Looking for a place to create a free website? There are plenty of resources that allow you to create you own website, blog, wiki, or social community without having to know any programming language.
These free (mostly..at least starting options) website creation sites allow you to easily create a site, customize the design, add content, and have your own domain name.
It is crazy how many people don’t even have a website even as freelance web designers. If you don’t know where to start – start here! Start by having online presence and establishing your own branding.
Create your own website TODAY!
If you aren’t ready yet or cannot afford to have your own domain and website, take a look at 50 of easiest website builder tools and be online in less than 2 hours! (I am not kidding).
Free website builder versions are not the best starting point, but it is still good starting point (usually you can easily upgrade if you like them). Downsides is that you don’t really own your content or don’t have really full control over your website until you get your own domain and hosting. So free versions have their limitations, but hey – it’s better to start!
Introduction
At 1stWebDesigner we are driven to helping you succeed in establishing and developing an online presence so you can achieve success with your online business. Needless to say, you’re going to need a kick-ass and professional-looking website to get you started.
These days, there are tons of products and services that make it easier than ever before to get your website up and running in just a matter of moments. Yet, we keep hearing the same excuses people have been using for years as to why many aspiring business owners don’t have their website live on the Internet for the world to see.
Some of the most common reasons we keep hearing include that they have no coding knowledge, they’re unable to afford paying professional web developer rates, or they simply don’t have the time to create and maintain their own business website.
Fortunately for you, at 1stWebDesigner we like making it difficult for our readers to say that they can’t get their online business venture started TODAY. This is why in this post we’ll be reviewing the top website builders currently in the market.
What are Website Builders?
Whether you want to start an online business or you are just looking to create a blog site to attract a like-minded audience, having a visually appealing and user-friendly website is crucial if you want any chance of success.
Website builders are exploding in popularity precisely because they enable users to create websites without you having to know how to code or be a talented creative designer. In fact, Website Builders do not require any technical knowledge at all.
Although each package comes in different sizes and flavors, website builders typically include WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) builders that let you create your website by dragging and dropping website elements into the content area.
Thus, these awesome products make it almost impossible for people to have an excuse for not setting up their “virtual storefront”. We love them because they look great, they are easy to use, they cost little to no money AND they enable aspiring business owners to get started right away.
Webflow is responsive web design tool, builder for designers. Just enjoyed how they present themselves.
Picking a Website Builder
Like any new buzz-generating tool in the market, website builders have led to the rise of hundreds of copycat products that are just trying to capitalize on popular trends. More often than not, they are just awfully cheap versions that come littered with spammy ads and should just be avoided at all costs. Easier said than done, right? Right.
Knowing how to pick a quality Website Builder can be tricky since many advertisers will use similar marketing materials that sound great but the actual product ends up coming up far short of what was promised. In the end, they can turn out to be major headaches (especially the free versions) that end up costing more time and potentially more money than you ever anticipated.
Fortunately, we’ve done the hard work for you so in this piece we’ll be highlighting what we feel are truly the best Website Builders currently in the market today as well as some that are not quite up to par. Choosing a quality website builder that fits your unique needs and style is important to creating a great looking website that can help promote your brand and grow your business.
So without further ado, let’s take the 1WD tour of our top 50 Website Builders.
Easiest Website Builder, Editor’s Choice: Wix
Wix has earned a reputation for having some of the most beautiful websites on the web. They provide gorgeous templates and a huge amount of features that let users create beautiful and interactive websites.
Wix is the easiest website builder we recommend as our top choice.
Wix have separated themselves from the rest, because they are definitely the easiest website builder tool available nowadays. It is one of the most advanced solutions for people without any coding experience to build powerful and good looking site easily and fast.
Here is a little demo of what other people thought when using Wix, sure it’s promotional video, but it showcases Wix best features – check them out.
Whenever I have non-technical friends asking where and how they could build website easily – I always refer them to Wix website builder. Check them out and you will thank me later.
More Insights on What Wix Can and Cannot Do
For some, having a ton of features can be a great thing, but for others, the sheer variety of options can feel a little overwhelming. This may scare off many potential new users, particularly the ones with little-to-no technical skills, who may just go elsewhere for their website project needs.
That’s a big shame because Wix really is one of the best site builders out there. Their interface is actually very easy to use and the templates look polished and professional. On top of that, the Wix Technical Support team is truly one of the company’s greatest assets.
Website Editor
Unlike most other blank canvas editors Wix’s editor is very user-friendly and intuitive. That is, if you’re willing to take the time to learn how to use it. As mentioned before, Wix packs in a jaw-dropping amount of features. Some people may find the quantity a little daunting while others may feel that Wix may have gone a little overboard.
That being said, it shouldn’t take anyone more than half an hour to learn the basic tool functions. Learning the basics is all you need and before you know you’ll be dragging and dropping elements around your canvas like a pro and without any limitations.
Wix features a highly functional WYSIWYG editor that lets you drag and drop your website elements anywhere you want and without limitations. Don’t let the amount of features scare you away, Wix has one of the best all-around editors of any website builder today.
Working with Media Files
Having to upload your images and video files each time you want to use them in a different section of your website is tedious, annoying, and come on already, it’s 2016! Seriously. Yet, that’s what most run-of-the-mill website builders make their users do.
