This is an epic post by Matt Banner, reviewing 12 of the best Website building tools. It includes a handy Infographic. Bookmark this post!. It is another in our “Great Articles You may have missed” series.

12 Website Building Tools Reviewed

I’ve used website builders in the past, and I’ll be honest… it wasn’t the most pleasurable experience.

Programmers who know HTML, CSS, and other languages are a great resource, but for the rest of us, website builders are an excellent alternative.

My experience with HTML and CSS helps, but I’m not an expert in these programming languages. I know bloggers who started with website builders and found a lot of success. You can easily find success as well with these tools.

Here’s our roadmap:

The Gigantic Difference in Cost Between
Website Builders and Developers

You want start making a website, so you explore some articles that try to explain complicated things like coding, development, stylesheets, and plenty of other scary looking terms.

You can find WordPress Guides online. However, many of these guides become quite complicated. What’s a beginner to do? Perhaps you can pay someone to do it for you.

It can’t be that expensive, right?

Brace yourselves:

Looking at Quora to see what the current prices were for someone who wanted to hire a web developer/designer, this is what I got:

What it comes down to, is about $2,000, minimum, for a basic website that gives you a static page and answers a few questions for your customers. Advanced websites and fully custom websites for big businesses rack up costs of $30,000 or more!

Paying someone to do everything doesn’t  work unless you manage to secure a small loan of a million dollars. You have two other choices:

1. Make a website with WordPress

2. Use a Website Builder

We’ve covered the former option pretty thoroughly on here, so this time we’re going to talk about website builders. Now, in terms of cost, I think you will like this a lot better:

That’s it! Way less expensive, and you get the tools you need to make an attractive and fully functional website, blog, store, or anything in between.

Website Builder Comparison Infographic:
Who Stacks Up as the Best?

Best Website Builders in 2017 and Beyond

Here they are, in no particular order, my top picks for website builders in 2017, and well into the future. Enjoy!

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SiteBuilder.com

SiteBuilder comes out of the gate strong with a free domain name, support for templates, a free email address, eCommerce support, and SEO tools. They have a starter package with simple features that are totally free.

When you want to get serious, you can choose between four different plans that all cost less than $12 a month.

My verdict: Give this one a shot, it’s a great setup with solid pricing and options.

 

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Wix

Wix is the website builder most people will recognize immediately. It has a lot of advertising behind it, and it’s known for making beautifully designed websites. Everything from drag-and-drop interfaces, to designer crafted templates and tons of other features, are all at your disposal.

It truly is an all-in-one solution for your website creation needs.

My Verdict: I love Wix because it welcomes beginners with open arms. The cost of email, and some of the additional paid options got a little annoying, but it didn’t detract from an otherwise stellar experience.

 

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Squarespace

Squarespace was started back in 2004 in founder Anthony’s dorm room at the University of Maryland. And, now I feel old. Today, the company has over 600 people on its team and have helped millions of websites launch into the World Wide Web.

Today it helps creative people design beautiful websites for their stores or portfolios.

My Verdict: If you’re an artist or photographer, this is a great fit.

 

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BoldGrid

BoldGrid offers a solid website builder with lots of flexibility and good pricing. It has some downsides, but it’s also a great way for WordPress beginners to understand the platform since it’s built on WordPress.

 

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Weebly

Weebly is a really popular option for website builders, but it can be lacking depending on your needs. On the one hand, it’s very intuitive, but that simplicity also comes at the price of complexity. Let’s take a look.

 

 

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Jimdo

Jimdo does its job pretty well, but it’s overshadowed by the competition in a number of regards. For starters, the theme selection is a little small. There may be better options out there for your site.

 

 

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GoDaddy

GoDaddy is the largest reseller of domains out there. It would make sense that their site builder adds up, right? It’s not quite that cut and dry. Great drag-and-drop interfaces are marred by poor choices and lots of upsells.

 

 

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Adobe Muse

Adobe Muse is for the graphic designers out there. Its main draw is the ability to draw elements directly into the program.

 

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1 & 1

1 & 1 offers some pretty awesome features and a solid price point. It’s not anything we haven’t seen elsewhere, but it does have some really good options for new bloggers or website owners.

 

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Vistaprint Web Builder

Vistaprint has a lot of cool services, and now we can add website builder to that list. Does it manage to stand out? Well, yes and no.

My verdict: There’s just not enough going on here to make it stand out. Pass.

 

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Strikingly

Strikingly offers the promise of an easy website builder and on that it delivers. Does it offer anything else? Let’s find out.

 

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Shopify

Shopify is a well-known website for making eCommerce platforms. Can it sell us? Let’s check it out.

My verdict: If you want something that can get your store up and be running quickly, this is a good choice.

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My verdict: If you want something that can get your store up and be running quickly, this is a good choice.

Final Thoughts

Website builders demolish any obstacles between you and the website of your dreams. In conclusion check out one of these options for the chance to finally get that dream blog or online store up off the ground. You can take these valuable skills and use them to make an even better website down the road.

Thanks as always for reading, and be sure to let me know which website builder you decided to use in the comments!