A Guide to the Cheapest Website Builders: Comparing the Best Builders for Smaller Budgets

Cheapest overall website builder with great blogging features.

WordPress Overview

WordPress is the most popular platform to build a website on – it’s so popular, in fact, that it powers one third of websites online today! However, most of these sites are built on WordPress.org, an open-source content management system (CMS). As a CMS, WordPress.org lets you organize and store a lot more content, but it also demands more technical know-how than WordPress.com.

If you’re interested in reading more about the differences, see our WordPress.com vs WordPress.org guide. But for now, we’ll focus on WordPress.com!

WordPress Review

Besides its free plan, WordPress.com can be used for as little as $3/month on its ‘Blogger’ plan. As you can guess from the name, this plan is specifically designed to help people build a blogging website.

It may lack the customization you get with other web builders, but you can’t fault its value for money.

You’ll have to put up with a “.blog” subdomain, but look beyond that, and you receive email support, 6GB of storage space, dozens of free themes, and basic design customization. You can also remove WordPress ads from your site.

Do We Recommend WordPress.com’s Cheapest Plan?

Yes, but only if you are creating basic blogging websites. You get plenty of storage and enough editing power to make it your own, but you will struggle to create anything special.

Suits a small business that needs to advertise its service.

Weebly Overview

Weebly is a classic website builder. It offers four different pricing plans, allowing you to create anything from a simple blog to a full-blown online store.

Weebly specializes in small business websites – specifically those that are non-ecommerce – although its online store plans are constantly improving. In fact, it’s one of the only builders to let you sell on its free plan! If you’re keen to sell online while saving money, then check out the best free ecommerce platforms.

Similar to WordPress.com, Weebly also has its own free plan. However, the ‘Personal’ plan at $6/month lets you access a few neat features.

Weebly Review

The most obvious benefit is that you get your own domain, which instantly makes your site look 10x more professional. There’s also free SSL security to help protect your site, 500MB of storage, and of course, the use of Weebly’s templates and drag-and-drop editor.

The editor isn’t as straightforward or creatively free as Wix’s, but it is pretty easy to get to grips with. Anyone who has a working knowledge of PowerPoint shouldn’t have too much trouble learning how to use it.

Do We Recommend Weebly’s Cheapest Plan?

Weebly’s $6 per month Personal plan is perfect for creating a personal blog or hobby website, so if you’re building a website for pure pleasure and enjoyment, then yes we absolutely recommend Weebly’s cheapest plan.

However, if you want your website to represent you or your brand, attract clients, or get taken seriously online, then we recommend the next plan up – the $12 per month Professional plan. This is the cheapest plan to remove adverts from your website, so it’s the best choice for small business websites.

As well as removing adverts, the Professional plan provides you with a free custom domain for a year, plus unlimited storage and improved ecommerce tools, such as a shipping calculator.

If you’re a personal trainer, dog walker, tradesperson, or anyone building a professional online presence, then you’ll need the Professional plan instead of the cheapest Personal plan.

Perfect for those that are time-conscious.

GoDaddy Overview

You probably recognize GoDaddy from its corny TV ads, but behind this exterior sits a solid website builder, offering the fastest way to create a website that we’ve encountered.

That’s because rather than using a drag-and-drop editor, GoDaddy uses design assistance to help create you a website. “What’s design assistance?” we hear you ask – well allow us to explain!

Design assistance is where a website builder will ask you a few questions – such as what the purpose of your site is – before actually generating a website for you. Pretty neat, huh?

GoDaddy Review

GoDaddy offers a one month free trial, with prices starting at $6/month for its Personal plan. And while this plan doesn’t cover everything, you do get your fair share of features.

You can use the design assistance to create your initial website, before making further edits thereafter. There’s also free SSL security and 24/7 support, should you get stuck with anything.

Most of the features GoDaddy offers are available as part of the Personal plan, but if you want to create an ecommerce website, you will need to upgrade.

Do We Recommend GoDaddy’s Cheapest Plan?

GoDaddy may be kind of basic, but it’s perfect for simple sites, be they personal or for business. It’s especially great if you’re in a hurry and need a website up ASAP. Thanks to the design assistance on offer, anyone can build a site and get it live in a flash.

Great for getting real value.

Strikingly Overview

Strikingly can be thought of as a ‘best of the rest’ kind of website builder. It’s good at most things, but not great at anything.

Our research testing backed up our initial thoughts, with Strikingly scoring between three and four stars for most key areas. Its plans are excellent value for money, though, so those interested in a bargain should listen up.

Strikingly Review

Like many other platforms in this list, Strikingly offers a free plan. However, the next step up is its Limited plan, which costs $8/month – and unlike its name suggests, you actually get a decent amount for your money.

For starters, you can build and publish two websites for the price of one – great news if you have a need for a second site. Secondly, you can actually sell products online! (OK, so you can only sell five different types of products – but still, for $8? Not bad.)

