1. Best overall
2. Best for marketing integration
3. Best for bloggers and writers
4. Best for WordPress sites
5. Best of the rest
6. How to choose
7. How we test
8. Industry rankings
9. Website builder FAQs
Creating a site with one of the best website builder services is easy, even if you've no web design or coding experience. Just choose a pre-built website template, drag and drop media, forms, maps and other content onto the page, and you'll have a polished and professional website ready to go, sometimes within minutes.
To get started, think about your needs. Are you hoping to create a blogging site, an ecommerce platform, a portfolio website, something else? To help identify the best choice for you, we've signed up to each website builder, created different site types, and compared features, customizations, ease of use, performance, SEO tools, customer support, pricing and more.
Below, you’ll find 12 top quality website builders with Wix in first place as the best website builder service based on its overall performance, ease of use, template range and affordability.
We've also reviewed the best web hosting providers.
Our top three website builder providers
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.
The best website builders of 2023
We've carefully picked the best website builders on the market based on overall performance, pricing, features, ease of use, range of templates, as well as additional functionalities that cater to ecommerce, SEO and more. Our test results highlight our experience using each product, what we liked most about each service and how they compare against each other.
Best website builder overall
✔️ You want a website builder that has a wide selection of templates: Wix has some of the most sophisticated templates on the market in our opinion with over 800 to choose from.
✔️ You want a website builder with real power : Wix App Market includes hundreds of add-ons which can add all kinds of new design features and integrations to your site.
✔️ You'd like a website builder that uses Generative AI: Wix has an AI text creator to assist with building a site, quickly.
❌ You want to build an ecommerce site on a tight budget: Only premium Wix plans offer ecommerce capabilities.
❌ You'd like the option of interchangeable templates: Wix doesn't let you switch between templates once you've started, therefore if you change your mind, you'll have to start from scratch.
❌ You want unlimited storage: Wix doesn't offer unlimited storage on any of its plans.
As far as website builders go, Wix remains top-tier because it has all the qualities most people look for in a site builder. From sophisticated templates, to how easy it is to use, if it's your first time building a website, we suggest you strongly consider Wix.
Founded in 2006, Wix is is an Israeli software company that provides cloud-based web development services, allowing users to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and drop tools.
Getting started
Wix impressed us from the start for its extreme ease of use. Building our first site with Wix's ADI editor was as simple as answering a few questions about our online goals, colour and design preferences, the pages we wanted; Wix then create the website in seconds.
For our second site, we opted for the standard Wix editor. We were spoiled for choice from the 800+ templates on offer, and found it very easy to customise our choice by dragging and dropping images, text blocks and other content onto the page.
Features
We loved Wix's media handling features. It's easy to upload your own images and videos from your local system, Instagram, Google Photos, Drive and more, but you can also access Wix's own and Shutterstock's photo and video libraries. Every keyword we used returned hundreds of files, all free to use.
It's just as simple to add new pages and page sections (Welcome, About, Contact Us, Testimonials.) Every section type comes in various default layouts, which can be further fine-tuned to suit your needs. There's even an AI writer to add new content for you.
An amazing app market allowed us to extend our site with new page elements and integrations with other services. We searched for Social Media, for instance, and found 35+ apps to embed social media streams in our site, automatically post to social media, easily share our site on top social media platforms, and more.
What else you need to know
Wix has a free plan which is perfect for trying out the service, but it has some significant issues, including a 500MB storage limit, Wix ads on every page and no option to use a custom domain
Fortunately, Wix has plenty of fairly-priced paid options. The $16 a month Light plan removes the ads and supports using your own domain; the $27 a month Core plan supports basic ecommerce and taking payments online; and spending more gets you extra ecommerce features, better analytics, developer features and more.
If you're looking for a website builder which can grow with your site, then, Wix would be your best bet. Whatever plan you prefer, a 14-day trial period allows you to get your money back if you're not satisfied.
