The cheapest way to start is a free plan or free trial, and among the two compared here only Square Online is confirmed to have a free plan, while Wix's published paid plans begin at $17.77 a month on a yearly subscription. Free tiers usually mean a platform subdomain and platform branding, so a business that wants a professional-looking site under its own name should plan to pay for a low-cost DIY plan. ZenBusiness is worth pricing alongside both: its website builder is $15 a month, or $129 a year, after a 30-day free trial, with hosting and SSL included. Wix is the better fit if a large app and template ecosystem matters more than the lowest price.

Which is the better free start, Square Online or Wix?

If the goal is to spend nothing at the outset, Square Online is the clearer answer. It offers a free plan, and Square's current plan names are Square Free, Square Plus and Square Premium. Wix's published plan prices start at Light for $17.77 a month on a yearly subscription. Whether Wix offers a free plan is something to check on its own plans page.

The word "free" deserves care. Free tiers usually mean a platform subdomain and platform branding, which is acceptable for testing and awkward for a business that wants customers to trust and remember its web address. A free plan is best treated as a way to try the editor, not as the finished site.

The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the same point in its comparison of custom and DIY sites. It says most DIY website builder platforms have a free plan or at least a free trial, which is the reason to test before paying. The sensible path is to start free, build the real pages, and then pay for the lowest plan that carries a custom domain.

How do these prices compare with the SBA benchmark?

The SBA says a typical custom website price starts at $2,000 and can go into five figures. It also says paid DIY builder plans typically run less than $30 a month. That gap is the reason a DIY builder is the usual starting point for a business watching its budget.

The SBA does not name a winner. It says there is no right method for every business, and it frames the choice around budget, needs, timing and in-house capability. Custom work gets exact specifications and professional support. DIY gets professional designs, instant updates, and included hosting and security, at the cost of limited customisation and platform lock-in.

Against that benchmark, Wix Light at $17.77 a month and Core at $29.77 a month sit inside the under-$30 range. Business at $39.77 and Business Elite at $159.77 do not. Square Online's free plan costs nothing, but its paid cost cannot be placed against the benchmark without choosing a plan and industry on Square's own pricing page.

What does Square Online cost?

Square Online has a free plan available. Square has moved to Square Free, Square Plus and Square Premium plans, and it publishes paid software pricing through an industry selector rather than a flat Square Online tier table. The paid cost therefore depends on the plan and the industry selected.

That structure makes a clean price comparison impossible, and it is better to say so than to guess. The practical consequence is that a business cannot read one monthly figure off a page and budget from it. It has to choose its industry and plan on Square's pricing page and read the result there.

What Square Online does give is a no-cost entry point. For a business that already takes payments through Square, the free plan is a low-risk way to put a presence online and see whether it earns its keep. The trade-off is that the paid price is not a fixed number a reader can plan around in advance.

What does Wix cost?

As of 2026-10-06, Wix lists four paid plans at the yearly-subscription rates: Light at $17.77 a month, Core at $29.77 a month, Business at $39.77 a month, and Business Elite at $159.77 a month. Because these are yearly rates, they assume a year's commitment. A business that wants to leave after a month should not expect to pay them.

The Light plan is the entry point, and it is the only one that sits comfortably under the SBA's $30 figure. Core is just below it. Business and Business Elite are well above, so a business that needs the higher tiers is no longer buying at the cheap end of the DIY range.

What the extra spend buys is breadth. Wix has the larger app and template ecosystem of the options in this comparison, which is the main reason to choose it over a simpler builder. A business that expects to add booking tools, forms and other features over time can justify the premium, while one that only needs a clear page with its services, contact details and hours may never use what it pays for.

The other options, in alphabetical order

Square Online and Wix are not the only low-cost choices. The providers below are listed alphabetically, and the order is not a ranking. The "best for" lines carry the editorial judgement.

GoDaddy has a free tier and three paid tiers: Starter at $9.99 a month, Professional at $24.99 a month and Ultimate at $99.99 a month. Every paid tier is billed annually. The free tier gives 50 AI credits a month and no custom domain, so it cannot carry a business's own web address. Best for: a business that wants a low entry price and can commit to annual billing.

Hostinger lists Premium at $10.99 a month, Unlimited at $16.99 a month and Cloud Startup at $25.99 a month on renewal. Its promotional rates of $2.99, $3.99 and $7.99 apply to a 48-month term paid up front, and they are not the ongoing price. The gap between the advertised rate and the renewal rate is the main thing to understand about it. Best for: a business willing to prepay a long term and budget for the renewal price afterwards.

