It was once a way to build a website to hire a developer, wait for weeks for the code to be written, and spend thousands of dollars even before your first customer saw your brand. That is not the case anymore. Nowadays, a website builder really empowers you. These tools let you build a professional online presence with the help of visual editors, ready-made templates, and friendly drag-and-drop features – no coding skills required.

For small business owners, there is no second chance. Your website is usually the initial contact that a potential customer has with your brand. It is not only about how it looks; in fact, it encompasses credibility, cost of operations, and the customer experience. A sloppy, slow, or ugly website scares visitors away to your competitors. On the other hand, a classy, workable site is your salesperson who works 24/7.

The software decision that brings this experience to life is probably one of the key decisions you will make. In this guide, you will find the main factors for making a decision, the top picks like Shopify and Squarespace, and a straightforward guide to picking the platform that matches your business goals.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Website Builder

Different platforms have different features, and while many marketing campaigns highlight how easy and fast these tools are, the real experience can vary significantly from one tool to another. That’s why it’s important to look beyond the hype and focus on practical functionality. Insights shared on the Softer Insight blog highlight how evaluating platforms based on real-world use cases—such as performance tracking, scalability, and ease of integration—can help businesses choose tools that actually deliver results. Here are the must-have features that you should consider.

Ease of Use

You are time-poor. If you give away three days to understand how to put a logo on the website, you are actually handing money to others. Get a platform that really cares about user experience. Drag-and-drop interfaces give you a way to visually move items on the screen, while a platform that relies on code might force you to revise HTML or CSS for making simple changes. Most small business owners would not even consider a tool with which they have to face a steep learning curve. They want a solution that will enable them to upload new products or publish new blog posts in minutes, not in hours.

Customization Options

Using a template is a wonderful way to simplify the work, yet you probably don’t want your bakery’s website to look ineligible to the accounting firm just around the corner. So it is very important to have a good level of customization. Some platform builders offer you a very limited choice where you just can’t change text and photos, while others use design elements you can rearrange in a way that suits you. This builder should at least give you the possibility to change the color, the fonts, and the layout of your website to reflect your brand effectively.

Pricing and Plans

The figure with which you are first greeted is almost never the total cost. When you put a budget, don’t only think about the subscription fee per month.

• Transaction Fees: Will the platform take a percentage of the transactions made through your site?

• Domain Names: Is there a domain that is included for the first year, or is it an additional cost?

• Premium Apps: Are there essential features like email marketing and advanced analytics that will have to be paid for?

Never forget to think in terms of value rather than the lowest price. A free plan could be beneficial for your pocket at the time of signing up but may lead to your site being plastered with third-party ads which will ruin your professional image.

SEO Capabilities

Things look good on your site; however, it is pointless if nobody gets to see it. SEO (search engine optimization) is a way of how the website gets located on Google. Your online store platform should definitely have built-in SEO functions. Find out if the builder lets its users change meta titles and descriptions, customize URL structures, and add alt text to images. Besides, being mobile-friendly is a huge factor in ranking, so make sure that the builder automatically makes your website medium-friendly (smartphones and tablets).

Customer Support

Technical difficulties cannot be excluded. Imagine your checkout page breaking down at 8 PM on a Friday; obviously, you don’t want to wait till Monday morning to receive an answer to your email. So, you need a strong customer support team. You should opt for those platforms which not only have a 24/7 support service via live chat or phone but also have an extensive knowledge base and an active community forum, the latter two being your helpers when the issues are minor and you want to solve them on your own.

Popular Website Builders for Small Businesses

The world is full of choices, yet the few giants have captured the market for a very good reason.

Shopify

Shopify is the ecommerce platform which is most popular among the businesses that are very ambitious in their sales growth. It offers excellent features for selling only, and its inventory management system, shipping tools, and payment processing are very efficient. Even though it might be a little more expensive than your average website builder, its highly functional app system allows you to add almost everything you can ever dream of as your business grows.

