The best website builders utilize drag-and-drop software to aid you in the process of building your first website, or your most recent. You can create an entire site without any coding knowledge, too: consequently, many providers are considered easy website builders.
Leading free site creators provide you with the ability to test and try out website building platforms before you decide whether to invest in their paid plans: for basic, personal, or portfolio websites, they can more than suffice.
However, it's worth remembering upfront that as with anything that you don't pay for, the best free website builders are often limited: in this case, when it comes to features, tools, and capabilities. Intrusive advertisements are just one additional element you'll have to contend with when building your site.
Below, we've ranked and reviewed the best free website builders available, comparing them in terms of their pros and cons, and their performance against key factors, to help you find the right free website builder for your new site.
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The 3 best free website builders
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What are the best free website builders?
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If you're looking for a free website builder with great functionality, you can’t go wrong with our top three providers: Wix, Zyro, and Weebly.
Wix is the best all-round website builder, and we found it to be the best ecommerce and small business site creator, with its competitive free plan offering access to the full builder.
Weebly offers industry-leading ecommerce features even on its free plan, and is one of the easiest website builders to use should you be new to the site-building world. Zyro is a great beginner's option even with limited creative freedom.
WordPress is the industry leader for content creators and bloggers, while Strikingly, Site123, Jimdo, Webflow, Webnode, and Mozello each offer different types of sites and various free packages.
| Website builder | Storage | Bandwidth | Adverts on sites? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | 500MB | 500MB | ✔ |
| Zyro | 500MB | 500MB | ✔ |
| Weebly | 500MB | 500MB | ✔ |
| WordPress | 3GB | Unlimited | ✔ |
| Strikingly | 500MB | 5GB (a month) | ✔ |
| Site123 | 250MB | 250MB | ✔ |
| Jimdo | 500MB | 2GB | ✖ |
| Webflow | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Webnode | 100MB | 1GB | ✖ |
| Mozello | 500MB | 1GB | ✔ |
The best free website builders available
Wix is arguably the best all-around website builder for most people. It employs a sleek drag-and-drop UI that makes website building super intuitive. Unsurprisingly, Wix currently boasts more than 200 million users across 190 countries.
Wix’s proprietary artificial intelligence-based web design tool, WixADI, can help you set up a website after answering a few simple questions. If you would rather create your site manually, there are over 500 premade templates to help you expedite the process. You can also customize every aspect of your website using the drag-and-drop site editor.
When you sign up for a new account, Wix offers 500MB of free storage for building your first website. However, you can’t use your own domain name or create an ecommerce site on this free plan. There’s also a sizable banner advertisement displayed across each free website.
Read our full Wix review; our interview with Head Product Manager Michal Bignitz; and our guide on how to make a website with Wix.
Zyro is a website builder from Hostinger, the popular web hosting service provider. The drag-and-drop editor is very easy to use and boasts a huge collection of AI-based features to automate the process of creating a new website.
Zyro has over 150 templates for users to choose from. The platform is very easy to use and is best for simple projects that don’t require advanced design features. Zyro is a new player in the website builder space, which means it’s regularly updated. One such update is the great AI-based content writing tool that automatically writes web pages and blog posts for your site.
Zyro’s free plan comes with 500MB of storage space. However, there will be some non-intrusive advertisements displayed on your website. Upgrading to a paid plan gives you access to more features and removes all adverts.
Read our Zyro review and our interview with CEO Giedrius Zakaitis; and our Hostinger review, alongside our interview with CMO Daugirdas Jankus.
Weebly is super straightforward. While it lacks advanced features, you will find this website builder sufficient for basic web development. Simply enter your name, email, and password, and you can set up your website in no time.
Like Wix, Weebly uses an intuitive drag-and-drop interface as well as readymade templates to aid you in the website creation process. This platform is especially good for creating ecommerce websites thanks to a fully integrated shopping cart and lots of payment options to choose from, due to Weebly's tie-ins with Square Online.
Weebly is also very social media-friendly, allowing visitors to share content across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and more.
Weebly’s free-forever plan requires no credit card details to sign up. You get 500MB of free storage and a free SSL certificate with it. However, you will be required to use a .weebly.com domain and display certain advertisements.
Read our Weebly review, our comparison pitting Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly, and our interview with Square Online's ecommerce product lead Katie Miller.
WordPress.com (not to be confused with WordPress.org) is a free website-building platform that’s ideal for bloggers and content creators. It runs on a modified version of the WordPress.org software and offers a range of features that are perfect for publishers from every niche.
Built-in analytics, site-wide search, comment systems, image galleries, and post archives are among the growing list of features offered by this platform. WordPress.com also comes with hundreds of free and premium templates and widgets to further personalize your website.
