The 12 Best Website Builders of 2024 (That Are Actually Free)

How We Selected the Best Free Website Builders

As mentioned above, I’m not recommending just any free website builder. There are a lot of good ones out there, but there are also a lot of bad ones. When testing these builders, I followed the following criteria and requirements:

• Beautiful, functional template – You want a site that actually looks like it’s made in the 90s, not one that looks like it was built in the 90s.
• Ease of use – Software you don’t know how to use isn’t much good to you. Many free website builders are used because they’re free, but if you want to start a business, you don’t want to waste time figuring out the user interface. I particularly like website builders that let you easily drag and drop elements onto the page and position them where you want them.
• Long-term use – I don’t care about free “trials”. You want a free website that you can use for as long as you need it.
• Easy and Affordable Website Upgrades – If your website performs well, it may start to pay for itself in terms of advertising revenue, business leads, etc. It’s always good to know that you can easily benefit from your website when you need it, without having to spend a lot of money.

1. Wix – The Website Builder with the Best Creative Freedom

Wix has been a leader in the website building industry and is constantly evolving. As a result, it has one of the most feature-rich website builders on the market and it works great for everyone to see.The Wix interface offers the most languages ​​on the market, and Chinese is one of them. This means that even if you don’t speak English, you can still enjoy a smooth and convenient website building experience.Wix also offers one of the better free plans on the market, which lets you use almost all features for free, with a few exceptions like e-commerce. You can definitely keep using it.Wix ’s free plan . (As long as you don’t mind Wix’s branding and don’t plan on selling products on your site), Wix’s free plan includes over 900 free premium templates.Wix does have some minor downsides. While it offers a lot of design freedom and a lot of site options, it’s still relatively complex. This isn’t a big deal, though—you can usually create a stunning site in a few hours—but it does take some getting used to.

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• Complete Drag-and-Drop Freedom – What makes the Wix editor so popular is that you can drag and drop anything to almost anywhere on the page. Not everywhere, but it still offers a lot of creative freedom compared to other builders.
• Free Apps – The Wix App Store offers a very good library of apps to extend your website’s functionality and even integrate it with third-party services. However, not all apps are free, so you may have to pay for some separately. Still, there are enough free apps to start with, including social media integrations, advanced forms, event calendars, and more.
•  Marketing Tools – Do you need to promote your website? Wix offers SEO tools, email marketing, a social post designer, and more, all for free. However, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan to get more advanced analytics, the “Site Booster” app, and other helpful tools like free advertising credits.
• Blogging Tools – Technically, Wix Blog is one of the “apps,” but it’s free and pretty usable. Not only can you drag and drop content as you would in the main site editor, but you can also create engaging, custom-designed blog posts with ease.

If you want to learn more about what Wix can do, check out our full Wix review .

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2. Squarespace – Best all-in-one website builder and marketing solution

Squarespace is probably one of the most well-known website builders on the market. And it’s only natural. It’s a great way to create a beautiful website quickly, and it has almost every feature you could want. The grid editor gives you a certain amount of design freedom, while giving you a basic structure so your site doesn’t deviate too much.It offers premium templates and a “Site Style” editor to help you create a simple yet eye-catching design.Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan, but it does have a 14-day free trial . You can try it out to see if it’s right for you. Although it’s not completely free, I highly recommend it if you have certain requirements for your website. I can guarantee that after using it for a while, you will find it very good.If you decide to go with Squarespace’s paid plans, the Personal plan includes a free custom domain name for one year, unlimited bandwidth, and website analytics. If you need to build a business website, the Commerce plan has a full range of e-commerce features that can help you run a successful online store (assuming you don’t sell subscription products).

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• Intuitive grid editor. Squarespace’s grid editor is easy to use and allows you to create some amazing effects.
• 140+ premium templates. From blogs to wedding announcements, there are templates for you. Choose from 18 template categories.
• Unlimited bandwidth and storage. Upload as much content as you want to your website. Never worry about running out of space.
• Marketing integrations. Squarespace includes almost all the promotional integration tools, including social media features, SEO tools, and email campaigns to get more people to see your website.

Read our in-depth Squarespace review to learn more.

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3. SITE123 – One of the Easiest Website Builders

SITE123’s design system is super simple and has some handy features that make it easy to create a website that fits your brand. Changing colors, fonts, and images is simple. One thing that’s a little annoying is that it doesn’t support dragging and dropping elements anywhere. You’re limited to choosing from pre-set page elements. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s just not very flexible.Like Wix, SITE123 supports multiple languages ​​(including Chinese), so it is really convenient to use.Its limitations are that the design freedom is less, and the subdomain is random. In other words, you don’t get a SITE123 subdomain, but a random combination of letters and numbers . But I think it’s worth it because its free package has no expiration date.

