The fully-featured e-commerce integration offers you to sell physical and digital goods, as well as the services you offer. If you are a photographer, then you can sell your images through galleries, instead of using the store. There is no direct helpline number where you can call and ask questions.
However, the knowledge base is quite comprehensive. The basic plan gives you 2 GB of space, and you can add up to 10 products to your e-commerce store.
Although, after the first year, you will have to pay for the domain name separately to the service provider. Overall, Pixpa is a good option if you are a creative professional on a budget. Their software is best if you want to manage your website, client galleries, and blog all in one place.
Get started with Pixpa. Try Pixpa. The website builder provides three sub-products, namely Designmodo Slides, Postcards, and Startup. While Designmodo Slides and Startup help you build websites, Designmodo Postcards is for creating email newsletters. You can use pre-made website templates and slides for your website. You get to choose from over slides, website templates, and 30 panels. Setting up elements like sidebar, dropdown, Contact form, navigation, popups, and buttons is also easy.
You can change the code whenever you like without harming your website load speed or tempering other parts of your live website. On the other hand, DesignModi Startups is a startup theme designer tool that can help you create bootstrap websites. It comes with over pre-designed blocks and a drag-and-drop builder to build your site and landing pages. Besides, Designmodo creates optimized sites for all devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktops. The custom theme builder allows you to edit and add content visually.
Designmodo Startup also integrates with Google Fonts — which helps you choose whatever font style you want. Unlimited website styles and the ability to write semantic HTML codes automatically also come in handy to build a website for your startup. The fact that Designmodo comes with an email builder is also a plus point since it helps you integrate your website and email marketing process. The email builder creates email newsletters that are compatible with platforms like Gmail, iPhone mail app, Outlook mail, etc.
The email builder also comes with its own drag-and-drop builder to create newsletters. You can either build your email from scratch or choose from over pre-built customizable email templates. They provide different plans for its two products — Designmodo Slides and Designmodo Startups:. All of the plans including the Free plan offer full access to all of the features and free Sigma sources. Paid plans also offer unlimited exports and priority support.
It also has some nice-looking themes, good SEO features, and is optimized for speed. With client management tools, agencies can white-label the software and send clients website previews and resolve comments. Teams can speed up the website building process by multiple pages based on one design and content stored inside the editor.
Duda hosts their websites on Amazon AWS and boasts an impressive Its also pretty flexible and extensible, with developer tools and integrations with their API. Multi-language capabilities allow you to create sites in over 55 different languages. A website builder is a tool that allows anyone to manage a website and domain name without manual coding.
In other words, a website builder is a tool or software program to help you build a website. Not so with most website builders. These tools help everyone from small businesses and bloggers to news sites and ecommerce businesses easily create websites in minutes.
The best software for small businesses will give you everything you need to get set up quickly. Local small businesses also need unique website features like maps and directions, store hours, the ability to share coupons, photo galleries, social media integrations, and more. While most of the software tools on this list cover the basics that small business websites need, there are a few that rise above the rest.
Wix is my 1 choice as they are the easiest and most feature-rich platform on the market for small businesses and have some of the best themes. Businesses can easily connect their domain to Wix.
Here are some unique features that make Wix a great choice for small businesses:. Overall, Wix makes it easy to build a solid business website in a single afternoon. Due to their three-step simplicity when starting a website, almost anyone business owner should be able to get a simple page website up with their software. While I recommend one of the two above, if you need to get something up quickly, SITE makes it easy.
Hibu is my 3 choice for businesses because of its digital marketing features. The key to getting traction as a local business is to have a strong online presence on Google, Facebook, and all local directories. And not just that. You also need to take steps to improve your local rankings and know that Google determines local rankings based on relevance, distance, and prominence. Hibu knows this and helps in all aspects of digital marketing, including local listings management, online reviews, social media marketing, search engine marketing SEM , and search engine optimization SEO.
