Can a small business get a website for free?

By Povilas, who runs Ginta · 19 October 2026 · 6 min read

Yes, a small business can get a real, working website for free, but almost always at the builder's own address (like yourname.wixsite.com or yourname.ginta.page) and with the builder's badge on it. Your own domain, like yourbakery.com, is nearly always a paid feature, and the domain itself costs a yearly fee (about $11 for a .com at Porkbun, checked 19 October 2026). Some "free" plans also can't publish at all, or are meant for non-commercial use only.

We make Ginta, which has a free plan, so we've put it in the same table as everyone else, with the same honesty about what it doesn't include.

What "free" usually means

When a website builder says free, expect some of these:

• The builder's address. Your site lives on a subdomain: yourname.builder.com instead of yourname.com.
• The builder's branding. A badge, a banner or a line in the footer. Sometimes ads.
• Limits. On storage, pages, form messages or features like booking and payments.
• Rules about use. Some free plans are meant for personal or non-commercial sites.
• No publishing at all. Some "free plans" are a preview only: you can build, but nobody else can visit it.

None of that is a trick; it's how builders pay for free users. The question is which limits you can live with.

Who offers what (checked 19 October 2026)

From each company's own pricing and help pages:

A few details worth knowing: Wix's free plan has no online payments, and online booking starts on its Core plan. Carrd builds one-page sites by hand, with no AI builder, and forms need Pro Standard. Framer is a design tool with a visual canvas; great if you like designing, more than most small businesses need.

What Ginta's free plan includes, exactly

• 20 websites, each live at its own Ginta address like bakery-name.ginta.page, built by describing your business in a sentence.
• They stay online as long as you have the account. Search engines can find them, and Ginta writes the page title, description and a sitemap for them.
• The ready-made parts most small businesses use: a contact form, quote requests, a menu with prices, a gallery, a blog and announcements. Form messages land in your Ginta inbox, and by email once you confirm your address.
• AI credits to build: 20 credits when you confirm your email, plus 3 free credits every day (up to 15 a month). A one-page website with our best AI usually uses about 20; more pages use more.
• A small "Made with Ginta" badge in the corner of every page. On the Free plan it can't be removed.
• No custom domain, and no online booking, shop or events: those come with paid plans.

Is a free address good enough?

Often, yes, for a start. A free subdomain is fine when:

• You're testing an idea, or you trade a few weekends a year.
• The website is mostly a link from your Instagram bio or Google Business Profile, so people rarely type the address.
• You're a student or learning to build websites.

It starts to hurt when:

• You want to print the address on a van, a sign or business cards. yourbakery.com is easier to remember and looks more established.
• You want an email address at your own domain.
• You plan to keep the site for years. If you move to your own domain later, links people saved to the free address have to be redirected, and you'll want to update your Google profile and social links.

A good rule: use the free address while you find out whether the website is useful, and switch to your own domain once it is.

The cheapest step up to your own domain

You'll pay twice: the domain to a registrar (about $11 a year for a .com at Porkbun), and a plan that allows custom domains. The cheapest plans with your own domain, from the same pages, checked 19 October 2026:

• Carrd Pro Standard: $19 a year. The cheapest by far, for a one-page site you build by hand.
• Framer Basic: $10 a month, shown with yearly billing.
• Squarespace Basic: €11 a month paid yearly (EU prices), with a free domain for the first year.
• Wix Light: $17 a month billed yearly (US price from Wix's blog, January 2026), with a free domain for the first year; prices vary by country.
• Durable Launch: $25 a month, or $22 a month yearly.
• Ginta Hosting: €5 a month if you build with your own Claude or ChatGPT, or Ginta Light: €12 a month with 120 AI credits a month for Ginta's own builder. Hosting includes 3 domains and Light 3; both include online booking and no badge.

Full breakdown, including designers and your time: How much does a small business website cost in 2026?. Connecting the domain takes a few DNS records: here's how.

What about Google's free websites?

Google used to make free basic websites from Business Profiles. It turned them off in March 2024, and after 10 June 2024 those addresses showed "page not found" (Search Engine Journal, 29 February 2024). A Google Business Profile itself is still free and still worth filling in; it just isn't a website. More on how the two work together: Do I need a website if I have Instagram or a Google Business Profile?

Sources (checked 19 October 2026)

• Wix: plans, Is Wix free?, Wix Harmony pricing, January 2026
• Framer: pricing, removing the "Made in Framer" badge
• Carrd: home page, Pro plans
• Durable: pricing, AI website builder FAQ
• Squarespace: pricing, AI website builder
• Porkbun: domain pricing
• Ginta: pricing

Written with AI help for Ginta, which Povilas runs; he also teaches a website-building course. The screenshots are from the real Ginta on the date above, and prices come from our pricing page.