10 Best Website Builders Of 2024 (2024)

• United States

• United Kingdom

• Germany

• India

• Australia

• Italy

• Canada

• Weebly: Best overall
• GoDaddy: Best for service providers
• IONOS: Best for startups
• Squarespace: Best for creatives
• HostGator: Best for simplicity
• Wix: Best for code-free customizations
• Shopify: Best for dropshipping
• Zyro: Best for affordability
• WordPress.org: Best for versatility
• Duda: Best for agencies

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

To select the best website builders, we analyzed more than 25 options based on cost, ease of use, features, storage and bandwidth allowances, user reviews and more. We then compiled a list of the 10 best website builders so you can make the best choice for your unique needs and budget.

Learn more: How We Test Website Builders

A website builder is a platform that offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create a website for users with little to no coding experience. These platforms generally offer integrated storage for photos and videos, options for adding a custom domain, hosting capabilities, prebuilt themes and more. Third-party integrations are often available as well, allowing you to add elements such as shopping carts and lead capture tools. Advanced plans may even include custom email addresses and SEO analytics tools for next-level marketing campaigns.

Note: There are two different types of website builders—online and offline. An offline website builder is software that you download to create the website on your personal computer. Online website builders are web-based and allow you to create and edit your website directly on the company’s server. This article focuses on online website builders such as Squarespace, Wix and Weebly.

How Does a Web Builder Work?

A website builder converts your drag-and-drop commands into code. Your website can either be hosted by the company or connect to your hosting provider. Most website builders offer a selection of themes or templates that are suitable for different types of websites. For example, a portfolio would use a different template than an e-commerce store. Once you select a template, you’ll be able to customize many of the features. Depending on the website builder, this includes elements like typeface, the layout and the size of the text and images. You may also be able to add contact forms and embed videos.

While coding is often not required for many of the most popular web builders, most platforms do allow users to customize HTML and CSS to suit their needs.

There is no magical one-size-fits-all approach to choose the best website builder. You need to find the right balance of cost and features to fulfill your needs.

Determine Your Needs

Ask yourself some questions to help narrow things down:

• Do you just need to display information, or should site visitors be able to interact with the pages?
• Are you planning to sell products or services, or capture contact information of potential customers?
• Will you be managing your site yourself or working with a third-party service provider?
• Are you willing to pay extra for more features?
• How much customization do you want in terms of layout and design?
• Do you need to create any unique functionality like quizzes, forms, or newsletters?

Consider these elements when comparing products and you’ll soon find a service that fits the bill.

Explore Key Features

A website builder makes many of the complicated aspects of running a website simple and intuitive. Here is a list of some of the most common features:

• Drag-and-drop interface: Many website builders allow you to drag and drop the components of a web page to design it as if you are assembling a collage. This could include text, photos, video or any other component on your web page. Each website builder offers different flexibility for customization options. Some companies use themes that are harder to adjust, while others allow you to customize almost every aspect of the web page with no coding whatsoever.
• Pictures and video storage: Website builders make it easy to upload pictures and videos. With Squarespace, for example, you’ll have access to an image gallery on your account. This way, you’ll be able to edit and remove photos and videos from different pages, but still store them and refer to them in the future. Storage capabilities generally vary by subscription plan.
• Hosting and domains: When you’re building a website, you need two components other than design: a website host and a domain name (the URL used to navigate to your site). Many website builders offer all three services. If you already own a domain name but want to use a different website builder (for example, you purchased your domain name through GoDaddy but want to use Wix for design), you’ll have to migrate your domain to the new platform.
• Third-party integrations: Website builders make it easy to integrate third-party applications like social media feeds or shopping carts. Lead capture forms are another commonly used integration, allowing potential customers/clients to provide their information and dump it directly into your preferred CRM or data repository.
• Mobile compatibility: Because so many people browse the web, mobile compatibility is an important feature for any website. Many website builders integrate this feature automatically and allow you to view the mobile version of your website as you edit. Some can even automatically adjust the elements on your site so that a single design functions well on multiple devices.
• Business email: Most website builders come with the ability to create an email address with your domain name as the extension. Some always charge extra for this feature while others offer one or two emails for free and charge for each additional email, so be sure to choose the best plan for your needs.
• Analytics and reporting: While many people use Google Analytics to assess traffic, most website builders come with their own form of traffic analysis with easy-to-read reports that are best for beginners. This will give you information about which websites your traffic is coming from and how viewers found you. If you are actively trying to develop your SEO and expand the reach of your website, you may find the need to invest in specific software for analytics. However, for most individuals and small businesses, the insight available through their website builder is sufficient.
• SEO functionality: For the most part, website builders add SEO functionality in small ways. For example, you should be able to add meta tags and meta descriptions to blogs, change titles of web pages and add image alternative text, all of which can help you rank content higher in search engine result pages (SERPs). The best website builders provide at least the basics for SEO and give you the power to modify your site as needed for SEO optimization.
• Ease of use and customer support: To be fair, ease of use is a subjective topic, but there are some website builders that are objectively easier to use. Those that offer drag-and-drop or WYSIWYG editors and templates are great for beginners who aren’t familiar with bare-bones site builders. When you run into an issue with building a website, having live support is best, and most website builders offer phone or live chat assistance. At the very least, it’s important to choose a website builder that offers a comprehensive help center with answers to common questions (or a forum with an active community).
• Transferability: Although you’re likely not thinking about site migration, it’s something to consider when choosing a website builder. What if you build a site you like, but the site builder makes changes to its platform you don’t like? Can you transfer what you’ve built to another site builder? You should be able to transfer domains, but you need to manually create a list of your page URL names, download your site images and copy your site’s content to create a new site. Templates and site structure won’t transfer automatically.

