About 10; min
Framer builds websites without code. The free plan gives you one site on a framer.site subdomain. Mini costs $5/month. Basic costs $15/month. For designers tired of handing mockups to developers and waiting 3 weeks, Framer eliminates the middleman. We decoded every plan and compared Framer to Webflow, Squarespace, and coding your own site.
All pricing verified March 2026 from framer.com.
Every Framer Plan
| Plan | Price | Pages | CMS items | Custom domain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2 | 10 | No (framer.site) |
| Mini | $5/site/mo | 5 | 50 | Yes |
| Basic | $15/site/mo | 150 | 500 | Yes |
| Pro | $30/site/mo | 300 | 2,000 | Yes |
Free: Portfolio-Ready at $0
2 pages, 10 CMS items, hosted on yourname.framer.site. Framer branding in footer. SSL included. For a personal portfolio or landing page, Free is genuinely usable — not a trial, not a demo. A real website at $0.
Free is enough for: Personal portfolio, single product landing page, coming soon page. Upgrade when you need a custom domain or more than 2 pages.
Mini ($5/mo): The Indie Sweet Spot
Custom domain, 5 pages, 50 CMS items, no Framer branding. $5/month is the cheapest custom-domain website builder on the market. Squarespace Basic costs $16. Wix Light costs $17. Framer Mini is 70% cheaper.
$5/mo = $60/year
Framer Mini: $5/mo = $60/year
Carrd Pro: $19/year (simpler, one-page only)
Squarespace Basic: $16/mo = $192/year
Wix Light: $17/mo = $204/year
Framer Mini is the cheapest multi-page website with custom domain.
Basic ($15/mo): Business Website
150 pages, 500 CMS items, password protection, custom 404 page, and site search. This covers most business websites — 5-20 pages plus a blog with hundreds of posts. The CMS handles dynamic content: blog posts, team members, portfolio pieces, product listings.
Pro ($30/mo): Agency and Content Sites
300 pages, 2,000 CMS items, staging environment, localization (multi-language), and advanced SEO controls. For agencies building client sites or content-heavy businesses with large blogs.
Framer vs Alternatives
| Tool | Monthly cost | Code needed? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Framer Mini | $5 | No | Cheapest designer-quality site |
| Carrd | $1.58 ($19/yr) | No | Single-page only |
| Framer Basic | $15 | No | Business sites + blog |
| Squarespace Core | $23 | No | Templates + e-commerce |
| Webflow | $14-39 | No (but complex) | Advanced custom sites |
| WordPress | $3-30 (hosting) | Some | Maximum flexibility |
Where Framer Wins
- Designer-to-live-site pipeline — what you design IS the website. No developer handoff. No “this looks different than the mockup” conversations.
- Animations — scroll-triggered, hover, page transitions. Production-quality animations built visually, not coded. Squarespace and Wix can’t match Framer’s animation capabilities.
- Speed — Framer sites load fast. CDN hosting, optimized code output, and lazy loading built in. Consistently scores 90+ on PageSpeed Insights.
- Price — $5/month for a custom domain website. Nothing else is this cheap for designer-quality output.
- Modern aesthetic — Framer sites look like they were built by a design agency. The tool attracts designers, and it shows in the output quality.
Where Framer Falls Short
- Not for e-commerce — no shopping cart, no checkout, no product management. Use Shopify or Squarespace for selling products.
- Per-site pricing — building 5 client sites costs $75-150/month. Webflow’s per-site pricing has the same issue. For agencies, costs multiply fast.
- CMS limits — 500 items on Basic. Large blogs (1,000+ posts) need Pro ($30) or hit limitations. WordPress has no content limits.
- Learning curve — easier than Webflow but harder than Squarespace. Designers pick it up in days. Non-designers need 1-2 weeks.
Who Should Pick What
Designer building portfolio: Framer Free. Beautiful portfolio at $0. Upgrade to Mini ($5) for custom domain.
Startup landing page: Framer Mini ($5/mo). Cheapest custom-domain option with designer-quality output and animations.
Business website + blog: Framer Basic ($15/mo). 150 pages + CMS covers most businesses. Cheaper than Squarespace ($23) with better animations.
E-commerce: Not Framer. Use Shopify or Squarespace instead.
Agency building client sites: Framer Pro ($30/site). Fast delivery, beautiful output. But per-site costs add up with many clients.
Maximum flexibility/content: WordPress. No page limits, no CMS limits, 60,000+ plugins. More setup work but unlimited possibilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Framer better than Squarespace?
For animations and designer control: yes. For e-commerce and template variety: Squarespace wins. For price: Framer Mini ($5) beats Squarespace Basic ($16). Different tools for different needs.
Can non-designers use Framer?
With templates: yes. Framer has community templates that work like Squarespace — pick one, customize, launch. Without templates, the blank canvas requires design skills.
All pricing verified March 2026 from framer.com.
