AI website builders automate the website setup process for you – and during our tests, we found that Wix ADI is the most capable AI website builder currently available. It provided us with great templates and created an entire site structure based on a few prompts, and has by far the best range of design functions and useful features on offer for you to add your own personal touch to your new website.
However, Hostinger is also a great option. This AI website builder's ability to design entire pages, generate copy, and suggest free images enriched our user experience significantly – and paid plans start from just $2.99 per month, making it excellent value for money.
In this guide, we take you through the best AI website builders currently available – and discuss whether you really need an AI website builder to help you in the first place.
- What Is an AI Website Builder?
- The Best AI Website Builders: Which One Is Right for Your Business?
- Do You Need an AI Website Builder?
- Our Website Builder Research
- Verdict: What’s the Best AI Website Builder?
- AI Website Builder FAQs
What Is an AI Website Builder?
AI website builders harness the power of artificial intelligence to speed up the website-building process and make it easier for the user overall. Usually, AI website builders will ask you for some basic details about your site and then automate the website setup process from there, suggesting designs, pages, and even copy based on the information you've provided.
The Best AI Website Builders
In 2023, there are quite a few different ways to build a website with AI – and they all have various advantages and disadvantages.
As we mentioned, we found Wix had the smoothest setup process and presented us with the best suite of editing tools to make the changes we needed to make afterward – but Hostinger's AI logo generator and copy assistance also make it a good choice. We haven't included Bookmark AiDA, on the other hand, because its web services platform shut down on June 30, 2023. Here are our top five…
- Wix ADI – The best AI website builder overall
- Hostinger – Best for logo and copy generation
- Jimdo – Excellently detailed, customizable setup
- 10Web – Great for agencies managing multiple websites
- Framer AI – Easy to use, simple processes
1. Wix ADI
- Best for: Overall AI capabilities, templates, design functionality
- Price From: $16 per month (Light plan)
- Free plan? No
Pros
- Generates 3 website template options with Wix ADI
- Excellent post-setup design functionalities
- AI text and image generators
- Built-in ChatGPT capabilities
- Alternative Layouts tool
- AI generate product descriptions
Cons
- Paid plans are expensive compared to competitors
- No copy generation during Wix ADI set up
- No AI logo generator
Here's how you can use Wix's Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI). All you need to do is create a Wix account, go through the setup process, and click “Design your website” in the top right-hand corner.
This will take you to a decision screen, at which point you'll have to select the “let Wix build the website for you” option. From there, you can start adding pages that Wix suggests for you. As we told Wix we wanted to make a blog during setup, the AI suggested pages common to most blogs (such as an “About” section) for us:
Adding pages suggested by Wix ADI (Source: Wix.com)
Unlike Framer AI, which we’ll discuss later, Wix ADI actually lets you choose between 3 different designs it mocks up for you during the setup process (pictured below). Out of the AI website builders we tested, we found Wix’s designs were the most aesthetically pleasing and professional-looking by some margin.
Site designs suggested by Wix ADI (Source: Wix.com)
Setup is shorter and not quite as detailed as 10Web, but the key advantage of Wix is that once you do get set up, you’ve got access to all the tools provided by an extremely capable website builder – Wix Editor – and you can continue to use for free during the 14-day trial.
Wix Editor itself actually has some handy AI tools too – you can use it to generate author bios for writers working on your site, for instance. These tools make up for the lack of copy-generation options available during the initial stages.
The same cannot be said for some of the lesser-known AI website builders on the market, which won’t have Wix ADI's superior design functionalities, easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface, or gallery full of free images:
Adding images to our recently-generated Wix website (Source: Wix.com)
Wix is the best website builder we’ve tested here at Tech.co, edging out tough competition from the likes of Squarespace to take the top spot on our most recent round of testing – so it’s no surprise that its AI tools are top-notch too.
If you're undecided about whether to get started with Wix ADI or to go down the traditional website-building route, check out our Wix ADI vs Wix Editor comparison for more information.
2. Hostinger
- Best for: Logo and copy generation
- Price From: 2.99 per month (one plan available)
- Free plan? No
Pros
- Very affordable platform
- Unique logo generator
- Great for generating copy
- Duplicate content in other languages
Cons
- No app store
- Not many color options to choose from
- Limited design functionality
Hostinger proved to be our second favorite option for AI website building. As you can see from the image below, the initial setup was just a case of entering your brand name, the type of website you want to create, and a short description to keep the AI on the right track:
Providing Hostinger with a short description of our test website (Source: Hostinger.com)
Like Wix, Hostinger gives you three different layouts to choose from when you set up your website using its AI website builder – but unlike Wix, it’ll actually generate a lot of relevant copy for you, which has the potential to save you a lot of time.
