8 Best Website Builders for Small Business
Our independent research projects and impartial reviews are funded in part by affiliate commissions, at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more
As the world becomes more and more digitally-focused, it’s never been more important (or more simple!) to create an online space for your business. We’ll walk you through the 8 best small business website builders for doing just that; compare them side by side in our comparison chart, or read on for more in-depth analysis.
Compare the 8 Best Small Business Website Builders
These three platforms came out on top in our research best. Use the drop-down menu to swap in a different platform to compare side by side.
Our overall ratings are based on the average score of all ratings combined.
Our scores give you an at-a-glance overview of which service offers you the best features, value, and more.
A cost-free subscription plan.
Having access to a free plan lets you take your website builder for a test drive before deciding if it’s right for you. It’s the best way to get to know a website builder before you commit your time, energy and money to it.
Building a website for your small business will help you promote your brand and reach new customers. As the world gets more and more digital, it’s never been more important (or fun!) to create an online space for your business.
But which are the best builders for small business websites to use? To find out, we tested over 50 platforms, looking for the builders that are easy to use, have great SEO tools, and offer plans that are both affordable and scalable. And now the results are in:
Best Website Builders for Small Business
- Wix – Best overall website builder for small business.
- Squarespace – Best for building your brand.
- Weebly – Best for businesses on a budget.
- GoDaddy – Best for businesses that need to get online quickly.
- Duda – Best for those who value ease of use over personalized branding.
- Strikingly – Best for selling services, not products.
- Site123 – Best for those who dread creating a business website.
- Jimdo Creator – Easy, but lacks quality features.
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. First, our in-house research team investigates every builder in the following areas:
- 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. Each builder gets a score in all six areas, which we also average into an overall rating.
But it’s not enough to know how each builder scores in general. So, we updated our scoring calculations to add more weight to the categories that small business website owners have told us are most important – namely, ease of use, feature quality (with heightened focus on SEO capabilities), and value for money.
Want to skip the reading? We’ve got a 3-minute quiz that will show you the top three website builders for your needs
Take it now!Or, you can take our word for it:
- For the perfect balance of ease of use and powerful features, try Wix
- For the most professional template designs, try Squarespace
- For cheap plans, try Weebly
Need to Sell Products Online?
The builders in this review are perfect for promoting your small business, and giving customers a place to learn more about what you do. You can also use these builders to sell a handful of products, but it’s definitely not a requirement!
On the other hand, if you’re running a larger store and need to sell more than 10 items through your website, then you’ll need to choose an ecommerce-specific website builder instead.
How to Choose a Small Business Website Builder
Before you dive in and start building your website, it’s important to figure out which factors and features are most important to your small business website.
Got a few products to sell through your small business website?
There’s an easy way to make a few bucks online without breaking the bank. Check out Square Online Checkout Links, which you can add to your small business website for free to take payments directly from visitors.
These buttons allow customers to purchase products through your website, making it ideal for small business sites selling a few items to monetize their online presence.
What’s even better is that it doesn’t cost anything. You don’t need to shell out on an expensive ecommerce builder – it’s free to set up a Square Online account, and the checkout links are totally free too. The only charge is Square’s 2.5% transaction fee – much more affordable than a $20/month ecommerce subscription!
Below, we’ve included the most important factors to consider when deciding what your website needs, and which website builders excel in each area:
Running a small business is not easy. Why risk picking a website builder that only adds to your stress levels? Stress not – when you’ve got invoices lying all over the place, these platforms will make you feel easy like a Sunday morning…
Wix received a perfect 5/5 customer score in our user testing. This means our test participants loved using Wix and would definitely recommend it.
Why did Wix score so highly? The answer’s easy. No, literally – it’s really easy to use. Its intuitive drag-and-drop design tool can turn the Average Joe into a web design pro.
Then there’s Wix ADI. This feature uses artificial design intelligence to generate a professional website for you in a matter of minutes, after you’ve answered a few questions about the site you need.
Your website needs to run smoothly without any glitches, but it also needs to look smart and professional in order to impress your visitors. 75% of users judge a company’s credibility by its website. So, if looks do matter to you (and they should!), then it’s important that you have a wide selection of sleek templates available.
Duda pitches itself as a website builder for web designers, offering over 90 stunning templates to choose from. Duda isn’t just for pros, though – anyone can create a single-page website on Duda without a fuss. If you’re after a small yet stylish website, then Duda is your dude.
Squarespace is the best website builder for image-led websites like portfolios or photography sites. The modern, minimalist templates allow your pictures to speak a thousand words.
