Website builders can help you build anything from a simple single-page site to a professional web store, even if you've no design or HTML experience at all.
Whether you're a sole trader or a multinational corporation, just about every business needs an online presence in other words, a website.Even if you don't sell products online a site can help people find you, learn more about your skills and services, and provide a way to share your details with other potential customers.
It's like having a permanent, always-on-call personal assistant, ready to answer queries.
Andit can even be freeMore experienced users can customize and fine-tune the design to suit their own needs, or perhaps install a more traditional web design package that allows them to build the perfect site from scratch.There are free options, but these often have major restrictions, including limits on the size of the site and the lack of any ability to use your own domain.
Fortunately, the commercial options are very reasonably priced, from around 5/$5 to 10/$10 a month, with hosting included.To help you decide which option is best for your needs, weve picked out the cream of the crop: these are the five top players in the website building world right now.Wix has more than 100 million registered users1.
WixQuick, easy and powerful website creationHuge range of powerful featuresYet still highly user-friendlyQuestion marks over supportWix is one of the most popular online website creators, offering a range of plans and products.
The free version has Wix branding, limited storage space (500MB) and bandwidth, but move up to the most popular plan (unlimited) and theres no Wix ads.
You get unlimited bandwidth (hence its name) and 10GB storage, along with a free domain, Google Ad vouchers and much more.Thee-commerce plan adds an online store along with 20GB storage for a reasonable $16.50 (12.30) per month.An excellent collection of 500 plus templates gets the design process off to a quick start.
The drag-and-drop editor gives you all kinds of tools and features to explore an image editor, video backgrounds, animations, social buttons, an integrated site blog and just about everything can be tweaked, tuned and restyled.All the core editing functions are really smartly designed, and operate more like a native app than your average website builder.
Wix does have some weaknesses, with tech support seeming a little sluggish and limited in some respects.
But theres no denying that the superb editor and range of top-notch templates make it easy for web building novices to create something impressive.11 is one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world2.
11 MyWebsiteA strong all-round offering, but not cheapReally well-designed editorSome nifty bonus featuresAbove average pricingTheres a lot to like here in terms of a powerful drag-and-drop editor bristling with professional features and highly customizable templates, but at the outset, lets make it clear that this isnt the cheapest service around.Theres no free plan (or indeed trial although there is a 30-day money-back guarantee), and the most basic plan is priced at $3.75 (2.99) a month for the first year, rising to $8.75 (6.99) afterwards.
That gives you unlimited pages and web space, a simple integrated blog, limited SEO settings, plus website backup and restore, so its a touch pricey for what you get.That said, 11 MyWebsite offers a wide range of responsive templates, and an editor which provides loads of potential adjustments and tweaks, all with plenty of visual feedback and context-sensitive menus to help streamline the whole process.
Whats clever here is that the top-level stuff is easy to use and understand for beginners, yet expert users can dive more deeply into the menus to really play around and customize elements.Other highly useful features include the ability to point to your old website in order to import media content from there straight into your new site.
This could be a huge timesaver for some.
Theres no e-commerce plan here, but there is a separate 11 eShop range for that functionality (although it costs extra, starting at $12.50 9.99 a month, rising to $27 - 19.99 a month).Weebly is one of the few website builders that offer a free hosting tier.3.
WeeblyAnother powerful site builder with some smart templatesGreat looking templatesHost of powerful featuresSome interface nigglesWeebly is another big name in the website building world which offers a powerful editor and capable set of features.
Theres a free plan, which like Wix limits space to 500MB and imposes ads on your site.However, if you move up to the Starter plan at $8 (6) a month the ads and storage limit are dropped, plus you get a free domain, and even support for a web store containing up to 10 products.
The supercharged Business plan lets you create sites with unlimited web store products and high-end store features like product reviews and discount coupons, retailing at $25 (19) a month.The service offers hundreds of professionally-designed web templates, covering just about any site type.
The drag-and-drop editor is neatly designed, although you dont get full control over where you can position elements on the page, and the interface can seem a little cluttered.
A further niggle is that there is no global Undo feature.Like Wix, we found tech support was a little wobbly in terms of sluggish responses, but Weebly offers a host of powerful features, some very stylish templates, and easy access to free images for your site is another definite boon.4.
VoogDelivering the power that experienced site builders requirePowerful low-level controlsFree 30-day trialCan be tricky to useAs weve seen, many website builders pitch themselves towards novices and making life easy for the less site-savvy out there, but what about experts who want powerful low-level control Those are the users Voog has in mind.So you dont get many templates here, for example, and theres the bare minimum of media support but what you do get is a compact drag-and-drop editor which does its best to stay out of your way.
There are weaknesses here, and the interface is somewhat clunky in respects and its another which lacks a global Undo function but it has some real power you can drill down into.For example, clicking a text box gives you the option to use bullet-point lists, insert tables or videos, or even edit the HTML source to customize effects.
Voog also lets multiple users easily collaborate on a site project, and if youre after nifty, unusual features like these, you wont see them elsewhere.The entry-level Starter plan is priced at $7.40 (5.30) per month (billed annually) and gives you 2GB storage, and all the core features youll need, including SSL security (although its limited to 30 pages).
If you know what youre doing in terms of website design, and want some true power and customization capabilities, there is a 30-day trial you can check out (no credit card details needed).5.
JimdoA quirky offering with an unusually generous free planFree plan has a web storeGood tech supportLess features than some rivalsJimdo is a somewhat quirky website builder targeted largely at novice users, but its well worth your attention for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a free plan which boasts more than the average offering.Yes, there are the usual limitations including adverts, a 500MB storage limit, no custom domain, and very limited SEO.
But there are a few features you won't get in other free plans, like a password protected area, and very basic e-commerce support for up to five products (the latter is very unusual for a freebie).The site editor itself is simple and consistent, even if its somewhat unconventional in terms of its design.
Also, the editor doesnt have as many functions and features as some rivals.
For example, there arent that many templates, and the widgets on offer arent as plentiful as you might find elsewhere plus theres no global Undo (although Jimdo isnt alone in this respect).Another neat touch is a good web knowledgebase which means help is generally close at hand when it comes to troubleshooting.
Overall, this is a compelling product, and if you fancy experimenting with a simple web store without spending anything, Jimdo is well worth giving a whirl.FgV2e9n6HNH8cdpWvVY4y6.jpg#