10 Best Website Builders for Small Business: Grow in 2022
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Written and researched by
Our methodology
Small businesses told us they most value SEO capabilities, affordability, and ease of use, so these categories carry extra weight in our research.
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.
The best website builders for small businesses are easy to use, have great SEO tools, and offer affordable, scalable price plans. The very best small business website builder that we’ve tested is Wix, because it’s fast to build with, super customizable, and covers tons of different industries. It’s also great for small businesses looking to sell products or services online. Here’s a rundown of our shortlist:
Best Website Builders for Small Business
- Wix – Best small business website builder.
- Squarespace – Best for building your brand.
- GoDaddy – Best for businesses that need to get online quickly.
- Weebly – Best for value for money.
- Zyro – Best for business basics.
- Duda – Best for web design businesses.
- Jimdo – Best for its hands-off ADI functionality.
- WordPress.com – Best for business blogs.
- Site123 – Best for site speed reliability.
- 1&1 IONOS – Best for cheap prices (at the cost of features).
Compare the 10 Best Small Business Website Builders
These three platforms came out on top in our research best. Use the arrows to view different platforms to compare side by side.
| Overall Rating | Ease of Use Rating | Features Rating | Starting from | Free Plan | Number of templates | SEO | Email marketing | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
50% OFF NOW  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||
Wix | Squarespace | GoDaddy | Weebly | Zyro | Duda | Jimdo | WordPress.com | Site123 | 1&1 IONOS | ||
4.8 | 4.7 | 4.4 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.4 | ||
4.4 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 2.8 | ||
4.9 | 4.1 | 3.6 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 1.9 | ||
$12 | $6.99 | $6 | $2.90 | $14 | $9 | $4 | $12.80 | $7 | |||
800+ | 100+ | 100+ | 50+ | 120+ | 90+ | 15+ | 150+ | 150+ | 200+ | ||
Excellent | Very good | Good | Very good | Not great | Average | Average | Good | Not great | Good | ||
$9/month (+ free plan) | $5/month | $6.99/month | $8/month (+ free plan) | Integration required | Integration required | Integration required | No | Integration required | No | ||
To create this list, we used our own independent research, to provide you with the most accurate and reliable recommendations. Our goal is to help you find the right website builder to meet your needs, so we always aim to be as honest as possible in our reviews. That’s why we’re not shy about highlighting the bad alongside the good. We believe that if you’re going to make the best decision, you need all the facts first!
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 the quickest way to build a polished business site, try GoDaddy
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, too. For example, Wix offers excellent tools and features for selling online. In fact, it came top place in our ecommerce research!
This definitely isn’t a requirement for small businesses, though, so don’t panic if you weren’t planning on selling online. If you are interested in this, however, you can visit our ecommerce-specific website page instead. Here, we’ll give you a more ecommerce-focused roundup, including a look at some completely ecommerce-dedicated platforms, too.
#1. Wix
Best Small Business Website Builder
See it in action: Mane Ethical Hairdressing
Wix
Best overall website builder for small business
- Very easy to use
- Covers many industries
- Limitless customization
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $14 - $56 / month
Wix Overview
Wix is our top choice for small businesses for a number of reasons, not least of which is how easy it is to use. It boasts over 800 website templates, and its drag-and-drop format is perfect for beginners. However, the vast level of creative control it gives you means that your website can grow with you, expanding as your business becomes larger and you become more experienced.
Growing businesses will also appreciate the huge number of features this website builder has to offer. In fact, this is our best builder for features, scoring an impressive 4.9 out of 5 for this category. It’s easy to add an online store, and Wix’s App Market offers everything from email and SMS marketing, to additional SEO support.
Even without the extra apps, though, Wix is an excellent choice for SEO beginners. Its SEO Wiz creates a tailored plan for your website, giving you the best chance of boosting your rankings.
Wix has eight pricing plans to choose from, including dedicated plans for online stores and a free plan. It’s worth noting, however, that you won’t be able to sell online or connect a custom domain to your website whilst using the free plan. For this reason, we always recommend business owners upgrade to a premium plan as soon as possible.
Wix achieved the highest customer rating in our research, scoring 4.7 out of 5. It’s a perfect choice if you want a great all-rounder that will meet a variety of business needs.
Wix Gallery
Keep Reading About Wix:
The main feature we want to draw your attention to is Wix’s SEO tools. Boosting your business website’s rankings is super important for staying ahead of your competitors, and Wix offers plenty of support with its Wix SEO Wiz tool:
Wix SEO Wiz: enter some information about your industry, location, and target keywords, and this feature will create a bespoke SEO plan with tips on how to improve the visibility of your website on search engines.
Other notable features include:
Wix App Market: choose from over 200 apps and services, covering everything from shipping features to make sending out products easier, to email tools that help you reach out to customers and expand your user base (such as Contact Collection and Mailchimp).
Wix Ascend: the all-in-one marketing package, helping you connect with customers, create personalized messages for each user, post on social media, and send marketing emails, all in one place.
Wix’s editing interface lets you design your site by dragging and dropping text boxes and images to where you want them. A lot of other builders do this too, but our research participants were most likely to recommend Wix because its editor is easy to use and doesn’t sacrifice your creative freedom.
