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7 of the Best Website Builder Solutions Compared & Tested (2024)

If you are uncertain how to find the best website builder for small business (or overall) 🏪, you might have just landed in the right place! In this article we’re going to review and compare the seven best website builders available on the market in 2024.

Every kind of business, whether it is a brick-and-mortar store, an agency, a single person operation, and so on, needs to get online. However, building a site on your own can be a difficult task. The key challenge is that you must create a site with appealing visual brand aesthetics and good back-end structure.

In general, people are not very comfortable coding websites. HTML? CSS? PHP? That stuff is hard, and not everyone has the time to master the skills. But there’s also another problem, hiring a web designer to do the work for you can get expensive. But this is where some of the best website builders come into play to save us!

Fortunately, you don’t have to learn any coding yourself, or spend cash on web developers. Modern website builders take care of all the elements including UX, design, coding and interface for you. What we really like about website builders is the degree of autonomy they deliver. You can literally create any design from scratch in just a few clicks.

Here’s our comparison of the best website builders out there:

👊 Best website builder for small business

If you’re in a hurry and just want an overview, take a look at the summary below:

Best website builder for small business: SUMMARY
Site builder Rating Price (per mo.) Key Features Best for
Wix 10/10 $16.00 – $159 ADI algorithm, 500+ design templates Small business websites, ecommerce and agencies
Squarespace 9/10 $16.00 – $49 Fulfilment and delivery management integrations First Wix alternative to check out
WordPress.org 9/10 $0 + price of hosting Exceptional range of plugins and themes Blogs and business sites
WordPress.com 8/10 $0 – $45 Performance monitoring, custom plugins Personal blogs or small business sites
Shopify 9/10 $24.00 – $399 2000+ web apps, awesome business tools ecommerce stores
Web.com 7/10 $4.95 – $19.95 Building sites is fast Simple websites
Weebly 6/10 $0 – $26 The ecommerce setup is easy to get started with New projects for testing business ideas
Best website builder for small business: #1 wix

Wix should be considered the most popular website builder for small business overall. Credits behind their success go to creative ads and flexible design elements.

This builder is packed with magnificent, customizable templates for designing a beautiful business website. You can even add an Instagram feed widget for better brand aesthetics. This site builder also has a logo maker for creating a design that reflects your brand.

 

The best part about Wix is that it lets you drag and drop hundreds of design elements into place and come up with a unique structure for your website. You can also create custom interaction for adding animation effects (like hovering). Your design could be further leveraged using custom CSS. With Wix’s tools and design integrations, the sky really is the limit.

🧰 Features

  • Beginner-friendly website design tool – “ADI”
  • Fully mobile responsive
  • Niche-optimized templates
  • 100% GDPR compliant
  • Works with third-party add-ons
  • 99.9% uptime guarantee
  • Custom brand logos
  • Lets you hook up a custom domain
  • Email marketing module
  • 300+ Wix apps you can add to your site
  • Live chat support
  • Marketing tools

💸 Pricing plans

Wix’s business pricing plans are extremely scalable. Apart from the heavy-load Enterprise plan, you can choose from three plans built specifically for small businesses.

The most basic plan starts at $16 per month. It provides you with 2 GB of disk storage and unlimited bandwidth. You will get additional site booster app (speed) and form builder app (for the contact page) as well. These plans also allow you to connect your own domain name, plus you get a free domain name from Wix for one year.

  • Light – $16.00 / month
  • Core – $27.00 / month
  • Business – $32.00 / month
  • Business Elite – $159 / month

👍 Pros

  • Hundreds of stunning design templates to build business sites for retail, photography, music, food, pets and more.
  • You can just sit back and have Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) create a personalized website for you.
  • Complete ecommerce module with shopping cart functionalities.
  • You can expect premium class support from the Wix team.

👎 Cons

  • Ecommerce marketing features are rather limited.
  • You cannot switch templates once the site is published.

🏆 OVERALL SCORE – 10 / 10

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2. Squarespace

Best website builder for small business: #2 Squarespace

Should you wish to create a voguish store, Squarespace is your best option.

In the last few years, Squarespace has managed to become a well-known builder in the ecommerce/business space. Previously, it was mostly used by freelancers and portfolio sites. However, they have added some unique interface features to make it a good fit for SMBs. Squarespace offers excellent support and eye-catchy templates in different categories.

