“Ask David”: “Can you help recommend a drag-and-drop website builder that is not hosted so I can upload HTML to any hosting service?“
Yes. If you specifically want a downloadable drag-and-drop website builder that lets you export your website and upload it to your own hosting, Mobirise and Nicepage are two options to look at. Pinegrow is another desktop option with visual, drag-and-drop editing.
But before choosing one, there’s something else I’d consider: what kind of website do you want to end up with?
It’s easy to focus on whether a builder lets you drag a text box onto a page, move an image around, and export HTML. But that’s only part of the picture.
The quality of the website you can create, how much control you have over the design, how well it works across different screen sizes, how much you can customize it, and how easy it is to manage as the website grows can matter just as much as the drag-and-drop interface.
You don’t necessarily need e-commerce, memberships, or a forum to care about those things. Even a basic business website can benefit from having more control over its design and how the website works.
And that’s where WYSIWYG comes into the picture.
Drag-and-Drop vs. WYSIWYG
Drag-and-drop means you can place and arrange elements on a page visually rather than having to code every element by hand.
WYSIWYG – “what you see is what you get” – describes a visual editing experience where you can see the page as you’re building it.
The two can overlap, but they aren’t the same thing.
A builder can give you a WYSIWYG editing experience without using the same type of freeform drag-and-drop interface you may be familiar with from Wix or similar hosted builders.
For some people, a good WYSIWYG environment can actually be a better long-term choice than a simplified drag-and-drop builder because you get the visual editing experience without making that visual interface the limit of what you can do.
If you’re considering drag-and-drop specifically, it’s also worth looking at whether that approach is actually the best fit for the kind of website you want to build: Should You Choose a Drag-and-Drop Website Builder?
Let’s look at the options.
Hosted Drag-and-Drop Website Builders
The popular drag-and-drop website builders – such as Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly – are hosted website builders.
They make website building easy in the beginning. You log in, choose a design, add your text and images, drag elements around, and the platform handles the hosting and the technology running your website.
But many hit a roadblock after the initial honeymoon phase, when they want to do something and later find out they can’t.
You may want to change something about the design, customize how a particular element works, add your own code, change the way something responds on mobile, or add functionality that isn’t included in the builder.
We’ve talked more about this in: Signs Your Website Builder Isn’t as Customizable as You Think
And: How Drag-and-Drop Website Builders Hold You Back (And What to Use Instead)
But customization isn’t the only issue.
There’s also portability.
The problem is that your website is tied to that platform.
You cannot download your complete working Wix, Squarespace, or Weebly website, upload it to another hosting company, and have the same website running there.
The website isn’t simply a collection of HTML files. The platform is providing the underlying software and infrastructure that makes the website and its features work.
There’s also the issue of pricing and the direction the company takes in the future. With a hosted platform, you’re relying on the company to continue offering the service and on its pricing and policies remaining acceptable to you.
Weebly Is a Good Reminder
Weebly is currently in the process of closing customer websites in 67 countries.
We’ve covered the situation in: Is Weebly Getting Out of the Website-Builder Business?
The point isn’t that every hosted website builder will do the same thing.
It’s that when your website is tied to a hosted platform, you don’t control what happens to the platform – and you can’t simply take your complete working website somewhere else.
Drag-and-Drop Builders You Can Host Yourself
If you want the drag-and-drop experience without using the builder’s hosting, there are some real options.
Mobirise
Mobirise is a downloadable website builder for Windows and Mac that uses a drag-and-drop approach. You build pages using pre-made blocks and then export the website.
Mobirise says you can export the full HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code and host the resulting website wherever you choose.
That’s quite close to what this Ask David! question is looking for.
The catch is that you’re primarily creating a static website. If you want a website with its own database-driven functionality, memberships, e-commerce, forums, user accounts, and similar features, exporting HTML isn’t enough.
But even if you only need a basic website, I’d still look beyond the fact that you can drag things around on the screen.
How much control do you have over the design? How does the builder handle responsive layouts? How easy is it to make changes later? What happens when you want to do something that isn’t one of the options built into the editor?
Those questions can matter even for a relatively simple website.
Nicepage
Nicepage is another visual website builder with a drag-and-drop interface.
Its desktop application can export a static HTML website, including the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images, which you can then upload to your own hosting. Nicepage also supports exporting as a folder or ZIP file, or uploading the site via FTP.
This can satisfy the main goal to visually create a static HTML website and host it wherever you want.
But the same questions apply: How much control do you really have? How does the builder handle responsive design? How easy will the website be to maintain if you make significant changes six months or two years from now?
Being able to export the website is valuable. It doesn’t automatically tell you how good the website-building environment is.
Pinegrow
Pinegrow takes a different approach.
It has a visual page editor where you can drag HTML elements into the page, but it also gives you direct access to the HTML and CSS. You can edit the code and immediately see the changes in the visual page view.
That gives you considerably more direct control over the underlying website, if you know how to code.
The tradeoff is that Pinegrow is more of a visual web-development tool than a simplified beginner website builder. Many say some knowledge of HTML is needed to get the most out of it.
