The Best Website Builders for Your Business

Many business owners still question whether they truly need a website. We have a brick-and-mortar location. Our clients know where to find us. And one of our personal favorites, we’ll get to it at some point — it’s not our priority right now.

Research shows that more than 3 out of every 4 shoppers in the US conduct an online search before they go to a store. So even if you have a brick and mortar, chances are your buyers are finding you online. And a website is only more vital for those of us in the services and B2B spaces: More than 50% of all B2B buyers are millennials and as much as 40% of B2B companies’ revenue comes from organic search resulting from content marketing efforts, reports Thrive My Way.

These stats drive home two different points. First, it’s clear that your website is essential. And second, you want a website that makes it easy to manage content (blogs, newsletter signups, and other content marketing formats). 

Your choice of website builder can greatly impact the way you share information and interact with your audience. So we set out to find the best no-code builders for an affordable, fully functional website for your business.

What to look for when choosing your website builder

Responsive design

A responsive design is one that looks good on any screen, and Google has been prioritizing this type of design over desktop-only websites for years because users have been going mobile-first for years now.

What this means for your website builder: When you pick where to build your website, you’ll need to consider whether the designs are responsive (adapt to any screen) and how easy it is to create a mobile and a desktop version of your website.

Integrations & functionality

Your website is a long-term investment. When choosing what website builder is best, you’ll want to think about your long-term plans for marketing and your business as a whole — and choose a builder that aligns with these plans.

For example, if you want to use email marketing (one of the top marketing channels for B2B and service providers), you’ll want a website builder that makes it easy to integrate with email service providers (aka, ESPs). If you want to collect payments online, you’ll need a platform with e-commerce functionality.

User-friendliness

Website builders have a learning curve — and some are far more complex than others. This wouldn’t be an issue if you’re hiring a pro. But if you’re working in-house, you’ll want to make sure your team can manage updates and content creation (like new pages, blog posts, and submission forms, to name a few).

Some builders have libraries and even full-on courses to learn how to use the platform, so have a look around before committing. And if you happen to have a website pro in your team, tap into their skills and opinion!

The top website builders for businesses

Wix

Wix is a popular drag-and-drop builder, especially for freelancers, small agencies, and marketers.

Wix is affordable and relatively easy to manage. There’s a blog function, and you can even post in multiple languages — perfect for international businesses.

On the flip side, Wix is a fairly limited platform. It’s hard to integrate it with email service providers like Convertkit and Mailchimp (you’ll likely need to use a Zapier integration because there’s no native option), native analytics are pretty basic, and it’s infamously hard to migrate your website once it’s built there.

Squarespace

This no-code builder picked up steam among consultants, creatives and small business owners because of how easy it is to launch a beautiful, functional website on a budget.

Squarespace offers basic plans and add-ons so you can pick the features you need, like subscriptions or a community. 

One con of Squarespace is its updates. For example, Squarespace 7.1 changed the way the building and design processes worked compared to 7.0, making it hard to DIY your website management. Additionally, there’s no automatic content migration, so you’d have to move every part of your website manually when updating. And finally, Squarespace doesn’t automatically optimize your photos for mobile, which can affect loading speeds.

HubSpot

It should come as no surprise that we recommend HubSpot and its CMS for your business. 

The HubSpot CMS (content management system) includes everything you need for a robust marketing strategy. Our favorite features are blogs, landing pages, submission forms, newsletters, and the RSS feed. Plus, you get access to all of these features on the free plan — so you can build and test before choosing the subscription your business needs.

Use the HubSpot CMS along with the Marketing and Sales Hubs for true sales-marketing alignment and a cohesive user experience from the first point of contact.

Get the most out of your martech stack. Enroll now for the first-ever HubSpot Salesforce integration course by Coastal Consulting.

Final words

Your business website builds your trust online. It helps you reach a bigger audience than you ever could through traditional channels and helps you build a relationship with prospects and clients.

However, to achieve all these benefits, you want a website that doesn’t significantly strain your resources. Ie, something your team can easily manage, that’s affordable and offers a great user experience. We’ve consistently found that HubSpot checks all these requirements and more, making it a great no-code website builder as part of an integrated marketing strategy for in-house teams.