The best e-commerce website builders offer both easy ways to drag and drop content on your site, as well as robust e-commerce features like product pages, shipping integrations, product options, coupons, payment gateways, and more. Wix has strong online selling capabilities and is super easy to use. They also score points for some nice looking ecommerce themes. Make sure to check out my guide to the best ecommerce platforms for more information. Shopify is my 2 pick for building an online store as their app partner directory and ease of use allow almost anyone to launch a website quickly.
They have an excellent blend of online store functionality with website features. With over 70 themes to choose from and native blog functionality, you can create a website and add products in minutes. It is built more for advanced online stores with high sales volumes, not for someone simply looking to build a website. While the backend features are strong, some overall website features are lacking, with few themes to choose from, somewhat difficult to use drag-and-drop tools, and limited blog features.
This combo allows you to have all of the features of WordPress with a powerful ecommerce engine powering your store and not slowing it down. Most site builders typically charge a monthly fee and offer different pricing plans based on the features you need. They also come with hosting and file management, however, you do need to purchase your own domain name. Wix and WordPress both have their own strengths and weaknesses and choosing one over the other will come down to your needs.
While Wix is easier to use and covers both building and hosting a website, WordPress requires you to get separate web hosting services. WordPress also is better for SEO, customization, and blogging features.
If you need a more complex website or want to start a blog , WordPress is the better option. You need to factor in the monthly pricing of your website builder and average out the yearly cost of your domain name. It is free to use and allows small businesses to build and manage a website quickly on either desktop or mobile. While the tool is easy to use, it is definitely not the best website tool to use as it lacks custom features, SEO tools, and other key items to run a website.
Yes, you can get a free website for your business, but there are some limitations. There you have it — my list of the top site builders. Further Reading on AdamEnfroy. If you want to sell products online, check out my reviews of the best ecommerce platforms. And if you just need to publish a simple landing page, read my reviews of the best landing page builders. With over , monthly readers , my mission is to teach the next generation of online entrepreneurs how to scale at startup speed.
Disclosure: I may receive affiliate compensation for some of the links below at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. You can read our affiliate disclosure in our privacy policy. This site is not intending to provide financial advice. This is for entertainment only. Wonderful post! We are linking to this great articlke on our website.
Keepp up the good writing. Excellent blog you have here.. I really appreciate individuals like you! Take care!! I personally use Wix, because most of the people just want to drag and drop it. Indeed i chose wix, thanks for the article mate. But for beginners, Wix is hands-down the best option!
Great write up! Thank you very much Adam. I found this information comprehensive, easy to follow, understandable and I feel encouraged to create my website. Hope you will keep sharing more. Hey Adam, Incredibly helpful article.
I was just about to develop my site and your review of free website builders will be very useful to me. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Small businesses told us they most value SEO capabilities, quality features and ease of use, so these categories carry extra weight in our research.
The best website builders for small businesses are easy to use, have great SEO tools, and offer affordable, scalable price plans. These three platforms came out on top in our research best.
Use the arrows to view different platforms to compare side by side. See our Wix Review. See our Squarespace Review. See our GoDaddy Review. See our Weebly Review. See our Zyro Review. See our Duda Review. See our Jimdo Review. See our Site Review. First, our in-house research team investigates every builder in the following areas:. This helps us rate and compare the builders fairly, focusing on important factors that users have told us matter most.
Each builder gets a score in all six areas, which we also average into an overall rating. So, we updated our scoring calculations to add more weight to the categories that small business website owners have told us are most important — namely, ease of use, feature quality with heightened focus on SEO capabilities , and value for money.
The builders in this review are perfect for promoting your small business, and giving customers a place to learn more about what you do. If you want to keep things simple, then Wix is definitely the builder for you. Wix ADI Artificial Design Intelligence will ask you a few questions about your website, then generate a fully-fledged business website for you based on your answers.
With Wix, you have the freedom to create a small business website that oozes real personality. There are more than professionally designed templates to choose from, covering all types of business from makeup artists to vintage car dealers. Wix has eight price plans to choose from, with four plans for non-ecommerce websites and four ecommerce-specific plans.
