10 Top Free Website Builders in 2021

Our independent research projects as well as honest reviews are financed partially by affiliate commissions with no additional expense to readers.

We all know that the word “free” doesn’t necessarily mean high-quality. This is why we’ve conducted extensive research to provide you with the top 10 free web builders available on the market. You can evaluate the builders against each other using an interactive table, look through our list of the Top 10 to get brief overviews before reading our personal reviews of each platform to get more details. At the end, you’ll know which website builder for free is best suited to your requirements.

Aren’t sure which free site builder to choose? We can help you decide!

In our extensive analysis as well as testing the Wix came in first as the overall winner while GoDaddy was second due to its appealing SEO tools and enhanced functionality in design. Also, Weebly is ranked third, making it an excellent option for small-scale businesses.

We have tested each website builder listed on this list, and built demo websites to test the results for yourself. Explore the full list of builders below and get our expert advice about the top 10 builders for free.

Here are the top 10 free web-based builders:

1. Wix – Best All-Around Website Builder.
2. GoDaddy The Fastest and Most efficient Builder.
3. Weebly is ideal for small Businesses.
4. Jimdo – Small Online Store Builder.
5. Site123 – Made for Simple Websites.
6. Inspiringly designed for simple websites.
7. Webflow – Great for Designers.
8. Webnode  HTML0 – Quick and Simple Setup.
9. Ucraft The best for Multilingual websites.
10. SimpleSite – Great Mobile Editor.

Check out the Top 10 free website builders

Are you in a hurry? Find all the details you require in a single glance using our comparison table that is helpful!

The three major drawbacks to using free website builders is small storage spaces advertisements that are displayed on your website as well as the absence of tools for e-commerce. Also, it is important to determine whether the builder provides SSL security, or else your site will be flagged as unsecure.

The typical storage allowance of free plan is 500MB. However, certain builders like WordPress.com offer more space.

We did an in-depth independent study to come up with this list to provide you with precise and reliable advice. We try to be as transparent and transparent as we can In this way we don’t overlook how free websites are not the most efficient method to create a site. It is your right to know all the details There are disadvantages and advantages for each builder listed in our list.

We’re very satisfied with our research method as not many websites are able to claim they’ve conducted extensive testing prior to making recommendations. This is how our in-house research team goes about finding the most effective website builders that are available.

Each builder is subject to our rigorous study procedure. We study crucial areas like:

• Easy to use
• Design Flexibility
• Cost-effective
• Feature quality
• Assistance and support
• Customer satisfaction

This allows us to rate and contrast builders with a fairness and focus on the factors that have been reported by users to us are important to them.

We also invite groups of regular people to test our builders and provide feedback that we later review. This allows us to:

• know exactly how simple (or difficult) novices find the builder
• Find any problems within the builder
• Customer satisfaction is a key factor to judge

We’ve used this method to more than 50 website builders so far , to give you the most precise outcomes and advice!

Still got questions? Take a look at our guide on the way we conduct our Research for Website Developer Research for an in-depth explanation.

Are you ready to find your ideal partner? Let’s get started!

 

1. Wix

Best All-Around Website Builder

Wix is by far the best all-around free website builder available on the market today.

How Wix did in our study: 4.8/5 stars

What are the implications of advertisements?

There’s a noticeable advertisement banner that appears at the top of all free Wix websites.

What does my domain name appear like?

yourname.wix.com/custom name

How much storage can I receive?

500MB

Start price (if you’d like to upgrade)

A month’s rent of $14 (billed annually)

Our demo website: Lucy’s Cupcakes

 

Wix: A Quick Look

Wix is very simple to use, is packed with features and gives the user total freedom of choice over the layout of your site with its drag-and-drop editor.

Although Wix’s free domain may not be the most attractive however, it can be customized to reflect your personal brand. This provides Wix an edge over other builders like SITE123 which gives you the domain that you cannot edit.

Expert Tips: What We Thinked of using Wix

We utilized Wix to build a completely free website for an imaginary company named Lucy’s Cupcakes The whole creation process took just half a day. Wix was simple to use, yet allowed us the full freedom to design the website look exactly as we would like it to. We particularly like the fact that the template we chose came complete with Wix Restaurant app already built-in!

We liked:

• The ability to create We could drag anything wherever and it was easy to align things precisely how we want them!
• The template options and layouts that we picked for our template came with a built-in menu area included.
• Undo feature can be used by hitting CTRL as well as Z to reverse changes you’ve made. This is a simple but very useful feature.
• It was so easy to change text images, backgrounds, and text just took a couple of clicks. Wix offers an entire library of images in-hand that makes it more efficient!

How can it be made better?

• Onboarding While Wix is very simple to use however, when the editor initially is loaded, it could be somewhat confusing due to the fact that it has so many choices. This could create Wix appear more complicated than it really is. A quick overview could help make the program much more user-friendly for beginners.

Wix has the highest user scores of the builders that we put through tests with users, which means it was the one that people would most likely recommend. It’s intuitive and simple and has was rated 4.4/5 for its ease of use.

With its range of more than 800 templates with the majority of them are completely free – and the wide array of tools and components such as buttons, galleries and icons for social media, Wix makes making your website much easier than it has ever been.

Wix will guide you through the process of setting up. You select the kind of website you’d like to build as well as your business, industry, and then your template prior to beginning building.

We picked to go with the Restaurants & Food industry during the setup process, and were given an array of 68 customized templates to choose from. (We picked one of them, the Ice Cream Parlor template).

The template we picked was pre-loaded with Wix Restaurant, the Wix Restaurant feature pre-installed, making editing the template menu easy and quick.

The majority of Wix templates are accessible for free users on its plan, including our own for our first website for demo purposes “Ice Cream Parlor.’

There are limitations on Wix’s free plan however. First, there’s an ad banner for Wix that stays on when you scroll through the website. It’s not overly glaring and isn’t too obvious in comparison to other builders however, it’s little intrusive and difficult to overlook.

You also can’t use a personal domain (aka a custom website address) – your domain will follow the format yourusername.wixsite.com/yoursite. So instead of lucyscupcakes.com, you’ll be stuck with a much lengthier domain, like this one: carnagelucy.wixsite.com/lucyscupcakes

You must choose an official username and an abbreviated brand name. you’re limited to twenty characters in the “your site” section of your URL.

The free plan’s bandwidth and storage are limited to 500MB. This prevents you from having excessive images or videos on your website and also restricting the number of users you can attract to your site. It is also not possible to sell products using Wix in its free plans.

Plans for premium plans begin at $13 per month. While this might sound expensive, Wix is the best price for a website builder, with a price-for-quality score of 4.5/5 which means that when you choose to upgrade, you’ll be in the right in good hands!

Apart from that, Wix’s price of $14/month Combo plan eliminates ads from your website, lets you create a custom domain and expands your storage capacity to 3GB instead 500MB.

The most well-known pay plan is the Unlimited plan, designed for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It costs $18 per month and removes all advertisements, lets you make use of a personal domain and gives you unlimited bandwidth and 20 times larger storage capacity than the basic plan!

Wix is the building platform our customers were most impressed with.

88% of the people who participated who participated in our testing of users recommended Wix. Create your own free website to learn more about the excitement is about!

Additional Information

• What do these builders have in common? How do they match with each other? Find out more on our website Builder Comparison Chart.
• Check out the most affordable website builders for an affordable builder.
• Do you simply want the very best for your website? Our list of 10 best website builders will give you the most comprehensive list.

For more details on Wix in particular:

• Wix Examine If you’re in search of more details about Wix this is a good starting point.
• Wix Price Guide We take a look at the cost of every Wix premium plan and the benefits you will get for your budget.

2. GoDaddy

Fastest and Most Effective Builder

GoDaddy is an excellent all-round option for building websites. Its user-friendly layout templates along with the SEO Wiz function, GoDaddy is ideal for starting any small-scale business up and running.

What GoDaddy did during our research: 4.4 / 5 stars

What is the matter with ads?

“Powered by GoDaddy” will be displayed in the footer of your site

What does my domain’s name appear like?

yoursite.godaddysites.com

Start price (if you’d like to go up)

$6.99 each month (billed annually)

Our demo website: Lucy’s Cupcakes

 

GoDaddy In A Snap

GoDaddy is a great choice for those seeking to build a professional basic website within a short time. It’s very user-friendly thanks to its ADI function that builds your site based on couple of answers. Since the last time we tried this builder GoDaddy is making remarkable modifications to its design processes, including updated and upgraded templates as well as tools for customization – which is why it has quickly climbed up to second place in our ranking!

This SEO Wiz feature is notable for its speedy and simple function that can help enhance your website, but it’s not equipped with the more sophisticated SEO tools like Wix.

Expert Insights What We Thought About Utilizing GoDaddy

When we built our demonstration website using GoDaddy it was evident that the builder was nice and easy to use. With just three simple questions GoDaddy started making a stunning website which came with tools for customization on the bottom of the page to give it a personal touches. You are able to play with themes as well as fonts, colour schemes as well as CTA buttons.

We liked it. GoDaddy:

• Mobile Optimized Yes you also get to check out what your website looks in GoDaddy’s mobile editor! This allows you to alter size of the font and image so that it is readable across any mobile device.
• It was a breeze to create similar to Wix, GoDaddy asks you what type of site you’d like to make and what the name of your business is, before giving the best themes for you to choose from.

• Simple SEO features If you go to ‘Get discovered by Google in the section Settings, you will be able to begin to optimize your website by answering a couple of simple questions. You don’t need to study any SEO information prior to designing!

The things that could be enhanced?

• There’s not much flexibility for design with regard to block elements. It isn’t possible to move or alter the size of images outside of your site’s parameters, which could be frustrating when you’re trying to create a unique layout for your company’s brand.

In essence, GoDaddy is quite easy to navigate around. The ADI function allows anyone to build a sleek, quick website without requiring any programming abilities. There’s a contact page that is included in each free template, however it’s not as flexible as other web builders available in terms of creativity. The ease of use is dependent on how distinctive you’d like your site to be. If you’re unsure how you’d like your site to appear and are satisfied to the template’s style, GoDaddy will work in your favor.

There are 22 different templates to pick from when creating your website for free with GoDaddy. This is quite limited compared to Wix that offers over 500 template options (most that are completely free) However, the can be quite wide in regards to the overall design. If you’re looking for a more contemporary style and something more traditional, GoDaddy does have a variety of templates. It is also possible to change between colors according to the style of your business once you’ve picked your template!

The only issue is that the templates don’t seem to be customized to the business you’ve selected. For instance, on our website demo, Lucy’s Cupcakes, the templates were not much food-related as compared to the templates that you see on Wix.

In essence the bottom line is that you get what pay for! If you’re opting for the GoDaddy free plan, there are many features you will not get access to as compared to the paid plans. You’ll have to contend with advertisements on your site, no customized domains and limited tools for customization.

If you’re looking to own the custom domain you want and an ad-free website then you’ll need upgrade to the premium plans, which we’ll be talking about in the following section!

The cheapest GoDaddy plan is the Basic plan designed for personal use. It starts with $6.99 monthly. It is discounted for those who choose to pay yearly, the typical cost for a yearly subscription is $14.99 each month. You will have access to a customized domain and elimination of GoDaddy advertisements, as well as the ability to send up to 100 monthly emails to your company.

Small-sized business owners, GoDaddy recommends its Standard plan with a price of $10.49 monthly (billed annually). You will get everything included in the Basic plan , plus advanced SEO capabilities with up to 500 email messages each month.

If you’re a business seeking to expand The Premium plan can help you grow. Starting at $13.99 monthly, you’ll be able to ensure that your clients can make appointments online through the website. You’ll also enjoy a limit of 25000 emails per month!

If you’re looking to get into the market then the Commerce plan offered by GoDaddy is the ideal choice costing $17.49 each month. It comes with everything you need including selling through Facebook and Instagram as well as connecting to marketplaces such as Amazon or Etsy.

For more details on GoDaddy you can go to the following link:

• GoDaddy Testimonial This in-depth review of GoDaddy will give you all you must be aware of this website creator!
• GoDaddy Ecommerce Review Everything you must know about creating the online business in a snap!
• Wix against GoDaddy We look at the different features of Wix as well as GoDaddy in order to assist you make a decision!

 

3. Weebly

Ideal for small-sized businesses

Weebly is among the most user-friendly free website builders available and offers a fantastic plan for small-sized businesses.

What do you think? Weebly did on our research Score: 4/5 stars

What do you think of ads?

There’s a tiny slide up advertisement in the lower left right hand corner (see the screenshots below)

What will my domain’s name be like?

yoursite.weebly.com

How much storage space will I receive?

500MB (with an upload limit of 10MB per upload)

Price starting (if you’re looking to upgrade)

A monthly fee of $6 (billed annually)

Our demo site: Lucy’s Cupcakes

 

Weebly: A Quick Look

Weebly offers a similar drag-and-drop editor like Wix and is extremely user-friendly. Combining this simplicity along with excellent SEO tools as well as a semi-professional free domain as well as plenty of space to grow to grow your website and Weebly is the top free website builder available for small-sized businesses.

As for its score on features we noticed that the platform’s score dropped 16% from the previous assessment it now has a score of 3.5 out of 5 evaluations. This is due to the slow server response speed and its poor mobile format!

If you’re located in the US you could sell your products on your own free Weebly website it’s a fantastic benefit considering that 62 percent of US customers are online shopping more than they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, you’ll be charged the fee of 3% on every sale.

 

Expert Perspectives: What We Considered When Weebly was a possibility

When we built our site demo using Weebly it was easy to use for beginners creating the site was simple. It was less limiting than Wix however, with less templates available and more old-fashioned editing tools.

We liked Weebly:

• The themes that are structured Yes, we found Weebly’s structured themes at times frustrating however, they’re a great tool in implementing design best practices.
• What a simple process to create similar to Wix, Weebly asks you what kind of website you’d like to make and offers customized themes to help begin.
• Its simple prompts for beginners Its user-friendly prompts for beginners Weebly makes it hard to accidentally delete something It always double-checks before deleting anything This is very useful!

The things that could be enhanced?

• The lack of creativity One thing we’d want Weebly to improve would need been its level of creativity. Being more in control of the size and color of your text shouldn’t be an issue – or even necessitate users to code. For Lucy’s Cupcakes Weebly’s sluggish editing options proved to be a hassle when trying to place text on a background image since you’re not able to move a text box few millimeters higher.

To summarize, Weebly is very easy to use. It is built using drag-and-drop technology similar to Wix and Wix, which means anybody can create a website with Weebly without coding abilities.

However, Weebly is more limited with less creativity than Wix and can create issues when seeking to design your website appear exactly what you want it to look. Weebly is the most user-friendly option for those who are sticking to the design of your template.

Weebly has seen significant reductions in our design score when taking into consideration aspects like templates as well as flexibility, UX design, and mobile editor.

In our tests of the platform with regular users, we discovered an underlying frustration users experienced. The templates appeared as boring and uninspiring. The blocks are a bit sticky and hard to play with, which can be an issue for anyone who wants to let their imagination flow!

The main issue we have about Weebly’s templates is their limitation on the creativity they offer. In essence the customization options offered by Weebly are less flexible than Wix’s.

Weebly offers the typical free plan restrictions – no advertisements on the site, no custom domains, as well as only 500MB of storage.

Weebly’s ads are with the bright blue slide-up boxes that pops up when you hover over it.

However, Weebly provides the right to call support for its paying customers You only have access to a forum for community members, chat, and email support with the free plan.

The most affordable plan on Weebly’s list offers the personal plan that costs just $6 per month when it’s billed annually.

We’ll be honest, however that is why we don’t suggest using the Personal package. It doesn’t eliminate ads from your website as well as you won’t receive an unrestricted domain or telephone support. Its primary benefit is that it lets you connect to your personal domain.

Weebly’s monthly price of $12 Professional plan provides better price-for-value that’s why we’d recommend not using your Personal account and moving to this plan. You’ll have Unlimited space and eliminate advertisements from your website and more!

The free plan offered by Weebly is one of the best.

Weebly is the best platform for small-sized companies, and is one of the easiest site builders to work with.

For more information about Weebly check out the following:

• Weebly Testimonial We take a deep review of Weebly will give you all you must be aware of this web-based maker!
• Our Weebly Price Guide Pricing Guide for HTML0 – We examine a deeper review of the prices of each paid Weebly plan.
• Wix Vs Weebly Wix vs Weebly We look at the different features of Wix as well as Weebly in order to assist you choose!

4. Jimdo

A good ‘pre-store’ choice

Jimdo can be a suitable option of a free website builder in case you are looking to create an online store, and sell products on your website at a later time.

How Jimdo did in our study: 3.6/ 5 stars

What do you think of ads?

A small note in the footer of your website that says it was created with Jimdo.

What does my domain name be like?

your-site.jimdosite.com

How much storage space will I receive?

500MB

Price starting (if you’d like to upgrade)

9 dollars per month (billed annually)

Jimdo: A Brief Overview

The people behind Jimdo is committed to helping you build an online presence for free, and they have kept things simple so that you can dive right into.

Overall we’d highly recommend Jimdo for anyone who needs an easy and fast site to serve as the background for your web-based Facebook shop or other similar. It’s possible to sell five items at no cost using Jimdo and it’s simple (and relatively inexpensive) for you to improve your account to increase the size of your store down the line.

Expert Perspectives: What We Thought of using Jimdo

Jimdo is a minimalistic software, and it is evident when you create. There are tooltips for question marks in the editor to assist you with your work, while uploading images, editing text, and changing backgrounds is a breeze.

It’s Good to Be aware of…

Jimdo provides an amazing ADI editor, Jimdo Dolphin, which basically creates your site for you.

While you might not have much creative control however, the final result will be modern, elegant and clean and it’s worth trying to see for yourself. You can always include block elements in the course of your work and alter the layout once you’ve made sure that the ADI editor has finished its work!

Jimdo is generally quite simple to use. It was quite smooth, but did not make us smile. It’s easier to use when changing and adding content to the template, instead of trying to change it or modify it in any way.

In our user tests in user testing, 56% of users said that they would recommend Jimdo to friends. We loved its simplicity however, we were dissatisfied with its shortcomings.

If you’ve already tried Wix and Weebly however, you’ll find Jimdo somewhat unsatisfactory in comparison. The selection of templates is less extensive.

For instance, we selected our sector during setup and then were provided with a variety of templates. The designs were not all pertinent to the particular industry we had selected and it would be nice to have customized designs like you get with Wix as well as Weebly.

The instructions at the beginning are a great way to establish a website very quickly and avoid being overwhelmed by the options.

The domain name format is fairly standard: your-site.jimdofree.com. For this site, for example, ours was lucyscupcakes.jimdofree.com. This is a simple and elegant way of doing it however it also signals to users that your site is totally free because it’s included within your domain’s name.

The free plan does not include banners or pop-up Jimdo advertisements on the free plan, only an inscription on the footer.

In Jimdo’s no-cost plan you are able to offer up to 5 items however, you’re restricted to SEO-related features. Additionally, you’re not able to access to the beneficial analytics dashboard, which is available on premium plans.

Jimdo offers two sets of plans , the one to use its ADI builder and the other that is for the Creator Editor. We utilized the Creator editor for testing and creating using Jimdo.

The ADI editor plans vary from $9 to $39 a month, and are billed annually.

The Creator plans vary from between $10 and $40 per month, which is billed annually.

Upgrades will give you quicker service response time, no-cost custom domain as well as more bandwidth and storage as well as the elimination of advertisements as well as other features like the ability to add email accounts.

Are you looking for a simple storefront?

Jimdo is perfect for creating an easy storefront for your online store, whether you’re selling on social media platforms or are just beginning to get started.

For more information on Jimdo take a look at the following:

• Jimdo Testimonial If you’re looking for more details about Jimdo You can’t miss our comprehensive review.

5. SITE123

Great Design Assistance

SITE123 is an easy to use website builder tool that helps users get online.

How SITE123 was rated in our research: 3.4 /5 stars

What are the implications of advertisements?

A very subtle banner on the bottom of the page that is visible after scrolling down a few inches.

What does my domain name appear like?

Random mixture of letters and numbers with the final ending site123.me. Here’s the free domain for our SITE123 demo website: 5f35237f568e3.site123.me

How much storage can I receive?

500MB

Price starting (if you’re looking to upgrade)

$12.80 monthly (billed annually)

Our demo site: Lucy’s Cupcakes

 

Site123: A Quick Overview

SITE123 is a great choice for those who are looking to build a simple, elegant website. It’s extremely easy to setup however, if you’re looking to think outside the box and challenge the limits of your website’s design then Site123 isn’t the right choice for you. It’s extremely restricted, and the free domain you’re given is a mess of numbers and letters which is an enormous disadvantage.

Expert Tips: What We Thinked of using SITE123

The most striking thing we saw about SITE123 was the extent to which it strives to support you in the process of building your site. From creating your site’s basic design for you, to offering the right font pairings and color suggestions, it’s like having you have someone in your corner from beginning to finish.

We liked it. SITE123:

• What a great experience! If you’ve got no technical skills and are looking for an easy-to-build experience Then SITE123 is the best option.
• The chat supportSite123’s live chat can be of assistance during the process of building and is a great option in case you’re stuck.
• All the help you need to be creative You just need to select your industry and your website’s name and SITE123 will create your site’s basic design for you. It includes pre-paired fonts as well as color suggestions to assist you as well!

How can it be made better?

• The design quality is well known. It’s also no secret that SITE123 offers a the user with a restricted creativity. This could be less of a hassle in the event that design styles were contemporary and appealing. The Lucy’s Cupcakes website was simple to create, however it looks outdated and boring, especially in comparison to the Wix site we built.

One of the things that makes SITE123 so simple to use is its design-assisted tech. All you need to do is select your field from the available options and then enter the name of your website and SITE123 takes care of all the rest. It will create a simple website for you, and you can later modify.

If you want to customize the site, you do not need to code . SITE123 is perfect for people who have no prior experience in building.

The primary drawback one of the major drawbacks the SITE123 website builder can be that it doesn’t offer the option of choosing a template. This is in contrast to Wix, Weebly, and other web-based builders that are free which let you select the design that tickles your liking but with SITE123, you are unable to pick from the various templates that are pre-populated.

Although this is certainly faster and simpler to create but it also means you have lesser control of the appearance and style of your site.

Designer assistant

Instead, you’re using the design tools of SITE123. Select the kind of website you’d like from 16 categories (including portfolio blog, music, and CV) in order to be presented with the default site style. While you are able to alter the default design to an degree, SITE123 scored poorly for design flexibility in general (2.9/5).

The options for customization offered by SITE123 aren’t necessarily the most appealing or thrilling available. If you’re looking to create stunning websites, then Site123 isn’t the right choice for you.

Being unable access a customized domain one of the main drawbacks with websites built for free, but for SITE123 it’s a larger issue. This is because the domain that SITE123 offers is a random jumble of numbers and letters and you aren’t able to customize it.

The result is an unprofessional, impossible to remember domain that looks like this: 5f35237f568e3.site123.me

If you look at the plans of SITE123 through its site, you’ll find two plans: a free plan, as well as an upgrade plan that is priced at $12.80 per month and is annually billed.

After you’ve signed up for an account free of charge However, you’ll be able to access more options of plans that range between $12.80 and up $34.80 monthly (billed each year). SITE123 frequently has a sale in place, so you should be taking a look at discounts if are considering upgrading.

SITE123 will lend you a hand in the design process.

Site123’s design help makes it easier for you to selecting the best design for your website.

Read more about:

• The Site123 review provides everything you must be aware of this free website builder

6. It’s strikingly

Made for Simple Websites

An easy-to-use , free-builder that can create simple, elegant web pages that are one-page.

How Strikingly was rated in our research: 3.4/5 stars

What are the implications of advertisements?

Very small scroll-triggered slide-up advertisement at the bottom left corner.

What will my domain’s name appear like?

yoursite.strikingly.com

How much storage space will I receive?

500MB

Price starting (if you’d like to upgrade)

8 dollars per month (billed annually)

Inspiringly: A Look

Strikingly is an easy and easy-to-use free website builder, which is ideal for personal, not for commercial websites. Strikingly‘s main goal is to get you online at a reasonable cost, quickly and swiftly. This means that you won’t have the same amount of creative control that you do with other more intuitive website builders such as Wix..

Expert Perspectives: What We Thought of Utilizing strikingly

One of the first things we noticed when the creation of a website using Strikingly was how welcoming it is. The on boarding process is quick and easy. tour that guides you through how to customize your template. is easy provided you’re willing to stay with the design.

Strikingly isn’t only easy to use but also fun to use. It’s fun and has a comfortable feel as well as an easy and straightforward editor. Anyone can create a website with Strikingly, and it’s fast as well!

Strikingly could have scored better in our user-friendliness test if it had more control . Our users were looking for an intuitive editor that offered more creativity and freedom.

Strikingly makes one-page websites that have the pre-designed design that you can customize. The first thing to do is pick a template. We picked the template “Pastry Corner” for our site practice.

Contrary to many other builders for websites You can alter your template as often as you want after your site is up and running.

Editing templates from Strikingly is an easy task so long as you don’t intend to alter things too often. With just a couple of clicks, we’d redesigned your template. It’s something like this:

The customization options are pretty limited when we built our test website we would have preferred some more control over the layout.

The right-hand side of the text box up could make it easier to read, however the template’s design wouldn’t permit it.

The good news is that with Strikingly’s no-cost plan it is possible to create any number of free websites you like. You also get 5GB monthly bandwidth, 24×7 customer service, and the option to sell one item per site using The Simple Store function.

Strikingly’s advertising is arguably the most subtle of any builder so far, and the domain name format – yoursite.mystrikingly.com – is especially decent.

Do not be concerned if your free domain appears odd to begin with. Our domain for Lucy’s Cupcakes started out as site-2866940-7308-879.mystrikingly.com – but we easily changed it to lucyscupcakes.mystrikingly.com

The drawback is that, unlike the other builders mentioned above, Strikingly’s plan for free doesn’t include the SSL certificate. Your website will be marked as ‘Not secure’ to anyone who attempts to access your site – not an ideal situation!

You’re also able to create single-page websites with this plan. If you’d like to build multi-page sites, you’ll have to upgrade.

We suggest you try Strikingly’s no-cost plan and moving to the ‘Limited’ plan at just $8 per month after you’re satisfied. You’ll be able to get a unique domain, 50GB of bandwidth per month and the option for you to offer up to 5 items on your site, which makes it an excellent price for the money.

Strikingly is a fantastic option for single-page websites.

Simple set-up and subtle advertising Simple setup and subtle advertising Strikingly an ideal option for any basic website.

Learn more about:

Check out our Inspiringly Review for a comprehensive analysis of this outstanding free website creator!

 

7. Webflow

Ideal for Designers

Webflow is an ideal option for web designers and for those who are able to handle huge amounts of customizing.

Webflow Overview

Webflow is definitely a website builder with web designers in the back of their minds. Instead of the standard drag-and-drop functionality which Wix and Squarespace provide, Webflow is able to work using section blocks and padding sections. It’s a common format for users who are used to huge quantities of customizing, however, for those who are new to the field it could be an overwhelming process to design.

Expert Perspectives: What We Thought of using Webflow

We tried Webflow out on the business we created as a demo named Lucy’s Cupcakes. The creation process took about two hours because of the difference to the well-known drag-and-drop editor that Wix provides. It’s certain that if you don’t have any previous knowledge of using sections block areas and overlays, it could be difficult to navigate through at times. Luckily, Webflow has a virtual designer assistant that gives you an in-depth demonstration of how it all is working before leaving you with it!

What we enjoyed:

• The choice of templates and designs Design and template selection Webflow lets you know the best templates for what industries, and provides an extensive selection of free templates , compared with other builders.
• Webflow’s Creative Freedom gives lots of creative control for users. And, when you sign up for its free plan you will have access to a range of options to customize features
• Effective navigation – Webflow rely on short keys, and right-clicking to take away or insert elements. This allows the design process to be significantly more efficient overall

What can be improved?

Drag and drop of elements even though Webflow was built for web developers, it could be beneficial to add drag-and-drop editor features to make it more user-friendly for beginners! We’ve seen how well this is with Wix for improving the user experience.

If you’re unfamiliar with sections block areas or overlays, you might discover Webflow somewhat difficult to comprehend!

Webflow is heavily reliant on short keys and right-clicking to delete or add elements. This helps make the process of designing much more efficient. However, you do have to learn the dashboard and it may be a bit overwhelming initially. It’s great for those who is familiar about padding and don’t be overwhelmed by the vast quantities of customization.

With both premium and free designs, Webflow does an excellent job at determining which templates will best suit your specific needs . There isn’t real-time search feature that limits the number of templates available for the screen and whether or not they can be used specific industries.

The majority of website builders offer an assortment of templates to suit the blogging business, for instance, it gives an excellent indication of what you can do to improve your blog. This is something that Webflow should definitely add to make your overall user experience more enjoyable.

If you don’t upgrade to one of Webflow’s premium plan, which starts at only $12 per month you’ll not have access to the option of a customized domain name or the latest tools for designing.

Your domain name will look something like this lucyscupcakes.webflow.io, with the free plan which doesn’t look the prettiest!

Webflow’s advertisements will also be displayed on your free website and restricts you to publishing up to two projects at a time. If you want to publish more than that will require you to explore Webflow Site plans which are specifically designed for blogs and personal websites.

Webflow has two kinds of paid plans: Account Plans as well as Account Plans.

The Site offers four levels, which include Basic, CMS Business, Enterprise, and Business (ranging between $12-$36 monthly). We recommend Site plans for websites that are content-driven or blogs since it allows the user a lot of creative freedom, however it doesn’t provide enough space for massive quantities of traffic. Site comes with an e-commerce program which is a better fit to increase numbers of visitors as well as marketing instruments.

Account Plan offers two choices of Individual or Team plans. It’s easy to discern what the features offer! With Teams you are able to collaborate with team members via a the shared dashboard. It can be more flexible.

In essence, you’ll get many benefits when you pay for plans, however if you just want to test the waters using the application, it’s beneficial to give an initial go before you make a decision to purchase!

Do you need a website builder that offers advanced tools for customizing your website?

Webflow is the perfect tool for those who are looking to get more value from their designing process!

 

8. Webnode

Ideal for Event Websites

Webnode  is the most popular choice for web-based websites for free, that has more than thirty million customers across the globe.

What do you think of ads?

Gray Banner in footer area that reads ‘Make a Free web site’ and Webnode’

What does my domain name appear like?

your-site.webnode.com

How much storage space will I receive?

100MB

Price starting (if you’d like to upgrade)

$3.90 each month (billed annually)

Webnode: At A Glance

Webnode is a good option of a free website builder in case you don’t have the time and effort to templates, or you’re looking for a builder with almost no learning curve however, it limits your creative possibilities compared to other builders we have listed.

Expert Tips: What We Think of using Webnode

Even with the somewhat clunky sign-up process , Webnode immediately publishes your template however, you’ll need to login to your email address to open the editor, to begin creating your own design – once you’re inside the editor, it’s a seamless and simple tool to build with.

It’s incredibly simple to create a website using Webnode. The entire process of building a website could be completed in just five minutes. That’s rapid!

There’s no learning curve when using Webnode It’s simple to navigate around the site and begin working on your template. Certain design controls can be found on the settings dashboard which may take a while to locate however, aside from that, everything is in the place you’d expect it to be.

Webnode doesn’t contain anything Webnode that could cause headaches, in the event that you attempt to overuse it.

Webnode is clean and minimal templates to pick from when setting up the service.

It is impossible to alter your template So take advantage of Webnode’s preview tool before you decide to commit to an existing template and begin creating.

Webnode’s editor can be very simple to use, but it’s a far less flexible than free web-based builders, such as Weebly as well as Wix. It’s nearly a drag-and drop editor, but it’s not quite.

You can change the layout of elements however they’ll conform to the predetermined layouts. For instance, if you relocate an image in the center on the screen to its right side, the layout changes to accommodate this change, instead of dropping the image wherever you’d like it. It is a great solution for creating minimalist, simple websites – we suggest it for event websites as opposed to, say corporate websites.

However, we decided to use the “Joe’s Cafe Palace” design for the cupcake site We were delighted with the outcome.

One of the major negatives to Webnode is the small amount of storage available on its free service. It only offers 100MB of storage which is five times smaller than many of the other builders we’ve reviewed.

Webnode offers a useful storage tracker within the settings dashboard. It will show you how much storage you’ve utilized. This can be useful in determining the time for upgrading.

The Free Webnode domain will be a representation of your brand to an degree, but you aren’t able to modify it as you would use Wix.

The domain we got for our cupcake website looked like this: lucy-s-cupcakes0.webnode.com – not so bad as the SITE123 free domain, but not ideal either.

Luckily, Webnode’s advertisement is subtle and small and is placed at the bottom of your website, and not “in the way.”

Webnode’s free plans don’t offer password security as well as backups or eCommerce – you’ll need to upgrade in order to gain access to these options.

Webnode’s most affordable paid plan is $3.95 per month. It is the basic plan, and its primary benefit is that it lets you connect your personal domain.

To increase the storage capacity you’d require the $7.50 for a month mini plan. To eliminate the tiny Webnode advertisement from your site, you’ll require to purchase the $12.90 for a month of the Standard plan.

Do you require a basic event Website?

Webnode isn’t the most powerful however, it’s quick and simple to use – and is perfect for event websites!

 

9. Ucraft

Highly effective in Design and User Experience

The first thing you’ll notice in Ucraft is how much driven by images the builder for websites is. A majority of the templates feature images that fill the majority of the webpage. This makes it ideal for eCommerce websites that would like to showcase their merchandise! The best option when you’re looking for a bright, contemporary design.

 

What do you think of ads?

An Ucraft watermark is added to all websites that are free – you can remove it by upgrading to the Pro plan!

What does my domain name appear like?

yoursite.ucraft.site

Start price (if you’d like to upgrade)

Ten dollars per month (billed annually)

Ucraft: A Brief Overview

Ucraft is perfect for web owners who want to concentrate on the experience of users. Its image-driven platform lets you display your products or services in a striking style, from big images to bright fonts. Although it does not have drag-and-drop functionality but it’s pretty user-friendly with simple templates and easy editing tools on the left side. The focus on design creates a pleasant experience for users!

Expert Perspectives: What We Thought of using Ucraft

The process of onboarding for Ucraft is quite simple. After signing in, you are asked to select your template and enter your business name . Ucraft will then begin making your website.

Similar to the website builders using Ucraft to create a demonstration website for our fictional company, Lucy’s Cupcakes. With no drag and drop editor in place, it proved a more difficult to drag elements across the page! Additionally, due to the site being so heavily driven by images it might be difficult to incorporate all relevant words onto your website.

The design process was all in all, a blast to experiment with and you can get lots of character on the page through Ucraft. This is what we were able to design:

Ucraft can’t be described as the most intuitive platform to work with when compared to other builders! It’s quite restrictive in terms of altering the content blocks as there’s no drag-and-drop editor to use. If you’re looking to change the dimensions of images and text blocks in galleries, you’ll be better off using Wix that gives you the ability to be more creative.

Because of Ucraft having the distinction of being an image-driven tool the templates are designed to be centered around large images that cover the page, and not text. It’s also great that the templates are supplied with an information button that will let users know who the template was designed for. Ucraft templates are sleek and simple with no text – the graphics clearly do all the talking!

As you’d expect, you will definitely will get exactly what you (don’t) get for what you

Ucraft’s free plans limit the number of websites you can create but there’s many things you’ll miss out on.

There’s no accessibility to the tools for SEO, design blogs, or any other tools. Also, you aren’t able to make any sales using a free account! If you’re planning to sell on the internet You should upgrade to one of the pro plans that open the possibility of services for managing data as well as the ability to access Ucraft 24/7 assistance.

The process of designing is by itself much more restricted on the no-cost plan even if you’re trying to establish an internet presence.

The premium plan starts at just $10 per month, billed each year. Although this may appear expensive, Ucraft does have a decent value for money considering the number of features offered as a result.

Tools for managing data don’t come into your system after you have upgraded into Pro Shop for $21 per month. So, Pro Shop might be the best option for you for building your own online shop.

You’ll get a free domain with each of its plans for pro and have access to all Advanced tools, including multiple languages including custom fonts, over 20 different integrations.

You can choose between or Pro Website plan (which is the most well-known option), Pro Shop, or the Unlimited plan. The more premium you get and the more expensive the price therefore make sure you know the basics what tools and equipments you’ll require before deciding on one.

10. SimpleSite

Great Mobile Editor

SimpleSite lets you modify your website from the comfort of your smartphone.

What do you think of ads?

Small white button on the left that reads “Get Your Free Website. Click here!

What does my domain name appear like?

yoursite.simplesite.com

How much storage can I receive?

There is no storage limit, but only 15 pages are allowed.

Start price (if you’d like to upgrade)

$11.25 each month (billed annually)

SimpleSite: A Quick Look

SimpleSite is – as you’ve probably guessed it, a basic website builder that however has some interesting features included in its platform. The mobile editor is a fantastic feature for people traveling. In addition, we’d be inclined to suggest that this builder for free may be a bit overlysimple. It’s best suited for sites for fun, and not any serious project.

Expert Perspectives: What We Thought of using SimpleSite

If you are looking for a website builder that will guide you through the process of setting up different elements of your website step by step, you may like using SimpleSite.

It uses an animated beaver to guide you through the process of setting each page prior to you go into the editor. Although this is useful for making sure that you don’t miss any important information, it can get tedious if you’re seeking some creative freedom.

SimpleSite provides a comprehensive onboarding process that goes through each stage of building your site before you reach the editor. This is great for those who are nervous or new website builders who aren’t sure how to begin.

SimpleSite is a great mobile experience. It’s got a remarkable feature – it offers the capability to build websites to the exact extent as you can on the desktop, however, it is accessible from your smartphone.

This is ideal for those who are constantly moving.

What about the design itself?

In the initial setup process, you will need to select your layout for your website. There were only two layouts to pick from, which was very limited, especially when compared to the builders like Wix or Weebly!

Displaying the mobile view in conjunction with the desktop view is an excellent idea and a more flexible template selection could be the best!

SimpleSite’s free plans limit your site to 15 pages. your site, which would be sufficient for a brand new hobby-related website. It is possible to sell up five items on your free account, as well. the site will be optimized for mobile and mobile-friendly, too.

But, you’re limited in choices for layout, and must upgrade for the purpose of removing advertisements – and eliminate the limit on pages.

There’s just one small ‘sticky’ ad, and again, a decent domain name structure: yoursite.simplesite.com (or in our case, lucysyummycupcakes.simplesite.com).

But there are a few important disadvantages. It’s not possible to alter any mobile versions of your site when working on the desktop, and the premium plan of SimpleSite are quite expensive in comparison to other web builders should you need to use additional options.

Although it offers free plans, the premium plans start at $11.25 and up $26.25 monthly, and are billed annually.

As with Strikingly as well as Mozello, SimpleSite’s free plan does not include the SSL certificate, which leaves your website vulnerable – which is a major negative in our opinion.

SimpleSite offers two premium plans and both of them are expensive for what they have to offer. Its most basic plan costs $11.25 per month, billed annually. For that amount it’s worth taking a take a look at Weebly’s price of $12 per month plan, since you’ll receive significantly more value for the money.

Do You Enjoy Keeping Things Simple?

SimpleSite is a great choice for those who need to edit on the go or the hands of someone else while you create.

Do you want to know more?

• Check out the review of SimpleSite to get a complete review of this builder’s pros as well as cons.

What’s the most important thing to consider when choosing a free Website Builder?

Free website builders might seem at first in the beginning, however we’ve decided to show that this isn’t always the case.

One of the questions we are often asked is, how do these website builders for free earn their income? Are there any shady activities happening? It’s safe and in good standing. These web builders operate in the freemium model of business, whereby the customers who wish to purchase more features can pay for the ones who are satisfied with their basic plan with no commitments.

However, there are some aspects that you need to pay close focus on when choosing the free website builder that you decide to use.

In order to create this list of the top free website builders, we relied on our extensive analysis and user tests for each builder and paired this with the particular focus of their free plans, paying particular focus on whether the builder met these criteria:

Clear domain name

The free website builders don’t permit you to link with a domain name that you have created – but what will the auto-generated domain appear like? For example, a format like IM Creator’s (im-creator.com/free/your name/your site) could make your site look quite unprofessional.

Cost of upgrading is low.

Upgrade to a paid-for plan will bring clear benefits It’s important to be aware of how much it costs.

Very little advertisement

It’s not necessary for us to convince you that a website covered with advertisements won’t look nearly the same as one that’s not! These screenshots will assist you in assessing the ads on each website builder and choose the most minimally intrusive option for you.

Free SSL certificate

The majority of website builders offer the free SSL certificate on their standard sites However, some do not (we’ve highlighted when this happens). If your website isn’t equipped with having an SSL certificate in place, your site will show as ‘Not Secure customers. You can purchase an SSL certificate on your own for about $10 per year.

Storage capacity sufficient

The majority of free website builders have limitations on the amount of content you can add to your website. If you are certain you’d like to upload a lot of videos or images take note of the speed at which you’ll reach this limit.

Simple to utilize

It’s not worth it to find a web-based builder that checks the above boxes and then finding it difficult to use and clunky. We’ve provided an example of how easy each builder is to use in light of our findings and tests with users.

Ecommerce capabilities (optional)

If you’re planning to sell on your website builder that is free it limits your options slightly. Be on the lookout for websites that we’ve identified as having the ability to sell your products on a cost-free plan, such as Weebly.

In the course of making a free website using each of the builders in this article We’ve been able provide an extremely accurate and first-hand experience of the process.

How do I make a Free Website? (Step-by-Step)

One thing that all of the website builders we’ve ranked in common, in addition to being completely free the fact that they are simple to set up and they would not be in the list if they weren’t! The steps and learning curve may differ from builder to builder however, here are the steps you should be expecting:

1. Join the builder of websites. This will require an email address, a password and perhaps an account name.
2. Select a template or answer questions to Design Assistant. This is the first step on the road. Most builders let you choose the template you want to use in this phase, however others will utilize the design assistant to design your website by analyzing the answers you provide to a couple of questions. We’ve outlined when this is the scenario.
3. Incorporate personal content. Get rid of images and placeholder text and replace them by your personal.
4. Modify and personalize your style. If you want to, you can personalize your design even more by trying different styles and colors, and even changing to a different template. Many builders let you change templates once you’ve published however remember that Wix does not.
5. Then press to publish! At this point your domain’s name will be created and your website is live for the world to view.

The process can take anywhere between 15 minutes and a couple of hours, based on how often you change up between step 3 and 4.

Should I upgrade to a paid-for plan?

As we’ve observed, free website builders can accomplish a lot and are able to permit a lot more. Paying does not have to be costly and you can benefit from premium features for as little as $ 6 per month.

The most popular benefits of paid plans are:

Removal of advertisements

If you’re trying to create an image that is professional, having advertising is a much better option than the subtle ones and changing your plan will make your site without ads.

The connection of a customized domain

Again, yoursite.com is a whole lot better than yoursite.yourwebsitebuilder.com, and a whole lot more memorable, too.

Access to storage capacity and bandwidth

As your website expands and your traffic rises it is possible that you’ve outgrown the free plan. It is possible to upgrade your plan to ensure you have sufficient storage so that enough people are able to use your site at once. A lot of paid plans provide unlimited bandwidth and storage and bandwidth, which means you’ll have absolute assurance.

Tools for sales and marketing that are advanced

The tools and features you need to elevate your hobby or business up a notch will usually be available with the Premium plan. Therefore, be sure to at least check it out!

There’s no need to purchase a premium plan at any time however, we believe it’s worth a look or a trial at the time. It’s not easy to put money into an entirely new venture, business or pastime There’s also a bit of ‘fake it until you’re ready and with the added professionality of a paid website and no one will ever know that you’re far from established.

The Best Free Website Builders Conclusion

We’ve provided you with the advantages and disadvantages of the 10 website builders that are free along with the benefits of moving to a paid-for plan whenever it’s possible. Now you have everything you require to select the right website builder, and also to apply your digital pen to the paper.

Here are the top 10 free web builders:

1. Wix – Best All-Around Website Builder.
2. GoDaddy The Fastest and Most efficient Builder.
3. Weebly – Great for Small Businesses.
4. Site123 – Made for Simple Websites.
5. Jimdo – Small Online Store Builder.
6. Amazingly made for simple websites.
7. Webflow – Great for Designers.
8. Webnode • Fast and easy setup.
9. Ucraft The best for Multilingual websites.
10. SimpleSite – Great Mobile Editor.

Our top list of 10 websites that are free rank Wix as the most comprehensive builder with a wealth of features for free. GoDaddy is perfect for SEO as well as design as well, while Weebly is great for small-sized businesses.

Be aware that free website builders tend to restrict the functions and features which are offered to you. You might accept this right now however it could be very frustrating down the time.

While we recommend taking advantage out of the free plan to play, build and play with various builders, we do not suggest staying on a free plan for a long time.

If you’re serious with your site and want others to be able to see it as a serious business If you want to see your website grow, you’ll have for an upgrade account.

There’s no pressure, however there’s no need to rush – None of these builders listed on this list have a limit on time for their free plans and you’re able to remain on them for until you’re ready until you’re ready move your site to the next step.

While you’re waiting, you can try out your most loved free builders – return and tell us which one you liked most!

FAQs

It’s achieved in a variety of methods. The primary method is the freemium model, where the users who pay for their services can support all other users. Another method for webmasters to earn money is to use advertisements on their site (the advertisements are removed when you upgrade the plan you have chosen).

The free websites aren’t SEO-friendly since you can’t connect a personal domain. Your website is part of the builder’s website, making it difficult for search engines such as Google to locate the site, crawl it and index your site.

Website builders can allow you to build professional-looking websites with no cost at all. With these platforms, you can access the majority of features needed to get your website functioning, but obviously, updating your plan gives you access to the latest tools.

You can upgrade to a premium plan at any time you wish to. This will provide you with a lot more templates, tools storage space, and other features that will help you grow your site. The majority of our recommended free website builders are available with paid plans should you want to make a change.

They are free to make use of. Sign up and design your site, modify it, and then publish your website without having to pay any money. But, many websites will lock in specific features when they upgrade you to an paid subscription however these charges are entirely optional, and the total cost is yours to decide.

Wix was the top choice in our analysis for its user-friendliness. Its intuitive drag-and-drop design allows you to build a professional-looking site with no technical expertise. It also offers a lot of control over your creativity so that you can create a fully custom, highly customized website.

WordPress.com is among the most effective blogging platforms on the market. It’s really easy to use, and offers great built-in blogging tools such as social bookmarking, and an RSS feed. It also provides more sophisticated blogging experience overall over website builders such as Wix as well as Weebly.

WordPress.com is the cheapest priced, with prices beginning at $4 per month if you bill annually. It’s followed closely by Weebly starting at just $6 per month, and is billed annually.

It’s important to note that Wix came in first place in our “Value for Money tests even though it has a higher initial cost of $14 for a month (billed each year). You pay what you get for. It’s the top overall web-based builder available that’s available today.

Weebly ranks first in the rankings for top e-commerce builders for free. it allows you to sell unlimited products with their free service! (This option is available only to US merchants only).

Strikingly is ideal for building modern websites in a short time, but only allows you to sell one item on the free plans. Mozello is more restrictive with regards to design however, it allows you to set up multiple languages on your site and allows you to offer up to 10 items through its free plan. It’s ideal for international sales!

It’s not true! Hosting is handled by the web-designer which means that it’s not something you’ll need to buy separately. Remember that, just like the storage plans, these free ones usually have a bandwidth limit and you might have change to a premium plan to gain access to more resources when you begin seeing higher levels of traffic.

Yes! Each of the platforms in this list must modify your website so that it will display properly on mobile. It’s always a good idea to double check this whether as a preview or after your website is active.

We highly recommend squarespace as a site builder, however it doesn’t provide a no-cost plan, but only the 14-day trial. The 10 builders on this list offer an initial free trial that you can keep until the time want, and without requirement to upgrade.

You are looking for a web hosting service instead of a web-based builder? Check out our blog post on the Best Web Hosting Services to help you locate the perfect one.

There are no currently free services available, however you can read our review of the best cheap web hosts for a price-conscious primary consideration when selecting the right web hosting service.