Introduction
Many businesses came to a standstill in the COVID-19 pandemic. Others took a leap of faith and established a digital presence to keep the mill up and running. With the trend shifting towards online business, a need to have a proper website with a clean UI was only natural. It not only increases the reach and visibility, it ends up streamlining a business and saving a lot of overhead.
There are a myriad of authentic and easy to follow website building software now available on the internet, but picking one with the right tools is necessary. With the guiding tools, you can even do it yourself. Sounds too good to be true. Let’s take a look through our list of good and most affordable website builders for small businesses.
What is a website builder?
A website builder is a software or platform that helps you to put together a website, quickly and easily. These online website builders for small businesses help you get your foot inside the door to internet real estate, so you can start increasing your online footprint, a domain name with your brand’s own foundations, content, and offerings, made for you to achieve your business goals.
Easiest Website builders for a small business typically include ready-made easy templates for websites, some simple layouts for organizing your storefront and drag-and-drop software that lets you customize your page with ease. These free website builders for small businesses are available both online and offline. An online website builder for small business won’t need any software downloads; it’ll simply work inside your internet browser.
You can work on it anytime and anywhere (with an internet connection), so you can build on the go. Most top website builders for small businesses come with included hosting services. This is an easy-to-use option for newbies.
This is how you expect the easiest website builder for small business to work:
- From your website builder’s library, pick a template that best fits your needs.
- Edit the template’s built-in elements with a click and add your own content (like images, video, text etc.) to personalize your website per your brand.
- Publish!
Pros and cons of using website builders
Now that we know what the features of the best website builders for small business are in 2021, let’s take a look through their pros and cons.
Pros
- Good website builders are low maintenance and don’t require extensive coding or technical skills.
- You can create an artistic website with text, pictures, videos, layouts of your choice without the difficulty of learning and writing code for web development. In fact, the best site builder for small business won’t need you to write a single line of code.
- With their simple setup, you can have your website up and running in no time, without any hassle. You only need to keep updating your content for maximum engagement, and you are good to go.
- The best platforms for small business websites make it extremely easy and simple to set up your site in a jiffy, showcasing all the necessary content, images, and videos of your brand.
- A top-tier website builder does the heavy lifting for your small business by offering templates, designs, stock imagery and customization.
Cons
- Web builders might end up limiting the more experienced users.
- You may want extreme freedom when customizing your website and want to equip it with more advanced backend service which might not be offered with free online website builders for small businesses.
- Using a cheap or free web builder runs the risk of restricting your website’s structure with limited pages or functions or lesser eCommerce options.
3 best free website builders for small business
Looking for the best website builder for small business, no need to look any further. We have done the homework for you. Below you will find our top 3 picks for the best overall website builders. The choice is based purely upon ease of use, variety of available options and of course cost.
Wix: Best overall free website builder
When it comes to the best website builder for small business overall, Wix reigns champion because of its customization flexibility and ease of use. Wix is the market leader with a cloud-based development platform for users worldwide and is one of the best website builders for small business in the world with over 200 million users across the globe.
Wix offers a range of plans to suit the different needs of a wide range of website designers. From drag-and-drop capabilities to a myriad of industry-specific templates. building a website with Wix is a smooth process from start to finish.
The downside of using Wix is that it imposes data limitations for each of its plan tiers could be an issue, especially for websites that have a lot of visual stuff. Also, its tech support might be somewhat lacking. But the good thing is Wix offers a 14-day trial period, and if you’re not 100% satisfied, you can get your money back.
Overall, Wix’s website builder is a smart design, has brilliant SEO and first-rate marketing tools. This means that Wix is our number one pick for those who need a website builder. There is a free version available, as well as Business Basic, Unlimited and VIP pricing plans.
WordPress.com
WordPress is an open-source free content management system (CMS). The popular CMS is also one of the best website builders because of how much flexibility and freedom you get with the platform.
It’s important to know that if you choose to use WordPress to create a website, you need web hosting separately. WordPress has more than 8,000 free templates available, and many paid themes you can find per your liking. WordPress’ site builder is easy to use, but it stays with the bare minimum elements. There are tens of thousands of plugins (mostly free to use) you can include with your pages to extend the functionality of your website.
