What this guide does: helps a small business choose two builders to try, compare their full costs, and test whether its content can leave later. It is an AI-assisted desk-research comparison of the linked vendor documentation. We have not run a hands-on comparison or measured customer results for these products.
Before choosing
- Decide whether the essential job is collecting enquiries, publishing content, or completing a sale.
- Compare a named plan, billing term and currency. An annual plan's monthly equivalent is not a monthly commitment.
- Test your real page, form and export needs before paying. A design export and a working migrated website are different things.
Start with the visitor's task
A builder is useful only if it supports what your visitor needs to do and what you can maintain. Write that task in one sentence before comparing templates. The shortlist below is editorial judgment based on product scope, not a ranking established by testing.
- Service enquiries or a portfolio: try Wix or Squarespace with one real service page, your own images and a contact form. If appointments matter, check the exact booking entitlement and any separate subscription.
- A publication or resource library: try WordPress.com; consider Webflow Premium if a visual layout and structured CMS collections are central. Test how you add and update an article, not just the homepage.
- A product shop: include Shopify in the trial. Create a product with your actual variants, shipping destinations and payment requirements. A lower subscription price is not useful if the necessary workflow needs several paid apps.
- A straightforward site alongside an existing provider: consider GoDaddy or Weebly if you already use their services. Verify the current plan's domain, payment, export and renewal terms rather than assuming a shared supplier means a lower total bill.
Current plans and price context
Checked September 12, 2026. These are selected public vendor figures, not checkout quotes. USD and EUR are deliberately kept separate; no exchange-rate conversion or cheapest-platform ranking is implied. Monthly equivalents below require the stated annual commitment. Domains, email, apps, payment charges and applicable taxes may change the final total. Where the regional quote could not be established reliably, the table links the current offer instead of retaining the old price range.
On a small screen, scroll the comparison sideways to read all three columns.
| Builder | Published price or quote status | Check before committing |
|---|---|---|
| Wix | Light, Core, Business and Business Elite; free plan also listed. No universal price quoted here: the page localizes prices and tax wording. Its displayed monthly rates refer to yearly subscriptions paid in full. | Light is the basic site tier; the displayed Core tier includes accepting payments. Check your exact booking, storage and collaborator requirements. |
| Squarespace | Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced, with monthly or annual billing; regional availability varies. The public page offers a 14-day trial. A reliable regional plan price was not established in this check. | Use the current plan guide. Check selling fees and separate services such as Acuity Scheduling or email campaigns. |
| WordPress.com | The fetched EUR view lists Personal at €4/month billed every 12 months (€48/year) and Premium at €8/month (€96/year). Free, Business and Commerce plans are also listed. | The current page includes plugin installation on every paid plan. That does not include every paid plugin's license or guarantee compatibility. Hosted WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress are different purchasing choices. |
| Shopify | USD annual-billing view: Basic $29/month, Grow $79/month, Advanced $299/month. Basic is $348/year; its month-to-month rate is $39. Introductory promotions are excluded here. | Budget for payment processing and any applicable third-party transaction fee, paid theme, apps or point-of-sale subscription. Use the rates for your country and payment setup. |
| Webflow | USD Site plans, billed yearly: Basic $15/month ($180/year); Premium $25/month ($300/year). Basic has no CMS; Premium includes CMS. Starter is a limited free option. | Site hosting and Workspace plans serve different purposes. Code export requires a paid Workspace plan; a paid Site plan alone does not include it. |
| GoDaddy | The website-plan link redirects to the current pricing catalog. No dependable website-plan/renewal quote was established in this check; the previous $10–20 range has been removed. | Select the website product and region, then record the named plan, initial term, renewal price, appointment/store features and any separate email charge. |
| Weebly | The fetched EUR view lists Personal €11, Professional €17 and Performance €30 per month billed annually. Personal totals €132/year; month-to-month is €14. A free option is listed. | Confirm domain connection, advertising removal, store features and the available payment setup on the selected plan. A free site and an ad-free custom-domain site are not interchangeable. |
Existing customers may see legacy plans, renewal dates or offers different from a new buyer. Recheck the linked vendor page and checkout before choosing an annual commitment. A rate checked today is not a promise about your next renewal.
