Best Cheap Website Builders in 2023: Pricing Plans, Hidden Fees & More

Our research shows that Square is the best cheap website builder, thanks to its surprisingly impressive free forever plan. This website builder allows you to set up a website with an online store at no cost to you, except for transaction fees when you make a sale.

The top three cheapest website builders we would recommend are:

1. Square – From $0 per month (“freemium”)
2. 1&1 IONOS – From $1 per month
3. Hostinger – From $2.69 per month with our code “TECH”

As business margins are squeezed even tighter in 2023, finding tech that offers a long-term return on investments is paramount. So, if you’re looking for value over a rock-bottom entry price, we have to recommend Wix, as it offers the biggest feature catalog in our research, at the starting price of only $14.40 per month with the code GET10! Plus, there’s a 14-day free trial to try it out, and it’s incredibly easy to use, with plenty of help and support options so even beginners can get started quickly.

The order of the builders featured on this page is based on the price and affordability of the cheapest premium plans available from the builders.

However, we’ve also tested and compared these products against other crucial criteria like features, functionality, customer score, ease of use, and customization tools – so you can find the best cheap website builder for you without having to compromise on quality. To see how the prices, functionalities, and features of these providers weigh up against each other, read on.

Or if you’re in a hurry, simply take our 1-minute web builder comparison quiz and you’ll get three personalized recommendations based on your needs. This quiz has been built based on the independent research and user testing of our expert in-house team.

In this guide:

• Best Cheap Website Builders
• How Much Should a Website Builder Cost?
• Why You Should Avoid Free Website Builder Plans
• Methodology: How We Test Cheap Website Builders
• Verdict: What is the Best Cheap Website Builder?
• Best Cheap Website Builder FAQs

You may also be interested in our guide on how to build and make money from a profitable website.

Best Cheap Website Builders and Ecommerce Platforms

The affordability of these products was the key criterion in our evaluation process when ranking the best cheap website builders. However, our research and product testing insights will also help you compare the builders in terms of feature richness, how easy they are to set up and maintain, and how well they score for design flexibility, among other things.

1. Square – Best for businesses on a budget
2. 1&1 IONOS – Best cheap website builder for international businesses
3. Hostinger – Best cheap website builder for beginners
4. Jimdo – Best cheap website builder for ease of use
5. Wix – Best value website builder
6. Squarespace – Best cheap website builder for growing businesses

We explain more in our in-depth review of the best cheap website builders below.

1. Square Online – Best for businesses on a budget

After reviewing the top ecommerce platforms on the market, our team of in-house researchers decided that Square was the cheapest option available, almost exclusively due to the fact that it offers a free forever plan that can get you selling from an online store at no cost to your business, unlike other major ecommerce platforms like Squarespace and Shopify.

This free plan offers SEO, delivery & shipping, and Afterpay tools — its free plan doesn’t skimp on useful features either. Businesses can also use Square Free to sell on a variety of social media platforms, allowing them to unlock valuable new revenue streams.

Read about the best web builders for SEO here.

However, like Square’s other plans, Plus and Premium, its free tier does charge transaction fees on all sales. This means that while start-up costs are rock bottom, costs may add up over time, making Square less suited to businesses selling products with smaller margins.

Find out more about Square’s pricing structure here.

Value for money aside, Square is also one of the easiest platforms to get started with. After testing the product out ourselves, we found it quick and simple to get started on, and connecting with third-party integrations was a wiz.

The platform’s interface is intuitive and easy to navigate too, and it doesn’t overload you with unnecessary details. This makes the system ideal for businesses just getting to grips with ecommerce software, as well as those with tighter budgets.

Square Online pricing

Square Online pricing offers two paid plans — Plus and Premium — in addition to its robust free forever plan, which secured the top spot on the cheapest website builders list. You will have transaction fees of 2.9% + 30¢ for each transaction, and your site will have limited customization options, but you’ll be able to build a website, with SEO help, social selling capabilities, and compatibility with Square POS.

