Best website builder for small business – top tools for your success

I'm not breaking any news here: an online presence is crucial for a business. For both brick-and-mortar businesses and ambitious online projects, a website can help elevate your business to the next level.

Recognizing a problem and a need is easy – but solving it is a whole different issue. Truth be told, not all of us know how to make a website.

Learning it all is very time-consuming, and hiring a professional developer to do it for you can get super expensive. But there's a solution – in a form of a website builder.

Website builders help small businesses make functional, modern, and completely custom websites. Complete with online stores, marketing features, and SEO optimization, they are excellent all-in-one solutions for any entrepreneur.

But which one should you choose? You could look directly for the best website builder on the market – or just carry on reading and see why these options are the best for a small business website. Let's dive in.

Best website builder for small business – overview

Here are the best website builders for small business:

1. Wix – top business website builder out there
2. Hostinger Website Builder – functional website builder for small business
3. SITE123 – simple to use business platform
4. Shopify – excellent selling features for an ambitious business
5. GoDaddy website builder – great marketing features in a simple business website builder
6. Squarespace – great business features, beautiful templates
7. Gator website builder – an affordable all-around business builder

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1. Wix – the best business website builder

Visit Wix

Wix is the best website builder for small businesses. There are over 800 website templates, ranging in several different niches, handy tools for sales and marketing, a big app store, and even two very different approaches to building your website. Wix has something for everything – and that includes whatever your small business desires.

The suggestion to "do things your way" is apparent right from the very start. You get to choose from two different website editors. There's the classic Editor, which will offer you excellent in-depth site-building tools. Then, there's Wix ADI, which will automatically generate a website based on your business information and answers to the questionnaire.

Let's start with the latter: Wix ADI. It will simply ask you who you are, and what site you wish to have.

Then, it'll be all about simply selecting your preferred elements.

It's a very simple method, excellent if you're looking to build a website in a hurry – or just don't feel confident in your own design skill, and want someone to take decisions for you. It practically generates a website out of thin air. You even get to choose from several options.

You can do some basic edits on the ADI, like adding new pre-made sections, rearranging them, and picking different layouts.

But for the real edits, you can always convert your site to the classic Editor. It's considerably more challenging to work it: but the freedom and the payoff are both worth it.

If you choose to start with the Classic Editor in the first place, first you'll need to pick a theme. There are over 700 options, divided into several categories, so make yourself a cup of tea before diving in.

Finally – no matter whether you went the Wix ADI route, or the template-picking route, you'll be on the classic Editor. It looks like this:

The offered level of customization is insane. There are hundreds of pre-made elements you can drag-and-drop wherever you see fit.

Or you can make similar elements of your own, as text, images, shapes, and more are all available from the same interface. Wix has pretty much anything. As I myself noted on my earlier review of Wix, this might turn very intimidating, very quickly. But I'll promise this – if you persevere and spend some time learning the ropes, this is the best business website builder out there, period.

Wix business tools

Well, of course, we can't talk about Wix as the best website builder for small business without mentioning the business tools, right?

Here are some of my top highlights:

• A solid eCommerce platform
• Wix Ascend tool for online marketing
• Good SEO suite
• Plenty of business-focused apps

Starting off with eCommerce, I really liked what Wix had to offer. It's trying to appeal to beginners, offering simple, easy-to-follow setup guides. Just following them thoroughly should be enough to help you sell with no issues.

eCommerce interface beyond the setup is convenient as well, offering easy product management options. You can use the same interface to set up item variants, or track inventory/orders. Wix Payments option allows to easily accept credit card payments worldwide, at a standard transaction fee of 2.9%+30c.

Then, there's Wix Ascend: a freemium Wix tool for efficient social media/email marketing.

It lets you make custom emails, social media posts, and even videos, using a wide array of creative tools. It's a solid, foolproof solution, that might just save you some digital designer money. However, you might want to invest in Ascend as well.

