Best Website Builders For Mac

According to our research, Wix is the best website builder for Macs, due in large part to its easy-to-navigate user interface, massive feature list, and reasonably priced plans.

The Wix platform doubles as our best website builder overall, as it integrates smoothly with email and social marketing across macOS and iOS software. It delivers a wide range of customizable templates that will suit most needs.

Rather than paying for Mac software, with Wix you pay a monthly fee – as low as $17 per month – which will allow you to create and publish your website on any platform, as it’s hosted online. Wix offers deals and discounts, too, making it accessible to various budgets.

All of these web builders are hosted online, ensuring that they work equally well with Macs as they do with PCs. In addition to Apple compatibility, we’ve considered some top priorities for Mac users, such as design features, user experience, and customization options.

Trying to decide which one is best for your business isn’t easy, though. We’ve also put together a website builder quiz that can help you narrow down your search in just a few short questions.

In this guide:

• Top Website Builders for Mac
• What Do Mac Users Need From a Website Builder?
• Website Builders vs Mac Website Software
• Methodology: How We Find the Best Website Builders for Mac
• Verdict: What Is the Best Website Builder for Mac?

Finding the right website builder has the power to make or break your online store. So, we make sure every provider has undergone comprehensive research and user testing before they appear on our site.

When determining which is the best website builder for Mac users, we focused on several key metrics, including website features, design functionalities, value for money, customer support, customer satisfaction, and user experience.

Then, after ranking the website builder against these key criteria in tests conducted this year, we awarded each provider its own set of scores. These results then help to inform us which solutions have the most value, and why. If you’d like to know more about how we find you the best technology, read more about our research process here.

Top Website Builders for Mac

The website builders we’ve rounded up don’t actually require you to install anything from the Mac App Store, which is always nice to avoid when you can. While some – like Wix – do have desktop apps you can use on your Mac if you like, this is completely optional.

You can access all of the website builders below through Safari, Chrome, or your preferred web browser of choice. This makes it quick and easy to create, edit and update a website – even if you’re using a lower-powered MacBook Air, rather than a MacBook Pro.

Each website builder we rate is based on real-life use, with our testers having hands-on time with each service to work out what’s great, and what’s not so great.

Below are the top Mac Website Builders to come out of our testing:

• Wix – Best overall website builder
• Squarespace – Best for growing businesses
• Shopify – Best for selling online
• GoDaddy – Best for quick setup
• Hostinger – Best for uptime reliability
• WordPress – Best for blogging and publishing sites
• IONOS by 1&1 – Best for beginners
• Jimdo – Best value-for-money provider

Wix – Best Overall Website Builder

After user-testing its software and comparing it against the best solutions on the market, we’ve decided Wix is the most Mac-friendly website builder.

This is partially due to its massive feature catalog, which offers a logo maker, CRM functionality, and email and social marketing capabilities. Still, this shouldn’t come as a shock: Considering Wix is also the best website builder for small businesses as well as one of the easiest website builders for beginners, it’s no surprise that the tool tops the charts for Mac users as well.

The Wix product dashboard lets users quickly add media with a drag-and-drop interface. Image: Tech.co

Wix is refreshingly easy to use, with an intuitive drag-and-drop system it’s a great choice for new starters, as well as those with some experience. In fact, we found it to be one of the simplest to navigate on this list.

If you’re looking to spend some time away from the desktop, Wix also offers an impressive iOS app that lets users create and edit their website and manage their online store. This app is compatible with iPhones and iPads, making it accessible to all Apple users.

Wix users can also benefit from the ‘Wix App Market’, which allows you to add functions to your site with just a click, from appointment booking to live chat. It also gives users powerful SEO tools to ensure that their website doesn’t languish at the bottom of Google’s search engine. For instance, Wix’s Semrush keyword integration gives users access to over 21 billion keywords, and the platform’s new SEO settings, which allow greater control over the process, definitely give businesses an advantage over their competitors.

Additionally, if you’re new to website design and don’t really know what you’re doing, Wix’s powerful ADI, dubbed Wix ADI, will design a website for you based on a few criteria you provide. Just answer a few quick questions and you’ll be all set up fast and easy. The online tool supports Safari versions 5 to 16 flawlessly too, so its Mac compatibility is no concern. The platform’s built-in AI tools include a text generator and image background remover, among others.

The Wix App Store app requires iOS 14.0 or later (for iPhone), iPadOS 14.0 or later (for iPad), and macOS 11.0 or later (for Mac).

