9+ Best Website Builders Of 2022 [An Honest Review]

Are you planning to set up your website or perhaps an online store?

Having a website builder can help you with that. 

I’ve already tried and tested a couple of website builders for my own websites. In my search, I found the best website builders that you can choose from.

Discover which of them is the perfect one for you, which contains the features you need, and which ones fit your budget.

What Is The Best Website Builder?

In a hurry? Take a look at my top 3 picks at a glance: Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace.

4.8	4.5	4.2
Best overall. Large amounts of ready-made templates. Starts at $4.50/month.	Best value for money. Easiest to use with an intuitive web builder. Starts at $5/month.	Most features. Packaged with eCommerce-related features. Starts at $16/month.
Try Wix	Try Weebly	Try Squarespace

Now, let’s get started with the 9+ best website builders I listed just for you. Here they are:

1. Wix – Top Pick

Known & Trusted Website Builder For Entrepreneurs [Free | $4.50 a month]

When it comes to building websites, I and 160 million others chose Wix.

Here’s why.

It’s super easy to use, affordable, and robust. Even without any technical or coding knowledge, you can bring your website to life.

Here are some of its features:

• Wix Editor: Its editor comes in an easy-to-use drag-and-drop builder and offers WYSIWYG—What You See Is What You Get—that lets you see the changes you make in real-time.
• Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence): It also offers an AI made to help you design unique websites.
• Wix App Market: It also has an app market that contains more than 300 popular web apps and extensions you can add to your website for more features

These are just a few of what it can offer.

Interested to know more? Read my Wix vs. Bluehost and Google Sites vs. Wix comparisons.

Pros And Cons Of Wix

Pros	Cons
Excellent selection of beautiful templates	Free plan comes with Wix ads on your website
Comes with Wix ADI that helps in creating your website	Page loading speeds are not that great
Easy to use	Once you’ve selected your initial template, it’s difficult to change it to a new one
Responsive customer support
Comes with an automatic website backup

Wix Pricing Plan

Website Plans

Wix offers an entirely free plan at the expense of having Wix advertisements on your website and a ‘wixsite’ added to your domain name.

There are four (4) pricing options for the website plans. Let’s look at the breakdown:

• Connect Domain ($4.50/month): In this plan, Wix ads are displayed, and you also get a custom domain, free SSL certificate, 1GB Bandwidth, 500MB Storage, and 24/7 Customer Care.
• Combo ($8.50/month): With this plan, you have no Wix ads, and you also get a custom domain, free domain for one year, free SSL certificate, 2GB bandwidth, 3GB storage, 30 minutes video hours, and 24/7 Customer Care.
• Unlimited ($12.50/month): This plan gives you all Combo Plan features plus unlimited bandwidth, 10GB storage, 1 hour video hours, Site Booster App, and Visitor Analytics App, both free for one year.
• VIP ($24.50/month): With this plan, you’ll get all Unlimited Plan features with the addition of 35 GB storage, 5 hours video hours, professional logo, and social media logo files.

Business and eCommerce plans:

There are three (3) pricing options for its business and eCommerce plans. Here’s the breakdown:

• Business Basic ($17/month): This plan comes with secure online payments, free domain for a year, unlimited products and bandwidth, 20GB storage, 5 hours of video, abandoned cart recovery, and 24/7 customer care. You can enjoy all these without Wix Ads displaying.
• Business Unlimited ($25/month): All Business Basic features are included in this plan. Additionally, it offers 35 GB storage, 10 hours of video, subscriptions, multiple currencies, automated sales tax for the first 100 transactions per month, dropshipping for up to 250 products, and 1000 product reviews.
• Business VIP ($35/month): All the Business Unlimited plan features are included in this plan. Plus, it offers 50 GB storage, unlimited hours of video, customized reports, automated sales tax for the first 500 transactions per month, dropshipping unlimited products, 3000 product reviews, and a loyalty program.

Want to give Wix a try?

Go and give their free plan a try. Then, you can upgrade to one of its paid plans if you need more advanced features.

2. Weebly – Best Value For Money

Simple Website Builder For Small Businesses & eCommerce [Free | Starts at $5 a month]

Are you searching for a reliable but straightforward website builder?

