Best Website Builders for US Businesses

Wix came out on top as the all-round best website builder in our most recent round of testing, maintaining the top spot for the fourth year in a row. What keeps Wix on top is that it’s suitable for a wider range of users and businesses, compared with competitors, while still delivering quality features.

Of course, it’s not the only option out there. Squarespace has stayed strong in second place, while relative newcomer Hostinger has jumped up to third place, thanks to great improvements in the quality of its designs.

When ranking website builders, we’ve chosen ones that are good value for money, are easy to use, and have useful tools for businesses, such as integrated sales or marketing features. You can see our top five picks below:

Best Website Builders Comparison

Before we get into our detailed review of each website builder, here’s a quick side-by-side comparison of their core features:

1. Wix: Best All-Around Website Builder

Wix came out on top as the all-around best website builder, owing to its versality and integrated marketing and ecommerce tools. Here’s what you need to know:

• Forever free plan
• AI website builder and drag-and-drop editor suitable for beginners
• 900+ templates, more than any competitor
• Integrated marketing and ecommerce tools

What do we like about Wix?

In the past few years, Wix has focused on developing its AI (artificial intelligence) tools, which have greatly improved its usability and sped up the creative process. For example, Wix has one of the best AI website builders on the market. What we like about it is that, unlike its key AI rival Hostinger, Wix’s AI website builder can produce a wide variety of different website designs based on the same prompt.

This variety is also present in Wix’s pre-built templates, should you skip the AI and go for a design. It has over 900 templates, far more than the average 150 offered by competitors, and they span a huge number of topics, including ones missing from competitors Squarespace and GoDaddy, such as education. This makes Wix a viable option for any type of business, organization, or individual looking to create a website.

Circling back to AI tools, we were also impressed by Wix’s use of AI for image generation and editing. Besides Hostinger, Wix is the only website builder on this list to offer an AI image generator, but Wix goes one step further by also letting users use AI to help them remove backgrounds and objects in images.

Another one of Wix’s strong suits is its wide array of built-in tools, especially its marketing and sales features. Besides GoDaddy, Wix is the only website builder on this list to offer built-in logo, email campaign, and social post creation tools. Plus, businesses can start selling products or services from the $29 per month Core plan, as well as integrate sales with online marketplaces such as Amazon and social media platforms such as Facebook. This is a similar level of ecommerce functionality offered by industry giant Shopify, with the added bonus of Wix’s excellent website design tools, making it a great ecommerce platform for small businesses.

What could be improved about Wix?

One of Wix’s key faults, which unfortunately hasn’t been fixed in years, is that you can’t switch website templates once you’ve published your website, an action all Wix competitors let you make. This means Wix isn’t the best option for indecisive creators or businesses that envision a rebrand in the future.

Additionally, while Wix has certainly made strides to make its platform more user-friendly, some of our testing participants were still overwhelmed by Wix’s dashboard and had trouble navigating more technical sections, such as the SEO (search engine optimization) dashboard. For this reason, Wix isn’t the best option for total beginners or non tech-savvy users, who’ll do better with simpler website builders such as Hostinger or GoDaddy.

Finally, Wix charges slightly high payment processing fees of 2.9% + $0.30 for businesses that choose to process payments with Wix Payments. Competitors Shopify and Squarespace have the same starting fee. However, it gets lowered on more expensive plans, whereas Wix’s fee is the same on all its plans. To get lower fees, you can always process payments through a third-party provider, such as Stripe, since Wix doesn’t charge an additional fee for using another provider to process payments, unlike Shopify.

You can find more details on Wix’s highs and lows in our detailed Wix review, and for a direct comparison with our second best-rated website builder, see our Wix vs Squarespace review.

Wix pricing

Wix has a free website builder plan and offers a 14-day free trial on its premium plans, with several plans to choose from. Only three of these offer the chance to sell online, so look carefully at the features included in each one. Here’s the full breakdown of Wix’s pricing:

2. Squarespace: Best for Creatives and Service-based Businesses

Squarespace is our top pick for creatives, businesses in aesthetics-oriented industries, and service businesses, thanks to its stunning website designs and excellent built-in bookings tools. Here’s what you need to know:

• Mid-tier pricing, ranging from $16 to $99 per month
• Newly launched AI builder and editor with grid layout for easy design and customization
• The most attractive website templates on the market
• Advanced booking management tools with built-in Acuity app

What do we like about Squarespace?

