How we rank

Our rankings are editorial: our team compares each service on the criteria below and orders them by how well they serve a typical small business owner who wants a professional site without unnecessary cost or lock-in. They aren't lab tests, and they aren't calculated from customer ratings.

The seven criteria

1. 1

   Affordability

   What it costs to get started and to keep the site running each month, including costs that aren't in the headline price.

2. 2

   Services included

   Whether design, hosting, security, forms, SEO basics and updates are included or sold separately.

3. 3

   Customer feedback

   Public, source-specific ratings and the recurring themes in written reviews. We always name the source and never adjust a rating.

4. 4

   Contract flexibility

   Month-to-month or locked-in, how cancellation works, and whether there's a refund window.

5. 5

   Ease of purchase

   How quickly a busy owner can go from interest to a paid, started project without sales friction.

6. 6

   Ownership & portability

   Who owns the site code and design, and whether you can take the website elsewhere if you leave.

7. 7

   Turnaround & support

   How long a launch realistically takes and how changes and questions are handled afterward.

Rating rules we follow

• Every customer rating names the platform it came from and links to that platform.
• We never average, weight or adjust ratings across platforms.
• If we can't verify a current rating, we say “Rating not verified” instead of showing a number.
• We don't publish prices we can't confirm from the provider.
• Review excerpts are quoted word-for-word from public reviews and attributed.
• Platform logos identify a rating's source only. They never imply sponsorship or endorsement.

Freshness

Public ratings were last checked in October 2026. Ratings change daily, so follow the link on any rating for the current figure. If you spot an out-of-date number, the source page is always authoritative.

Editorial judgment

Our rankings are our own editorial judgment, based on published pricing, terms and public customer ratings. They are not lab tests or third-party certifications. More about us.