Things are equally as simple if you’re planning to sell online. Wix’s tools and features mean that you can add products and manage your inventory all in one place, cutting out all the complicated to and fro of some ecommerce platforms.
If you’re a longtime resident of the “not techy” camp, you can even use Wix’s ADI builder to create your site. Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) will ask you a few questions about your website, then generate a fully-fledged business website for you based on your answers.
There’s a great variety of templates on Wix, but one major drawback is that you can’t use a different template once you’ve published your website. So, make sure you’re happy with your choice the first time around!
It’s easy to add extra functionality to any Wix template. You can:
- Add contact forms and online booking forms for appointments
- Create and send invoices and track payments, helping you manage your finances in one place
- Add customized quizzes, surveys, and contact forms that let you find out what your customers think
For the more tech-savvy among you, there’s Velo by Wix, which allows you to integrate custom code into your Wix site. It’s entirely optional, but it grants you the freedom to create a totally original business website.
Wix doesn’t offer as much value for money as some platforms, such as Jimdo or Weebly. However, all this means is you need to pick the right plan to fit the unique needs of your small business.
For small business websites, we recommend Wix’s Pro plan, which starts at $23/month. You’ll get access to Ascend, Wix’s in-house marketing tool, and can even get a free logo designed if you want one.
However, it’s also worth noting that the cheaper Unlimited plan ($18/month) is another great choice for those who aren’t planning to sell online. It still comes with $300 ad vouchers, which are split evenly across Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Local Listings and can really give you a leg up when it comes to promoting your small business site.
If you’re looking to sell online, you’ll need to upgrade to one of Wix’s ecommerce plans, instead. The Business Basic plan is a good starting point, costing $23/month. This allows you to sell unlimited products, as well as giving you the tools to sell across different social channels.
If you can afford it, though, we’d recommend opting for the Business Unlimited plan, instead – especially if you want to sell a good number of products! It comes with a much more generous suite of sales tools, such as advanced shipping, dropshipping potential, multiple currencies, and the option to sell subscriptions.
If you want to find out more about what it can do and why we love it so much, check out our Wix ecommerce review, where we’ll dig into all the good stuff in more detail.
There are help buttons everywhere on the Wix site, so if you’re having trouble building a specific section of your site, you can click on the button and find a specific answer to your question.
These help buttons make it easy to fix issues by yourself, without having to wait for customer service. That said, you can contact Wix directly over the phone from Monday to Thursday, 5am-5pm EST. Wix doesn’t offer 24/7 phone support, but its editor is so easy to use that you won’t feel like you’re missing out.
USER REVIEW: CLOUD NINE KNITS
Sara’s Wix website allows her to manage bookings and take sales for her knitting business.
Inspired by her passion for knitting, Sara started her small business, Cloud Nine Knits, to teach people across the UK how to crochet and arm knit using giant yarn. Sara created her website because she needed a place online where she could manage bookings for her workshops, as well as sell a small selection of handmade knitted products.
Q&A with Sara
How did you decide that Wix was the right website builder for you?
“After struggling with another website builder in the past and feeling limited by its templates, I turned to Wix because of its claim of simplicity. I instantly loved the Wix Editor, which gave me professional results with zero coding knowledge.”
How easy was it to build your website?
“I found Wix super intuitive. I chose to have a bit of design freedom using the Wix Editor (rather than use a template), and the drag-and-drop features made it so simple to start building out the pages. I loved how I could toggle through layouts and design features and see them update on screen, until finally selecting the one I liked best. The Wix apps made the process of adding instant functionality to my site a breeze, too.”
“I highly recommend Wix to every small business owner I meet, for its ease of use, centralised business functions and for the convenience of being able to manage it all from my phone.”
How long did it take to build your website?
“It took a couple of hours to get the main pages as I wanted them. That was the easy part. Then it took a few more days of tweaking and rewriting my own content – being a perfectionist can be time-consuming!”
What’s one improvement you’d make to Wix?
“I’d love there to be a little more functionality within the booking system: for example, being able to give my customers specific options, such as letting them pick their yarn color from a list of options prior to the workshop.”
How has having a website benefited your business?
“It is the central hub for my business. I’d be lost without it, and my business far less a success! I use it to take all bookings, sell products, manage my customer community, share video tutorials, send invoices and manage payments, run email marketing campaigns, and track visitors to the site in real time. And the most wonderful part is that I do it all for the most part from the Wix app on my phone, wherever I am.”
Further Information:
- Wix Review – for an in-depth look at Wix
- Wix Pricing Review – which plan is right for you?
- Wix eCommerce Review – should you sell online with Wix?
- How to Use Wix – our easy step-by-step guide on making a Wix website
#2. Squarespace
Best for Building Your Brand
See it in action: Art Cafe
Squarespace
Best for building your brand
- Beautiful, clean designs
- Great scheduling tools
- Not as easy as Wix
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $12 - $46 / month
Squarespace Overview
Squarespace is a great website builder for those who want style as well as substance. In our research, it came out on top in the design category, achieving a high score of 4.7 out of 5. This is thanks to its stunning template designs and the sophistication of its slick editor.