Squarespace is a little late to the game when it comes to AI, only launching its AI website builder in late 2024, a full year after Wix. However, we think it was worth the wait. Squarespace’s AI website builder offers a step-by-step approach, allowing for more creative control over the final product, and unsurprisingly, the websites the AI website builder came up with were very attractive and modern-looking.

Squarespace is known for its aesthetic website designs, and its pre-built template library is full of sleek styles. On top of this, it’s easier to customize a template while still maintaining a cohesive layout on Squarespace, compared with other website builders. Its drag-and-drop editor has a unique grid layout, making it easy to align elements.

Great design isn’t all Squarespace has to offer. It’s got a particularly great set of bookings tools, making it a great option for service-based businesses. While rivals Wix and GoDaddy also offer built-in bookings management, Squarespace has specialized scheduling and booking management software that allows for better organization.

With Squarespace, you’ll get access to its Acuity app, a dedicated scheduling software that allows you to create a customized bookings page, set availability for different staff and across different locations, and send automated reminders to clients, among other features. And, of course, Squarespace has ecommerce tools, which means clients can pay online and even store card information for next time.

What could be improved about Squarespace?

Squarespace didn’t perform well in our Site Speed Tests, perhaps due to its high volume of content and imagery. A slow site speed can be irritating for your customers but also negatively affect your SEO ranking due to a higher drop-off rate from site visitors feeling impatient while the site loads. A rival that performed extremely well in this department is Hostinger, although its designs aren’t as eye-catching as Squarespace’s.

Additionally, although Squarespace has tools for selling online, it doesn’t offer any card machines or POS hardware for selling in-person. This isn’t a requirement of a website builder, but competitors Wix, Shopify, and even GoDaddy now all offer equipment for selling in-person.

Lastly, Squarespace, along with Hostinger, is one of the only website builders on this list that does not offer over-the-phone support. If you want to get live support fast, we recommend Wix or Shopify.

If you need a closer look at what’s included, check out our Squarespace review.

Squarespace pricing

Squarespace’s price plans offer a 14-day free trial period and have three ecommerce-specific price plans to choose from. Also, don’t forget you can save 10% on Squarespace by using code EM10 at the checkout.

3. Hostinger: Best for Creating a Website With AI

Hostinger jumped up from fifth to third place in our latest round of testing, largely thanks to improvements in the quality of its AI website builder and AI tools. Here’s what you need to know:

• Cheap plans with a maximum price of $13.99 per month
• AI-focused website builder designed for fast content creation
• Impressive AI blogging tool capable of drafting long pieces
• Fastest site-loading time of any builder we tested

What do we like about Hostinger?

Hostinger only launched its website builder in 2023, making it the newest entry on this list. From the start, the website-building experience was centered around using AI to create a website fast. Hostinger remains one of the fastest ways to build a website, with its AI assistant only requiring two prompts before drafting a website in 30 seconds.

The quality of the websites Hostinger’s AI builder generates has also vastly improved since the last time we tested it. They used to look quite dated and were full of strange AI images, whereas now they look more modern and utilize stock images. Like Wix, Hostinger still gives you the option of generating AI images, and, although the quality of the images has improved, we would still recommend using real pictures.

Hostinger has also improved its AI writer, which is now capable of crafting entire blog articles and multi-paragraph entries. Although we would recommend editing the copy before sending it live (it can be quite bland), there’s no doubt that Hostinger’s AI writer can speed up content creation compared to other builders, such as Wix, whose AI writer can only produce short copy.

It’s also very easy to create a blog with Hostinger’s editor since there’s a dedicated button in the editor’s sidebar menu that, when selected, creates a whole new blogging section filled with blank entries.

On top of that, Hostinger had the fastest site-loading speed of all the website builders we tested, which is good for sites like blogs that host a lot of content and also makes Hostinger a great option for users that expect frequent website visitors.

What could be improved about Hostinger?

