Website builder or WordPress: costs, AI tools and trade-offs

There are two main ways to build a website yourself. A hosted website builder such as Wix, Squarespace, Webflow or Framer gives you the editor, the hosting and the security in one subscription. WordPress is free, open-source software that you install on hosting you pay for separately. Both can make a good site. They differ in cost, effort, control and how easy it is to leave.

What a website builder costs

With a builder you pay one monthly or yearly price, and hosting, security updates and the editor are included. The cheapest yearly plans that let you use your own domain were $10 a month on Framer, $15 on Webflow, $17 on Wix and $19 on Squarespace when we checked on 9 October 2026. None of these builders showed a higher renewal price, unlike most shared hosts.

If you sell online, check the fee on each sale as well as the plan price. Squarespace's Basic plan takes 2% of store sales and 7% of digital content sales, and its higher plans take less. Shopify charges a fee only when you use a third-party payment provider. The website builder cost calculator adds these fees to the plan price for your expected sales.

What WordPress costs

WordPress itself costs nothing. You pay for hosting and a domain, and optionally for premium themes and plugins.

Shared hosting is the cheapest way to run WordPress. DreamHost's Launch plan was $1.99 a month and Hostinger's Premium plan $2.99 a month on 48-month terms, paid up front. Both renew higher: $7.99 and $10.99 a month. Many hosts include a domain for the first year. After that, a .com cost $11.08 a year at Porkbun.

So for a simple site, WordPress on shared hosting costs less in the first few years than most builders. Premium themes, plugins and paid help can change that, so price what your site needs.

AI website builders

Most builders now include AI that drafts a site, a page or its text from a short description.

We have not yet tested how good each builder's AI output is. Treat it as a quick first draft: you will still need to write your own copy, add real photos and check every page. WordPress has AI plugins too, but you choose and install them yourself.

Effort and upkeep

A builder looks after hosting, security and software updates. You edit in the browser and the site keeps working. With WordPress you, or your host, keep WordPress, the theme and the plugins up to date, and you set up backups. Managed WordPress hosting does most of that for you, but costs from $25 a month. See shared, cloud or managed WordPress hosting.

Control and leaving later

WordPress gives you full control. You can install any theme or plugin, edit the code and move the whole site to another host using export tools and migration plugins. Hosted builders generally do not give you a copy of the whole site to run elsewhere, so leaving usually means rebuilding the design. Your domain moves with you either way.

Which to choose

• Choose a builder if you want a site live quickly, would rather not handle updates, and your site's needs fit the builder's features. Squarespace and Wix suit small business sites, Shopify suits online shops, and Webflow and Framer suit design-led sites.
• Choose WordPress if you want the lowest running cost, plan a content-heavy site such as a blog, need a specific plugin, or want to be able to move your site anywhere.

Try before you commit. Squarespace offers a 14-day trial, Wix, Framer and Webflow have free plans, and most WordPress hosts list a 30-day money-back guarantee.