Top Recommendations and Reviews
Best for: Overall website builder
1. Wix
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Ultimate versatility
Endless choice of templates
Wix ADI for quick website launch
Wix was launched in 2006 as a simple web editor, but it took no more than a couple of years before the tool got a million clients. Today, the company boasts 1000+ features in the various platform offerings. A few unique tools, like the Wix ADI and Wix Corvid, add extra value to the already robust site building plans.
Wix Features
You will struggle to find another website builder in the UK with so many customization options and neat add-ons.
Starting your online journey for the first time, you can take your pick between a whopping 750+ templates. That’s far more options than any other close competitor. The trick is you have to choose carefully, as Wix doesn’t allow you to switch themes later on.
The free and entry-level deals are unsurprisingly limited, but things start to look fancier once you go for the Combo plans or up. You can now add a custom domain name or get one registered for free for the first year. Additionally, Wix throws in perks like ads removal, video support, and visitor analytics.
The Wix ADI is particularly impressive, building your entire website from the ground up, based on your niche requirements.
Ease of Use
Wix is great at welcoming new users to their services. The onboarding process is smooth and straightforward, plus you get a ton of tutorials and video guides to learn more about the platform.
Wix is a drag-and-drop tool, so every site element can be moved around and re-shaped to perfection. The options for customizations are so vast that a novice user might even get frustrated at first. But spending a little time with the tool, everyone realizes how easy it really is.
Hands down, the best website builder in the UK for your first website building experience.
Customer Support
Website building tools often rely on community support and online tutorials, but you can still get some live assistance with most.
Existing Wix clients have the ticketing helpdesk for all kinds of technical problems. Our test questions got very quick responses, and we rarely had to go back and forth to get to the bottom of the issue.
As for the knowledge base, few can compete with Wix. Apart from the extensive tutorial base, you can get essential help from inside your account, in the form of text and video guides.
Pricing
Wix is pretty generous with its premium packages. Prices start from just £3/mo, and there are separate plans for users looking to set up a storefront and sell online.
- Free
- Connect Domain - £3.00/mo – 500 MB storage, 1 GB bandwidth, one website.
- Combo - £6.00/mo – 3 GB storage, 2 GB bandwidth, one website.
- Unlimited - £8.50/mo – 10 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, one website.
- VIP - £18.00/mo – 20 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, one website.
- Business Basic - £13.00/mo – 20 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, one online shop.
- Business Unlimited - £16.00/mo – 35 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, one online shop.
- Business VIP - £22.00/mo – 50 GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, one online shop.
Prices relate to yearly prepayments. If you decide to go for a two or three-year deal, the rates can go down a couple of pounds.
Verdict
Based on our website builder comparison, Wix deserves a top spot because of its feature variety and expert level of customizations. This platform can help you build stunning mobile-friendly CVs, portfolios, and business websites. Selling online is also an option, and Wix does its best to help you accept online payment information and grow your ecommerce project.
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Best for: Cheap website builder in the UK
2. Site123
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Extremely easy for beginners
Cloud-based environment
Excellent online reputation
The online information about Site123 is pretty scarce, which is understandable, given the company is just half a decade old. The tool aims to take care of personal and small business websites, allowing you to get the basics and publish a website with minimum time and financial investments.
Site123 Features
Even with its free package, Site123 reveals a great deal of benefits. We have an SEO-friendly tool with loads of mobile-optimized designs.
The startup wizard deals with the basics for you. Just a few questions about you and your business and the new page awaits to be filled with content.
Site123 doesn’t limit you to the types of sites you can create. Be it a customizable eCommerce website, a popular blog, or a lovely wedding page – this easy website maker is up to the challenge.
Have a broad international audience? No worries, as Site123 can help you build multilingual pages to better connect to your visitors.
Ease of Use
The modern-looking site builder offers an intuitive editor, which should be easy-to-navigate for any type of user, regardless of their previous experience.
