There’s really no need to be able to code to build your own website. In fact, even if you have extensive HTML, CSS, and Java knowledge, using a website builder is quicker, easier, and more convenient than taking the manual approach.
At least, a good website builder is, but there are dozens of well-known builders out there, and there is no single piece of software that fits the bill as being the best website builder.
There are website builders designed for small business owners and there are some for bloggers. There are storefront builders that are already used by millions of eCommerce stores. Also available is free software, free trials of paid software, and some apps that are included as part of memberships and other packages.
Choosing the right software could take you longer than it takes to master Weebly’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor. So, we’ve put together a list of 15 of the best site builders, as well as a guide on how to choose the one that best fits your needs.
A website builder is a tool that enables you to build a fully functioning website, without having to have any HTML, CSS, or other programming knowledge. But it is usually much more than this. Most website builders are fully managed platforms.
You get hosting for your website and some subscriptions include a free domain, an SSL certificate, payment gateway, and some even include email marketing and other marketing features. If you shop around, you might even find an account that offers email addresses, if you need them. Although this is rare, and most people opt for Google’s email account options nowadays.
The Benefits Of Using A Website Builder
If you know HTML and CSS, you can develop a website from the ground up. You can create a template and add elements, as required. However, this is time-consuming and is rarely the best use of your time. Site builders are affordable and convenient enough that developers even use them. Using a site builder offers various other benefits when compared to developing a site manually.
No Technical Skills
Using a website builder, you do not need any programming knowledge, although a little knowledge will allow you to tweak and improve the finished design. All builders are drag-and-drop editors. You start with a template and make any changes to various elements of the site design. Some editors allow precise changes to every section of the page. Others offer more restricted changes, but this helps ensure that the page displays properly.
Save Time
Even if you have the knowledge and technical know-how to develop your eCommerce store from scratch, doing so takes a lot of time. Even if you heavily customize a template to meet your own branding, it cuts out a lot of the time. Agencies and developers use website builders, too. The likes of Duda has been designed to meet the needs of collaborative teams.
Support
If you develop your own website using the manual approach, you really don’t have anybody to fall back on. Need to know why your columns are misaligned? Or why the font changes halfway through your page content? Seemingly small problems can take hours to diagnose, even using a debugger and the power of Google search.
Using a template-based design tool, you can undo recent changes and try again and, if all else fails and something goes critically wrong with your site, you should be able to call or email the website builder’s support team for help. The level and type of support offered does depend on the builder, their technical team, and the level of subscription you choose, but the option is there.
Spread The Cost
Most website builders are web-based applications, usually include your hosting, and they are available with a monthly subscription. The likes of Dreamweaver, which is desktop-based software, also comes with a monthly subscription. Costs vary but they can range from a few dollars a month to a couple of hundred.
Compare this to the thousands of dollars you would pay for professional development. The upfront cost of a website builder is substantially lower, and with professional development you will usually still have to pay for hosting and support contracts.
Choosing The Best Website Builder
Our list of the best website builders includes some of the best-known and best options on the list, but there are dozens, potentially even hundreds more, out there. Even if you don’t choose one from our list, consider the following factors to get the best software for your needs.
Type of Editor
There are two basic options when it comes to choosing a type of website builder: desktop and web-based.
Web-based applications offer Software as a Solution (Saas). You pay a subscription and can enjoy access to the software as long as you keep paying. Access the software anywhere you have Internet access, and enjoy regular updates without having to update your software or even wait for downloads.
Saas builders are far more prevalent than desktop alternatives, but some desktop website builders do still exist.
These are installed on your chosen computer or multiple devices, and they enable you to develop HTML, CMS, Java, and other files. The files are usually saved on your computer and then uploaded to a separate hosting account, although you may be able to upload directly from the software.
Desktop software is a lot more advanced and allows total control over every single element of the website design. This does enable you to get exactly the look you want, and it will allow for the addition of extra, dynamic website elements, but it requires extensive coding knowledge and will take a lot longer to master even the basics.
Type of Website
When choosing a website builder, you should first determine the type of site you intend to build. Ecommerce sites and blogs are very different sites, and they have different requirements. They need to look different, provide different features to your visitors, and they will require different development. Some builders, like Shopify and Bigcommerce, specialize in eCommerce, while others, like WordPress, are geared towards blogs.
- eCommerce – If you intend to sell products or services directly online, you will need an eCommerce website. These allow you to upload and display products, add photos and videos of products, and they offer shopping cart and even payment gateway features. Website builder hosting should offer secure SSL certificates with all of their accounts.
- Blog – A blog is regularly updated, usually consists of a combination of text and media files, and needs to be well categorized and paginated. Above all, a blog should include a simple editor, with which you can create new blog posts on the fly, without having to create and add a new page every time you want to include a new entry.
- Community Site – Community sites can include forums, boards, and even social media platforms. Think of them as being similar to Facebook Groups or LinkedIn Groups. They need layers of security, should offer subscriptions and accounts to users, and enable your website members, as well as admins, to post to the site. They are very dynamic and usually require a specialist website builder.
- Portfolio – Portfolio sites are used to showcase your talents as a creator. They are used by artists, graphic designers, videographers, writers, and other creative professionals. Their sites tend to be quite simple designs because this enables your visitors to concentrate on the work you’re showing off. They may be image or video intensive, however, and should have attractive galleries and lightboxes.
