Homepage builders are an easy way to create your own homepage and are offered by countless companies these days. But which website builders are really intuitive and optimized for you? Which providers are the cheapest and which are not good? We clarify this in our comparison of the best website builders.
Content
No time? - The best website builder is:
Wix - The individual website builder
The provider with the most design options and templates to choose from.
What are homepage builders?
The need for your own homepage is growing. Nowadays not only large companies need their own homepage, but also private individuals and small entrepreneurs. It is hardly possible to keep up with the times without having your own homepage.
Getting started with creating your own homepage sounds complicated at first and scares many off. Homepage construction kits should help here. They allow users without programming skills or technical know-how to create their own homepage.
The best website builder providers allow you to create an attractive website optimized for PC and mobile phones with just a few clicks, which automatically receives the latest updates and functions.
Your own homepage is mandatory
In the meantime, the majority of all business, whether for products or services, is done on the Internet. Yellow pages or word of mouth have been replaced by Internet search engines such as Google. When people need something these days, the first thing they do is usually to use a cell phone or PC. Dealers, service providers but also private individuals without a website are therefore simply not noticed. So if you want to be successful today, you need your own homepage.
Advantages of website construction kits
Before there were website builders, creating your own website was a complicated and lengthy process. If you were not able to program yourself, you had to use an agency and have a website programmed for you. However, this was often associated with very high costs and was not affordable for most small companies.
The solution are the modern website construction kits. Users connect individual apps and widgets in their browser and use predefined elements to create an attractive and modern website. The result is an inexpensive, but still professional website. In the meantime, homepage construction kits are being offered by more and more companies and they differ greatly in terms of creative design options and price-performance ratio.
The biggest advantage of a website builder?
You can start right away. As soon as you have decided on a user, you can start creating your own website without delay. All you need is a common internet browser like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge or Safari. Another advantage is that the website builder offers you, the user, a high degree of flexibility in choosing tariffs and costs. In addition, it does not matter which project you need the homepage for. Whether you have a website for a construction company or your own private online shop, there are ready-made templates for everything.
Homepage construction kits are cheap
Most providers charge a monthly fee for using their website construction kit systems. This ranges between 5 and 30 euros, depending on the tariff. If you compare this with a private website designer who can quickly cost over 1000 euros for a simple homepage. It turns out that homepage construction kits are an inexpensive alternative for your own Internet presence. In addition, they allow the design of the website to be changed and updated at any time. All you have to do is change your template. This means that your website will never look out of date, as would a privately designed website after a few years.
Criteria for good website construction kits
A good website builder offers you a handful of basic functions which are required without alternative to create a professional website. The best construction kits also offer some nice extra features that motivate your visitors to stay longer on your website or to use it more regularly.
Basic function: creation and implementation of content
The absolute basic function that every website construction kit must have is the ability to place content such as images and text at the desired location within the website using user-friendly drag and drop processes. This is basically the basic function on which a good website builder is based.
Basic function: responsiveness
A successful website nowadays must be able to automatically adapt to the optimal resolution of the devices used. If your website recognizes which device is being used - PC, tablet or mobile phone - to access it and adapts accordingly, we speak of a responsive website. This is especially indispensable in today's world as more and more people use their mobile devices to surf the Internet.
Basic function: individual design
You want your website to be unique and attractive. If your website looks like any other, it has no unique selling proposition and it can be difficult to stand out from the competition. The more templates and widgets a provider makes available, the more creative customization options you have. The best providers even provide templates specially adapted to industries. If you need an online shop, an imprint or just a simple homepage with contact details, all of this should be personal and individually configurable.
It is best to be able to add media elements such as videos or photos at any point on your website, this provides even greater individual design options.
Extra feature: social networks
Social networks are becoming more and more important for companies and companies. If you want to have a complete internet presence, you will inevitably not be able to avoid the use of social networks. These networks ensure a higher awareness of the company or project or you as a private person. If this is important to you, the homepage construction kit provider you have chosen should offer the possibility of integrating social media buttons on your website.
Extra feature: online shop
This is a function that is not necessarily important for everyone. However, if you intend to sell products directly via your website, you have to make sure that you have the option of adding an online shop or so-called e-commerce.
Extra feature: SEO tools
Most users will find your website through search engines like Google. If you are too low in the Google ranking, this will have a negative effect on the number of visitors to your website. In order to improve the Google ranking of your website there are so called SEO tools which are offered by some homepage builder providers. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is used to do exactly that, to optimize your website for search engines.
Extra feature: contact form
A contact form offers a modern way of communication for website visitors. Contact forms are often very attractive for website visitors because they can be used regardless of opening times. Good website builder providers allow you to easily integrate contact forms on your website. You can then answer the questions asked via the contact form at any time directly on your website.
