Having the “best site possible” has become an obsession for most business owners. Everybody wants to provide the ideal user experience, attract the most traffic, and have amazing sales numbers. So people spend large amounts of money and time researching and developing their dream websites. Well, we decided to help you with that.

After countless days of work, we can finally present you with our top 2023 picks for website builders. Our team explored more than 50 software until we chose these fifteen platforms. Each of them has its own strong points and can significantly benefit you depending on the type of online business you have. So don’t waste your time – use our comparison tables to choose the right software.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that the article may include some affiliate links.

What Is a Website Builder?

A website builder is a software that allows you to create a website. There are different types of platforms – some require coding experience, and others don’t. These tools are equipped with themes and plug-ins that can help you develop your online business and provide the best user experience for your visitors.

Comparison of the Top 15 Website Builders

We decide to put our picks side by side and compare them by three types of criteria – business size, level of experience, and multilingual usage.

• Website builders for small businesses

In this category fall all of the blog, news, and small service-based websites, as well as business sites that don’t specialize in online commerce. You may have one or two items open for purchase, but it’s hardly an e-store. Usually, when you want to build such a site, you want the platform to be equipped with a good theme selection and have features like easy customization and blog maintenance.

• Website builders for big businesses

Think about corporate websites with 50 + pages that include detailed descriptions of the provided services, a blog, and a couple of widgets like, for example, a calculator. The website builders must be easy to navigate and have various additional functionalities.

• Website builders for small online stores

If you want to sell your hand-made products or do a little drop-shipping, these builders are for you. They are ideal for local online stores, but some can easily go international. It depends on the additional functionalities like shipping, payment methods, customer service options, etc. See the Pros and Cons comparison table at the end of the article to check if the chosen builder can provide you with the needed functions.

• Website builders for large e-stores

Do you want to create a giant online store like Asos, Zara, or Target? No problem – in this column, you will see which website builders can do that. These platforms can work with multiple payment platforms, have elaborate shipment options, allow you to maintain a large product database, and more.

The following two factors we used to compare our top website builders reflect the user’s experience level. After all, one of the biggest concerns when creating a website is how much coding is required.

• Beginner-friendly website builders

With these platforms, you will never see a line of code the whole time you use them. They have easy-to-work-with editors that don’t require any programming experience. Of course, if you decide to experiment, most of them will allow you to “bug the code,” but this is only by choice, not a must.

• Website builders for professional developers

These builders are for skilled individuals with lots of experience. They know all the complicated words and have 0101110 dreams. Joke aside, the platforms in this column are a bit complex, have multiple ways to do one thing, and some require coding. They shouldn’t be your first pick if you have no idea what you are doing but plan to do everything yourself.

Last, but not least come the multilingual sites.

• Website builders for multilingual websites

We feel this site characteristic deserves to be its own category as it is one of the hardest to achieve. Having a proper fully-functional site is a challenge but creating one that can be translated into multiple languages is an art. Of course, you can rely on the automatic Google Translate function, but do you really want to burden your visitors this way? There are a few website builders that have the capabilities to adequately interpret your content, and they are all marked in this column.

Now, it’s time to take a closer look at each website builder and see what it can offer. You can use our exclusive comparison table if you want to compare our top 15 picks side by side. We have categorized all pros and cons and made it as easy as possible.

>> OPEN THE FULL PROS&CONS COMPARISON TABLE NOW <<

Shopify

Payment option: Paid
Plans: Starts from $1/month
Trial option: Free trial for 14 days, no credit card required

Shopify is recognized as the top e-commerce web builder that is both user-friendly and has great functionalities. The platform is extremely intuitive and has a well-organized interface that can significantly speed up the website-building process. You don’t have to waste time searching for anything.

Pros

✔ With its simple interface, Shopify is beginner-friendly, so you don’t need to be a web developer to set it up.

✔ Shopify supports over 100 different payment opinions from third-party providers, and on top of that, it has its own secure payment processor – Shopify Payments.

✔ Shopify has its own Point-Of-Sale (POS) app called Shopify Light that you can use in your physical store. This way, all transactions will go through the same system giving you more power to monitor and analyze your sales and profits.

✔ Transactional fees are lower for the higher-tier plans

✔ All themes – paid and free, are mobile responsive

✔ If you know HTML and CSS, the sky’s the limit, as you will get significant creative freedom when it comes to making your own designs.

✔ It offers over 6 000 different apps(plugins) from third-party developers.

✔ Shopify has its own mobile app for iOS and Android that allows you to manage your site from anywhere.

✔ The platform has a sufficient range of SEO and marketing tools, including Shopify analytics which allows you to access key online store performance metrics through your Shopify Dashboard.

✔ Shopify can easily integrate with any selling platform like Facebook or Google Marketplace, allowing you to sell through different platforms.

✔ All Shopify plans come with built-in shopping carts and different powerful e-commerce tools such as email marketing, live chat, product reviews, local delivery route planning, drop shipping, point-of-sale systems, and more.

✔ There is no limit on how many products you can sell. You can go anywhere from 1 to 100+ with no restrictions.

✔ You also have unlimited storage space and bandwidth, meaning you can upload as many images and videos as your business requires.

✔ Shopify offers secure hosting and the possibility to purchase a new domain name or use your old one.

✔ All plans include an SSL certificate.

✔ It is fairly easy to migrate to and from Shopify.

✔ 24/7 customer support

Cons

✖ The navigation is not user-friendly, as there is no drag-and-drop editor.

✖ Shopify doesn’t have an autosave function meaning users must regularly save their work to avoid losing their changes.

✖ No automatic image optimization.

✖ Shopify doesn’t offer a native solution to create multilingual sites. There are a few plugins that can sort of do the job, but if you want your shop to operate in multiple languages, Shopify is not for you.

✖ The web builder doesn’t support email hosting, and you need to use third-party email hosting extensions to forward your emails to your customers.

✖ Extra transactional fees with third-party payment platforms.

✖ You need to rely on (paid) third-party apps as Shopify has limited built-in functionalities.

✖ Shopify has a lot of hidden expenses, and the platform is more expensive than it appears.

✖ There are a limited number of free and paid themes. If you want to make your online shop stand out, you will need to be able to pay the price.

✖ Customization is possible only if you know HTML and CSS or hire someone who does.

