The 5 best WordPress.com alternatives for author websites (2026)
Looking for a WordPress.com alternative? We compared the best tools for free plans, custom domains, book and series pages, and newsletter signups, on price and other aspects so you can pick the right fit for your books.
Last reviewed
Short on time?
For most indie authors, BookSparker is the best WordPress.com 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 WordPress.com 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
BookBub Author Websites
BookBub Author Websites is BookBub’s builder for author websites and email newsletters. It imports your e-book details from Amazon or BookBub, generates book pages with buy links for any retailer and sends your newsletter itself, on a free plan with no time limit that works with your own domain. BookSparker builds an author website from your books too, with series pages, a free book for signups and a newsletter signup that goes to your own email provider, on every plan.
Pros
- Your own domain on the free plan, at no extra cost
- Sends your newsletter itself, with a welcome email and open and click stats
- A blog, events, a press kit and many other page types
- Imports your e-book details from Amazon or BookBub and builds the book pages
- Pro is $7.99/month billed yearly, with a free domain for the first year
Cons
- 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
- Best for:
- Authors who want one simple site with a blog and a newsletter sent from the same place, on their own domain for free, and whose readers speak English.
- Pricing:
- BookBub Author Websites has a free plan with no time limit, and Pro at $9.99/month or $7.99/month billed yearly, with a 14-day Pro trial. Free includes 3 templates, a your-name.author-pages.com address or a domain you already own, a signup form and up to 1,000 emails a month. Pro adds series pages, a free book for signups, more templates and up to 10,000 emails a month. Prices are in US dollars.
- 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.
WordPress.com: marketing vs reality
The marketing promise
What to weigh up
- 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
At a glance
Philosophy, setup, pricing, and who each tool is for.
Philosophy
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Free plan
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Your own domain
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Setup
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Best for
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Full feature comparison
Every feature, BookSparker vs WordPress.com.
Free plan
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Your own domain
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Book and series pages built from your catalog
WordPress.com has author themes and a Goodreads block, but you create each book page yourself or with a plugin.
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Newsletter signups to your email provider
BookSparker
WordPress.com
A website for each pen name
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Blog
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Sell e-books directly
WordPress.com payment buttons take 4% on Premium, 2% on Business and nothing on Commerce, plus Stripe’s processing fee.
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Free domain for the first year
BookSparker connects a domain you buy from any registrar.
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Themes and design
BookSparker
WordPress.com
SEO settings
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Visitor stats
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Free book for newsletter signups
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Book swaps, group promos and landing pages
BookSparker
WordPress.com
Where WordPress.com falls short for authors
What a WordPress.com author website costs
The free plan puts your site at yoursite.wordpress.com and shows WordPress.com ads to your readers. Personal removes the ads and connects your own domain for $4/month billed yearly, which is $48 for the first year before it renews at a higher price, or $9 month to month. Premium, at $8/month billed yearly, adds the SEO tools and the payment buttons for selling e-books. Each site needs its own plan, so a second pen name on its own domain is a second subscription.
BookSparker’s author website is free on every plan, with no ads. Growing Author, at $15/month or $150/year, connects up to 4 domains, one for each author name, and includes book swaps, group promos and landing pages.
Book pages without a book catalog
WordPress.com is built for posts and pages. It has author-friendly themes and a Goodreads block, but no catalog of your books: every book page, series list and buy button is something you build and keep up to date, or add with a third-party plugin on a paid plan.
BookSparker builds your site from the books in your account. Books in a series group together, each series gets its own page in reading order, and every book gets a buy button, so adding a new release takes a minute.
Signups for the newsletter you already use
Every WordPress.com site includes its own newsletter, which works well if you send your emails from WordPress.com. If your list lives in MailerLite, Kit or Mailchimp, you connect it with a block or a plugin, and WordPress.com’s own plugin guide warns that the Kit (ConvertKit) plugin needs a database setting its sites do not use.
BookSparker’s signup sends each reader straight to the email provider you connect, such as MailerLite, Kit or Mailchimp, and can offer one of your books free for joining, delivered by email.
WordPress.com 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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