Best Free Website Builders in 2026

Best for: Blogs and content-heavy websites

Free tier includes: 1 GB of storage, dozens of free themes, built-in SEO tools, basic analytics, SSL certificate, and unlimited bandwidth. Your site URL will be yourname.wordpress.com unless you upgrade to a paid plan for a custom domain.

What it does well: WordPress powers over 40% of all websites on the internet, and the free WordPress.com tier is the easiest way to start. The block editor makes it simple to create professional-looking posts and pages without touching code. There are hundreds of free themes designed for every niche: blogs, restaurants, portfolios, small businesses, magazines, and more. The built-in SEO handles sitemaps, meta tags, and social sharing automatically. WordPress.com also includes a built-in stats dashboard, so you can track traffic from day one.

Limitations: The wordpress.com subdomain hurts credibility for businesses. Free sites display WordPress ads that you cannot control. You cannot install third-party plugins on the free tier, which limits functionality. Storage is limited to 1 GB. Monetization options are restricted: you cannot run Google AdSense on the free tier. Custom CSS requires the paid Explorer plan.

Upgrade path: The Personal plan at $4/month removes ads and adds a custom domain. The Business plan at $33/month unlocks plugins and full customization. These are annual pricing rates.

Best for: Small business websites with visual flexibility

Free tier includes: 500 MB storage, 500 MB bandwidth, access to the full drag-and-drop editor, hundreds of templates, Wix ADI (AI-powered site builder), and basic SEO tools. Your URL will be username.wixsite.com/sitename.

What it does well: Wix has the most intuitive drag-and-drop editor among free builders. You can place any element anywhere on the page with pixel-perfect control. Wix ADI can generate a complete website in minutes by asking you a few questions about your business. The template library is extensive and professionally designed. Wix also includes a built-in app market with free apps for contact forms, social media feeds, event calendars, and more.

Limitations: The 500 MB bandwidth limit is restrictive. A site with images can exceed this with moderate traffic (roughly 5,000-10,000 monthly visitors). Wix displays its own ads on free sites. The subdomain looks unprofessional for businesses. Site speed can be slower than competitors due to Wix's JavaScript-heavy approach. You cannot transfer a Wix site to another platform easily, creating vendor lock-in.

Upgrade path: The Light plan at $17/month removes ads and adds a custom domain. The Core plan at $29/month adds e-commerce capabilities. Annual billing reduces the cost significantly.

Best for: Landing pages, link-in-bio pages, and one-page websites

Free tier includes: Up to 3 sites, responsive one-page designs, dozens of minimal templates, basic contact forms, and built-in icons and images. Sites are hosted on carrd.co subdomains.

What it does well: Carrd is purpose-built for single-page websites and it does this better than anyone. The editor is clean, fast, and focused. You can build a professional landing page, portfolio, link-in-bio page, or event page in 15-30 minutes. Templates are modern and minimal. The resulting sites load extremely fast because they are lightweight single pages. Carrd is perfect for creators, freelancers, and anyone who needs a quick online presence without complexity.

Limitations: Single pages only. No blog functionality, no multi-page sites, no e-commerce on the free tier. Limited customization compared to full website builders. The free tier does not support custom domains, forms with email delivery, or payment processing.

Upgrade path: The Pro plan at $19/year (not per month) is one of the best values in web hosting. It adds custom domains, multi-page sites, forms with email, payment processing through Stripe, and Google Analytics integration. At less than $2 per month, it is hard to find a reason not to upgrade if you use Carrd regularly.

Best for: Developer portfolios, documentation, and tech-savvy users who want full control

Free tier includes: Unlimited static site hosting, free custom domain support with HTTPS, 1 GB repository size, 100 GB bandwidth per month, and direct deployment from a GitHub repository. No ads ever.

What it does well: GitHub Pages is the best free hosting for anyone comfortable with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There are zero restrictions on monetization: you can run any ads, affiliate links, or tracking scripts you want. Custom domains with HTTPS are completely free. The 100 GB monthly bandwidth handles significant traffic (hundreds of thousands of page views). Jekyll integration lets you build blogs with free templates and Markdown content. There are no platform ads or branding on your site ever. The spunk.codes site you are reading right now runs entirely on GitHub Pages, demonstrating it scales to hundreds of pages without issues.

Limitations: You need to know HTML/CSS or be willing to learn. There is no visual editor or drag-and-drop builder. Only static sites are supported (no server-side code, no databases). You need a GitHub account and basic Git knowledge to deploy and update content. The workflow is more technical than any other option on this list.

Who should use this: Developers, designers with HTML skills, tech-savvy entrepreneurs who want full control, anyone building a blog or portfolio who can write or generate HTML. Combined with AI coding tools like Claude or ChatGPT, even non-developers can build professional GitHub Pages sites by having AI write the code for them.

