Some of the best free website builders are worth checking out. Not just because they are free, but because they often provide top quality site building services with all the features you'll need to build your online presence.
Of course, when it comes to tools, functionality and ease of use, free site builders are often limited when compared to the best website builders that require a subscription fee. The trick is to know what you need, then assess your options based on those needs. Plus, a free website builder can be a great way to test an idea before investing further into it.
There are many website creation applications and services vying for your attention. This can make it difficult to know which one is best for you – this is where we can help.
We’ve extensively tested each website builder, trying out each tool and feature whilst building our own website. This experience has allowed us to accurately rank and recommend the best free website builders based on their individual merits.
Ready to get your website idea of the ground? You’re starting in the right place…
Top 3 best free website builders of 2023
Below we list our top 3 picks for the title of best free website builder. Although not all of these are free (for life), they do each offer an outstanding free option that is well worth considering.
We would recommend picking any of the best cheap website builder as you can find top-notch services that are affordable. However, if you've made up your mind about using a free one, we've collated the very best free website builders available, from the 140+ site builder and web hosting services we've tested and reviewed.
So whether you're looking to create a site for your business, a new blog, or you just fancy creating an online presence for yourself, here are the best free website builder services to help you out.
These are the best free website builders of 2023
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Best free website builder overall
Wix is a big-name website builder with one of the most impressive website editors in the business, and, surprisingly, a completely free plan.
Wix's Artificial Design Intelligence mode is the simplest way to create a new site. The editor asked us questions about our business, the pages we needed and our design preferences, then automatically creates a website in seconds. We found the site was basic, with few customizations, but the process was straightforward and very fast.
Those who want to get more hands on can step up to the full Wix editor, where a strong set of powerful editing tools allow you to hone your website and get it looking just as you want.
A range of attractive templates are provided, too, though be careful: we noticed that, once you've chosen your favorite, you can't switch later. If you decide your site needs a new look, all you can do is start again from scratch: hardly convenient.
Free Wix sites have some issues and limits. There's only 500MB storage, you'll find Wix ads on every page, and not only is there no support for custom domains, but your free Wix URL will be longer than most (youraccountname.wixsite.com/yoursitename.)
On balance, though, Wix is still a great website builder. The templates are excellent, we loved the intuitive editor, and genuinely helpful support is available, even on the free plan.
Powerful blogging functionality rounds things off nicely, and you’re getting a truly high quality offering with this website builder.
Read our full Wix review
Best for quick and easy setup
Weebly's website creation tools start, a little like Wix, with a very simple automated builder. This guides you through a series of questions, then automatically creates your site in a few seconds. There isn't much scope for customization, but it's very easy to use.
The standard editor gives you more fine-tuned control of your site design (though not quite as much as the best of the competition), but is still fairly simple to operate. We were amazed by the hundreds of stylish templates - and, yes, they are genuinely impressive – which we were able to tailor to our needs using a WYSIWYG editor.
As usual with a free website builder, Weebly didn't allow us to use our own domain. Instead, you're offered a free Weebly subdomain (yourname.weebly.com.) That's short, but not exactly professional, and not a good look for a business or serious site.
The free plan also limits your support to live chat and a community forum (phone support is reserved for some of the premium plans.) That could be an issue if your website is down and you're looking for immediate assistance, but it's still better than some free services, which don't include support at all.
Weebly scores elsewhere for its advanced tools, though. We were able to extend our site with all kinds of content types via its capable editor, and Weebly is great for online stores (yes, even the free version.)
Overall, its power and flexibility make Weebly a good, free website builder to consider.
Read our full Weebly review
Best free website builder for bloggers
WordPress is best known for the free CMS which can be automatically installed on just about any web hosting plan, and allows you to build blogs, business sites, web stores and almost anything else you can imagine.
This is a great solution for demanding or business sites, but you'll probably need to part with some cash for the hosting, and the full-strength WordPress interface can be complicated, even for experienced users.
Fortunately, there's a simpler hosted version of WordPress on WordPress.com. This includes web hosting, so signing up gives you everything you need to build your web presence. There are a number of good-looking templates to choose from, and we were able to create a blog, a photo site and more.
The free plan allows you to take payments for products, and if you can create really compelling content, there's even the option to sign up paid subscribers. Beware, though: WordPress takes 10% of every transaction. If you're hoping to make real money, it may be worth signing up for a paid plan (the $25 a month Business plan doesn't charge any commission at all.)
Whether you're creating a static site, or a blog-style site with regularly updated content, the online editor is a joy to use, in our opinion, and allows just about anyone to create an impressive, professional-looking site. The only downside is the limited range of plugins and templates compared with the self-hosted version of WordPress, and other free website builders.
Read our full WordPress.com review
Best for CRM Integration
While HubSpot might be more well-known for its CRM and marketing tools, the brand has also been branching out into website builders. If you’re looking for the best website builder for small to medium-sized businesses, HubSpot certainly makes a strong case.
The HubSpot website builder aims to simplify the experience for business owners, with no coding knowledge required. HubSpot also handles the hosting, so you don’t need to worry about dealing with the backend. Everything is drag-and-drop, so you can pick exactly where things go. We were able to choose from hundreds of themes and templates and customize them with our own logo, typography, and content.
