Free Website Builders Compared: 7 Platforms, One Data-Driven Table
Direct answer: Across 7 major free website builders, GitHub Pages and Blogger have the lowest 3-year true cost (under $60), while Wix and Weebly have the highest realistic 3-year cost (over $280) once custom domain and ad-removal upgrades are factored in.
The Comparison Table
The table below reflects publicly listed 2026 plan limits. 'True cost' assumes a user eventually wants a custom domain and, where applicable, ad-free branding — the two upgrades that push the largest share of free-tier users toward a paid plan.
Reading the Data
Notice that platform maturity does not correlate with lowest cost — Blogger, one of the oldest platforms on this list, remains one of the cheapest to run long-term precisely because Google has never aggressively monetized it.
GitHub Pages' low cost comes with a technical-skill requirement: it assumes comfort with Markdown or basic HTML, which is why it ranks lower for complete beginners despite its strong cost and Freedom Score.