A good-looking, functional, and user-friendly website is crucial for online businesses. However, finding the right website-building platform to fit all your needs may be complicated due to the wide range of available options.
For this reason, we’ve created this guide to choosing the best platform for building your website, whether it’s a small personal blog or an enterprise-level e-store.
In this article, you’ll find out which types of sites can be created with a website builder, how to determine which features to look for, and which platforms are the best based on these features.
Additionally, we’ll answer the most popular questions related to the best website builders. In the end, we’ll recommend three clear winners to suit different needs.
What Kind of Sites Can Be Created With a Website Builder?
A website builder allows you to create the same websites as you can with coding – but the process is much easier. Here’s just an example of the kinds of sites you can make:
Blog
Due to most website builders’ simplicity, they are great for blogs. Whether you’d like to create a small personal blog or a large tech-review site, a website builder can help you do it without hiring a professional.
WordPress was initially developed as a blogging platform, and all the other plug-ins and functions were added much later. Website builders typically have a selection of templates, which make the building process more convenient – you don’t have to worry about the look of your blog and can focus on writing instead.
Business Website
Online business websites typically consist of a contact page, FAQ, and a list of the primary services, with optional additions. Thus, this kind of site is quite simple to construct – no complicated plug-ins are required. A website builder allows you to create an online business website yourself, even if you aren’t too tech-savvy.
E-Commerce
Every fully functional website builder these days has some sort of e-commerce plug-in available or at least offers the option to connect a third-party e-store tool, such as Google Commerce.
Such websites typically cost significantly more to create and have hosted than regular blogs or portfolio websites but are undoubtedly worth it in the era of online shopping. Depending on the specific website builder and e-commerce plug-in you choose, you may be able to promote your store, add the option to accept different currencies, send out regular promotional emails to your customers, and much more.
Job Board
Job boards are pretty straightforward in terms of creation and can earn you extra income. You can either charge a fee for viewing the job posting or make it free to view and, instead, earn money from ads on your site.
Website builders allow you to create both niche and general use job boards, with a convenient posting and contact system due to a wide range of available plug-ins.
Question and Answer Website
Websites such as Quora or Yahoo Answers are easy to make with a website builder – you only need one plug-in to allow people to share their knowledge on your site. It could be either a stand-alone website or a part of a more significant site, free to use or accessible for a fee, depending on the sort of topics discussed and your audience.
Non-Profit Website
Non-profit organizations such as charities and churches may need a website to raise awareness and donations. Website builders allow you to create an informative website for free, while additional plug-ins let you accept donations through various payment methods.
Portfolio
A portfolio website is a great alternative or addition to a regular CV, especially for people in creative professions. Creating one with a website builder is cheap (often free) and easy – plug-ins allow you to add a convenient contact form, a gallery of your works, and much more.
Furthermore, if your job is related to design or website development, a good-looking and user-friendly website built on WordPress will showcase your skills.
Forums and Other Communities
Creating a forum with a website builder is possible even if you don’t know how to code. Apart from the question-and-answer function, you can also add social media sharing buttons, a search bar, informative articles, and more, expanding your forum into a proper online community.
Auction Website
Auction websites, such as eBay or Amazon, are a specific type of e-commerce site. Instead of offering your own products or services, you can create a site for others to sell things and bid on them. You may take a monthly fee for using the website or earn from advertisements. Both functions are easy to set up, thanks to available website builders plug-ins.
Podcasting Website
If you have a popular podcast on social media, creating a website may be a good idea to stand out from the crowd of other podcasters.
Another option is to create a social platform for anyone willing to post their podcasts, offering more tools to attract more new followers than Spotify and a more suitable platform for audio than YouTube.
News
News websites aren’t much different from a blog in terms of creation, but additional features may vary. With the help of plug-ins, you can charge a fee from your readers to access important content, allow them to add comments to posts, share them on social media, and much more. Furthermore, pre-designed templates let you focus on finding the most interesting news instead of worrying about the look of your site.
What to Look For in a Website Builder
After you’ve decided on the type of website you wish to create, it’s time to choose the right website builder. Of course, it’s crucial to understand which features to look for before you begin. Below, you’ll find a list of the key points to consider.
Ease of Use
One of the key reasons for using an online website builder is to avoid hiring a professional developer. Therefore, ease of use is crucial. Make sure you understand exactly how the platform works and can make edits to the website yourself.
