With a website builder, anyone can make their mark online without needing years of design or coding experience. The best website builders have scalable features and professionally designed templates – they’re also quick to set up, easy to customize, beginner-friendly, and very affordable! This is why our research gives special significance to these features.
We’ve researched and tested more than 50 website builders over the years, which is why we feel confident saying that Wix is the best overall website builder.
Wix combines ease of use with total creative freedom, making it easy for beginners to create professional-looking websites. Squarespace isn’t far behind though, delivering the best template designs on the market, making it perfect for creatives. Shopify sits comfortably in third place, thanks to its ecommerce capabilities and huge app store.
Take a look below to see our full list of the 10 best website builders, and compare them against each other.
We’ve used our independent and unique research process to create this list. This means that all of our ratings are backed by hours of product testing and analysis, so you can be sure our recommendations are accurate and reliable. We aim to be honest and transparent – after all, our primary purpose is to find you a website builder that’s going to help you fulfill your goals.
This is also why we’ve rigorously tested and selected 50+ of the top web builders out there, measuring them up against our high standards. These methods helped us narrow it down to a list of the best 10, each of which we felt answered our readers’ needs. Because of this, we’re confident that you’ll be able to find the ideal website builder to suit you and your website-building aims.
Compare the 10 Best Website Builders
Before we jump into the reviews of each website builder, take a look at the summary table below to get an idea of which builder might be your perfect match. Use the arrow at the top of the chart to compare the different platforms. We’ve started you off with our top three: Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify.
With a website builder, anyone can make their mark online without needing years of design or coding experience. The best website builders have scalable features and professionally designed templates – they’re also quick to set up, easy to customize, beginner-friendly, and very affordable! This is why our research gives special significance to these features.
We’ve researched and tested more than 50 website builders over the years, which is why we feel confident saying that Wix is the best overall website builder.
Wix combines ease of use with total creative freedom, making it easy for beginners to create professional-looking websites. Squarespace isn’t far behind though, delivering the best template designs on the market, making it perfect for creatives. Shopify sits comfortably in third place, thanks to its ecommerce capabilities and huge app store.
Take a look below to see our full list of the 10 best website builders, and compare them against each other.
10 Best Website Builders of 2024
- Wix – The champion of website builders
- Squarespace – Best value for money
- Shopify – Best for growing revenue
- GoDaddy – Best for building a website quickly
- Square Online – Best for selling online for free
- Hostinger – Best for uptime reliability
- WordPress.com – Best for creating a blog
- IONOS – Best for enterprise support and functionality
- Site123 – Best for hobby and personal websites
- Jimdo – Best for building simple websites
We’ve used our independent and unique research process to create this list. This means that all of our ratings are backed by hours of product testing and analysis, so you can be sure our recommendations are accurate and reliable. We aim to be honest and transparent – after all, our primary purpose is to find you a website builder that’s going to help you fulfill your goals.
This is also why we’ve rigorously tested and selected 50+ of the top web builders out there, measuring them up against our high standards. These methods helped us narrow it down to a list of the best 10, each of which we felt answered our readers’ needs. Because of this, we’re confident that you’ll be able to find the ideal website builder to suit you and your website-building aims.
Compare the 10 Best Website Builders
Before we jump into the reviews of each website builder, take a look at the summary table below to get an idea of which builder might be your perfect match. Use the arrow at the top of the chart to compare the different platforms. We’ve started you off with our top three: Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify.
#1. Wix
The Champion of Website Builders
Pricing range: free – $159 per month
Editor's Choice
Wix
The champion of website builders
OUTSTANDING
- Best internal features
- 800+ template designs
- Powerful SEO tools
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $16 – $159 / month
PROS
Free plan (ideal for smaller projects)
One of the easiest builders to use
In-house marketing & ecommerce features
CONS
Can’t switch template once site is live
Range of options can feel overwhelming
Pay more for the best features
Wix Overview
After our latest round of research, Wix remains our best website builder overall, maintaining its previous score of 4.8 out of 5. It’s an extremely beginner-friendly platform that gives you total creative control over your site, combining a huge range of features with easy drag-and-drop editing tools. To put it simply, Wix is one of the easiest builders to get to grips with and takes the top spot – alongside Squarespace – in our ease-of-use testing, scoring 4.4 out of 5.
We noticed a boost to Wix’s SEO tools, which now includes Semrush integration and keyword support. Wix also has a ton of new internal blogging features, such as the addition of author bios, allowing users to rely more on Wix’s built-in functionality as opposed to third-party apps that can slow down your site. Particularly useful features include Social Posts to help with marketing; and the Wix Owner app, so you can manage your online store from your cell phone!
With a 10% increase in its “Help and Support” score from last year, Wix has proven itself to be a reliable and supportive website builder – a good thing considering its higher price point, especially in comparison to other top website builders that offer cheaper plans, such as GoDaddy and Hostinger.
Additionally, Wix’s design score has also improved by almost 5%, bringing its new design rating to an impressive 4.6 out of 5, which is largely thanks to the flexibility it offers when customizing your website and the growing number of templates available.
Despite some ups and downs in its recent scores, Wix is still a winning choice. Our advice is this: if you’re unsure about which website builder to use, give Wix a spin for free and see how you get on.
