10 Ways to Build a Website: The Best Platforms Compared
· 9 min read
Choosing where to build your website is one of the first big decisions a small business makes — it shapes how easy the site is to update, how fast it loads, and how much it costs over time. There's no single "best" platform; the right choice depends on your budget, how technical you are, and what the site actually needs to do.
Here are ten of the most common ways to build a website today, with the pros and cons of each.
"Every business needs something different — the right build is the one that fits your budget, your team, and how the site actually gets used."
Quick comparison
| Platform | Best for | Typical cost | Coding needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress | Content-heavy sites, blogs | Low–medium | Optional |
| Squarespace | Portfolios, small business sites | Low–medium | None |
| Wix | Quick DIY sites | Low–medium | None |
| Shopify | Online shops | Medium | Optional |
| Webflow | Design-led marketing sites | Medium | Optional |
| Next.js | Custom, high-performance sites | Dev time | Yes |
| Plain React (CRA/Vite) | Web apps, dashboards | Dev time | Yes |
| Svelte | Lightweight custom apps | Dev time | Yes |
| GitHub Pages | Free hosting for simple/static sites | Free | Yes |
| Static HTML | Small, permanent sites | Low | Yes |
1. WordPress
WordPress powers a huge share of the web, and for good reason — it's flexible enough for almost any type of site, from blogs to full business sites, with thousands of plugins and themes available.
Pros
- Enormous plugin and theme ecosystem
- Full content control, no developer needed for everyday edits
- Strong SEO tooling (Yoast, RankMath) built for the platform
- Self-hosted, so you own your data and can move hosts freely
Cons
- Needs regular updates and security maintenance
- Can get slow or bloated if plugins aren't managed carefully
- Quality varies hugely between themes — cheap ones often look generic
2. Squarespace
A hosted, all-in-one builder popular with creatives and small businesses who want something polished without touching code.
Pros
- Beautiful templates out of the box
- Hosting, security and updates all handled for you
- Simple, visual editor that's genuinely easy to use
Cons
- Limited flexibility outside its templates and built-in features
- Can get expensive once you add commerce or marketing tools
- Content isn't portable — harder to migrate away from later
3. Wix
Another hosted drag-and-drop builder, aimed squarely at non-technical users who want a site live quickly.
Pros
- Very quick to get a basic site live
- Huge template library, plus an AI site-builder option
- App marketplace for adding features without a developer
Cons
- Page speed and SEO have historically lagged behind competitors
- Sites can look "samey" without real design effort
- Switching platforms later usually means rebuilding from scratch
4. Shopify
The default choice for online shops of almost any size, from a single-product store to established retail brands.
Pros
- Purpose-built for ecommerce: checkout, payments, inventory and shipping all handled
- Reliable, secure, and scales well with traffic
- Large app ecosystem for marketing, reviews and subscriptions
Cons
- Monthly fee plus transaction fees on some plans
- Less suited to content-heavy or non-commerce sites
- Customisation beyond themes usually needs a developer
5. Webflow
A visual builder aimed at designers, giving much finer control over layout and interaction than Wix or Squarespace while still avoiding hand-written code.
Pros
- Pixel-level design control without writing HTML or CSS
- Clean, fast output compared to most drag-and-drop builders
- Built-in CMS for blogs and other structured content
Cons
- Steeper learning curve than Squarespace or Wix
- Editing content can be trickier for non-designers on the team
- Costs rise quickly for CMS-heavy or high-traffic sites
6. Next.js
A React framework used to hand-build fast, custom websites and web apps — what this very site runs on. It's a developer's tool rather than something a business owner would use directly.
Pros
- Excellent performance and SEO out of the box (server rendering, image optimisation)
- Total flexibility — the site can do anything a browser can do
- A strong long-term foundation for a growing product, not just a brochure site
Cons
- Requires a developer to build and maintain
- No visual editor — content changes usually mean a code change, unless a CMS is wired in
- Overkill for a simple, static brochure site
Why we build on Next.js
For custom builds, we use Next.js ourselves — this site runs on it. It gives us fast, accessible pages with strong SEO foundations, while still letting us hand-build exactly what a client needs rather than working around a template.