With Wix, however, you can simply upload your files once and they get saved into virtual folders which you can then reuse as many times as you need to. In addition, Wix even lets you use media files from your favorite social media sites, like Facebook.
Wix’s Aviary Editor gives users full photo enhancing and editing capabilities including adding borders, animations, and setting videos to auto-play and many other options.
Websites powered
When you have over 73 million registered users, out of which 1.6 million are paid subscribers and 45,000 are joining the service daily, then its pretty safe to say that you’re a hugely successful company.
Pricing (Monthly)
Wix is focused on targeting the widest possible audience their services and products. This is why they offer multiple pricing packages that can cover a wide range of budgets, which is a good thing for consumers.
The pricing options are as follows:
If the free version of Wix is simply not doing it for you, there 4 different premium plans that you can avail of.
FREE: This option lets you try out the service at no cost and without any bothersome time limits that pressure you to upgrade to the paid subscription services.
Connect Domain ($4.08/mo.): This package includes 1GB of bandwidth and 500MB of storage. You also get free hosting, access to premium support and the ability to use your own domain
Combo ($8.25/mo.): The Combo package packs a mighty one-two punch combination by giving you 2GB of Bandwidth and 3GB of storage. This plan also eliminates the Wix ads on your site and gives you free domain registration and a customized favicon.
Unlimited ($12.42/mo.): As the name implies, you get unlimited bandwidth, 10GB of storage, all of the benefits of the previous plans, a form builder app, and a site booster app.
Ecommerce ($16.17/mo.): Power up your online store with a whopping 10GB of bandwidth and 20GB of storage. This plan includes all of the benefits of the above plans.
All premium plans include a $125 value Ad voucher.
Number of templates:
Wix offers over 500 beautifully designed templates that are all available even to WIX Free users. They feature the latest design trends and are fully responsive. Whether you’re a seasoned designer or have no design skills, the templates will make a good impression with their polished, professional looks.
Unfortunately, Wix doesn’t allow you to swap your templates unless you are willing to restart your whole project. This can be a major pain if you’re already in the middle of a design and feel the need to swap for a better template.
In addition, users do not have access to modify the HTML/CSS codes which can limit your customization options.
SEO Friendly (Rate)
In terms of SEO optimization tools, Wix is not much different from its competitors. You get tools that allow you to optimize your basic SEO functions such as keywords and descriptions. In addition, Wix provides useful tutorials and tools that help analyze SEO data.
Mobile Friendly
On most websites, the desktop versions look quite similar to its mobile view which works pretty well in most cases. Wix’s mobile editor, however, lets you design the mobile version of your website separately from its desktop version.
Simply tap the smart phone icon and your screen will switch to mobile view. This gives you greater to control to rearrange your content without having to worry about messing the desktop view.
eCommerce Tools
Wix features surprisingly good eCommerce capabilities. They offer over 500 professionally designed templates, their awesome drag and drop builder and even offer a support database and team, including live Phone support.
Wix does a great job at providing you with all the standard features you need to successfully run an online store. However, Wix’s App Market is what makes them standout among other website builders.
The App Market has over 260 apps that help extend your online store’s functionality and provides lots of advanced customer service and business tools.
Customer Support
Wix provides the bulk of its Customer Support service via their forums. Users can post their questions which the support staff will try answer as quickly as possible. Fortunately, their response time is remarkably fast and they are very helpful. Users can also search the archives to look up previous responses to their issues.
If you need a more direct contact, their Help team can be contacted via email and phone support. Users that are on the Premium packages get access to the VIP Team. Wix definitely know how to cover all their bases which definitely adds to an overall positive client experience.
Blogging
Wix offers basic but effective blogging features including post scheduling and Featured Posts. Getting your blog all set up and ready is as easy as pie with Wix. Users are given a choice of 6 layouts where you can add photos, galleries, video, and text. Your blog content can be easily shared on social media sites and allow reader comments as well.
Membership Creator?
Wix does not currently support granting different permission types for membership sites. However, don’t be surprised if this feature will be available sooner or later since they are always adding new features and capabilities.
Email Service
Wix does not currently offer email accounts for your domain names. Although you are able to use 3rd party applications like Google Apps, those services still charge separate monthly fees which slightly bumps up the monthly charges for your Wix website.
The Last Word
There is no doubt that Wix offers a compelling website builder package which should have a place among your top 5 choices. Yes, there are cheaper option out there, but Wix hands-down offers the most beautiful templates out of all its competitors.
We also appreciate the flexible pricing options that offer monthly payments whereas most other builders only offer annual subscriptions.
You can check out Wix here.
Note: If you are a bit more technical and want to take a step further, we recommend you going with WordPress CMS and use Bluehost as hosting, since they make it super easy for you to setup website just by few clicks!
In fact we created a simple step by step video to show exactly how to have your own website in around 10 minutes!
This is the cheapest option we know to have your own professional website. You could go with Wix, Tumblr, WordPress free website, but this will NOT look professional. Especially if you need to brand yourself to your clients or followers, you need to have professional website.
Also if you are freelancer, having online presence will easily help you charge more as clients will respect you more.
Without further ado, check out this step by step video how to make your own website. If you want to watch video on Youtube, here is the link. (using our link you get 50% off)
Here is the discount link mentioned in the video.
