10 Best Website Builders Of 2024 (2024)

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On Hostinger's Website

Hostinger offers a variety of affordable plans if you’re looking for a website builder and web host in the same package. That said, its plans are cheapest, and significantly more affordable than competing alternatives if you purchase a long-term plan up front.

Features

A free domain name is Hostinger’s most notable feature that’s included with its website builder. This is a great bonus to get with a website builder and means that you won’t have to turn to a third party to purchase a domain separately (or inflate the cost of your plan by having to pay for one from Hostinger). While this is a huge plus, along with Hostinger’s most appealing pricing, it comes with some caveats.

For one, the free domain requires that you buy a plan for 12 months or longer, meaning you’ll have to pay a larger fee up front instead of being able to pay for service on a month-by-month basis. It’s also important to note that the free domain is only available for the first year of your contract with Hostinger; after that, you’ll have to pay Hostinger if you want to retain ownership of your domain, which costs $9.99.

Pricing

As previously mentioned, Hostinger’s site builder pricing can vary broadly depending on what plan you choose and what initial term you sign up for (and pay for) up front. The prices it advertises for its three website builder plans on the official Hostinger site are excellent, until you read the fine print. The lowest-tier plan, for instance, starts at $2.99 a month, but only if you purchase two full years of service in advance. There’s also a significant price spike when you renew, up to $8.99 a month. That said, if you are willing to pay in advance, Hostinger’s plans are priced very competitively.

Customer Service

Hostinger offers some informational resources on its website, including a newsroom with updates about the company and a blog where you can read about trending topics in web hosting. You can also reach Hostinger support 24/7 by live chat or email, though unfortunately, the company doesn’t offer phone support, a detriment for those who appreciate the immediacy of talking to a live human being without the barriers of a keyboard or screen.

Reputation

Hostinger has a very good reputation on customer review aggregator Trustpilot, with a number of positive customer reviews mentioning excellent support and problem solving from the Hostinger team.

Learn more: Read our full Hostinger review.

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On Shopify's Website

Shopify is a great solution for sellers looking to dropship goods (the process of buying items from an online retailer, supplier or manufacturer and then shipping them to a customer at a higher rate) because of the number of apps specifically designed for Shopify for that purpose.

Features

Shopify aims to make website creation a simple process by providing customers with thousands of pre-built themes to base their new site around. After you’ve got a theme in place, you can then populate and support it with a huge catalog of apps and integrations that can open up a huge range of functionality.

Of course, one of the major focuses of Shopify’s entire platform is operating an e-commerce platform. The company gives you the option not only to sell online (including the dropshipping options we touched on above) but also support for POS sales, so you can sell your goods and services in person. It also empowers you to sell on major online marketplaces, including eBay and Amazon, as well as through social media platforms such as TikTok and Facebook. There’s even support for selling directly through searches on Google.

Pricing

Compared to plans at other companies that focus exclusively on building a website, Shopify’s plans are generally more expensive, much more so in some cases (though there is a limited Starter plan that’s more affordable). That’s because, alongside the website builder, you’re getting web hosting and a complete e-commerce platform, so if you’re specifically only looking for a builder, Shopify isn’t a good fit.

Customer Service

Shopify has a resources tab where you can find lots of useful tools, including business courses from experts or help building a marketing plan. You can reach customer support by live chat on the site, though phone support is only available for users on the Plus or higher plan, a disappointing limitation.

Reputation

Shopify has an extremely poor reputation online on review aggregators such as Trustpilot. Users cite issues with sites being unexpectedly shut down, poor support and payment issues.

Learn more: Read our full Shopify review.

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On Squarespace's Website

Squarespace is a good choice for artists and other creatives, primarily because of its huge array of aesthetically appealing designer fonts, color palettes and templates, many of which are custom-designed to serve specific purposes (including business intents, if you don’t just want to showcase your art but also want to market and sell it).

Features

Beyond showing off your work and Squarespace’s e-commerce options, the company also has some standout features for slightly more nontraditional businesses. The platform lets you sell your time by scheduling appointments with clients, including tools to promote your availability and accept various payments.

Squarespace also gives you the option to transform your knowledge into income by building and selling online courses, classes or tutorials. This includes creating customized lessons and uploading informational videos.

