7 best free website builders for creators and small-sized businesses |
You don't need to be tech-savvy or have the money to design stunning websites. Find out how seven of the most popular free web builders stack up.
When you're setting up an individual brand or your own small-scale business, you need a website. Your website is your home online. But building a website from scratch for the first time may be a challenge as well as costly.
Luckily, you don't need to be a programmer, are skilled in website design, or spend the money to create a great website. The free website builders can make building your website easy, speedy and cost-effective.
In this post, we'll be sharing seven of the best web builders available for creators and small-scale businesses who want to create an attractive website with no time or a hefty price tag.
1.
The intuitive builder for websites it is not necessary to be able to write one line of programming code in order to create your website look amazing. Make your website unique by adding colours, styles for brands as well as logos, fonts, fonts photographs, and tons of content blocks you can pick from.
Within each content block you are able to personalize the layout and contents to build a site that is exactly as you want it to be and is your brand. There's even the option of embedding podcasts, videos, and widgets of more than 1900 other applications directly on your site.
All sites have the SSL certificate and are optimised for mobile. Additionally, it is easy to include Google Analytics on your website to monitor visitors and sales.
That's right, you are able to build a strong and profitable web presence for yourself without investing a penny and still earn a 90.91 score on the Creator Friendly Index .
The Creator Friendliness Index uses 20 rating factors to determine how friendly a company's policies are to creators. It is highly rated across all aspects of friendliness including a cost-free plan, ways to remove charges for transactions, as well as multiple currencies and integrations.
2. Wix
Wix is a website builder that allows users to create easy websites for free. With Wix it's possible to set up a storefront, blog, or a business site through drag-and drop editors that include many modern designs.
Wix's website builder is easy to use, even if you do not have the design skills. You can also get help through Wix's special Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) tool, which uses artificial intelligence to design a custom site to promote your business. Your Wix website also has integrated SEO and search engines optimization (SEO) tools.
One of the biggest drawbacks to the Wix free plan is that it displays a Wix banner ad on every page. It's hard to ensure your site looks professional when that's the first thing visitors see. To remove the Wix advertising banner it is necessary to be in the Combo plan ($16/month) or higher.
Wix is rated 79.22 on the Creator Friendliness Index . The site earns points because of its free plans and for the cost-effectiveness of the paid plans. The plan loses points by artificially restricting the amount of goods that a designer can offer per plans and the lack of support documentation.
3. WordPress
WordPress is an open-source, free CMS (content management system) (CMS) software which is well-known as a blogging platform and website builder.
There are two ways that you are able to use WordPress to build your website Managed and self-hosted hosting.
Using WordPress to host your own website is free, but factor in domain name registration, web hosting as well as paid themes and pricey plugins, and costs quickly add in.
Your second alternative is to create your website with WordPress.com managed hosting. WordPress.com provides a no-cost plan and several paid plans.
With the free version of WordPress.com it is possible to build a website with 1GB storage as well as pre-installed themes and built-in SEO tools and tools, but that's about the only thing you can will receive.
WordPress gets 68.33 in the Creator Friendliness Index . The site earns points because of its free plans, the integrations it offers, as well as its language support however, it is slashed for the absence of customer support.
4. Weebly
Weebly is an e-commerce website and website builder operated by Square.
The Weebly website builder is easy to use and offers customizable templates. It allows you to add custom CSS as well as HTML. Additionally, the App Center allows you to connect extensions and integrations for added functionality.
Plus, web hosting is offered in all plans and it is possible to purchase your domain name direct via Weebly. If you aren't ready to buy a domain name, you can use a free subdomain, like yournamehere.weebly.com.
Weebly provides blogs that allow you to share information, as well as and an App Center that lets you add more functions, and an analytics tool so you can track the performance of your website.
Since Square has the majority ownership of Weebly the site is built with eCommerce sites with ecommerce in mind. All plans, including the free plan, come with the ability to create an online store and sell physical goods.
It's not without disadvantages. There are storage limitations as well as the ability to sell digital items. Weebly will also display Square ads for both Free or Personal plans. Therefore, you'll be required to change to the premium account in order to get rid of them.
All in all, Weebly is a solid alternative for people who do not have a lot of experience with websites, especially if you plan to offer physical items on the internet.
5. SITE123
Site123 is an easy-to-use free site builder for beginners looking to establish an internet presence. The name says it all, SITE123 makes building a website as simple as, two, three:
Select your website type. Pick from templates to create a website for a blog, event page, service provider, and more.
Incorporate your business' name, information, and images.
Create your own website.
Each of the templates found that are available on SITE123 are responsive and come with free web hosting, 500MB of storage and 1GB of bandwidth.
A major drawback: The basic plan does not allow you to change fonts, colors, and other elements of design. It is necessary to upgrade to a paid subscription to gain access to plugins, applications, and full template customizing options. Also, there are no free ecommerce tools.
Also, it's impossible to change the template of your website after you've begun building your website. If you do this, you'll be losing all the content. That can be a major trouble.
Bottom line: SITE123 doesn't give you much creative control over the free website. However, if you're in need of a simple, no-frills landing page for your business it is possible to get only enough for you to survive.
6. GoDaddy
GoDaddy is popular as a Web hosting provider as well as a domain name registrar but they also offer an online website builder for free, with limited ecommerce tools. Select a template, then add your content and business details, and you'll be able to be able to create a site ready for start in only a couple of steps.
Your free site includes marketing tools for email, one-time appointment setting Analytics, ad-hoc tools, as well as SSL certificates. Another aspect which makes GoDaddy different from other platforms is the 24/7 support for customers and forums for community members, which means you'll have plenty of support in case you're stuck.
The basic plan has some limitations. It is required to have the godaddysites.com subdomain, and GoDaddy will show an advertisement at the top of every page on your website. Tools like SEO, scheduled appointments, all online store options, and customized domains can only be found with paid-for plans.
If you're looking for a solution All things considered, GoDaddy's free service is an excellent choice for personal websites, however the heavy branding at the top of each page can make a business site appear not professional.
7. Jimdo
Jimdo is a basic free web builder tool that allows you to create an online business site in two steps:
Answer a few questions about your website.
Get business details through your social media pages.
Choose a design.
Make your website public!
The Jimdo image library gives you access to a wide array of stock images that are professionally taken. You can also include contact forms for your clients to contact you.
Jimdo's site creation wizard makes it easy to build a website, but the trade-off is a lack of personalization. You can pick from several pre-designed layouts as well as different color combinations.
For the plan that is free, you must use an jimdo.com subdomain. You will also see a Jimdo advertisement on each page. The plan includes 2GB of bandwidth as well as 500MB of storage and could have up to five pages on your website. Finally, you don't have access to any client support, meaning you're all on your own in the event that you need help creating your website.
If you're in need of a straightforward single-page website and are confident that there won't be any need for customer service, Jimdo could be an okay choice, but the cost-free version is one of the most limiting choices on the list.
Choose a website builder designed for your future growth
All free web builders do the same. As you evaluate different options, keep an eye out at the sneaky ways in which websites add cost to a "free" software: hidden upsells, added fees, limits on the number of web pages, or the possibility of customization or ads that are not removed. It isn't a good idea to find yourself running into surprise costs when you're launching your site.
You can build stunning websites for your company in only two steps. This is the most effective site builder tool for entrepreneurs looking to create an online presence for their company -- with no technical hassle or the high cost.