Best Website Builder for Affiliate Marketing: 6 Options Compared
If you want to get started with affiliate marketing but have no experience building websites, a website builder is a good place to begin. Here are our top website builders for affiliate marketing.
Wix
WordPress.com
Squarespace
Shopify
Bluehost Builder
Affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable industries online, allowing you to earn passive income when people click on affiliate links. While a lot of work is required, it all starts when you set up a website. This is why you need the best website builder for affiliate marketing.
Anybody can get into affiliate marketing, but not everyone has experience in web development. The best website builders for affiliate marketing give you user-friendly tools to set up and promote your affiliate website. Rather than picking any website builder that looks good, it’s best to consider one with tools an affiliate website will benefit from.
Let’s take a closer look at the guide below.
Key Website Builder Features for Affiliate Marketing
When considering a website builder for affiliate marketing, you’ll need basic features like attractive templates, user-friendliness, a visual builder, and affordable pricing. But aside from these, there are specific considerations you’ll want to search for that relate to affiliate marketing. These include:
- Friendly Terms of Service: Not all website builders allow affiliate marketing, and some might place restrictions on it. You should consider these before choosing a site builder.
- SEO Features: You’ll need SEO optimization to attract traffic to your website, so choose a website builder with strong SEO tools.
- Large Selection of Integrations: Having a site builder with a massive app store gives you access to important affiliate integrations, marketing tools, link cloaking tools, and more.
- Flexible Blogging: Most affiliate websites have a blog that allows them to talk about affiliate products and gain traffic. You’ll need a website builder with customizable blogging features.
- Comprehensive Analytics: To track your efforts in affiliate marketing, you’ll need a built-in analytics tool on the builder. Some site builders also come with an option to use Google Analytics.
- Custom Content: As your affiliate website grows, you might want to create custom elements in your content for promoting products. For instance, comparison tables for your products.
Best Website Builder for Affiliate Marketing
With these in mind, here are the best website builders for affiliate marketing.
- Wix: Best Affiliate Website Builder with Full Customization
- WordPress.com: Builder with Tons of Affiliate Marketing Plugins
- Squarespace: Best Site Builder for Affiliate Blogs
- Shopify: Great for eCommerce Affiliate Stores
- Bluehost Builder: Best Choice for Self-Hosted Affiliate Sites
- Webflow: Best Builder for Extensive Content Customization
1. Wix
Best Overall Website Builder for Affiliate Marketing
- Flexible design with Wix Classic Editor or Wix ADI.
- Tens of templates for marketing and advertising businesses.
- Free Site Booster and Visitor Analytics Apps on Unlimited and VIP plans.
- Over 300 popular web apps for extending functionality.
- Massive SEO features with Wix SEO Wiz.
- SEO features might be too advanced for beginners.
I highly recommend Wix as the best website builder for affiliate marketing, as it allows you to monetize your site and comes with flexible features. You have access to a wide range of advertising and marketing site templates that can work for affiliate sites, and you can also create eCommerce stores to sell your affiliate products.
If you’re new to building websites, Wix is the ideal website builder for affiliate marketing. It suits those who want a flexible editor and easy-to-do steps when making their affiliate site. You can choose one from tens of marketing and advertising templates and use the drag-and-drop builder to customize it.
Wix lets you set up blog posts and insert affiliate links in your content with the what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor. There are business plans that allow you to set up eCommerce stores, making it easy to create a store and display your affiliate products for sale.
Key Features
Publish Affiliate Content
It is easy to publish any affiliate content, especially with the blogging tools available on Wix, and insert links that will take your reader to buy the product. The WYSIWYG content editor is easy to use, and you can insert links into text, buttons, and other elements.
SEO and Marketing Features
Wix SEO Wiz is the highlight of this website builder’s SEO features, as it creates a custom SEO plan for you. You can easily rank higher on SERPs with the SEO tools on the Unlimited plan, as it allows you to analyze keywords, index your site, and more. You can also run email campaigns and manage social media posts from the Wix dashboard, making it easy to market new products to your subscribers or followers.
