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Based on our testing, the best website builder for beginners is Wix, as it's easy to use while still offering an impressive feature set. What's more, Wix provides hundreds of dollars in savings if you opt for longer plan terms, as well as a nice-and-easy 10% discount with the code “GET10!”
As the cost of living increases, outsourcing web design to a third-party professional isn't an option for every business. Thankfully, WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) website builders allow anyone to create a polished site for a reasonable price — and with a high level of control over your site's layout, design, and core functions.
Here are the top three easiest-to-use website builders for first-time builders rated on the factors you told us are the most important — including features, pricing, and customer support:
- Wix — Best website builder for beginners
- Squarespace — Best design templates
- GoDaddy — Best for a quick initial setup
These are reviewed in more detail, along with three more easy-to-use builders, below.
Short on time and need to find an easy, beginner-friendly website builder now? Get matched to your ideal website builder in just one minute using our quick and easy web builder quiz created by our in-house team of industry experts and product testers.
| Ease of Use Based on our research: customer and user testing testimonials | Overall Score | Paid plan Monthly | Free Plan | Try it Today | ||
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| BEST ON TEST  |  |  |  |  |  | |
| 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.7 | |
| 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.1 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 3.7 | |
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In this article:
- Which is the Easiest Website Builder for Beginners?
- Making Your Own Website
- Costs of Creating a Website
- Paying For a Website Developer
- Frequently Asked Questions
Which Is the Easiest Website Builder for Beginners?
If you've never built a website before, then you're sure to want a tool that makes the whole process effortless. Based on our extensive testing, we believe that the best website builder for beginners is Wix, closely followed by Squarespace.
Both of these tools can help you create a brilliant, professional-looking website in minutes – and that isn't an exaggeration. Thanks to simple question-and-answer automatic development tools, you can set yourself up with a sophisticated website template in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee.
You're then free to customize the template with your own images, words, and creative preference. Many first-time builders are blown away by just how easy the process is, and how professional your self-built site can look.
Here's the full list of our top-rated website builders for beginners:
Short on time? Find your ideal web builder in 1 minute using our quick quiz
Wix – Best Overall Website Builder
Wix Ease of Use score: 4.4
Wix is our favorite website builder and scores highly across the board in our testing. It’s super-fast to get started with Wix, and brilliantly simple to create a website using one of its top-class templates.
Pros
- Useful SEO best practice prompts
- Friendly onboarding experience
- Advanced business functionality like CRM
- Our top choice of ecommerce platform
Cons
- Can't change site design after publishing
- Slower server response time than some competitors
- 4 website plans starting from $16/month
- Business Basic ecommerce plan: $27/month
- Business Unlimited ecommerce plan: $32/month
- Website VIP ecommerce plan has extra support tools
- Frequent sales
- Free version available
Creating a website from scratch is incredibly daunting, especially for beginners. Fortunately, Wix has more than 800 templates on offer which will give you the perfect steer to create your site rather than starting from beginning. Once you've picked your favorite template, you're then free to customize as you see fit with almost total control of all the elements and colors on your pages.
Should that sound like too much work, however, Wix also has its artificial design intelligence (ADI) system. The ADI system will ask you some broad questions about the type of website you want to create from its name to the industry you're going to operate in. By answering these questions, Wix will then spit you out a website shell specifically tailored to your needs.
Thanks to a recent partnership, Wix users are able to access Semrush’s SEO keyword data directly through the web builder's dashboard. This, in tandem with Wix’s new SEO settings that give users greater control over important technical SEO set-up on a granular page level, cements Wix's place as the best builder for advanced search engine optimization.
Once you’ve created the basis of your website, you’ll have access to a plethora of apps and features which will give you the ability to create loads of different types of websites — whether you need to build a slick online shop, a simple promotional website, or even a blog. Adding these apps and features is easy as well — it's just like downloading an app for your phone but doing it for a website instead. And Wix keeps improving as well: Our testing ranks its features higher than ever, scoring a 4.8/5 in our research, thanks to better blogging tools and internationalization.
Is Wix easy to use?
Wix earned a 4.4 out of 5 stars for the category “ease of use” in our testing — tied with Squarespace with the highest score for that category. The difference between Wix and Squarespace is slight but noticeable. Wix has more features, but Squarespace has more design functionality, scoring a 4.5/5 compared to Wix's 4.1/5 in our research.
With Wix, you won’t need any experience with website builders, or even web development in general. Its simple but detailed editing system means you’ll be able to create a completely original website without any stress — perfect for people who want their business to have a distinct, highly branded presence online.
