The best website builders are speedy, easy to use, mobile friendly, and able to fulfill your website's requirement - all at a fair price point.
Looking for the #1 website builder? We recommend Hostinger Website Builder – highly versatile, easy to use, and FAST!
Not everyone loves to code, which is why we’ve reviewed some of the top website builders on the market; and handpicked the best 5 capable of building quality websites quickly & easily.
Note
Server Speed
A+
Overall Rating
Price (MYR)
RM13.36/mo
Key Features
"Hostinger Website Builder is a real up-and-comer with a pricing structure that works well for Malaysia."
Coming in tops is Hostinger Website Builder – an excellent drag-and-drop website builder for beginners. Once on the market as ‘Zyro’, this builder was rebranded in February 2023 and now comes packaged into Hostinger’s web hosting plans. The good news is that Hostinger is one of the very best web hosts on the market, so you can expect only the best server speeds and uptime for your site. The downside is of course that if you’re already using another web host – you won’t be able to take advantage of this builder.
But how does Hostinger Website Builder itself fare?
Well, although it has fewer advanced features than some builders out there, to many folks this proves its greatest strength. While the industry focuses on offering ever increasing features, Hostinger keeps the focus on simplicity. Setting up your website is quick and straightforward since there aren’t overly-fancy design tools to distract you or complicate matters. If you’re looking to get your website up and running quickly – you’re all set.
What’s more, their combined Web Hosting and Website Builder plan starts from just RM13.36 per month! That means for a price of a standard website builder alone, you’re getting both the drag-and-drop tools to set up your website, and access to one of the best web hosts that money can buy.
US (W) | US (E) | London | Singapore | Sao Paulo |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 ms | 3 ms | 3 ms | 3 ms | 1 ms |
Bangalore | Sydney | Japan | Canada | Germany |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 ms | 2 ms | 5 ms | 2 ms | 2 ms |
Hostinger Website Builder’s big strength is also its weakness – its features may not be enough for everyone. If you’re the type who has a very particular idea of what you want your website to look like, and you’d like to customize it down to a tee – you may find Hostinger Website Builder a little too simple to make your craziest, most creative dreams come true.
However, since the pricing is very attractive, we still feel this is the best option for anyone who wants a basic, great looking and fantastically performing website. It’s ideal for beginners. Not only does it get the job done fast – it performs impressively well.
Server Speed
A+
Overall Rating
Price (MYR)
RM70/mo
Key Features
"Wix is bold, beautiful, and feature packed - just what a modern website builder should be."
Wix is one of the earlier modern website builders to establish itself and that shows in product maturity. It’s fast, solid, and comes jam packed with a whole lot of features.
However, all of this comes at a price and while our friends in the US or Europe won’t flinch, it can be painful to see the price converted from US dollars to Ringgit.
Still, if you can afford it, Wix is one of the best choices in the market and will offer a great user experience.
US (W) | US (E) | London | Singapore | Sao Paulo |
---|---|---|---|---|
41 ms | 30 ms | 96 ms | 189 ms | 141 ms |
Bangalore | Sydney | Japan | Canada | Germany |
---|---|---|---|---|
237 ms | 173 ms | 124 ms | 30 ms | 108 ms |
Given how powerful Wix is, it isn’t surprising that the company keeps a jealous eye on its customers.
If you’ve created your site with Wix, you can’t move your business elsewhere easily. Wix doesn’t allow customers to export their websites, so in essence you either start anew or stay with Wix forever.
Server Speed
A+
Overall Rating
Price (MYR)
RM119/mo
Key Features
"More for the online store than just average websites, Shopify is eCommerce ready to go."
When it comes to eCommerce website builders, Shopify is so much more than your average bear. Unfortunately for Malaysians, it is also one of the most expensive in the market. Part of this is because of the focus on eCommerce.
If you’re planning to build an online store though, there’s no better partner than Shopify.
US (W) | US (E) | London | Singapore | Sao Paulo |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 ms | 1 ms | 2 ms | 2 ms | 3 ms |
Bangalore | Sydney | Japan | Canada | Germany |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 ms | 1 ms | 70 ms | 2 ms | 2 ms |
Sadly, Shopify payments with its zero commission rate isn’t available for Malaysian stores. If you want to run a shop you’ll have to work with a third-party payments processor. Luckily the Shopify payments ecosystem is strong, so you won’t be short of choice.
