Website Building
Planning to create a website for your wedding, travel blog, restaurant or store? Website builders make it easier than ever. These online tools give you everything you need to make your very own website, without having to know a thing about HTML coding. We've reviewed some of the most popular options out there and tested them out for things that matter most when it comes to creating and customizing your website, including template selection, SEO, storage, bandwidth, social media and e-commerce. To find one that best fits your needs, check out our reviews below.
Website Building Reviews & Ratings
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Limitless editing options; online menu builder is handy for restaurants; easy-to-customize templates; ability to add or edit HTML coding |
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HTML 5 drag-and-drop editor; free and paid plans; hundreds of templates; highly customizable features in its app market |
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Many detailed features for setting up an online store on your website; drag-and-drop editor makes page building easy; stellar customer service |
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Unlimited bandwidth and storage with all of its plans; extensive options for e-commerce; top-notch customer service |
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Sleek templates; decent editing tools; outstanding customer service and 30-day money back guarantee; mobile optimization only available on select plans |
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Clean, user-friendly interface; forever-free plan has little to no advanced features; excellent customer service; lacking in additional customization tools |
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Simple website builder; somewhat limited template selection; multilingual capabilities; lacking in some of the features that similar services offer to users |
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SEO and e-commerce only available on select plans; design templates and other tools are extremely dated; plans are on the expensive side |
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Fairly easy to use; not all plans include mobile optimization; standard website building features come at a hefty price tag with this provider |
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Building tools and site as a whole aren't user-friendly; old templates and fonts offer limited customization; poor customer support and help tools |
NextAdvisor Website Building Blog Headlines
Which Website Building Services are Best for E-Commerce?
Whether you’re brand new to creating a website or have had years of experience, you’re sure to find a website building service that best suits your needs, as there are many website building services out there for nearly every skill level. Some of these services simply offer the bare-bones essentials, while others supply users with […]
How Much Storage Space Does Your Website Need?
When it comes to creating a website, there’s a lot to take into consideration, from selecting the perfect domain name to deciding which website building service is best for you and your needs. One thing many people over look in the process is how much storage space, also known as disk space, their website will […]
3 Website Building Services for Every Skill Level
Having a website for your business — no matter how big or small — is a no-brainer these days, but knowing where and how to start might not be as easy to figure out. Fortunately, website building services can help anyone create, build and maintain a successful online presence. To help you decide which service […]
Website Building and Web Hosting: What’s the Difference?
While it’s clear that having a website for your business or personal brand in this day and age is extremely important, the methods of making a website may not be as clear. Typically there are two types of services people turn to when they want to create a website — website building and web hosting. Even […]
How it works
After selecting a website building service to use to create your website, you'll either create a new domain name or connect a pre-existing one. Then you'll choose from one of the pre-made templates or designs to begin customizing your website. You then have the option to add, edit, delete or reorder the pages for your website (e.g. Home, About Us, Contact). These services offer customization tools that allow you to fully customize your website to your liking, including things such as text, headers/footers, photos, background image, audio and video files, color scheme and social media buttons.
How we tested these website builders
We signed up for each one of these website builders to see how user-friendly they were and to try out all of the tools offered for website building. With each service, we selected the "restaurant" category to create a website for a mock coffee shop. Some of the website builders had templates specifically curated for this type of restaurant, while others had a generic restaurant template that we had to customize with our own images and background image. For the most part, the website builders automatically generated multiple pages for us for this particular category, such as Home, About, Menu and Contact Us. Some, however, only gave us a home page to start with, and then we added these additional pages. We then tested out other features that allowed us to add/edit other things, including text, photos, slideshows, photo galleries, social media buttons and other layout and design features.
Can I keep my website private while editing?
Of course. All of these website builders let you edit and customize your website privately until you're ready to push it live. You can even select which pages you want published and which ones you want to keep private while you're still working on them. For example, you can publish your main Home page and About Us page, and keep your Menu page private if you're still working on finishing it.
