Top 19 Website Builders of 2025: Wix, Squarespace, and More for Your Perfect Online Presence

Expert’s Advice

If you want a sleek, visually appealing website, Squarespace is a top choice. It creates beautiful sites suitable for beginners and experienced users alike, and includes built-in analytics to track visitor data.

Weebly is used by over 530,000 websites and is popular among those who want an easy-to-use website builder without complex coding skills. It offers many useful features. For bloggers, Weebly makes it simple to choose a domain name and customize your site with its drag-and-drop editor, including adding text, images, and various content types. The platform also provides a mobile app to monitor your website’s performance on the go, as well as marketing and SEO tools to help your target audience discover your site.

Weebly offers a free plan that includes 500 MB of storage, a free SSL certificate, and a domain with Weebly branding. You can use a custom domain with this plan, but your site will display Weebly branding throughout. Support options for the free plan are limited to chat and email, with no phone support available.

Key features include the ability to create a personal blog that reflects your style, access to the App Center for adding different functionalities, user-friendly design tools for customizing your website’s appearance without coding, options to sell products online by turning your site into an e-commerce store, and mobile applications to ensure your site looks great on any device.

When it comes to user experience, Weebly allows you to preview how your website appears on both desktop and mobile devices, helping you ensure a consistent look across platforms. The app center’s extensive range of add-ons enables you to enhance your website’s features effortlessly. Whether you prefer a minimalist design or a more complex layout, Weebly offers templates suitable for various needs.

Pricing plans range from $5 to $26 per month, with higher-tier options providing advanced e-commerce capabilities, a free custom domain, and $200 in Google ad credits. Their e-commerce tools include product options and variants, discount coupons, inventory management, shipping calculators, and label printing. The platform supports multiple payment processors, including Square and others, to facilitate online transactions.Your subscription tier offers various forms of support, and you can often find help through many channels. Resources include their blog, support center, community forum, social media pages, and detailed developer documentation. Additionally, they provide live chat assistance, email support, and phone help to address your questions.

What I Appreciate/Dislike About Weebly:

Likes:
– Previewing links is a handy feature, allowing you to verify they direct to the correct destination before publishing your site.
– The ready-made templates and options help users to get started quickly.
– Drag-and-drop widgets make customizing your site straightforward without requiring coding skills.

Dislikes:
– More tutorials or guidance would be useful for beginners just starting out.
– Some layout elements lack full customization options, which can restrict design possibilities.
– Introducing custom objects or views could significantly enhance Weebly’s flexibility and power.

Product Updates:
– You can embed a Buy button directly on your website, enabling visitors to make purchases without leaving the site.
– Announcement banners are available to help highlight important news and updates prominently.

Get started with Weebly.

Shopify is a well-known platform for ecommerce, attracting over 800,000 online shops since its founding in Canada in 2004. It became popular due to its simple interface and extensive integrations with thousands of third-party apps. While not every website needs a dedicated online store, many small businesses can benefit from Shopify’s features. For example, a salon could quickly create a site with a blog, a map to their location, contact details, appointment booking via a third-party app, and online sales of hair care products — all of which provides an additional revenue stream.

Shopify offers essential features such as hosting, domain management, over 70 professional themes, a free SSL certificate for secure shopping, and built-in marketing and SEO tools. It also supports mobile commerce, over 100 payment gateways, automatic shipping rates, tax calculations, and a seamless checkout process. Plus, its omnichannel capabilities let you sell across Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Instagram, and other platforms.

For those planning to sell products online later, starting with Shopify is advisable over tools that aren’t focused on ecommerce.

Key Features:
– A selection of over 70 professional themes to style your store. Shopify provides a free 256-bit SSL certificate to ensure secure transactions.
– Integration options for dropshipping, making it easier to source and drop-ship products from various suppliers.
– Built-in SEO features to help your store be discoverable on search engines.
– Automated emails for customer engagement, promotions, and purchase follow-ups.

Pricing:
Shopify offers three subscription plans, ranging from $39 to $2,000 per month. The basic $39/month plan supplies everything needed including a full website, unlimited products, a blog, 24/7 support, and more. A free 14-day trial is available to test out the platform without providing credit card information.

Get started with Shopify.

