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The 15 Best Website Builder Companies of 2021
How We Chose the Best Website Builder
When it comes to selecting a website builder for your small business, your company’s needs will help guide which choice is best for you. In building our list of recommendations for website builders, we looked at three key criteria that companies use to evaluate which product is the best solution for them.
Customization Options
A good website builder gives you multiple ways to customize your website for your business, including a robust catalog of templates, app compatibility, and e-commerce compatibility.
Accessible to Use, but with Customer Support
A good website builder should be easy to use with drag-and-drop options that you do not have to be a developer to use, but if you have questions, you have the support you need.
Free Trial or Version
Deciding on a website builder is an important decision — switching website builders often means starting from scratch with building your website. We selected website builders who offer free trials or versions, so you can try it out before you commit.
The Top 15 Website Builders of 2021
| Company | Price | Free Trial | More details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constant Contact | $10/month | 60-day | Visit Constant Contact |
| Duda | $14/month for Basic $22/month for Team $44/month for Agency | 14-day | Visit Duda |
| Gator Website Builder | $3.84/month for Starter $5.99/month for Premium $9.22/month for ecommerce | 45-day | Visit Gator Website Builder |
| GoDaddy Websites | $10/month for Basic $15/month for Standard $20/month for Premium $25/month for Ecommerce | 30-day | Visit GoDaddy Websites |
| Jimdo | Free for Basic $39/month for Unlimited $8/month for Grow $9/month for Start | N/A | Visit Jimdo |
| PageCloud | $24/month for Business $65/month for Pro | 14-day | Visit PageCloud |
| Shopify | $29/month for Basic Shopify $79/month for Shopify $299/month for Advanced Shopify | 14-day | Visit Shopify |
| Site123 | Free for Basic $12.80/month for Premium | N/A | Visit Site123 |
| Squarespace | $16/month for Personal $26/month for Business $30/month for Basic Commerce $46/month for Advanced Commerce | 14-day | Visit Squarespace |
| Strikingly | $20/month for Pro $12/month for Limited | N/A | Visit Strikingly |
| Webflow | $12/month for Basic $16/month for CMS $36/month for Business *price varies for Enterprise | Free version available | Visit Webflow |
| Webs.com | $5.99/month for Starter $12.99/month for Enhanced $22.99/month for Pro | Free version available | Visit Webs.com |
| Weebly | Free for Basic $6/month for Personal $12/month for Professional $26/month for Performance | N/A | Visit Weebly |
| Wix | $39/month for VIP $22/month for Pro $17/month for Unlimited $13/month for Combo | 14-day | Visit Wix |
| Wordpress.com | Free for Basic $4/month for Personal $8/month for Premium $25/month for Business $45/month for ecommerce | N/A | Visit Wordpress.com |
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is famous for its email marketing platform that has since expanded to offer a website building platform to support small businesses. Some of its selling features include a drag-and-drop interface, image editor, CDN content delivery, and an AI tool that makes launching a web page from an optimized template quick and easy.
It integrates with Unsplash images, giving businesses access to high quality, professional images for their websites. Its website builder also supports a number of payment gateways, including PayPal, Mobile, and Stripe.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $10/month | 60-day | >Free domain for 365 days >Report and analysis dashboard >Comprehensive ecommerce platform >More features at Constant Contact |
Pros & Cons of Constant Contact Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Easy to use >Full-featured free option >Royalty-free images | >Blogging tools are basic |
What Customers Are Saying
“If you are running a simple blog, then this builder is for you. It offers a lot of free features hidden in a beautiful interface with tools that are easy to use”
Duda
Duda website builder provides several templates for you to customize your website and an option to build it from scratch making it an ideal solution for both web designers and novice DIYers. Businesses can create fully responsive websites with full capacity eCommerce functionality as well.
Duda focuses on ease of use and speed to get your website up and running by using page speed optimization, content import, and site personalization. It also has a wide range of applications and widgets to choose from, including editable templates.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $14/month for Basic $22/month for Team $44/month for Agency | 14-day | >Drag-and-drop builder >Design control features >Structured editable templates >More features at Duda |
Pros & Cons of Duda Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Easy-to-use applications and tools >Freedom to exercise your own creativity >Social media integration | >Testing may be clunky |
What Customers Are Saying
“Duda is everything you need when building or hosting a mobile-friendly website that comes with a full-featured ecommerce section.”
Gator Website Builder
Grow your business with one of the best website builder platforms on the market. Gator Website Builder is a simple platform intended to help companies with little technical knowledge build a website for their business. Its intuitive drag-and-drop feature makes it easy and offers multiple templates for a wide variety of industries.
