Archives:

Want to know if Squarespace pricing is good value for money?

If you’ve ever considered using a platform to create your own website, I definitely recommend Squarespace as it allows you to create a professional-looking website in a matter of minutes, without need to learn complex code.

People often choose website builders because they are more affordable than hiring a web developer or web designer. Squarespace is one of my favourite website builders because it actually looks like a professional has built your website.

The Squarespace platform offers extremely high-quality templates, awesome features, and overall great service. But is there a catch?

In this blog article, we’re going to explore Squarespace’s price and plans. We’ll see how much it will cost to build a website yourself, create an online store, and lots more.

Let’s take a look at the pricing plans Squarespace has on offer before diving in deeper.

Squarespace Pricing Plans

Squarespace has four pricing plans which all offer something unique. Before we look at all of the features on offer, let’s take a look at the difference you’ll pay between monthly and annual plans:

As with most website builders or web hosting plans, paying annually will save you a lot of money in the long run. For example, if you sign up to their personal plan on an annual basis, you’ll basically get 3 months for free.

Which plan is for you?

• Personal plan (£10/month): If you don’t plan on selling any products, the personal plan will likely be suitable enough for you. If you run a personal website or blog, you’ll get a custom domain, SSL and 24/7 support. You’ll have access to the same great templates and editor as all of the other plans.
• Business plan (£15/month): Upgrading to the business plan is a great choice if you plan on starting to sell online. This plan is ideal for selling a few products or for those who want the option in the future. There’s not as many features as the Commerce plans, but you’ll get a taste of what’s to come.
• Basic Commerce (£20/month): The Basic Commerce plan is ideal for a user who wants an entire online store. It’s designed to offer tools and features the other plans don’t have and is optimised for eCommerce. You’ll get mobile-optimised checkouts, customer accounts, social media integration and lots more.
• Advanced Commerce (£30/month): Once you have an established online store, you may want to consider upgrading to the advanced plan. Here you’ll be able to explore the abandoned cart recovery tool, offer gift cards, and generally increase your ROI.

Visit Squarespace.com (£10/Month)

Squarespace Website Plans

Although there are four pricing plans on offer from Squarespace, I’d consider two of them to be more suited to ‘just’ websites. By this, I mean people who don’t want to sell products online. For this reason, I’m splitting the pricing plans up into two categories, the first being website plans.

Core Features

The core features on offer from Squarespace cover the basics of getting a website up and running. These generally include a domain name, SSL, and storage/bandwidth limitations. Most website builders offer a free plan that offers the bare minimum in terms of core features, however, Squarespace scrapped this idea and offers a free trial instead.

Marketing Features

The main difference between the Personal and Business plan is the marketing features that are included. If you want to take your website one step further, it’s important you extend your reach to the correct audience. Understanding your customers is key to this, which is why the business plan includes website analytics.

eCommerce Features

As I briefly touched upon earlier, Squarespace’s Business plan does offer some very basic eCommerce features. If you want to test out selling a few products rather than jumping onto their eCommerce plan straight away, this is a great learning curve.

Visit Squarespace.com (£10/Month)

Squarespace Commerce Plans

If you’re serious about selling online, Squarespace’s commerce plans will definitely be able to offer you a step in the right direction. Unlike some website builders, Squarespace’s commerce plans don’t charge transaction fees which is a real bonus in my opinion.

For £30 per month, there’s an awful lot on offer here. SquareSpace’s Basic and Advanced Commerce plans almost have no limits at all. There are no transaction fees, you can sell via social media, and the overall cost is probably less than you pay for your TV and internet per month.

Squarespace vs Competitors

When you’re looking at just one website builder, it’s easy to become wrapped up in their features and pricing. I sign up for every service I write about, which is why I can be totally honest about my opinions and recommendations.

I thought it would be a good idea to look at SquareSpace and it’s competitors; namely Wix and Weebly. Let’s first consider their pricing plans overall:

• Basic: Both Wix and Weebly offer a very basic plan to get started on their website builder. With Wix, you’ll get 1GB bandwidth, 500MB storage and the ability to connect your domain. However, you will have Wix branding and adverts on your website which doesn’t look very professional. Weebly’s free plan is very similar, offering 500MB storage. However, it comes with a free domain and is free for life.
• Personal: Wix and Weebly’s personal plans are undoubtedly cheaper than SquareSpace. However, SquareSpace offers a lot more in terms of their features. SquareSpace doesn’t have any bandwidth or storage limitations, unlike Wix and Weebly.
• Standard: Wix’s Unlimited plan offers unlimited bandwidth, but still limits storage to 10GB. Weebly’s Pro plan does allow you to sell online but doesn’t offer as much compared to SquareSpace in terms of analytics, SEO and marketing credits.

I’ve outlined a few of the main differences between SquareSpace, Wix, and Weebly above. Each website builder offers something different for their customers, but I genuinely believe SquareSpace has a lot more features and are therefore considered better value for money overall.

Visit SquareSpace.com (£10/Month)

Squarespace Extra Costs

There’s no doubting that SquareSpace is slightly more expensive than it’s competitors. However, we have established that they offer a lot more features and their plans are potentially catered more towards professionals compared to Wix and Weebly.

You may be wondering, why am I mentioning extra costs. Don’t worry, Squarespace offer exactly what they say they’re going to offer. However, they do have optional extras you can pay for, on top of their pricing plans.

SquareSpace Domains

Although all of SquareSpace’s pricing plans include a free domain, you can purchase domains through Squarespace themselves. All of their domains include WHOIS privacy and claim to renew at the same price.

If you already have an existing domain with another domain name provider, you can transfer it to Squarespace for free. You may find other providers are cheaper than Squarespace, so it’s a good idea to check out other options first. As I said, you can always transfer it for free later down the line.

SquareSpace Email Marketing

After launching a fantastic online store, how are you going to reach out to customers and get them to return? Well, you’ll need email marketing to do that! SquareSpace offers their own email marketing plans which are highly recommended for those wanting to grow and engage with their audience.

SquareSpace Transaction Fees

Although this isn’t technically an ‘extra’ as such, it’s worth talking about this in more detail. Earlier when we were looking at the differences in pricing plans, we categorised the four plans into two; websites and eCommerce. The Business plan, although it allows you to sell products online, charges a 3% transaction fee. This means Squarespace will take 3% of each sale you make.

For example, if you sold a t-shirt for £20, SquareSpace would take 60p of that sale. Now, that doesn’t seem like much does it? However, if you sold a piece of jewellery worth £2500, Squarespace would take £75.

The Business plan is essentially designed for small stores or businesses. It’s a great option for start-ups who aren’t looking to spend too much, to begin with, but the option to upgrade is there.

SquareSpace Pricing Plans Summary

I personally really like Squarespace. I can understand why they’re so popular; their pricing plans honestly reflect what you get for your money, and that’s a big thumbs up from me.

