It is no secret that there are many small business website builders available. How do you figure out which website builder is ideal for your small online business?
Every small business owner needs to have a website for their business. That’s why you can’t afford to get it wrong when building your business website. All the products promise to offer what you are looking for. In most cases, they will do exactly that. Nevertheless, some will perform better than others. Wouldn’t you want to have the best?
According to research, 64% of small businesses have a website. Building a new website is no longer expensive or time-consuming, Thanks to website builders. You also don’t need to learn how to code. It is now as simple as dragging and dropping.
Nevertheless, choosing the best website platform for your small business wisely is mandatory. After all, the better choice, the easier it will be once you build your website. This article focuses on the six best website builders for small businesses. It also discusses their pros and cons. Keep reading for a better choice.
Best Website Builders for Small Businesses 2024
- WordPress – Great for blogging
- Shopify – Ultimate choice for online shops
- Wix – Best user-friendly website builder
- Squarespace – Best for a professional-looking website
- Joomla – the free CMS to build cool websites.
- Drupal – Open source software to build websites for free.
Here’s how they take up the market’s share today.
Source: W3Techs
1. WordPress CMS Website Builder
This is yet another best website builder for small businesses which doesn’t come as a surprise. As far as blogging is concerned, there is not yet another best website platform for small businesses that surpasses it.No wonder its fan base is an icon to reckon with. It powers millions of sites amounting to up to 43% of the available websites according to w3techs.
As a result of its flexibility, you are in a position to create any kind of website. You have complete control of not only the functionality but also the design. Learning how to code will not be necessary. All that you need is simple HTML and CSS. Setting up, using, and managing will be a walk in the park.
Features
- Media management: WordPress lets you store all your images, audio, videos, and other media in one spot for easy uploading.
- SEO management: WordPress has SEO- friendly features
- Great additional features: It has great features like a Full-text search, Document indexing, and Website management
- E-forms: Custom E-forms can be built to collect visitor’s data
- Customizable templates: It has 1000s of Customizable templates.
Pricing
The application is free to use. You can download and start building a WordPress website from scratch without spending a single penny.
When you want to create and host one professionally, you will need to spend on plugins, SEO, themes and of course hosting costs.
Read this article on how much it costs to build a website from scratch.
Pros of Using WordPress Website Builder
- WordPress is free without limiting your control over the site or liberty to use another web hosting
- WordPress has lots of plugins, add-ons, and extensions available
- It allows scalability
- It provides many designs and templates for you to choose from
- It is fairly easy to use and customize
- Compatible with many helpful third-party tools including lead generation tools, email marketing software, SEO tools, payment gateways, and CRM software just to mention a few.
Cons of Using WordPress Website Builder
- There are no automatic updates, backups, or security
- It might take you some time to master it.
2.Shopify Website Builder
If you need an online store, Shopify is the leading e-commerce platform for the market. Thanks to the many apps and built-in features, it is now easy to come up with an e-commerce site that is not only user-friendly but also scalable.
The fact that it has generated more than $100 billion in sales, has at least 1 million active users and powers 800,000 stores means that it is worth your time. It also offers transparency and builds trust among your customers.
Features
- Integration option: Shopify has Social media integration and Amazon integration
- Great for online stores: It supports Online stores and has features like a buy button, Retail POS, and Payment gateways
- Customer support: Shopify‘s customer support is fantastic
- Tools: It offers a variety of sales tools and SEO tools.
Shopify Pricing
- Shopify Lite – $9 per month
- Basic Shopify – $29 per month
- Shopify – $79 per month
- Advanced Shopify – $299 per month
- Shopify Plus – $2000 per month but fees are negotiable
Pros of Using Shopify Website Builder
- It offers Great features
- Shopify customers report high satisfaction with its services
- It has a great inventory system
- Possibility to sell across several channels including Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, and eBay
- It is fully hosted
Cons of Using Shopify Website Builder
- It does not offer a free plan
- Additional transaction fees as far as external gateways are concerned
3. Wix Small Business Website Builder
Since its emergence in 2006, Wix has been a preferred choice to build business websites. That’s because of its amazing features yet, at the same time, how user-friendly it is. Equally important, you don’t have to pay even a single penny to enjoy the basic services.