Once we signed up, we quickly realized the tool is amazingly simplified. You could easily switch colors, palettes, fonts, and site elements. There is a separate section where you could check the mobile-friendliness of your pages.
Everything is neatly stored in left-side menus, and although the platform is not drag-and-drop, you can still operate it effortlessly.
Customer Support
Site123 helps visitors with an ever-expanding knowledge base. The archive is full of useful articles, covering hot topics like domains, mailboxes, and SEO. Additionally, there are online guides for different types of businesses – online shops, restaurants, forums, and blogs, for example.
The live assistance comes down to a live chat, which is great if you need prompt support.
The operators are quite friendly and consistently show why Site123 might very well be the best website builder on the UK market.
Pricing
Site123 mentions in their FAQ they have four premium plans. However, on the company website, there is only one paid deal. So, where is the difference coming from?
- Free
- Basic - £6.15/mo – 10 GB storage, 5 GB bandwidth, multiple websites.
- Advanced - £10.89/mo – 30 GB storage, 15 GB bandwidth, multiple websites.
- Professional - £15.62/mo – 90 GB storage, 45 GB bandwidth, multiple websites.
- Gold - £20.35/mo – 270 GB storage, 135 GB bandwidth, multiple websites.
Turns out, you can only see the advanced premium options as an existing client, trying to upgrade the package. Each premium plan comes with three times more server resources than the last, letting you host as many websites as you wish within the account web space and bandwidth.
Verdict
Site123 is a well-deserving contender for the best website builder software in the UK. It’s amazingly easy to master the tool and build your own site for the first time. The wide range of templates looks impressive and offers enough options for any type of page.
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Best for: Beginners and Startups
3. Webnode
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Fast and user-friendly dashboard
Pre-built site elements
Website analytics on all plans
Webnode was founded in the Czech Republic back in 2008. Today, the company employs over 100 people and has millions of websites under its belt. The Webnode platform gets frequent updates, so you can be sure you’ll always be up with the newest trends. Zero technical knowledge needed to start.
Webnode Features
Webnode is looking to focus your site-building efforts, so the feature set carries essential options only. All four plans come with detailed site statistics, a form builder, and professional web hosting services.
To be honest, the Free accounts are a bit limited as you only get 100 MB disk space and 1 GB bandwidth for your online projects.
Still, the premium deals compensate with a much more robust service offering that includes eCommerce capabilities, membership registration, backups, and multilingual support.
Webnode is on our list of best website maker tools because of its flexibility and integration options. The platform supports all kinds of third-party apps, which can further enhance its performance and outlook – think of things like Google Analytics, Google Ads, social media feeds, and many more.
Ease of Use
Our first go with a free Webnode account hit an unexpected bump – the last page of the setup kept loading without finishing the process. Luckily, this seemed to be a random glitch as we were soon in our backend and ready to start building.
Webnode’s dashboard is fast, and we mean REALLY fast. Navigating around the menus was a breeze, and the web design options were clear even for a complete newbie.
Even though the higher tier plans are eCommerce-ready, Webnode still seems best-suited for personal and student projects.
Customer Support
In terms of support, you are not getting much more than what a free website builder could give you. There are no live chat or phone options – you can only seek assistance via email, tickets, and the online form on the website.
On top of that, the support is only available five days a week, which can be a big setback if you are facing website downtimes or other service issues.
The Webnode knowledge base is another way to learn more about the product. The 200+ articles inside are full of wonderful step-by-step tutorials and screenshots of essential platform functionalities.
Way to make the easy even easier!
Pricing
Once you decide the Free plan does not satisfy your needs anymore, you can easily jump to one of the four premium Webnode deals:
- Limited - $3.95/mo – 100 MB space, 500 MB traffic, unlimited websites.
- Mini - $5.95/mo – 500 MB space, 3 GB traffic, unlimited websites.
- Standard - $11.95/mo – 2 GB space, 10 GB traffic, unlimited websites.