Squarespace also offers customers a kit of marketing tools to get their products in front of the right customers. There are built-in SEO tools, email campaigns that are built around the existing aesthetic and design of your site, and analytics to let you dive into how well you’re performing and how to improve.

Pricing

Squarespace allows you to pay either monthly or annually and includes a 14-day free trial with its plans. Its plans are fairly expensive, especially if you opt to pay monthly, with a fairly limited Personal plan that nonetheless starts at $25 a month.

Customer Service

Squarespace offers a number of tools for professionals on its website, as well as a blog with stories aimed at entrepreneurs and educational webinars. You can also reach its customer support team by email or live chat, though it doesn’t offer phone support of any kind.

Reputation

Squarespace suffers from very negative review scores on Trustpilot, with a number of customers complaining about unresponsive customer support and broken features.

Learn more: Read our full Squarespace review.

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Read Forbes' Review

WordPress is a great base platform for webmasters or devs who are looking for a blank slate to then build specific functionality or features onto through integrations. Its plans come with access to a big library of plugins that allow you to do everything from run a complete commerce platform to build a visually appealing newsletter or add robust anti-spam protections to your site.

Features

WordPress sells a number of combination plans of which the website builder is just one small element. The base plan is completely free and, while limited, has a core set of features to allow you to set up a fairly basic site. However, its site editing tools are very limited (you can’t customize fonts and colors, for instance).

Features expand as you climb through the six plans. The Premium plan (the third of the six) is the sweet spot in terms of site building features and tools balanced against price, and gets you access to custom fonts and colors as well as WordPress’ catalog of premium themes. You can also monetize with ads at the Premium tier in addition to commerce options (with a 4% transaction fee).

That said, there’s also a (pricey) Commerce tier, which is specialized for selling products. You get a number of features at this level that are otherwise only available through paid add-ons, including unlimited products and inventory management tools. If you intend to launch a dedicated e-commerce site, the Commerce tier may be a worthwhile investment, though it is the most expensive (after the Enterprise plan).

Pricing

WordPress’ plans run the gamut of price, from a completely free plan to an Enterprise plan that starts at $25,000 a year. For small business owners, the sweet spot lies somewhere in between; many will find the Premium plan the best value at $18 a month with a relatively robust feature set.

Customer Service

WordPress’ resources section is host to news, webinars and a blog, plus a handful of other tools such as a business name generator and logo creator. Direct customer support is only available for paid plans but can be reached through the WordPress dashboard. WordPress also doesn’t offer phone support, however.

Reputation

WordPress has a poor reputation online. A number of its customers complain about the company’s poor customer support system and questionable policies.

Learn more: Read our full WordPress review.

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Read Forbes' Review

Weebly is hands down the best solution if you want to kick-start an e-commerce site on the cheap. Even at the free tier, you get access to a pretty generous suite of e-commerce tools, including several that other providers charge a premium for.

Features

The free plan gets you a shopping cart, unlimited product listings and a quick shop option, all of the basics you need to start selling online. There are also a number of more premium e-commerce features that get bundled into the free plan, including inventory management and an option to let your customers pick up their orders in-store if they prefer. Features such as these are often paywalled at many of Weebly’s competitors, so getting them gratis is a real benefit.

Jump up to the highest plan and you get an even bigger pool of e-commerce options. You get additional shipping features, such as shipping labels and shipping calculator software, which you’d otherwise have to pay a third party for. It also expands your payment options so you can serve a wider array of customers, allowing you to accept PayPal on your site. Given that even the highest-priced tier is still relatively inexpensive, Weebly gives you the option to get access to whichever tools you need without overpaying.

Pricing

Weebly offers three other plans beyond the free tier. Unlike most other website builders or web hosts, Weebly doesn’t massively inflate its prices if you decide to pay monthly rather than annually (though there is a small price bump).

Weebly’s paid plans are well priced, with even the highest tier’s monthly plan set at $29 per month. More importantly, they’re suitably priced for the features that they include, and even the free plan offers a surprising amount of functionality.

Customer Service

Weebly’s parent company has a blog on its site where you can find articles about e-commerce, business and technology. You can also reach out to Weebly support by phone, live chat or a support ticket.

