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The Best Cheap Website Builders – Our Top Picks for 2024

Written By Vladana Donevski

Updated: February 6, 2024

A growing number of small business owners and freelancers are choosing the convenience of a site builder when creating their business websites. Some of them appreciate the level of flexibility and customization options, while others are simply budget-savvy.

These entrepreneurs understand that an engaging business website is crucial for their company’s success, but they also know that it’s just one of the many things that a new business owner has to pay for. In other words, a business cannot become profitable unless you’re careful about your expenses.

Luckily, creating a website doesn’t have to be expensive. So, here is our list of cheap website builders. Each of these can help you establish an online presence without making a significant dent in your budget.

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BEST FOR BLOGGERS AND AUTHORS

1. Web.com

Ease of use:

good

Features:

excellent

SEO and Analytics:

good

Price:

good

  • ⦿Beginner-friendly
  • ⦿Free images
  • ⦿Insert forms and maps

Starting a personal blog from scratch can be tough. It gets even harder if you don't have the right tools to create and manage your blog properly. Enter Web.com, one of the best website builders for bloggers on our list. It comes integrated with templates and designs, lots of free images, and even integrated marketing tools. You can also use this website builder to create and manage your online store. With the most comprehensive pricing plan, you can manage up to 500 products, sell them online, track orders, and manage your inventory, all for a very low starting price.

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Best for beginners

2. Site123

Ease of Use

excellent

Features

excellent

SEO and Analytics

excellent

Price

excellent

  • ⦿Comprehensive tutorials
  • ⦿Numerous free features
  • ⦿Great blog features

Site123 is a really simple website builder with a host of great free features to embellish your designs. In case you get stuck during the editing process, comprehensive tutorials with YouTube videos will make your job easier. Blog-creation is pretty good with various features that will improve your relationship with the audience like the comment section and social media sharing buttons. If you want to discover Site123's full capabilities, you should try out one of their paid subscription plans. They come with a free website domain for the first year and a decent amount of cloud storage, while the more expensive plans unlock eCommerce features as well.

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Most flexible website builder

3. Wix

Ease of use

excellent

SEO

excellent

Features

average

  • ⦿Fast setup process
  • ⦿Stunning themes and templates
  • ⦿Affordable packages with unlimited bandwidth

Wix is a great intuitive platform with lots of resources for designing effective websites and the best online stores. The dashboard is equipped with a robust set of quality tools for uploading and managing both physical and digital goods. If you are looking for a free online store builder, Wix will offer you hundreds of stunning themes and unlimited pages for creating an online store for all your content marketing needs, with minimal time investment. In addition to the free version, the platform offers several pricing plans that include strong digital marketing and management tools. Wix even offers more advanced features like shipping discounts, priority customer support, automated sales tax as well as a built-in customer loyalty program, to name a few.

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BEST-DESIGNED TEMPLATES

4. Squarespace

Ease of use

excellent

SEO

average

Features

average

  • ⦿Individual product customization
  • ⦿Social media integrations
  • ⦿Appointment scheduling

Another platform on our list of the best online website builder solutions is Squarespace. The company specializes in providing designed templates for creating online stores and facilitates the sale of an unlimited number of products and a variety of different services.

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BEST FOR BLOGS

5. WordPress

Ease of Use:

good

Features:

excellent

SEO and Analytics:

excellent

Price:

excellent

  • ⦿Over 55,000 plugins
  • ⦿Full control over your website
  • ⦿More than 4000 themes
  • ⦿Excellent scalability

WordPress currently powers almost half of all websites, so it’s only natural to include it on our list of top website builders. The free WordPress plan is a great option for getting started, offering you a free subdomain and powerful hosting options. However, for a custom domain, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan. You can customize your website with a range of plugin options, which are also invaluable for SEO, marketing, eCommerce, and any other functionalities you may need. In short, there are absolutely no limits to what you can create, but there is a bit of a learning curve.

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Why Do You Need a Cheap Website Builder?

Why Do You Need a Cheap Website Builder?

A reliable site builder is crucial when you’re starting an online business or creating a service portfolio. A typical site builder offers everything from web hosting and a custom domain name to site editing and can even manage blog posts.

But how much does it cost to establish an effective online presence? Developers charge a lot of money for their services, and you frequently don’t get what you pay for. If you’re just starting a business, you might not have an extensive budget on your small business checking account to cover website expenses.

That’s why website builders are the ideal solution for anyone who doesn’t have a great deal of time and resources to invest in this facet of their business. Here’s our methodology for selecting the perfect, yet cheapest, website builders.

Identifying the Best Cheap Website Builders

There is no shortage of options on the market, and it’s not always easy finding the ideal builder for your individual needs. It’s important to focus on both the costs and the availability of features. Moreover, the right website builder needs to scale with your business as your operations expand. It should also have SEO and analytics tools to help you grow in the first place.