Although at first glance their prices may seem a little steeper compared to its competitors, now that we’ve dug deeper, I hope you can understand why. In my opinion, I’d rather spend a few quid more per month and get a bucket load more features and better service, wouldn’t you?

WordPress is the most popular CMS available on the market. Not only is it easy to setup a blog or website within minutes, it’s endlessly expansive. There’s hundreds of free templates to choose from, thousands of plugins to build your own website and customise it. There’s a whole world of content waiting for you.

Web hosting providers recognise how useful WordPress is. It’s for this reason they offer managed WordPress hosting, which we’ll look into in a moment. Managed WordPress hosting is offered by a wealth of web hosts. I’ve taken the time to research the best-managed WordPress hosting available on the market.

What is Managed WordPress Hosting?

Managed WordPress hosting is a perfect way to avoid the time, effort, and trouble of managing your site (from a hosting point of view). Managed WordPress web hosts will maintain your WordPress website’s updates, security, etc. This is a great choice if you don’t have the resources available to do it yourself (and in all honesty it can be safer).

You’ve probably already researched a few managed WordPress web hosts, which is why you’re here. During your travels you probably noticed that managed WordPress hosting is more expensive than shared hosting. Shared hosting is available from as little as 99p per month with the likes of Hostinger, so why is managed hosting so different?

I’m here to answer the what, why and wheres of managed WordPress hosting. We’ll establish some key points:

• Why managed WordPress hosting is more expensive
• Is it better to have managed WordPress hosting
• Do you need managed hosting for your site
• Is it worth paying extra for
• Who the best-managed WordPress hosting company is

Is Managed WordPress Hosting Recommended?

This question can really only be answered by you. Of course, I’ll describe why I think managed WordPress hosting is great, but ultimately it’s your decision. Your website needs may be different to others, as may your time/effort be too.

Managed WordPress hosting is essentially a VIP experience. Most web hosts will offer WordPress support, WordPress optimisation for your site, and automatic updates. It takes the hassle away from WordPress hosting but often costs a little bit extra.

If you like the idea of hosting your own WordPress site but aren’t keen on the price, take a look at our guide on the 7 best free WordPress hosting companies. When it comes to building your own website, there are always many avenues to explore.

1: Hostinger

Hostinger is a safe and affordable bet when it comes to managed WordPress hosting. Hostinger are a solid hosting company that offer solutions tailored to WordPress users. Their features boast WP-CLI, GIT, and SSH, as well as some useful pre-installed plugins. Whilst this may not suit every user, I’d recommend Hostinger if you want to give managed WordPress hosting a try and you’re on a budget.

Starting from an incredible £2.59 per month, you can host 100 WordPress websites with Hostinger. This will give you 100GB disk space on an SSD, unlimited bandwidth, and access to their control panel.

Other features include:

1-click WordPress installation, and that’s it.
AI tools are here to help you generate website content and even the whole website.
Automatic Website Migration tool is ready to move as many WordPress websites as you want to Hostinger.
WordPress Automatic updates enhance your website’s security and performance by making sure it has the latest core software, themes, and plugins.
WordPress Vulnerabilities Scanner keeps potential attacks or breaches away.
LiteSpeed WordPress Acceleration caches your website’s content, boosting the speed and performance by 2-5 times.
Object Cache for WordPress makes sure that not only your website’s content, but also databases are cached – and that’s even more speed.
In-house Content Delivery Network (CDN) is another booster: it makes copies of your website’s content across many different servers, so the traffic is distributed throughout the whole network, and your website loads faster for end-users.
WordPress Staging Tool is your playground for testing and making changes to your website without affecting it.
Use an On-Demand Backup tool when enabling changes to your website, and rest assured that a stable and working copy is lurking behind, just in case.
WordPress Multisite is essential for creating and managing multiple websites from a single WordPress installation.
Have a WordPress-based online store of your dreams with WooCommerce: sell products and services, manage inventory, process payments, facilitate online transactions, and more.
WordPress Command Line (WP-CLI) tool helps you manage WordPress manually.

Visit Hostinger (£2.59/month)

Hostinger boast fast loading speeds and response times, according to their website. However, they don’t say what this is based on, or the type of website they’re monitoring. Given they have a 99.9% uptime guarantee, I wanted to test my own managed WordPress hosted Hostinger website.

I monitored my website and experienced 99.99% uptime. This is great because it’s above Hostinger’s own guarantee, but not as good as I’ve experienced with other hosts. All in all my site had 9 outages lasting a total of 10 minutes. Whilst this isn’t terrible by any means, I did feel a little bit disheartened.

When testing my WordPress website (which was a fresh install with Hostinger’s pre-installed plugins) I recorded a load time of 1.07 seconds. This is well below the average and faster than 87% of sites tested. I was happy with this result, and look forward to testing my site in the future when I add more and more content to it.

In my experience, Hostinger is a great choice for beginners. If you want to experience hassle-free WordPress hosting, give it a go. You’ll have the reassurance that your WordPress site is up to date as well as receiving the best security updates.

Here’s an overview of the good and bad points to Hostinger:

Reliable and affordable
Free email account
Fast load times
Free domain
Unlimited Bandwidth

No Dedicated IP Address
No CDN

Visit Hostinger (£2.59/month)

2: SiteGround

SiteGround are rated highly within the WordPress community and one of the official WordPress hosting providers recommended by others. SiteGround does things differently compared to other managed WordPress web hosts. Their in-house performance add-ons are a great example of how SiteGround are leading the market.

If you’re looking for affordable managed WordPress hosting, SiteGround ticks the boxes. From only £2.95 per month, you can get the best start on your WordPress journey with 1 hosted website, 10GB web space and essential WordPress features which include:

Free WordPress install
Free WordPress migration
Automatic WordPress updates
24/7 WordPress support
Free daily backup
Free CloudFlare CDN

Considering this is managed WordPress hosting, the features are insanely impressive. Did I mention you’ll get all of that for just £2.95 per month! This is why SiteGround is simply awesome. They don’t just give you a free WordPress install, they make sure your site or blog is fully optimised. CloudFlare CDN will ensure powerful caching, keeping you and your visitors happy. You’ll also get a free SSL certificate too, so you can get your small business up and running in no time.

I’ve boasted about SiteGround’s performance, so let’s take a look at some real facts and figures. When I signed up to SiteGround’s managed WordPress hosting, I started recording my site’s performance. This included my website’s response time, uptime, and page speed loading times.

Across the space of 24 hours, 7 days, and 30 days, my site had zero downtime! That’s right, 100% uptime meaning my site didn’t go down at all, which is absolutely amazing. I’d happily pay extra if all web host’s could offer this kind of performance.

I have over 12 months of response time records saved for my SiteGround site. The average response time of my website was 713 ms, which is well below the average. My site seemed to perform very well in the U.S., U.K., and other European locations. Unfortunately, it didn’t do great in most Asian companies. I queried this with SiteGround and they told me that if my target audience was located within Asia, they could move my site’s server location for better optimisation.

