Best Website Builder for Small Business in 2025

So, what’s the best website builder for your small business? The short answer: it’s the one that clicks with your specific goals, giving you the right mix of user-friendliness and powerful marketing tools. If you just need to get online fast, platforms like Wix and Squarespace are fantastic all-rounders. But for anyone serious about e-commerce, Shopify is the undisputed king.

How to Choose Your Small Business Website Builder

Picking the best website builder isn’t about jumping on the most popular bandwagon. It’s about finding the right tool for your business. Your budget, how comfortable you are with tech, and where you see your business in a few years will all shape this decision.

The market for these platforms has completely blown up, mostly thanks to small businesses needing an affordable way to get online. The global website builder market is expected to hit $2.32 billion by 2025—a huge indicator of just how essential these tools have become. This boom means you have more options than ever, but it also means there’s a lot of noise to cut through.

To make it simple, start by asking yourself a few straightforward questions:

• What’s my main goal? Is it selling products, booking appointments, showing off a portfolio, or just getting basic information out there? A clear goal helps you focus on builders with the right features (e.g., strong booking tools vs. powerful e-commerce).
• How much time do I have? Do you need a website live by tomorrow, or can you spend some time learning a more detailed system? Your answer will determine if an instant AI creator or a more hands-on builder is right for you.
• What’s my budget? Think about both the one-time setup and the recurring monthly fees. Don’t forget to factor in potential costs for apps or plugins.
• How will I find customers? Make sure the builder has solid SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and marketing features baked in to help you grow.

Top Website Builders at a Glance

To give you a quick lay of the land, I’ve put together a high-level comparison of the top players. This table should help you quickly see how the leading options stack up against each other.

Platform	Best For	Ease of Use	Starting Price	Key Feature
Wix	Overall Flexibility	Very High	~$17/mo	Intuitive drag-and-drop editor and a massive app market.
Shopify	E-commerce Stores	High	~$29/mo	Unbeatable sales tools and inventory management system.
Squarespace	Creatives & Services	Very High	~$16/mo	Stunning design templates and integrated booking tools.
WordPress	Long-Term Growth	Medium	~$5/mo (Hosting)	Complete control and customization with thousands of plugins.
Solo AI	Speed & Simplicity	Extremely High	Free Options	Generates a complete, ready-to-go site in minutes using AI.

This table is just a starting point, but it highlights the core strengths of each platform, helping you narrow down your choices based on what matters most to you right now.

For small businesses jumping into e-commerce, it’s about more than just a pretty design; you need to understand the whole process. This guide on how to build a website to sell products is a fantastic, step-by-step resource that I often recommend.

Actionable Tip: Don’t just read reviews—take advantage of the free trials. Actually spend an hour or two playing around in the dashboard and editor of your top two choices. Nothing beats hands-on experience for figuring out which platform feels the most natural to you.

Choosing your website builder is a foundational business decision, so it’s worth a little bit of homework. The right builder won’t feel like a technical chore; it will feel like a powerful partner helping your business grow.

When you start looking for the best website builder for your small business, three names pop up everywhere: Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. They all promise to get you online, but they’re built for fundamentally different people with different goals. Picking the right one isn’t just about convenience; it’s a strategic business decision.

The numbers don’t lie. Market share data from 2024 shows WordPress is the undisputed giant, powering around 68% of websites with a known content management system. Wix follows at 13% and Squarespace at 8.5%. The entire website builder market hit a value of about $2.18 billion in 2024 and is only getting bigger, proving just how critical this choice is for businesses. You can discover more insights about the website builder market to see where things are headed.

Let’s cut through the noise and look at what each platform really offers, so you can match their strengths to what your business actually needs.

Wix: For the All-Around Business Owner

Wix is for the small business owner who thinks, “I need a great-looking website, and I need it yesterday.” Its biggest selling point is a super-intuitive drag-and-drop editor that gives you total creative control. This means you can click on any element (like a picture or text box) and move it anywhere on the page, just like arranging objects in a presentation slide.

This makes it a fantastic option for service providers, local shops, and consultants who want to manage their online presence without having to call a developer for every little change.

Wix gives you two ways to get started:

• Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence): Just answer a few questions about your business, and it generates a surprisingly complete website in minutes. You can then tweak it from there.
• Wix Editor: This is the classic, full-control experience. Drag any element, drop it anywhere you want on the page.

