How to Choose the Best Website Builder and Design Service in 2024 – Business.com

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Businesses can't survive today without a website. Make yours stand out in a sea of sites by using these builders and templates.
The business.com team is dedicated to providing independent reviews and trustworthy recommendations for the software and services business owners need to run their enterprises. Our evaluation process involves hands-on testing of each solution, a thorough investigation of product information and vendor claims, and research into real user experiences. Each assessment is backed by an editorial analysis designed to ensure objectivity and accuracy.
When examining the range of website builders and design services available today to identify the very best options for small and growing businesses, we considered the usability of each solution and whether easy-to-follow templates were available for stress-free site-building. We took into account the ability to augment site designs and functionality with third-party plug-ins, whether the pages would be responsive and mobile-friendly, and if the vendors also provided web hosting and storage. Pricing also influenced our selections. Learn more about our methodology and editorial process.
Google is often the first and only place consumers and business owners look for new suppliers. New product and service discovery now happens almost exclusively online and that’s made it crucial for businesses today to have their own professional website. However, this is difficult for many company owners because they have limited budgets and technical skills.
They have two options – self-service website builders and full-service web design companies. Self-service website builders are user-friendly, affordably-priced and require little to no technical, design or writing skills to achieve great results. On the other hand, full-service web design companies take care of everything and offer a comprehensive solution, often including search engine optimization and marketing. We spent dozens of hours researching both website builders and web design services. To determine, the best, we considered a wide range of factors, including cost, integration options and ease of use.

Compared with website builders a few years ago, modern website builders allow companies to customize all aspects of design. (Source: Wix)
Our team spends weeks evaluating dozens of business solutions to identify the best options. To stay current, our research is regularly updated.
evaluated
researched
chosen
Our team spends weeks evaluating dozens of business solutions to identify the best options. To stay current, our research is regularly updated.
evaluated
researched
chosen
Hospitality businesses
Beginners
WordPress
Added Tools
Ecommerce
14 days
None
30-day money back guarantee
Free plan
14 days
$29
$19.99
$11.99
$12.99
$16
Drag-and-drop
Drag-and-drop, human designers
Drag and drop, human designers
Drag and drop, human editors, WordPress
Drag-and-drop
900
Hundreds
Limited selection in Website Builder, paid templates available
Hundreds
Hundreds
500+
No app store
Standard WordPress plugins
Integrations only for WordPress clients
43
Wix Payment + 80 payment gateways
Paypal, Stripe, Cash on Delivery, Venmo (BNPL)
No
Godaddy-branded, extra choice on WordPress
Squarespace Commerce or third parties
50,000
Unlimited
Unlimited
5,000 on GoDaddy builder, unlimited on WordPress
Unlimited
Change themes and content with language prompts
Design, content, logo, domain names
Design and written content with language prompts
Airo website builder, domain search, Insight SEO
Design, design structure, site themes, copy, product descriptions, email campaigns
Web knowledge base
Email, phone and 24/7 live chat
24/7 chat, phone on upgraded plans
24/7 phone and email
24/7 email and ticket
Wix has an extensive set of intuitive tools and features to help restaurants, hotels, leisure operators and event organizers take advantage of the opportunities the internet offers. We love the AI-powered drag-and-drop builder on the platform and how fast and easy it makes building an attractive and effective website — including the text, images and layouts. If you’re looking for inspiration, there are 100 customizable hospitality-related templates you can choose from to get you started.
We were impressed at just how quick and straightforward it was to keep websites up-to-date with the latest information like menus, room descriptions, seating plans, events and more. We found that with a few clicks, you can enable online payments so clients can book tables, rooms, spa days and more directly from your site. You can also run membership programs, send “back in stock” alerts and sell gift cards to drive more revenue.

