Looking for the best website builder Australia has to offer? You’re in the right place. Australian business leaders have no shortage of great solutions to choose from when it comes to building the ultimate website. Options range all the way from simple hosted services to open source solutions.
The challenge for most entrepreneurs isn’t finding a site building tool, but deciding which solution can give them the best selection of features, out of a huge range of products.
Ultimately, the best website builder for you will depend on a number of factors. You’ll need to think about everything from what kind of website you want to build, to how much you can afford to spend on functionality.
Fortunately, we’re here to help you sort through some of the best options.
What Are the Best Website Builders in Australia
Here are our top picks for the best website builders in Australia.
1. Wix: Best Overall
Wix is one of the best website building solutions on the market for business owners virtually anywhere in the world. Combining simplicity with a huge range of features, Wix makes it easy to create a website you can be proud of, with minimal effort.
At the heart of Wix is a simple and convenient platform, complete with drag-and-drop customization, advanced features like AI to guide your design strategy, and endless available add-ons. You can use Wix to create a simple blog or membership website, create your own online store, or even host your own educational website. There are hundreds of templates to get you started too.
Wix gives business leaders endless freedom when it comes to how they create their site too. You can either start from scratch, use a template, or access the Wix “ADI” service, to get an AI system to suggest most of the features of your website on your behalf.
Pricing
Wix is one of the most versatile website builders when it comes to pricing. There are a host of packages to choose from, depending on the kind of site you want to create. For instance, if you want a simple website, pricing for the basic functionality starts at only $4 per month.
Business and ecommerce plans for companies looking to accept payments and sell products start at around £15 per month, with unlimited bandwidth and 24/7 customer care. There’s also the option to explore “Enterprise” plans custom-made to suit your needs, starting at $275 per month.
Pros 👍
- Excellent customer support team
- Web hosting included in all pricing plans
- Free SSL certificate for peace of mind
- Free custom domain for one year on most plans
- Hundreds of available themes to choose from
- Endless ways to customize your website
Cons 👎
- No analytics in the cheaper plans
- Not easy to switch templates
2. Shopify: Best for Ecommerce
Often, the best website builder for your needs will depend heavily on the kind of site you’re creating. If you’re planning on designing a platform for selling products or services, it’s hard to go wrong with a market leader like Shopify. One of the most popular tools in Australia, Shopify is a versatile product, suitable for creating a huge range of websites.
Although you can create non-ecommerce sites with Shopify, it’s best-known for its vast selection of selling tools. The self-hosted platform comes with an intuitive website builder, ideal for crafting a custom site from scratch. There are countless customizable templates to choose from, including free and premium options. Plus, Shopify can adapt to suit virtually any need.
The comprehensive Shopify marketplace makes it easy to add new capabilities to your website whenever you like, whether you’re looking for booking forms or marketing tools. Plus, selling a range of products is easy with a built-in selection of payment processing options.
Pricing
Shopify can be relatively inexpensive for beginners. You can add ecommerce functionality to an existing page or website with the “Starter” package for $5 per month, or upgrade to a basic package for the full website builder at $29 per month.
Depending on the level of functionality you need, costs can go up quite significantly. For instance, the most expensive plan costs around $299 per month, and that’s before you get to enterprise packages like Shopify Plus. You may also have to pay extra fees for premium themes and plugins.
Pros 👍
- Excellent range of responsive and customizable themes
- Wide selection of add-ons and integrations
- Selling for unlimited products and services
- Easy-to-use website building tools
- Good for marketing and promotion
- Relatively affordable beginner packages
Cons 👎
- Basic plans lack analytics and reporting
- Transaction fees if you don’t use the Shopify Payments system
3. Squarespace – Best for Small Businesses
Another top choice for Australian companies, and brands all over the globe, Squarespace is one of the more flexible website builders out there. Best-known for it’s wide selection of attractive templates, Squarespace makes it easy to design a site that immediately captures audience attention.
