7 Top-Rated Website Builder Software
As a web designer, you have to work closely with developers and keep up with the latest design and search engine trends. Amidst all, using HTML, CSS, Java, and other programming languages to build a website can result in burnout.
Website builder software offers a no-code editor with design tools, web hosting, and built-in templates to create a user-friendly website in minimal time. Widgets are also available for social media integration, multimedia optimization, and search engine optimization (SEO) that increase website visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Narrow your software search to compare top tools to find a website builder software that best matches your team’s requirements. In this article, we highlight the seven top website builder software, in alphabetical order, based on verified software reviews. Read more.
During evaluation, we categorized these products into informative (focusing on business updates) and eCommerce (selling products and services online) websites. Some eCommerce websites also cater niche products such as selling events, work portfolios, images, graphic designs, etc.
1. Bandzoogle
Bandzoogle is an eCommerce website building, hosting, and design tool that takes care of the unique requirements of musicians and bands such as selling music, merchandise, and event tickets. Additionally, the eCommerce features let you customize the content of your website with keywords specific to your musical band. This ensures that your online store is at the top of the search results pages when your fans search for related keywords.
Product features of interest*:
Fan mailing list: Add email sign-up forms to your website to grow your fan email list to schedule and send newsletters.
Social media integration: Share music, tour dates, and content with fans on multiple social media platforms via a single user dashboard.
Built-in Calendar: Add a tour calendar on your website to share important updates and events. You can also add event descriptions and shareable links to the calendar for fans to explore.
Customer support options: Blogs, chat, and email.
Who should consider Bandzoogle?
Businesses in the music industry looking to create, manage, and market music albums, events, and merchandise can benefit from Bandzoogle. You can build a fan community using the tool to interact with them or update them on upcoming events and releases.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Starting price: $8 per month
2. Divi
Divi is an eCommerce website builder that offers advanced visual web design controls combined with CSS (cascading style sheet). You can drag and drop elements on a blank canvas instead of creating HTML codes. Furthermore, the tool lets you combine the visual controls with custom CSS to get more formatting options (e.g., add more space between elements, increase the font size, or make buttons out of links, etc.). You can create, save, and reuse custom designs for new ideas and themes.
Web hosting with Divi is done by integrating third-party web hosting platforms offered by the software vendor.
Product features of interest*:
Point and click tool: Add text anywhere on your website template. Additionally, edit, undo, redo, and resize options let you customize templates as per your requirements.
Pre-built websites: Select from an array of pre-built web design templates for different themes to start editing.
Version history: Travel through the entire editing history of a website design to check the changes, identify errors, or roll back to the previous version.
Customer support options: FAQs, chat, blogs, online form.
Who should consider Divi?
If you are looking for a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) type website editor/builder due to limited skills, then you can benefit from Divi. The tool is best suited for beginners stepping into the world of website designing and willing to experiment with unique yet simple design techniques and features.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Starting price: $89 per month
Pro tip
Consider your website requirements when selecting website builder software. Do you have a design or format in mind? Do you want to create a blog page, landing page, eCommerce website, or host videos? How do you expect your website to be a tool? Look for a solution that aligns with your requirements.
3. EventCreate
EventCreate is an informative website builder for events management and offers an analytics dashboard to track website traffic, page views, visitor count, and traffic source. Where are they coming from? What are they looking for? Which pages have they explored? Why did they end their session? You can get answers to these questions and more related to the website traffic. Once analyzed, you can use this data as actionable insights to increase traffic and boost sales.
Product features of interest*:
Event registrations: Create and embed forms on the website to collect and manage event registrations. You can also schedule and send event updates to the registered users.
Ticketing: Generate and deliver QR-code enabled event tickets in PDF format. Attendees can print the tickets at home, and they can also be scanned using EventCreate’s check-in mobile application.
Payment: Accept online payment from the registered attendees via an integrated payments gateway with options including internet banking, debit card, and credit card.
Customer support options: Call, chat, email, and knowledge center.
Who should consider EventCreate?
