5 Best Website Builders for Research

So, you are in the market for a website builder that suits research projects.

Quick links for the Best Website Builders

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Ideal, because in this article we have our compilation list for our top picks, and we compare the features and pricing for you.

If you just want the best choice, we've added that right at the top of the article as this was what is most requested by our customers. So, that'll be the “can't go wrong” option.

Otherwise, feel free to explore all the options we've reviewed on the market to find something that might fit your research needs a little better.

Enjoy the list!

The Best Website Builders Specifically for Research

Whether you're an individual academic researcher, part of a laboratory team, or managing a large-scale research project, having an effective online presence is essential for sharing your work, attracting collaborators, and securing funding. A website builder that offers academic content management, data visualization tools, and publication integration will be the perfect fit for this category. Have a look at the products below to choose the best website builders for research specifically:

1. Wix

Wix is a versatile, user-friendly website builder that provides a wide range of templates and features suitable for research presentation. With its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, Wix makes it easy for researchers without technical expertise to create professional-looking websites to showcase their work quickly and effectively.

Wix Features

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Here are some exclusive features of Wix for research:

Researcher-Friendly Templates: Wix offers numerous templates that can be adapted for academic and research purposes, with pre-designed sections for project descriptions, team information, and publication listings. Their education and portfolio templates work particularly well for research presentation.

Wix App Market: Through the Wix App Market, you can add specialized functionality to your research website, such as document libraries, data visualization tools, and event calendars for conferences or seminars without any coding knowledge.

Publication Showcase: Easily create visually appealing listings of your published papers, complete with abstracts, citations, and links to full texts or repository versions. The gallery and portfolio features can be adapted to showcase research publications effectively.

Form Builder: Collect data, feedback, or research participation signups through customizable forms that can be integrated directly into your website. These forms can feed directly into spreadsheets for easy analysis.

Mobile Optimization: Wix automatically optimizes your research website for mobile devices, ensuring that colleagues and potential collaborators can access your work from any device, which is increasingly important in today's mobile-first academic environment.

Multilingual Support: For international research projects, Wix offers multilingual website options, allowing you to present your research in multiple languages to reach a global audience.

Wix Pricing

Wix offers several pricing plans suitable for researchers:

The “Free” plan is priced at $0 and includes Wix branding, basic features, and 500MB storage.

The “Light” plan is priced at $17/month and offers a custom domain for one year, 2GB storage, Multi-cloud hosting, 2 site collaborators and light marketing suite.

The “Core” plan is priced at $29/month and includes, 50GB storage, basic marketing suite, accept payments, 5 site collaborators Multi-cloud hosting, Basic ecommerce.

The “Business” plan is priced at $36/month and includes, 100GB storage, Standard marketing suite, accept payments, 10 site collaborators Multi-cloud hosting, Standard ecommerce.

The “Business Elite” plan is priced at $159/month and includes unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage, Advancedmarketing suite, accept payments, 100 site collaborators Multi-cloud hosting, Advanced ecommerce.

2. WordPress

WordPress is the world's most popular website platform, powering over 40% of all websites on the internet. Its flexibility, extensive plugin ecosystem, and academic-focused themes make it an excellent choice for research websites of all sizes and complexities.

WordPress Features

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Here are some exclusive features of WordPress for research:

Academic Themes: WordPress offers numerous themes designed specifically for academic and research purposes, featuring built-in sections for publications, research projects, team members, and funding information.

Plugin Extensibility: With thousands of plugins available, WordPress allows you to add virtually any functionality to your research website. Popular research-related plugins include bibliography managers, data visualization tools, and academic profile builders.

Content Management: WordPress excels at content management, making it easy to organize and publish research papers, datasets, methodologies, and other academic content with appropriate taxonomies and categorization.

Multilingual Support: For international research projects, WordPress offers excellent multilingual support through plugins like WPML or Polylang, allowing you to present your research in multiple languages.

Bibliography Management: Plugins like Academic Blogger's Toolkit help you manage citations and references in standard academic formats (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) and can integrate with reference management tools like Zotero.

WordPress Pricing

WordPress.org is free, but you'll need to pay for hosting and a domain:

Self-hosted WordPress: Free software, but requires web hosting ($3-$25/month) and a domain name ($10-$15/year). This option provides maximum flexibility for research websites.

WordPress.com offers several plans:

The “Free” plan costs $0 but includes WordPress branding and limited features.

The “Personal” plan is priced at $4/month (billed annually) and includes a free domain and removes WordPress ads.

The “Premium” plan is priced at $8/month (billed annually) and adds advanced design customization options.

The “Business” plan is priced at $25/month (billed annually) and includes plugin installation capabilities, essential for most research websites.

3. Squarespace

Squarespace is known for its visually stunning templates and professional designs. For researchers looking to create a modern, beautiful website that effectively communicates their work, Squarespace offers an excellent solution with strong data visualization capabilities.