Extra feature: blog integration
A blog is a great way to keep visitors to your website informed about news. A blog also serves to encourage customers to visit your homepage again soon. Another advantage of a blog is that it has a very positive effect on your search engine optimization and ensures that your Google ranking improves. Almost every website builder allows the integration of a blog.
Extra feature: map
If your website is a company or association with a location, it may be advisable to integrate this location on your website using a route planner or a sketch.
Good value for money
The most important at the end. It doesn't matter how good your website builder provider is and how perfectly it is tailored to you, it must be affordable. The price can vary widely between different platforms and packages. Most providers have useful comparison tools that you can use to compare each offer.
The best homepage builders in comparison
1st place: Wix website builder
The Wix modular solution was absolutely convincing in terms of variety and quality. A tutorial video is displayed right at the start, which guides new users through the first steps. The variety of templates, modules and widgets is by far the largest in all of the providers we have tested. This can seem a little intimidating to inexperienced users at first. However, it only takes a few minutes of practice, as everything is structured very intuitively and logically. Only the fact that some templates cannot be changed later is negative.
Benefits of Wix
✅ Lots of design freedom
No other provider offers as many templates and widgets as Wix
✅ Ad-free
Wix is completely ad-free from the premium plan “Combo”. Only the free and cheapest variant show visible Wix self-promotion.
✅ eCommerce
Wix is particularly suitable for eCommerece, there is a special business tariff which enables an inexpensive solution for small shops.
✅ Optimized for bloggers
The blog can be added to Wix with just one click and offers numerous extra functions such as tags and categories as well as comments via Facebook.
✅ High fun factor
Getting started with Wix is easy and the high degree of design freedom makes it fun to create your own homepage.
Cons of Wix
❌ Limited template change
As soon as you have decided on a template, it cannot be changed later.
❌ Slow loading speed
Unfortunately, Wix's loading speed is not the fastest, this is particularly noticeable when trying to access its website on a mobile phone.
Conclusion: Wix makes creating a website child's play and ensures its high individual freedom of design for lots of fun.
2nd place: Jimdo website builder
Jimdo offers a particularly simple website construction kit system. In addition to the classic website construction kit system, which Jimdo calls “Creator”, another system called “Dolphin”, which is somewhat limited in its functionality, is offered. The limited system is so simple that Jimdo promises to be able to build the first website in three minutes. Jimdo even includes functions such as eCommerce.
Benefits of Jimdo
✅ Incredibly easy
With its “Dolphin” construction kit system, Jimdo is probably the simplest website construction kit provider at the moment. Of course, the simplicity of this system limits the design options a bit.
✅ SEO optimized
The Jimdo website builder sets great store by simple and intuitive SEO optimization that still works very well.
✅ eCommerce
In addition to numerous payment options, the shop functions even offer complete order management. There is also a voucher function and everything is optimized for German guidelines and laws.
✅ Mobile App
Jimdo offers a great app that allows changes to the website via tablet or smartphone. It also integrates useful visitor statistics.
Disadvantages of Jimdo
❌ Limited Design options
Unfortunately, Jimdo's templates are relatively rigid and leave little room for individual design.
❌ No app store
Jimdo's website builder does not have an integrated app store that allows you to add new applications to your website with just a few clicks.
Conclusion: The website construction kit from Jimdo is particularly optimized for beginners who want to open a small eCommerce shop. No other provider allows you to create your own website in three minutes.
3rd place: Weebly website builder
The Weebly website builder is particularly interesting for anyone who wants to edit their website on the go. Editing is possible on mobile devices via an app as well as via the browser. Weebly aligns its modular system primarily with e-commerce operators. Unfortunately, Weebly has a special quirk here that we don't like very much. So Weebly would like to earn money from all sales from the online shop and calculates a commission of three percent on all sales. Only for the users of the "Business" tariff this does not apply. On the other hand, the variety of templates is positive, only Wix offers more.
Benefits of Weebly
✅ High flexibility
With numerous templates, as well as external app and building block elements, you can design your own website very individually.
✅ App Center
An integrated app center contains many useful additional functions and additional elements. Including live chat functions and e-mail marketing tools.
✅ Navigational talent
In contrast to other providers, Weebly allows unlimited navigation levels, which is particularly helpful for larger websites.
✅ Simple newsletter dispatch
It offers its own promote tool with which newsletters can be sent out very easily.
Disadvantages of Jimdo
❌ eCommerce commission
In most plans, Weebly charges a 3% commission on the sale price.