HubSpot’s Content Management System provides a comprehensive website solution integrated with powerful CRM tools, making it ideal for businesses looking for an all-in-one platform. Pricing ranges from $45 to $3,200 per month, depending on your needs.

HubSpot is a premium CRM and marketing platform that comes equipped with a comprehensive content management system (CMS) and website builder. You can design web pages, blog articles, and landing pages either from scratch or using their ready-made templates.

Their intuitive drag-and-drop interface uses responsive design principles, ensuring your pages look great on any device. What makes HubSpot special is its built-in personalization features and seamless integrations. Unlike other tools, HubSpot offers an all-in-one marketing suite, allowing you to manage email campaigns, improve your search visibility, and engage with potential clients effectively.

For instance, you can add call-to-action buttons and forms to your web pages that convert visitors into leads. Additionally, HubSpot enables you to craft dynamic content tailored to individual visitors based on data like location, device type, language, or traffic origin—data collected directly through their CRM.

This integrated marketing platform supports the entire customer journey: capture leads with forms, chatbots, and live chat; send targeted messages via email, retargeting, and messaging apps; analyze visitor behavior through reports, analytics, and list segmentation; and use personalized content and calls-to-action to transform leads into customers.

Key features include an easy-to-navigate dashboard, responsive themes for different devices, advanced content editing tools with multimedia capabilities, version control and backups, multi-language support, and precise publishing controls to manage content visibility and timing.

Pricing details are available through their website, but overall, HubSpot is ideal for those seeking a website builder combined with complete CRM and marketing functionalities. Start building with HubSpot to leverage its powerful tools and seamless integrations.

Get started with HubSpot.

For those interested in website creation with a focus on drag-and-drop ease, Elementor is another excellent option, especially for users wanting versatility and custom design control.

Designed to empower website creators, Elementor provides a visual editor that allows users to modify and customize their websites with simplicity. The platform’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to craft professional-looking WordPress sites at scale. Users can choose from thousands of pre-made, responsive templates or utilize the lightweight Hello theme—a blank canvas that’s highly customizable—to match any design vision.

This theme is a minimalistic starting point, offering the flexibility to tailor every aspect to specific needs or preferences. Moreover, Elementor enables full control over all design elements and functionalities, including the ability to add custom code for advanced customization.

Approximately 4.3% of websites are built with Elementor, highlighting its popularity and reliability as a web-building tool.Ucraft boasts a versatile and feature-rich platform suitable for various website needs, offering tools for building online stores, landing pages, blogs, and customized logos. With a range of over 80 pre-designed, responsive templates catering to industries such as fashion, food, photography, sports, and business, users have plenty of options to start their online presence. Additionally, the platform provides more than 100 pre-built page blocks like call-to-action buttons, contact forms, testimonials, and footers, making customization straightforward and efficient.

For those just beginning, Ucraft offers a free plan that enables users to connect their domain, secure their site with SSL, create up to 15 pages, incorporate Google Analytics, and access around-the-clock customer support. However, free sites carry Ucraft branding and have certain limitations. To unlock advanced features, remove branding, and enjoy unlimited pages, users can upgrade to a paid plan starting at $10 per month. This upgrade also includes SEO tools, design enhancements, blogging capabilities, collaboration options, integrations, and e-commerce functionalities. A notable highlight is the platform’s logo maker, which allows custom design elements like icons, text, and shapes to craft a professional brand identity easily.

Overall, Ucraft is an excellent choice for small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking an all-inclusive website builder fitted with numerous tools for designing logos, landing pages, and online stores without requiring coding skills. Whether you’re launching a new product, sharing your stories through a blog, or starting your online shop, Ucraft offers an accessible and comprehensive solution.

Key features include a user-friendly online store creator that requires no coding, an intuitive landing page builder for attractive marketing pages, a blogging platform for sharing content, and an effective logo maker to develop a polished brand image—all designed to help you establish your digital presence quickly and efficiently.

Start using Ucraft.

Webflow, based in California, is a tool that simplifies building, launching, and hosting websites. It uses semantic HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript for creating websites tailored to your needs. You can easily drag and drop elements like sliders and tabs, or choose from pre-designed features including background videos and animations. The system allows you to make global changes to multiple elements using CSS, and it supports custom coding for advanced customizations.

