The Best Website Builder of 2023: Top 10 Reviewed and Rated

Features

Wix’s feature score of 4.8 out of 5 is the highest of any web builder we tested, and you can enjoy a lot of benefits just from its free plan. You’ll have access to greater features such as website analytics and unlimited storage if you upgrade your plan, but Wix’s free plan is still pretty generous. It includes:

• Up to 500MB of storage
• 24/7 customer support
• Social sharing, so you can promote your site
• A mobile editor, so you can optimize your site for mobile devices

But, how exactly did Wix score so highly? There are specific areas Wix excels at, and it specializes in providing internal functionality for its users, meaning there’s no need to rely on third-party apps if you don’t want to! In comparison, Shopify purposefully directs its users toward its huge app store.

Wix has incredible marketing tools to utilize, such as Social Posts, which helps you design graphics for your social channels, and email marketing features.

Additionally, its tailored ecommerce plans and features, such as its inventory management tools and built-in analytics, will help set you up for success if you’re looking to start selling online.

However, if you do need to add extra features, you can – Wix is home to a huge app store full of helpful services.

Wix also offers very powerful SEO tools to help your website get found on Google, including new features such as Semrush integration and keyword support. Another great point to mention is Wix’s internationalization features – you can go global with Wix Multilingual by sharing your content in 180 languages.

Design

Wix has always been a top contender when it comes to design, largely because of its template options and customization tools. It’s no real surprise that Wix has increased its design score by 4.5% in this year’s research – from 4.4 last year to 4.6 out of 5 – which now puts Wix in second place behind design-powerhouse Squarespace.

Wix comes with over 800 professionally-designed templates for you to choose from. These are all split into different industries, such as “Events” and “Photography”, making them easy to filter until you find the right one. Last year, Wix expanded its template offering to keep up with the design and functionality that users expect from a website, and Wix continues to make improvements, enhancing the overall appeal and experience of its websites.

Unfortunately, you can’t swap templates once your website is live, so make sure you take your time in choosing. But don’t worry if you can’t find the perfect template right away since Wix gives you plenty of customization tools!

It’s easy to make your Wix website unique thanks to its editor – simply drag elements like text boxes and images to exactly where you want them, or employ Wix’s ADI to do the work for you. Add pages, delete anything you want… Wix gives you total creative freedom!

Value for Money

Pricing plans have considerably increased marketwide since 2022, so Wix’s performance in our value for money category has dropped by almost 12% – now scoring 3 out of 5 as opposed to last year’s 3.4. Wix’s price hike means that not only do you get less bang for your buck, but it also makes it harder to scale your business affordably.

However, Wix has a free plan that you can stay on as long as you like, which is great for getting started. Of course, it has its limitations, such as displaying ads on your site, so for a truly professional site, you’ll want to look at its paid plans.

There are eight premium plans to choose between, starting at $16 per month (billed annually) – a 14% increase from last year’s price! These plans remove Wix ads and let you use a personalized domain name, as well as increase your storage allowances.

Out of the eight, Wix also offers three dedicated ecommerce plans, starting from $27 per month (billed annually).

Ease of Use

Wix remains as easy to use as ever, sitting in our top position with a score of 4.4 out of 5 – joint first with Squarespace. One user who tested out Wix said this about the builder:

“It’s really intuitive to use, a beginner would grasp it easily!”

We received a lot of feedback about how beginner-friendly and easy-to-customize Wix is, especially thanks to its drag-and-drop editor. However, the large number of features and tools felt overwhelming for some, and in some cases, the editor was slow to respond which isn’t ideal if you’re a business owner that needs to update content on your site every day.

Help and Support

While Wix’s customers will certainly feel the squeeze in their pockets, Wix does make up for its higher prices with an impressive help and support score of 4.8 out of 5. That’s a huge increase of 10% since 2022! In fact, Wix is now in joint first place for support, along with Squarespace and IONOS.

Wix offers 24/7 phone and live chat support, but you can get VIP care and avoid any possible queues if you upgrade to a higher-tier plan. The usability and available support provided through Wix’s Help Center is where Wix really shines, complete with video tutorials and trending topics.

Customer Satisfaction

Wix has always been a customer favorite, and our 2023 scores keep the website builder as a strong choice, scoring 4.7 out of 5 for its customer satisfaction – an increase of 1% since 2022’s score of 4.6. And it’s easy to be content with such a user-friendly platform! Wix’s Trustpilot score has improved from 1.6 to a whopping 4.1, and 80% of users that tested the builder are likely to recommend it to others.

News and Updates

What’s new with Wix this month?

• Wix is further integrating with Square’s Point of Sale system to help restaurant websites. The aims are to speed up delivery times and streamline business operations onto one device, making it easier to access items, menus, catalogs, and more, all from your Wix dashboard.
• Wix Headless rolls out, allowing web developers to bring Wix’s backend functionalities, such as Wix Ecommerce and Wix Bookings, to any existing site or app they want.

