The 10 Best Free Website Builders of 2021

Wix: The Easiest Website Building Platform To Use

If you're looking for a dead easy way to create a stunning website as quickly as possible, you can't go wrong with Wix. It's one of the most popular website builders out there, offering over 500 design-worthy templates in categories like business, photography, blogs, travel, health, and more.

What We Like:

• The choice to pick either an existing template or start from scratch with a blank one, then use the Wix Editor to add desired features.
• The finished website is lightning fast and optimized for both search engines and mobile platforms.

What We Don't Like: 

• Ads are displayed on free plans and two of the paid premium plans. To remove those pesky ads, you'd have to upgrade to the third most costly plan at $14 a month.

Weebly: A Great Place To Start Your Online Store

Weebly is right up there with Wix, but what makes it really stand out is its free eCommerce features you can integrate into your website. Whether you're selling a product or service online or offline, Weebly offers a host of features to help you run your store, including product listings, gift cards, customer reviews, orders, coupons, and store emails.

Of course, if you just want to build a regular website, you can do that too!

What We Like:

• The multiple choice questionnaire Weebly gives new users to help them take the first steps toward getting their websites set up.

What We Don't Like:

• You'll see ads on your website if you stick with the free plan and will have to upgrade to a premium plan for $10 a month to remove them.

WordPress.com: The Best Choice If You Eventually Want A Self-Hosted Website

There are two versions of WordPress: WordPress.com, which is free, and WordPress.org, which is the open source CMS you can use to host your site yourself with a paid host provider and domain registrar. If you think you'd eventually like to move your free website to a self-hosted one where you have full control and freedom to make your site as awesome as possible, WordPress.com is the way to go.

What We Like:

• The convenience of transferring a free WordPress site to a self-hosted WordPress site.
• The vast selection of free templates you can use to make your free site look amazing.
• Can manage multiple sites all from the same dashboard.

What We Don't Like:

• While the template selection is huge, design customization is quite limited unless you're fine with installing several plugins.
• You'll have to upgrade to a premium WordPress.com plan for $10 a month to get rid of ads.
• Given the customizable freedom of WordPress.org, you'd most likely get a better deal by moving to a self-hosted site.

Webnode: Create A Simple, Ad-Free Site Or Online Store In Minutes

Webnode is a powerful site builder similar to Weebly, with its online store builder and questionnaire you get to run through when setting up your site. There's nothing overwhelming with this platform. It's very simple and straightforward to use.

What We Like:

• You get a totally ad-free website without having to upgrade to a paid plan.
• The website building process is so simple you can have a basic site completed in as little as five minutes by working with one of the hundreds of gorgeous templates.

What We Don't Like:

• A free plan with Webnode doesn't offer a whole lot besides the very basics, especially if you want extra customization features.
• You'll have to upgrade to the $4 a month limited plan to get 100MB of storage and 1GB of bandwidth.

Jimdo: Choose From Two Different Ways To Create Your Site

When you sign up with Jimdo, you'll be able to choose whether you want to build a website, an online store, or a blog. Once you've made your choice, you'll select one of two website building processes: Jimdo Creator, which gives you the freedom and control to build your site from the ground up, or Jimdo Dolphin, which is an Artificial Intelligence-powered website builder that asks you a series of questions so it can build your site in as little as three minutes.

What We Like:

• The choice between website building processes.
• Jimdo Dolphin is a much more intelligent tool than the comparable question/answer tools on some of the other platforms listed here.

What We Don't Like:

• Can't do much to customize the details.
• You'll have to upgrade to a premium plan for at least $7.50 a month to get rid of ads.

Bookmark: Enjoy A Powerful Web Editor With A Variety Of Features

If you like the idea of having your website builder practically build your website for you using artificial intelligence, like Jimdo's Dolphin tool does, you're going to want to check out Bookmark, too. This platform has its own AI tool called Aida, which helps you build your site in as little as 30 seconds.

What We Like:

• Built-in library of royalty-free stock images and videos you can use on your site, free of charge. 
• Its powerful editor packs a lot more features than some others on this list, including a wide variety of modules you can drag and drop anywhere into your site.

What We Don't Like:

• You're limited to 500MB of storage.
• Website footer will include a branded ad.
• You can make a small upgrade for $5 a month to get a few extras, but for unlimited storage and to remove the aforementioned ad, you'd have to upgrade to the professional plan for $12 a month.

WebStarts: Get Great Features Using An Editor That Doesn't Overwhelm

WebStarts claims to be the number one free website builder on its homepage, but that's really up to you to decide. Regardless of what you're looking for, you shouldn't be disappointed at all by this platform's rich feature offering and gorgeous site templates.

What We Like:

• WebStarts' editor has more of a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) feel to it than others, which might be easier and less overwhelming to use for some beginners.
• WebStarts is slightly more generous with its features compared to some other platforms on this list, offering unlimited web pages and 1GB of storage to its free users.

What We Don't Like:

• WebStarts doesn't offer any of its online store features until you upgrade to a Pro Plus plan for about $7 a month.
• If you simply want to remove ads, you can upgrade to Pro for $5 a month.

IM Creator: Take Advantage Of Some Of The Most Visually Appealing Templates

For those who are looking to make their website as visually stunning as possible, IM Creator really takes the cake. Its unique and powerful XPRS editor lets you add new sections, then customize them on the fly, including galleries, slideshows, text blocks, forms, testimonials, and so much more.

What We Like:

• Its wide selection of themes have been professionally designed to feature imagery in the most impressive ways possible, both on the desktop web and on mobile.
• No ads with this one.

What We Don't Like:

• Although the XPRS editor is an incredible tool to work with, it can be a little confusing for beginners.
• IM Creator doesn't give you a very pretty link on its domain like most others do, at an address like sitename.imcreator.com. Unless you upgrade to an annual license for $8 a month, your site link will be im-creator.com/free/username/sitename.

Sitey: Play Around With A 100% Customizable Template

If you really want to make your website your very own, yet still take inspiration from professionally designed templates, Sitey is the website builder you'll want to consider working with. Its editor is simple to use and offers a full range of features, including options to set up a blog or an online store.

What We Like:

• All of Sitey's templates are fully customizable so you're not stuck with certain features or details. From sections and elements to background colors and padding, you really get full control over the look and functionality of your website when you build it with Sitey.

What We Don't Like:

• A free Sitey website comes with ads. To remove them, you'll have to upgrade to upgrade to a premium plan for about $5 a month.

Ucraft: Create A Stunning Landing Page

Those who are looking to build some kind of creative business or personal website should check out Ucraft for its beautiful templates and easy setup process. A helpful explainer video is launched after you choose your template so you know exactly how to go about customizing your site.

What We Like:

• Similar to Bookmark, Ucraft includes some extra site building features some of the others on this list don't offer.
• Ucraft might be one of the few that lets you integrate animated effects like fade in, fade down, fade to right/left, and parallax scrolling into your site.

What We Don't Like:

• You're only allowed one page with a free plan. You'll have to upgrade to a premium plan for $6 a month for unlimited pages and to remove the Ucraft watermark.