Read our in-depth Wix website builder review to find out why it's the best website builder on the market.
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | Not the cheapest but Wix is definitely good value for money considering all you can do with its service. | ★★★★☆ |
| Ease of use | Wix makes the whole process of creating a website straightforward and simple. | ★★★★★ |
| Features | It has plenty of features (beginners may even find the sheer amount daunting at first). | ★★★★★ |
| Templates and design | There's over 800 templates which makes finding the perfect design easy to do. | ★★★★★ |
Best for marketing integration
✔️ You want an all-in-one solution: Hostinger's website builder comes with web hosting too.
✔️ You haven't yet bought a domain name: Hostinger's service includes a free domain name for one year.
✔️ You want AI to fully design your website: Hostinger gives you the option to have a website created entirely by AI technology.
❌ You need to try before you buy: Hostinger has no free plans or free trials.
❌ You want more options of website builder plans: Hostinger only has one plan, which could be limiting depending on your needs.
❌ You have a change of heart on your template: If you choose to change your template once your site is live, it will erase all your current work.
Marketing integration capabilities is just one of the many quality features Hostinger provides. If you want a website builder that's an all in one solution and you get overwhelmed by too many options, Hostinger is the site builder for you.
In second place, the Hostinger website builder tool is a beginner-friendly service which makes it simple and speedy to create modern, responsive sites, no coding skills required.
Getting started
Hostinger's 100+ template library isn't the largest around, but there are some visually stunning options, and we found designs to suit blogs, web stores, portfolio sites and more. They look great on all devices, whatever their screen size, and the intuitive drag-and-drop editor made it a breeze to create a professional website.
Features
A multi-lingual AI builder allows you to put a website online in just four clicks, Hostinger claims. We wouldn't recommend you try that - the results are a little generic - but it's a good starting point, and spending just an extra 30 minutes customizing your content makes a huge difference.
Both the templates and AI-generated content are SEO-friendly, and useful bonus tools helped us find keywords, generate alt text for images and automatically produced a site map.
Although pricing starts at only $2.99 a month, Hostinger's website builder more than covers the hosting basics, with support for up to 100 websites, 100 emails, a free domain, and free SSL thrown in.
You get all the ecommerce essentials, too, including support for selling up to 500 products, accepting payments online, managing orders and inventory, and use Google and Facebook-based analytics to discover more about your customer base.
What else you need to know
Hostinger website builder includes a host of useful bonus tools, including a logo designer, slogan and business name generators, and easy integration of Google's PageSpeed Insights helps to identify and fix performance bottlenecks in your site.
We noticed some small issues with the site builder. For example, the service has relatively basic image editing options, which can't begin to match the likes of Wix. And with no free plan, there's no way to try out the service beyond Hostinger's standard 30-day money-back guarantee. But overall, this is a quality website builder for bargain hunters with (maybe) ecommerce ambitions, and well worth exploring.
Read our full Hostinger Website Builder review.
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | Affordable and comes as a combo with web hosting. | ★★★★★ |
| Ease of use | Hostinger's site builder is easy to use for the most part and its dashboard is straightforward to work from. | ★★★★☆ |
| Features | It has lots of features that come as part of the website builder and web hosting combo plan. | ★★★★★ |
| Templates and design | Hostinger offers dozens of stylish templates to help you start building your website. | ★★★★☆ |
Best for bloggers and writers
✔️ You want a website builder that offers a free trial: Squarespace is yours to test for two weeks before making a commitment.
✔️ You want to create a sophisticated blog: Squarespace has a great commenting feature, multi-author functionality, and offers the ability to schedule posts.
✔️ You'd like a mobile-friendly site builder: Squarespace has four apps. All allows you to edit almost every aspect of your website from your phone.
❌ You want the ability to fully customize your site: Squarespace doesn't offer full customizability.
❌ You'll be overwhelmed by the wide range of features: Squarespace has plenty, which could be too much to handle for beginners.