It really is simple to add words, images, and videos thanks to the easy menus and user-first principles that make everything feel straightforward. Changing them or moving them around the page is a piece of cake with Wix's drag-and-drop editor. One word of caution, however, is that once you've picked your Wix template, you'll be unable to swap it out for a different template once your site has been published.
You can get started with Wix for free today — make sure to use code “GET10!” when you end your free trial to get 10% off a monthly or yearly billed plan.
Want to know more about Wix? Check out our full Wix review.
Squarespace – Best Design Templates
Squarespace Ease of Use score: 4.4
If you're not artistically inclined, building a great-looking site can seem like a tall task. However, Squarespace has the capability to make your website look fantastic, no matter your level of creativity. It might only have 110 templates to choose from, but since they’re developed in-house by Squarespace themselves, all of them are beautifully designed.
As such, you'll find yourself wanting to leave them alone for the most part — only adding your own images and changing the text. Thanks to Squarespace's Fluid Engine drag-and-drop builder which relies on a malleable grid system, users are able to customize their site heavily to fit their needs, too.
Pros
- Get 10% off with code TECHCO10
- Email and social marketing tools
- Best knowledge center available
- Robust analytics features
- Native SEO keyword support
Cons
- Slower site speed
- No advanced customization options
- 10% off with code 'TECHCO10'
- 14-day free trial
- Personal plan: $16/month
- Business plan: $23/month
- Business plan fees: 3%
- Free domain with 1-year contract
Is Squarespace easy to use?
Our research found that Squarespace is tied with Wix for the easiest to use website builder, scoring a 4.4/5. Squarespace is a great platform for running a blog, thanks to its aesthetically pleasing template designs and intuitive text editor. In addition, Squarespace's product updates have helped push it higher than ever in our ease-of-use testing, improving its ranking significantly in our latest round of research. Most notably, Squarespace has add onboarding questions that can guide business accounts to the correct template for their business, streamlining one of the most difficult decisions in website building: choosing the right template.
Using Squarespace to create an online store is just as easy as creating a blog. It has templates designed specifically to work as online stores, and a really straightforward product management system that will let you manage prices and track stock. PayPal, debit/credit card, and Apple Pay payment options are also built in.
Changing the overall layout of your pages isn't as easy with Squarespace as it is with rivals such as Wix. However, given its overall design excellence, you'll be slightly more reticent to change them. Our main issue with Squarespace, though, is its slightly confusing system of sub-menus for navigating pages — it's pretty easy to get lost in the maze of menus, particularly when you start using it.
With that being said though, you will get used to Squarespace pretty quickly and an initially confusing navigation system shouldn't deter you from a very strong website builder.
Find out more about Squarespace in our full review or take a look at its templates and start building your site today
GoDaddy – Best for Quick Set Up
GoDaddy Ease of Use score: 4.1
GoDaddy is a big name in the world of website development, and perhaps best known for its website hosting and 24/7 on-the-phone support.
A few years ago, GoDaddy wasn't even near our top pick website builder on the market. However, since then we've noticed considerable improvements to the product, and we appreciate how it's noticeably improved its design control and feature set, with better and more customizable templates available.
Time is money for most small businesses. So, if you don't have tons of time spare to create a site, GoDaddy will be a safe bet, with the platform offering the quickest setup time of any other solution we've tested.
Pros
- Quick, efficient website building
- "SEO Wizard" tool is super useful for beginners
- Plenty of must-have features built-in
Cons
- Limited customization options
- Website design is quite restrictive
- Basic SEO features
- Basic plan: $9.99/month
- Premium plan: $14.99/month
- Premium plan: $16.99/month
- Ecommerce plan: $29.99/month
- 30-day Free Trial
- All plans have 24/7 support
Is GoDaddy easy to use?
GoDaddy has had a few drawbacks in previous years, but the brand has come a long way when it comes to offering an easy-to-use website builder. These days, it has arguably one of the best AI-powered website builders out there. As a user, you simply answer a few questions about what type of website you're looking to build, and in a few simple steps, it creates a slick-looking draft website for you.
Such a tool isn't unique to GoDaddy – most of the brands on this list have an ADI of their own. However, GoDaddy's is impressively intuitive and will feel effortless to first timers. This helped it score an impressive 4.1/5 in our ease-of-use testing, making it the only website builder along with Wix and Squarespace to score four or higher in that category.
