Hostinger Website Builder alternatives: the real costs compared

Why people look for a Hostinger alternative

Most people searching for an alternative are not unhappy with the editor. They are reacting to the checkout page. The $2.99 headline only applies if you prepay four years, and shorter terms cost more per month. Plenty of small businesses do not want to tie themselves to one tool for four years, especially in the first year of trading when almost everything changes.

Other reasons come up again and again in reviews:

• Selling needs the next plan up. At the time of writing, Hostinger lists ecommerce on its Unlimited plan ($3.99 a month on a 48-month term, renewing at $16.99), not on Premium.
• Design control has a ceiling. Reviewers find it fine for standard layouts but limiting when you want something more custom.
• Fewer integrations. TechRadar lists limited third-party integrations as a drawback.
• Leaving means rebuilding. Pages, posts and images can be exported, but the design itself cannot.

To be fair to Hostinger, Premium includes a lot for the money: up to 3 websites, a custom domain and 2 mailboxes per site free for the first year, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Nothing on this page is a reason to leave if it is working for you.

What Hostinger really costs, year by year

Here is the arithmetic, using Hostinger's own figures at the time of writing:

• Premium: $143.52 upfront covers 48 months. From month 49 the price is $10.99 a month, or $131.88 a year. Year five costs almost as much as the first four together.
• Unlimited (the plan that lists ecommerce): $191.52 upfront for 48 months, then $16.99 a month, or $203.88 a year.

Is that poor value? Not really. $143.52 for four years is less than a single year on most of the builders below. If you are sure your site will stay simple and you are happy to pay upfront, Hostinger is hard to beat on price.

The real cost is the commitment. Once the 30-day money-back window has passed, you have paid for four years. If you outgrow the builder in year two, moving means paying twice. That is what every alternative below is really competing on: a higher monthly price in exchange for flexibility, more features or both.

What to check before you switch

Builders are easy to compare badly. Headline prices use different billing terms, and the cheapest plan often leaves out the one thing you need. Run each option through this list:

1. The billing term you will actually use. Most headline prices assume annual billing. Monthly billing usually costs more.
2. The renewal price. A low first term means little if the second term costs three times as much.
3. Whether the cheapest plan can take payments. Several cannot.
4. Transaction fees. Some plans take a percentage of store sales on top of the card processor's own fees.
5. Limits. Pages, monthly visitors, products and the number of websites per plan.
6. A free plan or trial. An hour in the editor tells you more than any review.
7. What leaves with you. Text, images and your domain usually move. Designs rarely do.
8. The ecosystem. Apps, templates, tutorials and how easy it is to find someone who can help.

The alternatives at a glance

Prices are per month in US dollars on annual billing at the time of writing (October 2026), unless noted. WebNewBiz prices are on monthly billing; its yearly billing is cheaper.

Wix: the most templates and apps

Wix has a free plan to try things out (with Wix branding), a very large template library and one of the biggest app markets of any builder. The catch for anyone coming from Hostinger is that the cheapest paid plan, Light at $17 a month, cannot take payments. Anything that takes money online starts at Core, $29. Business is $39 and Business Elite $159.

Good for: owners who want plenty of design choice and expect to add features through apps over time. Less good for: tight budgets that need to sell, since $29 a month is a big step up from Hostinger's intro price. Our Hostinger vs Wix comparison goes deeper on these two.

Squarespace: polished design with little effort

Squarespace has no free plan but offers a 14-day free trial with no card needed. Basic, at $19 a month, can sell, but it charges a 2% fee on store sales. Core, at $29, removes that fee. Plus is $49 and Advanced $99.

The Basic versus Core decision is simple maths. Core costs $10 a month more, and 2% of $500 is $10. If you expect to sell more than about $500 a month, Core is the cheaper plan.

Good for: photographers, cafés, boutiques and consultants who want a site that looks considered without design skills. Less good for: very tight budgets, since there is nothing below $19, and anyone who wants deep customisation.

