Finding the best free website builders can be stressful for small businesses, because you get what you pay for, right? But the best website builders don’t have to hurt your budget, despite what common misconceptions tell you.
There are free options that can work for your business. Typically, setting up a website for a small business can cost up to $10,000!
If you are just starting up or are a really small business, this may be completely out of the question for you. But you do have options that are more friendly on the wallet and easy to use.
How To Find The Best Website Builder For Your Small Business
So how can you create a stellar website for your business for free? Fortunately, there are plenty of free options that you can work with as you can see by reading on.
While you may be primarily familiar with WordPress, other sites like GroovePages, Wix, and GoDaddy offer great alternatives that can get your business online today. Each of these options have their own pros and cons, which you need to consider before deciding on an option.
These options have free website building solutions or you can invest some money into getting better features. It all depends on what you need and what you can afford to spend.
Creating your website for your business doesn’t have to be an expensive project. It doesn’t even have to be an overly complicated adventure with these choices, as many have drag and drop templates you can just organize to make it fit for your business.
Some website builders are more complicated, making them more difficult to set up especially if you aren’t as tech savvy as you’d like to be.
So which is the cheapest small business web builder? Which one is the easiest to use?
By reading on, you can learn what you need to about each of these top website builders for small business to help you make an informed decision on which one is the best for you.
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GroovePages
GroovePages is an ideal solution for online marketers that have sales funnels. It’s a drag and drop page and funnel builder that helps you design a website and a funnel for your business.
The code to design this website, at least a majority of it, is loaded right on the browser, which offers you much more functionality with your site.
There are plenty of pros to choose from when it comes to GroovePages. One of the biggest benefits of this web builder is that it has a clean looking page builder that is intuitive with an easier to use drag and drop feature.
You also get plenty of options, which helps you get that custom look you want for your site. You get free SSL certificates and you have plenty of additional features you can enjoy with an upgraded paid option.
You still have a few things to consider however, such as the fact that you need to upgrade to a paid plan to get an Agency License.
While their pricing is extremely attractive for the entire Groove Suite, It also does have a little bit of a learning curve, despite being a drag and drop builder.
Wix
One of the most appealing things about Wix is that you can set up a website with essentially minimal effort.
Even with the free option, you get the intuitive web building features that you want to easily and quickly set up your website.
You can enjoy such features as 3rd party widgets, video backgrounds, and mobile apps to make setting up your business online much easier.
There are several pros to consider about Wix. You get decent mobile-site building tools that allow you to optimize your site for mobile users.
It’s a powerful site builder, more powerful than you would typically expect for a free site. For more features, you can upgrade to the paid version of this site.
There are also some downsides to think about. You aren’t allowed to switch templates, which means that you can’t adjust your website as you could with other builders.
It also doesn’t have as much of a responsive design as you might like. There is also a lack of built-in statistics features that can help your business.
Squarespace
A reason why Squarespace is so popular is because it’s considered by many to be the “hip DIY” option.
While it does offer some stunning visual designs and integrations, this option doesn’t have a long-term trial or free version. You do get to try it for 2 weeks, but after that you need to pay for the site.
Options start at $16 per month, with savings when you pay annually.
An excellent advantage of using Squarespace is that you get a free SSL certificate as well as decent analytics and help tools.
You can also have responsive designs that work for both desktop and mobile users. Squarespace also offers great selling capabilities, such as digital downloads.
As previously mentioned, the biggest downside with Squarespace is that it doesn’t offer a free option. It also offers very little customization options for mobile sites nor can you switch templates.
If you upgrade from Version 7, you will have to go through the process of rebuilding your website.
WordPress.com
WordPress is a major name in creating websites. It offers a seemingly endless number of themes to create the perfect page for your business. It has powerful e-commerce solutions that help you sell your items easily.
You get complete control over your website’s look, which is so important to some businesses. But with this ability to customize your site, you also get a major learning curve and a time-consuming process that may not be the best option for your business.
You do have some pros to WordPress, mainly the nearly unlimited options to truly customize your site to make it uniquely yours.
With higher tier plans, you can access thousands of other themes and plug-ins to perfect your website. These are reasons why this brand has such a solid reputation.
There are definitely some disadvantages as well. There is a major learning curve when you are trying to customize your site, which can be frustrating to some.
If you want some of the best SEO tools and plug-ins available on WordPress.com, you will have to pay a lot of money for it.
Weebly
Weebly is has a free option for users, giving an easy-to-use and affordable solution for website builders for your business.
With Weebly, you get a powerful and intuitive website builder that allows you to easily make visually appealing sites. You don’t need to know how to code to get your site to look how you want it to. It’s all about simplicity when it comes to Weebly.
There are quite a few things that make Weebly a good option. You get site stats to help you with your analytics.
You can easily download your site code using the standard HTML/CSS. You can access commerce features that allow you to sell items on your website. You can even edit your site using an app on your iPad, for extra convenience.
Still, there are plenty of downsides as well to consider. You don’t get the reusable photo storage that you can find with other options.
You also don’t have the ability to customize your mobile sites. Lastly, there’s no option for an interface-wide undo.
Zyro
Zyro may not be a very well-known website builder, but it’s another option that offers simplicity. You don’t need to have a lot of technical skill to quickly build a great looking website and upload it quickly.
This is a lightweight option that is perfect for businesses that want a no-fuss approach to website building. There is a free version and you get a free SSL certificate with your website when using Zyro.
You also get this neat advantage of a logo maker to create the logo for your brand. It also includes an easy-to-use drag and drop interface as well as AI tools to help create the perfect site.
Zyro does have some disadvantages as well. You can’t switch templates when you want to, nor can you schedule any blog posts ahead of time. You also lack the nice add-ons you may want when you have the free option.
GoDaddy
A great thing about GoDaddy is that it’s easy to use and you get a nice looking website that is responsive. There is a free tier, as well as paid plans that start at $10 a month.
This has become one of the most well-known names in website builders, but does that mean it’s the best option? You get an all-in-one service with GoDaddy that makes building your small business website a lot easier for you.
GoDaddy offers a few benefits to consider. First of all, you get a generous amount of storage and bandwidth to make running your website a lot easier with their web hosting services.
You also get incredibly useful marketing and SEO tools that can help your business. The interface is clean and simple to use.
A major downside with GoDaddy is that you have very limited customization and photo editing when using their site. You will also have to pay more for an online store as this isn’t available for every tier.
The Takeaway
Your small business needs a website that is going to work for your company. However, you may not have the means to shell out a fortune to have someone else handle this task for you especially as a small business.
The good news is that these are some of the best website builders for small business, so you can find the one that works best for your needs.
Some of these options have free tiers while others require you to pay, so budget will have to be a consideration for you when selecting the best option for your needs. It’s also important to consider how easy it is to use the website builder.
