Website builders are a perfect solution for individuals and small businesses to start a website without hiring a developer. However, finding the best website builder can be complicated for beginners.
There are so many website builders in the market, how do you know which solution is right for you?
In this article, we will help you choose the best website builder by looking at the pros and cons of the most popular options. Let’s compare the following website builders in this article.
12 Best Website Builder
- WordPress.org
- Constant Contact Website Builder
- SiteBuilder
- Gator by HostGator
- BigCommerce
- Shopify
- Weebly
- Squarespace
- WordPress.com
- Wix
- BoldGrid
- GoDaddy Website Builder
What to look When Choose the best website builder?
Before comparing the best site builders, we recommend that you write what you want to do with your site. What are your goals and what features would you like to see on your site?
For example, you could write things like: have a blog section, photo gallery, online store, reservation system, contact form, slider, etc.
If you are not sure what you want, check with your competitors or other sites for inspiration.
Most website builders offer a drag-and-drop user interface to create your site. You can take advantage of the test accounts to test the unit before making your final decision.
Next, you should consider your growth options. Will you add periodic updates to your site? Do you need a blog section? Would you sell more products on your site in the future?
You must ensure that the website designer you choose can meet your needs as your business grows.
That said, let’s take a look at the main platforms of the site builder to build your site without hiring a developer.
#1. WordPress Website Builder
WordPress.org (also known as self-hosted WordPress) is the world’s most popular website creation platform. More than 34% of all Internet sites are based on WordPress.
Note: There are two versions of WordPress available. There are self-hosted WordPress.org and WordPress.com. We will talk about WordPress.com later in this article.
Self-hosted WordPress tops our list of the best website builders due to its popularity, powerful features, scalability, and ease of use.
WordPress is a builder of free and open-source websites. This means that you have maximum control over your site compared to any other online site builder on this list.
Unlike other website builders, you will need a WordPress hosting account and host your own website (this is much easier than it seems).
Pros:
WordPress gives you complete control over all aspects of your site. It can be used to create any type of website. For example, an e-commerce store, community forums, a social network, a membership site and more.
There are thousands of prebuilt WordPress themes that you can use to design your site. It also has amazing drag and drops page builders, such as Beaver Builder and Divi, that allow you to easily create your own page layouts.
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You will also have access to more than 50,000 free WordPress plugins. They are like WordPress applications that add additional features and functionality to your site.
WordPress is fully translated into dozens of languages and can easily be used to create multilingual websites.
When you consider all the above benefits, WordPress is by far the cheapest website builder in the market.
Cons:
You must manage your own site, which means that you should familiarize yourself with a new system. This slight learning curve is easily overcome by most users, but it seems a bit difficult at first.
You should also keep up with WordPress updates, plugin updates and create backup copies.
Prices:
Although WordPress is a free website builder, you will need a domain name and web hosting to make your site available, which generally costs $ 14.99 / year and $ 7.99 per month, respectively.
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#2. Constant Contact Website Builder
Constant Contact websites Builder is an artificial intelligence builder of advanced technology websites that helps you create a personalized website in minutes. This is a dream come true for small non-technology business owners.
Pros
Constant Contact is known for being the world’s leading email marketing service. After hearing the concerns of small businesses, they decided to create the world’s first artificial intelligence website builder that helps them create a website in minutes.
You can use the guided AI wizard to create a fully customized website with personalized images and content suggestions.
The drag-and-drop site generator facilitates the customization of the site design. You can choose from your library of more than 550,000 free professional-quality images to make your site visually stunning.
All Template is compatible with mobile devices, your site will look great on all devices.
Being a hosted web site solution, it is a totally uncomplicated website builder. They also offer chat, email, and telephone support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which is ideal for small businesses.
Other features of the platform include logo maker, lead capture forms, website analysis, e-commerce and more.
The best part of Constant Contact is that it is a free website builder. This means that you can create a website, a blog and even an online store for free.
