Updated on 10th Feb, 2022 – Website builders are tools that allow the creation of web pages without programming knowledge. These are helped by a visual editor (WYSIWYG) to add content and adapt the design. Typically these are online tools such as Wix, Jimdo or Weebly, but there are also offline tools that can be used.
You can use these programs to create and design web pages for :
- Small business
- Photographic or artistic portfolios
- Personal web projects
Some of these integrate blogs into their systems too. In addition, some of these website builders also offer eCommerce modules with which you can create online stores in a matter of hours.
Read: How to Migrate from WiX to Shopify: Website Transferring Tips [2022]
Of course there are times when it is not recommended to use them, for instance in:
- Multilingual online store project
- Membership websites with subscription
- You need access to the database
- You will intensively use programming languages such as JavaScript and PHP
- Large websites with many pages
You will be thinking: why should you use a website builder and move on to WordPress web designing with a cool template? Well, here are the main advantages of using such tools:
- Easy, very easy : you can forget about HTML, JavaScript, CSS and the like.
- They save time : if you are clear about the content and structure of your site, you will not need more than two afternoons to finish.
- They are not expensive : They are as cheap as a medium quality hosting. From $ 10 per month you can have everything you need.
When it comes to choosing software to create a website, sometimes you come across several features and options that vary depending on the offers. To help you choose the best solution, here is a guide that reviews the most popular and complete services on the market.
Wix
With nearly 90 million users worldwide, Wix is now one of the most popular website publishers. The tool owes part of its success to its ease of creating a website in a few clicks without any programming knowledge. Whatever your project, whether professional or not, Wix provides more than 500 templates and gives you a lot of freedom in your creations.
If the goal is to create a small simple site, the free offer is more than enough with 500MB of storage and up to 500MB of bandwidth.
Read: Best Linux Web Hosting Services
In return, the hosting of your site will be under the domain name wixsite.com, your site will display the logos of Wix as well as advertisements. Premium plans allow you to have your own domain name and considerably increase the storage capacity or even remove advertising.
Wix website templates are numerous with great variety , very beautiful and specific for some professions such as architects, musicians or photographers.
They have millions of users, so they clearly have to be doing something right, but that does not necessarily mean they are the best option for you; It will depend on your project and what you need.
Wix offers the following :
- Wide variety of templates, with a beautiful design and already prepared for many professions.
- It does not require technical knowledge nor will you have to worry about hosting.
- Many features, including online store, blog and basic marketing campaigns.
- Easy to create and use.
- Low risk: You can try all the features, decide what you need and only pay when you want to publish your website.
- Pretty good options to adjust the SEO of your page.
As mentioned above, one of the greatest advantages of Wix are its templates which have very careful designs and already premade for many professions, hobbies and small businesses. You will surely find one that suits your need since they are clearly ordered by sectors . You can browse through them by a menu of categories and subcategories or directly searching for the word that interests you.
One reason why Wix is so successful is its editor, very intuitive and easy to use. You can do everything you want simply by clicking on their menus, dragging and dropping items.
In addition, it is very flexible, not only because of the amount of elements you can add, but because you can place them in the position you want , without any limitation.
Jimdo
Jimdo website builder is a very good alternative to Wix thanks to an extremely user-friendly interface. This online software has many features that facilitate the creation of websites. It only takes a few minutes to integrate text, images or videos to create a store, portfolio or blog.
Jimdo is therefore relatively simple to use and has a multitude of fully customizable templates to let your creativity run free. If the free version is sufficient for a small amateur site, the other formulas are very accessible and will allow you to make a professional and optimized website.
It is especially suitable for users with less technical knowledge. In addition, its templates are automatically adapted to all devices (eg mobile phones and tablets).
Decisive for this was the very easy handling of the kit in combination with beautiful design templates – plus points, which also come into their own in the free version.
Another major advantage of Jimdo is the first-class customer support in the payment options of this kit.
With the free version of Jimdo, very nice websites can be designed, which are mainly used in the private sector. As with all website kits, websites that were designed with the free version of Jimdo are located on a subdomain – i.e. an Internet address that always contains an abbreviation of the kit provider: www.yoursite.jimdofree.com instead of www.yoursite.com. In addition to your own internet domain and corresponding e-mail addresses, the range of functions with the Jimdo payment tariffs is of course also somewhat larger. As with all good website building sets, you can also switch from the free version to a paid version at Jimdo.
WebSelf
Like most website builders, WebSelf offers hosting. It is also possible to create a website or a blog for free. It is perfect if you want to try our website builder or if it is your first site. If you have more professional needs, they have three premium plans that include a domain name if you choose to pay annually.
Read: How to start a blog for beginners
Weebly
It is one of the most popular website builders, surely the biggest after Wix. Together with Jimdo it is the easiest-to-use website builder that exists. It integrates many options and functions that help expand the capabilities of your website (eg own video and audio player and user registration).