Best for: Simple informational sites and internal team pages

Free tier includes: Unlimited storage (uses Google Drive), unlimited bandwidth, drag-and-drop editor, and seamless integration with all Google services (Docs, Sheets, Forms, Calendar, Maps, YouTube). Custom domain support is available through Google Workspace.

What it does well: Google Sites is the fastest way to create a functional website. The editor is simpler than any other builder, which means you can have a site live in under an hour even with zero experience. The Google ecosystem integration is the killer feature: embed a Google Form as a contact form, a Google Calendar for events, a Google Map for your location, YouTube videos for content, and Google Docs for downloadable resources. Everything just works because it is all Google. You also get Google's infrastructure, which means fast loading speeds and virtually zero downtime.

Limitations: Design options are extremely limited. All Google Sites look similar because there are few templates and limited customization. No e-commerce features. No blogging functionality. No custom code injection on the free tier. SEO capabilities are basic. The sites feel generic and are difficult to make look unique or premium.

Best use: Internal wikis, team resource pages, event information sites, simple business landing pages, school project sites, and any situation where speed and simplicity matter more than design.

Best for: Knowledge bases, documentation, and content-rich sites

Free tier includes: Notion's free plan includes unlimited pages and blocks for individual use. Notion Sites lets you publish any Notion page as a public website directly. Third-party tools like Super.so offer additional customization and features.

What it does well: If you already use Notion for notes and documentation, turning those pages into a website requires zero extra work. Write in Notion, click publish, and your content is live. The result looks clean and minimal. Notion is excellent for knowledge bases, FAQ sections, course materials, portfolios, and any content that benefits from Notion's database and organizational features. The writing experience in Notion is superior to most website builders because it was designed as a writing tool first.

Limitations: Notion Sites on the free tier lacks custom domains and advanced SEO features. Page load times are slower than purpose-built website platforms. Design customization is minimal without third-party tools. Not suitable for e-commerce, complex landing pages, or sites requiring custom functionality. The free tier limits file uploads to 5 MB per file.

Upgrade options: Super.so ($16/month) or Potion.so add custom domains, custom themes, SEO meta tags, and analytics to Notion-published sites. These third-party tools transform Notion into a more capable website platform.

Best for: Design-forward websites built without code

Free tier includes: 2 projects, webflow.io subdomain, 1 GB bandwidth, 1 GB storage, access to the full visual editor and CMS (up to 50 CMS items), and the ability to export clean HTML/CSS code.

What it does well: Webflow is the closest thing to professional web development without writing code. The visual editor gives you CSS-level control over every element: precise positioning, custom animations, responsive breakpoints, and interaction triggers. The output is clean, semantic HTML and CSS that performs well in search engines. Webflow sites are consistently among the fastest-loading and best-designed sites on the web. Designers love it because it translates their Figma or Sketch designs into live websites with 1:1 fidelity.

Limitations: The learning curve is steeper than Wix or WordPress because Webflow exposes more design controls. The free tier is limited to 2 projects with Webflow branding. 50 CMS items limits blog or product catalog size. Custom domains require a paid plan ($18/month for basic site plan). E-commerce starts at $42/month.

Best use: Agency portfolios, design portfolios, startup landing pages, and any project where visual design quality is the top priority and you are willing to invest time learning the platform.

Best for: Personal blogs with free custom domain and monetization

Free tier includes: Unlimited posts, 15 GB storage (shared with Google Drive), unlimited bandwidth, free custom domain support, built-in Google AdSense integration, and basic analytics. No ads from Blogger on your site.

What it does well: Blogger is the only free platform that combines custom domain support, zero platform ads, and built-in Google AdSense monetization on the free tier. This means you can start a blog, connect your own domain, and earn ad revenue without paying anything for hosting. The platform is stable and reliable because Google maintains it. Setup takes 10 minutes. You get a free SSL certificate and Google's infrastructure handling your site speed and uptime.

Limitations: Blogger's templates look dated compared to modern platforms. Design customization is limited without editing HTML/CSS. The platform has received minimal updates from Google in recent years. There is no drag-and-drop editor; you work with a basic text editor and template system. E-commerce functionality is nonexistent. The comment system is basic and attracts spam.

Best use: Personal bloggers who want to monetize with AdSense from day one, hobby bloggers who want a simple and free setup, and anyone who prioritizes free custom domain and monetization over design flexibility.

Best for: Static sites, JAMstack projects, and developers

Free tier includes: 100 GB bandwidth per month, unlimited sites, continuous deployment from Git, free custom domains with automatic HTTPS, serverless functions (125K requests/month), form handling (100 submissions/month), and a global CDN.