A key feature of Webflow is its ability to create reusable components such as navigation bars, footers, and signup forms, which speeds up the design process. It offers more than 100 customizable templates suitable for various purposes like business sites, portfolios, and blogs.

Webflow also focuses heavily on creating visually appealing websites. You can add animation effects like parallax, reveal animations, progress bars, and more. It offers over 20 pre-made interactions, animations, and triggers to enhance your site’s aesthetic quality.

Webflow also includes a content management system that allows you to add content directly on the site, import CSV files, or connect via API. You can even link other data sources to your Webflow website’s CMS.The tool also features integrated SEO capabilities. These include automatically generating XML sitemaps, adding alt tags to images, writing semantic code, ensuring rapid page loading, making your site mobile-friendly, and allowing you to customize metadata to improve search engine visibility.

If you’re interested in creating an eCommerce website, the platform offers specialized tools such as adjustable product fields to showcase features, images, and other details. It also assists in setting up a checkout process, customizing the homepage and gallery layouts, uploading your logo, and more.

Hosting is provided by services like Amazon Web Services and Fastly, both of which support HTTP/2 standards that enhance site loading speeds. You also have the option to purchase your domain directly from GoDaddy or Google Domains and connect it seamlessly to your Webflow site.

Key features include the ability to add and update content on your live website, invite team members for collaboration within a single dashboard, support for up to 100 pages, a 99.9% uptime guarantee complemented by SSL security, automated backups, support for custom fonts, the ability to create personalized 404 error pages, and multiple support options such as email, the Webflow community forum, and a help center. Additionally, integrations with tools like Zapier enable connection with Slack, MailChimp, and Asana. For eCommerce, you can list up to 3,000 products.

Pricing plans vary based on your needs. The site plans start at $12 per month for basic features, $16 for CMS capabilities, $36 for business features, with enterprise solutions available at custom prices. The account plans include a free starter option, a $16/month Lite plan, and a $35/month Pro plan. You can get started with Webflow by visiting their website.

Webflow offers two main types of plans. Site plans enable you to connect your custom domain, collaborate with team members, and activate the checkout process for an online store. Meanwhile, account plans allow users to upload logos, manage multiple projects, and create a team dashboard.

Site plans are priced as follows: Basic at $12/month, CMS at $16/month, Business at $36/month, and Enterprise plans are customized to your needs. Account plans include Starter for free, Lite at $16/month, and Pro at $35/month. You can begin your journey with Webflow by following this link.

For those interested in WordPress themes geared towards photography and creative websites, Flothemes offers a one-time purchase of $279. These themes are highly customizable, built with the Flex block page builder, and come with pre-designed layouts and content blocks. This allows you to modify colors, fonts, and page structures without the need for coding.

Flothemes simplifies website creation within WordPress, guiding you through steps like registering a domain and choosing a hosting provider. They also offer their own cloud hosting options starting at $26 per month, providing an easy route to getting your site online.

All templates are designed to give you a professional look with minimal effort, offering flexible options to tailor every aspect of your website’s appearance and layout.

Flothemes assists in launching your website for a fee ranging from $499 to $1999. They are ideal for beginners, offering basic and advanced features such as improving page load times, SEO optimization, and custom styling. Your package includes two 45-minute screen-sharing sessions with specialists and a 45-minute SEO consultation, totaling six rounds of implementation support. Their service also covers SSL setup, WordPress installation, typography choices, color scheme customization, and more. Users enjoy full design flexibility, SEO options, and a user-friendly dashboard.

While their themes are available for a one-time fee of $279, Flothemes also offers annual subscription plans:

Since its debut in 2003, WordPress has become the leading content management system globally, powering over 75 million websites. Users can choose between hosting their own WordPress site via WordPress.org or using the hosted, self-managed WordPress.com platform. For a more detailed comparison, see my full review of Wix vs. WordPress. With WordPress.com, you can create virtually any type of website—be it a blog, local business site, or online store. Their free plan includes a website, 3 GB of storage, and customer support. Upgrading to one of their paid plans unlocks more advanced features, plugins, and priority assistance.

WordPress.com also provides essential features via Jetpack, including basic SEO tools, social sharing capabilities, and site analytics. The popular Jetpack plugin offers a comprehensive suite that covers SEO, security, marketing, and analytics functionalities.