It’s a great choice for small advertising companies or businesses wanting to set up a company blog. It provides its customers with handy, onboarding tutorials on how to use its platforms. The builder also has a free SSL certificate.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $3.84/month for Starter $5.99/month for Premium $9.22/month for eCommerce | 45-day | >Comprehensive Gator eCommerce plan >Onboarding tutorial >More features at Gator Website Builder |
Pros & Cons of Gator Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Excellent editor >Free SSL certificate >Reliable customer support | >Limited webstore features |
What Customers Are Saying
“For the lovers of DIY, Gator Website Builder offers that space for you and it gets it right without costing much of your budget.”
GoDaddy Websites
GoDaddy is an established name when it comes to building websites. It’s main business is selling domain names and web hosting services, but it offers a website builder as well for an all-inclusive website building option.
Its platform is great for beginners with a user-friendly interface with ready-made mobile optimization features. It’s dashboard also allows you to select multiple language options beyond English. There are multiple help videos available to help you through the setup and customization process.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $10/month for Basic $15/month for Standard $20/month for Premium $25/month for Ecommerce | 30-day | >Own the domain name >Comes with widgets >Monetization >More features at GoDaddy Websites |
Pros & Cons of GoDaddy Websites
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Easy-to-use interface >Adding and removing page elements is easy >Optimized layouts | >Limited editing layouts |
What Customers Are Saying
“Its attractive, responsive-ready designs offer many options to choose from, but it doesn’t always give the option for changing the page design.”
Jimdo
Jimdo is a one-stop solution to build a business profile or online store. The site builder features domain purchase, design, web hosting, online sales, blog services, and management of email accounts. Its pre-built templates use HTML and CSS, which enables easy tweaks to customize a site based on your needs. It also allows you to edit multiple SEO settings like page titles and meta descriptions to help your website rank.
Jimdo regularly updates its features to ensure the most robust and up-to-date tools to choose from.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free for Basic $39/month for Unlimited $8/month for Grow $9/month for Start | N/A | >Automatic navigation >Aesthetic ranking system >SEO automation >More features at Jimdo |
Pros & Cons of Jimdo Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Easy-to-use editor >All-powerful settings available for customizations >Ability to add custom CSS and HTML code | >Allows maximum of 2 domains |
What Customers Are Saying
“The range of features and easy-to-use interface make Jimdo an excellent choice to create an attractive website for your business.”
PageCloud
PageCloud is a website builder used by both web designers and small business owners to create beautiful business websites. It’s multiple templates provide professional options and its drag-and-drop features allow for speedy creation with no need for writing code. More advanced developers use PageCloud due to its intuitive design features, shortcuts, and its ability to customize the source code.
It offers robust SEO tools, quick loading, and many other features that convert leads and track website performance.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $24/month for Business $65/month for Pro | 14-day | >Drag-and-drop editor >Online store builder >SEO management >More features at PageCloud |
Pros & Cons of PageCloud Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Drag-and-drop feature >Post scheduling | >No detailed eCommerce tools |
What Customers Are Saying
“This website builder uses the modern what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) drag-and-drop feature. WYSIWYG gives leeway to site developers to come up with intuitive, mobile-friendly websites. However, eCommerce lacks blogging and analytical features.”
Shopify
Shopfiy is a leading choice for businesses that need a robust eCommerce platform. In addition to its online shop, businesses can also link their social media profiles to integrate with marketplaces like Amazon. Shopify makes use of online payments that allow your website to interact with Shopify Credit cards, eliminating the need for third parties.
Other features such as Shopify Payments, Shopify Augmented Reality, and Shopify POS help scale eCommerce businesses. Its website builder is easy to use and provides two separate editors to help navigate products with ease. Its 10 free templates on Shopify provide multiple themes to match different business types.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $29/month for Basic Shopify $79/month for Shopify $299/month for Advanced Shopify | 14-day | >Themed templates >Accepts direct card payments >Multi-channel retail, including online, social media, and offline >More features at Shopify |
Pros & Cons of Shopify Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Fully hosted website >Variety of themes >Easy to use | >Customization depends on platform capabilities |
What Customers Are Saying
“Shopify works beyond its features and gives us customers an easy to use eCommerce themed templates that are clear, simple, and intuitive.”
Site123
Site123 website builder provides templates for different business categories, including portfolio sites, small business sites, and online stores. It also prides itself on being a multilingual platform for web translation with over 20 different languages to choose from.