GoDaddy's page editor lets users add elements to the page by clicking a big plus button in order to pull up a list of options to add which are tailored to the type of site you're trying to build. Design flexibility still isn't as great as with Wix, but it's simple to build a site with GoDaddy. For example, block elements are fairly restricted, so users won't be able to resize or move image blocks beyond certain parameters.
GoDaddy's website builder is completely focused on building websites for businesses and online stores — to the point that it makes no sense to try and build a different type of site. GoDaddy's focus on these types of sites makes it a good potential option for small businesses.
Find your ideal web builder in seconds using our 4-question quiz
Hostinger – Best Low-Cost Option
Hostinger Ease of Use score: 3.9
Hostinger's website builder tool is cheaper than Wix, and every website builder on this list when you take into account the special deal that lets you get started for only $2.69 per month. This helped Hostinger secure a 3.7/5 in our value research, as you really can't beat that price.
However, Hostinger comes with fewer features and abilities as well. In short, this is a just-the-basics website builder for users who need a simple site that's quick and won't break the bank. And there's nothing wrong with that!
Another perk is the Hostinger logo maker, which can help users create their own logo branding for a new storefront. The results are similar to the AI writer tool, but with visual flair. It's worth noting, however, the Wix also has a logo maker, so don't let that feature sway you if the limited features are a dealbreaker.
Finally, there's a heatmap analytics feature, which lets Hostinger's users figure out what pages draw more website visitors, and how interested those visitors are in hanging around.
Is Hostinger easy to use?
Hostinger's greatest weakness could be its greatest strength – the service's reduced functionality in comparison to big website builders like Wix and Squarespace does make it easier to use. Users can build a website faster and quicker when their options are more limited, which netted it a 3.9/5 in our ease of use research.
Check out our Hostinger vs Wix comparison guide for more info
If that sounds like damning the site with faint praise, we can also confirm that Hostinger's interface is also easy on newbies, with a grid-style layout that our researchers found comprehensive and usable.
There is one ease-of-use issue that we have to ding Hostinger for, though: There's no onboarding process, which would have gone a long way towards reducing intimidation as a new user settles into understanding the website builder and how it works.
One extra perk for saving money with the already low-priced service: You can save on the monthly price with our exclusive code “TECH” and get online for just a few dollars per month if you're getting an annual plan. You might be eligible for an extra four months free hosting, a free SSL certificate, three months of free business email, and a domain all thrown in for free.
Pros
- Very affordable platform
- Easy to use with simple grid layout
- Advanced features like heatmap and logo maker
- Exclusive low-cost deal - just $2.69/month with the code "TECH" (excludes monthly plan)
Cons
- No app store
- Limited marketing features
- Little onboarding help at setup
- 30-Day Money Back Guarantee
- Special deal for just $2.99/month with code "TECH"
- Renewal price from $6.99/month
- Up to 78% off (deal active now)
- Standard price: $11.99/month
- Free 1 year of 1 domain included with plan
Hostinger's limited functionality isn't the same thing as not having any features at all — Hostinger actually has a small group of unique functions that might attract users and won't be found on any of the other options we list here. So what are they?
First, there's an AI writer, which will auto-populate written content for your website — you'll definitely want to give it a fact-check after generating it, in order to catch any inconsistencies, but this tool means that you'll be able to craft engaging writing far faster than you otherwise could.
Shopify – Best for Ecommerce
Shopify Ease of Use score: 3.7
Shopify is one of, if not the best ecommerce website builder on the market today. It offers an unmatched selection of features that are geared towards building your online store and managing your digital inventory. Even better Shopify had the highest customer score across our research with 4.8/5, which means the average user is considerably happy with the website builder on a regular basis.
The biggest problem for Shopify, however, is that the price is pretty intimidating. The starting price comes in at $29 per month, which is much higher than most others on this list, and it hides a lot of valuable features behind the more expensive plans, which get as high as $299 per month. All that to say, make sure you actually need all this ecommerce functionality before you bust out the big bucks for this website builder.
Pros
- ADI functionality
- Best cost per feature option
- Dedicated mobile editor view
Cons
- No blog functionality
- Limited SEO features
- No internal marketing capabilities
- Start plan: $9/month
- Grow plan: $14/month
- Free plan available
- Free Plan Available
- Marketing Add-On: $4/month
- Minimum contract term: 12 or 24 months
Is Shopify easy to use?
We'll be the first to admit that Shopify isn't the easiest to use website builder available. With an ease-of-use score of only 3.7/5, it's clear that all those ecommerce features do get in the way of an intuitive interface. The massive app store contributes to this a bit, as it offers a whole lot of functionality, but you have to integrate these tools rather than have them built in.
