Best drag and drop website builder – the best tools for designing websites
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Miglė Šeikytė
Content Lead
We bet – whenever you think of building a website, you immediately visualize code sheets and long hours of programming the site. But what if we tell you that you can build a fully functional website by using a website builder with a drag and drop feature, as it requires zero knowledge and technical skills to assemble one?
With a drag and drop website builder, you can easily construct web pages by simply dragging and dropping elements like images, videos, and multimedia onto the page. These builders are designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, making them perfect for beginners and intermediate users who don't have any coding skills.
While there are numerous website builders to choose from, we're here to assist you in selecting the best drag-and-drop website builder. After testing several options, we've identified 7 top-tier providers that include a drag-and-drop feature, perform at a high level, and provide additional features. So, read on and pick the best website builder that’ll help you assemble a site without any hassle.
Top 7 best drag and drop website builder services
- Hostinger Website Builder – the best drag and drop website builder in 2023
- Wix – very flexible drag and drop website builder
- SITE123 – quick and easy drag and drop website builder
- Shopify – customizable e-commerce website builder
- Squarespace – visually stunning drag and drop website builder
- GoDaddy website builder – beginner-friendly drag and drop builder
- Weebly – intuitive drag and drop builder
📢 LIMITED OFFER: Get an additional 10% OFF Premium Wix plans using code 'CyberNews10!'
What is a drag and drop website builder?
A drag and drop website builder is a user-friendly web development tool that allows users to create and design websites without coding or technical skills. It provides a visual interface where users can simply drag and drop elements such as text, images, video, or multimedia onto a canvas and arrange them in a way they want a website to look like.
The main advantage of a drag and drop website builder is its simplicity and ease of use. Anyone, even individuals without any programming knowledge, can quickly create a professional-looking website. The intuitive interface makes it easy to experiment with different layouts, designs, and content placements, enabling users to customize their websites according to their needs.
Furthermore, drag and drop website builders typically offer a wide range of pre-designed templates and themes, allowing users to start with a professionally designed foundation and customize it to suit their needs. This saves time and effort compared to starting from scratch.
Overall, a drag and drop website builder is a great choice for individuals, small businesses, or anyone who wants to create a website quickly and easily without the need for coding skills. It empowers users to take control of their online presence and create visually appealing websites with minimal effort.
Best drag and drop web builders – detailed review:
Drag and drop website builders are beneficial and easy to use, especially for users who have little to zero technical or coding skills. Hence, we tested a dozen of drag and drop website builders and selected 7 of the best ones that not only offer the feature but also perform at lightning-fast speeds and include extra features for a smooth building experience.
1. Hostinger Website Builder – the best drag and drop website builder in 2023
| Editor: | Traditional drag and drop |
| Templates: | 130+ |
| Best for: | Portfolios and simple websites |
| Price: | From $2.99/month |
| Current deal: | Get Hostinger Website Builder, now 75% OFF + 3 months FREE! |
Hostinger Website Builder is the best drag-and-drop builder for anyone looking to create a beautiful custom website easily and for an affordable price. It focuses on simplicity and intuitive design, so you can build a website within minutes without coding or technical skills.
Editor. Hostinger Website Builder’s drag-and-drop editor allows you to easily add elements to your web pages and move them around as you see fit. The overall interface isn’t cluttered and boasts intuitive navigation, so you won’t need lots of time to figure out how to build a fully functional website.
Templates. Hostinger Website Builder offers 130+ templates. While it isn’t as many as offered by Wix, this website builder provides various categories, so whether you’re an e-commerce business or a fashion blogger, you’ll find a template for your needs. Moreover, all templates are customizable, aesthetic, and, most importantly – easy to use. Additionally, all templates are compatible with desktops, mobiles, and tablets.
Additional features. Hostinger Website Builder offers a variety of features that’ll boost our building experience on top of the drag-and-drop feature. It offers AI-powered business tools, such as writer, that’ll craft you a compelling copy within seconds. There are also SEO tools to enhance your rankings on search engines. And a heatmap provides insights into how users interact with your website.
Performance. During our testing of the Hostinger Website Builder, we saw exceptional performance as we built a website with many elements, content blocks, and videos. Yet it loaded in just 1.1 seconds. It’s an excellent result because this fast loading time reduces the likelihood of visitors leaving the site due to long loading periods.