Even though website builders are undoubtedly more accessible for a regular user than coding, they vary significantly in user-friendliness. Some platforms may have a broader range of customization options and a more complicated interface, requiring a basic knowledge of HTML.
Another website builder format is a drag-and-drop editor, which is highly convenient and easy to use. However, such websites often look almost the same due to limited editing options. The key here is to find the balance between user friendliness and feature scope.
Design Templates
Design is what first catches the eye when looking at your website, and it may either convince people to stay or push them away. Unless you’re ready to hire a professional designer, good templates should be an essential factor in your decision-making.
‘Good’ doesn’t simply mean ‘beautiful,’ though. Your website’s design should help users navigate easily, represent your brand’s values, show that you care about every aspect of your online business, and shouldn’t steal attention from the primary purpose of your website. Thus, pre-designed website templates are usually simple yet stylish and are developed with user experience in mind. The number of available templates is essential, too – if a website builder only offers a few, chances are there will be plenty of websites that are indistinguishable from yours.
Responsive Options for Different Devices
These days, a website that only works well on a PC is doomed to fail. Many users browse the web on their phones or tablets, meaning that your website needs to be optimized for any device. This doesn’t only relate to correct page scaling – sometimes, site elements need to be re-arranged to fit a smaller screen that won’t flaw the user experience.
On a large PC monitor, you will have plenty of space on the sides of your webpage, which can be used for advertisements, contact forms, and other elements.
But on the mobile version, these elements need to be moved somewhere else – for example, to the bottom of the page. If you move elements such as ads to the top of the page, they may interfere with the site content and scare users away.
Mobile website versions may also have additional elements that aren’t available on a desktop version, such as quick social media sharing buttons.
Customization Options
Even though we recommend using a design template to ensure the user-friendliness of your website, customization options are crucial for your website to stand out and fit your needs.
Two websites with the same template can look completely different depending on the color choice, images and icons, fonts used, and other elements.
Customization options include design and the availability of various plug-ins that can help you tailor your website features to your preference.
The more comprehensive the range of functions you can choose from, the higher your chances you’ll create a truly unique website that won’t get lost among hundreds of similar sites.
Social Sharing Features
Social media is one of the best ways to promote your online business or personal blog. Thus, social sharing integrations are essential – they allow your website visitors to share your content in one click.
The more buttons you add, the better. Don’t limit this feature to Twitter and Instagram only. Consider adding quick buttons for WhatsApp or Telegram, for example, to send content via direct messages.
Customer Support
It’s easy to find information on the general features of different website builders, but finding answers to specific questions may be much more complicated. You may need to contact support in case something goes wrong with the website. Thus, look for a website builder that offers 24/7 customer support instead of relying solely on your knowledge.
Pricing
Pricing is what determines the value of a service, including a website builder. However, you don’t have to choose the cheapest option. Instead, consider whether you’re going to earn money from your website, which features you need, and which you can live without.
If you’re creating an online business or e-commerce site, it shouldn’t leave you with more expenses than profit. Remember that even though you can easily find a free website builder, in most cases, the hosting will only be free so long as you use a certain domain name (usually one with the website builder’s name included).
Thus, if you want a custom domain, you need to purchase a hosting platform. Take a look at different pricing plans – usually, the cost varies depending on the number of views per month and storage space.
SEO Features
There are two main ways of promoting your website to new audiences: social media exposure and SEO. If you don’t want your site to be lost on the last pages of search engines, look for a website builder that offers SEO tools such as keywords, meta description, image tags, and more. Sometimes, you need to pay extra to get those features, but they’re worth it, as running a website without visitors makes no sense.
Image Library
High-resolution, quality images can significantly improve the look of your website and make it stand out. Of course, you can use stock photo services such as Shutterstock, but often you have to pay extra to use content from these websites.
Some website builders, on the other hand, include an image gallery for free. Another advantage of a free image library in your website builder is that you won’t have to upload and optimize images from other sources to your website – they’re there and ready to use.
E-Commerce Plug-in
If you’re creating a web store, this feature should affect your choice of website builder the most. You may want to explore various kinds of e-commerce plug-ins in advance, choose the one you prefer, and then check which website builders it’s compatible with. While some e-store plug-ins are available for nearly any website builder, others are created for specific kinds. There are plenty of features to keep in mind when deciding on the best e-commerce plug-in for you.
The ability to accept different currencies and payment methods, emails alerting customers to abandoned carts, discount codes, guest checkout, refunds, and inventory management are only a small part of the points you need to consider.
