Short on Time? These Are the Best Responsive Website Builders in 2024:
- Wix – The best option for customization freedom
- Squarespace – The best option for professional, mobile-responsive templates
- Jimdo – Lighting-fast builder for responsive websites
Jump down for three more recommended website builders | Comparison table
Wix – A Powerful Mobile Phone Editor
Wix is undoubtedly one of the first names that comes to mind when talking about website builders. It’s known for its drag-and-drop builder as well as the massive library of templates and apps you can choose from. Always innovating in the face of changing tech trends, Wix has massively improved its mobile website building capabilities. In the past, you had to create a different mobile website. But now, you can easily switch between the mobile and desktop views of your website.Features
- Mobile editor. Wix’s mobile editor allows you to make changes to the mobile version of your website, and you’ll get a live preview of what it looks like.
- 900+ free templates. Wix provides a massive library of over 900 free, mobile-responsive templates that cover almost every niche.
- Wix ADI. Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence creates and designs a website for you with simplified editors for both desktop and mobile.
- Mobile preview. The Wix Editor allows you to switch between mobile and desktop previews and edit the mobile view live.
- My Mobile App. This freemium plugin will turn your website into a mobile app that can be downloaded and installed from the Google Play Store or Apple App store.
Squarespace – Professionally Designed, Highly Visual Templates
Squarespace is often praised for its striking templates. These designs come with the space to present your work in the best possible light, but you can pick any template – even if it’s not specifically built for your niche – and make it yours with a few tweaks. The block editor lets you choose from a series of page layouts and gives you plenty of freedom to customize the look of your site. The page elements (buttons, headers, etc.) snap to a grid, so you can’t place them anywhere you’d like – but there’s an upside to this limitation. Squarespace’s layouts are well-thought-out, and when you work according to the grid, everything stays neat and aligned, without distracting visitors from the real star of the show – your work. Squarespace has a series of eight different gallery layouts to display photos of your products or services, in addition to layouts for appointment scheduling, contact forms, customer reviews, and more. Unfortunately, there isn’t a free forever plan, but Squarespace does offer a 14-day free trial.Save up to 30 % on your Squarespace plan today!
Plus get a free domain for one year!
Features
- Built-in image editing. Squarespace boasts the most image editing options, allowing you to make a range of adjustments (e.g., brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, shadows) so your visuals look their best.
- E-commerce functionality. You can sell pretty much anything you want, from digital and physical products to services and even gift cards. You can keep track of all sales from your dashboard.
- Integrated marketing. When it comes to spreading the word about your site, few other builders offer as many tools as Squarespace: social media, email marketing, and SEO are all integrated, and you can manage it all from your account.
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage. Squarespace doesn’t put a cap on your bandwidth or storage, which is particularly useful for media-heavy websites.
Jimdo – The Quickest Way to Build a Responsive Website
Thanks to its AI technology, Jimdo can take you from sign-up to finished website in a swift three minutes. The AI feature is called Jimdo Dolphin, and it works by asking you a few questions about your business and design preferences. The result is a very basic website, but you can have it up and running in no time. If you don’t want to use the AI tool, you can manually select a template to get started. Jimdo’s templates look good, though I wouldn’t say they’re quite as nice as the ones you’ll find on other website builders like Wix or Squarespace. On the plus side, Jimdo’s templates are mobile-responsive, so that’s one less thing you have to worry about.Features
- Simple photo galleries to showcase your work. Jimdo allows you to easily design the photo gallery you want. Select one of the layouts for a horizontal, vertical, grid, or slideshow display, then size and space your images, and enable a lightbox effect for improved image quality.
- Online store for physical products. List up to five physical products in your store on the free plan and accept payments through PayPal. Alternatively, you can upgrade your plan to sell more and increase payment options.
- Create your own logo. If you need a logo, you’re in luck. We tested out the Jimdo Logo Creator, and it’s super easy to use. Use your new logo to brand your website and all of your other marketing materials.
