Website builders have been gaining more popularity and traction lately, thanks to services such as Wix and Webnode.

These online website creators allow you to create a full website, free of charge, directly in your browser without any prior knowledge of website development.

Many of these services also offer premium packages with additional features, for a small cost per month, if you desire additional tools. The biggest advantage in using these services is the unbeatable development speed, as it all happens in your browser with click-and-drag functionality.

If you’re not a web designer or a creative person but need an easy and affordable solution to creating a website, try one of these free programs.

Wix offers a simple, yet powerful online platform to make Flash websites, MySpace layouts and more. Using a browser-based interface, you can choose from a wide selection of design templates or start with a blank canvas. Wix provides more than enough tools to get the job done, with everything from animation effects and photo albums to Google maps and RSS feeds. You can also import photos from Flickr and videos from YouTube with only a few clicks.

The design interface is sleek and quick (on a high-speed connection). Tools are easy to access when needed and can be hidden when not necessary. Creating new pages and editing old ones is straightforward. Your website is hosted on Wix’s server for quick and easy publishing, however unless you upgrade to a premium package (starting at $4.95/month), you don’t have much control over your domain name. All in all, Wix is by far the best choice for free Flash websites.

Weebly is another top choice and sports a simple click and drag interface that allows you to create a professional website very quickly. Content elements, such as videos, pictures, maps, and text are added to your website by simply dragging them from the Weebly bar to your webpage.

You must choose from one of their templates, yet each template is pretty flexible and customizable so there is some room for creativity. Adding and organizing your website’s pages is surprisingly painless. When you add a new page to your website, it’s automatically added to the navigation bar so there’s no need to update your navigation, even if you add a new page at the last minute. Your website domain is in the format of ‘pagename.weebly.com,’ though if you wish, you can create and purchase your own domain name through the interface (the domain purchase process is handled by bestdomainever.net).

With over 20 million websites created with Webs, this one is among the most popular free website creators available and features many of the same features of the other online website builders.

It’s worth noting the ability to integrate your site with Paypal or Google Checkout. It only takes a few clicks and your account information in order to add e-commerce functionality to your website. Also, you can create your own social network by requiring visitors to “join” your site, all with a just a couple of clicks. How cool is that?

Webs is probably not the easiest free website builder to use, however with the extra features available, Webs is a viable option for creating a powerful, free website.