These are our favorite free web builders
- Dec 28, 2020
- 9 min read
Updated: Mar 18, 2021
Webnode - Modern editor with some limitation
Wix.com - The Internet Heavyweight
Weebly - Solid and easy to use
Jimdo - For simple sites
WordPress (.com) - King of the blog
Now is the time for us to find the best web builder(Custom Laravel Website Designer in California) for your project:
Webnode: Modern editor but with some limitations
Webnode recently completely revamped their system, made it very modern. The templates they have added are automatically mobile-friendly and stylish; too bad you can't change them once you've already selected one. Working with Webnode is very intuitive, and as expected, you can also hire a payment plan if you need more.
Webnode offers a low-cost variant at $ 3.95 per month, essentially letting you use a domain name of your own that you already own (eg your-business.com) and contact their premium support. But you have to know that the small ad at the bottom of the page will continue to show. Their blog is quite limited and you will not be able to create an online store with Webnode.
What we like : The Webnode ad that the free plan shows is small and the templates are mobile-friendly. It does not limit the number of pages you can create and you can edit the SEO options for all pages.
What they should improve : They should add and improve some of their functions (eg blog or ecommerce). The web space is not very generous as they only offer 100MB in the free plan. It doesn't come with SSL encryption, something they should add.
Wix: The best known worldwide
The world's largest website builder is Wix. It has more users than any other website builder and it's easy to see why. It is packed with unique functionalities and fantastic templates. A great option to create a paid website, but what about creating a free website, will it also be a good option?
Well, the quick answer is no. It has the same problem as Weebly, the footer ad, or rather, ads are too visible. Since it not only occupies your footer, there is also one visible in the upper right part of your website.
What we like : The spectacular selection of templates and the flexibility of its editor. In addition, its App Market, which allows you to add apps to give more functions to your website, has a lot of apps. The free plan offers 500MB of web space, they're generous. There is no limit to the number of pages you can create and you will have access to all SEO features.
What they should improve : Wix ads are too visible. The URLs are too long and this makes it difficult to remember.
Mozello: Free Multilingual Websites
This Latvian company is one of the smallest creators in the world. What is surprising is that they let you create multilingual websites at no cost , something that you will not be able to achieve with any other provider. Among other features it comes with a blog, an online store and decent SEO options. In addition, the ad they show at the bottom of the page is so discreet that most of your users will not even see it. In its free plan, it offers 500 MB of web space, which should be sufficient for most users.
On the other hand, although the editor is easy to use, it is quite limited when we compare it to its competitors. For example, certain elements such as image galleries can only be added to one page type. This makes Mozello not as flexible as others.
What we like : The ad at the bottom of the page is super discreet and the ability to create multilingual websites for free.
What they should improve : The editor needs to be more flexible and incorporate new functions.
Weebly: A great website builder with a downside
Weebly is one of the highest quality (and popular) creators around today. But since we are looking at what they offer for free, we have to be a bit tougher on them. Why doesn't your free plan shine? Well, because the ad they place at the bottom of the page is huge, it even lights up when you hover over it.
It is a very good product that is very easy to use. It even has an App Center with which you can install applications that will allow you to expand the capabilities of your website. Payment plans start at $ 8.
What we like : Its mobile-friendly templates and its App Center with third-party extensions. They offer 500 MB of web space and do not limit the SEO options of any page. Nor does it limit the number of pages you can create.
What they should improve : The biggest drawback is that you have a highly visible footer ad. And by the way, it doesn't have SSL encryption yet.
Jimdo: Create a Free and Easy Website
The best thing about Jimdo is that it won't cost you an arm and a leg if one day you decide you want a payment plan. Their cheapest plan costs $ 10 and will let you use your own domain name.
Not only are all their templates available in the free plan, they are also compatible with smartphones and tablets as they are adaptable. They also have an app for mobile devices that will let you create and edit your website wherever you are. And the icing on the cake is that Jimdo allows you to sell up to 5 items with the free plan. But you have to keep in mind that in this plan the SEO options (eg, title and meta-description) are only editable for the home page.
What we like : The footer ad showing Jimdo's free plan is small and unobtrusive. There is no page limit and it also includes a blog. It also comes with SSL encryption.
What they should improve : Your template selection could be better. There is no application center to install new functionalities and thus expand the possibilities of your website.
WordPress.com: The Blogging Platform
beginner's guide). The latter is great if you are not afraid to get into the technical field, but surprisingly, the .com version is not much easier to use and has many restrictions. With that said, if all you want is to simply create a blog, WordPress.com could be a great solution. Although to make a web page we believe that there are better options.
One.com: Not free but cheap
It must be said that One.com is not free like other providers with freemium models. It has a very cheap cost. One.com does not include its own domain, you will have to contract it separately. The website will not have advertising, but it has a trick: you can only create 5 pages, if you go over it it will be much more expensive.
