Best Website Builders 2026: Building a Site vs. Building an App

“Website builder” is doing too much work as a category label. A link-in-bio page, a portfolio, a store, a newsletter and an app with user accounts are five different projects, and a roundup that sorts all of them by price answers a question nobody asked. This page splits them by job first, then compares the builders that compete inside each job.

The core split is the one in our title. Squarespace, Wix, Webflow and Framer build sites people read. Shopify builds stores. WordPress.com and Ghost publish. Carrd makes single pages. Bubble builds applications with logins and databases, which is a different purchase entirely.

Prices last checked October 3, 2026, on each vendor’s own pricing page, in US dollars wherever the page let us. Builders change plans often: Squarespace, Shopify and Bubble all show different prices than they did a few months ago, and we say plainly where we could not confirm a figure.

Executive Answer

• A site, minimum effort: Squarespace. $12 a month on annual billing, $19 month to month. Choose Core ($17) if you sell anything, because Basic adds a 2% store fee.
• A site with the most built-in features, if you will not move later: Wix. $17 a month on a yearly plan. Wix’s help center says a site cannot be hosted anywhere else.
• A site with full design control: Webflow ($15 or $25 a month billed yearly) or Framer ($10 or $30 billed yearly). Budget for the learning curve and for extra seats.
• The cheapest multi-page site: Hostinger. $2.99 a month on a 48-month term, then $10.99. Price the renewal before you prepay.
• An online store: Shopify, from $19 a month billed yearly, for real selling volume. For a small shop, Squarespace Core ($17) has no store fee and Hostinger’s Ecommerce plan ($5.99, renewing at $8.99) is the cheapest.
• A blog or newsletter: Ghost ($18 a month billed yearly) if you charge for memberships; WordPress.com ($4 a month billed yearly, renewing at $5) for a blog you may move later.
• One page: Carrd, $19 a year with a custom domain.
• An app with logins and a database: Bubble. Free to build, $59 a month billed annually to launch on your own domain.

Find Your Builder in a Few Questions

Sort by Job, Not by Brand

Within the first group the choice is real: the same buyer compares Squarespace, Wix, Webflow and Framer and decides on effort, design control and how permanent the choice is. The rest are different purchases. A photographer choosing between Squarespace and Bubble is not weighing options; they have misread the category.

What Each Choice Costs Over Three Years

The monthly price is only the start. This table runs the same needs through every builder’s published yearly-billing price for three years, including the renewal increase where the vendor publishes one. It uses the same model as the calculator below, so the two always agree.

A multi-page site, three years

An online store with $2,000 a month in sales, three years

Yearly-billing prices from each vendor’s own pricing page, October 3, 2026. Hostinger’s site price needs a 48-month prepay and its store price a 12-month term. For stores, the cheaper of the plans that fit is shown (Squarespace Basic or Core, WordPress.com Business or Commerce). Card processing fees, domains, apps, email and extra editors are not included.

Three things stand out. First, the cheapest option is not the best one for most readers: Hostinger’s low price depends on committing for years, and its renewal rate is roughly four times higher. Second, store fees change the ranking: at low sales Squarespace Basic with its 2% fee beats Core, and at higher sales Core wins. Third, Wix costs the most for a basic site here, which is the price of the broadest feature set and the hardest exit. Change the inputs yourself:

The Builders in Detail

Sites people read

Squarespace

Best for a polished site with the least effort

Templates do the design work; your plan decides your fees

• Basic$12/mo annual · $19 monthly
• Core$17/mo annual · $27 monthly
• Advanced$25/mo annual · $36 monthly
• Store fee2% on Basic · 0% on Core and up

What it costs

Basic $12, Core $17 and Advanced $25 a month on annual billing ($19, $27 and $36 on monthly billing), with a 14-day free trial. The online store fee is 2% on Basic and 0% on Core and Advanced. Digital content and memberships carry their own fee: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core and 0% on Advanced.

Best fit

Portfolios, service businesses and small shops that want a credible site quickly and nothing to maintain.

Watch out for

Selling downloads or memberships on Basic costs more than upgrading, because the 7% digital fee overtakes the plan price gap at modest sales. If a renewal charge fails, Squarespace hides the site from visitors and search engines after 15 days; its help article gives no deletion date. Leaving is harder than joining, so read what transfers before you commit.

