The 6 Best Responsive Website Builders for Creating Mobile-Friendly Sites
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By
Omar - Updated on Jan 25, 2023
Are you planning to build a website for your brand or business?
Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place.
I ranked and reviewed six of the best and most responsive website builders, including my top five choices.
These options can help you create streamlined, easy-to-navigate, and mobile-friendly ecommerce websites.
Let’s begin.
A responsive website design tool that makes beautiful websites for devices of all sizes
An ecommerce website builder perfect for anyone looking to sell products and goods online
An open-source content management system that lets you create stunning blogs and websites for mobile devices and other machines
The perfect solution for building simple sites for mobile devices and other tools
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Best Responsive Website Builder Tools
Here are my picks for the best mobile website builder.
Omar's Take
Squarespace is my top pick for the best mobile website builder (and best website builder overall).
This tool is a popular website-building platform with many responsive website creation features and tools to help you make professional-looking websites.
Squarespace has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor that lets you create your own websites with little to no coding skills.
All website pages naturally adapt to mobile devices, so they remain responsive.
You can also purchase a custom domain through Squarespace and readily connect it to your site. The website builder is perfect for creating blogs, ecommerce sites, and company profile websites.
- Best For Overall
- Price $23 monthly (comes with a free domain)
- Annual Billing $192
- Promotion 14-day free trial
Features
Squarespace has a collection of highly-helpful features to help you create websites.
Excellent User Experience
Squarespace boasts an easy-to-use interface through a drag-and-drop website builder that anyone can learn to use without the help of an experienced web developer.
Responsive Website Templates
The mobile website builder has an extensive collection of readily-responsive template designs that you can use and customize to fit your unique business website needs.
Ecommerce Capabilities
Squarespace has fantastic ecommerce capabilities to help you sell products on your website, including inventory management dashboards, order tracking, shipping, and payment gateway
SEO Tools
The tool’s search engine optimization features help you rank your website on search. You can edit meta tags and description fields on Squarespace to improve keyword targeting efforts and readability.
Customer Support
There are 24/7 customer support channels through email, live chat, and phone if you encounter any issues.
Gated Access
You can also add gated access if you want to make your website pages private. Web developers and designers can add a password to a Squarespace website.
Cons
While Squarespace is an excellent option if you’re looking for a mobile website builder, it has a few drawbacks. For one, there’s no free version, so you’ll end up paying for any of its plans after the 14 days trial expires.
There are also many limits to customization and third-party plugins compared to other website builder options.
Pricing
Here are Squarespace’s pricing plans.
- Personal – $23 monthly
- Business – $33 monthly
- Basic Commerce – $36 monthly
- Advanced Commerce – $65 monthly
You can also pay for your own custom domain on Squarespace’s domain marketplace.
Omar's Take
Shopify is arguably the best responsive website builder to create an online store. It’s a powerful ecommerce tool powering over 4 million websites and online stores globally.
Shopify is one of the best website builders and ecommerce platforms for businesses because of its robust ecommerce capabilities.
This platform has a massive collection of apps to improve buyer experiences, design, and conversion rates on your online store.
- Best For Ecommerce
- Price $19 monthly
- Annual Billing $174
- Promotion Three-day free trial
Features
Here are some of Shopify’s best features.
Easy Setup
Shopify has an easy setup experience to help you complete your online store and start selling quickly.
Drag-and-Drop Apps
You have apps like Shogun to help you build fully-functional responsive websites with a drag-and-drop function.
Robust Payment Gateway
Shopify has comprehensive payment gateway integrations with Shopify Payments, letting you collect payments from customers from your online store with PayPal, Stripe, Square, and other payment channels.
Order and Product Management
Shopify provides a complete order and product management platform to create and organize products and collections. You can also use that platform to track orders, set shipping rates, and print shipping labels.
Massive Shopify App Store
Selling on Shopify is straightforward because its app store provides a wide range of dropshipping, fulfillment, web design, and marketing features to online store owners and small businesses.
Shopify Themes
There’s also a great selection of free and paid mobile-friendly website themes with responsive design.
Marketing Dashboard
Apart from Shopify’s marketing apps, it also has a great marketing dashboard to run and host marketing campaigns, email blasts, coupons, and other marketing tools.
Free Hosting
You automatically get free web hosting when you build your website on Shopify and the ability to connect your domain.
Unlimited Storage
Shopify has unlimited storage for all the tools, media, and data from your online store.
Cons
Shopify is great for building online stores for desktop and mobile ecommerce stores. But for blogs, simple business websites, and directories, it might not be the best option.
Shopify can be more expensive in the long run as a website builder because it has one of the most expensive plans. It can be financially burdensome to maintain if you’re launching multiple websites.
If you’re planning on selling online, Shopify might be the ideal option.
Pricing
Here are Shopify’s plans and pricing:
- Basic Shopify – $19 monthly
- Shopify – $49 monthly
- Advanced Shopify – $299 monthly
Omar's Take
Arguably the best mobile website builder for free use, WordPress is one of the most famous website builder software. It’s a content management system that many website owners and creators prefer.
Approximately 43% of all websites on the internet use WordPress as its CMS because it’s reliable, flexible, and outstanding for creating blogs and ecommerce websites.
There are thousands of free third-party plugins and thousands of website templates to choose from when building your website.
WordPress is popular among bloggers because you can easily create responsive websites that adapt to any mobile device. You also have drag-and-drop editor plugins like Elementor.
Creating responsive websites on WordPress is one of the most economical options for website builder platforms.
Using WordPress’ CMS is free. All you have to pay for is your domain, hosting, and any optional upgrades to Mobile-optimized themes and third-party plugins.
WordPress is one of your best options if you’re planning to create a mobile-friendly website for a blog or news site.
- Best For Bloggers
- Price Free!
- Annual Billing N/A
- Promotion N/A
Features
You get the following features when using WordPress to build responsive websites.
Library of WordPress Themes
You can access thousands of mobile-responsive themes and WordPress theme builders to help you build websites fitting your brand image and style. These themes make the web design process more manageable by miles.
Plugins with Various Functions
With WordPress, you’ll have over 50,000 third-party plugins to help with various functions and features for ecommerce, marketing, website management, education, and more.
Ecommerce Features
You can access ecommerce capabilities through plugins like Woocommerce to sell your products on your WordPress website.
Content and Media Management
WordPress also has easy media management to store images, videos, and other media on your website backend.
Robust SEO
WordPress is the best mobile website builder in the SEO category, hosting all sorts of search engine optimization tools for small businesses and brands to improve your site’s rankings abound on WordPress.
Plugins like Yoast or Rank Math give you readability reports and keyword suggestions. You can also use them to build sitemaps or add meta descriptions and meta titles.
Supportive Community
WordPress also has a massive user community that shares technical support, best practices, and tips to maximize your responsive website.
Cons
WordPress’s enormous library of tools and features can sometimes have a steep learning curve.
Many of its plugins and mobile-responsive themes are from third-party providers, so getting support and updates can also be taxing and time-wasting when maintaining your website.
WordPress also has many security concerns and issues, as many vulnerabilities could leave your site at risk of hacks and breaches.
Pricing
WordPress.org and WordPress.com are the two services under WordPress’s umbrella.
The “.org” version is the open-source CMS that will require some technical setup, while the “.com” version is the simpler version with a subscription.
WordPress.org is free, but you’ll have to pay for specific WordPress themes and plugins.
A separate provider sells these premium services.
Here are the pricing plans for WordPress.com.
- Free plan
- Personal (with a custom domain) – $4 monthly
- Premium – $8 monthly
- Business – $25 monthly
- Ecommerce – $45 monthly
Omar's Take
Wix is another excellent option among free mobile website builders. It’s one of the most popular website builders for making mobile-friendly websites.
Wix’s website builder also boasts a simple drag-and-drop editor without coding. Like WordPress and Squarespace, Wix also has ecommerce features that allow you to create an online store.
As one of the best mobile website builders for beginners, Wix is extremely easy to set up and use.
If you’re looking for a simple way to create a personal website, online store, or company website, Wix should be on that list.
Wix offers an extensive selection of templates that users can customize to match their brand and style, making it easy to create a professional-looking website.
- Best For Beginners
- Price Starts at $4.50/mo
- Annual Billing $192
- Promotion Free plan without custom domain
Features
Wix’s website builder has many features that make it one of the best responsive website builders available. Some of them include the following:
Drag-and-drop Website Builder
Wix has an easy-to-use builder with a great user experience that allows users to easily create, update, and customize their website using a drag-and-drop editor.
Templates and Designs
Wix’s many templates have mobile-friendly designs perfect for all mobile devices, desktops, and laptops.
Customization Settings
Get access to customization settings to match templates with anyone’s brand and style. You also get your custom domain free for one year when you sign up for a Wix paid plan.
Ecommerce Features
Wix also has basic ecommerce features such as inventory management, order tracking, and shipping options.
Reliable Support
You also get 24/7 customer support through email, live chat, and phone if you have any problems with a Wix account.
The Wix App Market
The Wix app market gives you all kinds of apps to add features and functionality to your website using third-party integrations.
Cons
The website builder is an excellent option for beginners. But at some point, the limits to Wix’s capabilities become apparent. The issue of storage limits makes your site slow or unavailable when exceeded.