You can go into granular detail about your hotel rooms and other services on Wix (Source: Wix)
Wix’s least expensive monthly service is $17 per month. Although this offers excellent value, hospitality providers need the next subscription level up at $29 a month to unlock the functionality they need:
Companies using Wix are generally very positive about their experiences on the platform. On Trustpilot, over 17,000 clients have awarded it a rating of 4.6 out of 5 with 75 percent of reviewers giving it full marks. One customer stated that the platform was “good for the novice and the expert” and that they were “super happy with them as a whole and am quick to recommend them when asked.”
For absolute beginners, Web.com’s user-friendly platform shines as a simple, stress-free way to build a fast-loading, functional website or e-commerce store. Using a ChatGPT-like conversation interface, you can let Web.com take care of everything. We love how, using simple language prompts, the software will populate your site with compelling written and visual content and wrap it in an attractive, mobile-responsive website layout.
If you want more control, start from a blank page or choose from hundreds of templates instead. Then,, build your site by dragging and dropping easily customizable modules (parts of web pages) into the design area in the order you want. We were impressed by the range of features you can use to boost your Google rankings, like the local listing and search engine optimization tools. E-commerce users benefit from unlimited product catalogs, discount codes, shipping calculators and the ability to sell on Facebook, Amazon, eBay and more.

We were really impressed by how the in-built LLM on Web.com responded to user prompts to start the website-building process. (Source: Web.com)
Web.com offers the following three service plans:
Paying on an annual basis can result in discounts of between $4 and $5 per month, depending on the plan.
Listing management costs between $15 and $20 per month, which is useful if you serve a restricted geographical area. The SEO tool costs $29.99 per month and monitors on-page, off-page and technical SEO to provide direction on how to improve your site’s rankings.
If you’d prefer Web.com to build your site, it offers a fully managed design service starting at $199.
A massive 85 percent of clients gave web.com five out of five on Trustpilot, with the platform scoring 4.2 out of five overall from hundreds of reviews. Users laud the customer service team and the quality of the site. One business owner commented, “I have been with web.com for over five years and can highly recommend them. The service is quick, efficient and very professional.”
BlueHost excels at creating and deploying WordPress websites and WooCommerce online stores.  We love the platform’s superb AI-assisted WordPress drag-and-drop editor, which rivals competitor builders like Elemental and Avada for ease of use, flexibility and functionality. You can build web pages instantly thanks to its extensive range of customizable, pre-built templates and modules. Alternatively, you can start from a blank slate – whichever is better for you.
It’s easy to add new features and functionality quickly via the massive WordPress plug-in library. We were impressed at the deep YITH integrations, allowing e-commerce site owners to add product searching, gift cards, bookings and appointments, personalized account pages, and more to their stores. The more expensive BlueHost e-commerce service plan allows you to sell multi-channel across sites like eBay and Amazon. BlueHost’s large CDN network and server-side caching really speed up page downloads too, improving both the visitor experience and SEO optimization.

Installing and integrating WooCommerce into WordPress, a common source of frustration for many site owners, is made easy with BlueHost. (Source: BlueHost)
BlueHost offers four subscription plans for WordPress clients:
There are also two e-commerce plans available if you want to host your own store:
Discounts are available when paying annually, or committing to a multi-year contract.
BlueHost also offers a fully-managed design service, as well as SEO and PPC campaign management.
Over 13,000 BlueHoust clients have left reviews on Trustpilot, scoring the firm an impressive 4.1 out of 5. An apparel company owner commented, “I have recommended over 30 people to switch to Bluehost services, and everyone has been satisfied.”
We were impressed by the robust set of tools GoDaddy provides to help customers build out and effectively promote new, attractive and fast-loading websites. Its easy-to-use proprietary design platform is based around a smart drag-and-drop editor that comes pre-loaded with hundreds of customizable pre-built templates and modules like menus and testimonials sections. The level of control you have over layout and branding elements like fonts and colors is impressive.
GoDaddy shines in the features it offers to help companies promote their sites. Subscribe to the Premium plan to access the platform’s built-in SEO tools for higher Google rankings. On the Premium plan, you can send up to 25,000 emails monthly and run social media marketing campaigns. We were impressed at how thorough the analytics tools were so you could monitor performance as well as the 24/7 customer support by phone and email.