However, all this means is you need to pick the right plan to fit the unique needs of your small business. Wix SEO Wiz : enter some information about your industry, location, and target keywords, and this feature will create a bespoke SEO plan with tips on how to improve the visibility of your website on search engines. Wix App Market : choose from over apps and services, covering everything from shipping features to make sending out products easier, to email tools that help you reach out to customers and expand your user base such as Contact Collection and Mailchimp.
Wix Ascend : the all-in-one marketing package, helping you connect with customers, create personalized messages for each user, post on social media, and send marketing emails, all in one place. Help and Support: 4.
These help buttons make it easy to fix issues by yourself, without having to wait for customer service. Inspired by her passion for knitting, Sara started her small business, Cloud Nine Knits, to teach people across the UK how to crochet and arm knit using giant yarn.
Sara created her website because she needed a place online where she could manage bookings for her workshops, as well as sell a small selection of handmade knitted products. I instantly loved the Wix Editor, which gave me professional results with zero coding knowledge. I chose to have a bit of design freedom using the Wix Editor rather than use a template , and the drag-and-drop features made it so simple to start building out the pages.
I loved how I could toggle through layouts and design features and see them update on screen, until finally selecting the one I liked best. The Wix apps made the process of adding instant functionality to my site a breeze, too. That was the easy part. Then it took a few more days of tweaking and rewriting my own content — being a perfectionist can be time-consuming!
I use it to take all bookings, sell products, manage my customer community, share video tutorials, send invoices and manage payments, run email marketing campaigns, and track visitors to the site in real time. And the most wonderful part is that I do it all for the most part from the Wix app on my phone, wherever I am. Give Wix a go and build your own small business website. Wix eCommerce Review — should you sell online with Wix?
Squarespace offers more advanced design tools than Wix, which means there is a slightly steeper learning curve. Squarespace is the best small business website builder for design, with a chart-topping score of 4.
It has over professionally designed templates to choose from which cover all the main industries, from local business to real estate. You can also add features like an announcement bar great if you want to show off your new product , or a mobile information bar, which streamlines your website for visitors using a mobile phone and displays a shortcut menu with key information like contact details and opening hours.
Unlike Wix, Squarespace does not offer a free plan, but it does offer a day free trial period. Squarespace has four price plans , with two generic website builder plans and two ecommerce-specific plans.
This plan offers great value for small businesses — in fact, in our research we found that most of our readers are best off with the Business plan! If SERP search engine results page domination is high on your agenda — and for most small businesses, it should be — then Squarespace is the builder for you. Organization: Squarespace Scheduling is an easy online booking tool that lets clients view your availability, book or reschedule their appointments, and even pay online.
Social media integration: You can integrate your Squarespace site with a raft of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and even pull in content from certain platforms straight onto your page.
Domains: You can buy a domain from Squarespace, or connect your own existing domain without a fuss. Whenever you become stuck, you can benefit from:.
Its full range of support options are available across all its plans, unlike some platforms which reserve better support for higher paying customers. We spoke to Terry, founder and director of Lindis Consulting , about why he chose Squarespace for his professional presence online. But their staff were amazingly helpful.
This makes it perfect if you want to get online quickly, without having to build your site from scratch. GoDaddy scores a very respectable 4. Well, GoDaddy can create a website for you in a matter of minutes, which requires minimal effort on your part — but after that, GoDaddy feels quite restrictive. The majority of users in our research mentioned they wanted more creative control when using the builder.
GoDaddy offers great design functionality, with a score of 4. The main thing that sets GoDaddy above Wix is that it lets you switch templates at any time, making it more flexible than Wix if you want to redesign your site later down the line.
All in all, while Squarespace is the place to go for sleek templates, GoDaddy is more of a quick fix. None of these appointment features are available on cheaper plans, and social media and email marketing integrations are much more limited. What we really like about GoDaddy is that this platform does a bit of everything — you can manage your domain registration, web hosting , and website building, all in one place.
Help and Support: 3. Short On Time? Try it for yourself to see just how quick! Like Wix, Weebly uses a drag-and-drop editor which allows you to view your edits in real time, with no switching between editing and preview modes.