We’ve taken the time and carefully reviewed all the website requirements for running an online business. We’ve made a list and looked at whether each of these affordable website builders has the tools you need to advance your operations and enhance your profitability. Let’s get into more details.

Ease of Use

Ease of use was the first thing we looked at with each of these solutions. Having lots of features is great, but it’s equally important that it doesn’t take too much time for you to figure out how to use them. Everything should be easy to grasp, and you should be able to set up a website in no time.

Complicated website builder software is an added expense in the long run. If something goes wrong, you need to be familiar with all of the different elements of your site to avoid the cost of hiring someone to fix it.

Features

It’s important to select a website maker with the right features to simplify the complicated aspects of setting up and running a site. When building a website, you’ll need a domain and web hosting. Unless you plan on doing this yourself, you should look for builders that include these components.

Of course, different sites require different features. eCommerce websites will need payment provider integrations and giveaway features. Blogs can benefit from a good newsletter and social media sharing buttons. People creating a portfolio will need a contact form and a quick scheduling option. Any additional tools or features that are offered to those building a new website are a nice bonus.

It’s also important that the affordable website builder integrates well with other popular solutions. Your work doesn’t stop once your website is up and running, and you’ll need to use plenty of other tools. For example, an eCommerce site that doesn’t allow integrations with inventory management software is more or less useless.

We’ve reviewed each of these elements with many different providers. The cheapest builders on this list will meet all of your basic requirements.

SEO and Analytics

SEO and analytics tools are also essential on a builder platform. You want to have the option to build your own website and grow your website’s visibility with as little effort as possible. These tools enable you to attract new visitors and customers without requiring you to become an SEO or marketing expert.

Price

We understand the importance of a budget. That’s why we’ve worked hard to find the best cheap and free website builders. Several names on our list offer free website builders, and paid alternatives have a starting price of no more than $15.

When setting up a new business, you’ll likely need marketing tools and other services to help you manage your finances. As such, many people can only afford to allocate a certain portion of their resources for the website, or they choose to create a website for free.

That said, you can’t afford to make too many compromises. Mediocre hosting, an irrelevant domain name, and generic templates can complicate things when you’re trying to grow your business. Investing in a good hosting solution, website design services for a unique theme, and useful add-ons don’t have to cost you an arm and a leg but will most certainly pay off in the future.

5 Best Cheap Website Builders for 2022

  1. Web.com
  2. Site123
  3. Wix
  4. Squarespace
  5. WordPress
5 Best Cheap Website Builders for 2022

Cheap Website Builders: Reviews

Web.com

Ease of use:

good

Features:

excellent

SEO and Analytics:

good

Price:

good

  • ⦿WordPress builder
  • ⦿SSL certificates
  • ⦿Add forms and maps

Web.com has been in operation since 1999, offering versatile products and services. The company is well-known for providing good web hosting packages and various other services and products for managing websites. Web.com has top website builder software for DIY enthusiasts, but you should opt for their professional website design service to get the most from this company. Moreover, if you want to boost your website’s visibility, Web.com provides excellent SEO optimization services.

The first thing you should know about Web.com’s website builder is that there are two types of website creators: DIY Website Builder and one based on WordPress. We will highlight the most important features and tools you get with the Website builder option in our review.

Let’s start with the pricing system. Unlike many other similar products, Web.com doesn’t have a free version of its website builder software. If you want the best website maker with an affordable price but also lots of tools and features, you should look elsewhere. The starting price is only $1.95 per month, but that’s only for the first month. After that, the price renews at $10.00 per month. It wouldn’t be a problem if the package came with a more comprehensive website builder, but it offers only basic tools, such as access to designs, layouts, and free stock images.

The next tier pricing tier costs $2.95 per month, and it renews at $15 after the first billing cycle. This plan includes everything that comes with the basic plan, plus additional features for managing business websites. Based on our experience and confirmed by other online website builders reviews, Web.com’s pricing plan for eCommerce is the most comprehensive one and the best option for online sellers. You can sell up to 50 products on your website, accept credit cards, track and manage your orders. You can also connect your website with your Facebook Marketplace. It will set you back $3.95 for the first month and $20.00 after that.

Web.com allows you to create beginner-friendly websites effortlessly. Regardless of the pricing package you choose, you’ll get access to hundreds of templates and stock photos. You will also get a free domain name as long as you keep paying for the website builder. After you cancel your transcription, Web.com will charge $38.00 per year for this service.

Web.com is one of the best website builders for authors and blog writers. The drag and drop functionality will help you create your site quickly, and then you can start editing the content within. You can also connect your blog with social media profiles to share your stores with a broader audience. The website builder also comes with a spell-check functionality, so you can be sure that everything on your website is proofread before it is posted.

