You don’t need me to tell you the importance of an effective website, or the convenience of using a website builder. But it seems like every builder out there promises to be the best: the easiest, the fastest, the one that will give you the most professional results. So, which of them deliver?
I decided to answer that question by signing up for a paid plan with each builder and building a full site. I carefully considered user experience, available features, the final product, and everything in between.
Below, you’ll find the only builders that met my strict standards. Whether you’re looking to build a personal site, a blog, a site for your business, or even an online store, you’re sure to find a great solution on this list.
#1 Wix: Best for Creating Beautiful, Unique Sites4.9
The best free plan with the most featuresOver 800 templates for any type of siteUser-friendly drag-and-drop editor
Check Out WixWix offers an unparalleled level of design customization. Thanks to its responsive drag-and-drop editor and selection of hundreds of widgets for design and functionality, you can customize your website to a pixel-perfect level of detail. Its intuitive set of design tools also let you adjust colors, fonts, and the overall layout of a page with ease. If you have a really specific idea in mind for your site, you don’t have to start from scratch. Wix offers over 800 templates organized in 19 different categories and 70+ subcategories.What that means, in short, is that Wix has a template for just about any kind of website that you could think of. But you don’t even have to use the designated template for your industry. Wix’s customization freedom meant that I could just choose my favorite design and adjust it to meet my needs.What’s more, thanks to Wix’s AI website builder, you don’t even have to choose from one of the pre-selected templates. Wix’s AI lets you create a unique template specifically for your site, based on your answers to a brief questionnaire. If, on the other hand, you prefer even more creative control, Wix also offers Wix Studio, its alternative for professional designers that gives you access to a wide selection of advanced web-design tools.If you ever need even more features for your site, Wix offers a massive app market with over 250 native and third-party extensions. Many of the apps are free, and you can use them to add things as basic as simple contact forms or social media integrations to more advanced functionalities like full-blown e-commerce features or integrations for podcast feeds and livestreams.All of this might make it sound like Wix is made only for the tech-savvy, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Whether you want to build an e-commerce site and sell online, take online books, create a portfolio or blog, or even take orders for your restaurant, Wix is incredibly easy to learn and use. Plus it has the business management tools to go with it. And thanks to the free plan, you can try it out and even publish your site without paying a dime.The one caveat is that it’s easy to get lost in all these features. I spent hours on my site, not because I had to, but because there was so much to explore and I was enjoying the process so much. Are there simpler builders out there? For sure, but nothing is quite like Wix.MORE ON WIXVisit Wix >Read our Wix review
#2 Squarespace: Best Responsive Templates4.8
Professionally designed templatesA popular choice for artists and creativesGreat e-commerce features
Check Out SquarespaceSquarespace is a very design-focused builder. You can see that in its incredible attention to detail on templates, in the tools it gives you, and even in its sleek user interface. It has a block editor that allows you to customize your site with different levels of precision, from major layout changes to reorganizing specific page elements. Thanks to its user-friendly interface, I found the design process completely seamless.While it is committed to attractive visuals, Squarespace doesn’t neglect business functionality. In fact, it includes powerful e-commerce tools, marketing integrations, and a slew of branding features. This makes Squarespace an excellent choice for all kinds of websites for professionals, from fully online stores to brick-and-mortar businesses, and even portfolio sites.Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan (although it does offer a 14-day free trial), but you can access the majority of essential features on either of the lower tier plans, which are comparably priced to the other builders on this list.MORE ON SQUARESPACEVisit Squarespace >Read our Squarespace review
#3 Shopify: Best E-Commerce Platform4.8
Everything you need to sell onlineThousands of proprietary and third-party themes to choose fromAdvanced business features and tools for international shipping
