Wix is the best free AI website builder on the market. The platform has an exceptional range of functionality on its free plan, combined with a fantastic AI builder, Wix Harmony. While testing Wix, I was highly impressed with its capabilities.
Other great free AI website builders include GoDaddy, which will let you get your site online quickly, and Square Online, which is geared towards ecommerce businesses.
To research this article, I tested the five best free AI website builders on the market. You’ll find my thoughts below.
Key Takeaways
- Wix is the best free website builder because of its user-friendly interface, extensive set of website features, and effective AI website builder.
- If you’re looking to get up and running with a website fast, we would also recommend GoDaddy, because of its ability to create a great website quickly with its AI builder.
- For ecommerce businesses, we would recommend Square Online for its strong booking tools and integrations with ecommerce platforms.
- A free website builder will only get you so far, and many providers keep their best features for their paid plans.
- When choosing the right free website builder for your business, you should consider elements such as features, employee skill level, and how much control you’d like over your site.
Why Trust Us? Our Research Methodology
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, our research consisted of:
- 16 website builder products
- 200 hours
- 398 areas of investigation
- Six core categories of investigation
- 33 subcategories
At Tech.co, we have a number of full-time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
The 5 Best Free Website Builders for Small Businesses
- Wix – Best free AI website builder overall
- GoDaddy – Best for quickly getting site online
- Pagecloud – Best website templates
- Webflow – Best for granular design
- Square Online – Best for ecommerce businesses
| Paid plan Monthly | Number of free templates | Try now | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEST OVERALL  |  |  |  |  |
| Wix | GoDaddy | Pagecloud | Webflow | Square Online |
|
| $9.99/month | $22/month | $14/month | $49/month |
| 2,000+ | 100+ | 50+ | 90+ | 12 |
| Try Wix | Try GoDaddy | Try Pagecloud | Try Webflow | Try Square |
Pros
- Unrivaled selection of website features across design, sales, and support
- AI features can create a site in 60 seconds
- Quality free forever plan available
Cons
- No template switching once published
- Number of features can be overwhelming for some beginners
- Steep price increase for scaling businesses
- Light: $17/month
- Core: $29/month
- Business: $39/month
- Business Elite: $159/month
- 10% off any plan with code TAKE10
- Free plan
What do we like about Wix?
Wix is the best free AI website builder you can find. It brings elements of website design, marketing, and ecommerce together into a single plan, which is extremely impressive for a free offering.
I tested the platform out for myself and I found it to have the strongest set of AI capabilities out of the free website builders on this list. During setup, I opted to “Chat with AI” to evaluate how the technology was built into its onboarding.
To test out the AI builder in action, I instructed Wix to put together a B2B tech blog. Source: Tech.co testing
The Wix chatbot asked me a series of questions, displaying my in-progress “site profile” side-by-side with the chatbot, so I could see how it was unfolding in real-time.
I was immediately impressed with how sleek and responsive the interface was — I’d answer a question and see it rendered in real-time.
It was quite a lengthy process, with the chatbot asking me several open-ended questions to gain a deeper understanding of what I was looking for. Once it had collected my answers, it took me to my dashboard in about four seconds.
The “Site Profile” on the right-hand side is a neat way of seeing your answers in one place, which can be used to inform future answers if you’re feeling stuck for inspiration. Source: Tech.co testing
Somewhat confusingly from a user journey standpoint, Wix doesn’t take you straight to your created site. Rather, it brings you to the backend dashboard, from which you can navigate to design.
I chose a template, and Wix spent about one minute loading it. However, when the site template had loaded, it wasn’t populated with any of the information that I’d provided during setup, which I found confusing.
A selection of available Wix templates, of which there are more than 2,000. Source: Tech.co testing
The template I chose was stylish and professional, and it was easy to edit text and visual elements, either through point-and-click or by using the AI chatbot, which sits alongside the in-situ preview.
I asked the chatbot to populate the template with the information that I’d provided during setup, and it duly obliged in just a few seconds. I was highly impressed.