Although previously one of the more difficult website builders to use, Squarespace has since upped its game and made vast improvements that have resulted in a 14.6% increase in its ease of use score compared to its pre-2021 rankings. This means, out of those we’ve tested, it’s now one of the top three easiest builders to use. It’s still not quite as intuitive as Wix, however, and the steeper learning curve remains, but the process of getting your website up and running is much simpler.
If you want to add an ecommerce store to your website, Squarespace actually came out as the easiest to get to grips with in our ease of use testing. Not only that, but it comes with excellent promotional tools such as discounts, and you can sell an unlimited number of products on any of its ecommerce plans.
Squarespace is also our forerunner for help and support, scoring a perfect 5 out of 5 in this area. This means that even if you do get stuck, someone will be on hand to help you out.
Squarespace Gallery
Keep Reading About Squarespace:
Super SEO: Squarespace’s SEO features are really strong, too. If SERP (search engine results page) domination is high on your agenda – and for most small businesses, it should be – then Squarespace is the builder for you. We’ve gone into a ton of detail on exactly what makes Squarespace’s SEO features so good in our Squarespace SEO review.
Organization: Squarespace Scheduling is an easy online booking tool that lets clients view your availability, book or reschedule their appointments, and even pay online. You can also sync Squarespace Scheduling with your existing Google, iCloud, Office 365 or Outlook calendar.
Social media integration: You can integrate your Squarespace site with a raft of social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and even pull in content from certain platforms straight onto your page.
Domains: You can buy a domain from Squarespace, or connect your own existing domain without a fuss. You’ll get a free domain for one year if you sign up to an annual paid plan, too.
All Squarespace’s templates are polished, and their clean lines give off a really professional vibe. More than any other builder, you can make your small business website look like it’s been professionally designed without having to play around with any code yourself.
What’s more, you’re able to stamp your mark on your website by easily customizing your design, from the fonts and colors right down to the sidebar width and background images. You can’t switch templates once your site is live, but all templates share the same building blocks, so it’s really easy to redesign your site later on if you want to rebrand.
You can also add features like an announcement bar (great if you want to show off your new product), or a mobile information bar, which streamlines your website for visitors using a mobile phone and displays a shortcut menu with key information like contact details and opening hours.
We recommend the $18/month Business plan for small business websites, because it’s not as pricey as the two fully-fledged ecommerce plans, but you can still sell a few products and create modern, professional pages. This plan offers great value for small businesses – in fact, in our research we found that most of our readers are best off with the Business plan!
That said, you’ll have to pay a 3% transaction fee for sales you make on the Business plan, which would be waived if you were to scale up to either the Basic or Advanced Commerce plans. So if you plan to sell a lot of products, it’s worth skipping straight to the Basic Commerce plan!
It’s ideal if you’re looking to sell digital products, although it also supports the sale of services and physical stock, too. It’s worth noting, however, that its inventory features are less advanced than dedicated ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, so, overall, it’s better suited to a smaller store.
Payments can be taken via PayPal, Stripe, Square, and Apple Pay, and if you choose either the Basic or Advanced Commerce plan, you won’t have to pay any transaction fees. If you opt for the Business plan, however, you’ll need to pay a 3% transaction fee.
Like its range of templates, Squarespace’s help and support options are comprehensive and high quality. Whenever you become stuck, you can benefit from:
- Live chat Monday to Friday
- 24/7 Twitter support
- 24/7 email support
- An in-depth knowledge base
- A community forum
- Video tutorials
Squarespace’s knowledge base is particularly helpful, with a huge range of detailed guides. The only thing Squarespace doesn’t offer is phone support, so bear that in mind if you prefer talking to someone directly.
Its full range of support options are available across all its plans, unlike some platforms which reserve better support for higher paying customers.
USER REVIEW: LINDIS CONSULTING
Terry’s Squarespace website allows him to promote his services.
By now, it’s no secret that Squarespace is a powerful builder with impressive template designs. We spoke to Terry, founder and director of Lindis Consulting, about why he chose Squarespace for his professional presence online.
After 20+ years of working for consultancies and insurance companies, Terry started his own practice offering business and pension scheme management to a versatile range of companies. He uses his Squarespace site as a sort of “online brochure” to showcase the different consulting services he offers.
Q&A with Terry
How did you decide that Squarespace was the right website builder for you?
“Squarespace sites look professional and offer analytics capabilities, the cost isn’t too bad, and you can easily integrate with G Suite. I’d be very likely to recommend Squarespace to others.”
What is the one thing you like most about Squarespace?
“Squarespace’s variety of template options make it possible to develop a pretty professional looking site quite quickly, with no prior experience.”
What did you find most challenging about Squarespace?
“Some of the functionality wasn’t totally intuitive, and I ended up having to contact the support team with questions. But their staff were amazingly helpful.”
