Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks.a commission.Reviews ethics statement Whether you’re a small business owner, artist, photographer, writer or consultant, there’s a website builder out there for you to establish your online presence.
Joe Van Brussel Contributor Joe Van Brussel is a freelance writer for CNET Money, where he deciphers obfuscatory credit card offers and breaks them down so consumers actually know what belongs in their wallet.He also covers other aspects of personal finance, from life insurance and loans to tax software and the impact of broader economic trends on individuals.Joe believes the United States will win the World Cup in his lifetime, and wishes New York City apartments came standard with thick, noise-reducing windows.See full bio Joe Van Brussel Dec.29, 2023 5:30 a.m.PT 19 min read See at Wix
Wix Best website builder overall See at Wix See at Squarespace
Squarespace Best prepackaged design See at Squarespace See at Weebly
Weebly Easiest to use See at Weebly See at Duda
Duda Best for building a customized experience See at Duda See at GoDaddy
GoDaddy Best for basic, no-frills websites See at GoDaddy See at WordPress
WordPress Best for writers and bloggers See at WordPress See at Shopify
Shopify Best for basic e-commerce See at Shopify See at BigCommerce
BigCommerce Best for bigger stores See at BigCommerce Show more (3 items) The days of needing a professional coder to create a website for yourself or your business are long gone.
Now, all you need is a website builder and some free time.There are several website builders that can help you create your own professional and user-friendly website.Services like Squarespace , Wix and Weebly let you quickly and easily create your own sleek, polished site that can take your business to the next level.You don’t have to stick to basics since some website builders have more advanced functions like email marketing or e-commerce capabilities.
These are essential options if you’re trying to grow a following or monetize your site.Choosing the best website builder depends on your specific needs.There are many choices, so it can be a lot of work to comb through all the free providers for a simple website and all of the e-commerce website builders if you want a more sophisticated business website.A few favorites have indeed emerged — and those are usually an excellent place to start — but even the front-runners aren’t ideally suited for every scenario.
To simplify it, we’ve laid out all the information you need to make a good decision on the best website builder so that you can get to the fun part of designing a professional website for yourself or your small business.*Starting price doesn’t include cheaper plans if they are ad-supported.Some vendors offer free domain hosting for the first year on some plans as well.Wix is the best overall website builder because of its great free plan and intuitive design.
While it’s uncomplicated, Wix still offers plenty of web design tools.Squarespace is the top choice for small- to medium-sized businesses with its beginner-friendly layout.WordPress is the best website builder for bloggers while Shopify is great for entry-level e-commerce.Ultimately, it’s tough to pick an overall winner since the right website builder boils down to your needs — what a solitary blogger requires is different from what a medium- to large-sized business demands.
WIx Wix Best website builder overall Like User-friendly Tons of tools Reasonably-priced Don’t like Not as customizable as other options Wix is the clear front-runner in the race for website builder dominance.It’s the biggest player, with over 110 million websites built.
This popular website builder also boasts the greatest quantity of tools, capabilities and freedom.Wix covers the full ease-of-use spectrum by offering an AI-fueled automatic website creator on one end (“Wix ADI”) that requires minimal effort from the user, all the way to Wix Corvid, an open development platform for advanced applications like Javascript, databases and data-driven dynamic pages.To maximize the experience, we do recommend choosing one lane (e.g., Wix ADI, specific templates or design-from-scratch), since it can be difficult to maintain consistency across your landing page & website design if, for example, you start with a template but then decide you want to totally customize it.Like many competitors in this space, Wix offers a basic free website builder plan that lets website owners create a free website starter site with ads.If you like what you see with the free website builder, you can spend up for a premium, ad-free site.Pricing falls within industry standards with a $16-per-month “Light” plan that covers most needs for a personal website.If you need an e-commerce website builder for your store, Wix offers a $159-per-month “Business Elite” e-commerce website plan for your online store.
Those prices do not include a domain, so you’ll need to account for that separately .And if you’re interested in stats and analytics, you’ll either need to get a Google Analytics paid plan or another third-party tool, as Wix doesn’t have its own.Despite being the clear favorite among most reviewers, Wix has some drawbacks.Wix was one of the few builders with data limitations for each of its plan tiers, so if you want to upload endless photos and videos, make sure you do the math before choosing a plan.
Also, the editor’s freedom and range of options can be overwhelming for folks who don’t have the time or inclination to make lots of little decisions, and the web design flexibility means you’ll need to be more hands-on with the format and layout, as opposed to more structured or limited editors where you can’t draw too far outside the lines.