- Keep visitors engaged with a blog. Start a free blog to share tips, include stories of your work, or explain more about your experience and services. Embed videos and photo galleries or list store items in every post.
Weebly – The Perfect Builder If You’re on the Go
A few years back, Weebly rolled out a mobile editor that allowed users to customize the mobile version of their website. Since then, the platform has taken a step back and removed it, instead focusing on providing responsive templates that are supposed to take care of this for you:
However, like Wix, Weebly allows custom code, which you can use to customize your mobile version if you have the skills.
Weebly is now only $6.00 per month!
Sign up for an annual plan and enjoy the savings.
Features
- Mobile website builder app. Weebly is unique in that it’s one of the only website builders to offer an app with a drag-and-drop builder. You can also take care of the day-to-day running of your website through the app. For example, you can edit store products, view statistics, chat with visitors, and more.
- Mobile responsiveness. Every Weebly template is mobile-responsive and will automatically provide you with a mobile website.
- Mobile preview. Weebly provides a desktop and mobile preview when using the editor to customize your website.
- 50+ templates: Weebly’s templates are all mobile-responsive and completely free of charge.
SITE123 – Build a Mobile and Desktop Site in Three Easy Steps
SITE123 is best known for its easy three-step signup and website-creation process (1, 2, 3 — get it?). The platform provides mobile-responsive templates and automatically generates a mobile website for you. SITE123 has always been one of those website builders that requires that you sacrifice a bit of control in exchange for plenty of ease of use, and its mobile offering seems to be no different.Get a FREE domain + hosting with any SITE123 annual plan!
This exclusive offer is only available for your first purchase.
Features
- App Market. SITE123 features a large App Market with powerful features and integrations, most of which are free.
- Mobile responsiveness. All SITE123 templates are mobile-responsive, and a mobile website will be generated automatically.
- Mobile preview. SITE123 provides the full package of phone, tablet, and desktop previews for your website.
- Almost 200 templates. All the SITE123 templates are free to use.
SimpleSite – Simplicity Above All Else
You don’t have to do much guesswork to figure out what the SimpleSite builder is all about. It’s another platform that takes ease-of-use and simplicity to the extreme. For a long time, SimpleSite dragged well behind the rest of the builders on this list in terms of its interface, features, and templates. However, it seems to have recently taken some dramatic steps forward, especially regarding its templates and mobile features.Features
- Mobile responsiveness. All SimpleSite templates will automatically convert to mobile versions.
- Mobile preview. SimpleSite allows you to swap between the desktop, mobile, and tablet views of your website.
- 80+ Templates: SimpleSite has over 80 new attractive templates covering the most important niches.
The Future is Mobile — Get Your Slice of the Pie with These Mobile-Responsive Website Builders
The slight majority that mobile users have over desktop users is projected to keep growing, particularly in emerging markets. That’s why making your website mobile-responsive is also a good way to invest in the future. Among the website builders on this list, Wix, with its dedicated mobile editor, certainly seems to be the clear winner. However, the complexity and power of Wix’s editor mean it requires a learning curve that isn’t for everyone. None of the other website builders feature a mobile editor. However, Squarespace’s mobile app, with its website-building capabilities, is something special. And Jimdo arguably offers the most beginner-friendly and intuitive platform. If you want to extensively customize your mobile site, then it’s a no-brainer: go with Wix.If you want an elegant builder that beautifully adapts to mobile, you should consider Squarespace or Jimdo.
If you just want your websites to be a good reflection of your desktop website on mobile (especially tablet), then SimpleSite and SITE123 are good options too.
Website Previews |
Edit Mobile Website Directly? | Mobile Website Builder? | Star Features | |
Wix |
|
Yes | No |
|
Squarespace |
|
No | Yes (via native Apple and Android apps or mobile browser) |
|
Jimdo |
|
No | Yes (via native Apple and Android apps) |
|
Weebly |
|
No | Yes (via native Apple and Android apps) |
|
SITE123 |
|
No | Yes (via mobile browser) |
|
SimpleSite |
|
No | Yes (via mobile browser) |
|