Best Website Builders
This section will share the best website builders, explore their key features, and determine their pros and cons.
HOT OFF THE PRESS:
Before we jump into the top 7 website builders, we wanted to mention Strikingly as this is a new awesome website builder which we think you should check out. With Strikingly you can literally make a website in minutes with zero coding or design skills required. Check it out below!
1. Friday
Friday is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder with plenty of features that help users create visually stunning sites with no experience required. Suitable for all types of websites, Friday is available in a one-size-fits-all subscription that delivers everything you need to build and maintain a website.
There are plenty of customizable templates you can choose from to start building your site, from templates oriented toward online e-commerce sites to designs for small businesses and personal blogs. Each template can be previewed on various platforms, with the option to mix and match templates for a unique layout and style.
Beyond the templates, Friday's website builder delivers a comprehensive suite of tools to fine-tune the interface to help create a great user experience. The drag-and-drop interface makes it perfect for beginners, while under the hood, options for tweaking the site's code are there for experienced web developers to explore.
This gives Friday impressive versatility for all scenarios and levels of experience for creating fully optimized websites that are both user-friendly and stylish. The addition of SEO (search engine optimization) tools and comprehensive web analytics allows for the continuous improvement and development of your website's content and performance.
Website monetization is also possible thanks to Friday's complete range of e-commerce tools, covering everything from online store and payment processing features to forms and integrated feedback. If you're an online seller with large inventories, you can automatically sync your products to your store's catalog, tracking sales metrics to maximize conversions.
While many website builders require additional fees for add-ons and other high-end features, Friday rolls everything into a single subscription. This covers the website builder, all its tools, and a custom domain name compatible with all registrars. You'll also get SSL security measures included in the price, making Friday the best website builder for all website requirements.
Pros
- Intuitive drag-and-drop user interface
- Single subscription covering all features
- No hidden expenses or costly add-ons
- Fully customizable website templates
- 24/7 customer support
Cons
- A limited selection of templates
2. WordPress
WordPress was initially created as a blogging platform and is a content management system (CMS) rather than a regular website builder. This means that the platform offers a wide range of content customization options – perhaps, the widest out of all website building platforms. The website builder is free to use, but the platform also offers various paid hosting plans.
How exactly does the management content system on WordPress work? The platform features thousands of pre-designed templates and themes and allows you to fully tailor the design to your liking using a block editor.
Managing content on WordPress is slightly different from other platforms, though – you need to be a bit more tech-savvy. While other website builders feature drag-and-drop editors, WordPress may require basic HTML or CSS knowledge to get the most out of its functionality.
The most important advantage of WordPress is the number of available plug-ins – both free and paid. The directory consists of over 58,000 plug-ins to bring your ideas to life. This makes the platform suitable for just about any website type imaginable.
WooCommerce is among the best and most popular e-commerce plug-ins for WordPress, but there are hundreds of other tools available if, for some reason, you don’t like WooCommerce. The platform also offers SEO and marketing tools, site optimization for mobile devices, and customer support.
Of course, WordPress isn’t perfect – you’re fully responsible for the security, updates, and the back-end of your website unless you use WordPress hosting. It’s also not the best option for those who want to create a small website, as it’s not the simplest platform out there.
Pros
- Wide range of customization options
- Free
- Thousands of plug-ins
Cons
- A bit more complicated than drag-and-drop website builders
- No site protection unless using a WordPress hosting
3. Wix
Wix is a simple drag-and-drop website builder with hundreds of pre-designed templates available. Wix is free, so long as you use the Wix domain name, allow ads, and don’t purchase a hosting plan. If you wish to use a custom domain and remove ads, you’ll have to pay $14 a month or more for a personal blog, depending on additional features and storage space.
E-commerce features also cost extra; however, you get the whole commercial package rather than separate plug-ins as with WordPress, which may be both a pro and a con.
Although Wix does offer lots of templates, the design customization options are limited compared to WordPress. There’s no way to make a website from scratch – you need to combine existing layouts and themes, which may lead to your site looking like hundreds of other websites. However, you can move certain elements around.
The good thing is Wix is extremely beginner-friendly. The platform even offers artificial design intelligence, which was developed to generate your website elements in accordance with the specific type of website you choose.
For example, ADI can pick the best design for a particular purpose, connect your social media, create a contact form automatically, and more. The platform also offers customer support and detailed guidance during website creation.
