If you’re a small business owner lacking technical expertise, you might find yourself avoiding getting your website built - especially if you are on a budget.

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But there’s no two ways about it – if you want your business to grow, you’re going to need to get your website out there for potential customers to see. You might feel that web design is too difficult, expensive or time consuming to manage alongside the daily tasks of running your business, but website builders can be a simple and cheaper way to kickstart your web journey. Though it may seem like a big task, we can assure you that you’ll get your website up and running in no time, with no prior coding knowledge required.

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Which website builder should I choose?

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With so many options available on the market, you might feel like you’re scrabbling around to find the web building software that’s easiest to use, at a price that’s affordable to you.

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We want to make this decision as quick and easy as possible, even for complete beginners.

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There are options out there suitable for every business – whether you’re building a site that requires bookings such as a restaurant or a salon, opening an e-commerce site, or if you’re simply looking for a place to showcase your work through a portfolio.

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Something you’ll see advertised on many of these sites is ADI – whilst this may seem like an intimidating tech-term, this actually means “artificial design intelligence”.
This is offered by many of the website builders mentioned below, and makes building your site much simpler as the ADI functions can cleverly build your site based on your responses to questions about your site and your aesthetic preferences.

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But which website builder is the easiest? Let’s take a look at some of the options that we think are the easiest to use…
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Wix

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First up, Wix. Wix uses ADI to create a website after gathering some information about your business, the pages you’d like your site to feature and asking you to choose your theme and colour scheme. This is ideal for if you’re unsure how you’d like your site to look, and want to see suggestions.

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Another feature that Wix offers is their Editor tool - this allows you to have a lot more creative freedom over your website design, but still requires no coding knowledge. You can choose to use the Editor from the outset of your web design, or alternatively you can edit a site built with ADI to customise it further.

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Whilst it initially seems more complex than the ADI tool, both of these design functions are relatively user-friendly as they use drag-and-drop to allow you to add, swap and move different site elements around. Something we did note in our testing was that this function could occasionally stick a little when moving a lot of features around - so this is something to keep in mind if you choose to use Wix.

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The Editor function gives the user the ability to add different apps, create more intricate themes such as photo and video backgrounds for pages as well as interactive elements such as slideshows and automatic scrolling. The extensive app market Wix offers can also make adding extras such as reservations, email marketing and livechat features really simple - so keep this in mind if you’re thinking of adding further features to your site.

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Though this might sound a little high-tech, Wix does a lot of the leg work that can make your site look really professional, with no prior technical experience.
If you’re interested in reading more about Wix, check out our full review here.

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GoDaddy

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Looking to get your site out there as quickly as possible? GoDaddy may be the solution for you. Similar to Wix, GoDaddy also offers the drag-and-drop feature that can make editing your site feel really easy. Whilst many website builders offer ADI, GoDaddy is often praised for speed and simplicity if you’re looking to get your site up and running in a matter of minutes.

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Their ADI function is so user-friendly that it simply asks for you to choose a category for your site, e.g. “café” and enter your site name. Using this information, GoDaddy then generates a slick, professional website that you can edit to suit your needs. If you’re unsure about editing your site, GoDaddy also offers a helpful tour of each section with suggestions on the content you could include to optimise your site. Making the edits is also very easy as you can easily add more sections by clicking the “+”, move sections around with the arrows and add pictures using the camera icon.

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Whilst the simplicity of the tools is ideal for beginners, some of the drawbacks of using GoDaddy include the restrictive design elements that can affect the visual appeal of your site.
All in all, GoDaddy is a very user-friendly website builder ideal for complete beginners looking for a quick and hassle-free way to get their site online. This makes it a popular choice for small businesses in their initial stages of growth. However, if you’re looking for something a bit more niche, this may not be the website builder for you.

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Jimdo

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Like many, Jimdo offers an ADI function that makes building your site incredibly easy, even for those with no prior coding experience. Their function is called Jimdo Dolphin, and looks to help you create a personalised, professional website for your small business. Similar to GoDaddy, Jimdo can help you get your site online in a matter of minutes – so if you’re keen to get your site set up quickly then this is definitely one to consider.

