Best Website Builder 2022: We’ve Reviewed the 11 Best
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We’ve tested over 50 website builders so far, and here’s the 11 best. Compare them side by side in our comparison chart, or read on for a more detailed breakdown of their strengths and weaknesses.
Written and researched by
Our methodology
Our unique research methodology combines user testing, in-depth feature analysis, and first-hand experience. We only recommend the top performers.
We’ve researched and tested a lot of website builders over the years, which is why we feel confident saying that Wix is the best overall website builder out there.
Wix combines ease of use with total creative freedom, making it easy for beginners to create professional-looking websites. Squarespace isn’t far behind though, delivering the best template designs on the market, making it perfect for creatives. GoDaddy sits comfortably in third place, thanks to its time-efficiency and excellent array of design functionalities.
These might be our top three, but we’ve actually tested over 50 website builders before whittling it down to a final 11. Take a look below to see which ones took the other eight spots, and compare them against each other.
11 Best Website Builders of 2022
- Wix – Best overall
- Squarespace – Best template designs
- GoDaddy – Fastest way to build a website
- Weebly – Fantastic free plan
- Zyro – Best up-and-coming builder
- Jimdo Creator – Best value for money
- Duda – Best for pure, polished web design
- WordPress.com – Best for blogs and content-heavy sites
- SITE123 – Best for site speed reliability
- Strikingly – Easy to use
- 1&1 IONOS – Best for its cheapest pricing plan
We’re pretty proud of our research process, because not many sites can say they’ve carried out such in-depth testing before making recommendations. Here’s how our in-house research team go about finding the best website builders on the market.
Every single builder goes through our thorough research process. We investigate important areas such as:
- Ease of use
- Design flexibility
- Value for money
- Feature quality
- Help and support
- Customer satisfaction
This helps us rate and compare the builders fairly, focusing on important factors that users have told us matter most.
We even get groups of everyday people to test the builders out and give us feedback, which we then analyze. This helps us:
- understand exactly how easy (or difficult) beginners find the builder
- uncover any issues within the builder
- judge customer satisfaction
We’ve applied this process to over 50 website builders so far – all so we can bring you the most accurate results and recommendations!
Still got questions? Read our report on How We Conduct Our Website Builder Research for a more detailed explanation.
Compare the 11 Best Website Builders
Before we jump into reviews of each website builder, take a look at the summary table below to get an idea of which builder might be your perfect match. Use the arrow at the top of the chart to compare different platforms. We’ve started you off with our top three; Wix, Squarespace and Weebly.
| Overall Rating Our overall ratings are based on the average score of all ratings combined. | Starting from | Free Plan or Free Trial | Free Templates/ Themes | Features | Free Custom Domain Having a custom domain lets you personalize your website’s URL or address (e.g. www.mycustomdomain.com). | Domain Renewal Cost/Year | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BEST IN TEST  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Wix | Squarespace | GoDaddy | Weebly | Zyro | Jimdo | Duda | WordPress.com | Site123 | Strikingly | 1&1 IONOS |
4.8 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 |
$14 | $12 | $9.99 | $6 | $8.90 | $9 | $14 | $4 | $12.80 | $8 | $5 |
Free plan | 14-day free trial | YES | Free plan | 30-day money back guarantee | Free plan | 14-day free trial | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan | No |
800+ | 113 | 29 | 40 | 127 | 20 | 100 | 30 | 172 | 210 | 216 |
4.9 | 4.4 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 2.0 |
YES | YES | YES | YES | YES (on some plans) | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES |
$14.95 | $20 | N/A | $9 | $15 | $20 | N/A | $18 | $13 | $24.95 | $15 |
#1. Wix
Best Overall Website Builder
Pricing range: free – $56 per month
Wix
Best all-round website builder
- Easiest to use
- 800+ template designs
- Most popular in testing
Free plan available
Paid Plans:
Wix Overview
Wix is an extremely beginner-friendly website builder that gives you total creative control over your site. Unlike some other builders, it doesn’t sacrifice power or customizability for ease – instead, it combines simple drag-and-drop editing tools with a huge range of features.
With an 18% increase in its ‘Features’ score in our pre-2021 research – driven largely by improvements to its blogging, and internationalization – Wix has proven itself to be the platform that, quite literally, does it all. Not only is it a fantastic website builder, but it’s also an excellent choice if you’re looking to open an online store, offering three ecommerce-specific plans, and a score of features to boost your sales. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be right for everyone – particularly because of its higher price point and cluttered visual editor.
It has a free plan, and eight premium plans starting at $14 per month. You get over 800 templates to choose from, but choose carefully – you can’t switch your template once your site goes live.
In our testing, Wix received the highest “likely to recommend” score from our users – so our advice is, if you’re unsure about which website builder to use, give Wix a spin for free and see how you get on.
Features
Wix has a pretty generous free plan, which includes:
- SEO tools (Search Engine Optimization) to help your site get found on Google
- Social sharing, so you can promote your site
- A mobile editor, so you can make your site look great for mobile devices
Wix also comes with a huge app store, so if you need extra features, you can easily add them to your site.
Design
Wix comes with over 800 templates for you to choose from – that’s an impressive number, especially as they’re all professionally designed. Split into different industries such as “Events” and “Photography”, Wix’s templates are easy to filter until you find the perfect one.
You can’t change templates once your site is live, however, so take your time in choosing.
It’s easy to make your site unique – simply drag elements like text boxes and images to exactly where you want them, add pages, and delete anything you don’t want. Wix gives you total creative freedom!
Ecommerce
Although this article focuses mainly on the best website builders, we thought it was important to mention ecommerce when it came to Wix. This is because, in our ecommerce research, it came out on top with an impressive score of 4.7 out of 5. It offers quality ecommerce functionality for those who want to sell online, making it a truly multi-talented platform.
Pricing
Wix has a free plan that you can stay on as long as you like, which is great for getting started. However, it has its limitations, so for a truly professional site, you’ll want to look at its paid plans.