If you plan to use a blog a lot, Weebly website builder has the best tools for this functionality. In addition, their templates are responsive and adapt perfectly to all devices.
Read: Best Free Graphic Design software for Linux
Weebly is aimed at both beginners and professionals. In its free version, Weebly hosts your website on its own subdomain, takes care of backend security and updates, and provides you with many possibilities that you need for the design of your site thanks to a drag and drop system and WYSIWYG.
For more advanced needs, it is even possible to have full access to the HTML and CSS code in order to customize the design. Weebly website creator also offers features to optimize your site on search engines.
1 & 1 Ionos
1 & 1 Ionos corresponds to the new brand that emerged from the union of the European hosting provider 1 & 1 with ProfitBricks, a German specialist in cloud infrastructure solutions. This allows them to offer themselves as the first hosting provider capable of guiding companies through all stages of development, from the creation of their first website or the establishment of an online commerce system, to the launch of their own servers.
They also have numerous applications in the cloud , with a free personal assistant for all issues related to products, contracts and how to position yourself on the internet.
Despite a fairly mixed start in terms of quality, the software has improved quite a bit over time. Today, no less than 400 templates are available with a drag-and-drop editor that are very easy to use. To assist you in the creation of your website, many tutorials are available directly on the interface which is quite practical for beginners.
Read: How Much Does a Dental Website Design Cost
One.com
The creator of the lowest cost websites comes from Denmark. You may already know One.com for hosting functionalities, but they also have a website creator integrated into their services.
Although it complies with the basics (eg integrating video, images and texts), it is intended for simple and small projects (no more than 5 pages). For example, do not integrate a blog and if you are going to use your ecommerce, you will have to pay extra and One.com will no longer be so cheap.
WordPress.com
Do not confuse WordPress.com with WordPress.org, with the first (.com) it is not necessary to have your own hosting, although the system is much more limited. For example, you cannot add plugins and the available templates are quite scarce.
WordPress.com is another program to create websites.The truth is that it is not the best solution to create websites due to surname. For example, some of the best website builder for small business are Wix, Ionos or Webnode which are suitable for creating sites for small projects, freelancers and online stores. The only situation in which WordPress.com can be useful is if you are thinking of creating a blog.
Read: How To Improve Your Blog’s Design
Webnode
Webnode is one of the most veteran web builders, they launched their application in 2008. It is one of the most popular products on the market (after Wix and along with Jimdo and Weebly), it has millions of users and dozens of workers.
Without a doubt, its best virtue is to offer the possibility of creating multilingual websites, something that few web creators can do well. On the other hand, its tool is easy to use and intuitive.
In addition, its templates are modern and adapt to all devices without problems. Sometimes it seems that it falls short, since some of its functions are somewhat limited. For example, they don’t have the best blogging system, and their ecommerce is very simple.
The tool has a free basic version but there are also other paid plans for more features. If you want to open an online store, Webnode also has an e-commerce functionality to import your products, create variants and have a payment system.
This will be useful for you to easily create an e-shop and sell thousands of products at the same time. To do this, this device offers you tools to manage orders, track stocks and perform accounting. They will also allow you to quickly gather customer data in order to determine their needs and adapt the appropriate solution.It is also possible to track your statistics and conversions.
Webnode works thanks to modules, allowing to design e-shops and many other interesting sites. This tool also provides programmed functions to optimize online sales or improve the visibility of a brand on search engines. Webnode can be used by all people and entities wishing to create a website easily.
This solution is aimed at any structure looking for a complete and easy-to-use software: associations, NGOs, e-merchants … It promises an excellent handling. Adding or removing elements on content is most often done by drag and drop. In short, Webnode makes it possible to develop a portfolio or a business site in no time.
Webnode offers 3 types of sites, including creating a showcase site. However, to choose among these possibilities, you will have to find the offer that suits you best. These differ among other things by their storage space, customer support and price.
Users do not require any technical knowledge in programming. It will be easy for you to set up a responsive online store thanks to a very intuitive editor. Regarding design, this software offers many fully customizable templates and themes. The available models can be modified at your convenience. You can also integrate files such as photos and texts to create content that you like. In short, Webnode provides you with various templates, essential to optimize your pages.
Read: Best website design software
Strikingly
Strikingly, is a solution developed by a California startup that stands out for its ease of use. The ambition of this start-up is to democratize the creation of websites by offering a tool accessible to all. The solution is also very popular with entrepreneurs who want to test their ideas with a landing page in just a few clicks. The free version allows you to build a site under the strikingly.com domain with 5 GB of bandwidth / month. If you want more features including your own domain name, offers start from $8 a month.
Shopify
Although almost all of these website builders bring online stores with which you can sell online are not suitable for larger projects. It would be complex to manage extensive catalogs with them.
Instead, Shopify website builder has managed to create a system in which it combines (relative) ease of use and abundance of advanced features for ecommerce. For example: selling digital products is not a problem, importing and exporting your items is very easy and you can use discount coupons and gift cards to promote your offers. It is considered as the best website builder for online store.