You can use this website builder to create a beautiful portfolio for your creative brand, or design an eye-catching membership site. There’s also the option to sell products and services if you’re looking to make a little money with your online presence. With countless great templates to choose from (all organized into categories), making your site look professional is quick and simple.
Squarespace comes with plenty of ways to enhance your website’s performance too, such as payment processors, marketing tools, and the ability to create your own blog pages. There’s also a great hep center where you can get extra guidance if you need it to build your website from scratch. Plus, there’s a free logo maker for creating brand assets too.
Pricing
Squarespace is relatively affordable for a premium website builder. There’s a 14-day free trial to give you an instant insight into the functionality the service can offer. After that, prices start at $16 per month for an annual package (with a 25% discount).
The more you pay, the more features you’ll have access to. For instance, if you want to sell products and services online, you’ll need to upgrade to at least the Business plan, or the “Commerce” plans. The most expensive plans range around $40 per month.
Pros 👍
- Good selection of award-winning templates
- Free SSL certificate included
- Unlimited storage on all plans
- Options for selling digital downloads and physical products
- Annual packages include free domain name
- Good help center support
Cons 👎
- No analytics on the personal plan
- Some limitations for SEO and advertising
4. HubSpot CMS – Best Budget Pick
HubSpot is one of the better-known companies in the technology landscape. The company offers business owners a wide range of tools designed to boost growth and deliver new opportunities. The HubSpot CMS Hub allows you to build an attractive website with ease using a convenient builder. There are even a range of pre-built themes to choose from.
You can use a drag-and-drop editor to customize your website, and access convenient SEO recommendations to boost your chances of ranking online. There’s also a fully-integrated CRM where you can track useful information about your target audience. HubSpot also gives you some fantastic insights into your target audience.
Attribution reporting shows you where the majority of your visitors are coming from, and adaptive testing ensures you can test various versions of a page against eachother. Even migration steps are managed for you to make life a little simpler.
Pricing
Prices for the CMS Hub from HubSpot begin with the “Starter” package at $23 per month. This includes premium hosting, a content delivery network, and an SSL certificate, among other features. The more advanced packages are significantly more expensive. There’s a Professional package for $360 per month, with smart content and reporting, as well as a host of advanced features.
HubSpot also offers an Enterprise package starting at $1200 per month, but you’ll need to contact the team to get a more accurate quote.
Pros 👍
- Excellent range of professional features
- SEO suggestions and marketing integrations
- Powerful testing and analytics tools
- Easy to use customization features
- Lots of great templates to choose from
- Bundles available for service, sales, and marketing
Cons 👎
- Can be very expensive for more advanced features
- Can take a while to get used to all the features
5. Bluehost
You might be more familiar with Bluehost as a hosting provider than a website builder, but it actually offers more services than you might think. Like many evolving hosting companies and domain services over the years, Bluehost has begun introducing its own website building tools to beginners.
The easy-to-use ecosystem is available with all of Bluehost’s plans, and is based on the WordPress technology. However, you still get plenty of customization features and tools to control your content. There are various theme options to choose from, and a friendly setup wizard to get you started. You can even use the website builder to find templates specifically related to your industry.
The drag-and-drop editor is a convenient way to customize elements like titles and images. While there are some limitations for what you can do with layouts, you should be able to create an attractive website with relative ease. There are even some basic SEO features to help you stand out online.
Pricing
Rather than purchasing a standalone plan for the Bluehost website builder, you’ll simply purchase your hosting, and access the functionality as an added extra. Bluehost hosting packages start at $2.95 per month for the cheapest “discount” price. This is the price you get when you first sign up, but the cost increases to $8.99 when you renew.
There are also different kinds of packages available depending on the kind of hosting you need. For instance, managed WordPress hosting starts at $9.95 per month, while VPS hosting is closer to $18.99 per month. Make sure you check the renewal costs.
