Cheapest Website Builders in 2023 (UK)

Over 3/4s of UK surfers check online before making a product or service purchase.

So, if your business isn’t online, you’re missing out on lots of potential money-making opportunities.

This guide is here to help you do so without spending a lot upfront.

In this guide, we’ll look at cheap website builders that offer perhaps the best ROI value. We’ve curated a list that considers: long-term growth abilities/SEO, user-friendliness, visitor experience - and of course, how cheap it is to use.

Table of Contents:

• #1: Wix
• #2: Hostinger
• #3: WordPress + SiteGround Hosting
• #4: Squarespace
• #5: Shopify
• #6: Site123
• #7. GoDaddy
• #8. Weebly
• #9. uKit
• Buying Guide
• Common Website Jargon
• FAQs
• Conclusion

Reputation

Wix has been around since 2006, created by a small team of Israeli developers.

It’s still headquartered in Tel Aviv and, in 2010, had 3.5 million users - as of summer 2020, this reached somewhere in the region of 180 million registered users (190 countries around the world).

This is likely the most popular drag-and-drop builder on the planet. It’s also #1 on our best free website builder list because of how quickly you can create a fully functional site… In 30mins:

• Populate a premade professional template.
• Completely automate your SEO process with a few clicks using the ‘SEO Wiz’.

Features

This is our top recommendation if you have stumbled upon a new niche that’s somewhat new or low in competition for rankings. The same goes for if you’re creating a website for personal branding reasons, where somebody may search you up using a business card for instance.

For that, it’s hard to think of any faster and more affordable solution to creating a website if you’re not a web developer or web designer than something like Wix.

Wix ADI

The Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) system leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence in order to make your website as quickly as possible, even migrating content from pre-existing websites.

Choose from more than 300 templates sorted by popularity and category. Editing the website is intuitive, as you can drag & drop things around the screen.

SEO Wiz

This is where it really gets juicy… Let’s say that you found a crisp new niche that you want to rank high in and monetise for. The competition is low and you have plenty of content that you think people searching for that search query will want and need.

Use their artificial intelligence to not only find the most popular keywords - but to find opportunities, optimise content and track your success.

All good to increase visibility… Wix automatically indexes your site on Google, analyses keywords and walks you through optimisations with a step-by-step checklist system.

They also have testimonials for the system boosting the visibility of pre-existing websites.

While there are some questions around how well Wix can compete with WordPress for SEO (see WordPress vs Wix), even top experts like HREFs have a hard time seeing a clear difference between the two, for SEO.

Pricing and Plans

For less than £6 with their most popular premium plan - the Unlimited Plan (for entrepreneurs and freelancers) - you’ll get unlimited bandwidth, zero unwanted ads, 10GB storage, a free domain for a year and more.

Of course, there’s also a free plan with free hosting but if you want your website for business purposes, this isn’t recommended.

Possibly the best website builder UK 2023 if you see a low-competition opportunity. 

Reputation 👀️

Weebly is perhaps one of the underdogs when it comes to website building, but they really are quite capable. They are one of the cheapest options on the market, and they step up in ways that a lot of the popular companies don’t. It’s up to you to consider where the weigh off for those things. 

Weebly is not nearly as popular as sites like Wix or WordPress, but they really have a capable platform. They have designed their builder so that it makes it easy for you to get things done quickly. And they look great in the process. 

Where they may be lacking in certain features, they make up for in design simplicity that stands out. In fact, Weebly has one of the best designs when it comes to their drag and drop creation capabilities. It’s quick, it’s intuitive, and it’s really easy. 

Features 💡️

We love Weebly for the ability to integrate videos, create slideshows, and even pull in royalty free images without going on a major hunt to do it. You have full customization capabilities in this area, which is a bonus. And this is compatible with the drag and drop too. 

Videos, slideshows, and every type of photo template can be created to make your website sleek, all while remaining mobile friendly. Every format of Weebly’s website builder tools is mobile-friendly so your customers aren’t fighting a non-compatible screen. 