As the name suggests, this tool offers features focused on creating a website that manages events and all related activities, including attendee registration, ticketing, payments, invites, and more. If you are looking to design event websites, you can benefit from EventCreate.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Starting price: $29 per month
4. Pixpa
As an eCommerce website building and hosting tool, Pixpa lets you showcase, sell, and share your online designs, paintings, and photographs. You can use a theme editor, page builder, and stencil framework to build an impressive portfolio of your work and share it with clients via links.
Pixpa offers built-in blogging and marketing tools along with a website builder. You get an integrated set of blogging tools to change the blog layout, publish and schedule posts, add categories and tags, and embed image galleries. There are also a range of marketing tools, such as pop-ups, email marketing, and announcement bars, to promote your business and increase its visibility on the search engine results pages.
Product features of interest*:
Marketing pop-ups: Highlight promotions, make announcements, and gather email addresses of site visitors using pop-ups that appear on the screen when a visitor lands on your website.
Customer accounts: Allow customers to create store accounts using their name, email, phone number, and other relevant details. They can use the account to place and manage orders, payments, and refunds.
Client galleries: Share your images with clients, automate the proofing and delivery of work, and enable clients to give feedback, download, and buy your images.
Customer support options: Chat and help center.
Who should consider Pixpa?
If you are designing a website to showcase and sell a work portfolio then you can benefit from Pixpa. You get a variety of design tools specific to building a portfolio, assisting you in presenting your work in unique ways to attract your audience’s attention.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Starting price: $6 per month
Pro tip
Consider what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) or a drag-and-drop editor in web designing, which is offered by most of the tools on this list. This helps you create fully functioning, dynamic websites without the need for complicated HTML and CSS codes. You can change the layout or content of your website anytime without any professional assistance.
5. Snapps
Snapps is an eCommerce and information website building and hosting tool with pre-optimized website templates for search engine core vitals and search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. Page load time, meta descriptions, and image sizes are some of the pre-set vitals to ensure top ranking positions on search engine result pages (SERP). The feature also focuses on user experience by incorporating intuitive navigation, clear call to action, and visually appealing design elements.
Product features of interest*:
AI add-ons: Instruct the tool to remove backgrounds, extract elements, and crop edges using add-on tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
CSS and HTML editing: Build a responsive website with animation, web fonts, themes, icons, and grid tools for users to navigate through web pages.
Drag and drop interface: Edit the website in real time by dragging and dropping elements (text, images, shapes, etc.) to and from the template to the gallery of raw files.
Customer support options: FAQs, blog, email, and online form.
Who should consider Snapps?
If you are looking for a tool that helps you launch a website without the need for extensive design and search engine optimization knowledge for customization, Snapps is for you. Utilizing ready-made templates helps avoid the discrepancies of manual website optimization, resulting in increased visibility and higher ranking on search engines.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Starting price: Available upon request from vendor
6. Systeme.io
Systeme.io is a website builder, email marketer, and blogging tool, like Pixpa. You can create eCommerce or informative websites, capture visitor email IDs, send marketing messages, and create engaging blogs to increase traffic and conversions. Select from its pre-designed template library and customize it to suit your business objectives.
What distinguishes Systeme.io is that you can set up an affiliate marketing program to manage your affiliate links and payouts using a single dashboard.
Product features of interest*:
Funnel builder: Build a sales funnel (user path) using proven templates to link products and offers on your website and ensure converting prospects into customers.
A/B testing: Test different versions of a webpage or an entire website to assess which works best for increasing conversions.
Video hosting: Upload your video content, such as product tips and tricks or how-to videos for customers.
Customer support options: Online form, knowledge base, how-to videos.
Who should consider Systeme.io?
Systeme.io is for someone who wants a website building and marketing tool in one place. You can automate the sales funnel, create digital stores, and manage customer relationships using a single dashboard.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Starting price: Available upon request from vendor
Pro tip
Check if the website builder requires any coding in terms of setting the functionality of your site. Most tools with no-code editors allow web designing with little to no coding skills. However, some of them may offer CSS tools for web designers with basic coding knowledge to further customize the look and feel of a website. You need to make sure that the selected website builder aligns with your coding and designing skills.