All in all, I found Wix to be a highly powerful website builder. My one criticism is that the user journey is slightly convoluted, which could be off-putting for first-time users.
My Two Cents
Wix is the best free AI website builder on the market, period. It’s got a really generous feature catalog for a free platform, with the only real drawback being the inability to accept payments. If that’s a dealbreaker, then Square Online should be your go-to.
I was pretty amazed by the site that I was able to create with Wix. It looked authentic, professional, and genuinely compelling, and with a custom domain, would look better than a lot of existing tech websites.
My only other note is that because Wix is such a big platform, it might feel overwhelming to new users. If you do get stuck, Wix offers 24/7 chatbot support, which is helpful for resolving basic queries.
Pros
- AI generated websites in two steps (30 seconds)
- 24/7 phone support available for all plans
- Free forever plan can publish site
Cons
- No mobile website editor to modify pages on the go
- Overly generic website design with fewer templates than other builders
- No app market to branch out functionality across your site
- Basic: $9.99/month
- Premium: $14.99/month
- Commerce: $20.99/month
What do we like about GoDaddy?
GoDaddy is the best free AI website building for getting your site online quickly.
I tested it myself, and was highly impressed with how quickly the platform had generated a page for me from my prompting, even if the onboarding experience is altogether much less intuitive and slick than the Wix equivalent.
GoDaddy has fewer open-ended prompt options than Wix, meaning that there is less overall design flexibility. Source: Tech.co testing
GoDaddy offered me a selection of header images, none of which looked particularly professional. Before I could choose one, my site was generated (approximately 30 seconds).
The backend is much less intimidating than Wix. There’s an editing column on the right-hand side of the screen, with an in-situ preview of your website on the left.
The navigation column is divided into “website,” “theme,” “store,” and “settings,” which I thought was pretty logical sitemapping. Available shortcuts can also quickly route you to the most popular destinations.
The destination icons are clearly laid-out and would work well on a mobile or tablet interface. Source: Tech.co testing
The website itself didn’t look very professional. The imagery wasn’t authentic, and the copy was clearly AI-generated (although the standard of AI-generated copy is pretty poor across all website builders). I liked that you could alternate between desktop and mobile view.
Editing the website with point-and-click was very simple. Select the module you want to change, and GoDaddy displays it as a boxout on the right-hand side of the screen. Then, you simply input your desired changes.
GoDaddy’s first attempt at generating my website. Source: Tech.co testing
AI enhancements weren’t immediately obvious. Eventually, I opened the “theme” tab, and selected “improve my design.” After 10 seconds, the platform’s AI tool had transformed the look and feel of the page. It was a definite improvement and there was an option to “keep original design.”
You can regenerate your page an unlimited number of times, which is great for users who don’t have a clear picture of what they want in mind.
While its interface is more rudimentary than Wix, GoDaddy does offer advanced website features on the free plan, including a keyword tool that was able to provide the keywords that are most popular among our website’s target audience.
GoDaddy also offers email marketing tools, social media post creation tools, and the option to link your Facebook and Instagram accounts with your website to monitor performance.
My Two Cents
For what it lacks in quality of output, GoDaddy more than compensates through speed.
The platform is the fastest to generate a website out of all the providers on this list, and while its output left a little to be desired, it’s easy enough to edit different components through simple point-and-click.
Some more granular AI options, such as copy generation, would be fantastic, but GoDaddy is a strong free AI website builder, all in all.
Pros
- Fantastic website templates available
- Step-by-step tutorial for new users
- Integrations with Shopify and Mailchimp
Cons
- Lack of AI tools
- Paid plans are expensive compared with other top website builders
- Free plan available
- Launch: $22/month
- Grow: $36/month
- Optimize: $69/month
What do we like about Pagecloud?
Pagecloud’s templates are the best out of all the providers on this list. After opting to build a “business website” during setup, I was immediately taken to page displaying all of the available options. In short, they looked fantastic.
