Test and compare 7 free AI website builders with real feature breakdowns, limitations, and upgrade paths. Build professional sites without upfront costs.
TL;DR
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Building a professional website used to require either coding skills or a budget. Free website builders existed but demanded hours of manual design work. That changed when AI entered the space - now you can generate complete websites from text descriptions without paying anything upfront.
But "free" comes with conditions. Every platform limits features, adds branding, or restricts capabilities to encourage upgrades. Understanding these constraints helps you pick the right tool and know when free stops being sufficient.
This guide evaluates seven platforms offering free AI website generation, comparing their actual capabilities, hidden limitations, and upgrade paths based on hands-on testing.
Key takeaways
- Free tiers are genuinely usable for portfolios, landing pages, and simple business sites.
- Major limitations are custom domains, page counts, and e-commerce features.
- Most platforms allow export or easy migration before you hit paywalls.
- The best free option depends on your timeline - Carrd for permanent free, Wix for trial-then-upgrade.
We built identical small business websites on each platform to test real-world capabilities and limitations.
Wix offers AI Design Intelligence on its free tier with surprising capabilities.
What's included:
Major limitations:
Best use case: Portfolio sites, hobby blogs, testing business ideas before investing.
Our verdict: 4/5 - Most generous free tier for content-heavy sites.
Hostinger provides a 30-day full-feature trial, then requires payment. Technically not "free forever" but worth including.
What's included (during trial):
After trial:
Best use case: Projects with defined timelines that will generate revenue within 30 days.
Our verdict: 4.5/5 - Best AI quality on free tier, but not permanent.
Durable markets extreme speed - websites generated in 30 seconds.
What's included:
After trial:
Major limitations:
Best use case: Service businesses needing quick validation before committing.
Our verdict: 3.5/5 - Fast generation but aggressive upgrade pressure.
Framer's free tier targets designers and creative professionals.
What's included:
Major limitations:
Best use case: Single landing pages or personal portfolios with minimal content.
Our verdict: 4/5 - Outstanding quality but very limited scope.
Carrd offers a permanently free tier focused on one-page sites.
What's included:
Major limitations:
Best use case: Link-in-bio pages, simple personal sites, event pages.
Our verdict: 3.5/5 - Reliable for simple needs but limited AI capability.
Tilda provides a free plan focused on portfolios and creative work.
What's included:
Major limitations:
Best use case: Portfolios with many projects, educational content, creative showcases.
Our verdict: 3/5 - Generous page count but weak AI generation.
Targeted at startups and SaaS companies with a limited free tier.
What's included:
Major limitations:
Best use case: Pre-launch landing pages for collecting emails.
Our verdict: 2.5/5 - Too limited for most use cases.
| Platform | Pages | Storage | Custom domain | Branding | AI quality | Forever free? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix ADI | Unlimited | 500MB | No | Yes | Good | Yes |
| Hostinger | Unlimited | 10GB | Yes | No | Excellent | No (30 days) |
| Durable | 3 | N/A | No | Yes | Good | No (14 days) |
| Framer | 2 | N/A | No | Yes | Excellent | Yes |
| Carrd | 3 | N/A | No | Yes | Basic | Yes |
| Tilda | 50 | 50MB | No | Yes | Basic | Yes |
| Unicorn | 1 | N/A | No | Yes | Fair | Yes |
Every free plan restricts capabilities in specific ways. Understanding these helps avoid unpleasant surprises.
All free tiers force you onto subdomains: yoursite.wixsite.com or yoursite.framer.website. These work functionally but appear unprofessional for business use.
Custom domains require paid plans, typically costing £3-10/month extra.
Free sites display "Made with [Platform]" badges or similar branding. Some platforms (like Wix) also inject ads into your content.
Removing branding requires upgrading. For Wix, this alone costs £13/month on the Connect Domain plan.
Framer's 2-page limit is unusable for most businesses. You can't even include standard pages like Home, About, Services, and Contact.
Wix and Tilda offer better value with unlimited or 50-page limits, letting you build complete sites on free tiers.
