Best Cheap Website Builders in 2025 (On-Going Case Study)

Proving that affordable doesn’t always mean basic, IONOS’ MyWebsite service is a great option for building a business-ready website which won’t break the budget.

IONOS (formally 1&1) offers extremely affordable introductory plans although, when it comes to website design, you’re stuck with an admittedly limited collection of templates. You can customise these templates using an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, although I still found the design structure a little too rigid for my liking. Alternatively, IONOS’ AI website builder can quickly whip up a professional-looking site with a few prompts.

While it might not offer the most flexible website building tools, IONOS’ strengths are behind the scenes – offering lots of great features to help you take your business to the next level. This includes marketing tools, multichannel ecommerce and even multilingual support, so you can go global to reach customers around the world in more than 60 languages.

Pros:

• Very affordable
• Easy to use
• AI website builder
• Multilingual
• Dedicated 24/7 support

Cons:

• Limited templates
• Restricted customisation

Wix is my all-time favourite website builder that offers a free plan, with premium plans you can upgrade to. You may be wondering why they’ve been knocked down to third place in my list of the best cheap website builders, and that’s simply because their paid plans are more expensive in comparison to others listed here.

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You can try Wix for free by signing up for their free plan which will give you a Wix-branded URL, Wix ads on your page, and limited storage. If you do decide to upgrade your plan, I’d recommend jumping to their Combo plan which is £6 per month, as their Connect Domain plan still limits your site to Wix ads which don’t look very professional.

Wix is incredibly easy to use, offering a drag and drop website builder format which is popular with all skill levels. The customization options are almost endless, with access to free stock photos, videos, sliders, and lots more. Whether you want to create an online store, simple blog, or portfolio, Wix has it all.

Pros:

• Great SEO tools
• Very easy to use
• Lots of beautiful website templates
• Good scalability

Cons:

• Premium plans are expensive in comparison to other builders
• Extras like email accounts have to be paid for

WordPress powers over a third of websites on the internet. Not only is it a popular website builder, but it’s also a very cheap one. In fact, you can start building your website with WordPress today for free!

Many WordPress websites are built with WordPress.org, which is an open-source self-hosted solution. However, WordPress.com is much easier to use, ideal for beginners, and you don’t have to pay a penny to use it.

The free plan allows you to build a website with basic features, 3GB storage, access to free themes, and a pre-installed SSL certificate. Whilst the plan is free, it is very limited, so if you’re serious about building a website with WordPress, I’d recommend upgrading to their Personal plan which is just £3 per month, giving you access to a custom domain, email, and support.

Pros:

• Great for basic blogging websites
• Free plan available
• Access to lots of free themes
• Basic design customisation

Cons:

• Not recommended for anything other than basic websites

Weebly is incredibly easy to use which is why I highly recommend it for beginners, basic websites, and small business sites. Weebly has four different pricing plans, allowing you to create simple sites to eCommerce sites in a few simple clicks.

Whilst you can create an online store with Weebly, I’d consider trying another website builder like SquareSpace if you want to sell online. Weebly is really only designed for smaller businesses (not selling products) because of the features and tools available.

Weebly’s free plan allows you to create a basic website with Weebly branding, SEO tools, and support via their community forum and live chat portal. Weebly’s selection of templates and drag and drop editor makes it a great choice for creating a personal blog that will look professional, without the complication of coded design.

Pros:

• Free plan
• Decent themes to use
• Simple to use and ideal for beginners
• Free SSL certificate

Cons:

• Not great for online stores

Jimdo is a cheap website builder with some limitations. Whilst you can create a website or online store with Jimdo, you’re going to find quite a few restrictions in comparison to Wix and SquareSpace, who offer similar pricing plans.

Like many website builders, Jimdo offers a free plan, which includes a free SSL certificate, a small amount of storage and bandwidth, and that’s about it! You won’t be able to connect your own domain, so if you plan to create a website for professional purposes, it won’t look that great.

If you want to sell products online by creating an online store with Jimdo, again, you’re going to hit a few barriers. The Basic eCommerce plan is £15 month and you won’t even have access to any product variations. I think they’re a good option to consider for basic websites, or if you want to experiment with a website builder, but not much more.

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Free plan
• Nice templates

Cons:

• Expensive plans and limited features
• Less customisable than other website builders

HostGator are famous for their web hosting, but they launched their own website builder in 2019 and have drawn customers in with their impressive pool of modern mobile-responsive templates. In fact, they rival other big website builders with more than 200 to choose from.

Their website builder’s editor is easily comparable to Wix given how simple it is to use. If you want to use pre-built blocks and sections like “about us” and “meet the team”, you can pick and choose to make your life a little easier.

Whilst HostGator doesn’t have a free plan like other website builders, I was genuinely surprised at how good their builder was. For less than £3 per month, you get free hosting, a domain name, website analytics, and free SSL. No, it’s not as extensive as other builders but for that price, it’s hard to complain.

Pros:

• Free hosting and domain name
• Easy to use (like Wix)
• Great choice of templates
• Free SSL

Cons:

• Features aren’t as great as other builders
• Online store capability slightly limited

TemplateToaster is a very different approach to your everyday website builder. It’s actually a piece of software that allows you to create your website from your own desktop PC (or laptop), so you can build your site offline if you wish.

You’ll pay a one-off fee by choosing the Standard or Premium plan, giving you access to TemplateToaster for life. TemplateToaster’s themes support WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Drupal, PrestaShop, VirtueMart, WooCommerce, OpenCart, Blogger(BlogSpot) and HTML Websites.

TemplateToaster is available for Windows users and Mac via virtual machines. Because it’s a piece of software, it doesn’t come with free hosting like most traditional website builders, and you’ll need to manage any updates yourself.

Pros:

• Alternative to online website builders
• Reasonably priced (one-off fee)
• Offers more control and flexibility

Cons:

• Doesn’t include web hosting
• Mac and Linux users will need to use a virtual machine

Strikingly’s free plan allows you to build your own website and simple online store with up to 1 product per site. You’ll be limited to a Strikingly.com domain, but you can create unlimited free sites forever if you wish with 500MB storage per site.

Although Strikingly’s pricing plans beyond their free plan are fairly reasonably priced, their website builder is one that is just okay in all honesty. They’re quite good at most things but not really an expert in any area, which makes me wonder why I’d choose them over another website builder that offers more.

However, if you want to create beautiful websites or sell a small number of products, e.g. a personal portfolio with samples of your work, then Strikingly is actually a good choice.

Pros:

• Free plan allows you to create an online store
• Plenty of stunning templates
• 24/7 support on all plans

Cons:

• Online store is limited by number of products on each plan
• No features particularly stand out

IM Creator is a great choice for a cheap website builder, especially if you plan to make an image-heavy website. They focus a lot on speed and performance, as well as offering a space for creating an online store.

If you are a student, artist, or non-profit organisation, you can get a free IM creator licence, giving you access to unlimited hosting, connect your domain, access to all themes, and eCommerce features. I consider this incredibly generous, especially considering the licence is free for life.

For individuals or businesses outside of the free plan scope, pricing starts from £6.10 per month, offering the same features. However, you won’t get a free domain unlike some other hosts, nor will you get a free SSL certificate. I wouldn’t recommend creating a website without an SSL, but if you decide to, it’s a cheap alternative and could be a good platform to experiment with some of your design skills.

Pros:

• Free plan for artists, students, and non-profits
• Unlimited hosting included
• Access to all themes on any plan

Cons:

• Not as intuitive as Wix
• Can get costly when you need to spend extra on an SSL certificate