There are eight premium plans in total, starting at $14 per month (billed annually). This removes Wix adverts and lets you use a personalized domain name, as well as increasing your storage allowances. Out of the eight, Wix also offers three dedicated ecommerce plans, starting from $23 per month (billed annually). As we touched on earlier, Wix is a little pricier than some alternatives, but – considering it supports so many more features and functionalities than the competition – we reckon that price tag is fully justified.
Wix Gallery
More Information:
- Read our in-depth Wix Review for a full look at Wix’s features, ease of use, and more
- Just what makes Wix the best value for money? Read our Wix Pricing Review for a breakdown of its pricing plans and what you get with each premium package
- Want to sell online? Our Wix Ecommerce Review tells you all you need to know about creating an online store with Wix
#2. Squarespace
Best for Creatives and Quality Designs
Pricing range: $12 – $46 per month
Squarespace
Best for creatives and quality designs
- Best website designs
- Great blogging features
- Ideal for creatives
Free trial available
Paid Plans:
Squarespace Overview
Squarespace is a sophisticated website builder that has a lot to offer creatives and businesses alike. It’s not the easiest to use builder on the market, but it still won’t take long to get used to – it just needs a little more time and patience than Wix.
Where Squarespace really shines is its template designs – they’re the best on the market, and are perfect for creatives who want a visually impressive website (and standing out is important, since as of January 2021 there are over 1.8 billion websites on the internet!). It’s not a case of style over substance, however – Squarespace also has a huge range of features to give your site the power it needs.
Better still, Squarespace sports the best knowledge center on the market. There, you’ll find a range of text, image, and video guidance, as well as a seamless onboarding experience and clear navigational signposts and guidance.
Squarespace also has a 14-day free trial. If you love the trial and want to sign up, there are four premium plans to choose from, starting from $12 per month.
Features
Squarespace isn’t just a pretty face: it has the best quality features of any builder, too. For example, with Squarespace you can:
- Install multiple templates to work on at once
- Use video backgrounds
- Add custom codes
- Upload and share music
- Link your social accounts
Squarespace’s huge range of features are all developed in-house. This means you’re guaranteed a high level of quality and security, and can enjoy having everything you need right at your fingertips.
If you want to optimize and expand your site, you can use Squarespace Extensions to integrate with a range of third-parties such as Printful, Quickbooks, or ShipStation. Squarespace’s third-party extensions are a great way of growing your site without upgrading your plan.
It’s also crystal clear that Squarespace is committed to improving the breadth of its features. Wholesale improvements in this area supported Squarespace’s 4/5 rating in our research’s ‘Value for Money’ category (that’s up 1.4 stars from the old rankings), while vast developments in Squarespace’s UX boosted both the builder’s ‘Ease of Use’ and UX ‘Quality’ scores accordingly.
Design
Squarespace has the best quality designs of any website builder on the market. With sleek, sophisticated, modern templates, it creates truly stunning websites. Ideal for creatives and those in search of real customization, Squarespace knows how to make your site look good.
You can easily switch your template, even once you’ve published your site, and can even work on more than one template at the same time.
Plus, Squarespace doesn’t just look nice, but is easy to use, too. Here’s what one of the users we tested had to say:
“I found this way easier to use than Wix and much less overwhelming. There’s so much less reliance on apps which makes it all feel more streamlined”.
Ultimately, Squarespace does keep you in your lane when it comes to design and customization. But, when it comes to providing all the right attributes to help you build a stunning online presence that you can be proud of, it’s still unparalleled in the website building space.
Pricing
Squarespace provides a 14-day free trial, so you can try its builder out totally risk-free. After that, it has four premium plans to choose from, ranging from $12 to $46 per month (billed annually). The highest two plans unlock advanced ecommerce functions.
As we touched on above, pricing was another area that Squarespace grew in as a result of our revised 2021 website builder ratings. In fact, Squarespace’s starting price is now $2 per month cheaper than Wix, meaning it’s well-suited to those on more of a shoestring budget.
Squarespace Gallery
More Information:
- Read our Squarespace Review for a detailed look at this top quality builder, and find out if it’s the right choice for you
- Got products you want to show off? Squarespace combines stunning visuals with advanced sales tools: read all about it in our Squarespace Ecommerce Review
- What’s so good about Squarespace’s designs anyway? Check out our Squarespace Template Designs Review to find out!
- Is it worth the money? Our Squarespace Pricing Review goes into detail on Squarespace’s price plans, and whether they offer good value for money
- Looking for a discount? Take a look at our exclusive Squarespace Offer Code, which will save you 10% on the cost of any Squarespace plan
- Unsure? Our Wix vs Squarespace comparison breaks down the strengths and weaknesses of each builder’s features, templates, and more to find the best option for you
#3. GoDaddy
Best for Creating and Publishing Websites Fast
Pricing range: $9.99 – $19.99 per month
GoDaddy
Best for creating and publishing websites fast
- 5 minute setup
- Strong marketing
- Good for basic sites
Free trial available
Paid Plans:
GoDaddy Overview
GoDaddy is very user-friendly, and is the fastest outright website builder for creating a website. Its design assistance means you just have to enter your details, before GoDaddy creates a tailored website for you to customize.
Simple layouts and guidance on adding elements to your site make for an extremely straightforward and speedy building process. And the results of our latest round of research bore this out – GoDaddy’s score has seen an overall 11.6% increase from our pre-2021 evaluations.
However, GoDaddy isn’t the best choice for powerful or complex websites – it may offer speed and simplicity, but this also means it’s not the best choice for building a truly personalized website. That said, GoDaddy should tick all the boxes for smaller site offerings and businesses, particularly because of its simple layout and user-friendly, design-assisted format.
In fact, GoDaddy has transformed itself somewhat since our pre-2021 rankings, enhancing its design functionality score in our latest research by 14%. This increase was driven mostly by the platform’s improved templates and superior customization, turning GoDaddy from an underwhelming ‘Plain Jane’ into one of the highest-rated (and nicest-looking) builders on the market.
GoDaddy may be the best website builder for speed, and its prices are similarly impressive – plans range from $9.99 to $19.99 per month. Luckily, GoDaddy has a free plan, as well as a very generous one-month free trial, so you can make sure it’s right for you before signing up.