Squarespace Best prepackaged design Like Uncomplicated to use Great for personal use or small- and medium-sized businesses Handy professional tools available Don’t like Not as simple as rivals including Wix and Weebly Fewer customization options than competitors like WordPress, Wix and Duda Squarespace strikes us as the cool kid in high school — flashy and hip on the surface but lacking substance.We found it to be in between Wix and Weebly in terms of ease of use, though it did get consistently positive marks from reviewers for the quality of the design options.We think it really might shine for small- to medium-sized businesses who want a nicely designed page and room for e-commerce growth with lower transaction fees.The Squarespace editor isn’t as intuitive as Wix and Weebly, requiring a little work until you get the hang of it.
It has many add-ons, website templates and tools, and the universal style editor and strong photo editing are helpful.The responsive website editor means that your site will always look good on a mobile device, but you won’t be able to make mobile-specific edits like with Wix or Duda.
We also found consistently high marks for helpful and responsive customer support, which should ease business owners’ minds.Squarespace starts off with a $16-a-month Personal plan , which includes unlimited storage, bandwidth and a domain, and offers a $23 monthly Business website plan that includes unlimited contributors, a Gmail pro account, and e-commerce store builder capabilities.If you go for a “Commerce” plan, you can choose between $27 and $49 per month , the latter of which includes a few final touches like abandoned shopping cart recovery and gift cards.The $27 online store plan , while slightly above the market rate for an e-commerce site, comes with no transaction fees.So, depending on your sales volume in a given month, those savings for our online store could add up.Overall, Squarespace’s website is a good analog for what you get with its products: clean, professional and inviting design, but without the layers of design power or freedom you get from other builders.
Weebly Weebly Easiest to use Like Extremely intuitive Wallet-friendly Solid e-commerce features Don’t like Limited control over design Not many add-ons Weebly flies under the radar relative to Wix, with 50 million websites created, but it offers some excellent options depending on your needs.If you want a simple and easy-to-use do-it-yourself website editor, a large site (more than 25 to 30 pages), unlimited storage, site portability and affordable yet powerful online store capabilities, Weebly plays a good David to Wix’s Goliath.
The editor is one of the easiest website builder options to use, and the low learning curve still nets great-looking sites.That ease of use means the editor is more limited in terms of add-ons and design flexibility, and it lacks the range of options or mobile customization that a builder like Wix has.Still, in our testing, we never came to a point where we found those constraints to be limiting.For a high-octane web designer, though, it could come up.Weebly’s prices are similar to competitors like Wix or Squarespace, but its free plan option is one of the most generous among free website builders, and for just $10 a month you can get up and running with your own domain name (albeit with Weebly ads).
Its $12-per-month plan will give you an ad-free site with analytics and commerce capabilities, while the $26 plan gets you more store tools, like tax and shipping calculators, inventory management and discounts.Weebly is a good option for those who may be more limited in terms of their time investment and its commerce options outshine competitors like Wix and Squarespace.
For those who are wary of committing to a website builder knowing that you won’t be able to pick up and leave later on, Weebly also offers the ability to download site files so you can move to another host, a rarity in the site builder landscape.
Duda Duda Best for building a customized experience Like Excellent for designers and design agencies Loads of features for granular website control Don’t like Pricey Duda is a smaller player compared to the other builders above, with around 15 million websites built, and it focuses on a specific market segment: designers and design agencies.It caters to individuals and groups that make a lot of sites, but with a powerful and easy-to-use builder and several differentiated offerings, it has emerged as a good option for anyone looking to develop an online presence.Duda’s builder boasts many features that set it apart, including mobile site customization, detailed data analytics (e.g., advanced metrics like form submissions, time on page and bounce rate) and user personalization so you can easily display specific messages or offers to users based on the time of day, their location or their browsing history.It’s also known for its multilanguage support and a free e-commerce add-on that allows you to sell up to 10 products.
Duda’s pricing is pretty close to its main competitors, Wix and Weebly, starting at $19 per month for the Basic plan.At $29 , you can add up to four editors for your site (instead of only one with Basic), access advanced analytics and begin using Duda as a white-label/custom-branded builder, another of Duda’s selling points.Its “Agency” plan at $52 per month is geared toward web designers building pages for multiple clients and includes four websites and the ability to download site files for portability.Duda is a little expensive, but it fills some of the voids that the main players have like analytics, multilingual capabilities, better personalization and mobile customization.
GoDaddy GoDaddy Best for basic, no-frills websites Like Good for basic sites Simple to use Cheap plans Don’t like Custom domain name sold separately Few customization choices GoDaddy is best known for its custom domain names and web hosting services, so it makes sense that it also offers website builder software.