 

Squarespace is all about “make-it-stand-out” design. But when it comes to design flexibility, it has its limitations. Overall, I had a great experience with Squarespace. There are two things that make this site builder stand out. First, you don’t need to manually design the mobile version of your web pages. Second, you can change your website template later on – once the site has been published (a feature missing in Wix).

🧰 Features

  • 110+ beautiful and versatile templates
  • Sell unlimited products
  • APIs for orders and inventory
  • Website analytics
  • Over 140 plugins
  • Light-speed POS module
  • Free custom domain and SSL
  • 0% transaction fees (BASIC Commerce)
  • Template switching
  • Custom CSS available
  • Connected social accounts
  • Payment processing
  • Shopping cart modules
  • Abandoned cart recovery

💸 Pricing plans

The pricing for business is designed to give you features that are essential. It’s safe to say that you will get what you pay for. Here are the three Squarespace pricing options for business websites:

  • Personal – $16.00 /month
  • Business – $23.00 / month
  • BASIC Commerce – $27 / month
  • ADVANCED Commerce – $49 / month

👍 Pros

  • This builder contains some 110(ish) templates in 14 different categories for designing attractive websites.
  • Squarespace has sophisticated features like multi-site connect.
  • SEO features will help you boost your organic rankings.
  • Premium integrations and blocks for things like maps, SoundCloud, appointment scheduling, and many more to ease the building process.

👎 Cons

  • The user interface for administration isn’t as refined compared to Wix.

🏆 OVERALL SCORE – 9 / 10

3. WordPress (wordpress.org)

WordPress.

WordPress is the most popular website engine of them all – currently used on 43.2% of all websites. WordPress is a piece of open-source software that you can download for free and install on any web server under your control. There’s also a ton of free add-ons, plugins, themes (ready-made designs) that you can install on your site in a couple of clicks and extend its features even further.

Overall, WordPress is the dream for DIY users worldwide!

 

⚠️ Note. You’ll find WordPress mentioned two times on this list – first the stand-alone version of WordPress (aka WordPress.org), and then the commercial edition (aka WordPress.com). These are not the same solutions. To learn more about the specific differences between them, check out our guide to WordPress.org vs WordPress.com.

🧰 Features

  • Free content management system.
  • Comes with thousands of plugins and free WP themes that can help you build a good-looking and functional website.
  • There are lots of tools and resources primarily created to integrate with WordPress.
  • Just by installing some plugins, you can have all the features you need: SEO optimization, online stores, amazing effects and animations, multimedia integration, embedded video and audio files, portfolios, impressive sliders, advanced and modern widgets, social buttons, lots of design templates and layouts and many other features.
  • Easy-to-use interface. You can edit almost everything from the dashboard, which is user-friendly and intuitive.
  • Plus a myriad of other things.

💸 Pricing plans

Free (plus the domain and hosting). Usually ends up costing you around $60 annually.

👍 Pros

  • Comes with lots of plugins and tools, which will help you improve your site’s performance.
  • Everything is customizable and it’s up to you what you want to showcase on your site.
  • WordPress offers endless extension and customization possibilities.
  • If you are a developer, you are free to create your own tools, use them in WordPress and show them to the community.

👎 Cons

  • Creating a site with WordPress requires you to be comfortable with certain things such as domain setup, web hosting, etc. For that reason, WordPress can be a bit intimidating for first-time users. Additionally, to make your site really feature-rich, you need a handful of plugins that you have to find and install on your own.

👉 To help you get started with this version of WordPress, read our in-depth guide on building a website with WordPress – from start to finish.

🏆 OVERALL SCORE – 9 / 10

4. WordPress.com

wordpress.com.

WordPress.com is a website platform built on top of the open-source WordPress software.

What’s good about WordPress.com vs the stand-alone version of WordPress is that you don’t need to get your hands dirty installing anything. Instead, you can just create an account on WordPress.com and proceed building your website in a simplified interface.

WordPress.com comes with modern designs, a feature set that has everything you could need, plus there’s also an ecommerce module if you want to use your small business website to start offering products online.

 

The site builder features might not be as advanced as with some of the other tools on this list, but it’s still a great solution for those just getting started.

⚠️ Note. You’ll find WordPress mentioned two times on this list – the commercial edition of WordPress (aka WordPress.com), and the stand-alone version (aka WordPress.org). These are not the same solutions. To learn more about the specific differences between them, read this comparison guide.