❌ You're looking for a simple interface: Squarespace's isn't the easiest to navigate in comparison to its competitors.
Bloggers and writers should look no further as it may not get any better than Squarespace in that department. Squarespace makes filing entries for blogs seamless and straightforward.
Squarespace is a great-looking and easy-to-use website builder with professional templates, excellent blogging tools and a decent set of ecommerce features. If you're a site-building newbie but still looking to make the maximum online impact, Squarespace is a must-see.
Getting started
Squarespace's 100+ response templates gave us plenty of choice for our test sites, and the section-based drag-and-drop editor made for a much faster design process than the other providers here.
Built-in AI support can quickly create content for your site, too. You'll need to review the results carefully - like all AI writers, its copy can sometimes be inaccurate - but that's still quicker than writing multiple pages from scratch, and it's a worthwhile feature overall.
The platform has four plans. Spending $16 a month gets you the core website builder and free hosting; the $23 plan adds a secure checkout page for full ecommerce functionality (with a 3% transaction fee); spending $27 has more marketing tools and a 0% transaction fee; $49 gets you full ecommerce functionality with all the shipping and selling tools you need.
Features
Squarespace’s Blog App let us manage our test blog from a smartphone, which is great for publishing and editing content on the go. Tools that publish to, sync with, and import from social media outlets, including Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo and others, also provide a great way of ensuring your posts receive the attention they deserve.
Squarespace also has an invoice scheduling tool that lets you receive payments for bookings on your website. During our tests, the tool let us create, send, manage and track custom invoices, as well as accept payments, from the website builder platform.
What else you need to know
Unlike Wix, Squarespace doesn’t automatically keep a history of the changes we made to the website we created, which means that you cannot restore an earlier version if a mistake has occurred. This can be quite problematic and could mean you having to start afresh in some cases. Nevertheless, Squarespace will get the job done and done well, and you’ll have a variety of beautifully crafted templates.
Read our complete Squarespace website builder review for more details on pricing, ease of use, and the builder's interface.
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | Squarespace isn't the cheapest but there's the option to try it for free before committing. | ★★★★☆ |
| Ease of use | The website builder is easy to use but doesn’t give full customizability, which some could find challenging. | ★★★★☆ |
| Features | It has lots of features that come as part of the website builder and web hosting combo plan. | ★★★★☆ |
| Templates and design | Squarespace has around 110 templates for you to choose from and the designs are professional looking. | ★★★★★ |
Best for WordPress websites
✔️ You want a WordPress site: Bluehost gives you the option to build your site from the WordPress dashboard or the Bluehost Builder.
✔️ You're looking for ease of use: Bluehost lets you choose the design you want by simply entering a keyword.
✔️ You want something quick and easy: Bluehost has a user-friendly onboarding wizard to make the site building process straightforward.
❌ You're creating more than just a simple site: Bluehost's overall design is quite basic.
❌ You want an email account included: You'll have to pay extra for email if you choose to build your site with Bluehost.
❌ You have no interest in a WordPress site: Bluehost is a self-hosted WordPress site so you won't get the complete freedom that Wix or Squarespace gives you to build a regular site.
Bluehost makes it easier for those who are set on building a WordPress website. Why? Because it not only lets you build from the WordPress CMS, it also makes WordPress website integration pretty simple.
Top web hosting provider Bluehost offers a WordPress-based website builder with drag-and-drop editing, extensive blogging features, ecommerce support and a free CDN for maximum speed.
Getting started
Thanks to the WordPress integration, we were able to set up parts of our test website using Bluehost’s website builder, and other parts using WordPress. The WordPress-friendly builder also includes over 300 templates - not quite as many as Wix but still a fair amount. There’s three site builder plans on offer - Basic, Pro and Online Store.
Priced at $2.95 per month, for a 12-month subscription, the Basic Plan renews at $9.99 per month. The Choice Plus plan is priced at $5.45 per month, for a 12-month subscription and renews at $18.99 per month, and the Online Store plan will cost you $9.95 per month for the same duration, and renews at $24.95 per month.
