WebBuilding

Foundations

Website builder

Summary

A website builder is a service for making a website without writing code, usually combining templates, a visual editor and hosting in one subscription. The idea grew from 1990s desktop editors such as FrontPage and free home-page hosts such as GeoCities into hosted builders such as Squarespace (founded 2003) and Wix (founded 2006). Since 2016 builders have added AI that drafts a site for the user, and since 2023 tools such as v0, Bolt.new and Lovable have generated site and app code from a typed description. As of October 22, 2026, W3Techs finds Shopify on 5.3%, Wix on 4.2% and Squarespace on 2.4% of all websites.

Web Building Encyclopedia · Foundations · Last reviewed October 22, 2026 · 9 min read

What a website builder is

A website builder is a service for making a website without writing code. You pick a template, change the words, pictures and layout in an editor that shows the page roughly as visitors will see it, and publish. Most builders today run in the web browser and include the hosting, so the company that supplies the editor also stores and serves the finished site.

A hosted builder is an example of software as a service (SaaS). The US National Institute of Standards and Technology defines SaaS as using “the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure,” without managing the servers underneath.1 Wix spells out what that means for a site: a Wix site has to be hosted and run on Wix’s own servers, and Wix does not support hosting it anywhere else.2

The term covers several related kinds of product:

  • All-in-one hosted builders. The same company supplies the editor and the hosting, and the site runs only on that company’s servers, as on Wix.2
  • Hosted versions of open-source software. WordPress.com runs the open-source WordPress software for its customers and handles updates, backups and security certificates, while self-hosted WordPress.org leaves hosting and upkeep to the site owner.3
  • Page builder plugins. Add-ons that give a self-installed system a visual editor. Elementor, created in 2016, calls itself a website builder for WordPress and says it powers more than 22 million sites.4
  • AI builders. Services that write a first draft of a site, or the code for a web app, from a typed description. They are covered in their own section below.

The line between a builder and a content management system (CMS), software for creating and organizing a site’s content, is blurry, and the main difference is usually who runs the software. W3Techs counts both in a single survey of content management systems, alongside WordPress, Joomla and the rest.5

Before builders: hand-written HTML and desktop editors

The first web pages were written in HTML, the markup language that tells a browser how to display text, images and links. Even so, the first program for the web was meant for writing as well as reading. Tim Berners-Lee called WorldWideWeb, which he wrote in 1990 on a NeXT computer, a “browser-editor,” and built it on NeXT’s WYSIWYG word processing parts.6 WYSIWYG stands for “what you see is what you get”: you edit the page as it will look, not as code.

Through the 1990s, most people who made sites without hand-coding used desktop software. On January 16, 1996, Microsoft announced that it had bought Vermeer Technologies of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the maker of FrontPage.7 Microsoft described FrontPage as a tool for creating and managing websites without programming, designed for end users and business professionals.7

Macromedia aimed its editor at professionals. It announced on December 8, 1997 that Dreamweaver had shipped for Windows and Macintosh, calling it the first visual web authoring tool created for professional web developers, at an estimated street price of $499 in North America.8 Its Roundtrip HTML feature let developers switch between Dreamweaver and a text editor without the program changing their original code.8

These were programs installed on the user’s own computer, and the finished pages still had to be published to a web server. Microsoft said in April 2006 that FrontPage would be discontinued in late 2006, with Expression Web Designer and SharePoint Designer taking its place.9

Free home pages: GeoCities, Tripod and web-based tools

At the same time, a different model was growing: give anyone free space on a company’s servers, plus simple tools to fill it. GeoCities was incorporated in California in December 1994, and its filing for a stock offering in 1998 names David Bohnett as its founder.10 The filing says GeoCities gave web users free disk space and publishing tools to create their own sites quickly and easily.10

GeoCities called its members Homesteaders and grouped their sites into more than 40 themed neighborhoods, such as CapitolHill for politics and Colosseum for sports.10 It grew from about 10,000 Homesteads in October 1995 to more than 1.9 million in May 1998.10 When Yahoo agreed to buy the company on January 28, 1999, offering 0.3384 Yahoo shares for each GeoCities share, its announcement counted more than 3.5 million Homesteaders and over 32 million pages.11

Tripod, founded by Bo Peabody and Dick Sabot, offered a similar service. Ethan Zuckerman, who began working on it in late 1994, wrote that it let people publish on the web without needing to know how to run a server. He also wrote that Tripod was sold to the search company Lycos for $58 million in early 1998.12

These services showed both the appeal and the risk of letting one company hold your site. In April 2009 Yahoo announced that GeoCities would stop accepting new registrations, and it shut the service down on October 26, 2009. Any data its owners had not backed up themselves could not be recovered.13

Hosted builders take shape, 2003 to 2013

In the 2000s the editor itself moved into the browser, and the builder and the host became one company.