✖ The Bloggin feature is limited and doesn’t have blog analytics, an archiving functionality, or a blog-only search function.

✖ There is a lock-in feature interfering with your site’s migration from Shopify. You can only move your CSV report with you.

Payment options

Shopify offers a 14-day free trial to test and learn about its many functionalities. After this period is over, you can choose from three different paid plans.

Shopify has it all and makes eCommerce look like child’s play. You don’t have to waste time configuring payment processors or manually setting the shipping rates. Everything has been thought through, and that is why we strongly recommend you give Shopify a try.

BigCommerce

Payment option: Paid
Plans: Starts from $29.95/month
Trial option: Free trial for 15 days

BigCommerce is one of the most popular website builders for large online stores. The platform can provide you with a fast loading speed and secure payment transactions. BigCommerce is constantly improving its user experience and performance, thanks to its regular software updates.

Pros

✔ BigCommerce has a drag-and-drop editor and a good variety of pre-made templates, making it ideal for any industry.

✔ The web builder supports multiple languages, making it ideal for multilingual e-shops.

✔ Native integration with WordPress, as it has its WordPress plug-in, so you can benefit from the strong points of both website builders.

✔ BigCommerce has flawless integration with all popular payment systems like PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, etc., and doesn’t charge additional fees.

✔ BigCommerce has a flexible third-party integration. The platform allows you to sell effortlessly across different marketplaces and social media like Facebook, Pinterest, eBay, and Amazon.

✔ One of the biggest perks of Big Commerce is its built-in conversion rate optimization features. You can easily monitor and analyze every step your potential client makes, like leaving product reviews, cart abandonment, detailed product searches, and more.

✔ The platform has URL optimization and microdata and allows you to see all SEO metrics on your dashboard.

✔ Fast page load speed

✔ All Big Commerce plans include unlimited users, unlimited bandwidth and storage, unlimited products, and no added transaction fees. The platform is fully hosted as well.

✔ BigCommerce offers a free SSL certificate with all plans.

Cons

✖ BigCommerce can be overly complex and confusing at times. So if you don’t have previous experience building online stores, this platform is not the ideal choice.

✖ Not very intuitive and can not be customized outside of the templates’ features.

✖ No native mobile app and a limited app store compared to Shopify.

✖ Difficult to migrate from

✖ Not suitable for small stores.

Payment options

The annual plans depend on your annual sales income so you need to think long and hard before choosing the right option for your business. Taka advantage of BigCommerce’s 15-day trial period to test its functionalities.

As you can see, BigCommerce is suitable for medium to large online stores. The software is too complex for the smaller ones, and many of its features will end up unused.

BigCommerce is the second most used online store builder worldwide, topped only by Shopify. If you have a store with 500+ products and services, we recommend you give it a go and see and experience its benefits yourself.

Zyro

Payment option: Freemium
Plans: Starts from $2.33/month
Trial option: No trial, but it has a free starter plan

Zyro is a great platform for inexperienced users that want a simple, easy-to-work-with site. If you are searching for a platform that can provide you with the basic functionalities at a low cost – you found it.

Pros

✔ Thanks to the easy to work with drag-and-drop builder, Zyro is ideal for beginners.

✔ Zero is a no-coding platform, meaning you don’t need prior coding knowledge.

✔ You can create a multilingual website with Zyro.

✔ AI-powered website creator, including a logo maker.

✔ The web builder support over 70 payment methods.

✔ 30-day money-back guarantee with each Zyro plan.

✔ Zyro has Facebook Pixel integration, allowing you to track your Facebook Ads.

✔ The web builder also integrates with Unsplash – a stock photography website that offers 1+ million free photos to use on your site.

✔You can choose from 100+ free templates that provide sufficient user experience and are easy to edit.

✔ The sites built with this platform are mobile-friendly and have an excellent response time

✔ Includes SEO tools like an AI content generator that can help you write your copy and save you a lot of time.

✔ Zyro’s eCommerce features are an ideal solution for simple online stores and include full order tracking, shipping, and tax management, Inventory management, Gift cards, and discount coupons, abandoned cart recovery, multichannel selling, and more.

✔ All plans include professionally-managed cloud hosting, a free domain for 1 year, and a free custom email for 3 months.

✔ Zyro offers a free SSL certificate with all plans.

✔ Unlimited storage and bandwidth in all plans

✔ Migrating from Zyro to another web builder is easy; you can do it without a third-party specialist.

✔ It has 24/7 customer support.

Cons

✖ You can’t switch templates after the site is live.

✖ Uploading products can be confusing

✖ You can’t customize your site outside the template’s built-in functionalities.

✖ Zero has limited blog capabilities. You can add a blog section, but it will miss some key features like search, archive, and commenting.

✖ Not suitable for large sites.

✖ Due to the unique architecture of the web builder, you can’t completely transfer your website onto Zyro. You can, however, replicate the missing parts fairly easily.

Payment options

Zyro sort of has a limited free trial. You can test out the website editor and create a website but if you want to publish said site you must subscribe to one of Zyro’s plans.

Surprisingly enough, Zyro does have an eCommerce feature in its higher-tier plans. Altho they are not as powerful as those of Shopify or WooCommerce and not suitable for mega stores, like the ones offered by BigCommersce, you can still find a good use for them.

If you need a site with a limited amount of content that is inexpensive to create, and can manage on your own, Zyro is the right choice for you.

WordPress.org

Payment option: Free
Plans: Open-source platform
Trial option: No trial

You may notice that in this article, we are talking specifically about WordPress.org, and that is because there is another service with the same name but a different TLD (the thing after the last dot in the domain name). So before we continue, let’s clean the air and in simple terms, explain the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

WordPress.org, or “the original WordPress,” is the initial software you use to download and create your website. WordPress.com is a service that helps you to create your site using the “original WordPress” software with managed hosting. In the first case, the URL of your website will be https://mysite.com, and in the second: https://wordpress.mysite.com.

From this point onward, we will address WordPress.org as simply WordPress.

Now that we have cleared the air, let’s check out why 43% of all websites are built on WordPress, making it the most popular builder for 2022.

Pros

✔ This is a free open-source website builder, so you need to buy only hosting a domain.

✔ It is easy to create multilingual websites as the platform supports over 75 languages and is one of the best for automatic transitions.