7. Plain React (Create React App or Vite)
React without a framework layer on top — used more for web apps and dashboards than public-facing marketing sites.
Pros
- Full control over the build, with no framework conventions to learn
- Vite in particular is very fast for local development
- Well suited to interactive tools, not just content pages
Cons
- No built-in SEO support — plain React apps render in the browser, which search engines can struggle with
- No routing, data-fetching or image optimisation included; you assemble it yourself
- Not a sensible choice for a typical small business website
8. Svelte
A leaner alternative to React, compiling components down to small, fast vanilla JavaScript rather than shipping a framework runtime to the browser.
Pros
- Very fast, lightweight output, with little JavaScript sent to the browser
- Simple, readable syntax
- SvelteKit (its companion framework) covers routing and server rendering, much like Next.js
Cons
- Smaller ecosystem and hiring pool than React
- Still requires a developer, same as Next.js or plain React
- Fewer ready-made integrations and plugins
9. GitHub Pages
Free static-site hosting built into GitHub — a common choice for developers hosting a personal site, documentation, or a small static-HTML, React or Svelte project without paying for hosting.
Pros
- Free, reliable hosting, with custom domains supported
- Deploys automatically from a Git repository
- No server to manage
Cons
- Static only — no built-in database, forms or server-side logic
- No content editor; every change goes through Git
- Not designed for non-technical site owners
10. Static HTML
Hand-written HTML, CSS and a little JavaScript, with no framework or build step at all.
Pros
- As fast and simple as a website gets — nothing to load but the page itself
- No dependencies to update or frameworks to go out of date
- Full control, and easy to understand exactly what's shipped
Cons
- Every change is manual; with no templating, code repeats across pages
- No CMS, so non-technical updates aren't practical
- Doesn't scale well past a handful of pages
Not sure which platform is right for you?
We help small businesses pick — and build — the right platform for their budget and goals, then keep it running well afterwards. Get in touch and we'll help you weigh it up.
Should I build it myself with AI?
AI tools have made "do it yourself" a genuinely viable option for a simple site — but it's worth knowing where they help and where they don't.
Where AI genuinely helps
- Builder AI assistants (Wix ADI, Squarespace's AI tools, Framer AI) can generate a decent starting layout and copy in minutes
- AI coding assistants can scaffold a static or Next.js site quickly, if you're comfortable reviewing and testing the code
- Great for first drafts of copy, image generation, and getting unstuck on a specific problem
Where it tends to fall short
- AI-generated sites usually need real editing for tone, accuracy and brand fit — treat the output as a draft, not a finished site
- Technical SEO (structured data, performance, accessibility, correct heading structure) is easy to get wrong even with AI help, and hard to audit if you don't know what to look for
- AI tools won't handle ongoing maintenance, security updates, monitoring or strategy — that's an ongoing job, not a one-off build
- Beyond a very simple brochure site, mistakes can cost more in lost time and rework than getting help from the start would have
A middle ground
Many of our clients use AI for early drafts — copy, layout ideas, even a first pass at code — and then bring us in to turn it into a fast, accessible, properly finished site with maintenance and SEO handled on an ongoing basis. If that sounds useful, see how our website maintenance packages work or get in touch to talk it through.
Which should you choose?
If you want to be live today with zero code, Squarespace or Wix will get you there fastest. If you're selling products, Shopify is the obvious choice. If design control matters most and you're not coding it yourself, Webflow sits in between. WordPress remains the most flexible option for content-heavy sites that still need day-to-day editing without a developer. And if you want a fast, fully custom site or web app and have development resource, Next.js, React or Svelte give you the most room to grow, with static HTML or GitHub Pages covering the simplest, smallest use cases.
Still not sure which fits your business? Get in touch and we'll help you weigh it up.