What is the Best Website Builder? Our Top Picks

What is the Best Website Builder? Our Top Picks

You're in luck if you want to create a website in 2024. Website builders have come a long way in recent years, making it easier to build a professional-looking site without knowing how to code. But with so many options, how do you choose the best website builder for your specific needs?

We tested and compared today's most popular website builders based on critical factors like ease of use, template quality, features, support, pricing, and more. After extensive research and hands-on testing, we narrowed it down to the top 5 that stand out.

Below, we'll review our picks for the best website builders in 2024 and provide an overview of their pros and cons to help you decide. You can find the perfect platform here for an online store, portfolio, blog, or primary informational site.

Our Top 5 Picks for Best Website Builder

1. Wix – Best Overall

With its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, massive app marketplace, and great templates, Wix is the best website builder overall.

Pros:

• 500+ designer-made templates
• Intuitive drag-and-drop editor
• There are tons of apps and integrations
• Great built-in image editor
• SEO tools

Cons:

• The steep learning curve for advanced features
• Some template styles look outdated

2. Squarespace – Best for Creative Design

Squarespace is nearly unmatched with beautiful, creative templates for a stylish site.

Pros:

• Award-winning modern templates
• Easy to customise designs
• Great for portfolios and galleries
• Built-in commerce options

Cons:

• Limited app integrations
• It can be pricey for barebones sites

3. Webflow – Best for Coding Flexibility

For those comfortable digging into code, no builder beats Webflow’s flexibility and customisation.

Pros:

• Full code access for customisation
• Animated interactions
• Robust CMS and hosting
• Popular with web designers

Cons:

• Steep learning curve
• No included domain

4. Shopify – Best for eCommerce

With all the robust tools you need to manage and grow an online store, Shopify is the choice for serious eCommerce sites.

Pros:

• Everything for running an online store
• Lower transaction fees
• Integrates with major shipping carriers, payment gateways
• Hundreds of product design themes

Cons:

• Primarily focused on eCommerce sites
• Additional transaction fees beyond the monthly cost

5. WordPress.com – Best for Blogs & Editorial Sites

WordPress powers over 43% of sites for a reason – it’s easy to use and perfect for building blogs, news sites, and content-focused sites.

Pros:

• Perfect for blogs and content sites
• Easy publish news and articles
• Hundreds of free and paid themes
• SEO features and integrations

Cons:

• Limited design compared to other builders
• Must pay more for eCommerce features

Now, let’s explore what makes these five website builders stand out and how to decide which is suitable for your site.

Key Website Builder Comparison Points

When picking out a website builder, a few key factors impact the overall usability, customisability, and quality of sites you can produce. We compared our top picks across these aspects:

Design & Themes

Professional, eye-catching website design is vital for making an excellent first impression and building your brand. Some builders like Squarespace or Wix offer hundreds of templates in various styles created by professional designers. Others, like WordPress.com, have more straightforward out-of-the-box options focused on blog layouts. Consider whether a beautiful design with minimal effort outweighs complete control over each element.

Ease of Use & Learning Curve

You don’t want to spend more time figuring out the platform than building your site. Platforms like Shopify, Wix, and WordPress.com make starting easy with little knowledge needed. Others have more advanced options but require time to master features. Consider whether learning a more complex system is worth it for greater creative control in the long run.

Customisation Options

While templates offer a quick starting point, you’ll likely want to tweak things to fit your brand. Some builders like Webflow provide endless customisation via code editing, while others like Squarespace limit you more to the template design options. Think about if you value quick simplicity over unlimited changes.

App Marketplaces & 3rd Party Integrations

The ability to connect other apps, payment processors, and tools like email marketing platforms expands what you can do beyond the core builder features. Wix and Shopify offer robust app markets for finding these add-ons, while WordPress.com and Webflow have more limited options. If seamlessly integrating with specific tools matters for managing your site long-term, research compatibility.

