Best Drag and Drop Website Builders: For Beginners and Pros Alike

Best drag and drop website builders in 2021

Now that we’ve talked about drag-and-drop website building, it’s time to introduce the five best options available today. While each of our showcased options make it easier to build a website, the best option for you will depend on your site goals and the budget you have to realize them.

1. Wix (www.wix.com)

Wix leads the pack for the best drag-and-drop website builders due to its beautiful interface, low pricing, and extensive collection of apps and website templates. It’s a wonderful choice for all skill levels since Wix offers a true drag-and-drop builder where you can click on just about any element and either drag or edit it.

⚙️ Features:

• Over 500 website templates with categories for blogs, businesses, online stores, musicians, and photography.
• More than 250 apps. Categories include accounting, marketing, and social media.
• An artificial intelligence builder that designs a complete website for you.
• Access to the Wix API if you’d like to further customize your site.
• eCommerce functionality with SSL certificates, dropshipping, and abandoned cart recovery.
• Marketplace and ad placement on sites like Facebook and Amazon.
• Built-in online scheduling.
• A blog creation platform with SEO tools.

💵 Pricing:

• Free – A basic website with a Wix subdomain, Wix ads on the site, limited storage and bandwidth. You can’t collect online payments with this plan.
• Light – 2GB storage space, free domain for the first year, and Light marketing suite. You can also have two collaborators on this plan. The Light plan costs $17.00 per month.
• Core – Creation of one website with up to five collaborators, 50GB storage space, free domain for the first year, Basic marketing suite and analytics, and basic ecommerce features. This is the most affordable plan you can accept payments on, costing $29.00 per month.
• Business – Creation of one website with up to 10 collaborators, 100GB storage space, free domain for the first year, and a Standard marketing suite with standard analytics. This plan also includes standard ecommerce features. It costs $36.00 per month.
• Business Elite – Creation of one website with up to 15 collaborators, unlimited storage space, free domain for the first year, and advanced tools for marketing and ecommerce. You’ll also get access to advanced developer tools with this plan. It costs $159 per month.
• Enterprise – Multi-site creation management with unlimited collaborators, a dedicated success manager, centralized billing, and custom templates and integrations. Contact Wix to receive a pricing quote for this plan.

👉 If you want to learn more about Wix pricing, we have a complete guide on that topic.

👉 Or, see how Wix compares to WordPress.

2. Squarespace (www.squarespace.com)

Squarespace holds a special place in the website builder market for creatives, designers, and all those interested in making the most visually striking website possible. Since its inception, Squarespace has been focusing on visuals with support for large, high-resolution images, a true drag-and-drop builder, and themes with modern, clean elements.

You also gain access to plenty of apps, themes, a blog, and eCommerce tools. The pricing isn’t bad either. The main downside is that Squarespace doesn’t offer a free plan like some of its competition.

⚙️ Features:

• Over 125 website templates for industries and categories like online stores, portfolios, creative services, and weddings.
• More than 55 apps in categories such as shipping, fulfillment, finance, marketing, and inventory.
• A full blogging interface built into the website builder.
• eCommerce tools with options to accept donations, sell gift cards, and process payments.
• Online scheduling to add calendars to your site.
• An integrated email marketing tool that pulls in website elements, like your logo and branding colors.
• A social media design feature and scheduling app that links right to networks like Facebook and Instagram.
• Access to the Squarespace API and custom coding section.

💵 Pricing:

• Personal – Starting at $16.00 per month for a custom domain, complete website, unlimited bandwidth and storage, templates, basic analytics, and SEO tools.
• Business – Starting at $23.00 per month for everything in the previous plan, professional email, full eCommerce functionality, unlimited contributors, premium integrations, CSS access, advanced analytics, promo banners, unlimited products, donations, gift cards, and a 3% transaction fee.
• Basic Commerce – Starting at $27 per month for everything in the previous plan, a point of sale, custom accounts, limited availability labels, Instagram integration, customer accounts, checkout on your domain, eCommerce analytics, and merchandising tools.
• Advanced Commerce – Starting at $49 per month for everything in the previous plan, subscription selling, advanced shipping, advanced discounts, Commerce APIs, and abandoned cart recovery.

👉 If you want to learn more about Squarespace pricing, we have a complete guide on that topic.
👉 Or, maybe you’re curious to see how Squarespace stacks up against WordPress?

3. DreamHost Website Builder (www.dreamhost.com/website-builder)

The DreamHost Website Builder is different than other website builders since they first sell you hosting plans, then the website builder is included within those packages. Therefore, you’re not paying for a separate website builder; it’s packaged in with the hosting. There are specialized website builder plans, though, which we’ll share below.

Having said that, the DreamHost Website Builder has a smooth interface, hundreds of themes, and over 25 built-in integrations. Also, these sites are built on WordPress, so you can access thousands of WordPress themes and plugins.

Finally, the DreamHost Website Builder is a true drag-and-drop builder with sections and draggable modules.

⚙️ Features:

• Over 200 themes for industries and categories like real estate, restaurants, food delivery, and photography.
• Quickstart Inspirations Wizard and premium starter sites to simplify site creation.
• Integrations with other website builders and eCommerce platforms, like Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify.
• A complete blogging platform with the most popular and powerful blogging software in the world: WordPress.
• Built-in SEO tools for configuring titles and descriptions.
• Pre-built sections so that you don’t have to completely design a page module, like a contact form or gallery.
• eCommerce support through multiple platform integrations and the WooCommerce WordPress plugin.

💵 Pricing:

There are three specialized WordPress + website builder plans:

• Shared Starter – Starting at $2.59 per month for shared hosting, access to the full website builder, pre-installed WordPress, access to the SEO recommender, and limited visits per month. You also get automated backups, domain privacy, and standard customer support through live chat and a ticketing system.
• Shared Unlimited – Starting at $3.95 per month for everything in the previous plan, email accounts, and the potential for multiple websites.
• Managed WordPress – Starting at $16.95 per month for high-performance cloud hosting, increased visits per month, SSL certificate, improved storage, staging, caching, and on-demand backups.

4. Bluehost Website Builder (www.bluehost.com/website-builder)

The Bluehost Website Builder is similar to the one by DreamHost in that it’s offered when you buy a hosting plan. This means you’re not paying for a separate website builder but a hosting package that includes the builder as a feature. That’s right, you won’t be able to use the builder with Bluehost alternatives.

Which doesn’t really matter all that much, overall, the Bluehost hosting has extremely low prices, the builder has a true drag-and-drop functionality, and you get hundreds of extensions. The blogging and eCommerce selling is all done through WordPress.

The primary downside is that Bluehost only gives you one website theme. You can make thousands of layouts with the theme but it’s still not the same as completely pre-built templates.

The reason why that’s the case is because the Bluehost Website Builder is technically a custom WordPress theme that comes with its own unique page building functionality. If you switch away from that theme, you lose the page building abilities.

⚙️ Features:

• Full eCommerce functionality through the WooCommerce plugin.
• Top-notch blogging with WordPress.
• Access to a custom CSS area for making more advanced edits.
• A stock image library so you don’t have to worry about using illegal images.
• An artificial intelligence feature that helps you design your website based on preferences and branding.
• Access to hundreds of integrations and thousands of other WordPress plugins.

💵 Pricing:

Bluehost pricing is for its hosting, but the Bluehost Website builder comes with each plan:

• Basic – Starting at $1.99 per month for one website with 10GB of storage, free domain (for the first year), the Website Builder, smart template builder, mobile editing, SSL certificate, custom WordPress themes, and custom domain. This is shared hosting.
• Choice Plus – Starting at $3.99 per month for everything in the previous plan, plus 40GB of storage, creation of up to three websites, daily backups (for first year), domain privacy (for first year), and malware scanning.
• Online Store – Starting at $7.45 per month for everything in the previous plan, plus ecommerce features including unlimited products, wishlists, gift cards, secure online payments, customer account creation, and bookings & appointments tools.
• Pro – Starting at $13.95 per month for everything in the previous plan, plus the creation of up to five websites and 100GB of storage.

5. Shopify (www.shopify.com)

Shopify is one of the best drag-and-drop website builders if you want to make an online store. There’s no reason to use it if you only need a business website or blog.

It’s a complete store-building system with visual design tools, support for advanced coding, and pre-built themes. It has a limited drag-and-drop builder for the homepage (where you stack sections), but most other pages use a simpler visual editor.

⚙️ Features:

• A drag-and-drop homepage with sections that you easily move up or down.
• Quick module settings for changing every part of the design, from colors to fonts and from sizing to images.
• A built-in payment gateway that offers simple processing for a 0% fee.
• Several built-in eCommerce tools for gift cards, discounts, reports, and shipping.
• An incredible App Store with thousands to choose from, including accounting, social media, and marketing apps.
• Over 80 Shopify themes that cater to specific industries like restaurants, tech stores, and apparel shops.

💵 Pricing:

• Shopify Starter – $5.00 per month for the ability to create a starter site using the Spotlight theme, mobile point of sale, Linkpop “link in bio” tool, access to Shopify apps, social media selling tools, and Shopify order management and fulfillment network.
• Basic Shopify – $29.00 per month for an online store, website builder, access to all pre-built themes, sales channels, more advanced analytics, and more.
• Shopify – $79 per month for the same website building features, plus better credit card processing rates, shipping labels, and international pricing and domains. Also, more staff accounts and inventory locations.
• Advanced Shopify – $299 per month for every Shopify feature, more staff accounts, more inventory locations, better credit card rates, and variant-based international pricing.
• Shopify Plus – Starting at $2,000 per month for a fully customizable store and enterprise-grade features.

Our conclusions on the best drag-and-drop website builders

⭐ Wix – The best all-around drag-and-drop website builder. It offers incredible pricing, lots of apps and themes, and the best drag-and-drop experience.

🎨 Squarespace – The ideal builder if you want a highly visual website. We also like it for its eCommerce tools and decent pricing.

⚙️ DreamHost Website Builder – Great for people who want to start with WordPress as their platform of choice. Rock-bottom pricing but limited power from shared hosting. Mainly worth it if you opt for cloud hosting.

Bluehost Website Builder – Similarly to DreamHost, perfect if you want to start with WordPress as your platform of choice. The builder is nice, but you’re limited to one theme. You can’t beat the Bluehost pricing and the thousands of WordPress plugins available out there.

Shopify – Only for making eCommerce websites. Having said that, anyone selling online should opt for Shopify first, then maybe Wix or Squarespace. The pricing is decent, but you are restricted to drag-and-drop editing on the homepage only.

Let us know in the comments if you have any further questions about the best drag-and-drop website builders.

Layout and presentation by Chris Fitzgerald and Karol K.