Framer: design-led sites, no checkout

Framer is closer to a design tool that publishes websites. There is a free plan, then Basic at $10 a month per site (up to 30 pages) and Pro at $30 per site (up to 150 pages). Pricing is per site, so three sites cost three times as much.

There is no built-in checkout. If you sell, you would need to link out to a separate payment or store tool.

Good for: startups, designers and creative studios that want a striking landing page or portfolio. Less good for: shops, and owners who would rather not think about spacing and layout.

Webflow: the most control, the steepest learning curve

Webflow gives you something close to the control of hand-written code without writing it. The free Starter plan publishes to a webflow.io address with a 2-page limit. Paid site plans start with Basic at $15 for simple sites without a CMS, and the CMS plan (now called Premium) is $25 when you need a blog or other collections. Ecommerce starts at $29, with a 2% transaction fee on the Standard plan.

Good for: businesses with a designer or agency, or owners who enjoy learning a proper tool. Less good for: anyone who wants a finished site this weekend. Expect to spend real time on tutorials.

Durable: quick AI sites for service businesses

Durable drafts a site with AI from a few details about your business. The free plan runs on a durable.site address and its CRM is capped at 10 customers. Launch, at $22 a month on annual billing ($25 monthly), adds a custom domain, online booking synced to your calendar, a built-in CRM with unlimited customers and AI-written blog posts. Grow is $41 a month on annual billing ($49 monthly), with more AI credits and unlimited team members.

Durable says on its own pricing page that it is not designed specifically for ecommerce, so it is a poor fit for a shop.

Good for: cleaners, trades, coaches and consultants who mainly need bookings and a customer list. Less good for: product sellers and anyone who wants detailed design control. Our guide to Durable alternatives covers its limits in more detail.

10Web: an AI-built WordPress site

10Web uses AI to build a real WordPress site and hosts it for you. AI Starter is $10 a month billed yearly ($120), with 1 website, 10GB of storage and up to 10,000 visitors a month. AI Premium is $15 for 2 websites and 20,000 visitors. An ecommerce dashboard is listed on all its AI plans, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Two things to check. The $120 yearly price is shown as a discount from $240, so ask what renewal will cost. And reviewers note the plans do not include email hosting, which Hostinger includes for the first year.

Good for: people who want WordPress and its huge plugin library without setting it up themselves. Less good for: busier sites that would hit the visitor cap, and owners who find WordPress more than they need.

WebNewBiz: website, store and CRM in one place

This is our product, so weigh this section with that in mind. You describe your business in plain language and the AI drafts a complete website, with pages, layout and copy, ready to edit in the browser. You change it by chatting with the AI Copilot rather than dragging boxes around.

• Lite, $9 a month: 1 website, the AI builder and Copilot, and hosting. No store and no CRM.
• Starter, $29: adds the online store (card payments through Stripe, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay), the Design Studio visual editor and a Brand Kit.
• Growth, $79: adds an AI CRM with 3,000 contacts and 3 team members, basic SEO tools, backups and a free domain for a year.

Every plan costs $1 for the first month, with no minimum contract. You can cancel any time and keep access to the end of the paid period, after which the account stays read-only so you can export your content. Hosting, SSL, a full WordPress CMS and 24/7 chat support come with every plan. Full details are on the pricing page.

The honest weaknesses: WebNewBiz is a young platform with a much smaller app ecosystem and community than Wix or Squarespace. There is no free plan. Lite cannot sell. The AI first draft still needs your own photos, facts and edits. And if you leave, your content and domain move but the layout has to be rebuilt elsewhere.

Good for: owners who want a site now, a store later and possibly a CRM after that, without prepaying for years. Less good for: the lowest possible four-year cost for a simple site (Hostinger wins), or anyone who relies on a big app marketplace.

