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BEST WEBSITE BUILDERS IN 2021

Designing your own website is easier than you think.  There is no need to pay an expensive  developer when you can make your own beautiful website in minutes. There are many options when choosing a website builder, how do you know which one to use? This article will show you the top 10 website builders with their benefits, drawbacks and price.

1.Webs.com

Perfect for the small business that wants to get their website up and running quickly. This builder features an easy to use drag and drop format and a price point on the cheaper side, making this great for beginners.

Price:

$1.95/month for just the website, add marketing starting at $2.95/month and ecommerce plans starting at $3.95/month.

Benifits:

• Choose from thousands of premade templates that will fit your theme.
• Compatible on mobile devices.
• Popular features include the ability to add photo, video, contact forms, social media, and map location.
• Ecommerce Tools: List up to 50 different products, track orders, accept credit cards securely and offer promotions.
• All plans include free domain name, SEO tools, security, business email and analytics.
• Phone and chat support included on all packages.

Limitations:

• Popular tools but not all tools, They fall short when it comes to the more powerful features you may need down the line.
• If your goal is Ecommerce the 50 product limit may be a reason to go another route.
• It can be difficult to switch platforms in the future.

2.Wix

This website builder is easy to use with the power others lack. The upgradeable features allow this platform to grow with your business.

Price:

Free with a WIX branded subdomain. $9.16/month to connect a domain. The combo plan is $14.95/month which includes a free domain and $26.25/month for everything plus ecommerce.

Benefits:

• Free Hosting, WIX does everything in house so that’s one less thing to worry about.
• Drag and drop with hundreds of templates to choose from.
• WIX ADI – Artificial Design Intelligence that does the design for you.
• Integrated apps created by WIX and 3rd party developers to help you get the most out of your site.
• Free Trial Plan is a great way to try before you buy.
• Free SSL security, just make sure to turn it on.

Limitations:

• You will most likely need to buy a domain name separately.
• Everything is in house, so leaving for another platform is a challenge.
• Free and basic versions of plans show advertisements on your website, you will need the combo plan or higher to remove them.

3. Shopify

This is currently the most popular website builder if you are focusing on ecommerce. Shopify has over 40 billion dollars worth of product being sold since its inception. To many this is the gold standard of ecommerce but there are still other options out there.

Price:

Basic plan $29/month, Upgraded plan $79/month and Advanced plan at $299/month.

Benefits:

• All in one ecommerce solution means you don’t need backups, software or updates.
• Integrated payment solutions lets you accept credit cards and third party payment gateways.
• Full inventory management: list an unlimited number of products, use in depth analytics, marketing solutions and design templates.
• In store POS you can use at your physical location while everything stays tracked online.
• Integrates with WordPress if you already have a site built through them.

Limitations:

• At first glance Shopify seems more expensive than other builders.
• Hard to move your website to another platform once set up with Shopify.

4. Weebly

Easy to set up and get your website live. Great design that makes users able to interact with the tools intuitively. A welcome place for true beginners.

Price:

They offer a free Basic plan and a paid plan for $8/month. They also have a Pro plan for $12/month and a Business plan $25/month.

Benefits:

• Hosted and managed which means no additional software for you.
• Design templates that make a great launching pad for your custom site.
• Ecommerce support to get your online store off the ground.
• Features like sliders, contact forms and photo galleries allow you to be creative without the headache.

Limitations:

• In house means no outside help so outside developers won’t be able to add to your site.
• Be aware there is a 3% transaction fee on every purchase made through the ecommerce store.
• You must upgrade to the business plan to avoid the fee.

5. SquareSpace

The one you hear on your favorite podcast and for good reason. This is a professional website builder that’s still easy to use and has beautifully designed templates. This builder will keep growing you with their professional features.

Price:

Website Basic plans are $12/month and $18/month. Ecommerce is $26/month and $40/month.

Benefits:

• Worry free website hosting with their enterprise grade infrastructure.
• Templates that are fully customizable that can combine with other templates at the same time.
• Easy typing features that allow you to add content quickly without too much editing.
• Ecommerce plans for an online store that include inventory tracking, product management, ordering, and promotion.

