Creating a website can be a daunting task for many people who don’t have coding skills. Website builders aim to make the process easy for anyone to build a professional-looking site by providing templates, drag-and-drop editors, and built-in features like ecommerce capabilities. With so many options on the market, how do you choose the right website builder for your needs?
In this comprehensive guide, we will be rating and reviewing the top 10 website builders based on user experience criteria like ease of use, customizability, templates, support and cost. Our focus will be on evaluating the user interface and overall workflow to assess how intuitive and user-friendly the platforms are. We’ll also look at key features like mobile responsiveness, SEO optimization, integrations and design flexibility. Let’s dive in to see which website builder comes out on top for the best user experience.
1. Wix
Wix is one of the most popular website builders with over 180 million users worldwide. It provides an easy drag-and-drop editor using the Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) which creates a customized website for you.
Ease of Use
Wix shines when it comes to ease of use. The editor is intuitive with a clean interface that is very user-friendly. Everything is visual and Wix ADI makes it simple for even non-techies to put together a site quickly. Site migration tools also make it easy to move an existing site to Wix.
Customizability
While their ADI tool generates a site for you, the platform still allows for deep customization. You can use the Wix Editor to manually tweak every element on your pages. There are abundant template options and design features for colors, fonts, effects and more.
Templates
Wix provides hundreds of professional templates suited for businesses, online stores, portfolios and blogs. The templates are modern and stylish. You can filter them by industry to find a design tailored to your needs.
Mobile Optimization
All Wix templates are mobile-friendly. The sites automatically adapt to mobile screens. You can manually adjust elements for mobile or use mobile-specific templates.
SEO
Wix has built-in SEO tools like meta title and description fields, alt tag settings and site indexing options. There are also SEO apps you can add for enhanced optimization.
Support
Support options include an online knowledge base, chat support, email ticketing and a user forum. Paid plans get VIP chat and priority email support. Phone support is not offered.
Pricing
Wix has a free basic plan with ads. Paid plans start at $14/month for a personal site, $17/month for business sites and $23/month for online stores.
Conclusion
Wix earns top ratings for its user experience due to its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, abundance of stylish templates, built-in mobile optimization and ample customization abilities. The Wix ADI gives beginners an easy starting point too. Areas for improvement include phone support and bundled domain registration.
2. Squarespace
Squarespace is an elegant all-in-one content management system trusted by over 3 million sites. It’s geared towards creative professionals.
Ease of Use
Squarespace is easy to use thanks to its straightforward drag-and-drop interface. Page building tools are optimized for simplicity. The provided templates, color schemes and fonts make it easy for anyone to create a polished site.
Customizability
While Squarespace offers nice out-of-the-box designs, there are limited options for deep customization beyond pages, templates and styles. Moving elements pixel-by-pixel is not possible. The visual editing options may be limiting for some.
Templates
There are nearly 100 modern, professional templates for different site types like galleries, stores, blogs and portfolios. The minimalist, on-trend designs appeal to creative fields. Styling options help personalize templates.
Mobile Optimization
All Squarespace templates are completely mobile-responsive. The sites look great on mobile without any extra work. You can customize mobile styles.
SEO
Built-in SEO features include customizable metadata, XML sitemaps, alt text for images and indexing control. SEO preview tools show how pages will appear in search. Integrated Google Analytics.
Support
Squarespace offers 24/7 live chat and email support. There are also an online help center, forums, webinars and video tutorials. Phone support is not included.
Pricing
Plans start at $12/month for personal sites, $18/month for business sites and $26/month for online stores. A free trial is offered.
Conclusion
Squarespace is a top choice for beautiful websites with its elegant templates, easy editor and creative focus. Downsides are less ability to customize, limited integrations and lack of phone support. Overall, it provides a great user experience.
3. WordPress.com
WordPress.com is the fully-hosted version of the popular WordPress open source software. It removes the need for managing servers or updates.
Ease of Use
The hosted WordPress setup makes the platform easy to use even for beginners. Simply choose a design, pick a plan and start building. The editor is familiar and intuitive for WordPress users. Limited options may frustrate advanced users though.