Squarespace

Squarespace is often referred to as a “designer’s choice”. It is well known for its beautiful, award-winning templates. Therefore, it can be a great choice for creative portfolios, food business entities, or service providers whose main asset is quality images. Squarespace is an all-in-one product that combines marketing tools, scheduling features, and hosting into one chic package.

Wix

Wix is all about compromise between structure and freedom. Its unrestricted editor is a big hit with those who want to have full control over where every element is placed on the page. Wix presents a very wide spectrum of versatility; it suits a consultant in need of a booking system just as much as it does an artist who sells prints. Through a great app market, it becomes even easier to enhance your site with whatever feature you like.

Weebly

If simplicity and minimalism are your kind of things, then Weebly is a very good choice. It is also the most suitable for the very small shops or plain, informative sites. After being acquired by Square, Weebly now has many integrated payment features, this way it becomes a dependable solution for the brick-and-mortar stores that need an online presence.

Comparing the Giants: A Closer Look

When preparing your final list, it always helps to get the direct comparison from the tech gurus. Thus, for instance, reviewing sites that are well known like Cybernews regularly benchmark these platforms against one another. In case you cannot decide between the two leading brands in the market, their thorough review of Shopify vs Squarespace helps you figure out the differences between pricing, ease of use, and transaction fees.

Step-by-Step Guide to Choosing a Website Builder

1. Define Your Needs and Goals

Make sure that you clearly understand what you are going to use the website for. Are you after gaining the leads, running a blog with a lot of pieces of content, or do you want to have a full-fledged online store platform? A photographer will need a very visual and image gallery-based site, thus, a developer of such should be geared up to deliver that. Knowing your ‘why’ immediately makes half of the options disappear.

2. Research and Compare

Make yourself a list of 2-3 platforms that you consider to be the most suitable for your needs and compare them according to the factors of ease of use, customization, pricing, SEO, and customer support which have been already discussed earlier.

3. Take Advantage of Free Trials

Make sure that you never rush into a paid subscription without first trying out the product. Most website builders provide a free trial period of 14 to 30 days. This is a perfect time for you to check the tool. First of all, you try to make a page very quickly – will it take you more than 10 min? Then you check if you can easily find the features on the dashboard. However, if you are a bit frustrated by the tool during the trial, be sure that it won’t get better after you have paid for it.

4. Read User Reviews

Try to find the opinions of those businesses that go hand in hand with yours in size and are operating in the same sector as you. Marketing copy is good at telling you the positive things but user reviews are an excellent source of the customers’ negative experiences. Thus, pay attention to the criticisms by the reviewers concerning the platform’s downtime, support team, or if any payment issues have been reported.

5. Consider Scalability

Look into the future by asking yourself whether the chosen solution can still serve you when your business grows twice as big within the next year. Moving websites is a real pain and you can do without it. Hence, your best bet is to take a platform that will allow you to use premium plans or even enterprise solutions as your revenue gets bigger.

The Right Foundation for Growth

A website builder choice is a trade-off decision where what you have in your wallet, your tech skills, and your business plans play the most important roles. The user-friendly, expandable, and supportive website is the one that can become a reliable digital storefront.

Without a doubt, there is no ultimate “perfect” building tool, but certainly, there is one which by far will suit your current level of growth better. Whether you prefer the artistic freedom offered by Wix, the style of Squarespace, or the selling capabilities of Shopify, taking that first step is what really counts.

Ready to Build?

Get started: Why don’t you take a free trial from any of the platforms above and create your very first homepage? Share your thoughts: Which website builder are you currently using, and how do you feel about it? Write to us in the comments below.More info: Visit our resource center for more digital storefront building tools.

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Meta title: How to Choose the Right Website Builder for Small Business

Meta description: Are you struggling to put your business on the Internet? Discover how you can select a website builder by weighing different aspects besides features and pricing, including the leading ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Squarespace.