So it may be a good choice if you want visual editing but are comfortable getting closer to the code.
What About the Quality of the Website?
Another thing to consider is how the builder handles responsive design.
Wix’s editor uses a more freeform positioning approach, so getting a layout to behave exactly the way you want across different screen sizes can require manual adjustment. Wix does provide responsive features and a mobile editor, but elements can still need to be repositioned or adjusted for smaller screens.
Squarespace’s Fluid Engine uses a grid-based approach, but it still requires significant manual adjustment.
UltimateWB takes a fluid approach, using fluid widths and proportional layouts so elements resize and reposition naturally as the screen size changes. Its Responsive App can also automatically stack and reflow content for smaller screens.
We go into the differences between these approaches in: Stop Fighting Your Website: Absolute Positioning vs. Fluid Design
So the convenience of dragging elements around can be outweighed by the amount of work required to make the resulting layout work properly across different screen sizes.
Static Site Generators
Jekyll, Hugo, and Eleventy are static site generators. They give you the portability you’re looking for because they generate static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that you can host anywhere.
But they are not drag-and-drop website builders. You work with code, templates, and content files rather than dragging elements around on a visual page.
So while they give you portability, they don’t give you the visual website-building experience you’re looking for. If you want both visual website building and the freedom to choose where you host your website, there are better options.
What About Webflow?
Webflow lets you export HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other assets, but that doesn’t give you a complete portable copy of everything you can build on the platform. Webflow’s CMS and other platform-dependent functionality don’t simply come with the exported files.
So while you can export a Webflow site, it isn’t the same as having a self-hosted website builder that gives you the complete website and lets you host it wherever you want.
What About WordPress With a Page Builder?
You can install WordPress.org on your own hosting and use a visual page builder such as Elementor or Divi.
Unlike WordPress.com, which is a hosted service, WordPress.org lets you choose where you host your WordPress website.
The portability is there – but you’re still tied to the WordPress ecosystem.
Your website depends on the WordPress installation, database, theme, plugins, and other components that make up the site. If you move the site to another hosting company, you need to move that entire setup with it.
And that can mean more maintenance and more things that can go wrong. Third-party plugins have their own updates, compatibility issues, security concerns, and dependencies. If one plugin conflicts with another, stops being maintained, or breaks after a WordPress core update, you will have to troubleshoot the problem or find a replacement. The more plugins your website depends on, the more pieces you have to keep updated, compatible, and working together.
So with WordPress.org and a page builder such as Elementor or Divi, you get the drag-and-drop website-building experience and the portability of choosing where you host your website. But you’re also taking the entire WordPress ecosystem with you and all that entails.
What About UltimateWB?
UltimateWB takes a different approach: it gives you a WYSIWYG website-building environment, lets you choose where your website is hosted, and includes built-in website functionality instead of relying on a collection of third-party plugins.
You can visually build and manage your website without having to hand-code every page. But you’re not limited to creating static HTML pages, either.
You can build a complete dynamic website with built-in functionality for e-commerce, memberships, forums, blogs, forms, listings, classifieds, photo galleries, and more.
And because UltimateWB is downloadable website-building software, you choose where to host your website. You can host with UltimateWB, use another hosting company, or host it on your own server, as long as the hosting environment meets the software requirements.
That means your website isn’t tied to the company that makes the website-building software. You have the visual website-building environment, the built-in functionality, and the freedom to choose your hosting.
There’s also a difference in how much control you have over the website itself. You can customize the design, work directly with your HTML and CSS, and add your own code when needed.
UltimateWB also includes built-in tools for site-wide content management, page history, responsive design, SEO, image optimization, forms, and more. Because these features are built into the software, you don’t have to keep adding and maintaining separate third-party plugins to get the functionality your website needs.
So I wouldn’t limit the question to:
“Which builder lets me drag things around?”
I’d ask:
“Which builder gives me the kind of website I actually want to have?”
If you’re interested specifically in the WYSIWYG side of UltimateWB, see: What is the easiest WYSIWYG website builder?
So Which Type of Builder Makes Sense?
If you want to build a simple static website, export the HTML, and upload it to your own hosting, Mobirise or Nicepage may be worth considering.
If you want a visual editor that works much closer to the underlying HTML and CSS, Pinegrow is another option.
But don’t assume that a static website means you don’t need a capable website builder. You may still care about design control, responsive behavior, customization, ease of making changes, and the quality of the finished website.
And if you want the visual ease of building a website without hand-coding everything, while also having the freedom to build a dynamic website, customize it extensively, and choose where you host it, that’s where UltimateWB becomes a particularly strong option.
You don’t have to give up the visual website-building experience in order to have control over your website.
And you don’t have to wait until you need a forum, online store, or membership system to want a more capable website builder.
You can choose that flexibility from the start.
Looking for a website builder that is both easy and lets you host anywhere you want? Learn more about UltimateWB! We also offer web design packages if you would like your website designed and built for you.
Got a techy/website question? Whether it’s about UltimateWB or another website builder, web hosting, or other aspects of websites, just send in your question in the “Ask David!” form. We will email you when the answer is posted on the UltimateWB “Ask David!” section.