Features

Renowned for its aesthetic templates, Squarespace isn’t just a pretty face. The builder saw a 4% boost to its website features score in 2023, sitting just behind Wix with an improved rating of 4.6 out of 5. This increase is largely thanks to Squarespace’s efforts to enhance third-party apps and internal add-ons, such as online bookings, scheduling features, and CRM tools.

Squarespace plans come with plenty of built-in features, meaning you’re guaranteed a high level of quality and security from the get-go. Everything you need is right at your fingertips! For example, you can:

• Install multiple templates to work on at once
• Use video backgrounds
• Add custom codes
• Upload and share music
• Link your social accounts
• Design logos

If you want to optimize and expand your site, you can use Squarespace Extensions to integrate with a range of third-party platforms, such as Printful, Quickbooks, or ShipStation. These are a great way of growing your site without upgrading your plan. Alternatively, you can make the most of Squarespace’s impressive marketing features, which scored a perfect 5 out of 5 in our marketing tests – an increase of 25%!

Design

Squarespace has the best quality designs of any website builder on the market. With sleek, sophisticated, modern templates, it creates truly stunning websites. It’s an ideal choice for creatives and those in search of real customization since Squarespace knows how to make your website look good.

As one of our users said, “I felt like I was great at making websites but really it was just Squarespace doing it for me!”

You can easily switch your template, even once you’ve published your site (unlike Wix), and can work on more than one template at the same time – super helpful!

Since 2022, not much has changed in terms of design improvements and Squarespace’s score of 4.7 out of 5 remains the same. However, a few features are now available permanently across all of Squarespace’s templates, including the ability to add videos to pages and forms.

Squarespace continues to dominate the website design space and successfully delivers aesthetically-pleasing templates and elements to its users.

Value for Money

As we’ve already mentioned, there’s been an industry-wide price increase to website builder plans and Squarespace is no exception – in 2022, its starting plan went from $12 to $16 per month, which is a rise of 33%!

Despite this, would it surprise you to know that Squarespace is actually the best value for money out of all of the website builders we tested? It’s true! Squarespace scores a winning 4.6 out of 5 in our latest value for money research, which is a 15% increase since 2022. Though its plans have increased in price, Squarespace’s offering of features has also continued to improve.

For example, Squarespace’s $16 starting plan is actually comparable to Wix’s Unlimited plan at $22 per month – an absolute bargain! You get unlimited bandwidth and a free domain from the start with Squarespace.

If you’re looking for options, Squarespace has four premium plans, ranging from $16 to $49 per month (billed annually). The highest two plans unlock advanced ecommerce functions, and if you’re still unsure, Squarespace also provides a 14-day free trial, so you can try its builder out totally risk-free.

Ease of Use

Squarespace’s ease of use saw the largest increase in score since 2022 – an 11% boost to hit 4.4 out of 5, putting Squarespace in joint first position with Wix.

Several of our testers actually found Squarespace more user-friendly than Wix, which would be the first time this has been noted since our research process began five years ago:

“I loved the background grid for organizing your layout – it was so good for making sure everything was aligned properly. My page ended up looking so much sleeker and neater than when I used Wix.”

Users also found that Squarespace offers a lot of guidance when building a website, including great SEO prompts, a grid layout when editing to steer users away from messy designs, and onboarding questions to help identify the right templates and support from the start.

Help and Support

When it comes to help and support, Squarespace sits on top of the podium – along with Wix and IONOS. In our latest research, its score decreased by 5% to 4.8 out of 5, instead of its previous perfect score of 5 out of 5. However, this drop in score is solely down to the increase in pricing, since Squarespace’s offered support remains the same as last year. In comparison, though Wix’s prices also increased, Wix made improvements to its help and support to keep them level.

So, what support can you get with Squarespace? You can contact the customer care team 24/7 via email and social media, or use Squarespace’s live chat function throughout the week. Additionally, you can turn to Squarespace’s detailed Help Center or community forum to find answers, discussions, and tutorials.

Customer Satisfaction

Squarespace is our third-best website builder for customer satisfaction, scoring 4.5 out of 5 – remaining stable from last year’s research. Based on our testing of the builder, it received a lot of appreciation for its grid-style editor and overall user experience. Plus, it was the site our testers would most likely recommend to others – even beating our top website builder, Wix!

News and Updates

What’s new with Squarespace this month?

• Spring marks Squarespace’s 20th anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, Squarespace’s founder, Anthony Casalena, shared a post highlighting the platform’s history and achievements. There’s also a neat interactive timeline for users to explore in their own time!
• Squarespace Blueprint has arrived, giving users a helping hand when building a website. The new guided web design system takes you through a five-step process, resulting in a unique template that you can edit to your liking.

Features

With a website features score of 4 out of 5, Shopify offers plenty of basic website-building tools to help you create something that’s functional and equipped to grow.