- Profi – $19.95/mo – 5 GB space, unlimited traffic, unlimited websites.
There doesn’t seem to be any month-to-month plan with Webnode - the minimum you can sign up for is one year. At least your domain name is free for the first year, so you can keep your website builder costs low enough to support a website without breaking the bank.
Verdict
Webnode is a flexible tool that can teach anyone how to make a website for the first time. The onboarding process is seamless, and the startup wizard will help you with the choice of template and site niche. The plans are quite affordable for the UK market, but the storage limitations make the platform primarily suited for smaller websites.
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Best for: Design and photography portfolios
4. Pixpa
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Shopping cart for ecommerce
Eye-catching portfolio website designs
Beginner-friendly editor
Pixpa is an easy website creator that targets creative designers and photographers. Founded in 2013, it offers prebuilt themes, widgets, galleries, and more. Additionally, it has a secure shopping cart, so you can sell your items with confidence.
Let’s dig deeper for more.
Pixpa Features
The platform offers 130+ professional templates, perfect for showcasing your creativity. Likewise, you can include photo galleries to make your work shine.
If you opt for the basic tier, you have a limit of 100 images. Disk space starts from 3GB on the Creator plan.
The good news:
Extra storage costs from $6/month for 10GB. Other available options include:
- 100GB - $16/month
- 1000GB - $24/month
- Unlimited - $45/month
This website builder software offers ecommerce support out of the box. The shopping cart is SSL-secured to provide customers with a worry-free shopping experience.
Inventory management is available in the Advanced plan to keep your store organised. Other goodies include guest checkout, abandoned cart recovery, and coupon codes.
Unlike the competition, all plans on Pixpa support unlimited monthly visitors.
Ease of Use
Pixpa is incredibly simple and delivers results without breaking a sweat. Its dashboard is intuitive, well-organised, and easy to use.
One thing that stands out is its lightweight website editor. It only takes a few clicks to add elements to pages. You can include text, media files, contact forms, and more.
Its drag-and-drop interface makes content customisation feel like child’s play. You can also use the dedicated HTML and CSS composer to add custom scripts.
Tweaking layouts, theme colours, and fonts shouldn’t be a problem, thanks to the adjustable design modules.
Customer Support
Pixpa is another UK website builder that offers 24/7 customer support. You can easily reach the help desk via chat, tickets, and email.
The agents are friendly, patient, and quick to respond. They also take time to offer personised assistance via screenshots.
The platform doesn’t have an online community like Shopify and Wix. But its knowledge base contains hundreds of articles with actionable suggestions to fix issues fast.
Pricing
Pixpa has a free 15-day trial that you can activate without a credit card. Once it expires, you’ll need to subscribe to continue enjoying its services.
The pricing is as follows:
- Basic - $5/month - 100 images, 5 web pages, 100 galleries, unmetered traffic.
- Creator - $10/month - 3GB storage, 10 web pages, 300 galleries, unmetered traffic.
- Professional - $15/month - 25GB storage, unlimited web pages, unlimited galleries, unmetered traffic.
- Advanced - $25/month - 100GB storage, unlimited web pages, unlimited galleries, unmetered traffic.
Yearly subscriptions offer up to 63% off the prices above. And you also get a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Verdict
Pixpa is an excellent choice for beginners who need stunning sites without breaking the bank. Its stylish templates, galleries, and feature-rich website maker app get the job done quickly. Unlimited bandwidth is the icing on the cake for hosting projects of any size.
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Best for: Personal websites
5. Gator Builder
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Unmetered space and traffic
Customizable templates
SSL certificate included
HostGator is one of the biggest names in the hosting industry, hosting tens of millions of websites from its two enterprise-grade data centers. The company offers the full range of solutions – shared accounts, VPS and dedicated servers, domain names. As for first-time clients looking for an easy way to get online, HG has developed its own in-house tool – Gator Builder.
