Best Cheap Website Builders 2024: Pricing Plans, Hidden Fees & More

The best cheap website builder is Webador, thanks to its surprisingly impressive free forever plan and its affordable range of paid plans that start at just $5 per month. If you’re primarily focused on how much a website costs, though, there are some budget-friendly options worth considering.

Hostinger is another excellent cheap website builder, with the lowest starting price across our in-depth research at only $2.49 per month, as well as a deal that gets you two months of access completely free. All that to say, there are a lot of affordable website builders out there, and we’re here to help you find the right one for you.

In this guide, we’ll answer all your questions about the features and pricing of these website builders, as well as provide you with some insights into what you should be thinking about when choosing a cheap website builder.

Read on to learn about these affordable solutions, or take our 1-minute web builder comparison quiz to receive personalized recommendations based on your needs. 

In this guide:

• Best Cheap Website Builders Reviewed
• What to Look for In a Cheap Website Builder
• Methodology: How We Test Cheap Website Builders
• Verdict: What is the Best Cheap Website Builder?

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. Webador

• Best for businesses on a budget
• Paid plans from: $5 per month

Who should use Webador?

• Small businesses and entrepreneurs with basic site needs
• Small online sellers
• Users looking to build and host a site for free

Who shouldn’t use Webador?

• Growing businesses with advanced needs
• Businesses that want a highly unique site
• Established online retailers

Webador is a stripped-backed yet user-friendly website builder that lets you get from $5 per month, with a free version available as well. Webador offers just about every feature you need to build a high-performing site, including customizable templates, a drag-and-drop builder, blog and portfolio options, and in-house SEO capabilities. Yet, what separates Webador from the competition is its ability to host websites for absolutely free – a perk that most other providers charge a premium for.

However, compared to other providers on this list, Webador’s suite of design and web building features are quite limited, and with no app store available, the builder may struggle to meet the needs of larger businesses with specific site needs.

Check out our guide to the best free website builders to learn more

Webador has just over 50 website templates to choose from, which is a much smaller selection compared to premium builders like Wix and Squarespace. Source: Tech.co user testing

Webador lets you choose between 50+ pre-built templates, which you’re able to customize to your liking. You’re also able to edit the layout of your site later down the line, which is a boon if you love regularly switching up your site’s style. However, compared to premium builders like Wix, which offer over 1,000 website themes, this selection will feel quite limited.

Webador’s drag-and-drop builder isn’t the most intuitive tool we’ve tested, either. When we tried it for ourselves, we found it hard to edit and move around elements to specific locations on the page. Ultimately, the clunky nature of the drag-and-drop builder will probably make it harder for users to build a highly unique site. However, for those wanting to create a basic website profile on a budget, with useful sub-pages like FAQs, and Contact Us forms, Webador should be able to meet your needs just fine.

Webador’s drag and drop lets you customize the layout of your website, but I found its functionality a bit clunky, and not super intuitive. Source: Tech.co user testing

If you want to optimize your website for search engines, Webador also offers a free SEO tracker to help users take action to improve the ranking of your site. The website builder also lets you add SEO-friendly page titles and descriptions but lacks more advanced features you’d find in more premium builders like Wix, such as canonical tags and a dedicated app.

Check out our guide to the best web builders for SEO to learn more

Webador pricing

Webador offers three different paid plan, as well as a forever free version.

• Webador’s free plan includes free hosting, a webadorsite.com domain address, 50+ template options, and unlimited data traffic support. However, to unlock a personalized domain name and advanced feature you’ll have to upgrade to a paid tier.
• Webador’s Lite plan costs $5 per month, and includes perks like domain name registration, free hosting, unlimited storage, free stock photos, AI-powered features, blog functionality, and a secure SSL connection.
• Webador’s Pro plan costs $9 per month and includes everything in the Lite package with additional analytics tools, ad-free site options, unlimited photo albums, and ecommerce options. However, online retailers are only able to sell a maximum of 10 items.
• Webador’s Business plan, which costs $18 per month, offers everything in the Pro tier, with additional HD image support, and unlimited product listing, making it the ideal plan for large and growing ecommerce stores.

