The Best Website Builders for Nonprofit and Charity Organizations in 2024

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught
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If you’re looking to create a website for a nonprofit or charity organization, be sure to read this guide. It will save you both time and money. In this guide, I’ll cover the best website builders for nonprofits – those website creation platforms that are particularly well-suited for building nonprofit sites.

It’s important to understand that a standard nonprofit organization’s website is not just a simple brochure site. It has specific functional and visual features that need to be addressed. I would like to highlight two of these features.

Distinctive Design for Nonprofit Organizations:

Not all website builders offer web templates for nonprofits or charity themes. This means you might spend a lot of effort and time adapting templates from other themes for nonprofit purposes. All the nonprofit website builders reviewed in this guide come with nonprofit templates, saving you the hassle of modifying them.

Donation Option Availability:

The main purpose of nonprofit websites is to collect donations. It’s clear that choosing the best website builders for a nonprofit should primarily depend on whether they include a donation option. Some advanced website builders (like Wix), do not have a built-in donation option but offer it as an additional widget.

Of course, the list of criteria doesn’t end with these two. Keep reading, and you’ll learn everything you need to know.

Best Website Builders for Non-profit Organizations

There are plenty of website builders that I have analyzed and assessed. From all those options, the ones most suitable for nonprofit and charity organizations are discussed below.

Wix – the Best Website Builder for Nonprofits

Wix, perhaps, is the most appropriate website builder for creating non-profit websites. You’ll soon see why.

wix nonprofit website builder

First of all, Wix has got the largest collection of free templates for nonprofits and charity organizations. Their collection is the widest among all online website builders. Plus, Wix also has a powerful yet simple-to-use drag-and-drop editor. The website builder also has some additional non-profits apps that help in making your website even better. There are membership options too, designed specifically to build non-profit websites with membership systems. And above all this, Wix is free. Even when you decide to scale to the premium plans, the cost won’t scare you.

Now, let us study the advantages of Wix in detail.

A Large Selection of Nonprofit Templates

Wix has got the largest collection of quality (and free!) non-profit website templates. And they are fully responsive, which means they’ll display perfectly on any device.

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Check all non-profit Wix templates

Moreover, Wix has separate templates for creating websites for charity organizations.

Charity Wix templates

Check all charity Wix templates

Wix also has a religious website templates category. This category has nice solutions for non-profit religious organizations.

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Check all religious Wix templates

Simple and User-friendly

Wix is designed in a way so as to ensure that every user (even beginners) can create a website independently. This means you would be able to build a website without having to put in several days or weeks of work and without anyone’s additional help. It’s very important to consider simplicity in a website builder because not all builders that claim to be simple are actually so.

The main advantage of using Wix (after its templates, of course) is an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Simply stated, this is what will allow you to turn a basic template into a ready website filled with pages and content.

Wix’s drag-and-drop editor is powerful and responsive and comes with lots of settings. It’s the most advanced drag-and-drop editor among all those I’ve seen. And yet, it remains simple and user-friendly.

NOTE: Some website builders have even simpler drag-and-drop editors but that is achieved upon reducing functional capacities. Such platforms are those that never bothered to develop a cool visual editor. So they have just the basic capacities for template editing and that’s why they’re so simple. But that’s not the case with Wix.

Wix Donation and Charity Apps

Another great advantage of Wix is the Wix App Market, where you can find additional apps and widgets for improving your website. Both free and premium options are available here.

Wix Donation and Charity Apps

Wix Donation and Charity Apps

Some useful free apps for non-profit websites include:

PayPal Button – You can install this button on your website and accept PayPal donations (one-off or by subscription). It allows accepting donations in 25 different currencies.

Get Funding – If you install the Get Funding app on your website, you can get donations safely and reliably through credit cards or PayPal. You’ll also have the option to collect donation statistics and share this data with your website’s users.

Site Badges – This app lets you install badges on single products or pages. Using the badges, you can state, for example, that 50% of the money from sales will go to charity. This is a good way to attract user attention and increase sales.

If you need a more powerful solution for collecting donations, then Wix supports integration with Donorbox.

Donorbox is a comprehensive solution for donation collection through credit cards, bank transfers, PayPal, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and so on. Donorbox is not just a donation button. It also has configurable donation forms with many additional possibilities.

For example, you can not just accept regular payments, but also collect extra information about your donors. Later you can use this data to form closer relations with donors and ensure their continued cooperation.

Building Nonprofit Websites with Membership System

You can take your nonprofit organization’s website to the next level using closed access areas for the members of your organization.

Building Nonprofit Websites with Membership System

Wix membership system integration

Members can access certain private sections on the website and browse through the information addressed only to them. Non-member visitors on your website won’t be able to access these sections.

This may also be a convenient option for your donors including large business owners and some corporations that donate to your organization. They can see how much donation they have made so far and the goals for which this money will be utilized in the members-only zone on your website.

Such a level of transparency will aid the reputation and trust-building efforts of your non-profit organization.

Wix can help you with this since it has a built-in membership system. With this, you’ll be able to configure access to certain sections for all members or only selected members or paying customers.

Costs

Wix is a free website builder by default. But I don’t recommend the free plan for creating non-profit websites. With the free plan, you’ll have to make do with a free subdomain, for example, non-profit.wix.com. This won’t contribute towards building people’s confidence in your non-profit organization.

Upgrading from the free plan to one of the premium ones will allow you to use any desirable domain name and your website’s address would look something like non-profit.com.

Advice: The best domain category for nonprofits and fundraising organizations is .ORG. As opposed to .COM (popular in the business field), .ORG domains imply that the website is run by an organization that has nothing to do with money-making.

Wix has several premium plans that you can choose from. The most affordable one is Combo, which costs $14 monthly (when paid annually). The Combo plan allows building a simple non-profit website with basic functionalities. Plus, you also get a free domain name for 1 year and a free SSL certificate.

Learn more about Wix plans on the official website.

Squarespace – Make a Nonprofit Site More Spectacular

Squarespace is a premium website builder that offers ample opportunities for creating websites for non-profit organizations. Just like Wix, it is one of the few website builders that have their own non-profit website templates.

squarespace nonprofit website builder

Originally, Squarespace positioned itself as a platform for launching online portfolios and websites for photographers, artists, and entertainers. But with constant and admittedly successful steps for development, Squarespace today allows building websites of all kinds. This also includes websites for nonprofit organizations.

Beautiful Nonprofit Templates

Squarespace has a collection of beautiful and user-friendly nonprofit templates. Surely it doesn’t have as many templates as Wix, but the available options are spectacular and professional-looking in design and definitely deserve attention.

Beautiful Nonprofit Templates

Check all non-profit Squarespace templates

The thing that I like most about Squarespace is its attitude towards website appearance. Beautiful, minimalistic templates have traditionally been Squarespace’s strong point. These templates are stylish, have a minimalistic design, lay emphasis on even the smallest details, have carefully balanced design elements and harmoniously chosen colors. All this makes Squarespace a highly valued choice for those who consider the look of the website as an important factor.

Special Blocks with Donation Buttons

In addition to non-profit templates, Squarespace can help you collect donations via special donation blocks. These donation buttons can be edited the way you like. You can change the amount of donation, the button’s color, and its design as well, along with the text on the button.

Information Collection forms

Squarespace also allows collecting data from donors and website visitors. You can collect the names, locations, company names, and contact details of your donors.

Plus, you can create an email list for your newsletter using Mailchimp integration. You can send emails concerning upcoming events, news about your organization, and even blogs published on your site.

Simple Drag-and-Drop Editor

A simple and intuitive drag-and-drop editor allows every user to master Squarespace easily, regardless of their previous website development experience.

Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor’s interface isn’t overloaded with details and is user-friendly.

Simple Drag-and-Drop Editor

It’s not as flexible as Wix’s editor and has fewer template editing options. But there are enough options for customizing your website to give it the right look.

Costs

Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan but allows you to try the services for free with a 14-days trial. After the trial, you can select one of the premium plans.

The most affordable one is the Personal plan that costs $12 monthly if paid for a year at once. With this plan, you get unlimited bandwidth and storage space, a free SSL certificate, and a free custom domain for 1 year. The plan has enough functionalities to build a small non-profit website with beautiful designs and the option to get donations.

Visit Squarespace pricing to learn more.

Shopify – for Nonprofit Websites with Ecommerce Requirements

Shopify – for Nonprofit Websites with Ecommerce Requirements

Shopify is a world-famous eCommerce platform for building online stores. But it also has a special section for launching websites for nonprofit and charitable organizations.

Most charitable organizations sell some products and a certain part of the proceeds from sales go to charity.

For example, one non-profit organization that I know very well sells wooden bracelets (made from dry, fallen branches). For every bracelet sold, the organization promises to plant a new tree. This not just helps get funds but also draws attention to forest conservation by taking actual efforts.

If your non-profit organization also plans to sell certain products, Shopify will be the ideal website builder for you.

It allows selling any type of goods, both physical and virtual. This website builder also provides a logistics facility and automated tax receipts and lets you access detailed analytics data about your customers and donors.

Special Prices for Nonprofit Organizations

Shopify doesn’t have low-cost plans and is, in fact, one of the most expensive online website builders. However, realizing the specific needs of nonprofit organizations, Shopify offers some plans specifically for them. These include the NPO Lite and NPO Full plan.

The cost of these special plans is not stated on the website, as Shopify recommends that charitable and other non-profit organizations contact them for the prices and additional information.

Advanced Features for Online Sales

If you want to make hassle-free sales and also increase your buyer base, Shopify is exactly what you need. With Shopify, you can sell any physical or virtual goods (like charitable online postcards) around the world.

If you are interested in selling your physical products in the United States, Canada, or Australia, you can save even more money thanks to Shopify Shipping. Under this, Shopify delivers your goods at a lower cost (almost 25% of the original cost). This is possible as Shopify has special agreements with shipping carriers like USPS, DHL Express, Canada Post, and Sendle.

This is a stress-free, simple and money-saving solution for charitable organizations.

Regular Donation Subscriptions

Another valuable feature of Shopify is that it allows receiving donations via regular subscriptions. Your donors can set up a monthly or quarterly subscription and automate their donations. It is very convenient for both charitable foundations and donors.

Shopify Pay – Receive Donations Without a Fee

Most payment systems charge a commission on payment processing. But if you use Shopify, you don’t have to pay any fees. Shopify doesn’t charge any extra commissions. With Shopify Pay, you can accept donations and payments for purchase without having to pay any extra charges.

Shopify Apps for NPO

Shopify Apps for NPO

Special apps for nonprofit organizations

Like Wix, Shopify also has an App Store from where you can download the necessary apps for free. The Shopify app store also has some apps for websites for non-profit organizations. The most useful ones are:

Give&Grow Donations – It is an end-to-end donation solution that allows donors to see the social impact of their donations.

Easy Donation – It is a donation app that allows NPOs to collect donations directly at the checkout page. Using this app, at the time of purchase, the customer gets an option to make a small donation to your organization.

Change Commerce – This is a fully customizable end-to-end donation app that can increase customer loyalty and the AOV for charitable companies.

Moreover, Shopify easily integrates with DonorBox, which allows using multiple channels for getting donations for your non-profit organization.

Costs

As I already said, Shopify caters to the needs of nonprofit and charitable organizations by offering two plans specifically for them: NPO Lite and NPO Full Plan.

These plans are available at lower costs and have additional capacities, suitable for nonprofit organizations.

You can get more information about the cost of these by sending in a request on the official Shopify website.

The Importance of a Website for Nonprofit Organizations

No matter what kind of nonprofit organization you represent – charity organization, political organization, church, social club, consumer cooperative, or school – it’ll be hard to overemphasize the importance of having a decent website. More so if you run or manage a charitable organization that directly relates to social activities and donations.

The key point is trust and the organization’s reputation. You can visit the link below to see what Wikipedia tells us about the importance of trust for nonprofit organizations: “For a nonprofit that seeks to finance its operations through donations, public confidence is a factor in the amount of money that a nonprofit organization is able to raise. The more nonprofits focus on their mission, the more public confidence they will have. This will result in more money for the organization.”

nonprofit organizations

A website acts as a showcase and newsletter that reveals the objectives and mission of the organization to the public. However, that’s not the end of what a nonprofit organization’s website should look like or do. In the case of some non-commercial organizations, the website should make it possible for visitors to make a donation and, of course, contact the organization’s representatives.

How Should a Contemporary Website for Non-Commercial Organizations Be?

Before talking about choosing the best website builder for nonprofit organizations, let’s find out what features a good nonprofit site should have.

If you believe you have a deep understanding of the specific requirements of non-profit organization’s websites, you can skip this section and directly proceed to the section that discusses the website builders suitable for the job.

For everybody else, we have the specific requirements of a nonprofit website laid out right here.

Nonprofit Website Design

All websites should have a characteristic design. And by glancing at your nonprofit website your users should be able to immediately understand what your website and organization are about.

This is extremely important since most Internet users are likely to quickly bounce away from your website if they feel that the work of your organization doesn’t meet their expectations. They might also believe they have landed on the wrong site due to a mistake in the URL.

As it is already known, millennials and Generation Z tend to take rapid (often hasty) decisions based on first impressions. They hardly consider the details if the first impression isn’t good enough. That’s why you should pay more attention to the design of your nonprofit organization’s website.

Conclusion: The website builder you choose must have quality nonprofit templates created by professional web designers.

Responsive Design

In addition to a beautiful and clean design, a website should also have an adaptive layout and be responsive. This means it must be properly displayed on any device, whether it is a PC with a widescreen monitor, a laptop, or a mobile phone.

You might be surprised, but most people visit websites right from their smartphones. So, you should take mobile responsive design and layout into account.

Conclusion: The website builder you pick must have responsive templates. Ideally, the website builder should also allow you to configure the mobile version of your website separately from the desktop version.

About Us and Our Mission Sections

Your website must have About Us and Our Mission sections. These sections tell your website, visitors, about your nonprofit organization. These pages on your website are perfect for placing videos too. With a video, you can quickly share the information with your target audience and also create a better impact on them.

Conclusion: The website builder should support video integrations on all the pages of your website.

News Section

Your website must have a News section where you can publish the details about the day-to-day activities and important milestones of your organization.

The presence of a News section on your website is important since it shows that your organization is active and is not just interested in collecting donations. This helps increase the reliability and image of your NPO in the community.

Conclusion: The website builder you use for your nonprofit organization’s website should have a News section with the possibility to add different types of content, including text, photos, and videos. The website builder should also have an option to schedule the new updates on a specific date. This will ensure that the news is communicated to your site users at the appropriate times.

Photo and Video Galleries

Photo and video galleries on your website will be a big plus. Using these sections you will be able to publish photo reports and videos of past events. It’s an effective way to raise the audience’s confidence in your organization.

Conclusion: The right website builder for your needs should have photo and video galleries with the possibility of sorting photos/videos according to categories and dates.

Donation Option

If there is one thing that is the most important for any nonprofit website (especially charity sites), then it is the ability to accept donations directly from the website. Usually, buttons with different amounts are shown on the website which can be clicked on, to use a payment gateway to make donations. Of course, there should also be an option where philanthropists can themselves decide the amount of money they would like to donate to your organization.

Conclusion: A suitable website builder should have a donation option. The more ways of receiving payment the platform supports, the better it would be.

Integration with Social Networks

Your website should give visitors a simple and quick option to share any website content on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you have a strong Reddit community, Reddit social Integration should also be available.

Conclusion: The website builder you choose must have an option that allows quick sharing of website content to social media platforms.

Contact Section

Your website should definitely have a Contact page with phone numbers, email addresses, and other contact information. Having a contact form on the page that allows visitors to quickly share messages is also essential to make your visitors feel that you are available for conversation.

Conclusion: Your preferred website builder must have a message sending option through a website contact form.

30 Modern Small Business Websites Examples for 2024

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

You must have thought of designing your own business website at some point in life. But why is it necessary to have a company website? A solid online presence has been an active push for consumers or your target audience. A corporate website can truly make or break any business. An online storefront can make a huge opportunity for many entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. For all of these reasons, it is essential that every small business have a business site.

You can find many examples of small business websites that are jaw-droppingly amazing. A good business website shows that your brand is credible, professional, and worthy of people’s customs.

Good Examples of Business Websites

For your ease, we have listed down 30 examples of small business websites.

NOTE: All these examples are developed on different platforms – business website builders and CMS. The main purpose of this review is not to single out any particular platform, but to select business websites with an attractive and successful design.

BrandVillage

Made with WordPress

BrandVillage business website example

Check this business website

BrandVillage is an award-winning branding agency. BrandVillage believes every business’s success depends on its community reputation, brand identity, strategy, and guidelines. It offers various graphic design services, including logo design, website design, packaging design, and more.