🧰 Features

  • Good selection of themes/designs
  • Every design is customizable to an extent
  • You can change themes after you first launch the site
  • Free custom domain name for one year
  • Performance monitoring
  • Advanced social media
  • Email and live chat support
  • Polylang for multilingual sites
  • Up to 200 GB of storage space
  • Custom CSS supported
  • Google Analytics support
  • Simple payments buttons
  • You can choose from tens of thousands of WordPress plugins and themes and install them on your site

💸 Pricing plans

WordPress.com does come with a free plan, but that one isn’t very optimized for business websites. For once, you don’t get to set a custom domain name for a free site, and WordPress.com will place their own ads on your site. If you go for a Business or ecommerce plan then this problem vanishes.

A better solution is to opt for one of the paid plans catered to businesses:

  • Starter – $4 / month – create your home on the web with a custom domain name
  • Explorer – $8 / month – only consider this one if you won’t be adding any custom themes or plugins to your site
  • Creator – $25 / month – good for most businesses
  • Entrepreneur – $45 / month – get this is you’re going to be selling products from your site

👍 Pros

  • Access to thousands of WordPress themes and plugins.
  • All support, maintenance and server work is handled by the WordPress.com team, so no need to worry about the technical stuff.
  • You get the full power of WordPress as a website engine – with all its customizability, functionality, and design beauty.

👎 Cons

  • The website building functionality is a bit more feature-rich with the other tools on this list.
  • A bit more expensive than the other tools here if you want to build an ecommerce store.

🏆 OVERALL SCORE – 8 / 10

5. Shopify

shopify

What makes Shopify possibly the best website builder for small business are its ecommerce-first features and an overall ease of use. If you plan to sell products on your business site, I’d definitely recommend Shopify. It’s a pure ecommerce platform!

Shopify can cater to customer bases all over the globe, and offers you multiple payment gateway options. It will also handle tax calculations and even print out shipping labels.

 

Overall, with its powerful synced inventory, a POS module, free selling tools, live support and stylish templates, the Shopify site builder is a perfect choice for online stores.

🧰 Features

  • Great ecommerce store building module that’s easy to use
  • Unlimited product listings
  • Advanced report builder
  • 70+ professional Shopify themes
  • Multiple sales channels
  • 24/7 support
  • Custom gift cards
  • Free SSL certificate
  • Discount codes
  • Apps that let you extend Shopify’s core feature-set
  • Multiple languages, taxes and currencies
  • Certified PCI compliance
  • Liquid templating language

💸 Pricing plans

Shopify offers a free 14-day trial with no credit card required. You can then move to paid plans. There are three premium plans:

  • Basic Shopify – $24.00 / month – good for most businesses starting out
  • Shopify – $105 / month
  • Advanced Shopify – $399 / month

👍 Pros

  • Great website builder for small business if what you want most of all is an ecommerce store.
  • Has many useful tools like a privacy policy generator, QR code generator, purchase order template, business card creator and many more.
  • You can go to the Shopify exchange market to buy a running ecommerce business.
  • Shopify provides awesome support using live chat, support ticket, and it has a good knowledge base.
  • It has a super-sized catalog of Shopify apps.

👎 Cons

  • Probably not the best solution if ecommerce is not a crucial element for your business.
  • Not great blogging module.

👉 Can’t choose between Wix and Shopify? Check out our in-depth comparison guide on Wix vs Shopify.

🏆 OVERALL SCORE – 9 / 10

6. Web.com (www.web.com)

Web.com website builder homepage

Web.com’s website builder can be a great choice if keeping things on a budget is important to you. With plans starting at $4.95 per month and all the basic features included, Web.com should be enough for basic websites.

Plus, it’s super easy to use! Its AI builder can create a website based on your preferences, and you can then customize it with a drag-and-drop editor.

 

You’ll also have access to hundreds of website design templates. And, you can find a domain name, design your logo, and generate web copy, all with the help of artificial intelligence!

Overall, Web.com is one of the best website builders if you’re looking to create a simple website without much work.

🧰 Features

  • Hundreds of customizable templates
  • AI website builder and drag-and-drop editor
  • AI logo builder and domain name generator
  • AI writer that generates copy for your site
  • Appointment scheduling tool for ecommerce sites
  • Free domain and domain privacy for the first year
  • A professional email
  • SSL certificate

💸 Pricing plans

Web.com offers four plans priced at $4.95, $7.95, $13.95, and $19.95 (per month) in the first year. Renewal pricing is higher so it’s something to be mindful of when deciding on which website builder to go with.