We were particularly impressed with Shopify’s additional app and widget integrations. It has an enormous app store, with over 6,000 apps to choose from. This means there are plenty of options if you’re looking to further expand on what your store can do.

It can be overwhelming to know where to start, so we’ve compiled a list of our top 15 favorite Shopify apps to get you started.

Shopify also performs well on the marketing front. It has a number of built-in features, such as its email shout-out and newsletter function. Plus, its multi-channel integrations are ideal for allowing you to expand across a number of different platforms. However, the immense number of marketing apps really help take things to the next level.

Whether it’s creating personalized popups with Kevy, sending targeted emails with Klaviyo, or managing SMS or social campaigns with Remarkety, there’s a wealth of different marketing apps available to help increase and improve your customer reach.

However, it’s worth bearing in mind that, although plenty of apps come with a free plan, you’ll need to pay extra for most of them. These costs can mount quickly, and you’ll need to factor this in when working out your monthly expenditure.

Design

Shopify offers 86 different themes to choose from, all of which boast high-quality, professional designs.

Each theme comes in a range of color schemes, so you can select one that best suits your brand, and all of them are mobile-responsive, meaning that customers can view your online store on the go.

However, only nine of Shopify’s themes are actually free. You’ll need to pay for any of the other 77, with each template costing anywhere between $150 to $350. Although the free themes still look good, there’s no denying that the paid themes offer more in the way of features and aesthetics.

When it comes to customizability, Shopify is more limited than other builders, such as Wix, but there’s still plenty of room to put your own stamp on your site.

We were particularly impressed with the customizability of Shopify’s product pages. It offers a ton of filtering options, allowing users to sort the results by size, color, price range, vendor, product style, type of material, and more. Not only will this make the layout of your product pages more attractive, but it’ll ensure a better user experience, too!

Shopify also comes with a handful of extra design features, such as its built-in image editor, and a library of high-quality stock images.

Out of all the builders we tested, Shopify wasn’t the easiest to use when it actually came down to nailing the perfect site design. As a result, it scores 4 out of 5 in this category. This is mostly down to the fact that the platform is split into two interfaces: the frontend, where you can edit the design of your store, and the backend, where you’re able to add products and manage your inventory.

Some users found switching between the two slightly confusing. However, most didn’t think it was a problem in the long run, with one user saying:

“I struggled initially with a few aspects, but once I figured it all out, it all seemed really obvious.”

Given the power of its features and the overall professionalism of its designs, we think that the slightly steeper learning curve is an acceptable trade-off!

Value for Money

Shopify offers three different pricing plans. Take a look at the annual price below:

• Basic – $29 per month
• Shopify – $79 per month
• Advanced – $299 per month

This is a little pricier than other platforms, which is why Shopify only scored 3 out of 5 in this category. However, when you take a look at the quality of the features it offers, we think that this higher price point is somewhat justified.

Shopify doesn’t offer a free plan, but you can enjoy a three-day free trial before paying $1 per month for the first three months. This allows you to test Shopify out for yourself (on select plans) without committing to a fully paid subscription.

Although three days might seem very brief compared to other web builders, the fact you get three months for $1 means you’ll still pay much, much less for Shopify in those initial months. You’ll also have a longer non-committal period than other website builders that offer one or two weeks for free before locking you in for good at a premium price. So, don’t miss out on this Shopify deal!

Alternatively, if you don’t want to opt for a full Shopify plan just yet and want to explore the world of ecommerce, you can sign up for Shopify’s Starter Plan. For just $5 per month, you can sell your products across your social media channels, manage your inventory with ease, and get the latest sales data. Then, if or when you’re ready, you can simply upgrade to a higher-tier plan to unlock more features.

News and Updates

What’s new with Shopify this month?

• Shopify Magic is a new AI-generation tool for business owners to use when writing product descriptions. Shopify have confirmed more capabilities will be introduced over time!
• The Shopify Entrepreneurship Index is the world’s first database on global entrepreneurship. The Index, based on the economic impact of entrepreneurs, ranks the US first after the country achieved $270 billion in business activity last year.

Features

In our latest 2023 in-house research, GoDaddy came out with an average score of 3.1 for its website features – a 7% decline since the previous year. GoDaddy’s features are fairly middle-of-the-road, lacking depth and power. For example, if you want to run a blog, you’ll be limited to simply writing and scheduling posts.

Starting at $9.99 per month (billed annually), its cheapest Basic plan, however, gives you most of the essentials for starting a website, including the following features:

• Analytics dashboard
• In-house SEO – including the new ability to make custom headers and URLs
• Marketing tools, such as social post scheduling
• Custom video creator

You’ll get greater features by upgrading to the Premium plan, allowing you to take online payments for bookings and widen your newsletter’s reach, for example.

Though GoDaddy’s features might not appear as exciting as other builders on this list, it’s worth mentioning that this simplicity and user-friendly approach is what makes it possible to get your website set up so quickly. In fact, GoDaddy is also the only website builder in our 2023 research that saw an improvement in its site speed performance!

