What is a Website Builder?
A website builder is a platform that offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create a website for users with little to no coding experience. These platforms generally offer integrated storage for photos and videos, options for adding a custom domain, hosting capabilities, pre-built themes and more. Third-party integrations are often available as well, allowing you to add elements such as shopping carts and lead capture tools. Advanced plans may even include custom email addresses and SEO analytics tools for next-level marketing campaigns.
When looking for a plan, most people already have an idea of the domain or domains they want and what they want the end-websites or websites to look like. Once, only computer programmers who had a strong grasp of computer code were able to build and develop websites, but today there are a myriad of different software systems to help everyone from pro-web developers to web novices build a clean, attractive, functional website. These website-building software systems have become so popular that the best sites have recently integrated free builders into their packages. This is now an industry standard in the web hosting world which helps design, create, and organize websites with easy-to-use templates and control panels. Each package is different, just as each service is different, but many of these are intuitive to use, and best of all, cost absolutely nothing.
Wix / GoDaddy/ Shopify/ Squarespace /
Wix
Wix is a beginner-friendly, all-in-one tool that makes it easy to create a professional-looking website. Wix offers more than 800 design templates that allow you to customize a site for various blogging and small business needs. Connect to more than 300 third-party apps to add advanced features to your website, such as online scheduling or event booking. Fast, easy, and beautiful website design, prices starting from 27$ It's hard to not get excited about building your business when working with an Ecommerce site builder pro like Wix. It’s got all the right features in all the right places to make your online store boom. Hundreds of templates to choose from, a customized domain name, and an easy drag-and-drop editor really help kick things off nicely. All site designs are mobile responsive, so they look great on any device. Wix even has artificial design intelligence to help you tweak your site. There’s no doubt about it. Wix is probably the best option for ease of use, and user-friendly design and editing options. You can literally do it without any design knowledge whatsoever. But then Wix does even more. This website builder offers advanced features like blogs, SEO tools, and drop shipping with Modalyst.
PROS
Remarkably intuitive Editor X interface
Numerous widgets
Hundreds of templates for specific businesses and other uses
Good mobile-site-building tools
Rich web-store features
Excellent uptime and customer service support
Many commerce options, including the ability to sell digital downloads
Free option
CONS
Third-party apps offer better analytics
Doesn't let you switch templates
GoDaddy
GoDaddy offers more than just a platform to build your website, we offer everything you need to create an effective, memorable online presence. Already have a site? We offer hosting plans that will keep it fast, secure and online. Our professional email helps you build a professional image, while our online marketing tools empower entrepreneurs to get online with an SEO-friendly website. GoDaddy is an all-in-one solution provider to get your idea online, backed with expert, personalized support from GoDaddy Guides. With nearly 20 years in the industry, we have the experience, the technology and the hosting experts to help web designers, developers, bloggers and online businesses create and maintain their online presence. Our secure web hosting platform, complete with cPanel, offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee and award-winning support, which has helped nearly 21+ million customers get online.
PROS
Good-looking sites on desktop and mobile
Unlimited storage and monthly data transfers
Great marketing and SEO tools
More than 100 templates
Excellent uptime
Good customer service
Free tier
CONS
Limited layout customization
Ecommerce not available with all tiers
Shopify
A fully customizable website builder Thousands of themes, apps and integrations
On Shopify, you can build a brand that looks and sounds just like you, and an online presence that captures the hearts and attention of your customers through your own fully customizable website. Edit free design themes as much as you’d like, add unique products and copy, and choose from over 8,000 apps to make your online store one-of-a-kind. Build a website to sell your products, using their feature rich website builder, you can build an ecommerce store to sell your products. Whether you use product-sourcing apps or make your own products, you can build a website to sell your products online and in-store. Shopify offers various sales channels, apps, POS, and features that simplify the selling process.
Pros
Sell Anywhere
Ecommerce Tools
App Store
Customizable —
Themes
Get Up And Running Fast
Shopify Payments
Shipping Rates & Taxes
Intuitive
Cons
Learning Curve
Drag and Drop Editor
SQUARESPACE
Create a website, Select from any of our industry-leading website templates, designer fonts, and color palettes that best fit your personal style and professional needs.
Ecommerce made easy, Explore which tools you want to add—whether it’s setting up an online store, booking services, or adding your favorite third-party extensions.
Market your business, Stand out in every inbox and social feed. On-brand email campaigns and social tools make it easy to retain customers and grow your audience.
Whether you’re just getting started or are an established brand, our powerful ecommerce website builder helps your business grow.
PROS
Beautiful, responsive designs that accommodate mobile screens
Fluid Engine makes design more intuitive in dedicated sections
Deep e-commerce capabilities, including selling digital downloads
Lets you use custom code
Blogging tool lets you schedule posts
Good help and analytics tools
Free SSL certificate
Unlimited storage and monthly data transfers with all plans
CONS
You must rebuild your site if upgrading from Squarespace 7.0
Can't switch templates in new version
No free tier
Lacks phone support
Web.com is a leading web technology company and one of the nation’s largest providers of website builder and online marketing services. Since 1999, we’ve served more than 3 million customers around the world, and we manage over 9 million domain names. We offer a variety of comprehensive solutions with all the tools small businesses need to succeed online, and all our services are backed by an award-winning customer support team. With more than two decades in business, we put our experience to work for you. Our customer service experts provide unlimited support when you need it, and we offer a wide range of resources to help you succeed online. When you’re ready to create a professional website, we’ll match you with a website builder coach who makes it easier to get your site up and running. If you ever have any questions or need assistance along the way, we’ll be here to help every step of the way.
PROS
Intuitive interface
Useful e-commerce and WordPress tools
Large library of templates and stock photography
Hosting included
Excellent uptime in testing
Terrific customer service support
CONS
No free option
Basic image editing
Lacks cloud, dedicated, or VPS hosting plans
Doesn’t let you switch templates
Tiny refund window
Web.com Plans & Pricing
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