Gator Builder Features
For starters, this is the only easy website creator tool on our list without a free plan or a limited free trial. Instead, you have to jump straight to one of HostGator’s paid plans.
The Starter plan with HG covers all the essentials for starting and growing a business. You get a comprehensive drag-and-drop editor where all templates are customizable. The themes are not that many, only 30 to choose from, but they look modern and functional enough to get your website on the map.
You can always track visitor data and your incoming traffic from the analytics monitor, giving you invaluable information about visitors, demographics, orders, and more.
The other two plans don’t add much, though. The Premium package only includes priority support, while the Ecommerce package comes with options to create your custom online store. These include perks like shipping tax calculator, inventory management, and coupons.
Ease of Use
The best website builder in the UK has to be able to accommodate as broad an audience as possible, so HostGator ensures you have a fast and smooth onboarding process. Once you sign up, the startup wizard will let you determine your website plans and choose your industry. This way, you will get only the most relevant template choices.
There is a tour for first-time users, but if you already have some experience, you can jump straight to the editing part.
Once inside the dashboard, you can drag and drop most site elements so you can get that unique design that will best captivate your visitors.
Overall, Gator Builder scores well when it comes to accommodation and navigation.
Customer Support
HostGator is a part of the EIG consortium – a large tech conglomerate that owns and supports over 50 web hosting brands. This means you can always count on prompt assistance at all times. Be it a live chat, phone, or the internal helpdesk – finding a live person is just a few clicks away.
Unfortunately, the actual level of support does not match its availability. The company reps probably serve multiple EIG brands at once, so their knowledge of Gator Builder and other HG projects is quite limited. The live chat help often boils down to links from the knowledge base or short, templated responses.
As for the tutorials, they do contain some handy step-by-step instructions on how to handle the website builder app, but the information is diluted by the tons of articles about HG’s web hosting services.
Pricing
As mentioned, you won’t be able to try the Gator Builder for free without submitting any billing data. Instead, you have to choose from one of the three plans and opt-in for the money-back guarantee if you decide it’s not the tool for you within the first month.
- Starter - $3.84/mo – unlimited space, unmetered traffic, one website.
- Premium - $5.99/mo - unlimited space, unmetered traffic, one website.
- Ecommerce - $9.22/mo - unlimited space, unmetered traffic, one website.
All packages carry a 50% initial discount if you decide to prepay the plan for two years. There are annual and month-to-month options available at higher prices. For example, the Starter deal is at $4.99 if paid monthly.
If you are looking for the best website in the UK price-wise, you have to consider the Gator Builder prices do not include VAT, so the costs are a bit higher than advertised.
Verdict
The Gator Builder gives the whole package – a drag-and-drop site building tool, domain name, and web hosting. You can choose to host a personal page or build a profitable online shop with HostGator’s tool. The solution is very user-friendly, but if you happen to need additional support – the results may vary.
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Best for: Small businesses
6. Zyro
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Unlimited storage and bandwidth
Advanced AI tools
SSL certificate in every plan
Zyro is the “baby” in our list of best website creator tools. Founded in 2019, the privately-owned company is yet to amaze us with impressive client numbers, but it compensates with a modern approach to site-building. The platform utilizes a cutting-edge AI technology that helps everyone become their own webmaster.
Zyro Features
You can choose between one free and four paid plans with Zyro. The no-cost deal is pretty basic, but you still get 500 MB space, 500MB bandwidth, and SSL protection.
The premium accounts remove the Zyro ads and add advanced marketing features like Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, and a messenger chat for your visitors.
Store owners have two eCommerce plans to choose from if they want to get online. It doesn’t matter if you have a small mom-and-pop shop or sell hundreds of products – the Zyro packages have everything under control. Order tracking, inventory management, discount coupons, and various payment processors are all included.
The AI-powered tools are a unique part of the Zyro services and include content creation, slogan generation, heatmaps, and more. We have to mention we weren’t overly impressed with the quality delivered by the AI Writer, but it can still save a lot of time for starters.