Further Information:
- Squarespace Review – for a detailed review of Squarespace
- Squarespace Pricing Review – for an in-depth breakdown of Squarespace’s pricing plans
- Squarespace Offer Code – get 10% off any Squarespace plan with our exclusive discount code
- Squarespace Ecommerce Review – find out how we rate Squarespace for ecommerce
- How to Use Squarespace – our simple nine step guide on creating a Squarespace website
#3. GoDaddy
Best for Businesses That Need to Get Online Quickly
See it in action: Skuna Boats
GoDaddy
Best for businesses that need to get online quickly
- Fastest to set up
- Hands-off ADI building
- Limited creative control
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $6.99 - $29.99 / month
GoDaddy Overview
If you’re in a hurry, GoDaddy’s ADI function is sure to make you smile. Rather than having to choose a template and edit it until you’re happy with the design, GoDaddy uses a quick questionnaire to determine what you want from your website – and then it builds it for you. This makes it super easy to use and fast to boot!
Plus, there’s still plenty of room for you to put your own stamp on the website GoDaddy creates for you. Its editor is straightforward, so it’s simple to add new elements or change your color scheme. Overall, it makes for a very pleasant building experience, which is why GoDaddy’s overall score has seen an increase of 11.6% from its pre-2021 rankings.
Once the ‘Plain Jane’ of the website building world, GoDaddy has transformed itself into something of a catch. Its templates are much-improved and the customization potential is tons better. It’s no surprise its design score has jumped up by 14% since our last round of research.
Although GoDaddy may have reinvented itself, it’s not made for more complex websites. However, it’s a great choice for small businesses that are just starting out and looking for a quick way to get themselves online.
GoDaddy Gallery
Keep Reading About GoDaddy:
- GoDaddy SEO: this feature will automatically review your website and optimize it for search engines, but it’s not available on the cheapest price plan. GoDaddy claims that websites using GoDaddy SEO saw their Google traffic increase 2.5 times compared to those not using it.
- Google Analytics: unlike most website builders which use their own analytics tools, GoDaddy has seamlessly integrated its software with Google Analytics, providing brilliant analysis ready at your fingertips.
- Domains: GoDaddy is one of the largest domain registrars in the world, so it’s really easy to set up your domain with this builder. Pricing starts at $9.99 to purchase a domain for one year.
However, it’s important to note that GoDaddy doesn’t have an app store, meaning you’re reliant on the features it provides in-house, without the choice to add any third-party integrations to scale up your website.
GoDaddy scores a very respectable 4.1 out of 5 in our research – the same as Squarespace – but why didn’t it score higher if its ADI does the building for you? Well, GoDaddy can create a website for you in a matter of minutes, which requires minimal effort on your part – but after that, GoDaddy feels quite restrictive.
The majority of users in our research mentioned they wanted more creative control when using the builder. However, 76% of our participants also said they would recommend GoDaddy to a friend who’s looking to get online. So in short, if you value ease of use over creative freedom, then GoDaddy won’t disappoint.
The main thing that sets GoDaddy above Wix is that it lets you switch templates at any time, making it more flexible than Wix if you want to redesign your site later down the line.
GoDaddy’s designs aren’t as sleek or modern as Squarespace’s, but it does cover a great range of industries, including fashion, food, sports, and more. GoDaddy’s Theme Customizer feature is definitely worth trying out – it gives you a sneak preview of your new theme in 20 different styles without losing your content, which helps set it apart from Wix.
All in all, while Squarespace is the place to go for sleek templates, GoDaddy is more of a quick fix.
We recommend the $13.99 Premium plan for small businesses because it comes with:
- Unlimited social media platforms
- 25,000 email marketing sends per month
- Recurring appointments
- Payments for appointments
- Email and text appointment reminders
None of these appointment features are available on cheaper plans, and social media and email marketing integrations are much more limited.
What we really like about GoDaddy is that this platform does a bit of everything – you can manage your domain registration, web hosting, and website building, all in one place.
Its features include flexible payments through providers such as PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, as well as the ability to set free or for-a-fee shipping. It also supports curbside pickup for local buyers, too.
GoDaddy has always performed well when it comes to marketing and promotional features, and its ecommerce offering is no different. You can offer special discounts as well as hold holiday sales to entice customers further.
Despite this, GoDaddy’s ecommerce plan isn’t suited to larger businesses, or those looking to scale. At the moment, its offering doesn’t come with enough depth to truly promote growth.
- 24/7 phone support
- Live chat (Monday to Friday, 5am-6pm)
- Knowledge Base
- Help Forum
You can find answers to simple questions in the forum and knowledge base, but you’ll need to speak to an expert to get answers for specific or niche questions.
Further Information:
- GoDaddy Website Builder Review – get the full details on GoDaddy’s website builder
- GoDaddy Ecommerce Review – is it the right choice for selling online?
- How to Build a Website on GoDaddy – our easy, step-by-step guide to getting started
#4. Weebly
Best for Value for Money
See it in action: Wall’in (check this site out in English or French!)
Weebly
Best for businesses on a budget
- Affordable pricing
- Large app store
- Designs aren’t amazing
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $6 - $29 / month
Weebly Overview
Weebly doesn’t feature a ton of bells and whistles but it does shine when it comes to value for money. Seeing as most small businesses need to keep an eye on their budgets, Weebly’s free plan and extremely affordable premium plans are music to the ears.