Our final verdict: Is Webador a good value?

All in all, Webador is definitely a good deal for small businesses that want to build a basic business profile website for less. Whether you opt for its entry-level paid plan or its free tier, the builder will allow you to build a fully functioning website, and will even give you access to useful capabilities to help you improve its performance and manage high levels of traffic.

However, if your business is established, or growing fast, Webador’s relatively basic in-house offering and lack of an app store may end up costing your business in the long run – especially for online stores. If this is the case, we’d recommend spending a little more a month for a more premium product like Wix or Squarespace.

2. Hostinger

• Best Cheap AI Website Builder
• Paid plans from: $2.49 per month (with current deal)

Who should use Hostinger?

• Busy businesses
• Users with little site-building experience
• Users who want help generating content

Who shouldn’t Hostinger?

• Larger businesses with advanced site-building needs
• Omnichannel retailers with brick-and-mortar stores

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.

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

Check out our Hostinger vs Wix comparison guide for more info.

Hostinger 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.

Hostinger offers great AI features, but I found its customization features lacking, which makes it less ideal for users who want a super unique website. Source: Tech.co user testing

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.

I was impressed with Hostinger’s AI heatmapping feature because it lets you gain valuable insights into user engagement on your website. Source: Tech.co user testing

Just like Wedabor, Hostinger has no app store. This places a ceiling on the builder’s potential and makes it less suitable for businesses that may require more advanced capabilities down the road. Hostinger doesn’t offer POS integration either, so omniseller businesses with brick-and-mortar locations would be better off choosing Square instead.

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.

• Its Premium plan, which normally costs $11.99 per month, is currently available for $2.49 per month for the first year, then $7.99 after you review it after a year. The package includes a free domain name, a 100-website limit, and access to Hostinger’s builder. However, it lacks advanced artificial intelligence features like AI writing and heatmaps.
• Hostinger’s Business plan currently costs $3.49 per month for the first year and then $8.99 when you renew, down from its normal price of $13.99 per month. The plan includes hosting capacity for up to 100,000 monthly visits, WordPress AI tools, and Hostinger’s full suite of in-house AI features.
• Finally, Hostinger’s Cloud Startup plan currently costs $7.59 per month and $24.99 per month when you renew after two years. It includes everything in Business with an additional dedicated IP address, priority support, and the hosting capacity for 200,000 monthly visits.

Check out our Hostinger review for more information.

Our final verdict: Is Hostinger good value?

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.

3. Pixpa

• Best cheap website builder for creatives
• Paid plans from $3.60 per month (with current deal)

Who should use Pixpa?

• Creative businesses like photographers and designers
• Bespoke online sellers
• Businesses with a content strategy

Who shouldn’t use Pixpa?

• Traditional businesses with info-heavy websites
• Large and enterprise online retailers
• Experienced web developers

Pixpa is an affordable website builder designed specifically for creative users like photographers and artists. However, while Pixpa is primarily marketed as a website builder for portfolios, it also offers advanced blogging features and a seamless ecommerce platform for businesses to sell online, extending its use to a wider demographic of users.

If you run a creative business and don’t want to splurge on slightly more premium design-friendly builders like Squarespace, Pixpa should definitely be on your radar. The website builder offers a selection of visually engaging, responsive templates that are perfect for showing off creative projects or products. When we used the builder ourselves, I was particularly impressed with how simplistic and clean these themes looked, especially compared to alternatives like Webador.

Check our guide to making money with a website to learn more

Pixpa has over 150+ themes catered to creative businesses. I was impressed by how clean they looked, and how well they showed up on mobile. Source: Tech.co user testing

However, while Pixpa’s design tools will be strong enough for most average users, if you’re an experienced web developer who wants to have a granular level of control over the site design, you may find the builder restrictive. This is because the platform doesn’t let you carry out advanced customization tasks like importing your own font or building a site from scratch.