Thanks to its array of features and, of course – intuitive drag-and-drop function, Hostinger Website Builder is great for creating portfolios, small online shops, business sites, or landing pages. It costs $2.99/month, and it’s one of the cheapest drag-and-drop website builders on the list.
Learn more in our Hostinger Website Builder review.
2. Wix – versatile drag-and-drop builder
| Editor: | Traditional drag and drop and AI |
| Templates: | 900+ |
| Best for: | All-in-one customizable website building |
| Price: | From $16.00/month |
| Current deal: | Get an additional 10% OFF Premium Wix plans using code 'CyberNews10!' |
Wix is a very good option for those looking to customize their website layout with a flexible drag-and-drop editor. The classic Wix Editor allows you to place elements anywhere on the page, allowing you to create specific designs you want.
Editor. Wix offers two editors – the Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) editor and the classic Wix editor. The main difference is that only the classic editor offers drag and drop functionality. The Wix editor is often referred to as a true drag-and-drop site builder – you can drag elements such as text, images, buttons, and galleries from the Add menu and drop them anywhere on the page.
Templates. Wix website builder offers over 900 hundred customizable templates that are flexible and very easy to use. A myriad of categories promises that everyone – from businesses to artists can find a well-fitting template. They’re easily customizable, meaning you can change fonts, layouts, colors without any hassle. Moreover, all of them are compatible with the mobile view.
Additional features. Wix excels in the marketing and SEO departments – the tools this builder offers are quite simple to use and they level up your rankings on search engines. There’s an e-commerce option for selling online, media galleries to display your visuals on the website, and scroll effects. And if built-in features aren’t enough, there’s a marketplace to download more apps.
Performance. We decided to thoroughly test Wix's performance by building a website. It consisted of several apps, and extensive content, including videos, images, and substantial text sections. Ir performed moderately as it took 8 seconds for the whole page to show. However, the site took only 3 seconds to let us see and use the first blocks of the content, which is a good result.
Overall, if you’re looking for a website builder that’ll allow you to create unique and functional websites quickly, Wix is a very good option to consider. It offers 4 different plans, focusing on single web building and e-commerce, starting at $16.00/month.
For more info, dive into our Wix review.
3. SITE123 – the quick and easy way to build a website
| Editor: | Section based |
| Templates: | 160+ |
| Best for: | Personal and small business websites |
| Price: | From $12.80/month |
| Current deal: | SITE123 coupon 40% OFF! |
SITE123 is another top-tier and intuitive super simple online website builder with an intuitive editor that allows you to put together a website in minutes. It offers responsive design templates and excellent customer support.
Editor. SITE123 offers a practical section-based ADI editor, allowing users to customize website blocks using pre-designed options. However, due to its focus on simplicity, SITE123’s editor doesn’t give you traditional drag-and-drop flexibility but it allows adding pre-designed content blocks to your page and edit them quickly and easily.
Templates. SITE123 has over 160 templates. There’s an array of sub-categories for different purposes, such as landing pages, blog, or online stores that sell services, products, or even art. Therefore, various professions or enthusiasts can find an intuitive template to build their site within minutes.
Additional features. This website builder provides crucial business features such as e-commerce for building a functional online shop. There are SEO tools that allow a seamless optimization of your site to achieve better rankings. They include Google Analytics or Page Audit to follow your site’s stats. Even though SITE123 lacks AI-powered tools, it compensates with a fully functional email marketing tool, enabling you to reach customers through email communication.
Performance. During our test building a website with SITE123, it emerged as one of the fastest website builders. Despite incorporating numerous text blocks, images, videos, and even some heavy documents, the website we created loaded in less than a second, showcasing an exceptional outcome.
SITE123 is the most suitable website builder for small businesses or individuals looking to sell online. The Basic ($12.80/month) and Advanced ($11.88/month) plans are more ideal for simple personal websites, while the expensive plans are better suited to business websites with a focus on e-commerce.
Get more details, read our in-depth SITE123 review.
4. Shopify – highly customizable online store builder
| Editor: | Section based |
| Templates: | 110+ |
| Best for: | Online shops |
| Price: | From $29.00/month |
| Current deal: | Try 3 months of Shopify for $1/month |
Shopify is an e-commerce builder that allows individuals and businesses to create online stores within seconds, thanks to its user-friendly building experience. While it’s not a 100% drag and drop website builder, Shopify makes it into the list due to an extremely easy, customizable, and straightforward website-building process.
