4 Best Website Builders (2026), Tested and Reviewed

Publishing a website is inactive much analyzable than it has immoderate close to be, but the champion website builders streamline the process. Instead of juggling a clump of files connected a server and learning the ins and outs of networking, website builders bash precisely what's written connected the tin. Piece by piece, utilizing a drag-and-drop interface, you tin plan your website the mode you privation with contiguous feedback alternatively than spending clip buried successful codification and hoping it comes retired connected the different end.

There are dozens of website builders, and astir of them scope from decent to straight-up bad. Any web big with a spot of ambition has a website builder floating around, adjacent if it's slow, clunky, and lacking features. I focused connected uncovering the champion tools for gathering your website that spell beyond conscionable an add-on, and these are my favorites. If you're aft thing simpler than a full-blown website, cheque retired our database of the Best Portfolio Websites.

Updated February 2026: We've added details connected caller AI features successful existing picks similar Squarespace and Wix, and besides added Webflow, Framer, GoDaddy, Shopify, and WordPress.

Best Website Builder for Most

You’ve heard of Squarespace implicit and implicit again, I’m sure, and that’s not an accident. It’s an inviting website builder that made a sanction for itself with bold, striking templates. Beneath the veneer of attractive, but seemingly simple, websites, you’ll find 1 of the astir susceptible website builders connected the market. That equilibrium of powerfulness and usability is what sets Squarespace apart.

It feels similar a originative tool. Where different website builders lag and stutter to get a caller constituent connected your page, Squarespace feels fluid. Your dashboard gives you speedy entree to edit your site, and astir each corner, Squarespace feels designed truthful you ne'er person to look up a tutorial. I started a elemental photography website, and wrong an hour, I had a customized people leafage acceptable up, an assignment docket with automated confirmation emails, and services (with pricing and the quality to judge payments) configured.

Like galore companies, Squarespace precocious took a dive into AI with respective caller features, including Blueprint, an AI website plan tool, and Squarespace GPT, which allows website plan done an AI chat interface. These tools are arguably over-ambitious, arsenic it’s imaginable to make designs, images, and video backgrounds, which tin permission you with a website detached from reality. Still, these tools tin beryllium utile if you person a vague thought of what you privation but nary thought however to instrumentality it.

Squarespace isn’t cheap, but it besides doesn’t meddle successful restrictive, low-cost plans. Even connected the Basic plan, you person entree to ecommerce tools, AI plan aids, and abstraction for aggregate contributors.

Best Cheap Website Builder

Hostinger is amended known arsenic a web hosting provider, but it has a amazingly robust website builder that you tin usage connected its ain oregon for escaped arsenic portion of a hosting package. You don’t get the aforesaid world-class template plan and dense feature-set of a much costly builder similar Squarespace, but that’s OK. Hostinger’s website builder volition tally you conscionable a fewer bucks a month, and based connected my testing, it feels heavy angled toward newcomers.

You sacrifice immoderate powerfulness for convenience, but there’s an atrocious batch you tin execute with Hostinger. Integrations with PayPal, Stripe, and Square let you to rapidly acceptable up ecommerce. Add-ons with WhatsApp springiness you unrecorded chat capabilities, and Printful enactment means you tin merchantability print-on-demand merchandise. And, if you outgrow the website builder, Hostinger allows you to export your website’s contented to WordPress.

Just astir each website builder these days has AI integrated successful immoderate way, but it's astir each country astatine Hostinger. Unfortunately, immoderate tools (like the logo generator) are not included successful the subscription and necessitate that you bargain credits. But fixed the immense spread successful terms betwixt Hostinger and Squarespace, you’ll inactive prevention a ton unless you thin precise hard into AI.

Best for Small Businesses

Wix is undoubtedly the biggest rival to Squarespace, and I had a hard clip putting 1 supra the other. Ultimately, Wix ended up successful the backseat owed to higher prices and a somewhat little intuitive interface. That’s partially due to the fact that of however almighty Wix is. Rather than corral you successful an elegant (if restrictive) website-building workflow, Wix gives you a ton of options.

First, templates. You get a fewer 100 elsewhere, but Wix offers implicit 2,000 templates. At the clip of writing, determination are 223 pages of them connected Wix’s website. They aren’t each winners, but I was capable to mock up a speedy photography portfolio website wrong a fewer minutes by browsing the templates and uploading a fewer photos.

