What Website Design Builder is the Best?
These days, there are plenty of options for a website builder. From the classic Weebly to the modern Webflow, these platforms offer something for everyone. With so many options in the marketplace, it’s hard to design which one is right for you. To help you make a choice, we’ve compiled a guide with the top three builders we use and what makes them different from one another.
Best website builder for businesses
Similar to Squarespace, website builders such as WIX allow users to build websites without coding knowledge. There are over 100 million people using WIX worldwide to power their websites, which makes it one of the most popular website builders on the market.
The good
WIX offers users already made templates that enable users to replace text and images to easily publish their site and get online. Their platform also allows you to customize these templates or create your own. The drag and drop capability makes it pretty seamless for even novice users to create webpages. The ease of use of this platform is why it’s currently an industry favorite.
The WIX marketplace, has thousands of apps that are free or paid that enable you to easily add any additional functionality your website might need such as booking, file uploads, and allowing your customers to pay invoices.
WIX offers several hosting plans including a free one with limited capabilities and WIX branding. To view subscription hosting plans view here >
The Bad
Since WIX is mobile friendly and not mobile responsive, there are two versions of your website. This makes some WIX websites not mobile friendly, which is an essential factor that search engines look for when deciding how to rank a website.
Due to how they’re built, WIX websites are typically slower than other competitors.
Who we recommend WIX to
We recommend WIX for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses that need an easy-to-use website builder they can manage themselves. However, if organic search engine traffic is crucial for your business, WIX might not be the best choice. In our experience, WIX tends to underperform in attracting organic traffic compared to the other options we’ll discuss.
Similar to WIX, Squarespace allows users to build websites without coding knowledge, provides them with ready made templates, and is able to be fully customized.
The good
Squarespace offers its users an easy drag and drop editing experience with thousands of up to date support articles to guide in the implementation of text, images, galleries, videos etc.
It has been our experience that when designed well, Squarespace websites perform very well on search engines. These sites are quick to load offer simple functionalities(which help with loading), and are mobile responsive. Mobile responsive web pages adapt to the device accessing them. Squarespace offers several paid hosting plans.
The Bad
Squarespace has limited functionalities. Unlike WIX, who has a marketplace, you have to find third party plugins to add additional functionalities to your Squarespace website. Squarespace plugins enhance the design and functionality of your website without the hassle and headache of learning how to code. These plugins are typically paid and are lines of code that you add to your Squarespace site.
Squarespace does not offer a free hosting plan.
Who we recommend Squarespace to
We recommend Squarespace for businesses of all sizes that need a user-friendly website builder they can update themselves. It’s an ideal choice if you don’t require custom features beyond what Squarespace offers.
Powering over 40% of all websites on the web, WordPress is by far the most popular website builder on our list. Since WordPress is open source, there are millions of solutions available from drag and drop builders, to plugins, to hosting.
The Bad
There is such a thing as too many options. From hosting providers, to themes, to plugins, you can really open a can of worms by choosing WordPress. We typically only recommend this solution to businesses who are going to have their websites managed by us. We have seen too many horror stories of out of date websites that have been hacked and ransomed or businesses who have lost their web presence because they forgot to update their sites.
Who we recommend WordPress to
If you are serious about your search engine ranking, need custom functions, or will be paying for website maintenance, we recommend you use WordPress. This is by far the most robust website builder in the marketplace.
Each of these website builders offer the same service but are vastly different from the other. Not sure which one is right for you?
