The Best Web Design Software and Free Resources – 2020

November 14, 2019

Best Online Web Design Software

If you’re a small or medium business or an individual starting an eCommerce website or a hobby blog, the following best website builders are highly recommended because they are user-friendly, hassle-free, and easy to set up:

1. Wix (Free & Paid)

With over 150 million users in 190 countries, Wix is one of the most popular tools for web designers both for desktop and mobile devices. Whatever level of technical or programming skill you have, its template editor is user-friendly and lets you build your site without having to learn how to code.

Pros of Using Wix

A wide selection of pre-built designs. Whatever industry you’re in, you can choose a tailor-made theme for your site from over 600 designer-made Wix templates.
Add animations easily. It’s one of the few web design builders that will enable you to animate text and other elements instantly.
Access to a smart assistant. Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) acts as your assistant to help you create your own website and web pages. For instance, it’ll automatically choose a perfect design for your target audience and connect your social media accounts.

Cons of Using Wix

Impossible to switch template. Once your website is up and running, you’re not allowed to switch to another theme. This makes it more difficult to revamp your site’s design. You need to do this manually or start again from scratch.
Significantly pricier than other web design tools. Wix pricing plans all remain more expensive than those of more popular competitors, such as Weebly and Squarespace.

Who Should Use Wix?

It’s ideal for smaller-scale websites with no more than 30 pages.
Wix is perfect for artists, photographers, and musicians who want to showcase their portfolios.

How Much is Wix?

Wix is available for free, but this has Wix ads and you will have to buy your own domain. If you want to have access to the professional features, the cheapest ad-free plan starts at $11/month.

2. WordPress (Free & Paid)

WordPress is one of the leaders in the content management system industry, used by 33.6% of the top 10 million websites as of April 2019. It’s also one of the most well-known pieces of free web open-source software that allows you to launch any kind of website.

Pros of Using WordPress

Complete control of your site. You own and control all your data — your website, your content, your data.
Access to thousands of ready-made templates. With various free/premium WordPress themes to choose from, it’s now super-easy to customize your website.
Access to 55k+ plugins. WordPress curates a huge collection of add-ons and plugins to extend your website for almost anything you need as your business grows.
Easy third-party integrations. Because WordPress is a household brand, you can integrate almost all popular third-party tools, such as email marketing platforms, SEO (search engine optimization) tools, payment gateways, etc.

Cons of Using WordPress

Responsible for managing essential site features. Because you’re in control of your site, you’re also responsible for managing your site’s security, creating backups and updates, and purchasing web-hosting services.
No built-in drag and drop website builder. One disadvantage of using WordPress is that it doesn’t come with a built-in drag and drop interface. However, you can simply add any drag and drop extensions that will allow you to simply drag and drop items.

Who Should Use WordPress?

It’s great for beginners who want to build a website and control the cost along the way.
If you want to make money online, WordPress is highly recommended for online stores.

How Much is WordPress?

You can create a WordPress site for free but it will have limited functionality. Premium pricing starts at $96 a year ($8 a month, billed yearly).

3. Weebly (Free & Paid Version)

Now in its 12th year, Weebly has powered more than 50 million sites globally. This web design software is popular with online businesses and existing physical stores that want to build an online presence. It’s a fully hosted platform, which means both web hosting services and a domain name are already supported by Weebly.

Pros of Using Weebly

Highly customizable and responsive templates. The themes are stylish and mobile-responsive. Weebly also allows you to switch themes.
Helpful SEO guides. Weebly prioritizes SEO (search engine optimization) and has extensive help and support center. You can get practical tips and advice on coding, keyword optimization, and improving your site’s ranking.

Cons of Using Weebly

No ADI option. Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) is currently not available in Weebly. This feature uses information to automatically build a site for you, which saves you time. However, with Weebly, you need to create your own website manually.
Limited drag and drop interface. Although it comes with drag and drop customization, it’s far from perfect. Unless you have advanced coding skills, it might be hard to customize your site with ease.
No personal restore option. If your site goes down, you can’t restore it on your own. You always have to contact Weebly’s support team if this occurs.

