Best Web Design Services

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We’ve used countless web design services over the years. From building websites ourselves to paying thousands of dollars for freelancers and professional designers, we found Wix to be the best solution for most websites. It’s the most affordable service on our list and gives you all the tools you need to create a well-designed website on your own.

The Best Web Design Service for Most

If you’re willing to put in a bit of work and want a well-designed website without paying top dollar, Wix is an excellent choice. They’re a secure and reliable platform to build your new site on.

There are nearly 1,000 free templates you can use to kickstart your website design, so you never have to start from scratch. It’s completely drag-and-drop, making it an intuitive platform for beginners with enough customization options for advanced designs, too. However, the best part is that you can start for free and only pay when you’re ready to launch your website.

The 5 Best Web Design Service Options to Consider:

1. Wix — The best web design service for most
2. Envato Market — The best selection of affordable themes
3. StudioPress — The best for high-quality WordPress themes
4. Freelancers — The best for simple website design and branding
5. UI/UX Agencies — The best for complex websites

When It Makes Sense to Invest into Web Design Services

Whether you’re starting a brand new website from scratch or want to revamp your existing website, web design services come in all shapes and sizes. You can decide if you want to outsource the design of one page, every page, or something in between.

Want custom graphics and help with branding, too? No problem. You get to decide what services you need or don’t need, making web design a flexible service to match your needs.

Regardless, you’re in complete control of the scope of the project. So, it makes sense to invest if look and feel is an important part of your new website, you’re looking for an affordable way to change up an existing website, or you’re ready to take your site to the next level with a custom design.

And when you start making enough to warrant a custom website, we recommend freelancers and small local agencies rather than massive large-scale agencies.

Why? Because the cost is more reasonable and you’ll get a more personalized experience. If you’re comfortable spending $5,000 to $10,000 on your website, this is definitely the way to go.

But if that’s outside your budget, not all hope is lost. You can still invest in a site builder or theme that looks great out of the box.

#1 – Wix — The Best Web Design Services for Most

Building a professional website is easier than ever thanks to modern-day website builders, like Wix.

You don’t have to learn anything about web design or development, making it an excellent choice for beginners. Plus, there are 800+ pre-designed templates you can use to get started.

Because of those templates, you don’t have to spend thousands on a professional designer, which is particularly helpful if you’re just starting out.

Wix’s drag and drop interface is incredibly easy to use and you get complete design freedom to create whatever you can imagine. On top of that, there are dozens of add-ons to increase your website’s functionality.

Want to add an online store? No problem!

It’s easy to add products and Wix’s built-in security features ensure your site’s data (and that of your visitors) is safe. Secure payment gateways, site data encryption, and 24/7 monitoring and optimization come standard on any Wix plan.

Maybe you want to add an online scheduler, a blog to attract more visitors, or an online menu so visitors can order online and pick up in-store.

The possibilities are endless, despite being an intuitive site builder that’s suitable for beginners and anyone without extensive web design knowledge.

You can control the size and placement of everything, including text, images, videos, shapes, and more. It’s truly one of the easiest and most customizable website builders on the market.

As such, you can create a truly customized experience minus the headache.

Another standout feature is the Wix ADI (artificial design intelligence) tool. All you need to do is answer a few questions about your new website and the tool will automatically build the entire thing for you in just a few seconds.

From there, you can customize the auto-generated content with your own images, colors, fonts, text, and more to make your website truly one-of-a-kind.

The best part, though? You can try Wix for free… forever.

It’s an excellent way to try it out, but the free plan is extremely limiting and you can’t connect your own custom domain. So, it’s not a long-term solution, but it far outshines a temporary free trial.

Whether you’re looking for a personal website or a full-featured business page, Wix has everything you need and a variety of plans to suit users of all shapes and sizes.

Their basic website plans (no ecommerce) include:

• Combo for personal use – $13 per month
• Unlimited for entrepreneurs and freelancers – $17 per month
• Pro for complete online branding – $22 per month
• VIP for first priority support – $39 per month

Sign up for a free forever plan to take Wix for a test drive today!

#2 – Envato Market — The Widest Selection of Affordable Themes

If you’re looking for an easy way to DIY your website without using a page builder like Wix, Envato Market is an excellent place to get an affordable and customizable theme.

If you’re anything like us, site builders don’t give you quite the flexibility and scalability you need. As such, you’re using a platform like WordPress, Shopify, BigCommerce, or Drupal.

And with those platforms come customization and web design challenges. Which is where a customizable theme comes in.

Envato Market is packed full of design assets with a nearly limitless selection of themes for all the major site platforms, including the ones we mentioned above.

Envato Market gives you over 50,000 website templates to choose from, so you can improve upon the basic themes that come with Shopify or WordPress.

With the wide selection, you can find a unique look for your site that really helps you stand out from the crowd.

Better still, the vast majority of the tens of thousands of themes at your disposal cost under $100. WordPress themes get as low as $24 and Shopify themes start at $19.

And the themes from Envato Market are fully built out with tons of features, all the customization you need, and easy installation.

Plus, you can easily sort available themes by:

• Platform
• Industry
• Price
• Ratings
• Date added
• Number of sales

This is an excellent way to avoid themes that aren’t compatible, have low rates, and are outside your budget.

It’s important to note you can always change the colors, fonts, images, and overall branding of the theme you choose. So, it’s more critical and beneficial to pay close attention to theme functionality and overall layout instead of colors and other things you can change later.