Saying that, however, it is more limited than its competitors, and during our recent round of testing and research it was the builder that saw the largest reduction in scores across all categories. This is particularly true of its design score, which dropped by 36% because of outdated templates.
This aside, though, Weebly is still pretty easy to use. Its editor might not be very intuitive, but because customization is limited, it’s hard to get too confused. Plus, it performs well when it comes to SEO, and it also offers a good range of apps to bolster its reduced inbuilt features.
Although far from the most impressive builder on this list, Weebly ticks the most important boxes for small businesses, however, it’s not likely to see much development or improvement in the coming years. You might also find this website builder a little tricky to grow with.
Weebly Gallery
Keep Reading About Weebly:
- Huge App Center: choose from over 360 apps across categories such as marketing, communications, ecommerce, social media, and more. One of the best ways that apps can help your website is by connecting Facebook Messenger, allowing you to chat with Facebook users straight from your own website.
- Membership Options: available on the Professional and Performance Plans, this feature lets you grant registered members access to restricted pages. This is useful if you want to create private clubs, or share private information with certain visitors.
- SEO: Weebly makes it easy to edit your meta titles and descriptions, customize your URLs, and add alt text to images, which can all help your website get found by search engine users more easily. There are also a number of excellent SEO apps, such as RabbitSEO and MarketGoo, to help bolster your SEO efforts.
When designing your website, Weebly leaves you to your own devices, providing little in the way of visual cues or design intuitiveness.
Compared to competitors, Weebly has a small selection of templates – around 50 – with an even smaller range designed specifically for businesses. Its poor mobile formatting really let it down in our testing, and customization is challenging due to Weebly’s restrictive block-based editor.
For the coders out there, you can use Weebly’s Code Editor to gain access to the HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and customize the layout of your web pages to add a greater level of personalization.
For just $6 per month (billed annually), you can access the premium features on its Personal Plan, including 500MB storage and the ability to connect your own domain.
Weebly’s paid plans are noticeably cheaper than its competitors’, so it’s definitely worth upgrading from the free subscription. On the free plan, you’ll be tied to an unprofessional Weebly.com subdomain, but you can remove that blemish for just $6 per month.
However, for a business website the $6 per month Personal plan isn’t suitable long-term – this plan displays Weebly adverts on your site, which can distract your visitors, confuse your own branding, and detract from your professional image.
For this reason, we recommend the $26 per month Performance plan because it opens up your website to accept PayPal payments, which is one of the most popular payment gateways. This is something your business might need sooner rather than later, so why wait to upgrade?
Confused? Let us explain. Weebly was acquired by the payment processor, Square, in 2018. Square then launched its own ecommerce platform, Square Online, which is aimed specifically at ecommerce businesses. Since then, out of the two, Square Online has been the go-to for building online stores.
In terms of price, there’s no difference between them, but if you want to sell online, we’d recommend using Square Online for a more ecommerce-focused experience. It came fourth in our ecommerce ratings with a score of 4.2 out of 5, and was also awarded the title of the best ecommerce builder for small businesses.
- Support tickets (answered 24/7)
- Live chat (available Monday to Friday 6am-6pm PST, and Saturday to Sunday 8am-5pm PST)
- Email (24/7)
- Phone (6am-6pm PST)
However, it’s worth noting that Weebly only offers phone support on its more expensive plans, which is disappointing for small businesses on a tighter budget.
Weebly also offers a Support Center showcasing numerous how-to guides, and a Community Forum where you’ll find plenty of tips from existing users.
However, one thing Weebly lacks is a personal restore option. This means that if your site goes down, you’re totally reliant on the support team to restore it for you.
Further Information:
- Weebly Review – 12 key things you need to know about Weebly
- Weebly Pricing Review – are the plans really worth it?
- Weebly Ecommerce Review – a detailed look at Weebly’s online selling tools
- How to Use Weebly – an easy-to-follow guide on building a Weebly website
#5. Zyro
Best for Business Basics
See it in action: Surf Happy
Save Up to 72% With Zyro!
Zyro’s Spring sale has begun! Simply use our dedicated discount code – WBE10 – at checkout, and you’ll snag up to 72% off Zyro’s premium plans, allowing you to get online from just $2.61/month.Plus, with all annual plans, users get an additional 4 months on the house – and a free domain, too!
But hurry – this limited-time offer only runs until May 31st!
Zyro
Best for the basics
- Solid template designs
- Easy to use
- Grid-based editor
Paid Plans: $1.9 - $29.99 / month
Zyro Overview
Zyro is the new kid on the block and, although it’s a pretty basic website builder, it does a lot of stuff right. First up is how easy it is to use. In some ways, Zyro is like a mini Wix, because its drag-and-drop format is very similar to the more popular builder. It makes creating something attractive very simple.
This is because Zyro does come with some serious style points. Its templates are all clean and professional, although you can’t switch after your site is live and customization is limited.
We were impressed by its suite of AI tools. This isn’t something you see very often with builders, and so this gives Zyro a slight edge. We particularly liked the heatmap tool, which highlights the areas of your pages that are getting the most visitor attention – something that is particularly useful for small businesses.
