7 top free website builders for small businesses & creators |
There is no need to have a degree in technology or the money to design stunning websites. Learn how the seven top free website builders stack up.
If you're planning to launch your personal brand or launching an enterprise You need a web site. Your website is the home you have on the internet. However, building a site from scratch for the first time can be daunting and costly.
Luckily, you don't need to learn how to code and have an eye for website style, or pay money for a professional web site. Website builders for free make the process of building your website simple, quick, and affordable.
In this article, we're providing seven of the most effective free website builders to small and creative businesses seeking to design an attractive website without a lot of effort or a hefty price tag.
1.
With the intuitive web builder that you do not need to be able to write the smallest bit of code to make your site appear stunning. Create your own website with custom colors, branding styles and fonts, logos, photographs, and tons of content blocks that you can choose from.
Within each content block, you can customize the layout and contents to build a site that is exactly as you want it to be and is your brand. You can even embed podcasts, videos and widgets of hundreds of other apps on your site.
All sites have the SSL certificate, and they are designed for mobile use. Additionally, it is simple to integrate Google Analytics on your website to track visitors and sales.
That's right, you can create a successful and profitable online presence with no investment and still earn a 90.91 on the Creator Friendliness Index .
The Creator Friendliness Index uses 20 rankings factors to assess the degree of how accommodating a business's policies are for creators. ranks well across friendliness factors, with a free planthat allows you to avoid transaction fees, and multiple currencies and integrations.
2. Wix
Wix is a web-based builder that lets users create simple free websites. With Wix it's possible to build a storefront or blog, or business website using a drag-and-drop editor with many modern designs.
Wix's site builder is intuitive even for those who don't have design chops. You can also get help from Wix's unique Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) toolthat uses artificial intelligence in order to build an individual website to promote your business. Your Wix website also has built-in SEO and search engine optimization (SEO) tools.
The main drawback of the Wix free plan is that it displays a Wix banner ad on every page. It's hard to make your website look professional, especially when it's the very first thing visitors see. For you to get rid of the Wix banner ad the website must be in the Combo plan ($16/month) or greater.
Wix scores 79.22 on the Creator Friendliness Index . The company earns points due to its free plans and for the low cost of its premium plans. It loses points for artificially limit the quantity of items that a designer can offer per plan tier and limited information on support.
3. WordPress
WordPress is a free and open source CMS (content management system) (CMS) software which is well-known for its blogging platforms as well as a website building tool.
Two ways could make use of WordPress for building your own website self-hosted or managed hosting.
The use of WordPress for self-hosted websites is free, but factor in domain name registration, hosting on the internet premium themes, expensive plugins and the costs rapidly add up.
Another option is to build your website with WordPress.com managed hosting. WordPress.com offers a free plan and several paid plans.
If you use the trial version of WordPress.com You can set up a simple site that has 1GB of storage space as well as pre-installed themes and built-in SEO tools however that's not all you'll get.
WordPress gets 68.33 on the Creator Friendliness Index . It earns points for free plans, the integrations it offers, as well as its language support but loses points for its lack of available customer support.
4. Weebly
Weebly is an e-commerce website and website builder owned by Square.
The Weebly website builder is easy to use and offers customizable templates. It allows you to add custom CSS and HTML. Also, the App Center lets you integrate extensions and integrates to provide additional functionality.
Additionally, hosting for websites is available on all plans, and you can buy the domain directly through Weebly. If you aren't ready to buy a domain name, you can use a free subdomain, like yournamehere.weebly.com.
Weebly offers blog tools to help you share your information, as well as and an App Center to add additional functionality, and analytics that allow you to track how your site is performing.
Since Square owns Weebly It's been built with eCommerce sites to be thought of. The plans that are available, even the free plan, come with an e-commerce feature to set up your own online store as well as sell physical goods.
Weebly's free option does have disadvantages. Storage limitations are there, and you can't sell digital items. Weebly is also able to display Square ads on Free or Personal plans, so you'll have change to the premium account for them to be removed.
In the end, Weebly is a solid choice for beginners who aren't seasoned with website design, especially if you plan to offer physical items online.
5. SITE123
SITE123 is a simple website builder that is free for those who want to build an internet presence. Like the name suggests, SITE123 makes building a website as easy as one three things:
Select your website type. Choose from templates for a website for a blog, event page, service provider, and much more.
Include your company's name, name, content and photos.
Publish your website.
Each of the templates found that are available on SITE123 are responsive and come with free web hosting, 500MB storage space, and 1GB of bandwidth.
There's a catch: the basic plan does not allow you to customize fonts, colors, and other design elements. Upgrade to a premium plan in order to unlock plugins, apps, and full template customizing options. There are also none of the free tools for e-commerce.
In addition, you cannot change the template of your website once you've started building your site. If you do that, you'll be losing all the information. It's a big trouble.
The bottom line is that SITE123 does not provide you with much creativity over your free site. If you're looking for a simple, no-frills website for your company, the free plan offers the basics to make it work.
6. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is known as a web hosting service as well as a domain name registrar but they also offer the free site builder that comes with limited ecommerce tools. Choose a template, include your information and company info, and you'll be able to create a site ready for launch in just a few steps.
This free platform comes with marketing tools for email, one-time appointment setting as well as analytics and SSL certificates. Another feature that helps GoDaddy stand out among free platforms is the 24/7 support for customers as well as community forums. So there are plenty of options if you get stuck.
The plan for free has limitations. It is required to have a godaddysites.com subdomain, and GoDaddy will show an advertisement at the top of all pages on your website. Tools like SEO, recurring appointments, complete online store capabilities, as well as customized domains can only be found on paid plans.
All things considered the GoDaddy free plan is a solid option for personal websites, however that heavy branding at the top of each page could make a company site appear to be unprofessional.
7. Jimdo
Jimdo is a free website builder that lets you create an online business site in two steps:
Answer a few questions about your website.
Incorporate business information via your social media profiles.
Choose a design.
Create your own website!
The Jimdo images library provides you with access to many different kinds of professional stock photos. You can also create contact forms for customers to reach out to.
Jimdo's site creation wizard allows you to easily create websites, however it's a loss of personalization. It allows you to choose from a few preset layouts and various color combinations.
For the plan that is free, you have to use an jimdo.com subdomain. There's a Jimdo advertisement on each page. You get 2GB bandwidth and 500MB of space and you can be able to host up to five pages of your site. Additionally, you do not get access to any customer assistance, so you're completely entirely on your own should you need assistance in creating your website.
If you're looking for a basic one-page site and feel confident you don't require customer support, Jimdo could be an okay choice, but it's free and one of the least flexible choices on the list.
Pick a site builder built with your growth in mind
Not all free website builders are made equal. When you are evaluating different choices take note at the sneaky ways in which tools add fees to an "free" software: Hidden upsells, charges, restrictions to the number of internet pages you can build, customization options or ads that are not removed. Don't risk finding you facing unexpected costs as you are preparing to launch your web site.
By using, you can design an attractive website for your business in just two steps. It's the best site builder tool for entrepreneurs who want to build an online base to their business without the technical headache or steep price tag.