Features
In our latest 2021 in-house research, GoDaddy came out with a less impressive score of 3.3 when it came to the quality of its features – they simply don’t have much depth or power to them.
While the cheapest Basic plan gives you most of the essentials for starting a website – including in-house marketing tools – it doesn’t include SEO, meaning your site will struggle to be found online. We should note here though that, when we say no SEO, that’s not quite accurate. GoDaddy does offer SEO, it’s just self-managed. The platform just doesn’t provide its users with its built-in website optimizer, so you’ll need a little more tech-savviness to feel comfortable setting your GoDaddy site up for SEO success.
We also need to be careful when we note that they don’t have any SEO – they do it’s just self managed . They just don’t provide users with their built-in website optimizer.
Considering Wix and other builders include SEO tools even on their free plans, this is a huge drawback to using GoDaddy.
Design
The reason GoDaddy is so fast to build with is because it uses ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) to create a personalized template for you to edit. This saves you time, and also makes customizing much easier, as most of the hard work is already done for you.
GoDaddy’s editor is pretty simple, so it’s easiest to stick fairly closely to the template rather than trying to push the boundaries too far. Plus, because of its more restrictive block elements, you’re unable to resize or move image blocks outside of a site’s set parameters. With all that in mind, if you’re after design flexibility, GoDaddy isn’t for you!
One of our tested users, for instance, said:
“I think this kind of website would work well for a coffee shop or small independent business. It has all the necessary pages that you could want, but it’s not so jampacked that it’ll overwhelm you. Ideal if you don’t have a really firm, non-negotiable stance on how you want your site to look, but instead want something quick, clean, and professional”.
Pricing
GoDaddy has a free plan, as well as offering a sumptuous one-month free trial across its paid plans, which gives you plenty of time to decide if it’s right for you.
There are four price plans to choose from, ranging from $9.99 to $19.99 per month (billed annually). For SEO tools, you’ll need at least the $10.49 per month Standard plan. While GoDaddy used to be expensive, recent updates to its pricing mean that the platform is now cheaper than many of the top alternatives, including Wix, Squarespace, and Jimdo. Not bad at all!
GoDaddy Gallery
More Information:
- Read our GoDaddy Website Builder Review to get the details on this speedy builder, from ease of use to FAQs
- Want to sell online? Read our GoDaddy Ecommerce Review to find out if this is the best website builder for your online store
#4. Weebly
Best for its Generous Free Plan
Pricing range: free – $29 per month
Weebly
Best for small businesses and portfolios
- Best features for growth
- Large app store
- Cheap and free plans
Free plan available
Paid Plans:
Weebly Overview
Weebly is a simple website builder that nevertheless packs a powerful punch when it comes to features – especially ecommerce and blogging. It’s pretty easy to use, but is also more limited than its competitors in terms of design and customizability.
What’s more, Weebly was the most recognised website builder we tested to see the largest reduction in scores across all categories in our 2021 research. Most notably, Weebly’s ‘Design’ score saw a whopping 36% decrease – a drop that indicates the platform is not only outdated vis a vis the rest of the market, but has been largely forgotten about by the industry at large.
That said, it does have a free plan, as well as three paid plans ranging from just $6 up to $26 per month (billed annually). These cheap starter plans makes Weebly one of the most affordable website builders on the market. But ultimately, Weebly is a platform which will work for someone new to website building – not longer term growth or expansion.
Features
In our research, Weebly was number one when it came to features. It has more built-in features than Wix, and combines this with an impressive app store. This makes it a top choice for growing your online business.
Weebly comes with some great blogging tools, as well as an excellent range of built-in SEO guides to help you optimize your website for Google. It’s just a shame Weebly haven’t applied some of that top-notch SEO info to their own platform – its sitespeed performance score leaves plenty to be desired!
Design
Weebly’s designs aren’t as sleek as Squarespace’s or as bold as Wix’s, but each one feels stylish and well thought out. There are over 50 themes to choose from in total, and you can change your template at any time, even after publishing your site.
Like Wix, Weebly is a drag-and-drop website builder, although it offers less creative freedom than its competitor. Weebly has more structured templates: this makes it super easy to create a website if you want more guidance on the design of your pages, but it can feel limiting if you’re after complete creative control. This overarching sense of limitation was very much something the users we tested picked up one. One said:
“The templates were really bland and there was nothing stylistically special about them. The help center was also really out of date and none of the screenshots in the tutorials matched the editor I was seeing. I would not recommend this builder at all, at least not when there are others out there that do it so much better.”
Our users also struggled with Weebly’s poor mobile formatting, even within Weebly’s set of premade templates. Within Weebly’s drag-and-drop interface itself, the block elements are far too sticky, making customization not only far more difficult than it needs to be, but essentially completely redundant. We reckon this has to do with Weebly getting less attention and resources than payments provider Square, which acquired Weebly in 2018. This has meant limited to no platform updates, which has stymied Weebly’s growth and seen it lose a lot of ground vis a vis the competition.
Pricing
Despite Weebly’s setbacks, its free plan is still the best we’ve found. Dollar for dollar, its average pricing plan performs better than its likely competitors, and its three premium plans start at the highly reasonable price point of $6 per month (billed annually). You can sell online with all of Weebly’s paid plans, making it an affordable choice for small businesses – but not those looking to scale.
Weebly Gallery
More Information:
- Read our Weebly Review for a detailed breakdown of this builder’s pros, cons, features, and ease of use
- Check out our Weebly Pricing Review to find out which plan is right for you
- Setting up an online store? Read our Weebly Ecommerce Review for more information on Weebly’s sales tools, pricing, and more
- Torn between Wix and Weebly? We’ve got just the thing! Our Wix vs Weebly comparison puts these market leaders head to head, helping you find the best one for you
#5. Zyro
Best for the Basics
Pricing range: $10.90 $2.61 per month
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Zyro
Best for the basics
- Helpful grid layout
- Clean, logical templates
- Higher renewal prices
Paid Plans:
Zyro Overview
Zyro is an easy-to-use website builder with nice, clean templates. The features it does include are super high-quality, but it just doesn’t offer as many features as a top builder. In fact, Zyro can almost be seen as a kind of ‘mini Wix’. It costs less than our top website builder pick, but doesn’t boast all the same bells and whistles of that provider.
