Best Website Builders for 2026
What's inside this post: Hide
This post is sponsored by Squarespace. That said, I've been building websites on Squarespace since long before this sponsorship existed, and everything you're about to read reflects my honest experience and opinions. I only work with brands I actually use and believe in.
The opinions in this post are based on my own direct experience using these platforms, firsthand feedback from clients and students I've worked with, and independent research. While I've done my best to ensure accuracy, some experiences are anecdotal in nature. Website platform features, pricing, and capabilities change frequently — always verify current details directly with each platform before making a decision.
When I first decided to start freelancing as a more serious side-hustle in 2015, the available options for building my own website were few and far between. At least, they seemed hard to find when you didn’t exactly know what you were looking for. From what I remember, it seemed like FrontPage, WordPress, or some kind of custom-coded solution that I wasn’t equipped to build at the time.
In fact, the senior designer from the art department at my then-day job had chosen to custom code that company’s website himself, rather than build it on a no-code website building platform. Even as a designer myself, I didn’t have anyone around me that I felt like I could ask for help or guidance on what to pick.
So I panicked and decided to start with a Facebook Business profile instead. 😂
Shortly after that, I realized I did need to have a website and I decided to try learning to code first. (Because that sounds super easy, right? 🤭) This approach lasted about 3-6 months. I was decent at it, even proud of my progress, but ultimately I realized that wasn’t sustainable and went looking for something easier.
Now, years later, there are easily 10x the options that were available back when I started this journey for myself, and even more things to consider while making this choice.
I’ve created this comparison guide to help you decide which website builder platform to use and other related considerations you might not be aware of during your research. Hopefully it’ll help you decide what the best fit will be for your website too!
I’ll be transparent with you about which website builders I’ve actually used myself (because I have used and tried a lot of them, though I specialize in only one now), and which platforms I’ve only explored, researched, or lightly tinkered with, out of curiosity.
Quick Picks: Best Website Builders By Use-Case
If you’re not here for the deep dive (that I’m practically famous for around here), here’s the short version. This decision involves more considerations than you might think! If you’re on the fence after this list, skim the next section before you commit.
⭐ Best Overall -> Squarespace
🛒 Best for product-based businesses -> Shopify
💼 Best for service-based businesses -> Squarespace
🌱 Best for beginners -> Squarespace
🎨 Best for portfolios & creatives -> Squarespace
🖥️ Best for granular no-code design control -> Showit
✍️ Best for dedicated bloggers & CMS databases -> WordPress
🧑💻 Best for developers & designers -> WordPress, Webflow, or Framer
🔗 Best for the most customization & integration power -> WordPress
🆕 Keeping my eye on:
Figma Sites,
Ghost, etc.
They’re newer, and some are gaining popularity quickly. But they still seem unproven, or they’re missing features that matter for SEO, accessibility, or marketing. Before I’d choose one of these, I’d watch their development for a couple more years to see if the company has staying power, or if it’s just another quickly developed tool that’ll fall flat when everyone realizes how ineffective it is at performance.
⛔ Not recommended:
Options like the following are not worth the time, money, or research for a variety of reasons:
GoDaddy’s Website Builder
GoDaddy’s Airo (AI-powered builder),
Kajabi and similar platforms which include basic website builders,
‘blogging’ platforms like Substack or Medium,
miscellaneous other platforms that can build customizable public pages like Notion and ‘make’ them websites
Weebly – it used to be a bigger player, but it’s been acquired by another company that’s not committed to keep it updated or to innovate and improve the platform. I personally wouldn’t bet on it being actively improved long-term.
Canva Sites – these aren’t accessible or SEO-optimized, so in my opinion that makes them closer to a shareable web page than a real website builder.
How to Choose A Website Builder: What Actually Matters The Most
Here’s the checklist of things that are really important for this research process, beyond design options and user-friendly or drag-and-drop interfaces.
Pricing: Actual Cost vs. Advertised Prices
For a lot of platforms, the advertised monthly rate is just the start of how much it costs to have and run a website. You’ll want to understand all of the different things you may be paying for, including hidden add-ons that may show up later.
Things to look for might include hosting fees, blog fees, extra payment processing fees, and higher prices to access video hosting, blog functionality, or higher-traffic for larger audiences. Support may cost more in some places, and design themes may be free or paid depending on which you decide to use.
When you consider all of the costs related to your website, that $10-20/mo rate can go up pretty quickly, so don’t let that deceive you into thinking one is cheaper than another, or if that cheap price only includes the bare minimum & would force you to buy a bunch of add-ons to get a functional website.
Ease of Use: How Much Do You Want To Learn?
The next important thing to consider is how much do you want to learn in order to create, edit, or maintain this website? It’s not a judgment! I swear. This is an important thing to consider, and may immediately eliminate most of this list, depending on how you answer.
All platforms have a learning curve, but some are bigger and longer than others. Some platforms are beginner-friendly, while other builders give you truly incredible design control. In exchange for granular design control, there may be a lot more to learn how to use, depending on your background and experience with this sort of thing.
Neither option is bad, of course; it just depends on your capacity and bandwidth for learning something new, especially if you plan to maintain and edit it yourself.
Figure out which camp you fall into, and it’ll save you a hell of a lot of frustration!
Built-in Features vs. Bolted-On with Third-Party Add-Ons
The phrase “bolted on” always makes me think of Frankenstein 🧟 but I think that’s kind of the point, because it’s describing a monster of ad-hoc connections, integrations, and other mess that tends to feel messy and chaotic on the backend.
Whereas, features that are built into the platform are typically simpler in capability, but don’t require extra effort to connect those pieces to your website, which is often very helpful!
Examples of these added features you might one day need are:
Invoicing
Email marketing
Scheduling
Analytics
Privacy solutions
Course hosting
Members-only or password protected content
SEO tools
and more!
Neither of these are necessarily wrong, but it’s harder to duct-tape these kinds of features together with tools like Zapier, Make, or Pabbly, and it usually costs a bit more too. Trust me on this! The more you have to manually integrate and “bolt on”, the more of a Frankenstein it becomes.
Scalability: Will Your Website Grow With Your Business?
Where is your business or venture headed in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, or even 10 years? Will this current system you choose now hold up for a while as you grow?
The first version you launch into the world won’t be perfect (and that’s normal), but with some platforms you’d be able to stay and rebuild individual pages as needed, or even redesign the whole website without needing to move or migrate a new platform.
So as you decide, think about the things you might want to add in the near or distant future like a blog, video library, course, shop, password-protected content, a membership or forum, scheduling systems, a client or customer portal, etc. Choose the platform that will grow most easily with you.
AI Features Included
Insert eye-roll here. 😂 Whether you enjoy using AI, are sick of hearing about it, or somewhere in between, you know we have to talk about it! This consideration is MUCH newer to the conversation, but since most platforms have their own built-in AI now and more and more platforms are AI-powered and run based on prompts, we can’t ignore this one.