I was very taken with Pagecloud’s available templates, which look really professional and sleek. Source: Tech.co testing
Like Wix and Square Online, Pagecloud offers a simple step-by-step tutorial for first-time users, which is definitely needed, because the editor is quite overwhelming.
There’s a dizzying breadth of customization options. Instead of enabling you to edit the website as a whole, the platform breaks it down into separate sections, so you can access and edit a section without having to scroll through the whole website looking for it.
Pagecloud gives you a highly granular level of editing control over your site. Source: Tech.co testing
Pagecloud has plenty of integrations, including Shopify, Mailchimp, and Eventbrite, meaning that the platform is suitable for a wide variety of use cases.
However, the lack of AI tools on the platform means that Pagecloud is only suitable for users with a clear picture of what they want their site to look like in mind. It does offer a chatbot-style tool that will generate text based on prompts, but that’s the extent of it.
My Two Cents
Pagecloud’s free website templates are the best I’ve encountered. In fact, they’re second only to Squarespace, which famously boasts the slickest themes on the market (and has no free plan).
In other words, if design is important to you (and you don’t want to spend a lot of time fine-tuning an existing template), Pagecloud should be high up your list.
The caveat here is — you can only publish your page with a paid plan. So, while the platform is a great free sandbox for exploring new ideas, you’ll need to pay if you want to host it online.
Pros
- Quick learning curve, easy for beginners
- Free plan for designing your website with some functionality
- Simple collaboration tools for teams to boost productivity
Cons
- Free plan is highly limited. Users can't host a website, for example
- Price plans can be confusing, with separate plans for freelancers and agencies, in-house teams, and more
- Free plan available
- Basic plan from $14/month
- CMS plan from $23/month
- Business plan from $39/month
- Enterprise plan (contact Webflow for pricing)
- Ecommerce plans from $29/month
What do we like about Webflow?
Webflow lets users edit their pages to a fine level of detail which could be overwhelming for first-time users. All in all, the designs look quite good, with our users commenting that they felt slick and modern.
I was impressed with the homepage that Webflow’s AI builder had created for me, which looked professional and modern. Source: Tech.co testing
While Webflow does offer some AI functionality, the platform is quite limited in its AI tools. It doesn’t offer AI text creation, content writing, or any AI-guided SEO support, which can be found on both Wix and GoDaddy.
Similarly, when using Webflow’s AI builder, our users found it was a lot slower in generating a site compared with the other website builders we’ve tested.
There are many ways you can get started with Webflow, including an AI site builder. Source: Tech.co testing
However, Webflow does make up for its lack of AI options with excellent design tools. Our users found options for managing spacing, backgrounds, positioning, and typography of every element of the page, ensuring businesses can get their website exactly how they like it.
However, the lack of an introduction or tutorial did make it difficult to get started straight away. In my opinion, Webflow would benefit from easy-access support options like Pagecloud, where we simply had to click the question mark above the site editor to open help and support.
My Two Cents
Webflow is much harder to use than both Wix and GoDaddy. For example, if I wanted to move the position of a header on my homepage, I couldn’t just click and drag as you would expect.
Instead, everything was done through the sidebar, meaning the platform was just unintuitive. Webflow would be ideal for people who are used to a more advanced platform, as well as more advanced design options.
5. Square Online: Best for Ecommerce Businesses
Square Online is the best free AI website builder for ecommerce businesses. It offers specific features including integrated booking tools, as well as a strong ecosystem for online selling. It also integrate well with Square POS for a well-rounded ecommerce experience.
Pros
- Live transaction monitoring enhances security
- Unlimited product capacity
- Excellent in-person selling functionality
- AI copy generation features
Cons
- Free plan is very limited
- No way to remove transaction fees
- Limited multichannel integration (Facebook & Instagram only)
- Includes free plan
- Plus: $49/month
- Premium: $149/month
- Transaction fees start at 2.6% + 15¢
- Domain included with all paid plans
What do we like about Square Online?