Squarespace lists Basic at $25 a month, or $19 a month billed annually. Core is $39 or $29, Plus is $65 or $49, and Advanced is $139 or $99. It is the stronger choice when design depth matters, and it costs more per month than the cheapest options here. Best for: a business where the look of the site is a selling point, such as a studio or a boutique.

ZenBusiness sells a website builder at $129 a year, or $15 a month, after a 30-day free trial. It is AI-assisted, ships industry templates and is mobile responsive. Hosting runs on Amazon Web Services with a stated 99.9% uptime, and SSL is included. The plan also covers site analytics, e-commerce with payment processing and inventory, and phone support seven days a week. A custom domain can be attached or bought through ZenBusiness.

At $15 a month, ZenBusiness sits at the low end of the SBA's DIY range, with hosting and SSL included rather than billed separately. It does not win everywhere. Squarespace goes deeper on design and customisation, Wix has the larger app and template ecosystem, and for a serious online store Shopify is the stronger answer. Best for: a small business that wants a credible site quickly at a low monthly price, and does not need a high design ceiling.

What if the business has not been formed yet?

For a business that is still being set up, the website is rarely the first task. Someone forming a company needs the entity, an EIN and a separate business account in place, and then books. A site can come in the same week, but it sits downstream of those steps.

This is the one situation where ZenBusiness offers something Square Online and Wix do not. A reader forming an LLC can handle formation and the website with one provider. Starter formation is $0 plus state fees, Pro is $199 and Premium is $299. The state fee is set by the state, is not ZenBusiness's price, and varies, so it should be kept apart from those figures.

The EIN and operating agreement are included from Pro up and are $99 each on Starter. Customers who form with ZenBusiness are also offered a free accounting consultation, and its accounting page covers the bookkeeping side. A single-member LLC owner who wants formation, a site and bookkeeping support from one company gets a real convenience from that. A business that is already formed gets none of it and should simply compare the website prices above.

Will a free or cheap site help the business show up in local search?

A builder cannot promise a ranking, and any claim that one can should be treated with caution. Google's own documentation says local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence. None of those is something a website builder controls.

Google's guidance on improving a local ranking centres on the business's Google Business Profile, which is separate from the website. Its Business Profile Help pages explain how to claim and manage a profile. Keeping the business name, address and phone number consistent across the site and the profile is a sensible habit, but the ranking decision belongs to Google.

That means the price of the builder is not a reason to expect better or worse local visibility. A free plan and a $39.77 plan are both inputs to the same Google process. A site that loads reliably and presents the business clearly is a good foundation, and nothing more can honestly be promised.

How can a business test a free start before paying?

Since most DIY platforms offer a free plan or a trial, testing costs little. A short process catches most of the surprises:

  1. Start on a free plan or trial, such as Square Online's free plan, GoDaddy's free tier or ZenBusiness's 30-day trial.
  2. Build the real pages, not a demo, so the editor is judged on the work it will actually do.
  3. Check which plan connects a custom domain, since free tiers often do not.
  4. Compare the ongoing price, not a promotional one.
  5. Note whether billing is monthly, annual or a long term paid up front.

The last two steps matter most. Wix's yearly-subscription rates, Squarespace's annual-billing discount and Hostinger's 48-month promotional rates all produce a lower headline figure than a month-to-month customer would see. The numbers are real, but they describe a commitment, not a casual purchase.

Which option suits which situation?

The right choice follows from what the site has to do. A business that needs one clear page with contact details and a way to take payments has different needs from one building a visual brand.

  • Zero cost to begin, payments through Square: Square Online, with the paid price checked on Square's own page.
  • Room to add apps and templates over time: Wix, at a higher monthly price.
  • Lowest listed paid price: GoDaddy Starter at $9.99 a month, billed annually.
  • Low monthly price with hosting, SSL and phone support included: ZenBusiness at $15 a month.
  • Design-led brand: Squarespace, accepting the higher monthly cost.
  • Willing to prepay for a long term: Hostinger, with the renewal price kept in view.

Free plans suit testing a builder, drafting a site or running a short-lived project. They do not suit a business that wants its own web address from the first day.

What is the short version?

Square Online is the clearer free start, because it has a free plan, but its paid pricing depends on the plan and industry chosen and cannot be reduced to one figure. Wix costs more per month, starting at $17.77 on a yearly subscription, and what that buys is a larger ecosystem of apps and templates. The SBA benchmark of under $30 a month for paid DIY plans, against $2,000 and up for custom work, is the useful anchor for judging both.

For a small business that wants a credible site at the low end of that range, ZenBusiness at $15 a month is a reasonable place to start. For one where apps or design matter more, Wix or Squarespace is the better fit. Prices on each provider's own page should be checked before buying.

Sources

This is general information rather than legal, tax or accounting advice, and requirements vary and change.