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Modern businesses require websites for their customer base to reach them. It’s easier than ever to create a website for your enterprise that helps to generate business, drive revenue and expand your reach.
Website builders include the ability to create a one-stop shop for your business, including blogs, online stores and the ability to incorporate SEO elements so your website shows on Google. The best website builders–like our top pick Hostinger–offer hosting, drag-and-drop site editor functionality and come at a price point that won’t break the bank. We reviewed 10 website builders to help you find the pick that makes the most sense for your business.
Hostinger is our top pick for an online page builder. You can get packages at the best price if you sign up for a long-term contract, as low as $2. 49 per month when you sign up for a 48-month plan. which is one of the cheapest packages we have analyzed.
And Hostinger’s website builder doesn’t lack benefits and features, even at its low price point. For both website builder plans, you’ll get a free domain when you purchase a plan of at least 12 months. But the free domain is only valid for the first year of your contract, so if you want to retain your website with Hostinger in your second year and beyond, you’ll have to pay $7.99 per year. Considering you can also lock in 100 websites, have 150 templates to choose from and some AI tools and e-commerce tools on the more expensive plan, we like the value you can extract from this website hosting and website building all-in-one option.
Learn more: Read our full Hostinger review.
Hostinger online page builder has mixed reviews. Customers love its affordability, ease of use, and quick setup, making it attractive to beginners and those looking for a simple, cost-effective option. However, its limitations range from a lack of flexibility to proprietary platform restrictions, which can complicate long-term expansion or migration to other services. While the builder is suitable for basic sites and small e-commerce operations, it may not meet the desires of more complex users or users who require deep customization.
If you need to take your eCommerce business, and in particular your dropshipping business, to the next level, Shopify’s building features allow you to create a customizable product that works. You can pre-populate your site with a Shopify template that comes with your plan, and then customize its capability with apps and widgets that will evolve your site’s look and capability.
Plans with Shopify are more dear than some of the others on our list. And you do not get some of the same features included in your plan, like a loose domain, like you do with other choices. So why precisely are you paying more? Typically, you have the luxury of being to build and host your online page with e-commerce features inside of the same platform.
Learn more: Read our full Shopify review.
Users find Shopify to be an appealing option for setting up an e-commerce store due to its user-friendly interface and extensive third-party app options. Users like its e-commerce features, integrations and ability to scale with business growth. However, many users express frustration with its customer service, billing practices and transaction fees. Additionally, customers have reported issues with account access and support responsiveness.
WordPress, perhaps one of the most famous online page builders, has been around for a long time and provides business owners with plenty of features to customize their site. And that’s what you get too: a blank page from which you can customize your online page with integrations.
We appreciate that WordPress offers a free plan, but it’s quite bare in nature and features. When you get into the paid plans, you can truly customize your site through themes, different colors and fonts to build your brand. Plus, we like that WordPress allows you to upgrade your plan anytime, ideal for businesses looking ahead for scalability options. Prices vary widely. From free to $25,000 per year, there’s an option for most businesses.
Learn more: Read our full WordPress review.
Customers have reported mixed experiences with WordPress.com. Some like its ease of use, customization options and flexibility. However, there are significant concerns regarding the platform’s limitations unless you pay for higher plans; customer support challenges; and perceived restrictive business practices. While the flexible features are valued, many find the learning curve steep and maintenance burdensome.
If you want to take your business online and offer e-commerce sales without forking over a huge amount every month, look no further than Weebly. It offers e-commerce features that come standard on its free plan that some other website builders don’t offer even on their paid plans. Ultimately, you can look to get up and running quickly with Weebly’s free plan and then consider upgrading your plan at any time.
Not only do we like the eCommerce features included in Weebly’s free plan, but we also appreciate the builder’s transparent pricing and the diversity of features you can load up on when your eCommerce site starts to gain momentum. magnitude. Their highest Performance plan costs $29 when billed per month and includes unlimited storage, a free domain, the ability to pay invoices through PayPal, product reviews, complex e-commerce information, and priority visitor service.
Learn more: Read our full Weebly review.
Many Weebly users express dissatisfaction with the complexity and technical issues since the Square acquisition, as well as the overall decline in the quality of visitor support. Complaints about crashing mobile apps and platform features are common. Customers have raised concerns about pricing, unclear fees, and difficulties managing accounts. However, some consumers praise its easy-to-use interface and affordability for undeniable projects, noting that it still works adequately for essential needs.
Strikingly’s easy-to-understand interface and flexible options make it a wonderful starting point for construction beginners. And since your hosting is also hosted through Strikingly on their fully controlled cloud hosting servers, you don’t have to worry about building and hosting on other platforms.
