Top Website Builders: Simplifying Site Design for Everyone

Last Updated on July 18, 2024

Standing out in today’s digitally connected economy requires a solid online presence. Whether your goal is to create a personal blog devoted to a niche you are passionate about or you are a business striving to attract increasingly elusive search engine traffic, an engaging, informative website is non-negotiable. 

During the birth of the World Wide Web, creating a website meant paying for experienced coders and graphic designers or spending months developing the skills to do it yourself. The arrival of Microsoft’s Frontpage and Macromedia’s Dreamweaver made the work more streamlined, but even these advanced tools came with a steep learning curve and a high price tag. 

Fortunately, today’s website development landscape is much more friendly and affordable to aspiring webmasters without the time to study cryptic programming languages or learn about the finer points of page layout.

Even the most non-techie web designer is lucky to have a wide array of website builders, each capable of creating a pixel-perfect web presence that looks as good as if a team of professionals was behind it.

These advanced, feature-rich, no-code tools make it possible to design any website, from a full-blown e-commerce store to a personal blog with all the bells and whistles. But how do you know which website builder has the features to make your online vision a reality? 

In this article, we help you explore your options by discussing the most popular website builders available today. We discuss their standout features and offer advice on choosing the best website builder to help you reach your goals. Using a website builder is a fun and rewarding way to get online, so keep reading to learn about the top website builders that can help you bring your website to life. 

How Much Does a Website Builder Cost?

Website builder plan prices vary significantly between providers and depend on the specific features you need included. A small business website could be possible on a free plan with features like what you get in the Brizy website builder.

However, if you plan to create an online store with more than a handful of products, you will likely need to upgrade to a higher tier with more bells and whistles. 

This list of the best website builders gives you a quick rundown of features you can access on free and paid monthly subscriptions. 

Please note that the pricing and features mentioned here are subject to change. We always recommend visiting the respective website builder’s official pricing page for the most up-to-date information.

What is a Website Builder?

Website builders are powerful tools everyone can use to create fantastic-looking websites, regardless of technical proficiency. Each tool we discuss below has an intuitive, user-friendly interface to make building a web page almost as easy as creating an MS Word document.

Unlike traditional web design methods that require knowledge of HTML, CSS, and other programming languages, website builders simplify the process by offering intuitive drag-and-drop editors.

Users select the elements they would like to add to the page, including text, images, videos, forms, and more, and drag them onto the web page with ease. The visual interface gives real-time editing capabilities, so designers get instant feedback on how their website will look to visitors. 

Providers of website builders often bundle their software with essential features like domain registration, web hosting, search engine optimization (SEO), and more.

It’s an all-in-one approach that significantly eases website creation, as users don’t have to source these services separately and then figure out how to tie them all together to make their site work. This approach is also excellent from a budget perspective, as many extra services are offered as free bonuses. 

One of the most attractive features of website builders is their accessibility. They provide individuals and business owners the power to create a professional-looking website with minimal investment in time and money. Democratizing website development has opened up many opportunities for entrepreneurs,  bloggers, small business owners, and creative professionals to showcase their talents, expertise, and wares online and compete for market share, even against larger companies with deeper pockets. 

However, it’s important to note that website builders do have some limitations. While most offer a wide range of design templates and customization options, they may not deliver the same flexibility and control as custom-coded websites. 

If a user develops proficiency in web design and wants to add advanced capabilities, they may find their website builder only offers advanced features as an optional monthly expense. It’s for this reason that users should carefully vet each product to ensure that it meets their expectations, budgets, and plans. 

Tips for Choosing the Best Website Builder for Your Needs

With so many options, features, and pricing plans, the average newcomer can feel overwhelmed about choosing a website builder that will satisfy all their needs. It’s even more challenging for new website creators who know little about what makes a website tick. Use these tips, and you’ll have a good foundation for narrowing down your choices. 

