Affiliate & Editorial Disclosure

The Best Free Website Builder: Your Online Business Card

Dragomir Simovic Image
Written ByDragomir Simovic
Updated March 07,2023

Not having a website for your business in this day and age is professional suicide. After all, your site is your online showroom; it works 24/7 and welcomes visitors from all over the world. The best thing is that creating a website is super easy and it won’t drill a hole in your already tight budget.

Our list will help you find the best free website builder that’s easy to use, SEO-friendly, compatible with numerous devices, and offers a bunch of useful features to help set you apart from the competition.

 

Show more...

Strikingly Logo
1. Strikingly
Starts at
$7 /month
GET STARTED
Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

GOOD

Price

GOOD

KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT DETAILS
  • Simple interface
  • Built-in analytics
  • High-quality templates
Jimdo Logo
2. Jimdo
Starts at
$10 /month
GET STARTED
Ease of use

EXCELLENT

SEO

GOOD

Features

GOOD

Price

GOOD

KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT DETAILS
  • Startup Wizard
  • Google and Facebook analytics
  • Intuitive interface
Most free features
Site123 Logo
3. Site123
Starts at
$7.80 //month
GET STARTED
Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

GOOD

Price

EXCELLENT

KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT DETAILS
  • Single and multipage websites
  • A lot of free features
  • Thorough tutorials
Weebly Logo
4. Weebly
Starts at
$5 /month
GET STARTED
Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

GOOD

Price

EXCELLENT

KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT DETAILS
  • Beginner-friendly
  • Inherently responsive design
  • Comprehensive SEO guidelines
Ucraft Logo
5. Ucraft
Starts at
$10 /month
GET STARTED
Ease of Use

GOOD

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

GOOD

Price

GOOD

KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT DETAILS
  • Connected custom domain
  • User-specific content
  • Password-protected pages
Wix Logo
6. Wix
Starts at
$4.50 /month
GET STARTED
Ease of use

EXCELLENT

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

EXCELLENT

Price

EXCELLENT

KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT DETAILS
  • AI-improved editor
  • Numerous building tools
  • Personalized SEO planning
Best for eCommerce
Constant Contact Logo
7. Constant Contact
Starts at
$10 /month
GET STARTED
Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

GOOD

Features

EXCELLENT

Price

GOOD

KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT DETAILS
  • Startup wizard
  • Free logo-maker
  • Free store creation

Get 40% off for 4 months GET STARTED

Best templates
IM Creator Logo
8. IM Creator
Starts at
$8 /month
GET STARTED
Ease of Use

GOOD

SEO

FAIR

Features

EXCELLENT

Price

GOOD

KEY FEATURES
PRODUCT DETAILS
  • Free for students and artists
  • High-quality templates
  • Unlimited hosting

Can you really get a website builder for free?

When someone mentions free stuff, it’s natural to be suspicious. This is also the case with free website builders. There has to be a catch, right? Obviously, creating software takes time and money, so it's reasonable to assume the developers would expect something in return. So, why would they offer the fruits of their hard work for free?

The majority of websites offer free plans that either have limited features or lack crucial functionality. In order to unlock the full potential of the software, you need to upgrade to a premium plan. With that in mind, the idea of finding out what is the best free website builder essentially means choosing a program that will give you as much as possible without you spending a cent.

Our Methodology

In our quest to find the best free website creators on the market, we rely on a set of parameters that are all equally important and relevant for the industry. If you want to see all the little cogs at work, here’s a complete list of factors we consider.

Ease of use

A good website maker needs to be simple and intuitive. There’s no point in getting stuck with software that requires you to know about coding or uses an interface that is too complex and confusing. If you can’t make a simple website within the first few minutes, it’s probably not worth your time at all. The best free online website builder will provide you with an easy-to-grasp tutorial or guide you through the process as you go.

Compatibility

Compatibility is not just about making your website mobile-friendly. Sure, mobile-first strategies are all the rage right now, but why stop there? Let your visitors find you using any and all of the devices they want. You need a program that will let you build a website that’s responsive in design and that you can manually tweak to fit your needs.

