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Many website builders are so focused on impressing business customers that they forget about the needs of personal users. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not pay a premium for a whole lot of fancy features that I’ll never use.
I know from past experience that figuring out the best and most relevant option can be overwhelming. In fact, I gave up and got somebody else to design my site for me. But then I ended up with a website that didn’t reflect my personality and what I’m all about. Now that I’m back to square one, I’m doing the research for my benefit – as well as yours.
Whether you’re starting a fashion blog to build your following, a personal diary to share with friends, or an online resume to impress prospective employers, here’s my selection of the best personal website builders around.
While any of these builders would be a good option, Wix stands out as the best of the best. It offers the most templates, features, and creative freedom and has a generous free plan. Try it risk-free or read on for more inspiring options.
What I Looked For in the Best Personal Website Builders
Since this is a personal project and not a business venture, you’ll probably want to keep costs down. However, you also don’t want to put in a ton of effort on your own time just to end up with a website that doesn’t meet your needs. I narrowed down the countless website builders out there by focusing on both value and the following features:
Attractive templates. Your personal web page represents who you are, so it needs to look good. I picked out website builders with a diverse range of template designs specifically for personal websites.
Personalization options. Templates are convenient, but the best personal websites are always highly customized. These builders allow you to customize your template’s design so your identity shines through.
User-friendly interfaces. Most of us aren’t coders or designers, so we need platforms that make customization easy. All six builders on this list make it simple to set up a site and make it your own.
Content features. Many personal web pages are about sharing content, so I’ve highlighted the builders that let you enhance your site with blogs, portfolios, and even podcasts.
Wix’s broad range of blog templates empowers you to find a style that suits your personality.Wix gives you different ways to easily create a personal website. If you’re uncertain how to begin, you can answer a few questions and Wix ADI will build your site for you. If you want more design freedom, choose from Wix’s huge selection of templates for everything from resumes and personal portfolios to blogs, vlogs, and podcasts. Its intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to add your own content and move it around until the layout suits you.
It’s also incredibly easy to add a blog to your portfolio or resume website, to demonstrate your expertise. Wix guides you through each step, including search engine optimization (SEO) – which will help your blog rank higher in search engine results. You can easily post, edit, and update content as needed using the intuitive blog manager. You have full control over your online presence.
Wix is also affordable, with a range of pricing plans to suit everyone. In fact, if you’re on a super tight budget, it’s possible to build a free personal website. However, you won’t be able to get a custom domain name, and Wix branding will appear on your site.
Podcast templates. If you want to speak your mind, Wix makes it easy to share your audio recordings and even offers advice on how to create a podcast. If you’ve already started one on another platform, you can integrate its RSS feed into your site so new podcasts appear automatically.
Easily upload videos. Wix also has a great video player which allows you to upload content quickly and easily. If you’re using YouTube or Vimeo, you can also embed content from there so you don’t have to worry about Wix’s storage limits.
Wix App Market. Wix offers hundreds of free apps that can be used to add features like search bars, pop-up boxes, and forms to your website. With just a couple of clicks, you can enhance your personal site with a wide variety of features.
Free photos. Wix offers a range of free stock images and videos, so if you don’t have your own photos, you don’t need to stress about photoshoots or copyright infringement.
Squarespace offers 65+ sleek website templates for portfolios, blogs, and moreSquarespace’s slick and professional templates are ideal for the likes of designers and photographers who need their website to look sharp. Its easy-to-use editor and customization options will allow you to make these great pre-built designs your own.
Squarespace has specific templates for everything from blogs to portfolios. The designs tend to be polished and contemporary. If that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll have no problem building the website of your dreams.
The second you sign up, Squarespace walks you through the process of editing a template. Whether you want to add a logo, delete a page, or change a font, the instructions are accessible right there in the editor.
The platform doesn’t offer a free option, but Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial, and the personal plan offers pretty good value. While you’ll need to upgrade to sell on your site, the personal plan includes a free custom domain, SSL certificate, 24/7 support, and access to Squarespace extensions. This means you won’t have to worry about a costly upgrade any time soon.
Unlimited bandwidth and storage. Whichever plan you choose, you’ll never need to worry about limits on how much content you can upload or how many people visit your site.
Squarespace Blueprint AI. Squarespace’s pre-built templates might not be unique enough if you’re looking to reflect your unique style, voice, and brand. Squarespace Blueprint AI lets you create a completely unique website from scratch. Ideal to capture your own voice with every detail.
Extensions and integrations. If you ever want to expand your site’s reach, Squarespace has lots of handy marketing extensions that can help.