Find your site’s perfect look by browsing through the designs on Envato Market.

#3 – StudioPress — Best for High-End WordPress Themes

Theme marketplaces are great for finding a solid theme on a tight budget.

But if you want a great theme and don’t have qualms with paying upwards of $200 or more, premium themes are the way to go.

Not only is the code rock solid, but you don’t have ongoing problems or bugs because of your theme thanks to the full-time development team working around the clock.

On top of that, most studios keep themes updated for years to ensure your theme doesn’t pose a security risk. They also continuously add new features to make the theme the best it can be. So, you get a lot more bang for your buck if you’re willing to pay more and can afford to do so.

Premium themes are hands-down one of the best ways to get an amazing website without paying a designer. You get a designer-quality look at a fraction of the price.

Plus, you can usually update your site on your own once you learn how the theme works without having to ask a developer to do it for you.

Our favorite premium WordPress theme studio is StudioPress. There are 40 stunning themes to choose from, making it a perfect option for just about any website out there.

StudioPress is actually owned by WP Engine and all of its themes are available for free to WP Engine (and Flywheel!) customers. But you don’t have to use WP Engine to use StudioPress themes.

You can buy them individually and install them yourself in just a few clicks.

If you’re not using WordPress, you can also search around for a reputable theme studio that specializes in the platform you’re using. Built a store with Shopify? No problem—google premium Shopify themes to browse all the high-end options out there.

Theme studios charge more per theme but you get more peace of mind and more control. It’s absolutely worth paying a bit more in our experience.

But it’s still significantly cheaper than having an agency or freelancer design a custom site from scratch.

#4 – Freelancers — Best for Simple Website Design and Branding

At a certain point, you may outgrow the theme you’re using or have enough money to justify a custom web design refresh. The best way to do it is to leave it to the experts. If you can’t afford a full-fledged marketing agency, freelancers are an excellent alternative.

They’re still highly skilled but they can cost significantly less. So, you get the quality you want without paying tens of thousands of dollars for an entire team.

Some of our favorite places to find top-notch freelancers include:

• 99designs
• Upwork
• Freelancer.com

Even with sites that have millions of visitors per month, we still use freelancers because:

• There are thousands of talended freelancers
• They can give you all the customization that you need for your brand
• It costs less than hiring an entire team

The downside to this is that you also need to get the design built, usually by a front-end engineer. Some designers can also do this themselves but not all. Make sure to clarify with the designer who’s responsible for actually making the design happen.

While this is an extra step, there’s also a ton of front-end engineers that freelance too. You should have no problem finding one that can get your site built for a reasonable rate.

To be honest, most websites never need to go beyond a few key freelancers. Even with millions of visitors per month, they can handle it.

#5 – UI/UX Agencies — Best For Complicated Sites and Products 

What if you’re building an entire product?

Or need an incredibly complicated site designed that matches the need of your market perfectly?

In this case, you don’t need web design anymore. You need a UI/UX agency. You’ll get a lot more than you would from a typical web design agency:

• They’ll do customer development with your market to find the exact flows and features that your product needs.
• The site will work as a cohesive whole. Web designs think in “pages,” UI/UX experts think in “flows” and “users.”
• Every pixel on your site will convey your brand.
• You’ll get the experience and skillset from an entire team of folks that have been doing this work for decades.

If you tried to do this work yourself, you’d have to build an entire Product and Design team, easily spending millions of dollars.

Digital Telepathy is a great example, they’ve worked on products like New Relic, Quip, and Marriott.

In our opinion, standard web design companies are usually overpriced. You’re paying for a team when you really only need 1-2 good freelancers. But when you need real UI/UX work, only a team can pull that off anyway. This is when it makes sense to find the best agency out there. Then pay them whatever they want.

Methodology For Choosing The Best Web Design Services

There are thousands of web design services out there, ranging from do-it-yourself design to professional agencies with hundreds of years of collective design and development experience.

On top of that, the price can range from a few dollars per month to hundreds of thousands of dollars due upfront.

Based on our experiences, the right option for you depends on the stage of your business and the scope of your design project.

If you’re just getting started and need a new basic business website, a drag-and-drop site builder is the way to go. It’s cost-effective and fast, it teaches you about web design, you can update and manage your site yourself, and you don’t have to worry about putting yourself out of business with an enterprise price tag before you even start.

For anyone that already has a website, we recommend using a theme marketplace to find a budget-friendly theme for the platform you’re already using.

If you have a larger budget and want a unique, polished website, you can opt for a premium theme from a theme studio that specializes in your website platform. These themes tend to be higher quality but also more expensive.

Freelance designers are a great choice if you’re looking to revamp your existing site and you have a significant budget to put towards the project. Freelancers are a cost-effective middle ground between designing your site yourself and hiring a team of professionals to tackle large-scale projects where the budget doesn’t matter.

With that said, UI/UX agencies are a great choice if your budget isn’t a deciding factor.

Summary

Whether you’re looking for a DIY solution, a full-scale design agency, or something in between, you don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to have a website you’re proud of.

To recap, our top recommendations are:

1. Wix — The best DIY web design site builder
2. Envato Market — The best selection of affordable themes
3. StudioPress — The best for premium, high-quality themes
4. Freelancers — The best for simple website development/branding
5. UI/UX Agencies — The best for complex websites