Whether you’re running a small business or you’re simply someone with a passion project who wants increased visibility, having a website where people are able to find you and can learn what you’re all about can be a huge way of growing your brand.

The problem is, however, that it’s never exactly been easy to make a quality website if you’re only a beginner whose expertise is far detached from web development or coding. At best, you might be able to make a fairly uninspiring HTML-based website with some basic information on there, but with the sheer amount of businesses with websites these days, that’s just not going to cut it in 2024.

Instead, you not only need to design an aesthetically attractive website that works beautifully across all devices, but one that’s search engine optimised so that it’s able to appear on the front pages of Google. But how exactly am I going to be able to do without any former experience, you ask? AI website builders.

Still, what exactly are these web-building tools, and how do they actually work? We’ll be covering all you need to know about AI web builders throughout this guide, so keep reading and discover the best platforms currently available for you to use in 2024.

From here, you’ll then have the choice of generating a personalised website with Wix ADI or simply choosing one of their premade templates.

The latter option is obviously the fastest one, but no one’s going to take the time to look around and buy something from your site if it’s obvious you don’t care about your presentation and want to put in as little effort as possible, so we suggest using the Wix ADI.

If you choose this option, you’ll be able to generate your own custom layouts and add additional. In fact, you actually don’t need to pay any extra to use this, but keep in mind you’ll have ads all over your site and will be limited to the number of pages you can have for your website.

Alternatively, you can always choose their standard tariff for £11 per month or £15 per month if you want to create an eCommerce shop.

Pros

• Plenty of additional pages with the free version.

Cons

• Not the most affordable for online shops.

£5.99 per month is undoubtedly a good deal when you consider how little effort you need to dedicate in return for a professional website, but you are still going to need to pay extra if you’re not satisfied with the three options you’re given for your site’s layout/theme – nor is there a free plan like some of the other options we’ll be covering later on.

Still, we recommend only selecting this AI website builder if you need a quick turnaround, as although the speed at which you can generate websites is highly impressive, it feels like there can be a trade-off in the quality – offering fairly bland layouts and generic descriptions unless you manually change them yourselves.

This is likely to do with the fact that the platform is based on ChatGPT, so hopefully, this means that as OpenAI (ChatGPT’s parent company) continues to develop, so will the quality of Hostinger’s AI tools.

Pros

• Can generate professional websites at a relatively low cost.

Cons

• No free option.
• Need to pay for a custom domain name.

You’d think the lack of detail in the prompts leaves you with a fairly underwhelming final product that’s stripped of any kind of personality, but we were actually surprised by how accurately they were able to match the sentiment we gave them for the design – even in spite of the brevity.

Now, you are able to use that aforementioned landing page with their free plan, which might actually be all you need depending on your goals, but it does mean you’ll be stuck with Mixo advertising all over the page – not to mention that you’re unable to add any other pages, so you better find a way of getting all the information you want on one without making it too messy.

Still, it’s only around £5.50 per month for another (ad-free) page with their Basic tariff, but you’ll have to for out a little bit extra if you want a far greater amount of pages – £11.90 per month for their Growth tariff that comes with five pages, and £23 per month for the Premium tariff with up to 50 pages.

Pros

• Made with beginners in mind.

Cons

• Not the most extensive AI website builder for larger corporations with more requirements when it comes to customisation.

This might be all you need if your website is purely for the sake of having an online presence and you don’t actually plan on selling any products online, but if you want to incorporate some eCommerce features into your website, you’re going to need to answer a couple of more design-related questions so JIMDO can generate some more pages for you.

It’s worth mentioning that you can actually do all of this free of charge, but there will be a limit on the number of pages you can have on your website, as well as having to include JIMDO ads throughout your site.

Naturally, that can feel a little bit tacky for some people, so if you want a standard website where you can add unlimited pages without any advertising, you’re best off opting for their £9 per month subscription tier. Or, if you want to include an online shop, you’ll need to pay £15 per month instead.

Pros

• You aren’t limited to just one page with their free plan.
• Suitable for a range of different skill levels.

Cons

• It is not the cheapest paid option despite still offering a free plan.

Having said this, Dorik isn’t entirely without flaws; as for all we’ve praised their AI image generators, plenty of duds were created while we were looking for the right prompt, so you might need to spend time fine-tuning your prompt in order to get the best output.

Aside from this, though, there isn’t much to criticise about Dorik – it’s generally a solid AI website builder that both beginners and pros can take advantage of.