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• Blog – Yes, the free plan includes a built-in blog, as shown on the demo site. It includes tags, thumbnails, a posting schedule, and a classic Microsoft-Word-style text editor in this simple system.
• Contact and donation forms – If you want to build your own custom forms or run an online store, you’ll have to pay for these separately. However, if you just need a simple contact form or a way for people to donate to your nonprofit, these tools are free to use.
• Small Business Tools – Events calendar, appointment scheduling, restaurant reservations, and a few other options are all available in the Pages menu. Just pick one and get started.
• Comprehensive App Store – SITE123 has a wealth of third-party integrated plug-ins and apps that can help you optimize your website SEO, increase conversion rates, and more.

Read our in-depth SITE123 review for more information.

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4. Webador – The fastest website builder for simple websites

If you need a website builder that allows you to launch a website quickly, Webador is a good choice. Whether you have experience in website design or not, you can create a professional website in 20 minutes with Webador. Although its editor is relatively simple, it still has enough tools to create a unique website image.Webador’s strength lies in creating simple and powerful single-page websites. If you need more complex features, or need more in-depth web design capabilities, it may not be the best choice. But if you want to create a streamlined single-page website, Webador will definitely meet your requirements .Additionally, Webador’s free plan is pretty comprehensive. You get almost all of the features included in the paid plans, except for e-commerce features and a custom domain. If you can live with a Webador domain and don’t need e-commerce features, then it’s a great option. You can build a solid website in your lunch break, and more than enough.

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• Unique Media Sharing Components – While Webador doesn’t offer some of the components that come standard with most website builders, it makes up for it with unique media sharing components like rating features, custom forms, and smart map integration.
• Easy-to-use SEO features – Webador provides a very simple set of SEO tools to help improve your website’s SEO.
• Easy blog management – ​​Webador’s blogging feature is easy to use. You can add articles, edit past entries, and reorder or recategorize posts with just a few clicks.
• Rich web design information – If you are a complete novice in web design, Webador’s knowledge base can help you. Its content is very comprehensive and informative, and you can find all the basic knowledge about web design.

Read our in-depth Webador review to learn more.

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5. IONOS – Affordable Website Builder for Enterprises

IONOS is the perfect blend of modern look and business functionality. Each template has a professional feel that’s perfect for any type of business. And they’re all device-friendly. No matter what device your visitors use to browse your site, it’ll look its best.Don’t let the professional vibe of the templates put you off, though. Whether you’re tech-savvy or not, IONOS is easy to use. Its drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to create a website. From adjusting fonts and colors to adding pages or sections, it’s all done with the touch of a finger. Plus, if you’re already using any of IONOS’ web services, the website builder will work seamlessly with it .IONOS doesn’t have a free plan. That’s a bit disappointing. But I think it still deserves to be on this list. IONOS’ plans are affordable, and its value is one of the best among all the platforms on this list . In such a competitive market, IONOS is undoubtedly a very cost-effective choice.

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• Convenient block editing – IONOS provides different block configuration options, allowing you to control fonts and colors without having to manually adjust each small element one by one. This makes editing easier, but also reduces the design freedom.
• All plans come with free email – In addition to the website builder, all IONOS plans include at least one professional email address.
• Personal Customer Support – When you sign up for IONOS, you are assigned a personal customer support representative, which means that over time, your customer service representative will get to know your specific needs and expectations better.
• Integration with RankingCoach – IONOS integrates seamlessly with RankingCoach to help you improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.

Read our in-depth IONOS review to learn more.

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Featured: Shopify

When it comes to building an e-commerce website, you can’t avoid Shopify. Although Shopify is not a free website builder (even its “free” plan is too short-lived to be of much use), its e-commerce features are very comprehensive.Shopify is feature-rich and gives you complete control over how your site looks and runs. Its own themes are great, and with thousands of third-party themes available, you won’t have any trouble finding the right one.Shopify isn’t free, but it’s worth it. If you’re serious about starting an online business, 

Shopify is an investment that will pay for itself .