Your free plan is quite generous compared to other list website builders because it allows you to set up an online store and sell products. Most other website builders restrict the e-commerce plan to paid users only.
The Constant Contact payment plan is also very affordable starting at $ 10 a month, which gives you access to a free domain and all its powerful features.
Given the features, Constant Contact is definitely one of the best professional website builders on this list.
Cons
Currently, the developer ecosystem is small, so there are no third-party extensions that you can install on your site to add new features that Constant Contact does not offer.
Like any other website builder, if you want to connect a custom domain name, you must upgrade to the payment plan. The good thing is that they provide a free domain name when you update.
Prices:
Constant Contact offers a powerful free website builder that allows you to create a website, a blog and even an online store.
If you want to use your own custom domain, get access to advanced features and telephone support, you must upgrade to the initial plan, which costs $ 10 per month.
Most of the business plan costs $ 20 per month and comes with advanced features for e-commerce websites.
If you are a small business that does not want to use WordPress, Constant Contact is definitely a great option.
#3. SiteBuilder
SiteBuilder is an easy site builder that allows you to create a small business website, blog or even an e-commerce website with just a few clicks.
Pros
SiteBuilder offers an easy drag and drops site builder to create your site. You can start with one of its hundreds of professionally designed templates and customize it using a simple drag-and-drop interface to match your brand.
All SiteBuilder templates are optimized for mobile devices, tablets, and desktops. This means that your site will look great on all devices.
It comes with all the powerful features you expect from a well-known website builder, including website analysis, e-commerce functionality, the ability to add a blog to any website and a free domain with all plans.
They offer live chat and telephone support for technical assistance, so you can get started easily.
Cons
Unlike other popular website builders, SiteBuilder does not have a free website creation option. Nor do they offer a free trial. However, they offer a 14-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the product.
Its extension ecosystem is small and you will not be able to hire a developer to create advanced features such as WordPress because it is not open source.
Because it is a proprietary platform, it will be difficult to migrate your site from SiteBuilder.
Prices
SiteBuilder paid plans to start at $ 5 per month for Pro, $ 7 per month for Premium and $ 10 per month for e-commerce.
All plans come with a free domain name for one year, free advertising credits and telephone assistance.
If you are looking for a professional website builder, SiteBuilder is a great option. However, if you want advanced features and more control over your content, nothing beats WordPress self-hosted (option # 1 on our list).
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#4. Gator Website Builder by HostGator
Gator is a popular builder of online websites created by HostGator, one of the largest hosting providers in the world. Gator Builder is a complete website creation and hosting solution that makes it a perfect website builder for small businesses.
Pros
Gator is a fully hosted platform so you don’t have to worry about software, updates or backups.
You get an easy website builder that allows you to choose from more than 200 professional website design templates. Each design comes with simple customization options that you can configure from the constructor itself.
You can edit any item on a page with a simple point-and-click interface. You can also drag and drop commonly used items, such as images, videos, photo galleries, text, columns, maps, and contact forms.
Gator also provides access to a built-in photo library so you can find and add beautiful photos to your site.
All paid plans include a free custom domain name for your site. The e-commerce plan also comes with the ability to set up an online store and sell its products online.
Because Gator is a paid product, they don’t sell their data or show ads on their site.
Cons
Unlike other options on the list, Gator does not have a free plan. Nor do they offer a free trial.
Like other proprietary website builders in the list, you cannot hire a developer to help you significantly modify the site design or add new features to the site.
Prices
Gator’s paid plans start at $ 3.84 per month, $ 5.99 per month for premium and $ 9.22 for the e-commerce plan. He is definitely one of the builders of the cheapest websites on the list.
Gator can be used to create a small business website, a store with limited items or a photo gallery. However, it is no match for the power of the most popular website builder, WordPress.