And, according to a recent case study, GoDaddy claims to have successfully improved overall website performance for its customers by 75%.

Design

Looking at design functionality, GoDaddy’s score has declined by 6% to 4.1 out of 5. Simply put, more website builders are offering a wider range of templates and elements in comparison to last year, so GoDaddy doesn’t stand out as much in this arena.

And with GoDaddy’s restrictive style, using block elements and few customization options, you’ll get little in the way of design flexibility.

Unfortunately, GoDaddy is also let down by its lack of a mobile editor – a pretty shocking fact in 2023 when so many websites are viewed on mobile devices. GoDaddy assures its websites are mobile-responsive, but users have no way of controlling this view or accessing the editor themselves.

Despite the above points, GoDaddy’s editor is pretty simple, which can be a positive for beginners, and its ADI feature (Artificial Design Intelligence) allows you to get online fast by building a personalized template for you to edit. This saves you time and makes customizing much easier since most of the hard work is already done for you.

Value for Money

Marketwide price increases have left GoDaddy with a value for money score of 4.1 out of 5 – a 5% drop since 2022. GoDaddy offers a free plan, so you get plenty of time to decide if it’s the right fit for you before committing to anything.

If you choose to upgrade, there are four paid plans to choose from, ranging from $9.99 to $29.99 per month (billed annually). Plus, its two highest plans are ecommerce-specific, so if you’re looking to start an online store, GoDaddy has you covered.

Ease of Use

GoDaddy’s ease of use score remains steady at 4.1 out of 5 – its efficiency and time-saving features when it comes to building a site are great, and GoDaddy keeps its editor clear and simple. One user that tested GoDaddy said:

“It was easy to use. I could find everything I needed to find. If I needed to make a simple website for a business this is the one I would choose.”

Of course, GoDaddy’s physical design and style can’t be compared with better services like Squarespace, but our users generally found it to be more enjoyable and streamlined thanks to GoDaddy’s ability to decide a lot of features on your behalf.

Help and Support

Scoring 4.3 out of 5, GoDaddy’s help and support has seen real improvements in the last few months.

GoDaddy offers the following support options across its plans:

• 24/7 phone support – also available on the free plan!
• 24/7 live chat
• Email support – a new feature
• Help center
• How-to videos
• Community forum

Customer Satisfaction

Thanks to an increase in brand awareness since our last round of testing, more people are looking toward GoDaddy than ever and its customer score has increased by 6% to 4.6 out of 5. GoDaddy also receives a perfect 5 out of 5 score for its online comments, so you know the website builder has the nod of approval from the community.

News and Updates

What’s new with GoDaddy this month?

• GoDaddy has partnered with Microsoft Teams, allowing business owners to accept payments during virtual meetings with clients or customers. This is a great new feature for service-based businesses.

Features

Coming in fourth position for website features, Square Online scores an average 3.5 out of 5 in this research category. After acquiring Weebly in 2018, there hasn’t been much innovation or development on the website builder, while its competitors have raced ahead by introducing standout features.

Our research shows that Square Online prioritizes its ecommerce capabilities over the usability and functionality of its website builder, seeing improvement in its app market and its sales tools. For example, you can now add checkout links when selling via email and schedule appointments.

But if you want to unlock the best features, you’ll need to upgrade to one of Square Online’s premium plans. These are just some of the features you can enjoy:

• Access to a library of 100 million images
• Free domain for one year
• Customer accounts
• Ecommerce functions, including abandoned cart emails and Paypal payments
• Website analytics

Design

Unfortunately, Square Online is really let down by its design functionality, scoring a poor 2.6 out of 5 and putting it on par with IONOS in our rankings. Many builders have made considerable improvements in this area over the last year, especially when it comes to template development, which makes it hard for Square Online to compete in the rankings.

Square Online uses the familiar drag-and-drop website builder, although it doesn’t offer much flexibility when designing because of its limited template choice and lack of unique elements. Still, if you’re after a simple and minimalistic website, this can easily be built with Square Online. For more control, you’d be better off with Wix or Squarespace.

Value for Money

As we’ve already touched on elsewhere, every website builder has increased its pricing since last year’s research – understandable given the current market and economic situation. Square Online is no exception, with the cost of its plans going up by a mega 142%! Still, with its ecommerce-friendly free plan, Square Online receives a value for money score of 4.1 out of 5. It’s a great option, especially when so many builders only offer a free trial or nothing at all.

But, if you’re looking to commit, Square Online has two paid plans: the Plus plan costs $29 per month (billed annually), and the Premium plan costs $79 per month (billed annually). A lot of other builders, including Wix, don’t let you sell online unless you upgrade to an expensive ecommerce plan, so Square Online is one to consider if you’re looking to get your business online without breaking the bank.