Pixpa will be a great option for growing businesses that are serious about widening their reach. The builder offers a range of marketing features in-house such as on-site and email pop-ups, and an Announcement Bar, which lets you highlight a message on your website to make it stand out to viewers. You’re also able to schedule announcements and add a clickthrough URL to the panel, which is a great perk for businesses with regular promotions.

Pixpa let me add a Mobile Action Bar to my site to increase engagement from visitors. Source: Tech.co user testing

Pixpa’s integrated ecommerce features, available to users on all paid plans, make it a good fit for smaller boutique-style retailers building an online presence too. However, if you already manage an established online store and are looking to sell through multiple channels like social media, we’d recommend using e-commerce-focused builders like Shopify instead.

Since Pixpa is portfolio-based and created with the needs of creative businesses in mind, the website builder won’t be a natural fit for traditional or technical businesses in manufacturing, law, and logistics, for example. For these types of businesses, we’d advise checking out Wix, as the popular builder offers templates for a broader range of industries.

Learn more about the website builder for online stores in our Shopify review.

Pixpa pricing

Pixpa offers four different pricing plans: Basic, Creator, Professional, and Advanced. The provider is currently running a deal that knocks 55% off all plans, making the builder even more affordable than usual.

• Pixpa’s entry-level Basic plan costs $8 per month $3.60 per month, and offers an assortment of features including mobile-optimized templates, 200 website gallery images, domain connection options, password protection, custom CCS, and 24/7 customer support. The tier also has integrated ecommerce features and lets you sell up to three products.
• Pixpa’s Creator plan costs $15 per month $6.75 per month, and includes everything in the Basic tier with unlimited pages or galleries, blogging features, access for two contributors, marketing capabilities, and ecommerce support for up to 10 products.
• Pixpa’s Professional plan will cost you $20 per month $9 per month, and includes everything in the Creator package with additional free domain registration options for a year, Announcement Bar and Movile Information Bar tools, email lists, and more. You’re also able to sell up to 100 products with this plan.
• Finally, Pixpa’s Advanced plan costs $25 per month $11.25 or month, and offers everything in Creator with additional marketing and growth capabilities, inventory management, and abandoned checkout features for your online store, and no cap on the number of products you want to sell.

Our final verdict: Is Pixpa a good value?

If you want to build a site for a creative business, there’s no debating that Pixpa is an extremely good value. Not only does the website builder offer some of the best-designed templates on the market, but it also helps your site get seen with its range of advanced SEO and marketing features. Pixpa also lets you get selling for as little as $8 per month (or $3.60 with its current deal), which is heads and shoulders below what other providers are charging for this perk.

If you aren’t running a creative business, however, a lot of Pixpa’s features will be lost on you, and you may be forced to outsource other features through its app store, bumping up its overall price.

4. Elementor

• Best cheap website builder for beginners
• Paid plans from $4.92 per month when paid annually

Who should use Elementor?

• Users who want to build a WordPress site
• Businesses that have already paid for hosting
• Users who want to experiment with their site’s look

Who shouldn’t use Elementor?

• Users who don’t want to pay extra for hosting
• Businesses that prioritize fast site speeds
• Businesses that want to create a high volume of sites

Elementor is a WordPress website builder that offers a feature-rich free plan. With prices starting from $4.92 per month, its paid packages are cost-effective compared to competitors too. But its affordability isn’t the only reason why it’s gained notoriety. The builder is user-friendly and makes it easy to experiment with different design options, lending itself well to beginners to web design, and earning its status as one of the most popular WordPress plugins of all time.

However, if your website isn’t already hosted, you’ll have to purchase a hosting service separately with a WordPress app, bumping up its initial starting price.

