AI Website Builder With No Hidden Fees: What You Actually Pay (And What You Don't)
TL;DR: Website builders love to advertise “$12/month” then charge extra for everything that makes a website actually functional—custom domains, SSL, SEO tools, e-commerce, removing their branding, customer support, and more. We break down what other builders really cost and explain WebZum’s approach: one price, everything included, no surprises.
The Bait-and-Switch Pricing Problem
You’ve seen the ads:
- “Build a free website!”
- “Starting at just $12/month!”
- “Create your site for $0!”
Then you sign up and discover:
- The free plan puts their branding all over your site
- The $12/month plan doesn’t include a custom domain (add $15/year)
- SSL is only on paid plans
- Removing ads costs extra
- E-commerce requires a higher tier ($27+/month)
- SEO tools are locked behind the business plan ($33+/month)
- Email marketing is a separate add-on
- Priority support requires an upgrade
- Storage limits mean you’ll hit a wall
That “$12/month website” actually costs $30–$50/month once you have everything a real business website needs. This isn’t a bug in their pricing—it’s the strategy. Get you in cheap, then make you pay for essentials.
The Real Cost of “Affordable” Website Builders
Let’s break down what a functional business website actually costs on popular platforms:
Wix
| Feature | Plan Required | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Basic website | Light | $17/month |
| Custom domain | Core+ | $13/year via Wix |
| Remove Wix branding | Core+ | $29/month |
| Online payments | Business | $36/month |
| Priority support | Business Elite | $159/month |
Realistic cost for a business: $29–$36/month + domain
Squarespace
| Feature | Plan Required | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Basic website | Personal | $16/month |
| Remove branding | Business+ | $23/month |
| E-commerce | Business | $33/month |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Commerce Advanced | $65/month |
| No transaction fees | Commerce Basic+ | $36/month |
Realistic cost for a business: $33–$65/month + domain
GoDaddy
| Feature | Plan Required | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Basic website | Basic | $10/month |
| SEO tools | Standard | $15/month |
| Online appointments | Premium | $20/month |
| Online store | Commerce | $25/month |
Realistic cost for a business: $20–$25/month + domain ($20/year)
WordPress (Self-Hosted)
This one’s tricky because costs are scattered:
| Feature | Cost |
|---|---|
| Hosting | $5–$30/month |
| Domain | $10–$15/year |
| Premium theme | $50–$100 one-time |
| Essential plugins (SEO, security, forms) | $100–$300/year |
| SSL certificate | $0–$100/year |
| Maintenance time | 2–5 hours/month of your time |
Realistic cost: $20–$50/month + significant time investment
What “Hidden” Fees Look Like in Practice
Beyond the obvious tier-locking, here are fees that catch people off guard:
Transaction Fees
Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee on the Business plan (on top of payment processor fees). Want to remove it? Upgrade to Commerce Basic at $36/month.
Email Marketing
Most builders charge separately for email marketing or limit the number of emails you can send per month. Mailchimp starts free but quickly reaches $13–$20/month as your list grows.
Storage and Bandwidth Limits
Hit your storage limit? Upgrade to a higher plan. Getting more traffic than expected? Some hosts charge overage fees. Either way, success costs more.
Premium Templates
Some builders offer their best templates only on higher-priced plans. You find the perfect design, start building, then discover it requires a plan upgrade.
Removal of Platform Branding
Almost every builder includes their logo on your site on lower-priced plans. “Made with Wix” or “Powered by Squarespace” on your business website isn’t a great look. Removing it costs $10–$20/month extra.
Form Submissions
Some builders limit the number of form submissions you can receive per month. If you’re using your contact form to generate leads—which is the whole point—this cap can cost you business.
What Transparent Pricing Looks Like
At WebZum, we built our pricing around a simple principle: one price, everything included.
Here’s what comes with every WebZum plan:
- AI website generation — unlimited regenerations
- Custom domain — connect yours or get one through us
- SSL certificate — automatic, always included
- Mobile-responsive design — guaranteed on every site
- SEO optimization — meta tags, schema markup, sitemap
- AI chatbot — trained on your business, included on every site
- Content editing — update anything yourself, anytime
- No platform branding — your site is yours
- Hosting — fast, reliable, included
- AI-powered visibility tools — check your online presence
What we don’t charge for:
- Setup fees
- Design changes
- Content updates
- SSL renewal
- Branding removal
- Additional pages
- Form submissions
- Site regeneration
The price you see is the price you pay. Period.
Why Do Other Builders Use Hidden Fees?
It’s a rational (if frustrating) business strategy:
-
Low advertised prices win comparison shopping. When you Google “cheapest website builder,” the platform advertising $12/month beats the one advertising $19/month—even if the $19/month plan includes everything the $12/month plan charges extra for.
-
Sunk cost lock-in. Once you’ve spent 10 hours building a site on a platform, you’re much more likely to pay the upgrade fee than start over somewhere else. They get you in cheap and monetize your reluctance to leave.
-
Revenue per user optimization. Different customers have different budgets. Tiered pricing extracts the maximum each customer is willing to pay. The frugal customer stays on the basic plan (with limited features). The serious business owner upgrades 2–3 times.
Understanding this doesn’t make it less annoying. It just means you should always calculate the real cost, not the advertised cost.
How to Calculate the Real Cost of Any Website Builder
Before signing up for any platform, ask these questions:
- Does the advertised plan include a custom domain? If not, add $10–$20/year.
- Does it include SSL? If not, add $50–$100/year.
- Can I remove the platform’s branding? If not on my plan, what plan can?
- Are there transaction fees? If I sell anything, what percentage does the platform take?
- What are the storage/bandwidth limits? What happens if I exceed them?
- Can I use my own forms? Are submissions limited?
- What does SEO cost? Are SEO tools included or add-on?
- What about support? Is help available on my plan, or do I need to upgrade?
Add up the real numbers. Then compare.
The Real Comparison
Here’s what a fully functional business website costs across platforms when you account for everything:
| Platform | Advertised Price | Real Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Wix | $17/month | $29–$36/month |
| Squarespace | $16/month | $33–$65/month |
| GoDaddy | $10/month | $20–$25/month |
| WordPress | “Free” | $20–$50/month + time |
| WebZum | $19/month | $19/month |
The cheapest advertised price is rarely the cheapest actual price. And the time you spend configuring, upgrading, and managing a “budget” platform has a cost too.
Trust Is a Feature
For small business owners, every dollar matters. Discovering hidden fees after you’ve already invested time in a platform feels like a betrayal of trust. And it is.
Transparent pricing isn’t just a pricing strategy. It’s a statement about how we want to treat our customers:
- You shouldn’t need a calculator to figure out what your website costs.
- You shouldn’t discover essential features are locked behind paywalls after you’ve started building.
- You shouldn’t worry about surprise charges on your credit card statement.
Your website builder should be a tool that works for you—not a platform that profits from your confusion.