For a small business on a tight budget, hiring a web designer or developer to build a website can be one expense too much. That’s why website builder software is so important. Website builders are a great option for small business owners with budget, skill and time constraints. They let you create an amazing website really fast at an affordable price, which also allows you to use the money you would have spent on web development to grow your business.

We highlight some of the best website builders available now.

Wix

With an incredible 110 million users, Wix is one of the biggest website builders out there as well as one of the most flexible. Thanks to Wix ADI, absolute beginners can now use a guided website creation assistant to build their site in no time. One of the biggest advantages is that you can use hundreds of well-designed templates for free. Adapting them to your needs is simple and Wix offers a huge range of features through its App Market. You can easily add new features to your website – perhaps a newsletter subscription, an events calendar, a forum, and so forth.

A couple of the major new services Wix has announced may interest smaller service providers and restaurateurs, respectively: Wix Bookings is a convenient self-service appointment booking system for your clients, while Wix Restaurants is a commission-free add-on that lets your customers book tables, order food and check out your menu.

WordPress

WordPress is the world’s most popular website building platform, powering more than 35% of all websites on the internet. WordPress is a free and open source website builder, which means you have maximum control over your website compared to any other online website builder in this list. Unlike other website builders, you’ll need a WordPress hosting account to host your own website, which is a lot easier than it sounds. WordPress gives you complete control over every aspect of your website and online presence. It can be used to build any kind of website, for example, an ecommerce store, community forum, social network, membership website, personal website, and more.

You can choose from thousands of pre-made WordPress themes for your website’s design. It also has amazing drag-and-drop page builders like Beaver Builder and Divi, which allow you to easily create your own page layouts using a drag-and-drop editor. Plus, you’ll get access to more than 55 000 free WordPress plugins. These are essentially apps for WordPress that add additional features and functionality to your website, such as shopping cart, contact forms, Google Analytics, photo gallery, social media tools, live chat, CSS customisation, etc.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is the best ecommerce website builder in the market. If you’re looking to create an online store that scales, then this is the platform for you. It comes with all the essential features built in, which lets you keep your overheads low and margins high. BigCommerce is a fully hosted ecommerce solution, so you don’t have to worry about website speed, security, or updates. It handles the server and technical side for you, allowing you to focus on growing your business.

Unlike other hosted ecommerce solutions, BigCommerce has a native integration with WordPress, which allows you to leverage the flexibility of WordPress while taking advantage of the headless ecommerce power of BigCommerce. In simple terms, you do the front end (such as adding things you want to the site), they do the back end (the techie stuff), and your website will be fast and secure no matter how much traffic you get.

BigCommerce integrates with all popular payment gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Square, Amazon Pay, Visa Checkout, Chase Pay, Ayden, and more. Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce doesn’t charge a transaction fee for you to use these payment gateways. You can start with one of many pre-made website templates and customise it to match your needs using its easy drag-and-drop website builder.

Squarespace

Squarespace offers all the features a smaller online store needs. It has built-in functionality that lets you accept credit card payments, track your customers, create gift cards, and so much more. Other builders would require plugins to do all that. But if you do acquire some plugins, Squarespace has even more ecommerce tools. You can get plugins that add fabric swatch previews to clothing products, track your inventory, or highlight particular products.

While large online stores with thousands of orders each month might want a dedicated ecommerce builder, Squarespace offers all the tools a smaller e-store could want. Plus, it creates striking, clean websites with ease, so you’ll have the perfect online storefront for your bath-bomb boutique or cosplay supply store.

Like any decent website builder, all of Squarespace’s themes feature mobile-responsive design, so they’ll look great whether your customers visit your site on their desktops, phones, or tablets. As you add new elements, be sure to use Squarespace’s pre-built content blocks rather than building your own; otherwise, your new elements might throw off the mobile design.

Vodacom Business

Vodacom Business is here to help take your business to the next level. We offer a wide range of products and services to fulfil the telecommunications needs of organisations of all sizes. From mobiles and fixed-line connections to a wealth of broadband and networking solutions, you can count on us to keep you confidently connected.