Online shopping makes up a significant chunk of all U.S. commerce. In the 3rd quarter of 2022, e-commerce made up 14.1% of total sales—an increase of 10.8% from 2021. For small businesses, having an online store is crucial for building customer trust, generating leads, and doing more business.
For small business owners, the potential costs of having your own website can feel prohibitive. But you don’t have to miss out on having an online presence, no matter your budget. There are many free website builders and tools that make it easy to create your own budget-friendly website.
We’ll teach you everything you need to know.
Free Website Builders
Building a small business website doesn’t have to be expensive—or cost anything at all. Let’s go over some of the top free website builders for your business.
(Disclaimer: While it may not cost anything to build your own site with these free website builders, you will have to pay to keep your business website live.)
Wix
Wix is a free website builder that offers 900+ templates, making it easy to create an eye-catching professional website. Plus, these website templates are easily scalable, so they’ll grow with you. Wix also offers built-in SEO tools for your small business website. For additional features, you can upgrade to a paid premium subscription.
Squarespace
Free website builder Squarespace also offers a wide range of templates. They have customized styles for nearly any type of small business website. Furthermore, Squarespace makes it easy to choose your own custom domain name. You can get started with a free trial and use their drag-and-drop editor to design your business website (meaning minimal technical skills are required). After your trial is over, you’ll need to pay a monthly or annual maintenance fee to keep your site online.
Weebly
With your free Weebly website, you can choose from an array of different themes and customize with the site builder to get selling online. This website builder has partnered with Square to make it easy for you to sell online. Similarly to the other website builders, there are also tools for marketing and growing your small business.
WordPress
A classic choice for building your business website, WordPress claims that more small businesses use their website builder than any other website builder. With any annual paid plan, you’ll get your first year free—a screaming deal.
8 Free Tools for Your Small Business Website
Once you know where you’re going to build and host your site, there are plenty of low- and no-cost tools that will help you build a beautiful, effective website. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.