With WordPress.com, starting a website is straightforward, whether for a personal blog, small business, or eCommerce venture. The free plan offers a website with 3 GB storage and support. Upgrading to paid plans provides access to additional features, plugins, and priority customer support, making it suitable for users with growing needs.

Paid plans range from just $4 a month for a basic blogging setup, up to $45 for full e-commerce capabilities. The majority of users choose the Premium Plan at $8 per month, which includes all essential tools for designing, editing, and managing your website content.

In general, this version of WordPress is simpler and more streamlined, with fewer features but greater ease of use. If you want to try out WordPress without committing to your own hosting setup, consider using the WordPress website builder.

Start building your website with WordPress.

SITE123 offers an easy-to-use platform with a free plan to get you started on your new site. When signing up, you’ll receive a free subdomain, 500 GB of storage, and 1 GB of bandwidth. Premium plans, starting at just $12.80 per month, allow you to connect your custom domain or purchase a new one through their dashboard. They promise reliable uptime of 99.97%, over 200 design templates, and e-commerce options beginning at around $22 per month. Payment is simple, with options for PayPal or credit card, and you can have your site running within minutes.

SITE123 is known for its simplicity, offering three straightforward steps to create a website:

After your site goes live, you can utilize their SEO tools to optimize elements like your titles and meta descriptions, helping improve your search rankings. Their plans, including Advanced, Professional, and Gold, come with email accounts, with options to purchase additional ones separately. Switching or upgrading your plan is simple, ensuring flexibility. To start building, you simply register a free domain, pick a basic plan, and use their intuitive site builder. Features include unlimited bandwidth, contact forms, and tools to help your site rank higher on search engines.

Overall, SITE123 stands out as an excellent drag-and-drop website builder, especially suited for individuals without graphic or coding skills who want to quickly set up a website. It simplifies the process of designing and launching a professional-looking site, making it accessible to everyone.

Get started with SITE123.

Hibu was established in 2001 and specializes in providing integrated digital marketing solutions tailored for small to medium-sized companies. Unlike basic website builders, Hibu offers services like website design, local listing management, online reviews, display ads, and SEO enhancements, making it a comprehensive marketing partner.

Many users praise their local listing and SEO services as particularly valuable. For small businesses, maintaining visibility on platforms like Google My Business, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Yellow Pages, and social media is critical for attracting new customers.

Hibu has reported significant digital engagement, with over 800 million website visits, 225 million ad clicks, and more than 6 million phone calls generated through their campaigns. When you work with Hibu, a dedicated digital marketing expert offers personalized support, guiding you through the process even if you’re unfamiliar with HTML, CSS, or hosting. Collaborating with major platforms like Google, Facebook, Bing, and Yahoo, they craft tailored strategies that grow your online presence.

While specific prices aren’t listed on their website, typical costs include a monthly fee of around $100 and an initial setup fee ranging from $499 to $599.

If you’re a local business seeking assistance with web design, visibility, and listing management, Hibu is a top choice.

Jimdo allows users to create a professional website in just about three minutes. By answering a series of questions about your business, Jimdo’s AI guides you to select the best design options, making the process quick and easy. Instead of static templates, Jimdo provides adaptable content blocks that change based on user interactions, ensuring a tailored user experience.

Instead of offering static templates, Jimdo utilizes flexible content blocks that can change dynamically depending on user behavior. This makes Jimdo especially suitable for small businesses looking for customizable websites that adapt to their visitors’ needs.Create navigation menus and pages tailored to your industry. For instance, a local restaurant might have a dedicated map page featuring its logo, address, opening hours, and other relevant details.

Jimdo is best summarized as an automation tool. Its automatic SEO feature syncs with your Google Search Console in just three clicks. Thanks to content blocks, building your website is faster compared to older builders. Additionally, AI guides you by asking questions and designing a site tailored to your specific industry.

The platform offers a free plan with limited features and ads displayed on your site. Upgrading to their paid plan at $9/month removes ads, provides a custom domain free for the first year, enhances SEO capabilities, and includes analytics tools. Jimdo also leverages AI to generate your site images from their library, which can be very helpful. Its social media integrations, navigation menus, and industry-specific page designs make website creation straightforward. In terms of AI functionality, Jimdo’s system is similar to Wix ADI, but many users find it slightly superior.

