You can get web hosting for cheap even with the best web hosting services: there's no divide between high-level hosting and affordable pricing. Users with any budget can access website hosting without needing to cut bandwidth, storage, security, or uptime needs, and without breaking the bank. 

If you're wondering how to choose a web hosting service, and then, once you've chosen, how you buy a hosting package, it's our view that it's best to ensure you've prepared yourself fully, given yourself all the information you need, and then get the best web hosting for cheap via the best deals available.

We've brought together the best web hosting for cheap, collating the top deals available across leading providers of quick, reliable, and secure web hosting for individual or business sites.

Hostinger, one of our leading web hosts, is offering 80% off four-year subscriptions on its Single Shared hosting plan (covering one site). Namecheap, one of the most competitively-priced hosts, offers a top series of plans with unmetered bandwidth and storage: it's offering 40% off its Professional Business Email packages, and 18% off its PositiveSSL Multi-Domain security add-on. 

Web hosting has always been an energy-intensive service, but for those minded to save the environment and the planet, GreenGeeks is your best bet. This eco-friendly host is giving new customers up to 77% off its Lite, Pro and Premium packages. For experienced web devs, Liquid Web is pffering 25% off dedicated server hosting, as well as 40% off bare metal servers and HIPAA-compliant servers. 

If you're looking for a new website too, our round-up of the best website builders and the best cheap website builder deals give you our top providers and their best deals, so that you can save money throughout your new site development plans.

Web hosting for cheap: the best deals

Web hosting: deals round up

• Hostinger: Save 80% on four years of Single Shared hosting
• Bluehost: Save 60% off shared hosting for new users
• Hostinger: Get over 70% off premium, WordPress, and cPanel hosting
• HostGator: Use code SNAPPY for up to 60% off a variety of hosting options
• GreenGeeks: Get 77% off Lite, Pro and Premium plans (from $2.95 a month)
• Liquid Web: Get up to 75% off Linux/Windows VPS (12 or 24-month plans)
• SiteGround: Save 69% off web hosting plans (from $3.99 a month)
• InMotion Hosting: Save 35% or more during your first year
• DreamHost: Save 68% with Shared Starter/72% with Shared Unlimited
• Namecheap: 40% off professional business email plans (MARPE40)
• GoDaddy: Save 85% on hosting (GDD1hos), and 30% on bundles (GDD1mwp)
• Hostwinds: Get 25% off Basic plans with unlimited bandwidth and disk space

Web hosting FAQs

How we review web hosting services

When we review web hosts, first of all we trial a given host's response times and uptimes, as these are key to performance, and do this by creating a test website, checking the times over a two-week period for comprehensive results. We also analyze and test user interfaces, features, and tools, in order to ensure that we can tell you with confidence if they're easy to use or designed for professionals.

In addition, we also look into security features and customer support response times in depth, as you'll want to make sure your site is safe, and that any issues encountered can be fixed promptly and professionally. Finally, we make sure to research and explain pricing in detail, so that we can make you aware of one of the less-positive elements of web hosting: often-exponentially increasing monthly costs after your initial, cheaper introductory period.

Further reading on and next steps with web hosting

Learn how to host a website before you start, and avoid common hosting mistakes. Enhance your knowledge of hosting security and look into anonymous website hosting for added privacy; then choose a domain name and register your domain. Finally, see how hosting can affect SEO for your website.

It's also worth taking a look at our guides covering different types of web hosting, including the best Linux web hosting, the best Windows hosting, and the best WordPress hosting.

The best cheap website builders, which are usually the same providers as those ranking among the best website builders, provide any user with the ability to build a website from scratch quickly and simply, regardless of their level of experience.

Whether you're creating an individual or business website, the best cheap website builders offer users visually-impressive templates, specific marketing or website SEO tools, small businesses and ecommerce functionalities, and intuitive user interfaces that utilize drag-and-drop technology.

We've outlined below our best cheap website builder deals from providers across the sector. Wix is our top platform across many use cases, and it's one of the most popular and highly-rated site builders available thanks to its powerful editor and versatile user experience. In May, Wix is offering 10% off its yearly premium plans with the code TAKE10. 

For those looking to build an ecommerce website, Shopify is one of the most commonly-used ecommerce store builders available. This month, it's offering 10% off annual plans, and 20% off biennial plans—it's also worth noting that you can try the platform for free for 14 days, with no credit card required. 

If you're entering the website builder sector at the beginner's end of the spectrum, 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite offers simple, no-code site creation with excellent tools and features, and is currently available for 50% off.

Read on to find the best cheap website builder deals available: if you're in the market for the best web hosting services, it's also worth taking a look at the deals offering best web hosting for cheap to save yourself money across the board.

The best cheap website builder deals

Best cheap website builder deals roundup:

• Wix: Save 10% on yearly premium plans (TAKE10)
• Bluehost: Save 75% on Bluehost’s website builder, just $2.95 a month
• Editor X: Save 21% on this powerful new editor with year plans
• HostGator: Get 50% off the Gator Website Builder (SNAPPY)
• Shopify: Save up to 20% off premium, biennial plans or 10% off annual plans
• GoDaddy: Save 30% by bundling GoDaddy's builder with hosting, domains and more
• Weebly: Save 33% when choosing annual pricing on new plans
• 1&1 IONOS: Save 50% on your first year (just $5 a month)
• Web.com: Get 50% off your first month with new plans, just $1.95
• Squarespace: Take 10% off websites or domains on any plan (GIMME10) with more deals on our Squarespace promo codes

Website builders FAQs

Free vs cheap website builders — Which is better?

When comparing free website builders vs paid, major website builders often offer a free plan that allows you to “test-drive” their services before you make an annual commitment. While these plans are indeed free forever, they are highly limited both in terms of features and resources. Some even display compulsory ads on your website as a means of compensating for the free offering. 

If you are building your website as a hobby or for other personal reasons, a free plan might just suffice. However, professionals and business owners should always consider buying into a paid plan if they want to create a successful website.

How we review website builders

When we review website builders, we test the site editor to see where it lands on the user experience scale, so we can identify whether it's aimed at novices or more advanced users. We undertake trials in which we construct sites and test builder features and tools comprehensively, and test customer support and service response. 

In turn, we establish how pricing works, because a cheaper initial monthly cost can increase exponentially after your first term; and we compare builders against one another to see which platforms come out on top in this competitive sector.

Further reading on and next steps with website builders

Looking for a particular kind of website builder not covered here? We've got buying guides covering the best website builders for photographers, the best website builder for musicians, the best free blogging sites, and the best website builders for WordPress.

Be sure to learn how to choose the right way to build a website for you. We’ve also put together a guide on how to get the best performance with a good, simple website design.

Once you've chosen a builder, there are a range of elements you need to familiarize yourself with and steps to take. Choose a domain name and then register your domain; implement website security; enhance website branding; and find free website content.

It's important to ensure that you make your site accessible; that you understand web SEO; that you undertake website audits regularly; and, if you're just blogging, learn how to start a blog.

Anonymous website hosting allows you to register under a pseudonym, remaining private online, when setting up the best web hosting for your needs.  

What does anonymous website hosting do? 

Anonymous website hosting is the closest one can get from being truly private online. It provides multiple different ways of ensuring there's no way of tracing the ownership of a website back to you. These include:

• Registering under a pseudonym: users don't need to use their real name to sign up to anonymous website hosting
• No postal address requirement: when registering a domain name, you don't need to use your actual address to do so
• Paying anonymously: most anonymous website hosting companies allow you to pay using anonymous and protected crypto transactions, rather than regular payment methods
• Being located somewhere with tight privacy laws: like when using a VPN, the country of origin for a website hosting firm can dictate what privacy laws are involved; those with more relaxed laws are best for the most privacy-conscious
• Whois privacy protection: many anonymous website hosting firms, as well as regular ones, use Whois privacy protection to ensure that others can't view their details online

How departments use anonymous website hosting 

Customer service

Often, anonymous website hosting is used for selling products that a customer does not wish to be identified from. That doesn't solely mean anything illegal; it could also mean products that are of a private nature. Customer service departments can deal with a client without knowing anything more than the product involved, giving peace of mind to the customer. Anonymous website hosting can also mean less issues with spam for both the company and the customers involved, too. 

Marketing

Marketing is fairly unaffected by anonymous website hosting. While some users of the website may browse via a VPN (if it's a sensitive matter), thereby making tracking through cookies harder, there's no reason why it would affect regular marketing campaigns. Marketing can still work reasonably effectively through CRM tools and similar, so that they can generate strong sales leads for a customer. Generally, contact between customers and the company are what generates the best leads, rather than how open the website is.

HR

HR departments mostly benefit from anonymous website hosting because there are limited issues with spam and unwanted interest. HR can focus on ensuring employees are kept up-to-date with the latest developments within the company, instead of having to worry about other admin. Such admin can ordinarily include keeping an eye on Whois details, which is no longer needed when using anonymous services. Not having to worry about personal information being disclosed can also be a benefit. 

IT

An IT department can focus on the website's performance over potential security issues relating to information being leaked. As with knowing how to host a website that isn't anonymous, it's important to understand how web hosting security can impact a website, but one of the most obvious ways of being tracked is removed through anonymous website hosting. An IT department can then use that time to look at hosting providers who offer the best uptime, speed, and general service.

Finance

Finance departments need to deal with things slightly differently when using anonymous hosting providers. That's because payment is not done in a conventional manner. Instead, the best way to pay is via anonymous means of payment such as cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum. It's important to educate a finance department on how this differs from regular bank payments before committing to the process. They may also want to invest more in fake/temporary email addresses, or purchase a VPN service for maximum security. 

Features and benefits of anonymous website hosting 

Near complete anonymity

The biggest benefit of anonymous website hosting is in the name. By using it, your website and services are far more anonymous and private. Your business address isn't listed. so there is no chance of the website and business location being linked. It's also possible to use a fake name, so that no one knows who actually owns the website. It's the nearest to being anonymous online one can get. 

More payment options

Most anonymous website hosting firms offer cryptocurrency as a payment option, meaning there is more flexibility in how you pay for its services. For users involved in NFTs or other cryptocurrency-related industries, it can be far easier to pay for services using crypto rather than having to convert back and forth between conventional money. It's also more anonymous.

Limited risk of being discovered

If you're selling sensitive products, or simply wish to keep online life separate from offline, setting up anonymous website hosting helps make that possible. By keeping Whois records private, there's no way of tracing your business address via a web address, so there's no risk of someone turning up at your premises. When information can soon be pieced together for identity theft, it's a useful way of keeping more hidden away.

Less risk of spam

It's a small but significant help. By keeping all your details private, your business won't receive as much spam. There's no risk of a marketing company tracking down your details and inundating you with colds calls or mail, meaning less hassle for you. Such content can range from companies trying to sell similar services, to unwanted insurance schemes, and even to a company trying to find out more about your products in an illicit manner. 

Circumventing local laws and regulations

A bit of a gray area depending on the laws involved, by using anonymous website hosting it can be easier to circumvent some local laws. This may be highly inadvisable depending on the product involved, but as with the best VPN services, it can be useful when dealing with a country with a repressive regime which may limit what can be achieved for your business, or even what can be discussed by someone. For the most part though, this isn't a recommended benefit for the average company.

Anonymous website hosting FAQs

Main takeaways 

• Anonymous website hosting lives up to its name: by using anonymous website hosting, you're as hidden away online as possible - no details are listed or kept
• Not everyone needs it: anonymous website hosting is useful for some, but few users need it, as hiding Whois searches will suffice for most
• It can circumvent censorship issues: like a VPN, anonymous website hosting can be useful in countries with repressive regimes
• Sensitive items can be sold through such methods: anonymous website hosting may encourage users looking to buy items that are of a sensitive but legal nature
• It can cut down on admin: using such a service often means less spam from cold callers and similar, thanks to being more anonymous online

Further reading 

When considering anonymous website hosting, it's important to also evaluate your website security so your site is extra safe. Knowing what to look for when buying web hosting is useful too. Don't forget to consider one of the best VPNs as well, so your browsing activities are also safe and secure. 

Editor X is a website-building platform that combines drag-and-drop simplicity with advanced tools for designers and developers. Created by Wix, the well-known and highly regarded website building platform, Editor X provides a lot more flexibility and customization options than its parent platform. 

If you’re trying to choose from the best website builders around, Editor X is certainly worthy of consideration.

Editor X review: Snapshot

Editor X is a new addition to the website builder market, and comes with features we’ve not seen before in this space. High levels of customization and design flexibility are the order of the day, making it a powerful tool, if not one that may be right for everyone.

With Editor X, you can collaborate in real-time with other designers and developers, and the developer tools enable you to dive deep into the website code. Since this functionality offers tons of flexibility, experienced web designers or creative teams will love what they can do with it. But anyone looking for a more simple web design experience with plenty of template options might want to look towards providers such as Wix or Squarespace.  

Score: 4.5/5

Read on for our full and detailed review.

Editor X’s competitors

Editor X: Key features

Editor X offers some functionalities that you simply won’t find with other website builders. These make it an ideal choice for experienced website designers, teams that regularly collaborate over website creation, or anyone who simply isn’t getting the design flexibility they need from other providers.

The most notable of these features is the multi-user collaboration capabilities. Editor X allows multiple people to edit the website in real-time. For agency teams, this is a huge win. Managers can assign custom roles with different permissions, and team members can comment on different elements in real-time.

Another notable feature of Editor X in comparison with competitors is the custom code functionality. This could be seen as a major benefit or significant drawback depending on the user. While experienced designers will love the ability to use custom JavaScript and connect APIs, this feature could easily intimidate someone who is completely new to website design. 

Editor X: Key features and highlights

Editor X makes it very easy to save, re-use, and edit sections of your website. By using their “Content Collections” you can use what are essentially databases in the back end of your site to display data and media in responsive and repeated layouts. Content Collections make it easy to change text, add new media, and update uniform design elements on your site.

An example of this would be updating product lists or a photo gallery. Without the need to make design adjustments to an element or page, new data can be added to responsive layouts on your website. You can even update a content collection by uploading a CSV file, and instantly see the fully designed result on your website.

Editor X’s parent platform, Wix, is known for its extensive collection of free and paid apps to expand the functionality of your websites. Luckily, you have access to the Wix app marketplace through Editor X. The only downside is that not all Wix apps are compatible with Editor X just yet.

Editor X: What’s new in 2022?

When it comes to Editor X, almost everything is new because the platform was only released in February 2021. That being said, the Editor X team has already made leaps and bounds in the year since it was brought to market. The number of templates available has increased from eight to 28, and recently-added functionality includes the ability to create test sites and enhanced form design.

Academy X has also been created, a resource library and knowledge base where users can access articles, video tutorials, and webinars to enhance their usage of Editor X. The team behind the platform are receptive to feedback, and regularly seek input from users on their community forum, Community X.

Editor X: Pricing

Editor X is a subscription-based platform, and offers two separate pricing categories. General websites fall under the Website Plans category, while any website that requires payment processing/ecommerce functionality falls into the Business and eCommerce Plans category. 

Each category has three pricing tiers, which offer different levels of functionality and storage capabilities. While there is a “free forever” option, functionality is limited, and you won’t be able to customize your domain name. For large teams, you can also contact Editor X to learn more about their enterprise pricing. 

While the pricing is displayed as an amount per month on the Editor X website, subscriptions are annual, so you’ll pay in full for one year when you purchase any of the premium plans.

Testing Editor X

With Editor X, it’s very simple to create an account and get started with building a website. It took us all of three clicks through sign-up pages to get straight into editing a pre-designed template.

Like with many cloud-based providers these days, you can sign up with an existing Gmail account. Once we had signed up, Editor X asked us to either select a template or start from scratch. Using a template is a great way to get familiar with everything Editor X can do.

For example, the platform makes it very simple to layer elements over each other without any complex padding or margin settings. Similarly, resizing elements can be done with easy click-and-drag functionality.

Every template and element on Editor X is fully mobile responsive. However, once you start making edits to a template, you might notice that the sizing and spacing of elements aren’t quite what you’d want. This means taking the time to manually edit the mobile versions of your site, which is time-consuming.

Since Editor X is essentially the Wix editing platform with advanced functionality, help queries are submitted through the same customer care center for both offerings. The Wix team promises 24/7 availability through email and phone callbacks. You can even schedule a specific time for your callback if needed. 

Phone callbacks are only available from 3am to 7pm (PST) Monday to Friday. So, we first submitted a request for a callback and waited around 30 minutes to receive the call. The representative was very helpful and knowledgeable, even when it came to questions about the more complex developer tools.

After that, we submitted another ticket via email. For this request, we received a reply just after the one-hour mark. While support for Editor X from the Wix team is very helpful by both phone and email when you receive it, the wait times are a little longer than we would like.

Alternatives to Editor X

Editor X is entering a fairly competitive market when it comes to website builders. However, it does seek to fulfill different needs to those of providers such as Wix and Squarespace. Between these three services, it really comes down to what type of website you want to build, how quickly you need to build it, and how much customization you require.

If you want to get a highly attractive site up and running fast, Squarespace is the superior option. The platform is renowned for its large range of over 100 beautiful, ready-to-use templates. In comparison, Editor X only has 28 templates to choose from. 

The templates on Editor X are diverse in design and layout, but they don’t quite reach the same elegance or simplicity of design as Squarespace. While Wix outdoes Squarespace in the number of templates available with over 800 options, the Squarespace templates are generally considered to appear more sophisticated.

On the other hand, Squarespace is not the most intuitive website editor to use. Making updates to your site or attempting extensive editing of a template can require a significant time investment. Both Wix and Editor X offer a far more intuitive user interface.

For large web design teams or web design agencies, Editor X is the easy winner. Features such as real-time editing by multiple users are unique to Editor X, and you can’t beat the level of flexibility and customization provided through the developer tools.

Editor X: Final verdict

There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to Editor X, especially if you’re part of a creative team. It offers functionalities that are simply not available in comparable website builders. This includes the ability to speed up collaboration through real-time editing among multiple users. Web design also becomes far more efficient with the use of features such as Content Collections. 

But one of the most advantageous parts of Editor X is the level of customization available. The developer tools allow users to get deep into the code of their website, unlike parent platform Wix or competitor Squarespace. 

Editor X is slightly more expensive than other platforms, especially in the upper pricing tiers of its ecommerce packages. With more expensive packages, it’s a little disappointing that the customer support wait times are so long.

With all of its flexibility and custom code features, Editor X is not for the beginner website creator. If you’re looking for an affordable and simple way to create a great looking website for your personal blog or small business, Wix is the preferable option. 

Overall, Editor X is an exciting new entrant to the website builder market for web designers and creative teams. It’s got powerful functionality combined with the simplicity of drag-and-drop website building.

Further reading on website builders and web hosting

If you’re still on the fence about Editor X, you’d do well to get more advice. If cost is a concern, or you're looking for something more business-focused, you might like to check out the best cheap website builders or the best small business website builders. You might be evaluating what to use for building an ecommerce website: take a look at the best ecommerce website builders.

Another option for increased customization and flexibility is WordPress, via the best website builders for WordPress. If you opt for this, you'll also need to sign up to the best WordPress hosting: make sure to sign up with one of the best web hosting services offering WordPress hosting.

Although most website builders are quite versatile and support various types of websites, some of the best website builders are designed specifically for ecommerce.

In our Shopify vs BigCommerce comparison, we take a look at two of the world’s leading online store creation platforms. Shopify is extremely popular among beginners. With Shopify, you will have access to an intuitive management dashboard containing countless attractive tools. The editor is a little simple, but it supports rapid, cost-effective store creation.

On the other hand, BigCommerce targets larger companies and established entrepreneurs. It offers advanced custom solutions for enterprise-level clients, and it’s known for its excellent scalability. However, ecommerce beginners may find the sheer number of features overwhelming.

We look at their main features, performance, support, and prices to help you decide which is the best ecommerce website builder for your needs.

Shopify vs BigCommerce: Features

Shopify and BigCommerce are known as two of the most advanced ecommerce platforms on the market. Both offer a huge range of features and cater to stores of various sizes. Below, we analyze how they stack up against each other.

Templates

Shopify has 81 templates to select from in the Shopify Themes store. Of these, 10 are free and 71 will require you to dig into your wallet. Prices for the premium themes range from $150 to $350. You can also upload custom themes to Shopify. These can be developed from scratch or purchased from a third-party marketplace. 

The BigCommerce Theme Marketplace is surprisingly similar. It boasts a larger selection of 189 themes, but only 12 of them are free. The premium themes will set you back anywhere from $150 to $300, making them similarly priced to Shopify’s. And like Shopify, BigCommerce enables you to upload custom themes from third-party sources.

App marketplace

Shopify and BigCommerce both have large app marketplaces where you can find an array of extensions. These include everything from drop shipping integrations to product review plugins and marketing tools. 

Shopify’s App Store contains over 4,200 apps. There’s a load of free and premium options, and many come with free trials or tiered billing. The BigCommerce app store is smaller, with just over 800 extensions. However, there’s still plenty of value to be found here, and you should be able to find something that makes managing your online store easier.

Sales channels

Like most leading ecommerce platforms, Shopify and BigCommerce enable you to sell via multiple sales channels. Your store will likely be one of your main revenue sources, but the others are still very useful when used right! 

With Shopify, you can connect to a Point of Sale (POS) system to link your ecommerce and brick-and-mortar sales. You can add a buy button to an existing website or blog. Various social media integrations, including Facebook and Pinterest, are available to help you sell directly to your followers. It’s even possible to link to large marketplaces like eBay and Amazon. 

BigCommerce is similar. It offers POS connections through Clover POS, along with similar third-party marketplace and social media integrations. However, it doesn’t offer a buy button to add to a separate website. Because of this, Shopify may be a better option for businesses that sell products via multiple websites.

Analytics and reporting tools

Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer advanced reporting and analytics tools to help you understand your store’s performance. 

BigCommerce presents data in a clear, easy-to-understand manner. You can filter by sales channel, date, and other criteria. You’ll be able to find information about your overall marketing efforts, orders, customers, purchase funnels, in-store searches, and more. 

Shopify’s analytics dashboard is just as good. It presents similar information and enables you to generate custom reports. One thing that stands out is Shopify’s marketing campaign analytics, which enable you to track the results of specific campaigns. BigCommerce doesn’t offer anything that’s comparable.

Shopify vs BigCommerce: Performance

To test the performance of Shopify and BigCommerce, we created a simple store with each and tested various management and customization processes. 

Getting started with Shopify is easy. All you need to do is hit the "Start free trial" button on the company’s website, and enter an email address, password, and store name to create an account. You’ll be asked about your experience level, so that Shopify can provide you with relevant educational material. You’ll then be taken directly to the management dashboard.

BigCommerce’s sign-up process is similar to Shopify’s. Once you create an account, you should be able to access your dashboard within minutes. 

Here’s where Shopify and BigCommerce begin to differ. The BigCommerce management dashboard is very well designed, but it’s packed so full of advanced tools that it was hard to know where to start. 

On the other hand, Shopify provides a clear checklist of the steps you need to take to get your store off the ground. The very first thing you’ll see is a link to a video outlining how to get started, which we found very useful. 

Shopify also makes ongoing customer and inventory management straightforward. On the left of your main dashboard, you will find links to various management portals. You can even add apps for extra functionality.

With BigCommerce, you will also have access to advanced product and customer management tools. But we found it difficult to get the hang of using them, and you may run into trouble if you don’t have much tech experience.

Next, we tested how easy it was to design a store. With Shopify, you will be confined by the layout of the template you select. The store builder enables you to add and remove sections on each page, but you won’t be able to fine-tune things like element positioning or size. 

We also found the Shopify editor to be a little clunky. It’s slow to load, and the editing options are quite confusing to navigate. However, you will be able to change global design settings easily via the Theme Settings menu, which we appreciate. 

On the other hand, BigCommerce’s editor is much more intuitive and easier to use. As with Shopify, you will be somewhat constrained by your template, but you’ll have much more flexibility. Widgets can be dragged and dropped into position, and you can add custom HTML blocks if required. There are loads of excellent global design tools here, too. 

Overall, BigCommerce wins on the performance front. Shopify is targeted at beginners, and has a clear management interface, but its editor just doesn’t impress.

Shopify vs BigCommerce: Support

Customer support is crucial for ecommerce beginners. If you run into a problem, you’ll want the ability to resolve it rapidly before it causes more significant issues. 

Shopify’s customer service appears excellent on the surface, with 24/7 email, live chat, and phone support. But when we tested it, we found that the support agents weren’t very knowledgeable. And at times, when it’s too busy, you will have trouble actually getting connected with an agent. You may have to wait upwards of 30 minutes for a response.

BigCommerce also offers 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support. But unlike Shopify, it seems the company actually employs customer service agents who know their stuff. Overall, we had a much better experience interacting with the BigCommerce support team than the Shopify one. 

Both platforms offer a suite of self-help resources. BigCommerce has a decent support center with a number of useful resources, including video guides, user docs, and step-by-step tutorials. 

But when it comes to self-help resources, Shopify comes out ahead due to the sheer number and quality of the resources available. For example, you can access in-depth tutorials and guides in the Shopify Help Center which outline things in a clear, beginner-friendly way. On top of this, Shopify’s popularity means that the internet is packed full of even more information to help you out.

Shopify vs BigCommerce: Pricing and plans

Shopify and BigCommerce have very similar pricing structures. Shopify has a 14-day free trial that you can use to test the platform, while BigCommerce has a 15-day trial. Neither requires you to enter payment details. However, BigCommerce offers annual subscription discounts, while Shopify doesn’t. 

With Shopify, you will have access to three main plans, a custom-priced enterprise-level option, and a cheap WordPress plugin. The Shopify Lite plugin costs $9 a month, and enables you to add a buy button to your existing website. BigCommerce has no comparable product, but it also has three main plans and a custom-priced enterprise-level option.

The cheapest Basic Shopify plan ($29 a month) enables you to create your own store with up to two staff members and four inventory locations. You will have access to all basic selling tools, but advanced reports will be disabled. 

BigCommerce’s Standard plan ($29.95 a month) is directly comparable to this in price. It supports up to $50,000 in sales a year. However, advanced tools like customer segmentation, an abandoned cart saver, and product filtering are absent. 

The Shopify plan ($79 a month) and BigCommerce’s Plus plan ($79.95 a month) are also comparable in terms of price, as are the Advanced Shopify ($299 a month) and BigCommerce’s Pro ($299.95 a month) plan. 

One of the main differences between the two platforms is that BigCommerce offers 0% transaction fees with third-party payment gateways. Shopify’s fees range from 0.5% to 2%, depending on your plan. Shopify also limits the number of staff accounts you can have, while BigCommerce enables unlimited accounts with all plans. 

Both platforms also offer advanced, custom-price enterprise solutions for high-end online stores. It’s difficult to separate the two in terms of price, and in the end, you will need to make a decision based on the features you require.

Shopify vs BigCommerce: Verdict

It’s easy to see why Shopify and BigCommerce are two of the world’s top-rated ecommerce platforms. They both bring a lot to the table, and it’s virtually impossible to say that one is better overall than the other. 

Both offer a wide range of advanced features. BigCommerce has almost triple the number of templates as Shopify, but Shopify has a better app market. Both platforms offer similar sales channels, but Shopify comes out on top when it comes to analytics and reporting. 

Shopify is beginner-friendly and has a more intuitive dashboard layout, but both are great for stores of all sizes. BigCommerce’s customer service stands out above Shopify’s due to its more knowledgeable support agents. 

Furthermore, BigCommerce’s editor is more flexible and easier to use than Shopify’s. The two platforms are very similarly priced, though, and both offer a free trial that you can use to get started. 

At the end of the day, both platforms are excellent. Shopify is better for beginners, and it has more apps and better analytics. But BigCommerce remains an excellent option for larger stores and those that plan to scale quickly.

Further reading on website builders

Whether you choose Shopify or BigCommerce, make sure you read our guide outlining how to build an ecommerce website if you want to create an online store. If you go with Shopify, we've also devised a step-by-step walkthrough on how to build a website with Shopify. 

Many of the best ecommerce builders also number among the best small business website builders; it's worth seeing which providers rank highly across the board, in case you need features covering different areas.

You might prefer to utilize WordPress; in that case, you'd need one of the best website builders for WordPress, and the best WordPress hosting offered by one of the best web hosting services. There's also plugin options such as WooCommerce for selling on WordPress.

Ecommerce is becoming an increasingly attractive proposition as consumer buying habits shift to the digital space. Many of the best website builders come with excellent online store creation tools that are designed to help you create your own ecommerce store with a minimum amount of fuss. 

In our Squarespace vs Shopify comparison, we take a closer look at these two popular online store builders. Both are designed for beginners creating their first store, but both also come with advanced tools for more experienced users. 

Squarespace is the more versatile platform, offering solutions for everything from small personal blogs to large stores. Shopify, on the other hand, is designed specifically for online store creation. To help you decide which of these two industry giants is best for your next project, we’ve done the legwork and reviewed their main features, performance, support, and prices.

Squarespace vs Shopify: Features

Both Squarespace and Shopify boast a huge range of features. Since both focus on ecommerce, we’ve compared some of the most important tools for ongoing store management and success.

Ecommerce

Both these platforms are ecommerce industry leaders, and both boast an excellent range of tools to help you get the most out of your store. For example, both Squarespace and Shopify enable you to sell digital goods, create abandoned cart recovery campaigns, offer gift cards, and add custom shipping rules. Basically, you will have everything you need to run a successful store with either option. 

However, Shopify goes slightly further, adding some advanced features that Squarespace just can’t compete with. These include the ability to create product collections, automatic inventory tracking, and advanced analytics and reporting.

Marketing

On the marketing front, Shopify clearly stands out above Squarespace. Both platforms come with built-in email marketing tools, and with Squarespace, you will be able to create basic email campaigns, schedule them, and track basic metrics such as in-email link clicks and visitor numbers. 

But with Shopify, you will be able to do much, much more. Along with email marketing, the platform also boasts tools to help you create social media campaigns on most of the major platforms, including Snapchat, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. You can even create SMS marketing campaigns. 

And the best thing? Shopify comes with advanced campaign-tracking tools. With these, you can carefully monitor campaigns, analyze their effectiveness, and ensure you’re getting the best ROI. On its marketing dashboard you will also find neat insights into your most successful products and how you could improve your marketing efforts.

Plugins and extensions

You’ll be able to access various apps and extensions through the Squarespace Extensions library or the Shopify App Store. If you use Shopify, you will have access to more than 4,000 apps that can add functionality to your website. 

Many of these are premium apps, but there are plenty of free options for those on a budget. You will find add-ons covering everything from dropshipping and email marketing to popup creation and social media integration. 

Unfortunately, Squarespace just can’t compare. Its marketplace contains just 28 extensions from a very select group of third-party platforms. Most of these deal with shipping, accounting, and dropshipping, and you shouldn’t expect to find anything too advanced here.

Security

When you’re operating an online store, you will be dealing with large amounts of sensitive personal and payment information. Security is therefore one of the most important things to think about when selecting a store builder. 

Fortunately, both Squarespace and Shopify excel here. Both offer the security basics, including SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates that facilitate secure encrypted data transfer. At the same time, both platforms use PCI-compliant (Payment Card Industry) payment gateways. This means that their security measures have been audited and certified as adequate by a third-party regulatory body. 

The bottom line: Both Squarespace and Shopify offer excellent security, and it’s hard to split the two here.

Squarespace vs Shopify: Performance

To test the performance of Squarespace and Shopify, we signed up for a trial with each platform and created two basic stores. We took various factors into account, including the ease of use and functionality of each editor, their analytics and reporting tools, and their main dashboards.

Creating your online store

The differences between Squarespace’s and Shopify’s store builders became immediately evident when we began to test them. Squarespace’s drag-and-drop builder is rather powerful, while Shopify’s beginner-friendly platform leaves a lot to be desired. 

If you use Squarespace, you will have free access to more than 110 high-quality templates, including 77 that include built-in ecommerce features. Its section-based drag-and-drop editor is a little confusing to get started with, but there are loads of customization options on offer.

For example, you can change the entire layout of your template by adding and removing elements and reordering them as required. CSS coding is even supported, enabling you to get a little fancy and fine-tune your design if you have the required knowledge. 

On the other hand, there are roughly 100 templates in the Shopify theme library. But only a handful of these are free. You can also add custom templates or purchase one from a third-party vendor. 

But the Shopify editor really lets it down. It's beginner friendly and easy to use, as it’s designed to be, but it’s also rather limited. You will be very confined by the pre-coded layout of the template you use, and there are no drag-and-drop editing tools.  

Squarespace clearly wins here.

Analytics and reporting

When it comes to analytics and reporting, we expected Shopify to excel. And we weren’t let down. 

Both Squarespace and Shopify offer the basic analytics and reporting tools that come with virtually every website builder. For example, you can keep tabs on visitor numbers, acquisition streams, product views, and sales. 

But Shopify goes one step further, with numerous filters and other tools to help you analyze your audience. Custom reports can be created based on a huge range of data, and you can even import data from various third-party sales platforms. 

Squarespace does let you connect Google Analytics, but Shopify does that too, and with so much additional functionality, it clearly takes the points here.

Ongoing management

The Shopify management dashboard is excellent, boasting a clear menu and excellent functionality. On the left of the screen, you will find options to manage customers, orders, products, and more. There are various marketing and analytics tools, and you can integrate third-party apps for automatic order fulfillment or to streamline other tasks. 

Squarespace’s management panel is fully functional, but it’s much more basic than Shopify’s. Let’s just say that you will find everything you need to run and manage your store, but that there aren’t any bells and whistles attached.

Support

Unless you’re an expert web developer, chances are that you will run into some sort of problem during your ecommerce journey. When this happens, it’s important to have access to reliable support to help you solve problems promptly. 

If you decide to go with Squarespace, you may be a little limited on the support side. Phone support is completely absent. Live chat is available, but only during business hours. And it can take a number of hours to receive an answer if you use the 24/7 email helpline. 

