What is a Website Builder? Beginner’s Guide to No-Code Website Creation

A website builder is a tool that allows anyone to create a website without needing to know coding. Website builders make it easy for small businesses, online stores, and professionals to get their business online quickly with a professional-looking site.

In this beginner’s guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about website builders, including:

• What is a website builder and how do they work?
• The benefits of using a website builder
• The best website builders on the market today
• How to choose the right website builder
• Step-by-step instructions for getting started

Let’s start by understanding exactly what a website builder is and how it works.

What is a Website Builder and How Does it Work?

A website builder is software that allows you to create and publish websites without needing to know coding or web development.

Website builders use drag-and-drop editors and a library of templates to make it easy for anyone to build a website. All you need to do is choose one of their designer-made templates, drag and drop elements like text, images, contact forms etc. onto pages and customize things like colors and fonts to suit your branding.

Then when you’re ready, the website builder will publish and host your new site for you – no need to find a web host or setup domains yourself. Many web builders also include blogging tools, ecommerce features for online stores and marketing tools like SEO and analytics.

So in a nutshell:

• Website builders handle the technical side of creating websites for you – no coding needed
• They use intuitive drag and drop editors and templates to build the site
• And take care of publishing and hosting it online

This makes it fast and easy for small businesses, bloggers and online stores to create a powerful online presence. Even if you have zero experience!

The Benefits of Using a Website Builder

Website builders offer a range of advantages that make them an extremely popular choice, including:

It’s fast and easy to create a professional website – With pre-designed templates and drag and drop editing, you can create an impressive site in just a few hours or days rather than weeks or months.

No technical skills needed – User-friendly interfaces and features mean anyone can build a website without coding experience.

Affordable pricing – Packages start from free for basic sites or just a few dollars per month. Much less than hiring a web developer.

Optimized for search engines – Many website builders incorporate SEO best practices to help you rank higher in search engines.

Built-in ecommerce capabilities – If you want to sell online, popular builders like Wix and Squarespace include powerful ecommerce features for creating online stores out of the box.

Free and paid templates – Gain a professional, custom design without a web designer. Premium builders offer 100+ templates suited to every industry and style.

Marketing tools – From email marketing to analytics, performance tracking to SEO tools, website builders help grow your online presence.

Ongoing support – Stuck creating your site? Customer support can provide 1-on-1 help to users.

Mobile responsiveness – Sites created adapt seamlessly to smartphones and tablets.

For small business owners, bloggers, creatives and entrepreneurs who want to launch sites quickly and affordably, website builders offer an unbeatable set of benefits.

The Best Website Builders in 2021

There are now over 1,500 website builders online, making it tricky to spot the very best options. After extensive testing and review, here are the top website builder recommendations across four key categories:

1. Best Overall Website Builder: Wix

Wix is hands-down the most versatile, full-featured and easy-to-use website builder available.

With 500+ designer templates suited to every type of website, extremely intuitive drag and drop editing, a huge app marketplace and seamless ecommerce capabilities, Wix is an exceptional choice for all website types – from blogs to online stores.

It caters equally well to web design novices as it does to advanced users. Yet still gives you total design flexibility and customization potential.

While not the cheapest option, Wix remains outstanding value given the quality, depth of features and free tier available. For these reasons, it’s the #1 overall recommendation for using a website builder.

2. Best for Design Flexibility: Webflow

For tech-savvy users wanting greater design control, Webflow leads as a top website builder option.

It uses a unique CSS editing framework rather than traditional drag & drop page builders. So you have complete freedom to customize site design, layouts and styling without limits.

As a trade-off, Webflow is less intuitive than Wix for complete beginners. But it delivers professional templates and hosting that starts from $14/month. Serious about fine-tune design capabilities? Webflow is a top choice.

3. Best for Ecommerce: Shopify

Shopify powers over 1 million online stores and is the leading choice for website building focused purely on ecommerce.

It offers enterprise-level shopping cart performance, security and scalability out of the box. Combined with gorgeous templates, huge app ecosystem, 24/7 support and seamless integration with services like payment processors, shipping carriers and marketing platforms.

For anyone serious about launching or migrating an online store, Shopify is the gold standard website builder today.

4. Best for Beginners: Squarespace

For users who aren’t technical whatsoever but want a polished website live quickly, Squarespace leads for beginner-friendliness.

Their award-winning templates require no customization yet still look beautiful. The simplified page builder and settings make it obvious how to update site content or settings. And features like automatic mobile layouts are enabled by default.

Support options like 1-on-1 webinars help beginners through every step of setup and design. For SMB owners who want a fuss-free journey into professional web design, Squarespace hits the mark.

How to Choose the Best Website Builder

Deciding which website builder is right for you depends mainly on three factors:

1. Your website type – Blog, online store, portfolio etc? Builders cater to specific site types better than being generalist.
2. Your budget – Free, $10-$30 monthly or premium packages at $40+? Set realistic budgets before comparing website costs.
3. Your skill level – Beginner or advanced user? Choose an editor fitting your ability so the experience is smooth.

Keep these aspects in mind while evaluating options for your needs:

• Templates – profession, quality and customizability available
• Features – specifically must-haves like forms, galleries, blogs, SEO
• Ease of Use – the level of website building difficulty you can handle
• Scalability – bandwidth, storage and ecommerce growth potential
• Support – docs, videos, communities & 1-on-1 assistance
• Costs – align builder pricing tiers to your budget

Doing your own research is wise to dig into pros, cons and alternatives for site builders that seem appealing.

Most offer free trials to test if their editor, templates and features will truly work for your site. Taking advantage of trials can prevent choosing the wrong platform.

Getting Started: How to Use a Website Builder

If you’ve chosen Wix, Squarespace, Weebly or another top website builder, the process to start designing your live website is straightforward:

Step 1) Choose a template

Begin by browsing the template categories or using search filters to find an ideal design suited to your industry and style preferences. Consider mobile experience in addition to desktop appeal.

Step 2) Start customizing the template

Using the page builder dashboard and sidebar settings, personalize the template by tweaking colors, fonts, adding branding elements like logos and updating text across all the pages to match your company or site content.

Step 3) Create new pages

Add important pages like About Us, Contact, Blog and portfolio galleries as needed, customizing each separately with images, text and specific elements to achieve the layout you want.

Step 4) Include features and apps

Enrich website functionality with bookings apps, blogs, forms, maps direction widgets and specialized tools through the builder’s app ecosystem.

Step 5) Set up site settings

Configure technical elements related to SEO optimization, analytics tracking, domain mapping and connecting an email service to capture form entries and newsletter signups.

Step 6) Publish your live website

Review carefully before publishing publicly online! Add a custom domain or use the default domain with builder branding.

For context when working in your site dashboard, utilize the builder’s own docs, community forums or 1-on-1 support to understand what each setting and feature does.

While builders are designed for ease of use, there is a learning curve if you’ve never created a website before. Be patient, experiment freely and enable auto-save constantly in case you make edits you want to revert.

Frequently Asked Website Builder Questions

Summing Up

Building and launching websites no longer requires advanced coding and design skills thanks to intuitive website builders like Wix, Webflow and Squarespace.

Anyone can now start an online presence from scratch without development or creative experience.

Website builders eliminate the technical barrier to creating professional sites tailored to your brand and goals. And empower entrepreneurs to turn great ideas into reality virtually overnight!

Neil Beckett

Neil is an accomplished web, designer and developer with over 15 years of experience in creating and optimizing websites for small businesses and online entrepreneurs. Read full bio

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