Best Website Builders 2018

How to Find the Right Website Builder for You

These are the top website builders on the market today. Read on for in-depth details on features, plans, and pricing.  

Wix

• Mobile optimization
• Free to design with
• Cheap plans for additional services

Wix is possibly the unchallenged king of the website builder sites, and why not? It has a solid platform that’s easy to work with, amazing tools for crafting your own beautiful website, which makes Wix the obvious winner of any website building contest. Oh, did we mention the platform is totally free to design your website?

If you want to add on more services, Wix is incredibly reasonably priced too. For example, you can connect a domain name for just $5, get unlimited web space for $14, and tack on an Ecommerce solution for just $17. Believe it or not, Wix doesn't stop there. It offers excellent benefits for your website. For example, you can optimize your website for mobile devices, work with a WYSIWYG editing tool that requires no design or coding experience whatsoever, and include animation to your website without any hassle.

Wix lets you choose from thousands of gorgeous templates that make designing the perfect site for you a cinch. It also has a smart website wizard that’ll walk you through the entire design process in case you don’t know the first thing about creating a website (and who does?). If you want to get a little more advanced with your website, check out the app market that lets you connect hundreds of applications to your site as well. 

Read the full review

Web.com

• Drag-and-drop editor
• 24/7 live chat support
• Money back trial

Web.com is one of Wix’s close competitors. It offers flexible website building tools, and for as little as $1.95 per month. Add to that a solid money back guarantee, and you quickly understand why it is racing towards the top.

If you’ve never designed a website before, you’re in luck. Web.com’s drag-and-drop functionality lets you edit your design with ease. Just drag any element you want on your page to the location you want it to appear and let it go (drag and drop, get it?) for instant results.

The templates also make building your site a snap. You get all of the photos, images, headers, menus, and site content you'll need to make a killer design, so you just pick and choose the ones you like till you've created your masterpiece. It is one of the speediest ways to get your website up and running in no time.

We like the fact that Web.com has 24/7 customer support because, while this isn’t an emergency, when you run into trouble building your website, it’s nice to know that there's someone you can to turn to for help and advice. Additionally, the live chat option makes Web.com easy to access and a breeze to work with

Read the full review

SiteBuilder.com

• Website hosting provided
• SEO tools and Ecommerce store
• 10,000+ templates

A newer face to the website builder scene, SiteBuilder.com is a rapidly rising star. Including frequent backup, optional free hosting, and SEO tools, it’s not surprising that this company is making a name for itself and fast. In fact, you can churn out a beautiful website of your own in less than an hour, and without knowing a thing about HTML CSS or design.

SiteBuilder.com definitely has a lot going for it. For one thing, it provides hosting for all of its customers’ websites, so you don’t have to pay extra or go searching for a quality hosting service. Speaking of quality, SiteBuilder.com runs its software through Amazon and Google servers (ever heard of them?), so you can rest assured you won't have to deal with constant downtimes or quality issues.

If you don’t mind having a subdomain URL, then SiteBuilder.com will host your website completely free, forever. If you want a more exclusive option though, you can go for one of the 4 private plans for as little as $4.99 per month.

In terms of design, SiteBuilder.com has over 10,000 templates to choose from, drag-and-drop editor, and loads of design options to help you tailor your design to fit your exact specifications. 

Read the full review

The Advantages of Using a Website Builder

The minimum average cost of a website built by a designer is $2,000, but every time you change your mind, your bill can get larger. You also have to wait until your designer is available to make the changes you requested. And in the end there's a risk that you'll end up agreeing to a website that you're not actually happy with, just because you don't feel that you can afford to ask them to try something else.
Using a website builder is much less expensive. The best website builders offer plenty of choices. You can switch out the fonts, color schemes and templates as many times as you’d like, without paying anything extra. Making changes to your website using a website builder is also much faster. With a website builder, you are in control of everything, from the placement of the call-to-action button, to the font on your homepage.

