Methodology
Why We Publish Our Formula At All
Most comparison sites either hide their scoring method entirely or describe it in language vague enough to mean nothing. We do the opposite on purpose: every builder's overall score out of 10 comes from four fixed, weighted criteria, applied the same way every time, and we'd rather you be able to argue with our formula than trust it blindly.
Templates & Design (35% of the score)
This carries the most weight because a template is usually the first thing that determines whether you'll actually enjoy building on a platform. We evaluate variety — how many genuinely distinct, modern-looking templates exist, not color-swapped copies of the same three layouts — visual quality at default settings before any customization, and critically, how much real restructuring is possible before you hit a rigid section you can't touch or a hard paywall. A builder with hundreds of dated-looking templates scores worse here than one with fewer templates that are genuinely flexible.
Ease of Use (30% of the score)
A gorgeous template means little if getting a working site published takes a frustrating week of fighting the editor. We walk through the actual signup-to-published-site journey: how intuitive the drag-and-drop or block editor feels, how forgiving it is of layout mistakes, and how steep the learning curve is for someone with zero prior web design experience. Builders that get a novice from account creation to a live, presentable site in under an hour score meaningfully higher here.
SEO Tools (20% of the score)
A beautiful site nobody can find in search results isn't doing its job. We test real control over meta titles and descriptions per page, clean editable URLs, redirect management, sitemap generation, and page speed out of the box. A platform that locks basic SEO fields behind its most expensive plan scores lower here regardless of how nice its templates look.
Price & Support (15% of the score)
We score these together because they're linked in practice. Is pricing transparent across plan lengths, or does it change depending on how you sign up? Does a free plan or trial actually let you evaluate real content before paying? And when we contact support with a genuine problem, does the person helping actually understand the platform, or is help gated behind the highest tier?
Why We Weight the Building Experience Over the Feature List
Templates & design and ease of use together account for nearly two-thirds of the score, on purpose. A builder can't out-price or out-feature its way to the top of this ranking — those criteria carry meaningfully less weight because they matter less to whether building your site is actually a good experience. We'd rather rank a builder that reliably produces a professional, easy-to-edit site above one with an impressive feature checklist and a frustrating editor.
What We Weigh Qualitatively, Beyond the Number
Some things resist a clean score but still shape the written verdict on every review: how deep eCommerce features actually go beyond a basic add-to-cart button, how the mobile editing experience compares to desktop, and how seriously a platform treats security basics like SSL and backups. None of this moves the numeric score directly, but it's always addressed in the review text.
Review Update Policy
We don't test a builder once and freeze the score. We re-test continuously and refresh scores whenever a builder ships a major editor redesign, a pricing change, or a meaningful template refresh. Every review page shows when it was last updated, so you're never guessing how current a number is.
The Honest Limits of This Methodology
No formula can predict whether a specific builder's editor will click with your particular design sensibility or technical comfort level. Treat our scores as a strong, consistent starting filter, then read the full review for anything you're seriously considering — that's where the details a number can't carry, like how a specific template handles real content, get explained in full.