We linked our website to HubSpot CRM right out of the gate, so tracking our customer interactions was incredibly easy. Also, we used HubSpot’s free chatbots, forms, and live chat to help automate our customer service. We created email newsletters, a company logo, and a landing page, all from our HubSpot account. You also get security features like SSL and two-factor authentication. HubSpot allows you to try almost everything on its “forever free” plan. However, you must purchase its CMS Suite Starter plan for $20 per month to remove branding. The Professional plan is priced at $360 per month — quite the jump.
Just note that while some built-in features are gated behind specific plans, it doesn’t mean you can’t access similar functionalities in lower plan tiers. For instance, HubSpot’s SEO analytics are only included in the Professional plan. But you can still access SEO analytics with the Free and Starter plans if you integrate a Google Search Console or Schema account with HubSpot.
HubSpot’s customer support includes email, chat, and phone support — although some support is only available for premium plans. But if you want quick answers, you can search through HubSpot's extensive blog and resource center with thousands of articles and how-tos.
The CRM giants also have an impressive app store, with over 1,000 different integrations available. You can extend your site with SEO tools, email, ads, messaging integrations and more.
Read our full HubSpot CRM review
Best builder for flexible website editing
Incomedia WebSite X5 is a stand-alone PC-based website builder for Windows 7 and later. It allowed us to build our test sites offline, for a more secure and faster editing process which gave us more freedom to make the sites look and feel just as we liked.
Producing sites with WebSite X5 isn't as easy as the web-based competition, and there are far fewer content types and layout options. But we found some decent templates helped get us started quickly, and we were able to build simple sites by little more than dragging and dropping, no coding knowledge required.
The big advantage of this approach is it can produce really fast sites. Online website builders slow you down with database calls, but WebSite X5 produces pure HTML and CSS, simple code which browsers can render right away.
The down side is it's far more difficult to integrate Website X5 with other platforms and services. Web-based builders might allow you to plug in your social media streams, a Google Map, and marketing tools like MailChimp with little more than a drag and drop, but you can't do that with WebSite X5.
If you're happy with the WebSite X5 limits, a free version for TechRadar readers is available to download. There are two paid versions, Evo and Pro, priced at $99.95 and $209.95 respectively. This is a one time purchase and naturally, both versions come with additional and improved features compared to the free one. There is also a demo version of both paid versions that you can try out.
If you don't want to pay immediately, WebSite X5 offers a 15-day free trial.
Read our full Incomedia WebSite X5 review
Best for HTML editor capabilities
CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor is, like WebSite X5, a stand-alone website building application which you can download, install and run on your Windows system. While not in the same league as the likes of Adobe Dreamweaver, Free HTML Editor packs quite a professional punch. With split screen code/preview views, it's possible to see the effect the changes you make have straight away.
We were able to get started and pick from a number of templates built into the program, and there are some very nice features such as tag and code suggestions as you type.
For absolute beginners, the program might seem a little overwhelming to start with, but it's worth sticking with – assuming you have some HTML knowledge. There is one slight issue; a number of features, such as spell-checking and code optimization, are only included in the paid-for version of the program. Other than that, it can make for a simple alternative to a free website builder.
Read our CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor review
Best free website builder service for improving SEO
Joomla is a well-known name in the CMS world. It may not be as popular as WordPress, but it offers the same two options: build a site using the web app at launch.joomla.org and have it hosted on the company's servers, or download the software from joomla.org and host it yourself.
If you choose the latter option, you'll notice that the interface is much less approachable than WordPress. It's not completely impenetrable, but there are lots of menus and options to work through and it doesn't feel quite as polished as WordPress.
We found Joomla's free website builder to be nearly as complex as WordPress, but doesn't involve the same setup process, making it a better option for beginners. Its key selling point is a huge collection of themes and extensions, which provide endless ways to customize the way your site looks and works.
Read our full Joomla review
Best for free online stores
GoDaddy may be one of the most straightforward web builders around, boasting a hugely intuitive publication process and simple editing tools. This means that even if you’ve never built a website before, setting one up should only take a few minutes.
The free version offers plenty of great functionality including email and social media marketing tools, taking Paypal payments, SSL certificate and 24/7 support. For individuals looking for a more in-depth experience, the GoDaddy premium packages provide a detailed analysis of how your site is performing.
In our test of the service, the analytics tool delivers a comprehensive set of metrics that compares how our online presence is performing against other websites in our field. So far, the tool has certainly proved successful, with customers experiencing an 18% increase in business revenue within 12 months of using it, GoDaddy claims.
Of course, challenges arise with even the most impressive online platforms and the GoDaddy Website Builder is no exception. Fortunately, GoDaddy’s support is among the best around. Extensive PDF guides cover a multitude of questions and troubleshooting topics, and 24/7 tech support is also available. Moreover, the community forums are a great resource and it’s likely that someone there will be able to respond to your query. A live chat feature is also available on weekdays.
Read our full GoDaddy website builder review