The name is a mouthful — “Websites + Marketing” — but it’s a similar templatized experience like the other options on this list, designed to get a basic site up and running in under an hour.
The free tier includes such niceties as email and social media marketing, PayPal payments and an SSL certificate.The $10 monthly plan is straight-up basic; $15 tacks on extended support for appointments and its $21-per-month Commerce plan is for online store capabilities, including some impressive product listing and shipping options for your e-commerce store.These prices reflect the standard monthly costs, but new users can save a bit each month by opting for an annual term.
Even though GoDaddy is better known as a domain seller, a domain isn’t included in those prices — you’ll need to add that separately.But all in all, GoDaddy’s current website creator is an excellent step up from its now-discontinued GoCentral product.Likewise, by switching to a free tier, there’s no longer a 30-day timer on your experience, so you can take your time kicking the tires to see if GoDaddy is right for you.
WordPress WordPress Best for writers and bloggers Like Lots of add-ons and themes for unparalleled website design and customization Works for everyone from bloggers to businesses Powerful yet simple to navigate Don’t like Not as streamlined as Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace Getting a host and domain name may be intimidating for newcomers When most people talk about WordPress, they’re usually referring to the free, open-source software available through WordPress.org .That’s very powerful, but it takes some time to learn and still requires finding a website host and domain name.
If you’re interested in going the advanced route of WordPress.org , we recommend you check out a tutorial or guide such as those you can find on WPBeginner or WebsiteToolTester to learn how it works.The WordPress.com website builder is something else.It’s similar to the other builders listed above and is primarily geared toward bloggers and writers.
The WordPress website editor is relatively limited compared to other services but is easy to set up and has everything you need for blogging.We should also note that it’s not an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder like Wix or Weebly.While there is a free option , it’s a bare bones package offering only 1GB of storage.For $25-per-month , the Business plan bumps up to 50GB of storage.In between you’ll find a $4 monthly Personal plan with 6GB of storage and an $8 per month Premium package that offers 13GB of storage.
For e-commerce companies, there’s also a $45 monthly Commerce plan with 50GB of storage and online shopping-centric features.It also gives you access to many helpful features, including over 50,000 plug-ins like forms and calendars, premium themes, expert support and the ability to sell products with WooCommerce.Alternatively, you can find plenty of other WordPress hosts like Siteground, InMotion Hosting and HostGator.Overall, WordPress caters to bloggers who don’t want or need to spend much time on website design, but it feels minimal for most other use cases.That said, anyone looking for more robust off-the-shelf CMS (content management systems) options should consider Joomla and Drupal .Both are arguably less user-friendly than WordPress, but offer more customization options.At least one CNET editor also felt that Drupal and Joomla also offered faster page loading speeds.
Shopify Shopify Best for basic e-commerce Like Excellent for e-commerce Great for small, medium and large businesses Intuitive Don’t like Costs can add up If Wix is the clear favorite for most website building needs, Shopify fills that role for an e-commerce store.The platform offers an easy and user-friendly way to get an e-commerce website store up and running online, and it supports business owners throughout the process with their e-commerce tools.
Shopify is a safe place to start for most “e-tailers,” though similar to Wix, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect for every scenario.Like most other commerce-focused builders, Shopify’s platform is geared toward your product and sales details.
For those without a ton of experience setting up a retail operation, Shopify’s process ensures you won’t miss an important step as it guides you through inventory, customer information, and tax and shipping rates.And if you still have a question, Shopify offers 24-7 phone and chat support and an active online community forum .Given that its user base is fairly defined, Shopify doesn’t offer a plethora of plan options, and its prices come in above the market average.The “Basic Shopify” plan is $29 a month and covers most of the basic needs for an online store, while the $79-a-month plan offers gift cards and more staff accounts.From our perspective, it was hard to rationalize the $50 jump from basic to standard, but if you factor in the reduced transaction fees and shipping discounts, it might make sense.If you’re running a bigger operation, they also offer a $299-a-month plan.
The main drawback of Shopify is probably its pricing model.If you want the support, guidance and a builder that will take care of most of the technical details, the extra costs are worth it.The many apps available are enticing, but can also add up if you’re using paid apps that cost extra .If you’re still on the fence after considering the different e-commerce features, we recommend you calculate the total cost of additional add-ons and transaction fees based on your sales, then compare with competitors like BigCommerce , which offers more product variants and combinations and lower fees.
