Top 15+ Cutting-Edge Web Design Tools for 2025: Expert Reviews & Rankings

Ready to jump right in? My top recommended web design tools currently are Wix and GoDaddy.

From humble beginnings as a text-based page with hyperlinks in 1991, the web has evolved into sophisticated platforms supporting HTML 5, Bootstrap frameworks, mobile-first designs, and comprehensive content experiences.

If you’re interested in creating a website today, there are numerous options available. Your choice depends mainly on your coding skills and the specific features you require: a simple website builder like Wix is ideal for small businesses, whereas experienced web developers building more complex sites might prefer platforms like Webflow, especially if they have a background in HTML5 and JavaScript.

Ecommerce platforms streamline the process of building online stores, and pairing your web hosting with WordPress is your best option if you’re planning to start blogging or manage content regularly. Ultimately, the right choice depends on your goals and technical expertise.

In this article, I evaluate the top web design software, comparing their features, pricing, and more, to help you find the best fit for your needs. Let’s dive in.

What is the Best Web Design Software? Here are my top picks:
1. Wix. The best website builder for small businesses, starting at $8.50 per month.

Wix is a cloud-based platform that allows you to build websites easily, especially for novices, by offering attractive templates and user-friendly design tools. It features a simple drag-and-drop interface that makes creating stunning websites effortless, with options to incorporate effects like video backgrounds, animations, and scroll effects.

It also provides over 500 professionally designed templates, so you’re sure to find one that matches your needs. You can filter your search by industry, such as Health & Wellness, Beauty & Hair, or Fashion & Style, making it easier to find a suitable look. Additionally, Wix simplifies customization by guiding you through a few questions about your business, after which it can generate a tailored website design. The platform includes more than 30 media galleries, allowing you to showcase images, autoplay videos, and display text creatively.

Wix offers extensive customization options, including a blog for sharing ideas and building a community, a Logo Maker for creating a professional brand image, personalized domain names for branding, and mobile-ready themes and templates. For online stores, Wix provides tools to kickstart your eCommerce business and allows you to optimize your website for mobile users. A personalized SEO plan is also available, tailored to your geographic location, industry, and specific keywords.

Key features of Wix include artificial intelligence-powered design, advanced coding options, visual effects, dynamic page capabilities, and mobile management tools. Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) builds personalized websites based on your inputs, while Wix Corvid offers a coding environment that supports serverless computing, database management, and API integrations. You can add visual effects like shadows and reflections with Wix Photo Studio, create pages that automatically update content, and control your site effortlessly via the mobile app—tracking orders, posting blogs, and gathering customer feedback all on the go.

Wix’s drag-and-drop interface lets you easily structure your website, making it one of the simplest website builders available. You can add and move elements on your pages with just a few clicks, without needing any coding skills or technical web design knowledge. Additionally, Wix makes it straightforward to incorporate a chat feature, allowing visitors to contact you directly. This keeps communication quick and accessible, helping you respond to questions or concerns efficiently.

Wix offers four subscription plans: the Combo plan at $8.50 per month, suitable for personal websites, and the Unlimited plan at $14.50 per month, ideal for entrepreneurs and freelancers. The VIP plan costs $26 per month and provides priority support. Additionally, you can connect your domain for just $4.50 monthly. All paid plans come with a 14-day free trial, allowing you to explore and build your site risk-free.

Likes: Wix makes it simple to enhance your website’s SEO by adding alt text to background images. It also allows collaboration by assigning multiple roles to team members, offers engaging features like scroll effects, video backgrounds, and animations, and even provides a logo maker to help develop your brand. The platform includes free images from Unsplash and its own media library, enriching your website content. Dislikes: The lack of a built-in reviews app means that handling customer testimonials and ratings directly on Wix can be challenging, which can be a drawback for eCommerce or lead generation sites that rely heavily on reviews. Also, Wix does not support custom JavaScript, limiting some dynamic functionality, and it offers fewer animation options compared to other website builders.

Updates include the addition of professional proposal templates that simplify client negotiations, as well as advanced SMS automation to improve communication with customers. You can start using Wix for free and upgrade later to get a custom domain, allowing flexibility as your website grows.

