Website builder prices are designed to look small. A plan advertised at $1.99 a month can cost $95 on day one, and $132 a year once the promotion ends. Another at $1 a month for the first year renews at $20. Meanwhile the plan that really is cheap often leaves out the one thing you need, such as your own domain, a contact form or a way to take payments.
This guide compares builders by true yearly cost: what you pay in the first year, what you pay after any promotion ends, and what a custom domain adds. All prices are in US dollars and were checked on each vendor’s own pricing, help and terms pages on November 12, 2026, during Black Friday sales. We did not go through any checkout, so prices that only appear in the cart are marked as unconfirmed. Prices change often, so check the vendor’s page before you buy.
The Short Answer, by What You Need
- Cheapest one-page site on your own domain: Carrd Pro Standard, $19 a year, plus a domain you register elsewhere.
- Cheapest multi-page builder with a price that does not jump: Siter.io Solo, $84 a year billed yearly. Its terms say subscriptions renew under the same conditions.
- Lowest upfront cost for several years: Hostinger Premium, $95.52 for 48 months during the current sale. It renews at $10.99 a month.
- Cheapest first year: IONOS Plus at $1 a month, with a domain included. From year two it costs $20 a month.
- Cheapest way to sell online: Carrd Pro Standard for a few products through Stripe or PayPal, or Squarespace Basic at $19 a month (billed yearly) for a real store with a 2% transaction fee.
- Free: Google Sites has no plan of its own to buy and lets you connect your own domain. Wix, Siter.io, Carrd, Webflow and Framer have free plans, but on their own subdomain and with their branding.
Why the Sticker Price Misleads
Three things push the real cost above the number in the ad.
- Promotional terms. The lowest monthly price usually requires paying for a long term upfront. Hostinger’s Premium plan shows $1.99 a month, but the fine print reads “Today you pay $95.52 for 48 months. Renews at $10.99/mo for the same term.” During the sale, the 48-month term was the only one shown outside the cart.
- Renewal prices. First-year discounts end. IONOS lists Starter at $6 a month for the first year and $14 after that, and Plus at $1 and then $20. Wix’s help center says that any service bought at a discount “renews at the standard rate.”
- Add-ons you need anyway. A “free domain” is usually free for one year only, and only on yearly plans. Squarespace renews a .com at $20 a year, and Hostinger at $19.99. Some cheap plans also cannot connect a domain, accept payments or remove the builder’s badge, so the plan you actually need is one tier up.
True Cost Table
Each row is the cheapest plan that lets you use your own domain, billed yearly where the builder offers it. “After the promo” is the yearly price once any introductory discount ends, plus a .com domain. Where a builder does not include or sell domains, we add $20 a year, which is what Squarespace and Hostinger charge to renew a .com. Totals marked with a tilde are our own arithmetic.
| Builder and plan | First payment | Per year after the promo, with a .com | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sites | $0 + domain | ~$20 (domain only) | No built-in forms or store |
| Carrd Pro Standard | $19 + domain | ~$39 | One-page sites; domain bought elsewhere |
| Siter.io Solo | $84 + domain | ~$104 | No store; domain bought separately |
| Hostinger Premium | $95.52 for 48 months | ~$152 ($10.99 × 12 + $19.99) | Long prepay; shorter terms unconfirmed |
| IONOS Plus | $12 for year 1, domain included | $240 + domain renewal | Price rises twentyfold in year 2 |
| IONOS Starter | $72 for year 1, domain included | $168 + domain renewal | No online store on this plan |
| Framer Basic | $120, domain included | $120 + domain renewal | No native store |
| GoDaddy Airo Starter | $119.88, domain included | Unconfirmed | Branding removal “coming soon” on all plans |
| Webflow Basic | $180 + domain | ~$200 | No CMS on Basic |
| Wix Light | $204, domain voucher | $204 + domain renewal | Cannot accept payments |
| Strikingly Pro | $192, domain included | ~$217 ($192 + $24.95) | No refunds |
| Squarespace Basic | $228, domain included | $248 | 2% fee on store sales |
A few notes on the numbers:
- Hostinger: the $95.52 covers four years, so the first four years average about $24 a year plus the domain renewal from year two. Monthly and 12-month prices only appear in the cart, which we did not open.
