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9 Cheapest Website Builders In 2024

Staff Reviewer,  Staff Reviewer

Updated: Mar 21, 2024, 7:45pm

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

The best website builders allow people to create custom websites for their businesses or personal use quickly and easily, even with limited design skills. For inclusion on this list of best cheap website builders for 2024, Forbes Advisor looked for website designers that are free or affordable and have easy-to-use drag-and-drop builders, high user reviews, easily accessible customer support and robust extra website design and management features.

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The Best Cheap Website Builders of 2024

  • Wix: Best for e-commerce stores
  • Webflow: Best for designers
  • Ucraft: Best for sales teams
  • GoDaddy: Best for digital marketers
  • Jimdo: Best for freelancers with no design experience
  • Weebly: Best for affordable, value-packed premium plans
  • Strikingly: Best for quick and simple website design
  • WordPress: Best for influencers or authors
  • SITE123: Best for block website design

Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

We reviewed over 20 of the leading services using a complex process to narrow it down to the nine best cheap website builders for small businesses. Pricing, general features, customer reviews and our own experts’ analysis all combined to make up our ratings, which are determined solely by our editorial team.

Learn more: How We Test Website Builders


Best for E-Commerce Stores

Wix

Wix
4.7
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

$17 per month

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

Yes

in the most expensive plan

Wix
Learn More Arrow

On Wix's Website

Free

$17 per month

Yes

Yes

in the most expensive plan

Editor's Take

Wix offers a free plan with a Wix-branded domain and 500MB of storage. Its most affordable paid plan is $17 per month and offers a custom domain (free for one year), 2GB of storage and 24/7 customer care.

Wix’s website builder offers a highly customized website design experience. Choose a template from over 500 industry-specific, e-commerce, blog and creative website templates. Then, use the Wix Editor to choose from hundreds of drag-and-drop design features—including scroll effects, animations and video backgrounds—to build a website that uniquely fits your needs.

Wix’s e-commerce tools are what sets it apart. With e-commerce plans starting at $27 per month, you can create convenient shopping experiences via wish lists, buy-now buttons, translation options in 150 different languages and currency conversions. You can sell customizable, tangible products; product subscriptions and dropshipping and print-on-demand products. Further, use Wix tools to expand your store to Amazon, eBay and social media.

Learn More: Read our full Wix review.

Who should use it:

Businesses wishing to start an easy-to-design and customizable e-commerce store at an affordable price should consider Wix.

Pros & Cons
  • Affordable all-in-one premium plans
  • Beginner-friendly drag-and-drop site editor
  • Hundreds of prebuilt templates
  • E-commerce plans available
  • Blogging options
  • Unlimited pages in paid plans
  • Limited storage in cheaper plans
  • Limited features in low-tiered plans
  • Free plan includes Wix branding
  • Very limited features in free plan
  • Pay more for e-commerce plans

Best for Designers

Webflow

Webflow
4.6
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

$14 per month (billed annually)

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

Yes

Webflow
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

Free

$14 per month (billed annually)

Yes

Yes

Editor's Take

Webflow offers a free plan with a Webflow.io domain and 1GB of bandwidth. Paid plans start at $12 per month with a custom domain and 50GB of bandwidth. Webflow’s more expensive plans offer guest editors, making them a better fit for design agencies. Starting at $19 per month, its Workspace plans offer more control, including roles, access permissions and custom code.

Webflow’s website builder offers a combination of HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript and drag-and-drop design that leaves designers with all the control. For example, its visual canvas allows you to drag in unaltered pre-built HTML5 pieces—such as sliders and background videos—onto a blank website canvas. Then, Webflow’s website builder translates your design into ready-to-publish code. Or, if you’d rather dabble in the code itself, you can do that, too.

Learn more: Read our full Webflow review.

Who should use it:

Webflow is best for solo or agency designers with at least some experience with coding and design tools that have similar interfaces to Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.