Its website design gives an impression of a responsive and user-friendly. Moreover, you find a consistent theme of great photography on bold backgrounds to give extra interest. 

Venkataramanan Associates

Made with WIX

Venkataramanan Associates small business website example

Check this business website

Venkataramanan Associates is an award-winning architecture firm operating out of Bangalore. VA promotes a positive approach to collaboration of engineering, technology, and design innovation to influence its design capability.

VA website features a quality design that uses sliding photos of their projects on the Homepage. The site is easy to navigate with an excellent user experience and allows potential clients to get in touch with the business.

WeTalkMoney

Made with Weebly

WeTalkMoney website example for business

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WeTalkMoney is your financial planner, financial advisor, and personal guide to walk into life after retirement. Get your investing strategies, personal finance tips, and ways to build wealth with WeTalkMoney.

The website shows standout photography at the beginning and center of its Homepage. A horizontally sliding deck of testimonials and white typography gives a sleek, professional layout that will stop visitors in their tracks.

Keen Home

Made with Shopify

Keen Home business website example

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Keen Home offers proactive hardware and software products to let you live comfortably and efficiently at home. You can get a balanced home temperature system by clicking their website.

On the website, you will find large, professional-quality photos, beautiful typography, and page transition effects that add beauty to the look. You can easily navigate through the products through a navigation menu that is simple to use.

The Friday Habit Podcast

Made with Squarespace

The Friday Habit Podcast small business website example

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If you want to improve your business, you must listen to their Podcasts. They help entrepreneurs to build the business that works for them.

The Friday Habit Podcast uses a perfect design for the website with minimal visual elements and photos and images. The simple design strategy helps to keep the user focused on the related podcasts.

Wisteria

Made with WordPress

Wisteria website example for business

Check this business website

Wisteria is one of the global market leaders in recycling facilities. Its product portfolio consists of wind sifting, conveying, dosing, and spreading.

The Homepage takes a bit of an unusual approach. You will see a full-screen background image along with a brief statement about what Westeria does. As you scroll down, you’ll see several images with headlines so you can navigate to different site sections.

CPC London

Made with Strikingly

CPC London business website example

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CPC London is a market leader in producing affordable 35mm motion picture film prints for projection.

You can see how beautifully it uses a video background on the Homepage and plenty of attention to detail throughout the site. The main navigation menu appears on the right side, which is very easy to find, and when you click on one of the main links in the menu, sub-navigation options appear.

Ception

Made with Wix

Ception small business website example

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Caption offers an Artificial-Intelligence powered system to increase productivity, sustainability, and safety of industrial operations related to construction and mining.

The caption uses a dark blue background and lots of high-quality photos. The site also includes images of ongoing projects as you scroll and interact. Links in the navigation menu lead to major sections of the site so you can move around with ease.

Knapsack Creative

Made with Squarespace

Knapsack Creative website example for business

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Knapsack Creative is a small creative agency that builds websites by capturing the client’s vision and goals through a simple, collaborative process. You will get clean, dynamic, and professional.

You will find a stand-out online with vibrant images on the Homepage that feels like an art exhibit. You will also love handwriting-style text when you scroll through the site, paired with a subtle background.

Taqnia International

Made with Jimdo

Taqnia International business website example

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Taqnia International invests in R&D initiatives for portfolio companies with top research centers. Moreover, it offers technological services and equipment to innovative technology companies.

You will love the relatively simple design of their website. As you scroll down the page, you will notice many subtle animations to the images and effects that add a nice touch. Navigation has been thought about too, with social media icons in the end.

Zubak Group

Made with WordPress

Zubak Group small business website example

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Zubak Group offers services for the sale and maintenance of new and used vehicles. They provide high-quality car repair services, selling of new and used cars, car rental, insurance, and inspection, road and home assistance, medical services, and much more.

You can see their online presence on the website with an efficient user experience. You will find a great example of a small business website that has efficiently used a combination of web development and design process. Using a video reel with subtle white background is a guarantee to impress other businesses.

Puffin Packaging

Made with WIX

Puffin Packaging website example for business

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Puffin Packaging offers wool insulated packaging for food.

You will see an eye-catching and perfectly color-coordinated website. There are some cool responsive features as you move down the Homepage, like animated text and moving icons. All of the images used on the site go perfectly with the background and typography colors, making for a remarkable user experience.

Infloexa

Made with Weebly

Infloexa business website example

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Infolexa is a software company that provides customized oracle service cloud and application integrations for organizations.

The design of the site is very subtle and clutter-free, incorporates just one image with less illustrations. It makes use of white background to add a strong visual element to the site and a handful of highlight colors.

SpokenLayer

Made with Squarespace

SpokenLayer small business website example

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SpokenLayer is a digital audio creative studio, specializing in custom, high-quality, and short-form content.

The exceptional design that includes big, bold typography and some subtle effects is eye-catching. The site includes plenty of written content aimed at its target audience. Of course, you’ll also find all the necessary details about the services they offer and how they can help.

CUBEevo

Made with Webflow

CUBEevo website example for business

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CUBEevo is a creative digital agency with solely focus on helping businesses explore and evolve forward thinking ideas into newfound possibilities.

If you click their website, the experience is enhanced with some unique transitions with dark blue theme. It gives a subtle and a positive user experience. This may also help to keep visitors on the site for longer periods of time. You’ll also see some subtle effects and videos when scrolling the Homepage.

Japan Mobility

Made with Duda

Japan Mobility business website example

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Japan Mobility simplifies the relocation process and gives you the care and support that you need from the day you arrive in Japan.

Website consists of subtle red and white theme with transition background patterns throughout the site. They provide some excellent visual effects without being overwhelming or dominating the design. And professional images complete the outstanding look.

Republic Capital Group

Made with Jimdo

Republic Capital Group small business website example

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Republic Capital Group offers wealth management services and financial advisory to the RIA, asset and wealth management communities.

The website uses a simple overlay design, with high quality photos. As you scroll down the page or navigate the site, you’ll notice many subtle animations and effects that add a nice touch. Finding information is very easy thanks to a logical structure and a clear navigation menu.

Kuna

Made with Shopify

Kuna website example for business

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Kuna smart home provides security system to help you prevent break-ins and protect what matters to you most, from anywhere in the world.

There’s nothing confusing about the website layout. A sophisticated palette with beautiful images overlaid by beautiful text, the website directs potential customers to the brand’s main services from the landing page.

Infinity Works

Made with WordPress

Infinity Works business website example

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Infinity Works is a platform that provides digital cloud based transformation consultancy services.

Service website seems boring, right? That’s not always true, and this website can prove it. Take a look at the dramatic full-page photos that fill the Homepage. This business website makes use of bright white text, minimalist navigation, and a library of high contrast landscape images. The result is serious yet sleek.

Prometheus Group

Made with Webflow

Prometheus Group small business website example

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Prometheus Group is a financial advisory agency that offers financial planning and investment strategies for individuals, corporate or charity.

The Homepage takes a bit of an unusual approach by adding clipart and illustrations. Above the page, you’ll see a full-screen clipart images along with a brief statement about what PPA does. As you scroll down, you’ll see a number of images with headlines that link to different sections of the site.

Skipio

Made with Duda

Skipio website example for business

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Skipio offers automated messaging tools, so you can start two-way conversations, build personal relationships, and enjoy lasting, repeatable success with sales and retention.

The site is very clean and clutter-free. It makes use of blue and white color to add a strong visual element to the site. Photos with different background color are used, and all of the colors work together to create a really nice visual.

Islango

Made with Wix

Islango business website example

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Islango is an online yachts and cruise booking platform that allows visitors to book for sailing vacations around the globe.

The website of this sailing service provider uses a full-screen video background on the Homepage and plenty of attention to detail throughout the site. The navigation menu opens up as you click on the hamburger icon to the left side of the screen.

ARCH Motorcycle

Made with Squarespace

ARCH Motorcycle small business website example

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ARCH Motorcycle offers creative and innovative American motorcycles with a unique blend of performance, customization, and attention to detail.

The most colourful effects are showcased on the Homepage, uses a full-screen video background. You will see more colours and some subtle illustrations as you scroll down. Both the header and footer include links to the primary pages.

Helideck Certification Agency

Made with WordPress

Helideck Certification Agency website example for business

Check this business website

Helidecks is a service provider of offshore fixed and mobile helicopters for the safe and compliant operations.

You will find a dark blue background features real life photos of past and ongoing projects. The site is also equally functional and helpful. The high-quality photos add a drastic visual appeal for you.

Hingham Auto Repair

Made with Weebly

Hingham Auto Repair business website example

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If you are planning to add life to your car then please visit Hingham Auto repair site. You will find a high class auto service in this garage. Hingham caters to all services from brakes to oil change to routine vehicle inspections.

Their website includes information on the various services. The layout is fairly simple and clean, and by scrolling down, you can access all of the content on the site.

Mangomolo

Made with Wix

Mangomolo small business website example

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Mangomolo is the leading streaming/VOD provider in the MENA region, offering an innovative turnkey solution catering to all media outlets.

Website of Mangomolo uses a clean and minimalist design and showing team members on the Homepage. As you scroll down, large images and clients will appear. Company information is readily available and a nice touch is the use of subtle colour hues throughout the site.

Brave the Skies

Made with Shopify

Brave the Skies website example for business

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Brave the skies provide you a platform to help you create, launch and grow your online store with Shopify.

The use of a chimpanzee on the Homepage gives an image to the visitor what Brave the Skies does and what can it do to your ecommerce business. A clean design, while presenting all of the content you would expect from the website is a true example of small business website

Alive 5

Made with Duda

Alive 5 business website example

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Alive5 is your one inbox for live chat, send a text message, or connect via Facebook. Alive5 lets you engage with your audience with integrated CRM.

You are going to love the big, cliparts and lots of scrolling effects on their website. The navigation menu jumps to specific pages, or you can just scroll down.

The Best Website Builders for Small Business (and not only)

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught
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In this review, I will discuss choosing the best website builder for small businesses. You will learn how to select a website builder, which factors are most important to consider first, and which are less critical. I will also share my observations and conclusions from testing over a hundred different website builders.

Before diving into the review, I’d like to explain why, when we talk about a website for a small business, using website builders is a more rational and generally more successful solution than offline CMS or any custom solutions.

The key reason is that most modern business website builders are not just limited to website creation software. They are genuine online business platforms. By using them, you not only create a website but also populate it with content, edit the design, upgrade its functionality, and enhance it with additional apps.

But the main thing is the system – an online system for managing your business where you track visitors, analyze which of them convert to customers and which do not, what products they buy, and much more.

You might argue that many CMS and custom solutions can do this too.

Absolutely true. However, modern business website builders can do this much more affordably than if you were to seek web development from a design agency or freelancers.

Moreover, using website builders, you can manage all these processes yourself because modern website builders are user-friendly, unlike many programming engines.

So, let’s get started.

NOTE: To write this piece, I’ve spent tens of hours on research and personally tried more than 30 website builders. As a result, I was able to come down to the 7 best website builders, which are ideal for small businesses. You won’t have to settle with or even try out mediocre solutions thanks to this review. In the final part of this listicle, I have also given my recommendations for choosing a website builder and pointed out the common mistakes made by business owners when selecting a website builder. So do read on till the end.

What is a website builder?

Website builder is software that allows you to design, edit and subsequently fill websites with content. Most modern website builders are online platforms that include a visual website design editor, hosting and domain name. The best ones have drag and drop editors, which makes it much easier to create website pages without having to react HTML/CSS code. Thus, a modern website builder is the easiest and most affordable way to create a website.

Top 10 Best Website Builders

Below I have collected and described the most powerful, convenient and functional website builders. Each of them has its own specialization – some are good for small business websites, others are only for ecommerce, others for doctors, etc.

WIX – Ideal for Small Business

Wix is probably the best universal website builder. And more than 62 million websites all over the world have been created using it, that’s more than 200M users (according to official data for 2021). And that is the highest record for all online website builders, both in the free and premium segments. Despite its versatility, Wix’s capabilities are fully revealed in the development of small business websites. For this, Wix has hundreds of all kinds of templates – for a wide variety of business categories. Thanks to this, Wix can be used to build great restaurants websites, websites for real estate agencies, travel businesses, hotels, beauty salons, law firms and many other small businesses. Well, why is it that people like Wix and use it? Let’s find out.

Very Simple

Wix is easier and more user-friendly when compared to most other website builders. Very few website builders have the same intuitive interface as Wix does. Even without any knowledge of web development, you can successfully create a website using Wix. You don’t need to know anything about web design, HTML layout, or programming.

Wix drag&drop editor

Wix drag&drop editor

Universal

Wix can be used to create many different kinds of websites. From simple blogs to comprehensive websites with forums, membership options, online stores, etc. – everything is possible with Wix.

Wix website templates categories

Wix website templates categories

Moreover, it has more template categories than other website builders. This means you can find the website templates for even some rare niches like driving schools, yoga instructors, farm produce delivery, and many others.

More than 700 Quality Templates Available

Wix is one of the leaders among website builders. And the claim is further substantiated by the fact that it has more than 700 template options. And these options cater to a wide range of color preferences and design tastes. Also, the template options that you get with Wix don’t compromise on quality. All the templates are fully responsive and created by professional website designers.

NOTE: Having great, up-to-date business templates is one of the most important things to look for when choosing a business website builder. To make it easier to choose the right business templates, check out this collection: 50 Best Free Business Website Templates and WP Themes. Here are the best free business templates that are currently available on the web.

Free

Wix’s free plan comes with better functional capacities as compared to other platforms. Most builders limit their free plans to nominal features so that you can just try out the builder. But Wix offers a full-fledged, feature-loaded plan for free. Of course, the premium plans offer several more features. But for simple blogs and personal websites, Wix’s free plan usually suffices.

WIX coupon code

AI Availability

Wix has recently started to use AI. And the use of AI makes website development even easier. If you choose the Wix Artificial Design Interface (ADI) mode, you can create a website by just answering simple questions about your site’s purpose and your preferences (color scheme, style, font, and the like). AI will do the heavy-lifting for you. And your website will be ready within 10 to 20 minutes. This is a perfect option for beginners.

Wix ADI

Wix ADI

More than 300 additional Apps

In addition to built-in functional capacities, Wix offers access to more than 300 different apps through the Wix App Market. These specialized apps allow you to perform even more detailed website customization and open up new functional avenues. And the best part is that all these apps are available for free.

Embedding Codes and Custom Elements

For more experienced users, Wix allows embedding custom code, widgets, and custom elements to the websites. You can use the Velo by Wix option for this. And this is what significantly improves the standard Wix editor experience. While it doesn’t give you the freedom to change the existing HTML code of the website, you can certainly add some more elements that you may need.

Wix Embedding Codes and Custom Elements

Wix Embedding Codes and Custom Elements

If you’re a beginner webmaster, this feature won’t matter much to you. But, for advanced users, it is a huge plus.

Security

All the websites created with Wix have SSL security certificates. It also applies to free Wix websites. Most free website builders don’t offer an SSL certificate with the free plan. As opposed to WordPress and other CMS with open code, your Wix website won’t need frequent system updates. That’s why you needn’t worry about security. Hackers won’t get access to your website because you forgot to update it. No upgrades – no problems with website cracks.

Automatic Backups

In my opinion, Wix’s automatic backup point creation is a perfect feature. It gives you an option to return to your website’s previous version, that is, the one before your latest changes. It reminds me a bit of the “History” feature in Adobe Photoshop – just click on the latest save and go back.

Wix revisions history

Wix revisions history

For whom will Wix be the best solution?

Those who have minimum knowledge of website development;

Those who want to develop a small website (up to 30 pages);

Those who want to create a free website;

Those who want to build a website for unusual and rare activity;

Those who want to set up small online stores;

Those who need a website for selling “virtual” products (photos, graphics, music, and so on).

How much does Wix cost?

Wix is a free website builder without any time restrictions on use. This means you can use a free Wix website for as long as you need. For more advanced functionalities, there are several paid plans that you can consider.

Shopify – Best for Online Stores

Shopify is the absolute leader among ecommerce website builders. A lot of website builders allow you to run online stores, but no one does it as professionally and thoughtfully as Shopify. And you’ll soon realize why. Unlike most business website builders, Shopify doesn’t try to be a universal solution. Instead, it specializes in helping users set up online stores.

Sell with Shopify

Sell with Shopify

And in time, Shopify has developed many functional options and extra capacities for online sales and drop shipping that it has left all its competitors way behind. However, in this process, it turned out to be more complicated to use. And, of course, more expensive. Although, this is not an issue given the sheer amount of capabilities it has. So, why is Shopify the leader among ecommerce platforms?