Free Wix Ascend plan gives you pretty limited access to how much content you can create, and all of it will be branded with Wix's own logo.

If you want the only logo displayed to be yours and have much more freedom to make what you want, you'll need to pay up. Premium Wix Ascend plans start at $5 a month.

But you know what's free? SEO!

All premium Wix users will be given access to a full array of Wix SEO tools, that will help you optimize your site for better search engine rankings. There's even a solid SEO Wiz tool that should help even the least experienced users optimize their sites to be found on Google.

Finally – the apps. We could be here all day because there are plenty of options to choose from. Both first and third-party options for collecting leads, analytics, online sales, site design, communication, and more should help you improve your site even more.

How about a live chat? Or popups? Wix is your oyster.

But oysters are expensive – is Wix? Well, it's actually quite alright. There's one free plan, which makes Wix perhaps the best free website builder for small business, and also four options for regular websites.

And here are the eCommerce-capable plans:

Here are the plans right here.

Wix combines an eCommerce platform, a web design platform, a marketing and SEO suite, and more into one package. It's good value for money – especially for businesses, who are looking to build a solid online presence.

What businesses should use Wix?

All in all, Wix offers everything and the kitchen sink. Therefore, it's a good option for businesses of all sizes.

I fully endorse Wix if you already have a full, complete vision of how your site should look and behave. This builder has the best custom editing tools, and it won't take long to learn to use them. It's a Swiss army knife, and if that sounds like a good time – Wix is a builder for you.

Visit Wix

2. Hostinger Website Builder – comprehensive small business website builder

Visit Hostinger Website Builder

Hostinger Website Builder combines two very functional features into one package. First, there's a highly intuitive editor, which helps anyone make a modern-looking single or multi-page website. And then there are the prices – which are probably the cheapest in the whole industry, making Hostinger Website Builder an excellent option for aspiring entrepreneurs on a budget.

Hostinger Website Builder has over 130 template options, separated into 10 different categories. The templates are nice and modern, perfect for building something that looks like it's been put together by a professional designer: we made a comprehensive Hostinger Website Builder review earlier on and was impressed by how lovely the templates looked.

One way or another, you'll end up here – the Hostinger Website Builder site editor, which includes plenty of simple elements, you can easily drag and drop on your page (at the same time, if you choose Adelina template, the provider offers a smart layout feature).

The editor uses a grid system: so while there are limitations on where you can place each element, you still get plenty of real estate for your creative endeavors.

Hostinger Website Builder business features

Hostinger Website Builder has quite an array of business tools: there are artificial intelligence (AI) options, such as the smart heatmap and content writing features. Also, there are also some good tools for analytics and marketing.

Starting with eCommerce, Hostinger Website Builder offers a very simple way to add an online store: you can choose to add it as both a section on the existing page or as a separate page.

Plus, they also integrate capabilities with more than 50+ payment gateways, as well as automated shipping and taxes.

Moving on, there are also some excellent options for content writing – if you're not a professional writer, it can be challenging to fill your website with SEO-friendly, engaging content.

Meanwhile, the AI heatmap will analyze your website and show you what your prospective visitors will pay the most attention to. Using that information, you can change your site's design accordingly.

And finally, if your business requires some additional data and capabilities, like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or even a Messenger live chat integration, you'll be getting all of these options as well.

With features aside, the next question is, how much is Hostinger Website Builder gonna cost?

Hostinger offers only 1 website builder plan, which is also known as Website Builder and Web Hosting plan. The price for the plan starts at $2.99/month. It's incredibly good value for money, as the biggest website builders would charge you several times more.

What businesses should use Hostinger Website Builder?

If you're on a budget and need a reliable option to make a simple website, Hostinger Website Builder is the perfect solution. It might not have advanced third-party tools or design options, but it's a top-class solution for product landing pages and small online stores.

It's the cheapest builder on this list – but for some, it might be worth its weight in gold.

