Cheapest Way to Host a Personal Website in 2026

A personal website used to mean a hosting plan, a theme and an afternoon a month of updates. For a lot of people, all they want at yourname.com is a page that says who they are, what they make and how to reach them. That can cost about $20 a year, plus the domain.

What you actually need

Be honest about the job. Most personal sites need:

• your name, photo and a short bio
• your work, with links
• your socials or email
• your own domain with HTTPS

Fewer need a blog, multiple pages, a shop or custom code. If you do, a website builder or your own hosting is the right call. If you do not, you are paying for features you will not use.

The cost, compared

Prices below come from public pricing pages and 2026 guides. They change, so check each site before you buy.

• Squarespace: the Basic plan is $19 a month billed annually, roughly $228 a year. Excellent templates, full sites, commerce.
• Wix: the Light plan is about $18 a month billed annually in the US. The free plan shows Wix ads and puts the site on a Wix address.
• Carrd: the Pro Standard plan, which adds custom domains, is $19 a year. You design one-page sites yourself.
• Notion: a Notion Sites custom domain is an add-on of $8 to $10 a month per domain on top of a paid plan, according to Notion's help center.
• makerhandle Pro: $20 a year, custom domain and SSL included, with a ready-made maker page.

On every option you also buy the domain itself, typically $10 to $20 a year for a .com.

The free route, if you code

GitHub Pages and Cloudflare Pages host static sites for free, with custom domains and HTTPS. If you are comfortable writing HTML or using a static site generator, that is hard to beat on price. The cost is your time: building it, and updating it every time something changes.

What $20 a year gets you on makerhandle

To be clear about what this is: makerhandle hosts your makerhandle page on your domain. It is not general web hosting. You cannot upload your own HTML or run WordPress, and there is one page, not many.

What you get on that page:

• seven templates, from a single column to a two-column portfolio, laid out for you on every screen
• your projects with status, screenshots and optional verified revenue from Stripe or Shopify
• a subscribe box with double opt-in, or a button to your newsletter
• cookie-free analytics
• your domain, with SSL issued and renewed automatically

See a personal website for $20 a year.

Setting it up

1. Buy a domain from any registrar if you do not have one.
2. Build your page on makerhandle's free plan.
3. Upgrade to Pro and enter your domain in Settings.
4. Add the CNAME record the editor shows you at your DNS provider.
5. Wait for it to turn active. SSL is automatic.

Use a subdomain like me.yourname.com with any DNS provider, or the root yourname.com if your provider supports CNAME flattening. See CNAME flattening explained and custom domain for your link in bio.

Which should you choose?

• Need a full site, a blog or a shop? A website builder.
• Enjoy code and want total control? GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages.
• Want a page that shows who you are and what you make, done in minutes, on your own domain? $20 a year covers it.