How Do I Build a Website Without Paying Big Tech?
Squarespace charges $23-65 per month. Wix charges $17-159 per month. Shopify starts at $39 per month. None of these give you ownership of your data, and all of them can terminate your account if you violate their terms of service — terms that are broad enough to cover nearly any business they decide they do not want to host.
Here is the truth: a professional website costs $6-15 per month when you own your stack. It can cost zero if you are willing to use free tiers carefully. And you will own your data, control your hosting, and be immune to deplatforming by any single corporate decision.
This is achievable with beginner-level technical skills and a few hours of setup.
The Two Paths: Static Sites and Dynamic Applications
Static websites are the simplest and cheapest option. They are pre-built HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files served directly from a file host. There is no database, no application server, nothing to maintain or secure. They load fast, cost almost nothing to host, and scale to millions of visitors with no additional cost.
Static sites are appropriate for: portfolios, business landing pages, blogs, documentation sites, event pages, and any site where content does not change based on who is viewing it.
Dynamic web applications have a backend server, a database, and logic that runs per-request. They are appropriate for e-commerce stores with user accounts, membership communities, web apps with user data, and anything requiring authentication. These cost more and require more technical skill.
Start with a static site. You can migrate to dynamic later.
Building a Static Site: The Sovereign Stack
Step 1: Choose a static site generator
You write content in Markdown (simple text with formatting), and the generator compiles it into a complete HTML website. Three excellent options:
- Astro (recommended): Modern, fast, supports any JavaScript framework or none at all. Excellent for content sites and portfolios.
- Hugo: Written in Go, extremely fast builds, large ecosystem of free themes. Good for blogs and documentation.
- Eleventy (11ty): Flexible, minimal, no JavaScript sent to the browser by default. Good for developers who want full control.
All three are free and open source.
Step 2: Register your domain independently
Never register your domain through your website builder or hosting provider. If you ever want to leave, your domain is hostage.
Register through:
- Namecheap: $8-12/year for most .com domains, straightforward interface
- Porkbun: Often cheapest, good management panel
- Cloudflare Registrar: At-cost pricing (no markup), excellent DNS management
Avoid GoDaddy. They have a history of aggressive upselling, domain hijacking complaints, and their prices are not competitive after the first year.
Step 3: Choose your hosting
For static sites, you have excellent free options:
- Cloudflare Pages: Free tier hosts unlimited sites with global CDN, custom domains, and automatic HTTPS. This is the strongest free option for static sites.
- Netlify: Free tier, excellent developer experience, automatic deploys from Git
- GitHub Pages: Free, directly connected to your code repository
If you want a VPS (more control, can host multiple sites and services):
- Hetzner: German-based, affordable (€4-6/month for a capable server), excellent reputation
- DigitalOcean: $6-12/month droplets, good documentation
- BuyVM: Inexpensive, unmanaged, good for technically confident users
Step 4: Set up version control
Store your website code in a Git repository. This gives you version history, easy deployment, and a backup. GitHub is convenient but owned by Microsoft. Alternatives:
- Codeberg: Free, nonprofit, open source hosting of Gitea
- Self-hosted Gitea: Run your own Git server on a VPS
Connect your repository to Cloudflare Pages or Netlify for automatic deployments — every time you push code, your site rebuilds and deploys automatically.
The Minimal Viable Setup
Domain: $10/year (Namecheap or Porkbun) Hosting: $0 (Cloudflare Pages free tier) SSL certificate: $0 (included automatically) Static site generator: $0 (Astro, Hugo, or Eleventy) Total: $10 per year
For $10, you have a fast, professional website on a domain you own, hosted on infrastructure you can migrate away from at any time. No monthly platform fees. No terms of service that can demonetize your content. No algorithm determining who sees your work.
When You Need Dynamic Features
If you need a contact form, you do not need a full backend. Services like Formspree or Netlify Forms handle form submissions for free on their lower tiers, with data sent to your email.
If you need a simple blog with a CMS (content management system) so non-technical team members can publish posts, Netlify CMS or Decap CMS connects to your static site’s Git repository and provides a visual editor — free and self-contained.
If you need e-commerce, start with Snipcart or Lemon Squeezy for digital products before committing to a full Shopify alternative. For physical products, WooCommerce on your own WordPress hosting (not WordPress.com, but WordPress software on your own server) is the most flexible path.
The Bottom Line
You do not need to pay Big Tech to have a professional web presence. You need a domain, a text editor, and a static site generator. The rest is free. The sovereignty that comes from owning your digital infrastructure is worth the small investment of learning these tools. Start simple. Own your domain from day one. Never put your website inside a platform you cannot export.