NOTE: Perhaps for small businesses, this website builder may seem too expensive, and some of its options are superfluous. But when you gradually develop your small business and start introducing more and more new additions to the website, you will understand how good Shopify is. No other business website builder has as many ecommerce features as Shopify. You just find what you need and turn it on in your website.

Highly specialized platform

Shopify isn’t trying to please everyone. It just aims to become the best online sales and drop shipping solution. And this specialized focus resulted in lots of functional options and extra ecommerce apps. Plus, there are all sorts of free and premium ecommerce themes. All these were created with a great understanding of how ecommerce businesses operate.

More than 100 free themes and thousands of premium options

Shopify has both free and premium themes from third-party developers. For example, there are more than 1200 premium themes for Shopify sold on ThemeForest alone. Premium themes allow making your online store’s design more unique. Thanks to so many options, you’ll able to find appropriate themes even for selling products in rare niches.

Shopify templates

Shopify templates

Hundreds of useful apps and plugins

Shopify has lots of free and premium apps and plugins. These were created to significantly improve the functionality of Shopify online stores. I’ve highlighted this in red for a reason. And it is that these apps can provide an important competitive edge for your ecommerce business.

Shopify app store

Shopify app store

Here are some examples of Shopify apps and plugins and what they do:

Judge.me – You get automatic client mailing that requests to leave a comment about a purchased product. You can either send the request via email, push notifications, or SMS. You can quickly collect real client reviews on your e-store and increase conversion through this.

Oberlo – It a great pick for drop shipping. This app interacts with your suppliers, and orders are serviced semi-automatically. Shipping tracks are automatically entered. And the shipment of the order by the supplier is automatically confirmed.

ROI Hunter – It integrates with your Shopify site and sets up dynamic Google and Facebook ads. For Google ads, this plugin independently creates a product feed and remarketing tag. And for Facebook ads, the plugin creates a product catalog and Facebook remarketing pixel. Moreover, ROI Hunter can configure dynamic remarketing ads. It shows ads to visitors who expressed interest in your store but left without making a purchase.

Ali Hunter– it automates the analysis of drop shipping products and stores on AliExpress. It aids in finding new products and also analyzing and tracking competitors’ stores. This plugin can save you several hours.

Shopify Shipping

Shopify Shipping is a unique offer that helps save money on goods delivery within the USA. You can buy and print discounted shipping labels when filling an order. At the expense of Shopify and DHL’s partnership arrangements, UPS and USPS, you can extend delivery discounts to your clients up to 75%.

Shopify Payments

With Shopify, you can use PayPal, Stripe, Square, and other payment intake solutions. But there is also a built-in solution – Shopify Payment with several advantages:

Financially beneficial: With Shopify Payments, there are no extra Shopify fees.

User-friendly: All the tools are accessible in a single Shopify account. You don’t need to shift from the payment system account to your Shopify store account.

Shopify Fulfillment Network: a possibility to use Shopify warehouses for goods storage and delivery to clients. It is similar to the Amazon Fulfillment service.

Shopify dashboard

Shopify dashboard

Integration with trading platforms

Shopify has several options for integration with some popular marketplaces and trading platforms like Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google Shopping, Instagram, and more. This allows store owners to sell goods on their site as well as on other popular trading platforms at the same time. This is a convenient feature and helps save a lot of time.

 

For whom will Shopify be the best solution?

For drop shipping salesmen who already sell their goods through Amazon, Instagram, and Facebook and now want to broaden their market by setting up their online store.

For those who wish to set up medium-sized or large online stores.

For quick ecommerce business startups within the USA.

Shopify dropshipping

Shopify drop shipping

How much does Shopify cost?

Shopify doesn’t have a free plan. But it offers a 14-day free trial (no card required). After this period, you’ll get the option to switch to one of the premium plans. The plans are Basic Shopify ($29 per month), Shopify ($79 per month), and Advanced Shopify ($229 per month). More details about Shopify plans.

Squarespace – Perfect Website Builder for Photographers

Being a professional website designer, I personally like Squarespace. It is one of the few website builders that help you make beautiful and aesthetically flawless websites in a minimalist style.

Squarespace

Squarespace

Squarespace was initially created as a website builder for photographers and artists to create great portfolio websites. This platform is for people and web developers with artistic taste, to summarize it briefly. The latest Squarespace 7.1 version comes with more functional capacities than ever before. But truth be told, most of them are far from perfect. Now let us understand Squarespace’s peculiarities in detail.

Dreams Come True for Photographers and Artists

Betting on visual content demonstration, Squarespace can satisfy the tastes of even the most demanding photographers, designers, artists, and other creatives. Website visitors need to be shown photos, graphics, and videos from the best perspectives. And Squarespace is one of the best website builders for such purposes.

squarespace editor

Squarespace editor

Moreover, you’re can easily get sales with the help of visual content. For this, you’ll need the Business tariff plan, though. (Check its price here.)

Excellent Template Design

Squarespace has the most beautiful website templates in the market. Of course, there aren’t too many options (about 100 templates are available). And not all categories are available either. But the templates that are available are beautiful, of high quality, and fully responsive.

Squarespace website templates

Squarespace website templates

NOTE: Squarespace templates often use a minimalist style, complemented with large beautiful images and big yet simple design elements. It’s well-suited for small sites that aim at showcasing their photos or their products’ photos in the best light. However, don’t expect your Squarespace website to look spectacular if you, for example, are a lawyer and your site is focused on legal services.

Greater Opportunities for Blogging

Squarespace is perfect for creating a blog. It has a lot of valuable functions that include a simple way to edit posts, deferred publication planning, rich customization of the comments system, AMP support, RSS, tag adding, the possibility to add several authors for one post at a time, iTunes podcasting integration possibility and many more.

squarespace blog option

Squarespace blog option

Drag-and-Drop Editor

Squarespace has a built-in drag-and-drop editor for easy customization of your website. It allows you to change the design by simply dragging and dropping the required elements at the required place on a page.

NOTE: Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor isn’t bad. But my personal experience suggested that it is not so intuitive and requires some getting used to. Unlike other top website builders, Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor comes without a traditional dashboard on the left side of the screen. Instead, all the options appear after clicking on template design elements. That’s why if you have already used technically advanced website builders like Wix or Weebly, then you’ll need some extra time getting used to Squarespace’s drag-and-drop editor.

Free SSL Certificate

There is no free plan in Squarespace, but the monthly plan charges that you pay include the cost of an SSL certificate, which is a great thing.

Squarespace Analytics Tools

Squarespace offers its own solutions for website visitor analytics through the built-in Squarespace Analytics App. Integration with Google Analytics is also possible in case you need more data.

Squarespace analytics tools

Squarespace analytics tools

Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage Space

Squarespace offers unlimited bandwidth and storage space for all plans starting from the most basic one. There is also no limit on the number of web pages your website can have.

For whom will Squarespace be the best solution?

For photographers, designers, artists, and anyone else who needs a stylish portfolio website;

For bloggers who are looking for an alternative to a WordPress blog;

For those who wish to build a small ecommerce website that sells designer things, handmade goods, posters, photos, or graphics;

For those looking forward to developing a personal website, like public figures, musicians, sports persons, and show-biz stars.

How much does Squarespace cost?

Squarespace doesn’t have a free plan (but there is aa 14-day trial) and it can hardly be called affordable. The lowest-prices Squarespace plan starts at $12 per month (paid annually) and is commensurate with the top competitors’ plans.

Squarespace coupon code

A more functional Business plan costs $18 per month. The Basic Commerce plan allows online sales without any transaction fees and will cost you $26 per month. Advanced Commerce, the most powerful plan, requires you to shell out $40 per month. It includes all the capacities that Squarespace has on offer for its clients. Check out a more detailed view of Squarespace plans.

Webnode – Best for Multilingual Websites

Webnode is one of the oldest website builders (created in 2008) that is constantly developing and making its clients happy. And today, there are over 40 million websites all over the world that are powered by Webnode. Now I’ll tell you exactly why people trust Webnode and what it’s got better than its competitors. Though it has some cons, too, the strong pros make Webnode a value offering.

Beautiful and Responsive Templates

In 2016, Webnode rolled out an important update with its drag-and-drop editor and website templates. At the moment, it’s got a collection of more than 200 beautiful and responsive templates. All of which are available for free.

Webnode website templates

Webnode website templates

Easy-to-Use

Webnode is far from being a leader in functional capacities since it falls behind Wix and Weebly. Nevertheless, it is intuitive and user-friendly. Webnode is convenient even for beginner users.

Ideal for Multi-Language Websites

Webnode allows for multi-language website development as it supports 20 languages. That figure is higher than what any other website builder supports. And that’s what makes Webnode the best website builder for launching multi-language websites.

Option to choose any language

Option to choose any language

NOTE: To create a multi-language website with unlimited language support, you need the Profi plan ($22.90 per month). With the Standard plan ($12.90 per month), your website would support only two languages.

No Limit On The Number Of Pages In The Free plan

Webnode is a free website builder. With the free plan, you can develop a fully functional website, get free hosting (100MB storage and 1GB bandwidth), and a free third-level domain name. Also, there is no limit on the number of pages that your website can have.

Free SSL Certificate for All Plans

Webnode takes responsibility for your website’s security and offers free SSL certificates for all websites built using it. (Including those that have been developed for free.)

Website Backup and Recovery

Webnode allows creating backups and recovering previous versions of your website. This function will especially please beginner webmasters who can easily correct mistakes using this feature. Backup creation is possible in two ways – online and offline. With the offline option, you can save your website’s backup directly on your computer. Find out how to do that here.

Adding HTML/CSS Code

Webnode makes it possible to easily add HTML/CSS code and extra widgets. You can add your HTML code to the header, footer, or anywhere else on your website.

Option to add HTML/CSS code

Option to add HTML/CSS code

Visit here to know how it can be done.

Affordable prices

Another great advantage of Webnode is its affordable premium plans. As compared to other top website builders, Webnode has the lowest prices. Like Wix, Webnode also has a simple Connect Domain plan that costs $3.90 per month (against $5 for the Wix plan). The most basic premium plan, Mini, costs $7.50 per month. A similar plan with Squarespace costs $12, and as for Wix, it’s $14.

However, note that, unlike competitors, Webnode’s Mini plan doesn’t remove Webnode ads from your website. The basic eCommerce plan (Standard) is available for only $12.90 per month. Wix’s minimum ecommerce plan costs $23, and for the basic Squarespace eCommerce plan, you’d have to pay $26. Shopify’s basic plan costs $29. The price advantage is obvious – you’ll have to pay much less with Webnode.

For whom will Webnode be the best solution?

NOTE: Despite the available free plan, I don’t recommend Webnode for creating a free website. Webnode free plan possibilities are considerably limited compared to Wix or Weebly. You can try other builders if your aim is to develop a free website.

But I recommend using Webnode in the following cases:

For multi-language website creation. Webnode is the best solution in the market;

For beginner webmasters who want to develop a personal website;

For making small online stores, since the cost of starting up an online store is low with Webnode;

For creating small business sites (using the Mini or Standard plans).

How much does Webnode cost?

Webnode offers a free plan without any limits on use and four affordable premium plans. The most basic Limited plan costs $3.90 per month. It is the same as the free plan but with the possibility to use your domain name. Mini plan ($7.50) has got broader capacities but doesn’t remove Webnode ads. Standard Plan costs $12.90 and has got even more options, not to mention the possibility to make online sales. The top Profi plan costs $22.90. It’s got maximum capabilities and supports all 20 languages for multi-language website creation. Here are more details about Webnode’s plans.

Pixpa – Good for Portfolios and Selling Art Works

At first glance, Pixpa doesn’t look like a small business website builder. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Squarespace – just like Squarespace, it’s designed to develop portfolio websites. But it has its own advantages that Squarespace doesn’t have. And it’s not just more affordable prices.

Pixpa website builder

Pixpa is betting on the development of three types of sites – portfolio websites for photographers, artists and illustrators, blogs and an online store. Of course, all this can be packaged in one website.

Easy Portfolio Website Creation

Simplicity and convenience are the distinguishing features of Pixpa. Pixpa has a simple yet functional drag and drop editor with an intuitive interface. You should not expect super-wide features from it (like Wix, for example), but they are quite enough to customize the template you like the way you need.

Minimalist and Responsive Templates

Pixpa has about 40 website templates on topics: Photography, Design, Art & Illustration, Graphic and Web, Architecture, Music and Performing Arts, Fashion, Models & Actors, Beauty & Style, Health & Wellness, Personal & Lifestyle, Wedding, Health & Wellness, Blog, Business & Services, Consulting & Coaching, Food & Restaurants, Real Estate & Properties.

I specifically listed them all so that you can be convinced of their diversity. In terms of category selection, Pixpa outperforms most other portfolio website builders. Because Pixpa is more about business than just building a portfolio website.

Pixpa templates

All Pixpa templates are responsive and automatically adjust to any screen resolution. Without additional actions on your part, which of course will greatly simplify the life of beginners.

NOTE: What I personally like about Pixpa as a web designer is the easy change of website template. Most website builders don’t allow you to easily change the template of a live website (Wix – hello!). With Pixpa, this is possible with just one click – you simply select a new template and Pixpa will automatically adapt the content to fit it. Very simple and fast. And that’s pretty cool for me!

Advanced SEO Features already in basic plan

Pixpa has built-in SEO tools for advanced website SEO customization. Remarkably, this option is already available in the Basic plan, unlike most website builders.

NOTE: Pixpa has fast loading pages due to progressive loaded images on the pages. This works similar to lazy loading in WordPress. Images are loaded on the page not all at once when it is opened, but as the page is scrolled. The benefit is especially noticeable for websites with long pages with lots of images, such as photo galleries or blogs.

Adding and editing CSS, HTML, Javascript already in the basic plan

Adding your own CSS code and manually editing the HTML code of pages is a feature of many advanced website builders. But not many builders offer this opportunity in the basic plan. Pixpa is one of them. This, no doubt, will be appreciated by more experienced web masters with the appropriate skills.

Sell without a transaction fee

Pixpa allows you to not only create various image galleries on your website, but also sell them. And at the same time with zero commission, which favorably distinguishes Pixpa from many other online stores (Squarespace and Shopify, hello to you!).

In fact, on Pixpa, you can create not the usual portfolio website, but a fully functional online store. For example, selling paintings or posters. Or even printed T-shirts. In short, any product where the visual component is of primary importance. In this case, the benefits of Pixpa will be fully revealed.

Pixpa has many more features than I have listed here. Check them all on the official website.

For whom will Pixpa be the best solution?

For photographers, illustrators, graphic and web designers who want a minimalist portfolio website at an affordable cost.

For those who would like to create an online store without transaction fees to sell photos, art works, posters, paintings and any other creative products and more.

Anyone who needs a small website with good functionality at a cheap price.

NOTE: want to see what websites built with Pixpa look like? Check out these 20+ Pixpa website examples to see what your website might look like with this website builder.

How much does Pixpa cost?

Cheap prices is another Pixpa plus. Pixpa has a 15 day trial period, after which you will be prompted to choose one of four plans as standard: Basic, Creator, Professional, Advanced. Pixpa allows you to have additional discounts when paying yearly (50% Off!) and 2 yearly (63% Off!). Thus, the already affordable prices have become even more profitable.

Pixpa coupon code

Judge for yourself:

BasicCreatorProfessionalAdvanced
Pay monthly$5/mo$10/mo$15/mo$25/mo
Pay yearly$2.50/mo$5/mo$7.50/mo$12.50/mo
Pay 2 yearly$1.88/mo$3.75/mo$5.63/mo$9.38/mo
NOTE: you can get an additional 50% off any Pixpa plan if you use our 50% Off Pixpa coupon code.

Weebly – Best Free Website Builder

Weebly was the first website builder I ever used. It’s one of the oldest online website builders that began operation in 2007.

Weebly website builder

Weebly website builder

Being one of the best free website builders, Weebly has lots of advantages, some of which you’re unlikely to get with other website builders. What I like about this builder is that it’s got a good balance (between functional capacities and simplicity of use) and has ample opportunities for creating larger sites. With regards to the latter, Weebly is second to none.

Easy To Use

Weebly is really easy to use. You’ll have to spend the least possible amount of time and effort to master its interface. Weebly’s drag-and-drop editor is extremely easy and intuitive, but I must say that it appeared to me not that flexible when compared to Wix.

Weebly editor

Weebly editor

I would have liked more capacities for changing templates and editing them. However, the ease and user-friendliness of this builder are still worth appreciating.

Perfect for Larger Websites

Most of the good website builders are aimed at small website development. They are limited in terms of pages, sections, categories, and subcategories. Moreover, managing larger projects using such platforms isn’t as easy as you’d like. But all this isn’t true for Weebly. Weebly, perhaps, is the best online website builder if you want to build a sizable informational website. It has a well-considered website architecture that is great for multi-page websites with a big enclosure of sections and subsections.