SEO

There’s honestly no point in making a website that people won’t be able to find on their own. A decent free webbuilder should be able to offer you at least the basics of SEO. What does this mean? In its simplest form, this means optimizing meta titles and descriptions, adding H-tags, and editing slugs. We give extra points to sites that explain optimization even to users who are not familiar with these terms.

Support

What happens when you stumble upon a problem or just can’t figure out how to create the element you want? This is where customer/tech support comes in. The majority of free site builders also offer live chat support to answer all your questions in a professional, timely manner. There is nothing worse than encountering support agents who just copy-paste answers without giving the issue a second glance. We take note of their commitment and include whatever we find in our reviews.

Extra features

Of course, this doesn’t mean that a good website maker will stop there. Considering site-making is rather creative work, you can expect to see some special features you haven’t even thought about before. Obviously, these platforms get extra credit from us for their effort and creativity; you can be sure this effort won’t go unnoticed.

Price

At this point you’re probably gawking at the screen in disbelief. What is this “price” we’re talking about? You came here looking for a completely free website builder, not something that would separate you from your hard-earned money! While all these builders have free versions, they also offer premium plans with special features, extra storage space, or other interesting benefits.

7 Best Free Website Builders for eCommerce

  1. Strikingly
  2. Jimdo
  3. Site123
  4. Weebly
  5. Ucraft
Featured Snippet Image

Best Free Website Builder Review: Full Reports

Strikingly Review Logo

Strikingly Review

Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

GOOD

Price

GOOD

  • ⦿ Code customization
  • ⦿ One-product store creation
  • ⦿ Built-in analytics
  • ⦿ Happiness officers

The builder uses a fairly simple interface that lets you edit the elements on the page directly. The minimalistic dashboard is located on the left and gives you a nice overview of the sections and external links. At the bottom of the dashboard you’ll get a tour of the main elements, although this tour mainly states the obvious through little popups. Truth be told, the interface is clear enough without it.

At the moment, Strikingly offers more than 50 free website builder templates that you can customize any way you want. This collection is constantly expanding, so you can expect even more designs in the future. In case you don’t feel inspired, check out the Discover tab, which shows you real-life examples of live websites created using this site-maker. All pages you create using this builder are automatically optimized for mobile phones. You may also edit directly through the Strikingly app. It’s worth mentioning that there are no desktop-exclusive features.

The built-in analytics tool helps you keep track of page views and provides information about your visitors. Of course, if you need something more reliable, it’s also possible to implement Google Analytics into your site at any time. One thing you should note is that this free website builder only lets you create single-page sites. If you want multiple pages, you will have to cough up some cash for an upgrade. The free plan also lets you create a simple store with a single product per site.

Strikingly’s best website builder also stands out for its customer support, which relies on so-called “happiness officers” who make sure none of your questions go unanswered. They are fast, polite and, most importantly, knowledgeable. Subscribing to a paid plan will give you exclusive access to technical support. The Strikingly team can add custom code to your desired template and help you personalize your website however you like.

Strikingly’s free webpage builder software does have its limitations. You cannot connect the site to your own free website and free domain, or create a store with more than one product. If you want that, you’ll have to upgrade to one of the three paid plans: Limited, Pro, or VIP. The most basic upgrade is the Limited plan, which will set you back $8 a month (for a yearly subscription) but will unlock many features, give you a free domain for a year, and let you connect your own custom domain. However, your best bet might be the Pro plan, which costs twice as much but gives you a lot of design freedom, including being able to create a store with 300 products.

+ Show more
Jimdo Review Logo

Jimdo Review

Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

GOOD

Features

GOOD

Price

GOOD

  • ⦿ Coding and non-coding versions
  • ⦿ Google Analytics
  • ⦿ Facebook Analytics
  • ⦿ Help center

A straightforward registration process involving email verification is all you need to get started with Jimdo’s best website builder free plan. The startup wizard will help you choose the type of site you want (general, eCommerce, or free blog sites) and the template that works best for you. Depending on your knowledge and skillset, there are coding and non-coding options. As professional as it may sound, the former option merely involves adding HTML codes to your website.

