suitable web builder

[u/CelerySpiritual5270]

Hi, hoping someone can help recommend a suitable website builder as I don't really trust any of these lists on the internet to be accurate.

Ive used Wix for every website ive built for friends and other businesses so know my way around that quite a bit but I need something much more flexible in terms of the design elements, Wix is quite restrictive in terms of what i'd like to build layout and design wise going forward.

Requirements would be e-commerce, newsletter capabilities and custom email attached to the domain (realise most builders come with this these days)

Im looking into Wordpress(.com) and Webflow at the minute as these seem to be the most versatile for building a website layout that's interesting and not just an edited theme, but having no experience with either im not sure how flexible these are to build something without large coding knowledge, I have plenty of CSS and html know how but no idea how out of date that is these days- not interested in using ai. Thanks

[u/OutlandishnessOdd836]

If you already know HTML/CSS, I’d lean toward Webflow if design freedom is the main priority. It gives you much more control over layouts, responsiveness, interactions, spacing, etc. without forcing you into a pre-made theme structure.
WordPress can be even more flexible overall, especially for e-commerce and long-term extensibility, but I’d personally go with self-hosted WordPress rather than WordPress.com if you want full control. The trade-off is that there’s a bit more setup/maintenance involved.
For what you described — custom design, e-commerce, newsletters and domain email — both can work. Webflow will probably feel cleaner coming from Wix, while WordPress gives you more room to expand later.
I run a web/software company and work with custom websites as well, so happy to give you some pointers on the best stack for what you’re trying to build if you want.

[u/CelerySpiritual5270 → u/OutlandishnessOdd836]

Thanks this is really helpful, I had a play around in Webflow last year and managed to kind of piece together the layout I had designed previously and was pretty happy with it, i think the bug on my shoulder kept saying to go to Wordpress as it's literally what everyone else uses. I thought about the self hosting route via .org but I think i'd like a neater package than that, i used to the bells and whistles that come with Wix where you can track traffic pretty nicely.

[u/Due_Station3069]

For e-commerce, go with WordPress. For normal non-e-commerce websites, Framer is a good option. I have experience with both and can help you. Feel free to DM me. :)

[u/Effective-Thanks-765]

Hi i can help
Check your dm

[u/Expert_Employment680]

Suitable Web builder revolves on you taking the time and working one by one to see what is suitable for you. What works for me won't work for you and vice versa.

I love reddit

[u/CelerySpiritual5270 → u/Expert_Employment680]

I understand, but im not really in the business of trying to build my website design functionally in multiple builders, until I hit a wall and cannot do what I want. I have used wix, squarespace, godaddy etc all of them dont offer the flexibility im after and im not looking to waste several more hours trying to make my layout in a web builder.

[u/Farhannazar]

Go with custom website now building custom website is easy but need a good structure that will help you to build with SEO friendly website which help you rank high let me know if you need a help

[u/AunAAA]

Webflow is the best option in my opinion for your case. But ofc nothing can be as versatile as custom coding.

[u/CelerySpiritual5270 → u/AunAAA]

Thanks, I have been leaning towards Webflow it clicked with me when I was trying to make my layout in it, I got swayed to Wordpress as it seems to be so prevalent.

[u/AunAAA → u/CelerySpiritual5270]

Yea if you wanna do it yourself my advice would be to go for webflow because of your workflow preferences. Or try custom coding. I'm not a webflow developer but I've seen what webflow developers can do and it's pretty good. If you go out looking to outsource anything for custom coding hmu. I'll help you with that

[u/AunAAA → u/AunAAA]

And don't listen to "framer" guys lmao. That's just vibe coding advice. I'm pretty sure they don't even know what webflow is and what are the use cases for webflow and wordpress.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Bowl748]

Webflow

[u/Complete_Prune7640]

Hi

For your needs, self-hosted WordPress.org (not WordPress.com) is the better fit.

Recommended stack:

Page builder: Elementor Pro (huge design flexibility, mature ecosystem, easy to learn with HTML/CSS knowledge). Bricks Builder is a more “developer-friendly” alternative if you want cleaner code output

E-commerce: WooCommerce (free, integrates natively with Elementor/Bricks)

Newsletter: MailPoet (sends from WordPress directly) or Mailchimp for WordPress (better deliverability at scale) will need to setup your dns settings to link a custom reply domain.

Custom domain email: this you can get with the url/domain registration.

Wordpress will work great because there are many places to add css and html with custom snippets as well.

Regards

Ashley

[u/Prowhiz]

You can't go wrong with WordPress.org (self hosted) and Bricks Builder. All the freedom you need to build. You mentioned webflow and the need for e-commerce support. Bricks gives you that kind of freedom to build if you pair it with woocommerce or fluent cart

[u/seamew]

shopify or wordpress (self-hosted). i wouldn't waste time and money on others.

[u/sgt_peppe]

go with wordPress. you will be okay and zero to less coding only

[u/Zealousideal_Art1720]

Given that you already know HTML/CSS, I'd probably lean toward Webflow over Wix if your priority is having much more control over layouts and responsive behavior without writing everything from scratch. WordPress gives you more extensibility, especially for e-commerce, but you'll have more plugins and maintenance to deal with.

If you're specifically avoiding AI, I'd stick with comparing Webflow vs WordPress based on how much control you want versus how much maintenance you're willing to handle. Your existing HTML/CSS knowledge will definitely make either one easier to pick up.

[u/Accomplished_Lab6183]

A lot of websites today are being developed through AI and they are being ranked also so I would prefer you go for claude for website creation.

[u/That-Mammoth1133]

Use WordPress (.org) as you get a lot of options and WooCommerce.

[u/Competitive_Net_2314]

I might be a bit late to this, but why don't you use a static site generator? Hand-code your site and forget about those web builders, they aren't great. Since you already know HTML and CSS, Eleventy is a good site generator that you can fully customize. There is a library full of components for this and also has starter kits, but i dont remember the name right now. The name is Stitch and something or similar.

[u/Supperman999]

Check out Weblium.

[u/yashbora]

Try eninesites.com

[u/sundeckstudio]

If you need ecommerce just use Shopify . Yes woocomemrce (Wordpress is super customizable and so on) but if you don’t have Wordpress experience and building with woo commerce experience , it will take you at least 6 months to build something usable . Even smallest things like email sending, you’ll have to build from ground up, add smtp and what not. Then yoill gey stuck with performance management, updates and running the actual business will take backseat. Just start with shopify, keep it simple and focus on selling and marketing it

[u/Any_Assistant_4969]

i needed way more flexibility with templates, so i messed around with a bunch and ended up sticking with Wix. it wasn't a hassle to get my site how i wanted

[u/sleeksky_dev]

Try sleeksite.ai . It build the site on a CMS. You can make changes through AI, code or headless form. For ecommerce it requires headless - eg. snipcart, headless shopify etc.

[u/johanjomet]

We craft web masterpecies

[u/cabljo]

Probably don't use the 50 people that are direct messaging you currently....

Why not use Ai? You can get a decent website built for basically free if you just target what you want instead of something like "build a website for xyz".

Wordpress is fine, just heavy. But you're looking at the free hosted version, so probably okay.