Disclaimer: Discount is immediately activated when you click on it and yes..we do receive commission if you decide to buy. But I still use Bluehost + WordPress for all my new projects and I would never recommend something I haven’t tried or am not using myself.
2. Weebly
The words “free and easy” seldom go hand-in-hand with “quality and value”. Yet, this is exactly what Weebly has been able to achieve with their fantastic website builder service. Weebly is proof that you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg in order to get a quality website.
Webbly website builder
In fact, you don’t have to pay anything at all and you will still get the tools and services you need to create a solid website to get your online business started. Eventually, we think that users will inevitably feel compelled to upgrade to paid subscriptions in order to unlock yet many more features that will help power their growing business.
While many companies make the mistake of thinking that their product is good enough as is, Weebly is a company that is not content to just sit on their laurels and enjoy their success. They are still running their company in “start-up-mode” and continue to provide updates on a regular basis to demonstrate their commitment to providing quality and innovation in the web industry.
Weebly’s latest update to their service, known as Carbon, features even more tools, responsive templates and a totally revamped user interface. Best of all, they still manage to keep everything simple to use, yet powerful enough to create complex websites.
Websites powered
Over 30 million websites are currently powered by Weebly. That’s more than 2% of all the websites on the Internet! It’s a powerful testament to the great quality and usability of their product and technical support services.
Pricing (Monthly)
Weebly’s current pricing packages are as follows:
Free: Everything you need for a high quality site. Create unlimited pages and host your site for free.
Starter ($8/mo.): Connect your own domain, remove Weebly branding, and get expanded site stats.
Pro ($12/mo.): Professional multimedia features, powerful site search, and password protection.
Business ($25/mo.): Fully integrated eCommerce and all available features. The complete package.
Unlike most other web-builders, Weebly’s Free package lets you create as many pages as you’d like. There’s also no time limits on this package so you can stay as a free user as for as long as you’d like.
Eventually, however, there will come a time when the minimum requirements just aren’t enough for your growing business. The paid subscription packages will give you more advanced tools to work with as well as access to premium technical support services.
In addition, your domain registration is free during your first year when subscribing to any of the paid packages.
Number of templates
The design of your website can have a material impact on how much website traffic it can potentially generate as well as its conversion rates. Fortunately, Weebly is incredibly flexible and makes it super easy for newbies and experts alike to get the right template design for their project.
Weebly has a collection of over 70 beautiful premade website templates that you can choose from so you can get started immediately. If you have a preferred template from a 3rd party provider, Weebly lets you import it seamlessly onto their platform.
Do you like to design your own templates? No problem! Weebly’s editor enables users to completely customize their own templates by using HTML & CSS.
SEO Friendly (Rate)
SEO-conscious users will be pleased to know that Weebly places a high priority on making sure your website ranks well with the search engines. The Advanced Setting tab allows users to define standard settings Page Title and Description as well as the ability to add Alt Text to your images.
The Settings area also enables users to easily configure important settings such as 301 redirects so you can redirect traffic from the old site to your new one.
E-Commerce Tools
Weebly’s eCommerce tools provide a great way for users to set up their online stores quickly and easily. Although not as robust or as deep as a dedicated eCommerce website builder, it is quite impressive when compared to most other drag and drop website builders in the market.
Weebly’s eCommerce capabilities are really ideal for smaller online stores. Their easy-to-use basic features allow you to customize sales receipts, add custom product descriptions, add social sharing buttons and even lets you customize your own Storefront page so you can highlight current store promotions.
Weebly uses excellent shopping cart technology that lets shoppers see how many products they have in their cart and accepts the most common forms of payments including PayPal, Stripe, credit cards and more.
Overall, a solid package for a small online store.
Customer Support
For a company that spends much of its focus on creating a product that is super easy to use, you would almost think that offering customer support would be more of an after-thought. Fortunately, that assumption couldn’t b further from the truth.
Weebly provides phone, email and live chat technical support to help you get unstuck with your issues, or to get expert guidance on your website project.
Membership Creator
Weebly’s offers a straightforward Membership Creator that while it is simple to use, it gives you everything you need to create a membership site such as an online course for students. The membership gateway gives you total control of what pages your registered users are given access to.
Email Service
Although they do not offer a direct email service, you can get email accounts with Weebly through Google Apps. It’s not the cheapest nor the only option to get an email account, but it is a reliable one.
The Last Word
Weebly is easy to use and has lots of great features that will encourage even the most technically-challenged users to get their first website online. Free packages are great for starters and the more premium packages will impress experienced web designers. Weebly is definitely a top choice.
3. Squarespace
From the moment you land on their homepage, you can already see the superior level of quality that has made Squarespace a standout among the other website builders. The visual aesthetics are nothing short of stunning and refreshing.
Squarespace
On print, the company seems to offer everything you could possibly need to create a great looking and fully-functional website. In practice, however, the user experience may sometimes feel overwhelming and confusing.
Nevertheless, Squarespace does feature an impressively powerful website editor and gorgeously designed templates. It is easy to see why so many people choose this premium service.
Whether you are looking to create a blog, website or online store, let’s touch on the feature highlights that still make Squarespace one of our top picks.