For example, Zyro lets you include a blog on your site – which is great – but it won’t come with search, archive, or commenting tools.
Still, we were really impressed by the quality of Zyro’s templates – not only do they have great UX for your website’s visitors, they’re also easy to edit, even if you don’t have any tech skills. They’re not very customizable, though, so if putting a personal touch on your branding is a top priority, then you may want to consider Squarespace instead.
The bottom line is that Zyro is a platform with a lot of potential – some of it unfulfilled. It feels like Zyro hasn’t quite finished building out certain features, and isn’t yet where it wants to be in relation to its closest website builder rivals. Zyro definitely has some big ideas, though, and is one for the future. Watch this space!
Features
Zyro’s most impressive features are its sales tools – starting with the fact that both of its ecommerce plans are completely commission-free. That means you get to keep 100% of the money you make in sales. Plus, Zyro’s ecommerce plans offer nearly 50 different payment options for online shoppers, including PayPal and American Express.
But when it comes to non-ecommerce features, like marketing and SEO, Zyro falls a little short of the competition. You can do the basics, like editing alt tags and meta titles, but there’s no keyword support or any dedicated SEO integrations. There’s no app market, either, nor any form of email marketing functionality.
However, Zyro does set itself apart from the pack a little bit with a unique set of artificial intelligence (AI) tools that work with its website builder. Its AI writer tool will generate SEO-friendly copy just based on a few broad topics of your choosing, while its AI logo maker can help you kickstart your website’s branding.
Design
Zyro offers 127 template designs to choose from, or you can start customizing from scratch with a blank template.
The templates themselves are high-quality – they feature a lot of clean lines and have a stylish, modern feel. Plus, designing websites with Zyro 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 poor design decision – and the super helpful grid layout will be just the ticket for site building beginners.
That said, Zyro’s templates aren’t very customizable. The editor is very section based, and you can’t stray much from the original layout that you’ve chosen. You also can’t change templates once your site is live, so you really have to be committed to your chosen design. Here’s what one of the users we asked to test Zyro had to say:
“Templates were really good and easy to follow, but not much room for unique customization. Also there was no site-wide edit for things like fonts which was annoying”.
Pricing
Zyro offers an impressive 30-day money back guarantee, so you’ll have plenty of time to decide if you like it or not. There’s no free plan, but its singular plan (impressively named ‘Unleashed’) is priced reasonably, at just $10.90 per month.
Zyro Gallery
More Information:
- Check out our Zyro Review to take a closer look at this builder
#6. Jimdo
Best Value for Money
Pricing range: free – $40 per month
Jimdo
Best for removing adverts cheaply
- Sell on the free plan
- Rigid designs
- Help and support lacking
Free plan available
Paid Plans:
Jimdo Overview
Jimdo is a basic website builder that’s best for creating simple websites, rather than anything complex or flashy. While it’s more limited than much of the competition (especially in terms of its features and scope for customization) it makes up for it with high levels of usability.
Jimdo has all the basic features you need to build your website. But if you want the power to edit, personalize, or create something more advanced, the builder will start to feel rigid very quickly.
Jimdo comes with a free plan so you can build risk-free, and has two additional paid plans ranging from $9 to $15 per month (billed annually).
Features
Jimdo is a middle-of-the-road website builder – it’s simple to get to grips with and has some handy tools built-in. However, it’s also not the easiest to use, nor does it provide the best (or worst) features around. Compared to Wix, for example, Jimdo’s feature score is 61% worse off, highlighting the relatively limited scope of functionality on offer.
Some perks include the fact you can sell up to five products on the free plan, and remove adverts for just $10 per month on the cheapest paid plan. Some of the drawbacks include Jimdo’s lack of a blogging functionality, limited SEO capabilities, and a lack of 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.
Jimdo’s Help and Support ranking – a mediocre 2.5/5 – also suffers, owing to the relatively restrictive assistance customers on the platform’s non premium plans have to settle for. On these plans, users seeking help and support can expect a turnaround of 1-2 business days – on Jimdo’s ‘Grow’ plan, this is just an hour!
Design
If you want a site up quickly, then Jimdo is a good option – it works the same way as 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. We’d recommend it in particular for those who are time-stretched, or less confident with design. Jimdo builds your brand for you – as one of the users that tested it for our in-house research testified:
“Simple, Jimdo does it for you – loved it. But anything beyond the basic looks near impossible, and the lack of marketing was concerning”.
With Jimdo, it’s super easy to add images, text, and other elements with just a few clicks, but once you’ve added them, it’s difficult to edit and personalize your page. It’s quite rigid, and offers very little creative freedom for you to change the template design.
Pricing
With Jimdo, you can enjoy building for free. If you choose to upgrade, there are two plans to choose from:
- Start: $9 per month (billed annually)
- Grow: $15 per month (billed annually)
Jimdo Gallery
More Information:
- Read our Jimdo Review to find out if this is the best website builder for you
- Can’t decide? Our Wix vs Weebly vs Squarespace vs Jimdo comparison lays out the pros and cons of the best website builders to help you choose the right one
#7. Duda
Best for Pure, Polished Web Design
Pricing range: $14 – $59 per month
Duda
Best for lending a creative hand
- Aimed at design agencies
- Surprisingly easy to use
- Quite expensive
Free trial available
Paid Plans:
Duda Overview
Duda is a clear winner for anyone in search of website design that’s pure, polished, and simple.
The builder is easy to use, giving you drag-and-drop functionality combined with structured and stylish templates. This makes it perfect for anyone who cares about design, but isn’t ready for total creative freedom over their site.
There are over 90 templates to choose from, covering a range of industries from business to lifestyle. You get creative control over customization, but within the template’s limits – you’re still largely guided by your chosen design.
These features make Duda ideal for web designers creating multiple websites for clients – in fact, that’s what Duda was originally built for! Duda also allows you to build progressive, personalized web apps, which is a massive advantage to any serious business owner.