You’ll never go wrong with Weebly.

It comes with all the essential features you’ll need to bring your website up and running at an affordable price. Let’s take a look at what it offers:

• A beginner and user-friendly drag-and-drop builder
• A slideshow maker and photo gallery to showcase your photos and images
• A complete, robust eCommerce solutions
• App Center with an extensive collection of third-party apps
• No-hassle and no-frills Blogging

Want to know more? I recommend that you read my Wix vs. Weebly, and Squarespace vs. Weebly comparison will help you with that.

Pros And Cons Of Weebly

Pros	Cons
Easy to use	No personal restore option
Themes are mobile responsive	Limited design and customization flexibility
Brilliant customizable templates

Weebly Pricing Plan

For Websites:

For Online Stores:

Weebly comes with plans for websites and online stores. Here’s the breakdown:

• Free ($0.00): This plan includes a free SSL Security, 500MB Storage, Domain with Weebly Branding, SEO, Lead Capture and Contact Forms, Community Forum, Chat & Email Support. This plan does have eCommerce features.
• Connect ($5.00/month): This plan gives you the same features as the free plan, plus you can connect a custom domain.
• Pro ($12.00/month): Free SSL security, unlimited storage, connect a custom domain, no Weebly ads, site search, SEO, lead capture, advanced site stats,  community forum, chat & email support, and phone support are included in this plan. The eCommerce features include the shopping cart, accepting payments through Square, and 3rd party providers.
• Business ($25.00/month): All features from the Pro plan are in this plan, plus pop-up notifications, advanced eCommerce statistics, and more eCommerce features such as item badges, inventory management, automatic tax calculator, shipping calculator, item reviews, and more.
• Business Plus ($38.00/month): All Business Plan features are in this plan with the addition of the eCommerce features abandoned cart email and real-time shipping and email marketing valued at $96.

Are you wondering if Weebly is just what you need? Go and try their free plan and discover for yourself.

3. Squarespace – Most Features

All-In-One Website Building Platform For Content Creators & Entrepreneurs [Starts at $16 a month]

Another one of the best website builders is Squarespace.

Let me explain why.

It gives you powerful creative tools that help you create professional-looking websites. It also comes with a robust eCommerce solution.

Let’s take a look at some of what it offers and lets you do:

• Easy customization with the drag-and-drop design editor
• Sell products, services, digital content, and subscriptions
• No-fuss inventory management system interface
• Excellent email marketing tools

Want to know more? I highly recommend that you read my Wix vs. Squarespace comparison.

Pros And Cons Of Squarespace

Pros	Cons
Stunning customizable templates and designs	Tricky to use for beginners and first-time users
Excellent social media integrations	Limited extensions
Edit your website on the go with the mobile app
Responsive themes

Squarespace Pricing Plan

Squarespace offers four (4) pricing options. You have the option to pay annually or monthly, but you can save up to 30% if you pay annually.

Curious about each plan? Here’s the breakdown:

• Personal ($12/month if annual, $16/month if monthly): This plan includes only the core features, such as SSL security, unlimited bandwidth, and storage, SEO features, two (2) contributors, 24/7 customer support, etc., and does not include the eCommerce feature.
• Business ($18/month if annual, $26/month if monthly): This plan includes all personal features, unlimited contributors, premium integrations and blocks, professional email from google, and fully integrated eCommerce. There is a 3% transaction fee on sales in the business plan.
• Basic Commerce ($26/month if annual, $30/month if monthly): In this plan, you’ll get all Business features plus No Commerce Transaction Fees, Checkout on Your Domain, and Customer Accounts.
• Advanced Commerce ($40/month if annual, $54/month if monthly): This plan comes with all the features of the Basic Commerce plan with the addition of Abandoned Cart Recovery, Gift Cards, and Sell Subscriptions.

Want to know how much Squarespace really costs? You can read my in-depth discussion of Squarespace’s pricing for more details.

Are you thinking of giving it a try? Go and avail of its 14-day free trial.

4. WordPress – Best Open-Source CMS

Most Popular Website Builder & Open-Source CMS Platform [Free | Starts at $4 a month]

Hailed as one of the most popular website builders, WordPress is also one of the best on this list.