  • Squarespace was founded in 2003 in Anthony Casalena’s dorm room at the University of Maryland.14 Its 2021 stock listing filing names Casalena as founder and says the company was incorporated in Delaware in October 2007.15
  • Automattic launched in December 2005 as the new home of WordPress.com, a hosted service built on the open-source WordPress software.16
  • Wix was founded in 2006 by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan, and launched its Flash Editor in 2008.17
  • Shopify, incorporated in Canada on September 28, 2004, launched its commerce platform, a builder centered on online stores, in 2006.18
  • Weebly, founded by David Rusenko, Chris Fanini and Dan Veltri, joined the startup program Y Combinator in its winter 2007 batch.19 TechCrunch described it in January 2007 as one of a crowd of Ajax site creators, meaning tools that update the page in the browser without reloading it, and noted that trying it took only a username and password.20

Early Wix sites depended on Adobe Flash, a browser plug-in for animation and interactive content. Wix had been known for Flash products since its launch in 2008. In March 2012 it released an HTML5 version of its builder that worked on desktop computers, phones and tablets.21 HTML5 is the modern version of HTML, which browsers display without a plug-in. Wix’s 2013 stock offering filing says it launched its first free mobile offering in 2011 and an App Market, a store of add-on features, in the last quarter of 2012.22

Phones also changed how templates were designed. In May 2010 the web designer Ethan Marcotte described responsive web design, in which one layout adapts to any screen size, and named its three technical ingredients as “fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries.”23

Webflow says it got its start in 2013 as a tool to bring web development abilities to everyone. It lists Vlad Magdalin and Sergie Magdalin among its co-founders.24

Public companies, mergers and white-label builders

As the market grew, the largest builders became public companies or parts of bigger ones.

  • Wix went public on the Nasdaq exchange on November 6, 2013.17 Its offering filing said it had more than 37 million registered users in 190 countries, and 679,536 premium subscriptions as of August 31, 2013.22 Premium subscriptions are paid plans; registered users include everyone who signed up for free.
  • Weebly agreed on April 26, 2018 to be bought by Square, the payments company, for about $365 million in cash and stock. Square said Weebly had more than 625,000 paid subscribers.25
  • Squarespace began trading on the New York Stock Exchange through a direct listing on May 19, 2021, with a reference price of $50 a share.26 Its filing explained that the listing differed significantly from a traditional underwritten public offering, and reported 3.66 million unique subscriptions as of December 31, 2020.15 On October 17, 2024, the investment firm Permira completed an all-cash purchase that valued Squarespace at about $7.2 billion, and Squarespace left the exchange.27

Some builders are sold mainly through other businesses. Duda describes itself as a web design platform for companies that offer web design services to small businesses, from freelancers and agencies to large hosting companies, and markets a white-label builder that a partner can sell under its own brand. Duda says more than 14 million sites have been built on its platform.28

Open-source software moved toward visual editing at the same time. WordPress 5.0, released on December 6, 2018, introduced a block editor in which each piece of content sits in its own block that can be moved around the page.29 Plugins such as Elementor add drag-and-drop page design on top of WordPress.4

AI builders and vibe coding

Wix launched Wix ADI, short for Artificial Design Intelligence, on June 7, 2016. Wix said the tool designed a tailored website after asking the user a few questions, drawing on data from more than 86 million users.30 Wix’s own history calls ADI the first AI solution for website creation.17

A second wave came with large language models, AI systems that generate text and code from a typed request. Several tools from this wave produce working code rather than filling in a template:

  • v0. In October 2023, after 100,000 people joined its waitlist in three weeks, Vercel began moving v0 from alpha to beta. v0 turns a text prompt into user interface code built with React, the Tailwind CSS framework and the shadcn/ui components.31
  • Bolt.new. By October 2024, StackBlitz offered Bolt.new in beta: a prompt-driven tool that sets up and runs full-stack web apps inside the browser and deploys them to Netlify by default.32
  • Lovable. Its makers say they created the open-source gpt-engineer project in mid 2023 and founded Lovable in late 2023. Lovable lets people build websites and web apps by chatting.33

