In an economy built around the internet, it’s imperative for every small business to have their own website. Since social media profiles are not enough on their own to maintain a consumer growth base, you’ll definitely need a website. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you’ll need to code it yourself, or hire someone to do it for you. With our list of the best website builders for small businesses, you’re sure to find the one that suits your needs, budget, and skill level.
The best website builds for small businesses at a glance
- The best overall website builder for small businesses: Webs
- The best for selling products: Squarespace
- The best for services/booking appointments: Wix and Wix Bookings
- The best for building mobile sites: Shopify Online Store
- The best free website builder for small businesses: Jimdo
The best overall website builder for small businesses: Webs
Webs is a great all-in-one website builder. And while it doesn’t have a totally free service option, its paid plans are reasonably priced and offer a lot of great features including a custom domain name, unlimited pages, custom email addresses, and the ability to sell products via your own online store.
Webs also offers hundreds of customizable design templates, many of which have already been professionally designed with the needs of businesses in mind. Webs also allows you to set up and design your website for free before committing to an actual service plan. The paid plan rates range from $6 per month to $23 per month.
The best for selling products: Squarespace
Squarespace is a well-known website builder. But Squarespace also offers dedicated templates and features that can help you build a thriving ecommerce website, one that can help you sell your products online. Squarespace offers a variety of beautiful, modern-looking online store design templates. Your website can also have features such as the ability to sell unlimited products, subscriptions, and digital content, or take donations. Squarespace online stores can also offer things like tax tools, discount codes, gift cards, secure checkout, and abandoned cart recovery. You can also manage your online store using a mobile device, as well via the Squarespace Commerce app.
It is worth mentioning that the kinds of features your online store offers depends on the type of paid service plan you have with Squarespace. The more expensive your plan is, the more of these features you’ll get. And Squarespace isn’t exactly cheap: While you can choose to pay your subscription annually to receive an overall lower monthly rate, those rates are still pricey. Annual subscribers can expect to pay anywhere from $12 per month to $40 per month. There is a free trial for you to see if the paid plans would be worth it, and you don’t have to offer up a credit card to get the free trial.
The best for services/booking appointments: Wix, Wix Bookings
If your small business involves selling services rather than actual physical items, then Wix and Wix Bookings might be the best website builder option for you. Wix by itself is an easy-to-use, general website builder in the vein of Squarespace, but it also offers a sort of app add-on that its website customers can use to bolster their existing Wix websites by setting up an online booking system for their business. This app is called Wix Bookings. Wix Bookings allows those with Wix websites to do things like accept payments for services online, sync scheduled appointments with Google Calendar, manage clients, develop email marketing campaigns to advertise services, and let customers book appointments for services either on the web or via the Wix Mobile app. Wix Bookings actually seems like a full-service marketing campaign and appointment scheduler for those who sell services.
It is worth noting that while you can make a website for free with Wix, in order to fully take advantage of the above Wix Bookings features (like being able to accept online payments), you will need to upgrade to a Business and ecommerce paid plan that can cost anywhere from $23 per month to $500 per month, depending on the level of service and features you require.
The best for building mobile sites: Shopify Online Store
Shopify is another option for those who plan to sell products via their small business websites. What sets Shopify apart is its apparent understanding that more and more people are shopping on mobile devices these days and that it’s just as important for a business to have a functional and well-made mobile site as it is to have a great desktop site. Many of its design themes are optimized for shopping on mobile devices, and they come with features like built-in color palettes, dynamic product grid layouts, easy to access shopping carts, and even product filtering to help customers find what they need.
Shopify comes with a (no credit card required) 14-day free trial. After that, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan, which can range from $29 per month to $299 per month.
The best free website builder for small businesses: Jimdo
Jimdo is a great option for small business owners who want to quickly create a website for their business, but also need a permanent free service option. There are two sets of service plans: Jimdo Dolphin and Jimdo Creator. Dolphin plans allow Jimdo users to create websites without having to worry about coding. Creator plans offer website editors for those who are “coding experts.”
Both sets of plans have a free option. If you opt for the Dolphin free option, you’ll get 500MB of storage, 2GB of bandwidth, five website pages, and other features like HTTPS security. If you get the Creator free option, you’ll get the same storage and bandwidth as the Dolphin plan, plus the ability to sell up to five products in your online store. The Dolphin paid plans are pretty affordable and range from $9 to $39 per month. The Creator plans are $10 to $40 per month. All plans are billed annually.
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