It has two different services:

• Hosted solution, WordPress.com
• Self-hosted solution, WordPress.org

Both solutions offer:

• Thousands of beautiful and mobile-responsive templates
• Great built-in SEO tools for maximum visibility
• Extensive list of useful plugins for additional features and functions
• Customizable designs

Features available on WordPress.com:

• Hassle-free and secure domain registration
• Excellent blogging features
• eCommerce solutions

Features available on WordPress.org:

• Powerful Content Management System
• Open-source flexibility
• Plugins for eCommerce

If you’re interested in finding out more, reading my Squarespace vs. WordPress will help you with that.

Although WordPress.org requires extensive coding knowledge, if you have the budget to spend for a developer to create and manage your website, WordPress.org offers an unmatched customizability that other builders can only hope to achieve.

Burkhard Berger

Pros And Cons Of WordPress

Pros	Cons
Excellent for blogging	Steep learning curve
WooCommerce plugin lets you have a powerful eCommerce
Has a free plan

WordPress Pricing Plan

WordPress.org is free and open-source, meaning you don’t have to pay anything to use its website builder. 

WordPress.com, however, has a free plan and four (4) paid plans. Here’s the breakdown of the paid plans:

• Personal ($4/mo.): You’ll get a free domain for a year, no WordPress ads, collect payments, and get unlimited email support in this plan.
• Premium ($8/mo.): This plan gives you everything in the Personal plan. You’ll enjoy 24/5 live chat support when you get this plan, earn ad revenue, access to premium themes, and Google Analytics integration.
• Business ($25/mo.): This plan has everything in the Premium plan included with the addition of WordPress plugins, SEO advanced tools, automated site backups and one-click restore, and SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol), and database access.
• eCommerce ($45/mo.): With this plan, you’ll have all the business plan features. Additionally, you can start accepting payments in 60+ countries, have integrations with top shipping carriers, and add premium designs.

5. GoDaddy – No-Frills Website Builder

Reliable Website Builder with Built-in Marketing [Free | Starts at $9.99 a month]

Do you want a website builder and a web hosting solution in one?

Let me tell you about GoDaddy.

Most popularly known for its web hosting and domain registration services, GoDaddy also has an excellent built-in website builder. 

Here’s a quick look at what you can expect from it:

• An auto-save feature
• An action plan feature that functions like an AI-powered assistant to ensure that your website is SEO and user-friendly
• Built-in marketing tool 

Are you interested to know more? Read my Squarespace vs. GoDaddy and Wix vs. GoDaddy comparisons for comprehensive discussions.

Pros And Cons Of GoDaddy

Pros	Cons
Have your website up in a matter of minutes	Less creative freedom
Easy to use
Affordable
Mobile-responsive themes and layouts

GoDaddy Pricing Plan

GoDaddy comes with four (4) paid subscription plans. For new purchases, annual discounts are available.

• Basic (Sale: $6.99/mo.; Regular Price: $9.99/mo.): This plan includes social media and email marketing tools.
• Standard (Sale: $10.49/mo.; Regular Price: $14.99/mo.): In this plan, all Basic plan features are included with an additional built-in website optimizer (SEO).
• Premium (Sale: $13.99/mo.; Regular Price: $19.99/mo.): In this plan, you can manage unlimited numbers of social media platforms, send unlimited responses to customers, and compose/send up to 25,000 email marketing campaigns.
• eCommerce (Sale: $17.49/mo.; Regular Price: $24.99/mo.): This plan has all the features available in the Premium plan plus eCommerce tools

Are you planning to jumpstart your online presence? Do it by starting with GoDaddy’s free plan and upgrading to a paid plan when you need more features.

6. Shopify – Best Online Store Builder

All-In-One eCommerce Platform For New & Growing Businesses [Starts at $29 a month]

Are you looking for a website builder to build your online store?

Shopify is for you.

One of the most popular eCommerce platforms enables you to build and design your online store. It has features built for businesses of all sizes. You don’t have to worry, even if you’re just starting.

Let’s take a look at some of its features:

• Over 70 customizable free and premium professional eCommerce themes
• eCommerce and Shopping cart solutions
• Easy-to-use store and inventory management system
• Marketing tools and more

This is just a sneak peek at its features. 

