Top 5 Website Building Tools
Wordpress.com — Robust
Wordpress.com brings the open source, self hosted Wordpress.org software to those without technical knowledge. They deliver the hosting and configuration for you, enabling you to focus solely on creating your site. The wordpress community is quite large, in fact, the online publishing platform accounts for around 32% of the web. As a result, there are no shortage of themes and plugins to truly customize your site.
Workflow
The Wordpress dashboard is a bit cluttered compared to some competitors however it is still intuitive and easy to use. When starting out, it guides you through the process of setting up a website. It helps you pick a domain and choose topics. There are plenty of choices for templates. From the dashboard you can manage all aspects of your site, or go into a separate editor. Small popovers also give users a quick tutorial. It feels much more robust than other platforms.
Customization
The free plan provides a number of free themes and primium plans offer access to more. However to install plugins or upload your own themes, you will need a business plan. Of course there is also the option of self hosting which will unlock a ton of potential at the cost of time and technical experience.
Pricing
Squarespace — Elegant
Initally built for blogs, Squarespace now supports ecommerce, domains and integration with google analytics, Stripe, and PayPal. Squarespace trades configuration for simplicity and a nice clean, sophisticated interface. For the more advanced users, performing extensive customization is possible by opening a developer account.
Workflow
Begin by either picking a template yourself or let Squarespace suggest templates based upon your topic. In my case I searched food and got suggestions catered towards cuisine. Squarespace has an elegant and clean design. The website preview is shown in a small embedded window and the design and content can easily be edited. Pressing the escape key to toggle between a full and partial page preview is a nice touch. Personally I think it is the best looking of the bunch.
Customization
Site colors, text sizes and padding can easily be changed. Plugins are avaliable, however relatively few compared to other platforms. Fewer templates as well. Dragging and dropping is restricted to columns.
Pricing
Pricing is in USD
Wix — Freedom
Hosting 100 million users worldwide, theres a reason so many people use it. Wix gives you a ton of freedom while still being easy to use.
Workflow
The wix editor takes a different approach to editing, its editor is made up of toolbars placed over the site preview. Sticking with the culinary theme I've chosen a restaurant template. Rather than placing items in predefined columns, wix gives you the freedom to move content where you please. A major plus if you have an eye for design. The look of the UI isn’t the nicest but it is not customer facing anyway.
Customization
Wix also has a marketplace with a number of apps (~3x that of squarespace). Each component of the page has a number of customizations even including things like animations. Wix has over 500 designer made templates and like the other platforms, you can also make your own.
Pricing
Pricing is in USD
GoDaddy — Simple
GoDaddy is a hosting and domain registrar that also has their own Website Builder. Alternatively, if you are a bit more technical, GoDaddy offers one click installation of Wordpress on their hosted servers.
Workflow
Like other platforms, you begin by selecting a category and getting a tailored template. Similar to Squarespace, GoDaddy displays a preview alongside the sidebar. But it also has a number of themes for the preview. It is a very simple design without overwhelming you with options, but still has everything an ordinary user would need.
Customization
While they do have Email Marketing and SEO plugins, that is pretty much the extent. Moving stuff around is also quite limited without choosing a different theme. Blocks are generally less granular, more refined and it would be nice to be able to have basic items like maps. There is however custom html and css for the more technical individuals.
Pricing
Each plan also has a one month free trial.
Weebly
Weebly is another platform that has been around for a while and is quite large having more than 50 million sites around the world.
Workflow
Weebly has some really nice templates. Like most of the other platforms, a preview is displayed alongside the toolbar. A drag and drop type interface lets you place content items within (adjustable) columns. The interface isn’t as nice, but it get’s the job done and I had no usability issues.
Customization
Weebly has a marketplace with plenty of free apps/plugins. Blocks are more granular, which is nice for customization however, it will require more work to build broader components. There is an embedded code block as well.
Pricing
Conclusion
There are plenty of options out there, each with their own take on website builders. What is right for one person may not work for another. As a general rule; take your most needed features, find a platform that supports it for a reasonable price, and go from there. You may prefer some editors to others as well.
