Best Free Website Builders
Gone are the days when you need to have the skills of a web developer or a web designer in order to build your own website. The proliferation of website builders has made it possible for even your mom to create stylish, fully-functional, and professional-looking websites.
The downside to becoming more mainstream is that there are now tons of website creation tools out there and it can be difficult to choose which one is right for you. At its core, a good, free website builder should have the following features:
Ease of Use
The whole point of a website builder is to make the process of creating your website easy. If you find yourself getting a headache due to a confusing interface or a roundabout process, it kind of defeats the purpose, right? If you lack any coding knowledge then it is best to go with a website builder that offers drag-and-drop functionality. This way, you can start with a pre-designed template where you can move around elements to easily shape it into the website of your dreams. Our top picks for website builders that offer an intuitive drag-and-drop feature with almost no learning curve are Wix, Strikingly, Weebly, and Squarespace. If you have some design experience, then you can go with WebFlow as it offers access to HTML and CSS editing.
Wide Range of Templates
What’s the point of a user-friendly editor if your website ends up looking like it’s from the ’90s with bad typography and horrendous design? The main benefit of using a website builder is that you don’t have to build your site from scratch thanks to pre-designed themes. The ideal website builder should have fresh and contemporary-looking templates that are suitable for startups, online stores, events, blogs, product launches, and more.
A Good Range Of Basic Features On The Free Plan
Ideally, a website’s free plan should be able to provide all the features you need to create a functional website. This gives you the opportunity to fully test a platform before committing to a longer-term, paid plan. Look for a website builder that includes a built-in Google Analytics, mobile optimization, blogging functionality, SEO features, media galleries, web hosting, and more. If you’re building an e-commerce website, select one that will allow you to list your products, manage inventory, take payments, and more. For free e-commerce focused builders, we recommend looking into Square, WooCommerce, Weebly, Webnode, and Strikingly.
Customization Options
If you don’t want your website looking like all the other websites on the world wide web, choose a website builder that gives plenty of customization options. Even if you’re working with a pre-designed template, you should be able to change the color and font, add images, insert buttons and icons, or change the layout. This will allow you to customize the look and feel of your site so it fits your branding.
Customer Support
Although the level of customer support you get can vary depending on the plan, at the very least, you should have access to in-depth tutorials and step-by-step instructions. Most website builders have an extensive knowledge base that should have everything you need to get started and maintain your website. However, if you’re not the type to pore over articles and videos, choose a website builder that offers 24/7 live chat support. This way, if something goes wrong at 3 am, you’ll be able to get hold of someone fast.
The downside to becoming more mainstream is that there are now tons of website creation tools out there and it can be difficult to choose which one is right for you. At its core, a good, free website builder should have the following features:
Ease of Use
The whole point of a website builder is to make the process of creating your website easy. If you find yourself getting a headache due to a confusing interface or a roundabout process, it kind of defeats the purpose, right? If you lack any coding knowledge then it is best to go with a website builder that offers drag-and-drop functionality. This way, you can start with a pre-designed template where you can move around elements to easily shape it into the website of your dreams. Our top picks for website builders that offer an intuitive drag-and-drop feature with almost no learning curve are Wix, Strikingly, Weebly, and Squarespace. If you have some design experience, then you can go with WebFlow as it offers access to HTML and CSS editing.
Wide Range of Templates
What’s the point of a user-friendly editor if your website ends up looking like it’s from the ’90s with bad typography and horrendous design? The main benefit of using a website builder is that you don’t have to build your site from scratch thanks to pre-designed themes. The ideal website builder should have fresh and contemporary-looking templates that are suitable for startups, online stores, events, blogs, product launches, and more.
A Good Range Of Basic Features On The Free Plan
Ideally, a website’s free plan should be able to provide all the features you need to create a functional website. This gives you the opportunity to fully test a platform before committing to a longer-term, paid plan. Look for a website builder that includes a built-in Google Analytics, mobile optimization, blogging functionality, SEO features, media galleries, web hosting, and more. If you’re building an e-commerce website, select one that will allow you to list your products, manage inventory, take payments, and more. For free e-commerce focused builders, we recommend looking into Square, WooCommerce, Weebly, Webnode, and Strikingly.
Customization Options
If you don’t want your website looking like all the other websites on the world wide web, choose a website builder that gives plenty of customization options. Even if you’re working with a pre-designed template, you should be able to change the color and font, add images, insert buttons and icons, or change the layout. This will allow you to customize the look and feel of your site so it fits your branding.
Customer Support
Although the level of customer support you get can vary depending on the plan, at the very least, you should have access to in-depth tutorials and step-by-step instructions. Most website builders have an extensive knowledge base that should have everything you need to get started and maintain your website. However, if you’re not the type to pore over articles and videos, choose a website builder that offers 24/7 live chat support. This way, if something goes wrong at 3 am, you’ll be able to get hold of someone fast.
