The honest answer, no fluff

Can AI Build a Website
for Free?

Short answer: sort of. The honest answer is more nuanced, and knowing the difference will save you time, frustration, and unexpected bills.

£0
to browse the gallery
60s
to build your full site
£9/mo
to publish it live
No free tier
paid from the start
Not really, not if you want a real, hosted site. Free plans elsewhere come with significant limitations including branded subdomains, limited pages, and no custom domain. ChilledSites doesn't offer a free tier at all: building a site costs real money to run, so it's from £8 one-off or £9/month for Pro, which includes a free domain.

What "free" actually means
with AI website builders

Most builders use "free" as a marketing hook. Here's what's genuinely free, and what always costs money.

AI generation, often free to try elsewhere

Some AI builders let you generate a site for free as a demo. You can see what the AI produces without paying, but can't publish until you subscribe. ChilledSites doesn't do this: there's no free trial at all, it's paid from the start.

Hosting, never truly free

Servers cost money. "Free" hosting always means ads on your site, a shared subdomain, or severely throttled bandwidth. You're not the customer, you're the product.

Custom domain, always costs money

Domains cost roughly £10–15/year from a registrar. No website builder includes a free domain forever. They may cover year one, then charge full price after.

ChilledSites, honest about having no free tier

We don't dress a paywall up as a free trial. Browsing the template gallery is free; generating your site needs a paid plan, from £8 one-off or £9/month for Pro.

Build with ChilledSites,
no free tier, no false promises

There's no free generation and no preview before you pay. Here's exactly how it works, and exactly what's genuinely free.

1
Pick a planPro at £9/month or a PAYG token pack from £8. No free tier to work through first.
2
Describe your business: type a sentence about what you do. The AI handles the rest.
3
AI builds your full site in 60 seconds: design, copy, navigation, all pages included.
4
Publish and go live: connect your domain. Everything's included in the £9/month price.

What's free vs what costs

  • Browsing the template gallery
  • AI website generation (from £8)
  • Full site preview (£9/mo Pro)
  • AI editing (£9/mo)
  • Publishing live (£9/mo)
  • Custom domain (£9/mo)
  • Analytics + forms (£9/mo)

Everything you need to publish is in one £9/month plan. No tiers, no upsells, no free trial.

Exactly what's free
vs what costs £9/month

No hidden surprises. Here's every feature and whether it's genuinely free or part of the paid plan.

Feature
Free
Pro: £9/mo
Browse the template gallery
Included
AI website generation
Not included
Full site preview
Not included
AI editing prompts
Not included
Multi-page website
Not included
Live hosting
Not included
Custom domain
Not included
Analytics dashboard
Not included
Contact forms
Not included
SSL certificate
Not included
Ads on your site
N/A

The real price of "free"
website builders

Free plans from major builders come with strings attached. Here's what they don't tell you upfront.

Wix
"Free" plan
  • Wix ads displayed on your site
  • username.wixsite.com domain only
  • 500MB storage, 500MB bandwidth
  • Remove ads: £10–17/month
Squarespace
14-day trial only
  • No free plan at all
  • £11–20/month after trial
  • Up to £240/year
  • No AI generation included
Webflow
Free with limits
  • webflow.io subdomain only
  • Webflow branding on site
  • Requires design skills
  • Custom domain: £14+/month
WordPress.com
Free plan available
  • WordPress ads on your site
  • username.wordpress.com domain
  • Complex setup for beginners
  • No AI generation

Why £9/month beats
"free" every time

When you add up what "free" actually costs in ads, subdomains, branding, and wasted time, £9/month is the obvious choice.

Your brand, not theirs

Free plans put competitor logos on your site. "Powered by Wix" or "Built with WordPress" undermines trust. ChilledSites puts your brand front and centre, no attribution, no exceptions.

Your domain, not a subdomain

yourname.wixsite.com looks amateur. yourname.com looks professional. Google ranks real domains higher. Clients trust real domains more. Your £9/month gets you a real web address.

AI builds it in 60 seconds

Free builders still require hours of manual design work. ChilledSites generates your complete site, design, copy, layout, all pages, in under a minute. Your time is worth more than £9/month.

Full features, no tiers

Free plans lock features behind upgrades. Analytics, forms, custom CSS, extra pages, always a reason to spend more. ChilledSites bundles everything in one price. £9/month, full stop.

Real analytics included

Know who visits your site, where they come from, and which pages perform. Free builders either have no analytics or charge extra for them. Yours are included from day one.

Forms that actually work

Contact forms on free plans either don't exist or put submissions behind a paywall. ChilledSites sends enquiries straight to your inbox. Never miss a lead because of a "free" limitation.

Everything for £9/month

Less than £2.50/month.
More than every free plan combined.

For less than a cup of coffee a month, you get a professional AI-built website with custom domain, hosting, analytics, and forms, zero compromise.

AI generation
Custom domain
Fast hosting
Analytics
Contact forms
No ads ever
Build my site, from £8

Answers about free AI
website building

Can AI build a website for free?
Not for free with ChilledSites. The AI builds your full site in 60 seconds, but there's no free tier: you need a paid plan first, from £8 one-off or £9/month for Pro, which includes hosting and a free domain. Some other AI builders let you generate for free and only charge to publish; ChilledSites doesn't work that way.
Is the Wix AI website builder free?
Wix has a free plan, but it places Wix ads on your site, forces you to use a wix.com subdomain, and limits storage and bandwidth significantly. To get a professional setup with your own domain and no ads, you'll pay £10–17/month, up to £204/year. ChilledSites gives you all of that for £9/month flat.
What is the cheapest AI website builder in 2026?
ChilledSites is one of the most affordable professional AI website builders available. At £9/month for Pro, you get the AI build, custom domain connection, fast hosting, analytics, and contact forms. Competitors like Squarespace charge £11–20/month (up to £240/year) for fewer features.
Do I need a credit card to try ChilledSites?
Not to browse the template gallery. To generate a full AI website, preview it, and edit it with AI prompts, you need a paid plan: Pro from £9/month or a PAYG token pack from £8. There's no free trial that skips that.
Why not just use a completely free website builder?
Free website builders put ads on your site, force competitor branding, limit you to a subdomain, and lock core features behind paywalls. Your site looks amateur, ranks poorly on Google, and costs more in wasted time than it saves in money. For £9/month, ChilledSites eliminates every one of those trade-offs, and there's no free tier to muddy the pitch.

No free tier.
Everything included from £9/month.

Building a site costs real money to run, so we don't pretend it's free. From £8 for a one-off build, or £9/month for Pro with hosting, a free domain, forms and analytics all included.