Ease of Use
The Zyro dashboard looks a bit different than most comparable tools, so it’s not exactly the easiest website builder out there.
You’ve got a bunch of top-side menus, and most options relate to web design tweaks – colors, fonts, page structure. As for site elements, Zyro includes:
- Text
- Button
- Image
- Video
- Map
- Instagram Feed
- Contact Form
- Subscribe
- Social Icons
You can’t go wild with customizations, but Zyro gives more than enough for startups and small businesses.
Customer Support
It’s pretty easy to connect to one of the Zyro operators. The live chat and email options are clearly visible once you arrive on the company website, ready to take on any client case.
Our tests for support responsiveness were not particularly great, though.
Replies in the messenger app often took more than a few minutes, and the operators were satisfied with short and basic answers. The emails were the slowest. In our three attempts, the quickest response we got was around the 26th-hour mark.
We have to consider Zyro is only in the first stages of its existence, and the support certainly needs improvement.
Pricing
One of the main reasons for including Zyro in our best website builder in the UK list is its cost-effectiveness. You have amazingly cheap options for individuals, students, business owners, even established enterprises.
- Free
- Basic - $1.99/mo – 1 GB storage, 3 GB monthly traffic, multiple websites.
- Unleashed - $3.49/mo – unlimited storage, unlimited traffic, multiple websites.
- Ecommerce - $14.99/mo - unlimited storage, unlimited traffic, multiple websites.
- Ecommerce Plus - $21.99/mo - unlimited storage, unlimited traffic, multiple websites.
Even though the options for a business page are quite affordable, selling products through the Zyro platform will see you paying at least $14.99/mo. The discounted prices relate to yearly billing packages, month-to-month deals come with the standard rates.
Verdict
The future looks bright for Zyro and its growing user base. The site builder shines with some unique feature offerings and cost-effective plans. The level of support can leave you wanting for more, but Zyro is just in its early stages of web development, so improvements are surely around the corner.
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Best for: UK eCommerce builder
7. Shopify
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Ultimate ecommerce experience
100+ payment gateways
SEO-optimised plans
Shopify is a Canadian eCommerce company that first appeared on the market back in 2004. The provider was constantly looking for ways to evolve and offer well-rounded solutions for both wholesale and retail businesses. The advanced shopping cart and merchant features are just some of the few things that make Shopify the best eCommerce website builder in the UK.
Shopify Features
Starting off with Shopify, you can opt-in for a 14-day free trial to test all the features this shopping cart has to offer. Regardless of the chosen package, you will get an account with unmetered web space and bandwidth, allowing you to set up a storefront for an unlimited number of products.
The Basic plan gives more than enough to set up and run a small to medium online shop. You’ve got an SSL certificate, abandoned cart recovery options, discount codes, and gift cards. Detailed reports and client analytics are only available on the higher tiers, though, and the monthly rates there wouldn’t fit every pocket.
All clients can choose to sell their products through multiple sales channels, including popular marketplaces and social networks. Shopify does not charge you anything if you make your sales through their in-built platform, but choosing a third-party service, you have to be prepared for some extra transaction fees.
Naturally, you can’t claim to be the top online shop builder in the UK without addressing the growing needs of mobile users. Shopify-created stores are all mobile-optimized by default and look stunning on smartphones, tablets, and any other screen sizes.
Ease of Use
Shopify’s platform is relatively easy to operate, but some previous experience with similar tools would definitely help a lot. That’s because the shopping cart allows for so many in-depth HTML and CSS customizations you can only unlock its full power with some tweaking around.
The Shopify Team ensures you are not missing anything as a new client. Signing up was effortless, and the menu navigation was super smooth. All options are stacked under comprehensive left-side menus and cover essentials like orders, products, customers, billing, and more.
Not sure what you want to sell? No worries, as the Shopify App Store is full of wonderful suggestions.