At least not with its free trial. Once you get to feel that it is perfect for your business, then you can comfortably commit to them.Are you a blogger, artist, photographer, or owner of a small business? If your answer is a resounding yes, you can rest assured that Wix will not disappoint. Regardless of the business, Wix will help you create a high-quality website for that particular business.In addition to being easy to use, the Wix Website builder is fully customizable. As a result, you have complete control, and the tool assures you get the exact website you have been dreaming of designing
Whether you are a veteran or a newbie, this tool remains suitable. Among the many cloud-based website builders, Wix leads while the rest follow.
Features
- Drag and Drop: Imagine simple arrangements on pages on your site. Wix offers that because you simply have to drag and drop site elements, blog posts, and images. Therefore, you don’t need any coding skills to build a great website for your small business.
- Custom Domain: The role of a domain is also crucial. Once you have thought of the best one for your site, Wix takes over. It makes the process as easy as picking the domain name, and that’s it. In simple words, you don’t have to buy it elsewhere.
- Rich Library: To ensure that your site looks lovely and functions as per your needs, this small business website builder has a lot of templates as well as images.
- Mobile Optimization: You should be aware of the fact that most people will be using smartphones to view your site. To be ready for such users so that they can have the best user experience, you need Wix. It will ensure that your site is optimized for even small screens.
- Logo Maker tool: A good logo is what separates your business from the pack. Wix offers a FREE logo-making tool powered by AI. Rather than pondering over logo design, get help from AI and nail the perfect business logo.
WIx Pricing Plans
Wix is one of the best small business website builders because of its budget. It has an Unlimited plan for as low as $22 monthly. Despite the small fee, one gets a form builder app, site booster app, unlimited bandwidth, and disk storage of up to 10 GB. The plans are as follows:
- Free plan: – $0
- Combo plan: – $16/month
- Unlimited Plan: – $22/month
- Pro plan: – $27/month
- VIP plan: – $45/month
- Business Basic (e-commerce): – $27/month
- Business Unlimited (e-commerce): – $32/month
- Business VIP (e-commerce): – $59/month
- Enterprise: – Custom pricing
Pros Of Using Wix Website Builder
- Wix is known for their great customer support.
- They have over 500+ free templates for you to try out before finalizing the perfect one.
- Wix is an intuitive website builder which makes it easier to build your website
- It has a Shopping cart feature for e-commerce sites
- Artificial Design Intelligence that can personalize the site as per your preferences
Cons of Using Wix Website Builder
- First of all, you created the website but you don’t own it. Wix and other DIY website builders own certain privileges which aren’t what a business owner would want.
- Once your website is live, business starts to grow. That’s good news. But if you plan to switch your template, that’s not going to happen.
- Finally, Wix being a big shark in the web design world will display its ads. So if you’re still using the free version, get ready because there are a lot of ads coming your way.
- Once you build your website with Wix, you cannot migrate your site elsewhere.
- The free and basic plans lack a built-in statistics feature.
4. Squarespace Website Builder
If you are looking for the best website builders for small businesses, consider Squarespace. It is ideal if you are looking for a professional look. It has an array of useful features and fantastic designs. The templates and control you have when it comes to customization as well as the ease of use are impressive.
Imagine creating great small business websites without having to learn to code. That’s what you get once you choose Squarespace. Whether you are a designer, artist, or photographer, you can rest assured of high traffic to your small business websites.
Features
- Supports blogging: It is an ideal choice as far as blogging is concerned.
- Form builder: It has a form builder to collect the visitor’s data.
- Compatibility: The website builder is compatible with iOS and Android applications such as Portfolio, Metrics, and Commerce among others.
- Great additional features: It provides many features like hosting, a custom domain name, email, a great donation system, etc…
- Media support: It supports Audio players on the site
- User-friendly: It is easy to use due to the drag and drop feature
- Customizable templates: It offers highly sophisticated templates which can be easily customized according to your need.
SquareSpace Pricing Plans
Regardless of how low you have to pay for a plan, you can rest assured that it works as per your expectations and won’t lack essential features. You also get to pay less if you bill annually. There are also basic plans. If you need e-commerce small business websites, there are plans set aside for that too. Check out their pocket-friendly plans.
- Personal plan – $16 per month billed annually or $23 per month
- Business plan – $23 per month billed annually or $33 every month
- Basic Plan (E-commerce) – $27 per month billed annually or $36 every month
- Advanced Plan (E-commerce) -$49 per month billed annually or $65 every month.