Impressive Wix App Market
You can access a wide range of apps for marketing when you use Wix for website building. For instance, the Price Table app allows you to set side-by-side pricing for products and Web-Stat for data on your site visitors. You can also access apps that work with the Amazon Associates affiliate programs.
Extensive Analytic Tools
Wix comes with a wide range of analytics tools for tracking the progress of your website. It has information like what days your website is most active, visitor behavior, and revenue reports. On the Unlimited and VIP plans, you get the Visitor Analytics App free for a year. You can also integrate Google Analytics for more statistics.
Pricing
- Custom Domain
- 1GB Bandwidth
- 500MB Disk Space
- 24/7 Support
- Free Custom Domain
- No Wix Ads
- 2GB Bandwidth
- 3GB Disk Space
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- 10GB Disk Space
- SEO Booster App
- Visitor Analytics App
- Priority Customer Support
- 35GB Disk Space
- Professional Logo
- Lead-Capture Forms
Learn more about Wix pricing or beautiful examples of Wix
Wix has affordable website plans that will be ideal for a just-starting affiliate marketer. The Unlimited plan is the best choice for affiliate marketing as it comes with extensive SEO tools and visitor analytics.
- Connect Domain at $4.50 per month is ideal for basic affiliate sites as it has no special features and comes with Wix branding.
- Combo at $8.50 monthly is good for small affiliate websites that want to remove the Wix branding.
- Unlimited at $12.50 per month is ideal for affiliate marketing as it comes with SEO features, Visitor Analytics App, and Site Booster App.
- VIP at $24.50 monthly comes with settings for professional and social media logos.
Wix is the best option for affiliate marketers who are looking for blogging features and SEO tools to increase their site’s ranking.
2. WordPress.com
Best for Affiliate Marketing Plugins
- Thousands of plugins and themes on the Business plan.
- Detailed site analytics with Google Analytics integration.
- Wide range of built-in SEO features and plugins for extra SEO functionality.
- Easy to insert affiliate links in different elements on the site.
- Flexible site builder functionality.
- WordPress plugins can only be downloaded on the Business and Commerce plans.
- It does not allow affiliate-only content.
If you want to build a more advanced affiliate marketing website, I recommend WordPress.com. This combines a website builder with a CMS, and while it has a bit of a learning curve, it is incredibly powerful, so there’s almost nothing you can’t do. With over 50,000 plugins available, you can access many options for your affiliate marketing site.
WordPress.com is one of the most popular website builders among affiliate marketers. It is not to be confused with WordPress.org, an open-source software that requires you to manage your site. With WordPress.com, you get a flexible editor, and the company handles the software.
Keep in mind the WordPress terms of service: you cannot set up a site that is only made to drive traffic to your affiliate links. You can instead mix affiliate content with informational content to freely run your site on WordPress. This seems like a great compromise when considering the powerful features WordPress offers. Still, you can consider using a different site builder if you only post affiliate content.
Key Features
Hundreds of Plugins
On WordPress, you can access thousands of plugins on the Business plan, including those that will be great for affiliate marketing. Look out for Amazon API, link tracking with MonsterInsights, and link cloaking with Thirsty Affiliates or AffiliateWP for creating an all-around affiliate program. There are plugins for link management and setting up product comparison tables.
Create Custom Content Structures
WordPress has a flexible block and content editor that allows you to customize your content structures. You can insert affiliate links into text, tables, and buttons and set up different elements.
Advanced Themes
With hundreds of free and premium themes, WordPress is the ideal choice for making an affiliate website that stands out. On the Business plan, you can get themes from third-party marketplaces if you are unsatisfied with the available options. There are tons of themes for marketing and advertising on WordPress.
Built for SEO
WordPress.com is one of the most SEO-friendly website builders available. It comes with built-in tools for your SEO, like creating permalinks which makes it easier for readers to find your site, settings for optimizing your product images, loading speed, mobile-friendly designs, and social media campaigns. You can also install SEO plugins for advanced features and gain more readers on your site.