Check Out ShopifyShopify is great if you’re looking for a central dashboard where you can handle all your sales. It offers integrations with a variety of site builders like Wix or WordPress and even with social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This means that you can sell from a variety of different channels while keeping track of all your products. It also means that you can move them where you need them, when you need to.If you want a dedicated site just for your store, Shopify offers a fully-fledged website builder with plenty of customization features and an app market containing thousands of options for extending your site’s functionality. What’s more, Shopify’s e-commerce tools are almost unrivaled.Shopify has too many e-commerce features to name. But to give you a sense of what’s on offer, expect everything from abandoned cart recovery reminders and automatic shipping price calculation to customer profiles and advanced analytics for keeping track of your sales (in addition to all the e-commerce essentials, of course).Though Shopify is more of an overarching e-commerce platform than a website builder, it still offers intuitive design tools. Sure, you don’t get the same range of options as you would with some dedicated website builders, but Shopify’s block editor definitely allows you to create a unique online store that fits your brand vision.MORE ON SHOPIFYVisit Shopify >Read our Shopify review
Check Out SITE123SITE123 is definitively one of the simplest builders out there (hence the name – you should be able to build your site as quickly as one… two… you get the idea). That might make it a better choice if you’re just starting out. This website builder has more than 80 mobile-responsive templates and a strong selection of apps to expand your site’s functionality.SITE123’s editor is point-and-click, meaning you’ll just be clicking a series of buttons and prompts to design your site inside a given framework. Instead of adjusting each element to the pixel, you’ll be adding and reordering sections for things like text, media galleries, and contact information. This type of editor ensures that your designs are always perfectly aligned.Although there is a bit of a learning curve (especially if you’re used to drag-and-drop builders), once I figured out a few quirks, I was able to build my site in just a few minutes. There are also some cool automatic features like breadcrumbs navigation, auto-categorization of products in the online store, and a super-easy contact form builder that made the process even quicker.MORE ON SITE123Visit SITE123 >Read our SITE123 review
Straightforward blogging and marketing integrations
Generous storage and bandwidth
Check Out WebadorNot everyone is looking to create the next do-it-all website that will define a generation. Sometimes, you just want to create something simple to promote your business without breaking the bank or compromising quality. That’s exactly what Webador is for.Webador is outstandingly easy to use. It’s not the first builder to promise you a complete website in minutes, but thanks to its responsive UI, site-wide customization tools, and well-categorized drag-and-drop widgets, it’s one of the few that delivers on that promise.But Webador doesn’t just offer speed. If you’re a beginner, I don’t think you’ll find a more straightforward dashboard for managing a small e-commerce shop or a blog. Webador also provides many high-quality widgets for engaging your visitors, such as custom forms, five-star product/service feedback buttons, and digital maps.As one of the most affordable builders on the market, Webador is an excellent choice if you’re looking to create a simple, good-looking website on a budget.MORE ON WEBADORVisit Webador >Read our Webador review
Simple and easy-to-use editor, perfect for speedy site-building
Well-designed, professional-looking templates
Very affordable e-commerce plan
Check Out IONOS Website BuilderIONOS’ MyWebsite Now builder is one of the simpler builders on this list. Instead of overwhelming you with features, IONOS focuses on giving you control over the core aspects of your site’s design.IONOS doesn’t have the same number of templates or features as other builders, and your customization options are relatively limited. Instead of placing individual elements on your page, like you would with other builders on this list, IONOS’s editor works by adding modular, premade sections to your site and altering their settings.That doesn’t mean that your IONOS site will lack functionality or look “basic” though. Each section is tastefully designed and offers plenty of functionality for business websites. The options IONOS offers are professional and sleek, and thanks to its simple editor, building my site with IONOS was a smooth experience.Instead of having dedicated plans for e-commerce, IONOS offers online store packages that you can add to any plan. This option also makes IONOS one of the cheapest e-commerce options available. It’s perfect for building a simple online store with all the necessary features.MORE ON IONOS WEBSITE BUILDERVisit IONOS Website Builder >Read our IONOS Website Builder review
Huge suite of built-in e-commerce features that reduce reliance on third-party tools
Robust marketing tools for driving sales
Check Out BigCommerceI’m going to be upfront: BigCommerce is not super beginner-friendly. If you’re serious about it, you will have to spend some time figuring out all the quirks of its (sometimes confusing) interface and immense variety of features.Ultimately, though, this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The time you spend getting to grips with this builder will be well spent if you have bold plans for your online store. That’s because BigCommerce offers one of the most (if not the most) extensive set of features for e-commerce of any website builder.BigCommerce’s feature set is even larger and more granular than Shopify’s, which means you can adjust every single minute detail of your online store as you build it. However, it also means that you’re going to have to adjust every single minute detail of your online store.You can find everything you’d expect from an e-commerce platform, including inventory management, payment integrations, discount codes and coupons, shipping solutions, and abandoned cart reminders. But it also offers advanced features, like staff accounts, multilingual websites, third-party sales integrations, and much more.As this impressive roster makes clear, BigCommerce is designed for serious online stores, organizations with multiple team members, and experienced business owners. It’s also worth giving it a shot if you’re expecting your store to grow (a lot) over time, but keep in mind that it will require an important commitment both in terms of time and effort.MORE ON BIGCOMMERCEVisit BigCommerce >Read our BigCommerce review
