The 21 Best Website Builders for 2024

Gone are the days when you had to know how to code to launch a professional-looking website. Today, there’s an array of easy-to-use, worthy website builders ready to take the difficult and technical job of building a website off your plate. These website-building platforms are today’s DIY answer to web development. Now, the obvious question: Which website builder is the best?

Comparing website builders can be difficult. There are over a hundred on the market today, most of which offer two to four pricing plans with differing features. However, many platforms don’t allow you to export your work or transfer to another service. Thus, you should weigh your options before settling on a website builder. And what you may think are obvious criteria for comparison—price, ease-of-use, storage capacity—are far from all there is to consider.

Below, we list the 21 best website builders of 2024, including their features, pricing, benefits, pitfalls, and additional elements you might have not considered. If you’re searching for the best website builder for your business, you’ll surely find your answer below.

The Best Website Builder Software: Getting Started

Amateur, small, professional, and global enterprises all use website builders to represent themselves online. That said, there are website builders to meet the goals of each of these businesses’ individual needs. Therefore, analyzing the overarching goals of your website is essential to finding your match. You might consider some of these guiding questions while shopping:

• Is your goal to establish a web presence via a portfolio page?
• Are you selling products or services?
• Do you plan to use your website as a marketing tool to attract customers?
• In what ways, if any, will your website need to scale?
• Do you have a need now or in the future for expansion into the global market?
• Will your website need any of the following tools or features?
  • eCommerce capabilities
  • Shopping cart solutions
  • Payment gateway
  • Virtual terminal

As you can see, there are many questions to ask yourself before settling on the website builder you’ll utilize to build your business’s website. This is why we’ve broken down the best website builders to compare their elements. Though we start with some of the most popular website builders, don’t discount some well-priced options further down the list with features both comparable and unique.

Without further adieu, below are the 21 best website builders on the market this year!

1. Shopify

Shopify is primarily an eCommerce website builder. All of the paid plans come with built-in shopping cart solutions and marketing features. If you don’t mind paying, there are dozens of premium templates available, but they cost an average of $100. Shopify Lite costs $9 per month and allows you to add a buy button to a site you already own, a Tumblr blog, or sell in person with the Shopify point-of-sale mobile app. The main drawback of Shopify is its pricing model.

Pricing

Given that its user base is fairly defined, Shopify doesn’t offer many plan options. Also, its plan prices come in above the market average. The Basic plan is $29 per month, while the $79-a-month offers some additional bells and whistles, as well as fewer transaction fees. For large-scale operations, there’s a plan for $299 per month.

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2. BigCommerce

More geared for medium- to large-scale online stores with a high sales volume, BigCommerce lives up to its name. It offers unlimited product variants. The website builder is not quite as easy to use as Shopify, but the savings and SEO features might be worth the extra effort.

Pricing

BigCommerce’s price tiers are identical to Shopify’s price tier, with levels from $29 – $249. But unlike Shopify, the lowest plan gives you unlimited users, unlimited bandwidth and storage, unlimited products, and no additional transaction fees. However, there are sales thresholds: The Standard plan supports annual sales of less than $50,000, the Plus plan supports up to $150,000, and the Pro up to $400,000. Also, you’ll receive one month free with an upgrade to a paid plan.

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3. Site123

SITE123 is another web builder with a free online store plan available. If you’re planning to expand to multiple countries, you’ll love the fact that SITE123 offers international online stores. They also get excellent reviews for their customer support. A domain name is included in their free and premium plans.

Pricing

Their paid plans start at $12.80 per month. This plan includes a free domain for a year, 10GB of storage, 5GB of bandwidth, and some limited email capabilities. It also removes the SITE123 branding that comes with the free plan.

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4. Website Builder by Hostinger

Website Builder by Hostinger is another DIY website builder featuring a well-rated interface and some powerful tools that give you a lot of control. It lacks a free option. Additionally, it has some customization limitations that might narrow your overall design vision, but all told, the platform is not missing much. A solid choice for small businesses looking to launch a website fast.

Pricing

With no free tier, Website Builder by Hostinger’s plans starts at just $2.90 per month, going up to about $15 per month for its most advanced selling and marketing tools.

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5. Duda

Duda isn’t the cheapest, but it fills in a hole in the market for those needing analytics and multilingual capabilities. This is paired with better mobile customizations. Though a smaller player, Duda found its niche with designers and design agencies aiming to build multiple sites for its easy-to-use website builder, differentiated offerings, and ability to support teams.

Pricing

Duda has a total of three available account plans: Basic for individuals making one monthly site for $19 per month, a Team plan for adding up to 4 editors on one site for $29, and an Agency plan for teams working on up to 4 monthly websites for $59 per month.