Pricing
- Lots of Free Themes
- 24/7 Email Support
- 6GB Storage
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- No Ads
- Premium Themes
- 24/7 Chat Support
- 13GB Storage
- Add Custom CSS
- WordAds Monetization
- Install Plugins & Themes
- Built-in SEO Tools
- 200GB Storage
- Stronger Security & Performance
- Integrated Elastic On-Site Search
- Unlimited Products
- Inventory Management
- Frictionless Checkout
- Top Shipping Carriers
- Accept Payments in 60+ Countries
WordPress.com has affordable pricing, including a free plan, but the Business Plan is more suitable for affiliate marketing since it allows you to install plugins. When you pay annually, you get a free domain for a year.
- Free forever plan is ideal for basic affiliate sites and comes with built-in newsletters features.
- Personal plan at $4 per month removes WordPress ads and allows you to have paid subscribers on your affiliate site.
- Premium plan at $8 per month comes with premium themes, social media shares, and WordAds integration for extra passive income.
- Business plan at $25 per month is the best for affiliate websites as it allows you to install plugins and themes and manage multiple affiliate sites simultaneously. It has advanced security features like WAF, DDOS mitigation, and malware protection.
- Commerce plan at $45 per month will be good for affiliate marketers that want to run an e-commerce store. It allows you to sell and ship products, customize stores, and more.
- Enterprise plan starting at $25,000 yearly is ideal for large businesses.
WordPress.com is the top option for affiliate blogs and expanding your site’s functionality with affiliate marketing plugins.
3. Squarespace
Best for Modern Affiliate Sites
- Affiliate marketing features are available from the cheapest plan.
- Comes with a flexible content editor, SEO tools, and robust blogging functionality.
- Extensive built-in analytics and integration with Google Analytics.
- Creative and modern templates to choose from.
- Link cloaking feature for redirecting customers to the purchase page.
- It does not have a diverse range of template designs.
Squarespace is the next option on my list of the best website builders for affiliate marketing. The main reason why I recommend this site builder is that it offers a wide range of features in-house, so you have all you need to create your affiliate website. It has a visual builder and a strong content editor for inserting links and CTA buttons into your blog.
Squarespace has excellent mobile-friendly themes and eCommerce features that make it suitable for building your affiliate website. It features over 100 modern templates; in most templates, you get creative and lifestyle themes. So, it’ll be great for affiliate marketers in these spaces.
If you’re promoting your affiliate products through a blog, Squarespace is the ideal choice, as it has many features and SEO tools. On Squarespace, you can access tools for running email campaigns and creating promotion pop-ups, making marketing new affiliate products and discounts easier.
Key Features
Blog Features for Organic Traffic
You can set up blog posts and insert affiliate links into your content on Squarespace. It has a feature-rich content editor; you can add elements like CTA buttons to the affiliate products. There is a comment section, too, for users to leave reviews and questions about the products.
URL Mappings Feature
One of the highlights of Squarespace is the URL mappings which allows you to cloak affiliate links. Although the feature is not specifically made for cloaked links, it works great. You can only redirect to custom domains that are connected to your site.
Responsive Templates and Image Formatting
Squarespace features mobile-responsive templates, which allow them to adjust to any screen size. There are also advanced formatting features for images, and you can see different sizes of photos depending on the device you are using. This is a good feature since affiliate sites have a lot of product photos.
SEO and Marketing Features
Squarespace has an SEO checklist that helps you tick all the necessary boxes for your site. It comes with indexed URLs, XML sitemaps, meta titles, and descriptions for all pages. There are also marketing and social media features on Squarespace and a Google Search Console integration.