GoDaddy offers a highly intuitive drag-and-drop editor that enables you to modify or add entire sections easily. You can switch templates at any time without losing your content or design, making it flexible to adapt to your needs. The platform supports creating content for social media, email marketing, and your website, with simple tools to resize and format images for different purposes. Its professional eCommerce templates help you establish a polished online store that is easy for customers to navigate. With a unified dashboard, you can maintain consistent branding across all your channels. Overall, GoDaddy provides a comprehensive all-in-one web design platform that is accessible to users of various skill levels. For a detailed review, check out my full evaluation of the GoDaddy website builder.

If you appreciate ready-to-use templates that allow you to quickly launch a web store, GoDaddy is a perfect choice. These templates look great on both mobile devices and desktops, and they are designed to be easy to use across various industries.

GoDaddy offers several affordable plans, including:

– Basic for $9.99 per month
– Premium for $14.99 per month
– Commerce for $16.99 per month
– Commerce Plus for $29.99 per month

All prices listed are billed monthly.

Likes: Integration with PayPal makes it easy to start selling a variety of products, and the platform’s beginner-friendly nature, with intuitive templates and tools, means you won’t need a steep learning curve.
Dislikes: The block-style editing can sometimes limit precise customization, making it challenging to achieve specific design goals.

Get started with GoDaddy.Squarespace.

The top choice for beautifully designed website templates ($12 per month).

Squarespace is an all-in-one platform designed for web creators aiming for sleek, professional websites. It offers a wide selection of premium web templates, which you can easily personalize to suit your brand or style.

You can browse through templates categorized by industry or purpose—such as online shops, photography portfolios, consulting services, and more—to find the best fit for your project. If you’re still unsure which template suits your needs, Squarespace provides an interactive quiz. Answer a few simple questions, and it will recommend templates tailored specifically to your business requirements.

Some examples of these questions include: meanwhile, the platform also allows you to craft stunning portfolio layouts with customizable galleries and secure password-protected pages. It simplifies image editing with built-in cropping and resizing tools, ensuring your visuals are always polished. Additionally, Squarespace offers robust blogging features, enabling you to share updates, company news, new product launches, or personal insights. The blogging dashboard makes it easy to schedule, categorize, and publish posts, giving you complete control over your content calendar.You can choose any way that suits your needs.

In addition to offering web design capabilities, Squarespace also comes equipped with built-in SEO and analytics tools. These features help improve your site’s visibility on search engines and allow you to monitor how your website performs over time.

Key Features:

User Experience:

With an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, you can move slides, adjust the order, and preview changes live, making Squarespace one of the most user-friendly website builders. You also have control over various elements such as backgrounds, foregrounds, and block item placements, allowing for highly customized layouts.

Pricing:

Squarespace provides four different subscription plans:

You can save up to 30% with annual billing, and all plans include 24/7 customer support.

What I Like and Dislike:
Like:

Dislike:

Product Updates:

Webflow is another advanced website builder tailored primarily for experienced designers and developers, with a starting price of $12 per month. It is well-suited for users who need full control over their website’s design and functionality.

Webflow is a modern and widely used platform for creating websites through an intuitive online visual editor. It offers a flexible environment to design, develop, and publish websites all in one place, acting like a digital canvas for custom, sleek designs.

Webflow’s visual tool allows you to manipulate CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript, converting semantic code into personalized websites. You can also start from unstyled HTML elements to have full control over your design. The platform makes it easy to incorporate pre-made components such as sliders, background videos, tabs, and more, facilitating the creation of sophisticated features. Additionally, you can build reusable elements like navigation bars, footers, and signup forms, streamlining your workflow.

You can view and organize your website’s structure easily with the Navigator, which provides an overview of all page elements simultaneously. The platform also supports direct editing of eCommerce products and CMS content, enabling you to launch a content-rich website swiftly.

Webflow is designed to make the website creation process straightforward and quick. Whether you’re building a simple two- or three-column page or a more intricate layout, you can start with ease. The platform allows you to add desired elements with just a few clicks, eliminating the need for coding or technical expertise, making it accessible even for beginners.

