Short on Time? These Are the Best DIY Website Builders in 2023
- Wix – The most flexible builder, thanks to its 800+ templates and dozens of customizable page elements.
- Squarespace – The best builder for creative professionals, with striking templates and galleries.
- SITE 123 – The simplest editing interface, which can help you build a site in under an hour.
What We Look For in the Best DIY Website Builders
These are the features I focused on when testing dozens of popular website builders to find the best do-it-yourself services.- Good templates. If you’ve decided to build your own website, you need a great foundation. Some builders on this list offer more templates than others, but all of them have good-looking and mobile-responsive options.
- Ease of use. Every DIY builder should have an intuitive interface that makes it easy for beginners to create an attractive, functional website. Each site builder on this list qualified as “beginner-friendly” in my testing.
- Essential features. You want to make sure your site looks unique and has the right functions for growing your business. All builders listed here let you customize your site’s look, and offer features you can add to your template.
- Helpful customer support. Responsive customer service is essential, especially for those with limited experience. Phone or live chat is best, but email support is also okay. I tested the customer service of each builder here.
- SEO and marketing tools. Even a builder’s free or least expensive plan should have basic tools to boost your website’s placement in search results, tell you how visitors interact with your content, and help you connect with your audience. All builders here offer some form of this.
- A free plan or trial. You should be able to test the service before committing. A free plan is best, but a free-trial period or a money-back guarantee will do.

Features
- Smart website design: Once you answer a few questions, Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) tool will build a website for you with customized text and images. All in a matter of minutes.
- Personalized SEO plan: Wix SEO Wiz analyzes your website and creates a personalized plan to help you optimize your site for search engines.
- App market: All plans can access Wix’s app store, which has hundreds of (paid and free) third-party tools. Any additional functionality can be found there, from apps for selling event tickets to live chat apps for connecting with clients.
- Advanced business solutions: Ascend is a suite of business tools that includes a CRM, email marketing, an invoice generator, and a video maker. All accounts come with a free Ascend plan, but you’d need to upgrade for its full power.
Good template selection | Yes, 800+ templates |
Free plan available? | Yes |
SEO and analytics tools | Yes |
Type of customer service | 24/7 email support |
Least Expensive Paid Plan | $16.00 |



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Features
- Built-in photo editing: You can adjust an image’s brightness, contrast, color saturation, and aspect ratio. You can even change the focal point and add a lightbox effect.
- Premium integrations: Squarespace can connect with dozens of third-party extensions. There’s a good range of options, from shipping services like ShipStation, to accounting tools like QuickBooks.
- Scheduling: Squarespace Scheduling helps your clients and gives you time to focus on your business. Your clients can check appointment availability and book time slots, and you can sync appointments to your Google, iCloud, or Office 365 calendar.
- Blogging tools: Squarespace can help you build a stylish blog that engages your audience and helps with SEO. You can save drafts, categorize and schedule posts, and enable reader comments.
Good template selection | Yes, 200+ templates |
Free plan available? | No, but there is a 14-day free trial |
SEO and analytics tools | Yes |
Type of customer service | 24/7 email support |
Least Expensive Paid Plan | $16.00 |



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Features
- Plugins: You can integrate dozens of third-party tools with your website. SITE123’s plugin selection isn’t huge, but all the basics are there – like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest conversion tracking, or SEO tools like Google Search Console.
- Easy contact forms: SITE123 has several pre-built forms, so you can easily swap out your template’s offering if you don’t like it. Plus, you can use the custom form builder to make something perfectly tailored to your business.
- Live chat: Add this feature so potential clients can get answers to questions without having to wait for an email response. Satisfied customers are more likely to commit.
- Booking and reservations: The schedule booking tool lets your clients book appointments online, and the reservations tool makes it easy for customers to reserve seats at your establishment.
Good template selection | Yes, about 190 templates |
Free plan available? | Yes |
SEO and analytics tools | Yes |
Type of customer service | Live chat and email support |
Least Expensive Paid Plan | $12.80 |



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Features
- Content management: You can add tags to posts, categorize them, schedule them, and automatically share new posts on social media. It’s easy to turn your post categories into site pages, for easy navigation.
- Engaging blocks: Many of the available blocks make written content more dynamic. For example, there are blocks just for highlighting quotes and verses, making galleries, or creating page headers.
- Monetize your site: With any paid plan you can accept credit card payments for subscriptions, memberships, and products you sell online. You can also accept donations.
- Plugins: WordPress.com can connect with nearly 60,000 plugins, the most of any builder. There’s a plugin for everything, from building a site forum to using a page builder within the WordPress.com interface. However, only the two priciest plans can add plugins.
Good template selection | Yes, 100s of free and paid themes |
Free plan available? | Yes |
SEO and analytics tools | Yes |
Type of customer service | 24/7 email support for all plans, live chat from Premium plan upwards |
Least Expensive Paid Plan | $45.00 |
5. Zyro – Save Time Building Your Site With Artificial Intelligence