Reputation

Weebly has a very bad reputation on review aggregator Trustpilot, with many reviews criticizing it for difficulty reaching customer service, content issues and other problems since the company was acquired by Square.

Learn more: Read our full Weebly review.

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On GoDaddy's Website

GoDaddy is a great solution for people looking to sell services online specifically. The company’s website builder comes with a huge variety of custom templates, many of which are either specifically built for or very well suited to selling services, and all plans come with built-in marketing tools to get your offerings in front of as many eyes as possible.

Features

Another way that GoDaddy excels is by providing built-in search engine optimization (SEO) tools. This means your website will rank more highly in Google searches related to your business and drive more traffic, and more potential customers, directly to your site. GoDaddy also provides a handful of useful communication tools with its website builder plans, such as an online chat feature, so you can be responsive and stay in touch with customers.

The higher-cost plans also layer on things such as online payment and deposit functionality, though we would’ve preferred to see them offered with the basic plan as well. The priciest plan is specifically built for e-commerce, and opens up the ability to sell unlimited products, as well as access to leading online marketplaces where you can market and sell your stuff.

Pricing

GoDaddy’s pricing sits in the mid-to-high range, though all of its plans include a seven-day free trial. While they are, for the most part, appropriately priced for the features packaged with each, the Basic plan is a bit on the lackluster side given the price point and that some core features are lacking.

Customer Service

GoDaddy’s official website includes a Help Center as well as a blog that blends troubleshooting advice and informational articles and videos. You can also connect with GoDaddy support by phone, live chat or text 24/7.

Reputation

GoDaddy has a very good reputation amongst consumers. Many of the positive reviews cite helpful customer service and the quality of the company’s services. Negative reviews mention long wait times for support and high prices.

Learn more: Read our full GoDaddy review.

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Read Forbes' Review

Strikingly is a great choice for beginners just getting their feet wet with web design. Not only is there a free plan to get you started, Strikingly also offers an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop site editor or, if you prefer, AI tools that will build the core of your website for you in minutes.

Features

While Strikingly is a great choice for beginners just starting to experiment with building websites, it may not be a good fit for more advanced users, and a lot of that comes down to its features.

Features tend to be heavily curtailed, especially at the free and lower-tier pay plans, and even the priciest plans have some curious restrictions. Even the highest-priced VIP plan doesn’t include unlimited storage or unlimited full-featured sites.

The free plan, meanwhile, only provides a scant 5GB of bandwidth a month and only 500MB of storage. The first paid plan doesn’t improve on those restrictions much, and you’ll need to move up to the second-highest-priced plan to get access to unlimited bandwidth.

Pricing

Strikingly’s plans are around the middle of the pack in terms of pricing when compared to its competitors. However, given what’s on offer in those plans, it’s hard to justify the price; the real appeal of Strikingly’s offerings is the free plan, a way for novices to play around with building a site without having to drop any cash up front.

Customer Service

Strikingly doesn’t offer a ton of online resources, but it does have a blog on its site where it provides updates on features and some posts about web design and business topics. Chat support is only available for paid users, and phone support is only available for customers who have subscribed to the most expensive plan.

Reputation

Strikingly has a pretty awful score on Trustpilot, with numerous complaints about poor billing policies, poor customer support and misrepresentation of its products.

Learn more: Read our full Strikingly review.

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On Web.com's Website

Web.com stands out from a number of website builders because of the depth of its AI features. As with many providers, it offers an AI-powered builder that can construct the framework of your site for you in response to a few questions, but Web.com also includes AI tools such as a writing assistant, logo creator and even a domain name generator.

Features

Web.com’s site builder plans include a number of “freebies” as part of an introductory offer. However, many of them are time limited, and expire quickly, such as the SSL certificate, which is only free for the first month. There’s also a free domain, but you’ll need to begin paying to retain it after the first year, and free email, though only for the first three months of service.

Beyond those timed extras, Web.com does offer a number of essential core features. There are the aforementioned AI tools, as well as design templates (many of which are industry specific), and specialized features such as appointment scheduling if you plan to sell services or classes online. One standout is a free hour of design support with every paid plan, so you can get some customized advice on how to make your site stand out.

Web.com also separately offers a complete design service, where its team will build your entire site for you and tailor it to your vision.