Editor. While Shopify isn’t entirely a drag and drop website builder, the provider made it into the list due to its extensive customization capabilities. When it comes to designing your online store, Shopify provides a section-based editor that ensures straightforward navigation, appearing slightly outdated when compared to advanced AI-powered editors like Wix.
Templates. Shopify comes with over 70 paid and free templates. They’re sleek, modern, responsive, and easy to use. Therefore, you can easily build an e-commerce store that stands out among your competitors. On top of that, all templates are customizable and adapted for mobile, tablet, and desktop.
Additional features. Shopify includes drop-down navigation nad free theme updates. The provider also focuses on enhancing your e-commerce performance. For example, there’s an automatic tax calculation, many payment options, abandoned cart recovery – just to name a few. And if you need to optimize your site, Shipify includes SEO tools that’ll boost your site’s rankings on search engines like Google or Bing.
Performance. We ran an in-house test by building a fully functional e-commerce site. Shopify loaded in less than 4 seconds, slightly exceeding the ideal speed recommended by Google. Additionally, the visual loading time was under 2 seconds, ensuring that your visitors won't face prolonged waits on a blank loading screen.
Shopify is primarily an e-commerce builder. Therefore, it’s ideal for people looking to create a fully functioning website. The prices start at $29.00/month, and can go up to $299.00/month, depending on what functionalities you’re looking for.
Find out more in our Shopify review.
5. Squarespace – excellent value website builder for selling online
| Editor: | Section based |
| Templates: | 110+ |
| Best for: | Visually aesthetic simple websites |
| Price: | From $16.00/month |
| Current deal: | Get up to 30% OFF Squarespace! |
Squarespace is a great section-based website builder with beautiful templates and a solid array of marketing tools and features. It’s an excellent choice for artists and creative professionals looking to create stunning websites.
Editor. Squarespace provides a straightforward section-based, drag and drop editor that allows you to select and customize different sections to suit your project requirements. With the Squarespace editor, you can effortlessly maintain a consistent style across your entire website, saving you from the laborious task of manual styling.
Templates. Squarespace offers a diverse library of over 110 templates that span various categories, including gaming, consulting, and more. Whether you want to develop a blog site or online shop, there are categories for that. Most importantly, you can easily edit text, move elements, place them wherever you want. Also, all templates are optimized for mobile tablet, and desktop for a seamless building experience.
Additional features. There’s an e-commerce tool that integrates online selling capabilities into your website. Additionally, you can connect your Google Analytics account or utilize the in-site analytics tool to track and analyze your website's performance. And if you need tools that enhance your site’s performance, Squarespace includes SEO tools (alt text and keyword research) or email campaigns that allow creating powerful email marketing campaigns.
Performance. We decided to put Squarespace to the test and evaluate its performance by building our website. Everything went smoothly, and the test site loaded in approximately 3 seconds, which is a satisfactory result that falls within Google's standards.
Squarespace is an option for beginners or intermediate users looking to build a website within a budget that doesn’t break one’s bank. You can get the website builder for as little as $16.00/month, with the price going up, depending on what you’re looking for.
Find an in-depth Squarespace review and learn more.
6. GoDaddy website builder – section-based website builder for beginners
| Editor: | Section based |
| Templates: | 20+ |
| Best for: | Building quick individual and business site |
| Price: | From $9.99/month |
| Current deal: | Get up to 33% OFF GoDaddy website builder! |
GoDaddy Website Builder is a section-based website builder that’s ideal for individuals and businesses looking to build websites quickly and easily. It packs a nice selection of easy-to-use tools and features for small businesses.
Editor. GoDaddy website builder incorporates a user-friendly drag and drop editor that allows you to customize and add sections, modify layouts, select themes, and more. It consists of three primary sections - website, theme, and settings - which make it effortless to navigate and understand. Alternatively, you can utilize the Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) feature by providing the necessary details, resulting in the completion of your website in a few minutes.
Templates. This website builder strikes with over 200 sleek templates, so artists, businesses, bloggers, and everyone can find one that fits their needs. However, ADI has limitations in the customization as it doesn’t allow dropping elements without some conditions. Overall, all templates are intuitive, modern, and designed by professionals, so you won’t have issues customizing your website.
