website builders offer an ideal start for beginners, who can gain experience in site-building without spending a dime.
However, it can be complicated to choose just one of the best website builders. We're here to simplify things for you, and recommend you take experience and requirements into account. Think about whether you might need an easy website builder, a more complex and detailed editor, or scalability for any future expansion.
Make sure to check customer service and support levels, as well as additional elements, tools or features that might be specific to a particular market. Keeping all of this in mind will greatly help in deciding which builder to go with. Below, we rank and review the best website builders, taking these key factors into account.
What is a website builder?
A website builder helps you create a site, whatever your level of experience. Ranging from simple platforms to powerful editors, they're equipped with a drag-and-drop editor, a template library, and additional tools.
Other areas to consider when building a site including understanding what SEO is, what AMP is, and what website cookies are; how to choose a domain name, and what to consider when registering a domain; and how to make your website accessible. These elements will be important for your site to succeed once you've built it.
The top 3 best website builders right now
What are the best website builders?
Wix is our top choice of the best website builders on the market, thanks to a large template library, excellent design flexibility, third-party app integrations, and a leading artificial design intelligence site editor.
Shopify is the top ecommerce website builder, its industry-leading tools aimed at creating and publishing online stores quickly and simply. In turn, Squarespace is the top builder for professional sites, with over 500 high-quality templates, native tools for businesses, and many customization options.
Squarespace, GoDaddy, Elementor, Zyro, HostGator, Weebly, 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite, and Constant Contact are all worthy of consideration, for specific focuses on visually-appealing sites, ease-of-use, or connections to web hosts or content management systems (CMSs).
| Website builder | Lowest pricing plan | Free plan? | Ecommerce features? | Free domain? | Unlimited storage? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | $5 a month (Connect Domain) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Shopify | $29 a month (Basic Shopify) | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Squarespace | $12 a month (Personal) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GoDaddy | $6.99 a month (Basic) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes, with advanced plans |
| Elementor (for WordPress) | $49 a year (Essential) | Yes | Yes | No | N/A |
| Zyro | $2.90 a month (Basic) | No | Yes, with advanced plans | Yes, with advanced plans | Yes, with advanced plans |
| HostGator | $3.84 a month (Express Start) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Weebly | $6 a month (Personal) | Yes | Yes | Yes, with advanced plans | Yes, with advanced plans |
| 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite | $1 a month (Starter) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Constant Contact | $10 (Website Builder) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
The best website builders you can buy today
Wix is the best website builder, ecommerce website builder, and small business website builder in our opinion. It offers a great selection of advanced features, including three different editing interfaces—the Wix Editor, Velo Dev Mode, and Wix ADI.
The Wix Editor is one of the most powerful available. It enables you to create your site by dragging and dropping different elements into pixel-perfect positions. It can be a little confusing to learn to use, but the rewards are worth it. Velo Dev Mode allows you to make changes outside of the template model, and add features that usually require developer input, like custom forms, dynamic pages, and databases.
Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) is much more beginner-friendly. To use it, simply work through a short questionnaire. A custom site template will be developed based on your answers, and then you can customize it to your heart’s content.
Another standout feature is Wix’s App Market, which contains numerous add-ons that add extra functionality to your site. Take advantage of the huge template library, which boasts over 500 designs, and create the site of your dreams with a minimum amount of fuss.
The full website builder is included within the excellent free package, though bear in mind it has restrictions and limitations, such as Wix advertisements on your site. However, it allows you to try the builder out before you buy, while each premium plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Pricing starts at $5 a month with the Connect Domain plan, limited to 1GB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage. The Combo plan ($14 a month) has a free domain for the first year, 3GB of storage, and 2GB of bandwidth; while Unlimited ($18 a month), Pro ($23 a month), and VIP ($39 a month) offer more resources and tools. More advanced ecommerce and business features are available via three Business and Ecommerce plans (ranging from $23 to $49 a month).
Read our comprehensive Wix review, our interview with Head Product Manager Michal Bignitz, and our guide on how to make a website with Wix.
If you have any knowledge of the ecommerce world, you'll have heard of Shopify. Although not a website builder in the traditional sense—its sole focus is ecommerce—it’s one of the best options for those wanting to build an advanced online store, and is the world’s leading online store builder for good reasons.
The tools on offer are excellent, and you will benefit from an unbeatable range of management, marketing, and general online selling features. On top of this, there are numerous templates that you can base your store on. The beginner-friendly editor is a little limited, but you have full code access if you need to fine-tune different parts of your design.
Across three plans, there’s plenty of room to scale if your store grows. Pricing starts at a relatively expensive $29 a month, and ranges up to $299 a month, with more excellent, additional features as you move up. These include a built-in shopping cart and checkout manager, marketing, and security tools. Shopify is Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, providing top-level security for you and your customers.
Read our detailed Shopify review, how to build a website with Shopify, and our comparison of Wix vs Shopify.
Squarespace has long been known for its professional templates. Although its library is quite small compared to other platforms, every single design is built with modern techniques and standards in mind. These excellent templates, alongside native tools, add-ons, and a versatile marketing suite, make it easy to see why Squarespace is so popular.