It’s easy to set up an online store with Square Online. The interface is smooth and intuitive, and it set itself up as an ecommerce provider straight away, asking questions about your customers, how they get their orders, and the main way your business likes to sell.
It’s as easy to edit the mobile version of your site as the desktop version. Source: Tech.co testing
During testing, we found it easy to switch between editing the mobile site and the desktop version, which wasn’t the case with other options, such as GoDaddy. This is great news for businesses that prefer to have solid control over all elements of their site.
Square Online design functionality is a bit basic. With only 12 templates available on the free plan, design-oriented businesses should opt for Wix. Likewise, our users didn’t find editing their site as easy and intuitive as other providers.
Square Online offers some fairly modern design options, though these are limited on the free plan. Source: Tech.co testing
Similarly, while it does offer some AI tools, such as a text generator and photo background editor, Square Online doesn’t have an AI builder option.
This is a big roadblock for businesses looking to get started with their online store as quickly as possible, especially since the platform was not the easiest to use.
The integration options for Square Online are great for businesses, however. You can easily integrate with Square POS, our pick of the best POS for small businesses, which is ideal for a business trying to maximize their sales.
My Two Cents
When using Square Online, I found the left-hand sidebar was good when signposting certain functions and letting me know exactly what it is used for when I hovered over it.
Other than that, I think I would have benefitted from a better onboarding experience, particularly as there were a lot of things to navigate through. I did also struggle to find certain functions straight away, such as SEO tools.
In terms of designing the site, I would have preferred a drag-and-drop style editor like Wix. I found small things like editing the size of a header or choosing a color scheme difficult, which wouldn’t be ideal for businesses that want creative control.
Are Free Website Builders Worth It?
Free website builders are great for solopreneurs and users looking to experiment in a creative sandbox. But almost all free plans are missing key features, such as a custom domain. What’s more, your page will likely be littered with ads, which can be highly disruptive to the user experience.
With platforms such as Hostinger starting at just $6.99 per month, opting for a paid website builder needn’t be expensive, and you will unlock premium features, including advanced AI functionality, data storage, and more.
We take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we're giving you the clearest, most useful product recommendations.
After conducting an initial exploration to identify the most relevant, popular, and established tools in the market, we put them through their paces with hands-on testing to see their real strengths and weaknesses. In this case, we put 16 website builder products to the test across 398 areas of investigation.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we've established a website builder testing methodology that scores each product in six core categories of investigation and 33 subcategories. This covers everything, from customer feedback to design, ease of use, and more.
Our main testing categories for website builders are:
- Website features: The capabilities and functionalities offered by a website builder, e.g. blog functionality, SEO capability, and marketing capacity.
- Design functionality: The aesthetic appeal and visual layout of a website created using a website builder. It encompasses aspects such as page templates and customizable themes.
- Customer satisfaction: External customer opinion. This is the feedback and ratings given by customers who have used a particular website builder — the market position and reputation a website builder holds.
- User experience: How user-friendly and intuitive a website builder is for people with varying levels of technical expertise.
- Value for money: The balance between the cost of a website builder and the benefits it provides. It considers factors such as pricing plans, subscription models, and available features.
- Help and support: The assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using a website builder.
When it comes to calculating a product's final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, as we know some aspects matter more to our readers than others, which are simply “nice to have”. After hundreds of hours, our process is complete, and the results should ensure you can find the best solution for your needs.
At Tech.co, we have a number of full-time in-house researchers, who re-run this testing process regularly, to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Our Verdict: What Is the Best Free AI Website Builder?
The best free AI website builder is Wix. It has an exceptional range of features for a free plan, including access to the excellent Wix Harmony, and marketing and ecommerce functionality.
Other options include GoDaddy, which will get you online with minimal fuss, and Pagecloud, which has fantastic-looking templates to choose from.
However, free website builders are often highly limited, so we would recommend opting for a paid plan to unlock more functionality.
Plus, all of Wix’s SEO tools come in the free plan, so you’ll have help ensuring your website ranks well for the topics you want it to.
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