Your business will fail -- unless you go digital. Digitization of your business is no longer a novelty in 2021, having rapidly turned into a necessity.

According to the renowned firm Statista, 75% of customers are likely to boycott businesses that have a poorly designed website.

With that in mind, just imagine what they would think of a business with no website at all!

Even the actual design aspect of the website is now accessible to the masses through the use of website builders. With these, you can now create a website in under half an hour.

That said, there are hundreds of website builders out there, but only a select few are suited for ecommerce/ business website development. Out of those few, we have narrowed it down to the 10 websites that are the best of the best.

Best Website Builders for Small Businesses

 

1. Shopify

 

The clue is in the name itself: SHOPify. As we can glean from the name, Shopify is geared towards enterprises that sell a large number of products, and those that have the need for an online store.

It is pretty much a universal solution for those who do not mind spending a sizable amount of money each month.

We believe that Shopify is the best website builder for your business if you sell at least 10-15 products, and generate a decent amount of sales revenue.

Features/Advantages of Shopify:

• Shopify optimizes every single page of your site (including the store) to be responsive. This means that your website is optimized for mobile by default.
• Shopify analytics are the best in the game. Its “items left in cart” option is pretty handy for getting back customers who were in two minds about purchases.
• Shopify’s app store is a veritable fountain of wealth when it comes to adding additional functionalities. With over 1500 apps and integrations to choose from, there's likely an app for whatever you want to do.

2. WordPress

 

WordPress started out as a simple content management system (CMS) way back in 2003. In 2020, it was powering over 75 million websites -- that's almost half the (active) internet.

You can use WordPress to set up your website, manage your blog, and open an online shop -- all at once. It is truly the “one size fits all” option for people who need more, out of less.

WordPress also offers over 450 unique themes and templates to choose from, ensuring that no two websites are alike.

Features/Advantages of WordPress:

• The CMS is one of the most user-friendly out there (however the overall software has a learning curve).
• The payment integration is instant, so you can start accepting payments instantly on live websites.
• If you design your online shop through WordPress, you can set up subscriptions, one-time payments, recurring billing, and much more.

3. Squarespace

 

Also launched the same year as WordPress, Squarespace is another drag-and-drop website builder. With its vast array of themes, you can create a stunning website before the morning news has been fully read.

The only dilemma you face with Squarespace is choosing which options to go with: they really spoil their users for choice.

Features/Advantages of Squarespace:

• Live chat support is available 24x7. All premium plans come with the “best customer support in the world”.
• There are a few inventory management options available. The “advanced commerce” plan ($40/ month) is the best bang for your buck.
• Loads of payment options are supported, including PayPal, Google Pay Wallet, and Apple Pay
• There are numerous other business-friendly benefits available: appointment booking, reservation scheduling, order tracking, etc.

4. Wix

We cannot, in good faith, mention “website builder” without showcasing Wix.

One of the biggest website builders on the market today, Wix’s tiered plans are a great option for anyone who is looking to start out on their website design journey.

If you want to simply make a business website, Wix is the best choice for you owing to its super-advanced ADI that can design your site in minutes.

Features/Advantages of Wix:

• No restriction on the number of products that your store can host.
• The level of customization available is mind-boggling.
• The most user-friendly option on this list.

5. Weebly

 

Weebly is another option that stands out among the list of website builders for small businesses. Like most of the other options on this list, no prior coding experience is required to use Weebly.

Indeed, you don't even have to have any knowledge of CSS, back-end, or front-end development.

Weebly caters to single-page blogging sites, as well as 100 orders-per-day retail businesses.

Features/Advantages of Weebly:

• Weebly auto-boosts your search engine ranking and optimizes all content on your blog for SEO automatically.
• Weebly has one of the best backup-and-restore systems of any host on the market.
• Weebly websites can also be edited remotely by another user from their apps if given access. Editing via the mobile apps is also fairly seamless.

6. GoDaddy

 

This is the only option that deviates a bit from our list, as GoDaddy is suitable for small and large enterprises alike.

You can add a maximum of 5000 products to your store.

Features/Advantages of GoDaddy:

• The web hosting provider guarantees a 99.9% best-in-class uptime -- meaning almost no loss of sales due to 404 errors.
• GoDaddy offers its own bespoke website builder. If you prefer using some other program, you can install any of the other 100+ apps available for integration.
• With GoDaddy, you can accept payments directly into your accounts across different payment processors.

7. Webnode

 

Webnode has featured on many of our “website builder” lists in the past, and for good reason. You can use Webnode to build your website from scratch or to improve the look and feel of an existing site too.

Webnode is best suited for those people who need to set up multilingual websites -- it supports over 20 languages.

Notably, Webnode also offers customer support in all the languages it supports -- though you may have to wait a bit for some.

Features/Advantages of Webnode:

• Tech support is available in 20+languages, catering to almost everyone’s needs.
• The backup and restore functionality of Webnode is rivaled only by Weebly -- barely.
• The automatic SEO is top-notch -- as far as Google and Bing are concerned.

8. Strikingly

 

Strikingly is a relatively late entry in the website building game, being established as recently as 2011.

This aside, it has gained overwhelmingly positive reviews from prominent publications like The New York Times, U.S.A. Today, and Forbes.

Strikingly also includes various e-commerce related tools such as tax and shipping calculators and delivery time estimates.

Features/Advantages of Strikingly:

• The photo and video galleries are perfect for displaying trailers and advertisements to hook your customers.
• The online store is super easy to set up and change around as the need arises.
• There are lots of interactive elements that you can add to your website to make it more fun to use for the consumers.

9. Jimdo

 

Jimdo seems to be the best no-strings-attached option on this list because it only charges you for hosting.

Unlike most of the other options on this list, jimdo does not charge any transaction fees or per-sale commissions.

This transparency is why we recommend Jimdo if you cannot spare any profits just for convenience.

Features/Advantages of Jimdo:

• Jimdo offers fantastic social media integrations. For example, there is the option to display your Instagram feed on the website.
• This makes it super easy for customers to buy products that you have showcased on your social media, while also increasing its outreach.
• Jimdo auto-creates T&C pages specific to your location -- no hassles on that score.

10. Duda

 

Duda is another wild-card entry into the website builder market. Founded in 2009, it offers the most cutting-edge brand-building tools currently in circulation.

Yes, Duda is a website builder, but it is so much more. The best feature is that it enables seamless migration of your other websites onto the Duda cloud -- decreasing the time spent in designing other websites from scratch.

This makes it super easy to reuse content from your other websites.

Features/Advantages of Duda:

• Like GoDaddy, Duda also promises 99.9% uptime.
• The analytics and trend analysis tools are the best of the options on this list.
• All plans, right from the base $14 plan to the most expensive “custom” plans are hosted on Amazon cloud infrastructure. All websites also come with free HTTPS encryption.

The Verdict

If you provide services or consultations, opt for Wix or Weebly.

If you have a retail store-based business, Weebly or Shopify are the sites for you.

If you are a freelancer, the best bet would be to jump on Jimdo or WordPress to build your brand.

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