Key Differentiator: The Wix App Market is its secret weapon. With over 500 apps, you can bolt on advanced features like event bookings, restaurant reservations, or specialized marketing tools with a couple of clicks. It lets the platform grow with you.

Imagine a local yoga studio. They can start with a simple site showing their location and class times. A few months later, they can add the Wix Bookings app to let clients schedule and pay for classes online. That kind of seamless integration is a huge win for a growing business.

This infographic breaks down the core features—like drag-and-drop design, mobile-ready layouts, and SEO tools—that modern businesses need.

It really drives home the point that a great website builder has to be both easy to use and powerful enough to actually drive business.

Squarespace: For the Visually-Driven Brand

Squarespace has built its entire reputation on one thing: ridiculously beautiful design. Its templates are famous for their clean, modern, and visually impressive aesthetic, making it the platform of choice for creative professionals.

Photographers, designers, artists, and high-end consultants absolutely flourish on Squarespace. For these types of businesses, a website isn’t just a digital brochure—it’s a portfolio and a huge piece of their brand identity.

Unlike Wix’s completely free-form editor, Squarespace uses a more structured, section-based system. This means you add and arrange pre-designed content blocks within a grid, which might feel a bit restrictive at first, but it’s intentional.

Actionable Tip: That structure is a safety net. It prevents you from accidentally creating a messy, misaligned layout—a common mistake for DIY website builders. It forces a clean, professional look even if you don’t have an eye for design.

Squarespace also packs a ton of high-quality features right into its core platform, so you’re less reliant on third-party apps. Its tools for blogging, building portfolios, and scheduling appointments are widely considered best-in-class. A boutique marketing agency, for example, can show off its case studies in a stunning gallery and set up a client booking system without ever leaving the platform.

WordPress: For the Ambitious, Scalable Business

WordPress is a totally different animal. It’s not an all-in-one builder; it’s an open-source content management system (CMS). Think of it this way: Wix and Squarespace are like leasing a fully furnished apartment where the landlord handles maintenance. WordPress is like owning the land and building your house from scratch—you have total freedom, but you’re also responsible for upkeep.

That ownership gives you absolute, unparalleled control. With a library of over 60,000 plugins (apps that add new features), you can add pretty much any function you can dream up, whether it’s a complex membership site, a multi-language e-commerce empire, or a custom online course platform.

WordPress is the right long-term play for businesses expecting major growth or those with very specific functional needs. If you’re planning a content-heavy site with a sophisticated SEO strategy or a massive online store, WordPress has the raw power and scalability you’ll eventually need.

But all that power comes with more responsibility. You’re on the hook for finding your own hosting (the service that keeps your site online), managing security, and running updates. While page builders like Elementor have made the design process far more visual and user-friendly, it’s still a bigger learning curve than Wix or Squarespace.

Ultimately, choosing between these three comes down to a simple trade-off. Do you need speed and ease-of-use (Wix), impeccable design out of the box (Squarespace), or limitless potential for growth and customization (WordPress)? Your answer will point you straight to the right platform for your business.

Taking a Closer Look at the Specialists: Webflow and Shopify

Once you move past the all-in-one builders, you’ll find a different breed of platform—the specialists. These tools don’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, they’re laser-focused on doing one thing exceptionally well, making them the perfect choice for small business owners who know exactly what they need.

Two of the biggest names in this space are Webflow and Shopify. They represent a fundamental fork in the road every business owner faces: Is your main goal selling a service with a stunning, custom-branded experience? Or is it moving products through a powerful, streamlined e-commerce machine? Your answer will almost certainly point you to one of these two.

Webflow: For When Design Is Non-Negotiable

Webflow is the go-to for design-first businesses that crave the power of custom code without having to actually write any. It’s built for anyone who feels boxed in by traditional drag-and-drop builders and wants total creative freedom over every last pixel. Think of it as a professional designer’s toolkit, but made accessible for the rest of us.

Its visual editor feels more like Photoshop than a typical website builder. You aren’t just slotting pre-made blocks into a template; you’re actually building with core web elements like divs (containers for content) and classes (reusable style rules), all through a visual interface. This unlocks a level of creative control that lets you build a truly unique brand experience.

