And you can't change the button size––everything is predefined. For example, if you want an orange button, you have to change the theme color, which may impact other color settings. If you choose a standard theme, you're limited to what you can edit. And then refine the look-and-feel (style, color, and fonts) with a choice of six themes, or again, create your own. You can choose from a dozen templates or a blank canvas to get started. That's fine if you're a beginner or just want to test the waters, but don't expect to conquer the search engine results. Google Sites is a basic site builder with limited customization options and zero SEO tools. This gives you more flexibility if you decide to move from one platform to another e.g., if you purchased a domain on Weebly and wanted to move to Webflow, it could be more problematic. In my experience, I've always found it preferable to buy a domain independently on a site like Namecheap. Although some of these tools are part of a suite of other marketing tools, they can all operate independently.Ī quick note on domains: Most free website builders come with an ugly-looking free domain-like -but allow you to purchase or add a custom domain. Some website builders are actually another tool with website-building capabilities. Of course, there will always be features you'll need to upgrade for, but all of these tools let you launch a website for free. Is the free plan really free, or does the builder ask you to upgrade every time you make a change? I made sure I was only looking at truly free options. I looked at the SEO tools each website builder offers, such as the ability to adjust page titles and meta descriptions, add alt tags, and upload a site map. Building a site is just half the battle-you also need to rank on search engines. If there's a trade-off between ease of use and customization, I've tried to make that clear. I assessed how easy each builder is to customize, including the number of templates, if they offer drag-and-drop features, and whether you can adjust styles, colors, and elements. None require coding knowledge, but some do let you access the code.Ĭustomization options. I've mentioned which ones are newbie-friendly and which are better for those with more design experience. Is the website builder easy to use, or do you need to be a junior dev to add a form? All the site builders on this list will be relatively easy for most users. Some are perfect for building basic sites with no design experience at all, while others are ideal for creating commercial sites but have a steeper learning curve.Īs I was testing, I was focusing on the following criteria:Įase of use. I eliminated any website builders that were too hard to use or didn't offer valuable free plans and then re-tested the remaining ones until I settled on the best of the best. For each one, I signed up and created a site from one of its templates-adding pages, adjusting copy, exploring SEO features, uploading my own images, and trying the various design elements. I've always used WordPress to build sites for myself, so I was keen to see how these tools stacked up.

I spent dozens of hours researching the best free site builders that users love-and then tested them myself. There are plenty of lists of the best free website builders, so what makes this one different? I didn't just read customer reviews or the marketing materials for these website builders. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review.

We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.

Easy web form builder