Ease of Use

We put Square Online to our website builder testers, and the overall consensus is that while many found it easy to use, the platform comes across as outdated in comparison to others, and you won’t be granted total creative control. In our ease of use testing, Square Online scores a decent 3.5 out of 5 – putting the builder just above Site123.

Many users found it more straightforward to use than other builders because of its simple design and support when building. One user who tested out Square Online said:

“It was my favorite – so easy to use! I didn’t struggle once trying to find anything.”

And one person was particularly impressed by Square Online’s free plan:

“The few things behind a paywall were unique, not essential. This made it feel like they were worth paying for but you could still do without.”

So why didn’t Square Online receive a better score with these glowing reviews? Well, it wasn’t the right fit for everyone. Another website tester said:

“The dashboard has so many options and headings that it becomes overwhelming at times.”

Help and Support

Square Online scores 3.3 out of 5 for its help and support. If you stumble into a problem, you can contact Square Online via its weekly live chat and phone support, available Monday to Friday between 6am and 6pm PT. If you want 24/7 phone support, the option is reserved for premium plan users only.

There’s also a knowledge center full of guides and answers, and a seller community where you can get your questions answered by other Square Online users.

Customer Satisfaction

For customer satisfaction, Square Online scores 4.2 out of 5, putting it just behind Squarespace. The key takeaway from our research is that 80% of our website testers said they would recommend Square Online to others – many users found it easier to use and navigate than other builders, and they found the prompts when building very helpful. But it won’t be the perfect fit for everyone, with others finding Square Online quite restrictive. Thankfully, with a free plan, you can give it a go yourself!

News and Updates

What’s new with Square Online this month?

• If you’re a UK seller, Square now accept Android Tap to Pay, making it easy to take contactless payments anywhere and sync it all with your Square Online website.

Features

Hostinger only offers one website builder plan, and though web hosting is neatly included within the package, its list of additional features is pretty short. For website features, Hostinger scores 2.8 out of 5 and it’s easy to see why.

Here are some of the basics you get with Hostinger’s plan:

• Free domain (for the 1st year)
• Advanced website security features, such as unlimited SSL certificates
• Free email

You can activate plenty of built-in tools, such as Google Analytics, but there’s no app market to browse, so you’re reliant on what Hostinger has to offer. It simply falls short of the competition, especially when it comes to its marketing and ecommerce features – you get what you pay for, and for a cheap price, that isn’t much.

Hostinger Website Builder is also let down by its lack of ADI and blogging functionality, which is another reason why it scored so poorly in our testing. The fact you can only add new blog posts with Hostinger means the website builder can’t compete with the likes of WordPress.com which gives you a whole suite of blogging tools.

We did, however, notice a 100% improvement to Hostinger’s SEO services, meaning you can now edit alt tags and add meta titles, for example. Sadly, there’s no keyword support or dedicated SEO integrations, so the feature is limited.

That being said, Hostinger is first and foremost a web hosting provider, and if you choose its website builder and hosting package, you’ll get it all rolled into the one plan.

Design

Hostinger’s score of 3.6 out of 5 puts it in fifth position for design functionality.

Hostinger offers hundreds of professionally-designed templates to choose from – all of which have a stylish, modern feel in keeping with the latest trends. Plus, designing websites with Hostinger is just easy. Its drag-and-drop builder uses helpful lines to guide you as you go, meaning it’s pretty difficult to make a messy page.

That said, Hostinger’s templates aren’t very customizable – a far cry from the creative control you get with our top builder, Wix. Hostinger’s editor is very section-based, and you can’t stray much from the original layout you’ve chosen. You also can’t change templates once your site is live, and without any ADI functionality, you’ll have to design something you love from scratch.

Value for Money

Hostinger keeps things simple – and affordable – by offering one website builder/web hosting package bundled into a single plan. Despite marketwide hikes in pricing, Hostinger scores 4 out of 5 in our recent value for money research.

Because Hostinger is primarily a hosting provider, its pricing works a little differently from most of the other builders on this list. For example, Hostinger doesn’t offer a free trial or plan, but it does provide an impressive 30-day money-back guarantee, so you’ll have plenty of time to decide if you like it or not. Prices start at $2.99 per month (billed annually), but if you opt for a 48-month contract, you’ll get the first three months for free!

The only thing you need to keep an eye on is the renewal fee after your initial term has ended. For a 12-month term, your plan will renew at $8.99 per month, but for a 48-month term, it’ll renew at $6.99 per month.

Ease of Use

Hostinger Website Builder scores 3.9 out of 5 for ease of use. Its drag-and-drop editor means beginners can get to grips with the builder quickly, but its limited features and lack of customization options could lead to some frustrating moments. We’d recommend more user-friendly builders, such as Wix or Squarespace.

Help and Support

Hostinger Website Builder receives a score of 3.3 out of 5 for its help and support services. You can contact Hostinger’s support team via 24/7 live chat, but there’s no option to give them a call.

If you’d prefer to solve the issue yourself, you can take a look through Hostinger’s knowledge center and explore its tutorials and step-by-step walkthroughs.