The drag-and-drop website builder in GoDaddy is superbly executed. The interface is intuitive and business owners of all experience levels will learn how to create beautiful, functional sites very quickly. (Source: GoDaddy)
GoDaddy offers the following four standard service plans:
GoDaddy only offers annual upfront payment.
GoDaddy has amassed over 100,000 customer reviews on Trustpilot. They score the service 4.7 out of 5 and 84 percent of reviewers give them full marks. Particular praise is given to the customer service and support teams with comments like “one of their hosting representatives was able to restore my website after it has been maliciously taken down by an angered programmer. I can’t say enough about how I appreciate the services GoDaddy has provided for me.”
Squarespace’s platform is superb for companies wanting to build and grow successful e-commerce websites. We like how you can get inspiration for the look and feel of your store from the platform’s range of 200 online store templates. Customize them easily with the intuitive drag-and-drop designer interface that gives you maximum control over layout and design. You can upload your product database, adding images and videos to each item and the software automatically creates pages that effectively showcase each product. You can also add a “related products” section to each of your pages to improve upsell opportunities.
We love Squarespace’s back-end features, such as its native inventory, payment, invoicing and shipping apps, which help you run your store. You can manage online bookings with Acuity, set up member subscriptions and recurring orders, and sell courses online with inclusive video hosting.

The level of detail in Squarespace’s e-commerce dashboard will allow companies to drill into their performance metrics to look for opportunities to improve results. (Source: Squarespace)
Squarespace has four subscription levels:
If you want to sell courses on your site, you can do so for a 9 percent transaction fee. To reduce that cost, you’ll need to subscribe to their Digital Products Add-on service which either costs $9 per month (7 percent transaction fee), $29 per month (3 percent transaction fee) or $89 per month (no transaction fee). Each package allows you to sell unlimited memberships and courses with varying degrees of video storage.
To send email marketing campaigns from the platform, prices start at $7 per month for 500 emails across two campaigns to $68 for 250,000 emails across unlimited campaigns. If you want to activate email automation (like the ability to send an email to a new subscriber), this is available on the $14 a-month core plan.
Unlike our four other best picks, Squarespace scores poorly on Trustpilot with a rating of 1.4 out of 5. It does however score much higher on other sites that feature user-generated reviews. Unhappy clients focus their feedback more on customer services while happy customers appreciate the use of use and the quality of the end designs.
Three other website builder and design services that impressed us and are worthy of including on a potential vendor shortlist are:
Duda’s service has been built specifically for website design and build agencies that require robust platforms capable of building, hosting and updating complex websites at scale for multiple clients. On a web design level, its flexible drag-and-drop website editor speeds up the creation process and supports more advanced customizations for adding interactive content and other dynamic features. For e-commerce clients, we like how the platform can manage the sale of physical products, digital products, services and even donations. In the back end, the platform shines too. The AI-powered SEO toolkit simplifies Google optimization across multiple client websites although it doesn’t manage keyword clustering and topical authority just yet. We love how you can stay brand consistent in front of clients with the platform’s excellent white labeling system. The automated billing management system and mini-workflow management tool for team and job collaboration are also impressive. Additionally, we like how agencies can invite team members to collaborate on and invite clients into projects, too.
Weebly is an excellent platform for businesses wanting to build and promote websites or e-commerce sites quickly and affordably. You can start with a free website to test the system out and build your site up gradually. Then move on to paid plans to add more functions and features as you need them. Weebly’s subscription and app fees are among the most affordable on the market. We love how fluid and functional the drag-and-drop website builder is. It’s based around customizable modules, meaning that it’s easy to add written and visual content as well as change site-wide fonts, colors, backgrounds and more. The e-commerce store is also well-stocked with features that you expect from more expensive competitors like coupons, gift cards, automatic tax calculators, shipping and inventory management. Weebly is part of Square, the online payment processor. As you’d expect, their payment infrastructure is now embedded into the platform however you can choose Stripe or PayPal if you’d prefer. [Read our complete review of Square]
Unlike the other vendors we reviewed, Hibu does everything for you – they don’t provide any tools for you to build your own site. They are a full-service design agency that, in addition to creating and updating client websites, provides a range of value-added services to promote their clients’ sites including managing online listings and reviews, identifying and exploiting search engine optimization opportunities, and handling paid ad management campaigns. The key element of its system is its “Local Ranking” feature, aimed at securing high search engine results for firms operating in restricted geographical areas like home service companies and professional services firms. We appreciate how focused Hibu is on delivering specific measurable results for its clients and how its subscription system allows firms to choose only the services most suitable for them.
When considering the cost of web design, you should separate website builder solutions from professional services that create custom sites for specific clients. As you might expect, the former is significantly less expensive, and the latter varies by design specs and client needs.
If you have a small budget for website design, website-building software is likely your best option. Most no-code web design platforms offer free personal plans, free trials, and tiered subscriptions that increase in price and functionality with each level. Subscriptions are charged monthly and often discounted if you pay annually.