The Plus plan costs $29 per month, and you’ll still have to pay transaction fees at the same rate. However, you will get access to more customization, customer accounts, self-serve ordering, and the ability to accept PayPal.

Finally, the Premium plan costs $79 per month and you get your transaction fees bumped down to only 2.6% + 30¢ for every transaction. On top of that, you’ll unlock real-time shipping rates, so your customers will know exactly how much they’re paying.

Our final verdict on Square Online

You really can’t beat free when it comes to the cheapest website builder available, which is why Square Online is our number one pick in the category. Sure, you’ve got to deal with transaction fees and your site will be decidedly rudimentary as far as features go. Plus, the paid plans get a bit expensive compared to other options like Wix.

Still, for starters, you’ll be able to set up an online store at no cost to your business, and you can start making money right out of the gate. That kind of cheap website builder is attractive to a lot of businesses, and if you’re already set up with a physical POS system from Square, it seems like a match made in heaven.

2. 1&1 IONOS – Best cheap website builder for international businesses

1&1 IONOS may not be one of the better-known options, but it still provides some solid options when it comes to website building at a close-to-free price. At only $1 per month for the first year, 1&1 IONOS could only lose out to a free website builder as the cheapest option.

Even better, it’s a solid website builder all around. For one, it had the quickest server response time and the best mobile site speed in all of our tests, which is nothing to scoff at. With the average user clicking off a site in less than three seconds if it doesn’t load, this can make a huge difference even for small businesses.

Plus, it allows for simple SEO help within the editor, so you can optimize your site easily without a lot of back and forth.

The primary draw of 1&1 IONOS though, is that it offers some serious internationalization features. Between the ability to make your website multilingual and the ability to utilize international domains, you can set yourself up to be an international business in no time.

1&1 IONOS Pricing

1&1 offers three different pricing plans: Starter, Plus, and Pro.

The Starter plan starts at $5 per month for the first six months, then it costs $9 per month after that. You start with unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth, so no stress about visitor counts. You’ll also get access to some pre-built templates for specific sections, which limits customizability but makes it easy to use.

The Plus plan is your next option, at $1 per month for the first year, and $15 per month after that. This plan adds a whole bunch of customizable templates, so you can really create what you want. Plus, you’ll be able to set up the site to be multilingual, which will significantly increase your potential visitor numbers.

Finally, the Pro plan will cost you $15 per month for the first six months, and then it costs $25 per month after that. Most notably, this plan adds targeted content delivery and personalization, so you can take customer retention to a whole new level.

Our final verdict on 1&1 IONOS

While our research found that 1&1 IONOS does offer the best server response time and mobile speed performance, its lack of customization and marketing features mean that it doesn’t provide the same capabilities and flexibility in design that we found with other options like Wix.

1&1 IONOS is definitely cheap at first, given the deal that get you robust website functionality for only a $1 per month for the first year. After that, though, it’s comparably priced to the likes of Wix and Squarespace, which both offer a lot more features. Simply put, if you’re in it for the long-haul, this website builder might not be your best bet.

3. Hostinger – Best cheap website builder for beginners

If you’re looking for a no-frills website builder won’t cost you an arm and a leg, you just found it. Hostinger (formerly known as Zyro) is certainly not one of the more well-known website builder options out there, but our research suggests it has a lot of potential, and it is certainly very affordable, with its cheapest deal available to Tech.co readers for under $3 a month.

Its pricing is very competitive, it offers a few advanced features, including a logo maker, and it provides a lot of very easy-to-use templates that make website building simple.

Check out our Hostinger vs Wixcomparison guide for more info.

Hostinger doesn’t have an app store, which decidedly limits its customizability. However, it offers a wide range of cool additional features that can really help you when it comes to building your site, including an AI writer, which provides unique, engaging written content on your site without you having to lift a finger.

You’ll also be able to utilize the platform’s logo maker to better establish your brand. From an analytics standpoint, Hostinger offers a comprehensive heatmap, which will help you better understand how your users interact with your website. However, if you’re not fussed about the design, don’t have a lot of experience (or money), and just need to get your website going, Hostinger, for its cost alone, is certainly worth a try.