But if you’re looking to grow your website into a full-scale operation, Strikingly may not be the best option. While it’s decent for scalability, as you can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time, it may be better suited to smaller operations. Its lower-tiered plans—like the free plan, Limited and Pro—don’t offer much customization and additional features that you can get with other providers. And, even its highest-tiered VIP plan doesn’t come with commonly available features like unlimited storage. The free plan is where Strikingly shines, and it’s great for beginners not looking to go all-in on a website now.
For more information: read our full Strikingly review.
Customers love Strikingly for its ease of use, attractive templates, and ability to create simple, mobile-optimized single-page websites. However, the platform has generated many complaints related to its visitor service, billing practices, and lack of flexibility and customization options. These issues have frustrated many users, especially when faced with issues such as unauthorized fees and difficulties with refunds and cancellations.
For artists, finding a website design that fits your aesthetic and work is key. Squarespace is the perfect solution, as many of its templates are designed to prominently display high-quality imagery, fonts and colors. You’ll have access to built-in features as well, like SEO tools and AI tools.
We love Squarespace for its templates and layouts, but it also has some cool features that can increase the success of your business in non-traditional ways. In addition to promoting products and services, you could also possibly promote your content and memberships, adding blogs and online courses, to diversify your earning streams.
Learn more: Read our full Squarespace review.
Customers feel Squarespace offers visually appealing templates and user-friendly design features, making it an attractive choice for users looking to create simple sites without needing coding knowledge. However, many customers express dissatisfaction with its customer service, saying it’s unresponsive and frustrating. Some users have noted limitations in customization, high costs and issues with domain management, contributing to an overall negative sentiment toward the platform.
Wix offers a number of features that are ideal for small business owners who don’t have the technical expertise (or don’t need to use it) to create their HTML page online. Instead, Wix offers a wonderful array of AI equipment and over 900 loose templates to get your online page off the ground temporarily without a shred of coding.
We love that Wix can be a wonderful option for small businesses across all industries, from eCommerce brands to service providers. There are also platforms and features dedicated to specialized businesses, such as restaurant management, fitness businesses, hotel management, and art monetization. Between the available team and the staff, Wix makes your vision of an online page a reality.
Learn more: Read our full Wix review.
Wix is known for its ease of use and beginner-friendliness, making it a viable option for private or small business websites. However, many users express dissatisfaction with its pricing strategies, limited capacity for complex projects, and mixed guest service experiences, making it less ideal for serious business or professional Internet development.
GoDaddy’s builder plans are ideal for service providers, with traditional templates aimed at small businesses that provide services. Not only do we love the templates and designs that make it easy to launch yourArray, but we also appreciate the built-in team to ensure certain eyes see your service quickly.
Starting with the beginner-level Basic plan, have access to built-in SEO, a marketing dashboard, and up to a hundred marketing email sends per month. If you want to add more powerful equipment and features, you can do so for an additional cost. However, if you want to sell your facilities or products through an online store, you’ll need to upgrade to the Commerce plan, which allows you to sell an unlimited number of products on major marketplaces.
Learn more: Read our full GoDaddy review.
Customers have mixed reviews of GoDaddy’s online page builder, and many find it intuitive and easy, especially for those who are new to building online pages or looking for a quick and easy setup. However, consumers have expressed concerns about its limitations in customization. , search engine optimization and mobile optimization capabilities, which many users find restrictive as their needs evolve. Customers have expressed dissatisfaction with visitor service and the additional costs associated with the advertised free services.
AI can make it less difficult to create your small business’s online page without the complex coding and technical know-how that might have been necessary just a few years ago. We like Web. com for several reasons, besides the robust AI equipment it offers when creating your online page from scratch. Using Web. com’s built-in AI team means your online page can go from concept to life on the web in minutes. Not only will you create an online page in a prime position, but you will also use your wisdom to generate a call for your domain, a lopass for your business and a copy for your online page, marketing and much more.
Additionally, Web. com offers a free domain for one year if you opt for an annual plan, which renews in the relevant year at full price. And if you’re not so worried about leveraging AI machines for all your website designs, Web. com lets you create a bunch of pre-designed templates yourself in its library.
Learn more: Read our full Web. com review.
Customer reviews of Web. com are overwhelmingly negative. Many users say they are disappointed with the visitor service, leading to long wait times, lack of response, and poor resolutions. Other unusually court cases involve unforeseen fees and difficulties with domain transfers or cancellations. However, there are some positive reviews about individual visitor service experiences, and some representatives are identified for their professionalism and friendliness. Some users say they are satisfied with the fundamental features of construction equipment for undeniable tasks.
If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for your web host and web site builder, Bluehost’s web site builder is a great option. It offers one hundred percent network uptime, the most productive in the industry, so you can rest assured that you may not miss out on any potential revenue. Additionally, it is designed to be used with WordPress, which may only be for small business owners who have played with WordPress before.