Today’s website builders empower business owners with no design experience to create beautiful sites and allow them to build product catalogs that visitors can browse. (Source: Duda)
Most entry-level subscriptions cost around $10 per month for each website, while intermediate subscriptions tend to be in the $15-$20 monthly range. Higher-end drag-and-drop design packages, which often include more customization options and better analytics, usually cost around $25 to $40  per month and can increase into the hundreds for specialty platforms geared toward large enterprises. Keep in mind that a plan with e-commerce capabilities typically costs more than one without.
Although web design software is intuitive and user-friendly, it is helpful to have coding experience if you want to make unique modifications. When you sign up for this software, there isn’t much room for negotiation, since it has preset plans. However, you can always request a free demo before making a commitment.
Pricing for a website design service is more difficult to determine since the scope of work depends completely on each business’s website goals. Although the price varies, even a basic website will cost you at least a couple thousand dollars, and that price will climb with each feature or design element you add.
If your business is moving out of the SMB space and into the enterprise realm, or if the specifics of your website design are essential to your daily business, it will be money well spent. Just make sure to request price quotes from a few different website design services before you make a final decision.
The biggest mistake SMBs make when they go for custom creation is heading into the process without a clear goal or plan, and then getting talked into unnecessary extra features, resulting in higher maintenance costs going forward. For this reason, the aim of your website should be clearly defined and meticulously detailed long before you approach a web design service. Issues like security needs, ongoing maintenance, SEO, integration with other products or systems, and must-have features should all be covered in your plan. This level of planning will not only help you get what you want, it will also help the designers.
A responsive website created by an individual web designer that only lists basic company information is, of course, much less expensive than an agency-built site that has a custom chatbot, integration with multiple systems, embedded videos and different login permission levels. One thing you can do to keep your costs low is to only include the features you need in your build and ask early on about the maintenance or support plan costs you will incur going forward.
It can be tough to know whether you should use a self-service website builder or a full-service website design agency to build your business website. There are a few major differences between the two that can help you narrow down the choices.
The web design process is often an ongoing task, so if you are searching for the best professional website creator, it’s important to find one that caters to your interests and business goals specifically. The best web builders are easy for tech novices to learn, but they also have advanced tools to cater to those with coding experience. They should allow you to select industry-specific themes for your site.
With industry-specific themes, you should have access to backgrounds and images that correspond to the type of service you’ve chosen, while still having control over the design elements that go on each page. Most of the companies we reviewed limit the number of sites you can create, with only a select few offering an unlimited number of both websites and webpages.
After you create a website, the web design console should provide a preview of a determined page. This can be your homepage, direct online storefront or whatever you decide to make it. Web builders typically have predetermined pages built into the template – like contact pages, homepages, “about us” pages and business location maps – to speed up the design process.
The best web design software includes a blog manager. Many new site creators are looking to give their blogs some credibility by adding professional design and the .com that comes with any paid host. Blogging pages are intended for dynamic content that is continually updated rather than landing pages that remain largely static.
When looking for a website design program, you first need to determine whether you want to use self-service software or a full-service design agency. Consider what basic functions you need your software or service to perform, in addition to which features you may need as your business website grows. 
One of the most important elements of a website design service or software is its usability. Web design services can professionally assist you in creating a website that suits all of your business’s needs, and most of them do this by assigning a dedicated account manager to each client. If they turn over the website monitoring to you, they should ensure that you effectively understand how to use the software and content management system (CMS).
Web design software should be easy to use, whether you want to update your current website or build a new website from scratch. The best website builders have demos and setup wizards that show you how to make a website quickly and effectively. Most of the web builders we analyzed have a variety of website templates and design tools. Web templates should be highly customizable and responsive to desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Drag-and-drop capabilities make it easy to shift elements such as images or widgets. HTML or CSS editors are also helpful inclusions because this means the software serves experienced web designers as well as novices. 
Hosting Besides offering web design solutions, the best website builders also host your site. Most programs offer free custom domain hosting for at least the first year of your subscription. While this feature is touted as free, you typically have to pay for setup fees or register your domain privately. Each website creation application comes with a basic hosting plan that is essential to giving your site a professional domain. However, if unlimited storage and subdomains are your priorities, take a look at our web hosting guide. These hosts have a few more options for builders, with an emphasis on WordPress. 
Storage Storage is an important feature to consider, especially if you have video- or image-heavy webpages. The services we evaluated each include a fairly large number of web pages, but if you have a large e-commerce store, consider plans that allow for a higher number of products or pages. If you intend to create more than one site, be sure to find a website solution that allows this. Finally, a custom domain and the ability to add several custom email addresses is important for branding and presenting a professional image.
An awesome website won’t raise awareness of your organization or boost your sales if no one knows about it. Every website design service or software should give you the ability to enhance your website’s SEO and view its performance metrics.