WordPress is the most customizable website builder. The only problem you might face is that you may need a little more technical know-how to use the right combination of plugins to get what you want.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a renowned hosting service for its custom domain names and web hosting services, but it also offers website builder software. It’s a similar easy-to-use template-based experience like the other options on this list, designed to get a basic site up and running in under an hour.
The free tier includes services like email and social media marketing, PayPal payments and an SSL certificate. The $10 monthly plan is straight-up basic; $15 adds an SEO tool; $20 tacks on extended support for appointments and its $25-per-month Ecommerce plan is for online store capabilities, including some impressive product listing and shipping options for your e-commerce store.
Comparison table
This comparison chart allows you to compare key features that highlight the best website builder for small businesses.
| Wix | WordPress | GoDaddy | |
| Ease of Use | 4.6 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| No of Users | 200m | 8m | 23m |
| Free Templates | 4.4 | 4.7 | 4.0 |
| Customization | 4.5 | 4.1 | 4.3 |
| Free custom domain | Yes | No | Yes |
| Blogging | 4.6 | 4.4 | 4.1 |
| Free Trial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Basic Plan | 15$ | Free | 10$ |
Best E-Commerce website builder for small business
Where we mentioned websites to showcase your brand and creativity online above, you might be in the market looking for a proper store with integrated e-commerce options to create reach for your successful small business. Don’t worry, we didn’t forget you, here are the top 3 eCommerce website builders to create easy and simple storefronts on a digital lot.
Squarespace: Best for small-scale E-Commerce
Squarespace is one of the most popular and best website builders for small business and e-commerce fronts because it’s full of useful features. You can build an online store, a blog, a small business or a membership website. The editor is very user-friendly with customization menus and features. It’s a combination of drag-and-drop editor and point-and-click editing.
Squarespace is popular for its templates. The website builder has literally won awards for design. Most of the templates are minimalistic, bold and modern, and they’re all created by professional designers. They’re also mobile-responsive, so you don’t have to design a whole new website for mobile users.
Squarespace is one of the best website builders for artists, photographers, designers and other creatives. It’s also a good choice for an online store, especially with specialty features like the limited availability labels.
Shopify
Shopify is primarily an e-commerce website builder. All plans come with built-in shopping carts and marketing features to help you sell online. There are only nine free ecommerce templates from which you can choose. If you can pay the meagre amount for a basic plan, there are dozens of premium templates available.
The editor isn’t a true drag-and-drop editor and might require a little more knowledge. It’s more point-and-click navigation, but it’s easy enough to learn and use after you spend some time with the tools.
Shopify Lite costs $9 per month and allows you to add a buy button to a site you already own, a blog or sell in person with the Shopify point-of-sale mobile app. Only serious e-commerce small businesses should use Shopify. It’s for building online stores, not just websites. It’s an ideal solution for brick-and-mortar businesses that want to sell inventory online too.
How do you choose one of the best small business website builders?
There is great variety in terms of both the number and type of website builder available today. Some specialize in email marketing and others offer a first-rate eCommerce solution; some are simple whereas others are exceedingly complex and feature rich.
When choosing the website builder for your small business, it’s important that you have a clear goal chalked out. Plan what type of website you want to build. Whether, text or images will be the main focus, what sort of design your brand supports and most importantly, how much you are willing to pay.
Our comparison chart will be a help in making a wise decision for your small and growing business. You should also consider whether you’re likely to do most of your website editing from a mobile or desktop device. Most web builders offer mobile-responsive templates, but not all allow you to edit the mobile version without changing the desktop site too. Choosing a website builder can seem complicated, but fortunately, most come with free trials, so you always have the option of changing your mind.
Conclusion
The Internet has made our planet a true global village. Online presence and connectivity are a must for any business to grow, reach more customers, find more caveats of success and opportunities to connect with versatile and far-out markets. With an online free website builder for small business, building and publishing your own website is a matter of a few clicks.
Entrepreneurs and small business owners alike should take this opportunity to use these free of cost tools to meet their business and financial goals. These tools let you have a marked presence in a cutting-edge marketplace. Hope this article helps in choosing a simple solution for your small business.