However, from our user testing, we discovered that Weebly is quite difficult to use in comparison with other builders, with Wix and Duda coming out as the easiest-to-use website builders.
When designing your website, Weebly leaves you to your own devices, providing little in the way of visual cues or design intuitiveness.
Compared to competitors, Weebly has a small selection of templates — around 50 — with an even smaller range designed specifically for businesses. This is where Weebly comes into its own. Its affordable plans and generous features result in Weebly coming out as the best value small business website builder in our research, with an impressive score of 5 out of 5!
This is something your business might need sooner rather than later, so why wait to upgrade? However, one thing Weebly lacks is a personal restore option. Plus, with all annual plans, users get an additional 4 months on the house — and a free domain, too! But hurry — this limited-time offer only runs until January 30th!
Zyro Best for the basics. The template editor is very section-based, meaning you can add and delete different page elements in just a few clicks. Whenever you drag different page elements like images and text boxes around on a page, a grid format will show up to guide you.
Plus, this builder offers a unique set of artificial intelligence AI tools, including an SEO copywriting tool and a logo maker, to make content creation and design even easier.
In terms of value for money, Zyro sits pretty evenly alongside Wix and Squarespace with a score of 3. However, Zyro differs from a lot of other builders because it hikes up its prices after your first payment term.
Zyro has all of the basics covered really well — its features just lack depth. Want Clean Template Designs? Plus, the features it does offer are done really well. Duda is a drag-and-drop builder, making it easy to move elements around the page and to update text boxes. Its business website templates , in particular, are visually appealing — but also very structured.
This means that you can only place items within certain areas on the page. In testing, our users found Duda really easy to use — in fact, with 4. This combination of an easy-to-use — yet somewhat restrictive — editor makes Duda perfect for businesses looking for simplicity over highly personalized branding.
For example, you can choose to display a video about your services to users who are visiting your website for the first time, or you can add a widget asking users to call you if they are visiting from a nearby location. There is no free plan, and a day free trial period only applies on one of its paid plans. Duda has four paid plans in total, one being a custom Enterprise plan for large companies with multiple websites:. Duda lacks basic marketing features, such as a newsletter tool.
Duda also has a very limited app store, which contains apps for adding forms to your website. Overall, with more built-in sales tools and more scalability than its competitors, BigCommerce is a great choice for online retailers that have significant sales figures or smaller brands that are planning for major expansion. As its name suggests, one of the standout aspects of Fasthosts is how quickly it allows you to get your website up and running.
Users will have the choice of two plans, the Essential or Complete Website Builder package. In addition, one of the aspects of Fasthosts that frequently receives praise is the amount of customization it offers. When adding content to your site, you will receive a number of customization options depending on the type of material you have uploaded. Furthermore, Fasthosts comes with an established support website that contains a number of how-to guides that provide additional help for individuals that want complete control to tweak every aspect of their site.
The platform is also mobile optimized, so users can make quick edits easily from their tablet or smartphone. In terms of complaints, some users have criticized Fasthosts for having a poor average uptime record, which is something that individuals who are thinking of using Fasthosts for web hosting should consider. Others have argued that its interface can look a bit sparse, and would perhaps benefit from the addition of a few extra features.
That means that new users get plenty of time to tinker with their site before deciding if this is the right builder for them. As with most industries, the internet has revolutionized the music world.
The likes of YouTube and Spotify have meant that musicians around the world mostly connect with their fans online, sharing new music and advertising gigs. But this also means that most musicians depend on having an effective website in order to be successful. Fortunately, there are website builders that cater specifically for musicians and Bandzoogle is one of the best. As with most modern website builders, Bandzoogle is easy to use and offers a range of mobile-responsive templates that are straightforward to implement and easy to customize.
Custom domain names are also provided and users have reported good levels of site uptime. Looking at features that specifically target musicians, Bandzoogle allows website administrators to upload tracks that fans can stream directly from the website.