#5. BigCommerce (eCommerce website builder)
BigCommerce is the best e-commerce website builder in the market. If you want to create a scalable online store, BigCommerce is the platform for you. It comes with all the essential features integrated, so you can keep your overhead low and high margins.
Pros
BigCommerce is a fully hosted e-commerce solution, so you don’t have to worry about speed, security or site updates. They manage the server and the technical part for you so you can concentrate on growing your business.
Unlike other hosted e-commerce solutions, BigCommerce has a native integration with WordPress that allows you to take advantage of WordPress flexibility and take advantage of the decapitated power of e-commerce. Simply put, your site will be fast and secure, regardless of the traffic you receive.
BigCommerce integrates with all popular payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Square, Amazon Pay, Visa Checkout, Chase Pay, Ayden and more. Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce does not charge a transaction fee for using these payment methods.
You can start with one of the many predefined website templates and customize it to fit your needs using the simple drag-and-drop generator.
BigCommerce comes with many built-in features to handle conversion rate optimization, such as cart abandonment, enhanced product search, product reviews, coupons and more.
The best part is the control panel that allows you to see metrics to help you grow your business with confidence.
Cons
If you just start, you will find slightly higher BigCommerce prices than other website builders on the list.
Being a patented platform, it will be difficult to migrate from BigCommerce.
Prices
BigCommerce comes with a free 15-day trial for all plans. Your basic plans of $ 29.95 per month, which come with all the essential features you will need. You can upgrade to the positive plan, which costs $ 79.95 per month for additional conversion optimization features. Your professional plan costs $ 249.95 per month with all the advanced features you may need.
The best part of BigCommerce, compared to Shopify and other third-party e-commerce platforms, is that they have perfect integration with WordPress, which can be a great advantage if you want to combine the flexibility of WordPress with the power of BigCommerce.
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#6. Shopify
Shopify is another popular builder of e-commerce websites designed specifically for online stores and e-commerce websites. Power to more than half a million companies with 1 million active users. Over $ 40 billion in products were sold on the Shopify platform.
Pros
Shopify is a fully hosted all-in-one solution, which means you don’t have to worry about managing software, installing updates or keeping backups. Shopify does it all for you.
It offers an integrated payment solution called Shopify Payments. You can also add third-party payment gateways to accept payments.
As the builder of e-commerce sites, Shopify comes with complete inventory management, unlimited products, powerful statistics, easy marketing solutions, all organized under one roof. They have hundreds of designs to choose from and you never have to add code.
With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, Shopify makes it easy to create a complete e-commerce store. They also offer outlets in the store, allowing you to sell products at your location, accept all credit cards and take advantage of Shopify’s inventory, shipping, marketing and statistics management tools
Cons
If it is just beginning, it is possible that Shopify prices are slightly higher than those of other website designers on this list. If you want to change your Shopify site, it will be very difficult to do so.
Prices
The basic Shopify plan will cost $ 29 per month. You can upgrade it to Shopify for $ 79 per month or Advanced Shopify for $ 299 per month. Shopify also offers a Shopify Lite plan for $ 9 a month, which basically allows you to add a purchase button to any site.
If you want an e-commerce website creator without problems, Shopify may be the perfect option for you.
#7. Weebly
Weebly is an easy software to create websites with tons of excellent designs. It includes a beautifully designed page generator that allows you to edit your site without learning any coding skills.
Pros
Weebly is a fully hosted platform, so you don’t have to install or manage any software. They are responsible for hosting your website and managing all the software that runs on the backend.
It comes with dozens of website designs to use as a starting point for your site. These beautiful designs are fully editable using Weebly’s live page editor.
Weebly also comes with built-in e-commerce support. This allows you to easily create an online store and start selling.
Each Weebly site comes with built-in functions for contact forms, photo galleries, sliders and more. This allows you to easily add features to your site without any complicated configuration process.
Given its ease of use and excellent features, Weebly is constantly ranked among the best DIY site builders for beginners.
