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Free Website Builders: The Best 5 in 2021!
If you’ve watched GIRLBOSS on Netflix, you probably saw how much Sophia Amoruso suffered in 2008 to create an online store for her brand NastyGal. Amoruso was trying to learn coding by herself, but that didn’t turn out to be the best option. Luckily, creating a website today is easier than ever. You don’t have to be a techie; all you need to do is choose a website builder and get started. The best part? You can choose from a variety of free website builders to get started.
Website building today doesn’t require any coding. Instead, there’s a drag-and-drop function and usually, what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG). There’s a variety of options to choose from, depending on what you’re looking for. And that’s why we’re here to tell you about the best five free website builders.
What Are You Looking for in a Free Website Builder?
Free website builders have made our lives easier. They give you the chance to try the website builder you’re using before deciding if you want to upgrade to one of their premium plans, which includes more features. Then, depending on what you need, you can decide on the best website builder for you.
What are you looking for?
If you’re a beginner, probably an easy-to-use website builder. If you’re looking to create an e-commerce store, you might want to use a free website builder that lets you sell for free and has an SSL certificate for a safer website. You might consider other features: storage, bandwidth, and an affordable upgrade cost if you’re willing to upgrade to a premium plan later.
Free Website Builders Comparison Table
| Wix | Weebly | Site123 | Jimdo | SquareOnline | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 500 MB | 500 MB | 500 MB | 500 MB | Not Available |
| Bandwidth | 500 MB | 500 MB | 1 GB | 2 GB | Unlimited |
| SSL Certificate | Available | Available | Available | Available | Available |
| Customer Support | Knowledge base, email ticketing, & phone | Community Forum, chat & email | Live chat & email | Help Center | Email, live chat, & help center |
| Sell Products | Not Available | Unlimited | Not Available | Not Available | Unlimited |
Best 5 Free Website Builders
1. Wix.com
Wix is our number one free Website builder for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s easy to use; anyone can create a website using Wix’s drag-and-drop function. Secondly, it comes with several features that can help you create the website of your dreams. The good news is there are many templates to choose from and customize to be your own.
If you search on google “. wixsite.com/” you’ll get plenty of websites. The first website I found was LASIRS https://lasirs2019.wixsite.com/website or even https://minaandorin.wixsite.com/wedding/rsvp. If you haven’t noticed, both websites’ domain looks like “yourname.ix.come/customname” and so will yours if you create a free website using Wix. The good news is it’s customizable, so you can make it reflect your brand.
There’s a banner ad on top of the screen, as seen in the picture below:
To get rid of the banner and access more features, you should consider switching to their premium plan. Their premium plan starts from $14/month.
2. Weebly.com
Weebly is our second favorite website builder. What differentiates its free plan from Wix is that you can actually create your online store and sell items FOR FREE if you’re in the United States. That’s right! You don’t have to pay a penny.
Your domain will look like “yoursite.weebly.com,” and it’s easy to use with the drag-and-drop function. It’s the best for small businesses, and you’ll even get great SEO tools to help you get a higher ranking on search engines. The only downside of using Weebly is you won’t have the creative freedom to customize everything you want, so it’s a bit annoying.
However, it’s better to upgrade to one of their premium plans, either the Pro or Business.
3. Square Online
Another web builder specialized in online store building by introducing a new low-risk online store feature. Just like Weebly, you can sell online for free when using Square Online. You get many e-commerce features, including curbside pickup, unlimited products, gift cards, a shipping calculator, and more. You can embed third-party apps, and your customers can book and pay for appointments and services, but Weebly gets the standard credit card processing fees of (2.9% + 30 ¢).
If there’s anything you don’t do, you can contact customer support via email, chat, or phone, depending on your preference. I doubt you’ll need that as it’s super easy to use Square Online. The only downside of using Square Online is you can’t customize it any way you want. Pages are ready, and you can add individual elements but nothing extra.
Square Online plans range between $16-79, depending on the features you need in your plan.
Create Your E-commerce Store Now!
4. Site123
The simple three-step website builder, Site123, is the fourth-best free website builder. You can choose a domain that will be written with a site123.me in the end, but there’s only a small ad at the bottom of the page, which is much better than Wix’s banner that follows you everywhere.
What will you be getting from Site123’s free plan?
To be honest, if you’re a beginner, it’s a great option; however, there’s no room for creativity, and the designs are outdated. Still, some popups help you get started. If that’s not enough, you can contact customer support; they’re friendly and helpful.
You can upgrade to their premium plan later if you decide to get more traffic or anything—Site123’s premium plan for $5.8/month. If you didn’t like, it there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee, so your money won’t go to waste.
5. Jimdo
The host of 20 million websites, Jimdo, gives you the chance to create a free website. What’s so special about Jimdo? Let’s take a look:
Jimdo is a good choice if you’re creating an online store and want to sell products later on. They still give you a chance to sup top-to 5 products with their free plan. If you’re looking to grow and expand, you’ll have to upgrade to their premium plan.
Jimdo’s free plan includes a domain like “your-site.jimdosite.com,” and there’s only a small ad in the footer. The Brightside of using Jimdo is a piece of cake, especially if you’re adding content rather than customizing it; that’s why Jimdo’s there to help you. Jimdo asks you a few questions, where you choose to create a site with no coding required or use the editor for coding experts. The first option will create your site using artificial design intelligence (ADI), so you won’t be able to control your design comfortably.
If you need any help, you can contact their multilingual customer support. However, their premium plan subscribers are their top priority. Their premium plan range between $9-$39, depending on the features you want. Plus, there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Should You Consider Upgrading?
The question remains, should you use a premium plan instead of the free one? You can try using the free website builders, but you won’t benefit from the features available in paid plans; these include ad-free websites, custom domain, and even more tools for your online store or website. Plus, premium doesn’t have to mean expensive; it all depends on the web builder and the plan you’re going to choose. You can always try a premium plan and get a refund; most website builders have a money-back guarantee or a free trial to help you decide what you want.
It’s your call!
Conclusion
All in all, if you’re looking to create a website, it’s great to have the option of creating a free website builder. Of course, you won’t benefit from the premium plans’ features, but you can always upgrade. Depending on what you’re looking for, we have listed our best 5 free website builders as follows:
Other free website builders can pressure you to upgrade to a premium plan, which can be extremely limited or hard to use. Our top 5 are all easy to use and offer great features for a free plan.