Website builders let you design and publish a site without writing code or managing servers. Hosting, security and updates are included: you build pages from templates in a visual editor, then add what the business needs, such as a blog, an online store, bookings, forms or a members area.
Builders trade simplicity for control. Template-led editors get a good-looking site online fastest, design-led builders give a designer precise control over layout and the code they publish, and others are made for agencies running many client sites. Before you commit, check how the price changes after any introductory period, which features need a higher plan, and whether you can export your content if you move platforms later.
At a glance
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|
 Squarespace | Best for small businesses and creatives who want a designed site and online store in one plan | $19/mo | 14 days |
 Webflow | Best for designers and developers building content-heavy marketing sites with CSS control | Free plan | No |
 Duda | Best for agencies and freelancers who build, host and maintain websites for clients | $19/mo | 14 days |
 WordPress.com | Best for bloggers and small businesses that want WordPress plugins without managing hosting | Free plan | 14 days |
 Wix | Best for small businesses that want free-form layouts and built-in bookings or a store | Free plan | No |
5 of 5 tools
The ranking
In order, with what each tool is for and what it costs. Use the filters above to narrow the list.
Best for small businesses and creatives who want a designed site and online store in one plan
Squarespace is a hosted website builder for small businesses, creatives and service providers, with designed templates and selling tools on every plan. Each plan covers one site, and Basic adds a 2% fee to online store sales that Core and higher plans don't charge.
$19/mo
14-day free trial
Best for designers and developers building content-heavy marketing sites with CSS control
Webflow is a visual website builder and host for designers and developers, with CSS-level styling, per-breakpoint layouts and a structured CMS. Site plans for each site and Workspace plans for the team are billed separately, and the free Starter plan allows 2 pages on a webflow.io address.
Free plan
paid from $15/mo
Best for agencies and freelancers who build, host and maintain websites for clients
Duda is a website builder for agencies and freelancers who build and maintain sites for clients, with team seats, client accounts and white-label branding. Plans are priced per account and include a set number of published sites, while extra sites and stores are billed per site.
$19/mo
14-day free trial
Best for bloggers and small businesses that want WordPress plugins without managing hosting
WordPress.com is Automattic's hosted version of WordPress for bloggers, publishers and small businesses, with plugins and third-party themes on every paid plan. Yearly plans carry an introductory price that renews higher, and its fee on payments falls from 10% on Free to 0% on Commerce.
Free plan
paid from $4/mo
Best for small businesses that want free-form layouts and built-in bookings or a store
Wix is a drag-and-drop website builder for small businesses and individuals, with stores, bookings, blogs and member areas built in. The free plan shows Wix ads on a wixsite.com address; Premium plans are priced per site and paid upfront, and taking payments starts on Core.
Free plan
paid from $17/mo
Head to head
Feature-by-feature matchups between leading Website Builders tools, with a clear verdict.
Methodology
We compare the tools on this page using what can be checked from the outside: published pricing and plan limits, documented features, and each vendor's own security, compliance and support documentation. This is desk research, not hands-on testing. Where something can only be judged by using a product, we say so rather than imply we measured it.
What we weigh here:
How the order is set:
Buyer's guide
Choose for the person who will update the site after launch. Squarespace allows 2 contributors on Basic and unlimited from Core, and its Website editor role can change content but not add pages or styles. Wix allows 2 collaborators on Light, 5 on Core and 10 on Business, while WordPress.com allows unlimited users on every plan. Webflow sells content-editing seats at $15 a month billed yearly, and Duda limits each client account to chosen sites and permissions.
WordPress.com exports posts, pages and comments as a standard WordPress XML file, without the theme design or plugins, and Squarespace exports pages and one blog in the same format, leaving store pages and custom CSS behind. Webflow's code export, on a paid Workspace plan, and Duda's Site Export, from its Agency plan, give static files without the store, CMS-driven pages or working forms. Wix sites can't be hosted elsewhere, and Wix says blog posts can't be exported.
WordPress.com is the builder here whose yearly prices are first-term prices: Premium's $8 a month renews at $9, and Business's $25 at $28. Selling adds costs too. Squarespace Basic takes 2% of store sales, Webflow's Ecommerce Standard 2% of each order and WordPress.com's payment blocks up to 10%, all on top of card processing. Duda sells each site's store as a separate subscription from $8 a month, and Webflow bills team seats apart from site plans.
All five set page titles and meta descriptions, WordPress.com from its Premium plan. Webflow and Wix document the most beyond that: canonical tags, structured data, 301 redirects and control over robots.txt. Duda takes wildcard redirects and schema markup and lets you replace its sitemap and robots.txt. Squarespace handles redirects but generates its sitemap, robots.txt and structured data with no way to edit them, and WordPress.com leaves manual redirects and schema to plugins.
FAQ
Most paid entry plans cost $15 to $19 a month on yearly billing: Webflow Basic $15, Wix Light $17, and Squarespace Basic and Duda Basic $19. WordPress.com Personal costs $4 a month for the first year and renews at $5. Month to month, Webflow, Squarespace and Duda charge $25 and WordPress.com $9; Wix's plans page shows yearly prices only. Selling costs more: Wix takes payments from Core at $29 a month billed yearly, Webflow needs an Ecommerce plan from $29, and Duda adds a store from $8 a month per site.
Webflow and Wix document the widest range of SEO controls of the five. Webflow has canonical tags, wildcard 301 redirects, schema markup and custom robots.txt rules, and Wix has canonical tags, structured data, an editable robots.txt, a redirect manager and hreflang tags through Wix Multilingual. Duda covers 301 redirects, schema markup and replaceable sitemap and robots files but doesn't document canonical tags. WordPress.com adds SEO tools from Premium and relies on plugins for manual redirects and schema, and Squarespace generates its sitemap, robots.txt and structured data with no way to edit them.
Partly, and how much moves depends on the builder. WordPress.com exports posts, pages, comments, categories and tags as a standard WordPress XML file, without the theme design or plugins, and Squarespace exports pages and one blog in the same format, without store pages or styles. Webflow's code export, on a paid Workspace plan, gives static HTML, CSS and JavaScript without CMS content, the store or forms, and Duda's Site Export, from the Agency plan, drops the store, blog and dynamic pages. Wix sites can't be hosted elsewhere, and Wix says blog posts can't be exported.
For a brochure site, a small store or a booking site, a builder covers hosting, templates and payments without a developer. Each one also leaves room for code: Squarespace takes code injection from its Core plan, Wix accepts custom code once a domain is connected, Duda has a Developer Mode from its Team plan, Webflow offers custom code, code components and APIs, and WordPress.com's Business plan adds SFTP, SSH and database access. Hire a developer when the site needs application logic or a connection to an internal system that those options can't reach.
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