photo-1453133451515-5ff7c1d0d63cWebsites have become a common part of our society. Whether it’s for a business, a personal blog, a portfolio, or even a wedding, there are many needs for a website. Today, we’ll be looking at the best website builder for the average person. If you need a totally custom solution, you should consider hiring a professional. If you’re tech savvy, you may be able to program it yourself. This list is for people who have no experience with programming, and who don’t want to hire a professional company.

What You’ll Need

There are 3 things you’ll need to make your website: a domain, hosting, and a website builder. Some services, such as Wix and Weebly, may offer all 3 in a package.

The Common Options

You’ve probably heard of these 4 common website builders: Wix, Weebly, Webs, and Squarespace. Which one is cheapest? I’ve got the breakdown! Before we get in to this, I’m assuming the plan that does not show ads, and allows you to connect your domain. Some of these platforms may offer you the ability to connect a domain at a cheaper price, but show ads on your website in return. Ads are unprofessional in my opinion, so these plans do not include ads. These plans also include unlimited bandwidth, which is something you should always have on a website. In addition, I’ve found the plans that offer a reasonable amount of storage space.All of these plans will also be the yearly price.

Wix Weebly Webs Squarespace
Plan Unlimited Starter Enhanced Personal
Storage 100GB Unlimited 5GB Unlimited
Free Domain? Yes Yes, for one year Yes Yes
Pricing $155.04 $96 $155.88 $144

Winner: Weebly

If you’re seeking out the best value for one of these drag-and-drop website builders, Weebly is definitely your best option. With Weebly, you’ll have to supply your own domain after a year. They charge you $40 per year to buy it from them, but you can get it from namecheap.com for around $12 per year. That brings the total up to $108 per year. That’s not bad for a drag-and-drop, easy to use website builder!

For The More Advanced People..

If you’re looking for the best and cheapest solution, WordPress.org is your solution! WordPress is a CMS system that is 100% free. You just need to bring your own theme, hosting, and domain. WordPress is not as easy to use, though. It’s not drag-and-drop, and it has a slight learning curve. It’s what I use for all of my websites, as it’s affordable. Get a good theme for $50, get a $12 per year domain, and get some $40 per year hosting from namecheap.com, and you’ve got a website for $52 per year (plus $50 one time cost for the theme). I use WordPress for all of my websites, and I’d absolutely recommend it. Here are some screenshots of 2 WordPress sites I’ve made:

8fe4f4e2bd0d4b91f24166232b375dcf

800f1b615d7c160147ca89c9f72da1fa

As you can see, WordPress is no slacker when it comes to appearance. I’ve made some very elegant sites using WordPress. The theme is the key! I get my themes from themeforest.net.

WordPress is not care free.

Website builders: beware. WordPress is not a care free solution. As mentioned earlier, it is not drag-and-drop, and it requires maintenance. As WordPress updates, sometimes it causes plugins and features on your site to stop working. You also will run in to problems when setting it up as well. Be prepared to diagnose and debug problems when going through the setup process.

Conclusion

If you want the best drag-and-drop website solution that will be care free, weebly.com is your best bet. If you want the all around best solution, which will require a little more maintenance, wordpress.org is for you!

Kevin Nether