Website Builders for Small Business: Annual vs Monthly Prices
Every builder here charges far more on monthly billing. Five ways to run a business website or shop, priced both ways, with the exit route each one leaves you.
Quick answer
On 27 October 2026, entry plans cost $4 a month on yearly WordPress.com Personal, $12 on annual Squarespace Basic (our reading of its labels), $18 on Ghost(Pro) Starter and $19 on yearly Shopify Basic. Monthly billing cost between about 30% and 125% more. WordPress and Ghost are open source, so a site can be moved to another host.
Website builders are cheap per month and expensive per month, depending on one toggle. Every platform below charges noticeably more for monthly billing. The other decision that matters years later is whether you can take the site elsewhere. Prices were read on 27 October 2026.
Annual and monthly, side by side
| Platform | Plan | Yearly billing | Monthly billing |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com | Personal | $4/mo | $9/mo |
| WordPress.com | Business | $25/mo | $40/mo |
| Squarespace | Basic | $12/mo* | $19/mo* |
| Squarespace | Core | $17/mo* | $27/mo* |
| Ghost(Pro) | Starter | $18/mo | not printed |
| Shopify | Basic | $19/mo | $25/mo |
| Shopify | Grow | $49/mo | $65/mo |
*Squarespace did not label each figure; we read the lower one as annual because the page says "Pay annually to save up to 36%". Profiles: Shopify, Squarespace, WordPress.
Shopify
Shopify charges per store. Basic costs $19 a month yearly or $25 monthly, Grow $49 or $65, and Advanced $299 or $399. Plus starts at $2,300 a month. Staff accounts are tied to the plan: Basic lists additional staff accounts as "Not included", Grow includes 5 and Advanced 15. A shop with two or three people handling orders should price Grow. Card-processing rates were not printed in the page text we read, and they matter more than the plan price for most stores.
Squarespace
Three plans: Basic, Core and Advanced, at $12, $17 and $25 a month on what we read as annual billing ($19, $27 and $36 monthly). There is a 14-day free trial and no free plan. The plans differ in contributors, store transaction fees and included features. We could only read those details in summarised form, so check them on the page before choosing Basic for a shop.
WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress
The software is free. Its licence page says WordPress is "released under the GPLv2 (or later)". Self-hosted, you pay only for hosting and maintenance. WordPress.com sells hosted plans: Personal $4 yearly ($9 monthly), Premium $8 ($18), Business $25 ($40) and Commerce $45 ($70), with two- and three-year options cheaper still. The free plan shows WordPress.com ads to visitors.
Ghost(Pro)
Ghost is publishing software with newsletters and paid memberships built in, MIT-licensed and self-hostable. Ghost(Pro) Starter costs $18 a month billed yearly (1 staff user, 1,000 members), Publisher $29 (3 staff users, paid subscriptions) and Business $199. Ghost says it charges "No payment fees" on paid subscriptions, with the payment processor's fees still applying. It suits a business whose site is mostly articles and a newsletter.
Which platforms let you leave?
This is the question small businesses rarely ask at signup. WordPress and Ghost are open source, so a site on WordPress.com or Ghost(Pro) runs on software that any host can run, which makes a move practical. Shopify and Squarespace are proprietary. Leaving means rebuilding on another platform, so check what each one lets you export before you commit. Neither path is wrong. Just choose knowingly.
Picks
- Brochure site, lowest cost: WordPress.com Personal or Squarespace Basic, on annual billing.
- A shop with a few staff: Shopify Grow.
- Newsletter-led business: Ghost(Pro) Starter or Publisher.
- Full control and portability: self-hosted WordPress on a server from our server comparison.
Wix and Webflow will be added once their prices can be read cleanly from their own pages. For list-based email costs alongside a site, see our email marketing comparison. To measure the site once it is live, see web analytics and SEO tools.
Key points
- Monthly billing costs much more everywhere: Shopify Basic $25 vs $19, Squarespace Basic $19 vs $12, WordPress.com Personal $9 vs $4.
- Shopify Basic includes no additional staff accounts; Grow ($49 a month yearly) includes 5.
- WordPress is GPLv2-or-later software and Ghost is MIT-licensed, so both can run on any host you choose.
- The free WordPress.com plan shows WordPress.com ads to your visitors.
- Card-processing and transaction fees, which often decide a shop's real cost, were not readable on every page; check them for your country.
Questions
Which website builder is cheapest for a small business?
Among the plans we read on 27 October 2026, WordPress.com Personal was the lowest paid option at $4 a month on yearly billing. Squarespace Basic was $12 a month on what we read as annual billing. Self-hosted WordPress is free software, but it needs a host and someone to maintain it.
How much more does monthly billing cost?
A lot. Shopify Basic was $25 monthly against $19 yearly, Squarespace Basic $19 against $12, and WordPress.com Personal $9 against $4. If you are confident you will keep the site for a year, annual billing on these platforms saves between roughly a quarter and over half.
Do I need Shopify to sell online?
Not necessarily. Shopify is built around selling, with inventory, staff accounts and point-of-sale add-ons. Squarespace, WordPress.com Commerce and Ghost's paid memberships also take payments. Compare transaction and card-processing fees for your country, which affect a store's cost more than the monthly plan price does.
Can I move my site off these platforms later?
WordPress is released under the GPLv2 or later and Ghost under the MIT licence, so the software itself can run on another host. That makes moving a site off WordPress.com or Ghost(Pro) more practical. Shopify and Squarespace are proprietary, so leaving means rebuilding on another platform.
Why are Wix and Webflow not included?
Wix's pricing page showed prices including GST for a regional audience in our tools, which would not represent US pricing fairly. Webflow's page returned an error. We publish only prices read directly from a vendor's own page, so both will be added when they can be read cleanly.
Who wrote this
Stackfeature Research Desk
The Research Desk is a shared byline, not a person. Work published under it is compiled from vendor pricing pages, documentation and licence files, each linked and dated in the piece. Nothing under this byline claims hands-on testing unless the piece says so and links the evidence.
Citing a figure from this page? Carry its date with it. Prices here were read on the date shown above, and corrections are logged.
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