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6. Webflow

Best for professional designers, Webflow is one of the most customizable website builders on our list. It’s a drag-and-drop interface built for designing websites. Like many of the more sophisticated and customizable website builders, it comes with more of a learning curve.

Pricing

One of the better free website builders on the market. If you want to step up the bells and whistles, it’s $12 per month for its basic site plan. There’s an Account plan at $16 per month more suitable for professional web designers, as well as an eCommerce plan with no transaction fees costing $79 per month.

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7. WooCommerce

Brought to you by Bluehost and built for WordPress, WooCommerce offers plugins, SEO tools, and social media integration. This website builder is yet another online storefront option offering a range of plus-and-play features. It’s almost like you can build your site à la carte. One of its best-known features is a complete shopping cart solution for online eCommerce.

Pricing

WooCommerce’s Basic plan is $15.95 per month, and its Premium plan is $39.95 with a 36-month signup.

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8. GoDaddy

Domains were always GoDaddy’s domain, so to speak, as the provider is best known for its custom domain names and web hosting services. While you’re there, you might as well stay and build your website, too. You get much of the same templatized web-building experience as with the other services, but you have to pay for your domain separately.

Pricing

The free tier includes email and social media marketing, PayPal payments, and an SSL certificate. The $10 per month plan is basic. The $15 plan adds an SEO tool, $20 adds extended support for appointments, and $25 adds online store capabilities, including product listing and shipping options.

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9. Dreamhost

Dreamhost is mainly a web hosting service plan for WordPress sites. It also offers other features like website building and domain name registration. Affordable, entry-level cloud computing & VPS plans.

Pricing

Affordable plans offering a free domain name start at $2.59. They go up in three tiers: DreamPress for regular websites, DreamPress Plus designed to help you grow your business, and DreamPress Pro for high-capacity needs and performance.

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10. IONOS

IONOS excels in its choice of themed templates. Organized by industry and type, some are more image-focused, and others are more text-heavy. They are all easy to implement and adjust. Notably, IONOS’s multilingual translation, which can translate a site’s content into 62 different languages, makes it a great choice in terms of international scalability. With its Pro plan, you can create personalized content for specific visitors. You can customize your site for first-time visitors to see something different than returning visitors or to display different content based on holidays, events, sales, etc.

Pricing

IONOS doesn’t offer a free plan, except for the first month. Its prices start at $84 per year, with a domain, email address, and an expansive image library.

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11. Wix

Wix is generally ranked as one of the best website builders. It’s a basic, free way to set up a website supported by ads. Wix includes domain and hosting for free. If you like what you create on Wix, you may consider stepping up to a premium plan for an ad-free website.

Pricing

Pricing plans start around $14 per month, which should be sufficient for most personal or small business websites. They also offer a Business VIP plan starting at $49 per month.

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12. WordPress

WordPress is a huge name when it comes to creating websites, as both WordPress.org and WordPress.com play a role in this arena. Customizable with themes and plug-ins, WordPress platforms are blog-focused content management systems. However, WordPress’s website builder is comparable to many of the other website builders on this list, complete with hosting services.

Pricing

WordPress is extremely affordable, starting at $4 per month for 6BG of data ad-free. From there, it goes to $8 for 13GB of storage and web store capabilities and $25 for a selection that allows for custom themes and add-ons.

WordPress.com vs Wordpress.org

It’s a bit confusing, we know. What most software developers mean when they talk about WordPress, is the free open-source blogging software available through WordPress.org. Learning how to use it is a great skill to have, as some estimate that WordPress powers 40 percent of the world’s websites. If you go that route, check out WordPress Lessons for Beginners on WordPress.org to get started.

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13. Squarespace

With its slick, mobile-friendly design, many consider Squarespace one of the best website builders on the market, but at a higher price point. Its pre-packaged designs offer gorgeous, modern templates that look great on all modern devices. But where Squarespace scores for beauty, it lacks in substance.

Pricing

Squarespace pricing starts with a $12 per month personal plan, which includes unlimited storage, bandwidth, and a domain. The Business plan charges a 3 percent transaction fee on each purchase. An Online Store plan is between $26 and $40 per month for some additional features and no transaction fees.

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14. Weebly

Weebly is an eCommerce site powered by Square. Built for those low on time, money, and/or commitment, Weebly shines for its eCommerce offerings. Weebly also offers the ability to download site files. This feature is a rarity among website builders and allows you to move to another host if you so choose. 