Webflow offers a free plan with core design features, but it doesn’t include custom domain options. For branding purposes, several paid plans are available:

– Basic: $12/month — suitable for simple sites without a CMS.
– CMS: $16/month — ideal for content-driven websites.
– Business: $36/month — designed for high-traffic marketing sites or blogs.
– Enterprise: Custom pricing based on requirements.

In addition, account plans, which determine how many designers can collaborate on a project, start at $16 per month.

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Start using Webflow for free today.

Ideal for Beginners Looking for a Simple and Affordable Website Builder ($5/month).

Weebly is an easy-to-use website builder that allows users to create websites, blogs, and online stores without needing coding skills. It offers a variety of customizable templates, making website creation straightforward and quick. Its user-friendly interface helps you design professional-looking pages that are responsive and look great on all devices. The platform also provides tools for adding interactive elements like custom fonts, reveal effects, and parallax scrolling. Additionally, you can access a built-in photo editor and extensive media library to enhance your visuals.

Its flexible features include the ability to incorporate video backgrounds, custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, giving you full creative control. Moreover, Weebly offers planning features and comprehensive guides to help you build effective pages without hassle. All themes are fully customizable to meet different design needs, and the drag-and-drop editor ensures an intuitive design process, even for beginners.

You can also implement interactive elements such as hover effects and parallax to make your website more engaging. The platform supports advanced customization with custom code and provides tools for integrating third-party services, like payment systems and marketing tools, to extend the website’s functionality.

Key features include designing marketing campaigns with visual newsletters and targeted emails, providing full HTML/CSS control for extensive customization, saving and reusing templates, measuring campaign performance with built-in analytics, and connecting with other platforms like CRMs and webinar services for integrated marketing efforts. Its user interface is designed to be straightforward and accessible, making the overall experience smooth for new users.

Another great option for user-friendly website creation is Weebly.

Weebly features a drag-and-drop system that simplifies the process of adding and arranging website elements. Simply select a component from the menu on the left side and drag it to your desired spot on the page. You can also see a real-time preview of your site, giving you a clear idea of how visitors will view it.

Weebly offers four different subscription plans:

Pros:

Cons:

Start using Weebly free today.

Ideal for custom web design projects for clients, priced at $20.99 per month.

Visit Adobe Dreamweaver for a comprehensive web development environment that functions as a fully equipped HTML editor. It offers an intelligent coding engine, simplifying the process of building dynamic websites, and provides helpful code hints for CSS, HTML, and other standards. Visual aids may also speed up development and minimize errors.

To help you launch your site faster, Dreamweaver provides a variety of customizable templates for creating email campaigns, eCommerce pages, about sections, portfolios, blogs, newsletters, and more. Additionally, you can import assets directly from Adobe Stock or your libraries. A real-time preview feature allows you to see changes as you make them.

Adobe Dreamweaver offers two main pricing options: for individuals wanting just the app, it’s $20.99 per month, which includes access to Dreamweaver through Creative Cloud. Alternatively, for those seeking broader tools, the Creative Cloud All Apps plan costs $52.99 monthly and provides access to Dreamweaver alongside Adobe’s entire collection of creative software. Students and educators benefit from discounts of up to 60 percent on the entire Creative Cloud suite. Additionally, a 7-day free trial is available for new users.

The Best Free Open-Source Image Editing Software for Web Design and More GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a powerful, free graphics editor ideal for web design, photo editing, and freeform drawing. It provides numerous tools for high-quality image manipulation and color management, supporting high-fidelity colors. GIMP’s flexible framework also enables efficient scripted image processing, supporting multiple programming languages such as C, C++, Python, Perl, and Scheme.

Additionally, GIMP allows you to customize your workspace extensively—changing colors, adjusting widget spacing, and resizing icons to suit your workflow. Its advanced features include tools for fixing perspective distortions caused by camera lenses, applying a variety of filters to enhance photos, and detailed retouching with healing tools. You can also correct lens barrel distortion and vignetting to improve image quality. These capabilities make GIMP an excellent choice for creating high-quality visuals for websites.