Another significant advantage of Wix is that it does most of the back-end work for you if you aren't too tech-savvy. Wix creates backups of your data and automatically protects each site with an HTTP protocol and SSL certificate.
Finally, just like WordPress, Wix offers extensions for various purposes, but the number provided by Wix pales in comparison. While WordPress has a collection of thousands of plug-ins, Wix only has a couple hundred, as the platform is closed. This means that a regular user can’t create a Wix plug-in.
However, there’s one significant advantage; the platform checks all extensions for compatibility, so the plug-in installation process is generally much more straightforward than WordPress.
In conclusion, Wix may not be the best option for large commercial websites, but it’s undoubtedly an excellent fit for those who have no experience in website building. The platform guides you through every step of the process, and it’s challenging to create a bad-looking website, even with a limited user experience on Wix.
Pros
- Ease of use
- Pre-designed templates
- Plenty of plug-ins
- All plug-ins are optimized
Cons
- Limited customization options
- Ads in the free version
4. Weebly
Weebly is very similar to Wix – it’s a free drag-and-drop website builder which is best suited for smaller online business websites and personal blogs.
Keep in mind that the platform is only free if you allow advertising, use the Weebly domain name, and don’t require more than 500MB storage. To remove ads and run a larger website, you’ll have to purchase one of the premium paid plans.
The cheapest plan starts at $6 a month and only offers you a custom domain; thus, we don’t recommend it as it doesn’t provide good value. The second plan is better: at $12 a month, it unlocks unlimited storage and removes ads.
There are plenty of pre-designed templates available on Weebly, although not as many as WordPress or Wix – only about 40. The good part is that templates are stylish, user-friendly, and each of them is optimized for different devices.
You can instantly change the theme at any moment, even after your website goes online. The process of building a website is simple – you can move elements around as you wish, and the finished website looks the same online as what you see while creating it. However, the customization options are minimal, meaning that your website is unlikely to stand out.
Weebly guides you throughout the website creation process, has 24/7 customer support, and all the necessary plug-ins you may need. In the Weebly App Center, you can find tools for SEO, marketing, social, communication, e-commerce, and plenty of others. Some of these extensions are free, while others may cost you up to $30 a month.
Of course, Weebly can’t offer as many plug-ins as WordPress, as that’s a closed platform. But this also means every extension gets checked for flawless compatibility.
Pros
- Ease of use
- Pre-designed templates
- Affordability
Cons
- Ads in the free version
- Limited functionality
5. WebSelf
WebSelf is another simple drag-and-drop website builder that offers the creation of a website, blog, or online store. Made for beginners, they have many templates and section templates to choose from. WebSelf also allows you to create a free 5-page website if you use the WebSelf domain name and enable ads. The hosting, HTTP protocol and SSL certificate are always included.
If you need to create a website with more pages, their premium plans start at $8.95 per month ($107.40 annually). If you want to make an online store to sell your products, you must choose their eCommerce plan ($18.45 per month when billed annually). Please note that WebSelf does not take any commission on your sales and offers Stripe and PayPal for online payments. In sum, this website builder seems to have more affordable rates than other competitors.
WebSelf also allows you to customize its templates to create your website. You can easily add pictures, texts, maps, forms, and videos by dragging and dropping the elements you want. Of course, the design customization options are limited when compared to other options like WordPress. However, it is possible to create a website from scratch if you have a precise idea in mind. They even have section templates to help you create specific sections of your site in just a few clicks (open hours, homepage, contact page, menu, etc.)
Another advantage of WebSelf is the fact that its templates are responsive. When you create a website, a mobile version is automatically created. You can always modify the mobile version if needed. You can also decide to make a multilingual website if required when you choose one of the premium options.
Support is available through email at the moment. It takes between 24 to 48 business hours to receive and answer.
In sum, WebSelf is a good platform for beginners who want to create their first site, whether it is a website for their startup, blog, or online store.
Pro's
- Ease of use
- Pre-designed and responsive templates
- Affordability
Cons
- Limited customization options
- Ads in the free version
- Few plug-ins
6. Squarespace
Unlike most of its competitors, Squarespace does not have a free plan, although the platform offers a 14-day free trial to try out all the features. The cheapest plan – $12 a month – is suitable for personal use, while the most expensive e-commerce plan costs $40 a month. Custom domain registration is included with all the plans, and your website will be free from ads until you decide to add them yourself.