Hostinger Pricing

The most attractive feature of Hostinger is the price. It’s cheaper than your average website builder, by a lot, so if you’re looking to save some money, Hostinger is a great place to start.

With Tech.co’s unique code, “TECH”, that reduces Hostinger’s price by 78%, Hostinger’s joint website and ecommerce builder is available for $2.69 per month for the first term, down from $11.99 if you pay monthly.

Renewal prices vary depending on the length of the subscription you choose. The plan renews at $8.99 per month for 12 months subscriptions, $7.99 per month for 24 months subscriptions, and $6.99 per month for 48 months subscriptions.

Check out our Hostinger review for more information.

Our final verdict on Hostinger

There’s no doubt about it, Hostinger is a solid, cheap website builder. The starting price of only $3 per month, and you can lock in that price for a few years if you so choose. When you end up renewing, the price does go up, but not by much, with the renewal prices costing between $7 and $12 per month, which is better than both Wix and Squarespace ($16 per month).

Overall, Hostinger is a good cheap website builder if you’re a business only focused on price, and not functionality, but if you care about the design, ease of use and customizability, you might want to look elsewhere.

4. Jimdo – Best cheap website builder for ease of use

Jimdo isn’t the best website builder on the list, but dollar for dollar, it offers the great value for an intuitive software. Like Square Online, getting started with and navigating the software is quick and easy.

There are, of course, some limitations that come with Jimdo. For one, our research found that there is no blogging functionality, so you won’t be able to target your audience or attract customers using a blog.

Because of this, there’s very little SEO guidance and virtually no internal marketing features, which could have an impact on your audience reach. Still, if you need to get up and running quickly and easily, for cheap, our researchers say Jimdo is still a valid option, but when it comes to the best cheap website builder, Wix still comes out on top.

Jimdo Pricing

When it comes to pricing, Jimdo does offer a free plan called Play, but it also features two other pricing plans; Start and Grow, to cater to different business budgets.

The Play plan is completely free, but our research concluded that it doesn’t offer much functionality. You’ll get a ready-branded domain, which is never ideal, and there’s no help with SEO, which obviously hurts when it comes to attracting new customers. Still, you’ll be able to get a site live, which still counts for something.

Now, the Start plan will cost you $9 per month, and definitely adds some serious functionality. You’ll get a custom domain, some SEO help, better support options, and a generally more functional website across the board.

The Grow plan is aimed at companies looking to scale, and will cost you $14 per month. This plan gives you more bandwidth and more storage, so you’ll be able to handle more visitors. You’ll also get even more SEO help as well as social media marketing capabilities, so you can really grow your business.

Our final verdict on Jimdo

Jimdo isn’t the best cheap website builder on this list, but as it’s still an excellent value money at only $9 per month, it still ranks as a good, cheap website builder. There are some limitations to the platform, as mentioned, especially when it comes to expanding your audience reach, but it is easy to use, and could be of even better use, if you paid for the marketing add-on, at $4 a month.

5. Wix – The best cheap website builder overall

Our independent reviewers spent hours testing the best website builders on the market, and Wix proved to be the overall winner. Although it doesn’t offer the cheapest plans on this list, with the starting premium plan price being $16 per month, we’d say it does offer the best value for money when you look and what you pay and what you get in terms of functionality. Plus, you can get 10% off by inputting the code GET10! at checkout, so it’s actually even cheaper!

Wix also offers a free plan, like Square Online, and users can try out premium tiers before they buy with its 14-day free trial. The paid plans from Wix are truly great. With significantly more templates than other website builders, Wix offers the most flexibility in design – with hundreds of customizable templates to choose from.

Our research also found Wix to be one of the most feature-rich website builders on the market, scoring 4.8/5 in our final feature rating. Its logo maker, POS, payment, scheduling and email marketing features provide massive value to small business in the U.S, and with a video maker, and social media integrations, Wix really does provide the most bang for your buck.