6. Hostinger Website Builder – Provides practical AI tools to easily build your ideal website

Hostinger Website Builder is one of the easiest website builders on the list thanks to its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor . It’s not as easy to use as SITE123, but it’s still pretty good overall.Where Hostinger’s website builder really shines is in its AI-assisted design features . It offers an AI text generator, a logo generator, and a heatmap. The heatmap highlights the parts that are most likely to attract visitors’ attention. With these helpers and easy-to-use pages, you can create an effective website in just a few minutes.Hostinger Website Builder doesn’t have a free plan at the moment, but all of its hosting plans include the website builder at affordable prices. All of Hostinger’s hosting plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can test the website builder thoroughly for 30 days without worrying about it.

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• Text and logo generator . A good logo can make your website stand out, as can quality content, and Hostinger’s website builder’s AI tool takes care of both. You just answer a few questions and wait for your website to be generated. I don’t recommend using AI content directly, but it’s a good place to start when necessary.
• AI heatmaps . Hostinger Website Builder’s AI tool identifies the most engaging parts of your website, as well as the parts that are easily overlooked.
• 100+ Templates . Hostinger Website Builder offers more than 100 premium templates covering categories such as portfolio, entertainment, community, blog, etc.
• SEO and marketing tools . All Hostinger Website Builder plans include marketing features that can help you promote your website and improve your search engine rankings.

Read our full Hostinger Website Builder review to learn more about this tool.

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7. WordPress.com – The best free blogging platform by far

More than a third of all websites are powered by WordPress. It started out as a blogging app and is now the world’s largest publishing platform. For clarity, this article will be talking about WordPress.com , which is the website builder, rather than WordPress.org , which is the platform for the original software.One thing you’ll notice is that while WordPress.com has a Chinese interface, some parts of its editor are only available in English. While you’ll most likely not encounter any issues with it, I did find this a bit disappointing.Although WordPress.com claims to be a website builder, it works more like an old-fashioned content management system (CMS) . This means that it is very flexible and powerful, but it takes some time to learn how to use it. It also doesn’t have the same drag-and-drop functionality as other builders.Plus, WordPress.com’s free plan is very limited compared to its original software (which is also free, excluding hosting costs).

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• One of the best blogs on the market, WordPress is primarily a blogging software. You can do almost anything with its software, but it takes time. If you just want a solid blog, or want a simple business website with a blog, WordPress.com can easily get the job done.
• Over 100 Great Free Themes – As an old-school CMS, WordPress is completely theme-based. While you do have some control over the layout of your content, most design choices are made “for you” based on the theme you choose. Some themes are highly customizable, but not all.
• Built-in portfolio functionality – One feature that WordPress.com has that the original software doesn’t is the ability to quickly and easily build a portfolio on your site. You basically add a page to the “Portfolio” section of your site, and some themes (like the one in the demo) will automatically display snippets of your portfolio.
• Marketing and SEO Tools – There’s not much to say here: analytics, newsletters, SEO. It’s all there. More advanced SEO features are provided by plugins, not WordPress itself. Unfortunately, you have to subscribe to a paid plan to use plugins.

Read my full WordPress.com review to learn more.

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8. Jimdo – Balance between simplicity and design freedom

Jimdo has over a hundred great-looking templates , a decent website building app, a free plan, some add-ons, and e-commerce features. The templates are great-looking, and there’s a strong focus on SEO and marketing features. Jimdo also caters to business email hosting needs. It’s very comprehensive .Creating a website with Jimdo is super easy . The website wizard basically does most of the work for you. It asks you questions about your business and industry, and then generates most of the site structure based on your answers. The wizard even generates sample copy, which should be enough for your business needs in most cases until you are ready to write your own copy.While all of Jimbo’s plans are affordable (and even cheaper outside the US), I recommend that if you’re ready to upgrade from the free plan to a paid plan, you go for the highest-priced option, which includes all the features, like e-commerce capabilities, 15 GB storage, 20 GB bandwidth, and 50 pages.

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• Online store. Jimdo offers a fairly complete e-commerce system (for beginners), and you can receive payments through PayPal and Stripe. It also integrates with Facebook and Instagram to help sell products, offers free shipping on large orders, the option to add different sizes to your products, and more. Jimdo doesn’t charge any fees for incoming payments.
• Focus on SEO and marketing. There are a range of marketing features and tools, including common SEO descriptions, titles and custom URLs, as well as the RankingCoach plugin. Can generate robots meta tags, URL redirect links and XML sitemaps.
• Business directories. The Business Directory plugin (available for an additional fee) will add your website to a global business directory site. Doing this yourself can be time-consuming.
• Hire a designer. You can hire a designer directly on Jimdo to design your website and give you suggestions for improvements. Of course, this also requires an additional fee, but this service is really cool.