AI-powered website builders, SEO tools, and content creation tools have gone from being useless or gimmicky to being genuinely useful in many cases.
That said, as I hinted at earlier in this post, I don’t think that choosing the platform based on its AI capabilities is the best possible choice you can make. Choose the website builder for its website-specific capabilities, not solely based on how well or how much AI is integrated into the user experience.
AI-Only Website Builders: Are They Worth Using Yet?
By this I mean “AI-powered,” and am referencing website builders that solely use AI to build the entire website with our prompts, like Lovable, Claude Design, Durable, and Relume, etc.
These types of builders are popping up all over the place! Some seem better than others, but since they’re all new and untested for sustainability, security, privacy, SEO, strategy, and other considerations, they’re honestly not what I’d recommend for a serious business website yet.
I know I seem biased saying this, as a web designer!
Honestly though, as an example, Lovable already has a reputation for creating beautiful designs that have absolutely horrific SEO structure, which means the websites it builds aren’t likely to get found by the intended audience because search engines can’t understand what’s on those website pages. (And in turn, that means it’s not worth the time or money spent using it.) That’s just one example!
SOURCES:
I don’t know what the future holds, but at least for now, this is not a viable option yet for anyone that runs a business or needs to be found online by customers, clients, or fans. 🤷
In addition to that, one agency’s ROI comparison (Spark Interact) suggests that AI-built sites often have a shorter ‘average lifespan’ of around 1-2 years versus professionally designed websites lasting around 3-5 years before significant changes or a redesign is needed.
Platform Stability: Is Your Website Built To Last?
The stability of the company itself is an important consideration too. The last thing you want is to spend 60+ hours building your website, or paying someone else thousands to build it for you, then find out the company has declared bankruptcy, being absorbed by a company you don’t like, or shutting down, and is forcing you to move your website to another platform, as a result.
This is yet another reason why I’m not ‘convinced’ by these AI-powered builders yet, because failure rates are high. A lot of these tools pop up fast, and disappear even faster.
Builder.ai is a great example. According to The New York Times, it went from a $1.5 billion unicorn to Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidation within months, after prestigious investors poured $450 million into the company, including Microsoft (which invested $30M in 2023).
And now with vibe-coding being so popular, it’s all too easy to create something that looks legit, but may have near zero users and/or no funding for maintenance, security, updates, support, and innovation. These founders are getting a serious reality check after one founder-focused observation from Forbes Technology Council put it like this: week one is excitement, week three is concern, and by month two, many people are bailing.
SOURCES:
7 Best Website Builders
Most website platforms clearly fall into one of a few categories: ecommerce, AI-powered, all-in-ones, self-hosted, and intended for designers or developers. Once you know which bucket you fall into, the next deciding factors are how modern it feels, how easy it is to use, and how much it’ll cost.
I’m evaluating these based on pricing, learning curve, built-in options vs add-ons, scalability, SEO and accessibility, ecommerce, and long-term stability. Not all of those factors matter equally to every platform, so I’m also weighing these based on what each of these builders are intended to do best.
I’ll also mark which of these I’ve used myself to build websites, so you know whether my opinions were formed with hands-on experience, research, or reputation.
Since there’s truly no one perfect or best platform for everyone (only the ‘best platform’ for your project), these are listed in order of how much I’ve personally used each of these platforms (from most to least), not in order of “best” to “worst.” For each one, I’ll share my opinions, important advantages and disadvantages, and who I believe it will work best for.
1. Squarespace – Best All-In-One Builder for Small Businesses
ALL-IN-ONE • EASY • AFFORDABLE
💡My Experience: I’ve created, edited, and/or managed 70+ websites on Squarespace and I’ve used it for years, making it the platform I’m most familiar with and the one I know inside and out.
Squarespace is the best all-in-one option I’ve ever found, and it works really well for small businesses in pretty much any industry. It combines a professional looking design, with solid SEO options throughout, and built-in features that businesses usually need, like: invoicing, scheduling, basic email marketing, contact forms, blogging, etc., all under one subscription and with a price tag that’s genuinely hard to beat.
While Squarespace is sponsoring this post, I’ve been recommending it for years and years. I’ve used it loooong before this opportunity, and I’d still choose it even if it weren’t sponsored, because it’s that good.
Squarespace fills the sweet spot for so many: it’s beautiful enough for design-forward creatives, powerful enough for more serious businesses, approachable enough for DIYers and beginners, and you don’t need a developer to help you maintain it.
They offer a lighter AI-powered site builder with Blueprint AI which preserves your creative control, or you can choose from a library of basic templates that offer a good starting point with a decent structure and innovative designs that don’t require any coding skills.
It’s the best you’ll get for a real all-in-one option at this price point, providing a website, scheduling, invoicing, basic email marketing, analytics, domain management, courses, members-only content, and shops, all in the same box. No, not all of those features are best-in-class, but they are absolutely enough to get started, test the waters, and put something out there. But Squarespace is particularly good at innovating and adding features smaller businesses genuinely need and the option to keep it all under one roof for a decent price.
The built-in SEO options are solid. It’s a myth that Squarespace sites are horrible for SEO. That, my friend, is actually dependent on us and how we’ve implemented the SEO strategy on the website we build, because it gives us everything we need to be successful if we make good use of it.
Is it perfect? No. But seriously, is any platform perfect? 😂
If you want a high-volume shop, Shopify would be a better choice. If you want pixel-perfect control then Showit, Webflow, or maybe Framer would be a better fit. And if you’re a developer that wants all the customization you could possibly dream of, WordPress is the best option for that.
But for the vast majority of website owners these days, including small business owners, service providers, creatives, and freelancers who just need an attractive and competitively priced website that looks great, works reliably, and doesn’t become a second full-time job to manage, Squarespace is what I’d recommend every time.It’s faster, easier, cheaper, and remarkably hard to break.
Bottom Line: If you want a professional, modern, easy to create, and easy to maintain website that doesn’t take up so much of your time, Squarespace is the best overall platform for most small businesses.
✅ Pros
Good, modern templates that are free to use
Designs look really modern & good, right out of the box
An all-in-one: website, scheduling, invoicing, email marketing, domains, course hosting, shops, analytics, & more
Blueprint AI makes getting started easier & faster
Built-in SEO & AIO options for search visibility
No coding necessary, but code can still be added in multiple areas if wanted
Customer Support is generally available 24/7 via email, or during the week via live chat
Scales well from initial launch to multi-six figure growth
Free trial lengths vary & can be extendable
the normal free trial is just 14 days, but Circle Members can offer clients longer free trial periods to accommodate the time needed to build the website
Community of Squarespace Circle Members (professional users like me) is phenomenal, supportive, & helpful
❌ Cons
No free plan; free trials start with 14 days (check current pricing here)
Not the right fit for serious, high-volume ecommerce or course hosting
You don’t build elements from scratch, which means less granular pixel-perfect design control without adding custom code
Many of the built-in features are basic compared to best-in-class competitors (but you may not need robust options in each of these areas either)
Best for:
Squarespace is going to be the best fit for smaller businesses, service providers, creative industries (artists, musicians, designers, photographers, etc), freelancers, coaches, and anyone else that wants a professional website without the hassle of maintenance sucking up all of their time.