If what you need is a (very) small website, without ads and you want to have your own domain name, One.com can be a good and very cheap alternative. Oh, and if you prefer to use WordPress and not the web authoring platform One.com offers, this will not be a problem; also here there will be no limit of web pages you can create.
What we like : It's very flexible - you can use both WordPress and its website builder. It is a good option to start (professionally) without paying a lot.
What they should improve : The 5 page limit is not cool at all. Although the website builder they offer does its job, it is not the best on the market. All of their templates are customizable and modern.
000webhost: Your website, 23 hours a day
000webhost belongs to the same group as Hostinger, a relatively well-known web hosting company that uses 000webhost to offer free hosting services. It's limited to 1GB of space, 10GB of bandwidth, and a maximum of 2 web pages, but if you really don't want to use WordPress, they have a free web builder.
If at any point you decide to switch to the premium plan to remove these limitations, you would pay about US $ 9 per month. Although the truth is that there are much better tools (like Wix or Weebly ) with similar offers.
What we like : It is good that, to create the pages, it allows you to use both your own platform and WordPress. The free version even allows you to connect a domain name purchased from another site. They also have almost 200 templates to choose from and are classified by sectors. Although the designs are not adaptable, you can create versions of your page specifically adapted for computers, tablets and mobiles. An interesting point is that they provide an easy way to create web pages in various languages. And if you are paranoid about backups, you can rest easy, it will let you download copies and also restore them.
What they should improve : They have some modern and well-designed templates, but most look a bit old. A big limitation of the free plan is that your website will be offline (down) every day for an hour ; in my opinion, it is a reason not to use it. It has some of the main functionality and necessary extensions, but some important elements are missing (for example, a blog or the ability to search the page). Also, if you switch to a new template, you lose all content.
Websites: When free can still be expensive
In its day it was one of the most popular free web builders, but it has constantly been losing ground. They offer a simple editor with many templates available. But the main problem is that they haven't done a serious update on this product since 20112, and it shows. Everything (editor, templates, functions) is old-fashioned, and as if that weren't enough, with your free plan the website cannot have more than 5 pages.
What we like : Ehem, it's hard. We could say that its editor is simple, but if we pay attention to the feedback we receive, it seems that it is full of errors.
What they should improve : They should send a letter apologizing to all their users, bury the current version of their product, and rebuild everything from scratch. When they're done with that they can focus on making the Webs.com footer ad a little smaller.
New Google Sites: (Very) Basic Website Creation
Google recently revamped its Google Sites web builder, which now has a cleaner, more modern look. As soon as you fiddle around a bit, you'll notice two things: 1) that it is super easy to use, and 2) that it has almost nothing, you can choose from six templates, all looking pretty empty when you start designing , without any sample content. Surprisingly, the new version of Google Sites does not support custom domain names (information in English), which is essential if you want to have a professional website one day. It seems that a domain name can be connected through Google MyBusiness, but it forces you to have a business with a physical address.
What we like : Unsurprisingly, the integration with other Google products (Maps, Calendar, Docs, Slides, etc.) is excellent.
What they should improve : They should have more themes and design elements. You cannot access the SEO settings of the web page, for example the page title or the meta-description (!!!). Your knowledge base is as basic as the creator itself, so searching for an answer can be quite frustrating.
Site123: As easy as a count to 3?
We had a hard time finding concrete information about the company behind Site123. After searching the internet for a long time, we think they are in Israel. They claim to be "by far" the best web creator and, although it is true that their tool is not difficult to use, in our opinion there are more intuitive ones. One point that we find very good is that they have some very good looking templates and they are all customizable. Payment plans cost from € 9 per month and include an ecommerce store. Prepare to receive several emails a day as soon as you register.
Mobirise: Installable software to create web pages
We usually like web builders that include hosting and that work in your browser. But we know that some of you prefer to design your website with software that can be installed on Windows or Mac. Mobirise is one of these programs: you install it on your computer and in a few minutes you can start dragging and dropping elements to set up a web page, even offline.
The templates are quite modern looking and packed with functionality, although there are only a few to choose from. In addition, most of them are paid and cost between € 19 and € 39 (they only pay once). Another drawback is that we have not seen that they have functionalities to write blogs. On the other hand, once you are satisfied with the result, you will need to publish the website on your own internet space. Of course, this is much more complicated than using a web builder with built-in hosting, as you will need to set up an FTP connection.
Zoho Sites: Very Complete Features
Zoho web builder has many templates. The downside is that only a small percentage are mobile-friendly. Also, they probably looked great five years ago, but now they look a bit dated. The editor itself is very easy to use and has all the features you can imagine. With Zoho Creator you can even add dynamic content blocks to your web page. You also have full access to the HTML and CSS code of your page. All in all, this is a very respectable product, especially if you already use other Zoho products.
Commenti