✔ Thanks to WooCommerce – an open-source eCommerce plugin, you can create fully functional online stores on WordPress. It is one of the most widely used platforms in the world.

✔ The platform has outstanding SEO features that come with advanced modules, rich snippets, smart sitemaps, and Local SEO modules, and even has WooCommerce SEO integration.

✔ If you have enough coding experience, you can modify the websites you wish, as the platform is fully customizable.

✔ WordPress comes with a wide variety of basic free themes (8,000+) and plugins (50,000+).

✔ The WP plugins can provide you with extra features when it comes to SEO, Google Analytics, CRM, contact forms and live chat, CSS customization, and so much more.

✔ WordPress has a solution for people who prefer drag-and-drop editors – Divi and Elementor builders, or block editors like Gutenberg.

✔ WordPress is extremely flexible and can work with almost every popular web building platform out there. There are plugins for everything.

✔ It is surprisingly easy to migrate to and from WordPress

Cons

✖ You need to pay for every extra thing you may want, like additional plugins, an SSL certificate, hosting, and designer themes.

✖ If you have zero programming experience, you have to spend some time learning, testing, and experimenting with this platform. The learning curve is slightly bigger, and you can’t do many customizations without coding knowledge.

As you probably guessed, we are big fans of WordPress and highly recommend you try it out, especially if you want to create a blogging website. However, if your business needs a well-developed online store, you might want to look into Shopify or BigCommerce.

Webflow

Payment option: Freemium
Plans: From $14/month
Trial option: No trial, but it has a free starter plan

Webflow is the platform that gives you the most creative freedom of all the web builders on our list. It is preferred by small businesses and freelancers as the platform can help you stand out from the crowd.

Pros

✔ The website builder has a separate interface for easy work that you can offer to your clients or non-tech-savvy teammates. This feature allows you to let your customers do the mundane things like uploading a blog post or changing an image while the developers deal with the heavy-duty stuff.

✔ Webflow has a complete built-in, fully functional Content Management System (CMS). You can easily create custom collections and modify your digital content regardless of its text, images, or videos.

✔ Webflow can provide you with lots of learning materials, and it even has its own Webflow University. There, you can find all sorts of guides, videos, tutorials, and more.

✔ Ideal platform for blog and documentation sites.

✔ Unlimited design possibilities as it is HTML & CSS based

✔ It is relatively easy to migrate from and to Webfolw

✔ Webflow provides an SSL certificate with its plans.

✔ Fast site speed and options for optimizing your site for even better performance.

✔ Hosting and a free custom domain for all paid plans.

Cons

✖ It is not for beginners or inexperienced coders, as there is a big learning curve.

✖ Almost all templates are paid, and a very limited selection of free ones exists.

✖ Expensive eCommerce options that lack functionalities.

✖ You can build a multilingual site; however, you need a third-party plugin to do so. There are also limitations on the number of languages you can have on your site.

✖ Limited amount of built-in extensions

✖ Webflow has bandwidth limitations with each plan.

✖ Webflow doesn’t have a lot of available widgets or even an app store

✖ You can’t transport all of your data when migrating from Webflow

Payment options

Webfloow has a free plan that allows you to explore the platform’s capabilities. However, if you want to create more than 2 projects, host a site on a custom domain, or export code you need to upgrade.

Webflow plans are a little confusing, as there are multiple categories and options.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price		Suitable for
	Annually Billed	Monthly Billed
Site Plans
Basic (General)	$14	$18	Medium business site with expected traffic of up to 25,000 monthly visits
CMS (General)	$23	$29	Medium to large business sites with expected traffic of up to 100,000 monthly visits
Business (General)	$39	$49	Large business site with expected traffic of up to 250,000 monthly visits
Enterprise (General)	Custom	Custom	Custom-made solutions tailored for the specific business
Standard (eCommerce)	$29	$42	Small online stores and new businesses
Plus (eCommerce)	$74	$84	Small to medium stores that sell up to 5 000 items a month
Advanced (eCommerce)	$212	$235	Online stores that sell up to 15 000 products a month
Workspaces
Core (For in-house teams)	$19/per seat	$28/per seat	For small teams – max 3 seats
Growth (For in-house teams)	$49/per seat	$60/per seat	For larger teams – max 9 seats
Enterprise (For in-house teams)	Custom	Custom	Custom-made solutions tailored for the specific business
Freelancer (For freelancers & agencies)	$16/per seat	$24/per seat	For 1 to 3 ppl team
Agency (For freelancers & agencies)	$35/per seat	$42/per seat	For larger teams – up to 9 ppl
Webflow Enterprise – fully custom solution for larger companies

The Site plans work as you could expect – you pay a fee and receive a set of functionalities. It is all standard stuff similar to the other web builders on our list.

Now comes the hard part. What are the “Workspaces?”
These plans are tailored to the needs of web design agencies and professional designers. You can create multiple sites and collaborate with many different users. The strange part is that none of the Workspace plans come with hosting. To get it, you first need to purchase a Site plan and then – add a workplace. It is all extremely confusing for first-time users, and you will most definitely need some help understanding what includes/excludes what features.

That said if you want to build your own custom website and are not afraid to write code – go for it. Webflow is the ideal web builder for every free-spirited developer out there.

Duda

Payment option: Paid
Plans: From $14/month
Trial option: Free trial for 14 days, no credit card required

If you want to create a flawless multilingual site that is easy to handle, you should definitely look into Duda. The web builder is ideal for designers and design agencies and caters to individuals and groups creating multiple sites.

Pros

✔ Easy to use drag-and-drop editor

✔ You can create additional rules for your site’s visitors. For example, your website can show different content depending on its location. It is extremely helpful for businesses that operate in multiple countries.

✔ Duda has integration with over 30 payment systems, including Paypal, Square, and Stripe.

✔ Traffic analysis feature

✔ Amazing multilingual capabilities – Duda is your web builder if you want a large site that operates in multiple languages.

✔ Large theme library – 100+ templates that can be customized per device.

✔ Duda offers website personalization for all plans by allowing custom CSS and HTML code.

✔ Large range of apps and widgets

✔ Powerful e-commerce options for all plans. Some features include selling digital downloads, automated tax calculations, low-stock notifications for customers, customizable shipping options and rates, and more.