Pricing:
Plans start affordably low at around $16/mo (billed annually), as of posting. Make sure you factor in the additional cost of domains, privacy compliance (privacy policy, cookies management, etc), transaction fees if selling anything on your website, and any feature add-ons when budgeting for this one. Always check Squarespace’s Pricing page for the current rates as that’s subject to change: squarespace.com/pricing.
2. Shopify – Best Website Builder for High-Volume Ecommerce
ECOMMERCE • MODERATE • PRICY
💡My Experience: I’ve created, edited, and/or managed a few websites on Shopify, have used it on and off for a few years, and took a course on the finer points of using the platform, making it the second-most familiar platform I’ve used over the last decade.
If your primary source of business revenue comes from your product sales, then Shopify’s platform is quite literally built specifically for that. I believe it’s the most capable ecommerce website builder currently available, while also not coming with the caveats WordPress famously brings. If products aren’t your sole or primary source of income, then it’s probably not the right fit for your business model.
Shopify was built from the ground up for online shops and ecommerce websites. Meaning, Shopify specializes in building websites specifically for product-based businesses that have (or want to have) serious sales volume, and sell a lot of merchandise as the primary revenue source of the business. It’s the best ecommerce platform on the market, in my opinion, especially for high-volume product businesses.
But it also has a decent website builder, offering a modern drag-and-drop design editor, and a code-free experience with both free and paid templates available. In addition to that, developers can add custom-code throughout to further customize the design or functionality, but Shopify uses Liquid in addition to other code languages like CSS, so it does require more of a specialized skillset to add custom code to this platform.
If you’re a service-based business, coach, creative (photographer, designer, etc), or freelancer, you’ll probably hate it and feel boxed in, but it’s not designed for the service-based business model. Blogging tools and non-commerce pages will feel a bit clunky to design, leaving a lot to be desired.
It’s best at larger shops that either already have or plan to have high-volume sales and a lot of inventory with minimal backend management. The platform provides ways to make bulk changes in inventory, automatically show products where they need to be across the website without duplication, and even connect with a litany of other integrated tools to make it a truly unique ecommerce setup.
The cost can add up quickly, with transaction fees, add-ons for various extra tools & integrations, and a higher starting cost for their lowest plan compared to Squarespace’s entry-level plan.
For the right client or business, Shopify is an easy recommendation!
✅ Pros
Gold standard for user-friendly product-based businesses
Massive app ecosystem
Large template library to fit every budget (some designed by Shopify, but most are designed by Shopify experts, designers or developers)
Exceptional & easy checkout system
Scales well from smaller shops to enterprise systems
Built-in systems for abandoned carts
Customizable email notifications for purchases
Detailed variant control
Bulk actions are available throughout inventory management areas
“Shop Pay” allows members to save payment info to use on any Shopify-hosted store, simplifying checkout for customers
Centralized “Shop” mobile app provides an extra way to be discovered by new customers by allowing shops to opt to be discoverable there too
Manage subscriptions, payment installments, discounts, pre-orders, & more
Strong shipping options
Lots of inventory integrations
24/7 support
AI assistant to answer questions (extremely helpful & effective)
❌ Cons
Overkill for service-based businesses
Free template designs can be underwhelming
Paid template designs can be harder to use, as their editing interface can be a little different between templates
No built-in scheduling options
No built-in email marketing options
Transaction fees may differ between plans, or based on what payment processor you choose
Blogging and non-commerce page designs are clunky
Cost climbs up pretty quickly depending on which extras you want to add
Best for:
Product-based businesses, online stores, high-volume ecommerce, retail brands, and any business model that relies primarily on the sales of physical or digital products at scale.
Pricing:
Plans start at $29/mo (billed annually), which is roughly double Squarespace’s lowest rate, but you get a full storefront and website. Make sure you factor in the additional cost of domains, privacy compliance (privacy policy, cookies management, etc), transaction fees, app costs, and any add-on apps when budgeting for this one. Check shopify.com/pricing for current details.
3. Showit – Best for Creatives & Granular (No-Code) Design Control
DESIGNERS • MODERATE • PRICY
💡My experience:I’ve created, edited, and/or managed a couple websites on Showit, including one of my own. I’ve tried it on and off for a few years, but ultimately don’t enjoy using it, which is why I moved my Showit site to another platform.
Showit is really fun to play with, and it gives designers and creatives much more granular design freedom and control than almost any other no-code builder on this list. BUT, with that freedom comes real tradeoffs because it is a website-only tool that will require multiple additional subscriptions for nearly everything else that’s in your website ecosystem, like scheduling, robust contact forms, email marketing, analytics, etc.
I totally get why designers and creatives initially gravitate toward Showit, because the editing experience feels like using Adobe creative software. It feels so much like a graphic design app! When I use it, I catch myself attempting Adobe keyboard shortcuts (pure muscle memory from using Adobe’s industry-standard creative software for 20 years), and then remember where I am. 😂
With pixel-perfect and super granular design control, you can design a totally custom mobile or desktop website experience that’s unique and great for a design-focused approach.
That said, it’s usually marketed as ‘limitless design freedom’, but I beg to differ! The reality is more nuanced than that, and I found limits on the very first website I built with it. I know those limitations weren’t my own, because even multiple people on Showit’s support team told me that what I wanted to do couldn’t be done the way I’d envisioned it. 🤭 So it’s notactually limitless design freedom, of course.
Showit is purely a website builder. There’s no extras for ecommerce, analytics, email marketing, scheduling, invoicing, domain hosting, course hosting, or even robust forms. Those extras will require a separate third-party tool, and probably an additional subscription, making it a pricier option than you’d expect.
Even blogging isn’t included on their cheapest tier, and their plans are also partially traffic-based, which means the cost goes up with the size of your audience! To add a blog to your Showit site, it’s actually just bolting on WordPress blog functionality, which requires Showit’s Support team to set it up on the backend for you. Then you have to design everything for it as a templated layout system for the blog feed, blog post layouts, etc. To add and publish posts, you have to log into WordPress to write, edit, and schedule them in a separate place, which feels like a disjointed system that can be confusing. On the upside, because it uses WordPress for the blog, once set up correctly, it can be a pretty powerful system with access to WordPress plugins like Yoast for SEO checks as you write.
The Desktop and Mobile version of your website are designed separately, though they can be seen side-by-side in the editor. What you add to the Desktop version gets added to the mobile version automatically, but by default the styles you assigned to that element on Desktop don’t carry over unless you apply the styling to each one, creating an extra step. If you’re not careful, it’ll create a mess that’s hard to sort through and redesign on either version. This process doubles the already elongated design time, when compared to faster platforms.
