Website builders with AI
Squarespace is known for polish: good-looking templates, Blueprint AI to get started, and selling on every plan. People look for alternatives when the polish starts to feel like a fence, when they want to start without paying, or when the price adds up.
These five alternatives each loosen one of those constraints.
As of 8 October 2026. Products change, so check their site before you decide.
Three reviewers, Emma Ryan at Website Builder Expert, Kamso Oguejiofor at Website Planet and Mirza Bahic at TechRadar, describe limited design freedom. Two say it is priced above competitors, and two point out there is no free plan, only a 14-day trial.
Limited design freedom and customisation.
Grid overlay limits customizationEmma Ryan, Website Builder Expert, 5 June 2026
Limited design freedomKamso Oguejiofor, Website Planet, 24 February 2026
Slightly restrictive for developersMirza Bahic, TechRadar, 12 February 2026
Priced higher than competitors.
Higher pricing than competitorsMirza Bahic, TechRadar, 12 February 2026
Premium price pointKamso Oguejiofor, Website Planet, 24 February 2026
No free plan.
No free planEmma Ryan, Website Builder Expert, 5 June 2026
Paid plans onlyKamso Oguejiofor, Website Planet, 24 February 2026
We ordered these by how well each keeps what Squarespace does well, a good-looking hosted site, while easing one of the concerns: design freedom, a free start, or price. Briks is our product and sits second.
Every fact about another product links to its own page, opened on 8 October 2026. Where something could not be confirmed it reads “Not listed”, and prices appear only where a US dollar price was confirmed on the product’s own page.
Website builder with AI
Wix is Squarespace's nearest rival and answers the free-plan concern: it has a free plan with hosting, and AI site creation can start free. Payments start on Core, and its agents, Aria, Kleo and Alfred, help run the business after launch. Reviewers note that a Wix template cannot be swapped once chosen.
Best for: Starting free with business tools ready.
AI website and app builder
Briks eases the design-freedom concern differently: instead of a template and a grid, it designs from a site you like and changes anything you ask for in plain words, keeping each change as a version. It has a free plan and checks contrast before publishing. It takes one-time payments and subscriptions through your own processor and builds shipping when you ask.
Best for: A site in the spirit of one you admire, without an editor.
Website builder with AI
Webflow gives the most design freedom here, with a visual designer, a CMS and HTML and CSS export on paid Workspace plans, and its free Starter plan publishes on webflow.io. Reviewers say the learning curve is steep.
Best for: People who want full control of the design.
Website builder with AI
WordPress.com has a free plan with ads and a low entry price: Personal is $4 a month billed yearly, with plugins. Content exports in a standard WordPress format on every plan. Its AI builder needs a paid plan, and reviewers say customising can be hard for beginners.
Best for: A low entry price and plugins.
Website builder with AI
Framer is the designer's alternative: a canvas with agents that edit layout, copy and CMS content, a built-in CMS and hosting, and a free plan with a Framer domain. It does not export HTML, and extra editors are charged per seat.
Best for: Designers who want a canvas and a CMS.
Squarespace first, for reference, then the alternatives in the order above. “Not listed” means the pages we checked did not say, not that the product lacks it.
Yes. Wix, Webflow, WordPress.com, Framer and Briks all have free plans with limits. Briks Free gives 50 credits once for one site.
Webflow and Framer give the most hands-on control. Briks gives a different kind of freedom: it designs from a site you choose and changes anything you describe.
Wix (from Core), Webflow (separate ecommerce plans) and WordPress.com (payment buttons from Premium, WooCommerce on paid plans). Framer sells through third-party plugins. Briks takes one-time payments and subscriptions through your own processor and builds shipping when you ask.
WordPress.com Personal is $4 a month billed yearly and Webflow's Basic site plan is $15 a month billed yearly. Squarespace and Wix show regional prices, so compare in your currency.
Webflow is the most portable here, with HTML and CSS export on paid Workspace plans; WordPress.com lets you take your content in its standard format. Framer has no HTML export, and a Briks zip, on paid plans, holds only your site's own files, so it does not run elsewhere.
Framer and Webflow suit designers who want to shape it themselves. Briks suits people who would rather point at portfolios they like and have the site built.
Opened on 8 October 2026. Products change, so check each product’s site before you decide.
As of 8 October 2026. Products change, so check their site before you decide.
Describe your business, or point at a site you like. Free to start, with no card.