Supporting multiple platforms, including Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, GIMP also offers a range of third-party plugins and customization options, enhancing the web design experience.

GIMP is completely free to use, making it an accessible option for anyone interested in graphic and web design.

The Top Free Tool for Creating Interactive HTML5 Websites

Google Web Designer is a tool designed for creating interactive and visually appealing HTML5 web pages. It allows you to add dynamic elements and animations, making your website more engaging. It also seamlessly integrates with Google services such as Drive, Ads, and Display & Video 360.

This platform enables you to:

You can also build these components with JavaScript, and the tool offers a ‘Quick Mode’ that simplifies scene creation for smoother animations. Features like custom easing and motion paths allow you to add attractive, professional animations to your projects.

In addition to designing, Google Web Designer provides a comprehensive environment for editing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code in real time. You can switch between design and code views to instantly see how your changes affect the layout, streamlining the development process.

Google Web Designer is completely free, making it accessible for all users who wish to craft professional-quality web content without any cost.

Ideal for advanced, mobile-responsive websites, available for a one-time fee of $29.

Bootstrap Studio is a professional web design and development tool that enables you to build responsive websites efficiently.This platform offers drag-and-drop functionality combined with customizable templates, enabling users to easily craft mobile-friendly web pages. Its intuitive and robust user interface simplifies the process of web design and prototyping, making it accessible even for beginners without a steep learning curve.

It offers a wide selection of stunning, mobile-responsive templates that can be personalized to meet your specific needs, helping you create unique websites with ease. For users requiring more control, Bootstrap Studio provides extensive editing options for CSS, SASS, JavaScript, and HTML, allowing for advanced customization beyond the drag-and-drop features.

Technical web designers can take advantage of features such as:
– Advanced CSS and SASS Editors
– Importing code directly from existing websites
– HTML editing capabilities
– Collaboration with external editors
– JavaScript editing tools

This open-source front-end toolkit includes a rich library of prebuilt components, a responsive grid system, and powerful JavaScript plugins. It also offers ready-made elements such as headers, footers, galleries, slideshows, spans, and divs—perfect for learning and quick development.

Key features include:
– Real-time previewing across multiple browsers and devices, so you can see your changes instantly.
– Access to numerous Bootstrap themes and icons for designing visually appealing websites.
– An integrated blogging feature with templates that support easy setup, complete with navigation and header sections.
– Built-in analytics to monitor your website’s performance, tracking visits and page views.
– Simple code copying and pasting options, enabling seamless publishing across various platforms.

Pros of using Bootstrap Studio:
– Quickly craft engaging and attractive homepages using single-page themes.
– Its dashboard features a fixed sidebar and navigation bar for streamlined workflow.
– Quickly build custom pricing pages with card components.
– Add dropdown menus effortlessly within your pages.
– Support for multiple coding extensions like HTML, Less, Sass, CSS, and JavaScript, for in-depth customization.

Pricing details involve two paid plans:
– Standard: $29
– Lifetime: $59, which includes free updates forever.

The entire suite can be purchased with a one-time payment, providing access to all features without recurring fees.

Figma, designed primarily for teams and agencies, costs $12 per editor per month. It is a vector graphics editor offering robust UX and UI design tools to craft professional websites. Its features include an intuitive, vector-based interface, a modern pen tool, an arc tool, and vector networks, making it a comprehensive choice for collaborative design projects.

Figma’s cloud-based collaboration platform makes it easy for large teams to work together smoothly. Stakeholders can leave comments directly on designs, and developers can copy code snippets to streamline their workflow. The platform also offers animated prototypes that feel like real interactive elements, enabling quick testing of design ideas and gathering user insights. Additionally, Figma provides a wide selection of beautifully crafted templates for various design needs. It supports numerous plugins, offering features like stock imagery, color palettes, flow diagrams, and icons to enhance your work.