Features
While Bluehost's website builder isn't as seasoned or as easy to use as Wix’s overall, it still includes attractive features such as a free domain for the first year and 24/7 expert support to its website building service.
In addition to offering unlimited websites, Bluehost’s website builder includes templates for specific website types and use-cases, and gives the option to edit websites for mobile, desktop and tablets. All three website builder plans come with marketing features that we were able to test out too, and we particularly thought the call to action button offered by Bluehost is slick and a great addition to the package. For ecommerce capabilities, Bluehost has combined WordPress, WooCommerce and YITH plugins in its Online Store solution, which provides small businesses with a WordPress website builder.
What else you need to know
A few downsides to the Bluehost website builder includes the fact that the solution doesn't let you switch templates if you've started working on one and change your mind, plus there's no email account included.
We tested Bluehost’s “no questions asked” 30 days money back guarantee, and were able to get a full refund. If you are looking for a WordPress site builder but do not want to fully commit to the WordPress CMS, Bluehost may be the website builder for you.
Read our detailed Bluehost Website Builder review to find out more about its performance, pricing, ease of use and more
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | Bluehost's website builder is certainly affordable but the renewal is a bit of a jump. | ★★★★☆ |
| Ease of use | Bluehost gives you the option to work on a WordPress dashboard, which is great for users use to the CMS. | ★★★★☆ |
| Features | Its basic plan comes with free CDN and WordPress themes, while the other plans offer so much more. | ★★★★☆ |
| Templates and design | It comes with over 800 premium WordPress themes to choose from. | ★★★★★ |
The best of the rest
✔️ You want a visually pleasing website: The Friday website builder excels in visual customization.
✔️ You need an easy to use solution: Friday prioritizes simplicity and intuitive navigation, making it accessible to beginners and experienced users.
✔️ You'd like a site builder that includes everything: Friday costs a bit more but that's because all the features it offers is included in the one and only plan.
❌ You're on a really tight budget: Friday's only plan costs $25 for your first month and $50 every month after, which is pricier that most of the site builders on our list.
❌ You'd need high levels of customization: Friday's is good but limited.
❌ You prefer telephone support: Friday has a knowledge base and you're able to contact someone via email only, which may not be enough support for some.
Friday may be the new kids on the block in the website building sector, but the quality of the website building tool is one to be impressed by. This is because there's no hidden agenda with the tool, everything it says it offers, it actually does.
Created by programmers and developers, Friday is a website builder that hasn't been around as long as most of the other providers on this list, but is by no means lagging behind.
Getting started
Getting started with Friday is extremely simple because there's only one website builder package to choose from. That already eliminates the time it takes to decide what features you need and the plan to accommodate it.
Once you're in, the Friday dashboard has icons on the left hand side that simplify the website building experience once you've decided on a template. We are able to change the theme, add pages, widgets, personalize the enter site, add a blog, and make good use of the SEO tools.
Features
Friday's plan comes with AWS website hosting, global CDN, custom domain, unlimited bandwidth, SEO tools, SSL security, web analytics, a photo editor, and more.
It also comes with image optimization, a library of stock images, AI content assistant, customizable forms, multi-language websites, blogging tools, plus over 40 payment gateways.
When building your site on on the dashboard, you're able to edit in desktop, tablet and mobile view.
What else you need to know
One main thing that's worth a mention is just how easy we found it to use Friday for the very first time. It's AI assist makes the website building process even more straightforward.
What we would mention as a negative (because nothing can be 100% perfect) is that because the plan is more expensive than others on this list, those on a tight budget might not be able to commit to the $50 per month after the half price on the first month deal is over.