Read our full Jimdo review to learn more.

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9. Elementor – Best website builder plugin, but the free plan is pretty limited

Elementor is a WordPress plugin that provides proper drag and drop site design capabilities. You can install it for free on your WordPress site hosted on your own server, or you can pay to access the plugin on WordPress.com and install it on your plugin.Elementor made the list for two reasons. First, it has the added benefit of drag-and-drop functionality over WordPress.com. Second, it’s incredibly popular, so of course it’s included.However, Elementor’s free package still has great limitations , and the website created with the free version is mediocre. If you want to use more features of Elementor, such as media slides, dynamic titles, and contact forms, you need to upgrade to the Pro version.Here’s the thing: the product itself isn’t bad. If you want to design a custom website on top of WordPress but don’t want to code, Elementor is great in that regard. It’s also pretty easy to use once you get the hang of the basics. The main downside is that you need to have some design knowledge and the free version has very limited options . The upside is that Elementor’s user interface is available in almost every language, making it friendly to non-English speaking users.

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• Page and content templates – A large number of templates are available to set up entire pages or parts of pages. I should point out, however, that these templates may conflict with your installed WordPress theme. Also, most of them (including templates for things like site navigation) are locked into the Pro plan.
• Preset content blocks – You can add entire template pages or add elements one by one. Elementor also provides a variety of preset content blocks for sections such as “Contact” and “About Us”.
• Basic content widgets – Nothing else. You get text, image embeds, a basic image gallery, an image slider, and a few other useful things. Frankly, the free plan at WordPress.com is better value for money.
• Plugins – Yes, in the WordPress world, plugins also have their own add-ons. Basically, these WordPress plugins extend the functionality of Elementor by adding new content blocks. Because why not?

Read our full Elementor review to learn more.

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10. Webnode – Fast and Beautiful Websites

Building a site with Webnode is fast and beautiful, the software is easy to use, and the platform has over 45 million users. Webnode’s editor is also available in Chinese.These features all sound great, and I had a pleasant experience using them. However, the free plan is still very limited compared to the other products on this list . The storage space is very small, and almost all of the more advanced features require a paid plan.If the free plan no longer meets your needs (which it will sooner or later), I recommend not going below the Standard plan. The Standard plan is a better value and offers all the more advanced features (although some are still limited). You can upgrade further once your site starts to generate revenue.

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• Easily customizable templates – While you do have some control over how your content is laid out, much of the look of your site is determined by the template you choose. So it’s a good thing that it’s pretty slick. You can still customize fonts and colors, though.
• Mobile Editor – Many website builders have a poor experience on mobile devices, or are simply unusable. Webnode is one of the exceptions – you can easily edit your site on your phone or tablet.
• Google AdSense – Yes, you can put some ads on your free site. Weirdly, only the paid plans have access to Google Analytics. Unexpected?
• Add (a small amount of) HTML code – This isn’t a big deal, but being able to add your own code to a page (e.g. third-party analytics code) is pretty useful.

Read the full Webnode review to learn more.

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11. Strikingly – Excellent One-Page Website

Strikingly ‘s free plan only gives you a single-page website . However, if you add a blog or store to your site, you can indirectly get more pages, and the premium plan allows you to build a normal multi-page website. Otherwise, all the content on your site is displayed on the “front page”. If you are looking for a quick way to introduce yourself and your work (such as in a resume or portfolio site), this may be an ideal choice.You can build a single-page website in Chinese and get it online quickly.Of course, website builders that emphasize simplicity are often difficult to use to create more complex sites. However, you may not always need to create a complex project.If you want a paid subscription, I recommend going with the Pro plan or above . This is the cheapest plan that removes the Strikingly branding. It also supports adding 300 products to your store and unlimited bandwidth. In addition, you can create up to 3 websites with the Pro feature without having to pay an additional plan fee for each new website. You can even use the App Store with the Pro plan.

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• A very simple (albeit relatively limited) website editor – With Strikingly’s design system, you can start by choosing from a limited number of templates, and then choose to add “sections,” or content blocks, to your homepage. However, you won’t be able to create any kind of custom layout unless you pay for one of the premium plans.
• Blog – Amazing blogging features including the usual categorization, tagging, and scheduling of posts. I love that I can edit blog posts through the same interface as the rest of the site and can see exactly how they will look.
• Marketing and analytics tools – You’ll find the usual SEO tools here, as well as emails and some built-in analytics. You can also use a newsletter signup form.
• Social Media Integration – Strikingly not only allows you to add simple icons to direct visitors to your social media feeds, but also has more practical tools such as embedding Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds directly into your web pages.

