Best WordPress Alternatives Compared

We put every website builder through a tough evaluation – including user testing from both novices and experts – to find out which one is the best.

Based on our extensive, independent testing, these are the best WordPress alternatives on the market:

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	Wix	Weebly	Squarespace	Shopify	1&1 IONOS	Site123
Test score	4.5 stars	4 stars	4 stars	4.5 stars	4 stars	3 stars
Verdict	Comfortably the best website builder we've tested, and brilliantly simple, even for beginners	A super easy to use website builder with tonnes of features built in	Stands out with its attractive templates, and strong ecommerce offering	Hands down the best for ecommerce websites	A decent website builder with great multilingual functions	A simple, but speedy, website builder
Blogging	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Portfolio sites	✔	✔	✔	✗	✗	✔
Business sites	✔	✔	✔	✗	✔	✔
Ecommerce sites	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Free plan	✔	✔	14-day free trial	14-day free trial	✗	✔
Paid plan (monthly)	Starts from $8.50	Starts from $8	Starts from $12	Starts from $29	Starts from $5	Starts from $10.80
Try it Today	Visit Wix	Visit Weebly	Visit Squarespace*	Visit Shopify	Visit 1&1 Ionos	Visit Site123

*Take 10% off your order with code ‘TECH10'

Wix – Easier to use than WordPress

Wix is one of the easiest website builders to use, and it has a raft of features perfect for any type of website you might want to build — whether that’s an ecommerce store or a blog.

To get you started, Wix has over 200 fantastic website templates, which can all be heavily customized using its intuitive drag-and-drop editor.

What’s more, Wix’s menu system is delightfully simple to navigate, making every aspect of website creation and management super easy.

Read our full Wix review for more

Weebly – More features than WordPress

Weebly has WordPress licked when it comes to the quantity and quality of features it offers – including an excellent blogging platform.

Despite being designed as a website builder first and foremost, we found Weebly’s blogging system to be just as fully-formed as WordPress’.

Weebly also offers plenty of extras, including SEO tools, ecommerce features, and email marketing. All these tools can help you turn blogging into a career, rather than just a hobby.

Read our full Weebly review for more

Squarespace – Better looking than WordPress

Squarespace has the best looking website templates on the market. This means that if you’re looking to start a blog, ecommerce store, or a site for your business, and want it to look spectacular, Squarespace is the website builder for you.

It might only have 91 templates available to choose from, but they are all beautifully designed and completely customizable.

Squarespace also has loads of features baked-in, meaning that you can easily create any kind of website you might want to.

Find out more about Squarespace's excellent designs in our review

Shopify – Best for selling online

Just because WordPress is primarily known as a blogging platform, that doesn’t mean it only does blogging – 30% of the internet can’t all be bloggers.

So, if you’re considering using WordPress as the basis for an ecommerce site, we’d recommend you take a look at Shopify instead. Now, it is a lot more expensive than WordPress, but you’ll get loads more specialist ecommerce features

For example, you’ll be able to properly track inventory, manage sales, and do your accounting with its built-in tools. What’s more, you can also run a blog on Shopify – perfect for keeping in touch with your customers.

Find out more about Shopify in our review

1&1 IONOS – Best for multilingual sites

If you’re looking to create a site that can serve audiences across two countries, or in countries with more than one main language, 1&1 IONOS is the website builder for you.

When you’re creating a site with 1&1 IONOS, you can choose from the outset which languages you’d like to present your site in – no plugins, custom code, or apps required. In fact, 1&1 IONOS will even let you translate your site automatically through Google Translate.

Not all website builders offer this level of support for multilingual sites, and many of them require far more legwork at your end. So, if you need to create a site for users in different languages, we’d choose 1&1 IONOS.

Discover more about 1&1 IONOS in our full review

Site123 – Best for getting started in a hurry

Site123’s biggest selling point is just how quickly it can build you a site. While many website builders promise that you’ll be able to get online in a matter of minutes, we believe that with Site123, you actually can do so.

Site123 doesn’t have the extensive feature set of Weebly, nor does it offer the same level of customization as Wix or Squarespace. But its slick Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) software will help you create a functioning website, pre-loaded with content, in a matter of minutes.

Learn more about Site123 in our full review

Should You Use WordPress or a Website Builder?

If you’re choosing between WordPress and a website builder, it’s worth stopping for a moment to consider what type of website you want to make. If you want a blog, nothing more and nothing less, we’d recommend WordPress. You can get plugins and apps for WordPress which can help add extra features, but we think you’re better off choosing a site with these built-in.

As such, if you want to create a blog with the potential to grow into a larger, more fully-featured site, we’d recommend Wix or Squarespace. Both of these website builders have the capabilities to create great blogs, but also viable ecommerce or business sites.

If you’re looking to sell stuff, and wouldn’t mind a blogging feature, we’d choose Shopify. It’s simply unmatched when it comes to quality and quantity of ecommerce features. It is expensive, but in this instance, you definitely get what you pay for.

Still not sure? See our expert ratings of the Best Website Builders to use