Every business has been working to make a unique digital presence to leverage the power of the internet, but only a few have found the right way. Thus creating a digital presence has never been as simple as it sounds for small businesses.
There are a number of website builders online that make website building simple yet effective. Among all, we cover and catch only the top 3 website builders for small businesses in this blog. This article covers the best website builders for small businesses to make an impactful digital presence or website.
We will discuss the top 3 website builders that are easy to use, have strong SEO, are very affordable, and offer scalable price plans.
With these content management systems, any website can make whether it’s a small-scale business or a large enterprise without depending on the industry. For example, industries such as service, ecommerce, information, entertainment, and news can use these website builders to build their websites.
We have short-listed these website builders:
Top 3 Website Builders for Small Businesses
- WordPress
- Wix
- Shopify
A Comprehensive Comparison of Best 3 Small Business Website Builders
We have been working in the website design and development industry since 2010. Consequently, we have built more than 2000 websites in every industry business. We have hand on experience developing websites using WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Shopify, Squarespace, and custom code.
With our experience, technical knowledge, and current market demand, we have chosen the best website builders and explained every point that matters to you.
Let’s explore each website builder one by one:
#1 WordPress
WordPress is best for professional or business blogs and it was released in 2003. WordPress powered 43.2% of websites on the internet(W3Techs, 2022). It is used by 65.2% of websites built with the content management system.
WordPress is the best suitable CMS to build eCommerce, service, news, and entertainment websites. It has 60000+ free plugins to add additional functionalities to websites.
WooCommerce plugin is used to create a customer-centric and fully functional WordPress development e-commerce website. There are over 9000 free themes in the WordPress directory.
WordPress Gallery
We attach the images of the pricing plan, and themes. Thus, you get to know the looks of the websites made with WordPress.
WordPress Features
It has been the fastest-growing content management system for the last 10 years. The reason behind the features of WordPress.
Here are the unique features that make WordPress the most powerful and popular content management system globally.
- Drag and Drop Website Creating –
You can build a WordPress website even if you don’t know a single line of code. Just drag and drop the prebuild sections, icons, buttons, images, and elements to the page to make a complete page. You have complete control over everything and manage each section.
- Real-Time Front-End Editing –
WordPress offers a real-time front-end editing feature so you can edit or update a design by clicking on the front-end section. You don’t need to go back to the admin panel, search the file to edit, and open it to update or edit it. You can easily customize pages on the live website.
The real-time editing feature allows you to monitor changes you made, and gives a quick view of how that changes look on the front end, so you can analyze and update the page if you made the required changes. If you mess with the design while changing, then you can easily undo the changes by not updating the page.
- All Devices Responsive Controls –
Websites powered by WordPress are responsive on all devices, browsers, and screen resolutions by default. Still, your website needs to tweak then you have complete control to change and customize the settings.
You can adjust and optimize every pixel of your web pages with the WP page builder for different mobiles, tablets, and desktops. WP page builder allows you to hide and adjust any element for specific screen sizes.
- Free Add-ons
Just drag and drop add-ons to the page to add elements like text, lists, code, images, video, icons, buttons, forms, tables, etc. WordPress has more than 30+ free add-ons to make your website development easy.
Some of the essential add-ons are:
- Form – Add any type of form with reCAPTCHA.
- Carousel – Add sliders to show the most amazing products or services.
- Accordion – Add collapse text content to your site with WP page builders accordion add-on.
- Charts & Graphs – Add pie charts, graphs, bars, etc. to show information adequately and precisely.
- Testimonials – Add clients’ testimonials to build website authority with add-ons.
- Library to save self-build blocks
WordPress has a specific section called “Library” at the backend where you can save your design blocks. You can save blocks here to reuse or use later.
Ease of Use
When it comes to ease of use, then WordPress is the best website builder. You can make multi-page websites simply with its drag-and-drop UI. Don’t need any coding skills and knowledge to build the website.
Build fully functional ecommerce, news, entertainment, service, or informative websites with the power of free tools, functions, and plugins.
Design Flexibility
WordPress has thousands of free theme designs and templates in the WP store. These theme templates are designed professionally and upgraded with a new version every time thus you get the latest and updated version of the theme.
These theme templates are easy to modify. You can change even major sections or can change the theme completely. WordPress also allows you to customize themes according to your needs. If you are not finding any theme useful then you can use custom themes or themes from third-party websites. For this, you need to upload the theme file to your admin panel and integrate it with a single click.