Customizability
WordPress.com sites have less ability for design customization compared to self-hosted WordPress sites. You can only use basic themes and plugins. There are also limited options for CSS, HTML and PHP code customization.
Templates
WordPress.com provides around 100 free responsive templates for blogs, business, portfolio and other types of sites. The template selection is decent but basic compared to other builders. More templates are offered through premium plans.
Mobile Optimization
All the templates are mobile-friendly. Users can manually customize mobile styling like font sizes or use mobile-specific themes. There is a mobile app for managing WordPress.com sites.
SEO
There are built-in SEO tools like metadata options, XML sitemaps and image alt text. SEO customization is limited compared to self-hosted WordPress sites with plugins.
Support
Support is provided via extensive online documentation, forums, live chat, email and Facebook community. Phone support is only offered to ecommerce plan users.
Pricing
WordPress.com plans start at $4/month for basic sites. Premium plans unlock more features like custom domains and extra storage. Business plans add ecommerce capabilities, email marketing and live chat support.
Conclusion
WordPress.com makes using WordPress easy by handling the technical aspects but it lacks the full customization and features of self-hosted WordPress. For users wanting convenience over flexibility, it provides a decent experience.
4. Shopify
Shopify is the leading ecommerce website builder with over 1 million online stores powered. It offers built-in tools tailored for sales.
Ease of Use
Shopify makes setting up an online store simple even for non-techies. The dashboard interface is clean and user-friendly. Guided setup helps you get started quickly. Abundant resources help guide new ecommerce site owners.
Customizability
While Shopify provides beautiful store themes, advanced users may find customization limited compared to developers building sites from scratch. But there are still good options for adjusting templates, styles and layouts.
Templates
There are over 70 responsive, mobile-optimized themes tailored for different types of stores selling everything from fashion to electronics. The designs are high-quality and easy to customize.
Mobile Optimization
Shopify themes are all optimized for mobile right out of the box. They adapt automatically based on screen size. You can fine-tune elements of the mobile experience in the editor.
SEO
Built-in SEO features help optimize pages for search engines like customizable metafields, alt text and sitemaps. There are also many SEO apps for further optimization.
Support
Support options include 24/7 chat, email and phone support. There is also an active online community forum, detailed help articles, guides and Shopify U ecommerce education.
Pricing
Basic Shopify plans start at $29/month. More advanced plans unlock features like gift cards and abandoned cart recovery for higher monthly rates. Transaction fees also apply.
Conclusion
Shopify is the go-to choice for starting an ecommerce store with its amazing library of themes, built-in selling features and strong support resources. The main downsides are higher costs and lack of full customization capability.
5. Weebly
Weebly is a drag-and-drop website builder with over 40 million sites created. It aims to provide smart tools to build anything easily.
Ease of Use
The editor is highly intuitive with a simple drag-and-drop interface. Elements can be moved around visually. Weebly also provides smart search tools, a mobile app and chat support to smoothly guide you.
Customizability
While the editor is easy, it does limit more advanced CSS and HTML customization. For greater design flexibility, developers can use the Weebly Developer Platform. But Weebly lacks the pixel-level editing control of a pure code editor.
Templates
Weebly offers around 100 templates for blogs, stores, portfolios and more. The designs are modern, but there are fewer industry-specific options than some competitors. More premium templates are available for purchase.
Mobile Optimization
Sites are optimized for mobile by default. Templates automatically adjust for mobile screens. Elements can be dragged to customize mobile layouts.
SEO
SEO tools include meta tags, alt text, sitemaps and SEO preview. There is detailed SEO guidance in the Page Builder guide. The Weebly App Center also provides SEO and analytics apps.
Support
Weebly provides strong customer support through email, chat and forums. There are detailed guides and video tutorials in the help center. Phone support is not included though.
Pricing
Personal plans start at $6/month. Business site plans are $12/month. Store plans start at $25/month. A free site option is available with Weebly ads.