Shopify’s live support doesn’t fare a whole lot better. It does offer 24/7 support via email, phone, and live chat, but we’ve found all three options to be rather slow and unreliable. If you’re desperate, you can also try reaching out via the Shopify Twitter page for a potentially faster response. 

Luckily, both of these website builders offer decent self-help libraries. The Shopify Help Center contains a huge selection of guides and tutorials designed to help everyone, regardless of their skill level. Since it’s such a popular platform, you can also find loads of helpful resources across the web. 

With Squarespace, you may have luck finding answers to your question in the popular community forum. There’s also a large number of videos, webinars, and user guides to help you familiarize yourself with the platform. 

There’s little to separate the two platforms here, but Shopify’s phone support places it just ahead of Squarespace.

Squarespace vs Shopify: Pricing and plans

Shopify offers three standard ecommerce subscription options, along with a Lite and a Plus plan. Squarespace has four plans enabling everything from simple website creation to advanced online store building. Neither company has a free-forever plan, but both offer 14-day free trials. With Squarespace, you don’t have to add payment information to access the trial, while with Shopify you do. 

Squarespace’s plans range from $16 to $54 a month with monthly payments and $12 to $40 with an annual subscription. The cheapest personal plan has no e-commerce features and is really only good for building simple websites. 

Upgrading to a Business plan adds basic selling tools. But you will need to pay at least $26 a month for a Basic Commerce subscription if you want to access anything other than the most basic features.

Take a look at our Squarespace promo codes page for the latest offers and discounts. 

Unlike Squarespace, all of Shopify’s plans are designed for online selling. Prices range from $9 to $299 a month for the four paid plans, making it significantly more expensive than Squarespace. There are no discounts for longer subscription terms. 

Now, the Shopify Lite plan needs some explaining. Basically, it enables you to add a buy button to an existing website. However, it doesn’t come with any store-building or other infrastructure. Upgrading to the Basic Shopify plan opens up these features, providing access to an excellent management dashboard and a beginner-friendly store builder. 

The Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans are similar to the Basic Shopify option, but add lower transaction fees and more advanced marketing and management tools. Shopify Plus offers custom solutions designed specifically for enterprise-level stores—an option that Squarespace just doesn’t have.

Squarespace vs Shopify: Verdict

Squarespace and Shopify are two clear industry leaders in the online-store-creation world, but the truth is that they’re far from equal. Both enable you to create a highly functional store with excellent security, but the similarities end there. 

For one, Shopify offers many more advanced ecommerce features. Its marketing tools are great, and there are countless templates for you to get started with. However, it is quite expensive, and you will be stuck with an inflexible builder that can become frustrating. 

Squarespace is a less specialized platform, with options for both ecommerce and normal business websites. Its editor is a little confusing to get the hang of, but it’s much more powerful than Shopify’s. And it’s significantly more affordable, which will be a major consideration for many. 

At the end of the day, both can be great options. We’d recommend Shopify if you’re looking for a powerful yet easy-to-use platform to create a sizable store. On the other hand, try Squarespace if you’re looking for a cheaper option to create a highly customizable, content-based site with a small ecommerce component.

Further reading on website builders

If you elect to go forward with one of these two options, make sure to read our step-by-step guides outlining how to build a website with Squarespace and how to build a website with Shopify. It's also worth looking at our guide to the best ecommerce website builders, to see where both companies featured.

For those with more experience, another option is WordPress, via the best website builders for WordPress in tandem with an ecommerce plugin like WooCommerce. You'll also require the best WordPress hosting from one of the best web hosting services.

WooCommerce is clearly one of the best website builders for WordPress-based online stores. In our WooCommerce review, we show you just how easy it is to use this plugin to create and manage your store.

WooCommerce review: Snapshot

Even a cursory glance at WooCommerce and its online selling tools shows that it’s right up there with the best ecommerce website builders on the market. And our in-depth analysis of the platform didn’t disappoint either. 

WooCommerce boasts virtually everything you could need to create and manage a new online store. There’s an excellent extensions marketplace, and you can create any type of store required. On the downside, it’s a little more difficult to use than more beginner-friendly alternatives such as Shopify or Squarespace. 

However, WooCommerce offers considerably more design flexibility and better ecommerce tools than virtually any competitors we’re aware of. Overall, it’s an excellent option for those with slightly more technical knowledge who want to create a highly customized online store. 

Score: 4.5/5

Read on for our full and detailed review.

WooCommerce’s competitors

WooCommerce: Key features

WooCommerce boasts loads of excellent features designed to help you create and manage your online store. You will find virtually any ecommerce tools that you can imagine—including everything from inventory and order management tools to gift card functionality and flexible product layouts—and you can add custom code if extra functionality is required. 

Another way to add extra functionality is via the WooCommerce Extensions Store. Here, you will find almost 750 extensions, covering everything from advanced analytics to tax compliance and payment acceptance. 

Many of these add-ons cost a small one-time fee, but there are plenty of free options too. For example, a quick look at marketing extensions shows 83 different options, including some from WooCommerce and some from third-party developers. 

You will also benefit from the ability to accept payments through a vast number of third-party gateways. Popular options such as Stripe and PayPal are available and very easy to set up, but we’d recommend exploring your options to ensure you get the best deal.

WooCommerce: Key features and highlights

WooCommerce also makes coupon creation and management super easy. Under the Marketing tab on your WordPress dashboard, you can find a coupon tab that enables you to create personalized and generic coupons. These include store credits, smart coupons, and URL coupons that are automatically applied to an order. 

The mobile app also makes general management extremely straightforward. It’s available for both Android and iOS devices, and it comes with a suite of excellent tools. These enable you to fulfill orders, track key metrics, edit products, manage your inventory, and more—all from the comfort of your smartphone or tablet. 

Finally, advanced users will love the fact that WooCommerce is an open-source program. Basically, this means that you will have full access to the code for your store and the software infrastructure behind it. You can edit this code if you need to, enabling you to add custom functionality where and as required.

WooCommerce: What’s new in 2022?

A new version of WooCommerce is released approximately once a month. These usually contain small security and functionality updates, but larger changes are introduced from time to time. 

The most recent update, WooCommerce 6.1, included small design updates to WooCommerce Blocks, along with management updates to the WooCommerce Admin plugin and the ActionScheduler performance optimization software.

The 6.0 version included, among other things, updates to product attribute filtering, making it available for all merchants. The most important thing to understand here is that the WooCommerce team is very active behind the scenes. You can expect regular updates moving forward.

WooCommerce: Pricing

The standard WooCommerce plugin is free, forever. It can be installed from the WordPress plugin library, and you won’t ever have to pay a cent for its use. However, you will have to pay small transaction fees when you start making sales. 

On top of this, there are loads of WooCommerce plugins that you can install to add functionality to your store. Some of these are free, but the majority will cost you somewhere between $50 and $250 for a lifetime license. 

You should also keep the costs of setting up a WordPress website in mind. While WordPress itself is also free, you will have to pay for things like hosting and a domain name. If you’re an absolute beginner, you may need to budget for developer fees.

Testing WooCommerce

Viable ecommerce stores should be relatively straightforward to set up, manage, and add products to. We created our own basic WooCommerce store to see how it performed on these fronts.

How easy is it to create a store with WooCommerce?

Creating a new ecommerce store with WooCommerce is a little more involved than with platforms like Shopify. For starters, you will have to sign up for a web hosting account—enabling you to store your site’s data and files—and purchase a domain name. 

Install WordPress.org on your hosting server, and then you will be ready to start your store. To do this, you will need to head to the WordPress plugin library and install the WooCommerce plugin. It’s free, and installation shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes—it took less than 30 seconds for us. 

We particularly liked the built-in setup guide, which outlines the basic steps involved with getting your store off the ground. This will be particularly useful for newbies with limited WordPress experience. 

While editing our test store, we found that design flexibility is somewhat constrained by the WordPress theme you use. WooCommerce adds extra functionality, enabling you to add products to pages and configure page layouts. But your global design will be dictated by your theme. 

Overall, though, you shouldn’t have too much trouble creating a store with WooCommerce. It may take some time, but the general process is straightforward.

How easy is it to add products to your WooCommerce store?

If you plan on creating a decent-sized store with a number of products, it should be easy to add and manage listings. We tested WooCommerce’s product management tools, and we weren’t disappointed. 

When you head to your WordPress dashboard, you will find a Products tab. You can add new products in various ways. The easiest way to do this is to hit the "Add New" button and manually fill in the relevant information. Bulk CSV file uploads are possible, and you can even integrate a dropshipping plugin for automatic product addition.

Alternatives to WooCommerce

WooCommerce is, without a doubt, the most popular WordPress online store plugin. But it’s certainly not the only option for creating online stores. 

Shopify is another major competitor, and it targets those entering the industry for the first time. Its management dashboard is excellent, and there are loads of tools for those of all skill levels. As with WooCommerce, Shopify provides access to thousands of templates and plugins that you can use to extend the functionality of your store. 

Meanwhile, the all-in-one Squarespace website builder offers a highly functional editor that’s great for designing personalized stores. It’s a little confusing to get the hang of, but you shouldn’t have too many problems. However, Squarespace only has around 60 templates and 28 extensions. 

On the support front, WooCommerce has live chat, but it’s sporadic and not always available. Squarespace offers similar services, but its live chat is only available during business hours. Shopify’s support, on the other hand, is great, with friendly email, phone, and live chat options. 

WooCommerce is the cheapest option among competitors, as it’s completely free. Shopify starts at $29 a month, and high-end plans range into the hundreds or even thousands per month. Squarespace is slightly cheaper, but its most expensive plans will still make a dent in your budget.

WooCommerce: Final verdict

All things considered, WooCommerce is clearly one of the world’s best ecommerce website builders. It’s a little more difficult to use than some alternatives, and it can only be used in combination with the WordPress.org CMS. But there’s little else not to like. 

For one, the base WooCommerce program is absolutely free, forever. There are loads of premium extensions that you can purchase to add functionality to your store, and most of these are super affordable as well. 

WooCommerce boasts an excellent selection of online selling tools. There’s a neat mobile management app for both iOS and Android devices, and the entire program is open-source—which means that you can edit your store’s code to your heart’s content. 

A small downside is WooCommerce’s support, which is limited to email and sporadic live chat. But this is minor. Creating a new store is very straightforward, and adding and customizing product listings is an easy process. 

Overall, we’d recommend WooCommerce for those with decent tech skills who want something a little more versatile than most of the ecommerce builders on the market. It’s also a great option for those on a tight budget.

Further reading on website builders and web hosting

If you’re planning to build a content-focused store or website, consider finding out more about the top WordPress page builders. You'll also need the best WordPress hosting from the best web hosting services: if you go with WordPress, read about how to make a website with WordPress to learn the basics.

A new entrant to the ranks of the best website builders, our Bluehost website builder review explains how the company combines its shared WordPress hosting with a drag-and-drop website builder for WordPress.

Bluehost website builder review: Snapshot

The platform leaves many of WordPress’s best features intact while making it easier to get your site off the ground with a managed WordPress installation; more than 300 built-in themes; and customizable content blocks. You can also upgrade to get a managed WooCommerce installation for selling online.

While we’d like to see Bluehost's WordPress website builder offer more flexibility for laying out your website content, it’s easily one of the best WordPress website builders. We think it’s more intuitive than other WordPress builders like BoldGrid. In addition, you have access to the drag-and-drop editor when creating blog posts, which is a major plus for creators who turn to WordPress for its blogging capabilities.

Bluehost's WordPress website builder isn’t cheap, but the base plan price is only slightly higher than Bluehost’s standalone shared WordPress hosting. So, it makes a lot of sense if you’re already committed to using WordPress to build your website, and want high-quality hosting.

Score: 4/5

Read on for our full and detailed review.

Bluehost's website builder competitors

Bluehost's website builder: Key features

Managed WordPress hosting

All Bluehost website builder plans include managed WordPress hosting for an unlimited number of sites. That means that Bluehost automatically keeps your WordPress installation and plugins up-to-date, so you don’t have to worry about managing updates. You also get a free SSL certificate and a free domain for one year.

If you need to make changes to your site’s hosting, you can do so with the cPanel dashboard. Bluehost also has a custom dashboard for WordPress websites that makes it easy to manage users, backups, plugins, and more.

Themes

Bluehost's WordPress website builder comes with more than 300 built-in themes. The Pro and Online Store plans include an additional 30 premium themes that are optimized for selling online. You can’t import third-party WordPress themes at this time, although Bluehost claims the company is working on this feature. 

The builder doesn’t give you many additional options to customize your theme beyond the standard options for WordPress. Those enable you to change your site’s color palette, fonts, and menus. However, you do have access to your theme’s CSS code, so designers who are comfortable with CSS coding can make virtually unlimited changes.

Media manager

One of the major advantages to using Bluehost's website builder is that it gives you access to WordPress’s media manager. This built-in media manager enables you to upload photos, videos, documents, and more to your website. Files are limited in size to 512MB or less.

The WordPress media manager does an excellent job of keeping your content organized. You can add titles, descriptions, and alt text to every item on your website, and all of this data is searchable. There’s also a basic image editor that enables you to crop and rotate images.

Blogging

Bluehost's website builder makes blogging as easy as possible. You have access to all of WordPress’s standard blogging features, which enable you to tag and categorize posts as well as schedule posts for the future.

Notably, you can choose between crafting posts with WordPress’s standard post editor or the Bluehost website builder. The standard post editor offers a comfortable writing pad for text-heavy posts, while the website builder lets you drag and drop content blocks when creating media-heavy posts.

Bluehost's WordPress website builder: Key features and highlights

Bluehost's website builder: What’s new in 2022?

Bluehost only released the WordPress website builder in August 2021. So, everything about it is new!

While Bluehost has long offered dedicated WordPress hosting, the new WordPress website builder is different in that it enables you to drag and drop content to build your website. It eliminates the need to use a third-party website builder for your Bluehost WordPress installation.

Bluehost's website builder: Pricing

Bluehost's WordPress website builder offers three plans: Basic, Pro, and Online Store. All plans include hosting for unlimited websites, blog post management, and email marketing tools. 

The Pro plan adds support for selling online with WooCommerce, and offers 30 premium templates; while the Online Store plan enables you to book appointments, sell subscriptions, and generate custom discount codes.

You must sign up for either a 12- or 36-month plan. Your first term qualifies for promotional pricing, which can be up to 75% off the regular price.

Testing Bluehost's WordPress website builder

We tested out the process of building a website with Bluehost's WordPress website builder, and its email marketing tool, to get a better idea of how it worked.

How do you build a website with Bluehost's drag-and-drop website builder?

We tested out the process of building a site with Bluehost's WordPress website builder. At first, it was very similar to building a site with a standard WordPress installation. We chose a theme, and used the standard WordPress dashboard to navigate the site’s back end.

Bluehost's builder started to differ from a standalone WordPress installation when we were adding content and laying out our pages. Standalone WordPress doesn’t have any drag-and-drop builder, whereas Bluehost’s builder included a menu of content blocks that we could drag and drop around our website. 

We found this to be somewhat restrictive, as the software only allowed us to arrange content blocks above or below one another in a single column. There was no way to put two content blocks next to one another. Still, we found it to be much easier to add content than with the standard WordPress page editor.

We also liked the selection of content blocks. In addition to basic blocks like text boxes, image galleries, and social media buttons, we found image sliders, interactive star-rating buttons, calendars, and more. We could also embed media from a huge range of platforms, including Spotify, SmugMug, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, and Vimeo.

How does Bluehost's website builder use email marketing?

All Bluehost website builder plans include free email marketing tools from Creative Mail. We tried out the Creative Mail plugin to see how easy it is to use, and what features it offers.

Overall, we liked using Creative Mail, and found it to be very easy to get started with. The plugin provided a custom registration form that we could add to our site to start collecting visitor contacts. Once we added contacts, we were able to segment them into lists that could be used to target emails.

Creative Mail let us create an unlimited number of email campaigns, and it included templates for newsletters, product announcements, new blog posts, and more. We were also able to set up automated welcome emails for new customers.

Alternatives to Bluehost's WordPress website builder

Bluehost's WordPress website builder isn’t the only drag-and-drop builder for WordPress. BoldGrid is a popular option for creating WordPress websites that enables you choose your page layout, and then place custom content blocks. It’s slightly more complex than Bluehost's builder, but relatively easy to use once you get past the initial learning curve.

BoldGrid differs from Bluehost in that it unbundles site building from hosting. With BoldGrid, you must purchase hosting from a third-party service. Bluehost, on the other hand, includes hosting with all website builder plans. So, which of these two services is better for building a WordPress website depends in large part on whether you want to host your site with Bluehost or another hosting provider.

If you aren’t committed to building a website with WordPress, you may also consider a builder like Wix. It gives you more flexibility than Bluehost when laying out your site, so it’s ideal for experienced designers. Wix also has a much larger library of content elements than Bluehost.

Wix has powerful tools for selling products and services online, many of which are comparable to the ecommerce features you get with Bluehost’s Online Store plan. However, Wix’s comparable ecommerce plan, Business Unlimited, costs only $27 a month compared to $39.95 a month for Bluehost. All Wix plans include web hosting.

Bluehost's WordPress website builder: The verdict

Bluehost's website builder combines the best aspects of WordPress with high-quality hosting and a drag-and-drop page editor. Given that the builder costs only slightly more than Bluehost’s standalone shared WordPress hosting, it makes a lot of sense if you’re considering building a WordPress site with Bluehost.

We found Bluehost's builder to be easier to use than BoldGrid, another WordPress drag-and-drop builder. Bluehost isn’t quite as flexible when it comes to laying out your site, but it offers a wider selection of content elements, and comes with more than 300 themes to choose from. 

Bluehost’s managed WordPress and WooCommerce installations also eliminate the burden of keeping your site’s infrastructure up-to-date. This builder is also cheaper than non-WordPress builders such as Wix, if you don’t need ecommerce features, so,  may make more sense for bloggers and first-time website designers.

If you want to sell online, however, we think Wix is one of the best platforms for marketing and ecommerce, and it’s also cheaper than Bluehost. Overall, the decision to use Bluehost's website builder to create your site largely comes down to whether you want to use WordPress. 

If you do, this platform offers the option of a drag-and-drop page editor and excellent integrated hosting at a very reasonable price.

Further reading on Bluehost and WordPress

Read our Bluehost web hosting review, and see how its web hosting fares against GoDaddy's in our Bluehost vs GoDaddy comparison. If you want to learn more about WordPress to decide if it’s right for your website, check out our full WordPress review. We also have a guide to the best WordPress hosting, and explain how to build a website with WordPress.

WordPress competes with the best website builders and utilizes the best web hosting services via the best WordPress hosting, and is the world's leading content management system (CMS). Used by more sites than any other platform or CMS, more than 455 million websites are currently powered by WordPress.

As the most popular CMS, with a market share of over 60%, WordPress's dominance has led to many myths and misconceptions arising about it. These include its capabilities, what it can be used for, and more. Here, we look at five of the most common myths and debunk them.

1. WordPress is just a toy for bloggers

It’s true that WordPress began life in 2003 as a blogging tool, being built on top of an existing platform called b2/cafelog. But it’s been a long time since blogs were the only thing for which it was used. 

People have been making all sorts of sites with website builders for WordPress for many years, including ecommerce stores, brochure websites for small and medium-sized businesses, membership sites with subscription-based content, and many more. WordPress has been used to build pretty much any type of website you can think of, across the full spectrum of markets and interests.

While WordPress is simple to set up and use – which makes it attractive to bloggers and people who have never built a website before – in the hands of skilled developers, it can be used for complex applications. In fact, due to WordPress’ plugin architecture, anyone can write their own plugin for it to extend its capabilities and provide advanced functionality which doesn’t exist out of the box.

2. It's not good for ecommerce

This one is easy to debunk, as the numbers simply tell a different story. WooCommerce, which is just one of the many ecommerce plugins available for WordPress, accounts for over four million ecommerce sites online, competing with other big names in the ecommerce space, like Shopify and Magento.

The reason WooCommerce is so prevalent is that it’s so easy to set up and use, and there are thousands of different themes available for it. These factors mean building ecommerce sites is within the reach of anyone, not just those with web development expertise. 

Ecommerce is a complex undertaking, and a lot goes into doing it successfully, but plugins like WooCommerce have been built by experts in the field with many years of combined experience. That experience translates into systems that include all the functionality you need to be able to successfully run an online business.

3. WordPress isn't scalable

If you’re unfamiliar with what scalability means in relation to websites, it’s the ability of a website to handle increased workload – usually in the form of more visitors – without a loss of performance, i.e. it doesn’t slow down, or in some cases, malfunction.

Scalability has as much to do with your hosting environment as it does the platform you use to power your site. You could have the most finely-tuned website possible, but if your hosting setup isn’t right, your website could fall over if you get a sudden spike in traffic. 

So really, WordPress, or any other CMS, is only one side of the equation. And like any other database-driven CMS, in the right hands and with the best WordPress hosting, WordPress can be configured to produce peak performance and use a minimum of server resources.

4.  No support

Aside from the fact that it’s free and easy to set up, one of the things that attracts many people to WordPress is that so many other people already use it. With such a large user base, no matter what problem you’re facing or question you have, you’re almost guaranteed that someone else has been in a similar situation before and already asked about it.

The WordPress website has a knowledge base with a large library of articles, but there are also community support forums where people have been asking questions and sharing their knowledge for many years. WordPress themes and plugins also have their own dedicated forums. And then there are the thousands of websites dedicated to WordPress topics, many featuring detailed tutorials and videos.

All of this support is free, but if you’ve purchased plugins, priority support is usually included in the purchase price. And if you choose to host your website with WordPress.com (as opposed to hosting your own site), all of the plans come with live chat and email support.

5. It’s not secure, or more likely to be hacked

This is a tricky subject because there are many conflicting claims, some saying WordPress is insecure and others saying it’s not. Out of the box, WordPress has a better security record, and a larger security team to focus on these types of issues, than some other CMSs like Joomla.

The WordPress CMS itself is usually not the culprit when it comes to sites being hacked, but rather plugins that have been used on it, particularly ones that have not been updated for a while. Plugins are often developed by individuals or small teams who don’t have the same resources as the WordPress core development team to put into security checks. 

Any site that is not actively maintained, with its software kept up to date, is vulnerable to hacking attempts. This is true of all sites powered by a CMS. In the hands of experienced professionals, a WordPress site can be made to be very secure. 

Developers who take security seriously will also make sure that the clients they deliver WordPress sites for know how to actively maintain sites after launch to ensure they remain secure.

Further reading on website builders and web hosting

On the web hosting side, read our comparison of web hosting vs WordPress hosting, and our list article giving seven reasons why you should choose managed WordPress hosting for your site.

When it comes to website builders, read our comparisons pitting WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace and web hosting vs WordPress vs website builders, and our features exploring how to build a website with WordPress and the most common WordPress website mistakes.

When building a website with one of the best website builders, strong website branding is key, as it showcases your company to its audience and customers via a unified drive and message. 

Consistent website branding allows your company to tell a story, and allows readers to relate to your businesses, building up a more personal relationship that can bear fruit in terms of sales and custom.

Any business operating online, whether via an ecommerce website or a small business website, must invest in key services such as the best web hosting services or pay-per-click ads. 

However, across the board and upfront, an online business must consider and plan branding across virtually all aspects of its marketing strategy. We outline tips, tricks, and guides on how to improve your website branding below.

Website branding: Why it's important

Your company’s online and offline branding should be consistent with one other, but there are particular considerations for each. 

For one, online branding has several technical limitations. Web pages are always viewed two-dimensionally and on a relatively small display. In contrast, you can weave offline branding into more varied forms offline, such as in TV ads, radio jingles, and t-shirt logos.

In some ways, you have less control over your online branding than you do with your offline branding. For example, affiliate sites may sell your products online, or you’ll interact with customers through a social media site that has minimal design customization. Consider too that web pages are viewed on a wide range of devices with different screen sizes.

Branding guides 

Most companies have a marketing department that creates a company branding guide. This guide specifies how to represent the company consistently in promotional material.

Most times, this branding guide is specific to print operations, detailing how to produce posters and other physical promotional material. It includes details on colors, fonts, lettering, and various forms of the company logo but not how large or small the logo should be compared to other elements of a design.

However, a website branding guide must also include information about the preferred pixel size of the logo because screen space is limited. Designers should also specify preferred fonts and font sizes while remaining aware that users can override these settings in their web browsers.

A print-operation branding guide will include a Pantone hue for all colors so that offline marketing can accurately recreate the official colors of the brand. This doesn’t work for online branding. Why? As every screen has a different gamut scope (the ability to represent colors accurately) and few screens are perfectly color-calibrated, web colors are represented by approximations. A branding guide for online use should therefore also include hex-defined colors (e.g. #FFFFFF is white).

Once the branding guide is fleshed out, it can be used to create template files and examples for web developers to use, ensuring all future marketing maintains a consistent style.

Website branding tricks

Here are ten quick things to consider that can improve your on-site branding.

1. Logo size

As already advised, consistent logo size is important. A single logo size used across the entirety of your website makes for a more consistent look. It also lowers web hosting costs because you’re using less bandwidth.

2. Cross-branding

Your website may contain the logos of other brands, such as when you're selling their products or working in partnership with them. In such cases, your logo should be larger and more prominent than theirs. It’s subtle, but including logos of other brands at the same size or larger than yours minimizes the importance of your brand to the reader.

3. Limiting files

Keep the number of image files you use on your site low. If you rebrand later, you’ll only need to change a few files, and it keeps your pages consistent with each other. It also makes your website load more quickly and brings down the cost of your web hosting because you’re using less bandwidth and disk space.

4. Use PNG for logos

JPG images can’t be made transparent. PNG images, on the other hand, do support transparency, so you can use a PNG version of your logo on top of any background color without issue. 

5. Have a proposition

A visitor to your website should be able to recognize immediately what you are about, what you can give them, and what makes you different. Think of ways to show your particular value proposition to a new visitor through your branding.

6. Be consistent

Consistent branding doesn’t stop at logos and colors. Everything on your site should be uniform from page to page. Use the same writing style throughout and keep the placement and visuals of buttons the same. This extends to other online marketing you do, such as email newsletters, social media marketing, and advertisements.

7. Consider a mascot

It doesn’t work for every business, but a mascot can help give your company a recognizable symbol that will stick in the minds of customers. Not every mascot is beloved, however, so get some feedback before you unveil a mascot that could negatively affect your brand.

8. Consider social media

Almost every business benefits from having a strong social media presence as it is a great way to interact with current customers and bring in new ones. Your branding should be consistent here too. Change banners, profile images, and avatars on your social media channels to reflect your brand and keep your social media messaging in line with your overall brand message. 

9. Think about visual scanning

When we visit a web page for the first time, our eyes scan from top-left to top-right before moving downwards. Consider placing your logo top-left and placing on-brand elements in spots where a visitor’s attention will linger.  Visitors should be able to understand your brand message within seconds of reaching your site for the first time.

10. Watermarks and tints

If you need to include your logo somewhere on an image that already has a lot of detail, consider that it may look messy unless you first digitally edit either the logo or the background image. You can make your logo black or white and include it as a subtle watermark, or reduce the colors in the background image so that the logo becomes more prominent.

Further reading on web hosting and website builders

When it comes to your website and its content, read our list article listing six essential Google tools for website SEO, and our feature establishing if web hosting affects SEO. You can also find out six ways to get free website content for your site legally, how to choose a domain name for your website, and how simple web design can help your site perform better.

When it comes to building a website, a few things need to happen. First, you need to have an idea for what it will be about, and what its content will be. Then you need to design and build it using one of the best website builders. Finally, you need to organize the best web hosting, so that everyone can access it. But what is web hosting?

Websites are made up of a series of different files. Some are images and videos which you might have taken yourself or had done professionally, but most are special types of text documents containing code. When you build a website, all of these files exist on someone’s computer, just like you might store Word documents or PDFs.

When you want the website to be accessible to the general public, you need a special type of computer called a web server. This is essentially another computer, but with higher specifications than most personal computers, and with a dedicated, high-speed link to the internet.

We explain below what web hosting is, and what you need to know.

IP, IP, IP, hurray 

The dedicated link to the internet is known as a static internet protocol (IP) address. Most home internet connections have dynamic IPs, which means they change periodically. For ordinary home usage, this isn’t a problem. For a web server, though, it can lead to downtime and the websites hosted on it being inaccessible.

Static IPs avoid that risk, and allow web servers to use the file transfer protocol (FTP). This enables you to easily move files from one computer to another, such as when you upload files for a website from the computer they were created on to a web server. 

Having a static IP also means the server can have a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate, which we cover in our article looking at how you can evaluate and improve your website security.

The process of setting up static IP addresses and configuring computers to be web servers is called web hosting. A whole industry has formed around the business of selling web hosting services, which is essentially like renting disk space on these specially configured computers. 

Web hosting is usually sold on a subscription basis, which also covers the cost of the power required to run the computers and the bandwidth they use.

Computers with superpowers

Web servers are stored in large, specially built structures called data centers, which are temperature-controlled and extra secure. A data center will have many rooms, filled with rows upon rows of computer towers side by side. It’s on these special computers that all the files that make up a website are stored.

As mentioned, a web server is similar to a home or work computer, but with more power and a faster internet connection. You can actually use your own home computer to run a web server, but it’s unlikely that the websites hosted from it will be as fast as those stored on dedicated hosting computers.

It’s also not something we’d recommend for those who don’t have a large amount of time to devote to the task. Running a web server is a complicated and time-consuming pursuit that requires specialist knowledge. That’s why hosting companies have their own DevOps (software development and IT operations) specialists, who ensure that web servers are always online, secure, and performing at their peak. 

Website owners are better off focusing their efforts on the content and marketing of the site and leaving the hosting to companies who specialize in that area. Yes, you have to pay for web hosting, but doing so will actually save you time and money in the long run.

This is an adapted excerpt from an eBook called "The ultimate guide to web hosting", first published by TechRadar Pro in association with Planet Hippo.

Further reading on web hosting and website builders

If you want to learn more about the differences between website builders and web hosting, and how WordPress differs from both, read our comparison feature pitting web hosting vs WordPress vs website builders.

Our articles outlining how to choose a web hosting service, giving tips on buying a web hosting service, and noting what to avoid when choosing a web hosting provider will help with web hosting; for website builders, learn how to build a website from scratch, how much it costs to build a website, and how to choose a domain name.

When it comes to building a website with one of the best website builders, and hosting that site online via one of the best web hosting services, a major change in data protection in Europe must be a large factor in your thinking.

Having been in force since 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulates how businesses use and protect customer data. Simply put, it creates two key obligations for organizations: it makes them responsible for secure management of customer data; and requires them to provide transparent, easily accessible information on how they manage and use this data. 

It may look like the GDPR is a setback for digital marketing, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. It's relatively straightforward to make your business GDPR compliant, and doing so ensures customers feel their privacy is safe when using your site.

It also pays to make sure your site's GDPR compliant, as you might face fines of up to €20 million (or 4% of annual revenue) for breaching the GDPR. In this feature, we discuss how the GDPR can affect your website, and how you can ensure it's GDPR compliant across the board.

Making your site GDPR compliant: Online contact forms 

Online contact forms are a standard feature on most sites today. They are an easy and straightforward way to help customers and businesses connect. Although the GDPR doesn’t stop companies from using contact forms on their websites, it does create new obligations and responsibilities. 

Firstly, organizations must explain why they are collecting personal information. For each custom data field (name/address/phone number), it helps to explain why you are collecting this data and how it will be used. For example, if you are asking customers for their address, you would explain that this is required so you can provide correspondence by mail. 

If you can’t think of why the data you are collecting is necessary, then perhaps it is not worth collecting. This process of the GDPR is designed to ensure that companies only collect essential personal information. 

Secondly, the GDPR requires businesses to include a tick box asking if a website visitor understands their privacy policy, and understands how their data will be used. This tick box must be unticked by default. Customers must also opt-in to each form of contact (email/phone/post) individually.

Email marketing 

One of the most significant developments to come out of the GDPR is the prohibition of unsolicited marketing emails. GDPR compliant businesses can only send emails to individuals who have opted in to receive marketing information via the specified form of communication. 

Companies in breach of this requirement are liable to receive hefty fines or other punitive measures. Before the coming into force of the GDPR, businesses were encouraged to ask all customers to opt in again to marketing communications. Now you must receive consent from all customers before sending them marketing or promotional materials.

Privacy policy

To further encourage transparency, the GDPR requires all businesses to have a privacy policy and display it prominently on their website. This policy must explain how your company collects personal data, how it stores this data, and how it uses it. 

For example, if you encrypt data either in transit or at rest, it should be mentioned in your privacy policy. If all your employees are subject to police checks before commencing their employment, it should be mentioned. If you provide customer data to third parties, it should be mentioned. You get the idea.

Handling data in a GDPR compliant way

The GDPR creates several obligations for businesses concerning their handling and management of customer data. A few of these are worth mentioning here. 

Firstly, organizations are required to secure all customer or user data with some level of encryption. Adding an HTTPS protocol to your site is one of the easiest ways of fulfilling this obligation. Secure storage of customer data with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 256-bit encryption is also recommended. 

Secondly, businesses must ensure that data collected in Europe remains in Europe, or that any non-European entity with access to customer data is GDPR compliant. Even within Europe, businesses are responsible for ensuring that all partners or collaborators in customer data management are GDPR compliant. 

Finally, the GDPR establishes a right to be forgotten. Businesses must communicate this right to customers, either on their website or in their privacy policy. They must also provide a mechanism for permanently deleting all data identifying that particular customer. Significant penalties have already been issued for breaching this requirement.

Making your site GDRP compliant: Conclusion

Following the advice contained in this article will help your website become GDPR compliant sooner. GDPR compliance can demonstrate to your customers that you are a responsible and reliable business, and may help you develop better relationships with them. 