Website Editor
The user interface on Squarespace’s editor uses a clean and minimalistic design. On one hand, it is truly impressive how Squarespace’s simplistic look and feel belies how powerful and refined its website editor really is. That is no small feat by any means!
On the other hand, however, the minimalism probably goes a little too far and can leave users a little confused about some of the editor’s functions. Sometimes you’ll see an icon and have no idea what to do with it. Just be prepared to do some playing around with the editor as not everything is clearly labeled or made obvious.
Fortunately, users have on-demand access to an extensive library of Help Videos that can explain a lot of the not-so-obvious functions of its editor. These tutorials do a great job at guiding you step-by-step through the very basics to the more advanced levels of the website creation process.
Still, I just wish the tools were a little more self-explanatory rather than having me dig through videos to find out what they do.
Overall though, if you have the patience and endurance to overcome its learning curve you will find that your efforts will more than pay off. Its awesome editor has come a long way from its previous clunky iterations. The current one, affectionately called Squarespace 7, is definitely the best one so far.
It provides a straightforward way of pointing, clicking, dragging & dropping Blocks to create the content on your website. The consolidated editing and preview panels lets users easily see their changes in real-time. Best of all, you don’t have to touch a single line of code.
Websites powered
Squarespace currently powers over 1.8 million websites. Granted, these may not seem like the eye-popping numbers that other popular builders like Wix or Weebly boast. However, Squarespace does set itself apart by only offering paid subscription services.
Any way you slice it, that’s still quite an impressive chunk of customers especially when you consider the fact that they are paying a slightly higher premium than other services.
The value received, of course, more than offsets the higher costs and hence gives Squarespace a more prestigious and credible status over most other builders whose user base may include a significant amount of free accounts.
Website Performance
Squarespace is able to offer fast and reliable cloud hosting thanks to its web hosting provider, Peer1, In addition to the hosting services, Peer1 also provides Squarespace with scalable, high-performance IT infrastructure and colocation services.
Pricing (Monthly)
Squarespace offers the following pricing packages:
Personal: $12 month-to-month, or a $96 annual fee.
Business: $26 month-to-month, or a $216 annual fee.
Student Pricing: Students receive a 50% discount off their first year with Squarespace (applicable only to new accounts).
Even though Squarespace only offers paid subscription services, they do offer customers a 14-day risk-free trial. This gives users ample opportunity to fully explore the features and services without having to commit to Squarespace.
Number of templates
Squarespace’s professionally designed templates make it easy to get your site looking the way you want it to. Customers get 25 expertly-designed templates that are clean, intuitive and highly customizable. They are perfectly fine to use out of the box but they also give you the flexibility to fine-tune for your individual website needs.
All templates come mobile-ready and you even get a “Mobile Preview” mode so you can see how your website will look across multiple screens and devices.
SEO Friendly
Squarespace produces pages with clean HTML coding that makes it easy for search engine to index your site. In addition, they offer you the ability to customize your page address to make to more SEO-friendly.
eCommerce Tools
Whereas most website builders have a hard time effectively implementing and supporting the wide array of features that are typical of an online store, Squarespace actually provides pretty robust eCommerce capabilities. Of course, Squarespace has to be different from everyone else so they call it “Commerce” instead.
Commerce functions are conveniently integrated into their platform and are ready to use out of the box with all their templates. This helps to make setting up your online store quick and easy.
Commerce does, however, have a major chink in its armor. They do not offer PayPal integration on its platform which can, and has been, a deal-breaker for many potential customers. Instead, they use Stripe as their payment processor.
Although Stripe in increasing in both popularity and availability in countries around the world, it is still very much limited in terms of size and user base when compared to PayPal.
Commerce may work well if you want to integrate your online store with your blog website. However, it is difficult to recommend Commerce as a stand-alone solution when you can be paying about the same price for a dedicated eCommerce solutions provider like Shopify instead.
But hey, at least Squarespace has the same no-free account policy that Shopify does!
Customer Support
One of the ways Squarespace has been able to develop such a fantastic reputation is because of their excellent customer support team. From helping you with basic set up questions to more advanced topics like migrating your old WordPress website into Squarespace, customers can count on top-notch assistance from real professionals when they need it the most.
In addition to a having a comprehensive Knowledge Base, Squarespace also offers 24/7 email support as well as live Phone Support during regular business hours.
Blogging? yes/no
Setting up a professional-looking blog on Squarespace is quick and easy. It uses a polished, clean design and a solid, reliable platform. Although using Squarespace as a blog platform requires a paid account, the quality and usability of its interface and customization options are truly impressive.
Membership Creator?
Squarespace currently has no membership creation service. However, they do offer a Newsletter tool that lets you collect customer email addresses on the checkout page of your online store.
Email Service
For a company that prides itself as providing a premium service to its customers, its a little strange that Squarespace does not provide email hosting services. Yet, it is not a rare occurrence amongst other web builder companies either.
Last Word
Squarespace may not be as simple or as straightforward as many of the other popular website builders out there, but it is still among the most popular choices out there. Of you are serious about creating a high-quality and professional-looking website, then Squarespace is an excellent choice.
Their Help Videos can help turn willing newbies into pro-builders and their technical support team is top-notch for when you get stuck. Yes, you may pay a little more than other services, but the value you get back more than offsets the higher costs.
