The Best Web Design Software in 2024 (Free & Paid Options)

Web development used to be the domain of skilled programmers. The process once required intense coding skills and knowledge of languages like hypertext markup language (HTML), cascading style sheets (CSS), or JavaScript.

However, while many web design tools still require some level of coding proficiency, several new tools make it possible for businesses to build their own websites with little to no programming expertise. This article will introduce you to some of the best web and graphic design software choices that can help you make a quality website for your business.

Table of contents:

• The best web design software
• Website builders to consider
• How to choose the best web design software
  

The best web design software

Having a solid web presence is crucial to the success of your company. To online consumers, your website is your business. Your site needs to be visually appealing as well as easy to use. The best web design software for you will depend on the type of business you run, its size, and your budget.

These top seven web design software tools can potentially help you achieve what you envision for your business website.

• Figma
• Sketch
• Canva
• Framer
• Photoshop
• Google Web Designer
• Lunacy

Figma

Figma is vector-based prototyping and UX design software. What makes Figma stand out is its collaborative aspects that allow several members of a team to work on a design at the same time. With Figma, stakeholders can write observations on designs, and programmers can leave code snippets to help the prototype become a finished website.

Adobe is in the process of acquiring Figma and plans to discontinue its in-house design tool—Adobe XD—attesting to Figma’s powerful features.

Pros:

• Supports vector designs for prototyping websites
• Allows sharing and collaborating in real time using Figma’s cloud-based model
• Lets team members share files and make edits without wasting time uploading

Cons:

• Needs an internet connection to use Figma’s Creative Cloud
• Restricted version control makes it challenging to track edits and other file modifications
• Can revert a design to a former version, but can’t alter just a few lines

Pricing: Figma has a free plan available. Paid plans start at $12 per editor per month (billed annually).

Sketch

Sketch is a digital design app for Mac. The software functions as an editor for vector graphics. Its main use is optimizing user experience and user interface for web and mobile applications.

Sketch is also a great tool to make a mockup, wireframe, prototype, or design workflow of your website.

Pros:

• Resizes designs without losing clarity using integrated vector graphics
• Renders functionally to help you generate designs close to what they would be on a finished HTML or CSS webpage
• Makes reusable symbols that you can import and apply in other outlines

Cons:

• Only works on Mac, meaning Windows users will need another option
• Lacks advanced photo editing capabilities of tools like Adobe Photoshop

Pricing: Standard subscription is $10 per editor per month (billed annually). Mac-only license is $120 a year per seat with access to updates. Business plan is $20 per editor per month (billed annually).

Canva

Canva is a graphic design platform with a drag-and-drop interface that easily creates graphics for social media, websites, and other platforms. It’s great for beginners who want to make custom images for any purpose.

Pros:

• Provides access to a wide variety of simple-to-use photo effects that can enhance your images
• Offers the ability to create intuitive and appealing designs quickly using Canva’s drag-and-drop editor
• Offers more than 250,000 stock images and templates for websites, social media, or another platform

Cons:

• Canva’s templates support limited customization options
• Allows adding your images, but can’t make new shapes
• Has challenges for using Canva on mobile devices to create new designs or edit existing ones

Pricing: Canva has a free plan, and paid plans start at $9.99 a month per person (billed annually).

Framer

Framer is a graphic design software program great for prototyping websites. It can save you time by generating React code blocks and quickly resizing and adapting images.

Pros:

• Offers responsive features that help your designs adapt well to mobile devices
• Has a vector-based interface that maintains image quality even as size changes
• Adds high-quality animations to your site
• Allows you to optimize your site’s SEO to increase online presence

Cons:

• Some Framer designs aren’t easily customizable
• May need JavaScript knowledge to access more customization options like changing the opacity of visual elements
• Isn’t very compatible with software development frameworks other than React

Pricing: Framer has a free plan, and paid plans start at $5 per site per month (billed annually).

Photoshop

Photoshop is the most popular and well-known photo editing tool around. The platform has a large range of functionality. You can use it to retouch photos, alter illustrations, manipulate backgrounds, and do pretty much anything to an image. It also works with several image and video configurations.

It can even alter batches of images at a time. Several versions of Adobe Photoshop are available for both Windows and MacOS.