Pros

• Innovative AI tools.
• Fast setup.
• Plenty of customisation options.

Cons

• Fairly limited eCommerce options.
• Design quality and consistency.
• Expensive paid plans.

Aside from this, this is one of the only platforms we found that came with a chatbot for answering questions, so you should have plenty of assistance if you’re a newcomer who needs some support. Still, Shopify doesn’t offer any free plans, so you are going to need to pay around £19 per month for their cheapest subscription plan.

Pros

• Automates a lot of the heavy lifting and content writing.

Cons

• Doesn’t build from scratch, so you still need to dedicate some time.

Traditionally, creating a website from scratch has always been a fairly arduous process if you’re not already specialising in some tech-related field or have an understanding of web coding. As such, if you’re the owner of, say, a local coffee shop, there’s no reason to assume you’d already know the very intricate facets of website building, and having to learn them as a beginner is obviously incredibly time-consuming and difficult.

In fact, it’s only made harder when you’re trying to juggle this new learning curve with running your small business, which might already be a learning curve in itself. Ultimately, this plight is the main reason people outsource and hire web developers and designers to do this for them, but they can be pretty expensive if you’re not already making a lot of money.

Instead, though, in the increasingly AI-dominated world that we find ourselves in, small business owners should be hopping on the bandwagon and using AI website builder tools to automate huge parts of this process – taking advantage of modern technology to create professional-looking websites rather than training to become a coder or forking out on hiring one.

We’ll come onto specific details shortly, but these platforms generally all come with a range of pre-designed templates and features for you to choose from that simplify the website creation process, even for those with limited technical knowledge.

Now that we have a basic understanding of what AI website builders are, let’s take a closer look at how they actually operate so you’ve got a better idea of what to expect when you start using one.

So, when you first sign up for your website builder platform, whether it’s a free AI website builder (like some of the ones we’ll be covering today) or a paid service, you’ll typically always begin by selecting a template that best matches the aesthetic or design that you had in mind.

Then, once you’ve chosen a template, you can start using a range of different AI-powered tools to analyse things like your content and branding preferences to generate a customised website design.

We’ve mentioned how the more “traditional” way of building a website is to do so from scratch with a team of web designers and coders, but before the mainstream popularity of AI, non-AI based website builders did still exist that gave ordinary people the chance to make websites without needing to be technically proficient.

The key difference between these kinds of platforms and AI website builders, though, is that the latter are tailored to the specifications you’ve provided, whereas the former tends to provide the same basic template for everyone with little to no variation unless you alter it yourself.

As such, you’re getting far more flexibility in the design process with AI website builders in comparison, and these tools can even adapt and evolve based on user interactions. So, as you make any adjustments to your website or provide feedback on the design, the AI algorithms actually learn from this input and will continuously refine the layout and functionality so it meets your preferences better – something that you’ll never see with traditional website builders.

Common Features to Look Out for

Generally speaking, although there is definitely a good amount of variation between AI website builders – like the number of themes and customisable options that are available to you – pretty much all of these services work the same way and should include the following features:

Drag and Drop Functionality

Look for a platform that comes with a user-friendly interface, allowing you to easily add and rearrange different elements on your website.

Customisation Options

Make sure you’ve got plenty of choices when it comes to things like fonts and layouts that align with your brand.

Responsive Design

Your website should look great on all devices, from desktop computers to smartphones and tablets. Check if the platform offers responsive design features to optimise your site for anyone viewing your website from their mobile phone.

SEO Tools

To improve your website’s visibility in search engine results, it’s essential to choose a builder that includes built-in SEO tools, such as meta tags and keyword optimisation.

eCommerce Functionality

If you plan to sell products or services online, make sure the website builder supports eCommerce features like shopping carts and inventory management.

Integration with Third-Party Services

Consider whether the platform integrates seamlessly with other tools and services you may need, such as email marketing software, analytics platforms, or social media networks.

Customer Support

Finally, opt for a website builder that offers reliable customer support to assist you with any technical issues or questions you might have during the creation process (which is especially important if you’re a beginner).

So, if any of the AI website builders that you’ve been considering investing in appear to be lacking in any of these features, you should probably try to find something with better value for money.

Although we’ve mostly only talked positively about AI website builders so far, there are still a few disadvantages worth knowing before investing in one of these services.

