Cheapest Website Builder

A website builder is a platform or tool that helps you build a website without having to code it manually. Typically, site builders include pre-made templates and a drag and drop editor for ease of use.

In other words, you don’t need to know HTML, CSS, JS, etc., to build your own website. What’s more, you don’t even need to get web hosting ⁠— typical site builders are self-hosted.

The best part about it? It costs way less than what a professional web designer would charge!

There is a difference between cheap and unusable— so watch out for the following:

• Plans that put advertisements on your website.
• Plans that don’t include SSL certificates (necessary in 2024).

Moreover, to keep all on an equal footing, I’ve used regular (not introductory) yearly pricing of the cheapest paid plan that lets you use a custom domain name.

Plus, I used (rounded up) US pricing for simplicity ⁠— many of the website builders have different pricing (and sometimes even plans) for different regions.

I have also mentioned if the plan includes a free domain name (at least for the first year).

This is the list of the best cheap website builders of the popular ones out there:

Notes:

• If the plan doesn’t include a free domain name, it will cost you an extra $15-$20 per year.
• You can install a free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt if the site builder doesn’t pre-install it for you. However, some builders don’t allow third-party SSLs, leading to extra costs.

Building a one-page website? Check out Carrd.

At $9/year, Carrd has by far the cheapest plan of any top-rated site builders. However…

Unlike other website builders, it’s only for one-page websites. So you can’t use it for more than a simple website or landing page.

Common Limitations Of Cheap Plans

You get what you pay for!

Most cheap plans are cheap because:

• What the website builder can do is very limited. E.g., You can only make a one-page website with Carrd.
• The site builder company runs advertisements on your website. E.g., Wix’s $60/year Connect plan isn’t ad-free.
• They don’t include value-added features like a pre-installed SSL certificate or free domain name.
• Some essential features & customization options are missing. E.g., You can’t add Google analytics code, multi-lingual support, contact forms, widgets, etc., on many of the mentioned plans.
• Server resources are limited. E.g., Wix’s Connect plan includes a mere 500 MB bandwidth. Similarly, Webnode’s Limited plan is limited to 100 MB storage.
• The customer support is mediocre.

Overall, most cheap website builder plans are a ploy to upsell. Here’s their master plan: Once you are in, you will grow dissatisfied (thanks to all the limitations!) and upgrade to a more expensive plan.

Most cheap plans don’t include e-commerce features. You’ll have to go with an expensive plan of a general-purpose website builder that offers e-commerce functionality or choose an eCommerce builder.

I have considered both for this list.

A couple of notes before starting:

• Ecommerce website builders are priced higher than a general-purpose website builder.
• I only compared plans with no transaction fees. Transaction fees (typically around 3%) are charged in addition to credit card processing fees (credit card processing fees are unavoidable). You really should not be paying transaction fees— will get expensive fast.
• Credit card processing fees have become a standard 2.9% + 30¢ across all e-commerce builders. Just keep that in mind.

I already mentioned the limitations of cheap website builder plans. All those apply to free plans + some limitations like not having a custom domain option, site builder's ads on the site, etc., are standard.

If you are okay with trade-offs, you can certainly build a website with free website builders like:

• Square Online
• Carrd
• Webflow