Sophisticated blogging. Squarespace gives you tools to create a blog that will start building your audience. You can organize posts with tags and categories, add featured images and excerpts, and optimize for SEO with customized URLs and title tags.
The Hostinger Website Builder offers simple but eye-catching templates
Thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop editor and solid selection of widgets, Hostinger’s Website Builder is the ideal option if you’re looking for simplicity without compromising creative expression. It strikes a strong balance between ease of use and customization, giving you the creative control you need without getting overwhelming.
This balance is especially evident in one of its biggest selling points: Hostinger’s selection of AI-generation features. You get an AI heatmap to highlight the most visually interesting portions of your site, AI writing tools for anything from headlines to full blog posts, and AI SEO support to get you discovered online. There’s even AI-powered image generation to add a little visual interest. Though AI tools aren’t the rarity they once were, Hostinger’s AI tools stand amongst some of the best available in a website builder today.
It’s also a great choice if you want to avoid giving yourself a headache with complicated pricing schemes. The Hostinger Website Builder offers just two plans, both of which are fairly affordable.
The “Premium Website Builder” plan includes nearly all features, all its templates, and up to 100 websites. Its upgrade, the “Business Website Builder” adds full e-commerce support and unlocks the full AI suite. Both plans cost less than $10 per month if you opt for long-term billing.
Features
Fully-mobile editing. The Hostinger Website Builder is one of the few builders to offer complete editing of your site directly from mobile devices, which means you can make any changes you want to on the go.
Easy social media integrations. You get a full suite of tools such as an instagram feed, Facebook Pixel, and WhatsApp chat bubbles to cross-promote your social media presence directly from your site.
Complete hosting control. Since Hostinger is mainly a hosting provider, the website builder comes integrated with a full dashboard where you can control the particulars of your site’s hosting.
Custom template generation. Though I’m partial to Hostinger’s pre-made templates, you can also choose to let AI generate a unique template for you based on your responses to a short questionnaire.
MyWebsite Now’s templates suit different types of personal sites.IONOS’s builder is one of the easiest ways to create a personal website for your portfolio, business, or wedding. While the template selection is small – 30+ in all – the designs are clean, modern, and mobile-friendly.
Once you choose your template, personalizing the design to suit your brand or vision is easily done using pre-made layouts and color schemes. Adding photo galleries to feature your best design or photography projects takes minutes. It’s just as easy to integrate your feed from Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest and add YouTube videos to your site.
IONOS doesn’t offer a free plan, but there is a 30-day money-back guarantee, which should give you ample time to decide if it’s right for you. And MyWebsite Now’s entry-level plan is one of the most affordable options out there. When your site takes off you can upgrade to MyWebsite Now Plus to access more advanced features, including the AI text generator, online booking tool, and SEO wizard.
Features
Multi-language features. When you activate automatic translation, your personal website can be viewed in more than 40 different languages.
Personal support consultant. IONOS offers 24/7 customer support with a perk: a designated consultant, available during business hours, who can offer tips and strategies to help you succeed. And it’s free!
SEO optimization. When it comes to the all-important task of optimizing your site for search engines, IONOS has your back. Simply download the free guide to get helpful tips on how to boost traffic and rank higher on Google search results.
Photo editing tools. The photo editor lets you adjust brightness and saturation, crop images, and add Instagram-like filters, text, and backgrounds to make your portfolio or blog shine.
SITE123’s templates are mobile-responsive, which can save a ton of time and stressIf you’re looking for a website builder that’s simple to use and gives you a good-looking site in minutes, then SITE123 is the choice for you. The entire title makes reference to the fact that you get your site in 1… 2… 3…
Thanks to its straightforward editor and small (but effective) selection of tools, SITE123 prioritizes efficiency without compromising quality. It’s not the platform to go to if you’re looking to create a stunning and unique design, but sometimes a simple site can let your ideas speak for themselves. It also comes with the added bonus that all templates are automatically optimized to be mobile-responsive, giving you one less thing to worry about.
I love how you can swap your template’s homepage image for a video background or slideshow. It’s a great feature for photographers, graphic designers, and bloggers who want to create an eye-catching site that grabs visitors’ attention as soon as they hit the page.
The free plan may lack some advanced design features like custom color palettes and font choices, but SITE123’s ease of use makes up for that. If this is your first time building a site and you find the prospect daunting – or if you’re in a pinch and just need to get your site or resume online quickly and easily – SITE123 won’t let you down.
Digital personal/business card. This free tool makes it easy to create a custom virtual card that aligns with your brand. Simply choose a template and then add your photo, information about yourself, a gallery (for portfolio sites), links to your social media, and contact information.
Free SEO tools. These will help you attract traffic to your website and can help you grow a following or get discovered by a potential new employer or client.