When we add the costs of not complying with the GDPR, there’s no reason not to start becoming compliant today. 

Further reading on web hosting and website builders

Make sure you read our features that focus on how web hosting security can impact your site; how you can evaluate and improve website security in a few simple steps; and why you should undertake regular website audits to keep your site up-to-date.

Modern hosting options are becoming broader than ever. While some people go with the best website builders or via cheaper providers of the best web hosting services, those building highly advanced websites usually need something a little more powerful. 

Traditionally, dedicated server hosting has been the best option for large, enterprise websites and ecommerce stores. If you’re looking for the highest performance from your web hosting, you typically have a choice: bare metal vs dedicated servers. These alternative hosting options have become increasingly popular in recent years. 

They aren’t cheap however, so before you put money down on a long contact with a web hosting provider, it makes sense to recognize the subtle differences between these two forms of hosting, so you can make an informed purchasing decision. 

Below, we compare bare metal vs dedicated servers, using industry-leading providers to highlight and examine differences and similarities. We aim to help you decide which is the better option for your needs, and how you can best leverage each of their strengths for your business.

Bare metal vs dedicated servers: Aren't they the same?

Undoubtedly, there are a lot of similarities when comparing bare metal vs dedicated servers, especially from a technical point of view. The most obvious commonality is they both refer to a physical server, as opposed to a virtual private server (a VPS).

With a VPS server, your website shares processors, hard drives, and memory resources with other people’s sites. This is fine for some uses, and certainly keeps costs down, but if you need unfettered access to the underlying hardware, or you stress about performance plummeting when other sites experience traffic spikes, you want a bare metal server or dedicated server.  

Those in the market for a high-performance server typically have a precise use in mind. Whether it’s online gaming, video rendering, voice over IP (VoIP), Software as a Service (SaaS), or simply a high-traffic website that must perform splendidly at all times, dedicated hardware like a bare metal or dedicated server is the right choice.

If you’re running an ecommerce site, for example, dedicated hardware allows more simultaneous transactions; while eSports gaming run on dedicated servers offers much lower latency for multiple concurrent sessions. In other words, dedicated hardware solutions always beat shared hosting in performance.

With both types, you get a much higher level of control over your servers’ complexity and security. You can choose the operating systems, software, and security protocols that suit your business best. As you have root (full administrator) access, you call the shots.

Bare metal vs dedicated servers: Features

Bare metal and dedicated servers share a lot of similarities, but there are plenty of differences you should be aware of as well. For one, dedicated servers are those  used solely by one client. This means you won’t have to share your server or resources with anyone else, improving security and performance. 

Dedicated and bare metal servers share many important features. They are both single-tenant machines designed for one client, and generally come with highly advanced hardware and strong security integrations. They can also usually be customized through the addition or removal of storage, RAM, and CPU cores. 

Where bare metal servers begin to diverge from traditional dedicated servers is the bleeding age nature of the hardware used. Providers typically consider bare metal servers their flagship products, complete with the fastest CPUs, memory, and hard drives. They are much more flexible, and generally can be configured according to your exact needs: their every aspect is designed for optimal long-term performance. 

On the other hand, traditional dedicated servers are much less flexible. They are harder to integrate with cloud networks, and are usually designed for standard website or application hosting.

Bare metal vs dedicated servers: Performance

It’s quite hard to compare the performance of bare metal and dedicated servers, because it’s something that largely depends on the provider you use. However, there are a few important things worth noting. A common use case is testing an important application on a low-performance virtual server, before transferring it to your dedicated platform when it’s time to go live to the public.

Often, dedicated servers are designed solely for web or application hosting. At the cheaper end of the spectrum, older machines with somewhat limited hardware tend to be used, which can impact overall performance. But, if you’re willing to pay more, you will usually be able to access the latest models, backed by powerful performance integrations. 

Bare metal servers tend to be built with the latest, most powerful hardware like NVMe solid state drives (SSD), which on average give you blazing fast speeds and performance compared to traditional dedicated servers, and they can also be provisioned much faster. Traditional servers use relatively inexpensive but slow SATA disk drives, by comparison.

The networks bare metal servers are hosted on also tend to be top-tier, with high-speed 1Gbps connections becoming the norm. As such, they tend to be a great choice for those who need strong cloud integrations. Providers like IBM and Rackspace offer high-quality servers with no hypervisor, highly advanced configurations, global data centers, and connectivity with various cloud networks.

In saying that, though, remember that your server’s performance will be highly impacted by its hardware. For example, a high-end dedicated server will likely perform better than a cheap base metal server, despite base metal being faster on average.

Bare metal vs dedicated servers: Support

When it comes to support, the level of service you will receive largely depends on the provider you use. Customer service and self-help resources tend to vary greatly between companies, so it’s impossible to compare bare metal vs dedicated servers here. 

However, you can expect more technical support if you’re using a traditional dedicated server. Often, powerful security tools are included, along with a pre-installed control panel, automatic backups, and a content delivery network (CDN) integration. 

On the other hand, bare metal servers are usually empty machines with no pre-installed software. As the name suggests, they are bare, which means you can load whatever you need and configure the server according to your exact requirements. 

Bare metal vs dedicated servers: Pricing

Some of the biggest differences, when comparing bare metal vs dedicated servers, are immediately obvious when we analyze prices. In general, dedicated server usage is purchased or rented on a monthly or yearly basis, and they tend to take some time to prepare, especially if you need a customized server which isn’t immediately available. 

They tend to cost anywhere from $100 to $1,000 or more a month, depending on the quality of the host and the resources you need. For example, Liquid Web, one of the best dedicated hosts, has base prices ranging from $169 to $411.75 a month. 

Bare metal servers, on the other hand, can be rented on demand for brief periods, and you only pay for what you use via hourly, monthly, or annual contracts. Hourly-paid servers are usually ready within half an hour, which means that they are a great option for those who need high performance hosting for a short time period. 

Because you only pay for the time that you use, sites that experience high traffic during seasonal events or sales, or applications that only need to run for a few days, can be cheaper to deploy on bare metal servers despite the high-performance hardware in use. Does that high performance come at an increased price? Yes, if you were running a bare metal server 24/7.

For example, Rackspace offers a range of bare metal options starting from $0.68439 an hour ($500 a month). IBM is significantly cheaper, with prices starting from $0.47 an hour or $162 a month.

Bare metal vs dedicated servers: The verdict

Using web servers has become much more dynamic than it used to be. Now you can use a mix of virtual, dedicated, and bare metal servers as you see fit. It’s common for a company to host its site on a VPS for day-to-day operations, and transfer it to a dedicated server when busy times arise.

In the end, when comparing bare metal vs dedicated servers, they actually share a lot of the same features. They are both single-tenant machines designed with a focus on performance and security, and both are suited to high-end applications including enterprise website and application hosting. 

They both, however, serve different needs. A classic dedicated server can be the workhorse that runs for years on end, dutifully serving up the company website at a relatively cheap price. You can fire up a bare metal server at short notice for the high-end performance you need, and retire it in a matter of hours or days. 

While they are similar, you must first consider what you intend to do with your hardware if you want the best performance at minimal cost. As mentioned, one of the biggest differences is the pricing model used.

If you need long-term, reliable performance that’s great but not amazing, a dedicated server is the reasonably priced halfway house between a virtual server and a bare metal server. You have superb control over security, software, and hardware resources with your own dedicated server, and you never need worry about someone else hogging the processor time. 

They're usually better for those who don’t need to be able to customize their machine as much. They tend to come with pre-installed software and security features, as opposed to bare metal servers, which are usually completely empty.

Bare metal boxes, however, handle agility with aplomb. Designed to be set up and integrated with other hardware with minimal fuss, they excel when you need to get dedicated hardware quickly working well with virtual private servers to handle unexpected load spikes. In most cases, you can manage all of the various servers through a single administration panel.

If you require a pay-as-you-go high-performance server that you can switch on and off at the drop of a hat, a bare metal server is an excellent choice. Your business can be highly agile while keeping costs to a minimum. When you must have the most flexible, powerful, and fast server, and depending on your business needs, it has to be a bare metal server.

Further reading on web hosting

Learn the differences between web hosting and WordPress hosting; and check out our buying guides outlining the best VPS hosting, the best cloud hosting, the best unlimited hosting, the best Windows hosting, and the best Linux hosting.

A huge proportion of websites on the internet run on WordPress, and it's an incredibly popular blogging and content management system (CMS). It’s both free and open-source, and has a huge number of themes and plugins available that allow you to customize your site.

It started out as a blogging service that's installed on your own hosting platform, and while that's still how you can get the most of it, WordPress now rivals the best website builders available, via the wide range of available website builders for WordPress.

In this step-by-step guide, we walk you through and show you how to make a website with WordPress.

How to make a website with WordPress: Your options

There are several ways to get started with WordPress. 

First, understand that WordPress is free, open-source software that you can download from WordPress.org and install on your own web hosting. This is what we’ll do in this guide. But many of the best web hosting companies have a one-click installer, so all you need to do is click a button and WordPress will be installed on your web hosting.

Another option is third-party hosting from the best WordPress hosting providers. When you buy WordPress hosting, you get an optimized WordPress site, ready to go. If your WordPress hosting is managed, many of the day-to-day duties - such as software upgrades and backups - are taken care of for you by the web host. 

Enterprise WordPress meanwhile is WordPress on a grander scale, which we explore in more detail in our feature asking whether WordPress is the way forward for enterprise content management. 

Finally, you can use the website builder on WordPress.com. Installation of WordPress here is immediate, and you can get started creating your site in no time. You can host your WordPress website here for free, and as your needs grow, you can upgrade to one of four paid plans.

In this guide, we’ll install WordPress on our own hosting. It’s the most complex installation procedure, but offers you the highest level of customization over your WordPress site.

Step 1: Choose a web hosting provider

Your WordPress website needs to be hosted somewhere. There are thousands of web hosts vying for your business, so make sure to refer to our guides to the best web hosting services and the best WordPress hosting to help you choose.

Almost all web hosts will support WordPress, but you do need a host that supports scripting languages and protocols including PHP 7.4 (or greater), HTTPS, and either MySQL or MariaDB database management systems. You’ll probably want to upload files to the server, so FTP (file transfer protocol) support is also useful.

Step 2: Download WordPress from WordPress.org

To install WordPress on your web hosting manually, you’ll first need to download it to your own computer. Head to WordPress.org and click on "Get WordPress". You’ll be presented with the latest version of WordPress to download in a zip file. Download this file and extract it on your computer.

Step 3: Upload the WordPress files to your web hosting

Next, you need to get your WordPress files onto your web hosting. Your web host may have a web-based file manager that you can use for this purpose.

A quick way to upload all the files is to use an FTP client like FileZilla. Enter your web hosting provider’s FTP details (host, username, and password) into your client, and upload all the WordPress files to your web hosting space.

Step 4: Create a database for WordPress

WordPress requires a MySQL or MariaDB database. Log into your web hosting provider’s administration panel, and find the section for databases. Every hosting provider’s interface is different, but you will typically need to set a database name, username, and password. Note these details for the next step.

Step 5: Enter your database details into the WordPress wizard

Now that the files are uploaded to your web host and an empty database has been created, it’s time to visit your website’s URL. If this is the first time you’ve run WordPress, you will be taken through the setup wizard. First, you’re asked for the language of the site, and then you’re asked for the database details. Enter the details for the database that you created earlier, and click "Submit".

Step 6: Continue through the WordPress installer

After WordPress confirms your database is accessible, you’re asked for a few more details about your site. Enter a site title, administrator username, password, and email. Hit "Install WordPress" to install the program. It should only take a few minutes. 

Step 7: Basic site setup

Now the WordPress installation is complete. Start setting up your site by heading to the "General" menu in the settings. You can set your website’s title, subtitle, time zone, and date format. Click "Save" when you are finished.

Step 8: Choose a theme

In the "Appearance" menu on the left, you’ll find "Themes". Here, you can choose from a range of templates that shape how your website looks. Click on "Add New Theme" to search hundreds of pre-made themes. When you’re happy with your selection, choose "Customize".

Step 9: Edit the site blog posts

By default, your WordPress website will have several posts. Posts are blog content displayed in reverse chronological order. To get used to the interface, click on "Posts" and edit one of the examples. 

You’re not just restricted to text. By clicking on the plus sign, you can add rich media elements like galleries, videos, music, and social media widgets.

Step 10: Add pages

Pages are different from posts. They’re static one-off content, such as your about us page or privacy policy. To add WordPress pages, click on "Pages" in the left-hand menu and choose "Add New". Once again, you can add rich media, such as images and videos, to your content.

Step 11: Browse and add site plugins

To unlock the full potential of your WordPress website, choose "Add New" in the "Plugins" menu. Here, you’ll find thousands of plugins that add features to your site. Some plugins can drastically change how your website works, such as by adding forums, contact forms, online stores, or additional administration features.

How to make a website with WordPress: Summary

WordPress is a powerful content management system with a versatile website builder. There’s so much you can do with your site to perfect it now that you know your way around the user interface. We’ve introduced the different ways that you can use WordPress and shown you its most important features. Now it’s up to you to make the best WordPress website that you possibly can.

Further reading on website builders

Learn more about WordPress in our comparisons of web hosting vs WordPress vs website builders and WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, and our feature exploring the most common WordPress website mistakes and how to fix them.

Using a professional website builder is a great way to build a website quickly without knowing a thing about coding. In our rundowns of the best website builders, the best ecommerce website builders, the best small business website builders, and even the best web hosting, Wix is our number-one choice because of its incredible flexibility, fantastic templates, and wide range of third-party apps.

In this article, we show you how to make a website with Wix, from signing up for an account to publishing your finished site.

How to make a website with Wix: Sign up

You can start to build a website with Wix for free, but you’ll probably want to add a domain name and Wix paid plan later. To begin, hit "Get Started" on the Wix website, fill in your email address, and set a password. Don’t forget to confirm your email address later, and check our Wix promo code page to see if we can save you on those subscription costs.

Step 2: Choose a website type

Wix has an onboarding wizard to assist you in setting up your website. First, you’re asked whom you’re creating the site for. You’re then asked about the type of website that you want to create from a shortlist that includes an online store, music site, portfolio, and business. 

Finally, you must specify your level of experience, from “never done this before” to “built sites professionally”. Enter the details that best represent you, and click "Start Now".

Step 3: Choose a template

There are a wide range of templates that you can use to build a website with Wix. Browse through the many categories and types until you find a template that suits your style. You’ll be able to change all the content later. When you’ve found the perfect template, click "Edit".

Step 4: Choose a Wix domain

Before you can save your website, you need to choose a name for it. This will make up part of the URL that people can visit to view your site. Later, when you’re happy with how your site looks, you can buy a top-level domain from Wix. Alternatively, you can buy a domain from another domain registrar and point your domain to Wix.

For now, just set a name for your new website so you can save your changes.

Step 5: Understand the Wix toolbars

The top bar is used to switch between pages of your website, view a mobile version, and access site-wide settings like domain names and emails. There are also buttons for saving, previewing, and publishing your site. 

Have a quick look at the tools menu for a few guides that you can enable and disable, such as a ruler, toolbar, and grid lines. When you’re not using a tool, you can disable it so the interface is clearer to work with. The toolbar down on the left contains the tools that you’ll use the most when creating your website.

Step 6: Set the page background

Before working on other pages, get your home page right. Start by clicking on "Page Background" to replace the background image. You can choose from stock images, upload your own, or just choose a color. 

If you use stock images or videos, you can search through Wix’s stock images, free images from Unsplash, or paid images from Shutterstock. At the bottom of the "Page Background" tool, you can choose to apply the background to multiple pages of your site at once.

Step 7: Edit your page text

You can change any text, image, or page element by clicking on it. With text, you can change its theme, font, font size, and style and add effects. You can even rotate the text. If you can’t think of what to write, click on "Get Text Ideas" to start a wizard that creates boilerplate text. A button beside this option lets you add animation too.

It’s easy to move things around on the page: just click on the page element that you want to move, and drag it to a new location.

Step 8: Add images and videos

Other images and videos can be dragged and dropped onto your page. You can upload your own media or use stock art. If you use your own media, Wix has built-in Photo Studio and Video Maker apps so you can perfect them.

Step 9: Add and remove pages from your website

To add, remove, and manage the pages of your site, click on the "Site Menu" button on the left toolbar. You can drag and drop pages to reorder them in your main site menu. 

If you drop a menu item slightly to the right, it becomes a submenu of the menu item above it. Try it, then click "Preview" to see how your main menu has been updated.

Each page also has a long list of options where you can choose a custom layout, set user permissions, and specify the URL for search engine optimization purposes.

Step 10: Add rich elements

Besides images and videos, you can drag and drop a whole host of other elements to your pages. Buttons, galleries, slideshows, boxes, lists, grids, and strips can help you better organize your site’s contents for readers. You can display videos and play audio from sites like SoundCloud and Spotify, or add social feeds from top social media sites.

A few of these elements can transform your website, and have additional options in the left menu for you to work with. Blogs, online stores, booking managers, events, and membership management can all be added to your site with just one click.

Step 11: Add apps from the Wix App Market

For even more powerful features for your site, browse the Wix App Market from the left-hand toolbar. It has hundreds of third-party apps to extend the functionality of your website and make it unique. Many are free to install too. There are apps for lead collection, analyzing traffic, visitor interaction, and marketing.

Step 12: Publish your website

When you’re happy with your site, hit the big "Publish" button. Your website will now be available at the domain name that you chose earlier. You can continue to make edits to your website even after it’s published.

How to make a website with Wix: Summary

Wix is one of the most powerful website builders available today. Its user interface can be a little daunting at first, especially when you see how many options there are. 

But once you understand that most editing can be done simply by clicking on an item, you quickly realize the power of choosing to build a website with Wix. We’ve just scratched the surface—there’s so much more you can do with it to make your website a success.

Further reading on website builders

For more on what we thought about Wix, check out our comparison features, which pit it against other leading website builders. These include WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace; Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly; Wix vs Shopify; GoDaddy vs Wix; and Wix vs Squarespace. We've also reviewed Editor X, the new website building platform from Wix aimed at more experienced users.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is imperative for a successful website, and requires you to create content that builds interconnecting links, while also utilizing keywords for further optimization. However, it's not the only thing you can do to help a website move up higher in search engine rankings.

To beat the competition, every tool at hand should be mobilized, and hosting your site with one of the best web hosting services can increase traffic, improve search rankings, and result in more conversions of visitors into customers. But, you might ask: does web hosting affect SEO?

We examine how choosing a web hosting provider is key to improved search engine rankings, and what to look for.

User experience trumps everything 

A metric that search engine optimizers obsess over is page load speed. It is indeed crucial for your pages to load quickly, but the speed at which a page loads in its entirety paints a poor picture of how visitors actually perceive it. Smart designers go a step further with the concept of First Meaningful Paint.

First Meaningful Paint recognizes that not everything on a web page is of equal importance to a visitor. The core content of a web page, the stuff they’ve specifically come to see, should be prioritized over ancillary content that’s less likely to pique the visitor’s interest.

Google recognizes that page load speed is nuanced like this, and it will boost sites that load the most meaningful content quickly. While the entire page might take three seconds to load, if designed correctly the important content will load in less than a second. Consider relegating less significant content such as tracking code to loading after your important content has been displayed to the reader.

Once a visitor has reached your site, it’s vital to keep them there. Google tracks whether visitors immediately return to the search engine after visiting your site. It’s a strong indicator to the search engine that your website hasn’t given the visitor a solution to their problem or offered them value. 

Consider then, that slow page load speeds are a major reason for people to click back to the search engine, and you’ll see why fast web hosting is critical in SEO.

Uptime is central (and that means so is the right host) 

Google boosts websites that appear to offer excellent customer experiences, and drops sites that don’t. A website that’s not available at all times makes for a poor user experience, so if your site frequently goes offline, you can be sure it will be penalized in search engine rankings. Make sure to choose a web hosting company that guarantees a high level of uptime.  

Google considers several load times when measuring a site’s efficiency, and these load times are all affected by your choice of web hosting company. For example, DNS (domain name server) lookups occur every time software has to translate a domain name into an IP address. If your web host processes these DNS lookups slowly, it will take the web browser longer to find the correct server to request content from.

Once the correct server has been found using a DNS lookup, there’s still the page load time to worry about. If your web hosting company takes over 100 milliseconds to begin loading the first byte to the web browser, Google is likely to penalize your site in search engine rankings for being slow. Ideally, you should be aiming to answer a browser’s page load request in less than 50 milliseconds.

Need a new SEO strategy? Here are some ideas 

So, what are some approaches you can take to improve your website’s load speeds and user experience?

First, to reduce the amount of work you need to do administering your site, you should consider managed web hosting. With this type of hosting, the web host takes a more active role in ensuring your web server is secure and running well. 

With managed hosting, the provider will automatically make backups of your site, patch security holes, and update software, so you’re free to focus on creating great content for your visitors.

But even the best managed hosting won’t help if your website is poorly coded. Clean and light code that complies with W3C standards is crucial to getting fast-loading pages. Strip out all the superfluous files, JavaScript, and CSS slowing down your site.

Measure how your website is performing to identify where potential bottlenecks exist. There are a lot of tools at your disposal for gauging your site’s performance, such as GTMetrix, Yslow, Lighthouse, and Pingdom.

Finally, remember to keep your site secure. A security breach is not only terrible for your brand image, but it will also affect search engine rankings if a hacker maliciously adds links to your website. Google will see these irrelevant links and penalize your site’s rank.

Again, managed hosting makes this a little easier, as security holes in server software are patched quickly - but you also need to make sure your website’s code is secure.

The web host you choose, therefore, makes a big difference to how your site will rank on search engines like Google. Choosing a host that’s fast, secure, and has a high uptime guarantee will result in better search engine rankings for searches important to your business.

Further reading on web hosting

For more on how web hosting can affect SEO, read our feature outlining five web hosting factors that can affect the SEO of your website. On SEO, consider our basic SEO tips that can improve a website's Google ranking, and six essential tools for boosting web SEO. Finally, ensure you're building the best site you can for your business by checking out our guide to the best website builders.

The best web hosting services offer the right balance of features and price for businesses to have their website hosted online, but with so many to choose form, it can be difficult to find the right product and provider. After selecting one of the best website builders with which to build a website, businesses need to ensure their site remains reliably online, secure, and quick to load.

Without those elements, no online business can survive in the modern digital world, and so choosing the right web hosting service is imperative. One key differentiator within hosting meanwhile is managed vs unmanaged hosting services, and you'll need to consider which of these is the option you should take for your site.

In this comparison of managed vs unmanaged hosting, we explain the two hosting types, look at their differences, and aim to help you decide which works best for your business's needs.

Managed vs unmanaged hosting: What’s the difference? 

The most basic form of web hosting, and the most popular for small businesses dipping their toes into online business, is unmanaged hosting. As the name suggests, you’re essentially on your own. You rent hosting space on a server and upload your website to it. Installing software, designing a website, keeping your website up to date, and patching security holes is all up to you.

For many businesses, unmanaged hosting is perfectly fine. It’s cheaper than managed hosting, and you have complete control over your website. Most unmanaged services have an administration console that makes installing popular software such as WordPress and Shopify a one-click affair. 

However, using unmanaged hosting means you’ll be spending time and money maintaining your website when you could have been spending it on building your core business.

Managed hosting is where the web hosting provider takes a more active role. The company keeps the server secure and optimized, and it continuously updates your software as new versions are released. Managed hosting providers usually make automatic backups of your site, and most have support staff that can help you with the technical challenges of running a website.

What benefits can managed hosting offer? 

Managed hosting, while more expensive than unmanaged, offers several benefits that can save you time and money. A fully managed service works more like a wing of your business than an external service. It should be able to assist with third-party applications, website development, operating system updates, security patches, and server customization. 

Website migration

A good managed service will also help you to migrate your website to its server, and while backups seem like an afterthought (until you need them), without frequent backups you risk losing your site completely, or at least losing days of work. If something goes wrong with your website or database, you could lose all of your precious customer data.

Back-ups

A managed service will automatically back up your website and database daily. You should check to see how long the service keeps old backups (aim for seven days or more), so you can roll back to a previous version if you need to. Check how quick and easy it is to restore your site from a backup, so downtime is minimized.

Support

Perhaps the most important service managed hosting offers is increased support. Having a team of knowledgeable, technically-minded people available to help via live chat, email, or phone at a moment’s notice can be very reassuring. It can reduce the time your in-house team needs to deal with the more mundane day-to-day chores of running a website, freeing them up to perform more important duties.

The level of support offered by managed hosting providers differs, so compare options as a priority when deciding which service to choose. 

Security

Security should always be a prime concern for businesses operating online, and a breach in security can spell disaster for your brand image. A managed hosting service can take over most of the duties involved in keeping your website secure, including updating software, patching vulnerabilities, and informing you of potential security threats in your code.

Installation and maintenance

Finally, while unmanaged hosting may be enough for simple websites, if your business needs to use lesser-known or old software, then trying to get it up and running on a shared server can be a nightmare. Installing and running software with special requirements is much easier on managed hosting, as the company can make accommodations on the server to meet your bespoke needs. 

Many services will be happy to talk to third-party developers and software vendors on your behalf to find solutions for your business.

Managed vs unmanaged hosting: Conclusion 

Managed hosting may be more expensive than unmanaged hosting, but the value it adds through stronger security, better support, and automated backups can mean it pays for itself.

Further reading on web hosting

You can find out more about why we rate managed hosting over unmanaged hosting in our feature laying out why managed hosting is better for businesses. We also outlined seven reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting, should you have a WordPress site.

To choose a web hosting service is an incredibly key decision to make when you're setting out to build a website. Choosing from one of the best web hosting services, as with choosing one of the best website builders, is integral: your chosen host is responsible not just for your site staying online, but also for providing you with flexibility, so that you can modify and grow your website over time.

It can be rewarding to choose a web hosting service that works perfectly for your site, and equally, picking the wrong host can be severely damaging to your business. If a host can't meet your site's needs, you could end up wasting more time and money you don't have to start your search again.

Consequently, knowing what you should be looking for when you choose a web hosting service is the right way to go. We cover seven key points here that you should consider in order to find the right host for your website.

1. Type of hosting offered 

Most hosting providers offer multiple types of services. For a new website with relatively modest traffic, shared hosting can provide a low-cost option. But if you need more bandwidth, or need additional computing power to run software on your website, look for options like VPS (virtual private server) and cloud hosting.

You will also want to consider whether they offer managed hosting or unmanaged hosting. With managed hosting, you don’t have to worry about things like security or software updates—your hosting provider takes care of all those details for you. This may be an especially good option for newer webmasters.

Even more important, look for a hosting provider that lets you switch between its service tiers seamlessly. Having the ability to upgrade your hosting plan without downtime is critical if, for example, your website sees a spike in traffic thanks to a viral marketing campaign.

2. Support

Responsive support is one of the most critical things your hosting service can provide. If your website goes down or you’re experiencing a malicious attack, you want to be able to talk to someone who can help as soon as possible. Every minute your website is offline can cost you visitors and sales. 

With that in mind, be sure to check what support options a prospective host offers. Many have 24/7 phone, live chat, and email support, while others only offer one or two channels to get in touch. Before you sign up, try giving the support line a call to see whether the customer service team is knowledgeable and helpful.

3. Features

Hosting providers differ a lot in what features they offer with their plans.

To start comparing features, look at how your data will be stored. Many budget providers are using hard disk drives, which are cheap but prone to mechanical failure. An ever-growing number of hosts are switching to solid state disks, which are much more reliable and can speed up your website thanks to faster data transfer operations. 

Another thing to look for is whether your hosting plan comes with automatic backups. Having backups of all your content and static pages is absolutely essential for recovering quickly after a server failure or hack on your website.

The software that your host provides is also worth considering. Many hosts enable you to manage your site using the cPanel hosting panel software, but others have proprietary control panels that can differ in functionality. Also, be sure to look for one-click installers to help you get your website up and running more quickly.

4. Server locations

The closer your host’s servers are to your audience, the faster your pages will load for visitors. So, it’s worth checking where your host’s data centers are located and whether you’ll have the option to choose among multiple server locations. 

Some hosts also give you the option to host your website in an environmentally friendly data center, such as GreenGeeks. If you have a global audience, you may also want to consider a host that gives you access to a CDN (content delivery network) such as Cloudflare. A CDN stores a cached copy of your site on servers around the world so that visitors from anywhere can experience fast page loading.

5. Areas of specialization

While hosting providers are generalists by nature, some companies specialize in certain types of hosting. For example, you’ll find hosts that dedicate most of their infrastructure to managed WordPress hosting, which can make sense if you’re planning to use WordPress as your content management system. 

Other hosting providers focus on cloud hosting, which offers more flexibility to scale your hosting resources up or down. Think carefully about what you need, and then see if there’s a hosting provider designed to cater to that purpose.

6. Security

Website security is more important than ever before thanks to the growth of cyberattacks. If your website is compromised by malicious actors, your visitors’ computers as well as your own could be affected. Worse, you could be liable for damage that originates from your website, even if it resulted from a security breach.

It’s also worth noting that your website can be flagged by Google and other search engines if you share an IP address with compromised or spammy websites. So, even if your website isn’t directly affected by a breach, your traffic could suffer from choosing a host that doesn’t take security seriously.

So, it’s important to carefully scrutinize the web hosting security features that different web hosts offer. Some hosts have closely guarded data centers with 24/7 performance and threat monitoring to protect your website. Others take a much more lax approach, and leave it to you to manage your website’s permissions.

7. Price and general feedback online

Once you have a shortlist of potential hosts, you’ll of course want to compare their prices. Depending on your budget, price may be more or less important relative to other features in your final decision.

This is also a good time to look at online feedback from webmasters who have used these hosts. Reading about other peoples’ experiences with a hosting provider can give you an indication of whether it’s as good as it seems on paper.

Further reading on web hosting

Make sure to read our buying guides outlining the best VPS hosting and the best cloud hosting, to find the best hosts for those types of web hosting packages. If you're looking to build a website, ensure you choose from the best website builders to do so.

With so many tasks to undertaken when trying to make an online business succeed, including choosing one of the best website builders, web hosting security and choosing the best web hosting service can often feel like a lower priority, especially if you believe all hosts are very similar. 

However, the reality is that they aren't, and if you cut corners when choosing a web hosting service, you can leave your website vulnerable to hacking, security risks, and suspensions, which could permanently affect your brand and your business.

We explain here how your web hosting security is key to your website's security, and why it's integral to ensure your web hosting service's security features are cutting-edge.

With shared hosting, security is a shared concern 

When first starting out online, many small businesses choose shared hosting because it’s the cheapest option. Shared hosting means your website’s files are stored on a server that’s shared with hundreds or even thousands of other websites. This keeps costs down, but introduces a plethora of security concerns.

With shared hosting, even if your own website is highly secure, a hacker can take advantage of security flaws in other websites hosted on the same infrastructure as you. You have no control over the software other people install on the shared web server, and when a hacker can exploit a weakness in other sites, they can often access all of your files too.

Even if you diligently update your software and patch potential security holes, if other people on your shared hosting don’t do this, then there’s the possibility of an attack. This is especially likely if the file and directory permissions on the shared host are weak, making it easy for a hacker to gain access to all the websites on the server once they’ve breached one.

An exploited site could mean a lengthy suspension 

In the event your hosting provider discovers a potential exploit on your website, the host may suspend your site until you’ve rectified the problem. Responsible shared hosting providers suspend compromised sites as quickly as they can before it affects other server users.

This can spell disaster for your brand’s prestige and your SEO efforts. It will take time for you to patch the web hosting security hole, inform the host that it’s patched, wait for them to check your site is again safe, and finally reactivate your website. During this time, your customers are going elsewhere with their business.

Avoiding suspension 

Unless you’re a website security professional, you might find yourself at an impasse if your site gets suspended like this. The web host will tell you there’s a problem you need to fix before your site can go live again, but you must find a professional to repair your site for you. 

Precious time will be wasted trying to patch the security breach, especially as the professional may not be familiar with your particular website. The obvious alternative to this potentially messy situation is to choose managed private server hosting instead of shared hosting. 

Not only are your files hosted on a private server that’s not shared with anyone else, but the hosting provider also handles all the security for the servers. If a web hosting security breach happens, it’s up to the hosting provider to fix the problem quickly as part of your contract with them.

Is managing your website’s security the best use of your time? 

The web host and type of hosting plan you choose makes an enormous difference to how much time and effort you need to spend on your website’s security.

On the whole, if you choose the cheapest shared hosting around, you’ll be struggling with security issues all the time, whereas choosing a reliable private shared hosting provider will free you to look after your business’s principal interests.

Finding the hosting provider that meets your needs 

It would be easy to say you should simply choose the most robust private web hosting available as it’s the most secure, but it’s also the most expensive, and businesses must also consider their bottom line. 

Finding the right type of web hosting and the best web host for your needs requires you to evaluate the skills of your IT staff and the importance of security to your business. If your brand would suffer greatly from extended website downtime, paying more for managed private hosting makes sense.

Shared, private, and managed server hosting all have their pros and cons. If you do decide on shared hosting, you need to have a good idea of how the provider handles security.

Check the web host’s website or email its support staff. Will the staff help you secure your website before it goes live? How does the web host respond to exploits? Does it offer an uptime guarantee and protection from DOS (Denial Of Service) attacks? How often are backups taken, and how long does the restoration of backups take?

The answers to these questions will help you decide which hosting providers offer you the best web hosting security and support for your business at a reasonable price.

Further reading on web hosting

For more information, read our article asking what is web hosting, which will tell you all you need to know about choosing your web hosting provider and the types of hosting. Learn more about SEO and hosting in our articles asking does web hosting affect SEO, and outlining nine tips that can improve a website's ranking.

With so many website builders in the market, it can be hard to find and choose the right one for your needs. Of the best website builders, GoDaddy and Wix have elevated themselves to become top choices for many use cases in recent years, and in our comprehensive GoDaddy vs Wix comparison, we take a closer look.