Elementor’s staging environment feature lets users play with the design of their site without affecting its live view. Source: Elementor

Elementor’s staging environment feature lets users switch up the design of their site without affecting its live view. This is perfect for users who want to experiment with the aesthetic and functionality of their site, without impacting its performance. On top of this, the builder’s drag-and-drop builder is intuitive to use, especially compared to competitors like Webador, and all designs you create will be responsive by default – meaning that they adapt automatically to whichever device they’re viewed on.

However, for all of Elementor’s benefits, its entry-level plans place quite stringent restrictions on the number of sites you can build. For example, its Essential package only lets you build one website, while its Advanced plan caps the amount at three. While this will be fine for small businesses with simple site needs, if your business needs to build a variety of websites to serve multiple different audiences, the service will be much less affordable as you’d need to invest in a pricier package.

As Elementor is a WordPress plugin, you’ll have to be aware of WordPress best practices if you’re serious about building a high-performing site with fast loading speeds. This could be offputting if you’ve never built a website using WordPress before.

Learn more about how to build a website WordPress.

Elementor pricing

Elementor operates a little differently from other providers on this list, charging users per year instead of monthly. The WordPress plugin offers four different paid plans and a free version, which we break down below:

• Elementor’s free plan, Elementor Core, includes everything you need to start your online presence, including a visual drag-and-drop builder, a variety of design tools like mobile editing, background overlay, and a blank canvas update, but lacks advanced options like portfolio widgets, and site reviews and sitemaps.
• Elemetor Essential costs $59 per year, which works out as $4.92 per month, and lets you build one website, offers 24/7 customer support, mobile editing options, a theme builder, and more.
• Elementor’s Advanced plan costs $99 per year, which works out as $8.25 per month, and includes everything in the Essential plan with additional support for up to three sites, custom code & CSS options, ecommerce features and collaborative notes tools.
• Elementor’s Expert plan costs $199 per year, working out as $16.58 monthly, and features everything in Advanced, with additional support for up to 25 sites.
• Finally, Elemetor’s priciest package – Agency – costs $399 per year, which works out at $33.25 per month, and includes access to everything in the Expert plan, which additional support for up to 1000 websites.

Unfortunately, none of Elementor’s plans include web hosting in its free or paid packages. If you require this service, you’ll have to pay anywhere from $2.99 per month extra through Elementor’s hosting platform.

Our final verdict: Is Elementor a good value?

If you’ve already sorted out your website’s hosting, and you don’t need to build a large volume of sites, Elementor will be a good value. Its web creation and design tools and surprisingly capable for a website builder of its price, and its relatively shallow learning curve makes it especially suited to beginners to website building.

However, unlike most other providers, Elementor charges businesses for a year up-front. While its pricing system works out as a good deal in the long term, this will be off-putting to smaller ventures that want to split up these costs into more affordable monthly payments. Combine this with the fact that hosting isn’t provided as part of its basic package, and it’s likely that Elementor won’t be many businesses’ first pick, which prevented us from displaying it any further up this list.

5. GoDaddy

• Best cheap website builder for building a site quickly
• Paid plans from: $9.99 per month 

Who should use GoDaddy?

• Small businesses with basic site needs
• Beginners to website-building software
• Businesses that need to build a site quickly

Who shouldn’t use GoDaddy?

• Larger businesses with advanced site-building needs
• Businesses that need to integrate the platform with existing software
• Large or growing online stores

GoDaddy may lack the bells and whistles offered by premium builders, but dollar for dollar, it offers a great value for smaller businesses and solo entrepreneurs.

Like Wix and Hostinger, GoDaddy comes with an AI website builder that lets users build a website from scratch in under 30 seconds, making the builder a great option for users without tons of time to invest in their online presence.

