Choosing the best website builder for my business

A website builder helps you construct a website without relying on a web designer or coder. Extremely user-friendly, they’re becoming increasingly popular amongst small businesses that are looking to launch a beautiful, functional website quickly and without breaking the bank.

There are two types of website builder, online and offline:

With the above in mind, we’ll be focusing our insight on online website builders as they are cheaper and easier to use, offering better flexibility for small businesses and startups. You won’t require hefty hardware, have to run regular software updates or have to handle separate hosting arrangements. Offline website builders are slightly more geared towards professional web designers who would make more use of the wider range of customisation options and would likely have the powerful hardware to support the downloaded software.

If you’re a brand new business, the chances are you’re not at the stage where you need to hire an agency to create your website. Even for more established businesses, committing to an agency could be a risky move when there are a number of user-friendly, affordable website builders out there.

Here are the main advantages of doing it yourself. 

• Affordable
• User-friendly
• Retain control – update content quickly without relying on third parties
• Reliable and secure
• Retain control – update content quickly without relying on third parties
• Domain set-up and web hosting
• Domain email hosting
• Template designs ready for editing
• Stock photo library
• Integrated analytics as well as Google Analytics integration
• Easy modification
• SEO (search engine optimisation) features
• Many offer free trials so you can explore the software to ensure it’s the right fit
• Responsive design (looks great and works well on any device)
• Supports different content formats e.g video
• All under one roof – avoid conflicts
• Support team including video tutorials and resources

On the other hand, you’ll need to consider the downsides of doing it yourself:

• Your time. While the website may be relatively quick to create, you’ll still need to plan the navigation, content, images, call to actions, etc. An agency would take care of this for you.
• If you’ve never had experience with websites before, even the simplest of website builders could feel overwhelming at first, as many offer a variety of style and functionality options.
• You’ll struggle to move your website onto another hosting platform in the future as the majority don’t offer export/import tools.
• You may pay slightly more for a domain than if you went directly to a domain name registrar.
• If you don’t have an in-house marketing person or team, you will have to be responsible for the population and maintenance of the website content, including meta data creation to optimise your site for search.

You might find that two-to-three years after launching your business, you’ve got some money coming in and are questioning whether it’s the time to bring in the professionals to revisit your website. Consider how much money you have to invest at this stage. If it’s around the £500-1,000 mark, that still won’t substantially improve your website. Re-invest in other elements such as social adverts or photography for your website to encourage continued income and help your business grow.

An experienced digital or web design agency will bring a wealth of experience with it. Here are some of the main advantages of using a web design agency:

• A unique website designed to suit your business requirements and branding.
• Web designer and coder expertise.
• Responsibility to deliver and maintain platform including security updates.
• Domain set-up and web hosting.
• Ensures website responsive.
• Additional service options e.g. social media, content marketing, PR, email marketing, data analysis.
• May provide a dedicated server to load your site at the highest possible speed.
• Can adapt activity to business plans.
• Tailored, more personal service.

Founded in 2006, Israeli company Wix now has 150 million users across 190 countries.

• Drag-and-drop builder.
• Great customisation.
• 1000+ features to use.
• 500+ professionally-designed templates that cater to a range of small business types.
• Functionality includes contact forms, online booking forms, invoicing system, customer feedback surveys, and video backgrounds.
• Continually being developed to benefit businesses e.g. Wix Corvid launched in 2019, offering additional options to integrate custom code into your site, which is great for those who are a bit more tech-savvy and want to develop their site beyond templating.
• Wix Stores allows you to sell products and get paid online.
• Ascend by Wix launched in 2018 allows you to connect with customers and automate your workflow (CRM).
• The Wix app store offers 200+ apps and services that offer even more to your websites, such as branded videos and SEO tips. Ecommerce tools available if you decide to expand into this area in future.

Example websites:

• Seven Grams Caffe
• Tobias Becs

Support:

Help Center where you can ask questions and browse articles.