Pricing
- Mobile-Friendly Websites
- 100+ Templates
- Free Custom Domain
- Unlimited Bandwidth
- 2 Contributors
- Ecommerce Functionality
- Unlimited Products
- 3% Transaction Fees
- Custom Code (CSS & JS)
- Unlimited Contributors
- 0% Transaction Fees
- Point of Sale
- On-site Checkout
- Product Reviews
- Facebook and Instagram Selling
- Abandoned Cart Recovery
- Advanced Shipping
- Advanced Discounts
- Subscription Selling
- Commerce APIs
Learn more about Squarespace pricing or Squarespace ecommerce examples
Squarespace has four pricing plans, and you get features for your affiliate website from the cheapest plan. The Business plan is the most suitable for affiliate marketing. All plans come with a 14-day free trial.
- Personal at $16 per month comes with basic SEO features, site metrics, and third-party extensions. It is ideal for simple affiliate sites.
- Business at $23 per month features advanced site analytics, unlimited contributors, promotional pop-ups, and banners for marketing affiliate products. It is good for affiliate websites with more than two owners.
- Commerce Basic at $27 per month allows you to sell unlimited merchandise, sell on Facebook and Instagram, and collect product reviews. It has integrated eCommerce, making it ideal for affiliate ecommerce stores.
- Commerce Advanced at $49 per month is more suited for large ecommerce stores and not affiliate sites.
Squarespace is the best choice for anyone who wants to build a modern affiliate website on a budget, and it comes with link cloaking.
4. Shopify
Best for E-commerce Affiliate Stores
- Ideal for displaying products and linking them to affiliate offers.
- Robust SEO functionality and third-party apps.
- Full blogging support for long-form content.
- The entry-level plan is already suitable for affiliate marketing.
- Sell digital and physical products yourself if you want to.
- Weak blogging support as most features are for online stores.
You might be surprised to see Shopify on this list, as it is one of the best platforms in the world for running your online store. I recommend Shopify for any affiliate marketer that wants to present the products in a more eCommerce format. With Shopify, you can sell affiliate products via an eCommerce layout, and when your customers add a product to your cart, it will take them directly to the seller’s website.
Shopify excels as an eCommerce website builder, making it an ideal choice for building affiliate stores. This approach can be pretty effective if you do it well, but remember that you should use other website builders on this list if you don’t want your affiliate products to be arranged as eCommerce products.
In your Shopify store, you can sell affiliate products, including digital and physical goods. You can use third-party apps to add Amazon affiliate products and others to your store to achieve this. So, when the buyer clicks on the product, it takes them directly to Amazon.
Key Features
Connect Products to Affiliate Offers
On Shopify, you can redirect the products in the store to the relevant affiliate offer. This allows you to get a commission from the original seller. You can use third-party apps like Outlink to add external affiliate links on Shopify.
Create Blogs Easily
You can promote your affiliate products and get more opportunities for SEO by setting up a blog on Shopify. Blogging is not Shopify’s strongest suit, but it allows you to create long-form content and insert affiliate links. The rich text editor allows you to insert hyperlinks in product and collection descriptions.
Massive App Marketplace
There is a wide range of third-party apps on Shopify that extend the functionality of your store. You can automatically add affiliate products from other marketplaces with apps like Outlink and Refersion. There are also apps for detailed analytics, SEO, and more.
Tons of In-House SEO Features
Shopify has built-in SEO features for attracting organic traffic to your affiliate marketing site. You can edit title tags, URLs, and meta descriptions, and the site builder will automatically take care of page speed and update your sitemap.
Pricing
- 100+ Templates
- Unlimited Products
- International Commerce
- 24/7 Support
- Shopify POS
- Ecommerce Automations
- up to 88% Shipping Discounts
- Standard Analytics Reports
- 5 Staff Accounts
- 1% Fees for 3rd Party Payments
- 0.5% Fees for 3rd Party Payments
- Lower Credit Card Fees
- 15 Staff Accounts
- Advanced Analytics Reports
- Duties and Import Taxes
Learn more about Shopify pricing or successful Shopify stores
There are three pricing plans on Shopify and a 3-day free trial. You also get 25% off on annual payments; all plans come with $1 per month for the first three months. The Basic plan is suitable for your eCommerce affiliate store.