Cons
Weebly is a fully hosted platform, so you know the features they offer. You cannot hire a developer or designer to add new features to your site.
Weebly charges 3% transaction fees on all purchases made at its e-commerce store. You should update your business plan to avoid these additional charges.
Prices
Weebly comes with a very basic free plan. Your paid plans start at $ 8 per month charged annually. The professional plan costs $ 12 per month, and your business plan costs $ 25 per month.
#8. Squarespace Website Builder
Squarespace is a popular professional website builder known for its excellent designs and ease of use.
Pros
Squarespace comes with enterprise-level infrastructure to host your site. This secure and robust platform allows you to concentrate on growing your business without worrying about hosting.
Squarespace includes several website designs for you to start. All these designs are completely ready for all kinds of content. They are fully editable and Squarespace allows you to use multiple templates for the same site at once.
Adding content to your site is very easy on Squarespace. Simply point to any part of your site and start writing. You can easily drag and drop items on pages to create your own designs in minutes.
Squarespace also has an e-commerce plan that allows you to add an online store to your site. It offers an excellent interface to manage your products, inventory, orders, discount coupons and more.
Cons
Squarespace offers limited integrations with third-party services, which can be an obstacle to the growth of your business.
Their e-commerce plans only allow Stripe, Apple Pay and PayPal for payment processing. You cannot add additional payment gateways.
Prices
Squarespace sites start at $ 12 per month and $ 18 per month. Your online stores start at $ 26 and $ 40 a month.
Squarespace is a beautifully designed platform that offers very easy to use features. It can be perfect if you want to quickly create a website.
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#9. WordPress.com
WordPress.com is an automatic hosting service for blogs and websites. It was created by Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress open source software, hence the name of WordPress.com.
However, WordPress.com is not the same as WordPress.org self-hosted.
Pros
WordPress.com is a website hosting service. Built on the same WordPress software, but with a fully customized user experience. You don’t have to worry about software and backups, because WordPress.com takes care of that.
Your free and paid plans have a different set of features. All plans allow users to choose from hundreds of free and paid WordPress themes. You can use the built-in customizer to add the site title, use widgets, add navigation menus, etc
It does not offer the same drag and drop functionality as other site builders. However, you can easily customize the designs to some extent. builders It does not offer the same drag and drop functionality as other site builders. However, you can easily customize the designs to some extent.
Cons
You cannot install plugin or custom themes unless you upgrade to your business plan.
Premium and lower plans have no features of e-commerce or third-party ad network support. With the business plan, you can use WooCommerce and third-party ad networks. However, you must still follow the terms and conditions of WordPress.com.
Prices
The basic plan is free but extremely limited. Your personal plan starts at $ 4 per month billed annually and includes a custom domain. The Premium plan costs $ 8.25 per month charged annually and allows you to monetize your site and customize the advanced design. The business plan costs $ 24.92 per month charged annually and offers the possibility of having e-commerce and personalized accessories.
#10. Wix Website Builder
Wix is another popular cloud site software. It offers ease of use combined with a powerful set of features to easily create your site.
Pros
Wix is a fully hosted platform, so you won’t have to pay for accommodation. You have access to hundreds of templates to choose the design of your site. Each template is fully editable with its intuitive drag and drops site generator.
It also comes with dozens of free and paid applications that you can install on your site. These applications allow you to add new features and functionalities to your site. Some of them are created by Wix, and others are created by external developers.
Wix offers a free plan with limited bandwidth and storage. However, you can use this plan to test the drag and drop site generator. It does not include a domain name; So if you decide to maintain your site, you can upgrade to a premium plan.
You also get a free SSL with all Wix plans, but you must enable it on your site.
Cons
The Free and Connect Domain plans will show Wix brand ads on your site. You must upgrade to the combined or unlimited plan to remove these ads.
If you decide to change your Wix site, it will be quite complicated to do so.