Customer Support
As with many similar UK website builder tools, Shopify mainly relies on its community to help novice users. Luckily, the app supporters are a very cooperative bunch, and you can get prompt answers even to the most intricate questions.
If you are already a Shopify client, an internal helpdesk is also available for your queries.
The live assistance we got from the tickets could’ve been faster, but the issue resolutions were good enough to make us feel safe and well-supported.
The Help Center is the real beauty here. Shopify maintains probably the biggest knowledge base archive for self-learners so you can easily gain access to articles, guides, podcasts, blogs, even a business encyclopedia.
Pricing
Shopify does not offer a free plan, but it does let you try the service for 14 days at no charge. After that, you have to choose one out of five packages:
- Shopify Lite - $9.00/mo – unmetered space, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited websites.
- Basic Shopify - $29.00/mo – unmetered space, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited websites.
- Shopify - $79.00/mo – unmetered space, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited websites.
- Advanced Shopify - $299.00/mo – unmetered space, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited websites.
- Shopify Plus – from $2,000/mo – unmetered space, unmetered bandwidth, unlimited websites.
Even though all plans have no resource caps, they do suit different types of clients. Small mom-and-pop shops are often perfectly fine on the Lite plan, whereas large enterprises best fit within the ultimate Shopify Plus package.
Verdict
Looking for the best website builder in the UK for online stores, Shopify is a natural choice. The platform lets you build a new shop from scratch or add eCommerce functionalities to your existing website. Stylish designs, excellent support, and incredible site speeds – what more can you ask for?
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Best for: Free site builder in the UK
8. Weebly
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Drag-and-drop customisations
Video backgrounds
Intuitive image editor
The first Weebly beta appeared back in 2006. Once the company added the comprehensive WYSIWYG editor, its tool attracted the attention of several angel investors. The immense control and frequent expansion of the feature variety quickly attracted over a million clients with their 50+ million online projects to the Weebly platform.
Weebly Features
If you are just looking to test around the platform, you can grab the Free plan and utilize the simple website builder to build a page on a Weebly subdomain.
Still, establishing a serious brand requires your own name, so you have to consider at least the Personal package. Apart from the domain, you get 500 MB of web storage and a free SSL certificate to protect your website data. SEO-friendly tools are also part of the mix, giving Weebly-built pages a competitive advantage in web searches.
But the Professional and Performance plans are where things get really interesting.
This is your chance to build fully-functional eCommerce stores and sell all kinds of products with no extra fees added. The two robust offers also remove the annoying Weebly ads, giving a much cleaner and focused outlook to your website.
Ease of Use
While the Weebly interface is very straightforward and user-friendly, the same can’t be said for the backend navigation. Clicking through the menus was rather clunky, and saving our progress sometimes took forever.
Still, all site elements are drag-and-drop, so there isn’t a big learning curve in mastering the tool. No need for any coding knowledge as everything is clickable and moveable with immediate effect.
Customer Support
You can get live support with this online website builder, but Weebly requires you to have an account beforehand. From inside your user area, you can reach the company operators via chat (US business hours) and email (24/7).
At least this is what Weebly advertises.
Testing the options ourselves, we only found a way to send an email, and the working hours were far from 24/7. As it turns out, the support is available between 4 pm – 4 am, GMT +3 on weekdays and 6 pm – 3 am, GMT +3 on weekends. You can also get assistance via phone, but only if you upgrade to the Pro plan and above.
The operators were indeed helpful enough with all our queries but might prove unreliable should you need immediate assistance.
Pricing
Our website builder reviews in the UK outlined Weebly as an affordable provider for both commercial and non-commercial projects.
- Free
- Personal - $6.00/mo – 500 MB storage, unmetered bandwidth, one website.
- Professional - $12.00/mo – unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, one website.
- Performance - $26.00/mo - unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth, one website.
Advertised rates are for a one-year prepayment of the package. A month-to-month deal will raise the prices by $3 - $12/mo, depending on the plan. Weebly also gives you an option to share a personalized referral link and get 10% off their services if you attract other customers.
Verdict
Weebly is a wonderful solution for a first-time experience with site builders. Starting with the platform requires zero investments, and the account dashboard is functional enough to help you build different kinds of websites. You are only limited to one project per account, though, even with the highest-tiered plan.
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Best for: Website customisations
9. Squarespace
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Wide range of free designs
In-depth customizations
Email and social media campaigns
Along with Wix, Squarespace is one of the most notable website builders, together holding over 55% of the market. When it comes to the top 1 million sites, though, no one can compete with this US builder and its 9,000+ entries. The modern outlook and advanced functionalities of Squarespace websites can make anyone want to start an online venture.
Squarespace Features
Opting for any of the four Squarespace packages, you are in for a wealth of features.
Starting from your designs, you can utilize multiple templates to perfect the visual stylishness of your website. The themes look very fresh and modern, bringing a professional look to any page. Additionally, you can integrate images from industry-leading databases like Getty.
All premium accounts come with unlimited web space and monthly traffic, plus great SEO visibility options.
Apart from the personal plan, the other deals also give you complete control over the code, so if you know a bit of Javascript and CSS, there is no limit to the things you can achieve.
Ease of Use
When you have a website builder software with so many customization options, you will inevitably have to spend some time learning its intricacies.
Squarespace makes no difference.
The app gives you full access to the source code, but if you have no idea about HTML and CSS, this may only confuse you.
Squarespace is a drag-and-drop site builder. You have a block-based architecture where you can move different sections around and set them up according to your liking. The same goes for the gallery of modern templates, which are entirely customizable as well.
Customer Support
If you are looking for 24/7 support, emails would be the best way to contact Squarespace. Unlike similar platforms, the team behind this website builder app is very quick to respond and often resolve cases in a single reply.
What about getting a live person to help you in real-time?
The Squarespace chat messenger is available Mon-Fri, 4 am – 8 pm, EDT. The operators are helpful enough, but you might have a little trouble finding the option at first. You have to log in to your account and go through at least two screens with suggestions from the knowledge base before you can reach a real person.
Speaking of the tutorials, you have an amazing archive of text and video helpers at your disposal. Seems like Squarespace understands the platform is not the easiest, so they compensate with abundant support resources.
Pricing
Prices for this all-in-one website builder in the UK are understandably on the higher side. Rates start from £10/mo for a general-type of website, and an online shop will cost you at least £15/mo.
- Personal - £10.00/mo – unlimited storage and bandwidth, one website.
- Business - £15.00/mo - unlimited storage and bandwidth, one website.
- Basic Commerce - £20.00/mo - unlimited storage and bandwidth, one website.
- Advanced Commerce - £30.00/mo - unlimited storage and bandwidth, one website.
Also, keep in mind that all prices are for a yearly subscription, and give you a 15-30% discount from the month-to-month rates.
Squarespace does not mind you having multiple websites, even within a single account, but they each have to be on a separate billing plan.
No free plans available, but you can go for the free trial if you like to get a more first-hand experience with the tool.
Verdict
Squarespace has solid grounds to claim the title for Best DIY Website Builder in the UK. The platform is immensely robust and well-suited for individual and business projects of every size. The feature catalog is longer than Santa’s Christmas list, which compliments growing enterprises perfectly.
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Best for: Website builder + Hosting
10. GoDaddy Builder
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Mobile-friendly designs
GoDaddy InSight analytics tool
SSL protection
GoDaddy is by far the biggest domain registrar and web hosting provider in the world. The tech giant invests heaps in marketing, blasting online ads, discount coupons, even Super Bowl commercials. GoDaddy caters best to the average user with low resource demands and small to mid-sized projects.
GoDaddy Features
GoDaddy offers a good range of plans, covering both commercial and non-profit projects with essential complimentary services.
Each user on the four GoDaddy Builder solutions can benefit from a custom domain name, SSL certificate, and a PayPal button option.