✔ Unlimited storage and bandwidth with all plans

✔ All Duda sites have an SSL certificate, but you need to install it yourself.

✔ Backup and Restore feature

✔ All Duda websites are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Cons

✖ Overly complex and confusing at times

✖ Relatively expensive

✖ You can’t switch templates once the site is live

✖ The customization is limited within the template’s functions.

✖ Limited website features; for example, the SEO and marketing modules are missing important features compared to other builders.

✖ The API is available only for the top-tier plan

✖ Different customer support levels and options with each plan, so the high-tier ones may receive better service and have a faster response time.

Payment options

Duda’s prices reflect its many perks. The site builder has 3 paid plans, and if you are not satisfied with their limitations, you can ask for a custom offer.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price		Suitable for
	Annually Billed	MonthlyBilled
Basic	$14	$19	Small businesses, personal websites, freelancers
Team	$24	$29	Small to medium-sized businesses that need up to 4 active users
Agency	$44	$59	Medium and Large businesses that need up to 10 active users
White Label	$74	$99	Custom-made solutions tailored for the specific business

The website builder is ideal for professional designers who work with international companies. It can help you create a sophisticated website that delivers excellent results. Duda is the perfect alternative to WordPress.

Wix

Payment option: Freemium
Plans: Starts from $16/month
Trial option: No trial, but it has a free starter plan

Wix is the preferred website builder by newbies, as it is easy to work with, and you don’t have to be a programmer to create stunning designs. Its drop-and-drag editor and multiple free themes can give you substantial creative freedom.

Pros

✔ Beginner-friendly, the drag-and-drop editor is very convenient and allows room for creative freedom and customization.

✔ Equipped with various features and in-build functionalities that can help you set up professional-looking sites

✔ It has basic SEO functionalities – you can add titles, meta descriptions, and Schema markups to your pages. The newest version of Wix promises to make the process smooth and easy.

✔ Wix has a large library with 900+ free and paid templates.

✔ The platform has a sufficient online store with over 250 available apps.

✔ The eCommerce functionality covers a wide range of features like selling unlimited products, unlimited dropshipping products, priority customer support, customized reports, and a customer loyalty program.

✔ The platform has cloud-based hosting.

✔ All Wix sites have free SSL certificates and are automatically backed up.

Cons

✖ The platform is prone to bugs with the drag-and-drop editor, as users report that some webpage elements tend to “move around” on their own.

✖ Frequent problems with the mobile version of websites as the desktop version has problems converting flawlessly into a mobile-friendly layout.

✖ Overwhelming number of options, as everything is scattered everywhere. The design is not intuitive, and you will need some time to get used to it.

✖ If you want a multilingual site, Wix is not for you. The platform has a basic translator that works relatively well with static pages. However, you will have a problem if you have dynamic pages, as the platform can’t translate the information automatically.

✖ The platform doesn’t have a CMS and can’t provide you with more detailed data about your audience’s behavior.

✖ Once the site is live, you can’t switch templates unless you start everything all over again.

✖ The price doesn’t correspond with what you get as the low-tier plans lack functionality, and the e-commerce plans are pricey compared with other platforms. If you need additional tools – third-party apps are also expensive.

✖ Wix has different data limitations with each plan. So, if you want to upload large amounts of media files (videos, pictures, photos), you need to dig into your pockets because it is not cheap.

✖ The free plan is not a working solution as it has Wix ads and doesn’t support a custom domain name. Instead, your site will say “mywebsite.wix.com.” On top of that, you won’t be able to accept payments, and the platform lacks basic SEO and analytics tools like Google Analytics.

✖ Slow server response time.

✖ It is hard to migrate to another web hosting provider. You may need to rely on a third-party app to avoid losing valuable information during the data transfer from your former Wix site.

✖ You have no control over your hosting, updates, and uptime. On top of that, there are some bandwidth limitations that require additional payment to avoid.

✖ Larger sites with lots of media can be slower to load on mobile. You can also experience problems with the loading speed while editing your website.

✖ The two lower-tier plans have monthly bandwidth limitations. For comparison, almost all other platforms on our list offer unlimited bandwidth, regardless of the plan.

✖ 24/7 customer support; however, its live chat supports a limited selection of languages, so if you don’t speak English, you may have a tough time explaining to the support your problem.

Payment Options

If your business is on a smaller scale, Wix can be a perfect choice, as it has a free version, so you don’t have to spend a dime. Additionally, it offers a couple of different paid options if you are unsatisfied with the free one.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price	Suitable for
Combo  (Website Plan)	$16	Small businesses in need of a simple site. The plan doesn’t include many functionalities and apps.
Unlimited  (Website Plan)	$22	Suitable for small businesses and freelancers. The plan has the basic functionalities + some additional apps like a Site Booster and Visitor Analytics.
Pro  (Website Plan)	$27	Businesses that need a website capable of holding a lot of media files.
VIP  (Website Plan)	$45	Medium-sized businesses that need a site with multiple pages and sufficient capabilities.
Business Basic (eCommerce Plan)	$27	Suitable for small-scale online stores with limited products.
Business Unlimited (eCommerce Plan)	$32	Online stores with 100 or fewer transactions a month.
Business VIP (eCommerce Plan)	$59	Online stores with 500 or fewer transactions a month.
Enterprise  (Custom plan)	Custom	Custom-made solutions tailored for the specific business ( available only in some countries).

Wix has three e-commerce plans that can be used to create online stores. However, we recommend you use this platform for service-based businesses as it lacks many of the functionalities dedicated e-commerce builders such as Shopify and WooCommerce have.

Overall, Wix is a decent solution for your first website, although it has a lot of limitations, hidden expenses, and bugs. If you are in need of a drag-and-drop web builder that won’t let you down, we recommend you use WordPress with a builder such as Divi or some of the other drag-and-drop platforms mentioned in this article. Why have we included it here? Because it is one of the most well-known website builders after all.

Weebly

Payment option: Freemium
Plans: From $10/month
Trial option: No trial, but it has a free starter plan

If you choose Weebly to build your first site, you won’t be wrong, as the software score is among the top in the value-for-money category. Thanks to its affordable plans, you will receive a lot more than what you paid for compared to other website builders on our list.

Pros

✔ You don’t need to have coding knowledge to build your website.