4. Jimdo
Jimdo is known for being more of an eCommerce-oriented website builder service that combines great usability, a low learning curve and affordable pricing. Not looking to build an online store yet? That’s fine too because Jimdo has all the tools and features you need to create a great looking website for personal or business use.
One of the great features that Jimdo is known for is its excellent technical and multilingual support services. So if you’re targeting an international audience, you’ll definitely be in good hands with Jimdo.
Jimdo
Website Editor
Hands down, Jimdo’s website editor is one of the fastest that we’ve come across. It uses an organized and intuitive with drag and drop functionality. One potential gripe for many users is that there is no live preview of changes you make to your website. Instead, you make the change and see it live on your website.
Websites powered
Jimdo is headquartered in Germany and has a significant global presence with 15 millions sites worldwide.
Pricing (Monthly)
Jimdo’s pricing packages are as follows:
JimdoFree: Unlimited time period, Jimdo domain name, 5 store items, social media integration, 500MB minimum storage, Google maps and much more.
JimdoPro plan ($7.50/mo.): Includes a custom domain and email, more technical support access, no transaction fees, 15 store items for your store and much more.
JimdoBusiness Plan ($20/mo.): Unlimited products, discount codes, flexible shipping costs, PayPal integration and much more.
Number of templates
Up until recently, Jimdo’s website templates were nothing to brag about. Thankfully, the company has been listening to their customers and their hard work is starting to show off.
Jimdo offers over 130 pre-made templates that can be customized to your exact specifications thanks to HTML/CSS access. Some of the newer templates even include special features such as full background slide shows and videos.
If you prefer to bring in your own 3rd party templates to your Jimdo website, you will be glad to know that the process is seamless and efficient as well.
SEO Friendly
Pages on Jimdo already come SEO-optimized so you can get ranked on those pesky search engines. While Free users have the option of modifying global SEO settings, premium users can optimize at the meta tag level.
Mobile Friendly
Creating mobile-friendly websites with Jimdo is easy and hassle-free. Instead of heaving to create a whole separate mobile website, Jimdo’s mobile editor re-sizes and adjusts your main page to ensure it is 100% responsive.
Another great features is Jimdo’s iPhone app which enables users to create their website right on their smart phones. Hello!
eCommerce Tools
There is no denying that Jimdo’s eCommerce capabilities are definitely its strong suit. They feature all the tools you need to carry out effective eCommerce operations such as discount codes, tax rate calculations, tracking inventories and orders and much more. Special features include their popular Tag system that help display related items as well as cross-sell particular products.
Among the other website builders out there, Jimdo’s eCommerce capabilities are definitely in a class of their own.
Customer Support
Jimdo lets users click on a question mark icon that will open up their support center screen. There you will access to well-documented and organized FAQs and articles, In addition, user can find more resources via Jimdo’s YouTube channel where they will find a fantastic set of video tutorials.
If you’re a person that prefers talking directly to support teams then you will find life with Jimdo a little frustrating. For starters, you can only contact their support team via an email form. If you’re a Free user, your wait time for a response may take a couple of days while premium customers have a 24 hour turnaround time.
Blogging
Setting up your blog may feel a little more tedious than on most other website builders. For example, you can write and manage new posts but to actually add them to your page you need add it via the Blog Display element. Thank you for the unnecessary extra step, Jimdo.
That being said, Jimdo’s blogging capabilities are especially useful for creating content marketing that will help draw traffic and increase conversion rates while helping reduce advertising costs.
Membership Creator
You can apply password protections on individual pages or on your entire site. Although blog posts cannot be password-enabled, you can designate specific areas to have different passwords with limits based on your subscription package.
Email Service
Even though they used to offer a Newsletter tool, Jimdo now only lets users use 3rd Party services like MailChimp for your newsletter needs.
The Last Word
Jimdo offers a solid, easy-to-use platform that small and medium-sized business owners can set up a fully functional online stores without having to hire a professional tech team. Its blogging and online store capabilities really mesh well together and does a great job at providing a consistent and positive user experience.
5. Webs
Webs is responsible for the creation of more than 50 millions websites worldwide. Not to be confused with Web.com, Webs originally started their operations in 2001 when they were called Freewebs. That also makes them one of the longest running free site creator services in the market.
Their breadth of experience and dedication to quality and service make Webs a reliable choice for your web-building needs. Webs may not feature most of the flashy modern tools that are popular with today’s site builders, but we love the fact that Webs is easy enough that just about anyone can use it to create a great looking website in no time.
Webs
Website Editor
As expected of a company that has been in operation for longer than most site builders have existed, Webs provides an excellent and intuitive user interface. The layout is clean and intelligently designed so users won’t be distracted or overwhelmed by the other features.
Webs has two main options for building pages:
Normal Pages: Includes 6 page layout designs for regular pages.
Specialty Pages: These are basically pre-made templates that can be used for blogs, online stores, videos and much more.
Users have the options of combining normal and specialty pages to create a wide variety of website designs while still being able to keep things simple.
Websites powered
Webs powers over 55 million websites which is impressive when you consider that besides being around for a long time, the company is still among the most highly ranked site builder services today.
