13 Best Website Builders for Small Businesses for 2024

Are you starting a new company or do you want to invest in building an online presence for your brand and expanding its reach?  In both situations, counting on the best website builders for small businesses is going to help you to create an amazing website and provide a unique user experience to your customers.

Having a business website is no longer a differential, but a need. According to a survey made by Statista, in the USA, in 2021, 21% of the consumers used the internet to find local businesses daily. 35% of the interviewees said they make this type of search online multiple times a week.

A well-constructed website helps small businesses to conquer more visibility, create brand awareness, and gives credibility to the brand. Besides, if you don't have a website, you may fall behind your competitors who already are enjoying the benefits of the online world. 

What Is a Website Builder?

A website builder is a service offered by many software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies that enable people to create websites without having code or design skills. It usually provides a drag-and-drop editor so you can personalize each website page, managing, and analytics tools.

Many website builders provide pre-made templates with different themes, for example, for online stores, restaurants, hotels, businesses, portfolios, and blogs. You choose the template that suits you better and personalize the page according to your needs by adding text, choosing the color palette, placing and sizing images, and much more.

To start using a website builder, you need to access the platform of your choice, create an account, and choose the plan that fits your needs. Then you will have access to the necessary tools to start making your pages. If you don't have a budget to enjoy a paid plan, the good news is that it's possible to create websites for free, as many of those platforms offer free plan options.

How Does a Website Builder Work?

A website builder functions as an online platform where you have the tools to create pages with intuitive editors, often using pre-built templates. Instead of using computer codes to make a website from scratch. All you need to worry about is the content and how you wish your pages to look.

Most website builders take care of the coding part that is required to make a website available, however, some of them allow you to customize this part as well. Those platforms often enable you to create pages and manage and monitor them, so you can update them when necessary, add more sections to your website at any time, and check the performance through analytics reports.

Aspects to Pay Attention to Choose the Best Website Builder for Small Businesses

Easy-to-Use Interface

A good website builder must be easy to use. You and your team should be able to quickly learn how to navigate through it and enjoy all its features. Use the free-trial periods to test the website builders, and ensure the onboarding process will go smoothly.

Customization Tools

Adding your brand's identity to your business website is fundamental to having successful pages that convey credibility. Therefore, the best website builder for small businesses must count on customization tools

Hosting and Domain Services

To make it easier to create and manage your website, look for a website builder where you can create or transfer your domain and host your website too. This way you don't need to use other platforms, and can keep control of everything in a single place.

SEO Tools

Counting with SEO tools is a great asset for getting more organic traffic because it increases the chances of your pages appearing on Google's first search result pages. When someone looks for a keyword related to the topics you approach, one of your pages can be shown on the results, leading more visitors to your website, which enhances your visibility.

Third-Party App Integration

The website builder must allow you to integrate with other software, such as SEO and marketing tools, and CRM. So, you can enhance your website and complement it with all the features you need.

Scalability

Choose a website builder that meets your needs as your company grows. You must be able to expand the bandwidth and storage space if necessary, so your website can support higher traffic without failing.

Responsive Design

Make sure the website builder of your choice offers templates that function perfectly on desktop computers and mobile devices. This is fundamental to guarantee your website visitors will have a good experience when navigating through your pages regardless of the device they use.

Customer Support

Unforeseen problems such as a long time to load a page, or broken links can affect your website performance considerably, therefore they need to be fixed as fast as possible. To do that, you must count on effective customer support from the website builder company. Pay attention if they offer 24/7 support, and read the customer reviews to check if they provide good assistance.

Cost

The best website builder for your small business must offer a price your company can afford. Analyze how much you can spend on a website builder plan, and look for platforms that are in your budget. You may even start using a free website builder, and change the plan as your company grows.

Best Website Builders for Small Businesses for 2024

1. Wix

Wix allows you to create, design, and manage your website as you wish. Choose among hundreds of professional pre-built templates, use the drag and drop editor to customize it, add high-quality content, and your website will be ready in a few minutes. You can have an online portfolio, blog, ecommerce, and many other page types. 

The website builder doesn't require you to know code or design to have a perfect website, you will count on intuitive tools that facilitate the work. Your website will be optimized for mobile and SEO, which helps to offer a great user experience. 

Enjoy Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) to get a personalized website without having to make any effort. You will have to answer some questions, and then the platform will build a website suited for you. You will also count on an ecommerce platform that enables you to launch, run and scale your online store. 

Key features:

• Easy-to-use website editor
• Responsive design
• Optimized for search engines
• More than 500 pre-built templates
• Wix ADI
• Ecommerce platform
• Logo maker 
• Custom domains

2. Bluehost

Bluehost is a great solution for small businesses that want to have an online store. With an easy-to-use platform, you can personalize every page of your website without having to be an expert in design or coding. 

First, choose the pre-built template you prefer, then change the elements, such as the font type, and color palette. Enjoy the SEO tools to make sure every page of the website follows the SEO best practices to rank better and appear in the first search result pages of Google and other search engines. 

Bluehost also provides analytics features, automated security updates, backup data protection, malware detection, free SSL, and 24/7 customer support. 

Key features:

• Free domain
• Free SSL
• Free CDN
• Pre-built templates
• Insightful analytics
• Automated security updates
• Backup data protection
• 24/7 support
• SEO tools
• Powerful plugins

3. Shopify

If you are looking for the best website builder for small businesses to open your ecommerce, Shopify deserves to be on your list.

The platform provides over 70 professional online store themes that can be easily customized using the drag and drop store builder, with the tranquility of knowing your pages will be mobile optimized.

Use Shopify Payments to set up payment options with the guarantee your customers' data is secure and protected by the platform.

To manage your store, you will count on multiple tools, including a comprehensive dashboard that gives you a detailed view of your business to understand the sales process and get to know your audience better. 

Shopify also provides SEO and marketing tools to help you make your brand stand out and reach your goals. You can sell in different marketplaces and social media platforms too, such as Amazon, eBay, and Instagram, and manage everything at Shopify with an inventory that is synced to all the channels.

Key features:

• Drag-and-drop store builder
• Pre-built templates
• Designed for mobile devices
• Shopify payments
• Comprehensive dashboard
• SEO tools
• Shopify apps

4. SITE123

Pick from beautiful website templates, personalize the pages with the tools you are going to find in the website editor, and enjoy the free web hosting: SITE123 website builder offers several benefits for you. 

Use its CMS (content management system) to keep your website always up to date with valuable content for your target audience.

The platform also enables you to create an online store, just upload your products, configure settings like prices, taxes, shipping, and payment options, and you will have your store running smoothly. If you have any doubt, SITE123 has 24/7 customer service to assist you with what you need.

To make sure your pages can be indexed by Google and other search engines, all the websites built on SITE123 are optimized for SEO and mobile-friendly. 

Key features:

• Pre-built templates
• Website editor
• Mobile-friendly
• Free hosting
• SEO tools
• Custom domains
• Sell online

5. HostGator

HostGator offers you an intuitive website builder empowered by artificial intelligence. Instead of choosing a pre-built template, then customizing the website, you will start by answering a few questions and the A.I is going to turn it into a personalized design. 

You can create your logo with the online logo creator or use one you already have to add to the website design and enjoy the image library to insert images as well. HostGator allows you to have an ecommerce too, it counts on management tools for inventory, shipping, and taxes. 

To analyze your web pages' performance, HostGator analytics tools give you valuable metrics that help to better understand your customers' behavior. You can test the website builder for 45 days, if you don't like it, they will refund you. 

Key features: 

• Intelligent website builder
• Easy analytics
• Image library
• Mobile responsiveness
• Logo maker
• Search optimized
• 45-day guarantee
• 24/7 customer support

6. Webnode

Webnode has a user-friendly website builder that allows you to choose a pre-built template,  adjust it to suit your needs, and add different types of content. You don't need to install anything to create and manage your website, it's possible to do everything directly in your browser. 

Create a new domain or use an existing one, depending on the plan you choose, you will get a free domain for one year. But, if you prefer, you have the option to use a Webnode subdomain, which is completely free. 

Webnode also provides reliable hosting, fast and smooth loading, and you can enjoy the backup feature to keep your website data protected and safe, in case there is any problem.

You will have access to website statistics to be able to evaluate the performance of your pages and find out where visitors come from, for example. 

Key features:

• User-friendly website builder
• Reliable hosting
• SEO tools
• Pre-built templates
• Extensive image gallery
• Traffic overview
• Form builder
• Create an online store

7. GoDaddy

Are you looking for the best website builder for small businesses that offers a free plan option? GoDaddy allows you to create your website without any cost. It counts on an easy-to-use website editor, and pre-built templates to make your work easier. 

You can have your portfolio online, a blog, and an ecommerce too. As your business grows, you can opt for a paid plan, which will offer more features, like SEO and marketing tools, custom domain, and data-driven recommendations.

It's possible to manage your website, online store, social media pages, and email marketing campaigns in one place, and keep track of everything at GoDaddy's mobile app.

To enhance your online store performance, it's possible to accept multiple payment options, sync your ecommerce with marketplaces, offer discounts, and create special banners for promos. 

Key features:

• Customizable themes
• Search engine optimization
• Web analytics tools
• SSL certificate
• Create an online store
• Custom domain
• 24/7 customer support

8. WordPress

WordPress is one of the most known website builders in the world, and it offers several features to help you create your website as you desire. Select from hundreds of themes and customize them using the drag-and-drop editor, you can start for free and upgrade the plan if you feel the need.

WordPress provides built-in social sharing, which means it's possible to automatically send new posts to social media like Twitter and Facebook.

Use the in-depth stats to know more about the website performance and your visitors' behavior. With the SEO tools, you have the opportunity to make it easier for visitors to find your website with built-in sitemaps, for instance. 

If you want to sell online, WooCommerce enables you to set up an online store with just a few steps. You just need to add the plugin to your WordPress website, then upload products and configure taxes, shipping, and payment options.

Key features:

• Hundreds of customizable themes
• Mobile-friendly design
• Intuitive editor
• Built-in social sharing
• In-depth stats
• Search engine optimized
• WooCommerce extension

9. Strikingly

With Strikingly you are going to have an easy-to-use website editor to develop your pages using a pre-built template of your choice. You can customize it as you wish by changing colors, inserting texts, selecting fonts, and adding images and videos too. 

Strikingly has an ecommerce feature as well, upload your products, connect to PayPal or Stripe, configure shipping, and start selling.

You have the option to include a live chat, sign-up forms, and turn visitors into superfans on your website. Enjoy the analytics built-in to keep track of important KPIs (key performance indicators).

Key features:

• Easy-to-use website editor
• Pre-built templates
• HTTPS built-in
• Analytics tools
• Ecommerce functionality
• 24/7 customer support

10. Weebly

Weebly allows you to build a professional website to help you grow your business. You can choose among beautiful themes developed by professional designers and use the drag-and-drop builder to customize the pages.

Choose unique fonts, insert animation effects, add video backgrounds, include site search, and much more to have a high-quality website.

To guarantee your website will run smoothly, Weebly takes care of the security and infrastructure. You will count on free hosting service, SSL certificates, DDoS mitigation, and 24/7 customer support. Enjoy the SEO and Marketing tools to drive traffic to your website. 

Key features:

• Drag-and-drop builder
• Pre-built templates
• Integrated analytics
• Free hosting
• SSL certificates
• SEO tools
• Create an ecommerce

11. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is one of the best website builders for small businesses when it comes to having an online store. The platform provides you with several design tools so you can customize your ecommerce site and offer an amazing user and customer experience.

To conquer more visibility for your ecommerce, you will count on SEO tools that enable you to create customized URLs, titles, meta descriptions, and header tags.

Another advantage is that BigCommerce also offers multiple management tools, so you can easily control your inventory, segment customers, and keep track of the orders. 

Key features:

• Website editor
• SEO tools
• Ecommerce management
• Create customer groups
• 24/7 customer service
• Integrate with other apps

12. Ecwid

With Ecwid, you are going to find all the tools you need to create an ecommerce site and start selling online. Your website will be ready in just a few minutes with an intuitive website builder that gives you the option to customize each page without requiring coding or any software installation. 

Another advantage of Ecwid is that it has multiple management tools, so you can control everything from its dashboard. It's possible to sell in different marketplaces and social media platforms and have a centralized inventory at Ecwid. 

Key features:

• Design tools
• Add new sales channels
• Create your mobile app
• Automated marketing tools
• More than 50 payment options
• Ship anywhere in the world
• Centralized inventory management

13. Webflow

Design your website, add your brand's visual identity, configure your online store, and publish it: all of this becomes simple with the website builder Webflow. The platform enables you to make responsive templates for your website without requiring code knowledge, you will find several design tools to help you with that.

Use the CMS to write, edit, and update different types of content on your pages, without having to install any software. Once your website is ready and functioning smoothly, enjoy the SEO tools to conquer more visibility, you can create meta titles and meta descriptions, and have an automated heatmap. 

Key features:

• Webflow designer
• Pre-built templates
• Launch custom ecommerce websites
• SEO tools
• Fast and reliable hosting
• Flexible content management

FAQ: Website Builder for Small Business 

Can I build a website for free?

Yes. Many website builders offer a free plan. It's necessary, though, to evaluate if the free option offers you all the features you need to create an effective business website. 

How much does a website builder cost?

It depends on the plan you choose, the type of hosting, and the features you want to have, the prices vary significantly. You are going to find free plans and others that cost more than $100,00, for example.

Do I need to know coding and design to make a website?

No. The best website builders for small businesses usually don't require knowing code or design, they provide you with intuitive interfaces that make it easier to customize your pages. 

Do I need to have my own domain name?

You can use subdomains, but it's advisable to have a domain name of your own. This way, you can have a website address that is easy to remember and spell, for example, with your brand's name, and ending with ".com". 

Choose the Best Website Builder For Your Business

All of the best website builders for small businesses listed present great features and solutions that will help you to have a high-quality website that fits your brand needs and your customer expectations. 

But, how to know what website builder to choose? Make a list of what you wish to have on your website, select the ones that include all of them, and compare the prices. Many of the best website builders for small businesses offer a free-trial period, enjoy it to discover the one that you prefer.