✔ The drag-and-drop editor is basic and easy to use.

✔ “What you see is what you get” website builder

✔ Weebly supports multiple languages on websites.

✔ Weebly has one of the most generous free plans of all web builders on our list. It includes a free SSL certificate, adding third-party embed codes, chat and email support, a shopping cart, unlimited items, quick shop, inventory management, in-store pickup, automatic tax calculator, coupons, Square gift cards, and more.

✔ Large app store with an extensive selection of third-party apps.

✔ You can switch themes after the site has gone live

✔ Weebly scores pretty high on the SEO functionality chart. It has extensive step-by-step built-in SEO guides for setting up the needed features. The platform even has features to help you create an audience through social media and email marketing.

✔ Strong eCommerce features, including letting you sell for free – something unique in our list.

✔ Unlimited storage and bandwidth with all plans

✔ Excellent uptime

✔ Fully hosted and offers SSL certificate with all plans

Cons

✖ There is a problem with mobile optimizations, and most sites don’t look good on a smaller screen.

✖ The builder lacks in the design department, as it has limited customization options.

✖ Experts find it lacking when it comes to the tools needed for long-term business growth.

✖ The lower tiers (under Pro) have Square ads, and you need to upgrade to remove them.

✖ There might be synchronization problems between Weebly and Square, as well as, other third-party platforms.

✖ Limited selection of templates

✖ Slow software development, which is especially visible in the outdated interface of the editor.

✖It is difficult to migrate to and from Weebly

✖ Customer support is offered only by phone or live chat, and the response time is extremely slow.

✖ There is no automatic backup functionality, so you need to manually back up your site, and even then, your blog and store pages won’t be included in the backup.

Payment options

Something worth mentioning is that Weebly has different plans according to your geographical region. For example, you will get additional eCommerce plans if you are in Europe or Asia.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price (Annually Billed)	Suitable for
Connect (For Websites)	$10	Personal blogs and small sites that don’t need many additional functionalities and don’t sell anything.
Pro (For Websites)	$12	Small companies or individual sellers that can have online stores with limited inventory
Business (For Websites)	$25	Medium-sized businesses
Pro (For Online Stores)	$12	Small businesses selling limited items
Business (For Online Stores)	$25	Online stores and businesses that need more eCommerce features.
Business Plus (For Online Stores)	$38	Medium-sized companies with online stores that need real-time shipping information and an Email Marketing platform.

However, if you are in North or South America, there are only 3 paid plans you can choose from.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price		Suitable for
	Annually Billed	MonthlyBilled
Personal	$10	$13	Personal blogs, small sites that sell a limited amount of products.
Professional	$12	$16	Small businesses that need more storage space and advanced stats report
Performance	$26	$29	Small to Medium companies that need additional eCommerce and management features.

Weebly is definitely worth using, and although it has fallen behind in the past few years, it is still one of the most used web builders in the world. This is the right platform for you if you own a small to medium-sized business.

IONOS

Payment option: Paid
Plans: From $1/month
Trial option: No trial and no free plan

IONOS is one of the top business-focused website builders. Its unique functionalities place it among the most used platforms worldwide. If you want a fast-loading business site you should consider this web builder.

Pros

✔ You don’t need coding knowledge, as everything can be arranged using the drag-and-drop editor.

✔ IONOS offers a decent multilingual translation and can handle quite the data load.

✔ Privacy and analytic tools are included.

✔ It has an extensive template library organized by industry and type, covering almost all sectors – from real estate to tourism. Additionally, you can use 17 000+ royalty-free images.

✔ It offers content personalization, which allows you to tailor your copy to the needs of your visitors. Depending on the sales history, upcoming events and holidays, you can display different content for each customer.

✔ 30-day money-back guarantee policy

✔ Optional online store feature

✔ Option to create backups

✔ It is not very hard to migrate to and from IONOS, and you can use the services of a third-party company if you are uncertain you can handle it by yourself.

✔ Fast loading speed

✔ Offers free SSL certificate and a free domain for one year.

✔ 24/7 customer support

Cons

✖ You can get easily flustered with the different control options, as the platform can be complicated for non-tech-savvy people.

✖ The web builder has an outdated and inflexible design and doesn’t provide the best user experience.

✖ If you want to create your own custom elements, you must have at least some web development knowledge.

✖ Possible problems with content suggestions

✖ IONOS doesn’t create the most flawless mobile-friendly sites, so you must regularly check how your website looks on other devices.

✖ Once you publish your website, you can’t change its theme.

✖ Limited customization capabilities.

✖ The lowest plan contains IONOS ads. If you want to get rid of them, you need to upgrade. Additionally, the functionalities on this tier are extremely limited.

✖ The price goes up after the first year.

Payment options

Surprisingly, all of IONOS’s functionalities come at a very reasonable price.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price		Suitable for
	At first	After
Starter	$5 ( for 6 months)	$9	Personal blogs, small business sites
Plus	$1 (for 12 months)	$15	Small to medium companies
Pro	$15 (for 6 months)	$25	Medium to Large companies

We recommend you choose the IONOS website builder only if you know what you are doing. It can be a powerful success tool in the right hands, but if mishandled, you can lose a lot of time and money.

Squarespace

Payment option: Paid
Plans: From $16/month
Trial option: Free trial for 14 days, no credit card required

There is simply no way of listing the best website builders and skipping Squarespace. It is one of the most used eCommerce platforms in the world and for a good reason. You can use it to create a wide range of websites – from small stores selling just a few items to large membership sites.

Pros

✔ Excellent in-built features and UX

✔ Allows custom code

✔ Squarespace offers its own booking platform – Squarespace Scheduling

✔ Responsive themes optimized for all types of screens and devices.

✔ Sufficient amount of available apps

✔ Squarespace can offer a lot when it comes to built-in business, SEO, and marketing tools – from different social media and email marketing tools to membership features and scheduling.

✔ It has a unique blogging feature – the Squarespace Blog App. You can access it through your phone, allowing you to edit and post content on the go.

✔ Powerful e-commerce options, including selling digital downloads

✔ Unlimited storage and bandwidth with all plans

✔ Squarespace allows you to restore deleted pages and blog posts up to 30 days after they have been deleted. The web builder creates backup copies of your website and stores them in primary and secondary servers, as well as, storing files in physical and off-site storage disks.

