10 Top Website Builders for Affiliate Marketers and Professional Consultants

Building a professional website doesn’t have to take a lot of effort, time, or money.

Whether you’re a small business owner, artist, photographer, Agency, writer, or consultant, there’s a website builder out there for you — even if you don’t know anything about code or You have never built a Website before.

Popular website builders such as Wix, Strikingly, and WordPress have made it incredibly easy for even super beginners to get their first site up and running within a day.

The good thing is Some vendors offer free domain hosting for the first year on some plans which means you don’t have to get your domain from a third-party site like Namecheap, Hostgator, Google Domains, or GoDaddy.

Generally, you can get a professional website or individual website built for around $8 to $10 a month with an annual subscription. Most e-commerce plans range between $20 to $25 per month, and if you need to add multiple staff members, prices can go up to $300 per month for a premium plan.

What you need to consider before choosing a Website Builder.

What are you looking for in a Website?

Are you looking for a good design structure? Or Are you a Typographer who loves to customize fonts, colors, and content? For example, Wix allows you to customize the mobile experience. 

Do you want to sell products (e-commerce)?

Most website builders have an e-commerce option available. If you plan to sell products online, sites like Shopify or BigCommerce focus on online sales with lots of e-commerce features. While WordPress offers lots of blogging features not to mention AliDropship for Drop-shipping businesses.

How do you want to Host your Website?

Do you want your visitor to download files? How many visitors do you expect per month? Remember, the more files you keep on your website, the more storage you will need plus bandwidth.

I think of bandwidth as the RAM in your computer or phone, if the RAM is let’s say 700MB, you are limited to specific apps while one with 3GB can even play some games on the phone.

Some Website builders offer Free domain names and free hosting if you purchase a specific plan.

What are your limitations and Payment methods?

The other big factor here is whether the platform offers a Free Trial and for How long? This helps you set up your website before you launch it.

Keep in mind that certain website editors are limited to the number of pages and sections and levels of navigation. Many builders don’t charge on top of the Square or Paypal rate (usually 3%), but some do. 

The Top 10 Website or E-commerce Store Builders

Alright, let’s look at the 10 Top Website Builders from which you can choose.

1. Wix

Wix is by far the best Website builder, the biggest player, with over 110 million websites built, integrated with great marketing tools, content management, and eCommerce apps.

The best part about Wix is the Automatic Website builder, that’s right, you don’t have to do a thing, okay just a few clicks. With the Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (“Wix ADI”) you require minimal effort, all the way to Wix Editor (Drag and Drop Website Editor) which is my favorite part about Wix.

There are two ways to create your professional website, blog, eCommerce store, or portfolio. First with the Wix ADI where you just answer a few questions and Wix will do the hard work for you or you can use the Wix Editor you can design from scratch. (Thousands of Templates to choose from) 

Watch this video to learn about the 2 Ways to Create a Website in Wix.

Did I mention that Wix is a Free Website Builder, Is that right? Sure, You can use it to create your own highly customized site without spending a dime? If you don’t mind you can switch to a starter site with ads or spend a $13-per-month Freelancers & Bloggers plan that covers most needs for a personal website. Wix also offers a $49-per-month Business website and eCommerce website plan for your online store.

Don’t forget to connect your Google Analytics tool plus other marketing tools like Facebook Marketing for Facebook Ads and Mailchimp for your email campaigns among other Wix integrated marketing and finance apps.

I have to admit Wix is my favorite. However, Wix does have a few drawbacks. For example, Wix is one of the few builders that have data limitations for each of its plan tiers, so if you want to upload endless photos and videos, or expect more than 1,000 visitors a month to your site, make sure you check how much data you need.

2. WordPress

WordPress, first of all, has a free open-source software on WordPress.org, well it still requires a website host and domain name but very powerful.

Now the WordPress.com website builder is even more powerful. Especially good for bloggers and writers. The WordPress website editor also needs a little bit of time but easy to work with. WordPress also has a very powerful drag-and-drop website builder like Wix or Duda.

Starting off at $5 per month to remove WordPress ads and giving you 6GB of storage. From there it goes to $8 for 13GB of storage and online selling capabilities, and a $25 option for custom WordPress theme options.

WordPress especially caters to bloggers but also with Content Management Services (CMS).

3. Squarespace

Overall, Squarespace’s website has a clean, professional, and inviting design, but not as intuitive and flexible as with Wix and Weebly.

The Squarespace editor needs a little bit more experimenting before you get the hang of it. It is packed with a fair number of tools and plugins, website templates, and strong photo editing. Plus, a responsive website editor means that your site will always look good on a mobile device, but you won’t be able to make mobile-specific edits like with Wix or Duda.

Squarespace starts off with a $12-a-month Personal plan, which includes unlimited storage, bandwidth, and a domain, and offers an $18 Business website plan that includes unlimited contributors, a Gmail pro account, an e-commerce store builder capabilities costing up to $24 to $40 for an online store. So, depending on your sales volume on a given month, you could save more for an online store.

4. Site123

Site123 is a Free website builder that offers a simple straightforward (as the name suggests. .)process for bloggers looking to get visibility on the internet without delay. In 3 steps, Site123 allows users to choose from 1 of 14 pre-designed layouts rather than the drag-and-drop style of designing. You can then fill in your content from the foundation of your design.

Site123 is one of the easiest free website builders to help you create your professional website even though it’s not the best choice if you want to make more specific customization for your site. 

Starting with a Free plan with 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth, Site123 helps you make sure your blog goes live as soon as possible. For $ 7.80 /Month, you get an eCommerce store, a free domain for 1 year, 10 GB storage, and 5GB bandwidth.

With no credit card required, you can open a free website at any time with one of the most user-friendly website builders out there.