Read our complete Friday website builder review to find out more about its performance, pricing, ease of use and more
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | There's so much features that come with one plan that it's somewhat justifiable. | ★★★★☆ |
| Ease of use | Signing up is easy, using the dashboard is easy. | ★★★★★ |
| Features | There's so many great features that come with Friday including autosaves and restorable backups. | ★★★★☆ |
| Templates and design | Friday's templates are well designed and professional. | ★★★★☆ |
✔️ You need that extra support: During our test, we found Web.com's customer support team to be one of the most helpful - with quick response times.
✔️ SEO if your priority: Web.com doesn't take SEO lightly so your site will be in safe hands.
✔️ You want an affordable site builder: Web.com is not the cheapest but it's definitely reasonably priced.
❌ You want to try before you buy: Web.com doesn't offer such so you'll have to do your research before committing.
❌ You need a completely flexible site builder: Web.com gets the job done but it's not 100% flexible. Some might find the pre-built content blocks limiting.
❌ You prefer a completely clutter-free page editor: Web.com's isn't the slickest on the market compared to Wix.
If you have a demanding website, Web.com should be a builder you strongly consider and it has the power to take on high traffic sites.
Founded in 1999, Web.com has made its mark in the website builder space with its easy-to-use interface. It seems as though 150 professionally designed templates is the standard amount as Web.com also offers roughly the same number of templates as Hostinger.
Getting started
The central website building experience revolves around a system of modular elements you can simply drag-and-drop into place. We were able to customize a heading, a button, an icon, and even a text field, by dragging it and dropping it in place on our website template once we signed up.
Features
The interface also allows for blocks – pre-assembled elements such as an entire navigation bar which can just be inserted whenever needed. It’s a powerful and user-friendly interface, a potent combination. Its website builder also includes one hour of free website design support.
There is also an ecommerce functionality available – albeit with a separate plan to the basic package – allowing you to set up an online store with all the functions you’d expect (although it’s not really suitable for bigger ecommerce ventures). If you are starting out on your ecommerce website journey, Web.com’s package is $3.95 per month, which allows you to sell up to 500 products.
What else you need to know
Pricing is very affordable with Web.com, and the customer support provided is of a high quality as well, so there’s a lot to like here. In short, you can put together a smart website with a minimum of fuss, while not paying anything like a fortune for the privilege.
We were able to monitor our website performance during our tests with Web.com's simplified data dashboard, with real time traffic statistics, trend charts and its Google Analytics integration.
There’s no option for a free trial here, mind, but that said, you only have to commit for a month when signing up (the initial fee is just $1.95 – complete with a free URL, with caveats), so that’s not a high price to pay to give the service a trial run.
Read our complete Web.com website builder review for an in-depth look at all features and pricing this builder has to offer.
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | Web.com's packages are affordable but there's no option for a free trial. | ★★★★☆ |
| Ease of use | We found that Web.com's site builder is straightforward and easy to use. | ★★★★☆ |
| Features | Comes with sufficient features including one free hour of expert design support. | ★★★★☆ |
| Templates and design | 150 professionally designed templates is more than enough options to find what you're looking for. | ★★★★★ |
✔️ You need a simple way to start: HostGator's process from start to finish is easy and relatively straightforward.
✔️ You need a cheap way to start: HostGator offers some of the most competitive pricing... Value for money too.
✔️ You want to integrate your social media accounts: HostGator lets you embed content from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram directly onto your site.
❌ You want built in email marketing: Unfortunately, HostGator does not offer such.
❌ You're building a ecommerce website: HostGator would not be our choice if we were building an online store because the ecommerce features are basic.
❌ You want to create a blog: In comparison to Squarespace, HostGator lacks advance features for online blogs.
In general, HostGator's website builder is one of the most affordable on the market and it doesn't compromise on features either.
Another popular choice comes courtesy of HostGator, as we commend its website builder solution, Gator Website Builder, for its simplicity and price, both of which should appeal to small businesses.