With Jimdo’s interface, all the editing happens directly on-site. The elements are divided into blocks that are fully customizable and easy to organize. The fact that there aren’t that many customization options means your pages will be functional but fairly simple. Jimdo’s editor is also the best free website builder for blogging because it lets you easily create the blog section and edit each post separately. Add dates, categories, tags, or archive old posts with a single click.

If you know what you’re doing, you can optimize your page by changing titles, alt text, or URLs to be a bit more Google-friendly. These are pretty basic, but nonetheless effective SEO techniques that come even with this free builder. The website maker doesn’t have built-in analytics system, but you can integrate it with Google Analytics and Facebook Analytics to keep track of your visitors.

One surprising thing about Jimdo’s best free website builder is the lack of meaningful support for free users. There is no live chat option, so if you need a question answered, you have to send emails or rummage through the site’s extensive support section.

That said, proper support comes with paid plans like Jimdo Pro ($10 a month) and Jimdo Business ($20 a month). The first one guarantees that your inquiry will be answered via email within two business days, while the latter ensures a response within two hours. In addition to that, these paid plans provide you with a free domain for the first year and detailed statistics on your visitors.

+ Show more
Site123 Review Logo

Site123 Review

Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

GOOD

Features

EXCELLENT

Price

GOOD

  • ⦿ A large selection of free features
  • ⦿ YouTube tutorials
  • ⦿ Responsive web design
  • ⦿ Sitemaps

The name of the Site123’s free webpage creator says a lot about the philosophy behind it. Indeed, this company claims to be the easiest website builder, allowing you to achieve your final product in just three steps. The first thing you do is choose the type of site you want to make – a business website, an online store, or a blog. You then choose a name for your site and the language it will be in. The final step is creating your account (your name and your email address), after which the site will be immediately generated. Google and Facebook sign-ins can save you some time with this final step.

Website making sites like this one usually don’t dedicate too much time to explaining the interface right off the bat. Site123 immediately gives you a short tour of the creation process, which is supported by concise YouTube videos of every step. What separates this builder from the competition is the fact that you get a huge number of features for free. You can even create a multi-page site, for which many web builders charge extra.

The templates use responsive web design to make sure your content looks good on any device. You can check it out any time by using the free site builder’s preview modes. In fact, you can design your website directly from a mobile device using just your browser. Although some Site123 reviews complain that there’s no mobile app, the truth is that you don’t need it.

The website can be integrated with Google Analytics and other webmaster tools to help you keep track of your audience. As is the case with most other site builders, it’s possible to add titles, meta descriptions, and keywords for every page. However, Site123 also lets you create a sitemap, which is another extremely important element for SEO.

We need to point out that Site123’s pricing system is all over the place. There are two different pricing pages on the site, and one of them is simply outdated. The new page lists four paid plans starting at $12.80 a month (if you decide to go for the whole year). Of course, considering Site123 is a free and easy website builder, why would you ever spend money on it? With the cheapest, Basic plan, you get a free domain for the first year, 10 GB of storage, and 100 mailing list messages. The option of creating an eCommerce website becomes available with the Professional plan, which costs $28.80 per month.

 
+ Show more
Weebly Review Logo

Weebly Review

Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

GOOD

Price

EXCELLENT

  • ⦿ Step-by-step tutorial
  • ⦿ Drag-and-drop forms
  • ⦿ Fully integrated shopping cart
  • ⦿ SEO tutorial

Weebly’s best website builder is a perfect choice for beginners. Its easy-to-follow tutorial holds you by the hand and guides you each step of the process. As is the case with most other free website creators, Weebly also relies on the drag-and-drop system; you see the element you like from the dashboard on the left side of the screen, then you drag it over to the page. That’s all there is to it. While the simplicity of the process might stop you from creating more complex sites, it is a quick online solution that undoubtedly works well. The same system is used for creating forms, which are essential for lead generation. The data you collect from your visitors is stored in your dashboard, and you can get email notifications whenever someone fills the form out.

All the free website creations you make are fully responsive, which means they work well on all devices. You can test that with preview modes to ensure a smooth run. You can also edit pages through Weebly’s mobile app, which gives you just as complete functionality as you’d get through your desktop.

Building eCommerce websites is also as simple as can be. The shopping cart is fully integrated into the site, while Weebly site builder provides you with a completely secure checkout process. Your buyers will be able to search through the database or filter the products any way they want. This free professional website builder lets you keep track of your products and tells buyers how many there are left in stock. It’s possible to fully customize the delivery process based on the type of product you’re selling (physical or digital form, for example). In addition to that, your eCommerce site includes an automatic tax calculator, as well as cart abandonment email option.

When we said Weebly guides you by the hand each step of the way, we weren’t joking. Even after you’re done creating your desired site, you get an additional tutorial for SEO. Here you’ll receive explanations on how to implement metadata and sitemaps, and optimize your images. It’s easy to understand why many consider Weebly to be the top free website builder.

A Weebly subdomain comes free of charge, but if you want to connect your own custom domain, you have to choose one of the four paid plans. The cheapest plan is Connect; it costs $5 a month and gives you 500 MB of storage, SSL security, and access to customer support through email and chat.

+ Show more
Ucraft Review Logo

Ucraft Review

Ease of Use

GOOD

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

GOOD

Price

GOOD

  • ⦿ Free custom domain connection
  • ⦿ Logo maker
  • ⦿ Display user-specific content
  • ⦿ Built-in optimization tool

At first glance, Ucraft’s free editor doesn’t seem to be all that fascinating. You get to play around with basic elements like images, sliders, buttons, and paragraphs, while the more advanced elements are reserved for premium plans. That said, one important reason why Ucraft might be considered the best free website builder on the market is the fact that you can immediately connect your creation to a custom domain. Most other sites offer this as a premium option.

In addition to that, some of the basic elements aren’t actually that basic. For example, the editor also includes a logo maker, which is fairly easy to use. While you may not get a first-rate design, you will save at least a couple of hundreds of dollars. The logo-maker works separately from the builder and can be used at any time for free.

Another great thing you can do within the free plan is create user-specific content. What does this mean? Well, Ucraft’s best free website builder software lets you choose which content you display to each user based on a number of factors, including geolocation, type of device used, and their current page. Using this feature, you can make sure your mobile users get only mobile phone-related content or that your foreign visitors immediately find content they can understand. The free plan also lets you protect any part of your website with a password, so only people you trust may access it.

Their SEO efforts rely on a built-in optimization tool that allows you to add meta titles, descriptions, robots, and sitemaps. The best free website builder for business lets you integrate Google Analytics into your site and get invaluable reports about your target audience.

One thing you can’t do with a free plan, according to the Ucraft pricing page, is create an eCommerce site. However, a paid version of the builder won’t damage your budget that much. For $10 a month you’ll get pretty much all of the available features and an online store with up to 50 products. In addition to that, you can be sure that Ucraft gets doesn’t take any fee from your transactions.

+ Show more
Wix Review Logo

Wix Review

Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

EXCELLENT

Features

EXCELLENT

Price

EXCELLENT

  • ⦿ Wix ADI
  • ⦿ Message automations
  • ⦿ eCommerce tools
  • ⦿ Personalized SEO strategy

Wix is certainly the most popular best free website builder in 2022, and for good reason. The intuitive software uses trademarked artificial intelligence to learn more about your needs and generate a website in accordance with your wishes. The so-called ADI (artificial design intelligence) works basically like a setup wizard. You get a series of questions about the site, along with design options that match your choices. Within minutes, it creates a full website that you can customize further if you need to.

If you’re looking for a more hands-on approach, there’s always Wix’s classic builder. As is the case with other free website builder sites, you edit the pages as you see them. The dashboard with design options appears only when you click on a section, so everything looks clean and functional. When you add a new section, the builder automatically suggests pages that you should have on your website, like Contact Us or About Us.

The web builder tools are divided into three categories: customer management, marketing tools, and financial tools. The first one lets you communicate with your visitors through messages, live chat, or forms, as well as manage automation and workflow. The marketing tools are all about following SEO guidelines and creating effective email campaigns to promote the site. The third one is essential if you’re on the hunt for the best free website builder for your online store. It lets you add payment methods, create price quotes, and organize invoices.

The aforementioned SEO guidelines are a lot more detailed than one might expect from a free site builder. You get a personalized ranking strategy that helps you optimize your pages, step by step. The checklist offers a quick and easy way to make all the necessary changes on your way to the top.

If you want to improve your site-building experience, you might want to look at Wix’s paid plans. The cheapest choice for a regular website is Connect Domain at $4.50 a month. If you want the free website builder and domain for a year, you should go with the Combo plan at $8.50 per month. The platform’s eCommerce-friendly plans are a bit costlier, but you get a ton of features including two valuable apps: Site Booster and Visitor Analytics. According to Wix, the combined value of these two apps is about $120.

+ Show more
Constant Contact Review Logo

Constant Contact Review

Ease of Use

EXCELLENT

SEO

GOOD

Features

EXCELLENT

Price

GOOD

  • ⦿ Startup survey
  • ⦿ Slider buttons
  • ⦿ Gallery for images and videos
  • ⦿ Free logo maker

Right off the bat when you sign up with Constant Contact, you’re greeted with a set of questions about your business and design preferences. This helps the automated editor select one from the vast collection of Constant Contact templates. You get to decide on the color theme, fonts, images, navigation style, and a couple of other essential parameters. Most free web builder sites offer a limited number of features to their users, but Constant Contact doesn’t seem to hold back in any way. You can customize your chosen template any way you want or build sites from scratch.

The first thing you’ll notice about the editor is its peculiar depiction of your future website. All your pages are spread out on one screen, but as soon as you click on any of them, the builder adopts a much more familiar look. You edit the pages on-site, while the dashboard on the right shows you the relevant settings. This free best website builder uses a simple interface with visually pleasing on/off slider buttons. It is an easy and precise way to add and remove elements from your page as you go. Even though it’s possible to upload your own images and videos to the site, you may also select files from Constant Contact’s gallery.

It’s slightly annoying that this best website creator’s free subscription plan includes a banner ad at the bottom of the screen that can only be removed by upgrading to the premium version. This way you can’t fully enjoy the beauty of the site without reaching for your wallet. On the other hand, you can us the completely free logo maker, which delivers some truly great quality based on your simple input. The logo-maker works independently of the site, so you can use it at any time.

The free plan, however, also lets you create an online store at no extra cost. The process is basically the same; you answer a set of questions and the software comes up with the best possible solution. After you’re done, you can connect the store to the website you’ve previously created and enjoy the full experience.

Unlike the majority of web builders out there, this one automatically calculates taxes based on location, which is a nice touch. You can add up to three products in your free plan, but will have to cough up some cash for more. Constant Contact pricing for the starter pack costs $10 a month and lets you add a maximum of 10 products. However, this is pretty weak in comparison to the Business plan, which costs $20 per month and gives you as many products as you want. In addition to that, you get rid of that unsightly banner, remove transaction fees, and gain access to advanced shipping management.

If you want to check how your top free site is doing, you can use Constant Contact’s built-in analytics. The basic tab will tell you more about your audience, the number of orders, and the money you’ve earned so far. The advanced tab, though, offers a lot more details for free, including useful stats and graphs. Whatever else you might need, you’ll find in the website’s help center, knowledge base, or community posts.

+ Show more
IM Creator Review Logo

IM Creator Review

Ease of Use

GOOD

SEO

FAIR

Features

EXCELLENT

Price

GOOD

  • ⦿ Free for students and artists
  • ⦿ Nearly 100 languages
  • ⦿ eCommerce dashboard
  • ⦿ Popup tips

IM Creator is a website builder with a peculiar philosophy. The company will offer you a free subscription plan if you’re a student, artist, or non-profit organization. The only thing you need to do is submit a request and explain the details of your project. As such, IM Creator is the best free website builder for artists who have a clear vision of what they want to do. The editor itself is quite easy, although not as beginner-friendly as other options on our list. All changes happen on-page with the collapsable dashboard safely tucked away on the left side of the screen. Although you don’t need to know coding to use IM Creator, the site lets you add custom HTML code to the header.