Section of a website template generated by Hostinger AI (Source: Hostinger.com)
This will be a pro or a con depending on how picky you are with your website copy – but of course, you can always edit it later if you’re not happy with it, and it's often easier to do that than simply start writing from scratch. However you choose to write your website copy, Hostinger will automatically duplicate it into different languages, increasing the size of the audience you can reach.
Another great thing about Hostinger is the fact that it will generate a free AI logo for your site for you – which isn’t a common feature AI website builders offer.
Logo generated by Hostinger AI (Source: Hostinger.com)
The only downside, at least compared to Wix, is that Hostinger doesn’t have as many design features, functionalities, or integrations to take advantage of once you’ve built the basic version of your website. It’s great if you’re just starting out, however, and the idea of designing a logo for your brand is an unfamiliar process.
3. Jimdo
- Best for: Detailed, customizable setup
- Price From: $9 per month (Start plan)
- Free plan? Yes
Pros
- Custom color palette generator
- Highly detailed, AI-Assisted set up for online stores
- Dedicated mobile editor view
Cons
- No real blog functionality
- No internal marketing capabilities
- More limited than other web builders after AI set up finished
Jimdo is a solid website builder, with cheaper paid plans than the likes of Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy.
When we tested its AI website-building function, we were first presented with a much larger list of businesses to choose from during setup than some of the other AI website builders on this list, and on the whole, Jimdo's setup was among the most detailed.
Jimdo will then ask you for your website’s goals, so it knows what elements of site architecture you'll need. We selected the “sell online” option, so it went on to ask us about the types of products we’d like to sell, whether we had a physical store, and whether we have a social media presence:
Question 7 of Jimdo's AI-assisted setup process (Source: Jimdo.com)
As you can see from the image above, Jimdo provides an explanation as to why it's asking you these different questions during setup – which is useful for context and helped us make decisions about the bits we wanted to skip, streamlining the process even further.
Two useful Jimdo features are the ability to generate your own, custom color palette (which is pretty unique), which can then be automatically applied across the site, and the fact it asked us whether we wanted to collect pictures from social media to use on our site.
Jimdo's custom color palette generator (Source: Jimdo.com)
Pros
- Choice between formal/informal copy tone
- AI assistant and business name generator available
- 24/7 live chat support
Cons
- Editing requires a paid plan
- Paid plans are quite expensive
10Web is an AI website builder that will best suit businesses looking to build one or more websites and then manage them in the same place.
The setup process involves inputting the type of website you’d like to make, along with the number of websites you own/manage (10Web also provides AI web conversion and migration services).
AI-generated designs provided by 10Web during set up (Source: 10Web.com)
10Web’s setup was a breeze, but a lot more detailed than the likes of Framer AI. Overall, there is a lot more initial information that needs to be entered about the content of your site before it generates anything for you. However, it all felt very tailored to the use case we selected.
one thing we though was a nice touch was that 10Web asked us about the tone we’d like our content to be written in. This will depend entirely on your target audience – and the only options are “formal” or “informal” – but again, it’s a level of detail that not all AI website builders offer. The mock service descriptions we asked it to generate below sound pretty professional, too:
10Web's AI-generated site, informed by our test prompts (Source: 10Web.com)
The big downside with 10Web is that if you’d like to edit your website, you have to sign up for one of its paid plans. The Personal plan is priced at $20 per month when billed annually, which puts it in line with many top-of-the-range website builders, while the Premium plan is available from $24 per month and will let you manage 3 websites.
Larger companies or agencies that want to manage 10 websites with increased storage and priority support should opt for the $85 per month Agency plan.
Pros
- Simple, easy-to-navigate interface
- AI can generate individual pages
- Shows you desktop, mobile and tablet views simultaneously
Cons
- Not all AI-generated copy sounded good
- Page templates more basic than Wix
- AI can become overwhelmed by requests
Framer AI is an easy-to-use, free AI website builder that’s definitely worth trying out if your mind isn't already set on another provider. Its AI was surprisingly responsive, able to generate entire pages based on very basic prompts – in our case, we asked it to make a blog about Mexican cuisine.
