Squarespace Alternatives: Top 7 Free Website Builders that allow to create your own website for free in 2017
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Squarespace is a popular website builder mainly for its design-friendly features, particularly its elegant templates and versatile styling editor. Great as it may be, this site builder is not for everyone. Squarespace has only one sub-navigation level, so you cannot use it for bigger-scale sites. Several features are lacking, such as a preview mode, the ability to customize the mobile version, and support for multilingual websites. If you are wondering if there are Squarespace alternatives that suit your needs, you will be glad to know that it is not the only choice nowadays when it comes to building websites.
Here are the top 10 websites similar to Squarespace but offers better website building capabilities, including their pros and cons. The best thing about the website builders on this list is that they are all free—they allow users to create stunning sites without any cost.
1.FabSite.com
Sharing a lot of similar features with Wix, FabSite is also a good Squarespace alternative because it offers something that the former does not: the ability to make a zip file of the whole website (which is useful when you switch to a new web host) and the Page Layouts feature for pre-editing each page of your site. If you are wondering what is the best and fastest way to get free website design FabSite might be worth your attention.
Pros:
- Cutting edge technology
- Drag-and-drop tool for adding images, text, videos and forms
- Modern and elegant themes that can be customized with just a click
- Wide range of customization options
- Easy and fast development process (5 min to get fully working website)
- Fully responsive
- Free: 100MB storage and 1GB bandwidth
Cons:
- No free email account, only in paid version
2. WordPress
One of the best open-source platforms out there, WordPress is known worldwide as a reliable content management system. Compared to Squarespace, WordPress is more beginner-friendly because it offers more design choices and flexibility.
Pros:
- Free plugins, templates, and themes for building awesome websites for professional portfolios and e-commerce
- Easy to use, so much so that you can create a website in only a few hours
- Unlimited bandwidth and 3GB storage space
- Provides website traffic information, which is useful for modifying your website to suit your audience’s needs
- Supportive online community of users and developers as well as tutorials and other online resources
Cons:
- Requires basic knowledge of website building and coding for customizing website design
3. Wix
With more than 60 million websites built, Wix is one of the widely known and most user-friendly website-building tools today. No wonder that it is considered among the strongest competitors of Squarespace. For e-commerce sites, Wix supports more than one payment option (Adsense and PayPal), while Squarespace has only one. Another edge of Wix over Squarespace is that the former does not deduct a transaction fee from every sale.
Pros:
- Easy to use, even for beginners with little coding knowledge
- Drag-and-drop website builder tool that makes website creation as quick as that of a Powerpoint presentation
- Wide range of customization options and third-party services
- Enables users to customize the mobile version of their website
- Provides the option to revert to the earlier versions of your site
- Hundreds of HTML templates
Cons:
- Has e-commerce functionality but may not be the best choice for e-commerce sites compared to WordPress and Shopify
- Only 500MB bandwidth and 500MB of storage space
- Does not allow changing of templates once a project has been started
4. Jimdo
This open-source software, which has been used to create more than 20 million websites to date, is a good Squarespace alternative because it is more cost-effective, simpler to use, and supported across the world. It is ideal for small business start-ups that need to build a powerful e-commerce site.
Pros:
- WYSIWYG editor that shows a preview of your website before you publish it
- Unlimited cloud-based storage and bandwidth
- Supports over nine languages
- Ability to customize the HTML/CSS source file
- Ability to integrate HD video and the option to tweak the video resolution to make it load faster during slow connections
- Free SEO enhancements, domain registration, and web hosting
Cons:
- Supports only PayPal and manual payments; no credit card gateway
- Templates have certain restrictions that limit customization
5. Tumblr
Unlike the other website builders on this list, Tumblr is the only one that is completely free—meaning it does not offer premium services for a fee. It is hardly surprising because this online tool is uncomplicated. It is suitable for users who just want to create an online portfolio of their work, a microsite with a few static pages, or a simple blog. If you are looking to build an e-commerce website or a forum, then you are better off using something else.
Pros:
- Customizable themes, including the default ones
- Easier to use than other blogging platforms like Blogger
- Good enough for building and updating a simple website
Cons:
- Limited Analytics tools for tracking website traffic and other important SEO information
- Just a few selection of integrated site building tools
6. Webflow
This full-featured free website builder was launched in 2012 to cater to designers who did not know how to code but wanted to build custom websites. Compared to Squarespace, Webflow offers more templates, as well as the option to create your own template from scratch. Webflow is great for designers who want to make stunning websites for their clients.
Pros:
- Attractive interface that looks and feels like Photoshop
- Ability to add social media components, videos, and maps even without coding knowledge
- Great customer support
Cons:
- Limited theme choices
- Knowledge of HTML and CSS is required
7. IM Creator
IM Creator is a free, professional website builder that is perfect for first-timers who want to create interactive websites with a solid online presence. To date, it has helped build more than 11 million websites.
Pros:
- Easy to use point-and-click interface
- Supports single page and multiple page layouts
- Economical option for beginners
- Supports more languages (14) than Squarespace (3)
- Unlimited domain and web hosting services
- Unlimited storage space and bandwidth
Cons:
- Limited website building tools
- Lack of CDN (content delivery network) technology