Searches for author website builder are up 244% year on year, while the design and designer phrases sitting beside it have all fallen. Something has shifted, and it is not that authors suddenly discovered websites. What changed is that a lot of writers who built an audience somewhere else have worked out they do not own it. So here is an honest comparison of every author website builder worth considering, with real prices, including the ones I do not sell.
I build author websites for a living, so read the last section with that in mind. Everything before it stands on its own.
What an author website builder actually has to do
Before comparing tools, it is worth being blunt about what the site is for. Most author website advice quietly assumes you are a debut literary novelist with one book and a headshot. Therefore judge every author website builder below against three jobs rather than against its templates.
One: it has to sell the books you have. Not simply have a books page. A reader should reach a buy button in about two clicks. It has to be the format they want, on the retailer they use. For example, that means print, ebook, audio, and increasingly a Kindle Unlimited link pointing at the right regional store.
Two: it has to capture the reader. Someone finds you, likes what they read, and leaves. If nothing on the page asks for an email address, that reader is gone and you will never know they were there. This is the job most builders do worst. However, it is also the one that matters most.
Three: it has to survive your release date. Traffic to an author site is not a flat line. It stays quiet for months, then launch week arrives and every link you have ever posted sends people at once. As a result, the site has to be finished and tested before that happens, because you will not be fixing it during.
The author website builder options made only for authors
Two tools are marketed as an author website builder and nothing else. Therefore both are worth knowing about before you look anywhere else.
Tertulia imports your books by ISBN, which saves real time if you have a backlist. Basic runs $7.99 a month billed annually and includes a site and a free .com domain for the first year. Pro runs $15.99 a month billed annually and adds email campaigns, reader magnets and direct sales of ebooks and audiobooks. In addition, there is a 14-day trial with no card required.
Pub Site is the older of the two and was built by publishing people. Its client list runs to estates and imprints as much as individual authors. It costs $19.99 a month including hosting, again with a 14-day trial.
The case for both is the same. Furthermore, the book-shaped parts are already built, so you are not explaining to a general page builder what a series is. On the other hand, the case against is also the same. You are on rails, and when you want the site to do something the template did not anticipate, the answer is usually no.
For example, a serial author with one long series and a Patreon will barely notice that constraint. For an author with three series in two universes, a novella line and a graphic audio deal, you will hit the walls.
General website builders worth considering
Carrd is free for up to three sites, and Pro starts at $19 a year. That is not a typo. In addition, for that price you get custom domains with SSL, forms, and the Carrd branding removed. It builds one-page sites only.
If you have one book, or a book coming and nothing else, Carrd is hard to argue with. A single page with a cover, a blurb, buy links and an email signup is a complete author website for a debut. Furthermore, $19 a year is less than a single month of anything else here. It stops working the moment you have a second series.
WordPress.com starts at $4 a month billed annually for Personal, or $9 if you pay monthly. Plugins are available from that tier up. Premium is $8 annually, Business $25 and Commerce $45. The advantage is that you are on WordPress. Therefore the ceiling is high, and you can leave whenever you want with your content intact. That said, you are now running a website rather than writing. Additionally, the gap between a WordPress site that works and one that quietly breaks is maintenance nobody enjoys.
Wix runs $17.77 a month for Light, $29.77 for Core, $39.77 for Business and $159.77 for Business Elite. Light is the cheapest tier that gets you a custom domain and no Wix branding. The editor is the most forgiving of any of these if you have never built a page before. In contrast, a Wix site is difficult to move anywhere else later.
Squarespace sells Personal, Professional and Premium tiers. Furthermore, it remains the best-looking option out of the box for someone who will not be hiring a designer. However, their pricing moves, and their page renders the numbers in a way I cannot quote reliably. Check it yourself rather than trusting a figure in a blog post, mine included.
The done-for-you alternative
ModFarm Sites is worth understanding even if you never use it, because it is the closest thing this corner of publishing has to a standard. Their model is $10 per book to build the book page. Hosting then runs from $30 a month for up to 20 books, $45 for up to 100 and $75 for up to 200. In addition, a newsletter add-on costs $25 a month unlimited, and it is free under 1,000 subscribers on qualifying plans. Ongoing changes are billed per task from $10, where adding a book counts as one task.