Pros & Cons
  • Free plan available and affordable paid plans starting at $12 per month
  • Granular control over design
  • Collaboration capabilities
  • Custom code
  • Guest editor capabilities in paid plans
  • E-commerce plans available
  • Significant learning curve
  • 2% transaction fee for e-commerce stores
  • Very limited features in free plan
  • Branded domain in free plan

Best for Digital Marketers

GoDaddy

GoDaddy
4.5
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

$10.99 per month (renews at $12.99 per month)

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

Yes

GoDaddy
Learn More Arrow

On GoDaddy's Website

Free

$10.99 per month (renews at $12.99 per month)

Yes

Yes

Editor's Take

GoDaddy’s free website option comes with a website, unlimited pages and content, digital marketing tools and 24/7 customer support. However, you must use a GoDaddy domain (www.yoursite.godaddysites.com). Paid plans start at $10.99 per month and come with a custom domain, a drag-and-drop website builder and digital marketing tools. Simply choose a template, then use the GoDaddy builder to design your website and add content easily.

GoDaddy’s website builder stands out with its Digital Marketing Suite. It includes tools for creating and managing social media posts, ads and marketing emails, gathering reviews and search engine optimizing your site. Choose from more than 200 social media and email campaign templates. Once you publish or send your campaigns, analytics reports tell you how they perform. Finally, you can manage all these features from one dashboard.

Learn More: Read our full GoDaddy Website Builder review.

Who should use it:

With an ample suite of digital marketing tools, GoDaddy’s website builder is best for individuals or brands looking to lean heavily on digital marketing to promote their brand or sell products from an online shop.

Pros & Cons
  • Free and low-cost plans available
  • Built-in appointment booking tools
  • Full digital marketing suite included
  • 24/7 support even in free plan
  • Unlimited pages and content
  • Custom domain included in paid plans
  • No coding required
  • Drag-and-drop builder has a slight learning curve
  • No SEO tools in first-tier plan
  • Cannot connect a custom domain with its free plan

Best for Sales Teams

Ucraft

Ucraft
4.5
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

$10 per month (billed annually)

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

Yes

Ucraft

Free

$10 per month (billed annually)

Yes

Yes

Editor's Take

Ucraft offers a free plan with a free drag-and-drop builder. You can add your own custom domain using the free plan. Its paid plans start at $10 per month. It includes unlimited pages and bandwidth, SEO tools, designer and blogging tools, the ability to use your own domain, Google Analytics and 24/7 customer support. Using this plan, you can sell up to 15 products on your website via Stripe and PayPal payment methods and 0% transaction fees.

Ucraft’s free landing page builder helps to drive traffic to a lead magnet and email sign-up form, making it uniquely useful for sales professionals. Choose from 30-plus landing page templates, then easily add custom content and design features. You don’t need a website to use the landing page builder. Simply add your own domain to the landing page you’ve built. To remove the Ucraft watermark, however, you must buy a $2.99 a month add-on.

Who should use it:

Sales teams that wish to use their website to sell visually stunning products or services—such as auto dealerships, travel agencies or spas—should consider Ucraft.

Pros & Cons
  • Free plan and cheap paid plans starting at $10 per month
  • SEO tools
  • E-commerce capabilities even in lower tiers
  • Free landing page builder
  • 0% transaction fees
  • Unlimited pages and bandwidth
  • Ucraft branding on free sites
  • Less-intuitive drag-and-drop builder compared to competitors
  • Few integrations
  • Basic block designs

Best for Affordable, Value-Packed Premium Plans

Weebly

Weebly
4.4
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

$10 per month (billed annually)

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

Yes

Weebly
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

Free

$10 per month (billed annually)

Yes

Yes

Editor's Take

Weebly offers a free plan with lots of features. These include an e-commerce store, inventory management, SEO and lead-capture tools, and SSL security. Paid plans start at $10 a month (when paid annually). Even its basic plans are not basic. Weebly’s most affordable paid plan includes the ability to connect your own domain, SEO and lead-capture tools, pop-up notifications, chat and email support and SSL security.

Weebly’s drag-and-drop builder offers over 50 website themes. There are themes for online stores, business, portfolio, personal, events and blog websites. Once you’ve chosen a theme, you get instant access to Weebly’s drag-and-drop builder. In it, you will find custom fonts, parallax and reveal animation effects, an image editor, video backgrounds and the option to use HTML/CSS and JavaScript to deeply customize your website.