However, this all comes at a cost, which is one of the reasons why Duda is – on average – around 59% more expensive than Squarespace. Cost is actually Duda’s main drawback – it’s the most expensive website builder on our list, with prices starting at $14 per month. Still, there’s a 14-day free trial for you to have a go on.
We’d particularly recommend Duda for web design businesses looking to build simple, efficient sites for clients that don’t want to use WordPress.
Features
Duda comes packed with design features, from hundreds of font styles to a built-in photo editor. It doesn’t pack quite the same punch with its features as, say, Wix or Weebly, but Duda certainly has the tools to help your website grow.
It’s especially useful for web designers creating sites for clients, and comes with the added appeal of having a widget builder, so that you can customize your site’s features. Duda is also unusual in giving you ecommerce tools on its cheapest plan, meaning you can start selling from day one.
Design
Design is where Duda really shines. Its templates cover all industries, are professionally designed, and are structured to help guide you through customization. They’re also simple to personalize to your exact specifications, which our data bears out – Duda is 22% easier to use than the average website builder, with a strong focus on a stripped-back, streamlined user experience.
This makes Duda a great choice for those who want a stylish site without wanting to spend hours designing it themselves, as our tested users attest to:
“I would definitely recommend this to those looking to create a pretty well-rounded, comprehensive website for themselves or their business. There’s a huge range of features and stuff that you can do to add value to your user’s experience on your site, and foster loyalty with your business and brand. That said, the interface itself could be a little easier to use (a la Wix)”.
There are over 90 templates, all of which are mobile responsive, and you can switch your design at any point while keeping your original content.
Pricing
Because of all the features it packs into its website builder, Duda’s plans are pretty expensive compared to the likely alternatives – particularly when you consider that the help and support of its non-premium plans is limited to email only. Of Duda’s premium plans, there are four to choose from – the cheapest costs $14 per month, while the most advanced plan comes with custom pricing.
There’s no free plan, but you can try Duda’s $22 per month Team plan free for 14 days.
Duda Gallery
More Information:
- Read our Duda Review for a closer look at this builder’s drag-and-drop tools
#8. WordPress.com
Best for Blogs and Content-Heavy Websites
Pricing range: free – $45 per month
WordPress.com
Best for blogging
- Well-suited to blogs
- Very cheap plans
- Customize with code
Free plan available
Paid Plans:
WordPress.com Overview
WordPress.com is the basic website building platform offered by WordPress. WordPress.org, on the other hand, is a more advanced content management system that offers more power, but demands more technical expertise. If you’re interested in WordPress.org, you can check out our WordPress.com vs WordPress.org comparison. But for now, let’s dive into WordPress.com.
WordPress.com isn’t the easiest website builder to use – in order to make the most out of the builder and expand your site, you’ll need to get to grips with some basic coding.
WordPress.com has one free plan and four premium plans, ranging from $4 to $45 per month (billed annually). This offers a lot of choice, as well as good value – WordPress.com’s lowest pricing plan in particular offers fantastic bang for your buck, especially if you’re after a more basic site.
Lots of features, high quality blogging tools, and sensible prices make WordPress.com a great choice. Easier to use than WordPress.org but still unsuitable for novices, WordPress.com is perfect for bloggers with some technical confidence.
Features
WordPress.com gives you all the blogging tools you could need, including:
- 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 try to bend WordPress.com to create anything that’s not a blog, you’ll start to struggle pretty early on. The disjointed backend/frontend experience doesn’t help with this, and is still something yet to be updated.
Design
You get over 300 themes to choose from – some are free, while others you need to pay for. Theme prices vary, but usually fall between $30 and $80 (one-off payment).
You can customize your template, and this is made even easier if you know some basic coding. Total beginners may struggle with the editing layout, which is not as simple as drag-and-drop builders like Wix and Weebly.
It’s hard to really customize WordPress.com templates for anything other than blogging, so think about what type of site you want to create. For example, you’d struggle to create a portfolio website with WordPress.com!
It’s also worth noting that WordPress’s .com platform is designed to showcase what the main dashboard of the .org variety operates like, with the intention that users will swap at some stage as their needs outgrow the capabilities of the more basic platform. The only setback of WordPress.com’s mirroring of its more advanced counterpart – as our tested users were quick to point out – is that the platform can be tough to get to grips with:
“First impressions are that this does come with a bit of a steep learning curve”.
The platform’s unclear terminology doesn’t help with this, nor do its limited industry-specific templates. Similarly, WordPress.com’s lack of an autosave function at times makes the experience of building a site more hassle than it’s worth!
Pricing
WordPress.com has a free plan, and four paid plans ranging from $4 to $45 per month (billed annually). For a platform as customizable and scalable as this one is, we reckon that’s a steal!
WordPress.com Gallery
More Information:
- Read our WordPress.com Review for a full look at this ideal blogging platform, including its pricing plans, features, ease of use, and more
- To learn more about the difference between the two WordPress platforms and what each one can offer you, check out our WordPress.com vs WordPress.org comparison guide
- See how WordPress.com stacks up against our best overall website builder in our Wix vs WordPress comparison guide
#9. SITE123
Best for Site Speed Reliability
Pricing range: free – $41 per month
Site123
Best for help and support via live chat
- Great support on hand
- Ideal for tech novices
- Stripped-back features
Free plan available
Paid Plans:
SITE123 Overview
SITE123 gets back to basics to bring you a super simple and beginner-friendly website builder. It’s best for those with no tech experience, as it can quickly become limiting if you ask too much from it.
SITE123 makes it easy to create simple websites. Thanks to its live chat support and straightforward design, you can publish your website without wasting a moment.
Brilliant customer support is this website builder’s main strength. The live chat feature means you can easily get help if you get stuck while creating or editing your website. If you’re a beginner or are looking to set up your site fast, SITE123 is a safe choice.
However, it’s not a powerful builder – it lacks advanced features, and isn’t a scalable option for growing a website. Still, with a free plan and great support, SITE123 is a perfect choice for first-time builders. We like to think of it as a ‘best of the rest’ kind of platform – good value for money, but (according to our users, at least) nothing special.
This is confirmed by SITE123’s 12% dip in overall score performance since our pre-2021 research rankings. To us, that indicates how little the builder has progressed or improved over the last two years, which suggests it won’t be the best fit for ambitious, growth-minded businesses looking to scale.
