The 6 Best Free Website Builders You Need in 2025

Websites are the starting point of your marketing — it’s where your audience will find you. Your company website holds all your information about who you are as a company and what you can offer clients.

Today, you can create a free website with very little, if any, coding knowledge.

Website-building companies have tried to make it as user-friendly as possible for anyone to start, create, and sell in minutes. The sites are all precoded to be easy to use for business owners. The best free website builders offer customization and selling tools, as well as connections to analytics and marketing tools.

Which one is right for you? Each one has different functions and possibilities. It’s all about finding a website builder that you are most comfortable with. Of course, it also needs to align with your business objectives.

Here are the website builders we will cover:

• What is a website builder?
• Who should use a website builder?
• 5 features to look for when picking a website builder
• Best free website builders

Most of the website builders we’ll look at make the process easy on you, but you are still manually building your website with each of them. Alternatively, you could check out some AI website builder tools.

And maybe you prefer not to be involved in the process at all. In that case, you can always reach out to us. WebFX can create custom ecommerce websites that are packed with search engine optimization (SEO) content and have responsible designs, perfect for mobile phones. Call us at 888-601-5359 to chat with a specialist!

What is a website builder?

A top free website builder is an online tool for creating websites without needing to code. The builders provide the following services:

• A user-friendly interface for uploading and designing content
• Customizable website templates and themes
• A mobile-friendly design
• Options for shopping carts and secure payment gateways
• Features for inventory management integrations

Who should use a website builder?

Individuals or businesses just starting out can use a free website builder. However, if you can afford a professional or need a complex site for your products and services, working with a web design agency might be better.

The most common professionals that need sites are:

• Artists looking to create an online portfolio
• Photographers who also need an online portfolio
• Small businesses looking to make an ecommerce website
• Freelancers and service professionals wanting to showcase their previous work and rates
• Writers or content creators wanting to share stories, travels, or blog posts

5 features to look for when picking a website builder

Each top free website builder option has different factors and features. The basic option, which is usually the free version, will have limitations, such as the kind of content you can upload or the lack of an ecommerce function.

Depending on the payment model, you must pay either a fee or a subscription for added features. Here are some of the common features to consider:

1. Hosting and domain

You can get hosting and domains for free, but there are limitations. For example, you can host freely on blogging websites, but they usually end on the blog’s URL. Your site URL would be www.yoursite.wordpress.com or www.yoursite.tumblr.com.

If you want your own .com, .org, or even .solutions website, you will probably have to pay for the domain and the hosting.

For some website builders, you can download the software and then install it on your own domain or hosting company. This is a viable option if your hosting company is cheaper or more locally suited.

2. Design choices

A few website builder companies have gone with block template options, where you can really get involved in building your site from the ground up. Others still use predesigned templates that are easier to color-match with your own brand.

The more template options, the better, as you need to find something that works for you. Also, ensure that there are font and style options available. Sometimes, the website builder will ask you to upgrade your package for these options. Finding similar fonts or colors that work with your design might be cheaper.

3. Different types of content

Content management systems (CMS) have different options for showcasing your content. For example, some sites are better suited for products rather than blogging. Think about the types of content you want to share.

Here are some types of content that you can use on the internet:

• Blogs
• Video
• Podcast
• Infographics
• Ecommerce listings
• Photos or images
• Ebooks

Investigate whether the website builder caters to your offerings. Also, consider the complexity you want. If you just want to share photos, an entire back end with audio uploads and animation might be more than you need.

4. Upgrades and scalability

Website builders will offer upgrade packages. These packages will enable you to expand your site with more space, functionality, and features as you grow your content.

Ensure that when you create a free website, you have options that align with your own scalability and growth for when you can afford to pay.

5. Customer Support

Once you’re up and running, you’ll probably not care so much about customer support. But if you haven’t used a website builder before, ensuring they have ongoing communication is a good idea. You’ll be looking for a mix of support options, including a chatbot for quick questions, or maybe a FAQ for items that you need more understanding on. Then, you’ll also want a contact in case you run into a bug.

Best free website builders

The website builders we suggest here all have free versions. They might be “lite” versions, with limited capabilities, but they are enough to get you up and going.

I will not recommend website builders with a 14-day “free trial,” because — let’s be honest — that’s not free. That’s 14 days of setting up your website and then paying.

So, sites like Weebly, Dorik, Shopify, and Squarespace are all out. Let’s look at ones that are actually free and remain free until you are ready to upgrade!

1. WordPress.com: Free content and portfolio

WordPress.com is considered the best free website builder. With over 40% of all websites on the internet built with WordPress.com, it’s a landslide win. It has unlimited pages and a built-in newsletter, perfect for blogs and content creators. The free version never expires, and you can use it forever.

You alsoget a small selection of payment buttons and even look to get paid subscribers or a paid content gate. There are plenty of design options, and with 1GB of storage, you have a decent amount of space to upload images freely.