BigCommerce BigCommerce Best for bigger stores Like Outstanding value Unlimited product variants and no transaction fees Powerful, flexible backend editor Don’t like Limited annual sales thresholds may bump businesses up a plan tier BigCommerce lives up to its name — it’s best for medium- to large-scale online stores that can cash in on the lack of added transaction fees and unlimited product variants.
The store site builder might not be as easy to use as Shopify’s, but the amount of time you spend getting used to it could save you a lot of money.The editor has many features and flexibility when you’re getting set up, but similar to Wix, that can be too much for newcomers.If you have a little experience, however, those features and tools — like product variants and tax rates — will probably come in handy as you grow or if you’re already at scale.BigCommerce’s price tiers are identical to Shopify’s at $30 (Standard) , $80 (Plus) , and $300 (Pro) , but what you get at each level differs.
Even the lowest BigCommerce plan at $30 gives its clients unlimited users, unlimited bandwidth and storage, unlimited products, and no added transaction fees.You can even link your e-commerce site to eBay, Google Shopping and Amazon.Where the pricing gets a little tricky is with the sales thresholds: The Standard plan only supports annual sales of less than $50,000, while Plus supports up to $150,000 and Pro up to $400,000.Basically, you save a lot of money on transaction fees the more sales you rack up, but if you have enough sales, you have to upgrade to the next plan tier.
As with all the online store builders, doing a little math based on your product inventory and expected sales will be worth it.No transaction fees — they even have a discount deal worked out with PayPal where you can save an additional 0.5% to 1% — strikes us as a major deal-maker depending on your size, so if you’re a bigger operation, take advantage of the 15-day trial and give BigCommerce a shot.
To compile this list, we researched the plans, prices and features of over 12 different website builders and scoured reviews from several sites (including PCMag , Wirecutter , SiteBuilderReport , WebsiteToolTester , WPBeginner and more) to see where there might be any consensus.We also surveyed the CNET staff and ultimately spent time building some test sites using these tools (if we weren’t already members).
We paid particular attention to the categories that differentiate one site from another and matter to business owners, artists and creators, such as SEO features, creative cloud, mobile-friendly website builders, available plugins, live chat options, e-commerce features, pricing plan and customer support.We considered whether the builder offers a solid customization option, e-commerce tools, marketing tools and an SEO tool.We also looked at the company’s customer support quality and e-commerce functionality.
If, by the end of the list, you’re still not sure which direction to go with your web builder, we’ve included a guide at the bottom, including key questions you should be asking yourself as you start your online venture.Finally, if you already have a basic website and just need a host or you’re interested in building a self-hosted WordPress site, check out our list of best web hosting services and our list of the best WordPress hosting services .
Wix How to choose the best website builder Given the wealth of options and the fact that many website builders don’t allow you to pick up and move later on, it’s important to enter the fray with a clear idea of what you need.By first establishing your priorities and direction, it will be easier to find a match for the best website builder and avoid buyer’s remorse down the road.Regarding pricing, most builders offer two to four different price tiers, each with a different set of features.
This can make comparing services difficult since they don’t make it easy to line up apples to apples, but that’s a big reason why we’ve created this handy guide! Generally speaking, you can get a good individual website built for around $8 to $10 a month with an annual subscription.
Most e-commerce plans range between $20 to $25 per month and if you need an enterprise-style plan with multiple editors and VIP-level support, prices can go up to $300 per month for a premium plan.Storage and bandwidth are usually unlimited, but there are exceptions like Wix, which scales its storage capacity according to the plan tier.And even its lowest tier plan has a decent amount (3GB of storage and enough bandwidth to support up to around 5,000 visitors per month).After the big questions like price and storage, finding the best website builder all comes down to what you’re looking for.Below are some guiding questions to help ensure you’re ready to shop like an expert and find the best website builder for your needs.
Squarespace Your first step should be to determine the primary goal of your web presence.Do you want to sell a product? Attract potential customers for your services? Build a portfolio page? By first establishing your raison d’etre, you’ll be able to prioritize the tools, plugins and capabilities you want in your builder and not get pulled off track by a fancy add-on that isn’t actually helping you achieve your goal.
If you’re primarily interested in racking up sales, look at the e-commerce specialists, like Shopify and BigCommerce.If you’re a photographer or web designer who wants a beautiful website or portfolio website, Wix and Squarespace are good places to start.Wix might edge Squarespace if you want more control over the design, while Squarespace might be better if you just want a stylish frame for your work.If you just want something easy to use, Weebly and GoDaddy both offer intuitive builders, with Weebly offering more features and design finesse, while GoDaddy is much simpler and more limited.If you’re setting up a site or store and you want to present a customized experience to users or you have something specific in mind for the mobile version of your site, Duda offers the most customization capabilities.If you need both website building and hosting from one provider, then Webflow is the best and no coding knowledge is required for web design.