Value of Money
WordPress has two pricing plans a free one and a $15/month pro plan. You can choose any of them depending on your requirements. If you are a startup, you can start with the free plan, and in the future, you can upgrade it.
WordPress gives you all the features to design and develop a complete WordPress site at a low price. However, WordPress’s cheapest plan comes with features, advanced SEO tools, and more storage. So you can run your business uninterruptedly.
Ecommerce Functionality
You can sell products online with WordPress. There are so many plugins or tools you can use to sell through WordPress, but one of the most popular plugins is WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is a free plugin. You can easily integrate this plugin into your panel, and it will add all the required functionalities and features to your WordPress site to make it sell products online.
Most of the WooCommerce functionalities and features come with the free plan, but if your website requires advanced features, you need to buy add-ons.
Help & Support
There are different help and support channels through which you can contact:
- Live chat support
- Phone
- Knowledge Center
- On-site editor support
Along with these all support channels, you can join the vast community online of WordPress developers where you can ask questions and put issues to get resolved.
After knowing all the features, pricing, and support services, you understand why we keep this CMS on the top.
Also read: Things to Consider Before Hiring A Website Development Company
#2 Wix
Wix is the third largest content management system cum website builder launched in 2006. Wix’s market share is 3.4% according to a report published by W3techs.
If we consider the simple website builders market, Wix is on top with a 41% market share according to BuiltWith. It has over 200 million users to date. More than 7,043,216 websites are powered by Wix which is 9.39% of total websites built with the simple website builder.
Wix website builder capable enough to build high-quality Blog, eCommerce, Beauty, Service, Business, Education, Photography, etc.
Wix has 500+ website templates for almost every niche. Thousands of apps are listed in the Wix app store for enhancing marketing, designing, selling, and adding advanced functionalities and features to your website.
Wix Gallery
You can see with the images how professional websites can be made using Wix, you can also check the images of Wix pricing plans.
Wix Features
We cover all the features you should know as a business owner to thrive in the highly competitive digital market.
Total Design Freedom –
Wix offers you complete design freedom so you can build a website exactly you want. You only have to drag and drop sections, contents, and features to add to the website page.
You can completely manage and update every section, design, space, color, theme, font, and content to create a unique brand website.
Advanced SEO Tools –
Wix has inbuilt advanced SEO tools to optimize your website’s pages to rank higher in the search engine ranking. You can manage on-page and technical SEO data on your website.
You can manage and edit the following:
- Robots.txt
- Schema data
- Server-side rendering
- URL slug
- Meta tags
- Canonical tags
- XML Sitemap
- 301 redirection
- Image optimization
- AMP pages
- Blog log reports
- SEO APIs for developers
- Google search console integration
- SEO for multilingual sites
- Events tracking
- SSL certification validation
App Market –
Wix app market has several apps for growing your business, managing business, and adding advanced functionality to your website. You can integrate any number of apps to power your website.
Wix has apps of different category as follow:
- Marketing – Powerful marketing apps to grow your customer base and boost sales.
- Sell Online – Hundreds of apps to create an e-commerce store, and manage inventory, shipping, tracking, rewards, coupons, and customer base.
- Service and Events – Create and manage services, events, and calendars on your terms and allow your audience to connect in a new way.
- Communication – Let your audience allow to communicate most simply and effectively with advanced tools. Add a chat box, contact form, and testimonial that build your customers’ trust.
- Design Tools – Design tools provide the features to add pre-designed sections to your web pages. Customize your website look and feel.
- Media and Content – Add audios, videos, articles, graphics, and shapes to your web pages to engage the audience.
- Marketing Apps – You can easily manage, track, and analyze your marketing campaigns with marketing tools. Analyze the target audience demographics, and optimize the campaign with high ROI.
Wix ADI –
Create intuitive and stunning websites in no time with Wix ADI. Wix ADI stands for artificial design intelligence. ADI builds websites that look perfect for your business based on your requirements.
You have to choose the perfect option and type the answer, and Wix ADI automatically designs a website in a few minutes after analyzing your answers and responses.
Professional Features
You can manage the complete website from a single place with Wix’s professional features bundle. It includes features, a custom domain name, professional mailbox, free hosting, analytics, contact management, member login, Wix chat, social tools, SSL certificate, etc.
Read More About Wix
Ease of Use
Wix uses ADI technology, an artificial intelligence(AI) based system. Wix ADI builds a professional website based on your interaction through an information collection process to know your requirements.
It only takes 5 minutes to build your website. Once your website is ready, you are allowed to change any sections, color, graphics, and everything that you want to change. Wix website builder is easy to use with drag and drop options. You can change, modify or build a website without coding skills and technical knowledge.