• Ease of Use: Look for a website builder with an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Drag-and-drop editors and customizable templates can make website creation easier, especially for beginners.
• Customization Options: Consider the level of customization offered by the website builder. Look for builders that provide a wide range of design templates and allow you to personalize your website’s appearance to match your brand identity.
• Scalability: If you anticipate your website growing in the future, choose a website builder that offers scalability. Ensure it can handle increased traffic, accommodate additional pages or products, and integrate with third-party tools or plugins.
• Customer Support: Check the availability and quality of customer support provided by the website builder. Look for options such as live chat, email support, or a comprehensive knowledge base to assist you in case of any issues or questions.
• Integration Capabilities: Consider the integration capabilities of the website builder with other tools or platforms you may need, such as e-commerce platforms, payment gateways, or marketing automation software. Ensure it can seamlessly integrate with your preferred tools.
• Pricing and Value: Evaluate the pricing plans offered by the website builder and compare them against the features and benefits provided. Consider your budget and the value you will receive from the builder in terms of features, support, and scalability.

Exploring the Top Website Builders

With such a vast landscape of website builders, it can be challenging to find a platform with all the features you need. There’s a diverse set of features and capabilities in each offering, making finding the best website builder feel like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

A list like the one we have provided below will help you sort through your many options because you are only checking out the best of the best and not wasting time on software that will only take up your time and budget. 

The website builders discussed below explore all the key features and benefits of the environment to give you a comprehensive overview of its strengths and weaknesses. You will find the most respected website builders below, including Hostinger, Wix, Squarespace, and more. Between them, these established site builders are responsible for getting tens of millions of businesses and blogs online that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. 

Whether you prioritize ease of use, e-commerce ability, design flexibility, or ability to integrate with other tools, we know you will find the perfect website builder for your needs below. 

Hostinger Website Builder – Best for Beginners

Hostinger has gone all out to create one of the most fully-featured web builders with powerful, intuitive tools delivering maximum control over the look and feel of your website. There’s no free option, but what you get for your monthly subscription makes this builder an excellent option for businesses looking to create a website without the hassle. 

Why We Like It

Hostinger has a raft of features that make it stand out. Firstly, you get an intuitive web-hosting experience accessible to all skill levels. The drag-and-drop customizations are second to none, and most users will quickly get to grips with the controls to have a visually stunning website in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks, with no coding skills required. 

Templates are your best friend when you don’t know where to start, and Hostinger sets you up with tons from which to choose. Select various templates suitable for blogs, professional portfolios, or business sites. Remember, once you select a template, Hostinger makes it easy to alter every element so you can create something unique for your brand. 

Whether you love, hate, or are indifferent to AI, it’s hard to deny that an AI-powered website builder makes a great jumping-off point for first-time users. Hostinger’s AI tools can create the foundations of your website copy or be used to generate the design using heatmaps that predict user navigation.

An AI assistant can even help you create a logo for your site, which is critical for establishing a unique identity. If you use AI, be sure to use it as a tool rather than the sole creator of your site. Every website needs a unique human experience behind it to stand out and be successful. 

Who Should Consider Hostinger?

Hostinger is an excellent option for anyone looking to create their first online presence outside of social media. The built-in and in-depth help and tips system gets you up to speed quickly, so you’ll be churning out high-quality web pages in no time at all.

Whether you are a freelancer wanting a digital space to call your own, a blogger looking to improve people’s lives with helpful information from personal experience, or a business needing to take advantage of lucrative search engine traffic, there isn’t a better way to produce an exceptional website than Hostinger. 

Wix – A Great Website Builder for Small Businesses

Wix is an immensely popular website builder. The company has an extensive online advertising campaign, so if you haven’t seen at least one advertisement on YouTube or social media, then you must be from Mars. The company is well known for providing a huge array of templates, complete with a drag-and-drop editor that makes every feature of your page infinitely customizable. Out of the box you also get access to powerful SEO features, an e-commerce platform, and third-party integrations. 

Why We Like It

Wix stands out as one of the best website builders for several reasons. Firstly, users can access an extensive collection of customizable templates with various design options to suit specific needs and preferences. You should have no trouble finding a perfect template for personal blogs, online stores, and professional-looking business websites.