Hostinger does not have any built-in marketing tools, unlike Wix, GoDaddy, Shopify, and Squarespace. On top of this, since it doesn’t have an app market, it’s not possible to make up for this by integrating third-party marketing apps into the website.

Add to this the fact that Hostinger has a 500-product limit on its only ecommerce plan and limited shipping tools (there’s no integration with third-party shipping apps), and it’s not the best option for online sellers looking to grow their ecommerce business. A great alternative is Shopify, which has no product limit and plentiful integrations with marketplaces and shipping apps.

Finally, although Hostinger does have an integrated booking tool, it’s very rudimentary, and the availability calendar was quite glitchy when we tested. We recommend GoDaddy if you want to build a website fast with AI but need reliable booking management tools.

Read our full review of Hostinger here for more details on its features.

Hostinger pricing

Hostinger only has two website builder plans, the Premium Website Builder plan, designed for creating an informational website, and the Business Website Builder plan, which gives you access to ecommerce features, and advanced AI tools.

Pricing changes a lot depending on how long your contract is, but starts at $2.99 per month:

The way Hostinger displays its pricing on its website is a little confusing because it makes it seem like its two plans only cost $2.99 and $3.99 per month, forever.

In reality, this is a discounted price you’ll get in your first term, if you sign up for a long-term contract and pay for the whole term upfront instead of month on month. Still confused? Let’s take a look at the $2.99 per month Premium Website Builder plan.

If you sign up for a four-year contract, you’ll pay $2.99 per month for your first term, which is the first four years. After that, the plan is renewed at a higher price, but the longer the contract, the cheaper that price is.

Lastly, pay attention to the terms – you’ll actually need to pay the entire fee upfront. That means on a four year contract you’ll be paying for four years upfront every time the contract renews.

4. Shopify: Best for Growing an Ecommerce Business

If you need to create a website for your ecommerce business and have plans to grow and expand, Shopify is the best option on the market. Here’s what you need to know:

• Higher price tag reflects scalability, with $2,300 enterprise plan for large businesses
• New AI website builder for quicker setup
• Extensive sales and shipping tools and integrations
• Mobile optimized websites with ability to customize layout

What do we like about Shopify?

If you run an ecommerce website, we strongly recommend Shopify above the other contenders to help your store run smoothly. With over 8,000 apps to choose from in its App Store, Shopify helps create a solid ecommerce ecosystem. It can manage high volumes of stock, assist in shipping, promote your products, and link with review sites to showcase your customers sharing the love about your brand.

Plus, with its newly launched AI website builder (released in late 2024), it’s become easier and faster to create an online store with Shopify. Although the results weren’t as innovative as Wix’s AI website builder, they’re attractive enough to be ready to use. Plus, with the help of Shopify’s AI writing tools, you can speed up product listing by getting it to write descriptions for you.

Shopify is also miles ahead of the competition when it comes to integrating in-person and online sales. It offers fully fledged POS software and hardware, earning it a spot on our list of the best retail POS systems, something rivals Wix and GoDaddy’s basic POS systems didn’t achieve.

It’s also easy to create a website that’s mobile optimized with Shopify, which is crucial for online retailers since a lot of shopping is done on mobile. Not only do Shopify websites automatically optimize their layout for mobile, it’s also the only website builder on this list to also optimize layout for tablets. Plus, it’s possible to edit the mobile and tablet layout so it’s exactly to your liking.

What could be improved about Shopify?

Although the addition of more AI tools has made Shopify easier to use, it’s still not the best option for novice users looking for a simple website. Shopify is designed for running an omnichannel sales business, so its backend is packed full of features, which can be overwhelming.

Plus, while it’s wonderful for sales-focused businesses, Shopify would not be our first choice for those looking to get creative with their website. It works best for those with something to sell, and it’s not as design-focused as it is functionality-focused. For a creative-friendly option, we recommend Squarespace.

Finally, one of Shopify’s biggest downsides is its pricing. It has the highest starting price and highest maximum price of any website builder on this list. If you’re looking for a cheap way to sell online, you could consider Hostinger, but if you’re serious about ecommerce, Shopify is worth the price.