Built-in eCommerce Tools

For those planning an online store, having the eCommerce features built into the platform streamlines getting set up faster. Our picks like Shopify and Squarespace allow you to activate store capabilities with shopping carts, payment processing, and product shipping ready to configure. Adding these features onto other builders would require external apps and set-up.

SEO Optimisation

Getting found by potential customers via search engines amounts to real business dollars online. Most significant builders now incorporate SEO best practices like alt-image tags, meta descriptions, and XML sitemaps to boost site visibility and traffic. However, WordPress gives the most fine-tuned performance data and suggestions to maximise search visibility for news sites and blogs needing to rank content.

Pricing & Overall Value

Cost inevitably plays a role in choosing software, and low monthly rates lure in many first-time site owners. But it’s essential to calculate the true value long-term. A more robust platform that fuels business growth can be worth higher fees, while cheaper DIY builders work fine for primary sites. Consider hidden charges for add-ons, too, which vary significantly by platform.

Head-to-Head Builder Comparison

Here is a breakdown of their score across critical factors to visualise how the top website builders directly stack up.

Beyond the core builder comparison, choosing the right website platform often comes down to your specific goals and target audience. Next, we’ll explore top website types where confident builders excel over generic multipurpose options.

Best Website Builders by Website Type

Ecommerce Website Builder

If you're planning an online store, Shopify leads as the best ecommerce website builder. With robust hosting optimised for speed, security, scalability, integrated payment and shipping solutions and a wide range of store management tools, Shopify simplifies the heavy lifting of launching and running a successful online business.

Squarespace also incorporates ecommerce features and one of the cheapest transaction fees at just 2.9% + $0.30 per purchase. However, Shopify still supports more complex inventory, order, and fulfilment functionality crucial for scaling.

Wix and WordPress can manage online stores with add-on plugins, but the setup and maintenance require much more manual work than specialised ecommerce builders.

Blog & Editorial Websites

WordPress emerges as the ideal website builder for publications producing news articles, blog content and textual information. The CMS backend is explicitly designed for streamlining writing and formatting articles, including tools like a post-schedule calendar, content organisation with tags and categories, formatting shortcuts, etc.

Importantly, WordPress also comes SEO-optimised out of the box to maximise search visibility for published content with XML sitemaps, Google Analytics integration, ALT text automation and more. This allows bloggers and publishers to rank faster with less initial expertise.

Squarespace offers sophisticated editorial templates, while Wix and Webflow focus more on visual-heavy sites and over-text-based content publishing efficiency. Shopify store pages also lack the built-in blogging functionality found in WordPress sites.

Portfolio & Photography Sites

Showcasing visual galleries and projects benefits hugely from Squarespace’s signature minimalist, magazine-style templates. Photo-centric layouts and built-in animations and annotations enable photographers, designers and other creative professionals to make an instant visual impact with their work.

Wix also incorporates dedicated templates for art and photography websites, albeit with more mixed modern and traditional styles that may not appeal to all. Shopify leans generic over specialised portfolio design, while WordPress and Webflow lack robust out-of-the-box portfolio site options unless installing premium themes at added cost.

Services, Agency & Consultancy Websites

Professional services like consultants, design agencies and freelancers often balance multiple branding needs for an overall polished yet functional site. This typically includes clear messaging explaining services, detailed about pages and bios, case study project displays, client testimonials, and lead capture/contact forms.

Squarespace satisfies these demands with expertly crafted pages and layouts so designers can focus more on content over appearance. Wix provides comparable templates built for professional service businesses and a more comprehensive range of styles, from modern to classic, depending on brand personality. WordPress basic templates for more budget-conscious ventures still offer sufficient structure and custom blocks to clearly present services, teams, work examples, and contact options on a smaller scale.

Nonprofit & Community Websites

Unlike commercial sites, nonprofits and local community groups depend more on amplifying public messaging, events and donations than selling products and services. Balancing these priorities takes a flexible, multipurpose builder where you can selectively highlight different sections like causes, news updates, fundraising appeals and annual events.

