Selecting the right website builder can be an overwhelming task especially when there are a slew of options available. It is important to pick a website builder that best serves your needs when you are creating your website. Read on to learn about some of the best website builders in 2020.
- Wix – Best Website Builder
- Shopify – Best Ecommerce Website Builder
- WordPress – Best For Bloggers and Writers
- Site123 – Best For a One-Stop Solution
- Squarespace – Best Visual Website Builder
- Weebly – Best for Easy To Use Website Builder
- Hostgator – Best Simple and Basic Site Builder
- Constant Contact – Best for Beginners
Wix – Best Website Builder
Wix is the best overall website builder on the market, with more than a staggering 100 million users. Wix’s popularity is primarily owing to its easy to use interface and the fact that is crammed with a slew of useful features.
They have greater than 500 ready-to-use templates to design your website. The templates are mobile-optimized as well and have 75+ fonts to choose from.
Their designs are very aesthetically appealing and boast advanced design features such as video backgrounds and animation.
Furthermore, Wix is undoubtedly the most user-friendly website builder available. Without having any prior coding knowledge, you can easily customize the feel and of your website to your heart’s content!
Pros
- Fast uptime and speed
- More than 500 templates at your disposal
- Trial version available free of cost
Cons
- You are not allowed to change the templates
- No live chat option available
- Email accounts cost an extra fee
Shopify – Best Ecommerce Website Builder
Shopify is your best bet if you want to build an ecommerce website. This website builder has several features that include hosting, more than 70 professional themes, your own domain name, a free SSL certificate, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features.
Furthermore, on the ecommerce front, Shopify offers mobile commerce, automatic tax rates, automatic carrier shipping rates and much more. You also have the luxury of omnichannel selling across various platforms like Facebook, Amazon, and eBay to name a few.
Pros
- Full Integration with Amazon Marketplace
- Simple, easy to use and clean interface with perceptive navigation
- Features a powerful blogging platform( built in)
Cons
- The reporting feature is only available in advanced plans.
- The pricing plans are quite expensive.
- You are required to pay an additional fee for credit card transactions.
See our in-depth Shopify review.
WordPress – Best For Bloggers and Writers
WordPress is a one-stop solution if you are looking for complete customization options when building your website.
With this website builder, you can create a site for almost anything, be it a local business, a blog or an online store. When you sign up for their free plan, you get a site, customer support and 3 GB of storage data. Furthermore, by upgrading to one of their paid plans, you get access to priority support, more plug-ins, and advanced features.
Pros
- Social media integration is flawless
- Responsive web design
- The templates offer a plethora of customization options, which provides a lot of flexibility when designing your website.
Cons
- WordPress might not be the best option for beginners, as it requires some technical skills to work with.
- The cheaper plans available are very limited
We summarized everything you need to know in a full WordPress review.
Site123 – Best For a One-Stop Solution
Site123 is an ideal website builder if you are small website looking to create a portfolio. You get a free subdomain when you sign up coupled with 1 GB of bandwidth and 500 GB of storage. You can also connect your own domain with premium plans that cost as low as $13 per month.
Once your website goes live, the website builder features SEO tools to help you to optimize your meta descriptions, titles, and all other items required to boost your site’s rankings in search results.
Pros
- Option of a free plan available to test the website building tool, and although it offers limited features, it allows you to construct your basic website
- More than 250 design templates available
Cons
- It is not possible to buy custom email accounts separately. You have to upgrade your plan in order to do so.
- Some of the customers have complained that customer support is not very helpful in answering their questions.
Read more about what we found with Site123.
Squarespace – Best Visual Website Builder
Squarespace is by far the best visual website builder available that offers the most splendid themes in the market. The Squarespace templates and themes look fabulous right down to every last detail. The colors, fonts, imagery, and schemes blend perfectly for any kind of site. Apart from the great designs, the Squarespace platform is great for bloggers as well. Their WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) blog editor is very intuitive.
Pros
- You get access to more than 200 beautiful design templates.
- This is the perfect website builder for someone who requires image-based websites.
- There are no bandwidth or storage restrictions in any of the available plans.
Cons
- Squarespace is not really the quickest website builder you can build a website with
- The paid plans are steeply priced
So our complete review of Squarespace here.
Weebly – Best for Easy To Use Website Builder
Weebly is popular as the website builder of choice for individuals who want to create a blogging website but lack any technical expertise. Weebly offers a ton of great features. You should definitely consider this website builder if you are a blogger. The platform allows you to select a domain name and use their easy to use editor to add your images, text, and other content.
Furthermore, the email marketing tools allow you to send newsletters to all your subscribers. This is all possible from within Weebly’s website builder.
Pros
- When you use this website builder, you can avail a limited free plan that allows you to try out the platform first on a small scale before paying for it.
- You have the flexibility to change the template once the website goes in live mode.
