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SEO
There isn't one. Choosing between Weebly, Squarespace or Wix will not rank your website any differently in Google. Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise.
That being said, there are still technical SEO features that you need in a website builder— it's just that most website builders have these features.
Below I've listed the four SEO features that are critical in a website builder. Think of them as the minimum you need to get Google to notice you. From there you will need links and quality content to outperform your competitors:
For many years Google had two indexes: desktop and mobile. The desktop index was served to desktop users and the mobile index was served to mobile users.
That's all changed.
In March 2018, Google announced that they were rolling out a mobile-first index. This change means that Google's mobile index is the index for all websites— including desktop. So how your mobile website works now effects how your desktop site ranks.
This why it's critical that your website builder has mobile-friendly themes. Fortunately most website builders do— but a few still do not.
Every page has a meta title and meta description that Google uses in their results.
Putting your keyword in the meta title will help you rank for that keyword. But putting the keyword in your meta description won't help you rank. But meta description is still important— it should entice searchers to click on your webpage.
Almost all website builders let you customize your meta title and description— but because it's so critical, it's worth being sure about.
Google uses your pages meta title and description in their results.
SSL certificates give websites the "secure" icon in a browser and adds an 's' to the http— making it https:
This site is secured by SSL.
Google announced SSL as a ranking signal in 2014— and when Google explicitly announces something is a ranking signal, it's usually good to implement it.
Most website builders include SSL in paid plans— but some do not. Check before you buy.
Google has said that site speed is a signal they use to rank pages. Fortunately, website builders tend to have good performance infrastructure— especially the major website builders such as Weebly, Squarespace and Wix which host millions of websites.
The two best tools to check your website performance is Google Page Speed Insights and WebPageTest.org.
If you'd like to learn more, check out my SEO chapter in How To Make A Website.
Simple
If you'd like to quickly build a simple website, I'd suggest two options: build a one page website or use a landing page builder.
One-page websites have become extremely popular. They're long websites where clicking the navigation scrolls you up and down the page. In short, one single page holds all the content of the website.
You have to limit your content with a one-page website. You don't want your one page stuffed full of content. But the truth is, visitors don't want to read a book when they come to your website anyways. Instead visitors want quick access to clear information.
Strikingly is the best one-page website builder that I've tried. Seriously— it's excellent. Read my review of it here. I've also heard really good things about Carrd— though I have not had a chance to review it yet.
You can build one-page website with website builders such as Wix, but the interface on website builders such as Strikingly are much simpler because they are designed purely for one-page websites.
Landing pages are pages designed to generate leads— newsletter signups, app downloads, sales, signups and more. People often use landing page builders as a marketing tool or as a way to generate interest before launching a full site.
There are about 10-15 popular landing page builders. I talked to 467 real-life users of each of these landing page builders to write an in-depth guide to landing page builders.
Free
I did a deep dive on the best free website builders here. I also put all together in a popular Youtube video.
I think there are three things to think about when comparing free website builders:
http://random1028.wixsite.com/yoursite In the end, I recommend Ucraft's free plan because it allows custom domain names.
Easy
I recommend Weebly for those looking for an easy to use website builder. Weebly manages to keep everything simple without ever watering down features. It's what I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't feel tech-savvy.
Strikingly is a good runner up. It's really easy to use and best suited for making one-page websites.
Snappages and uKit deserve honorable mentions. Both are easy to use. Vistaprint is also quite easy to use but too simple (Vistaprint is easy to use to a fault).
Wix and Squarespace are two website builders that I give high ratings to but wouldn't suggest if you are looking for easy to use. Both have a steeper learning curve than Weebly.
Custom
Most website builders require you to choose a theme— but a few let you build your own theme from scratch.
In my feature comparison table I show which website builders you let design a website from scratch— and there are a handful. Of those I would recommend Wix. Wix is an excellent, highly customizable website builder. It can be a bit overwhelming with the amount of options it provides— but that's exactly what you want if you're designing a theme from scratch.
You might also want consider front-end design tools such as Webflow, Pagecloud and Froont. These are most sophisticated than website builders but are really powerful tools that let you design a website from scratch without coding experience.
Cheapest
I built a tool that helps you answer this question quickly. The price comparison calculator compares 131 plans from every website builder I review. It helps you calculate the real price of each website builder. No BS. Just clear pricing over time. It also takes into account the price of domain names.
My price comparison table lets you find the cheapest website builder.
The reason I built the price comparison calculator is that some website builders aren't transparent with their pricing. If a price seems too good to be true it's probably an introductory rate that increases after the first year or first month.