WordPress.com’s free plan offers about 3GB of storage space. However, you can’t use a premium domain name (.com, .net, etc.) and will have to make do with a .wordpress.com subdomain unless you upgrade to a paid plan. That said, this is standard for almost all free website builders.
Read our WordPress review; read how to make a website with WordPress; discover the biggest WordPress website mistakes; and the best WordPress website builder plugins.
If the website you’re building is for personal rather than business purposes, Strikingly might be the thing for you. This simple website builder helps you create one-page websites with ease. You don’t get the same level of control as with Wix, but the tool is great if you want to set something up really quickly.
Strikingly offers a limited selection of templates to choose from. Customizing your site is easy, as long as you don’t want to make any massive changes. And it’s possible to keep making changes once your website is live, so you don’t have to worry about being stuck with the wrong design. You can also add a simple blog and an ecommerce store to your site or use contact forms to gather information from visitors.
Strikingly’s free plan gets you 500MB of storage, 5GB monthly bandwidth, and 24/7 customer support. There’s no free SSL certificate included, and you have to use the compulsory .mystrikingly.com subdomain. If you want your website to have more than one page, you have to upgrade to a paid plan.
Read our Strikingly review.
Site123 is a great option for beginners. It lets you quickly create a standard website or blog without having to familiarize yourself with a new system. Sadly, that also means that you don’t get as much creative control over the final website as you might like.
Every website built with Site123 is fully responsive; you don’t have to apply any special effort to make templates look good across different devices and platforms. Websites are also fully SEO-optimized. Moreover, you get access to a limited collection of royalty-free images, even on the free plan. The paid plan also offers ecommerce options, should you require them.
Site123 offers 250MB of free storage, which is less than the standard for most website builders in this category. However, the biggest downside of using the platform is that your domain name is just a collection of random numbers, which looks rather unprofessional.
Read our Site123 review.
Jimdo is a website builder that values simplicity over functionality. Even with no prior knowledge of website design, it’s very easy to get started, and you will end up with a nice basic website before you know it.
To make things really straightforward, Jimdo scatters little question mark tooltips across the interface to provide you with information whenever you feel stuck. You can either use the platform’s AI-based website builder, or a limited manual website builder tool and pre-made templates to start building your website.
Jimdo’s free plan only lets you sell up to five products on your website and doesn’t give you access to its analytics dashboard. You also have to use the platform’s subdomain, but thankfully, there are no annoying advertisements to contend with.
Read our Jimdo review.
While most website builders focus on ease of use, Webflow prides itself on functionality. The tool is best suited to freelance web developers and creative agencies in need of a professional visual builder.
Webflow can accomplish any web design task without the need for coding. Want to create a custom slideshow for your favorite posts? Done. Need a parallax hero section to decorate the top of your website? No problem. Webflow gives you full control over your website, whether or not you know HTML and CSS.
Webflow has a forever-free plan that allows you to publish up to two websites on its .webflow.io subdomain. This plan requires no credit card details to subscribe. Additionally, both free and paid themes are available, as well as a host of additional plugins to enhance the functionality of your site.
With over 30 million users worldwide, Webnode is a popular choice among those looking for a simple website builder with no learning curve. Sadly, it also seriously hinders your creative potential.
Webnode has a limited number of templates that can be customized to create your ideal website. Its site editor is easy to use, but offers little flexibility when compared to popular platforms like Wix or Weebly. This website builder doesn’t have much to offer in the way of features, but it’s still a decent choice for those looking for a simple solution.
Webnode’s free plan includes just 100MB of storage. You also have to use the platform’s subdomain if you go with the free plan, but it’s hidden in the footer, so at least it isn’t obvious.
Mozello is a straightforward website builder that’s great for creating multilingual websites. You also get access to some basic ecommerce features that enable you to sell up to 10 products on the free plan, which is great.
Mozello isn’t an exceptional website builder in terms of functionality or ease of use. It’s simple enough, but making advanced changes feels like an uphill battle. However, it quickly makes up for all of that with its excellent multilingual functionality. The platform also provides decent options for SEO optimization.
Mozello offers users 500MB of storage on the free plan. You have to use the platform’s subdomain, and there’s no free SSL certificate included with the plan. However, it does offer basic ecommerce support, and lets you sell up to 10 products on your online store without paying a cent.
What is a website builder?
A website builder helps you create a website, regardless of your levels of experience. Website builders range all the way from simple platforms through to powerful, customizable editors, and are equipped with drag-and-drop functionality, template libraries, and additional tools for areas including ecommerce stores and portfolio design.
Free website builders vs paid website builders: what's best?
What is a good free website builder?
Further reading on website builders
If you're just starting out in the world of website creation, learn how to build a site from scratch; find out how to build an ecommerce website if that's your intention.
When it comes to small businesses, you might wonder why you need a website: learn top tips for creating a small business website, the top tools needed to succeed, and the foundations of a successful small business site.
