Cheap website builders, priced up in plain words
Ref BSB-000 — indexWrite-ups on the low-cost end of the website-builder market: what a cheap plan includes, what it quietly leaves out, and what the tag reads once the first year is over.
No stock yet
This site is new and nothing is published on it yet. The rails below are the shape it is being built to.
SitemapOn the rail
Every tag here is a subject, not an article — there are no articles yet. They are listed so you can tell at a glance whether this is the right rail to come back to.
The cheap end of the builder market
What the entry-level plan from each of the big builders actually includes once you are past the headline.
Free plans and what they cost you
Subdomains, forced ads, storage caps — the things a free tier takes back in place of money.
Intro pricing against renewal pricing
Where the introductory rate stops and what the tag reads from the second year onwards.
Cheap plans that can still take payments
Which budget tiers allow a real checkout, and which quietly require the step up to a commerce plan.
Getting your site off a builder later
What you can take with you — domain, content, design — when a cheap plan stops fitting.
Pick it up, turn it over, then buy
Three things worth doing to any builder plan before you hand over a card, whatever the front of the tag says.
Pick it up
Start from the site you actually have to build. The cheapest plan on the rail is only cheap if it can do the job.
Turn it over
The limits are printed on the back: storage, bandwidth, ads, staff seats, and what the plan refuses to do at all.
Then buy
Work out the price you will be paying in year two before you check out. That is the number that lasts.
The reverse of the tag
Worth printing before there is anything to read, because it is what the writing will be held to once there is.
Nothing here is scored
No ratings, no stars, no tier boards. Where builders are put in an order, they are ordered in words with the reasoning printed next to them.
Prices are quoted, not guessed
Builder pricing moves constantly and promotional rates expire. A figure appears only where it is taken from the provider and dated; otherwise the tag carries words instead of numbers.
Affiliate links are disclosed
Some links earn a commission. That never sets the running order, and it is stated on every page where it applies.