Weebly’s ample e-commerce tools work with its marketing tools to help you turn potential customers into paying ones. For example, its marketing tools include abandoned cart and welcome emails, customer life cycle emails, SEO tools, customer reviews and Google Ads credit. Its e-commerce tools include domestic and international shipping tools, inventory management, gift cards, a coupon builder, product search and an automatic tax calculator.

Learn More: Read our full Weebly review.

Who should use it:

Weebly is best for startup companies looking for a value-packed but extremely affordable premium plan and the ability to grow their online presence by upgrading later. It is also best for brands that use Square for online payment processing, as PayPal can only be accepted in the most expensive plan.

Pros & Cons
  • Very competitively priced
  • Lots of features, even in free plan
  • E-commerce capabilities
  • Trusted, well-known brand
  • Intuitive drag-and-drop builder
  • Marketing tools
  • Seamless payment acceptance process
  • File upload limits
  • Unlimited storage only in most expensive plans
  • No free domain in first-tiered plan
  • Square Ads in free and first-tiered paid plan
  • Must accept Square for payment processing, except in most expensive plan

Best for Freelancers With No Design Experience

Jimdo

Jimdo
4.4
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

$11 per month (billed annually)

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

No

Jimdo

Free

$11 per month (billed annually)

Yes

No

Editor's Take

Jimdo offers a free plan with a Jimdo subdomain, 500MB of storage, 2GB of bandwidth, contact forms, an image library and five website pages. Its paid plans start at $11 a month. This plan is quite basic with 5GB of storage and 10 pages allowed. Even its Grow plan ($17 per month if billed annually) only offers 15GB of storage and 50 website pages. Still, all paid plans have SEO tools, fast Google indexing and website statistics, in addition to free-plan features.

Jimdo stands out via its ease of use. Create a logo using its free logo creator. Then, upload your images and logo and the website will automatically update with matching colors. The image library makes it easy to find industry-relevant images. You can also connect your Facebook, Instagram or Google profiles and Jimdo will source images and information from them to automatically design your website.

Who should use it:

With basic designs and few website pages in each plan, Jimdo is a good option for freelancers with no design experience who want a quick and attractive site for showcasing a portfolio.

Pros & Cons
  • Free plan available
  • Mobile responsive sites
  • Free image library
  • Basic photo editing tools
  • No transaction fees on sales
  • E-commerce capable
  • Free logo creator
  • Industry-specific templates
  • E-commerce plans available
  • Contact forms
  • GDPR compliant
  • AI builder available for instantly personalized websites
  • Extremely basic plans
  • Limited storage in all plans
  • Limited digital marketing tools
  • Limited website pages allowed in all plans
  • Few templates available
  • Slow support response
  • No 24/7 support

Best for Quick and Simple Website Design

Strikingly

Strikingly
4.4
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

$8 per month (Billed annually)

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

No

Strikingly

Free

$8 per month (Billed annually)

Yes

No

Editor's Take

Strikingly offers a free forever plan. It comes with unlimited free sites, 500MB of storage per site, 5GB of bandwidth, five pages per site and the ability to sell one product. Its most affordable Limited plan is $8 per month when billed annually. It includes two premium sites and unlimited free sites, a free domain for a year, 1GB of storage, 50GB of bandwidth, five website pages, the ability to sell five products, a 5% transaction fee and 24/7 chat support.

With limited storage in each plan, Strikingly’s website builder is best for brands looking to create a very simple and quick one-page website. Its templates allow you to start with an already-designed website, then add your own content easily and almost instantly. Contact and sign-up forms make Strikingly a great option for brands looking to sell one or two service packages and allow potential clients to contact them or follow their brand.

Learn More: Read our full Strikingly review.

Who should use it:

This website builder is best for freelancers looking for a simple web presence to showcase their services and help potential customers find and contact them.

Pros & Cons
  • 24/7 chat support
  • Easy-to-use website builder
  • Fast website setup
  • No coding required
  • E-commerce capabilities
  • Sign-up and contact forms available
  • Over 150 free templates
  • Limited storage
  • Limited website pages in free site
  • 2% to 5% transaction fee in lower-tier paid plans
  • No phone support except in most expensive plan
  • Expensive full-featured high-tiered plan

Best for Influencers or Authors

WordPress.org

WordPress.org
4.2
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

open-source CMS

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

Depends on hosting provider and plan

WordPress.org
Learn More Arrow

Read Forbes' Review

Free

open-source CMS

Yes

Depends on hosting provider and plan

Editor's Take

WordPress.org is free, open-source and self-hosting software for building a website. It must be installed on a web server, not stored on your computer. So, you must pay for hosting elsewhere. Example hosting companies include GoDaddy and Bluehost. The beauty of this software is it gives you access to tens of thousands of free website themes and plugins. This means you can create a highly customized website for free, despite paying for hosting.