Another stand out feature of Weebly is the fact that they have a completely free plan option. It may not have everything, but if you need a cheap solution, it has enough to get you started. You can always upgrade later on if you need to. 

Is the Free Plan Even Worth It? 🤔️

As with every website builder out there, the free plan is created for basic use at best. It doesn’t have a ton available to you, but it does have something. When so many website builders don’t offer a free plan of any kind, it’s one place where Weebly can stand out. 

If you just need something simple that you can throw together, the free plan is a good choice. Upgrade when and if you need to, but take advantage of the savings in the meantime. The free plan still has 3rd part embed code capabilities, as well as free SSL security incorporations. 

These are things the basic free plan includes

• SSL
• Limited ecommerce (cart, unlimited items, badges, quick shop, inventory, pickup, tax calculator, coupon, gift cards)
• Limited SEO
• Community Forum
• Email and Chat support

That’s more than a lot of plans offer even on their lowest basic plan that costs money. 

Pricing and Plans 🛒️

Every plan increases just a little bit in price and just a little bit in what you can accomplish on the plan. The free and personal packages are similar, but personal does add a few more features. 

You really amp up your game when you switch to professional or performance packages, including phone support or priority support, respectively. Each upgrade adds some features that the previous package didn’t have. 

The personal use starts at £9 per month, but you can increase to the professional package for just £2 per month more, so it might be worth comparing for that increase. The performance package more than doubles from there in cost.

Reputation 📖️

uKit is one of the top choices in the UK when it comes to website builders for cheap. The reason is that while it’s not as impressive as the giants out there, it’s still got a lot to offer and it’s pretty simple to work with. It’s an all around great tool that offers you customization, flexibility, and simplicity all wrapped up in one neat little package. 

They are known for making site building easy, where other sites can have a learning curve or require a lot of training and support to build even the simplest of themes. They have a lot of great restoration and security additions, so you know nothing will ever just be a total loss. 

uKit takes the stage in presenting things that are easy to use for a great price. They make it simple for everyone. 

Features 👀️

The site building tools provided by uKit are some of the best in the industry, especially considering the prices and where they fall in comparison to big names like Wix. The interface walks you through step by step, giving you access to templates, themes, and even widgets to incorporate. 

Some of the themes and templates cannot be modified or customized a lot, but everything can be tailored to your needs in some way. You just have to learn where the limitations are and then work around those. Even with limited customization in some places, you’re not going to feel like you can’t do what you want to do. 

In addition, the site allows you to preview your build on website, desktop, and mobile but they go one step further. You can look at the website specifically in portrait or landscape modes to see it from different perspectives and make sure it looks good from every possible angle. 

And one feature that really sets uKit apart is their Facebook to website conversion. Building a website can be overwhelming. While they make it easy on you, some people still don’t want to mess with it. You can actually use their tool to convert your Facebook page to a website. The tool automatically integrates FB information to develop a page for you and then you can edit it or make changes as needed. 

Pricing and Plans 💵️

uKit is really all about value for the money. This is clear in many ways, including their pricing plans. Their pro plan is pretty cool and it’s only about £14 per month. That’s their highest plan. The lowest plan is just slightly over £8. This one is called minimal and gives you the basic tools and features to get the website up and running. 

In between the top and bottom, they offer a basic and an ecommerce that both have some varying features included in them as well. All of the plans except the Pro plan offer a 14-day trial period so you can see if you like it or not before you commit. 

Build a Website for Beginners

Creating a website is about as simple as you make it. You’ll need these 3 things:

• Website host
• Domain
• CMS

The first step is choosing the best web host for your purposes and a domain name. This is the backend aspect of making your website findable online. Without either of these, you won’t be online.

Once you set these up, you can design your site using a builder (content management system). The most popular around is WordPress, powering over one-third of all internet sites.

#1 Domain Name Registrar

The online address where your website will be found.

