For many authors and small business owners, the dream is clear: a website that looks beautiful, feels personal and quietly does its job bringing in readers, clients or sales.
For my own author clients who want a strategic, flexible site that’s still manageable day to day, my first-choice platform is Squarespace. It gives me enough design freedom to create a tailored look, while still being realistic for you to update on your own.
That said, I completely understand the urge to try building your site yourself first. There are plenty of drag-and-drop tools that promise a code-free experience—and some of them are genuinely helpful. Others… less so.
Before you get lost testing half the internet, it helps to pause and think about what you actually need from your website builder.
How I evaluated different website builders
The best way to judge any tool is to give it a clear, concrete task.
In my case, I challenged myself to recreate a simple, existing site: https://bookvoice.me/. I originally built this in 2020, using bolt.new , to separate my writing life and published books from my design services for authors. It took me around half a day to create and refine in Bolt—but keep in mind, this is the kind of work I do frequently.
For this experiment, I focused on low-cost or “budget” tools, ideally with free plans, and skipped self-hosted WordPress entirely, since I specifically wanted to compare drag-and-drop builders.
Some of the platforms I tried included:
- Hostinger Website builder
- Bolt.new
- Wix
- Weebly
- Webs
- Mailchimp
- Carrd.co
- Jigsy
- Webnode
- Jimdo
- Ucraft
- one.com
- Google Sites
- Strikingly
What surprised me wasn’t just the pricing differences, but how constrained some tools felt, how awkward the interfaces were, and how often I ran into complete show-stoppers.
That’s why, instead of telling you to use one specific tool, I want to share what to look for before you get too attached to any platform.
Key things to check before you choose a website builder
The more you can clarify your non-negotiables upfront, the less likely you are to spend hours learning a tool only to discover a deal-breaking limitation later.
Here are the main areas I recommend reviewing.
1. The (free) domain name: how long and awkward is it?
On a free plan, almost every builder will give you a less-than-glamorous URL. That’s expected. But some push this to extremes.
For example, with Wix I ended up with something like:
bookvtest1.wixsite.com/bookvoice
Now, my site name certainly didn’t help—but even with a shorter name, that’s not a URL you’ll be proud to put on a business card.
Takeaway:
- Free subdomains are fine for testing, but they aren’t ideal for a professional site.
- Buying your own custom domain is one of the best early investments you can make.
2. How intrusive are the adverts?
On free plans, you should assume you’ll see:
- A plug for the website builder itself
- Banner ads
- Or both
Before you fall in love with your design, look carefully at how those ads appear:
- Are they subtle or dominating the page?
- Do they distract from your content?
Ad-heavy layouts send a message to your visitors—often that the site isn’t particularly serious or professional.
3. What are the plan limits?
Free plans nearly always come with limits. Common ones include:
- Maximum number of pages
- Storage or bandwidth caps (images, files, traffic)
- Restricted access to forms, integrations and other useful widgets
Don’t skip the pricing page. Compare what you get at each level and ask:
- If my site grows, how soon will I hit these limits?
- Does the next tier up feel reasonable—or like a big jump for a small gain?
4. Does the tool actually work reliably?
An important part of my work is reassuring authors that they are not “too techno-phobic” for a website. So I was dismayed to discover that several tools I tried had bugs and simply didn’t behave as described.
If you’re struggling with a feature that should be simple:
- Double-check the help documentation or tutorial.
- Try a different browser.
If it still doesn’t work, the issue might be the platform—not you. In that case, don’t keep banging your head against it. Cut your losses and move on.
If you want to explore AI website builders tools that create websites from your text prompts using artificial intelligence, you can check out this discussion on Reddit: Best AI Website Builders: I Tested 15+ Tools and Narrowed It Down to 7
5. Layout choices: how constrained are you really?
Drag-and-drop builders are wonderful for non-coders, but they come with trade-offs. To protect you from design chaos, many platforms tightly control where elements can go.
