Web Hosting vs. Website Builders (Feb. 2024): Differences & Top 20 Picks

Sure, the end result is the same, but which is the right path to get there: web hosting vs. website builders? The route you take largely depends on your tech and design skills — and patience with possibly taking the scenic route.

Until a handful of years ago, launching a new website required knowing a foreign language or two. You’d upload scores of carefully arranged quotation marks, colons, brackets, and other characters to a server, and — almost magically — the HTML and CSS files would convince other people’s web browsers to display your text and images in exactly the format you envisioned (usually).

Now, however, much of the tedious process is distilled into the simple push of a button or drag of a mouse. Web hosting still allows for the fine-grain control of coding your own website, but site builders give a wider range of users the ability to create a blog, portfolio, or store without any coding experience. We’ll dive into more comparisons plus some of the best options on the market.

Best Hosts | Best Builders | Best Value | Free | WordPress

Particularly at the introductory levels of web hosting, providers supplement the basic server space and processing power with useful services like email accounts, search engine optimization tools, automatic backups, free malware scans, and, of course, website builders. The beginner-friendly tool is great for small business owners, bloggers, and professionals looking to launch a site quickly.

The major advantage of choosing a web hosting plan with a site builder revolves around keeping your options open in case you want to try a new design platform. In addition to a website builder, chances are you’ll have access to hundreds of one-click installations that specialize in everything from blogs and eCommerce to wikis and message boards. Web hosting offers the flexibility to truly tailor your website to your exact needs, industry, and expectations.

Perhaps surprisingly, the wide range of tools is readily available at an affordable price point. Our three favorite hosting providers for new site owners, which we’ve reviewed below, offer the combination of web hosting and site builder along with all the added full-service functionality and support. Learn more about these companies below:

See other top affordable hosts »

Those seeking a more pared-down web hosting experience, on the other hand, may prefer to go straight to the website builders. These companies offer one signature platform, with various added functionalities becoming unlocked at more expensive tiers. Site builders automatically take care of configuring your web hosting and connecting it to the drag-and-drop software, leaving all the scary and potentially overwhelming stuff well in the background.

Although site builders concentrate on providing extraordinarily user-friendly hosting and website-owning experiences, most platforms also cover services like email, SEO, and eCommerce. You won’t have nearly as many options — but maybe that’s a good thing.

Our top three website builders all have particular strengths. When shopping for a platform, be sure to check out the range of themes, eCommerce particularities and fees, support availability, and exactly what is included with each plan. Take a look at our favorites here:

See other top website builders »

Fortunately for small business owners and first-time site owners, basic web hosting and website builders both reside at the cheaper end of the cost spectrum. Depending on how you arrange your package of online services, however, determines just how much of a deal you can score.

For starters, there’s the age-old debate of affordable vs. valuable services. Sure, you can have web hosting for free, but the performance, security, and general experience will suffer. Think of your website technology as an investment — you have to spend money to make money. Which is why we strongly recommend finding the most bang for a few bucks.

We’ll go into more detail in the sections to come, but our general philosophy is to skip the free services in favor of the added upgrades and perks that come with introductory-level plans. We’re slightly less averse to the free plans offered directly from many website builders, but why not enjoy that free site builder with a custom domain name, unlimited email accounts, and the treasure trove of add-ons that come with web hosting?

Best Value Web Hosts

Because the web hosting market is clamoring to attract new site owners and small businesses, annual hosting plans regularly include a ton of free perks. For less than $5 per month, you can usually have a free domain name registration, unlimited storage and bandwidth, around-the-clock support, and even the site builders or other software to help you design your site.

We scoured the internet to find the best deals on web hosting from companies with stellar reputations. The brands mentioned below are all known for top-notch infrastructure, performance, security, and support. Their affordable price points mean they’re used to helping beginners get started with their first site, so they’ve spent a ton of time streamlining the user experience into a positive and stress-free environment.

See other top affordable hosts »

Best Free Website Builders

Aside from open-source projects, website builders are perhaps the only free technology we’d recommend with any sort of confidence. Even so, those who sign up for the no-cost site builder plans are usually restricted to a hard-to-market subdomain (yourname.sitebuilder.com) and community support forums, along with having to display banner ads and coping without most of a platform’s marketing, SEO, or email tools.

Those limitations may not be deal breakers for personal bloggers or those who want to test a product before they buy, but they severely hamper a business or online presence from fostering a professional reputation. You’ll probably want to upgrade in the long run, but here are the top free website builders worth spending some time with (Note: You can frequently spot Weebly being included for free with paid web hosting plans):

See other top website builders »

Despite the simplicity that website builders offer during the setup, design, and customization processes, many site owners will benefit in the long run by having more control and access to their hosting environment. In addition to enhanced security, domain, and email services, web hosting providers offer more transparency about the underlying infrastructure powering your online presence.

For example, speed-boosting hardware like solid-state drives or integration with a content delivery network can drastically reduce the time it takes for your website pages to load — having a massive impact on your site’s performance in search rankings, traffic, user experience, transactions, and other conversions.