We compare the two industry-leading options in terms of their main features, their performance, their levels of customer service, their pricing plans, and more. Our aim here is to provide you with as much information as you require to make the right choice for your new website.

GoDaddy vs Wix: Features

Both GoDaddy and Wix offer a suite of excellent features, but they are targeted at very different audiences. GoDaddy is a beginner-friendly option, designed to help users get a simple site online fast, while Wix offers the ultimate in design flexibility.

Wix is known for its excellent template library, which features more than 500 designs for websites of all shapes and sizes. However, GoDaddy disappoints here, with only a few dozen simple themes. 

GoDaddy provides basic integrations with the most popular social media platforms, along with a very limited number of other third-party apps. Wix fares much better here, offering advanced integrations with a huge number of other platforms—available through the Wix App Market. 

With GoDaddy created to be as simple to use as possible, its design flexibility suffers as a result. Don’t expect much more than to be able to add basic elements to pre-coded template positions. Wix, however, has some of the best customization tools in the industry. You can drag elements into pixel-perfect position, add custom content, and tweak virtually every aspect of your site through its powerful editor. 

It also comes with excellent analytics capabilities designed to help you monitor site traffic, actions, and more. You can track the number of visitors, where they come from, and what they do on your website through the built-in analytics dashboard. 

Conversely, GoDaddy’s website statistics are quite limited. You can track basic metrics such as visitor numbers, search engine rankings, and store sales, but you may find it lacking if you need advanced insights.

GoDaddy vs Wix: Performance

To compare the performance of GoDaddy vs Wix, we took a close look at the respective website builders' editing interfaces. 

GoDaddy has a beginner-friendly but simplistic editor which, while great for newcomers, certainly has a few flaws to be aware of. To start with, the template library is very small and the designs are quite basic. This means that there’s little choice when it comes to the general appearance of your site, making it hard to build something that’s truly personalized. 

Similarly, the editor offers very little in the way of design flexibility, and global color and font customization settings are quite limited as well. 

Wix is arguably the industry leader when it comes to design flexibility and customization tools. Along with more than 500 attractive templates, it offers the choice of two different editing options. With Wix artificial design intelligence (ADI), you’re guided through a short questionnaire asking you about the goals you intend to achieve with your site. 

At the end, you will be provided with a personalized template that you can edit and populate with your own content. Alternatively, you can use Wix’s powerful editor to access pixel-perfect drag-and-drop editing functionality. Here, you will really only be limited by your imagination. You can add virtually anything to your site, customize things when and where required, and change global settings with a click. 

Now, Wix certainly wins when it comes to the functionality of its editor, but it’s important to note that it can be a little confusing for beginners. Because of this, GoDaddy is a worthy option to consider, especially for those who just want to get a simple website online with the minimum amount of fuss. 

GoDaddy vs Wix: Support

When it comes to customer service, GoDaddy excels. It provides 24/7 phone and live chat support, and agents tend to be responsive and knowledgeable. There is also a great collection of self-help resources available in the Help Center on GoDaddy’s website, along with an active community forum and numerous online tutorials. 

Wix just doesn’t live up to expectations here. It doesn’t offer any live chat support, and wait times for phone and email inquiries are usually quite long. Furthermore, you can’t actually call the company directly. Instead, you have to request a call-back, which can happen at any time between 6 am and 5 pm, Monday to Friday (Pacific Time). 

Luckily, Wix does have an excellent knowledge base with countless self-help resources, but this just isn’t enough to make up for its support shortfalls. 

GoDaddy vs Wix: Pricing and plans

Website builders can get quite expensive, but GoDaddy offers very competitive prices. Along with a free plan that has various limitations, there are four paid subscription options. Prices start at just $9.99 a month (with annual billing) for a Basic plan, which gets you full access to virtually all standard website builder features. 

Upgrade to a Standard subscription ($14.99 a month) and you can access search engine optimization (SEO) tools and more advanced social media features. Alternatively, go for the top-end Premium subscription ($19.99 a month) to unlock online appointment features, or create an online store with the Ecommerce plan ($24.99 a month). 

Wix’s free plan is much more powerful than GoDaddy’s, but that’s about as good as it gets. The cheapest Combo plan costs $14 a month, and includes a limited 3GB of storage and few advanced features. Upgrading to an Unlimited ($18 a month), Pro ($23 a month), or VIP ($39 a month) plan will unlock additional tools. You can bring these prices down a little with our Wix promo codes.

If you want access to any business or online store features, you’ll need to sign up for one of Wix’s Business & eCommerce plans. These range from $23 to $49 a month, but don’t expect much more than basic online selling tools. Wix also offers custom enterprise-level plans, which certainly score a few points against GoDaddy.

GoDaddy vs Wix: Verdict

All things considered, there’s no clear winner here. Wix and GoDaddy are both great options for different people. Wix’s features are excellent, its builder is among the most powerful on the market, and the design flexibility it offers is unrivaled in the world of website builder platforms. 

On the other hand, while GoDaddy may be more basic, it boasts excellent customer service, a beginner-friendly editing interface, and very competitive prices. 

The bottom line: go for Wix if design flexibility and customization are important to you, but consider GoDaddy if you just want to get your site online as quickly and easily as possible.

Further reading on website builders

If you go with either GoDaddy or Wix, you'll find our step-by-step guides useful, which outline how to build a website with GoDaddy and with Wix. Another option for those with more experience is WordPress, via the best WordPress website builders and the best web hosting services; namely the best WordPress hosting.

With the best website builders, anyone—regardless of technical experience—can build a website, own their own online presence, and create an online store. Aided by this modern technology, you can create an attractive site and publish it online with minimum effort, in next to no time. 

Two of the best builders available and two of the best ecommerce website builders you can sign up to right now are Wix and Shopify. Wix is arguably the most powerful site creation tool available, providing high-level flexibility and top-notch editing capabilities. Shopify is the world’s most popular ecommerce platform, and offers tools to both create and manage online stores. 

In this comparison, we pit Wix vs Shopify and establish what their strengths are, where one outdoes the other, and aim to help you decide which is best for your new website.

Wix vs Shopify: Features

As leaders in the website builder field, Wix and Shopify boast an excellent suite of highly advanced tools and ecommerce features. We’ve compared a few of the most important below. 

Shopify arguably offers some of the best ecommerce features on the market. You’ll find absolutely everything you need to build, manage, and grow an online store, including inventory management, marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and order fulfilment tools. What’s more, everything is designed for beginners with little industry experience. 

Wix offers decent ecommerce tools, but they certainly don’t come close to Shopify’s. You will have access to everything you need to build a fully functional store, but the simple fact that ecommerce isn’t Wix’s main focus means that some advanced features are missing.

It does however have a huge template library, containing more than 500 attractive and versatile designs. Some of these are built specifically for online stores, but you can add product pages and sell through any of the available themes. Shopify offers more than 70 themes designed specifically for ecommerce, but a lot of these are quite bland, and the vast majority of successful stores use custom themes. 

Both provide an excellent range of analytics and reporting tools. Wix provides basic ecommerce statistics covering things like order numbers, conversion rates, total revenue, and total sessions. Expect all the key statistics but nothing too fancy. 

Shopify has truly impressive analytics and reporting tools. The exact data you’ll have access to will depend on your subscription, but expect to be able to view a wealth of information about your store’s performance, visitor acquisition and behavior, and more.

Wix vs Shopify: Performance

When it comes to performance, it’s quite hard to compare Wix and Shopify because they’re fundamentally different platforms. Wix certainly offers more design flexibility and customization for the average person, although code access is a little limited. With the Wix Editor, you can drag and drop elements into pixel-perfect positions, create virtually any design you want, and build your store from scratch if required. 

On the other hand, Shopify’s editor is very beginner-friendly, but design flexibility is somewhat limited unless you have some basic coding skills. The native editor lets you customize various aspects of your store, including colors and page appearances, but you’ll be constrained by your theme. However, you can personalize anything and everything by adding custom code. 

When it comes to store management, there’s little to separate the two platforms. Shopify’s management dashboard is excellent, with an intuitive interface and options for virtually everything. But Wix also features an attractive and intuitive dashboard that you can use to look after every aspect of your store. 

Wix vs Shopify: Support

Both Wix and Shopify have average customer service, which will be a major concern for many people. Wix has no live chat, email support is slow, and phone support is only available by requesting a call-back—which could come at any time. Fortunately, the self-help library is impressive, featuring numerous tutorials and how-to guides. 

Shopify fares slightly better, with 24/7 live chat, email, and phone customer service. But although this might sound impressive, support agents are often poorly trained and it can be very hard to get answers to any technical questions. It has a decent knowledge base however, and there are learning materials available across the web. 

Wix vs Shopify: Pricing and plans

If you’re looking for the cheapest option, Wix is certainly the winner. It offers a basic free plan you can use to test out the platform’s features, along with four website-specific options costing between $14 and $39 a month. You can save even more on these prices with our Wix promo codes too. But if you want an online store, you’ll need to upgrade to one of three Business and eCommerce plans. The cheapest—Business Basic—starts at $23 a month, but only offers very simple online store tools. 

Upgrading to Business Unlimited ($27 a month) gives you advanced shipping, the ability to sell through third-party marketplaces, and more. Or you can go for Business VIP ($49 a month) to unlock all ecommerce features. There are also custom enterprise-level solutions available for large-scale online retail customers. 

Shopify, conversely, has no free plan. Instead, it offers a 14-day free trial. The cheapest of its three plans, Basic Shopify ($29 a month), provides the store builder and ecommerce features, but there’s still a lot missing. 

Upgrade to a Shopify plan ($79 a month) to unlock professional reports and international pricing, or go for Advanced Shopify ($299 a month) to unlock all features. Like Wix, Shopify offers custom enterprise-level solutions for large online stores through Shopify Plus, but expect costs for this to stretch to thousands of dollars per month. 

Wix vs Shopify: Verdict

Wix and Shopify are both great platforms but they have very different uses. Wix is arguably the world’s most popular website builder, and it’s a great choice if you want to build a content-based site with a small online store attached.

There’s a reason why Shopify is the world’s most popular ecommerce platform. It comes with a suite of beginner-friendly online store tools and customization options, although it’s significantly more expensive than Wix.

Before deciding whether Wix or Shopify is the best option for you, it’s a good idea to identify the goals you want to achieve with your website. You can then choose one or the other, based on your long-term aspirations.

Further reading on website builders

Take a look at our guides on how to build a website with Wix and with Shopify for step-by-step user tips, as well as our walkthrough explaining how to build an ecommerce website. 

It's also worth having a look at our guide to the best small business website builders, and if you wanted to go with WordPress instead of these options, check out the best website builders for WordPress, the best web hosting services, and the best WordPress hosting.

How do you choose from the best website builders? Builders allow you to build a website before launching it online in hours, without touching code or anything more complex than a drag-and-drop editor. They've been around for some time, but recently the market has grown, and the overall quality of builders have increased.

Whether general or specializing in small business websites or ecommerce stores, these services have grown into user-friendly, advanced tools that anyone can use to make personalized, expressive, and high-quality websites. 

Three of the leading builders on the market are Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly, and in our comparison, we pit Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly, providing detailed insight on their similarities, differences, advantages, and disadvantages so that you can choose the best website builder for your needs.

Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly: Features

At the surface level, Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly have similar features. They each have a web-based website editor, template designs, and marketing tools to help you get your site off the ground. But each builder has its niche.

Wix has arguably the most powerful website editor of the bunch. You can drag and drop elements anywhere on your pages and customize them exactly how you want them. Wix has the largest template library too, with over 500 options ready to go. They’re all responsive designs, so they work on mobile devices as well as on computers.

Wix has a massive app market filled with third-party extensions that you can use to introduce additional features to your website, and there's an extensive range of social sharing and analytics tools. Put this all together, and you get the most versatile website builder on our list.

While Squarespace has fewer templates than Wix, we feel that they’re of a higher standard. Real care has been put into ensuring that all the elements and layouts that you can drag and drop onto your pages work together as a theme, so it’s easier to make a cohesive website design with Squarespace than with our other choices.

Squarespace also has a long list of built-in features. While Wix requires you to pay extra for its marketing and customer management suite, Squarespace has everything ready to go. It’s an all-in-one solution with marketing tools, search engine optimization, scheduling, analytics, and customer profiling baked into the interface.

While you can create standard websites with Weebly, it has a more pronounced focus on ecommerce than our other contenders. It's particularly easy to throw together a store website and begin managing customers and inventory. The templates are great, and you have access to marketing tools like email newsletters. You can even set up responses to be performed automatically when customers take an action, such as sending them a custom email when they purchase an item. 

Another interesting Weebly feature is the mobile app. You can manage your store when you’re out and about, process and fulfil orders, check your inventory, and edit your website on the fly. You can interact with customers, read and write blog comments, and check on your site’s metrics from your mobile device.

So, all three website builders are absolutely loaded with features, though Wix has the most extensive library of templates and add-ons.

Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly: Performance

For a website editor to perform well, it needs to be easy to use, and it needs to offer your customers an outstanding experience every time. Fortunately, all our website editors create websites that load quickly and perform well on any device.

The Weebly workflow is the easiest to get to grips with. It’s drag-and-drop, so you can place page elements in the order that you’d like to see. But you’re generally kept on rails, unable to make significant changes to the template designs. This makes it harder to create a truly unique site, but it does prevent you from making a big mess.

Squarespace relaxes the reins a bit more, so you can make personalized changes to your website, and the range of tools at your disposal is better. The user interface is context-sensitive, hiding things when you don’t need them to simplify the interface. It can be a little difficult to find your way around at first, but as soon as you understand how it works, you can design beautiful websites with ease.

Wix has by far the most powerful editor of the three, allowing you to drop elements wherever you want them to go. There’s also a huge list of add-ons that you can put on your pages to spice them up. This freedom comes at the cost of simplicity, and you’ll need to spend longer getting used to the tools that you’re provided. It’s also easier to stray from web design best practices.

Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly: Support

All our website editors did well when we tested the response from their customer support services. Squarespace has an outstanding community and fast, 24/7 live chat/email support. Wix has an impressively detailed help center and offers support by phone and email. Weebly has a good support website and offers support by email, live chat, and phone. 

They all get top marks, but if we had to choose a winner, it would be Wix for its comprehensive knowledge base full of great self-help resources.

Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly: Pricing and plans

Wix offers a free plan, but it’s limited and you have to put up with advertising on your website. The cheapest personal plan is $14 a month, and there are three more plans that progressively add more features. The top VIP plan costs $39 a month. Wix also has three business plans, costing $23 to $49 a month. 

On top of this, you may want to choose an Ascend by Wix marketing plan to complement your Wix website. Costing an additional $10 to $49 a month, this adds email campaigns, chat boxes, automation, social posts, and professional video ads.

Squarespace has a 14-day trial and four paid plans. Plans cost $12 to $40 a month if you pay annually, while ecommerce plans start at $18 a month. Finally, Weebly has a free plan and three paid plans costing $6 to $26 a month. Plans for serious ecommerce start at $12, but only the $26 Performance plan accepts PayPal. Take a look at our Squarespace promo codes page for any price cuts. 

If you’re happy with a free website with ads on it, Wix and Weebly are fine choices. But most businesses will require an ad-free experience and solid ecommerce features, which cost between $28 to $38 a month on Wix, $18 to $40 a month on Squarespace, or $12 to $26 a month on Weebly. 

Therefore, Weebly is the cheapest of the bunch, followed by Squarespace. Wix keeps many important features locked away in higher-priced plans, and you have to pay even more for its most advanced marketing tools.

Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly: Verdict

Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly are all outstanding choices. We recommend Wix to people who like to tinker with every design element, to get their sites looking exactly how they want. It has a more powerful and complex website editor, though this does make it harder to get started with. It’s by far the most flexible website builder of the three.

Squarespace is the top choice if you want an all-in-one package with design, marketing, search engine optimization, and analytics seamlessly integrated. It also has our favorite designs of the bunch, with all elements of your website working together to create a cohesive user experience.

Weebly is a worthy contender, particularly if you have ecommerce in mind. It offers the best end-to-end sales funnel, with automated emails and marketing helping to support your sales. If you like to check on your site when you’re out and about, Weebly has the best mobile app.

All three of these website builders can be used to create fantastic websites. They all have free trials or free plans, so there’s no excuse not to try them all out to get a feel for which user interface suits your working style the best.

Further reading on website builders

For more information on all three builders covered in this article, read our how-to guides giving step-by-step instructions on how to build sites with Wix and Squarespace. If you wanted to opt for a WordPress site instead, you'll need one of the best website builders for WordPress and the best web hosting services, specifically the best WordPress hosting platforms.

In a growing market, the best website builders allow virtually anyone, regardless of experience, to build a website of their own. You can do this in as little as a few hours, and popular paid options from builders like Wix and Weebly are often accompanied by free plans, complete with effective features and tools. There are also the best free blogging sites, created just for that purpose.

With so many website builders available, some free options are attractive and functional, while others are not even worth considering. However, with limitations and restrictions on a range of website factors, how do free website builders stack up against the premium competition? That’s the question we aim to answer. 

We look at features, support, ease of use, and more, with direct examples from some of our favorite free and paid website builders.

Free website builders vs paid: Features

As would be expected, premium subscription-based website builders generally come with much more advanced features than free ones. Free plans usually come with numerous limitations, including the size of your site, the storage and bandwidth you have access to, and the use of advanced tools for building a website. 

In most cases, you won’t be able to connect a custom domain name if you use a free website builder. For example, Wix’s free builder limits you to a wixsite.com subdomain, which can look a little unprofessional for a business site. On the other hand, upgrading to a paid plan will enable you to connect a custom domain. And some premium website builders, such as the HostGator Website Builder, even throw in a free domain with every new subscription. 

Most free website builders also come with some sort of advertisement for the platform that you’re using. For example, both Weebly’s free plan and its cheapest premium plan come with advertising by Square, its ecommerce partner. You will have to upgrade to the second-most-expensive premium plan, which costs $12 a month, to remove these ads. 

Again we see free website builders underperforming here, with most coming with very limited storage and bandwidth. For example, Site123’s free plan includes just 250MB of storage and 250MB of bandwidth. Its premium plans are also a little limited, but still much more generous. 

In many cases, you'll find that free website builders just don’t offer the tools necessary for selling items or services through your new business website. A small percentage offer very limited online store features, but you will usually need to go for a higher-end paid subscription for any ecommerce features at all. 

Free website builders vs paid: Performance

To compare the performance of free website builders and paid-for services, we took a close look at the editing interface and ease of use of three of our favorite options. 

For one, Wix offers a selection of both free and paid plans. And unlike many of its competitors, there are no limitations on who has access to which website builder features. Premium users can upgrade their SEO and marketing packages, but free users have access to all other design and editing tools. 

On the other hand, Site123’s free website builder is very limited when compared to the paid alternatives. Numerous advanced editing tools are only available for premium users, which can be quite frustrating when trying to create an attractive business site. 

For example, you won’t be able to add plugins or custom code snippets to integrate tools such as Google Analytics—which many would argue are essential for a successful website. 

Another popular free website builder, Strikingly, is even more limited. While its premium plans are designed for those who want to create a simple yet attractive website, its free plan is disappointing, to say the least. With it, you will be limited to a single-page site with very basic ecommerce tools, and you won’t be able to add custom code snippets or even a site search bar.

At the end of the day, most free website builders come with quite limited editing interfaces. There are some exceptions, such as Wix, but it’s crucial to ensure you do a decent amount of research before selecting a platform.

Free website builders vs paid: Support

At the end of the day, the support services you have access to will largely depend on the website builder you use. However, we can safely say that free builders (and free plans from paid platforms) generally have much poorer customer service than the paid alternatives. 

Usually, free users will have access to a comprehensive knowledge base, community forums where they exist, and, in some cases, email or phone support. However, live support tends to be reserved for paying customers, which can make it hard to get help if you’re using a free option.

Free website builders vs paid: Pricing and plans

Free website builders are generally 100% free, forever, while the price of a paid subscription can vary from a few dollars per year to tens or even hundreds per month. However, free website builders generally come with quite a few limitations, and a premium option will likely be the best choice for your business. 

When it comes to paid website builders, the HostGator builder offers some of the best value for money plans we’ve seen. For just $3.84 a month, you will have access to virtually all the features required to build a fully functional site, and you will even get a free domain name and the ability to create a small ecommerce store. 

Meanwhile, Wix’s paid plans range from $14 to $49 a month, and Weebly’s cost between $6 and $26 a month. As you can see, it’s possible to save a significant amount of money if you decide to use a free website builder. But then again, it’s not always worth it. 

Free website builders vs paid: Verdict

Comparing popular free website builders with paid builders tells an interesting story. Of course, most free builders are less powerful than their premium alternatives, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t useful. 

Unfortunately, though, we simply can’t recommend using a free website builder to create a business site. In general, they come with more limited features than paid builders, little or no ecommerce support, only basic customer support, and constraints on bandwidth and storage. 

Of course, you will benefit from saving a few dollars per month if you use a free builder, but at the end of the day, it’s really not worth it. 

Further reading on website builders

Make sure to read our guide to the best cheap website builders to save you money if you're on a budget. You can also opt for WordPress via the best website builders for WordPress, the best web hosting services, and the best WordPress hosting offered via the former.

Finding one of the best website builders to build a website is key to ensuring that your new site works smoothly, giving you a robust and attractive online presence whatever your type of site is. While there are many builders available, a number clearly rise above the rest. 

Three leading options for building a website are WordPress.com, Wix, and Squarespace, all of which provide reliable, high-quality site creation for everyone from absolute beginners to web development experts. These three can be found competing for top place across lists of the best ecommerce website builders, the best small business website builders, and the best free blogging sites.

In our comparison of WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, we compare main features, performance, support services, and prices, to better help you decide which is best for your new website.

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: Features

As three of the world’s most powerful website builders, Wix, WordPress.com, and Squarespace naturally come with a great selection of advanced features. 

All three come with ecommerce features, but Wix and Squarespace clearly excel here. Wix’s three online store plans give you access to a suite of advanced tools, and Squarespace comes with powerful integrations including coupon and discount code support, zero transaction fees, and abandoned cart recovery. 

Again, all three builders are packaged with various blogging options, but WordPress.com is clearly the best choice. It offers a great selection of blog-specific templates, a clear yet simple editing interface, and a suite of tools to help you get the most out of your blog. Wix or Squarespace offer access to specialized blog templates and some basic blogging tools, but they aren’t nearly as powerful as WordPress’s.  

Wix has one of the largest template libraries of any website builder we’ve tested. It has over 500 different designs, which are cleverly categorized by the type of website you need, and you can even search for templates with the neat search box. Squarespace’s library is smaller, but its themes are very high quality and regularly updated. If professional design is your priority, Squarespace could be the best option. 

WordPress.com does things a little differently. All plans provide access to a small library with a selection of free and premium themes. However, a Premium, Business, or eCommerce subscription will give you access to the WordPress.org template library, while Business and eCommerce subscribers will also be able to upload their own themes. 

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: Performance

Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress use fundamentally different editing interfaces. In terms of flexibility and the number of design tools on offer, Wix’s editor clearly outperforms the other two. However, WordPress.com is a great option for beginner-friendly editing, while Squarespace makes it easy to create professional sites without much experience. 

For starters, the performance of the Wix editor is exceptional. It uses a drag-and-drop editing interface that supports pixel-perfect customization. You can personalize nearly everything you can imagine, and even have a level of code access if you require it. However, it can be quite hard to get the hang of, purely because the sheer number of tools on offer can make it a little confusing. 

WordPress.com sits at the other end of the spectrum. It does give you a small amount of design flexibility, but uses an outdated, block-based editing interface. Fortunately, there are plenty of attractive templates to base your website on, but don’t expect to find too many customization options here. 

Squarespace sits somewhere in the middle, with a decent amount of design flexibility, a great selection of professional templates, and a number of native app integrations. It doesn’t offer the customizability of Wix, but it remains an excellent option if you’re willing to put the work in to create an attractive site. 

Wix is clearly the best performing website builder here, but Squarespace isn’t far behind, and WordPress.com certainly isn’t terrible either. 

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: Support

Squarespace offers excellent support services, with a responsive, 24/7 email ticketing system and live chat that’s available from Monday to Friday, 4am to 8pm EST. On top of this, it has an excellent knowledge base with in-depth guides that cover numerous advanced topics. 

Wix is similarly great, with 24/7 phone and ticket support, along with a useful chatbot. However, its live support is sometimes slow, which can be frustrating. Like Squarespace, Wix has a decent selection of self-help resources, although they don’t tend to be quite as detailed or comprehensive. 

WordPress.com offers different levels of support with different plans. All users will have access to the company’s knowledge base, but email support is only available for paying users. Basic live chat is available for those with a Premium plan or higher, while 24/7 priority live chat only comes with a Business or eCommerce subscription. 

Overall, Squarespace clearly wins here, with Wix taking second place. In saying that, WordPress.com’s support is still more than good enough—you may just have to wait a while for a response if you’re using a low-end plan.

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: Pricing and plans

Both WordPress.com and Wix offer basic free forever plans, while Squarespace has a 14-day free trial. All three builders support standard websites and at least some form of e-commerce, and all come with a selection of different paid plans. 

WordPress’s paid plans start at just $4 a month for a Personal subscription that allows you to connect a custom domain. Premium ($8 a month) and Business ($15 a month) plans include increasingly advanced features, while an eCommerce subscription ($45 a month) comes with a suite of online selling tools. 

At $12 a month, Squarespace’s Personal plan is higher priced, but it comes with significantly more advanced features. A Business subscription will cost you $18 a month, while Basic and Advanced Commerce plans cost $26 and $40 a month respectively. Take a look at our Squarespace promo codes - we may be able to knock a few dollars off those monthly prices for you.

And finally, Wix is even more expensive, with its four website-specific plans ranging from $14 to $39 a month. It also has three Business & eCommerce plans ranging from $23 to $49 a month, along with Enterprise-level custom solutions, and you can bring those prices down with our Wix promo codes too.

Overall, it’s very hard to pick a winner here. WordPress.com is certainly the cheapest option, but Squarespace and Wix arguably provide better value for money. 

WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace: Verdict

All things considered, it’s impossible to declare a clear winner in this WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace comparison. All three are high-quality, reliable builders that are suited to different uses. 

If you want to create a blog or a simple personal site, WordPress.com is a great choice. Squarespace is good for its professional templates and impressive native integrations, and Wix is clearly the best website builder when it comes to overall customizability and design flexibility.

Further reading on website builders

Check out our step-by-step guides on how to build a website with WordPress, with Wix, and with Squarespace. If you choose to go with WordPress, you'll need one of the best web hosting services to host your site, and it's best to check if the option you go for is ranked among the best WordPress hosting platforms.

When you're looking to build a website, the best website builders offer beginners and experienced users alike a great starting point. They make building a website easy, and allow you to create a fully functional, responsive site, even if you've got no prior experience.

Most builders also offer hosting and domain name plans, for a one-stop shop for all your website needs. Additionally, some of the best web hosting services offer some of the top website builders with their hosting packages, including HostGator, 1&1 IONOS, and GoDaddy.

While not all website builders offer the same features, and their plans can differ significantly, here we pit HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy against one another in terms of their website builders. We compare their plans, features, performance, and more, in order to help you choose the best builder for your needs.

HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy: Features

We looked at some of the most important features needed to quickly and easily build a functional, professional-looking website. Each builder has its own strengths and weaknesses, so be sure to check which offers the features you need the most. 

For many professionals, the ability to sell their products or services online is an essential feature—the whole reason they’re building a website in the first place. Of the three, HostGator has perhaps the most limited ecommerce features: you can choose a template and set up a simple online store, manage products, accept payments and integrate with Shippo shipping, but that’s all.

GoDaddy and IONOS offer more features and finder control. Both have a selection of templates to get you started and make it easy to sell products, services, and digital goods. Each syncs with your Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Etsy, and other online marketplace profiles, which is a very convenient feature and will help those with little social media experience.

Both enable you to set up newsletters to increase engagement, although IONOS comes with built-in discount and coupon functions, which paired with newsletters makes for a simple but powerful marketing tool. IONOS also has a great mobile app, so you can add and modify products from a smartphone or tablet, as well as track your sales. 

On the flip-side, GoDaddy offers online appointments, which will appeal to a wide range of service-based professionals. It’s also quite a bit cheaper than IONOS. Its $24.99 a month plan includes all features, whereas IONOS charges $45 a month for Amazon and eBay integration. 

In our opinion, GoDaddy offers the best ecommerce experience at a fair price that includes all its features—although if solid mobile access and discount and coupon features are important for you, IONOS' $25 a month plan will serve you well.

HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy: SEO and templates

Website SEO (search engine optimization) is important for making sure people can find your site easily, by ranking you higher on search engine result pages. 

All three companies offer paid SEO help, and if you’re completely unfamiliar with SEO or why it’s important, this may be a worthwhile investment for you. The cheapest by far comes with HostGator, as SEO tools are part of its Business Plan. With introductory offers and a 36-month plan, offers go as low as $5.95 a month. 

Otherwise, GoDaddy offers SEO tools at $6.99 a month, although they’re more of a self-service deal. Same with IONOS' rankingCoach, which at $10 a month is the most expensive. All three offer you the ability to do your own SEO work though, such as editing meta descriptions and title tags, so if you have a decent knowledge of SEO (or plan on teaching yourself), you can forego these add-ons. 

That said, since they come free with HostGator’s Business Plan, you might swing this way if you’d like the helping hand. 

Most individuals creating their first site with a website builder will not want to start entirely from scratch. A wide array of customizable templates is thus a big help for beginners. Simply choose a template that fits your style and sector, and edit it as needed. IONOS offers over 400 templates, which is a good start, although they aren’t categorized, which makes it a bit difficult to find the right style.

GoDaddy also has hundreds of templates, this time organized into categories like fashion and beauty, home services, and professional services. The designs are elegant and tend to be simplistic (read: manageable). 

HostGator beats both, with over 4,000 templates grouped into more than 50 categories. That said, we found the templates to be of generally lesser quality, busy, and dated. GoDaddy comes out on top for its wide array of truly stunning templates.

HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy: Interface

An intuitive, responsive, powerful interface is what we’re looking for in a website builder. GoDaddy is the most basic of the three, although beginners may find this a boon. You can choose a template, rearrange your elements, and customize your content. You can also change colors globally or for each element, but ultimately, it’s a fairly limited tool.

IONOS provided for somewhat greater control. It’s still a classic drag-and-drop interface, which we prefer for ease of use, but the end results are still heavily influenced by the original template. 

HostGator’s Gator Builder is the most powerful of the three, enabling you to personalize almost every aspect of your website. You can add and remove a wide array of elements, and modify them at a very fine level. 

That said, some users may find the experience less user friendly, and the fact that the templates aren’t all that snazzy to begin with means you need a far stronger sense of design (and more time on your hands) to make it all work.

HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy: Support

For beginners and pros alike, it’s not uncommon to need to contact customer support. When that happens, you want support you can count on. 

IONOS offers live, 24/7 phone and email support, although it has no live chat, which is a feature we’d love to see added. Its knowledge base and IONOS guides are quite comprehensive, and well organized into sections, sub-sections, and articles. Some of the articles are a bit short, but overall, it’s a quite good resource, as is the user forum.

GoDaddy offers 24/7 live chat and phone support. It has no email support or email follow-up, which can make it difficult to get help on the same issue at different times (by referring to a ticket number or past conversation, for example). It has a wide range of tutorials and good documentation, plus an active community forum. 

Finally, HostGator, like GoDaddy, has live chat and phone support, but no email ticketing options. It does have a very impressive knowledge base though, and we found its support staff to be friendly and knowledgeable. 

HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy: Pricing and plans

HostGator has some enticingly cheap plans, starting at just $3.84 a month with hosting, domain name, drag-and-drop builder, templates, analytics, SSL certificate, and classic support. For $5.99 a month, you get priority support, and for $9.22 a month, ecommerce functionality. Even at the most expensive plan with website builder access, then, it’s among the cheapest. 

IONOS’ website builder plansare separated into different areas based on the type of site and support you want. The Starter plan is $5 a month for basic sites or $12 a month for ecommerce sites, and allows you to customize text and images, but not much else. The Plus plan at $10 a month has no online store, but adds one for $20 a month with up to 5,000 products.

The Pro plan costs $15 a month for a basic website or $35 a month for an online store with up to 10,000 products, but doesn’t add much beyond the Plus plan.

GoDaddy offers the greatest range, with four plans starting at $6.99. Its Ecommerce plan, at $17.49 a month, is the most expensive option from all three companies. Business email addresses are also only free for one year, although SEO, guidance, and analytics are also included at this rate. 

If you don’t need an online store, the Premium plan at $13.99 a month offers plenty of features, including appointments, email marketing, and unlimited social posts.

HostGator vs IONOS vs GoDaddy: Verdict

You’ve probably understood by now that your choice will depend a lot on what you’re looking for. If you just want the cheapest possible solution and are comfortable with a powerful but somewhat less user-friendly website builder, go with HostGator. 

The price can’t be beaten and, while the templates aren’t quite as chic, there are a huge number of them. You can also tweak to your heart’s content.

IONOS offers a fantastic ecommerce experience, and its online store plans are just a bit cheaper than GoDaddy’s equivalent. The simplistic bsite builder is well-suited to beginners, and while it has the fewest templates on offer, we found them to be quite attractive.

Finally, GoDaddy comes with excellent ecommerce functionality, gorgeous templates, and great user support. While its Ecommerce plan is the most expensive, it includes a lot of attractive features. If you don’t need an online store, the intuitive website builder and beautiful templates make it very easy to set up a simple website, and you won’t need much more than the standard plan.

Further reading on website builders

If you're looking to find a particular kind of website builder for a certain type of site, make sure to read our guides to the best small business website builders and the best ecommerce website builders. Also take a look at how much it costs to build a website, and our guide to the best cheap website builders on the market.