But then you start to hit a few walls.

You can’t upload video or audio files. Or ebooks. You also don’t have ecommerce functionality, and you cannot get live chat support. It’s not that WordPress.com doesn’t have these options — they are available, but they all come with a cost and are unlocked in each upgrade.

And, if you choose to buy a domain and hosting with a third party, you can download a free version of WordPress.com and install it on your hosting package from wordpress.org. Yes, you will have to pay for the hosting, but the self-hosted WordPress.com options allow you to have maximum control and customization options, including installing plugins, getting themes from third-party sources, and even modifying the code.

What’s the best feature of WordPress.com?

It has to be the ease of templates. There are predesigned options that you can customize and change to your brand colors. But they also have a creator option, which means you can build it using “blocks.”

It does take a little practice to get the hang of it, but with preset patterns, you can very quickly build a fairly customizable, unique website.

WordPress.com is originally a blogging platform, so your content is first and foremost. They have an easy backend that allows you to add your static content to pages and your fresh, exciting articles as blogs. You can categorize as you want, use tags, and create easy navigation for everything.

What’s challenging about WordPress.com?

If you want to do anything other than create content, like running a shop or integrating a plugin, then you are going to run into some expensive walls very quickly. Also, if your content is amazing (which I am sure it is) and you get some traffic, WordPress.com will want a cut of that and start showing ads.

And those ads are everywhere. You have no control over where they pop up, which can quickly ruin your design.

2. Weebly: Free ecommerce capabilities

Weebly is one of the few ecommerce website builders that has a free version with abilities to upload your products. A lot of the free features that it offers are a small business owner’s dream, such as:

• Automatic tax calculator
• Coupons for your customers
• Gift card options
• Inventory management
• Instagram feed integration

You won’t get as much information about your actual clients and their behavior on their site as you probably would like. But it is enough to get you going as you start your journey to success. The upgrades are all there for when your business really starts to get pumping.

What’s the best feature of Weebly?

It is incredibly user-friendly. The drag-and-drop editor is a lot easier than the “block” editor option with other website builders. There are also over 500 templates to choose from, and unlike other sites that ask endless questions about who you are and what you are selling, Weebly just gets straight to the point.

What’s a challenge about Weebly?

The downside of an easy-to-use design is that it is also very difficult to customize. With everything already pre-sized, padded, and margined, you don’t have too many options to change it and be specific about customization.

3. Google Sites: Free service or business option

If your business just needs to have a presence on the internet, but you are not concerned about regular updates, fresh content, or selling a product, then a Google Site is the best free option for you.

Google offers a fairly simple alternative to the hassle of extra features you are never going to use. The interface is a little more basic than most, yet it can create a website or an online portfolio. You might feel like you’re creating a website on PowerPoint or Word a little, with the simplicity of it all. But it gets the job done.

What’s the best feature about Google Sites?

It’s quick and easy, and you can just use it as a once-off. So if you are looking to showcase your skills or services during a job application process or maybe to impress a client, then you can just upload, show, and delete.

What’s a challenge about Google Sites?

There are no upgrade or expansion options. The functionalities on the free version are the only options you are going to get. If your business grows and you’re looking to make your site more dynamic, you’ll have to move to another platform. Anything with your website details on, like business cards or marketing materials, will have to be changed.

3 honorable mention website builders

Now we know there are completely free website builders available for download. However, you will have to find a third party to buy a domain and host them. A domain usually costs an annual fee, and hosting is usually not too expensive, so getting a free website builder and paying for the rest could still be cheaper than paying a subscription model.

Plus, with a self-hosted option, these websites have way more functionality than anything free. You will have full control over templates, colors, fonts, content uploads, and functionality.

1. WordPress.org: As mentioned previously, there is a free version of WordPress that you can download from WordPress.org and install. You get all the functional, with none of the cost.
2. Joomla: You will need a little web development knowledge with Joomla. It is still a website builder, and there is loads of support available online. But there is a learning curve involved.
3. Drupal: Durpal is a website builder that has been around for decades, so you will find a lot of support for it. However, it is a developer’s type of website builder. It is not particularly user-friendly. If you do have time to learn and are up for a challenge, it is free, and the customizations are endless.

We can help you with your website design!

Just remember, all businesses have to start somewhere. Even the large companies started with just a few website pages. I hope this article gives you insight into how to take that step and bring your business into the digital realm.

If you’re not up to learning curves and find the idea of creating a whole site daunting, we are here for you. We have an award-winning team with over two decades of experience, ready to shoot your business forward and give you that presence on the web you need.

The benefit of using WebFX to do your website design is that we have the knowledge to incorporate search engine optimization. It is all part of the package! Our team has the experience to capture your band and create a customized style that will blow your competition away.

All designs are responsive and will be built into a content management system (CMS) to facilitate content uploading and marketing.

If you would like us to help you with this and tick it off your list of things to do, call us at or use our online form.