Pros:

• Features a large array of graphic design templates and advanced editing tools
• Gets frequent updates
• Works well on both computers (Windows and Mac) and mobile devices
• Allows editing files in different formats from images and animations to video
• Makes resizing images to fit various designs easy
• Has a large community of users and a wide variety of tutorials

Cons:

• Doesn’t have great support for vector graphics
• Photoshop might be hard to master for beginners—getting accustomed to its more in-depth features takes time

Pricing: Photoshop starts at $22.99 a month (billed annually).

Google Web Designer

Google Web Designer helps create images, videos, and HTML5 graphics that can be imported and applied to different web projects. It’s also easy to create responsive content tailored for different audiences.

Businesses can take advantage of the integrated drag-and-drop builder tool to come up with app designs. Experienced individuals can switch to the expert mode and write code for extra functionality.

Pros:

• Features a drag-and-drop tool that’s simple to use
• Offers the ability to create and manipulate 3D content and animations
• Lets you use the integrated Pen and Shape tools to create new designs
• Provides access to a wide range of customizable templates, assets, and colors
  Cons:

• Can be resource-intensive when working with complex animations and large files
• Has limited file export options

Price: Google Web Designer is available for free.

Lunacy

Lunacy is an AI-powered and cross-platform tool that helps developers create appealing web layouts and designs. It features AI features like an image upscaler, background remover, and text and avatar generator, which help developers enhance their creativity and productivity. Lunacy also features a wide variety of icons, UI kits, and illustrations that can be imported and added to projects.

Pros:

• AI integration makes it easier to perform various design tasks
• Auto layout feature simplifies creation of responsive designs
• Allows real-time collaboration
• Features the ability to edit live webpages directly from the workspace

Cons:

• Has limited prototyping features
• Supports only a few import formats compared to other tools

Pricing: Lunacy is available for free.

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Website builders to consider

Website builders let users create interactive websites without coding experience. With drag-and-drop interfaces, you can add and arrange UI elements to create webpage designs. We created a separate list for these because they let you design and develop at the same time.

We explore the top seven website builders to consider in your next project.

• WordPress
• Squarespace
• Wix
• Weebly
• Webflow
• Adobe Dreamweaver
• Bootstrap

WordPress

WordPress is an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) that lets you set up websites quickly. It’s simple to install, and a lot of online web hosting companies include a link to install WordPress.

WordPress offers block themes that enhance scalability and performance. By using block themes, developers can edit parts of their user interface, including headers, navigation menus, and footers, without having to write code.

Pros:

• Suited for content-based websites like a blog, but can also be integrated with e-commerce sites
• Various professional themes are responsive on different devices
• Supports numerous plug-ins, which can help extend its usability
• Features a drag-and-drop functionality, allowing beginners to create websites without any coding experience

Cons:

• Finding the right plug-ins can be time-consuming
• Has limited search engine optimization (SEO) integrations, meaning it’s more difficult to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) without paying for plug-ins

Pricing: WordPress is a free software program. However, you’ll need to pay for features like web hosting and premium plug-ins for your site. Learn more about the cost of building a website.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder with easy-to-use, drag-and-drop features. The website builder has over 100 premade templates and functionality for e-commerce that lets you do things like manage inventory and configure sales taxes.

Pros:

• Offers a variety of website templates with appealing fonts, image sizes, and themes
• Is optimized for devices like smartphones and tablets
• Squarespace app for IOS and Android lets you make edits from your mobile device
• Supports numerous blogging features like the ability to schedule posts, get user comments, or host videos

Cons:

• Customizing a Squarespace template can be time-consuming
• Troubleshooting your website to find bugs and errors can be challenging

Pricing: Squarespace offers multiple plans starting at $16 per month for personal use (billed annually). A 14-day free trial is available.

Wix

Wix is a website builder that has hundreds of free templates. Its drag-and-drop editor makes it simple to create websites in a very short amount of time. It’s great for small businesses and independent workers.

