by Automattic Inc.Website builders
Managed WordPress hosting with a site builder, from $4 a month on the Personal plan billed yearly, with plugins, unlimited users and a free plan.
A managed WordPress site with plugins and unlimited users for $4 a month billed yearly, with your posts and pages free to leave in WordPress’s own format.
WordPress.com runs WordPress for you: updates, security, backups on higher plans and a global CDN are managed, and the Personal plan ($4 a month billed yearly) removes ads, adds a free domain for the first year and lets you install plugins from a library of more than 50,000. Every plan includes forms, site search, paid content and unlimited users. Posts, pages and comments export as WordPress XML, and a migration plugin can move the whole site.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Website builders: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | WordPress.com | Webflow | Wix | Squarespace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceA managed WordPress site with plugins and unlimited users for $4 a month billed yearly, with your posts and pages free to leave in WordPress’s own format. | Saves engineering timeDesign-level control, a CMS and managed hosting in one tool, so a marketing site ships without a developer and passes a security review. | Easy to adoptA drag-and-drop business site with multilingual, bookings, payments and a broad compliance file, on one platform that grows with the plan. | Easy to adoptA polished template site that can sell products, services, courses and memberships from the first plan, without adding a store or membership tool. |
| Overall score | 7.9Best | 7.6 | 7.2 | 6.3 |
| Free option | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan | 14-day free trial |
| Card to start | No card needed | –Not measured | No card needed | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $4/site/mo | $15/site/mo | $17/site/mo | $19/site/mo |
| Pricing model | Tiered | Tiered | Tiered | Tiered |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per site; yearly, 2-year, 3-year or monthly terms | Per site (Site plan), plus seats on a Workspace plan for teams | Per site; prices vary by country | Per site; fees on sales by plan |
| Free option | Free plan on a WordPress.com address with ads; 14-day refund on annual plans | Free Starter plan on a webflow.io address; 14-day refund on new plans | Free plan on a wixsite.com address with Wix ads; 14-day money-back guarantee | No free plan; 14-day trial, no card |
| Reference scenario (annual) | $4/mo on Personal | $25/mo on the Premium site plan | $17/mo on Light (US price) | $19/mo on Basic |
| Month-to-month price | $9 on Personal ($9 / $18 / $40 / $70) | $39 on Premium ($25 on Basic) | Monthly billing offered; price not shown on the plans page | $25 on Basic ($25 / $39 / $65 / $139) |
| Free custom domain | For 1 year on annual and multi-year plans | Not included; connect a domain you own | Voucher for 1 year with a first yearly plan | For 1 year on annual plans |
| Second editor | Unlimited users on every plan | Content-editing seat $15/mo billed yearly; full seat $39 | 2 site collaborators on Light, 5 on Core | 2 contributors on Basic, unlimited from Core |
| Multiple languages | Through a multilingual plugin on Personal and up | Localize add-on from $9/mo billed yearly | Wix Multilingual; 3,000 free auto-translation words | Weglot integration: free for 1 language up to 2,000 words |
| Online selling | Payment buttons from Premium; WooCommerce store from Business | Ecommerce site plans from $29/mo billed yearly, 2% fee on Standard | From Core ($29/mo billed yearly) | Every plan; 2% store fee on Basic, 0% from Core |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not stated on the pages we read | SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 and 42001 | SOC 2 Type 2; ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 and 27701; PCI DSS Level 1 | Not stated; PCI-DSS for built-in payments |
| Refund window | 14 days on annual plans, 7 days on monthly | 14 days on new Site and Workspace plans, monthly or annual | 14 days on new plans, yearly or monthly | 14 days on new annual plans; monthly plans not refunded |
| Export | Posts, pages and comments as XML; full site with a migration plugin | CMS to CSV; HTML/CSS code export on a paid Workspace plan (no CMS content) | CMS collections and contacts to CSV; blog posts and the site cannot be exported | WordPress XML of layout pages and one blog; forms to CSV |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, WordPress.com is the lowest-cost route to a custom-domain site with a blog, at $4 a month billed yearly, with plugins, unlimited users and a portable export. Check the renewal price at checkout, and note that SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are not stated. | From its public pages, Webflow is the designer’s builder here: a full CMS, site search, own SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, and a code export path. A blog starts on the $25 Premium plan, and extra editors are paid seats. | From its public pages, Wix is the most complete all-in-one builder here: multilingual, collaborators and a broad compliance file from Light at $17 a month in the US, with selling from Core. The trade-off is lock-in: the site and its blog cannot be exported. | From its public pages, Squarespace is the builder that sells from the first plan: products, services and memberships on Basic at $19 a month billed yearly, with fees that fall on higher plans. It states no SOC 2 or ISO 27001, and its export covers only part of a site. |
Evidence: WordPress.com: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Webflow: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Wix: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Squarespace: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from WordPress.com's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read WordPress.com's pricing page with its plan cards, comparison table and FAQ, and support guides on choosing a plan, refunds, the footer credit, exporting content, the activity log, two-step authentication, user roles, post and page visibility, the form block, translating a site, data processing agreements, server settings and restoring backups, plus Automattic's security and privacy pages, on Oct 16, 2026; we did not sign up or publish a site for this review. The pricing page showed US dollar prices from our location.