Server Speed
A+
Overall Rating
Price (MYR)
RM49/mo
Key Features
"Weebly is versatile and built with the needs of the rapid site builder in mind."
Weebly may start off from as low as RM20.50 per month but there’s a small catch. That price doesn’t apply to eCommerce sites. If you want to run an online store, you’ll need to buy into Weebly at one of its higher-priced plans which start at RM49 per month.
US (W) | US (E) | London | Singapore | Sao Paulo |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 ms | 76 ms | 133 ms | 171 ms | 198 ms |
Bangalore | Sydney | Japan | Canada | Germany |
---|---|---|---|---|
238 ms | 143 ms | 111 ms | 76 ms | 144 ms |
Although Weebly managed a strong A+ rating overall in our Bitcatcha speed test, we were a little disturbed that response rates are good for US sites but drop the further away it gets.
For Malaysians sites targeting local traffic this isn’t ideal but if you’re looking to cater to international traffic it’s fine.
Server Speed
A+
Overall Rating
Price (MYR)
RM49/mo
Key Features
"Squarespeace is priced to suit a very middling market but its capabilities extend far beyond."
With a starting price point of RM49 per month, Squarespace certainly isn’t the cheapest on this list and is certainly pricey for the Malaysia market.
However, it does perform exceptionally well and is a great resource for someone who wants everything they need to create a professional-looking site in one place.
US (W) | US (E) | London | Singapore | Sao Paulo |
---|---|---|---|---|
39 ms | 26 ms | 95 ms | 210 ms | 130 ms |
Bangalore | Sydney | Japan | Canada | Germany |
---|---|---|---|---|
306 ms | 248 ms | 151 ms | 45 ms | 89 ms |
Although you can sign up for a free account with Squarespace, there’s no free meal here. All sites that are built must convert to paying accounts before you can start using those sites. If you don’t convert to a paying account your site will expire after some time, rendering it useless.
Did I also mention that it starts from RM49 a month? Quite a fee once you’ve converted that into Malaysian Ringgit.
The biggest obstacle to overcome for Malaysian website owners is overcoming the mindset of localization. Once you get past the border barrier, you’ll discover that there are thousands of web hosting options available across the globe – offering products that are better, faster, or even cheaper than what you find locally.
Similarly, the world of website builders today has its own set of challenges.
In the past, many people were using them to rapidly build websites. Yet today the challenge has moved more towards the eCommerce front. Thanks to the age of digital, borderless trade is booming and even small businesses can compete on the international stage.
Rather than spend on outsourcing, small businesses have the option to extend their capabilities on their own – thanks to tools like eCommerce enabled website builders. Now you can not only build websites, but turn them into full online stores, in some cases even with complete inventory control.
Taking that into account, do you know what your needs are as well as what’s available for you in the global arena? There are many factors you may need to consider, ranging from price all the way to unique features.
Website builders are extremely useful tools because they allow those with little to no technical expertise the chance to build their own websites. This can be done quickly and easily with as little effort as using a word processor.
For Malaysians, an especially good bonus point is that prices are usually little more than what you would pay for web hosting in the first place. This of course varies quite a lot depending on which website builder you end up choosing.
There isn’t really a way to put this nicely, but it’s simply a fact that we live in Malaysia and transact in Ringgit.
The Ringgit is still quite weak against the US dollar and mentally, when we do a conversion the final price of overseas services freaks many of us out.
Yet in terms of websites, especially websites built for a commercial purpose, remember that you can also expand your business beyond our borders. By working for and earning overseas currencies we can basically negate the difficult conversion rate and pull in US dollars instead.
There are several local web hosting companies that are focused on business here, but no real entity that provides a custom website builder for the local market. Yes, some companies such as Exabytes offer website builders, but if you’ve ever tried those out comparatively, most fall short.
Website builders are expensive to design and need to be tested extensively. Because of that, unless they are sold on a global basis the cost becomes too prohibitive for any single country market to support.
There are also more limitations once you build everything down to a country level, especially if you’re considering specifics such as data housing regulations and country-specific taxes.
Because of that, it is better to work with the performance and features of a global partner.
Having overseen the website development process of several companies here, I’ve unfortunately become all too aware of the challenges.
From thousands of freelancers hawking their wares to professional web development companies that charge exorbitant fees, your website could cost as little as perhaps RM300 all the way to over RM80,000 depending on whom you work with and what you need.
The most painful part of all this is that you’re working with very little available knowledge of the community of developers. Finding the right fit can become a challenge and at the end of the day, you’re meeting with an even half dozen simply so that you can say you’ve carried out your ‘due diligence’ in case something goes wrong.
Rather than go through all of this with multiple question marks in the air, why not contemplate using the power of a website builder? Yes, if your system is overly complex you might need some help, but many website builders are highly community driven, meaning there is help available.
You will also be free to have complete control over any changes in the development process easily, since everything is very modular.
Although using WordPress and getting your own hosting can be a viable option, website builders are still an easier option. Mastering WordPress can take some time and the numerous plugins available aren’t necessarily all the best quality. Finding the best web hosting will be another endeavour that will take time, research and of course, money.
For rapid site development there is still nothing that compares with most of these purpose-specific website builders. It gets even better when you consider the fact that they come with hosting and generally all the other tools you’ll need to quickly build your website.
Our top 5 website builders for Malaysia in 2023 are veterans to the game and have proven themselves to be able to support anything from individual small sites to massive corporate accounts.
The problem with assessing website builders is that although the basic premise of each is the same, all of them have their own focal points.
In general, users also have their own specific needs, so it is more a matter of going back to basics and what makes more sense from a utility standpoint.
If we heard back to basics, there are general parameters that (like it or not) all website builders need in order to even get their foot in the door.
Once that is taken into consideration from the user standpoint, we also assess how compatible those features are with global requirements, for example mobile speed capability.
Finally, there are the ‘Notable Extras’ that tend to make a key difference. These are features that are hard to find elsewhere or otherwise help a brand to stand out.
Let’s recap our top 3 website builders for Malaysian websites:
Server
Speed
Overall
Rating
Price
(MYR/MO)
As I mentioned earlier, the biggest obstacle to overcome in the context of Malaysian sites is localization. Yes, that means location and hence, price. We are also often tempted to work with local companies because they’re accessible to us.
This needs to be overcome if we’re to compete on the global stage. Working with a remote partner, whether they are a company here in the country or beyond our borders shouldn’t be a challenge. Instead, I urge you to look past that and for a change, compare them in terms of features and performance.
Pricing with online companies is also often in US dollars and this is not great for us because of conversion rate to Malaysian Ringgit. However, remember that we will also be selling internationally and earning in the same US dollars. This should help narrow the gap a little bit.
Ultimately, earning those dollars means you’re competing with everyone else in the world – in speed, functionality, access and a thousand more points. Find a good partner that can do that with you and you’ll be clearing the path to a successful business.
With a website builder, it can cost from around RM100 per year – excluding domain and SSL. Domains would typically cost you around RM40 a year, while SSL can cost anything from as little as RM30 up to RM10,000+ per annum. These can build up to cost quite a bit, so we recommend a provider that offers a free domain and SSL along with their website builder service – like Hostinger Website Builder and Wix.
First determine the purpose of your website, then pick one that best fulfill that website’s requirement. Hostinger Website Builder lets you build a website effortlessly. Wix is capable of building either a professional website or online store. Shopify is specialized for building a massive online store.
Hostinger is the most cost effective website builder. With their 48-month plan, you can build a website with your own domain, free SSL, and blogging tools for just RM8.20 /mo.
Hostinger Website Builder is highly recommended for beginners. They help build a website easily with useful features such as drag-and-drop editor, AI writer, grid-building system, and free images.
Wix currently offers the best functionality and great templates for use in their free plan. However, do note that they force Wix branding on your website’s domain unless you upgrade to their Premium plans.
Wix is great if you are looking to build websites or online stores with excellent design flexibility and functionality. If you’re just looking to host a simple website at lower cost, go for GoDaddy.