It is also straightforward to add gig data and blog posts to the site, and connecting to music-specific platforms like SoundCloud and Bandcamp is supported.
Of course, engaging with fans is one of the most important reasons why many musicians create a website and Bandzoogle really excels here. Musicians can use the platform to create mailing lists, connect with their social media profiles, and receive visitor analytics to gain insights into how fans are interacting with the site. Crucially, Bandzoogle comes with excellent support offerings, whether your queries are about websites generally, or building an online presence as a musician.
Although Bandzoogle can be used to create a website that is not music-related, the platform has all the features needed to keep budding musicians and their fans happy.
In the same way we test web hosting service s , our reviewers also sign up and purchase plans from website builders and go through the same process a beginner would when creating a website for the first time.
We look at the features offered, ease-of-use, pricing, functionality, support and other add ons like blogging and ecommerce capabilities. A key feature we look for in a website builder is if it offers you a free trial period to make up your mind and have a feel of the website builder before making a more permanent commitment.
Once our reviewers sign up to each website builder, they create a website to get an accurate depiction of what you can expect. We have tested and reviewed all website builders listed below.
At the height of Covid, many retailers were forced to shut their doors with several sadly failing to ever open up again.
But how did their online counterparts fare? Contrary to what you may think, website builders have been around for a long time. Ever heard of Geocities or Angelfire? They were the precursors of today's giants like Wix or Weebly. At its simplest, you can think of it as a set of templates like you would get in Microsoft Word. WYSIWIG stands for "What you see is what you get" and is essentially a graphical user interface that allows even novices to move around pictures and type in blocks of text as they'd do in a scrap book in the physical world.
Metaphorically, the concept is as close as you'd get to having a virtual shop or house or property online and website builders have been very smart in keeping things as simple as possible. There is great variety in terms of both the number and type of website builder available today. Some specialize in email marketing and others offer a first-rate ecommerce solution; some value simplicity, while others deliver so many customizable features that it could overwhelm a novice website creator.
Think carefully about what sort of website you are looking to create — whether text or images will be the main focus, what sort of design you have in mind and, crucially, how much you want to pay. Most web builders offer mobile-responsive templates, but not all allow you to edit the mobile version without changing the desktop site too.
Choosing a website builder can seem complicated, but fortunately most come with free trials so you always have the option of changing your mind. Website builders and web design software certainly have plenty of overlap. Both can be used to create beautiful, professional looking websites that have all the features that your business needs.
The key difference lies in how they are delivered and how much prior knowledge is required to use them. In general, website builders are online platforms, often available in free versions, and which place a great deal of emphasis on simplicity, usually offering drag-and-drop editors. Web design software, on the other hand, is usually a bit more complex, with some geared towards experienced programmers and offering the option of coding a site line-by-line.
Another key difference between web design tools, such as Adobe Dreamweaver, and website builders, like Squarespace, is the price. Web design tools are often more expensive and there may not be a free option like there is with most website builders. Ultimately, whether a website builder or web design software is right for you will largely depend on your level of experience and also what sort of site you need. Why pay for a website builder when you can get one for free?
Well, as is often the case, you usually get what you pay for. Many free builders still come with all the features that you need to create fantastic online portals — customizable templates, intuitive drag-and-drop editors, marketing tools, and mobile optimization. Having a clear idea of how you want your website to look and conducting thorough research is key to avoiding paying more for a website builder than you need to. It is true, however, that some features are less commonly included in free website builders.
E-commerce tools, for example, often have to be paid for and there are a number of other features that are usually excluded from free plans. Free website builders are often accompanied by advertisements that you will have no control over — you might not mind this but they can sometimes be intrusive. Fortunately, many paid website builders have free trials that let you try before you buy. Of course, most brands would not be content with a free solution, which can deliver sites that look unprofessional.
The good news is that there are some very effective website builders out there that are reasonably priced. One thing that all website administrators should be aware of, however, is how much website builders charge for additional features. Even if your basic web builder package is cheap, costs can quickly escalate if you have to buy add-ons for security, e-commerce functionality, and marketing tools. It may sound like a daunting prospect, but building a website is not necessarily difficult — although of course that all depends on how hands-on you want to be, the type of website you want, and your level of experience.
