Every website builder advertises a monthly price. "Starting at $4/month!" sounds great until you realize you have to pay for the whole year upfront, and that $4/month plan is actually $48/year.
We're going to cut through the marketing. This is the actual money that leaves your bank account in year one for each major website builder's cheapest paid plan. No asterisks.
Full disclosure: we built 5 Dollar Website, so we're in this comparison too. We'll be honest about what each platform does well and where they fall short — including ours.
The Real Annual Cost — Side by Side
Here's what each platform's cheapest usable plan actually costs per year (as of April 2026):
| Platform | Cheapest Plan | Annual Cost | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sites | Free | $0 | Free (Google account required) |
| 5 Dollar Website | Only plan | $5 | One-time annual payment |
| Carrd | Pro Lite | $19 | Billed annually |
| Weebly | Personal | $120 | $10/mo billed annually |
| Squarespace | Personal | $192 | $16/mo billed annually |
| Wix | Light | $204 | $17/mo billed annually |
That's a 40x price difference between Wix and 5 Dollar Website. Over five years, Wix costs you $1,020. We cost you $25.
But price doesn't mean anything without context. Let's look at what you actually get.
What You ACTUALLY Get at Each Price Point
| Feature | Google Sites | 5DW ($5) | Carrd ($19) | Weebly ($120) | Squarespace ($192) | Wix ($204) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pages | Unlimited | 1 | 3 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Custom Domain | No | Roadmap | Yes | Yes | Included | Included |
| Drag & Drop | Basic | No | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Contact Form | Google Forms | Built-in | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blog | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| E-commerce | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Responsive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SSL/HTTPS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Templates | ~20 | 12+ | 80+ | 40+ | 150+ | 800+ |
| Setup Time | 30 min | 5 min | 15 min | 1 hour | 1-2 hours | 1-2 hours |
| Ads/Branding | None | None | None (paid) | Weebly badge | None | None |
Who Each Builder Is Best For
Google Sites — The "I Have Zero Budget" Pick
You literally cannot spend less than $0. It works if you already have a Google account and don't mind the limited design options. Good for internal team pages, school projects, and situations where aesthetics don't matter much.
5 Dollar Website — The "Just Need a Page" Pick
You're a food truck, freelancer, barber, personal trainer, or event planner. You need one professional page with your info and a contact form. You want to spend less time building than you would choosing a Squarespace template.
Carrd — The "Landing Page Pro" Pick
You need a few one-page sites (up to 3 on Pro Lite). Great for makers launching products, side projects, or personal portfolios. More design flexibility than 5DW, but also more decisions to make.
Weebly — The "Budget Multi-Page" Pick
You need multiple pages and maybe a simple online store, but you don't want to pay Squarespace or Wix prices. Weebly's drag-and-drop builder is decent, though it's now owned by Square and doesn't get as many updates.
Squarespace — The "Design Matters" Pick
You care deeply about visual design. Photographer, architect, creative studio, restaurant with a brand identity. Squarespace templates are genuinely beautiful. You're paying $192/year for that design quality.
Wix — The "I Need Everything" Pick
You want maximum flexibility — 800+ templates, an app market, booking tools, email marketing, the works. It's the Swiss Army knife of website builders, and priced accordingly.
Our Honest Take — When 5 Dollar Website Is the Right Choice
We're not going to pretend our $5 product competes with Squarespace or Wix on features. It doesn't. Here's what's true:
- You need one page, not a website
- Your "web presence" is currently just an Instagram bio link
- You're a local service business — food truck, trainer, barber, photographer
- You want to be live in 5 minutes, not 5 hours
- You'd rather spend $5 once than $16/month forever
- You just need to show up when someone Googles your name
5 Dollar Website is NOT right when:
- You need more than one page
- You need e-commerce / a shopping cart
- You need a blog on your site
- You need a custom domain (our roadmap, but not live yet)
- You need drag-and-drop design flexibility
- You need advanced analytics or SEO tools
We'd rather lose a sale than have you buy the wrong product. If you need a real website with multiple pages, a blog, and an online store — Squarespace or Wix are worth the money. They're excellent tools.
But if all you need is a single professional page to put in your Instagram bio, hand to customers, and show up on Google? You're overpaying by $187/year.
The "Free" Trap
A note about free plans. Wix, Weebly, and Google Sites all offer free tiers. Here's the catch:
- Wix Free — Wix ads plastered on your site, no custom domain, Wix branding in the URL. Looks unprofessional for a business.
- Weebly Free — Square branding, limited storage, no custom domain. Functional, but you look like you didn't want to invest in your business.
- Google Sites — No ads, but severely limited design. Your site will look like a Google Doc with a header image. Fine for internal use, rough for customer-facing.
"Free" usually means your customers see someone else's brand, not yours. At $5/year, we remove that trade-off entirely.
5-Year Total Cost of Ownership
Websites aren't a one-time purchase. Here's what each platform costs over 5 years on their cheapest paid plan:
| Platform | Year 1 | 5-Year Total | vs 5DW Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Sites | $0 | $0 | — |
| 5 Dollar Website | $5 | $25 | — |
| Carrd | $19 | $95 | Save $70 |
| Weebly | $120 | $600 | Save $575 |
| Squarespace | $192 | $960 | Save $935 |
| Wix | $204 | $1,020 | Save $995 |
Nearly $1,000 in savings compared to Wix over 5 years. That's real money for a small business.
How We Researched This
We checked each platform's pricing page in April 2026 and used the cheapest annual plan that removes platform branding (except Google Sites, which doesn't have one). Monthly-billed prices are higher — we used annual billing because that's what most people choose to save money.
Prices change. If you notice something outdated, we'll update this article. We're not here to mislead — honest numbers help everyone make better decisions.
The Bottom Line
The cheapest website builder depends on what you need. Google Sites is free but looks it. Squarespace is beautiful but expensive. We're the cheapest way to get a professional page online without ads, branding, or compromises.
Still figuring it out? Here are some other resources:
- Our detailed comparison vs Squarespace, Wix, and Carrd
- Full pricing breakdown of what $5 gets you
- Real examples of pages built with 5 Dollar Website
One page. Five dollars. One year. No catch.
See if $5 is enough for you
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Build Your $5 Website →Want more context? Read our full comparison article or see detailed pricing.