This makes Webflow a perfect fit for:

• Creative Agencies: To build jaw-dropping client websites that break the mold.
• Designers and Freelancers: For crafting portfolios with complex animations and slick interactions.
• Service-Based Brands: Where the website’s design is a direct reflection of the quality of work.

Though a newer player, Webflow is growing fast and shows just how diverse the market has become. As of April 2025, Webflow held a 1.2% market share among websites with a known CMS, and it’s been growing at a compound rate of about 10% since 2022. That kind of growth signals its rising popularity with businesses that put design first. You can dig into more of Webflow’s market share stats here.

Actionable Tip: If you’re dreaming of custom animations—like elements fading in on scroll or buttons that morph on hover—Webflow’s Interactions panel is where the magic happens. It lets you build complex, timeline-based animations without knowing a lick of CSS or JavaScript, giving your site a professional polish that’s tough to replicate elsewhere.

Shopify: The Undisputed King of E-commerce

While Webflow obsesses over design, Shopify is unapologetically focused on one thing: selling stuff online. If your business deals with inventory, shipping, and taking payments for physical or digital goods, Shopify is almost always the answer. It’s less of a website builder and more of a complete commerce platform.

Shopify’s strength is its massive suite of tools built specifically for retail. From the moment you sign up, everything is engineered to get you selling.

Its heavy hitters include:

• Inventory Management: Easily track stock, get low-stock alerts, and manage product variations like size and color across multiple locations.
• Payment Processing: Shopify Payments is built right in, simplifying transactions and often offering better rates than third-party options. It also supports over 100 other payment gateways if you need them.
• Multi-Channel Selling: Sell on your website, social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and in-person with Shopify POS—all managed from a single dashboard.

This intense focus on commerce makes Shopify the default choice for any business that’s serious about selling. Think about a small business making handmade candles. They can start on Shopify, manage a small inventory, and even sell at a local market using the POS system. As they grow, they can scale to handle thousands of orders without ever outgrowing the platform.

Ultimately, the choice between Webflow and Shopify is a clear-cut one for most small businesses. They don’t really compete; they serve different masters. If your business value is communicated through bespoke design and a unique user experience, Webflow gives you the canvas. If your business lives and dies by product sales, Shopify provides the engine.

Understanding the New Wave of AI Website Creators

While traditional website builders give you templates and tools to work with, a whole new kind of technology is changing the game. Instead of handing you a framework to fill in, these AI-powered platforms ask for a few details about your business and then generate a complete, unique website for you in minutes.

This isn’t just about speeding up the old process—it’s a fundamentally different way of thinking about getting online. For the time-strapped entrepreneur, this shift is huge. It means launching a professional website is no longer a project that takes days or weeks, but something you can knock out during a coffee break.

The Shift From Building to Generating

Platforms like Wix and Squarespace give you a beautiful but empty canvas. You’re the one responsible for writing every word, finding every image, and figuring out the layout. It’s a proven method, but it demands a serious investment of time and creative energy.

AI website creators flip this model completely. They act as your instant web designer, copywriter, and strategist all in one. You just provide the raw ingredients—your business name, what you do, and where you’re located—and the AI handles the heavy lifting of putting it all together.

Take a platform like Solo AI Website Creator as an example. It doesn’t show you a library of templates to choose from. Instead, it asks a few simple questions and instantly produces a fully-formed website, complete with:

• Relevant Copywriting: Text that actually describes your services and speaks to the right audience.
• Professional Images: High-quality visuals that fit your industry.
• Logical Layout: A clean, user-friendly structure with clear navigation that makes sense.

This move from “do-it-yourself” to “done-for-you” is one of the biggest changes we’ve seen in the world of website builders for small businesses.

Speed and Efficiency Above All Else

The single biggest advantage here is incredible speed. For so many small businesses, the biggest hurdle to getting online isn’t a lack of technical skill—it’s a lack of time. A recent survey found that 29% of small business owners work more than 50 hours a week, leaving very little room for big projects.

AI website creators tackle this problem head-on. They compress the entire website creation process from hours or days into just a couple of minutes. This efficiency frees you up to focus on running your business, not building your website.

Think about a local plumber who needs a simple, professional site to list their services and get leads. With a traditional builder, they might lose a whole weekend tweaking designs and writing content. With an AI creator, they can have a site live and ready for customers before their first job of the day.