For example, 1&1 advertises a $0.99 per month price— but that price increases to $9.99 per month after the first year.
1and1 advertises a $0.99 per month price— but that increases to $9.99 per month after the first year.
Now most website builders have transparent pricing— and I make it very clear in each of my website builder reviews if they have shady billing practices. So you don't need to worry if you check the review first.
Podcasts
Squarespace is the only website builder that let's you syndicate a podcast— which is required for submitting to iTunes.
There are third-party podcast companies such as Podomatic that integrate with website builders such as Weebly but I have not tried them before.
Multilingual
Voog has the best support for a website with multiple languages— but strangely they don't advertise their multilingual features very clearly.
Basically Voog websites with multiple languages have a flag icon. Users click the flag to change the language.
The flag icon for this Voog website is located on the footer.
Each language represents a completely different version of the website. There are no automatic computer translations (people who've actually had to build multi-lingual websites know that you can't just automate translation!). You manually write each translation for your website.
Voog's multi-lingual support will be super helpful for a small percentage of people. For example, in Canada, multi-lingual websites are a requirement for some organizations (French and English).
Ecommerce
If you're building a pure ecommerce website, you'll probably want to consider an ecommerce website builder such as Shopify rather than a website builder. Store builders are focussed on ecommerce— so they typically have more advanced, fully-featured ecommerce systems.
As you see in my guide to ecommerce website builders, Shopify is far and away the best store builder.
Now, this is not to say that you shouldn't choose a website builder for an ecommerce website— in the last few years website builders such as Wix, Weebly and Squarespace have aggressively built out strong ecommerce features. Instead, I'd suggest choosing a website builder for your ecommerce website if you're website needs to do things other than ecommerce. For example, if you also want to have a blog or other content heavy pages.
Mobile Apps
I maintain a feature comparison table of around 40 different website builders— on it I've listed the website builders that offer iOS or Android apps:
Moving Your Site
Unfortunately, you can't.
This is a common question I get and admittedly, one of the downsides of a website builder.
You might think that website builders don't let customers export or move their website because it's a good way to lock them in, but there are actually some very good technical reasons why website builder websites can't be moved.
Modern website are more complex than websites in the past. They aren't just HTML, CSS and Javascript being passed from a server. Those assets are optimized, cached and accessed through special content delivery networks (among other things) to ensure performance. The reality of disentangling all of this from the website builder and moving into a third party host is that it's messy and would require a level of technical competence that most users of website builders don't have.
Plus, features that require server-side processing (such as forms, ecommerce) would not work.
If this is a problem for you, I'd suggest going to the next level in complexity and checking out a CMS like Wordpress or a front-end design tool such as Webflow. Both are more complex but will let you export and move your website.
Domains
You can register a domain name through most website builders and web hosts but you may want to consider registering the domain name yourself at a third party domain name provider— that way you are in control of your domain name no matter what.
It's a question of trade-offs. Registering the domain name provider at a 3rd party is a bit of a technical hurdle but it means that you always have control of the domain name. If the domain name is bought through a website builder, you'll have to work through them to move the domain name if you ever decide to change your website provider.
I typically buy my domain names at a 3rd party provider: Namecheap. That way I'm always in control.
Webflow
I hear great things about Webflow. The reason it’s not on Site Builder Report is because I only review website builders and Webflow feels more like a tool for designers. While Webflow doesn’t require you to learn how to code, it has a code-like environment— similar in complexity to Photoshop.
Wordpress
Most people know Wordpress as Wordpress.org, the self-hosted, content management system (CMS). I don't review it because it's not a website builder.
I do review Wordpress.com because it is significantly different from Wordpress.org and is very much like a website builder.
Wordpress is a good option for building a website— the key is to know when to use it instead of a website builder. I wrote a blog post about this here.
About This Guide
My name is Steve Benjamins and I’ve designed and coded websites for the last 20 years (since I was 10 years old). My websites have been featured in Wired, The Next Web, Smashing Magazine, The Huffington Post and Forbes. I am the sole developer, designer and reviewer at Site Builder Report— you can read more about my story in my interview with IndieHackers.
Over the the last 4 years I’ve written over 100 in-depth reviews of website builders— which, at over 100,000 words, is the size of a big book. In that time Site Builder Report has grown quickly. Today over 60,000 people every month use it to choose a website builder.
My work is supported by earning an affiliate commission when readers choose a website builder based on my reviews.
Read more about me here.
Do I use a website builder for this website? I do not use a website builder for Site Builder Report. Instead I designed it myself and coded it in Ruby on Rails— a popular programming framework. I do use Squarespace for my band's website though!
Further Reading
Articles:
Pricing:
Examples: