The 5 best BookBub Author Websites alternatives (2026)
Looking for a BookBub Author Websites alternative? We compared the best tools for free plans, custom domains, book and series pages, and newsletter signups and sending, on price and other aspects so you can pick the right fit for your books.
Last reviewed
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For most indie authors, BookSparker is the best BookBub Author Websites alternative. It builds your author website from your books, with series pages, buy buttons, and a newsletter signup, and it is free on every plan. If you need a blog, an online store, or complete design freedom, the general website builders below may suit you better. All five are compared fairly on price and other aspects.
The 5 best BookBub Author Websites alternatives
Ranked for indie authors who want a professional website that shows off their books and grows their mailing list, with the trade-offs called out fairly.
- 1
BookSparker
A website builder made for authors: your site is built from your books, with series pages, buy buttons and a newsletter signup, and it is free on every plan at yourname.booksparker.com. Paid plans connect your own domain, and the same account adds book swaps, group promos and landing pages.
Pros
- A complete author website, free on every plan
- Built from your books: covers, series pages in reading order and buy buttons
- Newsletter signups sent to your email provider, with a free book to offer
- A website for each author name, with your own domain on paid plans
- Change the design by describing it in your own words, or paste your own CSS
- Book swaps, group promos and landing pages in the same account
Good to know
- No blog or online store: it is a website for your books, not a general website builder
- Your own domain needs a paid plan, plus a domain you buy from a registrar
- Best for:
- Indie authors who want a professional, book-first website live today without paying for a website builder, with signups that go straight to their mailing list.
- Pricing:
- Author website free on every plan; paid plans from $15/month ($150/year) add your own domains.
- 2
Wix
Wix is one of the biggest website builders, with a drag-and-drop editor, the AI-assisted Wix Harmony editor, thousands of templates and an app market for blogs, stores and email marketing. Its free plan shows a Wix banner ad on a wixsite.com address, and your own domain needs a paid plan from $17/month billed yearly. BookSparker builds an author website from your books, with series pages, buy buttons and a newsletter signup, free on every plan.
Pros
- Thousands of templates, including dozens made for authors and writers
- A drag-and-drop editor, plus Wix Harmony with AI help built in
- A free blog, and an online store for selling e-books from the Core plan
- Strong SEO tools, including structured data markup and an automatic sitemap
- A free domain for the first year on yearly plans
Cons
- The free plan shows a Wix banner ad and uses a wixsite.com address
- Book pages, series lists and buy buttons are built and updated by hand
- Your own domain needs a paid plan, and each extra site, such as another pen name, needs its own
- Kit has no app in the Wix App Market, and its own Wix app needs a paid Kit account
- Best for:
- Authors who want complete design control, a blog or an online store to sell books direct, and who are happy to build and pay for the site themselves.
- Pricing:
- Wix has a free plan with a Wix banner ad on a wixsite.com address. Light, $17/month billed yearly or $24 month to month, connects your own domain, removes the Wix branding and includes a free domain for the first year on yearly billing. Accepting payments, for example to sell e-books, starts with Core at $29/month billed yearly, and each site needs its own plan.
- 3
Squarespace
Squarespace is a website builder known for polished designer templates, with the Fluid Engine editor and Blueprint AI to set up a site. There is no free plan: every site starts with a 14-day trial and needs a paid plan, from $19/month billed yearly, to stay online. BookSparker builds an author website from your books, with series pages, buy buttons and a newsletter signup, free on every plan.
Pros
- Polished designer templates and a flexible drag-and-drop editor
- A blog and an online store on every plan, including e-book downloads
- A free domain for the first year on yearly plans
- Built-in SEO, with an automatic sitemap and structured data
- Blueprint AI to set up a first design quickly
Cons
- No free plan: after the 14-day trial the site goes offline unless you pay
- No author templates or book catalog, so book pages and series lists are built by hand
- Embedded signup forms with JavaScript, code injection and the Mailchimp integration need the Core plan
- Each extra site, such as another pen name, needs its own plan
- Best for:
- Authors who want a highly polished design, a blog or a store to sell books direct, and who are happy to pay for a site they build themselves.
- Pricing:
- Squarespace has no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Basic is $19/month billed yearly or $25 month to month, Core $29/month billed yearly, Plus $49 and Advanced $99. Yearly plans include a free domain for the first year, every plan can sell e-books (Basic adds a 2% fee), and Email Campaigns is a paid add-on. Each site needs its own plan.
- 4
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is the hosted version of WordPress, run by Automattic. Its free plan puts your site at yoursite.wordpress.com with WordPress.com ads; paid plans from $4/month billed yearly add your own domain, remove the ads and let you install plugins and themes, and every site includes a newsletter. BookSparker builds an author website from your books, with series pages, buy buttons and a newsletter signup, free on every plan.