Showit also doesn’t build responsive websites. Because the canvas-style editor lets you stick any element, anywhere, you’re limited in how the platform controls the location of those elements on the page, as the browser size (width & height) adjusts based on the visitor’s screen size or device. Meaning, while the Desktop and Mobile sites can be customized, the in-between sizes are easily a mess, because the platform doesn’t fluidly adjust the elements & their spacing to accommodate the device being used to view the website.
You get to (or have to?) build everything from scratch. Everything! Header navigation, footer navigation, FAQ dropdowns, slideshows, forms, blog feeds, recent post carousels, popups, announcement bars, —you —name it. Until 2026, they didn’t even have a button element, so you built those from scratch too. You even have to apply the headers & footers to every page of the website, though at least they stay synced to one preset design you assign to the website, so you don’t have duplicates to edit. Recently they just added a “button” element, meaning finally you don’t have to build buttons from scratch anymore! 🫠
While I haven’t tested this in great detail myself, Showit isn’t considered an accessible platform for our website’s visitors, with more limited options for users navigating the web with screenreaders, etc. which can pose serious problems with accessibility compliance laws.
They have a reputation for being the best fit for photographers and creatives who prioritize design (in my opinion, even over functionality), and are already pretty tech-savvy. But my overall opinion is that their websites typically look really pretty, but function poorly because they lack consistent usability structure, leaving that up to the designer or developer. I often find a lot of design issues on Showit sites, because there’s just SO much more room for error.
Bottom Line:
Showit is incredible for pixel-perfect design control if you’re comfortable building a lot of elements from scratch; it’s not the best choice if you need an all-in-one solution or a set-it-and-forget it website.
✅ Pros
Almost limitless code-free design freedom
Design Canvas feels fairly intuitive to use for most basic design elements
Genuinely beautiful template marketplace with both free & paid options
Has a strong creative community that champions the platform
Better Asset Library management to organize all the images, graphics, & logos you add to the site
Great chat support on all plans
Hosting the blog on WordPress adds power to the blog, with caveats
A free 2-week trial
❌ Cons
Not an all-in-one, extra features require more tools & subscriptions
Design freedom does actually have limits, & adding code to further customize things isn’t what they’re known for
No domain hosting, or built-in analytics dashboard
Desktop & Mobile are designed separately from each other
There’s no Tablet version of the website, & the websites are not responsive (don’t resize fluidly based on the visitor’s screen size)
Hosting the blog on WordPress adds complexity in general, hikes the pricing, and adds confusion during setup
Premium, well-designed templates are very expensive, typically upwards of $500 to $1,000/each
There’s no AI builder or AI SEO tools
Prices climb when you factor in all the extra tools & higher tier plans you’ll need for the features you want
Best for:
Showit’s marketed for photographers, brand designers, and other visual or design-forward creatives that prioritize the design over everything else. Typically these folks are already using additional tools they love & want to keep for the extras Showit doesn’t manage, and are also tech-savvy enough to set them up without issue.
Pricing:
Plans start affordably around $22/mo (billed annually), but when you factor in adding a blog they bump up to $27/mo or $39/mo respectively (both billed annually), and that doesn’t include the additional subscriptions for email marketing, forms, Instagram feed widgets, and more. Check Showit.com/pricing for the current rates, and make sure to budget for the additional tools you may need to work alongside your website there.
4. Wix – Best for Tech-Savvy Beginners, or Developers Prioritizing Design Flexibility
ALL-IN-ONE • MODERATE • AFFORDABLE
💡My experience: I’ve migrated clients away from Wix, and I’ve also edited, or tinkered on the backend of a few websites on Wix. I find it frustratingly granular, and not at all beginner-friendly, making it hard to recommend for my clients.
Wix is harder to pin down because the editing experience is much different, depending on which editor you’re using. Their app marketplace is massive, but whether it will work well for you will depend on your attention to details, how tech-savvy you are, and even which editor you choose.
Wix is often compared to Squarespace, but I don’t think that’s really an apples-to-apples comparison. It has a limited free plan, which makes it an affordable option, and a massive app market at your fingertips to help expand functionality of the website as you grow. They also have built-in AI with Astro, but I can’t speak much to that myself as I haven’t used it. And they have a huge library of available design templates to help you get started quickly.
They also have two totally different editing experiences: one drag-and-drop editor for DIYers which is easy to use but also easy to create a mess, and a different one called Wix Studio (previously called Editor X) for developers that requires building elements from scratch like you would on Framer or Webflow.
When people refer to Wix being easy to use, they’re probably referring to the original drag-and-drop editor. They’re probably not referring to Wix Studio, which is aimed at designers and agencies, and feels closer to using Framer or Webflow. Wix Studio is not at all beginner-friendly, so don’t get them mixed up!
It’s a legitimate option for someone who wants more design control than most user-friendly builders, or a built-in app library that rivals Shopify’s, the power of an all-in-one, and an affordable starting point.
✅ Pros
Massive template library
Free plans are available
Large app market for additional functionality
AI tools like Astro are built in
Good for simpler sites that need to launch fairly quickly
Good for developers that want a Webflow-like editing experience with Wix Studio
24/7 support
❌ Cons
Two very different editing experiences, often confusing for new users to understand or decide between
Freeform editor can create a mess very quickly & horrific mobile experiences
Ceiling for design quality is lower for the DIY-friendly editor than Squarespace or Showit
Building common elements (like buttons) from scratch is time-consuming
Can’t switch templates after publishing, without rebuilding the site on the new template
Free plans show Wix ads and their subdomain
Gets pricier as you add apps & functionality to the site
Best for:
Wix seems best for tech-savvy beginners who want a simpler website quickly with more design control, don’t mind starting from a template, and like having the app marketplace available to help them add functionality later as the business grows. It’s also great for developers, since Wix Studio is aimed specifically at the Webflow and Framer fans.
Pricing:
With their available (limited) free plan, it’s a great option if you want to test the waters for free before you commit to a platform. Paid plans start around $17/mo (billed annually), close to Squarespace’s starting price, and apps may cost extra. Check Wix.com/upgrade/website for current pricing.
5. Framer – Best for Designers Who Prioritize Speed & Performance
DEVELOPERS • ADVANCED • PRICY
💡My experience: I’ve signed up for a free trial to tinker with Framer, and that’s it. I’m intrigued, but have never built a site with it myself.
Framer has been getting some serious traction among the Webflow community of designers and developers, because it’s known for being exceptionally fast, but it’s truly NOT beginner-friendly and like Showit, it doesn’t include much of anything beyond the website itself.
Framer started as a prototyping tool, but evolved into a fully-fledged website building platform. Framer is one of the newer platforms on this list, so it still has some proving to do! But it’s already building a fanbase and good reputation among Webflow users, to the point that many are switching over or adding it into their specialty so they can design on either, depending on the project.
Speed is often touted as its best selling point; the websites built with Framer are noticeably faster-loading, which is one of the many ranking factors considered for SEO and user experience design.
They offer a built-in AI tool to get up and running more quickly, which generates layouts and helps build the site faster. This is most useful for designers who want the foundation established quickly, and then the ability to further customize it themselves, rather than building from a blank canvas.