This tech isn’t trying to replace complex, custom-coded platforms like Webflow or massive e-commerce engines like Shopify. It’s offering a powerful and disruptive new option for the millions of small businesses that need to prioritize efficiency and cost. The goal is to get a functional, attractive website online as fast as humanly possible, without the usual headaches.

If that sounds like the streamlined approach you’ve been looking for, you can learn more about how to create your own instant online presence with a mini AI site. This approach makes sure your business can establish a digital footprint almost instantly, removing a major hurdle for a lot of entrepreneurs.

Essential Features Every Small Business Website Needs

A great website does more than just look pretty. It’s your hardest-working employee—one that’s busy generating leads, closing sales, and building your brand 24/7. When you’re picking a website builder, it’s easy to get distracted by flashy templates, but the features under the hood are what will actually drive your growth.

To cut through the noise, I’ve broken down the absolute must-have features into four critical areas. Think of this as your personal scorecard for evaluating each platform. This will help you choose a true business partner, not just a design tool.

Core SEO Capabilities

Let’s be blunt: if customers can’t find you on Google, your beautiful website might as well be invisible. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how you get seen. A good website builder won’t do it all for you, but it must give you the basic tools to manage your own SEO.

Here’s what to look for in any platform you’re seriously considering:

• Customizable Page Titles and Meta Descriptions: These are the headline and short summary that people see in Google search results. You need control over them to write compelling copy that encourages clicks.
• Editable URL Slugs: This is the part of the URL that comes after the “.com”. A clean URL like your-site.com/services/roof-repair is far better for users and search engines than a jumbled one like your-site.com/page-id-123.
• Image Alt Text: This is a short, descriptive tag for your images that screen readers use for visually impaired users. It also helps search engines understand what your images are about, which can help you rank in image searches.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Your website must automatically resize and look great on any screen, from a large desktop monitor to a small smartphone. This is non-negotiable.

Actionable Tip: As soon as your site goes live, connect it to Google Search Console. It’s a free tool that shows you how your site is performing in Google search and alerts you to technical issues. A good builder will have a simple verification process to get you started.

For brick-and-mortar businesses, getting found by nearby customers is everything. To really nail this, check out our guide on how to boost your local SEO and dominate your neighborhood search results.

E-commerce and Payment Functions

You might not be selling products right now, but what about next year? Choosing a builder with solid e-commerce capabilities gives you the freedom to grow without having to start over from scratch. This could be as simple as a “Buy Now” button for a single service or as complex as a full online store.

When you’re digging into e-commerce features, keep a close eye on these details:

• Payment Gateways: Ensure the builder integrates with trusted payment processors like Stripe and PayPal, or has its own reliable option like Shopify Payments. The more ways a customer can pay, the better.
• Transaction Fees: Most platforms take a small cut of each sale, usually between 2% to 3%. These little fees add up, so compare them carefully.
• Inventory Management: If you’re selling physical goods, you need a system that automatically tracks what’s in stock. Don’t get caught selling something you don’t have.
• Tax Calculation: A great e-commerce platform will save you a massive headache by helping you automatically calculate sales tax based on your customer’s location.

As you grow, your store will need more tools. See how the platform handles various ecommerce apps and integrations. This flexibility is what allows you to adapt and scale your online sales over time.

Marketing and Third-Party Integrations

Your website shouldn’t exist on an island. It needs to connect to all the other marketing tools you rely on, creating a smooth, automated system for your business. An integration is simply a way for two different software tools to “talk” to each other.

For example, when someone signs up for your newsletter on your site, an integration should instantly add their email to your Mailchimp or ConvertKit list without you having to do anything manually.

Look for a builder with a strong app marketplace or built-in connections for:

• Email Marketing: To grow your list and stay in touch with customers.
• Social Media: To easily share content and track ad campaigns.
• Analytics: To plug in tools like Google Analytics and really understand your visitors.
• Booking and Scheduling: A lifesaver for service businesses that need to manage appointments directly on their site.

Essential Feature Checklist for Small Businesses

To make this even clearer, I’ve put together a quick checklist. Use this to see, at a glance, how the big players stack up on the features that matter most for a small business.