The comparison table is unusually complete: yearly, monthly, 2-year and 3-year prices, and a check or cross for every feature on every plan. Plugins, once a Business feature, are now checked from Personal. The footer credit can be removed on any plan with a block theme.
Two points need care. Each plan card says it auto-renews at a monthly price that a script fills in, so the renewal figure is not in the page text. And the table checks one-click restores on Personal and Premium, while the restore guide says restoring from a backup needs Business or Commerce.
Personal covers a custom domain, no ads, forms, a blog and unlimited users for $4 a month billed yearly.
vs Squarespace: Framer Basic is $10, Wix Light $17, Squarespace Basic $19 and Webflow Premium $25 a month billed yearly.
The comparison table checks forms, Jetpack Search, paid content gating, paid subscribers and the newsletter on every plan, the free plan included.
Posts, pages and comments export as WordPress XML, media can be exported, and a migration plugin can move the full site.
vs Squarespace: Wix does not export blog posts, and Squarespace exports one blog and layout pages only.
Every plan allows unlimited users with roles from administrator to contributor, and paid plans keep the full activity log for the plan’s retention period.
The plan cards say each plan auto-renews at a monthly price filled in by a script; the static page text gives the first-term prices only.
Workaround: Check the renewal price at checkout before you pay.
The pages we read describe 2FA, malware scanning, a firewall and DDoS protection, but no SOC 2 report or ISO 27001 certificate, and the DPA is requested and signed by email.
Real-time backups, SFTP and SSH, staging and the uptime monitor are on Business ($25 a month billed yearly) and Commerce.
WordPress.com bills per site, with discounts for longer terms. For our scenario, Personal costs $4 a month billed yearly ($48 a year) before tax, $9 month to month, or $2.75 on a 3-year term; the renewal price is not in the page text. A free domain comes for the first year on annual plans and renews at the domain rate. Premium ($8) adds payment buttons, video uploads and Google Analytics; Business ($25) adds real-time backups, staging, SFTP and WooCommerce; Commerce ($45) adds store extensions. Payment transaction fees vary by plan. Annual plans refund within 14 days, monthly within 7, domains within 96 hours.
Tools → Export creates a WordPress XML file of posts, pages and comments that any WordPress site can import, and media can be exported separately; the file does not include the theme design or plugins, which a migration plugin can move on plugin-enabled plans. Form responses can be exported from the forms dashboard.
From its public pages, WordPress.com is the lowest-cost route to a custom-domain site with a blog, at $4 a month billed yearly, with plugins, unlimited users and a portable export. Check the renewal price at checkout, and note that SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are not stated.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per site; yearly, 2-year, 3-year or monthly terms |
| Free option | Free plan on a WordPress.com address with ads; 14-day refund on annual plans |
| Reference scenario (annual) | $4/mo on Personal |
| Month-to-month price | $9 on Personal ($9 / $18 / $40 / $70) |
| Free custom domain | For 1 year on annual and multi-year plans |
| Second editor | Unlimited users on every plan |
| Multiple languages | Through a multilingual plugin on Personal and up |
| Online selling | Payment buttons from Premium; WooCommerce store from Business |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Not stated on the pages we read |
| Refund window | 14 days on annual plans, 7 days on monthly |
| Export | Posts, pages and comments as XML; full site with a migration plugin |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 16, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for WordPress.com yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 16, 2026.
We have not published API calls for WordPress.com yet.
WordPress.com lists 5 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Personal (billed yearly), costs $4/site/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-16.
Source: wordpress.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, trust, legal and help center pages of three website builders on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What a small business site with a blog costs, where selling, editors and exports sit, and who should pick which.