Getting started
Gator is available in three versions. The Expert Start plan costs $3.84 ($3.46 with our special deal) a month and comes with free hosting, website analytics, free domain name registration for a year and unmetered storage. The Express Site plan comes with all that plus priority support for $5.99 ($5.39 with our special deal) a month. The Express Store plan, meanwhile, costs $9.22 ($8.30 with our special deal) a month and offers additional features like inventory management, a shipping and tax calculator, and the ability to create coupons.
Whatever plan you choose, you’ll gain access to an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface that lets you employ commonly used design elements such as images, videos, text boxes, columns, maps and contact forms.
Features
We found that Gator has over 200 web templates that are fully customizable, so it’s easy to get your website looking exactly the way you want it. There are also a sizeable number of mobile-friendly themes available to ensure that your online portal looks good on all devices.
For small businesses that might not have access to top-quality photography equipment, Gator comes with its own built-in stock photo library and a number of video tutorials are on hand if you are in need of extra support with anything.
If there’s any real downside here, it would be the lack of functionality for larger, more complex websites. There are no built-in email marketing features, for example, and blog building options are relatively basic.
What else you need to know
Still, for small businesses or anyone starting their first online project, Gator’s quick, professional and well-designed sites should work perfectly. And with 24-hour tech support on hand for all users, and free analytics solutions to let administrators know how their site is performing, there are plenty of reasons to choose Gator for website building.
Read our Gator website builder review if you need more information on this builder's features
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | HostGator has affordable plans across its portfolio. | ★★★★★ |
| Ease of use | Creating a test site using HostGator was simple because of how easy it is to navigate through its dashboard. | ★★★★★ |
| Features | HostGator comes with a good number of features including email campaigns and free SSL. | ★★★★☆ |
| Templates and design | HostGator has 4,500 templates that can be downloaded at templates.hostgator.com, but i's for people with experience using a HTML or Flash editor. | ★★★★☆ |
✔️ You are a beginner: GoDaddy can be used by almost anyone because it doesn't just cater to the tech-savvy individual.
✔️ You need extra support: We found GoDaddy's customer support team to be extremely helpful.
✔️ You want an easy to use tool: Once you find what service you're after, GoDaddy's setup process is quick and easy to follow.
❌ You need complete clarity when building: GoDaddy's homepages all look the same so it might be a little confusing when looking for the right service on their list.
❌ You're indecisive on style: GoDaddy has limited customization features when it comes to style.
❌ You want the freedom to switch between themes: GoDaddy doesn't permit such action without starting from scratch.
If you find comfort in using a website builder that has been around for a long time, GoDaddy would be your best choice. As it's been around for a while, it's had the luxury of perfecting its customer support, which is great for newbies.
Top web host GoDaddy has a huge range of products, but its website builder stands out for the simple editing tools and intuitive console than can help even design newbies set up a site in minutes.
Getting started
For individuals looking for a more in-depth experience, the GoDaddy Websites + Marketing solution provides a detailed analysis of how your site is performing. The analytics tool delivers a comprehensive set of metrics that compares how your online presence is performing against other websites in your 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.
Features
Even the most experienced users run into problems occasionally, but GoDaddy’s support is among the best around. We found GoDaddy's extensive PDF guides accurately answered 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, although, during our tests, the provider didn't provide the most timely help and gave us limited solutions.
In terms of pricing, GoDaddy is very competitive, offering four website builder pricing tiers. The prices range from $6.99 per month for the Basic plan, up to $29.99 per month for the Ecommerce package. As you would expect, the ecommerce plan comes with everything you need to start a full-featured online store, with the cheaper plans offering slightly reduced functionality as you work your way down.
What else you need to know
We did find that the lack of an app market means some of the site builder features lack depth. It does mean, however, that all features are built in-house and so are fit for purpose. If you’re on the lookout for a website builder that is both affordable and boasts great support, then GoDaddy may be the right choice for you.