Its site builder is easy to use and with a user-intuitive interface that gets even the most novice site builders building with ease. Site123 does not use a drag-and-drop editor, but a form editor, and while all of its templates are responsive, there may be elements that you can’t customize. That said, it has a free plan that allows you to test all the aspects of its platform before upgrading to a paid plan.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free for Basic $12.80/month for Premium | Free plan | >Has eCommerce templates >Allows for monetization >Widgets and small tools >More features at Site123 |
Pros & Cons of Site123 Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Multilingual options >Free plan available >Easy-to-use interface | >Some layout restrictions |
What Customers Are Saying
“With Site123, it’s easy to create a website. It provides great features and multiple templates to choose from, so you’re sure to find an appropriate theme for your business.”
Squarespace
Squarespace provides more than 60 high-quality, professional-looking templates to choose from that are all mobile-friendly. Its site builder is easy to use, but if you have questions it provides dedicated customer support via live chat to respond to your questions. It offers built-in tools that support bloggers, entrepreneurs, and creative designers, including integrating with Google and Paypal, plus SEO tools, eCommerce capabilities, and social media plugins.
For businesses that need an online store, it has two dedicated eCommerce business plans with built-in tools like abandoned cart recovery and inventory management. Its online store platform also supports product videos and the ability to sell offline.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $16/month for Personal $26/month for Business $30/month for Basic Commerce $46/month for Advanced Commerce | 14-day | >Social media integration >SEO and marketing >Event planning >More features at Squarespace |
Pros & Cons of Squarespace Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Serves many template themes >Live chat support >Blogging feature | >Single navigation menu |
What Customers Are Saying
“Beautiful themes and templates’ considered to be the best among its peers. The 7.1 version is a needed improvement to the site builder.”
Strikingly
Strikingly is a great choice for beginners and solopreneurs — a simple, single-page website can be built quickly and affordably. It’s excellent customer support is available for any questions you may have. It offers good designs, but prioritizes speed of launch than complex site editing. If your business requires more than a page, its Pro package supports more than 20 pages, which is usually enough for many small businesses.
Other features it offers include support for online stores with maximum limit of 500 products, mobile-friendly platform, and “call” and “send mail” functionality to make it easy for your customers to reach you.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $20/month for Pro $12/month for Limited | Free plan | >Simple store >Analytics >Social feed integration >More features at Strikingly |
Pros & Cons of Strikingly Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Reliable customer support >Easy to use >Great templates | >Cannot add custom features to free version |
What Customers Are Saying
“Strikingly lets you create a well-designed site with extreme ease, though there are limited options for customization.”
Webflow
Webflow offers a high-level of customization that does not require coding skills with a large number of templates that are suitable for dynamic and eCommerce content. The website builder supports different tools in one, including a design tool, CMS, and hosting platform, which covers all aspects of hosting.
Once you get into editor mode, adding and removing features is simple and if you have some technical knowledge, making adjustments using code is also an option. Its user interface is easy to learn, which is good, because it doesn’t offer a dedicated customer support line.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $12/month for Basic $16/month for CMS $36/month for Business *price varies for Enterprise | Free plan | >Great SEO tools >Customizable templates >Backup and security >More features at Webflow |
Pros & Cons of Webflow Websites Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Great customization levels >No need for coding styles >Responsive templates | >No dedicated support line |
What Customers Are Saying
“Webflow is a niche product that will offer a design enthusiast a perfect tool for making visually appealing websites.”
Webs.com
Webs.com first started as a free service and their primary target market is small business owners and startups. It uses a WYSIWYG editor as its site builder, but it doesn’t allow for customization editing using HTML or CSS files. That said, you can customize the theme color, background color, images, navigation bar, body copy, footer, and font styles. It also supports membership sites and its app store integrates easily with many third-party apps.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $5.99/month for Starter $12.99/month for Enhanced $22.99/month for Pro | Free version available | >Free website plan >Customized mobile-ready templates >Intuitive editor >More features at Webs.com |
Pros & Cons of Webs.com Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Intuitive editor >Can build membership sites >The app store simplifies integration | >Only 40 templates available |
What Customers Are Saying
“The site builder is easy to use with a standard range of features that provides the best design.”
Weebly
Weebly is a site builder that maintains two editors — the Square editor for eCommerce sites, and the Weebly editor for non-eCommerce websites. The Weebly editor is easy to customize and for experienced developers there’s a built-in coding window to make the required customization. The Square editor is more rigid and doesn’t allow many customization options.