- Basic plan at $29 per month includes e-commerce functionality, unlimited products, and multiple sales channels, including social media. It has all you need for an eCommerce affiliate store.
- Shopify plan at $79 monthly allows five staff accounts and professional reports. It makes things easier for you with e-commerce automation.
- Advanced plan at $299 per month allows you to show calculated shipping rates with third-party apps at checkout, reduce your risk of returns with duties and import taxes, and create custom reports. It’s best for a full-featured eCommerce site as it is too advanced for affiliate marketing alone.
Shopify is an ideal choice for those that want to build their affiliate website in an online store format.
5. Bluehost Builder
Best Builder with Hosting
- Offers all the functionality of WordPress.org but with an easier interface.
- Affordable pricing plans with free features.
- Ideal for a self-hosted affiliate marketing site.
- Wide range of integrations for affiliate marketing.
- Extensive blogging features with options for inserting affiliate links.
- It is not fully hands-off like Wix or Squarespace.
- The design templates are basic, so you might need a premium theme.
Bluehost Builder is the ideal choice if you want to make your affiliate marketing site with WordPress.org but don’t have the experience to use the open-source platform directly. The Bluehost Builder allows you to make a WordPress.org site with a drag-and-drop editor but still gives you access to all the WordPress features. I also recommend Bluehost Builder because it has full-featured hosting, especially since WordPress.org does not have this.
The Bluehost Builder is a top site builder for affiliate marketing, especially if you want to use WordPress.org. WordPress.org allows you to build websites, but it’s quite complicated. With Bluehost Builder, you can access a drag-and-drop editor for WordPress.org, web hosting services, plugins, and affiliate marketing themes that you might need.
Bluehost Builder comes with SEO features and full WordPress dashboard access, allowing you to add plugins that will benefit your affiliate marketing site. Many WP themes are available as well as built-in support for blogging on your affiliate site.
Key Features
Access The WordPress Plugins
The Bluehost Builder is based on the WordPress.org software, giving you access to the dashboard. You can access plugins like Yoast SEO, link cloaking tools like MonsterInsights, and affiliate marketing themes like Kadence WP or Astra theme there. From the Choice Plus plan, you can use the Yoast SEO plugin for free.
Full Blogging Support
Create long-form content to promote your affiliate products and get more opportunities for SEO with the Bluehost Builder. It comes with built-in support for blogging, and you can insert affiliate links to text and elements on your blog.
Inbuilt SEO Features
The Bluehost Website Builder has basic SEO features like controlling the URL slug and setting SEO titles and meta descriptions. As a more advanced user, you can add numerous SEO integrations to your affiliate site.
Reliable Web Hosting
Bluehost is the ideal choice to set up a self-hosted WordPress affiliate website. It has expert hosting features like a free CDN and a free domain for the first year. Bluehost is known for its affordable hosting plans.
Pricing
- Bluehost-Certified Themes for WP
- WordPress-Optimized Hosting
- Drag-and-Drop Page Builder
- Free Domain Name
- Unlimited Websites
- Free Daily Backups for 1st Year
- 40GB SSD Storage
- Yoast SEO Free
- Unlimited Products
- Store Analytics
- 100GB SSD Storage
- Multiple Payment Options
Bluehost Builder comes with plans as low as $2.95 per month when you pay for the first time, but it auto-renews at the regular rate. You can start running your affiliate site from the Basic plan.
- Basic at $10.99 monthly, billed annually, comes with free SSL, domain, and CDN. It allows you to build one affiliate website and is ideal for anyone starting.
- Choice Plus is $19.99 per month, billed annually, allows unlimited websites, and offers free Yoast SEO for your affiliate site.
- Online Store at $24.99 per month, billed annually, has exclusive store themes and store analytics. It is ideal for setting up an online affiliate store.
- Pro, at $28.99 per month, billed annually, has better speed and a free dedicated IP among the hosting features.
Bluehost Builder is a great choice for anyone who wants to make a self-hosted affiliate site with all the functions of WordPress.org.