If you haven’t already guessed by now, I think SiteGround is pretty damn good. There’s so many reasons for my love of SiteGround, but as with most things, there are some downsides. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of choosing SiteGround for your managed WordPress hosting:

Amazing WordPress support
Officially recommended WordPress hosting
Free site migration
Speed and performance optimisation

No free domain on signup
Limited to 10GB web space on StartUp

Visit SiteGround.com (£2.95/Month)

3: BlueHost

Similar to SiteGround, BlueHost is another very popular WordPress web host. It’s one of the recommended WordPress hosting providers, and there’s good reason for it. BlueHost really focus on their customers, aiming to provide the best service and performance possible. Their managed WordPress hosting is no different, offering top quality servers and features for their customers.

BlueHost’s managed WordPress hosting starts from just £3.25 per month. This covers an initial term of 36 months, providing WordPress hosting for 1 website. You’ll also get 50GB storage, a free domain (unlike SiteGround), and a free SSL certificate. Also included is the following:

Automatic WordPress install
Automatic WordPress updates
WordPress staging environment
24/7 expert support

Whilst BlueHost may not offer as many features as SiteGround, they still pack a punch where it matters. Their basic managed WordPress hosting provides you with the tools to get started on your first website. If you’re considering starting a small business, this would be a great opportunity to take up BlueHost’s basic plan to test the waters. Their £150 free marketing credit will allow you to explore Microsoft’s adverts and Google Ads to start generating some money.

Visit BlueHost.com (£3.25/Month)

When I installed my WordPress site, I didn’t optimise any part of it at all. I wanted to see how BlueHost’s fresh install of WordPress compared to other managed WordPress hosts. Some web hosts install ‘helpful’ plugins upon a WordPress installation which can often be more trouble than they’re worth. Thankfully, BlueHost provided me with the best setup to ensure my site was running fast and smoothly with no intervention from me.

Another pleasant surprise from my managed WordPress web host, BlueHost. During the time I was monitoring my site, I had 100% uptime. This was recorded over a 30 day period, meaning my site was up and running for a month with absolutely no downtime.

My unoptimised BlueHost WordPress site gave an impressive response time average of 517ms. Again, this is very comfortably within the acceptable response time for a website in 2019. I didn’t have to do anything to achieve these results, which makes me even happier to recommend BlueHost for managed WordPress web hosting.

I found that BlueHost didn’t fluctuate as much in terms of loading times and response times across the world. U.S. visitors would get the best speeds, as is the case with many web hosts. However, this didn’t mean other locations suffered. BlueHost is a fab web host who focus on their customers, providing the best technology for their needs. Here’s some reasons why I love BlueHost, and some points that could do with some improvement:

Free domain & SSL
Recommended by WordPress
Brilliant optimisation

Support can take a while to respond
Slightly more expensive than other hosts

Visit BlueHost.com (£3.25/Month)

4: WP Engine

WP Engine is one of the leading WordPress platforms. Their web hosting boasts brilliant uptime, security, and updates. In terms of tools and features, WP Engine provides the best for the job. Their managed WordPress hosting will cover automatic backups, 24/7 support, unlimited monthly transfers and much more. Not only that, they also have something called Actionable Intelligence which looks at your website’s insights and performance.

The reason I’ve placed WP Engine in 3rd place is due to their pricing. Now, before I go into this, I must say that WP Engine is priced much higher than it’s competitors due to the level of managed WordPress hosting they offer. There are 4 price plans on offer, all including free migration, free page performance, and if you sign up annually, you’ll get 2 months free. Some of the main features included on all of their plans are:

Dev, Stage, Prod Environments
Global CDN
SSH Gateway
Free SSL certificates
35+ StudioPress themes free

Visit WP Engine

After signing up to WP Engine, I installed my WordPress site. For these tests, I don’t optimise WordPress because I want to measure performance against a fresh install. WP Engine optimises installs automatically, providing you fast loading speeds without having to intervene at all. My site loaded in just over a second when I installed it. In fact, it was faster than 90% of tested sites from other competitors on Pingdom.

My WP Engine site had quite a varied response time. I tested it across multiple locations, including U.K., U.S., Europe and Asia. The minimum response time I got was 254ms which was absolutely amazing. Thankfully, this was located in the U.K. which is where my customer base would be. When the tests hit Asia, the response time did peak up to 1.7s which isn’t great. However, it is still well under the 4 seconds that most sites should be.

My uptime was 100% which I was obviously very happy about. So far in my tests, all three of my top recommended managed WordPress hosting providers haven’t let me down. With no outages recorded, my site was available to view the whole time, which makes for a happy customer, and happy visitors. This is a great example of why managed WordPress hosting is recommended for those with a WordPress blog or website.

Here are the pros and cons of using WP Engine, in my own experience:

Very well optimised for performance
Plenty of staging environments available
Easy to use control panel

Prices are more expensive
Annual payment required for the best prices

Visit WP Engine

5: DreamHost

DreamHost have been around since 1996. They are a solid and reliable web host, offering shared, VPS and managed WordPress hosting solutions. DreamHost are known for offering high performance web servers which won’t let their customers down. Their managed WordPress hosting really puts this to the test and shows just how great they are. Whilst they may not offer the best in customer support versus some of our other recommended web hosts, their hardware won’t let you down.

Starting from £13.50 per month, DreamHost is more expensive than SiteGround and BlueHost, but a cheaper alternative to WP Engine. Their DreamPress plan is ideal for WordPress sites with 100k monthly visitors, offering 30GB SSD storage, for faster performance. For the price, you’ll get a free SSL certificate already installed for you, daily backups, 24/7 support, and Jetpack plugin for free.

Although DreamHost has multiple managed WordPress hosting plans, they all include the following for free:

1-click staging environment
Built-in caching
200+ design themes
WP website builder
Free domain with domain privacy

Visit DreamHost

DreamHost are known for being reliable. For this reason, I was particularly interested in finding out how they fared in my performance tests. I signed up to DreamHost and had my WordPress installation activated for me. I monitored the results of my website’s uptime and response time to see how it handled the pressure.

DreamHost provided my website with 100% uptime. There wasn’t a moment of downtime or any outages which I was really pleased about. But that’s not what impressed me the most. The average response time on my site was 698ms, and this was recorded across multiple locations. As we’ve seen with other web hosts, response times seem to spike when hitting traffic from Asia, however, DreamHost didn’t really encounter many issues.

The best location for my site was in the U.S., so although this wouldn’t be my target market, it’s good to know. With a maximum response time of just over 1 second, I have no worries about my managed WordPress site with DreamHost. When I did some stress testing on the site, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no issues, regardless of what I threw at it. This is why I highly recommend DreamHost.

Fast managed WordPress hosting
Plenty of free features included
Suitable for a range of budgets

More expensive than SiteGround and BlueHost
Staging environment included on advanced plan only

Visit DreamHost

If you’re considering launching your own small business in 2024, I commend you. Turning your dream into reality can be challenging but it’s entirely possible. If you are already a small business owner or are considering making the leap, learning about current trends is an essential key to success.

