Best Website Builders

Our independent research suggests Wix is the best website builder, for a number of reasons. The platform is super intuitive, includes over 900 customizable templates, offers a very generous free plan, and scored an unrivaled 4.4/5 in our independent usability testing, providing the best user experience of all the website builders we've tested. However, the right builder for you will depend on your needs.

If building a strong brand presence is your top priority, Squarespace might be a better fit, thanks to its industry-leading design tools and professionally crafted templates. Squarespace's starting price is $2 lower than Wix too, making it slightly more budget-friendly. If you want to build a website quickly, without a fuss, GoDaddy is the most efficient option we've tested. 

While these are our top picks, different website builders will excel in different areas. So whether you’re looking to build a complex site with selling capabilities or a stripped-back portfolio, this guide will have something for you. 

Scroll down to find the best builder for your budget, or skip straight to our website builder comparison page to weigh up the top solutions at a glance.

In this guide:

• 8 Best Website Builders
• How to Choose a Website Builder
• Verdict: The Best Website Builder Overall 
• Frequently Asked Questions

At Tech.co, we’re lucky enough to work alongside a team of experts who have developed a different methodology for each type of software we review. When assessing the strengths of our website builders they focus on six main metrics: website features, design capabilities, overall value for money, help and support options, customer popularity, and ease of use. 

Our research team then impartially awards each provider a five-star rating for each category, based on test results. This helps us rank the builders in order of overall offerings and determine how useful they will be for different types of users.

What Is the Best Website Builder?

Our research suggests Wix is the best website builder overall, thanks to its impressive feature offering, expansive app store, and excellent free plan. Every solution we've included in this list brings something unique to the table though, so use the links below to learn more about each website builder in greater detail.

1. Wix — Best overall website builder
2. Squarespace — Best for creative businesses
3. GoDaddy — Best for easy setup
4. Shopify — Best for ecommerce businesses
5. Weebly — Best free plan
6. Hostinger — Best for beginners
7. Jimdo Creator — Great value for money
8. WordPress.com — Best for blogging sites

1. Wix

• Best overall website builder
• Pricing from: $16 per month

Wix is an all-in-one website builder that excels in most major areas. From front-end design options to digital marketing, the software offers every feature you need to build a successful site. With a near-perfect website feature score of 4.9/5, Wix is the most versatile website builder we've tested, beating the next best options, Squarespace and GoDaddy by quite high margins.

Thanks to Wix's improved blogging and multilingual capabilities, its feature score has surged by an impressive 18% since our last round of testing too, showing that the tool is improving year-on-year. And if your site needs are more complex or specific, you have access to Wix's 300+ strong App Market, allowing you to seamlessly integrate the product with a range of free or paid add-ons — from ecommerce to design.

With an ease-of-use score of 4.4/5 (joint top with Duda), Wix is one of the easiest solutions to get started on, and you can use Wix ADI or Wix Editor depending on your skill level. However, despite Wix Editor's intuitive interface and excellent drag-and-drop feature, its abundance of features can make the software can feel a little cluttered at times, and leads to slower site speeds than GoDaddy.

Wix Pricing

Wix offers five main plans, Wix Free, Combo ($16 per month), Unlimited ($22 per month), Pro ($27 per month), and VIP ($45 per month).

With a very respectable 4.2/5 value score, the website builder is great value but isn't quite as cost-effective as GoDaddy (4.4/5) and Weebly (5/5). To learn about Wix's pricing structure in greater detail, refer to our table below or read our Wix pricing guide.

2. Squarespace

• Best for creative businesses
• Pricing from: $14 per month

Squarespace is another website builder that's strong across the board. In fact, Squarespace only marginally missed out on the top position, falling 1% short of Wix in our product research and testing. The tool is easily the best option for creative entrepreneurs though, because of its strong design features (4.7/5) and high-quality templates.

While the platform doesn't offer as many templates as Wix, every one of Squarespace's 100+ options is completely customizable and have been crafted by professional designers. This means that sites are easy to build, design, and edit, and it's virtually impossible to make the end result look bad.

Thanks to Squarespace's stipped-back and minimalist layout, it's been able to achieve a solid ease of use score of 4.5.with this rating increasing by 14.6% since our last round of testing. This makes the software a great choice for users building a site for the first time, especially compared to solutions like Shopify and Weebly which don't excel in user experience.

However, while Squarespace excels in aesthetics and usability, the software itself is slightly less customizable than Wix, and site speeds can run a little slower than competitors like GoDaddy due to its weighty designs.

