Video summary

I Tried Every Website Builder — These are the BEST

Main summary

Key takeaways

Technology

Overview

The creator tested eight popular website builders (plus WordPress as a bonus) and summarizes each tool’s editor type, typical use cases, strengths, limits, and when not to use it.

Key points:

  • Practical testing approach: try a tool for ~15 minutes to see if it fits your project.
  • The video description contains affiliate links (not a sponsorship); the presenter discloses affiliate commissions but says reviews aren’t driven by payouts.

Per-tool highlights

Squarespace

  • Editor: grid-based drag-and-drop blocks and pre‑built sections.
  • Strengths: polished templates, good visual editing, easy resizing and layout control.
  • Best for: personal sites, portfolios, musicians, blogs, small business sites.
  • Tradeoff: easier to use but offers less low-level customization than developer-oriented tools.

Wix

  • Editor: free-canvas drag-anywhere editor (Wix Classic); also offers Wix Studio (more advanced).
  • Strengths: very flexible visually.
  • Weaknesses: responsive design can be clunky — blank-canvas placement can break across screen sizes; responsive tools like “strips” are awkward and can fail to preserve positioning.
  • Best for: general-purpose sites when you prioritize visual freedom, but be mindful of responsiveness.

Shopify

  • Purpose: ecommerce-focused platform.
  • Strengths: deep ecommerce features (products, tax, currencies, inventory, shipping, returns, fulfillment) and a large app marketplace for extensions (reviews, AI product indexing, delivery routing, etc.).
  • Editor: not a simple WYSIWYG drag-and-drop — there is a learning curve.
  • Best for: any ecommerce business from small shops to large brands, especially where backend commerce workflows matter.
  • Example: the creator migrated their store (Happy Burlap) from Squarespace to Shopify for better carrier label printing (Canada Post) and faster fulfillment.

Square (Square Online)

  • Editor: “sections” editor — assemble pages by adding prebuilt sections with limited ability to change internal elements.
  • Strengths: excellent integration with Square POS hardware and in‑store workflows.
  • Best for: hybrid online+offline businesses (retail, cafes, salons) that want tight POS/online order integration.
  • Tradeoff: simple and easy but limited customization.

Webflow and Framer (design tools)

  • Positioning: developer/design-first tools that expose CSS/layout controls.
  • Webflow:
    • Very granular controls (typography, flexbox, margins, etc.), powerful CMS and animation capabilities.
    • Steep learning curve but high freedom; good for highly custom marketing sites (creator used Webflow for Atlas).
  • Framer:
    • More Figma-like in approach — easier to learn for designers familiar with Figma.
    • Still a design-first tool with high customization.
  • Best for: designers/developers who need pixel control, custom animations, complex interactions, and bespoke CMS behavior.
  • Tradeoff: significant learning time (weeks to months).

Carrd (listed as “Card” in subtitles)

  • Niche: ultra-cheap, one‑page sites only.
  • Strengths: extremely low cost (creator cites $19/year to host up to 10 sites on Carrd Pro).
  • Best for: simple landing pages and single-page personal sites.
  • Tradeoff: limited to one-page layouts; editor isn’t the most intuitive.

Hostinger

  • Position: budget-friendly hosted builder / host.
  • Strengths: very low introductory pricing (example: ~$2.99/month if you pay long-term upfront).
  • Weaknesses: simple/no-frills builder — limited elements and fine-grained styling control; not ideal for full stores or advanced blogs.
  • Note: introductory pricing renews at higher standard rates — check Hostinger’s current renewal terms.

WordPress (bonus)

  • Nature: open-source platform, not a single hosted builder — requires separate hosting and maintenance.
  • Strengths: extreme flexibility via themes and plugins (WooCommerce for ecommerce, Elementor for drag-and-drop editing, many plugins for galleries, SEO, etc.).
  • Tradeoffs: more setup and ongoing maintenance (hosting, updates, plugin conflicts, security); can require debugging or developer work. Powerful but can be time-consuming to manage.

AI-assisted website builders/tools

  • Many AI tools can generate initial sites from prompts and some can perform prompt-driven edits (e.g., upload/crop photo).
  • Limitations: prompt-based editing is often slower and more tedious than direct visual editing; generated sites are good starting points but usually need manual refinement.
  • Recommendation: use AI features inside established builders where they add value (for example, Shopify for product-description generation or Squarespace for background image/video generation).

Recommendations / Matches

  • General-purpose, visual ease: Squarespace, Wix (Squarespace tends to be more consistent for responsive behavior).
  • Ecommerce: Shopify (best for full ecommerce), Square (best for integrated POS/hybrid businesses).
  • Design-first, highly custom: Webflow, Framer (expect a learning curve).
  • Budget/simple: Carrd (one-page), Hostinger (very low cost but limited features).
  • Maximum flexibility/customization: WordPress (self-hosted) — powerful but requires upkeep.

Other practical notes from the video

  • The creator used these platforms in real projects: Squarespace (band site, therapy practice, YouTube channel), Shopify (Happy Burlap store), Webflow (Atlas marketing site), and recommended Squarespace to family for real estate sites.
  • The presenter is transparent about affiliate links and notes some builders offered higher commissions (Wix offered the most), but claims reviews are not driven by payouts.
  • Final advice from the creator:

    Test builders yourself — 15 minutes is enough to get a feel for fit.

Main speaker / sources

  • The video creator (unnamed in subtitles) — first‑hand tester who built sites on all platforms.
  • Projects referenced: Happy Burlap (creator’s store), Atlas (creator’s software company marketing site), creator’s band site, creator’s mom’s therapy practice, and family real estate sites.

Original video