Solid-state drives, the modern storage device used in servers, can make sites perform up to 20 times faster than those relying on traditional hard-disk drives. The flash-based storage tends to come with smaller capacities at a slightly higher price, but the gap is narrowing as more SSD-driven solutions are deployed.

SSDs are one of our favorite hosting features we vouch for, given their demonstrable benefit to customers. The added processing firepower is well worth the slight investment, in our opinion, so be sure to check out our top three recommended hosts that blend the high-speed hardware customers need with affordable, easy-to-use solutions that address the whole website ownership experience:

See other top hosts with SSDs »

Although we’re past the days of needing to know how to code to launch a website, a web hosting account still comes with a handful more steps to configure the technology behind whatever design software you choose. Shared hosting customers will have access to a graphical interface known as a control panel that makes these processes extraordinarily logical and simple, but they may still intimidate a beginner.

Site builders take care of all the tech setup in the background; all they need from you is a domain name and method of payment before you’re ushered through the stable of themes and templates for you to start customizing. The platforms offer a visual, drag-and-drop interface that lets users see exactly what they’re creating. Customization options vary from platform and theme and are ultimately limited compared to the sheer flexibility and control that custom coding unlocks.

However, website builders naturally take care of technical components like accessibility, security, and responsivity by vouching for specific themes and templates. You can customize to your heart’s content and know your website will still be up-to-date with the latest standards.

Our top three website builders emphasize user friendliness by featuring hundreds of customizable templates, drag-and-drop content blocks, and integrations with popular eCommerce and marketing tools. Customer sites can quickly launch with a look and feel tailored to their specific industries and goals. We’ve laid out each platform’s biggest advantages below, but be sure to click on the reviews to learn more about what each has to offer.

See other top website builders »

So far, we’ve only talked about web hosting and website builders. But what if there were a third option that blended the best of both worlds? We’ve touched on it a little bit throughout this article, but it’s definitely time to spell out exactly where WordPress fits and why it may be what you’re looking for.

The world’s most popular content management system powers roughly a third of all websites and is a free, open-source program designed to simplify the act of building blogs, professional portfolios, and eCommerce websites. Because it is a piece of software, similar to website builders, WordPress requires that users maintain a web hosting account. Luckily, the vast majority of hosts make WordPress available to customers with an ultra-simple one-click installation.

However, designing and customizing a website in WordPress is not nearly as simple as a drag-and-drop website builder. Both platforms rely heavily on the use of themes, but WordPress only recently began introducing movable content blocks with the late-2018 release of the Gutenberg editor. Until then, WordPress relied on a WYSIWYG-type editor (what you see is what you get) that enabled users to toggle between a visual view of a page or post’s content and the underlying code.

The usability and popularity of WordPress make it an extraordinarily appealing option for new site owners. There’s a relatively steep learning curve when compared with website builders, but motivated beginners should have no trouble getting up to speed. Here are our three favorite web hosting providers for running WordPress:

See other top WordPress hosts »

Two basic building blocks of starting an online presence, web hosting and website builders can be incredibly valuable tools or utterly infuriating platforms that test your patience. Web hosting encompasses the storage, bandwidth, and other resources required to create and maintain a website. Narrowly speaking, hosting services include the server, network, and other infrastructure components that enable site owners to build an online presence. Providers don’t directly help customers with design, aside from providing access to a separate website builder or other helpful software such as a content management system.

Website builders are intuitive platforms that enable users to visually create websites without code. After starting with a theme or template, site owners can add, delete, move, and customize elements like background colors, text, and images — all with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Sounds simple, right? Well, here’s where the line starts to blur. Website builders require web hosting to display websites. Some, including industry leaders Wix and Squarespace, offer an all-in-one platform that integrates hosting services into the background. Weebly does the same, but it also frequently appears as a free add-on service alongside many shared web hosting plans. Hosts frequently offer website builders as part of their packages, whether the platform is developed in-house or from a third-party vendor.

The advent of website builders and content management systems have made starting a website extraordinarily easy and accessible to a wide range of people. Backend publishing systems and drag-and-drop interfaces remove the need to develop fluency in another foreign language like HTML, CSS, or PHP.

However, the wide array of options can be daunting, and the answer to the question of how to select the right platform largely contains a lot of “it depends.” Site owners better-suited to a web hosting plan may:

• Have at least a basic understanding of coding structures — or are willing to learn
• Have a very specific idea of how they want their website to look and operate
• Have more time to spend fine-tuning their website before launch

On the other hand, folks who prefer a self-contained website builder experience that takes care of all the hosting technicalities may:

• Have plans to launch an online store that sells physical or digital goods
• Have needs for total simplicity and are willing to sacrifice some customer support
• Have less time or money to spend on an online project, especially at the beginning

As we’ve mentioned in this article, web hosting and website builders take slightly different paths when delivering customers to the online presence of their dreams. However, customers can certainly be proud of either result. Interestingly, prospective site owners don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other — by selecting a web hosting plan that includes a site builder, you’ll have much more room to explore this contest and see which solution is best for you.