If you want more information before making your decision, read our full Shopify review, and if you want to know how Shopify stacks up against our top pick, see our Shopify vs Wix article.

Shopify pricing

Shopify used to offer a 14-day free trial period, but this has now shrunk to three days. It has a $5 per month Starter plan, but it doesn’t give you access to a full website builder, since it only lets you build a product page used for selling on social media. Shopify’s actual website builder plans start at $29 per month.

Here’s a breakdown of Shopify’s price plans:

5. GoDaddy: Best for a Quick and Easy Set-up

GoDaddy has been dethroned by Hostinger as the fastest and easiest way to build a website, but it’s still an incredibly user-friendly and fast tool for building a website, so it still has a place on this list. Here’s what you need to know:

• Forever free plan and mid-tier pricing with big discounts on the first term
• AI website builder and simple-to-use drag-and-drop editor
• Excellent built-in bookings tools
• Integrated marketing and social media content creation

What do we like about GoDaddy?

GoDaddy is a great option for users with limited technical knowledge who want to get a functional website up and running in no time. This is made possible by its AI website builder, which works in just two steps to create a site in less than 30 seconds. The results aren’t the most innovative or modern-looking designs, but it’s a fair compromise for the ease of setup GoDaddy offers and its intuitive backend.

GoDaddy is also the only website builder on this list besides Wix to offer an extensive set of marketing content creation tools, with a logo, email campaign, and social media post creator. Hostinger offers none of these tools and doesn’t integrate with third-party apps that do, making GoDaddy the go-to alternative for users requiring speed and simplicity, but also integrated marketing.

Like Squarespace, GoDaddy also packs some impressive bookings tools. It may not have created a dedicated scheduling software like Squarespace, but users can still use GoDaddy to create a custom bookings page, manage availability, and accept both group and one-to-one appointments. Plus, GoDaddy’s booking tools are actually available from its free plan (the only website builder to offer this), although you need to upgrade to a paid version to accept payments for bookings.

What could be improved about GoDaddy?

While AI generation can earn points for efficiency, it doesn’t always produce the most high-end results. Your GoDaddy website may lack originality and can look outdated if you don’t give it that personal touch. For modern designs from the start, we recommend Squarespace instead.

Furthermore, another design limitation of GoDaddy’s is that it’s not possible to edit how your website appears on mobile devices. For more creative control over your site’s mobile appearance, Shopify is a good alternative.

Finally, GoDaddy, like Hostinger, doesn’t have an app market, limiting the number of third-party apps you can integrate into your website to enhance its functionality. For a big selection of integrations, we recommend Wix.

Check out our full GoDaddy review for our full verdict.

GoDaddy pricing

GoDaddy has a 30-day free trial, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee if you change your mind after buying it. That makes it pretty low risk for you, financially. Here are the price plans (only the top one is for selling products online):

Buying Guide: How to Choose a Website Builder

When looking for the right website builder to help you achieve your ideal website, we recommend you look at the following criteria to ensure your dreams can be realized.

1. Pricing: Arguably one of the most important factors. Consider your budget restraints, and whether you prefer to buy domains and hosting separately, as well as any recurring monthly fees.
2. Ease of use: The platform should be intuitive and easy to navigate, even for non-technical users. You want something that allows you to create and edit pages visually without needing to know code.
3. Support options: Look out for platforms with adequate online help resources, tutorials, and knowledge bases for DIY troubleshooting and live support via chat or phone for when you need extra help.
4. Flexibility and customization options: Look for a website builder that offers a broad range of templates, themes, and the ability to customize elements like fonts, colors, and layouts. Ideally, you want to be able to tailor the design to your brand.
5. Built-in SEO tools: Choose a site builder that helps improve your search engine optimization by automatically generating metadata and more.
6. Ecommerce capabilities: If you plan to sell products or services, ensure the builder has robust ecommerce features like shopping carts, payment processing, and inventory management.
7. Scalability: An ideal website builder grows with you, allowing expansion into more pages and bandwidth as your traffic demands increase.
8. Mobile flexibility: With more web browsing happening on phones, your site needs to be able to dynamically respond and reshape itself for mobile devices.

How We Test Website Builders