Additional features. GoDaddy has everything you need to build an online shop, website, portfolio, or else. It’s a feature-rich builder with SEO tools, like Google Analytics that provides you with statistics insights, so you can identify places that could boost your site’s performance. Additionally, there’s an email marketing feature for aesthetic and consistent email campaigns. There’s also GoDaddy Insight that guides you to reach site goals by assigning tasks.
Performance. We built a website using GoDaddy to evaluate how well it performs. The site loaded in approximately 1 second, which is one of the best loading times we’ve witnessed among providers.
GoDaddy website builder is the best for those looking to build a simple personal site. For this, a Basic plan for $9.99/month will be enough, but if you decide to go for a full e-commerce functionality, the price can go up to $29.99/month.
Read our in-depth GoDaddy website builder review for more details.
7. Weebly – a capable, easy to use drag-and-drop web builder
| Editor: | Traditional drag and drop |
| Templates: | 60+ |
| Best for: | Analytics-oriented site building |
| Price: | From $6.00/month |
| Current deal: | Get up to 33% OFF Weebly! |
Weebly is one of the popular drag and drop website builders that’s easy to use and doesn’t require a lot of knowledge to build a fully functional website. While it’s one of the most affordable options on the list, Weebly also comes with a free version for an intuitive and budget-friendly building experience.
Editor. If you're seeking a website builder with a drag-and-drop editor, Weebly is a reliable choice. Its intuitive nature makes it easy to grasp, allowing you to quickly become proficient. What sets the editor apart is its impressive selection of over 200 fonts, providing you with essential control over the appearance of your website.
Templates. GoDaddy offers around 40 templates that are diverse, modern, intuitive, and suitable for different purposes. So if you want to create a blog, business, or simply a portfolio – there’s a template for each category.
Additional features. Weebly provides a variety of features, including email marketing for digital campaigns and pop-ups for guiding your users towards making a desired decision. Moreover, it comes with e-commerce capabilities and an app store with additional tools for communication, marketing, social media, and more. And of course – SEO tools for site optimization,
Performance. No surprise that Weebly is among the best drag and drop website builders. We tested it by setting up a website ourselves, and while we expected all the customizability features to load the fast slower, it loaded the site in 2.5 seconds. While it could be slightly better, the performance falls within Google’s recommendations.
Overall, Weebly is an easy website builder to recommend to anyone looking to start a website. It’s easy to use and offers nice-looking themes that pair well with mobile devices, with the price starting at $6.00/month. It can go up to $26.00/month for the most extensive plan, but if you’re looking to build a simple website, the cheaper plans will do the job.
Find more in our in-depth Weebly review.
How we tested best drag and drop web builders
After extensively testing a dozen of website builders that offer drag and drop functionality, we curated a list of the top performers using a set of specific criteria. We looked into key factors such as intuitive drag and drop capabilities, seamless customization options, impressive performance, a wide selection of pre-designed templates, and powerful tools to enhance your website's performance:
- Drag and drop. The chosen providers on our list offer both drag and drop functionality and extensive customization options. However, you could find Shopify on the list, which is not strictly a drag and drop website builder. Despite not having a specific drag and drop feature, Shopify compensates for this with its robust customization capabilities.
- Templates. We selected providers also based on their free and paid template offerings. All of the templates are pre-designed, allow customizing them, and fit for a wide range of professions, varying from architecture to tech and more.
- Additional features. In addition to the convenient drag and drop feature, it’s essential for website builder to include tools that enable tracking and enhancing site performance. As a result, our list comprises providers that offer a range of features, including SEO tools, marketing functionalities, e-commerce capabilities, and analytics. This ensures that both the business and aesthetic aspects of a website are effectively addressed.
- Performance. Performance is a crucial factor in creating a website that is seamless and efficient. We conducted tests by setting up fully functional websites with each provider. This process allowed us to evaluate the loading speed and determine if the performance aligns with Google's recommendations.
- Value for money. The compilation of the top drag and drop website builders comprises providers that offer a variety of pricing options. All of these providers offer comprehensive features, templates, and customization options, providing transparency in what you are paying for and ensuring you get the best value for your money.