It's important for all businesses to have some kind of online presence, and with the growth of online sales thanks to the ever-changing world, knowing how to make an ecommerce website allowing you to sell wares online is even more important. The best website builders make an online presence much easier to establish than ever before, but if you've never built a site, it can be intimidating. 

Here, we discuss what's required to launch your online store, how to make an ecommerce website, and outline some of the best ecommerce website builders. You don't need to have tech knowledge to do this either, with builders simplifying the process so that you can be ready to take sales online in just a few hours.

How to make an ecommerce website: Preparation

Before you start building your own ecommerce website, it's important to consider a few things. Crucially, you need to pick a website builder. A few examples of good ecommerce website builders are Shopify, Wix and Square Online. 

Each offer similarly intuitive experiences that mean you don't need to be tech savvy to set up a website, but they also offer different advantages and disadvantages, as well as varying price plans: so it's important to read up on each and see what works best for your business. 

Once you've chosen a website builder for your needs and that matches your budget, think about what you plan on selling on the site. Do you plan on selling your entire range, or are you going to focus on certain products such as your bestsellers? 

Like with setting up a business, it's important to have a separate plan for your ecommerce ambitions too. Consider how you'll arrange shipping and order tracking too, with the best website builders already offering ways to streamline that service so that you won't have to think further than how you dispatch the item. 

Most paid website builders also include a domain name as part of the package. It's important to pick a domain name that reflects your business. Preferably, you want the domain name to match your business name, or at least as closely as possible so that customers know who you are. 

Besides being able to pick from domain names that end with .com or .org, it's also possible to pick from use-specific domain extensions such as .tech or .fashion. 

Step 1: Create an account

Creating an account on any website builder is as easy as signing up for an account on any website, and many offer free trials, so you can try out the service with no risk. For example, Shopify lets you use it for free for 14 days without needing to enter your credit card details. 

Enter your email address, then a password and the name of your store, then go through the instructions to create an account. Bear in mind that you'll need to use your real name to sign up in order to use it for ecommerce purposes. 

Some website builders ask questions such as what your business type is, and whether you have experience building websites, so that they can better gear templates and other parts of the website building process to your needs. 

Step 2: Select a template

Once you've signed up for a website builder, it's important to pick a template that represents how you want your ecommerce presence to look. Different sites offer different approaches. Shopify hides these templates away a little, focusing on making it easy for you to list products first; while Wix offers the choice of using AI to create a website for you, or to pick out a specific predefined template. 

Pick a template that looks the part for your business. Website builders tend to categorize them, so it's easy to see what would suit you best, with options for all kinds of different businesses to get started with. 

Step 3: Set up the template

While you could leave the template as it is, it's a good idea to tweak it according to your liking. More importantly, you'll need to enter key information, such as the name of categories you want to feature, and you'll want to add photos of your products. This is the most time-consuming part of the process but it's an important part, as it defines how your website looks to customers. 

Most website builders use a fairly intuitive approach, so if you're able to create documents on your PC, you'll know how to add elements to your website using the website builder. Consider how you want the website to look as you go along, and generally try to avoid it being too cluttered.

Step 4: Add your products 

Add the products you plan on selling. Different website builders do this in different ways, with Square Online and Shopify focusing on your backend inventory more so than Wix. List the products in the database, and don't forget to set the shipping rates and delivery options too. 

You don't need to list every product that you plan on selling, but it is important to have some products available at launch. Focus on your best-selling items, then add more at a later date if you're more interested in getting online quickly.

Step 5: Publish the website

When you think you're happy with how the site looks, press the preview button to double check. While you can go back to edit your site at a later date, you want the first launch to look good. First impressions always matter. 

Assuming you're happy with how it looks, press the Publish button to launch the website, so that anyone can see it.

 How to build an ecommerce website: Summary

Whichever ecommerce website builder you choose, the process is fairly similar throughout. It's important to find the right one for your business and the one that works best for you, so it's worth trying out free trials to see what feels comfortable for your workflow, and then follow our guide to build your ecommerce website.

Remember: whatever you decide, devote a few hours to set-up and you can't go wrong. Each website builder offers an intuitive approach, making it easy to get your business online and able to sell items quickly.

Further reading on website builders

Once you've decided on an ecommerce website builder, and want to know how to make an ecommerce website, we have guides on how to make a website with Wix, how to build a website with Shopify, and how to build a website with Square Online to help simplify the process.

If you've got more experience, and want something with more customization and flexibility, look into WordPress via the best website builders for WordPress. You'll also need the best WordPress hosting from the best web hosting services, too.

Starting to build a website can seem daunting, as the internet is a competitive marketplace, and many beginners aren't coding-savvy, let alone too aware of HTML or CSS. Fortunately, many of the best website builders available today can help you build a website that's fully-functional, rich and responsive website with little or no prior experience, with easy website builders standing alongside more complex tools.

Alternatively, a content management system (CMS) like WordPress offers flexibility and freedom when building a website, and the best web hosting services can keep your site online, prepared for increased capacity, and ready for customers.

Whichever option you choose, your job will be easier, and your site ultimately more successful, if you have plan clearly defined before you start. Here, we've outlined our 10 best tips for when you build a website from scratch for the first time: from start to finish, and without all the headaches.

1: Scope out the competition

Hopefully, if you’re set to build a website for the first time, it’s because you have something to share with the world—a new way of doing things or a fresh perspective on a given topic, or maybe a new product or service that you’ve helped create and believe in. Either way, chances are you’ll have plenty of competition—but don’t worry, this is actually a good thing.

Your competitors’ (and collaborators’) websites are a great source for inspiration. Grab a pen and paper and spend some time looking through industry-leading websites. Take special note of any user experience (UX) and interface (UI) elements that you like (or hate). 

Is the site easy to navigate? Do the menus make sense? Is it enjoyable and intuitive to use? This should help get your creative juices flowing, and you’ll probably have no trouble picking out a variety of things that you loved and hated about different websites.

2. Lay the foundation

A website wireframe is like the blueprint to a website: a visual representation of your site’s pages and how they connect to one another. This is an important step and a critical exercise in logic, as it will help you determine the best flow for your users. 

Consider how many key pages your website needs (hint: keep things as simple as possible; the fewer the better). What about subpages? Think of this as laying the foundation for your website. Use a pen and paper, or a web app like Balsamiq or Wireframe.cc, to draw out a sitemap and basic layouts for each of your top-level pages. 

The advantage to using a wireframe app rather than pen and paper is the ability to easily reposition elements as your thoughts evolve. This is a crucial step in your quest to build a website that’s accessible and easy to navigate. Think about your primary audience and what expectations or limitations they may have.

3. Compare website builders and CMSs

You have two main options when it comes to building your first website. You can use a CMS like WordPress, which is generally more flexible but has a steeper learning curve, or opt for a website builder like Wix or Squarespace, which will offer less flexibility but will make it easy to build dynamic, responsive websites. 

Whichever route you take, be sure to compare your options. If you’ve chosen to use a website builder, make sure all the elements you’ll need for your website are there, or be prepared to change your sitemap based on what’s offered.

As for CMSs, WordPress offers a variety of prebuilt themes and even some powerful drag-and-drop website builders, like Divi or BeaverBuilder. Note that you’re still responsible for installing and managing any website builder for WordPress, alongside any other plugins, so be sure you feel comfortable with this more hands-on approach for making your vision a reality. 

For many people setting out to build a website for the first time, or for professionals looking for a quick and easy solution, a website builder is usually the way to go. Also consider whether you need a builder that specializes in a certain type of site: for example, our guides to the best ecommerce website builder and the best small business website builder zero in on the best builders for those markets.

4. Mobile matters

Close to 50% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices, i.e., smartphones and tablets. Your website needs to look great and perform well on all kinds and sizes of devices. 

Most website builders include “responsive” templates and page elements which will automatically resize and reorganize to fit different screens. Just make sure everything makes sense on both desktop and mobile screens, or you risk alienating a big chunk of the market. 

This inevitably involves some playing around, so once you start putting together your pages, switch between views to make sure everything is as you’d like. 

5. Aim for simplicity and readability

The most successful websites today share a few simple design elements, chiefly simplicity and readability. Complicated designs are extremely difficult to do well, and can end up cumbersome and difficult to navigate.

Simple designs are elegant and timeless: they aid rather than overwhelm the user. Make good use of whitespace to avoid a cluttered, busy look. Font matters too. Choose a simple, plain font that’s easy to read on any device. Arial, Futura, Open Sans, and Verdana are good go-tos.

Don’t be afraid to explore and try different designs—simplicity doesn’t have to mean boring or off-brand. On the contrary, it’s a way for your brand and style to shine through, while providing a crisp and clean user experience. 

6. Think about and invest in your own domain name

Take some time to think very carefully about your domain name—it’s how you’ll be known from here on out, as changing domain names after you’ve gained traction is incredibly risky in terms of keeping your audience. 

When registering a domain name, ensure that it's relevant to your brand, short and memorable, and easy to spell. Avoid hyphens and numbers. Of course, you’ll need to weigh your choices against the price of the domain name, as the most popular and straightforward ones tend to be the most expensive. 

Either way, it’s a good idea to invest in a paid domain name (www.yourwebsite.com)—it will give your website a much more professional look. Most website builders offer domain name registration, but feel free to shop around to get the best price.

7. Aim for secure, scalable web hosting with support

Many website builders also offer hosting: storage space for your website’s files and bandwidth so people can reach you. If you choose to go with a website builder rather than a CMS, your hosting options will generally be limited to those offered by the company itself.

Take this into consideration when making your choice; it’s not only the website building app itself that matters, but also the prices of the plans and what’s included. Security and scalability are two important factors, but you also want to make sure you can get help if you need it with good user support. 

If you’re just starting out and don’t know much about running a website, you’ll want quick, friendly, knowledgeable support at your disposal. If you’ve chosen not to go with a website builder, make sure you research the best web hosting services. 

These are often a cheaper solution, so if you’re looking to spend as little money as possible, opt for a free CMS (like WordPress) and one of the best WordPress hosting services with budget-friendly plans. Just don’t sacrifice too much on security, scalability, and user support.

8. Start checking your site statistics

You’ll want to start checking your site’s statistics early on. Ensure you install some essential webmaster tools to make the most of your stats, including Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Many website builders have these elements built in, but if not, they’re easy to add. 

Understanding your site’s performance across a variety of factors will help guide your decisions moving forward. You can see which pages are performing best, and which need more attention. Your webmaster tools which let you know about broken links (404s), slow pages, and other problems that can affect performance. 

9. Think about SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the practice of creating and organizing your site and its content in a way that improves performance in searches. 

The ongoing goal is to reach the first page in Google, and then the #1 position—and while that may seem like an impossible task, there’s a top spot for every search out there and no reason you can’t claim it.

SEO is a broad, highly-debated domain that’s constantly changing, so bear in mind that there’s a learning curve, and don’t get frustrated if you don’t shoot instantly to the top. Focus on creating genuinely useful and interesting content for your readers, and leverage your site statistics to better understand what’s working and what isn’t. 

There are plenty of excellent SEO resources out there, so dive in deep and get your hands dirty. Learn nine basic SEO tips that can improve a website's Google ranking, or if you're intending to blog, how to write a blog post with optimal SEO.

Make sure all your technical SEO elements are on point as well. Your pages should have eye-grabbing title tags and SEO-friendly meta descriptions, and your website should have a clear organization. Freshness (frequent updates) and speed (determined by your hosting plan) are critical as well. 

10. Plan for regular maintenance

Managing a website is a bit like owning a car—it requires regular upkeep and maintenance to run smoothly and stay beautiful. 

The internet is fast paced and, at the risk of sounding dramatic, fraught with danger. Security is an ongoing concern. While choosing a good website builder or CMS and web hosting company will help, you’ll still need to periodically install security patches and updates, and make sure all your software is up to date. 

Regularly scheduled maintenance is also a great way to keep on top of your analytics, and make frequent tweaks and changes based on what you learn. It doesn’t hurt to implement “split testing,” also known as “A/B testing”: trialing different designs or approaches to see which best help you reach your goals.

Summary

In truth, a website is never “finished.” It’s an ongoing project that needs regular attention if you want it to succeed. Getting a good start by taking the time to plan your site and invest in the right tools will make things much easier down the road. 

The best website builders offer an array of tools for getting started and maintaining a top-performing website. Follow the tips in this guide for building your first website, and you’ll be well on your way to a website you can be proud of. 

Further reading on website builders and hosting

Discover the differences between web hosting, WordPress, and website builders, and learn more about what web hosting is, as well as how to choose a web hosting service.

When considering building a website, you might ask: what sort of site do I need? To build a website, you really need to know the answer to this question before you start working on designs, or building the site with one of the best website builders. In the long run, this will save you much time, effort, and potential headaches in future.

Websites perform multiple functions and offer multiple services, and as such can require different technology or infrastructure. Also remember that choosing from the best web hosting services is another task you'll need to undertake in certain situations.

Key factors to consider when you build a website from scratch include the following: the audience it will be aimed at; how many daily and weekly visitors it's likely to get; whether it's likely to be viewed on standard or non-standard devices; and whether external system integrations, like address look-ups or drop shipping, will be required.

In this feature, we've outlined the most common types of website, in order to help you establish what type of site you might need.

1. Main business website 

Nearly every business has a website, or should have if it doesn’t already. Some major companies may have more than one website, but in those cases, there will be one main site: the one that comes up first in search results when you enter the name of the company into a search engine.

Sometimes also known as a brochure site, a business’ main site should present all the information you’d need to know about its products and services. It should also offer quick and easy methods for making inquiries about sales, support, or marketing.

Larger companies that have different divisions, or offer a wide variety of products and services for multiple markets, may have different sites for each of those areas on what’s known as subdomains. For example, if the main site is at www.domain.com, a subdomain would be something like subdomain.domain.com.

In those sorts of situations, the main site would only have a few pages at what is known as the top level, with most of the links going to the individual subdomain websites. Doing it this way means the structure of the main site is less complex, and it is easier to find the information you’re looking for.

2. Create a blog 

Blogs first appeared in 1997, just a few years after the internet as we now know it was created. Originally, the term was weblog because blogs were, and still can be, a web log or online journal of the blog author.

Although there are still many blogs that are written by individuals, these days blogs have expanded in their size, scope, and range of topics. Many companies have a blog on their main website, which is often like a news section. And many blogs are focussed on a particular topic, and can have multiple writers contributing articles.

Blogs that are focused on a particular topic - for example, technology or fitness - become attractive to advertisers, as they can target specific audiences that are interested in their products or services. Advertising income means a blog can become a business in itself, hiring writers and spending money to maintain and improve the site.

Another type of blog that has emerged in recent years is the vlog, or video blog, which works in a similar way to a traditional blog - except that the medium of communication is video instead of writing. Because blogging is so popular, with many people seeing it as a way to earn a primary or supplementary income, there are a huge number of tools you can use to create a blog. 

There are many free platforms, such as Blogger or Tumblr. Or you can build your own blog using free website builders like Wix or Weebly, or the most popular blogging tool, WordPress.

All of the services listed above and the best free blogging sites are worth considering, with the sites mentioned able to take care of web hosting for you so you don’t have to pay for it yourself. However, WordPress can also be self-hosted if you’d like more control over the hosting environment, via the best WordPress hosting.

3. Product and services affiliation 

Advertising is one method that a website can use to bring in income. Another is through what’s known as affiliate marketing. You take a product or service you like, create content on your website that promotes it, and then every time the seller of that product or service makes a sale, you earn a commission.

How this happens is that the seller provides you with an affiliate link. Every time a visitor to your site clicks on a link to the seller’s website using the affiliate link, your site ID gets recorded on the seller’s website. If the visitor continues to complete a successful transaction, a percentage of the sale is recorded against your affiliate ID.

This may sound like a route to easy money, but unfortunately, it’s not. Once you get everything set up and your site has a steady stream of visitors, it can be. But getting to that point doesn’t happen overnight. You first need to build up a certain amount of content to attract visitors. Then you need a way of letting people know you have the content they might be interested in. 

This could be through word of mouth or an active social media campaign, or you might have to pay for advertising. And once you’ve got people to visit your site, you’ve got to earn their trust so they keep coming back, which means providing quality content.

All of this can take a long time to achieve. The rewards can be great, but many people believe that direct selling is a more reliable way to earn income from a website.

4. Ecommerce website 

A site for selling products and services is known as an ecommerce site. Many ecommerce websites would have been started by businesses that originally sold from a physical location, and then branched out online to reach more customers. Nowadays, there are many businesses that only exist online.

There are many different avenues to selling online. You can create listings on well-known auction and shopping sites like eBay or Craigslist. Or you can choose to create your own site with an ecommerce website builder, like Shopify, BigCommerce, or any of the best ecommerce website builders.

If you’re looking for more control over your website, including the web hosting and technology used, you can build a website with an existing shopping cart framework like Magento or OpenCart. Alternatively, you can build something completely customized from the ground up, which would require specialized knowledge and would be more expensive.

Whichever method you choose, you need to ensure that your catalog can be searched easily, so people can quickly find what they’re looking for. And once the customer has found what they want, ordering and completing the transaction should all happen smoothly. This will leave the customer with a positive impression, and make them want to come back to buy again in the future.

If you choose an existing ecommerce platform, most of these considerations will have been taken care of already. But you might not have as much control over how the site looks or functions. Building a site yourself may give you that control, but will be more expensive.

5. Support systems website

We mentioned subdomains earlier when discussing the main business site. Subdomains, or even completely different domains, can be a good idea for a variety of different reasons. Here are a few of those.

Brand identity

Some companies own many different brands, and the brands are often more well-known than the parent company. 

For example, Ben & Jerry’s is owned by a company called Unilever. Unilever has its own website, as does Ben & Jerry’s. It wouldn’t make sense to house the Ben & Jerry’s brand under the Unilever website, because people wouldn’t necessarily associate Unilever with the ice cream maker. 

Unilever also owns so many different subsidiaries that to try and fit them all into a single website would make the website hard to use for visitors, and even harder to maintain for the business owners.

Pure support

Many businesses, particularly those with a large number of customers, or those that exist solely online, will have separate websites just for their support services. 

Customers usually need to log in to their account to access support, and then they’ll have a variety of different methods at their disposal. Help desk tickets and 24/7 online chat are two popular methods, but support websites will often also have large libraries of help documents or FAQs.

Lead generation

If you have a new product or service that you need to promote, creating a stand-alone lead generation website can ensure it has the maximum impact. 

Often just a single page, lead generation websites may look radically different from the main website of the business. Their primary aim is to lead the visitor to some specific interaction, whether it be filling in a contact form, or adding their email address to a mailing list.

Other website types 

We’ve only really scratched the surface of all the different types of websites that exist. But many are variations on the ones we’ve covered, or could have features from several different types.

Social media websites could be viewed as being larger, more complex versions of blogs. Gallery websites for artists and photographers, such as those outlined in our guide to the best website builders for photographers, are similar to ecommerce websites, but may not necessarily sell anything online. The best website builders for musicians meanwhile can be hybrids of ecommerce and gallery sites, and much more.

Then there are other different types like online learning portals, sports websites with results and team information, news websites, and sites for presenting data about the weather or stocks and shares. 

One thing that all good sites will have in common, though, is that they must have interesting content, and the content must be presented in a way that is easy for site visitors to access. That means having clear and logical navigation, along with pages that load quickly.

Further reading on website builders

If you're a small business, our guide to the best small business website builders outlines our recommended services for that area of website building. For larger businesses, our tips for building an enterprise website may come in handy.

Despite being a different type of website creator, WordPress ranks alongside the best website builders, and makes it easy for anyone to build a website, even those who never have before. However, even those with experience often overlook important steps when setting up WordPress websites and creating content. 

We’ve listed three of the most common mistakes made by WordPress website owners, and what you can do to avoid them to make sure your site produces the best results.

1. Not providing team members, contractors, or vendors the right level of access

When you first install WordPress, it will automatically create an administrator user who has access to everything on the site: all content, settings, themes, and plugins. If there is only ever going to be one person who maintains the site and creates all the content, then this initial user is all you’ll need. But it’s more than likely that your site will need more than one user with access. 

If your site is created for you by a web development agency, the staff who worked on the site probably have their own user accounts. If your site publishes news, then each individual writer should also have a separate account. 

Or - if your site is for a business and multiple people need access - rather than giving everyone the same login credentials and having to change passwords every time someone leaves the company, it makes more sense to set them up with their own accounts. That way, you can simply revoke access at any time.

WordPress by default comes with five different user levels:

• Administrators, as mentioned, have no restrictions and can access everything on the site.
• Editors can create, edit, and delete their own pages and posts, as well as those created by others. Editors can also manage taxonomies and links and moderate comments, but they don’t have access to plugins, themes, and site settings and can’t create users. 
• Authors can create content, but they only have access to the posts they create themselves, not those of anyone else. They can also view comments but have no permissions to approve or delete them.
• Contributors are similar to authors but with fewer permissions. They can’t publish posts or upload media. 
• Subscribers have the fewest permissions of all user groups. They can read the content on the site and manage their own profile, but that’s all. Unless your site has content that requires a subscription for access, it’s unlikely that you’d use this role. 

2. Not completing the most basic yet critical SEO tactics for every page and post 

For many, website SEO (search engine optimization), can seem like magic. But the most fundamental tasks can be completed by anyone. Ensuring that your content makes good use of your chosen keywords, adding internal links to other pages on your site with those keywords, and optimizing images are just a few things content authors can do to improve search engine rankings.

However, two of the most important tasks often get overlooked: writing good page titles and meta descriptions. Page titles, or HTML titles, appear at the top of the window or on the tab. It’s also the title that search engines will display in their results. 

These should contain your main keywords and accurately describe what the page is about. The title should not be more than 60 characters long, or it will be truncated in the search results listing.

Meta descriptions appear under the link and title in the search results, and tell you what the page is about. These should be written in a way that entices the reader to click the link to visit the page. In addition, they should be 160 characters or fewer to avoid being truncated.

There are many plugins for WordPress that can help guide you when it comes to writing page titles and meta descriptions, often giving you a preview of what they will look like in a search result.

3. Not creating redirects when a URL is changed or a post or page is deleted 

This is also related to SEO. A URL is the address of a page or post, and if you’ve done any work on promoting your content to other websites, they may have links to pages on your site. 

If, at some point in the future, you decide to change a URL—perhaps to improve the page’s SEO by including more keywords—any links to your site will no longer work. Your efforts to improve a page’s SEO with extra keywords in the URL may be undone by the loss of those initial links.

To ensure that all those links still work, so search engines can easily find the updated page, you can put in place what is called a redirect, which tells search engines and browsers to automatically go from the old URL to the new one. Setting up redirects is a task that’s easy to accomplish with a plugin like Safe Redirect Manager.

Further reading on WordPress, builders, and hosting

If you want to learn more about WordPress, read our step-by-step guide on how to build a website with WordPress, and our comparisons pitting web hosting vs WordPress vs website builders, and WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace. We've also handpicked the best website builders for WordPress.

You may also require hosting for your WordPress site: check out our guides to the best web hosting and the best WordPress hosting for our top picks.

Founded in 2012, DigitalOcean has its offices in New York, Cambridge (Massachusetts), and Bangalore (India) and data centers across New York, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Toronto, and Bangalore. It’s a highly advanced, developer-focused cloud hosting solution from one of the largest providers in the world, and ranks among the best cloud hosting platforms.

In our DigitalOcean review, we take a look at the platform’s unique strengths and weaknesses to determine if it’s the best web hosting service for your business. We find that while the hosting is indeed top quality, Linux users will probably make the best out of this advanced platform.

DigitalOcean: Plans and pricing

DigitalOcean’s pay-as-you-go plan differs from the set packages offered by typical hosting providers, charging you only for the number of resources you need. The hourly rates start at just $0.007 an hour or $5 a month, although this can easily scale to thousands of dollars a month depending on the resources your business uses.

While DigitalOcean does not have a free trial, nor does it offer refunds, there’s a free $100 credit offered to new users that has to be used up within the first 60 days. For those who want to try out the hosting environment before making a commitment, using the credit is probably the best option.

DigitalOcean: Features

DigitalOcean is a unique, developer-focused, cloud-based web hosting service that’s intended for scalability and advanced use. There are no shared or virtual hosting plans on offer here. However, the company’s interesting pricing model does allow for a lot of flexibility in the number of resources you use. Below, we take a look at the web hosting provider’s notable features.

It does not offer a free domain name or SSL certificate, nor does it rank very well in terms of support. What it does have, though, is a collection of advanced tools meant for professional developers who know what they’re doing. These features include block storage, object storage, load balancing, private networking, and floating IPs, among others.

There’s an assortment of data centers to choose from with DigitalOcean. As mentioned, it has servers located across New York, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Toronto, and Bangalore. What’s more, DigitalOcean even allows you to test the performance of each server location right from your account dashboard.

DigitalOcean offers an average uptime of 99.99%, which is rare even in the more expensive cloud-based hosting space. It also boasts really good server speeds, timed at 268ms as per Pingdom. If you are a business that prizes website accessibility above all else, DigitalOcean is undoubtedly the first choice in its category.

DigitalOcean: Interface and in use

DigitalOcean is an advanced solution that prioritizes features over ease of use. That said, however, there are plenty of online tutorials and quality-of-life features to guide you through should you feel lost. 

Creating a new account is easy enough. You can even use your Github account to log in, which a lot of developers will appreciate. Once in, you have to build a custom plan for yourself using all the resource options available. If you’re not sure what you need, there’s an option called "Help Me Choose". 

Once it’s set up, DigitalOcean’s interface can still be intimidating to use. There are a lot of minute details to account for, and the system does flood you with a lot of information. Thankfully, its knowledge base is an excellent resource, and takes you through the entire step-by-step process should you feel lost.

DigitalOcean: Support

DigitalOcean isn’t a great option in terms of support. There’s no instant chat or phone number that you can use, leaving you with the cumbersome process of opening a new ticket each time you need help from the customer support team. 

Thankfully, there is also a community forum, where you can ask questions of fellow developers and customer support team members alike, although a response isn’t always guaranteed. Users primarily depend on its excellent knowledge base for guidance whenever they run into a problem. The knowledge base is not only vast and well categorized, but also fast and accessible. 

While highly technical situations may still require help from the customer support team, general issues can be fixed by following simple instructions.

DigitalOcean: Security

DigitalOcean offers extra security to advanced developers via SSH keys, provided that they are familiar with coding and can follow its online tutorials to go through a somewhat complicated first-time setup process. This step is actually recommended for all users. 

Otherwise, all your data is still protected by the default end-to-end encryption technology, which ensures that malicious actors cannot infect your website with ease.

Alternatives to DigitalOcean

Cloudways is a competitor that actually lets you use DigitalOcean’s hosting environment via its own UI, eliminating the need for most of the complicated and unnecessary technical processes. 

The best thing about Cloudways is that it also has other hosting environments you can switch to, including Google Cloud and AWS, should you find this provider unsatisfactory.

Bluehost is a standard web hosting service that offers the usual bells and whistles you may have come to expect from a web host, and is a good choice for those who find it intimidating to use a platform like DigitalOcean. 

Bluehost also offers one-click installation for content management systems like WordPress, which is great if you want to use this system to manage your self-hosted website.

DigitalOcean: Final verdict

DigitalOcean is an excellent cloud hosting solution for advanced users who are familiar with coding processes and the Linux environment. It offers great speeds, unbeatable uptime, and excellent performance. The end-to-end encryption is especially attractive to security-conscious website developers.

However, DigitalOcean does falter when it comes to providing customer support, which is a shame since its advanced interface is not meant for all users. Thankfully, a well-organized help center and community forum compensate for the lack of a responsive support team.

Further reading on web hosting and website builders

Looking to build a website? Take a look at the best website builders. Learn which hosting providers we've ranked highest for various hosting types, including the best VPS hosting, the best WordPress hosting, the best Windows hosting, the best Linux web hosting, and the best unlimited hosting.

BigCommerce is a scalable, feature-rich ecommerce platform that helps medium- to large-scale businesses build great online stores. Driven by powerful search engine optimization and multi-channel marketing features, this is a platform that will help you take your ambitious project to the next level, and ranks among the best website builders, specifically competing to be the best ecommerce website builder.

No matter how big you get, you won’t outgrow BigCommerce. However, using an advanced platform like this also comes with a few downsides. Small businesses may end up paying a lot more for features that are of little use, while fledgling developers may struggle to keep up with the robust interface. 

In our BigCommerce review, we take a look at the platform’s strongest features, as well as its biggest quirks, to determine if it’s the best website builder for your ecommerce business.

BigCommerce: Plans and pricing

BigCommerce comes with four separate plans that scale with the size of your ecommerce business: Standard, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise. Unlike with other providers, you have relatively less control over the plan you choose, as you are automatically upgraded to a higher tier plan once your yearly revenue reaches a certain mark. However, you can also upgrade your plan to a higher tier than your current one should you require more features.

BigCommerce imposes no restrictions on the bandwidth allotted or products sold per plan. It also doesn’t charge any transaction fees. Higher tier plans offer more features, however, such as abandoned cart recovery and product search filtering. There’s a 15-day free trial as well as 24/7 support for all paid users. 

BigCommerce Standard costs $29.95 a month. You get unlimited product numbers and unlimited staff accounts, as well as multi-channel integration, real-time shipping quotes, discount coupons, and product reviews. This is followed by BigCommerce Plus, which offers all of this and abandoned cart recovery for $79.95 a month. 

BigCommerce Pro offers you a custom SSL certificate, Google customer reviews, and product search filtering along with all the features of Standard and Plus for $299.95 a month. Enterprise plans come with priority support and price lists, but require you to contact the service provider directly for a quote.

BigCommerce: Features

BigCommerce is an advanced, feature-heavy platform that provides you with a lot of options to maximize your business revenue. Here, we take a look at some of its strongest offerings.

It employs a clever pricing structure that offers unlimited resources—website bandwidth, product numbers, and staff accounts—regardless of which plan you choose. Plans differ based on your company’s yearly revenue and the number of special features you require, instead. 

BigCommerce is an excellent platform for businesses that like to use a variety of social media platforms to maximize revenue. It supports eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Google Shopping, Instagram, and more. 

Both your product inventory and individual listings sync up automatically with these platforms, letting you focus your marketing efforts on chasing down leads instead of performing micro-management. BigCommerce also offers you an expedited application process for Walmart Marketplace, should you opt to sell using that platform.

It is said that more than 65% of consumers leave an online store halfway through their purchase. This means that a quick email letting them know that their cart is waiting, along with any applicable offers for those specific products, has a great chance of maximizing otherwise lost revenue. Abandoned cart recovery is included with all plans above the basic tier with BigCommerce.

BigCommerce: Interface and in use

BigCommerce features an elegant and intuitive web interface that lets you manage your online store from one place. The interface is easy to navigate, and features a guided tour for first-time users should you feel lost.

It consists of a centralized dashboard that lets you view things like recent orders and site traffic, access your store frontend, and check out the most recent notifications. A sidebar on the left leads you to several other sections, such as Orders, Products, Customers, Content, and Marketing. It’s all very neat and well organized.

BigCommerce: Support

BigCommerce’s help center is full of articles and videos that can help you make the best out of the platform’s features. BigCommerce also offers 24/7 support via live chat, phone, and email. Enterprise users gain access to priority support, which lets them instantly connect to senior members of the customer support team should they need assistance.

Alternatives to BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a direct competitor to other ecommerce website builders like Shopify and Volusion. Here, we take a look at how well it fares compared to these powerful competitors.

Shopify is definitely the more popular option when it comes to easily launching your own online store. However, BigCommerce is the preferred choice for advanced users who require more dedicated features and support. BigCommerce also doesn’t levy any annoying transaction fees, unlike Shopify.

Volusion is one of the oldest players in the ecommerce market, having spent a long time perfecting its offering. Unlike BigCommerce, Volusion features a much more flexible pricing model that lets you control which plan you are on, although it does restrict the amount of bandwidth and products included per plan.

In the end, BigCommerce is the preferred choice for entrepreneurs who want advanced features and unlimited resources for their online business. Shopify and Volusion are both equally good services, however, each with its own weaknesses and strengths.

BigCommerce: Final verdict

BigCommerce is a powerful ecommerce platform that helps ambitious businesses scale quickly. It offers multi-channel support for maximum revenue, as well as a host of search engine optimization tools. You also get abandoned cart recovery and product search filters so that you can further optimize the shopping experience.

However, the lack of a flexible pricing structure, despite the presence of unlimited resources, makes some people shy away from an otherwise compelling offering. BigCommerce is also not a great fit for small businesses, many of which may end up paying more for features they don’t really need.

Further reading on website builders

Take a look at our step-by-step guide on how to build an ecommerce website, and our guides outlining the best ecommerce website builders and the best small business website builders. If you're looking for increased complexity and flexibility, start your advanced website journey with the best web hosting services.

While building an online store from scratch can be a daunting task, ecommerce website builders like Volusion help make the process easier. Established in 1999, Volusion is a fully-hosted ecommerce website builder that powers over 30,000 sites.  

In this Volusion review, we will go over the good and the bad of the platform to help you decide if it’s one of the best website builders, and one of the best ecommerce website builders, for your needs.

Volusion: Plans and pricing

While you won’t get a free plan on Volusion, you can sign up for a 14-day trial to test the platform out. After that, choose from four plans depending on your sales volume per year. 

A Personal plan aimed at smaller businesses, with less than 100 products and a maximum sales volume of $50,000 a year, costs $29 a month. This plan supports one staff account and basic features like secure checkout, social media integrations, and built-in SEO Tools. 

For access to five staff accounts and advanced features like abandoned cart reports and a ratings and review function, users can opt for a Professional plan ($79 a month), which allows you to sell up to 5,000 products and have a maximum sales volume of $100,000 a year. 

One tier up, the Business plan ($299 a month) unlocks features like Amazon and eBay Integrations, advanced analytics, third-party shipping calculation rates, and more. You’ll be allowed to sell an unlimited number of products, and create up to 15 staff accounts. This plan is suitable for owners of larger online stores with a maximum sales volume of $500,000 a year. 

For businesses with an annual sales volume exceeding $500,000, Volusion offers a Prime plan, with no limits placed on the number of staff accounts and products you can have. How much you pay will depend on your annual sales volume.

Volusion does not charge any transaction fees on sales, but if your growing business exceeds the yearly sales cap on a given plan, you will need to upgrade to the next pricing plan. Users without an existing domain will also have to purchase one before connecting it to Volusion.

Volusion: Features

We’ll break down some of Volusion’s key features here. To personalize your store, Volusion offers 11 free themes and 34 premium themes ($180 each). All themes are mobile responsive, and designed by professionals who specialize in ecommerce.

Users with coding skills can work with Volusion’s CSS editor to fully customize the design and functionality of their online store. Those without coding knowledge can still use Volusion’s Easy Editor tool and Style Editor to make changes to the layout, colors, and fonts used in each theme.  

Volusion’s inventory management tools allow you to generate custom barcodes for each product. You’ll also be able to view your stock level, create low stock alarms, and manage returns. To showcase your products, you can create attractive product pages with images, videos, and product details. 

In addition to credit card payments, Volusion supports wire transfers and payments from Amazon, Google Wallet, PayPal, and Stripe. Volusion also allows you to sell and ship internationally with useful tools like a real-time tax rate calculator and configurable shipping options. 

On Volusion’s marketplace, you’ll find 78 (68 paid, 10 free) apps that integrate seamlessly with Volusion. With apps dedicated to accounting, payment processing, customer management, social media management, and more, you can easily extend the functionality of your store. Some popular apps include Zapier, PayPal, and MailChimp.

Volusion: Interface and in use

Volusion’s backend editor is pretty easy to use. On the left, you’ll find options that allow you to choose a theme, and add elements such as your brand logo, product names, images, and item descriptions. On the drag-and-drop editor, you can easily move elements around and see how your site will look as you edit it.    

Volusion also has a well-designed mobile app that allows you to access the backend editor, check and manage your inventory, and upload images right from your phone. 

Volusion: Support

Professional, Business, and Prime plan subscribers enjoy 24/7 phone support. Prime plan users are granted additional VIP support, which includes access to a private Slack channel with Volusion’s experts. You will also have a dedicated account manager who you can contact (weekdays, 8am to 6pm CST) if you face any issues.

Personal plan subscribers will have to make do with online-only support via the platform’s Help Center. That isn’t too bad: the Help Center features over 200 articles that guide you through processes like getting started and designing your site. 

Volusion: Security

Fully PCI-certified, Volusion is deemed capable of safely processing credit card data. The platform uses AES-256 encryption for sensitive data at rest, and TLS 1.2 to ensure that data in transit gets transmitted securely. In addition, all plans include a free SSL certificate to keep user data and connections secure. 

Alternatives to Volusion

Volusion goes up against multiple strong competitors in the ecommerce website builder market. Shopify, for example, is a hugely popular option with features like discount codes, gift cards, and POS integrations that allow you to bring your virtual business to life. 

The platform impressively features over 4,200 apps and 70 premium and free themes. Shopify doesn’t place a limit on how many products you can list. However, you’ll be charged transaction fees in addition to a monthly fee that ranges from $29 to $299 a month.

Users who are turned away by Volusion’s tiered customer support model will like Squarespace, which provides all users with live chat support (weekdays, 4am to 8pm EST) and 24/7 email support. Squarespace is affordable too—the cheapest plan costs $12 a month, and comes with a free custom domain, unlimited bandwidth and storage, SSL security, and more.

Volusion: Final verdict

Volusion’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes site-building easy for beginners. While its selection of themes and third-party apps are adequate, users who are looking to be spoilt for choice will be left disappointed. 

That said, with no transaction fee and a flexible pricing plan that scales with your business, Volusion is great for businesses of all sizes.

Further reading on website builders and web hosting

New to site building? See what our 10 tips to follow are when you build a website for the first time, and our guides to the best ecommerce website builders and the best small business website builders should you have a specialist site in mind. If you're an old hand at it, you may want to consider the best web hosting services.

If you’re looking to create your own website, finding one of the best website builders can save you precious time and money. Luckily, there are many quick and simple solutions out there that let you create your own site without needing to code.

Format is aimed at photographers looking to put together an online portfolio, gallery, or store. As well as tools to help you build a professional photography website, it offers solutions for running an online photography business, plus cloud storage to protect your work. 

In this Format review, we’ll go through the ins and outs of this website builder to help you determine if it’s right for you, and if it's one of the best website builders for photographers.

Format: Plans and pricing

For creating your website with Format, you’ll need the Portfolio product, which is available at four price points: Basic ($7 a month), Pro ($15 a month), Pro Plus ($25 a month), and Premium ($40 a month). That’s based on annual billing; if you want a monthly rolling subscription, the prices go up to $20.99, $34.99, and $55.99 for Pro upwards.

What differentiates the packages is the number of images you can host (1,500 for Pro but unlimited for the more expensive levels), number of themes (limited in Basic but a full suite of pre-designed templates in the higher levels), and premium design elements (only in Pro Plus and above). Business tools are also differentiated, with Premium allowing 1,000 products in an online store, versus just three in Pro, for example. 

The Workflow business tools (shareable client gallery, contract builder, file transfer tools, and other useful solutions) range from free to $40 a month, but you aren’t required to purchase these to use the website builder. They are included in the Pro Plus and Premium Portfolio packages.

Format: Features

Unsurprisingly, Format’s features are focused on the needs of professional photographers and artists. 

Making your site look great is easy with Format’s suite of templates. They’re designed with particular professional situations in mind, such as for wedding photography or to showcase your artworks. If you want more of a gallery set-up, you can select different scrolling or slideshow formats. 

Although the range of templates is not as exhaustive as with other website builders, the fact they’ve been designed with the professional in mind means you are quite likely to find something that suits. All templates are also optimized for mobile.

Format prioritizes quick loading for high-res images, but doesn’t reduce quality. This is crucial for presenting your work to an audience. You can also host video directly with Format rather than needing to go to the hassle of hosting elsewhere and then embedding. Additionally, it’s easy to add watermarks to your images to protect them.

Format makes it easy to integrate an online store with your site, with no fees on your sales. Plus, you can connect a custom domain (free for one year with your Format package), get a custom Google email address and Workspace features like Calendar and Drive, and use Format’s SEO tools to make your site easy to find. Plus, access the Workflow professional solutions like client galleries and easy file transfers.

Integration with key photo editing software is another facet of Format that makes this website builder ideal for photographers and artists. You can publish to your site or client galleries directly from the software.

Format: Interface and in use

Format has an iOS app, but this is for managing content rather than website-building, which should be done on a computer. The builder itself opens with a quick wizard to help you select the best template for you. Once you’ve set up the basic site, you can edit the individual pages and upload your content fairly quickly. 

But the website builder is not always hugely easy to navigate; for example, opening "Edit Design" takes you to a master design editor, from which it’s hard to get back to your original page. However, overall, the builder is fairly simple and, if you don’t want to deviate from the template too much, allows you to set up your site quickly.

Format: Support

Format provides a searchable knowledge hub and 24/7 live chat with experts, who promise to get back to you within a few hours (although in testing they replied within just minutes). Additionally, its magazine area includes helpful blog posts that address different aspects of photography and portfolio creation. Finally, if you’re really stuck, you can even get Format to build your site for you.

Alternatives to Format

There are lots of website builders to choose from, although not all are aimed at photographers like Format. Wix is one of the best-known general site builders, and includes a Pro Gallery option and video embedding. It also comes with a fun Artificial Design Intelligence feature that creates a personalized template based on your needs. 

With a free version available, and premium packages at $14 to $18 a month, Wix might be better for those on a budget. However, it doesn’t come with the full range of professional tools like Format’s Workflow. 

For an alternative aimed at photographers, Smugmug also makes it quick and easy to create a portfolio or gallery. Priced at $8 to $50 a month, it is marginally more expensive than Format. One advantage is that it comes with an Android app, and promises in-app editing rather than needing to do everything on a computer.

Again, it lacks the full range of business tools that Format has, but could be ideal for you if you’re an Android user.

Format: Final verdict

Format has lots to recommend it for photographers, including a focus on high-quality images (that you can easily watermark), gallery-style templates, and editing software integration. If you’re not a professional photographer or artist, a cheaper alternative like Wix might work better for you. 

But if you’re looking to sell your photographs online, Format also offers a range of business tools specifically aimed at photographers that should help you streamline your career. For this particular purpose, Format is a great specialist choice, and deserves it place among the best website builders for photographers.

Further reading on website builders

Check out our buying guides outlining the best ecommerce website builders and the best small business website builders, if you want to see what more specialized focuses for site builders look like. If you're more experienced, take a look at the best web hosting services with which to host your bespoke site.

Be it in server performance or customer support, Liquid Web’s managed hosting solution for businesses is par excellence. With no shared hosting plans in its roster, this business-grade web hosting service will cost you a fair bit, however. 

In this Liquid Web review, we find that the web hosting provider offers a slew of cloud, virtual, dedicated, and reseller hosting solutions for businesses and agencies of all stripes. With clients like National Geographic and Symantec, there’s no doubt that this is one of the best web hosting services currently available.

Liquid Web: Plans and pricing

Liquid Web is a premium hosting solution with no shared hosting options. What it does have, however, is a series of managed, virtual, cloud, and dedicated hosting plans that differ in pricing based on the number of websites you can host. 

Unlike other web hosting providers, even the lowest tier in managed hosting does not impose restrictions on visitor count, and comes with 2TB bandwidth and 15GB disk space, which is plenty for hosting a single website. This plan costs $9.50 a month for the first six months, and $19 a month after that. Above this, there are higher tier managed hosting plans that let you host five, 10, and 25 websites, respectively.

Virtual private server hosting and dedicated hosting are also an option with Liquid Web. These hosting plans are great for large-scale businesses that require constant uptime, even during busy hours. If you require enterprise-level resources for your business, cloud hosting is yet another option. There are a plethora of plans to choose from, all accessible via the products page. 

Liquid Web: Features

We will now take a look at some of the best features that Liquid Web offers to its customers. Does functionality justify the high pricing?

Unlike other types of web hosting, cloud hosting has your website hosted across multiple servers across the world, so that you never experience any downtime. It’s the best and most efficient form of web hosting currently available—a platform that’s taking the entire web hosting industry by storm. 

Liquid Web also lets you choose between Windows and Linux-based operating system environments for your cloud hosting platform, which has seen it make the lists of the best Windows hosting and best Linux hosting providers. Very few web hosting companies can boldly tout a 100% uptime guarantee, Liquid Web being one of them. 

The provider boasts highly dependable uptimes, making sure that your website remains accessible at all hours, even during those massive traffic surges. If you are a business that values consistent performance for its website, Liquid Web is an excellent choice.

Liquid Web offers a series of managed hosting plans for the popular content management system WordPress, which lets you easily launch a website or blog using the platform without having to worry about setup or maintenance. The best part is that, unlike other providers, Liquid Web’s managed hosting plans do not restrict the number of monthly visitors you can have on your website.

Liquid Web: Interface and in use

Liquid Web offers two separate user interfaces for managing your web hosting account: one new, and the other old. The old interface is dated and unintuitive, making it hard to navigate or pinpoint certain actions. 

The new interface is a lot more visually appealing, but lacks some of the features from the old UI. Liquid Web is currently transferring its systems from the old to the new graphical interface, but having to switch between two separate interfaces makes for a constant headache.

Thankfully, things get a lot easier once you have logged into your server backend, whether it’s based on Plex or cPanel. You also get access to a tool called Softaculous, which lets you quickly install a huge collection of content management platforms—including WordPress—with just one click.

Liquid Web: Support

Liquid Web’s customer support team is, once again, par excellence. 24/7 support is available via phone, live chat, and support tickets—and unlike other web hosts—Liquid Web guarantees the amount of time it takes for them to respond to your queries. Phone and live chat requests are answered in less than a minute, while support tickets don’t take more than half an hour to be attended to.

Liquid Web: Security

Aside from SSL certificates and VPN servers, Liquid Web also offers firewalls and malware removal services as add-on packages for your hosting plan. Physically, Liquid Web has round-the-clock security monitoring every one of its data centers to mitigate the risk of theft. And of course, backup services are available for those who want the added assurance.

Alternatives to Liquid Web

SiteGround and DreamHost are two excellent alternatives to Liquid Web, both offering comparable cloud hosting and managed hosting solutions for attractive prices. DreamHost has its own unique strengths, including a better interface and monthly billing, and is the better choice for new users, too. 

SiteGround is another provider with top-notch customer support and excellent server performance. It’s also a favorite among WordPress users, as the platform is very well optimized for this particular content management system. SiteGround is also more suitable for entry-level users than Liquid Web, whose customer base comprises advanced users and professional developers. 

Liquid Web: Final verdict

Liquid Web is a solid web hosting service with flawless server performance and a robust collection of plans to choose from. While the lack of a shared hosting plan or beginner-friendly UI makes this platform unsuitable for entry-level users and non-developers, Liquid Web has carved out its own share in the market thanks to best-in-class customer support and enterprise-level cloud hosting.

Further reading on web hosting

Find out where Liquid Web ranks in our lists ranking the best VPS hosting, the best cloud hosting, the best WordPress hosting, the best Windows hosting, the best Linux web hosting, and the best unlimited hosting. If you want to build a website, take a look at the best website builders.

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, powering around 42% of all websites online today. One of the simplest ways to start a WordPress website of your own is to get WordPress hosting at WordPress.com, and it rivals the best website builders while also able to be hosted by the best web hosting services.

You can use WordPress.com to get a website, and rarely have to worry about things like setting up software, system upgrades, security patches, and ongoing maintenance. In our WordPress review, we evaluate WordPress.com against the  available today, so that you can decide whether it’s the best place to build your website.

WordPress review: Snapshot

WordPress.com’s offerings go from generous entry-level plans right up to powerful, expensive ecommerce plans. It has fast response times and 24/7 live chat support, making it a solid choice for hosting a WordPress website. There’s a massive list of themes and plugins to choose from, so it’s possible to make just about any kind of website with WordPress.com. 

This high level of control unfortunately means WordPress.com is relatively cumbersome to use, and there’s little hand-holding for those who haven’t used WordPress before. Wix is a better choice for tech beginners, as it has the most intuitive interface, and Squarespace has better designs out of the box.

Score: 3.5/5

Read the full review below. 

WordPress.com's competitors

WordPress: Key features

There’s an important difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.org is where you’ll find the open-source CMS software WordPress that can be installed on your choice of web hosting.

WordPress.com has more in common with website builders like Wix and Squarespace. It doesn’t offer every WordPress CMS feature, but makes it easy to quickly build a WordPress site. You don’t have to worry about installation and ongoing maintenance, as that’s all taken care of.

You get started on WordPress.com by going through a short site setup wizard, where you choose a site name, homepage design, and navigation menu. The second step introduces you to the WordPress visual editor. 

There’s not much hand-holding here—you’re dropped into the relatively complex editor interface, and expected to work it out on your own. The default text of your new website compels you to visit learn.wordpress.com, but that site feels more like an overview of WordPress.com as a whole rather than a step-by-step guide to using the visual editor.

The WordPress.com editor uses a “block system”. Everything from headings and paragraphs to image galleries and videos are blocks you can drag onto the page and edit. To rearrange blocks, you simply drag them around the page, though you’re limited in exactly where you can place blocks.

Once you get a handle on it, the WordPress.com visual editor is powerful and has a long list of cool blocks you can add to pages. But it has a bigger learning curve than competitor website builders like Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace.

WordPress.com: Key features and highlights

You can quickly change the look of your website by choosing an alternative theme. Free accounts have 114 themes from which to choose, or you can buy one of 83 premium themes for $49 to $125. Premium and Business users get all premium themes unlocked as part of their plans.

If you want to use any other theme, you’ll need either the Business or Ecommerce plans. With either of these, you have the option to upload and install your own theme. There are tens of thousands of ready-made WordPress CMS themes out there, many more than are available for any other website editor.

You can further customize your theme by choosing your own colors and backgrounds, menu options, and fonts. It’s possible to change the CSS of your site, but you’ll need a Premium plan to do so. 

Selling through WordPress.com is available to different degrees depending on your payment plan. With a Premium plan, you can add a Pay with PayPal button to accept credit card payments through the payment processor. Even if you just have a Free or Personal plan, you can add a PayPal button manually by creating a custom HTML block, and pasting in some code from PayPal. 

Business plans get the option of installing the WooCommerce platform. It’s included automatically on the Ecommerce plan. WooCommerce is an extremely powerful and versatile ecommerce platform that fits right in on a WordPress website. You can embed products on your pages and include product ratings and reviews. 

Products can have categories, tags, and attributes to make them easier for customers to find. You can set unlimited variations of products (like size and color). You have the option of selling physical or digital goods, selling affiliate products, and setting up complex shipping options. Various additional plugins allow you to build virtually any kind of online store.

This power comes with a downside, and that’s complexity. It takes time and effort to get a WooCommerce store working exactly how you want it to. And because WordPress wasn’t initially designed to be an ecommerce platform, there are quirks to how it all works together that take some getting used to. You’ll need to spend more time getting to grips with it than you would with, say, Squarespace or Wix.

WordPress: What’s new in 2022?

Updates to the WordPress CMS are quickly reflected on WordPress.com. This year, the changes to the system are focused on the block editor and the mobile apps. 

In April 2021, the block editor gained a page layout picker and improved spacing options. Page layouts are pre-designed templates for building pages. This is all part of WordPress’s ongoing attempts to become a better website builder that works for a wider range of applications.

WordPress mobile apps have been given new features, too. You can now check the stats of your site’s pages from the app, and set push notifications to remind you to blog on specific days.

Pricing

You can get a WordPress.com site for free, but site customization is limited and ads will be served on your site. WordPress.com has four paid plans. You can pay monthly or annually. Annual plans include a discount of up to 43% over monthly plans.

You get a free domain for the first year through WordPress.com if you choose an annual plan. The renewal pricing for following years is relatively high (a .com domain costs $18 a year when bought through WordPress.com, for example). However, you have the choice to use your own domain name, purchased at another domain name registrar, on your WordPress.com site.

Testing WordPress

In order to comprehensively compare WordPress to the competition, we analyzed a series of its features and tools to see how it performed. This included its uptime and response time, as these factors are key when taking website building into account.

How reliable is WordPress.com?

A website that’s regularly unavailable to your visitors makes for a poor customer experience. As part of our testing, we performed two weeks of uptime testing using uptime.com on a site we set up on WordPress.com. For the two weeks, the website was checked for availability every five minutes. 

WordPress performed well in this test, recording 100% uptime. A longer test would be required to highlight systemic issues with website availability, but WordPress certainly gets a passing grade in this round.

How responsive is WordPress.com?

The speed a website loads at has a significant effect on customer satisfaction, and search engines often place better-performing websites higher in their rankings. Many factors affect how fast a website feels, and its initial response time is important.

We performed two weeks of response-time testing on our WordPress.com website from servers in New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas to get an idea of the average response speed for US visitors. 

On average, our WordPress.com site responded within 123ms. Most of the time, speeds were consistent. Only once during the testing did the site response time peak to 2000ms. It took around two hours for typical speeds to return in this instance.

Overall, these response speeds are excellent, so visitors to a WordPress.com website should feel the service is snappy. In comparison, competitor Wix had a similar average response time at 120ms, whereas Squarespace came in at a sluggish 423ms.

Alternatives to WordPress

WordPress.com has a lot of competition. Even if you’re dead set on WordPress as your CMS, there are many other website builders out there, as well as the best WordPress hosting providers. If you’re browsing for a website builder, arguably better choices exist in Wix and Squarespace.

WordPress.com is at heart a blogging platform with website builder features, whereas Wix and Squarespace were created with website building in mind. While WordPress is a more versatile solution thanks to its huge plugin library, the focused nature of Wix and Squarespace make them easier to use, faster to pick up, and less prone to error.

Wix has a better website editor that allows you to drag and drop elements anywhere on the page. Squarespace’s editor is closer to WordPress’s block-based editing, but is still significantly more streamlined and easier to use.

* Premium plans get live chat support Monday to Friday. Business and Ecommerce customers also get weekend live chat support.

WordPress: The verdict

Building a site at WordPress.com gives you the peace of mind that your managed WordPress hosting is being handled by the company most responsible for the CMS’s success. The free plan, while limited and supported by ads, is a great way to get a personal site off the ground, and with plans starting at $4 a month, it’s an excellent choice for smaller, blog-based sites.

We were impressed at the performance of our site hosted at WordPress. It suggests that if you build your site there, it’ll load quickly for your visitors and rarely feel sluggish. WordPress’s blogging features are also exceptional, while ecommerce features offered by WooCommerce are the best in the business, with only dedicated ecommerce platforms like Shopify worthy competitors. They come at quite a steep price, though.

As a website builder, WordPress.com is quite clunky to use, and getting things done has more steps than with dedicated website builders like Squarespace and Weebly. While it’s definitely possible to make a gorgeous WordPress website that breaks the mold, it often feels like you’re fighting against WordPress’s deep-seated roots as a blogging platform.

WordPress.com’s do-it-all versatility is a double-edged sword, as many things feel needlessly complex. The extensive ecommerce features, for example, are great for huge stores, but make for a steep learning curve for SMEs. 

WordPress.com can therefore be recommended for a wide range site types, particularly if you value versatility, with the caveat that it has a steeper learning curve than most of the other website builders on the market today.

Further reading on WordPress, website builders, and web hosting

Discover which website builders for WordPress we found to be the top plugins, and establish and learn from the most common WordPress mistakes. If you go with WordPress, make sure to follow our guide on how to build a website with WordPress.

Read our feature highlighting 10 tips to follow when you build a website, and check out our buying guides outlining the best ecommerce website builders and the best small business website builders.

We've also got a range of buying guides covering various hosting types, including the best VPS hosting, the best cloud hosting, the best WordPress hosting, the best Windows hosting, the best Linux web hosting, and the best unlimited hosting.

Whether you're using one of the best website builders, the best ecommerce website builders, or the best small business website builders - or if you're coding from scratch with the support of the best web hosting providers - with the ever-increasing online marketplace continuing to grow, the importance of enterprise websites has increased in tandem. 

Those in the enterprise space face a number of intricate and varied challenges, and no two companies will face the same obstacles. In the competitive marketplace for online ecommerce, modern businesses must recognize the importance of a series of factors, including governance, velocity, agility, uptime, and multi-channel approaches. 

Anyone building an enterprise website who understands how these factors will affect online businesses can not only innovate faster, but beat their competitors to market, and minimize risks to their business. Our tips aim to provide you with the advice you need to build an enterprise website, and avoid any potential pitfalls.

Abide by governance

Enterprise website builders who build their work around the concept of governance will see the best results. Governance involves inserting checks and balances into every aspect of an online business, to ensure all changes made are positive and further the company’s prime objectives. 

An important governance step is consulting a legal team over crucial decisions that could have legal repercussions. When storing customer data, you must abide by General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), for example, and these rules vary by territory. 

Enterprises can have hundreds of small websites, each with different focuses, and an enterprise website must have processes in place that ensure all sites meet the required legal standards. Content governance doesn’t stop at checking for legal compliance. A business must aim to maintain a high standard in its published content, avoiding embarrassing mistakes that harm the company’s prestige. 

Fact-checking, proofreading, and editing should be at the core of a business’s content creation strategy. Publishing incorrect information on products can be a costly blunder with legal repercussions, and even the smallest errors can suggest sloppiness or incompetence.

Enterprises must also perform brand governance, ensuring that every digital asset follows the company branding guidelines, and builds brand recognition, brand awareness, and customer loyalty. Brand governance is especially important for companies operating with local delivery partners. 

These partners often have constrained budgets or don’t have a deep understanding of the brand. In such cases, having extra governance checks in place help to maintain the consistent quality for which the brand is known.

Implementing governance becomes increasingly difficult as an enterprise grows. Content creation for larger businesses involves more people across a larger number of websites, and the content being created is more complex and varied. Brand governance is more challenging for a larger business because the company may sell products to multiple demographics, requiring distinct styles. 

Selling products globally can also require separate approaches to each local market, and each territory has its own laws and procedures. Those building enterprise websites who recognize the difficulty of implementing governance across multiple sites build a separate back-office system used solely for governance. 

Instead of trying to enforce compliance upon content creation, content is checked through this central channel before it goes live. If all content goes through rigorous governance testing, a company can confidently embrace a multi-authored content approach.

Velocity and agility

While governance protects an enterprise from making costly mistakes, if a business moves too slowly, then competitors will corner the market. Enterprises must use technology wisely to improve the speed at which they can get to market and adapt as required.

When building a website, teams should be able to work independently on their tasks without having to wait for others. Database and back-end developers shouldn’t have to wait for input from front-end designers, and vice versa. A system that enables collaborative working, but allows everyone to work on their specific task, maximizes efficiency and reduces the impact of any delay in a single department. 

Even meticulously planned enterprise websites suffer challenges when they hit the real world. The tendency of business requirements, messaging, and products to change quickly means websites need to be agile enough to adapt. In most enterprises today, anything more than a simple content change requires a great number of people to become involved. 

Building websites with a low-code development approach (where much of the hand-coding of websites is eliminated) can reduce the time and money it costs to make website changes.

A multi-channel approach

Another useful tool for improving business agility is a headless content system, a content management system (CMS) solely tasked with storing content. A headless content system doesn’t handle the front-end delivery of the content or describe how the content must look. Multiple delivery channels can then re-use the same content in unique ways. 

With the content stored in a headless CMS, developers can pull out product details, customer reviews, or blog posts and repurpose them in various forms. Enterprises can even offer a content-as-a-service model, where third parties lease the content for their own purposes.

Downtime is not an option

When an enterprise website goes offline for any reason, the company loses business and prestige. Potential new customers will head to a competitor’s site, existing customers will view the company as unreliable, and the search engine rankings the business has worked hard to achieve may take a hit. 

It’s important to have precautionary measures in place to minimize the detrimental effects of an unexpected outage. Using a reliable website hosting provider that guarantees minimal downtime is therefore important for enterprise websites. The hosting provider must be able to handle the tremendous levels of website traffic an enterprise can get. 

Another concern is how well the hosting provider can handle a fast spike in traffic. 

An open future

According to a report by Acquia Cohesion, though enterprises recognize the digital experience is important, fewer than one in ten brands meet customer experience expectations online. Companies that buck this trend have a powerful advantage over their competitors. 

Creating the perfect digital experience for customers begins by choosing the right tools, and setting up a framework that enables everyone involved to work efficiently. The right management framework minimizes mistakes, and enables an enterprise to adapt to changing market conditions.

Using open-source software solutions can help enterprises succeed online by enforcing a development environment with governance, velocity, agility, and multi-channel content delivery approaches built-in. Open-source software scales well and enables development teams to leverage other useful tools as they see fit.

Further reading on website builders

If you're looking for more information on websites for smaller businesses, make sure to find out how what you should consider when registering a domain name, and learn whether you should invest in a small business website builder or not depending on your size.

As with many of its competitors among the best website builders, GoDaddy offers a streamlined website creation experience, particularly when it comes to building a basic website. As one of the best web hosting services, and certainly one of the largest, GoDaddy also offers competitive rates on both storage and bandwidth, as well as domain name registration. 

This step-by-step guide will take you through the process, and help you to build a website with GoDaddy.

How to build a website with GoDaddy: Preparation

You’ll need a GoDaddy account to get started, but signing up takes just a few seconds. You can also sign up with your Amazon, Facebook, or Google account.

Just click on the "Start for Free" button on the GoDaddy home page, sign up or sign in, and you’ll be taken to the GoDaddy website builder. If you end up on your account page, no problem. Just go back to the GoDaddy.com home page, and hit any of the "Start for Free" buttons. 

You’ll start with a free website that you can later upgrade to a paid plan for additional features, more storage and bandwidth, and e-commerce options—but you don’t have to. If you’d like to keep your website free, you can do so for as long as you like. 

Just bear in mind that free websites are found on the GoDaddy subdomain, so your web address will be yoursite.godaddysites.com. For a custom domain name, you’ll need to sign up for a paid plan.

Step 1: Choose a category and pick a name

Your first step is to choose a category. There are a number of options to choose from, so just start typing what your website is about (e.g., photography, wedding cakes, food and drink), and hit "Next".

You’ll be asked to choose a name for your website. Don’t stress about this too much, as you can change it later if need be. You’ll see your website’s name appear on the mock homepage behind the dialogue, to get an idea of how it will look. But don’t worry if you don’t like this theme: you can change it later, and GoDaddy has many options. 

When you’re happy with the name, click "Next".

Step 2: Choose a theme

The next major step is to choose a theme. You can stick with the one that’s been supplied or try another one. Switching between themes is easy, and your content will never be lost by doing so. Visual changes you make to themes, however, will be erased if you decide to change later, so it’s worth trying out a few different themes to find one you plan on sticking with. 

To choose a new theme, click on "Theme" from the menu to the right, between "Website" and "Settings", then "Try a new look". You also have the option of changing the accent colors, fonts, and button styles. In addition, you can change any of the images used in your theme, for a more personal touch.

Step 3: Adjust your basic settings

Click on the "Settings" tab in the menu bar to the right, and go through each of the settings under "Site Profile" and "Analytics & Tracking". 

The first section lets you provide basic information about your website that will help users (and search engines) understand who you are and what your website is all about. You can include an email, address, and phone number, add links to your social media, upload a Favicon, add a headline (title tag) and (meta) description for each of your pages, and even restore to a previous version of your website.

The "Analytics & Tracking" section is important for making the most of Google, Facebook, and Pinterest analytics, as well as Google AdSense. Each of these requires that you set up a Cookie Banner informing your users of the use of cookies, which you can customize by changing the text, adding a Decline Button, and turning on or off advanced tracking.

Step 4: Add new pages

By default, your GoDaddy website includes a few different pages. Depending on the website type you choose in the beginning, this might include a Gallery, Events, Blog, About page, and more. You have free reign to edit and customize each of these pages, and can reorder the menu by clicking on the "Reorder" icon next to "Site Navigation" on the right-hand panel. 

You can also add as many new pages as you like. It’s easy to link to new pages as you create them as well; just select the text you want to link to the new page, select the hyperlink icon (🔗), and then choose "Page and Section on page" from the right-hand menu.

Step 5: Add images, text, dynamic elements, and more

Now it’s time to get to the meat of your website. You can use the GoDaddy Website Builder to add a huge variety of elements to your page. Just click on “Add Section” above or below any of the current sections. 

It’s worth taking the time to explore the different sections that can be added, including a variety of polished layouts for long- and short-form content, photo galleries, a calendar, online store (you’ll need a paid plan to be able to take payments), social feeds, and more. There’s a lot here, so feel free to dig around, and try adding different elements to your pages.

Each section can be customized using the menu bar to the right, and by adding text and images. Each section has its own set of customizations; just click on any element to see what can be done. You can add lists and hyperlinks, change the colors and alignment, and more.

Step 6: Preview and publish

You can preview your website by clicking on the "Preview" button at the top. When you’re happy with how everything looks, you can go ahead and "Publish your website online". Remember that on free plans, your website is published to yourwebsite.godaddysites.com, but you can upgrade any time for a custom domain name and plenty of other features.

If you’re building a professional website, this is an important next step. A private domain name looks much more serious, and if you’re planning on making money with your website by adding an online store, you’ll want to upgrade as well.

How to build a website with GoDaddy: Summary

It's quick and intuitive to build a website with GoDaddy's website builder. In just six simple steps, you can build your first website and have it published online. Simply sign up for an account, choose an industry and name, pick a theme, customize your settings and content, and then preview and publish your website online. 

There’s a huge number of sections and elements that can be added to each of your pages, and an almost unlimited number of customizations. GoDaddy has excellent customer support, and it’s available 24/7, even for free members, so don’t hesitate to ask questions as you’re building your site.

Further reading on website builders

See how GoDaddy matches up to other website builders in our GoDaddy vs Wix and HostGator vs GoDaddy vs IONOS comparisons. It's also worth looking at our other how-to guides, including how to build a website with Shopify; with Wix; with Squarespace; and with the HostGator website builder.

Shopify is one of the best website builders, and specifically one of the best ecommerce website builders, offering a complete platform for building online stores. You can use it to sell products online via desktop, mobile, and online marketplaces, as well as social media. In turn, it’s also cloud-based, so you don’t have to worry about installation, and you can try it free for 14 days.

Shopify ranks highly in regards to the tools we’ve tested and tried out, and it allows you to build a complete, professional ecommerce store without touching a line of code. In this step-by-step guide, we'll show you how to build a website with Shopify.

Step 1: Sign up for Shopify

To begin, head to Shopify.com and choose "Start free trial". Enter your email address, create a password, and choose a store name.

Step 2: Complete the Getting Started wizard

Shopify has a short questionnaire that sets up the defaults for your website. Fill in whether you’re already selling, the size of your business, and the industry you work in. On the next page, you’ll be asked for your full address.

Step 3: Add products

To get a feel for how Shopify works, we suggest adding a few of your products first. In the menu on the left, click "Products". 

There’s a large amount of information that you can add to each product, some of which might not apply to your business. At the very least, add a title, description, price, and images. You can upload images and videos from your computer or include media from a URL. If it’s a physical product, you can specify details, such as weight and country of origin. 

You can organize products by product type, vendor, collection, and tag. The more meta information that you add to your products, the easier it will be to categorize them in the store.

Step 4: Choose a site theme

Your store will have been set up with a default theme based on the category that you chose in the questionnaire. When you click on "Online Store" and then "Themes" in the left-hand menu, you can see the current theme and choose from others.