Pros 👍
- Beginner-friendly for design and customization
- Easy to find templates relevant to your niche
- Section-based approach to website design
- Affordable packages based on hosting
- WordPress structure complete with access to plugins
- Good hosting reliability
Cons 👎
- Not as advanced as some builders for customization
- Limited in regard to advanced features
6. BigCommerce
One of the biggest names in the ecommerce and website building worlds, BigCommerce is ideal for companies looking to create more advanced sites. There are tons of solutions for Australian companies built into BigCommerce, including a range of payment methods to choose from. Plus, you can customize your website easily using the BigCommerce drag and drop editor.
Themes for BigCommerce are fully customizable with JavaScript, CSS, and HTML capabilities. There’s also an integration with WordPress available. BigCommerce is a very flexible tool for website creation, with lots of app integrations available to help you accomplish new things with your website. The open SaaS platform also has unlimited potential for coders.
BigCommerce can allow businesses to develop omnichannel marketing campaigns, sell through wholesale strategies, and leverage a range of storefront options. There’s also a great community for learning more about development.
Pricing
BigCommerce offers potential customers a 15-day free trial for testing the services. After that, it’s easy to choose from a range of pricing packages starting at $29.95 per month, rising all the way up to an Enterprise level plan.
The more expensive the package, the more advanced functionalities you’ll unlock, including marketing tools, stored credit card details, and abandoned cart savers.
Pros 👍
- Useful free trial for beginners
- Lots of customization options with coding potential
- Unlimited storage, bandwidth, and product selling on all plans
- Intuitive drag-and-drop builder included
- Lots of scope for staff accounts
- Great for people with extra coding knowledge
Cons 👎
- Can be a little complicated for beginners
- Some advanced packages are quite expensive
7. Weebly
It’s hard to find anyone who isn’t familiar with the Weebly website builder these days. First launching in 2006, Weebly has become one of the most popular go-to tools for creating simple sites from scratch. If you’re looking for simplicity and convenience, this is likely to be the top choice for you, though you might not get the most advanced features out there.
Weebly is also owned by Square Payments, so Australian businesses can rest assured they’ll have access to excellent payment processing services as standard. Weebly’s website builder is as simple as it gets, with drag-and-drop elements to help bring your themes to life and add your customizations.
There are ecommerce tools built-in with certain packages if you want to start selling online, as well as integrated marketing tools for growth. You can also access a range of analytics to help you make better decisions about the future of your business. Weebly has some pretty decent bonus features available too, like the ability to create membership sites with video backgrounds.
Pricing
Weebly is one of the most affordable website builders on the market. It comes with a “free” plan which gives you access to very basic building features, though you won’t be able to use your own custom domain on this package. More advanced plans with domain access start at $6 per month, and you can upgrade to $12 per month to unlock ecommerce tools.
Like with most packages, the more you pay, the more features you’ll be able to unlock. Additionally, you’ll save money if you sign up for an annual package instead of paying month to month.
Pros 👍
- Very easy to use technology for beginners
- Free plan available (though you don’t get a custom domain)
- Drag-and-drop customization elements
- Lots of themes and add-ons to choose from
- Square payment processing built in
Cons 👎
- Limited in terms of advanced features
- May not have the best customer service
8. Site123
If you’re looking for a convenient solution for building a free website from scratch with minimal effort, Site123 could be perfect for you. Like many of the top website building tools in Australia, this product comes with a variety of great templates to choose from to get you started in creating the ultimate site. Many of the designs are actually very modern and sophisticated too.
The intuitive website editor requires absolutely no coding knowledge, and allows you to make a huge of changes to your mobile-friendly website. Plus, Site123 comes with free hosting as part of its packages, so you don’t have to worry about managing that side of your website yourself.
There are basic SEO tools available for optimization, and solutions for selling products online through the store building service. Site123 also offers 24/7 live support, so if anything does go wrong with your website, you can reach out to the team through chat for extra guidance.
Pricing
As mentioned above, Site123 does offer a completely free package for designing your own website, complete with 250 MB of storage and 250 MB of bandwidth. However, you’ll have to run your site on a subdomain, rather than using your own website name.