Website made on Weebly

Website made on Weebly

Also, it is as easy to handle a larger website with Weebly as it is to handle a smaller one.

Unlimited Depth of Navigation

Weebly allows creating an unlimited enclosure of categories, sections, and navigation menus. That’s what I felt lacking in Squarespace, where you can create categories for only first-level enclosures. Weebly automatically creates a drop-down menu for you in accordance with your multilevel website structure. It’s really wonderful!

Membership Site Creation

Using Weebly, you can build membership sites with the possibility of showing certain content to only a certain group of users. It’s possible to give them personal access passwords or let them independently register on the website to gain entry to the membership area.

Weebly membership options

Weebly membership options

Learn more about Weebly membership features here.

NOTE: Creating a membership website is possible with the Pro plan and plans above it. With the Pro plan, you can have up to 100 members. With the most expensive plans, the limit on the number of members gets lifted.

Adding and Editing The Website Code

It’s been my long-held observation that experienced webmasters (especially web developers) consider Weebly to be the absolute leader among all online website builders. And that’s not for nothing. The point is that Weebly, unlike most of its competitors, allows editing the HTML/CSS code of your website. It can be via the Embed Code element. And it is really comfortable to work with. You can edit the CSS code and see how your website has changed in the preview section. (Select the Auto Preview option in the settings.)

Weebly HTML/CSS editor

Weebly HTML/CSS editor

As a result, you can perform more accurate customization of your website as per your needs.

NOTE: Be very careful while manually editing the HTML website code. Ensure that you don’t accidentally make changes that may hurt your entire website’s operation. Given that Weebly hasn’t got an automatic website backup creation option (like Wix and Webnode), wrongly editing the code can create major problems for you. You’ll have to contact Weebly support in order to restore your website. That’s why you should edit the code only if you have the required skills and experience.

Apps and Widgets

Weebly has the Weebly App Center, where you’ll find a great collection of apps, widgets, and tools to integrate with your Weebly websites. Judged based on the number of additional apps available, Weebly is the third-best platform (after Shopify and Wix).

Weebly editor

Weebly editor

Using apps and widgets allows making your website even better. For example, you can add complicated tables or text animations to attract your users’ attention. What’s remarkable about this is that the Weebly App Center can be accessed on all plans, including the free version.

For whom will Weebly be the best solution?

For creating bigger sites with a large number of pages and sections;

For creating free websites;

For beginner webmasters without any experience in site building;

For making business websites;

For webmasters with HTML layout and programming skills;

For making eCommerce stores.

How much does Weebly cost?

Weebly has one free and several premium plans. Note that Weebly has different plans for users from the USA and Europe. There are 3 premium plans for the USA: The Personal plan, available for $6 per month, allows adding your custom domain name. There is also a plan for $12 per month and the Performance plan for $26 per month. For European countries, there are 4 premium plans:

Connect (Similar to the personal plan, available for €6 per month);

Pro (Positioned as a plan for groups and organizations, available for €10 per month);

Business (For small businesses and online stores, available for €20 per month);

Business Plus (For larger eCommerce sellers, available for €30 per month).

Find out more details about Weebly’s plans.

Jimdo – Good for Simple Small Business Sites

Jimdo belongs to the category of older website builders (it exists since 2007) that keep on evolving and getting better.

Jimdo website builder

Jimdo website builder

In 2017, Jimdo released an artificial intelligence-powered version of its website builder – Jimdo Dolphin. Jimdo Dolphin is now one of the best AI website builders at a very affordable price. For the most part, it was Jimdo Dolphin’s existence that made me put it on the best website builders list. Jimdo Creator, a version for more experienced users, appeared to me not functional enough. It contains more advanced settings than Jimdo Dolphin, but it’s obviously a weaker variant than Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace. That’s why when I’m talking about Jimdo, I mean Jimdo Dolphin.

Very Fast

Jimdo Dolphin is the fastest website builder among the ones that I have used. You can develop a simple but high-quality website in only 3 minutes. Literally, in just 3 minutes! If you spend about an hour on its final customization, you’ll get a perfect simple website.

Very Simple

Jimdo’s simplicity and user-friendliness are commendable. It was more comfortable and easier for me to edit a website using Jimdo Dolphin than using Wix ADI. The reason was that Jimdo allows editing websites in real-time. This means you can immediately see the results of your actions.

Jimdo editor

Jimdo editor

Free

Jimdo has a free plan – it’s an undeniable pro, but in my opinion, its possibilities are very restricted. It’s fair to say that there are some free website builders that have fewer restrictions and more functional options in their free plans.

Jimdo coupon code

Quality Website Templates

Jimdo offers beautiful and quality website templates. They look equally good on different devices like smartphones, older mobile phones, tablets, or PCs.

Jimdo website templates

Jimdo website templates

NOTE: Keep in mind that if you choose Jimdo Dolphin, you cannot switch to Jimdo Creator and vice versa. What is more, you should know that Jimdo doesn’t support the possibility of HTML website code editing. Website editing is limited to what you can do using the visual Jimdo drag-and-drop editor.

For whom will Jimdo be the best solution?

For beginner webmasters with minimum skills;

For immediate website creation (when you need a website right now);

For developing simple websites for small businesses.

How much does Jimdo cost?

Jimdo offers 2 kinds of plans – for creating standard websites and for online stores. For standard websites:

Play – A free plan that is good for nothing but testing Jimdo;

Start – A basic premium plan without ads and with your custom domain for $6 per month;

Grow – Recommended for business websites (for $15 per month);

Unlimited – As obvious from the self-explanatory name, the plan has no restrictions. The cost of this plan isn’t stated on the website.

For online stores:

Basic – Similar to the Start plan, but aimed at ecommerce (for $15 per month);

Business – For more advanced online stores (for $19 per month);

VIP – The top ecommerce plan, the price for which isn’t mentioned on the website.

More details about Jimdo plans.

My expert tips for choosing website builders for businesses

Finding a good website builder is a challenging task. Not because there aren’t enough of them. But rather because there are too many different website building platforms, and the choice gets overwhelming.

Now even though website builders are great, choosing an unsuitable website builder can be extremely detrimental to your business.

You cannot put off or avoid the choice either because an effective website is essential for any business in the modern world.

In this section, I’m going to clearly explain how to choose a website builder for small businesses and what criteria should be taken into consideration.

Where to start choosing from?

To begin with, you should decide on the challenges that your website is going to solve for your business and what is going to be the goal of the website.

There are usually three main kinds of business websites.

eCommerce

These types of websites are online stores that sell different products and services. Their main purpose is to sell physical or digital products and directly receive payment.

If you want to find an eCommerce website builder with all the relevant features for ensuring and facilitating online sales, check out my article on the best eCommerce website builders.

Business Representation

These are the websites that are a company’s official address on the Internet. They are not directly linked to making sales or earning revenue. The purpose of these websites is to inform the audience about a company’s activities and the goods and services it offers.

Specialized business websites

These are the websites, which have certain (often peculiar) functionalities specific to a certain type of business. For example, a website for a hotel with the possibility of booking rooms online. Or a restaurant’s website with the ability to look through the menu and book a table.

In this guide, I’ll be focusing on choosing website builders for developing the second and third types of business websites.

Now let’s move on.

The first question that beginners struggle to find answers to is…

NOTE: For a better understanding of what high-quality and modern business websites can look like, check out this review: 30 Modern Small Business Websites Examples for 2024. All of the presented websites are related to different business niches and are made on different website builders and CMS.

Free or premium?

To be honest, you can build a business website at no cost using free website builders. But you should be ready for certain restrictions.

Usually, it is in the form of having the website builder’s banner ad (or a button). All free website builders place their advertisements on the sites built using the free versions.

The second thing is that you don’t get the option to use the domain name of your choice. There are only 2 website builders, which allow using a custom domain name in the free plan.

The third restriction of free website builders is the limitation related to bandwidth, storage space, and sometimes even the number of web pages that can be created. Yes, you read it right – your website can have only as many pages as allowed by the chosen plan.

In my opinion, thus, if we are talking about business, small businesses specifically, a free plan’s capabilities will never be enough. Even if the chosen website builder is the best in the market.

Thus, it is always better to choose a low-cost premium plan and create a professional website using your own domain name and without ads or hard limits.

Which website builders are reliable?

It’s a reasonable question to ask, considering the fact that a website builder is a visual editor, web hosting, domain name registrar, and email sender all rolled into one. All these things together are packed in the integrated SaaS service with unified technical support.

Now, how reliable these services are going to be and how well they’ll function together depends on both the technical support and the coherence of the work of the entire website builder team.

It is especially important to emphasize the age of the website builder though. Website builders that have been constantly offering their services for 10+ years, improving their drag-and-drop editors, creating more contemporary templates, and adding new options are, of course, more reliable. Such companies have served hundreds and thousands of clients. And thus, it won’t be a ‘worth considering’ option for them to stop their business or not offer proper services.

Meanwhile, a lot of newly launched website builders don’t have the hassle of preserving their reputation. Further, many of them go bankrupt shortly after the launch, leaving those who chose the builder in a major fix.

Here are the most reliable website builders for businesses (and even individuals):

There are also Shopify and BigCommerce, specifically suitable for building online stores.

All these website builders have been operating successfully for several years and aren’t going to curtail their activities.

What points should be first taken into consideration?

The key point to be considered while selecting website builders is whether it has quality templates relevant to your business. The more such templates will be, the greater choice you’ll have.

Why is this important?

Well, some website builders offer universal templates suitable for any industry/niche.

And let me be clear here – it’s not the best solution.

It’s always better to find a specialized template that is designed to your industry-specific requirements.

By “quality templates” I mean not only stylish and contemporary designs but also responsiveness. And not all website templates are inherently responsive. This means that most of them will face problems while displaying on mobile phones or other devices.

Is having a drag-and-drop editor mandatory?

Yes. Your website builder must definitely have a drag-and-drop editor. It allows building a website without having HTML and programming skills. You just drag the website elements using your computer mouse and drop them where you want them to be. Easy!

Even if you know how to edit the CSS code manually, the absence of a built-in drag-and-drop editor should be a red flag.

All (without exception) leading contemporary website builders have a drag-and-drop editor.

NOTE: Not all drag-and-drop editors are alike. Some website builders have outdated drag-and-drop editors, which allow only slight edits in the template. The other, more contemporary ones are much more flexible. For example, Wix’s drag-and-drop editor allows dragging content blocks and design elements with 1-pixel precision. What is more, it contains options for setting up the website color scheme too.

What other parameters are important when choosing a website builder?

Every website builder has several plans. There are normally 3 to 5 plans that you can choose from. They vary in terms of the prices and the features that you’ll get.

Always make sure that your chosen plan does not have restrictions on the number of pages that your website can have.

Alert: Also, be sure to verify that you’ll be able to use a custom domain name instead of being confined to the one offered by the website builder. Not all premium plans allow this!

Pay attention to the storage space and bandwidth too.

And it isn’t necessary for website builders to have unlimited storage space and bandwidth. For starting small business websites it will be enough to have 1GB Storage space and 2GB Bandwidth.

20 Best Ecommerce Website Examples in 2024

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

How about taking a look at a couple dozen great ecommerce website examples? These online store examples are built using the most popular ecommerce platforms – WordPress (WooCommerce), Wix, Webflow, Godaddy Website Builder, Squarespace, Shopify and Magento.

“With great website comes great responsibility,”….or was it entirely different? However, websites are immensely vital to showcase your products and services worldwide. You are responsible for designing and uplifting your website to attract potential clientele to make a sale.

Ecommerce is gaining popularity amongst website designers due to many reasons, and one of those is the recent pandemic. The Covid has presented itself as an opportunity to create online shopping websites that let you transact with your potential clients. If you visit the web, you can find many inspirational ideas that you can keep as a baseline for your Ecommerce store.

Talking of designing and crafting the stunning website that you have in mind, you must first have a sample or inspiration based on which you can create your website. Specifically speaking of examples of Ecommerce websites, this article will help you in deciding what your website will look like in the final phase. Moreover, this article will provide options for the different ecommerce website builders you can use to build your Ecommerce website.

Below are the reviews of the 20 best ecommerce website examples:

WordPress Ecommerce Website Examples

A huge number of websites have been created on WordPress CMS, including online stores. Here are some excellent examples:

FACE TO FACE Fashion Ecommerce Site

FACE TO FACE Fashion Ecommerce Site

Check this online store

Face to face style screams out feministic style that is cool, vibrant and empowerment of our casual women. This Italian clothing website is visually appealing and aesthetically vibrant with bold and beautiful color combinations of the products. However, the white space containing text has been given.

The website sells clothes for different occasions on which the categories are developed. The website’s layout is unlike most Ecommerce stores as it uses carousals showing the products. HDR photography of the models makes the products stand out with a white background.

Maison Charlotte Beaude

Maison Charlotte Beaude

Check this online store

Yet another fashion-related website…but this one is different from the previous one as there will be a lot going on your screen at once. The white background goes perfectly with the colored product photography that is available in a perfect size for viewing. The 3-column product layout doesn’t merge the product line even if the background of each product seems to be the same.

This website has an animated arrowhead with a black circle behind it, so your pointer doesn’t get lost. Such Ecommerce website examples can be used as a base for selling product lines with diverse categories, as is done in this website with bags, foulards, and belts.

Steffie de Leeuw Art Online Store

Steffie de Leeuw Art Online Store

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Steffie, who is an artist from Amsterdam, wanted a website that would act as a portfolio as well as an Ecommerce website design to sell her work. This website delivers on both the front. From the very first impression, this kind of website will deliver and provide a glimpse of your artisan talents. With a dark blending off-white background, the colorful artworks stand out independently.

The 2-column layout for product lines is enough to highlight every aspect of the design, and if a closer look is needed, the buyer can always click on the image to view it closely. The design and artworks are carefully categorized into just three sections. The best thing about these kinds of websites is they are personalized to the designer’s requirements and how you want to interact with the world.

Wix Ecommerce Website Examples

Wix, being the leader among free website publishers, has great ecommerce templates and great options for creating ecommerce websites. Learn more about Wix by checking out Wix Review.

Bensimon Boutique

Bensimon Boutique

Check this online store

As is the trend, this jewelry website has a white background to highlight the HD images of the products. The menu’s uniqueness provides many options you can use on your website to sell your jewelry. The menu displayed reaches east and west of your screen making it attractive and easy to read.

If you are interested in letting your clients know that you deal in custom-made jewelry, this website offers a brilliant example of how to do that in style. This website has a unique menu that highlights the trending products to attract customers.

Black Sheep Bikes Store

Black Sheep Bikes Store

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In many countries, riding a bicycle is not just a healthy pastime but has been engulfed in their daily routine. The owner of this business spotted a potential in the bike niche and tapped into it via this elegant website design. The white space is utilized systematically in this Ecommerce website design, and the HD images with natural backgrounds give out an enticing vibe. The color contrast of aqua and white is soft to the eyes, and the client will tend to stay and discover the website.

This website sells customized bikes and related accessories. One would know this because of the shopping cart’s display on the website’s top side.

Celia Bernardo Fashion Online Store

Celia Bernardo Fashion Online Store

Check this online store

Celia Bernardo is a Spanish woman who designs sustainable and timeless clothing for women. The main motto is to make the woman shine in the crowd. Do you feel that your brand might have similar sensations? Then this might be the website you are looking for as it features colorful, bold, vibrant, and super comfortable products. The colors used are very light and reflective.

If you observe, you will see that this website highly depends on images and videos of models wearing the clothes, which makes the buyer more attracted to the products. The website’s menu is simple at first look, but it holds many pages inside.

Webflow Ecommerce Website Examples

Webflow is a powerful online platform that is somewhat similar to the familiar WordPress, but more flexible and easy to use. Despite the fact that Webflow has a free plan, it is not suitable for free development of an online store. Webflow is not a full featured free ecommerce website builder and ecommerce is a premium option available only in paid plans. Check out these online store examples built on Webflow:

Lark Distillery Shop Whisky

Lark Distillery Shop Whisky

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“Shaken, not stirred” … just like the legend, Lark Distillery has designed an awesomely good Ecommerce website that reflects the 30-year-old Tasmanian legacy of beverages. With its earthy colors and rusty ambiance, the website gives out a punch of the whisky that the company is selling. The white texts are visible in the dark background of the whisky images.

A genuinely eye-catching feature of the website is the white-colored icon menu through which you can navigate the whole website. Afterward, when you scroll down the website, the menu changes to a hanging version with a shopping cart icon and a display menu.

Aro Single Product Ecommerce Website

Aro Single Product Ecommerce Website

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This is one of those online shopping websites that focus on a single product rather than categories of different products. The sleek and simple website delivers the message to its customers in a very subtle and natural way. The white space is used boldly to showcase the product, and the contrasting dark font makes it easy for the viewers to read.