Want to know more? Read our in-depth Strikingly review .

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12. Square Online: A straight-forward online store solution

If you just want to quickly set up an online store, Square Online is the best choice. In the test, I tried to create an e-commerce website, and it was super fast, and it took only a few minutes to set up everything. At the same time , it is also a powerful e-commerce website building tool , providing almost all the functions needed by small and medium-sized businesses, and it also supports Chinese.Again, the price of simplicity is limited design freedom. Choices of fonts, colors, and layouts are limited. There is only one “template,” but it’s a nice-looking one. It shines in convenience, not creativity.Sometimes that’s not bad.If I had to upgrade from the free plan to a paid plan, I would go straight for the Performance plan. It may not have the fancy shipping features of the Premium plan, and the payment processing fees are slightly higher, but it’s worth it. The Performance plan includes some of the most important features, such as advanced reporting, missing cart reminders, and support for PayPal payments.

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• All the usual e-commerce features – users can track inventory, issue discounts and coupons, handle shipping, collect taxes that vary by location, and support the sale of both physical and digital products. Although Square Online may not be as comprehensive as Shopify and BigCommerce, it is still very feature-rich.
• Real free plan – The free plan allows you to sell an unlimited number of products and includes almost all the main features. You pay a small fee to Square for each transaction, but this is the same for all plans; you also have to use a subdomain (e.g. yourstore.square.site).
• Third-party integrations – You can sell products through Facebook and Instagram, and even through Google search results, while Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel let you track purchases and see which customers like what. Square even has its own (standalone) email marketing tool to help you grow your customer base.
• Hire a professional – Square has two unusual services: you can hire a professional designer to design your website, and you can send your products to Square for photography. Yes, you send them your products, they take professional photos for you, and then send them back to you.

Read our full Square Online review to learn more about its features.

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When should I upgrade to a paid plan?

The answer is usually simple: when you reach the limits of your chosen website builder’s free plan, it’s time to pull out the credit card. If you’ve run out of storage space or your traffic is draining your available bandwidth, upgrading is likely your only option.Other possible signs it’s time to upgrade:

• You want to have more control over your brand and choose your own domain name .
• You want more control over your brand, and you don’t like ads on free sites.
• You want to have an online store with many products.
• You just want access to features that aren’t available on the free plan (like premium apps or plugins).

Which free website builder is best for you?

Most website builders have similar free plans. I highly recommend comparing the features of different platforms to see what kind of website each one is best suited for. Even if you’re going with a free plan, don’t compromise too much.Do you need creative freedom? Wix is ​​a great choice because it lets you customize your site to a great extent .If you are new to building a website and need a beginner-friendly tool, the easy-to-use SITE123 is a great choice .If you want to launch your website as quickly as possible, Webador is the right choice . No other tool can compare to it in terms of speed and good looks.

Pro Tip: While 

Squarespace isn’t free, it’s one of my favorite website builders and I think it’s a great value for the money. If none of these free plans are enough to convince you, check out our full review of Squarespace.For your convenience, here’s a quick comparison chart to help you make your selection quicker and easier:

FAQ

What is the best free website builder?

It depends on your specific needs. Some tools give you more design freedom but are harder to learn; others are easier to use or build sites faster but have less room for creativity.If you want full control over the design, Wix is ​​an excellent choice. Want something simpler? Go with SITE123. Want to use the world’s largest website hosting platform to power your website? Go with WordPress.com.

Can I open an online store for free?

While most website builders charge for e-commerce features (even on their free plans), Square Online lets you build an e-commerce site for free.Square Online offers free (albeit limited) e-commerce features in the US and a few other countries, but if you want a custom domain and unlock the full suite of e-commerce tools, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

Are free website builders good for SEO?

There’s nothing wrong with that. Most website builders have SEO built in because they want your site to grow in popularity so you’ll continue using their services. Webador even has a simple SEO tool for its free plan.Purchasing a custom domain name may improve SEO a bit, but other than that, I don’t think there is any real difference. Writing quality content is the hardest part of SEO.

Which free website builder is easiest to use?

Based on my experience, I think it’s SITE123 or Jimdo. However, if you need to design a more complex website, the simplicity of operation will become a limitation. So you have to weigh it yourself.If you want to build your own website, feel free to read our 2024 Website Building Guide (Full Version).

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