Cons
- The template structure does not allow too much creative freedom.
- The most economical plans available plans are limited and force you to go for an upgrade.
Read our in-depth review of Weebly.
Hostgator – Best Simple and Basic Site Builder
A simple website builder, Hostgator aims to serve those who do not have much technical expertise, require a basic website, but cannot compromise on customer service. Hostgator combines a handful of templates with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. You also have the freedom to tailor the templates as per your needs. Unparalleled customer service is Hostgator’s strongest suit.
Pros
- Friendly customer support staff that is always there to assist you round the clock via phone, email and live chat
- Features an editor that is incredibly easy to use
- Economical sign-up prices
- Fantastic social media integration
Cons
- Lack of built-in email marketing feature
- Not a suitable website builder for complex websites
Read our full review of Hostgator.
Constant Contact – Best for Beginners
This is the website builder you ought to get if you are beginner and have no prior experience or skills working with website builders. The Constant Contact Website Builder provides you with a guided Artificial Intelligence platform that creates a totally custom website. It allows you to easily add personalized images and content suggestions.
With Custom Contact, editing your new website is effortless as there are several pre-built options, color, text, and image editing tools available. Furthermore, the builder also offers automatic synchronization with social networks, third party plug-ins, email automation, and supports. In addition, the Constant Contact Builder also provides integration with prime payment gateways that include Stripe and PayPal.
Pros
- Free version available to test tout the builder before making the purchase
- Fantastic selection of free images
- Constant Contact comes with round the clock live chat support
- Features an Artificial Intelligence Builder
Cons
- Customizing and editing images is difficult
See what we’ve found about Constant Contact here.
What you should Consider When Identifying the Best Website Builder?
When picking out a website builder that best serves your needs, there are certain important features that all website building platforms worth their salt should have.
Drag and Drop Editors
A drag and drop editor is another crucial feature in a website builder that freely allows you to move around elements on a webpage as you wish. With the help of this editor, you can add and move around different sections on your page that include but are not limited to images, text, dividers and spacers, headers, footers and navigation menus. You can create and easily manipulate individual web pages with these valuable editing tools to construct your entire website. A distinct advantage of using a drag and drop editor is that it you can easily edit your content without possessing any coding knowledge.
Pre-made Templates
Almost every website builder available in the market has built in templates. How your site looks is dependent on these templates based on the layout, font choices, color schemes, other various other design parameters. As a case to point, if you are in the ecommerce business, a product-based template could efficiently lay out your category pages and product. Alternately, if you are a blogger, a blog-specific template is what you might be looking for that effectively highlights all your blog posts.
Domain Names
These are the Uniform Resource Locator’s (URLs) that people put in their browser when they want to access a particular website. One great advantage of using a website builder is that domain name registration and website hosting takes place within the same platform. When you are ready to construct your website, you have the option of either selecting a brand new domain name or importing one you already have from another platform such as GoDaddy.
Mobile Responsiveness
Nowadays, browsing the web on smartphones is far more prevalent that accessing the internet on your laptops and desktops. It is imperative that your website looks great across all devices. A recent survey showed that more than 50 percent of all website visits are from smartphone devices. All modern and up to date website builders need to feature templates that are 100 percent mobile-responsive and adjust your site’s components to perfectly fit the device they display on.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) features
It goes without saying that you would people to actually find you website after you build it! As you design your website, you need to employ SEO best practices. A solid website builder should have inherent SEO features that allow easy on-site optimization. In more specific terms, you need an easy means of updating all of the SEO meta elements (like the meta description) on each webpage and to make your sitemap available to the search engines. On-site optimization is an integral part of SEO and the right website builder will get the job done for you! The best website builder for you is contingent on what your needs and requirement are.
Do you want a lot of flexibility and options when designing your website?
If that is so, then the best website builder for you will feature numerous templates and customization options for you to select from that allow you to make whatever modifications you want to the design. WordPress is the most recommended website builder if you are looking for maximum control over customizing your website.
Similarly, do you require an online store?
Check out functionality and shopping cart are core features of an eCommerce website. Moreover, it will also require a design that puts emphasis on getting potential buyers to take the next important step towards making a purchase. When selecting your website builder to create an ecommerce store, you should consider if the platform offers the appropriate features to enable the said store. Shopify is an excellent option if you want to build an ecommerce website.
Furthermore, you have to consider what is your level of experience in working with website builders. If you have no prior expertise, then getting the Constant Contact website builder (which is beginner friendly) might be your best course of action. Overall, it all depends on what your needs are. Once you know what you want from the builder, only then you can determine which is the best website builder for you.
Final thoughts
Although all the aforementioned website builders are quality platforms, they have their own area of expertise. Hence, you should select the one that best aligns with your specific requirements.
Bear in mind that it always pays to do your research before selecting a website builder.