For instance, ‘hostingdata.co.uk’: visitors type this into the web browser’s address bar, to load your site up.

Our recommendation is NameCheap, as you’ll get free privacy protection. Others like GoDaddy/NameJet charge £35+ more for the same options.

• For a personal site, yourname.com is a solid choice
• For business, try to match your domain name with your business name. For instance, yourbusinessname.com
• For SEO, we recommend you use the most common URL extensions: .com, .net, or .org

Related Read: Top Domain Registrars 

#2 Web Host

Web hosts store and host your website’s contents and files on a managed server that constantly runs, with security protections. Hosting servers are found in data centres.

Here are a few things to look for when choosing a web host:

• Location of the nearest server (the nearer the better)
• FREE domain name & an SSL certificate
• No bandwidth limits, to prevent bottlenecks
• Custom emails
• 24/7 live chat support

Pro Tip

Our top recommendation is SiteGround, which gives you all of the above for a very affordable price.

Your host should have servers located in your country. But if your audience is mostly on the Asian subcontinent, check out our web hosting India guide.

#3 Website Design

Fortunately, we’ve created this cheap website design UK article for you. Scroll through to the top section to review the top 9 choices again of website builders.

WordPress is the most popular website builder in the world and probably has an edge in terms of SEO, which means it will be more findable via search engines by visitors.

That said, if you are new to website building and do not have the time or patience to spend a few days getting to grips with the basics, Wix will set you up in only a matter of minutes or hours, making SURE you get online.

Pro Tip

How much time do you have? WordPress has the most amount of features and abilities, but Wix makes sure you get a website up and running without developing a migraine in the process. You can always redesign your content using WordPress later.

What is a Website Builder?

Website builders let you construct websites without needing to manually do the coding or code editing. How does a website builder work?

The two main types of website builders: online and offline.

#1 Offline Website Builders

These website builders are self-awareness programs you installed on your computer. Using it, you can create a website and save files in computer folders, then when ready upload this to your web host of choice.

This is more an option for someone who already has technical web development skills with something such as Rapidweaver.

#2 Online Website Builders

By far the most common form and the type in this guide.

This type of website builder is web-based, which you can one on your web browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. Build and manage your website from any location or device. Some website builders also offer web hosting.

How Hard is it to Make a Website?

You’ve seen the six-figure salaries of web developers - you’re wondering whether it's worth attempting to create a website for yourself with a cheap website builder (without paying for a developer).

The truth is yes... It’s hard work to make a website that’s high-performing, competitive with SEO and optimally designed.

As a result, creating websites alone can be a very inefficient way of going about getting a sorted website. The one exception to this is using a drag & drop builder like Wix.

Wix automates the process, with some SEO compromises.

But if you’re looking to dominate a space with solid competition, it’s in your best interest to hire an affordable developer/someone with SEO knowledge. For this, WordPress is hard to beat.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. In order to understand it, you need to look at it separate traffic dimensions:

Accurate

Is irrelevant how many visit your site if they’re an unrelated audience. Perhaps you’re selling online workout courses but the only people visiting want cheeseburgers.

You want people very interested in your product or offer, and perhaps ready to buy something.

High Volume

Relative, as your niche may not need a lot of people in order for you to make your livelihood. For instance, perhaps your pricing is higher-margin. Once you have accurate traffic, quantity is the next most important aspect for SERPs (search engine result pages).

Organic

Means the high-quality/quantity traffic flooding your site comes free. Paying for SERP’s via paid ads lowers your profit margin.

Organic traffic is the cornerstone to having passive or semi-passive income. You can do this up by creating high quality content that search engines reward more and more over time.

Pro Tip

Going into a competitive SEO space? Chances are you’ll need to pay a Wordpress designer/developer… But if it’s a new or low-competition space, Wix could be more than enough.

Should I Pay for a Web Developer?