On November 6, 2025, Collins Dictionary named “vibe coding” its word of the year. It defined the term as using AI prompted by natural language to write computer code, and credited it to Andrej Karpathy, whom it called an AI pioneer.34

The established builders added generation of their own. On September 24, 2024, Squarespace announced a new version of Blueprint AI, which it called the company’s first AI-powered website builder, and said it was available globally in all languages.35 Wix lists a next-generation AI website builder among its 2024 milestones.17 On January 21, 2026 it announced Wix Harmony, which it said combines vibe coding with Wix’s visual editing, rolling out first in English.36

How widely builders are used

W3Techs detects the content management system behind websites and reports each system’s share. As of October 22, 2026, it finds these hosted builders and commerce platforms, with WordPress for comparison:5

SystemShare of all websitesShare of sites with a known CMS
WordPress (all kinds)39.6%58.3%
Shopify5.3%7.9%
Wix4.2%6.2%
Squarespace2.4%3.6%
Webflow0.8%1.2%
Tilda0.8%1.2%
Duda0.7%1.1%
GoDaddy Website Builder0.6%0.9%
Weebly0.4%0.6%
Jimdo0.3%0.4%
Framer0.2%0.3%

On the same date, W3Techs finds that 32.1% of websites use none of the content management systems it monitors.5 Its yearly figures show how that has changed. On January 1, 2015, 61.7% of sites used no system it recognized; on January 1, 2026, the figure was 28.6%.37 Over the same eleven years, Shopify rose from 0.3% of all websites to 5.0%, Wix from 0.1% to 4.2% and Squarespace from 0.2% to 2.4%.37

These shares count websites, not businesses or users, and W3Techs reports them as a percentage of all the websites in its survey.5 That survey covers what W3Techs calls the relevant web, sites with some meaningful content or functionality, which it says includes well over 20 million sites, and leaves out parked domains and near-duplicate sites.38

Timeline

  1. Wix announces Wix Harmony, combining AI prompting with visual editing36
  2. Collins Dictionary names "vibe coding" its word of the year34
  3. Permira completes its purchase of Squarespace, valued at about $7.2 billion27
  4. Squarespace announces a new version of Blueprint AI, its AI website builder35
  5. Vercel moves v0, which turns prompts into interface code, from alpha to beta31
  6. Squarespace begins trading on the NYSE through a direct listing26
  7. Square announces it will buy Weebly for about $365 million25
  8. Wix launches Wix ADI, which designs a site from a few answers30
  9. Wix goes public on Nasdaq17
  10. Wix releases an HTML5 version of its builder21
  11. Yahoo shuts down GeoCities13
  12. Wix is founded by Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami and Giora Kaplan17
  13. Squarespace is founded in a University of Maryland dorm room14
  14. Macromedia announces that Dreamweaver has shipped8
  15. Microsoft announces it has bought Vermeer, maker of FrontPage7

What it means for your website

A builder decides more than how your site looks. It also decides where the site lives and how easily you can move it later.

  • Find out what you can take with you. A Wix site has to run on Wix’s servers.2 Squarespace can export some content as an XML file that WordPress can import, but not store pages, portfolio pages, style settings or custom CSS.39 Our guide to leaving your website builder and our exit scores compare this across platforms.
  • Keep the domain in your own name. Wix lets you connect a domain name bought elsewhere once the site is upgraded to a plan.2 A domain you control can be pointed at a new site if you switch builders.
  • Keep your own copies. When GeoCities closed in 2009, data its owners had not backed up was lost.13 Save your text, photos and product lists somewhere outside the builder.
  • Check accessibility yourself. The Justice Department’s 2022 guidance says the ADA covers the goods and services that businesses open to the public offer, and lists barriers such as missing alt text, poor color contrast and videos without captions.40 Choosing a template does not settle those questions for you; see our entry on the ADA and websites.
  • Read AI drafts closely. A generated site is a starting point. Check every claim, price, phone number and image before you publish.

To weigh a builder against self-hosted WordPress or paying someone to build the site, see builder vs WordPress vs agency and how to choose a website builder.

See also

References

  1. The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing (NIST Special Publication 800-145), Peter Mell and Timothy Grance. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 2011-09. accessed October 22, 2026.
  2. Exporting or Embedding Your Wix Site Elsewhere. Wix Help Center. accessed October 22, 2026.
  3. WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org. WordPress.com. accessed October 22, 2026.
  4. About Elementor. Elementor. accessed October 22, 2026.
  5. Usage statistics of content management systems. W3Techs. 2026-10-22. accessed October 22, 2026.
  6. The WorldWideWeb browser. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C. accessed October 22, 2026.
  7. Microsoft acquires Vermeer Technologies (press release). Microsoft. 1996-01-16. accessed October 22, 2026.
  8. Macromedia Ships Dreamweaver (press release). Macromedia, via MacTech. 1997-12-08. accessed October 22, 2026.
  9. Extra, Extra: FrontPage Is Dead. Redmond Magazine. 2006-04-11. accessed October 22, 2026.
  10. GeoCities Form S-1 registration statement. GeoCities, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 1998. accessed October 22, 2026.
  11. Yahoo to Acquire GeoCities (press release filed as an exhibit to Form 8-K). Yahoo, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 1999-01-28. accessed October 22, 2026.
  12. Tripod and the very early days of blogging. Ethan Zuckerman, ethanzuckerman.com. 2004-08-04. accessed October 22, 2026.
  13. Yahoo GeoCities closes on Oct. 26. Ken Gagne, Computerworld. 2009-10-23. accessed October 22, 2026.
  14. About Squarespace. Squarespace. accessed October 22, 2026.
  15. Squarespace, Inc. Form S-1 registration statement. Squarespace, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2021. accessed October 22, 2026.
  16. Automattic (Milestones: The History of WordPress). WordPress.org. 2015-11. accessed October 22, 2026.
  17. About Wix. Wix.com. accessed October 22, 2026.
  18. Shopify Inc. Form F-1 registration statement. Shopify, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2015-04. accessed October 22, 2026.
  19. Weebly. Y Combinator. accessed October 22, 2026.
  20. Weebly Goes With YCombinator. Michael Arrington, TechCrunch. 2007-01-15. accessed October 22, 2026.
  21. Wix.com Launches HTML5 to Its Free Website Builder Platform. ABC7 News. 2012-03-26. accessed October 22, 2026.
  22. Wix.com Ltd. Form F-1 registration statement. Wix.com, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2013. accessed October 22, 2026.
  23. Responsive Web Design. Ethan Marcotte, A List Apart. 2010-05-25. accessed October 22, 2026.
  24. About Webflow. Webflow. accessed October 22, 2026.
  25. Square to Acquire Weebly (press release filed as an exhibit to Form 8-K). Square, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2018-04-26. accessed October 22, 2026.
  26. Shares of business website provider Squarespace drop in NYSE debut. SiliconANGLE. 2021-05-19. accessed October 22, 2026.
  27. Permira completes acquisition of Squarespace. Permira. 2024-10-17. accessed October 22, 2026.
  28. About Duda. Duda. accessed October 22, 2026.
  29. WordPress 5.0 "Bebo". Matt Mullenweg, WordPress News. 2018-12-06. accessed October 22, 2026.
  30. Wix.com Launches Wix ADI, Artificial Design Intelligence (press release). Wix.com. 2016-06-07. accessed October 22, 2026.
  31. Announcing v0: Generative UI. Jared Palmer, Vercel. 2023-10-11. accessed October 22, 2026.
  32. StackBlitz Bolt.new blurs boundaries between web development and skilled use of AI prompts. DevClass. 2024-10-16. accessed October 22, 2026.
  33. gpt-engineer. Lovable. accessed October 22, 2026.
  34. Collins Word of the Year 2025: AI meets authenticity as society shifts. Collins Dictionary Language Lovers blog. 2025-11-06. accessed October 22, 2026.
  35. Squarespace Refresh 2024: Introducing a New Era for Entrepreneurs. Squarespace. 2024-09-24. accessed October 22, 2026.
  36. Wix Launches Wix Harmony, the AI Website Builder that Merges Human and Artificial Intelligence, Reinventing Web Creation. Wix.com, via GlobeNewswire. 2026-01-21. accessed October 22, 2026.
  37. Historical yearly trends in the usage statistics of content management systems. W3Techs. 2026-10-22. accessed October 22, 2026.
  38. Technologies overview. W3Techs. accessed October 22, 2026.
  39. Exporting your site. Squarespace Help Center. accessed October 22, 2026.
  40. Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA. U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, ADA.gov. 2022-03-18. accessed October 22, 2026.

Web Building Encyclopedia. First published October 22, 2026. Last reviewed October 22, 2026. Every fact on this page is linked to a source we opened. Spotted an error? Write to [email protected].