Bluehost Website Builder uses AI tools to help you design your website from scratch by answering a few questions. With four plans available—all at middle-of-the-road price points—there’s an option for businesses of all sizes. But if you expect your website to get more than 400,000 visits per month—for example, if your traffic spikes at certain times of the year, like the holiday season—you may want to look elsewhere.
Learn more: Read our full Bluehost review.
Editor’s Note: Bluehost Website Builder has enough customer reviews to rank or gauge customer sentiment well. As more knowledge accumulates, we will include consumer sentiment index research for Bluehost Website Builder in this space.
The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to providing unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.
Learn more: How we rate builders
Choosing the best website builder for your small business means weighing the options, reviewing their features and the price you’ll have to pay. Here are some valuable considerations to have in mind during your search:
The most productive online page builders offer popular features and packages at costs that may not exceed your budget. Specifically, look for the following features when opting for the online page builder for your business:
Of those we reviewed, Hostinger excels in those categories. Not only can you get a smart number of features in your hobby points plan, but it also comes with loose domain, hosting and building in the same service, AI-generated online page building, and e-commerce features.
For small business owners, it’s all about locating a construction service that gives you the must-have features you want without paying too much.
Website builders come at a range of price points. But before you exclude an option because it’s too expensive or jump at another because it’s free, consider what you’re getting for the price you pay. For example, Weebly offers a free plan that’s ripe for e-commerce businesses, a feature that many other services don’t make available until their mid-tier plans.
Likewise, if you’re looking for great value and don’t mind paying a bit each month for the sake of having a website that works exactly as needed for your business, we like Web.com. Its plans start at just $5.99 per month, but with that, you can use AI tools that will create the website of your dreams. For some, that’s priceless.
Your trading desires will possibly be replaced daily, weekly or monthly. If you’re an artist looking to sell products on Saturday for small businesses ahead of the holiday season, for example, you want to make sure your online e-commerce page is in a position to handle the flow of traffic and consumers so that as not to do it. Don’t miss out on revenue stream opportunities.
Look for a builder who will help you scale up or down your plan as your business desires change. We like WordPress. com for its scalability, allowing you to upgrade to another plan at any time.
If coding is rarely your thing, look for online page developers who make it easy to customize your site with the help of drag-and-drop tools. With the ability to move photos, text, videos, and more smoothly within a single interface, you can better customize your online page exactly how you create it.
Building it is a great feat, but it’s just the starting point. After structure comes marketing to ensure that potential customers can find your services. The best developers will offer search engine optimization (SEO) tools and marketing dashboards as part of their plans. Ranking first on Google, looking for effects on your domain, and attracting new consumers through email marketing can take your business to new heights.
Ultimately, the right builder or small business for your business will depend on your needs, budget, and industry. Here’s a closer look at 3 scenarios and which build option works best:
If you’re looking to save as much cash as possible on building your website, look at a service that offers tremendous value. No-cost plans are an obvious choice, and we really like Weebly for its free plan that is suitable for e-commerce businesses as well. But, Hostinger is our top pick for affordability, and we like it because it offers just about all of our most essential features from just $11.99 per month.
Service-orientated small businesses have different needs than their product-focused counterparts. You’ll want a way to feature your services—and what past customers have to say about them—on an interface that works. We like GoDaddy’s website builder for the service industry because the templates are great for showcasing work. The AI tools that come with GoDaddy’s plans also mean you can go from nothing to a fully built website—including a logo—in minutes.
Beginners need not fret with Strikingly’s website builder. It’s a platform that was designed with beginners in mind, and thanks to its low-cost plans (it has a free plan option), you can choose from pre-built templates and get your website moving in no time. But it does have its limitations, so you may want to look at upgrading to a service that offers more features and customization if your business grows and your website needs additional capabilities.
A website builder allows novices to build a full-scale website without a coding background. The best services offer features like customization, pre-built templates, AI tools, SEO tools and marketing tools at affordable prices.
Website builders vary greatly in cost, depending on the features they offer. Some providers offer free plans, though these often have limitations. On the other hand, some larger services offer full-scale website building—and hosting— capabilities that could cost many thousands of dollars every month. It’s important not to overpay for features your business doesn’t require.
Many of our most sensible picks for developers offer a flexible plan option. However, it is vital that you do your studies and ensure that the flexible plan provides your business with the necessary features and capabilities.
The time it takes to create an online page for your business will ultimately depend on what you need to create and the installations presented through the provider you choose. Services that provide AI teams to create an online page will take less time than creating one from scratch. In fact, AI templates and teams can get your online page up and running in minutes.
Additional reporting via Alan Bradley.