Top 5 Website Builders for Small Business in 2021

The easiest way for a small business to create a website without hiring a developer is through a website builder.

Before you decide the best one for your business, you need to shortlist your requirements to have clarity on what features to prioritize while you make your own website. Some typical features you may want are a photo gallery, reservation system, SEO features, blog section, etc.

One way to gain this clarity is by browsing through your competitor’s website for inspiration. Also, most website builders have a free trial so you can test them out before committing. Some criteria for a suitable website builder are:

Pricing: It’s best to assess which website builder provides you with the most value for its price. Check if it offers a complimentary domain, business email, eCommerce features, SSL, etc.
Ease of Use: This is an important point depending on your experience and technical know-how. Look out for a drag-and-drop feature, customization options, and powerful editing tools.
Customer Support: Even if a website builder has an intuitive interface, a 24/7 customer support feature would be a great advantage. Also, look for one which has detailed resources on how to create a website.
Design and Features: Look for website builders that have a good number of professional templates and allow you to add features such as third-party marketing tools, Google Analytics, etc.
Data Ownership and Portability: Ensure that you read the terms of service to determine if you own your data and have the option to port it in case of a switch.

Read on to know about the best website builders for small business in 2021.

1. Wix

Wix is a popular website builder efficient in not only helping you build a website without any coding but also in setting up your very own online store.

It uses intuitive drag-and-drop techniques and offers several customizable templates. Some of its prominent features include:

You don’t need any design or technical skills. Wix’s easy-to-use editing interface helps you build an eye-catching website, without compromising on your creative freedom.
Wix has an ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) builder which can build your whole website for you. Just answer a few questions and it’ll do the rest.
You get to choose from almost 500 professionally-designed templates. These cover a wide range of business types, from vintage car dealers to makeup artists. The only catch is you can’t change your template after publishing, so choose wisely!
Wix Corvid is an optional functionality allowing you to integrate your own code with the website.
The Wix App Market gives you 200 apps and services to choose from. These include shipping features, email tools, etc.
The Wix SEO Wiz is there to make your SEO plan for you. All you need to do is enter information about your location, target keywords, and industry.
Wix Ascend takes care of your marketing by helping you connect with your customers, send out marketing emails, make social media posts, and even write personalized messages for all users.

2. Shopify

One of the best e-commerce platforms in the market, Shopify helps you build your own scalable online store. It has an impressive range of built-in features and apps and allows you to sell both from your website and across social media marketplaces.

Shopify powers more than 1,000,000 businesses. Read on to know what makes it a popular choice.

Shopify came up with a tipping feature last year, which allows customers to donate to the business.
There is an “Express” theme option to help businesses like restaurants quickly create an online store.
Shopify offers intelligent inventory management features such as smart inventory allocation across warehouses, which helps you set par levels, spot-check your product, and manage your relationships with warehousing partners.
You can sell across channels, including Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, and eBay.
Shopify manages your security against cyber threats, meets all compliance measures for online transactions, and runs updates. You don’t have to worry about your website’s security.
Categories are essential in how you arrange sites on Shopify. This easy-to-navigate, well-structured functionality helps SEO as it efficiently matches your products with user searches.

3. Weebly

Weebly runs more than 50 million websites worldwide. It is a top website builder for smallbusiness ventures and portfolio websites. Below are its best features.

It offers a free plan, which comes without any time limit. There are no hidden costs, and it provides great value to small businesses starting out and short on money. Even the paid plans are quite cheap as compared to others in the market.
You can use Weebly’s code editor to customize your web pages.
You get an App Center with more than 300 apps across different categories. One advantage of this is a direct connection with Facebook Messenger, which allows you to interact with Facebook users from your website itself.
You can customize your URLs, enter alt text on images, and edit meta titles and descriptions. All these are SEO features. You can also use SEO apps like MarketGoo and RabbitSEO to boost SEO further.
Weebly protects your website from DDoS attacks. This gives you advanced protection from cyber attacks. You also get an SSL certificate to encrypt data between your site and its visitors.
Weebly Promote is Weebly’s newsletter tool making email marketing effective and easy for you.

4. Site123

Site123 is the perfect option for small businesses needing a website up quickly. All you need to do is give a few details, like the name of your site and your preferred type of website, and Site123 would create a template for you without fuss. While you can’t get any complex websites here, it’s the best builder out there in terms of efficiency and speed. Let’s look at its features:

It provides some of the best help and support features. The 24/7 live chat feature is one that stands out.
Site123 makes it easy to perform even complex tasks such as integrating your social media accounts, marking your location on a map, or customizing your site’s navigation bar.
If you are looking to create a blog, it provides essential features like social bookmarking, analytics, an RSS feed, and a search feature.
It uses Google Analytics to help you track visitors’ time on your pages, views on your blog posts, etc.
Site123 has an autosave feature to enable quick restore in just a few clicks. This way your content remains safe.

5. Webnode

Webnode has nearly 40 million users worldwide. Its core strength is its multilingual website feature, which supports over 20 languages. Here we have some more prominent features:

With its drag and drop editor, adding sections and elements to your pages becomes a simple task. All you need is a little time to learn your way around it.
You get a variety of responsive templates. An additional feature is the ability to change the background color of each section.
You may redirect your current domain to Webnode or register a new domain with it. ‘Mini’ and upwards plans offer a free domain for your first year. You get SSL encryption in all the plans, though.
You get to customize the title tags, URLs, and meta descriptions for SEO. Webnode automatically generates a sitemap.

All these website builders cater to different requirements. While Weebly is a good option in terms of value for money, Wix is definitely the best option overall on account of its features, customer service, ease of use, and user preference.