Best Free Website Builders (UK Case-Study)

For those of us who don’t have the budget for web services like a paid website builder, free website builders can offer many of the same features as paid ones. It’s estimated that having a website for your business can increase your turnover by a whopping 45%.

Websites created by professional web designers can cost anywhere between £200-£10,000, depending on the requirements.

The free site builder market has expanded year on year. Many website builders offer free web hosting as part of their package, keeping costs down even further and often offer great hosting packages with solid performance.

I’ve gone out and tested over 20+ free website builders, many of which have very similar features and functionality, making it even harder to decide which is the best.

Wix’s free plan does come with adverts on your website, and you can’t use your own domain. You’ll have a domain that looks something similar to www.yoursitename.wixsite.com/yourwebsite – if you’re OK with your website looking like this, you’ll still be able to enjoy most of the features that Wix offers.

Alternatively, if you decide to upgrade to one of their premium plans further down the line, you’ll be able to assign your own custom domain to your website builder plan.

Features

Although Wix offers a free website builder, it doesn’t mean there aren’t great features. You may not be able to indulge in as many tools as you’d get access to on their premium plans, but there’s enough to get your teeth into.

Free Wix subdomain
Wix ads appear on every page
500 MB storage & bandwidth
Wix editor & Wix ADI

Pros:

Easy to use
Drag & drop
Lots of templates

Cons:

Once published, you cannot change the template

The user-friendly dashboard that comes with the free Hostinger website builder will help you customise your website design. It offers a drag-and-drop feature, so you can place elements where you want to add them in a matter of seconds. This customisation lends itself well to a range of websites, such as blogs, portfolios or business showcase sites.

Since Hostinger’s domains are free, it’s an excellent option for small businesses that need to establish an online presence. The website builder allows you to create up to 100 websites with your account and offers unlimited bandwidth to help you handle high amounts of traffic on your website or blog.

Features

With Hostinger, you’ll never need to be concerned about template customisation. Its range of templates combined with custom features gives you a whole new level of creativity. If you want to create an eCommerce store, I’d recommend that their many SEO tools will aid your optimisation process, such as the heatmap, AI SEO tools and more. Free email addresses will also come with the websites you create.

• SEO tools available
• Customisable templates
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Free email addresses, each with 1GB of storage

Pros:

• User-friendly interface
• Fast response time from customer support
• Simple website optimisation possible

Cons:

• Customers cannot receive phone support

SITE123 has the advantage of offering extremely good customer support. Based on this, I’d recommend them as the best free website builder for beginners and intermediate users. If you’re not sure what you’re doing or just want to get to grips with basic web design, this is a great starting point.

Features

As Site123 only offer 2 plans (free and paid), it makes it quite easy to distinguish between their features. Considering the package is free, you get enough storage space to create a decent website or blog, and bandwidth to start generating traffic. Free SEO tools mean you can get your website underway in no time, spreading your name out there across search engines.

500 MB storage
1 GB bandwidth
Free Site123 subdomain
Mobile-friendly designs
SEO optimisation tools

Pros:

Extremely easy to use
Outstanding customer support
Responsive designs for desktop and mobile

Cons:

Less design flexibility than other systems

My favourite thing about Weebly is how easy it is to use. You don’t need to know anything about web development to create a stunning website within a matter of hours. You won’t be too limited with Weebly’s free plan, but if you want to take advantage of all the eCommerce features they have to offer, you’ll need to upgrade.

Features

As far as free website builder features goes, Weebly has a lot to offer. Some web hosting plans don’t even include a free SSL certificate, let alone a free website builder. With 500 MB storage, you’ll have plenty of space to start building your website, small business, or blog.

Free SSL certificate
500 MB storage
Weebly branded domain
SEO tools
Lead capture & contact forms
Customer support & community forum

Pros:

Great website builder with SEO included
Scalability options to upgrade
Simple drag and drop

Cons:

Limited features on free plan

Unfortunately, Mozello doesn’t offer a free SSL certificate. Not all free website builders do, but some offer this. With their free plan, Mozello also includes certain marketing tools like SEO support, social network support, Google Analytics (which is super easy to install) and a range of template designs.