Secondly, Wix’s drag-and-drop editor is exceptionally user-friendly, so no coding experience is required. However, those who have some knowledge of the arcane arts of web programming will get access to even more powerful features should they care to poke about under the hood. 

Lastly, Wix is an excellent online website builder for small businesses with a small product range that can be sold online. A Wix subscription will include robust e-commerce capabilities, making it an excellent choice for companies looking to quickly get a commercial presence up and running to expand their market reach.

The builder includes features such as product management, inventory tracking, and secure payment gateways, so it’s a comprehensive solution for all things to do with creating and managing an online store. 

Who is Wix For?

Website building with Wix is an excellent option for individuals and businesses. The user-friendly interface gives beginners without technical expertise a running head start in getting a website online. The software is also capable of delivering advanced features and customization options to more experienced users, including web designers and agencies.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves online will appreciate Wix’s extensive template library, e-commerce functionality, and marketing tools.

Bloggers and content creators can use Wix’s enhanced blogging features and media management capabilities to showcase their brilliance to the world.  In addition, Wix’s Editor X platform is a fantastic choice for professional web designers and agencies who want to offer their clients more advanced design capabilities while maintaining complete creative control.

Squarespace Website Builder

Squarespace is a premium website builder emphasizing elegant, visually appealing designs without sacrificing efficient form and function. Subscribers are presented with a wide range of templates in a user-friendly interface.

The website development software is the perfect platform to showcase visual content, making it a popular option for artists, photographers, and other creative types. However, powerful blogging features and e-commerce capabilities are included, so it’s a suitable tool for building just about any website you can imagine. 

Why We Like It

Squarespace has a full suite of features that make it compelling for newcomers and advanced web designers. Many users fall in love with the visually stunning and modern design aesthetic that permeates every feature of Squarespace. While templates may have limited customization options, the sheer range ensures plenty of variety for everyone. 

The intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes building your first website a breeze because it eliminates the need for coding. 

Every Squarespace account includes critical security features, such as SSL, to keep your website secure and protect your visitors’ personal information. 

Squarespace comes with a complete toolbox of helpful tools, including analytics to monitor your SEO and marketing efforts, social media tools to create social media-friendly content, and custom Squarespace extensions for adding sharing buttons, live chat, and e-commerce features to your website. 

Using email marketing is crucial for any business, and Squarespace provides an affordable solution for this as well. For a small additional fee on top of your regular subscription, Squarespace offers an email service that is accessible to everyone. The service also links to your website’s analytics, which allows you to quickly compare the performance of your emails to your organic traffic.

Who is Squarespace For?

Squarespace is perfect for creatives who need a visually stunning design to showcase their talents. It’s also an excellent option for small businesses with a limited budget for web development but who need a site for selling their products or services. While these features are only available in the higher tier plans, the ability to manage payment gateways, create customizable product pages, and manage inventory is well worth the extra investment. 

While the platform does have blogging features, and there are plenty of people using it as such, many users complain that they quickly hit a wall in terms of customization options and creating a truly unique online identity. 

Squarespace users often complain that it’s easy to spot a Squarespace blog because of similarities between templates. Bloggers who crave near-limitless customization options might want to consider alternative CMSs (Content Management Systems), such as WordPress. 

GoDaddy Website Builder – Build Your Website with AI Assistance

GoDaddy is a popular web hosting service supporting websites for millions of website owners, so it makes sense to provide customers with their vision of what makes a great website builder. Subscribers can expect affordable pricing plans, e-commerce features, in-built marketing systems, and intuitive site-building tools to make GoDaddy one of the most accessible site-builder platforms. 

The website hosting service has gone all in on AI. All you need to get started is to provide the AI with answers to a few simple questions, and that will be enough to generate the initial design you can customize to your heart’s content. It’s a lightning-fast way to create a website, but your mileage may vary. Fortunately, GoDaddy still gives you access to more than a hundred templates available for those who prefer the human element. 

Why We Like It

When you don’t have experience building websites, it stands to reason that you face other website-related challenges like search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, analytics, and email marketing.

