Best Website Builders for Small Business
Wix fits the widest range of small businesses: a free plan to start, $17 a month for its cheapest paid plan, and a store from the $29 Core plan when you are ready to sell. If selling is the whole reason for the site, Shopify at $29 or Square Online, whose online store costs $0 a month, are built around checkout rather than pages.
Two questions sort these eleven builders. The first is whether the cheapest plan can sell online at all: on Wix, Hostinger, WordPress.com and Webflow it cannot, and the plan that sells costs more. The second is how much of the site you want to make yourself, from Webflow's canvas that writes real HTML and CSS to GoDaddy and Durable, which produce a site from a description of your business.
Our picks
- One builder that can grow into anything: Wix. A free plan, 2,000+ templates, and a store, bookings or a blog you can switch on later, with selling from the $29 Core plan.
- A shop or cafe already using Square: Square Online. Its online store is $0 a month with 3.3% + 30 cents per online sale, and online and in-person sales land in one system.
- When the store is the business: Shopify. Storefront, checkout, inventory, shipping and point of sale are one system, and selling starts at $29 a month.
- A solo service business that takes bookings: Durable. A site built from your description, with online booking, invoices and a customer list; Launch at $25 a month adds a domain and priority support.
- A site built around writing: WordPress.com. Personal at $4 a month removes ads and includes a first-year domain, on an editor built for content and SEO.
At a glance
| Option | Starting Price | Online Store Plan | Free Plan | Free Domain | Support | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $17source | $29source | Free plansource | Included freesource | 24/7 supportsource | All-purpose small business sitessource | |
| $19source | $19source | Free trial onlysource | Included freesource | 24/7 supportsource | Design-forward brand sitessource | |
| $29source | $29source | Free trial onlysource | Buy separatelysource | 24/7 supportsource | Online storessource | |
| $9.99source | $9.99source | Free plansource | Included freesource | 24/7 supportsource | All-purpose small business sitessource | |
| $2.99source | $3.99source | Money-back guarantee onlysource | Included freesource | 24/7 supportsource | Budget-friendly starter sitessource | |
| $4source | $45source | Free plansource | Included freesource | Help center and emailsource | Content and bloggingsource | |
| $15source | $29source | Free plansource | Help center and emailsource | Marketing and design teamssource | ||
| $49source | $0source | Free plansource | Buy separatelysource | 24/7 supportsource | Online storessource | |
| $19source | Free trial onlysource | Help center and emailsource | Agencies managing client sitessource | |||
| $29source | $29source | Free trial onlysource | 24/7 supportsource | Online storessource | ||
| $25source | Free plansource | Included freesource | Help center and emailsource | Service and booking businessessource |
The cheapest plan that can actually take payments
The Starting Price column and the Online Store Plan column are the same number for only some of these builders. Wix goes from $17 to $29 once you want to sell, Webflow from $15 to $29, Hostinger from $2.99 to $3.99, and WordPress.com makes the biggest jump, from $4 to the $45 Commerce plan.
Square Online runs the other way. Its store is free and its first paid tier is $49, which mostly buys lower processing rates and extras like QR ordering. Squarespace's $19 Basic plan can sell too, but it takes 2% of online store sales, a fee that disappears on the $29 Core plan. Two rows have no store price at all: Duda sells ecommerce as an add-on from around $7 a month on top of a $19 site plan, and Durable says itself that it is not designed for ecommerce.
What the headline price leaves out
Hostinger's $2.99 is the lowest starting price in the table, and it comes with the longest commitment: a 48-month prepayment of about $143, renewing at $10.99 a month. Every other price here is on an ordinary annual term, so a sort by price flatters it.
The domain is the next surprise. Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Hostinger, WordPress.com and Durable include one with a paid plan, usually for the first year. Shopify domains are bought separately from about $9 a year and Square Online's from $19.95. BigCommerce has its own catch: plans carry annual sales thresholds, so growth alone can move you up a tier. GoDaddy meters its paid plans in credits, so heavy regeneration, not selling, is what pushes you past the $9.99 Starter plan.
Free plan, free trial or money back
Six builders let you keep a free plan: Wix, GoDaddy (50 credits a month), WordPress.com (with WordPress.com ads), Webflow, Square Online and Durable. Squarespace and Duda give 14-day trials, BigCommerce 15 days, and Shopify only 3 days before $1 a month for three months. Hostinger is the one with no free tier and no trial, only a 30-day money-back guarantee, which matters more when the plan you are buying is four years long.
The options in detail
Wix
Wix is the broadest of the mainstream builders: you can start on a free plan, build with a drag-and-drop editor on top of 2,000+ templates, and switch on a store, bookings or a blog as the business grows. The catch is that the cheapest paid plan, Light at $17 a month, does not accept payments, so selling starts at the $29 Core plan. Every paid plan includes a free domain for the first year and 24/7 customer care. If you want one tool that can cover almost any small business site without moving platforms later, this is the default pick.
Squarespace
Squarespace is the design-first option: a smaller, tightly art-directed template set that makes a good-looking site hard to get wrong, plus built-in AI tools and analytics. Every paid plan can sell, so the $19 Basic plan is enough for a small shop, but Basic charges a 2% transaction fee on online store sales that disappears on the $29 Core plan. There is no free tier, only a 14-day trial, and an annual plan includes a free custom domain for the first year. Best suited to a business whose site is mostly brand and portfolio with some selling attached.