Fortunately, many website builders are designed to appeal to the absolute beginner, coming with drag-and-drop editors that mean no coding experience is required at all.
In fact, most web builders will have you up and running with a fully functioning site in under an hour. Alternatively, individuals with greater financial resources could hire a professional web designer to build their website for them. For those that are willing to take on the website building process themselves, the level of difficulty involved will depend on what website builder they choose. Although all of them are relatively intuitive, some come with extra features that may require some knowledge of the website-building process to implement.
Fortunately, most platforms come with decent levels of support, including how-to guides and video tutorials. It is worth mentioning, however, that many of the simplest website builders come with limited customization. For anyone that truly wants complete control over their site, some coding experience, as well as prior knowledge of HTML, will come in helpful. There are an overwhelming number of website builders available today — ones that are free , ones that cater for specific careers , ones that target small businesses , and many more besides.
While each individual website builder will have its own unique pros and cons that users will need to assess themselves, taking a look at some of the most popular platforms is a good place to start. Taking top spot is Wix, which boasts over million users in countries. The platform has managed to build up such a large following by combining a huge range of powerful features with a user-friendly interface. However, while Wix may be the most popular website builder in the world, it still has its fair share of competitors to deal with.
Other popular website builders include Squarespace, GoDaddy, and Weebly. Looking at more bespoke builders, Shopify has become extremely popular by offering a broad spectrum of ecommerce tools for online retailers.
Even so, the type of person that would benefit from using a website builder is pretty broad. On an individual level, there are web builders that specifically cater to musicians, photographers, and many other solo endeavors.
More generally, a website builder is a great platform for any person that simply wants an online presence. If they have a hobby that they want to share with the world, a web builder provides the tools to achieve this. Website builders are also readily employed by small business owners.
Many web builders come with ecommerce features that allow businesses to sell their products and services online, as well as marketing tools to increase their customer base. Large corporates might decide to employ a professional web designer instead, but smaller firms will probably prefer the ease-of-use and price of a web builder.
Using WordPress or a website builder are both great options for anyone looking to build a website but each comes with its own advantages and drawbacks. Since it was first launched, WordPress has added a number of features beyond its basic CMS offering, providing themes, add-ons, and ecommerce functionality.
Novice website builders, however, may find that WordPress has something of a steep learning curve. The language can be quite technical and users may even need to adjust the odd piece of code in order to get a plugin to work. While WordPress does offer both live chat and email support, less experienced users may find that a website builder is more welcoming.
Most website builders pride themselves on their ease-of-use, with many using drag-and-drop editors that allow individuals to have their webpage up and running in a matter of minutes, even if they have no web building experience. Both WordPress and website builders come with several different payment plans to choose from and both are capable of producing fantastic looking sites.
Neither approach could be said to better than the other, but website builders are certainly simpler to use in most cases. Most online users probably think of websites residing at their respective web address. In reality, websites need to be stored in a physical location as well, on servers somewhere. Web hosting refers to the provision and maintenance of these physical servers. Every website needs a web hosting provider in order to run the physical infrastructure that they depend upon to remain online.
Complicating things somewhat is the fact that there are different types of web hosting available. Shared hosting is perfect for smaller sites as they share resources with other webpages in exchange for reduced fees. Dedicated hosting is more expensive but comes with more customization options, higher bandwidth, and better security.
In its simplest form, a website builder only provides the tools to design a web page and is not involved with the physical web hosting at all. However, many website builders also offer web hosting - although an additional cost may be applied.
Put in the most straightforward terms, a website builder affects how a website looks, while web hosting tells you where a website is physically stored. Other companies that have significant market capitalization include United Internet Ionos and Godaddy. We have more than in our database but there are probably hundreds of website builders out there if we use the loose definition of that being a service or product to, well build a website.
Semantics aside, a website can be a single web page and can be a piece of software as well like Dreamweaver.
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