Features

Though it may not be as intuitive as other free website builders, Mozello does have some cool features. One of my favourite features is the ability to create an online store for free, with up to 5 products. This may not seem like a lot, but it’s free, and a great way to test out how your online store could look with more products.

Free online store (5 products)
500 MB storage
Mobile device support
Plenty of designs and editing tools
PayPal support

Pros:

Create multilingual websites
Easy to use interface
eCommerce included on free plan

Cons:

Limited editor

With Strikingly’s free plan you can create as many one page websites as you like. You’ll have 5GB bandwidth each month and you can sell one product if you so wish. I think in terms of free plans, this is one of the better ones for space, traffic, and bandwidth.

Features

Another website builder who offers plenty of free features. You can build unlimited free websites with Strikingly’s website builder with a Strikingly branded domain name. You’ll get a generous 5 GB bandwidth and an online store. Although you can only sell one product, it’s a great offer to test the waters.

Unlimited websites
Free Strikingly domain name
5 GB bandwidth
1 product per site online store
24/7 support

Pros:

Simple, professional templates
24/7 support
Great for bloggers

Cons:

Only able to create one-page websites

The free version of WordPress includes a WordPres.com subdomain, community support, lots of free themes, and more. So if you want to dip your toes into the world of WordPress, I’d definitely recommend the free version of this website builder to begin with.

Features

When you sign up to WordPress.com free plan, you’ll get exclusive access to Jetpack essentials. This gives you essential security and performance boosts to your website. This is very generous given you’re unable to install plugins in their free plan, so will come in very handy. You’ll still have access to dozens of free themes, as well as a nice 3 GB storage space.

Jetpack essentials
3 GB storage space
Loads of free themes

Pros:

Great for blogging
Lots of free templates
More features than other free site builders

Cons:

Slightly more difficult to use
WordPress.com subdomain on free version

You’ll have a limit on how many products you can sell, and you’ll incur transaction fees unless you upgrade to their paid plan. All in all, I think Jimdo is a good option if you want to experiment with selling online, but you don’t want to risk out paying lots of money initially.

Features

I have to take my hat off to Jimdo. They’ve done a great job at producing a taster of an online store for free. This website builder is ideal to practice with and is very generous. You’ll be able to sell 5 items per store as well as taking PayPal payments. All designs are mobile responsive and offer a generous 2 GB bandwidth (higher than other free website builders).

500 MB storage
2 GB bandwidth
1 password protected area
Customer support
Responsive designs
Mobile app access
5 store items

Pros:

Free online store
Easy to use
Professional templates

Cons:

Not many templates to choose from
Not as creatively intuitive as other site builders

Unlike some of the other free website builders on this list, Webnode doesn’t offer an eCommerce option. There are basic blogging tools, but if you want more features you’ll need to upgrade to at least their limited plan. On the flip side, you can create as many websites as you want using their free website builder (with free web hosting).

If you do decide to upgrade, they offer a 15-day money-back guarantee. There’s lots of templates to choose from on the free plan, carefully outlined in useful categories to search through. Whether you’re looking for a personal website to build or a place to display your works of art, Webnode have plenty of options to choose from.

Features

There’s nothing too complex when it comes to Webnode’s free website builder. You’ll be able to indulge in plenty of response website templates with no page limits. Their SEO tools can be altered to cater for each page on your website. If you want to start a basic website for free, you’ll be able to use 100 MB storage to get you started.

Responsive design templates
100 MB storage
SEO settings for each page
Modern editor

Pros:

Unlimited websites and pages
Easy to use

Cons:

No eCommerce builder

Features

As far as free website builders go, IM Creator doesn’t offer much in the way of features. However, they do still offer some features which are useful. After all, the service is free, so it’s difficult to expect too much. You’ll still get access to their entire templates collection, as you would if you were to pay for a premium plan.

50 MB hosting
imxprs domain name
Basic support
Entire templates collection

Pros:

Some nice looking templates
Easy to use
Can create a website quickly

Cons:

Not many features