Creating a website isn’t any programmer or web designer’s monopoly anymore. There are thousands of tools available which can help any lay man create a great looking website in a matter of few minutes. Some of the best web-based website building tools are discussed below:
1. Webs
Webs provides a great and interactive site builder and a collection of great looking website templates. Also it comes with many powerful business applications to create a solid online business. The FREE plan comes with a 40 MB storage which can be increased by opting for a higher plan. The Starter plan starts at $3.75 per month and provides 400 MB of web storage without any Webs ads.
2. Wix
Wix.com is a great option for people who are looking for FREE as well as visually stunning websites. Wix helps to create great looking flash based and html websites either for your professional business or just for fun. You can also upgrade to the premium plan where you can use your own domain name, get more storage, unlimited bandwidth and no Wix ads on your page. The premium plan starts at $4.95 per month and allows you to use custom domain as well as storage space of 500 MB and 1GB bandwidth.
3. Jimdo
Jimdo provides a great website cum online store and is one of the best options for your business. It comes with a site builder with a low learning curve and a design galore consisting of hundreds of layouts and allows you to create your own designs. It comes with various social media tools for easy sharing. The FREE plan comes with 500 MB storage and a ecommerce store where you can store 5 items. The Pro version at $64 per month comes with a custom domain, 5GB storage and 15 items in the e-commerce store.
Intuit is one of the best solutions for small business owners. It comes with a great customizable dashboard with thousands of professional templates. The quick start plan starts at a onetime FEE of $799.99 and includes professional design consultation, logo and basic training to create the business site you always wanted.
5. Yola
Yola allows you to create FREE professional websites in a matter of a few minutes. With the drag drop facility, even beginners can create great looking websites as per their choice. One can also go for the pro version at $4.95 per month and avail many other facilities such as a custom domain, 5 site support, 2 GB storage etc.
6. Godaddy
Godaddy comes with a great and easy drag and drop feature to create and customize your website as per your requirements. With thousands of professionally designed templates one can easily create a website in a matter of a few minutes. The economy plan starts at $4.99 per month and comes with a 5-page website, 1GB disk space and many other features such as FREE stock images, Facebook Page designer, built in photo album etc.
7. Weebly
Weebly is a great place to create your first FREE website. It comes with a powerful site builder which is easy to use and 100s of themes from which you can choose the one which will suit your needs. It also provides FREE cloud hosting which ensures that your website has a great uptime. The best part of using Weebly for your website is that there are no forced ads even with the FREE version.
8. Moonfruit
Moonfruit is another great platform to build great FREE as well as premium websites. You can create a website with great design or a shopping website and customize as much you want. The website will be published is a guarantee that Moonfruit gives. The FREE plan comes with 20 MB storage and a 15 page website. Also the premium plans start from $5 and provide 500 MB storage space and unlimited pages.
9. Jigsy
Jigsy claims to be the easiest and fastest way to build a website. The visual editor provides real time feedback so that one can easily make the changes as per required. Also there are thousands of components to choose from to add galleries, blogs and many other features to the site. The FREE plan provides one website and 50 MB of storage. Also one can browse through and use a collection of stock photos provided. For more websites and higher storage, one can go for premium plans starting at $3.50 per month with 100 MB storage and no forced advertisement.
10. Site2You
Site2you is another great place to create your website. With a great collection of premium templates you can create right from a simple blog to a business or ecommerce website. Site2you provides complete web solution and starts from $24 per month ($199 for first month). The package includes FREE domain as well as 10 GB site hosting and 10 hour webmaster assistance so that you can make the most out of your website.
11. Doodlekit
Doodlekit is cited as one of the best looking, quickest and advanced website tool. It is available in FREE as well as paid plans. The FREE plan includes web hosting and a five page website. With the Simple plan at $14/month, you can enjoy every feature of FREE plan as well as get a domain name and no Doodlekit ads in your pages.
12. Magix Online
Magix Online is a great place to create stunning flash based interactive websites. One can opt either the FREE plan with 500 MB web space and 5 pages or the Easy plan with 2000MB and 20 pages website at $3 per month.
13. Website
Website.com provides easy website building tools with which one can easily create and customize the look of a website with one click. With a huge collection of 500 plus templates, you can easily choose the perfect look for your site. It starts with the ‘Starter plan’ at $4.95/ month and supports 5 pages with total web storage capacity of 500 MB which can go up to unlimited pages and 20 GB storage capacity with the Managed plan.
That is an awesome list that you collected there! I have worked with Wix which is awesome but its a flash based platform and you know flash sites aren’t really that good with SEO. My favorite is Weebly, but their templates are so old fashion which I think will change because according to their list of most asked features, templates have continued to top the list.
I was also looking for cheap website builders for eCommerce sites and like the options you laid out such as Godaddy, (their templates are horrible) so Sites2you takes the award for the best eCommerce builder!
Thanks again for the list!