Pricing
Webs pricing plans are as follows:
Free: Although Free for unlimited amount of time, you will see Webs-branded advertising banners. But then again, its Free forever!
Starter ($7.99/mo.): Unlimited pages, password protection, premium themes, no Webs ads
Enhanced With 1-year contract ($16.99/mo.): Advanced Web stats, Custom email address, $100 Ad Credit
Pro With 2-year contract ($34.99/mo.): SEO Booster, Online eCommerce Store, Unlimited Storage, mobile website
All premium plans include a 30-day money back guarantee.
Number of templates
With over 450 different mobile-friendly templates in over 20 different industries, Webs collection of templates is sure to have the look you need for your site. Most of the themes are offered free of charge, while others required paid subscription membership to access.
Fortunately, Webs allows users to switch templates at any time without having to start over.
SEO Friendly
Webs provide standard SEO optimization tools to edit titles and descriptions of your website. Optimizing meta tags and such will require paid subscription memberships. You also get an internal traffic tracking tool to view website visitor data such as page views and traffic sources.
Mobile Friendly
Webs ensures your website will be mobile-ready and features several easy-to-use tools. Although Webs does not technically use responsive design, your pages are automatically made mobile-friendly so it can look great across mobile devices and screens.
eCommerce Tools
Webs offers a pretty solid eCommerce platform suitable for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Although the Free plans allow you to add PayPal buttons virtually anywhere on your site, the Premium really help unlock deeper eCommerce functionalities for your business.
You can set up many other regular features such as shipping options and more with just a few clicks with makes this a great choice if you need a simple store to start out.
Customer Support
The Customer Support service is just about as typical as it gets with other website builders. Free users can looks through FAQs and tutorials while paying customers get greater access as you go up the membership packages.
Fortunately, the support community forums are a great asset for all kinds of users as most, if not all, issues and questions are usually already answered and can be looked up quite easily.
Blogging
Webs provides standard blogging features including the ability to assign categories and schedule posts to be published at specified dates. It’s a little annoying that you don;t get the option to moderate comments before they get published. Overall, however, it gets the job done.
Membership Creator
Its good to know that Webs already includes a membership services feature on their site builder. That means you don’t have to go through the hassle of trying to install a 3rd party system that could just cause delays and further complications down the line.
With Webs membership services you can manage your member accounts and take advantage of features like Facebook integration which enables users to log in directly with the Facebook accounts.
Email Service
Email accounts are available for the Enhanced and Pro plan subscribers. The Enhanced package lets you have up to 3 Webs.com log ins and with the Enhanced plan you can get up to 25 separate log ins.
The Last Word
Webs is a solid, reliable and easy to use site builder thats especially great for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We especially enjoy the fact that basically anyone can use this service to get the online business started immediately at a very affordable price.
6. GoDaddy
GoDaddy has gained a wide recognition thanks to its TV commercials and focused marketing strategies. While many people say its a service that you either love or hate, we tend to focus on how this service can help to get your online business going, and in this regard, GoDaddy provides a commendable service.
For starters, they are THE largest domain name registrar in the world with 60 million domain names under their management and out of which 13 million of them are premium customers. They offer comprehensive site builder tools and world-class customer support services.
GoDaddy
Feature highlights:
Easy to use website editor with lots of great features and photo-editing capabilities.
Anytime money-back guarantee.
World-class customer support team.
Website Editor
If you like the Wix website editor (the #1 site builder on our list!), then you’ll definitely feel at home with GoDaddy’s editor. Its photo-editing capabilities are simply top-notch! It is surprisingly (almost shamelessly) similar in terms of its features and usability. But hey, if you’re going to imitate someone, you might as well imitate the best!
Pricing
All pricing packages include free domain domain registration.
Personal ($5.99/mo.): Includes 1GB of storage and 150GB bandwidth, but doesn’t include any mobile sites.
Business ($9.99/mo.): Includes mobile version of site, 10GB of storage and up to 5 email addresses.
Business Plus ($14.99/mo.): Includes SEO tools and an SSL certificate along with a storage limit of 50GB and 1TB bandwidth.
Templates
Themes are free when you subscribe to their monthly plans,. The Personal Plan offer templates in 50 styles, while the Business plans give you a choice of 300 template designs. Make sure you pick a template you really like because switching templates with GoDaddy means you’ll have to rebuild your page from scratch. Ouch.
eCommerce Support
GoDaddy offers various (as in over 300!) online store templates and special Page Help features that provide How-to tutorials on setting up your pages. Gain important customer insights with cool reporting tools. Be aware, however, of the high transaction fees.
Customer Service Support
GoDaddy’s Customer Support Services are pretty much unrivaled by its competitors. They offer 24/7 Phone Support, Live Chat and Email Support. They will even show your wait time to reach one of their expert, knowledgeable staff. A true model for other web-building sites.
7. WebNode
Creating websites that offer multi-language support is becoming increasingly important in today’s world. WebNode supports over 20 languages and will keep adding additional ones over time. In addition, their website editor is very easy to use and can be a great solution for small and medium-sized businesses.
WebNode
Feature highlights:
Offers multilingual support for over 20 languages.
Easy to use website editor with great drag and drop functionality,.
Hundreds of customizable design templates
Website Editor
WebNode’s editor uses a ribbon interface that’s very similar to what can be seen on Microsoft Office software. Its a great way to provide users with lots of features without overloading their senses. Functions like changing the template or editing the header are now just a click away.
Dragging and dropping elements feels very smooth and responsive and you can also use common keyboard commands like Delete within the editor. Overall, Webnode has a nice and easy to use package that users will enjoy.
Pricing
Free: 100MB storage, 1GB bandwidth,
Mini ($6.95/mo.): 300MB storage, 3GB bandwidth,
Standard ($13.75/mo.): 1GB storage, 20GB bandwidth
Profi ($24.85/mo.): 4GB storage, Unlimited bandwidth
Although the Free version is real basic, it’s always a great option that lets you try out the builder and upgrade later.
Templates
Users get access to hundreds of stylish and professional looking templates with a good range of customization options. Templates can be swapped with others without losing your work. Also, templates offer multimedia support so you can add photo galleries or YouTube videos.
eCommerce Support
Starting your online store with WebNode is pretty painless and quick. The platform supports multiple payment methods including PayPal, detailed store stats, product import/export and more. We found the eCommerce capabilities to be rather restrictive under the Personal plan.
Customer Support
WebNode does not offer Live Chat or Phone Support, but they do offer a FAQ section as well a customer support forum. You do have the option of emailing your questions to the support team and they answer back pretty quickly. Hopefully, they won’t redirect to the FAQ section.
8. 1&1
1&1 is a large corporation that spends loads of money on advertising for both TV and print. As a result, they’ve amassed over 500,000 paying subscribers, most of which are small businesses. Unsurprisingly, their monthly fees are a bit higher than most other website creators.
Overall, we like 1&1 because they offer clients an easy to use editor, great customizable template designs and excellent online store capabilities.
1&1
Feature Highlights:
Top-notch customer support.
100% optimized for mobile.
Over 200 Industry-Specific Design Templates.
Website Editor
1&1 offers an intuitive editor that’s easy to use and support drag & drop functionality. Images can be easily re-sized and cropped and you also get a handy “undo” button for when you get a little too carried away. It’s a great editor that any newbie can pick up and start using really quickly.
Pricing
Basic ($6.99/mo.): 50 design templates, 10 pages
Plus ($9.99/mo.): 200 design templates, 500 pages
Pro ($14.99/mo.): Expert Mode (CSS/HTML), 1&1 Image Library and more
Although 1&1 does not offer a Free package, they do have a 30-day money back guarantee.
Templates
The templates are pretty diverse and have a polished look that is suitable for many kinds of businesses. They are mobile-ready and can be customized to fit the needs of your project and match your brand. In addition, 1&1 offers great web apps that help boost engagement with your visitors.
eCommerce Support
1&1 lets you easily upload your inventory of products with their automatic import/export feature. The online store set up and management is very flexible and easily integrated with other systems. 1&1 supports up to 20,000 products in over 2,000 different categories. For such robust online store capabilities 1&1’s prices seem very affordable (dare we say cheap!).
Customer Support
1&1 offers an extensive customer support service. They have a well-documented FAQ section organized by categories of advice. Their staff can be reached by phone, email and even on social media channels like Facebook and Google+.
Are you pressed or just want an expert to handle the design? Try 1&1’s MyExpert package and get the expert assistance you need to get your online store up and running in no time.
1&1 offers all the resources you would expect of a large corporation except they don;t make you feel like you’re just another number.
9. SiteBuilder
SiteBuilder provides the perfect blend of usability and great design to make one of the simplest and most intuitive site builders out there. Whether you are a total newbie or a veteran web designer, SiteBuilder offers a great set of tools to create your website and/or online store.
SiteBuilder
Feature Highlights:
Huge selection of pre-made templates.
Fantastic SEO options.
Unlimited bandwidth.
Website Editor
This drag & drop editor is simply a breeze to use. It’ll make newbies feel empowered and veterans will appreciate the professional design and intuitiveness. Although the editor is packed full of great features, the design is still clean and non-distracting so you can focus on getting your work done right.
Pricing
Free: free domain, template and use their editor for free, but you get Ads.
Personal ($9.99/mo.): No Ads
Pro ($12.44/mo.): Email setup
Premium ($14.99/mo.): SEO Tools, Priority Support
The price packages are not the clearest which means you have to really read into the details before paying and then realizing certain features weren’t included.
Templates
SiteBuilder has one of the largest selections (over 1,000) of pre-designed templates of any website builder. Despite the number of templates, SiteBuilder manages provide users with professional looking templates that create eye-catching visuals.
Instead of using filler “Lorem Ipsum” text, SiteBuilder offers users tips and shortcuts on how to use their editors.
eCommerce Support
SiteBuilder provides standard eCommerce functionality like order management, payment receipts, and order tracking tools. The online store is easy to setup and start selling products online.
Customer Support
Users will find a robust FAQ section and some really great online tutorials to help them when they get stuck, Support staff can be contacted as well via Phone or email. Too bad they don’t have a Live Chat option, though.
10. Sitey
Sitey provides the kinds of features that you would expect of top-notch website builders: tons of templates, awesome editor and affordable pricing.
Sitey focuses more on providing great usability and innovation rather than trying to be very complex. From what we’ve seen, the results are definitely encouraging. What a great overall package!