Squarespace pricing

Squarespace offers two web building packages, Personal ($14 per month) and Business ($23 per month), and two ecommerce plans, Basic ($27 per month) and Advanced ($49 per month).

Squarespace pricing packages aren't quite as competitive as Wix, but with a value score of 4.1/5, Squarespace is still a better deal than its rivals Shopify, Hostinger, and Duda. Take a look at our table below to learn more about Squarespace's different plans.

3. GoDaddy

• Best for an easy setup
• Pricing from: $9.99 per month

GoDaddy is another popular website builder that prides itself on lighting fast site speeds. While the software is a bit less feature-dense than Wix and Squarespace, it contains all the necessary tools needed for smaller businesses like independent cafes or retailers — from drag-and-drop capabilities to mobile optimization.

Achieving a great ease of use score of 4.1/5 in our independent research, the platform is simpler to navigate than lots of other builders on this list like Squarespace and Shopify. Its design functionality has improved by 14% since last year too. However, its reliance on artificial design intelligence (ADI) makes it less suitable for users looking for a distinct website that stands out from the crowd.

While GoDaddy also lacks advanced SEO features like canonical tagging, which can be found in builders like Wix, its search engine tools do most of the heavy lifting for you, picking out specific elements of your site to optimize.

Read our GoDaddy website builder review for an in-depth summary of the product.

GoDaddy pricing

All of the GoDaddy pricing packages, Basic ($9.99 per month), Premium ($14.99 per month), Commerce ($16.99 per month), and Commerce Plus ($29.99 per month), are all fairly generous, featuring website hosting, custom domain options, and round-the-clock support. This, combined with the solution's affordable entry price, has helped GoDaddy secure an excellent value score of 4.4/5 — beating our frontrunners Wix and Squarespace to the punch.

To learn more about GoDaddy's different pricing tiers, take a look at the table below:

4. Shopify

• Best for selling online
• Pricing from: $29 per month

Shopify is a powerful website builder, but it really shines when it comes to ecommerce. With a range of sales tools under its belt, from wholesale channels to advanced inventory management, Shopify should be your top pick if you're looking to build a site that sells. In fact, our research suggests it's the best ecommerce web builder on the market.

But while Shopify prides itself on its selling features, it's more than equipt to build a high-quality, specialized website. From drag-and-drop tools to mobile responsive design, Shopify's site-building toolkit has earnt it a respectable website feature score of 4.1/5 — and its site speeds are faster than frontrunners Wix and Squarespace too.

Despite Wix's competitive features, it's one of the less intuitive platforms on this list, only securing an ease of use score of 3.5/5. This is because its design capabilities are limited compared to other platforms, and the software can be a bit fiddly to use. For this reason, users with less tech experience are probably best opting for solutions like Wix and GoDaddy because they fair much better in this category.

Shopify Pricing

While businesses can use Shopify Starter to start selling online for $5 per month, if you're looking for a full online store you'll need to fork out $29 per month for Shopify Basic. Shopify's other plans, Shopify ($79 per month), Advanced ($299 per month), and Plus ($2000+) are all priced quite steeply as well, contributing to the solution's less-than-impressive value score of 3/5.

Shopify's pricing structure is a little hard to get your head around though, so read our Shopify pricing guide or refer to our table below for more information:

5. Weebly

• Best free plan
• Pricing from: $6 per month

Weebly may be less flashy than website builders on this list, but it's reliable and incredibly easy to get started on — making it a safe bet for smaller ventures.

With a decent array of web-building features, including custom headers, video backgrounds, and site elements, Weebly has secured a website feature score of 3.6/5. While this score is a little modest in comparison with feature-rich tools like Wix, it's more than enough for business owners with basic site requirements.

Weebly offers one of the most bountiful app marketplaces on this list too, giving users access to countless useful integrations that span from marketing and social media to ecommerce. These third-party applications improve the versatility of the app tenfold, but since most add-ons come at a premium, they can quickly bump up the product's monthly price.

Unfortunately, Weebly doesn't excel when it comes to design, with its design score tumbling 36% to 3.1/5 since our last round of testing last year due to its lackluster templates and poor mobile optimization. The solution also has the worst response time out of any other website builder on this list, so if site performance is important to you you're better off choosing GoDaddy.