The learning curve isn’t as steep as Webflow, but it’s also not as beginner-friendly as a typical drag-and-drop builder, assuming their users have design literacy.
Like Showit, it’s a website publishing tool, so it doesn’t offer any built-in extras. You’ll need third-party tools for additional features you want to add to the website itself, including ecommerce, scheduling, email marketing, robust inquiry forms, etc.
There’s no 24/7 support, and the support that is available is provided via chat on paid plans only.
No free plan is listed in the table on their pricing page, yet there are buttons which say to start free. The language on their pricing page can be confusing. So, do they, or don’t they, have a free plan? It seems like they really don’t want you to realize they have one, or stay there if you do. 🤭
✅ Pros
Exceptionally fast website performance out of the box
Design-focused interface that will feel intuitive to designers & developers
AI layout engine to create a faster starting point to build on
A growing community of super-fans & a template marketplace
In-house analytics
Multiple hosting options to improve site speed
Includes a built-in site search option
❌ Cons
Confusing ‘free plan’ language
Not beginner-friendly at all
The number of included CMS collections & items in those collections are limited on all plans
Bandwidth usage limits on all plans
No built-in ecommerce, scheduling, or email marketing options, requiring extra subscriptions for additional features
No 24/7 support & chat support is only available on paid plans
Custom domains require a paid plan (so your free plan won’t take ya very far)
It's a newer, untested, platform so the surrounding design community & ecosystem is smaller than competitors
Still maturing as a platform
Less proven at scale than other big competitors
Best for:
Framer is best for tech-savvy designers and developers who prioritize exceptionally fast site performance, a design-focused editing experience with a more intuitive interface to create impressive marketing sites.
Pricing:
Domains are currently free on any plan for the first year, but check the current terms. Paid plans start affordably at just $10/mo (billed annually), but grow quickly based on the scale of the website’s functionality, requiring add-ons for more robust features like A/B testing, relational content management systems, more users (for larger teams), and more. Check framer.com/pricing for current details.
6. Webflow – Best for Designers & Developers That Understand Basic HTML & CSS
DEVELOPERS • ADVANCED • PREMIUM
💡My experience: I’ve used Webflow, took a course on the finer points of using the platform, making it the third-most familiar platform I’ve used over the last decade. Ultimately, I find that it’s not a great fit for my ideal clients, and the builds take longer.
Webflow is technically a no-code website builder with drag-and-drop capability, but you really do need to have a foundational understanding of at least HTML & CSS code languages in order to get the most out of it. That gives designers developer-level control without writing code themselves, but it does assume you understand how the code works and that makes it unsuitable for most beginners.
What Webflow can do both from a design and development standpoint is genuinely impressive! I have taken a detailed course on learning to use and make the most out of the platform, and I really like the concept. It speaks well to my Type-A, highly organized brain that likes tedious details on some level, and building cool things.
quoted clip from Giphy
That said, “with great power, comes great responsibility.” There’s more to watch out for, more risk of breaking something, and it takes a lot more time to create from scratch too. Webflow is NOT for everyone. 😬
The learning curve is arguably as high as WordPress, but for different reasons. It actually sits in an unexpected middle ground, offering way more design flexibility than traditional drag-and-drop editors, but it’s also still much less complicated than coding from scratch and you can preview the changes while you’re working. It’s very purposefully and obviously aimed at designers or developers who already have or are willing to learn foundational code languages like HTML and CSS, otherwise you will be confused and make a mess!
Let’s see if I can explain it! The way Webflow works is by essentially allowing you to write the code as you build by layering the right elements in the right order, on the page. Only, you’re not actually writing any code at all. The reason it’s smart to be well versed in HTML and CSS basics is because the interface references a lot of those terms for div containers, classes, and style properties that are written into the code. So, if you don’t know the terms you’re looking at, you won’t know how to put those pieces together in a functional way.
I’ve heard that they’re also retiring their legacy editor in August 2026, so related workflows are about to change. If you’re just getting started, you might want to wait until that dust settles.
People often get confused on what the client’s editing experience is like when the project is done and handed off, and how it works to host & manage the sites in Webflow as an agency or designer. So be prepared for those things, because the client-facing editor is drastically different from the developer’s editor; that’s not a bad thing, but something to be aware of. There’s also a bit of a weird pricing situation too, which I’ll mention below.
✅ Pros
Truly exceptional design flexibility & gobs of creative control
Build visually engaging & interactive animations, most other builders can’t reproduce
A powerful built-in CMS for more complex websites with a lot of content
No-code, but uses developer frameworks, building blocks & systems
SEO capabilities are strong 7 built-in
An active, but small, community of designers & developers
❌ Cons
Very steep learning curve; not beginner friendly
Pricing is confusing to navigate with a minimum of 2 subscription rates between workspace & website hosting plans
Ecommerce adds yet another subscription cost & there are added transaction fees on entry-level plans
Legacy Editor is retiring in August 2026, so existing users have some work to do or new workflows to learn
No native built-in scheduling, invoicing, or other commonly used tools for service-based businesses
Totally overkill for most small business owners
Support isn’t available 24/7
Best for:
So with the builds taking a lot more time, and the need for code language foundations, it’s not great for quick website launches or DIYers, and it’s definitely overkill for simple websites.
Pricing:
Webflow has a weird dual billing system: you pay separately for your Workspace (your account’s design environment) and your website’s plan (the hosting for the actual website you built), and those are two different subscriptions.
Website plans have a limited free option; paid plans begin around $14/mo (billed annually), while Workspace plans start free or cost an additional $16/mo (billed annually) for freelancers and they go up from there.
If you decide to add ecommerce on top of that, which you can do on Webflow, that’s yet another layer of subscription fees. While site plans start very affordably for basic websites, most websites will want the option to add a CMS for blogging and that pricing is closer to competitors like Squarespace, but that’s before you tack on the Workspace plan, and any other add-ons like ecommerce features. Check out Webflow.com/pricing for their current rates and read it very carefully!
7. WordPress – Best for Serious Bloggers, Developers, and Maximum Flexibility
SELF-HOSTED • ADVANCED • PRICY
💡My experience: I’ve tinkered with a few WordPress sites on the backend, only in the settings & shop or blog pages, and have migrated a lot of clients away from it (moving them to another platform).
WordPress powers more websites than any other platform on this list for a good reason! Its flexibility and extensibility are pretty much unmatched, BUT all that power comes with a bunch of caveats, a steep learning curve, a lot of ongoing maintenance responsibilities, and a total cost that’s not as cheap as you might think.
Ahhhh, WordPress. It’s been around almost as long as the internet. 😂 And yet, I’ve always heard major complaints about it from everyone that uses it! So I’ve purposefully stayed away from it myself, because I think there’s better options for my ideal clients.
