Website Builder Adoption Statistics: How Small Businesses Actually Build Their Sites
Compiled from Clutch’s small-business surveys (2016–2025), W3Techs’ platform tracking since 2015, Store Leads’ ecommerce data and company filings — how many small businesses have a website, how they build it, and how fast the builder platforms have grown.
📋 What’s in this page
- Key Website Builder Adoption Statistics
- How Small Businesses Actually Build Their Sites
- Who Builds the Site — and What Comes Next
- Small Business Websites, 2016–2025
- Builder Platform Market Share, 2015–2026
- Builders on Popular Sites vs. the Whole Web
- Builder Stores and Business Results
- Why 17% of Small Businesses Still Have No Website
- What This Means
- Sources & Methodology
Key Website Builder Adoption Statistics
No-code website builders have become the most common route to a small business website — but a meaningful share of small businesses still build on WordPress or Shopify, build custom, or don’t have a site at all.
How Small Businesses Actually Build Their Sites
Among small businesses that do have a website, no-code builders are now the single most common route — ahead of both WordPress/Shopify and fully custom development. Clutch reports that Wix, Squarespace, WordPress and Shopify together are used by 75% of small businesses.
| Approach | Share of Small Business Sites |
|---|---|
| No-code builder (Wix, Squarespace, etc.) | 41% |
| Low-code platform (WordPress, Shopify) | 34% |
| Custom development (full-code site) | 12% |
Source: Clutch, The State of Small Business Websites in 2025 (survey of 406 U.S. small business owners, 5 August 2025). The three categories do not sum to 100%; Clutch does not break out the remainder.
How small businesses build their sites
Among small businesses with a website, a no-code builder is now the single most common route.
Source: Clutch, The State of Small Business Websites in 2025.Free to reuse with attribution and a link to paidhosting.com
Who Builds the Site — and What Comes Next
Even with no-code tools, most small businesses still hand the work to someone else — and most keep investing in the site after launch.
Who built the site
- 45% outsourced the project to an agency
- 37% built it in-house
- 9% were built by the business owner
- 9% were outsourced to a freelancer or consultant
What happens after launch
- 61% update their website at least once a week
- 81% have redesigned their website at least once
- 90% plan to invest in the site in the next 12 months — most often a redesign (58%), speed improvements (53%) or a better mobile experience (45%)
Source: Clutch, The State of Small Business Websites in 2025 (detailed breakdown in the report body; Clutch’s summary groups owners at 8% and all outsourced partners at 45%).
Small Business Websites, 2016–2025
Clutch has asked U.S. small businesses whether they have a website in several separate surveys. Each used a different sample, so the figures are best read as a direction of travel rather than a precise year-to-year change — but the direction is clear, and cost has faded as a reason to stay offline.
| Clutch survey | Have a website | Top reason for no website | Cite cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 (352 respondents) | 54% | Not relevant (32%) | — |
| 2018 (351 respondents) | 64% | Not relevant (27%) | 26% |
| 2019 (529 respondents) | 60% | Irrelevant to the business (28%) | 23% |
| 2025 (406 respondents) | 83% | Not relevant to the industry (34%) | 16% |
Sources: Clutch, Small Business Websites in 2016: A Survey; Small Business Websites in 2018; Small Businesses Without Websites (2019); The State of Small Business Websites in 2025. “Top reason” and “cite cost” are shares of businesses without a website. The 2016 report does not give a separate cost percentage.
Builders on Popular Sites vs. the Whole Web
Most builders are far more common on small, low-traffic sites than on popular ones — which fits their small-business customer base. Webflow is the exception: its share rises among the most-visited sites.
| CMS market share | All sites | Top 1M | Top 10K |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wix | 6.1% | 0.5% | 0.4% |
| Squarespace | 3.6% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| Webflow | 1.2% | 1.5% | 2.3% |
| Duda | 1.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| GoDaddy Website Builder | 0.9% | 0.1% | 0% |
| Weebly | 0.6% | <0.1% | 0.1% |
Source: W3Techs, usage broken down by ranking for each platform, 8 October 2026. Shares are among sites whose CMS W3Techs can identify.
Builder Stores and Business Results
Builders are also a meaningful part of ecommerce, and the category has grown into a large business.
- 966,810 live online stores run on Wix (down 3% year over year in Q3 2026), and 392,467 on Squarespace (up 9%).Source: Store Leads, State of Wix and State of Squarespace in 2026 (updated 2 October 2026)
- Wix’s revenue reached $1.99 billion in 2025, up 13% from $1.76 billion in 2024, with bookings of $2.07 billion.Source: Wix, Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results (4 March 2026)
- Squarespace was taken private by Permira in a deal completed on 17 October 2024, at an aggregate transaction value of about $7.2 billion.Source: Squarespace, “Permira Completes Acquisition of Squarespace” (17 October 2024)
With free tiers and drag-and-drop builders, cost is no longer the main obstacle. In Clutch’s 2025 survey, 84% of small businesses without a website gave a reason other than cost, and only 16% named cost as the main reason — down from 26% in 2018. The top reason was that a website isn’t relevant to their industry (34%), and 28% of businesses without a site have no online presence at all. For 39% of them, referrals are the most effective source of new business.
What This Means
For anyone writing “how to build a website” content aimed at small businesses, the current baseline is clear: a no-code builder is now the single most common way a small business site gets built (41%), ahead of WordPress/Shopify (34%) and custom development (12%). On the wider web, WordPress is still far larger than any builder, but Wix has grown from 0.4% to 4.2% of all websites since 2018 — and the remaining offline businesses are held back mainly by not seeing the need, not by price.
Sources & Methodology
Small-business figures come from Clutch’s surveys of U.S. small business owners and managers (2016, 2018, 2019 and 2025); each survey used a different sample, so changes between them are approximate. Platform market share figures come from W3Techs’ web technology survey (readings dated 8 October 2026 unless noted). Store counts come from Store Leads. Revenue and acquisition figures come from Wix’s and Squarespace’s own announcements. This page is reviewed and updated as newer survey and market-share data is published.
- Clutch — The State of Small Business Websites in 2025 (406 respondents, August 2025) and press release; Small Business Websites in 2016, 2018; Small Businesses Without Websites (2019)
- W3Techs — Usage statistics and historical yearly trends of content management systems; breakdowns by ranking (October 2026)
- Store Leads — State of Wix and State of Squarespace in 2026 (October 2026)
- Wix — Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results (March 2026)
- Squarespace — Permira Completes Acquisition of Squarespace (October 2024)
Cite this analysis
https://www.paidhosting.com/website-builder-adoption-statistics/
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