So, to remain impartial, let’s walk through some of the main advantages and disadvantages you can expect to find when using these services to design your website:

Pros

Kicking things off, let’s start positively and walk through some of the advantages of these platforms:

Cost-effectiveness

Generally speaking, although you’re getting more creativity with human designers, it can be pretty unsustainable to cash out on a team of coders when you’ve only just started your company and haven’t even got an online presence yet.

Alternatively, some AI website builders offer plans that are actually completely free of charge or highly affordable at the very least. As such, it makes website creation a way more accessible prospect to anyone working on a low budget.

Scalability

AI website builders are designed to grow with you, so as your business expands and your requirements subsequently change, these platforms offer scalability through a range of additional features and customisation options.

Cons

Although these services are ultimately a net positive for anyone without the time or funds to dedicate towards more traditional web building methods, it’s still worth exploring some of the slightly less desirable features of AI website builders:

Limited Customisation

While AI website builders come with a pretty wide range of templates and design options, you might run into a few limitations when it comes to customising certain elements of their websites. Advanced customisation features typically require coding knowledge or might even be restricted by the platform’s design constraints.

Dependency on Templates

Templates obviously provide a convenient starting point, but if you just leave them as is without making any kinds of adjustments you’re probably going to have a pretty unoriginal website with little to no differentiation from other websites using the same AI web builder.

Naturally, this is where a human designer who could actually make a truly unique design that stands out from your competitors would come in handy, so consider whether you’re not just better off going down the traditional route in the first place instead.

Learning Curve

Despite their user-friendly interfaces, AI website builders can definitely still have a learning curve if you’re unfamiliar with the platform or website creation in general, meaning you’ll still have to invest some time in exploring the platform’s features and experimenting with different options – albeit less time than if you didn’t use the platform at all.

Potential for Overreliance on AI

Relying too heavily on AI-generated designs and automation features has a tendency to make you lazy, which can possibly have an influence on how creative you are during the whole website development process.

So, while AI can definitely streamline some of the work, it’s imperative you try to maintain an active role in the design process so you’re left with a quality final product.

Each of the options that we’ve covered is generally going to have a slightly different process to the next one, but they all still follow a similar pattern – from getting you started with a template to launching your fully optimised website.

So, let’s walk through the web-building process you can expect to see when using one of the AI platforms:

Choose a Platform

Obviously, it all starts by selecting the website builder platform that best meets your requirements – any of the six that we’ve just covered would make good choices.

Select a Template

Go through their template library so you can find a design you like the look of, and that matches your style. Keep in mind that you’re normally able to customise this template however you like later on so you can make it your own.

Add Content

Next, add all of the content that you want shown on your website – text, images, videos, links, or any other kind of media. You should then be able to use the drag-and-drop interface to arrange them on each page.

Customise Design

Going back to the earlier point, now’s your opportunity to make any last adjustments to things like fonts and layout options so that your site has more of a human feel than soulless AI generated drivel.

Optimise for SEO

Take advantage of all of the built-in SEO tools so you can optimise your website for search engines. You should’ve already included all of the content and text to your site, so the AI should do all the heavy lifting here as far as things like adding meta tags and optimising page titles go.

Preview and Test

Naturally, you’ll want to take a final look at your website before you go live – just make sure you’ve tested it across a few different devices and browsers so it looks and functions as intended.

Publish Your Site

Then, once you’re satisfied with the final result, hit the publish button to make your AI generated website live on the internet!

From customisable templates to responsive layouts, it goes without saying AI-generated websites offer a level of convenience that you’re probably not going to be able to get anywhere else for the same price – not to mention how these kinds of platforms are only becoming more advanced as artificial intelligence becomes more developed and mainstream.

Having said this, though, you’re in a bit of a tricky situation when it comes to balancing how efficiently these tools work and generating genuinely impressive content. That’s not to say that AI-generated websites can’t still look amazing and be easy to navigate, but they can definitely feel like they’re lacking the kind of personal touch that human designers would normally bring to the table.

As convenient as some of the drag-and-drop interfaces we explored throughout our reviews may be, you’ll probably feel that they’re lacking in terms of customisation options if you’ve got a specific aesthetic that you’re going for – but that’s the trade-off you make for enhanced speed.

Ultimately, while they’re all quality services at good prices, whether or not you should invest in one of the options we’ve gone through today is always going to depend on your particular preferences and skill level.

Beginners and start-ups without the budget to splash out on a team of quality designers will undoubtedly find some value here, but if you tend to prefer a more hands-on approach and maintain control over every aspect of your website, you might be better suited to more traditional web design methods.