App market and plugins. SITE123 offers a variety of apps and plugins, that let you add everything from marketing tools to analytics. For your personal site, you might consider using these tools to enhance your pages with polls or social share buttons, though both require a paid plan.
Google Analytics. Find out more about your visitors by connecting your website to Google Analytics. This will show you exactly where your visitors are from, how long they stay on your site, and other useful information that will empower you to improve your site’s content.
Webador has 14+ responsive templates that are pre-built for personal sites
Webador offers a selection of 50+ smart-looking templates – although just 14 are designed for personal websites and include resumes, portfolios, blogs, and wedding announcements. Unlike other builders, Webador also doesn’t organize its templates in categories, the theory being any template can be used to create any type of website. Still, I found it harder to choose the perfect template with this system.
While you don’t have as much creative freedom as you get with Wix, Webador’s drag-and-drop editor is easy to use. Creating pages, changing fonts/colors, adding/removing features like buttons, and linking to external pages is straightforward. If you’re building an online resume or want to market your professional services, you can also upload a downloadable PDF of your CV for potential clients/employers.
While I felt Webador’s free plan offered a fair number of features, some advanced tools require an upgrade to a Pro or Business plan. That includes adding your domain to Google Search Console to track your site’s performance or linking Google Analytics to get information about your visitors and other useful analytics data. That said, even these plans are quite affordable.
Features
Multi-media tools. Webador lets you add YouTube videos and MP3 audio to your site. Other elements you can drag-and-drop onto your pages include slideshows and photo albums.
Social buttons and sharing. Engage with your site visitors by linking your social platforms and social media feeds via icons. You can also allow visitors to share your site on their social media to boost your online presence.
Image editor. All images are automatically optimized for viewing on desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile. The updated image editor gives you tools to resize and add text and frames to your images.
Detailed reporting. You can review information about your visitors, their geographic locations, and devices, as well as learn which pages on your site are the most popular. To get detailed analytics, you’ll need to upgrade to a Pro plan or higher.
Whether you’re setting up a blog, an online resumé, or even a gallery of the cool places you’ve been, setting up a personal website only takes a few hours. Just follow my simple step-by-step guide:
1. Choose a website builder. You can expect to pay a few dollars each month for your personal website. Or, if you’ve got no extra cash, you can create a website for free with Wix.
2. Customize a template. As great as templates are, you’ll want to spend some time customizing your favorite template to make sure your website design reflects who you are. Fortunately, it’s easy to customize your template with any of the builders I’ve featured above.
3. Add your content. Your website’s pages, blogs, podcasts, and galleries are full of content that makes you unique. Most builders come with basic content features, but for more sophisticated content tools, you might need to check out the app store.
The Best Personal Website Builder Depends on Your Needs and Goals
All the builders on this list have the capability to help you create an impressive personal website. However, you can enhance efficiency and minimize effort by selecting the one that aligns most effectively with your specific requirements.
I recommend Wix for its templates, customization, and features. It’s a good choice for both total beginners and those with more experience – basically anybody looking to set up a personal website for a CV, blog, or podcast.
On the other hand, SITE123 is the go-to choice for anyone who wants to get online fast. It’s great for personal and CV sites and connecting with potential clients or employers.
If your priority is showing off your work, Squarespace is great for visually striking portfolios. It’s also a good option for ambitious bloggers because most Squarespace features are available on its personal plan.
Free Plan
Best Feature
Best For
Starting Price
Wix
✔
Huge choice of templates and extremely user-friendly
Start by choosing a template that looks great and suits your needs – that’s easiest with Wix. Then you can focus on customizing it to reflect your personality. Use the editor to tweak the layout and choose your favorite fonts and colors. Then add your own text, images, and videos.
What should you put on a personal website?
Whether you’re setting up a blog or creating a professional portfolio, your character should always shine through. Always include a biography introducing yourself. Discuss your mission and background and provide links to your social media accounts.
A website builder like Squarespace makes it easy to add as many pages as you need, and it has excellent social media integrations as well.
How can you create a personal website for free?
Many website builders offer a free plans for building a personal website, but my favorite is Wix, because you get access to almost all the features on the free plan. To get started, all you have to do is go to the Wix homepage and sign up. If you want to quickly and easily build a free site, another good option is SITE123.
Do you need to know code to create a personal website?
Andrés writes about a variety of topics aimed at helping business owners and merchants grow and manage their ventures. These topics include (but are not limited to) website building, web hosting, project management software, and credit card processing. Andrés has 3+ years of experience as a writer and content creator. He’s also worked as a project manager, website designer, and social media manager for a variety of science communication groups.
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