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Jimdo Dolphin, like its competitors, will ask you a series of questions about your project and what you’d like to achieve with your site as well as allowing you to connect your Facebook account and Google Maps location. After these questions, you will then choose the different pages you’d like your site to have, pick an initial theme (which can be altered later) and then you can customise your design and layout using the assistant toolbar to the right hand of the screen.

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Some of the pros of using Jimdo include having a variety of website templates to choose from, being able to edit your site at any time, and their ability to focus site design colours around your logo. Whilst these are all useful, these aren’t stand-out functions – and Jimdo doesn’t come without its drawbacks. With very limited customisation options and sometimes slow responses from the support team for those not on their premium plan, this isn’t the right choice for everyone.

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Weebly

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Whilst it hasn’t been updated to offer the ADI functionality that many website builders on the market do, Weebly is still a relatively simple option for getting your site together. Like Wix Editor, Weebly uses a drag and drop function that ensures “what you see is what you get” – as you’re adding sections and designing your site you can be assured that’s how it’ll look for customers browsing your page.

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Once you’ve signed up to the site, you’ll need to select your initial theme. Weebly offers categories to describe your site, such as “business”, “blog” and “portfolio”, and once you’ve selected this the templates for you to choose from will be industry specific. There are around 50 different templates to choose from, which is more limited than other options on the market, so design and customisation capabilities are quite limited.  

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Once you’ve chosen your template, you will be prompted to begin editing. The editor on the left-hand side of the page will allow you to add different elements to your site such as text, images and videos, whilst the toolbar at the top of the page allows you to add more pages and also include apps. Weebly has a particularly extensive app store and a built-in SEO guide – both of which can help you optimise your site and increase traffic.

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Despite not having an ADI functionality, Weebly is still easy for those who are less tech-savvy to use as it still requires no coding. However, the drag-and-drop function can have a tendency to stick in the block elements, which can prove frustrating when customising your site.
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Site123

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Like competitors such as Jimdo and GoDaddy, Site123 users can expect to get their site up quickly and in a relatively hassle-free manner. This makes it a great choice for small business owners keen to get a simple site sorted, or perhaps for complete beginners who just want to try their hand at creating a website.

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Site123 is one of the many options available on the market that offers ADI functionality – meaning that your site will be generated for you, and you’ll need no prior coding knowledge or web design skills. Similar to their competitors, Site123’s ADI function will ask you a few brief questions before generating your site, which you can then go through and edit before publishing.

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This editor page is relatively simple as the toolbar allows you to alter design and other settings in just a couple of clicks, whilst new pages can be added using the toolbar or the “+” buttons throughout their pages. Undoubtedly, one of the best features of Site123 is their excellent customer service. Available 24/7 on live chat, their assistants are there to guide you through your site build by answering any questions you might have – which makes it ideal for complete beginners.

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As is the case with some ADI website builders, Site123 does tend to limit creativity in terms of design, although this makes it ideal for those who don’t have a particular design in mind. The amount of stock photos available is also particularly helpful for those looking to get their site set up, but don’t necessarily have all of the content required for the pages just yet.

Have we helped?

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This blog post summarises just a few of the web design options on the market that we believe to be the most user-friendly, making any of them suitable choices for those who are less confident using tech.

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Undeniably, though, the ADI function that many are offering makes the process much simpler for those without prior coding or web design knowledge to set up a website.

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Though any site builder with an ADI function is a viable option for those looking to get their site together speedily, arguably GoDaddy could be considered the easiest to use. With their anticipation of user needs from very few questions, their guide to editing sites and general simplicity of tools, GoDaddy is certainly a very easy way to get your site live without spending too much time on the task.

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Although, if you’re looking for an initially easy set up that you think you might like to customise further in the future, Wix might be a better option. Whilst their ADI function can get your site set up, you can customise it later using their drag and drop editor to give it the edge against competitors.

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Ultimately, web builders are a great way to get your business online quickly and easily, but they’re not suited to everyone. If you’re not too tech-savvy but fancy having a go at creating your own site, the options mentioned in this blog are a great place to start.
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