Wix Pricing
Wix has a free plan, four premium plans, a starting price of $16 per month, and an enterprise plan for large businesses. A recent price increase negatively impacted Wix’s overall value for money score by 12%, dropping its score for 2023 to 3 out of 5. Its higher pricing plans mean individuals and small businesses will need to consider their budgets before getting started online with Wix. That being said, it’s not just Wix that has increased its fees since last year, with builders like Squarespace and GoDaddy seeing an average price increase of 30% or more.
However, considering Wix’s excellent built-in features, its price point is very reasonable since you’re less likely to require third-party plugins, unlike other builders, such as Site123.
Wix Features
Wix is the best for website features, scoring a mighty 4.8 out of 5. Not only does it offer a free plan with generous features, such as SEO tools and a mobile editor, but you can also unlock additional tools on Wix’s premium plans, including a built-in marketing suite to help promote your business online and engage with website visitors. If you’re thinking about selling online, you’ll need to upgrade to at least the Core plan for $27 per month.
Wix News
What’s new with Wix this month?
- For Wix Partners using Wix Studio, you can now take advantage of the new revenue sharing program. For every site built with Wix Studio, receive 20% rev share, helping you diversify your income stream. This new feature is more applicable to freelancers and agencies using Wix Studio.
Features
Wix’s feature score of 4.8 out of 5 is the highest of any web builder we tested, and you can enjoy a lot of benefits just from its free plan. You’ll have access to greater features such as website analytics and unlimited storage if you upgrade your plan, but Wix’s free plan is still pretty generous. It includes:
- Up to 500MB of storage
- 24/7 customer support
- Social sharing, so you can promote your site
- A mobile editor, so you can optimize your site for mobile devices
But, how exactly did Wix score so highly? There are specific areas Wix excels at, and it specializes in providing internal functionality for its users, meaning there’s no need to rely on third-party apps if you don’t want to! In comparison, Shopify purposefully directs its users toward its huge app store.
Wix has incredible marketing tools to utilize, such as Social Posts, which helps you design graphics for your social channels, and email marketing features.
Additionally, its tailored ecommerce plans and features, such as its inventory management tools and built-in analytics, will help set you up for success if you’re looking to start selling online.
However, if you do need to add extra features, you can – Wix is home to a huge app store full of helpful services.
Wix also offers very powerful SEO tools to help your website get found on Google, including new features such as Semrush integration and keyword support. Another great point to mention is Wix’s internationalization features – you can go global with Wix Multilingual by sharing your content in 180 languages.
Design
Wix has always been a top contender when it comes to design, largely because of its template options and customization tools. It’s no real surprise that Wix has increased its design score by 4.5% in this year’s research – from 4.4 last year to 4.6 out of 5 – which now puts Wix in second place behind design-powerhouse Squarespace.
Wix comes with over 800 professionally-designed templates for you to choose from. These are all split into different industries, such as “Events” and “Photography”, making them easy to filter until you find the right one. Last year, Wix expanded its template offering to keep up with the design and functionality that users expect from a website, and Wix continues to make improvements, enhancing the overall appeal and experience of its websites.
Unfortunately, you can’t swap templates once your website is live, so make sure you take your time in choosing. But don’t worry if you can’t find the perfect template right away since Wix gives you plenty of customization tools!
It’s easy to make your Wix website unique thanks to its editor – simply drag elements like text boxes and images to exactly where you want them, or employ Wix’s ADI to do the work for you. Add pages, delete anything you want… Wix gives you total creative freedom!
Value for Money
Pricing plans have considerably increased marketwide since 2022, so Wix’s performance in our value for money category has dropped by almost 12% – now scoring 3 out of 5 as opposed to last year’s 3.4. Wix’s price hike means that not only do you get less bang for your buck, but it also makes it harder to scale your business affordably.
However, Wix has a free plan that you can stay on as long as you like, which is great for getting started. Of course, it has its limitations, such as displaying ads on your site, so for a truly professional site, you’ll want to look at its paid plans.
There are four premium plans to choose between, starting at $16 per month (billed annually) – a 14% increase from last year’s price! These plans remove Wix ads and let you use a personalized domain name, as well as increase your storage allowances.
Out of the four, three of these are dedicated ecommerce plans, starting from $27 per month (billed annually).
Ease of Use
Wix remains as easy to use as ever, sitting in our top position with a score of 4.4 out of 5 – joint first with Squarespace. One user who tested out Wix said this about the builder:
“It’s really intuitive to use, a beginner would grasp it easily!”
We received a lot of feedback about how beginner-friendly and easy-to-customize Wix is, especially thanks to its drag-and-drop editor. However, the large number of features and tools felt overwhelming for some, and in some cases, the editor was slow to respond which isn’t ideal if you’re a business owner that needs to update content on your site every day.
Help and Support
While Wix’s customers will certainly feel the squeeze in their pockets, Wix does make up for its higher prices with an impressive help and support score of 4.8 out of 5. That’s a huge increase of 10% since 2022! In fact, Wix is now in joint first place for support, along with Squarespace and IONOS.
Wix offers 24/7 phone and live chat support, but you can get VIP care and avoid any possible queues if you upgrade to a higher-tier plan. The usability and available support provided through Wix’s Help Center is where Wix really shines, complete with video tutorials and trending topics.
Customer Satisfaction
Wix has always been a customer favorite, and our 2023 scores keep the website builder as a strong choice, scoring 4.7 out of 5 for its customer satisfaction – an increase of 1% since 2022’s score of 4.6. And it’s easy to be content with such a user-friendly platform! Wix’s Trustpilot score has improved from 1.6 to a whopping 4.1, and 80% of users that tested the builder are likely to recommend it to others.