Check Out Hostinger Website BuilderThe Hostinger Website Builder provides an impressively high degree of creative freedom while remaining easy to use. While it’s not as advanced as Wix, for example, you get more creative control than you would with other, simplicity-focused builders. Hostinger has two tricks that allow you to create custom sites fast: the first one is an incredibly user-friendly interface that requires almost no time to get accustomed to, the second is the implementation of powerful AI features for design.Hostinger Website Builder includes tools that can help you track which spots of your page are most likely to attract visitors’ attention, create custom brand-appropriate text and logos, and more. Its drag-and-drop editor is also extremely easy to use, and since all its sites are hosted on Hostinger’s servers, you’ll also get great performance speeds.Hostinger also seeks to give you a hand wherever it can. The website builder comes with powerful tools to help you through every part of the building process, from AI-generated templates to an AI writer to help you populate your site with original content.If you want to create an e-commerce site, Hostinger has widgets for categories, bookings, custom discounts, and even marketing from the get-go. Since it offers only one – relatively affordable – plan, the Hostinger Website Builder is one of the cheapest options for building your website.Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to expand Hostinger’s functionalities since it offers no app market, and its third-party integrations are pretty limited. That said, it’s still a great choice if you want to build a cheap, secure, and good-looking site in no time.MORE ON HOSTINGER WEBSITE BUILDERVisit Hostinger Website Builder >Read our Hostinger Website Builder review
Check Out WordPressWordPress.org is the old-school giant of content management and website creation. Old-school doesn’t mean out-of-use, however – about a third of all sites on the internet still run on WordPress. Thankfully, WordPress.com makes the WordPress experience available for anyone by removing the need to self-host or have advanced knowledge of web development.WordPress.com is the website builder version of WordPress, offering more intuitive access to most of WordPress’ features. That said, even this “easier website builder version” comes with a steep learning curve. On top of that, most of the really interesting features, like plugins and premium templates, are only accessible through the pricier plans.WordPress.com has one great thing going for it, though: it offers nearly limitless opportunities to expand. That said, it’s far from the easiest or the cheapest website builder out there.Though the WordPress.com block editor is still far from the market’s easiest to use, it’s gotten a lot better over the years, and it provides an easy way to create well-structured, simple pages that focus on text and visual media. If you don’t feel like fidgeting with its block system, WordPress.com also allows you to add pre-created content sections called “patterns.” That said, I’d be lying if I didn’t say it gave me some trouble at times.MORE ON WORDPRESSVisit WordPress >Read our WordPress review
A more advanced editor with plenty of customization options
Hundreds of templates to choose from
Check Out Web.com Website BuilderThough it’s far from the most user-friendly builder on this list, Web.com delivers a good balance of user-friendliness with more powerful, advanced design features. Thanks to an editor that lets you decide how broad or how specific you want to get with each aspect of your site, you could use Web.com as a simple, basic option, or to make sure every element on your page is “just right.” This makes it a surprisingly versatile option for users of varying levels of experience.It also comes with useful tools for websites of any kind. Web.com offers easy-to-use but powerful features for SEO, marketing, e-commerce, blogging, and more. If you don’t want to bother with design, you can even pay a small fee to hire an expert web designer to create the ideal site for you. You can still use the classic editor once the designer delivers. That way, you get all the benefits of professional design while always keeping the final say over your site.It’s not a perfect editor. The same versatility that makes it impressive doesn’t allow it to excel at anything in particular.For example, the editor is easy to use, but it hasn’t been created with absolute beginners in mind. And though it offers a rather extensive set of features for e-commerce, it can’t compete with dedicated e-commerce builders. Still, if you’re an intermediate user looking for a flexible builder, Web.com is a strong contender.