Visit Hostinger Website Builder

3. SITE123 – an easy-to-use business solution

Visit SITE123

If you're not an experienced website designer – and don't really wish to be one – this whole business of "making a website" can get a bit tedious. For those who care about the results, and not the journey, SITE123 is an excellent choice.

Remarkably fast and straightforward to use, it only asks for a tiny bit of effort from your end – but then, you'll end up with a fully custom, business-focused website.

The setup process is literally as simple as picking the type of business website you wish to make, typing in your website name, and enjoying the spoils: you can check it out on our SITE123 review.

Just like that, you'll get to visit the editor – which looks like this:

This is where you'll be able to choose from several design options – the themes will automatically adapt to your content, making sweeping content changes easier to do than ever.

Speaking of easy, adding the content and making design changes on SITE123 is completely effortless. All you'll have to do is to browse the builder's library of sections. By mixing and matching them together, you can easily make a seriously advanced website in just a few minutes.

With that...we're done. SITE123 is an absolute superstar when it comes to making website building as simple as possible. If that's your thing – that's your platform.

If you somehow get stuck in the process and want a helping hand, SITE123 can offer that, too. 24/7 multilanguage chat support is available at all times.

SITE123 business features

These are some of the highlight SITE123 features:

• Built-in eCommerce platform
• SEO tools
• Email marketing

A built-in eCommerce platform lets you sell digital goods, create coupons, use conversion codes to track orders, as well as showcase related products and variants.

It's a fairly basic interface, but it gets the job done. The same can be said about the item management interface – all the basic options are there, but that's as far as it goes.

SITE123 also provides scheduled posts, integration with RSS, and ready-made templates at your fingertips – the absolute essentials for blogging.

As for the SEO of your blog posts and the site itself, SITE123 has features like:

• Editable meta tags and titles. You can use them to perform on-page optimization.
• Automatically generated sitemaps. Aids search engines like Google in better indexation of your sites.
• 301 redirects. Signifies search engines the deleted pages to ignore, and lets you route visitors around them.
• Integration with Google’s Webmaster Tools. A free tool for monitoring your site’s SEO performance or possible bugs.

You can also look into SITE123’s third-party plugins library to aid you in your business efforts.

They’ve got paid addons for marketing/analytics, the top webmaster tools (from Google and Bing), and plugins that’ll help you better support your customers.

For email marketing, however, you won't need to download any plugins – it's all available right from the SITE123 dashboard. can get a branded ID, create forms for capturing user emails, and pick-n-play between tons of templates.

Nothing earth-shattering but adequate. I especially loved that all of this is included with the SITE123 premium plan.

Speaking of premium plans, here are all of your available options (to see all plans, you need to be registered with the platform – so don't worry, if you click the link and not see them at first!)

These prices are valid when purchasing for 12 months in advance. If you go for a longer plan, these prices will reduce. For instance, the $12.80 Basic plan purchased for 12 months in advance costs just $5 a month.

What businesses should use SITE123

SITE123 editor is laser-focused on speed. It only takes three clicks to have a functioning one-page website, a godsend for business owners who haven’t got the time or technical expertise to spend hours in front of their PCs to build an online presence.

Use SITE123 if you want to save a lot of time, and have expert help by your side 24/7. This builder won't win any design awards – but it will make building and running a site easier than ever before.

Visit SITE123

4. Shopify – best advanced eCommerce platform

Visit Shopify

Businesses love Shopify. They love it a lot. It's used all across the world, by brands like Red Bull, Kylie Jenner, Gymshark, and many more.

How come?

Well, it's an eCommerce juggernaut, striking a perfect balance between being highly customizable and offering an absolute truckload of sales features – both offline and online. Shopify is perhaps the best website builder for small business that wants to sell, and sell big.

And the beauty is that behind all this, Shopify is still uber-simple in its usage.