Weebly pricing

With Weebly's Personal plan retailing at $6 per month, the platform undercuts most solutions on this list. Weebly's other packages, Professional ($12 per month) and Performance ($26 per month) are a great deal as well, and business owners can use a version of the software for absolutely free ⁠— contributing to the builder's perfect value score of 5/5.

Learn more about Weebly's pricing structure in the table below.

6. Hostinger for Small Businesses

• Best for beginners
• Pricing from: $2.99 per month

For users that are fond of Wix's software but not its price tag, Hostinger will be a great alternative. The website builder is competent and cost-effective but doesn't overwhelm users with choices like our frontrunner.

The solution is extremely easy to navigate too, with its user experience of 4/5 topping notable contenders Shopify and Weebly. This makes the website builder a great choice for users with less software experience.

Unfortunately, this does come with a trade-off. With a dismal website feature score of 2/5, Hostinger's site-building tools aren't as strong as its rivals, and the product doesn't have its own app store either. This limits the software's potential and makes it less suited for larger businesses.

Read our Hostinger vs Wix comparison guide if you're stuck between the two web builders.

Hostinger pricing

Hostinger offers one website building plan, Hostinger Website Builder, at $11.99 per month, if you choose to pay monthly. However, if you sign up for any subscription between a 12 and 48 months in lengths, you'll only pay $2.99 per month for your first term.

Plus, you can get an exclusive 78% off when you use code “TECH” at checkout, bringing the price down to $2.79 per month.

Renewal prices vary depending on the length of your subscription. Plans renew at $8.99 per month for a 12-month subscription, $7.99 per month for a 24-month subscription, and $6.99 per month for a 48-month subscription.

Hostinger's pricing packages are reasonable, but our research suggests they're still worse value than other options like Wix, GoDaddy, and Weebly.

Click here to take advantage of Hostinger's deal

7. Jimdo Creator

• Great value for money
• Pricing from: $9 per month 

Jimdo Creator may not come with extra bells and whistles like Wix and Squarespace, but it offers the best cost-per-feature option on this list, making it a suitable pick for budget-conscious entrepreneurs.

Thanks to Jimdo's slick ADI functionality, which combines Squarespace's minimalism with GoDaddy's functionality, the builder does most of the hard work. This allows business owners to build a site within minutes, with little brunt work. With a low starting price of $9 per month, Jimdo is one of the best value builders we've tested too.

If you're looking to build a large or complex site, however, you're better off choosing a web builder with more features. Scoring a pretty dismal 2/5 for website features, Jimdo lacks some fairly standard capabilities like blog and marketing options.

Read our guide to the best cheap website builders to discover more cost-effective solutions. 

Jimdo Creator Pricing

Jimdo offers three paid plans, Start ($9 per month), Grow ($15 per month), Unlimited ($39 per month), and a generous free plan, Play.

8. WordPress.com

• Best for blogging sites
• Pricing from: $4 per month

WordPress is currently relied on by 500 million users, and while it may not fit the needs of everyone, if you're building a blogging or publishing site we think it's your best option.

WordPress.com provides users with a block-based editor and open-source access to give them full control over their content layouts, no matter their level of experience. Users can also preview their site as they build, so they can keep an eye on the progress of their site.

If you're using a builder to create any other type of website, however, we wouldn't recommend using WordPress. The software is quite overwhelming to get started on, only contains a limited selection of templates, and the connection between its front and back end is quite disjointed. While it does have a better toolkit than Hostinger and Jimdo, it lacks lots of fairly standard web-building capabilities — earning it a disappointing site feature score of 2.5/5.

WordPress.com pricing

WordPress offers four plans, Personal ($4 per month), Premium ($8 per month), Business ($25 per month), and eCommerce ($45 per month).

With a value score of 3.2/5, WordPress isn't the most cost-effective web builder on the market. Refer to our table below to see how the solutions plans compare.

How to Choose a Website Builder

Your online site has the power to make or break your brand, so it's important to select your website builder wisely. When establishing how to rank our website builders, we pay attention to several key metrics:

• Website features – We asses how likely the product's toolkit will be able to meet the needs of its users.
• Design tools – We measure the strength of a builder's user experience, design features, and selection of templates.
• Value for money – A product's value is based on the average price of its plans against the richness of its features.
• Help and support options – We measure the quality and availability of a product's support mechanisms.
• Customer score – We form an average review score to decipher how popular a web builder is with its customer base.
• Ease of use – We base this on real-life user testimonials. 

By focusing on these key attributes, you get a fuller picture of how the software performs in different areas and it should be easier to find a builder that meets your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions