Offering a website building plan for free was a given expectation to qualify for our list, so providers were then gauged on the merits of what was available with their free plans and then by how affordable and valuable their paid plans were to users. The more value a user was able to get from upgrading to paid website builder plans, the better a provider did in this category. More affordable pricing plans were also looked upon favorably. This accounted for 20% of our weighted scoring.
One catch that comes with some free plans is that there are either few features available or that the features are only available for additional fees. For general features, we looked at what a web builder offered as part of its base plan and then what was available either through upgrading to paid plans or by paying for add-ons, such as plugins. Some of the features we considered essential in base plans included offering the ability to create mobile-responsive sites, drag-and-drop functionality, unlimited storage and bandwidth, email marketing and social marketing tools. Features accounted for 40% of our total score.
How well real users of these website builders viewed their experiences with them was also important to our final review. We turned to third-party review sites, such as G2, and Trustpilot, looking to gauge their opinion of each provider in regard to usefulness, customer support and other factors. Seeking reviews of at least 3.5 or higher out of 5, we were able to get a clearer picture of the best website builders available today. These accounted for 10% of the total score.
Tying all of this together, we also ranked additional criteria such as ease of use, stand-out and detailed features, popularity and value for the money. Altogether, these criteria made up 30% of the final score.
The best website builder depends on your needs. Most free website builders offer the same basic features, but some platforms emphasize one function over another. WordPress.com is best for new bloggers while Weebly and GoDaddy are best for online stores. Mailchimp is perfect for solopreneurs, and Wix is great for local businesses.
Wix and Weebly offer some of the simplest tools for building a website with no knowledge of design or code. Mailchimp and GoDaddy are strong competitors, although their emphasis on marketing suites might make the tools feel more complex for complete beginners. WordPress is the most robust option and also the most complex because of its sophisticated content management options.
Several platforms make it easy to build and publish a website online for free, including the free website builders listed above. Once you choose a builder, you can choose a theme or template for your site’s design and functionality, then add your content and publish when it’s ready.
Free website hosting does exist, but it’s generally a risky option. You might open yourself to security problems with a free web host, so a paid provider is usually a safer option. Many of the free website builders listed above include reputable free web hosting with their free plans; you’ll just have to use their branded domain.
Many free website builders come with a free subdomain, such as yoursite.wordpress.com or yoursite.squarespace.com, that you can use to publish your website without buying a domain name. Free or low-cost domain names are available, but you might have to settle for an uncommon domain extension, such as .xyz.
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CEPF®, Small Business Expert Writer, author of YOU DON'T NEED A BUDGETDana Miranda is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance® who's been writing about money management and small business operations for more than a decade. She writes the newsletter Healthy Rich about how capitalism impacts the ways we think, teach and talk about money. She's the author of YOU DON'T NEED A BUDGET (Little, Brown Spark, 2024).
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