Originally published at devtoolpicks.com
Webflow updated its pricing on May 13, 2026. The CMS and Business Site plans were merged into a new Premium plan at $25 per month annually. The Basic plan increased from $14 to $15 per month. A new Team plan launched at $2,500 per month for larger organizations.
For most indie hackers, Webflow was already on the expensive side for what they actually needed. The May 2026 changes gave a good reason to compare alternatives properly.
Here are five honest picks across different use cases and budgets.
Quick Verdict
| Tool | Best For | Price | Closest to Webflow? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Framer | SaaS landing pages, modern design | From $10/month | Yes |
| Carrd | Simple one-page sites | $19/year | Partial |
| Ghost | Content + newsletter + memberships | From $15/month | No |
| Squarespace | Polished sites without complexity | From $16/month | Partial |
| WordPress | Maximum flexibility, lowest cost | ~$5-10/month hosting | No |
Is Framer the Right Switch From Webflow?
Framer is where most indie hackers and SaaS founders land after leaving Webflow. It is designed for building visually polished landing pages quickly, the AI-assisted layout tools work well for standard SaaS page structures, and the pricing is significantly lower than Webflow for a solo project.
The Basic plan at $10 per month annually gives you a custom domain, up to 30 pages, and 1 CMS collection. That covers the vast majority of SaaS landing pages. The Pro plan at $30 per month expands to 150 pages and 10 CMS collections, adds staging, and unlocks advanced analytics.
One honest limitation: Framer's CMS is less powerful than Webflow's for genuinely content-heavy sites with complex data structures. If you were using Webflow's CMS for a blog with 100 posts and multiple content types, Framer Pro handles it but you will notice the ceiling.
For the Webflow versus Framer versus Carrd head-to-head on features, we have a full comparison of all three if you want the detailed breakdown.
Who should use Framer: Indie hackers building SaaS landing pages, developers who want a design tool that does not require a front-end developer, and anyone who wants a clean modern site fast.
Who should not use Framer: Teams that need deep CMS capabilities or complex multi-site management at the agency level. Also: the Scale plan at $100 per month can sneak up on high-traffic sites.
Pricing: Free (Framer subdomain, Framer branding). Basic $10/month annually. Pro $30/month annually. Scale $100/month annually.
Is Carrd Still Worth It for Indie Hackers?
Carrd is the simplest and cheapest website builder that will have you live in under an hour. Pro Standard at $19 per year, which works out to $1.58 per month, is the plan most people need. It gives you custom domains, forms, analytics, and access to all premium templates.
The constraint is obvious: Carrd is strictly one-page. There is no blog, no multi-page navigation, and no CMS for dynamic content. Within that constraint it is exceptional. A clean SaaS pre-launch page, a personal profile, a link-in-bio page, an upcoming product announcement. All of these work perfectly on Carrd.
When to consider Carrd: you are launching a product in the next few weeks and need a clean page with an email capture form. You want the lowest possible annual cost with zero maintenance overhead. You are not planning to add a blog or multiple pages.
Who should use Carrd: Solo founders at the pre-launch stage, developers who need a personal site or product page without ongoing content, anyone who wants the lowest possible cost and fastest setup.
Who should not use Carrd: Anyone who needs a blog, multiple pages, or a CMS. Carrd is not designed for these and will frustrate you within a month if you try.
Pricing: Free (3 sites, .carrd.co subdomain). Pro Lite $9/year. Pro Standard $19/year. Pro Plus $49/year.
Is Ghost the Right Alternative if You Write?
Ghost is purpose-built for publishing. It handles blog content, email newsletters, and paid memberships in one platform, with 0% transaction fees on subscriptions beyond Stripe's standard processing fees.
The Starter plan at $15 per month gives you a clean managed hosting setup for up to 1,000 members. The Publisher plan at $29 per month adds paid subscription capability and three staff seats. Both plans include unlimited email delivery, SSL, CDN, and automatic backups, which is a better value than assembling those pieces separately.