The different country Wix nails is plugins. Squarespace and Hostinger person plug-ins, but Wix has hundreds of them. It reminds maine of the flexibility and accessibility of WordPress arsenic a platform. Even without immoderate method cognition of the backend of a website, you tin prime and take plug-ins arsenic you need, alternatively than jerry-rigging a half-baked solution.

Wix has a caller AI website builder called Harmony. It has a elemental punctual interface inspired by vibe coding tools specified arsenic Lovable. You benignant a substance statement and physique from there. Harmony is escaped to start, and you tin adjacent people the website to a Wix subdomain, though you’ll request to wage to entree different Wix features. The website designs it generates won’t sound your socks off, but they’re serviceable and full-featured, arsenic Harmony tin make aggregate pages astatine once.

Ultimately, you get what you wage for, and Wix is impervious of that. It’s robust and incredibly powerful, but adjacent the astir inexpensive program volition tally you $17 per month, and it doesn’t see immoderate ecommerce features. Thankfully, Wix lets you plan and people a website for escaped if you privation to effort retired the service, though with immoderate strict limitations.

Best Free Website Builder

Strikingly doesn’t travel adjacent to the different website builders connected this list, astatine slightest erstwhile you’re paying for a subscription. But if you’re looking for a no-frills website builder that allows you to people a website for free, Strikingly is the mode to go. It not lone has a coagulated escaped program available, but it’s besides transparent astir the limitations of that plan.

You get 500 MB of storage, 5 GB of bandwidth per month, and a Strikingly-branded domain connected the escaped plan. You tin adjacent leverage the ecommerce features of paid plans with a azygous product, though with 5 percent transaction fees.

Like its competitors, Strikingly has an AI website builder. While it’s not arsenic alluring arsenic Wix’s Harmony, I was capable to get up and moving with my portfolio website by answering a fewer questions. Strikingly generated a afloat website with placeholder transcript and images, each without spending a dime.

You tin upgrade to a paid program to unlock much retention and bandwidth, arsenic good arsenic enactment for a customized domain, but it isn’t worthy it for astir people. You’ll wage astir the aforesaid terms arsenic Squarespace oregon Wix unless you perpetrate to buying 5 years upfront, and Strikingly doesn’t connection the aforesaid wide scope of plan tools, nor plugins, that Wix and Squarespace offer.

Other Website Builders We've Tested

Canva offers large plan tools, and utilizing them to propulsion unneurotic a website is simply a treat. You tin plan a website for escaped and people it with a Canva-branded domain, arsenic good arsenic bring your ain if you’re a paid subscriber. With implicit 3,500 templates available, you tin rather virtually acceptable up a website wrong a fewer minutes. You commercialized a batch of powerfulness for that convenience, though. Canva is highly limited, with small successful the mode of plugins and nary ecommerce features to talk of. It’s a large instrumentality if you request to propulsion unneurotic a website for a circumstantial purpose—say, a wedding oregon landing page—but it doesn’t person legs beyond that.

Framer is simply a website builder with a absorption connected dynamic designs. Websites are created arsenic JavaScript apps built with React. This seems to person benefits, arsenic Framer websites often see a batch of moving elements and look creaseless portion doing it. Framer besides provides an optional desktop app (a uncommon perk!), which is overmuch smoother than immoderate browser-based editor. That said, Framer is aimed astatine web plan pros, not individuals who request to propulsion up a basal but charismatic website. It’s a small analyzable and besides much costly than the competitors. Even the basal program is $10 a period (billed annually) for a slim diagnostic set. If you request more, you’re paying astatine slightest $30 per period for the Pro plan.

Shopify is much of an ecommerce level with a website builder attached. The website builder is basal and casual to understand, but it doesn’t connection overmuch assistance successful designing your website and isn’t geared to enactment much elaborate designs. However, if you privation to physique and big a website for ecommerce, and don’t privation oregon request an alluring modern design, it mightiness work. Because it’s geared toward ecommerce, each Shopify plans let you to database thousands of products and person each sorts of important features, from automatic income taxation calculation to a shipment manager. But Shopify plans are costly astatine $29 per period (billed annually).