That said, you still really can’t have a roundup of relevant website builders without including WordPress, and for a good reason. It still powers about 43% of websites on the internet as recently as 2025, according to W3Techs. Though, I suspect that number includes a large portion of people who just don’t know there are simpler options out there. 🤭
The biggest thing to note here is that WordPress is either hosted or self-hosted.
WordPress.com is hosted, more beginner-friendly; it allows you to sign up, pick a plan, and let them handle the maintenance for it, including updates, security, backups, plugins, etc. This is likely the version that most people refer to when they mention WordPress.
WordPress.org is self-hosted. It’s considered so overwhelming, it’s extremely flexible, and infinitely extensible. Basically, the software is free but you source everything else: hosting, domains, themes & templates, plugins, security, maintenance & bug fixes, updates, etc. There are tens of thousands of plugins for virtually anything you could think of, but adding too many can easily break your website when/if some of them inevitably clash.
With both options, the extreme level of flexibility comes at a cost, and I’m not just referring to your subscription payments. Every update you skip for any of those installed plugins, the theme you chose, etc., provides a potential security vulnerability as well as the possibility that the whole site goes down temporarily when parts of it conflict with each other.
This platform always repelled me because of these things: the cost (and time) required to maintain them, and the Frankenstein'd way it all feels when piecing together all these individual parts, which are all important. The learning curve never felt worth it to me for what either my clients or I needed on our websites. But for someone else who’s entire business model depends on revenue generated from content creation, blogging, and other stuff like that, then the time and effort would likely be worthwhile for that type of project.
✅ Pros
Powers ~43% of websites on the internet
Virtually unlimited design & feature flexibility via plugins & themes
Has a massive community & tons of documentation
Best-in-class blogging features & content management options
.org is free to use and self-hosted (hosting costs extra, elsewhere)
Scales well from a simple blog to a complex or even enterprise website
There’s a huge pool of developers to choose from if you need help
❌ Cons
.com is hosted (hosting is managed internally with WP), which confuses a lot of people
.org requires separate hosting, setup, & ongoing maintenance from a third-party platform
Plugins are overwhelming to find, install, & manage; add too many & you can break things
Security & tech updates are your responsibility on the self-hosted .org version
The learning curve is the most steep, compared to other platform options on this list
Design quality relies on the theme you choose, & that theme’s developer, so websites aren’t consistent out of the box
Can get pretty expensive after factoring in all the added costs
I’ve found that the WP community is generally more gate-kept & protective.
Best for:
WordPress (either self-hosted or hosted) is best for serious or full-time bloggers and content creators that create A LOT of content, and other business models that require a lot of highly customized website features. It’s also great for developers, and tech-savvy users who also want maximum flexibility while also prepared to spend the money or time to learn and manage things properly.
Pricing:
WordPress.org software is free, but you pay for other necessities including hosting, domains, security, plugins, themes, etc., and that can rack up really quickly. Look into WordPress.org for current details on self-hosted websites.
WordPress.com plans start more affordably at around $4/mo (billed annually), and include that stuff in your plan. Check WordPress.com/pricing for their current subscription rates.
Website Builder Comparison Chart: Pricing, Ease, Built-In Tools, SEO + AIO, & more!
Chart Icon Key:
✅ Yes / included, works well
🚫 No / not included
👍 Has it / works okay
👎 Has it / doesn't work well
⚠️ Caution / add-ons or extra cost
💲 Price / pricing note
🏆 Best in class
Why I’ve Recommended Squarespace For Most People For 10 Years
Regardless of whether this post is sponsored by Squarespace or not, it has genuinely been my favorite website builder for a decade! I’ll admit to having a wandering eye at times. But I’ve never left it for my own website, because I genuinely can’t find anything that works quite as well for me.
I switched over to Squarespace from Weebly around late 2016, looooong before this sponsorship was ever even dreamed of. Throughout most of that year, I spent nights and weekends on that stupid Weebly site and could never get it to look like it didn’t belong to a 50 year old man. 😂 Later that year and several complete redesigns later, while I was still trying to find my footing, I stumbled onto Squarespace from one of its pro users. I was desperate for it to feel easier and less time consuming, because I didn’t have the free time outside of my full-time job to spend on my website, I needed client work to fill that time! After using Squarespace for less than a week, I realized it was a game-changer for me, and quickly built out an entirely new website that I was much happier with!
The price difference is noticeable
For about five years, I had a single website subscription that cost less than $25/mo, which covers hosting, SSL (security certificate for my domain), blogging, forms, SEO, analytics, and scheduling. My domain is paid separately, but still through Squarespace, and only costs $20/year. A few years ago, I left Acuity Scheduling (now Squarespace Scheduling) for a third-party platform that offered the same features with a better user interface, so that’s now a second subscription, but I decided to do that on my own, as my business grew and I could afford the added expense and setup time.
With that price, I don’t have to wear 15 different hats, I don’t have to build any elements from scratch including buttons or popups or header navigation menus, and I can have multiple forms, blog collection pages, portfolios, galleries, and unlimited website pages, among many other features. I can edit quickly, and walk away knowing it’ll be intact, updated & secure while I’m gone, too.
One of the most common arguments WordPress diehards always love to make is that self-hosting is free and Squarespace is ‘so expensive.’ 🙄 But WordPress.org is free in the same way a puppy or kitten can be free to adopt or take home: because that doesn’t necessarily also include the collar, the food, the vet bills, the spaying or neutering, the toys, and the treats. The hidden fees to adopt a free pet are like the hidden fees in using self-hosted WordPress; yes, the base software is free, but most of the rest isn’t & you need the whole package to have a decent working website. Multiple former-WordPress designers (who have all moved to exclusively use Squarespace) have all agreed that this price-related myth isn’t wholly true, regardless of how often the excuse is used.
Who owns the content
Another popular favorite (myth) among WP diehards is that we don’t own our content if it’s not on self-hosted WordPress, and that’s not true either. We pay Squarespace for hosting our content just like they pay Bluehost or whoever for hosting theirs on WordPress. It’s no different, except that we get to design & edit in the same place the content is hosted, with Squarespace. Squarespace has the right to ‘use’ our content on our website, in order to display it in their website building platform, but we own it and we can take it elsewhere if we choose.
What Squarespace does best
Squarespace absolutely EXCELS at building easily maintainable websites for service-based businesses, smaller businesses, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, freelancers, artists, musicians, and other creative industries, in addition to bloggers & content creators, course creators & educators, and small shops. Basically anyone that doesn’t want to spend 10-20+ hours regularly updating, maintaining, or securing the website, and needs to feel confident that it’ll still look good on every device, have solid SEO, and doesn’t actually need an ongoing pro for help.
It scales much better than people tend to think, and there are a lot of users making $50k and $100k, even $500k or more a year; they’re ranking highly on Google and running those websites on Squarespace.
Want to see some examples of what Squarespace websites look like across different industries and businesses ‘out in the wild?’ My Club members & I keep a running database: browse real-world examples of Squarespace websites.
The built-in AI, Blueprint, is a great starting point for newbies and delivers a mostly finished product in minutes without stripping creative control from the user when it delivers the final draft.
