Simplify Web Development for Beginners

Creating an online presence with a website doesn’t have to test your resolve. With an easy website builder, you can develop a professional, clean, and effective website in hours.

Many individuals and businesses, including freelancers, bloggers, nonprofits, and e-commerce artisans, use easy website builders to make their internet debut. 

Modern website builders have lowered the entry point for growing a brand and community online. Even on a whim, just about anyone can create a website that meets their goals and brand needs. 

Here’s what to look for in a website builder to guarantee its simple user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) before starting.

Little to no coding

No coding knowledge? No software development background? Not a lot of experience building a website? No big deal. The most effective, simple website builders require little to no coding, so you don’t have to be super technical to develop your site. 

Plenty of templates

Since you aren’t making anything from scratch, easy website builders provide templates, themes, and pre-designed layouts for you. Some offer extensive template libraries, while others give only a few options. Ensure the platform you move forward with has enough options or at least some specific templates you’re interested in using. 

Accessible tutorials and instructional guides are available

Just because easy website builders simplify the web design and development process doesn’t mean you won’t have questions, nor should you have to tackle the setup process alone. Most people need instructions during development or run into a challenge they could use help with. Look for a service that provides tutorials, help centers, and articles you can reference as you build. 

Simple editors and drag-and-drop functionality

Many website builders use what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editors so you literally see what your site will look like when you edit content, making it easier to process your work and changes visually.  

Drag-and-drop user interfaces also provide a layer of simplicity, allowing you to position text, images, videos, and buttons where you want them without coding the page. 

WYSIWYG editors and drag-and-drop interfaces create a seamless experience using easy website builders.

Customer support is available

When you custom build a website and run into trouble, you may need to contact your initial or a new software developer for assistance. You don’t have to do that with an easy website builder, but there is a chance you may need to reach out to the platform’s support team for assistance. 

Whether you need help setting up your website, addressing a theme-related issue, or experiencing some other technical challenge, you’ll set yourself up for success when you choose a platform with a responsive, friendly, and helpful customer support team. Consider browsing customer reviews to get a feel for the service before building your site to prevent headaches or hiccups. 

Websites can be costly, especially when pursuing a custom design. WebFX shared that a custom web design might cost anywhere from $2,000 to $75,000, depending on the business and number of pages. Website builders have much smaller initial costs (between $0 and $500 per month) plus annual maintenance fees (between $0 and $5,400 annually). 

Website builders generally cost less than custom websites at the start, but remember that annual maintenance fees add up over time. 

You’ll be able to update and edit your website any time

Since easy website builders are online-based and readily available, and you have access (and can learn how) to update your website, you can do so any time you want. This is a boon for those who wish to update their website frequently or regularly. You can make changes, add new content, or remove outdated information whenever you want without contacting a specialized developer. 

Templates help individuals and businesses build websites quickly, which means many people and brands use the same template. While your content will differ (and your brand colors, voice, and font style), your website will likely look quite similar to many others. Given its limited customization options, a website builder isn’t the best solution if you want a website that sets you apart. 

Migrating your site down the road might be complicated

Once you choose a platform and build your website, migrations to new platforms become more complex. While you may not need a developer to start your website, you’ll likely need to enlist help if you decide to switch platforms. 

Website builder software helps users without extensive coding and development knowledge create websites through drag-and-drop capabilities and pre-designed templates. Many service providers offer domain names, search engine optimization (SEO) functionality, e-commerce stores, and mobile-friendly and responsive designs. 

To qualify for inclusion in the Website Builder category, a product must:

• Offer a platform for creating a website
• Provide unique templates for website organization, navigation, and components (e.g., pages, widgets, etc.)
• Provide extensions for common website features such as blogs or multimedia
• Generate an accessible link or integrate with external hosting services

* Below are the top five easiest to use website builders based on usability ratings calculated by a proprietary algorithm. Exact placements may shift as new reviews come in. The order of this list is current as of April 2024. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.

1. Divi

Divi is a WordPress theme and page builder that replaces the standard WordPress post editor with an easy-to-use visual editor. Divi provides over 2,000 website layouts for free and more customization options than a traditional WordPress theme. 

Unique page options and elements give users more design control while making it easy to build a website without deep technical knowledge.

