Whether you're starting a business or just showcasing your work, a website is a must to establish your brand identity. It helps your customers learn more about your business, establishes your credibility, and serves as an authoritative resource. Gone are the days when you'd need a team of web developers to build your website. If you're looking for a service that'll do the heavy lifting for you and allow you to create a top-notch site without much (or any) coding know-how, you can lean on one of these services.
There are plenty of good website builders out there, but Wix is the one that ticks most boxes. One of its biggest strengths is a vast library of templates, which allows you to quickly set up the right kind of website for you or your business. Having a readymade template can save you hours of work in adding the right design or features to your site, and Wix has something for almost everyone. It also has a drag-and-drop interface for designing sites, which is useful when you want to customize the look or place elements in certain spots on the page. You also get access to elements such as an online shop, a calendar-like feature to schedule appointments, and a blog. This is a great service for most people, but there are a couple of annoyances—changing templates is not easy at all and it lacks the best tools to analyze website traffic.
Wix: free tier available, paid plans start at $17/month
Weebly is a good choice for people who want to get a site off the ground for free. It features attractive templates and lets you change templates, too. It has the usual limitations of a free site—you can't use your own domain, there are strict data transfer limits, and the site will have ads. However, the free tier allows you to set up an online shop with support for discount coupons, which should be good enough for a lot of people. Note that if you're selling digital goods, you'll have to upgrade to Weebly's paid tier—the free tier only supports physical goods.
Weebly: free tier available, paid plans start at $10/month
Wordpress has been around for decades and has tons of advantages including but not limited to excellent plugins and stability. Building WordPress sites requires some degree of expertise, but some site builders specialize in making the process a lot more accessible. If you want a site builder that specializes in WordPress sites, you should consider Bluehost. It has an easy drag-and-drop interface that will appeal to most everyone, and its solid library of templates makes it easy to make a site for various use cases. Unfortunately, Bluehost lacks a free tier.
Bluehost: plans start at $12/month
Some people prefer striking templates that immediately catch the eye. If you or your business needs such a site, Squarespace could be a good fit for you. This site builder has a strong library of bold templates and it makes it quite easy to set up and tweak. This site builder comes with a host of good features built-in, which includes invoicing, e-commerce, scheduling, and an easy way to create online courses or other educational material. Some people will find it a little limiting in terms of tweaking, and it may be a bit pricey for smaller businesses. It doesn't have a free tier, but you can use a 14-day free trial to see if it is right for you.
Squarespace: plans start at $16/month
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a buzzword attached to nearly everything, but in some cases, it's quite useful. For building a website, you need good writing, SEO, and help with understanding which elements on a page draw eyeballs. All of this is available with Hostinger. It has an easy process to help you get started with creating a website, where you're asked a few questions and then the site generates text about you or your brand. You can review this, make tweaks, and be ready with a website much faster than you'd otherwise. The AI Heatmap feature lets you see which elements draw attention on your page and you can use this to ensure that your audience is focusing on the parts you want them to. With site builders that use AI, the risk is always that your site has lots of generic information that's not very appealing, so watch out for over-relying on AI tools.
Hostinger: plans start at $13/month