And if you’re a wordsmith who can’t be bothered by design decisions and fancy editors, WordPress can help you get your blog up and offers good ways to reach your readers.This obviously will vary depending on a number of factors, not the least of which is how clear of a design vision you have and whether you have experience building a website.That being said, each site builder has pros and cons when it comes to level of usability or ease-of-use based on the features, flexibility and intuitive design of the editing interface.On one end of the spectrum you have a builder like Wix, which is very easy to use but also comprehensive — the sheer number of options and tools makes it hard to whip up a site quickly.
On the other end, you have a builder like WordPress or GoDaddy, each of which doesn’t provide you with a ton of options when building your pages.Most people will want to devote enough time to their site that it serves its purpose of representing you online in a good light, so we generally recommend you take the time to learn your editor and take advantage of the many options available.
Wix offers a pretty comprehensive suite of site editing tools.This goes hand-in-hand with time investment, since the more control you have, the more choices you have to make.There are builders like Squarespace that have a fairly rigid design structure, but still let you customize fonts, colors and content.And on the other end of the spectrum you have a site like Wix, that lets you place objects anywhere on your site (at your own risk!), or Duda, which allows you to customize the mobile experience or create custom user experiences based on browsing history.Certain editors are more geared toward large site structures (40-plus pages) than others, so it’s important to know whether you will have a ton of pages and sections, or whether it’s more in the realm of a glamorized digital business card or fancy work portfolio.The number of navigation levels, for example (which you can think of like file folders (or Inception): a page within a directory within another directory would represent three levels of navigation), can be an important consideration.Most pages probably use two levels — sections and the pages within each section, but online stores and other types of sites might need more.
Weebly and BigCommerce are probably the best examples of builders that support large site structures, while Squarespace and Wix limit you to two levels of navigation.
Shopify Every builder we researched has an e-commerce option available, but that doesn’t mean that they’re all up to the task.A site like WordPress isn’t really what you want if your plan is to sell products online, while a site like Shopify or BigCommerce is expressly focused on online sales and has lots of e-commerce features.If you really just want to have a clean and easy-to-use online storefront, one of the dedicated e-commerce builders makes the most sense, but if it’s more of an ancillary service or simply nice to have, you can go with the builder that feels the best and sign up for its e-commerce option.
There are even builders like Duda, which allow you to sell up to 10 products for free using another plan.
Many website builders support Square’s payment solutions.
Transaction fees: While we’re not small business owners, we do like math and this variable struck us as particularly important.If you sell $10,000 of products in a month with a 3% vendor processing fee, you’re spending an extra $300 every month.If you’re paying your website host an extra 1% to 3%, that’s another $100 to $300.Those numbers greatly eclipse the monthly rate you’re paying and add up even more if you’re selling significantly more.So before you choose a builder, make sure you read the fine print about transaction fees.Many builders don’t charge on top of the Square or PayPal rate (usually 3%), but some do.
Shopify charges extra if you don’t use Shopify Payments, but if you do use its services, you can get a rate below 3%.Then there are sites like BigCommerce, which doesn’t charge extra and even has a PayPal discount, but has sales limits for each plan.We know you’re a smart and savvy business owner who pays close attention to the books, but we thought it would still help to remind you: Do the math before signing up.As we mentioned at the top, many builders lock you into their hosting service, but not all.If you’re afraid of commitment or think you might want to switch as your business or services evolve, go with a service like Weebly or Duda that allows you to download your website files for easy use on another host.The other big factor here is the free trial period.The industry standard is around 14 days, but some go up to a month.
Others don’t have a trial period, but will give you your money back within 30 days if you’re not happy.The best website builder overall is Wix, with its user-friendly design, affordable plans and great tools.But we also recommend Squarespace for a prepackaged design, Weebly for beginners, Shopify for e-commerce and WordPress for bloggers.The best website builder depends on your needs.For instance, what a solitary blogger wants differs from a content website, which are distinct from what an online store requires.The easiest places to make a website are Wix, Squarespace, Weebly and WordPress.Shopify is one of the most user-friendly e-commerce site builders.
WordPress is better than Wix because it offers more control and customization over your website with its many themes and plugins.But Wix is arguably simpler to use with its low learning curve.WordPress is better than Wix and Squarespace for customization — it offers more themes and plugins than its competitors.Weebly might be better for beginners seeking an intuitive website builder..