What to Consider When Choosing a Website Builder Platform

The best website builder is the one that best fits your needs. Ask yourself some of these questions about your new website:

• What type of site will it be?
• What key features do you need?
• Are you running an online store? If so, how big will it be? Some website builders have Ecommerce plans that limit the number of items you can sell per month.
• What is the vibe of your business?

Ease of Use

The most important feature of a website builder is its usability. Try out the user interface on the 5 best website builders listed above by using their trial site builder. This will give you an idea of which one you find the most intuitive and easiest to use. If you do have some knowledge of coding, check that the website builders that give you access to the CSS code, too.

Ecommerce

Hopefully, your business will expand. In this case you need to ask yourself if you need a website builder that can process more online bookings, reservations, sales, or sales inquiries. Similarly, if you decide to transfer your site to a different hosting option in the future, can you easily download the full site?

Templates

You should also check which templates are available. Take the time to check that they aren’t all just slight variations of the same template. You’ll need templates for your business’ specific category, so a builder with hundreds of blog templates but none for restaurants won’t be much help if you’re promoting your corner cafe.

Features

All the best website builders offer a number of extra features to make building your website easier and better. Here are some features to look out for:

• Setup wizards which guide you through the building process
• Drag-and-drop, intuitive interface to design your site
• SEO tools such as editing meta tags
• Marketing tools including email marketing
• Built-in analytics to track visitors’ demographic, location, interests, and more
• Ecommerce tools such as multiple payment processor options, inventory tracking tools, product descriptions, etc.
• Integrated social media buttons to connect your social media networks with your new site
• Mobile-responsive sites that update at the same time as your main site
• Mobile-editing tools which permit you to continue tweaking your new website from your mobile phone

Site Speed and Tech Support

Your website loading speed is also important. You don't want to lose visitors just because your site takes a long time to load. Twenty-four hour technical support is vital if you're creating a website yourself and need help when you get stuck, even if that's the middle of the night. Finally, although pricing shouldn't be the main yardstick you use to measure a good website builder, you don't want to pay too much for a mediocre website builder, so compare prices as well.

Is a Free Builder Worth It?

If you just want to build a basic site without an online store, then free website builders are excellent ways to get started. Usually, the free website builder plans come with much less storage, slower load time, and fewer SEO and marketing tools, if any. Paid plans provide much better technical support and give you an ad-free website that doesn’t have any branding from the website builder. So, if you know that you need Ecommerce facilities, lots of storage space (for high-resolution images, videos, etc.), extra customer support, and/or a lot of webpages, free site builders are unlikely to work for you.
On the other hand, to just test the waters and begin establishing an online presence, a free website builder could give you just what you need to get started. This way you'll have a professional-looking website that unites your social media networks and gives you a platform to present your business without a lot of bells and whistles. You can then upgrade to a paid plan when you need it. This could be when you outgrow your existing storage limit, need more Ecommerce options, or want particular features such as analytics or email marketing that are only available for paid users.

The 3 Best Website Builders

1. Wix

Wix highlights:

• Over 500 templates for 15+ categories including design, photography, business, blog, and restaurants
• Extremely intuitive web design interface
• Mobile responsive web design

Wix stands out for its super intuitive and easy-to-use site builder system. The drag-and-drop interface allows even complete beginners to create a professional-looking site, with the help of over 500 templates in over 15 different categories.

Use Wix for intuitive site building.

2. SiteBuilder

SiteBuilder highlights:

• Highly-intuitive drag-and-drop interface
• Plenty of modern templates in multiple categories
• Responsive tech support that replies within seconds
  

SiteBuilder is a fully-hosted website builder so you can build and maintain your website on its platform. Its simplicity makes it great for beginners who need a very clear site building process, without too many options.

Try SiteBuilder for ease of use.

3. Web.com

Web.com highlights:

• Setup wizards to help complete novices
• A do-it-for-me option to create your website without any effort
• Switch out templates while saving your past work

If you’re worried about building your own website, Web.com helps you out by explaining every single step. You can also switch between templates without having to redo all your work.

Start using Web.com to switch templates without losing your work.