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Site123

Ease of Use

excellent

Features

excellent

SEO and Analytics

excellent

Price

excellent

  • ⦿Free multi-page design
  • ⦿Webmaster tools integration
  • ⦿Responsive design templates

Site123 prides itself in being one of the fastest and simplest website builders on the market. Site123 prides itself in being one of the fastest and simplest website builders on the market. There is no AI to help you create your own website, but there are plenty of tutorials to lead you by the hand. Right off the bat, Site123 gives you a short tour of its features. You familiarize yourself with everything before getting started, and if that’s not enough, you are given YouTube videos illustrating the points.

One of the reasons why Site123 is great for nonprofits is the fact that you get a lot of features for free. Basically, everything you need to create a website is available without spending a penny. While most of the other websites at least offer you single-page designs, this builder also has an option for a multi-page design for free. The preview modes show you how your website will appear on various devices. This is not something you have to worry about if you’re using their templates. All of them are inherently responsive and look great both on mobile phones and desktop monitors.

Site123 also offers a database of templates and features to easily set up your own blog. Your visitors will be able to add comments, share your content through social media buttons, and get information about the read time for each post. All of these elements will help you improve the reach of your blog posts.

The SEO options are fairly basic but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be effective. It is possible to set up meta titles and descriptions for every page on your site, while also defining keywords that will help you rank. As you’d expect from the best business website builder out there, Site123 also lets you integrate webmaster tools and Google Analytics. That way you can keep a close eye on the traffic and make adjustments when necessary.

We’ve already mentioned that a lot of essential features come for free, but if you want more, you’ll have to try out one of their numerous subscription plans. According to Site123’s pricing page, the cheapest plan that comes with a free domain for the first year and 10 GB of storage costs $12.80 a month. As expected, a fully functional eCommerce website comes with a $28.80 a month plan and a limit of 500 orders per month.

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Wix

Ease of use

excellent

SEO

excellent

Features

average

  • ⦿Personalized SEO plan
  • ⦿Advanced marketing features
  • ⦿Affordable packages

Ease of Use

Wix made our best website builder for eCommerce list because of its robust set of tools for creating and managing web stores as well as its user-friendly interface.
In 2006, Wix launched a platform for building websites that quickly became popular around the globe. Thousands of organizations, companies and individuals rely on their services.
Moreover, the platform doesn’t require you to have any design experience in order to create, launch and edit your online store.

Pricing Plans and Payment Methods

If you are looking for the best free eCommerce website builder , then Wix might be a great choice. This plan includes up to 100 templates, an unlimited number of pages and free web hosting. Users can sign up for the easy-to-upgrade free package or purchase extra features.

The platform also offers several pricing plans for both website and online store building. Wix eCommerce prices for building online stores start at $17 per month. This is a Business Basic package that comes with online payments, 20GB storage, unlimited bandwidth and no commission.

Affordable packages are just one of the features that place Wix among the top website builders. One of the customer favorites, Grow Business Plan, offers up to 35 GB storage, all basic features like free web domain for one year, Google Analytics and lots of additional features for the extra charge.

Designs and Templates

With more than 500 designed themes, built-in styles and lots of features for customization, Wix is a great choice when it comes to building storefronts. You can browse through stunning Wix industry-specific templates and pick the one that is best for your business. With the drag-and-drop feature, you can move texts, pictures or any section in order to personalize your online store.

SEO and Marketing Tools

Once you set up your eCommerce website, you can start managing the Wix online store by using different tools. The dashboard is highly functional, equipped with features that allow you to track your sales or write a blog if you require one. Moreover, you can conduct surveys and polls to collect data, which makes Wix one of the most functional website makers.

Wix email marketing is also widely used among clients since it provides predefined email templates and themes.

One of the more phenomenal features is Wix SEO Wiz, which allows users to increase their website visibility on Google. The user can add details about their business, write keywords that describe it and analyze them. At the same time, you will get a fully personalized SEO plan for managing your site that will help you rank better on Google.

Sales Features

With the Wix website maker, you can sell both digital and physical products. In our Wix eCommerce review, we’ve focused on the most interesting and useful tools that come with the platform. One of those is Facebook Pixel that you can connect with Wix Stores to improve your advertising. You can follow information related to your products, including details on when your product is viewed or when a site visitor adds the product to the Wix shopping cart. Wix also offers more advanced features like automated sales tax, shipping discounts, priority customer support as well as a built-in customer loyalty program.

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Squarespace

Ease of use

excellent

SEO

average

Features

average

  • ⦿Shipping calculator
  • ⦿Advanced tax tools
  • ⦿Stellar customer support

Ease of Use

The first step in creating a Squarespace eCommerce website involves selecting the product types you want to sell. That’s followed by choosing one of the stunning templates and using the eCommerce site builder to customize it and add products. A toolbar on the left side of the dashboard allows you to choose the icons for adding pages, products, folders or albums. You can use any of these options to personalize your web store and create a unique brand.

