Introduction
With a website builder, anyone can get their site online without years of design or programming experience. The best website builders have scalable features and professionally designed templates. They are also quick to set up, easy to customize, user-friendly, and very affordable, which is why our research places special emphasis on these features.
1. Wix
After our latest round of research, Wix remains our best overall website builder, maintaining its previous score of 4.8 out of 5. It’s a very beginner-friendly platform that gives you complete creative control over your site, combining a wide range of features with easy-to-use drag-and-drop editing tools. Simply put, Wix is one of the easiest builders to get to grips with, coming in first in our ease-of-use test, alongside Squarespace, with a score of 4.4 out of 5. Not only does it offer a free plan with generous features, like SEO tools and a mobile editor, but you can unlock additional tools in Wix’s premium plans, including an in-house marketing suite to help promote your business online and engage with website visitors. If you’re thinking about selling online, you’ll want to upgrade to at least the Core plan for $27 per month.
2. Squarespace
Squarespace is a sophisticated website builder that has a lot to offer creatives and businesses, from beautiful templates to feature-rich apps. It remains in second place with a 4.7 out of 5 overall rating, and performs impressively in all of our research categories – especially design, support, and ease of use. Squarespace is right behind Wix, with a new website features score of 4.6 out of 5, up 4% from its previous score of 4.4 out of 5. Credit for this successful performance goes to Squarespace’s excellent marketing tools, as well as improvements. The builder has integrated third-party apps and built-in extensions, such as online booking and scheduling. Squarespace lets you lock your entire website or individual pages behind a password. This is useful if you’re working on your website and don’t want prying eyes, or if you want to restrict certain pages to select users. You can even edit the password-protected page so visitors only see what you want them to see.
3. Shopify
When it comes to selling online, you don’t get much better than Shopify. Founded in 2006, the platform has since become a go-to for businesses looking to sell online, earning the third spot on our list with an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5. With a rating of 4 out of 5 for its website features, Shopify is ideal for websites looking to sell online or grow their business. Its plans come with plenty of powerful sales tools, such as the ability to add ads, as well as useful marketing features, such as personalized pop-ups.
4. GoDaddy
In fourth place, we have GoDaddy with an overall score of 4.1 out of 5 – a 6% drop from its 4.4 score in 2022. Although GoDaddy didn’t quite make it into the top three this year, GoDaddy is a very user-friendly builder and a great option for anyone looking to quickly create a website. In fact, GoDaddy makes getting online easier than ever, earning an excellent score of 4.1 out of 5 in our ease of use category, which puts GoDaddy just behind Wix and Squarespace. Just enter your details and GoDaddy will create a website for you to customize. Choose one of the simple layouts and follow the instructions to add elements for a very simple and quick building process. Small businesses using GoDaddy can now take advantage of the new Automatic Email Setup feature. This allows users to customize and personalize email templates, as well as schedule them for the ideal time. Once set up, you can use automation to trigger customer emails without any manual work, whether it's welcoming them to your business or thanking them for subscribing to your newsletter.
5. Square Online
Square Online is a new entry on our list of the best website builders, with an overall rating of 3.7. Square Online is a simple builder that’s designed more for businesses looking to sell online, thanks to its generous free plan and useful ecommerce features. For that reason, we highly recommend it for small businesses or entrepreneurs because its free plan lets you sell instantly – a feature that’s usually locked behind a wall. If you’re already using Square’s POS for your business, like our real-world example below, then you can easily connect everything to your new website. Each plan comes with SEO tools, marketing support, and impressive sales features, but if you want access to more, you’ll need to subscribe to a paid plan.
Result
As you can see from our list, each website builder has its strengths. Whether you want a sophisticated, stylish website, great value for money, or just need a little help, there’s a builder for you. But you should know that websites that are coded line by line still have more value than site builders.
