Building a website is one of the smartest things you can do to establish and grow your online presence. But with so many website builder options out there, how do you choose the right one?
As a 15-year veteran webmaster, I‘ve helped over 500,000 people successfully start websites. In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll compare the top website builder platforms to help you confidently pick the best one based on your specific needs.
Here‘s what we‘ll cover:
- Key factors to compare website builders on
- In-depth reviews of the top 5 website builder options
- Tailored recommendations based on different use cases
- FAQs on website builders
- My #1 recommendation
Let‘s dive in!
Contents
- Key Factors to Compare Website Builders On
- In-Depth Reviews of the Top 5 Website Builders
- Recommendations Based on Your Goals
- FAQs on How to Choose the Best Website Builder
- Which is the overall best website builder?
- What‘s the #1 website builder for beginners?
- Is WordPress really 100% free to use?
- Can I build web stores with website builders?
- Do I need to know coding to use website builders?
- Can I switch website builders later on?
- Which website builder has the steepest learning curve?
- My #1 Recommendation for the Best Website Builder
Key Factors to Compare Website Builders On
When reviewing website builders, there are 8 key factors you need to evaluate:
1. Ease of Use
You want a website builder that‘s intuitive and beginner-friendly. Look for drag and drop site editors, hundreds of professional templates, and WYSIWYG customization.
The builder should minimize the learning curve so you can build a website without coding skills.
2. Built-In Features
Evaluate which core features come included out of the box. For example, does the builder offer blog, forum, membership, scheduling, or ecommerce functionality?
Also review the app marketplace to see what third-party integrations are available.
3. Customization Options
Look at how much flexibility you have to customize the design and layout to match your brand. Can you edit templates? Use custom CSS? Animate elements?
You‘ll want control over colors, fonts, styles, and responsiveness.
4. Security
The website builder should provide enterprise-grade security including SSL certificates, data encryption, uptime monitoring, and DDoS attack prevention.
5. Scalability
As your website traffic and storage needs grow, the platform should scale. Look for unlimited bandwidth, built-in CDNs, caching, and ability to handle spikes.
6. SEO Capabilities
Choose a website builder that makes SEO easy with support for metadata, sitemaps, alt text, SEO-friendly URLs, etc.
This will help you rank higher in search engines like Google.
7. Customer Support
Make sure the company provides sufficient support channels (live chat, email, phone, forums, documentation) and quick resolution times when you need help.
8. Pricing
Compare pricing tiers to find the best value. Watch out for hidden fees and forced upgrades. Many builders offer free plans but limit resources.
In-Depth Reviews of the Top 5 Website Builders
Now that you know what factors to compare website builders on, let‘s take a deep dive into reviews of the top 5 options:
1. WordPress – The Most Powerful Website Builder
WordPress is used by over 43% of all websites on the internet. This open-source CMS offers unmatched flexibility to make any kind of website from blogs to stores to community sites.
Unlike other website builders that lock you into their proprietary platforms, WordPress gives you full control and ownership over your site and data. You can easily switch hosts or export your content.
With WordPress, you have access to over 55,000 free plugins and thousands of themes to extend your site‘s functionality. For example, you can add payment integrations, forums, appointment booking, memberships, and more.
WordPress also has SEO advantages with customizable metadata, XML sitemaps, and Google loves it. For security, leading WordPress hosts like Bluehost offer free SSL certificates to encrypt data.
To customize the design, you can use WordPress page builders like Elementor to drag and drop content with no coding needed. Or hire one of thousands of WordPress developers to build fully custom features.
The only downside is the slight learning curve compared to beginner website builders. But with superior customization power and scalability, it‘s easy to see why WordPress dominates the web.
Notable users: New York Times, Microsoft, Forbes, TechCrunch
2. Wix – Best for Beginners
With over 200 million users, Wix is the easiest drag and drop website builder on the market. It‘s perfect for beginners, artists, freelancers, and entrepreneurs to create websites with minimal technical skills required.
Wix provides 500+ designer-made templates spanning different industries. You can customize colors, images, texts, and layouts using the intuitive Wix Editor that works like a document editor.
Other notable features include:
- 100GB free storage and unlimited bandwidth
- Built-in blog, gallery, contact form, and mailing list
- Native booking and appointment functionality
- AI-powered design tools like the Wix ADI smart builder
- SEO app with metadata tagging
The main downsides are the forced Wix subdomain (yourname.wixsite.com/mysite) on free plans and limitations compared to advanced open-source builders. But for simplicity, Wix can’t be beat.
Notable users: Gatorade, Forbes, Tripadvisor, Grammarly
3. Shopify – Best for Online Stores
Shopify dominates the ecommerce website builder market by powering over 1.7 million online stores. From secure hosting to SEO to promotions to payments, Shopify offers everything merchants need to successfully sell online in one seamless platform.
Shopify reduces the development work required to launch an online storefront. You can use professional themes and customization options to tailor the design to your brand without coding.
Other useful features include:
- Built-in discount engine and shopping cart recovery with , which boost conversion rates by 7-15%.
- Automatic speed optimizations like lazy loading and content delivery network (CDN) to increase page speeds
- Fraud analysis and 24/7 security monitoring powered by Shopify Payments
- 24/7 support via live chat, email, and phone
The main downside is the transaction fees Shopify charges, ranging from 2.4-2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, which can eat into margins compared to other processors.
Overall though, Shopify saves massive development time and provides peace of mind for store owners by handling the technical complexities behind the scenes.