Wix has relaunched its free plan, but still offers a 14-day free trial. While the free plan is fine for solo users starting a blog or making a very basic site, the paid packages will let you build a professional-looking website up and running in minutes, for minimal cost. That said, Wix’s overall value for money isn’t as great as it once was, with a starting cost that is now $17 per month following a May 2024 price hike. If you’re looking for budget-friendly website builders, we recommend WordPress and GoDaddy.

Squarespace – Best for Growing Businesses

Squarespace boasts over 177 stunning website templates allowing businesses and entrepreneurs to whip up a professional-looking website in no time at all, and they are the linchpin of the service.

With an impressive selection of templates to choose from, there are plenty of options for Mac users for businesses in any industry. With pretty much every facet editable, there really is no limit to how your site can look with Squarespace, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best option for Macs.

While Squarespace offers a fantastic range of features for businesses looking to create a website that looks the part, the interface can be a little confusing for first-time users. Squarespace used to lag slightly behind Wix on this front, but our most recent test results suggest that’s a thing of the past. That’s great news for Mac users who are used to intuitive design.

Squarespace offers AI text generation that can be directed to create new blurbs, sales pitches, and more. Image: Tech.co

Usability aside, one of Squarespace’s top features is its great blogging function. Posts look the same when they’re being written as to how they will be on the finished page, removing the need to continually go back and forth, previewing the site.

What we do like about Squarespace is that it is constantly updating its features. For example, a couple of years ago Squarespace launched Fluid Engine: a faster, more customizable page editor, that makes it super easy for Mac users to build their website on desktop and mobile, which has allowed it to keep pace with Wix. Other competitors, like Jimdo, don’t make fundamental changes like this so often.

The Squarespace App Store app requires iOS 16.0 or later (for iPhone), iPadOS 16.0 or later (for iPad), and macOS 13.0 or later (for Mac).

If you like the sound of Squarespace, you can try it for free for 14 days or find out more about its pricing

Shopify – Best for Selling Online

Shopify is a website builder that needs no introduction. It offers hundreds of practical features, but its strengths really lie in omnichannel selling. The platform allows businesses to sell across multiple channels including Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon, and it’s also able to scale easily with growing online scores.

Shopify is well-liked by customers and we rated it a help and support score of 4.1 out of 5, which even beats Wix, though not GoDaddy.

Mac users can benefit from Shopify’s full suite of features, including abandoned cart recovery, product management, and dropshipping tools. On our testing, Shopify scored 4.3/5 for features, coming second only to Wix (4.6/5).

The service also offers a good user experience as well, making it a solid pick for Mac users with lots of digital experience as well as those picking up website-building software for the first time.

The Shopify sales dashboard tracks products sold along many metrics, including the number that can be directly attributed to a marketing campaign. Image: Tech.co

The online tool is pricier than many of its rivals, too. While the website builder can be available for as little as $26 per month (paid annually in advance), larger stores can expect to pay as much as $299 per month for the service. Compared to cheaper providers like Wix and Squarespace — which offer website building services for as little as $17 and $16 per month respectively — these prices can look a little steep. What’s more, with Shopify charging extra for transaction fees and additional integrations, it might not be the perfect option for businesses on a budget.

The Shopify App Store app requires iOS 15.0 or later (for iPhone), and iPadOS 15.0 or later (for iPad). There is no native desktop app for macOS like Wix and Squarespace provide.

Interested in learning more about how much Shopify could cost your business? Read our assessment of its pricing plans

GoDaddy – Best for Quick Setup

GoDaddy is a huge force in the web building industry, with 20 million users. One of the reasons for its popularity, aside from its extensive marketing budget, is the ease with which it lets users create new sites thanks to a sophisticated drag-and-drop system.

In our testing, we found GoDaddy provided the quickest setup process for a website, so you can establish your online presence in minutes.

What’s more, GoDaddy has added custom headers and URLs to its suite of SEO features. While it still lacks an SEO guidance page, the platform now has a very similar feature set to industry leaders Wix and Squarespace.

GoDaddy also offers solid customer support options, including 24/7 phone support, for any issues that might crop up as you’re building your dream page. However, we found its knowledge center more tricky to use than Wix and Squarespace’s and scored it lower for customer support on the whole.

The platform recently debuted its own AI tool, which is available on many plans at no extra cost. The service, GoDaddy Airo, even lets users generate their own branded logos as well as new social media posts and marketing emails.

The GoDaddy website builder’s AI text generator suggests website descriptions that can be further customized by the user. Image: Tech.co

In the past, we didn’t think GoDaddy was a great option, but the website builder has added some serious functionality in recent years, allowing for more customization and better templates across all its plans. The website builder is also fully compatible with Windows and Mac devices, so we can confidently recommend them to anyone looking for a quick website.