The InSight tool is a particular highlight for the GoDaddy website builder. This is an advanced performance metrics tool that helps outlining your audience and to improve your online presence significantly. Inside, you will find:
- InSight Score – an assessment of your online activity and social media coverage.
- InSight Metrics – information about site activity, sales, orders, bookings, and user reviews.
- InSight Action Plans – tips and recommendations for website improvements.
Ease of Use
GoDaddy Builder is a beginner-friendly tool, and you can expect a careful onboarding process as a first-time user.
Once inside, you get a bunch of web design editing options and search engine optimization tools. The menus are on the right side of your screen, and you can go through them pretty quickly.
You are somewhat limited when it comes to the templates, though. GoDaddy only lets you choose between 22 free themes, and they can only undergo basic customizations.
Customer Support
The GoDaddy support is similar to what you can get with HostGator. The GD team primarily focuses on web hosting, so the site builder is more of a secondary service.
The biggest domain registrar mainly assists users over the phone. There are over 50 local numbers available where you can easily call and get support for the GoDaddy website builder plans.
Again, don’t count on super in-depth assistance and careful case resolution. The GD operators are mainly there to answer basic sales questions or find you tutorial articles they deem relevant.
Pricing
GoDaddy doesn’t want you to jump headfirst into your first site-building experience. Instead, it gives you the option to sign up on a limited Free plan to determine if this is the right service for you.
- Basic - £6.99/mo – unmetered storage, unmetered bandwidth, one website.
- Standard - £9.99/mo - unmetered storage, unmetered bandwidth, one website.
- Premium - £14.99/mo - unmetered storage, unmetered bandwidth, one website.
- Ecommerce - £19.99/mo - unmetered storage, unmetered bandwidth, one website.
The GoDaddy website builder pricing is calculated on a yearly basis. The thing is you would need a separate plan for each new online project. And if you’re building an online shop, the Ecommerce package is your only possible option, starting from £19.99/mo.
Verdict
GoDaddy is a suitable choice if you’re looking for an established partner to help you build your own website in the UK. The platform is intuitive and user-friendly, allowing for page design and structure tweaks. The support leaves a bit to be desired, but the GoDaddy Builder is reliable enough, so you might never need to contact them.
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What To Consider When Choosing a Website Builder?
At this point, you should have enough knowledge to do some tests yourself. After all, there isn’t a fit-all solution in the UK market, so you have to do a little research to find the best one for you. Many of the top site-building platforms have a free version, so you can test them out absolutely risk-free.
Here is what to look for in any website builder in the UK.
- Onboarding
Site builder users are often complete beginners, so their future provider has to do its best to make them feel comfortable. The onboarding process should include a setup wizard, choice of template, tutorials, video guides, everything that helps a first-timer get online quickly. Some companies even offer ready-made websites as part of their services.
- Ease of Use
Building your web page takes nothing more than dragging and dropping the desired elements on the screen before you. The interface is clean, and the dashboard is often self-explanatory. No need to hire any web developers or extra staff to manage your website afterward – you’ll be able to do that just as easily.
- Features
The rich feature variety will determine if you have everything needed to create your own website in the UK or add-ons would be required. Check out what the provider offers in terms of customisability, design, and security. If you’re looking to build an online shop, make sure your chosen package supports eCommerce capabilities.
- Support
Even with the best site-building apps, you have to be prepared with a plan in case the unexpected happens. Great providers also come with round-the-clock support, trained in the ins and outs of the platform. Live chats and ticketing are the most common means of communication, so don’t hesitate to contact the operators and ask around some questions.
- Affordability
Starting on a free plan is alright for individuals but often proves insufficient if you plan to build a serious business. Upgrade options are fairly important in that aspect because your goal is to grow your online audience. You can compare the package prices and the feature set to get an idea of the cost-effectiveness of the platform.
Having those factors in mind, you’ll be fully prepared to do your own research and find the best website builder in the UK.