When building a website, choosing a platform is only one piece of the puzzle. You also need to consider hosting costs, domain names, SEO analytics, custom email options, graphic design and more. You may even want to hire a content manager to make sure your site is updated regularly, keeping it fresh for new visitors. You should research prices of all web design costs to get the full picture of how much your site will cost.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the cost to build a website:

If you’re a web designer, staying on top of design trends can ensure you deliver your most demanding clients’ dreams on the first try instead of the fifth. Here are some major 2024 web design trends we anticipate will surf their way into the new year.

Motion Design Trends

The number one trend we’ve noticed is a shift toward designs that integrate motion in some form. Incorporating active design elements is a great way to capture visitor attention and spark interest, and with a multitude of ways to add them to your site, you’re sure to find something meaningful and even fun to use.

Prioritizing Download Speeds

A study by Google discovered that more than half of mobile users will abandon a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. Ensuring ultra-fast download speeds will provide a better user experience, encourage the consumer to stay on your site and increase sales potential.

Content Loading

A website can either load in its entirety upon arrival, or only load the content the client is accessing—also called smart or lazy loading. By using smart loading, it is possible for a company website to run faster and more efficiently than non-smart loading competitors.

Individualized Content

Utilizing user data trends and location services can help web developers create a more personalized online experience for a consumer base, thus increasing the company’s conversion potential.

Accessibility and Availability

The demand for creating digital content accessible and usable for everybody is on the rise. For example, when designing a web page, it is important to consider accommodations for neurodivergent individuals, consumers with disabilities and consumers with visual or auditory impairments.

Here are a few important tips to help you create a successful site:

Design for Desktop and Mobile Devices

A mobile-responsive site automatically adjusts images, text and design elements to show up quickly and appropriately for a mobile phone. According to Google Analytics stats, more than60% of traffic is mobilein the U.S., so it’s important that your site is mobile-responsive.

Most modern site builders are mobile-responsive, but even those that are may not be 100% perfect. Be sure to always preview your designs on both desktop and mobile screens of different sizes. If you notice any errors, you can adjust your designs by changing up element sizing or even removing certain elements on specific screen sizes.

Consider Prebuilt Templates and Themes

The terms theme and template are usually interchangeable. They are prebuilt page designs that usually include menu navigation with the most common pages (home, about, contact, blog), a header and a footer. Most themes will include sample imagery and text, which you can replace with your own content. You can often customize the global template to best meet your needs as well.

Most site builders will have a variety of free and premium themes to choose from. Using these can help you get a well-designed site up and running much faster than if you were to build the site from scratch yourself. That said, not all themes are created equal. Be sure to preview all your pages to make sure there are no inconsistencies or errors as you add your content.

Add An SSL Certificate

A secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate is a file that encrypts data transfers to and from a website. So, when someone visits your secure website or enters information in any fields on your site (forms, username, password, credit card details), the SSL certificate keeps that data private. It’s important to have that security on your site for the end user, and having an SSL certificate can also help to improve your ranking in search engines.

Monetize Your Website

There are multiple reasons why you would want to build a website: for information purposes, to direct local traffic to your brick-and-mortar business, to build a brand or to sell products or services. If you’re looking to make money with your website, there are just as many ways to do so.

E-commerce

One of the most obvious ways to make money online is to sell products on your website. If you go this route, you’ll want to choose one of the best e-commerce platforms or pick a website builder that offers e-commerce templates and built-in shopping carts. Third-party plugins can provide what you need to build an e-commerce site and market your products online. You also need to find a wholesale supplier or producer for the products you plan to sell and ways to market your products and brand. You may want to consider selling on marketplaces, such as Amazon, eBay or Walmart.com, as well.

Affiliate Marketing

If you consider yourself an influencer in a particular industry and your website is aligned, you may want to look into affiliate marketing. You can review products or services and recommend your favorites on your site with an affiliate link. Companies with affiliate programs pay you for clicks or sales of their products or services.