Squarespace features over 100 attractive design templates that are optimized for different devices. Each template is exceptionally user-friendly and with close attention to detail – everything from pictures to fonts goes together perfectly.
You can look at some of the templates in advance on the official Squarespace website. The platform also offers a broader range of customization options compared to Weebly but doesn’t stand up to the competition from WordPress.
Squarespace may be the best choice for bloggers, as it has built-in support for commenting, multi-author posting, and a post scheduling feature. Furthermore, with the Squarespace mobile app, you can edit your content on the go. Partnering with Lucrative Studio for building and optimizing your Squarespace website and app can further enhance your online presence and rank higher in search results.
The features of Squarespace aren’t as impressive, though. The platform does offer the basic plug-ins for SEO, e-commerce, marketing, and more, but it also has limitations.
So, in terms of a site map, only one level is available below the main navigation. Squarespace also doesn’t properly support multilingual websites and doesn’t back up your data. Customer support is available through chat and email.
Thus, Squarespace is an excellent platform for blogs and other small websites due to its simplicity and attention to design, but it isn’t the best fit for enterprise-level businesses.
Pros
- Free from ads
- Ease of use
- Customer support
Cons
- No free version
- No multilingual support
7. Webnode
Webnode is yet another drag-and-drop website builder, but it has one significant advantage compared to Squarespace or Weebly.
Webnode supports over 20 languages and lets you create multilingual websites, and offers customer support for each of these languages. This may be a crucial point if you own an online business that operates in foreign countries or if your first language isn’t English.
The platform is available for free, but as with many other website builders, you must use a Webnode domain to get the free 100MB of storage. The paid play, however, is quite affordable. To create a custom domain, you’ll have to purchase the cheapest plan for $3.90 a month, while the cost of building a professional multilingual site is $12.90 a month. All the paid plans are ad-free.
When it comes to design, Webnode isn’t much different than Weebly and Wix. It’s a simple drag-and-drop editor with a wide range of pre-designed templates and limited customization options.
You can’t edit the website’s HTML code; changing the template without losing all your data after the site has been published is also impossible, which is a significant disadvantage.
Webnode supports three levels of website navigation. The available plug-ins include SEO tools, integrated e-commerce extensions developed specifically for the platform, analytics tools, and many more.
You can also connect AdSense and other Google extensions. And now the leading ‘con’ of Webnode – adding social media integrations, a search box, and some of the other basic features are impossible.
Overall, this platform is excellent for portfolio websites, blogs, and other small sites, primarily non-English, but not so much if you’re looking for extensive functionality.
Pros
- Over 20 available languages
- Ease of use
- Affordable
Cons
- No social sharing plug-in
- Limited customization options
8. Duda
Duda is a website builder that is focused on design rather than functionality. Thus, it’s perfect for those with little to no experience looking to create a small personal-use website. Duda doesn’t offer a free plan, but you can sign up for a free 14-day trial. If you decide to continue with the purchase, you’ll have to pay $14 a month for the basic plan and up to $44 for the premium plan. There’s also an option to create a custom pricing plan to suit your personal needs.
The platform offers customer support on every paid plan – via email on the basic plan and via email, chat, and phone on higher plans.
The platform offers about 100 stylish design templates that can be filtered by category for your convenience. Each template is optimized for all sorts of devices and can be previewed before implementing it.
You get the basic customization options, such as moving some elements around or changing the color of details, but you’ll have to stick with the overall template style and layout you’ve picked. Duda features a built-in photo editor integration and image library.
The process of adding extensions to a Duda website is user-friendly and relatively straightforward. The platform does offer e-commerce, SEO, marketing, and many more tools, all of which get tested for compatibility.
Duda’s e-commerce plug-in supports over 30 payment methods, automatic tax calculation, coupon codes, product inventory, and customizable shipping options and rates – all the essential e-store features. While analytics and SEO tools are pretty basic, they’re free and still do the job.
Pros
- Great design templates
- Customer support via various channels
- Ease of use
Cons
- No free version
- Limited functionality
9. Shopify
Shopify has been designed specifically for e-stores. The cheapest pricing plan starts at $9 a month, while the most expensive plan comes at $299. There’s also a custom pricing option and a 14-day free trial available. You don’t have to purchase separate e-commerce hosting – Shopify does all the work for you.
The platform offers only nine free design themes, but you can pay for one of the 64 premium templates, which generally range between $100 and $180. All themes are responsive to different devices and are customizable.