Wix proved to be a customer favorite, scoring the highest overall customer rating in our independent review, at 4.6/5. Its translation functionality also makes it ideal for businesses looking to manage, expand or diversify their existing client-base, as it allows you to display your content in multiple languages, making your business’ website all the more accessible. Help and support functionality is fundamental too, and Wix came out on top with a score of 4.6/ 5 in our review.

Thanks to an exclusive partnership with Semrush, Wix users are able to access the platform’s database of over 21 billion keywords to make it easier to improve search rankings. This, alongside Wix’s new SEO settings that give users greater control over the process, cements its place as the best builder for advanced search engine optimization.

Whether you’re in retail, finance, construction or the restaurant business, Wix is the most adaptable platform, making it a suitable platform for a number of businesses. Our research found it to be beautiful in design, simple to use, and includes everything a business would need to advertise and attract new business online. With its extensive list of features and huge variety of templates, it’s no surprise that our research found Wix to be the best small business website builder. Its advanced business features like CRM, makes Wix a powerful platform, providing more value for money than other website builders on the market.

Wix recently announced a series of new AI-powered features, including an AI Text Creator which can be used to generate, titles, taglines, and user profiles for your site, and an AI Image Creator which lets you make high-quality personalized images using prompts.

We tested Wix’s AI Text Generator tool ourselves and were really impressed by its tailored output and the amount of time it saved us. The website builder is also about to release an AI Site Generator tool, which will use ChatGPT technology to create entire sites – a feat never seen before in online web builders.

Wix Pricing

Wix offers four pricing plans: Light, Core, Business, and Business Elite. There is no longer a free version of Wix, but you can get a 14-day free trial.

The Light plan – which starts at $16 per month,  allows you to connect a domain name to your Wix site and enjoy plenty of bandwidth and storage. You’ll also have full access to Wix’s website building tools, including its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor, generous templates, and range of third-party extensions.

The big news here, however, is that you won’t have to pay Wix any commission on the sales you make from your website.

The Light plan comes in at $16 per month, the Core plan is $27 per month, the Business package is $32 per month, the Business Elite plan is $159 per month and the Enterprise plan is priced on a case-by-case basis.

And remember, you can get 10% off any and all plans from Wix by using the code GET10! at checkout.

For more information, you can check out our Wix Pricing guide or you can get started with Wix straightaway.

Our final verdict on Wix

Side by side with the website builders in the market, our research found that Wix was the overall winner, but that doesn’t mean it’s cheap. It’s definitely the best value on the list, with more features than any other option on the list, but the starting price of $16 per month and the 14-day free trial keeps it further down the list.

6. Squarespace – Best cheap website builder for growing businesses

If you’re trying to grow your business — and who isn’t? — Squarespace is uniquely positioned to help, thanks to its robust marketing functionality.

Our research found that Squarespace’s marketing functionality was pretty top tier, and its features — specifically designed to attract new customers — boost retention and improve businesses over time, made it a solid website builder for small to medium size businesses.

We also found Squarespace to offer some of the most beautiful templates on the market, and if you’re looking for granular design over your site’s aesthetics, Squarespace’s Fluid Engine lets you fine-tune your site exactly to your liking using a unique grid-based system.

However, after testing out Squarespace, we found it didn’t quite compare to Wix when it came to customization. It lacks Wix’s impressive AI toolkit too, which means it may take you a little longer to build a site from scratch.

Squarespace Pricing

Like Wix, Squarespace doesn’t offer a free version of its platform, but there is a 14-day free Squarespace trial which will allow you to test out their offering.

Squarespace’s Personal plan, and cheapest tier is $16 per month (with annual billing), and offers a host of features normally reserved for tiers that are more costly when we compared it to other website builders in our research. With Squarespace’s Personal plan you’ll get unlimited storage and bandwidth, free custom domains, and 24/7 customer support. If you choose monthly billing, it’ll set you back $23 per month.