Design Flexibility
Wix has more than 500 predesigned website templates for every business. So, you have the flexibility to design a website that oozes real essence. Wix has 100+ predefined website templates for especially e-commerce industry. So, for someone looking to sell online, it’s good for you.
Wix has many intuitive templates, but you can only use one once you have published your website. It is a major disadvantage of the Wix website builder. So choose the perfect template the first time around.
For the techy persons, Wix introduced a Velo by Wix feature, a platform to add custom code to your website or you can build a custom website.
Value of Money
Wix plans start at $16 per month to go up to $500 per month. Wix has three pricing categories Website Plans, Business & eCommerce Plans, and Enterprise Plans.
We suggest you choose the right plan after comparing and reading the complete details and features provided under each pricing module.
For small businesses, we suggest the best value Pro Plan of $27/month, and for eCommerce businesses, the Businesses Unlimited of $32/month plan.
Here are the complete plans under all three categories:
Website Plans –
- Combo – $16/month
- Unlimited – $22/month
- Pro – $27/month
- VIP – $45/month
Business & eCommerce Plans –
- Basic – $27/month
- Unlimited – $32/month
- VIP – $59/month
Enterprise Plans –
- Starting at $500/month
We suggest you choose the plan according to your business needs rather than your budget. If you have any doubt about features or pricing plans should contact Wix support.
Ecommerce Functionality
Wix is one of the top-rated website builders for e-commerce website development. It has 100+ e-commerce website templates to build highly profitable, customer-centric and e-commerce SEO-ready online stores.
Wix apps market has apps required to run an e-commerce business effectively. It has apps to manage accounting, shipping, crowdfunding, subscription-based services, warehouse, inventory, dropshipping, coupons & loyalty, or print-on-demand-based online businesses.
Help & Support
Wix has dedicated help and support staff to provide an uninterrupted experience to every customer. You will get 24×7 customer support.
Wix provides the in-built editor support that guides you while building your website. All the necessary information and how-to-use tips are mentioned with each function so you can create a website hassle-free.
It also has a resources section from where you can learn about Wix tools features and how to design a perfect website with blogs, guides, and video tutorials.
#3 Shopify
Shopify is third on our list. The best content management systems(CMS), especially for e-commerce website domains. Shopify was founded in 2006 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake.
Millions of business powered by Shopify has made $496 in sales to date, according to Shopify itself. According to BuiltWith, Shopify is a leading e-commerce content management system that shares 27% of the e-commerce CMS market globally.
Shopify is the best platform to build futuristic, high conversion, and sales e-commerce websites. Shopify has over 100+ paid and free themes. You can find 3200 apps to optimize sales, store, shipping, abandoned cart recovery, rewards, marketing campaigns, SEO, and things matter for e-commerce businesses.
Shopify Gallery
To make familiar with Shopify we add the images of different pages.
Shopify Features
Shopify has the features that are essential to running a successful online store. Shopify’s research and development team focus on making online commerce easy, effective, and profitable for everyone. They introduced amazing features focused on e-commerce business growth.
Storefront Development –
Building an e-commerce site with Shopify is easy. You can choose a free or premium theme and start editing and creating pages with easy clickable options.
Brand and customize the online store by changing theme settings according to your requirements.
- Templates are responsive with a mobile-ready built-in shopping cart.
- Edit HTML and CSS to change the look and feel of your online store.
- You can use your own domain and connect it with Shopify servers easily.
- Shopify is a web-based website builder so you can easily manage online stores and it provides fast-loading web pages.
Advanced Shopping Cart –
Shopify has an advanced built-in shopping cart for every store. These advanced shopping carts personalize the buyers’ shopping experience hassle-free. So, your buyer never abandoned purchasing because of a poor cart experience.
- Shopify provides features of automatic shipping rates from major shipping companies like FedEx, UPS, and USPS.
- A built-in feature to accept all major credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express with low credit card fees and no hidden charges.
- Abandoned cart recovery feature to automatically send emails to buyers who abandoned purchasing to boost sales.
- You can integrate 100+ third-party payment gateways from Bitcoin to PayPal on your Shopify store.
- Automate the complex tax calculation based on country or location.
- Multiple language options. So, your buyers can feel confident and homey while purchasing products.
Easy Store Management
Shopify’s easy store management feature provides easy to manage the store at the backend. You can handle refunds, shipping, return, customer accounts, customer profiles, etc. without getting puzzled.
