Building a stunning small business website has never been easier.
With dozens of DIY website builders and marketing agencies fighting for your business, you are in the driver’s seat when it comes to your online presence.
However, choosing the best way to build your website can be a challenge.
Should you hire an agency? Start with a template? Or build from scratch?
In this article, we will:
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- Showcase the best template options from the top website builders \n
- Inspire you with great looking business sites built using each platform \n
- Describe the key differences between the platforms to help make a choice \n
Let’s get started!
Squarespace
What you need to know
Squarespace is a responsive website builder best known for its stunning templates that allow users to quickly get a site online.
The layout for Squarespace websites are generated by templates, meaning you will be limited to style and content changes such as text, fonts, colors, and images.
On one hand, these “guardrails” do help beginners create attractive websites relatively quickly.
But this restrictive experience can be extremely frustrating when you want to make simple layout changes. The only way to edit the template is to change the code directly or abandon your original design and replace the template altogether.
Squarespace does also come with powerful—but relatively expensive—native e-commerce solutions in case your business sells products online.
Since Squarespace websites are almost all generated by a core set of templates, we’ve combined the live site example with the template from which it was created.
Live website and template examples
Owl house creative (Creative agency)
Source template: Nueva
Alyce Alexandra (Author)
Source template: Ready
Little Tong (Restaurant/Noodle Shop)
Source template: Basil
Wix
What you need to know
Wix is an adaptive website builder which gives you the ability to independently customize the desktop and mobile versions of your site.
Because Wix layouts are not generated by templates, you can freely move content around on your page. If you’ve got a little bit of design experience, this freedom feels great when compared with rigid website builders or content management systems (CMS) that limit you to filling in the boxes.
However, for non-designers, the Wix editor can feel overwhelming because of how much you can do. Simple things, like creating content outside of the base template, can be challenging.
With hundreds of features for every small business vertical (including e-commerce), Wix has become a very popular option amongst business owners.
Here are some of their best looking small business websites and templates:
Real websites
I AM EVE (Singer/Artist)
Louise Whitehouse (Photographer)
The Tea Story (Online Tea Shop)
Templates
PageCloud
What you need to know
PageCloud’s adaptive website builder enables you to freely customize your content and layout without the use of code. Similar to responsive builders, PageCloud pages are divided into easy-to-manage sections that make building and editing much faster.
You can build your own custom sections or choose from a collection of over 1000+ professionally designed sections. Each section can be easily duplicated, reordered, or copy and pasted onto other pages.
Unlike most website builders, PageCloud gives you full access to the source code so that designers, developers, and small business owners can all collaborate on the same platform.
Furthermore, with hundreds of app integrations (including e-commerce), PageCloud makes it easy for businesses to connect to the tools they are already using.
Below, you will find a few stunning websites built with PageCloud as well as some of their most popular business focused templates powered by their unique “Sections” feature.
Real websites
Erin Oprea (Personal trainer)
Cribcut (Mobile hair salon)
Bicycle Craft Brewery (Local brewery)
Defy Athletix (Sports training camps)
Templates
Final thoughts
As you can see by the examples above, there are many ways to build an attractive, high-performing small business site.
It all comes down to is choosing a platform that fits:
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- Your website building and design experience \n
- Your website’s current and future requirements (including app integrations) \n
- Your website’s budget\n \n
As most website builders offer a free trial, we’d recommend giving them a try before building out your entire site.
Having used all three website builders on several occasions, I’d personally recommend starting with PageCloud, as their trial gives you full access to their awesome support team who can guide you through every step of your website building journey.