This sample dashboard on the Weebly platform gives business owners a broad overview of their traffic sources and what people do when they visit their websites. (Source: Weebly)
Many website design services offer digital marketing and SEO as part of their core operations. Most web builders allow you to include marketing features like metatags, but businesses that need comprehensive marketing efforts will benefit the most from full-service website design companies.
Whether you partner with a design service or use DIY software, your website builder should give you access to website analytics. These analytics show you how your website is performing and where you can improve.
When we evaluated each application’s analytical tools, we noticed that all of the software employed Google Analytics, but many programs offer proprietary analytic tools that track different data points. The best web design software not only tracks industry-standard data points, like the number of visitors and page views, but also provides data like bounce rates, referring pages, behavior and mobile data points.
Since roughly half of website traffic comes from mobile devices, it is important for your business website to accommodate those users. Many search engine algorithms even penalize websites that are not responsive to mobile devices. The best professional website creators offer responsive web designs that automatically modify your website to adapt to the device type it is being viewed on (desktop, tablet or smartphone).
If you currently manage a desktop-only site, we recommend you take advantage of a mobile website builder to convert your site to mobile, or at least create a mobile version of your site that can reach a wider online audience. Improving your web design to fit the current demand can result in higher conversion rates.
Online shopping is on the rise, making e-commerce design a valuable feature to look for in a website builder. Even if you do not currently want to sell any products online, it is important to find a service that can scale with your business (in case you want to sell online in the future, for example). Some platforms limit the number of items you can sell, so if this is a core element of your business, it’s an important feature to analyze.
Many website design agencies provide additional services like content creation, branding and website monitoring. If these are services you want to take advantage of, be sure to find an agency that can accommodate you.
To identify the best website builder software and services for small businesses, we started with our current list of website design vendors. We added to that list with research through other reputable online sources, such as business websites and reviews, and by conducting standard industry research. We examined nearly 50 website design software and services in total.
We narrowed our list based on different use cases and the criteria listed below. We reviewed each company’s website and software, taking careful note of usability, flexibility, integration, customer service and other factors that are important to entrepreneurs. We posed as entrepreneurs and contacted support representatives to assess the quality of service they offer small business owners.
We eventually cut our list down to these top website builders: Wix, Web.com, BlueHost, GoDaddy, SquareSpace, Duda, Weebly and Hibu.
We based our final decisions on these factors:
The demand for easy, no-code website-building options from individuals and SMBs alike has rocked the state of the website design industry and irrevocably changed the landscape. Years ago, the only way to build a website was to manually do it yourself or hire a professional to do it for you. Gradually, WYSIWYG editor design programs popped up with limited templates that allowed basic website creation, but they were restrictive and typically built without mobile viewing in mind. As mobile connectivity has grown, the demand for responsive design has exploded, and most website design software today automatically scales to any screen. Programs today also allow users to embed media and integrate with outside apps like Google Maps and PayPal.
While enterprise-level clients still frequently choose dedicated web design teams to create their corporate websites, small businesses are happily helping themselves to DIY builders that allow for quick creation with minimal tech skills. The proliferation of inexpensive web design tools with hosting built into the subscription has changed not only how SMBs build websites but how the public views SMBs without websites. Websites are now considered mandatory in many SMB industries, and website design tools make the process of creating and maintaining a site painless.
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