Squarespace’s Business plan costs $23 per month with annual billing or $33 per month with monthly billing. You’ll be able to register an unlimited number of contributors to your site, as well as getting professional, branded email and Workspace tools from Google.

Squarespace also offers two other plans specifically aimed at online stores. The Basic Commerce plan costs $27 per month when paid annually or $36 per month with monthly billing. You won’t have to pay any transaction fees on the sales you make and you get a fully mobile-optimized checkout and improved commercial metrics.

The Advanced Commerce plan, on the other hand, costs $49 per month or $65 per month with monthly or annual billing, respectively. You get a bunch of new features including advanced shipping rate calculations, flexible discounts, and access to the Orders API which allows you to build custom third-party integrations.

Save 10% on Squarespace Plans with code TECHCO10 at checkout

If you want to learn more about Squarespace, check out our full Pricing Guide. However, if you need to build an online store, we’d try Squarespace’s 14-day free trial

Our final verdict on Squarespace

From a cheap standpoint, Squarespace suffers an even worse fate than Wix, with a starting plan at the same $16 per month rate and no free plan to speak of, beyond that 14-day Squarespace free trial. Still, if you’re planning to scale at all and style is important to you, Squarespace’s templates and intuitive interface are more than worth the investment.

How Much Should a Website Cost?

The top website builder companies — Square, Wix, and Squarespace — charge different amounts. Some offer free trials, while others will give you a free website indefinitely. However, you’ll need to be realistic about the level of features that you’ll need and you’ll need to be prepared to pay for them.

After all, the needs of a student looking to create an online portfolio are pretty different from the needs of a sole trader looking to attract customers and are different again to someone looking to sell their wares online.

You’ll also need to factor in the costs of domains, hosting, plugins, and third-party apps, which can all add up.

• For a portfolio site – Expect to pay around $12 per month. You’ll need a website builder that offers a lot of storage so you can upload images of your work – Squarespace pricing indicates it could be a good choice.
• For a blog – Expect to pay $6-14 per month. We’d recommend WordPress here, and you can easily build a blog with the Personal plan, which costs $4 a month. If you’re looking for more customization, you can move up to the Premium plan, which costs $8 per month.
• For a small business site – Expect to pay around $12-26 per month. If you’re happy to have a pretty basic website, you could definitely get by spending only $10 per month. However, if you’re looking for more advanced features such as appointment booking or contact forms, you’ll be looking at closer to $20 per month – although the extra outlay will be worth it.
• For a larger business site – Expect to pay $20-40 per month. If you’re running a larger business, your customers will be expecting more from your site, making site uptime and bandwidth essential. Make sure you find the best cheap website hosting service to increase uptime, and look for a website builder with generous bandwidth to make sure customers can get to your site. You’ll also need advanced features such as contact forms, appointment booking, and SEO tools to compete in competitive markets.
• For an ecommerce site – Expect to pay $30+ per month. Ecommerce websites are expensive and complicated to run. So much so, in fact, that there are dedicated platforms for running these kinds of sites. You’ll need to make sure that the platform you choose doesn’t have transaction fees, supports multiple payment options, and doesn’t limit the number of sales you can make in a month.

Why You Should Avoid Free Website Builder Plans

While lots of the website builders above offer free plans, they’re often very limited in terms of features. And, when you can build a good website from as little as $2.61 per month from Hostinger, there’s no real reason to compromise.

With a paid-for site, even one that’s only a few dollars a month, you won’t have to put up with adverts, website builder branding, a fixed domain name (e.g. username.wixsite.com/website) and limited functionality

You’ll also get better support and analytics, which free users won’t have access to. Better security is another benefit, and one that’s particularly important for modern ecommerce websites. If you bump the price up a little (to the value of two or three fancy coffees a month, rather than one) you’ll get a professional-looking site, improved features, like social media integration, contact forms and the possibility to monetize your site.

Methodology: How We Rate Cheap Website Builders

Best Cheap Website Builder FAQs