WordPress.org offers unique monetization perks to influencers and authors. First, because WordPress.org requires you to self-host your website, your content cannot be used by WordPress as it sees fit. Second, while WordPress.com only allows you to use WordAds to monetize your blog, a self-hosted account allows you to use any ad network, such as Google AdSense or AdThrive, to monetize your blog.

Learn more: Read our full WordPress.org review.

Who should use it:

WordPress.org is a great option for authors or influencers wanting to monetize their personal brands, sell website ad space or participate in affiliate marketing. In the end, however, it is a perfect tool for any business or person who wants a highly customizable website design experience.

Pros & Cons
  • Free to use
  • SEO tools available
  • Highly customizable
  • Marketing tools available via free plugins
  • Drag-and-drop page builder plugins available
  • E-commerce friendly
  • No 24/7 support
  • No built-in security
  • Must pay for website hosting elsewhere
  • Learning curve required
  • No free domain

Best for Block Website Design

SITE123

SITE123
4.2
Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

$12.80 per month

Drag-and-drop builder

Yes

Unlimited storage available

No

SITE123

Free

$12.80 per month

Yes

No

Editor's Take

SITE123 offers a free plan with 250MB of storage and bandwidth. It also comes with a SITE123 subdomain. Its most affordable Premium plan is $12.80 per month. It offers a free domain for a year, 10GB of storage, 5GB of bandwidth, the ability to set up an e-commerce store and to connect your own domain.

SITE123’s website builder is more efficient than traditional drag-and-drop builders. Instead of adding elements such as text boxes, it offers a list of website sections or pages to add. For example, you can add an about, testimonials or portfolio page. Then, customize the template to your brand by clicking on text boxes to change text, selecting photos from the free gallery or uploading your own photos. This means a quick but customizable design experience

Who should use it:

Businesses with zero website design experience and basic computer skills should consider SITE123’s website builder.

Pros & Cons
  • Easy to use
  • E-commerce friendly with inventory tracking
  • Free image bank
  • Free domain in Premium plan
  • Free SSL certificate
  • 24/7 live support
  • Very limited storage and bandwidth in free plan
  • Pricier than some competitors
  • Not as customizable as some competitors

Forbes Advisor Ratings

Company Forbes Advisor Rating Starting price Drag-and-drop builder Unlimited storage available LEARN MORE
Wix 4.7 4.5-removebg-preview-1 Free; $17 per month Yes Yes, in the most expensive plan Learn More On Wix's Website
Webflow 4.6 4.5-removebg-preview-1 Free; $14 per month (billed annually) Yes Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Ucraft 4.5 4.5-removebg-preview-1 Free; $10 per month (billed annually) Yes Yes View More
GoDaddy 4.5 4.5-removebg-preview-1 Free; $10.99 per month (renews at $12.99 per month) Yes Yes Learn More On GoDaddy's Website
Jimdo 4.4 4.5-removebg-preview-1 Free; $11 per month (billed annually) Yes No View More
Weebly 4.4 4.5-removebg-preview-1 Free; $10 per month (billed annually) Yes Yes Learn More Read Forbes' Review
Strikingly 4.4 4.5-removebg-preview Free; $8 per month (Billed annually) Yes No View More
WordPress 4.2 4.0 star Free, open-source CMS Yes Depends on hosting provider and plan Learn More Read Forbes' Review
SITE123 4.2 4-removebg-preview-2 Free; $12.80 per month Yes No View More

Methodology

As we chose website builders for this list, we focused on ease of use, affordability, functionality, extra features and customer support. We preferred builders with free forever plans. Here is a closer look at how we assessed website builders for inclusion on this list.

Pricing

We included website builders that offer a free plan. We prioritized the inclusion of website builders with robustly featured free plans. We also included builders with first-tier plans that are $15 or less per month but preferred first-tier plans at $10 or less per month. This accounted for 20% of our weighted scoring.