Check out these small business statistics in 2024 to transform your vision into success.

Small Business Statistics – General

• In the U.K. at the start of 2018, there were 5.6 million small businesses registered
• Compared to 2017, the private sector business population decreased by 0.5%
• Compared to 2017, the private sector employment increased by 2%
• Around 99% of U.S. employers are small business owners
• Over half a million (543,000) new businesses are started each month
• In the U.S. it takes an average of 6 days to start a new business. In China this is recorded at around 38 days

Small Business Statistics (U.K.) – Business Size

• Medium-sized businesses account for only 0.6% of business in the U.K.
• 99.3% of all businesses in the U.K. are classed as small businesses (fewer than 50 employees)
• Micro-businesses (0-9 employees) account for 96% of all private sector companies in the U.K.
• Less than 4% are small businesses (10-49 employees)
• There are more companies without any employees in the U.K. than the total number of business (82% compared to 25% of companies)

Small Business Statistics (U.K.) – Location

• London has the highest ration of small businesses. This is calculated using the number of businesses per 10,000 adult residents. There are 1563 businesses for every 10,000 adult residents in London
• The U.K. has 1059 businesses per 10,000 residents
• Regions which exceed the U.K. average include South East, South West and East of England
• The West Midlands has a growth of 9% during the last year followed shortly by Yorkshire & Humber (7%)
• The U.K. has an average annual growth of businesses at around 4%

Small Business Statistics – Entrepreneurs

• The main reason why people wanted to start their own business was to be their own boss. People are starting to ditch the 9-5 tradition and work for themselves
• Over half (53%) of small business owners would rank their happiness at 9
• 1/3 of small business owners say they feel very confident about the future of their business
• 42% of self-employed people say they are not planning for their retirement
• 73% of small business owners are males
• Over 20 years, between 1997 and 2017, female entrepreneurs grew by 114%
• 95% of entrepreneurs claim to have a Bachelor’s Degree
• 82% of entrepreneurs startup funds are provided by the business owner or family/friends
• Entrepreneurs who are home owners are 10% more likely to start a business compared to those who don’t own a home
• 64% of small business get off the ground with less than £7,935 startup funds
• The average income of small businesses is £46,800

Small Business Statistics – Pros & Cons

• 50% of new small businesses fail within the first five years of starting
• New business startups have a success rate of 37% during the first four years
• The toughest challenge for small businesses in the U.S. is generating new business in the first place
• 14% of small businesses fail because they don’t respond or communicate with their customers
• 74% of tech small businesses fail because they scale too quickly and don’t have the funds to maintain this
• 60% of small businesses close within 6 months after being hacked
• 43% of all cyber attacks target small businesses

References

• FSB
• Cision
• Dynadot
• Merchant Savvy
• Department for Business
• Guidant Financial
• NSBA
• Fundera
• Serious Startups
• Digital
• Small Business Trends
• NSBA
• Blue Corona
• Cyber Security Ventures
• INC

If you’re new to WordPress hosting or simply don’t have the funds to pay out on web hosting, you may want to consider free WordPress hosting company. I’m pretty sure once you have experienced WordPress you’ll want to upgrade to a premium plan to unlock and access all their features.

Free web hosting has become extremely popular in recent years. Running a website can be expensive (read how much it costs to build a website). However, if you know where to look and have the right resources, you can do it on a budget. In fact, if you want to build a website from scratch, you may want to swot up on how to learn code for free.

In the meantime though, what’s better than free web hosting? Free web hosting may sound appealing, but it’s not always what it seems. Of course, there will be limitations like bandwidth, disk space, and content usage. Some web hosts won’t include vital features like a free SSL certificate. Some may offer plenty of features but may not perform well in uptime, response time, or load time results.

#1: Hostinger (Best “Almost” Free WordPress Company)

I know they’re not completely free, but they’re as good as! I imagine most of you would expect poor service and performance from such a cheap web host but I can assure you this is not the case.

Hostinger offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on their managed WordPress web hosting. I don’t think you’ll need to request this but it’s a nice to have.

With servers in 8 different continents, Hostinger offers lightning fast performance and response times. They have server locations in the UK, US, Brazil, Netherlands, France, India, Singapore and Indonesia. Their servers are protected against DDoS attacks, optional CloudFlare CDN, and also offers free unlimited SSLs.

Pros:

• 99.9% uptime guarantee
• WordPress AI Tools
• SSD performance
• Variety of server locations
• Great proven response times
• 24/7/365 support

Cons:

• Can’t use live chat unless logged in

Visit Hostinger.co.uk (£2.59/Month)

Get an additional 10% by using our code UKWEBHOST.

#2: 000WebHost

000WebHost is a free WordPress hosting company. Considering they are free, their performance statistics fair up nicely against other competitors. They’ve been in the web hosting industry for some time, offering established servers with 99% uptime.

One of my favourite aspects about 000WebHost is that they provide ad-free web hosting. It’s not often you come across this in the hosting industry, especially when you’re not paying even a penny! You can build a small website or blog with WordPress today, at no cost to you.

When you sign up to 000WebHost your account will be activated immediately. You can access your web hosting and WordPress site within a matter of seconds. They offer a custom control panel which is easy to use. Here you can activate 1-click installers like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.

You’re probably wondering what’s on offer if hosting your own WordPress website is free. Let’s take a look at what you’ll get:

• 1GB disk space
• 10GB bandwidth
• 2 websites hosted
• You can host your own ads
• Free website builder
• Free MySQL hosting
• Instant backup

Although you might not be getting tonnes of disk space or a free domain, let me remind you that this web hosting is free. You’ll be equipped with enough tools to get your started on your journey. Plus, if you love your web hosting with 000WebHost enough to upgrade, they’re partnered with Hostinger. When you’re ready to go big, you can increase your web hosting package for just 80p per month.

Pros:

• Free domain with .000webhostapp.com extension
• Free website builder and templates
• 1-click install of WordPress (free)
• Host as many domains as you like

Cons:

• 99% uptime guarantee (most web hosts offer 99.9%)
• Limited disk space for larger websites

Visit 000WebHost (£0.00 /Month)

#3: x10Hosting (Best Free Unlimited WordPress Web Host)

x10Hosting is another great free WordPress web hosting company. They have a community of nearly 1 million users, so if you ever encounter any issues, you know where to go. This web host has over a decade of web hosting experience, so you can be assured they know what they’re doing.

If you’re looking for flexible web hosting using SSD cloud servers, x10Hosting is right for the job. Once you sign up, you’ll have cPanel access where you can install WordPress with the click of a button. In fact, there’s over 300 1-click installations on offer, and you don’t need to spend time configuring them. Here’s some of the features you’ll get included:

• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited bandwidth
• SSD hosting servers
• 3 email accounts
• Latest PHP
• Free website builder
• Over 300+ apps
• Backups

Earlier I mentioned their community forums. If you need support, the forums are accessible 24/7. You can ask questions and get answers from webmasters and other users. If you want premium support, or are looking for alternative options, you’ll need to upgrade your account.