Official pricing page · Squarespace review · SEO limits · What transfers when you leave · How to cancel

Wix

Best for all-in-one features if you will not move

The broadest feature set, hosted only on Wix

• Light$17/mo · 2 GB · 2 collaborators
• Core$29/mo · 50 GB · payments
• Business$39/mo · 100 GB
• Business Elite$159/mo · unlimited storage

What it costs

Light is $17, Core is $29, Business is $39 and Business Elite is $159 a month on yearly plans paid in full, before tax. Wix shows prices by country, so check yours. A free plan exists with no card needed, paid plans include a free domain for the first year, and there is a 14-day money-back guarantee. Online payments start on Core. Wix Payments charges 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards and Wix lists no extra platform fee on top.

Best fit

Small businesses that want bookings, a blog, a store and marketing tools in one dashboard and do not plan to leave.

Watch out for

A Wix site cannot be moved to another host: Wix’s help center says the site must run on Wix’s servers. If you cancel, the site stays online on a free Wix address with Wix ads and your content is kept. Light has only 2 GB of storage and 2 collaborators.

Official pricing page · Migrating off Wix · What lock-in means

Webflow

Best for brand-exact sites and structured content

Design control and CMS depth, with a steeper learning curve

• StarterFree · 1 GB bandwidth
• Basic$15/mo yearly · no CMS
• Premium$25/mo yearly · with CMS
• WorkspaceBilled separately · Growth $49/mo

What it costs

Starter is free on a webflow.io address with 1 GB of bandwidth and 50 form submissions. Basic is $15 a month billed yearly for simple sites with no CMS, and Premium is $25 a month billed yearly for content-rich sites with the CMS. Workspace plans, the team layer, are billed separately from site plans; Growth is $49 a month billed yearly.

Best fit

Marketing sites, directories and editorial sites where design precision and structured content matter more than speed.

Watch out for

Budget a week before judging it, and price seats as well as the site plan. Webflow can export your HTML and CSS from a paid Workspace plan, but dynamic content such as CMS items cannot be exported.

Official pricing page · Webflow review · Webflow vs Squarespace · Alternatives after the price rise

Framer

Best for designers who want motion and pixel control

A design tool that publishes sites

• Free$0 · 30 pages · 1 GB
• Basic$10/mo yearly · 50 GB
• Pro$30/mo yearly · 150 pages
• Extra editor$20/mo per seat

What it costs

Free is $0 with 30 pages, 2 CMS collections and 1 GB of bandwidth. Basic is $10 a month billed yearly (30 pages, 2 collections, 50 GB) and Pro is $30 a month billed yearly (150 pages, 10 collections, 100 GB). Extra editors cost $20 a month per seat on Basic and Pro. Framer’s page shows yearly billing only, with no monthly rates.

Best fit

Designers and small teams who want layout, animation and interaction control without writing code.

Watch out for

Per-seat billing adds up fast for teams. Some older guides still list a Scale plan; it no longer appears on Framer’s pricing page.

Official pricing page

Hostinger Website Builder

Best for budget buyers who can prepay

The lowest realistic price, if you commit for years

• Premium$2.99/mo · 48-month term
• Renews at$10.99/mo (+268%)
• Unlimited$3.99 → $16.99/mo (+326%)
• Ecommerce$5.99 → $8.99/mo

What it costs

Premium is $2.99 a month on a 48-month term ($143.52 up front, up to 3 websites) and renews at $10.99. Unlimited is $3.99 renewing at $16.99, and Cloud Startup is $7.99 renewing at $25.99. There is no free plan, only a 30-day money-back guarantee. A separate Ecommerce plan costs $5.99 a month on a 12-month term, renewing at $8.99 ($11.99 month to month), and Hostinger states 0% platform transaction fees.

Best fit

Buyers who want the cheapest site and will commit to a long term.

Watch out for

The low price needs four years paid in advance, and the renewal rate is the real price. Our Hostinger review covers that pattern in depth.

Official pricing page · Hostinger review · Hostinger vs Cloudways

GoDaddy Website Builder

Price not verified in US dollars

Now an AI builder, with US pricing we could not confirm

• Free50 AI credits a month
• Starter150 credits · 1 site
• Professional300 credits · 10 sites
• US priceNot verified

What it costs

GoDaddy now sells its builder as an AI tool: you describe the site and it generates one. Its pricing page lists a Free plan (50 AI credits a month, no card), a Starter plan (150 credits, one site, free custom domain) and a Professional plan (300 credits, ten sites, bookings and payments). When we loaded the page it showed prices in rupees, and the US page blocked our automated check, so we cannot give you a verified dollar price. Older guides quote Basic, Premium and Commerce plans; those names did not appear on the page we saw.