There’s also a free domain thrown in, plus 24/7 support, although there is one drawback – you can only create one-page websites. This isn’t a massive issue – there are plenty of great one-page sites out there – but it doesn’t lend itself to sites with a lot of info to share.

Do We Recommend Strinkingly’s Cheapest Plan?

There’s no disputing that Strikingly offers great value for money, striking that perfect balance between cost and quality. We’d recommend it for simple personal or business sites, and even those who want the option to sell online on the cheap.

Build for design-orientated ecommerce sites.

IM Creator Overview

IM Creator is another website builder that puts speed at the heart of its user experience. If you need an image-rich site, but don’t want to get bogged down in the design aspect, IM Creator is definitely one to consider.

IM Creator Review

There is a free plan, but prices start at $8/month for a Premium Account.

Premium allows you to sell online, remove ads from your website, and access all of IM Creator’s themes. There’s no free domain though, and more importantly, no SSL security – a big red flag. You’ll have to purchase both separately, so what you initially thought was $8/month can quickly become much more.

The editor is another gripe of ours, in that it’s less intuitive than the likes of Wix and Weebly. There’s no dragging-and-dropping, so you’ll have to spend a little time getting to know how it all works.

Do We Recommend IM Creator’s Cheapest Plan?

As with Strikingly, IM Creator is great if you want to sell online while paying as little as possible. Given there are extra costs involved, though (domains, SSL etc.), it’s not exactly as cheap as you first think. A nice, speedy platform, but nothing to write home about.

A very middle-of-the-road platform.

Jimdo Overview

Jimdo can be thought of as a beautiful, yet frustrating puzzle. All the pieces – or features – are there to create a brilliant website, but putting it all together and making it look how you’d like is infuriating.

From researching and testing Jimdo, we’ve learned that it has clear strengths and weaknesses.

Jimdo Review

Jimdo currently offers five different pricing plans, with the first premium plan, ‘Start’, retailing at $9/month.

As with most website builder plans, Start gives you access to some common perks: a free domain, SSL security, the removal of adverts, and access to all of Jimdo’s help and support.

A few other points of interest are 5GB of storage, 10GB of bandwidth, advanced SEO features, and website analytics.

It’s important to know, though, that you can’t create an online store – and your website can be no more than 10 pages. ‘No ecommerce option’ is pretty standard on cheap plans, but limiting how many pages your site can have may be a dealbreaker.

Do We Recommend Jimdo’s Cheapest Plan?

In short, no. Jimdo is stuck in that awkward middle ground, where there are cheaper plans that offer only slightly less (if not the same) quality, and you can upgrade to a much better platform for just a buck or two extra per month.

The little sibling of a giant web hosting company.

Gator Overview

While HostGator is one of the world’s leading web hosting providers, Gator is its supplementary website builder. And though Gator may not be the main attraction, it’s still a pretty nifty platform.

Gator Review

It has an easy to use drag-and-drop editor, a range of basic templates, and some brilliant features. It may not be for everyone, but Gator is certainly suitable for those with limited to no technical experience.

There is no free Gator plan, but the ‘Starter’ package is just $9.22/month. This can be reduced even further if you sign up for a 2-year period, with long-term deals from as little as $3.84/month!

Gator’s draw is that it’s designed in line with web hosting, meaning you get unmetered storage and bandwidth on all plans. There’s also a free domain, SSL security, plus live chat/email/phone support.

Do We Recommend Gator’s Cheapest Plan?

Gator is far more basic than say, Wix or Squarespace, but if you don’t need all the bells and whistles, you could do a lot worse. The unmetered resource limits are a huge plus, and it’s nice to know you’re with a platform that values quality web hosting.

A cheaper Squarespace alternative.

Ucraft Overview

Ucraft is a sleek, stylish, and simple website builder that places a lot of emphasis on imagery. It’s designed for creatives – graphic designers, photographers etc. – who want to make their work jump off the page.

Ucraft Review

Its editor comes with a bit of a learning curve, but it’s simple enough once you’ve got the hang of it. It’s also not blessed with a wealth of features, but the ones it does have are geared towards your aesthetic.

As far as pricing goes, you’re looking at four plans, ranging from free to $39/month. It’s Ucraft’s ‘Pro Website’ plan, which we’ll focus on, comes in at $10/month.

The big news here is that you can sell up to 50 products, making Ucraft one of the cheapest website builders for ecommerce! You can also remove Ucraft branding, gain access to all its features, embed code, receive 24/7 support, and more.

Do We Recommend Ucraft’s Cheapest Plan?

While Ucraft isn’t designed for complex sites, it certainly holds its own in delivering a fantastic cheap alternative to Squarespace. Both platforms are designed with creatives in mind, and if you also want to sell products on the cheap, then Ucraft is for you.

Brilliant customer support and fantastic value.

Site123 Overview

SITE123 prides itself on its speed and simplicity. Its editor, much like GoDaddy, uses design assistance to help create a site for you. This, coupled with an incredibly responsive and helpful live chat, makes it ideal for tech novices.