Limitations:

• Difficult to integrate with 3rd party services.
• Ecommerce is only compatible with Stripe, Apple Pay and PayPal, there are no additional payment gateways.

6. WordPress:

Considered the most popular website builder powering 41% of websites on the internet. Its power and ability to let you scale is only matched by its depth in plugins and add ons.

Price:

Free! but you will need your own domain name averaging $15/year and web hosting usually around $8/month.

Benefits:

• Free and open source means you can make a store, community forum, member only site or even a social network.
• Thousands of free Design templates that can be dropped right in and customized.
• Nearly 60,00 plug-ins for social media, analytics and more.
• Your site can be translated into many different languages.
• Powerful SEO tools to get your site popping up on the search engines.

Limitations:

• Must host your own website which can be a learning curve.
• You will need to stay on top of any updates including plugins so your site is always fully functioning.

7. Site123:

This is a cheap and easy to use website that has ecommerce features and mobility ability.

Price:

They offer a free plan as well as a Basic plan for $12.80/month. They also have a la carte upgrades available.

Benefits:

• Over 180 templates to choose from and integrate into your website.
• Very user friendly edit bar to make quick improvements.
• Ecommerce tools ready to go even on the free version.
• Support Chat is 24/7 to help whenever you need.

Limitations:

• Templates are not as customizable as other platforms.
• Most customization are pay to unlock.
• Not compatible with other platforms if you want to switch down the road.

8. Godaddy Website Builder:

Mostly known for being a domain name and hosting service, they also offer a simple website builder. This no frills option will have your website set up in minutes.

Price:

Personal Plan $5.99/month, Business Plan $9.99/month, Business Plus Plan 14.99/month.

Benefits:

• Drag and drop templates make building your site easy.
• Integrated photo library powered by Getty Photography for some great stock photos.
• Create your own image galleries and upload photos from your library.
• Ability to edit your website on a smaller screen, perfect when on the go.

Limitations:

• The design options and features are limited compared to other builders.
• Hard to move to another website builder once created on Go Daddy.
• Not the best for in depth custom websites.

9. Zyro:

This website builder is powerful and affordable, especially now as they are offering free hosting and discounts on premium plans.

Price:

The Basic plan is $1.89/month and the Unleashed plan with a free domain for $3.09/month. The Ecommerce plan is $8.99/month with 100 products maximum or upgrade to Ecommerce Plus $14.99/month with unlimited products.

Benefits:

• Simple and easy design tools make your websites seem professional with minimal effort.
• Pre made website templates ready to use
  It has its own logo maker.
• Access to over 1 million high quality free images.

Limitations:

• Switching templates may mean starting over, choose wisely.
• Not open source, so cannot integrate with 3rd party addons.
• Starter plan is not good enough, start with Unleash or better.
• Does not allow scheduling blog posts.

10. BigCommerce:

The focus of this builder is to drive money through your site. Like the name implies, if you are looking to do big ecommerce this could be the one for you.

Price:

Start with a 15 day free trial then the Basic plan for $29.95/month. The Plus plan is $79.95/month and for the highest end Pro plan its $249.95/month.

Benefits:

• Fully hosted and supported so you can focus on growing your business.
• Native integration with WordPress, which means you get the bells and whistles with the security.
• Compatible with Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Square, Visa Checkout, Chase Pay, Ayden and more. Also there is no transaction fee to use these gateways which Shopify charges for.
• Customizable templates with drag and drop.
• Built in features to help conversion rate optimization like improved product search and cart abandonment.
• Easy to understand dashboard to track your metrics and watch your business grow.

Limitations:

• High price point compared to the other platforms.
• Hard to leave or switch due to it being a proprietary platform.

Selection criteria What to look for:

I know we just went through a ton of seemingly similar website builders, but they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Now you need to ask yourself what builder satisfies your needs.

If you are just trying out an idea and want to build a quick website to test it, go with a cheaper or free option. If you are here to learn all about website builders in hope of creating complex integrated websites, choose something with plugins and adaptability. If your goal is a thriving ecommerce business, focus on who has those features and how much you want to spend to use them.

The bottom line is all of these platforms will get your website off the ground without needing to spend tons on a developer, so go choose a platform and get building!