If you upgrade to x10Premium you’ll get access to daily backups, support, and 99.9% uptime guarantee (or your money back). You can host unlimited websites and they’ll all be activated within minutes of creating them. If your website is ready to go one step further, there’s also SEO tools powered by Attracta Search Engine Optimization. Monthly prices start from £5.50, and decrease in price the longer you stay with the web host.

Pros:

• Unlimited storage and disk space
• Over 300+ 1-click installs
• Community forums
• High performance servers
• Easy to upgrade

Cons:

• No email, ticket, or live chat support
• Pay extra for domain and SSL certificate

Visit x10Hosting (£0.00 /Month)

#4: Byet (Best Free WordPress Web Host with SSL)

If you’re looking for a feature-rich free WordPress web host, Byet won’t let you down. Currently they offer free SSL certificates (HTTPS) along with free web hosting. This is a steal considering how expensive some web hosts are when it comes to SSL’s.

When you sign up to Byet you get a choice of your own free sub domain. You can choose the site.byethost.com extension, or choose from several others. Of course, if you already have a domain name, you can use this for free too. This free web host supports MySQL, PHP, FTP, and plenty of other scripts free of charge.

They have their own cPanel called VistaPanel which is incredibly easy to use. You can install your favourite apps like WordPress in just one-click, as well as over 300 others! As a free web host, Byet have a wealth of features ready for you to explore:

• Unlimited Disk Space
• FTP access and file manager
• cPanel (VistaPanel)
• Free customer support
• Unlimited addon domains, parked domains and sub domains
• Community forums
• Advert free
• SSL certificates

Byet offer great performance web servers. They own and maintain all of their hosting network, including 24 core CPU Xeon servers, FTP servers, MySQL servers and more. They boast superior speed as well as reliability to ensure your site stays online. Although they don’t offer an uptime guarantee, they do say it’s their number 1 goal.

Pros:

• Lots of features
• Unlimited disk space and bandwidth
• Free SSL certificate
• Free sub domains
• Fast server response times

Cons:

• No specified uptime guarantee
• No server locations listed

Visit Byet (£0.00 /Month)

#5: FreeHosting.com (Best Free WordPress Web Host with Upgrades)

FreeHosting.com provides users with free WordPress hosting with cPanel access. Thankfully there’s no trial period or expiration date with this web host. You can use their free WordPress web hosting for as long as your domain lasts (even when you renew). You can use your own hosted domain with FreeHosting.com, or purchase one from them.

If you’re worried about bandwidth, FreeHosting.com offer customers unlimited bandwidth (check their fair usage policy here). I think my favourite feature about this host is that you can upgrade your account with add-ons. So, if you’re just looking for some extras but aren’t ready to pay for web hosting, you can add them on for a small price. This is fantastic for those on a budget or for people who don’t want all the features that come with shared web hosting.

FreeHosting.com doesn’t come with many limitations. They have a free site builder too, so you can register, host, and build your site in one place (for free). Whether you’re a small business looking to get started or an established blog, I really recommend these guys.

If you’re having trouble deciding which free web host to go with, here are some of FreeHosting.com’s features:

• 10GB storage
• Unmetered bandwidth
• Single website
• 1 email account
• One MySQL database
• Apps installer

If you’re happy with FreeHosting.com they do offer some premium (paid) web hosting services. These come with faster servers, multi-site hosting options, web stats and logs, and backups. You can upgrade your free account from £6.33 per month and each account comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Though they do offer some great features, I would only recommend this web host for free web hosting.

Pros:

• Unmetered bandwidth
• Option to pay for add-ons
• cPanel access
• Free site builder

Cons:

• No sub domain hosting
• Premium upgrades are expensive

Visit FreeHosting (£0.00 /Month)

#6: InfinityFree

InfinityFree doesn’t have millions of customers. In fact, it has around 300,000, making them a small fish in the web hosting world. However, this doesn’t mean they haven’t managed to set a good reputation for themselves. They offer a wealth of features and unlimited options as part of their free WordPress web hosting.

When you choose InfinityFree’s free WordPress web hosting, you’re in for a real treat. Like many paid web hosting, you’ll get 99.9% uptime, unlimited disk space and bandwidth, no advertisements, and you can host any domain. You’ll also get a free SSL certificate (very generous) and CloudFlare CDN. To be honest, this is better than some of the expensive shared web hosting available on the market.

You’ll be pleased to know that you will have access to Softaculous (script installer). 1-click installations for WordPress and other applications have never been easier. You can create 10 email accounts for your website, as well as 400 MySQL databases.

Things almost sounded a little too good for my liking, so further investigation was needed. When I dug into InfinityFree’s terms of service, there seems to be a few ‘hidden’ restrictions. The allowed content and files seemed quite rough around the edges. If you do not comply with their terms, the penalty is the suspension of your website (and possibly your data).

Pros:

• Free SSL certificate
• Unlimited disk space
• Free CloudFlare CDN
• No adverts

Cons:

• Ambiguous terms of service
• Performance and response time isn’t the best

Visit InfinityFree (£0.00 /Month)

#7: AwardSpace

AwardSpace has over 2.5 million customers. It’s made a name for itself in the free WordPress web hosting world with over 15 years of experience. Like some other free web hosts, they offer a 100% ad-free experience (this I love). They also provide 24/7 customer support with a live chat option. This is something that isn’t often included with free web hosting.

There’s plenty of reasons to sign up to AwardSpace. Here are some of their included features on their free web hosting plan:

• 100% advert free
• 24/7 customer support
• 5GB bandwidth
• Instant activation
• PHP MyAdmin
• 99.9% uptime
• 1GB disk space

AwardSpace have a custom control panel which is fairly extensive. You can monitor the exact amount of traffic your website receives. This not only allows you to monitor your traffic, but lets you see when you’re close to your maximum bandwidth usage. Unfortunately you won’t get much bandwidth on their free WordPress web hosting plan.

5GB bandwidth is more of a taster of what’s to come in their premium plan. Yes, you’ll be able to run a small blog or website, but if you want to go big, this plan won’t be for you. Their 1GB disk space is quite restrictive too. Although, it’s hard to complain when the whole plan is free.

If you do decide to upgrade to their premium plans, these start from as little as €0.17 per month. This will give you unlimited disk space and monthly traffic. When we ran some speed tests on our test website, we did find that their servers were incredibly slow. Response times were over 1500ms which isn’t ideal at all.

Pros:

• 99.9% uptime
• Advert-free usage
• 24/7 customer support

Cons:

• Slow response times
• Terms of Service state they may use your data

Visit AwardSpace (£0.00 /Month)

Ever thought of using a domain name generator? Choosing a domain name can sometimes be the most difficult part of building a website. A domain name should be memorable but should also reflect what your brand or business represents.