Just pick out a theme, spice up a few things, add your products, and sell till your heart’s content (or till your stocks run out – whichever is closer!).

Overall, Shopify’s themes epitomize the phrase ‘’quality over quantity’’. There are only over 70 options, with only 9 free ones. Others will cost nearly $200 – but this one-time investment might just prove to be worth it.

Editing of these themes in order to turn them into a business page will be as simplified, as physically possible. As I noted on my Shopify evaluation, the theme is king here – and you won't be given many opportunities to do things your way.

You just get to drag, drop, and rearrange various sections of the site, which will be automatically suited to fit your chosen theme. While you can personalize pretty much everything on the website, a lot of that will require at least some coding experience.

Shopify business features

Here are the top Shopify business features:

• Excellent eCommerce suite
• Massive app store
• Email marketing
• Analytics

Shopify is the best in business when it comes to eCommerce, both online and offline.

Essentials like adding products, shipping, abandoned cart recovery, managing inventory/orders, and even dropshipping are appropriately cared for.

There is also a Point of Sale (POS) system letting you sell items in real life, and seamlessly using the platform's stock management and payment features.

Speaking of payments, Shopify's payment gateway integrates over 100 different payment gateways for easy worldwide selling. There are also options for PayPal, Apple Pay, and more.

On top of all that, there are also over 5,000 apps, covering a wide range of industries and goals. When I reviewed Shopify earlier in the year, I loved this example – there are over 150 apps just for setting-up live chat on your site.

But for some things, you might not even need the apps: for instance, Shopify has in-house marketing tools, letting you send out emails, and do social media or SMS outreach.

Also, the extensive built-in analytics tool looks at conversions, return rates, sales sources, and more – such data can be absolutely crucial for building and improving your business.

However, all of this beauty is going to cost. Have a look at the plans right here:

Shopify is the most expensive small business website builder on this list. That being said, the more expensive Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans will give you transaction fee discounts. At 2.6%+30c and 2.4%+30c, both of these plans can be cheaper in the long run

What businesses should use Shopify?

With discounts for transactions, as well as excellent advanced marketing and analytics tools, Shopify is a perfect option for bigger businesses. It can get a bit expensive – but it's a worthy investment.

Visit Shopify

5. GoDaddy website builder – top-class marketing features

Visit GoDaddy Builder

Simple, minimalist, and tailored to small businesses, GoDaddy's website building solution is a quick and effective website-building solution. In fact – it's more than just a regular website builder. Named "Websites+Marketing", this product combines simple site-building features with an advanced marketing suite, perfect for beginners and small businesses.

I gave it a solid spin on my GoDaddy website builder review: and I really liked how simple it makes everything.

A quick setup guide will ask a couple of questions about your business...

Then, it will return with a pre-made website, filled with example content and design options.

A silky smooth (albeit restrictive) customization experience is achieved through a near-perfect click-n-select type editor. You simply choose your preferred sections and build a website out of them.

Sure – there isn't all that much editing freedom, as you're only allowed to choose the sections, images, colors, and fonts. However, this right here is one of the quickest buildings processes out there, ideal if you're a small business that wants a simple, reliable website.

GoDaddy website builder business features

On top of being a website builder, GoDaddy has a solid array of business features. Here are some of the main highlights:

• GoDaddy Insight marketing tools
• GoDaddy Studio design suite
• eCommerce suite

GoDaddy InSight suggests data-backed marketing advice on pretty much all facets of your business site – think analytics, social media, SEO, email/content marketing, blogging, etc.

It all starts with you choosing your business goals: this is where you as a business choose exactly what you want to achieve.

Then, all of your goals will be broken down into an actionable list you can follow in order to achieve them.

Then, there's GoDaddy Studio, previously known as Over. It's a drag-and-drop graphics creator you can use to create digital posts for your various marketing mediums.

As for eCommerce, GoDaddy goes simple, offering a lightweight, intuitive interface, that should be perfect for beginners.