✔ Free SSL certificate

✔ The simpler the site – the easier it is to move it to and from Squarespace.

✔ 24/7 customer support, which you can reach via email or Twitter and live chat Monday to Friday.

Cons

✖ You might need some time to get used to how the editor works, as it is a mix of drag-and-drop and point-and-click.

✖ You have to press the “Save” button after each change as the editor doesn’t support autosave.

✖ Squarespace doesn’t keep a history of the changes made to your website, so you can’t restore your site to a previous version.

✖ The web builder is integrated only with Stripe, Apple Pay, and PayPal. You cannot add additional payment systems.

✖ Not suitable for large websites (30+ pages) due to the limited depth of the navigation- only 1 sub-navigation.

✖ It is almost impossible to create a working multilingual site on Squarespace.

✖ Limited customization options, as you can only change the elements within your template preset rows.

✖ Depending on the template, you might need to create your website two times – once for desktop and a second time for mobile.

✖ Limited app options

✖ Not the most beginner-friendly when it comes to SEO features. You will need some time to get used to them.

✖ Site speed can be slow at times

✖ You get a free domain for only one year with the annual plan; afterwards, you need to pay its regular rate.

✖ Domains cost more if bought through Squarespace compared to other third-party providers.

✖ CSS customization is available only with higher-tier plans.

✖ All Squarespace plans have video storage limitations

✖ Moving from version 7.0 to 7.1 requires a site rebuild

✖ Migrating an online shop from Squarespace to Shopify or another eCommerce platform is not easy. You need to manually export and import your inventory.

✖ Limited customer support

Payment options

When it comes to pricing, Squarespace offers four different plans.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price		Suitable for
	Annually Billed	MonthlyBilled
Personal	$16	$23	Personal blogs, small sites with no eCommerce capabilities
Business	$23	$33	Small to Large sites that need a small online store with limited capabilities.
Basic Commerce	$27	$36	Medium companies and online stores that might need POS and more eCommerce features
Advanced Commerce	$49	$65	Large businesses with lots of products and services that need full eCommerce features.

The website builder is ideal for creating portfolio sites and is widely popular amongst photographers, designers, and artists.

Squarespace is an excellent choice for all types of small businesses, and we can’t praise it enough.

GoDaddy

Payment option: Paid
Plans: From $6.99/ month
Trial option: Free trial for one month, no credit card required; Free plan option as well.

GoDaddy is more known as a web hosting provider, but they also have a web builder, and we are pleased to see that it is also quite impressive. The platform is not only easy to use, but it has a modern design and a plethora of useful features.

Pros

✔ GoDaddy’s intuitive site-building tools make it easy to use and beginner-friendly.

✔ The web builder requires zero coding knowledge and uses AI for quick design, meaning it can offer you a custom template based on the business parameters you set in the beginning.

✔ GoDaddy has extensive free guides that can help you learn how to create your ideal website

✔ You can install GoDaddy on your smartphone and build your website from there. The mobile editor is flexible and easy to use, so you won’t have any difficulties arranging the elements on the pages.

✔ GoDaddy also has its own in-house payments gateway – GoDaddy Payments. Additionally, it has integration with PayPal and Apple Pay.

✔ You can switch themes after the site has gone live, and the platform will reformat your content to fit in the new template.

✔ The platform has 100+ templates and allows you to test up to 20 styles before publishing your website without losing its content.

✔ GoDaddy has large image libraries and allows you to embed video and audio from YouTube/Vimeo and SoundCloud.

✔ Sufficient marketing and SEO tools

✔ Great eCommerce features, including promotions and discounts, abandoned cart recovery, site performance tracking, and more.

✔ Unlimited storage and bandwidth with all plans

✔ Fully hosted

✔ SSL Security and a Backup and Restore function

✔ 24/7 customer support via phone and live chat support available Mon-Fri, 5 am-6 pm.

Cons

✖ Templates are hard to find, and the design options are limited

✖ Unflexible block elements that don’t leave room for creative freedom.

✖ You can’t add single elements to the template or make simple style customizations to your website.

✖ Once multiple digital elements are on the page, the editor becomes significantly slower.

✖ Expensive add-ons that lack depth and functionalities.

✖ Limited app integration, and there is no app store.

✖ You have serious limitations with the free plan; your website will display GoDaddy ads, and you can’t create or connect to a custom domain.

✖ No SEO tools on the lowest plan, and the overall SEO features are sufficient solely for beginners as they cover only basic necessities like editing meta titles and descriptions, changing URL slugs, and adding image alt text.

✖ eCommerce options are not available with all plans.

✖ The checkout option is not hosted on your domain for GoDaddy eCommerce, meaning your customers are redirected to a third-party domain name – mysimplestore.com.

✖ None of the plans include a free domain; you must purchase it separately.

✖ You can create a website on another builder, use GoDaddy hosting, and transfer the site to another hosting provider. However, once you create a site with the GoDaddy website builder, you cannot transfer it to another hosting service.

Payment options

Aside from its free plan, GoDaddy has four paid plans you can choose from. They are different depending on where you are. If you are in Europe and Asia, you will see the following options:

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price	Suitable for
Basic	$6.99	Personal blogs, small business sites
Standard	$10.49	Small companies and family-owned businesses
Premium	$14.99	Medium companies that need a payment option for customers to book services/appointments on your website.
Ecommerce	$16.99	Small to Medium-sized companies with online stores that need flexible payment options and product listings.

US customers, on the other hand, can choose from the following:

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price	Suitable for
Basic	$9.99	Personal blogs, small business sites
Premium	$14.99	Small to medium companies
Commerce	$16.99	Small online stores that have no more than 50 orders/month.
Commerce Plus	$29.99	Small to Medium-sized companies with online stores that have more than 1000 orders/month.

And if you are still unsure whether or not you can trust the GoDaddy web builder, just think about their trial policy. They offer a one-month “test drive” with all features included, and if you decide not to buy a plan, you get your website for free. Now that is one sweet, sweet deal, right?

Overall, this website builder is a great way to expose your business to your target audience. It is unsuitable for more experienced coders or larger companies but ideal for personal sites and small online stores.