We like GoDaddy for its inclusive marketing tools that take the mystery out of the arcane arts of website promotion. Business owners, especially, can breathe a sigh of relief that tools for building a web presence with a competitive edge are available without extra expense. 

Not only do you get robust marketing tools, but you also gain access to sophisticated e-commerce features to help you create everything from a full-blown online store to selling a small line-up of services. Once your products are listed, the GoDaddy website builder takes the struggle out of inventory management, order tracking, and payment processing. 

A range of templates ensures you can get a design related to your brand, but modern websites must also be mobile responsive. More of your customers are using mobile devices to research new businesses, and you need their experience to be the same on mobile as on desktop. Fortunately, all templates at GoDaddy are designed to work well on small screens, a trait that Google loves. 

GoDaddy provides some of the best support available on the web. If you don’t find the answer to your problem in their extensive PDF library, you can access their 24/7 tech support via chat or email. GoDaddy has been around for decades and has built up quite a community. If the other resources aren’t forthcoming with a solution, try asking the community, and there is sure to be an experienced user willing to help.  

Who is the GoDaddy Website Best For?

Small business owners, entrepreneurs, and bloggers looking for a user-friendly development platform can’t go wrong with GoDaddy. The extensive suite of marketing tools makes GoDaddy perfect for businesses with a limited digital marketing budget.

The GoDaddy team have made a great effort to create a well-rounded solution for all types of webmaster and organizations, including non-profits,  individuals, and professional bloggers.

Whatever your aspirations are for your digital presence, GoDaddy is worth checking out.  Remember that a GoDaddy website is not easily transferrable should you want to change hosts. Ensure it has everything you need for a long and prosperous future before investing significant time and money. 

Webflow – Best Choice for Creative Website Design

Do you want a site builder that’s simple to use but can grow with you as your skillset evolves? Meet Webflow, one of the most powerful yet intuitive website-building platforms available.

Not only do you get a fantastic drag-and-drop interface, but you can access advanced features with an intelligent sidebar that shows you only the relevant controls for the selected tool. Users get an easy drag-and-drop editor or granular control at the deepest level if they want it. In short, Webwave lets you design a website your way while it seamlessly adapts to your skill level. 

Why We Like It

As mentioned above, Webflow is immensely adaptable and can be as straightforward or as advanced as you need. We love that you can get a website up and running quickly, but the platform doesn’t block advanced users from getting into the nuts and bolts of web design. 

With Webflow, you can build a website that is visually stunning and highly tailored to reflect your brand identity and vision.

With Google prioritizing the mobile experience more and more, web creators will appreciate how Webflow ensures every website follows this design philosophy, enabling you to preview your design quickly on different screen sizes without leaving the application. 

The Webflow content management system is robust, with powerful features that streamline regular content updates for your readers. With Webflow’s CMS, you can easily add, edit, and organize content, ensuring that your website remains fresh and engaging for your audience.

E-commerce in Webflow is not a tacked-on afterthought. You can create and manage online stores, customize product pages, set up payment gateways, and track orders, all within the Webflow platform.

Webflow’s impressive array of advanced design capabilities, responsive design features, robust CMS, and powerful e-commerce functionality make it an enticing website builder. Whether you’re a designer, agency, or business owner, Webflow equips you with the tools and flexibility to fashion visually captivating, highly personalized websites that not only meet but exceed your specific goals and requirements.

Who is the Webflow Website Builder For?

With the ability to design any website, from simple blogs to advanced shopping portals, Webflow is a popular choice for web design agencies, freelancers, small to medium enterprises, online sellers, and content creators. Advanced collaboration features make it particularly suitable for agencies servicing a broad demographic of clients. 

Divi  – Best Website Builder for WordPress

Elegant Themes started as a popular storefront for WordPress website themes. Divi was part of their lineup but quickly became the central focus of their brand when the team unleashed the Divi website builder to their audience. The Divi builder converts every WordPress website using the Divi theme into a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface with near-infinite customization possibilities. 