And with both SEO and AIO optimization options throughout the platform, you have all the opportunities to optimize your website for both search engines and AI platforms like Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and more.
Though I wouldn’t consider myself an expert in this area, not specializing in it myself, Squarespace does seem to be one of the most accessible platforms out there, too, and generally feels more accessible than other design-first builders. 😬
What Squarespace isn’t as great at
I’ll be honest & share my own frustrations with Squarespace, and the disadvantages I see for certain types of users, which admittedly are few & far between, considering.
Their platform itself is widely known for slower site performance than competitors, but since this ranking factor is NOT one of the most important things Google’s looking for when deciding who to put on page one, this doesn’t affect websites unless they’re noticeably slow to load, even to human eyes. So this is a true disadvantage, but thankfully one that doesn’t actually negatively impact us unless it’s genuinely bad. Like, so slow that you have time to get up and refill your coffee before it finishes loading. ☕😆
The most left-behind feature of Squarespace is definitely the blog collections. While they’re still powerful enough to work okay, there are a few features users like myself have been waiting to get back that were removed on the newer 7.1 version, and a litany of new features we desperately need, including but not limited to:
sidebars,
banner images,
table of contents,
progress bars,
template layouts for different post types,
built-in tags & category filters on the blog page,
numbered pagination for the blog feed,
built-in recent posts at the bottom of articles,
social sharing options from post items,
breadcrumb navigation on post item pages,
multiple authors,
reading time,
customizable author profile layouts,
customizable footer blocks on post items,
more efficient management of featured & pinned posts,
advanced post sorting for blog items in the main feed,
and an analytics dashboard for the blog to see which posts are doing well, need updates, and more.
👆 In my mind, those necessary blog updates should take priority OVER ecommerce updates, simply for the fact that the blog is one part of a marketing strategy that can attract an audience; without an audience, no one is buying services OR products, rendering the rest of the list totally irrelevant.
Squarespace has been putting a lot of effort into their ecommerce features the last few years, and while that’s certainly appreciated by many, it’s still not up to snuff with platforms like Shopify, which can process high-volume ecommerce really well. Squarespace was built for ease of use and with a design-first approach, whereas Shopify was quite literally built specifically for managing product-based businesses and ecommerce, first and foremost.
In recent years, Squarespace has also put a lot of time and effort into extending its features to include Courses, Membership content (Members Areas), and Digital Products, but again, while that’s appreciated and helpful for many, the features themselves are relatively basic and users that choose to start with them are likely to reach a growth ceiling and need to move those parts to a specialty platform like ThriveCart (courses & checkouts), or Circle or Skool for communities and memberships since Members Areas can only contain gated content without the forum and interactivity between members. Basically, these features still lack a lot of options that specialty platforms offer in these areas, but that’s to be expected AND not everyone will need those higher-level features anyway.
Pixel-perfect design control is also not a strong point of Squarespace, because its newer editor, Fluid Engine, is designed with responsive behavior in mind as the primary goal. It’s more important to Squarespace that user’s websites look good on most devices easily, than it is for users to be able to put whatever they want, wherever they want, and damn the consequences. 😂 I actually think this is a solid choice, and for pro users that know custom code, you can get that pixel perfect control by adding custom CSS, HTML, javascript and more. In fact, there’s a whole segment of the Squarespace community that thrives on finding new ways to make Squarespace sites unique in new, fun, and interesting ways! They’re quite the inspiration to the rest of us!
Historically, the extensibility of Squarespace has been severely lacking, but more and more that’s changing now too, with built-in integrations for external tools like Kit*, Flodesk*, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and more. With more extension options slated for release soon, I expect this to get better in the coming months & years. In the interim, many tools decided to figure out how to work within Squarespace’s ecosystem regardless, like SquareKicker*, SEOSpace*, Squarewebsites Tools Pro* (Chrome extension), and Will Myers’ Toolkit* (Chrome extension), —so we’re not without options, despite the closed system.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a “website builder?”
Website builders are usually web-based applications that allow you to create and publish a website without needing to write the code from scratch. Most platforms have some sort of drag-and-drop design editor, or are template based, and they tend to handle the hosting of the content you add to your design (text, images, etc), security (to prevent unwanted hackers from breaking your website, etc), and software updates to their system to keep up with updated interfaces, best practices and stuff like that.
The tradeoff is that you get to work within the platform’s user interface, rather than a code document, and that allows you to customize it enough without needing to be a ‘developer’ that writes the code which creates the website as visitors see and use it.
Generally this approach makes it significantly faster to create and publish a website, than the older method of only writing code to build it.
How much does a website builder actually cost per month?
All of these platforms clearly list their pricing on their websites. That said, the listed monthly rate is usually higher than the monthly rate when paid annually, giving you a discount on the monthly payment when you pay for a year upfront. The lowest tier plans usually also offer the least features available.
Once you factor in your domain which is typically at/under about $20/year at most domain companies, and any additional add-ons you want, the real number can climb a bit higher.
Here are some additional costs you might want to budget for, or expect with most of these platforms:
Domain = about $20/year, give or take(example: www.yourbusiness.com)
Custom Business Email Address = about $85/year & up (example: Google Workspace)
Website Legal Policies = good templates range from double digits to triple digits, or you can get a service like Termageddon which will help you keep those policies updated as laws change(example: Website Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Cookies Policy & Consent Management, Disclaimers, End User License Agreement, etc)
Email Marketing add-on = range from free plans to $30+/mo depending on the platform(example: Flodesk*, Kit*, Squarespace Email Campaigns, etc)
Online Schedulers = range from free to $20+/mo, depending on the platform(example: Squarespace Scheduling, Calendly, Cal, TidyCal, Breely*, etc)
Virtual or Physical PO Box = usually about $10/mo & up(example: a public mailing address you can share on your Contact page, in your legal policies, on your marketing emails, etc. ––without sharing your home address, if you work from home)
& more, depending on what else you want your website to do!
Can I build my own website without design experience?
Yes, absolutely! Depending on your natural design instincts, and whether you’ve also studied up on best practices for SEO, user-interface and user-experience, accessibility, website legal compliance, copywriting, and even sales strategies, you may end up wanting some help though.
That said, especially on beginner-friendly website builders like Squarespace, DIY-ing your own website is definitely do-able, and starting from a template will take a lot of that heavy-lifting off your shoulders, making the process easier and faster for you. Of course, beginner-friendly doesn’t necessarily also mean “impossible to mess up”, so I still encourage you to look into those things I mentioned above (SEO, UI/UX, accessibility, legal compliances, copywriting, sales strategy, etc) to give you a leg up on other DIY websites in your niche.
Which website builder is best for small businesses?
For most small businesses, freelancers, entrepreneurs & solopreneurs, creatives, artists, coaches, and service providers who don’t have an in-house developer or designer, Squarespace is the obvious choice. Even if you have a small shop for digital or physical products, sell a course, offer gated content to members on a recurring subscription, need to start email marketing, scheduling, or invoicing, Squarespace will also be one of the cheapest options, even if you add-on those extra features to your hosting plan.