Shopify
Shopify is a commerce platform first and a website builder second, and it shows: storefront, checkout, inventory, shipping and point of sale are one system. The $29 Basic plan is aimed at solo sellers and takes cards from 2.9% + 30 cents, with an extra 2% only if you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments. There is no free plan, just a 3-day trial (then $1 a month for three months), and domains are bought separately from about $9 a year. Choose it when selling is the point of the site rather than a feature bolted onto it.
GoDaddy Website Builder
GoDaddy rebuilt its builder around Airo, which generates a whole site, its pages and even simple web apps from a description of your business. It is the cheapest full route into a small business site here: the $9.99 Starter plan already includes a free domain, unlimited products and services, and 24/7 expert support, and there is a free tier with 50 credits a month for trying it out. Paid plans are metered in credits rather than features, so heavy regeneration, not selling, is what pushes you up a tier. Sensible if you want a site produced for you in minutes and would rather not fuss with layout.
Hostinger Website Builder
Hostinger bundles its builder with hosting and sells it on price: $2.99 a month for the Premium plan, with a free domain for the first year, 400+ templates and 24/7 support. Read the term carefully, because that headline rate is a 48-month prepayment of about $143 and renews at $10.99 a month, and the $3.99 Unlimited plan is the first one with ecommerce. There is no free plan, only a 30-day money-back guarantee. Good value if you are happy to commit for years, less so if you want to pay yearly like almost everyone else in this table.
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is the hosted version of the software behind a large share of the web, and it is still the strongest choice when writing is central to the business: the editor, taxonomies and SEO plumbing are built for content. The free plan never expires but shows WordPress.com ads, Personal at $4 a month removes them and includes a free domain for the first year, and a real store needs the $45 Commerce plan. Support on the entry plans is the email-based Happiness team rather than round-the-clock chat. Pick it for a blog-led or content-marketing site you may eventually want to move to self-hosted WordPress.
Webflow
Webflow is a visual development tool aimed at marketing and design teams rather than template pickers: you lay out a site on a canvas that writes real HTML and CSS, with a CMS behind it. That power costs setup time, and pricing is per site: a free Starter plan to build on, $15 a month Basic to publish a simple site, $25 Premium for CMS-heavy sites, and a separate $29 ecommerce plan carrying a 2% transaction fee that drops to 0% on the higher tiers. Domains are not included and the entry plans advertise no round-the-clock support. Worth it when someone on your side is comfortable with structure and layout, overkill for a five-page site.
Square Online
Square Online is the website arm of the Square payments business, and its distinguishing move is a genuinely free online store: $0 a month, with 3.3% + 30 cents taken on each online sale. Paid tiers start at $49 a month and mainly buy lower processing rates, more site customization and extras like QR ordering and subscriptions; the 24/7 support line is listed on the $149 Premium tier. Domains are bought separately, from $19.95. The obvious pick for a shop, cafe or restaurant already running Square's point of sale, since online and in-person sales land in one system.
Duda
Duda is built for the people who make websites for other people: agencies, freelancers and hosting companies running many client sites, with team roles, client-facing editing limits and white-label options. Site plans start at $19 a month on annual billing and come with a 14-day trial that needs no card, though support at that tier is email rather than live chat. Ecommerce is priced separately, starting around $7 a month on top of a site plan, which is why the store column here is blank. A solo owner building one site will find it capable but expensive for the part of it they actually use.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is an enterprise-leaning store platform that starts at $29 a month for its Core plan, the same headline as Shopify Basic but with more included before you start adding paid apps. Sales through its embedded payment providers carry no BigCommerce fee, and every plan lists 24/7 chat and email support; the trial is 15 days and needs no card. There is no free tier and no bundled domain. The thing to watch is that plans carry annual sales thresholds, so growth can push you into the next tier whether or not you want its features.
Durable
Durable is an AI business builder aimed squarely at solo service businesses: landscapers, cleaners, coaches, photographers. You describe what you do and it produces a site in seconds, then adds the parts those businesses actually need, including online booking, invoices and a customer list. The free plan is enough to see what it makes, and Launch at $25 a month adds a registered domain worth up to $20 plus priority human support. It has no real online store, and the company says so itself, so treat it as a lead-and-booking site rather than a shop.
How we researched this
Every price here was read off the builder's own pricing page, and Starting Price uses the standard annual or longer term. The eleven were chosen to cover the different shapes of this decision: all-purpose builders, design-first, store-first, the cheapest way in, content-led, agency tools and solo service businesses. Jimdo was left out because its pricing pages would not load, so there was no price to cite. IONOS advertised $1 a month for a plan whose regular price is $24, which would not sit fairly beside annual rates. Framer has no built-in store, Weebly is effectively part of Square Online, and Carrd, Site123 and Zyro are one-page or hobby tools. The Best For column reflects how each company describes itself, so read it as positioning rather than a verdict.
The pricing pages for Webflow, BigCommerce and Duda do not say whether a domain comes with the plan, so those cells are empty, and so are the store cells for Duda and Durable, which have no store plan to list. Prices and plan names here are as of September 2026, and they move quickly. Squarespace renamed its plans within the last year, GoDaddy replaced its builder with Airo, and Square Online is being folded into Square Websites, so the term length and the renewal price at checkout are the numbers to read twice.