Pricing

Web.com’s introductory pricing is very low, and includes a bunch of sweeteners such as a free domain to entice customers. However, those extras expire after a set period, and plans renew at a much higher price. The most egregious example is the monthly rate for the basic plan. It starts at $1.95 for the first month, but the price spikes all the way up to $19.99 when it renews for the second month. In addition, if you want to continue to have access to the SSL certificate included in the plan, you’ll have to start paying for that after the first month as well.

Customer Service

Web.com has a fairly standard blog on its site, which also features a business name generator and some other tools. There’s also 24/7 chat support and a number for support by phone.

Reputation

Web.com has a reasonably good reputation online, earning praise for its knowledgeable support technicians and professionalism. There are some complaints around difficulties using the platform, however.

Learn more: Read our full Web.com review.

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On Wix's Website

Wix is a good place to start if you’re looking for a highly customizable site but don’t have a lot of (or any) experience with HTML or other coding languages. Wix gives you a suite of over 900 free templates to play with, and then allows you to customize them however you see fit, without ever needing to input a line of code.

Features

Wix’s sites are both easy to put together and highly customizable. There’s the library of templates, but Wix also has an AI builder feature to get the basics of your site in place quickly. You start by talking with an AI chatbot, which then will generate a site for you. After the bot creates the first draft of your site, you can ask it to modify elements until you’re satisfied, or you can jump in yourself and start tweaking anything you’re not satisfied with.

To that end, Wix provides thousands of web design functions so you can get very granular in shaping your site. For advanced users, the company also provides a full stack of web dev tools to add high-level functionality. Wix also provides accessibility settings to ensure that your site is available to the widest pool of users possible.

Pricing

Wix’s plans are on the higher end of pricing amongst those we reviewed for our list. While not egregious, we’d like to see more functionality included with the basic plan, which starts at $17 a month. It doesn’t include any e-commerce functionality and is limited to only 2GB of storage; the second plan (called Core) will likely be a better fit for small business owners but starts at $29 a month. All plans do include a 14-day money-back guarantee, however.

Customer Service

Wix offers a fairly extensive resources section on its site with business tools, a blog and some educational tools. If you need support with your site, you can reach customer service 24/7. Specify your preferred contact method and Wix will respond in a few minutes.

Reputation

Wix has a strong reputation with its customers on Trustpilot, many of whom call out the company’s easy-to-use tools for website creation and management and its usefulness to startups and small businesses.

Learn more: Read our full Wix review.

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On Bluehost's Website

Your site is of no use to you or your customers if they can’t access it, so Bluehost’s promise of 100% uptime provides peace of mind.

Features

Bluehost is a great option for WordPress sites and, along with many of its contemporaries, includes AI tools to help you design and launch your site. The WordPress-specific tools are all included in a package Bluehost refers to as WordPress WonderSuite. WonderSuite is designed to help you navigate all of the tools packaged with WordPress easily and get your site up and running quickly.

It starts with WonderStart, an onboarding tool that asks you questions to later incorporate into your site. For instance, if you provide your socials, WonderSuite will then include them in search-engine-optimized positions on the site for best visibility. There’s also WonderTheme and WonderBlocks to sketch out a site and then rearrange it as you see fit. WonderHelp is the AI wizard to guide you through building a site by following a series of prompts, and WonderCart is an e-commerce solution that combines a number of tools and techniques to drive online sales.

Pricing

Bluehost’s pricing is somewhere in the middle of similar providers, though its plans suffer from some curious restrictions that somewhat devalue them such as limited concurrent visitors (the number of users that can simultaneously use your site) and freebies that expire (the free domain is only for a year, while free email is only valid for the first three months of a subscription).

Customer Service

Bluehost has a blog on its site that also lists events and webinars the company hosts for those curious about its products or looking to learn more about web hosting and site building. Bluehost also offers 24/7 customer support by chat or phone.

Reputation

Bluehost’s reputation on Trustpilot is generally good, with several positive reviews of its customer service experience and WordPress expertise. However, some negative reviews criticize the company for charging for unsupported or deprecated features that are no longer being updated and that customer service can’t or won’t provide help with. Moreover, some users mention the difficulty navigating its interface.

Learn more: Read our full Bluehost review.