- Record and save the data of purchasing history and habits of every customer so you can analyze, send emails, and retarget your customer specifically.
- Shopify made Dropshipping easy with the integration of third-party dropshipping apps such as Oberlo, Spocket, Aliexpress, Printful, Printify, etc.
- When you receive a customer return. If you refund some or all the payments, your inventory will update automatically.
- With Shopify apps, update the store, manage inventory, fulfill orders and contact your customer on mobile.
- Create a customized email with several email templates to target your audience with effective email marketing. Design and add language that you want to your email promotions.
Advanced Marketing and SEO –
Online stores built with Shopify are SEO-ready, and you can integrate third-party apps for advanced marketing. Shopify app store has numerous software to track, analyze, create, and manage all your marketing campaigns. Here are some of the features in brief:
- Advanced SEO options to add heading tags, custom URLs, metadata, alt tag, tags, and SEO-optimized content. Automatically generated sitemap.xml.
- Add product reviews to each product effectively to build the users’ trust. Increase sales and conversion rate with honest reviews and ratings.
- Create, customize and offer discounts, rewards, and coupons direct from the Shopify admin. Automate the targeting of customers.
- Easy social media integration options so you can sell products directly through the social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.
Upload, Manage, & Display Products Effectively
As Shopify is especially to create e-commerce stores, it focuses on making easy product uploading and managing. You can add product data like 3D graphics, videos, and gifs along with images to influence customers to make a purchase and display products as real.
- Manage and track inventory from the admin panel. Stop selling products when products are out of stock.
- Add detailed data on products and their variations, such as sizes, colors, materials, and more. Make each variant different with unique SKUs, price, weight, and inventory.
- Export and import product lists with Shopify’s app. You can upload products in bulk instead of one by one with a CSV file. Import the list of products to update prices or discounts and upload them back.
- Add and manage product videos, images, and 3D graphics. You can add multiple images of single products, so you can display products from all angles.
Web Hosting & Security
Shopify is a self-hosted website builder on its servers, so don’t need to spend money on hosting. Shopify also ensures the security of all online stores. Every website powered by Shopify is SSL and Level-1 PCI compliant.
- Your website is never down even the peak traffic time because Shopify offers unlimited bandwidth to all Shopify stores.
- Every Shopify store includes a 256-bit SSL certificate, so the threat of your customers’ data or business information is no longer.
- Every Shopify store is level-1 PCI compliant, so the customers’ credit card data is secured and protected from online phishing attacks.
- You don’t need to update Shopify manually. Shopify automatically updates its version so you can leverage the latest features and functions.
Know More About Shopify
Ease of Use
It is easy to build e-commerce stores with Shopify. You don’t need any technical skills or previous experience. You just have to follow the simple steps one by one to create an advanced e-commerce store. If you still, find some hardships then you can follow the guides available online or take the help of a Shopify store designer or developers to set up your store.
Design Flexibility
Although Shopify has many premium store templates, you can still make or tweak custom changes and add functionalities to your store.
To update the design and look of your store need to change the liquid file code of the page. You can add custom CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and code snippets to the backend. You can hire a Shopify developer expert to make these changes.
Value of Money
When we talk about the value of money, Shopify offers three different pricing plans you can choose from. Shopify offers a 14-day free trial, so you can create a store and sell the products for 14 days free. If you find Shopify right then you continue the service by purchasing the plan.
We suggest you choose the basic plan of $29/month. If your business is growing fast then you can upgrade to the Shopify plan.
Here are the Shopify plans from which you can choose.
Shopify Plans –
- Basic – $29/month
- Shopify – $79/month
- Advanced – $299/month
Ecommerce Functionality
As we already discussed that Shopify is the leading website builder for e-commerce and dominates in more than 170 countries globally. The reason behind it is Shopify is made for e-commerce business website development.
Shopify has 100+ paid and free themes to build an online store and 3200+ apps to grow your business. Therefore in our opinion, Shopify is the best website builder if you want to start an e-commerce business.
Help & Support
To provide help and support. Shopify provides 24-hour a day dedicated support to all subscribers or business owners. You can also contact Shopify through the different channels such as:
- Shopify Help Center
- Discussion forums
- Shopify Learn
- Dedicated support team
- Shopify Experts Base
Conclusion
In this blog post, we discussed the top website builders you only need to know. In short, website builders can use any type of website can build whether it is e-commerce, service, news, entertainment, sports, blog, informative, or even NFT marketplace business.
We have been working for the last 12+ years in the website design and development industry and we are a leading website development company that has delivered thousands of websites for different industries.
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