The Premium packages start at $12.80 per month, which includes a free domain for a year, 10GB of storage, and 5GB of bandwidth. You also get to remove the Site123 branding with this package, and you can unlock ecommerce functionality too.
Pros 👍
- Excellent for beginners with fantastic ease of use
- Free package available for budget-conscious companies
- Lots of great customer support
- Plenty of customization options
- SEO tools included for optimization
- Free hosting and domain name
Cons 👎
- Very limited in terms of advanced marketing features
- Free plan is very basic
9. Strikingly
Promising a convenient way to build a website in minutes, Strikingly is an all-in-one system for building a blog or ecommerce website. The convenient ecosystem comes with a fantastic editor which requires absolutely no coding knowledge. Plus, you can add the simple store to start taking payments with PayPal and Stripe in seconds.
One of the most compelling features of Strikingly is how easy it is to connect with your fans and visitors on a deeper level. You can create and manage everything from signup forms, to live chat, and newsletters in the same place. There’s even a convenient environment where you can register memberships for your customers.
HTTPS comes built-in for security, and you can connect with social media to show your feed directly on your store. Plus, Strikingly offers a range of analytics tools so you can track the impact of your ecommerce features, and optimize your new website.
Pricing
Like most site builders, Strikingly will offer a discount to those willing to pay for annual packages. However, if you prefer paying monthly, the costs are relatively low too. The first package starts at $12 per month with a custom domain, the ability to sell up to 5 products, and 50GB of bandwidth.
The mid-level package is $20 per month, which allows you to remove Strikingly branding, sell up to 300 products, and get a range of other features like pop-ups and site memberships. VIP starts at $59 per month for the most advanced selection of features.
Pros 👍
- Build a high-quality ecommerce website easily
- Easy social media integration
- Simple interface with no web development knowledge required
- Lots of ways to engage your target audience
- Custom forms for collecting data
- Plenty of customization options
Cons 👎
- Some limitations on payment options
- Can be expensive to remove branding
10. Ukit
Ukit makes it simple to develop a professional website from scratch with an easy-to-use web builder for your site. There are various template designs to choose from, all organized into specific categories to help you find the most relevant option for your business.
There are various fonts to choose from, color schemes, and a universal grid to manage content too.
The easy drag-and-drop builder allows you to move elements of your website wherever you choose with no restrictions. There’s also the option to add your own custom domain with an SSL certificate, and create an online store with a host of payment methods.
Ukit also comes with built-in promotional tools. Plus, the system ensures you can analyse and improve your website quickly and easily. You’ll be able to connect Google analytics and get detailed insights into your website performance.
Pricing
Prices for Ukit start at $9 per month for the basic features and functionality. If you want to upgrade to live chat support and advanced statistics, you’ll need the “Basic” plan at $11 per month. There’s also an eCommerce plan at $13 per month for creating your own online store, and a “Pro” plan at $15 per month with more creative customization and coding.
You can also order a website built for you directly from the Ukit team, so you can spend less time developing your online presence, and get online as quickly as possible.
Pros 👍
- Intuitive drag and drop customization
- Included ecommerce platform and custom checkout
- Domain name purchasing included
- Email marketing and promotional tools
- Custom website creation available from professionalsUser-friendly backend with analytics
Cons 👎
- Features can be quite limited on cheaper plans
- The customer service isn’t the best on cheaper plans
Finishing Thoughts
There are plenty of great site builders online today to help Australian business owners create the perfect web pages for their digital presence. Depending on the paid plans you choose, you can access everything from hosting services to landing pages from the same provider, and customize your website with a drag-and-drop interface.
Many of the tools available for building a business website come with DIY tools for designing an ecommerce store, and there are widgets and add-ons for extending your site functionality. The right choice for you will depend on the kind of functionality you need.
For instance, while there are free website builders out there, you may need to pay a little more if you want a custom shopping cart, search engine optimization, and email marketing tools.
Take your time to compare all of the options, check out FAQ pages, and compare each premium plan before you sign up for a service. Many of the tools above also come with free trials, so you can
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