Squarespace Features

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Here are some exclusive features of Squarespace for research:

Professional Templates: Squarespace is renowned for its beautiful, professionally designed templates that can be customized to present research in a visually compelling way. Academic-adjacent templates can be adapted for research presentation.

Chart and Graph Blocks: Squarespace's built-in chart blocks allow you to create professional data visualizations directly within your website, perfect for presenting research findings.

Content Management: The platform's intuitive block editor makes it easy to organize and present complex research information in a structured, accessible format.

Publication Gallery: Create visually appealing galleries of your published works, complete with citation information, abstracts, and links to full texts.

Integration Capabilities: Squarespace can integrate with various academic tools and services through embedded code blocks, allowing you to incorporate interactive data visualizations from tools like Tableau or D3.js.

Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace offers 4 pricing options for its website builder platform:

The “Personal” plan is priced at $23/month (or $16/month with annual billing) and offers unlimited bandwidth and basic website analytics.

The “Business” plan is priced at $33/month (or $23/month with annual billing) and adds advanced customization options and analytics.

The “Commerce Basic” plan is priced at $36/month (or $27/month with annual billing) and includes e-commerce features for selling research-related products or services.

The “Commerce Advanced” plan is priced at $65/month (or $49/month with annual billing) and offers additional selling features.

4. GitHub Pages

GitHub Pages is a static site hosting service that takes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files directly from a repository on GitHub and publishes a website. It's particularly well-suited for researchers in computational fields, data science, or other technical disciplines.

GitHub Pages Features

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Here are some exclusive features of GitHub Pages for research:

Code Integration: Seamlessly showcase code repositories alongside your research projects, making it easy to share implementations of your methods or algorithms.

Markdown Support: Write content in Markdown, a lightweight markup language popular in academic and technical fields, which automatically converts to properly formatted HTML.

Version Control: Because GitHub Pages is built on Git, you get full version control for your website content, allowing you to track changes, collaborate with colleagues, and roll back if needed.

Jekyll Integration: GitHub Pages works natively with Jekyll, a static site generator that makes it easy to create blog-like sections for research updates or to create documentation.

Open Science Friendly: The platform's philosophy aligns well with open science principles, making it easy to share data, methods, and results transparently.

GitHub Pages Pricing

GitHub Pages is available at the following price points:

The “Free” plan costs $0 and includes hosting for unlimited public repositories, making it perfect for open science initiatives.

The “Pro” plan is priced at $4/month and adds unlimited private repositories, useful for research that isn't ready for public dissemination.

The “Team” plan is priced at $4/user/month and adds collaboration features for research groups.

The “Enterprise” plan is priced at $21/user/month and adds advanced security and compliance features, important for sensitive research.

5. Duda

Duda is a drag-and-drop builder that gives you a user-friendly approach to building a website, promising fast designs and efficient templates that will impress your viewers. Duda is an excellent option as it allows you to create your website using responsive design elements and allows you to customize the mobile version of the website separately.

Using the site widgets in Duda, you can build a data-structured, design-first website and add images, text blocks, or addresses using the Content Library functionality. You can also use pre-made, fully customizable Dudas templates.

Duda Features

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Here are some exclusive features of Duda:

Website Personalization: Duda offers a rich library of pre-made personalizations and allows you to implement them swiftly. You can combine any mix of triggers and actions to create a website personalization rule that perfectly fits your unique requirements. Additionally, you can use geo-targeting to ensure your site visitors see content relevant to their physical location.

Team Collaboration: With Duda, you can empower your team to leave comments directly on top of a website as it's being built without any back-and-forth over the phone. Its intuitive search bar allows you to find comment threads quickly to catch up on any conversation. Additionally, all website comments are automatically logged in one location, enabling you to track conversations easily.

Client Management: Duda offers a white label editor that lets you add the brand's colors and logo. You can send automatically generated emails to your customers and provide them with site stats, analytics, and instructions. Additionally, Duda boosts your sales with professionally curated marketing materials.

Content Library: With Duda, you can build websites faster than ever by directly pulling clients' content from a website or Facebook page into the content library. You can optimize your workflow by syncing site content with an external data set connected through Duda's API. Duda's content management tools enable you to organize and save clients' images in the content library.

SEO: Duda increases site discoverability with local business schema, which provides search engines with reliable information about a website. It also supports IndexNow, enabling sites to submit updated content directly to search engines. Additionally, Duda automatically generates a site map and informs search engines about pages that need crawling.

Duda Pricing

Duda offers 4 Pricing options for its website builder and content management system.

The “Basic” plan is priced at $19/month and offers website personalization, HTTPS encryption, content library, and multi-language websites.

The “Team” plan is priced at $29/month and offers Amazon Cloud hosting, automatic configuration of DNS records, client billing, and team assets.