Features

For this list, we looked for website builders with ample free tools to help businesses meet their goals around website design, publishing and management. Key among these is offering a drag-and-drop builder. The website builders on this list offer a drag-and-drop design process exclusively or optionally and we rated them accordingly. We put specific emphasis on web builders that offer unlimited storage and bandwidth, social media and email marketing tools and provide mobile responsive sites, Other general features we looked for include SEO tools, form builders, landing pages, SSL certificates, free domains and analytics. We weighted features at 30% of our total score.

Third-party Reviews

We turned to third-party review websites, including G2 and Trustpilot, to gauge real users’ experiences using the website builders. Those who fared well in reviews often scored high in customer support, such as those with live user support options, preferably those with 24/7 support. These accounted for 15% of the total score.

Expert Analysis

For our final analysis, our experts looked at four specific categories: popularity, value for the money, standout or detailed features and ease of use. For example, for ease of use, we looked for website builders that do not require coding skills to design a website. We also looked for other features that make website design easy, including a wide selection of website templates, image galleries, logo creators and automatically mobile-responsiveness sites. Altogether, these criteria make up 35% of the total score.


How To Choose a Cheap Website Builder

As a basic methodology for choosing a cheap website builder, first look at the builder’s price to ensure you can afford it. Next, take a look at the website builder itself to learn what skills are necessary to use it and how easy it is to design a website with it. Finally, dig into the provider’s customer support to learn the level of help you can expect if you run into an issue.

If you are on a tight budget, look for a website builder that offers a free plan as well as affordable premium plans. That way, you can get started for free, then advance to premium plans as your budget allows and when you are most likely to take advantage of premium features. Finally, look for affordable premium plans with features that save or make you money, such as a free domain and email marketing and e-commerce functionality.

Next, assess the builder’s design process. If you aren’t versed in coding, look for a website builder with templates you can use to begin designing your website quickly and easily. Then, look for a builder that allows you to customize your chosen template to your brand’s needs by clicking and dragging design elements into place. Finally, look for other features that will make design easy and quick, such as royalty-free image galleries.

Finally, evaluate the customer support the builder provides. First, find the website builder’s website. The company’s customer support and pricing pages will tell you the type of support offered, such as live chat, email or phone support. Customer review sites can help you dig deeper to learn the quality of support offered in practice. You’ll find that most reviewers will at least touch on the quality of customer support they received when using the builder.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Wix really free?

Wix offers both a free plan and paid plans. The free plan offers a customizable Wix domain and 500MB of storage and bandwidth. It also comes with an assigned URL that looks something like accountname.wixsite.com/siteaddress. You can use Wix web hosting and website builder for free to build your website. In its free plan, Wix ads will appear on every page of your site.

Is there a free website builder?

Many website builders offer free plans. These include Wix, SITE123 and Ucraft. However, these free website builders do not allow you to create a website that only includes your branding. Their brand names, for example, may appear in the form of watermarks, in the free website’s domain or in the footer of the website. They also often have limited storage and other needed features for building a fully developed website. Learn more about the best free website builders.

What is the cheapest way to create a website?

You can create a free website using the free plans offered by Wix, Ucraft, Weebly and similar website builders. These plans include the website builder’s branding on them in the form of watermarks or footer branding. The free domains are branded as well. Some, such as Ucraft, allow you to add a prepurchased custom domain.

Are website builders secure?

Because most website builders offer cutting-edge technology, they are usually ahead of the curve when it comes to keeping their sites secure. They do this by keeping their customers’ websites protected by using top-end technology. Because of this, most website building companies offer some of the best security options available on the internet.

Are SEO tools included with website builders?

Many leading services offer tools to help you boost your site’s visibility on search engines. Most builders are designed with an infrastructure that helps search engines easily find information. Additionally, many platforms come with tools to customize your site’s meta descriptions, automated data markup and easy social media integration to help share your content across platforms.

How scalable are website builders?

Website builders are highly scalable, and your plan can be easily modified to meet the needs of your growing team. If you outgrow even the top-level package of your service, many vendors offer enterprise-level functionality with customized pricing. It may be worthwhile to get in touch with your system’s customer service team to learn more.


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