Pros
- Your own domain from $4/month billed yearly, with a free domain for the first year
- Thousands of themes, and plugins on every paid plan
- A blog and a built-in newsletter on every plan, the free one included
- Sell e-books and take payments from the Premium plan
- It is WordPress, so your site can grow into almost anything
Cons
- The free plan shows WordPress.com ads and keeps only 7 days of stats
- No book catalog: each book page and series list is built by hand or with a plugin
- Your own domain needs a paid plan, and each extra site, such as another pen name, needs its own
- The SEO tools need Premium, and payments carry a fee below the Commerce plan
- Best for:
- Authors who blog regularly, want the WordPress world of themes and plugins, or want a low-cost single site on their own domain.
- Pricing:
- WordPress.com has a free plan with ads on a wordpress.com address. Personal is $4/month billed yearly ($48 for the first year, renewing at a higher price) or $9 month to month, and adds your own domain, no ads and plugins. Premium, $8/month billed yearly, adds the SEO tools and payment buttons for selling e-books. Prices exclude tax, a free domain covers the first year on yearly plans, and each site needs its own plan.
- 5
Carrd
Carrd builds simple, responsive one-page websites. The free plan gives you up to 3 sites on a carrd.co address with a Made with Carrd note, and the Pro plans, billed yearly, add your own domain and signup forms that connect to MailerLite, Mailchimp, Kit and many other providers.
Pros
- Your own domain and signup forms for $19 a year
- Fast, clean one-page sites that look good on phones
- Signup forms for MailerLite, Mailchimp, Kit and many more
- Up to 10 sites on Pro Standard, enough for several pen names
Cons
- One page per site, so no separate page for each book or series
- Book layouts and buy buttons are built by hand
- The free plan has the Made with Carrd note, no forms and a 50-element limit
- Best for:
- Debut or single-series authors who want a cheap, simple one-page site on their own domain and do not mind building it by hand.
- Pricing:
- Free for up to 3 sites; Pro Lite $9/year, Pro Standard $19/year (your own domain and forms, up to 10 sites), Pro Plus $49/year.
BookBub Author Websites: marketing vs reality
The marketing promise
What to weigh up
- Series pages, a free book for signups and header design need Pro
- Sending stops for the month once your list outgrows your remaining emails, so a list past 1,000 readers needs Pro
- One site per account, with pen names shown as collections on it
- Built-in labels such as Buy Now and Subscribe are in English only, prices are in US dollars, and there is no legal notice (imprint) page type
At a glance
Philosophy, setup, pricing, and who each tool is for.
Philosophy
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Free plan
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Your own domain
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Newsletter
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Best for
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Full feature comparison
Every feature, BookSparker vs BookBub Author Websites.
Free plan
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Your own domain
BookBub connects a domain you already own by switching its nameservers to BookBub; a new domain costs $15/year.
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Book pages built from your books
BookBub imports e-book details only; print-only books are added by hand.
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Series pages
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Newsletter signup on your site
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Sends your newsletter for you
BookSparker sends signups to your own email provider, or keeps them for CSV export. BookBub sends nothing that month once your list is bigger than your remaining emails.
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Signups to your own email provider
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Free book for newsletter signups
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
A website for each pen name
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Blog
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Templates and design
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Book details marked up for search engines
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Visitor stats
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Privacy page
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Book swaps, group promos and landing pages
BookSparker
BookBub Author Websites
Where BookBub Author Websites falls short for authors
What you get free, and what needs Pro
BookBub’s free plan has no time limit: 3 templates, a your-name.author-pages.com address or a domain you already own, book pages from your imported e-books, a signup form and up to 1,000 emails a month. Series pages, a free book for signups, reviews and trailers on book pages and header design are Pro features, at $9.99/month or $7.99/month billed yearly.
BookSparker’s free plan includes series pages and a free book for signups, and sends readers to your own email provider. Your own domain is the part you pay for: Growing Author, at $15/month or $150/year, connects up to 4 domains, one for each author name, and adds book swaps, group promos and unlimited landing pages.
Sending newsletters from BookBub
BookBub sends your emails itself, which is handy if you have no email provider yet: 1,000 emails a month on the free plan and 10,000 on Pro, with a welcome email and open and click stats. The catch is the cap. If your list has more subscribers than your remaining emails that month, you cannot send at all until the next one, so a list past 1,000 readers needs Pro.
BookSparker does not send newsletters. Your signups go straight to the provider you already use, such as MailerLite, Kit or Mailchimp, or BookSparker keeps them for CSV export, so your list can grow without a cap on our side.
One site for every pen name
A BookBub account lives on one subdomain, and its help center suggests collections for pen names, genres and tropes on that site. That suits one name well, but pen names on one account share a site.
On BookSparker every author name gets its own website: one on Free Forever, up to 4 on Growing Author and up to 8 on Pro Author, each with its own books, series and domain, and no site shows another author name’s books.
BookBub Author Websites alternatives: FAQs
How we evaluated these alternatives
We focused on what an author website has to do, ranking each builder on the criteria that matter to indie authors:
- A free plan, or a fair price for a site on your own domain
- Book and series pages, with buy buttons readers can't miss
- Newsletter signups that reach your email provider
- How quickly you get a finished site, with no code or plugins
- Room to grow: more pen names, and a blog or a store if you need one
Pricing and features for each tool are checked against their live sites; figures marked approximate are gated or quote-based.
Last reviewed
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