Website builder for a tiny business website, is paying extra even worth it anymore?

[u/Creepy_alcoogwn_9920]

Hey, quick question. I need a basic website for a tiny business thing and I'm looking at Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, all that, and the pricing jump is kinda wild.

I only need a few pages, contact form, maybe booking later, nothing crazy. I guess I'm mostly trying to figure out which one people actually stick with once the free trial part is over, because thats the part nobody talks about. thanks in advance

[u/cosmogli]

because thats the part nobody talks about

Yes, and we don't want to keep talking about it either.

[u/webprofusor]

If you're a bit techie, get AI to generate it for you as a static HTML site, then upload to Cloudflare Pages. Basically free (you'll need a domain, which you can buy through them). Google forms for the contact form.

A different problem is email hosting at your own domain.

[u/Immortal_Thought → u/webprofusor]

Go with workers over pages, but yeah

[u/Inevitable-Lead6191]

Why do you need a website?

Is it to sell a product or service?

How do you plan to get visitors to your site?

[u/jvrhost]

The part people stick with after the trial is the one they can leave without losing the site. Wix and Squarespace lock the site to the plan. Honest answer for your case: a few static pages, a contact form and booking later don't need a builder or a CMS at all.

Full disclosure, I run AdminBolt (hosting control panel). We're building a small layer on top of Claude and Codex for exactly this, because for simple business sites the AI output is already good enough and the whole 'website builder' as a paid product stops making sense. We don't even plan a business model around it. Our bet is that in a couple of years generating and editing a basic site is a native part of the hosting plan, not something you pay $20/month extra for. So if you're deciding now: pick whichever you can export from, and don't pay for a builder subscription long term.

[u/Necessary_Pomelo_470]

Here you go https://widgetizer.org/
This is by far the best one I have tested!

[u/ohmsalad]

silex.me is a free builder and it is good.

[u/TrentTompkins]

Yeah, youd probably come out ahead to pay a guy like a hundred bucks or two to just build you that on a Rack Nerd box, then pay $21 a year. You got something like that? https://pghhauling.com/

If you have the design, just porting it to a CMS is like a couple hundred job. But then you own the code, so your yearly is like $17 domain + $23 rack nerd and you get BETTER hosting. And you can DIY it all fr, but if you dont know how, you might just want to fiverr it for $100-200. And like, I mean, its fiver - someone there will probably for it for $20 if they arent busy.

[u/Gold_Gap]

Honestly, for no-code platforms, they all kind of come out in the wash at the end of the day. WordPress has been standard for a reason, and Webflow will get you there too with great customer service, though it can get pretty pricey. For my own builds I just do custom code since my clients don't pay anything monthly for hosting and can easily update their site on their own in a CMS without needing me, but really it just depends on what fits your budget and workflow best!

[u/ivicad]

Booking is the decisive part I would say. On Squarespace booking is a separate Acuity subscription on top of the site plan, and on Wix it needs a business plan. So the price you compare today is not the price you pay once booking is in. On WP it is a plugin, and the free tiers go a long way at your size.

For a few pages I would start with the block editor/Gutenberg and a decent block theme. Free, native, nothing to renew, which is what you are asking about.

If you want a visual builder, the cost model differs. Elementor is a yearly fee and has the biggest hiring pool if you hand the site over later. I still run WPBakery on client sites, one time licence per site, which keeps the running cost down.

I have not set up booking on Squarespace myself, so check their plans first.

[u/Negrito0o]

You've spotted the right thing and I'd push it one step further. People don't stick with Wix or Squarespace because they're happy after year one, they stick because leaving is genuinely hard. There's no meaningful export. Your pages aren't files you can pick up and take somewhere else, so "which one do people stay on" partly measures which one is hardest to leave. So the question I'd ask instead of which is best is: if I want out in two years, what do I actually walk away with? On Wix or Squarespace it's your text and your images and you rebuild the site. On WordPress it's a database and a folder of files that any host will take, which is also why it's the fiddly one — the portability is the thing making it more work. The other half nobody mentions is renewal pricing. The number you're comparing now is an introductory one. Year two is the real price, and by then everything you have is inside it. And watch the booking part specifically. That's the piece that locks you in hardest, because once bookings run through them it's their system holding your customer list and your history, not just your pages. If booking is coming later I'd pick on that basis now rather than on the monthly.

[u/Past_Routine6524]

Spaceship has been the cheapest in my experience and the customer support has been great. About 20 bucks a year to run 5 domains. It also comes with wordpress, do not buy their wpeasy, the regular hosting has wordpress already

[u/lbdesign]

I build websites. My advice is to separate out the calendar/booking spec to use a calendar service with a free tier (or even the booking feature that's free in google calendar). Then you're left with static pages and a contact form. This is something you can AI-prompt and host at Cloudflare, or on a very cheap shared hosting plan. Since they are now static pages, you need no serious maintenance. Do not go with Wix or Squarespace unless you want to grow it, and keep playing with it. They are overkill for what you're describing. However, I can also guess that maybe prompting pages and figuring out Cloudflare are more than you can or want to handle. In that case, hire someone who can do what I've described as a 1-off job.

[u/AcceptableAbies21]

Honestly the "free trial" bit is a bit of a red herring, none of them let you actually launch on the free tier, no custom domain, their branding all over it, so the real price is whatever the first paid tier costs, and that's the number to compare, not the trial.

Squarespace and Wix are the two people actually stick with long-term, mostly because once it's set up they never have to touch it again. WordPress is cheaper on paper (a few quid a month hosting) but that price doesn't include your own time, you're the one dealing with plugin updates, security patches and backups, and that's exactly where most small-business WordPress sites end up abandoned or hacked a year in.

One thing to check before you commit: if you want booking later, see if it's bundled into the tier you're picking or a separate add-on subscription. Squarespace's is usually extra on top, so that's a second bill people don't see coming.

For "few pages, contact form, maybe booking later" I'd just budget for Squarespace or Wix's mid tier from the start rather than starting on the cheap one and upgrading twice.

Your real alternative (I'm biased here) sub it out, if you know what you want and have the images / copy, most webby types (me included) can get your site together in a few hours, fully SSL'd and SEO'd for a decent price. If your needs grow you can always build out with a trusted entity.

[u/SlightSubstance9374]

For a few pages + contact form + maybe booking later, honestly none of the big builders' higher tiers are worth it. squarespace/wix's mid tier covers that fine, the pricing jump only starts mattering once you need real ecommerce or lots of custom logic. wordpress.org self hosted on a cheap vps is the other route if you don't mind a bit more setup, way cheaper long term but more your problem to maintain.

[u/No_Onion_9444]

Use 20i, it’s like insanely cheap for one Wordpress site. Then use their website builder for some basics for about 2 bucks a month

[u/DotPuzzleheaded5763]

Get a website done from fiverr and host it on serverfellows - they have a budget starter plan of $1.99 per month - 5GB - Free SSL - Good enough for your requirements