If you're a working professional or small business looking to build an online presence, the best AI website builders can help you get it all up and running very quickly.
Instead of relying on professional developers to code your website from scratch, or even using a drag-and-drop platform to build it out visually, you could generate your entire website with a single prompt using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Of course, you can always customize it later if the initial results don't suit your taste.
But how does it actually come together? If you're wondering how AI website builders work, what you could gain from actually using one, or how the experience differs from a standard website building tool, we've got you covered. Here's everything you need to know.
If there's one thing AI is really good at, it's lowering the barrier to entry for technical skills and savvy and gives insight on a lot of insider knowledge.
The best website builders that leverage AI are no different. Before AI, the only way to avoid hiring a web developer to design your website from scratch was to use a no-code platform to manually build one yourself. This typically involved a considerable time investment arranging pre-made blocks or editing pre-made templates to meet your needs. But even though you didn't have to code, most no-code platforms still require you to have a basic knowledge of UI design principles just to get started. But with AI, the process is easier and much faster.
With most AI website builders, all you have to do to get started is answer a few simple questions. The AI then works to create a bespoke website, tailored to your answers. This is a fairly good starting point for your new website. Although you could use the AI results as-is, in almost every case, at least a level of editing will be required. However, this typically involves far less editing than building a website from scratch or even starting with a template.
In the early days of no-code website builders, platforms would regularly promise that you could have a website up and running in minutes. While that was technically true, building a functional website always took anywhere between a few hours to a few weeks of time. With AI, that vision can finally be a reality.
AI website builders are platforms that use technologies like large language models (LLMs), optical character recognition (OCR), and machine learning (ML) to automate the process of coding and designing a website.
With AI, the goal is to make the website building process easier, faster, and more accessible for non-technical users. As the technology improves, AI website builders are becoming increasingly sophisticated and powerful, offering users more automation options and granular control over the design process.
A few examples of good AI website builders include the Wix AI website builder, Zyro, Durable, and 10Web. Each brings unique features to the table, like text-prompted website generation, intelligent SEO, AI-powered image generation, and integrations.
On a basic level, AI website builders work by gathering information about a user's needs, preferences, and goals which are then used to create a prompt that a large language model uses to interpret what the users wants. The model then selects a HTML template and modifies parts based on those needs, such as colour, size, layout, and functionality.
Language models are not skilled enough yet to completely create a website from scratch without a bit of handholding or troubleshooting so using a template that is highly configurable allows for individual and tailored websites without the risk of generating something that doesn't work as expected that you can't fix.
Here's a closer look at how these components work together:
A big selling point for AI website builders is the cost associated with developing and maintaining a website. While most AI platforms are subscription-based, they still enable you to design fully-functioning websites at a fraction of the cost involved with hiring a freelance developer or an agency, which can cost several thousands of dollars at a time.
Compared to that, AI website builders usually offer premium plans beginning at $12-16 a month, depending on the features you're looking for. If you're an enterprise user looking for large-scale deployments across the organization, you still wouldn't have to part with more than $150/month.
Keep in mind that these plans also come with packaged hosting, domain name registration, ongoing maintenance updates, and premium support that you may be missing out on in any one-time agency or developer engagement.
It is clear that AI website builders are an exciting addition to the website building market, offering significant opportunities to save both time and money when creating your website. On the downside, most AI website builders aren't yet advanced enough to create a fully populated site without the need to carry out at least a level of editing to bring it inline with your needs.