This website builder definitely has potential, and the features it does have are all very high-quality, but there just aren’t that many of them. This won’t be too much of a problem if you’re just starting out, though, and we anticipate that we’ll see a lot more from this builder in the future.
Zyro Gallery
Keep Reading About Zyro:
Zyro has all of the basics covered really well – its features just lack depth. Take SEO, for example: you’ll still get to edit alt text, meta titles, and URLs, but there’s no keyword support and there aren’t any dedicated integrations for SEO. Zyro also doesn’t have any built-in email marketing tools, which is a big drawback for any small business looking to build their brand.
Still, we were impressed by Zyro’s sales features – namely, the fact that it doesn’t take commission from any sales on its ecommerce plans.
Then the page elements will snap right into place at perfect angles, so it’s really hard to make a design mistake with Zyro. Plus, this builder offers a unique set of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including an SEO copywriting tool and a logo maker, to make content creation and design even easier.
That said, Zyro’s templates aren’t extremely customizable – if you’re focused on creating a unique brand, you’ll probably want to consider Wix or Squarespace instead. You also can’t switch templates once your site is live, so you really have to be committed to whichever design you choose – especially since you’ll have limited ways to personalize it!
It is worth mentioning, however, that Zyro’s cheapest starting price of $2.90 per month requires a four-year subscription. If you want to pay annually, it costs $4.90 per month, which is still very affordable!
It offers multi-channel integration as well as a number of payment options including PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon, and Apple Pay. One of its standout features is that it integrates with physical POS systems, making it possible for you to link your online venture to a real-life brick and mortar business.
One slight drawback, however, is that you can only add up to 2500 products at any one time. This might seem like a lot, but when compared to platforms like Wix and Squarespace, both of which support unlimited products, it’s not so impressive.
Just note that while we always received responses from the Zyro team in under an hour, that kind of speed isn’t completely guaranteed! If you ever find yourself waiting for a response, it’s worth checking out Zyro’s knowledge base, which offers a ton of quality articles.
Further Information:
- Zyro Review – Learn more about this easy-to-use builder
#6. Duda
Best For Web Design Businesses
See it in action: Newman Decorators
Duda
Best for those who value ease of use over personalization
- Advanced functionality
- Ideal for agencies
- Easy to use
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $14 - $59 / month
Duda Overview
Duda is a great option if you’re looking to build a site that is sleek, polished, and professional. Built originally for website designers, it scores particularly well when it comes to ease of use, putting it in first place alongside Wix with a score of 4.4 out of 5.
This is great news if you’re a beginner, as you get a good level of creative control without it being too overwhelming. Plus, it has over 90 attractive templates to choose from, which will help you get off on the right foot.
However, there are some drawbacks, the main one being that Duda is expensive compared to the other website builders on this list, with plans starting at $14 per month.
Duda Gallery
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Duda lacks basic marketing features, such as a newsletter tool. It doesn’t support any third-party marketing apps, or offer Instagram integration. Duda also has a very limited app store, which contains apps for adding forms to your website. This is quite the downside, as marketing tools are crucial for growing a small business website, and Duda barely scrapes the basics of marketing features.
There isn’t much SEO support, either. You won’t benefit from the SEO prompts and guides you’ll find on Weebly or Squarespace, so you’ll need to research everything yourself.
Duda is far from the best small business website builder, but it’s suitable for users who want a well-designed website and aren’t too bothered about marketing features. For example, if you’re running a website for an established local business that isn’t looking to grow, the Duda is a fine choice.
In testing, our users found Duda really easy to use – in fact, with 4.4 out of 5, it has the second-best ease of score after Wix.
The rigidity of Duda’s themes makes it less creatively flexible than Wix, but it’s definitely a beginner-friendly platform. Compared to Squarespace, Duda’s themes are much easier for beginners to customize, but they aren’t as modern or minimalist.
This combination of an easy-to-use – yet somewhat restrictive – editor makes Duda perfect for businesses looking for simplicity over highly personalized branding.
For example, you can choose to display a video about your services to users who are visiting your website for the first time, or you can add a widget asking users to call you if they are visiting from a nearby location.
This feature could help you make more positive relationships, since 74% of customers feel frustrated when website content is not personalized.
There is no free plan, and a 14-day free trial period only applies on one of its paid plans. Duda has four paid plans in total, one being a custom Enterprise plan for large companies with multiple websites:
We recommend the Team plan, not just because it comes with a free trial, but because it offers analytics capabilities and branded marketing materials that you won’t get on the Basic plan.
However, it only supports up to 100 products. If you want to sell unlimited products, you’ll need to upgrade to the Unlimited plan. This comes with a much larger feature set, but costs $39/month and we wouldn’t consider it good value for money.
- Basic: Email
- Team: Email, live chat, and phone
- Agency: Priority email, live chat, and phone
Duda’s standout support feature is its Resource Center, which presents educational webinars and information about product updates.
