Best Website Builders for Small Businesses 2021

At Business.org, we tested nine of the most popular website builders for small businesses. We found out who each builder would work best for (and who it wouldn’t) and ranked the builders based on their usability, design, and customizability.

Overall, we like Wix the most. It’s easy to use, creates beautiful websites, and lets you customize almost anything you can think of. It wins top marks on usability, design, and customizability.

But one size doesn’t always fit all, so let’s dive into our in-depth reviews and discover which website builder is the right one for your business.

Ecommerce shops and brick-and-mortar stores alike need user-friendly, fast-loading websites to drive business. But you’ve seen plenty of shoddy websites in your time, and you know a clunky website can cause customers to click away from your site and onto a competitor’s in no time flat.

So how do you ensure your website stands out and steers customers to your doors? First, you match with the right small business website builder for your needs. To that end, consider a few things when deciding on a site builder:

• Features. Do you need your website to drive foot traffic, sell products online, or let clients schedule appointments? Whatever you need, make sure the website builder you choose can provide it. (For instance, not all website platforms emphasize ecommerce. If you sell products online, you absolutely need an ecommerce-friendly builder.)
• Price. If your shop makes most of its money online, it’s worth paying a little extra to ensure your customers have the best possible online experience. When choosing a plan, make sure to weigh your budget against the importance of your website to your business.
• Ease of use. Website builders should make your life easier, not harder. Look for a website maker that parallels your level of knowledge about site building—you don’t want to sink hours and days into learning to create a beautiful website. That’s what the builder is for.

If you want to learn a bit more about how to build a site and what to look for in a site builder, check out these articles first:

• How to Create a Business Website
• How to Create an Online Store

Despite facing some stiff competition, Wix emerged as the clear winner of our website testing. This drag-and-drop DIY website builder has it all: it’s easy to use, creates beautiful websites, and lets you customize almost anything you can think of. In fact, we gave it top marks on usability, design, and customizability.

Of course, one builder can’t be all things to all people, and Wix might not work for every small business website. Its prices, while reasonable, aren’t the lowest, and it doesn’t offer the most plugins or the best ecommerce store tools. So if you’re on an ultra-tight budget or you plan to sell thousands of percale cotton sheet sets each month, you might want to move on to the other builders on our list.

Even with its (few) limitations, Wix’s quality and versatility make it the best website builder for most people.

Squarespace offers all the features a smaller online store needs. It has built-in functionality that lets you accept credit card payments, track your customers, create gift cards, and so much more. Other builders would require plugins to do all that.

But if you get some plugins, Squarespace has even more ecommerce tools. You can get plugins that add fabric swatch previews to clothing products, plugins that track your inventory, and plugins that highlight certain products.

While large online stores with thousands of orders each month might want a dedicated ecommerce builder, Squarespace offers all the tools a smaller e-store could want. Plus, it creates striking, clean websites with ease, so you’ll have the perfect online storefront for your bath bomb boutique or cosplay supply store.

Weebly excels at making good-looking websites on the cheap—provided you don’t need lots of fancy features. Its drag-and-drop functionality lets you easily set up your pages just the way you want them, and its default templates look great on desktop and mobile. Plus, it even has a free plan.

But while the Weebly platform technically has lots of ecommerce tools, you’ll have to pay more for a pricier premium plan to get them—and at that point, why not go with one of our top two builders? Likewise, Weebly has blogging capabilities, but they’re not nearly as impressive as some of the other builders on our list. (But Weebly is the only brand in our top five that offers a free plan.)

Those strengths and limitations make Weebly ideal for brick-and-mortar stores that need a basic (but beautiful) website to direct people into their store. 

If you don’t want to spend much time building your website, GoDaddy might be the platform for you. With this easy-breezy site builder, we had a finished site in just 38 minutes.

Now, that ultra-fast build time does come with some limitations; GoDaddy has the most limited customization options of any of our recommended builders, and its web design is better described as “perfectly competent” than “stunning.” So if your food blog is your business, you might want something more customizable, and if your literature-inspired T-shirts keep selling like hotcakes, you’ll want a small business website builder with a little more ecommerce oomph.

But if you want a simple website to point people at your lawn service business or you just need a small online store for your wildlife-themed jewelry, then GoDaddy offers unparalleled speed and ease of use.

WordPress can do just about anything. It has tons of themes for any kind of website you want to build, it comes with exceptional built-in blogging, and with a plugin or two, it can provide powerful ecommerce solutions that can compete with the best ecommerce website builders. The trade-off? WordPress requires more work and web design know-how on your part.

In fact, WordPress’s steep learning curve and time-intensive customization process keeps us from recommending it to businesses that just want a small, simple website. Because if you’re not going to harness WordPress’s full capabilities (which you’ll need the Business plan to do), you might as well use an easier website builder.

But if you want control and features—and lots of them—then WordPress stands in a class of its own. Daily bloggers will love its customizability and SEO tools, and online sellers will enjoy the many ecommerce plugins. With all its plugins and templates, WordPress can make feature-filled, good-looking small business websites.

Haven’t found a website builder you’re in love with yet? Don’t worry—one of these two options could better suit your needs:

BigCommerce is a dedicated ecommerce website builder, which means it comes packed with tools for your online store. With tons of built-in functionality and even more available through apps, BigCommerce can handle all the sales and products you throw at it. Plans start at $29.95 per month, so you’ll pay a pretty penny for all that—but it’s probably worth it for large online stores.

Another dedicated ecommerce builder, Shopify offers plenty of resources to business owners building a website for the first time. From name generators to logo makers to tutorials, it can help you get your online store off the ground. Just buckle up for some frustration: Shopify is expensive ($29 per month to start), it can be tricky to use, and you need apps and paid themes to unlock its true potential.

You absolutely need to get your own domain name when you build your business website. A custom domain builds trust with your audience. After all, why should customers trust a business that can’t or won’t spend $12 on a domain name?

Fortunately, most of our recommended builders include a free domain for one year when you pay for a plan—only GoDaddy, BigCommerce, and Shopify don’t.

So if you choose one of those builders, or if you’d rather get your domain separately from your builder (you can sometimes get better deals on your domain renewal this way), be sure to take a look at our favorite domain registrars.

Honestly, the website builders on this list don’t give you a choice. All of these builders bundle their builder with hosting, and they won’t allow you to build a site and then host it elsewhere. So if you build a site with Wix, expect to host it with Wix.

And frankly, that makes things pretty convenient for you. You won’t have to manage multiple logins or bills.

You’d really only need a separate hosting company if you opted to use the WordPress software but didn’t want to use it through WordPress.com. (WordPress.com bundles WordPress.org’s software with hosting.) In that case, you can check out the best web hosting providers to find the right host for your needs.

Running your business takes up enough time and energy. You shouldn’t have to spend more of both trying to find the best website builder for small business—and with our recommendations, you won’t have to.

As you narrow down builders by feature and price, you should naturally find one that fits your needs best. If there’s not an obvious pick, we think it’s hard to go wrong with Wix for most small business websites. But any of our other top choices could suit your needs—don’t be afraid to take Squarespace, Weebly, GoDaddy, or WordPress for a spin around the block.

Now go build something great!

More interested in ecommerce-only website builders? We also reviewed the year’s best ecommerce website builders for online stores.

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To find the best website builders for small businesses, we considered site builders’ features, pricing plans, customization, design, and ease of use. We also looked at customer support, website design options, and how it worked when we used the website builder software.

Disclaimer

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.