This can be helpful—until you try to:
- Add a Call to Action (CTA) button exactly where you want it
- Tweak the layout of a hero section or feature block
- Adjust spacing between elements beyond predefined options
If you can’t place a clear CTA button where your visitors naturally look, that can be a genuine show-stopper. Text links are rarely enough for the most important action you want someone to take.
Tip: As you test, pay particular attention to how easily you can:
- Add and position buttons
- Control margins and spacing
- Adjust layouts without everything jumping out of place
6. Can you change the template/theme after you start?
Some builders lock you into a template once you’ve begun, and in many cases that’s by design. It’s often necessary to keep the underlying structure stable.
However, this means you could spend hours working only to realize:
- The header is too tall
- The menu layout doesn’t suit your content
- The image placements don’t fit your brand
Before you commit:
- Check how the template handles navigation, header images and key content areas.
- Make sure the overall structure is aligned with what you need, even if you change fonts and colors later.
7. Mobile responsiveness: does it really look good on phones?
Most builders now claim responsive design—meaning your site should adjust automatically to different screen sizes. In reality, I’ve seen plenty of DIY sites where:
- Text overlaps or crashes into images
- Columns appear in a confusing order
- Buttons become tiny or too close together
Once you’ve made progress with your design, always check:
- How it looks on your phone
- How it behaves on a tablet
- Whether important content drops too far down the page
This is not a step to skip.
8. Can you specify your own brand colors?
If you’re starting completely from scratch, the platform’s suggested palette might be enough.
But the moment you have any kind of brand color—say a specific shade of red like #FF0000—you need a tool that lets you use it precisely.
In my testing:
- Some builders offered very limited color choices
- Others allowed more flexibility, but still not full control
You should never be forced to “settle” for something close-ish to your brand color. Precise control over colors is important if you want consistency across your website, social media and print materials.
9. SSL certificate cost: any hidden surprises?
You don’t need to get deeply technical here, but you do need to know this:
- Modern browsers expect sites to load over https, not http.
- That “s” is powered by an SSL certificate.
- Without it, visitors may see scary warnings—or be blocked from your site entirely.
On free plans, many builders handle SSL for you automatically. The trouble starts when you connect your own custom domain. Some tools charge a surprisingly high fee for SSL each year.
One example from my testing: Jigsy charges a significant annual fee for SSL, which feels like an unpleasant surprise if you only discover it after building your site.
By contrast, other platforms (like Hostinger Builder) include SSL as part of the service, without extra fuss.
Bottom line: factor SSL into your cost comparisons before you commit.
10. Domain name costs
Most website builders are happy to “help” you register a domain as a convenience, and many offer the first year free on paid plans.
The catch often comes in later years, when renewal pricing is higher than you’d find at a standard domain registrar.
In general:
- You shouldn’t be forced to buy your domain through your website builder.
- Watch renewal prices carefully, not just the first year’s promo.
11. Extra features: store, blog, bookings and more
“Website” can mean very different things depending on who you ask. Before you choose a builder, get clear on what you actually need it to do. For example:
- Do you want a blog with categories and archives?
- Do you need an online store with products and checkout?
- Will you be taking bookings or appointments?
- Do you need email sign-up forms or simple landing pages only?
My own favorite budget platform, Bolt, is fantastic for lean, focused sites—but it’s not designed for traditional blogging. That’s not a flaw so much as a design decision.
The key is to ensure that the tool you pick genuinely supports your version of “website.” Don’t assume features are included just because they’re common elsewhere.
Summary: pause before you plunge
It’s exciting to roll up your sleeves and start designing. But the more thought you can give to your needs before you choose (and learn) a website builder, the better.
If you can clarify things like:
- Your tolerance for free-plan ads and long URLs
- How much layout flexibility you really want
- Whether you need blogging, eCommerce or bookings
- How important exact branding, SSL and domain control are to you
…you’ll be in a much stronger position to pick a platform that supports your goals instead of blocking them.
In short: pause, evaluate, then commit. It’s far better to spend a little extra time upfront than to invest hours in a tool, only to discover a brick wall later.
I’m a Webflow Developer specializing in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Node.js, Express, Redux, Python, and SQL – creating clean, high-performing, and SEO-friendly web apps.