Is Squarespace or Wix better?
For most people, I’d argue that Squarespace is better, with more modern templates out of the box, more cohesive styling sitewide with less effort, and it’s just an easier to use all-in-one tool than Wix’s DIY-friendly option.
However, if you’re a developer, you may lean more toward Wix Studio, which is more of a pixel-perfect Webflow or Framer-like editing experience, and get frustrated with Squarespace’s editor which is simplistic by comparison.
Which one you choose will depend on what you need your website to do, and how you want to use it, edit it, and maintain it long-term.
Is WordPress actually free?
For self-hosted WordPress.org, yes; their software itself is free. However, the software doesn’t include hosting, security, plugins, paid themes or WordPress-specific builders you can install to build your own theme.
For hosted WordPress.com, not really; they do have a limited use free plan, but paid plans start very low making them very affordable, and they cover hosting, security, support, access to plugins, premium themes, and more, depending on the plan you choose.
What’s the best website builder for ecommerce?
Shopify is absolutely the best option for ecommerce! Its non-product page builders and blogging features will feel clunky, but the shop-related features provide detailed inventory management, bulk actions, and customized shop pages that make running a large or high-volume online store much easier! They were built specifically from the ground up to manage ecommerce, so it’s not a bolt-on or afterthought, and it does a great job from small shops to enterprise solutions.
Is Squarespace bad for SEO?
No! This is an old and long outdated myth that perhaps used to be true more than 10 years ago. Squarespace not only provides ample opportunities for optimizing your website with SEO, but now it also offers AIO (or Artificial Intelligence Optimization) so you can also be found in external AI platforms like Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and ChatGPT. Websites regularly rank on page 1 of Google for keywords they’ve optimized their websites for, and they get customers & clients as a result. Even with my historically poor SEO attempts, my own website has grown along with me, almost despite that lack of purposeful optimization. (We never have time to do these things on our own sites, right?!) For the last two years, I’ve been showing up in more AI platforms, and getting inquiries from some of that traffic too, so I can tell you firsthand that even half-assed SEO works well on Squarespace.
Which website builder is best for SEO?
All of these seven main reviewed platforms include everything you need to rank well. In 2026, it’s much less about the platform’s capabilities, and more about how YOU implement and maintain SEO best practices using what’s available to you in that platform.
Squarespace in particular has historically gotten a bad rap for its SEO capability, but that has been largely based on very outdated information. If you see that kind of information in your search for the right builder, you can safely ignore those warnings now. Websites built on Squarespace can easily rank very well with current SEO structure and features that are built into their platform.
The platforms to be cautious about are the AI-generated or AI-Powered website builders I mentioned earlier in this post, such as Lovable, where the SEO structure is often an afterthought… or worse, could be missing entirely!
Can I switch website builders if I change my mind?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yes, but most platforms don’t provide easy ways for you to migrate your content. Most of the time it does require a totally new rebuild on the new platform. However, that’s typically not a bad thing, because by the time you’re ready to move, the site itself is likely due for an upgrade, update, or serious changes anyway. There’s no time like the present to do both a migration and a redesign when the time is right and the need is there!
That said, the one exception to this is WordPress, which does give users an .xml file that Squarespace can import. That import process can actually bring in pages, on-page content, entire blog collections & the comments on those posts, images, etc. However, this is the only platform I’m aware of that works with the Import feature in Squarespace.
Which website builder is easiest to use?
Squarespace. Period.
One of my favorite things is to see my client’s face as I teach them how to use their newly finished & launched website at the end of a project, especially if they’ve just migrated over from WordPress! To see their jaws drop when they realize how easy it is to rearrange or edit the navigation links in the header, or upload images, etc., it makes all the effort of migrating them away from WP worth every second! Because I know they’re walking away feeling empowered, more confident, and have something they can manage themselves for as long as they want, at a potentially cheaper rate than before, while enjoying an easier overall experience.
Do website builders use artificial intelligence?
At this point, most of them do use it in some form or another. That may mean an AI chat bot users can use to ask questions as they build, or AI-powered actions to create a starter template (like Squarespace’s Blueprint AI), or set SEO elements like creating Alt Text for images used on the website (which some users may need in order to ‘see’ what’s in those images, if they have visual disabilities). That said, the quality of those AI integrations will vary across platforms, so I wouldn’t choose a website builder based on its AI features just yet! Instead, choose it for what it’s known for & does really well, and treat any AI features as bonuses.
Are website builders secure?
I’m by no means a security expert, but my opinion is that:
The hosted platforms (like Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, Showit, Framer, etc) handle security for you, and provide SSL certificates, platform updates, and infrastructure maintenance regularly in order to keep your account and content as safe as possible. Those features are also included in the recurring fee you pay to use their platform, which is nice.
While the self-hosted platforms like WordPress.org, leave that completely up to you, making security largely the users responsibility to setup and manage long-term. Since you manage it yourself, it could either be very secure, or…very NOT secure. 😬Skipping any updates across all of your plugins, your design theme, and more, could be the reason your website gets hacked.
Do I need a developer to use a website builder?
For most of the featured platforms on this list, no. In fact, that’s literally the point of why many of these were created, so that building websites didn’t require writing the code to build them. Since it can vary though, between platforms, I’d choose wisely, and budget for asking for help if you need it.
Platforms like Squarespace, Shopify, Showit, and Wix’s more basic editing experience (not Wix Studio), were built specifically with non-developers in mind so that business owners could create and maintain their site without needing developers.
Platforms like Webflow, Framer, and Wix Studio’s editor, are definitely built more for developers than standard business owners with no website-related education or background.
How do I pick a design template in my website builder?
If your platform of choice offers an included free-use library of templates to start with, that could be a great starting point! My suggestion is to pick the template design that has the closest structure & features to what you’re looking for: (examples) the top & bottom navigation have elements where you want them, the contact page has a form you can use, there’s already a blog page set up if you need it, etc. Most platforms will let you further customize your template choice by setting colors & fonts, changing out images, uploading your logo, and adjusting the text & links throughout.
On Squarespace specifically, all of the templates in the current (v7.1) template library for new websites are capable of the same exact set of features. So which one you choose is really just dependent on which one is closest to the end result you want. If you can’t decide between several options, know that whatever option A has that option B doesn’t, you can add to the one you pick. So choosing one of these doesn’t dictate what you’ll be able to set up or add, feature-wise; it just gives you a potentially closer starting point to your preferred end result. All of these templates are also free to use, but you can’t switch to a different ‘template’ (from Squarespace’s library) after you choose, because again, all templates are using the same set of design options, features, and settings.
There are definitely also tons of third-party template shops for website builders, so if you can’t find a template you like, it may also be possible to buy one from a designer or developer, for a smaller fee than hiring a professional to build a custom website for you. Squarespace and Showit templates are very popular options. WordPress also famously has a massive library of themes (templates) to choose from too, with both free or paid options.