Jimdo

Payment option: Freemium
Plans: From $9/month
Trial option: No trial, but it has a free starter plan

Jimdo made its way to our list not because it is particularly sophisticated but because the German platform is one of the easiest to work with. It is a great option if you need a small online store for physical products, as it has all the needed basic functionalities.

Pros

✔ The block editor is easy to work with and beginner-friendly.

✔ No coding knowledge is needed

✔ The platform comes with its own logo designer. If you already have a logo – upload it and see how the builder chooses the best matching color pallets, automatically creating the ideal page design.

✔ Jimdo has integration with third-party payment systems like PayPal and Visa.

✔ All templates have a mobile version

✔ Jimdo is ideal for creating landing pages and small advertising websites.

✔ Integration with a social media platform. If your business has profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and even Google My Business, the web builder can automatically populate your site with data from them.

✔ Jimdo has eCommerce features that are sufficient for a small online store. The platform doesn’t uphold commission fees – you receive 100% of your online sales.

✔ Fast loading speed

✔ All premium plans have a free custom domain for one year.

✔ Expert tech support

Cons

✖ Limited design and customization options.

✖ Some plugins may require coding knowledge, so be careful when you install them.

✖ Limited SEO, blogging, and marketing features.

✖ The costs of renewing the custom domain after the first year are extremely high.

✖ The available storage space and bandwidth depend on the plan. They are unlimited only for the highest tier.

✖ Limited customer support to non-premium plans with 1 to 2 business days waiting time.

Payment options

Similar to Weebly, Jimdo’s subscription plans depend on your location. If you are in the EU, you get 6 paid plans with different features:

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price	Suitable for
Start  (Website Plan)	€9	Personal blogs and small websites with up to 10 pages
Grow (Website Plan)	€15	Small company websites with up to 50 pages
Unlimited  (Website Plan)	€39	Small to medium-sized companies
Basic  (eCommerce Plan)	€15	Small online stores and start-ups with up to 10 pages
Business  (eCommerce Plan)	€19	Small online stores with up to 50 pages
VIP (eCommerce Plan)	€39	Small to Medium online stores

 

Americans, on the other hand, have only 4 paid plans. However, here, the company allows you to subscribe to an additional Business Listing plan that can help you attract more visitors to your website.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price	Suitable for
Start  (Website Plan)	$9	Personal blogs and small websites with up to 10 pages
Grow (Website Plan)	$14	Small company websites with up to 50 pages
Business  (eCommerce Plan)	$18	Small online stores with up to 50 pages
VIP (eCommerce Plan)	$24	Small to Medium online stores

When deciding on your web builder, remember that Jimdo is a European-focused platform, meaning some of its features, like shipping or tax codes, are unsuitable for the US market.

Jimdo is a simple platform that can help small businesses grow. It doesn’t require a lot of funds because you can set up everything yourself. It is not for membership sites and large companies; a small local business can benefit from it.

Webnode

Payment option: Freemium
Plans: From $4.90/month
Trial option: No trial, but it has a free starter plan

Webnode is sort of a unique case in the web building world. The platform is not as popular as Squarespace or Weebly, but if you look at the numbers – over 40 million people worldwide use it. That is quite a significant number if you ask us.

Pros

✔ Ease of use

✔ Drag-and-drop editor

✔ The platform offers multilingual features for creating websites in multiple languages.

✔ Built-in media and content management system.

✔ Most plans include a free domain and at least one free email account.

✔ You can add 2 sub-levels of navigation to your menu

✔ Webnode has over 100 modern templates categorized by industry

✔ Great for SEO

✔ You can download an offline version of your site if you are on a higher plan.

✔ Migration to and from Webode doesn’t require any coding and generally is not complicated.

✔ Always helpful customer support with a fast response time

Cons

✖ Webnode is lacking some important widgets like social likes and shares, a site search box, and more.

✖ No app store

✖ The blogging system is missing key features like tags or a native commenting system.

✖ Limited eCommerce features

✖ Unlimited bandwidth is only available in the highest plan

✖ The backup and restore function is available only for the highest plan.

Payment options

Webnode is one of the builders on our list that offers a free plan. But you can upgrade for only $3.90 a month if you want extra features.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price	Suitable for
Limited (Website Plan)	$4.90	Personal blogs and small websites
Mini (Website Plan)	$8.90	Small company websites with up to 50 pages
Standard (Website Plan)	$14.90	Small to medium companies
Profi (Website Plan)	$24.90	Large companies that need unlimited storage, complex multilingual sites
Standard (eCommerce Plan)	$14.90	Small online stores
Profi (eCommerce Plan)	$24.90	Small to Medium online stores
Business (eCommerce Plan)	$32.90	Large companies with online stores that work with multiple currencies and languages

Overall, Webnode is another easy-to-use web builder that can help you develop your business. It is particularly helpful if your audience is multilingual. Think about it as Duda on a budget.

Strikingly

Payment option: Paid
Plans: From $8/month for one year
Trial option: Free plan

Strikingly is the first web builder on our list that specializes in single-page sites. This web builder is not for everybody. It needs to fit your specific online business model to be able to get the maximum out of it. A multipage website with lots of services, a blog, and a membership is not something you can create using Strikingly. However, if you need a landing page with a fast uptime and a striking design that attracts the user’s attention, you are looking at the right platform.

Pros

✔ Relatively inexpensive for multiple websites

✔ Strikingly is surprisingly user-friendly; you don’t need to be a tech god to create a website. Making changes and corrections is very simple and doesn’t take much time and effort.

✔ You can create a multi-language site by linking together multiple sites

✔ You can switch themes after the site has gone live.

✔ It has a nice selection of mobile-friendly templates that can be used for anything from event pages to small online stores.

✔ Excellent uptime

✔ All paid plans offer a custom domain name.

✔ SSL certificate available

✔ Best-in-class support

Cons

✖ You can sell only 1 item with the free plan

✖ You need a premium account to access many standard features

✖ Multi-page sites are allowed only with some plans

✖ Not suitable for complex sites

✖ Limited customization options

✖ No content categorization

✖ Limited SEO features and eCommerce capabilities

✖ Migrating from Strikingly is a time-consuming process with a lot of steps.