Features
SITE123 provides the basics you need to get a small website off the ground, including social media integration and data from Google Analytics.
Its best feature is its ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) setup. You answer a couple of questions – such as the type of website you need – and SITE123 creates a bespoke template for you with all the relevant features built-in. Pretty neat, right?
Design
All of SITE123’s templates are mobile responsive, meaning your site will automatically adjust to fit different screen sizes. You can’t change your template once your site is live, however, so make sure you’re 100% happy before hitting publish. We should also mention that are users weren’t too taken with the design and lack of functionality SITE123’s templates offer. Some dubbed them “pretty uninspiring”, and we agree – plus, they’re unlikely to support real business growth.
“I didn’t enjoy this builder at all. The overall aesthetic felt very juvenile and limited. It felt like the basic functions (edit text) were pretty simple, if limited (as in, I couldn’t add a picture wherever I wanted) but if you got any deeper than that, it wasn’t intuitive. The lack of social feed and pop-ups – as well as the fact that you needed to upgrade to access even the basic analytics tools – was not good. I just didn’t enjoy it”.
Customization is limited but relatively easy, making this a great choice for beginners rather than ambitious or design-conscious builders. We also love the amount of stock images SITE123 comes with, giving you a quick, easy way of adding that extra touch of flair to your site’s design.
Pricing
SITE123 has a free plan, and one paid plan that costs $12.80 per month. If you sign up for the free plan, you can then unlock more premium plans, ranging from $12.80 to $17.40 per month (billed annually). Impressively, SITE123 places no restrictions on the help and support provided, no matter which plan you select.
Site123 Gallery
More Information:
- Read our SITE123 Review for a more in-depth look at this popular website builder
- See how SITE123 stacks up in this article on the Cheapest Website Builders on the market
#10. Strikingly
Easy to Use
Pricing range: free – $159 per month
Strikingly
Best for value for money
- For one page websites
- Great value for money
- Beginner-friendly
Free plan available
Paid Plans:
Strikingly Overview
Strikingly is another beginner-friendly website builder that specializes in one-page websites.
It’s not ideal for complex websites, but Strikingly’s free plan includes some great basic features, making it popular with bloggers and freelancers. That said, you might find the one-page design and basic level of customization limiting if you have grand plans for your site.
If you want to use a personalized domain name, you’ll need one of Strikingly’s three premium plans, which range from $8 to $49 per month (billed annually).
While Strikingly has its strong points, our latest round of in-house research indicates the builder has been left behind in the rapidly evolving website builder space. Unlike its predecessor in this list, SITE123, Strikingly has poor sitespeed performance (in fact, it’s the worst!).
Strikingly is also the only platform our research recognizes as “poor”, and dismally underperforms against its top competitors by a whole 48%.
Features
Strikingly simply doesn’t have the features required to grow a powerful website. However, if you’re after a simple website, you’ll find everything you need right at your fingertips, including:
- ‘Simple Store’ feature – you can sell one product on the free plan, or up to 500 on a paid plan
- Social media integration, so you can promote your website
- Blogging tools for you to create and share content
Strikingly has a range of blogging features, including an RSS feed and a comments section. This makes it a great alternative to WordPress, especially for beginners. Strikingly is a much simpler builder: you don’t need to code, and adding elements like text is super easy.
Design
Strikingly’s free plan only allows you to create one-page websites. This is good if you want something live quickly and easily, but can be limiting if you’re looking to build a complex site.
Strikingly is designed to be easy for absolutely everyone to use. The upside of this is that creating, customizing, and editing your website is an absolute breeze – however, the downside is that pushing the limits of your template can become very frustrating, very quickly. With all that in mind, we believe that Strikingly has fallen short when it comes to pushing the boundaries with design and functionality.
This is something our latest round of 2021 research evidences, with Strikingly’s overall score reduction of 12% (compared to older research) the largest we observed across all the platforms we tested. Despite Jimdo supporting less functionality across the board, Strikingly’s value for money score is still 40% less than that builder, due to the limited features Strikingly’s basic plans offer.
Still, it’s not all bad. One of the best things about building with Strikingly is that it’s super easy to change templates. You can switch your template even once your website is live, and your content will automatically reformat itself to keep your pages looking great.
Better still, Strikingly not only has a large storage capacity, but its customer support is fantastic. There’s an on-page live chat bot to help support you through your web creation journey – which one user in particular loved:
“The excellent chat feature was a really handy go-to when the location of a feature was missing”.
Oh, and an excellent onboarding tool, too!
“I thought the customer experience and support was excellent, right down to the walkthrough, which was concise and informative without ever being too long”.
Pricing
Strikingly’s free plan is pretty generous, but if you feel the need for more advanced features, you have three premium plans to choose from. These range from $8 to $49 per month (billed annually), and all come with a 14-day free trial.
Strikingly Gallery
More Information:
- Read our Strikingly Review for more on this builder’s features, ease of use, and pricing
#11. 1&1 IONOS
Best for its Excellent Cheap Pricing Plan
Pricing range: $7 – $30 per month
1&1 IONOS
Best for multilingual websites and white collar businesses
- Multilingual options
- Wide range of industries
- Confusing to use
Paid Plans:
1&1 IONOS Overview
1&1 IONOS has everything you need to create a functional, standard website. It won’t look like a Squarespace site or win awards for its designs, but it will get the job done. The builder has all the basic features you need, especially for small corporate businesses, while its quickest server response time and superlative mobile sitespeed performance are highly impressive.
It’s also a great option for those on a budget, because although 1&1 IONOS doesn’t have a free plan, its prices start at just $7 per month.
One of the main drawbacks of 1&1 IONOS is that its designs look pretty dated compared to the other best website builders in this list. 1&1 IONOS is a functional, rather than stylish website builder – it won’t create the best-looking site on the internet, but it has the features to make your site or business succeed.
1&1 IONOS if free for your first month, then charges $7 per month after that on its cheapest plan. There are three plans in total, one of which is for building online stores.
Features
One of the main strengths of 1&1 IONOS is its multilingual feature, available on all plans. This is great for widening your visitor base and creating a modern website.