WordPress empowers building modular, campaign-focused pages with a blog-style structure ideal for nonprofits. Easily embed multimedia content to engage visitors and integrate donation forms or an online merch store. For more placeholder-style pages, however, Wix makes it easier to reorder content blocks, while Squarespace excels at keeping consistent, clean designs between different internal page layouts.

Custom-Coded Website Development

For advanced web designers and developers, Webflow bridges the gap between traditional code-based building and drag-and-drop simplicity. By letting users toggle between visual design mode and directly editing code, Webflow essentially works as a front-end web development toolkit for coding interactive, complex sites.

Beyond the standard advantages of speed, browser compatibility, and fine-tuning performance, hand-coding websites also allow the integration of dynamic features, animations, and complex custom functionality in traditional WYSIWYG site builders. The learning curve is undoubtedly steeper, but with Webflow acting as an advanced code editor, it removes much of the typical heavy lifting of raw HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

For those that need the absolute most control over website behaviour, though, traditional web development frameworks like WordPress, Drupal and Joomla paired with hosting still provide unlimited freedom outside any pre-packaged platform. The tradeoff here is hugely increased effort and expertise needed relative to more beginner-friendly tools.

Questions to Consider When Choosing Your Website Builder

• What is your budget? – Pricing varies widely from free to $40+/month for core plans. Factor in all features/apps needed, too.
• What is your timeframe? – Turnaround from signing up to launch depends heavily on complexity, ranging from days to months.
• Who is your target audience? – Ideal builder can vary significantly between B2B, B2C, creative professionals etc. Identify visitor priorities.
• What is your site’s primary purpose? – Pick something aligned instead of a generic multipurpose platform to get more relevant templates and features.
• What design style do you envision? – Each builder leans modern, elegant, minimalist or classic, so choose the aesthetic.
• How much time can you devote to learning and updating your site? Budget 20+ hours for a commerce site for the first several months and 10-15 hours for more straightforward sites. Ongoing maintenance also varies by platform complexity.
• What features and integrations are essential? – Not all builders equally support things like reservations, appointments, virtual consults, advanced member portals, etc.
• How much traffic do you anticipate receiving? Understanding expected visitor volume is critical for choosing scalable hosting infrastructure that won’t crash from unexpected spikes.
• Do you plan to self-update or outsource changes? Factor the learning curve plus weigh if it’s worth paying developers to handle complex modifications later.

While not every consideration will always apply, taking the time to think through your digital presence objectives, constraints, and deal-breakers paves the way to picking both the right short-term and long-term website platform partner.

Getting Started With Your New Website Builder

Once you’ve compared the contenders and selected your chosen website builder, here is a general roadmap of next steps as you launch your new site:

Choose Your Domain

A domain name represents your online identity and brand that website visitors will type in to access your site. Options like .com .net cost ~$12/year from registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap, while free builders include domains hosted on their subdomains (yourname.wixsite.com).

Select a Design Template

Templates provide starter layouts and styled pages, so you don’t have to design everything from scratch. Most builders offer hundreds across niches and styles to choose from or start customisable blank templates.

Customise The Design & Branding

Tweak template colours, fonts, images and layouts using the builder tools to match your preferred aesthetic. Minor tweaks can make generic templates feel uniquely yours for minimal effort.

Input Your Site Content

Plug in text, images, videos and other media that make up your site page's content. Follow best practices for formatting critical information like about us and services for maximum clarity.

Review Mobile Responsiveness

With over 50% of site traffic from mobile devices, ensure your site resizes and functions beautifully cross-device. Mobile optimisation remains one of the key ranking factors Google measures.

Set Up Domain Email

Obtain a professional email address using your new domain name, like co*****@yo*********.com, for managing site communication. This also strengthens branding associations.

Activate Security Essentials

SSL certification, firewalls, and regular software updates all help protect site stability and user data from threats. Enable all included security tools or install 3rd party apps for maximum safety.