Best fit

Beginners who want an AI to draft a first version.

Watch out for

Confirm the live US price and the renewal rate before buying. Independent migration guides report that GoDaddy sites cannot be exported with a built-in tool; we have not confirmed that with GoDaddy.

Official pricing page

Weebly (Square Online)

Best for small, simple stores

A simple builder with a shopping cart on every plan

• Free$0
• Personal$13/mo annual · $16 monthly
• Professional$15/mo annual · $20 monthly
• Performance$32/mo annual · $36 monthly

What it costs

Personal is $13 a month on annual billing ($16 month to month), Professional is $15 ($20) and Performance is $32 ($36). Every plan, including Free, lists a shopping cart and free SSL; connecting a custom domain needs Personal or higher. Weebly states that the 2.9% + 30¢ online payment fee is Square’s processing fee, not a Weebly platform charge.

Best fit

Small shops and simple sites, especially if you already use Square.

Watch out for

It has fewer design controls than Webflow or Framer and is now sold as eCommerce by Square, so check the product’s direction before building something large on it.

Official pricing page

Stores, publishing, one-page sites and apps

Shopify

Best for stores at real volume

Built for selling, with the website as a side effect

• Basic$19/mo yearly · $25 monthly
• Grow$49/mo yearly · $65 monthly
• Advanced$299/mo yearly · $399 monthly
• Other gateway+2% / 1% / 0.6% / 0.2%

What it costs

Basic is $19 a month billed yearly ($25 monthly), Grow is $49 ($65) and Advanced is $299 ($399). Plus starts at $2,300 a month. New stores get 3 days free, then $1 a month for 3 months. Shopify Payments adds no platform fee; using a different payment provider adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. Card rates are on our payments guide.

Best fit

Anyone whose main goal is selling products, with inventory, several sales channels and point of sale.

Watch out for

The site is secondary to the store, so a content-heavy site may fit better elsewhere, and the third-party gateway fee penalises leaving Shopify Payments.

Official pricing page · Payment processing guide · Dropshipping without Shopify

WordPress.com

Best for blogs and content you may move later

Hosted WordPress, with a fee on store sales that falls by plan

• Personal$4/mo yearly → renews $5
• Premium$8/mo yearly → renews $9
• Business$25/mo yearly → renews $28
• Commerce$45/mo yearly → renews $50

What it costs

Yearly billing is $4, $8, $25 and $45 a month for Personal, Premium, Business and Commerce, renewing at $5, $9, $28 and $50. Paying every 3 years lowers the starting rate to $2.75, $5.50, $17.50 and $31.50; monthly billing is $9, $18, $40 and $70. Storage is 6, 13, 50 and 50 GB. WordPress.com takes a transaction fee on store sales that falls by plan: 10% on Free, 8% Personal, 4% Premium, 2% Business and 0% Commerce. Paid plans include a free domain for the first year on annual or longer terms.

Best fit

Blogs, publications and content sites, especially if you may want self-hosted WordPress later.

Watch out for

Transaction fees on the lower plans make it a poor store choice below Commerce. WordPress.com’s support page says plugins can be installed on every paid plan, so older advice that you need the Business plan is out of date.

Official pricing page · Self-hosted WordPress: best web hosting

Ghost

Best for newsletters and paid memberships

A publishing platform with memberships built in

• Starter$18/mo yearly · 1,000 members
• Publisher$29/mo yearly · 3 staff
• Business$199/mo yearly · 10,000 members
• Platform fee0% on memberships

What it costs

Starter is $18 a month billed yearly (1 staff user, 1,000 members, no custom themes, no paid subscriptions). Publisher is $29 (3 staff users, custom themes and paid subscriptions) and Business is $199 (15 staff users, 10,000 members). Ghost says it charges 0% transaction fees: your site connects to your own Stripe account and only Stripe’s standard processing applies.

Best fit

Independent writers and publishers charging for memberships or a newsletter.

Watch out for

It is a publishing platform, not a general small-business builder. It is one of the easiest to leave: Ghost can export content as JSON, members as a CSV and your theme as a ZIP.

