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What's The Best Website Builder For My Business?

Every entrepreneur, small business, or individual has to find where to build their website to bring their online ideas to life. With so many different solutions out there on the market which one do you choose? Where can you make a website for my business? What’s the best website builder? If you’re just starting out, or a beginner, how do you choose the best platform for your needs?

How to Choose the Best Website Builder

So where should you build your website? To choose the best website builder for you or your business’ needs, you should consider a few things:

What’s the purpose of your website?

By this I mean what’s its primary function? Would it be a blog? Do you need an online store (eCommerce) or a reservation system? Would it be a membership site? Do you plan to deliver courses?

If you’re not sure what you need, look at some competitor sites to determine your needs.

Do you need lots of design features or customizations?

Once you know what features you need, now you can determine whether the builder has the flexibility you need to create your vision. What other functionality or tools do you need? One of the big selling points of website builders is their design flexibility. Many tout the drag and drop feature

Do you need to integrate with other tools?

Do you have lots of other third-party systems like email, your CRM or social platforms that you need to integrate with? Then making sure that you can transfer information from your website to the right systems is of utmost importance. Do you need to automate any functionality?

Having the ability to integrate with the tools you need and automate certain functions would be very important in this case.

What’s your website building budget?

Your website builder should have payment plans that you can afford. Make sure you know the frequency with which you have to pay. Many, if not all, offer free trials before having to upgrade to a paid plan. Make sure you understand the length of the free trial and what happens after it expires.

What is the best website builder for business?

In the following, I review the best website builders that I have used personally. My experience may be different from another person’s so please do your due diligence before deciding on a platform. There are also many other builders out there - some that I have seen my clients use. But because I have not used them personally, I am not commenting on them here. Also, remember that the builder you choose should depend on your business needs.

Shopify

Shopify is a very powerful eCommerce website builder. It’s the third-largest online retailer in the U.S. after Amazon and eBay. With over a million active users, it has powered many online stores and is growing. Second, only to Woocommerce, total platform sales from around the world are estimated at $100 billion as of January 2021.

What I like:

Shopify is a fully hosted solution, which means you don’t have to worry about software updates or making back-ups! This is a major plus - as you’ll understand a bit later. You can even purchase your domain name if you want to, through Shopify.
Shopify also comes with integrated payment solutions and you can add third-party payment gateways allowing you to accept payments from a variety of sources, including credit cards.
Shopify also integrates a point of sales (POS) system into the mix, making it truly easy for the merchant to conduct business anywhere.
Being an eCommerce solution, it includes full inventory management with marketing and analytics all under 1 roof.
Shopify has probably the most intuitive drag and drop system that I’ve used to date. This makes it super easy for anyone who doesn't know how to code to customize their store to their liking and needs.
Shopify also has a lot of themes and apps available to enhance the experience of your store - both for yourself and your customers. Both free and paid options are available.

What I don’t like:

To use some more sophisticated tools like Google Tag Manager, you have to be on the Shopify Plus program.
Creating landing pages and integrating certain functionality means having to purchase apps - functionality that was available at a cheaper cost on WordPress. Let it be known that I am not a coding expert. However, I do understand some basic code so can make simple changes. Recently though, I have learned some coding ‘tricks’ that make it easier to create landing pages. I’m still working out how to components like sign-up forms into the pages. Maybe it’s easy and I just don’t know it yet... I don’t know.
As your level of sophistication grows, you have to purchase apps to get what you need. This cost can ramp up very quickly.
Some features to improve SEO are not as standard, or available on the platform without additional cost thought either the purchase of a bigger plan or hiring a developer to help you implement.
Shopify is not the cheapest solution out there. There is a two (2) week trial period after which you pay from US$9 per month for the Lite plan to US$79 per month. For Shopify Plus you can pay US$299 per month.

The Verdict:

If you’re looking for a hassle-free eCommerce website builder, then Shopify is the way to go. Ready to give Shopify a try? Get started now.