In addition, Squarespace offers ecommerce tools to rival the best in the industry. You can sell virtually anything, including digital content, services, and subscriptions. The product categorization tools are great, to say the least, and you will be able to manage inventory and orders through the intuitive management dashboard.
However, when it comes to site creation, Squarespace’s editor is far from the best we’ve used. It’s quite counter-intuitive and poorly designed, and you will likely find it a little confusing to get started with. A free-forever version is also lacking, although a 14-day free trial allows you to test the platform.
Across four paid plans, you get a range of great features, including a free domain for the first year, unmetered bandwidth and storage, and built-in SSL security. The Personal subscription is cheapest at $12 a month for an annual plan, while the Advanced Commerce plan costs $40 a month for an annual plan.
Read our Squarespace review and our comparison pitting Wix vs Squarespace.
If your number-one priority is developing an online presence with the minimum amount of fuss and time, we’d recommend GoDaddy's website builder. It's grown rapidly over the past few years to gain a spot on this list, largely thanks to its extremely beginner-friendly, intuitive editor. You won’t have much design flexibility, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing.
With GoDaddy, it’s not unrealistic to expect to get online within a couple of hours. There’s a neat range of tutorials you can take advantage of if you run into problems, but the chances of this are low at best. Underpowered ecommerce tools will bother some users, but you benefit from a free domain, 24/7 support, a free SSL certificate, and unmetered storage with all bar the cheapest plan.
There’s one free and four premium plans , ranging from $6.99 to $17.49 a month, scaling up to $9.99 to $24.99 on renewal. The free plan allows you to create a simple site with a branded GoDaddy domain, but is quite limited. Prices are higher for shorter subscriptions, but all come with the ability to connect a custom domain name, a free business email for the first year, and editing and analytics tools. More advanced plans add marketing, ecommerce, and business-related features too.
Read our full GoDaddy review, how to make a website with GoDaddy, and our comparison of GoDaddy vs Wix.
Although known more as a plugin, Elementor is one of the most powerful WordPress website builders for those using WordPress.org. It provides an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, rather than the less-intuitive native WordPress editor, and with Elementor, you can put together your new WordPress site without any coding.
There are numerous third-party integrations you can take advantage of, along with a neat free plan that provides access to the basics. This plan offers enough tools for you to comprehensively test the editor, including over 40 widgets, 30 templates, and basic support.
However, you'll need to sign up for a separate web hosting account before you can harness its full power, and purchase a domain name before publishing your site. There are five premium plans ranging from $49 to $999 a year, with the main differences being support and the number of sites you can create (one with an Essential plan, and up to 1,000 with an Agency subscription). The three most expensive plans allow you to create an Expert Profile to showcase your portfolio.
Read our Elementor review, our WordPress review, how to make a website with WordPress, and our comparison of WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace.
Zyro, like GoDaddy, is designed for those who want to build a simple site without spending too much time or money. Start with one of more than 150 templates, add your own content, and hit publish. There are also a number of AI tools available, including an AI writer, a brand name generator, and a logo maker, providing users with an affordable, straightforward site creation process that saves time and effort.
It doesn’t have a free-forever plan, a disadvantage if you wanted to try the service out, but its paid plans are up there with the most affordable we’ve seen. You can sell products through your site, but keep in mind that ecommerce tools are basic at best. The blogging tools are decent, though, and all users benefit from 24/7 customer support.
Packages start at $8.90 a month, with ecommerce features available for $19.90 a month, and every plan comes with free hosting and a free domain name for one year. They can be paid annually or monthly. When it comes to ecommerce, the most expensive plan (eCommerce Plus) costs $25.90 a month, and means you pay no commissions on sales. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee on all paid plans too.
Read our comprehensive Zyro review and our interview with CEO Giedrius Zakaitis.
If you want something that offers similar power to Wix without high prices, HostGator’s Gator Builder is a great option. Although there’s no free-forever plan, you can build a new site for just a few dollars a month. Note, though, that prices will increase when you renew your contract.
One thing that stands out is its excellent drag-and-drop editor. This enables you to create the exact site that you want, as you can position any of the numerous elements with pixel-perfect precision. On the downside, HostGator’s templates are average at best. Many are outdated, and you'll need to do a significant amount of work to make them look professional.
However, a free domain name and SSL certificate, alongside unmetered storage and bandwidth, are certainly attractive features. Across three plans (Express Start, Express Site, and Express Store), the Gator Builder ranges from $3.84 to $9.22 a month, though premium customer support is only available by phone and chat on mid-range and top plans.
Free analytics are available on all plans, which is particularly handy for smaller businesses. Advanced users might find the lack of specialized tools disappointing, such as no dedicated email marketing features and relatively basic blogging.
Check out our HostGator review, and our comparison pitting HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy.
Weebly sits alongside Wix as one of the world’s most popular website builders, and it’s easy to see why. It boasts a great selection of professionally designed templates, and some of the best ecommerce and online tools available via payment giant Square, which should give you confidence in their reliability and usefulness.