Still, for this much functionality, Shopify has a surprisingly high ease of use score. In fact, it has an identical ease of use score to Weebly, while scoring significantly higher on features (3.6/5 vs 3.3/5) and again, Shopify has an excellent customer score, so you know it's not too complicated for everyday users.
Weebly – Great for “What You See is What You Get” Editing
Weebly Ease of Use score: 3.7
Weebly isn’t quite as good as some of the options on this list, but it has gotten better in our testing across the last year. It doesn’t have as many website templates to choose from as competitors, and its ecommerce functions are expensive compared to top-rated options like Wix. The server response time was also the worst of all the website builders we tested. All that combined for a lackluster overall score of 3.7/5, which puts it firmly in the “good enough” category.
However, it does have a great range of SEO tools and it is a functional website builder, armed with features to guide new users in their website construction. The templates are flexible, and you can change between them at any time — even if one user comment from our tests called them “really bland.”
Pros
- Robust free plan
- Great for beginners
- Lots of useful SEO guides
Cons
- A bit outdated design-wise
- Few platform updates
- Worst server response time
- Personal plan: $10/month
- Professional plan: $12/month
- Performance plan: $26/month
- Free version available
- Free SSL Security
- 30-day Money Back Guarantee
Is Weebly easy to use?
Like Wix, Weebly also has a drag-and-drop editor, allowing for customization of your site. You’ll also have access to over 300 apps and plugins which will help make your site work brilliantly for all of your visitors. Wix's is a lot easier to figure out, though, which is why Weebly only received a 3.7/5 for ease of use compared to the 4.4/5 from Wix.
Weebly's main benefit is a truly what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor — what you see on the back end of your website is exactly what you'll see when your site is published and live. This makes everything to do with editing your site, from small changes to site-wide overhauls, far easier.
Weebly will also let you chop and change your website templates at will, unlike Wix, meaning it is easy to start over should you want to. You should expect slow platform updates, however. Weebly's overall editor isn't the most powerful on the market but it is still a competent service and is worth your consideration.
How We Rated the Best Website Builders for Beginners
As we mentioned above, our research and reviewing are completely independent and impartial. We base our ratings on a mix of subjective user trials and objective comparisons between the different website builders.
For this list of the easiest website builders, we gave slightly more weighting and influence to the “ease of use” category score, meaning the ranking of this list gives the fairest appraisal of which are the easiest web builders to use and, therefore, are the best for beginners specifically.
Ease of use
For starters, when looking at the ease of use factor for each website builder, users are given a set of instructions to create a website.
Once finished, the users rate the builders on how easy it was to complete each instruction – and whether they had to reach for the support pages. The users are a mix of website builder novices and seasoned veterans, which makes our ratings balanced and comprehensive.
Features
When it comes to comparing the features offered by each website builder, our research team conduct exhaustive desk research to construct a feature map for each builder. This allows for objective, side-by-side comparisons of the number of features.
Based on this user testing, we can also assess the relative quality of the features available on each website builder — for example, most website builders offer app marketplaces and integration, but that doesn't mean they're equally good.
Customer support
Another key element of a good software service is great customer support.
Support details we looked for with each website builder included whether or not support is available via email, phone, live chat, or online help guides and videos. We also looked at if the support was 24/7 or during set business hours.
Ranking
Every function is ranked on a scale of 1 to 5, along with factors like pricing flexibility, the number and breadth of customer service options, and our findings on the ease of use. Once we have a final number, we condense it down to a five-star rating — you can find our rating for each website builder in the table at the top of this article.
While some aspects of each review will always be subjective and based on our reviewers' opinions, the end result of our ranking system is a fair comparison between how each service stacks up to the rest.
Building a Website For the First Time: What Beginners Need to Know
When you come to building your first ever website, you should remember these five key things:
- Pick your name, purpose, and theme ahead of time – It may sound fun, but you don't want to start building your website before you're ready. Take some time to think about what you want, how you want it to look, and what you want it to do before you build a website
- Use a website builder – They're cheaper than web developers, and give you a website you know how to use. We like Wix, due to its prices, range of features, and ease of use. See how it ranks against rivals in our website builder comparison table.
- Think about your audience – Consider the people you want to visit your site, and what they should do once they're there. It will help you make informed decisions in the decision and creation process.
- Don't be intimidated – Most website builders offer loads of help and support options, so you'll be able to fix any problems that might come your way.
- Build happy – This is your site, your portal to the entire internet, so make it fun!
It can be tricky to know where to start when it comes to building a website – particularly if you've never done it before. In the following sections, we're going to answer all the questions you might have when starting out.