The most exclusive feature of this website is that it doesn’t offer any product pricing straightforwardly. The designers want the clients to click on the pre-order button and learn the details about the product. With its simplicity, the website only provides details about the usage of the product and the story behind it.

SOS Foods Online Shop

SOS Foods Online Shop

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This is another Webflow Ecommerce website inspiration that could be used to sell household or kitchen items with a minimalistic sort of design. The combination of dark colors and white background looks outstanding yet has its sense of simplicity. The Syrian range of spices with incredible packaging photography displays the minimalism of the owners of the Ecommerce Company.

This Ecommerce website design has many features you would like to implement in your website due to its effortlessness. Amongst those features are the filters that can be used to search the products distributed in order of taste, application, and process.

GoDaddy Ecommerce Website Examples

GoDaddy is not only about domains and web hosting. GoDaddy has its own website builder that works well for creating small online shops. Check out these couple of GoDaddy ecommerce examples:

Landis Originals Shop

Landis Originals Shop

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Landis Originals is the perfect example of a business run by a couple from the comfort of their home. They produce custom handmade gifts and engravings that could be used for many occasions such as weddings, birthdays, or anniversaries. The color palette used in this website is maroon and white, which gives out an earthy vibe and feels natural to the product line.

One of the distinctive qualities of this website is that it seems to be designed by non-professionals positively. This type of website will be easy to build for anyone who doesn’t have the budget to hire a website designer.

Siphon Draw Apothecary

Siphon Draw Apothecary

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GoDaddy Ecommerce website examples like these make you desire to design your website. By the looks, the website seems very simple to build. The white background alongside the colorful images and the dark grey menu/button theme seems very attractive and soothing. For the product photography to stand out, it has been done with dark and natural backgrounds.

The home page shows the categories, which are also displayed as a menu on the shop page. Furthermore, a link is given to another sister website on the menu displaying the nutrition side of the business.

Squarespace Ecommerce Website Examples

Squarespace is one of the best website builders for creating online stores with great ecommerce themes and many useful features. Check out Squarespace Review to learn more about Squarespace’s ecommerce business opportunities.

AAKS Online Store

AAKS Online Store

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AAKS is one of the examples of an Ecommerce website that was made keeping in mind a person and her cultural background. This website has been designed by a lady belonging to Ghana and exhibits the handmade designs of handbags. The white space has been utilized perfectly to highlight the HD quality images of the handbags. The hovering of different images related to a particular product gives a mesmerizing look to the product line.

The best part about this Ecommerce website is that the top menu remains straight to the point by giving options to view the products and learn more about these products only. If viewers want to know more about the company or any other information, they must move to the bottom of the page.

Ruffles and Bells Online Shop

Ruffles and Bells Online Shop

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Ruffles and Bells is a website dedicated to an Ecommerce company that creates magical moments on wedding days. If you have a passion for decorating and styling events and are looking for website inspiration, then look at this website. the designers have planned well in advance regarding the font and the size of images as the layout has to deliver the impact to the potential clientele. The white space and the images with light grey or dark grey backgrounds contrast very well.

If you look at this website closely, you can observe that the company provides physical products and has a tab on the menu for teaching services.

Bembien Accessories Ecommerce Site

Bembien Accessories Ecommerce Site

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Bembien is a New York-based Ecommerce company led by a businesswoman inspired by the nostalgic look of a young woman carrying her handmade bag across the street. Her experience at Vogue and her connection to a small village in Bali, which used to weave various products, gave birth to this fantastic business. The website’s design is simple yet elegant and provides the viewers with a good look at the product line.

The products are limited to just three categories, so the organization of the whole website is unsophisticated. The beauty of the handbags and the scarves are enhanced due to the white background and the hovering effect on the images.

Shopify Ecommerce Website Examples

Shopify is ranked #1 in many best ecommerce platforms ratings. It’s an ideal platform for creating large e-commerce projects. Check out the Shopify Review to find out why.

Custo® Pre Order Ecommerce Site

Custo® Pre Order Ecommerce Site

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‘Necessity is the mother of all inventions’… CUSTO is also a technological invention created by Belgian problem solvers who wanted to save wasted time searching for your lost parcel. To reach out to a maximum number of customers, the Ecommerce Company had to design a sleek and aesthetically impressive website. The light grey and white colors complemented each other and were chosen because the product also had a similar color combination.

Websites made for a single product often have the advantage of creating a hassle-free, simple shopping experience. Similarly, this website doesn’t have a shop button or a shopping cart icon but only a single link to pre-order the product.

MAEN Watches

MAEN Watches

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MAEN is an Ecommerce website that will conquer the hearts of watch-loving clients through extravagantly stunning products that are shown all over the website. The color combination of white and black is flawless and produces great HD quality product images of silver-chromed watches.

This website has some distinctive qualities that many of us as website designers can use for reference. Among those qualities is the application of 5 different currencies for buying the watches, which provides ample opportunity to international clients. Similarly, there is a favorite button so that clients can select and save the watches they like to make a buying decision at the end.

Visionist Eyewear Store

Visionist Eyewear Store

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Visionist is a Shopify Ecommerce website example that displays a wide variety of flamboyant glasses and frames. Various light-shaded colors have been boldly used against the white background to supplement the viewership.

The website has many features to guarantee customer satisfaction, which is unique from any other website in the market. First is the close popup. You’re welcome to provide a $20 gift voucher to be used with the first sale. Secondly, the intriguing black button says ‘Book a Video Consult.’ Thirdly, the three extra services (Quiz about the wish list, Virtual Try-on, and Real-time styling advice) would keep the clients glued to the website for a long time.

Magento Ecommerce Website Examples

Magento is a popular open-source ecommerce CMS based on PHP. Here are some interesting Magento online shop examples:

Lala Berlin Fashion Online Shop

Lala Berlin Fashion Online Shop

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Lala Berlin is a fashion Ecommerce store that amalgamates white space and great sunlight imagery of the product designs. This Magento Ecommerce store can be your inspiration if you want a well-developed and carefully led structure with excellent photography placements.

The website looks straight in the eye and says online shopping. The menu and product categorization on the home page suggest that everything else is secondary; the company is here to make a sale. The website also rewards for becoming a member and shopping from the store. Moreover, there is an option to trade your used Lala products against points that could be used while shopping online.

N21 Fashion Ecommerce Site

N21 Fashion Ecommerce Site

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N21 is a fashion Ecommerce store started by an Italian business that focuses on trendy wear for Men, Women, and kids. The home page is heavily illustrated with the photography of the product categories making it easier for the visitors to navigate or jump to the desired section.

The uniqueness of this website sits in its sophisticated background working. The website grabs your location and displays the language and currency accordingly. There is a long list of countries where you can buy an N21 product. Additionally, the website directly addresses online shopping as each menu button and link resonates with the Ecommerce methodology.

ME+EM Ecommerce Website

ME+EM Ecommerce Website

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ME+EM is a United Kingdom-based online fashion store that prides itself on producing flattering, functional, forever clothing for women. The owner has emphasized the business being business-to-customer with no third party involved. The white background emphasizes the colorful images of the models wearing the various designs, and the checkered style layout gives off an exciting new look.

As you enter the website, it locates you and tells you that the store ships in your country. The menu displays the client’s country of origin and sets the country’s language and currency accordingly.

Top 10 Free Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop (same effective, but free)

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

In this review, you will learn about the 10 best free Adobe Photoshop alternatives (online and offline) that you can use instead of Photoshop without paying a cent.

When you think of Photo editing and manipulation, the first name that pops up is usually Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop has been a market leader for many years now, and although many competitors have entered the market, it remains the initial option for a designer. The uses and implications of Photoshop are limitless, but beginners and occasional users still face many problems.

NOTE: the software discussed in this post are more suitable for photo editing, creating graphic images and various collages. You can also use them to create a website design (as in the usual Photoshop), but if your goal is to create a website, then it’s better to use free website builders which are more adapted to such tasks.

The main concern is the price tag which may be affordable to specific large organizations and designing institutes. Still, the price is relatively high for a new learner and occasional user. Today the competition is too high that many free alternatives to Photoshop provide powerful and flexible platforms for the users. Some alternatives provide a free trial of a week and let you carry on with a particular payment amount. However, this article will discuss the best free alternatives to Photoshop.

Secondly, another concern for the users is the time it takes to learn or, even more so, master the software. Fully understanding the software’s complexities and coping with the updates and introduction of newer tools by Creative Cloud has pressured the users to devote a lot of precious time.

Free Offline Photoshop Alternatives (for download)

The advantage of downloadable Adobe Photoshop alternatives is that you download the software once and use it without the need for an Internet connection. You can use these Photoshop alternatives on Mac, PC (Windows) or Android – it doesn’t matter.

GIMP

GIMP, also primarily known as GNU Image Manipulation Program, is one of the best free Photoshop alternatives in many ways. If you need a budget-friendly platform and an advanced raster editor just like Photoshop, then GIMP is you’re to go software. It has an interface very similar to Photoshop, and you can also customize or reposition the windows according to your requirements.

GIMP free Photoshop alternative

Image source: gimp.org

GIMP has many features like basic image editing, image retouching, batch image processing, image converter, and more, depending on what you want with your image. Furthermore, it is an open-source program available for Windows, Mac, and Linux so that anyone can use it.

Strengths:

Advanced features such as layers and filters are included

No ads or other subscription-only limitations

Add-ons and third-party plugins/scripts to edit RAW photos

History toolbar and Image slicing support are available

Weaknesses:

A steep learning curve for beginners

Brushes often have the same settings ignoring the variance needed

No drawing capability

Almost no compatibility with PSD (Photoshop) files

Krita

Krita is a highly recommended software that uses a Photoshop alternative for image editing. It is best for users looking for a better platform to show their creativity. The user interface of Krita is very similar to Photoshop, which makes it a good Photoshop alternative for photographers, artists, graphic designers, etc. In addition to rulers and guides, Krita is equipped with built-in templates and an extensive library of effects and filters.

free Photoshop alternative Krita

Image source: krita.org

The main advantage of Krita as an alternative to Photoshop is a vast library of unique pop-up color palettes that are used for coloring and shading etc. Krita’s best feature, similar to Photoshop, is its ability to use imported brushes and textures, which can be found easily on the internet and online forums.

Strengths:

Similar look to Photoshop

The user interface is adjustable

Photoshop files are supported

Used for windows, Linux, and Mac

Pre-installed templates and brushes are available

Supported by drawing tablets

Weaknesses:

No camera RAW filter

Slow processing of images

No history function

Not best for image editing

Not up-to-date versions are available

Photo POS Pro

Hands down the best and most similar software on the market today. Photo POS Pro is probably the most advanced and complete image editing suite which rivals adobe Photoshop. Photo POS Pro contains many features as Photoshop, from brushes to built-in plugins, which gives the user the best possible editing experience. The many tools of Photo POS Pro let you work your creativity, from image editing to even creating business cards. The Interface is simplistic, unlike other Photoshop alternatives mentioned in this list.

Photo POS Pro - free Photoshop alternative

Image source: photopos.com

The best feature of Photo POS Pro is it lets you change the layout of the Interface between “Novice” to “Expert” as the user gets more professional and expert in using the software. Unlike some other Photoshop alternatives, Photo POS Pro can be used to create new documents and edit compelling images.

Strengths:

Novice (for beginners) and Expert (for pros) layout

Easy tutorials to follow

Supports RAW file formats

Layers and Masks features

Photoshop similar interface

Weaknesses:

Expert layout challenging to understand

Slow processing at times

The size of the export file is limited

Need to purchase full features

Steep learning curve

InkScape

If you are a freelance designer, a small business, or even a photographer who needs to edit and enhance images, InkScape can help you in many situations. Inkscape is an open-source web-based drawing program that works on vector images. If you wonder that vector images are often used in Adobe illustrator rather than Adobe Photoshop, this is the case. However, Inkscape has many features for enhancing images and making basic adjustments, making this platform one of the free alternatives to Photoshop.

free Photoshop alternative InkScape

Image source: inkscape.org

While reviewing and comparing InkScape to Adobe Photoshop, many people have suggested that InkScape is easier to set up. Still, it is not meant for larger business setups with large images to use.

Strengths:

Best for simple vector illustrations such as infographics, cartoons and charts

User-friendly interface with easy to understand tools

Great potential for creative drawings and designing cartoon characters for free

Weaknesses:

One must go through documentation and tutorials before properly using Inkscape

May lag or crash when working with large files

Photo Scape X

If you are searching for editing images taken from your smartphone, PhotoScape X can be your friend. Created by MOOII Tech, a Korean-based company, PhotoScape can do just anything Photoshop can. From performing batch edits, executing screen captures, and designing animated GIFs to enhancing images, PhotoScape provides tons of options for free.

Photo Scape X free Photoshop alternative

Image source: x.photoscape.org

If you are searching for editing images taken from your smartphone, PhotoScape X can be your friend. Created by MOOII Tech, a Korean-based company, PhotoScape can do just anything Photoshop can. From performing batch edits, executing screen captures, and designing animated GIFs to enhancing images, PhotoScape provides tons of options for free.

Strengths:

Best for beginners as it offers an easy-to-use editing toolkit and has a smooth interface

All tools are available for free

It has an unparalleled converter of RAW images to JPEG and other formats

Weaknesses:

The tools get muddled, so it becomes hard to find the right tool at the right time

Adding graphics and texts to the image can sometimes prove hectic

Raw Therapee

RawTherapee is a free Photoshop alternative and a cross-platform raw photo processing system. It is designed for developing raw files from a broad range of digital cameras. Deep photo color correction, high dynamic range (HDR) tone mapping, histogram matching, and other helpful pictures are the winning attributes of RawTherapee. Lightroom’s rival software with versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux allows you to work with RAW files non-destructive way.

free Photoshop alternative - Raw Therapee

Image source: rawtherapee.com

RawTherapee is not incredibly user-friendly. If you’re a technical mindset and are mature enough in digital illustrations, you could benefit from fine control of individual settings.

Strengths:

A critical component is open-source, i.e. it can drive with different versions such as Windows Mac and Linux

Well-designed catalog, another defining feature of RawTherapee, includes pre-processing and pattern noise

It excels in color correction. The advanced instruments for color correction are more profound, which offers you endless possibilities

Weaknesses:

The Interface is not user-friendly because the download includes a manual for the software, but the manual is not most accessible to a stratagem

It has a few professional RawTherapee tutorials

Free Online Photoshop Alternatives

Online Photoshop alternatives, on the other hand, do not require installation, but an Internet connection is required. You just go to the software site, register for free and can immediately start using it. Or even without a registration.

Pixlr Editor

Although no other software can compete with Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr Editor is a good Photoshop alternative available in the market for free. Pixlr Editor is a browser-based software that gives you many development tools similar to Photoshop like a blur, sharpens, curves, and much more.. It is the best software for someone who wants to edit images without spending money quickly.

Pixlr Editor free Photoshop alternative

With a modern interface with light and dark color schemes, Pixlr Editor is based on HTML5, making it the best Photoshop alternative. These features make the Pixlr editor so tempting for beginner photographers and professionals looking for a quick edit. At first glance, Pixlr has a similar interface as Photoshop but being browser-based software, it has its limits.

Strengths:

It is a Browser-based platform

Opens images from desktop and URLs

Accessible on any device

History toolbar and Image slicing support are available

Auto-fix tool to prevent over edits

All the essential tools like Photoshop

Weaknesses:

Internet connection is needed

Some tools are still in the Beta phase

New fonts are not easy to install

Few tools are slow

No rulers or guides

File compatibility is limited

Photopea

Like Pixlr Editor, Photopea is another browser-based image and graphic editing software that is a great alternative to Photoshop available on the market. Its user interface is very much like Photoshop, which is excellent for beginners or users who do not want to wait for Photoshop to load. Like Pixlr Editor, Photopea is compatible with all platforms. The best part of using photopeak is the workflow and designing capabilities which are very much like Photoshop. This makes it easier for users who use Photoshop daily.

free Photoshop alternative Photopea

The advantage of using Photopea is that it supports many file formats like PSD, CDR, and XD etc. and can export work in JPEG, PNG, and PSD file formats. Photopea contains many similar tools found in PS like a pen, brush, blend modes, and templates, making it the best free Photoshop alternative.

Strengths:

Browser-based

Supports PSD files

Accessible on any device

Exports in PSD as well as JPG or PNG

Small learning curve

Supported by chrome, edge, Firefox, etc. browsers

Weaknesses:

Internet connection is needed

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New fonts are not easy to install

Few tools are slow

No rulers or guides

File compatibility is limited

Easy Free Photoshop Alternatives

The next two tools are easy to use. One of them is online and the other one is offline. Both are simple enough for beginners to handle.