Further Information:
- Duda Review – get the full lowdown on Duda, including all of its pros and cons
#7. Jimdo
Best For Its Hands-Off ADI Functionality
See it in action: Blue-Sky Consulting
Jimdo
Easy, but lacks quality features
- Cheap, with free plan
- Only has email support
- Lags behind competitors
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $9 - $39 / month
Jimdo Overview
If you want a simple, no-fuss website, this is what Jimdo is best for. It doesn’t come with a whole ream of features, but it does have high levels of usability that pushes it above some of its competitors. Plus, it ticks all of the basic boxes when it comes to SEO, giving you a good chance of climbing the search engine rankings.
Like GoDaddy, its ADI functionality means you can get online with minimal fuss. The quality of designs is surprisingly good, so even though customization is limited, you don’t really need much to ensure you end up with an attractive website.
The best part about Jimdo is how affordable it is. Out of all the website builders we tested, it has the best cost per feature, and its free plan means you can try it risk-free.
Jimdo Gallery
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There’s no app store, which means you’re reliant on Jimdo’s in-house features for customizing and growing your business website – and, as we’ve discovered, it’s rather lacking in this department!
One of the biggest gaps in Jimdo’s feature set is the fact it doesn’t offer any blogging tools, which makes it unsuitable for businesses using content marketing.
That said, its SEO tools are pretty good for climbing search engine rankings – it offers all the basics, but you won’t find keyword support or an SEO-specific app.
In testing, we found that Jimdo is slightly easier to use than GoDaddy, but still not as user-friendly as Wix or Squarespace. Yes, setting up your site is quicker, but Jimdo isn’t as easy to use once you dig into customization.
The good thing about Jimdo is that it builds your brand for you, making it perfect for time-stretched businesses wanting plenty of the design work done for them. Jimdo does a nice job combining the ease of GoDaddy’s ADI setup with the visual benefits of Squarespace’s clean designs.
There is a free plan and four premium plans, and despite its flaws, this platform does offer some of the cheapest pricing around.
We recommend the $15 per month Grow plan, because it comes with social marketing features to help grow your business (hence the name!).
Jimdo also comes with a couple of different payment options, as well as multichannel integrations. You won’t need to worry about transaction fees either! Jimdo has recently added local collection as a delivery option, too, so your customers can collect directly from you, meaning you don’t have to worry about packing and shipping your orders.
- Social media
- Knowledge center
- On-site editor support
We’d love to see some more support channels such as live chat or phone support for quick answers – especially for time-pressed business owners. When time is money, you don’t want to be waiting one to two business days for a response!
You have to be on Jimdo’s most expensive price plan to be guaranteed a response in under an hour.
Further Information:
- Jimdo Review – find out more and see if Jimdo is right for you
#8. WordPress.com
Best for Business Blogs
See it in action: AKO Collective
WordPress.com
Best for Business Blogs
- Perfect for blogging
- Cheap prices
- Limited designs
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $4 - $45 / month
WordPress.com Overview
WordPress.com is the website builder offered by WordPress.org. It aims to bridge the gap between a website builder and a content management system (CMS), but doesn’t come with as much power as its more advanced big brother.
We’ll start with the bad news first: WordPress.com is not the easiest builder to use. Having some coding knowledge is helpful, and the editor itself isn’t as straightforward as it could be, using unfamiliar terminology for lots of its elements. Its templates aren’t the most impressive, either.
Saying that, it does offer awesome customizability once you’ve got to grips with it. Its blogging features are particularly strong, so worth bearing in mind if this is something you want your small business website to have. Plus, it covers most SEO bases, putting it in line with most of its competitors.
Even better, it offers great value for money thanks to its low prices. As affordability is something small businesses value, this is a big point in its favor. However, you’ll need to spend a good deal of time familiarising yourself with its confusing ins and outs to get the most of your investment.
WordPress.com Gallery
Keep Reading About WordPress.com:
In other areas, however, WordPress.com failed to impress. For example, it doesn’t include a free domain name, and its marketing tools are pretty sparse, with no built-in email marketing tools or social media integrations.
However, if you have some time to invest in creating your site – mostly figuring out how to navigate between the backend and frontend editors – you’ll appreciate the level of control that WordPress.com gives you!
That said, WordPress.com is highly customizable once you’ve got the hang of its editor. So if you want lots of control over your branding, it’s an excellent choice!
WordPress.com is one of the cheapest small business website builders we’ve tested, with a starting price of just $4 per month. Combine that with the number of helpful features you get, such as impressive blogging tools, and you end up with a great value solution for your business!
Although the cheapest plan offers amazing value, we recommend the $25 per month Business plan. It comes with a range of features designed to help your business site succeed, such as more storage space, advanced SEO tools, and the option to install plugins.
- Phone
- Live chat
- Knowledge center
- On-site editor support
So, why the less-than-impressive score? Well, when our users actually tested out WordPress.com’s knowledge center, they struggled to find answers to their queries. It’s all very well having support articles, but they need to be useful and easy to find!
Further Information:
- Read our WordPress.com Review for more information on this builder’s strengths and weaknesses
#9. Site123
Best For Site Speed Reliability
See it in action: Mike’s House
Site123
Best for those who dread creating a business website
- Quick and simple
- Not very flexible
- Dated template designs
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $12.8 - $97.5 / month
Site123 Overview
Site123 is a straightforward builder that makes it easy to create basic and attractive sites. In our research, it proved popular with our users because of its simplicity. It’s ideal for someone with little tech experience thanks to its shallow learning curve, and will appeal to those who want to use their website to promote their small business, rather than running it entirely online.