Conclusion
Weebly delivers a great user experience with its drag-and-drop editor and quality templates. Support resources help guide site building. Downsides are less design flexibility and higher cost for feature-rich plans. But overall Weebly is easy and intuitive.
6. Webflow
Webflow provides a visual web design tool for creating professional, custom sites without coding. It balances ease of use with flexibility.
Ease of Use
The highly visual editor has a learning curve for beginners. But Webflow offers webinars, tutorials and an active forum community to help users master the platform. Once learned, sites can be built intuitively through dragging and dropping.
Customizability
Webflow allows for deep customization capabilities with precision controls for designing pixel-perfect sites. Users have fine-grained authority over styling and can write custom CSS. There are few limits on customization.
Templates
Webflow provides dozens of professionally designed templates for different site types like portfolios, blogs and online stores. The modern templates can be fully customized to your brand. More premium templates are available.
Mobile Optimization
Sites are mobile-responsive by default, adapting to fit screens sizes ranging from desktop to mobile. You can visually customize elements for mobile using device previews.
SEO
Webflow has on-page SEO settings for meta info, URLs, alt text, sitemaps and more. Sites load fast thanks to optimized Webflow code. Integrations are available for tools like Google Analytics.
Support
Webflow offers 24/7 chat support, active user forums and an in-depth academy with tutorials and webinars. Email and phone ticketing are available fortechnical issues. Overall support coverage is excellent.
Pricing
Plans start at $12/month for basic sites, $16/month for business sites with custom domains and $36/month for ecommerce sites. Enterprise options are also available.
Conclusion
Webflow strikes an impressive balance between ease of use and customizability. While the tool has a learning curve, it enables creating fully-custom sites visually. The active community provides great support resources.
7. Gator Website Builder
Gator Website Builder is a drag-and-drop editor by web hosting provider HostGator. It integrates with HostGator hosting plans.
Ease of Use
The Gator editor has an easy-to-use interface allowing drag-and-drop site building. Quick start options help beginners. But compatibility is limited to HostGator hosting accounts which reduces flexibility.
Customizability
Customization options are relatively limited compared to standalone builders. You cannot edit source code. Custom CSS is supported but may require tweaking to override template defaults.
Templates
Gator provides around 30 responsive templates aimed at small businesses and online stores. The templates are modern but look generic. Industry-specific options are lacking.
Mobile Optimization
Templates are mobile-responsive automatically adapting layouts for mobile screens. But in-depth customization of mobile experiences is not possible.
SEO
Basic SEO options are included like meta title/description, alt image text and XML sitemaps. But there is little built-in guidance or optimization features beyond the basics.
Support
Support is provided by HostGator via live chat, phone, tickets and online documentation. But resources for the website builder itself are lacking. The community forum is not very active either.
Pricing
The website builder is included free with HostGator shared hosting plans starting at $2.75/month. You cannot use Gator without a HostGator account.
Conclusion
Gator Website Builder offers an easy start for basic sites thanks to the drag-and-drop editor. But it lacks standout templates, strong SEO tools, customization depth and community support. Overall the user experience is below competitors.
8. GoDaddy Website Builder
The GoDaddy Website Builder aims to help small businesses and entrepreneurs create sites easily. It is integrated with GoDaddy domains and hosting.
Ease of Use
GoDaddy Website Builder has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor. The initial setup guide provides clear direction. But options are still limited compared to more robust standalone site builders.
Customizability
Customization is constrained by pre-designed blocks and locked layouts. Moving elements pixel-by-pixel is not possible. Custom code is not supported. Options are lacking for advanced users.
Templates
There are around 20 templates oriented towards small business sites. The templates are modern but very basic. Few industry-specific or niche templates are available.
Mobile Optimization
Templates are optimized for mobile by default. But you have limited control over mobile styling. Customizing mobile experiences requires using desktop-based workarounds.
SEO
Standard SEO settings like meta title/description and alt text are available. But few advanced capabilities are included. You would need to use SEO plugins on top of the builder.
Support
GoDaddy provides 24/7 phone and chat support which is helpful for beginners. But tutorials and docs focus mostly on setup rather than building. The community forum lacks deep guidance.