- GoDaddy: its site served us the Irish store, and we read the US-dollar prices with a currency switch. US prices may differ, and we found no renewal terms.
- Framer: the $10-a-month yearly price is confirmed; the monthly price in dollars was not.
- Domain renewals for Wix, IONOS and Framer were not shown in dollars, so they are left out of those totals.
Builders Ranked by True Cost
1. Google Sites: free, if you only need pages
Google Sites has no plan of its own to buy: you build with a Google account and connect a domain you already own. Google does not publish a price for Sites itself, so the only cost we could confirm is the domain. Its help center explains how to connect a domain from another registrar, with up to five custom domains per site. The trade-offs are real. It has no built-in form builder, no store, and very few design options, so it suits a simple information site, a club or a portfolio rather than a business that needs leads or sales.
2. Carrd: the cheapest site on your own domain
Carrd builds one-page sites, and it is billed yearly only. The free plan allows up to three sites with “Made with Carrd” branding. Pro Lite, at $9 a year, removes the branding but cannot connect a custom domain; that needs Pro Standard at $19 a year, which also adds forms (contact, sign-up and payment-enabled) and widgets for Stripe, PayPal and Gumroad. Carrd does not sell domains, so register one with a registrar such as Cloudflare, Namecheap or Porkbun.
The catch: Carrd’s terms say it does not generally refund purchases, though there is a 7-day Pro trial with no card required. And one page is one page: if you need a blog or several sections with their own URLs, look further down the list.
3. Siter.io: a flat price that stays flat
Siter.io is a visual builder for multi-page sites. Its free plan gives you one site with three pages on a getsiter.com subdomain, with a badge. Solo costs $7 a month billed yearly ($84) or $8 month to month, connects your own domain at no extra cost, removes the badge and includes three forms per site. Siter’s terms say subscriptions renew “under the exact same conditions,” so there is no first-year discount to fall off. It has no online store, and paid fees are generally non-refundable.
4. Hostinger: cheapest upfront for four years
Hostinger’s builder comes with hosting, a domain free for the first year and mailboxes. During the sale, Premium cost $95.52 for 48 months, the lowest upfront price here for a multi-page site. The other side: it renews at $10.99 a month for the same term, the free domain renews at $19.99 a year, and the free mailboxes at $0.59 a month. Online selling is free for the first year on the Unlimited plan, then $1.99 a month. There is a 30-day refund window, although Hostinger may deduct the price of the free domain.
Hostinger is a good deal if you are sure you will keep the site for four years, and a poor one if you might move on after one. Set a calendar reminder before the renewal date.
5. IONOS: the cheapest first year
IONOS includes a domain and an email address on every plan, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. Its first-year prices are the lowest on this list, but they are not the prices you keep. Plus costs $1 a month for the first year and $20 after that; Starter costs $6 and then $14. Oddly, Plus is cheaper than Starter in year one but more expensive from year two, so pick by what you will pay in year two. Online store versions of both plans cost more again: $26 and $32 a month after the first year.
6. Framer, GoDaddy and Webflow: the middle
Framer Basic costs $10 a month billed yearly and includes a domain for the first year. It is aimed at designers, with a strong visual editor and a CMS limited to two collections on Basic. GoDaddy’s Airo Starter was $9.99 a month on a yearly plan, with a free domain on yearly plans only; its pricing page marks “Remove Airo branding” as coming soon, even on the most expensive plan. Webflow Basic costs $15 a month billed yearly ($25 monthly) and removes the Webflow badge, but has no CMS, so a blog means Premium at $25. Our Webflow alternatives guide compares these in more depth.