5. Duda

If you care about great design and creative freedom over your website, Duda is easy to use, allows you to drag-and-drop individual elements and a good number of templates to choose from ranging from business, online store, restaurant, portfolio, services, travel, lifestyle, community among other templates.

Duda is primarily made for agencies and developers but freelancers too can find powerful SEO settings, decent blogs, and multilingual websites. Duda offers everything you need to easily build and host a rich, mobile-friendly, full-featured website, complete with commerce.

Now, Duda is not exactly a cheap website builder, there are 14-day free trial and premium plans starting at $14 per month for teams and agencies with Amazon Cloud hosting, email support, and other powerful tools and integrations. Ecommerce add-ons from $7.25 USD/month for 100 products and up-to infinite products for $39 USD/month.

So, if you are looking for a website builder that is easy to use, with stylish and colorful templates, and unique site personalization tools.

Oh, did I mention Duda is second to none for multilingual websites?

6. GoDaddy

GoDaddy is mostly known for custom domain names and web hosting services, but what you might or might not know is that GoDaddy offers website builder software. I used GoDaddy for my first website but I found that it’s website builder is not as flexible and customizable as Wix’s.

It is challenging to make specific site edits. You’re generally restricted to adding content blocks with preset text, image, and formatting, and can’t drag or drop individual elements. But if you’re looking for simplicity, and a user-friendly interface, GoDaddy could be a good option.

GoDaddy’s $10 monthly plan is for beginners but $15 Plan gets you a PayPal option and an SEO tool, while the $25-per-month Ecommerce plan for online store capabilities, with some cool marketing integrations like abandoned cart recovery, promotions, and Amazon, Etsy and eBay integrations.

7. Shopify

Is Wix your favorite Website builder? Shopify fills that role for an e-commerce store. Shopify offers a Super user-friendly way to get an e-commerce website store up and running online in less than a day. Shopify is a safe place to start for most people looking to start their online store.

Shopify focuses more on Sales and finances with a lot of support to beginner users who have little to no experience in inventory, tax, and shipping rates or just setting up an online store.

The “Basic Shopify” plan is $29 a month and covers most of the basic needs for an online store, while the $79-a-month plan offers gift cards and more staff accounts. They also offer a $299-a-month plan for large cooperations.

Now you might notice how Shopify has the highest costs so far, but if you don’t want to deal with a lot of technicalities and don’t have the time to build every block of your website, then Shopify is your friend. 

Shopify allows it’s clients to focus on Marketing and Making money, while it takes care of the behind the scenes more difficult tasks for you like inbuilt Add to cart recovery emails and very intuitive integrations for DropShippers.

8. BigCommerce

Medium- to large-scale online stores, BigCommerce offers unlimited product variants. BigCommerce might not be as easy as Shopify in building an online store but if you spend some time on the website builder, you will create your online store with ease.

The editor has a lot of features and flexibility similar to Wix, though it can be overwhelming for newcomers. As I said If you have a little experience, those cool features, and tools like product variants and tax rates will play a very big part even if you are scaling.

The lowest BigCommerce plan at $29 (Standard) gives you unlimited users, unlimited bandwidth and storage, unlimited products, and no added transaction fees. You can even link your e-commerce site to eBay, Google Shopping, and Amazon. Where the pricing gets a little tricky is with the sales thresholds: $79 (Plus), and $249 (Pro), but what you get at each level differs.

So basically you save a lot of money on transaction fees the more sales you make, you can always upgrade to the next plan tier if you make enough sales.

9. HostGator

Hostgator is a popular web hosting choice with some great website builder capabilities. Hostgator has a simple but powerful drag and drop website builder allowing you to quickly and easily build your website choosing from around 30 fully customizable mobile-friendly themes. Hostgator also gives you innovative analytical tools so you can always check how well your website is performing.

If you want a simple blog it will be good enough but If you want to create a more complex blog, the features there are lacking when compared to the other website builders that we have seen so far like Wix or WordPress. 

Hostgator lacks a free plan, email marketing, and the ability to schedule posts.

The Starter plan starts at $3.84 (£3.25) per month for a two-year plan. This Hostgator Starter will get you unmetered storage and bandwidth, unlimited pages, 1-year free domain, and hosting, free SSL certificate, $200 ad voucher. Hostgator eCommerce at $9.22/mth for eCommerce functionality.

All in all, Hostgator’s website builder is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to start making a website as it makes it easy with the low-cost hosting fees.

10. Strikingly

Strikingly is a powerful and trusted website builder used by millions of entrepreneurs and creatives for all levels of users, whether you have got little or no development experience, With Strikingly, you can create mobile-optimized websites in minutes.

Just add the Simple Store and connect to PayPal or Stripe. Start making sales and getting paid, immediately.

Strikingly has a Free Plan with a 5GB Monthly Bandwidth and 500MB after which you can upgrade to the $8/month which comes with a Free domain or a year and a simple store. The $16 / month is perfectly optimized for eCommerce while the $49 / month with Integrated newsletter marketing tools to help you keep in touch with your first-time buyers and returning customers.

Additionally, Strikingly offers an advantage for affiliate marketers to integrate banners and other commercial graphics. For people who want to make sure their content shines both on mobile view and other devices, Strikingly is a solid choice.

Conclusion

After answering a few questions like budget/price, storage, bandwidth, whether you want to sell physical or digital products from your website, finding the best website builder all comes down to your own wants and needs paired with your Business Goals and if you are a blogger, your personal goals.

I wish you success in creating your online venture and making your first sale or even making more sales in case you didn’t know about some of these powerful marketing integrations and site analytics tools in the various website and store builders we have looked at like Wix, WordPress, Strikingly, among others. 

Thank you so much for reading this one and I hope to See you on the internet.