Noteworthy features include advanced site stats, SEO tools, customizable email templates, and full inventory management. One noteworthy downside is Weebly’s somewhat limited editor, which constrains you to pre-coded element positions. You can still drag elements to reorder them, but you certainly won’t benefit from the pixel-perfect editing some platforms offer.
There are seven plans, including a free-forever plan that allows you to create a site and online store, though you can't connect your own domain. The cheapest Personal plan ($6 a month) adds custom domain support and more advanced ecommerce, while the Professional ($12 a month) and Performance ($26 a month) plans offer further advanced ecommerce options.
Read our Weebly review, our comparison pitting Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly, and our interview with Square Online's ecommerce product lead Katie Miller.
The 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite website builder is an affordable, beginner-friendly builder backed by a great selection of templates and the power of Europe’s largest hosting provider.
It comes with a range of great features, including one of the best template libraries available. You'll find designs for virtually any type of site, including portfolios, ecommerce stores, and simple blogs. In addition, you have access to a range of stock photos you can use to make your new website stand out from the crowd.
There are numerous SEO and marketing tools, and the blog manager is one of the best we’ve seen. The editor is also excellent, boasting an intuitive yet powerful interface. On the downside, there’s no free forever plan or free trial, but there's a paid trial for one month for new users, and with prices starting at just $5 a month, this is a relatively minor flaw.
With eight plans across different site types, there are three for basic site builders, ranging from $1 (Starter) to $10 a month (Pro), with ecommerce options (from $1 to $25). Three plans offer design advice and consultation (from $30 to $60), alongside two MyWebsite Now and Creator plans.
These offer a builder packaged with marketing tools, a free domain for a year, a free SSL certificate, and emails; and are free for the first month, increasing to $17 and $23.
Read our 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite review.
Constant Contact is one of the world’s most powerful email marketing platforms. However, it also comes with a neat little website builder, which you can access for just $10 a month. This makes it a great option for those who plan to focus on email marketing as a major part of their overall strategy.
One particularly interesting feature here is Constant Contact’s AI-powered builder. To take advantage of this, simply answer a few basic questions, and then the platform will deliver a custom template based on your needs. Edit this, add your own content, and hit publish to get online in record time.
On the downside, Constant Contact doesn’t offer a free domain, and the editor is far from the most powerful we’ve seen, while a free plan lets you try the builder, but doesn’t let you publish your site. Four premium plans are available across a different price structure to most other builders: it offers a range of email marketing services as well.
All website building tools, including ecommerce, are available with the Website Builder plan ($10 a month). Email ($20) and Email Plus ($45) options add more advanced email marketing tools, and Ecommerce Pro ($195) adds powerful, AI-driven email marketing.
Read our full Constant Contact review.
The best easy website builders for business
Easy website builders offer streamlined site creation, and can be used with little to no coding or technical experience. Some of the best website builders are easier to use than others, while some are much more suited to creating business sites.
The best easy website builders for business come with different focuses, audiences, and feature online store tools, appointment booking features, or marketing kits. Some come with advanced online store creation tools. They enable you to sell products online, essentially digitizing your business and creating avenues for increased income.
Platforms like Wix are excellent, but complicated editors can make them a little difficult to use. On the other hand, platforms like Site123 are extremely easy to use, but don’t always have a lot to offer businesses.
There are a few things to keep an eye out for when searching for an easy website builder for your business. Marketing tools are always a bonus; the ability to accept online bookings will be crucial for many businesses; and high-quality SEO is important to help people find you online.
After testing countless options by signing up for accounts and creating our own basic sites, we’ve put together the following list of the best easy website builders for business owners.
What are the best easy website builders?
How to choose the best easy website builder
Before settling on a builder, you'll need to sit down and make a list of the tools and features you require. Price is an important consideration, and if you’re looking for something cheap, you'll want to go for a platform such as GoDaddy.
Consider factors like online store support if required. Shopify is a clear leader in this space, although most website builders come with some sort of ecommerce ability. The ability to accept online bookings is also important for many businesses. Again, most builders include this, but Wix and GoDaddy stand out with excellent booking tools.
Design flexibility is crucial for those who'd like full freedom to customize their site. The Elementor/WordPress combination is great for this, and Wix doesn’t do too badly either. These two platforms are also great for blogging, another thing that will be important to many business owners.
Once you’ve listed your requirements, you can begin to create a shortlist of the most attractive options. We’d recommend starting with the easy website builders for business that we’ve outlined.
Almost all website builders have a free version or free trial, enabling you to test them before committing to a subscription. It’s worth putting the time in to test a few options before settling on your favorite. Everyone’s needs are different, and a large part of your choice will come down to simple personal preference.
Website builder FAQs
What's the difference between website builders and web hosting?
WordPress vs website builders: what's the difference?
Free website builders vs paid website builders: what's best?
What is a good free website builder?
What's the best cheap website builder available?
How to choose from the best website builders
How we review the best website builders
Further reading on website builders
Read our full Site123 review, and our guides covering how to build a site from scratch, and how to build an ecommerce website. Read our insights into the top tools needed, what we consider the foundations, and why you need a small business website.