7. Wix, Strikingly and Squarespace: the familiar names
Wix Light costs $17 a month billed yearly ($204 a year) and includes a one-year domain voucher on yearly plans; monthly plans get no voucher. Light cannot accept payments, so a shop needs Core at $29. Strikingly Pro costs $16 a month billed yearly and less on two-, three- and five-year terms, down to $11.20; domains cost $24.95 a year, and Strikingly does not offer refunds. Squarespace Basic costs $19 a month billed yearly ($25 monthly), includes a domain for the first year on yearly billing and can sell, with a 2% transaction fee. Our Wix vs Squarespace comparison covers those two in detail.
For completeness, Square Online is free to start, but its free plan cannot connect a custom domain; that starts with Square Plus at $49 a month per location. It makes sense mainly if you already take payments with Square.
When a Static Host and a Template Are Cheaper Still
If you can edit HTML, or have an AI tool generate the site for you, you can skip the builder entirely. Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages and Netlify all have free plans with HTTPS and custom domains, so your only cost is the domain. Check the terms first: GitHub Pages is not meant for commercial sites. Our guide on how to host a website walks through each option, and best static hosting compares the hosts.
If you would rather drag in a folder than use Git, Static.app hosts uploaded HTML or ZIP files from $5 a month billed yearly ($60), with your own domain, built-in forms and an online code editor. It is a host, not a drag-and-drop builder, so it pairs with a template or an AI-generated site rather than replacing a visual editor. We moved this site to static HTML ourselves; our article on leaving WordPress for static HTML explains what it saved.
The real cost here is your time. A builder handles layout, forms and updates in one place; a static site means editing files or regenerating them. For a site that rarely changes, that is a good trade. For a shop or a site that several people update every week, a builder is usually worth paying for. Underspending has its own cost, as we explain in the risks of underspending on web design.
Hidden-Cost Checklist
Before you pay, check each of these on the vendor’s own pricing and terms pages:
- Renewal price. Look for “renews at” or “then” next to the price, and work out year two.
- Billing term. Is the advertised price for monthly, yearly or a multi-year prepay?
- Domain. Is it free for the first year only? What does it renew at? Is the free domain only on yearly plans?
- Custom domain on this plan. Carrd Pro Lite, Square Free and most free plans cannot connect one.
- Branding. Does the plan remove the builder’s badge? GoDaddy’s plans did not yet.
- Forms. How many forms and submissions? Webflow’s free plan allows 50 submissions; Siter’s free plan, 10 entries a month.
- Selling. Can this plan take payments, and is there a transaction fee on top of the payment processor’s?
- Email. Are mailboxes included, and for how long?
- Refunds. Windows range from none (Strikingly, generally Carrd and Siter.io) to 14 days (Wix, Squarespace, Webflow) and 30 days (Hostinger, IONOS). Some deduct the free domain from the refund.
- Taxes. Many prices exclude sales tax or VAT, which is added at checkout.
FAQ
What is the cheapest website builder?
For a site on your own domain, Carrd Pro Standard at $19 a year plus a domain is the cheapest we found, but it builds one-page sites. For multi-page sites, Siter.io Solo at $84 a year keeps the same price at renewal, and Hostinger Premium has the lowest upfront cost for four years during its sale.
Which website builder is cheapest with a custom domain?
Google Sites costs nothing beyond the domain itself. Among builders with paid plans, Carrd Pro Standard ($19 a year) is cheapest; IONOS Plus is cheapest for the first year at $1 a month with a domain included, but renews at $20 a month.
Is there a free website builder with no ads?
Google Sites has no paid plan to upgrade to, so there is no badge to pay to remove. Free plans from Wix, Carrd, Siter.io, Webflow and Framer all add their own branding and use the builder’s subdomain. Our guide to the best AI website builders covers which of those have free plans.
Is Hostinger really $1.99 a month?
Only on a 48-month plan paid upfront: $95.52 during the November 2026 sale. It then renews at $10.99 a month for the same term.
Is it cheaper to build a website without a builder?
Usually, yes. A static site on a free host costs only the domain, about $20 a year for a .com. The cost moves to your time, since you edit HTML files or use a tool to generate them.
Should I pay monthly or yearly?
Yearly is cheaper on almost every builder and is often the only way to get the free domain. Pay monthly only while you are testing whether you will keep the site, and check the refund window, since some builders do not refund monthly plans at all.