Headings:
Key Features:
– Observation Mode allows you to monitor presenter movements and track all changes effectively.
– Inspect Design Files enables you to quickly review and extract code snippets for CSS, iOS, and Android development.
– Tag Your Team Members with @Mentions to notify colleagues about tasks, comments, or project milestones.
– Organize Your Workflows using flexible boards to manage tasks, deadlines, and project statuses efficiently.
– Share Your Ideas effortlessly through integrated collaboration tools like chat, comments, likes/dislikes, and polls.

Pros:
– Draw freely in all directions using vector networks without merging paths.
– Utilize advanced font capabilities to craft unique and striking designs.
– Instantly create and distribute plugins within your team or organization.
– Access a range of plugins for stock images, accessibility color tools, flow diagrams, charts, and icons.
– Easily drag and drop assets from comprehensive libraries into your designs.

Pricing:
Figma offers three subscription plans:
– Starter: Free for two editors and up to three projects.
– Professional: $12 per editor monthly, billed annually.
– Organization: $45 per editor monthly, billed annually.

Headings:
11. Sketch
Best suited for remote teams and Mac users, Sketch costs $9 per month. It is a powerful digital design toolkit focused on UX and UI design for websites and mobile apps. It features robust vector editing tools, boolean operations, and precise pixel-level alignment with smart guides and snapping options. You can also set layers for different screen sizes using resizing constraints. Sketch supports advanced features like grids, customizable layouts, math operators for simplified adjustments, and the use of variable and OpenType fonts to elevate your designs.

Design tools like Sketch provide various options for exporting individual elements. You can set up export presets to make the process faster. Quick shortcuts also allow you to switch layout views and enable grid settings instantly while customizing elements such as widths and colors.

Sketch offers two plans to choose from. The Standard plan costs $9 per month, providing essential features for individual users. For larger teams or organizations, there’s the Business plan, where you need to contact their sales team for custom pricing. Additionally, a 30-day free trial is available for the Standard plan, allowing users to explore features without commitment.

Ideal For:** Mobile app design, game development, and complex project workflows with a subscription fee of $9.99 per month per user.

Adobe XD is a versatile UI/UX design tool focused on collaborative work for websites, mobile apps, and games. Its latest feature, Coediting, allows multiple designers to work on the same project simultaneously in real-time, with seamless background syncing. This eliminates the need for multiple tools, as XD supports the entire design process—from creating user flows, wireframes, mockups, to interactive prototypes and animations.

It offers a suite of powerful features designed to streamline your workflow. These include Repeat Grid, Responsive Resize, and Auto-Animate, which help you work efficiently and bring your designs to life faster. Adobe XD also supports comprehensive design system management through shared libraries, extensive plugin integrations, and intelligent layout adjustments that adapt to different screens. You can import fonts from Adobe Fonts, edit images directly within XD, and share your creations effortlessly with your team.

Pros include the ability to perform quick edits within Adobe Photoshop, easily share prototypes with third-party tools like Slack or Jira, and utilize features like the Repeat Grid for efficient duplication of elements. Adobe XD is a one-stop solution that integrates various design tasks into a single environment, making it ideal for teams working on complex projects requiring rich interactivity and collaboration.

Adobe XD can be purchased separately or bundled with other Adobe applications. The pricing structure is as follows:

Ideal for frontend designers, costing $7.95 monthly.

InVision Studio is a comprehensive tool for designing screens that support prototyping, animations, collaboration, and maintaining design systems—all within one platform. It features a robust layout engine that facilitates quick and precise adjustments for any device or layout, utilizing capabilities like advanced pinning, container-relative positioning, and percentage-based sizing for responsive design.

Key features of InVision Studio include:

The platform also enables swift prototype development with fluid interactions, real-time device mirroring, and instant playback. Users can craft seamless animations with smart-swipe transitions, auto-linking of layers, and timeline controls, making it easy to create engaging user experiences.

InVision Studio also provides real-time updates, syncing across devices, and seamless swapping of components, reducing collaboration time and improving workflow efficiency.

InVision offers three subscription tiers:

Additionally, potential users can request a free demonstration to explore the platform before making a purchase decision.

Ideal for blogs and content websites (WordPress.com is free, while WordPress.org requires hosting).