The sheer scope and adaptability of Divi means that it’s suitable for every website developer, from solo bloggers and small businesses to globe-spanning corporations; it’s all possible with Divi. 

Why We Like It

It’s impossible not to love the flexibility and versatility of the Divi builder. Whatever vision you have for your website, all things are possible with Divi installed. The builder is ideally suited to portfolios, blogs, corporate websites, and even e-commerce with the free WooCommerce plugin. 

Elegant Themes produces a broad range of pre-built themes for new users to sink their teeth into and regularly update their catalog, making many free for paid members. 

The developer simplifies theme selection based on use-case scenarios for everything from dentists and plastic surgeons to florists and car dealers. There are more than 200 website packs to choose from, which can take care of all the main pages of your entire website. After installation, your only job is to customize it to your business. 

Unlike many professional website builders, Divi themes are infinitely customizable down to a granular level. You can select any element and go as deep as you like to customize everything, including fonts, font sizes, colors, gradients, image sizes, borders, and margins. 

Another feature we like about Divi is that for as long as we can remember, they have offered a lifetime access deal. The yearly access is already affordable – possibly the cheapest on this list – but for a little more, you can have lifetime access to a fully featured but simple website builder for life. 

While it may be challenging to switch themes from a fully developed Divi site, the Divi builder offers a straightforward way to change hosts as it is built on WordPress. Any backup or website duplication process compatible with WordPress will work with Divi. This is an excellent feature that means you can change hosts or upgrade to a VPS or dedicated server with minimal fuss. 

Regarding support, the team at Elegant Themes has an excellent forum where expert users are always willing to help newcomers. You can shoot a message through to the Divi team directly for help with any issues, but they have an extensive presence on social media as well.

A thriving community of developers has grown around Divi. If you need a unique feature unavailable, head to the Divi Marketplace, where we are sure you will find precisely what you are looking for or a developer who can get it done.

Who is Divi For?

Divi is an incredibly powerful website builder at a price that just about anyone can manage. Once you purchase the lifetime deal, your only website expenses will be hosting and domain registration, making Divi an excellent choice for any individual, business, or organization wanting to create a website with minimal investment but willing to spend time discovering all of Divi’s fantastic features.

Elementor Website Builder For Point and Click Web Design

If you’ve been dabbling in WordPress templates for more than five minutes, chances are you have come across the immensely popular Elementor platform. Elementor is a website builder that works as a plugin within WordPress, so it’s not tied to any particular hosts.

There’s plenty of functionality built into this drag-and-drop website builder, which includes more than 120 widgets and 150+ templates. The Add-Ons cover essential web page elements like embedded videos, text editors, image boxes, accordion content, customizable progress bars, fancy borders, buttons, and more. 

Unfortunately, Elementor no longer offers a free version, but their Essential Plan for a single website is affordable and does not limit the plugin. There is also a no-strings-attached money-back guarantee.

Why We Like It

Like most business and personal website builders, Elementor takes the guesswork out of web page design. An out-of-the-box WordPress installation doesn’t leave many clues as to where to go next when you need a landing page. 

Elementor gives you a fantastic array of elements to include in your page design. Drag and drop any element from the dynamic menu in the left-hand column to wherever you want it on the page. Once the element is in place, the menu will reflect its relevant features, so you can customize it however you like. 

If your goal is to set up an online store, you will love Elementor’s easy integration with WooCommerce.This powerful combination allows you to design product and sales pages according to your vision. 

Not only do you get an extensive collection of ready-made templates created by the team at Elementor, but the plugin has developed a massive following of fans, many of whom are skilled template designers. So, if there are no Elementor templates to fit the bill, you can scour the web for third-party developers. 

While all plugins add ‘bulk’ to your website that can potentially slow it down, Elementor developers strive to minimize the plugin’s impact with clean, streamlined code. Some configurations will impact your site, so new users should know the strategies to keep their site fast when using Elementor. 

Most people, and even developers, will tell you they detest popups. Despite almost universal loathing, pop-ups are still one of the most effective strategies to direct visitors’ attention to essential information or attractive offers.

