Want to jump straight to the answer? The best web design software for most people is Webflow and WordPress.
48% of users cited web design as the #1 factor when judging a business’s credibility. Luckily, the best web design software has never been more accessible than it is now. With this software, you can easily build a successful website without writing a single line of code.
The Top 5 Best Web Design Software
- Webflow — Best for Designing Production-Ready Websites
- WordPress — Best for Content Websites and Blogs
- Wix — Best for Beginners
- Figma — Best for Teams and Agencies
- Sketch — Best for Creating Prototypes and Designs
Learn more about each of our top choices in more detail below.
Webflow — Best for Designing Production-Ready Websites
- Feature-packed website builder
- Intuitive interface
- 100+ responsive templates
- Web hosting plus CMS solution
A comprehensive website builder packed with several useful features, Webflow is one of the best web designing software you can get your hands on.
Its smart intuitive interface is designed to work with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, meaning you don’t need to learn coding to get the tool to work. And if you do know some coding, adding custom code to your web design is still an option. Simply drop in custom code when needed.
Webflow’s vast library of over 100 responsive templates makes it easier than ever to get started. And that’s not including the interaction and animation design functionality that lets you design element interactions.
Webflow is also one of the few solutions that offer web hosting and a comprehensive content management system. It can render all your HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files to ensure easy handover to your development team, allowing you to add in any custom code before handing over control to the developers.
Pricing
Webflow currently has two categories of pricing:
Site Plans
- Started — Free
- Basic — $12 per month
- CMS — $16 per month
- Business — $36 per month
- Enterprise — Request for a customized code
Ecommerce Plans
- Standard — $29 per month
- Plus — $74 per month
- Advanced — $212 per month
WordPress — Best for Content Websites and Blogs
- Open-source
- Customizable themes
- 50,000+ plugins
- Suitable for all user levels
If you’re looking to create a dynamic content-based website, look no further than WordPress.
This free and open-source web development platform gives you everything, from thousands of customizable themes to reliable web hosting, making it one of the most versatile options on our list.
Top this up with effortless functionality and access to over 50,000+ plugins, and building a website that fits your brand to the T will never be simpler. Robust drag-and-drop page builders make customizing website design and layout even easier.
What’s more, WordPress is suitable for all levels of users, including beginners to advanced coders. Update your website on the go using its iOS, Android, Mac, Linux, or Windows app.
Pricing
WordPress currently offers the following pricing plans:
- Free
- Personal – $4 per month
- Premium – $8 per month
- Business – $25 per month
- Ecommerce – $45 per month
Wix — Best for Beginners
- Super user-friendly
- Drag-and-drop editor
- Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI)
- Built-in SEO tool
Wix is an intuitive web design software that’s not only affordable but also incredibly user-friendly.
Choose from over 500 pre-designed and highly customizable templates to modify the website theme to your liking using the effortless drag-and-drop editor. Add and edit images, embed video backgrounds and animations, include customizable forms and social buttons, and so much more.
Wix lets you create an online store or a basic blog engine. Use its SEO wizard tool to optimize web pages and enhance your organization’s organic reach. The Wix Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) can come in handy when you don’t know where to start. Simply answer a few questions from the ADI, and it’ll automatically build a website based on your responses.
You can always customize it later by dragging and dropping elements on the screen and editing as you deem fit. In case you want to improve your website’s functionality further, you can download and use third-party integrations and other valuable widgets.
Pricing
Wix has three different categories of premium plans:
Website Plans
- VIP — $45 per month
- Pro — $27 per month
- Unlimited — $22 per month
- Combo — $16 per month
Business and Ecommerce Plans
- Business VIP — $59 per month
- Business Unlimited — $32 per month
- Business Basic — $27 per month
Enterprise Plans
- Starting at $500 per month
A 14-day free trial is also available for all the plans.
Figma — Best for Teams and Agencies
- Facilitates easy collaboration
- Intuitive vector-based interface
- Cloud-based approach
- Multiple plugins
Figma is often the web design software of choice for teams and agencies because it makes collaboration easy.
It’s essentially a vector graphics editor that provides you access to UI and UX design features for creating professional and functional websites. Expect powerful design features like a modern pen tool, an intuitive vector-based interface, vector networks, multiple plugins, and an arc tool.
The software has a cloud-based approach that enables team members to work together efficiently. Stakeholders can leave comments, while developers can copy code snippets to simplify collaboration. It also offers animated prototypes that have a hyper-realistic feel.
