Having a website is crucial for any small business today to establish its online presence and drive sales. However, small businesses often have limited budgets and time for building and maintaining a website. This is where DIY website builders come in handy. Website builders allow anyone to create a professional looking website easily without needing to know coding.
With website builders, small businesses can build and manage their own site without breaking the bank. But with so many options out there, how do you know which website builder is the best fit for your small business needs? In this blog post, we’ll be looking at the top 5 website builders for small businesses in 2023 based on factors like cost, ease of use, features, templates, and ecommerce capabilities.
Wix
One of the most popular do-it-yourself website builders today is Wix. Wix is known for its user-friendly drag and drop editor that makes it easy for anyone to create a professional looking website quickly. They offer hundreds of designer-made templates that you can use as a starting point for your site, catering to all types of businesses from restaurants to fashion boutiques.
An especially good feature of Wix for small businesses is its extensive free plans. The Wix free plan allows you to create a site with ads displayed. If you want to remove Wix ads and get additional features like more storage and bandwidth, you can upgrade to one of their paid plans which start at just $14 per month.
A standout aspect of Wix is its robust App Market. No matter what functionality you want to add to your site, chances are there is a Wix app for it, including ecommerce features, appointment scheduling, email marketing, and more. There are many Wix templates focused on building online stores, making it a great website builder option for small ecommerce businesses.
Squarespace
Squarespace is another very popular website builder used by small businesses and entrepreneurs. The main appeal of Squarespace is its beautiful, professional looking templates. Squarespace offers elegant modern templates optimized for desktop and mobile for all types of industries.
While Squarespace doesn’t have quite as many templates as Wix, the designs they do offer are very customizable, allowing you to adjust colors, fonts, layouts and more to match your brand identity. Squarespace also includes an easy to use drag and drop editor to modify pages and add elements without coding knowledge.
One downside is that Squarespace’s ecommerce features are more limited compared to dedicated ecommerce builders. If you want advanced functionality like automated tax calculations or coupon codes, you may need to integrate third-party apps. Their free plan options are also more restricted compared to Wix.
Overall, Squarespace is ideal for small businesses who want a site with polished, high-end design aesthetics, especially those in visual industries like photography, architecture, or design.
WordPress
For small businesses that want maximum flexibility and customization for their website, WordPress is a top option. WordPress is the world’s most popular open source content management system, powering over 30% of all websites.
Unlike other website builders with pre-designed templates, WordPress offers full customization to match your business needs. There are thousands of free WordPress themes and plugins available to add any functionality you want to your site.
WordPress requires installing the software on a web hosting plan which makes initial setup more complex. However, it means you have full control over your site. You can also work with a WordPress developer to customize your site.
WordPress is great for small businesses looking to regularly publish content and blog posts. Its CMS makes content creation and organization easy. WordPress is also excellent for ecommerce. You can turn your site into a fully-featured online store with plugins like WooCommerce for lower costs than proprietary platforms.
While WordPress has a steeper learning curve, its flexibility and extensive development community make it suitable for ambitious small businesses wanting unlimited customization abilities.
Shopify
If your small business focuses on selling products or goods online, Shopify is likely the best website builder option. Shopify is an all-in-one ecommerce solution made specifically for creating online stores.
Shopify makes setting up a professional online store easy without needing to know code. It offers a wide range of sleek store templates optimized for showcasing products. Compared to WooCommerce, Shopify stores are faster to set up and launch.
The platform handles all technical aspects of running an ecommerce store, from order management to shipping and taxes. Shopify also has many addons available to further enhance your store’s capabilities.
While Shopify’s starting plans are more expensive than website builders focused on informational sites, you get robust ecommerce features even in their basic $29/month plan. This makes Shopify a great choice for small businesses wanting to quickly start selling products online.
As your business grows, you can scale your store with advanced features like gift cards, reporting, and abandoned cart recovery in higher Shopify plans. For any small business wanting to create a thriving online store, Shopify is the best website builder available today.
Weebly
For small businesses wanting a straightforward website builder that covers the basics well, Weebly is a great choice. Weebly’s editor is one of the easiest to use out of all website builders. You can drag and drop elements to create clean, professional looking pages quickly.
Weebly offers a selection of modern, mobile-optimized templates across different industries. While not as extensive as Wix, the designs are attractive and easy to customize to match branding.
Weebly is better for simple informational sites rather than complex ecommerce stores. However, you can integrate basic ecommerce capabilities either through Weebly’s built-in ecommerce plans or integrations with platforms like Square.
One advantage of Weebly is their App Center which provides extensions for marketing, analytics and security. However, their app selection doesn’t match what’s available on WordPress or Wix.
Overall, Weebly excels in offering a user-friendly editor for building a quality site quickly and easily, ideal for businesses wanting a professional web presence without overwhelming complexity.
Conclusion
The right DIY website builder for your small business depends on your budget, skills, design needs and core features required. Wix provides extensive free plans with ecommerce capabilities. Squarespace enables beautiful, designer-quality sites. WordPress offers unmatched customization abilities. Shopify is built for ecommerce stores. And Weebly provides an easy entry point for basic websites.
By taking the time to try out a few website builder free trials, any small business can find the best platform to establish an online presence and attract more customers. With modern website builders, small businesses can build effective websites rivaling much larger companies but at affordable price points.