The simple interface meant it was also really easy to just edit anything we didn’t quite like without much hassle at all. It was also really easy to link between pages on the website.
Website homepage generated by Framer (Source: Framer.com)
Another thing we liked about Framer is the way it generated a template for each page individually, with a prompt – which some AI website builders don't do. Framer AI also showed us immediately how it would look on desktop, mobile, and tablet, which will help users to ensure the aspect ratios are correct on all of the devices that people use.
A page of our test website with AI-generated copy and images provider by Framer AI (Source: Framer.com)
However, there was one page we weren’t quite happy with so asked Framer to regenerate it – but this led to an error message saying we were “asking too much of OpenAI” and to give it a minute before attempting another request. We didn’t encounter this problem with Wix ADI, which is a lot more powerful.
Overall, Framer AI is a little bit more basic – and not quite as useful – as Wix, Hostinger, or Jimdo. But for a free AI website builder, it can provide you with a great foundation – and lots of inspiration – during the initial setup process.
Do You Really Need an AI Website Builder?
There are definitely pros and cons to using an AI website builder. The biggest pro is cutting down the time it takes you to set your website up. Some AI website builders will literally shave hours – if not days – off your set-up time, depending on the goals and aims of your site. If you just want to get up and running quickly, then using an AI website builder like Wix ADI definitely worth exploring.
Another big advantage of using an AI website builder is how easy it makes building a professional-looking website. If you’re a website-building newbie and looking for a website builder that suits beginners, AI website builders will be easier to get to grips with than learning all the ins and outs of building a website independently, and far easier than building a WordPress site from scratch.
Of course, the key disadvantage of using an AI website builder is having limited customization at the start of your website-building journey, which you’ll lose by handing over full responsibility for much of the design – and in some cases the copy – to your website builder.
Granted, the likes of Wix and Hostinger give their users template options to choose from, but it’s a much narrower remit of choice than you’d have if you started building your website from scratch yourself.
If you have a very specific idea of what you want your site to look like you may find using AI to set up your website just means you’ll have to make a lot of changes afterward.
Along with AI website builders, a lot of website builders that don’t have a fully-fledged AI setup process still include AI tools that fulfill specific functions.
A good example of this is Shopify Magic, an AI-powered feature that ecommerce website builder Shopify released in April of this year. While Shopify doesn’t have a Wix ADI alternative, Shopify Magic is a very useful tool for ecommerce stores – in a nutshell, it auto-generates product descriptions. That means the more products you have listed on your store, the more time you'll save.
Shopify also has several AI-powered apps on its app store, including Plumy, which has over 14 AI features including SEO, article writing, and language translation tools. AI stylists, on the other hand, is a plug-in for virtual try-on experiences, predicting the best sizes for customers across multiple brands.
If you're thinking of building an online store and want to try out Shopify Magic, now's the time to do it – you can sign up for just $1 per month for the first 3 months at the moment, which is really good value for money for an ecommerce website as capable as Shopify.
Our Website Builder Research
At Tech.co, we conduct independent, product-led research into all of the verticals we write about, including website builders. After we've identified the best products on the market, we put them through a rigorous testing process in order to assess their ease of use, customer support services, feature offerings, design functionalities, SEO support, and overall value for money.
Out of the website builders we've tested so far in 2023, we’ve selected the five best providers with artificial intelligence capabilities to include in this head-to-head comparison.
Artificial intelligence capabilities are a relatively new addition to some website builders and are designed to speed up the setup process and make your life easier. So, we’ve focused our analysis on how easy they are to use, the quality of what they produced, and how much time their end product actually saved us.
Although we do have commercial partnerships with some of the providers we write about, it's our independent research allows us to stay editorially independent.
Verdict: What is the Best AI Website Builder?
The best AI website builder we’ve tried is Wix ADI. Not only did we find it incredibly easy to use – it requires very few prompts to get started – but on top of that, it gave us the best range of slick-looking designs to choose from, and the option to generate a whole range of specific pages.
The other big advantage to using Wix is that you’ll get access to the tools included in one of the most capable website builders on the market. We found that this really made the difference once we took back control from Wix ADI and started to make tweaks of our own. To top it all off, you can access the platform for free for 14 days after going through the AI-facilitated setup.
However, we think Hostinger's AI website builder will serve businesses starting from the ground up and wanting to get going quickly just fine, thanks to unique features like a logo builder. We found the copy it generated was pretty well written too – but Wix still retains the top spot, and is a better AI website builder overall.