Webflow is simply a website builder that seems much niche. It’s little of a website plan instrumentality and much similar a low-code website builder. Changes are harder to marque and necessitate much plan penetration connected your part, but precise alterations look easier. Webflow besides has an AI website builder, though I was not blessed with the results, arsenic it seemed to ideate each task arsenic an ecommerce website.

GoDaddy has an AI website builder called Airo. I was not impressed by the websites it generated, however, and the tools disposable for customizing the generated website are some constricted successful scope and consciousness sluggish. Skip it.

Weebly has been a fashionable website builder for years owed to its generous escaped plan. However, Weebly was purchased by outgo processor Square successful 2018, and though Square says Weebly is continuing to person support, it urges users to usage Square Online—an ecommerce-focused website builder—instead. Square says it volition proceed to enactment Weebly, and I was inactive capable to make an account, plan a website, and people it. But it’s astir apt not the champion prime fixed the rocky crushed Weebly is lasting connected erstwhile it comes to aboriginal support.

WordPress is simply a first-party enactment for gathering and hosting WordPress websites. It’s focused much connected accepted websites than modern concern oregon portfolio sites, and successful fact, ecommerce tools aren’t bundled astatine each until you ammunition retired for the $45/month Commerce plans (even then, it’s offered successful concern with WooCommerce). WordPress offers AI website gathering tools, and portion they make passable WordPress sites, they’re not arsenic alluring arsenic the results generated by Squarespace oregon Wix.

How We Tested

There’s nary one-size-fits-all mold for a website builder. Because of that, I kept distant from forcing immoderate website builder I tested into a peculiar lane; instead, I focused connected ensuring the website builder empowered you to bash what you privation to bash with your website. That means a batch of options, but it besides means organizing those options successful an accessible way.

For testing, I enactment unneurotic a website with a photography portfolio—a hobby of excavation successful my escaped clip —leveraging upload and layout features, arsenic good arsenic signifier seizure and assignment booking, wherever available. I don’t person a inheritance successful website design, truthful each website builder needed to empower maine to physique a website with their tools. If I request to interaction a enactment of code, that’s a deal-breaker.

Outside of doing its halfway function, determination were a fewer different areas I focused on:

• Pricing. Price is ever important, but particularly with website builders. Contract presumption tin scope from monthly to 5 years astatine a time, with wildly varying prices. Worse, astir website builders aren't precisely wide what the terms is for thing beneath the longest word limit. For this guide, I normalized each website builders to the terms for an yearly subscription.
• Scalability. Your website needs to turn with you, and relying connected a azygous website builder to conscionable each your needs isn't going to chopped it. All the services I selected either springiness you options to grow the functionality of your website with plugins or, successful the lawsuit of Hostinger, export your website to WordPress.
• Uptime and bandwidth. You don't person the enactment to popular implicit to different web hosting work with a website builder. You get what you get. That puts a batch of accent connected uptime. I utilized my ain clip investigating each of these website builders, arsenic good arsenic the past respective months of uptime history, for my evaluation.
• Ease of use. You motion up for a website builder due to the fact that you don't cognize however to physique a website, axenic and simple. Although flexibility and scalability are important, the halfway of a website builder should get you online with small to nary fuss.
• Support. Run a website agelong enough, and you're bound to tally into issues astatine immoderate point. Servers crash, requests don't get routed properly, and pages render improperly aft they're published. It happens, but it's important to person resources disposable to help. In summation to nonstop support, I besides looked astatine the self-help resources of each website builder I tested.

Website Builders vs. Web Hosting

There’s a batch of crosstalk betwixt website builders and web hosting services, and it’s important to abstracted the two. Web hosting is portion of a website builder, but a website builder isn’t ever portion of web hosting.

A web host stores each the information for your website connected a server and allows others to link and load that data, displaying your website. It doesn’t substance however your website was designed oregon what intent it serves. If you person the close know-how, you tin propulsion unneurotic the indispensable files to show a website and big it from your ain PC oregon server, successful fact.

A website builder gives you the tools to enactment those files unneurotic without immoderate coding oregon web plan background. You commencement with a template, and you plan your website with a WYSIWYG (what you spot is what you get) interface. Once your website is designed, you people it, and it’s hosted connected your website builder’s servers.

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