Unfortunately, a lot of the time you’ll spend hours figuring out your domain name only to find the name isn’t available. Sometimes it will be available for .co.uk but not for .com. You then have to go back to square one.

The good news is choosing a domain name doesn’t have to take forever. I’ve searched high and low for the best domain name generators to save you time!

If you don’t already have a domain name then I recommend Hostinger (free domain name included on all hosting plans).

#1: Shopify Business Domain Name Generator

Shopify’s business name generator isn’t just for businesses. They suggest domain names that suit your needs. When you start off using the Shopify business name generator you’ll be asked to enter a keyword. This keyword should have something to do with your website or business. For example, if you run a bakery, your keyword might be cupcakes.

The generator will produce hundreds of results for you to choose from. The suggestions presented will be .com domains, but of course, you can search on other domain registration sites for alternatives. The idea behind the generator is that it gives you suggestions of domain names that might work for you. Alternatively, if you don’t like any of them, you should have been given enough inspiration to come up with your ultimate domain name.

Shopify will encourage you to sign up to their Shopify Shop with the domain names that have been suggested. You don’t have to sign up to Shopify; you can register your domain elsewhere and do as you please!

#2: Lean Domain Search

Similar to Shopify, Lean Domain Search asks for a keyword to get started. Their generator will produce hundreds (and even thousands) of domain name options for you. All of the domain names that are suggested are available as .com domains, so you won’t have to worry about whether they’ve been registered or not.

Shopify Lean Search includes some cool features too, making the process even more simple. You can filter using the following options:

• Alphabetically
• By name length
• By popularity of domain name

If you like a few domain names you can save them as a list to revisit later on. If you’ve forgotten to save them but can’t remember what you searched for, you can go back through your search history!

Lean Domain Search will allow you to search for your own domain name ideas too, to see if they’re available. This saves time using multiple websites, making it an all in one tool.

#3: Nameboy

A little throwback to the 90s in the name! Nameboy encourages users to enter two keywords into their generator. This opens the door to a few more possibilities and combinations. Similar to the other generators, Nameboy will produce a wide selection of domain name ideas based on your keywords.

Their list is extensive and easy to navigate. You can easily see if a domain name that you like is available or not. Sometimes a .com name might not be available but .co.uk or .net is. They’ll also display a list of domain names that are up for resale, so you may still be able to nab your perfect domain name.

Nameboy’s tool can cleverly produce hyphenated or rhyming words based on your keyword input. Sometimes you may have an idea in mind but it doesn’t quite work. This tool can give you the ideas and inspiration you need to make a firm decision.

#4: Name Mesh

If you have a few keywords in mind but can’t make a decision, Name Mesh is your friend. You can enter 2-3 keywords for the generator to work its magic.

The tool can generate domain names based on a selection of variables. These include common domain names, different categories, short or similar names, domain names that are good for SEO, etc. If that wasn’t enough and you want to start a new search, Name Mesh will even provide you with some keywords to use. Search using the new keywords and see how it goes!

When you’ve concluded your search, you can filter the results by different types, including:

• Domain name extension (.com, .co.uk, etc.)
• Domain names that are unregistered
• Domain name length

#5: Bust A Name

Bust A Name has a wide range of tools to help you find your perfect domain name. You can enter in keywords to start with in order to produce a list of results. You can then choose whether you want your domain name to start or end with your keyword (or neither).

Bust A Name allows you to choose how natural you want your domain name to be. You can also define a character limit (long domains can affect SEO). You can select whether or not you want to see taken domain names (perhaps for inspiration) and filter by extension like .com or .org.

If you have no clue where to start and don’t have any keywords, you can make a random domain name search. This will show available domain names and may give you the push you need to get creative.

#6: NameStall

You can start searching for a domain name with NameStall’s domain name generator. Simply enter a keyword and add your own filters to help you find the right domain. You can filter by popular keywords, categories, or types of words.

Similar to Bust A Name, you can choose whether the keyword should go at the start or end of the domain name. You may opt to have a hyphen in your domain name if it makes it easier to read or remember.

Once you’ve entered the relevant details, the list will show both taken and available domain names. If you want to register a new domain name you can do so through NameStall. Again, you don’t have to go through them if you don’t want to.

#7: Panabee

It’s cute interface will surely get a look in. Panabee provides a wealth of features including a domain search tool, domain name generator and a business name generator. You can enter in two keywords to start the domain name search.

The generator will present a wealth of suggestions for you to start deliberating over. If your chosen extension or domain name isn’t available, you can use a domain name registrar to search for more.

If you’re not interested in the search results from Panabee, you can search for similar or related names. This may spark some inspiration to hammer the nail in the coffin. Uniquely, Panabee will tell you if your domain name is being used across any social media accounts as a user or profile name (snazzy)!

#8: Name Station

Name Station has been mentioned on various popular platforms like SEOMoz, Mashable and TechCrunch to name a few. For this reason, I wanted to check it out (can you blame me)!

When you land at Name Station you’ll need to create a free account to get started. A bit annoying but it’s free so I can’t really complain too much. You can sign up using your email address or via social media on Facebook.

Once you’re signed up you’ll be able to use their domain name generator, check the availability of domains, and get keyword suggestions. Like most other generators, you can filter by extension, name length, and even search by categories.

#9: Domains Bot

At Domains Bot you can search for domain names as well as getting suggestions for domain names. Using their domain name generator is easy; enter a keyword and let the tool do the rest! You’ll get a list of domains related to your keyword, similar to your keyword, and even combining your keyword.

You may even find that you want to use new search terms after being inspired by some of the Domains Bot’s suggestions. If you already have a domain name in mind, you can search to see if it’s available.

If your chosen domain name is available you can register it through the many registrar links, like GoDaddy. You’ll get suggestions on similar domain names before you commit to buying one (or it may confuse you even more)!

#10: Dot-o-mator

Dot-o-mator is a solid choice if you have no clue as to what your domain name should be. Trust me, we’ve all been there when you’ve got a business idea but don’t know how to brand it!

Start by choosing two categories – these will form the start and end of your domain name. Click search and you’ll be presented with a whole bunch of random domain names to choose from.

If you’re lucky enough to have some ideas in mind, you can search using your own search terms too. If you have a few domain names you like the sound of you can save them for later. This is always a good option if you’re not sure whether the domain is available or not.

#11: Domain Puzzler

Domain Puzzler offers a simple and easy to use interface. There’s plenty of options to choose from, but they do present an ‘easy’ option to get started with. All you need to do is enter your keywords and desired domain extensions (.co.uk, .com, etc.).

Once you hit search you’ll be presented with your list of domain name ideas and suggestions. What’s nice about Domain Puzzler is that they allow you to enter multiple keywords as opposed to one or two like other domain name generators.

Your keywords will be used to combine into multiple variations. You can save the domain names you like to your list so you can come back later if you want. There’s even a tool so you can compare the page rank of different domain names which is very useful!