There are many pop-up plugins available for WordPress, but most will charge you significant annual fees to access them. Elementor saves you the expense and hassle of installing yet another plugin by including a pop-up editor that doesn’t require any coding. You can create an attractive pop-up in Elementor with the same drag-and-drop features. This way, you can be sure your popup will perfectly match the aesthetics of your site’s branding. 

In addition, you also get a form builder, dynamic content, motion effects, and WooCommerce store builder.

Who is Elementor For?

With such an outstanding feature set, it’s hard to argue that Elementor is not for everyone craving online visibility. Elementor is the perfect solution for experts who know their way around a site or newcomers creating their first online footprint. 

Brizy – One of the Best Free Website Builders

Brizy is another user-friendly WordPress website builder that emphasizes simplicity and speed. It offers a range of pre-designed blocks and website templates, making it easy to create professional-looking sites quickly. The clutter-free drag-and-drop editor allows easy customization with inline editing and global styling. Unlike many website builders, Brizy includes a pop-up builder and dynamic content integration. 

Compared to many other website builders, Brizy is a relative newcomer, with the first release in 2018. There’s a free version, but it is limited in features. You can also choose to have Brizy host your website using the Brizy Cloud service or go your own way using any other WordPress hosting provider by installing the WordPress plugin. 

Why We Like It

Brizy has a lot going for it, but what we most appreciate is the Whitelabel feature, which opens up more possibilities for web developers looking to make a career out of web design without spending years learning to code. 

Global styling is another feature that sets Brizy apart from other builders like it. With global styling, you can change the color or style of any element. and have each instance of that element reflect the change. You can change the style of any element on your site, including paragraphs, subtitles, and headings. 

For example, suppose you need to adjust the color of an icon displayed across many pages. Most other website builder platforms would require you to go through and change each instance. In Brizy, you adjust the icon in one location to have it automatically change across the site. It’s a huge time-saving feature that can only be found in the best website builders like Brizy. 

Other handy features the website builder offers include:

• Auto saving feature to ensure you never lose your work
• Ability to change any block into a slider
• Attractive shape dividers to split your pages into sections
• Image and video filters
• Easy integration of many marketing apps 

Who is the Brizy Website Builder For?

The Brizy website builder stands out as a way to create a simple internet presence with just a few pages, and most will be more than satisfied with the features in the free version. However, you will still need WordPress-compatible hosting to get your website online. Unfortunately, you won’t have access to the pre-made layouts, which will put your design skills of building a website from scratch to the test. 

For more demanding website creators, Brizy Cloud is a fantastic platform for creating an unlimited number of landing pages without worrying about WordPress hosting. You can start using this service for free, and Brizy says it will stay that way forever. You will have to put up with a Brizy branded domain – like mybusiness.brizy.site – so the free version doesn’t create the most professional look. 

Brizy might be the best website for entrepreneurs searching for a builder with all the features they need to churn out attractive websites for clients quickly. Paid plans can be 100% white labeled, which means you can offer the same website-building experience as Brizy to your clients but under your business name. 

With integrations for WHMCS, cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, and more, the sky is the limit with what you can do when using Brizy as the foundation for your website-building career. 

Summing up, we can say that Brizy is suited to a wide range of needs, from simple one-page websites to globe-spanning e-commerce operations and full-blown business websites Brizy has an affordable solution for every type of online platform. 

When you need a website but don’t know where to start, any builders on our list will suit just about any website. With the wide range of website builders available today, such as Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Webflow, Divi, Elementor, and Brizy, creating a professional and visually appealing website has become so accessible that anybody can do it. 

These website builders have various pricing plans and features to cater to different needs and budgets. Good website builders provide small business owners an online showcase for products or services, an outlet for creatives to display a professional portfolio, or individuals a place to share their experiences with the world.

So, whether you’re a tech-savvy individual or a complete beginner, don’t let the idea of building a website intimidate you. With the right website builder, a touch of creativity, and the desire to learn, you will be off to a great start with your online endeavors, and we’ll be here to help you every step of the way. 

Frequently Asked Questions