Notable users: Kylie Cosmetics, Red Bull, Conde Nast, General Electric
4. Squarespace – Best for Portfolios
Squarespace empowers over 2 million websites with award-winning templates, powerful ecommerce, and integrated marketing tools. Their website builder is especially popular among creatives and digital agencies.
The platform includes hundreds of professionally designed templates that are optimized for visual portfolios. You can set up projects with customizable layouts, grids, animations, lightboxes, and full-screen displays to showcase visual work.
Other helpful Squarespace features include:
- Built-in mailing list, donation, and appointment tools with Stripe integration
- SEO optimization with XML sitemaps, meta tags, and alt text
- Advanced traffic and analytics to optimize pages
- Top-notch security with automatic HTTPS encryption
Potential downsides are the lack of community extensions compared to WordPress and higher monthly plans. But overall, Squarespace delivers a polished platform for creative portfolios.
Notable users: Casper, FiveThirtyEight, Madewell, WIRED
5. Webflow – Best for Designers
Webflow provides a robust drag and drop website builder for designers, developers, and digital agencies. Their visual tools allow you to build custom, interactive sites and web apps without coding them by hand.
The platform seamlessly generates clean, semantic HTML5 and CSS3 behind the scenes. You have complete control over animations, interactions, and dynamic content powered by JavaScript.
Key features include:
- Animation and interaction builder for advanced UX design
- Export static HTML to host anywhere
- CMS for managing dynamic content like blog posts
- Hosting and deployments
- Collaboration tools
Webflow lets you rapid prototype and design production-ready sites faster compared to traditional web dev workflows. The main limitations are no built-in ecommerce or blog features.
Overall though, Webflow fills an important niche for demanding projects that require pixel-perfect customization without manual coding.
Notable users: Facebook, Dropbox, Lyft, Apartment Therapy
Recommendations Based on Your Goals
The best website builder depends on your specific use case and goals. Here are my top picks tailored to different needs:
For Blogs: WordPress
As a 15-year blogging expert, I strongly recommend using WordPress if you want to start a blog. The CMS pioneered blogging and now powers most major online publications thanks to superior customization and community support.
For Online Stores: Shopify
Shopify simply provides the easiest all-in-one ecommerce solution for most new online stores. You can shortcut the complexities of building a custom storefront and instead focus on your products, marketing and customers.
For Portfolios: Squarespace
Squarespace‘s polished templates are perfect for photographers, designers, artists and creatives to showcase visual work online. You can skip learning to code and build a professional portfolio site in no time.
For Small Businesses: WordPress
WordPress empowers you to make tailored sites for small businesses beyond basic templates. With thousands of themes and plugins, you can build custom sites offering your unique services while scaling growth.
For Events: Wix
Wix makes it easy for anyone to create an event website with drag and drop tools for ticketing, schedules, guest management and more. Their AI website builder can even generate an event site for you in minutes.
FAQs on How to Choose the Best Website Builder
Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions I get about picking the right website builder:
Which is the overall best website builder?
WordPress is hands-down the best overall website builder available today. With over 43% market share, unlimited flexibility, affordable prices, and community support, WordPress simply can‘t be beaten for most websites.
What‘s the #1 website builder for beginners?
Wix is the easiest drag and drop website builder for complete beginners to use with no coding skills needed. Their editor simplifies building sites through an intuitive interface and included templates.
Is WordPress really 100% free to use?
Yes, WordPress open-source CMS software is 100% free forever. The only catch is you need web hosting, which starts around $7.99 / month, to use WordPress since all websites require hosting.
Can I build web stores with website builders?
Yes, many website builders like Shopify and WooCommerce (for WordPress) specialize in building ecommerce stores. They make it easy to build online shops without coding them yourself.
Do I need to know coding to use website builders?
No coding skills are required with the leading website builders we reviewed above. They provide drag and drop interfaces, templates and customization options to design sites visually without touching code.
Can I switch website builders later on?
Switching can be difficult with proprietary builders, but WordPress makes it easy since it‘s open-source. Migrating involves moving hosting and re-pointing your domain.
Which website builder has the steepest learning curve?
Generally the more flexibility the builder offers, the steeper the initial learning curve. WordPress has a slightly steeper learning curve than say Wix, but guides like mine help shorten the process.
My #1 Recommendation for the Best Website Builder
After helping over 500,000 users start successful websites over 15 years, my recommendation is clear…
Use WordPress as your website builder.
No other platform matches WordPress in terms of power, flexibility, affordability, and ease of use over the long-run.
With WordPress, you get:
✔️ Freedom to make any kind of website from blogs to stores to apps
✔️ Ownership over your site and content
✔️ Access to 55,000+ plugins and themes
✔️ Great SEO with Yoast or Rank Math
✔️ Easy domain setup and one-click installs
✔️ Scalability to handle enterprise traffic
✔️ And so much more…
Here‘s an overview of how I recommend most people get started with WordPress:
- Pick a domain name for your site
- Get shared hosting starting at $7.99/month from Bluehost.
- Install WordPress with one click
- Pick a theme like Astra or GeneratePress
- Add plugins like Yoast SEO, WPForms, etc
- Create content, customize design, publish!
You can get hosting with a free domain for cheap thanks to WPBeginner‘s Bluehost discount. Then spend your time building an amazing site vs struggling with inferior website builders.
Within 24 hours, you can have a professional, SEO-optimized and secure WordPress site launched. Pretty awesome right?
So if you‘re ready to build your next website the right way, join 43% of the web on the WordPress platform. Ultimately it provides the best long-term solution and room to grow.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