Sumopaint

Sumopaint is a Photoshop freeware alternative that has proven to be a feasible option for mediocre-level editing features for free. Sumopaint has a unique feature that makes it stand out from the rest of the market: it is cloud-based, which means that you will not be prompted to download or install anything.

Sumopaint free Photoshop alternative

Sumopaint is a good Photoshop alternative as the layers, tools, and brushes are just like Photoshop and can save any file. The best feature of Sumopaint is that it has an exclusive option for working offline. The tools are easy to use, and a complete detail alongside each tool makes it relatively easy for beginners to use. The powerful tools and features allow even complex editing and manipulation to be executed.

Strengths:

Any operating system supports it

It is cloud-based and can be used by any device anywhere

A simple and user-friendly interface is easy to learn for beginners as well

Sumopaint has a substantial online community in case a user needs any help

Complex functionality like gradients, symmetry tools, layer blending, clone stamping, etc

Weaknesses:

Requires Flash and has on-page ads that might be irritating

No support for PSD files

It doesn’t have a pen tool, RAW image filtering, and ruler/guides

Paint.Net

Developed initially as a competitor to Microsoft Paint, Paint.Net has become one of the best free alternatives to Photoshop. The Interface of Paint.Net looks like a more advanced version of Microsoft paint, but it includes tools like blending modes and curves, making it very easy to use the software. Although it cannot compete with the level of editing of Photoshop, the essential editing tools like rulers, guides, and layers make it worthy software to include in this list.

free Photoshop alternative Paint.Net

Image source: getpaint.net

Unlike other Photoshop alternatives, Paint.Net has the feature of a tabbed document interface, which means you can open multiple documents at once and, like Photoshop and layers can be used in other documents as well.

Strengths:

Easy and simple Interface

Supports multiple file formats

No restrictions on usage

100s of plugins for support

Low memory usage

High-speed performance

Weaknesses:

It only works on windows

Photoshop files are not supported

Plugins not supported on Interface

No advanced tools like patch tool

No spell check for text

No RAW image compatibility

The Best Membership Website Builders: Free and Paid Tolls

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

If you have ever visited an e-learning site like Udemy or an online community like Facebook, you know what a membership website is. In its simplest form, it is a portal with restricted access to its content, available to members only, although access can be paid, free, or a mix of both. Popular models include:

E-learning sites

E-commerce portals

Blogs/vlogs

Podcasts

News websites

Associations

Of, course you can use one of the best all-around website builder, bu specialized membership site platforms are the best way for thought-leaders to build their brand, develop an online community, and get paid for the knowledge transfer. This allows businesses with specialized information to set up a consistent revenue stream.

82% of the businesses adopting the “subscription economy” model claim it helped them become industry disruptors. But for every success story, there are dozens of others who have failed. One of the probable causes: choosing the wrong platform to build their portal.

The Top 8 Membership Website Builder

Wild Apricot

Wild Apricot is a fast-growing cloud-based software with a website builder platform to create membership sites. The standout feature? You get your own mobile app designed separately for customers and admins. You can also embed the Wild Apricot widget in other websites to promote an event you are managing on the Wild Apricot site.

Wild Apricot

Wild Apricot

For example, you can embed a calendar widget to a WordPress site for cross-platform publicity. Wild Apricot also offers a free version that can be used by organizations with 50 members or less. All plans include a 30-day trial period with full access to all features within the trial period.

Pros of Using Wild Apricot

Excellent database and event management tool.

Event coordination feature that lets you send promotions, discounts, and reminders to attendees.

Unlimited email campaigns.

Native mobile app for both Android and iOS that accepts payments and registrations.

Cons of Using Wild Apricot

The blogging platform is outdated and lacks basic features such as content moderation.

You can’t allot a membership ID within the software.

 

Wix

Although not the most intuitive membership free website builder in the market, Wix is a strong contender because of the scalability it offers, along with an affordable pricing plan. The platform allows you to create a members-only area, add pages with restricted content, and process subscription payments.

Wix

Wix Member’s Area

You can integrate multiple Wix plugins to enhance the experience, including the Pricing-plan app, Wix bookings, Wix Events, Wix Forum, Wix chat, etc.

Pros of Using Wix

Membership areas can be created for free, although you can’t process payments with them.

Contacts are automatically synced in the back-end with the Wix email marketing tool.

Supports multi-platform registrations like Google, Facebook, or email.

Allows recurring payments.

The Pricing-plan app allows setting up a Paywall to grant restricted access to paid members.

Member roles restrict access to specific users on your site.

Cons of Using Wix

Has a steep learning curve, not suitable for novices.

New registrations have to be manually approved to send confirmation emails to users.

Doesn’t have a Learning Management System, so you can’t create online courses.

Doesn’t support content dripping and content locking.

 

Memberpress

An easy-to-use WordPress membership plugin that allows you to create multi-tiered memberships, online courses, content-dripping, and integrating 3rd-party plugins to build communities.

Memberpress

Memberpress

One of the standout features of Memberpress is Paywall – a tool that allows non-members to access certain bits of content for free, a great bonus to attract initial users. With three different pricing options, you can choose to install it on a single website or across 5 different websites.

Pros of Using Memberpress

Integrates with existing WordPress sites.

Creates unlimited multi-level membership across all plans.

Users can have more than one membership at a time.

Good technical support.

Multiple access rules, including posts, pages, categories, tags, files, etc.

You can set content start and expiration dates.

Wide range of pricing options for subscriptions – recurring payments, monthly/yearly payments, free/paid trials, etc.

Customizable coupons and email marketing tools.

Analytics reporting dashboard.

Cons of Using Memberpress

Doesn’t support other CMS platforms.

Doesn’t offer a lifetime purchase plan.

Doesn’t have a built-in forum tool; you need to install an additional WordPress forum plugin.

You cannot customize registrations and login forms.

 

Squarespace

Squarespace’s new Member Areas feature has remedied the one big issue that marred its utility as world class membership website builder – the software’s lack of integrated membership features necessary for creating members-only content. You can now create a membership website with Squarespace in two ways – use Member Areas, its very own membership software, or use MemberSpace, a third-party plug-in available with a business or higher plan.

Squarespace

Squarespace

The builder offers virtually every tool you can think of for creating, sharing and managing exclusive content.

Pros of Using Squarespace

It allows access to a wide range of high-quality, royalty free stock images, including the entirety of image gallery from Unsplash.

It includes a vast line-up of web fonts, including more than 600 fonts from Google and approximately 1000 fonts from Adobe.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) enabled web pages that allow for accelerated content delivery on mobile devices.

Cons of Using Squarespace

Squarespace blogs lack the Autosave feature, so you can lose your content in the event of a server crash or accidental post deletion. This makes the platform unsuitable for professional bloggers.

Limitations on organizing the static pages and blog posts make Squarespace ill suited for creating large, more complex websites

 

Yourmembership

Here’s a premium paid membership website builder that strikes the perfect balance of design and functionality. Yourmembership is a comprehensive platform with excellent content, event and membership management tools. It offers efficient blogging and email marketing solutions, along with the ability to manage both members and events through a single, advanced dashboard.

Yourmembership

Yourmembership dashboard

Yourmembership excels at creating engaging, mobile responsive websites with futuristic features such as Microsites and expert website design assistance.

Pros of Using Yourmembership

Highly intuitive backend that makes updating and editing content a breeze.

It allows for seamless integration of the members’ registration pages and the events section.

It offers excellent accounting tools to help with invoice generation and delivery, tracking financial information such as the members’ donations and dues.

Cons of Using Yourmembership

The content editing and customization options are limited in comparison to other top membership website builders.

Yourmembership is one of the pricier software for building membership websites which makes it unaffordable for businesses with a limited budget

 

Weebly

Weebly is one of the easiest to use website builders with membership features such as single click members’ login, different membership tiers, email newsletters and online store.

Weebly

Weebly membership area

With Weebly, you don’t need to traverse a learning curve to create your membership website. Simple, drag-and-drop mechanism allows you to select the desired elements and click on them to edit or include additional features. It’s an excellent choice for businesses who aim to quickly build a community and offer online courses.

Pros of Using Weebly

Websites built with Weebly are practically ad-free. Weebly’s personal and free membership website builder plans include a Weebly logo at the screen’s bottom. Even the logo is absent in Weebly’s paid plans.

Unlimited navigation levels which support the creation of large, complex website structures.

Cons of Using Weebly

Doesn’t support multilingual sites. Character sets for languages such as Arabic, Chinese and Russian aren’t fully supported.

Certain features are too pricey compared to other top membership site builders. Attaching an email address to your website’s domain, for instance, entails a monthly cost of $6.

 

Thinkific

Thinkific is one of the most popular and powerful platforms for creating, promoting and selling online educational courses.

Thinkific

Thinkific

You can include high resolution videos, images and rich text in your courseware. In addition, you can offer downloadable content such as quizzes, tables and certificates. The free plan includes excellent customization options and is great for new instructors who’re just starting out selling online courses. The premium plans allow you to create unlimited courses.

Pros of Using Thinkific

Thinkific allows you to extend a monthly payment option for the pricier courses.

The excellent voice-over tool for creating PowerPoint presentations allows even beginners to create quality video content.

Cons of Using Thinkific

Thinkific lacks integrated features for email marketing, so you’ll have to rely on third-party email providers.

Doesn’t offer chat support.

 

Kajabi

Kajabi enables you to create and market membership websites, online coaching programs and courses using single-click templates.

Kajabi

Kajabi dashboard

Kajabi Pipelines offers custom automations for optimizing and scaling your website and online courses which reduces your team’s workload. The platform specializes in building large scale, close-knit online communities based on your business’ terms and conditions.

Pros of Using Kajabi

It has an excellent mobile app that facilitates better connectivity and uninterrupted learning. The app is included in all of Kajabi’s plans.

The visual email builder features allows for creation of beautifully personalized messages integrated with countdown timers, videos and animations.

Cons of Using Kajabi

It has a limited library of landing page templates.

Doesn’t support key quiz elements such as randomization and question banks.

What Is a Membership Website Builder?

Membership website builders allow you to create gated or members-only websites having features such as paid membership, discussion forums, knowledge-based webinars, courses or classes, ebooks, and newsletters, along with exclusive perks such as free or expedited shipping, early access, discount offers and more. These membership websites can be paid, free, or include a tier-based monetary system for their members.

If your goal is to create a membership website, even the most popular or highest rated regular website builders can turn out to be inadequate. While many top-rated generic website builders do include premium membership features, you can only access them via additional plugins. The act of adding membership features by scouring through dozens of plugins can be both time-consuming and ill-suited to individuals that lack prior coding experience and technical skills.

What Is a Membership Website Builder?

A good membership website builder offers powerful, built-in membership tools such as recurring membership payment, discussion boards, Q&As, and drip campaign management – definitely the best choice for building your online membership platform.

What can you do with a Membership Website Builder?

In addition to the necessary website building tools such as customizable templates, the ability to add and modify pages, graphics, and media, the best membership website builder will also help you accomplish these tasks:

Create an Intranet portal for your members

With a good membership website builder, you can set up a password-protected intranet portal and create secure pages where members can sign up for exclusive programs and courses, share their personal details and engage other members in the discussion.

Create and manage dedicated member directories

A members’ directory is a handy means of listing and categorizing members who’ve signed up for exclusive products or services. It’s also a much-sought feature among the members for searching and connecting with other members. A good membership website builder allows you to create and manage the members’ directories in an easy, efficient manner.

Create and manage dedicated member directories

Plan and run effective marketing campaigns

A good membership website builder can help you market your products and services by using efficient marketing tools that aid in creating and customizing microsites and promotional campaigns that target email addresses and the members’ individual profile pages.

In addition to these benefits, the right membership website builder can also help you manage the events calendar, allow for a mobile check-in facility and e-ticketing. The best builders offer extensive learning material and expert, round-the-clock customer support, so you can get quick responses and resolutions to your queries and complaints.

Criteria To Select a Membership Website Builder

How to build a website with user accounts? You have two options – either to opt for a hosted solution or to install a plugin to your existing CMS platform. Both options can work equally well so don’t get into the analysis-paralysis mode.

Choose a platform that offers multiple pricing options and fits into your budget constraints. Look for hidden costs that come in the guise of set-up, support, or additional features.

Your chosen platform should be easy to learn, with minimal steps for adding new users. Check if you can test the platform from the user’s perspective to better understand its intuitiveness and simplicity.

Most providers offer a basic security level to all businesses. If you are considering additional security levels in your website, for example adding a captcha or two-factor authentication, check your options with the service provider.

Know what are the learning and engagement tools provided by the platform. If you are an educator, you would probably want learning management software integrated into your website.

What are the options to create a forum or community? Does the platform have built-in forum features or do you need to add third-party tools?

Opt for platforms that have tiered membership levels so you can segregate members according to services offered.

You would probably have events that users can sign up for. Look for platforms that include tools like event calendars and online registrations.

The Best Membership Website Builder for You Is…

Different businesses have different needs, but a common thread across all membership sites is the membership base. Your membership base is dictated by the niche you have created for yourself in the industry. Hence, it would be wise to choose a website builder according to your business goals and the structure of your membership plans.

The Best Membership Website Builder for You Is...

For example, an e-learning site will need a website builder that has LMS software support. On the other hand, an e-commerce site will have to go for a platform that allows an online store. Some of your subscription models may need drip content to ensure recurring revenue. If your chosen website builder fails to provide any of the necessary integrations, your business model falls apart even before you begin.

It is also a good idea to keep the pricing constraints in mind while choosing a website builder with membership feature. What may fit an enterprise-level company may not be feasible for small businesses. Ideally, you should look for a platform that offers your users a rich set of features with a comprehensive and integrated experience, all under one roof.

What do you need to create a Membership Website?

Membership website builders such as MemberSpace have made the act of creating gated pages and websites easier than ever. The real challenge lies in converting your existing customer base into paying members and creating content that will invite new members to sign up. Creating the best membership platform for your business requires you to focus on these key factors:

Identify and target your audience

If you’re creating members-only pages for an established ecommerce business, you already have a customer base and need to focus on designing/presenting your products or services for a paid model. When creating a new members-only business from scratch, put some time into researching the current and recent trends, the competition, as well as the customers’ needs and unmet demands. Your members-only content needs to be tailored to the age, spending ability, and requirements of the target customer segment.

High-value content and services

Your membership website’s products or services need to be of high value in order to warrant paid member subscriptions. If, for instance, your product is online courses, you should look to ensure the course material is up-to-date, the curriculum description is accurate, and that the course has good accreditations. It’s best to incorporate popular content delivery methods such as video, email, and downloadable PDFs so you can target customers that favor different learning styles.

Decide on the type of membership and charges

One of the biggest decisions to make when creating a membership website is the cost and duration of the membership. If you’re offering a wide range of services, you may categorize them into different membership plans. If you stand to make money through sources such as displaying ads, affiliate marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, you can also consider offering a free membership plan.

What features should a Membership Website Builder include?

When you’re looking for the right membership website builder for creating your membership platform, make sure to look for these features:

What features should a Membership Website Builder include?

Efficient forum software

Make sure the forum software of your membership website builder enables the members to customize their profiles. The ability to customize aspects such as profile pictures and watch or reading lists empowers the members, enhancing their engagement and overall service experience.

The forum software should have a good text editor and allow private messaging between the members. Customizable comment signatures and achievement-based rewards are some of the most vaunted forum features of the day. Make sure your chosen membership website builder includes these.

Easy, secure membership payments

The website builder you choose should allow for seamless, secure recurring payment for the membership fee. It should allow the members to set up membership renewal via both manual and automatic means. If you’re interested in offering a time-based trial membership, the website builder should allow the member to cancel or pay for his/her membership at the end of the trial period.

Your membership website builder should be able to work with multiple payment gateways, including all the popular payment channels such as credit card, debit card, net banking, PayPal, and digital wallets.

High-end membership features

Your pick of membership website builders should ideally allow for adding unlimited members as well as creating a large number of membership levels. A membership level determines the range of content or services included within a certain membership plan. If you offer a wide range of paid services or have plans for future expansion, look for a website builder that offers a large number of, or unlimited membership levels.

A dedicated members’ welcome page, the ability to hide selected content, and automatic integration with your email list are some other essential features you should look for in a membership website builder.

Do Membership Sites make money?

Recent research has revealed that 70 percent of the world’s business leaders consider membership or subscription business models to be the path to future business expansion and commercial success. In addition, a staggering 82 percent of the world’s businesses are looking to adopt the membership model and utilize private websites to achieve greater financial output.

A membership website is a reliable means of creating a steady stream of revenue, typically with little start-up expenditure. It also involves a high margin of profit – if you launch your membership website with a monthly membership fee of $20, you can generate a monthly income of $1000 with just 50 members.