Pros:

• Offers a large selection of functions, such as adding animations to your text and other elements
• Supports numerous third-party apps for functionalities like newsletters and live chat
• Boosts your app’s loading speed while still keeping it secure
• Has integrated AI-powered features, like connecting social media platforms to your site, enhance creativity and productivity
• Includes a free domain name for one year

Cons:

• Templates aren’t interchangeable—when you start making content on one, you can’t simply transfer it to a different one
• Can’t transfer a Wix website to another website builder

Pricing: Paid plans start at $16 per month. The benefits of paid plans include extra webspace, no Wix ads, and premium e-commerce functions like bookings.

Weebly

Weebly is a CMS that allows you to build quality websites. It’s a great website builder for small business sites and portfolios. Although it doesn’t have the same number of templates as some of its competitors, it’s known for its easy-to-understand user interface.

Pros:

• Provides optimized sites that are mobile-friendly
• Has the ability to target specific audiences and launch email marketing campaigns
• Features a drag-and-drop design interface that’s easy to use
• Includes free SSL certificate

Cons:

• Has limited customization options compared to other webpage builders
• Doesn’t allow traffic from countries like Russia and China, which can impact website usability

Pricing: Weebly has a free plan for basic needs, but its paid plans start at $10 per month (billed annually).

Webflow

Webflow is a cloud-based webpage building tool that doesn’t require any coding at all. It’s great for creating responsive websites, blogs, and landing pages. Webflow also has its own CMS and hosting platform.

Pros:

• Has drag-and-drop functionality to easily create and arrange UI components
• Includes access to a wide variety of free templates
• Provides classes for changing style aspects like font, colors, and text

Cons:

• Though Webflow serves basic web functions, its advanced features increase its learning curve
• May require some coding experience to create more interactive UI components

Pricing: Webflow allows you to start building websites for free. Paid plans start at $14 per seat per month (billed annually).

Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver is a more in-depth, cloud-based option than WordPress that requires front-end (what a user sees) coding skills. It has a “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) interface that lets you see what your finished product will look like as you’re working on it without having to open your browser.

Pros:

• Includes an integrated syntax highlighting feature to help you find errors in your project
• Provides code suggestions to help you write quality code and implement features fast
• Code validation and accessibility checks determine if your site is user-friendly and internet-ready
• Enables automatic file organization

Cons:

• Has a steeper learning curve compared to other website building frameworks
• Does not provide previews for mobile devices
• Coding suggestions can be overly complex, especially for beginners
• Generates a lot of boilerplate code, which can slow down your website

Pricing: Dreamweaver is $22.99 per month and comes with a seven-day free trial. Alternatively, purchase Dreamweaver through the Creative Cloud, which comes with a seven-day free trial and then $59.99 per month.  

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is an open-source collection of front-end coding (CSS, JavaScript, and HTML) blocks you can use in your website development. It has design templates for navigation, buttons, and a variety of user interface options. The software is hosted by GitHub and has a large community of users.

Pros:

• Offers a responsive website grid with content and custom breakpoints to enhance user experience
• Allows you to add code that automatically adjusts image and shape sizes based on the device’s screen size
• Has a mobile-first design that ensures site runs smoothly on a number of devices
• Is compatible with many web browsers

Cons:

• Generates large files that can slow down websites
• Has limited customization options, meaning your site may look similar to other webpages
• Requires a fair amount of front-end coding knowledge

Pricing: Bootstrap is free.

How to choose the best web design software

Different web design software options come with different features and functionalities, so consider your business needs before choosing. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Design basics. Which type of website design are you going for?
• Website functionality. Do you want an online store or an e-commerce site?
• DIY or premade. Do you need templates, or will you use your own code?
• Mobile compatibility. Do you need a responsive website that looks good on mobile devices without having to design a mobile-only version?
• Budget. Do you want free web design software or a paid service?

Whether you’re working on your own or have a small business, website design software may be able to help you launch the website you need.

Find top web designers for your business

Developing a great website is crucial for your business, and finding easy-to-use tools and website design software will save you a lot of stress.

If you’re struggling with the workflow of website creation, Upwork offers a global talent pool of top web designers to assist with your web design process. Let an independent professional help you create a professional-looking business website that attracts customers and generates value.

And if you’re a skilled web designer, consider using Upwork to find your next job.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this section. These tools and services are provided only as potential options and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.

Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service’s offerings.