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You don’t need to rely on huge corporate platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to have an online presence: You can create a website instead. And while businesses spend good money on top website builders to create online destinations that customers can’t resist, you don’t have to follow in their footsteps. There are plenty of website builders available that let you build a site without spending a dime.
We’ve tested many website builders, a number of which offer a free tier. Read on for our top picks, followed by what to look for when choosing a free website builder.
Wix Website Builder
Best for Building Free Sites
Why We Picked It
Wix has nearly everything you could want from a website builder. An intuitive interface lets you create beautiful pages from hundreds of available templates. Widgets and mobile-specific tools add flexibility and functionality. Robust e-commerce tools let businesses sell memberships and digital downloads. And excellent uptime ensures that your site will be online.
Who It’s For
Everyone. On top of all its powerful, business-friendly paid features, Wix’s free tier is our Editors’ Choice pick in the category. You’ll give up some premium features and you’ll have to tolerate on-site ads, but Wix is far and away the best option for anyone looking to build great sites without paying monthly fees.
PROS
- Remarkably intuitive Editor X interface
- Numerous widgets
- Hundreds of templates for specific businesses and other uses
- Good mobile-site-building tools
- Rich web-store features
- Excellent uptime and customer service support
- Many commerce options, including the ability to sell digital downloads
- Cool, AI-powered site design tools
- Free option
CONS
- Third-party apps offer better analytics
- Doesn’t let you switch templates
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GoDaddy Websites + Marketing Website Builder
Best for Marketing and SEO Tools
Why We Picked It
GoDaddy’s free website builder helps you create a great website to pair with a GoDaddy domain. With GoDaddy Websites + Marketing, you get unlimited monthly data transfers and unlimited storage at every tier, including the free one. But you’ll need to select one of the premium plans to let you tap e-commerce features for creating an online store.
Who It’s For
This tool puts marketing right in the title. GoDaddy’s builder not only helps you create sites, but gives you the features needed to get that site in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Thanks to powerful marketing and SEO functionality, this is an excellent builder for people who want to promote their sites, businesses, or general online presences with mathematical efficiency.
PROS
- Good-looking sites on desktop and mobile
- Unlimited storage and monthly data transfers
- Great marketing and SEO tools
- More than 100 templates
- Excellent uptime
- Good customer service
- Free tier
CONS
- Limited layout customization
- Ecommerce not available with all tiers
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Dorik Website Builder
Best for Personal Websites
Why We Picked It
Dorik’s excellent free tier lets you create an attractive, SEO-friendly website in just a matter of minutes—no coding required. You simply select a template, customize the interactive UI elements, and add your images, text, or video. If you want cool features and perks, such as custom domains and membership bonuses, check out a Dorik premium subscription (starting at $48 per year).
Who It’s For
People who want to make personal or hobbyist sites without putting in too much effort should check out Dorik. Businesses? Not so much, as Dorik’s lackluster e-commerce tools make the service a poor fit for companies selling products online.
PROS
- Capable free version
- Intuitive interface with no coding required
- Suitable for individuals and organizations
- Easy to import and export code
- Excellent uptime
CONS
- Few e-commerce features
- Limited bespoke elements
- Basic image editing
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Weebly Website Builder
Best for Easy Page Editing
Why We Picked It
Some users are more than happy to give up certain advanced features if it means having an easier overall experience. Weebly doesn’t have the most customization options, but you can still make quality sites with its many attractive themes. The website builder lets you monitor stats to see how your site performs, and sell physical and digital goods. With a free Weebly hosting account, you’ll receive a generous unlimited monthly data transfer plan, and the ability to switch themes without rebuilding your website.
Who It’s For
Weebly appeals to people who value convenience. You don’t need to tinker with themes to create a good-looking website. It’s one of the few builders that let you switch themes without rebuilding the site, which is a big plus. And it offers unlimited monthly data transfers across the board. The free tier has highs and lows. Without paying, your site will have ads, a Weebly domain, a 10MB maximum file size, and 500MB of storage. For more, including the ability to sell digital goods, you must upgrade to one of Weebly’s paid tiers.
PROS
- Attractive, responsive-design themes
- Full commerce options, including the ability to sell digital goods
- Site stats included
- Lets you switch themes without rebuilding your site
- Unlimited data transfers with all plans
- Excellent uptime
- Free tier
CONS
- Limited theme customization
- Lacks reusable photo storage
- No interface-wide undo feature
- Slow-responding customer services in testing
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Strikingly Website Builder
Best for Previewing Sample Sites
Why We Picked It
Strikingly is a bit limited, even among free tiers. It doesn’t offer many templates, and it lacks robust site customization, but what’s there is responsive and attractive. You’ll get a Strikingly-brand site with 5GB of data throughput per month, but you’ll need to pull out the plastic to create multi-page sites, sell products, or even integrate third-party widgets. If you choose Strikingly, though, at least you’ll rest easy knowing that your site is online, thanks to the service’s excellent uptime.
Who It’s For
Despite its limitations, Strikingly has a surprising amount of flexibility. With its easy-to-use tools and ability to switch templates while designing, you can preview your site and quickly make changes without committing to a lot of extra work. With its free tier, you don’t even have to commit to paying before seeing if the website builder is right for you. Think of Strikingly more as a paid website builder with a robust free trial, which alone makes it more useful than the free tiers from some competing services.
PROS
- Easy-to-use site-building tools
- Attractive themes, with responsive designs
- Lets you switch templates without rebuilding your site
- Excellent uptime
- Free tier
CONS
- Less customization than competing website builders
- Many standard features require a premium account
- Free and cheap tiers limited to five pages per site
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Which Free Website Builder Is Best?
A free website builder is, more often than not, the no-cost tier of a larger paid website builder. Not all website builders offer free tiers; some opt instead for affordable base tiers that cost a few dollars per month. Other services let you access some features for free, while locking more powerful functionality behind premium paywalls. If you don’t need those extra perks, though, the free tier may be more than enough.
What can you expect from a free website builder? Some common limits include only letting you make one website with a handful of pages, restricting your storage options, and forcing you to use the builder’s domain instead of a custom one. Some free tiers are really more like free trials, they let you test out the tools as much as you want but you have to spend money in order to actually publish. Other free services, however, are respectable hosting offerings, even if the paid tiers are “better.”
Which Free Website Builder Is Best for Ecommerce?
Having a website is a must for small businesses. The internet is a massive marketplace you simply need to tap into. A free website builder is an easy way to start establishing your web presence. That said, truly professional users should opt for a paid plan sooner rather than later. Customers will trust a business with its own domain, it looks legitimate. More importantly, free website builders typically lock their ecommerce features, the ability to sell products on an online store, behind paywalls. Spend money to make money.
Which Free Website Builder Is Best for Photographers?
Image editing is hit and miss with website builders, even paid ones. Some offer robust ways to tweak photos on your site while others will let you crop and that’s about it. When it comes to free site builders, Wix has full photo editing options and GoDaddy has improved its offerings as well. Weebly’s editor is fine, but Strikingly’s is pretty basic, which is in line with its limited customization features overall.
Recommended by Our Editors
For a more robust experience when creating your online presence, you’ll need a traditional web hosting service. If you’re on a budget, check out the best cheap web hosting services.
5 Things You Need to Know About Web Hosting
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-free-website-builders