Creating websites swiftly and efficiently is a breeze because of the best WordPress website builders.
Launched back in 2003, WordPress remains one of the most popular platforms on the web, with its open-source content management system (CMS) giving users a wide choice of options when it comes to building a website.
Its plugin architecture makes it easy to install third-party website builders designed to work within WordPress, often featuring drag-and-drop functionality that requires no HTML or coding knowledge from its users. So if you’re on the lookout for the best WordPress website builder around, read on below for a summary of five top contenders.
We’ve compared these website builders on various points, from their ease of use and library of templates to their overall performance and customizability. We evaluated their speed, pricing, widget offerings, and the customer support, among other things. Couple the best WordPress website builder with the best WordPress hosting service and your site will be off to a solid start.
If you would rather keep your options open and are keen to find out more about other website builders outside of the WordPress realm—including Wix, Weebly, and GoDaddy—check out our best website builder guide.
The best WordPress website builder services of 2023 in full
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Visual Composer has four pricing models, including a free version, which will give you a flavor of the builder’s functionality, with 30 elements and 10 templates available. But to harness Visual Composer’s full selection of tools, you’ll need the premium option starting at $49 per year.
This immediately removes the limits of the free version, providing over 200 elements, more than 100 templates, and the ability to edit wider parts of your website, including the header, footer, sidebars, and even the theme itself.
What’s more, for those looking to build a website for commercial purposes, Visual Composer’s Premium version comes with effective sales tools that include a popup builder, WooCommerce Support, and SEO optimization.
Although the drag and drop can feel a bit wonky, the builder’s tools are easy to understand and use and creating your own layouts feels like a breeze.
Those wanting to use Divi website builder will need to sign up for an Elegant Themes subscription at $89 per year. However, it’s worth adding that this will also include access to the entire Elegant Themes range of tools and themes.
With over 14,000 positive reviews on Trustpilot, Divi is certainly tried and tested among WordPress users, with its standout feature being the intuitive front-end visual editor. You can edit your site in real time, meaning the changes you make will be reflected exactly as seen. The global elements and styles editor also allows users to make site-wide design changes without needing to tweak each individual element or section.
Pre-designed layouts number over 800, with new layouts added each week along with royalty-free imagery, icons, and illustrations. Layout packs can also be filtered by theme, ranging from restaurant to wedding, and yoga studio to florist.
One of the most popular downloads from WordPress.org with over five million active installations, Elementor website builder delivers slick designs and easy-to-use functionality. What’s more, Elementor’s free plan is laden with features and includes over 40 widgets and more than 30 templates.
Add-ons include essentials like video, text editor, headings, button and image boxes, but also more sophisticated choices including alert boxes, accordion content display, and an escalating progress bar.
Naturally, the Pro version—which starts at $49 per year—delivers a ton of bonus features, which is likely to be better for users building larger websites or those with commercial requirements (WooCommerce Builder comes with Pro). But as a basic, out-of-the-box option, Elementor’s free plan is ideal for those getting to grips with website building. It even comes with templates for landing pages and maintenance mode, and the ability to preview your site on both mobile and desktop.
Read our full Elementor review here.
If the purpose of your website is to act as a lead generation, data capture, or conversion tool, then the importance of having attractive and engaging landing pages cannot be exaggerated. WordPress users looking to develop killer landing pages would be wise to give SeedProd a go, which is a website builder specifically tailored to designing effective landing pages.
Preset template pages include Lead Squeeze, Sales, Webinar, 404, and Coming Soon, while SeedProd is designed to work hand-in-hand with other sales and marketing tools, including Sendy, Zapier, and Campaign Monitor. Though note that, even without third-party tools, SeedProd includes functionality that allows users to track new subscribers.
All the SeedProd templates are fully configurable, so you can edit them just the way you want. Not to mention, the website builder frequently adds new templates, ensuring there’s a diverse library to choose from.
Like the above website builders, Oxygen can be used by non-programmers, with a drag-and-drop editor, flexible layouts, and a custom header builder. But Oxygen also brings developer-friendly elements to the table, with opportunities for those well-versed in HTML, CSS, PHP, and JS to take even more control of the design process. This opens up more avenues for bespoke building than some of the others listed here, though it also adds a layer of complexity that could alienate complete newbies.
Also unique in relation to its competition is the one-off price of $99 rather than an annual cost, which comes with a promise of lifetime support and lifetime updates. You can also use the builder on as many sites as you wish, thanks to an unlimited license.
What’s more, Oxygen’s creators are so confident in their offering that they provide a 60-day full refund guarantee for anyone not entirely happy with the website building capabilities.
WordPress website builder FAQs
How to choose the best WordPress website builders for you?
When choosing the best WordPress website builder for you or your business, you’ll need to look out for how beginner-friendly it is for WordPress newbies, but also check out all the features on offer.
This can typically be done by using a free trial. Some WordPress website builders also offer money-back guarantee, which will help you choose the best WordPress site builder for you without losing money.
The best WordPress website builders: How we test
Much like the way we test web hosting services and website builder providers, we sign up and create sites using every WordPress website builder that’s on our line-up.
Our experts test and compare the overall performance, ease of use, speed, pricing, as well as useful customer support help and information.
Our tests are thorough, as we aim to get an accurate picture of the service you’ll experience should you commit to one of the WordPress website builders on our list.