Feature	Wix	Squarespace	WordPress	Shopify	Webflow
Core SEO Tools	✅ (Built-in)	✅ (Built-in)	✅ (Via Plugins)	✅ (Built-in)	✅ (Advanced)
Blogging Platform	✅	✅ (Excellent)	✅ (The Best)	✅	✅ (Advanced)
Basic E-commerce	✅	✅	✅ (Via Plugins)	✅ (Core focus)	✅
Advanced E-commerce	🆗 (Good)	🆗 (Good)	✅ (Highly scalable)	✅ (The Best)	🆗 (Good)
App Marketplace	✅ (Large)	✅ (Growing)	✅ (Massive)	✅ (Massive)	✅ (Growing)
Appointment Booking	✅ (Built-in)	✅ (Built-in)	✅ (Via Plugins)	✅ (Via Apps)	✅ (Via Integrations)
Membership Areas	✅	✅	✅ (Via Plugins)	✅ (Via Apps)	✅ (Advanced)
Mobile Responsiveness	✅	✅	✅ (Theme dependent)	✅	✅

This table isn’t about finding a winner with the most checkmarks. It’s about finding the right tool for your specific business needs, both now and in the future.

Scalability and Future Growth

The builder you choose today shouldn’t become a cage for your business tomorrow. Scalability simply means the platform can handle your success—more traffic, more products, more features—without slowing down or breaking.

Take a moment to think about where your business might be in two or three years. Will you want to add a blog? Launch a members-only section? Start selling internationally?

A powerhouse like WordPress offers almost infinite potential through its endless library of plugins. A focused platform like Shopify is built from the ground up to handle massive stores with thousands of products. Simpler builders are great for getting started quickly, but you might hit a ceiling if your ambitions outgrow their feature set. The goal is to pick a platform that fits not just where you are, but where you’re going.

A Few Lingering Questions

Even after digging through all the details, you probably still have a few questions rolling around in your head. Let’s tackle the most common ones small business owners ask when they’re on the hunt for the right website builder.

How Much Should a Small Business Website Cost?

The price for a small business website varies, but it’s generally predictable. All-in-one builders like Wix or Squarespace usually cost between $15-$50 per month for a professional plan (which includes a custom domain name and removes their branding). For most startups, this is the most straightforward option.

Then you have WordPress, where the software itself is free. However, you’ll need to pay for web hosting, which can run anywhere from $5 to $30 a month for a reliable plan. You might also buy a premium theme ($50-$100 one-time) or plugins ($15-$200+ per year). E-commerce platforms like Shopify start around $30 per month, plus transaction fees on each sale.

Actionable Tip: Don’t just pick the cheapest option. Set a realistic budget that includes the marketing and sales features you need to actually attract customers. Think of it as an investment in a 24/7 salesperson, not just another bill.

Can I Switch Website Builders Later On?

The short answer is yes, but it’s a manual and time-consuming process you should try to avoid. You can’t just move a website from one builder to another. Most platforms use their own proprietary technology, meaning your design, layout, and specific features are locked in.

If you switch, you will have to rebuild your site from scratch on the new platform. This involves manually copying all your text, re-uploading all your images, and setting up all your pages again. This often leads to downtime for your business, which is why it’s so important to pick a scalable platform from day one that can grow with you.

Do I Need Coding Skills to Build a Website?

Absolutely not. Modern website builders are specifically designed for people with no technical background. Platforms like Wix and Squarespace use intuitive visual editors where you just drag and drop elements onto the page. If you can create a presentation slide, you can build a professional-looking website.

Even a more advanced system like WordPress can be used without ever looking at code, thanks to its massive library of themes and page builder plugins. A new wave of tools like Solo AI Website Creator takes this even further by automating the entire design process, generating a full site for you from just a few text prompts.

Is SEO More Important Than Website Design?

This is like asking if your car’s engine is more important than its wheels—you need both to get anywhere. They are two sides of the same coin and are completely intertwined. A beautiful design builds trust and guides visitors toward a purchase, but it’s useless if no one ever finds your site. That’s where SEO comes in.

On the flip side, a perfectly optimized site that ranks #1 on Google will fail if visitors land on a confusing or unprofessional page. They’ll just click the back button, telling Google your site isn’t a good result, which can hurt your ranking over time. The best website builder will have strong, built-in tools for both design and SEO, so you don’t have to compromise.

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Ready to get online without the usual hassle? Solo AI Website Creator can build your professional website in just a few minutes, completely free. Get started today and see how easy it can be to launch your brand online. Launch Your Free Website Now