AI website builders can help create a first draft, but ownership, editing and ongoing cost determine whether the result fits a real business. This guide compares documented plan and export terms. It does not present an unpublished speed or design-quality test.
On the largest one you cannot, and Wix says so itself. Its help centre states that “your site must run on Wix’s servers” because “the SaaS architecture does not support external hosting since it uses Wix’s proprietary technology and relies on Wix’s services to operate”. It is equally clear that “the content you build on Wix belongs to you” — you own the words and images, but the site itself does not travel. If you outgrow the platform, the work is rebuilt rather than moved. That is a bigger cost than any monthly fee, and it is the axis this guide is organised around.
Six builders below, compared on price, what the free plan actually gives you, and what it costs to leave. Every figure is linked to the vendor page that publishes it.
What it costs to leave
Three levels of portability exist in this category, and the difference matters more the longer your site lives. Each of the four vendors below documents its own position.
Wix: no export. As quoted above, a Wix site runs on Wix’s servers and the architecture does not support external hosting. What Wix offers instead is domain portability — connecting a domain to a Wix site, or transferring a domain away.
Squarespace: content exports, design does not. Squarespace documents an export to an .xml file built for WordPress import. It carries layout pages, one blog page with its posts, text blocks and image blocks. It does not carry albums, covers, indexes, calendars, portfolios or stores; page-specific headers, footers and sidebars; additional blog pages; audio, product or video blocks; or drafts, style settings and custom CSS. Squarespace also states that “It’s not possible to export content from one Squarespace site and import it into another”. So your writing moves; your site does not.
Webflow: code exports, but read which plan. Webflow documents that “On paid Workspace plans, you can export your site’s HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and assets” — and, crucially, that “Code export is only available on Workspace plans — that is, Site plans do not include the ability to export.” A Site plan is what you buy to host a site, so paying Webflow for hosting does not by itself buy you an exit.
The exclusions matter too. The export omits “CMS content and functionality (including Collection items and Collection lists)”, User Accounts, Ecommerce, password protection, “Form submission processing”, reCAPTCHA, site search, localised content and code components. Webflow adds that forms and interactions will not function on an externally hosted export “in order to comply with GDPR”. You get the front end; the database and the behaviours stay behind.
10Web: real WordPress. Its pricing page lists “Full WordPress CMS” on every plan alongside managed hosting, SFTP/SSH access and staging. Because the output is a genuine WordPress install rather than a proprietary format, it is the most portable result here — with the practical caveat that hosting is part of the product, so moving means a WordPress migration rather than a click.
The question to answer before you start: if this site still matters in three years, can you move it? For a temporary campaign page it does not matter. For a business that will accumulate content and search rankings, it decides the platform.
Free plans are advertising
Free tiers in this category exist to show you the product, not to run a business on, and Wix documents exactly what that means.
A free Wix site gets “a free Wix domain in the form of siteprefix.wixsite.com/siteaddress” with “500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth”. Wix lists removing Wix ads and connecting your own domain among the reasons to upgrade — so the free site carries both a Wix address and Wix advertising.
Three builders discussed here have free plans: Wix, Webflow and Durable. Their limits differ, and a free plan is not the same as a trial or a plan with a custom domain. Webflow’s Starter plan and Durable’s free plan are examples of hosted-subdomain options; confirm current page, traffic and AI limits before relying on either for a live business site. Squarespace describes a trial rather than a permanent free plan.
The rule worth applying: if a site is for anything commercial, budget for a paid plan from the outset. A branded subdomain undercuts the professional impression the site exists to create.
Budget and all-in-one
1. Hostinger
Hostinger is the cheapest route to an AI-generated site, bundling generation, AI writing, a logo maker, SEO tools and hosting in one subscription.
Its headline rate is real but conditional, and the renewal is published right next to it. On its web hosting page, Premium is $2.99 a month on a 48-month plan and “Renews at $10.99/mo”, charged as “48 months for $143.52 (regular price $575.52)”. Unlimited is $3.99 a month renewing at $16.99, and Cloud Startup is $7.99 renewing at $25.99. The renewal is roughly three and a half times the promotional rate, and the promotional rate requires paying four years upfront.
That is the trade-off behind the cheapest number in this guide: you get more raw website for less money, on a long commitment, not less work.
Suits: cost-sensitive small businesses comfortable prepaying for a long term and budgeting for the renewal.
2. Wix
Wix has the widest feature set here for non-technical users, with a flexible drag-and-drop editor and a large template library.
Its premium plans are Light at $17.77 a month, Core at $29.77, Business at $39.77 and Business Elite at $159.77, on yearly subscriptions paid in full. A free domain for the first year is included with yearly or multi-year premium plans, valid only on a new domain bought from Wix.