GoDaddy provides Mac users with great bang for their buck too: Along with Jimdo and Hostinger, GoDaddy is one of the best values around, and noticeably wallet-friendly than the frontrunners Wix and Squarespace.

The GoDaddy App Store app requires iOS 16.0 or later to run on iPhones, with iPad or Mac users directed to the web browser.

Check out our GoDaddy review for more info

Hostinger – Best for Uptime Reliability

Outside of a free plan, you won’t find many website builders more affordable than Hostinger (formerly Zyro), which our testers found offered an average, okay-enough experience.

We’ve pegged Hostinger down as ‘one to watch’ for some time now, and you can get started with the software for only $2.69 per month when you use code “TECH“ at checkout, a staggeringly low price for any website builder.

It’s worth noting that this low price does come at a cost. Hostinger is definitely a more stripped-down version of a website builder, not providing most of the advanced features found on your average platform.

In fact, the software lagged in two big categories. Our researchers ranked it second-to-last for website features, putting it below all other providers on this list except for Jimdo. They also found its design functionality, while decent, still trails the design options available from Wix. In other words, Apple lovers who prize a sleek design should look elsewhere.

Hostinger’s website editing tools offer a range of sections including an “About” page, a gallery page, and a contact form. Image: Tech.co

The Hostinger software is easier to use than most other website builders on this list, and is well-suited for beginners who have never built a website before. This makes it perfect for Mac users looking for a cheap option. Unlike every other provider in this guide, however, Hostinger doesn’t offer an iOS-specific desktop app like Wix and Squarespace. Instead, its mobile web editor can be used within a browser on an iPhone.

Check out our Wix vs Hostinger guide to see how these two options compare

WordPress – Best for Blogging and Publishing Sites

WordPress powers over 500 million websites, so it must be doing something right. It’s an ideal platform for running a blog, and while some users complain about its clunky Windows presence, its Mac application seems to run a lot smoother.

As a website builder for creating professional-looking business-focused sites, it doesn’t quite compete with our favorites, Wix and Squarespace, as it can’t offer the same ease of adding extra features that those platforms can.

In fact, we really wouldn’t recommend WordPress to anyone who isn’t starting a blog. It has almost no scalability for growing businesses or any kind of marketing features to improve your audience. What it is, however, is good value for money, thanks to a starting cost of just $4 per month that brings a good basic functionality with it.

The WordPress website builder platform uses a drag-and-drop editor for ease of use. Source: WordPress.com

The editor itself is fairly intuitive and has a great “what you see is what you get” approach, so you can see how your page will look to your readers, even during the creation process. Thanks to the huge, active user base, any issues you might come across are usually just a Google away. If you do hit a snag, it likely won’t be for long.

If you’re more of an expert when it comes to website building and you still want to stick with WordPress, WordPress.org provides users with open-source access for free. However, it’s worth noting that you’re going to need a pretty serious knowledge base to design a website with WordPress.org, as the process can be quite complicated, particularly without any prior experience.

The WordPress App Store app requires iOS 15.0 or later (for iPhone), and iPadOS 15.0 or later (for iPad). There is no macOS version.

1&1 IONOS – Best for Beginners, with Great Customer Support

IONOs is a great option if you’re looking for ease, simplicity, and a basic program that won’t overwhelm you with customization options – which makes it a solid choice for beginners. It’s also got a good range of customer support options but it suffers from a general lack of features and a limited design functionality.

IONOS’s simplicity does come with a catch, and it’s that lack of features.

For one, you’re restricted to the fixed elements on any given page, and the editor function only really covers the bases. When we took the product out for a spin and built a mock website from scratch, we also found that the gallery of images on offer are poor. When it comes to design functionality, IONOS sits below all of the other providers featured in this article.

This widescreen view of the IONOS website builder guides users through creating the design and content on their new site. Image: Tech.co

IONOS has so many different products that it wasn’t immediately obvious what contact avenues were relevant to their website builder. However, it does have a good selection of options, including phone support, which Squarespace doesn’t offer – and which helps IONOS stand out as a great option for beginners with plenty of questions.

The IONOS App Store app requires iOS 13.0 or later (for iPhone), iPadOS 13.0 or later (for iPad), and macOS 11.0 or later (for Mac).

Another good thing about IONOS is the price, although costs have risen recently. There are four website builder plans available. The Essentials plan costs $4 per month for a year and $6 per month thereafter and the Starter plan is $6 per month for a year and $12 per month thereafter. The Plus plan is the best value though, as it’ll only cost you $1 per month for the first 12 months and then $18 per month from then on, while the Pro plan costs $17 per month for 12 months and $30 per month after that.

Jimdo – Best Value for Money Provider

Jimdo is another website builder that makes actually getting your website live on Macs incredibly easy.

