What you pay
WordPress: $9–$70/mo on WordPress.com; self-hosted needs hosting on top — Us: Free to start, building plans from $10/mo; work billed at cost +20–30%
Looking for a WordPress alternative
WordPress is free the way a puppy is free.
WordPress.com Personal is $9 a month billed monthly, Premium $18, Business $40, Commerce $70 — and the free plan gives you a wordpress.com subdomain with no custom domain and no plugins. Self-hosting the open-source version costs nothing for the software and then needs hosting, updates, backups, security and somebody who knows what to do when it breaks.
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The short version
WordPress, in three questions.
The free plan
WordPress: wordpress.com subdomain, no custom domain, no plugins — Us: Free to start with no card, on your own domain when you connect one
Who keeps it running
WordPress: You, or somebody you pay — Us: Published and hosted; the repository stays yours
| Question | WordPress | Amelia’s Agent |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | $9–$70/mo on WordPress.com; self-hosted needs hosting on top | Free to start, building plans from $10/mo; work billed at cost +20–30% |
| The free plan | wordpress.com subdomain, no custom domain, no plugins | Free to start with no card, on your own domain when you connect one |
| Who keeps it running | You, or somebody you pay | Published and hosted; the repository stays yours |
| Who builds it | You, in a theme, or a developer you hire | You describe it and watch it get built |
| Your code, as a git repo | Self-hosted: yes, it is your server | From the first turn, hosted or not |
WordPress.com plan names, prices and free-plan limits from wordpress.com/pricing as published on 31 August 2026, where the free plan is described as “a WordPress.com subdomain, 1 GB of storage, unlimited pages and posts, and access to basic stats” and excludes custom domains and plugin installation. Monthly figures quoted; annual billing is cheaper. The self-hosted open-source version at wordpress.org is free software — the costs named above are hosting and maintenance, not licence fees.
Where they are better
Nothing here has WordPress's ecosystem, and nothing will.
Twenty years of plugins, themes, and people who know it. If you need a specific plugin that only exists for WordPress, or you already have someone maintaining it, that is a real reason to stay and this does not pretend otherwise. The argument is for the small business paying for hosting, a theme, a plugin bundle and an hourly rate to change a phone number.
The part that matters in year three
A subscription is rent on your own website.
A builder charges every month for as long as the site exists, and the site stops existing when you stop paying. Here you get a normal git repository from the first turn — host it anywhere, hand it to any developer, or keep it with us. Nothing about it is specific to us, which is the whole point and also the reason we have to keep earning it.
And if you want to know who is making these claims: a software company that has shipped for other businesses since 2005.
If you are still weighing it up
See the price before you spend it.
Type what you want on the home page — it estimates the cost before you sign in, and there is no card to start.
Questions
Asked, answered
Is WordPress actually free?
The software at wordpress.org is free. Running it is not: you pay for hosting, and then for updates, backups, security and somebody to fix it when a plugin breaks. WordPress.com, the hosted version, is $9 to $70 a month as published on 31 August 2026, and its free plan has no custom domain and no plugins.
What is the simplest WordPress alternative for a small business?
Describe what you want in plain English and watch it get built, then publish it in one click. There is no theme to choose, no plugin to update and nothing to patch — and you still get the real code as a git repository you can take anywhere.
Can I move my existing WordPress site?
You can point Amelia at the site you already have and have it rebuilt, and connect the same domain when you are ready. The result is a normal repository rather than a database and a themes folder.