It’s obvious that now is the most opportune time ever to start or switch to the membership-based business model. If you’re an existing business, it’s best to transition slowly, with the goal of converting no more than 50 percent of your existing customers into paid members over a reasonable time frame. You can begin by offering newer products and services to the paying members while maintaining the traditional setup for the existing customer base, let the growth of your paid membership numbers and the quality of service attract the rest to sign up in near future.

Privacy Policy

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

Privacy Policy

Effective date: 01.04.2024

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions.

The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

  • You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.
    Under GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), You can be referred to as the Data Subject or as the User as you are the individual using the Service.
  • Company (referred to as either “the Company”, “We”, “Us” or “Our” in this Agreement) refers to WebBuildersGuide.com.
    For the purpose of the GDPR, the Company is the Data Controller.
  • Affiliate means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where “control” means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.
  • Account means a unique account created for You to access our Service or parts of our Service.
  • Website refers to WebBuildersGuide.com, accessible from https://www.webbuildersguide.com
  • Service refers to the Website.
  • Country refers to: California, United States
  • Service Provider means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by the Company to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of the Company, to perform services related to the Service or to assist the Company in analyzing how the Service is used.
    For the purpose of the GDPR, Service Providers are considered Data Processors.
  • Third-party Social Media Service refers to any website or any social network website through which a User can log in or create an account to use the Service.
  • Facebook Fan Page is a public profile named Web Builders Guide specifically created by the Company on the Facebook social network, accessible from https://m.facebook.com/Web-Builders-Guide-646531502067754/
  • Personal Data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.
    For the purposes for GDPR, Personal Data means any information relating to You such as a name, an identification number, location data, online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity.
    For the purposes of the CCPA, Personal Data means any information that identifies, relates to, describes or is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with You.
  • Cookies are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website among its many uses.
  • Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.
  • Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
  • Data Controller, for the purposes of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), refers to the Company as the legal person which alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of Personal Data.
  • Business, for the purpose of the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), refers to the Company as the legal entity that collects Consumers’ personal information and determines the purposes and means of the processing of Consumers’ personal information, or on behalf of which such information is collected and that alone, or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of consumers’ personal information, that does business in the State of California.
  • Consumer, for the purpose of the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), means a natural person who is a California resident. A resident, as defined in the law, includes (1) every individual who is in the USA for other than a temporary or transitory purpose, and (2) every individual who is domiciled in the USA who is outside the USA for a temporary or transitory purpose.
  • Sale, for the purpose of the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), means selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a Consumer’s personal information to another business or a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to: Usage Data

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

Tracking Technologies and Cookies

We use Cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on Our Service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze Our Service. The technologies We use may include:

  • Cookies or Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on Your Device. You can instruct Your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. However, if You do not accept Cookies, You may not be able to use some parts of our Service. Unless you have adjusted Your browser setting so that it will refuse Cookies, our Service may use Cookies.
  • Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Service may use local stored objects (or Flash Cookies) to collect and store information about Your preferences or Your activity on our Service. Flash Cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as those used for Browser Cookies. For more information on how You can delete Flash Cookies, please read “Where can I change the settings for disabling, or deleting local shared objects?” available at this link
  • Web Beacons. Certain sections of our Service and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).

Cookies can be “Persistent” or “Session” Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your personal computer or mobile device when You go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close Your web browser.

We use both Session and Persistent Cookies for the purposes set out below:

  • Necessary / Essential Cookies

    Type: Session Cookies

    Administered by: Us

    Purpose: These Cookies are essential to provide You with services available through the Website and to enable You to use some of its features. They help to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts. Without these Cookies, the services that You have asked for cannot be provided, and We only use these Cookies to provide You with those services.

  • Cookies Policy / Notice Acceptance Cookies

    Type: Persistent Cookies

    Administered by: Us

    Purpose: These Cookies identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the Website.

  • Functionality Cookies

    Type: Persistent Cookies

    Administered by: Us

    Purpose: These Cookies allow us to remember choices You make when You use the Website, such as remembering your login details or language preference. The purpose of these Cookies is to provide You with a more personal experience and to avoid You having to re-enter your preferences every time You use the Website.

  • Tracking and Performance Cookies

    Type: Persistent Cookies

    Administered by: Third-Parties

    Purpose: These Cookies are used to track information about traffic to the Website and how users use the Website. The information gathered via these Cookies may directly or indirectly identify you as an individual visitor. This is because the information collected is typically linked to a pseudonymous identifier associated with the device you use to access the Website. We may also use these Cookies to test new pages, features or new functionality of the Website to see how our users react to them.

For more information about the cookies we use and your choices regarding cookies, please visit our Cookies Policy.

Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

  • To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service.
  • To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.
  • For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service.
  • To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application’s push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.
  • To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information.
  • To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us.
  • For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred.
  • For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.

We may share Your personal information in the following situations:

  • With Service Providers: We may share Your personal information with Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, to contact You.
  • For business transfers: We may share or transfer Your personal information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
  • With Affiliates: We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates include Our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that We control or that are under common control with Us.
  • With business partners: We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services or promotions.
  • With other users: when You share personal information or otherwise interact in the public areas with other users, such information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside. If You interact with other users or register through a Third-Party Social Media Service, Your contacts on the Third-Party Social Media Service may see You name, profile, pictures and description of Your activity. Similarly, other users will be able to view descriptions of Your activity, communicate with You and view Your profile.
  • With Your consent: We may disclose Your personal information for any other purpose with Your consent.

Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

The Company will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your data and other personal information.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • Comply with a legal obligation
  • Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
  • Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
  • Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
  • Protect against legal liability

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Detailed Information on the Processing of Your Personal Data

The Service Providers We use may have access to Your Personal Data. These third-party vendors collect, store, use, process and transfer information about Your activity on Our Service in accordance with their Privacy Policies.

Analytics

We may use third-party Service providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service.

  • Google Analytics

    Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualise and personalise the ads of its own advertising network.

    You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

    For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

GDPR Privacy

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data under GDPR

We may process Personal Data under the following conditions:

  • Consent: You have given Your consent for processing Personal Data for one or more specific purposes.
  • Performance of a contract: Provision of Personal Data is necessary for the performance of an agreement with You and/or for any pre-contractual obligations thereof.
  • Legal obligations: Processing Personal Data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Company is subject.
  • Vital interests: Processing Personal Data is necessary in order to protect Your vital interests or of another natural person.
  • Public interests: Processing Personal Data is related to a task that is carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Company.
  • Legitimate interests: Processing Personal Data is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Company.

In any case, the Company will gladly help to clarify the specific legal basis that applies to the processing, and in particular whether the provision of Personal Data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract.

Your Rights under the GDPR

The Company undertakes to respect the confidentiality of Your Personal Data and to guarantee You can exercise Your rights.

You have the right under this Privacy Policy, and by law if You are within the EU, to:

  • Request access to Your Personal Data. The right to access, update or delete the information We have on You. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of Your Personal Data directly within Your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact Us to assist You. This also enables You to receive a copy of the Personal Data We hold about You.
  • Request correction of the Personal Data that We hold about You. You have the right to to have any incomplete or inaccurate information We hold about You corrected.
  • Object to processing of Your Personal Data. This right exists where We are relying on a legitimate interest as the legal basis for Our processing and there is something about Your particular situation, which makes You want to object to our processing of Your Personal Data on this ground. You also have the right to object where We are processing Your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request erasure of Your Personal Data. You have the right to ask Us to delete or remove Personal Data when there is no good reason for Us to continue processing it.
  • Request the transfer of Your Personal Data. We will provide to You, or to a third-party You have chosen, Your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Please note that this right only applies to automated information which You initially provided consent for Us to use or where We used the information to perform a contract with You.
  • Withdraw Your consent. You have the right to withdraw Your consent on using your Personal Data. If You withdraw Your consent, We may not be able to provide You with access to certain specific functionalities of the Service.

Exercising of Your GDPR Data Protection Rights

You may exercise Your rights of access, rectification, cancellation and opposition by contacting Us. Please note that we may ask You to verify Your identity before responding to such requests. If You make a request, We will try our best to respond to You as soon as possible.

You have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about Our collection and use of Your Personal Data. For more information, if You are in the European Economic Area (EEA), please contact Your local data protection authority in the EEA.

Facebook Fan Page

Data Controller for the Facebook Fan Page

The Company is the Data Controller of Your Personal Data collected while using the Service. As operator of the Facebook Fan Page (https://m.facebook.com/Web-Builders-Guide-646531502067754/), the Company and the operator of the social network Facebook are Joint Controllers.

The Company has entered into agreements with Facebook that define the terms for use of the Facebook Fan Page, among other things. These terms are mostly based on the Facebook Terms of Service: https://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Visit the Facebook Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policy.php for more information about how Facebook manages Personal data or contact Facebook online, or by mail: Facebook, Inc. ATTN, Privacy Operations, 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States.

Facebook Insights

We use the Facebook Insights function in connection with the operation of the Facebook Fan Page and on the basis of the GDPR, in order to obtain anonymized statistical data about Our users.

For this purpose, Facebook places a Cookie on the device of the user visiting Our Facebook Fan Page. Each Cookie contains a unique identifier code and remains active for a period of two years, except when it is deleted before the end of this period.

Facebook receives, records and processes the information stored in the Cookie, especially when the user visits the Facebook services, services that are provided by other members of the Facebook Fan Page and services by other companies that use Facebook services.

For more information on the privacy practices of Facebook, please visit Facebook Privacy Policy here: https://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy

CCPA Privacy

This privacy notice section for California residents supplements the information contained in Our Privacy Policy and it applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California.

Categories of Personal Information Collected

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular Consumer or Device. The following is a list of categories of personal information which we may collect or may have been collected from California residents within the last twelve (12) months.

Please note that the categories and examples provided in the list below are those defined in the CCPA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact collected by Us, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been collected. For example, certain categories of personal information would only be collected if You provided such personal information directly to Us.

  • Category A: Identifiers.

    Examples: A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.

    Collected: Yes.

  • Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)).

    Examples: A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.

    Collected: Yes.

  • Category C: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.

    Examples: Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).

    Collected: No.

  • Category D: Commercial information.

    Examples: Records and history of products or services purchased or considered.

    Collected: No.

  • Category E: Biometric information.

    Examples: Genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics, or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as, fingerprints, faceprints, and voiceprints, iris or retina scans, keystroke, gait, or other physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data.

    Collected: No.

  • Category F: Internet or other similar network activity.

    Examples: Interaction with our Service or advertisement.

    Collected: Yes.

  • Category G: Geolocation data.

    Examples: Approximate physical location.

    Collected: No.

  • Category H: Sensory data.

    Examples: Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.

    Collected: No.

  • Category I: Professional or employment-related information.

    Examples: Current or past job history or performance evaluations.

    Collected: No.

  • Category J: Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)).

    Examples: Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records.

    Collected: No.

  • Category K: Inferences drawn from other personal information.

    Examples: Profile reflecting a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.

    Collected: No.

Under CCPA, personal information does not include:

  • Publicly available information from government records
  • Deidentified or aggregated consumer information
  • Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, such as:
    • Health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data
    • Personal Information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994

Sources of Personal Information

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

  • Directly from You. For example, from the forms You complete on our Service, preferences You express or provide through our Service.
  • Indirectly from You. For example, from observing Your activity on our Service.
  • Automatically from You. For example, through cookies We or our Service Providers set on Your Device as You navigate through our Service.
  • From Service Providers. For example, third-party vendors to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, or other third-party vendors that We use to provide the Service to You.

Use of Personal Information for Business Purposes or Commercial Purposes

We may use or disclose personal information We collect for “business purposes” or “commercial purposes” (as defined under the CCPA), which may include the following examples:

  • To operate our Service and provide You with our Service.
  • To provide You with support and to respond to Your inquiries, including to investigate and address Your concerns and monitor and improve our Service.
  • To fulfill or meet the reason You provided the information. For example, if You share Your contact information to ask a question about our Service, We will use that personal information to respond to Your inquiry.
  • To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
  • As described to You when collecting Your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.
  • For internal administrative and auditing purposes.
  • To detect security incidents and protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, including, when necessary, to prosecute those responsible for such activities.

Please note that the examples provided above are illustrative and not intended to be exhaustive. For more details on how we use this information, please refer to the “Use of Your Personal Data” section.

If We decide to collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information We collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes We will update this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure of Personal Information for Business Purposes or Commercial Purposes

We may use or disclose and may have used or disclosed in the last twelve (12) months the following categories of personal information for business or commercial purposes:

  • Category A: Identifiers
  • Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e))
  • Category F: Internet or other similar network activity

Please note that the categories listed above are those defined in the CCPA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact disclosed, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been disclosed.

When We disclose personal information for a business purpose or a commercial purpose, We enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

Sale of Personal Information

As defined in the CCPA, “sell” and “sale” mean selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the business to a third party for valuable consideration. This means that We may have received some kind of benefit in return for sharing personal Iinformation, but not necessarily a monetary benefit.

Please note that the categories listed below are those defined in the CCPA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact sold, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been shared for value in return.

We may sell and may have sold in the last twelve (12) months the following categories of personal information:

  • Category A: Identifiers
  • Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e))
  • Category F: Internet or other similar network activity

Share of Personal Information

We may share Your personal information identified in the above categories with the following categories of third parties:

  • Service Providers
  • Our affiliates
  • Our business partners
  • Third party vendors to whom You or Your agents authorize Us to disclose Your personal information in connection with products or services We provide to You

Sale of Personal Information of Minors Under 16 Years of Age

We do not sell the personal information of Consumers We actually know are less than 16 years of age, unless We receive affirmative authorization (the “right to opt-in”) from either the Consumer who is between 13 and 16 years of age, or the parent or guardian of a Consumer less than 13 years of age. Consumers who opt-in to the sale of personal information may opt-out of future sales at any time. To exercise the right to opt-out, You (or Your authorized representative) may submit a request to Us by contacting Us.

If You have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 (or 16) has provided Us with personal information, please contact Us with sufficient detail to enable Us to delete that information.

Your Rights under the CCPA

The CCPA provides California residents with specific rights regarding their personal information. If You are a resident of California, You have the following rights:

  • The right to notice. You have the right to be notified which categories of Personal Data are being collected and the purposes for which the Personal Data is being used.
  • The right to request. Under CCPA, You have the right to request that We disclose information to You about Our collection, use, sale, disclosure for business purposes and share of personal information. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will disclose to You:
    • The categories of personal information We collected about You
    • The categories of sources for the personal information We collected about You
    • Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information
    • The categories of third parties with whom We share that personal information
    • The specific pieces of personal information We collected about You
    • If we sold Your personal information or disclosed Your personal information for a business purpose, We will disclose to You:
      • The categories of personal information categories sold
      • The categories of personal information categories disclosed
  • The right to say no to the sale of Personal Data (opt-out). You have the right to direct Us to not sell Your personal information. To submit an opt-out request please contact Us.
  • The right to delete Personal Data. You have the right to request the deletion of Your Personal Data, subject to certain exceptions. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will delete (and direct Our Service Providers to delete) Your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies. We may deny Your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for Us or Our Service Providers to:
    • Complete the transaction for which We collected the personal information, provide a good or service that You requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with You, or otherwise perform our contract with You.
    • Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
    • Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
    • Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
    • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
    • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if You previously provided informed consent.
    • Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on Your relationship with Us.
    • Comply with a legal obligation.
    • Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which You provided it.
  • The right not to be discriminated against. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of Your consumer’s rights, including by:
    • Denying goods or services to You
    • Charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties
    • Providing a different level or quality of goods or services to You
    • Suggesting that You will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services

Exercising Your CCPA Data Protection Rights

In order to exercise any of Your rights under the CCPA, and if You are a California resident, You can contact Us:

  • By visiting this page on our website: https://www.webbuildersguide.com/contacts

Only You, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that You authorize to act on Your behalf, may make a verifiable request related to Your personal information.

Your request to Us must:

  • Provide sufficient information that allows Us to reasonably verify You are the person about whom We collected personal information or an authorized representative
  • Describe Your request with sufficient detail that allows Us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it

We cannot respond to Your request or provide You with the required information if we cannot:

  • Verify Your identity or authority to make the request
  • And confirm that the personal information relates to You

We will disclose and deliver the required information free of charge within 45 days of receiving Your verifiable request. The time period to provide the required information may be extended once by an additional 45 days when reasonable necessary and with prior notice.

Any disclosures We provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable request’s receipt.

For data portability requests, We will select a format to provide Your personal information that is readily useable and should allow You to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

You have the right to opt-out of the sale of Your personal information. Once We receive and confirm a verifiable consumer request from You, we will stop selling Your personal information. To exercise Your right to opt-out, please contact Us.