Sitey
Feature Highlights:
Image, Blog & Social Plugins
Customizable Themes and Templates
Awesome Drag ‘n’ Drop Builder
Website Editor
Sitely provides a user-friendly interface that caters to newbies who are just starting out. As such, it really feels like they make everything as clean and straightforward as possible. Their drag & drop editor couldn’t be easier to use. It even lets you save and publish the site directly from the editor.
The Help Feature on the editor was a nice surprise. It actually “detects” when Users may be having some difficulties so it will provide recommendations and tips on how to resolve certain issues. How cool is that!
Pricing
Free: great for a trial run or for small businesses.
Starter ($9.94/mo.): free domain and hosting.
Pro ($14.94/mo.): SEO Tools and Mobile Design
eCommerce ($22.44/mo.): email assistance, priority support and the ability to accept payments.
Nice range of options and Free package to try out the service.
Templates
Sitey provides users with a boatload of over 10,000 editable templates. They all come designed with a specific business and purpose in mind. They have covered all their bases with this huge collection of great looking templates.
eCommerce Support
Sitey offers a strong eCommerce platform to help you grow as an Internet retailer. The eCommerce plan gives you 24/7 access to Sitey’s customer support team.
Customer Support
Customer service varies depending on the plan you are on but the eCommerce plan is the only one that provides round the clock support. They a well-organized FA section and dedicated billing and technical support for any inquiries.
11. Network Solutions
Network Solutions helps remove the complications and high costs of building a full website for your business. With a comprehensive set of tools and features at your disposal, Network Solutions has what you need to establish your online presence and grow your website traffic.
Their pricing packages are competitive and are ideal for small and large-sized businesses.
Network Solutions
Feature Highlights:
Over 200 fully customizable templates.
Easy to use website editor with auto-save feature.
Excellent customer support service
Website Editor
Network Solutions provides a very easy to learn website editor that will enable users to turn their visions into reality. The website editor is very easy to use and will allow you to customize the look and feel of your page without touching a single line of code.
The auto-save feature removes the risk of losing your work in progress. Click your way to a great looking website with Network Solutions’s cool website editor.
Pricing
nsWebsite Small ($6.95/mo.): 5GB of storage, 50GB bandwidth, 2GB file sharing, 1 free custom domain and 10 email boxes.
nsWebsite Large ($9.95/mo.): 300GB of storage, 3000GB bandwidth, 2GB file sharing, 1 free custom domain and 2500 email boxes.
Pricing packages include customizable templates, drag & drop editing, free image gallery, 24/7 customer support and a 30-day limited money-back guarantee.
Templates
Clients get a choice of over 200 professionally designed templates that are fully customizable. In addition, Network Solutions provides a cool Setup wizard to provides step-by-step guidance from design to development.
eCommerce Support
Network Solutions offers full eCommerce store capabilities for an additional $7.89 per month. You can create a full catalogue of products and are given a wide range of shipping options and payment methods, including PayPal.
Customer Support
Network Solutions offers a comprehensive set of resources to help business owners with virtually all aspects of their website design process. Their support portal helps customers get in touch with expert support staff via telephone for assistance on common issues including hosting, email setup and general site creation questions.
In addition, Network Solutions offers a robust FAQ section where you can find the answers to the most common types of problems customers face.
12. Sitelio
Sitelio’s main goal is to provide customers with the simplest way to create their website whether it is for personal use, or for business. Not only do they provide their customers with great tools that help speed up the process, they are also committed to making sure your website performs well. Sitelio is great for beginners and experts alike, and is especially ideal for blog-like websites.
Sitelio
Feature Highlights:
Top-notch customer support.
100% optimized for mobile.
Comprehensive blog capabilities.
Website Editor
Sitelio’s website editor offers customers a versatile editor that makes it easy to create quality websites from blogs to online retail stores. The editor uses large buttons which are carefully laid out on the top portion of the screen making it easy for users to click on without the unnecessary distractions. The drag & drop tools helps you move and align features anywhere you like on your page.
Pricing
Beginners ($10.95/mo.): Free domain, free hosting, free Ad credits.
Most Popular ($22.95/mo.): SEO and the ability to take payments.
Next Level ($27.95/mo.): Email assistance and Priority Support.
Although the prices are a little higher than most website builders, you do get quite a bit of features that are normally part of higher-priced subscription packages.
Templates
Sitelio has a wide selection of themes with the option of either adding a blog section to a website, or to choose from a number of blog-only template designs. You can customize the layouts and can use a free image gallery that comes included with the themes. Sitelio will give you the tools you need to get your website setup quickly and looking great.
eCommerce Support
They offer a great set of eCommerce tools and features to get your online store up and ready in as little time as possible. Their Priority Support feature gives users fast access to the support they need, when they need it. A great all around online store platform.
Customer Support
The Customer Support service offered by Sitelio is great. You can get in touch with them round the clock and get assistance on anything from hosting issues to website issues. Agents are always online and ready to help you. In addition, you can also get support via social media like Google+ and Twitter.
13. iPage
iPage has gained a reputation for being a very budget-friendly website creator service with very respectable tools and support. The company is run by industry veterans who have a wide breadth of expertise and experience. Ipage provides a great package for beginners