Sell Online Courses

Another common way to monetize a website is to sell online courses or digital products. Often entrepreneurs offer courses, e-books and guides for a low price as a hook for prospects to then sell them a bigger package, such as a ticket to an in-person convention or a multi-course class. This works well if you’re an expert in your field and you can educate or coach others in the same industry.

Alternatively, you could offer memberships to your site for ongoing advice or courses. If you go with the membership option, make sure you choose a website builder that allows you to create password-enabled pages and to process payments online.

Offer Ad Space

Selling space on your site for banner ads is something that will be more viable as your site matures. You need to grow your audience and page views before advertisers are willing to pay bigger bucks for real estate on your website. There are automated platforms you can use to offer ad space that advertisers bid on, or you can sell your site space directly to companies.

Transferring Your Site to a New Website Builder

Whether you’ve outgrown your current website builder or you’ve found a better deal elsewhere, you may find you need to transfer your domain name and website to another provider. The easiest site migration solution is if you use a commonly supported content management system (CMS), such as WordPress. Many website builders offer site migration services to move your entire site over to its servers.

Manually transferring a website from a DIY site builder is likely to fall on your shoulders and you may need to recreate your site from scratch with a new template. For example, if you build a website using Squarespace, you won’t be able to migrate your existing site and design to, say, Wix.

Follow these steps to transfer your site to a new website builder:

1. Sign up for a new web hosting provider or website builder
2. Download backup files (sitemap, images, etc.)
3. Create a list or take a snapshot of your website design for reference
4. Find a similar template or design your website from scratch on your new site builder platform
5. Transfer your email (if applicable) and domain to the new server and go live

It’s important to keep in mind that domain transfers can take days or even weeks. During this time, your website will be offline. Make sure you give your website visitors plenty of notice of this downtime and stay in touch with them via your social media channels. You can then turn the transfer into a bit of a grand reopening, if you’d like to boost traffic to your rehomed website.

Do I Need a Website Builder?

If you want to create a website and don’t have experience coding, a website builder is the easiest way to do it. The other option is to build your website yourself, but this requires knowledge of coding or hiring a professional. The benefit of hiring someone is that you have complete control of how the website looks.

When you are working with a website builder, you will likely come across design challenges that the website builder does not support. For example, let’s say you want a drop-down menu, but the theme you’re using doesn’t offer that feature. You may also prefer a particular template but find you’re not able to change the color theme.

Each website builder and each theme within it has different limitations, and you often only learn what they are as you go. If you don’t need complete creative control, you’ll find that thebest website buildersoffer more than enough features to build a professional website.

More Web Building Essentials

Forbes Advisor has compiled a list of other services that you may need to get your website off the ground and thriving. Check out these guides for more essential information:

• Best Web Hosting Services
• Best Domain Registrars
• Best SSL Certificate Services

To determine the best website builders for small businesses, Forbes Advisor considered more than 25 of the most popular providers in the space and narrowed it down to 15 to analyze across five primary categories, for a total of 27 different metrics. These were then weighted to favor features that small business owners find valuable in a website builder.

Here are the key metrics we analyzed.

Pricing

To determine the best website builders for small businesses, we considered pricing and affordability. This includes not only low pricing but also the availability of different plans and contracts, value for price and any money-back guarantees. We weighed pricing at 10% of the total score.

General Features

We analyzed the top website builders based on a variety of available features, including drag-and-drop site editors, storage and bandwidth limits, the availability of well-designed themes and templates, image libraries, e-commerce features, security, search engine optimization tools and built-in marketing tools (e.g., lead capture forms and automated email marketing). Features account for 30% of the total score.

Extras and Inclusions

In addition to the key features, we also looked at which providers offer money-saving extras. For example, a free domain name, free SSL certificates, free business email or free email marketing tools. These important add-ons account for 20% of the total score.

Third-Party User Reviews

To ensure our own experience aligns with real customers’ experiences, we looked at third-party user reviews. Then, we determined how others find each website builder, including what users commonly like and dislike. This accounts for 10% of the total score.

Expert Score

We included our own firsthand experience building websites and using website builders to determine which truly are the best. This includes value for price and whether or not there are any hidden fees or unforeseen expenses associated with certain website builders, how customizable themes and templates are and how easy it is to build a site with its site editor. This accounts for 30% of the total score.

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Amy Nichol Smith is a staff writer at Forbes Advisor, specializing in testing and reviewing project management software and tools for small businesses. Amy spent more than 20 years working as a journalist for TV and newspapers before transitioning to software and hardware product reviews for consumers and small businesses. She has been featured in publications such as L.A. Times, Tom's Guide, Investopedia and various newspapers across the U.S.

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