Furthermore, if you don’t like any of the suggested themes, you can create your own from scratch. One of the core differences between Shopify and other platforms in our selection is that on Shopify, you can’t simply drag-and-drop elements.
Instead, you need to use a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of editor where you need to fill in a form manually and check the preview afterward. This type of content editing is still easier than learning to code, but you do get access to the website’s HTML code if you wish.
The strongest aspect of Shopify is the wide range of e-commerce integrations. Its reputation as one of the most popular e-store platforms is well deserved. It supports various languages and payment methods, custom shipping rates, automatic tax calculation, and just about any other online shopping tool you can think of.
You need to pay attention to the ratio of pictures in the product catalog, though. Shopify doesn’t crop them to a particular format automatically, meaning that if you neglect to edit your photos, your store may look a bit messy.
Pros
- The widest range of e-commerce plug-ins
- Premium design templates
- Payment plans to fit any needs
Cons
- Solely for e-stores
- Pricey and complicated compared to competitors
10. Dorik
Dorik is an easy drag-and-drop website builder with stunning pre-built templates available. Starting Dorik is free. If you want to add your own domain, you have to purchase Dorik’s premium plans.
The best thing about Dorik is its extreme beginner-friendliness. Dorik offers 60+ free templates with easy customization options. Also, you can build a website from scratch. They have section templates to help you build specific sections in a few clicks. Their top-notch elements and free illustrations will help you make your website different from thousands of other websites out there.
Another good thing is Dorik has a preview button, so you can visualize the outcome of your website when building and change it accordingly.
Furthermore, Dorik does all the back-end work for you, creates backups of the data, and protects each site. Global CDN makes your site load fast, and its built-in SEO helps you to optimize your site smoothly and effectively.
Dorik’s white-label CMS helps you to start your own business and remove Dorik's branding. The platform also offers customer support and detailed documentation to make your website creation journey effortless.
In sum, Dorik is an excellent option for those who want to start their own agency, or have no experience in website building. The platform is the simplest out there and guides you through every step of building your website.
Pros
- Pre-built templates
- White label CMS with built-in SEO
- Very affordable and low learning curve
Cons
- E-commerce functionality is limited
- Different pricing plans for CMS and Classic could be confusing
FAQ
This section will cover some of the most common answers related to choosing the perfect website builder.
Which Website Builder is Easiest to Use?
There’s no universal answer to which platform is the easiest to use, as it depends on a scope of factors. In terms of content management, all drag-and-drop website builders are equally beginner-friendly.
Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, and Webnode all offer step-by-step guidance on creating a website. Pre-designed templates are another essential factor that affects the ease of use, and all the platforms mentioned above have a wide selection to choose from.
Of course, user-friendliness also depends on the compatibility of plug-ins and optimization of your website for different devices.
Overall, Wix and Weebly are the clear winners. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider other platforms such as WordPress, though – learning it is still manageable, and your decision should be based merely on the functionality of a platform.
What Website Builder is Best for SEO & Content Marketing?
The best website builders have native integrations and SEO tools and provide the best optimization to any site. Such builders are used for creating a website within minutes instead of spending days developing the user interface. But some of the website builders mentioned above do not have the appropriate blogging features. Instead, a third-party app is required to build a fully functional SEO blog.
For that purpose, tools like DropInBlog are used in the process. This cloud-based platform has various integration benefits since it has code that can be embedded in the HTML site in BigCommerce, Wix, Kartra, WordPress, Yola, Shopify, ClickFunnels, etc. This way, you can create a fully functional blog on any of the website builders mentioned and enjoy the benefit of an easy-to-use blog that will help you boost your rankings in Google search results.
Is Wix Really Free?
Wix does offer a free version, but its functionality is quite limited. With the free plan, you can’t remove Wix ads, need to use a Wix domain, and small storage space is relatively small.
You can connect a custom domain and get rid of ads for $14 a month. To increase the storage, you’ll have to pay at least $18 a month, while the cheapest e-commerce package comes at $23 monthly.
Thus, Wix is free for small blogs or business websites, but you have to purchase a paid plan for larger websites, especially e-stores. However, Wix isn’t the only website building platform to use this pricing system, but it’s still more affordable than Shopify.
Is WordPress Better Than Wix?