Customer Satisfaction

Hostinger’s customer satisfaction score is 2.8 out of 5 – one of the lowest on the list. As we’ve already mentioned, despite the cheap cost, Hostinger provides a pretty limited service and the overall user experience might feel restrictive to some. To others, it could be the perfect builder!

Feature of the Month

This month, we’re highlighting the following Hostinger feature:

• Hostinger’s heatmap tool shows website owners what visitors are focusing on when browsing their pages. You simply upload an image of the site, and Hostinger generates a heatmap which highlights the main areas of the page that visitors interact with – allowing you to take action and improve your site to optimize conversion rates.

Features

WordPress.com scores a weak 2.8 out of 5 for its website features – supplying its users with plenty of options but neglecting its overall user experience and ease of use. This year, we noticed a real improvement in WordPress.com’s marketing features, which certainly helped boost its features score by 34% since its score of 2.1 in 2022.

Plus, it wouldn’t be WordPress.com without plenty of blogging tools, such as:

• Social bookmarking
• RSS feed
• Archives
• Comments
• Search feature

You also have control over details like displaying the author bio on single posts, or where you want featured images to appear.

If you want to create an online store or business website, you can do that too – but this works best when combined with a blog. If you want to bend WordPress.com to create anything that’s not a blog or a very content-heavy site, you’ll start to struggle pretty early on. So, if you’re a total beginner or have another purpose for your website in mind, we’d recommend steering clear of WordPress.com to avoid feeling overwhelmed!

Design

WordPress.com scores 2 out of 5 for its design functionality this year, putting the website builder a single rank away from last place. To put it simply, WordPress.com targets informational, content-heavy websites, like blogs – design isn’t its strong point.

You get over 300 free and paid themes to choose from, with theme prices falling between $30 and $80 for a one-off payment. You can then customize these templates, which is made even easier if you know some basic coding. Of course, beginners may struggle with the editing layout, since it isn’t as simple as drag-and-drop builders like Wix.

It’s hard to really customize WordPress.com templates for anything other than blogging, so think about the type of site you want to create ahead of time. For example, a portfolio website is probably a no-go!

It’s also worth noting that the WordPress.com platform is designed to showcase what the main dashboard of the .org site operates like, with the intention that users will swap after outgrowing the capabilities of the more basic platform.

Value for Money

Even though it’s a trickier builder to get to grips with, you get a lot for your money with WordPress.com – it’s our third-best option for price, scoring 4.1 out of 5 along with GoDaddy and Square Online. Test it out first with its free plan, or choose between WordPress.com’s four premium plans, ranging from $4 to $45 per month (billed annually).

Ease of Use

Considering all we’ve shared already, it’s not too surprising that WordPress.com performs poorly in our ease of use research, scoring a low 2.7 out of 5. Users that tested it had very few positive things to say, further enforcing the idea that WordPress.com isn’t suitable for anyone just starting out. For a more user-friendly experience, we’d recommend Wix or Squarespace.

One user even said this of WordPress.com:

“It didn’t feel user-friendly at all, and I spent a lot of time clicking around to figure out what everything is. So many icons!”

But, if you do have the technical knowledge or any experience in basic coding, this could be a match made in heaven!

Help and Support

Considering WordPress.com’s troubling usability, it’s a shame to say that it’s also not the best for help and support. It only scored 3 out of 5 in our testing, which is why we don’t think it’s a good fit for beginners.

There’s a help center you can access, though one of our users that tested WordPress.com said that its “explanations were so complicated that I often lost the energy to complete the task.” Alternatively, you can submit a question to the online forum – just don’t expect any 24/7 support channels!

Customer Satisfaction

Scoring 3.9 out of 5 for customer satisfaction, WordPress.com sits in the middle of the pack. Since 2022, its score has dropped by almost 4% – with limited design options, tricky editing tools, and a lack of help and support, it’s simply another blow to WordPress.com’s usability.

News and Updates

What’s new with WordPress.com this month?

• The end of May marks the 20th anniversary of WordPress, and the platform is celebrating with a range of community events.
• Staging sites allows users on the Business and Commerce plan to clone their website and test new elements or make changes in a safe space – avoiding the fear of updating your live website prematurely.

Features

IONOS scores a low 2.2 out of 5 for its website features, putting it one rank up from the bottom of the list. It’s an 11% improvement since last year’s research, but IONOS simply provides users with the bare minimum across its plans. But for the cheap deals on the table, that’s understandable!

IONOS is certainly missing advanced features, especially when it comes to marketing – it lacks pop-ups and wider social media support, for example – but IONOS won’t be a problem if you’re only after the basics.

One of the main strengths is IONOS’ multilingual feature which is available on all plans. This is great for widening your visitor base and creating a modern website. Despite its lack of advanced tools, IONOS does offer basic email marketing support, as well as social media widgets, so you’re not left completely in the dark ages.