Its templates are designed for ecommerce and these adapt to mobile devices perfectly. Shopify (Lite) starts at about $ 9 US per month, in case you already have a website or just want to sell on social networks. Creating an online store completely with them starts at $ 29 (Basic Shopify) per month and this is aimed at medium and large online stores. It allows everyone, business or individual, to easily create an online store. Its functionality and flexibility make it an excellent choice if you are looking for a tool that is both efficient and easy to handle.
Users will be able to automate tasks related to the management of an online store activity. This solution allows in particular to optimize revenues, increase production and better manage a commercial activity. Generally speaking, therefore, Shopify is designed to easily create and develop an online point of sale thanks to a platform that is especially programmed for this purpose.
What makes Shopify so successful is that it is particularly intuitive. In most cases, it will only takes a few clicks to find the feature that works for you and instruct the tool to do the job.
Shopify provides a very complete catalog of themes. Using this solution will allow you to explore a wide range of styles to choose from according to your needs and preferences.
Each of shopify website themes lets you take advantage of a few basic features that are essential to creating an interesting page.
You can in particular make a slideshow to showcase your products and services. This is to make it easier for your customers to discover your activities. You can also use Shopify to create and manage product pages easily, sorting them by collection, among other things.
In short, opting for this platform will allow you to intelligently create a store, without being a professional in the field.
Read: 6 Essential Website Optimization Strategies
Simplesite
SimpleSite is a must-have solution for building websites that fit every need, whatever it’s. Known around the world, SimpleSite has at least 100,000 subscribers worldwide. This is primarily due to its simplicity. Besides, this tool is not intended for professional Web developers, it is aimed at those who want to have their own site, designed in the easiest way possible.
SimpleSite also supports the creation of a professional site. Once the user has defined the activity he wants to present, the software offers him different color themes to set up a unique and specific page. He also advances a photo that could represent the user’s goals. Using this software will allow you to easily add content to your site. To do this, you just need to choose the content you want to publish and click on the button provided. It can be texts, images, videos … all the essential elements are offered by this tool.
With SimpleSite, you will have approximately 500 free images, essential to boost the effectiveness of your page. To find the model you need, the tool offers a quick search by keywords. Once you find it, you can give it a title. For videos, the choice is yours between inserting a YouTube link or a Vimeo file. Importing your own video is of course possible.
Elementor
With Elementor, generating CSS code is as simple as clicking on a widget – like a text box or an image gallery – dragging it onto your website, and dropping it in. The website builder will automatically write the corresponding code so you don’t have to.
Elementor is much more than just a drag-and-drop editor, however.
An all-in-one marketing platform, Elementor can be leveraged towards creating high-performance landing pages, 100% customized forms, and stunning popups that grab visitors’ attention at the perfect moment.
Normally, deploying these tools would require finding and installing multiple different WordPress plugins. You’d have to configure each one separately and then hope they’re all compatible with one another. You might have to write custom code to get them to work together smoothly and avoid weighing down your site with features you don’t need.
With Elementor, all of the tools you need to drive conversions and grow your business are available in one place. And, if there’s a specific tool you’d like to integrate with, you can do so, effortlessly.
Conclusion
Although for more complex projects, the tools to create web pages fall short. For more affordable sites such as web pages for small businesses, portfolios for photographers or artists and medium-sized online stores are very suitable.
Wix is usually the strongest alternative, in addition to having the best designs.If you are looking for a program with which to create a website in several languages, Webnode or Ionos are recommended.
If you are looking for ease of use, Webnode and Wix are the winners. For inveterate bloggers WordPress.com or Weebly are convenient. And if you’re going to create an online store, check out Shopify .
The design tool for your website must be user-friendly to allow you to give life to all your creative ideas. It must be intuitive with ideally a drag and drop system (drag and drop) and the possibility of directly viewing the modifications. For the most seasoned users, it is useful to be able to control the website development process in the WYSIWYG editor and to be able to modify the HTML code.
The more different a website builder offers, the easier the creation process will be. Instead of starting from a blank page, having the possibility of starting from an already existing template corresponding to your theme will save you time. Be careful however to personalize your site as much as possible in order to diversify yourself from your competitors. However, be careful, because some templates are free while others are paid depending on the solution you choose.
When it comes to building a website, it’s important to be able to rely on quality support. In the event of a usage problem or even a bug, it is necessary to be able to contact support at any time of the day. This is especially useful if you have to manage a business and have certain priorities. Also, the solution you choose must also have complete tutorials and FAQs so that you can create and modify your website as simply as possible. But sometimes web builders are not recommended and a content manager like WordPress is a better solution. In these cases, choosing a good hosting that best suits your needs is key.
If you like the content, we would appreciate your support by buying us a coffee. Thank you so much for your visit and support.