Submit the Site to Search Engines

Generate an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines like Google so your site pages get indexed and ranked for keywords you want to target.

Promote Your New Website

Spread the word across existing marketing channels plus social media and email lists. Run advertising campaigns more aggressively once site traffic picks up momentum.

Maintaining Success Long-Term

Launching that initial website is the first step to an ever-evolving digital presence. Maintaining its long-term success takes staying on top of regular upkeep and thinking strategically about improvements over the coming months and years.

Keep Content Fresh

Google values sites that actively publish new, original content relevant to what users are searching for. Set an editor regimen for adding blog articles, videos, portfolio examples, etc.

Track Analytics Insights

Monitoring visitor interactions and engagement metrics spotlights what resonates or underperforms. Let data guide editing priorities towards highly-viewed areas first.

Solicit User Feedback

Asking clients, customers and visitors directly what changes they’d like to see provides invaluable direction for informing significant site changes and new feature roadmaps.

Audit Speed & Security

Page load lag and downtime frustrate visitors and damage conversion rates as sites scale. Routinely test site performance and double down securing infrastructure.

Cultivate Email & Social Followers

Building an audience on social media and collecting emails for newsletters gives you direct lines to share site updates and promotions. Though gradually growing, these channels drive highly engaged visitors.

Consider a Site Redesign

A complete visual transformation better aligns with an evolved brand identity and reset first impressions. Depending on complexity, redesigns cost between $3,000-$15,000+ from web developers.

Upgrade or Switch Platforms

Outgrowing starter plans or changing feature needs over the years may necessitate upgrading account tiers or migrating platforms entirely for better alignment. Just be sure to weigh migration complexity to avoid losing traffic or data.

Integrate With CRMs, Accounting, & Other Software

As operational systems expand, connecting sales, marketing, finance and operations tools for unified data flow eliminates tedious manual syncing and reporting.

Most Common Website Problems to Avoid

Despite the most meticulous planning, websites inevitably encounter technical hiccups or roadblocks underperforming expectations. Stay vigilant against these common issues creeping up by design:

• Slow page load times – Images, videos and bloated code quickly sabotage site speed. Enable caching plus compress files and media.
• Poor mobile optimisation – If over 20% of mobile visitors immediately leave, insufficient responsiveness likely degrades experiences.
• High homepage bounce rates – Failure to communicate value upfront leads visitors to lose interest fast. Refine messaging and visuals to capture attention.
• Low organic traffic – Subpar SEO efforts cause sites to get drowned out by competitors ranking higher in search results, cutting visibility.
• Content thinness – Prioritizing quantity over quality results in low-value pages that neither engage visitors nor search engines.
• High exit rates before important pages – Identify where visitors commonly abandon site journeys and improve page targeting to those decision points.
• Forms with low conversion rates – Clunky, overly long web forms hamper lead generation and sales. Streamline critical form flows using analytics.
• Underperforming blog content – Misaligned blog strategies waste resources, creating content that drives little measurable impact—ground topics in buyer research.
• Technical downtime or errors – Server outages, dying links, and programming glitches immediately obstruct visitors from accessing sites.

Diligently optimising and monitoring website performance surfaces these red flags early before minor issues balloon into lost traffic and wasted time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

• Numerous website builder platforms exist, but Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify and WordPress.com lead for their balance of usability and features.
• When comparing options, consider priorities like design, customisation, integrations, ecommerce needs, and learning curves.
• Builder choice can vary significantly depending on website purpose, from online stores to portfolios, blogs, services, nonprofits, etc.
• Roadmap next steps when launching new sites from branding to security, search optimisation and promotion.
• Maintain success through ongoing content, performance metrics monitoring, refreshing designs and expanding features.
• Avoid common pitfalls like site speed lag, insufficient mobile experience, thin content, and lack of visibility in organic search.

Ready to choose your website builder and create an impactful online presence? Follow our guide highlighting the strengths of each platform to confidently pick the best fit for bringing your web design vision to life.