The SEO and ecommerce features are also relatively inflexible for more advanced users. So if you want more features and capabilities for SEO and online selling, you might want to use other responsive website builder options.
Pricing
Here are Wix’s pricing plans.
- Free plan
- Combo plan – $16 monthly
- Unlimited plan – $22 monthly
- Pro plan – $27 monthly
- VIP plan – $45 monthly
- Business Basic (ecommerce) – $27 monthly
- Business Unlimited (ecommerce) – $32 monthly
- Business VIP (ecommerce) – $59 monthly
- Enterprise – Custom pricing
Omar's Take
Mobirise is another responsive site builder that lets users create professional-looking websites without code. The drag-and-drop platform helps you create and customize websites with pre-designed elements.
Mobirise is no-frills and focuses on creating an intuitive experience. Even those with little or no experience building websites can easily create a website that adapts to mobile devices.
This affordable tool offers various templates and design options to create a unique and visually appealing website. It also has highly customizable elements to add custom code.
Mobirise is an outstanding choice for those who want more control over the design and functionality of their website.
Another great benefit of Mobirise is its fast loading times and smooth performance, which is fantastic for SEO and mobile device viewing.
Mobirise also has an Accelerated Mobile Pages open-source tool to enhance mobile performance on its mobile-responsive themes.
- Best For Simple websites
- Price $2.42 monthly
- Annual Billing $29
- Promotion 14-day free trial
Features
As a website builder option, Mobirise has excellent features.
Drag-and-Drop Design Editor
Use the intuitive drag-and-drop editor via a desktop app that allows users to easily create and customize a personal or business website from scratch or with a template.
Mobile-Optimized Templates
With Mobirise, you get a wide range of mobile-optimized templates to choose from to make the web design process simple and seamless.
Customization Settings
Get customizations that fit mobile websites to a person or team’s needs and preferences.
Custom Coding
For advanced web development, you can use custom coding for more flexibility in design and functionality.
SEO Tools
There are also essential tools to help a mobile website builder optimize a website’s search rankings, such as the ability to add meta tags and titles and to create sitemaps.
Free Hosting
With a Mobirse plan, you get hosting for websites built on its platform and the ability to install a custom domain.
Cons
One of this mobile website builder’s many strengths is its mobile responsiveness. There’s little you can do once your website scales.
The site builder provides minimal information on bandwidth limits, which could cause problems if your traffic skyrockets.
Mobirise is also not an ideal site builder for creating an online store due to its limited ecommerce capabilities.
Pricing
Mobirise has one plan set at $2.42 per month per website. There’s also an annual plan worth $29 yearly.
If you want to give Mobirise a shot, you can also try it out for free for 14 days.
Omar's Take
There are times your business might need just one landing page to give all information. In such cases, Carrd is one of my top picks.
Carrd is a website builder with mobile-friendly designs and features that help you build either a personal website or a landing page.
Unlike most options on this list, this website builder has a free plan for life.
The downside is you won’t have a custom domain at that price, and there are also some web design limitations.
Carrd has over 75 templates perfect for mobile devices. The site builder also makes it easy to build websites without coding or web development.
If you need landing pages for your ecommerce store or a simple one-pager to discuss your services, Carrd is one of the best mobile website builders.
- Best For One-Page Sites
- Price $9 annually
- Annual Billing $9
- Promotion Free plan
Features
Here are Carrd’s notable features.
Easy-To-Learn Interface
As one of the best mobile website builder options, Carrd has an easy-to-learn interface allowing you to edit text, move content blocks, and add buttons with very little to no programming knowledge.
Useful Templates
The mobile website builder also has a collection of templates that you can use to create landing pages and simple websites.
Animations
The mobile website builder has a selection of minimalist animations to add pizazz to your website.
Buttons
Carrd is also the best mobile website builder in the buttons category, boasting 100 buttons for social follow, payment checkout, navigation, and ecommerce.
Cons
Carrd is relatively simple and easy to use, making it great for landing pages. But if you’re building out complete websites or online stores, it might not suffice.
There are many ecommerce and SEO limits to Carrd, which could make it hard to scale and grow your page. It’s not impossible, but it will be more challenging.
Pricing
Carrd’s pricing plans are as follows:
- Free Plan
- Pro Lite – $9 annually
- Pro Standard – $19 annually
- Pro Plus – $49 annually
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why Do I Need the Best Responsive Website Builder?
There was once a time when the only way you could build a website was to learn how to code. HTML and CSS were necessary to successfully create even a simple website. Get one line wrong, and the whole website wouldn’t work.
Many mobile website builder options make it more accessible, enabling you to create responsive websites without programming knowledge.
What is a responsive website, and why is it important? A responsive website adapts to a device’s screen size.
Most people today check websites and online stores through mobile browsing.
Having a responsive website adjusts and re-arranges the website’s structure to fit any mobile device.
People will struggle to navigate a website without a responsive design, likely leaving your site and never returning. Studies show that 72% of people want mobile-friendly websites.
Having a responsive website is also crucial for brand or business growth. 57% of website visitors wouldn’t recommend a website to a friend if it doesn’t load on mobile.
If you’re planning to make a responsive website, it’s best to use site builders with responsive web designs ready to customize and launch as your own.
Responsive website builders help you save time, energy, and money when building a website from the ground up. It also makes maintenance a whole lot easier.
What Makes a Responsive Website Effective?
A website is essential because it gives visitors the following information about your business:
- Products and services
- Pricing
- Company history
- Brand story
- Team members
- And contact information.
However, having your product or service information on a website isn’t enough. You must display it compellingly, which involves creating a mobile-optimized website.
People use different devices to access websites, which will look entirely different on each device.
Visitors care about how websites look on smaller screens, and mobile users who land on a mobile-friendly website are 70% more likely to return.
If you don’t optimize website elements to stack well on different devices, it could ruin people’s perception of your brand and their experience on your websites.
You could lose website visitors, leads, and customers if your website isn’t responsive. That’s why responsive website creation is crucial in the website development process.
When your website is mobile-optimized, mobile users will have better experiences on your website or online store.
A mobile-optimized site results in more people responding to CTAs, whether to subscribe, read, or buy from your site.
What Features Should I Look For in a Responsive Website Builder?
We discussed the best mobile website builders available today. However, you can also check out options that I didn’t include on my list. After all, there are dozens of different web builder software available.
When looking at other options, ensure they have these essential features.
User-friendly interface
Building your own website on a mobile website builder will be a lot easier with a friendly user interface. It should have simple navigation, easy-to-understand dashboards, and intuitive functions.
Drag-and-drop builder
You won’t need web developers to fix the code of a website if you have a drag-and-drop builder for your blogs, sites, and web stores.
An excellent website builder will also have these advanced features for its editors.
- Media galleries
- Animated buttons
- Dynamic backgrounds
- Large font collections
- Email opt-in forms
- Toggles
- Accordion lists
- Login widgets
- Pop-ups
- Tables
Hosting and Domain
The best responsive website builders will also have their own hosting and custom domains.
Other website builders might have hosting but no custom domains.
At the very least, these options should have a way to connect your custom domains to your site so you can have a unique web address.
Unlimited storage
Find a website builder with unlimited storage and bandwidth. You should have enough storage to store all the content you need to host your website media and files.
Reliable Customer Support
It helps to have a dedicated customer support channel to contact when you run into issues with your mobile websites.
Which Devices Should I Consider When Creating a Responsive Website?
Your devices should adjust to these devices.
- Laptops
- Desktops
- Small to ultra-wide monitors
- Smart TVs
- Small to large smartphones
- Tablets
The best mobile website builder will get your website to adapt to any screen size. However, much of your mobile website’s responsiveness will depend on how well you lay things out.
Using mobile-responsive templates on website builders helps because they’ve already been tested and tried for various screen sizes.
Once you choose a template, you’ll only need to customize it to suit your needs.
With enough practice, testing, and altering, your web pages should adjust well to all desktop, laptop, and mobile devices.
Does Mobile Responsiveness Affect My SEO Ranking?
Google announced in May 2022 that it would be rolling out a mobile-friendly update that would:
“increase the effect of the ranking signal to help our users find even more pages that are relevant and mobile friendly.”
The search engine has confirmed that a website’s responsiveness significantly affects search rankings.
Up to 68% of online experiences start with a search engine, meaning SEO significantly impacts website visibility.
When websites have a mobile version or a responsive design, search engines like Google favors it in rankings. Websites without responsive designs receive drops in the rankings.
This information should incentivize any web admin or website owner to prioritize mobile-friendly websites.
What are the Limits on a Mobile Website Builder Free Plan?
When using a mobile website builder with a free plan, you often have the option to stay with the free version forever.
However, all mobile website builder’s free plans have limits.
With WordPress.com, you won’t be able to get a custom domain if you don’t upgrade to a paid plan. You’ll encounter the same limitation on Wix’s free plan.
Here are other restrictions on free plans.
- Lesser customization options
- No ecommerce capabilities
- and limited storage and bandwidth.
The Bottom Line
I hope my list has made it easier for you to choose the best mobile website builder for your needs.
Small businesses, freelancers, and professionals can benefit significantly from responsive websites. Thus, use the information you learned in this article to choose the perfect mobile site builder and start creating your mobile-friendly site today.
Omar
Founder of OJ Digital Solutions