Considering the ambitions of the creators, this project was undoubtedly envisioned as a worldwide venture. That is why it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the editor works in almost 100 languages. To get started, you need to choose one of the many beautiful templates provided by various artists. Online reviews suggest that this is the best free website builder for photographers, and there are at least a dozen templates confirming that belief. You add new sections by clicking the plus button on the desired location. Every new section you add can adapt to the font and the style of the entire website for uniformity.

SEO is where IM Creator underperforms. There are no special SEO features; they’re all combined with analytics in a single, simple settings window. The only metadata you can include is the title, keywords, and the description. 

On the other hand, one of the reasons why many feel XPRS IM Creator is the best free eCommerce website builder is its simplicity. You can either go with a store template or add a store as a section to your already-made site. The eCommerce-specific dashboard will give you an overview of your sections, orders, and products in a simple but pleasing way. You’ll get all the info you need and you won’t feel overwhelmed by the numbers.

There’s live chat support for any pressing issues, but keep in mind that the agents aren’t at your disposal 24/7. Sometimes you’ll have to find an alternative way to resolve your issue – perhaps via popup tips or the knowledge base.

You can get IM Creator’s best free website hosting and builder through three paid subscription plans: Basic, Pro, and Business, costing $8, $14, and $20 a month, respectively. All plans offer unlimited storage and bandwidth, as well as advanced SEO control. The Pro version offers additional security and eCommerce features, while the Business plan will also get you a dedicated account manager.

+ Show more
FAQ
Is Wix the best free website builder?

Although we believe that our list is full of site-makers that can be considered the best for various purposes, Wix is certainly among the most popular web site builders. Wix.com offers a number of great features for free, starting with its intuitive AI-powered editor. Besides that, there is the so-called Wix SEO Wiz, which helps you optimize your newly created pages so you can rank better on Google. Wix also lets you create eCommerce sites with reliable financial tools for dealing with transactions, invoices, and price quotes.

Is Wix website completely free?

Although Wix’s website builder is completely free, there are limitations to what you can do within that plan. Some of the benefits of upgrading to a paid plan include connecting a custom domain, getting the best free website builder and hosting, as well as premium support from the customer service team. The 14-day trial period for one of the paid plans will help you decide whether or not you need it.

Are Google websites free?

Yes, Google Sites is a free online site-creation platform that lets you create a quick and simple website. There are two iterations of the program, old and new, so choosing one comes down to your personal preferences. However, the biggest problem with these builders is that they’re quite heavily limited. There aren’t any special features that you can unlock with a paid plan. What you see is what you get. So, although Google Sites is a completely free website builder with free domain name, it cannot compete with the majority of modern builders on the market today.

What is the best free website builder for small business?

It depends on what you’re after. If you have a demanding target audience that will only settle for the best free website templates, IM Creator might be the right choice for you. If you need a large number of free features to play around with, give Site123 a try. Wix’s ADI builder might help you out if you don’t know exactly what type of design you’re looking for, and Ucraft’s logo-maker will help you establish your brand and corporate identity.

What is the easiest website builder for beginners?

Weebly might be a perfect choice for beginners because it has a simple interface and a step-by-step tutorial. In addition to that, there is an extremely helpful SEO guide that explains everything you should keep an eye out for during optimization. Of course, Weebly is not the only user-oriented software out there. Wix, which is the best free website builder according to many, uses an interesting AI-powered builder that lets you create a website almost effortlessly. Constant Contact features a similar process, in which you answer a set of questions about your website and pick the designs you like. It requires no previous knowledge, so it’s absolutely suitable for beginners.

Can I build a website for free?

Yes, simply choose your favorite best free website builder from our list. There are numerous companies on the market that offer their site-building programs free of charge. In most cases, you can create and publish your website completely to that site’s subdomain. However, you’ll probably have to upgrade your account to connect the site to your custom domain. Companies also tend to lock some of their best features behind a paywall, which is another clever way to tempt you to go pro.