The four main reasons you should pay for a web developer, unless the niche you are entering is low in competition (and you can therefore use a drag-and-drop option like Wix):

#1 Price

You may think that you’re saving money by creating a free website but the time involved required for you to learn to build an effective website will come at an extreme cost to your business.

Any free website builder will probably be a free trial, after which point you will be charged a monthly fee, or have inconvenient URLs and banners that put off SEO and visitors.

The most important apps and features such as SSL certificates will also require an additional hidden fee.

#2 Functionality / Look

A badly designed website will create a bad first impression, which counts when it comes to your brand and trustworthiness.

Even worse, if your website is difficult to navigate or looks generic, it will make it hard for you to stand out.

#3 Performance / Support

The better the performance of your website, the more that SERPs reward you and the better your conversions.

Then there’s SEO, which if not done well, will leave you invisible online. Once again, unless your space has little to no competition, it's recommended to pay for a professional.

And premium providers offer swift technical help when you inevitably experience a technical issue with your website.

#4 Time

Time is money. Try to create a website yourself and you won’t only need to spend hours inputting content and arranging it, you will also need to spend days, weeks and perhaps more learning the theory behind web development.

Know the level of competition you’re aiming to out-compete and set aside investment money appropriately.

In this section, we’ve organized the most common web designer and development terminologies you’re likely to come across:

#1 Server

The backbone of websites and the internet.

Essentially, it’s a bunch of computers connected together, in order to store massive amounts of data.

Buildings with lots of servers are typically called data centres.

#2 Content

You’ve probably heard a lot about ‘content creation’. This is what the person sees when they search you up on a search engine and enter onto one of your webpages. SERPs reward you for high-quality content that keeps visitors on your page for longer.

#3 Accessibility

How accessible is your website by those with disabilities: do you have disability guides with larger icons and simpler copy, to help sites navigation? Many web designers do not take this into consideration.

#4 CSS

Short for Cascading Style Sheets. This is a coding language that helps HTML code lay itself out in your webpage better. In a way of thinking, HTML codes for text and CSS codes for the actual page design.

#5 Static Layout

This can be easy to design but lacks flexibility. If you try to visit a page with a static layout on different devices, pages will be unresponsive and require awkward scrolling to the property, such as in a mobile device. Mobile responsiveness is the standard in most instances of top-performing websites.

#6 Favicon

What we called the image that pops up next to your domain name if you look at the address bar in your web browser.

#7 Mobile Responsiveness

Mobile responsive layouts adapted to the device being used.

They shrink or increase the width of the page in order to fit as much content as possible.

This is the standard now for web design.

#8 Style Guide

Consistent styling is very important for branding. Use too many colours or shapes and it can confuse the focal point of the user. Good web design uses complementary colours, and this can typically be found as a premade template in a web design theme.

#9 UX Design

The feel, look and user-friendliness of a website is what we call the ‘UX design’. To do this well, you need to look through the user’s eyes; experience the website through them.

#10 Python

This is a type of web development framework, relating to how websites are coded. It’s completely free.

#11 Graphical User Interface

Software that makes devices simpler to use. For instance, your mobile home screen has apps and menus organized in a clever way to make navigation straightforward.

#12 Growth Driven Design

The theory behind web design, aimed at making websites in the simplest way possible. As a site close, complexities increase, but the foundations give everything a care regularity, which also helps updating in a logical way.

#13 Backend

There’s an enormous number of processes at work that cannot be seen by the user. This is known as the ‘back end’ of your website. One example is the WordPress dashboard.

#14 Bad Neighbourhood

A name given to groups of websites, perhaps with similar IP addresses, that have bad search ranking scores and bad reputations. If your website gets trusted in that neighbourhood, chances are that you will damage your chances of ranking well in SERPs. This is a good reason to choose a quality web host.

#15 Cache

This is your device’s temporary storage space, there so that your browser can be more efficient.

If you visit a webpage and accept cookies, your browser stores a record of pages you visited;

The next time you visit, your browser doesn’t need to reprocess them, saving loading time.