What it does well: Netlify is a developer-focused hosting platform with an incredibly generous free tier. Deploy a static site from a Git repository and it automatically builds and serves it globally with a CDN. Custom domains are free with automatic SSL. Continuous deployment means pushing to your Git repository automatically updates your live site within seconds. Netlify also handles form submissions without a backend, which is valuable for contact pages. Combined with static site generators like Hugo, Eleventy, or Next.js, Netlify can host complex, fast websites for free.

Limitations: Requires developer knowledge (Git, command line, HTML/CSS at minimum). No visual editor. Only static sites and JAMstack architecture supported. The 100 form submissions per month limit is tight for high-traffic sites. Build minutes are limited to 300 per month on the free tier.

Best use: Developers building personal sites, technical documentation, SaaS marketing pages, and any project where performance and deployment workflow matter more than visual editing convenience.

Decision guide by use case

• Starting a blog to make money: WordPress.com for a visual editor with growth potential. Blogger for free custom domain plus AdSense from day one. GitHub Pages if you can handle HTML and want zero restrictions.
• Freelancer or creator portfolio: Carrd for a quick one-page portfolio. Webflow for a design-focused showcase. GitHub Pages for developer portfolios.
• Small business website: Wix for the easiest drag-and-drop experience. Google Sites for the fastest setup. WordPress.com for the most long-term growth potential.
• Landing page for a product or service: Carrd for the fastest, cleanest result. Webflow for the most design control. Netlify plus an HTML template for the fastest loading times.
• Documentation or knowledge base: Notion Sites if you already use Notion. GitHub Pages with MkDocs for technical documentation. Google Sites for the simplest setup.
• E-commerce store: None of the free tiers above are ideal for full e-commerce. For selling digital products specifically, pair any free website with Gumroad or Lemonsqueezy for payment processing. They handle checkout and delivery so your site just needs a "Buy" button link.

Display advertising

Works on: Blogger (built-in AdSense), GitHub Pages, Netlify, any platform that allows custom code. Does NOT work on free tiers of WordPress.com, Wix, or Webflow because they restrict third-party ad code.

Expected revenue: $1-$5 per 1,000 page views for general content. $5-$25 per 1,000 page views for high-value niches (finance, insurance, legal, SaaS). A blog with 30,000 monthly views in a good niche earns $150-$750 per month from display ads alone.

Affiliate marketing

Works on: All platforms. Affiliate links are regular hyperlinks with tracking parameters. No special code injection or platform features required.

Expected revenue: Varies enormously by niche and conversion rate. Software affiliate programs typically pay $50-$200 per referral. Amazon Associates pays 1-10% per sale depending on category. A single well-optimized product review article can generate $100-$1,000+ per month from affiliate commissions once it ranks in search engines.

Digital products

Works on: All platforms using external payment processors. Use Gumroad, Ko-fi, or Lemonsqueezy to sell ebooks, templates, courses, printables, and other digital products. Link from your site to these platforms for checkout and delivery.

Expected revenue: A single ebook priced at $19-$49 selling 10-50 copies per month generates $190-$2,450 monthly. Templates and tools can sell hundreds of copies at $5-$29 each. The margins on digital products are essentially 100% after the payment processor fee.

Services and consulting

Works on: All platforms. Your website serves as a credibility builder that drives prospective clients to contact you. Include a contact form, services page with pricing, and portfolio of past work.

Expected revenue: Depends entirely on your service and rates. A freelance designer with a Webflow portfolio site might book $2,000-$10,000 per month in projects. A consultant with a WordPress blog establishing expertise might charge $100-$300 per hour for advisory work.

Essential SEO steps for any free website

1. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. Every platform listed above either generates a sitemap automatically or lets you create one. Submit it at search.google.com/search-console. This is the single most important step for getting indexed.
2. Write unique title tags and meta descriptions for every page. Include your target keyword naturally. Keep titles under 60 characters and descriptions under 160 characters. These appear in search results and directly affect click-through rates.
3. Use proper heading structure. One H1 per page (your main title), H2 for major sections, H3 for sub-sections. This helps search engines understand your content hierarchy and improves accessibility.
4. Optimize images. Compress images to under 100 KB when possible using free tools like TinyPNG or Squoosh. Add descriptive alt text to every image. Use modern formats like WebP for faster loading.
5. Build internal links. Link between your own pages with descriptive anchor text. This helps search engines discover all your content, understand topic relationships, and distribute authority across your site.
6. Publish consistently. Fresh, regular content signals to search engines that your site is active and authoritative. Aim for at least 1 new piece of content per week for the first 3-6 months.
7. Make your site mobile-friendly. All the builders listed above produce mobile-responsive sites by default, but always test on a real phone to catch layout issues. Google uses mobile-first indexing.