The best author website builder is Squarespace for design, WordPress.com for the lowest cost, Ghost for a newsletter-first author, Carrd for a one-page site, Wix for drag-and-drop freedom, Webflow for designers, and Greta.sh when you want custom book pages, reader portals or direct sales the templates can't hold. Most authors don't need more than $20 a month. What separates the options is how well each handles the things only authors need: book pages with buy links to several stores, series reading order, newsletter and ARC signups, and selling books directly. Prices below were checked on each vendor's own pages on October 19, 2026.
An author website has a strange job. Most visitors arrive already knowing your name, usually from a book they just finished, and want one of three things: the next book in the series, a way to hear about the next release, or a place to buy. The template's "Home, About, Books, Contact" layout covers none of those well on its own.
What should an author website include?
Start with book pages, one per title, each with the cover, a short pitch and buy links to every store you sell through, not just Amazon. Add a series reading order page if you write series; readers who find book three first will look for it, and it's the simplest page here to build. Then a newsletter signup with a reason to join (a free short story or the first chapter), and an ARC signup if you send advance copies to reviewers.
After that come events (signings, tour dates, festival appearances) and a media kit with your bio, headshot and cover files for podcasts and press. A blog is optional. A newsletter isn't.
How we compared them
We checked each builder for a free plan and its limits, the cheapest paid plan with a custom domain, whether it renews at a higher price, whether you can collect email signups and sell books on the site, and what it charges per sale. Every price is from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on October 19, 2026, in US dollars.
At a glance
| Builder | Free plan | Cheapest paid plan with your domain (Oct 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com | Yes: ads, subdomain, 1 GB | Personal $4/mo first year, renews at $5/mo yearly ($9 monthly) | Lowest cost, plugins, blogging |
| Carrd | Yes, up to 3 one-page sites | Pro Standard $19/year | A one-page author site |
| Squarespace | No, 14-day trial | Basic $19/mo yearly ($25 monthly) | Design and selling from one place |
| Wix | Yes, with Wix branding | Light plan connects a domain; prices vary by country | Drag-and-drop freedom |
| Ghost(Pro) | No, free trial | Starter $15/mo yearly, 1,000 members, no paid subscriptions | Newsletter-first authors |
| Webflow | Yes: webflow.io, 2 pages | Basic $15/mo yearly (no CMS) | Designers who want full control |
| Greta.sh | 5 credits a day | Starter $5/mo on the welcome offer (normally $20/mo) | Custom book data, reader portals |
Got an idea? Build it now!
Just start with a simple prompt. No coding required: Greta.sh turns your idea into a working app in minutes.
The best author website builders, one by one
1. Squarespace – best design, and it can sell
Squarespace has no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Basic is $19 a month billed yearly ($25 monthly) and Core $29 ($39), with a free domain for the first year on annual plans. Every plan can sell physical products, services and digital products, and collects email subscribers through its contacts tools. On Basic, Squarespace takes a 2% transaction fee on store sales; from Core it's 0%. Courses, memberships and other digital content carry a separate fee of 7% on Basic and 5% on Core.
Best for: authors who want a polished site and plan to sell signed copies or ebooks. Limits: no free plan, and the Basic fees add up if you sell much.
2. WordPress.com – lowest cost over time
WordPress.com has a free plan with ads, a subdomain and 1 GB of storage. Personal is $4 a month for the first year billed yearly, renews at $5 a month, or costs $9 billed monthly; it removes ads, adds a first-year domain and lets you install plugins. Payment buttons for selling come on Premium ($8 a month in year one, renewing at $9), and the Payments help page lists a 4% fee on Premium, 2% on Business and 0% on Commerce, on top of Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢.
Best for: authors who blog and want a real site for about $60 a year. Limits: the editor is less visual than Squarespace or Wix.
3. Ghost – for authors whose newsletter is the business
Ghost(Pro) is a website and email newsletter in one. Starter is $15 a month billed yearly ($18 billed monthly) with a free custom domain, the newsletter and up to 1,000 members, but no paid subscriptions and only the built-in theme. Publisher is $29 a month billed yearly and adds paid subscriptions, custom themes and integrations; Ghost takes 0% of subscription payments on paid plans, though Stripe's processing still applies. There's a free trial rather than a free plan.
Best for: authors who send a regular newsletter, serialise fiction or plan paid subscriptions. Limits: member caps rise with price, so a big list means a bigger plan.
4. Carrd – one page, almost free
Carrd builds one-page sites, free for up to three. Pro Lite is $9 a year, and Pro Standard is $19 a year with custom domains and forms that connect to email tools including Kit, Mailchimp, MailerLite and Ghost. Pro plans can also embed widgets from services such as Stripe, PayPal and Gumroad.
Best for: debut authors who need a cover, a pitch, buy links and a signup form this weekend. Limits: one page per site, so no real book catalogue.
5. Wix – drag-and-drop freedom
Wix has a free plan with Wix branding and a Wix address. The Light plan connects your domain and accepting payments starts on Core; Wix shows prices by country, so check its plans page for yours. It's the easiest of these to make look exactly how you picture it without code.
Best for: authors who want to design every page themselves. Limits: selling needs Core, not Light.
6. Webflow – for designers, not most authors
Webflow has a free Starter plan on a webflow.io domain with 2 static pages. Basic is $15 a month billed yearly with a custom domain and 300 static pages but no CMS, and Premium is $25 a month billed yearly and adds the Webflow CMS. A series of books with shared fields is a CMS job, so most authors would need Premium.