Official pricing page

Carrd

Best for link-in-bio and landing pages

One-page sites for almost nothing

• Free$0 · 3 sites
• Pro Lite$9/yr · no custom domain
• Pro Standard$19/yr · custom domain
• Pro Plus$49/yr · 25 sites

What it costs

Free allows three sites on a Carrd address. Pro Lite is $9 a year with no custom domain. Pro Standard is $19 a year for ten sites with a custom domain, forms and analytics, and Pro Plus is $49 a year for 25 sites with advanced forms. All Carrd pricing is yearly.

Best fit

Link-in-bio pages, landing pages, resumes and one-page portfolios.

Watch out for

It is built for single-page sites, with no CMS, blog or built-in store. You can download a site as a ZIP of source code only on Pro Plus or higher, and form elements will not work in that download.

Official pricing page

Bubble

Best for building an application

For apps with logins and a database, not for pages people read

• Free$0 · 50K workload units
• Starter$59/mo annual · 175K units
• Growth$209/mo annual · 250K units
• Team$549/mo annual · 500K units

What it costs

Free lets you build with 50,000 workload units a month but not use a custom domain. Starter is $59 a month billed annually (175,000 units, custom domain, mobile app builds), Growth is $209 (250,000 units, two editors, version control) and Team is $549 (500,000 units, five editors). Enterprise is custom. Bubble’s page now shows annual billing only. These figures replace the lower ones we published before.

Best fit

Marketplaces, SaaS prototypes and internal tools with user accounts and stored data.

Watch out for

Pricing follows usage, so a popular app costs more, and it is the wrong tool for a content site.

Official pricing page · Bubble review · What lock-in means

Site or App: Which Job Do You Have?

This is the question most roundups skip. A site presents information: pages, a blog, a portfolio, a product catalog. An app stores data and does things when a user acts: accounts, permissions, bookings, a marketplace. Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Framer, Shopify, WordPress.com, Ghost and Carrd all build the first kind. Bubble builds the second kind.

Webflow’s CMS can hold structured content such as a directory or job board, but it has no database logic for user-generated data. If the project needs sign-ups, stored records and workflows that respond to what a user does, you are choosing Bubble or custom development, not a site builder. Bubble prices by workload units, so cost follows usage: cheap for a quiet internal tool and a real risk if the app becomes popular.

If you are not sure, ask whether people mostly read it or mostly use it. Reading means a site builder. Using, logging in and saving things means an app builder. Several builders are also adding AI generation, which blurs the line, but the underlying question of whether you need a database and accounts stays the same.

Costs That Do Not Show on the Price Tag

• Renewal increases. WordPress.com Personal starts at $4 a month on yearly billing and renews at $5. Hostinger Premium starts at $2.99 and renews at $10.99 (+268%); Unlimited goes from $3.99 to $16.99 (+326%). Squarespace, Wix and Webflow list one price per billing term.
• Platform fees on sales. Squarespace charges 2% on store sales and 7% on digital content on Basic (0% and 5% on Core, 0% and 0% on Advanced). WordPress.com charges 10%, 8%, 4%, 2% and 0% from Free up to Commerce. Shopify adds 2%, 1%, 0.6% or 0.2% by plan if you use another payment provider. Ghost and Hostinger state 0%.
• Seats. Framer charges $20 a month per extra editor on Basic and Pro. Webflow bills Workspace plans separately from site plans; Growth is $49 a month billed yearly. Our Webflow review works through the multi-seat math.
• Storage limits. Wix Light includes 2 GB and 2 collaborators; WordPress.com Personal includes 6 GB and Premium 13 GB.
• Free domain is for the first year. Wix and WordPress.com include a domain for the first year only; after that you pay the registrar’s renewal price.
• AI credits. GoDaddy’s plans are measured in AI credits per month (50, 150 and 300 across Free, Starter and Professional).

Can You Leave? Export and Cancellation

This is the least-documented part of the category, so here is only what each vendor’s own help pages state.

For the others, treat export as limited unless the vendor states otherwise. Our guides to migrating off Wix, Squarespace or Webflow and no-code vendor lock-in cover what transfers and what breaks.

How to Choose

1. Decide site, store, publication or app first. If the project needs accounts and a database, you are choosing Bubble or custom development.
2. Decide how permanent the choice is. If you might move later, favour WordPress.com, Ghost or Webflow over Wix.
3. Price the third year, not the first. Use the calculator and look at renewals, store fees and seats.
4. For a store, match the plan to your sales. Lower plans carry higher platform fees; the cheapest plan changes with volume.
5. For design control, test before you pay. Webflow and Framer both have free plans; spend an evening in one before committing.
6. Check the live price. Prices differ by country and change often, and several vendors show different numbers than a year ago.