Intrigued? I highly recommend reading my Wix vs. Shopify and Shopify vs. Squarespace comparisons.

Pros And Cons Of Shopify

Pros	Cons
Beginner-friendly	Enforces a transaction fee, unless you use Shopify payments
Excellent inventory system management	App costs add up to the monthly expenses
Lets you sell through various channels like Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and eBay
Automatic taxes in selected areas

Shopify Pricing Plan

Shopify offers three (3) monthly plans:

• Basic Shopify ($29/mo.): This plan gives you an online store, unlimited products, two staff accounts, sales channels, free SSL certificate, 24/7 support, abandoned cart recovery, 2.0% transaction fee, etc.
• Shopify ($79/mo.): This plan has everything in the Basic Shopify plan plus five staff accounts, 1.0% transaction fees, professional reports, etc.
• Advanced Shopify ($299/mo): This plan includes all Shopify features with the addition of an advanced report builder, third-party calculated shipping rates, and only a 0.5% transaction fee.

Are you planning to set up your online store? You can do it with Shopify’s basic plan for a quick and easy setup.

One of the best and easiest way to proceed with Shopify is to get verified as early as possible. Shopify is primarily an eCommerce platfrom and if you’re not verified then you might get withdrawal restrictions on your sales.

Burkhard Berger

7. BigCommerce – Scalable Online Store Builder

Most Trusted eCommerce Platform For Growing & Established Businesses [Starts at $29.95 a month]

Do you have an established business, and you’re planning to set up its online store?

BigCommerce is the right one for you.

It’s another household name when it comes to eCommerce platforms. Here’s a preview of some of its features:

• An intuitive drag-and-drop page builder
• Seamless synchronization of both physical and online store inventory with the POS function
• No-fuss inventory management
• Marketing tools and solutions

Curious about more of its features?  Read my BigCommerce vs. Shopify and Wix vs. BigCommerce comparisons to learn more.

Pros And Cons Of BigCommerce

Pros	Cons
No platform fees	Has a learning curve
Multichannel integrations	Themes are bought separately from packages
Excellent SEO features

BigCommerce Pricing Plan

BigCommerce has four (4) plans you can choose from:

• Standard ($29.95/month): Features in this plan includes selling up to $50k Annually, no transaction fees, unlimited staff account, 24/7 support, integrations with leading payment gateways, single-page checkout, marketplace, and social integrations, integrations with leading POS providers, free sitewide HTTPS and SSL, mobile, and more.
• Plus ($79.95/month): It has everything in the Standard feature. Additionally, you can sell up to $180k annually, customer groups and segmentation, abandoned cart saver, persistent cart, and stored credit cards.
• Pro ($299.95/month): You’ll get everything in the Plus plan in this plan. Plus, you can sell up to $400k annually, faceted search or product filtering, and custom SSL.
• Enterprise (Custom Pricing): You have to contact the sales team for a quote for this plan. Some of the features included are price lists, unlimited API calls, no selling GMV limits annually, express routing and priority support, and more.

Are you thinking of moving your business online? 

Do it hassle-free if you use BigCommerce. Get started with the standard plan.

8. HostGator – Intelligent Website Builder

Intuitive Website Builder For Small & Medium-sized Businesses [Starts at $3.84 a month]

Are you looking for an intuitive website builder?

That is HostGator’s, Gator Website Builder.

Underneath its simplicity, it packs a powerful page and website builder. It’s got an AI that will help you quickly get your fantastic website live fast.

There’s more.

It also has an extensive list of customizable templates to choose from.

Need a logo? Add your logo or make one yourself with its LogoMaker.

If you’re wondering what else it offers, find out more in my Bluehost vs. Hostgator comparison.

Pros And Cons Of HostGator

Pros	Cons
Affordable plans	Lacks advanced features
Excellent 24/7 customer support
Free advertising and marketing tools
Free SSL certificate

HostGator Pricing Plan

HostGator offers three (3) subscription plans. Here’s the breakdown:

• Express Start ($3.84/mo.): This plan gives you a 3-email campaign limit per month and adds three (3) products to your store in this plan.
• Express Site ($5.99/mo.): You’ll get a 5-email campaign limit per month, add ten (10) products to your store, access to appointment bookings, and priority support in this plan.
• Express Store ($9.22/mo.): In this plan, you’ll have a 10-email campaign limit per month, lets you add unlimited products, and has no transaction fees charged on every sale.