The “Agency” plan is priced at $59/month and offers widget builder, website export, site comments, and priority support.

The “White Label” plan is priced at $99/month and offers dynamic pages with internal collections, custom branding, marketing materials, and site analytics.

Key Features to Look for in a Research Website Builder

When searching for the right website builder for your research projects, certain features are particularly important for academic presentation. Here are the key features to consider:

1. Academic Content Management

A good research website should make it easy to organize and present complex academic information. Look for a platform that offers:

• Publication Management: Tools for organizing and displaying your research papers, including citation information, abstracts, and links to full texts or repositories.
• Project Organization: Features that allow you to categorize research by project, theme, or timeline, making it easy for visitors to understand your research agenda.
• Team Member Profiles: Options for creating and linking profiles for all researchers involved in your projects, highlighting their expertise and contributions.
• Funding Acknowledgment: Sections to properly acknowledge grant funding, sponsoring institutions, and other support for your research.

2. Data Visualization Tools

Effective presentation of research findings often requires visual elements. Your website builder should include:

• Chart and Graph Creation: Built-in tools or integrations that allow you to create and display data visualizations directly on your site.
• Interactive Elements: Support for interactive visualizations that allow visitors to explore data in depth.
• LaTeX or MathJax Support: For technical or mathematical research, the ability to display complex equations and formulas correctly.
• Image Galleries: Tools for showcasing experimental setups, field research, or other visual aspects of your work.

3. Publication Integration

Research output is central to academic websites. Look for features like:

• DOI Integration: Support for Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to properly link to published works.
• Citation Export: Options for visitors to export citations in various academic formats (APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX, etc.).
• Repository Links: Easy integration with academic repositories like arXiv, bioRxiv, or institutional repositories.
• Altmetrics: Display of alternative metrics showing the online impact and attention your research has received.

Why use a Website Builder at all?

Website builders provide several advantages for researchers looking to establish an online presence:

1. Accessibility: Website builders use visual editors that make it easy for researchers without technical expertise to create and maintain professional websites.
2. Cost-Effectiveness: Building a custom website from scratch can cost thousands of dollars, while website builders typically charge affordable monthly fees that can fit within research budgets.
3. Time-Saving: With pre-designed templates and intuitive interfaces, you can launch a research website quickly, allowing you to focus on your actual research rather than web development.
4. Maintenance Support: Website builders handle technical aspects like security updates, backups, and hosting, minimizing the technical overhead for busy researchers.
5. Scalability: As your research program grows, website builders make it easy to add new projects, publications, and team members without starting over.

Why should Researchers use Website Builders?

In today's digital academic landscape, having an effective online presence is essential for researchers. Here's why:

1. Visibility and Impact: A research website increases the visibility of your work beyond traditional academic channels, potentially increasing citations and impact.
2. Funding Opportunities: Funding agencies often research investigators online; a professional website showcasing your research agenda and previous successes can strengthen grant applications.
3. Collaboration Facilitation: A research website makes it easier for potential collaborators to find you and understand your work, opening doors to new partnerships.
4. Public Engagement: For research with public interest or policy implications, a website provides a platform to communicate findings to non-academic audiences.
5. Recruitment: If your research involves recruiting participants or hiring research assistants, a website provides a central platform for these activities.
6. Independence from Institutions: A personal research website ensures your online presence remains stable even if you change institutions.
7. Open Science Support: A website can host preprints, datasets, code, and other research outputs that might not fit in traditional publication channels, supporting open science principles.

Best Website Builders for Research, A Summary

Creating an effective online presence is essential for researchers in today's digital academic landscape. The right website builder can help you showcase your publications, present complex data, and connect with collaborators—all without requiring extensive technical expertise.

For most researchers, we recommend Wix as the best overall solution. Its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop editor make it exceptionally easy to build a professional research website quickly, even without any technical background. While it may not have the extensive customization options of WordPress, the balance of user-friendliness, professional templates, and research-relevant features makes it ideal for academics who want to focus more on their research than on website maintenance.

What Website Builder would you recommend?

In short, It's Wix

Wix is powerful and intuitive, with an impressive drag-and-drop editor and extensive template library for creating professional websites without coding. It's ideal for small businesses and creatives, though the subscription model requires careful selection of the right plan.

“🚀Try Wix, It's my favorite Website Builder to use and recommend.” -Scott Max

Wix is versatile, user-friendly, and delivers stunning visual results for websites of all types. It offers 800+ designer templates, built-in SEO tools, and robust e-commerce capabilities for online stores.

The platform includes AI-powered design assistance, mobile optimization, and extensive app marketplace for added functionality. While the free plan has limitations and premium plans can add up with add-ons, its comprehensive features and excellent customer support make it a top choice for businesses and individuals looking to establish a professional online presence quickly.

For more details, read our Wix Review.