Design

IONOS isn’t the best website builder for creating a stunning website or portfolio – its designs are pretty dated, and you have very little creative control. In our latest research, IONOS only scores 2.6 out of 5 for its design functionality – nothing very special in comparison to other builders on our list.

Its template designs are basic and lack appeal, and the limited customization on offer makes it feel as though IONOS is holding its users back from being able to build something unique.

That being said, we do appreciate that you can add pages and optimize them for search engines all within the editor itself – there’s no need to jump back and forth between your website and backend dashboard.

Value for Money

We’ve already touched on IONOS’ amazing introductory deals – $1 per month for the first year is definitely something to shout from the rooftops! However, IONOS did receive a very poor value for money score in our research. Its new score of 3.1 out of 5 is a 26% decline from last year’s score of 4.2 out of 5.

IONOS’ poor rating hasn’t been helped by the marketwide price increases which caused us to amend our research algorithm, but it’s also been let down by its lack of powerful features. Ignoring the cheap starting deals, the renewal price that follows doesn’t match up with the features you receive. For example, the $1 offer increases to $15 per month after the first year – for just a dollar more, you could buy Wix’s $16 plan and enjoy better features and design tools.

IONOS doesn’t have a free plan or a free trial to enjoy, so you have to commit to a paid plan right away, and you can choose between its three paid plans: Starter, Plus, and Pro. Just be cautious of the real price when deciding! The cheap deal won’t last forever, and you’ll soon be stuck with a pricier plan.

Ease of Use

In terms of ease of use, IONOS also struggles, scoring 2.8 out of 5. There haven’t been many changes since 2022, and its basic functionalities can make the whole process of building your website feel limited and restricted.

Help and Support

In positive news, IONOS scores a very high 4.8 out of 5 for its help and support services – this puts it on top with Wix and Squarespace. Improvements have been made to its knowledge center performance, from general usability to an increase in available answers, so you’re more likely to find a solution to any problem.

You can also call or message IONOS 24/7, but we have noticed that its live chat feature seems to always be unavailable due to busy advisors.

Customer Satisfaction

IONOS’ customer satisfaction performance remains steady from last year, scoring an average 3.3 out of 5. It’s worth mentioning that IONOS has the same Trustpilot score as Wix (4.1), but with its poor ease of use score and restrictive user experience, we’d recommend more enjoyable website builders, such as Wix or Squarespace.

Feature of the Month

This month, we’re highlighting the following IONOS feature:

• IONOS offers a free personal consultant, giving users expert advice and an extra set of hands on their website. You can contact them directly via phone, email, or live chat.

Features

Site123 scores a rating of 2.3 out of 5 for its website features, putting it near the bottom of our list in this research category. Though this is a 6% increase since last year, Site123 continues to struggle in this area – its plans simply offer the bare minimum, which is why we wouldn’t recommend this builder for anyone building a professional website.

Its free plan starts you off with:

• 250MB storage
• 250MB bandwidth
• A Site123 branded subdomain

This is alongside its general website building features, such as email marketing, SEO support, and website security. If you want to remove the free ads, improve your storage, and gain access to enhanced tools, such as website statistics, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

Design

Design isn’t Site123’s strong point – in fact, it’s the worst option on this list if you’re looking for stylish templates and aesthetically-pleasing elements. In our latest research, Site123 scored a shockingly low 1.9 out of 5.

Site123 has hundreds of free website templates to choose from, and they’re categorized by purpose, from “business” to “CV” to “photography”. However, from our thorough browse of its listings, Site123’s templates are incredibly basic and look very outdated, especially in comparison to stunning builders like Squarespace.

In fact, one user that tested the site for us said this:

“Site123 feels like it hasn’t kept up with the consumer and has therefore become outdated in both function and design.”

Value for Money

When it comes to value for money, Site123 scores 3.4 out of 5 – a drop of 17% from last year’s score of 4.1. With marketwide price increases, Site123 now sits towards the middle of the pack, sandwiched between Hostinger and IONOS.

Site123 offers five paid plans to choose between. Take a look at the 12-month fees below:

• Basic: $12.80 per month – Remove Site123 floating ads
• Advanced: $19.80 per month – Remove all Site123 ads
• Professional: $28.80 per month – Unlock website statistics
• Gold: $34.80 per month – Unlock store reviews and abandoned cart
• Platinum: $75 per month – Unlock max 1,000GB storage

As you can see, Site123’s cheapest plan doesn’t remove all ads from your site, so bear this in mind when choosing your paid plan. The cheapest you pay for an ad-free site is $19.80 per month, and for this price, you could buy Wix’s cheapest $16 plan for better features and designs.

But if you’re not ready to commit to a plan just yet, you can start your website-building dreams without spending a cent thanks to Site123’s free plan.

Ease of Use

Site123 scores an average 3.2 out of 5 for its ease of use, seeing no real change since last year’s research. It’s a simple builder to use, and its helpful onboarding questions, as well as its ADI feature, will help you get up and running quickly.