Site123 Review

Unfortunately, this convenience comes at the cost of real control. You can make basic edits and tweaks to your site, but after that, you’ll struggle to make anything truly unique or personal. The features are also a little limiting, but they still have everything you need.

SITE123 only has two pricing plans: free, and $10.80/month. If you’re willing to part with less than a takeaway a month in terms of spending, then you’ll be able to access everything SITE123 has to offer.

A free domain, 10GB storage, 5GB bandwidth, and no adverts/branding all come as standard. So too does ecommerce. You can track orders, create coupons, manage your inventory, accept multiple payment gateways and currencies, and set your own tax and shipping rates.

Do We Recommend SITE123’s Cheapest Plan?

We do! Well, it helps that SITE123’s only premium plan is its cheapest by default, but this means you get everything it has to offer. It’s great for simple websites and online stores, and can be put together in a matter of minutes by people of all skill levels.

Simplicity to the extreme.

SimpleSite Overview

SimpleSite is for exactly that – simple websites. It’s incredibly straightforward to use, but that comes at the cost of intricate design and advanced features. Simple? Absolutely. Good? Not really.

SimpleSite Review

The major flaw is that any SEO (Search Engine Optimization) you wish to conduct is left almost entirely up to you. For this reason alone, SimpleSite should be seen as a platform to build small personal websites, rather than business sites or anything that requires marketing.

SimpleSite has three plans, with the cheapest premium option costing $11.25/month. There are no ads, and unlimited pages, images, and videos. You can also sell up to five products, and connect five email addresses to your site.

Do We Recommend SimpleSite’s Cheapest Plan?

Not really. SimpleSite is fine if you’re looking for a free, basic website builder, but to part with $11.25/month – given the alternative options out there – would be a little silly. We’d see SimpleSite as more of a platform that you test out and get used to building sites with, rather than your final choice.

A creative’s dream.

Squarespace Overview

Squarespace does a great job of blending contemporary design with an intuitive editor. Its renowned for its stunning templates, and very much sets the standard for other platforms when it comes to aesthetics.

In short, Squarespace is a creative’s dream. Take the image-focused design of Ucraft, merged with the quality features of Weebly, and you start to paint a mental picture of exactly what Squarespace offers.

Squarespace Review

Unlike many other platforms, Squarespace does not have a free plan – only a two week free trial. Prices start at $12/month for the ‘Personal’ plan, where you get access to most non-ecommerce features.

There’s a free custom domain, unlimited bandwidth and storage, advanced SEO features, no ads, and plenty more on offer. What you’re really paying for, though, is the ability to create a sleek and stylish website that looks as if it was made by a professional web developer.

Do We Recommend Squarespace’s Cheapest Plan?

If you’re a creative freelancer, Squarespace’s Personal plan is ideal. Larger businesses may want to upgrade to the Business plan ($18/month), while those looking to sell online will need either the Basic or Advanced Commerce plan ($26/month or $40/month).

The best website builder on the market.

Wix Overview

Wix came out of our research as the best overall website builder on the market. There are cheaper options – as we’ve discussed – but none that rival Wix in terms of overall quality.

With Wix, you have a choice of either using the drag-and-drop editor, or opting for design assistance. To understand more about how these differ, check out our Wix ADI vs Wix Editor comparison.

Wix Review

Wix has seven pricing plans in total, including a free plan, with premium costs starting at $13/month for the ‘Combo’ plan.

On Combo, you can make use of all of Wix’s 510 professionally designed templates, receive almost limitless customization, and enjoy a free domain.

You also get 2GB of bandwidth, 3GB of storage, 30 minutes of video, and the removal of Wix advertising. What makes Wix so special, though, is the quality of its features. Wix caters for every kind of website imaginable, and provides an array of features and apps specific to each industry.

Do We Recommend Wix’s Cheapest Plan?

Wix is the best website builder available today. We would say its Unlimited plan ($17/month) is better value for money than the Combo plan, but you really can’t beat Wix for creative control, ease of use, or feature quality.

Helps you with creative design… at a cost.

Duda Overview

Duda is known for giving you a helping hand. If you want a fancy-looking site, but lack the creativity to design it, Duda can help you put the pieces together.

Duda Review

Its rigid editor shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing, as it’s there to make sure your website is neat and offers good UX (User Experience). What can’t be overlooked, however, is the price.

At $14/month, Duda’s cheapest plan – ‘Basic’ – is hardly the bargain of the century. That said, there is a 30-day free trial, so you can ‘try before you buy’. The Basic plan comes with email support, the ability to build one website, and sell up to 10 products.

Living up to its name, there’s not a lot behind the Basic plan – and with the other plans costing $22/month and $74/month respectively, it’s fair to say it’s not the cheapest platform.

Do We Recommend Duda’s Cheapest Plan?

Value for money is not Duda’s strong suit. It’s fairly similar to Jimdo in terms of ease of use, but it does help you out more creatively. We’ve got to say, though, that for $14/month, you’re better off looking elsewhere.