Pricing

For just $5 per month, you can get up and running with your own domain name, although this plan features ads on your site. It’s $12 per month to go ad-free. The $25 plan gets you even more tools. Weebly’s prices are similar to competitors, but its free plan is pretty generous.

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15. Gator by HostGator

Gator is a website builder by HostGator. It’s commended for its simplicity and price point, both of which are great for small businesses or beginners. Gator’s quick, professional, and well-designed sites work well and come with 24-hour support for all users and free analytic solutions. Drag-and-drop design elements such as images, videos, text, columns, maps, and contact forms come with Gator’s fully customizable 200+ templates. Additionally, Gator offers a number of mobile-friendly themes, as well as its own stock photo library.

Pricing

The Starter plan costs $3.84 per month. This comes with free hosting, website analytics, free domain name registration (for one year), and unmetered storage. The Premium plan comes with the addition of priority support for $5.99 per month. The eCommerce plan, meanwhile, costs $9.22 for additional features.

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16. Square Up

Easy to use, Square’s website builder is great for merchants of all kinds, especially those just starting out because it’s one of the rare eCommerce builders that lets you sell for free. However, you’ll pay a $0.30 transaction fee per sale. They have a variety of vendor services like dropshipping and payment processing. Though, if you don’t want to use Square’s in-house payment processor, you’ll incur extra fees.

Pricing

Sure, you can start selling for free. However, we don’t recommend it as a long-term solution as you’ll have ads on your site and you won’t be able to use a custom domain. If you upgrade, you’ll have three options ranging from $12 to $72 per month. Of these, the $26-per-month Performance plan has the most features (comparable to Squarespace) with which you can send abandoned cart emails and post customer reviews on your site.

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17. Bluehost Website Builder

With the aim of offering more than just web hosting, Bluehost recently launched a website builder. Built on top of WordPress, its website builder has a drag-and-drop editing interface, live and mobile editing, and a stock image repository. And thanks to the WordPress integration, you can pick which elements of your website to build using Bluehost and WordPress.

Pricing

For a 12-month subscription, the Basic plan is $2.95 per month. The Pro plan is $9.95 per month. For the eCommerce site, it’s $39.95 per month.

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18. HubSpot

If you’re looking for a website builder that’s also a fully-loaded, powerful customer relationship management (CMS) and marketing tool, HubSpot is going to be the best website builder for you. It allows you to make website pages, blog posts, and landing pages from scratch or use their templatized tools. This is your way to get found online while capturing, engaging with, and understanding your leads throughout the customer lifecycle.

Pricing

You will get what you pay for, but you will really pay for it. The cheapest option is a $400-per-month website with a $1,000 onboarding fee per seat. And it only goes up from there.

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19. Strikingly

Strikingly is a good website builder for beginners or small businesses looking to quickly create landing pages or other single-page websites with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. With this website builder, you should be able to get your site online in a few hours.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $8 per month for a limited plan. The $16-per-month Pro plan includes all the tools you need to launch and grow, but only offers a free domain for up to a year. At $49 per month, the VIP plan offers additional business tools.

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20. Jimdo

Jimdo caters to designers, photographers, and small businesses who want an easy way to create a clean-looking website with a real design aesthetic. It does this through flexible content blocks that can be changed based on the type of business or service. Jimdo offers a unique feature that sets website colors to automatically harmonize with an uploaded logo or image. They even have an AI-created website tool.

Pricing

The free plan comes with no time limit, but you’ll have Jimdo sub-domain and on-site advertising. You can upgrade to a $9-per-month plan to go ad-free. With the paid plan, you receive a domain free for the first year, as well as some advanced SEO features and analytics.

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21. Web.com

Relatively new, Web.com enables you to put together smart websites with a minimum of fuss. Their design is based on simple, modular blocks and pre-assembled drag-and-drop elements, making customization simple.

Pricing

The initial fee of just $1.95 per month, complete with a free URL, makes it one of the most affordable website builders on the market. Web.com’s eCommerce package is just $3.95 per month.

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Best Website Builders by Business Type

Now that we’ve detailed the features and pricing of the 21 best website builders on the market, below are our suggestions for their best uses.