Best for: authors who are designers or have one. Limits: the steepest learning curve here.
7. Greta.sh – when your books are data, not pages
Greta.sh is an AI app builder, not a template builder. You describe what you need and it generates a full-stack web app with a database and logins, and you can export the code. That's overkill for a cover and a signup form. It fits when the site needs to behave like software, covered below.
Best for: prolific authors with many series, or anyone running a reader community. Limits: you own the build and its upkeep.
Can you sell books directly from your author website?
Yes, and the margin is the reason to try. Store links are easier: you send readers to Amazon, Bookshop.org or Apple Books and the store handles payment, files and support. Direct sales keep more of each sale and give you the reader's email address, at the cost of handling delivery and support yourself.
Most authors who sell direct combine a storefront with a delivery tool rather than building both:
- Payhip: free with a 5% transaction fee, Plus at $29 a month with 2%, Pro at $99 with none. PayPal and Stripe fees apply on every plan.
- BookFunnel: Mid-List Author at $200 a year ($20 monthly) includes direct sales delivery, secure ARC delivery, reader email collection and integration with up to 4 mailing lists. First-Time Author at $30 a year covers 500 downloads a month and group promos.
- Kit: the free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers and includes unlimited landing pages and forms and selling digital products.
- Your site builder's own store: Squarespace (2% on Basic, 0% from Core), WordPress.com payment buttons (from Premium) or Wix (from Core).
Signed copies are the easiest physical product to start with, since you already have the stock.
Author website examples worth copying
These five were live when we checked on October 19, 2026. Each shows one idea worth taking.
- Brandon Sanderson: a full storefront with a shopping cart, a store link to Dragonsteel Books, series pages, posts on how to get a book signed, and a newsletter link in the menu. The model for direct sales at scale.
- Nora Roberts: a Series and Connected Books page with a printable PDF version, newsletter signup and events. The model for a long backlist.
- Stephen King: pre-order links for the next book front and centre, signed book bundles through an independent bookstore event, and a newsletter signup. The model for a launch.
- James Clear: the homepage offers chapter 1 of Atomic Habits and a free email course in exchange for an email address. The model for a nonfiction lead magnet.
- John Green: tour dates and a dedicated page for the new novel, with pre-orders through a separate book site. The model for one book, one page.
Notice what they share: one obvious next step per page. None of them makes you hunt for the newsletter.
Got an idea? Build it now!
Just start with a simple prompt. No coding required: Greta.sh turns your idea into a working app in minutes.
When you want something the templates can't do
Templates treat books as pages. Past a certain backlist, books are data: titles that belong to series, series that share a world, editions in several formats with different buy links per country. Keeping that consistent across 30 hand-edited pages is where author sites go stale.
A few things are genuinely hard on the builders above. An ARC portal where reviewers apply, you approve them, and approved readers download a watermarked file before a deadline (BookFunnel covers the delivery side well, if that's all you need). A reader portal where newsletter members get bonus chapters for each series they read. A series database that generates every book page and the reading-order page from one record per book.
That's an app, and Greta.sh builds it from a description: "each book has a series, a position in the series, formats and store links; generate the book pages and a reading-order page, and let approved reviewers download ARCs until the release date." Greta.sh builds its own database for it, so the data lives in one place you can export. If you'd rather start smaller, our guide to building a portfolio site with Greta.sh in 15 minutes shows the basic flow, and building your own newsletter platform with AI covers owning the subscriber list. For paid reader communities, compare membership site builders first.
On pricing, the Free plan gives 5 credits a day to build. Deployment and a custom domain start on Starter at $5 a month on the welcome offer (normally $20 a month), and the pricing page lists the database on Pro at $20 a month on the welcome offer (normally $50). If a Squarespace or Carrd page with a Kit form does the job, use that and spend the time writing.
FAQ
What's the best website builder for authors?
Squarespace for most authors who want a polished site that can sell, WordPress.com for the lowest long-term cost, Ghost if your newsletter is central, and Carrd for a quick one-page site. Writers with a large backlist or reader community may outgrow all of them.
Do authors need a website?
Yes, if you want readers to find your next book and join your list. Store pages and social profiles belong to someone else; your website is the one address you control, and it's where a newsletter signup lives permanently.
How much does an author website cost?
From $0 to about $30 a month, as of October 2026. Carrd Pro Standard is $19 a year, WordPress.com Personal $4 a month in year one and $5 after, Ghost Starter $15 a month billed yearly, a Wix Premium plan (priced by country) and Squarespace Basic $19, billed yearly. Add a domain after the first year and any email or delivery tools you use.
What should an author website include?
A page per book with buy links to every store, a series reading order, a newsletter signup with an incentive, an ARC signup if you use reviewers, events, a short bio and a media kit. Our artist website builder comparison covers the portfolio side if you also illustrate.
Can I sell books directly from my author website?
Yes. Use your builder's store (Squarespace, Wix Core or WordPress.com Premium and up), or a tool such as Payhip, BookFunnel or Kit. Expect a platform fee on lower plans plus card processing of around 2.9% + 30¢ per sale.
Pick the builder for your next book, not your last one
If your next release is the priority, choose the builder that makes one book page, one pre-order link and one signup form easiest to ship this month. You can move later; your email list comes with you. When your backlist outgrows the templates, start building your app with Greta.sh.