#12: Impossibility

Impossibility is unique in the fact you can do a lot more within your domain name search. Once you’ve entered your keyword you can then add verbs, nouns, and adjectives to your search. There’s a range of 4 letter, 5 letter, and 6 letter options.

If you don’t want to be constrained you can choose to combine anything with your specified keyword. This makes for a lot more variety and hopefully will make finding your perfect domain name much easier.

If you like one of the domain names suggested it’s easy to click on the link to purchase. You don’t need to purchase through Impossibility, as always you can use a domain name registrar like GoDaddy or 1&1 (IONOS).

#13: Cool Name Ideas

A cool name and a cool tool. Cool Name Ideas is a business name generator with a built-in domain name search. You can generate business names and it will tell you if the domain name is available or not.

One of the fun things about this generator is that you can enter in filters like:

• Business size
• Customer base

These will then be put into the generator to make even more relevant name ideas in your results. You can play with the advanced features too in order to limit character length and other customisation options.

Similar to some other domain name generators, you can see if social media names like Twitter handles are taken before purchasing your domain name.

#14: DomainWheel

DomainWheel has an attractive user interface, entering into the modern world of domain name generators. Start by entering your keyword (there’s already some suggestions) and search your domain.

You don’t just have to pick one keyword, you can enter several to get a good mix of domain names. I personally find more keywords to generate more creative ideas. Once you’ve chosen a domain name, other options will appear. For example, words that rhyme with your keywords or domain, different combinations, or even just randomly generated domain names.

When you’ve chosen your domain name you can register it to ensure no one else takes it. There are plenty of places to register a domain name, and even some sites that allow you to register a domain for free!

#15: Instant Domain Search

Do you already have a domain name in mind? If so, Instant Domain Search is a great place for you. If you know your domain already, simply enter it into the search bar to see if it’s available. The generator won’t give you new domain names based on a keyword search.

It will however provide alternatives if your chosen domain name has already been taken. But, if you desperately want the domain name you had in mind, the site will locate who owns the domain name that’s currently not available.

This might seem a bit strange but often people will buy domain names to sell them on for more. A catchy domain name is gold dust and people will pay a lot to nab a good one on the market.

#16: iwantmyname

Very similar to Instant Domain Search, iwantmyname is a place to search to see if your domain name is available. It’s got a simple user interface so you can easily see which domains are available and which ones aren’t. The green smiley face indicates if your domain name is available to purchase.

If your domain name is already taken (which is admittedly a right bummer), it will suggest alternatives through its generator. You can’t enter in keywords to generate new ideas but it will present similar domains.

Unfortunately, you can’t track down who owns the domain name if it’s already taken like Instant Domain Search. You’ll just have to find a suitable alternative for now.

#17: DomainTyper

DomainTyper is a unique domain name generator and social network checker. I’ve mentioned that a few domain name generators can search to see if your domain name is available as well as checking if the username is available on Twitter or Facebook.

DomainTyper does it all! Type your chosen domain name into the search bar and it will see if it’s available. It will check a wide range of extensions where you can favourite the ones you like. If your name isn’t available you can make an offer to the person who currently owns it.

It also has its own generator to help you come up with some fun ideas. If you’re lacking inspiration this is a good place to start. Once you’ve found the perfect domain name you can check it against social media channels. It will see whether the username is already in use on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and more.

#18: WORDOID

If you’re struggling with a business name in the first place, WORDOID is a great starting point. It will generate a huge list of words to get your creative juices flowing. Although this might sound pretty random, sometimes the best names can come from a randomised tool.

Alongside the list of names, WORDOID will search to see if your domain name is available. It will check GoDaddy to see if they are taken or not and then how to buy them. If you want to enter in your own keyword to start the ball rolling, this tool won’t allow you to do so.

You can filter through the domain names to make the search a little less random. Filters include word length, resemblance match to real words, patterns and more. Uniquely, this domain name generator actually works in multiple languages. These include English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian.

#19: Domainr

Domainr is a tool that is partnered with ICANN. When you search for a domain the list will show you whether a domain is taken or not. It will also display what alternatives there are if it is taken. For example, helloworld.com might not be available but helloworld.uk is available.

If you don’t have a domain name in mind already, this won’t be right for you. This isn’t a generator that will make up names for you. It will simply display if your domain names are available or not and allow you to buy them.

#20: Domain Hole

Domain Hole is a tool I’d recommend if you don’t have a domain name in mind. Also if you have no keywords this will help you to find the perfect domain name. There’s plenty of features that other generators don’t feature so let’s take a look.

One thing I find is that people will have a domain name they want but it’s not available. Domain Hole can tell you if a domain name is due to expire shortly. You may see this and decide to hold on rather than instantly buy an alternative.

You can search for domains with domain and page ranking authorities. Other feature include backlinks and page flow. Domain Hole does require you to register a free account which is a minor annoyance.

#21: NameSmith

NameSmith is advertised as a business name generator. However, it works great as a domain name generator which produces fantastic ideas from keywords. With nose domain name generators you can filter names by different types and categories.

With NameSmith they offer quite a bit more! Some of the filters include:

• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Fantasy names
• Misspelled names
• Rhymes
• Portmanteaus

This makes things a little more interesting. I found that my creative brain started ticking a lot more from what they offered. Although you may not have considered this, NameSmith vow never to use your ideas or keywords by selling them on.

If you’re trying to find an easy way to build your WordPress website, we’ve put together the best WordPress page builders and compared them. WordPress page builder plugins are super handy if you want a professional-looking website FAST!

WordPress page builders enable you to create, edit and customise your website without needing to learn to code. But with the amount of page builder plugins available, how will you know which is the best one to use? That’s why we’ve taken the time to install each page builder plugin mentioned in this article to give you an honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Why use a drag and drop page builder for WordPress?

If you’ve never created a blog or website before, building your website from scratch can be overwhelming. Although WordPress is a powerful place to build a website, it can take sometime to learn. Even now I still struggle with elements of it and I’ve been using it for years.

When you download a theme from WordPress or other sources, customising it can be difficult without any coding knowledge. When you’ve used other website builders like Wix and Weebly, you may wish that WordPress had drag and drop functionality.

Although WordPress isn’t a drag and drop website builder, you can install plugins that make it so. As you can imagine, because WordPress is open-source, there’s plenty of great (and not so great) plugins available. This is why I felt the need to compare them! Below is a list of the best drag and drop page builders for WordPress (in no particular order).

What about WordPress block editor (Gutenberg)?

The WordPress block editor (also known as Gutenberg), recently became WordPress’s default editor. As the name suggests, the block editor uses blocks (or elements) that you can drag and drop onto your site.

People seem to be questioning whether the block editor counts as a page builder in itself. If so, would there be any need for other drag and drop page builder plugins?

If you’re looking to create beautifully designed WordPress websites and layouts, my suggestion is to use a page builder plugin. The block editor, although good, isn’t a match for the list below.