Read our GoDaddy website builder review for an in-depth look at its blogging and shopping features and more
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | With the price range mentioned above, GoDaddy is on the affordable scale of site builder services. | ★★★★☆ |
| Ease of use | GoDaddy is easy to use and comes with lots of help. | ★★★★★ |
| Features | GoDaddy comes with a decent amount of features to start a website for the first time. | ★★★★☆ |
| Templates and design | GoDaddy has professional templates but that aren't so easy to locate. | ★★★☆☆ |
✔️ You want a site builder that has great templates: IONOS has a lot of sophisticated template designs to choose from.
✔️ You're a small business: IONOS has several features that small businesses might find useful when getting a website off the ground.
✔️ You need in-built SEO tools: As ranking is important for your site visibility, using a builder that prioritizes SEO makes a difference.
❌ You want a more current interface: IONOS' is quite dated in our opinion.
❌ You need a free trial: IONOS has no free plans either so keep that in mind.
❌ You need something a little more straightforward: IONOS can be a little confusing for beginners.
IONOS has great themes, great templates and overall, the design options on offer for your website are top quality stuff.
Europe’s largest web hosting provider, IONOS, currently hosts more than 12 million domains and represents a great choice if you are looking to create a serious, professional website to promote your business.
Getting started
While the lack of a free plan is disappointing (although you do receive the first month free), the paid options are reasonable enough, starting at $84 for the full year, which works out at $7 per month - although you can't pay monthly for this price. We were able to gain access to the MyWebsite Now or MyWebsite Creator packages. MyWebsite Now comes with a domain, email address and an expansive image library, but lacks some of the more advanced functionality that you get with the Creator plan.
Features
Where IONOS really comes into its own, though, is with regard to its choice of themes. We were spoilt for choice as its inspirational templates are organized by industry and type, so it’s easy to find the right layout for your website, regardless of whether you are based in the retail, tourism or real-estate sectors. Some of the templates are more image-focused, while others cater to text-heavy sites. Regardless, they are all easy to implement; no coding knowledge is required whatsoever and templates can be adjusted easily using a drag-and-drop editor.
Small businesses are also likely to be enticed by IONOS’ multilingual translation, which can translate a site’s content into 62 different languages. It is even possible to have up to 25 different languages on a site at any given time. This makes IONOS a great choice in terms of its scalability: as a business grows, this website builder is more than equipped to facilitate international expansion.
What else you need to know
Targeted content is also an option – so businesses can set up their website to present special offers to new visitors, for example. So if you’re looking for a scalable website builder with a great selection of themes, then IONOS is definitely worth considering.
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | It's afforable but the cheap price doesn't last forever. | ★★★★☆ |
| Ease of use | IONOS is fairly easy to use and we generally didn't struggle to create our test website. | ★★★★☆ |
| Features | Comes with all the features you need to create a functioning site. | ★★★★★ |
| Templates and design | We enjoyed using IONOS' pre-built sections and color schemes. | ★★★★☆ |
✔️ You want an all in one solution: Elementor includes everything you need to create a website all in one place.
✔️ You want managed storage for WordPress: Your WordPress website may need it.
✔️ You need variety: Elementor's drag & drop editor has more than 100 widgets for a range of designs.
❌ You want some freedom with the freebies: Some of Elementor's free plugins can be limiting.
❌ You have plenty of websites: Elementor wouldn't be our choice based on some of the more powerful site builders in our line up.
❌ You're a beginner: Elementor is not the most complex to use but it's equally not the easiest.
Elementor is another provider that offers an all in one solution, therefore, if you're looking to have everything in one place, you might need to take a closer look into Elementor.
Elementor is rather different in that it’s actually a plugin for WordPress which functions as an easy-to-use website builder. There’s a free version which is impressively capable considering it costs nothing, as well as premium products.
Getting started
The interface is a dead simple and streamlined affair allowing you to drag-and-drop whatever elements you want into place, while seeing what the results look like in real-time. We set up our test site in minutes and did not run into any complications while doing so. There are a bunch of widgets and pre-designed templates on offer, and as you might expect, you get a lot more content with the paid-for plans (even the basic ‘Essential’ package has 300+ templates).
The Pro plans also boast more features, and they support running across multiple websites, as well as providing premium tech support (or live chat for the top-end subscriptions). You get a lot of editing tools here, and there’s a seriously impressive amount of customization to hand for your website creations.
Features
Similar to Wix, even the free option is pretty well fleshed out, as mentioned, and comes with 30+ templates (and 40+ widgets, though the full range is 90+). The freebie route may deliver enough functionality for some, and for those who’ll need more, it’s still a great way of checking out what you’re letting yourself in for before stumping up any cash (no credit card details are needed for signing up to the free plan, either).
The main downside with Elementor is that compared to some rivals, such as Bluehost or Squarespace, the premium pricing isn’t so competitive if you’re running lots of websites – but the basic Elementor plans which support one or three sites are great value if that’s all you need.
What else you need to know
Elementor also has an all-in-one website builder kit, which enables seamless WordPress website creation. Elementor Cloud Website let us build our test website faster using a single end-to-end solution that includes a code-free builder, web hosting, and gave us the ability to connect domain names at no extra cost.
| Attributes | Notes | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | It costs a fairly decent amount but there are cheaper site builders. | ★★★★☆ |
| Ease of use | Easy to use generally but beginners may find navigating a little confusing. | ★★★★☆ |
| Features | Has the necessary features for a WordPress website. | ★★★★★ |
| Templates and design | Elementor has a huge library of ready-to-edit website designs and wireframes. | ★★★★☆ |
✔️ You're looking for value for money: It's not the best on the list but it's certainly value for money.
✔️ You're interested in mobile optimzation: Jimdo optimizes sites for all mobile devices with its dedicated mobile editor view.
✔️ You want a tool that's easy to use: Jimdo is straightforward and simple.
❌ You want a lot of features and tools to play with: Jimdo offers the basics but gets the job done.
❌ You want to build a blog: Jimdo's features are not as accommodating for blogging sites like Squarespace.
❌ You want the best option for SEO: Jimdo has a few SEO features missing, such as alt text, so keep that in mind.
If your site prioritizes imagery, Jimdo might just be the website builder you need. The option to have unlimited storage space is there also, which helps photography sites.
Jimdo made our best list for a number of different reasons, but we particularly enjoyed the range of clean and flexible templates it has on offer. The professional and modern styles available make Jimdo a great website builder for designers, photographers or anyone else who wants to display their portfolio online.
Getting started
Some pros of using Jimdo include its speed as well as simplicity. First off, users have a choice between going with Jimdo Creator or Jimdo Dolphin. Creator has more than 100 templates broken down into four categories (Business, Store, Portfolio, and Personal) and there are plenty of customization options. Dolphin, on the other hand, gives you an AI-created website. There is also a collaboration with Facebook, which allows you to sell your products directly on Facebook and Instagram.
Features
The platform even comes with its own Logo Designer that helped us make our brand recognizable. All we did was enter our business and selected a starting point for our logo design. Then, we customized our icon and layout, chose a color and font, and that was it.
Another useful design feature from Jimdo that we appreciate is the way that website colors automatically harmonize with an uploaded logo or image. This means that garish color clashes become a thing of the past – that's great for businesses where looking good is part of the brand.
What else you need to know
Furthermore, Jimdo comes with a host of tips and support documents that helped us create our test website, similar to GoDaddy and Squarespace. These documents include a number of examples of existing photography websites created using the platform, along with tips on how to build a successful website.
In terms of price, there is a free plan that comes with no time limit but will force you to have a Jimdo sub-domain and advertising. We did notice that there was a lack of fancy features, but if you want a quick, straightforward way of launching a great-looking site, you’ll struggle to find a better website builder than this.
Read our full Jimdo website builder review for more information on the builder's features and getting started
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