To preview your current theme, click on "Actions" and then "Preview". You can also choose from the free themes and paid themes at the foot of the page. There are currently nine free themes and 64 paid themes in the Shopify Themes Store. Don’t worry if you don’t find a perfect one—you can edit your chosen theme in the next step.

Step 5: Customize your theme settings

Click on "Customize" to edit your theme. At the bottom left of the page, choose "Theme settings". Here, you can choose the colors, typography, borders, and image opacity of your website. You can also set options such as whether to include social sharing buttons or show a notification when an item has been added to the cart.

Step 6: Edit your home page sections

Return to your home page, and think about how you want each section of the page to look. On Shopify, pages are split into horizontal sections that you can move up and down, edit, and delete by using the left-hand menu. There’s also an editable header and footer section.

Click on any of these page sections on the menu, and you can change their details. Each section has different options depending on its type. For example, in an "Image with text" section, you can select the image, specify the text, and add an optional button. 

You make all your edits in the box on the left-hand side, and your changes are reflected in real time in the preview pane. If you’re not happy with a section, you can hide it completely. Remember to click "Save" to save your changes.

Step 7: Add more pages

If you want more pages on your site, click on "Online Store" and choose "Pages". Here, you can add more pages and edit them just as you did with your home page.

Step 8: Set your site’s title and meta description

Click on "Online Store", and choose "Preferences" to find more site settings. Here, you can set the homepage title and meta description, which is the text that will appear on search engines describing your website. 

You can also set up a social-sharing image, Google Analytics tracking code, and Facebook Pixel tracking if you plan to use these services.

Step 9: Set delivery options

Click on "Settings" and choose "Shipping and delivery". Here, you set the delivery options available to your visitors at checkout. You can set domestic, international, local, and pickup rates, if applicable. Next, choose the package sizes that you use to ship your products.

Step 10: Buy or connect a domain

Your website is now available at yourstorename.myshopify.com, but for a more professional site, you should get your own domain name. Click on "Domains", and you’re presented with a few options. You can buy a domain through Shopify, transfer a domain that you own from another registrar, or get your existing domain registrar to point your domain to Shopify.

Step 11: Launch your website

Your site is available online already, but it's password protected. Until you buy a Shopify plan, when anyone visits the page without the password, they just see a holding page. To buy a plan, choose "Select a plan". Shopify plans start at $29 a month, and can be paid for by credit card or through PayPal.

How to build a website with Shopify: Summary

Shopify is one of the best website builders for businesses looking to begin selling online. Its tools are laser-focused on the things that ecommerce stores need to get right, while still offering the power to design websites as desired. 

Now that you know how to build a website with Shopify, there's so much you can do to personalize and improve it. Browse through all of Shopify’s settings, apps, and marketing tools to perfect your ecommerce website.

Further reading on website builders

You can read our comparison articles pitting Wix vs Shopify, Squarespace vs Shopify, and Shopify vs BigCommerce. It's also worth reading our guide on how to build an ecommerce website, to learn more about Shopify. 

Those with more web development experience may want to try WordPress via the best website builders for WordPress, and create an ecommerce store hosted with the best WordPress hosting services (ensure you choose the best web hosting services, too).

Many of the best website builders are targeted at beginners with little site creation experience, and Weebly is no different. However, its recent partnership with Square Online has seen it offer even more advanced ecommerce solutions than it traditionally has, making it an attractive option for those who want to sell online, and ranking it among the best ecommerce website builders.

There are numerous ecommerce tools on offer, and the basic set is available with all plans. The free-forever plan offers a decent way to test the builder before committing to a paid subscription, but you may find it a little confusing to get started. 

As our Weebly review will show, this website builder is one of the most affordable on the market. It offers quite limited design flexibility and some tools could certainly be better, but overall, it’s a solid option backed by a selection of marketing, analytics, and other native features.

Weebly: Plans and pricing

Weebly has quite a basic price structure. There’s a free-forever plan along with three premium options. Monthly and annual payment options are available, and all plans come with online store functionality. 

The free plan is a little limited, though. You won’t be able to connect a custom domain, and your site will have Weebly advertising and limited storage. The Personal plan (from $6 a month) enables custom domain connection, but it’s still quite limited. 

Upgrading to a Professional subscription (from $12 a month) begins to add more advanced features such as unlimited storage, a free domain, and advanced site statistics. And finally, the Performance plan (from $26 a month) adds advanced ecommerce insights, priority support, and a range of high-end online store tools. 

Building a website with Weebly

If you’re using Weebly for the first time, we’d recommend starting with the free-forever plan. Create an account, add a small amount of personal information, and follow the prompts to get started. 

Now, it’s worth noting that Weebly is owned by payment-processing giant Square. Once you’ve created your account, you will be prompted to choose between Square Online to create a business or ecommerce website, and Weebly Websites for a personal site. In order to test the full extent of the features on offer, we went with Square Online. 

You will be guided through a short questionnaire asking about your goals and what sort of functionality you want your website to have. Then, you will be taken to your site-management dashboard. 

Access the editor by clicking the "Edit My Site" button on the top right of the dashboard, and begin personalizing your content. Now, the editor is far from the most advanced we’ve used. It uses a section-based design method, enabling you to add new sections as required. However, you won’t have great flexibility, and it can be quite difficult to achieve the look you want. 

Ecommerce management with Weebly

One thing that stands out about Weebly—thanks to its integration with Square Online—is its excellent ecommerce tools. It offers much more powerful online selling features than most other website builders, making it an excellent option for those who want to create a basic store with a low budget. 

We created a simple online store to test the platform’s online store management tools, and we were very impressed. You can access a variety of different management pages via the menu on the left of your website dashboard, including orders, products, reports, sales channels, and various fulfilment options. These make it very easy to take care of your store. 

Manage customer reviews, add and remove items as necessary, and track your inventory, sales volume, and more. There are various reporting tools that offer detailed insights into the performance of your store, with specialized reports analyzing things like order sources, abandoned carts, popular items, and more. 

Key features

Weebly has long been one of the world’s leading website builders, and it boasts a standout selection of features to back this position. It’s known for its advanced ecommerce tools, which are offered through the Square Online platform, but there are plenty of other things to like as well.

If you’re looking for a website builder that focuses on streamlined store creation and ongoing management, it’s hard to look past Weebly. It now offers its online store tools through Square Online, which comes with a great selection of ecommerce features. 

For example, you will have access to advanced shipping tools, enabling you to send items across the world. The inventory management portal is excellent, and you can integrate things like coupons, customer reviews, and product searches. 

More advanced tools such as abandoned cart emails and discount codes can also be used to enhance the functionality of your store. And those with a high-end plan will benefit from detailed analytics and reporting that can be used to monitor the performance of your store. 

All Weebly users will benefit from a suite of integrated marketing tools. There’s an attractive email builder, which enables you to create and send custom messages to your mailing list. Use the Weebly Promote platform to manage your contacts and marketing campaigns, and take advantage of the integrated Facebook marketing and SEO tools for increased success.

If you would like to add extra functionality to your Weebly website, you can do so by installing an add-on from the native app market. Here, you will find countless apps covering everything from social media management to marketing and more. Use the built-in search box to find what you’re looking for, and take advantage of the selection of free options if you’re on a tight budget. 

One thing that stands out about Weebly is its excellent mobile management app. This is available across iOS and Android operating systems, and it enables you to take care of your site from the comfort of your smartphone or other mobile devices. 

In addition, you can make edits to your site with the Weebly app. Manage ecommerce orders and product listings and ensure you never miss anything important by having everything you need at your fingertips. 

In the past, Weebly has published regular product updates and release notes on its blog. These have slowed down in the past few years, but there are still a few recent updates that are well worth touching on. 

On 26th June 2021, Weebly released a comprehensive product update focusing on a range of new integrated features. One thing that will benefit ecommerce store owners across the world is the addition of kerbside pickup options. With this, customers can request contactless kerbside pickup, reducing postage costs and ensuring the health and safety of all parties is maintained. 

Support for announcement banners has also been added. With these, you can promote products, sales, or anything else you would like customers to know. There’s also a neat buy button, which you can add to an existing website to enable customers to make purchases through Square Online checkout. 

Alternatives to Weebly

Weebly has traditionally been one of the big three website builders, alongside Wix and Squarespace. In many ways, though, it has failed to keep up with the competition in recent years, and other builders have come through with more attractive offerings. 

For one, Wix offers industry leading design flexibility. The Wix Editor is up there with the most advanced website builders we’ve used, and the drag-and-drop customizability is excellent. Weebly’s editor is much more limited, and you will be constrained by pre-coded element positions. 

The Wix ADI tool also stands out, particularly for beginners who would like to take advantage of artificial intelligence to help them create their site. On the downside, Wix is quite expensive compared to Weebly and many other alternatives. But you will benefit from a huge template library, integrated ecommerce tools, a free domain with a premium subscription, and much, much more. 

If you value design flexibility over professional templates and low prices, we’d definitely recommend using Wix over Weebly.

If you’re looking for something a little more beginner-friendly, GoDaddy could be the right option. Its editor is very simple, and it lacks design flexibility, but this could be a good thing, particularly if you just want to get online in a fast, hassle-free manner. 

Like Weebly, GoDaddy enables you to create a simple online store. However, its ecommerce tools are very basic, and you will be much better off going with Weebly if selling online is going to be your main focus. There are various social media and marketing tools available, and the GoDaddy Studio contains a range of design and branding tools that you can take advantage of.

Weebly: The verdict

Overall, Weebly has fallen a little by the wayside in recent years. In the past, it was a leading website building option, sitting alongside Wix as a clear premium choice. However, many of its competitors have caught up, offering more attractive solutions. And this is despite Weebly’s integration with Square Online. 

There are numerous professional templates that you can use to start your site. However, design flexibility is more than a little limited, and you will have a lot of trouble if you want to make significant changes to your template’s pre-coded layout. 

On the plus side, the ecommerce tools on offer are excellent. Online stores are created and managed through the Square Online interface, and you will have access to a full range of tools for order management, inventory management, marketing, analytics, and store optimization. 

All in all, Weebly remains an attractive website building option, but it’s certainly not a clear leader in the space anymore. It’s a good choice for ecommerce and simple personal sites, but we wouldn’t recommend it for larger or more complex sitesーthere simply isn’t enough design flexibility or scalability here. 

The bottom line: take advantage of Weebly’s free-forever plan if you would like to test the platform, but don’t expect too much power.

Further reading on website builders and web hosting

Learn more about Square Online in our step-by-step guide on how to build a website with Square Online. If you're looking for a small business site, check out our guide to the best small business website builders; and if you want something with more flexibility and customization, check out the best web hosting services.

Cloudways is one of the new breeds of web hosting providers that combine the best features of traditional hosting and enterprise-focused cloud hosting. Cloudways doesn’t own its own data centers but rather provides a bridge between its customers and cloud hosting providers. 

This means it can offer fully managed web hosting with the scalability and attractive pricing offered by the likes of DigitalOcean and Amazon Web Services (AWS), and with the simplicity and user-friendliness of traditional hosting services.

This approach makes Cloudways one of the best web hosting services for those who want high-performance, hassle-free cloud hosting. In this Cloudways review, we take a closer look at its pricing, features, usability, and support.

Cloudways: Plans and pricing

One of the good things about Cloudways is that you can try the service completely free for three days without the need to enter any credit card details.

Paid plans vary in price depending on which hosting provider you choose. Cloudways offers servers provided by DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, and Google Cloud. The prices increase depending on the amount of RAM, storage, bandwidth, and processors that you require.

Prices range from $11 a month for a Standard DigitalOcean droplet - with 1GB RAM, a single-core processor, 25GB storage, and 1TB bandwidth - to $722.06 a month for a Google Cloud setup with 72GB RAM, 16 CPUs, 20GB storage, and 2GB bandwidth.

All prices include the hosting charges that you would pay directly to the providers themselves. All plans have 24/7 support and monitoring, free SSL certificates, one free migration, and automated backups. If you want offsite backups, it will cost an additional $0.033 per GB per server.

One thing not included by default, however, is email. If you want that, you’ll need to purchase the Rackspace Email Add-on, which costs $1 a month per mailbox. Cloudways also doesn’t sell domain names.

Cloudways: Features

All Cloudways features aim to make your managed hosting experience as simple and convenient as possible, with many functions able to be carried out with a single click. This includes the scaling of your servers to increase RAM, CPUs, and storage.

There is also a selection of apps that you can install, including two varieties of WordPress (one with and one without Cloudways optimizations), WooCommerce, Laravel, and Magento, or you can create a custom PHP app.

Performance is a key concern when choosing web hosting, and Cloudways promises fast speeds with dedicated environments hosted on SSD servers, advanced caching, and access to Cloudways’ own CDN.

The provider offers 24/7 real-time monitoring, with all the data being available in your account dashboard. There is also New Relic integration and an AI-based Cloudways bot that can send notifications about events on your server via email or Slack.

Cloudways: Interface and in use

Immediately after signing up for the three-day trial, you’re prompted to create your first server and application. You select your regional cloud hosting provider, choose how much RAM and other resources your server should have, and its location, with North American, European, and Asian options available.

In our testing, it took seven minutes to create a server. Afterward, we were able to access the server management features. Cloudways has its own custom dashboard rather than the popular cPanel or Plesk, so it may take a while for some people to get used to it. But one of the things that we liked was the easy-to-use Manage Services page, where we could easily restart services including Apache, MySQL, or Nginx.

We created a WordPress app with our test server, and the default installation included a page with several useful links on how to migrate from other hosts to Cloudways, performance, and other general topics.

Cloudways: Support

Every Cloudways plan comes with a Standard support plan, which includes 24/7 access to live chat and monitoring alerts. If you need support for customizations and applications and proactive investigation of any alerts, the Advanced support plan starts at $100 a month. If you want access to a private Slack channel and phone support, prices start from $500 a month.

Cloudways: Security

Cloudways takes security seriously and implements several measures on all accounts. All managed servers have firewalls with access only to specific ports. SSH and SFTP logins are rate-limited to combat brute-force attacks. 

Databases can only be accessed remotely after whitelisting IP addresses, and all applications are isolated from each other to prevent any issues with a single app affecting the whole server. Cloudways also offers two-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption across its platform, and a suspicious device login control that will send you an email alert if any suspicious activity is detected.

Alternatives to Cloudways

Cloudways isn’t the only option when it comes to companies that offer hosting with the big cloud providers like DigitalOcean and AWS.

ServerPilot offers access to servers with AWS, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Its pricing starts at $5 per server a month, plus $0.50 per app a month, and goes up to $20 per server a month plus $2 per app a month.

Laravel Forge connects you to servers with AWS, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, and Vultr, and costs from $12 a month for a single server to $39 a month for unlimited servers with database backups and monitoring.

Cloudways: Verdict

Cloud hosting does require a certain level of technical expertise, but Cloudways makes it easier than dealing directly with the cloud hosting providers themselves. It is more of a middle ground between the beginner-friendly offerings from the likes of SiteGround and the technically-demanding services of others, like AWS. It would suit people who have some technical knowledge but lack full sysadmin skills.

Just be aware that if you’re only used to using cPanel or Plesk, Cloudways might take some time to get used to. That said, its pricing is reasonable for the level of performance and security that you get from its servers and the quality of its support.

More from Tom's Guide

Before you go for hosting, check if one of the best website builders might be what you're looking for. In addition to our guide ranking the best cloud hosting, we've got guides covering various hosting types, including the best VPS hosting, the best WordPress hosting, the best Windows hosting, the best Linux web hosting, and the best unlimited hosting.

When it comes to creating a new website, there are a series of options open to you or your business: web hosting, WordPress, and website builders. All three of these methods can be used together, so they're not mutually exclusive options for building a site: but it's useful to have each service defined, so that you know where to begin.

If you choose to build a site using one of the best website builders, you have to decide how much of the work will be undertaken by you, and how much you’ll outsource to developers or experts. The best approach to a site will depend entirely on how much time you can spare, the level of control you want over the build, and the amount of technical knowledge you've got. 

Thankfully, website builders provide a strong option for creating sites when you've not got the necessary experience. With their simple drag-and-drop interfaces, anyone can make a website, even if you don’t know HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code. These builders create the underlying code for you, and save you the hard work.

If you're building a site yourself or with a web design company, you'll need to buy web hosting from one of the best web hosting services. Here, you’re renting disk space on a remote computer server, onto which you upload your site's files, allowing visitors to then access the site from all around the world. 

However, if all of that sounds too complex or too much work for you, there's a third option in content management system (CMS) software, which makes creating web pages simpler. WordPress is the most well-known CMS, and has a particular focus on blogging sites. You can create and publish a WordPress site in a few minutes or hours, even without web development experience.

In this comparison feature, we discuss and evaluate these three options, pitting web hosting vs WordPress vs website builders and exploring their relative pros and cons for site building.

Web hosting vs WordPress vs website builders: Web hosting

When you buy web hosting, you get online storage space, and the rest is up to you. Buying a web hosting service gives you the greatest control over how your website will turn out, but it invariably increases the amount of work you must do to get your website off the ground.

Having your own web hosting from the beginning makes it easier to add additional features to your website when your business grows. You’re also not locked into using any one piece of software.

Hosting providers often have one-click installers for popular CMSs that can save you lots of time. Most companies need not reinvent the wheel, so it makes sense to use tools that make building and managing your site easier instead of creating everything from scratch.

Pros:

•  Maximum flexibility
•  A huge number of providers
•  Scales well 

Cons:

• Requires technical expertise
• Longer development cycle
• Increased maintenance and management

WordPress

You can install the free WordPress CMS via one of the best WordPress hosting providers, or you can host your site and utilize a website builder for WordPress, installable as plugins.

The best thing is how easy it is to build a website with WordPress through its browser-based editor. Thousands of themes exist for WordPress, so you can quickly have a professional-looking site, and there are over 55,000 WordPress plugins you can install that add functionality to your website.

WordPress is an excellent choice to get a fully functioning website up and running quickly. However, security is a concern on WordPress sites. The software itself is considered relatively secure, but themes and plugins are all developed by distinct people, so bugs and security holes are often introduced. WordPress is the most hacked CMS in the world.

While WordPress itself is free, premium themes and plugins are not. You must also update the software regularly as security holes are patched, which can inadvertently render a theme or plugin on your site unusable until it has been updated. 

Finally, although selling goods on a WordPress site is possible, WordPress wasn’t built with ecommerce in mind. If you’re selling goods online, consider a more ecommerce focused CMS like Shopify.

Pros:

• Thousands of themes
• Powerful plugins
• Easy multi-creator blogging

Cons:

• Cost of plug-ins can mount up
• Better options exist for ecommerce sites
• Security is a concern

Website builders

Website builders such as Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace create website code for you. You need not know anything about website development to use a website builder, as all you do is drag and drop the elements you want onto the page. 

The other major advantage of using a website builder is speed. You can make a website much more quickly using a website builder than if you were coding each page yourself.

Unfortunately, website builders are rather simplistic, so you’re restricted to specific, generic templates. Adding functionality to your site that isn’t inherently part of the website building tool is challenging, making scaling your site up later a problem. 

Finally, the created website code is machine-generated so it can be difficult for a web designer to work with. This makes transferring your website to other platforms difficult, essentially locking you into using the website builder forever. 

Website builders are a fine choice for small, basic websites that won’t need to grow into something bigger in the future, but their limitations make them a poor choice for everything else.

Pros:

• Fast website creation
• Low cost
• No technical knowledge required

Cons:

• Difficult to transfer code
• Cookie-cutter designs
• Poor scalability

Web hosting vs WordPress vs website builder: Which is best?

In conclusion, you can see that despite comparing the three different areas of web creation, elements of each are better than those of the competitors, but all three allow for website creation in one way or another. It depends entirely on what you and your business are looking to achieve, whether it be ecommerce, blogging, a high-capacity webpage or all three.

Further reading on web hosting, WordPress, and website builders

Read our other guides to top web hosting services, including: the best cloud hosting; the best VPS hosting; the best web hosting for cheap; the best free web hosting; and the best Windows hosting and best Linux web hosting.

For more on WordPress, take a look at our website builder comparison pitting WordPress vs Wix Squarespace, and our comparison of web hosting vs WordPress hosting. We also outlined seven top reasons to choose managed WordPress hosting, busted five myths about the CMS, and discussed the most common WordPress mistakes and how to fix them.

Finally, it's worth checking out our guides to the best ecommerce website builders and the best small business website builders too.

Building a website for you or your business has, traditionally, always been quite an expensive endeavor. This is because at the very least, you would have needed to pay for hosting, domain registration, and - unless you designed and developed the website yourself - professional assistance to build the website. 

However, in the last few years, advances in technology mean things have changed, and now it's more than possible to build a website for free, without spending a cent. One of the simplest ways to do this is choosing one of the best website builders, signing up for your preferred service's free plan, and then creating your own site yourself. 

The best thing about undertaking this process yourself is that you don't need to have any web development or design experience. That's because the more complex elements of the website building process are taken care of for you. Here, we'll outline the steps you need to take to build a website for free.

Step 1: Choose a free website builder

There are numerous free website builders on the market. Most have their own sets of pros and cons, which means you will need to spend a little time choosing the best option for your needs. 

For example, Wix is the world’s most popular builder, and it comes with a great free plan. However, the sheer power of its editor means that a lot of people have trouble learning how to use it, and it might not be the best choice for absolute beginners.

On the other side of the equation are options like the GoDaddy builder, which is quite basic but extremely easy to use. It doesn’t offer anything near the power of competitors like Wix, but it’s a great choice for absolute beginners with little confidence.

Step 2: Create an account

Most website builders with a free forever option are very easy to get started with. Usually, you will be asked to provide a few personal details, such as your name, email address, and a password. You shouldn’t ever have to enter payment information when signing up for a free website builder. 

For example, GoDaddy asks for your email address, a username, and a password when you’re creating an account. It also allows you to connect your Facebook and/or Google accounts to streamline the login process.

Step 3: Select a template

Every free website builder worth using has some sort of template library. Here, you will find a selection of high-quality, professional designs that you can use as a starting point for your new site. In most cases, templates are heavily categorized, allowing you to quickly filter them according to the type of site you want to build. 

Weebly is a great example of a website builder with excellent templates. It comes with a selection of professionally designed themes that you can start editing instantly. These tend to be extremely attractive, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something you like.

Step 4: Choose a subdomain

Most free website builders, including Wix, Weebly, and GoDaddy, provide you with a branded subdomain. In general, you will be able to customize this, but it will have some sort of extension related to your builder. You won’t be able to connect your own domain without upgrading to a paid plan. 

For example, Weebly gives you a domain that looks like “mywebsite.weebly.com” and lets you customize the “mywebsite” part. On the other hand, GoDaddy simply sets your domain as “websitename.godaddysites.com”, and you can’t change this.  

Step 5: Set your global design settings

Note that we’ve used the GoDaddy website builder as an example for the rest of this guide, due both to its popularity and beginner-friendly editing interface. 

Now that you’ve signed up for a new account and selected a template, it’s time to start editing your website. Start by customizing global design settings. GoDaddy allows you to select a color scheme and two universal fonts, but some other builders let you change even more than this. 

Step 6: Add new pages and personalize your menu bar

Before you start editing your site’s content, it’s a good idea to create the pages you’re going to need and link to them from your main menu. Most website builders make this very easy to do, and many even have templates for things like contact and service pages. 

With GoDaddy, creating a new page is extremely straightforward. Simply head to the "Website" tab of the editing menu on the right of the screen and click the small plus symbol in the top right corner. Then, label your page, specify whether to show it in your main menu and/or footer, and hit the "Create Page" button.

Step 7: Customize your pages

Once you’ve created the pages you need, it’s time to jump into the content creation and page design processes. Some website builders, like Wix and HostGator, use a drag-and-drop interface that lets you position design elements exactly where you want them. 

Others, like GoDaddy, use section-based editors with predefined layouts. Whatever the case, it’s a good idea to play around with your layout for a while until you’re happy with it. Then, start adding custom content to your pages. Every editor is different, but most of them allow you to click on different elements before personalizing them.

For example, if you’re using GoDaddy, you simply have to click on the element you want to edit. Various editing options will appear on the right of the screen, and in most cases, you will also be able to edit by typing or adding new content directly to the page itself.

Step 8: Optimize your site settings

Once you’re happy with your design, you should try and optimize your site settings to some extent. Different website builders are different, but GoDaddy allows you to add a favicon, basic metadata, and social media links, among other things.

Step 9: Hit publish! 

If you’ve got this far, congratulations! As long as you’re happy with your overall design and content, it’s time to hit publish. Remember, you will be able to continue editing once you’ve sent your site live, so don’t worry if things aren’t absolutely perfect.

How to build a website for free: Summary

At the end of the day, to build a website for free is actually extremely easy. Simply create an account with a free website builder like Wix or Weebly, and follow the steps outlined above. Although we used the GoDaddy website builder as our main example, most website builders with a free plan will fit the above process. 

Remember, you’re not finished the moment you hit the publish button. It’s important to keep up with ongoing maintenance, publish new content regularly, and build a strong audience if you want to achieve online success.

Further reading on website builders

If you’d like to find out more about the builders mentioned in detail in this article, have a look at how to build a website with Wix, and how to build a website with GoDaddy. You can also read our comparisons that pit GoDaddy vs Wix, and Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly.

Whether you’re planning your first website or are a seasoned veteran with dozens under your belt, every website owner faces the important question of which web hosting provider to choose. Finding and choosing one of the best web hosting services for your needs isn’t easy, not least because you have a lot of different options to choose from. Learning about them all is overwhelming.

To help with that task, this article will outline one of the biggest players in the hosting space to consider: AWS hosting.

AWS hosting: What is it?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosting refers to the hosting services provided by the global ecommerce giant Amazon. AWS hosting is one service within the larger AWS platform, which provides an array of cloud-based products (over 200 altogether). In addition to web hosting, some of its top products are cloud storage and database services: our AWS review covers the cloud storage element. 

AWS is the largest cloud platform there is, and was one of the earliest companies to provide cloud-based services, making them one of the most respected options for anyone interested in cloud hosting.

How AWS hosting works

AWS hosting uses cloud hosting. With traditional hosting, a website is stored on a specific physical web server. Cloud hosting, by contrast, uses a network of connected servers—both virtual and physical. That means websites that use cloud hosting aren’t dependent on any one machine. One server in the network can go down without affecting the performance of any website being hosted on it, since there are plenty of others to fall back on.

AWS hosting is by no means the only option for cloud hosting, but it's one of the most well-known and popular of the best cloud hosting providers.

Types of AWS hosting

AWS offers a few different types of AWS hosting services for different levels of need. 

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is for simple static websites that use HTML and Javascript. 
• AWS Amplify is for websites built with single page app frameworks or static site generators. 
• Amazon Lightsail is for simple websites built with a common application like WordPress, Joomla, or Magento, or a development stack like LAMP. 
• Enterprise Web Hosting is for websites that expect high levels of traffic and need to support complex applications, such as popular media sites and enterprise businesses. 
• Application hosting is for businesses who need hosting not just for their websites, but also for internet-based products like mobile applications and SaaS (software as a service) products.

If you do decide to use AWS for your hosting, then figuring out which service makes the most sense for your needs will play a role in what you pay and how satisfied you are with the experience.

Reasons to consider AWS hosting

Web hosting is a competitive market, but AWS is an established brand with some strong benefits to offer.

Security

A business built on ecommerce should know something about security, and Amazon extends that knowledge to its AWS services. The company promises infrastructure that was built to the standards of the most exacting industries, including the military and global banks.

Finding a secure web host is only one step in making sure your website is secure, but it’s an important one. AWS hosting is a solid choice in this regard.

Performance

AWS has a huge infrastructure backing its hosting services, which translates into a strong performance (at least most of the time). For websites that use AWS hosting, that means you can typically count on fast loading times and near constant uptime (the term for how often your website is available).

Flexibility

One of the big benefits of cloud hosting in general, including AWS hosting, is that it’s easier to scale up and down as needed. If your website’s needs aren’t consistent—say, your traffic surges during the holiday season, then slows down for months after—then having a web hosting plan that can accommodate varying needs as they arise is useful. AWS hosting is a good choice for that.

Payment model

AWS hosting uses a pay-as-you-go model, which can be useful for some businesses. For months where you have fewer visitors and need less bandwidth, your costs will go down. And if you only need some of the services AWS makes available, you’ll pay less because of it. If you like the idea of knowing that you’ll only pay for what you need, AWS hosting makes that possible.

Global footprint

While many website owners don’t think much about it, geography plays a role in the performance of your web host. If their servers are located on the opposite side of the world from where most of your visitors are, it can affect how fast your site loads and how well it works for them.

Regional hosting matters for your website’s performance. AWS has servers all over the world, set up in availability zones. No matter where you or your visitors are located, they probably have a server nearby.

Compatibility

AWS hosting is compatible with all the main platforms, content management systems (CMSs), and programming languages you may use to build your website.

Drawbacks to AWS hosting

While the benefits AWS hosting offers are significant, it’s not a perfect service and it’s not for everyone.

Confusing pricing

The pay-as-you-go model is a plus for some website owners, but a minus for many others. It makes payment into a complicated process. Understanding what you owe and knowing what to expect each month becomes difficult. You may end up feeling like you have less control over your costs. You don’t want to end up with a surprise bill that’s much higher than your business budget for the month.

Many web hosting providers offer much more straightforward pricing. You pay a set amount per month or year, period. For companies or individuals on a strict budget, knowing exactly what you’ll owe can make a lot more sense than dealing with the possibility of change month to month.

Complexity

AWS hosting offers a ton of functionality, but the flipside to that is that it’s not intuitive for beginners. Figuring out how to get set up and use the hosting service can be confusing. A lot of other web hosting providers do a better job at providing ease of use for non-experts. If you don’t want to deal with a steep learning curve, or don’t have IT experts on staff to do the work for you, then AWS hosting may not be worth the effort.

Some vulnerability

AWS hosting can promise impressive security and high performance expectations, but you can’t assume that means your website will face no issues. Websites that use AWS hosting have still faced data leaks and hacks, and the hosting service has dealt with the occasional outage in spite of its impressive infrastructure. 

Choosing a reputable web hosting provider like AWS hosting makes a big difference when it comes to security and performance, but it’s not a guarantee that you’ll experience no issues.

How to decide if AWS hosting is right for you

AWS hosting may be a smart choice for you if you need a high level of security and performance, and like the idea of being able to scale as needed and only pay for what you use. For website owners that prefer a more straightforward payment structure and value ease of use over power and features, AWS hosting isn’t your best choice.

Further reading on web hosting and website builders

Take a look at our range of buying guides covering various types, including the best VPS hosting, the best cloud hosting, the best WordPress hosting, the best Windows hosting, the best Linux web hosting, and the best unlimited hosting. We've also covered the best website builders, should you be looking to create a new site.

Building a website may be easier now than it’s ever been, particularly with the best website builders, but new website owners still face a lot of different decisions in the process. One of the most important decisions you have to make early on is figuring out which of the best web hosting services are ideal for your website. 

You’ll find a lot of different terms and categories in your research about web hosts—It’s a lot to navigate. A question you’ll want to understand early on is how web hosting and the best WordPress hosting compare, and here we pit web hosting vs WordPress hosting to help you make a choice between the two.

What is web hosting?

What is WordPress hosting?

Web hosting vs WordPress hosting: What’s the difference?

The difference between web hosting and WordPress hosting is that web hosting refers to a broad category of services of which WordPress hosting is one specific type. The term web hosting describes a variety of types of web hosting plans, with a range of costs and features. WordPress hosting is a specialized type of web hosting for people with websites built on WordPress. 

All WordPress hosting plans count as a form of web hosting, but only some web hosting plans are WordPress hosting.

WordPress hosting: what to know

WordPress has its own category of web hosting services because of its immense popularity. Around 42% of all websites are built using WordPress. That means there’s enough of a market of WordPress users for web hosting companies to offer plans specifically optimized for WordPress websites. 

Reasons to consider WordPress hosting

WordPress hosting plans vary based on the plan and provider, but the best WordPress hosting plans will include some key benefits.

• Managed WordPress hosting: Most WordPress hosting plans are a form of managed hosting, where you get to outsource a lot of the technical work of web hosting to your provider. In the case of WordPress, that includes services like handling software updates and backups. 
• WordPress compatibility: Any WordPress hosting plan should promise seamless compatibility between your web hosting account and WordPress itself. That includes working with the most up-to-date version of PHP, the programming language WordPress uses.
• Enhanced security: WordPress websites face specific security vulnerabilities. WordPress hosting providers should be committed to keeping up-to-date on threats to WordPress and strengthening their security in response.  
• Automatic updates: WordPress usually releases updates multiple times a year, and staying on top of them manually can be tedious. Many managed WordPress hosting plans do the job for you. 
• Specialized support: A good WordPress hosting plan will provide customer support staff that understand WordPress well enough to provide expert responses to any questions or issues you have.

Limitations of WordPress hosting

WordPress hosting makes sense for a lot of websites, but it’s not necessarily for everyone.

• It’s only for WordPress websites. The most obvious limitation of WordPress hosting is that it’s only useful for websites built on WordPress. If you used a website builder or another CMS, it won’t make sense for you. 
• It costs more than basic shared hosting plans. WordPress hosting—especially managed WordPress hosting plans—typically cost more than basic shared web hosting plans. If your needs are simple and you just want the most affordable web hosting option, it’s not for you. 
• Not all WordPress hosting plans are created equal. The benefits we listed above are included in many WordPress hosting plans, but not all. Don’t assume that just because something’s labeled “WordPress hosting,” you’ll get all the features and services you want from it. Look closely at each plan you consider to learn what it offers.