For example, run the numbers on a twelve-book series. That is $120 to build, then $45 plus $25 a month, which comes to $840 a year. For a working serial author that is not expensive, and the sites they turn out are consistent and fast.
What you are buying there is a system. What you are not buying is anyone thinking about your specific launch. As a result of the per-task billing, the site also tends to stay exactly as it was built.
The other done-for-you option is an independent designer or a small agency. It costs more up front. On the other hand, it gets you a person who will argue about whether the series page should run in publication order or reading order. Whether that is worth the difference depends entirely on how much is riding on the next release.
Which author website builder suits where you are
Most of this decision is made by your situation, not by which tool is objectively best. Therefore start with where you actually are.
- One book, or a first book coming. Use Carrd. Nineteen dollars a year, one page, done in an evening. Do not spend more than this until you have something to put on a bigger site.
- A backlist and no site. Use Tertulia or Pub Site. The ISBN import alone will save you a weekend, and the book pages are the part you would otherwise get wrong.
- A serial with real readers and a print deal coming. Here the tool matters least and the timing matters most. You have one launch, and the traffic spike will be the biggest your name has ever seen. Therefore what you need is the email capture working before the spike rather than after it.
- Multiple series, merchandise, a busy release schedule. Use WordPress, either self-hosted or on WordPress.com Business, or a done-for-you provider. You have outgrown the rails.
The part every author website builder leaves to you
None of these tools will build your email list. They will give you a form. However, the form is the easy part.
The rest of it is having a reason for someone to fill it in. “Subscribe to my newsletter” asks a reader to do you a favour. A deleted chapter, an early look at the next arc, a novella that exists nowhere else, a promise that the next book gets announced to the list first. Those are a trade, and a trade is what people actually accept.
This matters more in progression fantasy and LitRPG than almost anywhere else, because the audience is already conditioned to follow serially. They have a reader brain that expects the next chapter. Because of this, it is the easiest email list in publishing to build, and most authors in the genre have not built one. Royal Road, Patreon and Discord all feel like they are doing the job.
They are doing a job. That said, it is not that one. Royal Road tells your followers when you post on Royal Road. Patreon reaches the people already paying you. Discord reaches whoever happens to be in the channel that hour. None of them is a list you can write to on the morning your hardcover goes on sale. Furthermore, none of them comes with you if the platform changes its mind.
Worth noting too: a brand new domain takes time to appear in search at all. I have written separately about why a website does not show on Google. Most of it applies to a first author site as much as it does to a local business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest author website builder?
Carrd, by a wide margin. It is free for up to three sites, and Pro costs $19 a year, which buys custom domains, forms and no Carrd branding. However, it builds one-page sites only. Therefore it works for a debut and stops working once you have a second series.
Do I need an author website builder if I already have Patreon and Royal Road?
Those platforms reach readers well, but neither gives you a list you own. Royal Road notifies followers about Royal Road activity, and Patreon reaches people already paying you. If a platform changes its rules, your access to that audience changes with it. A site with email capture is the only version you keep.
Is WordPress better than a purpose-built author website builder?
Better is the wrong frame. WordPress has a much higher ceiling, and you can take your content elsewhere at any time. As a result, it suits authors with several series or a busy release schedule. In contrast, a purpose-built builder gets the book pages right straight away with far less work. Choose by how complicated your catalogue is, not by which platform is more capable.
How long before my release date should the site be live?
At least three weeks, and ideally longer than that. The point of the site is to collect subscribers before launch week, not during it. A site that goes live two days out has no list on it when the list would have mattered most.
The short version
If you have one book, use Carrd. On the other hand, if you have a backlist, use a purpose-built author website builder. If you have a real audience and a release date, the builder is not your problem. The list is where your effort belongs.
If you would rather not do any of it yourself, that is what I do. I build author websites for LitRPG and progression fantasy authors, shaped around a launch date rather than a design brief. Fixed price, no hourly billing, and I will tell you honestly if you are better off with the $19 option.