6. Webflow
Best for Custom Content Structures
Webflow is the final option on our list of the best website builders for affiliate marketing. The website builder gives you complete control over the design and content of your website. Although Webflow is not so easy to use, you can create custom content structures.
This allows you to promote your affiliate products and gives opportunities for SEO in the blog posts. If you want to make a blog for your affiliate marketing site, Webflow is the ideal choice. It also comes with eCommerce features in case you want to make an affiliate store.
Key Features
Custom Content Structures
On Webflow, you can customize your content however you want, making promoting affiliate products in unique ways easy. For instance, you can set up a directory with all your affiliate products, links, and details. You can also build comparison tables for affiliate products and more.
Diverse Link Settings
You can add different kinds of link types to your affiliate site on Webflow. These include text links, link blocks, and buttons. You can also set up different links in your content, including links to files, pages, page sections, collection pages, and more.
Advanced SEO Features
You won’t need third-party apps for the SEO features on Webflow. It has advanced tools like schema markup, indexing and sitemap controls, 301 redirects, tag editing, and more. You can also insert meta titles and descriptions on all pages.
Pricing
- 40+ Mobile-Friendly Templates
- 50GB Bandwidth
- Unlimited Storage
- Add Custom Code
- Site with 100 Pages
- 2000 CMS Items*
- 200GB Bandwidth
- On-site Search
- 3 Content Editors
- API Access
- 10000 CMS Items*
- 400GB Bandwidth
- Advanced Security
- 10 Content Editors
- Customer Success Manager
Learn more about Webflow pricing
Webflow has four website plans, and you can pay monthly or save 22% yearly. Consider using the CMS plan for your affiliate site and upgrade to Business when you get more traffic.
- Free plan comes with 50 CMS items and form submissions. It is suitable if you are still learning to use Webflow because it only has 2 static pages and no custom domain.
- Basic plan at $18 per month comes with basic SEO features and no CMS items. It is good for a very simple affiliate site.
- CMS plan at $29 per month is built for blogs and content-driven sites and is the best for affiliate marketing. It allows three editors, a site search, and 2000 CMS items.
- Business plan at $49 per month works great for high-traffic affiliate marketing sites. It allows for 10,000 CMS items; users can upload files via forms and access a global CDN for speed.
- Enterprise plan is customizable and suitable for large-scale businesses.
Pros
- Extensive range of SEO features.
- On-page editing that allows you to make custom structures.
- Different kinds of features for inserting affiliate links into text and buttons.
- Customize your content to market affiliate products.
- Includes eCommerce plans if that’s what you prefer.
Cons
- It comes with a bit of a learning curve.
Webflow is the best choice for making affiliate websites with visual themes and custom content structures to market your products.
FAQ
An affiliate website is a website that promotes products sold by other vendors or marketplaces. Individuals that are into affiliate marketing will receive a commission from affiliate programs whenever a visitor purchases a product/service/software on the vendor site after following their link.
You can create an affiliate website for free, but the plans are usually limited and won’t give you the tools you need for affiliate marketing. WordPress.com and Wix come with free plans for running your affiliate site.
An affiliate website must be optimized for specific keywords, and the builder should offer the best SEO tools for increasing the ranking on SERPs. It should feature original content that attracts readers to click the links.
What is the Best Website Builder for Affiliate Marketers?
The best website builder for affiliate marketing is Wix, and it’s pretty easy to get started. It doesn’t restrict you, comes with SEO and blogging features, and has a wide range of third-party apps. Choosing the website builder for your needs might be hard, but that’s where our review comes in.
Simply select the site builder with the features you want, whether you want an eCommerce store, creative and modern affiliate blogs, self-hosting, or extensive content customization. The website builders on our list were selected after considering their quality, ease of use, and other affiliate marketing features you might need.
Here are the top five:
Wix
WordPress.com
Squarespace
Shopify
Bluehost Builder
These resources will come in handy as you start in affiliate marketing:
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Martin Luenendonk
Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.
This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.