Gone are the days when designing a website meant you needed to understand a coding language such as HTML or Javascript
Today, templated ‘drag & drop’ website builders make it easy to create stunning websites with just a few clicks. Many site builders are compatible with third-party software, so that you can import leads to a customer relationship management program or sell products on an e-commerce platform. Beyond the design aspect, building a website also requires paying for hosting and registering a domain name. Many of the website builders that we reviewed are all-in-one solutions that include web hosting, domain registration and a built-in editor for one subscription fee. Forbes Advisor analysed factors such as cost, ease of use, features and storage to bring you this list of the top website builders.
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1. IONOS By 1&1
2. Weebly
3. GoDaddy
4. IONOS By 1&1
5. Squarespace
6. HostGator
7. Wix
8. Why We Picked It
9. Pros & Cons
10. Shopify
11. Zyro
12. WordPress
13. Duda
Methodology
To compile our list of best website builders, Forbes Advisor gathered thousands of data points on the top website builders – and their various plans – and categorised the data into five core categories and 43 subcategories. We paid special attention to the pricing of the various plans, factors such as storage, bandwidth, tools, templates and mobile responsiveness, customer service, and user reviews. We also included an expert rating to account for qualitative elements such as popularity and stand-out features or policies. What’s a mobile-responsive site? A mobile-responsive site is one that automatically adjusts images, text and design elements to show up quickly and appropriately for a mobile phone. What is AMP? To ensure your blog loads quickly on mobile devices, it should be AMP-optimised. AMP stands for accelerated mobile pages. It’s an effort by Google (and many more collaborators) to speed up mobile traffic to make the user experience better. If your website builder offers an AMP feature, use it! It’ll likely help you rank higher in search engines, but more importantly, it improves your site visitors’ experience on your site. What is drop-shipping? Drop-shipping is a popular e-commerce business that doesn’t require you to buy and stock inventory. You essentially “shop” for products you want to sell and put them in your online store. When someone purchases from you, they’ll pay the retail price you set, you pay the wholesale price, and then the order is sent to the drop-shipper, who fulfils the order. It’s an affordable and easy way to start an e-commerce business. Website builder vs CMS: What’s the difference? A website builder is typically an all-in-one solution that includes web hosting, a domain name and a site editor, but not always. A CMS is a content management system, and it’s used to help you manage blog posts, images, videos, and other content that you publish on a website. Site builders usually include a CMS, and a CMS can include a site editor, like WordPress. Why do website builders have App markets? The best website builders include app markets to let you extend the functionality of your website. For example, you may want to add email marketing and popups to your website, but if that feature isn’t built into your website builder, you should be able to add an app or plugin that can add those features. Some apps and plugins are free, while others may come with monthly or annual costs. What is a theme or template? The terms theme and template are usually interchangeable. They’re pre-built designs that usually include menu navigation with the most common pages (home, about, contact, blog), a header and a footer. WordPress calls its pre-built designs themes, while Wix calls them templates. Really, there’s no difference. Why do website builders include SSL certificates? A secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate is a file that encrypts data transfers to and from a website. So, when someone visits your secure website or enters information in any fields on your site (forms, username, password, credit card details), the SSL certificate keeps that data private. It’s important to have that security on your site for the end-user, but it also helps with your ranking in search engines.
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