If you are a developer and want to go further, Ghost is open source. Self-hosting on a $6 per month VPS like DigitalOcean, which has a one-click Ghost installer, keeps your total monthly cost under $15 including the domain. The trade-off is maintenance time.
Ghost is not a Webflow replacement in the design sense. The templates are polished but limited in creative control compared to Webflow. If visual design flexibility matters more than publishing workflow, Ghost is not the right call.
Who should use Ghost: Developers who write regularly and want a newsletter or paid membership layer. Indie hackers building a content-first audience. Anyone who wants to own their publishing infrastructure without platform fees.
Who should not use Ghost: Developers who need a fully custom SaaS landing page with complex design. Ghost templates are good but not flexible enough for highly custom marketing sites.
Pricing: Self-hosted free (hosting ~$6-12/month separately). Starter $15/month annually. Publisher $29/month annually.
Is Squarespace Worth Considering?
Squarespace is the most polished out-of-the-box website builder. The templates are genuinely beautiful, the editor is simpler than Webflow, and the Basic plan at $16 per month annually covers most use cases for a clean marketing site.
The trade-off is the opposite of Webflow: where Webflow gives you total design control, Squarespace limits customization to keep things accessible. If you want a pixel-perfect landing page, Squarespace will eventually frustrate you. If you want a clean, professional site up in a day without design decisions, Squarespace delivers.
For indie hackers building service businesses, consulting sites, or product landing pages where design control matters less than polish, Squarespace is a sensible pick. For SaaS builders who want full creative control over their landing page, it is too restrictive.
Who should use Squarespace: Service business owners, consultants, and anyone who wants a polished site without spending time on design. Also good for non-technical co-founders who need to maintain the site themselves.
Who should not use Squarespace: Developers who want to customise deeply, or anyone building a content-heavy site with complex CMS needs.
Pricing: Basic $16/month annually. Core $23/month annually. Plus $39/month annually. Advanced $99/month annually.
Is Self-Hosted WordPress Still Relevant?
For developers comfortable with server management, self-hosted WordPress remains the lowest-cost, highest-flexibility option in 2026.
A $5 to $10 per month VPS from Hetzner or DigitalOcean, a lightweight theme like Kadence or Blocksy, and a basic set of plugins gives you a fully functional marketing site and blog for under $15 per month total. No platform fees, no CMS limits, no bandwidth constraints.
The cost is maintenance. WordPress updates need applying, security needs monitoring, and plugin compatibility can break things at inconvenient times. For a developer building a product, this maintenance overhead is real and ongoing.
The sweet spot for self-hosted WordPress in 2026 is a developer who wants a content-heavy site with maximum flexibility and is comfortable handling server administration as part of their workflow.
Who should use WordPress: Developers who want maximum flexibility and lowest long-term cost. Also anyone with existing WordPress experience who does not want to learn a new platform.
Who should not use WordPress: Developers who want zero maintenance overhead. The hourly cost of keeping WordPress healthy is real, and for a solo founder, that time is often better spent on the product.
Pricing: Software free. Hosting $5-10/month (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Cloudflare Pages).
How to Choose
If you are a solo developer building a SaaS product and just need a clean landing page: Framer at $10/month. Fastest to design, looks great out of the box, cheapest paid tier.
If you are pre-launch and want the absolute cheapest option for a one-page site: Carrd at $19/year. Nothing else comes close on price for what it does.
If you write regularly and want to build an audience with a newsletter: Ghost. The self-hosted option at under $15/month total is compelling if you are comfortable with a VPS.
If you want a polished site with minimal design effort and no dev background needed: Squarespace at $16/month. Templates are excellent, editor is simple.
If you want full control and do not mind maintenance: Self-hosted WordPress. Cheapest long-term, most flexible, highest maintenance.
None of these are bad choices. The right one depends on whether you are optimising for design flexibility, cost, content features, or maintenance simplicity.
Top comments (0)