Compare a complete bill
Use one period and one currency for both candidates. Start with the subscription, then add domain renewal, business email, required apps, payment fees and any help you expect to buy. Keep your own setup time in a separate line so you can see whether a cheaper plan simply shifts work onto you.
Hypothetical annual budget: a $180 subscription plus a $20 domain and $72 of email is $272 before taxes, payment fees and optional apps. These are sample budget inputs, not a bundled vendor offer. If the first year includes a domain, also calculate year two using its renewal price.
For a shop, calculate payment costs separately: expected transactions × fixed fee, plus expected chargeable sales × percentage fee. Add any platform transaction charge that applies to the chosen payment provider. Use the contract's actual fee basis, including treatment of taxes, shipping and refunds; do not assume the subscription includes processing.
Price the exit as well as the launch
A blanket claim that designs never transfer is inaccurate. Export support varies by platform, plan and feature:
- Wix: its hosting/export documentation says a Wix site relies on Wix's infrastructure. Owning the content or using an independently registered domain does not make the complete Wix site externally hostable.
- WordPress.com: the content export guide explains the XML/WXR export. Check the media transfer and the destination's support for themes and plugins; a content export is not a complete copy of every setting or design.
- Webflow: a paid Workspace can export HTML, CSS, JavaScript and assets. Hosted CMS, checkout, forms and other service functionality do not become a working self-hosted system merely by exporting that code.
For any candidate, list what must survive a move: pages, images, URLs, redirects, contacts, products and orders. Export a small sample and inspect it before committing. Keep original images and copy in a location you control. Check who controls the domain account and how you can transfer it.
A practical two-builder trial
Use the same small task in each candidate. This is a test for you to perform; it is not a claim that we tested these platforms. Keep a pass/fail note and the exact plan required beside each item.
- Build one real page: use your own headline, three images, price or service description, and contact details. Preview it on a phone and desktop. Check long text, navigation, image crop and readable contrast.
- Complete the visitor action: submit a test enquiry and confirm it reaches the right inbox, or use the provider's test-payment mode for a sample order. Check required fields, confirmation text and the next action. Avoid charging a real customer as a test.
- Make an ordinary update: change a price, replace an image and add a new page or product. Record what was confusing and whether another person could maintain it.
- Check ownership and recovery: locate the export, backup/restore and domain controls. Record what an export excludes. Do not cancel an existing site or move its domain just to try a builder.
- Capture the real quote: write down the plan, currency, billing term, first payment, renewal total and required extras. Note the cancellation/refund conditions shown for that purchase.
Copyable decision record: visitor task; must-have features; candidate and plan; trial result; unresolved limitation; first-year total; renewal-year total; export limitations; next check. Reject a candidate that fails a must-have even if its headline price is lower.
Example, not a case study: a local service business needs an enquiry form and a gallery, while a small shop needs variants, shipping and a working checkout. They should not choose from the same template screenshot. The service business can stop at a verified enquiry workflow; the shop must establish payment and order handling before a plan is useful.
Frequently asked questions
Can I switch website builders later?
Usually, but what moves depends on the platform, plan and feature. Some support content exports or static code exports; others require rebuilding the site. Test the export and list missing forms, checkout, design and media before committing.
Do I need a separate hosting provider?
The hosted builder plans discussed here include hosting. Self-hosted WordPress or exported code needs a separate hosting arrangement. Domain registration, business email, paid apps and payment processing may still be separate costs.
What about domain names?
Check the selected plan's custom-domain entitlement and renewal price. A first-year domain offer does not mean free renewal or free business email. You can often keep a domain with a separate registrar, but confirm connection and transfer requirements before buying.
Sources and method
The inline links point to official pricing and support pages checked on September 12, 2026. Published plan details are distinguished from our suggested trial tasks. We have not verified regional checkout totals, support quality, uptime, ease-of-use rankings or revenue outcomes. The older undated price-range chart and unsupported market-share claims were removed.