The Service Providers we partner with (for example, our analytics or advertising partners) may use technology on the Service that sells personal information as defined by the CCPA law. If you wish to opt out of the use of Your personal information for interest-based advertising purposes and these potential sales as defined under CCPA law, you may do so by following the instructions below.

Please note that any opt out is specific to the browser You use. You may need to opt out on every browser that You use.

Website

You can opt out of receiving ads that are personalized as served by our Service Providers by following our instructions presented on the Service:

The opt out will place a cookie on Your computer that is unique to the browser You use to opt out. If you change browsers or delete the cookies saved by your browser, You will need to opt out again.

Mobile Devices

Your mobile device may give you the ability to opt out of the use of information about the apps you use in order to serve you ads that are targeted to your interests:

  • “Opt out of Interest-Based Ads” or “Opt out of Ads Personalization” on Android devices
  • “Limit Ad Tracking” on iOS devices

You can also stop the collection of location information from Your mobile device by changing the preferences on Your mobile device.

“Do Not Track” Policy as Required by California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA)

Our Service does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

However, some third party websites do keep track of You browsing activities. If You are visiting such websites, You can set Your preferences in Your web browser to inform websites that You do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable DNT by visiting the preferences or settings page of Your web browser.

Your California Privacy Rights (California’s Shine the Light law)

Under California Civil Code Section 1798 (California’s Shine the Light law), California residents with an established business relationship with us can request information once a year about sharing their Personal Data with third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes.

If you’d like to request more information under the California Shine the Light law, and if You are a California resident, You can contact Us using the contact information provided below.

California Privacy Rights for Minor Users (California Business and Professions Code Section 22581)

California Business and Professions Code section 22581 allow California residents under the age of 18 who are registered users of online sites, services or applications to request and obtain removal of content or information they have publicly posted.

To request removal of such data, and if You are a California resident, You can contact Us using the contact information provided below, and include the email address associated with Your account.

Be aware that Your request does not guarantee complete or comprehensive removal of content or information posted online and that the law may not permit or require removal in certain circumstances.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us via Contacts

Cheapest Website Builders with Domain and Hosting 2024

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author avatar Written by Lesley Haught

I had been putting off writing this piece for a long time. I believed price is an important factor when choosing a website builder but definitely not the main one. But recently, I received the following email:

“Hi Lesley. My name is Mary and I’m your reader. I would like to know – what is the cheapest website builder you can recommend? I don’t have a big budget, but the possibilities of the free plan are not enough for me. Therefore, using an inexpensive but at the same time powerful website builder would be the best solution for me. Thanks for sharing.”

And I decided to not answer Mary personally, but with a comprehensive guide on my website. I’ve just sent the link to Mary.

Today, I’ll tell you about the best website builders and at the same time budget-friendly. And share some thrifty ways of saving money during website development. (Read on to know what things you should or shouldn’t economize on. And how to get extra discount for website builders.)

From this review you will find out:

How to find the cheapest website builders and compare their capacities for creating various types of websites.

How to find more accessible alternatives to popular website builders.

How to find out how website builders are the most financially accessible way to build a website.

Factors that you can economize on while using website builders. (Like payment methods, coupon codes, promotions, and so on.)

What’s the best course of action for website development? (My own observations and recommendations.)

Keep on reading. This article is definitely going to help you save money while developing a website.

Why not Free Website Builders?

When you’re interested in saving money, using free website builders is certainly the best way. It won’t cost you anything.

But then your website design and its features are most likely to be far from what you wanted.

Moreover, most website builders’ free plans contain banner ads. They also won’t allow you to use your own domain name.

That’s why if you want to get a low-cost but still contemporary and user-friendly website with your own domain, you’ll have to forget about free website creators.

Cheapest Website Builder Plans

As you probably already guessed, any basic plan will be better than a free plan. First, you won’t have ads for the builder’s website. Most likely won’t, as some cheap premium plans do advertise the platform on websites. But this is more the exception than the rule.

Secondly, you can use a custom domain name. This is especially important for business websites.

Of course, there may be limits on the number of pages, Bandwidth and Storage space, but the low price of the plan justifies these limits.

Here are the three tables comparing the cheapest website builders that allow custom domain names.

NOTE: Most website builders have different pricing policies for various regions. Depending on your location, prices will be shown in USD (if you’re from the USA), GBP (if you’re from the UK), and EUR (for European users). That’s why I thought that it’d be more convenient to analyze prices using not one but three tables.

For the United States:

Web BuilderBasic Plan NameMonthly Cost (USD)Cost for 1 Year (USD)More Discounts
WebnodeLimited$3.90$46.8up to 50% off for 2+ years
WordPress.comPersonal$7$48 (42% off)Check 50% Off Coupon
WeeblyPersonal$9$72 (33% off)
StrikinglyLimited$12$96 (33% off)41.6% off for 2 years
JimdoStart$9$108Check 40% Off Coupon
GoDaddyBasic$11.99$119.8830% off for the first year
SquarespaceBusiness$16$134.40 (30% off)Check 10% Off Coupon
WebflowBasic$15$144 (20% off)
WixCombo$16$192Check 10% Off Coupon
SITE123Premium$12.80$153.6
DudaBasic$19$168 (26% off)

For the United Kingdom:

Web BuilderBasic Plan NameMonthly Cost (GBP)Cost for 1 Year (GBP)More Discounts
WebnodeLimited£2.90£34.8up to 50% off for 2+ years
WordPress.comPersonal$7$48 (42% off)Check 50% Off Coupon
WixConnect Domain£4£48Check 10% Off Coupon
WeeblyConnect n/a£48
GoDaddyBasic£7.99£59.8837% off for first year
StrikinglyLimited$12$9612.5% off for 2 years
JimdoStart£9£108Check 40% Off Coupon
SquarespaceBusiness£12.98£120 (23% off)Check 10% Off Coupon
WebflowBasic$15$144 (20% off)
SITE123Premium$12.80$153.6
DudaBasic$19$168 (26% off)

* Price in USD means that a website builder doesn’t offer prices in GBP. At the time of purchase, recalculation will take place at the current exchange rate.

For the European Union:

Web BuilderBasic Plan NameMonthly Cost (EUR)Cost for 1 Year (EUR)More Discounts
WebnodeLimited€3€36up to 50% off for 2+ years
WordPress.comPersonal€7€48 (42% off)Check 50% Off Coupon
WixConnect Domain€5.50€66Check 10% Off Coupon
WeeblyConnectn/a€60
SITE123Premium$7.80$93.6
StrikinglyLimited$12$9612,5% off for 2 years
JimdoStart€9€108Check 40% Off Coupon
GoDaddyBasic$11.99$119.8816% off for the first year
SquarespaceBusiness€15€ 132 (30% off))Check 10% Off Coupon
WebflowBasic$15$144 (20% off)
DudaBasic$19$168 (26% off)

* Price in USD means that a website builder doesn’t offer prices in GBP. At the time of purchase, recalculation will take place at the current exchange rate.

As you can see, the cheapest tariff plans start from $30, £26.76, or €30.48 per year. It’s the lowest price that you need to pay for a premium website builder.

In fact, there aren’t too many website builders offering plans for less than $100 per year. Webnode, WordPress.com, Weebly, Strikingly, and Wix (for those who live in the UK or EU) are the only ones that do.

ALERT:

Actually, I’ve seen other website builders with even lower prices. But they were mere threepenny website builders. (There was almost no information about them). And I prefer web development using a software solution that’s in good standing and has been in existence for at least five years.

I am absolutely against using just any website builder based only on its rock-bottom price. Remember that you develop a website, not for just one year. The platform you choose should be reliable and worth your trust in the long run.

I don’t think you’ll be too pleased if your website creator suddenly ceased to exist. Or if your experience keeps going from bad to worse. Or if your website is down too often.

The website builders that I have selected are reliable and time-tested online tools. You can freely use any of them.

Comparison of the Most Affordable Website Builders

Now let’s compare the six cheapest website builders from these tables. And then we will find out what features they have and what’s included in their most affordable plans:

Cheapest Website Builders Comparison

Webnode logo
Wordpress.com logo
Weebly logo
Strikingly logo
Jimdo logo
Plan NameLimitedPersonalPersonalLimitedStart
Monthly Cost$3.90$7$9$12n/a
Annually Cost$46.8$48$72$96$108
Custom DomainYesYesYesYesYes
Free SSL CertificateYesYesYesYesYes
Free Domain NameNot includedYes (for 1 year)Not includedYes (Yearly)Yes (Yearly)
Remove builder ads?NoNoNoNoYes
SEO optionsYesNoYesYesYes
Bandwidth200 MBUnlimitedUnlimited50 GB10 GB
Space Storage1 GB6 GB500 MB1 GB per site5 GB
Number of PagesUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimitedSingle pageup 10 pages
Google analyticsYesNoYesYesYes
Backup and recoveryNoNoNoNoNo
Design Customization32523
Easy of Use54545
Embed HTML/CSS codeNoNoYesNoYes
Multilingual OptionsNoNoNoNoNo
Membership OptionsNoNoNoNoNo
Ecommerce OptionsNoNoNoYes (only 5 products)No
Support

FAQ – Yes

Email – Yes

Chat – No

Telehone – No

FAQ – Yes

Email – Yes

Chat – No

Telehone – No

FAQ – Yes

Email – Yes

Chat – Yes

Telehone – No

FAQ – Yes

Email – Yes

Chat – Yes

Telehone – No

FAQ – Yes

Email – Yes

Chat – No

Telehone – No

 

Which of These Cheap Builders is the Best?

First of all, don’t expect too much. We are choosing from the cheapest platforms in the world here.

But, know that they aren’t too bad either. They are good enough for a small personal website or a website for a non-profit organization.

Webnode (Limited plan) – $46.8 per year

Webnode is a great all-in-one website builder with a basic plan and a very attractive price. It has been around since 2008. This website builder is perfect for Windows, for Mac and for any other platform.

Webnode premium plans

Webnode Premium Plans

Its extremely affordable plan – Limited – will cost you only $46.8. And for just that much money, you’ll get hosting with 1GB bandwidth and 100MB storage space. This will be enough for you to run a small site with moderate traffic.

Main Webnode advantages:

Simple and user-friendly drag and drop editor

Easy-to-use even for beginners

A large selection of quality responsive themes

SEO friendly

Ample of opportunities for creating multi-language websites.

Moreover, the Limited plan will allow you to use your own domain name.

Unfortunately, the domain name isn’t a freebie that you get with the plan. You’ll have to shell out $90 per year for that and go with the Mini plan.

NOTE: Webnode allows you to get an even lower price if you buy the subscription for 2, 5, or 10 years. The discount can go up to 50%. Sounds exciting and lucrative, right? But I would still advise you to test Webnode Limited plan thoroughly before deciding to buy it for the long term. Once you know that the Limited plan works fine for you, it is obvious that with the extra discount of up to 50%, Webnode will be the best and cheapest solution for you.

WordPress.com (Personal plan) – $48 per year

Everyone has heard of WordPress. So it was all about another WordPress – CMS with open code (WordPress.org). Unlike the CMS of the same name, WordPress.com is a classic representative of online website builders with free of charge web hosting, domain and SSL certificate. And of course, with very affordable prices for all this.

Wordpress pricing

WordPress.com pricing

The cheapest WordPress plan is Personal for $7 per month billed monthly and $4 per month yearly. There is no additional discount when paying for 2 years. But on the other hand, you will receive a free domain for 1 Year as a gift.

What does WordPress.com offer in the basic plan?

Easy-to-use even for beginners

Free SSL certificate

Free Domain Name for 1 year

Remove WordPress.com Ads

On the Personal plan, you will be limited to using only free themes – more advanced premium themes are available on the Premium plan and up. Advanced design customization will also not be available. This means that you will only be able to slightly edit your design using the basic options of the visual editor. Also, only Email Support will be available to you.

NOTE: Unfortunately, WP Personal plan doesn’t have SEO tools, doesn’t support Advanced Social Media and doesn’t allow Google Analytics integration. In my opinion, these are important options, especially when it comes to a business website.

Weebly (Personal plan) – $72 per year

Weebly is the oldest online builder with wide. You can create almost website – from simple personal blogs to multipage portals and large online stores. Few website builders even come close to Weebly in terms of functionality.

Weebly pricing

Weebly Pricing

The most affordable Weebly plan comes at $9 per month. That is if you pay $72 for a whole year at once. That’s a 33% saving on what you’d pay if you make monthly payments – that’s not something you’d have complaints with, right?

Though it is priced slightly higher than Webnode, Weebly makes up for it with its richer component parts.

What does Weebly offer in its cheapest plan?

Powerful and user-friendly drag and drop editor. (It is among the best ones in the market.)

Custom domain

Free SSL certificate

SEO options

Chat and Email Support

Plus, Weebly is simple to use. Not as intuitive as Wix, but simple enough even for beginner webmasters to handle. And as a bonus you will get some SEO options – it’s an offering seldom seen in basic plans.

Strikingly (Limited plan) – $96 per year

Strikingly is a website builder that takes a fresh look at website development. It positions itself as a website creator for single-page sites. And creating websites that consist of only one large page is a perfect solution for several situations. Small business websites, landing pages, online portfolios, personal websites, and one-page online stores.

Strikingly prices

Strikingly Prices

The cheapest Strikingly plan is Limited, which costs $12 a month. Or $96 yearly (which is 33% cheaper) if you pay upfront for the entire year.

Want to save even more? Get 41.6% off if you pay for two years straight. This makes Strikingly one of the best-priced website builders.

Moreover, the Strikingly Limited plan will allow you to get not one but two premium websites. And yes, you’ll get 1GB storage space for each one.

This plan also includes ecommerce options with the possibility of selling up to five products without any Strikingly commission. It’s not bad for less than $100 per year.

What is good about Strikingly?

Free domain if you buy the Limited plan for a year

Possibility to quickly change website templates for existing websites

Possibility to sell through the site

Responsive technical support in chat and email

However, Strikingly is clearly inferior to its competitors regarding template selection and the possibility of their customization. However, it’s not hard to use, has a user-friendly interface, and allows creating two one-page websites. This may sound irresistible to some users.

Wix (Connect Domain plan) – £36 for the UK and €54 for the EU

If you live in the UK or EU, pay attention to Wix’s low-cost Connect Domain plan. In fact, it’s the same Wix Free plan but with the possibility of connecting to a custom domain name.

Wix Premium Plans

Wix Premium Plans

There aren’t many great opportunities in this plan, but it’s really cheap – £36 or €54. That’s a very low price for such a powerful website builder like Wix. And I’d like to remind you that Wix is the best website builder (according to numerous media) and the world’s most popular online website builder.

What does Wix offer for this money?

Powerful and very user-friendly drag and drop editor (one of the best ones)

More than 800 free and premium themes to select

Connect custom domain

Free SSL certificate

Chat and Email Support

Storage Space (500MB) and Bandwidth (1GB) limitations do rain down a bit on Wix Connect Plan’s attractiveness. But if you decide to switch to more powerful Combo and Unlimited plans in the future, you’ll understand why 180 million users in the world prefer this very website builder.

Thus, buying the basic Wix plan will open fine opportunities in the future. When you are ready for more than just the basics – Wix will display all its advantages to the fullest.

Universality, simplicity of use, ample functional opportunities, incredibly user-friendly drag and drop editor, a great selection of themes compared to other online website builders – that’s summing up Wix without singing verses in its praise.

Jimdo (Start plan) – $108 per year

Jimdo is one of the cheapest website builders without ads. After releasing its AI Jimdo Dolphin platform, Jimdo became incredibly easy to use. Jimdo Dolphin uses artificial intelligence even for the simplest website building tasks. And it requires minimum human participation. In acse you would like to make someting more complicated, for example, to build a photography website – such help will surely come in handy.

Jimdo pricing

Jimdo Pricing

NOTE: If you’re interested in using AI for your website development, take a look at Wix ADI. It’s an excellent contemporary solution designed in order to make website development much easier. In fact, you just have to answer a few questions about your preferences (favorite colors, website style, theme, and so on), and AI is going to build your website independently and fill it with content. It will be a real catch for inexperienced users. Also be sure to check out more AI website builders for a smarter choice.

In addition to its simplicity of use, Jimdo also comes with a free domain name for one year. Plus, it gives access to SEO options, allows installing Google Analytics, and, most importantly, opens up the possibility to add HTML code to your website. With that, you’ll be able to install third-party widgets, additional scripts, buttons, and other graphical elements. While these options are commonly offered in more expensive premium plans, Jimdo doesn’t shy away from giving it all in the basic plan.

Now, if we talk about Jimdo’s cons, we have web design editing restrictions and a limit of 10 pages (for the Start plan).

So, Jimdo is a really good and thrifty solution, but only for some small websites that require no more than ten pages.