Make Your Own Website: 5 Cool Site Builders to Try

Everyone’s doing it and now you can too! It’s never been easier to make your own website. According to Tech Made Easy, «As of May 2015 there are around 858 million registered hostnames, compared to around 177 million active websites, down from a peak of around 193 million in August 2012.» Whether you want to start a blog, give your small business an online presence or create a family scrapbook, there’s an easy, low- or no-cost option that’s perfect for you. The days of needing to know code or complicated software are long gone — in fact, the hardest part is just deciding which website builder to use. These five website builders all walk you through how to make a website with simple interfaces and tons of built-in features like e-commerce and SEO optimization.

1. Weebly

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Weebly offers four plans ranging from free to a mere $25 per month. You tell them what you want the focus of your site to be and they’ll direct you to the templates and features to make your own website stand out from the rest. They also have apps that allow you to manage your site from your mobile device.

2. Shopify

If you’ve got products to sell, you can set up your online store directly through Shopify or integrate it with an existing site on another platform. It’s a one-stop storefront, inventory management system and allows you to accept payment instantly from anywhere in the world. It even translates your page into over 70 languages so you reach a global audience. They offer three plans ranging from $29 to $179 a month plus credit card fees.

3. Squarespace

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Squarespace is known for making it easy to create a beautiful, sleek looking website with responsive design that looks great on any device. Some users find it a little less intuitive to use than its competitors, however on the flip side, developers can further customize the templates by injecting their own code. Plans range from $8 to $26 a month.

4. Wix

Wix has tons of templates and it’s even easier to customize than many other builders. This can be dangerous if you don’t know how to make a website look great and veer too far from the original template. They have a number of plans that range from free to $25 a month.

5. Duda

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You can use duda mobile to create a mobile version of your existing website, or duda one to start from scratch. Duda has a huge variety of options for personalizing your visitors experience based on location, how often they’ve visited your site, holidays, etc.