Here are the steps to create a website with Jimdo:

1. Sign up for a free Jimdo account.
2. Answer a few questions; Jimdo automatically pulls your business information from Facebook and Google.
3. Select a pre-designed template. Jimdo uses your existing photos and text from listings or can generate personalized content.
4. Make final adjustments and add finishing touches.
5. Publish your website and go live.

If you want to launch a website in under three minutes using AI technology, Jimdo is an excellent choice.

Key Features include:

– Flexible site builder options to customize your site to your exact preferences.
– A large library of modern, clean templates tailored for different industries.
– Fast-loading servers ensure minimal page load times.
– A highly-rated mobile app that allows updates on the go, ensuring your site looks great on any device.
– An integrated logo creator, perfect for entrepreneurs just starting out without established branding.

Get started with Jimdo now.

BigCommerce is designed especially for large online stores, combining powerful ecommerce capabilities with excellent website features, all without charging transaction fees. It stands out because of its advanced features, such as top-tier SEO, fast site speed, high uptime, conversion-optimized themes, and support for over 600 products.

If your goal is to create a website that you might add e-commerce functionality to later, BigCommerce is a solid option. Their shopping cart software is comprehensive; I particularly like their free themes that focus heavily on conversion optimization. Websites built with BigCommerce tend to look professional, load quickly, and maximize sales potential.

I currently use their BigCommerce for WordPress plugin to sell digital products. It allows my front-end content to run on WordPress while the ecommerce engine operates on BigCommerce, using an open-source API. This setup prevents performance issues that can occur when hosting everything on a single platform, resulting in a more efficient and faster online store.

Here’s a quick overview of their key features:

– An intuitive visual editor that simplifies creating beautiful, functional online stores.
– Customizable themes that help you match your brand’s look and feel.
– Advanced checkout options to optimize the purchase process for your customers.

Feel free to explore BigCommerce for a comprehensive ecommerce solution that scales with your business needs.

Start your journey with BigCommerce.

Pixpa is a website-building tool designed specifically for creative professionals, especially photographers and artists. They offer a free trial for 15 days, so you can test whether it fits your needs without commitment. Like many platforms, you don’t need to know how to code; their themes are tailored for visual content, making them perfect for creatives. Their collection of visually appealing themes ensures your website looks professional on any device. All themes are mobile-friendly, and there are over 35 options to choose from. If you’re a blogger, you’ll appreciate the multi-blog feature that lets you manage multiple blogs on one site. Pixpa also offers numerous gallery layouts to showcase your work in various styles, and you can customize SEO data for each page to optimize your visibility in search engines. Their integrated e-commerce system allows you to sell both physical and digital products or services directly through your site. Photographers can even sell images via galleries instead of a traditional store. Customer support is available 24/7 via email and chat, though they do not offer direct phone assistance. Their knowledge base is extensive, providing a wealth of information to help you get started or troubleshoot issues.

Pixpa offers affordable plans starting at $7 per month, which increase with additional features like more storage and product listings. The basic plan includes 2 GB of space and allows selling up to 10 products. After the first year, you’ll need to purchase a domain separately. Pixpa is a good choice for budget-conscious creatives who want to manage their website, client galleries, and blog in one platform. Begin your journey with Pixpa.

Ideal for startups aiming to build simple, cost-effective sites (Free).

Designmodo is an online tool that simplifies the process of designing websites and emails.

The platform offers three main products: Designmodo Slides, Postcards, and Startup. Slides and Startup are focused on website creation, while Postcards helps you craft email newsletters.

Used by prominent companies such as Nike, Adobe, GoDaddy, NASA, Ikea, and Microsoft, Designmodo Slides enables you to create both static and animated website templates. You can select from over 200 slides, 118 website templates, and 30 panels to customize your site. It also simplifies the addition of features like sidebars, dropdown menus, contact forms, navigation bars, popups, and buttons. The platform uses user-friendly coding languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, allowing you to modify the code without compromising your website’s performance or stability.

Additionally, Designmodo Startups is a tool for designing Bootstrap-based websites, featuring more than 300 pre-made blocks and a drag-and-drop interface for building your site and landing pages quickly. It ensures your website is responsive across various devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktops, and is compatible with high-resolution Retina screens. You can make visual edits and add content directly through the theme builder, eliminating the need to modify backend systems.

