The best website builder for your business depends on what type of website you want to build.

• Best website builder for new ecommerce stores: Shopify
• Best website builder for those with experience: WordPress
• Best website builder for portfolios: Squarespace
• Best free website builder: Weebly
• Best website builder for blogs: WordPress
• Best no code website builder: Webflow 

You can build a small basic website for free with Weebly. Or if you need to add more advanced features to your site, you can buy monthly packages starting from just £3.

If you need professional help from a website developer, a small business website may cost anywhere from £1,000 upwards. 

Custom websites with advanced functionality built by developers can cost thousands.

Website builders – such as the ones featured on this page – offer you an affordable way to start a professional looking website that does exactly what you need it to do.

For eCommerce, Shopify is the easiest website to start off with as it’s incredibly simple to use, with drag and drop builders. 

We recommend WordPress if you have experience of designing websites, or have a budget to use for a web developer.

If you’re looking to start a basic blog or portfolio website, check out Wix, Weebly or Squarespace.

Weebly is the cheapest website builder with it’s free plan. Followed by Wix and WordPress with low cost plans starting from £3 per month.

Need help choosing between website builders? 

Click here to read our review of the 5 best free website builders, or use the website builder comparison tool on this page.

It’s possible to build a website by yourself, ‘from scratch’. However, it’s a complicated process, and it requires you to be very familiar with coding and technology.

Just to give you an example, here are some of the things you need to understand to build your own website, without using a website building tool:

• Basic markup, such as HTML and CSS
• A scripting language, like Javascript or PHP
• How to register a domain name
• How to host a site on a server
• The basics of computer networking, including security
• Web design principles, like what fonts and colours are ‘safe’ to use
• What features are and aren’t supported by different browsers

…and the list goes on.

Twenty years ago, it was easy to put up a website by yourself in the space of a few hours.

But nowadays, websites have to do a lot more. We expect them to be able to remember our preferences, to have sleek animations and glossy images as well as being secure on all devices. 

It’s for these reasons that more and more businesses are turning to website builder tools to build their website quickly, easily and at low cost.

There is no set cost for building a website. You can spend as little or as much as you want on one, from a few pounds to hundreds of thousands.

Some services, such as Weebly, even let you create one for free. Of course, that free plan is missing several features that you would expect on most websites. For example, it contains ads for Weebly that you can’t remove without upgrading to one of their paid tiers. It’s still a good deal, but might not be right for a professional business site. 

When it comes to paid website builders, the most common form of payment is a subscription model. This means that instead of one lump sum, you pay a small subscription for every month to keep your website online.

These prices are usually in the range of £10 to £50 a month – Squarespace’s most expensive plan, for example, is only $30/month. 

An increase in monthly subscription price will usually provide you more features and analytics with your website: if you’re on a budget and know you won’t need the more advanced features, it’s best to choose a lower tier – you can always upgrade.

On the more expensive side of the spectrum, you can pay someone to build a website for you. There are hundreds, if not thousands of freelance website designers out there, and their expertise means you’ll get exactly the kind of site you want – no compromises.

The downside, of course, is that they can charge anywhere up to $75 an hour, which is often outside the budget of small businesses or startups.

That said, it can still be worth keeping freelancers in mind if you’re not satisfied with your website builder and want someone with technical knowledge to tweak it for you.

The best free website builder is Weebly. This is because it offers a free plan designed to help you get a small business website live, quick.

You can start a free trial with Wix, Squarespace, Shopify and WordPress to see how you find the platform, prior to signing up for one of their paid plans.

Check out this review of Wix vs Squarespace or this guide to the best free website builders. Use our comparison tool below to find a website builder that’s best for you. 

Overall the best website builder 2021 is WordPress. However it may not be suitable for beginners. 

Check out this guide to see the best website builders for small businesses. 

If you’re starting an online store, this guide will help you decide how to build your website.

Static / Informational Website

The word ‘static’ is often used in computing to mean something that doesn’t change, or isn’t interactive. A static webpage, then, is the simplest kind of page you can get.

It’s nothing more than a collection of images, text and other media that doesn’t respond to user input. Static websites might seem pretty basic, but they’re great for displaying information, like a company’s homepage.

All you really need in terms of interactivity are links to different parts of the site – ‘about us’, ‘FAQs’, ‘contact details’, etc.

These sites are amongst the easiest to create with all website builders. With their pre-built themes, you can often get one up and running in under half an hour.

Blogs

Blog websites are incredibly popular and there are a variety of different blogging platforms you can use to start a blog.

A blog typically features written content, videos, photos and links to social media accounts. Most website builders enable you to create a blog using all of these features.

Blogs are somewhat harder to implement by yourself, which is why many website builders are specifically geared towards making them simple.

eCommerce

eCommerce is big business.  A massive amount of companies now do the majority of their trading online, taking advantage of its convenience and global accessibility to boost their margins.

This is despite eCommerce being of the harder styles of website to implement by yourself. You have to deal with bank authorisations, credit card validation, encrypted traffic and much more.

Thankfully, there are many website builders for eCommerce out there that abstract away these details and make starting a shop easy. Shopify, Squarespace and WordPress all offer tools for making eCommerce trivial to implement. 

You can receive payment via PayPal, Stripe or other payment processors, and receive fund into your business bank account. Most eCommerce builders are scalable, which are perfect for growing your business online.

Portfolio 

Portfolio websites are perfect for photographers, artists, freelancers, videographers or writers to showcase their work to potential clients.

A portfolio website can display your visual work, provide contact information and display pricing. In a similar way to a blog website, a portfolio website showcases your work online.

Website builders such as Squarespace or Weebly can display your work in a stunning way, helping your brand to look professional, engaging and sophisticated.

One of things you’ll want to check when choosing a portfolio website builder is how easy it is to upload and edit content. Most website builders offer a free trial so you can familiarise yourself with how it works before you commit yourself. Use our comparison tool below to find your perfect portfolio website.

While they’re not right for every business all of the time, website builders have several undeniable advantages over hiring a developer to build a custom site. Plans come with a number of features which help you quickly get a website set-up for a low cost, which is ideal for those starting a business.

For those businesses that already have a website that’s in need of updating, using a website building tool can help you improve your existing website to achieve more sales or create a better user experience.

eCommerce business owners will be able to increase online sales using the built-in design features that help to improve your conversion rates. 

Simplicity

This is one of the biggest benefits of using a website building tool. You don’t have to understand the technical details of how your website works, and still create a functional site that’s pleasant to use.

Speed

Following on from the idea of simplicity, website builders enable you to get your website live in much less time than it would take to custom build.

You can edit or customize your site at any time in just a few simple clicks.

Templates

Every website building tool comes with a huge choice of pre-made templates that you can choose and customize to your liking. 

Support

Most website building tools come with customer support, usually taking the form of live chat, email or forums. Enhanced support options might only be available with more expensive plans.

Extra features

The options available to improve and grow your website seem endless. Many tools such as Shopify and WordPress come with additional plugins you can install to add extra functionality and design features, such as live chat support, security tools and stock management

Certain website builders will also enable you to integrate your CRM software, team collaboration tools, bank account and cloud accounting system.

Most website building tools come with additional services or upgrades which allow you to expand your offering as it is required.