The structural issue is the one at the top of this guide, and it is worth restating because it is the whole decision: Wix states plainly that a Wix site must run on Wix’s servers. Everything else about the platform is a matter of taste; that is a matter of consequence.
Suits: beginners and small businesses who want breadth of features and are content to stay on the platform.
Design-led
3. Squarespace
Squarespace remains the design benchmark for polished templates out of the box, with strong blogging, integrated marketing and scheduling tools. For portfolios, restaurants and personal brands it needs the least cleanup after generation.
Its pricing page lists Basic at $12 a month, Essential at $17 and Advanced at $25 on annual billing, with custom-quoted Premium plans above. Selling is available on every paid plan, and the transaction fees are where the tiers actually differ: Basic charges 2% on online stores and 7% on digital content and memberships, Essential 0% and 5%, Advanced 0% and 0%. If you sell digital products, the entry plan is the expensive one.
Its documented constraint is the export limit above — your text and images leave in an XML file, your design does not leave at all.
Suits: creative professionals and service businesses where visual polish is the priority.
4. Webflow
Webflow’s visual development environment, CMS and custom-code options make it a candidate for a project needing detailed layout control. This is a feature-based fit assessment, not evidence that its output is cleaner than every alternative.
Its pricing page separates site plans from workspace plans, and the total is the sum of both. Site plans run Starter free with 1GB bandwidth and 2 static pages, Basic at $15 a month billed yearly with 10GB, and Premium at $25 billed yearly with up to 2.5TB. Workspace plans run Starter free, Core at $19 a month billed yearly, and Growth at $49 with 400 AI credits. Above those sits a Team platform plan at $2,500 a month on an annual contract, and a custom Enterprise tier.
Two things to model before committing. Costs stack across site plan and workspace plan rather than replacing each other. And code export lives on the paid Workspace plans, not the site plans — so if portability is why you chose Webflow, check you are buying the plan that provides it.
Suits: designers and agencies who understand responsive layout systems and need control, budgeting for stacked pricing.
WordPress and business-in-a-box
5. 10Web
10Web generates a complete multi-page WordPress site from a description, or recreates an existing one, with managed hosting, automatic backups and PageSpeed optimisation. Because the output is real WordPress, it is the bridge between AI convenience and owning your site.
Its plans are currently discounted 50% on annual billing: AI Starter at $10 a month against a regular $20, charged as “12 months for $120 (regular price $240)”, covering one website, 100 AI credits a month, 10GB SSD and 10,000 monthly visitors. AI Premium is $15 against $30 with two websites and 20,000 visitors; AI Ultimate is $22.50 against $45 with four websites and 50,000 visitors. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee, and each plan includes a free custom domain for the first year with up to $30 covered.
WordPress brings its own learning curve, which is the reason to choose a closed platform instead if simplicity matters more than ownership.
Suits: owners who want a portable WordPress site generated for them, and agencies already working in WordPress.
6. Durable
Durable combines site building with CRM, invoicing and marketing features. That bundle may suit a solo operator who needs those functions together; this guide has not timed it against competing builders.
Its pricing page starts with a genuine free plan at $0 — a *.durable.site subdomain, unlimited traffic and SSL hosting, a CRM capped at 10 customers, 5 AI images and 10 AI chat messages a month. Launch is $25 a month, or $22 billed annually, adding a free custom domain worth up to $20, unlimited bookings with calendar sync, AI replies to 20 leads and 50 AI images a month. Grow is $49, or $41 annually, with unlimited team members, 100 leads a month and 500 AI images.
Design flexibility and template range are the weaknesses. This is a tool for getting a local service business online, not for building something distinctive.
Suits: freelancers, consultants and local service businesses who want a site plus invoicing in one subscription.
Comparison
Every figure comes from the vendor’s own page, linked above. Annual-billing rates are shown where the vendor publishes both, and promotional rates are marked as such.
| Builder | Published entry price | Free plan | Portability, per the vendor | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostinger | $2.99/mo on 48 months, renews $10.99 | No | Standard hosting | Lowest cost with hosting |
| Wix | Light $17.77/mo yearly | Yes — wixsite.com, ads, 500MB | Must run on Wix servers | Beginners, widest toolset |
| Squarespace | Basic $12/mo annual | No; 14-day trial | XML content export; no design, CSS or styles | Design-led sites |
| Webflow | Basic $15/mo yearly + workspace | Yes — Starter, 2 pages | Code export on Workspace plans only | Designers and agencies |
| 10Web | $10/mo annual (50% off $20) | No; 30-day refund | Full WordPress CMS | WordPress owners |
| Durable | Launch $22/mo annual | Yes, $0 plan | Not published | Service businesses |
There is no design-quality column. No vendor publishes a reproducible measure of output quality, and results depend on your content and how much you refine after generation.