Costs:

Wix offers a free version but its worth upgrading to a paid plan to utilise premium features:

• Connect domain: £3 per month
• Combo: £6 per month
• Unlimited: £8.50 per month
• VIP: £18 per month

The bottom line:

Wix offers a competitively priced range of plans including the option to get started for free. If you’re looking to go DIY, it’s one of the best options on the market – easy-to-use with plenty of features to ensure your website looks and performs great.  

Find out more about Wix

This New-York based company provides website building and hosting. It’s product and service offering feels very similar to Apple – simplistic, sophisticated, design-led.

• Smooth user experience.
• Fantastic support centre.
• Lots of drag-and-drop features (within sections).
• Stunning template designs.
• Best quality designs.
• Superb SEO features.
• Domain name and hosting.
• Email set-up via their partnership with G Suite by Google (giving you access to features including Google Calendar and Google Drive).
• Free holding page until your website’s ready to go live (great data capture opportunity).
• Integration with apps including Mailchimp, Google Maps, OpenTable and YouTube.
• Responsive design.
• Mobile app enables editing on-the-go.
• Free SSL certificate.
• Everything covered under one roof.
• Ideal for businesses with beautiful images.

Example websites:

• Arch Motorcycle
• Sadie Williams

Support:

Excellent support options including guides, videos, community forum, webinars or contact support team directly.

Cost:

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial.

• Personal: £10 per month
• Business: £15 per month
• Commerce basic: £20 per month
• Commerce advanced: £30 per month

Trustpilot: ★★

The bottom line:

Can feel slightly more restrictive compared to Wix. Great fit for businesses with beautiful visuals.

Find out more about Squarespace

 Shopify is the ‘best e-commerce platform that has everything you need for setting up an online shop, on social media or in-person’.

• Subscribe to its software to build your website and use its shopping cart function to sell, ship and manage your products via a single dashboard.
• Easy admin panel allows you to add products, process orders and enter data easily.
• ‘Whether you sell online, on social media, in-store or out of the trunk of your car, Shopify has you covered.’
• Sell physical or digital goods.
• Trusted by 1,000,000 businesses worldwide.
• No design skills required: Beautiful themes that are responsive and customisable.
• Handles everything from marketing and payments to secure checkout and shipping.

Example websites:

• hello matcha
• Artemis Design Co.

Costs:

Shopify offers a 14-day free trial. 

• Basic Shopify: £22 per month
• Shopify: £60 per month
• Advanced Shopify: £227 per month

Trustpilot: ★★

The bottom line:

Best for e-Commerce businesses, you need to keep an eye out for what’s included in Shopify’s plans. For example, Shopify Basic plan doesn’t allow you to construct a fully functional, standalone online store. 

Find out more about Shopify

WordPress.org is a self-hosted content management system (CMS)

• Best for tech-savvy/coders.
• Open-source software: source code is released under a license, which the copyright holder grants users the rights to study, change and distribute the software for any purpose. Frequently developed in a collaborative public manner.
• You retain complete control. You will need a WordPress hosting account and will have to organise hosting from another provider e.g. GoDaddy and installing WordPress software onto it
• Plugin architecture and template system (“themes”)
• It’s one of the most powerful blogging and website content management systems (CMS) of our time.
• Initially a blogging platform but expanded to include functional websites.
• Basic WordPress software is simple and predictable, so you can easily get started.
• It also offers powerful features for growth and success e.g. 54,000+ plugins allowing you to add an online store, galleries, mailing lists, analytics, forums and more.
• 60 million+ users.
• Monetisation freedom – You can sell as many ads as you want, and keep 100% of the profit.
• Branding freedom – You don’t have to display any ‘Powered by’ links.
• Enable all SEO features.
• Install Google Analytics plus additional third-party analytics.
• You can create a complete online store, selling digital or physical goods and accept payments via credit card, PayPal, etc.
• You are responsible for keeping your site updated, backed up, having SPAM control options and ensuring it’s optimised.