Pros of Using SquareSpace Website Builder
- It has great user support including live chat
- It has a blogging feature
- It has amazing templates which can be customized
- You get content creation tools to create and share videos
- It is available as a mobile app to edit your website or blog
- All the plans are Ad-free
- It can support upto 400 pages without any issues
Cons of Using SquareSpace Website Builder
- Additionally, a transactional fee of 3% is charged on all sales.
- It offers only one sub-navigation
- Compared to other website builders, it is relatively hard to learn
- It does not offer phone support for immediate assistance
5. Joomla!
Yeah, Joomla! Comes with an exclamation. That’s what they are: a free content management system that you can use for building powerful websites. Whether you’re a developer, agency, or business owner, Joomla! suits your needs. This open-source CMS allows you to build websites on an MVC framework, the preferred trusted framework in the business making it the best free website builder for business.
Features
Most of the features are similar to other CMS like WordPress so let’s run through them:
- Free to use: Unlike other platforms, Joomla! Is the only one that is completely free. They have a GPL license for it, which means everything you use is developed for the common good.
- An extensive extension library: with over 8000 extensions, Joomla! Offers top-tier customization options. With just a few clicks you can download extensions from the web.
- Developer-friendly features: if you have a developer in-house, Joomla! has detailed documentation to use it to its fullest potential.
- Forum and global support: Struggling to navigate through the platform? You can find articles, discussions, and tickets and learn everything there is to know about this amazing platform.
- Multilingual: With Joomla, you can create your sites in multiple languages.
- Media manager: All your media files are stored in the media manager tool for easy storage and uploading.
Joomla Pricing
You already saw that Joomla is free. This is because of Joomla! Is released under General Public License.
But just like WordPress, you do not own WordPress but use it to build your website. So you have licensed over your product, not the tool you used.
Pros of Using Joomla
- As Joomla says, it is technically “Free forever”.
- Being a CMS is an advantage in itself. With a little creative planning, you can do amazing things that other DIY builders can’t do.
- The user-friendly nature helps beginners a lot. Being open source, developers can experiment however they want. This is a one size fits all option to build any kind of website.
Cons of Using Joomla
- The problem is this isn’t much different from other CMS. The features lie between what WordPress and Drupal offer. These two cover the majority of the audience which leaves Joomla! With little to no fame.
- It is difficult to customize your templates without a developer experience
- It has a minimal range of additional add-ons and modules making the customization process harder.
- The backward compatibility hasn’t been the same as before.
- Free extensions and templates are of poor quality.
6. Drupal Website Builder For Small Business
If your choice is an open-source platform for creating your website, Drupal might be your choice. Drupal is a free open-source software with great features. This is the only website builder in our list which requires coding skills. It can be used for blogging, creating portfolios, or building an e-commerce site. While the software is free, you have to pay for some add-ons and features.
Features:
- Open-source software: Drupal is free-to-use open-source software
- Scalability: It allows you to easily scale your site as you grow
- Drupal community: The Drupal community is very responsive to help resolve any issues
- Complete customization: It allows the user to custom-build almost everything
- Great additional features: It offers high bandwidths and a high level of security for free
Drupal Pricing
Drupal is free to use but, add-ons and some additional features such as Drupal themes, Drupal functions, hosting, and web development will cost you extra.
Pros of Using Drupal Website Builder
- You do not need to pay anything to create your site
- You can custom-build pretty much anything you want for your site
- It offers high bandwidths, a high level of security, and the ability to scale your site
- It has many attractive themes with responsive designs
- It automatically optimizes your site to be viewed on desktop and mobile.
Cons of Using Drupal Website Builder
- Drupal requires coding knowledge to set up your site
- It does not have a dedicated customer care
- It is not a good option for smaller sites as it takes a lot of work to set up.
Final Words
From the above discussion, it is evident that you don’t need coding experience to come up with small business websites. As long as you get the best website builder for small businesses, then you can have a site within no time.
You can also get a great free website builder for business. Equally important, you can look for top web design experts for small businesses to help you. After all, the end justifies the means.
Nevertheless, small business websites can help your business a great deal. The most important thing is to make sure the option you choose is the best for your company.
Did we cover the most prominent DIY website builders on the market? Does the article help you decide which platform to use to create your website?If you feel we have missed any platform or information, please let us know by sending an email to rahulg@devigntech.com.
