01The cheapest options, compared
Figures are from each product's own pricing page except where noted, in US dollars, October 2026.
| Builder | Price | Your own domain? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sites | Free | Yes, connect one you own | Simple information sites, clubs, classes |
| Carrd | Free; Pro Standard $19/yr | On Pro Standard | One-page sites and link pages |
| Canva | Free for 5 sites; Pro about $180/yr | On Pro | Designers already using Canva |
| Wix | Free with ads; Light $17/mo yearly | On Light | Multi-page sites with apps |
| Hostinger | $2.99/mo for 48 months | Yes, first-year domain free | Cheap multi-page sites, if you prepay |
| Square Online | Free; card fees per sale | On paid plans | Selling with no monthly fee |
02Three-year cost, not first-month cost
Introductory prices hide the real cost. Hostinger's $2.99 plan is $143.52 paid upfront for 48 months and renews at $10.99 a month. Carrd charges $19 a year with no introductory discount, so year three costs the same as year one. Wix Light at $17 a month on yearly billing is about $612 over three years, plus the domain after its free first year.
Add a domain (often $15 to $20 a year after the first) and, if you need it, email. For a one-page site, Carrd plus a domain is hard to beat. For a multi-page business site, the gap narrows, and what you can do with the site starts to matter more than the price.
03What you give up on the cheapest plans
For a club, a class or an event, none of these matter. For a business that wants to look established, branding and a proper domain usually do. The best cheap website builder goes deeper on that trade-off.
- The builder's branding or ads on free plans.
- A long, branded address unless you pay for a custom domain.
- Page limits: Carrd and many Canva sites are single pages.
- Design control: Google Sites has a handful of layouts.
- Store features: free and cheap plans rarely sell well.
- Support: cheap tiers usually mean email or chat only.
04Free hosting if you can build it yourself
If you can write or generate HTML, hosting a static site is free on GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Netlify or Vercel, and you only pay for the domain. How to host a website for free compares them. AI builders that export code make this route open to non-developers: build with AI, download the code, host it free.
05Picking the cheapest option for your situation
The cheapest tool that does the job is the right one. Paying for features you will not use is the most common way small sites overspend.
- Club, class or community group: Google Sites, free.
- Personal page or link-in-bio: Carrd free, or Pro Standard for $19 a year with your domain.
- Event or wedding page that lives for months: Canva free, or a free wedding platform.
- Small business brochure site: compare Wix Light, Hostinger and an AI builder over three years.
- Selling with no monthly fee: Square Online's free plan, paying card fees per sale.
What people who tried it say
Hacker News commenters asked whether $20 to $40 a month is fair for a builder at all, and freelancers describe moving clients to whatever keeps total cost and maintenance lowest.
- Ask HN: What do you expect from a no-code website builder?Hacker News
Commenters wanted clean exportable code (calling it a bold promise), questioned paying $20 to $40 a month, and said most sites are simple landing pages while complex ones still need a developer.
- Ask HN: Freelance website builders/maintainers, what's in your 2024 toolkit?Hacker News
Freelancers split between coded stacks and hosted builders; one noted that Webflow agencies made sites predictable enough to sell at flat rates, and another said they had moved marketing sites to Framer.
Looking for more first-hand opinions? Search Reddit for “cheapest website builder”. We link the live threads rather than summarizing them, so you read them in full.
Our take
for one page, Carrd plus your own domain; for a real business site, pay for a builder you will not have to leave in a year. Moving a site costs more than the savings.
Where this falls short
Prices vary by country and change often. Hostinger's and Wix's figures assume prepaid terms; monthly billing costs more.
Orlume's free plan builds and publishes sites with no card; paid plans start at $10 a month, and higher plans can download the code to host anywhere.
Free to start · No card required · Live in one click
Sources
- 1.Carrd Pro · Carrd
- 2.Hostinger Website Builder · Hostinger
- 3.Wix plans and pricing · Wix
- 4.Canva Websites overview and getting started guide · Canva Help Center
- 5.Use a custom domain for your site · Google Sites Help
- 6.Square Online plans · Square
Researched and written by the Orlume team · Updated October 2026
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