What to ask when a website builder says free

Ask what is included, and for how long

Read the plan table before the sign-up form. Which features sit behind the word free, and which sit behind a price? Does the page limit change? Does the form still send? Is there a date when the offer ends?

These are questions, not accusations. Every product answers them differently, and a good one answers them on the page where you can see them.

Ask also how the pages get written. Do you fill in a template, or does the product write from what you tell it? An offer that hands you blank pages has not given you a website yet, only a place to build one.

Ask what the card is for

Some offers take a card up front and some do not. Either way, ask when the first charge happens and whether you get a reminder before it. Then ask what happens to the site on the last day if you do nothing.

Ask too whether canceling is a button or a conversation. The answer tells you a lot about the rest of the product.

Ask whose address the site lives on

A site needs an address. Ask whether the offer puts you on the builder's address or your own domain, what connecting your domain costs, and who handles the SSL certificate.

A builder's address is fine to start. It is worth knowing the answer before you print it on a van.

Ask what moving a site from the builder's address to your own domain involves, and whether it costs anything. One record and a certificate is a different afternoon from a rebuild.

Ask whether you can leave with your files and your leads

Ask whether you can download the site files, and when. Ask where form submissions go and whether you can export them. Ask what happens to a published site after you cancel.

If everything stays inside the product, know that before you build, not after.

Ask the question about leads twice, once for the free offer and once for the paid plan. The two answers are worth reading side by side.

Our answer, there is no plan at no cost

Website Builder Studio has no plan at no cost. There are four plans. Starter is $99 a month with 10 websites, Growth is $199 with 25, Scale is $299 with 50, and Platform is $399 with up to 300. Prices are in US dollars.

Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial. A card is required. Cancel before day 15 and you pay nothing. After the first payment, published sites stay live for 30 days after you cancel and you can download your site files.

We would rather say the price up front. That is the whole of our position on the word free.

What the 15-day free trial includes

The trial is the plan you picked, with every feature. You answer questions in a chat, and the pages are written from a conversation with the in-app assistant. Each one passes a check that runs before anything publishes, validated against Google Search Essentials and modern web standards.

You go live on a free address until your domain is connected, or connect your own domain with one DNS record and an SSL certificate issued for you. A lead form is on every page, delivered to your CRM, Slack, Microsoft Teams, SMS, email or any webhook.

The only extra charge on any plan is AI image generation, and the exact amount is shown before anything is generated. Nothing else in the trial costs more than the plan.

How to run the same questions on us

Take the four questions above to the pricing page. What is included: every feature, on every plan. The card: required, and nothing is charged if you cancel before day 15. The address: a free address until your domain is connected. Leaving: export every lead to a spreadsheet in one click, and download your files after your first payment.

If a page about a builder cannot answer its own questions, do not trust its answers about anyone else. That is a rule we are happy to be held to, and it is why this page is genuinely useful only if it answers for us too.