One of the notable features of Designmodo Startup is its integration with Google Fonts, allowing you to choose any font style suitable for your website. It supports unlimited styles and automatically generates semantic HTML code, making site creation easier. The platform also includes an email builder that helps integrate your website with email marketing campaigns. This builder allows you to design newsletters from scratch or customize over 100 templates, providing a wide range of options.

Key additional features include project management support, unlimited effects and slides, extensive customer support, automatic updates, and the ability to export your complete website—images, text, and styles—directly into your system. It also integrates with popular third-party tools like Trello, Slack, and MailChimp, enhancing overall workflow. The platform offers a free plan with basic features to help you get started.

They offer various pricing plans to accommodate different needs, ranging from free options to premium packages with additional features.It includes two main products: Designmodo Slides and Designmodo Startups.

Designmodo Slides offers several plans, starting with a free option that requires no credit card. Paid plans include a Business plan costing $21 per month and billed annually, and an Agency plan at $29 per month billed annually. Except for the Demo plan, all subscriptions include over 200 slides and templates, project management tools, support, updates, and additional features.

For Designmodo Startups, there is a free Starter plan, a quarterly plan priced at $89 each quarter, and an annual option at $249 per year. All tiers grant access to all features and Sigma sources, with paid plans bringing unlimited exports and priority customer support.

Another notable platform is Duda, recognized as one of the best website builders for agencies and multilingual sites, costing $14 per month. Duda has been operating since 2008 and features robust multi-language support, appealing SEO tools, and fast website performance. It is also a versatile tool for agencies, offering client management functionalities like white-labeling, website previews, and comment resolution.

A key innovation from Duda is Dynamic Pages, which allow teams to generate multiple pages from a single design and content stored within the editor. The platform hosts sites on Amazon AWS, promising 99.99% uptime, and provides extensive developer tools and API integrations. Its multi-language capability supports creating websites in over 55 languages, enhancing your international reach through geo-targeted URLs and improved SEO.

Duda’s main features include integrated design options for consistent branding, zones tailored for takeout or delivery services, easy-to-set-up tips and gratuity options for online ordering, customizable product pages, and email marketing tools for maintaining customer engagement. Starting at $14 per month, the basic plan includes one website on AWS and email support. For agencies managing multiple sites, their plan at $59 per month offers four websites, priority support, dynamic pages, team and client management features, and more. Overall, Duda is an excellent choice for agencies building numerous small websites with a focus on international customers.

What is a website builder? A visual overview can be seen in the illustration below, which highlights how these tools simplify website creation, allowing users to design and deploy sites without deep coding knowledge.

A website builder is a software tool that enables anyone to create and manage a website and domain name without needing to write code manually. In simple terms, it’s a platform that simplifies the process of building a website.

In the early days of the internet, creating a website required programmers to know HTML and CSS. Today, coding a site involves a steep learning curve, with knowledge of JavaScript and PHP being essential.

Fortunately, most AI-powered website builders eliminate this complexity. These tools empower small businesses, bloggers, news outlets, and e-commerce shops to quickly develop professional websites—often in just minutes.

Small business owners need a software solution that helps them launch quickly and reliably. The platform should have high uptime to prevent website outages and include features like email accounts for staff.

Essentially, local businesses also require tailored features such as maps, directions, store hours, the ability to share coupons, photo galleries, and social media integrations.

While most tools on this list meet the basic needs, some stand out due to their additional features and ease of use.

Below are my top recommendations for small business website builders:

Wix ranks as my top choice because it offers a highly accessible platform, rich in features for small businesses, and boasts some of the best templates available. Businesses can easily connect their domain, choose a template, input their details, and publish quickly.

While Wix may involve a slightly steeper learning curve than simpler editors like Hibu or SITE123, its advanced SEO and design options make it ideal for companies wanting a robust online presence.

Some standout features of Wix for small businesses include:

Overall, Wix simplifies building a professional business website, allowing you to get everything set up in just one afternoon. Although I personally use WordPress for my blog, I’ve built small business websites for friends and family using Wix and have always found it user-friendly and effective.