How to make your own website for the first time
Before you do anything, you’ll have to pick a website builder to build your site with. We’re generally big fans of Wix here at Tech.co — it’s super easy to use while allowing you loads of creative control. However, some website builders, like GoDaddy, make the initial construction of your website ludicrously simple — although they do rob you of some customization and feature editing capabilities.
Once you’ve picked your website builder, you’ll have to choose from their selection of website templates. These give you a rough guide, almost like a blueprint for your site, so you’ll be able to make your website unique without having to start from scratch.
Indeed, making your website unique is generally pretty painless. It’s almost like editing a PowerPoint presentation – in fact, most website builders use drag-and-drop editors which allow you to plonk text, images, and more exactly where you want them.
If you think this website’s design (below) looks like it might be out of your league, you’ll be pleased to know it’s only a few clicks away! It was one of Wix’s 800+ template options, and if, for example, the orange background isn’t quite to your liking, you can completely reconfigure the design. If you’re planning on using this website for an existing business, you can also upload any logos or adapt designs to fit your current branding.
When you’re happy with your template and have adapted it to suit your needs and look the way you want it to, it’s always worth previewing it before you publish – just to make sure everything is looking correct!
How much does it cost to create a website?
Probably less than you think. Most website builders have packages that start at around $5 per month, with the most expensive packages costing between $25-40 per month. Naturally, the more you pay, the more features you’ll have access to.
While the cheapest packages will allow you to create a viable website, the most popular packages generally sit around the $8-15 per month mark. These will free your site from the website builder’s own branding, allow you access to features like analytics tracking and even ecommerce functions. If you want to create a really top-drawer website – whether to improve your business, grow your blog, or get your name out there – you’ll likely need these features.
With the $30+ per month packages, it’s generally not worth fretting about the features you might be missing out on. These packages give you access to really high-end features, such as currency conversion for international product shipping, or even the chance to have your site reviewed by a web design professional.
Free websites
Should you want to, you can even create a website without paying a penny. A lot of website builders — including Wix — offer free trials, so you can have a play around with the builder before committing to a monthly outlay.
It’s not all good news with a free site, however. When it comes to publishing it, you’ll likely have to put up with ads from your website builder of choice along the side, which won’t make your site look as professional. You’ll also be missing out on some really useful features which could make your website better for your users, help make you more money, or give you more exposure.
And since studies show that 49% of customers have left a brand due to poor customer experience in the last year, a good site will more than atone for its cost.
Read more – 5 Reasons You Should Never Make a Website for Free
Should you pay for a website developer or use an easy website builder?
We don’t want to say that you shouldn’t, under any circumstances, pay for someone to build your website for you. However, we are struggling to think of situations where it would be better to opt for a website developer ahead of a good website builder tool.
Nowadays, website builders allow ordinary people, like you and me, to create world-class websites in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible 10-15 years ago.
Moreover, website builders are almost always cheaper than opting for a website developer. You won’t have to pay a large deposit upfront, nor will you have to pay an excessive monthly or yearly retainer on a contract that could span multiple years. Instead, you’ll have complete control of your payment options on a month-to-month basis, which can be turned on or off as and when you feel like it.
You won’t be beholden to the scheduling and workflow of your developer, either. If something breaks, you won’t need to raise a ticket to get it fixed – you, and we mean you (you built the site, after all), can fix it as soon as you spot it. You’ll also be able to update or change the site whenever you feel like it or add functionality quickly as your site grows.
One downside, though, is that using a website builder will require slightly more of your time. Got more money than time? Hiring a website developer could be right for you. But, by creating the site yourself, you will be able to make the exact site you want, rather than a developer’s approximation of your requests. And, you never know, you might even enjoy it.
Read more – How Much Does a Website Designer Cost?
Verdict: Easiest Website Builder for Beginners
In our in-depth product research and testing it earned a notably high score for “ease of use” (4.4/5). This is owing to its artificial design intelligence (ADI) system, its unbeatable customer support options for when you're stuck, an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, and a great selection of apps, features, and over 800 templates that make creating a truly unique site a breeze, even for those with zero design experience.
Our second pick for the best website builder for beginners is Squarespace, as it ties with Wix for great ease of use (it also earned a 4.4/5 in this category), and it does also offer ADI options for building. However, the features score is slightly lower, although it does offer better design functionality. All in all, you can't go wrong with either of these options when it comes to an easy to use website builder.
Click the buttons below to visit Wix and Squarespace, and to learn more about how they could help you build your business site.
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