Although there isn’t much room for design variation, the interface is excellent, and the actual process of adding products is a breeze.

Now – the prices! Here are the available GoDaddy builder plans:

Overall, GoDaddy is downright affordable: a rather cheap eCommerce suite and solid email marketing features make this a very well-rounded option.

What businesses should use GoDaddy website builder?

GoDaddy is an excellent option for beginner users. It simplifies absolutely everything. Sure, helping to easily build a website is nothing new – but the advanced marketing and design features make this a great all-around platform for those just looking to kickstart their new endeavors.

Visit GoDaddy Builder

6. Squarespace – an all-in-one platform with beautiful designs

Visit Squarespace

Looks are a powerful facet of your website – they can attract (or distract) your potential clients, increase (or decrease your sales), and drastically change your business for the better (or worse!). And of course, looks aren't everything – a small business website should also be incredibly functional and help you effectively run your operations.

Don’t feel confident in your design skills? Want something that both looks good and helps your business shine? Squarespace is here for you.

With over 110+ designer-built and carefully curated business templates, you'll get a seriously good selection.

These templates are built with the latest performance and design standards in mind: they'll look good on any modern browser and device.

But that’s not all – Squarespace is also a perfect business mission control center, with marketing, analytics, and design features baked right into one intuitive interface. This interface got glowing reviews on my Squarespace review earlier in the year, too!

From a single dashboard window, you can install a blog or upload products, integrate your site with social media, and manage your marketing campaigns.

The pre-built Squarespace sections will automatically adapt to your chosen site template and color scheme.

But that doesn't mean you're entirely locked out design-wise – the platform offers several layouts of the same section, so you can mix and match to make a completely custom website.

Squarespace offers a modern, lightweight, design-focused website building solution – busy businesses looking to make a beautiful website will absolutely love this.

Squarespace business tools

Squarespace focuses on built-in features: and it has worked on a lot of tools to help businesses grow.

• Solid eCommerce suite
• Easy-to-use analytics solution
• SEO tools
• Social media integration
• Email marketing

First up, eCommerce: Squarespace tries to make everything as intuitive as possible. You'll be given a simple startup guide, that will not only teach you the basics of running a store but also populate a website with placeholder items.

They'll depend on your chosen business niche – my imaginary vinyl business was quickly filled with placeholder records and band shirts.

If you wish to use Squarespace to do print-on-demand, or you're simply looking for advanced shipping, payment, and marketing options, Squarespace also offers a handful of eCommerce-focused integrations.

For tracking your success (or lack of it), you'll be given access to a very simple, yet still immensely powerful Squarespace Analytics interface.

I especially loved the metrics focused on eCommerce: such as the Purchase Funnel that displays how you gain the customers. It'll show what pages they visit, and where you could improve the conversion efforts.

If that isn't your cup of tea, you can connect Squarespace to Google Analytics as well.

For SEO, Squarespace offers options to edit each page and post separately, adding meta titles and descriptions.

There are also options for editing SEO of the entire page – the main SEO zone of the site includes features such as a checklist, that will be excellent for beginners.

And there are also tools such as keyword research and the site's SEO performance monitor.

For social media, there's Squarespace Unfold – a "toolkit for storytellers", that helps you make visual content and share it directly to social media. There's a free version, but a premium one, complete with all the best templates and design options costs $2.99 a month.

And finally, there's email marketing. An intuitive system will help you make good-looking, conversion-driven emails, and track your business performance. There are plenty of excellent templates – as you'd hope from Squarespace. Sadly, email marketing is not free – plans start at $5 a month.

And of course, Squarespace itself isn't free either. You'll get a 14-day free trial to try things out, but for a real website, you'll need to purchase a premium plan.

Here's what they are:

What businesses should use Squarespace?