Most platforms don't explicitly limit traffic on free tiers but will throttle or disable sites receiving unusually high traffic (typically above 10,000 visitors/month).
For viral content or marketing campaigns, expect to upgrade immediately.
Selling products requires paid plans across all platforms. Free tiers may let you display products but not process payments.
Minimum e-commerce plans start around £18/month depending on the platform.
Free tiers often cap form submissions at 50-100 per month. For lead generation sites, this fills up quickly.
Unlimited submissions typically require mid-tier plans at £15-25/month.
Your choice depends on permanence needs and content complexity.
Choose Wix ADI if you need multiple pages and don't mind branding. The unlimited page count and decent storage make it the most usable long-term free option.
Choose Carrd if you only need a simple one-page site and want clean, reliable hosting. Excellent for link-in-bio pages or personal sites.
Choose Hostinger if you plan to upgrade within 30 days anyway. The trial gives you full features including custom domain support, making it the most powerful short-term option.
Choose Durable if you need business tools (invoicing, CRM) bundled with your site and plan to go paid quickly.
Choose Framer for visually stunning designs with just 2 pages. Ideal for minimalist portfolios showcasing your best work.
Choose Tilda for portfolio sites with many projects requiring 20+ pages. The 50-page limit accommodates extensive showcases.
Choose Hostinger or Durable for the trial period, then migrate to Wix ADI if you need more time before upgrading.
Avoid Unicorn Platform unless you only need a pre-launch email capture page.
Free tiers work well initially but become limiting as your needs grow. Watch for these signals:
If you're sharing your site professionally (on business cards, email signatures, LinkedIn), the subdomain looks amateur. Custom domains cost £3-10/month and make a significant credibility difference.
Upgrade when: You start using the site for client acquisition or professional branding.
If your site receives over 1,000 monthly visitors consistently, you're at risk of throttling or unexpected shutdowns.
Upgrade when: Traffic exceeds 500/month and is growing.
Selling products or services requires payment processing, which isn't available on free tiers.
Upgrade when: You're ready to start generating revenue.
Platform branding and ads damage credibility for consultants, agencies, and service businesses.
Upgrade when: Your site represents your professional brand.
CMS functionality, password protection, custom forms, and analytics integrations require paid plans.
Upgrade when: You outgrow basic pages and need structured content.
Most platforms make upgrading seamless, but exporting to other platforms varies.
Upgrading within the platform is straightforward - your site remains unchanged except for unlocking features. No migration required.
Wix: Difficult to export. Content must be manually copied. No code export option.
Framer: Can export code (HTML/CSS/JS) on paid plans only. Free tier doesn't allow export.
Hostinger: Standard WordPress export available after trial. Easy migration to any WordPress host.
Carrd: No export option. Must rebuild elsewhere.
Tilda: No export option. Manual content migration required.
If you anticipate outgrowing the platform, choose Hostinger for its WordPress export capability.
When you decide to upgrade, here's what to expect:
Budget £15-25/month for a professional business site with all features you'll likely need.
Yes, but with limitations. Free sites work for testing ideas, building MVP landing pages, or very small businesses not relying on web traffic. For serious revenue generation, upgrade for credibility and capabilities.
Platforms with "forever free" tiers (Wix, Framer, Carrd) let you stay indefinitely. Trial-based free access (Hostinger, Durable) ends after 14-30 days and requires upgrading or site goes offline.
Somewhat. Free sites can rank in search engines, but subdomains (yoursite.wixsite.com) perform worse than custom domains. Platform branding also dilutes your brand. For serious SEO, upgrade to custom domain plans.
No. All free tiers include branding that's only removable on paid plans. This is how platforms monetise free offerings.
No. Custom domain support requires paid plans on all platforms. You must pay for domain registration (£10-15/year minimum) and platform hosting (£3+/month).
Free AI website builders provide surprising capability at zero cost. For portfolios, hobby sites, and business testing, they're completely viable. For professional business use, expect to upgrade within a few months.
Your action plan:
The best strategy is starting free to validate your site's purpose, then upgrading strategically when limitations impact growth.
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