Pricing
The website builder is included free with GoDaddy shared hosting starting at $6/month. For expanded features, you would need GoCentral sites starting at $6/month.
Conclusion
GoDaddy Website Builder offers the basics for simple sites. But poor customization options, lack of quality templates and limited features make the user experience lackluster compared to competitors. It’s only ideal for total beginners.
9. Duda
Duda is a website builder tailored for digital agencies building sites for clients with advanced features and customization options.
Ease of Use
Duda has a steeper learning curve compared to other builders. While the editor is visual, mastering the platform takes some effort especially if you want to leverage the advanced capabilities. They offer live onboarding and training to guide new users.
Customizability
Experienced developers have robust control for deep customization. You can edit template source code, create custom elements and leverage logic with JavaScript, CSS and HTML. Flexibility for designers is excellent.
Templates
Duda provides around 70 templates spanning categories like business, portfolio, ecommerce and blogs. The modern designs can be adapted across industries. More premium templates are available for purchase.
Mobile Optimization
Sites are responsive by default with mobile-friendly templates. You can manually customize mobile styles or leverage device emulators to preview experiences. Performance optimization features improve mobile speed.
SEO
Duda includes built-in SEO tools like customizable metadata, XML sitemaps, ALT tags and editing of robots.txt files. Integrations with tools like Google Analytics optimize further.
Support
Support options include live chat, email, phone support and an online knowledge base. Video tutorials are available along with 1-on-1 onboarding and training for larger accounts.
Pricing
Duda starts at $14/month for basic sites, $22/month for ecommerce sites and $74/month for enterprise-level accounts. A 14-day free trial is offered. Custom pricing is available.
Conclusion
Duda excels at providing a robust toolset for developers while still enabling easy visual site building. The combination of flexibility, features and support makes it ideal for agencies managing many sites.
10. Jimdo
Jimdo touts itself as an easy website builder for creating an online presence quickly. It caters to small businesses, entrepreneurs and bloggers.
Ease of Use
Jimdo has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor. The interface is clean and intuitive even for novices. Setup is quick by choosing a template, adding content blocks and customizing. Limited options may frustrate advanced users though.
Customizability
Customization is constrained to available blocks and options. Moving elements precisely or editing code is not possible. Users are dependent on template defaults and presets.
Templates
Jimdo offers modern templates for portfolios, online stores, landing pages and blogs. There are industry-specific options for restaurants, fashion, travel and weddings. But styles may still look generic.
Mobile Optimization
Sites made with Jimdo are mobile-friendly by default. Templates adapt to fit mobile screens. You can manually customize some mobile elements like font size.
SEO
Basic SEO options like meta titles, alt text and sitemaps are available. There is guidance within the editor for optimizing on-page elements. But few advanced SEO capabilities are included.
Support
Jimdo offers email support, user forums, video tutorials and online documentation. There is no live chat or phone support though. The community is not very active.
Pricing
Free plans with Jimdo ads are available. Paid plans start at $9/month for a personal site, $15/month for a business site and $39/month for online stores.
Conclusion
Jimdo is easy for creating basic sites quickly thanks to its simple editor and template selections. But it lacks more advanced features, customization depth and strong community support compared to competitors.
The Verdict
While all the website builders reviewed enable you to create sites visually without coding, there are clear leaders when it comes to the best user experience.
Wix tops our list with its beautifully intuitive editor paired with abundant customization options. Squarespace follows as a close second choice for gorgeous designs and creative appeal. For ecommerce sites specifically, Shopify is hard to beat.
WordPress.com offers the most well-known CMS platform in a hosted version while Webflow strikes an impressive balance of easy visual building and customization power.
Mainstream options like GoDaddy Website Builder or Gator provide underwhelming experiences compared to standalone builders. Duda caters well to dev-focused agencies.
Weighing factors like ease of use, templates, support and capabilities, the top website builders clearly provide the best overall user experience to create professional sites. With this review of the leaders in website building, you can confidently choose the best platform tailored to your needs and skill level.