Who Should Use Weebly?

It’s great for people who are skilled in HTML or CSS. Weebly has a built-in code editor that allows you to personalize your site more extensively.
Weebly is an ideal tool if you want to learn HTML. But remember that the learning curve will be steep.

How Much is Weebly?

You can build a website for free. But if you want to create a professional website, the pro plan starts at $12 per month.

4. Squarespace (Paid)

With 15 years of industry experience, Squarespace is one of the best website builders and is geared toward a more classy and visually appealing tone. It’s aimed at helping creatives to showcase their artistry. Even without any coding knowledge, you can set up beautiful websites using Squarespace.

Pros of Using Squarespace

It allows mobile editing. Using Squarespace’s app, you can even make changes to your website from your phone. The app allows you to publish blog posts, add announcements, etc.
Offline changes can be synced. If you lose your internet connection unexpectedly, your unfinished work can still be synced once you get back online.
Switch website templates at any point. Even if you have a live site, you can still switch to a new theme for your new website.
What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor. Whatever you do, Squarespace will show you how your site appears on screen once you publish it.

Cons of Using Squarespace

Not a pure drag and drop website builder. While you can fully customize your website using Squarespace, even with no coding skills, unlike other tools with drag and drop features, it takes a little longer to get to grips with it. But once you’re familiar, things will get easier.
No app store. It doesn’t carry an app store for third-party widgets, so you’ll rely more on its in-built features.

Who Should Use Squarespace?

It’s ideal for photographers, artists, or anyone who wants to show off their designs and creatives visually.

How Much is Squarespace?

Depending on your business needs and goals, you can choose from its four price plans ranging from $12 to $40 per month (billed yearly).

5. Webflow (Free & Paid)

A full-featured website builder Webflow is branded as a superior alternative to WordPress. If you want to build your website on your own but have no technical knowledge, Webflow would be perfect for you.

While it’s relatively new on the scene, it’s already incorporated the most basic and crucial aspects of web development entirely within the application. This means you’ve got everything you need just by using this powerful piece of web design software.

Pros of Using Webflow

Get the power of code without even writing it. Using a visual interface, you can take control of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. There’s no need to write a line of code. Just do your customizations with its visual designer.
Get trigger-based interactions with JavaScript knowledge. Parallax scrolling, multi-step animations, and micro-interactions are just some of the cool things you can create with Webflow.
A full content management system (CMS). You have the flexibility to manage and build content as you please without the restrictions of using website templates, content structures, or complicated coding languages.
Advanced SEO. Webflow allows you to add or edit metadata, create image alt text, and target relevant keywords. But it takes you a little further by letting you automatically generate sitemaps and customize 301 redirects.
Almost all the website templates are responsive. You can build a responsive website for mobile devices with Webflow’s over 100 business, portfolio, and blog templates.

Cons of Using Webflow

Comparatively higher cost. Webflow has impressive functionalities and features, but it’s not cheap. Its costs are relatively higher than other website design software in the market today.
No live chat or phone support. For any customer support, you will need to get in touch via email because Webflow currently doesn’t have any real-time chat or phone service. However, Webflow’s response team is available on work hours.

Who Should Use Webflow?

Webflow is perfect for artists, designers, or any other creatives who want to showcase their skills to make money online.
We also suggest Webflow for larger-scale enterprises and online businesses that require a visually stunning and responsive web design.

How Much is Webflow?

You can start your responsive website building for free even without submitting your credit card information. You can use the functions of Webflow without limits. Plus, it never expires. Once you’re ready to go live, that’s when you can subscribe to a plan to unlock additional features.

The basic Webflow plan starts at $12 per month (billed annually), while the eCommerce plan starts at $29. For the full pricing details, visit Webflow plans and pricing.