The Connect Domain plan, which costs $ 9.16 per month, allows you to connect only one custom domain name, so you must still purchase a domain name separately.
Prices
Wix offers a limited free plan with a Wix subdomain. You can connect a domain for $ 9.16 per month. Your combined plan starts at $ 14.95 / month and you get a free domain name. The e-commerce plan costs $ 26.25 per month.
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#11. BoldGrid Website Builder
BoldGrid is a new type of website builder created in WordPress. It is available as an independent WordPress plugin, as well as a collection of the fully hosted website builder.
Pros
BoldGrid is built on WordPress, so you can make the most of WordPress with personalized user experience. The BoldGrid website designer allows you to choose a professional design from your theme gallery.
After that, you can customize these designs with a drag and drop customizer. You can point and click on any item in the preview section to edit its properties. You can easily change colors, fonts, designs, navigation menus and widgets.
Need a staging website? BoldGrid creates one for you with just one click. This allows you to test your new designs, designs, accessories, and themes before doing it live for all to see.
It also comes with a complete WYSIWYG page editor. No more riddles when editing your pages in WordPress. You will see exactly what you see in the page editor window. You can also use GridBlocks to simply drag and drop items on your page and create your own designs from scratch.
All BoldGrid themes are ready for WooCommerce. This allows you to easily create a store using the BoldGrid drag and drop generator.
Cons
BoldGrid runs on WordPress, so you’ll still need a self-hosted WordPress.org site to use it. But the good thing is that backups are included in BoldGrid backups, so you don’t have to worry about that.
Prices
The basic BoldGrid plug-in is available for free download. You will need a WordPress hosting account and a domain name to install and use it. We recommend using InMotion Hosting because it is an official hosting provider for BoldGrid.
If you want to use WordPress, but with the ease of dragging and dropping hosted builders, BoldGrid would be perfect for you.
#12. GoDaddy websites Builder
GoDaddy is one of the largest hosting and domain name service providers in the world. They offer a simple builder of online websites with hosting included.
Pros
GoDaddy Website Builder is a simple and easy tool to create professional-looking websites. It comes preloaded with several ready-to-use blocks that you can drag and drop to create different designs.
It also has a photo library integrated with professional Getty Photography images that you can use on your site. You can also upload your own photos and create image galleries.
GoDaddy websites Builder also works on smaller screens. This allows you to work on your site wherever you are using your mobile phone or tablet.
Cons
It is not as feature-rich and flexible as most other website builders on this list. It offers a limited set of features with fewer design options.
It is very difficult to move your website from GoDaddy Website Builder to WordPress.
Prices
The personal plan costs $ 5.99 / month, the business plan for $ 9.99 / month, and the most commercial plan for $ 14.99 / month. All plans are billed annually.
GoDaddy Website Builder can be used for a basic website with few pages. However, it is not a good option to create content-rich websites.
Our Pick For Best Website Builder
After carefully evaluating all the builders of popular online sites, we believe that WordPress outperforms them in overall performance, ease of use, price, and flexibility.
WordPress is a great option for beginners and business websites. Some of the best brands in the world are using WordPress on their websites.
If you want to build your site with the best website builder, start with WordPress. It is definitely our number 1 choice.
You can read our step-by-step guide on how to create a website for detailed instructions.
If you want to create an online store (e-commerce site), we recommend BigCommerce as the best builder of e-commerce sites, as it offers all the necessary features at the best price.
If you want an alternative to WordPress, we recommend using Constant Contact Builder or Gator.
Constant Contact Website Builder is the best free website builder. It offers a smart website builder developed by AI for small businesses that help you create a custom website in minutes. You can start for free by creating a blog, business, website, and even an online store.
Gator is a premium website creation platform offered by the popular web hosting company HostGator. It has many powerful features that you need to get started.
We hope this article has helped you choose the best website builder for your project. You may also want to see the list of tools to help you expand your site.