WordPress

WordPress, or rather wordpress.org (different from wordpress.com) is the most popular website building platform in the world. Over 39% of websites globally are powered by WordPress. It is a free open source website builder, which for better or for worse, gives you maximum control over your website. As I hinted to earlier, there are two (2 ) version of WordPress:

wordpress.org - the self-hosted website building platform, and
wordpress.com.

I have used the wordpress.org version. So this is what I will be discussing here.

What I like:

WordPress is the most popular website builder on the Internet. Because of this you can build any website you want.
WordPress is an open-source platform - which means it’s free to use. So if you’re on a budget, this would be the way to go. It’s by far the cheapest website builder on the market - your costs are your domain name, hosting, and any paid apps you decide to use.
Although other platforms are catching up, WordPress comes with some functionality - for example, the creation of landing pages - already built-in. Though WordPress and other platforms now provide many plugins or apps to do this, you can get basic functionality within the WordPress builder platform without much effort or additional cost.

What I don’t like:

You have to manage every aspect of your website - including WordPress updates, plugin updates, and backups. This can be very daunting for the beginner.
In my experience, the learning curve is steep! Because you have to manage everything, that is the software and each plugin, you have to learn a whole system. This causes much overwhelm - especially when you’re just starting out.
There are more than 50,000 plugins available - with overlapping functionality. As a newbie, it can be confusing to decide which to use to best get what you want and to limit incompatibilities, if you need it to work with other plugins.

The Verdict:

Because of the popularity of WordPress and its cost-effectiveness, I would recommend WordPress to anyone on a budget. Just remember that you have to be patient and take it slow as you’re starting out. Understanding how the builder works takes time, and there is the benefit of there being a lot of help available.

Want to give WordPress a try? Check it out here.

Groove

This is the new website builder kid-on-the-block and is poised to be a major disruptor in the space. Still, in its beta stage, Groove promises what no other platform to date (at least not that I’m aware of) has done. Groove had a lifetime offer but as of December 2021, that is going away!

You will now have a free option with 2 different websites to sell and collect affiliate commissions. But for a low monthly fee, you can have access to many more apps within its system, such as webinar functionality, membership sites etc. In fact, this website and blog that you're reading are built on the Groove.cm platform!

Now, being in beta, a lot of the functionality is still being developed and there are bugs that need to be worked out when new tools are launched. So it’s a young, not fully developed system. You’ll have to keep that in mind when you’re looking at this platform.

What I like:

Being able to start your website for free
All the apps and updates you need for life (in the paid plans)! This will save so much on the costs of the other premium plugins or apps that you have to pay regularly for
If you’re familiar with any of the funnel builders out there, this is very similar. So the learning curve isn’t as steep. For a beginner, it’s also easier to use (in my opinion), than WordPress.
Because it’s still being developed, they have provided a number of integration with popular third-party tools until their version is complete.
On other similar platforms, you pay hundreds of dollars monthly for the same functionality and you pay for each app separately.
The roadmap will eliminate the need to purchase third-party apps as well as provide opportunities for many others to build on the platform.

What I don’t like:

Being in beta, not all of the functionality of the developed tools are in place and there are still bugs to iron out.
Having to wait for tools to be developed means that it will take a bit longer for you to rid yourself of the costs of those third-party apps. But in full transparency, there is a roadmap, so at least you know how much longer you’ll have to wait, give or take a month.

The Verdict:

If the Groove team can accomplish what they’ve set out to do, this would be a game-changer and no-brainer for someone looking to build their presence online. It allows those with limited capital to refocus this money saved into other areas of their business.

Going with Groove, you have to play the longer-term game as it is being developed. Want to give Groove a try? Sign up here.

So...

What’s the best website builder?

The answer is…. it depends!

Remember, there are many more website builders than what I have discussed in this article. I have only discussed those that I have used personally. I have seen many more platforms used by my clients, from big corporate clients to smaller entrepreneurs. My point of view is from the perspective of the smaller entrepreneur on a limited budget.

If you’re an eCommerce store or looking for an easy-to-implement solution, then I would choose Shopify. If you’re a blogger, or you need lots of functionality or options available immediately and can pay for help if needed, then I would choose WordPress. If you’re able to wait a bit longer or don’t need to access to a ton of functionality, then I definitely think Groove would be the way to go.