Top 10 Website building platforms

Important news about Website building platforms

2024. Squarespace to go private in $6.9 billion takeover



In a twist worthy of the most absurdly unpredictable corners of the galaxy, Squarespace—the internet’s favorite blend of effortless website building and inexplicable hosting magic—has been snatched up by UK private equity firm Permira in an all-cash deal to the rather staggering tune of $6.9 billion. Naturally, in true corporate surrealism, this means Squarespace will now become private, but, in an act of continuity as unexpected as finding a towel when you need it most, its CEO and founder, Anthony Casalena, will continue steering the ship. With 3.3 million websites under its galactic umbrella, the acquisition nudges Squarespace into second place in the U.S. web-hosting universe, right behind Shopify. WordPress, ever the oddball, remains disqualified due to its unruly preference for self-hosting.


2024. Webflow acquires Intellimize to add AI-powered webpage personalization



In a move that could only be described as both brilliantly forward-thinking and somewhat bafflingly inevitable, Webflow, the web design and hosting platform that's on a mission to make the internet a shinier, better place, has acquired Intellimize, a cunning startup that uses AI to tinker endlessly with websites in an attempt to understand what on Earth people actually want. Though the exact details of this acquisition are hidden somewhere in the great galactic void labeled “eight-figures,” insiders assure us it's all terribly exciting. This acquisition, of course, fits perfectly with Webflow’s quest to satisfy their customers' insatiable need for websites that aren’t just pretty but personalized and optimized to within an inch of their lives. Intellimize’s AI, which is suspiciously good at generating and tweaking web pages based on user whims, now lets companies sit back while the bots run experiments, fidget with content and endlessly refine everything until it’s as close to perfect as a sentient algorithm can make it—all before any visitor even knows what's happening.

2023. Mobile website builder Universe launches AI-powered designer



In the grand and occasionally baffling cosmos of Universe, the no-code mobile website builder that even a Vogon might find delightfully straightforward, a marvelously clever AI-powered website designer has made its debut, christened GUS (Generative Universe Sites) — a name that practically demands a bowtie and a quirky sense of humor. Picture this: armed with only an iOS device and the sheer gumption to have a chat with a digital construct, users are whisked away from the clunky world of templates and plopped into the infinitely more conversational Universe grid editor. There, GUS opens the dialogue, as if you’ve just met the friendliest barista in the galaxy, by inquiring, “What kind of website would you like to create today?” From that point on, your new AI comrade takes notes like a particularly attentive hitchhiker, delving into your whims and wishes — design flourishes, color schemes, the vital number of pages needed — until your personalized slice of the interstellar web is ready to launch.


2023. Wix’s new tool can create entire websites from prompts



In a move likely to make certain carbon-based life forms wonder if they’re really necessary at all, the website builder Wix has gone and unveiled the “AI Site Generator.” Now, instead of endlessly fiddling with templates, buttons, and color schemes, Wix users merely have to describe their grand vision, and – lo and behold – the AI will manifest an entire website right before their eyes. We’re talking about a homepage, inner pages, text, and images all sorted, arranged, and color-coordinated as if by magic (or some manner of improbably intelligent starship). For those with business-specific needs, the AI Site Generator thoughtfully includes sections for events, bookings, and other things that make life seem far more organized than it truly is. This wizardry is the latest stop on Wix’s AI adventure, which previously rolled out a ChatGPT-powered text creator, enabling users to get just the right words without actually having to write them. There’s even an AI text generator to conjure up all the words for a given site and an AI domain generator to help users decide what on earth to call the place. As if that wasn’t enough, Wix also supplies AI tools for image editing and creation – all neatly packaged for anyone looking to create a digital empire without, well, knowing quite how to do so.


2023. Squarespace acquires Google Domains



In a move that could be best described as a cosmic shuffling of digital paperwork, Squarespace, the platform that proudly claims to let you build stunning websites with ease and possibly even a sense of accomplishment, has shelled out a rather neat $180 million to acquire Google Domains from Google. Yes, that’s right: the tech giant has decided to bow out of the mildly glamorous but often overlooked world of domain name registration, handing over the care and feeding of 10.1 million domains to Squarespace. This vaults Squarespace into the esteemed ranks of planetary-scale domain registrars, parking itself behind the big players like GoDaddy, Namecheap, and the mysteriously bovine-sounding Tucows. Google Domains, launched in 2014 and lounging in beta limbo until 2022, was originally seen by Google as a sprightly sidekick to its Google Workspace empire (previously known as G Suite), a tool meant to sprinkle a bit of domain-based dazzle over its business email and app offerings.


2021. Microsoft is launching a free website builder



Microsoft has unveiled its own website builder under the Digital Marketing Center brand, designed to help create, implement and oversee advertising campaigns across social media platforms and search engines. It's offered at no cost, so Microsoft likely aims to draw small businesses to its advertising services. The new tool can automatically import most of the content from a business’s Facebook page or an existing advertising campaign. It will then use this data to construct a website with a suitable layout. You can, of course, alter any of the content and select a different template to personalize your website before publishing it.


2021. Automattic acquires analytics company Parse.ly



Automattic, the for-profit entity associated with the open-source web publishing platform WordPress, is announcing that it has acquired analytics provider Parse.ly. Parse.ly provides creators, marketers and developers with the tools to comprehend content performance, demonstrate content value and deliver customized content experiences that drive significant outcomes. WordPress and Parse.ly already integrate well, but the aim is to make WPVIP (enterprise hosting and support for publishers) features accessible to Parse.ly customers while also making more Parse.ly data available to WPVIP publishers. Additionally, there are opportunities to incorporate more commerce-related data into Parse.ly, as Automattic also owns WooCommerce.


2021. Softr scores $2.2M for its no-code website and web app platform



Imagine, if you will, a world in which building websites requires about as much coding as a goldfish requires pilot training. Enter Softr, a rather clever startup from Berlin, which has taken the no-code concept, shaken it thoroughly, and poured out a platform where Airtable does the database-heavy lifting, while Softr gently guides you along a series of templates and flexible options to create websites and web apps with almost no fuss at all. It’s a bit like having a cosmic architect’s toolkit where Airtable quietly crunches the numbers, and Softr makes sure you don’t need to know a single snippet of code to shape your ideas into something that actually works.


2021. Website builder Webflow raises $140M



Webflow, a software firm that assists businesses in creating no-code websites, has announced that it has secured $140 million in Series B funding. Webflow’s product falls into a category of companies advocating that developing software for the web should become easier over time, not more difficult. The company has ambitious product plans, including enhancing its service to support more advanced and powerful website creation. According to the CEO, websites are just one aspect of the software landscape and he anticipates that no-code tools will gradually handle increasingly complex software tasks. This could broaden the overall no-code market, potentially creating more opportunities for startups to develop services that enable non-developers to rely less on engineering teams over time.


2020. GoSite snags $40M to help SMBs bring their businesses online



GoSite, which assists small and medium-sized businesses in creating websites and, with minimal technical expertise, managing other online functions — such as payments, digital marketing, appointment scheduling and bookkeeping — has secured $40 million in investment. GoSite represents, in a way, an effort to broaden accessibility in technology: its clients are not companies being “lured” away from other providers of website creation and hosting services typically used by SMBs, like Squarespace, Wix, GoDaddy, or Shopify. Instead, they are businesses that might never have used any of these: local garages, local landscapers, local hair salons, local accounting firms, local dentists and so forth.