Thanks to the ADI, you can input a few simple criteria, and Jimdo will build the website for you, getting you live in just a matter of minutes with professional caliber web design. You don’t even have to be an expert!

Despite their reasonable monthly prices, low-tier website builders have some pitfalls and Jimdo is no different. Jimdo has actually gone down in our research team’s estimates since 2022, as it lacks blogging functionality and marketing tools, and only offers limited SEO features as well. The website builder has few website features, too, placing it behind other budget solutions like Hostinger.

Unlike Hostinger, though, it offers a dedicated App Store application: You’ll need iOS 14.0 or later to run it on an iPhone, and iPadOS 14.0 or later for iPad.

The Jimdo website editor lets users create their own website with a simple, blocky interface. Source: Tech.co

Simply put, the software will not be adequate for larger companies that need a wide range of functionality. Therefore, stores with more complex requirements are better off choosing more robust solutions like Wix or Squarespace, or Shopify. Still, if you need a website live fast, Jimdo could provide you with the platform you need.

What Do Mac Users Need From a Website Builder?

There’s just one truly crucial concern for a Mac user who’s on the market for a website builder: It should be compatible with the software of the Apple ecosystem. Your website builder system should work seamlessly on MacOS and iPadOS. Ideally, it should also be accessible from iOS when you’re on the go: You can check the App Store to see if your website builder’s app is compatible with your current operating system.

In addition, you should check that the website builder’s customer support and online forums can address a Mac user’s needs just as well as a Windows user. The software should also work well with the iCloud storage service and offer integrations with Apple services you may use.

Beyond these requirements, though, a good Mac-compatible website builder will offer the same qualities that Apple is known for: Sleek aesthetics, intuitive interfaces, and any tools that bolster creative projects, from rich media support to clean templates. Any of the website builders above will support websites built with great design principles, from color and imagery to composition and texture.

Why does my website builder not work on Safari?

Most cloud-based website builders — and all of those listed in this guide — are designed to function across all popular web browsers, including Safari in addition to Chrome and Edge. If you’re having trouble with a design situation, it could be a problem with the rendering engines, in which case we’d recommend reaching out to the support team for the software you’re using.

Website Builder vs Mac Website Software

While a web-based website builder is the most popular option, the right dedicated software can do the same job. Software has fewer benefits compared to online services like Wix — often, you’ll have to pay more upfront for licenses that you can only use with the machine they are installed on. Some may have high requirements that won’t pose a problem to newer Macs, but which older operating systems might struggle with. In contrast, a website service is accessible from any machine, costs a few bucks a month, and is guaranteed to run on your device.

However, dedicated software puts you fully in control – since they are not cloud-based, you are not relying on another person’s service, and you can continue using it offline. If you’re the sort of person who likes total control, then dedicated site-building software may appeal.

Here, we take a brief look at a couple of the most popular options.

Sandvox

Sandbox makes big claims about its accessibility, stating that users will be able to create a website in under an hour. Given its drag-and-drop interface, that’s not too hard to believe, and those with coding experience can inject their own CSS or HTML to really make their website their own. It also offers in-depth guides and on-hand customer support, should you need it.

RapidWeaver

RapidWeaver doesn’t require any prior experience, and it’s a decent starting point for newcomers who simply want to create a functioning website. Integrated SEO tools make sure that your site will be spotted by Google and rank well, and there are dozens of themes to choose from. The automatic navigation system means that your site won’t suffer broken links.

Methodology: How We Find the Best Website Builders for Mac

At Tech.co, we conduct our own independent research into website builders, as well as all of the other software and services we write about. If we don’t have the data, we don’t write the article.

We have spent more than 1000+ hours, in total, testing and reviewing website builders, so you don’t have to.

As part of our website builder analysis, we took a close look at features, design functionality, average customer scores, storage, SEO tools, value for money, and the help and support offered by the biggest players in the industry. We also subjected each website builder to a rigorous usability test, analyzed site speed, and noted any additional features that could earn them points.

In our latest tests, marketing functions, ecommerce features, and design functionality impacted our scoring algorithm more significantly than in our previous round. Our market and audience research showed that they’d all increased in importance to people looking to expand their businesses online. All told, our research subcategories now include:

• Features: SEO and blogging tools
• Design functionalities: Design tools (themes, mobile editors, general flexibility)
• Value for money: Price factors like plan costs and features included
• Help and support: Type of support (phone, email, or live chat) and support hours
• Customer score: Customer and user testing feedback
• Ease of use: Software and user interface flexibility

Although we have commercial partnerships with some of the providers we talk about, our research allows us to remain editorially independent. Our research results – and our research results alone – determine our rankings and recommendations.