❌ Email addresses cost extra
The use of an email address is unfortunately not included in the price. If you want to use this function, the surcharge is around 4 dollars a month.
❌ No German support
Unfortunately, Weebly only offers a US phone number as customer service, which can quickly get very expensive.
Conclusion: Weebly stands out for being great Flexibility in the design options and offers a good eCommerce service. Unfortunately, in our comparison we have the feeling that all of this is done a little better by other providers.
Squarespace Homepage Builder
Over 100 flexible design templates, all of which can be adapted to mobile devices thanks to the responsive design, that is impressive. We also found Squarespace's blogging tool significantly better than the competition. Unfortunately we lack some additional functions and the possibility to integrate eCommerce in the low tariffs.
Benefits of Squarespace
✅ Templates & Designs
All templates & designs from Squarespace are optimized for mobile devices, look modern and very professional.
✅ Very good blogging function
Squarespace is the best website builder when the most important element of your website is your blog.
✅ Good mobile app
With the Squarspace app you can edit your website while on the go.
✅ Good search engine optimization
The SEO tools Squarespace offers are mature and work well. Especially with blog articles, everything SEO-relevant, such as page title and description, can be adjusted and changed.
Cons of Squarespace
❌ Slow speed
Although the templates are absolutely breathtaking in terms of design, unfortunately the loading times are relatively poor, which can have a negative effect on your Google ranking.
❌ Limited navigation
Squarespace is not suitable for larger websites because there is only a single sub-navigation. Therefore it is very difficult to implement a multilingual website.
❌ Complicated editor
Of all the vendors we tested, we found Squarespace's modular system to be the most complicated. Changes to the website will also be published directly instead of offering you a preview.
Conclusion: A solid website builder that is aimed primarily at everyone who wants to create a small, really good-looking blog. For larger websites, however, Squarespace is not really suitable.
GoDaddy website builder
GoDaddy is a website builder from the USA and is known as the world's largest domain registrar. GoDaddy is particularly suitable for beginners thanks to its practical creation wizard. The GoDaddy website builder is characterized by a multitude of great functions and templates, which enable every user to create a modern and very professional website. However, all users who want to run their website for business should note that the company's headquarters in the USA may lead to problems due to data protection regulations and the GDPR. Another provider may be more advisable in this case.
Benefits of GoDaddy
✅ simplicity
The editor is well structured and user-friendly. A practical creation assistant and “First Steps” videos help with this.
✅ Ad-free
The GoDaddy Pictures website builder is completely ad-free
✅ SEO Wizard
SEO-relevant areas such as page title and description can be easily edited.
✅ Newsletters
GoDaddy offers an integrated newsletter solution for email marketing.
✅ Responsive
The layouts adapt to cell phones and tablets
Cons of GoDaddy
❌ Restricted blog
Blogging is possible, but you cannot add authors, tags, or videos
❌ Headquarters in the USA
The company is based in the USA, which can lead to problems with commercial websites
Bottom line: GoDaddy offers one intuitive website builder that is perfect for beginners. Only bloggers and commercial users should perhaps use an alternative.
Summary
The offers for website construction kits are varied and highly customizable. The optimal provider can be found for every user. No matter whether it should be a small eCommerce shop or a personal internet presence with a blog. Homepage construction kits allow you to create your own homepage quickly and inexpensively without having to deal with the technology behind a homepage. For everyone who would like a little more individual design options and are not put off by a little technology, offers WordPress an alternative. If that sounds interesting to you, it's best to take a look at ours Overview of the best WordPress hosting providers
Questions about website construction kits
What is a website builder?
A website builder enables users to create a website without programming or code knowledge. Websites can be created within a short page using drag & drop and ready-made templates.
Which website builder is the best?
There is no general answer to this question. It all depends on what you expect from your website builder. For us, the Wix website builder was the best. However, Weebly and Jimdo also offer very good website builders, which may be better suited for you.
What is better a website builder or WordPress?
That depends on how individual you want to design your website. Homepage construction kits are generally easier to use, but offer fewer design options than WordPress.
Are there free website construction kits?
Yes. Many providers offer different options of construction kits. The basic version of the Wix Homepage Builder is completely free of charge, but it does contain self-promotion for Wix and offers only very limited functions.
How do I create a professional website?
With a modular system you can create an attractive and professional website within a short time.
Which website builder is the easiest?
All website builders are relatively easy to use and allow you to create a website without any technical knowledge. However, the Dolphin modular system from Jimdo is probably the simplest.
How much does a website cost per month?
This differs depending on the size of the website and the tariff of the selected homepage builder provider. On average, a website costs you between 5 and 50 euros per month. Hosting is already included in the website construction kit, only domain costs have to be charged extra.