👍 Pros

  • AI tools that enable anyone to build a professional website, even if you’re not exactly tech or design-savvy.
  • Modern, attractive templates.

👎 Cons

  • Ecommerce functionality is only available on higher-tier plans.
  • Even though it’s relatively user-friendly, it’s not capable of helping you create a more complex website.

🏆 OVERALL SCORE – 7 / 10

7. Weebly (weebly.com)

weebly

Weebly is an interesting solution when it comes to website builders for those who don’t want to deal with any technical aspects of building a website, but instead would like to use a nice drag-and-drop interface to do all the work.

There’s a free account available as well, which means that you can test the platform out before committing to any investments.

 

Overall, Weebly is one of the best website builders for validating your business ideas and setting up a site fast.

🧰 Features

  • WYSIWYG editing with drag and drop functionality.
  • Access to a wide variety of designer templates.
  • SSL maintenance is bundled into all plans.
  • Fully integrated shopping cart and checkout system for ecommerce businesses.

💸 Pricing plans

Free, $12, $12.00, and $26.00 (per month). You must choose the $12.00 per month plan or higher to eliminate ads on your site. Weebly displays prices in your local currency.

👍 Pros

  • Besides the built-in features, Weebly also offers integration with a wide range of third party apps that can expand the functionality of your website.

👎 Cons

  • The features of the blog area on Weebly sites are not as comprehensive as with other site builders.

🏆 OVERALL SCORE – 6 / 10

🛍️ What makes the best website builder for small business?

There are many website builders in the marketplace, but you need one that is designed specifically for creating small business sites. Here is everything a business site builder should have:

Flexibility and features:
A superior website builder should allow you to go full DIY on your business website project. You should be able to add/remove any element to/from the site, and you should be able to do that without too much hassle.
A good builder should also offer some nicely pre-designed templates for your website. This helps you create a starter site without needing a professional designer’s help.
For example, take a look at these website examples built on top of one of the popular website builders. This is the kind of quality you need.
Ecommerce module with online payments:
Getting into ecommerce is one of the main reasons why many small businesses go online in the first place. Therefore, your website builder should let you add an ecommerce store alongside your main website.
The builder should also take care of handling the payments for you. This includes processing payments via credit/debit card, PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Amazon Payments, or other payment options if you’re operating internationally.
Apps and integrations with third-party tools:
Since website builders are primarily used by non-developers, there should be a lot of plugins or extensions for adding a particular feature. This specific toolset will help boost the functionality of your site.
One of the first things that most small business owners will want to do is integrate their sites with Facebook, Facebook ads, Google Analytics, an email service, Google Business Profile, and so on.
Quality customer support:
Customer support is key if you’re going to be taking care of your business website all on your own.
In case you ever encounter a problem with the builder, you want to be able to reach out to a knowledgeable support team that can help you solve the problem. The best builders in the market offer 24/7 support that’s ready to help.

🤔 How to choose from the best website builders for small business?

There surely are many alternatives out there if you’re looking for a website builder for small business. That said, you don’t need to sleep on it to make the right choice. Here are a few pointers to help you narrow down your options:

  • Wix – Excellent solution for a general small business website that also wants to add an ecommerce store to the mix.
  • Squarespace – Great alternative to Wix – in case there’s something about Wix you don’t like.
  • WordPress.org – If you’re a web-savvy person, your winner is WordPress – the stand-alone version. It offers the most in terms of features, extensions, themes, and the overall possibility to use the site for any purpose. The easiest way to get started with WordPress is to actually go to a web hosting company and not to WordPress official website. Have the hosting provider set everything up for you. Bluehost is our favorite solution for this.
  • WordPress.com – Great for small businesses just getting started with a simple site without an ecommerce store.
  • Shopify – The best solution for businesses that want to build an ecommerce store first of all.
  • Web.com – Ideal for total beginners who want to build a simple site fast (with the help of AI).
  • Weebly – Best free option for testing your business ideas.

We hope that this guide has helped you select the appropriate site builder for your business. Should you still have any questions, please let us know in the comments below.

Don’t forget to join our crash course on speeding up your WordPress site. Learn more below:

 

Original text by Adelina Tuca, Pulkit Bhardwaj, and Karol K.
Layout and presentation by Karol K

* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, we’ll receive a small commission. No worries though, you’ll still pay the standard amount so there’s no additional cost on your part.

CodeinWP Editorial

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