Sometimes the built-in features just aren’t enough. Having access to an app market grants you the freedom to add extra functionality to your website. But which are the ‘appiest platforms?
Wix and Weebly have ample options, with 200+ and 300+ apps to choose from, respectively. Weebly edges Wix in terms of numbers, but you’ll find a greater number of free apps in Wix’s App Market.
The domain is the name of your website – ours is websitebuilderexpert.com, for example – so, just like the design of your website, it’s important that your domain appears professional. With an unprofessional domain, you risk losing the trust of your visitors.
You can buy your domain through a domain name registrar (websites that manage and sell domains), such as GoDaddy (which is both a website builder and a domain name registrar). Registering a new domain usually costs between $10 and $20 per year, depending on the domain registrar you use and the type of domain you’d like to use, e.g. .com, .org or .net.
The best website builders for small businesses will be equipped with mighty marketing tools. If your business generates sales and interacts with customers on social media, then you’ll need a website builder that can build a bridge between your website and your social media channels.
Nearly 50% of the world’s population uses social media – can your small business really afford to miss out on advertising to these 3 billion users worldwide?
Wix has really strong social media offerings. On Wix, you can easily display live feeds of your social media channels, post content straight from your site straight onto your social platforms, and add a Facebook icon popup that takes users to your Facebook page.
Email marketing is another crucial strategy for growing your small business. Squarespace offers integration with MailChimp, a fantastic email tool that’s designed on the same drag-and-drop principles as website builders.
It’s fair to say that the best small business website builders will also have strong SEO features. After all, SEO helps to bring more search engine users to your website.
Wix also has super SEO tools, namely its Wix SEO Wiz feature, which asks you a few questions about your website, location and keywords, then generates your own SEO plan to help your website rank higher on the search engine results page.
Running a small business isn’t cheap. So why spend more on your website builder than you need to? If you’re cost-conscious, then you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth with your website.
Weebly scored an impressive 4.1/5 ‘value for money’ score in our research. This shows that it offers an excellent range of built-in features along with fairly-priced subscription plans (as well as a free plan). You won’t ever feel ripped off while using Weebly.
The less time you spend figuring out how to add functions, change styling, or fix a bug, the more time you have to focus on growing your small business. This is where a website builder’s customer support can be invaluable.
In our experience, Wix’s Help Center provides the most in-depth collection of tutorials and videos to help answer all your questions.
8 Best Small Business Website Builders: Roundup
Whichever builder you choose, you’ll be able to create a functional website that establishes your small business online, without any technical know-how.
However, the best website builders for small businesses will help your business not only appear online, but shine. That’s why we recommend Wix as the best option for creating websites for business. But let’s recap our list of eight one last time…
- Wix – Best overall website builder for small business ($14/month)
- Squarespace – Best for building your brand ($12/month)
- Weebly – Best for businesses on a budget ($6/month)
- GoDaddy – Best for businesses that need to get online quickly ($10/month)
- Duda – Best for those who value ease of use over personalized branding ($14/month)
- Strikingly – Best for selling services, not products ($8/month)
- Site123 – Best for those who dread creating a business website ($12.80/month)
- Jimdo Creator – Easy, but lacks quality features ($9/month)
With the right website builder, you can turn your small business into the next big thing. For now, though, we wish you and your business the very best of luck!
FAQs
None of the website builders in this guide require any technical knowledge. But for a really simple website building experience, we recommend GoDaddy as its editor is extremely quick to get to grips with.
While this is true, you might find another website builder, such as Weebly, suits you better. That’s why we recommend taking a couple of website builders for a test run before settling on a final choice.
Squarespace is the only website builder in this guide that doesn’t offer a free plan. Both Wix and Weebly are free to use for as long as you want. They also have very reasonable premium plans that are worth considering if you want to take your site to the next level.
Duda is the number one for a design-focused small business website. Its templates are all stunning and professional.
Wix has its own mobile editor which means you can tweak things on the mobile version of your site without changing anything on the desktop version.
All of Squarespace’s themes are mobile responsive so they look great on all devices, which is a big plus point.
All of the website builders in this guide have extremely intuitive editors which means you can get to grips with their features in no time at all!
This means you could have your small business website set up in a matter of hours!
Yes, you can always use free website builders – but they often come at the cost of professionalism! You’ll need a paid plan in order to remove subdomains, like yourdomain.buildername.com, and the respective website builder ads that appear on every page.
36 comments