Potentially in the future you could combine some plugins with Gutenberg and not have to spend money on a drag and drop editor. However, in its current state, I would suggest using one of the recommended plugins below.

#1: Divi

Divi is a plugin for WordPress that combines a drag and drop theme creator and page builder. Divi is incredibly easy to use which is why I love it so much (and recommend it). There’s well over 20 templates to get started with to kickstart your inspiration.

Divi is a perfect option for beginners due to its WYSIWYG nature. It’s visual editor makes it easy to get started on any website in minutes. Whilst you’re developing your site, you can preview all of your work immediately without having to save drafts and click on separate previews.

There’s almost 50 content modules to play around with (and use of course). You can drag and drop these anywhere on the layout of your site, and remove them in the same way. You can customise each element and there’s even advanced settings if you’re feeling adventurous.

One the features I find unique about Divi is the fact you can save layouts for later use. If you’ve created something that you love but don’t want to use it right now, simply save your Divi layout and retrieve it another time.

Although the Divi builder supports the Divi theme, you can use it with any WordPress theme making it very versatile.

For just £71 per year, you’ll have unlimited access to Divi, Extra, Bloom, Monarch and more. Alternatively if you want lifetime access it will cost you £198 as a one off fee. This is easily one of the most affordable page builder plugins on the market.

#2: Elementor

You’ve probably heard of Elementor before. It’s extremely popular for many WordPress users. Elementor is a live drag and drop page builder. You can see your changes in real-time as you’re creating and editing your website.

Creating sections is really easy. All you need to do is choose the number of columns for each section and get cracking! The drag and drop functionality is pretty self explanatory. A selection of widgets are available to use; simply drag and drop them onto your site.

One of Elementor’s defining features for me is the extent of their widgets. There’s SO many to choose from including basic text widgets, sliders, testimonials, icons and social media. You can customise each widget within its own settings, as well as using third party widgets. By third party I mean other plugins that aren’t Elementor.

Much like Divi, Elementor comes with a selection of templates to start building from. If you’re stuck for inspiration, these are a good place to start. You can edit any of the elements on the templates or replace them with a choice of your own.

Elementor does have a FREE version, but it’s limited. You’ll have access to 30 basic widgets and the page builder, but nothing else. The pro version starts from £39 per year for 1 site. Or £79 per year for 3 sites. If you want to use Elementor on up to 1,000 sites it will cost you £158 which is only slightly less than Divi’s unlimited lifetime plan.

#3: Beaver Builder

Beaver Builders is pretty great from the offset. There’s an onboarding tour to get you stared so you can quickly learn the interface. The premium page builder is very fast and powerful and boasts a live drag and drop interface.

As with some other drag and drop page builders, you can see your changes as you make them. I found it was really easy to use, dragging and dropping elements from the sidebar. You can also customise any of the elements by clicking on them to make them more to your own liking.

Regardless of what you want to use Beaver Builder for, there’s elements to suit almost every user. From sliders to carousels, buttons to content blocks. You’ll find over 30 templates to get you started if you want something pre-built.

Beaver Builder is compatible with the latest version of WordPress (which is always a relief). You can try out a live demo of Beaver Builder before you buy it. The standard plan will cost you £79 but won’t include Beaver Builder themes or be multisite capable. The Pro version costs £158 and Agency costs £317.

#4: Visual Composer

Visual Composer‘s site builder is very user friendly and offers a simple drag and drop tool. You can use the available elements to build your website the way you want it.

It offers a front end editor so you can see your changes as you make them. Unlike any of the other plugins mentioned in this list so far, Visual Composer gives you the option of advanced editing. You can edit your logo, headers and footers, menus and more.

When you drag and drop an element on your site, you can edit the element. This allows you to customise anything in the way you want to. The editor itself is easy to use and understand. You can add and edit backgrounds, carousels, slideshows, videos etc.

I’ve used Visual Composer with many WordPress themes and can vouch for its compatibility. You can switch and change themes without worrying about losing your data. There’s support for the new Gutenberg editor, Yoast SEO, and Google Fonts.

Visual Composer have a free version of their plugin which gives you lifetime access but of course has limitations. Pricing plans start from £47 per year which gives you access for one website, premium elements, templates etc. For 3 websites it will cost you £118, or £277 for agencies with unlimited websites.

#5: Themify

Themify is actually a theme shop where you can purchase said themes. Themify Builder is included with all themes but you can install it separately as a solo page builder.

Themify Builder has a selection of pre-built modules to get you started with straight away. My experience of it is that it’s very intuitive and easy to use. My only real gripe with it is that a lot of the modules require you to install other plugins for them to work.

Themify comes with over 40 layouts that are ready to use. Of course you can customise them, but if you want something out of the box, it’s there for the taking. There’s plenty of versatility, with themes covering gyms, restaurants and even online stores.

Themify Builder is quick to get the hang of. You can build landing pages within minutes and get your site live in a few simple steps. Similar to Divi, you can make changes to your site in the live environment. I’ve never had any issues with Themify and found it to be very reliable.

The Themify Builder is free to download and works with any WordPress theme. If you want a theme to go with it, 1 theme will cost £47 and offer 1 year support. If you want a bit more for your money the Master Club will cost you £71 and comes with 42 themes, photoshop files, plugins and more. The Lifetime Club costs £198 and as it says on the tin, lasts a lifetime.

#6: SiteOrigin

SiteOrigin is one of the more popular site builder plugins, statistically. It has over 1 million active installations as it offers a responsive drag and drop page builder experience that’s easy to use. When I’ve used SiteOrigin, regardless of the device I was using, the page builder ensured the layout was responsive (great for SEO).

One of the main reasons SiteOrigin is so popular is because it’s free. Who doesn’t love free?! Some users have reported that they’ve struggled with getting used to the plugin to begin with, but once you get used to it there shouldn’t be any issues.

With SiteOrigin you can use WordPress’s own widgets to your hearts desire. The plugin comes with a few of its own widgets too, but you can install any others should you wish. One of my favourite features of SiteOrigin is the history tool. You can undo and redo changes you’ve made so you don’t have to worry about losing any work.

The Best WordPress Page Builder Plugins

Comparing the best page builder plugins for WordPress was very enjoyable. I mean, at times it wasn’t easy, as they all have really good points to them. Going through each one, the clear winner for me has to be Divi.

Divi is ideal for beginners and experts alike. There’s plenty of content modules, templates, and their drag and drop functionality is one of the best. A lifetime licence will cost you £198 and gives you some awesome features. If you’re building lots of sites, I’d highly recommend it.

That being said, I certainly wouldn’t dismiss the other drag and drop page builder plugins. They all have their own unique features which may suit some users better than others. They are most definitely worth a look at, even if you opt for a free version (or trial if they offer it).

So, that’s it – the best WordPress Page Builders compared (for 2019 so far). I’m going to keep my eyes peeled and will keep testing out and installing plugins throughout the year. If things change or if I discover anything new, I’ll be sure to update this list.