Web hosting: What to know

Web hosting is a necessary expense for every website, but web hosting plans vary considerably in terms of type, cost, and the features and benefits they provide. The main factor that determines the cost and value of a web hosting plan is what type of plan it is. The main categories you’ll see are:

• Shared hosting: With shared hosting, your website will be one of many sharing a particular web server. That means it’s cheaper, but also that you have less bandwidth and space to work with. Shared hosting makes sense for many new and smaller websites, but some outgrow it. 
• VPS (virtual private server): A VPS is still shared, but fewer websites will be on the server, and each one is sectioned off so you don’t have to worry about your website being affected by the traffic surges of another. It costs more than shared hosting, but delivers a better performance.  
• Cloud hosting: With cloud hosting, instead of your website being stored on one server, your provider will use a series of different servers that are all connected. For websites with inconsistent traffic levels, cloud hosting makes it easy to scale up and down as needed. 
• Dedicated server: For websites or applications that are either especially complex or get a lot of traffic, a dedicated server ensures you don’t have to share your server with any other website. It costs more than other options, but provides the most power and bandwidth.

WordPress hosting isn’t a different type of plan from these, rather it's a category that can fall under any one of them. Depending on the plan you go with, it could be shared WordPress hosting, cloud WordPress hosting, etc, so you’ll want to check before signing up for a WordPress hosting plan to learn which type it is. 

The difference with WordPress hosting is less about the server it's on, and more about the additional features that come with it.

Web hosting vs WordPress hosting: How to decide between the options

If you have a WordPress website, managed WordPress hosting is a good choice if you want a web hosting plan that will make your life a little easier, since you won’t have to worry as much about updates and security. It can also be a smart choice if you aren’t particularly tech savvy, and want the convenience of having expert WordPress support on hand. 

But if you either don’t have a WordPress website, or if your priority is choosing the most affordable option, then another web hosting plan may make more sense.

Further reading on WordPress, hosting, and website builders

It's worth looking into which providers we ranked among the best website builders for WordPress, and to then check out our step-by-step guide on how to build a website with WordPress. When it comes to WordPress hosting, see our seven top reasons for choosing managed WordPress hosting. Finally, learn the most common WordPress website mistakes and how to avoid them, as well as the WordPress myths we've debunked.

Building a website is now simple for anyone to do, thanks to the abundance of the best website builders. Anyone can open a Square Online store, but it’s specifically geared to selling products and services, and is not a traditional website builder. Instead, it's aiming to be one of the best ecommerce website builders.

Your store can be tailored to your specific type of business, and you can even accept donations or collect membership fees online. Here, we'll look at what you need to do to build a website with Square Online (not to be confused with Squarespace), in a step-by-step guide.

How to build a website with Square: Preparation

Before you start creating your Square Online store, you need to open a free Square account. This gives you access to the Square dashboard, where all your business tools and online store controls will be. Setting this up is very quick and easy: all you need is your email address and a password (make sure it’s a secure one, as sensitive info like identity and bank information is connected to your profile).

To enable you to accept payments through your Square website, you’ll have to provide your legal name, the last four digits of your Social Security number, or your individual taxpayer identification number. You’ll also need to provide a phone number, so that Square can confirm your identity, and to link a bank account so you can get access to funds from your sales on the website.

Step 1: Choose your store settings

When you have your account set up, you can start building your website. To make it easy, Square guides you through the process of deciding which kind of store is best. All settings you choose now can be changed later in the dashboard, so it’s fine if you change your mind about something.

The first step is to choose what you want to sell online. Next, add features from the list, including invoicing, selling gift cards, accepting donations, selling online, and sending marketing messages to customers. Square will then bring up a list of site styles that will suit your business, such as a single-page site for quick orders, or a site with an online booking page.

Step 2: Design your website

Square’s automated prompts will guide you to the Square dashboard, which is where everything to do with your site can be found. There are options to watch video tutorials or let the setup guide help you build your store. For this article we used the setup guide, which lists the steps you need to take.

Click "Design" now, and you’ll be taken to a store mock-up with a list of features you can add or remove down the left-hand side. The mock-up will change in real time as you add or remove features.

Click "Next" to add your logo, or skip this step if you don’t have one and go to "Style", where you can choose the font style and main color.

Step 3: Set up the URL

Square will ask you to set up a domain or URL for your website and store. You have three options—buy a domain from Square (you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan), connect an existing domain, or use a free Square subdomain.

Step 4: Customize your homepage

Use the navigation bar on the left-hand side to work through the elements from header to footer. You can also add or change text, buttons, color, and font in each section. If you would prefer, you can get a professional designer to handle the web design aspect, and Square gives you that option starting at $199.

Finish off your homepage by adding your opening hours and contact information in the location section.

Step 5: Add your products

Once you’ve finished setting up your pages, head back to the dashboard and the setup guide. Click on "Add Items", and the next step is to choose what type of item to add from a dropdown menu. Next, create the price, title, and description, and drag product images onto the media section. You can add different media types here, too.

You can also upload items in bulk using an Excel or CSV file. If you are already a customer of Square POS, then your items will automatically transfer to your website. To bulk upload, go to the dashboard, click on "Items", download the Excel or CSV template, add your items into the spreadsheet and save. Then, upload your spreadsheet to Square to import your items.

Step 6: Set your shipping rates and delivery options

To ship, you need to enter the address you’re shipping from, pick your destination regions, and set the shipping rates.

You can enable curbside or in-store pickup with Square, as well as order delivery. If you want to use order pickup, you’ll need to confirm your physical store’s time zone and set specific hours for pickup. You’re also required to add the preparation time you need to have the item ready, because Square uses that to calculate a pickup time for the customer.

Step 7: Set up your checkout

Go back to your dashboard and choose "Checkout" from the options on the left-hand side, or follow on with the setup guide.

Square Online is set up to accept your online payments through Square. Payment methods include credit cards, debit cards, Square gift cards, and mobile payment options. If you want to use PayPal, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan, though.

Step 8: Set up tax collection for online orders

Square has an automatic US tax calculator for working out sales tax based on your physical store address and the customer’s shipping location. Follow the instructions to set up the correct tax calculations for your business.

Step 9: Preview and publish

Now you can take a final check by clicking "Preview" in the top right-hand corner of the website editor. Make sure everything is how you want it to be, and click "Publish" to make your website live.

How to build a website with Square Online: Summary

Now you can use your Square Online website to sell your products and services online, enable your customers to book appointments or order food, offer different collection and shipping options, and sell on Instagram and Facebook.

Further reading on website builders

To find out more about building ecommerce sites, check out our step-by-step guide detailing how to build an ecommerce website. There's also another option open to those with more experience seeking more flexibility and customization: WordPress, via the best website builders for WordPress and the best WordPress hosting. Ensure you check your chosen host ranks among the best web hosting services too.

Tech in Asia reported on the seed funding announcement from Typedream, which stated that Y Combinator - alongside a series of other investors including WordPress executive Aadil Mamujee and Twitter founding engineer Blaine Cook - had provided an "undisclosed" amount of funding for the no-code website builder.

The firm was founded this year based on its website builder platform, which allows users to "create websites with no coding skills required". Y Combinator has previously provided funding or invested in a number of the best website builders on the market, including Weebly, Webflow, and Strikingly.

Typedream's chief executive Kevin Nicholas Chandra told the news outlet that "we site in the middle between easy-to-use platforms like Squarespace and beautiful-looing but hard-to-use ones like Webflow". He also noted that the new funding would be used to "double down on product expansion".

He had built the company with four friends: Michelle Marcelline, Albert Putra Purnama, Anthony Harris Christian, and Putri Karunia. The four had previously created authentication service Cotter, which allowed users to "log into any platform without punching in their passwords", having previously utilised Y Combinator's incubator program in 2020 to raise funds.

While it generated "decent" revenue, it "failed to achieve the growth rate that they wanted", and Chandra added: "We learned that developers are a very hard audience since they scrutinize every penny they spend on services. On the other hand, enterprise customers take three months to 12 months to convert."

As a result, the four moved into a separate market: for those who are unable to code, but need to be able to create digital products, including influencers, schools, and small business owners. While many have "learned how to use" builders such as WordPress or Wix, Chandra stated, many have also "kept hiring freelancers to build websites" on such platforms.

He noted that they had "found out that no-code users are much easier to convince since they won’t build the services they need by themselves", and so they set up Typedream. The company charges a monthly subscription fee of $15, and Chandra said that he had launched the minimum viable product (MVP) with only three features, but people "were already willing to pay" for the service.

He concluded: "We learned that people are willing to pay for a product that solves their problem with the least amount of technology. We currently support only static websites such as landing pages and personal websites, and we want to expand our use case to commerce."

For Instagram-first businesses, website builders don’t come much better than Milkshake. This free Android and iOS app is designed to help you maximize your one Instagram bio link, providing more detailed information than services like Linktree.   

It’s easy to use and requires zero knowledge of coding. In fact, you can make your first website in a few clicks—Milkshake’s website claims that it takes only minutes to get your new site online. 

While it doesn’t offer the complete features of the best website builders, it’s a great choice if you simply want to link all your social profiles in one place and give customers a taste of your brand.

If you’re ready to get set up on Milkshake, all you need to do is follow this how-to guide for tips on how to build and customize your ideal Instagram website in, well, minutes.

How to use Milkshake website builder: Preparation

Before you get started, it’s worth deciding if this is the right website builder for you, as it does come with limitations. It works well as an Instagram- and TikTok-friendly website builder but, if you’re looking for something where you can choose your own domain name and fully customize every element, then it probably isn’t for you.

The app doesn’t enable you to tweak the code, so Milkshake users will be restricted to the fonts, page layouts, and website functionality that comes with the app. If you’re OK with that, there’s a good selection of stylish templates and the colors of every page element can be customized.

If you’re happy with Milkshake’s offering, the first and only step you need to take before getting started is to download the Milkshake app on iOS or Android. The app can be used on all iOS and Android mobile devices, making it versatile and accessible to all.

Step 1: Create an account in the Milkshake app

Signing up to use Milkshake is quick and pain-free. You can choose to log in with your email and a password, or by using one-tap login through your Facebook, Apple, or Google account. Choose whether or not you want to receive offers and updates from Milkshake, and you’re ready to go in one click.

Step 2: Create your website URL

Next, the Milkshake app will prompt you to create a unique URL for your website by typing in your company name or Instagram handle into the box. All default Milkshake URLs start with the standard msha.ke/ domain, so you can only customize the subdirectory. 

Once you’ve finished typing, the app will scan for any URLs with the same name, and flag clearly if any changes need to be made. If you’re in the clear, the button will turn green, and you can click through to the next step.

Step 3: Start adding content

The next thing you’ll see is a page filled with colorful content cards that each cover a different topic you may wish to include on your site. They cover everything from your bio to links, top article picks, YouTube videos, and even offers. These cards can be added one by one to create page sections for your website. 

To add the content to your website, click on the card which reflects the information you’d like to add first. You’ll then be faced with a selection of design templates to choose from, which form the basis for your color scheme and the layout of the content. The fonts and colors can be customized at a later stage. 

You’ll then be taken to another page, where you can add your own images and text. Again, you’ll see prompts to inspire your content and the information you should add for each section—it couldn’t be easier.

Step 4: Customize your content

After adding all of the relevant information to your first content card, hit the preview button at the bottom. This will show you what the final page will look like, and allow you to customize further. This is the stage where you can select different fonts, bold typeface, and color schemes.

The "Shake It Up" button will change all of the formatting, giving you more design inspiration in one click. The "Customize" button enables you to select different colors for every element of your website, and choose the style of your selected font.

Step 5: Publish your website

Once your design is ready to be revealed, hit the publish button at the bottom, and your new site will go live within seconds. You can now check the live site for any changes that need to be made before sharing.

Step 6: Get sharing

Once your website is live, the app will take you to a page that shows the suggested next steps. Follow the relevant links to add the link directly to your Instagram bio, share it on your Instagram Stories, share it on TikTok, or continue adding new content cards to your website.

The website can be viewed on both desktop and mobile devices.

Step 7: Update your subscription

Now that everything has been set up—possibly in just a few minutes—you may wish to remove the final card from your website, which credits the Milkshake app as your website builder. 

To upgrade your subscription, click your profile icon in the top right-hand corner of the app, and select the "Subscription" option from the menu. Here you can choose to upgrade for a small monthly fee of $2.99. It’s worth noting, though, that the only benefit of upgrading is to remove the ads, and if you have multiple websites linked to your Milkshake account, you can only upgrade one of them. 

At the moment, you can only upgrade on iOS, but Milkshake plans to add this functionality to Android soon.

Step 8: Improve your Insta-game

Milkshake’s value doesn’t stop there. For tips on how to improve your Instagram strategy and make the most out of your new website, check out Milkshake’s School of Instagram. You’ll find simple guides, expert Q&As, and articles that will turn you into an Instagram expert in no time at all.

Summary

Milkshake really has made it easy for anyone to build an Instagram-friendly website in minutes. Although it doesn’t offer any complex customization tools, there’s plenty of template options, so you can make a modern, stylish website that can direct traffic to your business’s other online profiles. 

To get started with Milkshake, simply head to Google Play or the App Store and install the app on your device.

Further reading on website builders

If you’re looking for something more scalable, then you might want to check out our guide to the best website builders on the market. If you're on a tight budget, learn how to build a website for free; if you want something more advanced, utilize WordPress via the best website builders for WordPress and the best WordPress hosting: but ensure your ideal host is among the best web hosting services.

If you’re looking for the best web hosting services, you’ll most likely come across two popular names: Bluehost and GoDaddy. Bluehost powers over two million websites, while GoDaddy, often touted as the world’s largest domain registrar, hosts more than five million websites. Both also offer two of the best website builders. 

Each of these providers has its strengths, and knowing which one to choose to establish your online presence can be tricky. 

In this feature, we’ll pit Bluehost vs GoDaddy. We’ll help you decide which one best fits your needs by comparing them based on their features, pricing, performance, and customer support. 

Bluehost vs GoDaddy: Features

At a glance, both Bluehost and GoDaddy seem to offer the basic features you would expect from a good web host: free domain, unmetered bandwidth, website migration, and storage space. However, there are some key differences worth noting. 

With a third of all websites running on WordPress, there’s a decent chance you’ll use it, whether for blogging or building an ecommerce site. Both Bluehost and GoDaddy claim to offer the best WordPress hosting features.

GoDaddy makes it easy for you to get your WordPress site off the ground through its ready-to-use customizable themes. However, WordPress hosting is an area where Bluehost slightly edges GoDaddy.  

As one of the three hosts recommended for WordPress hosting by WordPress, Bluehost has a WordPress-centric dashboard, allowing you to manage your site with ease. It also includes essential features such as WordPress themes, a WP staging environment, and free WordPress migration. What’s more, Bluehost has a team of in-house WordPress experts who are on standby 24/7 to help you with any concerns. 

Both Bluehost and GoDaddy offer a free SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate, which ensures the security of your site by encrypting the data being transferred to and from the site with 256-bit encryption. In addition, both companies provide automatic WordPress updates with the latest security features.

But Bluehost also goes the extra mile when it comes to the security of your website. It has two-factor authentication, making it difficult for hackers to access your account. 

Another feature worth highlighting is Bluehost’s integration with Sitelock–an automatic monitoring tool that detects suspicious activity, and prevents your website from landing on search engine blacklists. 

If you already have a web host, then you need to consider website migration when selecting a new hosting provider. Bluehost offers a professional website migration service at a one-time fee of $149.99, which can switch up to five websites and 20 email accounts. 

Even though Bluehost's website migration is not free, it's a completely hands-off and seamless process: you don't need to manually transfer files.  

GoDaddy, on the other hand, offers free website migration. The only challenge with their offer is that you'll have to manually download your website's file from your previous hosting provider, and upload it to GoDaddy's servers–a process that can be frustrating, especially if you are not tech savvy.

Bluehost vs GoDaddy: Performance

One key metric to consider when looking at the performance of hosting providers is speed. A slow-loading page is the easiest way to drive customers away and discourage them from coming back. 

We used Pingdom to monitor the speed of Bluehost and GoDaddy over a six-month period: from January 2021 to June 2021. Bluehost averaged a website response time of 773 ms. GoDaddy, on the other hand, performed significantly better, averaging a response time of 531 ms. 

Another important performance consideration when choosing a web host is uptime. If your website continually experiences downtime, it will affect your conversion rates and brand reputation. 

GoDaddy offers a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which means that the maximum downtime you should experience in a month is around four minutes. If your downtime is more than that figure, you can contact them and request a credit of 5% of your monthly hosting fee for that month. 

Unfortunately, Bluehost doesn't offer any uptime guarantees. However, the company promises to solve any uptime problems within 15 minutes, except in extreme cases. 

Bluehost vs GoDaddy: Support

When it comes to customer support, there’s very little difference between Bluehost and GoDaddy. GoDaddy’s help center has a comprehensive collection of articles, how-to guides, how-to videos, and FAQs to help you solve any issues. Bluehost also has a vast knowledge base with an intuitive search button, to help users find information quickly. 

Both providers have an active community/members' forum, where you can meet, learn from, and interact with other users.

For more technical issues, you can contact their customer service representatives via email, phone, and live chat. We tested both providers’ live chat and email, and the responses were prompt and helpful.

Bluehost vs GoDaddy: Pricing and plans

Bluehost’s most popular plan is the shared hosting package, which starts at a promotional price of $2.75 a month for a 12 month contract. However, when renewing that offer, you’ll be required to pay the regular rate of $8.99. Each plan comes with a free CDN (content delivery network), an SSL certificate, and a free domain name, which can help you save startup costs. 

GoDaddy, on the other hand, offers three shared hosting plans: economy, deluxe, and ultimate. The economy plan starts at a mouthwatering $1, but like Bluehost’s basic package, the price reverts to $8.99 when you want to renew. 

For high-traffic sites, both providers offer hosting services including VPS (virtual private server) hosting and dedicated hosting. Bluehost’s VPS hosting starts at $18.99 a month, while GoDaddy’s starts at $19.99 a month. However, GoDaddy’s offer has a higher SSD (solid state disk) storage and RAM (random access memory). 

Each hosting provider has some special plans you can consider, especially if you are building a business website. Bluehost offers WooCommerce hosting backed by a suite of ecommerce tools, security, and expert guidance, starting at $12.95 a month. GoDaddy also has a business hosting package with private-server speed and cPanel simplicity, starting at $19.99 a month.

Overall, we observed that both providers have competitive plans and prices. It’s worth noting that Bluehost has discounts on almost all its plans, although you'll need to pay for a subscription for one to three years to get a discount. 

Bluehost vs GoDaddy: Verdict

At the end of the day, it’s difficult to say for sure which hosting provider is the best. True, Bluehost edges GoDaddy in many of the criteria we considered. However, most of those differences are marginal. 

Ultimately, your choice of a provider depends on your needs. Bluehost, because of its excellent hosting plans at affordable prices, is perfect for anyone who wants to create a business website, blog, or an ecommerce site. 

As an official WordPress partner, Bluehost is your best bet if you are looking at creating a WordPress website. However, be wary of steep renewal prices. 

We recommend GoDaddy for high-traffic Joomla sites and advanced ecommerce sites like Magento. If you are keen on speed, GoDaddy would be a great choice. GoDaddy’s uptime guarantee also makes it a reliable choice for web hosting.

Further reading on web hosting

If you want to examine other web hosts before making a choice, check out our guide to the best cheap web hosting deals. You can also view our other web hosting comparison feature, which compares Bluehost vs HostGator; or our wider versus guide that analyzes web hosting vs WordPress vs website builders.

If you’re looking to build a website, but worry your lack of technical knowledge could hold you back, a popular solution that often appears at the top of the list of the best website builders is Squarespace.

With hundreds of ready-made templates and ample design assistance, you can easily build a website with Squarespace in under an hour—all without knowing a line of code. Here are six easy steps to take to build your own website with Squarespace.

How to build a website with Squarespace: Preparation

Before you get stuck in with building, it’s worth deciding what you’re going to include on your site. Are you building a portfolio, writing a blog, or hoping to launch an ecommerce store? Knowing the purpose of your site ahead of creation will help you decide on the best template design and price plan for your needs. Have a browse of similar websites to see how other businesses advertise their wares for inspiration.

Once you know what you’re creating,  you’ll need to make a Squarespace account—head to the Squarespace homepage and click "Get Started" to begin. It’s worth mentioning that—while you can trial Squarespace’s free plan for two weeks—there is currently no long-term free plan available. However, creating an account requires no payment details, so you’re free to explore the platform beforehand.

Step 1: Choose your template and site name

Squarespace blows rival website builders out of the water with its stunning range of templates. All are created by professional designers, are fully customizable and mobile responsive, and each one is tailored to a specific industry or function—from portfolios and blogs to online stores and restaurants. 

Take your time browsing and previewing what’s on offer—the template you decide on will serve as your canvas, so it’s worth previewing any that you like to find one that matches your requirements. 

After selecting your template, you’ll need to enter a name for your site—though you can change this later when editing, so don’t worry if you have yet to decide.

Step 2: Start customizing 

After naming your site, it’s time to start customizing. Upon being directed to the build page, you’ll notice a handy assistant pops up on the right. It’s worth watching the tutorial video provided here, as—although Squarespace is relatively simple to understand—the design interface can take some getting used to. 

The assistant also provides a useful design checklist to work through, prompting you to add your site logo, change colors and fonts, and add or delete pages. To begin editing the blocks on the page, simply click on one—this will present a box where you can customize elements like the text, background image, section height and width, and color palette. 

For further customization, head to the left-hand column and select the "Design" option. Here, you can adjust your overall site style to ensure consistency with colors and fonts, edit your browser icon, or even add additional CSS code. Select "Pages" from the left-hand column to add or remove any pages, or to select an existing one to customize. 

If you’d like ecommerce integrated into your site, the left-hand column is also where to go—select "Commerce" to begin, and follow the steps provided to get started. There’s plenty of on-screen help when building, but you can find additional tutorials on Squarespace’s knowledge base if you’re unsure of anything.

Step 3: Add some content

The type of website you’re creating will determine the content you add, but it’s a good idea to populate your platform with plenty for visitors to engage with before launching.

For example, if you’d like to incorporate a blog—the benefits of which can include increased traffic to your site—you can add a specific page for this before publishing. Head to "Pages" in the left-hand toolbar, and click the plus symbol at the top of the list. You can then select a blog page and begin adding your content straight away. 

Alternatively, you could also add a portfolio page, event listing, or store straight from the list.

Step 4: Select your custom domain name

A custom domain name is recommended to help your website attract visitors or potential business. While you can use the automatically generated URL that Squarespace provides, it will have branding at the end of your website’s address (.squarespace.com), which could affect your ranking on search engines and make your site harder to find.

To avoid this, you can purchase a custom domain. When on the build page, head back to the left-hand toolbar and click "Settings" and then "Domains"—here, you can either connect a domain you already own, or follow the link through to purchase one through Squarespace. Prices vary, but usually fall around the $20 mark. 

Keep in mind that you can get a domain name free for a year if you upgrade to an annual paid plan—we’ll explain this further in step six. 

Step 5: Optimize your site

Next up is optimizing your website for search engines. Ranking well on search engines is fundamental for attracting clients to your website, and Squarespace’s built-in SEO (search engine optimization) tools make it simple to get started.

In the left-hand toolbar, click "Marketing" and then "SEO". Here, you’ll find a handy SEO checklist to follow to begin optimizing your site, prompting you to add things like a site description, SEO descriptions to individual pages, and links to your social media accounts. 

As you’ll have come to expect with Squarespace, everything is clearly labeled, technical jargon is kept to a minimum, and on-screen tips are there to help you if you get stuck. 

Alongside this, Squarespace automatically provides a generated sitemap, allows the customization of meta descriptions and image alt tags, and enables you to directly search Google keyword analytics to find out what people are searching for within your niche.

Step 6: Upgrade your plan and publish your site

Although you have two weeks before needing to upgrade your free plan, you’ll have to do so beforehand if you wish to publish your site.

To upgrade your website plan, click "Subscribe" at the bottom of the assistant box. You’ll then be presented with four options—the cheapest of which is the Personal plan, costing $12 a month if paid upfront for an annual subscription. As well as being cheaper, annual plans also include a free domain name for a year, so this is worth considering if you plan to upgrade your site address anyway.

Other plans include the Business ($18), the Commerce Basic ($26), and the Commerce Advanced ($40)—the last two of which you’ll want to consider if you wish to integrate ecommerce into your site. 

Take a look at our Squarespace promo codes page for discounts.

Once you’ve chosen a plan and entered your payment details, you can then publish and launch your site.

How to build a website with Squarespace: Summary

Congratulations, your website is now live! That doesn’t mean you should let it stagnate, though—it’s vital that you keep adding new content and update your website regularly to encourage both new and returning visitors. 

You’ll also want to keep sharing news, content, or products on your website so that your visitors have access to the latest information about you or your business. Increase your traffic further by spreading the word frequently; cross-promote your site and its content on social media, or use email campaigns to boost your site’s engagement. 

Otherwise, enjoy your new website!

Further reading on website builders

If you’re still unsure whether Squarespace is right for you, we've also compared it to other builders in our articles pitting WordPress vs Wix vs Squarespace, Wix vs Squarespace vs Weebly, Squarespace vs Shopify, and an in-depth, direct comparison matching the two sector leaders: Wix vs Squarespace.

For more flexibility with site creation, look to WordPress via the best website builders for WordPress; any site will require the best WordPress hosting, provided by the best web hosting services.

Wix and Squarespace are two of the best website builders aimed at people who want to build professional websites without having to learn how to code. They simplify the entire process of creating and running a website. For a single subscription, you get web hosting, templates, editing tools, and a domain name.

In comparing Wix vs Squarespace, we look at their pricing, interface, ecommerce features, and support to help you decide which of these excellent tools best suits your needs.

Wix vs Squarespace: Pricing and plans

The first difference you’ll note between Wix and Squarespace pricing is that Wix offers a free-forever plan, whereas Squarespace only offers a free trial. With the Squarespace free trial, you get two weeks to try out all the features, but you can’t make your website live without paying for a plan.

Having said this, Wix’s free plan is very restrictive, so you’ll probably find you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan before long anyway. Free Wix sites display prominent ads, you can’t connect your own domain, and there’s no support for ecommerce.

When you do decide to pay, you’ll find that both services offer a range of plans for personal or business use. Wix has eight paid plans costing between $14 and $49 a month, whereas Squarespace has four plans priced between $16 and $54 a month. Both services offer a discount if you pay a year in advance, with Squarespace offering the most significant savings for paying upfront. It's worth checking our Squarespace promo codes page for any discounts. 

As you might expect, the more expensive plans from Wix and Squarespace offer more features than their entry-level plan counterparts. One interesting difference between the two companies is that Squarespace offers unlimited file storage on all plans, whereas Wix offers a limited amount of storage.

Ecommerce features are first available on Wix’s Business Basic plan ($23 a month) and Squarespace’s Business plan ($26 a month). Wix’s cheapest ecommerce plan is, therefore, $3 a month less expensive than Squarespace’s cheapest. Also, abandoned cart recovery (an important ecommerce feature for most online stores) is available from Wix on its $23 a month plan, but is reserved for the $54 a month plan on Squarespace.

Squarespace even applies a 3% transaction fee on top of credit card processing fees, unless you choose one of its more expensive ecommerce plans. More on this later.

If pricing was the only concern, we’d give the prize to Wix, as it consistently comes in cheaper than Squarespace.

Wix vs Squarespace: Getting started

Both Wix and Squarespace have an on-boarding wizard that attempts to set up your website with some defaults, based on the answers you give to some quick questions. Wix’s Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) system does the best job here, populating your site with content and layouts that mean you hit the ground running. 

Squarespace’s wizard isn’t too far behind, though. And it also has better support for importing content from other platforms like Blogger and Tumblr. If you have a Shopify or Etsy store, you can import all the products into Squarespace automatically using a wizard.

Wix vs Squarespace: Templates

Wix has close to 1,000 templates you can choose from, whereas Squarespace has around 120. However, quantity doesn’t trump quality, and Squarespace’s templates are arguably much nicer than most of Wix’s designs. Squarespace also offers thousands of fonts, whereas Wix has fewer than 100 built-in fonts. 

Both services offer video backgrounds and free stock photography from sites like Unsplash. You can buy high-quality stock images from Shutterstock on Wix and Getty on Squarespace.

Wix vs Squarespace: Editing your website

Wix and Squarespace have different approaches to on-page positioning. Wix uses absolute positioning, so you can place elements wherever you like. This is versatile, but it means you sometimes need to make tweaks to the mobile version of your website for it to display properly. 

Squarespace uses a responsive system, which means you’re much more restricted in how you place elements on a page, but your site will adapt better to different screen sizes without you having to make tweaks or edits at all.

Neither system is perfect, and depends on your needs. Wix now has a beta system called Editor X that creates responsive designs like Squarespace, but it’s still far from ready for prime-time.

Wix vs Squarespace: Accessing website code

Both website builders discourage editing HTML and CSS code directly, but they do offer some options for tinkering with the underlying code to change the look and layout of your site.

With Squarespace, you can add custom CSS code. This is an easy way to override the global styling of fonts, colors, and backgrounds on your site. It's an unsupported feature, though, and Squarespace strongly suggests you don’t use custom CSS to change the positioning or size of any of your website’s elements.

Squarespace does have a Developer Platform that you can use to edit its HTML templates directly, but it isn’t available in the latest version of Squarespace. To use it, you need to downgrade your website to an older version, which is a poor solution if you want a future-proof website.

Wix, on the other hand, has a developer mode, adding to its flexibility compared to Squarespace. The main menu of the Wix editor includes a toggle for Velo Dev Mode, which is Wix’s pseudo-coding platform and interface. Here, you can create basic databases and dynamic pages with a level of sophistication that reaches traditional web design.

As it stands, Wix is therefore a much better website builder than Squarespace for developers who want to create a fully custom site.

Wix vs Squarespace: Ecommerce

Both Wix and Squarespace have robust ecommerce features. You can create a virtually unlimited number of products, all with different product options like size and color.

You can use Wix and Squarespace to sell goods on Amazon, Instagram, and Facebook. With Wix, you can also sell on eBay. Dropshipping is supported in Wix through the Modalyst app, and in Squarespace using Printful or Spocket. Wix requires you to be on its Business VIP plan to sell over 250 products via dropshipping, though.

You can sell physical and digital products with both Wix and Squarespace. Squarespace also lets you sell services and subscriptions. This is possible with Wix, but only through the use of third-party apps. On the other hand, Wix includes an option for selling or renting video content through your website.

Wix and Squarespace both offer abandoned cart functionality, whereby an email is sent to a customer when they put items into their shopping cart but don’t follow through on the purchase. But Wix’s abandoned cart is available on cheaper plans than with Squarespace, and it has better functionality. For example, with Wix, you can better customize the email that is sent to customers.

Both services offer point-of-sale functionality, meaning you can use them to sell goods at a physical location. Wix has support for Square and SumUp, whereas Squarespace only supports Square. Wix's point-of-sale functionality works in a wide number of countries including the UK, Australia, and Japan, whereas Squarespace only supports the US at this time.

Wix vs Squarespace: Payment processing

Wix and Squarespace handle transaction fees differently. Squarespace’s cheapest ecommerce plan ($26 a month) adds a 3% transaction fee to all sales on top of any credit card processing fees. You can choose the $35 a month Basic Commerce plan or the $54 a month Advanced Commerce plan to waive this fee.

Wix doesn’t charge such a transaction fee on any of its ecommerce plans, though you’ll still need to pay third-party payment processing fees. It also offers more payment processor options, with over 50 payment providers compared to Squarespace’s four: Stripe, Square, PayPal, and Afterpay.

Overall, Wix wins against Squarespace on ecommerce pricing and functionality, unless you plan to sell subscriptions through your site.

Wix vs Squarespace: Extras and third-party integration

Both Wix and Squarespace have options and add-ons for extending the functionality of your website and integrating with third-party tools.

However, Squarespace’s extensions and plugins are limited in number, while the Wix App Market offers an extensive range of third-party options. This again underscores how Wix is a more versatile product overall.

Wix vs Squarespace: Email marketing

Wix includes basic email marketing for free, allowing you to send up to three newsletters to up to 5,000 people per month. For more sophisticated email marketing, including emails sent based on customer actions, you need to upgrade to a paid Wix Ascend plan, which costs between $10 and $49 a month.

Squarespace also offers email marketing, but there’s no free tier. Prices range from $7 to $68 a month, and it's a less flexible service than Wix Ascend. Segmenting email addresses into distinct groups is a chore with Squarespace Email Campaigns, for example.

Wix vs Squarespace: Support

Both Wix and Squarespace have great support websites with FAQs, guides, community forums, and how-to videos.

There’s a big difference here, though, in that Wix offers phone support for all plans, even for users on the free plan. Squarespace has no phone support at all, and we found the response from the online ticketing system to be a little sluggish, usually taking around six hours for us to get a reply. Wix, on the other hand, offered a response within five minutes each time.

Wix vs Squarespace: Verdict

Wix and Squarespace are both excellent website builders that we can heartily recommend. There’s no clear winner between them, and the right tool for your needs may come down to which user interface you prefer. Both have a long list of excellent features that make building websites a breeze.

Wix is the more flexible choice. You get many more templates from which to choose, its editor allows you to position elements where you want, and its ecommerce features offer more power than Squarespace’s tools. It’s also consistently cheaper than Squarespace. 

But for users that want a highly attractive website that doesn’t stray far from the template designs on offer, Squarespace is easier to use, and has a shorter learning curve. Squarespace keeps you somewhat “on rails” so that your website remains consistent and user-friendly for your visitors.

We therefore recommend Squarespace for small businesses that want a fantastic-looking site without worrying too much about the details, whereas Wix is our top choice for companies that have a more specific design goal they want to accomplish.

Further reading on website builders

Check out our other guides to top builders, including the best ecommerce website builders and the best small business website builders. We also looked at the best website builders for WordPress, and if you opt for WordPress, you'll need the best web hosting services: specifically, the best WordPress hosting.