7. Zyro
Zyro is an eCommerce and informative website building and hosting software that offers artificial intelligence (AI) based solutions to design and customize your website's text, image, logo, and other elements. You can also use the tool to analyze which part of your website or blog holds viewers for longer than the rest. This replaces the traditional A/B testing of the website before launch as you already know what the customer requirements are using the real-time data in the form of heatmaps.
Product features of interest*:
Business name generator: Generate a unique business name and URL using a brief description of your business and the industry it caters to.
Heatmap: Analyze your web pages using the highlighted areas of the website (blue-green for cold and red for hot) to check high, low, or medium user engagement.
Favicon generator: Generate a customized favicon (icon displayed within the browser tabs and bookmarks) associated with a website for quick identification.
Customer support options: FAQs, chat, and blog.
Who should consider Zyro?
Zyro is for someone looking to speed up the website creation process with AI branding and marketing tools. These tools simplify the process and also assist you in customizing your website for greater visibility and customer engagement.
*Analysis accurate as of May 2023
Starting price: Available upon request from vendor
How much does website builder software cost?
Website builder software can cost as low as $3 per month, or up to $125 per month, depending on various factors—features, number of users, infrastructure requirements, business size/type, training availability, deployment options, integrations, and storage. Most website builders typically include the following pricing plans based on the number of users:
Free trial: No-cost trial plans ranging from 14 to 30 days, giving users access to either all or limited software features.
Free version: Free software plans offer basic features and limited premium feature access; ideal for small businesses or individuals with a limited budget.
Entry-level: Ranges from $3 per month to $40 per month and offers limited features; good option for small businesses or teams with basic website designing needs.
Mid-tier: Mid-tier pricing ranges from $12 per month to $82 per month and offers advanced features such as bulk data import and priority support.
High-end: Advanced plans range from $4 per month to $125 per month and are ideal for large enterprises with cross-functional teams.
Hidden costs associated with website builder software
Besides the software license itself, there may be additional costs associated with website builder software, including data migration, training, hardware, IT, and maintenance/upgrades, which small businesses should budget for when considering a new tool.
Frequently asked questions when selecting website builder software
Does the software offer a content management system?
An ideal website builder offers an integrated content management system to modify, add, or remove website content such as text, images, videos, etc. However, you need to check if your selected vendor offers a built-in content management system or you will have to integrate a third-party solution with or without an additional fee.
Is there an additional fee to access customizable templates?
Most website builder tools offer a built-in library with a customization option to select and edit templates. However, the extent to which one can customize these templates vary for different software vendors and their subscription plans. In some cases, you might also have to pay an additional fee to access a specific category of templates.
Does the software allow optimizing websites for mobile devices?
Some website-building solutions offer limited mobile optimization capabilities, for example, a limited set of mobile templates that may not match your content or design. You need to check with the vendor if their tool includes the mobile optimization capabilities required by our business. In some cases, the tool automatically builds websites that are customized for all devices.
Survey methodology
*Our research team identified these features from vendor websites (as of May 15, 2023) based on their analysis of what users find valuable in or expect from website builder software. This list is not exhaustive. For additional features, refer to the vendor's website.
To be considered for this list, products had to:
Have at least 20 unique product reviews published on SoftwareAdvice within the past two years, with an average rating of 3.0 or higher, as of May 15, 2023. We selected the top seven products from Software Advice’s Frontrunners report for website builder software, having the highest ratings to feature in this article.
Include pre-built templates and real-time editing as core features.
Meet our website builder software market definition: “Website builder software speeds up the website creation with design and coding tools, templates, custom domain hosting, and integrated SEO.”
We select and rank products based on an objective methodology developed by our research team. While some vendors may pay us when they receive web traffic or leads, this has no influence on our methodology.
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Software Advice’s website builder software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Software Advice directory that offer them. Only products with publicly available pricing information, as of May 15, 2023, were considered for pricing calculation.