Keep in mind that Figma only concerns itself with the design aspect of your website; you’ll have to hire web developers to create and implement the necessary code using another software.
Pricing
Figma currently offers the following three plans:
- Starter — Free
- Figma Professional — $12 per editor per month
- Figma Organization — $45 per editor per month
Figma Professional is free at all levels for students and educators.
Sketch — Best for Creating Prototypes and Designs
- Drag-and-drop tool
- User-friendly interface
- No-code environment
- Suitable for designs and prototyping
Sketch is a drag-and-drop tool that helps web designers build low-fidelity and high-fidelity designs and prototyping, even when they don’t have coding knowledge. One of the main reasons why Sketch is so popular is because of its intuitive, uncluttered, and user-friendly interface.
Admittedly, not all of its features are as advanced as the other options we’ve listed, but it’s still a great program for facilitating easy collaboration within a design environment.
We particularly like Sketch’s zoom functionality that lets you magnify any component or element down to the pixel level, helping you align every part of your design as perfectly as possible. The collaborative component library makes it even easier to create universal components and update them universally while designing.
The Sketch team, along with other community developers, has developed an exclusive app library packed with apps, plugins, and assistants, allowing users to add extra functionality to the software. Use it to stay compliant with design standards, easily organize workflows, and transform even the most basic designs into animated user flow demos.
Pricing
Sketch currently offers the following two plans:
- Standard — $9 per editor, per month
- Business — Request a customized code (requires 25 editors minimum)
You can also take the software for a spin by signing up for Sketch’s 30-day free trial—no credit card required.
How to Find the Best Web Design Software for You
Web design isn’t just how your website is displayed online; it also refers to the user experience aspects of web development.
When looking for a web design tool, you want an option that allows you to easily work on your website’s appearance, layout, and in some cases content. In addition, you also want the tool to be aesthetically-pleasing, user-friendly, and gel with your user group and brand.
But how do you find a solution that ticks all the right boxes? We’ve got you.
Does it meet the criteria of a “good“ web design software?
Good website design typically has five critical elements:
- Open-source
- Free or low-cost
- Exportable to other programs
- No-coding platform
- Higher responsiveness
Using open-source software that’s portable to other programs provides you access to your website’s source code while making your website future-proof. While the former element gives you the flexibility to customize your code however you like, the latter saves you from having to redesign your website from scratch when switching hosts.
Considering there are dozens of low-cost design tools that come with an excellent feature set and work just as well as high-end websites, you don’t need to spend too much on a great program.
Also, the best tools don’t require a code editor and can still help you build a responsive website.
Ask yourself whether your prospective story needs these criteria. If not, look for other alternatives in the market that do.
Does it fulfill your website needs?
Find out whether the prospective tool meets your needs and preferences. To answer this, you must work out what you need a website for. Identifying your needs has a significant impact on which software tool is right for you, especially because each tool offers different website features.
Consider the following questions:
- Why do people visit your website?
- What do you want visitors to get from your website?
- What purpose does your website serve?
Based on your answers, think about the specific website features you want to offer for upholding your target audience‘s expectations. This can be adding testimonials to seem more trustworthy, website analytics to keep track of your efforts, or an ecommerce store functionality to easily handle online orders.
Other great features to consider are an in-built SEO tool, lazy loading, live chat, a “Contact Us” form, a CMS, a search bar, and an anti-spam/CAPTCHA feature, to name a few.
Does it have other nice-to-haves?
Lastly, when narrowing down your options, consider each tool’s affordability, ease of use, mobile compatibility, and feature set.
Here’s how to go about this:
- Price: Can you afford it, and is it worth the price?
- Ease of use: Does the web design software let you build a high-performing and aesthetically pleasing website quickly and easily?
- Mobile compatibility: Can the tool help you create a mobile-friendly website?
- Features: Does the tool have all the essential features you listed above?
Factoring in these questions will help you weigh your options correctly, helping you determine the best solution for your needs.
The Top Web Design Software in Summary
Webflow and WordPress are the best web design software because of their greater affordability, rich feature set, and ease of use.
Don’t stress too much when narrowing down features to identify the right fit for your business. Most of these options have a free trial period (some even offer full-fledged freemium plans), so you can always test out each tool’s features and interface to determine whether it’s the right fit.
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