If your business focuses a lot on social media and visuals, Squarespace is the perfect builder for you. The themes look best when populated with high-quality content. Also, smart marketing and design tools will help you reach wide audiences with consistent, modern-looking messages.

For a modern business, looking for a sleek way to grow and manage its operations, Squarespace is a perfect all-in-one tool.

Visit Squarespace

7. Gator website builder – affordable, beginner-friendly small business solution

Visit Gator

HostGator website builder – commonly just as simply Gator – is a shining example of everything being done for the sake of simplicity. A quick Express site editor is an excellent tool for custom websites with all of your desired elements: without you having to do anything.

It's the most straightforward builder on this list, and perhaps the most straightforward builder I ever used. Allow me to demonstrate.

Upon picking the "Express" option you'll be made to do a series of choices. There's stuff like "picking your color scheme", or "choosing a navigation style".

And then, once everything is nice and picked, you'll be presented with a pre-made website – set up just the way you picked.

From the editor, you can edit your sections as easily as enabling and disabling features from the side menu. There are also dozens of pre-made sections, coming with several different layouts

All in all, Gator does an incredible job taking all the design work away from you – while still providing enough choices and freedom to make something that is genuinely custom. The Express editor got some good marks when I did a review of Gator earlier – you might end up loving it, too!

Gator business features

Gator offers some decent basic business features for small businesses. Here's what they are:

• eCommerce suite
• Email marketing
• Analytics

Starting with eCommerce, Gator offers a fairly simple interface that a lot of beginner users should definitely enjoy. It's simple and follows a 5-step guide.

As for email marketing, Gator offers a pretty solid suite as well. A builder, very similar to the website one, is there for all of your custom design needs.

Finally, the analytics – Gator offers a solid built-in option, that's going to be perfect for beginner users to check out the number and the behavior of their users.

How much is this going to cost? Not too much! Here are the plans:

These plans are seriously cheap. But there's also a lot of value crammed in there.

See, all 3 plans offer eCommerce functionality – but only the top-tier eCommerce one removes additional transaction fees and limits of how many products you can sell.

Also, any of the options can be used for email marketing – with the Starter plan offering 3 monthly email campaigns, Premium going up to 5, and eCommerce increasing the limit to 10.

What businesses should use Gator website builder?

If you're running a simple business and look for a quick way to go online, Gator can be a great way to go. It's simple, inexpensive, and offers solid marketing and business features. It might not have the most powerful customization interface – but for many people, that won't be a problem.

Visit Gator

Best website builder for small business – conclusion

A small business doesn't have to invest big to build a solid online presence. A beautiful website, eCommerce, marketing features and more are now just one platform away – you just need to pick the right one.

But which platform is the best option for you and your specific goals? Well – let's recap once more – and see what is what.

Here are the best website builders for small businesses:

• Wix offers anything a small business could desire – it's an incredibly versatile option, moving together with you.
• Hostinger Website Builder is a super cheap, and good business builder with good eCommerce and exciting AI tools.
• SITE123 offers a minimalist way to build a big, fully custom business site with no experience required.
• Shopify is the best option for selling online – especially if you're a bigger business, looking to grow.
• GoDaddy website builder goes all-in on simple business and marketing. It's a great solution for busy entrepreneurs.
• Squarespace is a simple, business-forward solution with great built-in tools and templates.
• Gator website builder is a simple, budget-friendly SEO website builder, perfect for beginners.

Niche business website builders

This best website builder list for small businesses overviews all the top builders for the job. However, if builders for all sorts of businesses is a little too vague and you're looking for something more specific, here are a few articles we've prepared for niche businesses:

• Best eCommerce website builder
• Real estate website builders
• Best law firm website builder
• Best affiliate website builders
• Best website builder for musicians
• Best membership website builders
• Restaurant website builders
• Best website builder for podcasts
• Best website builder for photographers
• Best website builder for artists
• Best website builder for churches
• Best website builder for non-profits

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Best website builder for small business – FAQ