Who Should Not Use Each One

• Skip Wix if you might move to another platform later.
• Skip Squarespace Basic if you sell products or digital content; the fees overtake the upgrade.
• Skip Webflow if you need a site live this week and have no design background.
• Skip Framer for a team sensitive to per-seat billing.
• Skip Hostinger’s cheapest price if you will not commit for four years.
• Skip GoDaddy until you have confirmed the live US price and renewal rate.
• Skip Shopify for a content-first site where selling is secondary.
• Skip WordPress.com’s lower plans as a store because of the transaction fees.
• Skip Ghost for a general small-business site.
• Skip Carrd if you need more than one page, a blog or a store.
• Skip Bubble for anything people simply read.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Bubble a website builder like Squarespace or Wix?

No. Squarespace, Wix, Webflow and the others produce sites: pages, blogs, stores. Bubble produces applications with a database, user logins and workflow logic. The pricing reflects it: flat plans for the site builders and usage-based workload units for Bubble.

Do website builders include hosting?

Yes. Every builder on this page includes hosting in its plan price; you do not buy it separately. If you want to choose your own host, that is a different path, covered in our best web hosting guide.

Which website builder is cheapest?

For one page, Carrd at $19 a year. For a multi-page site over three years, Hostinger’s 48-month plan and WordPress.com’s yearly plan cost the least, but Hostinger needs a four-year prepay and both renew higher. Over longer periods the gap narrows. Use the calculator for your own numbers.

Is there a really free plan?

Wix, WordPress.com, Webflow, Framer, Carrd, Weebly, GoDaddy and Bubble all list free plans with limits (no custom domain on several). Squarespace offers a 14-day trial instead, Shopify a 3-day trial then $1 a month for 3 months, and Hostinger a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Can I use my own domain on a free plan?

Generally not. Carrd’s free plan has no custom domain, and Weebly requires the Personal plan or higher to connect one. Bubble’s free plan also excludes custom domains.

What happens to my site if I stop paying?

It varies and is poorly documented. Wix keeps the site online on a free address with ads. Squarespace hides the site 15 days after a failed renewal charge. See the table above, and check the vendor’s current help pages before relying on it.

Which builders let me export my site?

Ghost exports content, members and themes. Webflow exports HTML and CSS (not CMS items) on a paid Workspace plan. Carrd allows a source download on Pro Plus. Wix does not allow export to another host. For the rest, see our migration guides.

Are there transaction fees on top of card processing?

On some platforms. Squarespace Basic charges 2% on store sales, WordPress.com charges up to 10% on lower plans, and Shopify adds a fee if you use another payment provider. Ghost and Hostinger state 0% platform fees. Card processing itself usually starts around 2.9% + 30¢; see our payment processing guide.

Should I pick Squarespace or Webflow?

Squarespace if you have no design background and want a professional result fast. Webflow if the design must be exact and you will learn how layout works. See the full comparison.

What if my site might need app-like features later?

Plan a separate tool rather than expecting a site builder to grow into one. Most can embed forms and basic interactivity, but none is built for a database with user accounts. If an app is likely, prototype that piece in Bubble from the start.

How We Assessed These

Every price on this page comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, read on October 3, 2026. We loaded the pages as they render in a browser and read plan names and prices directly. Two limits: Wix shows prices by country and adds regional tax, so the US figures are the pre-tax annual prices shown on its page; and GoDaddy’s page showed rupees and blocked the US view, so we do not state a US price. Export and cancellation statements come from the vendors’ help pages. We have reviewed Squarespace, Webflow, Bubble and Hostinger ourselves; the other builders are covered from their pricing and help pages only, and we have not hands-on tested them for this page. We do not score the builders against each other on one scale, because they do different jobs. The calculator uses published prices and your inputs; it is an estimate, not a quote. Disclosure: some links on this page may be affiliate links; that has no bearing on which tool is recommended for which job.

Related

• Squarespace review · Webflow review · Bubble review · Hostinger review
• Webflow vs Squarespace · Webflow alternatives after the price rise
• Migrating off Wix, Squarespace or Webflow · No-code vendor lock-in
• Squarespace SEO limits · Squarespace to WordPress · Cancel Squarespace
• Best payment processing software · Best web hosting · Best AI tools