What users like best:

“Divi is stable, reliable, and continually updated with new features. If you’re a front-end website designer, Divi makes it easy to lay out pages how you want them to look. In other tools, I find the layout options are limited. Mobile optimization is also super easy to tweak for different screen sizes. Divi also gives you the tools to edit the CSS when adding more complexity. I rarely need to contact support, but when I do, they are super transparent and solve my issues quickly. I’ve been an Elegant Themes customer since 2012, and I purchased the lifetime license to Divi in 2021. It is one of the best business purchases I’ve ever made, hands down.”

– Divi Review, Betsy P.

What users dislike:

“I dislike having to click the mobile icon in each element’s setting, or I might change the desktop setting by default. I also dislike not being able to do nested tables, e.g., inner sections, without a fair bit of custom code. Elementor does both of these things natively and easily, but it costs a lot more, and the support isn’t as cool.”

– Divi Review, Ren C.

2. Google Workspace

Google Workspace, a collection of collaboration and productivity tools from Google, includes Google Sites, a free basic website builder with a Google account. Google users can create internal team sites, public-facing websites, portfolios, and resource hubs with Google Sites. 

What users like best:

“The integration between Google apps and third-party apps is far and away above the other options we’ve looked into. Load something into Drive, and it’s available for Chat, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. Google Sites gives us the option to make internally available mini-sites, individual client websites for sharing project info, and public-facing sites for general information. We use Google Workspaces every day. All of our employees and clients find it simple and easy to use. We can implement a new integration quickly and easily.”

– Google Workspace Review, Brady C. 

What users dislike:

“If unique customization is the goal, Google Sites may not be the right tool for you. There are predetermined themes available. And while more advanced users can create content that is quite individualized, it is easy for new users to create a site that looks similar to tons of others.”

– Google Workspace Review, Jodi J.

3. Duda

Duda helps individuals build stable and secure websites with an easy builder packed with categorized templates, the ability to import content into the library, and an AI content assistant that generates new content quickly. 

What users like best:

“The Duda platform makes it easy to set up, design, and launch new websites quickly. The platform also bundles great features that provide value to my clients and help us earn more revenue. Also, when I interacted with the support team, they were very responsive and quickly helped us find the solution we needed.”

– Duda Review, Scott G.

What users dislike:

“The app store is simple and offers access to many basic tools and some popular apps, but it doesn’t compare to competitors like WordPress and Shopify. This area needs more ramped development to make it competitive for businesses that want a scalable solution, especially for e-commerce-heavy businesses.”

– Duda Review, Tihami C. 

4. Morphic

Morphic enables anyone to build a high-performing and beautiful website rapidly. Users submit their website information (company goals, brand, and differentiators), and MorphicAI processes the data to establish a design strategy. Then, MorphicAI creates tailored websites and marketing materials for you. 

What users like best:

“When building out our website, we were looking at different “DIY” platforms. After spending time on several competitor website platforms, we continued to run into headaches as we tried to ‘customize’ existing templates — issues only solvable by figuring out the code. Morphic offered the same ‘DIY’ option as the others but was much more customizable and dynamic. Morphic allows us to easily make changes to our website while still maintaining strong site performance. Morphic is a great solution if you are frustrated with the DIY solutions on the market but are not looking to spend a significant amount with a design agency.”

– Morphic Review, Quinn S. 

What users dislike:

“The only thing I dislike is that less drag-and-drop customization is possible than on some other platforms, such as adding spacers. However, having a more rigid template for sections ultimately reduces the likelihood of something going wrong or the website displaying differently on different browsers.”

– Morphic Review, Cameron H. 

5. Vsble

Vsble offers professionally designed website templates for creatives. It provides effortless customization options, and no coding is required. The templates are designed to showcase work on a portfolio-style website and work best for photographers, artists, freelancers, stylists, and illustrators.

What users like best:

“Vsble is easy to use, and you can build your website in seconds. You can choose from many templates to find the right one for you. That makes it so much easier to build a website. The customer support is friendly and quick. They can help you with your website directly. They have a lot of extras you can use on your website, like selling or booking. I’m happy that I chose Vsble for my first website and can recommend it to anyone who wants to try to build his own website.”

– Vsble Review, Yara P. 

What users dislike:

“While the support team is great at helping find solutions and building your ideas, I wish there was way more customization between individual pages, etc., as well as gridworks, HTML, or CSS.”

– Vsble Review, Pia A T. 

Point me to your website

Don’t let website development prevent you from launching your business. Easy website builders help you save time and money and give you total control over your website so you can make changes along the way. 

Your website helps you build brand awareness. Understand why brand awareness is integral to marketing and how to do it well.