This is a price comparison of 5 website building platforms: Owlstown, Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, Wordpress.
I'm comparing these platforms because they all meet the following criteria:
I'm comparing these platforms because they all meet the following criteria:
- You can edit your academic website on a browser.
 - Hosting is included for the free and paid plans.
 
Each of these platforms have multiple tiers, so I will focus on their free versions and the cheapest paid version.
Owlstown
Cheapest paid version: $60 / year
- Designed for academics
 - Unlimited pages
 - Get a free Pro domain
 
Free version
- Unlimited pages
 - No ads
 - Free hosting on 
[subdomain].owlstown.net 
Wordpress
Cheapest paid version: $60 / year
- Unlimited pages
 - Use your own domain name
 
Free version
- Unlimited pages
 - Has ads
 - Free hosting on 
[subdomain].wordpress.com 
Weebly
Cheapest paid version: $72 / year
- Unlimited pages
 - Use your own domain name
 
Free version
- Unlimited pages
 - Has ads
 - Free hosting on 
[subdomain].weebly.com 
Squarespace
Cheapest paid version: $144 / year
- Unlimited pages
 - Use your own domain name
 
Free version
- Squarespace only provides a free 14-day trial
 
Wix
Cheapest paid version: $168 / year
- Unlimited pages
 - Use your own domain name
 
Free version
- Unlimited pages
 - Has ads
 - Free hosting on 
[subdomain].wixsite.com