Currently, in business, a website is one of the most important aspects. It can help a business reach millions of people across the globe. Large corporations invest a lot of time and energy in planning the structure and content of their websites. Small businesses are more in need of a website and are often anxious about building one because it is considered to be an expensive affair. However, it doesn’t need to be so.
11 Best Free Website Builders
Here’s a look at 11 of the best free website builders that can help you build a website for your business without the steep price tag.
Wix
Wix is one of the best free website builder applications on the market where you get access to over 800 website building templates for free. This is a great platform for beginners because you can easily drag and drop the elements to build a website that suits your needs.
Wix currently has over 200 million users ranging from different professional backgrounds and facilitates the development of easy-to-navigate websites that are also mobile-friendly.
Is Wix Actually Free?
Wix has a free plan that is suitable for beginners and small businesses. Free resources like online classes and recorded webinars on the Wix website give valuable website-building tips to users. However, the free plan has limited storage space and displays ads.
If you wish to connect your domain to the website on Wix, you will need to pay $80 per month when billed annually.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy ranks quite high in the list of best free website builders because of its user-friendly interface and award-winning customer support team. GoDaddy allows you to use its drag-and-drop editor to easily customize the given templates and add images and text.
The basic services are free, and it also offers SEO tools to help the user. Connecting a payment platform like PayPal is very simple and convenient when you are building your website with GoDaddy. However, unlike Wix, GoDaddy does not have as many templates to choose from and offers little creative freedom to the users.
The paid version allows integrations with WordPress and other resource-intensive pages and helps the user to host multiple sites.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email-marketing tool that also doubles up as one of the best free website builders. It is perfectly suited for small businesses and entrepreneurs and has over 12 million users globally. It has integrated email marketing and SEO tools that help users to enhance the marketability of their business.
The free subscription is good for small businesses and offers basic web design templates. However, if you are looking for some of the more advanced email marketing features, then you would need to subscribe to a paid plan.
Weebly
Weebly is one of the best free website builders and a very useful tool for e-commerce businesses. The free plan provides 500 MB of storage, free SSL security and SEO resources for the users. Weebly is especially good when you will be using your website to sell goods online.
You need to upgrade to a premium plan and pay $5 per month — when billed annually — if you want to connect to a domain. Weebly displays ads on your webpage which might not be very appealing to many users. However, the premium plans are quite affordable, and you can get a highly customized plan by spending only $12 per month when billed annually.
Jimdo
The easy interface and compatibility across all devices make Jimdo one of the best free website builders. You do not need any external software and the entire design can be curated through your browser.
The free plan gives you access to features like SEO tools, contact forms, SSL security and professional designs that come with a free logo creator for your website. Jimbo allows users to create designs on their website even if they do not know to code.
However, the free websites are hosted on the .Jimdosite.com subdomain and will display ads which is not ideal for every user.
Webflow
If you have some knowledge about webpage designing, then Webflow is one of the best free website builders for you. It is slightly more complex in comparison to other drag-and-drop webpage editors but offers a wide range of customizations for users.
Used by over 3.5 million designers and teams, Webflow provides a creative canvas to its users that does not require coding or any other technical knowledge.
The free version does not have ads but the website will be hosted on the webflow.Io domain.
SITE123
SITE123 provides a simple interface to its users that they can easily use to create a website for their business. It is one of the best free website builders for online stores, blogs or creating a landing page. You get a free domain for the first year after which you need to upgrade to a paid plan to continue enjoying the benefits.
The signup options are quite simple but the template options in the free plan are limited.
Strikingly
Strikingly provides a simple format for users who are looking to develop a website for their blogs, landing pages or even online stores. It is one of the best free website builders especially if you want to bring your existing business online.
The free websites do not contain ads and use the Strikingly.Com domain. Users can get up to five pages per site, set up a simple store selling a single product and even invite collaborators on their free website created through Strikingly.
Webnode
If you are looking for a basic tool that will help you create a website without the need for any customizations, then Webnode is the best free website builder for you. You can use their templates to create a simple but effective website by providing very little effort.
Webnode is used by over 40 million people because of its simplicity and secure website-building tools. The free sites that you create on Webnode give you access to reliable hosting features, professional customer care and an unlimited number of pages.
Even if you opt for the paid plans, they are quite affordable. The standard plan costs only $12.90 per month and offers access to a wide range of advanced tools like form builder, online store, Google Analytics and Google AdSense.
WordPress
WordPress is one of the pioneers in website development for bloggers and is still considered to be among the best free website builders. However, it is not a comprehensive tool and displays ads on the websites. It is not beginner-friendly since it requires knowledge of coding to develop the website properly.
UCraft
UCraft offers a wide range of services which makes it one of the best free website builders. Apart from the basic features, the free website comes equipped with unlimited bandwidth, SSL security and connection to your own domain.
However, you cannot publish a blog on the free website and will need to pay $10 per month for adding one and avail of advanced security features.
Final Take
Most of these website builders are efficient and offer you some of the most helpful free resources that you need for your small business. If you need to get your business online, any of these website builders can help you do so. However, a website is one of those investments that are worth making for your small business.
You can get started with a free plan and then consider moving to a paid subscription for optimizing your website