If you avail of any of these plans, you’ll get full access to the intelligent builder, a free domain, hosting, and SSL certificates.

Interested in HostGator? Visit their site to learn more.

9. SITE123 – Simplest Website Builder

Affordable Website Builder For Simple Projects & Small Online Stores [Free | $5.80 a month]

Want a website builder that’s as easy as 123 to use?

SITE123 is for you.

To use it, all you have to do is follow these three (3) simple steps:

1. Choose the type of website you’re going to build.
2. Add the name of your business.
3. Build your website with the easy-to-use website builder.

Its website builder comes with:

• SEO features
• Auto-save function
• Integration with payment processors like PayPal, Amazon Pay, and Stripe.
• Checkout pages

Pros And Cons Of SITE123

Pros	Cons
Excellent for multilingual sites	Free plan comes with ads
Free plan comes with support	Website layouts are very basic
Easy to use	No access to the website code

SITE123 Pricing Plan

SITE123 offers only two (2) pricing plans, one free and one premium.

• Free ($0/month): This plan includes 250 MB storage and bandwidth and subdomain.
• Premium ($5.80): You’ll get the one (1) year free domain, 10GB storage, 5GB bandwidth, removal of SITE123 floating tag, and e-Commerce features in this plan.

Are you interested in discovering if SITE123 fits your needs? Go and try the free plan and find out.

10. Duda – Multilingual Friendly

Professional Website Builder for Customized and Multilingual Sites [$19 a month]

Are you looking for a website builder to bring your vision to life?

Duda can help you with that.

Although a minor player than Wix and WordPress, its target market is designers and design agencies. It offers a powerful and easy-to-use builder that requires little to no technical expertise.

Let’s take a look at some of the features it offers:

• Exhaustive design control
• Detailed data analytics
• Mobile editing
• Site widgets
• Widget builder
• Modern, versatile, and flexible templates
• eCommerce solutions
• Blogging tools
• Multi-language support
• Dynamic pages
• SEO tools and more

Pros And Cons Of Duda

Pros	Cons
Perfect for multilingual sites	A bit pricey
Comes with website personalization tools	App Store is a bit limited
Easy to use drag-and-drop editor
Create and restore from backup

Duda Pricing Plan

Duda offers four (4) pricing options. Let’s take a look:

• Basic ($19/month): In this plan, you’ll have one (1) website included, your sites are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and email support.
• Team ($29/month): Like the Basic plan, you’ll also have one (1) website included, and your sites are hosted on AWS in this plan. Additionally, you’ll also get phone, chat, and email support, custom branding, access to team and client management features, and more.
• Agency ($59/month): In this plan, you’ll get four (4) websites and AWS hosting, priority support, custom branding, dynamic pages, extensible widget builder, access to team and client management features, and more.
• Custom (Custom pricing): You have to get in touch with the sales team for this plan. Some of the features you can get in this plan are access to Duda’s robust API, single sign-on (SSO), integration with external datasets, onboarding and account management, and more.

Think Duda is just what you need?

Have a taste of Duda’s features by availing of the Basic plan. Then, upgrade to a higher plan for more advanced features.

Get started by visiting their site to learn more.

Conclusion

I showed you the best website builders of 2021 that I found and tried. But I have to say that out of the ten (10) that I listed, Wix is my top pick.

Let me explain why.

First of all, it’s super easy to use, and you don’t need to know coding to create your website. Also, it comes with excellent and robust features that let you craft your website according to how you want it.

But that’s not all.

Its eCommerce solutions rival Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and other big names in the eCommerce platform industry. So if you’re looking not just to set up your website but also to establish your online store, you can do it with Wix.

It also offers an entirely free plan, and its paid plans are affordable and wouldn’t hurt the pockets.

These are just my thoughts.

There are still other website builders you can choose from that might fit your needs better. I’m sure that one of these builders I listed would definitely be perfect for you.