Two sums worth doing before you choose

1. The fee sum. Percentage fees look small but grow with you. On $2,000 a month of store sales, a 2% fee is $40 a month. That turns Squarespace Basic into a $59 plan and Webflow's Standard ecommerce plan into a $69 one. Card processing fees apply on top on every platform, so compare like with like.

2. The commitment sum. Over four years, Hostinger Premium costs $143.52. If today's annual prices held, Framer Basic would cost $480 over the same period, Webflow Basic $720, Wix Light $816, Squarespace Basic $912 and Durable Launch $1,056. WebNewBiz Lite on monthly billing comes to $424 ($1, then 47 months at $9). Hostinger is clearly cheapest if nothing changes. The question is how sure you are that nothing will.

A sensible rule: if you are confident about what you need, prepay for the discount. If you are not, pay monthly or yearly until you are.

Which one should you choose?

• Stay with Hostinger if your site is simple, you are happy to prepay and price matters most.
• Wix if you want the widest choice of templates and apps and can pay $29 to sell.
• Squarespace if you want a polished look with little effort. Move to Core once sales pass about $500 a month.
• Framer if design is the point and you do not need a checkout.
• Webflow if you have a designer or the patience to learn.
• Durable if you run a service business and mainly need bookings and a customer list.
• 10Web if you want WordPress without the setup.
• WebNewBiz if you want the AI to draft the site, then add a store and CRM on the same platform without a long contract.

For a wider look at AI-first tools, see our guide to the best AI website builders.

Moving off Hostinger without losing work

1. Check the 30-day window. If you are still inside it, the money-back guarantee makes switching cheap.
2. Export what you can. Pages, posts and images can be exported. The design cannot, so plan to rebuild the layout.
3. List every page address. Set up redirects from old addresses to new ones so you keep the search rankings you have built.
4. Sort out email first. If your mailboxes are with Hostinger, decide where email will live before you point the domain elsewhere, or messages can go missing.
5. Move the domain last, once the new site has been checked on a phone and every form has been tested.

Quick answers

Is Hostinger Website Builder really $2.99 a month?

Only on a 48-month term paid upfront, which is $143.52 at the time of writing. It then renews at $10.99 a month. Selling online needs the Unlimited plan, which starts at $3.99 a month on the same term and renews at $16.99.

What is the cheapest Hostinger alternative that can take payments?

10Web lists an ecommerce dashboard on its $10 AI Starter plan, which builds a WordPress site. Among the big hosted builders, Squarespace Basic at $19 a month (annual billing) is the cheapest that can sell, with a 2% fee on store sales. Wix, Webflow and WebNewBiz start selling at $29 a month.

Which alternative is best for a simple brochure site?

If you want the lowest cost and are happy to prepay, Hostinger itself. Without a long prepay, WebNewBiz Lite ($9 a month, $1 for the first month), Framer Basic ($10 per site) and 10Web AI Starter ($10) are the cheapest options in this guide.

Can I move my Hostinger site to another builder?

Partly. Pages, posts and images can be exported, but the design cannot, so expect to rebuild the layout. Your domain can move with you, and redirects from your old page addresses help protect your search rankings.

Does WebNewBiz have a free plan?

No. Every plan costs $1 for the first month, then from $9 a month for Lite. Lite has no store: selling starts at Starter ($29) and the AI CRM at Growth ($79).

Which alternative is best for bookings and managing leads?

Durable Launch ($22 a month on annual billing) includes online booking and a built-in CRM. WebNewBiz Growth ($79 a month) adds an AI CRM with deals, tasks, bookings and invoices alongside the website and store.

Related guides

• Hostinger vs GoDaddy website builder: the real cost over three years
• Hocoos alternatives: where to go now that Hocoos has closed

Try it without a four-year commitment

If you would like to see how an AI website builder drafts a site from a short description of your business, the free AI Website Preview designs a homepage from one sentence. If you like what you see, you can start for $1 for the first month and cancel any time. And if one of the other tools above suits you better, that is a perfectly good outcome too.