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Features
- Logo maker: Another of Zyro’s AI tools can help with logo creation. Answer a few questions and the logo maker will generate some design suggestions.
- Site heatmap: Upload an image of your website to the AI Heatmap before you publish to get an idea of how people will navigate your site and what content attracts them. It’s a useful tool that can help you maximize conversion.
- Storage: Although Zyro’s first paid plan has limited resources, all other plans have unlimited bandwidth and storage.
- Separate mobile editing: Although Zyro’s templates are already optimized for all screens, you can edit your site’s desktop and mobile versions separately – a unique feature.
Good template selection | Yes, about 130 templates |
Free plan available? | No |
SEO and analytics tools | Yes |
Type of customer service | Live chat or email |
Least Expensive Paid Plan | $2.61 |
6. Webnode – Expand Your Reach by Publishing Your Site in Multiple Languages



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Features
- E-commerce: Webnode’s starting e-commerce plan is relatively affordable, and has everything needed for managing and selling products. Pricier plans have advanced features, like conversion tracking or the ability to offer discounts.
- Memberships: Webnode has three paid plans that let you restrict certain pages of your site to approved members. You can edit the registration form and approve or deny submissions.
- Backup and recovery: From the Standard plan upwards, Webnode automatically backs up your site, and you can restore it to a previous version at any time.
- SEO: You can customize your URLs, create unique page titles and descriptions for search results, and view statistics about site traffic. The pricier plans include Google Analytics.
Good template selection | Yes, about 100 templates |
Free plan available? | Yes |
SEO and analytics tools | Yes |
Type of customer service | Email support |
Least Expensive Paid Plan | $3.90 |

Features
- ‘Free’ plan: The Free plan offers basic e-commerce features (unlimited products, shipping, etc). You’re charged per transaction, so it’s not truly free – but it’s still one of the only ways you can run an online store without a paid subscription.
- Secure payments: Square Online is PCI-compliant, which means its sites meet the security standards of the credit card industry. Square Online also provides payment dispute management for free, which can save your business a lot of money.
- Nonprofits: Every Square Online plan can accept donations. Square even handles payment confirmation messages, so you can focus on building relationships with your donors.
- Multi-channel selling: All plans allow you to list and sell your website’s goods directly on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Good template selection | No; just one template |
Free plan available? | Yes, but with transaction fees |
SEO and analytics tools | Yes |
Type of customer service | Live chat and email support |
Least Expensive Paid Plan | $12.00 |
Choose the Right Website Builder for Your Needs
To pick the best website builder, consider your budget and time constraints, the features you’re looking for, and whether a builder’s templates match the image you want to project. Take your time to get a feel for the builders on my list – once you publish, it’s difficult to move your site to a different service. For having the best combination of ease of use and flexibility, Wix is my top recommendation. It has enough templates and features to suit every need, and the sheer flexibility of the site editor makes it easy to ensure your site fits your unique brand. Squarespace is best for highly visual sites, particularly for creative professions. Its striking templates are great for showcasing portfolios, and its professional tools can help grow your business. And if time is of the essence, use SITE123 to get an attractive site online quickly. It’s simple, but that makes for faster editing – plus, it offers sleek templates. If you’re still weighing your options though, here’s a side-by-side comparison of top features for each of the builders on my list.Free plan | Best feature | Best for | Starting price | ||
Wix | ✔ | Flexible drag-and-drop builder | People who want ease of use and customization power | $16.00 | |
SITE123 | ✔ | Simple editing interface | Beginners or those short on time | $16.00 | |
Squarespace | ✘ | Stunning templates and portfolios | Sites for creative industries (photography, design, etc) | $12.80 | |
WordPress.com | ✔ | Content management tools | People who want to blog | $45.00 | |
Zyro | ✘ | Affordable paid plans | People on a budget | $2.61 | |
Webnode | ✔ | Ability to publish in many languages | People targeting an international audience | $3.90 | |
Square Online | ✔ | E-commerce tools | People who want to run an online store | $12.00 |