✖ Exteamly poor site speed performance

Payment options

You can start by trying out the ad-sponsored free plan and then – choose one of the other paid ones.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price		Suitable for
	Annually Billed	MonthlyBilled
Limited	$8	$12	Small businesses, personal websites, freelancers, and small online stores with up to 5 products
Pro	$16	$20	Small to medium-sized businesses and online stores with up to 300 products
VIP	$49	$59	Medium and large businesses and online stores

All of the abovementioned annual billed plans are for one year. But if you are happy with the platform and will use it in the long run, there are special 2, 3, and 5-year billing packages. The cost of the Limited plan with the longest comes to just $6 a month.

So, if you want to build attractive landing pages with zero experience, we recommend you try Strikingly.

HostGator

Payment option: Paid
Plans: From $3.84/month for one year
Trial option: No trial option nor free starter plan

HostGator is one of the largest web hosting providers in the world, and similar to GoDaddy, they have come up with their own web builder.

Pros

✔ You arrange the elements using an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, and then you can edit each with a simple point-and-click user-friendly interface.

✔ Built-in free stock photo library

✔ You can switch themes after the site has gone live

✔ The platform offers extensive free guides and video tutorials.

✔ 45-day money-back guarantee period

✔ Over 200 customizable templates, most of which are mobile-friendly.

✔ The web builder can offer you a nice range of built-in SEO and marketing tools like email campaign features and lead capture forms.

✔ eCommerce options with all plans.

✔ You can sell digital downloads

✔ All price plans include a free custom domain name for your website.

✔ The platform is fully hosted; you don’t have to worry about updates and backups.

✔ Unlimited monthly data transfers and storage with all plans

✔ Migration time is standard; generally, you should be able to move to and from HostGator fairly easily.

✔ Strong uptime

✔ 24/7 customer support

Cons

✖ Additional transaction fee for low- and mid-priced e-commerce plans

✖ The short-term plans are quite expensive

✖ No appointment booking features with the lowest plan

✖ Limited photo-editing options

✖ HostGator doesn’t offer multi-language site support.

✖ You can make only a few small changes to the templates, and mostly, you need to stick to the default settings.

✖ You can’t do customizations.

✖ The templates look a little outdated, with large images and only a single button at the bottom. The themes are not as stylish and colorful as the ones Squarespace can offer.

✖ Limited blogging features – there is no scheduling functionality.

✖ No Linux server option.

✖ The web builder offers direct support only in English. Any other language used in the help chat has been translated via Google Translator.

Payment options

The easy-to-use editor and the affordable prices make HostGator ideal for personal or small business sites. You don’t need to be a developer to set up a nice-looking company website.

Plan (Type)	Monthly Price	Suitable for
Start	$3.84	Personal blogs and small websites with up to 3 products
Site	$5.99	Small company website or online stores with up to 10 products
Store	$9.22	Small to medium companies or online stores

To help you choose the ideal website builder, we have compiled all of the pros and cons of our top 15 picks in one place. See them side by side and decide whether you want to invest in a particular software.

Which Website Builders to Avoid

Now that we showcased the top website builders for 2023, we feel it is time to put in the spot some of the weakest software. They are not necessarily bad, but we will not recommend them, as their flaws significantly surpass their benefits.

Web.com

Shocking, we know, especially when you see how many sites promote this website builder. However, there are a few very good reasons to avoid Web.com.

Let’s start with the fact that once you purchase a package, you are billed 13 times yearly. Yeah, you heard that right. Somehow, Web.com works with lunar months that are 28 days. So you are paying one extra month, because of reasons. And if you have already spotted that and want to cancel the services, be ready for a battle. The only way to unsubscribe is by calling phone support and actually talking with a customer service rep. Another alarming fact is that to cancel your account, you are required to give your password over the phone to customer support. That was dangerous a decade ago, and now it is a huge red flag. And if you want a refund, you need to act fast because the refund window is very tiny.

Now, let’s look at the platform itself. The editor is quite frustrating to work with, and the navigation has only one sub-level. Users report that they find it hard to work with, and on top of that, the builder doesn’t let you switch templates. If you compare web.com’s capabilities to the builders on our list, you will see it is seriously lacking in customer support and user experience.

Webs.com

In theory, Webs.com is a working platform, but it hasn’t been updated properly since 2011. Ten years is a long time for any software to remain unchanged and is especially detrimental for one that must stay on point with the current trends. If you search the web, you will find countless negative comments from disappointed costumes, and that should be all the indication you need to avoid Webs.com at all costs.

If you are unlucky enough to have a website created on this platform, we advise you to migrate as soon as possible. A suitable replacement for a small blog or travel site would be WordPress, and if you have an online store – look into Shopify or Weebly.

How to Choose the Right Website Builder?

It is a three-step process that must be done at the beginning. Starting an online business or developing an existing one does not need to be rushed. So here are the different things you have to do:

1) Think about the purpose of your site – Do you want to sell something or share valuable information? Use the table above to compare the top website builders and mark the ones that suit your needs.

2) Set a budget – What is the maximum you are willing to pay to have a fully functioning site? Check the pricing plans and decide whether or not you want to create the website yourself. Developing services can be expensive, and if you don’t have the funds, pick beginner-friendly software.

3) Compare offers – Finally, contact each website builder provider and ask for a consultation. Check the pros and cons of every platform and acquire more information. Once all the cards are on the table, you can make an informed decision that you won’t regret afterward.

What Is the Cheapest Way to Get a Website?

The cheapest way to get a website depends mainly on your type of business and the available resources. It all boils down to what you have to spare – time or money. Think about it. What will your losses be if you spend 10 days creating a website and not working? Will you miss out on orders and new clients? Maybe the cheapest way will be to pay a professional to build your website while you continue your usual work schedule. Or, you can organize everything in a way that won’t freeze your business while creating your new site yourself, or you are just starting and don’t have any available money to invest? Which is the resource you can afford to spend – time or money? Think strategically.

Finding the right website builder for your business can be hard sometimes, as you won’t know if you need extra functionalities after your site goes live. But don’t worry, as most platforms allow you to easily migrate from and to them. If you see that something isn’t working for you, don’t settle. Online presence is essential. Don’t risk losing customers and revenue because you fear change.

So, what do you think about our list? Did we miss something? What platform do you use, and are you happy with it? Hit us in the comment section below and share your experience. We would love to hear from you. And if you have any questions, our experts will gladly answer your queries.