Example websites:

• Playstation Blog
• Blondie
• The White House

Costs:

The open-source version of WordPress is free to download. The only fixed cost that you need to endure for your site is hosting. Download free plugins and themes. 

Trustpilot: n/a (reviews only for WordPress.com – see below)

The bottom line:

Giving you full control of your site but less user-friendly, WordPress.org is an option to consider if you’re experienced in web design and coding. 

Find out more about WordPress.org

WordPress.com is a fully hosted service, powering more than 34% of the internet.

• ‘Focus on your beautiful content and let us handle the rest’.
• More blog-focused (great for businesses with a strong blogging requirement).
• Get the best of both worlds by upgrading to its Business Plan.
• Allows a lot of the self-hosted functionality e.g. plugins and custom themes.
• Open a store: process payments, configure taxes and shipping, create a marketing plan. N.B. You can’t create an online store in the free version – with its Business Plan you can sell directly via tools such as WooCommerce– a free plugin with paid extensions).
• Build a fan base by promoting products, using advanced statistics and SEO tools and connect with built-in audiences on social media.
• World-famous blog function.
• Thousands of themes.
• Limited monetisation – not allowed to sell ad space but those with 25,000 monthly page views can apply for advertising with revenue sharing (Premium and Business plan users automatically get access to WordAds programme).
• You have to pay to remove WordPress branding.
• Free WordPress.com doesn’t allow you to install plugins so limited control over elements such as SEO. Business plan users can install third-party SEO plugins to maximise SEO.
• Free WordPress offers limited built-in analytics. Business plan allows for third-party analytic plugins e.g. Google Analytics.
• No maintenance – all automatically taken care of.

Support:

24/7 instant support by more than 300 humans.

Costs:

• Personal: £3 per month
• Premium: £7 per month
• Business: £20 per month
• eCommerce: £36 per month

Trustpilot: ★★★★

The bottom line:

Great for blogging but not the best option for e-commerce. Free version doesn’t support online stores. Business Plan offers function via plugins.

Find out more about WordPress.com

‘Build a free website that grows with your business’.  

• Great option if you want to get your business online quickly but don’t require many detailed website features.
• Extremely affordable.
• Easy to make edits to images and copy.
• Fantastic app integration.
• Great customisation.
• Industry-inspired template layouts.
• Allows access to code editor, should you have the skills to develop further (or work with someone that does).

Example websites:

• Whistle And Bango
• Douk Snow

Costs:

Wix is notable for its free and low-cost plans.

• Basic use: £0 per month
• Connect: £4 per month
• Pro: £9 per month
• Business: £18 per month

Trustpilot: ★★★★

The bottom line:

If you delete a site, it’s difficult to restore it. You’d have to liaise with Weebly team to sort. Not as useful as Wix and Squarespace – fewer features and not as many template options.

Find out more about Weebly

When it comes to selecting a website builder, make sure to do your research. Most builders offer 14-day free trials, so clear out as much of your diary as you can to dedicate focused time testing out the features and solutions. Have a clear idea on what you need your website to do, how you want it to look and when you need it by. Consider these elements within your available budget – then start having a play with the free trials. Ensure the platforms you’re looking at integrate well with any existing tools you rely heavily on and that the builder fits with your expansion plans – does it have the capability to grow with your business offering?

As always – ask around. Do you have any friends who run small businesses that would recommend a particular website builder?

Don’t forget, it doesn’t have to be as black and white in regards to going down the DIY route or employing an agency. You can hire freelance specialists to help set up and launch your website, or if you’re confident you can create your website within a builder, consider working with a photographer and copywriter to create your content, freeing you up to focus on other areas of your digital footprint such as SEO, email marketing and social media.

Just remember to walk before you can run. Avoid signing up to lengthy payment plans or agency fees. Keep things clean and simple, with clear calls to action. Always opt for well-respected, secure builders that provide you with strong support should any questions crop up. Downloading an expense tracker app will also help you to keep on top of ongoing costs, to determine which website builder is most appropriate for you.