Designs and Templates

Thanks to its designed templates, Squarespace is undoubtedly one of the most popular platforms for building an eCommerce website. It boasts an impressive library of templates designed for different industries. Once you pick the right one for your online store, you can start organizing and managing products. There are numerous features that increase the visibility of your products. You can divide them into categories, use titles and tags or add descriptions. The zoom mode is available for images and videos too.

Moreover, all the available themes work on mobile devices making it possible to track sales at all times.

Pricing Plans and Payment Methods

A number of attractive pricing plans solidified Squarespace’s place as the best online website builder. The starting plan costs $16 per month. The offer includes free domain, SSL protection, unlimited storage, and a mobile-friendly website solution. However, this plan is lacking some of the basic selling features like the option to sell an unlimited number of products. To get a more comprehensive plan with basic features like Squarespace shopping cart recovery, you will need to upgrade to the Advanced Commerce plan. The price for this plan is $46 per month.

SEO and Marketing Tools

Squarespace is an online eCommerce website designer equipped with great SEO and blogging tools. You can check how your eCommerce store ranks on Google or see what modifications are required to optimize your web pages and increase the visibility of your business. If you want to boost your business, basic website metrics are also available. For example, you can track how many people visited your website or which products are viewed the most.

One of the surprising aspects of Squarespace is the lack of basic marketing tools. These are not included in any of the plans except the most expensive one. If you want to customize gift cards or abandoned cart recovery, you need to subscribe to the Commerce plan.

Sales Features

Squarespace is the best platform to build a website or engage in online Commerce. The platform allows you to sell both physical goods and digital items, including books, images, or podcasts. You can sell an unlimited number of products via social media channels or the POS system. However, this platform is also good for freelancers who offer different services.

Among the platform’s assets are tools that allow you to schedule appointments by using calendars or online bookings. You can use the maps to locate your business and help clients find you faster.

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WordPress

Ease of Use:

good

Features:

excellent

SEO and Analytics:

excellent

Price:

excellent

  • ⦿Intuitive editor
  • ⦿For blogs or full websites
  • ⦿Advanced design customization

Ease of use

WordPress is probably one of the best solutions if you’re looking to build your own website. It’s free to get started, but it might take a bit of time to figure out how to use it because of the sheer range of options. Still, once you understand how it all works, you’ll be able to create a unique and fully functional website for your business. However, if you decide to go with WordPress as your builder of choice, you could hire a design agency to create the basic overlay of your website you can use as a guideline.

Luckily, with the new Gutenberg editor, the website building is fairly simple and feels a little like playing with lego blocks. You can create a whole site with this simple website builder by dragging and dropping the design element or “blocks”.

Features

WordPress has been around for a while, and there is an impressive community working on upgrading it at all times. This solution has many basic features already integrated, and you can customize them to fit your vision.

However, if these WordPress native features aren’t enough, you can turn to its extensive database of plugins. These add-ons bring more functionality to your website and make WordPress the most reliable builder for websites. The builder’s database has more than 55,000 plugins, with new ones added every day. You can get your hands on some of them for free, while others come with a price tag.

Overall, these cover everything from simple sign-up forms, excellent SEO plugins, eCommerce solutions, and integrations with almost all the popular software solutions available. With WordPress, you won’t have to compromise on features you’d like to have on your site.

SEO and Analytics

The plugins we’ve mentioned are also the key to your SEO and analytics needs. You can effortlessly install all the popular analytics tools to your WordPress dashboard. It also has an excellent selection of SEO tools, which will help you improve your ranking on Google.

Price

Technically, you can have your website up and running for free with WordPress. You’ll get a subdomain and powerful hosting options, as well as a free theme and the necessary plugins for your website. If you’re on a tight budget, WordPress is your best bet and the cheapest website builder for your small business.

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FAQ

Is Wix com really free?

Yes, you can create a basic website with Wix entirely free. However, these free websites come with Wix ads, and you won’t be able to use a custom domain. Furthermore, if you want to build an eCommerce store on Wix, you’ll have to sign up for one of its premium plans.

What is the easiest website builder?

Whether a website builder is easy to use depends on your skills. If you’ve never used one before, then we certainly recommend Site123, which comes with an exceptionally easy website builder. If you have some tech skills, then going with WordPress might be a good choice because of the long list of options.

Can I use a website builder for free?

Yes, there are many free and cheap website builders available that can help you create an engaging website. However, it’s important to know that all these have their limitations. Some offer very basic features, which may not be sufficient for your individual needs. They might also undermine your branding efforts because of the customization options or the ads on your site.

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