Weebly is an intuitive and powerful website builder with free responsive template designs to choose from. You can develop a full eCommerce website with all available options, and it provides web traffic and stats available on the dashboard. On the other flip side, there is no re-usable photo storage, and mobile sites are not customizable.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free for Basic $6/month for Personal $12/month for Professional $26/month for Performance | N/A | >Drag-and-drop interface >Third-party integration >Activity dashboard >More features at Weebly |
Pros & Cons of Weebly Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Intuitive interface >Responsive design themes >Site statistics available | >No reusable photo storage >Mobile sites are not customizable |
What Customers Are Saying
“Weebly is an easy-to-use website builder with a free install option available enabling you to create attractive responsive designs and online stores.”
Wix
Wix is a flexible site builder which hosts hundreds of free templates that span a multitude of industries, so you’re sure to find one to meet your needs. Its easy-to-use, drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to launch a mobile-friendly site the same day.
The app feature makes integration seamless when dealing with eCommerce and photo galleries. And, because it’s served the industry for so long, its extensive knowledge base is there as a great resource for customers. It provides routine backups, so you can rest assured that your site is safe.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| $39/month for VIP $22/month for Pro $17/month for Unlimited $13/month for Combo | 14-day | >Security, backups, and restores >SEO tools >Wix Ascend >More features at Wix |
Pros & Cons of Wix Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Easy-to-use editor >Automatic website backups >Great customer support features | >Can't switch templates once the site is live >Costly when involving third party apps |
What customers Are Saying
“Wix site builder offers robust features that you can use to develop a highly-customizable website free, plus use the free hosting plan. Though, you can’t switch themes, so make sure you pick the right one.”
WordPress.com
Wordpress.com is a common name in the website game from both blogging and website creation. It has options for both simple blogs and to more complicated websites that require eCommerce features, mobile optimization, and social media integration.
WordPress.com offers dozens of themes and pre-installed security certificates. Other benefits from WordPress.com include SEO tools, social sharing, site statistics, emails, live chats, customer support, and spam filtering.
| Price | Free Trial | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Free for Basic $4/month for Personal $8/month for Premium $25/month for Business $45/month for eCommerce | N/A | >Social media integration >Analytics >SEO and marketing >More features at Wordpress.com |
Pros & Cons of WordPress.com Website Builder
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Best for blogging >Many features available >Practical pricing plans | >Not beginner-friendly |
What the Customers Are Saying
“Wordpress.com offers a decent low-cost platform for a blogger.”
What are Website Builders?
A website builder is a platform to help small businesses set up a website. The applications website builders use feature drag-and-drop editors that enable even the most non-technical person to install a website. Depending on the type of plan or the organization handling the hosting services, you will be provided with custom templates and themes to fit into a layout of choice.
Website builders are available in both online and an offline platform. The online site builder requires that you purchase a plan through a hosting service, which gives you the freedom to work anywhere and anytime as long as there is internet access. Offline site builders use a downloadable application, and your computer will work as a local database where you can upload your content. To keep them online, you have to purchase a hosting plan from a web host.
Benefits of Website Builders
Owning a small business is already a challenge, and it becomes tough if you want your business to have an online presence but lack the technical knowhow. Some benefits of a good website builder include:
- Good Design Templates. A website builder offers dozens of layouts and features that require no additional coding skills to manipulate. Most website builders use the drag-and-drop feature which makes it easy to get the design you want. Simple activities such as uploading images, changing colors, and themes are a simple click of a button.
- Launch Your Website Quickly. Templates and website elements are designed by professionals and are ready to go. By selecting the template you want, identifying the tools and add-ons that you need, and updating site content to your specific business is all you have to do to launch your website.
- More Cost-Effective. The pricing plans website builders’ use are cheaper in comparison to purchasing a theme and hiring a professional to handle the project, which may be an unrealistic expense for some small businesses on a small budget.
What to Look for in a Website Builder
You are sure that you need a website, but you have no clue where to start the process. Consider the following factors before comparison shopping website builders.
- Easy-to-use platform. The idea behind a website platform is to make things easier by installing easy-to-use editors. Look for an intuitive tool that you can use to design the online face of your business, including features like drag and drop and a (WYSIWYG) editor.
- Lots of templates. Website builders should have many templates for you to choose from to make it easy for your brand to stand out online.
- Responsive templates. Customers will be browsing the internet through their phones and tablets, and the best you can do is design mobile-friendly websites. Responsive websites work for the majority of users because no elements on the main website are lost when users switch to their devices.
- Customization options. A good website builder should have all possible customization options when making a website, including adding pages, changing colors, loading images, icons, menus, etc.
- SEO features. Your business needs marketing more than anything else to survive the competition does. A website builder should have the most reliable SEO tools.
The Cost of Website Builders
A typical website builder charges you according to what you require. Some may include website maintenance fees, increasing bandwidth, managing the database on your behalf, etc. In general, website builders can cost anywhere from $10-$50 per month.