Other features include email marketing and social media widgets. These tools and features support business growth, and make 1&1 IONOS ideal for scaling your website.
Another great feature is that you get a free domain for as long as you stay on your plan – other builders only give you the free domain for your first year, after which you have to pay.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though. Some of the users we tested in our 2021 independent research had some strong words for 1&! IONOS’s functionality (or lack of it!):
“The choice of functionality is so bad compared to every other website builder on the market. You can only add the very most basic website components, such as text, images, a contact form, and gallery. Anything else and you’ll need to add code to insert it, or won’t be able to add it at all. I was shocked that you couldn’t even add a video without needing to embed code onto the website. It felt so basic and way behind its competitors”.
1&1 IONOS is also missing more advanced – yet important – marketing features, such as pop-ups and a wider social media feed collection.
Design
1&1 IONOS isn’t the best website builder for creating a stunning website or portfolio – in all honesty, its designs are pretty dated, and you have very little creative control. Moving things around the page can quickly become frustrating, making it less than ideal for artistic projects.
This is something the users that tested 1&1 IONOS on our behalf agreed with. Pre-2021, they voiced how outdated they felt the platform’s imagery and design were, and this still appears to be the case now. In terms of images, our users said they’d “definitely recommend uploading your own rather than relying on 1&1’s image library”.
Compared to the other best website builders, its template designs are basic and less appealing. The limited customization on offer here makes it feel as though 1&1 IONOS is ‘holding users back’ from being able to build something unique, and for the long term.
That said, one thing our research surfaced about 1&1 IONOS – and that we absolutely love – is that you’re able to add pages and optimize for search engines within the editor itself. This is handy because you can do pretty much everything you need to in one place, rather than having to navigate clumsily to a different area of your site’s backend.
Pricing
1&1 IONOS doesn’t have a free plan or a free trial. It has three price plans to choose from, comprised of two website plans and one ecommerce plan.
The cheapest website plan is free for the first month, then charges $7 per month until you cancel. The other two plans range from $13 to $30 per month. If that sounds expensive, it’s actually excellent value for money. 1&1 IONOS’s score in this area doubled from what it was in our pre-2021 rankings, thanks to its “cheap” pricing plans.
1&1 IONOS Gallery
More Information:
- Read our 1&1 IONOS Website Builder Review and find out whether it’s the perfect match for you
5 Other Good Website Builders
So far we’ve taken you through our top 11 website builders. But what about the platforms that didn’t quite make the cut? Here are some other strong options:
#1. Webflow
Webflow is a powerful platform, but not one we’d necessarily recommend for the everyday user. Like Duda, Webflow is pitched more towards the web designers of the world. But unlike Duda, this hasn’t yet been translated into a beginner-friendly drag-and-drop interface. The selection of tutorials is amazing though, and the platform is definitely headed in the right direction.
#2. Format
Format is becoming increasingly popular in the photography/portfolio space, and it’s one we’re keeping an eye on. We don’t think it’s quite a challenger for the likes of Squarespace yet, and isn’t really suited to non-portfolio websites, but we’re interested to see how this platform grows and develops.
#3. PageCloud
PageCloud is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder, but when we tried it out, it fell down in two areas; mobile responsiveness, and price. You have to edit the mobile version of your PageCloud website separately to make sure it’ll format properly on mobile, and prices start at $20/month, which would make it the most expensive platform on this list. While it doesn’t make our top 11 at the moment, we do think it has a lot of potential.
#4. Carrd
Carrd is a really interesting platform. While it’s not right for the typical website, it’s really strong in its chosen niche; one-page websites. It’s ideal when you want to go one better than a PDF, whether that’s for a resume or personal site, or a project outline. There’s a free plan, or you can create up to three sites for just $9/year, making it really great value.
#5. Mozello
While Mozello didn’t make it into our top 11, it’s a great option for those needing a site in multiple languages. So if that’s you, it’s definitely one to consider! It also has a good mobile editor, plus it made it onto our list of the best free website builders.
4 Website Builders to Avoid
What goes up must come down, and on our quest to find the best website builders, we inevitably came across a fair few that we wouldn’t recommend:
#1. WebStarts
WebStarts’ homepage has a distinctly budget feel to it, which isn’t the most reassuring first impression. And sadly, when we tested WebStarts for ourselves, the platform did little to restore our confidence. It brings nothing special to the table, and instead lags far behind competitors in terms of user experience.
#2. Yola
There’s nothing really ‘wrong’ with Yola, it just trails so far behind the competitors featured higher up on this list that we can’t see it catching up. That said, at least its prices reflect this (there’s a free plan, and paid plans start at just $4.95/month).
#3. Webs.com
It’s a similar story with Webs.com, although this platform’s designs are more dated, and its plans are more expensive. Webs.com was taken over by Vistaprint in 2011, and the process of setting up an account and starting to build your site still has that slightly disjointed feel that can come from these mergers.
#4. One.com
One.com builds you a website the ADI way. You enter basic information about your site, and One.com produces a website to match. Unfortunately, Wix, Weebly and GoDaddy already offer ADI options, and although One.com is cheaper, the others are better (and two have a free plan). One.com is also reluctant to let you sign up without entering card details (either for a domain name, or a website plan) which is unusual in our experience, and not something we like to see.
How Do You Pick the Best Website Builder For You?
Now you know the 11 best website builders on the market. But what if you’re still feeling a bit stumped? Which of these fine builders should you choose?
Unfortunately, we can’t read your mind through the screen and tell you straight. Only you know about the type of site you want to create, your specific needs, if you’ll be selling products, or if you’ll be blogging or showcasing creative work.
However, we can give you some handy pointers on finding your perfect website builder – carry on reading for three quick and helpful tips…
#1. Make the Most of Free Trials and Free Plans
Most of the website builders in our list offer either a free trial or a free plan for you to use. This is the perfect way of judging if it’s the right website creator for you – try actually building a website, and work out:
- How easy it is
- How long it takes
- What you like and don’t like
- What you’d want to be different
- If you’re happy with the example site you create
Then, try out more website builders. Even if the first one you try is perfect, it’s still worth having something to compare it to.
