1. Wix

Wix stands out as being one of the easiest to use website builders out there, aside from Squarespace. The company has a drag and drop website builder tool, hosting options, an app market, website themes, and ecommerce functionality.

I think that Wix is a great option if you’re just starting out and have limited coding knowledge. Ultimately, if you’re serious about setting up an online business, I think it makes sense to learn the WordPress platform or to set up a Shopify store if you’re going to be doing an ecommerce venture.

If your website is meant to function as more of an extension of your existing business where customers can learn more information about you, then I think it could be a good longterm fit.

The pricing ranges from $10-$25/month for your own website.

2. Shopify

Shopify is an awesome platform for building an ecommerce store. Shopify has a whole bunch of website themes to choose from, apps, analytics, integrations, and a helpful forum.

Of course, this functionality comes at a price: $14-$179 per month. I think it can be worth it in the long run though, especially if you’re a smaller seller, because you don’t have to worry about updating your WordPress plugins, themes, and maintaining your website (if you went with WordPress to have full customization ability over your site).

It wouldn’t make sense to use this tool to build another kind of website. However, it’s is a great option if you want to start an online store.

2. WordPress

In the rest of the post, we’re going to focus on more drag-and-drop and easy-to-use website making tools, but before we get into that I just wanted to highlight the WordPress platform, which I think is one of the best platforms out there if you’re willing to learn a little bit about how a website works and want the best bang for your buck.

The great thing about WordPress is that you can take advantage of a lot of free online themes, plugins, a helpful support community, and professional premium website themes. It’s easier than ever to set up a good looking website in a few hours, whether that’s an ecommerce store or a professional portfolio.

Pricing: Free. Though some website building knowledge is needed.

3. Weebly

Weebly is another alternative to Squarespace and has many similarities to Wix, with its drag and drop builder, multitude of website themes to choose from, and the ability to set up a blog or ecommerce store.

Because of the similarities to Wix, I think that choosing between the two will come down to which ecosystem’s themes you like, the ease of use for the website builder, and the customer support offerings and how they match what you’re looking for.

The pricing starts at free and goes up to $25/month. The upper tiered pricing allows you to use your own domain name, statistics, have HD video and audio players, have password protected pages, and more.

4. Voog

Voog describes itself as “a mess-free platform that enables you to build awesome websites with a creative flow.” From a first glance after viewing the website’s homepage, the marketing is clearly appealing to the female demographic, with stylish typography and well-dressed female models.

Overall, the site comes off as being very easy to use and shows how the theme you choose for your website will render on the web and on mobile devices. I do wish there were more themes, but the ones that are there look great!

Pricing: €8 – €14 per month

5. Webs

If you want to set up a website, Webs makes it pretty simple to get started, with the ability to choose from a variety of themes that are categorized by business industries and free or premium templates. Like the rest of the website builders that I’ve mentioned in this article Webs offers mobile-optimized themes and a drag and drop interface.

Webs also offers ecommerce store functionality, HD video storage, the ability to set up a simple membership website, and blogging tools. Whether you’re looking at Webs, Wix, Virb, or Voog, I think that your choice will come down to which themes you like and the type of website you’re looking to set up .

The pricing starts at $6 and goes up to $23 per month.

6. Unbounce

Unbounce is my favorite of this list, although you can only set up certain types of websites using the software. Unbounce is great for setting up landing pages or simple websites that explain what your company does.

Where other website builders emphasize their mobile-optimized themes, social integration, and ecommece store functionality, Unbounce underscores how easy it is to take advantage of their A|B testing functionality, which is a marketer’s dream!

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, A|B testing is when you show different versions of the same page to a potential customer to make a data-driven decision as to which converts better, emaing which wording or layout causes more users to sign up to an email list or purchase your product.

The pricing starts at $50/month and goes up to $199/month.

If you’re interested in other ways to track conversions or “build your sales funnel,” I recommend checking out LeadPages or ClickFunnels, which are other ways to set up a landing page. I also use OptimizePress, but you need a little WordPress knowledge to get started.

7. LaunchRock

Of all of the website builders out there, LaunchRock is probably the easiest to set up a quick landing or “coming soon” page to collect email addresses.

I’ve used in the past for web-related ventures, as it has a very approachable free version. The paid version is $5 per month and allows you to use a custom domain, to alter the website’s CSS and HTML, and remove LaunchRock branding.

8. Virb

Although Virb had a strong start and still has some attractive features and website templates, it has gotten some bad press in the website development community after its acquisition by godaddy.

“So why is Virb now 2 stars? In 2014 Virb was acquired by GoDaddy. Since the acquisition, it has been increasingly clear that Virb is not being actively developed— it’s simply being maintained (I write more about this here).”

It might be worth checking out, but I think the lack of ongoing improvement is a cause for concern if you’re looking for a longterm partner that will continue to host your website further down the road.

Pricing: $10/month.

So which tool is best?

I don’t think there’s a “best” tool out there, just one that is best suited for your company’s needs. I do think that Shopify is the best ecommerce solution out there aside from Squarespace, though there are other alternatives to Shopify as well. Let me know what type of website you’re looking to build in a comment down below!