Small business

Because there are many different kinds of small businesses, we broke down the best options based on needs:

• Overall website builder across small business lists: Wix
• Best value for small eCommerce businesses: Squarespace
• Best for brick-and-mortar shops: Weebly
• Fastest setup for small businesses: GoDaddy
• Small businesses wanting complete control of their website design: WordPress

Below are the best website builder for specific industries:

eCommerce	Gator (HostGator’s excellent website builder) is a great choice for the price. Of course, Shopify and Weebly remain popular web stores, too.
Self-Employment	If you’re a freelancer looking to promote your online presence, your work, or your brand, Strikingly is fast and easy to launch. Duda and Jimdo are good options, too.
Finance & Insurance	Website Builder by Hostinger and SITE123 are so easy, templatized, and frugal that they’re perfect for insurers and personal financial advisors.
Restaurants	Wix and Square are the clear winners here, as are Squarespace and Shopify.
Real Estate	Where first impressions matter, Squarespace seems to dominate the real estate space.
Nonprofit	Wix offers nonprofits a free Premium plan for a year, with the option of extending the plan for an additional two years.
Teachers & Education	Strikingly is a great option for educators on tight budgets who want something online fast.
Podcasting	GoDaddy’s new website builder features excellent uptime, good-looking templates, generous storage, and monthly data transfers.
Wedding Industries	For a gorgeous, clean aesthetic and pro-level control, Webflow and Jimdo are great choices, as are Squarespace and Wix.
Marketing & SEO Services	Hubspot is the clear winner for powerful and integrated marketing tools, but don’t discount Website Builder by Hostinger, Gator, and Duda.
Integrated SaaS Builder	Duda’s SASS integrations are highly regarded among teams and enterprise agencies.
Visual Arts	Webflow, Jimdo, and Web.com give you access to pro-level editing tools. If you’re looking for high-quality stock photography, Gator, Squarespace, and Wix offer loads in their photo galleries.
Musicians, Bands, and Record Labels	Though not from our above list, Bandzoogle is the website builder of choice for bands, as it boasts band-specific features. Otherwise, Wix is an always-great, solid choice for massive customization, ease, and price.
Authors & Other Literary Professionals	Strikingly gets your website up quickly and easily, but WordPress is the winning solution for writers, bloggers, and content marketers.
Therapists & Other Medical Professionals	Appealing to freelancers and small businesses for its simplicity and clean aesthetic, Jimdo is a solid choice here, as are Squarespace or Wix.
Churches & Other Religious Entities	WordPress allows the most flexibility and customization, while Wix is an all-around winner for tools like donations, security, live streaming, etc.

Best Website Builders by Features

If you’re looking for a website builder with specific features, below is a feature-based list of the best website builders.

Best Free Website Builder	Strikingly, Weebly, and Wix are among the most generous with their free offerings.
SEO Tools	Wix has all the SEO capabilities you could ask for. Website Builder by Hostinger ranks high here as well.
Integrated SaaS Builder	Duda’s SASS integrations for some of the best on the market.
Social Media Tools	Jimdo offers numerous social media integrations.
Online Store	Shopify and Weebly for fantastic eCommerce website builders. If you’re a larger vendor, BigCommerce is the best choice.
Design Templates	Gator strikes a good balance between design freedom and responsive restrictions.
Portfolio Showcasing	Jimdo is a great website builder for designers, photographers, or anyone else who wants to display their portfolio online.
Blogging Capability	Strikingly is a good option for blogging, but WordPress is the industry standard when it comes to blogging capabilities.
Multilingual Capability	IONOS’s multilingual translation, which can translate a site’s content into 62 different languages, makes it a great choice in terms of its international scalability.
Affiliate Marketing	Affiliate marketing is an integration Jimdo does well. You can obtain similar affiliate marketing integrations with Squarespace, Website Builder by Hostinger, SITE123, and Wix.
Easiest to use	Weebly is an easy-to-use site website builder with a free option. Its responsive design means that it’s hard to truly mess it up.
Do-It-Yourself	It depends on the “you” in this scenario, but Weebly, Website Builder by Hostinger, Strikingly, and Web.com are all great for the self-starter. For those with more experience, website builders like Dreamhost or Hubspot are good options.
Drag-and-Drop	By definition, the platforms on this list are all easy to use, but drag-and-drop capabilities make website building that much easier. Some of the highest-rated are Weebly, Wix, Duda, and Website Builder by Hostinger.

Website Builders To Avoid

• Google Sites are free! However, you get what you pay for, with few customization options and a dated look.
• Watch out for sites offering unlimited storage. This typically means the web host or website builder doesn’t set a hard limit, but they can cut you off if they think you’re misusing storage. 
• Watch out for sites offering introductory pricing or advertising low costs for the first year, as the price will usually get much more expensive.

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The Best Website Builders: Final Thoughts

No matter which website builder you decide to go with, you’ll be able to easily integrate PaymentCloud’s payment gateway, virtual terminal, and shopping cart solutions directly to your site so you can start accepting online payments with ease.

In the wide world of website builders, there are many factors to consider before settling on one. But once you have selected the best builder for your needs, you’ll be on your way to marketing your business, selling your products and services online, and instantly accepting online payments.

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