What AI still does not do
Reading these platforms’ own descriptions of their AI features, one thing is consistent: they describe generating a site, a layout and draft copy. None of them claims the result is finished. That matches the sensible expectation — an AI builder solves the blank page, not the last mile.
Where these tools fall short is large content-heavy sites, complex custom layouts and anything needing deep CMS work. For a landing page, portfolio or small business site they get you most of the way. For pixel-level control or advanced functionality, a professional platform or a developer remains the better call.
Generated copy also needs rewriting. It is placeholder-grade by design, and publishing it unchanged is the most common reason an AI-built site reads as templated.
How to choose
The site must outlive the platform: 10Web’s full WordPress output, accepting the WordPress learning curve — or Webflow on a paid Workspace plan, accepting that the CMS content will not come with the export.
Lowest possible cost: Hostinger at $2.99, having read that it renews at $10.99 and requires 48 months upfront. Check the renewal, not the promotion.
Beginner with no technical background: Wix is the easiest, at the cost of a site that must stay on Wix.
Design matters most: Squarespace from $12, remembering that if you sell digital products the entry plan charges 7% where Advanced charges nothing.
You are a designer or agency: Webflow, modelling site plan plus workspace plan together rather than the entry tier alone.
You need a site plus invoicing today: Durable, which is the only builder here with a free plan you can actually run something on, however modestly.
If your goal is a single conversion-focused page rather than a full site, our guide to AI landing page builders covers dedicated platforms with A/B testing and traffic-based pricing.
Use a fixed site brief to make the choice
For a five-page service-business site, write down the required pages, one contact form, a custom domain and who will make monthly edits. A free plan restricted to two pages fails this brief even if its AI builder works well. A trial also does not satisfy a requirement for permanently free hosting.
Before committing, make an exit inventory: text, images, blog entries, layout, forms and domain. Mark which items the vendor lets you export and which you would need to rebuild.
Related guides
- Best AI Landing Page Builders in 2026
- Best AI SEO Tools in 2026
- Best AI Logo Generators in 2026
- Best AI Writing Tools in 2026
- Best AI Image Generators in 2026
- Best AI Marketing Automation Tools in 2026
Frequently asked questions
Can I move my site to another host later?
It depends entirely on the platform, and each publishes its own answer. Wix states a site “must run on Wix’s servers” because its architecture “does not support external hosting”. Squarespace exports content to an XML file for WordPress but excludes style settings and custom CSS, and cannot import into another Squarespace site. Webflow exports HTML, CSS, JavaScript and assets, but only on paid Workspace plans and without CMS, ecommerce or form processing. 10Web produces a full WordPress site.
Are the free plans usable for a business?
Barely. Wix documents its free tier as a wixsite.com address with 500MB storage and 1GB bandwidth, with Wix ads removed only by upgrading. Webflow’s free Starter site plan allows 2 static pages. Durable’s free plan gives a durable.site subdomain and a CRM capped at 10 customers. Squarespace has no free plan at all, only a 14-day trial.
Why is one builder so much cheaper?
Because the lowest advertised rate is a promotional price on a long prepaid term. Hostinger publishes both figures side by side: $2.99 a month on a 48-month plan, “Renews at $10.99/mo”, charged as $143.52 upfront. Compare the renewal and the total commitment rather than the monthly headline.
Can AI build a complete website?
It can build a functional one quickly, including layout, placeholder copy and navigation. None of these vendors claims the generated result is finished, and generated copy in particular is placeholder-grade by design.
Which is best for WordPress?
10Web, which lists “Full WordPress CMS” on every plan and gives you a genuine WordPress install with plugins and themes. The trade-off is WordPress’s own learning curve, and hosting that is part of the product rather than separate from it.
Conclusion
Evaluate the finished workflow rather than the promise of a quick first draft: can you edit the site, use your domain, meet your accessibility needs and move your content later? Compare renewal prices and export limits alongside the design features.
Decide the portability question first, using each vendor’s own words rather than a general impression. Wix says its sites must run on Wix. Squarespace will hand you your text but not your design. Webflow will hand you code, on the right plan, without the CMS. 10Web hands you WordPress. If the site is temporary or you are confident you will stay, the closed platforms are easier and often cheaper — and if it will accumulate content and rankings over years, the cost of leaving is a rebuild rather than a migration.