WordPress is a free, open-source platform that provides all the tools necessary to develop a dynamic, feature-rich website. From customizable themes to reliable web hosting, it offers a comprehensive web development environment.

With a vast library of thousands of themes that are regularly updated weekly, users can seamlessly create visually appealing and responsive websites. These themes can be tailored for mobile responsiveness, and users can easily drag and drop images into pages and posts to build galleries. The platform enables embedding videos, audio, and other media into web pages. WordPress also supports easy updates from dedicated mobile applications across iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux. Its advanced user management system ensures that team members have appropriate levels of access based on their roles.

WordPress itself is completely free to use, offering numerous free themes and plugins. However, if you want a custom domain, enhanced branding, or additional features, you might consider upgrading to a paid plan.

Available WordPress paid plans include:

New Website Builder with Integrated Email Marketing for $20/month. Constant Contact, primarily known for its email marketing software, has recently introduced a website builder. This platform allows you to create professional, mobile-friendly websites quickly and easily, with no technical skills required. You can simply connect your Facebook business page, and its AI-powered builder will automatically generate your site by pulling relevant information. Additionally, it integrates with Unsplash to give access to over 550,000 high-quality, free images.

This service costs $20 per month and is ideal for small businesses that want to establish their presence online and start selling. There is also a higher-tier plan at $45/month for additional features and capabilities.

Best for Designing Prototypes ($20 per month). Framer is primarily aimed at designers and developers who want to create high-fidelity prototypes quickly. The platform offers advanced tools for designing, animating, and testing user interfaces, making it ideal for professionals who need to visualize their concepts before development.

Framer is a powerful tool for designing and prototyping digital products, allowing users to create prototypes with intricate animations. It also automatically produces code compatible with React, a popular JavaScript library. By integrating React, JavaScript, and TypeScript, Framer enables embedding data loading, micro-interactions, and animations directly into your projects.

It offers all essential features such as collaborative editing, inline commenting, straightforward sharing, reusable components, and smooth developer handoff. You can import static visual elements from any UI design app and turn them into interactive features within Framer. The platform’s user-friendliness is enhanced by its drag-and-drop interface, and you can connect components with ‘connectors’ for easy linkage during prototyping.

The software includes four main tabs on its sidebar—Tools, Layers, Components, and Store—to streamline your workflow. With quick access to ‘Preview’ and ‘Live Preview,’ you can see real-time updates of your designs and test them instantly.

Key features include the ability to publish components, icons, and illustrations directly to the store for sharing with others, which also simplifies importing pre-made components into your projects. The Scroll Tool makes creating proportional, smooth-scrolling designs effortless. Framer allows early validation of product concepts, reducing dependency on development teams and enabling better collaboration through prototypes. Sharing options facilitate rapid feedback from teammates and clients. Additionally, you can animate objects, build interactions, and even add sound effects—all without coding skills.

Framer provides several advantages: a personalized dashboard helps you coordinate with team members while maintaining consistent quality; all component packages are accessible to your team easily; it supports Single Sign-On authentication and global access controls for security; you can test prototypes in real-world environments on actual devices; sharing designs via simple URLs makes feedback quick and straightforward; and automation features help bridge communication gaps between designers and developers.

Framer offers four pricing plans to fit different needs: the basic Free plan costs nothing, while the Pro plan is $20 per month. For large organizations, a custom Enterprise plan is available. All options allow unlimited collaboration and commenting on projects, making it easy for teams to work together seamlessly.

What is Web Design Software? A brief overview is that web design involves creating visually appealing and user-friendly websites with effective content flow. It encompasses graphic design, layout, and content management, aiming to build an engaging online presence. Quality web design software simplifies this process by providing drag-and-drop editors, customizable templates, WordPress integration, and tools for hosting images, forms, and content delivery. These features enable users to craft websites without coding, speeding up development and improving efficiency.

When choosing web design software, it’s important to look for features like intuitive editing interfaces, extensive template libraries, compatibility with content management systems, and built-in tools for SEO, responsiveness, and performance optimization.The variety of features and unique selling points in web design software can sometimes feel overwhelming. To make things easier, here are some key features to consider when choosing a web design tool.