One user that tested the website said this of its ease of use:

“It’s good for people with no design experience who want a website up and running quickly.”

Help and Support

Help and support is the one area where Site123 impressed us, scoring 4.3 out of 5. It now sits in second place – behind our three joint winners in this category – and its performance has improved by 18% since last year! When you build a website with Site123, you instantly get access to the following support:

• 24/7 live chat
• Onsite editor prompts
• Community forum
• Video tutorials

It also has a powerful knowledge center that we found both easy to navigate, and jam-packed with helpful articles.

Customer Satisfaction

As for customer satisfaction, Site123 scores a weak 2.7 out of 5 – a decline of 25% since 2022, which now makes Site123 the second worst option in this category. In comparison to its competitors, Site123 doesn’t compete. Users are more likely to recommend and choose other providers, such as Wix. For example, only 54% of the users we had test Site123 would recommend it to others! On the other hand, 80% of users would recommend Wix.

Feature of the Month

This month, we’re highlighting the following Site123 feature:

• For businesses selling with Site123, display ribbons let you advertise a specific feature on your product. This makes it easier to show how your products help with visitor pain points, or how it might be the perfect solution to a customer’s problem.

Features

Not only is Jimdo last on our list, but it’s also the worst for website features out of all 10 website builders. Though it has improved by 10% since last year’s figure, Jimdo’s new score is an underwhelming 2.1 out of 5.

It’s a simple enough builder to get to grips with, but it doesn’t provide much in the way of features. We appreciate that you can optimize your website for cell phones, and even remove ads for just $9 per month on the cheapest paid plan.

However, Jimdo severely lacks any blogging functionality, has limited SEO capabilities, and doesn’t offer any direct marketing abilities. Jimdo also doesn’t currently support member areas or password-protected pages, so it can be hard to cultivate a loyal, engaged following, or build a membership website.

Design

Design with Jimdo is pretty restrictive. In our latest design functionality research, Jimdo scores 3.3 out of 5 – this puts it towards the middle of the pack. We’d recommend it for anyone who’s tight on time, or is less confident with design so doesn’t need the creative control that other website builders provide.

If you want to set up a site quickly, then Jimdo is a good option, especially with its free plan. It works in a similar way to GoDaddy, using ADI to create a personalized website for you. Think GoDaddy, but with Squarespace’s emphasis on white space, and you’ve got something close to Jimdo – though if speed is all you’re after, we’d recommend GoDaddy over Jimdo because of its better features and designs.

Unfortunately, Jimdo also has a bad habit of railroading you into whatever industry or niche it designates you after your initial onboarding, meaning you’re a little stuck when it comes to editing your website.

One user that tested Jimdo said this of its restrictive editing tools:

“The ADI feels helpful at first and it does give you a unique template but you then have limited feature options based off that industry you have chosen.”

Value for Money

Jimdo came second in our value for money research, scoring 4.2 out of 5 and sitting just behind Squarespace. With Jimdo, you can enjoy building for free, but if you choose to upgrade, there are two website builder plans:

• Start: $9 per month (billed annually)
• Grow: $14 per month (billed annually)

When you upgrade to Start, ads will be removed from your site, while Grow unlocks visitor statistics, SEO, and priority support.

There’s also an additional two plans if you’re looking to set up an online store, ranging from $18 to $24 per month (billed annually).

Ease of Use

The main reason Jimdo sits in last position on this list is because of its poor ease of use score, dropping 35% since last year to now rest at 2.2 out of 5. In our user testing, some participants found it very straightforward to use, but others really disliked it:

“There are so few options for features that I find it difficult to understand how anyone could manage a full website from this service.”

And another interesting takeaway about Jimdo’s builder:

“It lets you build the website it wants you to make, rather than the website you want to make.”

But why not try its free plan for yourself and see how you get on with Jimdo?

Help and Support

Jimdo received the worst score for help and support out of all the builders – dropping 10% since last year to its new score of 2.3 out of 5. Support is tailored depending on how much you pay for your plan, with the Grow plan receiving help within hours as opposed to days on the Start plan.

In terms of other support channels, you can submit a help request or use Jimdo’s Help Center to find a solution yourself. We also have to flag that there’s no customer support available on its free plan at all, so you’ll need to upgrade to unlock this “feature”.

Customer Satisfaction

Jimdo is also the worst-rated website builder for customer satisfaction, scoring 2.2 out of 5 – in comparison to last year’s score of 3.4 out of 5, that’s a 37% decline! Only 28% of users said they would recommend the builder to others, which we think paints a pretty good picture of how user-friendly Jimdo is.

Feature of the Month

This month, we’re highlighting the following Jimdo feature:

• Jimdo allows users to create personalized products for customers, from greeting cards to jewelry. This could be as simple as a customer’s initials or a more detailed pattern! Either way, it’s sure to help your business stand out from the crowd.