WordPress has advantages and disadvantages compared to Wix, depending on which features are crucial for you in a website builder. Wix is more beginner-friendly than WordPress; the drag-and-drop functionality is straightforward, all the plug-ins integrate flawlessly, and you’re guided throughout the whole website creation process.
WordPress, on the other hand, is a clear winner in terms of possibilities. Thousands of themes and plug-ins, a wide range of customization options, and the ability to edit the site’s HTML code make WordPress undoubtedly better for an enterprise-level online business website with significant traffic and extensive functionality.
Frankly, these two platforms are hard to compare, as WordPress is a proper content management system, while Wix is a simple website builder. The pricing systems are very different, too.
On Wix, you need to pay to get rid of ads and get a custom domain, whereas WordPress is completely free unless you purchase paid plug-ins.
Still, you can make a WordPress website look professional without spending a dime on it, while for Wix, you’d likely have to purchase, at the least, the cheapest plan.
Does Wix Own My Domain Name?
If you’re using the free version of a Wix website, you can only use a Wix domain – obviously, owned by Wix. To change the domain, you need to purchase one of the premium payment plans.
There are two options: The first is to buy a domain from a third-party hosting site and connect it to your Wix website. In this case, the platform won’t own it. The second option is to purchase a domain directly from Wix, which offers decent hosting and does most of the back-end work for you. This makes a Wix-owned domain actually a good option.
What Is the Most Flexible Website Builder in Terms of Design?
No website builder can withstand the competition with WordPress in terms of design flexibility. Thousands of premium and free themes help your website stand out among others, while plug-ins and widgets allow creating any type of content.
As the platform is open-source, anyone can develop and add extensions and templates to the library, so it’s constantly expanding. No two WordPress websites will look the same, which is vital for gaining recognition among users.
Recommendations – Our Top Picks
Now that you know the pros and cons of all the most popular website building platforms and have determined which features are crucial for you personally, it’s time to reach a conclusion. Find out which platforms are the winners below and discover a worthy alternative.
Friday
We like Friday because it's a really easy drag and drop website builder with plenty of features. Their single subscription model is a real hit with users because you have a fixed fee that doesn't change with your usage.
ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a less hyped, but certainly not less functional, alternative to the likes of Wix and Weebly. It’s noticeably more expensive than the competitors, coming at either $97 or $297 a month (depending on the features you choose) after the 14-day free trial. Its main advantage is that it focuses on earning money.
You can integrate various payment and advertising options in a few clicks, apart from other plug-ins for e-commerce, marketing, analytics, and SEO. Another feature worth mentioning is the built-in A/B testing.
ClickFunnels allows you to display two different versions of the same webpage to view percentages of your traffic and analyze which version works better. Of course, pre-designed templates and basic customization options are also available.
Furthermore, you can add a ClickFunnel extension to a WordPress website to make content editing easier.
Wix
What makes Wix so great is the balance between ease of use and a wide range of features. It deserves first place in terms of user-friendliness – anyone can build a website on Wix due to its convenient drag-and-drop functionality. The platform protects your website and does backups.
The pre-designed templates look great and are just customizable enough to make your website look different from others but not overcomplicate the process. Step-by-step guidance during site creation is a great bonus, but artificial design intelligence is a truly revolutionary feature that makes Wix the best platform for nonprofessionals.
Although the number of available plug-ins isn’t as extensive as WordPress, there are still significantly more of them than Weebly or Squarespace. Last, all plug-ins are tested and optimized to work on different devices.
WordPress
For online businesses or popular personal blogs, we recommend WordPress. It requires basic tech knowledge, but you get complete control over every website feature. As WordPress is an open-source platform, the available themes and plug-ins are constantly expanding.
Some extensions for WordPress, such as WooCommerce, are the best available options on the market. For $14-$32 a month (depending on features chosen), you get a full scope of advanced online shopping features that will be sufficient even for the largest businesses.
It’s also significantly cheaper and easier to use than its main competitor, Shopify. WordPress is just as great for noncommercial websites, too, as most of its features are entirely free.
Try Them Out
Hopefully, our guide has helped you to discover how the most popular website building platforms differ and which is the best for you. Thankfully, most platforms are either free or offer a free trial, meaning that you can test each one to see which option is best for your online business to create a professional website today!
Suppose you’re just starting out as an online business or blogger and can’t decide between our recommendations. In that case, you can create a basic website on Wix and move on to a more advanced platform such as WordPress later, after you gain some experience.
Remember that, in the end, the most important feature that attracts users to your website is the content.