This is because Site123 lacks the feature set needed for complex websites. It’s not a very powerful builder, so those looking to scale their business will quickly outgrow this platform because of its limitations.
However, if you don’t need anything too fancy, and you’re looking for great value for money, Site123 is a good option. It’s not going to blow anyone’s mind with its designs, and its lack of progress and innovation over the last two years is a little disappointing, but it’ll do the job if simplicity is what you’re after!
Site123 Gallery
Keep Reading About Site123:
Site 123 does offer a Google Analytics integration, and comes with built-in email marketing tools – but that’s about as far as it goes in terms of marketing features.
Site123’s main selling point is that it has the best site speed performance out of all the small business website builders we tested. Fast loading pages are hugely important for SEO, conversions, and user experience, so this is a great perk for Site123 users!
Despite this, Site123 failed to wow our users during ease of use testing. In the end, it proved far too restrictive to be enjoyable – its simplicity caused frustration rather than making things easier!
Further Information:
- SITE123 Review – learn all about this builder in our full review
#10. 1&1 IONOS
Best For Cheap Prices (At the Cost Of Features)
See it in action: Park Optometry
1&1 IONOS
Best For Cheap Prices (At the Cost Of Features)
- Cheap starter plans
- Supports 60 languages
- Very limited features
Paid Plans: $0.5 - $30 / month
1 & 1 IONOS Overview
Let’s make one thing clear – 1&1 IONOS is a functional builder. It’s not going to win any awards for its design or features, but what it will do is help you create a simple website that’s good for promoting small corporate businesses. It’s the best website builder for multilingual features, which is great if you want to take your business global or just widen your market.
The two big drawbacks with this website builder are that its designs look a little dated, and it’s missing a good chunk of the advanced features that help a business grow online, such as pop-ups and social media feed integrations.
However, it does perform well for basic SEO. You can add pages and optimize them within the editor rather than having to jump back and forth between dashboards. Everything happens in one place, which is super convenient when you’re busy and in a rush! Once again, though, it is missing some of the more advanced SEO options such as header code and canonical tags.
1&1 IONOS Gallery
Keep Reading About 1&1 IONOS:
You won’t find any built-in email marketing tools, or membership features, and overall its marketing suite is pretty unsuitable for sustaining long-term growth.
That said, there are some strengths we want to highlight. Firstly, 1&1 IONOS has great internationalization tools – it supports 60 languages, and has in-house support for automatic translations!
Secondly, 1&1 IONOS had the quickest server response time in our performance testing, which is great for hitting Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics and improving your rankings.
If branding is important to your business, 1&1 IONOS isn’t the best choice for you – its templates are hard to personalize, so if you’re after a unique website, you’re better off with Wix or Squarespace.
If you’re on a budget, these cheap prices are very appealing. 1&1 IONOS even offers big discounts on its plans so that you can get the cheapest plan for just $1 per month for your first year, before it renews at the standard $5 per month price.
Still, 1&1 IONOS wouldn’t be our first choice as an ecommerce platform. Although a useful add-on, its ecommerce functionality can’t quite keep up with the likes of Wix or Squarespace.
- Phone
- Live chat
- Knowledge center
One of the issues we had during testing is that the knowledge center isn’t accessible from the dashboard, which makes it harder to action the advice given in support guides.
Further Information:
- Read our 1&1 IONOS Website Builder Review for a full look at its pros and cons
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 the highest customer score in our user testing, with an impressive 4.7 out of 5! 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.
Website builders like Wix do often come with ecommerce functionality, meaning that you can add an online store to your small business website if you need to. Lots of them offer an impressive suite of tools, however, it’s always worth checking that they offer everything you need. Wix is our top-rated ecommerce builder, but if you’re looking to open a massive online store, or manage a very complex inventory, we’d recommend taking a look at Shopify or BigCommerce, instead.
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 5/5 ‘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. However, it’s also important to mention that Weebly seems to be falling behind the times – so it may not be the best bet for a long-term investment!
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.
10 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 nine one last time…
Best Website Builders for Small Business
- Wix – Best small business website builder ($14/month)
- Squarespace – Best for building your brand ($12/month)
- GoDaddy – Best for businesses that need to get online quickly ($6.99/month)
- Weebly – Best for value for money ($6/month)
- Zyro – Best for business basics ($10.90/month)
- Duda – Best for web design businesses ($14/month)
- Jimdo – Best for its hands-off ADI functionality ($9/month)
- WordPress.com – Best for business blogs ($4/month)
- Site123 – Best for site speed reliability ($12.80/month)
- 1&1 IONOS – Best for cheap prices (at the cost of features) ($5/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 Wix as it has the highest ease of use score after being tested by our users. It’s really easy to get started building with Wix, and it doesn’t sacrifice creative freedom for simplicity, either!
Still, we always 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.
Squarespace has the best score for design functionality in our research, with 4.7 out of 5. It has a stunning choice of professionally designed templates, which cover a range of industries!
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.
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