If you’re not very experienced with technology and need a straightforward website so customers can find your business online, SITE123 is a solid choice for you. Thanks to their simple three-step process, most small business owners can set up a basic 3-5 page website quickly and easily with their platform. While I recommend either Wix or WordPress for more customization, if speed is your priority, SITE123 makes launching a website hassle-free.

Hibu earns my third spot mainly because of its comprehensive digital marketing tools. For local businesses, having a strong online presence on platforms like Google, Facebook, and local directories is crucial. Improving your local search rankings is also vital, as Google ranks businesses based on relevance, proximity, and prominence. Hibu helps manage all these aspects through local listings, online reviews, social media marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), and search engine optimization (SEO). They provide a one-stop solution to boost your visibility and attract local customers.

The top e-commerce builders enable you to easily create a shopping website with drag-and-drop tools and include powerful features like product pages, shipping options, discounts, payment processing, and more. These platforms make selling online simple and effective.

Here are my top picks for the best ecommerce website builders:

Wix offers reliable online selling features and is incredibly easy to use, with a variety of attractive ecommerce themes. To set up your online store on Wix, follow these steps: log into your account, pick from over 500 ecommerce templates, personalize your store’s design, add your products, connect your payment and shipping options, choose a custom domain, and then publish your store to start selling. For more guidance, check out my detailed review of top ecommerce platforms.

Shopify is my second favorite choice for creating an online store. Its extensive app ecosystem and user-friendly interface allow almost anyone to launch a professional-looking store quickly. With over 70 themes and integrated blogging features, you can build your site and add products within minutes, making it ideal for small to medium-sized shops.

BigCommerce is excellent but better suited for large, high-volume online stores due to its powerful backend capabilities. It’s not primarily a website builder but rather a robust ecommerce engine that can integrate with WordPress via a plugin. This setup allows you to have a content-rich site powered by WordPress with a strong ecommerce backend, perfect for businesses needing advanced features without sacrificing site speed.

Here are the essential features that make a website builder effective and user-friendly.

The most important aspect is a straightforward, intuitive interface. It should guide you through the building process with clear steps, whether through tutorials or prompts, so even beginners can create a professional site without coding. The dashboard should provide an overview of all your pages, making it easy to navigate and make edits quickly.

Your website must look great on desktops, tablets, and smartphones. A good builder provides responsive design tools that automatically adjust layouts and images based on screen size. Preview features that let you see how your site will appear across devices are also crucial before publishing.

Finally, drag-and-drop functionality is essential for ease of use. It allows you to add elements like text, images, videos, and more just by dragging them into place, simplifying the design process and enabling users without coding skills to create attractive, optimized websites.

for all devices.

A good website builder should enable users to tailor their websites and incorporate new features as needed. This includes adjusting fonts, colors, and layouts, integrating contact forms or online shopping capabilities, adding third-party widgets, and much more.

Many website builders offer seamless integration with well-known content management systems (CMS). This makes it easier for users to develop websites that work perfectly with these platforms, simplifying content management over time.

A website and a Content Management System (CMS) are robust tools for creating and overseeing digital content, but they differ significantly in design, features, and purpose. A basic website typically consists of static pages that serve as an online presence. With static websites, making changes or adding new content usually requires some coding knowledge. This setup suits simple needs such as providing company information or showcasing products.

In contrast, a CMS allows users to create and manage content easily without coding skills. It supports dynamic websites and blogs that need frequent updates—for example, eCommerce stores or news websites. A CMS generally provides user roles and different access levels, enabling multiple people to update content simultaneously while maintaining control over who can edit what.
In summary, static websites are ideal for straightforward, unchanging pages, while CMSs are essential for interactive, frequently updated sites. This flexibility makes a CMS more scalable and efficient, helping businesses grow and adapt seamlessly over time.

The key distinction lies in control: a typical website offers limited management options, whereas a CMS empowers users with extensive control over content, facilitating quick additions, deletions, or modifications. This functionality is crucial for businesses that need to stay competitive through ongoing updates.

Most website builders charge a monthly fee, with pricing plans varying based on the features you need. Typically, costs range from $3 to $50 per month and include hosting and file management. You will also need to buy your domain name. If you want eCommerce features, prices usually start around $20–$30 per month, which is considered mid-tier.