Best drag and drop website builders comparison
Here's how each provider compares in terms of ratings, price, features, and more:
| Hostinger Website Builder | Wix | SITE123 | Shopify | Squarespace | GoDaddy | Weebly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Rating | |||||||
| Best for | Portfolios and simple websites (beginners and advanced) | All-in-one customizable website building | Personal and small business websites | Building webshops | SEO-optimized business site | Small business websites and hosting | Analytics-oriented web building |
| Editor | Drag and drop | Drag and drop | Section based | Section based | Section based | Section based | Drag and drop |
| Templates | 130+ | 900+ | 160+ | 70+ | 110+ | 20+ | 60+ |
| SEO features | Meta titles, meta descriptions, Google Analytics, URL structures | Alt attributes, meta title, sitemap, URL Redirect Manager | SEO Pages – Audit tool, sitemaps, meta tags, 301 redirect tool | Title tags, meta titles and descriptions, URLs editor | Keyword research, meta titles, meta descriptions | SEO Wizard, GoDaddy InSight, alt attributes, keyword research support | Meta descriptions, alt attributes, sitemap, SEO-friendly HTML formatting |
| E-commerce | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Starting price | $2.99/month | $16.00/month | $11.88/month | $29.00/month | $16.00/month | $9.99/month | $6.00/month |
Drag and drop vs section-based editors
While reading about individual editors you probably noticed two phrases appearing here and there – drag and drop and section-based. What’s the difference between these two types of editors?
Traditional drag and drop website builder
Drag and drop website builders, in simple words, allow anyone with a computer and internet connection to effortlessly create a website. These builders don’t require any experience in coding – they allow you to add predetermined elements to your site by selecting them and dragging them to the place you want them to be. Usually, the elements you can add are similar to the following:
- Text
- Buttons
- Images and galleries
- Videos
- Slideshows
- Forms
- Structural elements (background images, spaces, headings, menus)
Creating a website with a drag and drop builder takes very little time – your website can be ready in just a few hours. And all of that can be done with little to no experience in web development.
Section-based website builders
Section-based website builders are extremely similar to drag and drop builders in several ways:
- You can add predetermined elements
- You can create a website with no web development skills
- You can create a website very quickly and effortlessly
So what’s the main difference?
Section-based editors are more limited. When creating a website with an editor like that, you’ll notice that you can only add elements in certain places. This has both pros and cons: while you can’t let your creative juices flow freely, you can be certain that the end product of your website will be very neat and structured.
Which is better - drag and drop or section based editor?
The answer depends solely on your needs and experience. Building a website using a drag and drop builder is a quick process, allowing you to have your website up and running in just a few hours. The best part is that you don't need any significant web development experience to accomplish this.
On the other hand, section-based editors have certain limitations. When using such an editor, you will notice that you can only add elements in specific designated areas. This approach has its advantages and disadvantages. While it may restrict your ability to freely express your creativity, it ensures that the final result of your website will be clean and well-structured.
Best drag and drop website builder – conclusion
Selecting the optimal drag and drop website builder can be a daunting task due to the abundance of providers offering this functionality. However, not all of them deliver a comprehensive range of features, templates, and outstanding performance that aligns with your desired value for money. That’s why we tested numerous providers and curated a list of the best ones.
Among the recommended options for a functional and budget-friendly drag and drop website builder, Hostinger Website Builder stands out as the best one. It excels with its exceptional customization capabilities, fast website loading speeds, an extensive set of useful AI features, and a great selection of over 130 pre-designed templates. With Hostinger Website Builder, you can enjoy a hassle-free web-building process even if you don’t have any web development experience.
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Best drag and drop website builder – FAQ
What is the best drag and drop website builder?
The best drag and drop website builder is Hostinger Website Builder. This builder offers an excellent price-to-quality ratio by including a large variety of templates, additional features, and customization options, letting you create your website exactly how you want it.
How do I create a drag and drop website?
To create a drag and drop website you have to use a drag and drop builder. There are plenty of builder options to do so with, for instance, you could try or Hostinger Website Builder or Wix. Both of these editors are intuitive and very simple to use, making your website building process a breeze.
Can you drag and drop WordPress?
Drag and drop functionality in WordPress is possible when you use a plugin like Elementor. Elementor allows you to turn WordPress into a simple builder, letting you forget all the hardships that might come when using this content management system.
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