- Landing Page – A landing page is a single page that attracts visitors and generates leads. It is simple in its execution, but complex in its uses and varieties. A landing page should be quick to create, easy to deploy, and will include things like lead capture forms. We have written a list of the best landing page builders, which gives an insight into some of the best packages out there.
- Database Driven Website – Database driven websites are more complex than standard sites. An eCommerce site is a form of database site because it uses a database to store product details. Even a blog uses a database, but in this case, we mean sites that use a database to procedurally generate website content. Real estate listings, job boards, local listings, etc… require the dynamic use of a database. This type of site is more complicated, and you will struggle to find website builders that easily allow this kind of functionality. It is possible with WordPress, using a collection of plugins, but it is more likely that you will need to hire professional website developers.
Professionally Designed Templates
Regardless of the type of website you are building, it needs to look the part. All websites should offer a responsive, mobile-friendly design, and this is standard with website builder software.
Check the quality of templates before you start designing, and if you want total control over the look of your website, look for those that offer what are essentially blank templates. Blank templates provide the framework for a site, but without the coffee mugs and business poses of stock photos.
Offering more templates doesn’t necessarily mean better templates, but it does give you more choice and increases the likelihood of finding one that you like.
Cost
Cost is an important factor when choosing a website builder. There are free accounts out there, but these tend to be limited, and they rarely include decent hosting.
Expect to pay anywhere from $5/month for very basic features to $500/month or more for something that incorporates marketing automation and other tools, as well as generous disk storage and bandwidth. Pay a little extra, if necessary, to get rid of the branding and ads that some free and low-cost accounts force on you.
Speed
One of the big benefits of using a site builder is that it is quicker than developing a site yourself, from scratch. So there’s little point in choosing an account that is so complex that it takes weeks to master. A very basic site should be up and running in an hour or so. More complex and more involved sites may take several hours to a day, but it shouldn’t take any longer than this.
Site Features
The site features that you can incorporate will be governed by the type of site you establish. A blogging platform like WordPress will offer blogging capabilities such as membership accounts, while an eCommerce site builder like Shopify should offer tools to highlight specific products and to cross-promote items. Think about the tools you will need and ensure that they’re either directly available or can be found in the site builder’s app store, where one is available.
Free Accounts And Free Trials
Free accounts are tempting, and they do serve a genuine purpose. They allow you to try the software building software, ensure that you can get to grips with the editor and that it has the features you require. However, these accounts are usually heavily restricted, either because they force branding and ads on your site or because they offer a restricted set of features.
The better option may be to opt for a free trial. Some platforms offer a free 7-day or 15-day trial. This will give you enough time to fully develop a site before deciding to part with any cash.
Custom Domain Use
Most site builders offer the use of a subdomain or account domain when you register an account. This can be useful if you have yet to register a domain, or while you set the site up and wait for the Domain Name Servers to propagate. However, even the shortest subdomains are clunky, and they are bad for branding. You should always register and use your own domain name.
Fortunately, a lot of the premium and more expensive accounts do offer free domain registration, but you shouldn’t let this sway you to choose one builder over another. Domain registration costs as little as a couple of dollars, so it has little impact on the overall price of your account.
Support
Standard support usually takes the shape of email, and these can take several days to receive a response. During this time, you may be unable to develop or improve your website, but you will still be paying for your account.
Support tickets can have a similar response time, while customer support phone lines are either charged at a premium rate or are included only as part of the more expensive, premium packages. Consider the level of support you need and find an account that offers it. Also, read online reviews to find out how responsive the customer support team is.
Plugins And Apps
WordPress is best known for its massive range of plugins, some of which are free, many of which have a one-off fee. They turn WordPress the blogging platform into WordPress the eCommerce platform, community builder, landing page builder, and even the database-driven website builder. But, these plugins aren’t developed by WordPress, they are made by third-party developers. Their quality and effectiveness can be hit and miss.
Some other website builders also offer access to additional apps and, in most cases, these are developed by the company themselves. They usually cost extra but can enhance and expand the functionality of your site.
SSL Certificates
A few years ago, eCommerce and membership sites were encouraged to use Secure Sockets Layer encryption for their website. Today, every website is encouraged to use SSL, and it is believed to be an important Google ranking factor.
For those site builders that include hosting, ensure that they offer SSL as standard, or that it doesn’t cost too much extra to incorporate it into your site. Some browsers will flag a site that does not have SSL, and this will put some prospective visitors off clicking through and visiting your pages.
Storage And Bandwidth
Most plans come with some storage and bandwidth limitations.
- Storage is the amount of space that your website and other files, including media files like images and video, take on the server. The actual amount of space that a website needs is determined by the number of pages, how many images you serve, whether you have any dynamic content like apps, and more. An average website takes up less than 200MB, and a single page is 2MB. There are ways you can reduce your total page weight.
- Bandwidth is the amount of data that your website uses during a monthly period. It is the amount of data that your visitors download each month, so if you have a single 2MB page and 5,000 monthly page views, you will need 10GB of bandwidth.
When it comes to features with limitations, like bandwidth, it is worth choosing an account that can be upgraded, or that enables you to buy bolt-ons. You may only envisage having a dozen pages and 100 visitors per month, but with any luck, these requirements will grow over time.
A big business starts small. – Richard Branson
The 15 Best Website Builders
1. Wix
- URL: Wix.com
- Price: $0/month – $39/month
- Best For: Small Businesses
Wix is THE name in website builders. They have around 200 million users across nearly 200 countries, and that number continues to grow. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should add your name to that list, but Wix does a good job of letti