Build a website in seconds with our guide to the best AI website builders

When I was building my website, I could use GoDaddy’s AI text-generation tools to get the ball rolling. Source: Tech.co’s user testing

GoDaddy’s small price tag comes with some trade-offs, however. The website builder lacks a mobile-friendly preview option in its editor. This means you’ll have to view the site through a smartphone to see how it comes across on the device. GoDaddy lacks an app store as well, which means that businesses won’t be able to make up for any features it doesn’t offer externally.

Check out our GoDaddy review to learn more about the website builder

GoDaddy offers 200+ templates for businesses to get started with, which is a decent selection especially compared with providers like Squarespace which only offer 110 themes. Yet, when we tested out GoDaddy ourselves, we found the templates quite challenging to edit, due to the restrictive nature of its drag-and-drop builder. This means that while GoDaddy is capable of building a professional website, if you have a very specific vision in mind the builder may not be able to meet your needs.

GoDaddy’s drag-and-drop builder let me edit the layout of different elements, but its customization options were quite restrictive. Source: Tech.co user testing

GoDaddy Pricing

When it comes to pricing, GoDaddy offers three plans, Basic, Premium, and Commerce to cater to different business budgets and needs.

• GoDaddy’s cheapest tier, the Basic plan, will cost you $9.99 per month. The entry-level plan lets users connect to a custom domain, access content and design tools, bolster their site’s security with a Secure SSL, and post to an unlimited number of social media platforms.
• The Premium plan is $14.99 per month, and it is GoDaddy’s most feature-rich website builder package. It offers everything in the Basic plan with additional appointment tools, unlimited social media posts and 25,000 email marketing sends per month.
• The Commerce package is GoDaddy’s only plan for ecommerce businesses. It costs $20.99 per month and includes everything in Premium plus product listing tools, flexible payment options, discount and promotional features and shipping integrations.

Our final verdict: Is GoDaddy a good value?

With one plan costing less than $10 per month and affordable premium options available, GoDaddy will be a good value for businesses in their earlier stages, looking to keep overheads low. However, with no app store to fall back on, if you want to build a large or complex website, or an ecommerce store you might find that GoDaddy struggles to meet your needs.

What to Look for In a Cheap Website Builder

Website builders have the power to make and break your business. If you’re committed to building a high-performing site without splurging on pricey packages here are some factors you prioritize.

• Scalable packages – Your budget might be tight at the moment, but a cheap package may restrict you in the future. Therefore, to save the hassle of switching down the line when your needs evolve, we recommend choosing a platform with scalable pricing tiers.
• AI features – Artificial intelligence features provide businesses with excellent value by saving businesses time and effort. Some top AI features to look out for include AI site generators, AI text generators, and AI image creators.
• Growth features – If you’re looking for a budget solution chances are your business is in its early stages. This makes the presence of growth features like email marketing and SEO toolkits all the more important.
• Reliable help & support – Some website builders have premium reserve support for the pricier tiers. To avoid getting caught out it’s always worth researching a solution’s help and support options before investing. This includes when support is offered, as well as through what channels.
• Customizable templates – A builder’s level of customization is a great indication of its overall value. If you want your site to stand out from its competition, we recommend choosing a builder with flexible templates and granular drag-and-drop editing options.

How Much Should a Website Cost?

The cost of building a website will vary from user to user. Users on a tight budget will be able to keep costs low by using a no-frills package with hosting included. However, if you’re chosen builder doesn’t offer hosting in-house, you’ll have to pay for this service through a third-party provider, while additional plugins and third-party apps can also bump up the price of a package.

For greater insight into how much a website may cost you, check  out our pricing table below:

Why You Should Avoid Free Website Builder Plans

While lots of the website builders above offer them, there are plenty of reasons to avoid free plans from website builders in the long run. they’re often very limited in terms of features. And, when you can build a good website from as little as $6.99 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.

Simply put, we believe you should use free plans as an extended free trial, rather than a viable solution for your long-term website building needs.

Methodology: How We Rate Cheap Website Builders