#2. Think About What You Want to Make
This seems obvious, but so many people pick a website builder because of how it’s advertised, or simply for the freebies that get thrown in. Safe to say, this isn’t a sensible way to choose the best website builder for you.
You’ve already taken the first step by reading this article – the next step is to decide the purpose of your website, and then narrow down your builder list based on that. Don’t be dazzled by sale prices, or features that you don’t really need!
For example, if you want to start a portfolio website, then your best options will include Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and Duda. Try them all out, and see which one you like the best.
If you want to sell online, you should consider selecting a website builder that also comes with good ecommerce plans, too. We’d recommend Wix — it’s our top-rated ecommerce platform because it offers a wide range of selling tools and extra features to make your online store a success. Check out our list of the best ecommerce platforms for more information on where to get started.
In this example, choosing your best website builder will be much easier, because you can ignore other builders (such as 1&1 IONOS and WordPress.com) because – despite their other strengths – they don’t suit your specific needs.
#3. Factor in Your Budget
You don’t want to overspend on your website – it’s as simple as that. Look at the price plans of each builder, decide how much you can afford to spend, and work out whether you want to pay upfront for the year or per month (monthly prices will be more expensive, but give you more flexibility).
Don’t make the mistake of underfunding your website, though – you should always pay for the best builder you can afford. Yes, there are tons of great free plans out there, but free plans won’t give your site the features it needs to succeed in the long run.
Best Website Builders: Round-Up
You’ve now seen our rundown of the best website builders on the market, and hopefully you’ve got a better idea of which builders are best suited to your needs.
All of our recommendations are based on in-depth research and feedback from people just like you – they’re not just picked out of thin air – so you can feel confident that the information we’ve provided you in this article is fair and accurate.
Let’s have a quick recap of our top 11 website builders…
11 Best Website Builders of 2022
- Wix – Best overall
- Squarespace – Best template designs
- GoDaddy – Fastest way to build a website
- Weebly – Fantastic free plan
- Zyro – Best up-and-coming builder
- Jimdo Creator – Best value for money
- Duda – Best for pure, polished web design
- WordPress.com – Best for blogs and content-heavy sites
- SITE123 – Best for site speed reliability
- Strikingly – Easy to use
- 1&1 IONOS – Best for its cheapest pricing plan
As you can see from our list, each website builder has its own strengths. Whether you want a cutting-edge, stylish website, great value for money, or even a helping hand, there will be a builder out there for you.
Overall, though, the best website builder in our research was Wix. Its simple drag-and-drop interface makes it super easy to use (even for technophobes), and its huge range of templates and features, such as contact forms and media galleries, means you can truly customize your website and make it your own.
And, although we’ve focused mainly on Wix as a website builder in this review, it’s also a fantastic choice if you’re thinking about starting an online store. It offers everything small businesses could need to start selling online, and offers three ecommerce-specific plans.
If you’re unsure of where to start, jumping on Wix’s free plan is a great way to get building and figure out what is and isn’t right for you.
Try out as many website makers as possible by using the free trials (or plans) on offer. This will give you a real feel for each one, and ensure that you choose the best one for your needs.
Still Unsure Which Website Builder is Best for You?
- Website Builder Comparison Chart – a detailed side-by-side comparison of our top-rated website builders
- Website Builder Quiz – get a recommendation about which website builder is best for you based on your needs
FAQs
These are some of the most popular questions we’re asked by our readers about website builders.
Found a question that you want to know the answer to? Click the + to reveal the answer.
Website builders are incredibly affordable, typically costing around $5 – $40 per month depending on what you need your website for. Some website builders, such as Wix and Weebly, even offer free plans that allow you to create and publish a website for absolutely nothing (although your website will come with ads, and you won’t be able to connect a custom domain name).
Website builders allow you to build a website quickly and easily at a small monthly cost, without having to know how to code. This means you won’t need to hire a web developer to do it for you, saving you thousands of dollars. Website builders are therefore perfect for non-technical, time-conscious individuals who don’t have a lot of money to spend.
However, these benefits are offset with more limited customization options when designing your website. Unlike with WordPress.org, you don’t get complete control over how you want your website to look. Your website can also suffer from slow(ish) loading speeds due to the number of sites hosted on a website maker’s servers, and some builders don’t allow you to backup your website.
Website builders are mainly used by individuals or small-to-medium sized businesses. Most are scalable unless you’re looking to sell products in bulk. If that’s your aim, you’ll need an ecommerce website builder, like Shopify or BigCommerce, which are powerful online store builders used by multi-million dollar businesses.
Squarespace won our overall design category, but for pure flexibility, it’s got to be Wix. You can drag-and-drop anything, anywhere. This is also one of the reasons Wix is so easy to use, but be careful – it can be a hindrance, too. Most website builders restrict you so your site meets design best practices, whereas with Wix, it’s all in your hands.
Absolutely. The selection of templates you see when deciding on one are just populated with example content. All the images, text, buttons, and features can be changed. It’s all just there to give you a general idea of what your website’s layout will be. It’s also worth picking a template that’s relevant to your industry, as the chances are it’ll have the features you need already built-in.
A custom domain name is what people type into their browsers, i.e. ‘www.websitebuilderexpert.com’. Some website builders give you a year’s free domain when signing up to a premium plan, but expect this to renew at around $10/year. If you’re on a free plan, you’ll get given a sub-domain which includes the website maker’s name, e.g. ‘www.websitebuilderexpert.wix.com’.
Firstly, there are two versions of WordPress: WordPress.org and WordPress.com. The latter is more like your typical website builder, and is used almost entirely for blogging websites. WordPress.org is far more advanced, and is used by developers as a base to build its customers’ websites on.
A website builder is an online platform that helps you create your own website. Web hosting, or a self-hosted website, is when you pay for a space online to situate your website. Typically, the cost of hosting your website is included in your monthly fee for a website builder.
Unless you’ve got money to burn, using a website builder is a smart choice. They’re easy to use, and you’re in full control of your own website. With a designer or developer, you can end up shelling out thousands of dollars for a swanky site, then have to pay even more every time you need something tweaked or updated.
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